Well, as you can see here from the screen, the title of this morning's sermon is The Gospel of Christ, The Gospel of Christ. And as I mentioned in my prayer, the word gospel simply refers to any message of good news, any message of good news. unique or limited just to the message of Christianity or the message of Jesus Christ. It was just a general word that meant any message, a message of good news. But the primary good news message of the Bible as we're looking at it from a biblical perspective, it involves God's provision of salvation. Now, rightfully so, we would, every time we hear that, the salvation that God provides, we would focus first and foremost on the salvation that God provided from the devastating effects of sin as it related to the penalty that was owed for sin. But in fact, when we're talking about, and we're gonna see this in the book of Romans, as we talk about God's message of good news about the salvation that He alone provides from the devastating effects of sin. It's not just the penalty of sin, it's the effect of sin in every phase of the Christian life. Every phase of our lives, past, present, and future. And that's gonna come out clearly as we dig into the book of Romans. Also as part of this, and I mentioned it also in my prayer, that salvation is in view individually And I would say that's the predominant theme even of the book of Romans, the individual aspect of God's provision for salvation in every phase of life. But also then, as I mentioned, there's that case of salvation nationally for ethnic Israel based on the promises that God made. covenantal promises made to Abraham reiterated through David. And so you think about that, we'll be seeing some of that as we go through this book. But in the introduction last week, we observed that Romans explains this message of good news by methodically teaching about man's natural condition, First and foremost, we're going to jump into that probably as soon as next week here in the second half of this first chapter. So, man's natural condition, man's spiritual need, God's provision of a way of escape or rescue, and the manner of living or thinking that is intended to develop as a result of learning, internalizing, and applying these truths. the book ends with these practical applications of how should this doctrinal truth, how should this teaching, remember doctrine is nothing more than teaching from an authoritative source, how should this teaching then impact my life? How should this change the way that I would be thinking and as a result of changing my thinking, change the way that I would be living? How would it affect my human relationships? How would it affect my priorities? How would it affect the things that I'm passionate about? How would it affect my speech and the things that I'm speaking about, the things that I'm proclaiming. And so that's sort of a layout of how this book progresses. But today we're going to see that Paul views the preaching of this message, this message of good news from God about salvation in every phase of living, he views this, though, as his life's mission. And God wants every believer to communicate his message of good news to others, so in a sense, God, I hope your takeaway this morning is that God wants you to view the preaching of this message of salvation in every phase of Christian living or of life as your mission, your life's mission, to spread and have your life song sing this message about Jesus and the hope that is found in him as a result of the love that God has for us. So perhaps this message will encourage you to revisit your focus and your priorities. I know it was impactful on me as I was looking at these verses and even considering Paul's mentality. I hope as you listen to messages or you come out or you reread and analyze a section of God's word, We're willing to have that humble posture that says, God, what are you seeking to show me? What are you seeking to remind me of? What are you seeking to convince me of about myself and even maybe the things I've been prioritizing, the things that I've been thinking about, the things that I've been speaking about, the things I've been obsessing? about? What is it that you would maybe want to show me? Now as God even causes us to have interactions with one another, sometimes we speak to one another. And sometimes it's the spirit of God speaking through us and sometimes not. But if the spirit of God is speaking through our lives into the lives of others, the truth is that God might want to be showing you something, causing you to think about something, causing you to meditate and pray about something, as it is brought up or brought to your mind even through conversation with other believers. So that's the case even if it comes across sometimes as criticism. Sometimes your first, not sometimes, all of the time, your natural first reaction to that is defensiveness, but perhaps the first reaction should be to take it to the Lord and say, Lord, what are you potentially trying to show me? Is there truth to this? Is there something you want me to see? in this?" And sometimes the answer will be yes, sometimes the answer will be no. That was just somebody's perspective and they shared it. God needs to work on their thinking, God needs to work on your thinking, but that's something to consider as well. Rabbit trail, we don't have time for that this morning. 17 verses, as ambitious as you know for me, so we're gonna dig right into this. Let's take a look at verse one. You know what, I think we'll just read this section, too, just for the sake of context. That's not gonna take us too long, and it'll give us the full flavor of, frankly, about the first half of this first chapter. And so we have really here is an introduction. He's then gonna get into how the wrath of God is revealed, how the righteousness of God is revealed, how man's guilt before a holy and righteous God, that theme starts to be unpacked right away from the second half of the first chapter here. But this first section is more of an introduction into the importance of the gospel and even Paul's perspective about why it is that he's so focused on these truths, and we're gonna see that through verses 16 and 17, Lord willing. Let's start with verse 1, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God, which He promised, God promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scripture, meaning Old Testament Scripture. Verse 3, concerning what was the promise in terms as it related to the gospel of God, well, it concerned His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David as promised in the Davidic covenant, according to the flesh, meaning He was incarnated. the unique God-man, fully man but fully God, and declared, verse four, to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, now here's your sort of formal addressing of the letter, to all who are in Rome, how are they described? Beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 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 by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you, critical part there. I may find a way, but not by my will, a way that's within the will of God to come to you. I have that deep desire to do that. Verse 11, he says, I long to see you. That I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. I long to see you, not for my own gratification, but so that you can be benefited through God working in my life to establish you in your faith, verse 12. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me, meaning this is a symbiotic relationship that we have between our fellow believers, even you and I, I and you, you and everyone around. you here in your seats this morning. Verse 13, now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles, meaning that through ministering to you, I would have the joy of seeing you grow in your faith and the Spirit of God produce fruit in your lives. Verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise, so as much as is in me, Within my capabilities, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, in it the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, that just shall live by faith. What an introduction. You think about even how Paul became aware of these truths, learned these truths, and now wants to share them with others. And I hope that that's even our perspective. We're gonna see that with Paul's attitude here as it's revealed through some of these verses. What is his mentality? We'll start back by unpacking verse one here now. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. Now this verse, it acts as a greeting to the letter. It's an extended greeting, this section is. But Paul introduces himself as the author. Then he describes himself. Just out of curiosity, I can't help myself, I had actually cut this out of my notes, but I just can't help myself. Paul is the only writer of scripture and the only apostle to use his Gentile or his Roman name. It said that, from my study, it said that most Jewish parents would give their children a Jewish name, in the case of Paul, that was Saul. And they would also give them, though, a Gentile name or a Roman name because they were Roman citizens, or at least Paul was. And so his name was Paul. Now, some people think that God changed Saul's name from Saul to Paul, but he had both names to begin with. And if you go reread that passage, the truth is God refers to him as Saul and keeps referring to him as Saul as you get into the early parts of even the story of Acts. He's still referred to as Saul. Right up until there's just this point where it says, this is a passing verse in Acts that says, Saul was also known as Paul, and then the rest of the verse has really nothing to do with that, just a passing reference. And from that reference on, Paul is consistently referred to as Paul instead of Saul. Now, if you have more insight about that, certainly let me know, but what is the takeaway from that? Well, I'd submit that this is speculation, but this would be my takeaway of it. The word Paul or the name Paul means, it means little. It means little. The other thing is that didn't Paul see himself as being commissioned to bring a message to the Gentile world? Wouldn't it stand to reason then if a Jewish child was given a Jewish name and a Gentile name or a Roman name that when they were dealing with the Gentile world that people would know them by their Gentile name, that it would be more familiar to them than a Jewish or a Hebrew name? And the answer is yes. And Paul has this perspective that says, I wanna be all things to all men if it will advance the cause of the effectiveness of the gospel outreach. And think about that, being willing to actually use a secondary name if you thought it would be more effective to the outreach of the gospel. Now, it doesn't say that. That's pure speculation. I'm not being dogmatic about that. The second thing is, do you think Paul realized what the name Paul meant? Do you think that as he grew in his understanding, he saw himself as being smaller and smaller and smaller? We know that's true from revelation of scripture, that as he grew, he saw himself not as just the least of the apostles, not as just the least of the saints, but by the end of his life as the chief sinner. And the way he would describe himself changed, became even more and more humble over time. Anyway, throw that out there. If we're over by a couple of minutes, that's why, right there. Now, how does he describe or identify himself. Listen to this, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Now this identifies Paul overall perspective as it relates to this mentality of how he sees himself and the word literally means slave. the slave of Jesus Christ. And it refers to a person whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master, not somebody operating autonomously. And you see the flesh, the human spirit wants nothing more than independence. I do it my way. And in fact, we celebrate that, don't we? Don't we actually celebrate that as a society? Like a self-made man. Self-made man. Finished the story of my life, and Frank Sinatra can sing, and I did it. I did it my way. See, we'll actually promote that, and the Bible's like, no, apart from me, you can do nothing. Not my will, but thy will be done, is what Jesus says. Less of me and more of Jesus Christ. I died. You died, friends. We're identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. God doesn't need your human individuality. You have it, he gave it to you. It's a blessing in a sense, the fact that you're unique, but he doesn't need you to have an independent-mindedness where you're operating however I see fit. God wants to lead and direct and motivate your thinking. He wants to be the one who is guiding you. He wants to be the one who you're following. You see, you can't lead, you can't be in front and be following at the same time. How many times would Jesus have to say, follow me, for us to get the picture that this isn't about us leading the way, us going our own direction, and saying, well God, won't you come along and bless my plans? That's not the message of the Bible, friends. It's a message of every facet of my being My purpose, my life itself is determined by God. Voluntarily, He doesn't force it on me, but He offers it to me with this perspective of child. Would you trust me? Would you accept that I know better than you do and I want to guide and direct and lead your life? I want you to become a follower of me. And as you are enjoying me, I want you to become a reflection of me, an imitator of me, so that others would have an example that they could follow, not because of the trail you're blazing, but because they see that I'm the one blazing the trail, and you've learned to faithfully, trustingly follow me. So then maybe they'll come along behind you for that. But that's how Paul describes himself as a slave of Jesus Christ. Now what's the next, he also introduced himself that way two other times for the sake of time, we're not gonna go there, but Philippians 1.1, Titus 1.1 are the three times I could find where he introduces himself with this phrase. That word is sometimes translated bondservant as it is in New King James. Versant, sometimes it's translated slave, but it literally means somebody who's under the, whose purpose and livelihood is determined by their master. Now, called to be an apostle communicates Paul's assigned role. He didn't make himself an apostle. He was called, he was tasked, he was given this task to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, what does he say in terms of his mission? Separated to the gospel of God. So, Paul, I see myself as a slave of Jesus Christ. He called me to be an apostle and gave me a mission, which he separated me to the gospel of God. That became my mission. Now, I want to say a little bit more about the gospel of God, Paul says, and so in verse 2 we see, which he promised. before, ahead of time, through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. And this expands on the previous statement about the good news of God, remembering that this word gospel just means a message of good news. So expanding on this message about the good news of God, we have it was promised, this was promised before, through the prophets in the Holy Scripture. And all it says is it explains that this message of good news was previously revealed and promised, through Old Testament revelation. Now, as we keep going on about this message of good news, what did this message of good news concern? What was it focused on when we see verses 3 and 4? Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, now we're going to describe Him. Jesus Christ who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, two things there, and Jesus Christ, again is who this is referring to, declared to be the Son of God, how so? With power according to the spirit of holiness and by the resurrection from the dead. So two proofs that Jesus Christ was who he said he was. So it continues to expand on this statement about the gospel of God. His son, Jesus Christ, identifies the focus of this good news message. And as we think about this description of Jesus Christ as the seed of David according to the flesh, it's identifying again his messianic bloodline. and incarnation, so a promise was made to Abraham, several of them, but that you'll have seed that will number the stars of the sky or the sands, that you'll have a land, the promised land. Third promise, that through you, all of the nations of the world will be blessed. So then fast forward a little bit, God also makes promise to David. So David is told, amongst other things that were reconfirmed about the Abrahamic covenant, David was told that the Messiah, the future blessing, the one who will bring about the blessing of all nations, that that will come through this line, through this throne. Of your seed there will be no end. The throne of David will be how the Messiah comes, the lineage. And so you wonder sometimes about why are there all of these? genealogies in the Bible, because God made a promise. So God wants to prove that He's a promise-keeping God, and He said He just tracks it. The storyline is being carried by this vehicle of the nation of Israel specifically, though the lineage of David. It's all leading to a blessing of the entire, every nation, all people, through these promises that were made. So as you're following the story, just keep that in mind. These different parts are adding to this storyline, but the storyline is just bringing us to a climax. The storyline of the Bible brings us to the climax at Calvary, culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The seed of David, according to the flesh, speaking according to the flesh, the promise is made, that this would, the word became flesh, we're talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. How God could only die if He took on human form. And we had some messages about that over the holiday season. Look back at the index of messages that we have even on our website or sermon audio and you can take a listen to some of the importance of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. But now, what else was said? about Jesus Christ, He was declared to be the Son of God. And how so? Through miraculous power in the resurrection. See, Jesus didn't have to, in a sense, He didn't have to, although there had been messianic promises about Him authenticating Himself through power, but God didn't have to promise that in the Old Testament, He didn't have to fulfill it in the New Testament, but God chose to make it obvious that I am who I said I was. And so there was all of these different demonstrations of God's power, none of those more greater of Jesus Christ's power, that He was the Messiah, that He was fully God, and at the same time that He was the Savior of the world, but in addition to that, there was none greater than His resurrection from the dead. We're said that if anything could legitimize that God the Father had accepted the payment of God the Son as fully satisfying of the debt that was owed for all men, by all men, for all men's sin, past, present and future, that He did so by exalting Jesus Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at the right hand of the Father. And so we see that even in this passing reference here in verse four. Now we get, we move forward to through him. So we talked about this message. I'm separated, my mission is I'm separated to the good news message of God, which is centered in a person. It was promised beforehand in verse two. It centers in a person and work of Jesus Christ, who is authenticated, that he was who he said he was. And through him, Jesus Christ, we have received grace and apostleship. To accomplish the mission is the idea, for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. So through Him speaks to the access to God's salvation and provision, but it also speaks to the empowerment that Paul had for the mission he was assigned. Now, we have received grace and apostleship The thing that really jumped out at me as I was looking at that is it reminds us that God is the one ultimately directing, enabling, and empowering His work. So, separated to the gospel, who did that? God did that. He directed Paul in that way. Paul didn't come up with this himself. Now, God has directed all men to be separated to the gospel, meaning the proclamation of the gospel, but God doesn't leave us empty-handed. Through Him, Jesus Christ, we have received grace and apostleship. Now, there's many aspects to this. We have grace in the sense that we've received the initial grace of God's payment or resolution of the penalty that we owed for our own sinfulness, apart from which we couldn't even be born into God's family or be children of God and be assigned with or given a mission or ministry to begin with. So certainly that's in view, but what he's more focused on here is the grace for the mission as already a believer. So we receive grace in apostleship, and the point of it was to promote obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. That was Paul's mission, to promote obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. So as we think about that, God's grace is, as you think about His grace, it's expressed through provision of things needed to successfully serve Him. God's grace is expressed through the provision of things needed to successfully serve Him, including the indwelling Holy Spirit and revealed Word of God. Now, why did God provide grace and apostleship to Paul so he could serve the Lord and fulfill God's mission, plan, direction, will, however you want to put it, for His life. Now, what was the mission that Paul was assigned? Being an ambassador for Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news message of who Jesus is and what He had done for a lost and dying world. Now, what was the desired response? What was the response that Paul was seeking to promote to all people everywhere that he went? obedience to the faith. And that simply refers to accepting, believing, and trusting the gospel. If you want to obey God, believe in the one whom He sent, that's what Jesus says. That's how you obey the gospel, is to believe the gospel. Some people have gotten that confused. So then you think about among all the nations, it just identifies the target audience, and Paul confirms that it's everyone everywhere that he's interested in them hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. Now Paul confirms that these believers had already responded to the gospel of God. And the reason we know that is he calls them, he says, among whom, you're a part of this much bigger collective whole of humanity, all of which God desires to be saved through obedience to the faith, which means believing in the gospel message about Jesus Christ. But he says among this group, among whom, you also are the called of Jesus Christ. You got in on this, this isn't referring to you were, there's something special about you, meaning you became a part of this through your faith in God's finished work on your behalf. See, in terms of God choosing, God chooses to save everybody who chooses to put their faith in Jesus Christ, you become a part of this collective group of called-out ones by responding to a message that's offered freely to all, a message that everyone could respond to, but not everyone does. But you become a part of that collective group described or identified by their standing or their position of being in Christ. Everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ is placed into the body of Christ and is viewed as now being a part of that collective group. Now we move to verse 7, he now breaks down and continues with this introduction. So he's described himself, he's described his mission, he's described how it's been empowered by the grace of God. He's described how they've already responded to this message that has become his life's mission, to proclaim the gospel, how he's separated to the gospel, and now he's going to formally introduce the letter, or the addressee part of the letter. He says, to, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, and then he's gonna give them this greeting, grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this just, makes it really clear who the audience is. We already have the author identified here with that first, those first six verses. Now we have, in verse 7, the audience is identified. And that's just simply to all who are in Rome. Now, how are they described? Beloved of God, and it refers to God's disposition towards them as believers, but towards mankind in general. They're beloved of God. Now, I just want to briefly ask you, is that how you see yourself? Is that how you think of how God's looking at you? I'm one that God loves, I'm beloved. Now there's another way to look at that too. I'm in the beloved, I have a positional standing in Christ, and Christ is the one, first and foremost, that God the Father loves. So I'm in the beloved, but I'm also beloved. God loves me. God loves me personally, specifically. That's why John could refer to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. I don't know that we see ourselves that way often enough. We identify ourselves or we come to characterize ourselves with a lot of different terms or a lot of different ideas or words, but oftentimes it's in the context of defining ourselves as things that have nothing to do with faith, for starters, but also when it comes to even things of faith, failure. in terms of failure. Instead of seeing myself as the one God loves, I see myself as I dwell on the idea or I picture or sort of obsess about, wallow in, thinking of myself as the one that God's disappointed in. The family, the black sheep in the family. Nothing more than a failure. And with that comes an occupation with shame and guilt and regret. That's the things that I end up becoming fixated on. But you see, God, for starters, never has an unreasonable expectation of us. To be disappointed in somebody is to have had an expectation that was not met. See, God, we're personifying God when we think that He acts like that. Even when we, we have to use human words to describe God, so even when we use words like grieving the spirit, there's a sense of God's sadness or having sadness over this, but God isn't human, and so we're just trying to make sense of it, in a sense. But if you think about Romans, we're gonna get to it, chapter eight, verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. God isn't looking at you through that lens. God's looking at you through the lens of love. Are there times where clearly you are not in God's will, where clearly God is looking at or if He would evaluate where you're at, He'd say, son, that's not where I want you to be. Yes. Are there times where God would want to convince you or convict you of your sin and say, son, that behavior, that thinking is not in alignment with my righteous standard? Yeah, we're gonna talk about it later in this book. But is God looking at you as a disappointment or as a failure? The answer is no. He looks at you and he sees you through the lens of love. Now does He want better for you? Yes. So in a sense, God is disappointed or grieved only in the sense that you're missing out on this abundant life or this way of life that He's made available for you. Imagine that. If you were a parent who desperately loved your child, some of you are, some of you maybe aren't. But if you're a parent who desperately loved your child and you wanted what was best for them, and you said, I'm gonna try to facilitate a way of life that's gonna be really good. It'll be really easy, it'll be really fulfilling, and you try to guide your child into that path. So you've made the resources, you've made the path, you've made it available, and they consistently say, by their actions, by their thinking, nah, I'm not gonna do that. And they instead insist on continuing to go bang their head into a wall. Well, is that gonna sadden you? Well, yeah. But mostly, not necessarily because you're disappointed in them, although human beings might be, but from God's perspective, the thing that would disappoint you or sadden you most is that they're missing out on this thing that they could have experienced that would have been so wonderful. See, as a parent, you're not so much focused on the failure as it is the fact that they're missing out on what was possible. So, just as a side track there, do you see yourself in that way, beloved of God? Is that how you see yourself this morning? Maybe that's the thing you needed to hear this morning. You need to walk out of here saying, I am seen by God as His beloved child, and He just wants to redirect me. He doesn't want me to dwell on the past, wallow in the past, fixate on the past, fixate on my failure, live in shame and guilt and fear and regret, remorse. He wants to move me forward because He loves me. He wants me to forget the things that are behind and to press onward toward the mark of the high calling. He wants me to run the race with endurance or patience that is set in front of me, that He set in front of me. And He's gonna equip and enable. He's gonna provide the restoration. He's gonna provide the healing. He's gonna undertake to change my thinking if I'm willing to seek Him, to put my gaze on Him, to look to Him, to trust in Him, to depend on Him. So that's the only decision really to make. Let go of the rest of it and move forward into the irresistible future that God has for you. Now, he says they're also called to be saints, and it just literally means called saints. They're set apart positionally. He wants them to be set apart in terms of by Practically, He wants to set them apart too, but positionally, He already sees them as saints, set apart because they're identified with the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ and His righteousness, so they're called saints. They're beloved and called saints. Is that you? Do you see that? Now, the verse ends with Paul's customary greeting. It's found in all 13 of his letters. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we get to verses 8 through 12 where Paul summarizes the way he's been thinking about these believers. So he says, this is who I'm writing to in verse 7. Now he says, this is how I've been thinking about you. And he goes on to say this. I thank, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. I'm thankful that you're willing to let the Lord work in your lives and have an effective outreach for Him. 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. I've been praying for you. And I've been making also this request that if by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you, I wanna come see you, for I long to see you that I may impart to you, not something self-serving, but I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. And we touched on that as we went through it. That is, and then he says, this is gonna include that I may be encouraged together with you by our mutual faith, both of you and me, that's the plan. I hope when we come together that you see that as the plan. God wants us to come together to be mutually encouraging to one another. Do you pray without ceasing and mention other believers without ceasing in your prayers? I'm not going to get into this a lot because we had a message specifically on this section in our series on Paul's prayers. Just go look it up. It was one of the first messages that we had because we went kind of through the Bible. It's not really arranged chronologically, but as it's arranged, starting with Romans. So this was one of the first ones that we looked at. So in that series, they're all broken down by series on our website, take a look at this section. But the question is, are you praying without ceasing and making mention to God for other believers, and especially expressing a desire that God would use you in their lives to be of spiritual benefit to them? And then are you also praying that you yourself would be encouraged by that mutual interaction with that believer? Have you ever prayed that once? Do you even pray? It kind of starts with that, right? God wants to talk to us. He talks to us through his word. He wants us to talk to him. We communicate with him through prayer. Easy to say, hard to do. You say, well, not for me. I pray all the time. Good, that's good. What's motivating that? I hope it's the spirit of God working in your life that's motivating that. Maybe you've grown. Was that always true in your life? I guarantee it wasn't because it's not natural. It's really hard to consistently pray your way through the day. Remember when we were talking about prayers, Paul's prayers? This idea of praying without ceasing, just this mentality of I wanna include God in my thinking and my thoughts. I wanna talk to him throughout the day. I wanna pray my way through the day. Can that be done? The answer is yes. Is it something that has to be learned? The answer is yes. Has anyone arrived as it relates to having that kind of constant communication with God? No, everyone can grow in that way. The truth is, if you're a younger believer here, you're gonna find that it is somewhat difficult to have that relationship with somebody that you can't grab ahold of, you can't touch, you can't see with your human eyes. The Bible talks about how that's gonna be hard. That's why the Bible says, blessed are those that can believe in me, who have not seen me, have not touched me, But John, when he's writing, he says, our hands have touched, our hands have held this word of truth, Jesus Christ. We've seen it with our own eyes. We've witnessed this with our own eyes. We've held Him with our own hands. Easier? I would submit, yes it is. Has God somehow left you hanging though? Is this, no. He's given you his spirit. He's revealed himself all around you by virtue of nature. He's revealed himself through his word. He reveals himself through the ministry of other people working in your life. He's literally living inside of you. And he's saying, would you just include me? Would you think about me? Would you talk to me? Would you let me be a part of what it is that you're doing? Would you taste and see that I'm good so I could become more real to you than the air you're breathing? See, people talk about that saying, that God would become more real to you than the air you're breathing. Something that's been said in this church for many years. Is that your prayer? God, make yourself more real to me than the air I'm breathing. And can he do that? Yeah. Will he do that? The answer is yes. He wants to be known. He's revealed Himself for the express purpose that we would know Him. He wants that. So that's not the missing link in this. The link is, do I want to know Him? Do I have Paul's perspective expressed elsewhere? Oh, that I may know Him. Do I have that perspective? Anyway, I don't want to go into too much more about these verses. Here Paul has been, he summarizes what he has been praying for as it relates to these believers in verses 8 through 12 here. The summary runs through the end of verse 12, we covered it extensively. already, but if I'm summarizing it quickly, verse 8 says, these believers already have this good testimony or reputation relative to their faith. Verse 9, Paul prays for them consistently. Verse 10, Paul expresses his strong desire to come see them if it's God's will. Verses 11 and 12, Paul's motives are ministry-centric. and are symbiotic. There's a mutual benefit in view there. Now verse 13, now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often plan to come to you. So this is a continuation of the same thought. But was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. So Paul informs them that he has wanted to come minister to them for a long time. Now remember Paul's perspective. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ, and I have this calling. I have this calling to be a witness for Jesus Christ. I was separated to the gospel of God and this is the natural expression of that mission. So I've been wanting to minister to you for a long time. Now imagine diligently praying on behalf of believers you've heard of but never met. Paul has never even been here. He's never even met these believers. So then he says, just as among the other Gentiles, I might have some fruit among you just as among the other Gentiles. He's referring to his ongoing ministries elsewhere, how he wants to have the same impact on them that he's by God's grace through the working of God in his life been able to have. among the other Gentiles. Now, this identifies these believers as primarily Gentiles. There's a lot of back and forth opinion about who this book is primarily written to. I believe it's primarily written to Gentiles, though the church at Rome was certainly a mixture of Gentiles and Jewish believers. But part of what had What happened is that the Jewish believers had been chased out of Rome by Emperor Claudius, I believe was his name, and so in the meantime the church had kept growing and what was left of the church were non-Jewish believers who were able to stay behind. And so part of the tension that you're gonna see throughout the book of Romans is that as those Jewish believers like Priscilla and Aquila, put two names together, Priscilla and Aquila, as they returned, there was this natural tension in the church then about, because the Jewish individuals, of course, had this perspective of, We have more favoritism from God than you do. And you're just only getting in on this as a second, a last resort or as a afterthought. But now the leadership is already being directed by a bunch of Gentile people who are in that church. And now you have this tension as they come back of how do we operate or function together as one body in Christ. So you're gonna see that content You can see that tension being addressed through many of the passages that we're going to see in the book of Romans. But in any event, I don't know how you could argue around this too much that at least one of the primary audiences here is clearly Gentile believers in Rome because he says, I wanted to have some fruit among you just as, meaning just like these other Gentiles, meaning clearly He primarily has in view Gentiles here. Now verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Now this is the first of three descriptions of Paul's ministry perspective. We have his general perspective which is what? Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, separated to the gospel of God. That's his primary perspective. But now we see his ministry perspective. He says, I am. And then he's going to say three things here in these next verses. Starts here, though, with I am. And all three of these descriptions are gospel-focused. All of these descriptions are secondary, again, to that general attitude communicated with that mentality of being a slave of Jesus Christ separated to the gospel of God. Now, I am what? First one here, I am a debtor. I'm a debtor." Now, you'd have to insert here, I'm a debtor to the gospel and then both to Greeks and to barbarians. To the presentation of the gospel to these individuals is the way you would see that. But it refers to someone who has a duty or responsibility to do something. Now, Paul's specific mission is sharing the gospel with non-Jews. Now, does he share the gospel with Jews as well? Yes. In fact, he goes to synagogues first in most of the places that he goes to, and when the message is inevitably rejected, though not always, but inevitably rejected by the collective whole, not individuals. Individuals respond, but not the collective whole. Then he goes on to share the gospel outside of the tabernacles, or it's not synagogues, I mean not tabernacles, with non-Jewish people, and that's the primary aspect of his ministry. But the identification, of this responsibility, it's assumed from the previous context. So the understanding would really be, I am a debtor to share the gospel with all men. That's how you should take this verse. And Greeks and two barbarians, both wise and unwise, that's Paul's way of referring to all men without distinctions like nationality, culture, or personality. These are not all what we would call sophisticated folks that he's talking about. There's this idea that some are, you know, more developed nations and some are less developed nations, but Paul is saying, I have this debt. I'm a debtor to share the gospel with all men regardless of who it is that we're talking about. So then we get to verse 15. So, he says, with that in mind that I'm a debtor to share the gospel with all men, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also." Meaning, you're just an extension of my focus that the gospel will be shared with all men everywhere. And so when we see verse 15 saying that. Now this is the second of these three descriptions of Paul's ministry perspective. Remember, I'm a debtor to share the gospel with all men. Now he says, I am ready to preach the gospel. I am ready. It identifies Paul's eagerness. In fact, many translations have, I am eager. I am eager to share the gospel with you, just like I was eager to share the gospel with other people in other places that I've already been. Now preach the gospel, I'm eager to do what? I'm eager to preach the gospel. It focuses again on the good news related to the gospel message. Remember, the gospel message, the message of salvation, the good news message from God to man about man's salvation in every phase of life. This is not just one phase of salvation. Here, in all likelihood, he's referring to practical sanctification, not justification. Because why? He's already identified them as called to be saints, already as being beloved. Already as he's clearly writing to people, he considers to be believers. They already understand the gospel as it relates to God's provision of a substitutionary payment to satisfy the penalty that was owed by all men for their sinfulness. And that's the gospel in a nutshell. Man has a need, and that need is that man is a sinner. The debt of man's sin is that they deserve to be separated from God for all of eternity. Man could never pay that debt other than dying and being forever separated. That's one way they'd pay the debt, is to be forever separated from God in a place the Bible calls the lake of fire, a place of eternal torment, hell. Words that we don't want to say. People don't want to say that. That's the destiny. That's the default. It's not like man might go one way or the other. Man is already on a road that ends to hell, ends in hell. That's already fixed. The problem is, can we throw life jackets? Can we rescue, through God working in us, through the message of the gospel, people who are already on that road? It's not like their fate isn't already determined. Their fate already is determined in the sense that they're already marching towards an eternity apart from God. And our mission is to rescue as many as we can off of a ship that is already sinking. See, sometimes we think that our mission is to somehow stop the ship from sinking. That's not the mission. You won't find one passage about that. Paul comes into all kinds of towns. perverse towns, all kinds of brokenness. He's dealing with a government that is unbelievable. Are we dealing with some difficulties in government? Yes. Is there some governmental overreach? Yes. Are our lives being micromanaged to some extent? Yes. Is there some pull in terms of liberties and freedoms, those kinds of things? Is the country sort of on a downhill slide as it relates to some of that? Yes. Is there some pushback to that by people? Yes. Maybe you're a part of that. I know I vote in favor of freedom. But you think about these things, that's not my mission. This nation isn't even a part of the ending of the story. In fact, if you're so eager to be with the Lord, you'd be in a sense sort of relieved to see that we're getting closer to that, right? What are you desperately clinging to? What am I so desperately clinging to? The message of the Bible is a message where the story has an ending that's already been written. It's like this song that we'll likely sing here, hopefully you'll like it. The hook of the song is, I know how the story ends. How does it end? We will be with you again. No more fear in life and death, it says, I know how the story ends. You know how the story ends. The mission isn't to somehow stop this boat that is sliding to an eternity apart from God. It's to throw life jackets to people who are drowning. Now along the way, are there other things that we can do to try to in a sense, preserve good things? Am I saying we should just throw away things without any thought whatsoever that have been fought so hard for, that have been so good, that have been so wonderful to take advantage of and to enjoy? No, I'm not saying that at all. But I'm just saying that's not my mission. That's not the mission at all. And when that mission supersedes the actual mission, we got a problem, Houston. And I'll tell you what, I'm speaking from my own life. Don't get all bent out of shape as you sit there. My tendency has been to get off focus, to lose sight of what the real mission is. I've spent years of my life caught up in all that. No more, by God's grace, no more. I don't have time to focus on anything save Christ and Him crucified. I plan on, by God's grace, every breath I breathe, every word that I say being Jesus Christ and Him alone, Him crucified. And I would actually argue that that's the example that you're gonna see in Paul's life as he goes from town to town preaching about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Man, throws us off our timeline here. So I'm ready to preach. I'm a debtor to share, and I'm ready to preach. But I'm not ready to preach about just anything. I'm ready to preach the gospel. And it focuses on the good news. And it's a message about the good news as it relates to practical sanctification. That's my perspective. Salvation that God offers from the power of sin to rule in our lives. And that's ultimately what Romans is gonna build up to, at least through the eighth chapter, as God is talking about how can these believers that Paul is writing to, Paul wants to show with them and share with them how How did we have victory over the penalty of sin? How can we have victory over the power of sin, its influence on our lives, trying to rule and reign and direct in our lives? So he says, so much as in me, it just means to the extent of my abilities, knowing that God is ultimately having to work through him, Paul realizes that this isn't gonna be in his own strength. Now we have verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, Are you convinced yet that this book is about the gospel, about how man needs the gospel, about how the gospel encapsulates every phase of our lives, past, present, and future? I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Now, this is the last of three descriptions of Paul's ministry perspective. We have I am. a debtor to share the gospel, I am ready to preach the gospel, I am not ashamed of the gospel. And not ashamed refers to a lack of embarrassment, timidness, or sheepishness. Did Paul even need prayers about that? Yeah, he says, pray that I would have boldness so that I could speak as I ought to speak. Friends, pray that I would have boldness. I mentioned my hat, Jesus saves. Pray that as those conversations would occur, I would have boldness to clearly and accurately and lovingly communicate God's message of hope to those that need to hear about that. Pray that you would have that same perspective. that you'd have the same boldness that you're willing to talk about other things, you'd have that same boldness to talk about the thing that matters most, the salvation that God offers through the person and work of his son at a point in time, and the salvation that God makes available practically over time in our lives as believers as we talk to one another. I hope that when we're struggling and we come alongside of each other, we say, hey, yeah, I know you're struggling, me too at times, but greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. I know that the spirit of life and godliness has given me freedom over the law of sin and death. Do you believe that, friend? Are you appropriating that? Are you living in light of that? I'm not as much as I should, but come on. Let's get our focus back where it needs to be. There's victory available every moment of every day if we can just trust and depend on and focus on the Lord. So he says, I'm not ashamed. I'm not embarrassed, timid, or sheepish about this. And about what? The gospel of Christ. identifies the focus of this good news message. It brought us life in terms of life from the debt, the death that we were living in, the debt that was owed from our sins, but life as in living life right now too, which is the emphasis that he has actually. So it's the gospel of Christ. Now why are believers not to be timid about sharing this good news message? For, it tells us, because, you could write there, because it is the power, the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Believes at a point in time, and actually right here this is present tense, who is believing. Why? Because this is written to believers about how they could experience the power of God that would lead to salvation practically in their everyday lives. as they continue to believe in God as the resource or the provision or the source of victory over the influence of sin internally and externally in the Christian life. The power of God to salvation. It refers to the means through which God makes salvation available. And the focus is on the effectiveness and the exclusivity of this message of good news. There's not other ways to be saved. It's only God that can provide this salvation. And like I said, this salvation is not limited to one phase of salvation. We're talking about all phases of salvation. Salvation from the penalty of sin, salvation from the power of sin, salvation from the presence of sin, and he'll get into that later in this book. Now who is this available? For everyone who believes. See, the only way God's salvation is appropriated is through believing at a point in time and practically over time. If you want to experience the salvation that God offers to a believer, the victory that He offers over sin and death, over self-will, then it's going to take believing presently in God's provision to deal with man's need. the power of the Spirit of God working inside of us, keeping our focus on God and the salvation He makes available so that the Spirit of God can give us the victory over the law of sin and death. Not for everyone who believes. See, refusing to believe is the only thing preventing anyone from being saved. Refusing to believe presently is the only thing affecting or preventing somebody from experiencing the life that God has planned for us, the abundant life. That's true, past, present, and future. See the gospel's efficacy, fancy word that means the ability to produce a desired or intended result, it depends on man's willingness to receive the message, to trust in the message, to accept the message, to appropriate the message. That's what it means here in a second tense setting, to appropriate this message. It's the gospel of Christ. That is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who is believing. Now for the Jew first and also for the Greek indicates universal access. This was available to everyone and it's true that the message first came. He came unto his own, and his own received him not, and then it spread to the other most parts of the earth. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. Now verse 17, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. In it, referring again to the gospel. It's revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now this provides a second explanation of why the gospel is so critical. In it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Now we're going to see that there's a lot of emphasis put on the righteousness of God because that's the thing that's supposed to have shown man that they have a need. And then having seen a need to see that it's going to have to be righteousness that God can provide because man cannot source righteousness in himself. Man cannot source righteousness through human works or human efforts. Man cannot source righteousness in the world around him. Righteousness can only be sourced in the author of righteousness, which is God Himself. So it's really referring to in it the righteousness of God is revealed. It explains how the gospel message ultimately provides an explanation of man's need. See, it is through comprehending the righteousness of God that man can see his guilt, his inadequacy, his insufficiency, can appreciate the condemnation he faces at a point in time and over time, the condemnation that he faces apart from the salvation that God offers. Are you here this morning with this perspective that there was a time where I was hopeless and helpless and hell-bound until I received the salvation that God offers that was extended to me through the gift of His Son, and I believed and received and accepted that. I put my trust in that. I was then saved from the penalty of my sin. I was adopted into God's family. I was sealed by the Holy Spirit. I was indwelt. I was baptized in terms of identified now with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That occurred? Now, as I go about living my life, do I recognize that I need to have this ongoing focus on this salvation that God can offer apart from my own human effort, apart from my own human strength that God is going to have to work? in me, that I'm hopeless without you, that I can do nothing without you. Do I have that ongoing perspective? Well, it's desired that you would. Now, from faith to faith likely refers to the idea that justifying faith is only the beginning of Christian life. The same response of faith governs a believer's continuing experience as a child of God. So the idea would be faith that leads to more faith or ongoing faith. Now, the other take on it is that it's faith that had been previously revealed to a lesser extent through the revelation of Scripture and that it was progressively expanded upon, faith that was ever, ever increasing in its revelation to this sort of more to complete faith or make more complete understanding that's available now. I don't prefer that one over this one. From faith to faith. The righteousness of God is revealed for a purpose so that faith can lead to ongoing or more faith as we would live our lives a life of faith. We walk by faith. We were saved by faith but we walk by faith as well. Now the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God refers to righteousness that originates with God. See, God's moral virtue and excellence is what we're talking about in terms of His righteousness. It's His virtue and excellence that prompts Him to do all that He does, including bringing people into a proper relationship with Him, but also judging people for their sin. So God's righteous standard on one hand causes Him to want to draw people to Himself and offer a way of rescue, but it also, His righteousness demands that there would be judgment for violating His holiness or violating His standards of what is right. See, God's moral virtue and excellence includes both His justice that leads Him to judge sinners and also His love that leads Him in Christ to redeem them, people who are lost and estranged from Him. and God's righteousness, the righteousness of God is revealed and we're gonna see that the righteousness of God is explained as we get further into this to show that this is the reason why man had a need. This is a reason why man needed to be rescued and this is the means by which man could be rescued through the person and work of Jesus Christ and that this need for rescue and ransom and restoration is ongoing as a Christian goes about then growing in faith and living the Christian life. So we'll see that as we keep going, but that's what we're talking about when we think about the righteousness of God being revealed from faith to faith. This is a righteousness that God provides man in response to faith in the gospel. So Paul will explain in these later chapters that the key is not found in securing your own righteousness. The emphasis is on receiving Christ's imputed righteousness through faith. Now we see this phrase that just shall live by faith, it's a summary, as it is written. This is meant to paraphrase what was already said. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, meaning it had already been revealed previously. It's wanting to cause people to grow in their faith, and it was written beforehand. And this verse is quoted several times in the New Testament, that just shall live by faith. And it represents the only salvation or eternal life, it represents that salvation and eternal life can only be accessed through faith, the only means for being saved or accessing this life that God makes available is through faith. Faith at a point in time and ongoing faith as a process over time. It could be translated, the one who is righteous by faith will live. The one who is righteous by faith will live. The only way you're going to live a right life, and again this is written to believers, the only way you're going to live a right life is by faith, if you're living by faith. That's the only way that you could be saved from the power of sins seeking to rule and reign in your life. Now, as a result of faith, a person is declared righteous. and give an eternal life. That's not something you produced. That's something that God produces, again, at a point in time and as a process over time. I am right with God, not as a result of doing all of these things, but as a result of enjoying Him, remaining close to Him, depending on Him, trusting Him, staying in fellowship with Him. Then the Spirit of God produces a right way of life in my life. and that's all a byproduct of faith. That's the only way I can receive God's righteousness in terms of His imputed righteousness. That's the only way I can be righteous in terms of living a life that would be experientially consistent or compatible with this life that God has planned for me. So do you see yourself as a slave of Jesus Christ? Is that how you see yourself? That was the overarching point here as we're talking about the importance of this gospel message. Then the whole book is an expansion then on that gospel message. Gospel, again, good news message as it relates to salvation in every phase of the Christian life. But you have that perspective that I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. Do you have a ministry-centric perspective where you're thinking about how does God want to work through my life to minister to the needs of others? If you don't, would your prayer be, Lord, give me a heart for people the way you have a heart for people? A heart for people in what sense? A heart for people in the sense that I could be spending all my time trying to make their temporal life better, to clarify their confusion about the temporal realm, temporal passing world around us, to convince them to have the same values that I have as it relates to Well, certainly non-biblical matters. But how about even biblical matters? Would it do you any good to convince them to have the same values you have about biblical matters and skip across the primary issue, the primary point, which is they either know the Savior or they don't? and no amount of compatibility about these biblical perspectives or biblical principles or biblical values apart from a common acceptance of the person and work of Jesus Christ, a common faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ could ever help them. Do you see that? There was a time when perhaps your whole community generally accepted the moral principles that you accept from God's Word. Did that make for a better society? Yeah. Make for a better community? Yeah. Did it make for a better country? Yeah. Did it make for a country or did it make for a society that knew the Lord, that truly knew the Lord? The answer is no, it didn't. Because accepting moral values and principles from God's Word without accepting Jesus Christ doesn't do you a hill of good, doesn't do you a beans worth of good. Absolutely useless. So, first things first. Am I gonna stay focused on the gospel? See, if you have a ministry-centric perspective, you would. You would be focused on the good news message of salvation in every phase of life as it relates to the lost. When you talk to other believers, you'd be focused on the good news message of salvation as it relates to Christian living, as it relates to the gospel message. That would be your focus. So then, do you have this perspective that Paul does? Would you summarize yourself with these three I ams? I'm a debtor to the gospel. I'm a debtor to this outreach to all men. I am eager to preach the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel. Would those be the phrases that would describe your ministry-centric perspective? It should. By God's grace, this can. By God's grace, this should describe every believer's mindset. And again, don't have the takeaway me. He says I can't be concerned about anything else. That's not the takeaway. That's just you reading more into it than what I'm saying. I'm saying our primary focus, our primary message, our primary emphasis needs to be the gospel of Jesus Christ as it relates to every phase of the human experience. That needs to be the primary. And then whatever else happens after that, whatever is secondary, That's between you and the Lord. But this is the primary message. And that's what Paul was known for. If you read about him, that's what you're gonna see he was known for. As you read about him, you're gonna struggle to find him investing a lot of time in some of these secondary things. Doesn't mean he never did, because his whole life story is not told in this book. Who knows what else he talked about? Who knows what else he invested in? Probably a bunch of other things that we don't know about. But his primary investment was in the gospel of Jesus Christ, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your truth, thank you for your love. Thank you for your life that you were willing to shed and give up for us so that we could have life. Thank you that you were willing to die on Calvary even though we didn't deserve it. Thank you that you are such a good God. Thank you that you're for us, you're never against us, that you write even books like this so that we could grow in our faith. We could be reminded of our need at a point in time, but our need for you every moment of every day as a process over time. Pray that we would be encouraged by these truths. Pray that even as we look next week into some of the details about the unrighteousness of man and how it manifests itself, and how it should show man that they're guilty before a holy God and that they need the salvation that you offer, not just at a point in time but over time too. Pray that we would be reminded that without you we're hopeless, that if we're not careful that we'll be in the same predicament that anyone could be in, that we're floundering, we're wallowing around thinking that something is true when it's not, thinking that we're trusting you when we're not, thinking that we're focused on you when you're not. Pray that you would reveal those things to us, show those truths to us so that we could have our thinking changed and then you would have the ability to actually work in our lives to accomplish your purposes so that we wouldn't be reluctant. that we wouldn't be only partially available, that we would be all in in the sense of being completely available for you to work in our lives so that you could accomplish your objective, which is that your light would be shine into every corner