Anna and I are taking some time out this summer.

It’s been a demanding two years and we’re in a situation which could develop into serious exhaustion. So I felt we needed to take a long break this summer, away from responsibility and serving.

The elders at CCK have thoroughly endorsed this decision and are keen for us to have a good break and time away. So, from this last weekend, I’m laying down all my responsibilities at CCK for the next 10 weeks, and my involvement at Together On A Mission, Mobilise and Newday.

Through some amazing God circumstances, we’re actually flying out of the UK to spend our time in a fantastic city with a superb Newfrontiers church. And I will be disappearing from the online world of twitter, Facebook, blogging and emails… !

It’s been a fast paced three weeks since these decisions were made, with elder’s involvement. There are no sin issues or wrongdoing. I haven’t been asked to step down or been disqualified and this is not a church discipline situation. It was my initiation and it has received the elders endorsement.

It’s going to be strange not being involved at any of the conferences. However, we believe this is a priority.

Simon Brading

So I have been known to enjoy the odd poem now and then… and recently I came accross this. Such a stunning piece of work..

He giveth more grace when burdens grow greater
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase
To added afflictions He addeth His mercies
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace

When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving has only begun

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure
His power no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again

By Annie Johnson Flint

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Exposition of Chapter 1: The Gospel of God
Chapter Thirteen

Romans 1:7-8 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Doctrine vs. practical?

Even as Paul is speaking in a more personal and personal way, it is still full of doctrine. The Christian life is one and it is indivisible. The peculiar characteristic of the Christian is that all his actions are directly connected to his doctrine, to his belief.

‘Grace to you and peace’

Grace: unmerited favour. Kindness to someone who doesn’t deserve it at all. The whole basis of our salvation. What does this experience of grace lead to? Peace.
Grace > Peace. The grace of God is designed to bring us to and to give us this peace. These two terms are the beginning and the end. Paul is thinking of the source of the river and the sea to which it leads – the Alpha and Omega.
Peace: The opposite of strife, restlessness, uncertainty and unhappiness. The Christian is someone who enjoys peace with God, then from that finds peace in life. The absence of restlessness within.

When you wish anybody grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, you have wished them everything.

‘God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’

God is a Father to the Christian. He is not a philosopher’s abstraction: the x, the ‘absolute’, the ‘eternal’. No! He is our Father. Personal. ‘and the Lord Jesus Christ’ shows us they are equal… What can you put by the side of God? Nothing but God. Anything by His side must be equal with him.

‘I thank my God’

Paul does not thank them – He thanks God for them. We are not to be praised, It is God who is to be praised for what we are.

‘faith’

What kind of faith? A specific spiritual gift of faith, or a general saving faith? He is not saying they are unusual or outstanding in their faith and in their manefestation of faith. No! He is thanking God that they have faith at all.

‘whole world’

Does not mean every single individual. Let the context decide what the word means in any given, particular instance, and you will find it has different means attached to it in different places. Everyone in the Roman empire? No, he’s referring only to members of the Church in different countries. Christian people everywhere in the Roman Empire and heard that there were Christians even in Rome, and Paul rejoices in that, and they rejoice.

They had not got newspapers, mobiles or the internet. Yet, the news had spread to every Christian in the Roman empire. What a lesson on church publicity! A revival never needs to be advertised. You do not need to advertise the work of the Holy Spirit; it is its own advertisement. Christianity was advertised in the first century at the very beginning simply by the lives and living of Christian people. Are you advertising Christianity?

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Romans 1:6-7 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints

‘And you also‘

Paul has described himself in verses 1-5, now he must describe them also. Indeed, one of his great purposes in writing to them is that they realise clearly what they are as Christians.

‘belong to Jesus Christ’

God the Father calls. He calls us through Christ; He calls us to Christ. We are placed in Him. This is the differentiating thing that separates us from all others. We are in His kingdom; we are in Him as members of His body; we are joined to Him; we are united to Him.

‘loved by God’

They are where they are ‘inChrist’ because, first of all, of the love of God. We are what we are because He first loved us. These little groups of Christians in Rome are meeting together why? Because the eternal God has set His love upon them! Ephesians 2, they were ‘dead in trespasses and sins‘…’But God’ ! Why are we still not there? One answer – ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, has made us alive together with Christ.’

Jesus prays in John 17:22-23 also… I want the world to know that God has loved you as (in the same way as) He has loved me. This is what Paul is saying here – loved by God!

‘called’

A Christians is one of the called ones. A distinction between general call and particular call, effectual call. [Two men hear the same preach, the same gospel, only one responds.The call has gone out to two, but in the one it is effectual] An effectual call: this is what the Apostle means, these people are called of Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit alone who can make the Word effectual.

‘called to be saints’ – objective.

You cannot be a Christian without being a saint. The Roman Catholic idea of canonising people to be saints, through certain rigid tests, as to then be called ‘Saint so-and so’, is entirely foreign to the teaching of Scripture.

Called means separated. So that one of its primary meanings is that we’re separated from everything that separates us from God. The difference between a Christian and a man outside Christ is that the latter may be a good, moral man, but he is not a holy man; he is not a saint. The thing that makes us saints is we are separated to God.

‘called to be saints’ – subjective.

Philippians 2:12-13 says ‘continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ God continues to work in us by His Holy Spirit, and that is the subjective aspect of being made holy and of becoming a saint. So I do not end by being a saint – I start as a saint. But it should be increasingly evident that I am a saint, as I go on with my sanctification.

Because I realize that I am a saint, I must live as a saint.

Paul is in the same boat.

‘Called’ is the same term Paul has used about himself. It’s important for us to realise that as a Christian, the Apostle Paul was the same as every other Christian. He was not made a Christian because he was an unusual or exceptional or remarkable man. Not at all! ‘chief of sinners’ was his name. God loved him, and called him, and separated him, and made him a saint’ and it is true of every other Christian. What a wonderful thing for us to realise!

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Romans 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations

‘the obedience of faith‘

Not the obedience of works, but the obedience of faith. Not just obedience of itself, but the obedience of a heart responding in faith – the two must always be taken together, ‘the obedience of faith’.

Sandemanian
More than intellectual acceptance to the teaching of the gospel; it includes an element of submission. Sandemanian churches teach you just have to say you believe in Jesus Christ (‘Confession is made with the mouth unto salvation‘ was their great text) – doesn’t matter whether you feel anything or what your life is like. No one will be a victim of this if he remember the phrase ‘obedience of faith’. The whole man is involved. It includes repentance and change.

‘among all nations’

Nations can be translated ‘gentiles’ too, but we reject this translation because:
-  If Paul were speaking about the Gentiles, he would not need to use the word ‘all’, but he’s deliberately making a point
- Paul’s calling on the road to Damascus was to start in Jerusalem, then go into Samaria, and then unto the uttermost pasts of the earth, preaching to both Jews and Gentiles. Acts 26
- Nations is the theme of this Epistle – both Jew and Gentile, not just Gentiles.

Let us hold to the word ‘nations’ – Jewish nations and non-Jewish nations – all nations. In other words, Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the whole world. He is not merely a Jewish Messiah.

’sake of His name’

Paul Why the obedience of faith? For the sake of His name, so that He is glorified. The name reveals a man. The name which someone has made for himself (doctor, builder, whoever…) tells us about him. Paul is saying, I preach for the glory of His name – and in order to bring people to glorify Him and to glory in Him. By our ‘obedience of faith’ we glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was His glory that mattered, and that alone mattered, withPaul. He was a Christ-intoxicated man; he lived for His praise and for His glory.

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Romans 1:4-5 Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

‘Jesus Christ our Lord‘

Jesus Christ is Lord. The whole of the Christian faith depends upon this recognition of this; this is what really makes one a Christian. Early Christians were constatnly arrested because they said ‘Jesus is Lord’, not ‘Caeser is Lord’.

The great confessions and creeds were not done merely for their entertainment of amusement. The fathers in the early church were given to see clearly and rightly, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that if there was any question about the lordship of Jesus, the whole of the Christian position collapsed; and the central matter, therefore, is that Jesus is the Christ; the Son of God.

‘Lord’ in the New Testament is the same term ‘Jehovah’ taken from the Old Testament. So saying Jesus is Lord is really saying Jesus is JEHOVAH ! He is the everlasting, eternal God.

‘Jesus Christ our Lord’

He is our Lord because He has bought u; He has purchased us, We are not our own, we have been bought at a price. He is our Lord because He is our owner. This removes the false teaching of taking Jesus as Saviour, but not as Lord. You cannot take Him as Saviour only, because He saves you by buying you with His precious blood. And if you know that, you must know at once that He is your Lord.

Undoubtably the greatest Christmas hymn ever written:‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!’

He is veiled in flesh; but the Apostle says that in the resurrection He is ‘declared to be the Son of God with power‘. There we realise how powerful He is. Unless you were inspired by the Holy Ghost as ancient Simeon and Anna the prophetess were, you would see nothing but a babe.

What was veiled while He was here on earth, is now fully revealed. A proclamation at the resurrection!

‘received grace and apostleship’

Paul is repeating himself from verse 1, reminding us that he really is an apostle. He had enemies who went around saying, ‘This man is not an apostle at all.’ But he has been called by God to be an apostle.

‘obedience of faith’ not obedience to the faith

Note, he says ‘obedience of faith’, not obedience to the faith. To understand this, we must help by defining sin:

Sin:
Sin isn’t just doing bad things (sins of commission), it is an absence of doing the right things (sins of omission).This is sin: a refusal to listen to the voice and to the Word of God.

If you are living that little self-contained, self satisfied life in which you really only think of god now and again, and remember perhaps moring and evenings that there is a god, and you say your pryare; if that is your attitude to god, if you are not waiting upon him and listening for his word, and seeking it everywehere, and livinjg to practice it, then you are as much a sinner as the drunkard or the adulterer; you are not listening to god. That is the essence of sin.

If sin is disobedience, what is right? Obedience. The obedience of faith – to listen to what God has said about His dear Son.

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Romans 1:4 and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Verse 3 is about Jesus’ humanity. Verse 4 about Jesus’ divinity:

‘Declared’

In contrast with ‘made’ in verse 3.
Jesus was ‘made’ flesh, but ‘declared’ the Son of God. ‘Declared’ = ‘announced’ or ‘proved’.

He was not made the Son of God by the resurrection, but He was declared to be the Son of God by it.

‘Son of God with power’

Jesus was the Son of God before the incarnation and from all eternity, He is always the Son of God. But when He came into this world, He did not come as the Son of God with power. No! He came as a helpless babe. He was weak; He was helpless.

Undoubtably the greatest Christmas hymn ever written:‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!’

He is veiled in flesh; but the Apostle says that in the resurrection He is ‘declared to be the Son of God with power‘. There we realise how powerful He is. Unless you were inspired by the Holy Ghost as ancient Simeon and Anna the prophetess were, you would see nothing but a babe.

What was veiled while He was here on earth, is now fully revealed. A proclamation at the resurrection!

‘Spirit of holiness’

The phrase ‘spirit of holiness‘ only comes up here in the whole Bible, so we must be careful to recognise it does not mean the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity. The emphasis is upon ’spirit’ – a spirit which is holy.

Now ‘according to the spirit of holiness‘ is the parallel to ‘according to the flesh‘

He is distinct from man. Our spirit is not holy; His spirit is holy, because He is Son of God. So there is this perfect contrast then between what He was as the seed of David, and what He is as Son of God.

‘Resurrection from the dead’

It is in the plural. It is not singular. It has been done by a resurrection such as that of dead person when they rise. Acts 26:23 ‘That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first to that should rise from the dead’

He has inaugurated a resurrection from the dead. We shall rise because He rose. Lazarus was not resurrected; he was simply brought back to life. That is not a resurrection.

His resurrection substantiates all the claims He ever made for Himself.

Do not try to understand it.

Verse 3 is about Jesus’ humanity. Verse 4 about Jesus’ divinity.

A mystery. A marvel. Two natures – one Person. The Son of God – God is the only Person, but there are two natures in Him – the divine and the human that He has taken unto Himself. Completely human. Completely divine. Both in one Person. Unmixed, and yet both there and joined together. Do not try to understand it. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is the marvel of eternity. Bust it is God’s way of saving us. That is what He has done. That is what I am going to tell you about, says Paul to the Romans.

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Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh

Verse 3 about Jesus’ humanity. Verse 4 about Jesus’ divinity.

‘Concerning his Son Jesus Christ’

The gospel is concerning God’s Son. That is the nerve, the very heart of the gospel. Take away Jesus and there is no gospel.

Moses was not essential to the law, God could have given it to someone else. You can have the law without him. Not with Jesus. Take away the Person and there is no message at all.

‘was made the seed of David according to the flesh’

‘was made’ can be translated ‘became’. He was – He became. He began to be ‘the seed of David according to the flesh’.The Son of God was there in eternity, then He began to be something that He was not before – not that He has begun to be, or that He has now come into existence.

The Word became flesh. He entered into full manhood, into a complete human nature.

Contradicting Genealogy?

The genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 seem to contradict… different parents, different lines?
Matthew: Genealogical tree of Joseph
Luke: Genealogical tree of Mary
In both instances, the Scriptures are careful to tell us that He was not the son of Joseph, He was the son of Mary. Mary was a descendant of King David, thus the great promises of Isaiah are fulfilled:

Isaiah 9 ‘He shall sit on David’s throne’
Isaiah 11 ‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse’ (David’s father)

The incarnation

We may think this is Irrelevant, but the first 3 or 4 centuries of the Christian ere were spend very largely inthe infant church fighting for this very thing! Heresies arose denying our Lord’s humanity or His deity; or denied that He came truly in the flesh, or that He really suffered. If these are lost, the gospel is lost, and there’d be no salvation of gospel to preach.

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Romans 1:2 …which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures…

Why a long gap from Eden to Calvary?

i) God revealing the depth of Sin. Though the Jews heard the truth, they were blinded by sin, they had a veil over their hearts  (2 Cor 3)

ii) God proving Man’s attempt to save himself is futile. God gave man a full opportunity of saving himself, but he could not do it.

iii) God showing His own Lordship over all, absolute control, final authority. He chose a people, gave them a law, but they could not keep it. At Calvary, Satan is silenced, God is just, and there is not a word that can be said against Him, His ordering of the life of the world, or of His great salvation.

Paul preached Christ from the Old Testament

Paul was always anxious to show the gospel was not a departure from the past, nor a complete break with the OT Scriptures. It was a continuation of what God had already been doing – which started back in Eden.

Paul would prove to the Jews from their own Scriptures that their needed to be a Suffering Servant who would be rejected and put to death. If he couldn’t establish that, how could he possibly convince them?

All those promises are yes and amen in this Christ Jesus.

8 Lessons from Paul preaching from the OT:

i) The Bible is complete. OT + NT (the Canon of scripture) is the complete revelation that God has given to man concerning His truth. There is not continued extra revelation (immaculate conception, worshipping Mary..) All we need is in the bible.

ii) The Bible is the only authority. Our message must always come from the Bible, and from nowhere else. We have no authority but this (and a great authority it is!)

iii) The Bible is one book. Not a library of books, not even two books. The OT and NT are one; it is the same fundamental truth about the saving God and His great purpose. Old and New are parts of the same

iv) The Old Testament is therefore essential. The OT is not just for Jews. Nor is to be used just devotionally (psalms) or to for a bit of history. God’s truth is revealed there and we need that revelation. The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.

v) Interpretation of  NT must never contradict teaching of the OT. Eg. Atonement. ‘It is just Jesus showing how much He loves us by dying. Nothing more’. Wrong. This is a false teaching about death not consistant with the OT teaching; there must be blood shed and punishment for the forgiveness of sins, Jesus was our expiation and propitiation. (Hold on to your OT to understand the NT – so important)

vi) The NT fulfils the OT. You cannot receive Jesus as your Saviour and say later I will perhaps take Him as my Lord. He is always the Lord and you receive Him as Lord. Can’t just have justification without sanctification. Jesus is now your Lord.

vii) OT reminds us Salvation is global. It is a personal salvation, but God has a purpose for the whole world. The OT emphasises that, keep one eye on it.

viii) Learn to submit ourselves absolutely to God’s ways. Put yourself, and everything that is a concern to you, entirely in the hands of God.

So let us never forget…

..that there is nothing more comforting or encouraging to the Christian than to be familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures.

Depressed and discouraged? God back to your OT Scriptures, read them, study them, learn them by heart. See God’s method. The whole of Hebrews 11 is used in that way, you remember

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Romans 1:2 Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Preaching vs. Writing

Paul could stay somewhere for 18 months and preach daily. He’s clearly not just superficially going through these epistles (he could have done that in a week).

Paul’s Epistles are headings which he expounded. This particlar one, verse 2, is one of his favourite headings which he obviously expounded at very great length.

‘Promised afore’

The gospel is right through the old testament. Genesis to Malachi.

2 Tim 3:15 ‘how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’.It is all there if you have got eyes to see it.

Paul reasoned and argued from the Old Testament about Jesus, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

‘Prophets’

The term ‘prophet’ in the Scripture here refers to all the books in the Old Testament in which there is any sort of prophecy of the coming of the Son of God.

Foretelling and forth-telling

People would argue that OT prophetic scripture was forth-telling – just speaking about a current situation, not speaking about the future.

But they went beyond that, God used them as His special servant to foretell events yet to come.

Revelation and Inspiration

Revelation means knowing the certain facts –  giving the information
Inspiration is that which controls the statement and the expression of those facts.

A prophet has both.

If a man receives inspiration to state facts already known, it is not revelation. Prophets are men who have both.

Prophesying, but not understanding

The prophets of God – His prophets – were given the truth, given the power to express it truly and without error, although the did not fully understand what they were saying. What they did understand is it was not for them; it was largely for thosse who were going to come.

‘Holy Scriptures’

These are holy writings; they are not human or ordinary. They belong to God, and they are holy because they belong to God.

They have been written under the guidance and the power and the influence of God, under the control of the Holy Ghost.

The Apostles regarded the OT as the divinely inspired Word of God. 2 Tim 3:16

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