Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 294. 294. Savior, like a shepherd, lead
us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, for our use thy foals prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. We are Thine, do Thou befriend
us, be the guardian of our way. Keep Thy flock from sin, defend
us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve
us, grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. Early let us seek Thy favor,
early let us do Thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Be seated. Turn back one page,
we'll sing hymn number 292. 292, and we'll save that high part
for the end. 292. ? A pilgrim was I and a
one dream ? In the cold night of sin I did roam Jesus the kind
shepherd found me, and now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me All the days, all the days of my life He'll restore
it, my soul, when I'm weary He giveth me strength day by day
He leads me beside the still waters He guards me each step
of the way Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. When I walk through the dark,
lonesome valley ? My Savior will walk with me there ? And safely
is great and will lead me ? To the mansions He's gone to prepare
? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me ? All the days, all
the days of my life Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house
of the Lord forever, and I shall feast at the table spread for Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of
my life. Well, it's good to see everybody.
It really is. I told my wife the other day,
Sweet Shirley, I said, boy, I get so discouraged with myself. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter
1. I watched the service Sunday, and
Houston done an outstanding job. I didn't realize how well he
did. Conducting services when I'm not here, but he just he
just handled things Better than I would most of the time and
it was wonderful. I really appreciate it I really
really do how you handle things deal with things make denouncements
and introduce the preacher and Read the scriptures just wonderful,
and I thought Cody brought an outstanding message. You know
we start up here and Down we go till we get to be nothing. I thought that was wonderful.
All right, 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. 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 request
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
other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the Greeks,
to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is ready,
I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are wrong." also. Our blessed and glorious God
in heaven, our Father, our Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, O Lord, we come with great thanksgiving
in our hearts that you've allowed us again to meet together as
a body of believers has allowed us again to have this blessed
privilege, this glorious, glorious opportunity to meet with the
saints of God, to meet with the children of God, to open your
word and, Lord, love it and desire to speak from it. And I pray
that you would enable me to speak, and I pray that you would enable
them to hear, and I pray for those among us who are so frail,
so frail, so weak, we ask for your abundant mercy. We ask,
Lord, that you comfort those caregivers, those who have to
take care of the infirm, take care of the weak. And Lord Jesus,
we know that our time on earth is short, no matter how long
it is, it's very short. As you said, it's just a vapor.
just a vapor, just a head's breath. And the psalmist, sweet psalmist
said, Lord, make me know the end of my days. Lord, to number
my days that I may be wise. Lord Jesus, we look to you to
meet the needs of our loved ones, especially our brothers and sisters
in Christ. And Lord, we pray for our preacher
brethren, our sister churches everywhere that you'd meet with
them tonight and enable them to speak, enable them to be blessed
by the spirit of God. Thank you for allowing me to
be here again. Thank you for the prayers and
love of your people towards me. I bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen. Everybody got a handout now for
the Lord is my shepherd? The Lord's my shepherd. Psalm
23. The Lord's my shepherd. He makes me down to lie. In pastures green, he leadeth
me. In pastures green, he leadeth
me. The quiet waters by. My soul he doth restore again,
And make to all the plain. Within the paths of righteousness,
Within the paths of righteousness, ? For His own name's sake ? ?
Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale ? ? Yet will I fear
none ill ? ? For Thou art with me and Thy rod for me to hold
? And staff think I'm thirsting
My table the best furnished, in presence of my foes. My head thou dost withhold anoint. My head thou dost withhold anoint. and my cup overflows. Goodness and mercy all my life
shall surely follow me. And in God's house forevermore
And in God's house forevermore My dwelling place shall be Continuing our study in the book
of Romans, you know, Paul started out talking
about he's a bond slave of Christ, God separated, he's an apostle
separated to the gospel of God. Then he talked about the Lord
Jesus Christ and who he was. how He was the Son of God, and
everything we got we received through the Lord Jesus Christ,
because we were beloved of God and called to be saints. But
now tonight Paul shows a personal interest in these Romans, a personal
interest in these Romans, and he expresses a deep, deep personal
interest in these Christians. You know the first, you know
where the first time people were called Christians? It was in
Antioch. They were first called Christians
at Antioch because they were so different than anybody else.
They had this great desire to walk after Christ and believe
Christ, and at that time it was a very dangerous thing. And he
wants his message to be accepted, and he HIMSELF wants to be accepted. He was a stranger to them, never
been there before, and most of them had heard he was a very
dangerous man. Look what he said over here in
Romans chapter 3 and verse 7 and 8. They thought he was a very
dangerous man, and heard that he was a very dangerous man.
And this is what they accused him of, being an antinomian,
and when you go against the law and refuse to come under the
law, that's what they call you when you preach grace so good.
He said, For if the truth of God hath abounded through my
lie unto his glory, if me telling the truth about God, and I lie,
and that's for my glory, and God's glory then, why has God
yet judged me for a sinner? and not rather, and this is what
he says, as we slanderously be reported, people slander us,
and this is what they say about us, as some affirm and say, let
us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just. That's
why he preached grace so free, and preached Christ so powerful,
Christ so glorious, Christ is such a Savior, and the law is
no part in a believer's life, that they accused him, said,
Well, he s preaching that you can do evil, and God will get
the glory out of it. The more we sin, the more glory
He gets out of it. And they said, We re slanderously
reported that we tell that lie, and that s a lie that they said,
Tell on me. So they thought he was a dangerous
man. You remember when God smote him down on the Damascus Road
he was on the Damascus road, and Ananias, God came to a man
named Ananias, said, I want you to go over in Damascus, a street
called Straight, and there s a man over there, solid horses, and
I want you to go over there and lay your hands on him. He said,
Lord, Lord, that man is an evil man! I ve heard so much meanness
about him and how evil he is, how he even persecutes YOUR people! He said, You go on, behold, he
prayeth, and he is a chosen vessel unto me. And he went, but he
told God, said, I ve heard everything I ve heard about this man. He
s an evil man. So that s what they re talking
about him. He is an Ananomian. An Ananomian means people without
law. If that's what it means, I'm
one of them, because I'm under no law whatsoever. The only law
I'm going to be brought under is the law of liberty, the law
of love, the law of freedom in Christ. I'm not going to go under
any law or under any rules in this world that takes away from
the glory and power of Christ being the only Savior. I'm not
going to do it. not going to do it. And I tell you what, and
a fella called me that one time here and come here and heard
me preach several times over the years, and he finally said,
If I heard you right tonight, you don t believe the believers
under the law in no way, do you? I said, You heard exactly what
I said and what I meant. I'm not going to take anybody
under, and that's why they accused Paul of saying, Let's continue
in sin, and then grace will bound more. Continue more, sin more,
more grace, sin more, more grace. And he said, You're lying on
me, you're lying on me. So they thought he was a dangerous
man. But these eight verses that I
read to you tonight, they are personal characteristics of the
Apostle, and as we look at them one by one, hopefully we'll be
essential elements of what a true believer's life is like, what
a true Christian life is like. And look what he says in verse
8. He said, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for
you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
This is the first thing he said, first Thanksgiving. I thank my
God. I've said that so many times
over the year. Never, never go to the Lord without
first thanking him. I mean, we gotta thank him that
we got out of bed this morning. Gotta thank him that we got a
place to live. Thank him that we got a place
to worship. Thank him that God gave us faith. Thank him for
his blessed blood. Thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you, oh God, for all you've done for us down through
our lifetime. and preserved us from the day
we was born until the day you called us by your gospel, called
us by your gospel. And oh, that was his usual beginning.
He thanks God on their behalf for their faith. That s what
he said, for your faith. He thanked God for their life
in Christ. He said, It s well known throughout
the whole world. And look what he says here first.
Did He intend to say second? Is there going to be something
second? No, no, I don t think so. When He says first, it was
only intended to show the prominent place of thanksgiving was to
His mind. You go through His introductions,
and I tell you, like in I Corinthians 1 and 4, He says, I thank God
for the grace that s given unto you. He told the Colossians,
I thank God that I've heard of you, and I pray for you and heard
of you, faith, hope, and love. So that was one of the first
characteristics of this man's mind was thanksgiving, thanksgiving,
and that was what was in his mind. And look what he says,
I thank my God, my God. Martin Luther said that Christianity
is the religion of possessive pronouns. anybody can say God,
anybody can say Christ, but only believers can say, My God! Only
believers can say, My Gospel! Only believers can say, My Redeemer! Only believers can say, My Savior! Mine! You say, It s Mine! Well,
He's mine too. Is He yours? That's what I mean.
We all can say mine. And He said, I thank my God and
my gospel, my Savior, my Redeemer. And that's what it is. We possess
Him and He possesses us. And oh my, that's why Job said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. And look what he says now. I
thank my God through Jesus Christ. THIS SHOULD BE THE FIRST THING,
MY GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. THAT'S HOW GOD BECOMES OUR GOD
THROUGH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. WE COULDN'T KNOW GOD APART FROM
CHRIST, AND WE COULDN'T KNOW CHRIST APART FROM THE FATHER.
THEY GO TOGETHER, AND ONE TELLS THE OTHER ABOUT THE OTHER ONE.
AND HE SAID, I THINK MY GOD. I THESSALONIANS 5.18, ANYBODY
KNOW WHAT THAT SAYS? HE SAID IN EVERYTHING, In everything
give thanks. Wonder what that includes. In
everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. You say, well, I don't feel so
good. Give thanks. Things ain't going my way. Give
thanks. Give thanks. He didn't say, When
everything's just right, give thanks. No, no, in everything. When you're flat on your back,
give thanks. When you're on the mountaintop
and got a pocket full of money, give thanks. In everything, give
thanks. That's what he says. All right,
now look what he says. This should mark every believer's
life. Starts out with thanksgiving, thanksgiving, and oh my. And then He shows His special
interest in them. He says there in verse 8 again,
For I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, listen to this,
for you all, for every one of you, for you all. He makes no
distinctions, no distinctions whatsoever in these believers
over there, none whatsoever. He makes no distinction in them
whatsoever. The cause of His thankfulness was that their faith
is spoken of throughout the world. And Paul heard about the Romans
and the Roman believers, first thing he heard about, they believe,
they believe, they trust Christ, they've been brought to faith
in Christ, and always spoken of throughout the world. And
as he went from place to place preaching the gospel, those believers
in Rome, he kept hearing about them and hear about them, and
it sparked an interest in his soul. He had never seen them,
but he had been praying for them for a long, long time. And another
wonderful mark of a believer's life prevents us when he says
when he thanks God for them through Jesus Christ, for your faith,
for your faith that people hear about, that I hear about and
other people hear about. He said this keeps us from being
so self-centered, so self-centered. It enables us to rejoice in ALL
that we hear of the grace of God in others. You know what? What a blessing it is. What a
blessing it is to know. We know believers from California,
all up and down the West Coast, all the way across the United
States, up and down the East Coast, everywhere we know people.
And we can give thanks for them. Because we hear about them. We
hear about their meetings. We hear about some believer.
And we give thanks for them. We give thanks for them. Oh,
we rejoice when we hear the grace of God and the work that God
does in other people. Oh, and that s why He said, I
thank God for all of you, all of you, all of you. And then
He goes on to say here, and oh, look at His honesty and His sincerity. He said in verse 9, And oh, what
a statement here, 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. That every time I
think of you is what he's saying, I pray for you. But you think
about a man saying this, God is my witness. God's my witness. And not very many of us say,
God's my witness. But here's the thing about it.
He is our witness. He witnesses everything we think,
say, and do. And that's why Paul said, but
he said, but God is my witness. He used that so many times. He
said, you know, the Holy Spirit bears witness. He was so honest
and in such a state before God Almighty, he said, God will be
the witnesses that what I'm saying is so. I call God to be my witness,
God to witness for me, for what I think and what I feel. And
he said, whom I serve with my spirit. You know, men may judge
us, men may watch us, men may see how we function, how we act
in this world, But only God, only God can see whether we are
TRULY, TRULY serving Him with our SPIRIT, serving Him in our
HEARTS, from our HEART and SOUL. You know, when you have a GOOD
CONSCIENCE without offense, especially before God Almighty, you know,
to be SINCERE, to be HONEST before God, that s one thing I m so
WE HAVE TO BE HONEST BEFORE GOD, AND WE OUGHT TO BE HONEST WITH
ONE ANOTHER, PROVING ALL THINGS HONEST IN THE SIGHT OF GOD BEFORE
ALL MEN. BUT I TELL YOU WHAT, TO BE ABLE
TO SAY, GOD IS MY WITNESS, GOD IS MY WITNESS. YOU KNOW, THEY
ASK YOU TO GO IN A COURT AND SAY, YOU KNOW, PUT A BIBLE THERE,
YOU KNOW, SWEAR ON A STACK OF BIBLES, THEY DON'T EVEN DO THAT
ANYMORE, THEY JUST SAY, DO YOU AFFIRM THAT YOU'RE GOING TO TELL
THE TRUTH? Well, we can say, yes, I'll tell the truth. Why? Because God's witnessing me. God's witnessing what I say.
God's witnessing what I do. God's warning. And God sees what
I do, whether I'm worshiping with my spirit, whether I'm fleshly,
whatever I am. And let me tell you something.
You know, that s one of the great characteristics of a believer
is their honesty and their sincerity. I want you to see something.
Look over in 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse
chapter 3. We re talking about honesty and
purity and sincerity, and Paul told You know, the thing is,
is there s a lot of people that s not very sincere and not very
honest, but that s a prime characteristic of a believer is his honesty
and sincerity and God watching him. Look what he said here in
verse 8, Listen to this, Likewise must
the deacons be grave, now listen to what he says here, not double-tongued. What does double-tongued mean?
You reckon a double-tongued man would be honest, a double-tongued
man would be sincere? You know the Indians, they used
to call a man a forky-tongued, that means he talks out both
sides of his mouth, and he said a man that s double-tongued,
when he s with you, he tells you one thing, goes over here
and beats somebody else and tells them something else. So if you
can't trust Him over here, you can't trust Him over there. He
speaks, He's got two tongues. One, He tells somebody something,
He's got a tongue that praises God and blesses God. He's got
another tongue over here that bitterness and ugliness and evil
comes out of His mouth over here. As the old saying goes, He's
any old dog that'll hunt with Him. And that's what He's talking
about here. Double tongue, and that's why Paul said, God's my
witness. And oh my, and James said, don't let any man, if a
man's double-minded, he shall not receive anything from the
Lord. Look over in Roman, excuse me,
Psalm 12.2, talking about honesty, and look in Psalm 12.2. You know
Bunyan's progress, there was a fella in there, he was called
Mr. Face Both Ways. Here s Mr. Face both ways. He could look, you know, and
face you in one way, and you d see one side of his face, and
he d turn around the other way, and the other people see the
other side of his face, and they d be two different faces! Not the same face. So he had,
when some people look at him, big old smiley face, everybody
thought this was a great guy. Turn around, got a big old frown,
evil look on the other side of his face. Yeah, I know that's
what he's talking about. Look what he said here in Psalm
12 and verse two. They speak badly to every one
with his neighbor with flattering lips, and listen to this, and
with a double heart do they speak. Now that's what I'm talking about.
Paul said, God is my witness. I'm not double-hearted, I'm not
double-minded, I'm not double-tongued. I serve God with my spirit, with
my spirit. Whom I serve God with my spirit.
And oh my, that's what a person, that's one of the greatest characteristics
of a believer, his honesty, his sincerity. I tell you, and God's
our witness about that. And then in verse nine, he goes
on to say again, whom I serve with my Spirit.
There in verse 9, whom I serve with my Spirit. It means service
and worship. He said, I serve in worship. My Spirit serves Christ in the
worship. And I'll tell you what, in His
labor for Christ, and it says in the Spirit, in the Spirit,
it's used. God said, WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN
TRUTH, FOR GOD SEEKETH SUCH TO WORSHIP HIM. You know, this flesh,
we talk about this flesh, our own nature, it HINDERS OUR WORSHIP. Now, our bodies are here, we
bring our bodies here, Some of you have worked, and some of
you have worked hard all day, you get up early in the morning
and go at it, and you come on here, and I know you re tired.
So then our flesh is not what we worship God with, but with
our spirits, with our minds, with our hearts, and with our
souls, and that s what he s talking about, serving the Spirit. Oh,
God, we worship God in spirit and in truth, And I tell you,
that's so essential, SO ESSENTIAL that our Lord Jesus Christ, you
know, when they took our Lord up to the mountain, and He's
talking about worship, and Satan took Him up there and said, I'll
give you ALL THIS if you FALL DOWN and worship ME! And our
Lord said, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and HIM ONLY shalt thou serve. Serve Him in worship! Serve Him! Bless Him! Praise Him, thank
Him, thank Him for that. And then He says, I serve in
the gospel of His Son. There's no use for us even being
here if it wasn't for the gospel. If it wasn't for the gospel of
the grace of God, there would be no reason for us to be here.
There'd be no reason to worship without the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, without the good news of Christ. without the gospel
and it coming in his power, coming in his work and serve in our
very hearts and souls would be no use to us even being. But
he serves in the gospel of his son. And I think that's all of
it. I think I can say everybody that's
here that we're here because we serve, worship the Lord Jesus
Christ in the gospel of his blessed son and because of the gospel
of his son. And then look what else he goes
on to say now here in verse 9 and 10. He's talking about his prayer,
talks about his prayer. He said, Making request, 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, or the goal
being that you may be established. And here he is, he's praying,
he's interceding for these believers. And he did that for so many different
churches, and so many different places, and so many different
people. And that was one of the characteristics
of the apostle and characteristic of the gospel. He prayed for
the saints in Rome. And oh, my, and he says, you
know, making requests, he says, you know, when I pray, he said,
I've prayed for you, thank God for you, and I'm making a request,
I make a request, and this is what he said, if by any means, now at length,
I might have a prosperous journey unto you. Nobody was ever excluded from
his prayers. He asked God to open the way.
He says, Lord, open the way that I may have a prosperous journey
to go to Rome, that I may be prosperous to get there, and
I may be the gospel prosper when I get there, a prosperous journey. And open the way, open the way,
Lord, that I might have a prosperous journey. And that's what we say
when folks have to travel, Lord, give them safe, safe travel,
prosperous journey. Oh, my. What would be a prosperous
journey? That God would bless him in a
wonderful way when he got there, that the gospel would prosper,
souls would prosper, Christ's gospel would prosper, people
would, and the faith would prosper, everything about a believer would
prosper. And oh my, and everything by prayer, Paul said, let your
requests be made known unto God. Paul preached to multitudes and
multitudes, but he also reached lots and lots of people with
his prayers. And he prayed for others. Let
me show you something in Romans chapter 15. He prayed for others. Look what he said here in Romans
chapter 15, verse 30. And he said, Oh, I'm making requests
of God. Yeah, 1530. Look what he says
now. Now I beseech you, brethren,
for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit
of God that you strive together with me in prayers to God for
me. Strive. I want you to strive.
Pray to God for me. Pray to God for me. And what
did He ask, what did He want them to pray about? That I may
be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea, that I
may be delivered from all these unbelievers and these men that
persecute me, these men that despise the gospel, and be delivered
you and have a prosperous journey to come on to you. And oh my! He did this expression of family
love when you pray on the behalf of another, and then look what
He says, may have a prosperous journey, look what he says there
in verse 10 again, have a prosperous journey, but he qualifies it,
he qualifies it, he CONDITIONS it. What does he condition it
on? By the will of God to come unto
you. Hey, if I have a prosperous journey,
it s got to be by the will of God. If I get to come at ALL,
it s got to be by the will of God. Oh my, you know what makes our
life so wonderful and so peaceful? It s the will of God, the will
of God. We say, Lord, teach us Thy will. Our Father which art in heaven,
Thy will be done, Thy will be done. And oh, let me show you
something next, Acts 21, back over in Acts. Look over here
in Acts chapter 21 with me. And you know, talking about the
will of God, we say that all the time. I said,
you know, Lord willing, I'll see you Wednesday. Lord willing,
I'll see you tonight. And Lord willing, you know, we
don't, it's always, everything we do is conditioned on the will
of God. Conditioned on the will of, our
life is conditioned on the will of God. It really is, I mean
if we make it another day, it will be by the will of God, and
the grace of God, and the mercy of God. But look what Paul said,
look what it says here in Romans chapter 21 and verse 10. As we tarried there many days,
there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. And when
he was come unto us, he took Paul s girdle, and bound his
own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So
shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owned this girdle,
and that girdle means a belt, just a big belt that wraps around
you, holds your garment around you. So shall the Jews at Jerusalem
bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him
into the hands of Gentiles. And when we heard these things,
both we and they of that place sought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what mean
ye to weep and to break my heart? You're weeping over me and breaking
my heart. For I'm ready not to be bound
only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when he would not be persuaded,
we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done." The will of
the Lord be done. Paul, you're going to have trouble.
I don't. Oh, my. Lord, and the time and
way he expected to come to Rome was altogether different than
the way he actually got there. He wanted to come as a prosperous
journey, He wanted to come by the will of God, but you know
how He got there? Look in Acts chapter 28, let
me show you this. I'll hurry on here. Acts 28, look down in verse 14. You know over there it talked
about He's going to Jerusalem, going to be bound, but He wanted
a prosperous journey to Rome. But oh, that s not how it got
there. Remember the ship and how it
wrecked and all that? And then verse 14 it says, Where
we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days,
and so we went on toward Rome. And from thence, when they brethren
heard us, they came to meet us as far as Apiphorum, and the
three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took
courage. And when he came to Rome, the
satyrian delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard.
But Paul was suffered to dwell by himself alone, and it came
to pass, after three days, They came together, and they were
come together, and he said, Men and brethren, and he came as
a prisoner. Men and brethren, when they were come together,
said, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against
the people accustomed of our Father, was I delivered prisoner,
prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome. He wanted to have a prosperous
journey, but he went there as a prisoner, a prisoner. And our will, bless God, I'm
thankful that our will is subject to His will. And then he says
here in verse 11, For I long to see you. Oh, he said, I long
to see you. He said, I'm homesick for you.
I LONG to see you! I long to see you, I'm homesick.
And the reason I want to see you, that I may impart some spiritual
gift unto you, that God may bless me to be a blessing to you, a
spiritual gift, and gifts of the Spirit of God to the end,
or the goal that you might be established straighter, stronger,
be established in the faith, STRONG in the faith of Christ. And then look what else he says,
that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, that you may
be established, and I love this right here, and this is the way
believers really are, that I may be comforted together with you,
with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. You know,
you're gonna comfort me by your faith, and when I get there,
I hope to comfort you by my faith. So I hope I'll be a blessing
to you, and I pray that you'll be a blessing to me. that I'll
be comforted by your faith, and you'll be comforted by my faith.
He said, I'm not going to be the only one coming there with
faith. I'm coming there because you've got faith. And that's
the way we are. You know, being a blessing, he
said, I want to be a blessing to you, and I want you to be
a blessing to me. That's what he's talking about
right there. Oh, my. And he said, And then
the old man, he goes on to say in verse 13, I've got to hurry,
I'm sorry. Now I'd not have you ignorant,
brethren. I don't want you to not understand why I didn't come.
That oftentimes I purposed to come. If I was purposed, I said,
I'm going to Rome. I gotta get my, ready to go and
travel to Rome. I'm ready to go. I purposed to
it. But I was led hither to it. That
word let means I was hindered, hindered up to this place. But
he said, I want you to understand that when I come, I might have
some fruit among you as also even other Gentiles. When he
talks about fruit, he's just saying just a little, you know,
not a lot of fruit, a little fruit, not just a little fruit,
that's all I'm interested in, just among other Gentiles. And
then look what he says in verse 14. And he said, I'm debtor,
I was in debt, Now, I want you to notice, he s not saying, I
m a debtor to Christ. He said, I m not indebted to
Christ. If it s by grace, it s not got no debt. And I m a
debtor, and he said, I m a debtor to the Greeks, I m a debtor to
the barbarians, to the wise and the unwise. He s a debtor to
two races, Greeks and barbarians, civilized and uncivilized. and
two capacities of men, wise and unwise men, intelligent and ignorant
men, who men were and what they were made no difference to him. He owed the gospel to all of
them wherever he went. I'm in debt to preach the gospel
to them. That's the debt that I owe people, to preach the gospel
to them. And oh, he owed the gospel to
all. And what he understood, it did so much for me that I
believe it'll do for you what it did for me. And oh my, and
that's what we all are. We're in debtors. We're in debt
to tell people the truth. We're in debt to tell men and
women the gospel and be honest with them where they are. And
then he says in verse 15, so as much as in me is, As much as I have in me, as much
as in me is, all that I am as a person, all that as I am and
as in me, he said, I am ready. I'm ready. What are you ready
to do, Paul? To preach the gospel, to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome. That's the only reason I want
to come, is to preach the gospel, preach the gospel. You know,
Rome was the capital of the world. There's places in England that
they've got roads that they built over 2,000 years ago. We went
to the Roman baths that the Romans built over 2,000 years ago. They got roads all over the world
that the Romans built. And the Romans, they got viaducts
where water run down through that that the Romans built over
2,000 years ago. and they built things so good
that they still endure. That's what they were like. And
Rome was the capital of the world at this time. And you reckon he was afraid
to go up there? Oh, the hindrance was not in
him. He was ready to come preach the
gospel. He wasn't afraid of Rome. He wasn t afraid of that great
city or the world that was in it. He wasn t afraid of its language,
its culture, its glories, its sins, they were nothing. The
only thing he was really interested in was preaching the gospel and
being true to his Master. And oh my, that was two things
that he said, m a debtor and I m ready. I'm a debt to those
people to preach the gospel to them. I'm ready to do it. I'm
ready to do it. You know, everybody, everybody
ought to be ready. Everybody ought to be ready.
You know, I've heard folks say sitting on ready, just push a
button. I was going to say that a time
or two said I'm just sitting on ready waiting for somebody
to push a button. Well, that's pretty much the
way I am if I'm feeling okay. But I pray that's a blessing
to you. Our Father, thank You again for
allowing us to gather here to worship. Thank You for letting
us look together into Your Word. Lord, it seems like we never
have enough time, always in a rush, always in a
hurry. And Lord, forgive me for me not taking the time and relax
enough to preach the gospel. God bless these dear saints.
Encourage them, comfort them. Pray for Eleanor. Oh, God bless
Eleanor. Strengthen her. And oh, Lord,
uphold Joe. Give him strength to set up.
Give him strength to carry on. Give him a hunger, Lord, for
some food. Oh, Lord, we love your people. We hate to see them suffer. But,
Lord, we're called to that. And God bless these dear saints
as they go their way. I thank you for them. Thank you for their love. Thank
you for their commitment. Thank you for their faith that's
spoken of. Wherever this congregation's
spoken of, it's spoken of their faith, their love of the gospel.
and I thank you for it. Bring glory to yourself through
all of us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. There is a name I
love to hear, I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh, how I love Jesus! Because He first loved me! Good night and God bless you
and Lord willing, I'll see you Sunday.