Well, turn with me. Our sermon text for today is Romans chapter one. I'll be reading verses one through seven, and we'll be focusing just on the first half of verse seven. So here then God's holy and inspired word. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead, from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look into your word and pray that it would not return void, as indeed you promised it will not, that there may be much blessing here, maybe some conviction along with it, some sharpening, but some challenging and some hope, Lord, that you would guide your people in paths of righteousness. And please guide my tongue now to keep from error. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. One of the hardest parts of conversation, I think, and whether that's in written conversation or verbal, is often the first part. How do you begin the dialogue? Often it's as simple as, how do you say hello? So I'll ask you, when you write an email, how many words do you use to get the topic going or to introduce yourself and send some greetings to the person you're writing to? Or when you're writing a text message, how much thought and meaning do you put into the salutation? Probably not much. In our culture, we have kind of a brevity, a quick, just jump right in type of habit. I certainly do, especially if it's a text message. I got something earlier the same day from the person, or five minutes ago. You really don't need to introduce yourself, right? Without even saying hi, you write. Sometimes, just as an older person, I think, if I'm writing hi in a text message, does that mean that, like, I'm distancing myself from the person? You know, younger people can inform me on those things. But I would say that the fact that we jump right in actually has meaning in and of itself. It's not that we're without meaning, it's that there's an implied meaning in the brevity and in the immediacy of our communication. The fact that it's a person you're familiar with, indeed that you did just write to them five minutes ago, or that you write them every 30 minutes on average, every day of the week. It is full of meaning because there's familiarity. There is a common understanding, so you don't need to reintroduce yourself. You don't need to say hello again. You're just continuing the conversation. And so too, even though it's different here, and there is a formality, and there is more of a technical and a lengthier saying hello by Paul, which is what we're gonna look at today. How does he say hello, and how does he identify his audience? So too here is there meaning by the lack of brevity, by the lack of quickness of jumping right in. In the verse before us, really verses one through seven of the greeting, verse seven I'll identify as the salutation, so he's saluting, saying hello. So in the verse before us, the apostle Paul is simply identifying his audience. He's saying, you're the ones I'm talking to. Paul is not continuing a conversation because he hasn't been there to Rome. He doesn't know these people well. He's starting the conversation, and so it makes sense that his salutation takes a longer form. So if you were cold calling somebody, if you were cold text messaging somebody, you probably would say more than just launch right into the topic, right? You'd introduce who you were, verses 1 through 5, what you're going to talk about, verses 1 through 5, and then you would identify who you are intending to speak to, make sure that it's not some rerouted phone number, right? So what I want to emphasize today is that words have meaning. The words that we write, the words that we speak have meaning, and the words certainly that Paul wrote here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have meaning. They have meaning here and significance as Paul was communicating with real, live people in a real place, Rome, who he knew, not personally, but he knew broadly and very confidently that they had been brought into a saving and loving relationship with God. The remainder of the letter spells out lots of theological detail that he wants to convey to them. Doesn't do that all in the opening paragraph, but the remaining letter spells that out. Just looking at the salutation today, or really half of the salutation, verse 7a, we see the significance of how he says hello to them. Perhaps we can learn some things as to how we should say hello to our friends, and how we should receive God's hello to us. So friends, let us hear and understand wherever God's people are, He has brought them, He's brought you, He's brought us into a loving relationship with Himself. And we'll look at this in three parts. The people in a place, God's love for them, and His calling. So the people in a place, God's love, and His calling. First of all then, First part of this salutation is the statement, to all who are in Rome. I see here the fact that Paul, again, was writing to people and in a place. In terms of the people, there is some uncertainty as to what he means by all. One theory, as I worded there in your outline, is he's speaking to multiple congregations. So there's multiple churches making up one bigger church in Rome. and it's uncertain the population of the Christians in Rome at the time. Other theory is that he's speaking to the multiple people groups within one or more congregations in Rome. So is he considering all the Christians as distributed throughout the city in different congregations, or is he considering the different types of people, the different ethnic or religious backgrounds? I tend to favor the second, though of course it can include the first. But to just limit it to the first, that he's only speaking to multiple congregations there and encompassing them with the all, I think it's a little limited and it's a bit sort of hypothetical. It's very likely possible, certainly, that at that point in time there were multiple churches. But if we look at the rest of the book here, we'll see a major theme of this epistle is the unity and to some degree the equality of the people of God in Christ. Whether you're Jew or Gentile, he keeps saying they're the same. And while there are some differences, there is the unity in Christ. The key difference is that they, the Jews, were the stewards of the mysteries of God, the stewards of the scriptures. And that's a huge privilege and really a huge point of accountability for them. You've had the scriptures all this time, right? Have you been heeding them? Do you recognize the presence of your Savior who walked the earth? So with that difference, who and when did they encounter the scriptures, there is the commonality of being saved only in Christ. That's what I understand the all to be, is all the people like in common needing to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. And there's many points throughout the letter where he emphasizes that universality. All together then are in the church in Rome. There's no divisions there. All are collectively addressed in this letter. All are men without excuse before a holy God, Romans 2.1. All are under sin, Romans 3.9. All are guilty before God, verse 3.19. All are justified by faith, 5.1. All are weak, ungodly people who Christ died for, Romans 5.6. All are then free of condemnation in Christ, needing to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Romans 8, 1, and on and on and on. So that is the all that I see here. He's speaking to the unity of the church, and yes, could well have been multiple congregations there, but the unity of the people of God in Rome, the equality of the Jew and Gentile. But of course, it's not just in this letter to the Romans that this point is made. So I really want to emphasize the unity of the people of God here. Acts 10 verses 34 and 35. God shows no partiality, we read, in every nation. Whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. So that theme of no partiality. God does not setting apart and treating a separate people uniquely as if they don't have to obey Christ. And there are people who posit that there's different ways to please God, and that is not true. It's only by Christ. A second important instance outside of this letter is in Revelations 5, 9, where we read that Jesus is worthy to take the scroll, having redeemed us to God by His blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So primarily that verse speaks of the broadness of the work of the gospel and of calling people out and building a people for himself. But in the very fact that it's from a variety of places, it shows that they all need to come to the same Christ, right? So we see the meaning of the word all here. The unity, the standard way in which God deals with people the world over is through salvation in Christ and none other. Well, by way of application, brothers and sisters, let us remember that while there is diversity within the church, and that's with regard to age, maybe even giftings, your work experience, your background, a family situation, even multiple generation family situations, so different ways in which God has dealt with this present and past, really, when it comes down to it, we are very much the same. We are all just sinners in need of salvation. Today's cultural agenda is so often tried to divide and that just feeds a politics or a culture of greed and envy and pity and It makes this us versus them, or we're trying to put down the them and to elevate the us, and whatever side that comes from, it's not healthy. It is not godly. Properly, God sees everyone as a sinner, right? From the south, the north, the east, the west, rich, poor, first generation, tenth generation, we are all sinners in need of salvation through Jesus. We need to be freed from sin. We need to be freed from pride. We need to be free to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. So that's some various aspects of the allness that we see in this first clause. So let us, brothers and sisters, friends in the Lord, humble ourselves before Him. An honest confession will simply say to God, woe is me, right? I'm a sinner. I don't have anything to bring to you. The idea that whatever my background is or whatever my grandparents did in the church, as if that's something to God, right? A humble person is simply going to say, woe is me, Lord, do to me as seems best in your sight. And the beautiful thing is, and we'll get to that in terms of God's love here shortly, the beautiful thing is that in Christ what He gives us is love. He doesn't give us the penalty that we deserve. He can't overlook sin, as we heard in the communion meditation. He must punish it, and He did. He does and will, but for Christians, that penalty falls on Christ. He gives us what we don't deserve. So all that to say, the first phrase in this salutation tells us about Paul's audience, all who were in Rome, all sorts of people, all alike, in need of God's grace and walking in the light of the gospel, no matter their cultural, religious, or other differences, Jew and Gentile alike, us, along with them, all in need of Jesus. The second part of this, to all who are in Rome, is the place. So Paul is addressing the all of them, but this is not what we would theologically call a general epistle, as if it's written to all Christians alike in that era. He wrote it specifically for Rome, right? Doesn't mean we can't learn a ton from it, and indeed we do. But let us not skip over the fact that this had a purpose and a people that he was writing to. He was writing to not a mass of people out there, but a specific collection of people, and all of them, in Rome. It's not a cookie-cutter letter, right? It has very specific things for him to say to them, and even some people are mentioned by name, but just because your name isn't written in there, because you didn't live in the first century, it still is applicable to us, but by way of application. The point is, it was written to a specific people, really, truly written to living, breathing people in Rome. Consider that for a moment in terms of what was Rome. Who were the Roman people? Rome had humble roots on the banks of the Tiber River, had grown to be the center of one of the greatest empires throughout all of world history. Its wealth, its power, its lack of virtue, its lack of attention to true godliness and worship of the one true God were very well known all throughout the world. Yet, within this very, very carnal, human-made capital city, God had people. That's remarkable. In that place, Rome of all places, God had his people. And there are so many stories out there of God working in places and in times that we would not have anticipated, right? If we were looking for who's the really strategic person to go after, that wouldn't necessarily have been on my list. I would never have known of them. But of course, God, in His sovereignty, in His sovereign knowledge of where His people are, and in His sovereign power to have the ability to draw them to Himself, to change their minds and wills and hearts, and to draw them to Himself He had a beautiful plan. He had a beautiful plan in Rome, had a beautiful plan in isolated places of Africa and Asia and the Americas, North and South, East and West, all over the globe. So with all those stories of God working in crazy, dangerous, and ungodly parts of the world that we wouldn't have anticipated, places that seem despicable and beyond help, we see the grace of God magnified. The movement of His Spirit is not limited in the way that human efforts are. God is working in similar places today. So whether it's the proverbial swamp of Washington, D.C., or the cesspool of Paris, France, or the tyranny of the U.N. in Brussels, Europe, where that's headquartered, all of these places that are just pits of iniquity and of corruption and other vice. God is working. Let us not be surprised that He's there. Let us not turn our backs on the gospel efforts that might be happening there. Let us be encouraged and challenged to even support the church and the gospel efforts in those places. One more detail before we finish this beginning part of this verse. The Greek text here says, to all who are in Rome. It's actually disputed in some manuscripts, but going with the majority text, it definitely has Rome. But it says, all who are in Rome, or otherwise translated, to those in Rome. And obviously what's implied is that it's people, right? I kind of covered that previously, that it's a people in a place. But I don't want us to forget that people had in mind real live people, not some just population, not some just generic term like the church is on the door or something like that, but actual people. Some of these people are named in chapter 16, other people he looked forward to meeting if he would have a chance to get there, but it's real people, and that'll come to play in a moment when we speak of God's love. But Paul is writing to real people, people that he cared for, people that he longed to see grow in Jesus, people that he longed to meet face to face. And just like when I prepare a sermon such as this, it's for real life people, right? People like yourselves that I care for and desire to see grow closer and closer to Jesus day by day. So real people that we're here to communicate with. to the next clause. Beloved of God is how it is in our text. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God. So the real, the live, the specific, but also general, the allness of the people whom Paul is reaching out to, they are beloved by God, which is to say valued and treasured Regardless of being Jew or Gentile, regardless of setting aside those age differences, those different religious backgrounds, even male and female, in Christ they are all together objects of God's special love. They are His own special people, to quote 1 Peter 2.9. Deuteronomy 33 says God loves the people. He keeps him as the apple of his eye, which is to say his special, caring attention, Deuteronomy 32.10. He's focused on the people, his people. He will not take his eye off of them. They are his purchased possession, Ephesians 1.14, bought, of course, at a great price. Let this just drive home for us. Never forget, God loves his people. Do we think about that as often as we should? I don't. Brothers and sisters, ponder it for a moment. God loves his people. That is extraordinary. God is holy, perfectly holy, omniscient, wise. Daniel is going through the attributes of God. We can list them, we can meditate on them, and it brings us to tears if we consider his greatness. And in comparison to that, especially the natural man, much less even the greatest degree of sanctification we can attain in this life, we are still so small. so impure. Yet God loves His people. He loves the church. Each and every one of you in Christ is loved by God. Beloved of Him, the wording here, truly amazing. And remember, in terms of God's special regard for His people, that He doesn't need anything from us, right? He is not improved by the attention we can give Him. He's not made more comfortable or more encouraged, or He's not going to have a better day tomorrow because He got better worship on Sunday from His people here now. He's not lacking in strength or skill or intellect or any resources whatsoever. All the kind of improvements or little uplift we can honestly obtain when we feel the love of the people around us, that is not God, right? He does not need that from us, yet He gives love and yet He is delighted to receive back from us our praise and glory. We are beloved, it is for Christ's sake and not for anything in us. One detail to highlight from the Gospels, it's in each of the synoptic Gospel accounts. We read at Jesus' baptism, a voice came, and then it says, you are my beloved son. So it's in Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3. God the Father, stated over and over again, loves his son. And then it's faith that unites us to Christ. And so when the Father looks at us, he doesn't see the sin stain, he doesn't see the wicked thoughts, the greed, the envy, and all the other things, he sees Christ. And he loves Christ. So therefore, he loves us. We can't appeal to the Father for any favor, any merit in and of ourselves, only in Christ. Can we? Do we? Should we and need we to find this privileged place? I want to read at a bit length now two other points of scripture, one from Ephesians 3 and then I'm going to read all of Psalm 136 actually to drive home just this key point about God's special regard for His people. So first Ephesians 3 verses 17 to 19. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. We think, you know, how big is God's love? It's every dimension, huge. And now, Psalm 136. I'm gonna read from the Amplified Bible translation in order to display that the word here translated in the New King James as mercy is the Hebrew chesed. It's a special aspect of his love, a covenant love. His loving kindness is how it's worded here in the Amplified. You might be familiar with the word mercy being here. I don't want you to fact check me. Just be encouraged that the Hebrew word is chesed, God's covenant love, which includes mercy. And it is this loving kindness that he regards his people. So reading all of Psalm 136 from the Amplified Bible. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. O give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who alone does great wonders for his mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. To him who by wisdom and understanding made the heavens for his mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. To him who stretched out the earth upon the waters, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who made the great lights, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To rule the sun by day, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. The moon and the stars to rule by night, his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To Him who smote Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. And brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. With a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea into parts, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. and made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. But shook off and overthrew Pharaoh and his host into the Red Sea, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who smote great kings, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. And slew famous kings, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. And Og, king of Bashan, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. And gave their land as a heritage, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. even a heritage to Israel his servant, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who remembered us in our lowest state and imprinted us on his heart, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever, and rescued us from our enemies, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. To him who gives food to all flesh, for his mercy and lovingkindness endure forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven for his mercy and loving kindness endure forever. God's loving kindness, his mercy continues. He continues to love his people. So then the third part of this salutation, reading it together, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. So what of this allness, this togetherness of the body of Christ in Rome, those who are God's precious possession, the ones He loves, and He loves them in so many ways, in so many places, through so many trials, And ultimately, to a certain victory, what of this calling? So the last part of Paul's salutation, I referred to this a little bit last time, and it was in June, that I preached last from verse six in terms of called of Jesus Christ. So the last part here, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. One, two things to clarify at the beginning. One, the 2b, if you have the New King James, you'll notice that's in italics, so it's not in the Greek. If you take that out, it can almost sound like called saints, as if that's a label. You know, it's like the usher, he's called an usher, he's got a badge on, but that's not what it is. So it's helpful to supply some words. It's interesting to me as I did some reading to prepare for this, if you've read many commentaries, you know, often it's trying to explain this nuance, it's looking through some different views here and there, and a primary one, and I would recommend it to you as well, John Murray, his commentary on Romans. I was a little startled by his, it's called a strong opinion on the translation here, or actually maybe it was Hendrickson, I'm sorry, I'm confusing, those are the two I think it was Hendrickson who was so opinionated. He really doesn't like this modern translation of called to be saints. He says it's a habit, it's pervasive, and indeed it is. Very slight variation in ESV and different things these days. And I would agree with him that, not so much in critiquing so strongly, I'm fine to go along with as it is with some explanation, but the better wording, I would agree with him, and that's what I supplied in the beginning of the headline here, Saints by Divine Calling, because it's not a label you wear, and he really doesn't like the to be in there because it seems to connote this future state. You're called to be saints, like someday in the future you're going to get to be saints. And of course, within a framework of Roman Catholicism and all the abuses that they do with sainthood, is a very good caution. So, saints by divine calling is the point here. It's a settled fact that we, as Christians, have been called. It's not that we will be, it's not that we're gonna go through some beatification process by somebody who respected us highly, documenting some miracles that we were a party to, but rather, With proper biblical theology, with Paul, we can agree that the present reality for every Christian is that we are saints. So friends, don't think that a bad day means you're not a saint, right? It may mean that you're acting out of accord with who you really are, and through repentance and appropriating God's grace, persevere in faithfulness tomorrow. But you're not waiting to attain sainthood until you die, and the Pope in Rome goes through a special process. right? Saintness is a present reality for every Christian. We are the called ones, that is, having responded to his voice, and he calls us into that relationship of being saints, which is to say holy, and hence the wording saints by divine calling. Puts a little different spin on the word called. And at least it's useful in the standard English translation that it's called past tense, right? Ed is the past tense. So you have been called, you are presently a saint, a holy one, and let us grow in that calling. So fundamentally, this phrase indicates the source of our salvation, that it's of God and that it's a settled reality. It has happened because God You know, is. He's not hypothetical. He's not future. When it's dependent on Him, it's not dependent on us. We can trust it for sure. So, in terms of the technical wording here, let's settle that. We are saints by divine calling. What are some implications of that? and I want to draw two that I put in your outline there. First, that we're set apart, and second, that we are consecrated for service. So having been called, which is to say he put out his voice, right, and we have responded to that, we are separated, we're set apart. And saint, as I said, means holy one, just like the holy of holies in the temple, it was set apart, only special people at a special time could go there, Christians too are set apart. But notice a bit of irony here. Previous, that is prior to our new birth, we were separate from what, right? So my point here is everybody's separate from something. Natural man, when he's not a Christian, is separate from God. There is a wall of separation, it's worded. We are barred from God's presence, right? Only that which is holy can come to God. And I've spoken in times past, in terms of defining the gospel, it is the brokenness of this relationship. So, yes, everybody is separate. Natural man is separate from God, and that's a sad situation. But Christians are still separate from something. No longer separate from God because we're reunited. We are to be separate from the world. So we need to maintain that holy separation. Let me pull another quote from Ephesians chapter two. Paul writes, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time, so he's speaking of before you were redeemed, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. And then, but now in Christ you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So let us celebrate every day our separation, the solution to our separation from God, we're now in union with him, but our maintaining separation from the world. Previously separated from God and wandering, now separated from the world and united to him in Christ. But then, that's not all, what does He free us to do, right? If we are separated from the world in terms of those emotional and physical and enslaving attachments, what does that free us to do? We are not just chess pieces being moved around on a board subject to somebody else's will. Yes, we are captured out of the world. As I've said, we are ransomed, we're bought at a price, and praise the Lord that we have been rescued from a life of sin and death. But also we are consecrated for service. The old man is dead, the new man is alive, being grafted, and I'm just kind of mashing together a bunch of biblical idioms here, but being grafted into a new tree, we bear different fruit, no longer that sinful fruit, because just like we were, you know, everybody's separated to something, everybody is bearing some type of fruit. Galatians 5.19, in those few verses there, speaking about a wicked fruit, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, hatred, contentions, jealousy, selfish ambitions, and the like, right? Everybody's bearing some type of fruit. Is it going to be that fruit or the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22 and following? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So we're all going to be separate from something. We're all going to be bearing some kind of fruit. Let us have the right separation and the right fruit. And this right fruit comes by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So we are to put forward yet another idiom. We're students of a different teacher, right? Everybody has a teacher. Everybody has a different father. Jesus even says to people rather powerfully, you are of your father, the devil. And he's encouraging them instead to embrace him and his father in heaven. So which father, which teacher, which fruit will we embrace? We are to no longer have a futile mind with darkened understanding and ignorance or in blindness. Instead, to learn of Christ with true righteousness and holiness. So friends, by way of summary, you, and let me affirm this, are saints by divine calling, beloved of God. And we'll add here for our situation in Omaha, right? You don't have to go to some big city where God has worked in the past, Rome or Jerusalem, in order to feel God's presence and to know that he's working there. You are beloved of God in Omaha, Nebraska. And these other points I put here with the arrows, just things for you to meditate on, Lord willing, in the coming days. And to put yourself into this text, to know that God's people, even today, are the people. So you could say to yourself, I am one whom God sees and considers. He knows your trials, your hurts, your aspirations, your joys, your challenges. He sees you and considers you. He sees you where you are. Again, you don't have to be in a different city, in a different job, in a different relationship to know God's mercy and peace. In the place He has you, He has you for a purpose and He loves you where you are, which is that third point there, you. I, friends in the Lord, we are recipients of his special love. In all those particular places, in all those particular situations, we are recipients of his special love. And the effect of that, I, you, are separate from the world, separated unto him. Live according to that reality and be consecrated for his service. whatever that might be. So in the midst of, again, our personal trials in this wicked world, be encouraged, be challenged by the facts that in Christ we are saints by divine calling, and God loves us for Christ's sake. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this great, great gift, your love in Christ Jesus. Amazing and impossible, but for the work of Christ on our behalf. We were enemies, but we've made friends. We were running from you, but have been brought close and are inclined towards you. We thank you for this great work, this change of heart for stirring up in us these affections to desire to be in your presence and to want to serve you and love you. Please confirm us more and more day by day in the reality of your love and stir us up to love and good works to show to a dying and a hurting world what it is to be disciples of Jesus, to have true joy and peace in the midst of this generation. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.