I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. If you're a visitor, we have been working through this book, and tonight we are moving toward the end of the book, and we are looking at verses 14 through 21 tonight.
I have to say, some of the most instructive and helpful passages that we never really consider are found in the bookends of these books. The beginning you'll get introductions that are fascinating statements, and then toward the end you get sections that we really never consider. And tonight we have a unique one here of Paul really opening up to this church, and it's remarkable. As I titled the message, "To Look at the Pastor's Heart as the Lord Has Wired Him for the Good of the People," and to give a message that's helpful to people that here we have Paul really explaining himself in a unique way.
So verses 14 tonight through 21, let's give our attention. Found on page 11 29 to the wonderful Word of the Lord: "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. Then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem and all the way around Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand
May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word.
Well, one of the things I'd like to say because this is a very uh pastoral approach that Paul is making here and giving help for them to understand ministry, and it gives that moment to understand really the pastor's heart as I said and i want to say that one of the great burdens that I've had as a pastor is that the people that I serve believe that I am for them. It's a really important thing to say today: that I want the best for you, that that is the goal of ministry, the best for you, even when we have to say hard things in the ministry.
And Pastor Contreras can testify to this: there are difficult things at times we have to say, or we have to give attention to certain subjects that are more challenging and difficult. And you can only imagine how hard this all is. There's a whole counsel of God that we have to give. And you know, in ministry, everyone hears things at times the way that they want to hear things. Often people assume maybe and maybe you've said this maybe you said, "You know, I think Pastor Gordon was preaching right at me today." Have any of you ever said that? Well, if you have, I probably was. uh And I don't really do that. I've trained myself not to do that. I don't say, "You know, I'm really going after so and so today in the ministry." I really have thought thought my whole ministry that's a bad thing to do. And every time you try to do that, they don't show up anyways. It's just providence. so um
But if the lord spirit spoke to you through that, and indeed you felt that the pastor was preaching right at you, then indeed he was. You get the point. um
But I want you to think tonight with me about the difficulty of this, and even the thought at times uh well maybe you've experienced this and know the sense well maybe the pastor's angry."
Um, I thought uh that account with Moses is so interesting, and I thought about it over the years quite a bit. When Moses and the people were complaining incessantly in the wilderness, and then he went out and did not hallow the name of the Lord and struck the rock, that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And that the Lord made a big moment of that that that is not the way He wanted ministry approached. The Lord's name was not hallowed.
So I can say tonight with clean conscience that the approach with the people of God is that the people of God would know the truth. That's one of the things that I aim for, and that all of us would know God and enjoy Him, as we say in the Westminster Confession, "the very purpose for which we were made."
But congregants, typically, and this is why this passage is helpful tonight, do not understand that the pastor often has to confront difficult things and sin in the life of the church. And then he has an aim to explain the Gospel. And the Lord has commissioned the pastor at times to give harder messages. It would all be nice just to preach Philippians 4 all the time: "Be anxious for nothing," right? And we all feel great. But that's not ministry. There are difficult passages, there are warnings, there are other things that come with this. And people may wonder if the goal for them in the ministry is a good one, and that the pastor has the best interests in their minds. And if they don't believe that, well, then they might think that the message itself is coming at them in a harmful way. There's a disconnect that can happen in the life of the congregation unless this healthy relationship is nurtured and believed.
That's what I want to begin with tonight: to make the point this is very important in the life of the congregation and in the Christian ministry that you believe that you know that the ministry is aimed for your good.
Think about: if someone comes to you with a correction and sits down and says, "I have something to say to you. It's been bothering me, but I really care about you, and I want to address this thing with you." If you know that person has the best intentions for you, and you really believe that, and you trust that, you're going to respond to that. But if they come at you trying to control, or to get at you, or to manipulate you, or to slam you whatever you want to say you know you're going to close down.
Well, I think that's what Paul's doing here. What I love about this unique passage tonight is Paul is showing us the healthy relationship between the ministry, the pastor, and those who receive it what it looks like what it's supposed to be. And that's tonight's passage.
Paul is explaining the Christian ministry. He's helping us to understand the Christian ministry. And particularly what he knows are the misconceptions about him. In a sense, this is apostolic defense here, as one called in due time, since so many things were being said against Paul's ministry. And what he's doing tonight is helping the congregation there in Rome to understand the Christian ministry by explaining his approach to the Christian ministry, the nature of the Christian ministry, and the goal of it all.
I would suggest right there: this is the reason that a lot of ministries do not do well. When there's not a trust that is built between the messenger, the message he brings, and the people, that's a recipe for a ministry that will be of little benefit to you and full of all kinds of conflict.
Well, that's what he's describing tonight. And so we begin by looking at this great truth in verse 14, which is really a remarkable thing that he says that we should not miss. Notice how beautiful this is. beloved i am, myself, am satisfied with you. I'm satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.
Now, that is a remarkable statement. You have to really take in, just for a minute: did you hear that? "I am satisfied with you. I'm at ease about you. I'm happy with you."
Someone wrote in to AGR the other day, and this is what he said: "Pastor, you know your people you know most of them are not living and walking in holiness. The most of them are so worldly minded they're of no heavenly good. The most of them will never share their faith and lead someone to Christ. But do you think I should think like that about you?"
You see, and there illustrates the problem, doesn't it? Of how people look at their congregations and how people think pastors should treat their congregations.
You are saints. You're God's people. You've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. What is the assumption I should make of the church? I think this exposes a huge problem that is very important for understanding Christian ministry. I don't think you're perfect, nor do you. I know you don't think I am. I think you're sinners, and you know I am. But it's an entirely different thing for the pastor to operate on the assumption in the New Covenant that you're doing nothing well in the Christian faith, you see.
And a lot of ministries do this. Notice the very tender way he speaks to them. It's very pastoral. This is very pastoral. It's not browbeating, is it? "Um, I am very satisfied with you. I'm really certain about you." And I believe that's what a pastor should be about god's people. I think there's something captured here of how the pastor is to see the congregation of the Lord: that he calls them saints, that these are the Lord's people, that the Lord is working in the hearts and lives of His people to a good end, that the Holy Spirit is actually dwelling among the people of God.
He's concerned, though, about a wrong perception on this very front. As you read through the epistles, Paul was doing certain things constantly. He was definitely at sometimes frustrated with some of the churches. You think of Galatia, where they had denied the Gospel. Well, that, that brought at one point in Corinthians it brought rod. When he had to, should I bring the rod? But even then, what was the goal? Paul was calling upon God constantly as his witness: "God is my witness that," and he would communicate this to the churches. And in Rome, "I pray for you, that I'm sent to you, that I love you, that my desire is that you would be all filled of Ephesus with the knowledge of God, to know what is the height, depth, and width of the love of God which surpasses all understanding."
Take this morning. Matthew 24 was challenging, wasn't it? Matthew 24 challenged us to be ready. But should I have made the assumption then that none of God's people are? Of course not. That's what He's working. That's why His Word is given to you because he's making you a ready people. That's one of the blessings of hearing a sermon like that. That's one of His purposes: is to make you a ready people.
Now, Peter said at one point about Paul that he had written things that are hard to understand, which unstable and untaught people twist to their own destruction. They would twist his words. They would say evil things about Paul. And he says this in verse 14, which is fascinating: "I know that I have written to you very boldly, on point."
There were many things in this book that we've covered so far that he's been extremely bold about. But if you were to summarize the heart of the epistle of Romans, what doctrine drives this whole epistle? What was the central aim of this whole uh letter to the Romans that encompassed everything that he was aiming to do? Well, it was the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. That was his aim in this epistle. But it wasn't just the aim. It was also the aim to show from that great truth the fruits that flow out of the life of the the justified saint.
But remember how bold he was in those first chapters. I the first time I ever went through this book up and in my first charge I was going through the first part of romans and i remember a man came up and was just mad and said i'm just so tired of feeling like a dirty, rotten center And I said, "Well, can you wait till we get to chapter three? You know, just wait." He didn't. He left the church.
Well, Paul leveled us in those early chapters: "All of your righteousness stinks. It's as a filthy garment." He said, "None of you are good. Out of your mouth pours out all kinds of bad stuff." And he went after it, didn't he? A thorough explanation of the problem of human nature under sin and the righteous judgment of God because of it. And he completely stripped everyone of their own righteousness. And he aimed to do it, and he was effective.
And he went on then to explain the great truth: "But now God has provided us a righteousness apart from the law, apart from us doing the righteousness that comes by faith." And he gave great efforts to teach the Gospel. The Gospel, Romans 1 16 and 17, is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. He had said that up front as the sort of thesis statement of the book before he got into the hard things. "God does something wonderful for us."
Do you accept the diagnosis of human nature? Do you accept what he has said about you that there is none who does good, no, not one; that your throat is an open tomb; that the poison of asps is under the lips? That's hard stuff. And the pastor has to preach it with the full force and intent, doesn't he?
Then he said, "But God does something wonderful: by faith, He credits to you, He imputes to the righteousness of His Son, and He gives Christ to you." And he was concerned that in all this treatment of the Gospel, there would be an assumption here made: "Why did you give us so much attention on this, Paul? Why did you speak so boldly on these things to us? Do we need it more than everyone else?"
The assumption is, "They... not gonna... they don't... these particular people don't get the Gospel."
Paul spent a lot of time on the Gospel: "Woe is me if I don't preach it." It was the heart of his ministry on preaching Christ. You have to have a goal. Paul says that everyone understands the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, and it is our strength in this life. The pastor has to preach this over and over. He has to confront sin with the aim that people would live in the joy of the forgiveness of sins. People don't always understand this goal of ministry, do they?
And I believe Paul is opening up here and saying: "I know you think I've been bold on things. I know you think that I at times have been too much. I know at times you think I've been in the fit in your face I know at times you think that I've been too critical."
I think Paul must have wrestled a little bit with his own temperament on this front. It was Donald Gray Barnhouse who once said about this, about himself: "For all my life I faced this same psychological dilemma. When God established the genes and chromosomes of my own makeup, there was not put into my mixture anything of effervescence. There's nothing bubbly about me. He said, it's impossible for me to wear my heart on my sleeve. There's a little of John and me and a lot of paul
"There may be many Christians who have been accused of pride and arrogance and dogmatism who know deep down in their hearts that they're seeking every way, in every way possible, to have the Lord Jesus Christ magnified in the ministry. They love with an intensity that hurts and which manifests itself in a hardness of attitude. Though at the same time, like Paul, they may say, I love, I pray without ceasing for you.
This is the challenge, right? This is the challenge. And I think for Paul, he's helping them understand this. This is why I said at the bookends, you get really amazing things of these books. To get justification properly, to understand the wonderful Gospel that we proclaim, He knew he had to be serious about sin, human depravity.
Well, you know, we Reformed people are accused of talking too much about sin, aren't we? Well, we struggle with that because that's not the end goal, right? It's not the end goal. I think Paul was worried about this: that people would think his view of them is that they're just worthless people and can do no good. And he's pouring out his heart here.
That's why I said this is so pastoral. You need to understand something. All the boldness that at times we have to give, even I have to give, I felt this morning, I felt that was a hard passage to warn people about the judgment to come. is one of the most somber messages to give, and it's not like you want to pick that all the time. But we desire greatly that God's people will be covered and sheltered on that day, that you receive Him by faith.
And I think Paul's saying here so clearly: "I want you to know I view you positively." He says, i'm i'm satisfied about you, my brothers, that you ourselves are yourselves are full of goodness."
Now, that's interesting because that was contrary to everything in the first part of Romans, isn't it? Everything in you is rotten. And you think I think with great pressure he was being assaulted. it
"You're filled with knowledge, isn't that true? And listen, this: you're able to instruct each other. I'm not preaching in a way to make you doubt. That's not my goal."
Now, there are ministries that we can fall into pastors can fall into and how they look at the church and think, "I just want to come in today, and I want the ministry to be to make you really just rock all of your assurance, to think you're really not doing enough. You really may not be a Christian."
Well, there is hypocrisy. We confront that, didn't we, in Matthew 23? Was that my goal, to treat you that way? Paul didn't preach as if they weren't Christians. "God is my witness, I pray for you, that you would grow," he said. And so "I'm confident with you. I'm confident about you, brethren. You're full of goodness. And he encourages them from this."
"I look at you and I see you as God's upright, righteous in the Lord." And that's what the word means here: upright. "I see you as God's upright. He sees the fruits of the Spirit in them: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I'm confident of this in you that you're full of these things that since you've received the Gospel, I'm confident concerning that you're filled with all knowledge."
He says, "A knowledge that leads to a renewing of your minds, Romans 12, that you are constantly growing in truth, and that that this is affecting your lives. I believe that about you."
There's something remarkable about New Covenant ministry that's captured right in those lines. Did you hear it? And did you see it? Think of the promise of Jeremiah 31: "No um, here it is: and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord."
Paul's capturing that here. This is New Covenant ministry. That's what's happening. "You're able to admonish one another. You're growing in the knowledge of the Lord. You know the Lord, and I'm satisfied with you."
So, "I'm sure I've written to you. I'm confident you are a church that cares much about the truth," he says. so much about God's goodness to you, so much of what Christ has done for you, you're willing to even admonish one another and to help those who are in error. I believe that about you."
You see? "I'm confident you would do that."
It's beautiful. And I can say with confidence, "I see that here. I see that in the Escondido URC. I see the growth. I see trust. I see fruits everywhere." And this is meant to encourage you.
Now, Paul knew the Judaizers were constantly attacking him. They were constantly attacking him, saying, "You're bringing a strange doctrine with this Gospel. And what it's going to lead to, and this is where I think this is going, is licentiousness or antinomianism. That Paul didn't love the law of God by preaching this Gospel all the time."
So this is why he's saying this. Do you see what I'm saying? He was overturning, they were saying the message that the law is good. In his message of free grace, in his message of justification by grace through faith alone, he was ridding people of any motivation to do the commandments of God. That was the charge.
And anyone making that charge today should be cautious, I would say. It just floats around there everywhere. Because it was the incessant charge against Paul. And if Paul gets charged with this constantly, people should be careful with charging this.
When you preach this, the common charge is that such a gospel, you sure, you pummel everyone and then you just preach free grace, that just kills the motivation for doing good, and it doesn't matter. You just have Jesus plus nothing. That was the phrase a few years ago.
Well, you're standing before God. You're justified by faith. Yeah, your works don't contribute. But the charge that follows is that the person who makes central the Gospel in their ministry, Oh, the Gospel. Oh, the gospel, oh, the gospel, has no interest in obedience.
That's what Paul's explaining here, since he's under attack.
Verse 15: "I've written boldly by way of reminder. On some points I've written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that, okay, the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. Then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, so so I'm not, I'm not backing down on how I'm approaching ministry by preaching the Gospel, see? I'm not standing down on that."
"I was set apart to the Gentiles. Yes, to hear the charge by the Judaizers, I was indeed set apart to the Gentiles. And then he uses a word that would seem to be very provocative against them, the Jewish Judaizers. He says, i am a minister in the priestly service of the Gentiles, of the Gospel of god
What is the priestly service of the Gospel? If you look down at verse 19: "From Jerusalem roundabout to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ." And he says it again: "My aim is to preach the Gospel." That is the priestly service. So the Gospel is so powerful that when you preach the Gospel, you're preaching the sacrifice, not the blood of bulls and goats. You're preaching the sacrifice once for all made for the saints. The blood, the once for all sacrifice. Hebrews talks about.
"I'm only going to speak of those things that He's accomplished, then, in the Gospel and through me, because first Timothy one i was the chief of centers Paul said elsewhere. i know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified What does that mean? i'm not preaching Jesus plus the law for acceptance with God. I'm not preaching Jesus plus good works for acceptance with God. It's Him alone that I preach. It's Him alone for justification And then he quotes Isaiah 52. Here, to whom He was those for whom he is who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."
Here's where he gets to the heart of what he wants to say: You don't get the power and the fruit of preaching the Gospel. You don't understand it. You think preaching this would lead people to live totally contrary to the Gospel. You don't understand its power. It is the power of God, the Gospel.
And so notice verse 18: "For I will venture to not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to what? Obedience. Obedience. Gotcha. That's what you feel like in that. Gotcha."
The Gospel will create, by the power of God, in the lives of His people, obedience. It's really powerful. This is what he says in second Corinthians 3: "We're ministering the righteousness of Christ in the New Covenant to people. What does it accomplish? Justification, indeed, justified by faith. But it also accomplishes sanctification." And the Gospel, then, transforms us from the same image, from one degree of glory to another. We're being transformed more and more to the image of Jesus Christ in the powerful Gospel that we preach.
And that is accomplished through the preaching of Him and the priestly service of Him as we proclaim Him. Something begins to happen. As people are justified by faith, the blessing of the Christian Gospel is it gives both justification and sanctification.
See, it's a whole Gospel. And Paul, in closing, says, "I wanted to remind the church, I have to be bold at times, of course, that you would enjoy this. Times I have to confront, I have to rebuke, I have to convict those who contradict. At times I have to show what, according to the human nature, we are like before God. We have to take sin seriously. There's serious judgment on it. But its goal is to bring Christ to you. Its goal the goal is to bring Jesus Christ to you, to understand Him and to know Him."
And that's always the goal of Christian ministry. And the result is more and more obedient children.
Paul says, "I believe you understand this. You are full of goodness. You've been justified. And as he said in chapter 14, whatever flows from faith is a good work, right? Whatever's not from faith is sin. But whatever, then, would flow from faith is good.
Sir Heidelberg, I don't think differently of you now. I don't think wrongly of you in my ministry because I believe the ministry accomplishes this. Our boast is in Him. I hope you can share with me confidence, then, in the ministry. That's the goal. And trust that this kind of confidence and kind of result is what flourishes in the life and hearts of His people.
And in the Escondido URC, we'll see people. As the Gospel is proclaimed, as Christ is heralded, as we have to sometimes say hard things to get to this in people's lives, that we will see a people who are given to glorify God in the service, Romans 12, of their bodies as living sacrifices, wholly unacceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.
You are His children, obedient to the faith among the nations as Gentiles for His glory. Thank God for the Gospel.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for encouraging us tonight with these words and helping us. Pray that we would marvel at the ministry You've put in place and that there would be this positive result by Your power in the life of Your people as we believe, oh Lord, this is indeed what takes place by the work of the New Covenant ministry by the Spirit. Bless Your people with peace, and may they know that You see them as covered in Christ, and that indeed You are satisfied with them, which is really what matters the most. Thank you, oh Lord, for such encouragement.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.