Romans

You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.

It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.

Now, here's Pastor Miller.

Man, that's one of my favorite missions hymns.

And uh I love that hymn.

I love that phrase that we we hold that torch that fell uh from them, but the same spirit that sustained them sustains us.

Isn't that great?

We're gonna kick off our missions month on Sunday, and I love, I love September's missions emphasis on world evangelization.

So I trust that you'll be a part of it, and then that the last Sunday will be our big international banquet, and that is a blast.

That is a great time.

So be making plans to be a part of all that.

Good to see you tonight on Wednesday night.

Let's pray together.

Father, we love you, and we thank you for the opportunity to open up your word tonight.

Even if we're at 30,000 feet flying over a book, Lord, it is so rich.

And the the magnitude of the book just amazes us.

What a wonderful gift and treasure we have in your word.

We pray that you'll bless our time tonight in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated, and we're in the book of Romans tonight.

I was gonna see if you guys could remember, but I didn't want to be disappointed if you didn't remember it.

But we have been flying through the Bible.

Have you enjoyed that?

Have you learned anything?

I've learned so much.

When I was in Bible college, we had a class on the book of Romans only.

One, it was a one-year class just on the book of Romans.

And one of the things that our teacher made us do is our professor made us read through the book of Romans in one setting every quarter.

We had to read it through in one setting uninterrupted.

So if you were reading and the phone rang, you had to start over.

If you were reading and somebody walked in the room, you had to start over.

And I remember just getting in a quiet place all by myself and reading through the book of Romans.

And I remember the first time I did it, and I finished the book, and I thought I was just going to have a sense of relief that I did my assignment.

But I just sat and wept at the grandeur of the book, reading it in one setting of everything that the Apostle Paul covers in this one book.

And so, in preparation for this, for this Flight 66, I did the same thing.

I went and found a quiet place, got sequestered, and just read from chapter 1 to chapter 16 the whole book in one setting.

And it is an amazing read when you read it all at one time.

We're going to fly over it like that tonight very quickly, but it has often been called the constitution of the Christian life.

It's our constitution.

It is, there has there's not been more, uh, there's not a there's not a more um uh thorough description and understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

The apostle Paul was writing to believers at Rome.

His desire was to go there.

He thought he was going to go there as a preacher, but he went there as a prisoner.

He got to Rome eventually, paid for by Rome, and he got there.

But he got to Rome, and I want to I want to help you remember this.

How did there come to be believers in Rome?

My personal belief is that Acts chapter 2, when there were devout men out of every nation, these Jewish people out of every nation under heaven assembled in one place in Jerusalem for the high holy day of Passover and then Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The Bible lists the nations that they were from, and one of those places said they were from Rome.

And I believe that part of the 3,000 people that were saved on the day of Pentecost and baptized were people from Rome who went back to Rome with the gospel.

And then after some of the, as the decades unfolded and some of the persecution happened in the book of Acts, believers scattered throughout all the known world.

Many of them went to Rome, and then kind finds kind.

And there became a group of believers in Rome, winning people to Christ, growing in their fellowship.

And Paul really desired to go up there and have fruit.

And so he couldn't get there in person.

So God had that ordained, so Paul would write this book as one of the most complete understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what it means to be a believer.

And it is a powerful book.

If I were to give it to you in this way, Romans chapter 1, verse 16, I think is one of the main key verses of the whole book.

Romans 1:16

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.

And I think the whole message of the book of Romans is about the gospel of God, that God's righteousness was revealed and given to men through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the big picture here is that this is not just a fool, even though it's Paul's fullest explanation of the gospel.

But if the gospel tells us what Christ did, Romans explains why he did it.

And Romans explains what it accomplished.

And then Romans explains how we should live because of it.

So a simple way of remembering the movements of the book as it flows.

It's a really simple outline.

And I'm going to give it to you in two forms.

One of them is a Baptist alliteration, and the other one is a Baptist other way.

So the first way, if you can remember this, chapters one through three is sin.

He deals with the subject of sin in the first three chapters.

You're never going to come to the good news of the gospel until you hear the bad news of our sin.

So he's going to deal with sin.

In chapters, right towards the end of chapter 3, about verse 21, through chapter 5, he's going to deal with salvation.

Chapter 6, 7 and 8, he's going to talk about sanctification.

Chapters 9, 10, and 11, he's going to talk about sovereignty.

God's sovereignty in the whole plan of salvation.

And then chapter 12 through chapter 16, he's going to talk about service.

So the whole first part of the book, sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, service, the whole front end of the book is all doctrinal.

The back end of the book is all practical.

Because what you believe dictates how you behave.

So this we get by faith, but if we have faith, we will see it in our works.

We do not work to be saved, we work because we're saved.

And if we've met this by faith, we will work this out in fear and trembling.

Everybody with me on that?

So that's the first way: sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, and service.

Let me give you another way to remember it.

In the first three chapters, you're going to see condemnation.

Condemnation.

Then in chapters, the end of chapter 3, verse 21, on through chapter 5, you're going to see justification.

And we'll talk about what that means in just a minute.

Justification.

Chapters 6, 7, and 8, sanctification.

That one stays the same in both of your boxes.

Sanctification.

Chapters 9, 10, and 11, restoration.

Chapters 12 through 16, transformation.

Everybody with me on that?

That's a great way to remember it.

Let me give it even more simply, okay?

Here's how the book of Romans breaks down.

We are all sinners.

Christ alone saves.

The Spirit changes us.

God keeps his promises.

The gospel changes how we live.

Can everybody understand that?

That's the jelly on the bottom shelf.

We can all get a taste.

So let's look at our Bible tonight.

Chapter 1 and verse 18, we're going to kick off.

The first part of it is kind of a salutation.

Paul's introducing himself.

He's talking about why he wants to come and what he wants to write about.

But in chapter 1, verse 18, we're going to kick the first section of this book.

Chapter 1, verse 18 through chapter 3 and verse 20.

The gospel reveals our condemnation.

The gospel reveals our condemnation.

If there is a good news, there must be a bad news.

And you will never understand the good news until you know the bad news.

And the condemnation is this: chapter 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

Let me tell you this.

Modern-day Christianity does not want to see God as a wrathful, vengeful, holy God.

But God is wrathful, God is vengeful, and God is holy.

But he's also gracious and merciful and full of loving kindness.

And how do you reconcile those two things?

I'm glad you asked.

We'll get there.

But you never get to that part of God until you understand the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness, ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them.

What right does God have to say that men hold truth, but they hold truth in unrighteousness?

Well, what about people who've never heard?

People ask that all the time.

What about people who've never heard?

Well, Paul's going to give an answer to that in just a moment.

Because those people, even though they may have never heard the gospel the way you have, they still hold the truth.

But they hold it in unrighteousness.

How?

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them.

What is that?

Write down next to the chapter 1, verse 19.

Conscience.

God gave every man a conscience.

Every man knows the difference between right and wrong.

Now a conscience can be seared, a conscience can be defiled, a conscience can be perverted.

But I want to tell you, every man is born with a conscience.

Nobody had to teach you how to do wrong, and nobody had to teach you how to lie to cover it up.

Every man was born with a conscience and a sinful nature, and there was something in him that was known in him of God.

And what is that?

His conscience.

Notice not only that, that which may be known of God is manifest in them, conscience, for God hath showed it unto them.

Well, what is that?

Creation.

Let me tell you what every man in all the world has.

Every man in all the world has a conscience, and every man in all the world can see the creation.

And the conscience says you're a sinner, and the creation says, the heavens declare the glory of God.

And the firmament shows his handiwork.

The conscience says you've sinned.

And the creation says there's a creator that you're responsible to.

So every man holds that truth, but they choose to hold it in unrighteousness.

Why do men choose not to believe in God?

It's not because of the lack of evidence, it's because of sin.

Men do not leave truth for error.

Men leave truth for sin.

In every case.

Men will embrace error because it gives them an out for their sin.

Verse number 20.

For the invisible things of Him, of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

So here, mankind everywhere has conscience and creation to declare to them their sinfulness and God's sovereignty of who God is.

And every man who responds to the light that God has given them, God to him will give more light.

The men are without excuse because they know the things of God and they hold those.

And the wrath of God is revealed to those men who have known God and yet have rejected God.

Look at verse number 21.

Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image like the corruptible man, and to birds, into four footed beasts, and to creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness to the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who change the truth of God into a lie.

So here's what happens: Mankind is born with a conscience.

They know they're a sinner.

Mankind understands that there is a creator.

But instead of seeking that creator, they reject that creator and they replace him with one of his own creations.

So if you go somewhere in the world, you would have gone to places in primitive, in primitive and pagan cultures where women were having babies, and because of their conscience, knowing that they had done something wrong, and because of creation, testifying that there was a God, they rejected the God who created, worshiped the creation, and threw their babies to the crocodiles.

This is where you see people bowing down to trees, people bowing down to idols.

Why?

They have replaced God.

And why do they replace God?

Because they didn't want to know God.

So the progression that Paul is giving here in man's condemnation is that they knew God, they rejected God, then they exchanged God, and then they dishonored God, and then God gave them up.

God gave them up to vile affections.

First of all, God gave them up to uncleanness.

Then God gave them over to vile affections, and then God gave them up to a reprobate mind.

That's the judgment of God on men.

This whole process of God giving them up is a rejection of God.

It is the consequence of a nation or a person who has rejected God and replaced God.

And they worship the create the creature more than the creator, and what happens is now they say there is no God.

And the way that it is visibly seen that people have rejected God, first and foremost, is in the very basic order of society.

They reject the order of male and female in marriage.

The first thing that goes in a nation that has replaced God with other gods is the fallout of the home.

The next thing to follow is the perversion of sexuality.

And eventually it becomes reprobate.

What is a reprobate mind?

A reprobate mind is a mind that is devoid of any consequences.

It is upside down.

It can look you straight in the face and say men can get pregnant.

We laugh about that, but I want to tell you something.

That is an absolute indication that as a nation we are in the judgment of God.

God has given us confusion of face that we can say that woman had every right to murder her children and should not be held accountable.

We have replaced God with a God made in our own image.

And I will tell you something: that's the wrath of God on a nation who has broken the moral, honor, and code of God.

They have replaced God.

So the problem with mankind is deeper than behavior.

Man's fundamental problem is that he has rejected his creator.

These are just the fruits of the rebellion and the rejection of the creator.

So in chapter one, you see that the immoral man is guilty.

This is the condemnation.

Immoral nations, Gentile nations, were guilty because they knew God, but they rejected God.

And that God gave them over to their vile affections until eventually they became reprobate.

In chapter two, the moral man is guilty.

Chapter one, it was the immoral man.

Chapter two, it is the moral man.

Verse number one, thou therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

What does he mean by that?

The moral man is guilty because he has some kind of a religious or moral understanding that would say when he reads Romans chapter one, well, that's not me.

But then Paul says, Yeah, but you're guilty too.

You say, Well, how are you?

How am I guilty?

I have a standard.

I don't do those kind of immoral deeds.

Yes.

But your ability to recognize wrong in someone else demonstrates that you understand moral accountability.

And what you're doing is, is you are using other people's immorality to justify your own.

But you do understand accountability.

So therefore, you're inexcusable.

So the immoral, the immoral man is guilty, the moral man is guilty, and then at the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, he turns his eyes away from the Gentile nations and onto the Jewish nations and says, the religious man is guilty.

He said, You know, you you say that because you have the law that you are okay because you have this moral and religious law.

Well, we have the law.

Paul said, It's not having the law, it's doing the law.

Do you have it, but do you do it?

I remember I've asked many people this as I've knocked on doors over the years and said, hey, do you have a church you go anywhere?

You go to?

And well, no.

If you died today, are you 100% sure you go to heaven?

Oh, yes.

Yes, I know I'd go to heaven.

Well, how do you know that?

What do you base that on?

Well, I'm I'm a good person.

Well, how do you know you're a good person?

Well, I keep the Ten Commandments.

And I say, Really?

What are they?

I said, can you name all ten?

Well, probably not.

Well, then how do you know you're keeping them?

You can't even remember them.

I said, you just broke one of them.

You lied to me.

But there are people who think that because we have the law, that we are therefore okay.

And he says, No, possessing God's law could not save the Jew.

The law was only there to reveal sin.

It could not remove sin.

You know what the law is?

The law is an x-ray.

That's all the x ray, the law was an x-ray.

God put man behind an x-ray and said, look at the condition of your heart.

Now, an x-ray can show you that your bone is broken, but it can't set the bone.

The law is powerless to heal, it only reveals what is broken.

That's why Paul said, I thought I was doing really good as I was going through the list.

Now shall I have no other gods before me?

I've never worshiped anyone but Jehovah.

Shall that take the name of the Lord the God of in?

I would never have misused the name Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, Adonai.

Honor your father and mother, I've done that.

Keep the Sabbath, I've done that.

Bear no false witness, I've not done that.

Don't commit adultery, I've never been with another woman.

Don't murder, I've never murdered anybody.

He said, Then I got to that last one.

Don't covet.

And that just woke up all kinds of things in me.

I never did commit adultery, but I wanted to.

I didn't dishonor my parents, but I wanted to.

And Paul said, the law in me showed me all manner of concupiscence.

That's an old King James word to say.

The law showed in me all manner of covetousness.

The law just showed in me that I wanted to do all of that.

You know, this is such a blessing.

Thank you, deacons.

We have a pledge here at our church that if a cell phone goes off, it's an automatic$10,000 donation to the church.

And so the deacons are just back there calling random numbers.

So thank you so much for that, Miss Jerry.

You'll be getting a bill.

Was that your daughter's or was that yours?

Oh, Kathy Clark.

Well, she owes you big time.

Tell Kathy I said hello, but don't do it right now.

So the religious man is guilty and condemned.

But I love what he says in chapter 3.

He said, I got the Gentiles that are immoral, pagans, idol worshippers, heathens, ungodly, fornicators, homosexual, confused.

I got the moral people who have some sense of a standard who judge everybody else and think that they're doing okay.

I've zeroed in on the Jewish people and Said, just because you have the law of God doesn't mean that you're okay.

And Paul said, Let me just conclude with this.

In verse number 19, now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

The whole world is guilty before God.

There is none righteous, no not one.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So what is the verdict of this first section?

Every mouth is stopped, every person is guilty, every sinner is helpless.

And that's where man sits.

What a great way to launch into the good news.

So we saw number one, the gospel and condemnation.

It reveals our condemnation.

Number two, we see in chapters three, verses 21 to 5, chapter 20, or verse 21, the gospel provides our justification.

If you want to ever see two beautiful words in the Bible, look at the first two words of Romans chapter 3 and verse 21.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

He says in verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight, in his sight, for the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now.

I preached a whole sermon one time on but now.

But now.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation.

You say, what does that word propitiation mean?

It's the same word in the Old Testament that was mercy seat.

The mercy seat was on God's side of the veil.

The mercy seat is God's side of the cross.

On our side of the cross, we see a lamb who is dying for us.

On God's side of the cross, he sees one man who he is pouring out his wrath upon for all men.

God's side of the cross was horrendous.

It pleased God to bruise him, to satisfy his wrath.

On God's side of the cross, it was justice.

On our side of the cross, it was mercy and grace.

Justification.

God has provided a righteousness that sinners could never produce.

In chapter 3, verses 21 and on, we see justified by grace.

Justification means that God declares the believing sinner righteous on the basis of Christ's finished work.

Listen, I love this about justification.

It is a legal term.

To be justified means you have been ruled from the bench righteous.

Not just declared not guilty, but declared free of all charges.

In other words, justified means I am just as if I'd never sinned.

When God looks at me justified, he sees me in a complete and perfect state in Christ.

I am justified.

It's more than just forgiveness.

Forgiveness says your deed has been canceled.

Your debt is canceled.

I've sent it away.

That's wonderful.

Thank God for forgiveness.

But justification says, not only did I send away your debt, but I have taken the righteousness of Christ and credited it to your account.

When you get to heaven, the Bible talks about in those days the books are open at the great white throne.

The books are opened.

And whosoever was not found written in the Lamb's book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

What is the books?

The books are the works of all mankind.

They're good and they're bad.

There are books in heaven with my name on it, and the watchers, the recording angels, are writing down what I am doing.

Everything, every deed, every thought, every spoken word.

There's not one idle word that will not be held into account.

Everything I've ever done is being recorded.

It's in the books.

God has given me life.

And when I got life, God created a book of life for Dean Miller.

You were given life.

I breathed into you the breath of life.

You've been gifted this life.

And now everything you do is recorded.

But all of my sin and my unrighteousness before God was being recorded.

And if I am judged out of those books, in his sight shall no flesh be justified.

So what did Jesus do?

Jesus came and God made him who knew no sin to be made sin for me.

Why?

That I might be made the righteousness of God.

Let me tell you what happened in heaven.

This is actually the transaction that took place.

When God sent Jesus Christ into this world to die, he literally swapped books.

My books became his.

Chapter 4, he gives us a great illustration of that.

We're justified by faith.

It's by grace, but how what's the mechanism to get grace?

Faith.

Not works.

In chapter 4, he says, What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, is pertaining to the flesh of foul?

Now he's talking about Jewish people.

What did Abraham say?

What did Abraham find?

Was Abraham justified?

Yes.

Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

So what did he find?

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of the glory, but not before God.

What saith the Scripture?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

If you're going to work for your salvation, God didn't give you salvation as a reward, but as a debt.

You earned it.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity.

Isn't that something?

David said, Let me tell you what this is.

Abraham found this justification with God by faith.

He believed God, and God accounted that to his account as righteousness.

And David said, Let me tell you the blessing that our father Abraham got.

When he believed, not only were his iniquities forgiven and his sins were covered, not only that, but God does not impute iniquity to your account.

God doesn't record your sin.

That's why when you read down in this passage of Scripture, the Bible says, are you ready for this?

The Bible says, in verse number 19, speaking of Abraham, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Is that true?

Did Abraham not stagger at the promises of God?

Or did Abraham stagger into Hagar's tent?

But where is that in the record?

Blessed is the man that the Lord will not impute iniquity.

His sins are covered, they are blotted out.

He remembers them no more.

When you get justified, you're justified all the way.

There is no record of Abraham staggering.

Justification by faith.

And what does that bring?

Chapter 5, it brings peace with God.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's going to explain to you in chapter 5 this peace that comes with God.

Because God really only made two men to become federal heads.

God made Adam the federal head of the human race.

And if you are in Adam, wherefore as by one man sinned into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

How did we sin?

In Adam.

If your life is in Adam, you're going to die.

But God sent another man, the last Adam, and if God could condemn all men in one, God can justify all men in one.

So if you're an Adam, you are condemned.

This is chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

If you're an Adam, you are condemned.

But if you've been saved, you are now in Christ and you are justified.

That brings peace with God.

Let me tell you something that people who think they have to work for their salvation don't have.

Peace with God.

I remember one time we, God bless them, I think a lot of them are saved, but they just don't know it.

But we, when I was in high school, we played against the Pentecostal Church of God.

They had a Christian school and we'd play them in sports.

And let me tell you what we would do.

We would get under their skin.

We Baptists learned how to trash talk.

We would trash talk these guys.

We'd get under their skin, and then as soon as they would start to get mad, we'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, your sanctification, bro.

Sanctification.

You're going to lose your salvation.

And then we would beat the fire out of them.

Let me tell you one thing that those guys didn't have.

They did not have any peace with God.

Because one bad thing, they could lose their salvation.

But salvation by grace through faith brings peace with God.

We are reconciled to God.

Grace and faith bring justification.

A legal declaration.

And listen, God is too righteous to overlook sin.

So God, who is just, justifies the ungodly.

How does God do that?

How can God justify ungodly people without becoming ungodly himself?

A judge that lets a criminal go free is condemned himself.

He's an unrighteous judge.

God does it on the merits and the basis of Christ.

That God has put all of our sin on him and God has crushed him.

And when Jesus rose from the dead and I put my faith in him, I was declared righteous.

Grace and faith bring justification, which brings peace, which brings hope.

Confidence.

I can walk in confidence.

Paul in chapter 5 compares Adam, who brought sin, condemnation, and death, and then he compares him with Christ, who brought righteousness, justification, and life.

What Adam ruined, Christ redeemed.

That's Paul's message.

Number three, chapter 6 through 8.

The gospel produces our sanctification.

So our gospel reveals our condemnation.

Our gospel provides justification, but the gospel produces sanctification.

Chapter 6 through 8.

What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin remain any longer therein?

Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death, therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the Father, even so also, by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life.

What is he saying here in chapter 6?

He is talking about our sanctification in chapter 6 through 8.

Romans now changes the question.

Their first question was, how can a sinner be made right with God?

Paul said, through Christ.

Their question then is, okay, well then how should a person who's been made right with God live?

I mean, if we got grace according to our sin, then it would only stand a reason that we should just sin so we get more grace.

And Paul said, What?

You're dead to sin.

That was the whole process of justification, that you died with Jesus, you were buried with Jesus, and you rose up in newness of life with Jesus.

It's called when you when you when what the Lord did was the Lord baptized you or placed you into his death.

So when Jesus died, you died, literally.

When Christ was buried, you were buried.

When Christ rose from the dead, you were raised from the dead to walk in newness of life.

So in chapter 6, he's going to speak about victory over sin's dominion.

Sin shall no longer have dominion over you.

Why?

Verse number 11.

Likewise, reckon ye yourselves also to be dead unto sin, but alive unto Jesus Christ.

The word reckon is an accounting term.

In accounting, you put it to the account.

So what I'm doing is I know that Jesus died, buried, and rose again, but I need to reconcile that.

I need to put it on my account that his death is my death, his burial is my burial, his resurrection is my resurrection.

So I need to know it, but I need to reckon it, then I can yield my members as instruments of righteousness.

So when sin, temptation, knocks on my door, I need to say, there's nobody home, I'm dead.

And I no longer yield my members to that.

I yield my members as instruments of righteousness.

That's victory over sin's dominion.

When you get saved, you need to know your position in Christ.

You need to reconcile that it is true, and you need to yield yourself to God.

Many years ago, my father-in-law bought me a card for a car wash that I loved down south.

It was one of those car washes you pull up and you pick your wash.

There was a basic all the way up to the big deluxe.

And uh they would write on your windshield, you could pick your scent.

You know, if you got the deluxe, you could pick your scent.

Man, I love the leather smell, the boot, the boot store.

I love that.

And so my father-in-law bought me for Christmas one year a card.

And I would go up there, and there was always this little hippie little dude that was standing there, and he's like, What do you want?

And I'd always like, you know, I don't remember how much is on this.

A couple times I got the full deluxe, the ultimate.

They called it the ultimate.

They I would get the ultimate.

Man, they would armor all your tires, they would vacuum out the car, they would wax everything, they would clean the interior, they would put that scent in there.

Man, it was just high cotton, brother.

I love the ultimate.

But most of the time I would just be like, I don't remember how much is on this.

I'll just take the basic today.

And the little hippie dude, like, uh, and he would just ride on the thing.

And then the basic, they gave you nothing.

They just kind of spit on it and wash it off, and then you get back in and drive away.

And I did that for a whole year.

Well, I was getting ready to go Christmas shopping one time, and so I drove up to the car wash because I was gonna get my car clean, get my Michelle, and we were gonna go Christmas shopping, and we're gonna have a great time together and a date.

And so I went to the car wash and I said, Man, I drove up there, and no longer was the little hippie dude out there, it was the manager of the place, and I showed him my card and he just started writing on my windshield, and he goes, What scent do you want?

I'm like, Oh, timeout.

I've had this for a year, I don't know if there's enough money on there for that.

And he goes, What do you mean?

And I said, I don't know if there's enough money on this card for that.

And he goes, There's no money on that card.

And I said, Well, that's what I was afraid of.

He goes, No, sir, listen, that's the VIP card.

I said, What does that mean?

He said, It means that you can get as many washes as you want, unlimited.

I called Michelle and I said, I am not gonna be home.

I'm going around in this car until this thing, until until this thing falls apart.

Listen.

All year long I'd been living on the basic.

When I had in my pocket the ultimate.

Too many Christians are living on the basic.

When we have in our pocket the ultimate.

Chapter 7, he says, the sanctification is your struggle with the flesh.

Paul describes the frustrating battle.

In verse number 19, the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do.

Have you ever been frustrated with that?

What I want to do, I don't do.

What I don't want to do, I do.

Oh, wretched man that I am.

Notice what he asked.

He does not ask what.

When he says, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

He does not ask what will deliver me.

He asks, who will deliver me?

And what is the answer?

I thank God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus delivers me from the bondage of the flesh.

I do not have to have the dominion of sin, and I don't have to have the bondage of the flesh.

And then in chapter 8, he talks about how all this is realized, and that's the victory of the Spirit.

Victory through the Spirit.

Romans chapter 8, it's the peak.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It's one of the mountain peaks of Scripture.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Listen, twenty times from my count in the book of, in chapter 8, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit.

How does a justified man live in the sanctified life through the power of the Holy Spirit?

You cannot do it in your flesh.

You cannot put enough rules on yourself, you cannot put enough standards on yourself.

It is only accomplished through the indwelling person of the Holy Spirit.

There is no condemnation.

It's how he starts the chapter.

In verse 39, he says, Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.

Between those two assurances, no condemnation, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Between those two promises and those two assurances is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It's the Spirit that gives us life.

It's the Spirit that leads the believer.

It's the Spirit that assures us of our adoption.

It's the Spirit that helps our infirmities.

It's the Spirit who intercedes with us and for us.

It's the Spirit who works within God's sovereign purpose to bring God's will into reality into our life.

At the center of that great chapter is Romans 8.28.

We know that all things work together for good to them who are the call that love God who are the called according to his purpose.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about those things work together for good when you're under the working of the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 6, sin does not have to control me.

Chapter 7, I cannot conquer sin by myself.

Romans chapter 8, the answer is to let the Holy Spirit live in me victoriously.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That's sanctification.

Stop trying, start trusting.

Number four, chapters 9 through 11.

I wish I had a ton of time and I don't.

I got seven minutes to land this plane.

The gospel confirms God's sovereignty.

Chapters 9 through 11, the gospel confirms God's sovereignty.

At this point, Paul answers a great question that comes up.

If Israel received all of these promises, then why has Israel largely rejected Christ?

How can we walk in the assurance of this justification and this gospel that's been promised to us if Israel had all these promises and they rejected it?

That's the question.

More importantly, what they were really asking is, okay, do all these things that now come to us through Christ, do these null and void God's promises to Israel?

Has God abandoned his promises to Israel?

What about them?

And the answer is emphatic in Romans chapter 11 and verse 2.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

God has not cast away his people which he foreknew.

Okay, so let me ask you a question.

Has God cast off Israel forever?

Yes or no?

Is God through with the Jew?

Yes or no?

Are we all supposed to hate Israel?

Yes or no?

No.

But that seems to be the modern-day message.

In fact, churches, even in this area, who once held a strong view on this, are going all millennial and turning their backs on Israel.

And there's a decay in the church today that God is not going to withhold his promises and his purposes to Israel.

And I want to tell you something right now.

We did not replace them.

And Paul's going to explain this.

I'm going to give it to you in very elementary terms.

But in chapter 9, Paul's going to talk about Israel's past.

He's going to build a case here for Israel.

He's going to talk about Israel's past.

Let me give you one word that explains their past: election.

Chapter 9.

Look at it very quickly.

In verse number 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not.

My conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I wish that myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of.

God and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who was over all, God blessed forever, amen.

Not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.

Then he says in verse 7, neither because they are they the seed of Abraham, are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

That is, they which are in the children of the flesh, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

What is he saying here?

Let me give it to you in elementary terms.

God elected Israel for his sovereign purpose in bringing forth the seed, which was Christ.

God elected them to be the people of his choosing, so that through them he would give covenant, he would give unconditional promises and covenants, and he would give the fathers, he would give them the law, he would give them a distinction.

Why?

That through them Christ would be born.

Listen, if we hate the Jews, we have to hate Jesus.

For he is one.

He was born a Jew.

There is an election.

God elected them.

You can read all about it.

Now listen, people have tried to read into this personal salvation.

They've developed really dangerous doctrines in soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, in reading these things like Esau have I hated and Jacob have I loved.

You have to go back to Genesis chapter 25 and find out that God was not saying this about individuals, that I have hated this individual, Jacob, or Esau, and loved this individual Jacob, and therefore God will only have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and God just arbitrarily chooses who he will save.

Genesis 25 · chapter mention

People take this passage of scripture and they apply it to individual salvation.

Go back to Genesis 25, and you will find that in Rebekah's womb there were two nations and two particular types of people.

And God was saying, I've chosen this one.

And this is going to be my seed that's going to bring forth the Messiah.

That was God's sovereign plan in election for Israel, that they would bring forth Christ.

Did they fulfill that?

Yes.

So what does he mean that not all Israelites are of Israel?

What does that mean?

Well, he came to his own, who were all Israelites, and they received him not.

He was the promise seed and they rejected him.

So true Israel are those who will believe God's promises, and those who believed on Christ.

Chapter 10, he's going to talk about Israel's present.

Here's the word that defines Israel's present: rejection.

Their past is election, their present is rejection.

Israel possessed tremendous spiritual privilege, but they sought righteousness through the law rather than receiving Christ by faith.

They, with their eyes wide open, rejected Christ.

This chapter also contains the great missionary declaration for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But how shall they call without believing?

How shall they believe without hearing?

How shall they hear without a preacher?

God said, Israel's in rejection.

You know what?

Israel needs to hear?

They need to hear the gospel.

They have rejected.

He came into his own, and his own received them not.

He was the stone that was set at not of the builders.

They rejected Christ.

What is Israel today?

They're living in rejection.

But they're still the elect.

The election was not nullified by rejection.

That's where chapter 11 comes in.

Look at chapter 11.

I say then, has God cast away his people?

God forbid.

For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew.

What ye not what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

But what said the answer of God unto him?

I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

He said, Listen, God has his people.

There's a remnant of his people.

And chapter 11 is Israel's future.

What's the word that defines Israel's future?

Restoration.

So their past is election, their present is rejection, but their future is restoration.

Notice what he says in verse number 25, 1125, and I'm hustling, but I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits.

That blindness, what are the next two words?

In part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles become in.

You need to underline those three words, in part and until.

God has not finished with Israel, and the church has not caused God to forget his covenant purposes with Israel.

Romans chapter 11 is actually one of the greatest chapters in the Bible because it looks forward to God continuing his work with Israel.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

And you know how Paul ends this huge section on God's sovereignty?

Chapter 9, 10, 11.

The greatest expose ever written about the sovereign work of God.

You know how Paul ends this?

He ends it in chapter 11 and verse 33.

Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

Let me tell you what Paul does.

Paul does not end this section with argument that we have, that we, like we have over the last dozen centuries in the Christian church.

We have argued over this.

Paul does not end this section with argument.

He ends this section with worship.

And let me tell you what this means.

And I want you to see this.

When your theology is understood properly, proper understanding of theology will always produce doxology.

What does that mean?

True understanding of God always produces praise and adoration and glory.

People who are always fighting over dogmatic things in theology probably don't understand it.

Now understand, there are things that we need to contend over.

We do need to contend for the faith.

I reject false doctrine, but when we properly understand theology, it swells up in the heart of a man, not pride, but praise.

Okay, then the last section, and we'll land the plane.

Can you feel it?

We're coming in.

Buckle up.

Over on our final approach.

Chapters 12 through 16.

The gospel transforms our daily living.

There's transformation in the gospel.

Chapter 12, man, one of the greatest verses you'll ever read in your life.

Paul hinges everything on one word.

I beseech you therefore, therefore, therefore, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, everything that has come before this in doctrine hinges now into practice.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren.

Chapters 1 through 11 is all doctrine.

Chapters 12 through 16 is duty.

And Paul doesn't separate the two, he hinges them together with therefore.

Because Romans 1 through 11 is true, that we are sinners, and God saves and sanctifies, and he's sovereign because of that.

Present your bodies what?

Okay, present your what?

Isn't it interesting that he didn't talk here about your spirit?

All through this in the doctrine, he's talked about what God's going to do in your spirit.

He's going to justify you in your spirit.

The Holy Spirit's going to bear witness with your spirit.

He's been talking about spirit, the inner working of God in your spirit.

But where is it going to be seen in your body?

So true salvation and justification and sanctification and spirit-filledness results in giving God your body.

It's one thing to say in your spirit, my spirit belongs to God, but my body belongs to me.

So what is he saying here?

You present your body as a living sacrifice.

I want to tell you, he's not talking about your body on an altar.

You have to understand the Jewish practice of sacrifice at the temple.

When sacrifices were brought to the temple, they went into a pen and they were presented to the priest.

What did the priest do?

He examined them.

What was he looking for?

Spots, blemishes, haltness, lameness.

They had to pass examination so that they were counted worthy to be made sacrifice.

God doesn't want your spirit if your body belongs to you.

God doesn't want you just to worship him only in your spirit and it never affects your body?

God said, listen, I've I've got your spirit.

I put my spirit in your spirit.

What?

Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Okay, so before you put a hole in it, before you ink it, before you dress it, before you feed it, before you drink it, before you do that, is that presentable to God?

Present that to God and say, is this holy?

Is this acceptable?

It's amazing how many Christians want to be saved in our spirit and live like everybody else in our body.

Paul knew that and said, Don't be conformed to the world.

Don't look like the world and say you belong to Christ.

If you are Christ in your spirit, then present your body holy and acceptable to him.

That's your reasonable service.

Let me break that down into modern English.

That is your basic logical ministry.

That Christ would be seen in you and through you.

Present your body.

See, the gospel demands more than our agreement.

The gospel demands us.

God wants you.

He doesn't want you just to agree with him.

He wants you yielded to him.

So he said, give your body.

Then in chapter 2, verse, or chapter 12, verse 2, he said, give God your mind.

Be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Okay?

So don't let your body reflect everything that is you and of this world.

Do not be conformed to the world.

The world's gonna march around, they're gonna all look like and talk like and act like and behave like.

Not a believer.

A believer's gonna live from the inside out.

A believer's gonna live from the inside out.

And the way you're gonna do that is you've got to renew your mind.

You've got to think like God thinks.

It's amazing to me how many Christians will read that and then we'll spend hours scrolling thinking like the world.

We let the world think for us.

And we pick up the philosophies of the world, the rudiments of the world.

He said, be renewed in your mind.

The world wants to press you into its mold.

God wants to transform you into his image from the inside out.

Then he says in verse number 3 through 12, serve God's church.

So what is he doing?

Therefore, because you're saved, give God your body, give God your mind, and then serve in God's church.

Paul addresses in here spiritual gifts, humility, genuine love, hospitality, prayer, generosity, forgiveness, overcoming evil with good.

What is he saying in chapter 12?

He's saying that a transformed relationship with God produces a transformed relationship with other people.

You have it in here, but you demonstrate it out here.

Everybody with me so far?

That's a powerful thought.

Whatsoever therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

A transformed relationship with God produces transformed relationship with people.

Then in chapter 13, he talks about respect for legitimate authority.

He gives us some understanding that government is ordained by God as an institution, and Christians should be responsible citizens while at the same time maintaining our ultimate allegiance to God.

So you say, okay, well then what does that mean?

He's talking about Christian ethics.

How does a Christian relate to the world around him?

How does a Christian who is a pilgrim and not of this world live in the politics of this world?

He rests it all on this in verse number 10 of chapter 13.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.

So we don't steal, we don't cheat, we don't break the moral code.

We don't drive 90 and a 40.

Chapter 14 and 15, I wish I had time to go on this.

He says, Extend grace to other believers.

A transformed life extends grace to other believers.

In chapter 14 and 15, he starts talking about the disagreements that come in the body of Christ.

People disagree over things that are not always doctrinal agreement.

You may think that there might be nothing wrong with certain something, and I think that there is.

Well, who's right and who's wrong?

Unless the Bible clearly says it, neither one of us.

Right?

So some people walk around and say, well, yeah, I have a right to do this.

I mean, the Bible doesn't say that I can't.

Okay.

Well, the question is not, is it lawful?

The question is, is it expedient?

Are you allowed to do it?

Yeah.

Okay, that's not the question.

Should you do it?

That's the question.

So the Bible tells us that we need to extend grace to other believers.

Believers need to put government on themselves so that they don't offend the conscience of others.

You say, but I mean, I don't want to just walk around being a people pleaser.

You're not being a people pleaser when you're doing that as unto the Lord.

That Lord, you love these people, and I don't want to do anything that will cause them to stumble.

So Paul gives us these principles: don't despise other people, don't judge improperly, don't cause other people to stumble.

Don't destroy fellowship over disputable matters.

I mean, should a Christian eat bacon or not?

I say yes.

But some believers say, you know what, hey, listen.

Listen, years ago I had a man that got that came to our church.

He was he came to visit, he came to visit our church and he was very perplexed because he was basically trying to live by the Old Testament law.

And he was under a great burden.

I said, that was what the law was supposed to do.

It's a burden to bring you to Christ so you can have freedom.

Here's a piece of bacon.

But here's the truth.

And I joke about that, but here's the thing.

We were having a big workday.

The church was having a big workday on a Saturday.

And he showed up and I met him in the parking lot and I said, Hey, I don't want you here if this is going to offend your conscience working on the Sabbath.

And he said, I think the Lord's giving me some victory here.

But what was I doing?

I was trying to be gracious to his conscience.

That's how we bel that's how we are supposed to relate to each other.

If I know that something is offensive to you, I'm not going to do that in front of you as long as the world stands, even though I have a right to do it.

And then he tells us a principle of pursuing peace and edification.

Pursue peace, pursue agreement with one another and peace with each other, and then things that will build up.

And then in chapter 15 and 16, he talks about participating in God's mission.

Paul concludes by discussing his missionary ambition.

He says in verse number 20 of chapter 15, Yea, so I have strived to preach the gospel not where Christ was named.

The gospel that saved Paul was the gospel that sent Paul.

Romans begins with Paul being separated into the gospel of God, and Paul ends the book of Romans wanting that gospel to be carried to every nation.

If you want to read something very tender, just read the list of names in chapter 16.

And you're going to find out that Paul's putting names in there that we don't even know who those people are, but Paul knew them and he loved them and he had a fellowship with them in the gospel.

And the gospel transforms our life.

Man, what a joy it is to know.

I was guilty before when this book started, but I am justified, sanctified, and transformed.

Amen?