He writes in the 29th verse, But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That kind of writing comes from the heart.
That's not an academic statement. This is what's coming out of the man. We started off this letter with understanding, Phoebe, you're going to Rome, let me send a letter with you. And then he just, the damn bursts and all this Christianity comes flowing out of a life that was dedicated to God.
to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Eager, prepared, and available is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in Romans chapter 1. Verse 10 now, making requests, If by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. Paul was praying to God to get him to Rome. It would take almost four or five years before God finalizes that prayer. Some of you may have been praying for something in ministry, in the service of the king. We have prayers for ourselves, whatever they may be, but then we have prayers in the work of the Lord. Especially if you have been entrusted or if you're serving.
Lord, may we have more helpers, may we have better helpers, whatever the case may be in various churches. But that's how many years it took. There are complexities that are beyond our understanding. Why did it take so long? Why this?
Why that? Those things are often beyond us, so we accept them by faith. The whole 11th chapter of Hebrews is telling you, when you can't get any more out of your understanding, you default to what you do understand, and that is the character of God, and what his will is, and you do that.
Whether you like it or you don't like it. Now motivational speakers can get up and tell things like that to their audience. You're just going to plow through and whatever they do. Well, how come God can't do that? Why can't God send us into harm's way? Generals can do that. We applaud the troops that go as heroes. Why can't God do that to his servants? He does do that to his servants.
How will they respond? No one knew it would take a near-death experience for this man, and misery along with it, for this man and those band of Christians with him to get to Rome, but they did get there. And they remained not only eager, but they were prepared. Well, what good is it if you want to do something, but you're not qualified? And some Christians think that just because they're believers, they're qualified.
Well, that's not true. Paul told Timothy, study to show yourself approved. The workgroup does not need to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the Word of God because there's a wrong way to do it. Profound lessons for all of us. They're right there on the surface, many of these. You don't always have to dig for the profound things from Scripture.
And so they were eager and they were prepared. I'll get a little bit ahead of myself. If you're eager to serve and you are capable, prepared to serving, but you're not available, then what good is it?
Well, you know, we've got Parcheesi night tonight. I just can't get down to that church. Well, then your availability cancels out everything else.
Something to think about. Now, sometimes you just can't be available. That's where God has you.
And the pastors will tell you that. Sometimes you may be going through something in life and you need to sit for a while because this is where God has you. And it's not time for you to serve. You are eager. You are prepared. But your life has got you just in this space.
And until that season has passed, that's where you need to be. Sometimes it may be an illness. Sometimes it can be something else. Anyway, in verse 10 he says, by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. Lord willing. He adds that. Not enough, Paul.
This is what he's saying. It's not enough that I want to come to you. What does God want? Well, he gets there and we've covered this. The five S's of Paul's journey to Rome. The storm, the swords, the shipwreck, the snake bite, and the shackles. All of that.
How many of us would say, you know what? God's not leading me to Rome. He's leading me to some resort where I don't have to face these things. And that's all Acts chapter 20 to 28 is all about him getting to Rome. It starts out going to Jerusalem and then that backfired.
Well, at least on the surface it did. But the next verse here in Romans chapter 1 tells us why hell did not want Paul in the largest city of western civilization. It was hell that got involved trying to keep him from Rome during that four year span. From the time they got this letter to the time he gets there.
Four or five years, give or take. Verse 11, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. Well, hell wasn't going to stand for that. Tough. He got there. And hell had to suffer it. And people got saved.
But what kind of stuff am I made of? Would I have gotten there? After all it took, the length of time, and time is like gravity when you want something, it just pushes you down.
It's too much gravity. Paul knew he had to physically get in front of the congregations. He had to be physically at those churches, interacting with the people, not hiding from them. This may also explain some of why he just couldn't sit in one place for any length of time. I mean, after a couple of years at the top, he was ready to move to another church. And I don't think he's just a restless soul.
I think he just was preoccupied with getting done what needed to be done. And if he's sitting in Antioch and the church is blessed there, and he gets word that, well, there are some Christians in Troas and they're not doing so well. Well, Paul's going to say, book me a ticket.
And that's what he's going to be. He says that I may impart some spiritual gift. The very thing hell did not want, coming from a man like this.
What does this mean, that I may impart some spiritual gift? He wanted to strengthen the saved. These Christians, the people in Rome that he is writing to, are saved people. This is not an evangelical letter, as perhaps Luke's gospel and the book of Acts. Oh, Theophilus, the things that Jesus began to do and to teach. You could say, well, that's evangelicalism in that.
And this is a big point about this letter. I don't want you to lose sight of this. It's not all about lost souls. Because if you just have saved souls who aren't strengthened, then what use are they going to be to lost souls in time? Their faith will erode and become weird.
It won't be what it's supposed to be. Romans chapter 15, he writes in the 29th verse, But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That kind of writing comes from the heart.
That's not an academic statement. This is what's coming out of the man. We started off this letter with understanding, Phoebe, you're going to Rome, let me send a letter with you. And then he just, the damn verse and all this Christianity comes flowing out of a life that was dedicated to God. They needed more than salvation. They needed pastoring.
And there have been a lot of churches that have put some effort into keeping pastors out of that church. Because they owe us to people things. It's sort of the spirit of Dathan against Moses and Aaron. It's just, where does this stuff come from? It's carnality. So, coming back to this, when he talks about some spiritual gift, he's not talking about the gifts of the Spirit.
I want to come there and pray and you learn how to speak tongues or something like that. He's not saying that. What he is saying is, he wants to give them the gift of reinforcement and the gift of improvement. You could say those are gifts coming from, if someone can come into a church and breathe life into that church through encouragement and reinforcement of scriptural teaching, yeah, that's a gift. What would you call it?
What else could it be? Certainly isn't a curse. The believer is to keep the windmill oiled. But it is the Holy Spirit that turns the windmill.
And this is the role of the Christian, is to keep all the parts working so when the Holy Spirit moves, there are results. So that you may be established, he says, and I'm going to get back to save souls in this letter in a minute, but just looking at this verse 11, so that you may be established, this letter written to believers. When he gets to Rome, he writes what we have. We have four letters that he wrote from Rome, from jail in Rome.
One of them is Colossians. And to the Colossians, while now in Rome, wanting to come to Rome four years earlier to impart some blessing, now he's there when he writes Colossians, and this is what he says. He tells them to be rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. He's going to say more to this church while he's still in chains, but that's where he starts out.
He wanted to do this to the Roman believers, believers in Rome, and he's doing it to everybody else too. But for over 2,000 years since this letter has been in publication, many have come to Christ through this letter. Through the letter that was written to believers, unbelievers have become believers. A pastor doesn't have to stand in a pulpit and preach evangelical sermons every Sunday. He can systematically go through the scriptures and people will get saved. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.
I happen to believe that. Preaching to believers will also make new believers. So we don't have to say, well look, I'm going to take the meat off the plate because we want to get people saved. You can say it this way, you can do it this way. I'm going to keep the meat on the plate and that's going to build up the saved and it will reach the lost.
And it will also clobber a few of those carnal Christians that need to be encouraged through the rod of the word. The rod is the rule. Sometimes that rule comes down hard.
Sometimes it comes with just inspiration through showing what you're missing. You know, you move the refrigerator in the kitchen and by contrast you see how dirty your floor is, right? Well sometimes the preaching moves that refrigerator so you can see by contrast who you're not and who you can be.
And you either scramble to get to work or you turn on the pastor. Well, verse 12 now, that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. So it is mutual.
Now younger Christians, this is an important word. If you have a good friend and you just love each other, you just work well together, that's mutual. That's a good thing, if it's in the midst of good things. But this is not only mutual, it is spiritual and therefore it is special. And he is saying to them that they would be instructed by him and he would be inspired by them. That's a mutual blessing. Both parties get something.
That's a bargain. How noble it is for this apostle to say that his faith was strengthened by their faith and theirs by his. He wasn't being overly modest, well you know I can't bless anybody, that's nonsense, stop it.
Everybody can be a blessing, you just have to apply it. You can't just say I'm saved and it's going to happen automatic. There used to be a commercial where some floor cleaner and the people would step on the floor and this little plate would be under their feet and they would glide across so they weren't even touching.
Effortlessly going across this newly polished floor. Well that ain't Christianity, really nothing actually. But it ain't Christianity where you're just going to automatic pilot to your destination. Christianity has several things on it.
Sweat and blood are part of it. Well here this man, a glorious give and take in the service of the king. That's what he thought of these Christians. He said you know I can go there and bless them and I can be blessed myself.
And he does, it's going to come out in his prison letters, we're going to get to those in a minute. But each of us helps or we hinder. Which is it going to be? You can't be neutral.
You're either uh oh or hey it's one of the two or an emphatic warmth. So in the four or five years after this letter when he does arrive there, I mentioned there were four letters we have from these days in jail. Three of them belong together, Colossians, Philemon and Ephesians.
They all went to the same neighborhood. But Philippians, the fourth letter, that is a different time in his jail stay. He went through the Ignatian road, a different route in Greece. And so when he said I want to come and I want to bless you. Well when he writes to the Philippians he's telling them God has made me the blessing.
I am having fruit here now. He's answered my prayer. Philippians chapter 1 verse 12.
But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. That is not only the shipwreck on Malta and that experience, but it's all the other junk he was putting up with Rome and all the accusations. He continues, he says, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, he's under arrest, and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.
Well he's chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours a day. And he's saving some of them. He's leading them to Christ.
And this is what he means by the whole palace guard, more than one. He continues, and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Now that doesn't mean you jam the gospel down someone's throat, because I don't have any fear, I don't care what you think about me, you know, repent. That's not being led by the spirit. But when you are led by the spirit, you don't choke.
You share it, you give it to them, just like it is. You're dirty before Christ. In fact you're filthy before a holy God. He can cleanse you from that, but he won't if you do not come to him for that. One of the things about water baptism, you've got to walk down into the water. Nobody's going to hoist you in. It may be an exception.
But anyway, that's the only joke you're getting, because you didn't appreciate it at all. Now vengeance is fine. Verse 13, keep this in mind, this whole Roman experience, I want to get there, I want to bless you. He gets there, at first it's not working, but then it does because we have that letter to the Philippians written from Rome, and you just see the life of this man.
What kind of master does this man have that he's willing to be such a slave? It's not about Paul, it's about Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul's trying to tell you.
He's worth all this to me. We just happen to have more biographical information about this particular servant. Verse 13, now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often plan to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you, also just as among the other Gentiles. And I just read from Philippians where he did get that fruit in the palace guard.
And then the Christians of the church in Rome who witnessed this stuff, and said, man, if Paul can lead people to Christ in jail, these hardened Roman soldiers, then I can lead people to Christ. Don't you believe for one minute you can't. That's the voice of the devil if you hear that voice saying you're just not smart enough, you're not educated enough, you have a pastor that knows the word, that's very handsome, and you just can't. Don't even bother. Well, the part about don't even bother, that's the voice of the devil. The part about him being handsome is the voice of me. So, now I don't really think that. Don't go thinking that, boy, you're pretty full of yourself.
Well, we're all full of ourselves because we can't get anybody else in, but not in the sense that it's negative. Oh, that's the second joke, and that's because I'm merciful. Or cruel, I don't know. Anyway, verse 13, back to verse 13, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often plan to come to you. Now, he did not want them to doubt his zeal to get to them. So, if you're in the church in Rome and you're saying, man, Paul's gone to Macedonia, Chaea, Corinth, Ephesus, Asia, he's going all over the place, Jerusalem, but he won't come here. So, not that anybody was saying that, but he's preemptive.
He's going to, because how else will they know? He said, I've been trying to get to you. Now, there's three things that go into keeping us from getting somewhere that we might want to go. And I'm going to use these experiences of Paul. The first one is, God may open a door in your life where he wants to leave you because there's progress, there's work there, and that's where he wants you.
When you're saying, yeah, but I want to go to so-and-so, I need you here. Well, to the Corinthians, he wrote, for a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. Now, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, he's writing from Greece, Macedonia, Chaea, and he's saying, I've got this stuff happening here.
There's a great effective door and I don't want to leave right now. In this letter to the Romans, he goes back to this subject and he says, let me also circle around and tell you why I haven't gotten to you yet. Chapter 15, verse 20, And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build another man's foundation. Oh, we have to stop there.
This is a side note. There are Christians that have no problem building on another man's foundation. They'll, you know, I got this little Bible study, but nobody's coming. I'm going to go find a church and I'll steal people from that church. They come to my Bible study.
I have nothing to learn from somebody who pulls something like that. You know, Paul said, I go out of my way not to go where Peter has gone and Thomas. They're ministering there.
Well, I'm not going to barge in and compete with that. I'm going to find where there is no preaching and I'll make foundations there. And this is what he's saying to the Roman church. He said, I've been out ministering when nobody's been preaching and I haven't been able to get to you. You're saved, but there are others who are not. Then he continues in chapter 15, For this reason, now catch this part, also, there are other reasons. For this reason, also, I have been much hindered from coming to you. So, the first one he is saying, God has opened doors and I've got to go through these doors.
I can't get to you. Then to the Colossian letter, that again, a jailhouse letter, one that did not go with the Philippian letter, but at a different time, he says to them, before the Philippian letter, he writes Colossians. And when he writes to the Colossians, he says, pray for me in Rome that I can have fruit, which we already read.
He did get fruit. Well, here it is in Colossians 4. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the work to speak the mystery of Christ for which I also am in chains. So, I'm reading that Colossian note to say, the first reason why he could not get to them is because there was so much work where he was. He said, we took a long time to say that, but the verses are so rich.
So, God answered that prayer that he made to the Colossians and he writes to Philippians about it. The second one is that God closes doors. You know, you're the eager beaver, I'm going to preach to those people and God may be, I don't want you to preach to those people and it's beyond you. The arrow is beyond you, just do what you're told. Now, if you're in the military, you could appreciate that, but maybe some of the civilians have a problem when someone says, do what you're told, take your orders.
Some in the military have had that problem too and they get dishonorably discharged if they get caught. Anyway, coming back to this, God closes the door. Acts chapter 16, now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Man, that's pretty heavy stuff, but that's what the Holy Spirit did. Raise your hand if you would like to defy the Holy Spirit.
Then the third one is the obvious one. Our common enemy, he hinders, such is ministry. All three of these, such is the life in Christ. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, now Paul got chased to Thessalonica a beating on his back, he and Silas, they were caned in Philippi for preaching. They leave Philippi, they get chased out.
Well, they have to leave. They come to Thessalonica, they have such fruit at this church. Then they get chased out of Thessalonica. Well, his heart is like, man, we just started the work, these are new Christians. So he writes the two Thessalonian letters. In the first one, he says to them, therefore we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again, but Satan hindered us. Well, how did Satan do that? From what we know, there were those Jews in Thessalonica who soured some of the Gentiles and together they chased Paul.
He goes to Berea and then they chase him from Berea and he ends up in Athens and Corinth. So, another reason why we get stopped from going forward in Christ is also sometimes the devil. You say, how am I going to know when these things are? Well, if you are walking in the Spirit, you will know.
There are little signatures that belong to these. For instance, you're having a work and it's working well. I just can't leave these guys. This is where I belong, is that conviction of the Spirit. And then there's other times you say, man, this isn't right, it's not biblical, Satan is interfering here.
And what do you do when that happens? Well, you turn to Acts chapter 20 and read to chapter 28 and you find out what Paul did. He survived the shipwreck and other things, but he did make it. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.
