Sermon 1/25/04 pm

Jim Huskey, Purpose Restated

As we began our study of the book of Romans we noticed that Paul set

a course in the very first chapter. That course was announced in the

first few verses of the first chapter when he said, "Paul, a servant of

Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

(which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures)

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; by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to

the faith among all nations, for his name; among whom are ye also the

called of Jesus Christ." Rom. 1:1-6. Then if we turn to the sixteenth

chapter of the book of Romans, verse 25-27, here's what he said, "Now

to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and

the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the

mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made

manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the

commandments of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the

obedience of faith; to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for

ever. Amen." Rom. 16:25-27.

If we look at the things that are said in the first five verses of

chapter 1 of Romans and the things that are said in the last three

verses of chapter 16, Paul did not deviate from the purpose he stated

in the very first chapter. In that first chapter he laid the foundation

concerning the preaching of the gospel and obedience to the gospel. He

laid it very early and he did not deviate from it all through the book.

He emphasized the prophets afore had not only foretold the coming of

Jesus for the Jewish world but also in behalf of the Gentiles, and it

was through the preacing of the gospel to both Jew and Gentile that

each would be saved. The purpose of the preaching was the obedience of

faith, or as he stated in chapter 1, verse 5, "..for obedience to the

faith." Those two terms are really synonymous. In the first chapter

he used the term "faith" as the sum total of teaching of the New

Testament, of the revealed message. They were to become obedient to

that. In the sixteenth chapter, faith obeys. So he presented a

theme throughout the book and we've been noticing some practical

applications in these last few chapters of the book which basically

says this - it's not just a matter of having a mental assent that says

'oh, yes, I believe that.' It's not just a matter of professing

something; but it is a matter of doing something. It is a matter of

obedience. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, beginning with verse 5,

we read, concerning Christ, "So also Christ glorified not himself to

be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son,

today have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou

art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days

of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with

strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,

and was heard in that he feared, though he were a Son, yet learned he

obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he

became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."

Heb. 5:5-9. The author of salvation to the obedient. Well, that's in

harmony with what Paul said in the first chapter of the book of Romans

and also in the last chapter of the book of Romans. The very purpose

for the preaching of the gospel was that people might become obedient.

You know it's amazing somtimes how much is founded in the sermon on

the mount. In Matthew 7 Jesus was winding up the sermon and in verse

21 beginning he said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,

shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of

my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord,

Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast

out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will

profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work

iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and

doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house

upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds

blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded

upon a rock. (Now who was that person who was wise? "Whosoever

heareth these sayings of mine and DOETH them". Now let's notice the

flip side of the coin.) And every one that heareth these sayings of

mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which

built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods

came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and

great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended

these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine; for he

taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

Matt. 7:21-29. So in reality Jesus set the theme for obedience in the

sermon on the mount. He laid down the principle. Those who would be

saved, those who would hear the words "well done" would be those who

did the things that the Father commanded them to do. So it's not a

matter of just hearing. It is a matter of doing. In Matthew 25, Jesus

was giving a scene which has been called the judgment scene. Beginning

in verse 31 we read, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and

all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his

glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall

separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep

from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the

goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right

hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for

you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and ye gave me

meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye

took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me;

I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer

him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty,

and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?

or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison,

and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them,

Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the

least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matt. 25:31-40.

What was the principle? They had done those things God commands his

people to do. In other words, they were obedient. Well, isn't that

what Paul said??? The very purpose of the teaching was in order that

people might become obdient to it.

Then Paul concluded the book of Romans by saying in chapter 16 the

purpose of the preaching of the gospel he had done was in order that

faith might obey, in other words, the obedience of faith. There is so

much false teaching on that subject in the religious world today. I

can understand why there is a good bit of confusion because people are

listening to too many conflicting voices, when the simple solution

would be to open the Bible and see what it says. You can take a

child and he can understand the principle of obedience. These kids

pick that up when they sing the song "The Wise Man and Foolish Man".

They know what the wise man did. He heard those sayings of Jesus, his

teaching, and he obeyed what the Lord said do. They understand also

that the man who built his house on the sand heard what the Lord said

do but then he didn't do it. We don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to

figure it out. But somebody comes along and says, 'Why, you don't

have to do anything.' Well, they must be reading a different than

I've been reading. The Bible is very plain on that subject. As a

matter of fact, you go alll way back to the Garden of Eden and see the

precedent set. Remember what God told Adam and Even about that tree

in the middle of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

'Don't eat of it.' Why? 'In the day you do, you'll die.' What

happened to them? They didn't listen to God. They didn't do what

God told them to do. Instead, they went and did the very thing God

said don't do. What happened to them when they did? They were run

out of the garden and when they got run out of the garden they no

longer had access to the tree of life, and since they didn't have

access to the tree of life, man started to die. So Paul in the the

book of Romans made that very plain, that the very reason for the

preaching of the gospel, the purpose of the preaching of the gospel

was that man might hear it, he might believe it and he might obey it.

So he said this was "...made known to all nations for the obedience

of faith." Now here, again, as Emeril so often says on his cooking

show, this ain't rocket science. We can turn over to the book of

Hebrews, chapter 11 and read "By faith Noah". Well, by faith Noah

what? He built an ark. Why did he build an ark? because God said

'make thee an ark of gopher wood.' He gave him the dimensions, he

told him how to finish it. It doesn't take to brilliant a fellow to

understand that. "By faith Noah (did what) built an ark". "By faith

Abraham, when he was called", called to leave his homeland, to get

out of Ur of the Chaldees, from his family and his father's house,

he obeyed. He went out, not knowing whether he went. I don't know

how it could be made any plainer than that, do you? "By faith,

Abraham obeyed." You can go all way through the eleventh chapter of

the book of Hebrews, that honor roll of faith, and what do you see?

You see people who simply did what God told them to do. That's called

FAITH!!!!! You see, that word FAITH means far more than just giving

mental assent to something. It's like the old, old story that's been

told time and time again of the performer at the circus who was a

highwire performer. He had a wheelbarrow up there on the highwire.

He said "How many of you believe I can roll this wheelbarrow across

this highwire?" Everybody did, so he rolled the wheelbarrow across

there. Then he said, "How many of you believe I can roll a man

across the highwire in the wheelbarrow?" They all believed he could.

Then he said "How many believe I can roll you across the highwire in

the wheelbarrow?" Nobody believed it!!!!! You see, the difference is

between giving mental assent to something and truly believing it to

the point of doing something about it. That's the whole point Paul

made throughout the book of Romans, that if man wasn't going to obey

the gospel, if there's no blessing in that, then there's no need to

teach it in the first place. Remember there in about chapter 10 of

the book when he dealt with that theme again? He said "For whosoever

shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall

they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they

believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear

without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent....

but they have not all obeyed the gospel." Rom. 10:13-17. He was

quoting from Isaiah. Paul said it was not because they had not heard,

because their sound had gone out all over the earth, to the ends of

the world.

So Paul said that the purpose the gospel was preached was that men

might be obedient to the faith. That hasn't changed since the first

century. That's the purpose of the preaching of the gospel today,

that men might believe it and that they might become obedient to it,

that their faith might "grow some feet". That may be a simple way

of putting it, but the faith that obeys is the faith that saves.

So we've made a journey through the book of Romans. We didn't try to

cover every phrase, every comma, etc., but we tried to pull out the

primary lessons that are there so that we might have a grasp of that

book. It's a challenging book. There's been an awful lot of

doctrinal material written by people about the book of Romans. Now a

lot of it would have been best never written, because so much of it

misses the mark. It doesn't take into consideration the reason Paul

said he was writing it in the first place. It's like so many in

their interpretation of the book of Revelation. John said he was

writing to tell the people things which must "shortly come to pass".

Then he said he was writing at the end of the book concerning the

things which must "shortly be done". Then everybody comes along and

writes their commentary on the book and says 'It would be centuries

and centuries before these things ever take place.' Well, if that

was the case, then John didn't know it. If that was the case, the Lord

didn't know it, because he gave it to him on the Isle of Patmos. So

you see, a lot of times when people write about these books in the

Bible they throw more confusion and muddy water in the picture than

anything else because they ignore why the writer said he was writing

it in the first place. That's what a lot of folks have done with the

book of Romans. Paul told us in the very first chapter, the first few

verses and ties it up very neatly at the end in the last few verses of

the 16th chapter as to why he was writing it, and even to why he was

preaching and why he was doing what he was done and even as to why

the prophets had prophesied in the Old Testament - in order that men

might become obedient to the faith.