Now, Paul writes this epistle to the believers
in Rome. The Word of God is written to
believers. Rebels would not appreciate it. Even our Lord said, do not cast
your pearls before swine, and he's not going to do that. So
Paul writes this to those who have been brought to faith in
Christ in Rome, the seat of Satan, the seat of paganism. That's
what he's writing, and he writes to the believers that are there,
and he writes to them without any distinction. He doesn't write to a certain
class of believers, a certain class in society there in Rome.
He writes to the believer. which is every one of them, no
matter rich, poor, no matter what station they hold, Paul
says, I write this epistle to you. Here's the only distinction
he makes. Beloved of God. You are beloved
of God. And you're called, you're called
of God to be saints. That's a short term for sanctified.
But you're saints, and you're saints of God now. A lady told
me one time, some years ago, she said, someday we'll be saints.
I said, no, we're saints now. No, we're not. She started arguing
with me. No, we're not. No, I said, we
are saints now. Sanctified, set apart, made holy
in Christ. We are saints now. Saints of
God now. She just couldn't grasp that. No, we're not saints now. No,
we are. We are. We're called to be saints. And He says to them, Grace and
peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Scriptures, you'll always find that grace and peace comes
from God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
way it happens. That's the channel for whom God
works, is Christ. He's the channel. And it always,
always comes through Him. There can be no grace at all
except through the Son. You can experience no grace,
taste no grace, except it come through Jesus Christ, that one
that was hated and despised. All grace comes through Him. There can be no communion with
the Father except through the Son. Our Lord said this, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There is absolutely no way for
a sinner to come before God Almighty accepted and be heard and be
accepted. except through the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Son. He's the only way. He's not a
way or part of a way. He's the way. Dare any man to
approach God apart from the Son. Grace and peace, he said, from
God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul follows
this up with thanksgiving. First, he said, first, let's
put the first things first. I thank my God. I give thanks
to my God through Jesus Christ for you all. God is the object
of Thanksgiving. I was telling someone this weekend,
I said, of all the holidays that we have, this holiday of Thanksgiving
is probably the truest holiday of all the holidays, Thanksgiving. We ought to give thanks. Thanks
unto God. He's the object of it. To give
thanks to God. To recognize that all that we
are, Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Can you
say that? All that we have and all that we know comes from
Him. Every good gift and every perfect
gift coming from above comes from our Father. He's given it
to us. But especially, especially this
thing in salvation, we give Him thanks. How many people perish
every day? I don't like to even, I don't
like to think about it. How many people perish every
day? He brought to us the gospel and granted to us faith and repentance. We'll really not know the real
spirit of that thanksgiving until we stand in His presence, will
we? When we stand in His presence amazed, amazed at His grace,
amazed at His mercy, amazed at what He has done for us in His
Son by the thanksgiving Thanksgiving is going to go on that day and
forever. It will never end. It will never
end. But he said, thanks be unto God. And then he says here, through
Jesus Christ. You know, we can only praise
God properly through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can only give
Him praise and worship properly through His Son. Everything is
through His Son. God has made that so clear throughout
the Scriptures. Everything that God has for us,
His dealings with us and our dealings with Him, is through
His Son. He says through Jesus Christ. As we receive all blessings through
Him, we give all praise and thanks to God through Him in His name. in his name. Jesus Christ alone
is our High Priest. Jesus Christ alone is our Mediator. He's the only one who appears
before God on our behalf. He's the only one worthy. He's
the only one worthy to make such an approach to God. The only
one. And the reason he is, he's without
spot of blemish. absolutely holy. Therefore, he's
able to go into the Holy of Holies and represent us, speak on our
behalf to God Almighty. That's why Paul says, through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice here the persons for
whom he prays. He says, for you all. that your faith is spoken of
throughout the whole world. He prayed for all the believers
in Rome. Not for some, but for all the
believers who were there. And the thing that he most gave
thanks to God for was their faith. That God has given you faith
to believe Him. That God has given you life. That's what He's done for you.
And Paul said, I thank God. I thank God for that. You know,
true prayer, true prayer is complete only when we intercede for the
good of others and not just ourselves. When our prayers extend beyond
ourselves and beyond our home, beyond our personal family, to
the church of God. We pray for God's people everywhere. I do pray, and I know you do
this morning, that God would bless His preachers and His people
wherever they're gathered. I hope and pray that Cody has
a good time this morning. And Walter, they're preaching
tomorrow. I know they're preaching somewhere. I pray in Virginia. I know Paul Mahan's preaching
and Todd and Lexington. All the God's servants and all
of God's people. I do. I hope we all have a blessed
time this morning in worship and in hearing the Word of God.
Oh, that God would bless us so. And true prayer is complete when
we pray for others and not just ourselves. And true love manifests
itself when it rejoices in the blessings of others. I think,
you know, you rejoice when your children are blessed. When your
children, you know, something happens to them, you know, something
good happens, They're blessed and promoted their job and they're
able to make a better living. You rejoice in that, don't you?
The believer, and I truly believe this, the believer rejoices when
God blesses his children. They're not jealous. I know jealousy
rises up. I know we still have that old
nature. I know we still have it. But the real attitude that
prevails I believe it prevails because greater is he that's
in you than he that's in the world. It causes joy when one of God's
children is blessed. Envy manifests itself when a
person is grieved. If you're grieved when someone
else is blessed, that's not of God. It's when you are really joyed
when someone else is blessed. That's of God. And Paul says,
God is my witness. My love for you, my care for
you, my desire for you to be blessed. God is my witness. He said this is genuine. If you're
going to call God in as a witness, you better be telling the truth.
You better be telling the truth. Paul says, God is my witness.
He's telling them that his affection and care for them is genuine. It's real. It's not a show. It's not a put-on. Paul said,
I love you. Oh, and the goodness of God that you knew how much
I loved you. How much I care for you. How much I mention you
in my prayers constantly. Constantly. You know, Paul was
personally unknown to them. They hadn't met Paul. They hadn't
seen Paul. Not at all. But he assures them
that his affections are real, and he even gives it in the form
of an oath. I call God in as witness to this. He makes an appeal to God as
his witness, and he says, Whom I serve with my spirit in the
gospel of his Son. That's a strong appeal, isn't
it? You call God in as a witness.
I've heard men say this. I've been in conversations and
a man will be talking about something. There's one particular person
comes to my mind. I've heard him say it a few times. And he'll say, God is my witness.
I'm telling you. I thought, boy, you just, you be careful who
you gonna call God in as a witness. But Paul was so, he was so assured
of his love for them, that he was not afraid to call God in
as a witness. And he says here in verse 10,
making requests, praying for you, calling upon God for you. Well,
this is one of the best things we can do for each other. This
is the best thing we can do for the church is to make requests
before God, to pray. to pray. Don't ever make or think lightly
of prayer. God hears prayer. O thou, David
said, O thou that hearest prayer. Making requests. If by any means,
now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to
come to you, that I may be able to come and see you and we see
each other and fellowship with each other and the journey be
prosperous. Paul longed to see these believers.
He longed to see them. And I believe that same longing
is found in every faithful shepherd whom the Lord calls. Everyone
whom God makes a faithful shepherd out of, he longs to see the Lord's
sheep. And he longs and he desires to
see their good. He wants to see the best for
the Lord's sheep. He says here, I long to see you.
Not Rome. Now, you know, you all went to
Rome. Some of you went to Rome. Jason,
you all been to Rome. That was an interesting sight.
I'd like to go see that. I'd like to go there and see
it. But Paul, here's what Paul's saying. I want to see you. He wasn't interested in seeing
Rome. He wasn't interested in seeing anything or anyone at
Rome but those who believe God. He said, that's my great interest.
I want to see you. And he writes that I may impart
unto you some spiritual gift. To the end, you may be established. You know, carnal curiosity seeks
to satisfy its own cravings by seeing others and other things.
But the believer desires, listen, And we have it right here. Paul's
giving us an example of it. The believer desires the true
happiness of others. Paul said, my desire is that
if the Lord allows me to come, that I can impart unto you some
spiritual gifts and true happiness, true joy by my coming. And here
the apostle teaches very clearly by his own example why believers
should visit one another. This is why we should visit one
another so that we might be a blessing or receive a blessing. It's a
blessing. It is a real blessing to be around
God's people. This is the family. This is the
family I would have loved to have Thanksgiving with. This
is the family I would have loved to have shared that day with.
And I enjoyed seeing my personal family, fleshly family. But this is the family I would
have really, we would have had everything in common, wouldn't
we? We would have had everything in common. You know, you can
only talk to this Earthly family just for a little while. I mean,
there's just so much you can talk about. Sports, the weather,
how you're doing. You know, there's just so much
you can talk about. But the believer, well, we can talk about those
things too, but we can talk about him all day, can't we? Mutual. Mutual faith. And it says here
in verse 12, That is, that I may be comforted together with you
by the mutual faith. Our faith is mutual. This is not a denomination of
different faiths. It's not, you believe this, well,
you believe that, well, that's okay. No, it's not okay. It's
not. There's only one faith. One Lord,
one faith, one Baptist. That's why when we were invited
to be in this Fourth of July service they had on the street,
I said, no. There's only one faith. You can't
have up to ten different faiths and then we all just get along. I guess it can if none of it's
real. If none of it's real, you can get along. If it's all show
you can get along, you can act your way right through it. But
not if it's real. Not if it's real. Paul said that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. There's
nothing that gives a pastor more comfort than to know that the
people of God are walking We saw this over in 2 John, that
they're walking in truth and walking in love. What joy? Just
like in your own home. You love it when your children
walk in peace and joy with each other. I know families where
children don't even talk to each other. I know some families,
I know one particular family where children, they don't hardly
talk to each other. But boy, the families, when they get along,
That gives the parents great joy. Great joy. And Paul was looking forward
to preaching to them in person. Paul was looking forward to meet
the believers in Rome and just sitting down and talking to them. Just sitting down and talking
with them about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he looked
forward to. Now he says, I would not have
you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come
unto you, but was led hitherto, that I might have some fruit
among you also, even as among other Gentiles. Paul is telling
them that this desire to visit them was not a sudden impulse. He did not wake up one morning
and say, I think I'd like to go to Rome for a long time. He wanted to go to Rome and visit
the church there. He said, I have wanted to do
this for a long time, but I was hindered. Hindered. Sometime God hinders. Over in
Acts 16, I believe it is, the Holy Spirit said to Paul, you're
not going to Asia. He was forbidden to go to Asia.
And then over in Thessalonians, Paul was hindered, he said, by
Satan. He said, I would have come to
you, but Satan hindered me. Sometimes God allows Satan to
be a hindrance. Sometimes God Himself hinders. But whatever, whatever, Paul
says, for a long time I have desired to come and see you. And my purpose for coming to
see you is not curiosity. And so that I might have some
fruit. Or that sinners, here's what
I'm saying, that sinners might be converted to the Lord. That
God may add to the church such as should be saved by my coming
through the preaching of the gospel. And the church edified. And to see the believers grow
in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
growth we want. That's the growth we want. It's
good to grow in numbers if those numbers are believers. You don't want to grow in numbers
a bunch of rebels. You don't want that. I would love to see
this whole room just filled to capacity with people who believe
the gospel. Wouldn't you love to see God
save sinners and fill these seats up with people just like you
that have tasted of the grace of God? Wouldn't you like to
see that? That's what Paul said. He said,
I pray that I can come and God will save some more sinners. And then he says here in verse
14, I'm a debtor. Aren't we all? to the grace of
God. We are debtors to the grace of
God. But Paul's saying here, I'm a debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. Because
of the mercy of God to Paul and his calling to the ministry,
he was obligated to fulfill his calling, which was to preach
the gospel to the Gentiles. That's what he was called to
do. Paul was called to be a witness of the things which he had seen
and heard. He was called to do that. He
was called to preach the gospel to the civilized and the uncivilized,
to the learned and the unlearned. The same gospel is to be preached
regardless of the people we are preaching to. If we were preaching to a prison,
and I have gone to the jail, I didn't go in jail, I was not
there in it, but I went to jail to preach the gospel. during
preacher school. I went to the jail two or three
times. That is one captive audience, I'm telling you. They have to
listen to everything you say. And you'd be surprised how much
attention they paid. I remember that distinctly, standing
on the outside of the bars. They were on the inside. And
as I started to preach, They kind of act like they're not
paying attention at first. They kind of act like they're
hard criminals. Like they're tough. But the longer
I preached, some of them started looking. And you'd notice that
another one would look. And then before, by the time
I was finished preaching, most of them were standing there listening.
And they were starting to listen. And when you start telling them
the only difference between you and them is the grace of God,
And if you're no better by nature than they are, I mean, they start
to identify with you. You start to identify with them.
The only difference is the grace of God. The only reason I'm not
in there with you is the grace of God. We preach the same gospel to
those in prison, those behind bars, and those in the pews. Same gospel. And the reason is men are the
same in nature everywhere. Some of us are just a little
more dressed up, isn't it? Some of us are just a little more
educated and they can hide it a little better. But the same stinking nature. Same wretched nature. Every man is a sinner and every
man needs Christ. If he's going to be saved, he
does. and then to close. So Paul says, so as much as in
me is, as God will help me, I am ready. Ready! I can just see in my mind, when you see the Kentucky Derby,
you see those horses put in the gates. And just before they open
those gates, those horses are ready, aren't they? I mean, they
are prancing around and they're waiting for that bell to ring
and those gates to open and out they go. Paul says, I'm ready. I'm ready to come to Rome, right
in the seat of Satan. I'm ready to come there and preach
to you the unsearchable riches of Christ. I want to talk to
you about Christ. He was so anxious to preach to
them Christ, that he was just, and he wanted to get there. He
wanted to get there. He wanted to impart to them this
joy, knowledge, and understanding, and all that he knew of Christ. He wanted to preach. He was ready to preach to the
Roman Empire. He was wanting to go. He was
anxious, anxious to fulfill his calling. Not worrisome anxious, but anxious. Being about his father's business. I would to God that I would catch
more of that. I would to God that we would
catch more of that. That anxiousness about being about our father's
business. That's what our Lord said. He
said, I must be about my father's business. Ready to preach the
gospel. That's what Paul was. He was
ready to preach the gospel of the unsearchable riches of the
Lord Jesus Christ to the church in Rome. And I hope that's what I can
do this morning. When I stand back up here again, I can do
that one more time. Preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ.