Romans, Part 2, Romans 1:7-17

This is a personal part of this book from the Apostle Paul to the saints then in Rome.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay. Okay, so to get into this, these papers that were put together for you guys, this is the American Standard Version. That's what we're going to be reading from. And this is chapters uh one through eight. Okay. So you can fold that, put it in your Bible. It should fit in really nicely. Uh, and please bring that back because we're going to be following it week after week, uh, with the exception of the Saturday in the park. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

We're reading it tonight, though.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We are reading it tonight, and when the uh fellowship's following, okay? So that's the American Standard Version. Why we print out the American Standard Version? It is the tightest with the original uh the Greek language, which is what this was originally written in. So that's why, because it's tighter with it. Um, hopefully, somebody does something that's even tighter. But as of right now, this is the best that we can find. So that's the American Standard Version. Going through the book of Romans, I'm going to reiterate and hopefully use different words from what was said last week in some of these comments so that you get it better. But the the book of Romans is not a schematic for how you should live. In other words, it's not a go-to for okay, I have this situation, I plug in chapter six, verse five. If I have that situation, I go to chapter four, verse three. That's not what it's for. It's a letter. It was a letter to make known the gospel message by the apostle Paul, who was commissioned by Jesus Christ to guess what? Make known the gospel message, right? We covered that in the very first verse of uh Romans 1, right? Paul, uh, an apostle um set apart for the gospel of God, essentially. He he was uh a bondservant set apart for the gospel of God, and that's what this book of Romans is for, is to make that known. Now, with that being said, because it's a letter, there's some personal sections addressing the Roman saints back then. For example, we're going to start in uh well, we're gonna technically start in verse 7, but we're gonna pick it up in verse 8, which starts a series of practical points, okay, of what the apostle Paul was saying to those saints back then. When you read something like that, you're you're just looking to glean what that could mean to you. For example, if you go to verse uh 11, I think it is. Yeah, not that one. Uh it's yeah, it's in verse 13. There it is. And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you. Oh, we handled this point last week. Paul's not saying he's he was purposed to come to Visalia. That's not what he's saying. He was trying to get to Rome, okay, to see the saints there. But what does that mean to us? Well, the desire for him, because to make known the gospel better to them, the desire is the same. So there's uh those that are followers of this gospel message to help the saints today understand this gospel message. By the way, to make this very pointed, that's what the main point of ministry work, genuine ministry work, is about to make known what Christ accomplished for mankind. There's other things that can come up, but that is the main purpose. If you're not getting that out of a church, a fellowship, any friendships, whatever, if you're not getting what Christ accomplished out of that, I strongly recommend reconsidering that arrangement. Because God primarily wants people, the saints, to know the church of God, to know what Christ has accomplished for us so that we can learn to think that way. Because that's where we see the victories that are in Christ. That's where we see that we can reign in life through Jesus Christ, as it says in chapter 5 of Romans. See, that's why where we see that we are more than conquerors in Romans 8. It's it's knowing and holding on to what Christ has made to be reality so that you carry that out in whatever you do and see the victory that God intended for your life in those situations. Okay, so it this is a letter. Okay, he's writing a letter to saints back then, but once you get to the the after the first phrase in verse 16 of chapter one, this is all could be written today because it's it's all very fitting and not personal all the way to chapter 15 through verse 13. When you get to verse 14 in chapter 15, by the way, it's the second to the last chapter. There's a bunch of personal stuff from verse 14 and chapter 15 on, but between those two points, from 116 to uh 15, verse 14, it's all like gospel and what you need to understand around the gospel to know the gospel and grow in the gospel. So Paul was commissioned. We're going to start with verse 1 here again to make known this gospel message. It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. That's what he was separated unto. If you have a Bible, if you go to First Corinthians in chapter one, there's something said here in First Corinthians chapter one, where Paul is saying the same thing, but in different words. See verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 1. It says, For Christ did not send me, so who sent him? Christ did not send me, sorry, to baptize. Sorry. Christ did not send me to baptize. So, but did Christ send him? Yes. For what purpose? Let's read the rest of the verse. He did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That's why Paul was commissioned. Did Paul start churches? Quite a few of them. Did he minister wholeness to people? Quite a few. Did he deal with uh casting out spirits? Quite a bit. But he was sent to preach the gospel. Because at the foundation of everything genuine, everything that's from God, the gospel rests. Why Paul cast out spirits is because of the gospel. Why those churches started through him was because of the gospel. Everywhere he went, he made known this same message. So we're reading the most foundational aspect of the message in the book of Romans. That's what the book of Romans is about. So we handled the first six verses, right? Uh last week. And by the way, all these are going to be uploaded to our YouTube channel, the same one for uh my salia fellowships. The name escapes me right now, but you'll see it. It's on there. Uh, if you need to get access to it, let me know. I'll send you access. Okay, so verse seven is where we left off. This the verses one through six are the introduction. This letter. Verse seven tells us who the letter was written to. To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called, and you see the italicized letters to be one of the benefits of the some of these translations, including this one, the ASV, the King James, is they show you when the translators added something because they thought it would help you understand it. So to be was added by them. So if you just read this phrase without that, to all that are in Rome, beloved of God called saints, it says the same truth. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's writing to the saints that are the you know, the ones that are beloved of God called saints in Rome at the time. But what he's going to say in this letter, again, really picking up in chapter 1, verse 16, is fitting for all saints everywhere for all time. Okay. So then verse 8 starts some of this personal stuff. He says, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. Now that there's a point that needs to be made here. Uh, by the way, you can bring up questions, points, uh, because this is more of a hangout in Romans time. Okay, let's see what we're gonna get out of it. So, this this phrase, this word faith, there's two main aspects uh that this faith is used for to communicate someone's personal faith, what they believe, their faith. And the other main one is the faith of Jesus Christ, what God wants us to believe. Ideally, that our faith would be eclipsed by the faith, right? What Christ has accomplished for mankind. Um, so here it says in verse 8 that your faith, that your faith is proclaimed. Well, that's speaking of the faith of the saints, you know, in Rome and ultimately our faith would be proclaimed throughout the whole world. That would be through talking about the Roman Empire. Because back then in that empire, everything came out of Rome, right? So the saints that are in Rome that were causing this uproar, I'm gonna say, because of this new message about what this man accomplished for mankind, that that would be carried abroad everywhere that people traveled from the Roman Empire and throughout the Roman Empire. But what would that mean to us today? You know, that the the faith of each saint in Visalia or coming to Visalia, whatever, uh, would get so strong according to the faith that that would be noised abroad throughout the county, to Larry County, and then throughout the state, throughout the United States, ultimately throughout the world. Imagine that. But that's what he's saying that would relate to us, right? Then verse 9 for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son. This clearly tells us how Paul served. He says, In my spirit, mean well, that's another one. When it's saying the spirit or God's spirit, that's referring to God's spirit. When it says my spirit or his or her spirit, that's talking about their life. The word spirit, the closest synonym in English we have is life. So if you say the spirit of God, the life of God, it says, you know, we've been given the spirit of God, we've been given the life of God, right? When it comes to your spirit or his or her spirit, it's talking about their life. So Paul's saying here, by the way, that's all through the whole New Testament that is true. It's either our own spirit, our own life, or the life of God, and usually about the life of God living in us, having gift the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's a very important point to read these epistles for understanding. You know, is it our faith or is it the faith? It's one big one, and then is it our life or the life of God, talking about using the terminology his spirit? Okay, so for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, you know, in my life, with my life, in the gospel of his son. That's how he served God in the gospel, that's how we serve God. If if the gospel, take a point of the gospel. The gospel says that we are righteous. So if I am speaking as an unrighteous one, living as an unrighteous one, then I'm not serving God. You know, God is one with the gospel, right? He's in the beginning, John 1 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word what was God? That's God. It's talking about the the eternal word. This the law was never called eternal, the gospel is called the eternal gospel, like in Revelation 14. It's the eternal God. This is the message, right, that's designed to live in people and out from people. So God has set it up that this message would get to the heart of every person out there, but only the saints will listen. Right? The saints are the only ones, or they're becoming a saint. Called out called out ones, yeah. Yep. So he says, Whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son, just like us. That's how we serve him. How unceasing. Oh, by the way, it not to say that you know, if someone, you know, set up or say, you know, vacuum this floor, okay. Someone did that to take care of the saints that were coming, right? They're thinking as a holy one as a saint to serve the saints. Well, that is also service of the gospel because you're doing it as a gospel-minded person or as a saint. Do you get it? So whether it's setting up chairs, driving a saint somewhere, lending them your car, whatever you can do to serve the body of Christ, who are you serving? God, yeah. If you're if you're serving the body of Christ, you're serving God and his son Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

As we do that one another, it's as if God was doing it.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

That's cool. It is because it's God living in you, his life in you, that is driving that engine. That's good. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so that verse 9 again, starting at the beginning, but reading further. God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, in my life, in the gospel of his son. How unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers. That's a great phrase in the good news in the gospel of his son. Yes. Yeah, yep. That separates it from other good news. Yeah, any any other message, whether good or bad. Yeah, but it does, it separates of his son. Right. Makes a distinction. Yep, it sure does. Yeah, when it says the gospel of grace, the gospel of his son, it's it's distinguishing that message from all the other messages. So then he says, How unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers. Again, Paul is not praying for us today, but here is a good signal for those that are ministering Christ, you're attending on helping somebody in Christ, pray for them, pray for them. They need the prayers. The prayer prayer is so much more powerful than any of us realize. Uh a brother uh a few years back used to call it the submarine service in the body of Christ, because you know, boats are on the water, submarine, sublevel. You don't see it coming all of a sudden, bam, there's that torpedo. All of a sudden, bam, that person's thinking in Christ. Bam, somebody's calling them to bless them, bam, you know, submarine service. That's prayer. Okay, so Paul says, Oh, making mention of you always in my prayers, verse 10, making request. Here's the request if by any means now at length I may be maybe prospered by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established. We talked last week about the importance of key words, and we also talked about the importance of those words or that sentence in sitting in the context that it does. You can't arrest a phrase out of its context, you can destroy it. You know, I can show you from Psalms that there is no God. It says the phrase, there is no God. It actually says that, but it's preceded by the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Right? There's there's many of these, but they have to sit in the context of which they're uh they've been written. Okay, so key words like this word established, that you may be established, that last word in verse 11. This is a word which means made firm or fixed. This same word is used in the closing verses of uh Romans, I think it's verse 25. Uh, that you would be established by my gospel, Paul said. So, what's Paul saying here? I want to come to you, you know, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift that you may be established. So I can speculate on what these spiritual gifts are, or I can look at how this word established is used in its context, right? Greater context, all the way to chapter 16. Uh, and what this spiritual gift is referring to. Remember, he's started in verse one, he's set apart for the gospel of God. So you know it's not divorced from the gospel, and in reality, it actually is the gospel, that whatever is lacking in them would be fulfilled, and you get that from the following, I think it's the following verse. Yep. That is, he's further explaining, verse 12, that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by each other's faith, both yours and mine. So this spiritual gift he's talking about imparting is whatever's lacking in their faith. There's a great verse that just says this. It's 1 Thessalonians 3:10. It's Paul saying, I want, I've been trying to come to you also, those at Thessalonica, that I may uh perfect or mature that which is lacking in your faith. It's the same concept. Well, that which is lacking in your faith. So here he's saying, I want to bring you some spiritual gift that you may be established. That is, verse 12, that I that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by each other's faith, both yours and mine. So that in practice, here's what he's saying. I've come into this ahead of you. I'm trying to minister this to you to help you mature more. I'm maturing, but at first the maturity happens very fast. People holding on to the gospel. And what happens is it the people that are listening to the one ministering the gospel, they kind of catch up. They get it, they're getting their finger on the pulse of the gospel, so to speak, and they're able to uh communicate that better and better. What happens is we're all ministering to each other. You know, there will be no in the new heavens and earth, there will be no need for teachers, there will be no need for apostles, no prophets, uh in the way we understand them now. Uh evangelists, we're all gonna be evangelists, right? Uh pastors, there's no need for pastoring because we all fully know, even as we are fully known. You get it? That those ministries are for the here and now, and what are they for? The perfecting of the faith in the saints. Again, without the gospel, that is not going to happen. You know, you to be a minister of Christ, you have to know the gospel to to minister it. So if you understand about that, we're made, we're sanctified in Christ, we're made holy, then when you see somebody talking as if they're not, then you can help them. You just became a minister of Christ. That's how simple it is. Here's the truth. You're helping others realize it more, come into it more, reminding them of the truth. You are a minister of Christ, then that's what it's about. So that's what Paul's saying, that we would have mutual faith. That you I'm I want to fix that which is lacking in your faith, so that we would have mutual faith. See that word in there? That's what God has aimed at for all the saints, and so was Paul. Verse 13, he continues, I would not have you ignorant brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, and was hindered hitherto that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles. So he's just telling them, I've been trying to come to you. Uh whether they were asking or what, we don't know. But he was trying to come to them, and Satan hindered, and that's a real thing. The great apostle Paul, he didn't plow through the adversary's every effort, right? He spent a night and a day in the deep, he was whipped, all these things, but he held on to the truth. His great claim, usually say claim to fame, but it's claim to Christ's fame, is that I've kept the faith. That's what he said in the end of his life, 2 Timothy.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Very much like if you stand against the wiles of the devil, oh yeah, he shall flee from it. And that's what Paul was doing as you're describing.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Exactly that. Yep. So it's not that you see every victory that's expected, but that you hold to that which causes a victory and you. You will grow in the victories taking place in your life. Primarily the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, your confidence with God, your trust in Him, your humility toward Him, all these things. Your Holy Spirit teaching you these things. Yes. As you're moving through the days. Yes, greater and greater is the idea until we all have mutual faith. Right? That's the aim here. So then verse 14. So he says in verse 4 verses 14 and 15, I am debtor, both to Greeks and to barbarians. So you know, the civilized and the uncivilized. He's gonna say it in a way to catch the bookends, so everybody else is between. So the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise or the foolish. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome, because you're like everybody else. You're between those bookends. You know, there's the most wise and the most unwise. Everybody else is between those two. So he's saying, I'm indebted to you also. So I'm gonna do what I need to to get you the gospel also. That's why he wrote the book of Romans, and that's why he visited there later. Then verse 16, he says, for that word for means because he's it's explanatory. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Well, let's hit the carnal stuff first. The people ask, why to the Jew first and also to the Greek? Did God favor the Jews? Yes, for a long time, because that's the only way he could bring the Christ into the world. He promised Abraham that Christ was going to come through your loins, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, you know, and then the Christ was going to come out of Judah. And he just kept following that Christ line. Well, he he told the nation of Israel, the Jews, that they were going to have first stab at this, first opportunity. And we get to Romans 11, especially chapter 9, 2. But you see that God tried to reach the Jews, but they rejected the Christ and rejected the gospel so that the Gentiles would get in, hoping that the Gentiles would make them jealous and they would get in. It says that God would get all of them, all of us. That's what he wants. He wants everybody to come into this so he would have everyone forever. But we know not everyone's going to accept this. So he says, I'm indebted to all men. I'm going to do my best that they get this gospel delivered to them so that they become part of God's family. And then I will help them grow in it. And at the same time, I'm going to talk to other people and bring them into the family. So he says at uh verse 16, I am not ashamed of this gospel, because I know some of what it will do in people's lives. I'm not ashamed of this gospel. Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The Greek means the Greek-speaking world, the Gentiles, essentially. Some translations say Gentiles. They're the two groups. You have the Jews, the nation of Israel, and then you have all the other nations called the Gentiles. It's the Greek word ethnos. We get our word ethnic from it. The nations, everybody else. Okay, so with that being said, verses 16 and 17 are loaded with insight. Not only when you first start seeing it, but it continues to be insight. Watch. He says, first, he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, verse 16. Then he says, For because, again, that same word, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. It is the power of God. The gospel is God's power. It is God's power. I mean, we we don't think of it necessarily that way. What is this book about? The power of God. This is God's power resident within this book in the gospel message. It's God's power. That's what it's saying. That's what Paul's saying. So the gospel is the power of God. The next phrase is unto salvation. That's a word which means it means wholeness, uh, but it means they use the word salvation because it means deliverance unto wholeness, even longer form, deliverance from the problems, right? Or the problems from sin into the wholeness of God. So this word salvation, uh, it's it's spoken. Remember that woman with the issue of blood? It says uh in most translations it says, your faith has healed you. That word heal, look it up, it's the word salvation, it saved you. It's say because she went from unholeness physically into having wholeness. What's that? Salvation. You go from being dead in trespasses and sins unto having eternal life. That's salvation, that's wholeness, right? We're seeing this heavens and earth. We're going to see the restoration of this with a new heavens and earth. That's salvation. Salvation is whatever is lacking made right. That's what it is. So whenever you read that word save salvation, it's God making what's wrong right. Simplicity. Someone is stuck in a seatbelt, trapped in a car, and someone gets them out of that situation. They are titled their savior in that situation. Why? Because they were in a bad situation, and that person got them out and put them in a position where that no longer threatens them. That's what our salvation is. When you come into the salvation of God, you come out of a great lack into wholeness. And that's what it is. So Paul's saying this gospel is the power of God untoward salvation. In what way? In every way. But when Christ returns, we are instantly going to be brought into this wholeness physically and mentally. Like, wow, sign me up, you know. I want that, I want it now, God. Nope. That's not available till Christ returns. That's what the scriptures say. But we are on the road to this. The more the gospel gets in, the more it makes our minds, therefore, our lives, whole. So the gospel is the power of God unto wholeness. Wholeness. Then it says to everyone that believes key point. No one comes into any blessings of God without accepting that He's given those blessings. Nobody. So you don't come into anything, any blessings of God, unless you accept or believe what He says. Okay. There's a great verse of scripture that helps us understand about believing. Everybody wants when you understand that what I just said. Everyone wants to believe more. Well, the key to believing more is faith, that belief comes by hearing, and hearing by that word of Christ. That message of the Christ, that word of Christ, brings us into it, conveys us into faith. So if you want more faith, spend more time. Spend more time because it's going to cause more and more faith. It just causes it. So that's verse 16. Verse 17. Verse 17 says, we're gonna have to stop after verse 17 here. Says, for therein in the gospel, talk about the gospel, therein is revealed a righteousness of God. It should be the righteousness of God. Uh there's no article in the Greek there, but you have to supply for English a or the, you know, or an if any starts with a vowel, but it's a the indefinite article or the definite article. Well, because of chapter three, this has to be the righteousness of God. There's only one. There's only one, there's not many. From faith to faith, in the flow of this, I'm just going to tell you without having to go through this big explanation. This is from the faith of Jesus Christ unto us having faith. He's already handled that in the previous verses, right? That we talked about. Handles it in chapter three very clearly, that it's from the faith of Jesus Christ. When someone believes it, the only way they can believe it is because they first hear it. They hear it. When you hear of the faith of Jesus Christ, you believe it. The believing is your faith, what you believe. Okay, so this is from faith unto faith. Then it says, as it is written, when it says that it's quoting from something, usually the Old Testament. This is it's from uh Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4. It says, but the righteous, it says here, shall live by faith. The Greek structures this differently. It says, the righteous by faith shall live. What's the difference? Very important. Okay, the righteous shall live by faith. Tends toward people being works-minded. Okay, if I'm righteous, if I'm gonna be righteous, I have to live by faith. I have to do, it's according to me doing. But if you say it the way the Greek says it, the righteous by faith shall live. In other words, the ones that are righteous by faith, they believe what God says. They're made the righteousness of God, which is the context of the flow of it, then they live. They have life. In chapter five, it says that we reign in life through one Jesus Christ. We have life. It says, I think it's verse 16. We have life through Jesus Christ. We have the justification of life, we have life through him. Those that are righteous by faith, they have life. Jesus Christ came that we might have what life. Life. He came that we might, those that are justified by faith, right? Made righteous by faith, we have life. Life with who? Yeah, as you're going to see very clearly as this develops, it's with God. Then it goes into verse 18 and through chapter one, showing and speaking of those who haven't come into this life. They're divorced from God, they live as if God doesn't exist. Very horrible state to be. So the righteous shall live by faith, emphasizes how we live. The righteous by faith shall live, emphasizes that we have life because of the faith. Right? Because we're made righteous. So very different. You can check that uh if you would like, it's easy to look up if you have any kind of Bible program or any other kind of written tools to see what that phrase means, but it's uh, or how it's phrased. So the righteous by faith shall live. So on that note, we really need to stop. We don't really have time to go further. So God has been making it really clear that it's all about the gospel. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the gospel is the power of God. This is what I've been commissioned to minister, is the gospel message. This is what God's planned since the beginning, and ultimately that you know uh people's faith, the faith of the saints, would mature into that same equal faith that Paul had. So where we all think according to the same standard, same standard. Okay, I said we're gonna stop. Okay, chapter 15, I'll show you a verse that just says what I said. Chapter 15 of Romans. Another point that needs to be brought up that uh really could have been brought up last week, but Paul, because he's an apostle and he was very educated in the in their system of the world, he sat at one of the two top teachers in the Roman Empire, the uh Gamaliel is what it's recorded, uh, and he was highly educated, so he was able to reach you know the Roman Empire and all these different cultures because he knew the the environment, the culture that they were all in very well. And he he thought very the Greeks the Greeks brought in intense logic into the world, intense logic. Do you know recorded their when they had a party back then? The men separate from the women. You know what the men did in the party? They came up with math problems that nobody else could solve. That was their big game. That's what they did in their parties. It's like, whoa, where's that in this culture? We party's like, yeah, party, you know, hang out, go to the beach. So anything but soundness logic, right? But their culture, greatly uh affected by the Greek uh culture, was super logical. And Paul was inspired by God to write these epistles. And if you compare the opening with the closing, they match. Then you take a step in the second main point in the opening with the second point in from the end, they match. Uh, there's a man by the name of E. W. Bollinger, he wrote this out, he called it an uh an introversion, an introversion structure, I think it's what it's called. But he he went a, b, c, d, you know, and all the way down, then you get to whatever was letter, and he and then reversed all the way to the end. You just keep reading Romans and it follows this pattern. Then in the middle, it reverses and goes back. So all these points match up. It's just like it was so logically written, so soundly written. Um, that someone said years ago, and I've adapted to it, Paul wrote like a like a lawyer working a jury. If you're not convinced of what it is in Christ here in the beginning at uh the end of chapter three, look at chapter four. Let's make this point. And if you don't get it by now, let's look at what's in chapter five. And he just keeps building this case to where the jury goes, Okay, not guilty, right? He's righteous, he's holy, he's blameless. And this is what Paul, how he wrote. So this verse in Romans 15 speaks about all the church having the same faith. So we would speak the same. Watch, look at verse 5. Oh, who has King James? Oh, you have I do yeah, okay, would you read uh that verse 5, chapter 15?

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

See, like-minded according to what Christ Jesus, the standard of the gospel, living amongst us all. And then verse six, the next verse. Do you see it, saints? That all the saints collectively, with one mind, same thoughts, and one mouth, that we speak according to the same standard. What could that possibly be from what we know from the book of Romans so far? The gospel, yeah. The faith is another way to say it, what we're to believe. This is the point of this message proclaimed, not only in the book of Romans, but in all of Paul's epistles. So, well, Father, your word is your word. You've inspired this to be written for the sake of people all through this age understanding this message of what you've accomplished for mankind through the cross. And Father, we look to you to understand it better, we look to you to understand it to the point we with one mind and one mouth just think and speak according to this standard. And Father, in that we will see your intended purpose of the gospel making us all whole in every way. And I thank you that your word is your power to do this work of you in each one of our lives. And I pray that more and more hearts open up to it. The hearts that have opened up open up more. Thanks, Father, for teaching us and raising us up in this message of your power through Christ. Amen.