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In the summer of 386, a young man wept in the backyard of a friend. He knew that his life of sin and rebellion against God was killing him, leaving him empty; but he just couldn’t find the strength to make a final, real decision for Jesus Christ. As he sat, he heard some children playing a game and they called out to each other these words: “Take up and read! Take up and read!” Thinking God had a message to him through the words of the children, he picked up a scroll laying nearby opened it and began to read: not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (Rom_13:13-14). He didn’t read any further; he didn’t have to. Through the power of God’s word, Augustine had the faith to entrust his whole life to Jesus Christ at that moment.
Rom 1:1 NKJV  Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.

In this letter of Paul to the Church at Rome, there is a tremendous concentration on God, unlike other letters that Paul wrote, this one is all about God and what God wants for the Church. The word God appears 153 times in this letter, Christ appears only 65 times, this letter has much to do with what God wants from you and I today, as much as it did for the Church of Paul’s day.
Paul was concerned about being able to get to Rome when he wrote this letter. He was in Corinth and getting ready to go to Jerusalem and had been warned of the trials he would suffer there.

Paul now introduces his gospel message to the Church at Rome.
Rom 1:2-6 NKJV  which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,  (3)  concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,  (4)  and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.  (5)  Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,  (6)  among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

Paul was not bringing something new, this gospel was from the very beginning God’s message to the world, they just got tied up with the law, and forgot the rest of the word that God had given them through the prophets. Sounds like today, people always looking for the next new thing. Right now people are looking to the new I Pad, and I Phone and I Watch, or the newest version of Android or Windows, on and on. Here is just one prophets word that spoke of how God wanted his people to be in the world. Hab 2:4 NKJV  “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” These are things that had been forgotten in the world that Paul lived in.

He was a Pharisee which translated means one set apart. He had been set apart to the law, now he was set apart for the gospel, the good news of God’s salvation for all people everywhere.

Paul points out that His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is God in that he uses a term in the Greek which is translated Yahweh, which is the name of God. Next in verse 5 we see that Paul in speaking of his own ministry says: “we have received grace and apostleship”. First and foremost, this gave Paul and those who followed him obedience to the faith, and therefore ability to deliver to all the world the word of the Lord God which brings eternal life.

In verse 6 we come to the crux of the matter, you and I are the called of Christ, we are the Church today, just as those in Rome were the Church of Paul’s day. Now what does that mean for you and I today? First and foremost it means salvation, it means we are now children of God through the grace of God in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Now, what do we do with our salvation? Rom 1:16-17 NKJV  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  (17)  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH’.” This verse Romans 1:17 struck a Monk right in his heart: “In August of 1513, a monk lectured on the book of Psalms in a seminary, but his inner life was nothing but turmoil. In his studies, he came across Psa_31:1 : In Thy righteousness deliver me. The passage confused him; how could God’s righteousness do anything but condemn him to Hell as a righteous punishment for his sins? Luther kept thinking about Rom_1:17, which says that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Hab_2:4). The monk went on to say: “Night and day I pondered until . . . I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Therefore I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise . . . This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven.” Martin Luther was born again, and the reformation began in his heart.”

Luther believed in the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes through believing in him, and his righteousness is in us through the person of the Holy Spirit which is given when we confess our sin and ask Jesus to cleanse us and make us new. That message is still true today, it is the good news that we have received in our lives today. Yet our friends and neighbors around us, may not believe and they cannot be saved if they do not believe in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we who have been called, we who have answered the call and become sons and daughters of almighty God through his Mercy and grace, are called to deliver the gospel to those who need to hear it. Not that we can save anybody, but that the gospel will bring folks into the presence of God and he will open their hearts and minds to be saved. The person who has come into that place where they can do 1 of 2 things. Accept Jesus Christ as Lord, or say no and continue on to hell.

In May of 1738, a failed minister and missionary went unwillingly to a small Bible study where someone read aloud from Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. As the failed missionary said later: “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine.” John Wesley was saved that night in London. Wesley went on to become an evangelist who preached the gospel outside and inside, sometimes from a rock in a quarry, and sometimes from the pulpit in a church.

No matter where he went he preached, he was pelted with rotten tomatoes, and rocks, but he would not shut up. Many souls were saved by John Wesley and his preaching, because his soul belonged to God and no longer to a church or a belief system other than the belief that Jesus was God and Lord, and his grace was sufficient for salvation. If your heart has been warmed, if you have received the grace and mercy of God then you too have a calling, just as Wesley, Augustine, and Luther.

All who have become followers of the way of Christ, have also the call upon them to reach out to others. Jesus told his followers that they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria and in all the world. We live in that part of the world that he was talking about and we have the calling upon our lives to deliver the gospel to others that they too might be saved.

Spurgeon had this to say:
“I do not suppose that Paul guessed that he would be sent there at the government expense, but he was. The Roman Empire had to find a ship for him, and a fit escort for him, too; and he entered the city as an ambassador in bonds. When our hearts are set on a thing, and we pray for it, God may grant us the blessing; but, it may be, in a way that we never looked for. You shall go to Rome, Paul; but you shall go in chains.”

Our way may be easy, or it may be difficult, but as long as it is what God has called us to, we will have what we need to endure. Paul was called to the task of delivering the word no matter his circumstance. Today we find many who are doing likewise. Many of them have died, many have been imprisoned and tortured, yet, lived to tell the tale.

We in the United States are still able to worship and pray and read our Bibles, yet, there are signs that this is coming upon tough times, that our churches and our freedoms, may be lost as the battles continue in our nation. More and more people have decided that God is not real, that God is just a figment of our imagination and is no longer needed in our nation. One of our political parties even voted to take God out of their party platform. They did put him back, but I wonder for how long.

Satan is alive and well in this nation as well as in the world, right now he is working to destroy Christianity and Judaism. There is a work afoot that wishes to make a one world religion, under the auspices of the U.N. Or some other world government. There are plenty of people who relish this oncoming change in our nation and world. We see our institutions crumbling under the onslaught of Socialism, it has permeated our institutions of higher learning, and now our governmental institutions. Hatred for all things in disagreement with this idea is running rampant in many quarters.

Paul in his letter, tells the people of Rome that God has given the sinners who refuse to repent, over to their sin. It has taken a long time to become obvious but it is now running rampant in our nation. Pornography, same sex marriage, human trafficking, and other things that were unthinkable just 50 years ago. Now we have this caravan of people from central America, stopped for now at the southern Border of Mexico, but there are 4 or 5 thousand of these people, and the country they just passed through, Guatemala reports that they arrested 150 Isis terrorists in the crowds apparently heading for the U. S. A.

This does not bode well for Mexico or ourselves if they break through and get here on our Southern Border will there be other caravans to follow? Satan is working to destroy not to build up. But we serve a risen Lord, God who is creator and sustainer.

We are called to make him known to our time and our place. Let us not be ashamed of the Gospel, let us speak of our love of God and of his love for us, of his grace and mercy. Of his healing power to heal our souls and our lives if we will but allow him to come in to our lives and help us to be all we can be in his grace.