Romans Intro

We live in a time when God's people desperately need to repent of their sin and turn back to him.

The spiritual climate of America is one of decay, where many people are religious, but very few are disciples of Christ, embracing the high cost of the grace that's been given to them.

We live in a day when evangelical Christians question the very basic doctrines of the Bible and lead untold thousands away from the cross of Christ in so doing.

America needs revival.

We need revival.

We need to abandon our pettiness and our comfort, the worship of stuff and ourselves in order to fix our gaze fully on Christ.

And subsequently, the mission that he's given us to the world.

And that's why I believe that we've been led by God to study Paul's letter to the Romans, because the good news of Jesus Christ is what we need to hear to restore our affections for him.

And it is the good news of Jesus Christ that this world needs to have peace with God and the salvation of their souls.

Paul gives us the theme of his letter to the Romans in chapter one, verses 16 and 17.

Let me ask you to turn there if you're not already.

Paul writes in verse 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

So there's the theme for us of the book of Romans.

It is the gospel.

An anonymous poet wrote this great poem that I think reflects pretty accurately what Romans is trying to portray and get across.

He wrote, oh, long and dark, the stairs I trod with trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit by bit, then slipping back and losing it.

Never progressing, striving still with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God while he serenely smiled, unnoting me.

Then came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell thereby down to the lowest steps.

My fall is if I had not climbed at all.

Now, when I lay despairing there, listen, a footfall on the stair on that same stair where I afraid faltered and fell and lay dismayed and low when hope had ceased to be.

My God came down the stairs to me.

So we know quite a lot about Paul's life.

We're going to get into a bit of that later.

And we know a lot about the occasion and the setting for the book of Romans.

There's some debate over exactly when it was written.

You'll either hear late A.D. 57 or early A.D. 58.

I don't think it really matters.

We know that he was in Corinth at the time of the writing and he was anticipating going to Rome and actually passing through it to go on to Spain.

The church in Rome had not been established by any apostle.

They believe that that Jews who traveled to and were at the day of Pentecost, heard the gospel, received the gospel and went back to Rome.

And so Paul is coming, writing to them to say, I want to fix some things that are going on with you.

I want to give to you a synopsis.

I want to give you a systematic theology so that you have apostolic teaching on which to build your church.

So he writes a pretty exhaustive presentation of the gospel.

And I broke it down for you into four sections.

Roughly, I think these are fairly accurate.

Firstly, Paul presents our need, humanity's need for justification through faith because of their sin.

In chapter 118 through 425, he argues that none of us are righteous, that all of us, because of original sin, have no good thing in and of ourselves.

And therefore, we deserve the just condemnation of God.

All of us, apart from Christ, stand before God condemned to hell.

Which does exist, in case you were wondering.

Secondly, Paul develops the results of justification through faith in terms of both present experience and future hope.

Chapter 5 through chapter 8, the end of chapter 8.

So, as we now are Christians, standing in a right place with God, seen as righteous before Him because of the redemptive work of Christ,

what does that mean both in our present experience, how is it that we experience God and His joy now,

and what is the hope that is to come as a result?

Thirdly, Paul expresses sorrow that many Israelites have not accepted the gospel,

and he wrestles with the theological implications of this fact in chapters 9 through 11.

There will be some of the more difficult chapters that we'll deal with in our study.

Fourthly, Paul concludes by describing how the gospel should affect our everyday lives.

So, not just doctrine for doctrine's sake, but what do we do then with all these great truths that are in Romans?

So, we believe that if we study this book faithfully,

the Spirit of God will use our study to yield fruit in our lives and the lives of the souls we contact every day.

God had used Paul's letter to the Romans in mighty ways in the past.

In mighty ways in the past.

In AD 386, a man took up a scroll of the book of Romans and read from it,

chapter 13, verses 13 and 14.

He later wrote of the occasion,

That man was Aurelius Augustine.

You might know him as Saint Augustine of Hippo.

He was a great defender of the doctrines of the sovereignty of God and of election.

A thousand years later, an Augustinian monk was teaching the book of Romans to his students.

And struggled with the expression found in verse 17,

The righteousness of God.

When he finally came to understand it, he wrote,

The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning.

And whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate,

Now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.

This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven.

That guy was Martin Luther, who was the father of the Protestant Reformation.

Because of his understanding, the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone.

We all find our roots in Martin Luther and that movement of God through his life.

Several centuries later, another man would record the account of his salvation in these words.

I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street,

Where one was reading Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans.

About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ,

I felt my heart strangely warmed.

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation.

And an assurance was given to me that had taken me, that he had taken away my sins,

even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

And that guy's name was John Wesley.

And if you know much about his life, you know that thousands and thousands came to Christ as a result of his ministry.

I'm not trying to say to you that Romans is somehow a magical book.

That if we spend the next two years studying through it together,

that God will form a movement in us like he did with his name.

Because obviously God is the one who does the work.

But what I do know is that the power of God dwells in his word.

And if we will study it faithfully, if we will come to it honestly,

if we will examine our lives by it,

God will do some work amongst us.

I long to join this great lineage.

I would love somewhere down the road, a hundred years from now,

somebody to say,

and a church one day studied this book.

When Christ Family Church studied Romans together,

there ignited a flame amongst them that spread from their little congregation to North Georgia.

And we have yet to see that flame be extinguished.

That's what I want people to say of us as we study through the book of Romans.

Let's talk a little bit about the man, Paul the man.

Now you know, if you have read much of your Bible,

that Paul used to be called Saul.

And it's always an assumption that Paul's name was changed.

That somewhere along the way, after his conversion,

that God gave him a new name,

much as he had given Abram the name Abraham.

Do you know that's not actually the case?

You know that Saul was Paul's Jewish name,

but that he was also given the Greek name Paul.

He was named Saul after the king of Israel, Saul.

So he could be accepted in those circles.

And he was given the name Paul to be accepted amongst the Gentiles.

So we see his name transition in Scripture to Paul because of his mission to the Gentiles.

He began to go by that name to be able to hang out with them.

I thought that was rather fascinating.

So I'm just going to use the word Paul.

Now, just don't be hating me because of that.

Paul was born to a Roman father and a Jewish mother in the city of Tarsus.

Tarsus was located on the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea

in what is now modern-day Turkey

and was the center of learning and culture.

Tarsus contained one of the three greatest Roman universities.

So it was a pretty thriving town, a place where Greek life happened.

As a boy, Paul was more than likely trained in Greco-Roman literature and logic

because we see evidence of that in his writing.

And then probably at the age of 13,

we know none of this for fact,

but probably at the age of 13,

because that was the custom,

he was sent to Jerusalem to be educated

by a man named Hillel,

who was the grandson of Gamaliel.

Now, this is really important

because he was the most famous rabbi of the time.

The Jews actually didn't really use their scripture all that often in this time,

but they used the writings of the rabbis

to understand what the scripture said.

You'll hear Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount,

you have heard it said.

And what he's referring to are the writings of the rabbis.

You have heard it said,

you shall love your neighbor.

Then he corrects after that.

Okay?

So, that's what's going on.

Gamaliel was actually said to embody the Mosaic Law.

That's how famous he was.

So, Paul was being educated by the greatest of rabbis

when he went to be educated by Gamaliel's son, Hillel.

It's believed that Paul, after his education,

actually returned to Tarsus,

where he served as a rabbi there,

because he learned his father's trade.

We know that he was a tent maker by trade,

and he more than likely, as he served in the synagogue,

was a tent maker to make his living.

When Paul heard, though, what was happening in Jerusalem,

heard about Jesus and what was going on there,

he was enraged.

Something was attacking his religious order.

Very zealous, Paul was.

And he returns to Jerusalem.

You'll remember that he's actually the one standing there

with everybody's coats at his feet

as he hears the gospel presentation of Stephen,

and then everyone stoned Stephen to death.

Paul stood and observed that.

And he was absolutely driven,

so zealous that he was driven

to destroy anybody who claimed Christ.

In Acts chapter 9, verses 1 and 2,

Acts 9:1

it's recorded,

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder

against the disciples of the Lord,

went to the high priest

and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus,

so that if he found any belonging to the way,

men or women,

he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And the wording there,

but Saul, still breathing threats and murder

against the disciples,

as if that was the fire that was kindling who he was.

That he hated disciples of the way.

He betrayed his God,

and he was bent on destroying it.

So much so,

that he was going to take a missionary journey

to another town, Damascus,

a large town,

and he heard things were going on there.

People were following the way,

as it's called here.

They were following Christ.

So he requested letters

to go and to persecute the Christians there.

And so we know the story.

I hope we know the story

of Paul on the Damascus road.

And I would ask you to turn to Acts chapter 9

Acts 9 · chapter mention

as we look at this together.

Acts chapter 9, verses 3 through 9.

Acts 9:3–9

Verse 3.

Now as he went on his way,

he approached Damascus,

and suddenly a light from heaven

flashed around him.

And falling to the ground,

he heard a voice saying to him,

Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me?

And he said,

Who are you, Lord?

And he said,

I am Jesus,

whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city,

and you will be told

what you are to do.

The men who were traveling with him

stood speechless,

hearing the voice,

but seeing no one.

Saul rose from the ground,

and although his eyes were opened,

he saw nothing.

So they led him by the hand

and brought him into Damascus.

And for three days

he was without sight,

and neither ate nor drank.

Now later on,

as Paul is giving his defense

before King Agrippa

in Acts chapter 26,

Acts 26 · chapter mention

he adds a little more of the dialogue.

So we've got a brief version

of the dialogue

between him and Christ here.

So he adds a little more detail

to that dialogue

in verse 14 of chapter 26.

And he says,

Jesus said to him,

Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you

to kick against the goads.

It is hard for you

to kick against the goads.

That's a very foreign term to us.

So to explain it,

a goad was a long pointed stick,

and it was used to herd

stubborn livestock,

such as oxen.

It was just a big pointed stick,

and it was used to prod oxen,

big stubborn animals,

as to where they should go.

And in Greek culture,

it had become a common term

to say,

hard to kick against the goads.

It's hard to kick against the goads.

And it was a common expression

used to indicate

opposition to deity.

All right?

So I say to John,

John,

my crops are just not coming in this year.

The rains,

there just haven't been

as much water as we need.

And John would say to me,

it's hard to kick against the goads.

What can you do against God?

And this is the expression

that Jesus uses

to talk to Paul.

Right?

Opposition to deity.

Saul had doubtlessly heard this term

on the streets

where he lived in Tarsus.

He knew what it meant.

Now imagine,

I had always read this story before,

and just like,

yeah, yeah,

oh, really?

Jesus is the way?

Okay, cool.

That's kind of how I read it.

Like, Paul was just doing

the wrong thing,

and suddenly he was doing

the right thing.

But he was very zealously

pursuing the wrong thing.

Right?

Think about this man

and his education.

And from the age of 13,

he's been trained to be a rabbi

under the most famous

of rabbis of the time,

Hillel,

who was the grandson

of Gamaliel.

He was a Jew among Jews.

He records that later for us

in Philippians.

He was devoted

in every way

to the way he thought

was right,

to his religion.

So zealous.

So much so,

not that he was just

going to stand his ground

in Tarsus

and teach his congregants

in the synagogue

that this Jesus

wasn't the way.

So zealous

that he was going to go

and actually abolish

that thing

that was attacking

his religion.

He was going

full force after it,

running in a direction.

And then he meets

the Christ on the road

who says to him,

you are living

in opposition

to the God

you say you serve.

Blow your mind, right?

I think some of us

might even stand

in that place today,

being found righteous

in Christ,

but pursuing

all these things,

doing all this stuff,

devoted

to discipleship

and going to Bible studies

and singing songs

with our eyes closed

and our hands in the air.

But we're going

directly against

our God.

We don't worship him

with our hearts.

We worship him

with petty

outward expression.

So Paul

heads to Damascus

as he was told to do

and he's visited

by a man named Ananias

who God sent to him

who restores his sight

and baptizes him.

And Paul gives us

a little summary

of this experience

in 1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

And I'm just going

to read it to you.

If you'll just listen to me.

This is verses 12 through 15.

Paul writes,

Love does win,

doesn't it?

The saying is trustworthy

and deserving

of full acceptance

that Christ Jesus

came into the world

to save sinners

of whom

I am the foremost.

Do you see Paul's

opinion of himself?

Look at who I was.

A blasphemer,

a persecutor,

an insolent

opponent

of God.

Paul ranks himself

above us

but wrongly.

Right?

Paul was no worse

than any of us.

Now amazingly,

this blows my mind,

amazingly,

Paul in this

zealous character

that he had

to pursue

at all costs,

he continues

to do that.

He continues

to do that.

And that's chapter 9

verse 20

says,

And immediately

he proclaimed Jesus

in the synagogue

saying,

He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him

were amazed

and said,

Is this not the man

who made havoc

in Jerusalem

of those who called

upon this name?

And has he not

come here

for this purpose

to bring them

bound before

the chief priests?

But Saul increased

all the more

in strength

and confounded

the Jews

who lived in Damascus

by proving

that Jesus

was the Christ.

So he continues

to be intense.

But he goes

to those very same

synagogues

where he had intended

to bind up

these people

and take them

before the chief

priest

to be killed

and begin

proclaiming

the name of Christ.

That's awesome.

What a great work

God did in his life.

After a couple

of narrow escapes,

Paul became so good

at this gospel

presentation

that the men

who were traveling

with him

to persecute Christians

turned to kill him.

And after a couple

of narrow escapes,

which are recorded

in Galatians,

he goes to Arabia

for three years.

He writes

in verse 11

and 12 of Galatians,

For I would have you know,

brothers,

that the gospel

that was preached

by me

is not man's gospel.

For I did not receive

it from any man,

nor was I taught it,

for I received it

through a revelation

of Jesus Christ.

So he goes away

for three years

and he communes

with Christ

and he learns

this gospel.

It's one of the amazing

things about our Bibles

that our record

of what Paul taught

is the same

as what Peter taught

and the other apostles.

It's phenomenal

work of God

in that.

So this is the gospel

that he's speaking

about here

in 16 chapters.

That's the presentation

that he's giving

to us.

He wrote it later

in his life.

Paul's a little bit

older

and a little bit wiser

at the writing of it.

But he gives to us

the simplicity

of the gospel message

in an exhaustive form.

We should value that.

I'm really looking

forward to this study

in case you can't tell.

I think though

that there are

three lessons

we need to learn

this morning.

Not to just give you

a boring history lesson

but there's

three lessons

we need to learn

this morning

from the life of Paul

as we approach

this letter

that he wrote

to the Romans.

Three lessons

from the life of Paul.

Number one,

we should study it.

Paul's life

was saturated

with knowledge

of the scriptures.

Now when I say that

of course I mean

the Old Testament scriptures

the process

of this being written

the New Testament

which we all value

so highly

is still in play

but he was saturated

with the knowledge

of it.

He quotes

in the book of Romans

the Old Testament

57 times.

Isn't that phenomenal?

57 times.

He knew

the word of God.

I can imagine

that when Christ

came to him

and gave him

this revelation

of himself

Paul felt like

an idiot.

How did I miss?

How did I miss

all that?

I was blinded

before.

Number two,

we should study it

to know God

not simply

to know

about him.

This is a dangerous

trap

that I've

fallen into

on numerous occasions

in my life.

We should study it

to know God

not simply

to know

about him.

Paul's treatise

on the Christian faith

is absolutely

full

of doctrine.

Alright?

But we should be

very careful

unless we just

totally miss the point.

Totally miss the point

of what he's trying

to do for us.

So here's some tips.

Simple

tips

from

my own life.

Number one,

expect to meet

with God.

When you come

here on Sunday

morning,

when you approach

the scripture

on your own,

as we look

at Romans

together,

expect to meet

with God.

I'm fairly

recently out of

college.

I still have to

attend meetings.

Times that are

arranged for me

to get together

with people

to talk about

things,

to brainstorm

stuff,

to learn

new things.

And I typically

treat those

things fairly

flippantly,

as I should.

Meetings at work,

look over the

document we're

going to be

talking about,

have a little

bit of working

knowledge in my

head about it,

so I can sit

down and we

can talk about

those things.

Not a big deal.

Just get together

and have a

business meeting

and go on

our way.

But we tend

to do the

same thing

with our

meetings together

as a

congregation.

We treat it

like just a

meeting we've

got to go to.

Right?

So as long

as you get

your hair

combed and

get some

clothes on and

get here,

that's your

responsibility in

all of that.

Isn't it?

But I think if

you have in

mind that you

are expecting

to meet with

God,

to learn from

the Most High,

you'll treat

your morning a

little bit

differently.

Now I am

not God,

in case you

were wondering.

I don't,

my words that

come out of my

mouth are not

the words of

God.

But we have

the Word of

God, don't

we?

And our

job up here

is to

explain it

to you.

It's to

further develop

your understanding

of it.

Right?

What a

precious thing

it is to

have this

and to have

people who

spend hours

preparing to

tell you what

it means.

So you

should come

expectant.

What does

that mean?

What does

that look

like?

What does

that do

for your

morning?

I think it

starts a little

bit earlier.

prayer.

I think it

begins in

prayer.

I think it

begins in

confession.

You're going to

step into the

throne room.

This is not

the house of

God.

God dwells

within you.

Certainly you

ought to come to

Him clean as we

approach His

Word.

Number two,

worship God

in your

listening.

Worship God

in your

listening.

Certainly if you

expect to meet

with God and

you come

appropriately to

that, you'll

be worshiping

Him and

you're listening.

But I'm

guilty of

this.

I sit

sometimes and

listen to the

preaching of

the Word and

my mind is

all over the

place.

I can't quite

engage on

what's going

on.

It might seem

a little bit

boring to

me.

And so I'm

flipping my

pages.

I'm reading

the text before

I'm reading

the text after.

Sometimes I

go to an

entirely different

book altogether.

I'm like,

ah,

Colossians is

so boring.

I'm going to

Psalms.

I'm going to

read a

Psalm instead.

As if God

has nothing for

me in the

listening.

As if God

couldn't even

take boring

preaching and

do something

amazing with

it.

He can.

Some of the

sermons that I

preach that I

think are

horrid, I just

get done and I'm

like, oh, man,

what a waste of

the resources God

has given me.

People come up

to me and say,

God really taught

me something through

what you said.

You were kidding

me.

God's Word has

power that we

don't even

understand.

So worship

God in your

listening.

Be attentive.

Try to key in.

Do everything you

got to do to do

so.

It might mean that

you don't need to

stay up late on a

Saturday night.

It might mean that

you're a little

tired on Sunday

morning and you

need to wake up

when you get

here.

We have coffee

for that very

reason.

If you don't

like coffee,

buy Red Bull

on the way

here.

All right.

We have got to

start to get

away from this

idea that worship

is a time.

It's just a

certain segmented

time where we

sing songs

together.

All right.

Wes is a

worship leader,

but if we call

him that,

that's the only

time we worship,

right?

Wes is a music

leader and he

leads us to

worship in music.

All right.

I worship God

by preaching the

word.

You worship God

by listening to

the preaching of

the word.

We take the

Lord's Supper

together as an

act of worship.

I would argue

to you that

Aletheia Way is

an act of

worship.

Us participating

in teaching the

kids, singing the

songs with them,

making them excited

about what's going

on up here is an

act of worship.

Our prayer

together, our

giving to the

church is all

worship.

Number three,

take pen in

hand and take

notes.

Take pen in

hand and take

notes.

That's why I

provided this little

thing for you this

morning.

I don't know if

it's helpful to

you or not.

You know what?

It's okay if it's

not.

You have paper.

Take your own

notes.

It doesn't matter.

If you find me

giving you something

like that insulting,

just pretend I

didn't give it to

you and take your

own notes.

It's fine.

If you put a pen

in your hand,

you're going to

pay attention.

You're going to

want to write

things down.

How many of

you have heard

a sermon on a

Sunday morning

and by the time

you finished

eating lunch,

you couldn't

have repeated

back any part

of anything that

was said?

You probably

couldn't even

give the main

text of the

sermon.

I've been

there.

It's gone.

It's gone.

It's proven that

when we write

things down, we

remember them.

And certainly

if we don't, we

can go back and

look at what we

wrote down.

So I'm going to

make an effort to

give you notes.

It means I have to

be more prepared.

I made these

this morning and

I apologize if

they're not

complete enough

for you.

But I'm going

to work on

giving you

something that

helps you to

do this.

So take pen

in hand and

take notes.

J.I.

Packer wrote

in his book

Knowing God,

Knowing God

is more than

knowing about

him.

It is a matter

of dealing

with him as

he opens up

to you and

being dealt

with by him

as he takes

knowledge of

you.

Knowing about

him is a

necessary

precondition of

trusting in

him.

But the

width of our

knowledge about

him is no

gauge of our

knowledge of

him.

You catch

that?

Knowing about

God is a

prerequisite for

knowing him,

for being able to

trust in him,

place our faith in

him.

That last

sentence,

But the

width of our

knowledge about

him is no

gauge of our

knowledge of

him.

So let's

not approach

the study of

Romans to just

stack away a

bunch of stuff

in our files

about God.

Let's study

it to

actually know

him.

And then

number three,

we should be

mobilized by

it.

So we

should study

it, we

should study

it to know

God, not

simply know

about him.

And number

three, we

should be

mobilized by

it.

Firstly, to

share the

gospel with

others.

I am very

impacted by

Paul's

response to

the gospel.

He fasts for

three days and

then he's back

at it.

A baby

Christian in

our minds.

A guy who

doesn't know all

that much, but

he is passionate

and he is out

there and he is

sharing that

Jesus is

certainly the

son of God.

if we

value the

gospel, one

of the reasons

I think we

need a

revival is

that we

don't.

We value

too many

things more

than.

We need

that passion

rekindled in

us to say

look at the

great things

that God

has done

for us.

You will

talk about

the things

you love.

You

automatically

will.

Think about

yesterday.

If you hung

out with

anybody

yesterday,

what did

you talk

about

yesterday?

What did

you spend

your time

conversing

about?

It's what

you love.

I hope

that some

of us

talked about

the gospel

yesterday.

Then number

two,

secondly,

to send

others to

share the

gospel.

So we

have a

ministry

given to

our church

here.

Certainly

as people

who live

in our

communities,

we have

neighbors and

we have

co-workers,

we have

random

people we

encounter

on the

street,

classmates,

and we

have a

responsibility

to share

the gospel

with them.

And we

ought to

want to.

It ought

to be just

coming out

of us

all the

time to

share the

gospel.

But also,

we have a

responsibility to

the nations,

don't we,

to send

people out.

And I

hope many

of those

people come

from us.

But if

not, we

certainly play

a part in

sending those

people out.

Romans 15,

Romans 15:24

verse 24,

Paul actually

writes to the

Romans,

I hope to

see you in

passing as I

go to Spain

and to be

helped on my

journey there

by you,

once I have

enjoyed your

company for

a while.

So as

he begins

to develop

some of

the practical

implications

of the

gospel,

he says

to them,

on my

way

through

Spain,

I'm

hoping that

you guys

are going

to help

send me

on beyond

that.

I take

that to

mean you're

going to give

me some

provision for

my journey

as I go.

So we should be

mobilized to share

the gospel with

others and to

send others to

share the

gospel.

So I hope

and pray that

God finds us

faithful as we

study Romans

over the

coming months

and years,

years,

I think,

probably about

two.

I pray that

we take these

great gospel

truths and

meditate on

them,

that we roll

them over and

over in our

minds so that

in conjunction

with the

Spirit's work in

our life,

they'll change

our hearts and

then subsequently

they will change

our communities.

Christ Family

Church,

God's beloved,

let's permit

God to begin

a revival.

among us.

Let's pray

together.