Gospel Encouragement

Praise God for the gospel that is read, and for the gospel that is sunk, and the gospel that is preached, for the gospel that is shown to us in the Ordinances, for the Gospel that we so desperately need, that we need to be reminded of by which we live, this Gospel that is our everything. And as we continue to walk through the Book of Romans, I'm going to say something that may be difficult to grasp at first, but bear with me for a moment. Romans is one of those places where if we're not careful, we'll still miss the gospel even though it's all over every page. Again, I say it's one of those places where if we're not careful, we'll still miss the gospel even though it's on every page. Because oftentimes we get confused. There are two things that we do whereboy, we miss the gospel. We don't know what the gospel is. And we talked about that on last week, what the gospel is. And if we don't know what the gospel is, then we think only those places where we're talking directly about salvation or conversion or justification proper. Only then are we really dealing with the gospel. Only then does that have anything to do with the gospel. And we dealt with that, as I said on last week. But there's another way that we missed the gospel, especially in an epistle like this. What happens is the writer gives us, or lays for us, the foundation of the Gospel and goes on to give us numerous implications that are based upon the foundation of the gospel that he has already laid. But if we then treat those implications or those imperatives in isolation from the Gospel, then all of a sudden we begin to negate the gospel itself because there is a difference between what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces. Let me say that again. There's a difference between what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces, and if we mix those two things up, then we've perverted the gospel. Let me see if I can explain further. What the gospel requires is quite simple. The Gospel requires repentance and faith. That's it. That's what the gospel requires. You remember, the Gospel is a proclamation of the work that God has done, this redemptive work that God has accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ. That's the message of the gospel. That's the proclamation. The proclamation is that everything that we've seen in the scriptures since the first proclamation of the Gospel in Genesis, chapter three and verse fifteen, finds its ultimate fulfillment, completion in wholeness in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has come, and in his active and passive obedience, has both satisfied all of the requirements of the Covenant of works that the first atom did not, and in his passive obedience, has taken upon himself our penalty, thereby allowing God to be both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ. That is the proclamation. The response that that proclamation requires is repentance and faith, and that's all. That's what the gospel requires. Now, what the gospel produces, it's fruit obedience. That's what the gospel produces. So how do we mix these up? Well, if we go to those places where the author is talking about what the gospel produces and treat them as though they're what the gospel requires, we have just added something to the gospel. So we go and we read something in the scriptures, and we read something in the New Testament, and it says to us, by this, we'll all men know that you're my disciples. For example, that you have love one for another, we ought to love one another. Now, is that something the gospel requires or is it something that the gospel produces. That's something that the gospel produces. What does the gospel require? Repentance and faith? But it is Him who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. But here's the problem for most of us, from the top down, from those of us who are preaching, to those who are listening, to those who don't know Jesus Christ at all, here's the problem. The problem is that for the longest time in our culture, for those of us who preach, most of us were taught preaching in such a way that you absolutely confuse what the Gospel requires and what the Gospel produces. And as a result of that, most of us live our Christian life like this. We're looking at what the Gospel produces, and we're fighting with every fiber of our being to do it on our own, or questioning our salvation, or questioning our devotion, or feeling like we need to rededicate our lives or whatever, because we just haven't done enough. Now, is that to say that we just ignore those imperatives. No, we don't ignore those imperatives at all. But we have to understand the distinction between what the Gospel requires and what the Gospel produces before we can understand how to approach those imperatives. It's important here as we come to this sort of transitional point in the epistle. On last week we looked at really that first paragraph in one through seven. The last two weeks we've dealt with one through seven, and here in one through seven we get this picture of the gospel. Paul lays out this brief understanding of the Gospel and what the good news is. Well, on next week we will look at the most powerful and influential statement about the Gospel in the whole Bible and in all of history. When we look at Romans chapter one, verses sixteen and seventeen. It is the seminal statement about the Gospel and the power of the Gospel. And between those two we have this paragraph where we see this compulsion in Paul's And here's one way we could look at this compulsion in Paul's life. We could look at this and we could say, see how Paul lives his life based upon the impact of the Gospel. You need to do that. Or we can say, see what the Gospel rightly understood and rightly applied produces in the life of the believer. What's the difference? If we confuse what the Gospel requires and what the Gospel produces and preach the imperatives without the indicatives, then what happens is the service is over and you and I leave with a list of ten or twelve things that we just got to do better. But if we understand the Gospel rightly and the difference between what the Gospel requires and what the Gospel produces, than what ought to happen in us is twofold number one. There ought to be areas in our lives for which we praise God because of what He has produced in us by virtue of the Gospel, and also a greater dependence upon God because of the things that we see in our lives that have not been fully saturated by and bathed in gospel thinking, so that we all at once praise God for what he has done and acknowledge our other dependence on him to continue to see it through the completion. That's way different than what we used to. That's way different than what those of us are used to preaching, are used to preaching, and that's way different than those of us are used to listen in the preaching, are used to hearing. We're used to coming to the scriptures and going away with a pull myself up by my own bootstrap's mentality. I have to be better than that. I have to do better than that. I have to work harder than that. And oh, by the way, the other thing that it produces in us is this dependence upon ourselves. So on the one hand, whereas a proper understanding of the Gospel leaves us with that balance and that tension between here's what God has done and me and I'm grateful, and here's what I recognize still needs to be produced in me, so I'm dependent. What the other does is this, here's what I've accomplished because of my devotion to God to this point here, And here's how much harder I need to work in order to complete what I've accomplished. And oh, by the way, here's why I'm so much better than my friends neighbors and family members because I do this and they don't. And I don't do that and they do. If you can't say amen, you ought to say ours right here and right now. That's what it produces. It produces pride, arrogance, and boasting and a life lived in the flesh. But instead, look at this compulsion that Paul has in this next paragraph, beginning of verse eight. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for all of you, because of your faith, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mind. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also, who are in Rome. Here's what we have here. This is the compulsion in a man's life towards the proclamation of the Gospel. We'd say that this was like God's calling on his life to preach the Gospel. But it looks way different than what we're used to, does it not. This compulsion that Paul experience experiences both towards the Gospel and what we would call this compulsion toward mission, looks a lot different than what we're used to. It sounds a lot different than what we're used to hearing. Three things I want you to notice here. One. I want you to notice the God saturated speech. The God saturated speech. Listen what he says. First, I thank my God. Let's let's count these. Here's number one. I thank my God. You got one with me. There is one, okay, through Jesus Christ. There's two for all of you because your faith. By the way, there's a third one that's assumed, but we won't count that one because it's your faith in whom Jesus Christ is proclaimed in all the world. For God. There's three. Is my Witness, whom I serve with all my spirit, And the Gospel of His Son. There's four. We got the second person in the trinity mentioned again that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God God's will, there's five. In the first two lines, he mentions God five times and another time indirectly. Just God saturated speech, God saturated language. And we're not even counting what's already happened in the paragraph before, how often he mentions God, how often his lips part to sing God's praise. We're not talking, by the way, about someone who just has sort of a cultural perfunctory tendency towards speaking the name of God. There are cultures like that, and there are have been times like that in history where it has just been more common for people to use speech that was more heavily laden with God talk. But it is interesting, is it not that we now say good luck as opposed to God's speed or God be with you? Isn't that interesting? Isn't it interesting to say, you know, I will do this, or I will do that as opposed to if God wills. Isn't it interesting that we say, you know, luckily, so and so happened, or fortunately, thus and such happened, as opposed to providentially isn't that interesting that just in our regular, ordinary language. But here's what's more interesting, what's more fascinating, if you will, not only has there been a movement away from this sort of God saturated language in that regard, but we now have a culture that still has God saturated language, but it's on the other end of the spectrum. So now there are still very common phrases with God or Jesus Christ in them. However, they are curses and blasphemies. So it's not that God's name is no longer on our lips. It is simply that our attitude toward God has gone from one of praises from our mouths and God saturated speech, to curses from our mouths and yet still God saturated speech. But this is not just sort of the cultural norm. Notice, the Gospel is being proclaimed, the Gospel is moving forward, People are being saved. This is a Jew of Jews from the tribe of Benjamin, educated at the feet of Gamalio. He did not grow up saying Jesus Christ, y'all amen. So this is not just well, you know, it's my culture. It's the way, you know. I was raised in Tarsus, and in Tarsus we all said Jesus. No nobody used this name. But Paul can't stop speaking it. He doesn't assume it. But his speech is saturated with God talk. So no, it's not cultural, nor is it hypocrisy, Nor is it hypocrisy. There are some things I just can't watch. There's just some things that I just can't watch. And I don't watch television a lot, but there's some things I can't watch. Even if I did, I just couldn't watch. One of them just happened not long ago. It's the Grammys. I can't do it. There's no way I can do it. I just can't. I just I figured I just can't. I would break stuff, you know, for somebody to stand up and use semi pornographic language and do erotic more than semi pornographic movements and they're so called dance wearing semi pornographic clothing and then win an award and stand up and thank Jesus. I know, scared. God will strike them dead and it'll come through the TV and get me. But it's sort of perfunctory, is it not. Award ceremonies and things of that nature. You make a film that's blasphemous, or sing a song that is the most grotesque expression of sin imaginable, and when you're awarded for it, you stand up and thank God, thus dragging his name into the filth and mire and mud of what you just did, as though somehow He partnered with you in the process. Now that's not what's happening here. This is God's saturated language because he lives a God saturated life. He's no longer his own. He is a bond servant of Jesus Christ. He opens his mouth. He doesn't speak on his own behalf. He doesn't speak his own words, So out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks. You know why you and I do have God saturated language because we don't live God saturated lives. The Gospel was everything for Paul. The way he thought about his life, his future, his everything was through the lens of the Gospel. The way he spent his time was viewed through the lens of the gospel, by the way, and we say, well, yeah, that's easy. You know, if you're a missionary, you're a full time missionary and you got somebody supporting you on the mission field. Newsflash, Paul went places and worked. He worked a job, so even, but he worked a job in order in order that he might work for the sake of the kingdom. So Paul did not have this gospel saturated life because somebody paid him to spend all of his time saturated in the gospel. Quite the contrary, Paul worked with his hands, and he worked in order not to be a burden. We find in Thessalonians, for example, he worked to be an example to them. He worked not to be a burden to them. And yet although he got up every day and worked in order to support himself, still his language was saturated with the gospel because he did not define himself by his work. He defined himself by his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. His life was saturated with the Gospel. See, we've experienced this cultural norm where basically what happens is we come here and this is where we do church life, and when we leave from here, that's where we do real life. This compulsion that Paul experienced in his life life led him to live the exact opposite. He went out and did the other stuff out of necessity so that he could do this stuff in here, because that's what he was compelled to. That's what he was compelled to. Nor do did he argue with that that was normative. By the way, let me just put that footnote in there. He didn't argue that that was normative. He argued that he had a right to be supported from the Gospel. Amen. Not only is there God saturated speech, but there's God saturated prayer. Look at this prayer. We don't get a picture here of his prayer. Is this is not the prayer. But in this portion of the letter where you see the thanksgiving, he mentions enough about his prayer and about the nature of his prayer and his understanding of prayer that we see that even it is God saturated. Look at what he says. First of all, there's thanks to God. He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ. So there's God saturated prayer. How do we pray? We pray to the Father in the name of the Son and in the power of the Spirit. That's how we pray. Prayer is offered to the Father and the name of the Son. So he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ. So first and foremost we see that it's God saturated prayer because his prayer is about thanking God. I thank God for all of you. Knowe this because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. In other words, Paul says, let me give you a glimpse into my prayer life. First of all, I'm a man who's grateful to God. When I pray, it is a prayer of thanksgiving. I'll never forget. Forget. I remember exactly who it was. It was Tony Evans, but I don't remember the particular message of setting. But I remember Tony Evans talking about prayer and using this illustration. And as he's talking about prayer and teaching on prayer, he said, you know here, here's what most people's prayer sounds like. God, give me, give me, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, give me, gimme gimme. Let's Saint Susie, give me, give me gimme some more. Amen. For most of us, that's our prayer life. Our family. Oftentimes we go to eat, we will pray for our server, and so sometimes we'll stop our server and say, we're about to pray for our food. Is there any you know, way in particular that we can pray for you as we pray for our food. That's something that we remember every time that we sit down and eat, especially, you know, when there's six kiddo's and four of them five and under. Sometimes there's a whole lot of other stuff on the mind besides remembering to go through all of the things that we normally go through when we sit down to eat. Amen. But oftentimes when we remember, we ask, you know, we're about to pray for our food, is there anyway in particular that we can pray for you? You know, the most common answer that we get that's very kind of you. But no, thanks, everything's okay. In other words, if there were some area in my life where things weren't okay, it'd be great, because that's what prayer is for. But because right now things are going smoothly, I don't need God, therefore I don't need to pray. I'm I want to crawl up under something right now, he says, I thank my God and Jesus Christ. But then notice what he's thankful for. He says, I'm thankful that your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Just think about that for a moment. Paul says, one of the things I thank God for is the fact that your faith has proclaimed in all the world. Can you imagine that? Do you pray like that? Huh? I'm just go ahead and confessed that is not the normal tenor of my prayer. Lord, Thank you so much because I heard today about the faith of such and such a church that's being proclaimed in all the world. Thank you for the work that you're doing there, and that your name is being magnified because of the faith that is emanating from that place. But when you have a gospel saturated life and God saturated prayer, what would excite you more than a group of believers whose faith is magnifying the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if I live a me saturated life, the only thing I can even think of to pray is God. I need God, I want God. Would you give God? Do you remember what I asked for last time that you haven't given me yet? Not only that, but look at what he says in other places, It's not an isolated incident. First Corinthians chapter one and verse four. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. I thank God for you because of the grace that God has given you. Ephesians chapter one, Verses fifteen and sixteen. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Colossians chapter one, verses three and four. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. I'm grateful to God for what I see the Gospel producing in you. Why because the Gospel is the most important thing in my life, not me. The Gospel is the most important thing in my world, not me. So there is nothing in my life. There is nothing in my world that brings me more joy than to hear that the Gospels being proclaimed, that God's grace is being poured out, and that his people are being known for their faith in Him. This humbles me this absolutely humbles me. And yet there's more. He calls God as his witness. He says verse nine, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers. God is my witness. God knows this to be true. I'm not making this up. This is real God saturated prayer. And then finally, listen to this piece, he appeals to God's will. Notice what he says at the end, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you today. You know what that would sound like. God called me to go to Rome, and I'm just believing him for getting me to Rome. But the apostle Paul says, my prayer is that by God's will I get there, not ignoring the fact or hiding the fact that he has a desire, but recognizing because of his God's saturated language and his God saturated prayer that it is not up to him, It is up to God. Listen to what James says in James four thirteen to sixteen. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. But in Paul's God saturated language, that's not the way he speaks about this compulsion that he has to go to Rome. Finally, is god saturated desires? First of all, look at this longing that he has verse eleven for I long to see you. Why Because it's because it's what I want. I long to see you. Why I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. By the way he defines that, that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I'm so glad that he did that, because there are some people who believe in this old idea of impartation, that somehow one individual can impart onto another particular spiritual gift. First of all, he uses the singular here. He didn't say I want to impart to you spiritual gifts. But I want to impart to you some spiritual gift. Not only that, but he goes on to explain what he means by that that spiritually we may encourage one another, that I may encourage you, and that you may be an encouragement to me. That is my desire, not that I'm the be all to end all and that you're in desperate need of me and I can come there and fix you, which sounds a lot more like the modern missionary mindset, does it not, Amen? No, I want to be there. I long to see you, that we might be mutually encouraged by one another, because remember, I've heard of how your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world, and I thank God for what he is doing among you, and I desire to be there. I long to be there because I do believe that there are things that I can impart to you, and that there are things that you can impart to me. We will be mutually benefited and mutually blessed. Secondly, he wants to reach some harvest. He says, I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far hath been prevented. I love that that goes back to the God saturated language. I've often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. Paul's not just talking about circumstances here, because Paul believes in the providence of God. Paul believes that God is sovereign. So everything that has come upon Paul understands and we know this through reading the rest of his letters, that Paul understands that all of this comes to him from the hand of God. So here Paul is balancing again this idea of his desire to get to Rome and the fact that he is utterly and completely dependent upon God to bring it to past. So he says, I have often intended to come. I wanted to I wanted to put it on my itenerary, I wanted to get there, but I've been prevented. God has not allowed it. That's why earlier on, what does he say, my prayer is that by God's will, I'll be able to be there in order that I may reach some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the gentiles. Here's what's beautiful. We see this compos of his and he wants to reap some harvest among them as well as among the other gentiles. Here's what's different than what we normally think about when we talk about missions, because normally in our setting and in our sense, and let me just time for true confessions here. I've been part of some of these services where you know, you go and there's a big you know conference and big youth evangelism conference. I remember Statewide Youth Evangelism Conference, these big things that different states have, especially in Southern Baptist life, and they'll invite somebody to come preer to the state evangelism conference. And at the state evangelism conference, you know, they want the gospel. Well, let me back up, they don't really want the gospel. Priests. They want the plant of salvation preach and a bunch of people manipulated in any way possible to come up to the front and register a decision so he can go back and say how many people made a decision. But so anyway, they want that to happen desperately. But one of the things that also is often desired is for people to come forth and acknowledge a call to ministry or the missions. Do you have the big missions conference and at the end, the big Missions conference. There is this huge call. If God's calling you to missions, then you need to come. Well, first of all, I don't see a call to missions anywhere in the scripture. Amen. A Christian missionary is a redundancy in terms. Amen, all of us are called to proclaim the Gospel. Whether you do it here or in another location, you're doing the same thing. First thing we've done is we've created this second this different class of people. Okay, they're call missionaries. There are a different class of people and their call to go somewhere else and proclaim the gospel. That's the first problem. Here's the second problem with that. The second problem with that is there are all these people who believe that they're in this other class of people who've been called to go to other places and proclaim the Gospel, and that somehow, only when they get there will they be able to unleash it. So you have a number of people who are saying God has called me to proclaim the Gospel to Muslims in the Middle East. God bless you. But here's what I want to know. What are you doing in your neighborhood? Well, well, no, no, my calling is to them, really, no, Paul says, I want to read some harvests among you, as well as among the rest of the gentiles. By the way, that as well as among the rest of the gentiles is not someday I'm going to reap a harvest among the gentiles. That as well as among the rest of the gentiles. Is I'm already in the process of reaping a harvest among the gentiles right here and right now. And one of the things that excites him about Rome is that there is a parallel between what God has obviously called him to do and to be and what's going on in Rome. So it's not just that, you know, going to Rome sounds real good. It's not just that it would make you, you know, sort of this first tier, top flight, super spiritual person. If you say, God's called me to go to Rome. Okay, now it's now it's Africa. You know, God's called me to go to Africa or wherever for the Middle League. He used to be Africa. Now you know, the flavor of the month is the Middle East. God's called me to go be a missionary in the Middle East among the Muslims. Really, why are you here telling me you got a passport? No, I'm waiting for my support to come through, and I'm waiting for my Really, you don't have a passport, you never been over there, you've done any language work? No, But when I get in the field, then I'll do Really, but there's a call of God on your life. What does that mean? Hey? What it means? It means nothing. It means there's something that sounds really good to me, and I'm going to claim it as my own. That's not what Paul's saying here. He acknowledges his desire, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a desire. Praise God for those desires. But there's a difference between here is my desire and if and if God wills this is what I would love to do, which is what you're hearing here from Paul, this gospel saturated life. Here is my desire, and if God's will is for me to do the same, this is what I want to do. I've wanted to do it long beforehand, but God has prevented it from happening. And there's a balance. There's a huge difference between that and here I am and I know that this is the calling of my life. Why because when I was twelve, I walked an aisle and I set it out loud to somebody. Therefore, it's gospel that breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because now all of a sudden, there's somebody. Let's assume that there's a person in and there is a calling of God and a compulsion of God on a person's life to go and proclaim the Gospel. And all of a sudden, twenty years ago or thirty years ago, when this person had this compulsion on their life, everything was happening in Africa, everything was happening in China. So twenty or thirty years ago, this person stands up and says with their mouth, God has said that he's called me to be a missionary and to go to Africa, or he's called me to be a missionary and go to China. Now thirty years later, there's a need and there's an opportunity and an open door in the Middle East. That person's on the mission field in the Middle East. And you got one or two choices. Either the calling of God and the compulsion of God was for them to proclaim the Gospel and He ultimately showed them where in the Middle East, or they lied or God lied because they're in the wrong place. How about this God saturated speech, God saturated prayer, God saturated desires. My desire is to proclaim the Gospel. There is a passion in my life to proclaim the Gospel among unreached peoples. I don't even know where it comes from, and if God should, will it. So I would love to plant my life and lay it down doing precisely that. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that. But even in that, Paul has evidence to back up his compulsion. Look at what he says verse fourteen. I am under obligation both to Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wives and to fools. So I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also, who are in Rome. Why does Paul want so desperately to go to Rome? Why does Paul want so desperately to be among the gentiles? Turn with me to the left, and let's look at a couple of things, and we'll wrap this up. Turn me to the left and look at acts chapter thirteen. Actually, go with me to twenty two, and then I'll find my place back over there in thirteen with Paul and Barnabas and their call to the Gentiles. Go to twenty two and look down at twenty eight. It's Paul the Roman Tribune. Look at verse twenty seven. So the Tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said yes. The Tribune answered, bought this citizenship for a large sum. Paul said, I am a citizen by birth. Why Paul to the Gentiles and not Peter? Real simple answer, The simplest answer is because God said, but here's another one. Paul's a Roman citizen, born a Roman citizen. Well does that mean that because Paul's a Roman citizen and God's called him to the Gentiles, that he turned his back on the Jews, turning me to the left again. And look at Acts. Well, let's just start in seventeen. See if we can find a little pattern here Acts Chapter seventeen. Look there beginning of verse one, Now, when they had passed through thirteen is when he and Barnabas professed this call to the Gentiles. Where three of you guys were going to the Gentiles. Seventeen Now, when they had passed through and Pipholis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonaika, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Now come over with me to verse ten, and let's go to Barria. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Then we find Paul in Athens. What happens in Athens? He's reasoning in the marketplace and in the synagogue with the Jews. Jews. In chapter eighteen we find Paul in Corinth. Where is Paul in Corinth? Paul is in the synagogue on every Sabbath, reasoning from the scriptures with the Jews. So here we have Paul who is the apostle to the gentiles. And some look at that and say, well, all of a sudden, Paul has turned his back on his own people, folks. When we finally get to Romans chapter nine, there will be this amazing statement where Paul says, for the sake of his own people, the Jews, he'd rather himself be cut off. And in chapter eleven, where he says no, God hasn't turned his back on him. I'm one of them. Evidently he has it here I am. And yet he says, I'm under obligation to these gentiles and to Rome. Why because God in his providence had given him things that the other apostles didn't have that made him suitable for the task. And yet it was not as just simple and pragmatic and straightforward as well, you have this, therefore you go do that. Remember the language. There is a compulsion, there is a desire, but only if God wills. I want to do it. It makes sense for me to do it, but only if God wills. I believe I'll be there. I want to be there. My goal, my desire, my passion, is to preach the Gospel in Rome. That's not the only thing that God can use. So there is this balance, this delicate balance, always in the Gospel. Sinnered life, recognizing that God is at work, that God is calling men and women to himself, and that God uses us, Recognizing that God has called us as those who are saved, those who are bought with a price, to open our mouths and to announce this good news, but that it is God, and only God who can make a dead heart alive, recognizing that there are places where it just might make sense for us to be. There are places about which we're passionate. There are sometimes people groups about which we are passionate. There are sometimes opportunities that just light us up unlike anything else. But we cannot presume upon God. We must live in accordance with God's will and recognize that we live in accordance with God's will. And let me show you the difference. Here's the difference. We already talked about this. On the one hand, here's this compulsion that I have, and I believe this compulsion is from God, and so I just announce God's will on his behalf. Here's God's will. I'm announcing it on his behalf. Next thing, you know, I end up in another place because God's bigger than me. You know what happens with some people. It's mind boggling. There are some people who are in the process of being used mightily by God. The Gospel is advancing, their life is bearing much fruit, their work is bearing much fruit, and yet they're miserable because they're holding on to what they presumed to be God's will. Way back when, if you have Paul's attitude. It changes things. What's your compulsion, what's your passion? My compulsion and my passion is ex always wanted that, always prayed and asked God for that, and yet you didn't end up doing it. No, I didn't end up doing it. By God's providence and by his grace, he saw fit that I would end up doing this instead. And it's okay because I believe that that work over there is going to get done. I still have a passion for it. So maybe God's desire was just for me to pray for it and to undergird the work through lifting it up in prayer. But to God be the glory, I'm expendable. Is that your attitude? I don't say that, so you can go work it up. By the way, remember where we started. This is not Paul's attitude, because he worked harder than you and I to get this attitude. This is Paul's attitude because this is what the gospel does when it gets a hold of a life. So what's our prayer? God, help me to know the gospel, to embrace the gospel, to live the gospel, that the gospel might get a hold of me like this, that this fruit might be born in me. God, when I look at my life, I don't see God's saturated speech like this. Grant my your grace that I might bathe my mind in the Gospel, so that out of the fullness of my heart my mouth would speak these things. I do not have God saturated prayer like the God saturated prayer that I see here. God, by your grace, grant that I might take my eyes off of myself, my own needs, my own wants, and my own desires, and have a bigger, broader Kingdom view, so that the prayers that I prayed would might be isolated and limited, and so narrowly focused on myself and the here and the now. But that somehow I would so rejoice in You, I would so rejoice in the Gospel. I would so rejoice in Your work, that my prayers would even overflow and thanksgiving for the blessings of others because of the evidence of your grace. So that even my own passions and my own desires would be submitted and surrendered to You and your will, And that wherever you place me in the grand scheme of things, I would bear much fruit, and You would gain much glory regardless of whether it ends up the way I want it or not. This is what a compulsion toward the ministry of the Gospel looks like. When we get to the Gospel's God saturated through and through, completely and utterly. Does it mean we no longer have passions? No, doesn't mean that at all. Does it mean that our faith our speech becomes faith and forced? No, doesn't mean that at all. You read this, and perhaps for some of you you even notice it until I've pointed it out, how many references in his speech there are of God because there's nothing fake and there's nothing forced about it. But when the Gospel gets ahold of us, this is what it does. That's my prayer for you, and that's my prayer for me, especially for those of you right here, right now today who've never gotten this, because you've never gotten the Gospel, and there are some of you in this room, and where you are is you've absolutely confused what the Gospel requires and what the Gospel produces. And you've been working, some of you been working for years, for years in order to try to manufacture that which is produced by the Gospel. And you've had some successes in behavioral modification, paired with and absolutely rotten to the core culture that makes you look better than you actually are. And as a result of it, you think you're doing pretty good. But the fact of the matter is, all this time you've spent trying to manufacture what the Gospel requires, you've actually been trying to manufacture what the Gospel produces. You can't manufacture that at all. And you have never ever done what the Gospel requires, which, by the way, is also which God in his sovereignty produces. What the Gospel requires is repentance and faith. And you have traded repentance and faith for human effort and trying to be better than most people around you. And if that's all you got, you will dine and go to hell because it will never be enough. You will never repeace God, you will never satisfy God. And all you have to look forward to is His wrath poured out on you. That's it. What is required of you, his repentance and faith. Turn from yourself, turn from your sin, Turn toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That is your only hope. Believe that he is who the Bible says that he is. That is your only hope. Cast yourself upon him, cast yourself upon God's mercy. Beg God for the forgiveness that only comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and the obedience that he offered on behalf of his people, through a life that never sin and the death that you deserved. Embracing that is what the Gospel requires. You do that, and here's the beautiful irony. You do that, and the Gospel begins to produce those things that you never could manufacture, and all of a sudden, your life that used to be a rollercoaster of measured success because you tried really hard, followed by huge tremendous failures and again and again because you don't do it right. You get to trade that in for a life that every once in a while looks back and says, wait a minute, My desires have changed, my passions have changed, my yearnings have changed, my speech has changed. And to God be the glory great things he has done. Believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and be saved. Get off the merry, go round. Stop trying to produce yourself what is at best a cheap imitation of that which only God can accomplish in its fullness, and in its majesty, Did you pray with me? Father? As we buy before you. We say that we are indeed a grateful people. That's only true of us when we view the Gospel aright. When we don't, we're not at all a grateful people. We're people trying to work and appease your wrath by efforts that are born in sin and shape and iniquity. We are people running hot and heavy to keep the hounds of hell at bat all the while running further and further away from the one who says, come to me, are you who labor and they're heavy laden? And I will give you rest. Make us a grateful people. Grant us eyes to see, grace to understand, faith to believe, And when you've done so, grant us a compulsion to share, whether here or in lands far away. May we be compelled to share because of the greatness of the Gospel and the magnitude of our gratitude over what you, through it have done in our lives. To this week, pray in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.