Experiencing God's Grace and Peace in Community

God forbid that anybody should attend these meetings with a kind of academic interest only and as a student saying I'm interested in definitions of Grace and peace it isn't the definition you need my friend it's the experience of it God forbid that you should ever look at the word of God objectively and say ah I'm a student of the word you it's a good thing to be a student of the word but in order to become a practicer and an experiencer of the word and it's no use talking about terms unless we know what they are in our experience experimentally Grace and and peace be unto you has it come to you [00:20:30]

God is father to the Christian he's not father to anybody else there's no such thing as the universal fatherhood of God in that sense God is the maker of all we all his offspring in that sense but he's not father ye said our Lord to the Jews one day are of your father the devil and the works of your father he will do but the Christian knows God as his father he's not merely the philosophic ex the absolute the Eternal no no he's his father not only God the Creator but his father now and personal Our Father [00:22:19]

Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ well what's interesting in the end you say well here is Doctrine here is profound Doctrine this little word end here just tells me two things it tells me that the Lord Jesus Christ is equal to God it tells me that Jesus of Nazareth was not only a man that he is the Eternal Son of God God the father and what can you put by the sight of God nothing but God you can't put a man by the side of God you can't put a power you can't put anything anything put by the sight of God must be equal with God [00:23:38]

Paul has already told us that he is born of the seed of David according to the flesh declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of Holiness and the little word end tells us all that in other words you see he's here declaring in this purely pastal bit of the letter in which he's just putting them right with them sending a salutation he suddenly brings in the whole amazing doctrine of the person of Christ the only begotten Son of God co-equal coeternal with the father God the father [00:24:41]

He gives thanks to God for them first he says I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world now at the moment you notice we are simply concentrating on what he says to the rans not what he says about himself I'll come back to that under my SEC second heading but here we are dealing with the second thing he says to the Romans and it is that he thanks God for them and notice again the importance of this looked at negatively you notice he doesn't thank them he thanks God for them [00:27:04]

He doesn't thank them for being what they are he doesn't thank them for having joined the church and for being faithful I never understand ministers who thank people for attending a service and to tell them what good and nice people they are we are not to be praised my friends it's God who to be praised if we are what we are he thanks God for them doesn't thank them ah yes but again you see we're in the midst of deep and profound Doctrine why does he thank God for them [00:28:20]

He's already told us isn't he in verse 6 and in verse 7 especially that first half of verse 7 to all that be in Rome Christians in Rome why are they Christians in Rome because they are beloved of God he's loved them not only that he's called them he set them apart so naturally when he comes to this question of Thanksgiving for the Christians at Rome the only one to thank is God he says of himself I am what I am by the grace of God and they are what they are by the grace of God so he thanks God for them [00:28:40]

He thanks God for the fact that they are what they are that they are Christians but you notice that in an special manner he thanks God for their faith I first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because that's the meaning of that because your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world now what does he mean by saying that he thanks God for their faith well I don't hold the view that he means here that they had some very unusual or special Faith there is such a thing as that isn't there [00:29:15]

The Apostle here is really thanking God for the fact these people are Christians and that thus they're exercising their faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ but in particular he thanks God for this because this he says he spoken of throughout the whole world now here are interesting words again take this expression the whole world I must just cleansing word about that because you will often find in discussions with people about certain doctrines they tend to say things like this they say now when the Bible says World it means world and World means world and World means the whole world [00:31:55]

The world in fact in its biblical usage in a place like this means the Roman Empire the then known and civilized World there were people in the world then outside the Roman Empire there were people living then in China but they'd never heard of these things China wasn't known then it hadn't been discovered but there were people living there so you see the whole world does not mean every single individual everywhere throughout the world I'm simply referring to it for the reason I've given that we really must be careful when we come across a word like this word world [00:33:27]

The Apostle I say is rejoicing in the Fai that in the Civilized world the Roman Empire as then known there was rejoicing because these Christians were members of the church in Rome do you think he means everybody in the Roman Empire I don't I think he really is referring only to the members of the churches in different countries the whole world here probably means Christian people scattered throughout the Roman Empire part they were the only ones who would be interested in this the others some of them might have heard it casually but we are quite certain that every single Roman citizen everywhere had not heard it [00:34:26]

A Revival never needs to be advertised it always advertises itself you don't need to advertise the work of the Holy Spirit it is its own advertisement you read the history of the church when a Revival breaks out in a little group it doesn't matter how small the news spreads and curiosity is awakened and people come and say what is this can we partake in this how can we get hold of this men doesn't need to advertise it it becomes known it spreads throughout the whole world it had happened here this is Revival this is Pentecost this is the work of the Holy Spirit [00:39:25]