Important Priorities

Important Priorities

“Important Priorities”

(Romans 1:8-17)

Series: Not Guilty! (Book of Romans_

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church Henderson, KY

(2-8-09) (AM)

 

  • Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 1.

 

Last week we began a study of the book of Romans.  If you’re visiting with us, this is what we do, we preach through books of the Bible, verse-by-verse wherever possible as we believe this is the best way to learn the Word of God.  We believe in exposition or expository preaching, where we expose the clear meaning of a biblical text by explaining it in the context in which we find it.  So, verse-by-verse preaching is the best way to accomplish this goal.

 

Having said that, periodically we will have a special short series of messages that ties together with Sunday school lessons.  Last year we did a series in March called “Questions” where we answered some of life’s biggest questions.  And so we’re going to do this again next month in March with a series called, “Answers.”  And we’ll look at answering questions like, “Don’t all religions worship the same God?” or, “What about evolution, what about dinosaurs?”  So we’ll take the 5 Sundays of March, next month, for this special series in both worship and Sunday school after which we’ll return to our series in Romans.  But it will be a great time for you to invite uncommitted friends and family members and co-workers.

 

Now last week we got as far as verse 7 of the first chapter so we’ll pick it up there at verse 8 and read through verse 17.  We said last time in our introductory message that Paul is writing this letter in AD 57 while he is in Corinth on his 3rd missionary journey.  He is writing to Christians in Rome, probably several different house churches there in Rome.

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,

10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established —

12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

13 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.

14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.

15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

When I graduated from high school we were asked to think about some last words or famous quotes we wanted to leave in our high school yearbook.  So beneath each person’s picture it said what each person did during the four years of high school and then some kind of quote.  This one quote really spoke to me so I used it.  It’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin.  Here’s what we said: “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”  I thought of that quote this week as I studied this passage.  “Either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”  Paul was about both of those things.  He wrote things worth reading; he did things worth writing.  The point is: Don’t waste your life.  Stay focused on the main things.  Stay focused on the important priorities of life.

Kent Hughes, in his commentary on the book of Romans, refers to an old Charlie Brown comic strip, one with Linus and Snoopy the dog.  And in this particular cartoon, Linus throws a stick for Snoopy to fetch.  And Snoopy’s first instinct is to run and fetch the stick, but he pauses for a moment and then decides against it.  And Snoopy says, “I want people to have more to say about me when I’m gone than, ‘He was a nice guy…He chased sticks.’”

 

There’s something about Snoopy that resonates with nearly every one of us.  We want to make a difference in this world.  It really won’t matter much how successful we were in our jobs or how much money we earned or how many trophies we have.  In the end we will want to have made a difference.  And—listen—the Gospel makes a difference.  The Gospel has the power to change lives.  The Gospel, says Paul, is the “power of God unto salvation.”  And so this passage is a reminder to stay focused upon the things that matter in life, the important priorities.

 

See, worship like this, corporate worship is about our getting together and opening God’s Word and being reminded of who we are and what we’re about.  I don’t know what I’d do without the preaching of God’s Word.  I love to hear the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.  This world can get us sidetracked and so we come together on the Lord’s day and hear and study the Word of God.  So we’re reminded that this world is not about “chasing sticks,” but “pursuing God” and “pursuing holiness” and focusing in on the important priorities of life

 

This passage teaches us three main things.  It teaches us about the Gospel and prayer, people, and power.  First, let’s talk about prayer, prayer.  We must pray!  We must offer prayers to God.

 

I.  Extend Prayers to God (8-10)

 

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

 

Paul is telling the Christians in Rome that he prays to God, thanking God for their salvation.  That’s what he means when he says, “I thank my God…that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”  He’s not saying that the Christians in Rome have some kind of “super faith” and that’s what he’s thanking God for.  No, the reference to “their faith” means “their salvation.”  Paul says he thanks God that so many folks in Rome have come to know Christ.  People are coming to know Christ and the word is spreading.  Paul says he thanks God for that.  By the way, when was the last time you prayed a prayer like, “Thank you God, for saving, John?  Thank you, God, for saving Betty?”  I’ve told you before we ought to thank God every day for saving our soul.  When was the last time you said, “Thank you God, for saving my co-worker, my mom, my dad, my son, my daughter?”  So much of this passage focuses on others.  How much of your prayer time is focused on you and how much of it is focused on others?  Listen to Paul:

 

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,

 

See that?  Hey what’s important in life?  How about praying for other people?  Paul says “without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.”  That means the brothers and sisters in Rome were nearly always on his mind.  Paul wasn’t some kind of superhuman.  He was a regular person like you and I.  He reminds us here that we should be praying and that too often our prayers are self-focused: Give me this and give me that.  Paul does pray here for himself, but even the end of his prayer is a focus upon others.  Verse 10:

 

10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

 

He’s saying, “I’ve been praying for God to get me to Rome so that I may see you and be with you.”  See when you get saved, God gives you a love for others.  I said last week one of the things I was proud of about our church family in the snow and ice storm was the way so many people got on the phone—those who could get on the phone—and checked on one another.  And then folks went over to other people’s homes and cleaned up yards.  I got a call Monday from another church member who was telling me about a couple out in their yard cutting up trees.  When you get saved, God gives you a love for others.  Paul is focused on others.

 

So Paul says in verse 10 that he is praying, “making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.”  By the way, when we pray like that, when we pray in the will of God, then we need to be ready for God to answer that prayer according to His will.  Paul says, “I am praying that somehow in God’s will I’m going to come to you.”  That’s a prayer of a man who loves God and is willing for God to answer his prayer however He so desires.  “God, I want to get to Rome to see these believers, to encourage them, to preach the Gospel in Rome, just however You want Father, in Jesus’ name, amen.”  You pray a prayer like that you’d better be ready for God to answer that prayer however He desires.

 

Paul says, “If by some means…I may find a way in the will of God,” and God says, “Okay, how about I answer your prayer through your being arrested, imprisoned, and shipwrecked?”  Remember our study from the book of Acts?  That’s the means by which Paul found a way in the will of God to get to Rome.  See God knows what is best for us and when we pray, “God just do whatever You need to do” He says, “Thank You for praying that way.  I’ve got a perfect plan.  There will be times you may not like it, but trust Me.  It’s right.”  Pray.  The next section’s about people.  We should extend our prayers to God.  Here’s the second important priority:

 

II.  Encourage the People of God (11-15)

 

Paul sought to receive encouragement and to give encouragement to others.  Look at verse 11:

 

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established —

12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

 

Do you hear what he’s saying?  He’s talking about encouragement, mutual encouragement.  The New Living Translation puts verse 12 like this, “When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.”  Mutual encouragement.  Paul says, “I long to see you, that  I may impart to you some spiritual gift.”  He’s probably talking about preaching a fuller exposition of the Gospel.  He wants to give them in full what he is now writing to them in part in this letter.  But he says, “I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by you.”  Mutual encouragement.  When Christians get together they encourage one another.

 

Six thousand men this past weekend in Atlanta!  Six thousand men gathering together for the men’s conference at First Baptist Church Woodstock in Atlanta.  I absolutely loved this men’s conference with Johnny Hunt, the best men’s conference I have ever attended.  We had about 20 guys in our men’s ministry go down to Atlanta. They had 6,000 this weekend and about 6,000 the previous weekend.   I am so glad I went and so glad I that I took my oldest son.  Why?  Encouragement!  Like the Apostle Paul, Johnny Hunt imparted to us a spiritual gift so that we may be established, but it was a mutual encouragement and an encouragement all around the campus of that great facility.  Six thousand men singing praises to God, six thousand men being challenged, convicted, and encouraged.  Praise God!

 

13 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.

 

Paul is simply saying here that he had hoped to have already been there to Rome, but that he was hindered from coming and we could speculate as to why, but the main reason is because it had not been in God’s will.  God had his man busy preaching in other places. And Paul is okay with that.  He’s like, “Look, I want to see fruit wherever I can find it.  If I preach to you all out West there in Rome or around here I just want to see souls saved.  Verse 14:

 

14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.

15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

 

Paul is saying, “I just want to preach the Gospel to anyone and everyone.”  Why?  He says, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians.”  The Greeks looked at anyone who was not a Greek as a “barbarian.”  It just meant a foreigner who spoke a language they didn’t understand.  Paul’s point is, “I am every man’s debtor.”  Because of his love for God, he looks at a soul and he says, “I am in debt to that man.  I owe that man something.  I owe him the Gospel.  Let me go over and talk to that man about the Gospel.  I owe it to God and owe it to that man.”

 

I can relate to that, can’t you?  God in His great love saved me from my sins.  So what ought to be my response when I look upon the soul of another?  I am that man’s debtor.  I can never repay God for what He has given me through Christ Jesus, but Christ’s love constrains me to live the rest of my days as a debtor to Greeks, barbarians, to wise, and unwise, to black, to white, to rich, to poor, so as much as is in me, I am ready to share the Gospel to all people.

 

So you go to school this week and you see that student over there and you say to yourself, “I am that soul’s debtor.”  You go to work this week and you see that co-worker and you say, “I am that soul’s debtor.”  You buy a pack of gum at the convenience store and you look at that clerk ringing you up and you say, “I am that soul’s debtor.”  You eat lunch this afternoon and when your waitress says, “I am your waitress” you say to yourself, “I am your debtor.”  And you share the Gospel!

 

This passage is about prayer, about people, about power.   Extend prayer to God, encourage the people of God.  Number three:

 

III.  Experience the Power of God (16-17)

 

We touched on these verses last week in our introductory message on Romans. By the way, remember all our sermons are free online.  You can listen to them and read the sermon manuscripts.  You can print them out for further study or to teach from them.  It’s all there for free.  So if you missed last week’s introductory sermon visit fbchenderson.org and you can get it.

 

We said verses 16 and 17 are the key verses to the book of Romans.  Verses 16 and 17 encapsulate the entire point of Paul’s letter.  Romans is about the Gospel.  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about the life and work of Jesus Christ.  Romans explains the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection.  Paul says:

 

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

 

The Gospel or, “the Gospel of Christ” as some translations have it is, “the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.”  It is for the “Jew first and also for the Greek, the non-Jew, or the Gentile.”

 

That last phrase is simply a reminder to us that God had chosen the Jews to be the privileged receivers and givers of spiritual things.  They were to receive spiritual blessings from God and share those blessings with others.  Paul’s point here in verses 16 and 17 is that the Gospel is for everyone.  Anyone and everyone can experience the power of God.  It’s for everyone.

 

17 For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

 

So in and through the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.  God makes His righteousness known and available to us in Christ.  We talked about this last time.  We mentioned Martin Luther’s struggle with God’s righteousness.  He read this verse about the righteousness of God and all he got out of it was that God was Holy and righteous and that he himself was not.  He shuddered at the thought of his standing before this perfect and righteous God.  But then Luther understood that Paul’s point is that this holy and righteous God reveals His righteousness to us not so that we may see it and shrink back, but so that we may receive it upon ourselves.  God reveals His pure, holy, spotless, righteousness not so that we may fearfully shudder and stammer and shrink and fall back in shame, but so that we may receive this perfect righteousness and wear it like a big coat that covers our entire body.  And this righteousness of God comes through Jesus Christ.  He takes care of our sins and gives to us His righteousness.

 

When Jesus was nailed to the cross and He died for us and rose from the grave Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  So we may sing:

 

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

 

When he shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh, may I then in him be found,

Clothed in his righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne!

 

God’s righteousness is ours through Jesus Christ and it comes to us by faith.  “In it—in the Gospel—the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.”  That phrase “from faith to faith” is probably best translated as, “by faith from first to last,” or, “altogether by faith” or “entirely by faith.”  We receive God’s righteousness by faith, by receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

 

Paul adds, “as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith,” and in the end of verse 17 Paul quotes the Old Testament Prophet Habakkuk.  And Paul quotes from Habakkuk and applies Habakkuk’s prophecy about God’s caring for His people to the Gospel.  So when Paul uses it here in verse 17 he means for us to read it like this, “the just by faith shall live.”  God will take care of those who are justified by faith.  God will take care of those who give their lives to Him, wholly trusting Him, wholly surrendering to Him through faith in Christ.

 

And if we will give our lives to God, wholly trusting God, wholly surrendering to God through faith in Christ, God will declare us “Not guilty” and we will be saved from the penalty of our sins.

 

Concluding Illustration:

 

I was sharing yesterday afternoon with one of our men at the men’s conference in Atlanta that this week marks a very special anniversary for me, this Thursday, February 12.  Eighteen years ago, long before I was in the ministry, I was struggling with this matter of the righteousness of God and whether I had actually received it.  I had made a decision for Christ about 10 years earlier, but I was really beginning to doubt my salvation.  I didn’t know whether I was really saved and just in doubt or whether I was really lost and under conviction.  This was a process that went on for many, many weeks and then one day, February 12, 1991, I left my job a little early at the Parole Office in Gainesville, Georgia and drove over to the church to visit with my pastor.  I shared with him my struggles and then Brother Charles said something like, “Look, you’ve just got to get on your knees there and commit your heart to the Lord and take Him at His Word.”  And so I drove home and went back into my study room and got on my knees and said something like, “Lord, if it were never true before, it is true right now.  I love you.  I believe in you.  I confess my sins and repent from my sins.  Jesus, I believe you died for my sins and rose from the grave.  Come into my life and change me and make me a new person.  Amen.”  And I wrote the date and time in the margin of my Bible right next to 1 John 5:13, which I highlighted, “These things I write to you that you may know you have eternal life.”  I wrote there, “2-12-91, 4:10 PM.”

 

That afternoon I “drove a stake in the ground” so that I could always go back to that time and say, “If it were never true before I know it was true then.”  If I never had it before I know that right there in my room at 10 minutes passed 4 PM I received the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus my Lord and have since been “Not Guilty.”  Some of you need that freedom today.

 

  • Stand for prayer.

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