50 courses to teach this one verse:

Romans 1: [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.

Paul says, “I don’t want you tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine. I want you to get established; I want you to get stabilized.”

What does that mean? Go online and look it up. You get 50 different people trying to sell you courses. I can save you some money. Read the next verse!

Paul says, “What does it mean to be established? Well, let me tell you.” That’s in verse 12, says Richard Jordan.

Paul says, “Believe the same things I believe and you’ll be established.” The mutual faith means something we share in common. When you share and believe what I’m teaching and what I believe . . .

You remember how he starts II Timothy 2? [1] Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
[2] And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

Same thing. He couldn’t come to them in Rome, so you know what he did? He wrote them a book. He was all hot and bothered because he couldn’t go down there and look what God did. God said, “I don’t want you to go down there; I want you to write them a book.” Why? “Because there’s some dudes in 2012 (and beyond) who are going to need that book. It’s going to be a part of my Word.”

That’s interesting, isn’t it? People are always so interested in telling God what He ought to do with their life.

So Paul writes the Book of Romans—I hate to say Romans is “milk” because it’s advanced doctrine to a lot of people. But it’s designed to be the nourishment that teaches you what God’s done for you at the Cross, and it orients you to God’s grace.

Grace is all that God is free to do for you through the finished work of Jesus Christ. There’s the justification, there’s the sanctification, there’s the change of identity from Israel to the Body of Christ and then there’s the practical application of it all.

By the way, Ephesians gets to talking to you about your walk half-way through the book and Romans waits until chapter 12 before it ever talks to you about the Christian life.

You get the average preacher in denominationalism and there’s a little slogan preachers use: “You win ’em, you wet ’em, you whip ’em, you work ’em and you watch ’em.”

Down South they used to say, “Three, Ten and Out.” That was their prescription for the successful Christian life. What does that mean? Go to three services a week, give ten percent of your money and pass out tracts.

There’s people Down South watching on the internet right now that know exactly what I’m talking about and who says it.

You know what that will do? That will make a good religious clone of you, that will put you on the treadmill. Over there they’ve got all the beads and that stuff for you to do, with the ceremonies and the liturgy and all that correctness and stuff. Whatever. Get you on that religious treadmill. You know what that will do? Nothing. Just get you more confused.