Here Is the edited sermon Transcript: (As always it's free to use and share, with or without crediting me. I am also open to any criticism, advice or questions)

"The just shall live by faith" 
Romans 1:1-17

Introduction: Paul the Apostle wanted to meet believers who were in Rome because he kept hearing about their faith in many of the places he visited. Unfortunately, his third missionary trip was coming to a close and he had to go back to Jerusalem to meet with the Jerusalem church and to fulfill his Nazarite vow that he made for his nation Israel. So not knowing when he would ever get to meet them in person, he decided to send them a letter, while he was in Corinth, to establish their faith in the Gospel of Christ. 

While the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John primarily focus on the life of Christ to show the aspects of the Gospel, Paul, in his letter wanted to focus on the Doctrinal aspects. Primarily on how the Gospel saves and why we needed to be saved in that particular way and how to identify and reject false ideas about the Gospel. Particularly in relation to living by Faith vs. living by the law or by doing Good deeds. 

In this message we focus on where Paul got his gospel message (from the Old Testament prophets and Christ himself) and why he wanted to tell them in Rome this Gospel (to Establish them in their faith). 

(Preached on Sunday morning, 10-10-2021, by Pastor John Young, at Maranatha Bible Baptist Church, 16990 S 38th St, Mendon, MI 49072, Between Fulton and Menden in Wakeshma Township, Near Kalamazoo and Battle Creek in South West Michigan, https://www.facebook.com/MbbcFulton ) 

Text: Romans 1:1-7: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: 7 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. 

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 any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 

13 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. 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Let's pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for these words from the Apostle Paul. Thank you that they were inspired through you. Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to consider what Paul wrote to the Romans; that he desired to see...that he heard of their faith. Lord, he is blessed to see their fruit among the nations and among the Empire of Rome! Wherever he went he heard about their faithfulness and their goodness! Even though no Apostle had gone to them, they were there serving You, and because of that he desired to establish them in their faith! Lord, may we... especially we will also, as we see the faith of others around us, as we see what You are doing through Your Holy Spirit, in the world... That you will help us to establish that faith in others! Help us do the work that you've called us to do, just as you've called Paul and as he gives us the example here, that he desires! and without us being ashamed to proclaim your word to others! Dear Heavenly Father, help us to hear from his words! In Jesus name we pray, amen! 

Verse 1: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 

We think about Paul the Apostle. The last apostle in the scriptures. One that was...he himself says... that he was not meant to be called an Apostle because he persecuted the church of God. He had been the opposer and yet the only reason why he was not reprobate, the reason why he was not opposed up by God (and yet beloved of God!) was because he had done it in ignorance and unbelief and God understood! He who on the cross said, “Lord forgive them for they know not what they do! 

Paul did not know what he did! He thought that he was persecuting the church of God on behalf of God! He thought that the church, the christians, they were were wicked and they were deceiving the Jews and he wanted to defend God's faith! As we saw in the book of Romans or the book of Acts is that when he, before he became a christian, he had opposed them because he wanted to oppose the heretics! 

Now in this time you see that attitude and how people treat others by trying to smite and are tempted and to destroy others, by physical means, the opposers of God's Word and they want to do with physical things that you should be doing in the Spirit! You should be but you should not be opposing spiritual things with physical things! Not through physical violence but rather through the spiritual word of the Lord.

Here in this passage we're going to learn that as as Christ changed Paul's heart, and he's changed from trying to defend God physically and then, to becoming a messenger of Christ, and who even though he was born out of due time, as a as an Apostle, was called of God. Christ came physically and and many times he came and showed him in a vision and his glory. He showed up about him on that road to Damascus. He says, “I am He whom thou persecutist!”. 

From that time he never set out to persecute anybody. He didn't go around persecuting Jews because they were opposing Christ. He desired their salvation! and we oftentimes see that, Christians that go around trying to harm and persecute those that are around them because that person opposes Christ. Over here that person opposes Christ and so they try to physically harm that person to get them out of the way! 

But we see the the heart change of Paul the Apostle! Changed from one of those that is opposing Christ, because he was an opposer of Christ, like those that do it in ignorance and unbelief. Pray that they turn their hearts to the Lord and become like as he was! Turned to Christ and to the passion and desires that he did, in opposing God, becomes a desire to serve the Lord! 

Here we see “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ”. He is no longer considering himself a leader or some great man. He oftentimes, when he had to defend his own character, he says that he's the least of the Apostles. He's the least of all men and the most unrighteous. He understood the lowest steps you could go and so when he's giving us this message in the book of Romans we need to understand that Paul the Apostle is speaking from an area of an experience. Experiencing the sign of wickedness of going almost so low to where he couldn't be saved, except for by the the personal visitation of Jesus Christ. Yet he, going from this to faith in Christ, so strong, that knowing it is without a doubt real in his life! 

So we're going to learn about the doctrine of Paul the Apostle and we're going to learn about what he desired of the Roman christians. He heard about their faith but he did not yet instruct their church on what he desired for them to know, so that he could establish them, to become a church. 

We understand that the apostles had to ordain elders in the church and stuff before hand. Otherwise they were just called disciples. He had discipled this town. They were disciples at that time but to become a church they had to have ordained leadership of the Apostles. The Apostles were in charge, by Christ, to set the doctrines of the church. So in the bible we understand that in Acts 2:42 it says, “..they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine”. So we understand that if the Apostles stated that it's true. 

We understand that if somebody opposes the Apostles doctrine, where they say, “Well Paul the Apostle has a separate doctrine than all the other Apostles.”, that person is a heretic because because they all teach the same doctrine. We understand in Acts 15 there was a dissension in doctrine. They all came together and they made sure that they had the same correct doctrine. So we understand that what Paul is teaching here is not some new revelation. It is something that Christ gave to him and that all the other Apostles to teach. 

So here we see in the Book of Romans, he had been an Apostle for about about 20 years in the ministry. Of course when he got saved, it was about 14 years that he was humbly serving in his home church and then he was called by the church in Antioch to go out. So from the time that the church of Antioch laid hands on him and ordained him to become an Apostle to the Gentiles, he was called to Christ before that 14 year period prior but then they confirmed, by the lane on their hands, to send him and Barnabas out to their first missionary journey. Twenty years from the time he was writing (he was writing this letter in the area of Corinth) and it was probably around 53 to 58 a.d when he wrote this letter.

This is now at the end of his third missionary journey and he's desiring to go to Rome but can't as he had to go back down to Jerusalem to fulfil an oath he had of being a Nazarite, where they cut their hair. He had an oath that he was going to serve out for his Nation of Israel in the temple with some of the church men there, in Acts 21. So instead of going to Rome he had to keep that promise to go down to to Pastor James in Jerusalem to keep that vowe with seven other men in the temple. He knew that he may not be able to make that out alive because a lot of Jews didn't like him but he was still trying to keep his oath to the nation as we saw in Acts 21. Because he knew he was going to go that way the and but he wasn't sure if he was going to go back to Rome so he sent thim a letter saying what he would want to tell them if he ended up there. 

Of course we understand, we know the rest of the story, is that after he goes to Jerusalem God ends up paying his way to Rome to speak before the emperor. You know, speaking before kings and emperor of the known world, is what God had him do. His desire is his willingness to serve The Lord in various different capacities. Whether wherever it's through, he would learn to be content in many different ways and here in this passage we see that he is as a servant. Whether in plenty or in poverty he was willing to serve The Lord as a servant. 

We understand also, that “as a servant” also implies another aspect. While we as gentiles are not underneath the Israelite Covenant, he was underneath the Israelite Covenant. The Covenant of Israel was one of servanthood. One that as a servant they were to serve The Lord in the Old Testament and was to protect and pass down the Old Testament. They passed down the scriptures to us today. So they had a process of preserving the scriptures, even in unbelief. They preserved the scriptures to where we have one of the most accurate Old Testament writings in Hebrew. Our King James Bible was translated from their original texts. From copies that were so accurate, when they found copies of Old Testament books in some Dead Sea Scrolls, they found our copies were exact match. So that there was no loss of transmission and of course we understand that the Lord preserves His scriptures, and he particularly preserves the scriptures through uh the children of Israel. 

So we understand, as a servant of The Lord not only just as a New Testament believer, as we are all servants of the Lord, but he had a particular oath with being an Israelite as a servant as well, to transmit the word of god to others. Not only as a servant of Israel he, in the New Testament, as an Apostle. Called of God they had an obligation to make sure that each church in the gentile world... because Peter said, you guys are going to go to the gentiles. We're going to go to the dispersion, the Jewish people that are in all the other lands. The 11 Apostles were to go to them first because, “To the Jew first and then to the Gentiles”. Why is it the Jew First? because again their obligation as servants of the Lord was to take the word of God to preserve it and to transmit it to the world. Of course there's a lot of lessons and sermons we can preach about that aspect alone. Of how the Jewish people, even in the rebellion, The Lord is still using them in certain ways. 

So here is Paul the Apostle as a servant of Jesus Christ and called to be an apostle. He is “separated unto the gospel of God” because of his unique role. Not only just an Apostle but also as a as a Jew and also as as somebody who was personally called of Christ in a vision on the road to Damascus. He was separated into the gospel of God. We as christians also were separated unto the gospel of God but he had a unique office as an Apostle. 

So he's identifying who he is here in the beginning of this chapter. He's saying, “I am paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle”. Notice that he put a Servant of Jesus Christ before he says called to be an Apostle. A lot of times people today make a lot to do about the fact they're an apostle and they they got this title and everything. But here we have, Paul a Servant of Jesus Christ. He wanted to identify himself but he also wanted to in relation to Christ. How often times we as christians want to identify ourselves when we go to the door, you know, “Hey, I'm pastor P.H.D. Mr. so-and-so” and you give all the titles and stuff of your own self. Or when you come to the door, a lot of times what I do when we're knocking or visiting, O would say hello I'm brother John Young of... and then I give the church name..., because I want the church to be foremost. “I'm here to present to the gospel” or “I'm here to do this”. I want to get up to the point. I want to identify myself because, you know, If you've got a stranger at your door, you ask, “who is this guy” but you also want to, as soon as you identify yourself, put the focus on Christ. That is why we're a church and we're serving Christ. 

That's what Paul does here in this letter. “Hey you guys don't know me. I haven't physically met you but you've heard about me and I've heard about you!” and “I am a servant of Jesus Christ. I am called to be an Apostle.” but first and foremost, “I am a servant of Jesus Christ.” 

“Separated unto the gospel of God.” So his job isn't to go raise money, which he did raise money for the for the poor saints in Jerusalem that sent the gospel to the world. Now they were put in perspective. His job wasn't to go out and do all these different things but his job was to preach the gospel. He even talks about how he wasn't sent forth to baptize. You know one guy said I'm baptized of Apollos or baptized by Paul and he says, “I'm not about the baptism.” I baptize a few people but that's not my main goal. My main goal is to preach the gospel and be separated to the gospel. 

That is our job as a church. You know, yes we will give money to poor people. We'll give. We'll help out somebody when they need it. We're willing to offer up our time or our money or if somebody's car breaks down to tow it some place. All these helpful things we do as christians but that's not our purpose. Our purpose as a church it's not to have fancy lights. Not to have block parties. Not to do all these crazy things. Which God may lead us to do some things that are not just exclusively gospel but it has to have that focus and we have to be as a church separated unto the gospel of God. That is our whole purpose of existing! You can have the Lions Club do charitable work. You can have the the “Little... whatever group” do a book drive. You can have these other organizations, they can do all that other stuff. We've got plenty of opportunities other places but the church is supposed to be separated into the gospel of God!

Vers 2: (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 

Then he notes here also, “which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures”. he is noting that this gospel, this gospel that he's separated onto, is not something new. A lot of times you see a lot of people come around saying, “Well you know, the 11 apostles they have this one gospel for Israel only and this thing that God gave Paul the Apostle is something brand new and only unique for this certain amount of time.” Well no. It was a foretold! It was told in the Old Testament! he says “ which he had promised afore by his prophets”, in the Old Testament, “in the Holy Scriptures”. What Paul is preaching, he's telling them, “What i'm preaching to you is something that Christ and God have always been leading up to! To this very moment that I'm giving it to you!” 

So we need to understand, in the Book of Romans, is not some unique thing just for his spot or just for his ministry. “oh yeah the 11 Apostles, they have their own little ministry over here but I have this unique special ministry!” Yes he's called a disciple unto the gentiles so his focus will primarily be just the New Testament. He's not going to be preaching Israelite Covenant Theology. He's not going to be preaching all these things that the Jewish people observe. “Oh! All right, I got to keep the Sabbath day and I got to keep this certain thing!” NO! That's Jewish! So in Paul's ministry, the gospel is the same but it's not to the Jewish but to the Gentile people in the New Testament. So we need to understand here is what he has promised before time by the prophets and holy scripture. It is not something that the Jews didn't suddenly realize that this is the the gospel and so now i got to figure out something different. Now we understand Corinthians and we understand later on in Romans, that the Jews by their fall, their breaking off from the tree of faith, is the entrance of us, to the receiving gospel but we're going to learn in this passage that what Paul is preaching not something new. It's something that God had planned before the foundation of the world, to save the world. 

When He said that Christ will crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3:17, that gospel promised by the prophets promised the return of Christ is what he's teaching in Romans. So we need to understand that while he is teaching primarily to Gentile believers and not Israelite believers. So while there's a little bit difference in Covenants. There's no difference in how people are saved. It's the salvation. It is the same promise that was given by the prophets. That one day there would be a New Testament. They limited the Old Testament, having bulls and goats and Covenants according to Hebrews in the Old Testament but now we today are in the New Testament. This promised New Testament was what all the Apostles and Prophets have preached about.Now that doesn't nullify what the Jewish people are supposed to do under their covenant but it does not change in the new but it's still the New Testament that was promised, of course, by the prophets. 

So Paul is going to make clear the distinction and of course in Acts 15 they were battling out this distinction. There is a Jewish believer that says, “Well you've got to be circumcised to become part of the the Covenant of the Lord and then the Apostles said,  “No that's a different covenant than the one that we're teaching through the church. That's a Jewish Covenant for the Jewish people but the gentiles were never under that covenant and don't have to be in order to go to the New Testament!” So that New Testament faith is the one that was prophesied afore time in the holy scriptures. So the Old Testament is saying one day Christ will come and do away with all these animal sacrifices for sin. So that doesn't say the the Israelite Covenant. It's concerning His son Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Verse 3: concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 

So we understand that this prophecy is not about laws and Israel and nations and stuff. It's about the prophecy of the coming of the Lord that he's specifically talking about! Here he says: “concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,”. You know He's not just some people's Lord. It's not that the Jews got God and then we got Jesus, that is the church. No our Lord is Paul's Lord. The Apostles' Lord, the church's Lord is our Lord.  It's concerning His son Jesus Christ

So we have the son Jesus Christ our Lord, “which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh”. Now he's making note that yes Jesus came up he was born underneath as a Jew, lived as an Israelite, according to David, according to the flesh. So he has all those physical things that he lived under but the prophets are talking about something that was prophesied to come. So we need to understand that the New Testament that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that Paul is preaching, is something that the prophets all preached. You know, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. They all preached the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and that coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory is also the coming of Christ to save us from our sin as well. So he's making clear that distinction here in this passage. 

Verse 4: and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 

“Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made 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 from the dead:”. So we understand that this gospel has power! An intrinsic power. All we have to do is proclaim it and God will do the rest! Through us as we proclaim the Word of God and through us who have the Holy Spirit within us, will draw people to Him. If you lift up Christ he will draw all men unto Him! So we understand that this gospel is declaring He has power intrinsic into it. 
All we have to do is open our mouths and speak it! So by the Spirit “according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” Jesus Christ rose from the dead! He has the power over the grave He showed this through His resurrection.

Verse 5: by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 

“By whom we have received grace and apostleship”. So not only did christ arise from the dead and usher in the New Testament, He gave them the Apostleship. He gave The Twelve in particular the Apostleship. He also gave the church the authority to proclaim His word throughout the world. He rose in power now. He has us working in his stead. “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name” So if we are obedient to the faith of Christ and the calling that he's given to us in our lives, then this will go up through all the nations. We see the obedient faith of the service of Paul. We see how that he spoke before kings and emperors because he was humbly faithful. He was faithful before the Jewish people in in Jerusalem, serving out his vows, as an Israelite. He was also faithful to Christ and speaking the gospel to the Sanhedrin, speaking the gospel to the to the kings, and speaking the gospel the emperors. He was there faithfully serving the Lord as a servant. Not trying to make a name for himself but just serving the Lord. 

Verse 6: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: 

“Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ”. So he says, “This is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is the gospel that I am preaching (that it is not something new, it is something that the prophets foretold), I'm doing this faithfully... and you're also called to do the same!” We as christians are called to do the same. Obviously, we don't have the Twelve Apostles but there's no new doctrine for us to create. The apostles, Paul the Apostle and the Eleven others, they set the doctrine already. We're set on doctrine. We got the bible. It's complete! Later, when Paul is in Rome, he wrote in the Book of Hebrews, that in sundry times He [God] spoke through prophets, and He spoke through the Apostles. He spoke through other people but now we have the scriptures. We have Jesus Christ words written down for us. We know exactly what he wants us to do until he comes back! We don't need any new Apostles. We don't need new new prophets. It's all right here in His word and you're called to do, just as Paul's time. 

Verse 7: 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. 

“to all that be in Rome, beloved of God”. He wants them to know, “called to be saints”. If you're a saint he loves you, he cares for you. Just as he cared for the Apostle Paul, if you humbly serve the Lord you too can preach before nations! His church can be used of God before nations, if we just humbly serve the Lord. 

Here he says, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God”. If you're a saint God loves you and he wants them to be clear of that! At the very beginning, you need to realize that God's called you and He loves you. He didn't just call you and say, “I don't really care about the church in Rome”. Now obviously the church in Rome has been corrupted throughout the years but but just think, that through them many churches have been created. Obviously Rome got in there 300 years later but until that time, they were faithfully serving the Lord. A lot of churches were faithfully serving the Lord and they brought the Lord's service down to us! Even today. So without them we wouldn't to be christians today 

To all that are called of God to be saints. “Grace to you and peace from God our father,”. Now knowing you are beloved of God who is given you grace and he's given you peace. If you receive the grace of God in your life and you're probably serving God, you'll have peace in this life. These are not just kind of, “well you get peace and you get whatever you want”, you know it's for you all! God loves you! If you're saying God loves you, and he cares about you, and he has separated you. He has called you and he's going to give you grace and peace for what he's called you to do! Now with God sometimes we see the task ahead of us and say, “I don't know if I can give you that..”. Well God's called you and He's going to give you peace about how you can do it. You just have to humbly serve him to do it. 

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

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” So he sees that they're using what God has given to them even though there is no apostle that's been there. Yet we know that there was at the day of Pentecost people from Rome in Jerusalem serving the Lord, bringing tithes and offerings to the temple in Jerusalem. When Pentecost happened and when Pentecost was proclaimed, the apostles and the early church helped educate those people in the doctrines and then when they went back home there was a core group of people in Rome. Because Rome was a big city, a lot of people went there. When they went back they were not established but there was a big church there in Rome trying to serve the Lord and doing what they could without the the apostleship. So a bunch of disciples were there.

It says, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”. They haven't been there, yet they have a great faith there.That's an amazing thing! A lot of times there are young churches. There are other churches that don't necessarily have a pastor. They don't necessarily have all the things that they can to be a proper church, if you will. Yet there's a certain Godly faithfully humble gathering of disciples. A gathering of people that are desierus to have a church. God says, “I see your faith.”. It's known throughout the whole world! 

Verse 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; 

It says, “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;”. I see your faith and I'm always praying for you! Strait away with with this church here, “I see the faith here” and “I'm always praying for this church”, “now ever since we've heard about this church”, “we've been praying for this church that God would have a work to be done here!”. Here in this passage he says I've seen it in your faith throughout the whole world, “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit”. “I'm serving him in the spirit. This is where I'm serving him”, and that's where we all need to serve the Lord, is in our spirit. When we serve the Lord in our spirit, He will guide us to all truth. 

Verse 10: making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 

He says, “making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.”,  “If it's God's will I would like to do this.”, and we got the time to realize that it was God's will. We can do this and it may not be in our time and Paul wanted to go there before he went to Jerusalem. He didn't want to come in chains. He wanted to come in their freedom and such. Yet he ended up not being able to go wherever he wanted. He had to end up in a prison house and people had come to him to get the gospel. Ge couldn't go out and be free to do what he wanted. It wasn't in the way that he wanted to go. Yet he was able to do the will of the Lord! In the will of the Lord. I pray that in the will of Lord that we have something here. It may not be the way that we envision it but if the Lord wills he will get it done! It may not be right away. He may have to go to Jerusalem first. He may have to do something else first. We just need to realize that it's in the will of the Lord and we need to continually pray for it! 

Verse 11: For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 

“For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;” So here's a church. It's not quite established. It's not quite. It's not quite the way it needs to be and there's no one there to set the doctrine of this church. Because it was by osmosis from from visitors and then them getting together and saying, “Hey, through our regional spirit we want to serve the Lord! We want to do these things!”. There's faithfulness there but no Apostles to establish doctrine in this church. It says, I want to impart by laying my hands the spiritual gift for this church so that you can be established. So Paul's heart was to establish churches. His part was not just to have believers. You know this whole generic spiritual feeling and sounding thing where, “Oh kumbaya! we're all in one great giant church.”. This metaphysical generic sort of, “we're all churches, we just have to go out there and be church”, or whatever. No! The church is the gathering together! and the established believers of one common faith! The the one common established faith by the laying on of hands! Of the doctrine of the of the Apostle! Here and then leading down through the faith of the ages. It's there! An establishment that has to go on. There's something that needs to be established! Not just some generic kumbaya loving philly thing in the ether somewhere. It has to be physically established. That's what Paul said. You have all the faith. You have everything that needs to be there but I want to impart the spiritual gift of establishment of the Roman Church.

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

“Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God”. That is in verse 12 is, “that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”  He didn't say you're not a true church. You're not this. You know a lot of times people want to judge a church by the lack of certain qualifications or a pastor of lack of this. But rather he says, “These are the things that I desire that you have because I've seen where you are and what you can be”. This is where what I want to establish this in Him! See we need to have this mindset. Same as Paul, is not one that looks at somebody and says well you're you're not qualified. For you it says, “This is what you're able to do and I want you to be able to do it.” 

There are certain people that are not qualified to be pastors or certain people not qualified to do certain things for the Lord. Some people will barrel on ahead, “Blah! Bless the Lord I'm going to do this whether or not people like it or not!” and then there's other people that says, “I may not be able to do that but I can do this.”, and there are people, so many people look at them, and one person will say, “Well you just got to do it regardless of your reputation.” Other people say how can I help you serve the Lord in the way that you are able to? In the way that you are. That was Paul's heart. Not to just throw somebody by the wayside because they're not this perfect image of a person but rather, his heart was to say, “Hey, this is where God has you at now and I see the potential. How can I establish? How can I get you established to where you won't fall away? To where you'll remain a church in that spine. He says, “For I long to see them. That I am. He desires it!

Verse 13: 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. 

“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.” There are things that we desire to do but just for God's timing or God's life. Things in your life. You just can't do that and He says, “I understand that I want to do these things but I'm not able to.” He wasn't able to establish the church necessarily in the time that he'd like. He had to do it in a way that the Lord wanted. In bonds and going there but he says now I desire to do this but it's not because I didn't want to.

Verse 14: I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 
 
He says, “I am a debtor” in verse 14. “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.”.  I have something that God has given to me remember. I told you how I am a servant of Jesus Christ. I was. I was also called to be an Apostle. He also says as an Israelite, in Romans 3:1-3, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”.  He says unto them were committed in the oracles of God. Unto Paul was committed the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the whole world! He says, I was committed this thing. I was called as an Apostle by Jesus Christ. I'm committed to do these things. Therefore I have a debt to the world I have something I owe to the world, on behalf of Jesus Christ because you guys don't have it. God has given it to me and I gotta give it to you. I'm in debt I've been saved eternally and then, I need to give it to you. I need to establish you. So that you can give to others! 

That was paul's heart to establish people so that they could be used of God. Not to disqualify people that aren't qualified but to establish them in what ways they could. If you are a Greek I have a debt to you. To give you the gospel. If you are a Barbarian. Somebody who's simple. Somebody who doesn't know what I'm talking about right now. I have a debt to give you. That's why we do mission work, because we have debt to the world. To give to the world something we have. To the wise and unto the unwise. Just because you're not smart. Just because you don't know what I'm talking about, doesn't mean that I don't have to give it to you. Well they don't. They want to know what I'm doing. You know oftentimes people say they want to know, or somebody who's too smart. Oh they're too smart. They they want to believe what I'm telling them. No I owe it to everybody because God has given to me because God's forgiven all my debtes. I owe it to everybody else to forgive their debts. If God's giving me the gospel to everybody else, to give them the gospel. 

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

Here he says, “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.” I owe the gospel to everybody because of the role that God has given to me, and I'm ready to do it! To you as well, to give it to you as well. I'm ready to do it. God's got to lead me to do it, to give. You hear a lot of times people say, He'll give me peace to do something. Or give a peace to give the gospel. That person. Well, God's already given to you. He's already given you grace. He loves you. He desires that you do His will. To in his stead... to give people reconciliation. To be reconciled back to God. He's already given to it. You don't have to pray on whether or not God wants you to give the gospel to somebody. He says he wants to give to you. 

How do you know you're not supposed to give the gospel to somebody? By being physically hindered like Paul was. I desire. I long to do it. I'm ready. “but was let hitherto,”.  I haven't been ready to do it. Not because of some part on his side but because God hasn't made the opportunity. To me, physically. So unless there's a physical barrier preventing you from giving the gospel to somebody or, you know rules of decorum, or whatever is, that if you have the opportunity to give it you should be ready to do it. So we as Christians should be able to, in their own selves. It doesn't have to be some elaborate sort of, you know script or anything, but we should be able to give testimony to somebody about the Lord. About how the Lord is the Lord of your life and how God has saved everybody, and I'm glad to be saved! To somebody who says how's your day? Well I'm glad to be saved or something. You know to to to put Christ as a forethought in your mind, as you minister to others. 

Verse 16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 

It says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”.  We understand that because the Oracle is committed to the Jew, they had more knowledge of God. They had more ability to understand the laws of God. Paul as a Pharisee was raised up his whole life in the Old Testament Scriptures. He had more understanding of how God wanted things to be done and the average person, even the average Jew, he knew more than they. He understood more than they did and because of that role he was given, as a Jew, because their their role in life, because the gentiles are lost, because they don't know how to do everything, they were committing the Oracles of God. It was their job to get it first. The gospel first. To complete their understanding of the gospel. So they then can go out and the Apostles, were Jesus came to the apostles first, He came to Jerusalem first. He came to the the israelites first, so that they could get the gospel out to the world, as completing their their commission. 

Verse 17: For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

He says, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Now he is explaining this gospel that is foretold by the prophets he says for there it is! The righteousness that God revealed. He says the power of God, it is the power of God to salvation. To everyone that believeth, to the jew first and to the Greek. So what is he not ashamed of? He's saying this gospel that I have is from the Old Testament prophets. This gospel that foretold the coming of Christ the salvation of people. 

What is the power of the gospel? What is the key power of the gospel? It is namely this, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”, and this is going to be the theme of Romans. Explaining that is not by the works of the law. Its not by doing good deeds, and not by salvation and then the works of the law, but it is rather from the faith in Christ to faith in what he's called us to do. To faith, and allowing the Holy Spirit to to work in our lives. To develop the fruits of the spirit to live in faith start with our our faith you know our salvation starts in faith, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then it goes all the way through, continues in faith, all the way to the end, to our redemption to our eternal life, in heaven. The same salvation is is through faith. The sanctification is through faith. The redemption is through faith, and our eternal life, is all through faith! 

Romans is going to explain the power of the gospel of God is in that. Here is the key word, “from faith to faith”. From faith to faith! Paul, because he's ready to give the gospel, to establish them, make sure that they understand your salvation is through Christ, and your sanctification is through Christ, and your redemption, is all through Christ! It's not anything that you have done but it's your faith in Christ that will save. It will sanctify you. It will wash you. It'll redeem you. It'll grow you, and all these other things are not necessary if you follow up and pray for Christ. He's going to explain the law is good. The law is wonderful. The law is important! It teaches us things but it's not the center of our faith. The center of our faith is Christ! Faith in Christ will give us all the things that we need, for life and godliness. 

As we study the book of romans we're going to understand this phrase [From faith to faith] and the goal [The just shall live by faith.]. After we're done with the Book of Romans, we will understand what faith to faith means here. Lets go to Galatians 3:1-3 it says,

Oftentimes especially a lot of Armenian style or other protestant groups as Calvinists or you have you. Armenians will oftentimes think, Well you start by salvation but then you have to keep it yourself. You have to live in the law of God now that you've been saved. You have to live according to the law of God otherwise you can lose your salvation. If you sin enough times or if you turn away from faith, but we understand this faith. That faith is something that is not kept by us but it is kept by Christ through us. 

So if you look at Galatians 3:1 it says, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,” So if you think it's by Christ from faith to works or from works of faith and not faith to faith then you've been bewitched! Christ says that the gospel presented by the Old Testament believers is from faith to faith. Not from works of the Old Testament law to faith or from the works or from faith to the works of keeping the law, but rather from faith to faith. It is all about “all of faith” not of works that any man should boast. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law [No we didn't], or by the hearing of faith? [We received it by the hearing of faith] 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit [Faith to Faith], are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” So Galatians were deceived and think the verse is “from faith to works”. Yes we're created unto good works, to do those things, but our faith is kept from faith to faith. Here in this passage he's going to show that through the Old Testament prophets, all the way up until now, it was about faith to faith. So that's the important thing. Its faith to faith and I believe that is the works faith debate. 

The Phrase [The just shall live by faith.] is from Habakkuk 2:4 where he says that man, though not justified will live faith to faith. Lived by faith. The just shall live by faith. If we go look there we'll end with that. It says, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” So we understand that, yeah we're not a perfect person. We're we're not the greatest thing since sliced bread. We're not, not of our own selves, we're not of anything that we can boast of, but if we live in our faith, the just is sheltered by the faith. Its not by the deeds of our own righteousness but the righteousness of Christ in us that will justify us. It will it will treat us as righteous. 

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith”. In our faith. That's how we are saved, “by our faith”. So we're going to learn in the Book of Romans, the faith of the Old Testament believers, the faith of the New Testament believers, the faith of which we are all saved by. There's no two separate ways of salvation. You know, one for the Jews where they have to be saved by works and then and then for the New Testament believer, “in this dispensation” be saved by by grace alone. No! It's always been by grace alone through faith and Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. So we need to understand that is important. Otherwise we're wasting our time. If we just want to have a works organization we're wasting our time. But if we want to proclaim the grace of God and we want to be ready, we want to be established, as a church, we need to understand that the grace we proclaim is from faith to faith, and not of works that any man should should boast.

Let's pray: Dear Heavenly Father, were blessed. You give to us Lord! Thank you for the opportunity to consider the the gospel through the Book of Romans. The theology behind the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord especially help us to preach it faithfully. To understand it as you presented here in your Gospel. Lord we pray that you'll just help us to live “from faith to faith” and not of works. Not of as of the deeds of the law but rather through faith in Jesus Christ. Allowing His Holy Spirit to come and wash us of the filth of this world. So that we can more better serve you in the grace and in the fruit of the Spirit. And Lord especially, just help us to be your faithful servants in Jesus name, Amen!