1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

*Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…
Paul humbled himself and became a servant of Jesus Christ.
*called to be an apostle…
Paul was one of the apostles that established the Church. I haven’t done a great deal of in depth study on the meaning of apostleship yet. I looked into it briefly when I noticed people calling themselves apostles…I wanted to know what the difference was between a disciple and an apostle. What I found was that there were only apostles when we were establishing the church… as with the 12 apostles (and the replacement for Judas) Paul, James the just, Andronicus and Junia. After the church was established the office of apostle was discontinued, from what I understand it was because the point of the apostles is to establish the teachings that Jesus taught to them as the doctrine of the church and once this was done, there was no longer a need for the office of apostle, we have the word of God to inform us on what the will of God is now. There are still some churches who have the position of apostle, but I would be cautious of anyone who claims to be an apostle giving “new” revelations from God. The word of God is the authority, not a message given by a self-proclaimed apostle.
Pauls opening statement establishes who he serves and by what authority he is giving this lesson. His next statement establishes what his calling is…
*…separated unto the gospel of God,
Paul is called to teach the gospel.

² (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

³ Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

The Old Testament speaks of the coming of Jesus and God’s plan to redeem man. The wise men who visited Jesus when he was born were expecting him, they knew the Word and understood that it spoke of Jesus, the Messiah who would come and redeem mankind.
Back when I first got saved, and I would read Matthew and Luke and get to the genealogies of Jesus, I read them never expecting they would make sense to me one day. Then during a read through, it occurred to me that I knew who many of the people who were named in the genealogy because they were the subject of the stories I had been reading in the Old Testament. Knowing that Jesus would come from these bloodlines, God arranged it so that the Old Testament documented their lives…. so we can see not only who Jesus is, but where he comes from and how God our father’s divine providence guided every step of the way. God has done soooo much just to reconcile with us…and I thank him and love him.

⁴ And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

⁵ By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

⁶ Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

⁷ To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

When a body of believers are truly commited to the Lord and walking in faith, the WORD GETS AROUND. ( Pun intended )

⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

¹⁰ Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

¹² That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

¹³ Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

¹⁴ I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

¹⁵ So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹⁷ For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

This is in contrast to the just living by keeping the Law. None of us are capable of following the law without failing. Grace through faith is the only chance we have for salvation. Jesus died for us, to pay the price for our sin…. then he destroyed the condemning power of sin and set us free. If we believe in him and trust in him for salvation, he reconciles us to God…. so then Jesus is our claim.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Since Donald Trump was elected, I’ve been watching videos of people who supported Kamala ranting online. They hold a belief that is contrary to righteousness and are now outraged that they won’t be able to engage in their sinful behavior freely now that Donald Trump has been elected. Video after video of people outraged over their rights to end the life of their unborn babies, even though those laws haven’t actually been changed to prevent this evil practice. In one video, a woman projects onto the conservative party her own feelings and claims we are all laughing at the fires that are destroying California right now, then she wished that the next tornado that hits in the south, hits a white trailer park. I saw videos wishing death and every ugliness I can imagine on us…..and then as justification these same people claim we are evil and are up to no good. In their narrative, they are the righteous and we are the evil. Meanwhile, they’ve kicked God out of their lives. They also rejected wise instructions like clearing the brush out and filling the hydrants with water and now the whole place is on fire. They are resistant to wisdom, but think they are wise.

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

They are not ignorant of God, they choose to reject him.

²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Mankind naturally knows God.

²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Every single false belief presents itself as being some deeper wisdom, even non beliefs like atheism or agnosticism hold a belief that they are in possession of a greater wisdom. In each one of these false beliefs, there is a rejection of the true Wisdom of God.

²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

The fallen people choose to worship idols instead. Recently, in this past election, people have repented for allowing sinfulness to go on, and we all collectively voted for change by voting for Trump who promised to put an end to the gender ideologies and the targeting of our children by these perverse people. As we geared up for the election many, many liberal celebrities came out in support of Kamala who would keep the woke agenda including the gender ideologies and other moral reprehensible practices. What happened was these Celebrities Idols were cast down by the people and abandoned… the people voting for Trump and a return to Godly values. Collectively we told these celebrity idols to SHUT UP and learn their place….which is no longer on a pedestal and we told them where their value was, which isn’t as sages of wise advice, but as entertainers and nothing more.
The Celebrities were incensed. Being told to shut up by people who they thought were worshipers was rather wounding for them, so they have been calling us stupid and other such nonsense since the election.
People who are in a fallen state worship idols and follow them into destruction, but when a person repents and gets right, the idols are gone and they worship and follow God…which is the path to salvation.

²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

There are churches who profess to know Jesus that have twisted the scripture so that homosexuality is no longer a sin. These churches have made a choice to serve themselves instead of God….and departed from the faith. There was another apostate church where the pastor condones abortion. One person even said that Jesus would be an escort for women seeking to abort their babies. They have changed the truth in the word to reflect their own perverse and sinful desires.

²⁶ For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Lesbianism, but also extreme feminism because it seeks to displace men and userp the position.

²⁷ And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Gay men, but also transexual men who seek to displace women.

²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

The result of rejecting God and embracing sin in the way described above, is God stepping out of your way and allowing you to go into it. When God withdraws from you, his protection is also gone. He will allow you to fully reap what you show…. and quickly. He won’t protect you from the consequences of your sin or your mind from decending into a dark insanity. This is a very dangerous place to be.

²⁹ Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

³⁰ Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

³¹ Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

³² Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

They have transvestites reading to little children and talking to them about sexual things that little children don’t need to know….and if a parent objects, the parent is punished. Even of we are punished… and made the object of ridicule… we need to speak up. I noticed the moment the tide shifted and people got their voices back that I was surrounded by people who, like me, were tired of the sinful gender ideology and the race baiting, but they were silent like I was because of the cancel culture that accompanied these things. Now we need to vow to always speak up and support one another…. so we are never again intimidated into silence.
We need to remember the subtility used to silence us…. we who vowed to proclaim the truth were afraid to… we didn’t want to be cancelled or lose our job. It wasn’t a single declaration that silenced us… it was a slow errosion that made us walk on eggshells.