Alright, we're going to be in
Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, we'll be looking
at verses 8 through 14. Romans 1, verses 8 through 14.
Alright, so in our text, Paul continues with some introductory
remarks, and he expresses thanksgiving to the Lord for the faith that
these brethren have, and he tells them that he has an interest,
a desire to come to them. to preach the gospel to them,
but that to this point, he's been hindered. He's been hindered,
prevented from going. And he gives the reason why he
wants to come to them, and the reason why is because it's in
order to have fruit among them. He wants to have fruit among
them. So this morning, I want us to
see the following truths. First of all, that it's the Lord. The Lord himself is the giver
of faith. The Lord himself is the one who
gives all spiritual gifts and it's sent through his son Jesus
Christ. God does this willingly for his
people and he sent his son willingly who willingly came and laid down
his life for his people. And we also see from this morning
that it's Christ. Christ is the Lord and he's the
one who determines our coming and our going. Our title is Indebted
to Preach Christ. Indebted to Preach Christ. And
we'll have three Three divisions. First we're going to look at
the gifts of God, and then we'll look at Paul's desire to come
to these brethren, and then we'll see how Paul is a debtor to all,
a debtor to all, and that he's indebted to preach Christ. All
right, so Paul begins this portion of his introduction in verse
8 saying, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you
all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world."
So Paul uses this word first, in the beginning, and he doesn't
use it because he's going to start a list of things. He doesn't
give them a list of things here, but rather He steps back from
what he's about to say, and he says, before I even begin, let's
give thanks to whom thanks is due. Let's give thanks to the
Lord. And so he says, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all. So it's not a thanks to
them, right? Much of religion is about praising
the people and lifting up the people and saying, hey, thanks
for believing on Christ. That's basically the equivalent
of what religion is today, modern day religion, where they don't
have the truth. It's about what you need to be
doing for Christ, what you need to be doing for God. And what
we see from the scriptures is that it's not about you, the
sinner. It's not about what we do, because we're all dead in
trespasses and sins. It's about what God has done
for the sinner. The thanks is to God and to his
Christ. As Paul said, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all. So the very hope The very
joy, the very blessing of every believer, every true believer,
is that God is being gracious to them. That means that we didn't
earn favor with God. We didn't earn salvation. If we believe on Christ, and
trust Him, and have faith in Christ, it's because God, in
spite of our sin, God is being kind and merciful to us. God is being kind and merciful
to us. So none of us deserves eternal
life with God. None of us deserves that life
with God. We all deserve eternal punishment
in hell. But man-made religion is teaching
men and women boys and girls, young and old, what they must
do to earn that salvation. That's what they spend their
time doing is telling you and teaching you what you need to
be doing better, how you need to be more moral, how you need
to stop doing this and start doing that. And so it's all about
what man does and it's not about what God has done for his people
graciously through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, here we preach
and exalt Jesus Christ. We lift up the work that Christ
has done for His people, because Christ not only did the work
of salvation and putting away our sin, but it's Christ who
gives life to the sinner, making them to know what He has done
for them, and giving them faith. He's the one that gives them
faith. Not all men have faith, and even Paul said that. All
men have not Faith is how he worded it. Because they may have
some kind of belief system. They may believe things and have
some kind of faith in themselves or faith in their church or faith
in their religion. But that's not what the believer
has. They have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the one that works that
faith in them. Alright? So God is teaching us
throughout the scriptures that man is utterly depraved. Man is the sinner. Man cannot
save himself by his works. He raised up a prophet named
Jeremiah. And Jeremiah went to the people
there in Judah, around Jerusalem, in Jeremiah 13, verses 22 and
23. And he said, if thou say in thine
heart, wherefore come these things upon me? Why is all this trouble
coming upon me? And man asks that because typically
he's justifying himself. Why are bad things happening
to me? All I do is good things. All I do is treat people right
and everything I do they get upset with me and angry with
me and they justify themselves and they blame God and not themselves. They don't look to what they're
doing and the evil in their heart and the evil in their thoughts
and the evil coming out of their mouth because They're glorifying
themselves. They're saying, I'm good. I'm
righteous. Why are these bad things happening
to me? And the Lord is revealing to
the sinner, it's happening to you because you are the sinner.
You're not justified. I'm not justifying you, God says.
I'm showing you your sin. And that's why he said, and it
sounds crass, but he's making the point to them, he says, for
the greatness of thine iniquity, For the greatness of your own
sin are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare." And
you can see the crudeness of that. He's showing them, I'm
shaming you. I'm pulling down your pants in
front of everybody and shaming you because you are the sinner. And that's what he's showing
to us so that we know and understand God doesn't have mercy on us
because we're good. He has mercy because he's gracious. If he has mercy on us, it's because
he's being gracious. And then Jeremiah asked this
question, which many of us know. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can a person change their skin?
Can they change their skin color? Or can the leopard his spots?
Can a leopard get rid of his spots? No, he's born with those
spots. That's what he is. A man has
a skin color. A leopard has the spots that
he has. And he said, if you can do it, then may you also do good
that are accustomed to do evil. If you can change who you are,
then you can do good. And God is revealing to us, we're
all sinners, none of us can change that heart and earn favor with
God. He's breaking us down so that
we don't think that, because if we keep thinking that, we're
going to stand before God in judgment, and then we're going
to know it for a fact, and then we'll be cast into hell, because
there's no mercy or grace in that day. The day of grace is
now. It's here now that we're sinners
and we need salvation by Christ. And that's why Christ came, to
be the Savior of His people. So it's by grace through the
Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul said, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ. And I emphasize that because
whenever you're reading the scriptures yourself and you're coming to
the epistle and especially when you're reading the scriptures
with with your children while they're young stop there in that
introductory part it's in all the epistles and and show take
that time to show them how the lord emphasizes christ and that
our thanks is to christ and emphasize that our salvation right there
and then is in Christ and how He saves by grace and mercy,
not because we've earned it. Emphasize that. Help them to
hear that at a young age so that they know and don't think like
the dead religionists that it's by my works and my goodness that
I'm saved. So, I would encourage you to
that as Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying, it's in Christ, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace, of His grace. It's the
riches of God's grace. So the Spirit then reveals to
us that all our salvation is through Jesus Christ and it's
by His grace. And so Paul is right when he
stops and emphasizes, first, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ for you all. And that's because it pleased
the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. He put everything
of our salvation into the hands of Christ. And so we're to look
to Him and trust Him that He shall indeed save us as He promised,
that His blood speaks well for us, that His blood cleanses us
from sin, we who hear it and believe. And so everything that
we need for our salvation, our acceptance with God, our forgiveness
with God, being reconciled to God, because we're naturally
born enemies against God. We hate God naturally. We don't
love the true and living God. We love a figment of our imagination,
the phony weak God, that we have no problem with. But the true
and living God, we don't want to hear it. And so Christ has
to reconcile us by shedding his blood, to put away that enmity,
to put away our sin, so that God forgives us and will
draw near to us and have mercy upon us. And again, this is repeated
throughout scriptures. It says in Hebrews 13, 15, that
by Him, by Christ therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to His name. And so the Spirit teaches us
and helps us, makes us to hear what Christ said when he said,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father,
but by me. So we hear and learn and understand
that it's by Christ that we come to the Father. All right. And
then Paul goes on. saying, you know, the thanks
that he has in particular is that, in verse 8, that your faith
is spoken of throughout the whole world. All right? Paul calls
it your faith. Your faith. All right? Based
on everything I said, why does he call it your faith? Because
God works that in us. It's His gift to us. He gives
us that faith. He gives us life. He helps us
to hear that we're the sinner. Shows us our need, that we must
have a Savior. And He gives us faith that we
believe. And we believe Christ by the
faith that He's given to us. And it's our faith. The believer
really does believe Christ. All by the work, the operation
of God. in them. As Paul said, for by
grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. God gives
his people true living faith that lays hold of Christ and
trusts him and rests in him. So God worked that faith in them
and then the fact that it's spoken of throughout the whole world
is because people in the The world that Rome conquered, that
whole world around the whole Mediterranean Sea there that
Rome had conquered, it was amazing to other believers to find out
that God had an elect people whom he loved, that he brought
that gospel all the way to the seat of Rome there, the seat
of their idolatry, and he brought it there and had a people that
he loved and that he caused to hear this word and to believe
it. And they were amazed by it. They were amazed by it. And so
he says that the world is amazed by this. So these are the gifts. The gifts of God. Just a small
sampling. That faith and all that we have
is of God. It's a gift of God. Alright,
so let's go on to the next point. This desire that Paul had to
meet the brethren. He tells them of the affection
that he has for them specifically. He says in verse 9, 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. Alright, so Paul doesn't know
these brethren. This church wasn't started by Paul. He had never
been there, but he wants them to know he's thinking of them.
He's heard of them and he really does care about them genuinely. And it's not just that he thinks
of them, but he says, you're in my prayers. You're in my prayers. And he says, without ceasing,
I make mention of you always in my prayers. And it's not just
an exaggeration. Paul isn't just exaggerating
this, that he prays for them. He said, God is my witness. God's
my witness. I'm telling you the truth, that
God is my witness. I pray for you, brethren, always. And so he's not lying. And Paul
was, he was very careful because he knew that there's tons of
disingenuine people, people that don't really care, that are insincere
and don't care and don't really think about the church and don't
realize that it's the power of God that saves. And Paul said
to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4-2, but we've renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty. We're not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. And so Paul chose his words carefully. He wasn't exaggerating and that's
how we ought to be. I know today many people they
hear someone going through a hard time or something bad happens
and they say, I'll pray for you, I'll pray for you. No you won't.
Most of the time we don't pray for people. And even if we are,
some people just say it because they think it's the polite thing
to say. Like God bless you when someone sneezes. They think it's
just a polite thing to say, but they don't even have any intention
of praying. And then there are believers
who do intend to pray, but you find how often that we forget
and we've just forgotten. So don't feel obligated to say
that you're praying. You're better off just expressing
some care for them. And if God lays them on your
heart, then pray for them. Then lift them up as the Lord
enables because it doesn't matter whether they know it up front
or not, God is able to hear. God hears our prayers. So I encourage
us to pray for one another and to be mindful for one another
and to be aware of the things that the brethren are struggling
with. And even if you don't know about
it, most likely your brethren have something that they're dealing
with or struggling with. So we can always pray regarding
just the Lord's keeping of our brethren. But don't feel obligated
to say you're going to pray and then not pray. I mean, it's nice
for people to know that you care about them, but there's other
ways to express that. And then if you really become
consistent in praying, then you can say it, you know? But don't
feel obligated to say it. The Lord will bring it as he
lays them on your heart, you know, when you wake up in the
middle of the night or just whenever, and then you remember all your
brethren, then pray and lift them up to the Lord then. All
right, verse 10, he says, making request, if by any means now
at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God, to
come unto you. So he's heard of these brethren
and he has a desire to go out there to see these brethren.
And Rome's far away. It's far. It's far from Jerusalem.
It's far from Antioch where he was. It's even farther than You
know, when he was in Corinth, it was still a long journey.
Whether he went by land or by sea, it was a long way away. And Paul isn't saying that he
had begun to make preparations to go. He's not on his way to
get there. He actually says at the end of
Romans 15, 25, he said, but now I go into Jerusalem to minister
to the saints. He's actually going the opposite
way, away from them to minister to the saints and so but he is
letting them know that he does hope that God will permit it
that God will enable him to go there and he actually doesn't
even realize that God is working it out to where Paul will go
there and it'll be under escort of Roman guards protecting him
and on their dime he'll get there so God is making a way for him
to go it just wasn't time yet for him. He had obligations to
the other churches and ensuring that they were settled in Christ. Now verse 11, he says, he tells
them why he's so eager to see them. He says, for I long to
see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the
end ye may be established. Now Paul, as an apostle, he's
a diligent man. He's not wanting to go to Rome
the way you and I might want to go to Rome to see the sites
and the architecture and and the history and to go to where
Paul walked and see those things like that there. Paul isn't interested
in that. He wants to go there to witness
to the brethren. And as I mentioned, to our knowledge,
no apostle started the church at Rome. It was through other
disciples going out there and carrying that message out there
in those brethren heard that message and believed. God gave
them faith. And Paul now wants to go out
there as an apostle, that he might impart to them some spiritual
gift, that he may be a benefit to them as an apostle. As an
apostle, as the Lord did used the apostles in a special way
that could have been for their good. And he's telling them that.
And then he adds in verse 12, that is, he's clarifying, that
is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith
both of you and me. So Paul wanted to see these brethren,
he wanted to do them some good, and he just wanted to meet them
because of their mutual faith in Christ. He calls it their
common faith in Titus 1.4, he says the common faith. And so
that we all are made of God to know Christ, to believe on Him. And Paul wants to preach that
gospel to them as an apostle, to ensure that they know the
truth of God, what God has done for His people in Christ. He
wants to make sure they know the truth, that they have the
best foundation, which is Christ. Because no man can lay any other
foundation than that which is already laid, which is Jesus
Christ. He wants to go out there and
preach that truth to them. Look over in Ephesians 4, Ephesians
4 verse 11. He says there, and God gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers for this reason, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so, as an apostle, he may
impart to them some spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost. He may
lay his hands on some of the brethren there and they would
be endowed with certain gifts of the Holy Ghost to establish
the church there and and see the power of God in that
way, but it's also just as likely that he just wanted to go there
and preach the truth, and just see these brethren who heard
the truth and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that they
just might have that fellowship. And he goes on saying in verse
14, showing that he's looking for the brethren to be settled
in Christ. In verse 14 of Ephesians 4 says, that we henceforth be
no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And so you see that, you see
how They saw then how just wolves were coming right into the flock
and scattering the flock and shipwrecking the faith that those
that didn't truly have faith but were wreaking havoc in the
churches by their lies and their false doctrines. So it was right
that Paul wanted to get out there before some other person came
in there acting with authority and leadership and telling them
lies and turning them away from the truth. And so, he wanted
to get out there and preach the truth to them, alright? So, he's
looking to minister to them to impart some spiritual gift for
their growth, their edification, according to the mutual faith,
the common faith they have in Christ. Alright now, our final
point is the reason why Paul is doing this is because he is
the debtor. He is in debt to them because this is the charge
that Christ has given to Paul as an apostle. So, you know,
you're thinking, well, if Paul wants to do this, what's hindering
him? What's preventing him from doing this? And he says in verse
13, the first half of verse 13 in Romans 1, he says, Now I would
not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to
come unto you, but was let hitherto, or prevented hitherto. I wasn't allowed to come to you. Alright, so what does Paul mean
by he was prevented? Well, we know in the past that
the Lord prevented Paul from going to certain places to preach
the gospel. It says in Acts 16, if you turn
over to Acts 16 and look at verse 6, Acts 16 verse 6, He said, now when they, this
is Luke's writing about their journeys, And he said, now, when
they, Paul and the brethren with him, when they had gone through
Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia after they were come to Mycenae,
they desired to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. And they, passing by Mycenae, came down to Troas. And a vision
appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia,
that's over there in Greece, and prayed him, saying, Come
over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the
vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. And that's when Paul went to
Philippi. And we know the church was started
at Philippi, and that's where God had sent him to preach to
Philippi and so that's why we see what a mercy it is that the
gospel came to the brethren in Rome. That the gospel went there
to Rome and why the brethren are amazed that God blessed the
Romans to hear this word and to believe it and to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and You know, the reason why that's
such a mercy and a blessing to us is that there's not many ways
to salvation. There's not many ways to God.
We don't come any way that suits us and what pleases us. We come
by the truth. We come through Jesus Christ
alone. As the apostles said, neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. So again, being sinners,
we cannot, we will not, we have no desire to save ourselves according
to the truth. And we can't save ourselves according
to the truth. It's God who has to conquer our
wicked hearts and turn us from the flesh and turn us to Christ,
to behold Him. He gives us life to see our need.
He gives us life to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He does
all that for the sinner. He does that work. And Paul goes
on to say in Romans 1.13, the second half into verse 14, he
says, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as
among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So Paul was a debtor to those
brethren, to preach the gospel to them. He was a debtor to preach
the gospel to them of the Lord Jesus Christ because the Savior
commissioned him, put him into service as an apostle to do that
very thing for the Gentiles. Christ said of Paul in the beginning
when he was called, when he was converted and he sent that man
Ananias to lay his hands on Paul, and to declare the truth to them,
it says that Christ said, he is a chosen vessel unto me to
bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of
Israel. And that's what our Lord did
for all the apostles. He gave them a commission. He
said in Mark 16, 15, telling them, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every preacher. That's the commission
of Christ. None accepted. You preach the
gospel to everyone I send you to. And so Paul, even when he
was speaking, to another church that wasn't started by the apostles,
the church in Colossae. That wasn't started by the apostles. They heard the gospel through
a disciple who heard it from the apostles. And he said to
them in Colossians 1.23, he said, the hope of the gospel, which
ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which
is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. So they were
preaching to every creature under heaven. And they had reached
All the people in Rome, they were hitting all the Roman Empire
as far as the Lord would send them to preach and declare this
gospel. So Paul is here saying to these
brethren, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ to you. I must go to you. If God permits,
I'm going there and I'm going to declare salvation by the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he's done for his people. And he says whether
they're educated or not educated, whether they're bond or free,
whoever they are, I'm preaching because all men and women are
sinners and all come short of the glory of God. None of us
can approach unto God by our own works or by some other way.
It's only through the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must hear Christ. We must hear Christ. and because
He alone saves us from our sins. So I pray the Lord would bless
that word to your hearts to see what Paul is saying there, that
we give thanks to God for our salvation. We thank Him. We don't
look to ourselves. We don't thank ourselves. We
don't boast of our own faith and our works because our works
are nothing. Everything we have is thanks
to God. It's thanks to God and to His
Christ who did the work of salvation and gives us life now. Pray the
Lord to bless that word to your hearts. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy, that you sent your
son to lay down his life, to put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself and shedding his blood to make us righteous. And we
thank you, Lord, for your spirit, which gives us life. and sets
us free from our sin and bondage in death. We pray, Lord, that
you bring this word home to the hearts of your people, that you
would give your people faith to believe on Christ and to be
turned from darkness and dead-letter religion.