Draw your attention back to Romans 1 this morning. Once again, we will be reading verses 8 through 15. Romans 1 beginning at verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians. both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Let's pray. Gracious Lord and our Heavenly Father, Lord, we are Thankful that you've given us another morning to draw breath. That you've given us another morning that we might come together and to worship you, to honor you, to sing praises to your name and to address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Lord, that we might be useful to each other. Lord, in the graces that you've given us to build one another up, to be mutually beneficial to each other. Lord, that our unity in the body might be strengthened through what you've given us. Lord, the gift of faith and grace that is gifted each one according to what you have purposed and willed. Lord, may we long to be with one another May we long to worship, to unite our hearts in praise and adoration of you and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit for what you have done in each of our lives. Lord, may we be living testimonies to these things. May we be lights to the world. May we be a city here set on a hill. Lord, that we might not hide that which has been given to us, but we might proclaim it to the world boldly and without apology. Lord, we are unashamed of this gospel. It's good news. Lord, give us more boldness to proclaim it. Be with us this morning as we turn to your word, strengthen us through it, Lord, bind us closer together and more firmly together. It's in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Last week, we. began to look at the text of Romans 1, 8-15, we're able to cover verses 8 and 9, and we ended with the beginning of what we have recorded for us as verse 10. It should be noted again that these divisions were not original in the text. that these were later editions that came into the translations for aiding, inciting, and being able to find things in Scripture quickly. But because of that, it's kind of hard sometimes to find an appropriate place to start and to stop. We'll remember that this is a letter written to the church in Rome, and when it was received, it probably would have been read start to finish. And later, maybe come back to certain sections of it, but there weren't these divisions. Think, if you will, about when Christ stood up in the synagogue and began to speak in Luke 4. We're able to immediately turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 4, a division not existing when Luke was actually written. And then we're able to be directed to verse 16. And you can easily find Luke chapter 4 verse 16, and we find there this accounting of what happened here in the synagogue. And it says, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. Now, I won't go on and read the rest of that passage that we find there this morning for the sake of time, because we're probably going to be pressed for time. But we find these divisions later added, and while they don't affect the meaning or the flow of the text, sometimes they do cause some issues with where things start and stop, and sometimes cause some ambiguity in where phrases start and where they stop. often find the completion of an idea, which I think is what we found in verse 10 here, kind of the completion of an idea, as Paul uses long phrases, in verse 10 that probably belongs with verse 9. So that's a long way of me saying that we're picking back up in the middle part of verse 10, where Paul says, in verse 9, where Paul says, For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers. Well, this always in prayers is something that we find is very important to the Apostle Paul, and he wants the people of God to know that this is the case. We ended last week by saying that we should be a praying and a serving people. And we should be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ, lifting them up before God the Father through our mediator and our intercessor, our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is stressing that he is praying for these Christians, and we find him doing this often in his epistles. We stated that last week. Paul, the persecutor, has become the persecuted. He who would have previously been seeking to arrest these that he writes to has now been miraculously transformed, and he would have taken these before the rulers to be tried. And now he intercedes on their behalf through Christ before the one sovereign ruler, God. Isn't it amazing the transformation that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings about? Well, Paul's desire, this is where we left off. We covered three of the five points that I said that we were going to cover in last week's message. And today, we're probably going to be able to cover most of Paul's desire, which is the fourth point out of the five. Romans 1.10. always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you." The first thing that we should see here is this, is that Paul is praying for this. He is asking that by some means or somehow, he might succeed in coming to see these who are in Rome, these saints in Rome, these Christians here in Rome. And what is it that he appeals to in asking for this? What does he say? By God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. You see, this is Paul's desire. He wants to be with these Christians here in Rome. He had been trying to see them, and as we will see even further in a few moments, he is He is trying, he is planning, he is wanting to go see them. We can catch a glimpse of it here in our text where he says, somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. He wants this, he desires this, yet see how Paul here is praying for that which he desires, yet his desires are subservient to something else. Something greater that Paul has in mind than just his desires, his wishes, his longings, are subservient to that of his master. Remember how Paul started this epistle. Paul, a servant, a servant of Christ Jesus. He is a humble servant who bows his knee to his Lord and prays, yes, for his desire to come to pass, and to come to pass at last, but for it to come to pass if it is God's will that it come to pass. You see, Paul knows, and I wish that we knew more sometimes, more fully this very thing, that the scales of our desires and what God's will is, what it is to be properly balanced there. It is not what we would seek to find in balance when we go, you know, and we weigh something out and we find out that this is equal. These two things are not equal. Our desires are not equal to God's desires. The proper balancing of that scale should be God's desire weighs down everything else. It overcomes everything else. And we pray that as Christians, our desire then, how this is properly balanced, is that our desires come into line with what God desires for our life. That's the only way that these scales can be balanced, is for our desire to be that which is desired by God. Paul, you see, he has learned what Solomon learned. In Proverbs 16, 9, the heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps. The heart of man is full of plans, is it not? But we find that oftentimes many doors are shut. Sometimes they're slammed in our face. And sometimes there are doors open that we would have never imagined in our lives that would be open. because it's the Lord who directs our steps. So it is then with this in mind that Paul goes on in Romans 1 verse 11. He says, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. Some spiritual gift to strengthen you. Paul again expresses his longing to see them. He greatly longs to walk among them, to fellowship with them. His brothers and sisters in Christ here in Rome, fellow members of the body of Christ. Paul didn't desire to see the great things of Rome. There were some amazing things here in Rome to see. His desire wasn't to see the theaters, the sporting arenas, The arches, the temples, it's not what Paul has it in his heart to see. These are, you see, mere creations of man. They're the works of the hands of man, built for man's glory or for the glory of an idol, a false god. But that's not what Paul says here. He asks God that by his will, he may come to them. His desire is to see them, to see the people, to meet with them, to fellowship with believers is his desire to see these new creations, not the creations of man, not that which is built by man's hands, but the new creations that are made by God. fallen dead sinners made alive, made into new creatures in Christ Jesus. And what then is his further desire? Paul explains here why he longs to see them, that he may impart to them some spiritual gift to strengthen them. You see, it wasn't just a check in the box for Paul. Oh, I've been to the church in Rome. These whose faith is spoken of throughout all the world. I've been among them. No, he wants to be the means whereby they receive a gift, a gift of grace that they may be strengthened or some of your translations may say that they be established, that they may be established. What is it that Paul is saying here? that they may be strengthened, that they may be built up, that they may be established. This has the connotation of being firm, being fixed, unflinching, if you will. This is what Paul's desire is for them, that he might give them some gift to do this for this body of believers here. In other words, He longs that they may be standing firmly in the Lord, strengthened at all times, rooted and grounded in the person and in the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Think of it like this. A tree can stand in fierce winds if the root of the tree is firmly established, right? If the root of the tree runs deep, if it's the roots that binds the tree to the earth, it tethers the tree, it strengthens the tree, it nourishes the tree, it supports the tree. If the root is weak or shallow and the wind comes, the tree falls down. It can't stand. The deeper the root, the more it is established and the stronger that tree becomes. This is just a picture, if you will, of what Paul is wanting to be the means by which this group of Christians here in Rome receives a gift that they may be strengthened, that they may be more firmly established, that they might be more fixed. Now then, what is it that Paul wants to give them? What is this spiritual gift that he speaks of? Well, he doesn't say here in detail what this gifting is or what it is pertaining to. Some have said that this is one of the sign gifts that Paul wants to give this group of believers here, those gifts that were primarily in use during this time and leading up to the time when the canon of scripture was complete. But he doesn't say. We might find a little bit of insight into this later in Romans where he mentions gifts in chapter 12. If you turn to Romans 12 verses 3 through 8, we will find Paul mentioning here some gifts. He says, for by the grace given to me, Romans 12, three through eight, for the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, We have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them. if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who hears, excuse me, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. And then if you remember last week, what flows out of this passage, what follows this passage is what we looked at last week regarding the marks of a true Christian. If you recall that from last week, where Paul says, outdo one another in showing honor. He says what? Serve the Lord and to be constant in prayer. Well, how are these to serve? With the gifts that they've been given. You see these flow out of the grace that is given to each one of these members of the body. It's a remarkable thing in general that God has done for his church. And I look forward to one day arriving at this passage here in Romans 12 and looking a little bit further at this. But is there anything from this passage that we are looking at this morning in Romans 1, where we can infer what Paul may be speaking about regarding this gift? Once again, I don't want to belabor this point, but at the same time, I do want to repeat it enough times that it finally gets sunk into my brain at least, if not all of our brains, that when we read scripture, sometimes we need to slow down. and think about what it is that God the Spirit is saying to us through these men who recorded what he gave them to write. And I believe that there is a hint or something that we might infer from this by looking at our text. What follows his desire to be with them and to impart to them some spiritual gift that may strengthen them? Look at verse 12. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I think this is a clue to what this gift is that Paul is talking about. And I would tend towards leaning towards the fact that this is a more general gift than the specific gift of some sign gift that some believe that this is what Paul is referring to here. I think it's something more general, that they might be mutually beneficial to each other, that by being together, they may each make use of that which God has given to them as a gift of his grace, that they might be all encouraged together, each one sharing with others the use of the gift that they have been given. And then the purpose of this, so that they might be more firmly established, strengthened, edified, firmly fixed in the faith. So there are a couple things here that I find to be extremely fascinating as we ponder this part of this passage. Things that I believe that we should take to heart and learn from. and make sure that we are following what I see as a exhortation from Paul here that is implicit in what he is saying. If it is good and to be desired, and that Paul would be led to record this, then should it not be something that should also concern us, and the way that our lives are lived, that we might be mutually beneficial one to another? Well, first, I want us to notice that the humility of the apostle here, that he would take note of the fact that the saints in Rome would be of benefit to him, to him, and might be used by God to encourage the apostle Paul in his own faith, that they might be beneficial to him as well. It's so important for us to see this while the body there in Rome has no apostle that is residing there in Rome with them that we know of or that is recorded for us in scripture. Yet Paul sees that the faith which these Christians are in possession of was not lesser than the faith that he possessed. He did not consider himself to be some super Christian who would come and give and have nothing to receive from these Christians here. He sees no such thing here. Each is gifted. And what I believe he has in mind is what comes later than later. later in what we just referenced there in Romans 12. It is all in what God has gifted to the individual members. There are some in this church here in Rome who might be a blessing to Paul by using the gifts that have been given to them. And Paul is not simply just paying lip service to them. He's not just making them feel important here. He's speaking truth. And all praise goes to God, for it is God who gives the gifts in accordance with the measure of faith that has been assigned to each one. The faith is the faith of God given to us, the faith of Christ given to us, right? whether that's the faith of the apostle Paul or the faithfulness and the faith in the least of all the saints here in Rome, same faith. And there are gifts given to those who have been granted faith. Well, the second thing I think we should ponder here for a moment, the shared benefit of the fellowship of the saints. This is a great benefit that God has given us If you are a Christian and are not fellowshipping with the saints, one of two things is sure. On the one end, you may not have a true faith. If you are not desiring to worship and to fellowship with the saints, you may not have a true faith. Or there is a deficiency in some way that is going to creep in. We are designed to be the body of Christ. Consider for a moment, if you will, the exhortation that we have from the writer of Hebrews. In Hebrews 10 verse 23 through 25, he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir one another up. Listen to the language that he uses there. How to stir one another up. To love, in good words, not neglecting, the writer says here in Hebrews, not neglecting to meet together. As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more, as you see the day drawing near. This benefit of fellowship, of meeting together, of worshiping together is so much more than just watching something on YouTube. The whole COVID thing, the ridiculousness that has ensued in light of that is the fact that people think that they can be a part of a church and never step foot in with the body of Christ. This is devastating to the life of a Christian. There are times when people are a distance, when people are due to health or circumstances, must do some of these things. And I am thankful that one thing that came out of that is a lot more churches are recording things so that when the members of their church are unable to be present or because of sickness or health or whatever the case is, they're unable to come, they can still understand and see what it is that is going on in the preaching of the gospel in their church. but they're not replacements. They're not replacements. They don't allow for the stirring one another up in love and good works. They don't allow for the mutual building up of one another's faith. I don't in any way hesitate to say this and I'll not be shy about this. The saints of God are to be together. So that the gifts that they have been given by the grace of God might be useful to other parts of the body. It's not a body if the parts are not brought together and used for the purpose that God has united them together for. Ephesians, Paul speaks about this in his letter to the church at Ephesus. Ephesians 4, 15 through 16, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined. the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And he says in Ephesians 5 verse 19, addressing one another, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. This is the body of Christ addressing one another. It is one member speaking to another member, singing, lifting up to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. As one part of the body unites itself with the other parts of the body in worship. Do we rightly understand and take heed of what the Apostle Paul is telling us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit here? Oh, how sweet it is to speak one to another the things of the Lord. How sweet it is this nourishing effect of the fellowship of the saints, of coming together with those who are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit. It's almost like the Holy Spirit who resides in one believer is reaching out and holding hands with the same Holy Spirit that indwells another believer, joining them together. Do you see, brothers and sisters, how our hearts are built up in boldness? and our minds are stirred up together in joy to proclaim many parts, many separate voices, all in unison of faith, in harmony of function, together, to proclaim the goodness of God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. to worship together, to grow together. In this way, think about this, in this way, the old Christian might be reinvigorated, renewed, strengthened in their faith by seeing the joy that overcomes a new birth. And the new Christian might be strengthened, might be built up in seeing the old Christian who by the grace of God has persevered through trial and adversity, sickness, suffering, just the pollution of the world. And they've persevered through it all, building up the faith, strengthening the faith, establishing the faith of the new believer. Listen to how Spurgeon puts this. Spurgeon had a way with words. Spurgeon says, Paul wanted his faith to establish theirs and their faith to establish his. Christians grow rich by an exchange of spiritual commodities. And I am afraid some Christians are very poor because they do not engage in this spiritual bartering one with another. You know how it was in the old time. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another." Spurgeon says, shall I tell you how it is now? They that fear not the Lord speak often one against another. That is a very sad difference. Oh, Spurgeon says, for more Christian communion. For when we blend our mutual faith, we are comforted together. Each believer grows stronger as he cheers his brother in the Lord. Have you ever been traveling? Gotta be careful with time here, but have you ever been traveling and you meet a believer, and there's this inward pull to fellowship with this one, and you come away strengthened? Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever been to a business that is run by Christians and entered that business? I think of this every time we go to Reformation Heritage up in Michigan. There is a strengthening that takes place because there is a bond in the communion of believers one with another. We benefit from the strengths of the grace, the gifts that God has given them. And they might be of benefit, our strengths, our gifts that are given to us by the grace of God might be of benefit to them. Mutually building each other up. Is this not your experience? Is this not true? Have you not experienced this in your life? Well, we must go on. Paul goes on to tell the saints here in verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. Paul here uses a type of speech where he expresses an affirmative but uses a negative expression of the contrary to what he intends. And he does this for emphasis. He says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers. He is in effect saying, I want you to be aware. I want you to understand this. I want you to see this, to get this in your head. He wants them to know that he has intended on many occasions to come and see them and to do what he has already said that he wanted to do, that he may impart to them a gift. and that they might be mutually beneficial to one another in the building up of their faith, he is stressing that this is not just something that is a passing thing for him, that he has occasionally wanted to see them, but instead emphasizes this and says, I have often intended to come, but up to now I have been prevented or hindered from this. Now, this itself shows that this is more than just a desire It shows that Paul had actually been making plans. He had been making an effort to come, but had been stopped in these efforts. Now, what has prevented this? Once again, Paul doesn't declare to us what has prevented him from coming to them. He just states it by way of inserting it, it's a parenthetical statement here, into what he is saying, that he often intended to come to them, that he might reap some harvest among them. Yet here we have this insertion for us, for our benefit, that we might learn something from it. The Holy Spirit inspiring Paul to write this to the church in Rome. The question we have then, knowing the desire of Paul to visit them, is why and what prevented this? And I will again go back to the overruling principle in life, to Paul and to us, that God directs our steps. He establishes our steps. Our plans are many, and some of them, as Paul's were here, are plans and desires that we've held for a long time. As Hendrickson states about what Paul is stating here, Paul is telling them that his love for them and his desire to see them was not born yesterday. This has been a long time desire, a deep desire of Paul. But no matter the actual cause of what Paul is saying here, something has prevented Paul from coming to Rome. And we know that our sovereign Lord, the hand of our sovereign Lord is ruling over this situation. And here it is that we may rest. Even when we still desire in the flesh to see or arrive at some place, we rest that God directs or establishes our steps. In one place in scripture, we find Paul stating that Satan prevents him. In 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 17 through 18, he says, but since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart. You see how Paul's heart is always with the people of God. For a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavor the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us." Now, does this mean that Satan has control over this blood-bought, redeemed Son of God? I hope we could emphatically answer, no. Yet we know that God is allowing certain things to happen so that sometimes the unknown hand of providence, this hidden hand of providence, our sovereign ruler working behind the scenes to bring about what it is that his will is to bring about. Now sometimes this is a difficult thing for us in our feeble minds to come to grips with, is it not? Think here of the instance where Paul is given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being conceited, or to use the language Paul uses here in our text this morning, hinders him from being conceited. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 through 10, Paul states, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited three times. I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weakness." Weaknesses, plural. insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Do you see here that Paul is saying here in our text this morning that he desires something, yet God is working to direct his steps. He isn't giving him at this time what Paul desires. And by doing this, Paul is learning that the grace of God is sufficient and he has grown to be content. After pleading with the Lord multiple times, in that passage we just read, he is content and finds that the grace of God is sufficient to deal with this thorn in the flesh, knowing that his weakness is perfected by the strength of his Savior. Now, what else do we notice about this passage there? That he calls this thorn in the flesh, which he doesn't go on to define there for us what that is. There's lots of speculations about that. But he calls this a messenger of Satan. And so you see here that he says it was given to him, this messenger of Satan. I would have you know that even Satan and his hosts do not move or act unless God has allowed and enabled them to act in order that he, that is God, may bring what he wants to be accomplished to pass through even the actions of these evil beings. You understand why I say sometimes this is hard for our feeble minds to grasp. In spite of their evil desires, his plan is accomplished by allowing them to do what the evil nature that they have does. We have a lot of examples of this in scripture, don't we? Think about Joseph. You remember Joseph, what he stated to his brothers? What did he say? You meant it for evil? But what? But God meant it for good. Who was ruling over the brothers at that period of time? Absolutely, our enemy. God wasn't directing them to sin. They're flesh in the devil, and what they wanted was directing their actions. But God meant it all for good. There's a lot of other places that we can look in scripture and see this same thing. We'll look at one more. And I've got to her here, but we'll look at one more. Sometimes I just wish we had all the time in the world. What about the crucifixion of Christ? We find Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost. And he says in Acts 2, 22 through 23, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Who were the lawless men? They were men who were of their father, the devil, doing his bidding. But who then is in absolute control? Who then allows this to happen so that his plan of redemption might be brought to pass right at this time and this place on the cross of Calvary? This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of who? Of our enemy, the devil? Of evil men? Of the Romans? Of the Jews? They're nothing but tools in the hands of a sovereign God. the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So Paul could have been prevented in one way by Satan, as he said in another passage. He could have also been prevented by the necessities of his calling. We find a hint of this later on in Romans, in Romans 15, 18 through 22, for I will not venture to speak of anything, Paul says, except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered in coming to you. the necessities of his apostolic office. So at least in this one instance here in Romans 15, we have one of these times when Paul has planned to come and see the saints in Rome. but his labor necessitates that he cancel or at least alter his plans because he had to take financial resources that were gathered from saints to Jerusalem to be used for the poor that were in the church there in Jerusalem. The necessities of his office dictated that that come about versus his desire to go to Rome in that instance. Well, what would I have you take away from this I would have you take away that whatever this reason Paul is prevented, whatever this reason is that Paul is prevented in going to Rome, it is ultimately the hand of God who is directing and working all of this according to his will. You see, Paul will eventually make it to Rome. He will eventually make it. It was his desire. And God will in his time, and not before, grant this desire of Paul. But when Paul arrives at Rome, he won't be coming as a missionary, free to preach wherever he wants. He'll be coming to Rome in chains. But this even, according to the providence of God, to accomplish God's purpose. Before this happens, he must first go to many places and preach the gospel. You can read all about this in the book of Acts. The Philippian jailer must be visited. You see, this sometimes hidden hand of prominence at work in that situation where it seems the enemy has gained a foothold and puts Paul and Silas in prison through the deeds of men who hated the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet it's God's will for him to be there because there's a soul that needs to be brought before the Savior. There's many souls there that must be brought to the feet of the cross. There had to be beatings, stoning, hunger, shipwrecks. all these things to take place before it was God's time to grant the desire that he had planted in Paul's heart to visit these saints in Rome. Once he gets there, in chains, by the grace of God, he is given quite a bit of freedom. He's under house arrest and it's there that he writes Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. The heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps. Well, as we're out of time, let's take a brief moment to wrap some things up here. We'll come next week to the last point in this section that I told you about last week, Paul's duty or Paul's obligation. And think about that this week. This that we find in verse 14 and 15. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Paul says, so I am eager. to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And we might touch on the last part of verse 13 that we don't have time for this morning. If the Lord wills, we'll maybe address this in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. But let's reflect for a moment before we finish. Ask some questions here to think about this. This week, are we desirous of fellowship with believers? Is that a desire that we have? Are we joined together as Christ would have us to be under his headship? Is each part working properly with the gifts of grace that have been given to them? Are we building each other up? Are we considering how to stir up one another in love and good works? Are we mutually beneficial one to another? Do you find that your desire is to be with the saints of God or do your desires tend toward solitude or toward the people of the world? This is an important question for us. You see, there's an addition or subtraction that's going to take place. I will tell you as a matter of personal experience, and also as a matter of precept, that if you desire to be with those of the world, and your desire is to fellowship around the things of the world, then you will be built up in exactly that. and it is not beneficial. In fact, it's detrimental to your spiritual health. It subtracts from that, which is important. Grace and I have been thinking a lot about over the last several weeks, we had a discussion about how that when you're saying no to one thing, you're saying yes to another. And when you're saying yes to one thing, you're saying no to the other. Seems like some crazy little thing to think about. But if you look at that in your life, you're always saying yes. to something that means you're saying no to another. And if your desire is to fellowship with the people of the world, around the things of the world. Now, please don't take that to mean that I don't think that we should be out witnessing. It's not at all what I'm saying. But fellowship. You will be built up in something. Go read Psalm 1. you'll be built up in something. And where you spend your time and your effort is what you will be built up in. And if our desire is to spend time by ourself, doing what we want, living according to our desires, or if it's to spend time with those of the world around worldly pursuits and worldly desires, we're going to be built up in that. but the addition of that is a subtraction in another area of your life. And that's detrimental to your spiritual health. This is why Paul longs to see them, that they might be mutually beneficial one to another, that the fellowship that they have one with another builds up, stirs one another up in love and good works. Good works aren't a bad topic. In their right place, properly understood, we are saved by grace through faith unto good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Is it any wonder that Paul then would say, stir one another up in love and good works? That which we do out of love for Christ, out of thankfulness for what he has done for us. This is why it's so important. Thinking about this a lot over the last few days as well. To be of help and assistance. and we fail at this miserably so often, but to be of help and assistance to those who are unable to come and meet together for worship. We must make every attempt in those cases, when those cases arise, when some can't come, that we other members or other parts of the body make every attempt to go to them. so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, ours and theirs. Are you and am I praying and seeking that which is God's will over and above our own desires? Are our desires being brought into line with what God desires? Are we patient in what we desire? Because it's never a bad thing to desire that which the Lord would be pleased in you desiring. But he may not answer it in the way that you expect or in the time that you expect, as evidenced in Paul's life. Are you patient? Are you resting in the absolute and utter wisdom of a sovereign, holy God? Well, it's my prayer. I'll pick back up with some of this other stuff later on. It's my prayer, and I pray that you'll join me in praying that God would enable us to meet together, to join together in fellowship, and to be mutually beneficial one to another in the building up of our faith. This is important. This is a imperfect shadow of what we're gonna experience for eternity. Let's be of benefit to each other. Let's build one another up in the faith. Let's pray.