Well, we are entering Hour 18 of our Learn
the Bible in 24 Hours project in which we are going
to focus on what's arguably one of the most important books in the entire Bible. It's … some people would call it the Gospel
according to Paul. The Book of Romans, the Epistle to the Romans.
And this book systematically puts, first of all, everybody on a level playing field, but
it primarily does so by removing all excuses and recourses. Now there are 13 Epistles that are assigned
to Paul. This is the first of them. We are not going to go … we've just picked
one of Paul's Epistles to take as the representative one. We've taken the most challenging one, if you
will. There will be eight others after this that
are called the Hebrew Epistles. The book of Hebrews which is unsigned. We believe it's Paul’s, but that's another
story. But the rest of these are written specifically
to the 12 Tribes. James, which is really Yackov, first and second
Peter, first, second, third John and Jude, all Jewish Epistles. Written to Jews, I mean. Then, of course, Revelation being the capstone. We are going to explore the book, the Epistle
to the Romans, the definitive Gospel according to Paul. It is the most comprehensive doctrinal book
in the New Testament. The impact on World History is unequaled by
any other book. This book dramatically changed the course
of history in the world. See, grace gradually erodes to various forms
of legalism. One of the toughest things to really get a
grasp of is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We tend to think in terms of rules and boundaries
and so forth. And grace gradually will erode into various
forms of legalism which become very vacuous. When grace becomes obscured throughout history
it leads to the Dark Ages. Very classically,
of course, the 6th through the 16th centuries which is know as the Dark Ages. It’s when grace is rediscovered that the
light shines and it changes. And “The Kingdom of Blood” is our Briefing
Pack on this. The history of the church that you may want
to acquaint yourself with. Dave Hunt and I did together. Dave Hunt’s book, “A Woman Rides the Beast”
is a classic for every serious Christian. The style of the Book of Romans is highly,
highly literate. It’s not an unlettered fisherman kind of
thing. This is the most profound writing that exists
anywhere. That’s quite a statement. But it’s the most profound writing you will
find anywhere. It has a very international outlook. Because first of all, Paul was not only a
Roman citizen, but he was well educated in both Hebrew and Greek cultures. Very deeply. This is a book that will delight the greatest
logician. It will hold the attention of the wisest of
men. And yet, it will bring the humblest soul in
tears of repentance at the feet of the Savior. A God that’s small enough for our mind would
not be big enough for our need. And the issues that Paul hits head-on in this
are the most profound issues that you will find anywhere on the planet earth. Now Paul is the new name for Saul. Paul really means “the least, the little
one.” And he really understood, perhaps more than
any of us ever will, understood the grace of God. Cause on the one hand, he declared himself,
“I am the chief of sinners.” Paul would put himself at the head of any
list of sinners, because he persecuted the church. And he so designates himself in 1st Timothy,
first letter there. Yet, he will also acknowledge that he was
the most devoutly religious man that ever lived. Paul goes through quite a thing there in Philippians
3. How he diligently was a professional law keeper. You need to understand what really lies under
this statement is that Jesus Christ was the most anti-religious person that ever walked
the planet earth. Religion started when Adam and Eve tried to
cover themselves and God showed them that by the death, by the innocent blood that they
would be covered. So God has already saved some. Paul was the greatest sinner and the most
religious person around. God has already saved one who is far worse
than you and me. Who loved Him most back there in Luke 7? The one that was forgiven the most, remember
that parable? The same kind of thing. To whom is the book written? Well, it’s written to believers. The Book of Romans is written to believers
not non-believers. It’s not preaching to the unsaved. The unsaved are never named as “God’s
beloved”. It’s written to God’s beloved, that’s
… God did not use that term of unbelievers, it was always believers. The book was designed for teaching the saints. Teaching those that are saved. I love when they say, “What is a saint? What do we mean by a saint?” Well, there’s a lot of good definitions. I’m not using the classical church definition,
that’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about saints in the Biblical sense. Donald Grey Barnhouse has a definition I like
the most. A saint is, saints are “a group of displaced
persons, uprooted from their natural home, and on their way to an extraterrestrial destination;
not of this planet, neither in its roots nor in its ideals.” In other words, we’re pilgrims. We’re just passing through. Well, there are three main sections of the
Book of Romans. The first 8 are the doctrinal sections. We’ll focus on those primarily. It’s going to give us the most complete
diagnosis of sin and salvation and sanctification. In the first 8 chapters. 3 chapters defining sin, a couple chapters
on what salvation’s requirements are, and then sanctification. Then there’s a few chapters, 3 chapters,
that have to do with Israel. You’d call them dispensational if you like. Israel past, present, and future. They will derive from that foundation, but
you’ll see that when we get there. Then the last section is the practical. Answers the “so what” question, OK. How does it affect us? So what does that mean? How should we live? And so we’ve got faith, hope, and love in
3 sections there. What do we mean by the Gospel? The gospel is not a code of ethics or morals. The gospel is not a creed to be accepted. The gospel is not a system of religion to
be adhered to. The gospel is not good advice to follow. None of these things characterize the gospel
in the Biblical sense. The gospel is a message concerning a Person
who solved a problem for not only you and I, but for God Himself. The Book of Romans is about grace. And my friend, has suggested that
grace can be considered an acronym: God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense. How can God love us without violating His
righteousness? His righteousness would demand that a penalty
be paid, and His incredible gift to us is the gift of Himself as payment of that expense. God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense. That’s the price paid so God can extend
the grace He wants to to us. The Book of Romans has the most complete and
penetrating statement of God’s Divine Plan for our redemption. Christ did not come to make bad men good;
but to give dead men life! There’s a big difference. Big difference. Remember the Prodigal Son? We all know the story of the Prodigal Son,
we don’t have to repeat that from Luke 15. Remember how the father, when the son finally
comes back home, did the father say “Oh, my son has become good”? No, that’s not what he said. No, he said “For this my son was dead, and
is alive again; he was lost, and now is found!” You see the difference? See the difference. That’s us, of course. Another point about the Prodigal Son is that
the son never lost his sonship. One of the key verses that … chapter 1 of
the Book of Romans is a profound chapter, but one of the key verses there is verse 16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek.” Or Gentile. Unto salvation. Not unto reformation, education, progress,
or development. Unto salvation. It is for a lost man and no other. Men are either in salvation or the opposite,
perdition. And that’s of course Mr. and Mrs. Man, right? I won’t get into that whole debate here. There is a trilogy that altered the course
of history. Martin Luther was a devout monk who, or practictioner
who was really obsessed with his sinfulness. And he went through all these self-inflicting
procedures of the medieval church. Still unsatisfied, still overwhelmed by his
own sinfulness. Until a monk he encounters … he finally
decides to go to Rome. Up through the Alps to Rome. And on the way there, he encountered a monk
that suggested his answer lies in the book of Habakkuk. And when he went through the book of Habakkuk,
there’s a verse the leapt out at Martin Luther - “the just shall live by faith.” And that’s when he shed, he shed all the
things that he had been doing and rediscovered the grace of God. It became the watchword for the Reformation. And that, of course, changed the history of
the world. “The just shall live by faith”. Who are the just? What does that mean? The Book of Romans deals with that question. In fact, it’s quoted in verse 17 of chapter
1 of Romans. This verse from Habakkuk 2:4. “The just shall live by faith.” Who are the just? The Book of Romans deals with justification. The just shall live how? The Book of Galations quotes this in Galations
chapter 3 verse 11. It describes how the just shall live. The just shall live by what? By faith. What do you mean by that? The Book of Hebrews deals with that. And it’s quoted in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 39 setting
the stage for chapter 11 of Hebrews which is well known as the hall of faith. We’ll deal with the Book of Hebrews when
we get there. The just shall live by faith. What fascinates me about this is that these
3 epistles are a trilogy amplifying Habakkuk 2:4. They each quote it as a cornerstone of their
epistles. So these are designed as a trilogy. That’s one of the many, many reasons I believe
the Book of Hebrews, even though it’s unsigned, was Pauline in its authorship. I think Paul deliberately did a trilogy on
Habakkuk 2:4. If it turns out Hebrews wasn’t written by
Paul, it’s even a greater miracle, because the Holy Spirit obviously has His thumbprint
all over this thing. So OK. First section of these groups is the doctrinal. The Introduction. The Plight of Pagan Man. The Moral Man. The Religious Man. In chapter 1 and 2 we have these 3 … the
pagan … every person is in one of these 3 groups. And they’re all losers. They’re all losers. They don’t make it. God’s greatest problem, then is how can He love
and reconcile these that are falling short? He does that by His Greatest Gift. His gift of paying their price, paying their
debts. Which brings, of course, the Peace of God. And then, the Death of Defeat. One of the great chapters of the Book of Romans
is chapter 6. Sin is not going to reign … it ain’t gonna
reign no more. Your power over sin, if you’re in Christ,
is there. And we call chapter 7 law school. That all leads up to the most incredible chapter
in many respects in the entire Bible, chapter 8. And we’ll show you why. The Ultimate challenge. What is the greatest thought that has ever
entered the mind of Man? There’s a challenge for a test question. Turn that in before the evening …
What is the greatest thought that has ever entered the mind of Man? Well, there’s probably a number of candidates. Daniel Webster’s is probably the best one. “My responsibility to my Maker.” Try to beat that one. Try to beat that one. See, God created man “in His own image”
we’re told, right? Well, if we are persons, so is God. And since we have personal feelings, so does
God. And if God be God, He must be the judge of
all. So we can learn a lot from just that. You must meet God as He is, not as you might
wish Him to be. We need to understand how He sees things. And that’s the challenge. You know, it’s interesting, if you’ve
ever been in a large organization, a large company, if for some reason there’s a new
president, a new guy takes over, the new boss. Everybody scrambles, well, what’s he like? Where’s he from? Is he easy? Is he hard? Or this or that? Try to find out what are his buying habits? You want to know what the guy in charge prefers. Right? Well, it’s time we did that with our guy,
find out how God sees things, not how we might wish He saw things. The first thing that you really encounter
in chapter 1 of Romans is the judgment of pagan humanity. For suppressing God’s truth. And for ignoring His revelation. And for perverting God’s glory. That’s all in chapter one. And the judgment that God announces may surprise
you. I’ve studied this for many, many years and
didn’t recognize the nature of what He puts in here. See, you and I are born here into this lost
race. We want to understand what happens when you
suppress God’s truth, ignoring His revelation and perverting His glory. You’ll be astonished to learn of what His
judgment is constituted of. Romans chapter 1 verse 20. We’re all held accountable. It says “For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Another place to look is Psalm 19. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” No one can escape that. “The firmament shows His handiwork.” And you go through … read Psalm 19. Read Psalm 8. God can hold us accountable without even picking
up a Bible. Just look around. He holds you accountable. “For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” “For this cause” get the judgment that
God pronounces on those that refuse … notice what they reject. They haven’t rejected Christ yet, we’re
not talking about doctrine of the Messiah, we’re talking about the Creation. Recognizing Him as the Creator. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile
affections: for even their females” the word is not women in the Greek, it’s females,
“even their females did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And
likewise also the males,” not men, we’re talking males. The Greek’s very crisp. “and likewise
also the males leaving the natural use of the females, burned in their lust one toward
another; males with males working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompense of their error which was meet.” I never realized that homosexuality was a
judgment of God. That amazed me. Certainly it’s a sin. There’s a choice involved, I understand
that. But there’s another aspect to this thing. Because they didn’t acknowledge Him as the
Creator, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their females
did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the males,
leaving the natural use of the females, burned in their lust one toward another; males with
males working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meet.” “And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient;” God’s judgment was abandoning them to a
depraved lifestyle. This is the Great Leveler. See, we’re all equally accountable. The plight of pagan man. The so-called moral man. Religious man. Chapter 2 will deal with those last two. So God has a problem. How can He justify unrighteous man without
violating His own nature, without violating His holiness, without violating His justice? That’s His challenge. How does He do that? By giving us the greatest gift. Chapter 3 deals with the problem. Chapter 4 … deals with the gift. You know it is interesting that even Socrates,
five centuries before Christ was born wrote to Plato saying, “it maybe that the Deity can
forgive sins, but I do not see how.” Great insight, Socrates recognized the problem,
I can’t see how…It maybe that the Deity can forgive sin but I don’t see how. He could not see how God could forgive sins
with ... somebody paying the price for it. What insight? What insight? Why did God give us the law? This will surprise you. Why do we have laws? So you'll behave better? No, so you'll behave worse. No? Yeah. Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered,
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound,” For sin to abound? That’s the opposite of our thinking. Why is the law given? To eliminate any ability of man to rationalize
away his sin nature. It’s there to show us our sin. Every time I think of … the law as
a mirror, I’m reminded of Walter Martin’s ... He was in front of an audience. He was talking about how the law is like our mirror. It shows us ourselves, but we don’t shave
with a mirror, we're shaved by grace. (laughter) That crude pun was a … Walter ... anyway, moving on. This will all be explained in Romans seven. I want to contrast two Adams, the first Adam.
By one man’s offence many died, by one Adam came judgment and condemnation. Through one man’s offence death reigned,
one man’s offence condemnation to all men. Disobedience of one many made sinners. This is all in ... these are verses from 15 through
19 of chapter 5. And as a result sin reigned and death. The last Adam, which is a title of Jesus Christ.
By one man’s free gift righteousness to many. For many offences the gift of justification.
Through one man believers reign in life. The righteousness of one, justification is
offered to all. The obedience of one, many declared righteous.
The grace reigns, eternal life in contrast to the death. The failure of the first Adam and the remedy
of the last Adam is a contrast that Paul builds in the Book of Romans. What is the sequence to maturity? We talk about spiritual maturity. Well, there's tribulation.
We know what that is. That leads to what? Perseverance. Perseverance leads to experience,
and what’s the climax? Hope. What a surprise. Through this movement to maturity your maturity
is when you live in that hope. Moment by moment continually. But there’s … you get to Roman 6. This
one is a dandy. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." You now, if you’re in Christ, you now have
the power over sin. It ain't going to reign no more and chapters
7 and 8 will detail how. What this really says "do not let sin continue
to reign." And it's present imperfect, grammatically speaking.
It's present tense, it's imperfect that means continuing. Let not sin you know, continue. How do you do that? How do you avoid that? How do you avoid sin? How do you have power over sin? By insisting that what God says is true. Dominion is now your choice, it wasn’t before. When you weren’t in Christ you were slave
to sin, you didn’t have a choice. If you’re in Christ you have a choice. It’s not a one time thing. It’s a moment by moment faith choice, not
a feeling choice, a faith choice a moment by moment, that’s the goal. And when you stumble and you will, it’s
first … remember the Christian’s bar of soap, 1 john 1:9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It’s His faithfulness we rely on, not ours. There are three tenses of being saved. We
use that term so …You know I remember I was I was at a conference once, Christian
conference and there was a ... there were some tables you know round just next to chairs.
And I went up there and said, "are these chairs saved?" The guy looked
up and says "They're not even under conviction." (laughter) But we use that term so ... anyway, there is the
... concept of having been saved, have you been saved that is from
the penalty of sin. That’s positional, Ephesians 2:8,9, "for by
grace are ye saved through faith" and so forth. That’s called justification salvation, if
you will. You’re saved from the penalty of sin. But there's is another kind of ... there’s
a present tense. You are being saved from the power of sin,
that’s operationally. From the Holy Spirit moment by moment, that’s
called sanctification. See, we use these terms…Theologians use ...
define and use these terms slightly differently. And then yet there’s the future sense of
being saved. You shall be saved. From what? From the presence of sin. That is called the redemption of our body
in Romans 8. So you can be…You have been saved positionally
and the penalty sin if you’re in Christ. You are being saved from the power of sin
operationally moment by moment if you’ll exercise that in your sanctification. And
you shall be saved in the sense, from the presence of sin future. This is all developed in the Book of Romans. Why was the law given? To expose our sin nature, to incite the sin
nature to sin no more. Sin nature cannot be reformed. To drive us to despair of self effort and
to drive us to dependence upon the Holy Spirit alone. If you're relying on your own nature you’ve lost. You need to rely on the Holy Spirit moment
by moment. Let’s contrast the law versus the Spirit. The law depends on the flesh, the Spirit depends
on God’s power. The law produces rebellion; the Spirit produces
God’s desires. The law results in more sin, the Spirit
results in righteousness. The law brings wrath, the Spirit brings joy
peace, production. The law is not by faith, the Spirit is by
faith. These are all excerpts from Paul’s other epistles. The law kills the Spirit gives life, that’s
the difference. But let’s get…There’s one chapter in
Book of Romans I ... we just have to ... I can’t resist focusing on and that’s
chapter 8. This is the dessert, if you will, especially of
the first section doctrinal. Romans 8 deals with deliverance from the
flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. It deals with the realization of our sonship
by the Holy Spirit’s inner witness. Don’t dismiss this sonship thing as
just a theological issue. The word "son of God" in the Bible refers to a direct creation of God, the ... Benai HaElohim in the Old Testament
is a term of angels, a direct creation of God. Adam was a direct creation of God, you and
I are not. We are descendants of Adam, unless we’re in Christ. In fact that's even emphasized in John chapter
1 verse 11 and 12. "He came unto his own but his own received
him not, but to them that received him, to them gave He the power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name." In other words, that's what we mean by regeneration.
If you’re in Christ, you are a new Creation. You are no longer a creation,
you still have a body from Adam, but you have ... you’re a new creation in God’s eyes so … And that’s
also maturity … this whole idea of adoption is also ... You need to ... we won't take the time to develop that, but you need to understand the concept of adoption is when a son became entitled to the inheritance.
And you need to understand that. And also the preservation in suffering by the
power of the Holy Spirit. You’re preserved in suffering that ‘s
a growth thing, we'll talk about that in a minute. But you get to chapter 8 verses 31 to 39 you have a hymn of praise for victory, that’s unequal to anywhere else in the Bible. It deals with God’s logic
of our security, and we’ll take a look at that. Romans 8 opens with no possibility of
condemnation. The first verse in Romans 8, “there is therefore now no condemnation to
them who are in Christ Jesus,” right? And the chapter closes with no possibility of separation. Boy, that’s some pretty interesting book ends! Let’s take a look at this chapter. “There is therefore now no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for
sin, condemns sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” First 4 verses. Great opening, great opening. Chapter 5 dealt with the law, chapter 8
with victory. Chapter 5 was the summation of the saving work of Jesus Christ, chapter
8 is the summation of what Christ did to provide victory. Five was the justification,
that is being declared righteous by faith is forever, the Godly life in chapter 8 is insured
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 5 our performance is based on the understanding
of God’s love, chapter 8 our performance is based on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 5 it reveals our relationship to God, chapter 8 reveals our relationship
to the world, conflict, and the flesh. The Holy Spirit is mentioned only once in
chapter 5. The Holy Spirit is available to us to give us assured victory all through
chapter 8. Chapter 5 is the capstone of our salvation in Christ, chapter 8 is the
capstone of our victory in Christ, there’s a difference. Now that raises another question,
why do Christians have trials then? Well, first to glorify God. Daniel 8. Remember the
three young men in the firey furnace? Why were they there? To glorify God. Which indeed they did. You can find many other examples. Another reason you have trials is to have discipline.
As discipline for known sin. If you’ve got sin in your life God may use trials as a way of taking you to the woodshed. That’s not the only reason, but it’s one of ten.
Another reason we have trials is to prevent us from falling into sin. There’s examples
of that in 1 Peter 4 and else where. Perhaps one of the most important trials we have
is to keep us from pride. God hates pride. That’s why ... He hates pride, because that’s
how sin entered into Satan to begin with. Watch out for pride. And we’re all victims.
Be careful. Another reason is to build faith. 1 Peter 1 talks about that. Another reason we
have trials is to cause growth. Do you know when a sailor learns to sail is in a storm not on a good sunny afternoon. Another reason you have trials is to teach obedience and discipline. Perhaps one of the most provocative ones is number 8, to equip us to comfort others. Are you going through a very unique trial? Maybe God is putting you through that to equip
you to minister to somebody with a like problem. Is it a marital problem, a financial problem,
whatever? If you’re going through that kind of a trial, one of the reasons you might be going through it is to equip you to minister to others. Maybe you’re gain some expertise
in chapter seven that some other ... somebody else can benefit by or whatever.
To equip us to comfort others. Another reason we have trials is to prove
the reality of Christ in us. And perhaps the most mysterious of them all is for the testimony to the angels. We know that the angels learn by watching us. God chooses to reveal His
plan to the angels through us. We find hints of that, not just in Job 1 but also Ephesians 3 and 1 Peter 1, you’ll find allusions to that. But here we go. From Romans chapter 8 verse 28 to 39, this is my favorite passage in the scripture. In fact, Romans 8:28, you might want to put a tab on that page. I … There are times when almost once a day
I’ll check to make sure it’s still there. OK? Romans 8, let’s start with just
verse 28, "and we know that all things work together" for everyone? No, no, no. "we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose." Whoowee! "all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." The question is what’s the
three most important words in that verse? One of the most important words in that verse,
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are
the called according to His purpose." I want to suggest to you the first three. We don’t
hope, we don’t suspect. No, no, no. "and we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." That's
where the comfort and strength that verse comes from is your confidence that we know
that. If so, what follows? Let’s take a look here. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of the son that he might be the first born among
many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. There is a four step process: predestinate,
called, justified and glorified. Abraham was predestined, Isaac in his seed was called, Jacob was justified. If God
can justify that conniver, He can justify any of us, and, of course, Joseph was glorified.
Predestinated, called, justified glorified. To the four patriarchs we have that model
which leads to the classical paradox, faith versus predestination, faith or predestination
versus free will, you know. Philosophy books are manifold of the whole
dilemma. You know, if things are predicted does that mean they're optional or are they locked
in concrete? Judas betrayed Christ, it was predicted in Psalms 41:9. Did he have a choice?
Interesting question isn’t it? That’s the paradox isn’t it? Because both are true. Predestination is true and so is
the free will. See it’s a problem that you and I should not be faced with, thanks to
the discovery of modern science, because we know today that time itself is a physical property.
God is outside time. This is only a paradox when viewed within time. That’s
why we spent so much time at the beginning of these series to spend some grounding in
the nature of the time domain. And if that is confusing to you, go back and check those
out in early Genesis ... we, and there’re in several places in these studies we’ve
touched on this. God is outside the constraints of the physical universe of time. He alone knows the end from the beginning.
This is a paradox only when viewed from within the time domain. Step outside that and the
problem goes away. The paradox only exists from within…when viewed from within the
time domain. Paul goes on and says "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He
that spared not his own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?
It is God that justifieth." What does he mean by that? Our defense council is the prosecutor.
We got it wired gang. "Who is he that condemneth us? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." In other
words, the judge is our defense counsel and He is making our petitions for us. Awesome,
the fix is in. He continues, "Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or
peril, or sword as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us." Sometime get a concordance and look up all the "more than" sentences in
the scripture. More than this I mean, we’re more than conquerors, this is one of them,
there are others. And you get to the big finish here, I love this. Paul says,
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Oh, boy. Period. Carriage return. Pause. Man.
Well, let’s get to the second section, there’s a little trilogy here in the middle of the
book on Israel. Romans 9 Israel’s past, Romans 10 Israel’s present and Romans
11 Israel’s future. There’re other three chapters trilogies throughout the Bible. You
have the three…The sermon of the mount is actually a trilogy in Mathew 5, 6 and
7. And the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. The second coming in Zachariah
12, 13 and 14 ... there’s others. This little trilogy is the issue of Israel as distinct
from the church. Don’t let anyone sell you that the church is Israel now and vice versa.
No, nonsense. And that’s tragic because there are many, many prominent authors and churches
and so forth that have no grasp of God’s commitment to Israel despite the repeated
commitments in the Old and New Testament. To deny that is to call God a liar. Be careful.
There’re many places in scripture you can have different views especially in eschatology,
that is the study of the last things. People have slightly different views, that fine. But be
careful that you don’t adopt a view that ends up making God a liar. Be careful. Don’t
impugn the character of God in your views. But this does raise a question that these chapters
try to deal with. If God is so faithful to His word, as we’ve just surveyed in Roman’s
8, that none can be condemned that He has justified and that none in Him can be
separated. That’s the pitch we’ve heard, right? Then why have the Israelites who were
sovereignly chosen and given unconditional promises, completely failed and then been
rejected? See the problem, this would sound like a rebuttle to everything that's gone before.
And that’s what Paul deals with. Where does a Jew go? See, there’s also a problem of
how gentiles are to relate to Jews. Not only how Jews should relate to gentiles, how gentiles
should relate to Jews. If circumcision is of no value without faith,
then what advantage has the Jew? What is the benefit of circumcision? And when I say circumcision,
I include all the ceremonial accouterments there. This is the same question that was
underlying Acts 15 and it’s answered in Romans 9, 10 and 11. From Genesis 12 to
Acts chapter 2, it’s all about Israel and the whole point of those chapters is that
God keeps His promises. And despite Israel’s failures, those promises will be kept nationally
not just individually. You see, you and I need a doctrinal understanding
not just a devotional understanding. Most of us in this room, I think, have a devotional
understanding at some level, but at the same time we also need to have a doctrinal understanding
of the word of God. The Abrahamic covenant that we emphasized
back in chapter twelve, go back and review that when you get a chance. Every benefit you
and I have before God derives from His commitment to Abraham. I’ll make of thee a great…There
were seven elements, remember, I’ll make thee great nation, I’ll bless thee, I’ll make thy
name great, thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse
them that curseth thee and in thee, in Abraham shall all families of the earth be blessed
not just the Jews. If you are in Christ you’re grafted in,
you’re grafted in. That covenant was unconditional. It is very important to understand this, because
the world at the moment is challenging that covenant. All the tensions in the Middle East
are challenges to God’s land grant to Abraham. That was a divinely ordered ritual
where the participants in those days would divide a sacrifice and then repeat the terms
of the covenant they agreed to as they walked through it. What God said…As Abraham set
that all up, divides the sacrifice and the idea was that the participants would walk
through it, figure eight repeating the terms of the covenant that was the way they did things in
those days. Except here, before it is set up, God put Abraham in a deep sleep, he can’t
walk through. What’s His point, God went through it in form of a torch and so forth.
He goes it alone to demonstrate that this commitment is unilateral, this…it's unconditional.
The terms of this covenant were declared eternal and unconditional. It was reconfirmed by an oath
in Genesis 22 and elsewhere. It was reconfirmed to Isaac and to Jacob, and incidentally, when
it was done they were in acts of disobedience, that is Genesis 26 and elsewhere. And the New Testament declares it unchangeable,
immutable, the Covenant of Abraham. Very important to understand that that stands and our benefits
derive from its certainly. There’s no other promise like that to any other people. That’s
unique. You need to understand that. How do we get our benefit? We rely on our derivative
benefit from the Root of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, none other than Jesus
Christ. You and I derive all our benefits in terms of a Jewish Messiah. If we have that
great, what good is it to be a Jew? What’s the blessing of a Jew? Well, first of all
they received the words of God, that’s what Romans 3 emphasized. They are called Israelites
which means "the Princes of God" Genesis 32. They are adopted as sons not just genealogically
but also by adoption in Deuteronomy 7 and glory in Exodus 24. And through all the covenants,
those are all benefits. The giving of the law was through them, the
temple service and priesthood is modeled thought them. All the special promises of the future
kingdom, ruling the world, they will rule the world from Israel, Mount Zion, the world
will be politically ruled from there when the time comes. And they also have the blessing
of the fathers in the faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth. And the Messiah, ultimately
the Messiah would come from them and that’s the big one. They will be blinded though, remember when
he rode the donkey in Je…we went through that so often, the donkey rode, when Jesus
rode the donkey through Jerusalem, He wept. He said, “Because you do not recognize ... this thy day,
things are hidden from thy sight,” for how long? Paul in Romans tells us how long.
Paul says, “For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery lest
ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until
the fullness of the gentiles be come in.” watch these "untils," they're milestones, until
the fullness of Gentile come in. Don’t confuse the fullness of the gentiles with the times
of the gentiles. The fullness of the gentiles is the completeness of the church and I really
love this, this implies that there’s a number, a specific number when it’s complete, the
church is complete. When that number is reached the Father will say to the Son ... the Son
is now sitting on the Father’s throne, right? When that number is complete the Father will
say to the Son, “Go get them.” And He will gather His own. That doesn’t end God’s plan, there’s
much more coming, but that closes a certain dispensation, if you will. Well,
yeah, there’s a finite number. Not a finite date, a finite number. When that number
is reached it’s over. Now, that intrigues me, because that means there’s a counter somewhere
in heaven that keeps track of how full that fullness is, right? And when it’s full, its over.
The Son hears "go get them," and Satan knows he has but little time. This is interesting. Satan doesn’t know what the number is, and
he doesn’t know what its goal is. But he knows there’s a finite number and it’s approaching
that. Every time somebody trusts Jesus Christ as their Savior, a counter in heaven goes click.
Another one, click. There’s a counter keeping tabs. In India there’s 100 million people
that listen to the Christian broadcasts there. They have 4 million decisions last year. There’s
a lot going on there. Something like 18,000 pastors planting 13 churches a week. Exciting
stuff going on. That counter is speeding up. What intrigues me about this is, Satan
doesn’t know that when that counter clicks next he knows he has but little time. It changes,
he’s ... it opens a window of opportunity. He’s got to move and move fast. But he doesn’t
know when that is. Every time that somebody accepts Christ he’s shook. Do you realize that Satan has been in shock treatment for 1900 years? (laughter) The other side, you know, there maybe somebody
in this room that is yet to discover Jesus Christ which, when you do accept Christ, you
might be that last one. We really wish you would get it together, because we would like
to get out of here, okay? There’s a prerequisite to the Second Coming, not to the Rapture - that
can happen at any moment, but there’s a prerequisite to the Second Coming. Hosea 5:15 highlights
it, where God says, “I will go and return to my place,” He can't return if He
hasn’t left it, huh? "I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence
and seek my face in their affliction, they will seek me earnestly." And we talked about
that in Hosea, that's by way of review, but let’s ... the word…here’s another these "untils."
There are three "untils" in the restoration of Israel. The first condition is that the fullness of
the gentiles be brought in, we just talked about that. The second one is they have to
acknowledge their offence. The third condition is until the time of the gentiles are fulfilled.
The times of the gentiles start, the times not the fullness, the times of the gentiles
started with Nebuchadnezzar, and they complete with the antichrist. Three conditions. Well,
let’s see. The final section of the Book of Romans is five chapters on ... that ask the "so what" question. Our responsibilities. From gifts, from civil responsibilities,
Christian maturity, unity within the body, and personal greetings. You know, there’re only two world views.
We covered this in the beginning but this ties it together. We’re either an accident
of random chance with no destiny, or we are the result of deliberate and purposeful creation.
One or the other. There aren’t any other … alternatives. And out of this come more questions of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And to whom am
I accountable? These … our answers to these four questions will derive from which of those
two world views we have. Every answer to every question will derive from your world view. It’s interesting in Genesis, the first 11
verses, the first section of Genesis we had the personal volition, free will established
to freedom to choose your own destiny. Marriage was established, or the model of ... God’s model
for intimacy. And the family, the most important element or segment of our society, and, of course,
human government. And Romans 13 gets into the human government thing. We need to understand
that there’s no vocabulary in the New Testament for a representative government. They were
used to do ... they were used to monarchies, in effect. We have a strange kind of responsibility,
because the people who run this country are our employees. We have responsibility before
God, and a very unique opportunity and responsibility. What Romans 13 deals with ... you
know, ... that rulers are to be a terror to evil works. What happens when they’re a terror
to good works? Therein lies the challenge. We have a dual citizenship and we need to
understand that. Lets talk about maturity. If you squeeze lemon you get what? Lemon juice, right? You squeeze an orange,
you get orange juice, right? If you sq … what do you get if you squeeze a Christian? You should
get Christ. Peter Drucker is one of the outstanding authors in the management literature.
Anybody that's been in professional management knows the writings of Peter Drucker, and he’s
quite an interesting guy, but somebody asked him once, “Are you a Christian?” He felt
that he was by a number of things he said without him getting into any theology. He had
a great answer, he said “that’s for you to tell me?” Oo, I like that. Chuck, are you a
Christian? I don’t know. You tell me, am I? I like that. Romans 14 talks about spiritual maturity in
a surprising way. Some advice here, it says "him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to
doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth
herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth
not judge him that eateth: for God has received him." What he's talking about here is some people, you know, don’t eat meat for religious reasons. Others are, you know, some are vegetarians, some
will eat anything. Fine, either way, don’t let one disparage the other, that’s what he
saying, right? But I want you to notice something subtle here. Who’s the one that is weak
in the faith? The one that is living by rules, see. One believeth that he may eat all things,
anything’s all right. Another who is weak eateth herbs, limits himself to herbs. You see, it’s
the person that’s trying to bound themselves with rules that’s weaker in faith. That's why
he needs the rules. It’s a very subtle thing, but notice what’s he’s saying, “Let
not him that eateth despise that he eateth and so forth,” and it goes on here, see the
inversion of perspective. The person that’s weak is oriented to legalistic externals.
Keeping the sabbath, watching a kosher diet or whatever. Those are rules. It doesn’t
mean they are bad. My wife and I try to keep the Sabbath. We celebrate with a Messianic
Jew on Friday night. A little pot luck dinner and a Bible study and so forth. We have ... but we don’t keep the Sabbath in a Jewish sense. No, no, we’re ... no rule, we ... we keep the Sabbath because we noticed that in the millennium ... the temple
will only be open on shabbat and the new moon. All nations are going to go up to Jerusalem
to worship on shabbat and the feast of tabernacles. So there isn’t anywhere in the
Bible that Sunday replaced Saturday, that’s not the point. We worship on Sunday
because we're celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection. That's fine. No problem with that. For ourselves
… we are trying to avail ourselves of the blessing that God has.
He has rules that He has suggested that enrich our lives. So my wife and I do ... we have three rules.
We agree to do whatever we are going to do together. Whatever we do, we do it deliberately
and we also do together. And the third rule is there are no other rules. So don’t
keep the Sabbath in Jewish sense, we keep the Sabbath in a sense of Genesis 2. But
the main point is ... we are not orient to a legalistic externals, but we've just discovered
what a blessing that can be. See, the one’s that are weak are oriented to
the legalistic externals, but the ones that are strong have full liberty in Christ. They are not measured by what we give up.
People say ... come up to me, “Chuck is it okay for Christians to smoke or to dance,
or whatever?” Fill in the blank with what ever you like. That’s not the question they
should be asking. That question demonstrates a lack of faith. No understanding of our
liberty in Christ. Now our liberty in Christ doesn’t give us a license to sin. There is a little
different issue, but we need to understand the difference between faith and the law. See, Romans 14 "one man esteemeth one day
above another: another esteemeth everyday alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the
day, to the Lord doth he not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord for he giveth
God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks." Love this.
Colossians, in Paul’s epistle to the Colossians he says a similar thing. Colossians 2 he says “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or
of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body
is of Christ.“ See, all these thing are instructive. There's no greater blessing for a
Christian than to discover the prophetic significance of the Jewish things even Hanukkah.
It's in John 10:22 for those who want to look it up. Doesn't mean you keep them in the sense of rigid ... laws and rules. Those are just to be instructional. You have liberty in Christ. He is the fulfillment.
Everything is prophetic of Christ anyway. Romans 15:4 is also a verse that’s very,
very precious because it demonstrates, it certifies, if you will, the integrated purposeful
design of the total package, “For whatsoever things…” How much of the Bible does that
include? Just the New Testament? Just the Old Testament? No, “For whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through the patience" or perseverance "and comfort" or encouragement "of the scriptures might have hope.” Whatsoever things, so when you wade through those tedious chapters of Levitcus, know that if you’re diligent and peek behind them, there are treasures.
Every detail, every word in the scripture was there deliberately by design. And once
you discover that for yourself, that doesn't mean you unravel all of them. That’s a lifetime thing. But the more you unravel them and realize they're all there with a purpose. That it’s
all like ... it’s like a huge tapestry and some of it ... you can get too close to
the threads to really understand the total design. Stand back and see how it’s all
put together, you realize you are dealing with a masterpiece. In which every detail,
every thread in it is deliberately there for a purpose. Master craftsman. Now the rest of the book ... near the end of
the book you have personal greetings. There’re more personal greatings in the Book of Romans
than any other epistle. There's over 33 by name plus others. And they include some that are
slaves and some that are royalty. The whole span is there. Now somebody says, who wrote
the Book of ... if you want to challenge one of your friends at Bible study and say, "who wrote
the Books of Romans?" Wasn’t Paul. It was Tertius. He was his amanuensis. It
was written by Tertius for Paul. Paul dictated it, okay. Amanuesis is like a secretary, okay. See, professional secretaries were common those days. Many people there were very bright but maybe not literate in usual sense. Some were not literate at all. Some, even though they were skilled, they had ... that’s what we mean by manuscripts. Hand written. Manuscripts, that’s where it comes from,
okay? Romans was written by Tertius. 1 Corinthians
by Sosthenes. 2 Corinthians by Timothy. Phillipians and Colossians by Timothy. 2 Thessalonians by Sylvanus, Philemon
by Timothy, 1 Peter by Sylavanus. Read Second Peter and compare it to 1 Peter in Greek.
You can’t believe the difference. Peter’s Greek the second letter is crude by comparison.
First peter is polished, because it was done by a professional. These were secretaries,
stenographers in effect. Not everbody was like Mathew who took shorthand. I'm not saying they
necessarily took shorthand, but they were professional public stenographers. They may have ... indulged in that for themselves, I have…I don’t know the technology there. Well we’ve gone through Romans. Remaining,
there are ... of these 13 are 12 others and we will take 10 of them, subsequently
all in one session. We won't go into this much detail, we’ll just highlight these main … elements
of some of these. We will leave first and second Thessalonians for later because ... when we get to, I think it's Hour 21, we’ll have a review of escatology and we’ll
focus on those eschatological epistles as part of that review. Because we’ll have
our hands full next time skimming through these, the other Pauline epistles. The session
after that we’ll take Heb … we’ll take the Book of Hebrews as the exemplar and then we’ll
talk about the Hebrew epistles. And, of course, we are setting our selves up for a review of
eschatology. And then we’ll also budget three sessions for the Book of Revelation. ... Okay. So we have Romans definitive doctrines that we’ve
gone through. Corinthians will be order in the church. Galatians law versus grace. Ephesians deals with the heavenlies. There's some surprising, breath-taking things in Ephesians.
Philippians Joy through suffering. Colossians Christ is preeminent above all things. Thessalonians
are the eschatological ... eschatology simply being a fancy word for the study of the end
times. Last things. So the Second Coming primarily is the focus of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. The 2 letters of Timothy are Paul's advice as a pastor. Titus same thing. Philemon is inter… you get the whole grasp of what intercession is by this little, tiny little
epistle called Philemon. We'll obviously summarize that next time. Let’s stand for a closing word of prayer.
