Original subtitles

Redwired by Spider-Man

Well, we are entering hour 18 of our Learn the Bible in 24 Hours Project, in which we're

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.

And 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're 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'll 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 Yakov.

And first, Peter, first, second, third, John, and Jude, all Jewish epistles, written to

Jews.

And then, of course, Revelation being the capstone.

So we are going to explore 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 to 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 sixth through the 16th century, which is known as the Dark Ages.

It's when grace is rediscovered that the light shines and the changes.

And the Kingdom of Blood is our briefing pack on the history of the church you may want

to quit yourself with that 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 unleaded fisherman kind of thing.

This is the most profound writing that exists anywhere.

Now, that's quite a statement, but it's the most profound writing you will find anywhere.

And it has a very international outlook, because first of all Paul was not only a Roman citizen,

but he was well educated, both Hebrew and Greek cultures, very deeply.

And this is a book which will delight the greatest logician.

It will hold the attention of the wisest of men and yet it will bring the humblest soul

and 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'll 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, the understood the grace

of God.

Because 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 1 Timothy, 1st letter there.

Yet he would also acknowledge that he was the most devoutly religious man who ever lived.

Paul goes through quite a thing there in Philippians 3.

How he diligently was a professional lawkeeper.

You need to understand what really lies under the 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 innocent blood that they would be covered.

So God has already saved someone.

See Paul is the greatest sinner and the most religious person around.

God has already saved one who is far worse than you and me.

And 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.

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 what we 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 what we're talking about.

We're talking about saints in the biblical sense.

Donald Gray Barnhouse is the definition that I like the most.

The 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 eight 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 eight chapters.

Three chapters are defining sin, a couple of chapters on what salvation requirements are

and then sanctification.

Then there's a few chapters, three chapters, that have to do with Israel.

You could call them dispensational if you like.

Israel past, present and future.

It will derive from that foundation, but you'll see that when we get there.

Then the last section is the practical.

It answers the so what question?

Okay, how does it affect us?

So what does that mean?

How should we live?

And so we've got faith, hope and love in three 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 Lou Phelps has suggested that grace

can be considered an acronym for God's righteousness at Christ's expense.

How can God love us without violating his righteousness?

His righteousness would demand that it penalty be paid and what 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 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.

It's a big difference.

Big difference.

Remember the prodigal son?

You all know the story of the prodigal son?

We don't have to repeat that from Luke 15.

Remember how the father did eat when the son finally comes back home?

Did my father think, 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.

See the difference?

See the difference?

That's us, of course.

Another point about the prodigal son is the son never lost his sonship.

One of the key verses is in the chapter 1 of the book of Romans in the 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 everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek or Gentile.

Unto salvation, not unto reformation, education, progress, or development.

Under salvation.

It is for a lost man and no other.

Men are either in salvation or in the opposite position.

That's of course Mr. and Mrs. Men, right?

I won't get into that hole to be here.

There is a trilogy that altered the course of history.

Martin Luther was a devout monk who was really obsessed with his sinfulness and he went through

all the self-inflicting procedures of the medieval church.

Still unsatisfied, still overwhelmed by his own sinfulness.

Until a monk, he finally decided to go to Rome up through the Alpsteron 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 is a verse that leapt out at Martin

Luther.

The just shall live by faith.

And that's when 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.

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 Galatians quotes this in Galatians 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.

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.

It will be with the book of Hebrews when we get there.

The just shall live by faith.

What fascinates me about this is that these three epistles are a trilogy amplifying Habakkuk

2.4.

Each quoted as the cornerstone of their epistles.

So these are designed as a trilogy.

It's one of the many many reasons I believe the book of Hebrews even though it's unsigned

is Pauline and its authorship.

I think Paul deliberately did a trilogy on Habakkuk 2.4.

If it turns out that Hebrews wasn't written by Paul it's even greater miracle because

the Holy Spirit obviously has this thumb print all over this thing.

So okay.

First section of these groups is the doctrinal.

The introduction, the plight of pagan man and moral man and religious man.

In chapter 1 and 2 we have these three, every person is in one of these three 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 the 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 Romans chapter 6, sin is not going to rain.

It ain't going to rain no more.

Your power over sin if you're in Christ is there and we call it chapter 7 law school.

That all leads up to the most incredible chapter in many respects in the entire Bible, chapter

8.

I'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 and what is the greatest thought that has ever entered

the mind of man?

Well there's probably a number of candidates.

Daniel Webster 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?

Now 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 learn a lot from just then.

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 when if you've ever been in a large organization or a large

company, if for some reason there's a new president, new guy takes over the new guy.

A new boss.

Everybody's scrambling.

Well what's he like?

Where is he from?

Is he easy?

Is he hard?

Is he this?

You try to find what he's buying habits.

What's he, you know, 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 1.

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.

So you and I are born into this lost race.

We want to understand what happened to you suppress God's truth, ignoring his revelation

and pervert his glory.

You will be astonished to learn of what his judgment is constituted of.

Romans chapter 1 verse 20.

Well, hell of the count of 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 as eternal power and God had so that

they are without excuse.

Another place to look at 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 as eternal power and God

had so that they are without excuse.

For this cause, get the judgment that God pronounces on those that refuse.

Notice what they've rejected.

They haven't rejected Christ yet.

We're not talking about doctrinal, you know, the Messiah.

We're talking about the creation, the creation, the recognition of His 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.

It's the Greek, it's very, you know, 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 the error which was made.

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 of this thing.

Because they didn't acknowledge Him as a Creator.

For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections for even their females to change

the natural use for 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

the recompense of the error which was made.

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 the abandoning them to a depraved lifestyle.

So 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 his 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 it do that?

By giving us the greatest gift.

Chapter 3 deals with the problem.

Chapter 4 deals with the gift.

You know it's interesting that even Socrates, five centuries before Christ was born, wrote

a Plato saying it may be that the deity can forgive sins but I do not see how.

Green insight.

Socrates recognized the problem.

I can't see how.

It may be that 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?

Go on insight.

Why did God give us the law?

This will surprise you.

Why do we have laws?

So you behave better.

No.

So you behave worse.

No.

Yeah.

Romans 5 and 20.

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound but where sin amounted, grace did

much more abound.

For sin to abound, that's the opposite of our thinking.

Why is the law 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 audience, he's

talking about how the law is like our mirror.

It shows us ourselves.

But we don't shave with the mirror.

We're shaved by grace.

That crude pun was a, well anyway.

You know, this will all be explained in Romans 7.

I want to contrast two atoms.

The first atom by one man's offense many died.

By one atom came judgment condemnation through one man's offense, death reigned.

One man's offense, condemnation to all men.

Disabedience of one many made sinners.

It's all in, these are verses from 15 through 19 of chapter 5.

And as a result, sin reigned in death.

The last atom, which is a title of Jesus Christ, by one man's free gift, righteousness

to many.

For many offenses, the gift to 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 atom and the remedy of the last atom is a contrast that Paul builds

in the book of Romans.

What is the sequence to maturity?

We talk about spiritual maturity while 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 a maturity, immaturity is when you live in that hope, moment by moment

continually.

But there's, you get to Romans 6, so this one is a dandy.

But not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof.

You now, if you're in Christ, you now have the power over sin.

It ain't going to reign no more.

And chapter 7 and 8 will detail how.

What this reason is do not let sin continue to reign.

It's present imperfect, grammatically speaking.

It's present tense.

It's imperfect.

That means continuing.

Let not sin continue.

How do you do that?

How do you avoid that?

How do you avoid sin?

You have power over sin.

By insisting that what God says is true.

The dominion is now your choice.

It wasn't before.

When you weren't in Christ, you didn't, you were a 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.

Moment by moment, that's the goal.

And when you stumble and you will, it's first, remember the Christians bar so.

If we can express our sins, he is faithful and just.

To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all enriceness.

It's his faithfulness, rely on that ours.

There are three tenses of being saved.

We used that term.

So, remember, I was at conference once, Christian conference, and there were some tables and

there was a round, there was some extra chairs, and I went up there and said, are these chairs

saved?

I got a couple of positions, I have an even another conviction.

But we use that term so many.

There is the concept of having been saved.

That is from the penalty of sin.

That's positional.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

For by grace are you 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 another kind.

There's a present tense.

You are being saved from the power of sin.

That's operationally.

From the Holy Spirit.

That's called sanctification.

So theologians are defined 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's called the redemption of our body in Romans 8.

So you can be, you have been saved positionally in the penalty of sin if you're in Christ.

You are being saved from the power of sin operationally moment by moment.

If you exercise that in your sanctification.

And you shall be saved from the presence of sin.

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 spirit.

The law depends on the flesh.

The spirit depends on God's power.

The law produces rebellion.

Spirit produces God's desires.

The law results in more sin.

Spirit results in righteousness.

The law brings wrath.

Spirit brings joy, peace, protection.

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.

There's one chapter in the book of Romans.

We just have to focus on.

That's chapter eight.

This is the dessert, if you will, especially

in the first section of the 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 a son of God in the Bible

refers to a direct creation of God.

Benai Haul, Elohim, 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're descendants of Adam.

Unless we're in Christ.

In fact, that's even emphasized in John chapter one,

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

them that believed on his name.

In other words, that's what we mean by regeneration.

If you're in Christ, you are a new creation.

You're no longer a creation.

You still have a body from Adam,

but you have your new creation in God's eyes.

And that's also maturity.

This whole idea of adoption is also,

you need to 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 and suffering

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You preserved and suffering.

That's a gross thing.

We'll talk about that in a minute.

But you get to chapter eight, verses 31 to 39,

you have a hymn of praise for victory

that's unequaled anywhere else in the Bible.

It deals with God's logic of our security.

And we'll take a look at that.

Romans eight opens with no possibility of condemnation.

The first verse in Romans eight,

there is therefore now no condemnation

to them who are in Christ Jesus.

And the chapter closes with no possibility of separation.

Boy, I had some pretty interesting bookends.

Let's take a look at this chapter.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them

which are in Christ Jesus for the law

of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Half 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 sin

to the flesh and force in,

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 verse is great opening, great opening.

Chapter five dealt with the law, chapter eight,

with victory.

Chapter five was summation of the saving work

of Jesus Christ.

Chapter eight is the summation of what Christ did

to provide victory.

Five was a justification.

That is to be declared righteous by faith is forever.

The God that I in chapter eight is ensured

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter five, our performance is based

on the understanding of God's love.

Chapter eight, our performance is based

on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter five, it reveals our relationship to God.

Chapter eight reveals our relationship

to the world conflict in the flesh.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned only once in chapter five.

The Holy Spirit is available to us

to give us assured victory all through chapter eight.

Chapter five is the capstone of our salvation Christ.

Chapter eight is the capstone of our victory in Christ.

There's a difference.

Now, everybody raises another question.

Why do Christians have trials then?

Well, first to glorify God, Daniel eight.

Remember the three young men in the fiery 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 no one 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 elsewhere.

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.

And begin with, watch out for pride.

We're all victims.

Be careful.

Another reason is to build faith.

First Peter, one talks about that.

Another reason we have trials is to cause growth.

You don't want to sail, or it's to sail, is in a storm.

Not in a good sunny afternoon.

Another reason of trials is to teach obedience and discipline.

Perhaps one of the most provocative one is number eight.

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 an 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'll gain some expertise in chapter sevens

that 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 testimony to the angels.

We know the angels learn by watching us.

God chooses to reveal His plan to the angels through us.

We find the hits of that, not just in Job one,

but also Ephesians three and first Peter one.

You'll find illusions to that.

But here we go from chapter,

from Romans chapter eight, verse 28 to 39

is my favorite passage in the scripture.

In fact, Romans eight 28,

you might want to put a tab on that page.

There are times when almost once a day

I'll check to make sure it's still there.

Okay?

Romans eight, 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.

Woo, we, 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?

What are 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 at verse comes from

is your confidence, that we know that.

If so, what follows?

Let's take a look here.

For whom he did, for no, he also did predestinate

to be conformed to the image of his son

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate them,

he also called, whom he called,

then he also justified him and whom he justified them,

and he also glorified.

There's a four-step process, predestinate called,

justified, and glorified.

I think Paul had book of Genesis in his mind.

Abraham was predestined, Isaac in his seed was called,

Jacob was justified, if God can justify you,

that conniver, he can justify any of us.

And of course, Joseph was glorified,

predestinate called, justified glorified.

In the four patriarchs, we have that model.

Which leads to the classical paradox,

fate versus predestination, fate or predestination,

versus free will.

Philosophy books are manifold of this whole dilemma.

You know, if things are predicted,

that mean they're optional, or they locked in concrete.

Jewish betrayed Christ, it was predicted in Psalm 41.9.

Did he have a choice?

The interesting question is, 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, but 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 the series to spend some grounding

in the nature of the time domain.

And if that's confusing, do you go back

and check those out in early Genesis?

We, in several places in these studies,

we've touched on this.

God is outside of 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 the,

when viewed from within the time domain.

Let's move on to, but Paul goes on to say,

what shall we then say to these things?

If God be for us, who can be against this?

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 justified us.

What does he mean by that?

Our defense council is the prosecutor.

We got it wired, gang.

Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died.

He rather is risen again.

Who is even at the right hand of God

who also make a thing for us.

In other words, the judge is our defense council,

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?

Has it written for thy sake, we are killed all the day long,

we are counted as sheep for the slaughter?

They, in all these things, we are more than conquerors

through him that loved us.

Sometimes get a concordance and look up all the more

than sentences in the scripture, more than this.

We are more than conquerors, this is one of them.

There are others.

And yet the big finish here, I love this.

Paul says, I am persuaded that neither death nor life,

nor angels, nor principalies, nor powers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor heights, nor depth, nor any other creative thing

shall be able to separate us from the love of God,

which isn't Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bye.

Period, carriage return, pause.

Man.

Well, let's get to second section,

there's a little trilogy here in the middle of the book

on Israel, Romans nine, Israel's past,

Romans 10, Israel's present,

and Romans 11, Israel's future.

There are other three chapter trilogies throughout the Bible,

you have the three, the Sermon of the Mount is actually a trilogy

on Matthew five, six, and seven.

The spiritual gifts in 1st Corinthians 12, 13, and 14,

the second coming in Zechariah 12, 13, four, there's others.

This little trilogy is the issue of Israel

as distinct from the church.

Don't let anyone tell you that the church is Israel now

and vice versa, no, no one says.

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 are many places in the scripture

you get of different views, especially in eschatology

that is so you'll ask things.

People have slightly different views, that's 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,

and Romans 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 rebuttal

to everything that's gone before.

That's what Paul deals with.

Where does the Jew go?

She's also a problem of how Gentiles are to relate to Jews.

Not only are Jews should relate to Gentiles,

but 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 accoutments there.

This is the same question that was underlying Acts 15.

And it is answered in Romans 9, 10, and 11.

From Genesis 12 to Acts chapter two, 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 you have a devotional understanding at some level.

But at the same time,

we also need to have a doctrinal understanding of Word of God.

The Abrahamic covenant,

we emphasize back in chapter 12,

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 it of the great,

there were seven elements,

and I make the 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 him that curse of thee,

and in thee, in Abraham,

shall all families of the earth be blessed,

not just the Jews.

If you are in Christ, you are grafted in.

You are grafted in.

That covenant was unconditional.

It's 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 the 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 a covenant

they agreed to as they watched through it.

And what God said,

has Abraham set that all up,

divides a sacrifice?

And the idea was that the participants

would walk through it,

to figure eight repeating the terms of covenant.

That was the way they did things those days.

Except here, before it started,

after it's set up,

God puts Abraham in deep sleep.

He can't walk through.

What's his point?

God went through in the form of a torch and so forth.

He goes it alone to demonstrate

that this commitment is unilateral.

It's unconditional.

And 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's in 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 certainty.

There is no other promise like that to any other people.

That's unique.

Need to understand that.

And 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.

Okay, if we have that, great.

What good is it to be a Jew?

I mean, what's the blessing of a Jew?

Well, first of all, they received the words of God.

That's what Romans three emphasized.

They're called Israelites,

which means the princes of God in Genesis 32.

They are adopted as sons, not just genealogically,

but also by adoptions and during the reign of seven.

And the 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 through 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 had the blessing of the fathers of the faith.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth.

And ultimately, the Messiah would come from them.

That's the big one.

They will be blinded though.

Remember when he wrote the doc?

Andrew, we went through that so often.

The doc, when Jesus wrote the doc, he threw Jerusalem.

He wept.

He said, because you're not recognized this that day,

these things are hidden from my side.

For how long?

Paul in Romans tells us how long.

He says, Paul says,

for I would not brethren,

you should be ignorant of this mystery.

Less than you should be wise and you won't conceits.

That blindness in part is happened to Israel

until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

Watch these untills, they're milestones.

Until what?

The fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

Don't confuse the fullness of 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,

who is the son not sitting in the father's throne, right?

When that number is complete, the father will say

the son, go get him and he'll gather his own.

That doesn't end God's plan, they're much more coming,

that's closer to a certain dispensation, if you will.

Well, 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, it's over.

Then the son will get him and then Satan knows he has

a 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

who listened to the Christian broadcast there.

They have four million decisions last year.

There's a lot going on there, something like 18,000 pastors,

planning 13 search churches a week.

Exciting stuff going on, those counters speeding up.

Now, what intrigues me about this is, Satan doesn't know

that when that counter clicks next,

he knows he has a little time,

and opens a window of opportunity,

he's got to move and move fast.

But here's not when that is, every time

that somebody accepts Christ, he's shook.

Do you realize that Satan has been a shock treatment

for 1900 years?

Yeah.

The other side, there may be somebody in this room

that has yet to discover Jesus Christ,

which when you do accept Christ, you might be that last one.

We really wish you'd get it together

because we'd like to get out of here.

Now, there's a prerequisite to the second coming,

not to the rapture, that can happen any moment.

But there's a prerequisite to the second coming.

Hosea 515 highlights it, he says,

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 return to my place until they acknowledge

their offense and seek my face in their affliction,

they will seek me earnestly.

And we talked about that in Hosea, that's my way of review,

there's another one of these untills.

There are three untills in the restoration of Israel.

The first condition is the fullness of the Gentiles

to be brought in, we just talked about that.

The second one is they have to acknowledge their offense.

The third condition is until the times

the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The times Gentiles start, the times, not fullness,

the times Gentiles start with Nebuchadnezzar

and they complete with the Antichrist.

Three conditions.

Well, that's the final section of Book of Romans

is five chapters on the asked, so what question?

What are the responsibilities from gifts,

from civil responsibilities, Christian maturity,

unity within the body and personal greetings?

You know, there are only two world views,

we've covered this at the beginning,

but this ties it together.

We're either an accident of random chance with no destiny

or we're the result of deliberate and purposeful creation.

One or the other, there are any other alternatives.

And out of this come our questions are life, who am I?

Where did I come from?

Where am I going?

And whom am I accountable?

And 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.

And it's interesting in Genesis chapter,

the first 11 verses, the first section of Genesis,

we had the personal volition, free will established,

the freedom to choose your own destiny,

marriage was established, 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 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 is responsibility.

And what the Romans 13 deals with that rulers are to be

a terror to evil works.

What happens when they're a terror to good works?

There lies the challenge.

We have a dual citizenship and we need to understand that.

But we get back, let's talk about maturity.

If you squeeze the lemon, you get what?

Lemon juice, right?

You squeeze an orange, you get orange juice, right?

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?

Felt that he was by a number of things he said

without getting any theology.

He had a great answer.

So that's for you to tell me.

Ooh, I like that.

Drucker, are you a Christian?

I don't know, are you telling me, am I?

I like that.

Romans 14 talks about spiritual maturity

in a surprising way.

There's some advice here.

It says, him that is weak in the faith, receive ye,

but not to doubtful disputations.

For one, believe it that he may eat all things.

Another who is weak, eat of herbs.

Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not.

And let not him that which eateth not judge him

that eateth forgoteth received him.

What you're talking about here are some people.

Don't eat meat for religious reasons.

Others are, some are vegetarian, some eat anything.

Fine, either way.

Don't let one disparage the others, what he's saying.

But I want you to notice something subtle here.

Who's the one that's weak in the faith?

The one that's living by rules.

See, one believe that he may eat all things.

Anything's all right.

Another who is weak, eateth herbs.

He limits himself to herbs.

You see, it's the person that's trying to bound himself

with rules that's weaker in faith.

That's why he needs the rules.

It's a very subtle thing, but notice what he's saying.

Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not.

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.

Doesn't mean they're bad.

My wife and I try to keep the Sabbath.

We celebrate with a messianic Jew on Friday night.

Little potluck dinner and a Bible study and so forth.

We have, but we don't keep the Sabbath in a Jewish sense.

No, no, no, no, no, we have, we keep the Sabbath

because we notice that in the millennium,

the temple will only be open on Shabbat and New Moon.

That all nations are gonna go up to Jerusalem to worship

on Shabbat and the Feast of Tabernacles.

So there isn't anywhere in the Bible

that Sunday we play 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.

And we have three, for ourselves,

we are trying to avail ourselves of the blessing

that God has.

He has rules that he's suggested that enrich our lives.

So my wife and I do, we have three rules.

We agree to do whatever we're gonna do together.

Whatever we do, we can do deliberately.

And we also do together.

And the third rule is there are no other rules.

So don't keep the Sabbath in a Jewish sense.

We keep the Sabbath in a sense of Genesis 2.

But the main point is we're not oriented

on legalistic externals,

but we've just discovered what a blessing that can be.

See, the ones that are weak are into legalistic externals.

The ones that are strong have full liberty in Christ.

They're 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, whatever 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.

You know, 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

the faith and the law.

See, Romans 5, one man, a steameth one day above another.

Another, a steameth every day like.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

He that regarded the day regarded it unto the Lord.

And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord

does he not regard it.

He that eateth the Lord, for he giveeth God thanks.

And he that eateth not to the Lord eateth not

and giveeth God's thanks.

Love this.

Colossians, and Paul is a pistol of 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 any holy day

or of the new moon or the Sabbath days,

which are a shadow of things to come.

But the body is of Christ.

See, all these things are instructive.

There's no greater blessing for a Christian

to discover the prophetic significance of Jewish things,

even in Hanukkah.

It's in John 10 verse 22 for those of you

who haven't looked it up.

Let me keep them in the sense of rigid laws and rules.

Those are just the instructional.

But we have liberty in Christ.

He's 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 the four time.

We're 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 Leviticus,

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'll 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 like a huge tapestry.

And some of you can get too close to the threads

to really understand the total design,

stand back and see how it all put together.

You realize you're dealing with a masterpiece

in which every detail, every thread in it

is deliberately there for a purpose.

Master craftsmen.

Now the rest of the book near the end,

the book you have personal greetings,

there are more personal greetings,

book of Romans than any other pistol.

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,

if you want to challenge one of your friends at a Bible,

says who wrote the book of Romans?

One Paul.

There's Torsius.

He was his manuensis.

It was written by Torsius for Paul.

Paul dictated it.

Okay.

And manuensis like a secretary, okay.

And see, their professional secretary

is very common those days.

Many people there were very bright,

but maybe not literate in the usual sense.

Some were not literate at all,

some even they were skilled.

They had the, that's what we mean by manu scripts,

handwritten manu scripts.

That's where it comes from, okay.

Romans are written by Tertius,

1 Corinthians by Sosthenes,

2 Corinthians by Timothy,

Philippians and Colossians by Timothy,

2 Thessalonians by Sylvanas,

Philemon by Timothy,

1 Peter by Sylvanas.

Read 2 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, 1 Peter is polished

because it's done by a professional.

These were secretaries,

stenographers in effect.

Not everybody was like Matthew who took shorthand.

And I'm not saying they necessarily took shorthand,

but they were professional public stenographers.

They may have indulged in that for themselves.

I don't know the technology there.

Well, we've gone through Romans,

remaining there of these 13 or 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 this 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 eschatology.

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 following epistles.

The session after that, we'll take the book of Hebrews

as the exemplar, and then we'll talk about the Hebrew epistles.

And then of course, we're setting ourselves up

for a review of eschatology,

and then we'll also deal with budget three sessions

for the book of Revelation.

Or actually, yeah, okay.

So we have Romans,

the definitive doctrines you've gone through.

Corinthians will be the order in the church,

the Galatians, law versus grace.

Ephesians deals with the heavenlies

as some surprising breathtaking things in Ephesians.

Philippians joy through suffering,

Colossians Christ is preeminent above all things.

The Thessalonians are the eschatological eschatology,

simply being a fancy word for the study of the end times

and last things.

So the second coming primarily is the focus,

first and second Thessalonians.

The two letters to Timothy are Paul's advice as a pastor.

Titus, same thing.

And Philema's intersect,

you get the whole grasp of what intercession is

by this little tiny little pistol called Philema.

We'll obviously summarize that next time.

Let's stand for closing with a prayer.

["Pomp and Circumstance"]

["Pomp and Circumstance"]