Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2285
“I am ready.” Romans 1:15.
I THINK Paul might have used these words as his motto. We had once a Saxon king called Ethelred the Unready. Here we have an Apostle who might be called Paul the Ready. The Lord Jesus no sooner called to him out of Heaven, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” than he answered, “Who are You, Lord? ” Almost directly after, his question was, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” He was no sooner converted than he was ready for holy service and, “straightway, he preached Christ” in the synagogues at Damascus. All through his life, whatever happened to him, he was always ready. If he had to speak to crowds in the street, he had the fitting word, or if to the elite upon Mars’ Hill, he was ready for the philosophers. If he talked to the Pharisees, he knew how to address them and when he was brought before the Sanhedrim, and perceived the Pharisaic and Sadducean elements in it, he knew how to avail himself of their mutual jealousies to help his own escape.
Watch him before Felix, before Festus, before Agrippa—he is always ready—and when he came to stand before Nero, God was with him and delivered him out of the mouth of the lion. If you find him on board ship, he is ready to comfort men in the storm, and when he gets on shore, a shipwrecked prisoner, he is ready to gather sticks to help to make the fires. At all points he is an all-round man and an all-ready man—always ready to go wherever his Master sends him, and to do whatever his Lord appoints him.
In talking at this time about Paul’s readiness, I shall, first, dwell for a little while upon the state of Paul’s mind, as indicated by his declaration, “I am ready.” Secondly, I shall show that this state of mind arose from excellent principles. And, thirdly, I shall point out that this readiness produces admirable results wherever it is to be found.
I. First, let us consider THE STATE OF PAUL’S MIND which enables him to say, “I am ready.”
I shall refer you to four passages where he expresses his readiness. The first is our text. Here we have Paul’s readiness to work. “So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome, also.” He had preached the Gospel throughout a great part of Asia. He had crossed over into Europe, he had proclaimed the Word through Greece—and if ever an opportunity should occur for him to get to the capital of the world, whatever might be the danger to which he would be exposed—he was prepared to go. He was ready to go anywhere for Jesus, anywhere to preach the Gospel, anywhere to win a soul, anywhere to comfort the people of God! “I am ready.” There is no place to which Paul was not ready to go. He was ready to make a journey into Spain and if he did not come to this island of ours, which is a matter of question, undoubtedly he was ready to have gone to the utmost isles of the sea, and to lands and rivers unknown, to carry his Master’s mighty Word! Are we as ready as Paul was to go anywhere for Jesus, or do we feel that we could only work for Christ at home? Dare we go to the United States, or to Australia, or into some heathen land? Oh, may God keep us always on tiptoe, ready to move if the cloud moves, and equally ready to stay where we are if the cloud moves not!
If Paul went to Rome, he would be going into the lion’s mouth, but he was ready for that, for lions had no kind of terror for him. He had fought with beasts at Ephesus. In spirit he had died in the mouth of the lion many a time, counting not his life dear to him. I wish we were ready for all danger, all slander, all contumely, all poverty, all of anything that it might cost us to preach Christ where He is not known. The Apostle was ready to go anywhere with the Gospel, but he was not ready to preach another gospel—no one could make him ready to do that! He was not ready to hide the
Gospel, he was not ready to tone it down, he was not ready to abridge it or to extend it. He said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek.”
As to the matter of preaching the Gospel, Paul was always ready for that! He kept not back any one of its Truths, nor any part of its teaching. Even if it should bring ridicule and contempt upon him, though it should be to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, Paul would say, “As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel” to them all. He did not always feel fit for the work—he did not always find the same openings, or the same freedom in speech—but he was always ready to preach wherever the Lord gave him the opportunity.
If you will kindly turn to Acts 21:13, you will read, in the second place, of Paul’s readiness to suffer. He says, “I am ready not to be bound, only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” This is, perhaps, a greater thing than the former one—to be ready to suffer is more than to be ready to serve. To some of us it has become a habit to be ready to preach the Gospel, but here was a man who was ready to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus—so ready that he could not be dissuaded from it. He might preach the Gospel, but why must he go to Jerusalem? All the world was before him—why must he go to that persecuting city? Everybody told him that he would have bonds and imprisonment and, perhaps, death—but he cared nothing about all that! He said, “I am ready, I am ready.”