So we've looked at those first seven verses and we want to consider this morning the entire epistle of the Romans and what is this really all about? And of course, the Apostle Paul himself and what made him tick? as it were. But as I've studied this great letter of Romans, you may have heard me mention that I've identified one verse that to me encapsulates the entire letter. And it is this one, Romans 11, 32. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. And it may seem like, why did you pick that one? But I think it breaks down into two parts that really clearly indicate what Romans contains. God has shut up all In disobedience, everyone should know that they are a sinner based on reading Romans. But his purpose is not simply to make everybody feel ashamed of their sin, but to realize there is hope in Christ. And so I think of it in these two parts, God has purposely allowed humanity to go its own way. And thus, every person without exception is guilty. And if you wonder, well, is that really clear in the scriptures? We're gonna look at several as we begin our journey together. So first, Romans 3, verses 19 and 20, and you can follow along or just listen. And Romans 3, 19. Paul writes, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God. There's something about the law and its standards, even though directed initially to the Jews, It shows everyone so that every mouth may be closed. And all the world may become accountable to God, verse 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Well, that's the bad news part of what Paul is presenting to us. But then the second part of Romans 1132 and the whole message of Romans is God has graciously shown mercy to all by sending his son as the only atoning sacrifice for sin. And all who trust in him will be rescued from the wrath that their sin deserves. And maybe you don't need to be convinced of that, but just peeking ahead to Romans chapter 10, verses 12 and 13, Paul writes, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all. abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And this is the heart of what I often refer to as the unconditional, legitimate, genuine offer of the gospel. There are theological loose ends that we can't fully tie up. But I trust that the scriptures say, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. We know that God has graciously shown us kindness, drawn us to himself, that we may indeed by faith call upon him. This then is the overall message of Romans, that God has confined everyone to condemnation under sin so that he can show mercy to everyone. And I always marvel at that, because just think of a situation where you might be tempted to kind of gloat, not that you would, but you might be tempted to gloat over someone else's error or being shown to be superior. And who has the ultimate right to feel superior if not God himself? Because he is absolutely perfect without flaw, without sin. And yet, the purpose, according to Romans 11.32, the purpose of him giving the law so that everyone understands they're under condemnation is not simply to dismiss everyone and show how inferior they are, but in order that he might show mercy to all. What a marvelous God we serve. And that is the thrust, the theme, if you will, of the book of Romans. And at a very high level, very simplified level, here's an outline of the entire book of Romans. We see an introductory section, chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. We've just read the first seven verses, They're part of a larger introduction that runs through verse 17. Then the main body of the letter begins, chapter 1, verse 18, running all the way through chapter 15, verse 13. And then there's a longer than normal conclusion with tremendous truth and Paul's greetings to all the people that he's aware of in the church at Rome, that conclusion then, chapter 15, verse 14, excuse me, through the end of the letter, chapter 16, verse 27. So that's the big picture, where we're going. And just to convey where are we, again, we're in this introductory section, And we'll be here for a while. And within that, particularly in the first seven verses, we'll look at the messenger, the message about Christ, and the recipients of this letter. And then, of course, this morning, we're gonna focus particularly on Paul, the messenger. And think about him, And you may be aware that Paul was also known as Saul, a remarkable man, used mightily of God for the gospel. But Paul never lost sight of the grace of God in his life. As far as we can tell, he was never a victim of pride in what God was doing through him. He acknowledged that it was Christ's work in him that produced the tremendous fruit in his life. Paul understood that he was a servant. He had been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sent, he was commissioned as an apostle. commissioned personally by the Lord and he was set apart. He was selected for a very specialized service in the gospel. But lest we say that our life and our circumstances are so different than Paul's that we can't really relate to any of this. I think there's ways that these truths, apply to us as well. Our life circumstances and certainly our ministry are not the same as his. We too have been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ and we are rightly considered his slaves. We'll think more deeply about that in a moment. We're his slaves even though we are also adopted as sons. We have a commission from our Lord and Savior to preach the gospel to every nation, making disciples wherever we go. And we're also set apart for service, no longer to be entangled in this present world. I'm reminded of the exhortation of John and 1 John not to love the world or the things in the world. We're set apart. We're to be dedicated to the one who has redeemed us. The one who has equipped us with spiritual gifts and placed us into ministry that's tailored to the gifts and abilities that we have. And so as we think about Paul, we'll see that he was a servant, he was sent, and he was set apart. And this is a long sentence, but in a sentence, like the Apostle Paul, we have been purchased by our Lord Jesus, given a commission to proclaim the gospel. the good news of hope in Christ. And we have been set apart from this present age, looking forward to the one to come. So as we consider then, who is Paul? Where did he come from? Again, there are these two names. Should we call him Paul? Or should we call him Saul? And you may have heard teaching that, well, Saul was his name before he became a Christian, but then the Lord changed his name to Paul. And I hate to burst that little bubble, but it was very common for people in that area of the world, Jewish people, to have a Hebrew name. In Paul's case, it was Saul. And to have a Greek name at the same time. And his Greek name was Paul. And we can see some of this in Acts 13. And we'll come back to this a little later, Lord willing. But in Acts 13, we read about the church that was in Antioch. And we see there were several men who were involved in leading the church. And then beginning in Acts 13, verse 2, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So it's clear at this point the man we identify as Paul was known as Saul. And that was, again, his Hebrew name. And just peeking forward in the text, fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them and they commissioned them, they sent them forth. And if you hop down to verse 9, Acts 13 verse 9, they have encountered a ruler who had an interest in hearing the word of God, but also someone who had an opposing view And in verse nine, but Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, this is the man who's trying to subvert the gospel, and said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the procounsel, that's the one they were trying to reach, who was interested in hearing God's word. Then the procounsel believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. If you just peek at verse 13, it says, now Paul and his companions put out to sea. And from that point onward, this man is always known as Paul, always by his Greek name that would have been much more familiar to the people of that area. But Saul certainly was a noble, name, the name of the first king. And Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, which was also the tribe of King Saul. So what do we know about this man, Paul? And I've just outlined a few key words to be associated with Paul. Tarsus, Jerusalem, Gamaliel, the stoning of Stephen, persecution, and conversion. That's a little history of Paul. If you were gonna give Paul's testimony for him, you might include these things. And interestingly, these are all included in Paul's recorded testimony in Acts chapter 22. So again, we're gonna look at the book of Acts toward the end as Paul is explaining his life and his ministry, his history, because he had been arrested, been accused of things. And so we pick up in Acts chapter 22, starting in verse 3. Paul says, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia. So here's his birthplace, and that's why Tarsus is significant. And in fact, Tarsus was not just some small town that he happened to be from. It was an important city in the Roman Empire. And as I understand it, there were three main centers of learning, great university towns in the world at that time. And one of them was Athens, one was Alexandria, and then a third one was at Tarsus. So that's the area where he grew up. I'm a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. So he's referring to Jerusalem. That's our second key word here. Educated under Gamaliel. Well, why do we care about that? Who is that? Well, Gamaliel was probably the most significant learned rabbi at that time. And he was the grandson of a very famous rabbi named Hillel. And so anyone in his line, of course, would be revered. Paul had the privilege of studying under Gamaliel in Jerusalem. So that explains our third key word here. Educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. So he was identifying with this Jewish audience to whom he was speaking. I persecuted this way to the death. He's referring to Christianity and In the early days, it was simply referred to as the way. And of course, we remember that Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the light. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the council of the elders can testify. See, Paul's saying, You can check out my story. There's witnesses. There's people who don't even like me who will confirm I'm telling you the truth. From them, I also received letters to the brethren and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. How amazing. that he was so rabid, if you will, in his persecution of Christians, going after people, that he was willing to travel to another city and bring people back so that they could be punished. And verse six is the turning point. But it happened that As I was on my way approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me. And I shouldn't belabor the details, but how fascinating that he identifies it as noon when the sun is at its peak in the sky and there was a light brighter than the sun. the glory of God that shone down from heaven. In verse 7, I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And in a sense, he asked the question and answered it all together. And he said to me, I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting. Those who are with me saw the light to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do. Already appointed, this is something God already laid out for Saul, for Paul. And as we continue down, we see that there was a disciple, a follower of Christ named Ananias who was directed to go speak to Paul. And jumping down to verse 14, He said, the God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one. What a beautiful way of describing our Lord Jesus Christ. You've been given this privilege to see the righteous one and to hear an utterance from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And again, hopping down to verse 20, just to pick up the stoning of Stephen, verse 20 in Acts chapter 22. When the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him. And he said to me, the Lord said to Paul, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And that is the explanation, at least in part, for why he no longer used the name Saul, but his Greek name Paul. So that's a bit of the testimony of Paul and where he came from. is a servant. Notice that in our text, Romans begins, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus. And that word, bondservant, is a softened way of rendering this Greek word, doulos, which means slave. And if you look at the front of your bulletin, you'll see three Greek words. And the first one, the one on the left side, is doulos. That is this word that means slave. Sometimes it's softened, again, to this form, bond servant. And it's interesting to go through the New Testament and just trace through all the uses of this Greek word. And what I discovered was that Paul and Timothy, whom you might expect, and Epaphras, but also James and Peter and Jude, they all identified themselves as slaves of Jesus. Now you might say, I'm nobody's slave. I don't accept that. But let me just remind you of the scriptures in Acts chapter 4, as those in the church were gathering to pray. They said, Lord, take note of their threats. They were under threat of persecution. And grant that your bondservants or your slaves may speak your word with all confidence. They identified themselves and their leaders as slaves of Christ. And we'll get sometime later to Romans chapter 6 and Paul develops this thought. He says in Romans 6 beginning in verse 17, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, Remember the Lord Jesus said the one who commits sin is a slave of sin. So many people today think of themselves as fully independent. In fact, there's this common term used, autonomy. We ought to have autonomy. And I feel like the, the father in my big, fat Greek wedding who always points out, you know that comes from Greek, don't you? And so this word autonomy comes from autos, a pronoun, he, she, it, and namos is law. And so if we take the way we normally use that prefix, autos, Like automobile, self-mobile, automatic, something that will perform on its own. The idea of autonomy is like, I'm my own law. And that's what everybody wants to be in the world. I want to be my own boss. I want to rule myself. And maybe everybody else, too. Why not? But I want to be good. My own governor, I don't want anyone to rule over me. But the lie is, there's no way to do that. Because if you're not the slave of God, you're the slave of sin. And that's what Paul is getting at saying, you were slaves of sin, but then you became obedient from the heart. to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And as much as we might chafe at the idea of being a slave, it is good to be the slave of a benevolent master. And we're far better off being the slave of Jesus than the slave of sin. Because the slave of sin will ultimately be pulled to an eternal torment with no hope. But the slave of Christ will find at the end adoption and inheritance as a son. What a blessing we have. as those who are his slaves. And I put together a selection of these different references to the idea of being a slave. Paul said, we don't preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bond servants or as your slaves. For Jesus' sake, over and over again, Paul, and again, James, and Peter, and Jude, all identified themselves as slaves of Jesus. We've been redeemed. Paul writes in another of his letters, you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. He has redeemed us from slavery to sin, and now we are willing slaves of righteousness. Paul was also sent. We think about our text again, Paul, having been become a slave, a servant, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle. And this word, apostle, simply means one who is sent. And in fact, If I needed a drink of water and I asked one of you to go fetch one, you would become an apostle because you've been sent. Now, of course, your authority as one who is sent is based on who is the one who sent you. And Paul, in his calling directly by the Lord Jesus Christ, has been sent, has been commissioned by the Lord Jesus. That word, apostle, its Latin equivalent is where we get our word for missionary. That's the same idea, one who is sent. But again, if you're sent from somebody's good idea, that's less authority than if you are sent from the one who has all authority and power and righteousness. Paul was a servant, a bondservant, a slave of Christ Jesus. Paul was sent. And that is, again, what we see in this word, apostle, one who is sent. Are we sent? Do we have a Commission. Indeed, in Matthew 28, we have what we often refer to as the Great Commission. At the end of Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus came and spoke to this gathered group of disciples, perhaps this is the one that Paul refers to where there were 500 who saw him after his resurrection. Jesus spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And I, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. We have been bought just as Paul was bought. We have been commissioned, not exactly the same, but we have the authority of the Lord Jesus to proclaim the gospel. And we have his promise to be with us. Paul was a servant, Paul was sent, and Paul was set apart. And we peeked at Acts 13 earlier, and I mentioned we would likely come back to that. And we noticed there, Acts 13 at the beginning, In Antioch, in the church that was there, I'm in Acts 13, verse 1, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, a name we recognize, Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, and I'm curious, how did he say it? But at that time, there were genuine prophets who could speak for the Lord because the scriptures hadn't been written yet. The Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And they, as the text notes, they fasted and prayed and they sent them out. But they had been set apart. They had been pulled out. You have a special duty, a different commission. You're no longer just working in this church. In Antioch, even though Paul continued to report back to the church, in a sense, the church at Antioch was his sending church. Paul had been set apart, set apart by the Holy Spirit. And in Galatians chapter one, Paul mentions that God set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace. There's another sense in which Paul is saying, I was set apart. I was set apart from eternity past. And I was set apart from my mother's womb, Paul's saying. And then certainly in the church in Antioch, I was set apart. Paul says, I'm identifying myself as a bondservant, a slave of Christ Jesus. And as one who has been sent, called as an apostle, set apart. for the gospel of God. And we see here Paul beginning to lay the foundation for all the rest of the letter and what he wants us to understand. We also have been purchased, we've been bought. We are servants of Christ. We may not be as good of servants as we'd like to be, We also have been commissioned, in a sense we've been sent, we've been given the gospel mandate from our Lord and Savior. And we've been set apart. We're called to pull away from the lure of this present age, not get too entangled here. You recall that Paul used analogies in his letter to Timothy later on saying that the soldier doesn't entangle himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he can please the one who enlisted him. He can do his duty. And we have to live here, but we must not make full use of this world. We must not set our hopes on this world. set apart for God's purposes. Continuing in Galatians 1, Paul said that the Lord called him through his grace. He was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. That was his commission. And again, why he was particularly using his Greek name, Paul. Like the Apostle Paul, we have been purchased by our Lord Jesus, given a commission to proclaim the gospel, the hope, the good news of hope in Christ. And we're set apart from this present age, looking forward to the age, the time, to come, and I trust to the rest of this truth in the epistle to the Romans. Please pray with me. Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to Saul, to Paul, to us as well. We thank you that the message of the gospel is the same for every person. There is hope in Christ. May we be faithful stewards of that message and ready to proclaim it, that we may glorify you. Give us the strength that we need, the focus that we need to realize that we are your servants, that we have been sent, that we have been set apart by your grace. Help us to be faithful. In Jesus' name, amen.