Romans: Declared To Be The Son of God

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 

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 to 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 called of 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. 

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 

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 to 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 called of 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. 

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 

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 

(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 

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 

As the prophets had foretold 

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 

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, 

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: 

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 

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 

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. 

Among whom are ye also the called of 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. 

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