Paul in Acts chapter 28 declares
himself to be someone who is chained for the hope of Israel. Chained. That's a great way of
describing the children of God, isn't it? leave us not to empty
notions, we would find our hope in thee. Ben read these verses
to us earlier and I wanted us to contemplate Paul finally coming
to Rome. This has been an eight-chapter
journey. He desired in chapter 20 to leave
Corinth and go to Rome and hoping that his His pilgrimage and his
gifts would be made a blessing to them. But what a journey it's
been. Verse 16 says, And we came to Rome. We came to Rome. And Paul was delivered with the
other prisoners, but not like the other prisoners, Paul was
delivered to a place of his own. He has suffered to dwell by himself
with the soldier that kept him. We have to be mindful of the
extraordinary grace of God that left Paul in a place where he
could be in Rome, where he could minister freely to his brethren. He could be ministered to freely. And this great journey, this
triumphal journey, has now come to its fruition. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? They classified themselves as
Roman citizens. His citizenship was attached
to a city. No doubt, like Abraham, As much
as we see an earthly city and earthly cities, Paul was drawn
to the fact that he had a heavenly city. His builder and maker was
God. And that's the city we aspire
to. But I love what he says in Acts
28.20. He's called these people, these
Jews, to him for this cause. to see you and to speak with
you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this
chain. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might bless your word to the hearts of your
people, that we might find the Lord Jesus Christ our hope, and
that we might know that hope to be a person, and we might
know that hope to be faithful. for those who are ailing and
not with us still. David, if he's standing, mourns
the death of his aunt, and we do pray for Leanne as she travels,
and for our brothers and sisters around the world, Heavenly Father.
For Larry Grime in Montana, who's recovering from COVID, and for
just many other brothers and sisters. Let us know again, Heavenly
Father, the depth and the breadth of your love to your people,
and may we find ourselves chained, chained to hope. For we pray
in Jesus' name, Amen. As I said earlier, this has been
a remarkable journey, and there are so many aspects of this journey
that are so instructive for us. It was, in a sense, a fulfilment
of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. And I'm not sure
that you think of your life like this, and I'm sure there are
many, many instances when Paul, on this journey which has gone
on for these number of years now, involved imprisonment, involved
almost being beaten to death by the Jews in Jerusalem, almost
being shipwrecked to death, almost being bitten to death by a snake
again and again and again. I wonder if he did think what
he'd actually written to the Corinthians before he went on
his journey. It's so good, isn't it, that we actually have our
faith and our trust in a God who is faithful to his word.
He says in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, he says, Now thanks be to
God. Thanks be to God is so important
to thank God, isn't it? That's what it is to be a blessed
person, is to be one who is in an enviable state. No matter what the circumstances
are, if you're a child of God, as Norm said earlier out of Psalm
67, the Lord signs his face upon you, you are a blessed person.
And we give thanks. We sing and we praise God. Now
be thanks be unto God. Listen to what it says, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ. Do you see your life
as a triumph? In Christ it's a triumph. In Christ it's a triumph. And
maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every
place. What a great promise and what
a great desire that the savour of his knowledge by us in every
place. Verse 15, For we are unto God
a sweet saver of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that
perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto
life. And who is sufficient for these
things? For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God,
in the sight of God. See, that's what it is to triumph,
isn't it? It's to have an acknowledgement
that your circumstances are in the sight of God. And brothers
and sisters in Christ, His face shines upon you and He blesses
you. In the sight of God speak we in Christ. So here, according
to the Word of God, this is a triumphal entry. When the Roman emperors
went out and the generals went out with their great armies,
they came back in and they would have a triumph in the city of
Rome. And they would build amazing
buildings and they would have at the head of that triumph,
they would have the prisoners. They'd have all the standards
and they'd have these wagons loaded with the enormous booty
and all the gold that they'd discovered. And they'd have all
these prisoners and kings in train. And they'd triumph, they'd
have a triumph in Rome. Such was the wealth that the
Jews ravaged from Jerusalem when it fell that they actually built
the Colosseum and other remarkable buildings in Rome. They had so
much. There'd be a triumph. The triumph of Christians is
a different triumph altogether, isn't it? It's a completely different
triumph. God says that we are more than
conquerors, Romans 8. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. We conquer. We conquer in ways. which caused our Lord Jesus Christ
and our Great Sovereign God to receive all the glory. But the
triumph of God's people is not like the triumph of the people
of this world. And the parade that Paul had into Rome and the
parade that Paul had in Rome was a triumph that was far greater
than any triumph of the Roman emperors with all of their spoil
and duty. This was a triumph of the Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilling what he promised to Paul and taking
Paul to meet those people there and to minister to them and to
preach the gospel to them and to be mutually encouraged. It
was a triumph, wasn't it? And it's remarkable the providence
of God and the direction of God. These people, as we saw last
week, had gone, they'd walked 70 kilometres and they'd walked
50 kilometres. The people in this Roman church had walked
out of Rome. And they came back in with him, and you can imagine
how much encouragement the Scriptures say that he received from them.
It's a picture of his triumph. Just as he went to Jerusalem,
he took the spoils, as it were, of his ministry among the Gentiles
there. And Luke and Aristarchus have
gone with him on that journey, and they've gone on this journey
with him as well. But as I said earlier, The path
of a Christian to be raised up in triumph is the path of a Christian
to be made low. The lower you are, the lower
you are and the more closely you are found at the foot of
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. and in the dust before him. And
that's how Paul started this journey, if you remember. He
started this journey in Acts chapter 9 as a proud man, a proud
religious man, with extraordinary knowledge, extraordinary wisdom
in the eyes of the Jews, extraordinary life. He could declare to people
that you could examine him according to the law of God, and you could
take those 613 commandments, and Paul would tick the box on
every single one of them. And yet, when he met the Lord
Jesus Christ, he was made to be in the dust. The Lord continually puts his
people down that he might lift them up. And the Lord says in that parable
in Luke 14, when you are invited to a feast, you take the lowest
place, don't you? You take the lowest place. Men
always want the highest place. That's what we did in our father
Adam, and that's what our flesh does all the time. It wants to
have the highest place, the place of prominence. And the Lord says,
you take the lowest place, then the master of the feast will
bid you come up higher. So Paul had begun this journey
to Rome in Acts chapter, speaking of this journey to Rome in Acts
chapter 20 verse 23, he says that he's on this journey and
everywhere he goes the Holy Ghost bears witness to the fact that
bonds and afflictions abide me. Bonds and afflictions abide me. He didn't know specifically what
the bonds and afflictions were, but if you remember the story,
at every place he went there were people saying that more
bonds and more afflictions abide you, Paul. You're going to be
bound. You're going to be imprisoned. And they begged him not to go.
And he kept saying to them, he says, none of these things move
me. 1st 24 Acts 20. None of this, neither count I
my life dear unto myself. That's a remarkable statement,
isn't it? In your flesh, in my flesh, I count my life dear,
I count my esteem dear, I count my honour dear, and I react appallingly
when it's affronted. What a grace gift from God to
count your life, not dear. so that I might finish my course
with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify of the grace of God." Bonds and afflictions. The Lord
exalts the humble, and he will create humbling circumstances
for you on your journey through this world. For the child of
God, the humbling circumstances and the trials, but prayer stills
and calls us to cry out to him for mercy and cry out to him
as a child, we are helpless and you must feed us. We are dependent
and you must undertake for us. So in all of these situations,
as we are in to think about where we are now with Paul in Rome
in that house, bound with a chain to a soldier for the rest of
his days there. But he was bound to a bigger
chain, wasn't he? He was bound to a more important chain. He
was bound to a chain of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was chained
for the hope of Israel. But see, all the way through
this journey, and it's a lesson for us, brothers and sisters,
all the way through this journey, Paul has been made very, very
low and then lifted up. You might recall in Jerusalem
he was made extraordinarily low because he thought that he could
appease his Jewish brethren who ultimately really hated the Lord
Jesus Christ. He thought he could appease them. He thought he could bring peace
into Jerusalem. by siding with the fearful Christians
in Jerusalem. Let's have peace with them and
we go and do a sacrifice. And the next thing you know,
Paul is there carried on the shoulders of soldiers away from
a mob that would have torn him limb from limb if they had a
half an opportunity. And what do you find the next
thing? There is this man being carried out of that place and
these soldiers carry him up on the steps of that place and he
speaks to the sanctuary and he's able to speak to that crowd and
preach the Lord Jesus Christ to them. Not concerned about
their concerns about Gentiles anymore. He was prepared to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was carried and then he was
exalted. So he was then jailed, wasn't
he? He was jailed, and he was humbled in jail because he knew,
and everyone else knew, that he was there because of political
contrivances. And yet, in the midst of that
jail, he's brought out of jail to preach the gospel before kings,
before Roman governors, and before his accusers. And there, finally, in this last
few weeks, we've seen him on a prisoner on a ship. There he
is, chained on a ship. The lowest of the low. The lowest
of the low on the ship. And yet, as you read on in the
journey, you'll see that the owner of the ship becomes irrelevant
in the story. The master of the ship, the captain
of the ship, becomes irrelevant in the story. And the closer
you get to Malibu, who's the one in charge of the ship? It's
Paul. Who's the one that brings the
message of good cheer? A know-nothing prisoner brings
the message. On Melita, what is Paul on this
island of Melita? He's a servant picking up sticks.
A prisoner, a servant picking up sticks. And by the remarkable
providence of God, he becomes the one that is honoured by the
chief men of the city. He's a servant. The servants
of the Lord are raised to a place become those who are exalted
in due time. So humble yourselves. Humble
yourselves. The Lord will cause his people
to be humble. He says humble yourselves and
he'll do the humbling under the mighty hand of God. And when
will he lift you up? Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Says Psalm 42, 11. Why art thou
disquieted within me? How many times must thou be disquieted? Here he is, this remarkable apostle.
He was the apostle to the Gentiles and he's trapped in a prison
in Israel. Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise him for
the help of his countenance. So here he is, a prisoner brought
to Rome. A prisoner who's had the remarkable
privilege of being a confidant of the centurion. You can't help
but think that the centurion might have been a saved man because
he treats Paul with such grace. He'd allowed him a week's time
with his friends in that other city on the west coast of Rome. of Italy before he went up to
Rome. And verse 16, And when we came to Rome, the centurion
delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul
was suffered to dwell by himself with the soldier that kept him. And I want us to think, A couple
of things this morning I want us to think about the extraordinary
fellowship that Paul had with these Roman believers. I'd like
us to turn to Romans chapter 16 if you don't mind. Here he
is after years of wishing to get to Rome, after years of being
frustrated as it were, and this last three years in one way or
another imprisoned when Rome is just a ship ride away for
him. But all the time, all the time,
Paul is a man of fellowship. We saw that last week, didn't
we? He found brethren and the brethren found him. One of the
marks of Paul's apostleship is the warmth with which he was
in relationship with so many people. And he had so many people
on his mind. And I don't have time to read
all of Romans chapter 16, but I can tell you that there are
29 people named in Romans chapter 16. There are five churches and
there are eight people sending greetings with him. They're the
ones that are named. They're the ones that you can
imagine for years. These people have been on Paul's
heart and Paul's mind. He'd written this letter in Corinth
prior to going on this journey that we've been looking at in
this last little while. And I love the way he thinks
of his brethren. And I would love to be able to
think of my brothers and sisters in Christ like this. Brethren,
we are children of the same womb, we are sons of the same father,
we have the same brother in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the
same friend. Just listen as he speaks and
I just want to read some of these out to you and I just want to
explain what it meant for him to be in fellowship. And I want
us to think about this in light of the fact that within three
days of being in Rome when he had all of these people here,
the very first thing that's recorded for us in Acts 28.17, it came
to pass that after three days Paul called the chief of the
Jews together. He actually went. Here he was
with all these brethren around him, and yet he had this desire
to have the chief of the Jews come to him. So let's go back
and read these people that were his brethren there, the people
that no doubt gathered to encourage him. The first one he speaks
of is Phoebe. What's Phoebe? She's a servant. She's a servant
of the church, which is in St. Croix. It's remarkable, isn't
it? The first person on this list is a woman, and she's a
servant. In the next verse, you'll see,
she hath been a succorer of many and of myself also. That word,
to succor, is the word to stand by or near. protector, she was
a patroness of Paul, to make firm, to care for others, care
for others at her expense. She was a servant and a sufferer. If the Lord would make us some
of these things, we would find ourselves in wonderful company,
wouldn't we? Priscilla and Aquila in the next
verse, verse 3, and they're my helpers in Christ. That means
that they are my fellow workers and my companions. That's what
it is to be in fellowship. The root of the word fellowship
is to be in business together. You're in a fishing fellowship.
You were in business, you bought the ship and you went out together
and you had the same aim and the same purpose. That's what
it is to be in fellowship with fellows in the same ship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they had a church in their
house and they were helpers in Christ. Likewise in verse 5, greet the
church that is in the house, salute my well-beloved Eponitis. and also who is the firstfruits
of Achaia unto Christ. So he was one of his first converts
in southern Greece. And what's he called him? Well-beloved. Well-beloved. That's what the
father said to his son. This is my son. This is my beloved
son. And what has he done? And then
he says, Greek Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. The next ones he speaks of are
Andronicus and Junia. They are of note among the apostles
and they are in Christ before me. And he says that they are
my fellow prisoners. Ampullus, my beloved in the Lord. These are all the people he was
with in Rome now. My beloved in the Lord, Urbana
Urbane. He's in Christ and he's our helper. He's our helper in Christ. I love the A lot of the names
of the two you can't help but think to try, in verse 12, you
can't help but think to Tryphena and Tryphosa. We're twins, can't
you? Can you imagine someone naming
their children like that? Tryphena and Tryphosa. They're
labour in the Lord. He goes and speaks of Persis. He's labored much in the Lord,
and he's beloved. He speaks of Rufus, chosen in
the Lord. And he speaks of Rufus's mother,
who was like a father, a mother to him, verse 13. I suppose my point, simply, of
listing these names is the same point that the Holy Spirit made
in listing these names, is that in the fellowship of the Lord's
people we have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, and
we have them on our hearts. Paul could name these 29 people,
and no doubt if he was put to it he'd name a lot more, and
he would name them in the other churches all over the place.
There is a real sense in which the fellowship of believers is
a fellowship where we are called into a fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ, and there is a love, there is a love and there is
a fellowship. And he goes down to talk about
those, that all the saints with them, all the saints with them,
they're saints. Verse 15. all the saints that
are with them. And he says, salute one another
with a holy kiss. And he says, the churches in
Christ salute you. God's children are going to live
together forever. And this is, in so many ways,
not like heaven, that we might love one another,
that we might think about our brothers and sisters in Christ
as those who stand by or near and stand over us and stand around
us to make us firm and to protect us. They are my helpers. They
are considered well beloved. They are approved and Paul, after years of praying
for these people, was now in their company. Which to me makes
the next passage of scripture an interesting passage, isn't
it? That Paul would call Verse 17, it came to pass that after
three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together, and when
they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren,
though I have committed nothing against the people or the custom
of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into
the hands of the Romans. who, when they had examined me,
would have let me go, because there is no cause of death in
me. But when the Jews spoke against
it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought
to accuse my nation of." For this cause, this is the reason
he called them. For this cause, therefore, have
I called you. He wanted to see them. He wanted
to see them. and to speak with you, because
that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. The thing
that's remarkable isn't it, here are these Jews in Jerusalem,
they're the chief of the Jews and Paul had been dealing with
the chief of the Jews wherever he'd been all through his ministry
and there'd been nothing but strife for the chief of the Jews
everywhere he went. There was a division and almost
universally the problems that Paul had were caused by the Jews.
And the problems that you and I will have, brothers and sisters,
will be caused by the Jew that lives in us, the Pharisee that's
in our flesh all the time, that wants to live by works and by
law. And the problem for the church is that it's always going
to be assailed by people that want to put it back under a bondage
of works and deny the grace of God. But nevertheless, here's our
brother Paul, and it's remarkable It's remarkable, verse 21, it's
remarkable that after all of this strife for 20 years, all
the fame that Paul had, his fame was such in Jerusalem that he
could cause a riot in Jerusalem just with a rumor. Such was the
enmity. And yet the Holy Spirit, our
great sovereign God, had constrained the people, the Jewish leaders
in Rome, from hearing of these things. And it's quite remarkable,
isn't it? He was famous, and they'd concocted all of these
things against him. When God opens, no man can shut. And when God shuts, no man can
open. 21. We have neither received
letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren
that came, showed, or spoke of any harm to thee. They certainly
viewed the Christian gospel with harm, didn't they? In verse 22
they just called it a sect, which means it's a choosing. You choose
what you want to believe. We're choosing what we want to
believe. We're following Abraham. We're following Moses. We're
following God. You people that have this other
gospel, this other gospel about this other Messiah, you're the
ones doing the choosing. It's amazing, isn't it, how they're
100% wrong all the time. They are 100% wrong, the accusers. Paul had done nothing to cause
offense to the Jewish nation. All of those who accused him
were prejudiced against him. All of those who accused him
had believed lies about him. So these people knew that Paul
was in Rome. Paul knew that they would have
known that he was in Rome. And this group of people, these
Jewish believers, had rejected the gospel. They had seen the
gospel come to Rome. And we're not told specifically
how it came to Rome. But the gospel had come to Rome
in probably very early on. And these men had stood, as the
Jews did in Jerusalem and the Jews did in every other place
where the Jews are and the Jews do today, they stood as a testimony
of their rebellion and their rejection of the Word of God
against them. They had rejected the Gospel. And yet Paul wants to see them.
He has all his brethren that he loves. His well-beloved ones,
ones that have suffered him, ones that have cared for him
and nurtured him, ones that have been like his mother to him.
ones that have stood beside him in prison, ones that have stood
beside him in all sorts of other situations, and yet he wants
to see these Jewish brethren. The question is why? The Church
in Rome had survived for all these years without without these
things. I suppose it goes back to the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ said that you'll be witnesses
unto me wherever you go. And Paul was going to be a witness
unto the Lord Jesus Christ wherever he went. And Paul is a pattern
of conversion. Paul is a pattern of witness
and testimony. Paul is a pattern of gospel preaching. And Paul is a patent of the Lord's
preservation of his witness. God is the one who witnesses,
and he gives this witnessing privilege into the hands of his
people. And Paul had a patent in his behavior, didn't he? He
went to the Jews wherever he went. He went first to the Jews,
because he knew when he went to the Jews he would have an
invitation to speak. We are now in Acts 28, and if
you recall with me, nowhere in Acts Almost nowhere in Acts does
anyone just push themselves in to speak. They are invited to
speak. You see what they say in verse 22? We desire to hear
of thee what thou thinkest. We pray for a door of utterance. We don't have any right or responsibility
or need to be battering down doors. Our God, Our God will be honoured in gathering
his people to himself. We desire to hear of thee. But
Paul had gone to the Jews in every situation, and wherever
he'd been to the Jews in every situation, there was going to
be a division among the Jews. And here he is given another
opportunity. In verse 24 it says of this chapter, And some believed
the things which were spoken, and some believed not. Lord willing,
we'll look at these things in the next little while. So my
question is before you, why did Paul go? He went there because
he had... He had a heart's desire, didn't
he, for the conversion of his people. He had a heart's desire
for his people. He knew that this Gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. And it's the power of God that
saves the chief of sinners. And so there's no reason why
this same Gospel is not going to save these other sinners.
So the Gospel, our Gospel, of the Lord Jesus Christ is a Gospel
for sinners. As Norm said to us earlier, sinners. for people like these, isn't
it? This is a pattern that's been
left. These were the most hardened, weren't they? They had heard
and rejected. The gospel is for sinners. It's for guilty sinners. It's
for guilty sinners. It's for hardened sinners. It's
for self-righteous sinners. It's for legalistic sinners. I'm not sure if you suffer as
much as I do, but I despair of myself sometimes for being less
hopeful of the gospel than I ought to be. I want us to live with
a sense of expectation. These people had rejected the
gospel maybe for 20 years there, and they'd concocted their own
religion. They'd concocted, no doubt, a mass of excuses to take
the scriptures that the Jewish Christians in Rome were proclaiming,
reading Isaiah 53 as Graham did. No wonder the modern Jews won't
have people read it. If they have any opportunity
they'll stop their Jewish brethren from reading Isaiah 53. You can't
read the Old Testament and not see Jesus Christ and Him crucified
in it unless your blindness is a willful blindness and a wicked
blindness. That's what sinners are, aren't
they? They're guilty sinners. They're hardened sinners. They're
self-righteous sinners. They're legalistic sinners. They're
sinners just like Saul of Tarsus. So when Paul confronted these
Jewish brethren, he was confronting people just like him. What was
he doing at the stoning of Stephen? He wasn't saying this is a terrible
injustice. This is a remarkable testimony
this man has given of our life as a Jewish nation. This is a
remarkable testimony this man has given of the presence and
the power of God. Picked up stones. picked up stones. The gospel is the power of God. Paul's gospel, our gospel, is
a powerful gospel. Paul's gospel and our gospel
is a gospel that saves the most hardened, self-righteous, legalistic
and guilty sinners. And Paul Like the Apostle Peter,
Acts chapter 2 begins, doesn't it, with Peter going to the very
people who had the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on their hands.
It began there. Acts 28 concludes this church
history with these Jews in Rome. with the same sense of wickedness,
the same sense of a rejection of so much witness and testimony. Peter spoke to those who had
blood on their hands. Peter spoke to those who had
hatred in their hearts. Peter spoke to those who had conspired against the
Lord. Peter spoke to those who had
three and a half years of witness from our God. While life remains,
brothers and sisters in Christ, let's be hopeful and expectant
that God will do immeasurably more than we can possibly imagine
or ask. Paul went there. He was going
to spend some time in Rome. He didn't know how long it was,
the process of getting to have a witness before Caesar himself
was long and complicated. He was going to be there for
some time. He wanted to be in Rome so that the enemies of the
Gospel, the deepest enemies of the Gospel, the Jews, were going
to know that he was there. He knew that they knew that he
was there, and he wanted to have an opportunity to speak to them.
He had a heart-love for his brothers and sisters of the Jewish nation. You can read about it in Romans
10. He was in tears over their rejection of the Gospel. May
God move our hearts to have a heart that loves the brethren because
they love the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul did. And may we not lose
hope in the power of our Gospel. It is a glorious gospel. It's a simple gospel, isn't it?
It's a gospel that declares the everlasting love of God the Father
for a church that he put in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a gospel
that declares an electing and predestinating sovereign God. It declares the everlasting love
of the Father for those people. And we will never see what they
are like in their flesh in this world in any real sense. We will
always misjudge things if we look through the eyes of flesh.
Paul was the least likely to be converted in Israel and yet
here he is preaching in Rome. And we want to speak of the everlasting
love of God the Son. With everlasting love he has
loved us and therefore with loving kindness he draws us to himself.
He has a bride in this world, he has a bride in this world
who he is betrothed to. He's redeemed her. He's promised
to bear all of her iniquities in his own body on the tree and
carry them away and take them away forever. His love was a
love that brought him from heaven to earth. A love that humbled
him to be a servant. A love that took him to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A love that caused him to suffer
all the ignomine shame of men in their wicked hatred of God.
And yet at the same time he had amongst those people, he had
amongst those people, people that he loved. One of them was
on the cross next to him. into your kingdom." So that's
what the everlasting love of God the Holy Spirit gives new
life as a deed to that dying thief. It quickens. That's what
it is, to be quickened. It is to be given life again
and that life is a life. A new life with a new heart that
loves God and loves his people and loves his word and loves
his way of salvation. It's a regenerating work of God
the Holy Spirit. He has the extraordinary privilege
of providing the capstone of this church in which the Lord
Jesus Christ gets all the glory and grace. Grace is the cry unto
it, isn't it? And he gathers the church to
witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a simple gospel that
all of our mercies flow from one united source. The great
stream that gives you faith and gives you life is a stream that
has heaven as its source, and it flows to every one of God's
children. We have just one source of all
these things. We love. We love him because
he first loved us. We have a God who is united in
mind and will and purpose, our triune God. And we have the revelation
of this eternal, vital union, this covenant bond between the
Lord Jesus and his people. And it flows to us because of
promises, it flows to us because of the very being of our God. And we are in the hands over all flesh. We're in the
hands of an omniscient God. He knows all things. He learns
nothing and forgets nothing except the sins of His people because
they're gone forever. He never learns a new thing,
our God, and He's never surprised by any of the sins and the wickedness
of His people. He's never surprised. We have
an everlasting, never-changing God. And we have a simple declaration
that we are kept by the power of God through faith, to be found
faithful. Paul was left at this last of
his charges before God and he was found faithful. What kept
Paul faithful? Wonderful circumstances of life,
great privileges, It's God who keeps his people faithful. He
keeps them faithful to the end. God's people are bound, as he
says, with a chain, which is the hope of Israel. So they're
bound to a God who is all of their wisdom and is all of their
worth. They're bound to a God who makes his people to trust
him. He makes his people willing on
the day of his power to love him when hatred was in their
hearts. to worship Him when enmity was
in their hearts. They're made of God to love Him.
All of the streams of all of the mercies and grace come from
one source, which is in God. All of the streams and all of
the mercies of grace are in Him, our Lord Jesus Christ. See, we have a simple doctrine. It's Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it was powerful. If Paul
had opportunity to speak to hardened, rebellious, wicked sinners like
the Jews in Rome, and they were called to him and they desired
to hear him speak, he had a powerful gospel, didn't he? We have a
gospel that is powerful. It's a simple gospel. It's infinite. in itself, and the blessings
that come with it are infinite. It is beyond the understanding
of men, and yet it's brought to be something that we love.
He's brought to be something that we love. It's a simple,
single, plain gospel. See, Paul, like all of us, didn't
know who was chosen in God. He didn't know God's electing
purpose, but he knew that if he was sent to Rome, then some
of God's children might be there, which is why this was told in
Acts chapter 8. And you keep preaching on here
in Corinth. You've got opposition from the Jews, and you've got
opposition from all sorts of people, and you've set your church up
next to a Jewish synagogue. And you've got those people coming
in and scowling at you every day that you turn up. And what
does the Lord say to him? You preach on, Paul, because
I have many people in this city. He's got many people in Rome.
We believe that where he sends his gospel, he must gather his
people. They are elect. They're chosen
in him before the foundation of the world. They are justified
by his righteousness before God. They have no guilt. They are made holy, and therefore
they are We are redeemed by his blood,
we are justified by his righteousness, and we are called by his Spirit. Paul didn't need to change anything
from the Gospel that was preached in Acts chapter 2. He didn't
have to change anything from the Gospel he preached to Agrippa
and Festus and Felix. He didn't have anything to change
from the Gospel he preached to those people from the steppes
of Jerusalem when they wanted his blood. Our Gospel is powerful
and part of its beauty, a great part of its beauty, is in its
singleness and in its simplicity. You see what happened to these
men in verse 25. It says they agreed not amongst
themselves. The religion of this world is
complicating and confusing. It needs to be massaged. It needs
to be nuanced. It needs to be adapted to the
wisdom of man. We just simply preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what Paul was doing. That's
why he could call these Jews to himself. He wanted to be there
in Rome and he wanted to know that the greatest enemies of
the gospel are those that were rebelled. were going to hear
him and they were going to know that he'd come there not as someone
who was just captive to the Romans and maybe one who was about to
meet his death, he was there as someone who triumphed in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he can go to the greatest
enemies of the gospel and bring them the same gospel that he
brings. to the church in Rome. See, we have a simple, single
reason, don't we, for the forgiveness of our sins. God, for Christ's
sake, have forgiven me. We have a simple reason for not
being condemned. It's Christ that died. We have a simple and single reason
for all of his gifts. He was delivered up for us. He who is delivered up, won't
God, together with him, Romans 8.32, also freely give us all
things, all that we need in this life? We have a simple reason,
don't we, for being saved. We're saved by grace, and this
is not of yourselves. So the enmity of the Jews is
not the problem when you're dealing with a God who is all-powerful,
omnipotent, and all-knowing. reason, we are saved by grace. I love Ephesians 2, isn't it? For by grace, verse 8, by grace
are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in. We have
a simple reason for our assurance. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Do you fit that demographic? A sinner. A real sinner who can
do nothing but sin. A real sinner. We have a simple
place for faith, don't we? looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of faith. We just looked to Him. We had
a simple motive for service. What was Paul doing in Rome?
For the glory of God. The love of Christ compels and
the love of Christ constrains His people. He has a simple desire,
Paul. He has a simple personal desire
in Philippians 3 to win Christ and to be found in Him. He has a simple hope for the
end of his life, doesn't he? As David did in Psalm 17, he
says, As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be righteous as you are
righteous. robe of righteousness on, I shall
be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." And he has a simple
reason for hope in the Day of Judgment. 1 John 4, 17. He has confidence in the Day
of Judgment. Do you think about the Day of
Judgment? Religion is continually telling people how to live in
this world, how to live better and how to be better witnesses.
The Gospel is telling people, encouraging people how to live
in the next world, how to live in that great day when you meet
him. Are you excited? The Bible writers are universally
confident. They have boldness on that day,
they say, says 1 John 7. Because, as he is, so are we
in this world. We have a simple reason for perseverance. He is able. He is able to make
you stand. I'd like to spend more time looking
at hope and the reason for Paul using this particular phrase.
But the hope that Christians have is a person. If you learn
nothing else today, our hope for all of those things is a
person. Christ is our hope. All the promises
of God are yay and amen. Christ is our hope. If you looked
at all those things that I said, forgiveness and not being condemned
for all of His gifts, for being saved, assurance and faith, motive
for service, desire, final end, hope on the Day of Judgment,
perseverance in all of these, every answer is Christ. Every
answer is Him, isn't it? Christ is our hope. I'll just read a few verses. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
he wrote this from Rome. By the commandment of God our
Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope, See, if you
have any hope in this world, your hope is a person. Your hope
is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, a person defined in the
Scriptures, a person proclaimed in the Gospel of our God. He
is our hope. He is our Saviour. We have begotten,
says Peter, into a living hope. A hope is a hope in the fact
that He is alive. He's alive and alive forevermore. Titus, Paul's letter to Titus,
and I believe nearly all these letters were written from prison in Rome. It begins
his epistle to Titus saying, Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect.
and the acknowledgement of the truth, which is after godliness,
in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie. I love that verse. Isn't that a remarkable thing
when you pick up your scriptures? You are reading a word of God
who cannot lie. Promised? When did When was your hope sealed? The
world has a hope, doesn't it? The world has an expectation
about things, has a feeling about things that they want to have
happen in the future. Christians' hope is a person.
Our hopes haven't started before the foundation of the world.
Our hope was written and testified to by God all the way through
the Old Testament scriptures. Our hope is in God. Our hope is not in men. Our hope
is not in what we see in our flesh around us. That's why Ben
read those verses out of Romans 4. We might finish by looking
at this passage. Verse 13 of Romans 4. I just
love how it finishes. Paul, Abraham in verse 21 being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was also able
to perform. Let's go back to verse 13. For
the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect, because the law worketh wroth. For where there is no
law there is no transgression. This verse is an incredibly significant
verse to me. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to
all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but also
to that which is the faith of Abraham, of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all. He has this righteousness, to
go back to verse 5 in Romans 4, but to him that worketh not.
Is this hope and this gospel anything that might earn God's
favour. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. To be ungodly is
to be like these Jews in Rome and to be like Paul at the stoning
of Stephen. To be ungodly, that word can
be easily translated to He justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. 17. As it is written, I have
made thee the father of many nations. 18. Before him whom
he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. God creates out of nothing. What
did he have to start with when he created this world, this universe? Did he have light? He says light
be and light was. He says stars be and billions
and billions of stars were. When he creates life and creates
light in you, does he need to start with something? Or does
he just simply declare it? And it is. This is what happened
to Abraham, isn't it? Let's read on in verse 18. He
calls those things which be not as though they were. So then
Abraham had no children. And God's saying to him, you
have as many children as the stars in the sky. Did he have as many children
as the stars in the sky? He did. Could he see one of them? None. Could he see any hope in
himself? None. Could he look to Sarah
and see any hope at all? That's what he goes on to say,
isn't it? This is how God creates the faith children of Abraham. This is how God quickens and
enlightens His children, removing hearts of stone and causing them
to believe Abraham just believed God. He just believed God. He believed
what God said. He didn't have to understand
what God said. He believed what God said. And
not being weak in faith, verse 18, he considered his own body
now dead. He looked around and there was
nothing in his flesh. And when he was about 100 years old, neither
the deadness of Sarah's womb, and he stared not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Is that your desire? Is that
your hope? That you might be found strong
in faith and give glory to God, being fully persuaded that what
HE had promised, not what YOU have promised. Modern Christianity
is getting people to sign covenants all over the place where you
promise to do all these things. Our hope and our faith rests
in the promise that He has made, not in a promise that I've made,
not in what I've done, not in what I'm able to do. This is
Abraham, the father of the faithful. giving glory to God, being fully
persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform,
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. He believed
God and God declared him a justified man. He believed God and God
declared him to be a man who had absolutely no sin whatsoever
before him. He believed God who is perfectly fit to be called
a friend of God. Now, verse 23, it was not written
for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also,
to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered for our offences. He was delivered by God because
of our offences and was raised again because of our justification. That was Abraham's hope. Paul
was chained to the gospel, the gospel of the hope of God. Paul
was chained to that. What a glorious chain that binds
God's people to the promises that are all yay and amen in
our Saviour. Pray that God might bind your
hearts and bind mine. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you and praise you for your mercy and grace. And
we thank you for the revelation of that, Heavenly Father, in
your dear and precious Son. And we thank you for the fulfilment
in time of the glorious promises which are yea and amen in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that the promises you make to your children are signed and
sealed with the blood of your dear and precious Son. that our faith and our hope might
rest in who he is and not in ourselves. Bless your words to
our heart, Heavenly Father, and may we, like Abraham, simply
be caused to believe God. And to believe God when all the
circumstances we see with our own eyes would cause us to have
no hope. Grant us the grace, Heavenly
Father, to just believe you. Make his blood precious to us
and make the fellowship that we have in communion with him
and communion with his people necessary and precious to us,
our Father. For we pray in his name and for
his