The Fellowship of Believers
A Sermon on Romans 1:7-15
Scripture
7to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. 9For …
7To 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.
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. …
Sermon Description
Despite Paul’s great power given by the Holy Spirit, the authority given by Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and his extraordinary experiences, the apostle Paul never put himself up on a pedestal. He expected to pour into the church at Rome, but he also wanted to be encouraged by them as well. As Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains in the sermon “The Fellowship of Believers,” this is a glimpse of the doctrine and nature of the Christian church in Romans 1:7–15. Paul’s depiction of the communion of the saints is one which consists of fellowship in the Holy Spirit. Neither color of skin, nor social status, nor education matter. What matters to Paul and constituted his desire to fellowship with them was that they were fellow members of the body of Christ. Dr. Lloyd-Jones challenges the human desire to limit fellowship to certain types of Christians – perhaps those Christians found to be most interesting or stimulating. The encouragement from Dr. Lloyd-Jones is to enjoy the fellowship of all Christians. This, he says, is the New Testament understanding of fellowship. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains what the apostle Paul found so encouraging about these simple Christians in Rome, and the dangers of contemporary “movements” as they often replace the role of the church in the Christian life.
The Book of Romans
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.