Romans (Session 1) Chapter 1:1-7

[Music] let's do something radical let's blow forward a prayer heavenly father we thank you for this opportunity and we thank you especially for this incredible letter that you have delivered to us through the pen of paul we pray father for this session that you might open our hearts and lives to what you have to say to us as we just commit ourselves to you this night in jesus name amen the epistle to the romans now whether you realize it or not this is regarded by many experts as probably the most profound piece of writing in existence and it's probably one of the most challenging books in the entire bible epistle of romans and it's going to reveal something that's easy to say but not easy to really understand the grace of god the grace of god revealed and we're just we're going to look at just the first few verses as we get started here book of romans the theme the grace of god revealed and if i give you a written quiz right now and what is the grace of god and you filled it out at the end of the sessions i ask you the same assignment i think you'd find no comparison between our conceptions going in and what we'll learn in the next number of sessions on the one hand it's god's righteousness and there's one book in the bible devoted to god's righteousness that most of us don't study book of leviticus is on his holiness his righteousness that's not the problem it's our iniquity and the gulf between his righteousness and our iniquity and what he presents to us is his remedy for that gulf and it's through grace glibly said often preached on but profoundly challenging in fact socrates in 500 bc wrote to plato an interesting statement he said it may be that deity can forgive sins but i do not see how profound statement that shows great understanding the deity apparently did he can forgive sins but socrates understood enough about it to realize it apparently is impossible and we'll explore that now i'm going to try as you most of you realize on all of these commentaries that i assemble are really compilations as i peruse you know the best that i can find and glean what i can from other writers but it may surprise you that one of the scholars that i value the highest in his theology in this area is hal lindsey most of you know that name is hal lindsey the the expert in prophecy and indeed he has that image but many unless you know him personally you may not realize that his longest suit in my opinion is the book of romans he's a 35-year greek scholar and he he minds this treasure like few others do and he has a interesting acronym that i want to share with you right up front grace he treats it as an acronym god's riches at christ's expense we're going to discover that nothing less than the sacrifice of jesus christ is what it took to bridge this gulf between our sinfulness and god's holiness sounds simple to say but we're going to explore all of that as we go so i i draw on hal's acronym and much of our insights and background i've gleaned by my fellowship with him over the years so it's interesting to look at the bible and realize that it it starts off with five books the torah as the jews call it the pentateuch as the greeks would call it the five books of moses a pivotal spot the new testament's the same way there's five historical books up front matthew mark luke and two volumes and john second volume of luke we call the book of acts but and they and many people believe those two volumes are written as the legally required precedent documents for an appeal to caesar and there's reasons they that some scholars have come to that conclusion it's interesting the book of acts ends with paul going to rome from acts 15 on no one else has mentioned there's lots of other things mentioned philip and peter and whatever but from facts 15 on it's all paul and it finishes with paul on his way to rome back to acts 27 has so much seamanship detail we were able to find the actual anchors that were cut loose during that storm but since that he it ends with paul in rome his epistle to the romans then is in a sense a natural continuation of the book of acts as for that reason it's placed that way in our collection that we call the new testament and now the role of this book many people call it the definitive gospel according to paul we had the four gospels the eyewitness accounts in one sense but it took this it's interesting how god called a genius to this task we have these unlettered fishermen the disciples colorful characters were endeared to them for many reasons and their documents that are left behind are god breathed thank goodness and yet god picks a person who was an expert in judaism taught by gamaliel himself on the one hand but also from a wealthy background and had the best schools in greek also in his letters and in in acts he quotes from three of the ancient uh pagan prophet uh poets he had he had a deep background in the secular education of that day brilliant brilliant mind and there are many that believe the writings of paul are unexcelled in the english language or ex excel in any other documents that we have in english the most comprehensive book in the old in the new testament and many call it the most profound of all literature now that's quite a statement and i'm here not here to defend that you just encounter it frequently by people who understand the book so we're going to be challenged this is not casual stuff and yet it'll impact every one of us the impact of this book on western civilization is unequaled many people don't realize that and i'll explain why in a minute because it represents the grace of god it's interesting as you study the history of the church how this teaching of grace that started off great gradually erodes to legalism the grace of god was to free us from bondage but see religion properly defined is man's attempt to reconcile himself to god and all forms of religion are bondage pagans of course by bondage but even we christian religions tend to put us under bondage to these rules or those rules whatever don't do this and don't do that no that's not grace that's bondage grace will gradually if left alone if not understood if not nurtured will degenerate into legalism in fact the years from 590 called the sixth century on through the 16th century for a thousand years we call that period the dark ages partly because the bible is not readily available but also because grace was not taught it became years of religion the medieval church was religious jesus christ was the most anti-religious person that ever walked the face of the earth of course grace becomes obscured and to really understand that you need to do a study of the history of the church from those early centuries to the present day and if you get a good history that it will shock you to discover the abuse that was put on people under the banner of christ we need to understand that but let's we'll move on here in 1483 in isolab and saxony a baby boy was born to a poor coal miner and he observed the poverty of his father decided that was not for him so he decides to become a lawyer in 1501 he entered the university of erfurt in 1504 near the end of his studies an event took place that changed his life it was a thunderstorm and while walking across the campus lightning landed all around him so much it shook him so badly that he fell on his face in fear and he made a rash covenant i won't ask for a show of hands how many of us have done something like that when you're really really in trouble you make some kind of promise that you can't possibly keep normally and if god would deliver him he would become a monk that was his concept of extremis i guess all right so he withdrew from law school and took up theology in the justinian monastery and he ended up getting a doctorate but as he did he became obsessed with how a man can find favor with god he understood enough to realize that that was a challenge god is holy how can man possibly find favor with a holy god as he understood sinfulness and in search of peace he devoted himself exceedingly to pious things the kind of lifestyle in those days that was associated with that he took long fasts sometimes 15 days without eating and so forth he'd sleep outside in freezing weather with no blanket he beat his body until bleeding this was something that was commonly done in religious observance in those days he went to confession so often that his abbot said either go commit a sin worth confessing or stop bothering me well in 1509 he finally decides to make a pilgrimage to rome in the hope of finding this fighting piece he's really troubled he went on foot can you imagine going from rome to i mean from germany to to rome uh across the alps nearly died of exposure and while in the monastery there at the foot of the mountains they nursed him back to health and there was a monk that encouraged him to reflect on habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4. that verse was to change his life and so he habakkuk you see was a struggler with the same problem that this our young friend had and if god is good why does he allow suffering how many of you ever wondered about that that's not a new topic right it's a it's a proverbial one if there really is a devil why doesn't god just obliterate him that seems so obvious to us not understanding the whole picture so he prayed intensely for answers as questions and a phrase from habit 2 4 continued to haunt him the key phrase is the just shall live by faith he couldn't get it out of his mind sometimes there's just a verse in the scripture that will haunt us the more we look at it the more the deeper it cuts well he went to finally got to rome and one of the things that they did there the lateran staircase there was a set of stairs the inside of which were supposed to be especially holy and and pilgrims would torture themselves in effect caught going kneeling knee by knee by knee going up those stairs because if they did they'd get indulgences but as he watched all this going on this phrase kept driving home the just shall live by faith and so he didn't he just left he he washed his hands that went home back to the university of wittenberg and he explored in more serious terms this idea of justification by faith the just shall live by faith and october 31st deliberately the day that we consider halloween what was called you know all hallows eve and so forth it was on that day he deliberately chose he drove a stake into the heart of the prevailing pagan concepts that had taken over the church and he published his 95 thesis on the door of the wittenberg chapel his intent was to have a reform he didn't anticipate what subsequently happened of course his name is martin luther and he was seeking to reform the church the church leadership didn't buy that fortunately a large number of the german princes sided with him and protected him from death he was excommunicated by the official church as a heretic but his life was spared because he had enough support from the german princes he went on to write commentaries that today are classics he wrote hymns like a mighty fortress is our god and by the way if you ever sing that hymn don't just sing the first verse it fascinates me to travel in my christian in five decades how often a church will sing a mighty fortress is our god and they just they sing verse one which ends with satan being the victor earth is not his equal really you gotta get all four verses if you get the point of it he also translated the bible into german and that's a classic that remains to this day as a masterpiece in german i might put a small footnote here he also wrote some astonishing anti-semitic things that are a great great embarrassment to to lutherans if they're usually buried but they you need to understand that there's there there were some things here that they're not proud of but he did do an incredible job here habakkuk 2 4 that verse many people are surprised to learn is the core verse for three of the epistles a trilogy if you will the just shall live by faith who are the just who are they that's what the book of romans is going to deal with and that verse will be the pivotal verse in verse 17 of the first chapter we'll get to that next session the just you'll live how shall they live that's what the book of galatians deals with in galatians chapter 3 it uses that verse as the as the the key linkage here and the just shall live by faith who's that well that's what the book of hebrews right it deals with and i find this interesting because this verse is quoted as a key verse in all three epistles there they are a trilogy on habakkuk 2 4. and it's the cornerstone now this to me indicates that paul wrote hebrews hebrews many scholars attack hebrews as maybe written by somebody else and it may have been but i'm among those that believe it was written by paul for a number of reasons but this is probably the main one and there are debates on this but i think paul wrote the book of hebrews and for this reason and so the obviously the book of romans becomes the cornerstone of the entire reformation along with galatians incidentally and so and it's hard to summarize how to uh to summarize how the the book of romans impacted was western civilization because it was the cornerstone for the reformation which changed the face of europe changed the face of of the theological landscape book of romans and rediscovering god's grace and that's what we're all about in reviewing this book now paul is the author of the book of romans many of these books as you get into commentaries there's various wise guys in the past that say well so and so didn't really write that book and so forth there's none of that about romans there's no one that no one's serious that disputes paul is the author and even the ancient heretics admitted that romans was written by paul by the way and so the 19th century and the so-called german critics the higher critics as they call themselves who denied many other facts and scriptures they don't argue about romans by the way you'll notice if you look carefully he did not address it to the church at rome i think that's very very profound and he addressed it to the believers in rome not to the church in rome and that church did exist in rome is obvious because paul sends all kinds of greetings to the house churches that are scattered all through rome we'll see a number of them especially in the last chapter of this epistle 28 different individual people addressed house churches not an organized church and these are not people that he did not found that group of believers in the direct sense he probably did in an indirect sense because many of them were those that were at pentecost visiting that were uh converted there and went back home and took their beliefs with them so in that sense the seeds were planted but so he addresses this to the saints not the church in other words to the individuals and now the church of rome as individuals and where did that church probably come from well acts chapter 2 speaks of visitors from rome at the the events of pentecost the crowd that was there that witnessed the miracle of pentecost heard peter's sermon and some of them were probably among the 3000 then that converts and returned to roma's believers in jesus christ to propagate their faith and so the churches were founded not by paul in the direct sense but by other believers just like you and me you and me should be founding churches just as they did in homes in small groups inquiring studying sharing so this was not a church foundation you look at some of the other churches that are other epistles they're written to churches he founded no not this one he knew of them but he wrote them see the other believers migrated to rome a kill and priscilla were good examples they lived in italy before acts 18 mentions that then they apparently moved back home when it was they were they left there when they were being persecuted but when they had a chance they went back and phoebe apparently was there on business and apparently was the courier for this letter so her return to italy may have been the occasion that he actually penned this but we'll get into that when we get to chapter 16. but there are 28 people named what's interesting to me there's one that's conspicuous by not being named where's peter i thought peter was the big guy in rome that's a catholic tradition peter writes from babylon and many people think that's encrypted or a code no babylon was a major jewish center that's where the babylonian talmud which is a town there's two talmuds in the jewish community that the jerusalem talmud as they call it which wasn't written jerusalem was written in tiberius but that's third to the third to the fifth century and the babylonian talmud which is more considered more authoritative than the first one because the academy there lasted long it was in babylon so i didn't say it peter didn't go to rome but it's clear that paul didn't include peter in his perspective of rome in his day interesting because peter's ministry was to jews paul's ministry was to the gentiles many of the believers in rome were paul's converts though from other experiences and he the important point for us to keep in mind as we go through this letter is paul is writing to believers this is not written to non-believers to get him to convert no he's presuming that his readership are people who have accepted christ he's writing to believers that's going to be important for us to understand as we go and he's not preaching to the converted he's teaching what salva he's not preaching he's teaching and he's about what salvation is really all about and he though he never mentions it he apparently did write it from corinth he makes sancria is the harbor the eastern harbor of of corinth and that's alluded to in chapter 16. he apparently wrote this at the close of his third missionary journey just before returning to jerusalem because he had offerings from macedonia and aca for the poor believers he's taken back to jerusalem and after leaving corinth he was in philippi during the passover and the feast of unleavened bread which are adjacent to each other and he desired to reach jerusalem by pentecost which would be 40 50 days later that's all in acts 20. so we infer that this letter was probably written in the late winter or early spring of ad57 or 58 as a general consensus it wouldn't surprise me to find it maybe even a little earlier than that but all right but here's the thing that shocks me as i canvass the various commentaries it's widely regarded as the most profound writing available anywhere so just let's understand that we're going to jump into some deep water especially in chapters three four and five seven it's going to be deep stuff it has an international outlook because see paul was a roman citizen he knew both hebrew and greek cultures history religion philosophy poetry science music what have you paul was a man of letters in both cultures both hebrew and greek cultures and yet he's a hebrew of hebrews born in tarsus cilicia and wealthy background studied under gamaliel in jerusalem so this book is regarded as one that will delight the greatest logician the most profound thinker among us will be delighted with this book on the one hand it'll hold the attention of the wisest of men but it'll bring the humblest soul to the feet of the savior to be prepared for a real trip on this one and one phrase i picked up i really enjoy a god small enough for our mind would not be big enough for our need and that's the tension that's going to be through this entire uh excursion we're going to indulge here the outline of the book's pretty straightforward the first eight chapters define sin both sin salvation and sanctification the first three chapters of this book are probably the most complete diagnosis of sin this disease that you and i inherit genetically that you'll find anywhere in writing and that will lead to lead to the real concept what is salvation all about and the part that we often vaguely understand is this issue of sanctification sanctification fancy word what does it really mean my wife and i are in the middle of doing a book that basically has the premise that most christians have no concept of what sanctification requires of us and uh um our pretentive title will be the kingdom the power and the glory recognizing most people have no idea what those three words mean my subtitle of that book will be the overcomers handbook gee we're saved praise god we celebrate that like it's a uh a victory of some kind no that's just the first base that's a starting gun not a final that's not the end of the race that's the beginning puts us on first base and give us a home run and we're going to talk about what is it what happens between the time we're saved the time we're finally with christ personally together with him in heaven what happens in that interval we're going to talk about that in chapters 6 through 8. then right in the middle of this book we have three chapters 9 10 11 which is all about israel their past they're present in the future and this will be shocking to you because most per most churches have no grasp of what chapters 9 10 11 deal with because most churches are all millennial they have no concept of the kingdom that he's actually gonna that the promise given to mary is actually going to happen he's going to take david's throne and then the last part of the book is the personal stuff and uh the first is first you can first eight chapters you call faith then there's this little three chapters in the middle we'll call hope because it's israel's future and then there's the practical side the love so there's the first eight chapters are doctrinal the next three chapters are dispensational if i can use that term and the last i'll call the practical ones loving one another and it deals with 28 specific individuals that he has things to say about so we're in romans chapter one good start we go on and on and introduce things about it but i think we've trampled that to death there'll be other things we'll bring up as we go through the study let's just jump into the text itself right and for chapter one we have the first seven verses that's our target tonight the salutation then we'll have an introduction the reasons he wrote this letter we need to understand that the need for the gospel and he calls himself paul which means the least by the way that's what the word actually paulus means the least this means little the little one and he understood grace in fact he calls himself in his letter to timothy he says i am the chief of sinners we tend to see paul as our hero he saw himself as the chief of sinners that's a great concept because if god can save paul he's already saved someone that's worse than we are at least in his mind he was see even though he calls himself the chiefs of sinners you could easily say that paul was probably the most devoutly religious man who ever lived he was taught by gamaliel he was a pharisee he knew all the rules and he kept them and knew it counted for zero philippian letter on it goes so god has already said to someone it's far worse than you and me we should take comfort in that okay and i'll i have to i'd love to throw in luke 7 here jesus answered and he was dining at a pharisee's home he says jesus said on them simon i have somewhat to say unto thee said master say on there was a certain creditor which had two debtors one over 500 pence in the other 50. and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both tell me therefore which of them will love him the most that was his question simon answered well i suppose that he to whom he forgave the most and jesus said unto him thou hast rightly judged so they were criticizing him because this woman was washing his feet you know he turned to the woman and said unto simon see us thou this woman i entered into thy house and i gave this be no water for my feet that was the common menial task that they should do to a visitor i entered the house that it gave me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head thou gavest me no kiss but this woman since the time i came in half not cease to kiss my feet my head with oil doubt it's not anoint but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointments wherefore i say to thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little we have a portrait of this hanging in our living room that i gave my wife on valentine's day and we have a little game we always play with each other i love you more no no i love you more you know we play that little game that says no i love you more and i can prove it from the scripture she said what i love you more because you've forgiven me more she had no rebuttal yeah paul calls himself in romans 1 a servant the doulos is the greek term it doesn't mean just slave it actually means a special kind of slave it's a slave some a person owned by another but here the term really refers to what was called a bond slave and uh and now a bond slave you may recall if you were a slave in the hebrew culture if you're a slave you might serve say a master for say seven years or something to pay off some debt or whatever at the end of your servitude you had a choice you could leave because you'd served your time or you could choose as many did you could choose to stay with the house forever you could choose as a slave say no no i'm not going to leave i'm going to be your slave for the rest of my life and if you chose to do that it was your prerogative if you chose to do that they would memorialize that by taking you against the doorposts of the house and piercing your ear with an awl that's a sharp leather tool like we visualize an ice pick it would pierce the ear to the doorpost you're in other words you're bonding yourself to the house and uh you then from that point on would typically wear an earring that would be a badge of honor among the servants you might have many servants but the ones that had the ring they were there by choice forever you know that they were a bond slave a doulos and the reason you want to know that is because that's what coeur d'alene means we're here in coeur d'alene idaho cur is the french word for a heart coeur d'alene is the heart of the all or elaine coeur d'alene is the heart of the and it was the french canadian trappers that used that name for the indians it was a backhanded compliment because they were sharp traders so that's why they used the term but when we moved up here we felt called by god to hear and as far as we're concerned that label referred to bond slave heart of the all we're bond slaves that's the both paul and john revel in that title in their writings and uh the uh so this is an out that all that you'll find it all next exodus 21. he also paul also calls himself an apostle now what is an apostle that's somebody that sent with delegated authority and uh it's a position to which he was called and it doesn't say it it's not a verb it's an adjective there he is the called one and uh so uh you know we many many groups tend to use the word apostle as part of the church thing well that's that's adapting a term from the the new testament the term really implies one who is not only sent forth but one who was an eyewitness to the resurrection that was the requirement and uh so apostles were eyewitness according first corinthians 9 1 and 1st corinthians 15 first nine verses and and and have a calling from god this is a something you didn't choose god chose for you and in in first corinthians 15 verse 9 paul says i am the least of the apostles that i am not not to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god that's why he puts himself on the bottom of the list of sinners the worst of all sinners because he actually persecuted murdered christians deliberately and so that's why he called himself the least yet he dominates the book of acts from chapter 15 on to the end he wrote 14 of 21 epistles new testament but 21 in question mark how many epistles are in the new testament the average person table is 21 no no no there's actually how many 28. everybody overlooked seven of them they were penned by none other than jesus christ in revelation two and three so not to confuse people because i want you to understand there are 21 epistles in your bible but there's really seven more that you'll discover in revelation two and three but paul wrote half of them okay pretty interesting paul a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of god separated you're not separated from you're separated unto important a lot of people separate from something well guess what i gave up for lent last week no no that's what we're talking about separate is usually the preposition unto not from and uh so he's for the gospel of god the message the good news from god that centered on what his son separated the gospel of god paul was eager to preach we'll discover that in verse 15 without shame verses 15 and 16 are the key verses of the book we'll come to that next session now it's called this is misunderstood because the way it's translated in your bible you've got after called to be you say no no the 2b has been added to your translation no the word called apost it's called it's an adjective there the infinitive of the verb to be is not in the original manuscripts it was added so that's not really there he was called to be as an apostle anyway the gospel what is the gospel let me tell you what it's not we use that term so loosely the gospel is not a code of ethics or morals you realize that the gospel is not a court of ethics more it's not a creed to be accepted well when i was a teenager i learned the apostles creed well good for you but that's not what the gospel is the gospel is not a system of religion to be adhered to gospel is not some good advice that we ought to follow let's get that across here's the definition of the gospel by paul himself it is a letter first letter to the corinthians in fact it's the chapter that paul would say is the most important chapter in the bible if you don't have chapter 15 the first corinthians you have nothing that's really what he says but he defines the gospel more of a brethren i declare unto you the gospel which i preached unto you which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved if you keep in memory what i preached unto you unless you've believed in vain can you believe in vain apparently oh boy so what is the gospel here's what it is i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to scriptures that's it that's it he doesn't talk about him being a great teacher he doesn't talk about his miracles he doesn't talk about his example make a long list of things he doesn't talk about what is the gospel none of those things a lot of good teachers around there's probably a lot of people who did miracles probably a lot of people in history that might make good examples in various ways that's not what we're talking about that christ died for our sins according to scripture he didn't disappear he died the most documented death in history and he didn't just die he fulfilled probably over a hundred specifications in that death that were prescribed before the foundation of the world the christ died for our sins according to the scriptures key point that he was buried only paul emphasized that because he builds a case on the idea tying that to baptism and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures oh boy there's the validation of it all who else is conquered death none so he died for our sins according to the scriptures he was buried he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and being set apart didn't keep paul from making tents he was set apart for the ministry that didn't mean he did it full time or putting in another way he worked he worked three shifts today right taught school the school of terence for a while built tents while also full-time teacher so yeah after all he only had 25 hours a day right being set apart didn't he he made tents there's a lot of debate on what that really meant some think it was tense others think it was tallits i won't get in all that the point is he took a job made money to pay the bills to support himself and his companions acts 20 first thessalonians two seconds it's mentioned several places and uh this did not prevent him from mingling with pagan society he didn't become a wreck loose he didn't become a monk he was set apart in the sense that he was set up separated to the gospel but he's still mixed with all level society he was setting a part to something you didn't go withdraw into isolation like the pharisees did the word pharisee by the way means separated one but in just the opposite sense separated from rather unto see in the sense of isolated segregated when did he become called let's take a look at before before he was born before he was born ephesians 1 4 is your thing when did god first start dealing with you before the foundation of the world wow ephesians 1 4 let's take a look at jeremiah 1 5. here's another example where the lord came unto me saying before i formed thee in the belly i knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb i sanctified thee and i ordained thee a prophet unto the nations god is talking to jeremiah but that concept we need to understand applies not only to him but also to paul and probably you and i if we're saved god knew us before we were born and there's psalms that deal with that ephesians 1 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by jesus christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will wow book of ephesians very distinctive but i also like to and when you're starting to consider these things i'd like to take a look at luke 4. we were up there a couple weeks ago jesus came to nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read and it was delivered unto him the book of the prophet isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where was it he looked for a particular thing he was looking for and he read from isaiah 61 we'll look at it in a minute but here's the way he read it he said the spirit of the lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he hath sent me the heal the brokenhearted he to preach deliverance to the captives the recovering sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the lord what's after the word lord a period really wait a minute we'll take a look at that in a minute then jesus closed the book gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him and he began to say to them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears wow let's take a look at what he read let's take a look at isaiah 61 the spirit of the lord is upon me because the lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to me he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty of the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound sound pretty close to what our rendering was right to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord and the day of vengeance of our god whoops wait a minute wait a minute what's after the word lord in the isaiah passage the equivalent there isn't a comma they didn't use that but the point is the equivalent there's a comma not a period jesus read up to that comma so to speak and closed the book and said this day is this fulfilled years this is his mandate for ministry he announces it as home church or his home synagogue in nazareth interesting he doesn't read the rest because then he could not say this day is this fulfilled why because when is the day of vengeance it's coming it's not many years away it's a few more than seven but not many maybe okay continuing to look forward he said unto them you will surely say to be this proverb physician heal thyself whatsoever we have heard done in capernaum do also here in thy country and he said verily i say to you no prophet is accepted in his own country and if you want to understand why he's not accepted in his own country he need read psalm 69 which describes his boyhood and the trauma that he and his mother endured for 30 years but let's go on here he says but i tell you the truth then he continues a sermon and this sermon is going to get them so upset they're going to throw him off try to throw him off a cliff i mean i imagine many of you have heard sermons that have have upset you in church but i don't think you've heard any that wanted where you wanted to take the minister out and throw them off a cliff well this is what's going on here jesus said i tell you the truth many widows were in israel in the days of elias when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when the great famine was throughout all the land but none of them unto none of them was elijah said save unto serepta the city of sidon unto a woman that was a widow there was a lot of widows he went to just one okay he says many lepers were in israel the time of elij this is elijah elisa this time the the prophet and none of them was clan saving name in the syrian say remember the syrian general that seven beat yourself seven times the jordan and all that and all that in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath why why were they so upset because he selected a couple of examples and the examples he selected really offended them they rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him to the bravo hill whereupon the city was built that they might cast him down headlong but he passing through the midst of them went his way he slipped through somehow why are they so upset because he is teaching the doctrine of election and each of the examples he chose was non-jewish the widow in sidon was not jewish naaman was the head of the syrian army their enemy many widows he picked the gentile many lepers were in israel but he picked a gentile what's his point that god is sovereign and he elect who he will i thought we were the jewish i thought we were the chosen people they were upset about that we're going to talk about election profoundly before this the epistle of romans is over but right at the beginning in the beginning of christ's ministry they attack him over that let's get back to this gospel thing you're the prodigal son we all know the story of the prodigal son in luke 15. remember how the father was so pleased because his son became came home because he was good right is that what that was no he came home yes but it wasn't he wasn't thrilled because he'd be because he was not full of good deeds no no he says for my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and now he's found that's the point that's the gospel he's got some distinction see interesting the son even though he left blew his inheritance he never lost his sonship he never he lost his inheritance but not a sonship he blew his inheritance just because you're saved doesn't mean you have your inheritance oh wait a minute what are we getting into here christ did not come to make bad men good really we'll see he did not come to make bad men good but to give dead men life see the difference we're going to get into that in romans 5 and romans 6 in some shocking things why was the law given if i give you that on the final exam right now why was the law given the answer is to make you sin more you've got to be kidding no wait till we get to chapter 5 and 6. romans is the most complete and penetrating statement of god's divine plan for the redemption that god has given us not the one that we earn we don't get redeemed because we behave better hopefully we behave better because we're redeemed but let's not confuse cause and effect you say seeing is believing no believing is seeing that's another issue let's go on there romans chapter 1 first two verses paul a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separate unto the gospel of god which he had promised of for by his prophets in the holy scriptures holy scriptures here refers to what the old testament right on exactly exactly let's remember that when they say scriptures we're talking the scriptures they had in hand this term only appears here in the new testament by the way there's an equivalent phrase in second timothy but actually uses slightly different greek words promised a four one of the things we must never lose sight of is god delights in making and keeping promises and we're talking here that he made promises let's always remember that god's distinctive is that he makes promises the god of the muslims allah is capricious he can do anything anytime he wants to read that untrustworthy the god of abraham and eat sock and yakov delights in making and keeping his promises they're absolutely opposite now prophecy of course is an undeniable authentication of his word and we're going to see that all through here here we go and acts 10 verse 43 it says to him to jesus give all the prophets witness and one of the most astonishing discoveries you need to make for yourself is the discovery that every number every place name every phrase in the entire bible speaks of jesus christ every phrase is there by deliberate design and that design will always ultimately point to the mashiach you need to discover that for yourself don't take my word for it check it out and uh it's interesting if you were a prophet the old testament and you did something inaccurately guess what happened they had a professional development program that was quite effective they stoned you boy would that solve our radio problem there were lots of rock piles in israel and here in the first promise that god made of redemption was to adam genesis 3 15 that it would be the but from the seat of the woman which is a contradiction biology as well as grammar and that starts the thread of promises that link all the way through to their fulfillment all the messianic details family birth place you know it to go on on and on and on hundreds of them and the whole promise of redemption is hidden in genesis 5. most of you have seen me go through that isaiah 53 and all through jeremiah and so on and we see these promises used in the new testament remember philip was supernaturally attached to this ethiopian treasure he uses isaiah 53 to present jesus christ that's one of the quizzes i often give a group and i say what bible study was given by seven different people on 14 different occasions in the scripture had always tremendous results and it's never given today hardly ever what bible says he's given by seven different people on 14 different occasions and is never and very fruitfully and party ever given today and the answer is presenting jesus christ entirely from the old testament whenever they whenever you see the news they say they present them from the scriptures they're talking about the old testament well philip did that with ethiopian treasures one example paul will do the same thing using genesis 18 and genesis 22 when we get to romans chapter four so we'll leave that to when we get there but he will do the same thing continue the third verse romans 1 concerning his son jesus christ our lord which was made of the seed of david according to the flesh this asserts christ's deity as basic to his person and prior to his incarnation micah 5 2 without bethlehem of though thou be little among the thousands of judah yet out of he shall he come forth to me that would be the ruler of israel whose goings forth had been from old from everlasting he pre-existed his incarnation he didn't start that christmas morning if i can use that phrase no no that's just when he became incarnate we see him in the battle of jericho joshua 5 and so on his identification with david's line came to be as the expression here this is a literal rendering of a greek participle german genomino which means was made and uh he he was see he was god yes but he was also generally human also and declared by his linkage to david and in verse four we'll see in a minute and his resurrection let's take a look at verse four and declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead by the way paul is this is just his salutation to start the letter he hasn't this is just his way of tying it all together right up front see his resurrection validate his claims to deity one of the most exciting things to do when you're in israel we go through all the great sites and see all these things and and and all that but the climax for us always is to come to the garden tomb and we go in the garden tomb and discover something interesting it's empty yes he arose from the dead that validated all his claims to deity and also his predictions that he would do that very thing even his enemies understood that that's why they went to pilate to get a guard set lest that should be allowed you know the spirit of holy according to the spirit of holiness this is often misunderstood some people think this represents a human spirit no no the spirit of holiness is just another phrase for the holy spirit and we're going to talk about the trinity briefly all through the book but i right here is where you might check your notes if you have our briefing package on the trinity you may want to skim through it i'll just give you a quick summary here why do we speak of the truth trinity's not in the bible wrong it's everywhere that's the problem takes a serious student to find it let's first of all take a look at the works of god the creation of the universe is ascribed to the father in psalm 102. it's described to the son in colossians 1 and john 1. it's ascribed to the holy spirit in genesis 1 and job 20 and job 26 the creation of man is ascribed to the father in genesis 2 7 is to the son in colossians 1 16 and the holy spirit in job 33 4. the incarnation is described hebrews 10 to the father philips ii of the son and luke 1 to the holy spirit the death of christ is described three different places to the father psalm 22 romans 8 we'll see that when we get there and of course john 3 16 that we've all memorized and it's ascribed to the sun in john 10 and galatians 2. and the holy spirit and the atonement again ascribed to the father son and holy spirit in different passages the resurrection of christ is ascribed twice to the father twice to the son twice the holy spirit at least the resurrection of all mankind is ascribed to the father in john 5 and to the son in that same passage and also to romans 8. the inspiration of the scriptures is ascribed to the father in second timothy 3 the son in first peter 1 and of course the holy spirit the second peter one the indwelling presence and by the way there are about two dozen of these i've just selected a few to get you the idea you can take these key works of god and see they're ascribed to each of the persons of the trinity in a non-overlapping way by the way the believer's security in john 10 29 to the father john 10 28 to the son romans 8 will really see that tour de force when we get to romans 8 it'll be the high point for me in the whole book and of course the holy spirit in ephesians 4 30. what about the attributes of god this is a theological thing a little differently the eternal existence is ascribed to the father the son the holy spirit in different passages his omnipotence three different passages his omniscience to all three father son and holy spirit his omnipresence jeremiah 23 18 and these will be in your notes you can take a look at him the fact that he's truth is ascribed to the father in john 7 the son in revelation 3 7 and the holy spirit first john 5 6 his benevolence his dis disposition for communion and again there's more these are just this is just a and of course his holiness and uh holy subscribe to the father of course in revelation 15 4 to the sun in acts 3 14 and the holy spirit everywhere that's why they call him the holy spirit but of course in isaiah 6 holy holy holy why three because there's three okay well moving on first we're down to verse five we're making progress by whom we've received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name paul's ministry from jesus was among all the nations it was open to the gentiles by peter at the home of cornelius but peter's mission was to the jews paul's mission he wished was to the jews but no that didn't work god called him to be the pastor to the gentiles among all nations which included the romans that's why this letter okay and that's why he's addressing it to the individual believers and paul was the human agent for christ he received the grace of apostleship that to him was unspeakable privilege and he had a calling and we went through that calling before he came from the lord sent his readers a part of saints okay the phrase obedience to the faith objective genitive obedience produced by faith obedience it's in the english you don't quite capture it in the greek the obedience is the result of the faith they're often linked of course all through this passage and we'll touch up as we go see obedience to the lord he's our king right it's too often overlooked as the essential the essential of our christian walk who we don't preach you don't get much preaching to be obedient don't misunderstand you don't get saved by being obedient but if you're saved it'll affect it'll affect your behavior among whom are ye also the called of jesus christ just as paul was a called apostle so the believers in rome were called of jesus christ to be saints are you called by god to be a saint i hope so hope so and the last verse for tonight will be to all that be in rome beloved of god called to be saints grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ that was a tour de force of seven verses just to get this thing kicked off to all that be in rome be loved of god notice the beloved of god that's important and notice that uh called to be saints grace to you and peace grace and peace that grace is the karas and the greek it's the standard greeting for the gentiles grace shalom was the standard greeting to the jew grace we think we understand it we don't we will before the epistle's over and peace shalom means more than peace by the way it means prosperity wealth health all that it's interesting he says to all that be in rome be loved of god he is not writing to the unsaved he's writing to believers the unsaved are never mentioned as god's beloved who wow that's god loves the world that's why he gave his son but the ones that are beloved of god are the ones that have accepted his son so he's not preaching to the unsaved he's teaching the saints and i love as i well my favorite definitions of you know we have this concept of saints as somebody that the church is deified somehow you know saints so and so on so and we have a misconception that's a con that's a conception from traditions church traditions no no no no the term in the scripture for the elect or for saints and there are many different kinds by the way the old testament saints have a little different perspective than the new testament than the church saints and they have a slightly different perspective to understand when you speak of the elector saints there are several different categories that study in its own right but what are saints then generically i love donald gray barnhouse's definition of the saints he says it's a group of displaced persons uprooted from their natural home and on their way to an extraterrestrial destination i love that not of this planet neither in roots nor in ideals that's it that's the same i love that i think it's cool we thought we'd never make it didn't you we got through seven verses okay for next session i want you to read and perhaps outline chapter one that's no big deal read chapter one i want you to also read the next seven chapters read it through eight so you'll have the unit in your mind doesn't take long do that now those of you that are on your toes you realize that we've taken the session to get seven verses right and you looked ahead you know there's 413 verses in the epistle to the romans so any but any engineer can get his log log paper and lay it out and realize that we will be should finish these in only 58 more sessions but that's a linear assumption right and we live in a non-linear world so relax relax it's our presumption that we'll probably finish this in about 24 and that should be ample in the sense of not being rushed if you will at the same time it won't be exhaustive um we often used to a kid when we were in our church that we went down coastal mesa you could go if you live if you went there sunday nights you'd go through the bible in two years whole bible in two years if you want to go through the book of romans in two years you went thursday nights you know so so you could we could easily spend much much on i used to drive from big bear down to palace verdes sunday mornings to catch hal's sermons because he was going through the book of romans at the seminary level i mean really deep stuff it was it was worth the drive unbelievable you know hour and a half both ways but great really worth it and so and relax we i won't exploit all that i think i've i fortunately have forgotten much of what i learned from that series we'll try to just hit the highlights but it'll be enough to challenge and hopefully if we do it prayerfully it should change every one of our lives including mine we all need to raise the bar on our personal walk and few things we'll do it like the book of romans will so with that let's bow our hearts into a word of prayer father we come before your throne thankful for so many things but not the least of which we thank you for paul for having raised up this brilliant articulate fabulous example for us all we thank you father for your word that you breathe through him we thank you for this epistle this comprehensive summary of what you're all about we thank you father for your grace as we become conscious of your holiness on the one hand and our despicable sinfulness on the other we thank you for having built this bridge this connection indeed that these incredible riches of course at christ's expense we thank you father we do pray father that through the study of your word through your holy spirit you will open this these words to our lives and open our lives to your word that in all these things we too will become changed that we too will be sanctified that we too will understand our calling that we too would become more obedient through our faith help us to understand the power that you have provided for us to accomplish these things that through all these things you and jesus christ will be glorified we thank you father for this work we pray father you would help us to endure all the way through that it would indeed bring fruit to the kingdom not by power nor by might but by your spirit father we just thank you for this in advance we pray that you would draw each one of us ever closer to you day by day moment by moment that we each might be more fruitful stewards of the resources and opportunities that you put at our disposal as we commit ourselves once again into your hands indeed in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ in whose name we do pray amen god bless you [Music] you

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020