And we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 1, reading verses 1 through 17. Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 requests if by any means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. for I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift. To the end, you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oft times I purposed to come unto you, but was, it says let there, it means it was hindered, that I might have some fruit among you, among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith." Wow. This tremendous book, I sometimes refer to it as the backbone of the Bible, It has virtually every doctrine of the Bible in it. It will provide a hub from which you can go off many directions and discuss and research the entire Bible. I knew of one pastor, he spent 20 years using Romans as his text. He preached the rest of the Bible, but it always started with something in Romans, and he just moved along, and it's just quite a book. Quite a book. And yet we derive truths from it that are so basic we can present them to a child. And yet there are theological issues here that would keep us scratching our chins. But hopefully, reverently, in awe and wonder, when God presents a mystery, we should like it. I've said it before, that if God is small enough for our heads, he isn't big enough for our problems. So when he overwhelms me, I'm comfortable with that. I've got this big God. I'm already been told it's going to be the ages coming in the far future. I'm still going to see the grace of God unfolding and grasping these things. And so it's good to get started in this life. It's good to get started right now. And so our question, what effect does the gospel have on you? We want to first say that gospel truth dominates the book of Romans. Some look at it as a heavy theology book and some people look at it as just a roadmap how to get to heaven. But we want to first consider that the main theme in the book of Romans is a vindication of the character of God as he provides salvation to guilty sinners. Okay, that may not be what naturally comes to your mind. When you think of Romans and all the things you've learned from it and the things you've heard, That might not be your first idea. It wasn't mine. Again, is the book of Romans a road map? Showing us how to get to heaven? How to be justified, forgiven, sanctified, and serving God? Well, it is all that. It definitely does that. This book can be skillfully used to show people how to become a Christian and how to live the Christian life and how to have hope that will get them through all the disasters and promises that will give us confidence through this whole world that's trying to take away our hope and our joy and our confidence. But while we're seeking the practical help from the book of Romans, It might not seem important to us that the holiness of God might be called into question. There's people being paid big money to call the goodness of the gospel into question. They study the Bible with a narrow eye. They look at it for trouble. They look at it to try to find difficulties and contradictions and raise questions that, well, I just wish they weren't asked. Paul warns us about people who raise questions just to cause strife. And certain people have to rise up and answer them. And others of us need to avoid them and stay with the faithful teaching of the Word of God. But what about the character of God? You know, I have a righteous salvation. You have a righteous salvation. If you're a true follower of Christ, it's based on righteousness. And some people would take down the character of God and raise questions. You know what happened in the garden with Eve. Yea, have God said? Oh, he knows that the day you eat that fruit, you'll become like him. And he called into question the motives of God, the wisdom of God, and the grace of God. caused Eve to be suspicious and then look at that fruit selfishly? Well, you know the story probably, so I'm not going to elaborate it anymore. But the fact is, we need to know some things for sure. Did God compromise His holiness when He forgave me? Did God have to somehow sweep my sins under the carpet and just sort of forget about it like a sentimental old grandpa? Did he somehow say, well, justice is too hard, I gotta just take it easy? No, he did not compromise his character, his holiness a wink. How about the question, is God inconsistent in his handling of grace and judgment? Is he fair? Well, I don't know how to tell you this in a short way, I'll just say, You don't want fair. You want grace. But God has shown, and you can see it in Romans clearly, the goodness and the severity of God. You can see how marvelously holy He is and pure. And you also can find out that while He at one hand is forgiving people, He also can call down to account and judge people. And there's no respect of persons with God. Well, quite frankly, some people just don't care. They don't care about this. Others just haven't thought any further about it. They just wanna know, am I going to heaven? Am I okay? I'll just let God be whatever, and I just wanna know I'm going to heaven, and they don't realize that some people would unravel the universe that they could to undermine the integrity of God and the wisdom of God when he shows grace in forgiving sinners. So, knowing God And I'm saying, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knowing God and making Him known are really important priorities for the Christian. You need to know who you're talking about. You need to know whom you have believed. You need to really know the author of your salvation and the author of the Word of God. You need to know and continue getting to know more and more who God is. then you're better equipped to make him known to other people who need to know. And so, I've got some God-centered thoughts from the book of Romans, and if you can't figure out how important this is by reading them, just know this. I used valuable space in my notes to type them out They're that important. You know me, I'm greedy for the space on my pages. I have so much I want to put on there, right? Well, I took time to type these out. They're all in the New King James Version, and I'm going to slowly read them. These are to reflect on who God is, what God's done, justifying His character in saving guilty sinners. Romans 3.26, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now you'll have to go back and read Romans 3 to figure out what that is, but that's a climatic point here. that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then we look in Romans chapter 11, verses 33 through 36. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? Or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid him? For of him, And through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And then Romans 16, the last words of this book, Romans 16 verses 25 to 27, now to him. who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest. And by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God for the obedience to the faith, to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Now, there's always that level of understanding where we say, this goes way over my mind. Who can know all the thoughts of God? Who can comprehend it? And I'm happy to be under that and just in faith submitting. But on the other hand, a 16 chapter book was written, and I dare call it a masterpiece. Obviously, it's perfect. It's the Word of God. to give us some deeper concepts of what grace means, what justification means, sanctification, all those kinds of things. These are important things. And we need to delve into them. And you've studied the book of Romans before, good. Study it again sometime and study it again another time so that you can truly, with all your heart and with no shame, glorify God. The Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. Sounds like just a nice introduction to teach the entire book of Romans, but I don't know if you could put up with me for 20 years. Sometimes people say, oh no, he's still in the book of Romans. Can't we move on to something else? You could. You just wouldn't know it perhaps, but you can talk about something else continually from the book of Romans. So the title of this message asks the question, what effect does the gospel have on you? We might begin answering that question by saying, the gospel should give us a deep reverence and awe for the goodness and glory of God. Not just the, how do I escape hell thought, Not just the, I want to go to heaven thought. It's about, is there really a God? And should I expect that he naturally would love me and want to save me? I mean, of course he loves me. No. No. When we find out about how holy God is, he didn't have to do anything. And what I'm hoping is that, number one, this gospel humbles us. as it is revealed to us that we are accountable to a holy, sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful God. And this humility is a good thing. When we were originally created, we were made to be conscious of God, and dependent on God, and trusting God, and the holy angels were this way, and that was the plan and the design for man, but the enemy brought in pride. Awful pride, damning pride, pride that brought the great fall that's led to every other fall. Humility is not just feeling bad for rotten stuff you've done. Humility is about, oh, I know who God is. I know my place before him, and I like that. I want God. I need God. I depend on God. That's what we're going to be restored to perfectly in a world when Satan is finally cast off. and all this world is melted with a fervent heat and a new heaven and a new earth, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, we're going to have the most blessed condition of humility that will make us so happy, content, productive, and not distracted. I don't know about you, that gets me hungry. That gets me hungry. Does what I've just said make the thought of His love and His mercy and His grace a little sweeter? God's hatred of sin, the awfulness of sin is like black velvet, and the love and grace and mercy of God is like the diamonds you can now display brightly. And if we don't understand how black sin is, if we don't know how awful it is to fall into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire, then perhaps we don't fully appreciate how sweet this subject of grace and mercy and love is. I kind of scare myself because that almost sounds like enough of a sermon, doesn't it? We can just all tiptoe away and just think about that. But I do have to cover a little more ground. And if you know my methods, I give you lots of notes. I hope you'll study all these references. I told Susie this morning, I can make a separate Bible study out of every paragraph in this page. And I put the references down so you could do that. I'll touch things. But otherwise, I'd be weak. Talk about the great truths here. So you please understand, it is a lifetime research you need to make. And I'm only a pointer dog saying, huh, huh, huh, there, huh, huh, huh, there. And I would love to talk about every verse I put on this page. I've thought about them. I've prayerfully been thinking about these for a long time. And some of you have already been to places like this with me, and you know what great truth. I was told in my formative years, getting ready for the ministry, that the Bible is the best commentary on itself. And so I don't always have as much extra anecdotes and other things. I just keep using scripture to teach scripture and some scripture to teach that scripture too. And I run the danger of overwhelming people, but you know, God's already overwhelmed me. So I'm sharing this folks. My cup runneth over and you're getting splattered, I hope. So we want to talk about the effect of the gospel. And it's going to take more than today to do this, but we've picked out Romans 1, 1-17. Now we're going to break that down a little. We're going to look for perspectives concerning the gospel that Paul reveals just in Romans 1, 1-8. Okay, so when you look in verse 1, Paul's a servant of Jesus Christ. He is called to be an apostle. He is separated unto the gospel of God. Now, later on, you're gonna hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but in the bigger picture, it's the gospel of God. It took all of God to save all of you and me. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This gospel of God separates us for God's purposes, and I hope you get one thing out of this this morning, that we're not just talking about Paul the apostle, and he's separated under the gospel of God. He's leading the way, because we are all separated. unto the gospel of God. It takes over, folks. It takes over. It has priority. Or as one place Paul said, preeminence. Christ is preeminent. That means first place. Priority one. The gospel of God separates us for God's purpose. And as I've I'm trying to say already, this isn't just for the 12 apostles or for Paul, Silas, Barnabas. I mean, we could come up with all kinds of people. Silvanus, we can name some pretty well-known New Testament people. It isn't just for the big guys. It isn't just for pastors and evangelists. God is separating all of his people for himself. And I will pick a few carefully. chosen places here. Romans chapter 8, verses 28 to 29. And I dare say that a lot of people quote Romans 8, 28 incompletely. They get a really great quote and it's wonderful, but there's more to it. And I always try to make sure we get the rest of the story here. Romans chapter 8, verses 28 to 29. If you want to turn along, otherwise I'm going to read as carefully as I can. And we know. Now, that in itself is something I have to say, do I know? Do I know this? How can I know it? Oh, read Romans, and then read the rest of the Bible, and then you can know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now, many people only quote, and all things work together for good to them that love God. They don't even get the, and we know part. But that is something that should be so commonly held amongst us. And indeed, of all the Bible verses that I can start to quote, virtually every congregation has people that can finish that quote with me, at least part of it. There's another reference that gets quoted a lot, besides John 3.16. But here we go. We know, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. We got some very important things here. For one thing, it's work together for good. It's not all things are good. It's not, oh, you became a Christian, you'll never have problems again now. No, you have plenty of problems. If anything, we have stirred up the bottom of the pond and things are going to arise, but they're going to get dealt with. because God in his gracious sovereignty is organizing and orchestrating so all this will come together in a wonderful conclusion of making you more like Jesus, as we're gonna see in the next verse in a moment. But it's going to work together for good. And one of the reasons you can know this is because you are one of the called. I'll get back to Romans 1 in a minute, and you're gonna see the word called. And quite frankly, it would make an elaborate Bible study I took a lot of our teenagers through this here in the last how many months. To be the called means you have had a relationship with God that was in response to the gospel and the spirit of God, putting that in your mind and heart and drawing you to not only believe in Jesus, but get up and take up your cross and follow him. Okay? The called, and then I love the word purpose. called according to His purpose. There's always purpose. It is not random things God's doing. Everything, as chaotic as this world seems, as chaotic as our life may seem, it's all falling into a pattern of a purpose that we may not fully grasp in this life. We can get a picture, an idea, but it's yet to be revealed to us. There was a little girl came to see her grandma who had a loom and she was weaving. And the little girl came up and says, grandma, that's a mess. She saw threads going all over the place. It didn't make any sense. And so grandma stopped shuttling and she unhooked and she flipped it over and there's this gorgeous picture. And she said, honey, you just looking at the wrong side. And that's what this life is. It looks like a random mess of threads and colors and what in the world is going on. One day he's gonna flip that all over in eternity and say, here is your destiny I designed so that you could become like Christ. Which I might as well get to that now, verse 29. Four tells you, connect this to verse 28. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. The design of my salvation wasn't simply to save me from hell. That's in there. That's more like a byproduct because the real thing is he wants to change us. Right now, little by little, step by step, ultimately, new heaven, new earth, new body, we will be like the Son of God. That's the finished, complete product. Jesus rose from the dead. He says, because I live, you shall live also. So we are going to be seeing Jesus as the firstborn from the dead of a larger harvest, which is us, among many brethren. And then we get to Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. after 11 chapters of describing the workings of God's grace and his justice and his mercy and how he has dealt with sin, how he is dealing with sin, how he deals with those who repent, how he deals with those who do not repent. And after all the teaching there, the grand theological teaching, he's gonna shift into practical teachings in chapter 12 there on and tell us things to do or not do. But in transition, he says this in verse one of chapter 12, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, I'm begging you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that's chapters one through 11 in a nutshell, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And that word there means you're doing this with your mind. You're doing this with your inner man, with your heart, mind, and soul, and be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world push you into its mold, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove or demonstrate what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There's another place where Paul would say, you are epistles, known and read of all men. We are like living letters, living books, of the Bible, extensions that other people will read. They may not pick up that Bible, but they're reading you. They're watching you day by day. They're your family members. They're your neighbors. They're your workmates. They're your teachers. They're your students. They're somebody you're doing business with, but they're watching. And your life either is a positive statement towards yes, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the Savior of men. God is true. Let all men be liars. And God's way is the right way. And every other way is going to be destroyed. We're saying that by the way we choose to live and talk. So submit your bodies, plural, as a living sacrifice. That's very important. Because you don't just do this as a random, independent maverick. It is many. becoming one to do this. Present your bodies, plural, as a living sacrifice, local church. Local church. Ye are the light of the world. Now, you may not choose King James English, but there's one awfully powerful tool here. If it starts with a Y, it is plural word. If it starts with a T, it's singular. Ye is plural. The, thou, is singular. So ye are the light of the world. Ye, plural, are the one light of the world. And I always remember standing up on Rib Mountain, got up in that tower in the evening, and I'm looking down on Walsall. Now from a distance, driving to get there, Walsall just sort of glowed. Okay, it just lit up the sky quite a bit. But when I got up on that tower and looked down, and I could sort of tell, but I brought my binoculars, and I got to the point I could see the taillights on cars and yard lights, I could see some detail, and it just dawned on me, this one great light of Walsall at night, when you see it from miles away, is made up of many little lights. all together making one light. Ye, plural, are the light of the world. Another picture of the local church. The body of believers coming together as one. And we're to demonstrate, we're to prove, we're to be the example of what the truth of God's will is about. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Watch us. Oh, a little bit of responsibility, I get it. But God's promised with the responsibility to give us grace and attention so that we can be like Him. That's His plan. So I've said the gospel of God separates us for God's purpose. And we're not just talking about Apostles XII or Apostles Paul, Silas, Barnabas. We're not just talking about pastors or evangelists. All God's people are being separated from this world for His purpose. And, oh, I want to keep preaching this paragraph. But I better say a few more things. Let's see how far we get today. Now, I did something slightly unusual for me, but I jumped down to verses 5 through 7 because the thought is so connected. I didn't want to get it distracted. Romans chapter 1, verses 5 through 7. by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be at Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's still saying hi. This is just the greetings part of the book of Romans. And if there's this much to study and understand from his greeting, just think if you get into the whole letter, the areas of wonderful study you can explore. But we want to glean from this right now. And I'll come back to these verses again for another point down below. But Jesus Christ, through the gospel, gives us grace and calls us all to be saints. And some of you have heard that song, usually it's some people blowing trumpets and trombones and, oh, when the saints come marching in, oh, when the saints come marching in, oh, I want to be in that number when the saints come marching in. That's fun. That's fun. Okay, thank you. I won't be moving to New Orleans soon, but we get this idea of saints. Sometimes we see the stained glass windows and these people with plates floating over their heads and they walk around with two fingers stuck up and, oh, that's a saint. Someone's promoted to sainthood and it's like the Navy SEALs of God's forces or something. But a saint means one who has been separated for God's purpose, separated from the world, separated from their own agenda, separated from the natural things to things that are glorious and heavenly and eternal. And that's what Jesus is doing for all of us. He's made us saints. It's not a commentary on how good you are. It's a commentary on how good you're going to be. Because he's still not done with us yet, right? Yeah, we have to rest in that point. But we are called to serve the Lord. We have been saved so we can serve the Lord. So let's look at a couple verses here and then I got this other little note that I got to deal with. So we go to John chapter 1 verse 17. John chapter 1 verse 17. And it says, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. There's nothing wrong with the law came by Moses. That was God's plan. Moses did his job. He was faithful in all of his house, we're told in the book of Hebrews. But that isn't enough to save us. The law ends up being our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Now what's Christ do? According to this verse, he brings grace and truth. Now grace, we'll get this established, grace also is translated many times gift, gift. It's something you can't earn, something you can't work for. It's not a product of you, it's a gift given to you. You can't pay for it. You can't earn it. You can't deserve it. It's a gift freely given of God. You can't make God love you. You can't stop God from loving you. This is what grace is all about. And when Jesus gave the grace and truth, that means now when you hear the truth about your sin and about his salvation, you can do something about it because his spirit is working inside you to will and to do. He is doing a transforming work. And it's that collaboration of the Son of God and the Word of God, the Spirit of God working in me. I'm given a new birth. I've become a new creation, a new creature in Christ. And now I'm inhabited and He's in me. And as Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, I'd love to explain some more of these verses. I'm going to skip on down to Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. We're going to carefully notice how this is worded. For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us." Maybe I just ought to stop right here. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Now that's one thing. This grace which Jesus gives, grace and truth, there is a general call God now calls all men everywhere to repent. Whosoever will may come. Permission to come, commandment to repent and come. That's made to all men and there's no distinction. We preach that to all, but when something actually takes place where people respond and obey the gospel, we know something else has happened besides their willpower It's that work of God. Now, some theologians call it the effectual call. Oh, no, I'm not going to explain that too much right now. It's just that there is a call that goes beyond the general call that appears to men. And you see it here in Titus 2, verse 12, teaching us. It does not say teaching all men. Here's when you're being taught of God. And you can look at John 6, verse 37, verse 44 and 45, and you're going to see that nobody comes unto the Father except He draws them. They don't come to Him except they're drawn by the Father, teaching us. This is getting personal and individual. We are taught of God here to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We're being taught of God to live soberly, seriously, righteously, and godly in this present world. We're taught of God to be looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. These are the things that go on when a person has been born again. The grace of God brings salvation, and it has appeared to all men, but when it gets down to teaching us, and in many other places I know Paul talks like this, and the question is, have you been taught of God, or have you just been taught by people? Or have you just been taught by something you read and you think it's a good idea and you're working it out? Have you had an experience where you know God's talking to you? I've tried to explain to people, I don't save people. All I try to do is create an environment where God can do some saving. I know what he wants. I know he wants an environment of love, humility, graciousness, and truth. His word. I want you to come to this church and have an experience with the word of God, not necessarily an experience with me. You don't have to think I'm the best to go to heaven. All you have to do is believe God's the best and his son is the best. And if I'm able to get you in that environment and God's spirit is talking to you, now something's happening. Something's happening. Because Jesus Christ, through the gospel, is giving grace. And he's calling us to be separated from the world unto himself. And oh, I wish I had time to look at 1 Corinthians 1, because it's almost like the same thing you're reading here in Romans 1. Again, he calls them called to be saints. Again, he says, it is he who shall confirm you until the end. I know we have some different teachings in this world about confirmation and churches doing confirmation. I cannot manipulate confirmation. I can't actually tell you you're saved. I can tell you how to be saved. I can tell you what that looks like. I might even tell you I have a hunch you are, but finally, what's got to happen is you know that God knows that you're his child because he told you. This word became the living word, and you didn't just read it. It read you. Go a little farther here with that little note part on the notes. Note Romans 1, 5 through 6. The word grace, I told you already, is defined as gift. But the word apostle or apostleship, it says, by whom we have received grace and apostleship. And you may think, oh, Paul's just talking about himself and him and Barnabas and Silas and Silvanus and Timothy and those guys, the big guys. No. No, do you see in verse six, ye also? He's describing himself, but including you and me. What's an apostle really? It's a word. It's been chosen to describe the 12 apostles or many other people in the book of Acts and New Testament were called apostles and they weren't part of the 12. And what the word means, it's you're a delicate. You're a representative. You're someone who is sent with authority to do something. And we have the word ambassador, and Paul chose that word in 2 Corinthians 5, where ambassadors, and an ambassador goes to another country representing this country, and he can't just make up policies and walk in there and tell Kim Jong-un, I don't think this is a good idea. They can't. arbitrate with their own will. They had to find out what their instructions are. This is what our nation says. This is what our nation wants to know. This is what we propose to be done, or possibly even saying, well, we will have to declare war. That person isn't making those decisions. They are a mouthpiece to represent. Guess what? You and I are all apostles. We've been sent, separated from the world and sent right back to it to represent the king. You see, it doesn't matter what I think of your habits, or your pleasures, or the way you dress, or whatever. It doesn't matter what I think, but you need to know what he thinks. And as they love to say, don't shoot the messenger. But they do. They do. Just don't be one of those who shoots the messenger if they're faithfully representing the king of kings. And so we have a gift of grace that separates us from the world, calls us to be saints. We are now apostles. We're now delegates, representatives. All Christians receive spiritual gifts and are called to minister as ambassadors for Christ. Had you in Romans 12 before, that'd be the easiest thing to turn to again. Just quickly, I don't know that I'm going to go any farther today, folks, because with observing the Lord's table, it gets to be a long morning. Romans chapter 12. Again, verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service that you're doing with your mind, with your inner man. And be not conformed to this world, don't let the world push you into its mold, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove and demonstrate what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, for, verse 3 says, I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, seriously, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. For we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ. and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. And there are other places that talk about the multiple gifts. Every Christian has at least one. Some have more than one, but they are to be used in concert. And together we have a wholeness with Christ as the head. We are the body, the different members doing their jobs. The job gets done and Christ gets the glory. And if Christ gets the glory, then God the Father gets the glory. And it's a wonderful system. But we all need to pitch in and make sure we're plugged into this thought. How has the gospel affected you? Has it humbled you? Has it brought greater joy? Has it caused you to strive for knowledge that will make you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice? Has it taught you how to cooperate with other Christians and work together and actually do something? Is our church a fully servicing body of Christ, or is it just a place where we hear preaching and have a few funerals and weddings? We've got a lot of questions. I have a lot of questions to try to answer about that. And as usual, my plans don't always work out, but at least I have the grace enough to stop when I hear the Lord say, stop. God help me. We're going to go back to these notes and more, and we'll just see how it goes. And Father, I want to first ask you to anoint the words which come from you that I hopefully did not mangle up. Bless the words that Paul's given here in Romans and a few other places to give us, Lord, a presence, a sense of your presence, a sense of your purpose, and that we would be submitting ourselves to you to be doing the purpose of God in our life. To trust you with that, to find joy in that. Give faith where it's needed, Lord. If there's someone in this room that has not trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior, that's step number one. that they may receive the free gift and then discover that gift and explore it and develop it with us and that we might be able to walk together in a union in which we are serving Christ as the body of Christ and he is the head. Please give the kind of faith that each person needs today. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.