When you go into this passage
here in verse 20, the Apostle Paul begins here to express his
desire to be with the church at Rome, the believers at Rome.
And he's going to be talking about the providence of God to
lead him in other places and what his mission is. And so as
I open up this message, I'll ask this question, what do you
consider to be the mission of the church? What is the mission
of the church? And if you go by the scriptures,
the mission of the church is to preach the gospel. Now, it
is not the mission of the church to stamp out physical poverty. It is not the mission of the
church to heal physical ailments. It's not the mission of the church
to start soup kitchens, to start shelters, or to do anything like
that. Now, that's not to say that we
as human beings ought not help others who are in need. We ought
to. The Bible, Christ told us that
love our neighbor as ourself. And when we see people in need
and if we have the means to help those who are truly in need,
then we're to help them. But the mission of the church
is to preach the gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. The church is the pillar and
ground of truth. So we're not here to set up hospitals
and to have soup kitchens and all of that. And again, I'm not
dissuading people from doing that. Orphanages and all. In fact, the scripture is very
clear back in the early New Testament days that the church is to take
care of widows and orphans. What that was talking about was
believing women and believing children or children of believers
who were left destitute and had no means of support. It was up
to the church to take care of people like that, especially
their brethren. And so we see that. But the mission
of the church is to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, to preach Christ to a dying world, to preach salvation by
the grace of God, based upon the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what we're for. And
so Paul starts off in verse 20, yea, so have I strived to preach
the gospel. That's what we're here for. The
gospel's the good news that sinners need to hear. You know, it's
an amazing thing when you consider that we have the only good news
that sinners need to hear, but it's the only good news that
no sinner by nature wants to hear. Because the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God. And yet we are
to strive to preach the gospel. We're to endeavor to preach the
gospel. We're to be diligent. to preach
the gospel. That's why even in a small group
like ours, that's why we have our Reign of Grace ministry.
We have Eager Avenue Grace Church and Reign of Grace Ministries.
Why we are preaching on television. Why we have this live streaming.
We're trying to get the gospel out. And we rejoice with others
who are doing the same. Now those who are, we know that
false religion abounds today. And I don't rejoice in any preacher
getting up on television or preaching to multitudes who does not preach
the gospel. I'm not a partner with them,
I'm not in fellowship with them, and I do not support them. Our
love and our endeavors, as we express that to our neighbor
through the preaching of the gospel, has to be founded upon
truth. as it is in the scriptures, as
it is in Jesus Christ. Now Paul had clearly, and often
throughout the book of Romans, defined the gospel that he's
talking about. I have strived to preach the
gospel. And it's the gospel that he claimed
in chapter one that concerns the person of Christ, who Christ
is, That he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
That's his sinless humanity. And he was declared to be the
son of God by the resurrection from the dead. That's his deity.
So who is Jesus Christ? God manifest in the flesh. That's the gospel. And then he
went on to talk about the finished work of Christ. He said in Romans
1 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to
the Jew first and the Greek or the Gentile also, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. You cannot preach the
gospel without declaring the person of Christ and the righteousness
of God, which is the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ
as the surety, the substitute and the redeemer of his people.
That's what that righteousness is. It's a righteousness that
we don't have by nature. It's a righteousness that we
cannot work by trying to be good or keep the law. It's a righteousness
that Christ accomplished as he died, as he obeyed unto death
on Calvary's cross to put away our sins and to establish the
only righteousness whereupon God could be just to justify
the ungodly. So Paul says, I've strived to
do that. And he did. You can see it in
every epistle that Paul was inspired to write by the Lord, that that's
the main issue. And that's what the mission of
the church is. Now Paul says here in verse 20, yea, so have
I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest
I should build upon another man's foundation, And in verse 21,
he says, but as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of,
they shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand. Now, what is Paul talking about
here? Well, he was a pioneer missionary. That means he saw
his mission, his specific mission, was to preach the gospel where
it had never been preached before. Pioneering that, And so we know
that God calls and equips his missionaries. And stop thinking
of a missionary as somebody who goes overseas or goes to a foreign
land. We are missionaries here in Albany,
Georgia. But Paul's saying he was a pioneer
missionary. It was his task, as the Lord
laid it upon his heart, to go, as they say in Star Trek, to
go where no man has gone before. That is with the gospel that
he's talking about. It's not saying that Paul did
not want to go anywhere where the gospel had already been preached.
He wanted to go to Rome and it had already been preached there.
And he tells them that here in a minute. But what he's saying
is, number one, that it was his specific calling of God to go
where it had not been preached and not just to go where it already
had been preached to build upon others' foundation. where it
already had been preached. But I believe the specific emphasis
of this point is Paul saying, I'm a missionary to the Gentiles. Many of the Jews had already
heard the gospel preached. Most of them didn't believe it,
but they had already heard it. But Paul is talking about his
mission to the Gentiles, to call God's elect out of every nation
And of course, how are you gonna do that? You preach the gospel.
Because the preaching of Christ crucified, and think about it,
he quotes here from Isaiah 52, verse 15, to show that his mission
and his desire was the fulfilling of prophecy, God's purpose to
save his elect, his chosen people, out of the Gentile nations, where
the gospel had never been preached before. And so that was so significant,
because you see, The calling of God's elect out of every nation
is the direct fruit and effect of the saving work of Christ
on the cross, which is prophesied of in Isaiah 53. That's why the
Lord said in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. He said, this is the will of him that sent me, that of
all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. And this also establishes, again,
that the message, the one message that we have is the gospel of
God's grace wherein Christ is revealed and preached in the
glory of his person and wherein his righteousness is revealed
as the only ground upon which God can be just and justify the
ungodly. Now look at verse 22. He says, for which cause also I have been
much hindered from coming to you." Now, what he's saying here
is that Paul, he wanted to come to Rome, and he's going to talk
about that in just a little bit. But what hindered him from going
to Rome is he had other duties. He had other callings. The Lord
was sending him in other places to preach the gospel. In other
words, he had such a zeal and such a desire to preach the gospel
and be used of God as an instrument. of the power of God to save his
people out of the Gentile nations, that that had hindered him from
going to Rome, where the gospel had already been preached. But
look at verse 23, he says, but now having no more place in these
parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto
you. See, this wasn't just a new desire. He'd wanted to do this
for years. He says in verse 24, whensoever
I take my journey into Spain. He was gonna go to Spain. That was his idea. As far as we know, Paul never
made it to Spain, but he wanted to go there. He said, I will
come to you. So he's saying, on my way to
Spain, I'm going to stop by Rome. I'm going to come to you. He
says, for I trust to see you in my journey and to be brought
on my way thitherward by you. At first, I be somewhat filled
with your company. So what he's simply telling them
that he wanted to go there, he wanted to meet these people,
he wanted to visit believers at Rome and enjoy fellowship
with them, and then he wanted to go from there to Spain to
preach the gospel. And since Rome was on the way
to Spain, he planned to visit with them on the way. And we
know that Paul did go to Rome eventually, but not the way that
he had hoped. He went there as a prisoner.
And we'll talk about that in just a minute. But he eventually
went there as a prisoner, and we don't have any record that
he ever went to Spain. But we do know that the gospel
was spread throughout by these Gentile churches through the
Apostle Paul. Look at verse 25. He says, but
now I go unto Jerusalem. Now this was something the Lord had laid on
his heart. In other words, instead of coming directly to you and
going to Spain, I'm going to Jerusalem to minister, to serve
unto the saints that were believers in Jerusalem. And he says in
verse 26, for it hath pleased them of Macedonia, the believers
in Macedonia, and Achaia, the believers in Achaia, to make
a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. Now this is why I call this believers
caring for one another. And as much as Paul wanted to
visit Rome, and as much as he wanted to go to Spain, there
was a more immediate need in Jerusalem. And he mentioned this,
you can read about some of this back in the book of Acts chapter
19. In fact, it's recorded there where Paul mentioned this intended
journey back in Acts 19 and verse 21. Believers in Jerusalem at
this time, there were some believers there who were in poverty for
mainly we know two reasons. Number one, they were in poverty
because they were being persecuted over the gospel. their identification
with Christ, their preaching of the truth, which drew out
the hatred of the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, many of them lost their
jobs, their means of support, they had their homes taken from
them, and they were in poverty and they needed help. And then
another reason that we know that many of them were in poverty
is there was a famine in the land at that time. And so what
Paul's saying is the believers in Macedonia and Achaia heard
about this in Jerusalem and they wanted to help. These were Gentile,
mainly Gentile believers who wanted to help their Jewish brethren
in the faith. And that's, they cared for them.
And this is a great example, believers caring for one another
as we are one spiritual family under Christ. You see, in Christ,
we're all one in the eyes of God's law and justice. We're
all one in the kingdom of God. There's no Jew nor Greek, Jew
nor Gentile, male nor female. These differences, you see, have
no merit. They're no big deal in the family
of God. We're sinners saved by grace. And that's what he's saying.
And look at verse 27. It said, it hath pleased them verily,
As their debtors they are. Now think about that. They felt themselves indebted
to the Jews, Jewish brethren. Now he's not preaching legalism
here. It's not a legal debt. But look what he says, for if
the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, we're
partakers, there's a partner, a fellowshipper. He says, Their
duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things, fleshly
things, physical things. And this is the debt that he's
talking about. It's not a debt of law. It's a debt of love. And what he's saying here is
that these Macedonian and Achaean believers were so grateful for
the spiritual things that God had used the Jews to bring them
to. that they wanted to help the
Jews physically with their material things. And you know which is
the most important. Listen, we who are Gentiles have
derived a great benefit from God through the Jews. It was through the Jews. Think
about it in the Old Testament from Abraham on. that God brought,
number one, brought our salvation, salvations of the Jews. How?
It's not that the Jews can save us, they need salvation themselves.
But it was through the Jews, humanly speaking, that Christ,
who is our salvation, came through. And we thank God for that. And
we know it was due to nothing in them, and believing Jews know
that. And then it was through them
that the gospel was shot out through the world. You remember
in Pentecost where all the Jews, and there were Gentiles too,
who heard the gospel, and they were dispersed, and they brought
the gospel into the world. And so we who are Gentiles have
derived a great spiritual benefit from God now, from the power
of God, through the righteousness of Christ, but it was through
the instrumentation of the Jews. to the Jew first and the Greek
also. And so they saw themselves as debtors. We owe them a lot. Not because they saved us, but
because God used them in our salvation. And it's a debt of
love. So what are we to do? Well, we
receive spiritual benefit through them. Let's let them receive
physical benefit through us. And so they had taken up an offering,
and they gave it to Paul. That's how much they trusted
Paul, and said, would you take this to the poverty-stricken
brethren in Jerusalem? Now, over in 1 John, chapter
three, this is part of that love of the brethren that John speaks
of. Now, love of the brethren is
a godly love rooted in the truth of the gospel, which binds us
together in the faith, taking sides with one another against
the world in the faith, identifying with one another in the faith. It doesn't have any, it's not
talking about syrupy, sappy, emotional love, even though that
may exist. In many ways, but it's talking
about our oneness in Christ in the truth of the gospel we stand
together But it also filters down into meeting the needs of
each other when we're really in need and that's what John
Writes about look at first John chapter 3 and look at verse 13
He says marvel not my brethren if the world hates you the world
is not in love with brethren Now, let me make a real good
distinction here. Let's say a husband and a wife
who do love each other, but one's a believer and one's not. Now,
there is a mutual love, a romantic love, a brotherly love there,
but there's no godly love because one's a believer and one's not.
One's of the world and one's of Christ. So you see what I'm
saying? Now this godly love that he's
talking about, and you've heard the term in the Greek, the agape
love, that's what it is. It's a love from God, it's a
love we don't have by nature. It's a love that only comes to
us through Christ, hearing his love, not that we love God, but
that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of
our sins. That's the kind of love he's
talking about. It's love in the truth that binds us together,
okay? And it says in verse 14, 1 John
3, we know that we have passed from death into life because
we love the brethren. We stand with the brethren. We're
in fellowship with the brethren. That's what he's talking about,
partakers of their spiritual things. Back here in Romans 15
and verse 27, we're in fellowship with them spiritually. We have
a spiritual family, a spiritual kinship in the truth by the grace
of God through Christ. We have the same father, the
living God. We have the same elder brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we stand before God equally
accepted in his righteousness imputed to us. And so we're together. We love the brethren. And he
says in verse 14, this is first John three, he that loveth not
his brother abideth in death. Now if that love is absent, if
there's no fellowship, no partnership, what does that mean? That means
you're dead, spiritually dead. In verse 15 he says, whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. So this love evidences spiritual
life. We know we've passed from death
unto life. And an evidence of that is we're
in fellowship with the brethren. We love the brethren. But it
goes further than that. Look at verse 16 of 1 John 3.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his
life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now that's the ultimate show of love, evidence of love, giving
your life for the brethren. But verse 17, but whoso hath
this world's good, that is material good, You have an abundance of
money, of food, of clothing, whatever. And seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
turns his back on him and doesn't help, how dwelleth the love of
God in him. You see, this kind of charity
to a brother or sister in need is an evidence that we love him.
And this agape love is love in action. And he says in verse
18, my little children, let us love not in word, neither in
tongue, but in deed and in truth. Now that's what he's talking
about over here in Romans 15. That's what these Gentiles, believers
from Macedonia and Achaia, they had partaken of the spiritual
things of the Jews. They'd been saved by the grace
of God. and they wanted to help those who were in need because
of poverty or sickness or whatever they're going through. And then
look at verse 28. He says, this is Romans 15, 28. When therefore
I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I
will come by you into Spain. So Paul says, again, he wanted
to go to Rome and go to Spain, but on his way. But when he finished
this task and literally put his seal on this fruit of theirs,
He says, he commended their gifts as the fruit of faith, love,
and gratitude. That's what it means to put his
seal. Back then, a seal was used to stamp anything as to be genuine. And Paul's saying here, that's
what he said, I'm gonna show this, this is genuine. This is
genuine love. They're not doing this trying
to earn their favor. earn favor from God. They're
not doing this in order to make themselves righteous before God.
They're doing this out of love to the brethren and gratitude
to God. So he says in verse 29, and I'm
sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness
of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And there it is. Paul said, when I get to you,
it'll be in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel. Well,
as we know, Paul finally made it to Rome. We know the history
of this is recorded in the book of Acts and recorded in some
of the epistles. Paul didn't get to Rome the way
he had originally intended, to go there on his own and fellowship
with brothers and sisters in the faith, but he was sent there,
forced to go there in chains, in bonds. And as you know, even
then though, he was able to meet them and he was in what they
call his own hired house. In other words, he was confined
to a house and they could come and go. And through that providential
prison that God had put him in, Paul was able to witness the
gospel and preach the gospel. Remember he told the Philippians,
he said, I'm bound, but the gospel is not bound. And so nobody can
bind the gospel. God's going to get the gospel
to his people. I've heard people tell, ask,
you know, they say, you know, well, you say people have to
hear the gospel to be saved. And I tell them, no, God says
they have to hear the gospel to be saved. And they say, well,
what about somebody in the jungles of Africa who never seen a Bible
and read a Bible, never heard it? Listen. If there's one of
God's chosen people in the jungles of Africa or in the deserts of
Arabia, God's gonna get the gospel to them. Think about the Ethiopian
eunuch. God's powerful enough to do that. And so we see, now
Paul wrote many of his epistles from his hired house in Rome. Philippians, for example, they're
called the prison epistles. And you remember it was through
Paul being in that confined house in Rome that a man named, an
old thief named Onesimus came to him out of the book of Philemon
and met him and heard the gospel and God saved him. So Paul, even
in his confinement in Rome, he was able to preach and promote
the gospel. And let me just read you this
out of Philippians to close with. This is Philippians 1-7. Paul
writing from Rome in prison. And he says, even as it is made
or appropriate for me to think this of you all, because I have
you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and my chains
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers
of my grace. In other words, there's a fellowship
of grace even there. And then, this is Philippians
1.12, he says, but I would, you should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are
manifest in all the palace and in all other places, and many
of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident in my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear. That's how
Paul looked at it. In fact, he even called himself
God's prisoner, prisoner of the Lord. Okay.