The Beloved Pastor’s Plea for Unity

The Beloved Pastor's Plea for Unity

(No. 2320)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 6, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
7, 1889.

"To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to
you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Romans
1:7.

IN a few minutes we shall gather together as members of the Church of
Christ to celebrate the memorial of His death. It is a memorable sight
to see so many Christian people sitting together with the objective of
observing this ordinance. Frequently, as I have seen it, I must confess
that when sitting in the chair at the head of the table, I often feel
overawed with the remembrance that it is the largest gathering of
Christians anywhere beneath the sun, and that they have come there with
one common objective, namely, to show our Lord's death "till He comes."
The question then rises in our minds whether there is real fellowship
in all this, for if there is not, it is a great sham, and the more
numerous we are, if we have not fellowship with Christ and with one
another, the greater is the deception–it is only having a name to live
while we are dead. So I want, tonight, not so much to preach to you as
to exhort you, who are about to gather to this holy festival, to think
that your thoughts shall go out toward all your Christian Brothers and
Sisters, and that you shall feel the power of that precious blood which
makes us nearer akin than even the blood of Adam–that blood of Jesus
which makes us truly Brothers and Sisters, yes, members of one body,
and so united by living communion, the one to the other.

In this first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, you see the spirit
of communion in the Apostle Paul. He was, he says, anxious to do good
to others. He longed to see the Roman Christians in order that he might
impart to them some spiritual gift. While he is writing to them you can
see that he is anxious that they may have the best things that they can
have. All his desire is for their good–he is lovingly interested in
their welfare. That is how we ought to be, the one to the other, not
only the pastor to the people, but the people to the pastor, and the
members of the Church to each other, all anxious for the good of the
rest–no man living unto himself, but each one endeavoring to live for
the benefit of the entire community in Christ Jesus.

Not only did the Apostle's heart go out to the church in Rome, but to
all the Gentiles. He felt himself, he says, a debtor to everybody, to
the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, to,
the bond and to the free. Do you not think that our loving sympathies
should go out towards all mankind? Oh, let them do so! While you have
the nearest and closest fellowship with the saints, yet desire to
recognize your kinship with the rest of men, praying to God that He
would enlighten them and bring them, also, within the bonds of the
Covenant, that your fellowship with them might be loving, and true, and
deep.

However, the Apostle especially expresses his fellowship with the
saints in Rome and, to prove that fellowship, he calls them by
endearing names, by the highest titles which they could have, "beloved
of God, called to be saints." And then he salutes them with good wishes
of the very sweetest, most tender kind, when he says, "Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." While I am
trying to talk on this text, will our dear Brothers and Sisters' hearts
be going out, the one towards the other, with a view to the increase of
real spiritual communion in this Church, and also in every branch of
the one Church of Christ throughout the world?

First, notice, concerning these people, their favored
condition–"beloved of God." Secondly, their sure proof of that favor–
"called to be saints." And, thirdly, their blessedness through that
favor. Paul wished them to have what he was

allowed to wish for them, for it was truly theirs–"Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus

Christ."

I. First, then, notice concerning these people, THEIR FAVORED
CONDITION. They are said to be "beloved of

God."

I wish that I could hope that this was true of everybody here in the
fullest and most emphatic sense, that we were all "beloved of God."
There is a sense in which it is true, for God has a love of
benevolence, kindness and well-wishing towards all His creatures. He is
kind to the unthankful and the evil, and makes His rain to fall upon
the field of the miser as well as on the ground of the gracious. He is
"not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance." God is willing that all should come to Him, repent of sin,
believe in Jesus Christ and find eternal life! We are all, in some
respects, partakers of the love of God.

But, dear Friends, there is a love to Peter which is greater than the
love which Christ had to Judas. There is a love which He has to His own
which is of peculiar character and differs very greatly from that
common love which He bestows upon all the works of His hands, for there
is a love of choice and it is in this sense that Paul calls these Roman
saints "beloved of God." God had chosen them–His prescient eyes had
foreseen them and their condition–and He had selected them out of the
mass of the Roman population that they might be His own. Whatever may
be said about the Doctrine of Election, it is written in the Word of
God as with an iron pen and there is no getting rid of it! There it
stands. To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed Truths in the
whole of Revelation–and those who are afraid of it are so because they
do not understand it. If they could but know that the Lord had chosen
them, it would make their hearts dance for joy! The Lord has a people
in this world whom He has, Himself, chosen and given to His Son, Jesus
Christ, and whom the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed from among men, for
Christ, "loved the Church and gave Himself for it." These are the
people of whom Paul speaks as beloved of God, those who have been, by
Divine Grace, chosen out of the great mass of mankind!

Beware, I pray you, of that desperately evil thing which is everywhere
now–"the Christian world." There is no mixture that can be so bad as
that! If it is the world, it is the world–if it is Christian, it is
not the world–and the two things cannot be bound together! There is a
divorce proclaimed between the two. Our Lord Jesus proclaimed it when
He said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
And He was never of the world! Nobody ever thought that He was of the
world and so His followers, if they are true to Him, are not of the
world. They are of another race. As the Apostle John says, "You know
that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the Wicked One." It is
not, as someone said the other day, "a redeemed world"–it is a world
that lies in the Wicked One, as a child lies in its father's arms!
There is a redeemed people in it, whom Christ is calling out by His own
wondrous and Sovereign Grace, but we are not to look upon them as
tasting of the benefits of His redemption in any saving way until He
calls them to faith in Himself and brings them to be washed in His
precious blood! Then may they, indeed, be called, "beloved of God."

These are, again, beloved with a love of resolve. He determined
concerning those whom He loved that they should be saved, that they
should repent, that they should accept the great Sacrifice. He ordained
them unto eternal life and He resolved so to work upon them that, while
He did not violate the freedom of their wills, or treat them otherwise
than as men, yet still He would accomplish His purpose with them, He
would create in them a new heart and a right spirit! He would turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to Himself. These
are the beloved of the Lord.

And in consequence they came to be the beloved of God in another sense,
namely, with a love of complacency. The Lord cannot love a wicked man
with the love of complacency. He takes no delight in him–He cannot
even look on him without abhorrence, for he provokes the Lord to anger
by his iniquity. But there are men and women in the world in whom the
Holy Spirit has worked principles which delight God. He has given them
a character which is pleasing to Him. They are His Hephzibahs–His
delight is in them. There are some of whom He thinks with pleasure,
though they were once sinful and vile as others. He has transformed
them into new creatures in Christ Jesus and now He delights in them. I
do not know a more joyful thought than for a man to be led to believe
that God takes complacency in Him and looks at him with the eyes of
loving approval. Such as he are the beloved of the Lord!

And because of this, dear Friends, there was also a love of unity. God
joins Himself to the man in whom He takes delight. There is a
friendship between them more close than that between David and
Jonathan, so that God speaks with His servant and hears what His
servant has to say in reply. There are men who are on such intimate
terms with God that they

might be called the friends of God, as Abraham was–and God is both
their shield and their exceedingly great reward. Oh, did some of you
know what a joy it is to be the beloved of the Lord, you would reckon
yourselves to be wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked while you
are without Him! And you would reckon that even if you were poor, blind
and naked, yet you would not be wretched and miserable if you did but
know this wondrous love of God which leads to the friendship of God and
to fellowship with God! There are many men and women, nowadays, thank
God, who have a place where they are accustomed to meet with God quite
as regularly as they meet with their fellow tradesmen at their stall or
at their office. They meet with God and it would be a doleful day to
them if, on any occasion, they should go to wait upon God and find that
He had closed the door against them! Yes, we have in London and all
over the world, a multitude who may truly be called the beloved of the
Lord!

This is a very choice privilege. If you possess it, prize it beyond
everything else! This is a crowning honor. Perhaps if you were invited
to attend the Queen, you might think something of it, but what would
that be compared with being beloved of God? To have the love of our
follow men is very sweet–there are times when it comes with peculiar
pleasantness–but oh, believe me, all the loves of all relationships,
all the loves of all friendships heaped together can never be compared
with the love of God to us! All the goodness that there is in human
love is derived from the love of God and is, at best, but as a drop
compared with the boundless ocean! If you are beloved of God, I will
not stay to ask whether you are rich or poor, or even whether you are
in good health or in sickness! Neither will I enquire whether you are
in honor or in disrepute, or whether your life is likely to be long or
to be suddenly cut short. All these things are but trifles! This is the
solid fact that makes you a happy and a blessed man, that you can be
called, "beloved of God."

Now the sweet thing, here, is that if I am beloved of God, and you are
beloved of God, here is a ground for us to meet. If you have not yet
learned to know your Brother, if he is a stranger to you and if,
because of this, no love has actually sprung up in your heart, yet,
since Christ loves you–when you hear that Christ loves him–why, you
will seem at once knit to him! I remember, when I first came to London,
I used to think a great deal of everybody who came up from Waterbeach.
I believe that if a dog had come up from Waterbeach, I should have fed
him and I think that if anybody comes from where Christ is–the Christ
who loves us–we shall be sure to love him! They who are beloved of God
will love all others who are beloved of God! "But they are American
friends." Never mind whether they are American or Dutch–if the Lord
loves them, we love them!

"Oh, but they live so many thousands of miles away and they never come
here." Never mind–what if seas and mountains divide us–yet are we one
and He who loves us loves them, also! I am sure that I appeal to you
with no doubt as to what your answer will be. If God has put us within
the same circle of His infinite affection, may we not safely clasp
hands feeling that we shall never have to unclasp them, no, not even in
death? The relationship between a husband and a wife, between a mother
and her son may be snapped entirely by death, never to be renewed. If
there is no Divine Grace in the heart of the husband or the child, the
weeping and the wailing will be useless! They are parted, never to meet
again! Think of that, you who are still unsaved. But if we are one in
Christ's love, we may have to bid, "Good-bye," to one another here on
earth for a time, but it is only for a time! Those bands, of which the
love of God is the raw material, are everlasting!

Some of you, tonight, when I break the bread, will have to go upstairs
or go home. I very often meet with good men who come to join the Church
and who say, "Nothing decided me till I had to leave my wife behind me,
or when I stayed in the top gallery and looked down upon her and felt
that I could not come and eat with her the memorial of the Lord's
death. Then I felt that I could not hold out any longer." Oh, may you
have that union in the love of God which never will be broken! Seek it
tonight! May we all, in these two galleries and this great area, be
encompassed within the circle of the "beloved of God"!

II. Now, my second head is, THEIR SURE PROOF OF THAT FAVOR, for they
were "called to be saints"–

"beloved of God, called to be saints."

What were these people to whom Paul wrote? First, they were saints. You
notice that the words, "to be," are put in by the translators, but
though they are supplied, they are not really necessary to the sense.
These Believers in Rome were "called saints." They were not called
because they were saints, but they became saints through that calling.
Now, here is a name that belongs to all the people of God–they are
saints. It is not merely, "St. John," and, "St. James," and so on, as
some foolish people talk, who cannot call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
by their right names, but must always "Saint"

them! I believe that there is a St. John–I dare say that there are 20
St. Johns in this Tabernacle tonight! I believe in St. Matthew–I
expect that there are two or three St. Matthews here tonight! All the
people of God–all who are really believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
are saints! They are, all of them, called saints and we may call them
so.

Is not that very wonderful, that these Romans should be called
saints–for once they were not saints! The Romans were among the worst
of mankind. This first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is one of
the most awful that ever fell from a human pen. It so describes the
infamous crimes of the Gentiles that we might almost blush to read it
in the presence of a congregation–and such were some of these
people–but Divine Grace came and renewed them! And they were called
saints and really were saints, that is, dedicated persons. A saint is a
person who is set apart unto God, consecrated to God, sanctified,
separated–a man who is in the world, but not of it–he belongs to God
and he lives for God.

Now, if God loves you in the sense in which we have been speaking, He
has made a saint of you, a dedicated man. You remember that Jonah was
asked, "What is your occupation and of what people are you?" and he
answered, "I am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord." That was his
occupation–he was a God-fearing man. It is not every man who could
give such an answer as that. When we feel that our very occupation is
to serve God, then are we rightly "called saints," sanctified, set
apart ones.

But the word "saints" really means, also, holy persons. If we are the
beloved of the Lord, He will make us holy persons. There is a very wide
difference between that and being merely moral. Here is a man who calls
himself a saint and he is not honest–do not call him a saint–he is
not even a respectable sinner. Here is a man who says he is a child of
God and yet he is guilty of lewdness. Call him a saint when even common
morality is absent? Dear Friends, all the charity we can possibly pump
up will not allow us to call that man a holy man who is not even a
moral man! What is holiness, then? It rises above morality as much as
the Heaven rises above the earth! Holiness is a more spiritual, a more
intense, a more Divine, a more heavenly thing than morality–and he who
has not morality certainly falls very short of anything like holiness!
We are called not merely to be moralists, but to be saints!

If you go, tomorrow, into some place of amusement where there is
something not quite clean, something full of levity, I should like
somebody to whisper in your ear, "Called to be saints." Or, if
tomorrow, in business, you should lose your temper and begin to speak
rather strongly, I should like something, even if it were only a
parrot, to say, "Called to be saints." And if, when you go home, you
begin to be very rough to the children, unkind to the wife and not what
you should be, even to the servant, I should like you to hear a voice
saying," Called to be saints." It might make you blush, if you
can–there are some who cannot–but every man who professes to be a
child of God should remember that this is what his calling is and he
cannot prove that he is beloved of God unless he can prove his calling
to saintship by being really a saint. Oh, that we had a Church made up
all of saints! Our churches, nowadays, are very respectable
communities, I do not doubt, and there is a good deal of sainthood in
them, but, oh, if they were all saints, then, indeed, we should tell
upon the world and tell upon the age–and the Kingdom of our Lord would
come! They were saints, then, to whom Paul wrote.

He also says that they were "called to be saints." They were not
originally saints–they were "called to be saints." They were not
saints by their own native growth–they did not grow up into
saints–they were "called to be saints." They were called of Christ,
Himself. Read the sixth verse–"Among whom are you also the called of
Jesus Christ." Being called by Jesus Christ, they were called by a
Voice which they recognized, a Voice to which they yielded, a Voice
that spoke effectually, a Voice that spoke transformingly–and they
were called by Him to be saints. Have you ever had such a call, my dear
Hearer? Sitting in your pew, tonight, can you remember when that call
came to you, as real a call as when God called Abraham out of Ur of the
Chaldees, a call from Heaven–mysterious, Divine–which nobody else
could hear, but which you heard and obeyed? "Called to be saints."

Now, then, see a ground of our communion, one with another! If I have
had a call to be a saint, I should not like to talk much about that to
some people whom I know, for they would call it fanaticism. If you have
had a call to be a saint, you have been very much in the same state.
And when you and I meet together, we are not afraid to talk about it.
You understand it and I understand it–and on the ground of having had
a common call, we feel ourselves at home. We are Brothers and Sisters
at once because we are equally "called to be saints." You cry and you
sigh for saintship and your friend cries and sighs for saintship, too.
He is conscious that he comes short of his own idea of it. He
struggles, he groans. You and he have a secret between you–your
experience is his experience and you two feel, having equally received
a call

from God, and a call for the same purpose–that you should both become
the same thing, namely, saints unto God! Here is ground for fellowship.

The lambs can have no fellowship with the wolves–let them stay
together and have fellowship, one with another. You who love God will
not find much fellowship up and down these streets. In many of the
houses, if you were to speak of God, they would ridicule you. Get all
the fellowship that you can, one with another. Let it be said of you,
as of those of old, "Then they that feared the Lord spoke often, one to
another, and the Lord listened, and heard it, and a Book of Remembrance
was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon His name." I like to think of this, that as we are one in being,
the beloved of the Lord, so are we one in the outcome of it! We have
all been called and we have all been called to the same high attainment
of saintship. Paul does not say that he alluded to "the upper ten" at
Rome. No, but he says, "To all that are in Rome, beloved of God." Do
not go about and pick out a few of the best Christian people and say,
"I am in sympathy with them." Ah, dear Friends, this is not like
Christ! He washed His disciples' feet, but you are for looking up at
their heads!

Go and begin fellowship with him by washing his dear feet. Where there
is aliquid Christi, as a good man used to say, anything of Christ,
there should your love go forth. Where there is any work of Christ upon
the soul of anyone, however uneducated, however poor, however rough he
may be, yes, and however bad-tempered he may be, nevertheless endeavor
to get to maintain and to increase fellowship with him, seeing that you
and he have one calling–you are both "called to be saints."

III. Now I come to a close with the third point where I think we shall
also find some ground for fellowship, THEIR BLESSEDNESS THROUGH THE
FAVOR OF GOD. This was the same with regard to all to whom Paul
wrote–"To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints: Grace
to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus

Christ."

First, these good people had this blessedness–they all had the same
Father. Suppose that two persons were to meet here, tonight, who did
not know each other, and they were to begin to talk to one another, and
one said, "My father's name is So-and-So," And the other were to look
at him and say, "And where does he live?" "He lives at such a house, in
such a city." "Does he? Why, do you know, that is my father?" Those two
would be surprised that they did not know each other, for they
evidently had the same father! I can see them backing a bit and looking
at one another, and saying, "Do you mean to say that his name is really
John Smith?" "Yes." "And he lives at such a house?" "Yes." "What age is
he? What kind of a man is he? Have you his picture with you?" "Yes."
"There, I have a good portrait of him, too, and it is the same man! He
is father to us both–then what are we two?" "We are brothers." And
they put their arms about each other's neck and say, "What have we been
doing, that, having the same father, we did not know each other?"

Now, there are many Christian people who, if they came right, would be
in much the same condition. They have the same Father and do not know
it because they do not quite agree, perhaps, upon some form of
doctrine, or even upon the rite of Baptism, or something of that sort,
which is of very great importance, but still, the most important thing
is– Have we one Father? If we have, then let us have fellowship, one
with the other! I want this to be real. When I was very young and first
joined the church in Cambridge, I sat in a pew at the communion with a
gentleman, perhaps with two or three, but none of them spoke to me. The
next time I went to the communion, it was the same–nobody spoke to me.
I was not anybody to be spoken to, so when I got outside the Chapel, I
said to one gentleman, "Well, dear Sir, how are you?" He said, "I am
pretty well, thank you, but you have the advantage on me." "I do not
think I have, Sir. I do not know you any more than you know me, but I
came to the Communion Table to profess that I was a Brother of those
who were there and I meant it–did you not mean it?" He put both his
hands on me, for he was much older than I was, and he said, "What sweet
simplicity! You have only acted according to truthfulness. I am glad,"
he added, "that you did not do it to our deacon!"

The next thing he said was, "Will you come in and have a cup of tea
with me?" I said, "Thank you, Sir, I could not do that, tonight,
because I am expected home at the place where I live." "Will you come
in next Sunday?" "Yes." I continued to go in every Sunday as long as I
could and he remained, and does remain, a dear friend of mine to this
day. Though he is very much older than I am, I established a friendship
with him which never has been interrupted, and never will be, either in
time or in eternity! Should it not be thus among all Christians?

Is the Fatherhood of God a reality among the children of God? If it is,
let their brotherhood be a reality and let them show that they are true
Brothers and Sisters by their love, one to another! May the Lord make
it so! The common talk of the universal fatherhood of God is a flat
contradiction of the teaching of the Bible. There is certainly, in
God's Word, such a Doctrine as Adoption. Does God adopt His own
children, then? There is certainly a Revelation about the new birth.
What are the regenerated born into, then? Only into the same nature as
they had before? Is there anything fresh given to them which makes them
to have the Nature of the children of God? I thought, and I still
think, that it was meant that, until then, they were heirs of wrath,
children of disobedience, even as others, and children of the Wicked
One–but by no means children of the family of the Most High! By Grace
alone could the saints in Rome call God, "Abba, Father."

The next point in their blessedness was that they had the same Savior,
for so says the text, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and
the Lord Jesus Christ." He who died for Paul died for them. The streams
of blood that flowed for the Apostle, flowed for them. For them the
bloody sweat, for all of them! For them the death cry, "It is
finished," for all of them and, truly, I think that being bought with
the same price ought to make us feel that we are all one lump! We were
all passed over to Christ by the one transaction of the paying down of
His heart's blood to redeem us and we ought to feel, no, Brothers and
Sisters, I hope that we do feel that we are all one and we will
endeavor as much as lies in us to show this in our lives.

And, more than that, they were going to the same Heaven. Beloved, the
Home of God should be the great goal to which we are always pressing
forward. You see that the men of the world are coming this way in a
great crowd, all in a hurry, rushing after their gods–and we, what are
we doing? Threading our way, as best we can, pushing our way against
the stream, going in an exactly opposite direction to the rest of
mankind. Some of you cannot do this! You keep getting carried off your
legs and you are swept along by the torrent. But the man of God must go
against the current. He is not to be swept back–but he is always
pressing forward, always seeking to make an advance, contending for
every inch–and making up his mind that, come what may, he cannot go
back! That is not his way–he must go forward, always pressing on
toward the City that has foundations! Christians are like a live fish
that goes up the stream, always up the stream. If the fish comes down
the stream and you see it floating with its white belly on the top of
the water, you know that it is dead–and we can see plenty of these
dead fish floating down the stream nowadays. But the live Christian is
going straight up the stream, straight up, up, up! Whichever way the
tide may be running, whether it is at the ebb or at the flood, he is
going straight up the stream and, God helping him, he will proceed in
that way right to the end. So, Brothers and Sisters, as we are going to
the same Heaven, let us have Heaven begun below as we live in love, one
towards another.

These saints, also, had the same Grace. I cannot stop to say much about
it, but Paul wished for them all that they might have "Grace." If you
have Grace and I have Grace, the Grace is the same in us all. It may
take a different shape as to the fruit that it produces, but Grace is
one. Whether it is Grace in the babe in Christ, or Grace in the strong
man in Christ, it is the same Grace. And if we all are debtors to Grace
and if Grace begins, and Grace carries on, and Grace completes its work
in us all, let us, by the bonds of that Grace, be knit together in
mutual affection, the one towards the other.

And then they all had the same peace. Oh, what a blessed thing is peace
with God, peace with our own conscience, peace with the past, peace
with the present, peace with the future–the peace of God which passes
all understanding! Have you peace, Brothers and Sisters, and have I
peace? Then let us be as one, for we have the same peace! You must have
noticed, in times of peril, how men are driven into each other's arms.
If you are on board ship and the vessel is ready to go down, his
lordship will be seen at the pumps working as hard as any sweep who may
be on board! Everybody must share alike when they divide the
biscuit–and everybody must take his turn at working in the saving of
the ship. Well, well, if it is so in time of danger, let it be so in
time of peace! Let us have an equally hearty communion and fellowship,
the one with the other, in happy times and under sad circumstances as
well.

And so have I tried to prepare you to come to this feast. If any of you
have any ill-will towards the others, have done with it! If there are
any bickering and jealousies among you, wring the necks of those evil
birds and have done with them–put them to a speedy death! Now, surely,
is the time, when we come to the common Table of the Lord's one family,
to feel that one heart is in us all and that by Him who loved us all
and through Him whom we all love, we will love each other! God grant
it! I am not aware that there is any special reason, now, why I should
urge you to this unity more

than at any other time, but there is always a reason for it. There is
never a company of men and women, so large as ours, but what they have
little jealousies between them. And you may be quite sure that these
are displeasing to God and should be put away as speedily as possible.
So let it be and thus may we keep the feast in union with Christ and
with one another, for our Savior's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. ROMANS11-17

Verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle,
separated unto the Gospel of God, Paul has many titles and he delights
to mention them in writing to these Christians at Rome. He puts, first,
his highest title–"A servant of Jesus Christ." He glories in being a
servant of the Crucified Christ, a servant of Him who was despised and
rejected of men! So do we. Paul was called out from among men,
effectually "called" of God, "to be an Apostle, separated"–set
apart–"unto the Gospel of God." He believed that he was separated for
that purpose at his birth, but he was specially "separated unto the
Gospel of God" on the road to Damascus. It is a happy thing when a
minister feels that he has nothing to do with anything else but the
Gospel–that commands all his thoughts, all his talents, all his time.

2. (Which He had promised afore by His Prophets in the Holy
Scriptures). All the Gospel is in the Old Testament as well as in the
New, for the Gospel which Paul was called to preach was promised afore
by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

3, 4. Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God
with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection
from the dead. He is as much the Son of God as he was the Son of Man.
The Humanity is as true as the Divinity, the Divinity as true as the
Humanity.

5. By whom we have received Grace and Apostleship, for obedience to the
faith among all nations, for His name. Paul felt that he was sent to
preach among all the Gentiles. He had a large bishopric–James might
keep to the Jews, but Paul's diocese included every land–he was to
preach "among all nations."

6, 7. Among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ: to all that
are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel is
good news and the man who has to preach it is full of good wishes! He
wishes the best possible things to everybody with whom he comes in
contact–"Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ."

8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your
faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Oh, I would it were so
with us, that we had faith that could be spoken of throughout the whole
world! I am afraid that some have none to speak of–these saints in
Rome had such faith that the noise went abroad everywhere, and all
people wondered at them.

9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of
His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my
prayers. No wonder that they prospered so well when Paul always made
mention of them in his prayers! Some Churches would prosper better if
some of you remembered them more in prayer. Of course, you all pray for
the Church of which you are members, but could you not set aside in
your heart a little space for some poor Church that is dwindling down
to nothing? Could you not pray it up again? Who knows what blessing
would come upon pastor and people if you bore them on your hearts?

10. Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a
prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. Paul prayed
about that matter and we may pray about our journeys. I like to hear
the old-fashioned expression, "Be pleased, O Lord, to grant travel
mercies," for there are such things, and when the servants of God are
going about, with a view to spread the Gospel, we ought to pray that
they may travel in safety.

11. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift, to the end you may be established. He wanted to go to Rome
because he felt that he would take something with him. He was a poor
man, so he could not take any gifts of gold or silver, but he was a
chosen man and so he believed that he could impart unto them some
spiritual gift. Oh, what a largess does a man of God distribute when
his Lord is with him! I do pray, tonight, that feeble as I am, and
unqualified as I am to bless you, yet even this night all of you who
are the people of God may get some spiritual gift. I do not know what
you need but our heavenly Father does. May every one of you get,
distinctly from His right hand, some spiritual

gift to the end that you may be established, that you may get good
root-hold, that you may be firmly fixed on the sure foundation!

12, 13. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the
mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was
hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you, also, even
as among other Gentiles. Rome was a sink of iniquity. It was the den of
the lions, where Nero was, who would speedily devour, like a lion, the
minister of Christ. Paul needed, somehow, to get into that old city on
the seven hills, and to pluck some fruit for God even from the vine
that was planted there. But he was hindered.

14, 15. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to
the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to
preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also. I do not suppose that
Paul guessed that he would be sent there at the government's 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. He had not thought
of that plan–still, it was the best way in which he could go! I do not
know how he could have preached to the Emperor except as a
prisoner–but when he was brought before him to be tried–then he had
an opportunity of speaking even to the brutal creature who was called
the Emperor of Rome!

16, 17. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by
faith. That is the sum and substance of the Gospel–"The just shall
live by faith." The Law is, "He that does these things shall live by
them." But the Gospel is, "The just shall live by faith." "Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God." The Lord give to us
all that saving faith, for Christ's sake! Amen.