Introduction To Romans: Called To Be - Part 1 (Romans 1:1-6)

you guys okay all right just checking romans chapter one everybody romans chapter one uh an incredible book as we will get into the introduction of it today romans one and for those of you who are new to the church we're happy to announce that we're getting back now to what we have always done for almost three decades we have been a church that has grown steadily and slowly but strong in the word on what you were about to encounter in the book of romans and that is expositional teaching that is the teaching the way god intended it to be that is chapter by chapter verse by verse of the bible and so for many of you i know that this is new you're going to find it to be completely different some of you have come from churches where it's been predominantly topical messages and what's great about where we're going is that uh it is the way that jesus taught now when you see jesus teaching you see the parables the parables were making the point to what he had been teaching them earlier and jesus taught as scripture would speak to us verse by verse and so we're in for a tremendous time and i i thought you know what we're near uh incredible times for the church in the world we just came out of something that is interesting to say the least that god has worked a work in in 2020 and so why why goof around we'll go straight for the most difficult book in the world to teach which is the book of romans but there's a reason why it is as you'll hear this morning a gem romans chapter one this morning we're going to read verses one through six together one through six but don't get excited we'll barely get out of the l in the word paul this morning romans chapter one i'll begin in verse one paul a bond servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of god concerning his son jesus christ our lord who was born of the seed of david according to the flesh [Applause] through him who are through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name and father we pray that you'd speak to us out of your word we ask now in jesus name and all god's people said amen you can be seated the book of romans the book of romans is god's word to the church and covers doctrines of the bible for the christian life that is necessary for you and i to live a life that is honoring to god if you have any questions about how the believer ought to live and how this whole all comes together in our lives the book of romans is your book but because that's true the book of romans is a deep deep book it is revered as the most classical high-shelf disciplined book of the new testament some say the entire bible uh it's interesting because the book of romans in all of ancient uh literature is the longest document per uh preserved document that we have uh from the world of antiquity the book of romans uh nobody doubts by the way skeptics everyone included nobody doubts the authenticity and the authorship of the book of romans in every way the book of romans has been put up and out by god before us that it just stands as this incredible fortress of truth the book of romans and you'll see why god gave it in our introduction today but what's fascinating is uh the the man paul we'll get into him more in the weeks ahead just by virtue of the fact that so much of the bible new testament speaks about this man paul but he's going to speak to us about doctrines that have always been in the bible when i say old testament they were spoken of in the old but not well understood and then it's romans that reveals for example atonement sacrifice how does god forgive sin why does god forgive sin why is there sin where are we in the mix as a lost humanity crying and and calling out to the holy pure god and what's amazing is that paul will address these things and over and over again he's going to tell you and i that this is what the scriptures taught that previously has been a mystery now listen to that you say wait you can't have it both ways jack did it was it taught or was it a mystery both the old testament revealed what god would do the new testament reveals how he did it right and believe it or not if you're a note taker and i want all of you to be notetakers by the way this is probably going to be so boring of a message that it might be like watching paint dry so a lot of this is going to be introduction but you need this you need this the reason why romans is the answer to what it is is because the old testament book leviticus you say leviticus is that that bloody book the one that's blood here blood there blood everywhere animal here uh enterals there liver over there uh yes it is yes and why is that the case because leviticus is the announcement of god who is holy man who's not but it's god who desires that man and himself would meet together but how does that happen because he's holy he cannot compromise because he's holy he cannot change the rules because he's god you see what if he's god why can't he change the rules because then he wouldn't be god god doesn't make mistakes he doesn't perfect things along god doesn't say well you know what let's start with genesis and see how it goes no the word of god revealed to us is perfect absolutely infallible in the original languages and the bible has proven to be that true what god announces to us listen is precious because he gives it and then he explains it and so the mystery paul is announcing and will announce that has always been but not understood was something that was revealed by god but now in these days he would say 2000 years ago we understand the answer why is that the case you know it's kind of interesting because during uh during services here those external windows out there that you can look to the orange trees and the olive trees on the outside of the building those windows are shut down now this sanctuary has been closed as it were to that outdoor ambient light because it causes mischief with lighting and with things so we're in this room that's closed right now think of that as the old testament everything that's necessary is here now right but it's not until the windows go up that it connects the outside world with the inside world and what happens is what is spoken of in the old testament and then revealed in the new is the opening of the lights it's the opening of the windows it's light shining forth one toward another in understanding and that's why god picked a a jew paul to speak to the italians and the gentiles in rome the wonderful works of god and it's going to be quite amazing 500 bc there's a conversation taking place between socrates and plato and socrates wrote to plato and he said this it may be that deity can forgive sins but i do not see how his statement to plato it is possible i do believe it might be true that deity can forgive sins but socrates said something that has plagued the heart of man i don't see how god could forgive sin the book of romans answers that why do i need jesus you might ask the question why do i need to be saved as you guys say are born again why do i need that the book of romans is going to answer that what about morality can i go to heaven by being moral the book of romans is going to answer that can i go to heaven by being a really really good person romans is going to answer that in great detail oh listen to this everybody this is going to be amazing in fact a little bit of behind the scenes pastoral uh intel behind the scenes you can buy commentaries galore and listen to sermons online beyond the time you have available and these teachers will lead you through the book of romans from chapter 1 up to chapter 8. some may dare to go further but if they do then they pick it up in chapter 12 out to 16. are you listening to me they will avoid chapters 9 10 and 11. and you want to know why it's romans chapter 9 10 and 11 that god announces through paul to the gentile world of the romans that god has not set aside the jews forever that god has placed them in a in a dispensation while he's focusing on the gentile world that god will once again pick up his focus on the jewish people and he will open up the eyes of the jews and there will become a day when the jews the remnant of the house of israel will seek the face of god once again and he will talk about in that about us being grafted in to the commonwealth of israel you know why people avoid that even pulpits today it's something that plagues churches all around the world right now it's replacement theology if you don't know what that is that might be good it could be that you don't know what it is and you're exposed to a ministry that practices that and you're not aware of it but let me tell you something right now if god doesn't keep his promises in romans chapter 9 10 and 11 to israel then you have no guarantee of salvation you have no hope of eternal life because if god doesn't keep his forever promised with israel then why would god keep his forever promise with you see how important this is in fact martin luther the great reformer the catholic monk who wound up uh coming to christ because of the book of romans he completely avoided chapters 9 10 and 11 and in fact was quite vehement against the jewish people and that wasn't the right course to take obviously but church we're going to go through the entire thing together there will not be one verse that we will not cover you say wait did you say 16 chapters yes we will be going through this study halfway through the millennium um no my goal is to be in this bible study when jesus returns or that preferred or i die of old age so that's very important but um what else do we need to know about this book uh some technical sites to the book from the outside it needs to be announced that the book of romans is the most systematic presentation of biblical theology found anywhere in the scriptures the word usage and sentence structure by the apostle paul is literally so spectacular that it's known in antiquity even to this day as being some of the most elegant writings known to man some literary experts say it is the crowning jewel of expression the book of romans some of you depending upon what law school you went to particular law schools will use the book of romans not that they believe in it but they said that paul the apostle's arguments for you to become a believer and for you to conduct yourself as a christian is so well done that his means of argumentation his his uh way of defending the truth is something that is expert regarding the world of law in other words paul knows how to argue what he believes and shouldn't you and i absolutely we know this that paul wrote this book to the romans in 57 and 58 a.d we know that during that time there was a certain emperor who believe it or not started out pretty good he started out being pretty much beloved by the people and then power what's what's the old saying power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and that's what happened to him and i'm talking about the man nero nero was the emperor during the time of paul's writing and he was the one of course presiding over the roman empire that would eventually uh as it in scope covered a vast part of the ancient world uh there was the western and eastern flanks of the roman empire which led to its uh fragmenting but that's something we can talk about some other time and the place of authorship do you i don't know if you care about this but i have to give this to you yeah this is one of those things you can go to sleep i'll wake you up when it's over um paul was in corinth when he wrote to the romans he was in corinth greece and um i don't know what to say about corinth it's amazing that paul was there i've been to corinth i'm still trying to get images out of my mind that i got in my head at corinth images i don't want there and i'm not talking about uh pictures and paintings of bad things oh no no i'm talking about idols and icons in the museum that's on display from antiquity of of pagan paganism and their horrific uh sculptures and carvings of of their hor their terrible sexual worship practices at corinth he said why was paul there wasn't he saint paul yeah that's why he was there i don't think it's just native to paul i think it's native to the people of god we go where the darkness is did you know that it's pretty quiet in here you want to know why it's quiet because we've somehow swallowed a line of christianity that it is somehow frail and fragile and it's in its and it could crack at any moment it could break the exact opposite's true church and the book of romans is going to equip you and i to do what paul did and that is to go into a dark world now i want to make something very clear some of you should not go into a dark world because you're not ready yet okay but listen as a christian your whole goal in life is to get strong enough for god to use you to deploy you into a world that is dark that's why we're alive that's why the moment you gave your heart to christ you didn't drop dead on the spot can you imagine a billy graham crusade and thousands of people getting forward and bulla graham was doing this thing and on the people the buses and the people get on the field and they accept christ they pray the prayer and they all drop dead right there well that's that would be ridiculous because listen in the moment of their salvation was the first step regarding their equipping to go out into the world and so with paul and corinth he went there because it was dark paul's going to be writing to a group of believers in rome and you'll see soon why why rome because it was so dark and by the way god's people listen god's people are everywhere and where there are no god's people dwelling god will send his word to get them saved where they're at and so church family your gospel that you have in your heart this bible is not fragile it is not frail listen we're the ones that are fragile and frail but that shouldn't last for long in our lives we should get equipped so that we might get deployed and go out to the ends of the earth it is god's will that you and i share boldly lovingly firmly but with compassion the truth of christ and boy is paul going to do that and he's going to teach us how but he gets right into it in a very powerful way to whom it is written this is a great question in many of paul's writings his epistles it's written to the church at corinth it's written to the church in galatia right it's written to the church in philippi not the book of romans the book of romans is written to the saints to the saints who are at rome not a church that's interesting wasn't there a church in rome yes there was but check it out there wasn't an organized church nobody pulled up on their donkey or their camel and got out and walked into a building like in other places in rome they were home fellowship groups and there were a bunch of them there were home groups all over the city of rome and for that matter from that spot these fellowships grew outward but note that if you care to that it's not written to a church as a location it's written to the people of god and they were in small groups and i find that very comforting where we're at today in our world because small groups have exploded across america god used coved i said god used it i don't think god sent it god used it god used covet to cause home groups and families to blossom in the bible all around the world why did that happen because he's coming back that's why just just like he started in the first century i believe he's ending up in the last century before he returns that small groups and who knows how the governments are going how much longer will we be able to meet like this we don't know every day is a day of grace for us but keep that in mind small groups and then why did he write this is quite fascinating we could go on all day and night regarding the why did he write this book to the people to the believers in rome there's a lot of reasons one of them i'm just going to let out of the bag right now that you might find uh interesting he will say to the believers there that you need to remember gentiles that you were grafted into the promises of god that were given to israel notice i used the word graft we'll study that in years ahead when we get to that chapter no but grafted in you look if you're right now the bible divides us up this way you're a jew or you're a gentile you say well i'm peruvian no you're not according to god you're a gentile okay are you german yes god says you're a gentile the jew is the jew the gentile is everybody else but listen god is god is desiring that all should be saved right jew and gentile alike and what happened is that gentiles began to get saved in rome but they first heard the word from jews and the the church grew so much in its gentile population that you know what happened historically the believers began to treat other believers in a non-loving way and this is how it went hey wait you're so you're a believer in yeshua and jesus but you're a jew yeah oh well you know what you can sit over there because we're gentiles you can you can sit up front they began to exercise what we would call anti-semitism which is not exactly true to what they were doing they they began to practice this replacement theology the the bad bad teaching began to seep in 2 000 years ago oh wait you're a jew you're a christ killer ah we don't even know if you should go to this church in fact we don't know if a guy can save you in fact we think you're cursed and he's gonna address this and man i tell you here we are in the 21st century and that's what's going on today people do you know that it is happening in the church and the earth today and that's a wicked evil thing but it's happening nonetheless and then i think a few more things before we attempt to dive into this is look at romans chapter 1 verses 17 and 15. we'll put it up on the screens for you romans chapter 1 verse 7 to all who are in rome beloved of god called to be saints grace to you in peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ to all who are in rome look at verse 15. so as much as it is i am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in rome also paul's desire to preach the gospel in rome was a passion of his that is mentioned numerous times in scripture listen paul never makes it to rome the way that he wants to make it to rome paul is thinking i'm sure you know the missionary journeys i'm sure he's thinking we're just going to keep going around up through asia minor we're going to go into europe and i'm going to eventually get to rome preaching the gospel that's probably what he thought and god had a different plan paul winds up getting arrested for preaching the cross and the resurrection from the dead in jerusalem he winds up being listen taken under roman guard down to caesarea where he's there jailed and then a decision is made by the roman procreator there saying this preaching of the gospel paul it's crazy and then paul says because i'm a roman citizen i appeal to caesar so he's listen he's taken captive and he's put on a roman freighter and he's set sail to rome under roman arrest and paul sees rome all right uh listen all paid expense trip by the roman government unfortunately he was a prisoner and he gets there and eventually paul winds up being beheaded in rome and you can go by the way to the mammer team prison where paul spent his last night on earth it's there today you can take you can take a tour of that so he did get to rome but um not the way that he thought but he loved that thought of preaching the gospel in rome why i said it a moment ago it was a dark place that's what we want to do where should where should we be whenever the gospel was dropped into an area like c.s lewis says that god has called us to uh invade enemy occupied territory satan has occupied god's territory we've been we're paratroopers who are let in to disrupt satan's plans right by saving people and preaching the gospel okay if that sounds thrilling to you that's because that's the holy spirit stirring you up watch this everywhere in the gospels everywhere in the book of acts the believers go to the metropolitan places first it's not that they didn't preach the gospel on the road out in the countryside i'm sure they did right but you know where they're heading to they were heading to places like rome they were heading to epicenters like ephesus church listen i'm going to say something it's going to sting a little bit everywhere in the gospel the people the the the ministry always starts in big cities and then it emanates out to the rural areas why would you do that well why is why are hospitals in big cities why is commerce in big cities why do all the freeways lead to los angeles for example why because it's the epicenter of everything that's going on good bad and ugly is that not true so listen if you can get if you can preach the gospel imagine if you had one moment are you guys listening imagine if you had one moment to preach the gospel would you preach it in chino hills by some oak tree and a cow or would you preach it in downtown los angeles for a fact which one would it be if you want to have it easy and and not make uh nuts stir things up then preach it to a cow underneath an oak tree in chino hills but if you want to take the gospel to the ends of the earth hello are you listening you would go to new york city you'd go to times square you would go listen you'd go to pershing square or you'd go to hope street are you in los angeles are you hearing me you would go to the epicenter of the place why because with one preaching of it you're gonna hit thousands of people and let them take it out to where they're going back to and that's exactly what happened how did the gospel get to rome we actually are pretty sure we know the answer to that it's quite awesome are you ready acts chapter 2 check it out again this is all background our bible study will start next week this is background acts chapter 2 verse 1. i'm going to read slow get your highlighter ready i think this is fun this is not detective work when the day of pentecost had fully come they were all with one accord that is in one mind one purpose in one place and suddenly there came the sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and one sat upon each of them that is this this strange manifestation that it looked like fire it was this illuminary light that appeared over the disciples heads and they're all filled with the holy spirit and they began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance watch what happens and they were dwelling in jerusalem jews devout men from every nation under heaven why because it's pentecost right these jews had now made their way from all corners of the globe to worship god for pentecost in jerusalem it was one of the three required feasts upon a jewish man look at verse six and when the sound occurred the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language so all of these different people are watching and listening to what's happening with these motley countrymen these country bumpkins that were galileans from way up north 90 miles north then they're all amazed and marveled saying to one another look are not all these who speak galileans how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born parthians and medes and elamites those dwelling in mesopotamia judea and cappadocia pontius and asia phrygia and pamphilia egypt and the parts of libya adjoining cyrene north africa visitors from where oh say it again visitors from where rome both jews and proselytes verse 11 says cretans and arabs all of these jews from all of the known places of the world have come to worship and they all have their languages and they're standing there and they don't they know what's going on because they've been schooled in judaism about what to do when they got to jerusalem but all of a sudden they start hearing this noise and it's disrupting wind it's a bizarre sound what is that what is that and then they start to hear they start to hear in their own language there's a background muffled noise but they can hear in their own native tongue the wonderful works of god and it had to be amazing because those those who were arabs they're listening saying we're hearing the wonderful works of god being proclaimed and somebody who's uh from cappadocia is saying in his tongue that's more slavic sounding we also hear the same thing but in our own language and they're completely blown away and those jews who came to worship from italy from rome they're hearing the word of god proclaimed and historians tell us that these went back after the day of pentecost where'd they go home too they all went home to their place where where did the church get its start in rome because from here the day of pentecost don't you find that fascinating it was the day of pentecost that these people realized i came here in the worship of judaism and i wound up meeting jesus christ and now i'm going back what we would say is a born-again jew or a completed jew or what they say in israel today a believer they saw rightfully from the scriptures and they heard a manifestation of the wonderful works of god that confirmed that jesus yeshua is in fact messiah and they went home and they went back to rome and in that epicenter of this metropolis they began to talk to other people about jesus christ friends that's how it works that's christianity you're affected by it it transforms your life you go home you speak about it to others and it spreads like wildfire because people are looking for hope people are looking for meaning and don't let the place of a dark place scare you because rome was a place filled with paganism all of babylon's gods were represented i'm not going to get into it i tried to last service it was a disaster i'll just tell you this the 360 gods of ancient babylonian ism found a place in rome to live in because wherever there's paganism you have strange gods listen up everybody you either have strange gods where paganism is existing and or you have strange gods manifesting when the true god is rejected in that culture israel rejected the true god jeremiah chapter 44 as an example israel said you know what we're done with the god of our four of our fathers and our forefathers we're going to try on this new god and the bible tells us that they began to worship the queen of heaven jeremiah 44 they began to make offerings of bread to the queen of heaven and to her child tamus and they began to do this and god cursed israel for their pagan worship you say wow that's terrible yeah we'll wake up ladies and gentlemen because we got a sneak peek this last week at the curriculum coming to the united states right now and it's going to be starting i think in five states and of course we're privileged to always try something here first uh but listen uh california is not the only state did you know that what's coming under social uh social studies and cultural studies is that your public school children are going to be learning uh aztec chants to various gods the kids are going to stand up they're going to chant these chants and they've got a whole litany of chants lined up about these ancient pagan gods aztec gods kids are going to be learning the five pillars of islam in your public school system uh and oh by the way there is no learning of our father which art in heaven how would be thy name they're not going to learn matthew mark luke and john no no we're done with that you see we're done with that now i expect the world to say we're done with that what i'm nervous about is will the christian church say okay or will the christian church be filled with the love of god to wake up that it's not the people that's implementing this stuff it's the demonic powers behind them and we need to wake up and confront the darkness we need to pray like we've never prayed before we need to get into the word of god like we've never gotten him before it's time to get serious the world has gone nuts people are filled with hopelessness we've got the answer and god help us if we keep the answer in the four walls of this church we've got to take the answer out we've got to do what paul did and get into the epicenter of the communities we've got to do it christianity was not created nor does it thrive in a vacuum it's got to be let loose it's like a lion can you imagine having a leash on a lion that lion is going to take off and drag you into action and that's what the gospel does that's what the holy spirit wants to do and so what happened was you guys there was about a million just over a million citizens uh in rome and those were roman citizens those would be men like and women like paul paul was a roman born citizen of the empire though he were a jew but listen to this there were there's an estimated 40 to 60 000 slaves that ministered to that population in rome what does history show us think think now think if you've got all the fun stuff of the world what would that be today if you've got a sailboat and a plane and a race car in a in a whatever's what i don't know what it is big home on the hill big whatever and just like whoo this is it listen the chances are of you needing jesus waking up to that's pretty slim because you're so distracted you've got all kinds of fun stuff just titillating your senses constantly it's like i don't have to think i just i just get to have fun and you know what um that would be cool for a weekend but you can't live like that but people try to live like that and when they live like that their life becomes increasingly watch this they strive and work hard to get the income to get the stuff they got the stuff and then listen their personal lives grow more shallow shallow shallow shallow until their lives are a veneer paper-thin life surrounded by all the trinkets that the world can offer and that's why you see people who live in places like hollywood or madison avenue and they are about as emotionally and and and soul spirit deep as whipped cream do you know what i'm saying they got tons of money tons of influence because they have money they've got all this stuff that people want and then they go online or they they accept their award and they say the dumbest stuff you know why because there's nothing to them there's nothing to them and they'll do anything and everything to avoid suffering to those who are on the other side those who are slaves the forty to sixty thousand slaves in rome at this time that paul's writing they don't have anything and they hear the gospel and they say wait wait wait wait a minute i can be set free i'm a slave oh yeah you may be a slave but you can be set free right now what if somebody's in prison wait what'd you say christ will set you free you know there's people in prison who know jesus now that are more free than somebody who's got quote liberty and freedom and when somebody who's in need hears that they grab onto it the gospel answers that need when the book of romans is going to make that very very clear to us very powerful and so his answer to us is going to be theology that is absolutely so incredibly powerful i want to point out to you a theme that you're going to hear over and over again please write this down and let me let me kind of butter you up before you hear this whatever i'm going to say to you in a moment it is so it is so theologically powerful that it shakes the world of religion what i'm going to say to you in a moment has transformed in fact it is responsible for causing the west or the western world to be the western world it is responsible for the enlightenment it is responsible for the first great awakening in the u.s colonies it is responsible for the foundation of the constitution of the united states when it's read and believed it shook the world of people like augustine saint augustine the men by the name of george whitefield or charles wesley and john wesley these three men were ordained ministers of the church the anglican church the church of england are you hearing me these guys had graduated from oxford and from uh cambridge in theology these guys were brilliant and they were preaching to crowds of thousands you can get their books and read them amazing i commend you a book regarding uh arnold dillemore wrote the book on george whitefield america's greatest soul winner you ought to get that book and you'll be shocked because this guy's preaching and 20 000 people are showing up to hear him preach in like 1743 and he later finds out that he's lost and not even born again for him ministry was a profession in in that colonial era if you wanted to receive the highest level of education known in the colonies you went into the ministry that's why pastors the clergy they were everything in these cultures did you know that in boston and in philadelphia if you were a clergyman you had the highest education you often uh served as a judge a select man in your community and you were the highest educated person in your world so they pursued it i get it but that doesn't mean you're going to be saved and go to heaven isn't it remarkable billy graham the founder of calvary chapel chuck smith donald gray barnhouse the list is endless of men martin luther the great reformer who came to the book of romans and read what i'm about to read you and they were completely listen they were thrown into a faith crisis oh before i spill the beans on this totally if you've been to rome and you go to this area in rome queen helena brought back from jerusalem a staircase that was an association to the area of the temple in jerusalem she had it reassembled in rome the priest of rome said if you go up from here up there on your knees and get to the top god will forgive you of your sins i have photographs at home i should have brought them where if it's there's a line right there and it's got the staircase and it's huge and it says if you want to have your sins forgiven start here and if you don't want to have your sins forgiven you can walk up on this side and i'm telling you listen i saw people going up those stairs on their knees with tears as i walked on the sinner's path right up to the top and i'm not kidding lisa and i both did it and my heart broke because these people had they were thinking oh i got to do this if i just do if i just do this maybe if i just do this and i get to the top maybe someone will tell me what else to do you see just tell me what to do and i'll do it i want to go to heaven so i want to be forgiven so bad just tell me what to do and i'll do it my dear friends listen that is called religion religion is man trying to meet with god based upon man's idea that's why there's so many religions in the world it's man's idea that's why there's only one gospel jesus christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead he is the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but through him he's the alpha the omega the first and the last the one who was who is who is to come the almighty he's christ the lord redeemer savior there's one there's just one and and they just give me just give me the rules and god will not give you the rules so here's the shock that still to this day rocks the world this only is what god will accept romans 1 17 for in it the righteousness of god is revealed and if you're jewish you're saying what are you about to say righteousness tell me how do i get it revealed from faith to faith in other words faith grows as it is written the just shall live by faith when those men i mentioned a moment ago read that all of them broke all of them came to the end of their life's pursuits and you might be here today saying i'm going to go to heaven i'm going to seek to it i'm going to go to heaven i'm going to be a good citizen i'm going to pay my taxes i'm i'm i'm never going to use my bowling words um outside of the uh the bowling alley i'm going to walk a little lady from pasadena across the street i'll keep the speed limit and you know what good for you good for you you'll be the most listen according to the bible you'll be the most moral person in hell no it's true the just shall live by faith let me tell you what it's not faith okay thanks pastor for that yeah that's a heavy verse faith faith i got faith faith faith yeah i need more faith i gotta get my faith faith faith faith faith faith faith my dear friend that's not it now look you this that's strike two you're hurting here the morality is not gonna work and you think having faith is gonna that's not it because listen you and i have been brought up in a culture just have faith brother you got faith man just show some faith come on where's your faith you've got faith it's in you bring it up it's there proclaim it that is false doctrine heresy friends faith what faith faith what do you mean faith faith that kind of faith is having faith in the seatbelt when you get on an airplane you click it because you think you're going to be safer listen when that piece of steel falls out of the sky you can un you can undo your seatbelt and suck your thumb your thumb will do better than the seat belt ain't going to save you here's the truth of the matter the just justified shall live by faith that's the book of romans answering how do we become justified in the sight of god what god has done becomes our justification faith in what he's done is the answer it's got to be all of him and none of us it's got to be that i'm going to go to heaven based solely and only upon the merits of jesus christ at the cross and i cannot come with anything else listen it's so scary that if you think that you believe that jesus christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead and you think that that is so true that it means that you now bring your life to him and say god because you died on the cross and rose again from the dead i'm going to be a very good boy or girl or man or woman and i'm going to do everything you tell me to do or what the pastors or the whoever tells me to do and did you know that you if you do that you have flunked the test you would have flunked it's faith plus nothing faith in him faith in what he's done faith in his blood faith in his righteousness faith in his salvation his redemption faith in him making you new a brand new person the moment you say i'm a pretty good person you're out you're out no no seriously you're out no one's gonna no one's gonna go up to the throne room of god and say wow god hey pretty nice place up here it's amazing that you let these people then i don't know but at least you have me here there's gonna be a big trap door open up for you you can't that's listen you know this is true because and you struggle with it i say collectively i'm not pointing to you personally he pointed right at me he pointed at me no i'm just pointing we have a hard time with this because we have a hard time with the thief of the cross he was a murderer a mugger a thief he starts out his day cussing out jesus then he's then he realizes wait a minute something's really wrong here and then he says jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and jesus says i tell you what today you're going to be with me in paradise you say i have a hard time with that yeah how come well the guy didn't give any money he didn't serve in children's ministry he didn't do the parking lot ministry [Applause] he didn't see any combat you know what i'm saying we have a hard time with that he wasn't baptized and jesus said he'll be with me in heaven he wasn't even baptized that's right that's right you see how it's rooted in us well here honey let's write a check let's write a checker let's let's dial that number up in the text and let's make sure that we give a dollar to the church we'll feel better about that keep it no no keep it it's all poison jesus said to the pharisees you hypocrites you travel land and sea to make one convert to follow your teachings and you make them twice the child of hell than you are yourselves not only will they not enter into the kingdom but neither will you he pointed to the religious leaders the book of romans will shatter listen we'll shatter our religious preconceived ideas at the same time it will shatter the box that has held you and i so so sequestered and so tight that the book of romans is going to announce to you that by faith in jesus christ we are declared righteous oh man we're not even close i what so let me give you a few verses and then we'll be done so why do why why romans 1 17 because it was first put into prince by the prophet habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4. i say put in print because abraham practiced this before habakkuk was ever born habakkuk 2 4 behold the proud his soul is not upright in him but the just shall live by faith listen that's amazing so you see these guys who are reading this they're saying wait a minute i go up the stairs luther sees the stairway he gets there he go he walks from germany he literally walked from germany to rome he goes to the stairs and he sees what's going on and luther says god's not in this he goes and tells his story to a catholic monk in rome and the catholic monk tells martin luther hey have you seen habakkuk 2-4 and he shows martin luther this and luther comes undone and you're here today by the way because that one man got saved did you know that martin luther the great reformer the just shall live by faith listen galatians paul preached this in galatia galatians 3 11 but it says but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of god is evident i mean paul just goes like this but i just tried to tell you a moment ago paul just goes like this nobody's look it is so obvious to anybody who's thinking that you cannot be justified in front of god by keeping the law mike drop he walks away rides away on this camel everybody's like what no he says for the just shall live by faith listen some of you are going to set free from this in hebrews 10 38 this we have to end with this verse hebrews 10 38 now the just shall live by faith but if any man draws back my soul has no pleasure in him you know what that means watch this the just shall live by faith i believe in all that jesus done for me and this and that he saved me watch such a sacrifice and obedience by the son of god to the father above in his redemptive work for me i put my faith in him watch i see his sacrifice in technicolor because of that i willfully decide to be his follower i will do i will go i will be whatever he wants so how can you say that because i love him yeah but aren't you afraid nope not afraid yeah but what if he he won't he can't lie yeah but what if this look in this world i belong to him well what about your rights i don't have any i'm a slave to the king yeah but don't you know you need to you need to take this into your own hands my life is in his hands well you know what you need to and this thing and you otter and i bet you you know what who can bring any charge to god's elect okay what shall man do to me the church at rome will hear and what will separate me they will hear from the love of god shall persecution sword peril separate me from the love of god he said oh the height the wet width the depth the glory the magnitude of god's love for me the church at rome or the believers in rome are going to know this you can't stop a christian who understands this well hey thanks for listening and uh we appreciate you and of course we do in this time and in this age us being together and linking up together to get the word of god out is actually ministry being fulfilled and in fact if you would like to subscribe please do so hit the subscribe button tell your friends about us and listen if you'd like to help us get this out on a broader scale you can support us by hitting on the give now button and look we're going to continue on with or without you we're inviting you to join us no pressure but if you'd like to link arms in this venture you'd be greatly appreciated so listen keep praying for us we're praying for you god bless you and we'll see you back here real soon

Channel: Real Life with Jack Hibbs

Views: 219,570

Rating: 4.9296851 out of 5

Keywords: jack hibbs, real life with jack hibbs, jack hibbs romans, jack hibbs latest, the book of romans, romans audio bible, romans bible project, romans explained verse by verse, romans explained, bible, romans, jack hibbs sermons

Id: 6y5pW0BUZx8

Length: 56min 56sec (3416 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021