Blessings to the Roman Believers
Romans 1:10-15 · Hal Molloy · Nov 6, 2005
Romans (2005-07), No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826233624962

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're in this section from verse 8 down through verse 15. And last week, Jim covered verses 8 and 9. And today, we're going to cover verses 10 through 15. But what I'll do is let's read the whole paragraph, starting at verse 8. 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 requests if by any means now at 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 that 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 prevented thus far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am indebted both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."

OK. Just in terms of a background, we've said that the theme of Romans is the righteousness of God. And we've looked at just the beginning outline. Your notes are correct, and this should say verse 18, in terms of the righteousness of God revealed. And we've seen so far in this whole section from verses 1 through 18, and we haven't got to 18 yet, but Jim will be covering 16th, 17th, 18th, next week, and you'll see that this whole section has to do with blessings.

And I think there's a reason for this, because God's going to come at man in the next section in terms of condemning man. He's going to condemn He's going to condemn the immoral man. He's going to condemn the moral man. He's going to condemn the religious man. He's going to condemn the unreligious man. He condemns the whole world. So before he comes in with this condemnation, he comes to us with these wonderful blessings. Now, we're in this section.

Blessing to the Roman believers from verses 8 through 15. Now, since Bob was supposed to do this, and this was a last minute thing for me, I'm going to make you participants, really participants in this class. And you're going to have to help me to get through this here. Verse 10. He says, making a request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Look at this verse. What is Paul's prayer conditioned on? Look at the verse. The will of God. So he prays And so he prays that his prayer is in the will of God. If this be God's will, that I might have a prosperous journey unto you. And it's interesting. Turn over to James chapter 4, verse 13. And think about your prayers. Think about my prayers. And do we pray that whatever we pray, that it be the will of God. Look at verse 13.

Well, it was a rush day yesterday, and... Oh, I'm in chapter... Where am I? No, I'm in chapter 4. Chapter 4. What I'm looking... What I'm looking for... No, what I'm looking for is the passage where it says that you have a plan. You have a plan to go into another city to buy and to sell. Oh. Chapter. Oh, I. I've got a new Bible. And so everything's in a different place. And I know where it should be, right on this side of the page. Chapter 4, verse 13.

Come now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on the next day, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little while or a little time and then vanishes away. Isn't that interesting? Here's God's perspective of our life. It's a vapor. It's a poof. It's here and it's gone.

And then in verse 15, he says, for you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now, you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin." So the point here is that Paul's prayer is conditioned, and rightly so, on, is this the will of God? So whatever we are thinking about doing in life, say, Lord, here am I. Is this your will?

If it be your will, then so be it. Next question. Was it God's will that Paul have a prosperous journey. And the word prosperous there means easy to travel through, an easy journey, no difficulties, just going from one place to another, going from Jerusalem to Rome, that he had this no difficulties journey.

Would that be in the will of God? Was that God's will for Paul? In Paul's specific case, was that God's will for Paul? That's Paul's prayer, right? So, is he praying the will of God? He's saying, if this be your will, if this be your will, question, was it God's will?

We won't go and read chapter 27 and 28, but as you read chapter 27 and 28, you find that Paul leaves on the ship, and the ship gets shipwrecked. It gets caught in a reef. And he told the captain of the ship, don't sail, because you're going to have problems with the weather and the captain says no we're not going to winter here we're going for it and they went for it and they lost the entire ship and God came to Paul in the vision and said tell these men to do what you say they are to do as you direct them and they'll all live and so Paul winds up on an island for I don't know how many months and But they all were saved. Now, anybody remember what happened on that island? The snake, okay, got bit by a snake, a poisonous snake, and what happened? Did he die? No, the Lord saved him. But what happened with the people on that island? Yeah.

So Paul had this wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel that he never even dreamed of. So Paul's desire was not God's desire. And oftentimes in our life, our desire is not God's desire. Our will is not God's will. And that's okay. As long as we are in tune and understand Lord, what is your will? That I may be receptive to your will. In verse 11, he says this, he says, For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you may be established.

Notice this word, spiritual gift. What do you think of when you see the word spiritual gift? Okay, specific gifts that are given to believers. Question, is every believer given a spiritual gift? Or are just some believers given the spiritual gift? All? How many gifts are believers given? One, two, three? Does scripture tell us? Scripture doesn't tell us in terms of how many gifts any one believer is given. But scripture is very clear that every single believer, the moment he or she puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, is given a spiritual gift.

And you, when you are saved and I was saved, you have no clue as to what that spiritual gift is. No clue whatsoever. And it takes time. for the Spirit to reveal to you that spiritual gift. And in fact, you may not even realize your spiritual gift, you may just be implementing that spiritual gift may be implemented in your life without even you knowing it.

Isn't that interesting? And others would recognize, hey, this guy's the spiritual gift of whatever. Teaching this or that helps. So, what's Paul's purpose? He's going to impart a spiritual gift. Is it Here's the next question. What's the source of the spiritual gifts that we're just talking about? So if you go to 1 Corinthians 12 from verse 1 to the end, there are a list of all the spiritual gifts in terms of tongues and healing and prophecy, et cetera, and apostles and pastors and teachers, et cetera. Some of those gifts are not operative in the church today. and others are, but we won't get into that this morning.

But what's the source of that spiritual gift? Where does it come from? Does a spiritual gift ever come from an apostle like Paul? No. Spiritual gift comes from the Lord, and it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. He imparts, through the Holy Spirit, a spiritual gift to us. So it never comes through. A spiritual gift doesn't come through, say, an apostle. So now the question is, well, what does this spiritual gift mean if it's not one of the gifts of the Spirit?

If you look at this word to impart, the word means just to share something with someone. That's all it means, is to share something, to communicate something to someone. And it doesn't imply giving something to someone, like giving a gift to someone. It's a sharing. So Paul's purpose in terms of imparting, is to share some spiritual gift, to share some spiritual blessings.

Where would he share that out of? What would be the source of what he wants to share? We have to give this class coffee to get you to Wake up here. It doesn't work. Okay. All right. Good. And if he's going to be sharing blessings with these believers, what's the source of that? Okay, Christ is the source? Okay. And certainly if you're going to be sharing, that is absolutely true, that it must be shared out from the Spirit. Certainly true.

Okay, but I think it simply means that Paul desires to share the things of Christ with these believers that are in Rome, and build them up and edify them in the Lord Jesus Christ. His purpose, as it says here, is that you may be established, and established means to make steadfast. to make steadfast, especially in one's mind, to fix someone, to fix someone in their position in their mind as to who they are, say, in Christ, and who Christ is, to strengthen them, if you will, in the faith. And if you look at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 15, in fact, Let's do that because this is critical that we understand what Paul's purpose is with these believers. Ephesians chapter 4. Look at verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ.

Who's the body of Christ? The church? Believers? We are the body of Christ. So we all come to the unity of, notice the unity of the faith, there's a definite article there, and the faith is that which is in the Word of God. This is, if you will, the faith.

And the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect or complete man. unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Look at the goal. Look at the goal of God edifying us in His Word. That the goal is the fullness of Christ. That we, every believer here, has the fullness of Christ in him or in her.

And verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness by which they lie in way to deceive. And this is the strengthening. This is the establishing in the faith. And the reason for fixing one in the faith is so that we won't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes along.

It seems like every year there's something that comes along. Can you think of some doctrines that have come along? I'm just thinking here out loud now, like a couple of years ago, it was the prayer of Jabez, right? And boy, if you want to be blessed, If you truly want to be blessed by God, then you need to understand the prayer of Jabez. And then pretty soon they got a whole Bible written concerning the prayer of Jabez. So what's wrong with that doctrine that was being taught? which sold 40 million bucks on this one little verse, I think it was Isaiah, I forget where it was now, on the prayer of Jabez. What is wrong with that? And the prayer is to pray to God to be blessed. If you want to be blessed, you need to pray this prayer of Jabez. What is wrong with that doctrine?

Okay, we're already blessed and the focus is wrong. So, if we're fixed in the Word of God, established in the Word of God, we know that in this very same book, in Ephesians 1, it says that we are blessed with what? All spiritual blessings. Every single spiritual blessing is ours. There is not one that needs to be added. So do we need to pray for spiritual blessings? No. We just have to, we just, they're there. They're ours. Yes.

When it says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, I mean, if we're talking about the church universal, boy, it seems like, how many denominations are there? How many doctrines are there? That's a big job. And the thing is this, till we all, who's the we? Who's the we? Till we all attain to the unity of the faith. So who's the we?

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright? Okay. So now, the point is, you've got all of these denominations out there. Is God working with denominations till they come to the unity of the faith? Who is he working with? Individuals, independent of whether they're Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, X, Y, Z, right? He's to we all believers, each believer. So it's independent, right? It's independent of church affiliation.

It's that every believer comes to the unity of the faith. Okay, in verse 15, Ephesians 4, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ. Okay, back to Romans chapter 1. And as we just looked at Ephesians 4, I put a note here that God's purpose is to reproduce the Lord Jesus Christ in the life of every believer through the edification of the word of God. So notice that God deals with each and every believer, and denominations are not even an issue with the Lord, right?

It's... But only in the sense, what I was thinking about is that, you know, I know wonderful believers in doctrines that keep them waving back and forth, that don't keep them steady, and it seems very difficult. We have a lot of friends in different denominations. They're wonderful believers. I know they're saved by the doctrine.

So what do you do? I trust the Lord. You know, you just pray for maybe the opportunity to be able to share. the Word of God with them in terms of, here's what you believe, here's what Scripture says. And that's the only way that I know how to do it. Here's what you believe, here's what Scripture says. If you could ever get to that point with a believer, that's a wonderful way to do it. Because then it's the Lord revealing to them and showing them the error that they may have.

Okay, verse 12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me. So here's the question. How are believers mutually comforted by each other? Let me take this away for a moment and just ask the question. When you are in a group of believers or or say you're going through some difficulties or some trials in your life, how are you mutually comforted by other believers? Paul is talking about the fact that he wants to be mutually comforted. How are we comforted? What's the source of comfort?

Yeah, God says, I'm the God of all comfort. Okay. So, blessed be God, the Father of mercies, and the God of what? All comfort. Who comforts us in every trial, every situation. Let's look at it. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at verse 3. It said, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation or trials, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble.

How do we comfort others? That we may comfort others who are in any trouble. How? Here's the means. Verse 3. by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. So that the only way that we're going to comfort another believer is that we have to have been comforted ourselves by God in a trial, in a difficulty, in a particular circumstance in life which we could not deal with. and God comes at us with His comfort.

Verse 5, For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. Does anybody have the word comfort there as opposed to consolation in the New American Standard? Okay. Verse 5, For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our comfort also abounds by Christ.

You know, it's interesting in terms of trying to comfort somebody or trying to counsel somebody. And oftentimes when a person comes to you, they'll say to you, you have no clue as to what I'm going through. And therefore, there's no way that you can comfort me, that you can help me. Is that true? Is that true? Why isn't it true? Or if it is true, why is it true? Let me ask this question.

Does it help to have gone through a similar difficulty, circumstance, when you're dealing with a person? Don't you have a greater understanding of what that person feels and where that person is if you've gone through it? And if you've gone through it, and you have cast all your care upon the Lord, because you know that He cares for you, and He has comforted you in that trial, in that difficulty, in that circumstance in life, and given you that wonderful peace that surpasses all human understanding. And you are resting in that trial, in that circumstance, and your heart is peaceful. Do you think you're in a better position to comfort somebody?

Yeah, that's how the Lord uses us. So, the Lord puts us through trials. through difficulties, through circumstances in life. Purpose, number one, that we come and depend upon Him in that circumstance, in that trial. Number two, and if we do, then He will use us to comfort others with the same comfort that we're comforted by. What a wonderful thing. And we can comfort each other in situations in life. Isn't the Lord wonderful in terms of the way He works?

And so here's Peter laying in the hospital, and certainly he needs to be comforted. And I'm sure going through Peter's mind is Well, I'm missing school and what's going to happen to my grades? And there's all of these concerns and cares that he's going through right now. And will I ever be able to walk correctly again? Am I going to be able to play basketball again? So going through his mind are all these cares and concerns.

But if he's casting them upon the Lord and saying, Lord, I don't have a clue as to why I've got my femur broken in four places, and I don't know, I have no clue what the rehab's going to be and what's going to happen at the end of rehab whether I'm going to be limping, whether I'm going to be able to play basketball.

But Lord, that's okay. That's okay. Why? Because I know that you'll use it. You will use this for your honor and for your glory. Don't know how, but I know you will. Isn't that a wonderful comfort to know that? Okay. So Paul's prayer is that he be comforted along with them. He would comfort them, they would comfort him.

Romans 1.13. And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented thus far in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles." So here's the question. Here's one purpose of Paul's visit to them, right, for that mutual comfort.

In this verse, in verse 13, there's another purpose stated, and what is that? Okay, and when you see this word in order, this little word in order, it's always a purpose clause. If you see the word that, or if you see the word in order that, or in order, always think that's a purpose clause. It's telling me what the purpose is in this verse.

And so what he's saying, the purpose is that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. Now here comes the big question. What fruit is Paul speaking about? He's speaking about he's had fruit among other Gentiles, and he wants to have the same kind of fruit amongst them that are in Rome. So the question is, what fruit is he talking about? Is it the same fruit that he had among other Gentiles, which was soul winning? And we won't turn there to Acts chapter 13, but Paul goes on his first missionary journey.

And he goes into the area of Galatia, which is Asia Minor. And he's up there, and he walks into the synagogue. And he reads out of the scripture, and he explains the scripture, and he walks out of the synagogue. And many of those that heard him in the synagogue really liked what they heard, and they followed Paul. But then there was these Gentiles that were outside of the synagogue and heard Paul. And they wanted to hear what he had said in that synagogue. And so he said, OK, tell you what, next week I'll be back, and I'll talk to you Gentiles. And he did. And when he did, many of these Gentiles believed, and they came to the ward.

So there was fruit that was produced. So is that what Paul is talking about here in verse 13, that he might have the same kind of fruit amongst them? Or is it to have fruit in the lives of the Roman believers, in terms of building them up, edifying them in the Lord, and having that kind of fruit? So let's look at Romans 6, 20 to 23.

For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and by the way, there's the definite article in front of the word sin in each of these verses, so it's talking about the sin nature, so that when you look at verse 20, for when you were servants of the sin, that is the sin nature, you were a doulos, you were a bond slave to the sin nature, of which you are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death, What death do you think it's? One who is enslaved to the sin nature, what death is that speaking of? Death means what?

Separation. And what separation is this speaking of? If a person is enslaved in union with the sin nature, what? But here, they were enslaved. In verse 20, it says, when you were, when they were. I think this is an imperfect tense, which is continuous action in past time. They were. They aren't now, but they were.

So they were enslaved to the sin nature and the result of it was death, separation from God. This is talking about eternal separation from God because they were in union with their sin nature before they were believers. Verse 21, What fruit had you then in these things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of these things is death.

Verse 22, But now be made free from the sin nature. Isn't that wonderful? As believers in Jesus Christ, we're free. We are free from the sin nature. We are severed. We are cut loose from the sin nature. And we have become servants. We have become do losses. We have become servants to God, bond servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

So there's a contrast between death and everlasting life. So the point is, is it that the fruit is that in the lives of believers that he's edifying them and building them up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that the fruit? Is it one or the other? Or what else could it be? Margaret, would you get a pot of coffee? And we've got to wake this class up here. Could it be both? Could it be soul winning? Could it be edification of believers? Personally, I think it's both in terms of fruit.

Paul is preaching, sharing the gospel, and the gospel is all-inclusive. The gospel includes the good news to sinners that Christ died for them, he was buried, and he rose again the third day. That's the gospel. That's the narrow sense of the gospel, but the entire gospel is all the good news to believers as to who you are in Christ and who Christ is, is the totality of the gospel. And is Paul limiting the preaching of the gospel to just 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1-4 that Christ died and was buried and rose again and was seen by 500 witnesses. Was that his preaching? No. His preaching was the totality of the gospel. The good news both to unbelievers and to believers. Okay. Verse 14.

Paul says I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. glued to the flow of things in terms of what's going on here. Yes, in a lot of cases I left out the answer purposely. So when it talks about a debtor, a debtor is one who owes anything to another or something to another, that you're in debt. You are in debt to someone.

How many have credit cards? Nobody has credit cards in this entire... I have a credit card. And I got to pay my credit card bill when I get home because otherwise I have a late fee. So I'm in debt. I'm in debt to Visa. And so you owe something. I owe money to Visa. because of my wife who buys all these..." No. I'm in trouble now. So that's a debtor, one who owes something.

Why would Paul say he's a debtor, that he's in debt, and that he's in debt to the Greeks, the barbarians, the wise and unwise? And the question is, do you think that in these four words, the Greeks, the barbarians, the wise and the unwise, do you think that's inclusive of the entire world? Yeah, that's a good point.

Would they fit into wise or unwise? I know some unwise ones. Wouldn't they fit into the ones who think they're wise? Yes. But in a sense, wouldn't that be the Greeks and the barbarians? Like, the Greeks would be considered the ones with the learning. Barbarians are kind of the ones who the Roman, or, you know, the civilized Roman Empire would consider didn't really know much and probably weren't wise. Okay. So, so then what, yeah. So what does, uh, What do Greek and barbarians mean?

So I think that if you look at Greeks and barbarians, this was a division of mankind that the Greeks made. They divided all mankind into two groups. The Greeks, they were cultured, they were educated, they had a beautiful language, they were civilized. The barbarians, were all others, and especially those not speaking the Greek language. They were considered barbarians.

Now, the wise and the unwise. I'm not sure what Paul is, when Paul is saying the wise and unwise, I'm not sure what the wise and unwise is referring to. Is it used in the case of dividing mankind into wise and unwise in terms of wise the intellectuals, that the wise are the intellectuals of the day, that those are the wise? Or is Paul looking at it from God's point of view as to the wise and unwise? So that in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, where it says that the preaching or the message of the cross is foolishness to them who are perishing, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. So the message of the cross is foolishness, or it's unwise to some, but it is wisdom to others. I'm interpreting it that way, that the wise and unwise, that Paul is talking about those possessing or not possessing God's wisdom. And God's wisdom lies in the cross. That's where his wisdom is, is in the cross.

So now, why is Paul a debtor to all of these people, which is inclusive of all mankind? Why is he a debtor? He owes a debt to them. Why? Because he wants to get the Gospel to them. He knows that there are people who need the Gospel so he's under obligation or under debt to get the Gospel out to them. Okay, he wants to get the Gospel to them and he's in debt for that reason. And why would that be? Why would he want to get the Gospel to people?

Does it go back to verse 1? Okay, excellent. It goes back to verse 1, that he's a bond-servant, a slave, that he set apart to where? Unto the gospel. So, God specifically chose Paul. He selected Paul. to do for that ministry, right? So he's a debtor to everyone out there because of the gift that the Lord has given him as an apostle. Is that the second bill? Oh, wow. Okay. We're almost done. And I think, as I said, the answer lies in the following.

Paul owed them, he owed them all his entire life, his entire being, because of the grace that was bestowed upon him by God. He owed them, he owed everybody his life. And he's a debtor because, as Jim was saying, he's an apostle, called selected by God. Did Paul pay his debt? Well, he certainly did. He paid his debt by his preaching and his writing.

In verse 15, he says this, So as much as is in me, I am ready. And that word ready means to be eager. He's ready to go. He's eager to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. So here's the question, and I didn't give you an answer. Why is Paul ready and eager to preach the gospel to those in Rome?

Tune in next week, and Jim is going to be going through verses 16, 17, and 18, and tell you that answer. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we are just so thankful for the truths that were revealed to us this morning. And we just thank you, Father, for the fact that we can share our mutual faith with each other, that we can edify each other. And your purpose, Father, is that we be edified and built up in Christ, that we may not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And Father, also that we can comfort each other by the same comfort that you comfort us. How wonderful that is. And thank you, Father, for Paul and his ministry, because we are recipients of that wonderful ministry through the Holy Spirit. And we give you thanks now in Christ's name. Amen.