Open your Bible, please, to Romans 1. And as you're doing that, I'm going to add a little disclaimer about this book this morning. So this is called 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. I just want to clarify that as it's called 25 Christmas Myths, it's not going to call Christmas a myth. That's not the approach that it takes. So it's not the whole thing of like, hey, we as Christians shouldn't be even doing Christmas anyway. In fact, that gets addressed in the book as to why it's okay for Christians to honor the holiday. And you probably are familiar with some of those statements that get made about, oh no, it's formerly pagan and so Christians shouldn't have anything to do with it. No, it's a day in which we celebrate the incarnation of Christ. What could be wrong with that? But most of the book is actually looking at certain myths that have developed in scripture. There are some other things in there like Santa Claus and the paganism that gets tied around it as well. but most of it looking back simply at the Christmas story. What is it that we have not read correctly in Matthew 1 and 2 or Luke 1 and 2? And certain myths that have kind of been perpetuated in our Christmas traditions that we haven't taken a moment to look at the scripture to see if that's really what the Bible says. To give you an example of that, was Jesus born in a barn? The answer to that is actually no, and you can find from the text in Luke 2 that that's not what the Christmas narrative tells us. So this is written in a form that's like an advent book, so you could read a chapter, a different myth, and what the Bible says every day leading up to December 25th, you could read it that way, or you could just decide you're going to knock it out in a day or two. It's not that terribly long and not a complicated read. But at the end of every chapter is a hymn, and I've included the lyrics to every hymn, 25 carols in addition to 25 Christmas hymns or Christmas myths. And so doing this as a family would encourage family worship, that you could do that devotional together and then sing the Christmas carol together as a family and answer some of the questions that are at the end of each chapter. So again, that book is free. It's on the table in the back as you go out, grab a copy. And I knew that our numbers were probably gonna be a little thin today because we've been getting word about people getting sick and things like that. And so they'll be available on the table next week as well, December the 1st, for anybody who wasn't here this week to be able to grab a copy. So with that, let's come to our text in Romans chapter one. We are once again opening with these first seven verses. Paul's greeting to this church in Rome. In honor of the word, would you please stand? Romans 1 verses 1-7, the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome, hear the word of the Lord. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come into this text again this morning, I pray that we would be taught from your word to understand what is meant here by the message of the gospel bringing about the obedience of faith. The gospel is a message that we have heard, the proclamation of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, risen again from the grave, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God where he intercedes on our behalf. Jesus is coming back again to judge the living and the dead, but all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. We have heard this message. We have come to believe it. Now, what are the implications of it? How does it change us and affect us as Christians living in the light of Christ in a dark and depraved world? Guide us in your truth that it may change our hearts and guide our footsteps. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. When I was in high school and in college, I played the tuba. It was an instrument that I resented at first, but then came to find not many people played the tuba. And I could get scholarshiped in the tuba, so I became to, I came to like the instrument a little bit more. I was, I made first chair state honor band in high school, and then first chair state honor band in college, if I may toot my own horn. I had to fit that joke in there somewhere. I remember one of those occasions, whenever you do honor band, you would send in an audition tape, they would select you and appoint your chair, and then they would send you the music. And you had time on your own to go through the music and learn your part. And then on the day that the honor band was going to perform, we all got together that morning, spent all day practicing the music as a full band, and then we would perform our concert in the evening. So on the day that the honor band was performing, I remember we had this guest conductor who came in and he was sharing with us his wisdom as a conductor. And one of the things that he said was the very, the most important notes, the two most important notes that you will play today will be your very first note and your very last note. And he said, so with that, take out your music to Aaron Copland's rodeo and let's all play the very first note. Everybody give me a D. And he holds his hands up and he goes, one, two, three, and we all play to D. And then he cuts us off and he goes, we have a lot of work to do. Now I was thinking about that because coming into Romans this morning, we actually begin this letter and end it the same way. Paul starts with this strong note and he ends with this strong note and you'll notice that his greeting at the very start and even his doxology at the conclusion contains some very similar themes. Now you don't have to turn there with me if you don't want but I'm going to go ahead and go to Romans 16 and read to you the very conclusion of the letter. Hear what Paul says and this is going to sound very similar to what we just read in the greeting. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept for long ages, but now has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith." To the only wise God be glory forevermore, through Jesus Christ, amen. Did you hear some similarities in there? You had a statement about this being written long ago in the scriptures. There was a statement about this going out to the nations. There's something about to bring about the obedience of faith. That phrase is used in both places. So just as Paul begins this letter, so he closes this letter in the same fashion. And we want to consider the significance of this introduction. Why does Paul say it the way that he does? Why does he conclude this the way that he does? Now, as I was in preparation for this message this morning, I came to recognize a couple of aspects within the introduction. You see even bookmarks here in the greeting, where Paul says that he is called to be an apostle at the very start. And then he says in verse 7 that he is addressing those who are called to be saints. So we have two parts to this greeting. Paul introducing himself as one called to be an apostle and addressing those who are called to belong to Christ Jesus. So we're going to split those two things up between these two Sundays. Today we're going to consider what it means that Paul is called to be an apostle and the ministry that entails. And then next week we're going to see to whom that ministry has been sent. The message of the gospel that is preached to those who are called to belong to Christ Jesus. And between both weeks we will consider what that means, the implications of this. What are some applications that we can tie to this? How then do we live as Christians in light of hearing the message that was given to the apostles, that was then given to those who were called to belong to Christ Jesus. So let's come back up here to the very start, Romans 1, verse 1, and you'll see that Paul identifies himself with three identifiers. First of all, Paul, of course, putting his name, a servant of Christ Jesus, that's first. Secondly, he says that he is called to be an apostle, that's two. And then thirdly, he is set apart for the gospel of God. So let's look at those individually. First of all, Paul is a servant of Christ Jesus. Now those of you who might be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, you have a different word there for servant. you actually have Paul a slave of Christ Jesus. And that is translated from the Greek word doulos, and that's literally what the word means. It means slave. But so many English translations have translated this word as simply servant. But there's a difference between servant and slave. A servant is somebody who is hired. A slave is someone who is owned. And so why is it that many English translations would use that word servant rather than slave? It's because no matter what culture you are from, slave has a very negative connotation attached to it. And I don't want to think of myself as a slave. I am free. I don't belong to anybody. No one owns me. And of course, in the United States of America, there is a certain history that exists here within our country with a past that we don't like to acknowledge with slavery. And we want to think of that as being done. That was the old ways. We're not those people anymore. So we don't own slaves, nor are any of us slaves. But it's not just in the United States. You could go to any nation. In fact, the King James Bible, so you're talking about over 400 years ago in Great Britain is where the King James Bible was penned, where it was translated. And even there in the King James it says servant. It doesn't use the word slave. Because who wants to call themselves a slave? To be a slave is subhuman. It's dehumanizing. It's to say that I'm somebody's property. I belong to somebody else. And I don't want to think of myself as belonging to anyone. And yet, this is exactly the way that Paul introduces himself in this letter as a slave of Christ Jesus. The stigma about this word would have been no different in first century Rome. And so for Paul to call himself that, and this is how he starts this letter to a people who are living in the capital city of the Roman Empire, this would certainly catch your attention. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus? I thought we were set free in Christ. And indeed we are set free from sin, but to belong to Christ. We have a new master. In Christ, we are no longer to be mastered by our sin, by our flesh, by the world, by Satan and all of his schemes. But we are set free from our slavery to those things, and we are now slaves of Christ who has bought us. We see that reminder throughout Paul's letters that we have been purchased by his blood. Even when we were in Titus chapter 2, we read about how he redeemed us from all lawlessness and purified for himself a people for his own possession. that we would be zealous for good works. We do belong to Christ. He is our master. We are his slaves. And my friends, that is good news. We are not possessed by one that brings us death. We are in the possession of the one who promises all his slaves life. Now you're surely familiar with the parable of the three slaves, although that's not usually the way that it gets called because that word slave is not often used in the New Testament. And interestingly enough, when I was in a study of this, I came to find that the word slave itself appears in the King James Bible only one time. I heard that from another scholar and I was like, oh, surely not. Surely the word slave comes up in the King James more often than once. So I found a website that was just the King James Bible and you could do a word search and I Typed it in, slave, how often does it come up? In the KJV, sure enough, one time. In Jeremiah chapter two, that's the only place that the word slave comes up in the King James Bible. Now, I'm reading to you today from the English Standard Version. It appears over 100 times in the ESV. If you're using the Legacy, as I mentioned, it comes up many more times because one of the commitments that the Legacy translators had is they wanted to restore that translation of doulos to be slave and not servant, getting over the stigma that that word has so that we may recognize that in Christ Jesus, we are slaves of His. In that parable that Jesus gives of the three slaves, a master is going away on a journey, and he gives his money, his possessions, to these three slaves to care for it while he is gone. He gives to one ten talents, he gives to another five, and he gives to another a single talent. And the one who has ten talents, well, he invested the money while his master was gone, and he's able to give him even more. And the master says to that slave who has doubled his investment, He says to that slave, well done, good and faithful, what? Servant. That's what you always hear, but the word is doulos. It's slave. So really what the master is saying to his slave is, well done, good and faithful slave. I have put you in charge of a few things. You were responsible with that, so I will give you much more. Same with the slave who invested the five talents. He is able to return to his master, double his investment. But to the slave to whom he gave one talent, the slave said, well, I know that you're a hard man, and so I didn't want to lose this money, so I went and buried it. And look, here it is, and I'm able to restore back to you the one talent that you gave me. And though he didn't squander the talent, though he didn't spend it on something frivolous and spend it on himself, yet the master says to that slave, you worthless slave. You could have at least taken the talent and put it in the bank and be able to return it to me at interest, but you didn't do anything with what it was that I gave you. And so he takes the talent away from that slave, gives it to the one to whom he gave 10, and then the slave that had not invested what the master had given to him is cut up and thrown out with the hypocrites. It's from that parable that we gain the understanding that on the day that we enter into glory, we're going to hear God say to us, to Christians who enter into the gates of heaven, well done, good and faithful servant." We repeat that phrase. It comes from that parable. And really what it is that we will hear the master say to us is, well done, good and faithful slave. And if there's something about that word that causes you some hesitation and it causes you to wince. I just don't know how I feel about that word slave. I don't know that I want to be called a slave. My friend, it's good news that we would hear our Savior say to us, well done, good and faithful slave. And that which belonged to the master, he is going to give to his slaves. So don't think of this slavery that we are under as anything burdensome that we cannot bear. Jesus saying in Matthew chapter 11, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for my burden is easy and my yoke is light. the burden that the world wants to place on you, or the very desires that you have in your flesh for your sin, this burden is too great for you to bear. This is a slavery that you cannot handle, and it will end in your destruction. But slavery to Christ, oh, that's a burden that we want. That's the master we want to serve. because he will not only relieve us of those things that would otherwise destroy us, but he gives us the promise of his eternal kingdom. Even slaves in Rome had an opportunity to buy their freedom, and they would be called freedmen at that point. And sometimes those slaves would have become so loyal to their masters, and their masters have developed such a relationship with their slaves, that a master may even bestow what he possesses and what he owns to his slave upon his death. And that slave has an opportunity to own much property and great wealth and even run for office and perhaps become part of the Roman Senate. There were those that served in the Senate that had previously been slaves. And so there was an opportunity for that kind of freedom for a slave even within the Roman Empire and that is a parable in itself that speaks to us We get even greater than that. As slaves of Christ, we inherit his kingdom. The very thing the Father gives to the Son, he has made us co-heirs of in Christ Jesus. To be a Christian means to be a slave. But to be a slave to Christ does also mean that we are set free. That is a freedom that we should rejoice in having. It should be our great pride to say that I am a slave of Christ. And this is significant as we read this here at the very beginning of Romans for Paul to identify himself as a slave because this concept is going to come up again. There are other places in Romans that will speak of our slavery. Chapter 6, most notably, Are you a slave to your passions in your flesh? Are you a slave to unrighteousness, the way Paul puts it there? Or are you now set free in Christ to become a slave to righteousness? And that would have been on these Roman Christians' minds as we get to that part of the letter, kind of, you know, almost halfway through the letter when we hit that part in chapter 6. They will have remembered as they're hearing the whole letter being read to them, well, Paul identified himself as a slave, so all of us have a master that we're going to serve. Am I going to be a slave to unrighteousness or am I going to be a slave to righteousness? We all understand this concept. There was a song that was written back in the 70s that goes like this. You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble. You may like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls. But you're going to have to serve somebody. You're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. but you're gonna have to serve somebody. It's from the great theologian Bob Dylan. John MacArthur said the following, believers are not merely Christ's hired servants. They are his slaves, belonging to him as his possession. He is their owner and master. worthy of their unquestioned allegiance and absolute obedience. His word is their final authority, His will their ultimate mandate. And for the Apostle Paul to refer to himself here as a slave is to say that very thing. I am a slave to Christ who bought me, who is my master, who has given me orders, and I am carrying them out. And that's the way that he presents himself to these Christians there in the Church of Rome. I come to you as a slave of Christ. So that's first of all. Paul, a slave, a servant of Christ Jesus. And then number two, he says that he is called to be an apostle. Now with respect to calling, we will expound on that a little bit more next week as we come into understanding what it means that we have been called to belong to Christ Jesus. So just as Paul will say there that he is a slave of Christ, he extends that to all the Christians who are there in the church in Rome. You also belong to him. You are possessed by him. You are owned by Christ. So you likewise are called to belong to Christ Jesus. We'll expound on calling next week. But let's look primarily at Paul's identifier here as an apostle. What does it mean that he is called to be an apostle of Christ? Now we've already read three letters from Paul since I've been here preaching over the past year. We went through 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, but we didn't explore so much Paul's apostleship there. What does it mean that he is an apostle? What does that authority entail? What is the ministries therefore giving to Timothy? We considered that more so than Paul's actual appointment as an apostle. The word apostle comes from the Greek word apostolos. And apostolos simply means sent one. Now, the way that we hear that word applied in our Christian context is most commonly the apostles, the 12 apostles that Jesus sent out, or the 12 plus one, because Paul was considered one of those apostles as well. You have those whom Jesus had sent out to preach the gospel, and that's generally the way that we consider the word. It's about the only context in which we hear it. But apostle was not a word that was unique to Christ and to his followers. Jesus was actually using a word that was very commonly known and understood throughout Greek culture and even within the Roman Empire. Somebody was sent by the emperor to deliver a message was called an apostle. Now, if you're familiar with like Anglo history, the history of England, you might have like the messenger that's sent out by the king or the town crier or somebody like that who's supposed to deliver a message. And he's only a vessel That's like the spoken letter, so to speak, as if the king were to have written a letter and handed it to his messenger to go out to proclaim that letter to somebody else. The messenger doesn't have, this message doesn't originate from him. He's just simply the messenger. And people might get mad at the message. And who is it that they're going to get mad at? They'll get mad at the guy who's delivering the message. And so, they'll want to kill him because they don't like the message. And so, this is where that whole adage has come from, don't shoot the messenger, right? Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you what he said. That's been my only role here. So the one who is an apostle of the emperor, he is sent out by the emperor to deliver a message. And whatever the apostle said was the word of the emperor. And so any attack that was made on the apostle, because somebody didn't like that message that the apostle said, that was considered to be an equivalent as an attack on the emperor himself. because the apostle carried the word that the emperor had sent out. And so the apostle carried that, he carried authority in that sense. And he had the authority of the Roman emperor to speak what the emperor had told him to speak. And again, any resistance to that message, any opposition to that message, well, it wasn't an opposition to the messenger, it was an opposition to the emperor. And so that same word Christ uses for those whom he has appointed to take his message, his gospel, the word of God out to the nations. He has appointed his apostles, these men who have been given the word of Christ and their word is considered to be every bit as equivalent as the word of God. So when Paul presents himself to these Roman Christians as an apostle, that's a pretty serious introduction. Well, this man's coming with a word of the king. He is actually declaring to us what Christ has said. It is a word that comes not from himself, but it is the word of the Lord. When the apostle Paul had addressed the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians, he says, We know that you have been called of God because you received our word as being not from us, but from God. In Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, in 2 Thessalonians 3, he says, if anyone disregards what we have said in this letter, take note of that person and remove him from you. Why? Because he would have disregarded not simply the opinion of a teacher, but he has disregarded the very word of God. So even the apostles understood this. This isn't some retroactive study that we have done in which we're looking back on these letters and we're going, oh, oh, see, these words that the apostles share, these were actually the words of God. They may not have known that, but we can now decipher that. No, they knew exactly what they were preaching came from Christ. And so we are to regard this word as being every bit as authoritative as the word of Christ itself. There is debate that exists within our culture today, and you may have even run across this before, where there are those people who are going to dismiss that the words of Paul are actually the words of Christ. And you may hear some teachers say, well, I am loyal to Christ before I'm loyal to Paul, or something to that degree. You may hear them try to make a distinction or a separation between Paul and Christ. But remember that the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me. as I am of Christ. There is not supposed to be any separation between the word of an apostle and the word of Christ. It is to actually separate Christ from Christ. If you're going to say, well, I trust the red letters in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, whatever's written in red, that has more authority for me than every other word that is written in black and white. Incidentally, just this past week, Tony Campolo passed away. I believe he was 89, if memory serves. Tony Campolo was the founder of a ministry called Red Letter Christians. And that ministry basically was founded on this idea that the letters in the Bible that are written in red, in your red letter Bible, carry more weight or more authority than words that are written in regular black ink. Of course, if you look at the theology of the red letter Christians, they don't even believe the letters that are written in red. So it really was an excuse to just try to say, well, we don't really have to obey all of scripture. Not all of it is that authoritative, just the parts that we think are authoritative. They certainly didn't think of the words of Christ in Revelation that are also written in red as being as authoritative as those words of his that were written in the Gospels. But when it comes down to it, when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you are not reading the words of Christ as Jesus himself took a pen and wrote it down on paper, and now we have that in those Gospels. Even when you're reading those Gospels, you're reading the word of Christ as delivered by an apostle. So it really doesn't matter if you're reading a direct quotation from Christ in those four books or if you're reading a quotation from an apostle in Romans. You're still reading the word of Christ in either book. The word of an apostle was the word of the Lord. And an apostle was verified by three signs. There were three qualifications that an apostle had to meet in order to be an apostle. If you have your Bible open, turn with me over to Acts chapter 1. Let's look at a couple of them, two of those qualifications here in Acts chapter 1. In Acts 1, beginning in verse 21, is where I'm at. Now to kind of set this up for you a little bit, this is in the upper room after Jesus has ascended into heaven. And he has told the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. This is before them coming into Pentecost and preaching in Pentecost, which we have in Acts chapter 2. They're meeting in the same upper room that Jesus and his disciples met in for the Last Supper. That's the same room that they're in. There's 120 of them there. And even Mary, Jesus' mother, and his half-brothers are among the 120 that are present for this conversation, which is essentially like the first church meeting after Jesus has ascended into heaven. Now, one of the things that they have to decide upon, they need to pick somebody to fill Judas' office, which he vacated when he betrayed Christ and then killed himself. And it's even said in the verses right before this that this was all prophesied. May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it and let another take his office. Those are quotes right from the Old Testament. So, who's going to be the guy to fill in Judas' spot as the 12th apostle? Well, he had to meet certain qualifications to become that 12th apostle. Let's read here. Acts 1 verse 21. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two of the men that were with them. There were two who were qualified. Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, you know the hearts of all. Show which one of these two you have chosen. to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So incidentally, if we ever come into a situation where we as Baptists can't agree on a particular business meeting, which is common among Baptists, by the way, for us to not agree in a business meeting, it's biblical for us to cast lots to come to a decision that we cannot agree upon. I'm not being serious about that necessarily, but we could do it that way. So they have two men who are qualified to be apostles to fill this role that Judas had left open, but there can only be one because there is 12. Jesus had appointed 12, so we're choosing the man who's going to fill in that 12th spot. So they pray, Lord, you've already chosen this man. You know the man who's going to fill in for Judas. Who's it going to be? And they cast the lots. And as said in the book of Proverbs, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. And so God has shown which one that he chose by appointing Matthias to that spot. Now notice again the qualifications that these two men had to meet. They had to have seen Jesus from his baptism From the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. So they had to have seen the risen Lord. That was a qualification for an apostle. They had to have seen the risen Christ. Now the apostle Paul qualifies because he saw the risen Christ. When did he see the risen Christ? In Acts chapter 9, on the road to Damascus, when Jesus appeared to him, he who was Saul persecuting Christians and said to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul replies, who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And so Saul, who became the apostle Paul, saw the risen Christ, appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And Paul will also say in Galatians chapter one, that after being appointed by Christ to be an apostle to the nations, he didn't immediately go back to Jerusalem. Instead, he went into Sinai and was with the Lord for three years. So there was a time of teaching that Jesus gave even to Paul for three years, just like the other apostles had received. And so Paul had received that also. So these were the qualifications that one had to have in order to be an apostle. They had to have seen the risen Christ, and they had to have been appointed by Christ himself. So those are two qualifications. Now then, what would be the third? Because I said that there were three qualifications. The third would be that their apostleship was verified by the signs and miracles that they performed. In Hebrews chapter 2 it is said that the message of the gospel has come to us and God verified it through various signs and wonders that were performed by the Holy Spirit according to His will. And the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 to the Corinthians, the signs of apostleship have clearly been performed among you. So that is to say to them, You can see the authenticity of my ministry as an apostle because those signs were done in your presence, and you know they are supernatural, and that this word that was delivered to you came not from man, but it came from God. So again, those are our three qualifications. They had to have seen the risen Lord. They had to have been personally appointed to apostleship by Christ himself. And they had to have performed miracles that verified the authenticity of their apostleship. And so that is how we come to know the apostles. Now, to further elaborate on that, this ministry of apostleship, this is an office that is closed. Thank you for applying, but Jesus is not appointing apostles anymore. And there are many false teachers out there that will claim to be an apostle. There's a very easy test that you can give to a person that says, well, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, so you have to listen to my word. You can simply respond to that man or woman, raise the dead and prove it. And if they can affirm their apostleship with some sort of miraculous sign, well, maybe they are sent by God, but you still must be careful there because the book of Deuteronomy tells us that if that person comes with a sign or a wonder and it comes to pass, but then that person tells you, let's go after other gods, well, they didn't come from the Lord. They are actually an agent of Satan. So there are many false religions today that will claim to still possess this office of apostleship and that there are new modern apostles that are being appointed to that office. The Pope, for example, in Roman Catholicism, though he doesn't necessarily consider himself to be equal to Peter or the rest of the apostles, it is nonetheless a continuation of the apostolic ministry that has continued down a line from Saint Peter to Pope Francis today. Francis is not even a shadow of who Peter was. So do not think of that office as being apostolic in any way, shape, or form. Among the Mormons, they have the quorum of the 12 apostles. There is always 12. And those men are appointed by by those within the Mormon faith. The one who is the oldest among the quorum of the 12 apostles is appointed the president of the Latter-day Saints. And it's always going to be the one who is the oldest. So even if he has the cognition of Joe Biden, he would still be the president of LDS just simply by virtue of being the oldest. And once a person is appointed to apostleship, he is forever an apostle within the Mormon church. There are also those within charismaticism that will claim to be apostles. And this is where you are most likely to encounter this declaration. Somebody who is themselves Pentecostal or charismatic will say, well, I'm an apostle or I follow this man who is an apostle. And again, a very easy test that you can put to them is to say to them, to perform some sort of miraculous sign or wonder to affirm it. But this is not an office that continues to this day in the sense that new people are being appointed to the office of apostle. And by the way, there aren't new prophets either. Hebrews 1.1 says, long ago, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. And so there's a declaration there that the office of prophet is no longer one that is even being filled to this day with modern prophets or apostles. Now, whenever I have spoken about this, whenever I've said something like this, there's not going to be any modern day apostles. One of the most common objections that I get to this is a quote from Ephesians 4.11. Somebody might point to that and say, well, the passage says here that he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. If you're saying that there are no more modern day apostles that are being appointed, then logically, couldn't we also say that there are no modern evangelists, shepherds, and teachers? No, God had meant for a specific time and place for apostles and prophets to serve a specific ministry. And that time is over. It has been accomplished, everything that God meant to do through those apostles and those prophets who delivered the word of God, whose ministry was verified by signs. It has since been written down and we have their ministry that has been given to us in the Holy Scriptures. those apostles and prophets still have authority over us in the church today. Not in the sense that there are new apostles and prophets being appointed, but in the sense that their words are written down right here in scripture, and we submit to their authority every time we open the Bible and read it. That ministry of apostleship continues to us through our reading and study of the scriptures whom Christ had appointed to deliver this word, which we call and know to be the word of God. So in this sense, God indeed gave the apostles and he gave the prophets. In Ephesians 2.20, so a little bit earlier than this passage, the apostle Paul had said that Christ is building his church with Christ himself being the cornerstone on a foundation of the apostles and prophets. Let me read it to you here from Ephesians 2 beginning in verse 19, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being a cornerstone. How many times do you lay a foundation? one time. That foundation has been laid and it is not being added to. What Peter says in 1 Peter 2 is that we are all living stones that are being built up into a household of God, that are built upon that foundation that Christ laid with the apostles and prophets, with himself being the cornerstone, that center stone, that piece that all the rest of the foundation is laid according to. And so we, likewise, are living stones. In this sense, the house of God is being built up, but that foundation is not being added to. It's not being relayed. It has already been established. That ministry of apostle and prophet that had been given and has been accomplished, there are no new members of it, but we still submit to it. Every time we open the scriptures and read the word, we are reading the ministry of apostleship that Christ had given to these select men that had been appointed to carry forth the word of God, to proclaim the gospel to the nations. And this was a role that came with a lot of work and persecution. When Jesus spoke to Ananias in Acts chapter 9 about Paul, He said to Ananias, I am going to show him how much he is going to what? Suffer for my name. I find it deeply offensive whenever a person today wants to claim to be an apostle. In fact, I can go further than saying, well, do a miracle and prove it. I can say, show me your sufferings and prove it. because these apostles went through so much for Christ to bring us this gospel that we have today. And if I had the time, I would go through this, but you can read for yourself 2 Corinthians 11, where Paul goes through all the things that he has endured as an apostle for the sake of the gospel. This came with great suffering. It came with even grief, as Paul talks about, the grief that he had for all the churches. that he had planted through the preaching of the gospel. He was daily in prayer for them all. And you'll see that here even in this introduction to Romans. He will talk about how often he prays for them and how much he is looking forward to coming to Rome, that he might be encouraged by them and that he can likewise extend some encouragement to them. Paul is called to an incredible task. As a slave of Christ, he will suffer for the sake of the gospel that would be proclaimed to the nations. And so we have here at the beginning of Romans, verse one, Paul identifying himself as a slave of Christ. Secondly, that he is called to be an apostle. And then thirdly, he says that he is set apart for the gospel of God. There are various occasions where Paul will speak of himself in a certain way that's very similar to the way that Jeremiah is talked about or the way that God would address Jeremiah. Jeremiah was known in the Old Testament as the weeping prophet. And Paul likewise talks about the tears that he would have in Acts chapter 20 when he knows that he's not gonna see those Ephesian elders ever again, at least on this side of heaven. He weeps with them and shares tears with them. in Galatians chapter, I can't remember which chapter, but saying in Galatians, how much with tears he labors for them. In Philippians chapter three, talking about how those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, Paul says that he has shed tears over them. So this is a man who is very greatly moved in his emotions for the people of God. Very similar to what you see in the person of Jeremiah, the very personality of Jeremiah that God uses to deliver this great message to Israel in what is actually the longest book of the Bible, the book of Jeremiah. Now, in Jeremiah chapter 1, God says this to the prophet. He says in Jeremiah 1-5, In Galatians chapter 1, Paul says this about himself and this ministry that he was given. God was pleased to reveal his son to me and set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace. So you see something similar there, right? The way that God addressed Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter one, and the way the apostle Paul says the gospel came to him in Galatians chapter one, verse 15. He who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, he was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles." This is the way Paul refers to this calling that he has, being set apart for the gospel of God, something that God had even appointed him for before he was born. And just as God said to Jeremiah, I have consecrated you that you would be a prophet to the nations. So it is the same that is said of Paul. To consecrate is to make holy or to sanctify or to set apart. And so Paul is said here in that same way, to be set apart for the gospel of God. Now, what does it mean to be set apart for the gospel of God? Well, that's the next part that comes in the next two verses. Paul basically explains what that means. It is the gospel that he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the declaration of the gospel right there. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul says that I delivered to you what I also received in that Christ was crucified according to the scriptures. He was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And that's a declaration of the gospel. He died for our sins. He rose again on the third day. And Paul is basically giving that same sort of gospel presentation here in the greeting of this letter to the Romans. He's been set apart for the gospel of God. Well, what is that gospel? It's that which was promised beforehand through his apostles in the Holy Scriptures. It's been talked about even before I got here. And that's significant because some of Paul's opponents were saying of Paul that he was preaching things that have never been preached before. This cannot be found in the Law and the Prophets. And that's something to keep in mind because Paul will address those skeptics as we go through this letter. And he will respond to the fact that, no, this has been spoken of long ago. And he'll draw examples out, like here's what Abraham said. Here's what David said. Here is what was written about in the Psalms. This is not new. All of this had been proclaimed generations before through the prophets and has been fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So this was promised beforehand through his apostles in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, all of this pointing to Christ, who was descended from David according to the flesh. He is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant that on your throne, I will establish my kingdom forever. And he was resurrected from the dead, declared to be the son of God, in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul here not just saying that Jesus was merely some great prophet who fulfilled these things and God raised from the dead, but by his very resurrection from the dead, he is declared to be God himself. And that is what Paul comes preaching with this ministry of apostleship that he has been given set apart for the gospel of God. Now what we have to consider next. As we continue to study this, even from this introduction, we're not even to the...I don't want to call it the meat and bones of the rest of Romans because this is meat right here for us in the greeting of the letter. But we've not even yet come to the heart of the letter and yet we have deep declarations of the gospel that are already being proclaimed to us simply from this greeting. So what we have to consider even in the greeting of this letter are what are the implications of this? And remember that I said to you last week that the book of Romans can be divided into two parts. You have doctrine and you have duty. Chapters 1 through 11, heavy doctrine. And then chapters 12 through 16 are going to be, here's what that should look like now in the life of the Christian who believes all the doctrine that I just taught. How does it change our lives? And that's not an outline that I simply come up with by looking at Romans. Paul presents it for us here, even in the very introduction of the letter. He's talking about preaching the gospel of God, and what is that gospel going to do? Through Jesus Christ, look at verse 5, whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among the nations, including you who were called to belong to Jesus Christ. So there's a gospel to be proclaimed. But then there's also a gospel that is to be lived out. They're not different gospels. It's the same gospel. If you have heard the gospel, how will it change your life? It will bring about the obedience of faith. And I come back again, my friends, to the declaration of us being slaves of Christ Jesus. We've been bought by Christ. We belong to Christ. He is our master. Now, how do you live as a slave of Christ Jesus? Has your life been changed because you have come to believe the gospel of Christ? Then how do you show it in your life? You should be living in such a way that you demonstrate that you are a slave of Christ, that he is my master, that I belong to him, that I am not mastered by anything else in this world. I'm not mastered by my flesh. I am mastered by no other passion but serving my master and that Christ is that master. In closing, let me come back to the illustration I gave you in the beginning, my opening story, talking about That conductor who had said to me that your most important notes that you're gonna play in any piece of music are gonna be your first note and your last note. So start on a strong note and end on a strong note, cuz those are gonna be the notes that most people are gonna remember in any piece of music that you play. It'd be easy for us to say that in our Christian faith, we must start on a strong note and we must end on a strong note. But how can we do that under our own power? How can any of us say that we came into the Christian faith on a strong note? None of us did, not by our own doing anyway. And we were wretched sinners realizing, I'm under the wrath of God. I need a savior. And then hearing through the gospel that Christ is that savior for us. So we probably felt like we were at our lowest point right there, at the point that we come to faith in Jesus Christ. And then how can we say that under our own power, we're going to be able to endure to the very end where I can at least say that I finished on a strong note and I'm coming into heaven tooting my own horn because of all the great things that I did in my life. None of us would be able to declare that of ourselves either. But my friends, if you are in Christ Jesus, then it's because of the power of Christ. You began on a strong note. You began in Christ. And if you continue in Christ you will also end on a strong note. You end in Christ and we enter his eternal kingdom to hear him say not by any work that we have done of our own will and power but by the work of God within us. Jesus will say to us well done good and faithful slave. Now great is your reward. There are many who will believe that they were slaves of Christ and they were not. And Jesus warns of that day in Matthew chapter 7, many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, and will not enter the kingdom of God. They will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do many mighty works in your name? And I will declare to them, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. I never knew you. So what word will we hear from Christ on that day? Will it be depart from me you worker of lawlessness? Or will it be well done good and faithful slave? And our assurance of those welcoming words that we will hear walking through heaven's gates are in Christ and in Christ alone. We will continue to read more about this ministry and the effect that it should have on each and every one of us who are called to belong to Jesus Christ as we continue our study of this greeting next week. As we finish what we have heard today, we've heard the very word of God. When we open up our Bible and read it, we have heard God's word. And may by the power of his spirit within us, may it have a changing effect on our lives. When we come to this table, the Lord's table that we practice each and every Sunday, we remember Christ who was given for us.