Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson with Sound Doctrine from the book of Romans.

Jeff Johnson: Jesus said they will know that you're my disciples by your love to one another. And that is a preposition. That's an action word. Your love to your brothers and sisters reveals God's love. You want to be a witness for the Lord? You want to bring God glory? Love your brothers and sisters.

Guest (Male): Many Christians are frustrated today because they think they have nothing to offer for the cause of Christ. Well, we all have a part to play in life and in the church. And what's exciting to discover is that God has not only given us a part, but will gift and equip us for that role.

Thanks for joining us today for Sound Doctrine, the outreach of Calvary Chapel Downey. As we continue in Romans chapter 15, we'll focus in on verses 14 through 16. It's here we're given insight on our role in church ministry. Here's our teacher and pastor, Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: Presently, we find ourselves in Romans chapter 15. Almost done, but not quite. There's so much more to come, just in a chapter and a half. Romans chapter 15. This morning, we're going to look at our ministry, and Paul is very, very clear on what that is and what he is giving to the Romans, and yet what he's giving to us this morning about our ministry.

I'd like to start off with a psalm we read this morning by saying that this is a psalm that I think we can all relate to. This is sort of for those of us that know the Lord, this is our testimony, so to speak. Let me read it to you real quick, the first three verses of Psalm 40. "I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto me. He heard my cry. He brought me up out of also the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, established my goings. He has put a new song in my mouth, and praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."

So this is Paul's testimony, but I relate to this, and I'm sure many of you do. He heard our cry when we were desperate. When we were at the end of our ropes, so to speak, we cried. He took us out of the darkness, out of the pit, the sinking sand. Now, in Christ, our solid rock, we stand. I like that song we sing. He's put me into the ministry. I worship God now with a heart turned towards Him. He's conformed me. He's transforming me. My life has become a testimony and will cause many to come to the Lord. That's kind of paraphrasing those three verses.

I was thinking of Paul and in his ministry to the Corinthians. Just told there at Romans, you don't have to turn to 2 Corinthians 6, but in verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 6, Paul says, "And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, 'I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Wherefore, because of this, come out from amongst them and be separate," says the Lord. "Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters," says the Lord.

This has become my reality. Hopefully, it's your reality. He's given me new life. He's given me a new direction, and His presence in my life makes it happen. I understand that more and more every day as we walk together. I've died to my old life to experience now what Jesus says, "Come unto me, you're going to have abundant life." Just a fullness of life in Him. I like what he says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in these earthen pots, that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us."

This is not something we did. This is something that God has done. We just cried out. He heard our cry and he's taken it over from there. So as Paul, I've been given this treasure. And it's not about the pot that I used to smoke. He talks about a pot here, and it's not about this clay vessel that I used to promote. It's not about either one of those things. It's about letting others see His power, His love in my life to give God the glory. Then to be able to communicate how this has happened to me to others around me.

This was Paul's ministry is what he's saying. In Acts chapter 26, it gives us a little bit more of a definition because Jesus shares, "This is your ministry to him." In Acts 26, verse 16, Jesus tells Paul, "Rise and stand up." He was on his back. God had to put Paul on his back. How many had to be put on your back before you cried out? I mean, if you're honest, every single one of us. We're so like sheep. We're stubborn. We get in a rut and we stay there for a long time. You wonder about somebody's end. How long are they going to handle this? When are they going to finally cry uncle and give it up?

But it takes something. Well, Paul's on his back and the Lord spoke to him, "Rise and stand on your feet. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen and the things in which I will appear unto thee, delivering you from the people, from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send you," so he's sending him, "to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins."

I love it. The Lord just says, "This is your ministry. This is what I want you to do now." Now this has become, I believe, our ministry. You say, "I never chose a ministry." Well, when you came to the Lord, you became a disciple. When you become a disciple, He teaches you your ministry. Believe it or not, this is our ministry. This is what we're to be busy about doing: being lights in a dark place, to be His witnesses.

Now let's look at our text, going now to Romans chapter 15 and let's go back one verse, verse 13. He says this is his prayer for us. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." So he's praying that our ministries would abound through the power of the Holy Spirit. Great prayer, and I think this has always been the key to an effective ministry. The power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus made it very clear in Acts 1, verses 4 and 5. As they were assembled together, he commanded them, "Don't leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you said you heard about. John truly baptized you with water," we're going to have a water baptism next week, "but you shall be baptized, put into the Holy Ghost not many days hence. You're going to be given this power to be a witness for Him."

Then it goes on to say in verse 8 that you shall receive this power when it's come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, at home, Judea, your work, Samaria, your country, and the uttermost parts of the world. To be my witnesses. Then it goes on to say in Acts chapter 4 that they asked the Lord to do this. They said, "Lord, give us of your Spirit that we can go out and do this again."

In other words, can we be filled with the Spirit again, anew and fresh? In Acts 4, verses 29 and 30, they asked God to fill them with the Spirit. When they had prayed, verse 31, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Notice they spoke the word of God with boldness. Another result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. You've got boldness now in your life to share your testimony, to share what God has done.

You're not afraid. You're not ashamed of the gospel. You know it's the power of God unto salvation, and so you speak it as that. You start off, you're not in people's face. You start a little conversation and then you just begin to share what God has done. On Saturday, I was just walking around at this little boutique thing, and this guy was selling these neat things. I got into them. They were little banks, and they were really weird-looking camels. Great clay work.

You know that whole potter thing. I just said, "Gosh, how long you been doing this?" and got into this witness. He had gone through Vietnam—really firefights and the whole bit. I said, "Oh yeah, I remember Vietnam." He goes, "You were there?" I said, "Well, I was in Hawaii at the time with Timothy Leary, and that was my Vietnam. I was fighting going insane and fighting drugs and everything. It was my Vietnam, so to speak."

So I started sharing with him and I gave him my whole testimony. He was just sitting there listening to me. Then we got into Jeremiah 18 about the potter and the clay. It was a great analogy. The Lord just brought that to my mind. We started talking about the clay thing. I said, "You know what? Let me go get my wife." Then Karen came in and she laid it on him more. We walked away out of that place with two big banks and thinking, "Wow, those are some heavy seeds planted."

I think that guy is almost... his wife's a Buddhist. As you're going through whatever you're going through, there's opportunities, and we need to take those opportunities. He's given us that boldness to do that. When we're looking at Romans 15, the first half of the chapter, Paul's exhortation, and he's sharing the need for the body of Christ to be one. We've heard all that. We've heard about the weak and strong brother.

Paul kind of shifts gears here in the second half of chapter 15, and he gives us an explanation of his ministry and our ministry. That's why I called this "Our Ministry" this morning. These next few verses reveal Paul's ministry that God gave to him and reveals ours as evangelists. Now Paul, his BC days as ours, was in total ignorance of the grace of God. I didn't understand it. I know none of us did.

We sang about it this morning. I know that as those of you that were really into it, we're saying, "It covers me." Understanding the grace of God. "It covers me." Yes, that, I can get into that. And there are some of you just going, "What are they talking about?" because you just don't even understand yet the grace of God. And you might be saying, "Yeah, but I'm a Christian." Well, wait a minute.

It could be in name only. It could be that you really hasn't been a heart thing. It hasn't been a relationship thing. It's been just an outward thing of, "I go to Calvary Chapel Downey, and I'm there every Sunday, and I go to church." You're kind of like in churchianity. You don't have a personal relationship yet, so the grace of God hasn't really affected you and touched you in a deep way. That's something to think about as I share this message this morning for your own life individually. It's very important.

So Paul's BC days, he persecuted the church. He killed Christians. He sought to destroy the church. In Ephesians, he talked about it. Let me just read it to you in Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 2. He said, "Wherein in time past we walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Satan, and the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience."

Man, that's where I was at. Among whom also we had our conversation or manner of living in times past, the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. I mean, we were fighting against God. We were in a bad place. That's our BC days. But then he says in verse 4, "But God, who is rich in mercy, in his great love wherein he loved us," he reached down, he quickened us, he made us alive spiritually. We became born again and there's a whole new life in that.

So God intervened. God took Paul, knocked him on his back, changed his life, and he encountered God's amazing grace. It saved him and the Lord called him, made him a minister, and gave him eyes and gave him a heart for the lost. There's something that happens to you when you become a child of God where you start to see those who are not children of God and you begin to pray for them. You begin to care for them.

Well, Paul was doing this, and in Romans chapter 15, these are Paul's closing thoughts to the Romans, his closing thoughts to us this morning, his commendation. Here we get inside of what type of person Paul was through his new relationship with God. I mean, he had a relationship. He was a religious man, but he did weird things. He killed people in the name of God.

I don't know if you know anybody like that, but there's whole cultures that do that. It's crazy. But that's what he was doing. But now the Lord has changed him. His understanding of ministry has all been transformed. He's bearing fruit. He's experienced the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now we find ourselves in verse 14 of Romans chapter 15 where he says, "And I myself also am persuaded of you," talking to those in Rome, "my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

Incredible. He says he's very tactful right off the bat, I mean, to those in Rome. He's modest, he's humble, and how he cares for them. This is a man of God who trusts in God. These are the qualities that God is seeking to establish in all of our lives in our ministries. These qualities. A humility, a caring, a modesty. Notice in verse 14 he says, "my brethren." He calls them his brothers. Jew, Gentiles, we're one family. We've already talked about that.

We've been involved in that, and we saw what a miracle that was. Here's Paul, Hebrew of Hebrews, and now he's embracing Romans. Embracing them all as my brothers. Intimate thing. Jesus said they will know that you're my disciples by your love to one another. And that is a preposition. That's an action word. Your love to your brothers and sisters reveals God's love. You want to be a witness for the Lord? You want to bring God glory? Love your brothers and sisters. That's what Jesus said.

Notice his concern and care for them. He wanted them to know that he was much more interested in what a man could be than what he had been. That's what he was interested in. "You guys, you're awesome. You're going to do awesome things." He had never been there and yet he knew their situation. Interesting. How did he know? Well, through travelers that would come through telling of the faith that's in Rome of the brethren there and how they were on fire for the Lord and they were doing awesome things.

Gossip. This is good gossip, though. That fairly gets around. You know that? Gossip, real juicy stuff that ruins people's reputations and all, that flies around. But the good news hardly ever gets around. I think that's an enemy thing. The enemy doesn't want it to get around. But this word got around. His view of others made a difference here. You can see this. It's almost like Michelangelo. His aim was to get the angel out of the block of marble. But he had a vision for that marble.

He saw the angel in the marble and he just wanted to get it out of there. That's what Paul's seeing here with these Romans. Love believes and hopes all things. That's what he was believing. He was believing God for great things to come out of their lives. "You can do it, guys. I know you can." So we're not to prejudge anyone, to gossip, to tear them down, but we're not to shoot our wounded.

And I mean, that's been going on for a long time where Christians and in the church of God, there's brothers and sisters that just say, "The guy's... we just write him off. Boom," and shoot the wounded. Here he is wounded. He's caught up in a sin or whatever, and we just go, "That's it," and send them away. We're not to cannibalize one another. It kills vision. It wipes people out. We're to evangelize.

I was telling somebody the other day, I said, "Listen, man, if we don't start evangelizing, we're going to fossilize." He goes, "Man, I never thought of it that way." It's true, though. Evangelism is moving out, telling somebody. Fossilizing is ending up in church with all kinds of wrinkles on you. Sometimes people end up that way. They're just fossilized. They're not doing anything. They're just kind of hanging out, waiting to die.

That's not fun. God doesn't get the glory out of that. Evangel means a seller of soap. It's so perfect. Evangel. "Oh, he sells soap." Because when you think about it, it fits. You're dirty with sin. He'll come and He'll cleanse you by His blood. That's evangelism. He can make you brand new. First John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So we just need to confess. We need to get right with God. We need to be honest with God, and God will immediately cleanse us and move us along. I love it.

Psalm 32:1-2, I love this psalm. In Psalm 32 he says, "Blessed, oh how happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile." Then David cries out, "I have sinned," and the Lord immediately forgives him and restores him. It's just awesome. God is good. He doesn't keep score, thank God. He doesn't deal with us according to our works or our past.

Again, there's a Psalm 103, in verse 10. Listen to this. Psalm 103:10. "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Because he's forgiven us, and when you're forgiven, God forgets, doesn't he? The blood of Jesus. It's good to be under the blood. It's good to be in the grace of God, cleansed by his blood.

So we're not to prejudge anyone, to gossip, to tear them down, but we're not to shoot our wounded. And I mean, that's been going on for a long time where Christians and in the church of God, there's brothers and sisters that just say, "The guy's... we just write him off. Boom," and shoot the wounded. Here he is wounded. He's caught up in a sin or whatever, and we just go, "That's it," and send them away.

We're not to cannibalize one another. It kills vision. It wipes people out. We're to evangelize. I was telling somebody the other day, I said, "Listen, man, if we don't start evangelizing, we're going to fossilize." He goes, "Man, I never thought of it that way." It's true, though. Evangelism is moving out, telling somebody. Fossilizing is ending up in church with all kinds of wrinkles on you. Sometimes people end up that way. They're just fossilized. They're not doing anything. They're just kind of hanging out, waiting to die. That's not fun. God doesn't get the glory out of that.

Evangel means a seller of soap. It's so perfect. Evangel. "Oh, he sells soap." Because when you think about it, it fits. You're dirty with sin. He'll come and He'll cleanse you by His blood. That's evangelism. He can make you brand new. First John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So we just need to confess. We need to get right with God. We need to be honest with God, and God will immediately cleanse us and move us along. I love it.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Johnson talking about our ministry today on Sound Doctrine. We pray you've been blessed by what you heard today. Romans is one of the greatest books in the Bible, and if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine Podcast app.

You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. By the way, you can donate to this radio outreach right there at sounddoctrineradio.org. Thanks in advance for whatever God leads you to do. We'll finish up this message next time we're together for Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. This program is listener-supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey. Father, won't you speak to me?