It's always a very solemn task for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a great responsibility to search out throughout the week, day by day, as time is spent in the study and in the quiet place, what God would have to be delivered. to the congregation on the Lord's Day. The pastor, of course, has many responsibilities. There's his caring for the flock of God in which God has placed him over. There is the evangelizing of the lost in the local community and in the local church. There's also the administration alongside the session and the committee, the board. And so there's all these responsibilities, all these tasks. that the minister has to fulfill. But the greatest of all, and the one that I certainly feel the most, and I would imagine that every minister of the gospel would feel that burden upon them, the greatest, is coming to the pulpit on the Lord's Day, knowing that they have a message from God for the people. This is not a platform for any minister to put forth ideas. Our notions, this is not an opportunity for any one particular man or pastor to put forth his own ambitions or desires, but it is a place for men to be the mouthpiece of God. That's the way God has designed it to be. That is how God has ordained it to be in His will. And I have felt that burden particularly so this week, maybe because it's our first Sunday here. And alongside that, of course, you have the nerves and the anticipation and whatever else that goes with it. But certainly there has been that burden. What would the Lord have me to bring to the people this Lord's Day as we begin this new chapter in the work of God here? And the Lord has very clearly laid upon my heart this portion that we have read together this morning. Romans chapter 1. Now, the book of Romans is a letter, of course, written by the Apostle Paul. What a wonderful letter it is. And when we take time to read through the writings of Paul here, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit. There is a book that is full of theology and doctrine and teaching about some of the deepest items of theology that a human mind can consider. And yet the Apostle Paul, in his wisdom, in his grace, in that knowledge and skill that the Lord had given to him, puts it across so wonderfully in this letter to the Romans. In my opinion, the Apostle Paul, and you are free to have your own opinion, but I believe that the Apostle Paul is perhaps one of the greatest examples of Christian ministry outside of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. He is the greatest example of Christian living. He is the greatest example of Christian service. He is the greatest example of living that holy life of personal holiness unto the Lord. Again, the greatest example bar our Savior Jesus Christ himself. And whilst we don't and we ought not to put any man on a pedestal, whether past or present, yet we must look at the life of Paul here as a sinner saved by the grace of God, but we can look at his life, we can look at his ministry, we can look at his writings and see him and take him as a great example. to us as the people of God. And that's what I want us to do this morning and this evening as well. We'll be dealing with this portion of Scripture tonight in God's will also. And Paul is very clearly an example to every minister, to every pastor, to every man ordained by God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I certainly have felt that as I've looked at this portion throughout the week. But what has also struck me about Romans chapter 1 and the life and the ministry of Paul is that there is application here, not only for me as your pastor and the minister of this church, but there is application for every child of God, for everyone who claims Christ as their own and personal Savior. For all who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ in the life of Paul in this first chapter of Romans, we have a great example. and great lessons for us all. And the subject we want to look at today is the ministry of the pastor and the people. The ministry of the pastor and the people. And I want to deal very openly here with the roles that we have before the Lord as pastor and as people in this corner of His vineyard. For there's a work for us all to do. And my desire for us as a congregation, as I alluded to on Tuesday night, is that there would be this striving together in the work of the Lord, that there would be this unity as we serve the Lord in this corner of His vineyard, as we seek with that one aim, with that one accord to see souls one for Christ, to see God's kingdom built in this part of His world. Too many churches have been divided. Too many works have been destroyed. Too many have marred their testimony and brought damage to the work of God because there hasn't been a striving together, there hasn't been a unity between pastor and people, and that unity is essential if the work of the Lord is to go forward. We must labor together. And these things we think about, Paul, that apply to the role as pastor, I want you to realize this morning that they apply to each one of us. born again of the Spirit of God. And so I pray that the Spirit would apply them to our hearts. Notice here, firstly, as we think of the ministry of Paul and applying it to the ministry of the pastor and the people, we see, firstly, that Paul was a servant. Paul was a servant. Look at verse number 1 of Romans chapter 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. And when we take the time to look at the life and the ministry of the Apostle Paul, and there's much written and recorded for us in Scripture about Paul, it is very evident to us very quickly that Paul was a servant. Now, before his conversion, he was a servant of sin. He was a servant of self. He was a servant and a slave to wickedness and to the ways of Satan himself. In fact, in Acts 8 and the verse 1, we learn there that Paul was consenting unto the death of Stephen. Stephen was the first martyr of the New Testament church. He was stoned to death as a result of his faith. And the apostle Paul was not only there observing, he was not only there in a role of observation, but we learn in Acts 8, 1 that he was consenting unto the death of Stephen. Paul had a part to play. Of course, in Acts 9 and the verse 1, we learn that Paul was breathing out threatenings against the church. Paul was binding the people of God. He was casting them into prison. He was shutting them up from spreading the gospel. And Paul's purpose, Paul's aim, Paul's desire was to hinder and to eliminate the spread of Christianity faith in Jesus Christ. And in that sense, as we look at his life, as we look at his actions, he was a very wicked man, Paul himself. claimed to be the chief of all sinners. He felt, after his conversion, how wicked he was before Christ intervened. In Acts 9, we have that wonderful, remarkable event in the life of the apostle Paul, when on the road to Damascus, he met with Christ, or Christ met with him, rather, and his life was transformed. And what a miracle it was, he became a new creature. There was a turning point in his life as we read of it in Scripture. He went from being a servant of self and of sin and of wickedness, and he became a servant of Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful transformation. And just by the way, dear child of God, as you look upon the conversion of Paul, as you read about that miraculous event in his life, Your conversion is no less a miracle than that of the Apostle Paul. We're not to look at what took place there on the road to Damascus and think, well, that's some special supernatural event. It was, but it wasn't a one-off event. Because every time a child of God is born again by the Spirit of the Lord, every time a conversion takes place through the blood of Jesus Christ, there's this wonderful supernatural transformation. There's this wonderful, remarkable miracle that takes place. Behold, all things become new. The old things have passed away. There's a miracle that transforms the life and the soul and the heart, and all things change. That's what happened to the apostle Paul. And as we look at Acts chapter 9 and the verse 6, the very first words that Paul uttered after his conversion were these, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Immediately, Paul became a servant of Christ. That's what we see in Romans 1 and the verse 1 here in our text this morning. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, when did he become a servant? The moment he was converted by Christ on that road to Damascus, and that is evidenced in the fact that he cried, Lord, what would thou have me to do? And of course, that application is very clear for the minister, for the pastor, there's a very particular calling. upon those that are called to the office of pastor in any office in the work, whether elder or deacon. I was called by the Lord to the ministry back in 2014, seems like so long ago now, and I suppose in many ways it was. But as I was on a mission trip, the Lord began to deal with my heart, with my soul, And it became very evident to me very quickly that the Lord was calling me to a life of service, not to a life of fame and fortune, not to a life of notoriety, not to a life of fulfilling my own ambitions and desires and wants and aims, but a life of service, a life dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. But that is true of all of God's people. Yes, there's that particular call to ministers and elders, but there is this call of God upon every child of God. There's this call to service. this call to live a life of holiness unto the Lord. You see, as we think of Paul's conversion, it was before he was called directly by God to serve. It was before he was aware of any of his gifts and talents that the Lord had given to him. Before any of those things, as he was a new babe in the faith, he cried, Lord, what will thou have me to do? God, I'm here as your servant. I'm here to do as thou would bid. And he had a heart for serving the Lord. He had a desire to live a life dedicated to the service and the work of his master. Paul immediately became one who was in service to the one who had saved him. And again, that's his testimony here in Romans 1 and the verse 1. And dear child of God, this morning as I am before you as your new pastor, I'm not here of my own accord. I'm not here to forward my own cause or for any advancement of myself, but I am simply here as a servant of Jesus Christ, one who has been called to preach the gospel. I am here to do God's bidding and the same is true of you this morning. You're not here to advance your own cause. You're not here to advance your own ideas or notions. You're here as the servants of Jesus Christ to do as He would bid, to do as He requires, to live that life of faithful service and dedication unto Him for His glory. That requires the prayerful study and consideration of His truth. That requires a spiritual discernment of the gifts. and the talents that the Lord has given to you, and the Lord has given you gifts and talents as the people of the Lord, and you're to use them for his glory and for his praise. And the more time you spend with God, the more time you study his truth, the more you will have that attitude of service towards the Lord, the more you will want to do for your master, the more that you will want to do to praise your God and your Savior. Notice here in terms of Paul's service, the subject, of his service, the subject of his service. Romans 1 and the verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't say here that he was a servant of the apostles. He doesn't say that he was a servant of the church or that he was a servant of himself or anything else. But at the very outset, as he signs off this letter to the Romans, he signs himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. And dear congregation, that's not something that we should miss or gloss over here, because Paul's desire, Paul's ambition, Paul's heart for service was all because of his Savior, Jesus Christ. That's who he lived to serve. All he wanted to do was to please Christ. Oh, before he wanted to please himself, he wanted to please those around him by his persecution of the church. But here we have him as one who wants to please his Savior, one who had that desire to live for Jesus Christ. Men can be servants, of course, of many things today. As we have read down through Romans chapter one, have really a summary of the world in which we live, men who are servants of themselves, men who are servants to drink and drugs and gambling and immoral relationships and whatever else might be part of the vices of this world. And we have them listed for us there as we go down through Romans chapter 1, but Paul was a servant to Jesus Christ. And sadly, it is evidence that down through the generations, even in the church, and those that have professed faith in Jesus Christ, even those that have occupied positions of responsibility, they have lived a life of service to their hobbies, or to money, or to careers, or technology, or fame, or fortune, or whatever else it might be. But here, Paul, as an example of how we are to live, he is a servant of Jesus Christ alone. That was his chief aim, to serve the one who had redeemed him from his sin. Scripture reminds us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot be living a life in service to our own ambitions and desires and purposes and plans. and at the same time being a true servant of Jesus Christ. The two cannot be married. The two cannot work alongside one or the other. And our focus and desire as Paul's is, was not on self-advancement and pleasure and our own glorification, but it has to be as Paul's, Lord, what will thou have me to do? I am here as your servant. Christ is to be the sole subject of our service and our life. Therefore, that brings before me and before you this morning that question, do we rise each morning asking the Lord, Lord, what would you have me to do for you today? How can I serve you? How can I make you the center of my thoughts and affections and focus and labor today? Do we go through our life asking God, how can I serve you? How can I be used by you, even in a small way? in your labor and in your work. And again, I'm here as a servant of Jesus Christ. I want to do his will. I want to see his will fulfilled in your life, in this congregation, in this city. And we must stand together as Paul stood here as a servant and servants of Jesus Christ. As we come to worship the Lord and the singing of the hymns, we come in service to the Lord. As we come in contact with strangers and have the opportunity to invite them to the meetings, to invite them to come to faith in Jesus Christ, we do so not for our own glory, but in service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we spend time in the quiet place, reading the scripture, praying unto the Lord, seeking His will for our lives, we do it for His glory, for His service, in obedience to Him. And all of our lives are to be saturated in service for Christ. Not only the subject of Paul's service, but the seriousness of Paul's service. That word servant that is translated from the Greek into English there in verse number one, it means to be a slave. And it indicates a hard toil, a difficult labor, a work in devotion to one's master. And it's tied up with sacrifice. and time, and effort, and labor, and whatever else it might be. That's the idea of the word here, a slave. Romans 12, in the verse 1, Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. This is what is expected. This is what is required of you. It is what's required of me as the people of God, as servants of Jesus Christ, that we would present our bodies, that we would give of our lives, that we would offer all that we have in devotion to our Savior as His slave, not in a negative way, but as willingly as working for our master, Jesus Christ. Think of what Christ has done for us. Has he not yielded himself in service to you, to me? He has humbled himself, leaving the splendor of heaven, coming to this world, working the works of his Father in righteousness, living a perfect, pure, holy life, able to go as that lamb to the slaughter. There he hung on that old rugged cross. He shed his blood. He was forsaken of God, the heavenly Father. He gave up his life voluntarily as a ransom for our sin. He gave of himself. Greater love of no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Christ gave his life in service to us. Christ gave himself in death in service to us, in order to redeem us from our sin, in order to cause us to be born again by the Spirit of God. Christ give us all. how we're to give ourselves in service to him. Paul was a slave, a willing, joyful slave of Jesus Christ, working hard, yielding his life as a living sacrifice. Now, that will look different for pastor and people, but the principle is the same. I will give of my time in the preparation of messages. You will give of your time in attending the house of God. I will give of my time in praying for you as the saints of God. You will give of your time in praying for me and for the work of the Lord. And the roles will look different, and the outworkings of this serious devotion to Christ may look different, but the principle is the same. We're to be slaves to Jesus Christ. were to yield our lives without hindrance, without holding anything back, to seek to do the Lord's will and to do His bidding. That's what Paul was, a slave, a servant of the Savior. I thought about this during the week, and in many ways it was quite a scary and humbling thought. I wonder if we sat down and added up all the hours during the week that we spent in those things that we could say serve ourselves, serve our own ambitions, our own desires, and we weighed that up against ours spent serving the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder what the picture would be. I wonder what our life would look like. Could we really confess that we are slaves of Jesus Christ, servants of him? I want this to characterize the work of God here in Calgary, Free Presbyterian Church, that people might say, not for our glory, but for God's. There's a congregation. There's a band of God's people, pastor and people together, and they're slaves for Jesus Christ. They're living for him. What about you this morning if you're here and you're not saved? The application is very clear because Scripture reveals to you this morning that you're a slave to sin and self, just like the Apostle Paul was. You're a servant of the devil. You're living to please yourself. You're living to do Satan's bidding. You're in bondage and in chains to that old sinful flesh, and you're heading to that lost sinner's eternity, and you're a slave to wickedness. Think of that rich young farmer after he had reaped that bountiful harvest. All that he wanted to do was to eat and drink and be merry. He was in bondage to his own desires and ambitions and self, and yet that very night he lost his own soul. Dear unsaved soul this morning, you need to bow the knee to Christ. You need to become his slave, his servant. You need to yield your life to him in faithful submission and trusting the keeping of your soul to his care for all eternity. For without Christ, you will forever be a slave to self and to sin, and it will lead you to an eternal damnation in hell. Paul was a servant. Secondly, this morning, and this will be the last point we deal with this morning, Paul was separated. Paul was separated. Look at verse one of Romans. One again, we read, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Also verse number six, we read, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. That word separated in verse one means to be appointed. to be called, to be appointed, to be placed. And the application, of course, for the pastor and for the minister is very obvious. We're a Presbyterian denomination. We believe that that is the form of government that is set forth and laid before us in the New Testament Scriptures. And as Presbyterians, we believe that God has appointed by His grace and sovereignty certain offices for men to occupy in the church, the office of elder and the offices of deacon. And God, by His grace, He separates, He appoints, He provides men to fulfill those offices. And it's not for the glory of men, and it's not that men might be placed on a pedestal, it's not that men might be advanced in their own efforts and desires, but it is necessary to give structure and discipline to the church of God. Our God is a God of order. Our God is a God who wants things done decently. He is not a God of chaos. He is not a God of disunity. He is not a God who likes things just to be done in whatever way men want them to be done, but God is a God of structure. He's a God of order and of rule. And God has provided these offices to fulfill that. Think of the priests and the Levites. In the Old Testament, they were separated from their brethren unto their sacred employments. And that's what happens when a man is separated for the office of pastor. Often, where possible, they leave secular employment and that man becomes solely dedicated to the work of the Lord, appointed unto the Lord's work. But as we think about Paul here, speaking of his separation, speaking of his calling to the ministry in verse number one, this separation is also true of every believer because he deals with the congregation there to those whom he is writing in verse number six, for he says, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. The people were also appointed. The people were also separated unto the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ this morning, you have been separated. You have been appointed unto God. There are several ways in which we see that. Firstly, you have been separated in terms of self. God has appointed your very being. Jeremiah 1.5, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." And the point here is that God knew Jeremiah even before he was formed in the womb, even before he had any physical attributes, even before he was anything physically in the womb, or in this scene of time, God knew Jeremiah. God had appointed him to be. You're not here in this world at this time, in this place, by accident. or by chance. You're not here in the congregation by chance. I'm not here as pastor of this church by chance, but God has appointed us in ourselves. He has separated us unto the gospel for such a place and a time as this. And dear child of God, we must never forget that. This life that we have is not our own. The breath in our lungs is lent to us by our Creator and our Redeemer. And what time that we have here, that time that God has granted to us in His grace and in His mercy, it is to be yielded unto the Lord in service. We are separated unto Him in our life and our self. We're separated unto Him in our salvation. Ephesians 1 and the verse 5, having predestined. predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Here we have the doctrine of God's electing grace. A doctrine is, of course, a difficult one for many to get our heads around. We will never be fully able to comprehend it and to grasp it, but it is clearly taught in Scripture. God has predestined, God has elected people unto himself to be redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. And when you grasp that truth, when you understand it, even to some extent, that before the foundation of the world, God has chosen, God has elected to save you from your sin, to bring you into his family and into his fold, what a blessing that truth is to your heart. God has separated you unto himself. Oh, you'll be humbled, you'll be amazed. You'll be submitted to think that through no merit of your own, God has chosen. to save you from before the foundation of the world. What a wonderful truth. What a mighty God we serve. We're separated also here unto God's service. Acts 9, 15, but the Lord said unto him, this is unto Ananias regarding Paul, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Paul was chosen by God, separated unto his service. And we've touched on that already. That is true of pastor and people alike. We're separated under the service of God. But then, finally here we see that we're separated from sin. 2 Corinthians 6, 7, And be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." We've thought about Paul's life before his conversion, how he lived for sin, he lived for Satan, but now he is separated unto a life of righteousness. And in order for us to be useful for God, in order to be used by God, in order to see God's kingdom advanced, We have to live a life of righteousness and holiness by the help of the Holy Spirit. We've been called away from sin. We've been called away from those old paths. We've been called away from those things that characterize and describe those that are in the world. We've been called and separated to a life of personal holiness, and Paul knew that in his own heart and in his own life. Romans chapter 7. A wonderful chapter, we get a personal insight into Paul's struggle and Paul's battle with sin. You see, Paul was just a sinner saved by grace. He was engaged in a daily battle, a battle that if you're truly born again by the Spirit of the Lord, you will be able to empathize with as you read the battle of Paul. Paul did things that he didn't want to do, he didn't do things that he should have done, and daily he was battling with the flesh. And dear child of God, we are engaged in a daily battle against sin. The devil wants to harm our usefulness for the master. He wants sin to enter in. He wants sin to get a grip on our lives. And therefore, we need to be on our guard. We need to keep close to God. We're called to a life of personal holiness. Dear unsaved soul, you need to be separated unto Christ. or the stark reality will be that you will be separated from Him for all eternity, without hope, without remedy, without solution. No, today is the day of salvation. Today is the accepted time. You need to be separated unto Him by coming to Christ, repenting, Trusting in him as your own and personal Savior. Oh, flee from the wrath that is to come. Don't be separated for all eternity, but be separated unto Christ in this scene of time. Come to the one who has given his life as a ransom. Come to the one who shed his precious blood to redeem his people from their sin. Paul was a wonderful example here in his service. He was a wonderful example in his separation. And I trust and pray that these characteristics will be present in my life as your pastor and in your life as the people of God as we serve the Lord together. as we seek to strive together in the Lord's service in unity to see his kingdom built and precious souls saved for his glory. We trust the Lord will bless his word to our hearts this morning for his own sake. The hymn 566 as we bring our meeting to a close, 566.