SPEAKER_00: For those privileged elite who made their dwellings in the villas and the estates, the palace properties, with slaves who cater to their every desire, life might have been pretty good in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Roman Empire in general.
SPEAKER_00: But for everybody else, life was a hard thing under the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, for the Christian, it was made even harder.
SPEAKER_00: About three years after the letter to the Romans was written, Nero blamed the fires of Rome on the Christians not having another easy scapegoat.
SPEAKER_00: And life became a matter of life and death for the Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Life became especially hard and sometimes downright persecuting upon Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you to turn with me to this book of Romans, a great epistle from Paul, as we look in brief together at an introduction this evening to the series that's coming for the next several months.
SPEAKER_00: And so I invite you to turn there with me.
SPEAKER_00: It is so good to see everybody here this evening.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a special opportunity for me because I get to preach on a Sunday night, and that hardly ever happens anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But I especially do like it, and I especially like uh having looked forward to the kickoff, to this little uh uh this little beginning point to Romans uh and preparing for that now for uh quite some time.
SPEAKER_00: So that is a is a treat for me.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that it will be for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: As usual, we do have guests with us, and we appreciate you all coming and being here.
SPEAKER_00: And you've started uh to uh come at a good time if you're a guest, because this is the beginning of a series.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that uh that uh if you're if you're willing to give it some time, you will just gain so much from it as all of us will.
SPEAKER_00: By the late 50s and early 60s A.D., about the time Romans was written, the metropolis of Rome had exceeded, we're told, about a million people.
SPEAKER_00: That is a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that is a metropolis for an ancient city, to say the least.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, according to the World Population Review, that's about the size of Austin, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, within the city limits.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the size of Dallas or the size of Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_00: It's larger, actually, than Washington, D.C., it is larger than Las Vegas, it's larger than Oklahoma City and most other American cities.
SPEAKER_00: To hit a million people is really a great achievement, even still among cities of America.
SPEAKER_00: About 40% of this population's inhabitants are said to have been slaves or past slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they had done their interim in their slavery.
SPEAKER_00: But that's a pretty big portion of those who know what it is to not be free, to not be like most of the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: The letter from the Apostle Paul to our brethren who made up the churches in Rome is not just a doctrinal letter.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's not just a religious essay.
SPEAKER_00: It's personal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like Paul needed some brethren to write to, so he chose these Roman brethren.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason behind the letter, and it's a personal letter, as you see right at the very beginning of it, the way that it is addressed from him and to whom it is addressed.
SPEAKER_00: He's not interested really in just personal things, but he begins the letter on that note which tells us he has a great concern for these churches that existed in the city of Rome, to whom he's writing.
SPEAKER_00: But it also was a, as a first century custom, where are the thoughts that we read for what we would use as an introduction are also at the end of the letter.
SPEAKER_00: So there at the end of the letter, we see some personal thoughts as well.
SPEAKER_00: A greeting from himself, though Paul had not yet been to Rome at this point of the writing.
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 15, verse 14, all the way through chapter 16, he mentions where there had been some intention to come to them.
SPEAKER_00: He'd not yet been able to do it, but he still had planned on doing it, and he intends to go there in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And then he also mentions, just out of interest from having read from Acts here lately, that there were some people in Rome who held a special place for him, and vice versa, they for him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and the great association that he had with them.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, these were traveling companions from past experiences earlier in Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: And you can reference some of those names back to the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty interesting study.
SPEAKER_00: We take time for that, but don't have it for this evening.
SPEAKER_00: As he writes from Corinth, this Roman letter during the third mission trip, which we looked at in our recent series in Acts.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually from Acts 18, is where he is in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: And it's from that point that he writes this letter, from that place he writes this letter during the time that he was there.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks of his intentions to return to Jerusalem, but then after that to make his way to Rome, and then after Rome to work his way on into Spain.
SPEAKER_00: And it isn't biblical recorded history, but secular history records that more than likely he actually did do that, having been freed from the Roman imprisonment that we read at the end of Acts, but then going on at least to one, perhaps two or even three more missions before taken back into custody and then executed by the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: So he says he wanted to go on into Spain.
SPEAKER_00: It's important to take notice that Paul says he had previously made his way from Jerusalem all the way around this area that you see there on the map, Illyricum.
SPEAKER_00: This would include, if you put it in modern understanding, modern places, this would include places like uh the bottom of Serbia or or uh encircling uh Croatia or Bosnia or Albania.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a long way from the Jerusalem part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says they covered more territory than we have record of cities between himself and Acts that are recorded where he went.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that fascinating?
SPEAKER_00: Some of the places that you read of that he says we went to here in this little section of text are actually not recorded for us in Scripture, except right here.
SPEAKER_00: And so he you may think, well, we know everywhere Paul went, and then the point I'm making is no, we actually don't.
SPEAKER_00: He went places that aren't recorded, he taught things that we don't have record of that were consistent with the things that we do have record of.
SPEAKER_00: But he went a whole lot greater distance than most people realize.
SPEAKER_00: I read that if you take just the places that we read Paul went, as we have recorded for us in Scripture, and you take those in the order that he went to those places that we have record of in Scripture, you'll come up with more than 22,000 miles of travel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in our day, we might not think that's too much.
SPEAKER_00: 22,000 miles might be two or three mission trips for you or me today as we fly on an airplane or as we ride in a nice car.
SPEAKER_00: But that would be a whole lot of mileage under our feet if we tried doing it without airplanes and without cars and without trains or boats.
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, he had boats.
SPEAKER_00: If you took the boats and you just walked it everywhere you went or rode it on an animal, that's a long way, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of travel that Paul undertook.
SPEAKER_00: And where do we read of him as we read of him here in this text?
SPEAKER_00: We don't see him saying, man, I'm tired.
SPEAKER_00: It's just gonna be, it's gonna be good to just settle down for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's looking forward to more traveling.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at more mission trips going on and further work of the kingdom being done.
SPEAKER_00: As you look at our opening text this evening, then I want you to consider Brother Paul's brief introduction of himself and then his purpose for writing, and that'll pretty well uh wrap up our time together this evening.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but let's wrote let's notice, beginning there in chapter one of Romans, verse one, as we begin our thoughts with Paul tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was uh descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received the grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To all those in Rome who are loved of God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a period.
SPEAKER_00: Only 136 words in an English sentence.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it took.
SPEAKER_00: It's here that Paul answers some introductory questions that it'd be good for us to consider together.
SPEAKER_00: For example, how did Paul see himself, as we said?
SPEAKER_00: But also, how does Paul want the reader to see him?
SPEAKER_00: How did he want these brethren in Rome to see him?
SPEAKER_00: Even still today, we could ask the question, how should we see him?
SPEAKER_00: When we read of his works, what do we think of Paul?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice that he kind of labels himself in several ways that help us to understand who he was.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the text says, a servant of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, that word servant is our word slave.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been better to have actually translated it that way.
SPEAKER_00: The word is doulos, and it just simply means one who is in bondage to another.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how many, again, slaves were there in Rome approximately.
SPEAKER_00: It's an identification, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I am like you.
SPEAKER_00: I may not be a slave in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He was Roman after all.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had Roman citizenship.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I am a slave nonetheless of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I am a called apostle.
SPEAKER_00: And that speaks to the authority of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It's not as though we should ever be of the mind if we don't like what the Apostle Paul wrote, which we ought to understand comes from God, then we just discount the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He's not allowing the reader to discount him.
SPEAKER_00: He has credentials for saying what he says, and he has the power to back that up as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Because as an apostle, he says, I'm set apart.
SPEAKER_00: He's a messenger, we could say a delegate, he's a representative, we could say an ambassador in the word apostle, but also set apart for the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: That word separated or set apart describes exclusive devotion on his part.
SPEAKER_00: There was no other thing or anyone else that he was so devoted to than that of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He was set apart by or for him.
SPEAKER_00: We likely have asked about Paul.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe you haven't, probably you have.
SPEAKER_00: I have many times asked myself about Paul, how did that man stay that faithful?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even his self-description here shows complete and utter devotion, faithfulness to the nth degree.
SPEAKER_00: How does a man do that?
SPEAKER_00: How did Paul keep going in this devotion after having become a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: How did he say so strong and endure so many abuses?
SPEAKER_00: Can we just remember the abuses together for a second?
SPEAKER_00: He named some of those off in the 2nd Corinthian letter in chapter 11 and in verse 23 of that text, 2 Corinthians 11 and in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how he talks about the imprisonments that he had?
SPEAKER_00: We looked in Acts and we saw several imprisonments just in that section of history.
SPEAKER_00: That's not all of Paul's history.
SPEAKER_00: It was only a portion of Paul's history and work for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, he talks about his imprisonments.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about countless beatings, often near death.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine being beaten almost to death several times?
SPEAKER_00: Not just once in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: Five times, forty lashes less one.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I was beaten with rods.
SPEAKER_00: Once I was stoned.
SPEAKER_00: We remember that in Acts and Lystra that happened, where they actually stoned him and left him for dead outside the city gates.
SPEAKER_00: Three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea, in dangers from rivers, robbers, my own people, Gentiles, from false brothers, in toil and hardship, many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
SPEAKER_00: And apart from other things, the daily pressure of my anxiety for all the churches.
SPEAKER_00: Who is weak and I am not weak?
SPEAKER_00: And who is made to fall and I am not indignant?
SPEAKER_00: Paul deeply cared about the work that he did.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a job for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's something for all preachers to keep in mind.
SPEAKER_00: All those who serve the Lord's people, preacher or evangelist, elders, deacons?
SPEAKER_00: Not just a job.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is answering from where his faithfulness comes.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice when you connect these things that we've been discussing, what he's saying?
SPEAKER_00: He had a clear understanding of one's purpose as a servant.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't get it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Let's use the word that he actually uses.
SPEAKER_00: He understood his purpose as a slave in bondage to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't always know that I understand that in my service to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That there is a sense there of actual servitude to the nth degree is what Jesus is expecting.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a master does, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've read illustrations of that.
SPEAKER_00: For example, the parable that G, or the sense in which Jesus would say, when a master comes into his house and he sits down at the table, does he serve his slave or does his slave serve him?
SPEAKER_00: Which one comes first?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there is a sense there in which Paul is saying, I am an absolute captivity of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I owe him everything as his servant.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is with us when life gets hard.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that it would help us knowing and remembering who we are.
SPEAKER_00: It makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: At least it did to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And that'll come up again later as we work our way through Paul's letter.
SPEAKER_00: This won't be the last time he mentions this concept of feeling like he is indebted, that he is under debt in his service to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That can pressure us to keep going.
SPEAKER_00: It can push us to stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: It can force us when other things that just are of ourselves just don't seem to rise to the faithfulness we need to rise to sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice the word gospel in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel, it means good news.
SPEAKER_00: You might have already known that.
SPEAKER_00: Chances are you did.
SPEAKER_00: But I wonder if all Christians understood that the gospel is good news if those who cling to fear and timidity and anxiety, as I know we do because we've talked about those things before, and there's been comments regarding, even among us ourselves, of how sometimes it is quite difficult, and we are sometimes even, can I use the word ashamed of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Of reaching out to that one person, of saying that one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that would go away a whole lot more if we would be able to replace it with joy and boldness and courage to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If we understood the gospel is nothing but good news.
SPEAKER_00: That should help us to understand this is something people want.
SPEAKER_00: I guess I could tack on there if people don't.
SPEAKER_00: That is their problem, not yours or mine, because it still remains good news, whether someone sees it that way or not.
SPEAKER_00: It's good news.
SPEAKER_00: We should be more than excited to share it with other people.
SPEAKER_00: It should bring out of us joy and boldness and courage.
SPEAKER_00: He'll mention this again down in verses 16 and 17, and so we'll pass by the rest of that right now and move on.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to consider that word gospel, though, just a little bit more deeply when we consider that term in the Roman letter.
SPEAKER_00: We may be influenced to think only of ourselves in the equation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for just a second and try to follow what I mean by this.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is, though it may end in the message of our salvation, and yes, that is good news, obviously, Paul isn't just saying that it's good because we deem it good.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is good news to me because it's about my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's only partly right.
SPEAKER_00: I would submit to you the gospel is good news, and what Paul is talking about here is that the gospel is good news because God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Just think of that another way.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice how it does not say the gospel about us is good news.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says it is the gospel, the good news, not of us, but who?
SPEAKER_00: Of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the good news of God.
SPEAKER_00: It was God who sent Jesus to intervene, not me.
SPEAKER_00: Not you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the good news because it is about God.
SPEAKER_00: And about what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: What God is effective in.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is Jesus has established his reign as King.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we mentioned that word, Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus the King, the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And to him we owe our allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: We owe our life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is good news about God, who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to intervene.
SPEAKER_00: And he is king over his kingdom, and to him we owe it all.
SPEAKER_00: It's also important to notice as an overview perspective of the book that Paul intends to teach us this good news about Jesus and of God is promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a small statement to overlook in this section of text.
SPEAKER_00: That is quite significant.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, more than 50 times in this book will we read either hints or downright quotes from the Old Testament prophets.
SPEAKER_00: 15 chapters, 15 parts of this letter, and over 50 quotations or references to these prophets of old.
SPEAKER_00: For any who may be thinking to themselves, I sure am glad we're studying a New Testament book, because the Old Testament really doesn't matter that much in modern-day New Testament times.
SPEAKER_00: Think again, because you're going to get some Old Testament history in this book.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is not the only one to do that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the apostles fully understood the Old Testament was a foundation for which, a shadow to which our New Testament time would look and establish itself.
SPEAKER_00: It would grow out of that into something even better, as the Hebrew writer would say, time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel about Jesus was promised beforehand more than just a few times.
SPEAKER_00: Well, after confirming that Jesus was Jewish, which a lot of people don't realize, they think he was a white man who was on drugs or something, if you look at modern paintings and so on.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is, he was a Jewish man, and his lineage was linked back to that of David.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a coincidence that Paul brings this up.
SPEAKER_00: He is tying our salvation through Christ into the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The lineage of David.
SPEAKER_00: That also was prophesied among all the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfilled prophecies of his kingship and his kingdom will be found in this book.
SPEAKER_00: Paul also says his purpose was to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Jesus' name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds down in verse 7, who are loved by God and called to be saints.
SPEAKER_00: So he's described himself earlier in the text, and now he's describing how he sees them.
SPEAKER_00: What do the readers look like to whom Paul is writing?
SPEAKER_00: Called by, belonging to, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Loved by God, called to be saints.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds another reason for his recognition of them this way and his high thinking about them this way.
SPEAKER_00: Down in verse 8 of the text.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
SPEAKER_00: That is a pretty edifying introduction that comes from Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he is creating and or maybe he is emphasizing the sense of care that he has for these brethren.
SPEAKER_00: But he holds them in high regard.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just flattering them.
SPEAKER_00: These things were actually true of them.
SPEAKER_00: That's all pretty edifying.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you realize, brothers and sisters, the same is true for you and I today.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about that for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Are we called?
SPEAKER_00: Do we belong to Jesus if we're Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Are we loved by God?
SPEAKER_00: We're called saints in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And our faith is proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I okay, I'll take a back spot to that just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're not proclaimed throughout the whole world, all the world, but we're proclaimed in a good amount of places.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Even in other parts of the world.
SPEAKER_00: As being faithful as a congregation, a family of God to our to our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So what Paul is doing is he's taking effort to edify with his personal admiration and his thanks for the reputation and the faithfulness, the faithfulness that these brethren had earned in walking with Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that should be overlooked, do you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not that we should pat ourselves on the back, but it does mean something when we can say, this looks like us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul might have addressed us the same way that he is beginning his address to the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: It should be at least an ideal that every Christian and every church of Christ strive to imitate that standing before God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask you another question on another part of what Paul is saying here in this little section of text.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, is it difficult for you to do what Paul is doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Should Christians be free with their thoughts of edification toward other Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Should they be free to be people who compliment one another, who say what is really on their heart and not just keep that in and think to themselves, I'm a little embarrassed about the way I feel about this relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anybody to think I'm being all, you know, foolish or something.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Paul does this in many of his letters.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is a strong man.
SPEAKER_00: Again, think of all the things that he talked to us about that he went through in his lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: A sissy doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: A person who caves to every pressure in life, they don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't go through those things hardened for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But yet he had the ability to say things like we're reading here.
SPEAKER_00: I consider you to be called.
SPEAKER_00: I consider you to be one who belongs to Jesus, like he did.
SPEAKER_00: I consider you to be loved by God, which would necessitate that Paul loved them.
SPEAKER_00: And saints and faithful being proclaimed to other places.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm only trying to get to the point, ladies and gentlemen, that we should consider one another as believers the way that Paul considers believers that he's writing to.
SPEAKER_00: No sense of competition there.
SPEAKER_00: No sense of throwing one another under the bus or throwing each other down.
SPEAKER_00: High standing in the apostle's estimate.
SPEAKER_00: High standing among one another is how we should see one another, the way the apostle is teaching them to see one another.
SPEAKER_00: I have a hunch it was more for seeing one another than him proclaiming to them how he thought about them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you: is it difficult for you to do what Paul's doing?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are one who never thinks about complimenting other people who make up God's family.
SPEAKER_00: The thought occurs to me that the words of appreciation and gratitude and thanks cost us absolutely nothing to say.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't mean them, but I am saying we should say them.
SPEAKER_00: Especially for those who need them.
SPEAKER_00: The struggling believers in Rome needed to hear Paul say, I do believe in you.
SPEAKER_00: You can keep doing what you were doing, and it's having a lasting impact on the world.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be people who are open to one another from the heart.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be people who are willing to complement the good that we see in one another and the good that one another does.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we need to be that way?
SPEAKER_00: Because everyone needs lifted.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone needs to be edified.
SPEAKER_00: You are the person to edify.
SPEAKER_00: You are the person to give a pat on the back.
SPEAKER_00: You are the person to say, I do appreciate you.
SPEAKER_00: I do consider you to be among the great of God's people, because really, all God's people, when they're being faithful, they are great.
SPEAKER_00: Many things to which we can compliment one another and be more and more like Paul was here at the beginning of this letter.
SPEAKER_00: As you notice there in verses 11 through 15, we realize that Paul had a heart of ministry, obviously, and it stands out as we read this little section of text together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 of your text there.
SPEAKER_00: I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.
SPEAKER_00: That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
SPEAKER_00: I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus, uh thus far have not uh have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And then he restates his God-given mission in brief.
SPEAKER_00: I am under obligation, afletes.
SPEAKER_00: It means I owe another.
SPEAKER_00: I am in debt to, I am bound to by duty, Greeks, barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
SPEAKER_00: So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Paul saw work for the Lord and his kingdom as something that is mutually beneficial.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about that for a second because that also is an important point.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom work is done mutually.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a one-sided thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I would even say to you, you're probably getting about as much out of it as what you're giving into it.
SPEAKER_00: So if it isn't that much, you think in your own mind, then maybe you need to examine how much is being put in.
SPEAKER_00: It is a two-way street.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, I want to give you something of benefit, and I want to take something from you that is of benefit.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way kingdom work is.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way God is pleased.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 19, we read Paul saying there, though I am free from all men, physically speaking, yet have I made myself a servant to all.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody made him think this way.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody made him say, I want to benefit other people during my lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: At least apart from God and his own agreeing heart.
SPEAKER_00: That made him want to do what was right.
SPEAKER_00: Again, let's take the advantage that we have of studying this section of text and consider the fundamentals to proper motivation in the Lord's church.
SPEAKER_00: Think on that with me for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Do you do what you do for self in the Lord's church?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it more so for the kingdom and for the king and for his family?
SPEAKER_00: I would say to you that such an evaluation is time worthy because, in the words of the Lord Jesus, he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive, Acts 20, verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: For that to be true in our life, we must rid ourselves of things like laziness, me time, a me first mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Because, brothers and sisters, that does not come from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That comes from the world.
SPEAKER_00: And it is worldly thinking, and it is a detriment to the faithfulness of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot allow society to creep in to our own inner thinking and become something other than what we're seeing in Paul and the brethren here in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be like them.
SPEAKER_00: And I will say to you that I do love seeing how many here have given of themselves the way that Paul is speaking about.
SPEAKER_00: If we were to break that down in rubber meets the road concepts, it would look like a spiritual family, wherein plates of food are delivered to those who don't have it, where texts and emails and cards are written, where hospital visits are being made, where love and concern is being shown at the end of services and the beginning of services, and various times throughout the week among brethren who make up the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I've even I I would even acknowledge, I've even witnessed that those who are doing so many of those things are moms and dads who make up this family who oftentimes have the least amount of time in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Pulled so many different ways and in and in so many different directions.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they're busy about God's work.
SPEAKER_00: Or the seniors who are among us.
SPEAKER_00: And they're dealing with their own frailties and health issues, but busy about the Lord's work among his people.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's those who are in need themselves, but they refuse to center on their need and they see the needs of others ahead of their own.
SPEAKER_00: True Pauline mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Such things are what separates, brothers and sisters, the family of God from the family of the self-absorbed, self-interested, self-motivated world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: It's different here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul had an eagerness to give and to help his brethren any way that he could.
SPEAKER_00: And though oftentimes, as we saw, for example, in Acts 18, when he entered into Corinth, he didn't always have all that he needed himself.
SPEAKER_00: True spiritual service.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in thankfulness for what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in being concerned for what is yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in being willing to be the conduit through whom God can work if he so chooses to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Always open for his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Before we conclude tonight, you know we we haven't gotten down to verses 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be wrong not to get there.
SPEAKER_00: That is, if we're going to do an overview of Romans, that's the thesis statement of the book.
SPEAKER_00: That's his purpose for writing, and it's what he's going to hone in on throughout the rest of the book in a variety of ways.
SPEAKER_00: So down in verse 16, Paul says that he's looking forward to what had what he had come to them when he came to them, what he planned to preach to them in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for because I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: For in it the righteousness of God, yep, that's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's about God, is revealed from faith to or for faith, depending on the version you're reading from.
SPEAKER_00: I take that to mean from the pre-Mosaic covenant to the post-Mosaic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be what we're living in.
SPEAKER_00: So, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, what did it take for them to be who God wanted to be?
SPEAKER_00: Faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness, faith.
SPEAKER_00: It took faith.
SPEAKER_00: What about under the Mosaic law?
SPEAKER_00: Moses, Joshua, the others that we read of who were Israelite people under the Mosaic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: What did it take for them to be faithful Israelites?
SPEAKER_00: It took faith.
SPEAKER_00: What does it take for us today?
SPEAKER_00: Faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so from faith to faith, God makes it clear that he's never made a covenant which fails to address the overriding need for prominent faith in his believer, in his child.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says the gospel is the most life-transforming truth ever put into human hands.
SPEAKER_00: If we really understand and respond to the gospel, time and eternity becomes totally and completely altered for us.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say to you that these two verses present to us the theme for the epistle to the Romans, and I'd like to expound on that just for a second before we close in service together.
SPEAKER_00: Like this short statement, the book or the letter describes two basic truths that we need to understand.
SPEAKER_00: First, Paul's going to give a discussion or a discourse regarding the gospel of Christ of which he's not ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: That we can see clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And then in concise terms, he says, I'm going to tell what that means.
SPEAKER_00: What the gospel looks like in the life of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And he names off here in our text three things we can notice.
SPEAKER_00: One, it is the power of God for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Two, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: And three, by it, the righteous shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the letter falls under these two headings, the gospel and what the gospel, what that means when we say, I believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does that actually look like in a person's life?
SPEAKER_00: He's going to describe that to us in quite a bit of detail throughout the letter, especially the tail end of the letter.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't elevate the gospel in our lives, ladies and gentlemen, as Paul did, maybe it is because we fail to call on the power of God as a means of salvation in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We may get to ride on, I think of myself all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you do as well.
SPEAKER_00: Just along for the ride with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm just kind of hanging on to his coattails.
SPEAKER_00: We're going where he wants to go.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: We're just, we're there as instruments, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we get to ride on his coattails, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: But brothers and sisters, let us never be mistaken.
SPEAKER_00: It is God who is the power behind his word.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean it is he who will reveal his truth.
SPEAKER_00: I think about this with regard to the kind of work that we all are involved in as God's people with outreach, for example.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know, brothers and sisters, there's no technique?
SPEAKER_00: There is no overriding personality trait, there is no skill that will bring anyone to the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to get that completely out of our mind when we talk to somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if I just say the right thing, if I just do the right thing, if I'm just dressed the right way, if I just present it with this skill, this technology, this effort that I might have at my disposal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's going to make all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get that person.
SPEAKER_00: It's admirable we want to get that person, but I'm just telling you, none of that stuff will do it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul is proclaiming right here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Some people do have a good ability in outreach.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: We might say they've got some skills.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is they all have one thing in common.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the only thing they have that they can do anything with.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that is?
SPEAKER_00: Actually reaching out.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of it is on God's shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: The power is in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is not in us, it is not in our abilities.
SPEAKER_00: It is not in saying just the right thing the right way, so boom, it'll click, and all of a sudden they'll become a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It has always been the power of God at work.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to actually reach out.
SPEAKER_00: Or God will use somebody else for his word.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I have seen the message of the cross, the gospel, introduced by Christians, great and small alike, that has transformed hundreds, I would say to you, even thousands of people just in my lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: You and I.
SPEAKER_00: Are living proof of it.
SPEAKER_00: Both receivers and givers of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let the world say what it wants to say.
SPEAKER_00: And let them speak of how the gospel is for the weak-minded.
SPEAKER_00: And let them say only a fool could believe in this.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence shows the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, the power of God, has alone what has the ability to transform us as it has so many thousands of others.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is power-packed because the gospel is about God.
SPEAKER_00: He is its source.
SPEAKER_00: He is the power behind every page.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of God at work unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about that just a little bit, and the thought occurred to me that if God can part the sea and if God can bring food miraculously from heaven to feed hundreds of thousands of people, if he can perform miracle after miracle, so many that even the pagans could not deny what Jesus was going about doing.
SPEAKER_00: If he can resurrect the dead, including himself, then he can perform the greatest expression of his power, and that is to save and transform and change a sinful people.
SPEAKER_00: He affects us in the now.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying that.
SPEAKER_00: He affected Paul in the present.
SPEAKER_00: But greater than that, he'll affect us in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He goes with us wherever we go, even through death.
SPEAKER_00: Paul the zealot, who was struck down and spoken to directly by Jesus, has some things he wants to say which can help us.
SPEAKER_00: They'll help us as a church, and they're going to help us as a Christian individual.
SPEAKER_00: His words are important, so much so that God has preserved these words.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't preserved every word that every apostle ever wrote, but he's preserved these words from the Apostle Paul to the Romans for more than 2,000 years now.
SPEAKER_00: That makes them pretty important, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Over the next few months, let's you and me dive into Paul's words of wisdom and let's learn from the man who gave up everything to serve Jesus the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of all of that, let's plan to be more like him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's plan to be the one that he teaches.
SPEAKER_00: God counts faithful.
SPEAKER_00: As we come to the end of that book, the man who has declared to us tonight, if you want to see the greatness of God's power, he says to us, look no further than the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is where you find power to change everything about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can't do the changing in all of that, and we readily admit that.
SPEAKER_00: It takes the power of God at work to do that change.
SPEAKER_00: He begins with our submission, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: We have to submit to God before he'll use any part of his power to improve us.
SPEAKER_00: That submission begins with repentance and baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you'll think about doing that this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to study with us more about it.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it is that you just know what you need to do and you've just been putting it off, and you've decided I'm going to start right here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to become a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that, and we can help you.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll come forward while together we stand and as we sing.