We have just begun a study for a series of sermons in the book of Romans, and we're in Romans chapter one today. You can listen or follow along in your own copy of the word of God. And last week we looked at verses one through seven, which was more of a salutation, a greeting, one of the most theologically rich greetings that you'll ever read. to a letter and today we find more by way of introduction to Paul's purpose and reason for writing this letter. So let's hear the word of God beginning in verse eight of Romans chapter one. 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 some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift. so that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Now, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in a room also. This is the living and abiding word of God. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for your inerrant and infallible word. And we pray that we might Hear it and heed it as coming straight from your mouth. And oh, Lord, may you bless the preaching and the receiving of this word today. In Jesus name. Amen. So Paul, in those first seven verses, greeted the Romans, told them a little bit about himself and about his convictions, about God and the gospel of God. And now in these verses, he tells these Roman Christians his purpose in writing to them. He had not been the one to plant this church, and he had not yet visited this church, but he wanted them to know how concerned he was about them and how much he was concerned for their spiritual welfare. You know, letter writing has fallen on hard times, in our day. And yet, it's still a very powerful way to communicate to someone. It really is. We get emails and texts, dozens of them, a day. But if you get a personal letter from someone, you take notice, don't you? Especially nowadays. because it's so rare. But we can only imagine what must have gone through or been going through the minds of the Christians in Rome when they were told that the Apostle Paul, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, had written a letter specifically to them. But, you know, we also need to look at these letters in the Bible as God writing them to us. As someone has aptly said, these are God's love letters to you and to me. And some letters, though, they don't bring good news, do they? If you've got a letter from the magistrate telling you to appear in court on a certain day because of some violation of the law, You would not be welcoming that letter. And so these Romans could have been asking themselves, what reason might an apostle be writing to us? Have we done something wrong? Are we in trouble? But as soon as they read these verses that we just read today, their fears would have been put to rest. Because he was writing to let them know that he thanked God for them, that he prayed for them, and that he longed to see them face to face. His purpose in coming to them would be for mutual encouragement. But Paul also knew how strategic the city of Rome was. He knew that if he was able to come and preached the gospel there, this great capital city of the great Roman Empire, then what influence there might be that would spread from that city to the rest of the world. Paul was very mission-minded, a missionary himself. And so as we study this introduction, we'll look at five aspects of it. And the first thing we notice is Paul's thanksgiving in verse 8. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now, seven of Paul's epistles have thanksgivings like this in them. And notice And this is obvious. Paul does not thank the Romans. He gives thanks to God for them. And now there's a place to give thanks to people. for things that they have done. And most of us at a young age learn how to say thank you when someone did something nice for us or gave us a gift. And as important as it is to thank those who have blessed us in some way, it's far, far more critical that we learn to thank God. And Paul teaches us to do that because we know that God is the fount of every blessing. Now you may be the channel of that blessing to someone, but God is the source of every blessing. And he says, I thank my God. Often we see Paul using that personal, possessive language. God is my God to Paul. He had a personal, intimate relationship with God. And I would ask you this morning, do you have such a relationship with God where you can say He's my God? I am His and He is mine. Notice also that Paul thanked God through Jesus Christ. Why is that important? Well, because the only way to have a personal relationship with God is through Jesus Christ. He himself said, no one comes to the Father except through me. You have to go through Jesus to get to God. You cannot go to God, you cannot know God, unless you come through Jesus. The Bible says there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. the God man, Christ Jesus. And so, excuse me, so when we give thanks to God, we need to be mindful that since we have received every blessing from God through Christ, then we need to bring and return every thanksgiving and praise to God back through Christ. And this is exactly what we see in Hebrews 13, 15. It says, therefore by him, that is by Christ, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. So this awareness of our constant need of Christ as our mediator for all things, even our praise to God, is something that we need to keep in mind. Now what specifically does he thank God for in the church at Rome? He said that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. In other words, Paul's saying to them, he says, everywhere I go, people are telling me about your faith. And for that, I give thanks. But why would Paul thank God for their faith? Well, because faith is the gift of God. Faith was the work and result of God's work in their hearts. If every blessing we receive is from God, and faith is a great blessing, then faith is a gift of God. So give thanks to God for the faith that you have. Give thanks to God for the faith of others that you know. And give thanks that God has opened your own heart, opened your eyes, that you might believe the gospel. So Paul was thankful for their faith. He was thankful that their faith was also evident. to others who were looking on. So I would ask you another question today, and that is, is your faith something that's noticeable to the people that you live near, the people that know you, the people you work with, and so on? Do they notice your faith? You wonder, do they talk about your faith when they leave? Did they ever mention your faith to others. Well, it should be something like that. And James wrote in his epistle, he said, I will show you my faith by my works. So our faith is evidenced by how we live. But the second thing, Paul first gives thanks. Secondly, we see his intercession, his prayer for the Roman Christians. For as God is my witness, you might serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers." So he not only gives thanks for them, he intercedes for them, and he prays for them. And he says, for God is my witness. For God is my witness. This is kind of an oath he's taking here, right at the beginning, and it's an appeal to God to bear witness to what he's saying. I'm telling the truth, and God can tell you the same thing, that I have earnestly interceded for you. Now, Paul, he did know a few of the Christians that were in the Roman church, but not that many. Most of them he had never met. And so you could see how most of these folks who had never met him, never met the apostle, they might wonder now, is he for real? How can he have that much affection and concern for me? He's never met me or most of us. And so Paul says, God's my witness. I do care for you. I am concerned for you, and I'm interceding for you all the time. And you are on my heart. So calling God as witness, and that's not something he did lightly. It's certainly not something we should do lightly. It's not something we should do regularly. But Paul let them know. He let them know. He said, I serve God with my spirit. My devotion to God is sincere. It's from the heart. And I want you to know that. And he says that it was gospel service, service in the gospel of his son. His service was not for himself. You know, some people do actually serve others for what they get out of it. And we do get a lot out of serving. But We want either a thank you or a welcome or appreciation or a pat on the back. People serve for selfish reasons, which is not really true service. But Paul's service was genuine. And so he said, my service is in the gospel of his son. So it's not for himself. It's for God and for the gospel. And in his prayers, he prayed. Two things, without ceasing and always. That's how he prayed. And so Paul prayed for all the churches that he knew about. All the churches that he had started, all the churches that existed in the known world at that time. And he probably knew most all of them. And so whenever Paul prayed for the churches, he included this church in Rome. And most of his prayers, if you read his prayers, and that's a great study to go through all the prayers of the Apostle Paul and his epistles, Most of the time his prayers were for the strengthening of the faith of the believers in a particular church. But here his request, it's not selfish, but it's more for himself. He said, I've been praying that I would be able to come and find a way to visit you. And so Paul has this wonderful letter, which we are so thankful that we have today. And it's been given to the whole church, not just to the Romans. But Paul is letting them know, I don't want you to just get the information on a piece of papyrus from me. I want you to have this experience of fellowship with me, and I want to have that with you, this face-to-face fellowship, this personal connection. And if Paul was around today, he would say, I don't want just a zoom meeting or a FaceTime call. I want to be with you so I can see the expression on your face. I can hear the inflection of your voice and, and, and I can be actually there with you. And so, but he confessed that finding his way to them was though that was his strong desire. It was not under his control, not at all. It was up to the will of God. If in the will of God, I can find my way to you. That's the way he understood it. He knew and believed what James wrote in James 4.15, that if the Lord wills, we need to say, if the Lord wills, then we'll do this or we'll do that. So do you live without awareness of the providence of God that all things are ordered by the sovereign hand of God. So what we need to do with this is to be, as Stephen said earlier, we need to be content. We need to rest in the providence of God. And it doesn't mean that if we don't get an answer to prayer immediately that we give up praying. No, we can keep praying. But in the meantime, until God gives us some answer that we think we want, we need to rest in his providence, knowing that a man may plan his way, A woman may plan her way, but the Lord directs their steps. Moving on, the third thing that we see in this introduction in verses 11 and 12 is some of the reasons for wanting to see them. And he says, I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. That's one thing. So the purpose for his visit was to be an instrument of blessing to them, of spiritual blessing. Now, in those days, the apostles had extraordinary spiritual gifts. You and I have ordinary spiritual gifts. No spiritual gift is ordinary, but extraordinary supernatural gifts. The apostles would lay hands on people and they would be healed. confer these spiritual gifts to others. For example, he could say to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.6, he said, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. As an apostle, Paul was the instrument of Timothy receiving gifts for ministry. Well, the Greek word in verse 12 for spiritual gift is charisma. We hear the word charismatic today, which is an emphasis sometimes on these supernatural gifts, which I think many of those are not in existence today. So Paul could have been referring to supernatural gifts or ordinary gifts here. We don't know. What is the purpose of the spiritual gifts that he hoped to be the instrument of bringing them in this situation? He says, so that you may be established. And that word established, it means to make stable, to strengthen, to make firm. And this is something that God desires for each and every Christian and each and every church. is spiritual strength and stability. You can be like jello, or you can be like a rock. And if you build your life on Christ, if you are strengthened by the Lord, then that's what you will be. Dr. Sproul comments, he said, if any institution in the year 55 AD was tenuous, humanly speaking, it was the small Christian church. So the church was spreading throughout, but it was small at the time, insignificant, impoverished, unstable, living in the shadow and strength and the might of the most powerful government in the world in the city of Rome. This church needed above all to be more firmly established or to be strengthened. We're living today in what we might call modern day Rome. And there's two reasons why I would say that, and that is in Rome, they worshiped idols. They were pagans. There was paganism. And they bowed before many gods. And they also bowed before Caesar. They bowed before the government, if you will. They worshiped the governor and the government. And today, we see the same thing. in our own country, in our own culture. There's a return to pagan gods, paganism, and there's also a large segment of our society that essentially believes that government is their god. Government is what they look to for what typically you would think people are looking to, or ought to look to God for. So the church, in the midst of this kind of culture, in the midst of a modern day Rome needs to be established in the strength of the Lord and in his word or we will not survive. Now, the church is in decline in America and it's probable that part of the reason is because it has not been established in the strength of the Lord. And so pray, to that end, let us pray fervently for our own church and for the church in general. In verse 12 he said, well that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of you and me. And so he quickly acknowledges that it's not just a one-way street here. You have much to offer me. I look forward to the fellowship with you because you're going to bring things to me that will build me up as well. You know, we do have much to learn from each other. Now, some people know more about the Bible and know more about the teachings of scripture than others. Pastors should know a lot. But every Christian who's doing their duty, reading, studying, meditating on the scriptures and coming to worship and learning, they have much to offer. You have much to offer each other. You have much to offer me. You don't know how encouraged I am every day that I interact with people from this congregation. What a blessing, what a blessing, and what an encouragement each and every single one of you are. And so Let's continue to do that, to exhort one another, to encourage one another. It's a mutual thing. Now, moving on to the fourth item in this introduction, looking at verse 13. This is where he explains a little bit of why he had not visited them yet. Now, I don't want you to be unaware. He said, brethren, I often plan to come to you, but was hindered Until now and he doesn't say how he was hindered, but he says he was hindered now. They again They might have wondered First of all, they wondered, you know, why is an apostle writing us? What what you know, what's going on here? And And they also might have wondered, why hasn't he visited us? We're the church in Rome. You're a growing church. We're in an important city. But Paul, this great apostle, has never come to see us. And they could have been guilty of making assumptions about Paul's motives. He's been to lots of other churches, but he's never been to our church. Don't we do that with each other? You know, someone didn't, I came to church today, but so and so didn't say a word to me. I wonder why. Then we start conjecturing, you know. Well, the preacher didn't talk to me today. I wonder why. Well, you know, there's probably a reason, but there may not be anything. And most of the time we end up making, you know, by conjecture and speculation, making things out of nothing. And we need to be on guard about that. But Paul kind of cuts that off here. Whether they were guilty of conjecture here and questioning Paul's motives, I don't really know. But he lets them know. I really did plan many times to come see you, but I was hindered. I was hindered. So you need to know that. And it wasn't because he hadn't tried. It was due to the fact that God hadn't allowed him to go. He wanted to have some fruit among them also, just as among the other Gentiles, he said. And of course, Paul would get to Rome. Eventually, he wanted to go to Spain, where the gospel hadn't really been preached, and he was going to see them in Rome on the way. He did get to Rome, but not in the way he planned, not in the way he would have wanted or chosen. He was imprisoned, and yet, as he wrote in Philippians, he said that his time in prison bore much fruit for the gospel. He said, the things which happened to me have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it's become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. So man plans his way. God directs his steps. Very practical lesson for us is obvious. Lay your requests before God. leave the time and the manner of fulfilling those requests in his hands. Be persistent. Pray in faith. Don't doubt that God is able to do abundantly above all we ask or think, but learn to trust God and not lean on your own understanding. And to know that if you acknowledge God in all your ways, he's going to direct your steps, as he did for Paul. James Boyce, in his commentary on Romans, suggested there are three reasons why sometimes our prayers go unanswered. First reason he gave, he said, unanswered prayer may be God's way of teaching that we're not as necessary to the work we're praying for as we think we are. Even Paul, as the great apostle, was not indispensable. You know, the Roman church may have thought they needed him. Paul thought that they needed his ministry and that he needed theirs. But God thought otherwise, at least for a time. And so, second reason that unanswered prayer may exists, according to Boyce, is that he may have other work for us to do. We pray about one thing, we desire to serve him in one way. This is something that's on our hearts and we think about it, we pray about it, but God has a plan for us to serve in a different way. And so whatever situation you're in, If it's not the one that you desire to be in, and you've been praying about it, you need to learn patience. You need to learn to roll with the flow of God's providence in your life. It may come about in time, but in the meantime, trust in his providence. Well, third, Boyce says the reason why we have unanswered prayer may be, it may be the spiritual warfare exist of which you and I may be unaware of. And you think of Daniel and his prayers and the answer to those prayers was delay. Because when the angel finally came to him, he says, I was doing battle with the forces of darkness, and I was hindered from coming to you with the answer to the prayer. And even in 1 Thessalonians 2, 18, Paul could write this. He said, therefore, we wanted to come to you. So he wanted to come to the Thessalonians. And in 2, verse 18, he says, we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again, but Satan hindered us. So these reasons, these three reasons given for unanswered prayer, know that they're all underneath the sovereign hand of God. Satan cannot hinder you unless God wills for Satan to hinder you. You know, God has a sovereign hand in all of these things, but we need to learn to pray, first of all, more earnestly for others like Paul did, but also learn to wait and be submissive to the will of God like Paul did. Well, lastly, from this passage, we see how earnestly Paul desired to preach the gospel in Rome. Verse 14, I'm a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Paul loved people all kinds of people just as God loves people all kinds of people and so Paul in love wanted to give the gospel to everybody he could anybody who he would be able to do that with and so he felt a debt of a debt to all men to preach the gospel to them. He had compassion on the Greeks, that is the civilized, the educated element of society. He was equally comfortable and had compassion for those who were not so civilized, the barbarians. They weren't very educated. It didn't matter. To Paul, they were people who needed Christ. And without Christ, their lives were meaningless, and they were lost in sin. In Colossians 3.11, he wrote that in Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. He's not saying that there's no difference among people, no differences, no differences among cultures, and so on. But he's saying that in Christ, those things don't really matter so much. And so we tend to, people talk about how tribal our society has become. We put ourselves in tribes and groups, and if you're not in the right one, everybody else is suspect. And yet, We need to look at people as Paul did, as those who are either lost or saved, those who are either in Christ or not in Christ. And so we need to see that the people we meet and the people we interact with that way, that we would have this burden that we too have a debt to pray for the lost and to point them to Christ and give them the message of the gospel as much as is in our ability to do. Now closing out this introductory session in verse 15, he says, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. He's ready to pay that debt to Rome. He couldn't wait to get there. He was more than ready. He was eager to preach the gospel because that was his whole calling. He said, woe to me if I don't preach the gospel. I'm constrained. I have this burden. It will not leave me. And so the purpose of this letter was the purpose of his life, to explain and declare the wonders of the free grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul had, remember, once persecuted Christians with great zeal, but he met the risen Christ in the process, and Christ asked him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? it's hard for you to kick against the goads. And so Paul had sworn himself to be an enemy of Jesus Christ, but Jesus turned him around and made him a friend and a servant of the gospel. Paul knew how indebted he was to Christ for saving his soul, and then He knew himself to be the chief of sinners, saved by free grace. And then he knew that he had a duty, an obligation, a debt that he owed to share that gospel with as many people as possible. So as we close, do you know this grace? Have you experienced this grace, this free grace, this salvation of Jesus Christ in your own heart and soul? So how can I experience that? Well, simply, first of all, by admitting that you fall short of the glory of God, that you sinned and broken his law and confess your not only your sin, but your helplessness to save yourself. That there is nothing in you that would cause God to be favorable to you and put all your trust in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. and call upon him, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you called on the name of the Lord and said, Lord, save me? If you're sincere, the Lord will hear that prayer. And in an instant, you'll be transformed. You'll be born again. You'll be saved from your sins. I would ask you to pray that prayer today if you don't know Christ. But if you do know him, then you need to tell people Jesus you say well I don't know how to do that well okay let's have a class let's teach people how to share the gospel let's give you a method to share the gospel now what you need is the heart of Paul of the Apostle Paul if you have Paul's heart You will share the gospel. You will share it better than anybody who has learned all the methods and so forth. So we can talk about being a witness all day long. How do we do it? How do we overcome our fears and such? No, just get what Paul had. get this burden in his heart, first for his own salvation in Christ, to know Christ. He said, I want to know Christ and the power of his, the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection. And I want to make him known. And if that's the burden, that becomes the burden of your heart in a sincere way, then you will not be able to help. telling the people that you know about the one that you know who saved your soul. Let's pray together. Lord, we come before you with great thanksgiving for the faith that you have given to us. Lord, if there's anyone here today that does not have faith, true saving faith in Jesus, I pray, Lord, that today might be the day they call upon you and put their faith in you as Savior and Lord. You are the only way to the Father. You're the only way to heaven, and in you is life, and in you is eternal life. He who has the Son has life, but he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Lord, may we all, each and every one, leave here today with that life, knowing Jesus, and then going forth to make him known. In your name we pray, amen. If you would now turn to 447 in your hymnal, Christ for the world we sing.