Welcome to the Hackberry House of Chosun. I'm Bob. I'm reading today from a study of the book of Romans. We're in chapter 15 of that epistle of Paul. Chapter 15, verse 15, Paul knows that the Romans know a whole lot of things about the Lord and so on. Nevertheless, he says in verse 15, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points The gospel already came to you. I know your church is established. You have teachers there. But I sense from what I've heard that there was something lacking in what you've received so far. There are some things going on and some teachings going around that let me know that I need to complete your knowledge. You may have received some of this before, but something didn't gel with you. Somehow you didn't have a full sense of how evil is the human race, how lost without our message. Somehow you did not see the plan of God to save an elected people. You did not understand that the strength in knowledge is not as important as strength in love. Maybe you heard it before, but accept this offering, as he says, as reminding you And if you heard it before, forgive me, but try your best to get it this time. These things are crucial. He says, because of the grace given to me by God. We all have our part to play in building up the body of Christ. Paul says, each of us apostles have a piece of the puzzle that you need to profit. My particular grace has been given to the Gentiles. And there are many Gentiles in your congregation. I know that my thoughts concerning the pagan cultures and their entrance into the church are going to be helpful as you struggle together for the unity that is in Christ. Then in verse 16, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. There's that word minister again. I say again because the King James uses that English word up in verse 8. Speaking of the fact that Jesus has become, in the Greek, a slave actually, not a minister as we think of it, a servant to the Jewish people. This is in accord with Isaiah, who promised a suffering servant would appear in those last days. In verse 8, you've got the word diakonos then. But here, a different word is used. And diakonos is slave, low class, bottom of the barrel. But the New King James notes the difference between these two Greek words by changing the English word from servant in verse 8 to minister here. Liturgos is a public servant, a public servant. The meaning is still low class, but not like diakonos. This is a functionary in the temple, one who does this or that service to God or man, He's serving people, but you don't think of him in any low way. If we use this context only, look at what serving God means. Jesus is the lowliest of servants, verse 8. Paul recognizes he's not on that same level as the Lord, though he knows that this is the goal of all of us, and he will call himself a diachoness in other places. But isn't it abominable? that the servants of Christ in our part of the world anyway, today, are striving for power and recognition and the public platforms while Jesus looked for a cross and Paul was seeking out the low places. So Jesus came to the Jews and served them. That's verse 8. Then Jesus sends Paul to the Gentiles to serve them. Quote, ministering the gospel of God. I'm still in verse 16, that I might be a minister, ministering in the gospel of God. It's good to be reminded that this good news was orchestrated by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. All that is God is involved in bringing good news to fallen man. And Paul recognizes that it is God's grace on him that is bringing this message to the Romans. And then he brings this thought, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable. The King James use of the word up, offering up, makes the thought, I think, more understandable. It's not in the Greek, but this is not an offering that the Gentiles are offering when it talks about the offering of the Gentiles. It's not something they're offering. The context and the flow of the Greek demands that it's the Gentiles that are the offering. They're not offering something. They're not even offering themselves. It's Paul that's doing the offering. Who's offering the sacrifice? The context implies Paul. Paul is speaking of himself. The offering up, my offering up of the Gentiles. We say there's not any priests anymore, but in fact, in Christ, All God's people are priests called to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. What each man offers up is between him and his God. Paul believed he was to offer on God's altar all the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations of earth. This is my job. This is what I will give to the Lord the rest of my life. This is what I will do. This is my calling. Now, Peter opened the door to the Gentiles, remember, in the home of Cornelius in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus about Peter being given the keys of the kingdom. He opened the door to the Jews with one key, and with that other key opened the door to the Gentiles. But it was Paul who would be the designated, if I may use that word again, functionary, the priest, the public servant, a minister, in God's spiritual temple that would complete this work. Fellow priests are the men who worked with him then and countless missionaries and preachers and teachers through the years who would carry this same gospel following his example to all the people groups of earth. The Gentiles are still being offered up by some people whose calling it is to go after them and to be sure that they hear and are saved. God is still breathing in the sacrificial aromas that he loves so much as they all, these Gentiles, are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The end of verse 16, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We offer up a soul here or there, and God makes that soul holy with his own presence. The priesthood lives and flourishes. It's you, it's me. One after another, nationals around the world are laid on the altar and made acceptable to God by God. Verse 17, therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. Now, Paul was very sensitive to the subject of glorying or boasting. On the very next page of your Bible, Paul is warning the Corinthians to glory only in the Lord since we, as a whole, are such a base people, nothing in the eyes of the world. In 2 Corinthians 10, 17, he uses the very same words, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. We have nothing to glory about in ourselves. He borrows that from the prophet Jeremiah, by the way. in reference to various spheres of ministry. Well, Paul is painfully aware that what he is doing is actually being done by the Lord. Left to himself, Paul would have been out rounding up Christians to have them imprisoned, slaughtered. Left to himself, how could he cast out demons and survive shipwrecks and heal the sick and know which towns and cities to go to and all the rest? But he wasn't left to himself. Somehow the work of offering up of Gentiles, which Paul did, Paul offered himself to do this, but it was being done through him. As Mary said, you know, you go ahead, whatever, whatever you want to do, Lord, just do it. I agree. You know, it's, that's what Paul was doing and just offering his body, but it was God doing all of this. So he gloried. in the Lord. That should be our attitude also. In verse 18, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me. Now that's an unusual outburst it seems. In verse 17, this last verse, he's boasting in God. Here he stops short of his boasting, almost in fear. The two versions that come from the Textus Receptus, The King James and New King James seem to convey what the original Greeks said. And that is, not will I dare, and this is how the Greek would read, not will I dare to speak anything of what not worked out by Christ by me. But most newer translations have offered an explanation of those words that I think helps us understand what was being said in plain English. Since Paul refuses to speak of things that Christ has not done, that is, things that he may have done in his own power, in his own flesh, the thought would run like this, like in the New American Standard Bible. He says, I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. I'm not gonna speak of what I've accomplished, what I did. and what Christ did not do. No, I'm not going to speak about any of that. I'm definitely not going to glory in any of that. I'm not going to speak about anything unless I know that Christ is the one who did it. How many braggarts could be persuaded to step down from their glorious position if they would just say and believe what Paul is saying here? How many human innovations have come into the church and built the church to a great number. But those innovations and those high-spirited leaders deserve the credit. We talk about so-and-so's church and we use a human name there. Oh, man, that man, he really built that church. Oh, did he? Well, then it's not the church of Jesus Christ. That man deserves the credit. Great ideas that came into his head. He's like a businessman. He knew exactly what to do. How many churches are based on rich people giving huge donations or programs like that? The church that money built is a sign that we could put over how many churches in this nation and in the West, the church that money built. But where's the church that Christ has built? I've been asking that for a long time in my own life. Where are you working, Lord? What are you building? I want to be there. I want to build with you. I don't want to build with men. And I want to build with money. I want to build with you. Paul was working on that church for sure in the first century. And he doesn't mention money in the building of it, as you will see. He talks about in word and deed. I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in word and deed. If any of my words or my actions were not guided by and filled with the Holy Spirit, I will not speak about them. Only those words and deeds that were heaven sent are the things that God uses, quote, to make the Gentiles obedient. That's the end of verse 18. Not going to speak of anything that I did in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient. How does a mere mortal man reach into a totally new culture and bring individuals inside that culture to come to obedience to the gospel? How does that work? There's a lot of methods available out there. The mission fields of earth have probably seen them all by now. We've seen it for sure. But only God's methods are to be praised because when it's God's method, it's God that can be praised. Paul will have none of the human ways and means of preaching the gospel. And he's now going to tell us what he's talking about, which is the only sure way of building Christ's church. You can build a church. You can build a group of people, congregation, that will come and listen to you week after week, but it may or may not be Christ Church. Here's the only sure way of success from heaven's standpoint. Starts in verse 19, and we don't have time for that right now. We're gonna stop right there, I've been reading stories to my grandchildren recently, exciting little stories that they get into. I like to do this, I stop in the middle of an idea and they say, no, no, don't stop there. And there might be somebody out there today saying, no. Of course, all you have to do is go ahead and read it in your Bible, verse 19, but we'll pick it up here next time. We have other, teachings of all sorts. We have some great men of God on this site. If you go about two-thirds of the way down the page you're on and click on the link that says sermon series, the word series, look for it, and you will see scores of opportunities for learning different things. I won't go through it all again right now. There's books also at the top. If you click on store at the top of your page, store, You'll see some things that I put together from the teachings that are already there. There's nothing really new on the books, but if you'd just like to have a book in front of you instead of going through all those audio recordings, there it is. And of course, North Korea there. Hundreds and hundreds, literally, of audios on North Korea. I think you get the idea. I would like a prayer partner or two right there. So this is the Hackberry House of Chosun. Lord willing, we get to talk again real soon. Bye-bye.