The sermon opens the church's exposition of Romans with Romans 1:1-7, Paul's greeting to the church in Rome. The preacher first situates the letter historically: Romans is not a theological textbook but a real letter, physically penned by an amanuensis named Tertius at Paul's dictation, written from Corinth around AD 57 near the end of Paul's third missionary journey. Paul is en route to Jerusalem to deliver a financial collection from Gentile churches to the poor Jewish Christians there, and he intends afterward to launch a fourth missionary journey westward to Spain, hoping to stop at Rome along the way to secure a base of support. The sermon explains that the Roman church was not founded by Paul or, as popularly supposed, by Peter, but most likely arose from Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who heard the gospel in Jerusalem (for instance at Pentecost) and carried it home to synagogues scattered across Rome, gathering there into multiple house churches rather than one congregation.

Into that context the sermon locates the letter's deeper purpose: Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome were in tension over ceremonial law (food laws, Sabbath, circumcision) and over the anxious question of whether God had remained faithful to Israel, given how few Jews compared to Gentiles were responding to the gospel. The sermon notes this same fracture existed in Jerusalem, which Paul was about to visit carrying Gentile money as a tangible sign that Jew and Gentile alike belong to God's one covenant people. Paul, having spent years suffering for the Gentile mission and being slandered by fellow Jews as a traitor, is uniquely positioned to address both churches, and Romans becomes his fullest statement of the gospel precisely because the problem cannot be solved by apostolic opinion but only by returning everyone to the cross.

The sermon then works through Paul's self-description in verse 1: servant, apostle, and set apart for the gospel. "Servant" (doulos) means slave, one who is owned rather than merely employed, and Paul uses it to identify with the ordinary Roman believers as someone equally bound to a Lord. "Apostle" marks him as part of a unique, foundational group personally commissioned by the risen Christ; the sermon retells Paul's Damascus road encounter from Acts 9 and his own testimony in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Timothy 1 that he was "the least of the apostles" and "the foremost of sinners," having persecuted the church and consented to Stephen's stoning before Christ arrested him with a blinding light and a commissioning word delivered through Ananias. The sermon stresses that Paul's transformation from persecutor to chosen instrument illustrates the gospel he is about to preach: grace rescuing the utterly undeserving.

Turning to verses 2-4, the sermon draws out that the gospel was "promised beforehand" through the prophets, so that Old and New Testament are one continuous plan of the one Savior, not two different religions. Jesus is presented as descended from David according to the flesh, fulfilling messianic prophecy in genuine human weakness and lowliness, yet declared Son of God in power by his resurrection through the Spirit. The sermon frames this as two states of existence, flesh and Spirit, old creation and new creation, with Jesus the first to pass from one into the other, and believers united to him in that same passage from death to new life.

From verses 5-7 the sermon expounds the purpose of the gospel: apostleship given to bring about "the obedience of faith... among all the nations," fulfilling the Great Commission, the Abrahamic promise that all nations would be blessed, and Isaiah's prophecy of survivors sent to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Tubal, and Javan to declare God's glory among the nations. The sermon identifies three aims of the gospel: the salvation of sinners, the obedience of faith that follows genuine conversion, and ultimately the glory of God's name. It closes by calling the congregation to believe in Jesus and to live in glad, total dedication to God, and moves into a communion prayer thanking God for pouring out grace upon grace through Christ's body and blood.

Bible Verses Used

• Romans 1:1-7: the sermon's central text, expounded verse by verse to unpack Paul's identity as servant and apostle and the content and aim of the gospel he preaches.

• 1 Corinthians 15:8-9: cited for Paul's own description of himself as "untimely born" and "the least of the apostles" because he persecuted the church.

• 1 Timothy 1:15: quoted for Paul calling himself "the foremost" of sinners whom Christ came to save.

• Acts 9 (Paul's Damascus road conversion): retold in detail as the historical account of how Christ confronted and commissioned Paul through Ananias.

• Matthew 28 (the Great Commission): referenced as Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations, paralleling Paul's apostleship to the Gentiles.

• Genesis (Abrahamic promise): cited for God's promise that in Abraham's offspring all nations of the earth would be blessed, as an Old Testament root of the gospel going to the Gentiles.

• Isaiah 66:18-19: quoted at length as prophecy that God would send survivors to the nations, including Tarshish (Spain) and Javan (Greece), to declare his glory.

• Psalm 22:27: cited as Old Testament witness that all the ends of the earth would remember and turn to the Lord.