Radio Broadcast Wednesday 02/26/2025

Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P57 (02-26-25)

Unity of the Faith is Key to Fellowship in Christ Jesus

~ “And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.” Ephesians 4:11-16

Many today are being taught that unity is allowing every wind of doctrine imaginable to form unity in the “Christian” religion. That is a lie of Satan. There is no such thing as unity between unbelievers and True believers who have the Holy Spirit living in them. For the Spirit sets the person apart from those lies. They will not be able to sit idly by without the Spirit of God stirring up inside of them to speak Truth, or to proclaim Truth, even if it is in some small way. And the child of God who is being directed by God will be on the battlefield of Life. For Satan doesn’t want the Truth of the word of God to get a hold of a person, and therefore He places all types of roadblocks in your way when sharing Truth with others. But allow the Spirit of God to direct ALL your paths. Don’t try to do things in the energy of the flesh, but allow him to lead you are the Path that He wants for you. Make your body a living sacrifice, for He has made you Holy and acceptable to Him to be used for service. This is your spiritual act of worship that is pleasing to God. And that He may use you to share with even it is one person when the time is right. Be available to Him.

And don’t promote ministries that are known deceivers and teach other doctrines of ongoing forgiveness by God, especially the ones that have been to cemeteries (seminaries) for indoctrination in Satan’s lies. For these ministries are NOT teaching the TRUTH of the proper foundation, no matter what they are teaching on other matters. Yet people seem to throw away the message of Truth and discount the message of completed reconciliation at the cross, by Jesus, God in the flesh, Himself They force unity of the faith, which is no unity at all. They place faith in what Man says and the doctrines of demons, instead of the word of God.

…..

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in Me, even if he should die, he will live. And everyone living and believing in Me shall never die, to the age. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26
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We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.” For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you harmony with one another in Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ the Servant of Hebrews and Gentiles

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring glory to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles;

I will sing hymns to Your name.”

Again, it says:

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.”

And again:

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,

and extol Him, all you peoples.”

And once more, Isaiah says:

“The Root of Jesse will appear,

One who will arise to rule over the Gentiles;

in Him the Gentiles will put their hope.”

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, brimming with knowledge, and able to instruct one another. However, I have written you a bold reminder on some points, because of the grace God has given me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore I exult in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God.f So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

In this way I have aspired to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written:

“Those who were not told about Him will see,

and those who have not heard will understand.”

That is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

But now that there are no further opportunities for me in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to visit you, I hope to see you on my way to Spain. And after I have enjoyed your company for a while, you can equip me for my journey.

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem to serve the saints there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual blessings, they are obligated to minister to them with material blessings.

So after I have completed this service and have safely delivered this bounty to them, I will set off to Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.

The God of peace be with all of you. Amen. Romans 15:1-33

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “And so it says, May the God who gives endurance and encouragement, those words used again, one after another, may the God who gives endurance to you and encouragement to you, give you a spirit of unity among yourselves, as you follow Jesus Christ. Now again, the emphasis here is to the Hebrew and the Gentile, but it is just as applicable to us today. He’s saying that may the God who gives you endurance, the ability to hang in there with each other. What do you mean hang in there with each other? Hang in there because God isn’t through with you yet. And hang in there if you’re hanging on to a bunch of traditions and this kind of stuff that have no bearing at all on your Christian life, but you’re hanging on, it says, hang in there with with them, before long, it’s going to peel away. Remember? It says, it becomes obsolete, and suddenly it’ll disappear. So it says, Be patient with people. That’s hard for us, isn’t it? It’s hard for me. I get impatient with people when they don’t see the value of just Christ, Jesus, and when they add to this kind of stuff, my patience is very thin sometimes with that. But God again, disciples me and disciplines me with this, and he points it out to me. He’s not punishing me, he’s just disciplining me. So may the God who gives endurance and encouragement, give you a spirit of unity among yourselves, as you follow Christ, Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth. In other words, we’re all speaking the same thing. We’re all believing the same thing. Our hearts are molded together in oneness with Christ, Jesus, you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus, Christ, and that’s what brings glory to God, it says is for you and me to have unity with one another.” ~ Bob George

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Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Romans. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Romans. Romans has been described as the most dynamic, life changing document ever penned. It is a study in systematic theology, a defense of the Gospel, and a practical guide to Christian living all in one.

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Bob George 0:27
For it said for even Christ did not please himself, for it is written the insults of those who insult you have fallen upon me. And what Jesus is saying, it’s a quote out of Psalms, but he’s saying that when you’re insulting they’re coming upon me when you’re insulting my brother, I should be concerned about that. If someone insults Bob Christopher, it should hurt me, because he’s my brother in Christ, and we’re brothers in Christ. And if someone is says something good about somebody, it should be a joy to me because you’re my brothers and sisters in Christ. And if someone is there blasting you, there’s something inside of you that you don’t want to see someone blasted. And so it’s saying these are all attitudes that that we need to ask God to purify our attitudes, because lot of times our attitudes come from our background, or wherever they might have come from, but we have some pretty stinking attitudes sometimes in regard to dealing with people. And what he’s saying is we should be encouragers, not discouragers, to our fellow man.

It says, For everything was written in the past was written to teach us. Why do we have instruction in the Bible? To teach us. The Bible, folks, is the discipler. That’s how God disciples you and me. Discipleship is discipline, and how does God discipline our minds? By teaching us truth. If you’re a person that is critical, that everything you see, you know, if you got a white tablecloth and there’s a dot on it, you don’t see the white tablecloth. All you see is the dot. And you’re a person like that, he’s disciplining you. He’s discipling you. He’s saying, quit thinking that way. Quit always looking at the negative on something. Begin to find something good about something and build people up with that, because otherwise you’re just tearing down your own body. And this is what Paul wants us to get across, folks, is this is your body. You’ve got your body. This is your body, and when you start tearing down one another in this body, as an example, in this body of believers, it’s like tearing down a part of your own body. It’s like sitting there and destroying your leg or your arm, which would be ridiculous for you to do, but that’s what we’re doing when we’re tearing down the body of Christ, and so he’s saying, quit doing that and be people of encouragement. Everything was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. The Scriptures are given to us so that we will endure with one another and be an encouragement to one another. That’s why the scripture says that as Christ Jesus has forgiven us, so forgive one another. Why? Because we’re a part of the same body. We all have to think through those things that if God if Christ, Jesus forgave you, then who am I not to forgive you? Are my standards higher than Jesus, and if they’re not higher than Jesus, then there should be forgiveness.

And so it says, May the God who gives endurance and encouragement, those words used again, one after another, may the God who gives endurance to you and encouragement to you, give you a spirit of unity among yourselves, as you follow Jesus Christ. Now again, the emphasis here is to the Hebrew and the Gentile, but it is just as applicable to us today. He’s saying that may the God who gives you endurance, the ability to hang in there with each other. What do you mean hang in there with each other? Hang in there because God isn’t through with you yet. And hang in there if you’re hanging on to a bunch of traditions and this kind of stuff that have no bearing at all on your Christian life, but you’re hanging on, it says, hang in there with with them, before long, it’s going to peel away. Remember? It says, it becomes obsolete, and suddenly it’ll disappear. So it says, Be patient with people. That’s hard for us, isn’t it? It’s hard for me. I get impatient with people when they don’t see the value of just Christ, Jesus, and when they add to this kind of stuff, my patience is very thin sometimes with that. But God again, disciples me and disciplines me with this, and he points it out to me. He’s not punishing me, he’s just disciplining me. So may the God who gives endurance and encouragement, give you a spirit of unity among yourselves, as you follow Christ, Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth. In other words, we’re all speaking the same thing. We’re all believing the same thing. Our hearts are molded together in oneness with Christ, Jesus, you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus, Christ, and that’s what brings glory to God, it says is for you and me to have unity with one another.

It’s like in your family, there isn’t anything that disturbs you any more than watching kids feuding and fighting and fussing with each other. Does it? It grieves your heart. And what he’s saying is, when you come together in a spirit of unity and acceptance with one another and. Never compromising truth. Folks, we’re not talking about that never compromise truth. Truth is truth whether you like it or whether you don’t. Truth is truth whether your kids are engaged in it or they’re not. And you don’t gauge your theology upon what your kid is doing or what you’re doing or your wife or your husband is doing. Truth is truth. So you don’t compromise that. But what you’re doing is saying, we’re going to be tolerant with you until we all come to this spirit of unity in truth, so that with one heart and with one mind, and with one mouth will glorify God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So it says, accept one another. How? How should we accept one another? Just as Christ accepted you? And we’ve talked about that many times, guys, the difference between love and acceptance. That in my own life, that I knew that God loved me, but it was kind of Well, He’s God. He kind of has to, but Did he accept me? I never thought about that before, whether he I was accepted in the Beloved. But I do know that when that finally hit with me, that God not only loves me, but he accepts me. He’s not through with me, yet he’s got, still got a lot of work to do. Do you agree with that? I know you agree with me. What about you? A lot of work to do, but he’s not through with us. And ultimately, when the ultimate work of him is going to take place is when we’re absent from the body and present with the Lord and go see him as he is and become like him. It’s going to occur the day that we’re able to shed this body that contains indwelling sin. It’s going to happen the day that we’re no longer in this conflict between spirit and flesh that is always at conflict with each other. They’re at war with each other, are they not? And that war will be taking place for the rest of your life. You say, How old do you have to be before this war stops? Older than me, because it’s still there, and it’ll be there until the day you die. So on the day you die, you get to shed this thing, and you get to go into His presence in purity, and you get to go into His presence with just him, and all this stuff’s gone that we’ve had to struggle with. But the issue is that he says that I accept you the way you are. I accept you for who you are. You’re my child, and you’re loved perfectly, and you’re accepted in the Beloved. I’m not through with you yet, but don’t think that I ever do not accept you. And that is good news, isn’t it, folks, to know that God not only loves you perfectly, but he accepts you the way you are, and you’re able to sit back and say, I’m not all that I can be. I’m not maybe even all that I will be. But that’s good enough, right now.

I remember, some of you have heard the story, but I remember, in my early days of being a Christian, went into full time Christian work very shortly after becoming a Christian, and still had the old ego and the pride that you that you carry with you, all that baggage and barnacles that you carry with you. And I was real impressed with with people like Billy Graham, and I thought that he probably ought to start thinking about retiring before long, because I just become a Christian, and, and, and so, you know, humbly, I was thinking those things. And I remember that one day that I was going over to Phoenix, Arizona, and was meeting with another crusade member, and we were going to meet with a Billy Graham representative that was they were getting ready to do a film over there, and we were going to meet to work with them on that film. I was quite impressed that I was going to go meet a Billy Graham representative and all of this type of thing. And so we met there, and the guy that I was with was a sweet brother in Christ, but I was sitting there and he was talking, and he kind of talked a little funny, and didn’t talk like he really had a lot of education, and so forth and so on and and I was sitting there thinking to myself, I wish he had shut up so I could talk and impress this guy. And I really humbly thinking all these things and, and, you know, he ain’t very smart. I wish he’d just let me talk and handle this whole deal, and it’d go a lot better. And I was thinking all these real, humble thoughts, and all of a sudden, this Kerm said, now he didn’t know what I was thinking. Some place down the line, God got involved in that, and I think he told him what I was thinking, because all of a sudden, Kerm sat there, and he kind of said, like he said, you know, he said, I’m not real smart. But he said, I’m as smart as God wants me to be. And one of these days he said, I’m going to get smarter, because I think God wants me to get smarter. And he said, you know, he said, I don’t have a lot of abilities, but he said I got all the abilities that God wants me to have. And one of these days, he says, I’m going to have more abilities because I’m trusting God to give them to me.

And God took this old, proud heart of mine, and you know what I did? I bawled in front of that Billy Graham representative. I sat there and bawled like a baby as God pricked my heart and said, Bob Kerm has more in his little thinker of what I’m looking for than you got in your big old fat body. And I realized something that day that God didn’t need my abilities. He needed my availability. And that’s what Kerm was, was available to God to be used, and he was humble, and God used him in miraculous ways. And I was sitting there in my pride and couldn’t have been used if I wanted to be. That was all deception on my part as to how nifty I was in comparison to how un nifty he was. But God pricked my heart. He taught me a valuable lesson that day that I will never forget.

And so he tells us that to accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God, For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Hebrews on behalf of God’s truth. So he’s saying to these basically Gentile Romans that the Hebrews that God has or that Christ has become a servant of the Hebrews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy, so that we as Gentiles will be glorifying God for the mercy that he’s extended to us as it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing hymns to your name.

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Bob George 13:19
And again, it says, Rejoice o Gentiles with these people. Now, guys, this is talking to most of us. There’s there’s people in this congregation out of a background, the majority of us are Gentiles. But he’s saying, rejoice o Gentiles with these people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to Him, all you peoples. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will spring up one who will arise to rule over the nations, the Gentiles, will hope in Him. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. There again, you’re talking about the three things that Paul talks about continually, faith, hope and love. I commend you for your faith, hope and love. Faith, hope and love. It’s a triplicate. You cannot have hope apart from faith and you. And when you have faith, you have hope. And when you have faith, hope, you got a chance of having love. And so he’s saying that, look, Gentiles rejoice in Christ. Hebrews rejoice in Christ, the same God that came to the Hebrews also came to the Gentile. He were saved identically. The same way we worship the same God. There’s only one God, there’s only one Spirit, there’s only one hope, there’s only one salvation, not two. And so rejoice in the fact that he’s made one new man out of the two, and that new man is able to walk in harmony with one another, Hebrew and Gentile, irrespective of their diverse background. It irrespective of the fact that the Hebrews had the law and the traditions, the Gentiles had nothing except heathenism, and yet God has pulled them together into one brand new man. I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourself are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written to you quite boldly. He said on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Jesus Christ, or of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are some words there. The Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified. What does it mean? Set apart by the Holy Spirit. Now, again, guys, we’ve talked about this before you cannot emphasize it enough. What is it that sets you apart from the world? Is it the way you dress? Is it what you eat and what you don’t eat? What is it? What you believe when you believe in the truth of Christ Jesus, you have now separated yourself from the entire world. That’s why it says don’t be unequally yoked with one another. You cannot have fellowship with one person who believes nothing but error and another person who believes nothing but truth. How are you going to have fellowship with one another? What sets you apart in being unequally yoked? What you believe, if you’re with another man and woman, you’re already separate by being a man and a woman, you already, I mean, the chances of that are pretty slim of getting along. But the issue is, God says in Christ you can get along, and in Christ you can have a unity between two things as opposite as a man and a woman. You can’t get any more opposite than that, can you. And so the issue is that what he says, when you have Christ, you have a point of reference that enables you to get along on this level. When you’re connected here, you will be connected here, and if you’re not connected there, there’s no way to be connected on this level, and that’s why there’s the only thing that is important to me when somebody comes for marriage is the fact, are you equally yoked? Are you both in Christ Jesus, and do you both have a strong relationship with Christ Jesus? If you do then there is a good chance, you’re going to stay married now.

Therefore I glorify our glory in Christ, Jesus, in my service to God, I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done. The Apostle Paul is saying here that anything that has been accomplished, God has done it through me. And folks that many times, is a mysterious thing to people, because I would say, overall, in all of the teaching that is out there in this world, Protestant, Catholic, the whole gamut that’s called Christian. There is very little understanding on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. I had never heard of the ministry of the Holy Spirit for 36 years of my life. I don’t know about you in your churches, but I had never heard of it, the idea that Christ, Jesus lives in you, and the idea that Christ, Jesus living in you, wants to live his life through you, that was a foreign thought. And I sat in church all my life, but I never heard anything like that. Your idea was, my deal was, I didn’t even know Christ, but in our day, you get baptized and go out and, you know, gut it out for Jesus. And even in a lot of evangelical type churches where they really do teach salvation by grace and grace alone, and teach phenomenal messages on salvation, there’s a lot of denominations that do a brilliant job of that, and people do come to Christ, but then it stops. It’s it’s no more. It’s Jesus lived. You know, you’ve come to Jesus by faith. Now, go gut it out. Go live for Jesus. Burn out for God. Have you ever heard that one? Go burn out for Jesus. And there’s a lot of people who take pride in the fact they burn out for Jesus. Well, the Spirit doesn’t burn out. Flesh burns out, but the Spirit never burns out. And we just don’t understand that the Spirit of God is our guiding factor. He’s the one who lives in us, and in order to live his life in and through us, and again, He does that by teaching our minds, controlling our emotions and directing our wills. It, and you got to put that to the test. That isn’t something you just read about. That’s something that you have to say, Well, God, if this is true, then I’m going to let you live your life through me. I’ve said before many times a Christian life is like a driver’s education car with two steering wheels in it, and you get in the car, and Jesus is sitting at the wheel, and he says to you, you know, let’s go take a trip. And he and then he also says, you will notice you’ve got a steering wheel in front of you. And I’m going to tell you that the very minute you put your hands on that steering wheel and try to guide this thing, I’m taking my hands off, because two of us can’t steer the car at the same time, and so if you’re going to insist upon driving, I’m taking my hands off. I’ll bump into trees with you. I’ll ram into cars with you. I’ll do all that. I will never leave you or forsake you. But only one of us is going to drive the car. And after you’ve bumped into enough trees and rammed into enough cars that you’re sick and tired of trying to drive this car and you’re ready to take your hands off of the wheel and let me drive, we’re going to have one wonderful trip together. But as long as you insist on grabbing the wheel, we’re not going to go anyplace. Does that make sense? And that’s what God says. This is the way I’m going to guide you. I will drive your car if you let me, but when you put your hands on it, I’m taking mine off.

And so this teaching of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the truth of being guided by the Holy Spirit. And He guides us through our minds. He guides us by teaching us truth, and He guides us by teaching us where to go and what to do and what to say. That’s what the word does for you. And so it’s sometimes, it’s just a type of teaching that we just don’t have. It just, you know, it’s it’s come to Jesus and just go out on your own. And that’s where we fall flat on our faces. So he says that I don’t venture to speak about anything except what Christ has accomplished in and through me, in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done by the power of signs and miracles. And those were the apostolic signs and miracles that the early Christians had in order to confirm the message through the power of the Spirit.

So from Jerusalem, he said, all the way around illicum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition, he says, To preach the gospel where Christ was not known. He said this was where I always wanted to preach, was where the gospel wasn’t known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. But rather, it is written, those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. So he loved to go into new areas and pioneer brand new areas with the gospel. Now, he said, This is why I’ve often been hindered from coming to you. He’s talking to the Romans now, but now that there’s no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you. I plan to do so when I go to Spain. So for some reason, Paul is saying here that there’s no more place for me to work in these regions. Now I don’t know why that would be true. I don’t know why he would say that, but he said it, and I don’t think we can figure it out any more than the fact that he just said it. Maybe he had been to all the places that he needed to go. Had established enough foundation those places to know that the message was going to spread all over the empire. I don’t know what the reasons for that, but he said, there seems to be, there’s no more place for me to work in these regions, and so I plan to come to see you. I plan to do so. It says, When I go to Spain, I hope to visit you while passing through, and to have you assist me on my journey there after I’ve enjoyed your company for a while. He says, Now, however, I’m on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. And he talks about the fact that in Macedonia, and that’s the northern part of Greece and Achaea, those believers were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem, remember Paul went through and made a collection of of money to take to the Jerusalem believers that were having a horrible time, Obviously, not only of being able to perpetuate their faith in Jerusalem again, Jerusalem the seed bed of legalism and of Hebrewism. And here was the church of James sitting right in the middle of it. I said, if there’s one job that I would never want to have had, it would have been to be James trying to be a pastor in Jerusalem, teaching Grace. Grace in the midst of people that didn’t want to hear grace, they were in tough financial condition, and so Paul had made a large collection and was taking that collection to Jerusalem. He said these people were pleased to do it, and indeed, he says they even owe it to them. They even owe it to the church in Jerusalem, because from the church of Jerusalem is where the missionary activity came that ultimately got the gospel to Macedonia and Achaea. It said, For if the Gentiles had shared in the Hebrews spiritual blessings, which they did, they owe it to the Hebrews to share with them their material blessings. And so where did the gospel go first to the Hebrew or the Gentile? To the Hebrew, and then the Hebrew spread it to the Gentile. And so he said to us Gentiles, that if we shared in this spiritual blessing that was given to the Hebrews, then we owe it to the Hebrews to share with them our material blessings. So after I’ve completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, this money, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ, I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to join me in my struggle, in my struggle, by praying to God for me. I pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea. Why did he need to be rescued from that? Because what did the unbelievers want to do to people proclaiming the gospel in Judea? They wanted to kill him, just like they did with Jesus, just like he did with many of the apostles. So he says, I want you to pray for me in my struggle. I want you to pray for me that I can be rescued from those unbelievers in Judea, and that my service in Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

Announcer 27:11
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