Lord, I swear there's no pain I know there's no danger In that bright world to which I go Welcome to this podcast from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. Faith Bible Church is a Christ-centered Bible teaching ministry dedicated to bringing the good news of the gospel to the whole world. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And now, for this week's message from Pastor Alan Battle. Romans 15, 14 through 21. I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God. so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed. By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the word of God. We're moving into the epilogue of the book of Romans this week. Last week we concluded both the practical Christian living division of the book as well as the theological body of this great treatise in the gospel. Paul concluded that section with his final call for unity among the brethren, that they might with one voice glorify God. And in the epilogue, Paul will give us his final greetings to several individuals at Rome, his plans for his future ministry, and his final justification for writing this letter. That justification is based on his authority as an apostle to the Gentiles. And that's our topic today, Paul's authority to proclaim God's message of good news. There's so many voices out there who are claiming to represent God. The question is, whose news are they really proclaiming? So how do you know if someone is really serving God or just themselves? One of my favorite Christian bands in the 80s was Daniel Amos and they wrote a satirical song about this problem called, I Didn't Build It For Me. It was written from the perspective of a megachurch pastor who, like Paul, was attempting to justify his ministry to the congregation. It went, you think I built this for me? It isn't mine, it's yours. It's really for you. I didn't build it for me. And then it goes on to say, there's a plaque in the hall, my name's on the wall, and a statue of my family. It wasn't my decision, it was all in a vision. There's always been phonies who claim direct revelation from God. And it was Jesus himself who called them wolves in sheep's clothing. Back in the 80s and 90s, there were several popular preachers and leaders who were exposed as frauds. The one that devastated me the most was a guy named Mike Warnke. He was a Christian author and comedian and claimed that he was a former Satanist high priest. His book, The Satan Seller, became a huge bestseller. And I read it as a brand new Christian, and I resonated with his story of coming out of the drug culture. And then he made several comedy albums and constantly toured the country with his show. And I attended one of his comedy shows, and I was very uncomfortable with the high-pressure, guilt-inducing technique that he had of extracting donations from the audience. Well, shortly after that he was exposed. The problem was, his whole story was made up. The Christian magazine Cornerstone did an investigation and they couldn't find one single person to corroborate any of his stories. In fact, they found several that flat out contradicted his stories. There was another preacher named Robert Tilton. You may have seen him on TV. He would regularly speak in tongues and cry on the air while begging for donations. He was shown to be a fraud. This all started out as a joke for him when he was in college. He and a buddy decided to have a tent meeting and pretend like they were preachers. And then he ran with it. The most notorious, though, were Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart. You might remember them. Jim Baker, along with his wife Tammy Fay, were the hosts of the PTL club. The PTL stood for praise the Lord, but past the lute would have been more appropriate. They were in the homes of hundreds of thousands of people every single day. And they had their own cable TV network. But eventually, Baker was exposed as a womanizer and was arrested for stealing millions of dollars from the ministry that he founded. He ended up being in prison for several years. But he was repentant. And when he got out, he went back into the ministry. His fellow TV evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, he denounced Baker as a cancer on the church. And after that, he was exposed as having hired prostitutes. But he was also very repentant. Eventually, Swaggart and Baker got together and they started a new magazine. It was called Repent House. But the Apostle Paul was not a phony. He begins his defense here by acknowledging the genuineness of the Roman church's faith and their competence to discern spiritual matters. So we begin in verse 14 of chapter 15. He says, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. Paul says that he's satisfied about them. Satisfied about what? How does he know that they are genuine Christians? Well, there's no way for you and I to know for sure the genuineness of someone else's faith. But we can confidently accept one another's testimony based on the evidence in our lives. That's enough to be able to welcome one another as brothers and sisters. In his parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus warned that there would be some phonies in the church. But he didn't tell us to try to figure out who they were. He said, let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather together first the tares and bind them into bundles and burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. That's a job for angels, not for us. On the other hand, when people do not bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance, then we have good reason to doubt someone's faith. As James said, faith without works is dead. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. The Romans had visible works. At the beginning of his letter, Paul said that their faith was being proclaimed throughout the whole world. They had a reputation. And because he was confident that their faith was genuine, he was also confident that they had spiritual discernment. And this is because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He said it earlier in Romans chapter eight, true children of God are led by the Spirit of God. Unlike non-believers, Christians have the ability to discern spiritual things. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The natural person is the person who's not born again. Paul's convinced that the Romans have had that spiritual transformation. And Paul is not putting himself above these believers. He's just one of them. In fact, he says that we all have the ability to teach one another. You remember what he said in the introduction to Romans? He said he desired that he would come to visit them so that we may be, this is Romans 12, or chapter one, verse 12. that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. And compare that with this verse. He says, we're able to instruct one another. Do you see that at the end of the verse? Although there may be times when we might need professional counseling, when someone might need professional counseling, the bulk of our counseling needs would be eliminated if Christians would just practice this on a regular basis. This is the principle that became the heart of the modern biblical counseling movement. It was spearheaded by a guy named Jay Adams in the 70s. And this verse was the basis for his groundbreaking book titled Competent to Counsel. He said this in regard to our counseling one another. Every believer may share in the full supply of divine equipment to the degree that is necessary to accomplish God's will. Every one of us is competent to counsel each other if we know God's word and we rely on his spirit. So now having expressed his confidence in the Romans, Paul launches into his reasons for them to have confidence in him. It says in verse 15, but on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God. to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now Paul's calling was unique. He was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Not that he was the only one, but he was the first and most important. God used him to reveal his plan to take the gospel to the whole world. and to record that in his letters that make up about half of the books of the New Testament. Paul calls himself a minister here, a minister who is performing as a priest. But he's using that term priestly service figuratively, not literally. The literal priesthood ended with the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. But in Isaiah, God said that he would make the Jews a kingdom of priests. And that promise was fulfilled with the birth of the church. Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Peter speaking to Christians here says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And then in Revelation 1.6, John declares that those who have been freed from sin through the blood of Jesus are a kingdom of priests. But although Paul is not a priest in the Old Testament sense, he does have a unique spiritual calling. In the first verse of Romans, he claims that he's an apostle. I believe that he was drafted to replace Judas as the 12th apostle. In Romans 11, 13, he states that he's an apostle to the Gentiles. In Galatians, he contrasts his call to the Gentiles with Peter's call to the Jews. Then he goes on to say that the rest of the apostles all recognized his particular calling. And then in his testimony in Acts 22, he tells how Jesus himself gave him this calling. Acts 22, 21, and he, Jesus, said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And in Ephesians, he tells us how amazed he is to be given such a privilege. Ephesians three, verse eight. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. He sees himself as the least of the saints, yet he's been given this amazing grace in order to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Oops. But what I want us to realize is that every one of us has a calling. And no calling is better or more important than another. Every member of the body of Christ has a vital role in God's plan. Early in the history of the church, people began using that word calling for those who went into full-time ministry. Priests and monks began claiming the term calling, or another way to say it is vocation. They claimed it exclusively for religious, especially monastic work. And it's common to hear this idea to this day. He was called into the ministry. But if we restrict the meaning to full-time service, we're mistaken. The reformers corrected that limited idea of calling. Martin Luther led the way by proclaiming that all people are called by God to do whatever work they're given to do. He declared that the farmer shoveling manure and the maid milking her cow pleases God as much as the ministers preaching and praying. He said, God is milking the cows through the vocation of the milkmaid. He said that all honest work performed by a believer is a calling, and all callings please God. Several years later, the reformer John Calvin wrote this in his Institutes. He said, We should note that the Lord commands every one of us in all the actions of our life to be faithful to our calling. He has appointed to everyone his particular duties in the different spheres of life, and he has called such spheres of life vocations or callings. And he concluded with this, Every individual sphere of life, therefore, is a post assigned him by the Lord. Jesus is the Lord of everything in life, not just what we call religion. And he's given each of us an important role. So while Paul has a unique calling, you and I also have unique callings. But all callings work toward that purpose of fulfilling God's plan for mankind. This brings us back to our passage today and the main point of the sermon. Paul began the letter by saying he wasn't ashamed of the gospel. You remember that back in chapter one? And here he reiterates that. He says, it says here in verse 16, you see that? He's justifying his boldness by pointing out that this good news is not his news. It's the gospel of God. Whose news? God's news. This letter, like the whole Bible, is not a man-made document. For over a hundred years now, so-called liberal Christianity, which really is not Christianity at all, it's a counterfeit faith, they've challenged the divine nature of the Bible. And they maintained a veneer of religiosity while capitulating to the culture in the areas of miracles and morality. But now there are some in evangelical circles who are doing the same thing. There are those who are calling Jesus' clear teaching that he is the only way to salvation as false. They say there are many ways. Others deny Jesus' teaching on hell. And some say that we have to discern between God's word and Paul's opinions in his letters, especially his opinions concerning homosexuality and the roles of women in the church. But Paul is claiming here that he is simply conveying what God has called him to communicate. And the apostle Peter clearly believed that about Paul. Look at 2 Peter 3.15. Peter says, our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. What matters? Matters of salvation. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. Peter considered Paul's writings scripture. And if the whole Bible is not God's word, then we're in big trouble. Because then we're left to the wisdom of men to decide between what God says and what man says. And that brings us to ridiculous situations. Like when the liberal biblical, so-called biblical scholars of the Jesus Seminar, they get together and they vote on which sayings in the gospels Jesus really said. Imagine that. But Paul is not claiming any personal credit for what he's writing here. Or any credit for his ministry. Look at verse 17. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. In Christ Jesus. This work is God's work, and his words are God's words. In another place, he thanked God for the Thessalonian believers who received his message, quote, not as the word of men, but for what it really was, the word of God. Now he goes on in verses 18 and 19 to reinforce this point. He says, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the powers of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. He's just doing what he was told. Anyone can claim to be God's spokesman, but the fruit of the ministry is what proves its worth. Paul and the other apostles had their ministries endorsed by God through miraculous signs and wonders. That was a unique time in the church, though, and a unique time in history. We don't see a lot of that today, very little. But Paul had something more substantial to demonstrate his authority. He planted churches full of people whose lives were radically changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the greatest miracle of all. The transformation of the human soul into a saint from a sinner. Paul's saying, if you want proof, just check out the places where I've been. from Jerusalem to Illyricum, from one end of the empire to the other. He left a string of faithful churches, people following the Lord. And he wasn't riding other people's coattails, to use an old expression. He wasn't just an itinerant preacher going to existing churches. He was a pioneer. Look at verse 20. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told will see him, and those who have never heard will understand. Somebody had to be the first, the first to take the gospel to places where it was unknown, and Paul was given that privilege. It doesn't mean, though, that we should only send missionaries to unreached peoples. There are many different roles in God's kingdom. Paul himself pointed out to the Corinthians that the work that he began among them, Apollos built on. He said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the increase. The Corinthians had got the mistaken idea that the ministries of Paul and Apollos were somehow at odds with each other. And they were taking sides. I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. They mistook the conveyors of the message with the owner of the message. It wasn't Paul's good news. It wasn't Apollos' good news. It was God's good news. Paul was not in the ministry for his own glory or to get a lavish lifestyle like some of the religious hucksters we were just talking about. Paul was in it to proclaim the good news of God's gospel to a lost and dying world. And you and I have that same responsibility. And not just the responsibility, we have the calling and we have the authority and we have the ability to proclaim that news. Each of us in our own unique way can be a part of that amazing calling. And it's not just in the presentation of the gospel, it's in the harmonious functioning of the body of Christ in every aspect of life. Each of us fulfilling our calling in the spheres where God has placed us. So do you see that as your calling? If you know Jesus as your Lord, it is your calling and it's your purpose. So will you commit yourself with me anew to this calling to fulfill the destiny that God has for your life? Let's pray. Lord, we praise you. We praise you that you have called us out of the darkness. Lord, we praise you that we've heard your voice and we responded. and that you give us the confidence, that you give us the ability through the power of your Holy Spirit to serve you in amazing ways. Lord, we know that it all comes from you. We just give you praise, Lord. We thank you so much that you privilege us to be a part of this plan that you've devised to save mankind. In Christ's name we pray. Thank you for listening to the preaching of God's Word from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. We hope that it has been an encouragement to you and that the Word of God will fill your hearts and minds as you walk through this world. If you have been blessed by this ministry and would like to make a small donation to help defray the costs of this podcast, just click on the green support us button at the top of the webpage. Thank you.