Grace And Apostleship | Romans 1 | Lesson 3

thank you brother down Thank You brother Doug thank you brother Levi thank you to all of our musicians you ought to go to a church where they're trying to get started struggling along have no one to play the music such a blessing to have so many talented people here that willing to use those talents for the Lord it's just there's a really big help it really really really is well right Romans chapter number one book of Romans chapter number one this this chapter lays out as follows here's a broad outline apostolic introduction verses 1 through 7 personal greetings verses 8 through 15 the theme of the Epistle verses 16 and 17 why man is in danger verses 18 to 20 the course of sin verses 21 to 32 you have to get people lost or you can't get them saved and the people that get saved the people that when you witness to them they will acknowledge they're unsaved condition they're lost condition long as somebody's arguing they're all right with God or the common thing nothing geez I'm good I'm good I'm good I'm good which flies right in the face of the Bible it says there's none that doeth good no not one but that's what they'll tell you Harrison he's got a fuller outline he says introduction Paul in his gospel verses one day Paul a servant apostle be the gospel he represents it's sources from God verse one it's channel through the prophets verse two its contents concerning his son verses three and four its objects for all nations verses five and six its subjects to All Saints let's read these seven verses we'll never get that far tonight or this month Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated unto 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 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 call to 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 so let's get first things first Paul that's how it begins Paul we write letters in a crazy way well I don't know if anybody writes letters anymore but when people wrote letters weird in a crazy way we say dear Blake and there's page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 and at the bottom sincerely brother James it'sh it seems kind of strange to have to read the whole letter find out who wrote it to you now back in Bible times people are smarter than that they right up front said Paul Paul here and then he would say what he had to say put her out there in the front in you've got this in as rrah thus say a Cyrus king of Persia and later in ezra four and seven art exerts ease King of Kings unto Ezra the priest those common back in Bible times for the writing to identify himself writer that if I'm self right up at the start right up front and this letter is written by Paul this is the original neh the original name of the vessel through whom God gave us Romans was Saul he's called Saul in acts 758 acts 8:1 acts 9 1 we know that his name was changed by acts 13 verse number nine we're not told why but we could guess following the adult Sunday School lesson this morning he is being sent to the Gentiles to carry the Gospel message throughout his assignment was the Roman Empire and so Saul is a Hebrew name Paul is a Roman name and there's the Bible doesn't say that's why he changed the name but the place where it first appears as Paul would make you to think that perhaps it was for ministry purposes to allow more freedom of movement and a better reception among the Gentiles to whom he was sent Jews and early Christians often had two names as many do today there are names that are similar in sound and identical in meeting Silas and Sylvanus Silas found 13 times in Acts and Silvanus four times in the epistles same person Lucas and Luke anus Colossians 4:14 secondary 4:11 Philemon 1:24 same person similar sound different meanings then there are names that are similar in sound are those those are similar the same meaning similar in sound with a different meaning Jesus meaning Jehovah saves and justice Colossians 4:11 same person but you can understand why a saved man in the early church wouldn't want to be called Jesus that'd be that'd be really awkward and then sullen Paul then there are those that are different and sound but identical in meaning Cephas a Hebrew named Peter a Greek name same person and then there's people that have two names different both in sound and meaning Jacob and Israel Simon and Peter Bartholomew and Nathanael John and Mark Simon and Niger and barsabbas and justice how many of you have two names a first name and a and we'd call it a middle name see it's not that there's no problem in the Bible and if we called you by one how many haven't you all known somebody and you find out after years years I was I was checking in the room up in Grundy Virginia and and they didn't have my name and I said what is it under Dean powers and the woman working there said you mean Rodney and so I told him I got to church I said that's Adina I never I've never heard you called Rodney before he said I hope you never do again I don't it's odd isn't it how just and and I said what why they call you Dean when your first name was Rodney he said I don't know why if they wanted me to be Dean they didn't call me Dean Rodney instead of Rodney but anyway that's just all kind of people have two names people come across that stuff in a contradiction in the Bible really not a contradiction in the Bible everyone's got two or three names and then the names that people call you that aren't aren't your names now the church at Rome is not likely to have been founded by an apostle for in that case Paul would neither have addressed it by letter nor a visited in person here's the verse we mentioned the other night on Thursday night Romans 15 20 yes so have I strived to preach the gospel not where Christ was named lest I should build upon another man's foundation so there's there's no indication as we studied that Peter started this church and there's no indication and Paul started this church it does seem to be the the fruit and the growth of those people got saved there on the day of Pentecost okay here's what I want to look at this evening Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle then verse number five by whom we have received Grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith and they like the things that often accompany having a title whether real or imagined and and you would suspect that in Christian circles for one to be able to claim the title of apostle would be very significant and it was and very important and it was and yet if you were to meet someone who wanted to be known as an apostle or who coveted and desired that title you would find someone who would never ever be qualified to bear that designation the man who may have been the greatest of the apostles put that a secondary matter and he identified himself as a servant a servant of God and a servant of man and rather than seeking to be an apostle he busied himself serving God and serving man and as a result he was called to be an apostle twice in one day I guess some of you get the same message people want to be called to preach they don't want to do what a preacher has to do when he's not preaching people want to be called to some field of service or people want to be given some designated position in a church our churches across the America I don't know about the rest of the world our churches across America are filled with men who are called deacons and they sit as deacons and they exercise themselves in the business matters of the church as deacons and and yet the Bible is very very clear on the consistent life that must be lived before one is ever considered for that office we have far more deacons in America's Baptist churches than we do men who are actually doing the work that is required before one can bear that title we have men that I really I really I have I try to keep all of this out of my heart I try to keep all of this out of my thoughts I'm not complaining I I I love the life that God has given me to live but with Church three times a week and with Bible School and with traveling to 3540 churches a year and with a radio program five days a week and I make half what the pastor's in this town make who preached one 15-minute sermon on Sunday morning and do nothing else the rest of the week know what that is those are people who want the office and want the title and want the career but they don't want to be a servant to God or to lost people or to save people Paul was the great man that he was not because he had a title he was great man that he was because he had a heart and a mind that a will not just to work but to work for others not just the work to make a name for himself but to work to spread the name of Jesus Christ then notice also in in the fifth verse again the order by whom we have received Grace and Apostleship he considered it more important to be a recipient of God's grace than to be designated as God's apostle and the reason for that is is unfolded as you read all of the letters that he wrote for example he said in one place though the more I love you the less I be loved yet will I love you well you can be an apostle and serve a church like the church at Corinth and they don't respond properly and they don't act properly and you can you can end up hating them you can end up haughty and proud as though you're superior to them you can end up discouraged and quitting because of them so grace at Corinth was more important than apostolic ministry he poured his life into the church at Galatia and taught them Jew Gentile doesn't matter anymore were one in Christ Jesus and when he left town they started setting up separate areas in the fellowship hall and wouldn't eat with each other we're the spiritual people you're the unspiritual people we talk to you but we don't talk to you and it just tore Paul's heart on he went back there and started with Peter and he read him all the riot act and then he said but you have not injured me at all in other words you're wrong you hurt me I gotta straighten this out I hope you'll let me straighten it out but God gave me grace first and made me an apostle second so I'm not going to break fellowship with you how many how many satyrs Saturdays can you go out giving up your day off and talk to parents or step parents or guardians or whoever else is living there and get permission to pick up the child on the bus routes Sunday morning and how many times can you get up early Sunday morning and go to the house and find out the child is not ready and the child is not going if all you are is a bus worker but you don't have grace you're gonna be done with that real quick let's go out and preach on the street and see some people get saved wouldn't that be nice if you're going to go out there to be a street preacher so you can stand up in church and people say there's the street preacher you better have grace first because without grace whatever you're trying to do for God it's going to come to a stop everybody stands at that altar and watches that bride walk down the aisle fully intending to be the greatest husband ever lived and she's fully intending to show everybody what a great wife she's going to be you better be after more than being a husband being a wife you better have some grace and so the Holy Spirit puts grace before Apostleship he puts service before Apostleship and then notice in the fifth verse my whom we've received Grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name he didn't get Grace and he wasn't made an apostle so he could build churches it was so he could go places and obey God and it wasn't so he could pastor and teach lessons and win souls it was so people could see someone obeying God now again this came up this morning that's alright some of you were in your classes and some of you were in your beds and some of you were other places it's okay there are men who know the Scriptures better than we do who left church never to return this month there are men who can teach a better Sunday School lesson you can who can preach a better sermon than you can who have won more souls to Christ than you will who somewhere in this world left their wife this week and ran off with a woman to whom they're not married it won't do you any good to be an apostle or a preacher or a pastor or a missionary or a soul winner if you are not an obedient servant of God because everything you built by your talent and ability you will destroy by your disobedience the people you wonder the lord how they gonna go on for jesus after you run off into sin the church that you built by your great talent what's going to happen to it now the rest of the reputation of Christ in that community listen there is there is something more important than your up to do something for God and even your opportunity to do something for God and that is you being obedient to the faith and Paul's a servant before he's an apostle paul has grace before he's an apostle and he recognizes that what his number one job is wherever he goes is to obey Jesus Christ every church that's been in existence for any length of time has had men in it who knew the Bible inside and out and men in it who could take that Bible and put something together and present that Bible and and give people something from the Bible but over time their life became such that no one wanted to hear anything they had to say what's more important your knowledge or your attitude what's more important what you can tell people are loving those people no one's throwing out the truth of Scripture but people act like obedience is not part of the truth of Scripture as long as the guy can get up there and explain the Trinity as long as it can get up there and prove the virgin birth it doesn't matter that is a jerk that's not Bible if you're preaching for you if you're preaching for a salary if you're preaching for a paycheck if you're preaching for recognition you got it backwards he's a servant then he's called to be an apostle he's a servant first of all verse one of Jesus Christ the first words after he believed the first words out of this man's mouth after he believed were Lord what will thou have me do not what should I study not what should I learn not what doctrine should I master first what wilt thou have me to do how can I serve you we can teach you truth in Bible School we can't make you servants we can teach you the facts about the Bible we can't make you care about anyone but yourself there's something in this man's heart the moment he got saved he is ready he is willing to serve the Lord what wilt thou have me to do it was this surrender of self that enabled him to fill his apostolic calling and this is Christian character Jesus Christ is God Jesus Christ is the creator of the heavens and the earth yet he humbled himself and became a servant and he laid down his life for us whatever room he entered he was the best man in the room it didn't cause him to walk out of the room he ministered the Apostle Paul followed that example he became a servant to the church this Christ likeness is in evidence in his life say it again we don't need apostles who are not servants but we could use plenty of servants who are not apostles Jesus said look at John 15 John 15 this is not contradictory what we're about to see it gives us the true understanding of the matter John 15 verse 14 you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you this megachurch Jesus who doesn't care how you live he's no more real than Santa Claus somebody explain to me why God gave us a Bible if he didn't care what you do or how you live so strange so strange this one fella I asked you me he just decided no all I'm gonna preach is love all I'm gonna preach is grace no Commandments no rules no regulations and I just asked him that he's going to apply that to it raising his children and he couldn't answer because he knew if he said yes everybody you know that's crazy nobody's gonna say to their children that they're raising it's all grace I just love you do whatever you want yeah so you wouldn't do that with your children but you've invented a God who would do that with his children and you wouldn't do that with your children because you know how it would harm them yeah but you think if you think God's gonna do that with his children and it's not gonna hurt anything people are weird man they're really weird they they try to make God their own image alright that's so verse 15 henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth but I've called you friends for all things that I heard my father I've made known unto you now how can how can Jesus say I'm not gonna call you servants and yet Paul said I'm a servant of Jesus Christ in fact Peter said it James said it Jude said it John said it they all called themselves servants here's why this is great this is a blessing a slave is captive a slave has no option you will serve me I own you but Jesus Christ said I don't call you servants it's up to you to be a servant you don't have to be here tonight and I know the preaching I heard it roused young Christian but you probably if you're a young Christian you probably listen that kind of preaching because it's exciting it's stimulating I bless God I'll tell you one of you have you don't serve God you don't give God your ties you go break your arm you don't serve God he's gonna get one way or another he's gonna get your attention probably not probably not God's not walking around the baseball bat you know tapping a palm his hand with it writing to break your kneecaps if you don't put 20 bucks in the plate he said I'm gonna call you serve I'm gonna call your friends when I tell I'm gonna tell you my whole plan from start to end I'm gonna tell you my program my purpose my gospel I'll give you the whole thing and if you want to serve me you're welcome to do so but I'm not gonna make you you want to get busy for the Lord you can you want to stop what you're doing for the Lord and just kind of veg out till the rapture you can he's not gonna make you but these men these men they decided to make them solve servants of Jesus Christ and God sure put them to work look in mark chapter 10 mark chapter 10 what many a minister in our generation Minister s fails to understand is that serving God cannot mean just serving God so I want to serve the Lord so I'm going to get my own little secret private ministry my backwoods basement underground ministry this isn't China you don't have to go underground mark 10 42 well no let's go let's go verse some this is bizarre 35 James and John the sons of Zebedee come unto him saying master we would that thou should us do for us whatsoever we shall desire it doesn't that sound like a modern prayer meeting that's pretty much it right and he said to them what would she that I should do for do for you now dad mom husband that's really smart when my wife when she says she's a dear sweet honey darling wonderful husband we and all those other things that she says before she asked us she said will you do something for me I always say that depends on what it is come on she's gonna say shoot yourself I don't want to give him my word you know something come to Jesus and he said what do you want he didn't say yes he said I don't know for I commit tell me what she got in mind it's almost like he didn't know everything ahead of time verse 37 they said unto Him grant unto us that we may sit one on my right hand and the other on my left hand in thy glory now how you read that is gonna depend upon your your personality your outlook on life that's either two people who want to be as close to Jesus as they could forever are two people who thought it ought to be them not somebody else you can decide but jesus said to them II know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with which would seem to indicate that getting to heaven is all of grace but your status there is entirely up to you they said no we only right next to you and your glory and Lord says well you ready to do some things ready to earn it no that's what it looks like in it all right and they say unto Him we can modern Bibles say yes we can and Jesus said to them ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of and with the baptism I'm baptized withal so you be baptized they're gonna die for the faith but to sit on my right hand on my left hand is not mine to give but it should be given to them for whom it is prepared and when the ten heard it they began to be much displeased with James and John because they deserve it you know whenever somebody gets thinking they're better than somebody else even with Jesus right there it messes up the fellowship this does but Jesus called them to him and saith unto them you know you know that they which are accounted to rule over the gentiles exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them but it shall but so shall it not be among you but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all now here's what just wants to see this when Paul says Paul a servant of Jesus Christ that's not just serving jesus christ that's serving all in order to serve Jesus Christ you had all kinds of people be happy to serve Jesus they just don't want to serve you may be happy to do something for the Lord but they don't do anything for their church for their pastor for their neighbor and jesus said I how do you separate me from my body if every same person is one and they're in Christ Jesus you can't say I love Jesus I just don't like those people they are you know bit like we're standing the lobby you walk up and say brother James I really like you I think you're great you turn to my wife and slap her in the face how appropriate is that Wow appropriate come to church and sing songs about how much you love the bridegroom and then all the way home talk bad about the bride that don't work so jesus said if you if you want to be great if you want to be a minister like I'm a minister well look he's he for a 45 for even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many so ministry in the Bible is surfing others which others all its laying down your life for others which others all that's what you do and the extent to which you say well I'm not going to do that because it interferes with me and I'm not gonna do that acts interferes with me is the extent to which I am NOT ministering or serving and it's ok you don't have to you're not you're not forced to but if you want to be chief if you want to be honored if you want to be as close to that throne as you can be when you get up there forever expand your field of service 2nd Corinthians 4 second thien's 4 second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5 for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake see ever see that they're not there serving Jesus when they're serving others for Jesus 1st Corinthians chapter 9 1st Corinthians chapter 9 so I want to be a soul winner I want to preach to people I want to have a church I want it okay that nothing wrong with any of those things verse 18 for what is my reward then verily when I preach the gospel I may make the gospel of Christ without charge that I abused not my power in the gospel for though I be free from all men see there he's not a slave I am free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more see how listen the Bible if you get something right in the Bible it'll be right everywhere in the Bible it won't break down anywhere along the way you said I'm free I am free I don't have to serve you I'm not your servant but I voluntarily made myself your servant so I could reach you if you're lost with the gospel so I could reach you if you're saved with a deeper level of obedience to Jesus Christ now if you're unsaved you should come to church so we can reach you if you're if you're a babe in Christ if you're just getting started you should come to church so we can minister to you but as soon as you are old enough to leave the spiritual nursery you should not come here to get ministered to you should come here to involve yourself in the cares and the burdens of others and in reaching souls for Jesus Christ it's okay for a baby to just lay in the crib and cry for somebody to come get me it's okay for the toddler just reach up its hands it's okay to sit there nut chair and let somebody put the put the applesauce in your mouth but if you're still doing that at 15 something's messed up you're sitting there playing on your phone while your mom vacuums all around you you're messed up sitting there playing video games while you're your family's you know cleaning the yard or whatever it is something wrong you you messed up you messed up you gonna write it welfare train your whole life you don't learn better and we turn up our nose at that in the world we say something wrong with that kid there's something wrong with that man look at those people you know they're do nothing sit around wait for their their government check every month we rightly look look at that say something wrong with that we don't think anything that people been saved 5 10 15 years and they sit in church and they sit in church and they say give me a sermon give me a song give me another sermon give me another song won't you do something she pick up a vacuum cleaner once you pick up a lawnmower why don't you pick up some gospel tracts will feed you again and clean you up again you get about 98 you get the other end will will will pick up you know you're gonna end you you got to go out the way you came in but in the middle you ought to do something little death to know you don't you're not a slave but we should make ourselves servants of others and of all people here yesterday for hours cleaning this building people there Friday for hours cleaning the outside but the Sam gets here listen it it does truth now he don't want me telling you this but I'm gonna tell you this we get a big rain this this ground out here is full of earthworms it just is we get a big rain they come out of the grass they get on the sidewalks and the sidewalks get hot when the Sun comes back out and so they get up under here under the front porch people walkin look at all the worms square squares bunch of worms squish squish and birth Sam 8086 87 years old comes here at seven o'clock Sunday mornin and gets a bucket of water and soap and gets on his hands and knees and scrubs those worms off the ground that people stepped on walking in the church a day before for what for you for Jesus well that's not a big deal okay don't do it for the next 12 times it rains look like one of those morning's in Egypt out there you know what that is that's that's somebody not looking at something saying somebody ought to clean that that's a person looking at that was saying why don't I clean it so someone else doesn't have to everybody wants to preach you gonna go from here and start a church you go go from here and be a missionary who's gonna clean your building who's gonna carry out your trash who's gonna fix stuff when it gets broken there ain't nobody there but you do you want to preach go to the rescue mission you want to preach go to the nursing home you want to get in the ministry you better learn to minister serve do stuff praise the Lord there's a lot to do it's not all preaching and without it the preaching wouldn't get very far okay he's a servant of Jesus Christ come to Joshua chapter 1 Joshua chapter 1 this world is a big place there's a lot going on out in this world and there's enough people you can have a TV channel for just about anything you can make money doing just about anything somebody somebody is a big deal somewhere because they are the curling champion of the Olympics they can they can brush that ice in front of that lopsided bowling ball what's it called I don't even know what it's called let's think I don't know let's go anywhere you don't care thing about that some of you don't a couple of you from Minnesota and other places where you actually have fun on ice somebody somewhere in this world is the is recognized there in the water skiing Hall of Fame there's such a thing oh yeah there is there's a waterskiing Hall of Fame to which I've never been and will never go and you probably never been there either but somebody has enough people have that there's a water-ski and all of it what I want to say it you could be the MVP of the National Football League or you could win the gossip of the year at the hair stylist convention I don't I don't know you help yourself you get an award for doing more for aids than any other AIDS activists has ever done I would like to have God call me his servant that would mean more to me than any of those titles now I could say everybody's got something they they wish they could be or they wish they could do would it really be nice to get to the end of your life and have God say well done thou good and faithful servant in a place where that matters more than anything else that wouldn't mean much to be called a servant of God by God and at a brewery that there wouldn't be a lot of people there to care about that but you get to a place where all the honor and all the glory is being given the Lord and the Lord calls you a good and faithful servant that would be pretty pretty special for a long time Joshua 1 verse 1 now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of nun Moses Minister saying that's pretty good that man lived 120 years never won the pole vault never won the Daytona 500 never won the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island there's a lot of things that man never did in his life but when it was all over look at that the servant of the Lord that's permanent that's eternal that's forever don't you know that count more for the songwriter said I will cling to the old rugged rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it some day for a crown the only said I would rather I would rather live my life laying down my life taking up my cross for Jesus Christ then collect trophies for my kids to give to the Goodwill store when I'm dead Moses servant of the Lord always wanted a trophy man as a kid you don't believe this when I was a kid playing sports if you weren't any good you didn't play you just sat on the bench and watch the good kids play maybe said coach with that one coach he was he was he was Rudy he was a jerk he's mean I said yeah I think it was a jolly baseball coach I didn't like baseball anyway because they'd always put the kid that could throw the ball the hardest on the pitcher's mound but he didn't know where it was going and that would hit you and it would hurt I don't like I like baseball but anyway this code I say I said coach when do I get to play and he said when you get good I had a basketball coach I think it's out on 4th 5th grade something like that then one of these city leagues that I basketball coach I said when you go put me and he said maybe next year I remember that stuff man it it's it scars you so anyway I've always wanted to trophy and every team I was on was always bad you're really bad you can't get in the game of your team's bad and so I got the junior high school on a basketball team and I think we went like 4 and 12 something like that and came over here to play DeLand our tallest guy was 6 1 and white and DeLand had about five or six guys you know six four six five who can you know black they could jump they could run everything else so our coach said hold the ball and we just we just dribble across half court line just stand there and dribble to what I've come out there to try to take it we throw nothing he just then we lost like 13 to 12 or something like yeah they were cussing us like crazy throw the shoot the ball man how am I gonna shoot the ball you're two feet taller than I anyway so I've never run a good team I just thought I just always wanted trophy I'd friends and had trophies I go there house they have a trophy in the house and I just wanted a trophy I'm telling you I just I wanted once won one so bad and never did get one but one day one day I might get something from the Lord because I don't think the team I'm on now is all that bad I think I wanna I think I'm on a really good team right now might just be a participation trophy but I'm I'm gonna try and get one from from the Lord anyway sorry about that sad story Nehemiah chapter Nehemiah chapter but we went from New Smyrna to Evans High School in Orlando I was in the tenth grade and Darryl Dawkins was a senior how many remember Darryl Dawkins chocolate thunder he was six nine and close to 300 pounds in high school and all muscle and we tried to warm up for the game but we were just standing there looking at it was like nobody nobody nobody ever seen him anybody that that big in their life you know and so I was 10th grade I was starting on the team and the coach said I don't know what we're gonna do I said put me on him stopping up there I told that guys that I got you man you you are finished he put his hand down on my head you know he's laughing at me so they go down there and set up on their offense and I'd stand on his foot he say get off my foot my leg I said yeah you're going anywhere I got you I gotta reach back I grab me I gotta have shorts one foot on his foot and there every Kim over he said you can't do that I said what do you want me to do man do something he's at referee he said he said you don't let him go I let him push you I'll let him go that's a big man six nine and by Oh big man hey man all right anyway I'd had nothing to do with anything that matters at all hadn't even thought of that in years I forgot all about that all right verse 6 let thine ear now be attentive and 9 eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel thy servants confess the sins the children of Israel which we have sinned against the both on my father's house have sinned now there's a man and he's going to God on the grounds of service and he's going to God and he's surfing God by serving his nation by praying for his nation so he's doing he's serving his brethren he's serving his sisters by praying for them not for himself for them he's and he says Lord I'm your servant Psalm 132 Psalm 132 Psalm 1 3 2 verse number 10 for thy servant David's sake turned on away the face of thine anointed all right thigh servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed and then go back to Romans 1:1 and Romans 1/5 Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle verse 5 by whom we have received Grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations here's why we want the Grace and here's why we want the obedience when I tell you that Moses was a servant of the Lord there is much in that man's life to occupy your thoughts great man great life great ministry when I tell you that Nehemiah was a servant of the Lord especially if you were with us a year or so ago we studied that book in the Bible there's plenty to come into your mind great man great service great work for God if you know anything about the Bible when I read David the Lord's servant there's something inside of us that that can't help but think after what he did preacher even you mean even with that Bathsheba thing you know what he did for his sheep he took on a lion and a bear and for his nation he took on Goliath his last name was Dawkins Goliath Dawkins for him for his people he took on Goliath for his people he repeatedly repeatedly led battles against the Philistines wrote all those songs let all that worship great man great life great service but how its marred in our memory how it's marred in the Bible record by the time that he was not obedient do you suppose that Paul would be remembered differently and spoken about differently do you suppose his letters would have the same credibility had there been a chapter about Paul and some other Bathsheba do you do you know you know how men criticize Romans you know how men criticize Ephesians you know how men criticize Thessalonians recorded by a man with a stellar record what would they say about our New Testament if Paul had fallen by the wayside into sin it's a blessing to go everywhere I go and brag about the number of faithful dedicated hard-working people we have in this church it's a blessing it's a blessing to go and just talk about how for the most part we have such unity and harmony amongst ourselves how how little we have of strife and division it's a joy would not the devil glory if he could just get me to ruin my testimony would he not would he not rejoice if we could just have some nasty scandal right in the midst of our congregation wouldn't the devil love that would it make all the things we've preached a lie of course not would it make all the things that we have done vanish away of course not but would it not be far better for the cause of Jesus Christ if instead of patting ourselves on the back for being apostles we could make certain that the grace of God was keeping us obedient wouldn't you rather finish a Paul type servant than a David type servant I want to start well I want to run well I want to finish well I want you to start well and run well and finish well don't try to be a preacher try to be a servant don't try to fill some office try to be a servant don't don't measure your effectiveness or your worth by what you do measure it by your gracious obedience that's quite the challenge if you go door knocking you talk to enough people knock on enough doors I don't know that you'll never have a situation like this somebody opens the door we're here from such-and-such Church we're here to talk to you about Jesus Christ just won't know if you're saved or not saved I wonder how long you'd have to do that before somebody says I don't go to church anymore because I know a pastor who went post-trib I don't go to church anymore because I know I know a pastor once and he got all messed up on something he talked you can't hardly do that for one week and not meet somebody it says I used to go to church but my pastor was immoral I used to go to church my pastor was a thief I used to go to church my pastor was a lazy man you want to be treated like a king what ruins the testimony of Jesus Christ is not error in things that we teach most people don't have the slightest idea what we're supposed to teach but even the worst sinner in town knows if you call yourself a Christian you're supposed to live a certain way and what hurts the testimony of Jesus Christ is people who are not servants and people who are not graciously obedient so let's let's get this settled this evening I don't I don't need to be an apostle but I want to be a servant and I don't just want to serve five people I want to serve all people and I don't just want to serve God I want to be obedient to God while I'm serving him for the testimony of Jesus Christ man we don't get anything else out of the whole book of Romans that would be worth getting that be worth getting let's pray father help me please please help me volunteer my life to your service to see that that service involves putting others ahead of myself father I pray that you'd help me to avail myself of your grace so that where I where I go I am obedient to you and I pray father that this would truly be the prayer of every heart here tonight we ask this in Jesus name and amen amen now stand no song brother but dogs no please play something there brother and we'll just spend a little time in prayer about this matter

Channel: James W. Knox Sermons

Views: 3,300

Rating: 4.9529409 out of 5

Keywords: Romans, Romans 1, Romans 1:1, Bible, Truth, Paul, Grace And Service Before Apostleship, Bible Lessons, Romans Bible Study, apostleship, Grace in the Bible, Biblical Grace, James Knox Preaching, James Knox Sermons

Id: 8NV4CsTTb-0

Length: 59min 44sec (3584 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 20 2017