R797B God’s Commissioned Officer Part 2

Welcome to The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton. Today we may be getting some marching orders that we've never heard before. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author and evangelist, and today as we open God's Word about God's commissioned officer we complete the message we began yesterday and we discover more about not only actions of the officer in the army of God but the reactions and how God controls those and gives us the opportunity to see him and release him to control those actions and reactions every single day of our life.

You find it hard to do at times? Would you like to have a friend praying with you, encouraging? We do that right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or keyboard to keyboard at TheEncouragingWord.org. Now Dr. Wilton.

Are you ready to give up? I want you to note something with me in Romans chapter 1 and verse 1. This is what the Bible says, Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. I submit to you today that God has always called individuals by name. Expect it. Listen for it. Act upon it. Go back in the Bible to the very beginning.

You're going to discover what I've discovered and what countless millions of people just like you and me have discovered. That despite our sinfulness, that when we come to Jesus Christ and we're willing to confess our sin, that he calls us by name, the Apostle Paul was a most unlikely candidate. Here we find a man who persecuted the church.

The Bible tells us that he breathed threatenings and slaughter against the house of God and against the people of God. This was a man imminently qualified in the law. This was a man who was so qualified according to the law that he actually thought that he was serving God by persecuting the church of God. This was a man who was so bound by legalism that he knew not which way to turn. He was so desperately unhappy.

He was so deeply immersed in Pharisaical law. He didn't even understand that God's grace is the free gift of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was somebody who as Saul had no understanding that he was one of the y'alls club. He was part and parcel of the whosoever's. This man was so bitter and twisted that he would have done anything to desecrate the name of the very God that he thought that he would serve.

God's commissioned officer. Remember my friend that God made you by name. Go back to Adam and Eve and read the story. Remember my friend that God loves you by name. Remember my friend that God calls you by name. He did so to Samuel. He did so to Abraham. He did so to Saul. He did so to Moses.

He did so to me and he did so to hundreds upon thousands upon thousands of people just like you and me. Remember that one day God will welcome you by name. I love the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke's Gospel. When the one man found himself in the pitiful torment of eternal hell he looked up and he saw Abraham and he called him by name. Abraham! Abraham!

Remember the transfiguration and the presence of Elijah and Moses by name and the Bible says that my name is going to be written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. God's commissioned officers. Who are you? Where have you been? Where do you think you're going? God's not through with you my friend. I understand more and more each day how this same man could have said I am what I am by the grace of God.

There but by the grace of God I am. We're gonna hear this recurring theme right throughout these encouraging words from Paul's letter to the church at Rome. Well what about this commissioned officer? I want you to note four things that I believe will bless our hearts today. Number one, he was an individual person.

He was an individual person. That's a powerful statement. I want you to think for just a moment about the millions of people. Come with me to London. Come with me to New York City. Come with me to Atlanta, Georgia. Come with me to Asheville, North Carolina. Come with me to the Westgate Mall and see the seething masses. Come and watch how you and I try to hide behind everybody else.

How we try to become amalgamated in a fuse into all the others so that nobody will notice us and yet God knows us. I remember 34 years ago as a 17 year old youth being taken to the troop train station by my father. Put on this huge train packed out with young recruits. We were hanging out of the windows. We were leaving for two years and we knew what was lying ahead of us. I remember the hundreds upon hundreds of people. I remember arriving at their base camp that we dreaded so much. Hundreds of us.

I remember being assigned to First Special Forces and the officer's training unit of the armored division. I remember they selected 325 of us by number. We all had a number. I still know my number. I still got my dog tags that if anything happened to me they could identify me not by name but by my number. I have them hanging in my study that I will never forget that I once was a number but now I'm a name.

I am who I am by the grace of God. I remember those six months of boot camp. I remember the abuse. I remember how they would beat us up. I remember the things they would say.

I remember how they would get in our faces and they would rattle off 154 letter words without taking a breath. I remember the fear and the hostility as 325 of us were selected to potentially become officers by number and I remember how they began to drop out, be sent off to detention barracks, run away and how they whittled us down from 325 to 250 to 200 to 100 to 50 and eventually they had us all out on the parade ground by number. Six months was up and our passing out parade had arrived and we were numbers and I remember standing there at attention with 325 others by number and on that wonderful day in my life I remember how the general came forward and he stood and he called my name by name. I was one of those who was called by name and all of a sudden my number became irrelevant and I became a name and I want to tell you something my friend, God doesn't see you as a number, as a seething mass, in a mass of humanity lost and dying and desperate.

He knows you by name. God's commissioned officer, God's commissioned officer. I am an officer in the army of God and my commander-in-chief knows me by name and he knows everyone for whom he died.

Let's consider this together. What about this commissioned officer? He was an individual person. He wasn't a number.

He wasn't a sperm or an egg. He wasn't something to just be discarded. He wasn't just a mass of humanity walking down a street wondering what this world is about. He was an individual for whom Christ Jesus died just like me. Paul, what qualified him. He was an individual who had a direct encounter with God and he was an individual who became a great witness for God. What a mark of his individual commission before God.

What about this commissioned officer? Number one, he was an individual person. Number two, he was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what the text tells us. Paul uses his name and the very next word that he uses is the word servant. It's like he just fuses them together. He says Paul servant, servant Paul.

It's like you couldn't separate the two. We're going to find this right throughout this marvelous epistle to the church at Rome. Who was the servant? Why servant?

Extraordinary. Why would he do something of this nature? Because I believe that God's commissioned officer wants us to understand that being a servant of the living God is not an option. It is who we are in his presence. What made him a servant? A bond slave.

I'll tell you what made it. He had confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. Number two, he had obeyed Jesus Christ as Lord.

And number three, he preached Jesus Christ as Lord. Please forgive the interruption. We'll continue with that concept of how testimony and defense goes hand-in-hand as we lift up the name of Jesus in our day-to-day lives. It's not just Dr. Wilton's job. It's yours and my job as well. If you've just tuned in, the voice you've been listening to is the voice of Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, a man who was privileged over the last 25 years to be the pastor to Dr. Billy Graham.

And in all of that time we have discovered that whether we are the people like Dr. Don and Dr. Graham or people like you and me, God calls us into his commissioned army to serve. Well we'd love to pray you through whatever's going on in your life right now. 866-899-WORD is our phone number.

I'd always say that too fast. Here it is if you want to jot it down or store it in your cell. 866-899-9673. Let us know any way we can pray with you and for you.

Connect with great resources. In a few minutes I'm going to tell you more about the courage to overcome a remarkable DVD interview series with one of Dr. Wilton's friends that spent over six years in a prison camp in the time of the Vietnam War era. But back to today's message, God's commissioned officer with Dr. Don Wilton. We're going to discover when we get to Romans chapter 10 in this marvelous discourse that this one, this individual, God's commissioned officer, this servant, makes it abundantly clear that you and I have to confess Jesus as Lord. We don't make him Lord. We accept him as Lord because he is Lord.

We have no decision to make. You don't make a decision about the lordship of Jesus Christ. You confess.

That word there, confess, means literally you give up on any debate concerning the lordship of Jesus Christ and because Jesus Christ is Lord, it means that he's the boss, means he's in charge and we are his servants. What about this commissioned officer? He was an individual person. Number two, he was a servant of Jesus Christ. Number three, he was called to be an apostle.

I want you to note something here and I think it's very important. Right in this first verse Paul makes a statement about himself. He says I am called to be an apostle. That little word there, call, is very significant because tied into that word is the voice of God. Tied into that word is the decision of God. Tied into that word is the choice of God. Tied into that word is the beckoning of God. Tied into that word is God. Called to be an apostle.

Now this word apostle is rather somewhat interesting and I think the apostle Paul establishes this at the outset of what he's about to say to the church at Rome for a lot of reasons but suffice for me to submit to you today that there were two fundamental designations or reasons why Paul was called an apostle. What did it mean? It meant first of all that he was given power to confirm the presence of God through miracles.

That's what it meant. It meant that God commissioned him watch this, to receive God's power that would be used exclusively to confirm the presence of God by means of the action of God. You might say to me today well how does that apply to you and me?

Folks watch this. When you give your heart and life to Jesus Christ God is going to give to you by His Spirit the spiritual ability to confirm the presence of God because you are going to become a repeated witness as to the power of God through the miracles of God you are going to be able to testify about God. Let me tell you two things that happen in the letter to the church at Rome. Number one, Paul testifies about God. Number two, he defends God.

Two things Paul does right throughout this wonderful encouraging epistle. He testifies about God. He defends God. Testifying about God is speaking as to who God is. Defending God is believing as to who God is. You see Paul never testified without defending. Paul not only spoke of Jesus Christ he defended who God is. Now folks watch this.

Paul establishes who he is to the church at Rome. He lets them know. Watch it. Excuse me. Hey!

Hey! Excuse me. Paul said let me tell you who I am.

Can I put that in modern-day terminology? Maybe I better hide. This is Paul speaking. Excuse me. You messing with me? Can you feel that? All right. Jim, you're messing with me?

No. Folks listen. I'm speaking spiritually here. Folks Paul was coming into a cesspool of iniquity. Rome was surrounded by pornography and perverseness and sinfulness and here he is talking to the church. So what is he doing here folks? I mean he gets level with the gravel here.

Don't kid yourself. I'm one of God's commissioned officers. I'm telling you there's something very powerful and what was he trying to say? He was saying God has given me the power to confirm God's presence through miracles. It means second of all that he was granted authority to speak as God's mouthpiece. His apostleship carried two designations. The power to confirm God's presence through miracles. Number two, the authority to speak as God's mouthpiece.

I'm telling you that's a pretty lofty claim. Folks here's what God does. He'll do that for you. God will do that for you.

You say me? He'll do it for you. I'm telling you God will take you my friend. He will commission you. He will call you. He'll set you apart. He'll give you means and ability like you can't even begin to imagine.

You can't even begin to imagine. Number four, now this is good. Watch this. Number one, he was an individual person.

Got that? Number two, this commissioned officer was a servant of Jesus Christ. Number three, he was called to be an apostle. That's what the text says. Number four, he was set apart for the gospel of God.

Hold on. That's what it says and set apart for the gospel of God. Now why in the world has he got to say the gospel of God? I mean isn't the gospel God? If we are to say the word gospel isn't that God?

Folks watch me. Not back in the time of the Church of Rome. Gospel was applied to Emperor worship. It was the good news about the Emperor. Everybody had to worship the Emperor and to gospelize about the Emperor meant that when the Emperor had a son born they sent out emissaries who would go out and make an announcement about the good news concerning the Emperor.

Paul writing here at the beginning of this epistle says hold on whoa let's establish this. This is not about the Emperor. This is not about the Pope. This is not about Dr. Wilton. This is not about the church. This is not about the deacons.

This is not about Mom and Dad. This is about the gospel of God. In other words what Paul is establishing here is that the gospel originated with God.

Can I read this to you in a different light? Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of in the beginning was God. Paul just leapfrogs takes everybody, settles it right up front, lays the smack down. He says what I'm about to put on to you is the gospel about a God who always is. The gospel of the beginning.

I'm about to talk to you about the Alpha and the Omega, the great I am, the only one, the righteous and the holiness of God. This gospel originated with God. Number one and it carries a gracious offer. It carries a gracious offer. This gospel of God. What's the gracious offer of God?

Well that God will forgive all our sin. What a gracious offer. Gracious offer? Yep. That God will deliver people like you and me from bondage. Gracious God, gracious offer?

Yep. That God will give us eternal life and the hope of knowing that we will be in the presence of Jesus Christ. That's the originator of whom he speaks folks. This is no ordinary gospel.

Paul is establishing to the church at Rome in the midst of the cesspool of their iniquity. He's saying to them listen folks, what we're going to be talking about pertains to God and there is none like under him. It carries a gracious offer and second of all it carries a command to be obeyed. To be obeyed, why? Because this source has been established. It comes from God.

The plan is being carried out. Jesus Christ has paid the price and the offer has been made. All who would come to Jesus must come. They that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. God's commissioned officer. Whoa!

Excuse me. You ready to give up? I'm glad God didn't give up on Paul. I'm glad he didn't give up on me. Glad he didn't give up on Clem Gage.

You know something? The Lord Jesus Christ hasn't given up on you either. Not only has the Lord not given up on you, he has sent us.

He's orchestrated the fact that you would be listening at this particular time on the radio and for us to be presenting Dr. Wilton's message at this particular time. Is it time for you to make a new fresh commitment to Jesus Christ? Would you let us pray with you about that? 866-899-WORD is our phone number.

That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online. We're connecting keyboard to keyboard at theencouragingword.org and before we get away, a closing thought from our pastor and chief encourager Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. Again, you don't need to share it with us, but if the Lord has spoken to you as the pastor has spoken, as he's preached the Word of God, the encouraging Word of God, let us know what God's doing in your life. You can call us right now at 866-899-WORD. Let us pray with you, for you, put you some free resources in your hands that'll help you grow in your faith.

You know Dr. Don would love to hear your story. You can email him directly Don, D-O-N, at TheEncouragingWord.org, or just meet us online at TheEncouragingWord.org and find a number of ways to connect with you. What a powerful time of biblical teaching today with Dr. Don Wilton. Again, today's message, God's commissioned officer, both today and yesterday's version, are on our website at T-E-W-Online.org. It's such a blessing. I was speaking via text with a friend who listens to the podcast every single day as he's commuting a long, like, 45-minute commute.

He actually listens to podcasts every day so they can catch up. And sometimes when you hear Dr. Don teaching, the first time you go, okay, I understand the big, the big nuggets, the big rock, so to speak, but there are so many other small pieces of godly information that are part of that broadcast, part of Dr. Don's teaching. Again, if you want to hear today's version or yesterday's message, again, you can go to our website at T-E-W-Online.org. That's T-E-W-Online.org.

If you're on the move like my friend, drop the podcast or listen, or if you want to take a moment and watch, the video versions are there as well, all on our website at T-E-W-Online.org, where you'll also discover great resources like this. We are not in a good place in America. What would God say to us today? Without God, we can do nothing to stand strong in a country turning away from the path God has laid out for us.

As our nation endures tragedy after tragedy, it is so important that we follow the second greatest commandment and love our neighbors unconditionally. With your gift of support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful sermon, God's Message to America, along with the bonus book, When a Nation Forgets God, by his longtime friend, Erwin Lutzer. These resources will engage, enlighten, and encourage you in your walk with Christ. That's just one of many great resources available on our website at T-E-W-Online.org.

That's T-E-W-Online.org. I want to challenge you about something. I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend the other day, and they have revolutionized their daily quiet time, because they've chosen here in the summer months, when things are a little different in their schedule, to make a new, fresh commitment to spending time in God's Word every single day. We can refuel when we listen to podcasts and broadcasts like this, but there's something about it when we open God's Word together, and we spend some time studying every single day, really four or five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes.

Now, it'll grow as the Lord gives you the opportunity to let it grow, but I would challenge you, as Dr. Don would challenge you, that just taking a few minutes every day and starting, say, with the daily encouraging word that we send out via email every single day that Dr. Don prepares, let that be the springboard to you spending more time in God's Word, and it will change your life. Again, if you want to sign up, you can go to our website, T-E-W-Online.org, and sign up for the email that lands in your box every single morning about six o'clock. Again, that's signing up at T-E-W-Online.org. You can also sign up for a physical copy to be mailed to you absolutely free. That's my bride's preference. She likes to have that in her Bible, but whether you prefer either one, we'd love for you to have it so you can spend time studying God's Word.