SPEAKER_00: Romans 1 and verse 1, we first see that Paul is a saved man.
SPEAKER_00: He does not introduce himself as Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he is a servant of Jesus Christ by declaration of his own mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: He's a sent one.
SPEAKER_00: He's saved, he's a servant.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're talking about him being one sent out.
SPEAKER_00: And here finally, I hope the alliteration is obvious.
SPEAKER_00: He is separated unto the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, the the second two pieces.
SPEAKER_00: Called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we begin by looking at this phrase, called to be and apostle.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that God has given us his word in English, but we know that he's preserved his word through a line of manuscripts through the received text.
SPEAKER_00: And we find this English word, apostle, translated from a Greek word that got brought into the English as apostle seventy-eight times.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just think about that with me.
SPEAKER_00: This word apostle got brought from a Greek word into English as apostle seventy-eight times.
SPEAKER_00: But two other times it got brought in as messenger, and one other time it got brought into the Bible as he that is sent.
SPEAKER_00: And so biblically, this word apostle is used to describe someone who is a delegate or an ambassador or a messenger of God.
SPEAKER_00: That same word was translated in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 25, referring to Epaphroditus as messenger.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it with me on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Yet I suppose it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger or apostle, as it's translated in Romans 1.1, and he that ministered to my wants.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to see that connection to messenger.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is because in the most basic and devotional sense, we are all messengers of God, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: God's given us his word, and we're to take his word and have that message brought to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we've been seeing about.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: The most basic and devotional use of the word apostle is to describe us as messengers.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20 might be a very familiar text to you.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: That is the mission of the church today.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, however, hold this thought.
SPEAKER_00: The word apostle is used to describe a very specific role in the early church, and so that's why in the book of Ephesians we see a historical progression of certain gifts, and this would also be able to be seen in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: But for example, here, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11 it says, and he, God, gave some apostles.
SPEAKER_00: He set in the church first apostles, that's 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were coming out of the context in verses 9 and 10, you'd find that there's a historical progression here that Paul's giving about how God initially got the church established.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, as we've talked about in this conversation of context, the book of Acts comes before the Pauline epistles.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Acts of the Apostles are the works that established God's initial dealings with those that would be in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so in the most basic and general sense, devotionally speaking, we are all messengers, ambassadors, or apostles of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but secondly, I want you to see that in a more general sense, but specific one, the word apostle means sent one.
SPEAKER_00: And to be sent means you're brought out of something.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning it's not just that we all as Christians are to go out into this world with the message.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you're actually a part of an assembly, and then there's a unique role where somebody's brought out of that assembly to carry a message for a specific purpose or manner.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, and again, I I do confidently believe that English is sufficient, but etymology does matter.
SPEAKER_00: Like it helps us understand why we have the English words we do.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek deverbal noun, meaning a noun apostle, comes from a verb, and that verb in the Greek means send.
SPEAKER_00: It is translated 110 times this way in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Apostle, the word we get to this this noun, is a deverbal noun coming from a verb mean to send.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it comes from a word that appears 110 times in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's translated fifteen times send forth, four times send away, and two times send out.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can quickly see that the word apostle is describing this individual who is sent away from the church or sent out from a local assembly for a specific call on their life.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly that's what was true of the apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to see, in a general sense, we can use the word apostle to describe not only all of us, not only a missionary, someone that maybe is a church planner or somebody even before us as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: But you you probably heard him him catch the doctrine as he was sharing that he's an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm not an apostle, which is also true.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible isn't just devotionally talking to us about apostles, and it isn't just talking to us about people that are missionaries.
SPEAKER_00: The word in the Bible has a direct reference to the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: And those men and women, even, that were in the early church used of God to be separated unto specific tasks to see the church established.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language that the Lord Jesus Christ used, referring to the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter twenty and verse twenty-one, he said, Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ himself saying, I'm sending you twelve as apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And so, when the Bible uses this word to describe believers, it's describing believers in the early church and a very specific group of them associated with carrying the gospel to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, like in the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then John 20 and 21, the apostles were sent ones for the gospel of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk about that here in a few weeks, talking about how there was a different message that the twelve disciples were carrying in their tongue than the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: How is it that the disciples were preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ if Christ hadn't died and risen again yet?
SPEAKER_00: There's no way for them to carry that message.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they were preaching Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they were preaching the kingdom in which Christ would set over as King of kings.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But they were given a unique task and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I want to ultimately reveal, or at least give you some ideas on this morning with respect to Paul's unique message and apostleship.
SPEAKER_00: If you can stick with me, I hope you're not lost already.
SPEAKER_00: I'm making a simple point here, and that is that the phrase, the apostles, has a direct connection to the twelve disciples that Jesus sent out, not Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is called to be an apostle, but he is not Judas's replacement, as we find in Acts 1, and that's that some would claim.
SPEAKER_00: This is why when Judas dies in Acts chapter 1, they replace him with Matthias.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about that.
SPEAKER_00: Judas hanged himself, and then the twelve that were sent out by the Lord Jesus to be witnesses, go to make sure that they can satisfy the twelfth position.
SPEAKER_00: But what you don't see is that after James dies, this same group of twelve men don't go to replace him.
SPEAKER_00: Because there was an apostolic period in the early church where God was using specific men for the specific task of getting things established.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you can read about that in uh Acts chapter twelve.
SPEAKER_00: You you see a change of God's plan there.
SPEAKER_00: It may all seem irrelevant, but the key thought is this God is doing something very different with Paul than he is with the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: They were called to a specific purpose that God had in mind, and Paul was called to something else in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that may seem insignificant, but on it hangs so much heresy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even this week I was just littered with maybe it was because I was doing word searches and you know on the word apostle, but man, I was just getting littered online with people that are claiming apostleship today, modern day apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, in a devotional sense, that's true, we're all messengers of God, but in a doctrinal sense, there are not apostles today.
SPEAKER_00: Not in the same sense, not given the same apostolic authority that twelve were given in the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you ever find moments in your reading and study of scripture where you think, man, what God told the disciples just doesn't seem to reconcile with what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably because it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that those are contradictory.
SPEAKER_00: It just means that God is working out his everlasting plans to reconcile the heavens and earth back together, Ephesians chapter 1, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he would gather together in all things in himself, even in Christ, the things in heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's plan forever, to bring it all together.
SPEAKER_00: But he's doing different things through time to get that accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And if you if you don't acknowledge this, then you're just going to wrestle with your understanding of passages in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to just have you consider two questions this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The first is how do we know that Paul is not one of the twelve?
SPEAKER_00: That when Judas died and the men forced Matthias into the bank, that that was actually not a man-made play, and God intended Paul to be the twelfth.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that Paul is more like the thirteenth?
SPEAKER_00: And how do we know that Paul is still legitimate because of that?
SPEAKER_00: First, I want to talk to you about this idea that Paul is different or distinguishes himself from the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: You find this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in verses 5 through 8, it says, and that he was seen of Cephas, that is Peter, then the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus seen post-resurrection from Cephas, then the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remaineth into this present, but some have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: After that, he was seen of James, then all the apostles, and then verse eight, and last of all, he was seen also uh of me also, as one born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Paul expressing his apostleship in contrast to the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: The twelve saw, all the apostles saw, verse seven at the end, and last of all, he he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: He never places himself inside this group of twelve, and and again that's important because God's doing something unique with that group.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's the first example.
SPEAKER_00: The second is that after the dispensational transition takes place in the book of Acts, and James, the brother of John, is killed, which reduces, I mentioned this example just a moment ago, which reduces the number of apostles to eleven.
SPEAKER_00: There is no attempt to replace him and get the number back to twelve by the same group that thought it necessary in Acts 1.
SPEAKER_00: So consider the change.
SPEAKER_00: It was important in Acts 1 to get the number back to 12, but by the time you get to Acts chapter 12, there is no issue at hand, because it's not important to God anymore.
SPEAKER_00: God has changed the way he is working, and he has ushered in a mystery that was a secret in his heart until he revealed it to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, Paul is a unique apostle, yet legitimate one.
SPEAKER_00: Unique let yet legitimate.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm sharing a lot, and I hope that I haven't lost any of you, but I want these ideas to at least be seeds that grow up into fruit in your Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: The second point here is that not only is Paul distinguished from the twelve, but he is still a legitimate apostle.
SPEAKER_00: This may seem like a silly or unnecessary point, but there are a lot of people who cast doubt on Paul's doctrine by ultimately claiming that he invented his own doctrine and leveraged apostolic authority to teach a false gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Like just this week, I was listening to a teacher who said, Don't listen to Paul's letters, because Paul claimed apostolic authority by writing letters, calling himself an apostle when he wasn't one to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: And so this whole idea of Pauline distinction actually causes people to have a lot of frustration in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so you end up on one side or the other.
SPEAKER_00: On one side of the conversation, you're an heir because you say nothing that Paul wrote matters at all.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a legit apostle.
SPEAKER_00: He made it all up, he invented it for his own purposes to accomplish some grace message that is contrary to everything else God was doing through the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But then on the other side, you have a group of people who take Paul's letters and they say, We are to accept Paul's letters.
SPEAKER_00: They're great.
SPEAKER_00: The 13 epistles are for the church, and they have to be harmonious with everything else that's written in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This is also an error.
SPEAKER_00: And the error is this failing to rightly divide the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: God told you to divide things.
SPEAKER_00: And so seeing the distinction and allowing it to remain harmonious is very important.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I want to express to you in another key point, and that is that learning to rightly divide the Bible will allow you to see the discrepancies not as contradictions, but the harmonious symphony of the manifold wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: A symphony.
SPEAKER_00: Things functioning with different purposes and different melodies, different tones, different rhythms, different different intentions, different context, all yet coming together in a harmonious or manifold uh opportunity that's woven together to display God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God's doing through the Old Testament, through the way He's dealing prior to the giving of the law, to the giving of the law, to those that are actually rejecting the law and God still working with them, to the twelve, to the early church and the transition, to the introduction of a thing that God's never talked about until Paul.
SPEAKER_00: To the church and the mystery of it and the revelation of it as it gets built up and edified, to the reinterjection of new doctrine in the Hebrew epistles.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is coming together and displaying the manifold wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's like an orchestra, not opposed, the discrepancies like between, let's say, Romans chapter 4 and James chapter 2, right?
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 2 says that you're saved by faith and works.
SPEAKER_00: What know ye not?
SPEAKER_00: That your faith is dead without works?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard somebody make the argument?
SPEAKER_00: But see, in Romans chapter 4, it says that your salvation and justification is apart from works altogether.
SPEAKER_00: So which is it?
SPEAKER_00: Should we just reject Paul?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Should we make it all forced together?
SPEAKER_00: And James is saying the exact same thing that Paul says, see, you just don't understand it, you need to look at it a new way.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying different things for different audiences for the same everlasting purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That's a really cool thing.
SPEAKER_00: It all comes together in a beautiful way to display the manifold wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so why is Paul's apostleship legitimate yet distinct?
SPEAKER_00: Because it came directly from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike many false prophets today, in the new apostolic Reformation, or the NAR, the Pentecostal movement, or the hypercharismatic movement, or in those circles where people would say, I'm a modern-day apostle, I have secret or special authority from God, unlike them, Christ directly came to Paul and called him into the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul did not appoint himself.
SPEAKER_00: And men in the church did not appoint Paul.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the argument of the new apostolic movement is that there is an apostolic succession.
SPEAKER_00: And that if we can just get the church today to be like the early church and we can get closer to what God intended in Acts chapter 1, then we'll be filled with the power of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem Paul's apostleship is not through apostolic succession.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's apostleship is given directly from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to make that pretty clear in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: But then look, verses eleven and twelve.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached unto me is not after man.
SPEAKER_00: For I neither received it of man, neither was taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you can sense why people get frustrated with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's got this special message that nobody heard about.
SPEAKER_00: Easy for you to claim, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: Easy for, you know, seemingly on the outside for Paul to just say, I've got a special revelation that nobody's ever heard about, and God's using me.
SPEAKER_00: Paul ends up proving that he's a true apostle by his life.
SPEAKER_00: And I think once again that's why God's given us the book of Acts, to show that he's a legitimate apostle.
SPEAKER_00: God has to convince the Jewish mind that Paul's legitimate, and so he gets all of the apostolic gifts that the apostles got in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3 in verse 14 it says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want here to just say in passing that just like Paul, we have been called, and we've been given a heavenly vocation.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1, it says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the voc uh vocation wherewith ye are called.
SPEAKER_00: We are called of God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: There is certainly overlap there, but you and I don't have the same apostolic authority as the twelve or as Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And I th I hope that's obvious, but it is important.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 1 1 teaches us that this unique and distinct call on Paul's life to be an apostle was different and specific for a unique task.
SPEAKER_00: And so the second thing I want to talk to you about here is that Paul is a legitimate apostle because he's directly given that apostleship from Christ, but secondly, because he's born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: We just read this verse.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verses 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: It says, after that, he was seen of James, then all of the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also, as one as of one born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: Not at the time appointed.
SPEAKER_00: And so understand the language here I know is a little strange.
SPEAKER_00: As of one born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what would it mean to be born in due time?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it would mean to be born in a typical nine-month period of labor.
SPEAKER_00: But to be born out of due time means to be born prematurely.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's really interesting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because right before this, he says, and last of all.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is.
SPEAKER_00: Born premature maturely, but received it last?
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: And again, let me just show you in the verse, in verse 8, and last of all, he was seen of me also, as one born prematurely.
SPEAKER_00: Last, but before?
SPEAKER_00: Before what, Paul?
SPEAKER_00: He is saying here, God offered to me something ahead of schedule.
SPEAKER_00: And that gift is specifically Israel's national rebirth as promised, yet still future.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, God saved me as a Jew ahead of schedule to be a foreshadowing or a precursor of his mercy that he's desiring to extend towards Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't Israel the enemy of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: The enemy of the gospel for our sakes?
SPEAKER_00: I think that's Romans chapter 11 and verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is a foreshadowing of God saying, I can take the very person who's persecuting me and rejecting the gospel and use him for my very cause.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: He's given the mercy of God when he doesn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: That's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: Last yet before.
SPEAKER_00: It's strange language, but necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 66 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: If you just want to jot these down or I'll give them to you later.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 66 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 36 and verses 24 through 28.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 31 speak of this national rebirth that God wants to bring Israel through and giving them a new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's receiving that ahead of schedule as an individual rather than that national rebirth.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the specific phrase born out of due time can even be seen as an offering given to Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_00: Follow with me.
SPEAKER_00: The doctrinal application of John chapter 3 is often given for spiritual rebirth, being born again, getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this idea.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 3 and verse 3, it says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
SPEAKER_00: A man needs to be born again?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be baptized in the Spirit of Christ, otherwise you are none of his.
SPEAKER_00: That's Colossians 2 and Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: But it goes on.
SPEAKER_00: The conversation continues.
SPEAKER_00: There's some other things that Nicodemus is wrestling with.
SPEAKER_00: Marvel not, Jesus says to him, that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
SPEAKER_00: A man has to be born to see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: But the nation, ye, all of you, need to be born again if you're going to enter in.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the message of John chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is one born again before prematurely, out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: Due time would be nine months.
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, I brought you a little bit forward on the timeline to actually provoke Israel to jealousy.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to use you, Paul, to be the apostle to the Gentiles to really, to really show Israel how merciful I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's the conclusion of the whole matter in Romans chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's God showing his manifold wisdom through his mercy towards Paul, but Israel.
SPEAKER_00: God would show Israel that he was merciful by turning to the Gentiles, and he's going to show us, the Gentiles, that he's merciful by allowing Israel to have a place in the offer that he gave them, despite them rejecting it.
SPEAKER_00: Here, fourthly, Paul's apostleship was unique in its focus and audience.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I just mentioned to you.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter two and verses seven through nine, it says, But contrary wise, when they saw the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter.
SPEAKER_00: For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of circumcision, the same, was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
SPEAKER_00: All one thing God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: God is accomplishing one singular mission.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody gets saved, whether or not, you know, the only way that men and women get saved, whether Jew or Gentile, is by believing and trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way.
SPEAKER_00: That is the only way.
SPEAKER_00: But through that very singular mean, God is getting people there through different apostleships.
SPEAKER_00: One, he gave to those apostles, as we read in Galatians chapter 2, those core three, James, Peter, and John, which by the way, you have epistles written from those men following the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have a unique message given to Paul and Barnabas, or really Paul, but then Barnabas has his right hand to go to the heathen.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 11 and verse 13, we've looked at this verse.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For I speak unto you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter one and verses twenty-five through twenty-seven, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation that is given to me to you to fulfill the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That same word fulfill is brought into the English as complete and or perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was given the unique task of completing God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26, even the mystery, which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: So understand, Paul is saying, God had a secret, and he has intentionally revealed it to me.
SPEAKER_00: It was not known before.
SPEAKER_00: To accomplish the same purpose in the long term, but through different dispensational means.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1 says that long-term goal is to bring all things together in Christ that are in heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so, again, I just want to be very, very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ alone redeems and saves Gentiles and Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And if anyone is going to be saved or justified, it is going to be through the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other way.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God has dedicated the book of Hebrews to us and to the Jewish mind.
SPEAKER_00: For them to understand that the only way that they're going to be redeemed is through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not the old sacrificial system, but what God fulfilled in his Son.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, one singular plan of redemption accomplished through different economies or dispensations.
SPEAKER_00: The same object of faith, the blood of Jesus Christ, but different messengers and different messages to different ages, the same overarching and grand story unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is not only a saved servant who sent, but he's separated.
SPEAKER_00: And here's just some closing points, really more devotional at this point than anything, but he is separated unto the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the apex of verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Separated.
SPEAKER_00: God separated Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't harmonize him or unify him with whatever else God was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He separated him, gave him something distinct.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 1 and verse 15 through 16, it says, But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, a reference there to the Jews, and called me by his grace, verse 16, to reveal his son in me, that I might preach among the heathen.
SPEAKER_00: There's the context again.
SPEAKER_00: A separation from Israel to the heathen.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_00: Separated from something, but unto something.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not just separated from his national or natural identity as a Jew, he is also separated unto the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we see the verse close.
SPEAKER_00: Here's our the our key thought, which you hopefully can see on the back of the bulletin this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Many times as believers, we we focus only on what we have left behind, all while God is trying to get us to focus on what is before that we might press toward it and see the calling on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I have that key point in the PowerPoint.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: As a Christian, a lot of times we talk about being separated from the world.
SPEAKER_00: I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, you got saved.
SPEAKER_00: God delivered me from my old man.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go back to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a servant to your flesh anymore.
SPEAKER_00: God's given you a new identity in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: That's not it.
SPEAKER_00: God hasn't just separated you from your old identity and given you a new one.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling you unto something.
SPEAKER_00: He's always doing that, separating you from something to bring you into something.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why Paul in Philippians chapter 3 says, I count all things but loss, that I might win Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I press toward the mark of the high calling that's in Christ God.
SPEAKER_00: That's in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He looks ahead.
SPEAKER_00: He presses on, he presses forward, separated from something, unto something.
SPEAKER_00: It's important.
SPEAKER_00: You can see some references there.
SPEAKER_00: For Paul, he is separated from Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that in Philippians chapter 3 distinctly.
SPEAKER_00: And he's brought unto the gospel of God, the grace of God and the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: To turn not only from sin, but turn towards the Savior and a mission that God's given him.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as Ephesians chapter 4 says, and as we conclude our message, I want to just encourage you this week to consider what you need to put off and what you need to press into.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: What do you need to put on?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to put on the man Jesus Christ great?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: What would it mean for you to put away the sins of your past or just your old life and press forward or move on?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, Romans chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul a saved man, no longer Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He is a servant, no longer bound to sin, but Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is sent, called into a unique apostleship, distinct from the twelve, and he is separated under the gospel of God, commissioned to carry God's message of grace to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: By the time Paul teaches the first verse of the book of Romans, the Holy Spirit has already established why the church should listen to every chapter that follows.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing something new.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to hear it?
SPEAKER_00: Romans is not merely another letter in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It is the authoritative doctrinal exposition or expression that God's given through Christ's chosen apostle to the Gentiles, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: From this foundation, the entire epistle unfolds.
SPEAKER_00: As we enter into the book of Romans, I want you to just consider Paul is given a unique apostleship.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing something new.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to consider what that message might be?