The Power of God

Romans 1:1-17

I. THE GOSPEL (Romans 1:1-4, 15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-5)

II. GOSPEL PREACHING IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

A. Yahweh God was the first preacher of the Gospel (Genesis 3:15).

1. Yahweh’s congregation was small: serpent, Adam and Eve

2. Angels long to look into these things! (1 Peter 1:12)

B. We know that Yahweh’s Gospel preaching was effectual and that Adam believed because Adam named his wife “Eve” which means “Mother of all the Living” (Genesis 3:20).

C. Before sin, the Garden of Eden was also a place of teaching (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-6; Romans 1:25).

D. The power of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden.

1. “Yahweh God said” (Genesis 3:13-15).

2. “Thus saith the LORD” echoed hundreds of times in the Old Testament.

3. “God said” (Genesis 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26,28,29; cf. Psalm 33:6; Romans 1:20).

4. The Gospel that God proclaimed in Genesis 3 is the recreative Word of the new heavens and the new earth. That is why the Gospel is so powerful.

E. Paul is eager to preach and he is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.

III. ANYTHING THAT TAKES AWAY FROM THE CENTRALITY OF PREACHING THE WORD HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CONCEAL INSTEAD OF REVEAL GOD’S POWER (cf. Acts 6:2; 1 Cor.1:17)

A. Our nation has more churches and “preachers” than ever before and yet sin is becoming more rampant.

1. More preachers = more sin.

2. More churches = less salt and light.

3. The reason for this is that the Gospel is not being preached.

B. Paul’s inspired letter to the Romans was not intended to be a substitute for his face-to-face preaching (Romans 1:15).

Q.89 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (see also Q.155 of the Westminster Larger Catechism)

How is the Word made effectual to salvation?

The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation. (Neh. 8:8, 1 Cor. 14:24–25, Acts 26:18, Ps. 19:8, Acts 20:32, Rom. 15:4, 2 Tim. 3:15–17, Rom. 10:13–17, Rom. 1:16)

C. God’s power is not manifested through music ministries, instruments, slick visuals, drama, puppet teams, church fads, incense or ecclesiastical furniture.

D. Electronic media are not God’s ordained means of demonstrating the power of the Gospel.

IV. WHEN THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED YOU ARE HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD

A. “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God” (Second Helvetic Confession).

Q.160 of the Westminster Larger Catechism

What is required of those that hear the word preached?

It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, (Prov. 8:34) preparation, (1 Pet. 2:1–2, Luke 8:18) and prayer; (Ps. 119:18, Eph. 6:18–19) examine what they hear by the scriptures; (Acts 17:11) receive the truth with faith, (Heb. 4:2) love, (2 Thess. 2:10) meekness, (James 1:21) and readiness of mind, (Acts 17:11) as the word of God; (1 Thess. 2:13) meditate, (Luke 9:44, Heb. 2:1) and confer of it; (Luke 24:14, Deut. 6:6–7) hide it in their hearts, (Prov. 2:1, Ps. 119:11) and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives. (Luke 8:15, James 1:25)

B. “Among the many excellent gifts with which God has adorned the human race, it is a singular privilege that he deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and tongues of men in order that his voice may resound in them” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.1.5).

C. Distinctions between preaching and Holy Scripture:

1. The Bible is the Word of God written and preaching is the Word of God preached.

2. The Bible is infallible and preaching is fallible.

3. The Bible is the standard for truth and preaching must come from the source of Scripture.

4. Preaching is authoritative because of the authority of Holy Scripture.

D. Preaching is effectual because through it Jesus is speaking to you (Psalm 95; John 5:25; 10:27; Romans 10:17; 2 Cor.2:14-17; Hebrews 3:15; 4:12-13).

“The pastor is called upon to feed the sheep. (Now that may seem quite obvious.) He is called upon to feed the sheep even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it in Goatland. You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness” (William Still, The Work of the Pastor).

“The Pauline Epistles frequently use such expressions as ‘the word of God’ or ‘the word of the Lord’ or, in an even shorter formula, ‘the word’ (cf. 1 Thes. 1:6, 8; 3:1; Col. 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:9; 4:1; etc.). In all these passages the terms refer to the preached word (cf. TDNT IV, 116). This is also the reason why the word preached by Paul and the others is effective. This efficacy is not due to the talents of the preacher, but the secret lies in the genitive: it is the word of God or of the Lord. In the apostolic message (the emphasis being always on the content) the voice of the living God is being heard” (K. Runia, “Theology of Preaching”; in New Dictionary of Theology).

E. Churches say they believe the Bible is the Word of God but they don’t believe preaching is the voice of Jesus Christ.

F. The problem with church growth fads is that they underestimate the problem with men and society.

“for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:23-25).

“Now you enjoy the means of grace, as the preaching of his word, prayer, and sacraments; and God has sent his ministers out into the fields and highways, to invite, to woo you to come in; but they are tiresome to thee, thou hadst rather be at thy pleasures: ere long, my brethren, they will be over, and you will be no more troubled with them; but then thou wouldst give ten thousand worlds for one moment of that merciful time of grace which thou hast abused; then you will cry for a drop of that precious blood which now you trample under your feet; then you will wish for one more offer of mercy, for Christ and his free grace to be offered to you again; but your crying will be in vain: for as you would not repent here, God will not give you an opportunity to repent hereafter: if you would not in Christ’s time, you shall not in your own. In what a dreadful condition will you then be? What horror and astonishment will possess your souls?” (George Whitefield [1714-1770], “A Penitent Heart, the Best New Year’s Gift”)

QUESTIONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION & MEDITATION

Take what you have learned this morning and make it into a prayer. Pray that God would grant you greater diligence this year in your receiving and studying the Word of God.

What is the Gospel?

Where in the Bible did Gospel preaching begin? Who was the first Gospel preacher?

How do we know that Adam responded to the Gospel in faith and repentance?

How is the power of God’s Word echoed in Genesis 1-3 and the rest of Scripture?

Why can’t the church allow anything to take away from the priority of preaching and teaching?

Whose voice is heard when the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed?

Explain what was meant by the following statement, “Churches say they believe the Bible is the Word of God but they don’t believe preaching is the voice of Jesus Christ.”

Recommended commentaries on Romans:

Ø John Stott, The Message of Romans

Ø James Boice, Romans

Over the span of the colonial era, American ministers delivered approximately 8 million sermons, each lasting one to one-and-a-half hours. The average 70-year-old colonial churchgoer would have listened to some 7,000 sermons in his or her lifetime, totaling nearly 10,000 hours of concentrated listening. This is the number of classroom hours it would take to receive ten separate undergraduate degrees in a modern university, without ever repeating the same course! … The colonial sermon was prophet, newspaper, video, Internet, community college, and social therapist all wrapped in one. Such was the range of its influence on all aspects of life that even contemporary television and personal computers pale in comparison.

Christian History : The American Revolution. 1996; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic ed.). Carol Stream IL: Christianity Today.