Romans 15, let's read verses
15 to the end of the chapter. Let's read the rest of it. Romans
15, 15. And nevertheless, brethren, I
have written more boldly with confidence unto you in some sort
as putting you in mind, remember, because of the grace that is
given to me of God, that I should be minister of Jesus Christ to
the Gentiles. ministering the gospel of God. Notice how many times he speaks
of the gospel, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable,
being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof
I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain
to God, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things
which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient
by word and deed. through mighty signs and wonders,
by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and
round about unto Lyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of
Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach
the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build
upon another man's foundation. But as it is written, to whom,
it's Isaiah 52, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see.
And they that have not heard shall understand. For which cause
also I have been much hindered, that is, preaching everywhere,
hindered from coming to you. But now, having no more place
in these parts, having a great desire these many years to come
unto you, ye have not yet visited Rome. And whensoever I take my
journey into Spain, I will come to you. I trust to see you in
my journey and to be brought on my way, through the word,
by you. At first I'd be somewhat filled
with your company, but now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto
the saints. It hath pleased them of Macedonia
and Achaia, the churches there, to make a certain contribution
for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. And it hath pleased
them, and merrily they are, and their debtors they are, that
Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual thing, the
Jews. It's the duty of the Gentiles to minister unto them in carnal
things. In Jerusalem, the church was a very poor, very poor church. Verse 28, when therefore I have
performed this, taken this gift, this money, and have sealed to
them or made sure that this fruit, this generosity, I'll come by
you into Spain. And I'm sure that when I come
unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the
Gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren,
for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit,
that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for
me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea,
and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted
to the saints, and that I may come unto you with joy by the
will of God. And may with you be refreshed. Now, the God of peace be with
you all. Amen. We saw last Sunday, and
I hope you were blessed like I was, that it said, Rejoice,
ye Gentiles. That was a message of joy and
rejoicing for a Gentile. That's us. What great cause we
have to rejoice that the Gospel has come to us. Utterly amazing,
Paul said, I glory in this. Verse 17, I glory in this. Things that pertain to God. Verse
16, that I should be a preacher of the gospel. That the Gentiles,
verse 6, might be accepted by God. That their worship might
be acceptable through Jesus Christ. Gentiles all over the world are
just heathen idol worshippers. But God chose these and chose
us and sent the Gospel to us. Gentiles, the majority of them
still are idol worshippers. And so Paul out said, I'm utterly
amazed at God's mercy and grace and amazing power, what took
place to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. And we should be
too. And Paul said, I'm amazed that
I'm a minister of the gospel, and he's not as amazed as I am
that I am. Amazing. Amazing grace. And he
gloried, verse 17, he gloried. He said, I have something I may
glory in, these things. He marveled, that's what that
meant. He marveled that the Lord Jesus Christ chose him, called
him to preach the gospel, and to the Gentiles. Now Paul was
a Jew. If I was a Pharisee, Hebrew of Hebrew, he hated the Gentiles. Like all Jews, he hated them.
And now he says, I love them. And this young rebel, Prodigal
Son, I didn't hate God's people, but I sure didn't want to spend
my time with them. But God. Now there's no bad breath
to spend time with. Now what is that but the amazing
mercy and grace of God? So he says, I glory in this.
It's just glorious that I'd want to be here doing this and nothing
else, with no one else. Isn't that amazing? Brother John Cheesley there,
Henry Sword, Joe Parks, these older men. We didn't have anything
in common, did we? Physically, materially, in this
world, generations apart. John's 95 or something like that. Well, close enough. And I'm still
young, but we know, seriously. But now, I'm closer to you than
I am my blood brother. Now that's amazing. Nobody I'd
rather be with. Nothing I'd rather do than be
right here with you. How about you? That's a good sign. Good sign. He said, I won't speak, verse
18, of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me. He said, what he's saying, the
Lord had mightily used other apostles in other places, and
Paul was not a jealous man. Envy and jealousy is a horrible
thing. It's a terrible thing. And the
worst place for envy and jealousy is right here. It's the worst
thing. Different preachers and I have
talked about this. It's in our flesh and it's a
horrible thing. Even the disciples at one time
were envious and jealous. James and John wanted to be at
the Lord's right hand. Their mother wanted them to.
And the other disciples got angry. And if the Lord had left them
alone, full of envy and jealousy, they would have all split and
gone and they would have never had anything to do with Him. What
is it? Pride. What do we have that we
have not received? We are what we are. By the grace
of God, we are what we are. And the Lord kept reminding them,
He said, you remember where I found all of you? You didn't choose
me, I chose you. You remember where you were and
where I found you? And He said, I am one whom angels
serve, but now I've come down here to do nothing but serve.
Was He envious? No, love envieth not. That's not jealous. It can't
be envious. are jealous of those you love,
and if it's God's glory that we truly seek more than anything
else, we don't want great things for ourselves, we want great
glory for Him. So Paul said, I'm not speaking
of anything, the Lord has used my brethren mightily, and he
said, I'm so thankful. And another place he said, I'm
less than the least of all to say, I'm not fit to be called
an apostle. And because Paul thought himself
to be the least and thought himself not worthy and thought himself
to be least, the Lord made him the greatest. Because the meekest
and the humblest, the Lord uses them. So that's what he's saying there.
He said, but the Lord has done things through me, and it's a
denial of God's power God's call and God's gifts upon men, not
to acknowledge what the Lord has done through men. It's not
them. They're just the instrument. But my pastor, my, my, the Lord
has used him more mightily in our generation than any other
man. There are so many churches and people, but it's not him. He was just like Paul, he was
a former idol worshipper, he was a Southern Baptist, Armenian,
young, zealous preacher, didn't know God. But God called him
by his grace, revealed his son in him, not just to him, it's
not doctrines per se, in him. And then he went out preaching
to God, just like Solitare, just like that. And the Lord has wrought
a mighty thing. This church is an indirect result
of Him. And so are the rest of them.
But it's not Him. It's the gospel. The gospel is
the power of God unselfish. But He uses men. We're not to
resent or despise the mean. Be thankful for the mean, but
we're not to exalt the means either. And worship them. So
that's what Paul is saying. To make the Gentiles obedient
by word and deed, by the word of the gospel, by the deeds of
Christ, by His word, by the word we preach, and by example. Paul led by example. Not only
did he preach, but he led by example. And to make the Gentiles
obedient. You know, for us to believe,
to be obedient to the faith, To believe, really believe, God
has got to make us. People don't like that. People
love free will. I don't. I've had that. And I don't want my will. I don't
want to be left to my will. I want the Lord to make me believe. The Lord is my shepherd. He maketh
me. He had to make me lie down in
green pastures, didn't he? He maketh us. He says, through
mighty signs, verse 19, wonders by the power of the Spirit of
God. You see? It's by the Spirit of God. Paul, in 1 Corinthians,
he said, I didn't come to you with persuasible words of man's
wisdom, with reason and rationale and oratory and intellectual,
you know, high doctrinal issues and so forth. And at one time
he said, I've abased myself among you. He went to the Corinthians
who said, he's just a vain babbler. He can't even speak in more than
one or two or three syllable words. Well, that sounds like
his Lord to me, doesn't it? That's how he spoke. And the
Pharisees resented that. But they didn't understand a
thing he was saying. Paul said, my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. He said, I don't
want you to be impressed with me. Jonathan Edwards once said,
I would rather be understood by ten than admired by ten thousand. Paul said, it was a demonstration
of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit and power. The Gospel is not in our ability
to preach it. It's in the Gospel. It's in the
Word. Paul said, seeing we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech. What's that? Elect. Everybody understand what that
means? Chosen. Demonstration of the Spirit of
God, how the Holy Spirit of God lays hold of a nothing and a
nobody, a fisherman, a coal miner, whoever, and fills them with
His Spirit, fills him with wisdom, fills him with Christ, fills
him with unction, fills him with zeal. And that man goes out and
preaches with boldness before kings. Like those fishermen before
kings. And even kings are converted
at the hands of fishermen. Now that's the Spirit of God.
That's not man. That's the Spirit of God. And
power. What's the power? What's the
power of God? The Gospel is the power of God.
He began this whole epistle by saying in Romans 1.16, I'm not
ashamed of the Gospel. It's the power of God and salvation. felt that power himself, having
heard that word of power himself, having been converted by that
same power, he knew that's what God uses, and he said, I'm determined
not to know anything else among you. That's what I'm going to
give you. This is the sword of the Spirit.
This is the arrow that's sharp in the hearts of man, his pride. It's the only thing that will
bring down high sinners at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the gospel. The power of God. And these are
the signs and wonders. You remember when the Lord, and
Paul was gifted, only the apostles had these actual gifts of healing
and raised the dead. Men don't have these gifts anymore.
The apostles were given it so that people would hear their
message. People would say, these men have to be for God. But it
wasn't so people would be impressed with them, or even impressed
with the miracles, but that they would care. Care the Word. Alright? You remember when our
Lord said, now John, John, the Baptist didn't perform any miracles.
He never healed one person, did he? What did he do? One thing. Preach. One message, behold the
Lamb. Did God use him? Oh my, he's
the forerunner. He laid the high places low and
the low places high. You remember when our Lord said,
go show John again the things that you've seen and heard. How
the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. The dead are raised,
lepers are cleansed, and the poor have the gospel preached.
That's mighty signs and wonders. Right there, mighty signs and
wonders. I've seen the death here in this very room. I've
seen the blind see, the dead raised, the lame walk by faith. Haven't you? Lepers cleansed,
conformed to Christ's image. How does that happen? One way. One way. Because there's one way. One
truth. One life. One way to live. The
Gospel of Christ. It's the power of God. That's
all we do. If you've ever truly, like John
said, we've heard Him, we've seen Him, we've beheld Him, we've
handled Him, so we can't help but speak the things we've seen
and heard. What's that, John? Him. All right, verse 20, he said,
I have strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was
named, which I should build upon another man's foundation, but
to whom it was written, not spoken of, they shall see. They that
have not heard shall understand. Paul was truly a pioneer missionary,
wasn't he? He was truly a pioneer missionary. A New Testament missionary, an
evangelist, the word evangel, evangel means gospel, evangelist
means a gospel preacher. He told Paul, Timothy, do the
work of an evangelist. Timothy was the first pastor
at Ephesus, we believe. And yet Paul said, go out, don't
stay there all the time, but go out and be an evangelist.
So that's what Paul did, and the Lord used him. I'd rather
be right here preaching to you every Sunday, but if it's God's
will and somebody has asked me to come, I'll go and I'll have
had some good times. Good times. But Paul, he said,
I've been hindered from coming to you for this reason, verse
22. I wanted to come to you, but I was out preaching the gospel
everywhere. Everywhere. And look, read verses
22 through 29. I had a text titled in verse
29, but read these verses again. Verse 23, I have no more place
in these parts, and I have a great desire these many years to come
unto you. And whensoever I take my journey to Spain, I'll come
to you. I trust to see you in my journey and be brought on
my way. by you. The Romans were pretty
wealthy. They could afford all his expenses,
and they should have. They should have paid for his
way, shouldn't they? What's the gospel worth to you? Brethren, we just don't know.
We just don't know the worth of it. My, my. Brother Walter, Groover,
and Cody, we supported those men well. You know, they made
very large salaries. Very large salaries. Were they
worth it? What was that all about? What
was it for? The preaching of the gospel. Was it effectual? Oh, my. Lord raised up churches everywhere.
And, you know, we bring men in here to preach and we're very
generous with them. But it's not a love gift. I hate
that term. I hate it. Let's give them a
love gift. I've been places before and they
gave me a love gift of $25. That's not much love, is it? And it sure wasn't a gift because
I worked a whole lot longer than that on it. Brother David Edmondson drove
over 1,000 miles, 1,100 miles. If you paid him truck driver's
wages, 40 cents a mile, that right there is 400 some dollars.
Not to mention the hours he worked preparing it and the hours when
he came here and the hours he grieved and lost sleep over it. Oh, he's worthy of his hiring.
And we sent him away. That's why I love our, one of
the many reasons I love our treasurer. He said, how much would you give
Brother David? And I said what I thought was
a generous amount, okay. And it was. And it's what I would
think, you know, would be very grateful for if I went and did
all that. And he said, can we give him
more? I said, yes. Open the bank. Fill his wagon. Cast your bread
on the water. That's what this is. That's what
this means. That's why we fill this little
box back there. That's what we're doing this
for, that the gospel may go out. That's what he said there, verse
24. I hope to be brought on my way
by you. At first, I'd be somewhat filled
with your company. At first, I just can't wait to
see you, be with you, fellowship with you. He said, please them of Macedonia
and Achaia, Philippi and other places, make a certain contribution
to the poor saints of Jerusalem. And he said, they're debtors
to them. That's where the gospel began, wasn't it? And that church
at Jerusalem was very poor, very persecuted. That's where the
persecution started, didn't it? Great persecution. And it really
cost people to be a member of that church. Your life is in
danger. But if Christ is your life, so
be it. Well, he said, now these other
churches should. They should meet the needs. You
know, 13th Street was ministered to every church. We were recipients several times
of their generosity when we needed
some time. Not on a regular basis. And I
never asked for a dime. I never asked for one dime. I never personally received that.
But there were times when we had needs. As a young church,
we had needs. And they sent money. And they
sent money to Mexico. And they sent money to wherever. Wherever the need was. Joe Terrell
out there. Tim James down there. They'd
get sent everywhere, weren't they? They were just a hub for
sending out money. All right? Now, we're doing all
right, aren't we? Yeah, we are. Doing all right.
And other churches, doing all right. So what should we do?
Same thing. Same thing. When Brother Clay,
when they were building that building, he sent a money down. Brother
Parks, when the hurricane came through, what do we do? It's
our reasonable service. We're debtors. Debtors, aren't
we? So he said, I'm taking this,
verse 28, I'm taking this to them, this fruit, Fruit of the
Spirit is first what? What's the first fruit of the
Spirit? What is the proof that somebody, the Spirit of God,
has been born of God? What is the first fruit of the
Spirit? Love. And Paul said to one church,
prove the sincerity of your love. Corinthians. What's that Paul? Give. That's what he was saying. That proves it. Love is generous.
Magnanimous. Love loves to bestow the best
that it has and all that it has on the object of its affection.
Right? If you don't love, you're miserly.
You're stingy. But if you love, oh my. And somebody loves you, you're
always saying, that's too much. Oh, you shouldn't have done that. Oh, love has to. Love needs to,
love wants to. It's proof. That's the first
fruit. Read on. He says, verse 29, I'm
sure that when I come unto you, here it is, I'm just certain
that when I come to preach, to fellowship, it's going to be
a good time. It's going to be in the fullness,
here it is, Here it is, people. This is what we're doing here.
This is what I'm doing right here. This is the fullness of
the blessing of the gospel of Christ. What we're doing, what
I'm saying, what I hope for you is that you'll be filled with
the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Were you blessed by Brother David's
last message? First message, second message,
what about the last message? Was that not the capstone on
it? Thy people shall be blessed in
him. Oh, the fullness of God that's
in Jesus Christ. All fullness. Here it is. Here it is. If the gospel of Christ is the
greatest blessing on earth to you, If the gospel of Christ fills
you with joy and rejoicing, if the gospel of Christ is like
good food of sweet-smelling savor, the taste is so wonderful. If
it fills you and satisfies you, if you can say when you hear
the gospel at times, my cup runneth over, And you've been blessed. Bless God, you've been blessed. You're blessed with God. Tell me, did you eat
any food the last few days? Anybody? How much did you eat? We bought a 25-pound turkey. Many said, it's too much. I said,
I like too much. I'll eat it for the next 10 days.
Right? Well, I'm kind of already sick
of it. But now this gospel, the same
thing, to write the same things for you is not grievous. It tastes
good. It's a blessing. It's the blessing
that's in Him. It's the fullness of God. But it's a sign of hunger and
thirst and of life if you're hungry and thirsty. If you were
able to eat, and just eat and eat, and you were hungry, and
it tasted good to you, and the fellowship around that food,
wasn't it wonderful with your family? And you just filled up,
and you were just so filled up that you were almost miserable.
Huh? But it's a good miserable ending. If this gospel fills you, you've
been blessed. You've been so blessed. You've
got life. But now this bread, in fact,
the Israelites of old becomes... I've had that before. I don't like to cook. Now, God
said to the Laodiceans, He wrote seven letters to seven churches,
and three out of seven were bad. He said to the Ephesians, you've
left your first love. You no longer have that sweetheart
love, that being amazed by the gospel. And the Lord said, I
counsel you to do the first work. What? Repentance, and brokenness,
and unworthy, And you, Hathikwiken, who were dead. But God, that's
the Ephesians. He said to Sardis, he said, you
have a few names that live, but they're dead. He told the preacher,
strengthen the things that remain. He told the Laodiceans, the third,
he said, you're rich and increased with good, don't have any need
anymore. And he said, you don't realize you're just as wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and naked as you are when I found you.
He said, I counseled by what? Gold, tribe, and the fire. I
said, what's that? The gospel. Oh, this is a blessing, a blessing.
Brethren, this is our brother prayed a while ago. Thank you.
Thank you, Lord. I don't ever let us be unthankful
for this blessing, a blessing. the fullness of the blessing
of the gospel of Christ. One day we're going to realize
when there's nothing, we have nothing of this earth's goods
and very few of this earth's people that we knew, when we
stand in his presence and realize the blessing, we'll have none
of these things. It's all gone. The earth, the
world, and all the works therein are burned up. Everything we've
ever done, everything man's ever done, everything we ever thought
was wonderful and good is gone. And we stand before him and we
think, how could I have been taken with anybody or anything
else but him? What a blessing. What a fellowship. What a joy to have. And this
is a foretaste. He says in verse 30, he has a
request in closing. I beseech you, brethren, for
the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, his glory, his honor, for the
love of the Spirit, the love you have to him, the love you
have to me, he said, that you strive together with me. Strive
together, not strive against, but together with me in your
prayers to God for me. Every single church he said this
to. Brethren, pray for me. Why? Well, look at verse 31. That
I may be delivered. From what? All the enemies of
the gospel. Satan's grand design. It's one thing. It's one thing. And he has at his disposal everything. And he's a master of humanity,
a deception of human nature. And he can use it. And he can
use us. Like he did Simon Peter. Like
he did Jude. He can do it. And his grand design
is to keep, to split the church. To keep you from hearing the
gospel. That's his grand design. He'll use anything and anyone
to do it. And if God doesn't keep him from
it, and somehow or some way the Lord uses the prayers of God's
people, Lord, help us. The adversary. David was constantly,
always praying, wasn't he? Because of his enemies. Enemies
of the Lord. For the cause of Christ, defending
his brethren against the enemy. That's our next message. And
we've got the same enemy. We're not wrestling with flesh
and blood, but principalities. And he's a whole lot smarter
than you and me. A whole lot. But he's not so smart that we're
not... He's not so smart that we don't
understand his deception, that we don't understand now, after
all this time, something of his wiles and his tricks and his
gimmick. And I know this much about him.
And I'm not contended with him. I'm no match for him. But I do
know this one thing. That's the one thing he's out
to do, is to keep you from hearing Jesus cry, keep you from hearing
the gospel. And he does know this, that the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. He does know that.
He's seen people taken from his captivity. He's seen them happen,
and he knows what took them. So he knows what the power of
God is. So it's his grand design to keep you and your children
and your grandchildren and everyone else from hearing that gospel. Pray for me. Pray for us. Pray for all the brethren. Pray
for the gospel. What's this all about? Kingdom
of God is Christ. That's what we pray for. Not
bless me, bless me, bless me, bless me. Oh Lord, bless the
gospel, bless the preacher, bless the church. Let you be the last
one on the list. Like Rahab, the heart. Oh, save
my house, save my father, my mother, save us Lord. And oh
yes, save me. And if he does, it's going to
be by this gospel. Right? Pray. Paul says, I beseech you, I plead
with you, I urge you, for Christ's sake, for the truth's sake, for
the love you have for Christ, for the love you have for His
church, for His kingdom, for His people, for His preacher,
pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. I may deliver it in verse 32,
that I may come unto you with joy." With joy. He said to the Hebrews
back there, He said, listen to this. Hebrews, He said the same
thing. Hebrews 13. Where is he? Right before Peter,
alright. James. See, everybody has problems. He said, remember them which
have the rule over you. That means in prayer, think of
them. Thessalonians, he said, know
them, get to know them, whose faith follow, He said, they've
spoken unto you the word of God, and his faith followed. Consider
the end, the purpose, the goal of what they're doing. And he
went on to say, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must
give an account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief. Joy. Over and over throughout
the epistles he said, you're my joy, my crown. He said this
is a thing I enjoy doing and nothing gives me more joy than
for people to believe the truth. So in our text he says, that
I may come of you with joy, by the will of God. If it happens,
it's going to be by the will of God. That I may be refreshed,
may be with you refreshed. Paul, doesn't the Gospel refresh
you? You know, much study is a weariness
to the flesh, but buddy, if the Lord blesses it, I'm refreshed
in presenting it to you. If you're blessed and I see some
joy in your faces and hearts, well, wasn't that wonderful?
Refreshing. Like cold waters to a thirsty
soul. We're thirsty. Now, the God of peace. The last verse. The God of peace. Here's his prayer. It's a short
one, isn't it? We're not heard for our much speaking. We're
not heard by our persuasible words. We're not heard by our
great eloquent prayer. Wonderful prayer. Now, the God of peace be with you
all. What do you have to say about
that? Amen. Amen means that's the way
it is, that's the way it's going to be, that's the way I want
it, and I like it. Amen. Thank you very much.