I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God

Let's go to the word of the Lord, Romans chapter 1, and we're going to get into verse 16. And I think I'm going to be meditating for a while on this book of Romans, the letter of Romans, I don't know how long. Romans is an infinite letter, we could almost say, like the word of the Lord, it has an immense number of topics and possible texts that we can explore, but this morning I felt confirmation in my spirit that I should discuss even a few chapters of this book. . We have done it intermittently through the years, here and there, and I do not necessarily remember, from the notes that I have here in my Bible, surely at some point I have exposed this passage. But I don't remember when, I had no notes about it. But I think it's important because what really interests me the most is going later, but this is the prelude, it's the foundation for the other things that come later.

But God provided it for me in a very providential way to get to where I want to be at some point. And I realize that here, starting at the beginning, is the foundation of what later you will be able to understand better when I preach it, perhaps next Sunday, in fact, I am going to take advantage of the fact that the ministry in English is going to be with we also. I'm being a little mysterious, right? but I'm speaking in code, but we'll see if maybe I'll give you a little bit of progress later in the mediation on the text.

But it's good to be able to focus for a moment on these verses from chapter 1, see 16. Brothers, if any passage is important in Scripture and is fundamental to your Christian faith, these verses are. It is the condensation of the Gospel in a few words, as only Paul could express the doctrine of Scripture.

Verse 16 says:

“…Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed by faith and for faith, as it is written, but the just shall live by faith..."

Amen. Very possibly I will go into the other later, what follows as a prelude to next Sunday's sermon. But let me review a little bit of things that many of us already know, and I'm going to do this meditation like mountaineers, those who climb mountains, who often don't have the benefit of a rope and another person to hold it and different types of harnesses to have them catch you in case they slip and fall. I have no notes this morning. Time caught up with me and I just had time to meditate on the passage and study it a lot and pray over it. But I didn't have time to make many notes, and I should have because this is one of those sublime passages that has to be juiced very carefully, very systematically, but my notes are going to be the word of the Lord. I am going to be guided by them, by the words that are here.

It will be, I hope, a more expository sermon. But, as I was saying, this is the very essence of the Gospel. And when Paul says, because I am not ashamed of the Gospel, that 'because' already indicates that there is something that comes before. I say because I do this, because I do that, that means that there was something else on my mind and I have already said it before or I have it there in my mind and I have not told you. But there is something for which Paul says, 'because I am not ashamed of the Gospel'.

If you go to verse 15, before verse 16, you're going to find what was on Paul's mind there. All the first 15, 16 verses of Romans, of the first chapter, are like a prelude. They are the greetings and preliminary words of a preacher like when one begins and makes an introduction, Paul at the beginning of his letter, is giving personal words of greeting, of clarification to the brothers in Rome. He is writing this letter to the church, the Christians who are in Rome, Romans, Gentiles, converted to the Gospel, and he is writing a doctrinal letter to encourage them, to teach them, instruct them, all this kind of thing.

I believe that Paul intended, when he wrote these letters, in his mind it seems to me that it was clear that he was going to write something very substantial. He had intended to write a letter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that would be strong and clear and well developed, systematic. I don't think that was something that came up while he was writing. Something that suggests that to me is that the introduction is so long, and since he is warming up, he is warming up the engines, he is preparing himself like a runner who does this before sending himself to run. It is gaining momentum.

And then he goes a little more fully into verse 15, he says:

“…So as for me, I am ready to announce the Gospel also to you who are in Rome…”

Paul was talking about wanting to see them, wanting to go and visit them some day. In verse 11 he says:

"... Because I want to see you to communicate some spiritual gift to you so that you may be confirmed..."

So, he is telling you, brothers, I definitely want to go visit you, I want to go there and I want to announce to you, share with you some teachings, some principles of the Gospel, of faith, of Christian doctrine. So, it says:

“…I am soon to announce the Gospel also to you who are in Rome…”

I'm getting ready, but that word 'soon' shocked me for a moment, and I searched in the original Greek, that's why I asked Omar, because when he was sitting there, wait, the word soon is the word protimos, which means ready I am ready to announce the Gospel also to you who are in Rome.

And it occurred to me that I shouldn't ignore it, as a mere introduction, because that's where Pablo already gets into the matter. Soon I am… I am ready, I am prepared, I am ready to announce the Gospel to you. And it occurred to me that this should be our disposition, each one of us as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we have to be ready to announce the Gospel. Amen.

We have to be prepared. Paul says that in season and out of season. Out of time, we have to be ready to announce the Gospel. How many times have we shared the Gospel with someone with fear and trembling, thinking that they are going to reject us, and on the contrary, they open our hearts and sometimes they even begin to cry in front of us. Let's never be intimidated by someone who seems too big and too strong and too self-assured or too financially prosperous, who doesn't need anything.

Hey, everyone needs to hear about Jesus Christ. The Christian must always be with the trigger pulled, ready to fire the word of the Gospel. That is a good Pentecostal attitude, on time and at the wrong time you have to announce the Gospel.

Now, always do it prudently, with good taste, discernment, ask the Lord for discernment, don't be either... the Bible also says that we should not throw our pearls to pigs. You have to know the opportune moment as well and what God wants. The moment that God wants, it may be an inopportune moment physically, humanly, but if it is God's moment, it will be the perfect moment. And we have to ask the Lord also, give us discernment to know when to present, when to shoot exactly at the right moment. But we always have to be ready, Lord, I am willing, whatever you want from me. And there always has to be a fresh word, seasoned with salt in us, ready to share the Gospel.

I love those people who have such an effervescence in their hearts about the Gospel that they are always ready to spread a little tract, those little old women who walk around with their little packet of tracts in their wallets, always on the train or wherever, always ready. That tradition in the Gospel has been lost because we have already become sophisticated people, very elegant, but how good it is when we are willing to make a little fool of ourselves for the Gospel. Don't be ashamed, be willing, be ready, be ready to preach the Gospel always.

Ask the Lord to cultivate that attitude in us, because you are the best announcers of the Gospel, it's not me, frankly, nor the pastors. Many times we are even handcuffed by our own profession and ministry, you have more contact with the world out there, especially those new people who have recently come to the Gospel, many of you have known the Lord. You are full of relationships with people who do not yet know Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, the more time we spend in the Gospel, the more we kind of lose touch with the unsaved. It shouldn't be like that, but it is. So cultivate contact with the unconverted, be diligent, always ready, do the work of an evangelist, says the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Do the work of an evangelist, ask the Lord to put in your heart opportunities and desire to share the Gospel, to put in you effervescence and joy.

Paul was a man who was always ready, prepared, ready, willing to share the Gospel. That idea struck me. Soon I will be announcing the Gospel.

Now, Paul says, because I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Here he is warming up, here he has already taken off his jacket and he is going to get down to business. Enough of introductions and presentations, and eating cookies, no, let's go to what we came for now. Let's get into doctrine and teaching.

He says, because I'm not ashamed of the Gospel and already his voice begins to gain heat, intensity and his tone begins to rise. The preacher begins to manifest here. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Why is Paul ready, willing, prepared to share the Gospel? Because he's not ashamed, so what, who doesn't like it, tell us. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, in other words, I am proud, it is the negative way of saying, I am proud of the Gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Now, why does Paul use that expression "I am not ashamed" instead of saying, because I rejoice in the Gospel, or I am proud to be a Christian? Paul had, ironically, suffered much shame for the Gospel, Paul had been persecuted for the Gospel. In Athens, on the Areopagus when he spoke of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all those sophisticated Greek philosophers laughed in his face and left him alone in the square. What a shame he must have felt such a dignified man. They started laughing at him, booing him and they went away and left him alone, we'll hear you another day. That is nonsense that Christ rose, a man who rises.

Pablo was stoned once, left as if dead, another time they had to carry him over a wall in a basket, a man as dignified as he is, put him in a basket like a little animal and lower him over the wall to sit escaped because they wanted to kill him, through the city wall.

In Philippi they imprisoned him, they beat him. There's a passage, I think it's in Second Corinthians where he lists all the different things he was given, scourged several times, shipwrecked, suffered, his own people left him alone at times. Paul had every reason in the world to be ashamed of the Gospel, but here he says, 'because I am not ashamed of the Gospel'.

You know that we live in a world that isolates us many times, we are in a culture and at a time in history in which being evangelical and believing in the word of God in all its extension and saying no, I believe that the Bible is the holy word of God that does not contain error, that everything it says here, that the whale swallowed Jonah or that big fish and kept him for 3 days and then vomited him on the beach or smelly and battered, but... and we say, no, I believe that. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected.

For many people those are fairy tales that you no longer have to believe in those things, and when we get into moral and ethical beliefs, even more so. This culture has moved away, not only from the idea of a personal God who sent a being called Jesus Christ to die on the cross and all these things, but that doctrinal disbelief has also extended to moral, ethical disbelief , behavior, life and today they see us as having three heads, when we say that there are certain moral things that we still believe come from the word of God. And when we stand on those things they see us as ridiculous and as crazy and primitive.

And we too would have reason to be ashamed of the Gospel. I want to tell you, my brothers, this morning, do not be ashamed of the Gospel. Resolve in your heart to always keep that awareness that you are a special person. I am special because we believe what the word of the Lord says. We have believed in Jesus as our Lord and savior, Son of God, everything that the Apostles' Creed says and more, we believe it. Don't let yourself feel isolated at this time and see journalists and scholars and literati, and media people, movie stars, big politicians and even presidents, openly rejecting the teachings of God's word. Be careful that your mind is not filled with fear and shame and say, wow, if all those great people have stopped believing in the Gospel, who am I to continue believing?

That is what is happening today, if we do not take care of ourselves. That there is a slight, implicit, psychological shame that is getting into the pores and into the heart of the church and little by little we are giving in, giving in, giving in to the truths of the Gospel. And if you don't take a Gospel pride pill every day, you too are going to give in.

So resolve in your heart to keep your faithfulness to the word of God, keep your joy in the Gospel and keep your faith even if whoever you are, the greatest man on earth, rejects the word of the Lord, you stand firm. The Apostle Paul says it like this, that we stand firm in the bad day, until the bad day has passed. If the church stands firm in its faith and its pride and its joy in the Lord, the devil will have to retire sooner or later. The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

At this time, the best position for the church of Jesus Christ is to maintain the faith that the saints have received, only once and it does not have to be given again. If the church holds firm, the gales will come because they have come throughout history, there have been periods of disbelief and there have been periods when people said, no, the church has already disappeared. And the church always firm.

Christ said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Winds of doctrine can come, cultural currents can come, total anti-Christian systems can come, like in Russia, with the Marxist revolution, but you know what? Christians remain firm, they remain standing on the word of the Lord, they are strengthened in their faith every day, they say I will not give up what Christ has revealed and the devil roars and the windows of the house tremble, but one day the storm it ceases, the sun rises, and the word of the Gospel remains forever. Let's not let ourselves be troubled by the currents that are out there at this time and beware of that psychological dynamic that when we see that everyone is fleeing, and one says, well, and who am I not to think like this that is he bigger than me? No, no, hold your word. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel.

You have to make an effort, you have to hold your ground. I deal with this dynamic. I say, but so-and-so has already gone there, this great preacher, this church that seems to be a paragon of virtues, so good, so solid, is already trading and negotiating the Gospel. Who am I, this little pastor here in Boston to be… no, Lord, I am going to stand firm on your word. I will continue to be proud of the faith. I am going to ally myself with all those martyrs throughout history who stood firm even though the Romes of the world seemed to rise up irresistibly. But the martyrs of the Gospel stand their ground and proclaim their pride, their satisfaction in the Gospel, the word of God, once given to the saints.

And the devil sooner or later has to tuck his tail between his legs and run away in shame. Stand your ground. All we have to do is stand our ground and the devil sooner or later gets tired. Just stand tall and having finished, make sure you stand tall. Read Ephesians, chapter 6 and you will see what I mean.

Paul says, because I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Although I have suffered a lot of things, although it seems that... no, I remain firm and rejoice, I feel satisfied, I am proud, not of myself, but of that word that I have decided to believe.

Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel, and that is why I want to share it with you, that is why I am ready to go to Rome at any time, that is why I want to fill the whole world with the word of God, that is why I am willing to suffer persecution and to fight with my own humanity and go on until death itself, because I am not ashamed of the Gospel, it is a glorious thing to be part of the Gospel.

And another thing also, he says because it is the power of God, it is power, the word dunamis, dynamite, power, strength. The essential reason, Paul was a man of action, Paul was a warrior, Paul was an entrepreneur of the kingdom, he was a scholar, he was a man of rational reflection, a highly learned man, but above all he was a man of action. And I think that's why God chose him, because he needed a man like him, of physical courage, a man of energy, an enterprising man who was always thinking about what was the next thing he had to do to advance the Gospel.

So a man like Pablo, of action, appreciated power. Men of action appreciate strength, they appreciate things that have effects, that change, that transform. They can appreciate other things, art, something else, but they appreciate the roar of the wind, the force of the rain, a machine that drags and breaks things, so the attribute that kept Paul admiring the Gospel and glued to the Gospel is that it was the power of God.

Remember that. Paul says on several occasions, the Gospel does not consist of words, but it is the power of God. There was like a dichotomy that Pablo was always keeping in mind. The Gospel is word, the Gospel is doctrine, what a beautiful and well agreed doctrine that is the letter to the Romans. But what Pablo loved the most is that it was power and that is something that he owes to us…

Brothers, a congregational meeting can be many good things, beautiful music, preaching, dance, many things, but what attracts me the most to the Gospel is that in this word there is power to transform human life, there is power to change the situation of a man who is under the grip of drugs, alcoholism, sensuality, there is power. If you want to use it and want to let yourself be worked by the power of God, God can work in your life. God can change a society, God can defeat the hosts of hell in Christ and in the power of the Gospel you have power to be healed, to be released, to be transformed, your family can be restored, your situation can be changed, things that seem impossible, with Christ, are possible.

The Apostle Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I was saying, before in all these things we are more than winners. Hallelujah!

The word of God, the Gospel above all is power. If it weren't power, I wouldn't be useful, frankly, I tell them, because why would one simply want religion, dead like that and doing a number of shrewd things and things, letters and questions when there is no power to change the life of a human being, to give him eternal life, to present him before the presence of God, for what? If Christ did not rise from the dead, then let us eat and drink because we are most worthy of mercy, Paul said. If the power of God had not transformed the dead body of Jesus into a living body, what for? Let's go home to watch TV and eat.

No, what justifies the Gospel in the last instance is that it is the power of God to intervene in time and space, history and change the destiny of humanity, to change the course of a man, a family, a community, a city, a country, nature. The Gospel is ultimately the power of God and you reach out and grab the cord of divine electricity and stick to it, electricity runs through you, changes you and changes others around you. The Gospel is power.

And we Christians always have to be looking for power in our lives. Do not settle for a formulaic and ritualistic religion. Don't settle for just coming to church. You have to cultivate an appetite for the power of God, the divine energy. That is why the importance of the Holy Spirit, of seeking the anointing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, prayer, when you have to do something in your life, direct the divine energy on that project, on that situation, direct spiritual radiotherapy until the tumor is destroyed and disappears, whatever it is in his life. Divine energy must be directed over the mountains of life.

Christ said, if you have faith, tell a mountain to move from one place to another, and go into the heart of the sea, and it will be done so. Because the Gospel is power, and you have to cultivate power. That is the most important thing in your life, you have to cultivate the reality of the power of God. Seek the power of God. Look for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Look up the sentence. Look for the fast. Seek the power that is in the word of the Lord. Look for the power that is in holiness, in adoration, in giving and serving, because all of that generates power, authority in your life. And that is what gives you power to change the situation in your life.

The church is not to be made up of a bunch of people simply paying allegiance, a bunch of dead doctrines and theological and theoretical statements. You have to show people that there is power in your life, that the power of God is in you. You have to cultivate that power.

Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God. The Pentecostal people have to be a people who seek power above all else, not elegance, not pretty meetings with a lot of music and a lot of apparatus and many elegant dresses, from the priests. No, power of God. All of that is nice, but if there is no power below, go home and cultivate your own spiritual life there, because it is power to transform a community, transform lives. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

There are a number of things, salvation, soteria, is the word used by the Apostle Paul. Salvation, nowadays we use that word and it has already become so common. Salvation from what? If you are saved you are saved from something. From what does the Gospel save? It saves from disease, it saves from death, it saves from the devil, it saves from the circumstances of the world, it saves you from yourself, it saves you from those powers that want to destroy your life. It's rescue. Salvation is ransom, salvation is regeneration, redemption, it is getting you out of a hole. As the word says that God brought us from death to life.

It is salvation. Again, it is power to rescue us from something. That word salvation is very important. First of all we have to remember that we have been saved from death for eternal life. That is the main thing, we have sometimes lost that idea. God save you from hell. God saves you from a life that you were condemned to death. You were the son of wrath as the Apostle Paul says in another passage, you had the seal of condemnation on your life and Jesus Christ came and through his blood and your accepting him as your Lord and savior, God changed your destiny and He saved you, he rescued you. You could not save yourself, and through what God did on the cross of Calvary with His Son Jesus Christ, now you are saved. It is salvation.

So the Gospel is above all that, eternal life, but it also saves you here in this world from a number of things that if you did not know him, you would be lost and God saves you from a life destined to fail because he is always giving laps around the same thing, doing the same things.

So salvation in many ways. What has God saved you from? What can God save you from? Think about that this week. The power of God for salvation to everyone, the universality of salvation. Salvation is for all men, all women, the elderly, children, Hispanics, Anglo-Saxons, rich people, poor people, highly educated people, not very educated people, salvation for all.

God does not have a quota on how many will be saved. God wants everyone to proceed to salvation. God does not make the Gospel difficult so that only a select few can enter. God has made things so easy, because God wants everyone to pass the test and everyone to get in. God wants us all to earn an A. And I don't think he could have done it easier.

The one who is condemned is because of his bad head. Christ said that the Son of man does not condemn you, you are condemned by your own actions, your own words. People are condemned because they don't understand that God has made it so easy and we can't complain about God. People say, oh, a loving God couldn't let people go to hell. But if God did everything possible, he gave his only begotten Son, he himself came down from heaven and assumed the form of a man so that we could be saved. What is easier than that, just for the salvation of everyone who believes.

If we just believe, all it takes is to open our hearts, open our minds, and say, Lord, I believe what you did. I believe what your word says. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins, he substituted himself for me, I believe that and I believe that he is the intermediary of God and men and that therefore he is my intermediary.

I believe that, I receive it, I affirm it, I open my life to it and I say yes and amen and now I live my life according to that truth. it's as simple as that. There is nothing you can do to earn your own salvation. All that is required is that you believe. It is salvation by faith.

The essence of the letter to the Romans is that, salvation, justification is by faith, not by works. The one who believes that God is saved by definition. It's so simple. It is a feeling of the soul, of the mind and believing that God is who he says he is.

There are so many things that are going to come to mind when we think about it. The other days I was driving, Meche and I, and we saw a poster on a car in the back, it said, God is too big to fit into a single religion. The truth is that that word is impressive, very clever, very cunning. God is too big to fit into one religion, meaning, all roads lead to Rome, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Confucianism, all the different things. Today men are creating a number of religions and inventing others. We are like the Greeks that Paul found who had a poorly formed God, the unknown God, just in case a God escaped him, there was X, the X God.

And that happens when societies like Greek society reach a point of development, because every universe is limited, including that of reason. And when you have covered the circle of reason, it takes centuries, but when you have covered everything, you return to the same place and have already closed the circle. There is nothing more to invent, now then you have to start doing things more and more sophisticated, more subtle.

Look at modern art, sometimes it's silly because man doesn't know what to invent. Modern literature, the madness many times of modern literature, music, since the circle has closed, it no longer has anything to invent, so what they start is to splash around in the water, because they can no longer get out of the water. So, they throw it here, it comes back, it falls, they put it in a glass, they put it on a plate and they think they are creating. But no, it is the same water that they are splashing. And that happens to modern man.

The Greeks had already reached that point, they had invented all the gods they could, they had made a lot of rational lucubrations, and the only thing they could do is put something there in case something escaped, we are going to put it there for the unknown god.

Nowadays, people are inventing their own gods too, their own religion, their own ritual, they are doing it, gentlemen. He is no longer satisfied with saying the name of the father, we had at Abby's graduation and I say it with respect, God knows, the person they invited to pray, oh, being unknown by many names... I'm going home. Cutting my wrists is what I want to do. I couldn't survive in such an environment for more than two or three seconds, brothers.

Oh, we don't know you, if you are a man or a woman, we don't know but whatever you are, if you are an animal or a bird, we recognize you. The Lord rebuke the devil. God has made himself known. Certainly God is infinite and certainly he is infinitely elusive, we cannot define him, but in some strange way he has wanted to be known by humanity. And he has revealed himself through his Son Jesus Christ. Christ said, whoever has seen me has seen the Father, in his attributes, in his qualities of character, his personality, his love, his strength, his wisdom, many things.

Now, the truth is, it takes faith for you to say, you know what? The Islamists who believe what they want, the Confucianists, whatever, but I am going to believe that Jesus Christ is God himself. And I am going to believe that my faith, I am not even going to call it religion, my Christian faith is the revelation of God. If you want to believe that God is too great to be realized and manifested in one man, well, look, I bless you, go your way, but know that one day you are going to find out that you were wrong. When that day comes, you know what? Yes, look, my name is Jehovah and my Son, here I present him to you, he is Jesus Christ, but you cannot enter because you did not accept him while he was on earth.

So, you have to decide, are you going to be intimidated? It is what I said earlier at the beginning, you are going to be intimidated by those supposedly sophisticated words of the incredulous and rationalists who say, no, believe what you want, invent your own God, create your own religion, configure yourself a God , make yourself an idol as the prophet says, find yourself a doll over there, like those prefabricated idols that are in drugstores, it is not painted or anything, the statue is simply made, and then put your color on it, put lipstick on it, an eyebrow like you you want, and call him your God.

That is what man is doing today. But we believe that God has revealed himself in Christ Jesus for the salvation of everyone who believes. You have to believe, something that is counter-rational and that is that God did decide to reduce himself in the figure of a baby and enter the form of a fetus in his mother's womb and come out of there, God himself, tucked into the shirt of strength of his humanity, and that there was heaven and earth embedded in the figure of Jesus Christ. And when he died on the cross he released power that covered the past, present and future of all who wanted to believe in him, and that through that sacrifice there is salvation and eternal life.

If you believe that you have salvation, rescue, you are preserved from the coming fire, for everyone who believes. Everybody… black, white, Indian, red, whatever color it is, brown, whatever, everybody who believes, who is capable of making that mental, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, volitional transaction, is saved. And I want to be one of those, although my mind is going to be telling me, no, believe that, how beautiful, how sophisticated. That flatters your mind, flatters your brain, flatters your cultural sense. No, no, I have believed, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

There are things I can't understand but it doesn't matter. Right there I'm going to stand, right there I'm going to stay. Everyone who believes, to the Jew, first and also to the Greek. Why does Paul say that? Because it is a theme that will be repeated many times later throughout the epistle to the Romans.

God has a plan with the Jewish people. Paul is very clear on that. We cannot..., that's why this celebration, this afternoon, is one of the things that I also... at this time the evangelical church, and I'm not saying the modern rational world, Israel is being more and more abandoned every day, thrown to one side, accused of being an oppressor of the Palestinians, a number of things. Brothers, I have read that ad nauseam because I want to be fair and because I know that this is against culture in this time, to believe that there is a plan that God has with the Jewish people, even though they are stubborn, they are proud They are arrogant, those people in Israel are a secular, humanist people. Israel is not a biblical nation, it is a secular nation and that is why the same orthodox, ultra-orthodox Jews believe that there should not be a nation of Israel, because that is not the people that God supposedly comes from.

But you know what? Those who are carried away by Jewish secularism at this time do not exactly understand the dynamics of Scripture. It's just that God is always dealing with a rebellious people, but he loves them anyway. And the Israel that exists today in that little piece of the Middle East, is not the Israel that God wants, but it is the Israel that God loves. And you have to love him as God loves him, despite his rebellion.

I know what that town is, I know its heart, I believe, but I have to love it judicially because it is the town that God has chosen and has a plan and now there is a parenthesis that encloses the Jewish people and around that parenthesis right now are the Gentiles, you and me, it's the time of the Gentiles. We know the word, we handle it, the mysteries of God and that town has a veil that covers it, but God says, in a moment, he will remove the veil and they will be able... meanwhile God loves them. They have paid a terrible price for their ignorance and their rebellion throughout all of history because the devil is angry with that people, and then the devil hates them because they are loved by God but they do not have all the favor that God would like to cover them and protect them then they are neither chicha nor lemonade, they are nothing.

The devil hates them and God cannot protect them as he wants, so they are open to all the persecution and all the hatred of fallen humanity. And that's why they suffer so much, but God loves them and we have to love them.

I would never dare to say that God has stopped dealing with Israel. No, God is still dealing with Israel. And we have to support that town, because prophecies don't lie and neither does history. Because everything one sees in the history of Israel endorses and supports all those declarations of the prophets from centuries ago, including the formation of Israel in the last times as it has been given. That little country there in a little point in the Middle East, has the whole world in checkmate. And everyone obsessed with what happens in Israel. What a thing, how strange. By God he has dealings with them.

And you, brothers, I believe that a healthy evangelical Christian spirituality has to understand the mystery of Israel and its relationship with God and God's relationship with it. We have to respect that. Because you know what? You and I are close in a sense, we are upstarts, we arrived at the last minute, we didn't even have to be invited to the party. The reason why we are at the party is because they, who were the guests of honor, did not know how to appreciate the party, and then God called us from outside, and said, come, then you eat the food. But when you are sitting at the table remember that, that the original one who had been invited is the other one, the Jew, you are eating ñapa.

And that is what Paul says, the branch that has been grafted onto the tree should not be proud. And that is what is happening in many people in the evangelical Christian and Catholic Church, they have become proud and have said, God has nothing to do with it anymore, we are now the real ones, the guests. No, you and I, we are the second invitation and they have the privilege of being the first. And although they are despisers of God's blessings, God loves them. And you and I have to love them too. And when you do you enter the mystery of the heart of God through the centuries.

The Christian church has to love Israel. Despite all their mistakes and all their things, we love them, and God has a deal with that people. That is why Paul at the very beginning of his exposition says, to the Jew first, why? Because the word of God was first for the Jew. They despised him and then the Greek. Greek means what? All the rest, Greeks, Romans, Pentecostals, Central Americans, Caribbeans, first of all the Jews. Do not miss that, it is a moment where I stop at that because it is important to strengthen the spirituality of the church. And for me that is a very important thing at this time, because we are on God's clock.

And at a time when the entire world is abandoning the Jewish people, including a significant sector of the evangelical world in the United States, guiding them must be strengthened, because God blesses those who bless Abraham and his descendants. So that is very important.

And finally, brothers, I thought that I did not have enough material but there is too much material in the word. We will continue because in the Gospel the justice of God is revealed by faith and by faith as it is written, but the just will live by faith.

We should be there… I'm in a dilemma because that would be a lecture, but all you understand here is something. Here Paul is pointing out, again, the most important thing, when he says, for everyone who believes, that word that is the word pisteos or pisteum means faith, belief, however you want to put it. That triggers an association in your mind about faith.

The Gospel is by faith, faith is the bargaining chip of the Gospel. It is the euro, it is the dollar of the spiritual Christian world. That is what you buy, sell, exchange, make transactions with, it is faith. Faith is the currency of the Christian spiritual world.

He says, in the Gospel justice is revealed by faith and for faith. The original Greek says from faith to faith, meaning that when one looks at the Gospel, when one reads the word of God including the Old Testament one sees one thing, and Paul is going to point it out again and again later on, and that is that God has always worked with man through faith. Faith is what has made everything possible.

He says, even when Abraham believed in God, it was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham did not enter... that is, it was by faith that Abraham... because he believed God that Abraham was justified. Before Moses Abraham had already believed but it was not because of the law, before Moses it was because he believed God.

And Paul says over and over again whenever God has dealt with a man, a woman, from Genesis itself to Revelation, it's by faith. I want to be a man, a woman of faith, he wants the Lord to give me faith and faith means going against the current, going against your mind, going against your emotions and standing firm.

Many times the only thing you are going to have is a thread of belief in God because your whole being is going to be yelling at you, curse God and die. Look, hold on to that little bit, nothing else. Just say, I'm going to grit my teeth, Lord, and I'm going to believe in you. That's all.

Sometimes the world, life, circumstances will invite you to reject everything you have believed in, a death, the loss of someone dear, a failure in your life, something that has happened, the devil and his demons are going to to be saying, hey, what do you think for? Curse God, death, end this already. Shoot yourself or go to the bar and drink a bottle. You say, no, just not that, I know that my redeemer lives, as Job said.

There are times when the only thing that will hold you is a weak thread, a confession, to say, through clenched teeth, no, I am going to continue believing in my God, I am going to continue hoping that tomorrow will come in the next second, although it seems that the night is too long, I am going to continue standing firm, because that is how God has dealt with men and women throughout history. It is the one who believes, it is by faith, the justice of God, the power of God and we will talk later about justification and justice, but everything that God deals with man is by faith.

That is why the Bible says, the just will live by his faith. Because faith is the only thing... it's the conduit that makes all other things possible. Brethren, it is very important because that is going to be over and over again throughout the entire letter to the Romans. Because in the Gospel the justice of God, the man, the woman is justified, remember what we said, by faith. Your salvation is by faith, believe God, believe what he says, as it is written, but the just will live by faith. Throughout all of history God's blessings have always come to people who say, I believe.

As the Lord Jesus Christ told the father of the demon-possessed young man, he asked him, save my son, my son is possessed by the devil. Christ tells him, do you think I can do it? You are asking me to do something, do you think I can do it? What did the man answer? Believe. And he said, help my disbelief.

In other words, look brothers, faith is not something easy, it is not easy to live a life of faith. That's not for cowards. People have been given the idea that believing in God is for cowards, the weak, there has been a lot of written philosophy, that it is a neurosis, it is compensation, it is a way for us to comfort ourselves, to give meaning to things. a universe that has no meaning because we are cowards, weak.

Look, to live by faith, you have to be a giant, a hero. To continue believing in God in this world that continually screams at you, God does not exist. Every time you open the news they tell you, God doesn't exist. How many people have the pants to say, no, I do.

When they tell you, Jesus is an artificial configuration of man, he is a being like any other. You say, no, he is the Son of God, my savior. That requires pants. It is for strong people. Living the Christian life as Paul lived it is for people who have a frame. Keep living that faith, keep living, stand up, be proud, rejoice in what you have received. God loves a man, a woman who believes and who believes against her own nature.

Sometimes there will be disbelief in your heart, banish it, throw it aside, slap it so that it loses consciousness for three seconds, because it will come back to bite you again, but every time it wants to get closer, push it away from you and continue believing, look ahead. Confess him as your Lord and savior. Do not be ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God.

Let's lower our heads. If you want to stand up, we are going to thank the Lord for everything we have received on this day, we are going to go to our houses, to our homes, tomorrow to work, we are going to live by faith, we are going to continue planted in what we have received, we are going to be defined and clear people. Let's not be reeling between two or three different doctrines, what Christ has told you is is, believe it, stand there, live your life according to a confession, don't be looking to see if there is something better out there.

No, you already believed, close the door to everything else. If you died wrong, it's much better to die wrong, believing in something than to be around from place to place. The person who is wrong, but is defined, is more powerful than the one who is undecided. It is better to live a lie, but believing it one hundred percent, than to be looking to see if something will be better and changing doctrine and teaching every three years.

Stand up for what you believed in and I assure you that you will never be ashamed. You will never be embarrassed. He who believes in Jesus is not ashamed. Everyone who trusts in him will not be put to shame, says the word of the Lord.

Father, thank you for your word, we receive it in our hearts, we treasure it and we ask you to give us strength, Lord, against our own nature, so weak that we are, Father, and even to live by faith we need you. Strengthen my brothers, strengthen your church throughout the earth in this time when our spirit is tired until we faint. Strengthen the legs and feet of your sons and your daughters, Lord, strengthen the foundations of the church, renew the church, renew your people, Lord, blow on your church at this time and lift it up and affirm its feet and allow us to believe.

Brethren, if there is anyone this morning who has not received Jesus as their Lord and savior, they have not told them, Lord, I believe, I would like to give you a moment, an opportunity now for us to pray for you before we leave. We have proclaimed a message that clearly says salvation is by faith, believe God, confess it. If you confess Jesus Christ, he will confess you before his Father, if you confess him before men. That's what the word says.

If you dare to go beyond your reason and connect with the energy of faith and say, Lord, I believe that you are my God, Jesus is my Lord, my savior, and if you believe it, affirm it, confess it , you are saved, you have salvation, eternal life. And if there's anyone who hasn't done it yet and wants to take that step of faith this morning, I invite you to raise your hand wherever you are and we'd like to pray for you before this service is over.

Will there be someone who wants to give their life to Jesus and who says, I decide today to believe and confess Jesus as my Lord and savior? If there is someone who has not done it before, and who is willing to continue that life of a hero, I invite you to raise your hand, to come forward here and we want to pray for you.

God knows your heart, God knows what is there in your spirit and we want to enter into fellowship with you. Is there anyone else who wants to affirm their trust in Jesus as their Lord and savior this morning? You want to confess it, you want to fix something that is not right and that you know you need that gesture of surrendering your life to the Lord Jesus, we want to pray for you this morning. Someone else?

Let's pray then, Father, he is interacting with a dimension of your word receiving that call from you and saying publicly, I want to confess my faith in Jesus, as my Lord and savior. Receive your son, receive his gesture, bless him and put your grace on him, Lord, this morning, touch him.

If we open the doors, you come in, you dine with us, we with you, we spend our lives in dialogue with you, and that is what we ask for [inaudible] this morning, Father. That the path that he has undertaken be firm, sure, does not end and we ask for all those people that yesterday, our brother Mike's family, those who do not know you, Lord, from that family, we bless them too. Allow their contact with your church yesterday and Thursday, now to make a revolution in their lives and that they too can enter into the ways of the Lord. We put them in your hands, Father, that seed that has been sown that bears fruit and fruit in abundance. Thank you, we say to [inaudible], we declare him your son, son of the kingdom, belonging to God.

Thank my Lord. And bless your people as they leave this place, in the mighty name of Jesus, the people of God say, amen. God bless you, my brothers. The grace of the Lord be with all of you. Amen and amen.