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[0:00] Well, I'd like to introduce this section by asking a few questions. Here's a question. What is it that motivates us in the Christian life?

[0:12] ! We're here in church this morning, so I think for most of us that means that we're saying that we're Christians, and what is it that drives us along in the Christian life, if anything?

[0:24] Or, perish the thought, do we just want a sort of Christianity? It's fairly undemanding, which more or less just ticks what we were going to do anyway, and we have the plus that we come along to church every now and again.

[0:39] Leads to the question, what is the Christian life? What is it, basically? There are people in the world who will say that, basically, the Christian life is not doing something.

[0:50] It's not smoking, not drinking, and not dancing. And certainly in the culture that our church arose from, if you go back a century or so, that's the sort of thing that they would, certainly if it was written into the Constitution, actually, that the building shouldn't be used for smoking, drinking, and dancing.

[1:09] Or cards. Or is there something, it is not just that the Christian life is about not doing things, but there's something positive that we say, this is the driving force.

[1:19] There is a certain longing and a certain impetus to the Christian life. Or if we put that on a community basis, what motivates us as a church?

[1:31] What is the thing that drives us forward? What are we pressing forward to? Is it that the thing we basically value is that we have comforting fellowship?

[1:43] We know one another and smile at one another, and there's always a sympathy and an encouragement and a warmth, which is a great thing. But is that really what it's all about?

[1:56] Is it just about us as a group? Or are we thinking our main aim, really, these days in a secular society, in a society that's going further and further away from the gospel, our main number one priority regarding people who are not Christians is that we just want them not to persecute us, and to think that we're okay, really, and to gain the approval of the non-Christian world.

[2:20] Is there any mission that we're pushing forward to? Is there any objective we're aiming for? Well, I think Paul gives us the answer to that question in regard to himself in the passage that we read, and I'm going to make four points about it, and we'll see as it unfolds.

[2:40] So we're in Romans 15, and we begin in verse 14, where he says, I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct one another.

[2:58] I've written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister 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.

[3:22] Well, he leads on a little bit further than I want to go in the first point. My first point is that he is talking about the ability of the church to be the church with a prompt and a push from the apostle.

[3:37] So the first part of what he's saying here is something about his confidence in the sort of group they are. I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct one another.

[3:55] I've written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them. Now, he'll say why he does that, but let's just look at what he's saying, first of all. I'm rather...

[4:06] First, I was rather puzzled, and now I think I'm rather amused by the way he speaks to them. He speaks diplomatically to a church he did not plant and has not met.

[4:17] And you think, well, what business is it his to be writing to them? And he says, you know, I have a jurisdiction over Gentile churches that God's given me, and so I do really see you as part of my mission.

[4:30] But it's rather interesting that he should write them such a long letter, whether he did it amateurishly or in a glossy magazine, put it through the door of the church, but it comes to them.

[4:44] It's quite a long letter, isn't it? But notice how diplomatic he is. I'm convinced, he says, that you are full of goodness, which is rather a...

[4:55] You're okay, guys. I don't want you to think that I'm just writing to criticise you. I'm convinced that you are full, which is an interestingly...

[5:07] I think it's a diplomatic thing for him to say. And he says, And I've written to you on a few points. Well, I was puzzled by that, and now I'm rather amused by it, because if you've ever read the letter to the Romans, which is that long, and you hear Paul say, I've written to you just a few snippets on a few points, you think, I think you're being a bit diplomatic on this, really, because he's actually given them a really full-on theological PhD course, really.

[5:41] And he says, I've written to you on a few points. And he says, I've written to remind you. Did you notice that? I've written to remind you. As if, in some sense, they knew all this already.

[5:55] And I think that's been rather diplomatic of him, too. Because the amount of stuff that he's put into the letter to the Romans, and the detail, and the pressure of it, and the force of it, I think for him to say, I'm just reminding you of a few points, is a rather diplomatic thing for him to say.

[6:15] You know, let's face it, Paul, you've given them a really whoosh, you know, you've given them a massive, great dollop of theology.

[6:27] And you've really pressed them, and you've made more than a few points. But he says, he comes out in this positive way, I haven't met you, I've heard about you, and basically, guys, although I've written to you such a long letter, I really am on your side.

[6:45] I'm really confident about you as a church. And I've put it there that, he says their hearts are in the right place.

[6:57] There's something quite comforting about that, isn't there? Like we were hearing earlier, the gospel, when the gospel has taken root in a community, and it really has taken root, you can, at a deep level, be saying, you are okay, your hearts are in the right place.

[7:15] And that's why he can say, you're full of goodness. Which is a rather lovely thing to say about a group of people. You have your problems, but deep down, there's a fullness, and it's good.

[7:30] The things that you are concerned about, the things that you relish together, the things that you share together, they're good. And you're full of that.

[7:40] You are full of goodness. And he goes on to say, you're also full of knowledge. So the NIV says, complete in knowledge. It's another word for being full.

[7:51] You're full with knowledge. You have got, he's not saying that they're puffed up with knowledge, but they do know. They have got, it isn't as though that they're seriously lacking in their understanding of important things.

[8:06] You're full of knowledge. And he says that you are able to, what does he say? Able to instruct one another. You have the power to, well, sometimes the word is translated to counsel.

[8:21] So there was a book written, competent to counsel, which uses this word here. Or to admonish, or to challenge one another, or to stir one another up, or to point out things to one another.

[8:33] It almost literally means to put mind into one another. So you've got enough, so that as a group, you can talk to one another, and you can say, well, here's such and such a situation.

[8:47] Never come across this before. But I think if we pray about it and think about what Paul's already told us, we've got enough there to deal with this situation.

[8:57] And you are competent to counsel one another. And I draw from this that within the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the ingredients are there to cook up, using the idea of ingredients, to cook up an exemplary church.

[9:14] If this church has really got the gospel and is listening to it, taking it seriously, walking according to it, putting it into practice, there is nothing really to stop them being all that a church ought to be in this world.

[9:30] A praising church, a holy church, a believing church, a praying church, a witnessing church, a beautiful church, a united church, all that a church ought to be.

[9:41] He says, you've got it. You're not lacking anything that would hinder you from being that. Don't let anybody tell you that you have, that you are lacking. You've got it. You've got the things you need.

[9:55] Why have I put no there? I've no idea why I've put no there. I think I was right. I must have got interrupted. Forget the no. Within the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the ingredients are there to cook up an exemplary church.

[10:06] I think probably I was going to write no need for anything else. You've got the gospel. But notice that he, although he says you're competent and you've got everything you need, he did write them a huge long letter.

[10:18] So he must have thought they needed something in some sense. So I'm thinking of two things really, that they have what they need, and yet part of their walk is to experience the constant apostolic push.

[10:37] And that's what he does. He keeps on giving them a kick, doesn't he? He says, you believe in grace, well, kick. Grace is grace. Get, you know, get the hang of it. And you, you know, the gospel is about faith.

[10:50] Well, kicks. Believe that. And so on and so on. And that puts you all on a level playing field as Christians, doesn't it? Kick, it really does put you all on a level playing field.

[11:02] There's no substantial reason why you can't function together as a church. So you've got the sort of sufficiency they have, but their need to keep on coming back to the word of the apostle, which keeps on pushing us back into line.

[11:19] And I think that is an important understanding of the church. We're not, churches who have the gospel aren't lacking any, you know, serious deficiency.

[11:30] But on the other hand, and I think you will agree with me on this, we keep needing to come back to hear the apostle speak to us through scripture. We keep needing to be pushed back into line because we tend just to get used to things and we need pushing back.

[11:46] Or we tend to forget things and we need reminding. Or we tend to, well, whatever, drift, and we need pushing back. And I think that's the importance of the apostolic push.

[12:02] And so here's the, my first point then about as Paul sees the church, church and the Christian who knows the truth, but needs to keep on being pushed, nudged, encouraged, corrected, reminded.

[12:17] That's one very good reason for making sure that you keep coming along to hear God's word. Because it's so easy for us just to drift a little bit, but do you not agree that the experience of coming together like we are doing this morning, resets, recalibrates us, puts things back into perspective, reminds us of things, re-energizes us, and we need not only the gospel that we have, but the push that comes from regularly allowing the apostles, the gospel writers, in fact God himself, to speak to us through his word.

[13:01] So that was the first point. So how does this fit with this whole idea of drive and purpose?

[13:13] So here's the second point. The reason why Paul is speaking to them is because he does have a drive and a mission which comes on from what he was saying before.

[13:25] So in verse 15 he says, I've come to remind you because of the grace God gave me. When he says grace, he means the particular privilege that God gave me, i.e. to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of, the word proclaiming isn't in the original, so the priestly duty of something, the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

[13:59] And I want you to notice the way that he keeps on pushing the button of priest and sacrifice and offering.

[14:11] So he's taking language from the temple, you know, where they would cut up animals and do all sorts of different things with them and offer them up to God and burn them up and it was the work of the priests.

[14:25] He keeps pushing that button and he's not talking about animals, bulls, goats, heifers, he's talking about the Roman Christians.

[14:44] He's saying, my job is to offer you lot. That's what I'm aiming to do. So let's just think about priests. He's using priestly language, he's talking about offerings.

[14:56] I want to distance this emphatically from any Roman Catholic idea that the mass is an offering. He's not talking about the mass.

[15:07] He's not talking about the bread and the wine. He's not talking about the Lord's Supper as if Christ is being offered and he's certainly not doing what priests, you might naively understand priests do, to make atonement for people's sins.

[15:24] Now if any human being thinks nowadays that they are making atonement for people's sins and that's what being a priest is and that's what they're doing, they are sadly mistaken because that is an insult to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ made one complete sacrifice, offering, and oblation for the sins of the whole world.

[15:48] He did that once, finished, and anybody else trying to do it all over again is insulting the competence of Jesus Christ. So if anybody thinks they're doing that, it's actually a very sad and serious mistake.

[16:05] But he does use the word, he does use these priestly words in this connection. So verse 16, to be a minister of Christ Jesus. So several words get translated minister into English.

[16:18] It's not the word for servant, it's a word liturgos. So I thought I'd take the risk of writing out these words, from which I think we get the word English word liturgy, meaning the order of service.

[16:38] He says, so I'm a liturgos, I'm a, it's a priestly official, I'm a liturgos, I'm a priest of Christ Jesus.

[16:50] And then he says, I've got the priestly duty. Now how on earth do you pronounce that? Iorgio. The I-E-R bit is in archieros, erios, erios, which is high priest.

[17:05] So you can see the little priestly bit of the word there. He says, so I'm a, I'm a priest of Christ Jesus with the priestly work of the gospel.

[17:18] So that the Gentiles might become an offering. So the offering of the Gentiles is another priestly word. What do you do with an offering? You bring it forward and offer it. Prosphora.

[17:30] And he says, that's what I'm doing with the Gentiles. I'm, I'm, prosphora-ing them. I'm offering them. And then he uses yet another word. He says, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God.

[17:46] And there's a sacrificial word to be acceptable. So the sacrifice, you can have the idea of God smelling the sacrifice and being pleased by it. That's what happens in the time of Noah.

[17:58] So here are, here's this priestly work, this priestly duty, this offering of a sacrifice which is to be well received. And he also says another word here that it's sanctified.

[18:12] It's made suitably holy for a holy God. It's made suitably holy in a Godward sense that when God sees this sacrifice he doesn't say, ugh, don't fancy that very much.

[18:25] But by the work of the Holy Spirit what is offered comes through in a way which is made suitably holy to God.

[18:36] God. So we've got all of that going on in those verses and you notice that what he's done is take all the Old Testament sacrificial system of which there's acres and acres and he's transformed it and said here we are in the New Testament we don't offer bulls and goats and go off to Jerusalem and have holy places and most holy places we don't do all that what we do is we have the gospel and we have people who are offered to God and that's what I'm going around doing as he walked up and down the Roman world.

[19:16] So let's just summarize that. Right from the beginning of Romans he says the problem is that the world does not reverence God. In chapter 1 verse 21 he says that although the whole world in a sense knows God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him but their thinking became futile.

[19:40] He says this is really the problem that human beings do not worship God they don't reverence God they're made by him and yet it doesn't make any sense in their heads that they think oh I need to worship this God I need to give him the glory that belongs to him and he says that's the whole original problem and then the gospel brings us to offer ourselves to God and I'm thinking of Romans 12 1 which is a rather famous verse in which Paul having explained the gospel of Jesus Christ says well this is where it gets us brothers and sisters therefore I read you Romans 12 1 therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship he says this is where you get to with the gospel this is where it brings us to it brings us to men and women and boys and girls who say to God all that I am all that I have all that I've been all that I ever will be

[20:52] I offer it totally and unreservedly to you they offer their bodies as living sacrifices and he seems to imply with the living it's not something you just do once but it's a way of life the gospel brings us to offer ourselves whatever that means whatever it costs whatever it involves to God and I want to ask you if you have got to that point I want to ask you if you've ever said that to God because this is what the gospel is all about and I want to say to you if you haven't got to that point and you're saying really where the gospel's brought me is that I sort of do what I want but I don't really do what God wants or I do some of what God wants but I do some of what God doesn't want he can have me but not all of me he can have me but only a percentage at certain time you haven't got there yet have you if you've only got to that point the gospel hasn't got a hold of you yet until you have said in the urging of

[22:09] God's mercy I offer my body as a living sacrifice to you Lord until you've reached that point you haven't started living the Christian life I know there are there are there are brands of Christianity in which you say you're a Christian in all sorts of ways I go along to church regularly once every five years that makes me a Christian but that's not what the Bible says the Bible says now I'm not going to settle for that God says this is where I want you to be and I'm not satisfied until you're there I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy because of all that he's done for you and all that he's given for you and all that he's given to you in view of God's mercy that you offer your very self to God as a living sacrifice that's where he wants us to get to and then

[23:09] Paul says that's what I tell people all over the world and this is what I rejoice in I am I find myself now to be a priest as it were involved in this offering of countless men and women and boys and girls as they offer themselves to Christ well it's through the gospel that I've been preaching and that is the thing that I love to do this is the privilege he says because of the grace God gave me what a fantastic job what a privilege I've got to go around the world telling the gospel and seeing people offer themselves to God and he's getting the praise that he certainly deserves and that he didn't have before this is the gospel in action that's the gospel in action says Paul which leads us on to the third point so that was Paul's ministry to make an offering of

[24:12] Gentiles and then let's look now at his boast Paul's boasting verse 17 therefore I glory in Christ Jesus so he glories the word is the same as to boast sometimes it's translated to boast so let's look at this Paul is actually very careful about the things he glories in or the things he boasts about and there are great pitfalls here in terms of boasting so again just following through his train of thought in chapter 2 verse 17 he's quite hard on some boasting so he's pointing to his Jewish audience and he says now if you call yourself a Jew and you rely on the law and boast about your relationship to God he says well you're a blind guide and you're you're actually a big pile of nonsense if you if you basically you're saying look at me look at how good

[25:23] I am great relationship with God and what have you got well you know what you ought to do but you don't do it he says well what's that rubbish isn't it complete nonsense so don't boast about your relationship with God just because you know what you should do but you don't do it stupid and he says there's something about the gospel chapter 3 verse 27 which in itself controls our boasting so I've now moved over to chapter 3 verse 27 and he said the way of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins he did it all and he says you can't add to that your job is just to trust in me to wholeheartedly lean the weight of your soul on what I did and you just trust in me and I did it for you and that's grace It says the effect of grace and the way that faith works is what's where then is boasting answer it is excluded it is excluded on what principle on that of the works of the law no on that of faith and I think it's the same thought that

[26:50] Luke has when he tells the story of the two men going up to pray and one says I thank you God that I'm a good chap I tithe I live a very respectable life and I certainly am not as bad as that bloke over there and there's a sort of boasting about it and that bloke over there who's the tax collector beats his chest he won't even look up to God he says God be merciful to me a sinner and he's the one who's understood Jesus says which of those two went home right with God the good one or the one who knew he was a bad man where is boasting it is excluded it is isn't it when you understand the gospel you can't say look at me how good I am boasting is excluded but Paul does boast and he tells us in chapter 5 verse 2 he uses how is it translated it was used here rejoice he says

[27:52] I do boast in something though he says I boast in hope of the glory of God I got something to be glad about and something to relish and something that I can be in a sense proud of because Christ has won for me the sure and certain future in the resurrection and I'm going to be there and I'm going to see his face I'll be there in the heavenly Jerusalem not because of works that I've done but because of his grace and I'm looking forward to that and that's so fantastic and I'm boasting and glorying in the hope of the glory of God and then in chapter 5 verse 3 says something quite strange he says I'll tell you something else I boast in too that makes me really pleased we rejoice we boast in our sufferings and you think hang on Paul have you obviously had a late night and you haven't dictated that properly but he says no this is the world that we live in!

[28:55] doesn't things don't always go swimmingly for Christians there's things that are trials and difficult and suffering and things that are losses and crosses and they go against us and he says I'll tell you what I boast in those as well because God is so competent and his purpose is so big that he can take those things and make them work positively for my good he says and therefore I boast and glory in those difficult things too so if the girls have got the faith for it they can boast and glory when it does rain a tough one that but he says and the reason is that it all contributes well what he says suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character produces hope it all serves to transform my thinking to mould my character so I'm somebody who's looking forward to that great day and that's good and

[29:58] I boast in that and then he says in chapter 5 verse 11 and we boast in God he says we're in this amazing position that as we think about the maker of the universe we don't say oh I'm not too sure how I stand with him and I'm rather you know a little bit iffy about that he says the promises that he has made and what he has done in Jesus Christ is so definite and sure and the promises are so brilliant that I can boast about this God as my God and what he has done for me and what he will do for me and how he has made us stand together we boast in God well there's a lot there to glory in and when we come to chapter 15 he tells us something more about that he says I glory chapter 15 verse 17 I glory in Christ Jesus the word service has been inserted by the translators to make sense of the sentence

[31:02] I glory in Christ Jesus in things to do with God is a more clunky translation and what he means by that is what he says in verse 18 I will not venture to speak of anything well this is what I'm glorying in except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done that's what I'm glorying in one of the things I'm glorying in I'm bold to speak of what Christ has worked through me I'm bold to speak of what Christ has worked through me so notice the me God has done this through me and there's an encouragement there isn't that God uses the me God uses me you can imagine yourself saying God uses me so human beings he likes

[32:03] God likes to bring them in on what he's doing a little bit like if you were at home and you're preparing a meal and you get your daughter to chop up the onions or something you have she has a role to play in the preparing of this wonderful meal God seems to like to share out what he's doing to involve me and he puts a value on it and he gives us the privilege of being involved and the responsibility of being involved and the me is not nothing the me is important you are important God has something that he will do through you and he won't use the next person because it's particularly for you he's given a particular grace a particular gift for you that you can do and only you can do and you're meant to do it I've got a little illustration there which sort of is on track of a very dear lady who said who lent me a poem to look at she said well God gave this to me and I read it and I thought actually

[33:11] I know he gave you the thought but you wrote it you shouldn't exclude yourself from this equation because I don't think the spelling mistakes were God's and I think some of the rhyme scheme could be a little bit better so don't say God did it all you did it and that's a right thing God uses me but notice that it is Christ who was the worker Christ worked through me isn't that what it says what Christ has accomplished through me so it isn't that we that God says well I'm going to share this out by you just go off and do it and then come back when you finished God is there all the time we're not we don't work independently we're not dependent just on human power that would be what we would call the flesh that's human power independent of God the things that God does through us he does in response to prayer and by the work of the spirit and we're not always conscious that the spirit is working through us sometimes we are but we're not always conscious of that but Paul says as I look back how else could all of those things be done apart from

[34:17] God using me Christ working through me and Paul says I boast in that and I draw from that it's not wrong rather it's right to reflect on what God has done through us and I put be gratified I think that's a reasonable reflection of what Paul is saying he says I boast I glory and maybe you mums and dads you look back on your kids and you think I've made lots of mistakes with them but don't just think that your whole upbringing of your children you prayed you did your best it's not all a story of loss and failure God accomplished things through you you can't make your children be Christians I'm sure you would have prayed for that but you did something for them and God accomplished things through you and you might think of Christian work maybe teaching in Sunday club or whatever you do and you think

[35:21] I didn't do that very well well maybe didn't do it as well as I don't know Rico Tice would have done or John Hobbs or Nick McQuaker but you did it and God did something through you and it's something you can look back and say thank you I asked for help you gave me help and I turned back to say thank you and I think we can look on achievements and something that I put there diff why on earth did I write diff there no idea so let's bring us to the fourth point which is Paul's ambition and here we are looking at verse 20 it has always been my ambition so the word ambition I look this up it's I can't remember exactly what it was but I do remember what I've written down it was to yeah that's right it's a word meaning to love and then to respect and honour so he's saying something like in a very clunky translation

[36:28] I love the value of such such and here I am loving the value of verse 20 loving the value of what well loving the value of preaching the gospel where Christ has not been known so declaring the good news is the verb there to evangelise where Christ has not been named and he comes to that point again in verse 21 those who are not told about him will see those who have not heard will understand it's quotation from Isaiah and what he's talking about is the pioneering work of him as a first generation apostle because in those days there were acres of land where people had never heard about being a Christian they didn't even know the word Christian they had no idea that the fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures was Christ coming to die on the cross and Paul says it is such a thing

[37:33] I love the value of going to somewhere where they never heard it and having the privilege of telling them about Jesus Christ this is absolutely fantastic to me says Paul I make it my ambition I love the value of doing it and he says that's what I've been doing verse 19 he says so from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ so in my research I think Illyricum is Albania I'm not quite sure why he chose those two places but he's saying I started sort of Jerusalem was the nerve centre of it all and it all spread out from there and I've gone all the way round the Mediterranean as far as Albania and I've gone and told them and he says in verse 19 I've what does he say he says I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ and I think the word proclaim isn't there but he says I fulfilled

[38:34] I filled up the gospel of Christ so all these places it's been filled you know if you marked off the areas with a crayon and coloured them in they'd all be coloured in been to all of them what does he mean well it doesn't mean that he's spoken to every single person but what he does mean is I've been to all the major areas all the big centres of population and I've proclaimed the gospel and planted churches so he thought strategically and of course we think rather than trying to identify with the apostle Paul might like to identify with the churches because he's saying I've done that bit I've got churches in those places now it's up to them they go and tell every single person I've put them there and that's their job to do the next bit and as far as my sort of job is concerned says Paul in verse 23 there's no more room I've got to go beyond the coloured in squares on the map and I've got to find some other squares to work in and how did I work he says well I worked by word and action verse 18 the Gentiles obey God notice obedience is his aim in the offering of the

[39:50] Gentiles in word and deed by word and action and he refers to the signs and wonders as well as the gospel preaching and I made a little list of some of his gospel achievements when he went to Cyprus he spoke the word and Elymas opposed him and Elymas was blinded he went to Iconium and it says the Lord bore!

[40:15] witness to the word with signs and wonders he went to Lystra I can't see any record of signs and wonders but he did proclaim and he did get stoned and people threw stones at him he went to Ephesus and he spoke to people he was followed round by a slave girl who said these people are telling you the word of God and he got so annoyed by it that he cast the devil out of her he got imprisoned all sorts of things happened to him he went to Athens no record of signs and wonders there but a few believed it says he went to Ephesus in Acts 19 11 it says God did extraordinary miracles through Paul and in 2 Corinthians 12 12 he says the signs of an apostle were done when I was doing that pioneering work says Paul I did the right thing I did it you know the full you got the full apostolic work I brought you the gospel and God said yeah this man whom you've never heard of before telling you a message you've never heard of before he's right so Paul says that's what

[41:18] I've been doing so let's draw this to a conclusion now I don't think there is anybody exactly like the apostle Paul now I don't think we could expect that to be simply because Paul the apostle wrote the bible and didn't write all of it of course but he wrote quite a bit of it and I don't think we've got anybody now who writes the bible I think that's actually a fundamental article of faith that our bible is finished we don't god has stopped giving more pages of the bible he's given us the complete word so we don't have apostles exactly like Paul but we do have evangelism we do have people who I mean there are very few areas in the world into which you can go where people have really never heard anything about Christ but given that there are churches all over the place there's still loads of people who have not been spoken to about Christ so there is still evangelism and the churches are still to be apostolic we're not apostles but we're to carry on the apostolic work and there is still a gospel to proclaim and I'd like to for us to get some of the enthusiasm that Paul had what a wonderful thing to tell people about

[42:36]  Jesus Christ what's the result of it they offer their lives to God and they are an offering to God and there is a sacrifice all around the world of men and women and boys and girls I'm going to stop there we're going to sing