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Strengthening, Evangelism and Praise · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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  in and the verses at the end of the chapter from verse 25 let's just read through them
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  one more time romans 16 verse 25 now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel
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  and the preaching of jesus christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret
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  for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made
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  known to all nations according to the command of the eternal god to bring about the obedience of
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  faith to the only wise god be glory forevermore through jesus christ amen
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  well paul very often poses challenges for those who preach the gospel
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  when he gives a paragraph like that that's just one sentence that's packed full of various
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  emphases and you can see that he is here caught up in praise to god he very frequently as you know
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  finishes his epistles his letters with what we call doxologies which is just an ascription of praise
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  or attributing of praise to god and this is one that is longer than usual it doesn't often come to that
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  sort of stretched out sentence but it's important to notice the features of it and we'll go through it
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  uh very quickly but the one thing you do notice here is that it's very very like the introduction
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  to romans and if you compare the two passages uh passage in chapter one as we read at the very
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  beginning of chapter one and compare that uh you can do it when you've got more time yourselves as well
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  but they're very similar in their emphasis in fact the same topics pretty much are dealt with in the
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  first uh opening paragraph of romans as you have here in the concluding paragraph and it's about god
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  it's about the gospel it's about jesus christ and a bit it's about the way in which that has come to be
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  revealed to us having uh had the revelation previously of the old testament as well but this particular
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  paragraph at the end of romans we can say that god and the gospel of jesus christ are set before us in
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  relation to three things um you might pick out some others as well but we focus on these three tonight
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  there's the emphasis on strengthening spiritual strengthening now to him who is able to strengthen
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  you according to my gospel and so on there's an emphasis too on evangelizing it's not actually said
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  to be evangelizing but you can see the way that uh he talks about how things have been disclosed
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  through the prophetic writings and made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal god
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  in other words the proclamation of the gospel the disseminating of the gospel the testifying of the
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  church to the gospel in the time of paul and since then is something that is here built into the
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  passage and very importantly is brought before us as an ongoing requirement of god's church by the
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  command of god himself and the third thing of course is praise uh the passage comes to uh conclude
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  to the only wise god be glory forevermore through jesus christ amen so let's look at these and go
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  through the passage in turn as i say it's somewhat difficult just to get a stopping or a breathing spot
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  before you move on to the next topic or next part of the topics that he's dealing with so the
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  strengthening first of all now unto him who's able to strengthen you according to my gospel well the word
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  therefore strengthen there is elsewhere elsewhere translated in the new testament as established
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  and paul is talking about coming to be established in our faith established in our relationship with
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  god in our relationship one with another in our relationship with the truth of god in the gospel
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  itself being established is really sometimes portrayed as setting down roots i think we mentioned this on
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  lord's day morning being rooted and grounded in christ and the two images that you have there are
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  a plant or a tree that's coming to set down roots for its stability for its establishment
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  and they're also built up it's the imagery of a building that's being put together in the structure of it
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  so as to be strong against whatever forces and stresses it has to bear and these two images really apply to
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  the christians development and indeed the development of christians together of the church of god
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  established rooted grounded all of these words tell us that here is something really important remember paul was
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  in most of his letters he was writing to relatively young churches churches that were full of young
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  believers who had come mostly from paganism though some came of course from a jewish background as well
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  but they were actually in need of being established they didn't have many of them certainly those who came
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  from a pagan background they didn't have the knowledge of the old testament they didn't have the knowledge of
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  these promises of god the revelation of the old testament it was a very quick learning curve for them if you like
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  as they were led into the teaching of salvation in christ by the likes of the apostle paul
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  you may remember that paul himself actually engaged in this kind of thing just to give you one example of that
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  if you refer to act chapter 18 and at verse 23 you can see that how on his travels paul actually went to corinth as you know we saw
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  recently how he addressed the areopagus in in in athens and you see in verse chapter 18 he comes to
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  corinth he left athens he went to corinth and then towards the end of the chapter you see the rest of his journey
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  at that stage described and when you come to verse 22 when he landed in keseria he went up and greeted
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  the church and then went down to antioch after spending some time there he departed and went
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  from one place to the next through the region of galatia and phrygia strengthening all the disciples
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  that was his aim that was his business he went around these places strengthening the disciples of christ
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  the followers of christ they needed strengthening for so many reasons and they were being strengthened
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  as he says here in romans at the end of romans being strengthened through the gospel through paul's
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  preaching of the gospel and teaching of the gospel and that's really important for us always to
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  remember as well we are strengthened certainly in our individual relationship with god we need to be
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  strengthened there as we deal uh personally with god as individual christians in our own personal
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  relationship with a savior but very often you'll find in the right in the writings of paul and the
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  other apostles that there's actually more emphasis on the development of god's people as a body as a
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  body together as christians as they develop in their understanding of their salvation of of the of the of the
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  doctrine of god and of christ and salvation it is together that they learn and come to be established and
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  that means we need each other although we need god first and foremost but we need each other for our
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  establishment and for our growth in the knowledge of god and here in verse you find that he is saying
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  he's able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ but you notice it
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  is god who does the establishing while we need each other to a certain extent while it's a privilege and
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  indeed it's a benefit to be together as we are this evening we need these regular meetings in order to
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  share with each other our progress in the gospel and to come through the gospel to grow in that respect but it is
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  god him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ and you see how
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  all that hangs together it is god who does the strengthening the word here is closely related to our english word
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  dynamic or dynamic or dynamism and it means really the power of god the energy that god himself has
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  that is how we come to be established it's the energy of god it's the holy spirit it is god through his holy
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  spirit uh using his power to establish us to bring us to be more and more rooted in in christ and in our
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  development of growth from that but yes it's god who strengthens you but you see it's according to my
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  gospel it's not god outside of the gospel it's not god strengthening us and then the gospel is doing
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  something else he is strengthening according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ
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  somebody mentioned in prayer one of the brothers in prayer mentioned uh already this evening uh the
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  privilege of being together the necessity of being together uh and how we come under preaching of the
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  word even on a night like this and that's our intention that's why i have the midweek prayer meeting
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  it's not just for prayer um some people think it might be better with having more prayer but certainly
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  my own aim and the aim of others like me i think is to have this meeting in the middle of the week
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  where we're able to hopefully give uh the kind of teaching from god's word that is not primarily
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  evangelistic but a building the kind of teaching that really goes towards the establishing of of people
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  in their faith in their relationship with god because that's what he's saying now to him who is able
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  to strengthen you god who has the dynamism to strengthen you but it's according to my gospel and the
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  preaching of jesus christ that's what the gospel is really about as well as for the awakening of
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  people to faith and that's exactly what you find in the beginning of at the beginning of romans as well
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  if you recall that's the opening uh the opening uh the opening uh the opening of of teaching in in in
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  the epistle uh where you just find that same emphasis on the gospel a servant of jesus christ
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  called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of god which he promised beforehand through his prophets in
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  the holy scripture concerning his son what is the substance of the gospel the substance of
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  the gospel is not a philosophic teaching substance of the gospel is not even the doctrine of
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  justification important though that is the substance of the gospel is the person of jesus
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  the person of christ himself in his person and work as the savior that is paul saying to the romans
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  at the beginning and at the end of of this letter it's according to my gospel and the preaching
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  of jesus christ as the substance of the gospel the core of the gospel everything in the gospel
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  message everything in the gospel that's contained and it is built around the person the central
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  doctrine the foundational doctrine of christ himself now that's uh so important for us here this evening
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  because as we said earlier this is really one of the purposes that for which we gather of course we
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  gather primarily to worship god but within the worship of god you have the preaching of the gospel you
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  have praying to god and along with that you have uh the the people of god as a fellowship sharing together
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  in that experience and sadly a lot of people don't see the need for attending a midweek meeting
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  i don't know why that is uh it's sad really from my point of view certainly because this passage itself
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  makes it clear that when we come in the middle of the week as was described in one of the prayers
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  as an oasis we're traveling through a desert we're traveling through the desert of this world and that
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  desert out there of this world is so arid you've only got to look at and listen to the pronouncements
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  of the world to the pronouncement even of some of our political leader to the pronouncements
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  of what you find in terms of the world's philosophy and that sort of worldview that's anti-christian
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  you've only got to listen to that for a few moments to realize we're walking through a desert we need
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  to be established we need to be established by the gospel by the power of god so that we grow in the knowledge
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  of god so that we're able to face the temptations the world throws at us that we're able to overcome
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  the things that the world is full of and that we're able to have a path through the desert that's fueled
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  by the power of god this is why we come to be together like this and see if you can persuade others to
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  actually join us in this particular meeting because in the middle of the week it is so important
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  it's a long way from one sabbath one lord's day to the next spiritually speaking i might say it's only
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  six days seven days but when you add up the number of hours that we spend under the word and especially
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  under the preaching of the word what do we have we have something like 30 to 40 minutes each end of a
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  lord's day an hour and a half at the very most of the word preached midweek we have say half an hour
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  and look at all the voices and look at all the other things that you have to contend with through the
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  week we need the power of god the dynamism of god we need this oasis in the middle of the week
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  and we would love to see more of these pews filled and if you are watching online i'm saying this so often
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  and we realize that our live stream and our zoom is so important for those who simply cannot get
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  to the services whether it's midweek or lord's day but nevertheless of those for those who can
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  actually be together undoubtedly that's the emphasis of scripture that we that we come together as the
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  scripture often puts it to worship the lord lord's day and midweek or wherever so he is saying here now
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  to him who is able he wants to get to the point of praising him at the end of the passage that's just
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  that's just so typical of paul isn't he he's just drawn away by the holy spirit as the holy spirit
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  fills his mind and fills his heart um he's led into this long string of of uh connected topics
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  connected points that he puts together eventually he gets to uh to the only wise god be glory forever
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  and more uh through jesus christ but he begins now unto him who is able and then you've got all of
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  these things in between before he reaches the point that he wants to get to but you're thankful to god
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  tonight and i'm thankful to god tonight that he has taken that distance to reach the end of the passage
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  because it's so filled with precious truths and he says it's according to the gospel my gospel and the
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  preaching of jesus christ but then he goes further back he says that itself is according to the
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  revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the
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  prophetic writings has been made known to all nations and you come across this word mystery in the
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  writings of paul especially and when you read about this word mister you come across it in paul's
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  writings it doesn't mean something you cannot understand it doesn't mean something that's completely
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  bamboozling you as you look at it it's actually to do with what is partially revealed in the old
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  testament and he talks here about the prophetic writings having made it known but it's as you find
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  in ephesians especially chapter three it makes it clear there what this mystery is and the mystery
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  is explained there as the the the mystery of christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other
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  generations but as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit this mystery
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  is that the gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in christ
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  jesus through the gospel now there's a lot of of teaching in that itself but what paul means by this is
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  the the way in which the revelation of salvation in christ came gradually to be revealed but especially
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  now revealed in the new testament age christ himself having come christ having died christ having risen
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  from the dead ascended to glory the holy spirit having come and with the power of the holy spirit led the
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  apostles first then the church afterwards into a better greater understanding of the truth it's a real
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  widening out of the truth of god of god's revelation of himself and now he's saying this has been disclosed
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  through the prophetic writings that has been made known to all the nations so it's a strengthening
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  a strengthening a strengthening according to the gospel and the gospel itself is preceded by the prophetic
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  writings of the old testament which led the way to the coming of christ and the writings of the apostles
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  but that brings us to the second point which is evangelizing it has been disclosed through the prophetic
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  writings according to the command of of made known to all nations according to the command of the
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  eternal god see up to the coming of christ god's revelation of himself and of salvation of redemption
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  was largely confined to the people of israel to the descendants of abraham the jewish people you might
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  say but of course one of the great emphases from the time of christ onwards is that the gentiles have to be
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  incorporated as we mentioned in regard to the mystery as he calls it and for the gentiles to be
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  incorporated the gentiles are you and i people who are not of a jewish background and to be incorporated
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  into the church it's by means of the gospel and by means of the gospel that mystery is large
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  is then unfolded more and more and as the gentiles come to be included it is a new insight into
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  the nature of the nature of god's church because it's not that god had a church in the old testament
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  and then he has a church now in the new testament it's not that he had a church comprised mostly of
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  jewish people but from the time of christ onwards he has a church comprised of gentiles as well as jews
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  god has only one church right through from the beginning of time a church that experiences
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  increasingly god's revelation of himself and as you find that from the old testament coming into the new
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  testament here is paul saying now it has been made known to all the nations the gospel has gone out
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  beyond jerusalem it's being carried into the world and that message of the gospel has reached into the far
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  corners of the world of course in our own day not that every single tribe or or every single part of
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  the of the globe has been penetrated by the light of the gospel but by and large it is certainly the
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  case and this is the teaching jesus actually gave to the disciples and they gave to the disciples in the
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  likes of luke 24 on in his conversation with them on the way to emmaus he took them back to what had
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  happened in jerusalem he questioned them as if he didn't know and then he revealed himself to them
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  he spoke about all the things uh beginning with uh the old testament beginning with moses
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  and all the prophets he revealed to them in all the word in all the scriptures the things concerning
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  himself himself and from then on the apostles took this word into the world
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  and you see it's commanded here by god made known to all the nations according to the command
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  of the eternal god now that reminds us of something really important something very close to
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  matthew 28 verses 11 to 20 which we saw recently uh i think it was on the morning of the baptisms
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  go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the
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  holy spirit teaching them to observe all things that i have commanded you and behold i'm with you to the
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  end of the age here is something that reminds us of that too it's according to the command of the eternal god
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  yes we go and evangelize people around us we go out and evangelize with the gospel of god because it's
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  the desire of our hearts to see people converted and people saved but what paul is reminding us here is
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  that behind that there is an actual divine command we're commanded to do it it's not something optional
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  it's not something the church has actually invented it's not something that came along somewhere
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  along the history path from the time of jesus to the present age or in some earlier centuries
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  it is something that has been commanded by the eternal god why do we go out with the gospel why
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  are we still anticipating and longing to be able to go out into our own locality with the gospel
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  like we were beginning to do and and doing over the years but especially we had started like in
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  mackenzie park for example uh just before the the lockdown came in we had to stop that uh we need to pick
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  that up again why do we need to go back why do we need to go out to people who don't actually know
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  the gospel with the gospel will god not bring them will god actually not save them where they are
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  well you can see from this it's by the preaching of jesus christ as we come to be strengthened so we
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  come actually to be incorporated into the church by the preaching of jesus christ by the teaching
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  of the gospel and we need to go with the gospel because god has commanded it because god is saying go
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  make disciples for me but it's his command that sends us out not in our own strength and just as the
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  dynamism of god is there for the building up of his people for the strengthening of his people the same
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  dynamism is there for the converting of people for bringing them to know him as their savior what
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  marvelous gospel this is because it does those two things it brings people to know jesus as the savior
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  and having come to know jesus that same gospel builds them up roots them in their faith
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  this is a marvelous privilege tonight to know this and to know this is really so essential for us to then
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  build on that knowledge or carry that knowledge into action in terms of making disciples and
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  following the command of god but you see it's according to the command of the eternal god
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  to bring about the obedience of faith here we are we're still going through this long sentence and when
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  you think he's finished one thing and he has and has to take a lot more time than we've got tonight to look at
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  each of these topics and you think well what's next surely that's really enough to be going on with
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  and he moves on to something else and he says something related of course what is the gospel about
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  why does god command that we evangelize with the gospel what is the intention what is the purpose
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  well it's to bring about the obedience of faith and again if you go back to the very beginning
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  of of romans that's exactly what he began with a servant of jesus christ
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  called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of god and i can see all the way through there as
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  we've read it through whom we have received grace and apostleship what to bring about the obedience of
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  faith for the sake of his name among all the nations you know it's a very sad thing when the church loses sight
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  of the purpose of the gospel the primary purpose of the gospel when the church takes the gospel and makes it
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  really no more than a political or social movement when that is the main emphasis as sadly you find in our
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  present day though it's not new by any means the aim of the gospel is not to bring about political change
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  or social change these things may be carried in with it certainly and of course social change is
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  important to bring people from poverty to actually have a more meaningful life all of these things but the
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  main purpose the primary purpose of the gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith in other words
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  faith in christ putting your trust in christ and that involves essentially the element of obedience
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  faith is not just believing some things to be true or some things have that some things have taken place
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  in the history of the world faith is placing your trust and confidence in christ giving yourself over to christ
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  for him to be your master for him to direct your life for him to save you
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  from your sins that is the purpose of the gospel and so that obedience of faith is one of the
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  elements that we keep in mind when we actually are dealing with the world around us and seeking to
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  present the gospel to them everything of course to the glory of god as he finishes as as we'll see with
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  the final point but you see how he's how he's going through these points reminding us yes we are being
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  strengthened according to the gospel and the preaching of jesus christ which itself is according
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  to the revelation it's an amplification of the revelation of the mystery that was kept for so long
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  secret or largely covered but now has been disclosed and has been made known to all the nations
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  according to the command of the eternal god to bring about the obedience of faith
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  when you're praying for people to be converted to the gospel that's what you're praying for
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  you're praying that they'll come to the obedience of faith that they will come willingly and lovingly
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  to embrace jesus christ as their lord that they will come to be obedient to him
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  and that we ourselves as christians will follow through with the obedience that coming to christ involves
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  so that that is deepened and our understanding is deepened and our commitment is deepened and our
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  response to being in christ is enlarged in terms of our coming to serve him in the world
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  it's for our strengthening it's for our evangelizing seeking by god's power and grace that people will come
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  to the obedience of faith to be committed to christ to be saved under his lordship
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  but he's now reached the point for which which he intended from verse 25 to the only wise god be glory
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  forevermore through jesus christ amen to the only wise god isn't that a precious emphasis
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  because everything to do with this right through from the beginning of verse 25 indeed for the whole
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  of romans and all the rest of god's revelation but let's just confine it to this everything to do
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  with this salvation everything to do with these elements these points that paul is throwing throwing
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  our minds to is according to the wisdom of god it is to the wise god that we give glory
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  i think it's one of the most essential things that we need to keep putting to ourselves
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  as we experience life's changes that god is wise that god only is wise with perfect wisdom
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  and when he changes my life about here and there and gives me different experiences from one week to
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  the next or even from one day to the next am i going to stop believing that he's wise just because i don't
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  understand and follow all the different ways in which these avenues of experience lead me of course not
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  god and god's wisdom are essential to our understanding of the gospel of salvation of our own development as
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  christians to the only wise god never doubt the wisdom of god never think that somehow or other god has ceased to be fully wise
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  that somehow or other he really doesn't know what he's doing
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  how much it baffles us how much it fails to uh we fail to understand the ways of god
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  and if we understood all the ways of god we would be god
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  never ever doubt his wisdom never think that somehow what he's doing in your life is not according
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  to his wisdom his plan his purpose the final end that he has in view for his people
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  to him be glory forevermore through jesus christ well even the ascription of praise
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  and the bringing of glory to god is through jesus christ
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  everything goes through jesus christ our experience of redemption and what it is
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  our experience of god's comfort of god's guidance our experience of forgiveness our experience of
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  every single thing we are and know in relation to god as our savior as our god it's through jesus christ
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  and as you go on into eternity and you think about as far as possible though it's not very far
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  what heaven is going to be like to be in the very immediate presence of god
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  even there it is through the mediation of christ that we come in perfection
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  to enjoy the beauty of god to worship him in perfection it's through christ as because of christ
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  it's in christ to him be glory the only wise god be glory forevermore through jesus christ
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  amen may god bless these thoughts on this word