I think you know where we're going, Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. Well, today we're going to be finishing up Paul's introduction to the Romans. I like the fact that he took basically 15 sentences in a letter to finish his introduction, which was probably a 10-minute read for them at the most. And we have the ability to pick through these verses and take weeks on end. But I always liked to think of the fact that these were epistles, they were letters, like we would write to a loved one afar. I remember when I was a kid, my mother would get letters from her relatives in Ireland. And they'd be all just in illegible writing that would go on forever, run on sentences, and go through two or three pages, and you had a hard time to read the type of writing that it was. But, you know, the reality is we have These words that were once in Greek, they're in plain English for us to read. And it's so amazing how we can draw so much truth out of so little text. But that's the beauty of the Bible anyways. It's something, as you said, many people think that you should read the book of Romans at least 100 times before you start really understanding it. And I agree with that. It seems like every time we go into the book of Romans, there's some new truth. It's not new truth to God, but it's new truth to us that we draw out of it. That's the beauty about the Word of God. It says what it means, and it means what it says. But yet to us, the application in our finite minds is so, it's so, I don't know what the word I'm looking for. There is no word to describe it. Amen. Right on, there we go. When I was reading Romans, and I've read it for a long time, it's not anything new. It's what he shows us that we've already read and gave it to us and then he says this is what you read. Amen. Yep, that's the greatest, probably the greatest or one of the greatest pieces of literature, let alone being part of the Bible, which makes it even better, but one of the greatest known pieces of literature that this earth has ever seen from a literary standpoint. as well. So it's been, it's wonderful. So this introduction, we continue from verse number eight through verse 15 this morning, and we'll read that together. So verse number seven, let me go back there for a second. We covered that last, it was the verse I didn't read, but I covered it to all 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 looked at those words, beloved of God. These people in Rome, way back to the people in Jerusalem and Antioch, all the way to the furthest parts of the world that were known at the time, those in Rome were beloved of God, just like those that came earlier and those that would come later. They were beloved of God. And that's something for us to remember, too. We are in that category, beloved of God. If you are a believer, if you're a Christian, guess what? You're a Christian because you were beloved by God and you believe the good news of salvation. Amen? So let's read verses seven through 15. To all that be in Rome, oh, wait a minute, first, I almost read verse seven again, but verse number eight says first. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 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, making request if by any means now at the length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. And Lord, we just pray that you would add your blessing to your word this morning, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I like the first thing that comes up, it says first. The number one priority that Paul had for this communication was to thank God for them. through Jesus Christ. This is a good way of easing into prayer, a good way to easing into your sanctification is being thankful through Jesus Christ. Being thankful for all that you have, all that we have, that we've been provided through Jesus Christ. the testimony of the church in Rome had already spread around. Look at the end of this verse here. Through Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. That's some reputation they had. I don't know what the reputation of Rome is nowadays, but it had a bad reputation for some time. And he's writing this at the time during the Roman Empire. But the faith of those in Rome was impeccable. It was spoken of through the world. Rome, of course, became famous for religion. In the year 300 or so, 325, when Constantine, he merged Christianity with all the pagan religions and created a god that would be accepted by both the pagans, or all the pagans, rather, and Christians. The old adage was, if you can't beat them, join them. That's what Constantine did, and what came out of Rome from that time on became a mishmash of idolatry and Christianity together. But yet, the Christian message is one of separation from those gods, not joining those gods. So their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter number one. Let's go down, even though it's only 10 verses, right? But let's go just for, just so we'll get out of Romans sometime during the 21st century. Let's go down to verse eight. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread about." So I believe in Rome, that's where they had heard about the faith. It was spread out of Thessalonica. But sometime in that time, we don't know when exactly the church in Rome was founded. Because Paul didn't make it there until later. He purposed to go there, but he never made it there. He was always held back until he took this, what I like to call the Gilligan's Isle tour. He ended up being shipwrecked, imprisoned, and then many years later would end up in Rome, and he had the greatest accommodations, being in a house, being captivity there. He says, For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from the idols to serve the living and true God. This is the testimony that Paul had had of the Thessalonians. He went into Thessalonica again, and he was kicked out by the Jews, but yet he was received of just a few people, and ended up going into Berea after that, and there he found Jews that were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the Word of God, and they checked to see if everything that Paul said was true. Let's look at verse number 10 here. And to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. I like that, already delivered. That goes right along with predestination. When a believer trusts the gospel, he's predestined to the adoption, and predestined because of that adoption, he's delivered already from the wrath to come. Aren't you glad today that you are already delivered from the wrath to come? There are many critics of that view that say that's baloney. That only started in the early 1800s. Before that, that wasn't a biblical view. Well, I'm sorry, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 would say something totally different. The rapture is something that has been around. Dispensationalism has been around before the 1800s. Why? We just take the word for what it says. Don't try to add to it or subtract. Don't try to put us where we shouldn't be or the church where it shouldn't be. So which delivered us from the wrath to come? So many people tragically think that the church will be raptured after the tribulation. because they take the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, found in Matthew 24 and 25, and they apply that to the rapture. No, that's the second coming there. He's gonna come. He's gonna come, there's gonna be judgment that's gonna come upon the world, and guess where we'll be during that time? Same place we're seated right now. We're seated positionally in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but there'll be one time we'll be practically sitting in those heavenly seats. Amen. I can't wait. So those that would say, I used to get offended, people used to say, you use that rapture stuff and that Christianity stuff as a crutch. I used to get kind of angry. I'd say, amen. It's not a crutch, it's a cross. Amen? If you don't believe in the rapture of the church, why would you want to go through a tribulation, then the rapture, if we've been delivered from the wrath to come? The rapture is a protection from God's wrath for those who have believed at this time. No wrath to come, been delivered from that already. See, this is why Romans is gonna take 10 years to go through. Let's go back to Romans chapter one again. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. They didn't even have social media then, but there's faith spread throughout the world. That's amazing right there. Verse number nine, 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. The key section of this verse here is in the gospel of his son. That's the key. He serves, right, God is a witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his flesh. How did Paul serve in the spirit? Well, first of all, he was called by God, he was an apostle, and he had an inward change that was able to do that. There's a conflict between flesh and spirit. Amen, we all have that. There's always that, but the difference before, before salvation, the difference is we couldn't do anything about it. We were servants or slaves to the flesh rather than servants of God. We covered that somewhat last week, that Paul was a servant of God. He had obedience to the Lord rather than obedience to the law or the flesh. Tragically, and I don't use that word lightly, tragically, many believers today do not live by the gospel or in the gospel or in the spirit. They try to clean up their flesh and make themselves right before they get to God. It's tragic. If I do certain things, God will accept me. My wife, well, Helen, met an old friend of hers that says she's had cancer 11 times. I think she's had cancer once, because it doesn't really go away, it just dwells within us. And Helen asked her if she knew that she was going to heaven. When she died, she said, I've tried my best. That's tragic. And that's in a religious church. Right? Even in Bible-believing churches, you'll find people that no matter what, they'll still say, I tried my best. I hope I'm going to heaven. That's because the focus is on performance of self rather than the performance of God at Calvary. That's something that seriously is done throughout. Why do you think we have like 9,000, or let me change it to modern English, nine gazillion different denominations out there? So you all have some nuance of the different works of the flesh that need to be done. No works of the flesh. Let's turn over, while we're in the book of Romans, let's go to Romans chapter eight. Just we'll contrast the flesh and the spirit a little bit here. Romans chapter eight. I'm saving Romans chapter seven for when we get to Romans chapter seven, because that's an incredible chapter of conflict between flesh and spirit. Romans chapter eight, verse one. I think I may have said last week or the week before that this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible among many. I want to see how far I want to go here with this. Yeah, verses one through nine. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. I think, Ray, I was talking with you last week and mentioned I heard somebody say that walking in the flesh, that just means salvation. It's like, no, it can't be. Christians can and do walk in the flesh. It's a battle. But the only difference that we have when we're in Christ and have the spirit of Christ, we can use free will and we can say no to those desires of the flesh. Is it easy? No way. I like to always use the example of stubbing your toe. You immediately walk in the flesh and not in the spirit. It's how many people have ever stubbed their toe, hopping around on one foot saying, oh, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, for that. It doesn't happen. A lot of times the Lord will come out, but not thanking him, right? You don't know what happens. That's a battle we have, and when we have pain and suffering, that battle becomes even worse. Because our tendency is, why did I deserve this, Lord? Why am I going through this? The reality is, we all deserve to go through it all. But yet, God's mercy and grace are there. We're in this fallen bodies in a fallen world. I didn't even get out of verse one here. Wait till we get to Romans 8, that's all. Wait till we get to 7, or 6, or 5. Wait till we get out of the introduction. There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. A lot of people will just put a period there. But it goes on. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. When you walk after the flesh, when you make the wrong decisions to do the wrong things, A byproduct of that becomes condemnation. I agree, we won't be condemned of God, but yet, who's the biggest critic of you? You. Right? Condemnation. In the past, I used to, and you hear this often, as that woman was, as Helen talked to that woman, I don't know if I've done everything I need to be saved. We would say, I don't know if I've done enough. I don't know if I've served enough or given enough. Those questions come up. But when you walk in the Spirit, that's truly just trust in what the Lord has done and let Him, let the Gospel be the first thing in your mind. Being thankful that Jesus died and that'll set things in order. I just recently read a doctrinal statement of a real works-based church, and it says, yes, you can lose salvation if you don't do certain things, like things involving the church. I'm like, wow. You know, you can deny Christ, but he won't deny you, because he cannot deny himself. Now, that's security. And believe it or not, many of us will come to a time where we'll deny Christ. It might be for a millisecond. It might be for a second. It might be for five minutes. Some people, it might be five years. But yet, when you get back to walking in the Spirit, you will no longer have that denial or that self-condemnation. And Helen's not here to snap her finger. How quickly can we get back in fellowship with the Lord and walk in the Spirit? Just like that. He's already done the work for us. Let's go to verse two. I often think we're not under the law, we're under grace. We're under another law. not the law of Moses, look at verse two. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Right, that's a law, life in Christ Jesus. That sums up the whole Mosaic law plus. That is so complete that there's nothing else you have to do but one thing is believe. That's what basically was the work of all the 613 or 616 commandments in the law. They still had to come by faith. We come by faith, we believe the gospel, and in that gospel is fulfilled everything that we need for life and godliness. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. The Mosaic Law, we can call that the law of sin and death. That law was there to testify of our need of a savior, our need for forgiveness. Because if we go by the law, we find ourselves guilty. Matter of fact, James says if you are guilty of disobeying one law, you've disobeyed the whole law. So what we do is we look, we look to the spirit of life in Christ. How does that go? You believe. You trust, right? You trust in what Jesus Christ has done. You know, if you don't do that, if you say, no, Jesus wasn't enough to purchase my salvation or keep my salvation, the Father would not have sent them in the first place if that wasn't enough. I used to have an old pastor that would say that, you know, God would have to apologize to his son, Jesus Christ. Son, I didn't have to send you. The world didn't need you, but he would never do that because he's done that. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. In other words, the law is weak. Actually, the flesh is weak too. That's why the flesh cannot obey all of the law. Think of it even in municipal laws. Has anybody ever run, did a California stop at a stop sign? Guilty. 65 mile an hour speed limit and you drive 66? Guilty. I couldn't believe at the time when I didn't get arrested, but I got stopped because I was driving too slow. Guilty. Right, that's what the law does. It shows your guilt. And imagine this, if you walked in the post office and there was a picture of you on the wall that said wanted for running a red light. Imagine all the wallpapering that would take place in that place when every single citizen would have their picture on that wall for breaking some sort of law. That's why it was weak. The Mosaic Law was weak because of the flesh. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. I would love to ask the people that grew up with Jesus while he was a kid. You know, I picture kids today, they're fighting over what color cup they have. Did Jesus ever do that? Now that pottery belongs to me. Now Jesus was perfect. And I imagine he got ridiculed for that, that being perfect. Well yeah, this kid's a mama's boy. I can picture it now. But those things are just, they're speculations. But Jesus was perfect. Jesus knew no sin. He became sin for us. in 2 Corinthians 5. He knew no sin, but became sin for us. In the sinless body of Jesus, He took upon Himself every sin in the world. Every handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Every wanted poster from the post office for doing that California stop. He took it all in His flesh, His perfect flesh, and He went to the cross. He condemned sin in the flesh. Anybody ever live or go into a condemned building? I've been in condemned buildings, but I won't go there. But the reality, that sin was condemned went to the cross with Jesus Christ. And look at verse 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. The righteousness of the law. All those handwritings of ordinance that was against us, He took out of the way and nailed it to the cross. Gone. any obligation to the law has been fulfilled by Christ Jesus. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Amen? If you walk in the flesh, even as a Christian, it brings self-condemnation and it brings judgment and justice. Not necessarily or not eternal, but there are consequences for following the flesh. Try this or maybe don't try this. Try being stupid and stepping over a cliff. There are consequences when you do that. You don't have the law of gravity in your favor. Or perhaps you could be like in all those action movies. You'll plummet 1,000 feet, then you'll get caught by a little branch that's stuck out the side. Not happening. There's consequences for following after the flesh. That's the difference we have. We know those consequences. Before salvation, we didn't realize those consequences. I can't say it. Those consequences. Verse 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. It's important. If you're after the flesh, the cares of the flesh will be of the utmost importance. Money will be an issue. Money is always an issue. I don't care if you're in the flesh or in the spirit. No matter what. It's never enough, is there? For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Our focus then becomes the fruit of the Spirit, namely the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Thanksgiving, peace. I always had that bumper sticker that said, no Jesus, no peace, which spelled with an N, and then spelled with a K. No Jesus, no peace. It's a difference. In the past, without Christ, you followed the flesh. You did what you wanted, when you wanted, with whoever you wanted. But yet, when you walk in the Spirit, you're now constrained by the Spirit to do those things of God. They become more enjoyable as you go as well. I always think way back when, back before the dinosaurs roamed, the kids would say, when the criticism that you would get, oh, you became a Christian. You're not going to have any fun. I've had more fun since being a Christian. More fun in the world, in alcohol and substance. It's fun for a moment, then the hangover happens. Sin, being in the flesh, works for a while, but sorry to tell you, the flesh breaks down physically and spiritually. but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, for to be carnally or fleshly minded, just like a carnivore. Carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. I can attest to that. Have peace like a river, joy like a fountain, That's a song, isn't it? There's a difference. Why people can see us. They say there's something different about you. You don't get rattled in everything just once in a while. But yet we have the ability because of being walking in the spirit to go through life with joy and peace. Verse seven, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. He's speaking about believers. It's an enemy with God. Why set your affection on yourself when you can set your affection on things above where Christ sits? For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Remember, the law of God was satisfied by the righteousness of Christ. So when you're in Christ, trusting Christ, that law has been satisfied already. But the flesh knows no boundaries. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Think of that. Salvation is secure, right? The predestination has already happened. Predestined to glorify God, predestined for the adoption. But yet, our fleshly lives are not pleasing to God. He wants us to have that peace and life in Him through walking in the Spirit. I was gonna end right here. But I'll go to verse 9. Remind me when we get to Romans 8 to skip the first part of it, or we can go through it again. But ye are not in the flesh. If you're a Christian, it's true. The spiritually minded person from verse 1, there's no condemnation. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." I like the fact that it's the Spirit that does the work. He puts you into Christ. He seals you. He indwells you. But yet, if you walk in that flesh, spirit, I think what it means here is the Spirit is there, but it's been drowned out by the flesh in your own minds. We could be so fleshly minded. Verse 10, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. I'd say we'd have to go back to Romans 6 to get the gist of that. But this is a good time to cut this part right now. So this spirit versus the flesh. Two other places. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. And we get to Romans 3 and 4, they kind of run parallel with Galatians 3 and 4 as well. Galatians 3. Verse number one, and remind me to stop at verse five. If I go further than that, just throw something at me. Here we go. Oh, foolish Galatians. Remember, the background of Galatians is this is one of the first stops on the first missionary journey, right? As soon as Paul went in preaching the gospel, preaching the grace of God, in came right after him were Judaeites trying to say, ah, ah, ah. This guy Paul is a nut, you need circumcision, you need the works of the law for salvation. Says, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who's fooled you? Who's tricked you? Who's trying to get you to not believe what I've told you? That you should not obey the truth. Obey and believe, they go hand in hand. that you should not believe the truth or obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." So Paul showed them all of the areas even in the Old Testament that said that Jesus Christ would be crucified. Remember, the crown or the cross before the crown. Jesus Christ would be crucified for his people. Verse number two, this only what I learn of you. I have this one question for you. I love these questions. A good way to ask somebody, well, to ask somebody, but to find out what somebody believes, is to ask them, simply. This one, this only what I learn of you. Here's the number one question I have for you, O Galatians. Received ye by the Spirit, by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Multiple choice here we have. Is it A or is it B? Was it the law that you received the Spirit, or was it the hearing of faith? Or was it all of the above, or was it none of the above? B would be the answer. It was the hearing of faith. They believed the gospel. They were sealed with the spirit. They were set free because of the gospel. Are you so foolish? They've been bewitched. He's asking them question number two. And I guess they gave the obvious answer. They said A, to which Paul had the, wrong answer. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? It's a pretty common thing. Now, get to work. You've been saved, now you'll persevere and you'll do good works that God has guaranteed that you'll do. No guarantee in that. It's all by faith, all by grace. Have ye suffered, or allowed so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Another good question. And we'll save that question for Romans chapter three and chapter four. The question they had, it was all by faith. The Spirit was by faith, salvation was by faith, everything was by faith, none of it by the law. Let's go over to chapter 5 while we're in Galatians. Galatians chapter 5. Verse number 13. Again, still correcting them for adhering to circumcision and the works of the law. Verse 13. For brethren, you have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. They had their liberty, and they tried to use that liberty, and they go back under the law, which believe it or not, you have the liberty to do that, but it does nothing. It brings you back into bondage under the law. For the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. I always like that effect. This is what the law, the summary of the entire law, love your neighbor as yourself. And when you're in the spirit, There's a natural love. There's a natural charity that happens among believers. Amen? I still can't put my finger on it, but when I run into believers everywhere, you've probably had this happen. It's like you've known them for 20 years. You have this natural love that comes through when you're in the Spirit. But if you're in the flesh, you're gonna meet that person and be like, hmm, yeah, well, my church does this. Well, Mayan does this. We have 9,000 people a day come. You'll be back in the flesh rather than the spirit. Let's go back to, Let's go back to Romans. We'll be looking more at this conflict between the spirit and flesh when we get to Romans 7. It's a real conflict. And we'll be looking back in Romans 6 about being dead in Christ, the old man being dead. Let's go to verse 9 of Romans 1. For God is my witness, which I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Here's the consistency of prayer. I was always thrilled that one of the only memory verses I could remember was 1 Thessalonians 5.17, which says, pray without ceasing. And I always used to try to figure out how I can pray without ceasing. How can I do it? I have to sleep six or seven hours a day. Am I praying then? Should I close my eyes, bow my head and pray? That doesn't work very good when you're driving or walking. But pray. We know. says that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Without ceasing, he has a readiness of prayer. Man, I'd like to see what the Apostle Paul's prayer book looked like. What his list looked like. The list that he had things and if he was able to remember everything or if he took the list out. Those are the questions I'll have for him. I have a hard time keeping up with things, just having them on an electronic device. So pray, pray without ceasing is having a readiness at all time. The neat thing about prayer is God knows our prayers even before we're able to mention it. And the idea, he says the word mention, is to being ready. God doesn't, you know, I was gonna go into a whole thing about prayer and everything, you know, in Matthew chapter six. We won't go there, but there were those that sought to do public prayer and make themselves look good, make themselves look righteous, but they weren't. So Jesus said, go into your closet and pray. Do we have to go into a closet and pray? No. Our walk in order is to pray without ceasing. You don't have to wait until you get into a private place. You don't have to wait until the creepy music starts coming up, play it on the synthesizer. You don't have to wait for any of those things. You can pray while you're driving. You can make mention, say Lord I, simple, Lord I pray for so and so. Make a mention, simple. We don't need to have a thousand syllable prayer. God understands us, where we're at. And this is what Paul prayed for. He prayed, notice he prayed for a couple things in the next verse. But one of the things I happened to see the other day was, I saw the term, press into God in prayer. Like, what does that mean? I understand what it means. It's like, push, pray until something happens. But pressing in, working up a sweat, and really getting a hold, and getting into the quiet for God. He says, make a mention. In your prayer, Lord pray for this person. I hold this man in prayer, this woman in prayer. That's the simplicity that we have, it's in Christ. God understands those things. And he had a couple, he had a specific prayer in verse 10, making a request, right? Prayer, requesting something from God. making request, I lost my place here, if by any means, here's what he was praying, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. His prayer for them was pray for me, I want to come to Rome. I desire to get to Rome. In verse number 11, right, his prayer was, or is that where I am? Yeah, he wants to come unto you. He wants to check how well they're doing, check out their situation there. In verse number 11, so for I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established. So his goal was that he could get together and impart a spiritual gift. Today, the charismatists are on wacko with impartation. Imparting words of knowledge, imparting this. But I think the impartation that God is getting in place would be kind of the same thing when we fellowship with somebody. What was Paul excited about doing? What motivated him? His call. His sharing of the Gospel. That, believe it or not, that imparts more wisdom to anybody than anybody else. You ever been around somebody that you love to be around because you know you're gonna hear some words, some wise words? I almost said words of knowledge, but I need to go back and correct that because there's nothing wrong with that, but it's been hijacked. to grow. I always think of, imagine being around Paul, or even Peter, or anybody else then, what would you say? What would you ask Paul? How did he endure all those sufferings? There's all kinds of different things. But his impartation was of the gospel, and growing in that gospel. That's what he would do, he would encourage them. So the end that you may be established, right? What are we to be established in or what are they to be established in? While we're in Romans, let's go to the ending. This is the closing of the book of Romans. We're done with the book of Romans now after this. Romans chapter 16. Verse 24 says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is of power to establish you. Who's the one that does the establishing? God. Right? To establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. I've got to read the end. To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. It was the gospel and the gospel alone which could establish that church and keep that church established. That's it. There's no other... Oh boy, I almost started singing a song. There's no other argument and need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. The gospel is the groundwork and the establishment. The church also is the ground and pillar of truth. The truth of what? The truth of the gospel. Amen? The sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Let's go back to Romans chapter one. I think I'm gonna close here and save the rest for next week. And we're gonna, so we look at the purpose of prayer was to his journey, that he could go and be with them and he'd impart some spiritual gift and that he would establish them. I was also going to 1 Thessalonians 3, but I won't go there. And then the third thing is in verse 12, part of the prayer was that is, or along with the establishment, I love this verse, this is a great verse to close on. That is that I may be comforted together with you. what comfort it is. Even in 2 John, I think it is, says that John wrote to the elect lady about, it's great to know, and I'm paraphrasing, that her children walked according to the truth. It's comforting knowing that those would be set apart because of the gospel That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both you and me. I like that, there's no difference. Paul considered himself just like the other people. Nothing different as far as position with him, all called to go to heaven, all called to the adoption, all together. The mutual faith. Let's go to 2 Peter for a second. 2 Peter chapter number one. Peter uses the same type of words. Verse number one, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us. See, he held no difference between, there was no super class of apostles or prophets or anything. Through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's go to Jude. Don't ask me for the chapter. That's what I hate about these Bible programs, that it has everything as Jude, chapter one. Jude, chapter one, verse one. Let's go to just verse number three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. This common salvation, the mutual salvation. There's no higher class. There's no ecclesiastical superstructure of apostles and prophets today. There's nothing like that. Everybody in the body of Christ is equal. They're on equal standing. All are in Christ, according to the Bible. All are in Christ. All. have different giftings and talents, and all in Christ, for the mutual benefit of one another. Amen? And I think we should find it a joy, just being in Christ, and in the Gospel, and in the Spirit with Christ. Amen? I don't have a smooth way of ending, because I'm ending a few verses before I was going to end. But the reality is the grace of God, the gospel of God is sufficient to carry us. And we just need to yield to the gospel. That way we won't have self-condemnation, sins already paid for by God, no condemnation to hell or anything by God. But yet, when we walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, it brings great growth and great understanding more and more of who the Lord is. Amen.