Paul’s Ministry to the Romans

Transcript

GR 1403
09/27/09
Paul's Ministry to the Romans
Romans 1:1
Gil Rugh


We're going to begin a new study together in the book of Romans today, so turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans. We'll be looking at some other verses before we get to the book of Romans, but that will be the book that will be occupying our attention until the Lord comes, hopefully.

When we come to the Bible, we come to a unique book. There are hundreds of thousands, millions of books that have been written, but there is only one book that is the Word of God, there is only one book that can change a life, there is only one book that is alive, fresh and powerful. And that is the Bible. Turn over to II Timothy 3. Paul writes to Timothy and says to him in verse 15, from childhood you have known the sacred writings. What Timothy would have had is the Old Testament scriptures. And these are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. It's the scriptures that make us aware of God's plan of redemption and the Redeemer He has provided, and that by believing in Him we can have salvation. All scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. It's the scripture that brings salvation, it's the scripture that is the nourishment for our new life when we become believers in Jesus Christ. All this is because the scripture comes out from God, it is authored by God. He breathes it out, He spoke it out. It is His word.

Turn over to Hebrews 4. There is a word of warning here. When we come to the word of God it is very important that we come with an attitude of submission, a readiness to believe what God has said. There ought to be a healthy fear of hearing the Word of God but hardening our hearts and not believing it. That's how the chapter begins in Hebrews 4. Let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest any of you seem to come short of it. For indeed we have had the good news preached to us. And we're going to talk about the good news, the gospel. We have had the good news preached to us, just as they also had the good news of God's salvation preached to them, the Jews through Old Testament history. But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. You can hear the Word of God every day, come to church and hear the Word of God week after week, and die and spend an eternity lost in hell, if you did not believe the truth that was presented.

Down in verse 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter the rest that God has provided so that no one will fall through the same example of refusing to believe. Now note verse 12, for the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts an intentions of the heart. There is a power in the Word of God to penetrate into the innermost recesses of our being and reveal us for what we are. It's penetrating, it's convicting. That's why sometimes we find ourselves uncomfortable with the Word. If we have been disobedient to the Word we don't want to hear it, because it has that ability to penetrate into the very recesses of our hearts and thoughts and minds.

Come back to the Old Testament, Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah had a difficult ministry. He is ministering to a people who did not believe the truth. He is ministering in the context where there were false prophets who came and taught a message that was more pleasing to the ears of the Israelites, was more in tune with what they wanted to hear. Verse 17, they keep saying to those who despise me, the Lord has said you will have peace. And for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say calamity will not come upon you. They need to hear a message of sin and judgment. But the false prophets came and said everything is okay. God is a God of love, you are okay, things will be fine. Jeremiah had a different message that God reminded him and others. Down in verse 28, the prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain, declares the Lord. Is not My word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters rock. My word is unique. I mean, there is a lot of straw around, but My word is the grain, My word is like fire, it's like a hammer. See these pictures? When you're dealing with the Word of God you're dealing with a sword that pierces into your heart and mind, you're dealing with a raging fire, you're dealing with a hammer that shatters. You think going to church ought to be a comfortable, easy, relaxing experience. We're dealing with the Word of the living God and it is powerful. And it always accomplishes God's work.

Back up to Isaiah 55. The chapter opens up with a call to salvation and you can have this salvation at no cost because God has provided it. Down in verse 6, there is the exhortation to seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. He is a saving God, He is a merciful God, but do not presume upon the grace of God. Today is the day of salvation, so now He offers the invitation. There will come a day when that door is closed. Then Isaiah gives the statement from God, so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth. It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, without succeeding in the matter for which I send it. Every time the Word of God is taught, every time it is preached, every time it is shared in a personal conversation, it goes out to accomplish God's purposes. It never fails. Never. You have never shared the message of Christ where God did not use it for His purposes. We sometimes think when we share the gospel with a lost person and they don't believe and someone will say, what happened? And you say, nothing. That's not true. What happened? God's purposes. God's word went out and now God is taking that Word to accomplish what He intends. Sometimes that word will be a savor of death to death, sometimes it will be a savor of life to life. But it always accomplishes what God intends to accomplish. We never gather together as a church family and open the Word of God and study it together, that the purposes of God are not being accomplished. That's the exciting thing about coming to the Word of God, coming to something that is alive and fresh. Never grows old, never gets boring, never becomes mundane and commonplace because it's alive and powerful. It's a sword, it's a fire, it's a hammer, it's God's nourishment for our souls as His people. We ought to come to the Word of God with expectation. Lord, I look forward to what you have for me from your Word. That's why we start and just study the Word of God. Begin with the first verse as we are going to do with the book of Romans and move through to the end, and find out what God has to say. I've been through it many times, I've taught it, I've heard it. Yes, but there is more and its power is not weakened because we studied it before. It's God's Word to accomplish God's work in our lives.

And there is no book more to that point than the book of Romans. It's hard to say one part of the Word of God is more important than others, but there are certain portions of His Word that He has used in greater ways. And the book of Romans stands out as one of those key portions of His Word. It has impacted many lives, some of those used greatly in the history of the church were impacted specifically by hearing a portion of the book of Romans. Augustine back in 386 A.D. through hearing the book of Romans had his life changed. Martin Luther in the 16th century, 1500s, was transformed by reading the book of Romans. John Wesley turned up at a service and lo and behold the person in charge of the service was reading from Luther's comments on the book of Romans. And John Wesley was gloriously saved. And the book of Romans is a unique and special book.

I like what Luther writes, here is what he said. This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word by heart to occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much. And the more it is dealt with, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Well maybe some of you would like to take up that challenge and memorize the book of Romans while we go through. I've often thought if I were carted off to a prison someplace and didn't have a copy of a Bible, the one portion of the Word I would have wanted to have committed by memory would be the book of Romans. Because the book of Romans is about the gospel. It is the fullest, most complete unfolding of the gospel, God's message of salvation, that we have anywhere. Oh to be sure, the Bible talks about God's salvation, His gospel in the Old Testament and the New Testament. But as far as a detailed, complete unfolding of that plan, the book of Romans is the most complete, most thorough presentation.

An old Swiss commentator, Fredric Godet, said that the probability is that every great spiritual revival in the church will be connected as affecting cause with a deeper understanding of the book of Romans. So we ought to come to the book of Romans with an expectation and desire that God would use it to impact our hearts in greater ways than ever before. Not that a book that I know that I've learned much about, but a book, Lord, that I anticipate you will use in greater ways to affect my life, and then through my life in the lives of others.

It's interesting, a book like Romans, so prominent, so powerful but we don't know who started the church at Rome. Paul is going to open up in that first chapter and he's going to address it to the Romans, a church in the capital city of the Roman Empire, the very heart of that world dominating empire. A church has been established. The Apostle Paul has never been to Rome when he writes this letter. He didn't found the church, there is no indication that any other apostle founded the church. Some have suggested Peter did, but there are a number of reasons why that does not stand. One of the simplest is when we get to chapter 16 Paul will have a lot to say about a lot of people, he knows a lot of people at Rome. But there is no mention of Peter. If the Apostle Peter had been the instrument that founded the church, that would have been a very significant event.

How did the church at Rome get started? Well since the scripture doesn't tell us, we are free to make our best guess. Mine is I don't know. Some would project that perhaps on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when Jews came from all over the world, really, to Jerusalem, and we are told there were people from various parts of the empire present in Acts 2, some would have been there from Rome and they would have carried the gospel back to Rome. And that's a possibility. That requires some added adjustments, though. The church at Rome is a Gentile church. There are Jews involved, but it is clear from the writing that it's a Gentile church. Now you understand the Jews in Acts 2 have no concept that Gentiles can be saved. And it will be quite some time before even men like Peter or any of the other apostles are open to tell Gentiles about the gospel. It won't be until Acts 10 when Peter goes to the house of Cornelius that the gospel is carried to Gentiles. And then when he does it, you know what happens in Acts 11—the rest of the apostles call Peter in and say, we want an explanation from you. Why would you go tell dirty Gentiles the gospel? Peter has to explain what God did to prepare him for that. So we're not sure how Jews would have established a Gentile church there. But there are some possibilities there that we may allude to along the way, perhaps later in our study.

Paul wrote this letter, now we know some details about Paul writing the letter, where he was when he wrote it and the date, perhaps more specifically than any other of his letter, for that matter. He wrote it in about 58 A.D., and he was in the city of Corinth when he wrote it. He was on his third missionary journey and he was visiting Greece for the second time.

Turn back to Acts 20. Paul had come over into Macedonia and then into Greece, down into Corinth. We're told in verse 3, when he comes to Corinth he spent three months there. That's when he wrote the book of Romans. And we're not going to go into the detail. When we get to chapter 15 Paul will refer to the fact that he is in Corinth and he has a collection from the saints, from the Corinthians, then he's going to take that collection for the poor in Jerusalem back to Jerusalem. Then he hopes to go on to Spain, and on his way to Spain he'll stop and visit the Romans. The Romans aren't the prime focus of where Paul anticipates going, because there is already a church established in Rome and he'll make clear, I'm called to carry the gospel to people who have never heard it. But I hope to stop and see you. But he made clear he is in Corinth when he writes, in Romans 15:25-28.

All right come to Romans 1. Let me just give you a broad picture of Romans. I usually like to wait and we'll just work through it like we were reading the letter from beginning to end. But at least give you an overview as to how the book unfolds. Rather simple presentation. It starts with an introduction and it has a conclusion. It's a letter. It's the longest of Paul's letters. It's long in comparison to the average and most letters of New Testament times, these are not biblical letters. But this is the longest of Paul's letters. When you come to the major division of the letter, the first 17 verses we just call the introduction to simplify it for now. Then the main portion of this letter will begin with chapter 1 verse 18. And you have five major sections. Paul will start out as he unfolds the truth of the gospel by talking about sin, condemnation. Gentile and Jew alike will be demonstrated to be under condemnation for their sins. We call this first major section condemnation so we can alliterate them all. It's about sin. That will go from chapter 1 verse 18 to chapter 3 verse 20. Then God's solution, justification, in chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 5. The provision of God's righteousness for Jew and Gentile alike who are under condemnation for sin. Then following justification he'll talk about sanctification, how those who have received the provision of Christ's righteousness now are to live as those set apart by God for Himself. Sanctification in Romans 6-8. Then chapter 9-11, we have to talk about the Jews. I've called it just the explanation, vindication. It's explaining how God's plan of salvation has not canceled out the Jews, but He is sovereignly working to bring about what He has promised so that the gospel includes Jew and Gentile alike, but it does not blend them. The Jews have not lost their identity and the purposes and plans of God promised to the Jews in the Old Testament have not changed. So that's chapters 9-11, the explanation as it relates to Jew and Gentiles. Then you have the exhortation where this is applied. Specifically, how do we live, what are we to do. So chapter 12 will begin, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, and so on. And that will go to chapter 15 verse 33. And then the rest of the book, 15:34 to the end, you have the conclusion. So five major divisions—condemnation, justification, sanctification, explanation, exhortation.

So turn to Romans 1:1. We start out with Paul. He would have been well known by now. When he writes this he is on his third missionary journey. We're in Acts 20. Paul was saved in Acts 9. Then in Acts 13 he begins his missionary journeys, which there will be three. He's on the third of those when you get to chapter 20 and he writes this letter. So he has had a great and powerful ministry. The believers in Rome, and he knows many of them—Aquilla and Priscilla we'll see when we get to chapter 16 are in Rome. And they've been part of Paul's ministry in Greece, in Ephesus. So people there, he knows many people in the church at Rome and they know him. So when he starts out, Paul, everybody knows who is writing the letter. His Jewish name was Saul, but being born a Roman citizen it would not have been unusual that he also had a Roman name, a Latin name. It means little, but we don't know because we give names to kids when they are born and we don't know what they're going to be like. But we name them. Paul means little so some have thought of him as a little Jewish man. He was Jewish, he may have been little. But it was probably just his Roman name, Latin name, as a Roman citizen it would have been given. But at any rate this is the name we know him as because after his conversion he is consistently referred to as Paul. We're not going to go back and look at the details of his conversion, we'll read some of his testimony in a little bit. But we'll pick up that we all know who he is.

But he's going to identify himself in three ways in verse 1—a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. So this is what you need to know about me. And then what he's going to do in verses 2-7, he's going to elaborate on the gospel. But first he tells a little bit about himself and his relationship to the gospel that he is going to be unfolding.

The first way he identifies himself is as a bondservant of Christ Jesus. It's the Greek word, doulos. We'd have it over in English doulos, that's how we would transliterate it over. It means one who is enslaved to another, he belongs to another, owes allegiance to a master. It would be the word slave. Your bondservant is one who is in bondage to another. It's just one word, you could translate it slave, servant. The verbal form of this noun, hard to translate slave. He was serving or being a servant of someone, he was slaving. We don't normally use the word slave that way so we go back and forth in the English word and the translation we do. But you ought to understand, the word means that you are completely obligated to another person, you belong to that person, your life is not your own. You live a life of submissiveness. It's a word that carries the idea of humility. Any authority, any power you have doesn't come from you, it comes from the One that you represent as His slave, His servant. You are here doing not your will, His will. Your life is not your life, it's His life.

Now we often think of negative connotations in slavery and servanthood, but the background for this word would have come out of the Old Testament. When they translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek a couple hundred years before Christ, that Greek translation became the Old Testament that was used to a large extent by New Testament people, because Greek was the common language. And in the Old Testament this Greek word, doulos, was used of some of the greatest men of God. It was used of the prophets. For example, God referred to my servants, the prophets; my slaves, the prophets. Who were the prophets? What did they do? They were men who acted on God's behalf, carried out God's will in bringing God's message to the people.

Turn back to Genesis 26. And here the Lord appears to Isaac. Now we want to see what the Lord says to Isaac in verse 24. The Lord appeared to him that same night and said, I am the God of your father, Abraham. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham, my slave Abraham. But you see here that word does not carry any negative connotations, it's a name of honor. But Abraham was one who did the will of God, who belonged to God and carried out the will of God in his life. So we sometimes in our modern connotations think of being called a slave is something negative and derogatory. But to belong to the living God and be His slave, that's a title of honor. And here in the context God is going to honor His promises to Abraham. I'm going to do it for the sake of my servant Abraham. You see the honored position that he is having.

Come over to Numbers 12. And here referring to Moses. And again you'll notice the unique position of Moses. The context is Aaron and Miriam have opposed Moses. And God steps in to rebuke Aaron and Miriam for the sin of opposing Moses. He wants them to understand how unique Moses is. He says in verse 6, hear now My words. If there is a prophet among you I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I'll speak to him in a dream. So with the prophet, God wanted to give a message to a prophet, He used a vision or a dream. Not so with my servant, Moses. With him I speak mouth to mouth. In other words, face to face. Not some intermediary means, I appear to him in a dream. No, right there, mouth to mouth. I'm speaking right there to Moses. Openly, not in dark sayings. He beholds the form of the Lord. And so you see when He says not so, verse 7, with my servant, my slave Moses. That's not a put down of Moses, it is an honored position to be known as the servant or slave of God. He's the one who is doing My will. When you are opposing him, you are opposing Me. So that honored position.

Turn over to Joshua 24:29, now it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died. So again you see Joshua marked out this way. In II Samuel 7:25, David, called the servant or slave of the Lord. Isaiah 20:3, Isaiah is the servant of the Lord. The servant sections of the book of Isaiah refer to the Messiah as the servant or slave of the Lord, using this word.

So when you come back to Romans 1 and Paul says, Paul, the slave of Christ Jesus, the servant of Christ Jesus, that not only indicates that he is the one who is under the complete authority of Christ and carrying out the will of Christ, but he is in the line of the faithful servants who have gone before him. And so the message he is about to give better be listened to, better be obeyed because he is in the line of faithful servants, faithful slaves. I want to note here, this is not just unique to Paul. Everyone who becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, everyone who has trusted God through Old Testament history and His salvation became His servant. So it's a way of identifying us as believers today.

Turn over to I Corinthians 6. Here in the context of morality and immorality. Paul reminds them in verse 19, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. Now note this, and that you are not your own. For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. You see your life doesn't belong to you anymore, your body doesn't belong to you anymore. You are not your own, you have become enslaved to another. We'll get to this when we get to Romans 6, Paul will use this very analogy of having been enslaved to God. We are not our own. That's what a slave is, one who belongs to someone else. We have been purchased by God for Himself, we've been bought with a price. If you are not a slave of Christ Jesus, you have not been bought with a price. You are an unregenerate, unsaved, lost person. There is no such thing as people who have been saved but not enslaved to Christ and his Father because salvation involves purchase, to pay the price that the righteousness of God requires as the penalty for our sin. Now we belong to Him.

Look over in Ephesians 6. Here he uses the contrast between physical, earthly slaves and our slavery to Christ. So he addresses the physical slaves in verse 5, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh. So there were believers in the church at Ephesus who had masters, they were slaves. Their masters may have been cruel, unfair and so on. You obey them with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. That's what a slave of Christ does—he does the will of God from the heart. So just like in a business today, they are a slave. If his master is not around he might not know if he slacked off. And besides, he made me work harder than I should have to work anyway. So it's all right if I don't do everything he expected me to do. No, Paul says, you have to remember, you are enslaved to Christ first and foremost. And you do your service to Him from the heart. And so you represent Him here, and so you must be the best, most trustworthy, hardest working slave. Because really you are doing it out of obedience to Christ. In the sincerity of your heart as to Christ. It is genuine. Let's face it. Here we all sit, I'm up here, everybody is quiet. No one has lost his temper with his husband or wife next to him. As a general rule nobody pickpockets anyone, although we did have a computer stolen out of one of the rooms recently. Unbelievers infiltrate, to be sure. But generally we behave ourselves. Why? You don't think I'm going to do that in front of somebody, do you?

I remember a professor telling me when I was in Bible college. He said, what you are when you are alone is what you are. What he was saying is we put on a front for people, but when we're alone we reveal who we are. Right? That's why sin is done in the cover of darkness.

But here we have a sincere heart, a genuine heart. And that's our service to Christ. Colossians 3:23,24; I Peter 2:16. Back up to Galatians 1:10. Paul is talking about the gospel. We'll be in Galatians 1 in the context of our study of the gospel in Romans 1. But look at verse 10, but am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? Now note this, if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant, a slave, there is our word doulos, of Christ. There is the contrast. Now be careful, back in Ephesians 6 we saw if you have a physical master and are physically enslaved, you must serve him faithfully. But what Paul is talking about here in Galatians 1 is I don't adjust the message I have to be more pleasing to people. If I did that, then I wouldn't be a faithful servant to Christ. And you see the contrast. If I'm trying to please men I wouldn't be a bondservant of Christ. That slave is not primarily doing it for the approval of his physical master, he's doing it for the approval of his spiritual master. So our lives are controlled by that relationship and the passion of my life as a believer must be to please God in everything I do, wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, whatever the task. I am about the work of my master, it must be pleasing to Him. My life is not mine, it's His. We don't find Paul talking about whether he would enjoy taking six months on the Mediterranean, relaxing or going to Rome and prison. My life is His, I don't complain. If He sends me to Rome, He sends me to Rome. I'm not my own, I'm pleasing Him. That's true for all of us, so we read about Paul and we're privileged to be in the line of faithful servants as well. We have to remember that requires our total obedience.

Come back to Romans 1:1, he is called an apostle. So the paerticular realm we're all enslaved to Christ as believers, but the particular realm of his service will be as an apostle. He's a called apostle. I love the way that is put. That word to call, it will be used in Romans this way and we'll see it as we move along. It's often used as the effectual call that brings us to salvation. Here he connects it to his realm of service, an apostle. But I think the call to salvation and the call to service are inseparably joined together. Everyone who is called to God's salvation is also called to His service. Because what happens when you are called to salvation in Christ? You place your faith in Him, you've been bought with a price. Now you are no longer your own. Inherent in that call to God's salvation is the call now to be His slave, serve Him with your entire being.

Come back to Acts 9. You know this is foundational matters, but you understand people sit in our churches and they think that because at one time in their lives they prayed a prayer and said they trusted Christ, and they go on and live like the world. And they put a facade on. But we say wait a minute, that's not the salvation, that's not the true effectual call that results in the power of God that brings salvation and transforms a person and makes him new. You understand the change that takes place. In Acts 9 the Lord has appeared to Paul, Saul he was called there, in the first part of Acts. Then Ananias is sent as God's representative and God's spokesman to restore Paul's sight, to have him call upon the name of the Lord and to be baptized. So Ananias says, I know about Saul, he's a persecutor of the church. And then God tells Ananias, verse 15, but the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. We'll talk about the doctrine of election in Romans. He's a chosen instrument. You see already inherent in this, in his salvation is his service. A chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel. I'll show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake. Chapter 16 Paul will elaborate on the fact that his apostleship was to the Gentiles. Right here in the context of his call to salvation is his call to serve as an apostle.

When you come over to Acts 22 Paul gives his testimony before the Jews and in verse 14, here is what God told me, Paul says. The God of our fathers has appointed you to know this. This is the message that God gave to him. And to see the righteous One and hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. This is the message Ananias brought to Saul. You are privileged to come to know Christ and now to serve Him.

In Acts 26:16-17 Paul gives his testimony before Herod and it's the same pattern. Verse 16, Christ appeared to Saul for what reason? To appoint you a minister and a witness, to carry the gospel as His apostle. I mean, this is inherent in it. Paul was an apostle, that was a unique gift. It's one of the gifts of the Spirit. Paul will be used of God to write a letter to the Corinthians, and in that letter he'll talk about spiritual gifts. We'll get to it in Romans 12. One of the spiritual gifts is apostleship. We know from Corinthians in particular that when you become a believer in Christ and you receive the Holy Spirit, with that you receive a gift, a spiritual enablement to serve God and Christ, as a member of the body of Christ. This means every single one of us has been gifted and enabled. Paul was an apostle, there are not apostles today in spite of what some false teachers teach. There are no apostle today, Paul was the last of the apostles, personally appointed by Christ. He saw Christ with his own eyes after Christ's resurrection from the dead, according to I Corinthians 9:1. I Corinthians 15:8 Paul says, the last appearance was to me. That was a unique appearance, one untimely born, he referred to it. An apostle had the ability to perform miracles, II Corinthians 12:12 Paul says, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all signs and wonders and miracles. He demonstrated he was an apostle.

Hebrews 2:3-4, the writer to the Hebrews said, those who receive the Word of God directly from Him had their message validated by signs, wonders and miracles. We are now, according to Ephesians 2:20, building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We're going to study the book of Romans, that was a message given from God through the Apostle Paul. One of the book in my library published in recent years and it is interviews with all different pastors who claim to also have the gift of apostleship. And so they not only get messages through the Word of God, God speaks directly to them. Now we have a problem, now we have the Word of God being added to by men and those are false apostles as Paul had to deal with. But we all have gifts and can serve.

Come back to Romans 1. He's a called apostle, he's set apart for the gospel of God. You see how he gets more specific. His name is Paul, I'm a servant or a slave of Christ Jesus and in the line of those who are faithfully carrying out the work that God has given to me as His slave. And all of us as believers are in that category.

Now he narrows down to what his particular area of service is—a called apostle with unique authority from God to bring a message to the church at Rome. And in specific the focal point of my apostleship is giving out the gospel, set apart for the gospel of God. And then he'll elaborate down in verse 5 for example, he'll mention particularly to bring the gospel to Gentiles. So I'm set apart for my service.

In Galatians 1:15 Paul says he was set apart from his mother's womb. That's the same as Jeremiah is told in Jeremiah 1, that it was from the womb God called him and appointed him to be a prophet to the nation. So Paul in Galatians 1 says he was called. In Ephesians 1 he tells us that all the elect in effect have been called by God from before their birth. Then in the sovereign plan of God that plan is carried out. We'll see that as we move along in Romans, so don't get lost in election. Let's work through Romans.

A few things to remind you of. Paul experienced a supernatural life transforming conversion. You know it's the same conversion you and I experience through faith in Christ. I have to remind myself, I need someone like Paul. There were unique circumstances around his conversion, but you know what? He was saved the same way you and I are—being confronted with the message of the living Christ and believing in Him. That's what transforms a life and that salvation is just as powerful and just as real in my life and your life as it was in Paul's life. God doesn't have two kinds of salvation. We'll get to that in Romans also at the end of Romans 3. There is only one God, there is only one way to salvation. And that salvation that transformed Paul and made him totally new, that's the same powerful salvation that transforms every single believer and makes them new. God does not do half a work in anybody's life. His salvation is always complete.

That salvation brings with it a new relationship, we are now the servants or slaves of Christ Jesus. My life is no longer my life, my plans are no longer my plans. I belong to Him and what greater honor could I desire. But you understand what that means. This life is no longer mine, your life is no longer yours. It doesn't matter what you want, it matters what He wants; doesn't matter what I like, it matters what He likes; doesn't matter what pleases me, it matters what pleases Him; doesn't matter what pleases other people, it matters what pleases Him. I clear out the clutter of my life when I allow the simplicity of the beauty of God's gospel to get ahold of me, and I understand I am His slave. That's what life is about for me. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, one thing does not change—I am a slave of Jesus Christ. I am not my own. I must please Him.

Paul's area of ministry was as an apostle, our areas of ministry are different but every one of us has an area of ministry. We call it the spiritual gifts. And we need to be about passionately serving Him just as Paul did. He is consumed to carry out the responsibility God had placed upon him. And that ought to characterize us. What's the passion of our lives? What do people around you think you are passionate about? I take it that it ought to be my relationship with Christ. That doesn't mean I can't do other things, but everything I do is done in that context. That's why there are some things I cannot do, I must not do, because they would not be pleasing to the One whom I serve.

What a privilege, what a great letter. Paul reminds us first of all who he is as God's representative bringing God's Word to us. Now he'll turn to elaborate on that gospel. He is set apart for the gospel, and you'll note the next verse begins with the word, which He promised. And then we're going to have this great elaboration of the gospel down through verse 7. That will be our privilege to look at next time.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the awesome power of your Word. We open a book, but it's alive; there are words on a page, but they are living words; they are words that impact a life in a way that no other words can or ever could or ever will. They are your words, they are like a sword that pierces into the innermost recesses of our lives, like a fire, like a hammer. And Lord, your Word is always effective. It never is static, it is never anything other than powerful, it always is effective. Lord, as we come to this portion of your Word and are privileged to study it together, should Christ tarry, may your Spirit take it and carry it to each and every one of us, in our hearts and in our minds. May we fear coming to this book and not having a heart of faith, a readiness to believe, a readiness to obey. Take this truth and use it in our lives, even as we serve you today. We pray in Christ's name, amen.