Presenting the truth from the Word of God, this is the chapel platform originating from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. A vital factor in the spiritual growth of believers is the biblical preaching at the various chapel and worship services here. After the hymn, the late Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. introduced our speaker, the late Dr. Monroe Parker. He gave this message on Tuesday, May 3, 1977, at a university chapel service. His text is Romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. This is an insightful message of God's love titled, debtors because of our calling. M number 49, number 49, oh for a thousand tongues to sing. Let's appraise these words as we sing such a familiar song and we get the blessing from them. I pray thee, I pray thee, I pray thee, I pray thee, and pray. Let's sing that third stanza a little more slowly, giving some assent to the name Jesus, and then break it loose on stanza four, which will be our closing stanza. And while I live, and with my sorrows flee, With spirit and love in me, He breaks the law of mankind, He sets the Christian free. His blood has made the world a free, His blood will never more be. So glad to have Dr. Monroe Parker with us to speak at chapel this morning. He doesn't need an introduction to you, nor you to him. He spoke for us at Bible conference, been here many times, member of the executive committee. He and I were classmates together back in the early days, back in those primitive ancient times. Been friend all these years. I'm so glad he can be here, one of the great preachers of America today. I'm glad you can hear him. Dr. Parker, you're very welcome. Thank you, Dr. Jones. It's a real thrill and blessing to be here always. This is the only university I know that has stuck to its charter. The first university in this country was Harvard. In the second paragraph of the charter is the statement, the purpose of this institution shall be to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all found knowledge, and to bring students to know God in Christ. That was the first university found in this country. It left that charter long ago, though it's still there. They are not true to it. The second college founded was William and Mary. Some years ago I held a campaign in Williamsburg, Virginia, We had a large tent three miles north of Williamsburg at a place called Lightfoot. We borrowed 2,000 chairs from William and Mary College. That school was founded to train students, ministerial students, that there might be a supply of ministers. The third college founded was Dartmouth. Dartmouth, one historian said, was born in the throes of a great revival. nourished with a missionary's zeal, stands wedded to Christianity for all future time. Well, all of these schools, all the universities in the country have departed from that. You know, Dr. Jones used to say, Dr. Jones, Sr., so often said, the devil doesn't build anything, he just takes over things after they are built. Thank God he hasn't taken over this institution. I was thinking of the Charter as I sat here a few minutes ago. The purpose—and I can't quote it verbatim, but this is the gist of it—the purpose of the corporation shall be to conduct an institution of learning in the essentials of arts and sciences, and general education and culture of youth, giving special attention to the Christian religion, combating—that's right, combating all atheistic, agnostic, pagan, and so-called scientific adulterations of the gospel, unqualifiedly and without apology affirming the inspiration of the Bible and all those truths we just quoted in the Creed. Well, thank God this school has been on a steady course right down the line under the leadership of the doctors Bob and Howie. Thank God for them and their co-workers. and you students. The scripture I'm going to read is in the first chapter of Romans. There were some of you over at our service Sunday night, and I used this same text, but I promised to holler in different places. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul, little one, His parents named him Saul. King Saul stood a head and shoulders taller than anyone else in Israel, so his name came to signify a big one. But this apostle preferred to call himself Little One, Paul, Little One. We've got so many big shots in Christian work. We need some little shots. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. You know, there's something beautiful about servanthood. The Lord Jesus was a servant. He took a towel and washed and wiped his disciples' feet. He said, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly, and you shall find rest under your soles. Well, Paul said, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. And that word he used, the Greek word means bond slave of Jesus Christ. He was sold out to Jesus. a separated call to be an apostle, say he had a high calling. We don't have any apostles today, regardless of what some charlatan may call himself, or regardless of what some ecclesiastical potentate may be called. There are no apostles today. An apostle was one who received his commission from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul argued for his discipleship, or rather his apostleship, since he was caught up into the third heaven, and Jesus gave him a special commission. So he was an apostle. We're just as definitely called as are the apostles. In fact, down here in verses 6 and 7, we're told that we're called to be saints, and every Christian is a saint. A saint is a sanctified one. A saint is not somebody who has been catechized by some ecclesiastical hierarchy a hundred years after he died. But a saint is one set apart, sanctified. Don't be afraid of sanctification. All Christians are sanctified. We're sanctified once for all by the offering of the blood of Jesus Christ. And we are being sanctified as the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to our hearts and lives, and we shall be sanctified in the sense of complete conformity to Jesus when he comes. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And you girls get in on that because the word there is techno, which means now are we the born ones of God. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That thrills me, to think that I'll be like Jesus. I've tried so hard to be like Him, and I've missed it so far. And I've tried it for a long time, but I'm going to make it. I'm predestinated to become conformed to the image of His Son. For whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to become conformed to the image of His Son. So I'm going to be like Jesus. I'm sanctified. I'm saved. Salvation is in three tenses. Regeneration saves the spirit. Sanctification saves the soul. And glorification saves the body. I don't argue with any theologians about whether man is a dichotomy or a tripartite. He's both. The spirit is a special entity. Jehovah's Witnesses so-called tell us that the spirit is just the breath that comes into the body, and the breath and the body form the soul. Well, the spirit is more than a breath. What man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man that dwelleth in him? Even so knoweth no man the things of God, save the spirit of God. So the spirit is an intelligent entity, and the soul is the light. It's the life of the spirit, and it's the life of the body. And sanctification saves the life. We're sanctified in Jesus, we're being sanctified, and we shall be sanctified. But Paul said, separated, sanctified, separated unto the gospel of Jesus Christ. I talked about that positive separation when I was here at Bible conference, and I won't go back over that. But I'm separate unto the gospel, of Jesus Christ, which he promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which was made of the seed of David and declared to be the Son of God according to the spirit of holiness, that is, the Holy Spirit, by the resurrection from the dead. Now, there are two things Paul said about the gospel, and these are very important. He was made of the seed of David, and he was raised from the dead. You'll find those two tenets, or those two truths, in every apostolic sermon. That he was of the seed of David, he was the rightful heir to the throne of David, and he was the Son of God, and it's proven by his resurrection. Those are basic to the Christian message. Those are basic to the gospel. So Paul says the gospel concerning these things, and I call your attention to them because I'm coming back to them. And he said, first, I thank my God for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For I called God to witness, he said, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. making request, if now at length I might have a prosperous journey 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." Now, I get excited over this. I'm amazed at Paul's spirit, the love he had and the concern he had for people he had never seen. He said, I pray for you constantly. God is my witness. Without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. He had never been to Rome. He had never seen those people. But he was concerned about them. He was concerned about people everywhere. People he had never seen. You know, they tell me you can take two pianos in the same room and strike a note on one, and hold that note open, that is, hold the key down, and let someone go over to the other piano and strike the same note, and the note that's held open will respond. Paul kept all the notes of his soul open all the time. A man way across the Aegean Sea said, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And that cry found response in the soul of the apostle. He was hearing those cries all the time. The next day, he embarked for Macedonia, by the way, and God usually leads by opening doors in front of us. But he had a vision for people everywhere, in Rome, far away Spain. He said, when I come to Spain, I'll stop and see you, and he wrote to the Romans. And he said, I propose to come to you, but was led hither to, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles of other nations. For he said, I'm a debtor both to the wise and to the unwise, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians. And I'm amazed at that. Paul said, I'm a debtor to the Greeks and to the barbarians. What did he owe the Greeks? He had been in Greece. He was there when he wrote that epistle. But when he went to Greece, they put him in jail. Went over across the sea to Macedonia, and at the city of Philippi, the first city he went to, they put him in jail. He prayed the jailhouse down, converted the jailer, turned the jailer's house into a church. He founded a church just about everywhere he went. And he left Philippi and went to Thessalonica. And he had to leave Thessalonica to save his life. But he left the church there. And he went on over to Berea. And the people of Berea were more noble than those of Thessalonica. They at least read the Old Testament to see whether he was preaching the truth. And he established a church at Berea. But people from Thessalonica came over and stirred up the people in Berea. And they had to slip him out of town to save his life. And he went down to Athens, and they mocked him down there in Athens and called him a babbler. Took hold of him, dragged him up to Mars Hill, and he stood up there and preached a wonderful sermon. Preached Jesus and the resurrection. I've heard people say that Paul did not have success at Athens because he used the intellectual approach. No, he did not use the intellectual approach. You know, an intellectual is not one who has superior intellect. An intellectual is one who depends on his intellect, however puny it may be, rather than the credible testimony of the Word of God. But Paul used his cultural background as a point of contact, but he preached Christ and the resurrection. He came with a revelation. And he had success. The chief of the Supreme Court was converted, the Araopagite. But he left Athens and went to Corinth. I think he had started down there when he went to Athens, though he was slipping away from Berea. And he was waiting at Athens for Timothy, and when Timothy and Titus came, Timothy and somebody else, got down Silas and Timothy, They went on down to Corinth, and he stayed down there two whole years, and started a church, and pastored it, and paid his own salary, and made tents to make his own way. He wrote them later and told them that they ought not to muzzle the ox that treads out the corn, and lay down the principle, they that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. Rather, he told them of that principle. But he was willing to make tents and pay his own way to preach down there at Corinth. So I say it doesn't seem to me that he owed the Greeks very much. It seems like they owed him. But he said, I'm a debtor, and I'm a debtor to the Romans. He had never been to Rome, and when he finally went to Rome, he went as a prisoner. They put him in the praetorium down under Caesar's household. He wrote an epistle down there to the Philippians. And thank God that through his bond, salvation was coming to Caesar's household. Eighteen times in four short chapters, he used the word joy in one form or another. Rejoice in the Lord all the way, and again I say rejoice. My joy and my crown, he said. Oh, what joy there is in fellowship with Jesus Christ, even in a prison. My father's favorite song was How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours, when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness for me. The midsummer sun shines but dim, the fields strive in vain to look gay, but when I am happy in Him, December's as pleasant as May. And I don't remember just how that next line goes, the next stanza, but prisons are not—iron bars don't make a prison, we're told, when you have Jesus with you. When you're happy in Him, why, He was happy in a prison. And the Philippians believed Him, too, because He had sung praises over there in their jail and prayed that jailhouse down. But then he got out of the praetorium, stayed in his own hired house for two whole years, but he was in bonds in his own hired house, and had men watching him. And we think he left there and went to Spain, we don't know, and came back, and they put him in prison, and we think it was that Mamertine prison. I've been in there a number of times, that dark dungeon. Well, they had lights in there, little dim lights when we were there. I've had as many as 60 people in that dungeon, little niches for little gravy boat-like lamps they had in Paul's day. And I could not read the Scripture. I wanted to read it, but it was dark, or rather the lights were dim, so I just quoted some Scripture from the last epistle Paul wrote, which in all probability he wrote in that Mamertine prison. And I start over there in the third chapter and quoted all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness and so forth. And then into the fourth chapter, therefore, preach the word. And he said, I'm now ready to be offered in the time of my departure at hand. I've fought a good fight. I've finished the course. I've kept the faith. There is therefore henceforth laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous God, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love is appearing." And by the way, I think that's an implication that if you truly love is appearing, that you'll fight a good fight and finish the course and keep the faith. A lot of people talk about loving the coming of Jesus who just have a sort of a morbid curiosity about the details of eschatology. who don't really love His appearing. But if you love it because you really love Him and want Him to come into His own in His glory, then I think you'll fight a good fight and finish the course and keep the faith. But then I went back and quoted another verse, and when I quoted that, I called on an old mountain preacher who was with us, a dear old fellow from up in Tennessee, and He got down on his knees and started to pray, but he broke down. He said, Lord, this is what we've come for. And then he couldn't pray. And after a few moments, I got a hold of my emotions, and I led in prayer. And he got up, and he made more grammatical errors in one sentence than I've ever heard in a single sentence. But we understood what he meant and we all felt it. He spoke to our hearts. He said, They ain't nobody what can't say we ain't had their money's worth. You can try to parse that. They ain't nobody what can't say we ain't had their money's worth. But we all felt the same way. But this is the verse that caused him to feel that way and stirred us all. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer. But the word of God is not bound. You can't shut up the word of God in a dungeon and keep it there. You remember those two things I told you to remember? The first four verses? The seed of David? The resurrection? There, just before he was taken outside the city and put to death, he said, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. He was still preaching that gospel to which he was separated. That's the message. I think that's why Paul felt that he was a debtor. He had the truth. He had the gospel. So have you. Does that not make you a debtor? And I think Paul felt that he was a debtor not because of what the Greeks were, the Romans were, but because he belonged to Jesus. You're not your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are God." Oh God, I cried, why may I not forget? These halt, these hurt in life's hard battle throng me yet. Am I their keeper? Am I to suffer for their sin? Would that my eyes had never been opened then. The thorn-crowned, impatient one replied, they throng me too. I too have seen. Thy other children go at will, I said, protesting still. They go on heeding, but these blind, these halt. Yea, those that sin drag at my heart. Why is it, Lord? I have tried. He turned and looked at me, but I have died. O God, I said, I brought not forth this host of needy creatures, struggling, tempest-tossed. They are not mine. He looked at them the look of one divine, then turned and looked at me, but they are mine. O God, I said, I understand at last. I will henceforth bond slave be to the weakest, vilest ones, I will not more be free." He smiled and said, It is for me. You belong to Jesus. What right have you to rebel against His will? It is for Him, that call to go yonder to faraway Spain or to Rome or wherever He calls you, to the jungles of the islands. What right have you to rebel? We belong to Him. And Paul was a debtor. He felt himself a debtor because of his high calling. We are called just as definitely as were the apostles. Not for the same purpose, but we have a high calling. And Paul felt that he was a debtor because of the need of this godless world. And the need is greater than it was then, as far as the numbers of people are concerned, because there's a population explosion. Millions upon millions who have never heard the word of God. We're debtors. I'm a debtor. So are you. Young people, let's pay our debt. God bless you. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast counted us worthy, committing the gospel to us, this wonderful gospel. Jesus Christ was the seed of David, and He was crucified for us, raised from the dead. We thank Thee that there is salvation full and free and complete and eternal in Him. Help us to be true to that gospel. We thank Thee for this wonderful institution that sends it out to the four quarters of the earth. We pray that Thou will empower the students and the faculty and all the leaders of the institution. We pray that Thou will bless Dr. Bob Third as he is away preaching the gospel today, tonight. We pray that Thou will keep us all faithful, help us to have a vision of a lost world, but help us to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, We ask it in His wonderful name. The Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Join us again for The Chapel Platform.