Ready to go

“There’s a principle,” Jordan says in an old GSB tape. “Old man Bob Jones used to say, ‘Duties never conflict.’ And you need to write that down upon the impress of the doorway of your mind and never forget it. It will get you through some real questionable situations sometimes.

“There’s another one the old man (Alabama-born evangelist and pioneer religious broadcaster who founded Bob Jones University) used to say and these two have meant more to me through the years than anything and that’s, ‘The greatest ability is dependability.’ That will help you get through some real tough spots of self-doubt.

“If you have the heart attitude and be what God’s given you to be--a member of the Body of Christ functioning in that way wherever you are--you’ll find that He’ll open doors and begin to move you around when He’s ready to. Doors will open and you’ll go.

“Chapter 4:3. God’s will is that you be clean. Holiness, not a holy mess. God expects you to strive for perfect holiness in the fear of God. II Cor. 7:1. The will of God is not so much to worry about where you are as much as it is He wants you to be where you are, living a sinless life. Your attitudes first and your actions.

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“Romans 1:11. This is why Paul wants to go to them. Paul’s got a big heart. He’s just an affectionate, loving fellow. He loved them. Never saw them before but he loved them.

“That verse compares with 16:25. The issue in Paul’s mind is, ‘I want to get down there and I want you people to be established.’ That passage we read in I Thess. 3:10, ‘I want to come back and see you’re established in the faith.’ The issue in Paul’s mind is first and foremost, always and ever, maturity. Grow up.

“The spiritual gift he wants to give them is doctrine. That word ‘stablish’ means to be firmly grounded so that you can stand unshakably. Be grounded, stabilized, balanced out so you stand. You’re not tossed to and fro.

“Verse 12. You’ll always find that the teacher is as richly blessed as the pupil when you teach the word and that’s what he’s saying there. Sometimes he sends a letter to do the job and sometimes he sends a man, like in I Thess. 3, he sent Timothy to establish the Thessalonians because he couldn’t come.

“The job is always to see the people get stabilized in your ministry.

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“Romans 1:14. When he talks about Greeks and barbarians, that’s the way the Greeks divided up the world.

"The Greeks, when they looked at the world, said, ‘There’s Greeks and then there are barbarians. The wise and the unwise.’

“The word ‘barbarian’ means basically ‘uneducated guy.’ It’s a reference to somebody who can’t speak Greek, in meaning at that time and not today.

“I was just in a meeting where this guy wanted to advertise his school out on the West Coast and he gets up there and says, ‘if you can’t speak Greek, you got no business teaching and preaching the word of God.’

“I asked him, ‘When you teach and preach the Bible, do you do it in Greek?’ He said, ‘No, I teach and preach in English.’ And I said, ‘That no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.’ How come you can privately interpret what the passage says and give it to me and I’m supposed to trust you and I can’t trust the 47 translators that did my Bible here? How come you know so much more than they do?

“All of a sudden it got to wet to plow. You see, all of a sudden you got the old thing, ‘You got to have the Greek to understand God’s Word and have it really unfolded to you.’ Do you know Greek? Well, I do so where do have to go to go get it?

“What he’s talking in verse 14 doesn’t having anything to do with speaking Greek today. I mean, in the world at that time there were the cultured, educated people and there were the Greeks and the philosophers and all. The Greeks sort of looked down on everybody in a hoity-toity kind of way. Either you were one of us or one of them.

“And so he says, ‘I’m bound to preach to the Greeks and the barbarians. That’s everybody whether they’re the in society and the scholars union whether they’re the outcasts or the dummies on the streets.

“Paul says, ‘I am ready Rome.’ He’s ready to go. No hesitation in Paul about going and preaching. And he doesn’t miss a chance.

“Notice he says in verse 14, ‘I am debtor.’ In verse 15, he says, ‘I am ready.’ In verse 16, he says, ‘I am not ashamed.’ That’s a good sermon outline.

“Acts 21:13 says, ‘Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’  

“He says, ‘I mean, what are you trying to do, break my heart? ‘For I am ready not to be  bound.’

“Brother, that’s a man that’s ready, you know that? He meant it when he said that. And he never missed a chance.

“Come over to II Timothy 4:6 and notice his attitude right at the end. You see, that man could look at his life at any time and say, ‘I’m ready.’ I’m ready to go, take advantage of the opportunities that come, I’m ready to meet the Lord.

“Now, that’s the way to live your life ladies and gentlemen, if you’re going to live it. That’s cocked and ready all the time. Rain or shine, hot or cold, whatever the situation, is to be ready to do whatever God put you wherever you are to do, no matter what the cost, with a heart of love, but do it. See, do it."