Good Works Advance the Name of Christ

Please turn your copy of the scriptures to Romans chapter 1. We'll be looking at verse 5 today. I will read verses 1 through 7 for context. That could be found on page 939 if you're using the pew Bible in front of you.

When you have Romans chapter 1, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David, according to the flesh, as he was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you would open our minds, you would open our eyes and ears to receive your word, that we would understand the truth here, even in this introduction of Romans, that Paul's grace and apostleship were given to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Christ's name among the nations.

We ask that we would eagerly, we would eagerly render the obedience of faith for the sake of Christ's name among all the nations. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we have been going through this series on motivations for good works and particularly in this segment,.

Motivations.

The Obedience of Faith for the Sake of Christ's Name

That have to do with the advancement of the kingdom of heaven, how good works improve the kingdom of heaven. Here in this passage, we come to the notion of the name of Jesus Christ. All Christians know that they are to obey the Lord, that they are to follow in his law, but they often lack much zeal in doing so because they do not know the reasons that they ought to beyond the fact they are commanded to.

But there are many benefits, there are many blessings. One of those is the name of Christ. It is through obedience, it is through the obedience of faith that the name of Christ is honored among all the nations.

It is important to honor good names. Christ's name is an incredibly good name, so it is important to honor his name above all names. Then moreover, his name is a name that we bear. And in bearing his name, we ourselves are benefited from the advancement of Christ's name in all the nations.

You have a name for yourself, a reputation, and you are eager for that to be a higher name. You are eager for any kind of slanderous statements to be taken away, to have your name cleared. Well, ultimately you should be most concerned not about your your private name, but Christ's name, because it is in bearing his name that you can have the greatest honors, not through your own name privately, but through his name that you share with brothers and sisters.

Paul speaks here, writing to the church in Rome, the most.

Prominent.

Of.

All the places on earth at that time, pretty much the capital of the world. These people, representing the nations themselves, says, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all the nations, including you, you people of Rome.

But then moreover, being in Rome, they are surrounded by many different nations. So there's a special way that they are to heed these words, being one of the nations themselves, but then likewise being surrounded by nations, being centered at the capital of the world.

As you consider us here in this area, Silicon Valley, a lot of times I refer to this area as the capital of the world. There's really no other place that has the similar qualities like Rome would have.

You might think of capitals being primarily in terms of political power, but really it's just in terms of power in general. And where are most of the world's decisions made? Is it not the case that by and large many of the world's decisions are made right here?

Is it not the case that we are surrounded by many nations and we, not being Jews, are of the nations ourselves and so are to honor the name of Christ? You should heed this as every Christian should, but I believe there's a special way that we should regard ourselves as having a particular duty to heed Paul's words.

So we live in modern-day Rome. Just walking through this passage, we have received grace and apostleship.

Now,.

You might wonder what is this grace that he speaks of? Well, the apostleship is him being sent by Jesus Christ. Some people have taken that grace to refer to the grace of salvation. So he's received the grace of salvation, which is common to all, but then particularly he's received apostleship.

Now, I don't believe that particularly fits here. I believe he is talking about the particular grace that he has received to be an apostle. This is known as hindiatus, when things are conjoined together with a conjunction like and, but they really refer to the same thing.

So if I said, well, it seems nice and warm today, I'm not really telling you two different things. I'm not saying it's nice and that it's also warm. I'm describing the warmth of this being a nice warmth.

Similarly, Paul, when he speaks of the grace of apostleship or grace and apostleship, he's not talking about grace and apostleship as two different things. He tends to speak of his apostleship as a grace.

And so here when he talks about grace and apostleship, he's really just referring to the same thing, his particular commission to spread the name of Christ in all the nations. Peter was sent to the Jews, Galatians 2 tells us, but Paul was sent to the Gentiles.

You can see his use of grace this way in many other passages, but just looking at Romans 15, he says in Romans 15, 15,. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

So here he speaks of the grace given to him to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. This is how he talks about his apostleship, even in the letter that it's a grace given to him. So what his concern here is particularly about his commissioning.

So he's been given this commission. He has a special message that is not the message of every other apostle. And he has done this to bring about the obedience of faith. Faith results in obedience. God has made a people to himself, not just to believe, but in order that we be a people purified for his own possession, zealous for good works.

Titus 2 .14. He desires not just to bring about believers, but to bring about obeyers. If you consider the Great Commission, what does the Great Commission say? Baptized, make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

The aim is to make obeyers. Those who would follow the word of God. To have faith and then to have the obedience that springs from faith. And where? Among all the nations. This is not something that is just supposed to be centered in one place as it was through most of human history.

Where it was the people of Israel who were primarily God's people, maybe a person here or there coming in to join Israel, but it really just being one nation. We live at a time where Satan has been bound so the nations may no longer be deceived.

As such, the gospel is free to spread much farther and it ought to spread much farther in order that Christ would be honored. His name would be honored through obedience. Now we come to that question here.

What does it mean that this is for the sake of his name? Different translations will put this phrase at different parts. Some say we have received grace and apostleship for the sake of the name to bring about the obedience of faith, etc.

Here we see that it says to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of the name. And then the way it appears originally in Greek is just the obedience of faith for the sake of his, excuse me, the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name.

This phrase for the sake of his name in Greek is all the way at the very end. And so different interpreters and even the translators when they're trying to communicate to you what the words mean are asking themselves what is it that is for the sake of his name?

Is it the apostleship that's for the sake of his name? As Paul is a representative having the authority of Jesus Christ, is it the obedience that's for the sake of his name? What is it? It seems very clear to me in reading once again Romans, you see how he ends his message.

Repeating the same themes that he opened it up with that what he has in mind is what the translators of the ESV are communicating to you here is that it's the obedience of faith that is for the sake of the name of Christ.

And even if it were the apostleship, then it is ultimately for obedience, which is for the sake of his name. So Romans 15 in verse 8 it says,. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

As it is written, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. So what is happening for the sake of God's name in this passage? The Gentiles are praising or the Gentiles are hearing praise.

So here what is happening for the sake of the name? The Gentiles are receiving the message. Gentiles are being transformed by it. They are glorifying God. And in this context he does particularly have in mind the donation, the collection for Jerusalem, for the poor in Jerusalem.

So the Gentiles giving praise to God for the sake of the name of Christ in that way. Later on in verse 20 of chapter 15, it says,. So Paul goes around to different places in order that Christ would be named there where he hasn't been named before.

So Paul in chapter 15 is letting you know that it's not just that he has the authority of Christ's name. Rather his particular mission is to go make Christ named places where he is not presently named.

So what does that mean for us as we read Romans 1 verse 5? What is for the sake of his name? The obedience of faith among all the nations is for the sake of his name. That Christ would be honored the way that God wants him to be honored, not just by one earthly nation, but by people from many earthly nations.

And how should he be honored? Just through song, just through verbal praise, particularly through the obedience of faith. Just taking a step back and asking ourselves about the importance of names and honoring names.

It is important to honor good names. Good names deserve honor. This is what we are told in the ninth commandment even, that good names deserve honor. If you look at the back of your bulletin, I've put the Westminster Larger Catechism question about the ninth commandment here.

What are the duties required in the ninth commandment? It says the duties required in the ninth commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man. Remember the ninth commandment is thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

The preserving and promoting of truth between man and man and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. So it talks about promoting and preserving the good name of our neighbor. Later on it says loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name.

Speaking of our neighbor, we are to love, desire, and rejoice in the good names of our neighbors.

Now,.

What neighbor should we care about above all others? Is it not Jesus Christ? We are to honor his name. His name refers to his reputation, to his recognition.

It is.

One of those spiritual realities that exists beyond the material that we should be sensitive to. There are a lot of things that God ordered in setting up the world in such a way that we would understand who he is.

He gave us material things in order that we might have dominion over them and understand his dominion. There is a way that in the in creation many of his own characteristics are expressed. So it is with the notion of name.

He is high above all things. He should be recognized as high above all things and he has given us the notion of a name by which we can see that. You consider the various things that exist that are immaterial but plainly present in Genesis 1 and 2 as God has created the world.

There's righteousness. That's not something that is material, but certainly something that is part of our reality like morality. Even people who deny that God exists and they might even say that there's no such thing as morality.

They operate as though there is a real morality as though some things are good and some things are bad. They do certain things because they think they are better to do and they are offended when other things happen because they think those things are bad to do.

So even people who would deny that there is anything spiritual anything beyond the material recognize it even in their own activity. There's also dominion the notion of ownership. Ownership is a real thing upheld by the eighth commandment.

That.

That you should not steal. There is a real relationship that you have to particular objects that other people do not have. You and your car you have a relationship of ownership that other people do not have.

Now if you do not own something then you do not have that particular relationship with it. If you've never thought about this before this is something that doesn't exist in the material world itself, even though physical things do exist in the material world, but that notion of ownership is something that is beyond just the material.

Similarly.

The notion of a name is something that exists beyond just the material. It refers to the recognition that one ought to have for another the reputation that someone has. We are to care about others in this way.

We are to care about their righteousness. We are to care about their ownership. We are to care about their.

Their name.

As represented by these different commandments. The ninth commandment being concerned about the name of others. You might be wondering well, why does lying what does that have to do with someone's name?

Well, if you slander someone especially in court what are you doing? You are sullying their name you their name that needs to be cleared. So we should desire the good of people's names rather than evil for their names.

There are different kinds of names that you bear. It is not just your own name. Like my name is Conley. I also have a last name that I share with others Owens. And there's the name of my nation. We live in very impersonalized nations.

It used to be that every nation had a king and there was a way that you were under him. Now we're kind of under these corporate entities. So people don't quite think that way anymore, but.

You.

Are either an American or of a particular country. And so you bear that name of your country. Then you might bear other kinds of names as well. And so there are various sorts of reputations that we should care about.

Now, how do you honor a name? Well first truth. Truthfully with your words you defend the names of others as need be. You can also cover shame. What happened in Genesis where Noah's sons did not care about their father or where Noah's son did not care about his father.

He did not cover his nakedness. He did not cover shame where others covered his shame. But you can do that in your words where you see people who are shamed. One thing that people do today is they pretend as though the shame isn't real.

I'm not arguing that you pretend that shame isn't real. Like there's a shame of barrenness in scripture, for example. A lot of people pretend that that isn't real and that's how they deal with it. That it doesn't matter whether or not one would be barren.

The way to deal with shame may be to cover but it's not to pretend that it doesn't exist. Not to pretend that it's not a real thing. So you can cover shame even with your words. Then negatively with your words you could slander someone.

So if you were to in an evil way besmirch someone's name you could slander them. This is also known as traducing. You can traduce someone's name by saying wicked things about them by saying lies about their activity or anything about them.

Now also you can uphold someone's name with your actions. Because you may bear a name that multiple people are bearing as one who is a member of a family underneath a father or underneath a king or within a country you bear the name that someone above you bears and other people with you bear.

And so as a representative of someone with that name your activity like your obedience in this case here your activity is something that honors that name. Or you can have things like monuments. Like we read about earlier Joshua's 12 stones.

You also have Jacob's pillar. There's Samuel's Ebenezer. There's a lot of different monuments you see in scripture that are lifted up in order to honor God's name and recall the things that he has done.

So there are various ways that you can honor someone's name. The ninth commandment is not merely about the words spoken out of your mouth but about other ways that you would represent someone in all truth even as you are bearing their own name.

You consider how the fifth commandment ties into this. The fifth commandment being honor your father and mother. How is it that you honor your father and mother? Well in being their own representatives you are supposed to live a godly kind of life that would pass down that legacy in a way that is honorable to them.

All right, if we should honor good names then most certainly we should honor Christ's name. There are several reasons that we should honor Christ's name. First of all, he is God. Because he is God he is high above all things.

His name should be praised. The verse that I read for our call to worship today here is relevant. Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted. His majesty is above earth and heaven.

God's name alone is exalted and so Christ being God we should praise his name. However, there's an additional way that we should praise the name of Christ not just as God but as man. He has through his great righteousness through his great obedience to the Father earned for himself such an incredibly high and exalted name.

A name that he was not born with by the way. Right. He made himself like a servant obeying even to the point of death for this reason God has given him the name that is above all names. This is a name that he has said to have inherited.

Hebrews 1 .4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Hebrews 2 says that he was a little while lower than the angels. But it is through his great work of salvation through his great obedience that he has earned a great name and because of this we should praise his name.

Philippians 2 .9 -11 says therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. Therefore therefore being his obedience even to the point of death. So that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and other under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the of God the Father.

So what do you do given that he has been given a great name? You are to praise that name because he has been given a great name. What's the default? The default if you do not praise his name, this is not this is not one of those things where there's a neutral position.

Right, you either serve God or you serve mammon. You're either a friend of God or you're an enemy of God. You either praise the name of Christ or you praise other gods. Isaiah 26 .13 says oh Lord our God other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance.

Because of the competition of all the lords and all the gods because there are many lords that claim dominion over people's lives when you do not praise Christ the implication is not that you are a free man who's not ruled by another the implication is that you are ruled by another and that that is the name that you praise.

So you should praise Jesus Christ as a demonstration of the fact that he is your Lord. He is your God. So why should we praise him? He is God but then as man he has done most righteously. Now every knee should praise him for that every knee should bow before him because he has done most righteously.

You if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a special reason to praise him because that salvation does not just benefit others it benefits you in particular. You have a special reason to praise him because he has done wonderfully for you having given you a great salvation and dying on the cross that obedience even to the point of death caring about others more than he cared about his own life.

You.

Are so blessed by that name that it should be praised and you bear that name so that it should be praised. In Acts the disciples are called Christians. That only happens one time in Acts and yet we are.

We bear that name throughout throughout history. We have borne the name Christian. Why Christian? Because we are followers of Christ.

And so.

In bearing that name when we honor his name as one who is a little while lower than the angels and exalted high above all dominions and authorities we are honoring a name that we ourselves bear. We ourselves benefit from this.

You think about the way people do this. Some people very obnoxious manner praise their university to high heaven, right? They talk about how great their university was and they they talk about the sports team and just the sports team is the greatest thing in the world and it is the hill that they will die on.

That their university was the best university. Their colors are the best colors. Why do they care so much about that when you know that if they had not gotten accepted to that school and they'd gotten accepted to a different school they'd be saying the exact same thing about a different set of colors?

The answer is because they bear that name and they know that as much as that name is held up high they are imagining themselves being held up high. Now whether or not a university really matters that much is a different question but this is what's going on with people when they praise their university's name and they praise the university's colors.

Is it because they know that they bear those colors? Same thing is true of families, although families have really broken down. Same thing is true with nations although nations have really broken down in a way that the analogy does not hold as well as I'd like it to but if you can imagine the patriotism that one ought to have, you know, the loyalty to one's family one ought to have not just.

Because.

The family really is better than every other family, though that may be the case. The reason that they would care so much about that particular name is because they themselves bear it and so benefit by that name being held up high because even if it's not their own name proper they are bearing that name.

So it is with Jesus Christ when he saves us when he has died us dying with him with him us being divorced from the law as it says in Romans 7 so that we can be united to him and have his name instead.

We now benefit by his name being advanced by his name being held up. You might not have a very good name on your own but as you are found in Jesus Christ, you have the most excellent name. You have the name that is above every name to which every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This is this is the name that you bear. Proverbs 22 1 tells us that a good name is to be desired over great riches.

If you.

And think about that people will go broke in order to clear their name if there are slanderous charges against them.

People will do.

Anything for a good name given that what they care about more than even having bread to eat the next day is often just what that they be honored rightly. You might be a very poor man, but if you have the name of Jesus Christ, you have something that is greater than the greatest of riches.

Because a better a good name is to be desired over great riches. You can bear the name of Christ if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, you do not bear that name. You should turn to him. Trust him in faith and you can bear that name and then your your obedience To the law would not just be something outward that is not pleasing to God.

Because you have not been filled by his spirit and it's not actually honoring his name. Instead you having been saved having been.

Uh.

Transferred from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light. Having been transferred from The name of your father the devil into the name of Jesus Christ. Bearing that name you may obey with all joyfulness.

Knowing that your obedience Is not just doing something for others. But it's advancing the very kingdom that you're a part of his name being advanced. That name that you bear. Name that is better than great riches.

So obedience honors Christ's name. He is a good king. If you think about why a King's name would be honored because of obedience well, first of all.

If you.

If you are a good people that just Is good for a king in general, right? Someone is proud of those things that he has those things that are under him. Right, someone might be proud of their children, even if they weren't the ones that really, um, Even if they weren't involved in their lives at all.

You see that a lot of times right is a father who's never involved in his kids lives. But he'll still be proud of his kids accomplishing something because there's just an association there that he's proud of.

Right, you may be proud of um, even possessions that you have or things like that just because Uh because you have those things. So there's a there's a sense in which just goodness being good itself Honors christ just by just by virtue of being good just by virtue of obedience.

However, what it communicates about him as a king is that he is a great king that transforms his people to be obedient because we know that his kingdom is a special kingdom that Involves people being born again people being transformed.

So it shows that he has transformative power. Do you think of the kings of the earth? Why. What does it say if subjects obey him. If subjects obey him that means that he has great power. That he is to be feared.

People who do not fear a king do not obey their king. When we obey our king we demonstrate that his name is to be feared.

And.

Likewise when we obey him we demonstrate that he is A king that is so noble that he inspires us. He is uh, he has filled our hearts with gladness to Want to obey him. These are the various ways That christ is honored through obedience as his name is held up through obedience.

And it brings attention to his name as god's people in all the nations obey him and they recognize that this is happening because God's people are a special people that Do not operate by the same laws that others do they operate instead by a rule of righteousness.

Being truly transformed this brings Attention to the name of christ and honor to his name. It is a monument that is erected for the sake of jesus christ. Now on the other hand disobedience dishonors the name of christ.

Paul says this in romans 2. Of the of the jewish people. He says in verse 24. For as it is written the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you. So this is coming right after his introduction this is not unrelated.

He's he's talked about how the he has been given apostleship in order that the obedience of faith Might spread throughout all the nations. And then as he's setting up the foundations for his letter he explains that.

The.

That the name of god is dishonored among the nations because of disobedience. These are very related truths.

Even.

There are ways that people will honor god hypocritically. That likewise detract from the honor of his name. So for example in luke 11 47 to 48 It says woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and you build their tombs. So you have hypocritically people building up tombs to prophets but really Because they're doing the same deeds that those who killed the prophets would have done.

They're dishonoring the prophets and they're mocking them. This is us when we disobey god while bearing his name we might Say that we love god. We might erect a monuments of false works or might erect monuments of praise and Verbally praising him, but then if with our own activity, we are dishonoring him.

These are all these are all just mockeries and god is not mocked. So obedience honors the name of christ. And particularly obedience honors christ's name among the nations. Matthew 28 20 jesus gave the great commission.

He said go therefore make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. What are they supposed to do?

They're supposed to teach Them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is how christ is to be honored not just in there being believers All over the world, but in there being obeyers all over the world.

Christ's name is to be honored by the obedience of faith among the nations. I'll repeat what I said during the introduction. We Live in a very particular place this command is given to all christians, but.

Uh.

This introduction is especially important to us being people who live here in silicon valley. And what is in a lot of ways practically the capital of the world being surrounded by many nations. Being surrounded by such great wealth being surrounded by such great power so many of the world's decisions being made here sure that well over.

Half of all the venture capital spent in the u .s. Goes right here to this to this area this bay area the whole bay area. Not just the valley, but that's that's an incredible Statistic as paul is writing to the romans.

Encouraging them to obey. Not just in the land of judea. But that there be an obedience among them. In the among the nations and particularly them as being those who are in the capital of the nation. He's saying including you who belong to jesus christ.

There's um um. There are some ways that this language says. Um, even it's like it. The extent is all the way even to you. So all those in rome who are so loved by god and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ.

Those in rome's were to be particularly concerned about the honor of christ's name through obedience. How much more should we at this point in history at this place this time? We ought to carry very much.

For the name of jesus christ if we go about Disobeying him we dishonor him. You consider the way that people have done that the people have brought. Uh evil or they have brought their name that they bear under disrepute.

Remember.

Uh, how long ago was it that there were all the haitians and springfield ohio that were. That were. There were a lot of car accidents and so, you know, it was. Uh, it was. A well-known thing that the haitians and springfield ohio weren't able to drive.

Well, right? And so it's bringing bringing shame on the name of haitian. I remember when I was a Student at virginia tech and there was the shooting. That the koreans because the korean had done the shooting that koreans were very worried that this would bring dishonor on the name of being a korean.

Right. So as you dishonor.

You bring shame.

On that name you bring shame on the name of christ.

But.

As you honor it you bring honor on that name and as you bear that name you yourself benefit from it. There are a couple of.