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Indivisible Christian Life By Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones

Let us pray.
Almighty and ever blessed God, once more we desire to thank Thee and to praise Thy name
for all Thy wondrous goodness and kindness and mercy toward us.
O God, we cannot but again be conscious of the fact that it is truly a wonderful and amazing thing
that we are here in Thy presence.
We realize, O God, that it is only of Thy mercy and Thy goodness
that we are here at all, that we have the very gift of life itself
and that having come into this world that we are still in it.
For we realize that our times are in Thy hands
and when we consider the many things that might have in the past robbed us of life itself,
we realize, O God, Thy controlling governing hand upon us
and therefore we would acknowledge it and we would lift up our hearts in praise.
We thank Thee that we can say with Thy servant the Psalmist of the world,
that Thy will truly goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.
O Lord, we realize that all that has been ill and all that has been troublesome and perplexing and vexing
has been either the result of our own sin or that of others.
We do realize and see clearly more and more that all Thy ways are ways of peace
that now are at love and that Thou hast loved us with an everlasting love.
And therefore, O God, we do thank Thee for this opportunity of coming together to acknowledge it in Thy holy presence.
O Lord, we realize that we are what we are by Thy grace
and we thank Thee for this because we find therein our security, our confidence, a steadfast hope that cannot be shaken.
We thank Thee that Thou dost bring us to see that if God be for us, who can be against us
and that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
So, O God, we thank Thee for all in our own experiences and in our own lives
that leads us thus to worship Thee and to ascribe unto Thee all praise and honor and glory
and might and majesty and dominion and power.
And then we thank Thee, O Lord, for the clear testimony to this in Thy holy Word.
O God, we thank Thee that Thou hast thus stooped and condescended to our ignorance and weakness and frailty.
That Thou hast caused Thy servants in the past to write these records showing us Thy great plan and purpose
giving us understanding and explanations.
O God, we know not how to thank Thee enough for it all.
So we see the certainty of it all, we see the triumph of it all and the glory of it all.
And, O God, we together therefore rejoice that we are in this, in Thy great purpose
and that nothing can ever make Thee Thy purpose forego or sever our souls from Thy love.
And therefore, O God, while we thank Thee for this wonderful treasure, this record, this instruction, this light
we thank Thee again for the opportunity of coming together to look into it and to consider it.
We thank Thee, O God, that Thou hast appointed this in order that we might grow thereby
that we might grow in knowledge and understanding and in hope and be more fervent in spirit and rejoice more
and therefore be more steadfast in our endeavors.
O God, we thank Thee that Thou art ever taking us onwards and forwards.
We thank Thee that there is nothing static in this life.
We thank Thee that the moment we arrive at any one position and begin to think that this is the end
we see it is but the prelude to something yet more wondrous and glorious.
O God, we thank Thee for this unfolding and ever-increasing unfolding purpose.
And we pray Thee that Thou wouldst lead us on into it, take us out into the depths we pray Thee.
O God, we therefore submit ourselves to Thee and pray that Thou wouldst by Thy Spirit enlighten the eyes of our understanding
and so stimulate us in our every part that with our whole being we shall be stretching out after these things
that we may take a firmer hold and grasp of them and thereby become better and truer witnesses to Thee
and to the wonders of Thy grace in this sinful world in which we live.
O God, wilt Thou therefore bless us this evening as again we look at Thy Word together
and hear us as we pray for all others who are met together in any way to preach and to consider Thy Word,
grant power and function O God unto all who this night are holding forth the unsearchable riches of Christ
wilt Thou speak to those who are outside and open their hearts as Thou didst open the heart of Libya of old
that they may receive this precious soul-saving truth and wilt Thou build up all Thy people O God and establish them
and O God hear us as we continue to plead for revival and for reawakening.
O wilt Thou so visit us Thy people in these days that we shall so see the truth and so know and feel Thy love in our hearts
that we shall be filled with a strange and a holy joy and our message and our everything shall be with irresistible power.
Lord hear us as thus we pray that Thou wouldst quicken and revive Thy people in a mighty manner thus in the midst of the eyes.
And hear us O Lord as we do continue to intercede on behalf of all who are tried and hard pressed and all who are in trouble and difficulties.
We pray for all Thy servants who are being called to suffer persecution for Thy name's sake.
O strengthen them and hold them with Thy mighty help.
Be with all O God who are preaching the Word and teaching it in strange and unusual and difficult circumstances.
We remember all who are tempted to discouragement.
Wilt Thou O Lord gladden their hearts, give them tokens for good we pray Thee.
Show them that their labor is never in vain in the Lord and so enable them to continue witnessing the good confession.
Lord hear us as thus we pray for all in this and every other land who are in any way engaged in holding forth the Word of Life.
Lord bless them and encourage them.
And hear us as we pray that Thou wouldst have mercy upon all who are sick and sorrowing, all who are aged and infirm and all who may be passing through some time of testing and of trial.
All who are at this moment perhaps passing through some acute attack from Satan.
We pray Thee O God to grant them great assurance to know that in Thy hands they are beyond the reach of harm.
That in Thy hands that even the devil cannot touch them.
Grant them therefore we pray Thee to see so clearly their relationship to Thee.
That they shall be kept in peace in spite of such a mighty foe and antagonist and that they may be enabled to rejoice.
Be with all O God who in any way therefore have need of our intercessions and prayers this night.
We hold them all up before Thee and we thank Thee that we know that Thou art a God that dost hear and answer prayer.
Deliver all Thy people we pray Thee from anxious care.
But teach us O God all of us with prayer and supplications and thanksgiving to make our requests known unto Thee.
In order that then we may enjoy that peace of Thy which passeth all understanding.
Hear us O God in these our prayers and pardon and forgive us all our every sin.
As we ask all these mercies pleading nothing but the name and the merit of Thy dear Son.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
In continuing our study of this first chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans.
We resume at a point at which the apostle begins to address the members of the church at Rome still more directly.
In other words we're halfway through the seventh verse.
In a sense this verse should have been divided into two.
When they did decide to divide up the scriptures like this into chapters and verses.
It seems to me that it would have been a very wise thing if they'd made a fresh start, a new number at the word grace halfway through this seventh verse.
Now I want rarely to consider with you this evening, at least to start considering with you.
The entire statement which starts here at the middle of the seventh verse and goes on until the end of the fifteenth verse.
And I read it at the beginning in order that we might have the whole statement, the entire passage or paragraph in our minds.
Because at this point the apostle has as it were finished with his general introduction and comes to certain particular matters.
He is as it were now putting himself right with these Romans to whom he's righted.
He's already reminded them that they are the beloved of God and that they're called and that they're saints.
But that is true of all Christians.
But now he wants to approach them a little more directly.
He wants to tell them why it is he is writing to them at all.
And he wants to let them know what he feels with respect to them in a very personal sense.
In other words, this passage as I say from the middle of the seventh verse until the end of the fifteenth verse is more or less purely personal.
There is no great doctrine stated here as such.
We've already had that.
We've seen that in a most amazing manner in the verses that we've already been considering and especially in those first four verses.
And again we shall come back to it in that form in verses sixteen and seventeen and from there on.
But here as I say the apostle is doing something which in a sense is purely pastoral.
He's just getting the personal and the human relationships if you like into their right setting and putting them in order in order that he may establish this contract.
But you notice the way in which I've been putting that.
Because here I want to emphasize something which is to me a tenet of very great importance.
No great doctrine is stated here I say explicitly.
But as we read and work through these statements together we shall constantly find that most vital and important doctrine is all along implicit.
In other words the apostle doesn't intend to be doctrinal at this point but he is doctrinal.
Now that is a point which I say needs just a word of emphasis.
The Christian life is one and it's indivisible.
It consists of faith and works.
Belief and practice.
And the two things are quite inseparable.
They must never be divided we must never attempt to divide them.
And we must never attempt to divide them I mean intellectually and in thought.
Still less must we attempt to divide them in practice.
In other words the whole of the Christian life is the result of what we believe.
There is nothing that I know of which is more unscriptural and more dangerous to the soul than to divide doctrine and life.
There are certain superficial people who say ah I can't be bothered with doctrines.
I haven't got time I'm a busy man and I haven't got time to read books and I haven't got perhaps the aptitude.
I'm a practical man I believe in living the Christian life.
Let others who are interested in doctrine be interested.
Now there is nothing that every New Testament epistle condemns more than just that very attitude.
What is the analysis of any New Testament epistle? Isn't it this?
After a preliminary solicitation immediate doctrine.
And then after outlining the great doctrine therefore the application of the doctrine.
The New Testament knows nothing about this attitude which says oh doctrines don't matter it's life alone that counts.
The reason being this I say.
That if your life and your mode of living is not the outcome of your doctrine it is not Christian living it's something else.
You can live a good life without being a Christian.
You can do a lot of good without being a Christian.
You can be very idealistic without being a Christian.
Therefore I say the peculiar characteristic of the Christian always is this.
That all his actions are directly connected to his doctrine to his belief.
So that even though he may be writing in a purely pastoral and personal manner.
And not setting out to outline doctrine but just talking to people directly all along he is bound to do so in terms of his doctrine.
Now that's exactly what the apostle does at this point.
He is going to outline these tremendous doctrines to them later on but here he says no I'd like you to know exactly what I feel about you.
I've been longing for years to come to see you.
Not a day passes but that I pray for you.
I haven't been allowed to come so far but I'm still hoping that I shall come.
I hope that it's going to be very soon because I've got you in my heart and I want to come for various reasons.
That's really all he's out to say.
But you observe the way in which he says it.
Observe the way in which he puts it.
Now then there I say is something which surely ought to be a lesson to us all.
That our every action as Christians should always be in terms of what we believe.
That we really shouldn't be able to think at all.
Except in terms of these articles of the faith to which we subscribe and which we most sincerely and profoundly believe.
Now let us proceed then to see all this working itself out in practice.
Let's take this statement from the middle of verse seven to the end of verse fifteen.
Now there are two possibilities that confront us as we come to examine this passage.
One is that we could just take statement by statement.
Go from verse seven to verse eight and make comments and go on to verse nine and so on.
Alright that's quite legitimate.
But it seems to me that it would be very much more profitable for us if we don't do it like that.
But if rather we take it like this.
There are obviously two main things which the apostle is saying here.
First of all he tells us certain things about the Romans.
There are things he says to the Romans, the Roman Christians.
And secondly there are things he says about himself.
Now I think you'll find that every individual particular isolated statement in this entire paragraph will come under one or the other of those two headings.
He's either saying something to the Roman Christians or else he is saying something about himself.
You see what he is really doing is to say certain things about himself to them and reminding them of who and what they are at the same time.
Very well let's take it in that order.
First of all what does the apostle say to the Romans, to the Roman Christians?
Well he starts you remember by expressing his heartfelt desire for them.
What is his desire for them? Here it is.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing he wishes for them.
That's his heart's desire for them.
You'll notice that this is his usual formula if I may use such a term as he's addressing any church.
He uses these words of course because having used these two there's nothing else to be said.
When you wish anybody grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ you wish them everything.
It is an interesting point and the authorities always make it and I think quite rightly that in the pastoral epistle to Timothy and Titus he slips in another word between the two.
He says grace, mercy and peace.
I don't think anybody can decide why he makes that difference.
It may be this that when he's thinking of people collectively of a church while he thinks of the general welfare and the general well-being.
Whenever it's to an individual well it's more personal and he knows that the individual Christian has this great need of mercy constantly.
So in writing for Timothy and Titus he says grace, mercy and peace.
He knows they need that mercy to encourage them.
As the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews puts it, we come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain and to find mercy and grace to help in time of need.
But here the mercy is omitted as it is immersed of the church epistle.
That's simply impressing. The important thing for us is to look at the two words.
He thinks of these Christians in Rome, what do they need? Well above everything they need this grace.
What's that? Well it's kindness if you like, it's favor, it's goodwill from God.
The way the term is used is something like this, grace of course is unmerited favor, that's the definition of grace.
It means kindness to somebody who doesn't deserve it at all, entirely unmerited.
Nothing whatsoever to call it forth, that's the meaning of grace.
And that is the whole basis of our salvation were it not for the grace of God there would be no such thing as a Christian.
Well in practice the term is used in the scriptures to mean not only the grace of God itself but the things that come to us as the result of God's grace.
So when he wishes them your grace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's wishing that they may enjoy every blessing that it's possible for a Christian to experience.
That this wondrous attitude of God toward us in love in spite of our sin may manifest itself to us in all its fullness and in all its glory.
Gracious Father, may you have it, may you experience it, may it be poured forth upon you.
May they know and experience therefore the love of God in all its fullness.
Another way he puts it in writing to the Ephesians is he prays there for them that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Well it's the same thing exactly, that is to experience the grace of God in all its fullness and its plenitude.
Then you come to the second word which is peace.
And this he uses always of course for this reason.
What does an experience of the grace of God lead to?
And the answer is peace.
The grace of God is defined to give us and to bring us this peace.
So that you see the apostle in using these two terms uses the beginning and the end.
He's thinking of the source of the river and the sea to which it leads.
The alpha, the omega, it's all here.
Grace is the fountain, the source, it leads this ocean of peace.
Then what is peace says someone?
Well everybody thinks he knows what peace is and yet you know I sometimes think that we don't experience it more because we don't take the trouble to remind ourselves as to what it tells.
What is peace? Well look at it negatively.
Peace is the opposite of restlessness.
Peace is the opposite of strife.
Peace is the opposite of uncertainty.
Peace is the opposite of unhappiness.
So he wishes and he desires that they may enjoy peace.
That all that sort of thing may go out of their lives.
But look at it positively.
The Christian is a man who enjoys peace with God.
We shall find this great apostle summing up a great argument in the first verse of the fifth chapter when he says this you remember.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
That's the first thing.
And of course this is the most wonderful thing about the Christian life.
The unbeliever, the non-Christian is a denmity against God.
It's a state of warfare between him and God.
And how true it is, we've all known it, we can see it in others.
The natural mind is enmity against God.
He hates God. He wishes there wasn't a God.
He's always going to believe a newspaper article in which some great scientist claims that he can prove there isn't a God.
It's just the enmity.
Far from being at peace with God, it's constant strife and struggle and antagonism and warfare, enemies and aliens in their minds.
But when a man becomes a Christian, when the grace of God comes to him and deals with him, he is at peace with God.
But you see you can look at that the other way around also.
God does not look on men favourably until he's in Christ.
He's on enemies and outcasts. He's under the wrath of God.
And there is no peace there.
So what God has done in Christ is that he has reconciled us unto himself.
Peace is created, peace obtained.
My dear friends, we are studying the scriptures but you can't study the scriptures without applying them.
So I ask you at this point, are you at peace with God?
Are you enjoying peace with God?
Have you got a sense of grudge against God?
You're not meant to have it as a Christian. You shouldn't have it.
There's something wrong with you somewhere.
If you've got any kind of sneaking objection to God or to anything he's done to you or to anybody else,
if there is any query or questioning, you're not enjoying peace.
To be at peace with God should mean that there is nothing that comes in between.
Our hearts and minds and whole beings are open and we enjoy God.
The chief end of men is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
Peace with God. Oh, the grace of God leads to this.
That's why Paul wants them to experience the grace that they may enjoy this peace.
But then you see it's not only peace with God, it's peace within.
Each one of these would make a sermon, wouldn't it? And it can be expended.
And I hope that any preachers present will do so.
I'm trying my best to avoid doing so.
Peace, I say, not only with God but peace within.
And what does this mean?
Well, it means an absence of restlessness within.
Oh, how restless we all are by nature.
How restless as the result of sin.
Look at our frowns, our puckered brows.
Look at the faces of men and women with the anxiety.
They're anxious, they're disturbed, they're troubled, they're restless, they're uncertain, they're unhappy.
What if this will happen? What if that doesn't take place? What's going to happen to me? That's restlessness.
We are not at peace with ourselves.
We spend our time by nature arguing with ourselves and quarrelling with ourselves and wrangling with ourselves.
Oh, as Augustine put it, our souls are restless until they find their rest in peace.
But as we experience the grace of God, we are given this peace within.
And when the warfare ends within, not that the dualism is finally demolished, but at any rate we see things differently and there is a resting in the law.
Oh, because if you remember in writing to the Romans in that memorable phrase,
though he's in prison he says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
I have learned in whatsoever state I am wherein to be content. I know both how to be abased and how to abound.
That's a man who is at rest with himself. His restless heart has been quietened.
Christian people, are you enjoying this rest? You see why Paul wishes this for the Romans?
Are you anxious about yourself? You still anxious about your faith?
You still questioning as to whether you're a Christian or not? That's not rest.
And when you get on your knees in prayer, is it to spend your time really in arguing with yourself as it were and persuading yourself?
Or do you go with full assurance of faith with a heart at rest?
That's what the Christian is meant to enjoy.
And are you troubled about your circumstances and about your future and about what's going to happen to you?
As Christian people we are meant to know rest within, rest with ourselves.
And rest in spite of circumstance and accident and chance and all the many things that may happen to us in this world.
And in the same way we are meant to enjoy rest and peace with others.
Other people, other things. Work it out I say for yourself.
I ask once more, are we enjoying these things which Paul wished the members of the church at Rome to enjoy?
God forbid that anybody should attend these meetings with a kind of academic interest in me.
And as a student and say 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 I'm a student of the word.
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 peace be unto you. Has it come to you?
Very well then I say here is the beginning and the end but notice how he puts it.
He says grace and grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here again I want to illustrate to you the way in which doctrine keeps on slipping in.
You notice that he hopes that they will enjoy this grace and peace from God to whom he describes as our Father.
And the two words are significant. 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 are all his offspring in that sense but he's not Father.
He said our Lord to the Jews one day our 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, no, and personal, our Father.
It's not surprising that the apostle put it like that. You notice he doesn't say grace to you and peace from God.
He doesn't leave it like that. No, no, as Christians we're in a new relationship.
Our Father. Is he your Father? Do you know him as your Father?
Do you think of him as some God far away in the distance or do you know him as your Father?
Our Father. But then you notice this vital and most fascinating word and 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 but he is the eternal son of God. God the Father and.
What can you put by the side 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 side of God must be equal with God.
God and the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He must be the son of God.
Well 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 is here declaring in this purely pastoral bit of the letter,
in which he is just putting them right with him, sending a salutation, he suddenly brings in the whole amazing doctrine of the person of Christ,
the only begotten son of God, co-equal, co-eternal with the Father, God the Father and.
There's no other place to put him. He came out of the bosom of God, he's at the right hand, the person of Christ.
So that at once you see, in a passing word as it were, the apostle Lord only introduces the doctrine of the person of Christ again,
but shows us where the doctrine of the blessed Holy Trinity has come from.
There is one other person that belongs there also, God the Holy Spirit.
Isn't it pathetic that anybody should fail to see these things,
that men should ever have tried to argue or still argue that the Lord Jesus Christ is not eternal,
God as God the Father is and as God the Holy Spirit is.
So you see my friends as we study our scriptures let's watch every word.
I said there was no great doctrine explicit here, but see how it's implicit.
Suddenly when you least expect it, by the letter word end he brings in the two mightiest doctrines of all.
And thus in the midst of most ordinary salutations and the apostle putting himself right with his correspondence,
we lift up our heads again and we praise and we worship as we remember that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And that that is grace, that is the grace of God to give the Son, the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So the grace and the peace that we enjoy must of necessity always come from God the Father and also from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't know this is the first thing what the apostle wishes for or desires for the members of the church at Rome.
The second thing is this, he gives thanks to God for them.
First he says I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all and 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 Romans, not what he says about himself.
I'll come back to that under my 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.
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 who tell them what good and nice people they are.
Why not to be praised my friends, if God used to be praised as if we are what we are, he thanks God for them.
Doesn't thank them.
Ah yes but again you see we are in the midst of deep and profound doctrine.
Why does he thank God for them?
Well he's already told us hasn't he in verse 6 and in verse 7, especially the 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's 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 and for the fact that they are what they are, that they are Christians.
But you notice that in a special manner he thanks God for their faith.
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 have some very unusual or special faith.
There is such a thing as that isn't there?
You remember don't you that in 1 Corinthians 12, in the list of spiritual gifts that's given there, amongst the gifts is this special gift of faith.
But now that doesn't mean saving faith, because all Christians have saving faith,
but all Christians do not have that special peculiar gift which is in the list in 1 Corinthians 12.
That's the sort of faith that a man like Hudson Taylor had and George Miller had and others,
they were given a special gift of faith to manifest the glory of God.
Now I don't think the apostle is referring to that here.
What he is referring to here is the fact that they have faith in a saving sense.
It's just another way of saying that he thanks God for the fact that they are Christians.
He's not saying that they were unusual or outstanding in their faith and manifestation of faith.
No, he's thanking God that they have faith at all.
And again observe that he thanks God for them.
You notice the apostle has some very interesting things to say about faith.
Have you noticed we shall sometime arrive at it in the 12th chapter.
He talks there, according as God hath given to every man the measure of faith.
God has given, he says, to every man according to the measure of faith.
So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members of one another,
having their gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us and so on.
Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith and so on.
Oh, we don't stay with that this evening.
But observe these, let us observe these things in passing.
I am suggesting that the apostle here is really thanking God for the fact that these people are Christians
and that thus they are exercising their faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But in particular he thanks God for this because this he says is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Oh, there are interesting words again.
Take this expression the whole world.
I must say just a glancing 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 and that means everybody that's in the world.
Very well, do you think that Paul here is saying that every single person that was then alive in the world
had heard of the faith of these Roman Christians?
Well the answer is of course he doesn't mean that.
Because there were probably thousands of people in the world who had never heard that there was a single Christian in Rome.
And yet Paul says your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
What is this world?
The learned authorities say that this is the natural and almost inevitable hyperbole.
He does not mean every single living individual.
What he means is this.
The world in fact in its biblical usage in a place like this means the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire was 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.
But we really must be careful when we come across a word like this word world.
Let the context interpret it.
It's where you say world means world and waxing eloquent.
Let the context decide what world means in any given particular instance.
And you will find that it has different meanings attached to it in different places in that way.
The apostle I say is rejoicing in the fact that in the civilized world the Roman Empire was 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.
They were the only ones who'd 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.
But the Christian people had heard it and that's the thing he's so happy about.
He says the same thing you'll find about the Thessalonians in the first chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians.
He says there's no need for me to say anything, the news has spread about you.
And that's what he means here.
Christian people everywhere in the Roman Empire had heard that there were Christians even in Rome and Paul rejoices in that and they rejoice.
He thanks God for it.
Why?
Well there are many reasons for that are there not?
It's always a good and an encouraging thing to hear about other Christians.
And after all Rome was a very important city, she was the imperial city.
She was the center of the Roman Empire and the Roman government.
And it was a rather wonderful thing that there were Christians in the metropolis itself.
And the people in the distant parts heard that there were Christians even under the very shadow of the imperial palace and they rejoiced in it.
And they had every reason for doing so.
And I think it also worked like this.
Rome I say was the capital, the center.
And the result was of course that there was a great crowd of people there and people congregated and gravitated there from everywhere.
And as is true of London today and of any great capital city all types and kinds went there.
So that you had everything represented there, fights in its most extreme form, godlessness, irreligion, the pagan deities and all that went on in the life of the court.
It was all there.
And you know simple country people sometimes think that there can be no Christians in such places.
They've often thought it in the past, they still tend to think it.
Although with the wireless and such things the difference between the town and the country is rapidly disappearing.
But certainly in these times there was all this difference and a great city was regarded almost as a kind of inferno.
But suddenly they hear that even in a place like Rome with held at loops there were companies of Christian people meeting in one another's homes and houses.
And it gladdened the heart of these people throughout the great empire.
And another effect it had was this.
It was the final proof that the gospel is not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles.
It's there in the heart of government, it's there in Rome of all places, very well it will spread everywhere and that was another reason.
Because it was there at the heart of the center, people going out from there to serve the emperor in different parts would take the good news of the gospel with them.
So the apostle rejoices for all these reasons.
A time as he has gone, so let me content myself with just one final remark at this point.
Which is this.
And to me a very important and significant one at the present time.
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken on throughout the whole world.
And they hadn't got newspapers.
And they hadn't got telegrams or telephones.
And they hadn't wireless and they hadn't televisions.
And they hadn't press agencies and they hadn't advertising agents.
And yet the news has spread throughout the whole of the Roman Empire in this way.
What a lesson on church publicity.
How did it happen do you think?
Why was this spoken of throughout this whole world?
How did it become known? My dear friends the answer is a very simple one.
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?
Man doesn't need to advertise it. It becomes known, it spreads throughout the whole world.
It had happened here. This is a revival. This is Pentecost.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit and the news that spread like wildfire in that ancient world.
With its poor means of communications and its complete absence and lack of advertising media.
Isn't it time we began to think in New Testament terms my friends?
When the Holy Spirit enters and does his mighty work, it inevitably and always becomes.
God spreads it. He has done it in every revival throughout the centuries.
He does it still, he always will do it.
All of the church would concentrate rather on experiencing the power of the Holy Ghost.
Believe me, that when the Holy Ghost descends into a single heart or into a group of people in power.
In a most amazing manner, with a manner that no one can understand, the news will grow in strength.
And hearts will be kindled and people will make journeys. They'll want to get near it.
They'll want to partake of it and participate in it.
I thank God, I thank my God through Jesus Christ that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Beloved Christian people, if you and I were only functioning as we should be functioning as Christians.
Amongst other things, a great deal of money would be saved for the church.
It's because you and I are not advertising the Christian faith as we ought.
That the churches are having to set up press offices and publicity departments and going in for propaganda.
Christianity spread was advertised in the first century at the beginning simply by the lives and living of Christian people.
Oh, that it might happen like that again.
Are you advertising Christianity? Is your faith spoken of?
Do they speak of it in your home? Do they speak of it in your office? Do they speak of it in the work, the factory, wherever you are?
Is your faith spoken of? Does it need to rejoice? Does it need to question? Does it need to empower?
Is it drawing somebody to try to discover what it is and how it is to be obtained?
Oh, that we all might so know and experience the grace and the peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to such an extent.
That our faith should be spoken of throughout the whole world.
And thereby God be glorified and many drawn to Him. Amen.
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So fill us we pray thee with thy Holy Spirit.
That we shall all become living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.
And manifestly declare, to be the epistles of Christ written not willing, but with the Spirit of the living God.
Not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart.
Lord hear our prayer, and answer us according to thine own riches in glory.
And know me the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.