WWUTT 1388 Proud of My Work for God (Romans 15:17-21)

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Paul was appointed an apostle to preach the gospel of Christ, that many would come to faith and be saved, and many others would continue to grow in that faith and be sanctified.

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This is a work we must do as well, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Romans chapter 15, and as with yesterday,

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I'm going to begin by reading verses 14 through 21. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

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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

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Gentiles, in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the

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Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then,

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I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what

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Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the

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Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus

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I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

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So, as we looked yesterday at verses 14 through 16, Paul says to this church in Rome, though he has spoken very boldly over the course of chapter 14 and half of chapter 15, he says to them,

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I'm satisfied about you, that you yourselves are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

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So he says to them, I'm not rebuking you, but I'm speaking very boldly to you by way of reminder, and as some translations, by the way, maybe you're reading in a

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New King James or the NASB, that statement there in verse 14, it says, you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another.

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The ESV says, able to instruct one another, other translations say admonish. As I've shared with you many times before, to admonish means to correct with goodwill.

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So as Paul is correcting them or as he's guiding them like a good pastor, like a shepherd would the flock of God, he knows that they have the knowledge, they know the scriptures well enough that they can do this among one another.

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And they have been doing this, even though an apostle has not come to them with the authority of the word of Christ, yet they have that word of God by which they've been instructing and growing each other.

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As I referenced before to John 17, 17, Jesus says we are sanctified by the word of God and his word is true.

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So they are growing each other in the truth of God's word, though they don't have or have not yet had the guidance of an apostle.

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So he says, I know you're able to admonish each other. I know that you do this. You are correcting and building one another up with goodwill.

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The verse that we have in Colossians 3, 16 is to be filled with the word of Christ, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

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So with God's word, we correct course. Sometimes when we see a brother or a sister stumble, we're able to rebuke them.

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They come to repentance, restored to the path of righteousness. We continue in these instructions and these careful reminders of one another for building up the body of Christ to the glory of God.

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And Paul says, I've written these things to you boldly by way of reminder, not as a rebuke, but because I want to build you up.

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And that's the explanation he goes on to give. And this is really verses 16 through 21.

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He says that I have been given the grace of God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the

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Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the

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Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We read that yesterday and kind of stopped there, but let me unpack it a little bit more.

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So by the grace of God, Paul has been called to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the

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Gentiles. Remember what God said about Paul to Ananias in Acts chapter nine?

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This was after Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul was knocked to the ground.

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He was blinded. Jesus addressed him, said, go to the street called straight. Paul was called

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Saul at that time, and he was going to Damascus to round up Christians to persecute them. Jesus appears to him while he's on his way to persecute the people of God and says to him,

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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul replies, who are you,

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Lord? And Jesus reveals himself. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, identifying himself with his own followers who are being persecuted for the cause of the gospel.

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When we're reading right now about pastors in North America that are being persecuted, specifically at this time that I'm recording this devotional,

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I think of James Coates at in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, who has been put in jail for opening his church and preaching the gospel.

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The state has no good reason for persecuting this man and his family and his church and putting him in jail.

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And yet Christ would say, what you have done to him, you've done to me.

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So the state of Canada persecuting Christ, that's a scary place for the nation of Canada to be, because we know what

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Christ has said he will do to those who persecute him, who persecute his own.

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And we must, as the body of Christ, mourn when we hear about things like that, because that which is done to the least of these brothers of mine,

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Jesus said in Matthew 25, you do also unto me as it is done to Christ. We must know it is done to the body of Christ.

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It happens to all of us. Now, this is hitting a little closer to home because it's happening in North America.

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This is not very common, not very commonly heard of in North America. It doesn't usually reach this high of a platform, but it's been going on around the world.

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And most of the time we hear in the Western world, Western northern part of the world in North America, often are deaf and blind to it.

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We don't see it hit as close to home as it is right now. We hear about it happening in China or in North Korea or in India or, you know, some of those surrounding regions,

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Russia, sometimes in Europe. But we don't always hear about it happening in our own backyard.

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We shouldn't just mourn when we hear about it happening to a fellow North American. We need to mourn whenever we hear about it happening to anyone in the world.

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But this is to show how Christ so closely identifies himself with his own.

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That which you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, he said, you have done also unto me.

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This is how Jesus appears before Saul, who was persecuting the church of God.

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But by the grace of God, Saul wasn't destroyed in that. Rather, he was called to be an apostle and not just an apostle, but an apostle to the

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Gentiles. So as I was bringing this up, I was mentioning to you, remember what Jesus said to Ananias.

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So Ananias heard from Christ who said to him, rise and go to the street called straight and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named

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Saul. For behold, he is praying and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias who will come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

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And Ananias responded and said, Lord, I've heard from many about this man.

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I know who you're talking about, how much evil he has done to the saints at Jerusalem.

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Ananias says to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

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Now, Ananias is not saying to Jesus, you must be mistaken about this guy. I don't think that's

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Ananias approach here, but rather it's almost like he's asking for clarification. Are you saying you want me to go to this guy and be captured and be persecuted?

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I mean, tell me exactly what it is that you want me to do here. But then Jesus responds to Ananias in verse 15, go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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So Saul slash Paul, who has inflicted and caused much suffering on the saints of Christ, was himself going to be a saint who would suffer for the cause of Christ.

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More than this, he would be an apostle to the Gentiles. The other apostles are

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Jews. Paul, of course, is a Jew as well. But those apostles have not had those opportunities and those avenues to speak to Gentiles.

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Peter, of course, does. We read about that in in the next chapter, in Acts chapter 10, when he goes to the house of Cornelius.

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So there are times in which the other apostles have certainly spoken to Gentiles. We hear about Thomas having been a missionary to India and things of that nature.

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But Paul in particular was a Roman citizen. And so God was going to use his citizenship and his rights as a

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Roman citizen to put him in places where he would become more of an apostle to the

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Gentiles than the other apostles had been up to this point. So he is an appointed apostle to minister to those who themselves were not

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Jews, who did not receive the prophets and the oracles of God and the law.

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And so by the grace of God, Paul has been appointed to this very thing, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the

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Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the

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Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

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So the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the

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Holy Spirit. And again, how are we sanctified? By the word of God. That word, by the way, that was given by the

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Holy Spirit to men to write down exactly what God wanted them to write. So it is by this word that we are sanctified and able to be presented before God as acceptable.

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It is all according to the word of Christ. Remember back to Romans 12, 1, the instruction that Paul gives there.

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I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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So how are we made living sacrifices acceptable unto God? When we hear the word of God taught and we do what it says and as we continue to meditate on these things and it transforms our thinking and our hearts and we are teaching and admonishing one another according to the word of Christ that is in our hearts.

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When we do these things, we are being sanctified according to the word of God that we may be presented as acceptable sacrifices unto the

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Lord. Paul instructs it in Romans 12, 1, and he says that is his ambition as one called of God to go out with the message of God to the

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Gentiles that they may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Verse 17, in Christ Jesus, then

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I have reason to be proud of my work for God. It's not to boast in himself.

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It is all to the glory of Christ. Because again, Paul is on his way to Damascus to persecute

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Christians. Christ appears to him and changes his course. He still goes to Damascus, but now with a different purpose.

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And he leaves Damascus, not with the saints that he was going to round up for persecution, but as a saint who was going to be persecuted.

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Jesus Christ changes his heart and changes his ambition. His ambition is now in service to Christ and he has reason to be proud, not in himself, but that the work that he has done for God has been carried out in the name of Christ Jesus who changed him.

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Paul did not. It was not on his way to Damascus and it was like suddenly like, you know, maybe

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I'm just going the wrong way. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong. I see what I'm doing to these

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Christians now and I just sympathize with them. And so I'm going to change course and I'm going to do this another way. I'm going to do better, friends.

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That's such an annoying phrase that I hear these days. Do better, which is legalism.

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What does that even mean? Do better. According to what? Do better. Paul was changed by Christ.

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It was by the will of God that he was changed. In fact, the way that he says it in Galatians 1 15 is that he set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace.

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God had this purpose for Paul before his parents even knew that they were expecting Paul, Saul at that time and that God was going to appoint him by his grace to this purpose as a missionary to the

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Gentiles. And I have reason in Christ to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what

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Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed.

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Now, the interesting thing about that is that the church in Rome is not a result of that like Paul did not plant this church.

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He's not been there yet. He has not met these Christians before, so he's writing to a church that he's never set foot in.

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There's one other letter that Paul writes to another church that he's never met before, and that's his letter to the

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Colossians. It was because of the word that had come to him from Epaphras about some of the things that were going on in Colossae, and that's why

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Paul wrote that letter to the Colossians to the Romans. He's writing this letter saying, I've been trying to get to you, but I haven't been able to yet.

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I am coming, though, and I know that the Lord is going to bring me there at the appointed time, but for now,

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I write these things to you by way of reminder that you might grow in the knowledge of the word of God and be sanctified as you hear these things and do them.

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So, though they have not come to faith and demonstrated that faith by word and deed by the testimony of Paul, nevertheless, he is involved in that work.

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Somebody else may have planted, but he's going to water. God provides the growth, as he says to the

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Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, but in doing this, though Paul did not plant, he will water.

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There will be growth, and he will accomplish or Christ will accomplish through him to bring the

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Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the

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Spirit of God. So, there is word that will be proclaimed to them. There is love that will be shown to them.

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There is the power of signs and wonders that they will witness, and then the power of the Spirit of God in their hearts that will understand what they have seen, what they have heard, and they will rejoice in God, and they will grow in God as a result of all of this.

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Remember that an apostle has not yet been to this church in Rome. This church was planted by Jews who had been scattered after the persecution that happened in Jerusalem, and as they made it all the way to Rome, they planted a church there.

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The gospel was preached to Gentiles. Gentiles came to faith, so now that church has grown by Jews and Gentiles together, but an apostle has not yet been to them.

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So, there's not been an apostle guiding and teaching and even performing miraculous signs and wonders in their midst.

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Remember what it says about the testimony of the gospel in Hebrews 2, beginning in verse 3.

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It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the

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Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. And so, Paul is going to get there and perform and affirm the gospel of God through these miraculous signs that the

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Holy Spirit will work through him, and many more will come to faith. The faith of these

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Roman Christians will be strengthened, and there are others that will come to faith as a result by the power of the

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Spirit of God. Paul goes on, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

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Illyricum is a Roman province. That's as far west as Paul has made it up to this point in sharing the gospel in the

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Roman Empire, and he means to go beyond that. He wants to get to Rome, which is even further west than Illyricum, so that he may continue to testify of the goodness of God, even to these

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Christians that are there in Rome. And according to church history, Paul made it even further west than that. His fourth missionary journey, which we don't have in Scripture, but again, this is according to church history,

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Paul made it as far as Spain after his first imprisonment, and then it was probably coming back east that he was in prison that second time, and that was where he was martyred.

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And then we have his letter, his second letter to Timothy. We just don't have anything in between, in between his first imprisonment and any writings between then and his second imprisonment.

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Second Timothy is the last letter that we have. So anyway, Paul's saying that I've already made it all the way to Illyricum.

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You've heard the testimony of what has been accomplished for the gospel of Christ, and I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ in so far as I've made it as far as God has guided me, and thus

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I make it my ambition. Verse 20, to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

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This goes back to Paul saying in verse 14, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

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Somebody's already planted you guys. You are being watered by the gospel of God, and so I'm not coming there to plant where somebody else has already planted and where Christ has already been named.

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I'm going to come so that those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

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That's Paul's ambition. Back in chapter one, he says, I want to come so that I may encourage you and build you up, and likewise, you have things to share with me that will be an encouragement to me.

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So Paul is not coming there to that church to say, hey, you're not really a church yet, so now let me share with you the gospel that you've not yet heard so that you may believe and become a church.

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They've already heard the gospel. They are a church who has been persecuted for the gospel, and they are growing and being sanctified in the word of God that is proclaimed among them.

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So Paul is saying, I'm not coming to you to plant where a foundation already is, but rather I'm going to build up all the more that those who have never been told will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

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And I think that's a testimony to us in a couple of different ways. Number one, we've got more sanctification that we need to accomplish, amen?

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As long as there is breath in your lungs, there is a work that God is doing in your heart, growing you in faith and love and holiness until the day you die and you're presented before God in glory.

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So that's the first thing. We still need to be growing in our maturity.

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That's what Paul has been talking about over the course of chapter 14 and 15, to become stronger and help those who are weaker, that we may all grow together in Christ to the praise of his great name.

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The second thing that Paul is saying here is that there are more people around us who need to hear the gospel. So wherever you are, your whole town, your whole county, your whole state, province, wherever it is that you might be, not everybody where you are has yet heard the gospel.

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So you have more growth that you need to do in your understanding of who God is and aspiring to his holiness.

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And you also have a gospel work that needs to be accomplished in the area that is around you.

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So just as Paul desired to do this in Rome, and he wants the same for these Christians in that church there in Rome, so we must desire this wherever we are planted, that we may grow more and we may plant more.

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Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, we are so humbled to know that it is not by our strength or our power that we have come to this faith, but because you had mercy upon us, you showed us grace that our hearts like Paul's would be transformed from being a person who is an enemy of God into somebody who loves

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God and aspires to be like Christ. And so I pray that we grow in these things more and more and filled with the hope and the knowledge of your word.

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We want to take this to other people who are perishing, that they may turn from their course and through the power of the

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Holy Spirit in their hearts, they become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved.

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Give us boldness to be able to do that. We're recognizing right now that people are going to be persecuted for this faith that we believe and we proclaim wherever we are planted.

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But may there be more planting and may there be more growth to the glory of God in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. And it's in his precious name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.