If y'all would, please open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. We left off
last time. We touched on verse 7. I pray
that the Lord's gave me a message for you today. He gave me some
comfort in it. I hope it will be comfort to
you. Every time I listen to a message, And in that message it says something
along the lines of, all believers think these things. Or all believers
do this. Or true saints of God, true children
of God, they act this way. This is what they do. I lean
forward in my seat. I want to hear those things.
That's something. Is that me? Am I a saint? Do I do these things? That interests me. I want to
know what saints do. Those people that the Lord The
Lord is saved. But with that tonight, I tell
them a message be the new spirit towards brethren. The new spirit
that the Lord gives us and puts in our hearts. Paul lists some
things here in Romans 1 that that spirit does towards brethren. That interests me. So I hope
it's a blessing to you. It is to me. But let's read through
this text first and we'll go through it verse by verse. Romans
chapter 1 and verse 7. Paul writes this, says, To all
that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First,
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your
faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my
witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son,
that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. Making requests, if by any means
now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to
come unto you. For I long to see you, that I
may impart unto you some spiritual gift. To the end, you may be
established. that is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now
I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed
to come unto you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some
fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am a
debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the
wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." I
want us to look at who Paul is writing to. There in verse 7,
Romans 1-7 says, "...to all that be in Rome." The all there means
every believer that's in Rome. Obviously, Paul didn't mean every
person in Rome. He was writing to that group
of believers there, that church. And by all, he means all of them. The rich ones, the poor ones,
the wise ones, the unwise. It didn't matter, educated, uneducated.
Our Lord is not a respecter of persons, and we shouldn't be
either. We shouldn't put weight or honor
into the things of this world that men have, the position that
the Lord put people in, in the world. He writes there to all
that be in Rome, beloved of God. He's writing to people that are
loved of God before. Loved before the world was. Loved
in Christ, given to Christ. Those that are beloved. Those
that the Lord loves, He calls. They're called to be saints.
He writes that in 1 Corinthians, unto the church of God, which
is a Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Jesus Christ called
to be saints. And there's 2B there in 1 Corinthians
and here in Romans 1-7. 2B is italicized. That means
the translators put that in there so it'll read a little smoother,
but you can remove that. So anytime you see that italicized
text in the scriptures, read it the way it lays and then read
it without that. Read it both ways. And so there
in 1 Corinthians, it would be, to them that are sanctified in
Jesus Christ, called saints. So Paul says here, to all that
be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints. That's what saints are. We are called to be saints, called
saints. Robert Hawker wrote this, they
are not born saints, but are newborn saints. No person's a
born saint, but the Lord puts a new life in us, doesn't he?
Makes us saints, makes us sanctified. These are the people that are
truly sanctified, set apart, made holy. That's what the word
means. Many pulpits nowadays, unfortunately, have us horribly,
horribly wrong. Men and women have no hand in
making themselves holy. We don't contribute anything
to our salvation, to our justification, our sanctification, anything.
We don't have a hand of that. The Lord makes us that way. God's
saints are holy because of Christ in them. So it's hard to get
more holy than Christ. If Christ is in you, how could
you make yourself more holy than God? Hebrews 10.10 Hebrew writer
puts, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We are sanctified. We are made holy. Paul writes
to men and women that have been, they are and shall be loved of
God through Christ. They're made holy through Christ's
finished work. That's who he's writing to. And
he says, grace and peace to you. We looked at this last time briefly.
But if the Lord is gracious to men and women, there will be
peace. He's through Christ has been gracious to us, gives us
something we don't deserve, gives us life in Christ. We will have
peace if we look to him. And he prays that they have grace
from God and peace in Christ. So the first thing a new spirit
has, a new man, a new woman in us, that new life that's born
again. First thing it has towards its
brethren is a spirit of thanksgiving. Look there in Romans 1 verse
8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that
your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. First off, Paul
thanks God, the object of our thanks. He's the source of all
things, isn't he? James wrote, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above. and cometh down from the
fathers of light, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning." We know that all things come from our Father in
heaven, and so that's who Paul is thanking. Secondly, Paul is
thankful to God through Christ. There's no approaching God in
any way. God the Father, we can't approach
Him unless we go through His Son. Through Christ is the only
way to the Father. Christ told us Himself, He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. So Paul thanks God the Father
through Christ, and he's thankful when our brethren are faithful.
When the Lord does a work in people, they are not ashamed
to declare who Christ is, who they are, and the work that's
been completed for them. Look there in chapter 1, look
over in verse 16. Paul writes, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. The Lord makes someone a saint. He sanctifies them,
makes them holy, gives them life. They're not ashamed. They're
grateful, aren't they? They're thankful. And for those
people that are made saints the same way they are, that new life
in them, they're thankful for those brethren. Paul's thankful
for his brethren. So this new spirit is thankful
to God for our brethren and for the work that He causes them
to do, for them to be faithful. And that new spirit prays for
the brethren. There in verse 9 it says, 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. Paul had not yet met those saints
in Rome that he wrote this letter to, but he had heard how faithful
they were. and he prayed for them. I told
you all the first time I came here that other congregations
I'd spoke with, they prayed for this congregation. They heard
how the Lord had made you faithful and kept you. And they prayed
for you. That's just natural, isn't it?
We pray for other congregations. Congregations down in Australia
right now with those wildfires, never met them. We've corresponded
with them some. Brother Anus has come here preached
for us, but we don't know those brethren, but we pray for them.
They're always in our prayers. But that was the heart that Paul
had towards these brethren, and that's the heart of that new
spirit in men and women. They give thanks for the brethren,
and they pray for the brethren. Samuel wrote, Moreover, as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you. Do not pray for our brethren
as to sin against God. Ephesians 6 says, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there
unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
We pray for all saints supplication they're provided for and their
perseverance. The Lord keeps them forever. Paul went on to
write right after that. And for me, he said, pray for
me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. I pray for you
all. I pray that the Lord blesses
you and keeps you and is gracious to you, gives you peace, and
I hope that you pray for me. Lord, give me utterance. Give
me a message for you. When we pray for one another,
we pray for ourselves, don't we? If you all ask the Lord to
give me a message for you, that's praying for you. You pray that
he keeps me, that's for you. If I pray for you, that's praying
for me. It's the same spirit in us. All right, what else does
that new spirit do? It desires to be with other believers.
We want a fellowship with God's saints. We don't have a, Lord
said he's put the world in our hearts and that's needed in part. Ecclesiastes, I've put the world
in your heart. We have to have a desire to take
care of our families, to do the work that the Lord's given us
in our hands. I have children and a wife I've got to feed.
The Lord's given them to me. That's my responsibility. And
so I have to go out and make a living and earn a keep for
them. And it's good that we have those
things. We care about our responsibilities. But our fellowship's not in this
world. We're sojourners. We're passing
through. It's a temporary thing. I have
relationships. I get along with people. My old
job and stuff, that was fine. I'd kind of prefer to be around
ones than the others. But there's no fellowship there.
There's no love, no lasting bond because I don't have something
in common with them. They don't have the same God I have. They
have another one. Paul says there in Romans, Chapter
1, verse 10, making requests, he's praying to the Lord, if
by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by
the will of God to come unto you. Anytime that we have the
opportunity to visit with the Lord's saints, it's a good opportunity.
And we desire those things. That new spirit wants to be around
other new spirits. We have the same God. That new
man in them has the same spirit that's given to all of God's
elect. We are like-minded. We are of one accord, as the
scriptures say, and it's a great blessing. If the Lord allows,
next Thursday, I'll be going to line up Sacramento, going
to the church there and rescue. I'll preach for them Friday night,
Saturday morning. Then after service on Saturday
morning, I'll come back here and be here for Sunday services.
But I'm looking forward to that. I spoke to their pastor on the
phone some. I've never met him in person. And I enjoy speaking
with him. I enjoy that fellowship we have.
And I look forward to meeting those saints there. 22 years
ago, my mom and dad drove all the lower 48 states, 49, they
went to Alaska. And they went to California and
they met Brother Gene Harmon then, the pastor and the saints
there. And they told me what a good time they had. And for
22 years, I've wanted to go to rescue. And I get to, and it's
good. It's good to be around brethren. It's just like siblings being
around each other. Take a whole group of kids and
my children will go play with them, but they huddle back up
together. They get together quick because they have the same parents,
don't they? We have the same father. But that's what Paul,
he had prayed there that he was able to come to Rome to visit
those people. He'd asked for a long time. So
that new spirit that's thankful for our brethren, prays for our
brethren, desires to be with those brethren, desires to be
around other believers. It also wants brethren to be
encouraged and be settled. In verse 11, Paul writes, for
I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift to the end you may be established. Look down at verse 13. These
two go well together. Romans 1.13, Now I would not
have you ignorant, brethren, that often times I have purposed
to come to you, but was let hitherto. That's saying that many times
he's planning on going to Rome, but either through, or obviously
through the Lord's providence, he wasn't able to, but either
the Lord had him for another purpose, or he allowed Twice
it's recorded. He allowed Satan to interfere
and set stumbling stones for him. He wasn't able to go for
that. But he says that I might have some fruit among you even
as among other Gentiles. So what are these spiritual gifts
Paul wants to impart to these believers? What's this? These
fruits. Well, the fruits of faithfully
preaching the gospel are threefold. The congregation gathers together
and the Lord gives one of them, it doesn't matter which one,
I can attest to that. If this sinner stands up here,
if the Lord makes me faithful and the truth of Christ is faithfully
preached, three things will happen. One, sinners that don't yet know
the Redeemer, that are His, they hear the truth of Christ and
are drawn to Him. They're regenerated. The Lord
will save men and women through the preaching of the gospel.
That's the only way He saves men and women. It's through the
preaching of the gospel, but the sinners will hear this good
news and they'll rejoice in it. It's what we call their being
saved. Number two, those that know Christ,
those that have heard this, this good news, they're going to be
established. They're going to be settled in
Christ. They'll calm down. They'll be
comforted and they'll relax and they'll be established. They'll
settle. They'll be grounded in Christ.
Number three, those that are well-established in Christ, those
that know Him, and they love Him, and they trust Him for everything,
and they've been settled, then they'll grow in grace. They'll
grow in faith. They'll grow in works of love.
They'll grow in spiritual maturity and patience. So the Lord saves
those people through the preaching of the gospel. He comforts them.
He calms them down. He settles them. And once he
settles them, then he grows them. Grows them in grace. Grows them
in knowledge of Christ. So then once those happen, what
happens then? Look back up in verse 12. That new spirit in us, Lord,
your brethren, it wants to be comforted with brethren. We're
comforted the same way, aren't we? Romans 1, 12. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith both of you And me, Paul
the Apostle, great Paul, he is comforted by those saints in
Rome. If the Lord allowed Paul to come
here tonight, I would expect to be comforted. Would you? I
would go to Paul and I would want Paul to preach to me, Paul
to tell me what he's seen and what has happened and to witness
to me. And that would be my comfort. But if the Lord allowed that
to happen, Paul would be comforted through that. Paul was comforted
by those saints in Rome he'd never met. When I preach and
someone's blessed by a message, and normally it's a part that
I wouldn't imagine, something I say in passing, or something
I work real hard on, nobody says anything, and I'll mention a
little side note, and somebody says, oh, that's exactly what
I needed. So that keeps me humble and thankful. But if someone's
blessed by my message, I'm comforted by that. I'm thankful to see
what the Lord's done. that it's not of me, it's of
Him. I'm comforted greatly to visit with brethren and to share
their sorrows, to mourn with them, to weep with them. My Savior
weeped. He wept with Mary and them at
Lazarus' tomb, didn't He? It's a comfort to me to weep
with them, to mourn with them, and it's a comfort for me to
rejoice with brethren. Forgetting Mary or having babies
or get a new job, anything. Oh, we get to sit and talk about
our Redeemer, what Christ did for us. Look at His providence.
That's comforting. I'm comforted whenever I'm used
to have a fellow believer that's troubled and feels helpless and
hopeless, and I can turn them to Christ and remind them what
I need reminded of so often to look to Him. That comforts me. And it comforts me to know that
the Lord is the one that makes it effectual. When we're comforted
together, the Lord congregates people. He gathers us. And He uses one brethren and
another brethren at different times. One's strengths and one's
weaknesses. One to comfort another. That's
how we're comforted. I'm comforted when that mutual
faith is given to another saint and myself. of Christ, two people
of one accord, one mind, one heart. I'm comforted to see that
the Lord accomplishes the salvation of His elect. He's the only one
that can. Henry told his granddaughters,
Gabe Stoniker is Henry's granddaughter's husband. Anyway, I tried to say
it out loud and it didn't work. But anyway, Gabe Stoddard was
talking to Henry and he was saying that he would have been so excited
to see the Lord working in the 1950s and the 1960s in what we
would call a revival. The Lord gave the gospel to that
part of the country and they got to travel and Don and Henry
got to go around. And Gabe said, oh, I'd love to
see that. And I'd say the same thing. I'd
love to see it too. And Henry said, son, our God's not out
of business. He's effectually doing that right
now. Nothing's changed. But when we
live through things, we don't feel that way, do we? When we
look back on things, we say, oh, what great things the Lord's
done. But today, I was just burdened. I had some phone calls I had
to make and get these books organized and do some cleaning. How am
I going to get through today? And then tomorrow will be something
else. I'll be tied up. Worried for nothing, but anyway. Our God's accomplishing His will
and His purpose every day, every second of every day. And that's
comforting. That new man in me is comforted
by knowing that. So the new spirit in men and
women, it esteems other brethren higher than themselves. Paul
writes there in Romans 1.14, I am a debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. Now there's a whole message here,
probably a couple, but I want to keep to our points tonight,
what that new spirit does. But just to touch on that, we
are all debtors, aren't we? Christ paid a debt I could not
pay and that he did not owe. Christ paid a debt that I could
not pay and that he did not owe. He was merciful to me. He loved
me when I hated him. It's a debt of love. Isaac Watts
wrote this, but drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love
I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. That's
all I can offer is myself fully to the Lord, to the service of
the Lord. Believers are not their own.
They're bought with a price. With that knowledge, we have
a desire to serve our Lord in any capacity that we can. And
that means serving our brethren too. We see Christ in them. We want to serve. If we want
to serve Christ, how much more can we serve Christ in our brethren? Here, something I'd like to tell
you, we looked at there in Ecclesiastes. We have opportunities here, but
we're not having glory. We can wipe away tears here,
there'll be no tears in glory. We can tell sinners who've never
heard of Christ and spread the gospel and promote the gospel
to them. In glory they'll all know the
Lord, be taught of Him. The Lord's gave us those blessings
here. We see that they too, our other
brethren, are ones beloved of God. And it doesn't matter if
they're Greeks, it's the educated that Paul's speaking of, or the
barbarians, the uneducated, rich or poor, wise or unwise, if they're
babes in Christ or if they're strong in the faith, it makes
no matter. We see them as much more valuable than ourselves.
And we are debtors to them also. Henry brought this point out.
We're debtors to the Lord that we can never repay, a debt of
love. We're debtors to our brethren other men and women in this world
to give them. We've been given this gospel.
We're debtors to them to share that gospel with them. And we're
debtors to these children. We'll have a church established
here. If the Lord put a lot in this
area, what kind of gospel are we going to hand down to these
children? Are we going to sacrifice and have a weak gospel and a
weak God that we proclaim to them? Or are we going to have
some grit and stand up for the Christ of this Bible, the God
of this Bible, and hand that to those children. And then the
Lord will raise them up, and He'll use them to preserve it
as well. We're debtors. We have a desire to spread this
Gospel. Paul said, I desire to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He wants to know
nothing but the Scriptures among you, concerning Christ among
you, and Christ in you. And that desire, it makes us
ready. He writes there in verse 15, that new spirit that's inside
of every true believer, every sanctified, called, elect child
of God is ready. Romans 1 15. So as much as in
me, in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also. Preaching with Paul's calling.
He was an apostle. I hope I'm called to preach.
It's my job to study and stand up here and preach the gospel
and tell sinners who Christ is. But that new spirit in a saint
is ready to serve the Lord in any area that they're given.
For some that's to preach, others that's to clean the church building,
some to hand out bulletins or to pray for other believers,
to show up to services, be an encouragement to someone younger
in faith, to anything. Take the trash out. Be a good
example to weak believers. But whatever the Lord puts in
our hand, we're ready to do it. Our mercy debtors are amply motivated. Why is that? Paul says back in
verse 9, Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son. The new man in us serves in spirit. In the gospel, the good news
of Christ, what a better place that we could be in to serve,
serve Christ, serve this gospel. And Lord gives us that spirit
to do it in. That's all we can. Through these things, I hope
that Lord will comfort his sheep. He'll give us a heart to be thankful
for our brethren, pray for our brethren, be debtors to our brethren. And every time I read through
these things, I think, that ain't me. I'm not thankful for my brethren,
and I don't pray for them as I ought, and I don't love them
as I ought. I don't want to be with them
as much as I ought to want to be with them. Oh, I'm so weak and
frail, and I'm the least of the brethren. I'll tell you that
right now. But what did our Lord say? He said, you've done all
these things for me. And they'll say, Lord, when did
we ever see you hungry? When did we ever see you thirsty?"
I didn't do that. He did. He said, you've done
it to the least of one of these, you've done it to me, haven't you? We
are the least. I pray that the Lord gives us
a heart to serve our brethren, esteem them higher than ourselves.
And in doing so, we spread that gospel and we gain more brethren. The Lord adds to his church daily
as he sees fit. And so as we tell others this
good news, what Christ has done for us, We'll have some more
brethren. That makes me excited. That makes
me want to go tell people. You might be my brother. Come
here, let me talk to you. I pray the Lord will keep us.
Keep us looking to Him. Keep us appreciative of the Spirit
that He's put in us. Let's pray together. Father, when we approach You
through Your Son, we ask You, forgive us. Forgive our sins. Forgive what we are. We're so
unable and so ill-equipped, Lord. We can't approach You and how
grateful we are for Your Son. Don't look at us, Lord. Look
only at Christ. And allow us to see Christ only in our brethren.
Allow us to remember that each of Your elect is one that You
purchased with a price. The blood of Christ has bought
them. They're precious to You and they're precious to us, Lord.
We love the one that's begotten and those that are begotten of
Him. Keep us in memory of that. Keep our hearts pointed towards
Christ this week as these people go to their jobs and go into
the world. Keep us always until we can meet
again and come into this house and gather in Christ's name and
worship Him. Pray for your saints everywhere, Lord, as you promised,
keep them and uplift them and grow them in grace. It's a cross
stand that we ask it. Amen.