Sermons on Romans 15:30

Open up the Bibles that you have or look to the screens to Romans chapter 15 verses 30 to 33 and we are in what should be, I pray, our last study in chapter 15. And you say, yeah, but there's still chapter 16 and how many years will that be? Chapter 16 is going to go really quick, I promise. I'll read verse 30 if you pick it up nice and loud in verse 31 and so on. Paul says, now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. That I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. That I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. And may the peace be with you all. Amen. Father, we come before you today, and Lord, we're asking you to not only hear our prayer that you might be very present in our learning of the Word of God, but in this day and age, Father, when so much is being said and not much is true, I pray that you'd give us that great gift to all of us, the spirit of discernment, to know what is true, what is not true. …

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So let's all stand as we come to this section of the book of Romans chapter 15 verses 30 to 33 and not much but powerful, not much in length but powerful in what is said. And the title of today's message is, Will You Please Come With Me? That's the bottom line of the apostle. When you read this, this is what he's saying. He's saying, will you come with me? He's inviting us. He's inviting those who read this document back then. And for 2,000 years, all of us as believers have been invited to the exact same mission. I love this. We don't have to make it up. Every generation of believers, we don't have to get a new organizational chart. We don't have to get a new purpose for what we've been called to do. Jesus said, go ye therefore into all the world and preach this gospel and do what church? And make disciples of all nations. And that's what we're living to do. That's what the true church has been doing for the last 2,000 years. …

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And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. our Lord Jesus Christ, in his original nature, was infinitely above all suffering, for he was “God over all, blessed for evermore; ” but, when he became man, he was not only capable of suffering, but partook of that nature that is remarkably feeble and exposed to suffering. The human nature, on account of its weakness, is in Scripture compared to the grass of the field, which easily withers and decays. So it is compared to a leaf; and to the dry stubble; and to a blast of wind: and the nature of feeble man is said to be but dust and ashes, to have its foundation in the dust, and to be crushed before the moth. It was this nature, with all its weakness and exposedness to sufferings, which Christ, who is the Lord God omnipotent, took upon him. He did not take the human nature on him in its first, most perfect and vigorous state, but in that feeble forlorn state which it is in since the fall; and therefore Christ is called “a tender plant,” and “a root out of a dry ground.” Isa liii. 2. “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Thus, as Christ’s principal errand into the world was suffering, so, agreeably to that errand, he came with such a nature and in such circumstances, as most made way for his suffering; so his whole life was filled up with suffering, he began to suffer in his infancy, but his suffering increased the more he drew near to the close of his life. His suffering after his public ministry began, was probably much greater than before; and the latter part of the time of his public ministry seems to have been distinguished by suffering. The longer Christ lived in the world, the more men saw and heard of him, the more they hated him. His enemies were more and more enraged by the continuance of the opposition that he made to their lusts; and the devil having been often baffled by him, grew more and more enraged, and strengthened the battle more and more against him: so that the cloud over Christ’s head grew darker and darker, as long as he lived in the world, till it was in its greatest blackness when he hung upon the cross and cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! Before this, it was exceedingly dark, in the time of his agony in the garden; of which we have an account in the words now read; and which I propose to make the subject of my present discourse. The word agony properly signifies an earnest strife, such as is witnessed in wrestling, running, or fighting. And therefore in Luke xiii. 24. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able;” the word in the original, translated strive, is Greek. “Agonize, to enter in at the strait gate.” The word is especially used for that sort of strife, which in those days was exhibited in the Olympic games, in which men strove for the mastery in running, wrestling, and other such kinds of exercises; and a prize was set up that was bestowed on the conqueror. Those, who thus contended, were, in the language then in use, said to agonize. Thus the apostle in his epistle to the Christians of Corinth, a city of Greece, where such games were annually exhibited, says in allusion to the strivings of the combatants, “And every man that striveth for the mastery,” in the original, every one that agonizeth, “is temperate in all things.” The place where those games were held, was called Greek, or the place of agony; and the word is particularly used in Scripture for that striving in earnest prayer wherein persons wrestle with God: they are said to agonize, or to be in agony, in prayer. So the word is used Rom. xv. 30. “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me:” in the original Greek, that ye agonize together with me. So Coloss. iv. 12. “Always labouring fervently for you in prayer, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God:” in the original Greek, agonizing for you. So that when it is said in the text that Christ was in an agony, the meaning is, that his soul was in a great and earnest strife and conflict. It was so in two respects: …

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