Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll turn to page 30 in our course books and sing
Living by Faith. Page 30 in our course books. I care not today what the morrow
may bring If shadow or sunshine or rain The Lord I know ruleth
for everything And all of my worry is vain Living by faith In Jesus above Trusting, confiding
In His great love Yes, in His great love Safe from all harm Get a sheltering arm I'm living by faith And feel
no alarm Though tempests may blow And the storm clouds arise
Obscuring the brightness of light I'm never alarmed at the overcast
skies The Master looks on at the strife Living by faith in
Jesus above Trusting, confiding in His great
love Safe from all harm, in His sheltering arm We shall do it
on, living by faith, in Philo alone. I know that He safely will carry
me through, no matter what evils be tied. Should I then care, though the
tempest may blow, if Jesus walks close to my side? living by faith in Jesus above,
trusting, confiding in his great love, safe from all In a sheltering heart I'm living
by faith And feel no alarm Our Lord will return to this
earth some sweet day Our troubles will then all be o'er The Master
so gently will lead us away Beyond that blessed heavenly shore Living
by faith in Jesus above In Jesus above Trusting and fighting In
His great love Safe from all harm In His sheltering arm I'm
living by faith and feel no alone. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
351. 351 Jesus keep me near the cross
There a precious fountain Free to all the healing stream Flows
from Calvary's mountain In the cross, in the cross Be my glory
ever Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross a trembling soul
Love and mercy found me There the bright and morning star sheds
its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross be
my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. near the cross, O Lamb of God,
bring its scenes before me. Help me walk From day to day
With its shadows storming In the cross Till my raptured soul shall find rest
beyond the river. Near the cross I'll watch and
wait Hoping, trusting ever Till I reach the golden strand Just beyond the river In the
cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. We know our glory's not in the
cross, though, don't we? I'd like to read from Luke chapter
15. Luke chapter 15. We'll read the parable of the
prodigal son, verse 11 through the end of the chapter. But before
we read that, we'll read, look at the beginning of the chapter.
Then drew near unto him, unto our Lord Jesus Christ, all the
publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. Verse 11, And he said, A certain
man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father,
give me the portion of goods that followeth me. And he divided
unto them his living, And not many days after, the younger
son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country,
and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when
he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land,
and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to
my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against
heaven and before thee. I am no more worthy to be called
thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a
great way off, His father saw him and had compassion, and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight am no
more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his
servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put
a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. and bring hither
the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry.
For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and
is found. And they began to be merry. Now
his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh
to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one
of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said
unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the
fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound,
and he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father
out and entreated him. And he answering said to his
father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon
as this Thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with
harlots. Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said
unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have
is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad,
for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost,
and is found. Almighty God, our Father, we come to you, Lord, with humbled
hearts, feeble, trembling hearts, Lord,
we come into your presence. Yet boldly we come through thy
precious Son. Father, thank you for allowing
us to, the great privilege of prayer,
Thank you for the privilege of gathering to hear your word taught,
to hear it preached, hear it proclaimed. Lord, we thank you for this gathering
of saints. Lord, we thank you for your tender
mercies, for thy loving care, Father, we thank you that you're
so good to us. To say we're undeserving is an
understatement. You give us the opposite of what
we deserve. Lord, we thank you that you saw
fit to choose a multitude of wretched
sinners to show mercy to. We thank you for free mercy and
grace, for amazing grace. Lord, I ask that you would send
your spirit among us, bless this service tonight, Bless those
who are here and bless those who are listening who are unable
to be here. Lord, I know of a great many
dear brothers and sisters that are weak and weary and going
through trials and tribulation and faint of heart and this old
rotten flesh, Lord. I'm sure that there are many
more Lord, please do for them only
what you can do. If it would please you, Lord,
to send them mercies, be their strength in their stay, comfort
their hearts and their souls, Lord, cause them to look unto
thee. Pray for those who are traveling. Lord, that you would just keep
us all. Keep us coming to hear the gospel.
Lord, we thank you for our pastor, who's always so faithful to us,
to study and prepare and stand here and proclaim. Stand here and tell us the truth. Lord, we ask that you would bless
him tonight, so he stands here once more. Bless the message to our hearts,
as it would please you, Lord. Cause your word to go forth.
Lord, we pray that you would revive us, that you would send
your word through this town, through this state, all through
the nation, all over the world. Oh, Lord. Lord, cause a great revival. But Lord, whatever thy will be,
cause us to praise you for it. Cause us to do thy will. Lord,
we pray that thy will be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn
number 236. Amazing Grace, 236. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear! how I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there, Bright shining as the sun We've
no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun. Oh my, read about the prodigal,
oh my, I love that, love it. Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter
1. We've done a couple of nights
of introduction to this book. Now we'll deal with some things
as we go through it. Tonight I want to give you a
four-fold description of God's preacher. for God's Apostle,
Paul the Apostle. And let me read the first seven
verses. Let me tell you something. These
first seven verses is one sentence. Just one sentence. And the first
verse, the second verse is in parentheses. But it's just one
sentence. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God, which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ,
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. And I want to take these verses,
just a few of them, and talk about a fourfold description
of God's preacher. Paul in writing to the Roman
church, the Roman believer, people that were in Rome, he's addressing
people to whom he's never personally met, never has personally met,
and they're unknown to him, and he's actually unknown to them.
And he naturally, by God's grace, he wants to win their confidence. He wants to win their goodwill
so that they'll listen to his message, listen to his message. He wants nothing nothing in himself. If he could possibly help it,
nothing in himself to hinder the gospel, nothing in his self
to hinder the reception of his message. And Rome at this time
was the capital of the whole world. Rome was the capital of
the whole world. Rome ruled the world from Rome,
the known world at that particular time. And so he's going to the
capital. And since he was unknown to these
Roman believers, these Roman Christians, he endeavors to present
himself and his credentials, his credentials. And like I said,
the first seven verses is just one, one sentence. And you know the apostle,
though he went and sat before Gamal when he was a young man, I remember Tim James, when he
first started in Cherokee, a woman asked him, said, Did you ever
go to seminary? And he says, No, ma'am, I ain't
been to no seminary. She said, Do you think it helped
you or hindered you? He said, I think it helped. I
think it helped. And I think it helped. And you
know, Paul, he was a young man. He sat before Gamaliel, which
was a Pharisee, and he was a Pharisee. But here he comes, he s preaching
to people and writing a letter to people that he don t know
personally, and they don t know HIM personally. And so he was
unknown, and he endeavors to give his credentials to let them
know who he is and what God called him to do. And he gives a four-fold
description of himself. Verse 1 and verse 7 are connected. You could read it like this.
We ll leave the rest of it off. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. See the
parentheses? Then he goes down to say to ALL
that be in Rome. You start in 1, go to 7, and
you could do that, but we re not going to do that because
we ve got these verses in between. And Paul, the first thing he
says, he says, Paul, you know, his name was Saul. He s actually
Saul from Tarsus, and he was a Jew, that s his Jewish name,
Saul. Paul is his Roman name. Paul
is the name that s given to him as a Gentile, and he was Saul. He was, you know, Saul, he said
he was of the tribe of Benjamin. King Saul, he was also of the
tribe of Benjamin, so he might have been named after King Saul.
But anyway, he calls himself Paul. He used his Gentile name,
and look what he says, a servant of Jesus Christ. It's the first
thing about him. He said, I'm a servant of Jesus
Christ. And when you see that word servant,
it's also the same word as a slave, a slave. And he looked at himself,
his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, he looked at himself
as one that was bought, a purchased possession, one who Christ had
bought and paid for. And I tell you, he looked at
the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and as his Master. He was
his absolute Master and his Lord. And he considered himself the
property of the Lord Jesus Christ. And even when he was in prison,
he didn't say, I'm a prisoner of Rome. He said, I'm a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. HE CONSIDERED HIMSELF SO UNITED
TO CHRIST AND SUCH A SERVANT TO CHRIST THAT HE WAS THE PROPERTY
OF CHRIST. CHRIST WAS HIS LORD AND MASTER,
AND I TELL YOU WHAT, HE SAW EVERYTHING AND EVERYWHERE HE WENT, HE SAID,
I'M IN THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST. HE IS MY MASTER. SO I DO WHAT
HE TELLS ME TO DO. I GO WHERE HE SENDS ME. I SAY
WHAT HE TELLS ME TO SAY. AND I TELL YOU, HE HAD ABSOLUTE
LOYALTY the Lord Jesus Christ, he was conscious, conscious of
his Christ owning him, lock, stock, and barrel. He absolutely,
Lord, you re my master, you re my master. And you know when
you re a slave, and he said he was the bond slave of Christ,
you know a bond slave, a servant, he owned nothing, he absolutely
owned nothing. He was nothing, considered nothing
apart from his master. identity was with his master.
He didn t have nothing of his own. He didn t own nothing, he
belonged to his master. His time, his strength, everything
belonged to another, to another. And I tell you, you know, I ve
showed you time and again where when a slave a bond slave was
owned by a man, and that bond slave, this time after seven
years he was supposed to go out free, but if he loved his master
and his master was good, they would take him to the door and
put a hole in his ear, put an awl in his ear, And that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ is saying here. Paul is saying here, I
have nothing of my own. He's just my master. Everything
I have, owe to Him. I have nothing. I know I am nothing
apart from Him. And I tell you, to Him, there
was nothing more honorable, nothing more noble than Paul to call
himself a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, these politicians,
they call time and tell you, say, we're public servants. Yeah,
listen to the, wait till the next lie they tell you. But I'm
telling you what, Paul was really, really a servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I tell you, he, he desired
to do nothing, be nothing, to own nothing apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ. And to Paul, this was real freedom. This was real freedom to him. It was real freedom. And oh,
he said, I'm a servant, I'm a servant, a bond slave of, then look what
else he said there in verse one, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. And this is what he says, now
call, this is the second thing about him, called to be an apostle,
called to be an apostle. Now I tell you, he did not take
this upon himself. He did not get up one day and
said, I'm gonna be an apostle. He didn't get up one day and
said, I'm gonna be a preacher. He didn't get up one day and
say, I'm gonna follow Christ. No, no, this was, it was not
his own commission that he did this work. His apostleship came
directly from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now you keep
Romans, look in Galatians chapter one and verse one. Look in Galatians
chapter one. You know, there's people that call themselves
apostles now. There's no such thing as an apostle
now. There's no prophets now. There's
preachers now. There's preachers and they have
to be called. They don't take it upon themselves,
but his apostleship came directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
what he said here in verse one of Galatians. Paul an apostle,
not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised him from the dead. Man didn't do this for me. Men
didn't do this for me. He was sent by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had his authority from the
Lord Jesus Christ. He had his doctrine directly
from the Lord Jesus Christ. And he had a special power to
work miracles and to do things that nobody else could ever possibly
do. You look at what the apostle,
you look what Simon Peter did. He raised a woman from the dead.
And he would people, he'd go by his shadows and people would
be healed. Paul raised a young man from
the dead. He cast out demons with his word. He healed so many people. They took clothes off of his
body and used them and gave them to people and they would actually
be healed that way. And I know that there's people
today and they'll say, I've got this holy water and I've got
this handkerchief I prayed offer. You send me $100 and I'll send
it to you and you'll be blessed. No, these fellas had a special
power that nobody else had. They had power, they had power
in their preaching, they had power in their ministries, they
had power to heal, they had power to, they could give sight to
the blind, sight to the blind. Our Lord Himself said, He said,
You're gonna do greater works than I did. Now, how could they
do greater works than he did? Because they reached more people
than he did. He stayed in one particular area,
his old ministry, but Paul went all over the known world at that
time. And they preached to so many more people, done so many
things that our Lord Jesus did. And Paul, he had a call. He had
a threefold call. There was three things that he
talks about being called. You know when the first time
he talks about being called? He said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. That's where it started. He said,
when He separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. And the second call was on the Damascus road. And
I tell you what, you know why Christ met him on the Damascus
road? Because He separated him from
his mother's womb. And on the Damascus road, as
he is on his way to mistreat the Lord's people, he hated Christ
at that time. And about that time, Christ brought
him down. Christ put him down. Christ called
him. And he said, Saul, Saul, called
him by his Jewish name. Christ, you know, he calls, he
said, my sheep hear my voice. He said, I know them, I know,
and listen, he said, Saul, Saul, that's the first thing he told
me. Called him by his name. What are you doing? What do you
think you're doing? You think you can win? You think
you can fight against me? You think you can kick against
me? You think that the pricks ain't gonna hurt you? He said,
listen, he went blind and was blind for three days. Didn't,
blind as a bat for three days. And oh my, you know, that's what
his first calling, second calling, when he was called on the Damascus
Road. He was actually called out of
darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. How can he be made
blind and yet see Christ at the same time? Christ can do that. We can't do it, but he can. And
then when he had his eyes open, you know the first thing they
told him? HE SAID, THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS HAS CHOSEN YOU, THAT
YOU MIGHT SEE THAT JUST ONE, YOU MIGHT KNOW HIS WILL, AND
YOURE GOING TO SUFFER FOR ME. And then the third call was you
all remember in the book of Acts when Acts 13 and him and Barnabas
was down at Antioch and they said, Separate me. Saul and Barnabas
for the work were unto I've called them. So that's three callings
that he had in his life. And they said separate them to
the calling for which I've called them. And all these were his
credentials. He was a servant, he was an apostle,
and he claimed no human merit, he occupied no human position,
he occupied a place where God set him. He occupied something
that only God could do for him. And you know, when the apostles got together
in Acts chapter 1, after Christ ascended, they decided that they
needed another apostle after Judas was found out to be a demon,
be a devil. And they said, well, we're going
to have to have another apostle. So they got together and they
drew lots and they called a fellow named Matthias. and set him aside
to be an apostle. But you know who took, you know
the 12th apostle, who the really 12th apostle was? Paul. You never hear about Matthias.
You never hear anything about him, but you hear about Paul.
Once God saved him on the Damascus road, he's constantly, constantly
in the scriptures, constantly. And then not only is he called
a servant of Christ, called to be an apostle, but look what
else it says he is, separated unto the gospel of God. God separated
him. And he told him, I separate him
for the work that I've called him to do. And he's separated
under the gospel. AS A SERVANT OF THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST, CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE, HE HAD A SPECIFIC WORK THAT GOD
SEPARATED HIM TO DO. HE HAD BEEN SEPARATED TO WHAT?
THE GOSPEL, THE GOSPEL. HE SAID HE CALLED ME BY SEPARATING
ME UNTO THE GOSPEL. AND THERE IS NOT A HIGHER CALLING
IN THIS WORLD THAN TO BE CALLED A PREACHER, AND THAT IS WHAT
PAUL FELT ABOUT HIS WHOLE LIFE. He felt this is the most high
honor that I could ever possibly be bestowed upon me to be separated
under the Gospel of God. Now, I heard a preacher, and
he's a very good preacher and extremely, extremely popular,
extremely popular. You know, he'll have a sermon,
and he'll preach a sermon, and there'll be 4,000 or 5,000 downloads
of that one sermon. I mean, he's extremely popular.
And I heard, you know, he said he gonna preach the gospel. And
he preached the gospel. He went down through, I mean,
he was nailing it down one right after another. It was right,
right, right, right, right. Good, good, good, good, good.
Oh, it was wonderful. Then he got down to his last
point. And you know what it was? Separate yourself from the world.
Separate yourself from out here in the world. Be different from
the world. And he started talking about how women ought to act,
and how men ought to act, and how everybody ought to act as
a Christian, and all that. And he started talking about,
and his separation meant that you separated in the way you
dress, and the way you act as a wife, the way you act as a
husband. Killed that whole message. Killed that whole message. When
Paul talks about separation, you know what he's talking about?
The gospel. What did God separate us to?
Separation is, beloved, God separated him, set him apart. He set him
apart, separated him, that s what it means, set apart, and He separated
him to the gospel, and what gospel? The gospel of God. God commissioned
him. God said, Listen, now you re
going to be an apostle, I m going to use you, consecrated him,
set him apart, oh my, and consequently he concentrated on one thing
and devoted his life to one thing, the gospel, the gospel. He told the Corinthians, he said,
I don't want to know a thing in the world among you, not nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel. You know,
the gospel, the gospel is, and this is something that, and we'll
deal with it in a little while, but boy, to be separated of the
gospel. You know, Paul or any other preacher
that's been separated by God Almighty to set apart to preach
the gospel, and like Paul was, you'd have to step down. You
know, if they offered you the position of the United States
of America, If somebody come along and offered you all the
money you could possibly, you could never spend in five lifetimes,
it would be nothing compared to the gospel. Nothing. You can't buy this kind of separation. You wouldn't do it for yourself.
You wouldn't decide I want to be a preacher. You wouldn't decide
I want to be apostle. You wouldn't decide I want to
separate myself to the gospel. Only person can do that is God
Almighty. And that's why he said separate
unto the gospel of God. Set him apart. Here, Paul, I
got one thing for you. Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. That's all I want you to do.
And that's all he did. And then look what it says here.
And this is the fourth thing. He said down in verse five, so
he's a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's an apostle, he's
been separated under the gospel of God, and then look what it
says, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience
to the faith among all nations for his name. Now everything he got, it says,
you notice it said there he received, he received. This verse describes
how God provided for him to become an apostle, provided for him
to what the work that he called him to do, carry out his work.
I think you would call that apostolic grace. We have received grace. We have received grace. You know,
grace was always a characteristic of Paul's life and his work.
You know, Most folks, 1 Corinthians 15, 10, Paul's talking about
grace. Most folks say, he says, I am
what I am by the grace of God, but that's not why he starts
it. He said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. He starts out with grace. God,
he said, I wouldn't be nothing apart from grace. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. And here s another thing about
him. He started out, he says, I m the least of all the saints. Then he said, I m the chief of
sinners. And then he says that I m the The least of this, least
of that, but when he got done, you know what he says? I'm less
than anybody else, though I be nothing. That's why he started
out up here, and by the time he got done, he was down there.
And oh my, he received grace and apostleship. And you know
our Lord Jesus Christ, like our master, grace, grace came by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I've said, these verses
should come, they should just touch all of our hearts, they
really should. And this should make us consider and make us
wonder about our own commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. We
should all consider our own commitment to Christ. That's one thing that I think
is very, very trying for me for myself. but it's real trying
on a preacher, real trying on Paul, because he said in one
place, he told Timothy, he said, Timothy, there's no man like-minded
with me in the gospel. Nobody else even thinks like
I do. Nobody else acts like I do. Nobody
else is interested in the gospel. And oh, he said, oh, I tell you,
you know, God's called every single one of us separated every
one of us to Himself, to Himself. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I know that whatsoever I've committed unto Him, He's
able to keep it against that day. Now, I tell you, it's this
business of being a believer, being a Christian, it's a lifelong
commitment to Jesus Christ. It really is. It's a commitment
of the heart. It's a commitment of ourselves. And it's a sad, sad time when
you see people that that commitment just is gone. You know, you see
people come, and they stay for a long, long time, and they're
there three services a week, and then it gets down to where
it's one or two services a week, and then it gets down to where
it's one service a week, and then sometimes it's not even
that. Now where's that commitment at? We all have to, and I'm not
chiding you, I'm not trying to chide you at all, but we all,
by God's grace, we all ought to wonder about, I wonder about
my commitment to Christ. These fellas pray for me and
I said, boy, if they knew what I was really like, they'd really
pray for me. Let's talk about it. But oh my, we ought to examine
our, all of us ought to examine our commitment to Christ like
Paul was. And then look at the source that
God gave him this and provided him for to this apostleship that
he has. HE IS TALKING ABOUT BY WHOM?
BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY HIS RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD,
BY WHOM WE RECEIVE GRACE. I RECEIVED THIS GRACE AND THIS
APOSTLESHIP THROUGH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, FROM A RISEN, EXALTED
LORD, FROM A SAVIOR THAT HE RECEIVED HIS POSITION, FROM A SAVIOR HE
RECEIVED HIS AUTHORITY. And we receive everything we've
got from the same place. We receive it from the same place.
Receive our call from the same source, from our Father, from
Christ, who raised from the dead. We've received it. You know it
says He received it. We didn't earn it. We didn't
merit it. We can only take it as it's given
to us. And then he talked about his,
you know, he said, I'm an apostle. I've got, I've received grace
and apostleship. I received it. I received it. And oh my, and then he says,
you know, and here's, here's something that I find kind of
puzzling to me, grace and apostleship. Now I'll tell you, you got to
have some power. You got to be provided for to
carry out the work God's appointed to him. And Paul, you know, when
he talks about grace, we receive this grace in apostleship. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, John said this, he said, of His grace,
we see grace for grace. And let me show you something
over here in Ephesians 4. Look in Ephesians 4 with me. Look what it talks about, receiving
grace, receiving grace. Ephesians 4, 7, look what it
says, But unto every one of us is given
grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Now we
all get a measure of grace. Christ is the one that gives
it. And that's what Paul is saying, I received grace. I received
grace. I got my apostleship by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I became an apostle by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I became an apostle not because
I did anything or accomplished anything or amounted to anything.
I received my apostleship by the grace of Christ, a risen,
exalted Savior. And oh my, and then look what
he says. And he says, this is why I received
it. So when I go preach for obedience to the faith, obedience to the
faith among all nations for his name. Now, you know, faith, he
said obedience to the faith. Now, when he talks about the
faith here, he's talking about the gospel. He's talking about
everything that we believe. It's obedience to the faith.
And that faith is not just a personal faith, a personal faith and a
subjective faith, but he's talking about what we have taught and
what we've preached. When we come to the faith, when
a person becomes to the faith, he's coming to everything that
Christ has taught him. And you know, every one of you
all at one time or another has been somewhere and somebody asks
you, what's your faith? what your faith. And they re
asking you what you believe. Most folks say, Well, I m Methodist.
I was talking to a fellow the other day, and he was talking
about, you know, he goes to a certain Methodist church, and I told
him I was a preacher. I ve been in the same place 45
years, and he backed up a little bit and said, Yeah, walked off, didn't want
to talk about anything else. But oh my, what I'm telling you
is, is that everything we've got, we get it by grace. That's
what he's talking about, grace. Grace, and it's obedience to
the faith. When we talk about faith, I don't
know how else to explain it. When we sought what we believe,
we believe in Jesus Christ, The only Savior, no other Savior. There's nobody else that God
will let us into his presence except through the Lord Jesus
Christ. We all acknowledge we is like a prodigal son. We is
all lost and we is dead, but he made us alive. We is lost,
but he found us. We believe that we are sinners
and we never become more than that. And if God didn't save
us and keep us, we never get above being what we started out
to be. And our Lord Jesus Christ taught
us and makes us understand that He's everything and we're nothing.
that He s all in all and we re nothing, that if He didn t give
us grace we wouldn t know anything. We wouldn t believe Him, we wouldn
t know we were sinners, we wouldn t know Christ as the Savior,
we wouldn t know God is sovereign, we wouldn t know the Bible from
a road map, and the only reason we do that is because we have
disobedience to the faith. And that s why, you know, in
some How many people in here, when
they first started believing, and God started teaching them
something, and it was like you got a brand new Bible? Because
you had read your Bible, and read your Bible, and read your
Bible, and you find out, you know, you open it up, and I see
things that's never been there before. You get a new book, you
get a new book, that's the way I was. I preached WORK for years. I was a legalist, a fundamentalist,
until one day God crossed my path with the gospel, crossed
my path with the truth, and the first truth He crossed my path
with was that I was unable to do anything for myself! I couldn't do nothing for myself! And that's what we're talking
about. So when we come to the faith, we come to the realization
that salvation is of the Lord from Alpha to Omega. That's the
long and short of it, if I can say it that way. That if the
Lord don't save us, we're going to get saved. If the Lord don't
keep us, we're not going to be kept. If the Lord don't teach
us, we're not going to be taught. And that's what Paul said, he
said, OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH. wherever I go, among all nations,
wherever I go. If I go to Galatia, I'm going
to preach the gospel. If I go to Colossia, I'm going
to preach the gospel. I come to Rome, I'm going to preach
the gospel. And I tell you what, I'm going to preach the faith,
and by God's grace, you'll be obedient to that faith. It's
not you have faith and then you start being obedient. You get
faith, and that faith causes you to be obedient to that faith.
And you know what people do that's obedient to the faith? They say,
Preacher, I won't be baptized. I won't confess my faith in Christ.
And that's the first thing they'll say, I won't confess my faith
in the Lord. That's what it is, obedience to the faith. Obedience
to the faith. And the place is, is that you
know, among all nations, And you know why he says that? Because
God's got people everywhere. Got people everywhere. Oh my. He has people and the gospel
is universal. It's the same for all, for all
are the same. All are the same. And the motive
for this preaching is, and the motive is preaching disobedience
to the faith among all nations. And the motive is for his name. For his name. Because of His
name, for His glory, for His honor, that He gets all the glory. Everything
that's going to be done is going to be done in His name. It's
going to be done for the sake of His name. God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. And He says that the motive for
everything we do is Jesus Christ, His name. And God gave Him a
name above every name. that one of these days, that
at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee's gonna bow, every
tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Huh? I'm gonna like that. Me and Bruce Crabtree was talking
the other day, and we was talking about people coming to Christ, and
the motive for coming, and the Lord Jesus Christ being the motive.
And we was talking about that, and he said, you know, he said,
if God didn't call us, we would never listen. We'd never have
any idea what was going on. And here's what he said, you
know, he said, if the Lord hadn't separated us to Himself, He said,
we'd have never separated ourselves. Would you have said, well, I'm
going to start going to church because I want to be a believer?
No, no. God brought you in to make you
a believer. That's the difference in that.
You know, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to start
listening so I can become a believer. God brings you in to make you
a believer. That's a world of difference
in that, ain't it? That's a whole horse of another color. Well, our Father, oh, our Lord and
our God, our master, oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, you're our
master, you're our Lord. And Lord, we, speaking for myself,
Lord, I do want to have a heart that is committed to you, your
precious word, your gospel, to your people. And Lord, I thank
you for your dear saints. Oh, there's nobody like your
people. No matter where they're at, there's just nobody like
them. Nobody like the Lord Jesus Christ saints, people you separated
unto yourself, that receive grace, receive their calling, receive
their separation by you. And Lord, I pray that you'd cause
this little message tonight to be a blessing, to be an encouragement,
to build up your saints in the faith. And Lord, if I said anything
that I shouldn't have said, please forgive me. And Lord, please
bring glory to yourself through all of us here, all of us, all
of us. and do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Good night and God bless you.
See you Lord willing, Wednesday. You all remember Joe in prayer And praying.