The Promise and the Person of the Good News

The good news.

Beloved is this God has become a man and that man is fully man who can bear the sin of man who can substitute for man who can take the punishment of God on man and not only is he just man, but he's the right man who even with all that has the right to rule in the rain can restore the kingdom to redeem the creation of new final draft of a term paper you wrote or maybe it's your driver's handbook or an insurance policy or even your grocery list if I asked you to name something you reviewed lately. What would you say well let me encourage you to take the next half hour to review something far more important than personal finances or really anything else stay with us on this Wednesday. Addition of grace to you as John MacArthur helps you review what you understand and what you may not understand about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's part of our continuing study from Romans one titled and now for the good news. And with that hears John to set the context for today's lesson. Let's look together at Romans chapter 1, we are looking at one of the messages as we move through the first seven verses in the introduction to this great epistle. Now Paul is going to unfold. The good news in 16 chapters in Romans. But he can't wait can't wait for 16 chapters to say it so he sums it up in seven verses and this is in seed what flowers and the rest of the epistle carefully chosen. You know, I was struck again as I read these words. I kept reading through verses 1 to 7 over and over and over and over and it literally thrills me the incredible infinite mind of God who is able and a few words to distill and condense the infinite truth of the gospel. Now let's look then at the gospel and miniatures it were in the seven verses and what is going to take one little piece out of the middle of first let's meet the preacher of the good news.

Verse one.

We've already gone through this just to review. Paul is the preacher and if you look at 1625 to be reminded that he affirms, and at the end of the pistol as well as at the beginning so we meet the preacher of the good news. Secondly, listen to the promise of the good news. The promise first two which that is the gospel of God which God had promised before by his prophets in the holy Scripture. Now he says the good news is not something out of continuity isn't novelty isn't a new idea is the change in the strategy is in the shift in the plan is something dropdead and it's obtuse is the gospel of God, which was promised. It gives us the Old Testament continuity. This is utterly important.

You recall that the apostle Paul was accused of being anti-Jewish.

The Judaizers went around condemning Paul and condemning his message because they said is anti-Jewish.

He speaks against Moses speaks against the law. He speaks against this people.

He speaks against the temple. They accused him in acts 21, of dragging Gentiles into the inner area of the temple where they were forbidden to go.

They accused him of desecrating Moses. They accused him of denying circumcision and the sustaining of the law. They were saying. He preaches some new, some revolutionary new message that is in no way connected to traditional Judaism and so Paul in order to put the record straight, says the good news of God, which I preach is not new good news. It's all good news that was indicated to us, and the promises of the prophets eroded holy Scripture. That verse two I tell you to preach on for weeks. It's just loaded with truth. The Old Testament promises of the New Testament gospel all my just in one area.

There are at least 332 prophecies in the Old Testament referring to Christ, most of which were fulfilled in his first coming. The Old Testament is literally loaded with truth laying out the groundwork for the coming of the new Jesus faced identically the same situation that Paul faced Jesus did not connect up as it were, with the extent or contemporary Jewish theology of his day.

He did not identify with the most devout sect of his day the Pharisees, he denied the Pharisees their devotion and called it hypocrisy. He denying the theology of its day of his day.

Its validity and called it the tradition of men, and so the people said is this new truth is this something other than what we've been taught or are you in continuity. Is this really the one speaking for God, I mean he doesn't say what the Pharisees say he doesn't identify with the Jewish establishment. He doesn't do what we do. He his disciples don't fast when we fast he doesn't treat the Sabbath like we treat the Sabbath he doesn't teach what we learn. In fact, quite the opposite. Jesus said to them in the sermon on the Mount.

You have heard it said by them of old. In other words, your tradition teaches you, but I say unto you, and he gave them completely different instruction.

He said it over and over again you have heard it said but I say you heard it said but I say but the you have heard it said part was not Old Testament it was the perversion of their tradition that he was denying the Jesus come with a new revelation disconnected from the old know he did not and listen to his own words in Matthew 517 think not that I am come to destroy the law, the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfill.

I came to fill it up and until heaven and earth pass not one jot not one little tiny Mark 412 shall in any way pass from the law to always fulfill.

I am not come to set the law side but to fulfill the law and to do away with the traditions of humanity, that of perverted. That's why said, your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. So the good news was old good news. Jewish people say well I can't become a Christian because I'm Jewish and I would be denying my heritage. No fact is, if you're Jewish and you haven't become a Christian. You've denied your heritage because you are completed only in the new covenant as Jeremiah 31 said as Ezekiel 36 and 37 promise when Jesus Christ arrived on the scene, he began to preach the good news of the kingdom, and the people wondered if it was revolutionary but he cleared the air and said no, it's just that your theology today is so heretical you've lost the continuity. Hebrews 1 says God and at sundry times in time passed through diverse means spoke on to the fathers by the prophets and God has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world and he went on to say who is the brightness of his glory. The express image of his person, God spoke in the old and God spoke through his son and the new first Peter chapter 1 you read verses 8 to 12 and it says the prophets wrote and they didn't understand what they wrote and they looked at what they wrote and they searched what manner of time, or what manner of person was signified and what they wrote.

They knew they were writing about a future that they couldn't yet understand and the writer of Hebrews says they were not perfected without us. In other words, there was an incompletion until the coming of the new covenant so the good news is been promised throughout all the Old Testament. Every sacrificial lamb spoke of the ultimate lamp.

Every verbal prophecy spoke of the time when the Messiah would come all the truth about restoration in the kingdom spoke of what the Messiah would do. And then the incredible event of all history when it comes to consummation the killer Messiah and deny that he had any continuity at all of the Old Testament. Paul says the gospel is the gospel of God is the gospel of God son the gospel of God, son, Jesus Christ, and it is exactly what was promised, by whom. Look at verse two by the prophets. What is a word prophet referred it refers here to all the Scripture writers because it says by the prophets in the holy Scriptures and by the way just to show you this the Old Testament in the mind of a Jew is called the law and the prophets. Please call the law and the prophets. Basically they divided in it to those two general categories. Some would single out the writings hagiography but basically it's a law and the prophets and the prophets would encompass everything with the law and the law was written by whom Moses and of course in the Bible, Moses is called a prophet so that the term the prophets can encompass all of the writers of the Old Testament.

That's exactly what he saying the gospel was promised before by the writers of the Old Testament. Note this in the holy Scriptures that is a very important state. The holy Scriptures what you mean by that that the Scriptures are holy. They are not authored by men. They are not designed by men. They do not reflect the thinking of men. They are holy. It means set apart, divine, unique, sanctified, righteous, godly.

The holy Scriptures. People say why should we believe the Bible is inspired for one reason the Bible says right here it's holy. These are holy Scriptures and they spoke of the gospel John 539 our dear Lord said search the Scriptures. Though the Jews look at the Old Testament, for they are they which speak of me on the road to Emmaus. He said to them, opening the Scriptures. He spoke of all the things concerning himself beginning at Moses and the prophets. He said if you know the Scripture, you would know these things repeatedly. He affirmed in Hebrews 1070 says in the volume of the book is written of me. The Old Testament is filled with the promise of the good news. Whether you go to Genesis 315.

At the beginning and talk about the seed of the woman or you go to Malachi 42 at the end talk about the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his beams, or anywhere in between.

You will find the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul said it was promised the gospel by the prophets in the holy Scriptures, beloved, don't you, for a moment ever question the holiness of Scripture. Later on in Romans, Paul will develop this as he develops every other theme in Romans seven in verse 12 he says the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good God's truth is pure notice of this holy men of God moved along by the Holy Spirit wrote the Scripture you have holy God moving along holy man by his Holy Spirit to produce is probably holy Scripture unique pure the work of God, and it is in that Scripture that we find the third point the person of the good news we seen the preacher, Paul. The promise the Old Testament the person of the good news. Verse three and four and here's the heart concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be a son of God's power. According to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead know what he saying here is really verse two is a parenthesis is the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the good news folks. The good news of God came in the box in the form of Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus that means Savior Christ. That means anointed one, Lord, that means sovereign over. He is Jesus, for he will save his people is Christ, for he is been anointed by God as King and priest. He is Lord for he is always been in Romans 95, Paul says he is God blessed forever. And then Paul also says he is overall. Philippians 2 tells us, is God. Colossians 2 fullness of the Godhead dwells in you. So he is the Lord God is the Christ, the anointed one to come back and rain and the earth, and he is Jesus who saves his people from their sin one with the good news is that the good news is, God became man. God became a man, a real man came into the world. Born in a family like all of us have a family with flash like we have flesh. He was actually born of a virgin, but nonetheless born of Mary, why they might become one of us according to the flesh, they might have that perfect humanness that he might be a sympathetic high priest. We might sucker us that he might understand is that he might be in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

They might be a man who could die for man who could take the place of men who can substitute for men who could bear the brunt of God's wrath for men had to be a man and he wasn't just any man. Look what it says he was of the seed of David wasn't just any family was the right family was the royal family. The only family that had a right to rule in the land right to establish the throne on Mount Zion and that holy hill in Jerusalem the holy city, and from there to rule the world. He was the right man in the right family if he had been the son of David. He couldn't of been the Messiah would've contradicted second sample chapter 7 Psalm 89 Isaiah 11 Jeremiah 23 Jeremiah 33 Ezekiel 33 Ezekiel 37. All of them would've been contradicted if he had not been the son of the family of David, so it was a man and he was the right man repeatedly at his birth.

In Luke one, I think at least five times in the chapter it says is the son of David, son of David, son of David, son of David, son of David, good news. Beloved is this God has become a man and that man is fully man. Fully, a son who can sympathize with man who can bear the sin of man who can substitute for man who can take the punishment of God on man and not only is he just man, but he's the right man who even with all that has the right to rule in the rain who can restore the kingdom and redeem the creation or what news you hear some people rain come along so well. We don't know if Jesus ever really existed. You know, even outside the Bible. People deny that if they have their head screwed on. You go back to historians of the early time Tacitus who lived in A.D. 114 tells us that the founder of the Christian religion. Jesus Christ was put to death by Pontius Pilate and the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius is an established fact applying the younger wrote a letter to the Emperor Trajan on the subject of Christ and Christians. Josephus, the Jewish historian writing in A.D. 90 even before John wrote Revelation is a short biographical note on his in his writings on Jesus who is called Christ the Babylonian Talmud talks about Jesus Christ nor Josephus said. Josephus died before John wrote Revelation. This is what Josephus the historian said in volume 2, book 18, chapter 3, page 3 of Jewish antiquity quote now. There was about this time Jesus the wise men, it would be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works of teacher of such minutes receive the truth with pleasure.

He drew over to him both. Many of the Jews in many of the Gentiles. He was Christ and one pilot. The suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross. Those that loved them at the first did not forsaken for, he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and 10,000 other wonderful things concerning him and the tribe of Christian's own name from them are not extinct at this day."

A way to deny that he lived in he was a man and John says it this way.

First John chapter 4 verse two by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesses not Jesus is not of God, and that is the spirit of antichrist people want to deny that God came in real human flesh are from the antichrist. He was man, I hasten to add this as we draw to a close. She had to be more than man. He had to be God. Also, for if he was man, even the best of men. Even the right man of the seed of David, but not God. Then he could not of withstood the punishment of God. It could not have risen from the dead.

He could not overcome but would've been conquered as all men are conquered so verse four adds he was declared to be the son of God with power and how is that power displayed by the spirit of holiness.

That's another way of saying the Holy Spirit through the resurrection from the dead listen if there was ever any question in anybody's mind about whether he was the son of God, the resurrection should've ended.

He had to be man to reach us, but he had to be God, to lift us and so the second way in marketing verse for the second way he manifested his son ship was in his resurrection.

It says, and he is declared the son of God through a powerful act wrought by the Holy Spirit in raising him from the was if some guy came along and said I'm the son of God, and he was a phony.

You think God would raise him from the dead. Gotta be playing an answer phony if God raised Christ from the dead.

It was an affirmation that what he said was true and so he was begotten, and resurrection.

He is a son twice born in the queue this thing is a were declared to see in verse four declared it could be transited various ways it is a marvelous word is the word in Greek hornrimmed so and we get our English word horizon from Lorenzo means horizon and horizon is the clear demarcation line between earth and skies and what he saying is this, there may have been some question in some people's minds about whether he was the son of God. When they looked at his humanness, but the line was drawn in absolute clarity the horizon between earth and sky is instantly made clear by his resurrection from the dead as clearly as the horizon divides the earth from the sky so clearly does the resurrection divide Jesus from the rest of humanity is God.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, irrefutable evidence marked out and distinguished the son of God from all other human beings as clearly as the horizon distinguishes the sky from the earth.

Now this he became a son in incarnation, but that was clearly marked out to end all question in resurrection is the good news, good news people God came in the box became a man. The good news can get back out of the box because he is also God, and he could take us all with him and he demonstrated his ability to do that in his resurrection from the dead, which was energized by the Holy Spirit was in the 18th century United States Congress issued a special edition of the Bible of Thomas Jefferson was a very simple Bible.

Jefferson had was just like your Bible or my Bible except Jefferson had gone through and eliminated all references to the supernatural and all Jefferson wanted of Jesus in his Bible were some historical facts in the moral teaching of Jesus to cut all the rest out.

Here's the last statement in Thomas Jefferson's Bible. These are the closing words there leg. They Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulcher and departed. That's the but that's only the end of Thomas Jefferson's Bible that is not the end of the gospel right thank God our Bible ends with. He is risen and he's coming back for his own good news people good news Jesus Christ has come into our world.

Tell us about God to take us back out into God's glorious eternity. When I think about the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of Paul's term, his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And then his term in verse four, the son of God uses all of the terms of pick up all the Christ is, I marvel and wonder the incredible majesty of the person who is the good news of God. This is grace to you with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John has been our featured speaker since 1969. He's also Chancellor of the Masters University in seminary and his current look at the life transforming power of the gospel is titled and now for the good news. Well, speaking of good news.

You have a letter there John that encouraged us and I think it will encourage our listeners as well. So the mic is yours. Take a minute to read us that letter well you know I always love doing this. Fill in this letter comes from Lauren. She writes some years ago my husband was sentenced to prison. In the blink of an eye. I became a single mom. I was mad at God because I couldn't believe he would allow this to happen. I was attending a word of faith church that's prosperity gospel was very upset that the financial seeds I so did not reap the harvest. The pastor promised me I lost trust in the church and began to struggle with anxiety. I was a wreck and I was ashamed a good friend met with me and I shared my struggles with her. She sent me a sermon of yours to listen to. I initially wanted to avoid your preaching. I thought it was harsh. It was the first time anyone ever told me that I was a wretched sinner you also preached about sufficiency in Christ. That was news to me. I literally thought, you mean to tell me that Christ alone is sufficient will. That changed everything. The Lord worked in my heart and I repented and put my faith in Jesus. I couldn't get enough of your teaching.

I am a black woman I used to support the black lives matter movement. I was pro-choice and I encourage my friends and family to stand up to the white men. Now I listen faithfully to preaching from a white man when my husband rejoined our family. He didn't understand who I was and that cause a lot of tension in the home. He learned about many false religions while in prison, but through the Lord's grace and mercy. My husband became a Christian and was recently baptized were part of a solid church that feeds us every week, but that doesn't stop me from listening to you. Thank you Pastor John and the entire grace to ministry for your sound teaching.

We will continue praying for you to greet you as listeners do you want to invest in a woman like that that's that's what's happening through Grace to you and when you support Grace to you.

You're bringing this powerful life transforming truth of the word of God to people like Lauren and her husband and all the friends that she touches through her love for Christ.

So stick with us the grace to continue to join us for the ministry on radio go to the website. See all our resources and please pray and support us as we do this wonderful ministry of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time and friend. It's because of your support that we can reach people like Lauren wherever they are in the world. Your gifts allow us to take God's word to big-city small towns and even remote villages. If that kind of ministry resonates with you, consider making a donation when you contact us today.

You can mail your tax-deductible gift to Grace to you. Box 4000 panorama city, CA 91412 or call 855 grace or go to our website de TY.org and thank you again for helping us equip people everywhere with biblical truth to make a donation, call 855 grace or go to G TY.org remember to. There are other ways you can support this ministry would love for you to pray for John and for the staff. You can also contact this radio station them at no you appreciate their erring Bible teaching programs like Grace to you and of course we want to know how John's teaching is encouraging you email us at letters@gty.org that's letters at G TY.or you can mail your letter to box 4000 panorama city, CA 91412 now for John MacArthur on Phil Johnson.

Keep in mind you can watch grace to you television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378 or check your local listings for channel and times and also be here tomorrow as John continues his look at the greatest news there is. It's the gospel another 30 minutes of unleashing God's true one verse at a time on grace to