Introduction
Its so wonderful to be here and see everyone out again. I am so glad Bro Jesse is feeling better, we really missed you. But lets keep him in prayer that God will continue to strengthen him. I received greetings again this week from the brothers in the other churches, and I pass those along to you all. And if any of the brothers are listening to this later on, we greet you in Jesus name.
I had a really kind note from Brother Anfines over in Norway
Bro. Solomon in Israel and Bro. Humes in North Carolina
They all passed along their greetings to us
I have also been having some good conversations with our brothers and sisters up in Canada
I am so thankful there are so many who are supporting us in this little mission here
We are just going to keep pressing on
I am so glad that people everywhere are waking up to the truth of the gospel
I remember when Bro Jesse read that scripture that
If we have forsaken houses and lands and friends and family for Christ’s sake, God would give us back 100 fold in this life
And I am so thankful that we have found that to be true
We are not walking this path alone, Jesus is with us, and we have lots of friends
I thank God for that
Jesus said my sheep hear my voice.
And Jesus is calling today to all those who are listening online, all of us sitting here
I know I have been surprised with the numbers who are watching online
Its certainly a lot more than are sitting here with us
So I want to make sure I greet all those listening online
I hope you hear something that will be a help to you and will strengthen your walk with Christ
My hope and prayer for you all is that you be established firmly in the peace and safety that can be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ
The arms of Jesus is a safe place
And he is enough
He is enough to save you
He is enough to keep you
He is enough to keep me
He is our peace
And I am so thankful that I can live a life of peace
And it is all because of Jesus Christ
I know as we all hold to God’s unchanging hand, he is going to see us through
When the storms comes, whatever is battered to the ground was not of God
But what stands firm on the foundation, those things built upon Jesus Christ
They will stand
And when we hold to those things, we will be carried through the storm
Praise the Lord
I know I have been so blessed this past week, as I have had an opportunity to listen to some of my brothers recent messages
Bro. Jesse has a wonderful series on the book of Malaci he has been publishing
And Bro Jordon, he has just been putting out one wonderful messages too
And if you haven’t already listened, and you are looking for something to feed your souls, I would recommend checking out those messages
Turn to Romans chapter 1 with me, and I will read our passage of scripture which is the text of my message today
Romans 1
King James Version
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
7 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.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Lord God, we thank you once again for the privilege we have to know you, and for the privilege to gather together, to worship you, and to hear the truth of the gospel preached from the scripture.
Lord as we begin this study today, I pray that you will bless it, cause it bring forth fruit in our lives.
We look to you to do that thing that only you can do.
Lord, though I stand here and speak as a mortal man, yet you are able to speak to our hearts.
You are able to take your truth and put into our hearts an understanding by your spirit.
Lord I commit this all to you, and ask you to have your perfect way in Jesus name, amen.
The Book of Romans
It has been in my heart for some time to take sermons on several different topics, but I was not really sure just how I would go about approaching them.
The past few years, I have really made a switch to more to a form of expository preaching
When I read the bible, I see that is the way Jesus taught
And I have found it to be a very beneficial way to minister, for a variety of reasons
And so as I prayed about where to go, to maybe be able to go across the topics that were in my heart
I realized the most all of those topics I felt to speak on were in the Book of Romans.
And as I sat down this past week and just started to read the book of Romans, I love it so much.
There is so much wonderful things in this book that I think will really help us to look at.
I am not sure how long it will take, but Lord willing, I am going to work my way through the book of Romans.
It is a book that will lay our faith on a sure foundation.
In the book of Romans, Paul lays out in beautiful detail the most important elements of our Christian faith
It is the most comprehensive explanation of the plan and purpose of God in Christ, the plan of salvation, the purpose of the church, the guidelines of Christian living, the most comprehensive explanation in the New Testament.
And Romans is not a long book, just 16 chapters
And person can sit down and read the book of Romans in about an hour
Like most of the bible, most of the Book of Romans has been largely neglected in the places we have came from.
And the truth is, it is largely neglected because most people don’t actually believe half of what is wrote it.
Like so much of the bible, they may pay lip service to it
But then in all practical terms they utterly neglect to actually obey what is written there
Or they use a verse or two, here or there, completely out of context, and actually abused the book of Romans in a way that would make the Apostle Paul weep and cry
You may think I am crazy when I say that
But it is very true. And I am not going to point out each and every place this is true as we go through this book
But just jump down and look at verse 16, just here in chapter 1
I will give you an example of what I mean.
Romans 1:16
King James Version
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Now where we come from, this is not a verse of the bible that we believed
Notice there, it says the gospel is to the Jew first
And also to the greek, or the gentile, which is us
But how many times, how many many times were we told
Don’t witness to Jews
You can go back and listen to their sermons, and this is a direct quote from one: they would say, quote “the gospel is not for the Jews”
Then they would go on and explain that the Jews will get their portion in the week of Daniel, after the gentiles
They taught us that The gospel is not to the Jew first, it is to the Jew last
And that is one of the ways in the past they were able to keep Jews out of the church
And most of them still believe that way today
It is forbidden to witness the gospel to the Jews in the churches we came from
But my bible says, the gospel is to the Jew first
And whenever Paul went somewhere and preached, he always preached to the Jews first
And of course, where we came from, they had an elaborate explanation of why this verse no longer applies
Of why the gospel is no longer to the Jew first anymore
But my bible also records where Paul said, if anyone preaches another gospel than what he already preached, let him be accursed
Paul taught the gospel was to the Jew first
And anyone who changes that is to be accursed, according to the bible
Yet the very people we left did exactly that
They took verses like this, which Paul preached
And they said, this verse is not good anymore
The gospel WAS to the Jew first, but its not anymore
They turned verses like this number 16 into something past tense
And I wonder, why didn’t they want Jews in the church?
I wonder why they commanded us to discriminate against the Jews when it came to sharing the gospel?
Why weren’t we allowed to share the gospel with the Jews?
That’s a good question isn’t it.
Where did that idea come from?
It’s a very good question.
But its not one we will be answering today
Instead, my focus is back on these first seven verses I read at the beginning
But I hope you understand what I mean now, when I say that were we came from,
We did not believe half the things wrote in the book of Romans.
The sad thing, is that is true with many of the other books of the bible too
I remember my last few year preaching there, I just opened the bible and taught what was in it, verse for verse, chapter for chapter
And I think before I was over, half the church came to me telling me they had never heard most of it before
And its because their preachers don’t preach the bible to them
But praise God, this is a church were we are going to preach the bible
And I pray that God would be so gracious to us to open our eyes and ears and hearts, and help us to get back to a true scriptural understanding on all these topics.
But since we are talking about the Roman church, I think its fair to remind us that Rome was not built in a day
And our understanding is not made whole in a day
And I want you all to feel encouraged, to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide you into understanding of truth
Really a preacher can’t do that.
I can’t give you an understanding of truth
But I can preach what God lays on my heart, and I can teach what is in the bible to the best of my ability
And I can pray that God opens our understanding
And that his Holy Spirit, which is in each and every one of you, will bring you a true understanding
So let me come back to these first seven verses.
And maybe let me read them again
Romans 1
King James Version
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
7 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.
This is a beautiful opening of this letter to the Roman church
And let us maybe get in our mind a little bit what the Roman church was like, which he was writing to
As Bro. Jesse was mentioning this morning, the people in the bible are people
Just like you and I are people
The people in the church at Rome were real people, living a real place, living real lives, dealing with real problems
There are many things about the people in the bible which can relate directly to us when we read about them
And the reason the Lord allowed the stories in the bible to be recorded about the real people in the bible, is so that you and I, as real people, could relate to the people we read about
And we could learn lessons from their examples
So in this first introductory message to this topic, I want to take a few minutes to help us understand what it was like for the people who were part of the church at Rome
And there may be some different aspects that you and I can relate to
The city of the Rome was the largest metropolis in the whole world at this time
It was the center of the Roman empire
It had a population of over one million people
And I really enjoy reading history, and Roman history is a topic I have loved to learn about
And Rome was an amazing city in architectural terms, 2000 years ago, it had highrise building, 7 or 8 stories tall
And really, if we look at the early church, we find that the early church was an urban church
The early church of the bible was mostly in the large cities of the Roman empire.
And that makes sense, because cities are were the most people are at
And if you want to get a message to the most people, you go where they are at
And the gospel that Paul is talking about in these verses is something that is very appealing to some of the people living in these cities
The people in the days of Rome, a lot of them were down and out
And a message of hope, of freedom, of salvation, of forgiveness
That was a message that resonated with many people
The gospel message met the people where they were at
In the days of Paul, up to about 20% of the population was slaves
And the 80-90% of the rest was living in abject poverty.
Life expectancy in the Roman empire was 33 years old
So almost all of us would probably be dead by now, if we lived back then.
Besides that, Rome was a police state
Most people have very few rights
If you refused to worship the emperor as god
Or if they even caught you talking bad about the government
Or even if someone just accused you of that, and you was innocent
You would disappear really quickly, and the government would execute you, or sell you into slavery to punish you
Caligula and Tiberius were emperors in these days when the book of Romans was written
And they had passed a law so that they could arrest you and kill you for just about anything
The law was so broad, it said that if you said or did anything that impugned the dignity of Rome, you were guilty of treason
The law was so broad that, if you wore clothes in a way they didn’t like, they could arrest you off the street and kill you or sell you into slavery
It was a very harsh world to live in
Living here today in America, its hard for us to even imagine what life in Rome in that respect
Roman Christians probably had a lot more in common with Christians today in China, than with us, when it comes to the environment they were living in
But on a moral level, we probably have more in common with Rome
And on the moral level, Roman society was in the dumps
The emperor had a palace full of prostitutes
That was legal everywhere
And most of the empire was greek speaking, and they had inherited many of the greek traditions
Public nudity was common place
The practice of homosexuality was widespread
And even worse, child molestation was openly practiced by the same people, and was saw as something entirely normal
Every city had a temple to their pagan dieties
And the way they tended to worship their gods was with festivals characterized by drunkenness, the whole crowd engaging in immorality together, and featuring violent and deadly gladiator fights, and mass executions
It was bloody, it was gory, it was immoral to the extreme
And the way people dressed was something else too
The most popular clothes for the rich women of Roman society was silk imported from China
And they loved it not only because it was so soft
But because it was so thin, it was sheer and you could see though it
And it was very common to walk through the streets of the city and see both men and women wearing transparent clothes
I hope I am painting a picture of Roman society to you
It was a level of debauchery and cruelty beyond anything you and I have ever seen or experienced
And the society that most Christians live in today is a much better place that was it was in the days of Paul and Jesus
And I think it is important to for us to understand what Roman sociey was like at the time when Paul writes this letter
Because it puts in context the things he writes in it
And the Roman empire, certainly by any standards you and I would use to judge it
The Roman empire was a terrible place to live
Worse than just about anywhere in the entire world today
And the wickedness of their society was much greater than the communities where you and I live today here in Indiana
But there in the midst of that terrible wicked and evil society
Right next to the very beating heart of their corrupt empire
There was a group of people who were different from the rest
There was a group of people who, although they were living in the Roman Empire, their allegiance was to another kingdom
The kingdom of God
And although they were surrounded by a kingdom of death, and corruption, and wickedness
They were part of a kingdom of light, and love, and life, and purity
The church of Jesus Christ was living right along side the rest of that Roman society
In fact, as we read the epistles, its seems like a lot of the early Christians were the slaves of these really corrupt people
In many respects, Christianity was flourishing among the people who were the victims of that evil society
And it is to these people that Paul writes this letter of Romans.
And you know, it is a miracle that this church in Rome even exists.
In the midst of all the evil, and all the turmoil, and all cruelties of that empire
A church has sprung up right in the very heart of it
God works wonders
He does things people would say are impossible
In place where someone would say, it is impossible that a church could ever spring up in a place like that
God can plant a church there just to poke his finger of the eye of his detractors
Just to prove he is God, and that he is sovereign
And that he will redeem himself a people, even from the most corrupt and wicked place on earth
And that was what he did there in Rome
He was planting a church that was going to be a witness of Jesus Christ before the most powerful, most wicked, most cruel, most murderous, and most evil leaders of that Roman empire
And that is what was happening all over the Roman empire
All throughout their corrupt society, a change was happening
It started out just small, just a little group here, just a little group there
But then the groups got bigger, and bigger
And today, the Roman empire is collapsed and gone
But guess what is still here?
The church
The roman empire is long gone, but the church is still here, alive and well
The church out lived the roman empire
The church outlived the outlived all the empires that came after
The church outlived the Soviet Union
The church outlived the Nazis
The church outlived all the evil regimes of the past, and the church will outlive all the evil regimes of the present
And that should put some joy in our hearts, and let us know God has got this thing under control
The church will out live whatever conditions or situations we see around us today
Now just how the Roman church got started, we don’t exactly know
We know that somewhere along the way, Prescilla and Aquila, who had been in Ephesus with Paul, they had been to Rome.
And somewhere, people in Rome had started to come to faith in Christ
The bible don’t tell us just how that happened
But somewhere before Paul wrote this letter, a group of Roman people had come to faith in Christ
And that is the church
People who have come to faith in Christ
It don’t mean there was actually a church building there where they all got together and worshipped
Because that was actually illegal in Rome
Jews and Christians both were forbidden in these years from having gatherings the Roman city
So whatever group was there, whatever meetings they had, it was all having to be done with some secrecy
And sometimes a little secrecy is called for when doing things for the good of the church, because some information can cause problems
If the Roman government found out were the Christians were having their services, then they probably would have all been arrested and sold into slavery, or worse
But through it all, this little church of people in Rome is growing and prospering in the Lord
This little group of people in Rome is a triumph of the gospel
It is a display of the power of God
It is source of joy for Paul
And I believe we can detect that as we read these first seven verses
- And I find that to be encouraging!
- Because these facts are very applicable to us
- The church at Rome is proof that the church can flourish in the most wicked and evil of society’s
- It is proof that a church can be planted and grow in very difficult environments
- And let me go back to these verses I have read, and we will start to go through them
Exposition
Romans 1
King James Version
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
As Paul opens up this letter, writing to the people we have been describing in Rome,
Paul presents himself to this church as a servant.
Someone who is there to help
Someone who is there to work and labor to complete a task
And he lets us know what that task is
The task he has been separated to do
And separated is a big word there
Paul has left behind and separated himself from many things to for this task
He left behind friends and family and loved ones who rejected him when he found Jesus
He left behind his the benefits of his first class education in the best school Jerusalem had to offer
He left behind his job and his career
He left behind is position of power and authority in the Jewish religion
He left behind the comforts of home to set out on the road to preach the gospel from town to town
He left behind the security of his community, to go out to preach to people who were going to stone him, and beat him, and eventually kill him
Paul was separated
And those are some of the things he was separated from for the work he was to do
And what was the work he was to do?
What task was he completing as Christ’s servant?
The servants of Christ don’t have just any old random mission
But we have a mission that has been given to us directly by Jesus Christ
And that mission is recorded in scripture
It was the spreading of the gospel
It was for that purpose he had been called and separated, that was his function as the servant of Jesus Christ
And in verse 2, Paul tells us something about this gospel
2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
This gospel which Paul was preaching, he hadn’t grabbed it out of thin air
It was not based on nothing
His belief in it, and his strong faith that it was true had not originated by a whim
Paul had an experience where Jesus Christ appeared and spoke to him from heaven
And when that happened there were plenty of other witnesses around who heard that voice speak to him from heaven too
It was not a hoax, as we have learned to be the case with other men who claimed a voice spoke to them from heaven
But with Paul, as he talks about the manner in which he was called, and proof on which he based his faith
He didn’t go to that Damascus road experience
He went to something else, something greater for his evidence that Jesus was who he said he was
And it was the prophets of Holy Scripture
This gospel he was sharing had been foretold by the prophets
You could read Isaiah 53, you could read Moses, you could read Jeramiah, or Zechariah, and on and on
They had foretold not just the coming of Jesus Christ
But they foretold what the gospel itself would be
What just what it was
And Paul’s faith and understanding of what the gospel was, was not based on things he had heard from other men
He tells us that in 1st Corinthians 15
And it was ultimately not even based on the miraculous thing that happened on the Damascus road
But his faith and understanding of what the gospel was, who Jesus was, and just what it all meant
It came from God, who opened his understanding through the scriptures
Like he is mentioning briefly here in verse 2
And let that be a lesson to us today
Paul’s faith and understanding of this gospel came from what was wrote in scripture
And that is solid ground where we can place faith
And besides the scriptures themselves, Paul also had another witness about this gospel
And that witness was Jesus himself
Read verse 3
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
As the prophets had foretold
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
In what we are looking at in this message, I think verse 4 is perhaps most impactful verse to me
Because Paul here makes a really interesting statement
He says that Jesus was declared to be the son of God
And he points to something very specific which declared it
Or which you might say proved it
And that proof he was the son of God was his resurrection from the dead
That event is critical to our faith
It was critical to Paul’s faith
And this is a point that, I want to try and make it clearly for us
Because its something that has been seriously overlooked by some
You can read over and over again in scripture, and you will see that the resurrection of Jesus is the starting point for proving Jesus was who he said he was
We don’t have a faith in Jesus that is based on nothing
We have a faith in Jesus that is based on evidence
And the most powerful evidence of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ
And there is powerful evidence, to this very day, that can be used to prove Jesus Christ rose from the grave, and was resurrected
Our faith in Jesus is based on infallible proofs that he gave when he was here
And the climax of it all was his resurrection
That is something that is impossible to fake
The way he died, the way he was buried, the way he rose from the grave
You cannot fake that
And to cap it all off, the prophets had foretold it
Let me put a few verses with what I am saying
Turn over to Acts 1, and we will see what Luke wrote there
Acts 1
King James Version
1 The former treatise (He is talking about the book of Luke) have I made, O Theophilus (that is the man he is writing the book of Acts for), of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
You see, Jesus gave infallible proofs
Many infallible proofs
There is no question whatsoever that he was who he said he was
He was seen by hundreds and hundreds of people after he resurrected from the grave
And many of those hundreds of people watched him literally ascend up into the sky and disappear into a cloud of glory
And we have the eyewitness testimony of these people wrote in the bible
And many parts of their story are things that to this day, we can go back and prove they were telling the truth
They give dates, times, locations, that can all be verified
When we go back in history, and we check out the facts and details in the bible
They are all true
They all match up with history
The things told in the bible are backed up, not just by the bible, but by others too
The Jews recorded about Jesus in their records
The Romans recorded about Jesus in their records
The historians who lived in that time recorded about Jesus in their records
The people who were opposed to Jesus also recorded about him and his life in their records
And its not just from the bible we can find the truth about Jesus
But we can find the truth of the bible even confirmed in the histories and writings of his enemies
The proofs of his ministry were that strong that others recorded them down too
And it took those infallible proofs for people to believe
It took and infallible proof for Thomas to believe
And he was not the only one
When Jesus died on the cross, All of the apostles had given up hope, until an infallible proof appeared in the room, and ate dinner with them, and then disappeared through a wall.
Infallible proof
And like Luke said, like Paul said, the resurrection was the greatest of the those proofs
In the days of the apostles, people were justified in asking for infallible proof
And we today are equally justified
And people who tell us we have to believe in things without infallible proof to back them up
Those are dangerous people
Those are people who do not have faith
Those are people who have foolishness
And they have twisted the bible.
Blind faith is not the kind of faith Jesus wants us to have
But sadly that is exactly the kind of faith so many people have
But true faith seeks understanding
True faith seeks to make sense of the object of our faith
And for Paul, and the apostles, and true Christians
The resurrection is the key proof on which our faith rests
Let me give you another verse to demonstrate this
Go to first Corinthians 15
1 Corinthians 15:14
King James Version
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
This is just one of multiple places Paul gives this explanation
The resurrection of Christ is the basis of our hope and faith
The resurrection is the starting point for us to understand our faith and make sense of it
Because in the resurrection, Jesus proved, by the power of the resurrection, that there is life after death
He proved that he can redeem that which is fallen
He proved he had power over death
He proved he was the promised messiah of scripture
But if Christ be not risen, all our preaching is in vain
And all our faith is vain
Because it is built upon a fact
Our faith is based on facts and evidence
And it is a fact and there is evidence, that Jesus raised from the dead
And those facts, and that evidence, exists to this very day
And when we investigate it, we find nothing to disprove it, and we find lots of strong evidence to prove it did happen
And turning back to Romans chapter 1
As we see in verse 4
There was proof that declared Jesus to be the son of God
Infallible proof
And that is why we believe
And to believe without that proof would be foolishness and stupidity
Paul said so himself
And you and I, we are completely justified in asking for evidence on which our faith should be based
All the teachings here of the New Testament, the gospel of Jesus
We have proof we can base that on
And it is because we can prove Jesus was who he said he was
What we have in our hearts is not foolishness, it is faith
Real faith
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the word of God
Not the words of man
I am afraid some of what we used to have was not faith, it was foolishness
Because it was based on the words of man
Which we thought was the word of God
But when we got down to it, the proof that it was the word of God turned out to be an illusion
And there is no proof, there was only legends and myths which we can actually prove were false
And to continue to go on believing in those legends and myths, and using them as a basis for our faith would be the height of foolishness
And I am afraid that is what a lot of people have built their so-called faith on
They built it on sinking sand
Which is why we can say, what they have is not faith
It is foolishness
Do not be fooled
Faith in lies is not faith
Faith in myths and legends is not faith
No matter how strong and powerful that so called faith is
Faith in things that are not true is not faith
It is delusion
It is foolishness
But with Jesus, we have infallible proofs
And the resurrection is first among those proofs
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
The fulfillment of scripture, the fulfillment of prophesy, and the resurrection itself
Those things declare to us that Jesus was who he said he was
And he is the one we are serving
And he is one who gave the church it’s missions, recorded again in verse 5
5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
This is the command Jesus gave the apostles before he ascended up to heaven
Preach Jesus to all nations
Make disciples of all nations
The very thing which the places we have come from had utterly fallen away from
They have long since failed to obey the words of Jesus
They have long since shut themselves off and entered into open disobedience of the commands of Jesus Christ
But as we read here, Paul was dedicated to obeying the command of Jesus Christ
And that obedience to Christ and his great commission is what is behind Paul’s letter to the church and Rome.
6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
7 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.
I am going to bring my message to a close here tonight
You and I today, we are like the church in Rome in many ways
Like the church in Rome, we may not be planted in what seems like the most hospitable environment
But for such a time as this we are come into the kingdom
And for this season of time, we will fulfill what the Lord has showed us to do
We are the called of Jesus Christ
He called us
There is a song, he knows my name
And that is true, he knows our name
And he has called our name
We were called by some preacher, or some prophet
But we were called my Jesus Christ, the son of God
And all our hope, and all our faith rests in him
And we have every reason to put our faith and trust in him
We don’t need another mediator between us and God
We are saved by faith in Christ and him alone
And we can go in the rapture by faith in Christ, and him alone
And the fact that others refuse to admit that is the truth
That actually betrays the fact that they do not believe Jesus is good enough
And because they do not believe Jesus is good enough, they are in serious trouble
They have revealed they have actually rejected the gospel, and traded it for another
And today, you and I are capable of seeing clearly
Because our savior has saved us
Not just from sin, not just from hell
But he has saved us from confusion
He has saved us from the bondage of false religion
And that is true Babylon
Confusion of false religion
We are free from Babylon today
And he has put a strong confidence in our hearts, and powerful understanding that liberates us
Jesus is enough to save us
And Jesus is enough to keep us
We believe that
And they do not
And let that be the line that divides us
If anyone hearing this message today should wonder or have questions
Let me finish by telling you that Jesus is the way
If you follow him you will make it
Jesus is the truth
If you believe him, that is the truth you need to make
And Jesus is the life
He is the life to live, he is the one to pattern yourself after
And he is the one who will give you eternal life
And if you have that, Jesus has promised you
He will come back personally to get you and take you to heaven one day
I believe Jesus
You can trust the words of Jesus
Deceivers come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever
Amen
Let me close in prayer
Thank you Lord for being so good to us
Lord, it was painful, it was hard, it was not easy
We had to pass through the fire
We had to pass through the flood
But Lord Jesus, you preserved us
And here we stand today, full of your spirit
Full of your grace
And Lord you have strengthened and a lit a fire in my heart
Lord you are our strength
Lord you are our inspiration
Let us each and everyone fix our eyes steadfast on you
Let it be Lord Jesus
I am sorry for the days when I let men diminish you
I am sorry for the days when I let men obscure you
But as long as you give me strength and grace
I will ever lift you up, the author and the finisher of my faith
Amen