ROMANS: The Lens of Romans

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

If you've got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

We begin today what will take, I don't know how long, but we'll preach through the book of Romans.

We'll do Romans and we'll take a little break.

And but we'll begin today in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And while you're finding Romans, let me just give you a little bit of the context for what we're going to read this morning.

It's about 56 A.D.

The Apostle Paul has established churches in three or four or five cities.

He set up elders in those cities.

And he's not restless, but he's responsible because one of the things that drove Paul is, he said, I don't, unlike others, I don't build on another man's foundation.

In other words, he didn't just want to get a job at a church and just kind of make a living and not make a difference.

And so he thought, these churches are good.

They can do this without me.

And so now I want to go where the gospel's not going, which was Spain.

But on the way to Spain, he wanted to collect an offering and take to Jerusalem.

And then from Jerusalem, he was going to go to Spain.

And he said, I'm going to stop off in Rome because I'd never been to Rome.

And so to prepare the churches and the Christians in Rome for his arrival, uh, because in some circles he had a good reputation, in some not so good, because before he became a Christian, he persecuted Christians.

He was not a very pleasant person.

And so he writes a letter to the churches in Rome to say, Hey, I want to introduce myself and let you know about my gospel.

And we begin with with reading the introduction to that letter this morning.

Romans chapter 1, verse 1.

Romans 1:1

He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's an interesting place to begin.

It's kind of a long, rather long introduction.

As I told the first service, it's like going to the mailbox and getting out a letter, and in the upper left-hand corner where the return address is, you have the first six verses of all that stuff that Paul just said.

Can you imagine pulling it out?

And it's because we go to our little community mailbox in our neighborhood, and my youngest likes to get the mail out, and she looks at the return address to figure out who it's from.

And she'll read the name, and it's usually just a name and an address, and she's going, I don't know who that is.

But Paul writes this letter, and it starts off with this, I mean, this first six verses, just as Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through the prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son.

Can you imagine all that in the upper left-hand corner of an envelope?

Would you not be, this is like junk mail or something?

This is, I don't know anybody that writes like this.

But he's he's saying these things for a reason.

So here's what I want to do.

I only have one point in the sermon today.

But I've got five introductory points.

Ta-too.

I saw you kind of grab your, like, get the kid.

We're going early.

We're gonna beat the Presbyterians to the golden corral.

Maybe.

Maybe.

You say, Well, what what do you mean?

I want to talk to you today about the lens of Romans, and I want to give you a uh a perspective.

So my five introductory points.

What do we see?

Because here's the deal.

When you start reading the book of Romans, you read this first section, that's the thing you skip.

You're kind of like, yeah, yeah, blah, blah.

I don't know what that means.

Let me just kind of skip over that.

But when you skip over that, there's there's about five things you miss, and I want to list them for you just briefly.

Number one, you miss that Paul's saying, I'm a man of the gospel.

I'm a man of the gospel, which sounds like no big deal until you realize that there's not a whole lot of them alive today.

He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

It's that part where he says, set apart for the gospel of God that I want you to kind of get your head around, because if you're if you're in Romans, turn to the right to the book of Galatians, and we'll get there in just a minute, Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

But just set apart for the gospel of God.

He says, you know, this wasn't his idea.

I don't know if you've been to church any length of time, but if you've been to church three, five, especially ten years, you realize pretty quickly that most pastors are all kind of the same.

We all kind of talk about the same things if we're not careful.

You talk about your marriage and your money and your kids and heaven and hell and throw in a few Bible studies along the way, and it all starts to sound the same.

No one ever had that thought about Paul.

As a matter of fact, when he would talk about God, the people would say, Man, you're bringing some strange ideas to our ears.

You're making us think about God in a way we've never thought about God before.

And Paul was like, and what's wrong with that?

Because he who he is is he kind of prepared the Romans by saying, Hey, you I want you to understand that I'm not who I am on my own.

You say, What do you mean?

Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

This is what I mean when I say a man of the gospel.

Galatians chapter 1, verse 11.

Galatians 1:11

He says, 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, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

That's religion, by the way.

I was so religious and zealous, but when he who had set me apart before I was born, who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.

Now, all you need to hear to understand the context of what he's saying is when he says, I went away into Arabia.

Have you been to Arabia lately?

Did you see Lawrence of Arabia?

It's not like a plush resort, okay?

It cracks me up like with a presidential nomination.

Both of them did this to prepare for the big debate last Wednesday.

They went to like a resort and spent a week getting ready.

Paul says, Listen, when I when God called me, I went away.

I didn't go consult anybody else.

The reason he doesn't sound like anybody else and talk like anybody else, and the reason when he preached, people wanted to hear him and they wanted to kill him.

You never listen to the apostle Paul and kind of went, nah, it's okay.

Where are we eating lunch?

It was just something consequential about him.

Why?

Because he was a man of the gospel.

He's given the Romans kind of a subtle, kind of a forewarning.

When I come, I want you to know this about me.

That I'm not coming to preach my gospel.

I'm called to be an apostle and I'm set apart for the gospel of God.

So, first of all, you have a man of the gospel.

Secondly, he talks about the historical nature of the gospel.

The historical nature of the gospel.

Now, get beyond how nerdy that sounds.

And look at verse 2.

He says, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

It's that phrase, which he promised beforehand.

You ever say something to your kids in a moment of weakness?

It's just kind of an off-the-cuff statement.

Like my wife had to teach me when we first had kids that I would say stuff and I wouldn't fully mean it, but she was to be like, hey, by the way, they file that away and they've got that on in the logbook.

Like when I'd say, hey, one day we're going to go to the zoo.

I'm just kind of just talking.

I mean that.

But the next Saturday, Master would get up and go, Dad, remember when you said one time, one day we will go to the zoo?

I was wondering if today could be that day.

And I look at my wife and she's like, You said it.

And I wasn't like, I want to get out of it.

I was just kind of like, this kid's like an elephant.

She's got like a memory.

See, when the Bible says he promised beforehand, you should, in your mind, you should think, when?

When did he promise that?

Now, if you got your Bible, you don't have to, it'll come up on the screen, but if you want to, you can turn it all the way back to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And while you're turning to Genesis chapter 3, I want to talk to you about duck hunting versus goose hunting.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Anybody in this room ever been duck hunting?

Raise your hand.

Yeah.

We got some rednecks up in here.

And that first service, it was full of PETA members.

They were like, ah, I'm not going to hunt any ducks.

How many in this room have ever been goose hunting?

Let me see your hand.

Now there's a primary difference in duck hunting and goose hunting, and it is a type of gun you use.

And there's a difference in the gun you use.

And the difference is what?

Range.

Thank you very much.

One of them, the barrel on a duck a shotgun you use to hunt ducks with is shorter than a barrel you use on a shotgun to hunt geese with.

And here's why.

Here's what a nerd your pastor is.

I actually looked it up and I read it this week, and a guy was talking about this whole range thing, and he said the longer barrel allows more precise pointing due to its longer siding.

It allows you to burn all your powder, and the rifling inside the barrel allows for greater accuracy.

Oh, I just wanted to go shoot something after that.

What does that mean?

It means when you go goose hunting, geese are a denser bird, they fly higher, and you've got to have a longer barrel.

And the rifling is just kind of spiraled on the inside of the barrel and allows you to burn.

It travels down the length of that barrel and it burns all the gunpowder in the shell and it sends it and it has more capacity to accomplish what you sent it to do.

That's the phrase you need to hear.

It has more capacity to accomplish what you sent it to do.

So when I was studying for this week, for this morning, and he said, and and I read in Romans 1 where it says, Which he promised beforehand, my mind.

What do you mean you promised beforehand?

Genesis chapter 3, verse 14.

Genesis 3:14

The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this.

Now what's happened?

Adam and Eve have just sinned in the garden, screwed up, blew it for everybody.

The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this.

Cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed, or your offspring, and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

You say, no, what what what what do you mean there?

Well, I'm reading from the ESV, which is the English Standard Version.

It's the most literal from the Greek and the Hebrew, but they get it wrong in the translation.

They say, your offspring and his offspring.

It's the Hebrew word Zarah.

Zarah, and Zarah means seed.

And so when he says, between, I'll put enmity between your seed and between his seed, he's making, see, God's making two statements that you don't need to miss because he's kind of already squeezed it off and it is rifling down the barrel with capacity to accomplish what he sent it to accomplish.

Two things he's saying there.

Number one, he's foretelling the virgin birth of Christ.

You say, okay, what?

A little biology lesson.

You with me?

I don't know if I can do this in 11 o'clock service because kids will be in here.

But men have seed.

Women have an egg.

True or false?

Y'all are like, please, dear God, no more.

Just a simple true or false.

Women have an egg.

Or eggs.

Men have seed.

True?

I wish I could see your face.

You're like, that gets more creepy every time you say it.

Please stop.

Now, hear that again.

He says, verse 15, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring, between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

What I'm saying to you, beloved, is that God has a long barrel when it says that he promised before, which he promised beforehand, way back in Genesis, the first promise of a Messiah is in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

Genesis 3:15

God says two things.

Number one, he's going to be foretelling the virgin birth of Christ because a woman doesn't have seed.

In other words, he's saying this Messiah is going to be born without the assistance of a man.

A woman has egg and a man has seed, but her seed is going to come from God.

And the second thing he's saying is he's promising a redeemer, someone who will pay the price for what just happened.

That's what he means when he says, He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel.

It's the first reference to a Messiah, someone who could come and do for humanity what we couldn't do for ourselves.

Now just hit the pause button.

Don't feel overwhelmed, like, wow, this is getting kind of technical.

This takes place three chapters in to the Bible, Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

So when we read in Romans 1 about this gospel that he promised beforehand, you need a frame of reference for how long ago God made this promise.

This promise which he promised beforehand.

Which means that some of you are benefiting from the promises God made to your mom and dad and grandparents.

So don't don't don't don't wake up on third base and think you hit a triple.

Some people went before you.

Now I'm not saying you didn't build that.

I'm just saying.

God made this promise long ago.

When God makes a promise, he never changes his mind.

He never does.

And so when you read in this opening section of Romans, it's easy to kind of go, yeah, blah, blah, whatever.

No, no, no, don't do that.

Because you're going to miss that this is written by a man of the gospel.

And this is kind of, he kind of puts it out there.

And the third thing he says is that, by the way, this is the focus of the gospel.

Verse 3.

He says, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son.

Concerning his son, who is descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We we we we think and we talk differently.

Now, what do you mean the focus of the gospel?

Well, the focus of the gospel is those three words.

Concerning his son.

Concerning his son.

The focus of the gospel is not me.

The focus of the gospel is not you.

And so Paul puts it right up early on in the return address.

I want you to know this about me.

For me, if you get into conversation with me at Starbucks and you start talking about how God loves you and you and you and you, I'm gonna be the guy that raises my hand and says, wait a minute, the gospel does not begin with you.

The gospel begins with God.

Concerning his son.

And then he says these two things that you are easy to miss if you're not careful.

He says, according to the flesh, descended from David.

In other words, I want you to know this concerning his son.

And now that I put his son out there and said, hey, he is the focus of the gospel.

Without the son of God, you have no gospel, which basically means good news.

If you don't have a son of God, you just got a Jew dying on a stick.

And that's that doesn't accomplish anything.

But because Jesus is the Son of God, he's descended from David.

And all these people are like, oh, well, that okay.

That says something.

It's like somebody that says, this doesn't mean as much as it used to.

But I remember used to people say, hey, I went to Harvard Law School, and people go, Oh.

Now you say that, people go, I'm so sorry.

Come here, I'll hold you.

He says, descended from David.

After this flesh descended from David, according to the Spirit, declared to be the Son of God in power by the resurrection.

What does that mean?

Now, you hadn't got to hear this.

You hadn't got to think about this, but there's some people that say that Jesus all of a sudden became somebody, it's called adoptionism.

He was the son of God when he died on the cross.

He didn't become the son of God just because he rose from the dead.

And like, okay, now he's God.

He was fully God and fully man.

Because he was fully God and fully man, when he died on the cross, I can be forgiven and you can be forgiven.

Why?

Because God put forth his son, his payment for our sins.

And it changes who I am.

We'll come back to that in just a minute.

But when he says the focus of the gospel, you need to understand, we're not just talking about a person.

This is according to the flesh, he's a descendant of David, according to the Spirit, declared to be the Son of God in power by virtue of the fact that he was raised from the dead.

Fourth thing Paul tells us is the consequence of the gospel.

The consequence of the gospel in verse 5.

It's very simple.

He says, Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.

Just stop right there.

Through whom we receive grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.

What Paul is saying is, for me, I receive grace and apostleship.

I am who I am.

I'm a preacher today because God's called me to speak to people in such a way that it brings about this the consequence of the gospel, which is what?

It is a life of obedience that is produced by a person of faith.

Said differently, and I'll just apply it to myself that I'm a person of faith is validated by a life of obedience.

I'm married to a very strong person of faith.

For example, yesterday, and it's not that my wife's moralistic or you know perfectionist or whatever.

She just is like, you know what?

This is a faith issue.

And you ladies understand this.

You ever get dressed, you're around your house all day, you don't shower all day on a Saturday, you work in the yard some and you got on shorts that you wouldn't wear anywhere but around your house, and you got on a tank top that looks like Noah wore it on the ark, and your kids go, Hey, can we go to Chick-fil-A?

Mom, can you go get lunch from Chick-fil-A?

Because she says, Hey, I have a coupon from Chick-fil-A.

And I said, Coupon, coupon, I love coupon.

And she said, You want something?

Sure.

So she says, Hey, I'll just jump in the van.

I'll go to the drive-thru.

Goes to the drive-thru.

They give her the food.

Realize she orders and gets up to the window and says, Hey, uh, uh I got a coupon here for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.

The guy says, Oh, you need to tell us that when you order.

And I would have said, You need to put a sign out there that tells me if you have a coupon, tell me.

But my wife's nicer person than I said, Oh, and the guy said, Well, if you pull over, we'll refund your money.

So you pull right over and I said, Okay.

So she pulls over and waits.

The girl comes out and doesn't refund her for a Chick-fil-a sandwich.

She refunds her for the whole meal.

It's about a$4 difference, three or four dollar difference.

Now, part of my mind is kind of like, it's three or four bucks.

And there she is at the fork in the road.

And she said, I was so humiliated.

I had to get out of my van and go back in Chick-fil-A on a Saturday.

Have you been to Chick-fil-A on a Saturday?

Not only is it packed, but it is packed with women that are gick to the nines.

They get on their new Nike running shoes, despite the fact they've never run a day in their life.

They would not run if you chased them with a pistol, okay?

My husband got a lot of money.

What do you want?

But my wife got asked, she goes, I was just humiliated.

Hair was up, she'd been sweating all day, cleaning the house, pulling weeds in the yard.

Walked in and tried to explain with the line at the drive-thru around the building, trying to explain, hey, you gave me too much money.

So what's the problem?

You get why did you get my manager?

The manager comes out.

Yeah, I had a coupon and trying to tell the thing, and the whole time thinking, oh no, if our church sees me in here, I'm the pastor's wife, and I look like I'm homeless or something.

Well, you know, and and and and Lay's like, no, so we didn't give you enough.

No, no, no, no.

You gave me too much money, and I wanted to come in.

No, I didn't want to come in, but I came in.

I wanted to come in because it's the right thing to do, but I look horrible.

Okay, don't stare at me.

And I don't want to take this money.

This is your money.

And the manager finally dawned on her.

She's like, oh wow.

And as much as I was, because that's who my wife is.

That's just she's a very, hey, this is the right thing to do.

I'm gonna do it.

I don't care if anybody sees me.

This is your money.

I'm not gonna steal it.

Part of my mind, I was like, it was$3.66.

Chick-fil-A can afford it.

No.

But see, here's what Paul's saying.

Here's what my wife's demonstrating to me.

That was a sermon I got preached to me yesterday.

She didn't say it, she lived it.

He said, hey, if you're a person of faith, guess what you do?

You do the right thing.

It's called a life of obedience.

It doesn't matter what it costs you.

You can't say, well, you know, I get to obey when I got makeup on.

I get to obey when it's convenient.

Now the consequence of the gospel is obedience.

It's what the writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon.

Remember Solomon?

He starts off Ecclesiastes and says, Hey, I set out to figure out what was worthwhile to do during my few days on the earth.

He says, I amassed these big building projects.

I had a greater and a bulldozer.

Sometimes I pray to God I could win like the lottery, and I would buy a backhoe and a bulldozer and just tear stuff up.

Oh, and chew red man with my shirt off and a cowboy hat.

Wouldn't that be great?

We'd like to pull up one day with friends.

Who's that?

That's our pastor.

Because it's just it's just something about that.

I mean, I'm just like, mmm, yeah.

But he says, hey, I undertook these vast projects.

I did all this stuff, and when I was done, vanity of vanities.

So he says, Hey, so I turned to women.

I had like 300 wives and 700 concubines.

It tickles me when rappers go to the club with their Mr.

T starter set, like 14 gold chains, and about 30 women with them.

They think they got something going on.

Can you imagine Solomon rolling up to the club, just bouncing in with his escalade with a thousand women in mink coats?

Looks like a herd of rams coming in.

And he just kind of like, ta dao, take that.

And then he said, Hey, I tried all that.

He said, actually, he says in Ecclesiastes, I denied my eyes nothing I saw.

And he says, after that, it was vanity of vanities.

It was emptiness.

It was pointless.

I had to take sleeping pills to go to sleep at night because I just couldn't live with my conscience.

And then he says, so I tried wine.

You know, there's a point, you choose wine, then wine starts choosing you.

Be careful.

Don't let your freedom set you up for addiction.

He gets to the end of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13 and 14.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

He says, This, the end of the matter.

All has been heard.

When you get down to the bottom line, this is what it is, people, from a guy that's tried it all.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Last point by way of introduction.

You still with me?

I'm still getting it by one point.

I just got one point.

But I gotta give you some context for it so you won't feel cheated and go out to your car and go, I shaved my legs for this.

We had one point.

It was a seven-minute sermon.

Some of y'all are like, oh, don't tease us with that kind of talk.

Next week, we'll do that.

Last point, by way of introduction, uh, the standard of the gospel.

Don't miss it there in verse 5.

The standard of the gospel.

He says, Through whom we receive grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.

In other words, faith causes me to do the right things, whether I feel like it or I look good or not.

And then he says this, for the sake of his name among all the nations.

For the sake of his name among all the nations.

You ever notice how God always talks about his name in the context of the nations?

You say, what do you mean?

Just maybe this will help us kind of get at it.

Remember back in the civil rights marches and demonstrations in the in the 50s and early 60s?

Uh you'd look around, there were, I mean, atrocities were committed against minorities in this country.

There's no way to say it, any other way to say it than that.

And police would take fire hoses and hose people down and pit them against the wall, and there'd loose police dogs on them.

But there was one chant that began to rise up from the demonstrators that began to kind of uh kind of balance things out and kind of get it out there.

And the chant was this the whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching.

And when the media, the news reporters and video and people, they would hear that.

They would stream to wherever they heard that chant because they believed injustice is happening over here.

There's a story breaking out over here.

And the worse it got, the louder they would chant.

The whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching.

And things begin to change in the civil rights, in the way people, minorities are treated in this country and change for the better because the people that were doing the wrong thing realized, you know what?

The whole world is watching.

With that thought in mind, God says the same thing in Ezekiel chapter 20, starting in verse 6.

Ezekiel 20 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn, it'll come up on the screen.

What does God say?

He says, On that day, I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt, into a land that I had searched out for them.

Now just stop just for a minute and think about that.

Look at what God says.

He says, On that day, I swore to them.

That's the children of Israel, his people.

I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt, into a land that I had searched out for them.

Now, I don't know if you've ever had the experience of your parents picking out your apartment.

Some of you have thought of that, you're like, uh, not so much.

I don't trust that.

No, but God says, Hey, I have searched out a place for you.

I searched out for them a land.

This is what it's like.

It's flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.

Now think about the most glorious of all lands.

You're like, man, whoa.

You think they'd be like, absolutely.

Look what happens.

He says, and I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt.

Why?

Because I am the Lord your God.

That's reason enough.

But it's not reason enough.

But they rebelled against me, God says.

And they're not willing to listen to me.

None of them has cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.

And then I said, I will pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

Now just stop for a minute.

How long does it take God to spend all of his anger?

How much do you have to sin before you just tick God off?

And he says, You know what?

I'm going to just go broke and just spend all my anger on you right here.

Translation, I'm just going to kill you all and start over.

That's why you've said to your kids, now don't get all offended, like, oh, my God's a God of love.

I don't think my God would ever do that.

How many of you have ever said to your kids when they were little, wait till you get home?

I don't want to beat you in the middle of Piggly Wiggly.

But when you get home, we're going to square dance.

So you keep running your little mouth here and piggly wiggly, but when you get home, it's all like Donkey Kong.

You got that?

Put another thing in this grocery cart and see what happens to you.

You'd be walking out of here with a limp.

Yes.

You say that to your kids because you don't want everybody saying, Yeah, I saw Jessica Ferguson snatch a knot and her kid in Walmart the other day, and she goes to the mobs program in my church.

I'm gonna have to report her to the pastor.

No, God says, hey, listen, I I but what does he do?

Look at what he does.

He says, But I acted for the sake of my name.

Don't miss this.

I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them.

In other words, I made myself known to them in the sight of all these people.

I picked Israel, not because it was great or more numerous, but because it would be a place that people would realize God did this, because those people couldn't do it for themselves.

In whose sight I made myself known to them and bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

God says, hey, listen, you've made me so angry because you won't put away your detestable idols.

You won't stop looking at things you shouldn't look at.

You see, something's never changed, by the way.

What you look at, it's now just available on the internet.

It's still detestable.

God says, put that away.

I've given you a wife at home.

What are you doing?

I've given you a husband at home.

What are you doing?

He says to the children of Israel, listen, I am so angry with you, but I'm not going to whip you here in the middle of piggly wiggly because it'll make me look bad for the sake of my great name.

That's why I do this.

Not because I don't care, not because it's no big deal, because I don't want people to believe things about me that aren't true.

When I say the standard of the gospel is in Romans 1, verse 5 is for his namesake among all the nations.

Romans 1:5

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying that somehow we got to understand that not taking the Lord's name in vain has more to do with how you live than how you talk.

And I'm not saying how you talk doesn't matter.

If you think taking the Lord's name is vain, it's saying, well, this one big bad cuss word over here, you miss the whole point.

The point is, do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Is don't don't call yourself a Christian and keep acting like you.

Because you're profaning his name.

You are emptying his name of all its beauty and grandeur and wonder and satisfaction.

That's what it means to take God's name in vain, to call yourself a Christian, and it means nothing in your life on a practical day-in, day out basis.

And as an extension of that, it means nothing to all the people around you that are watching.

Because God establishes a relationship with you and I because he wants everybody around you to look and kind of go, wow, look how good God is to that person.

And Paul says, This is the standard of the gospel.

Don't miss this.

It's right here.

It's for the for his name's sake among all the nations.

And now that's by way of introduction.

And now for my one-point sermon.

Including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Verse 7 to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the lens of Romans.

And it's my only point today.

The lens of Romans.

You say, What do you mean?

You ever go to the eye doctor?

I gotta go again next week.

They put that little Luke Skywalker thing in front of you, and they flip the lenses.

Which is better?

One or two?

One or two?

And now.

One or two?

One or two.

Oh, and now.

One or two.

One or two.

Okay, could you go back to the first one and the third two?

Because I think that was a good combination.

Sir, this is not a joke.

No, I'm serious.

That's why I was kind of thinking, okay, one or two.

Unless you see this through the lens of verse 7, the rest of Romans, here's what you're gonna do.

We get to Romans 6 and we read about how, hey, how shall you who are dead to sin continue to live any longer therein?

I'm gonna love you enough to tell you you have no excuse for your sin, except I knew better and I did it anyway.

And we get to Romans 9 and we talk about the doctrine of election, and some of you are going, oh, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute.

You're gonna get all puffed up and take offense at something that's not offensive, that make you should make you go home and lay in the backyard and do snow angels and think, golly, God revealed himself to me.

He chose me.

Whoa! Unless you see it through this lens, you're gonna miss it.

You're gonna have bad vision.

What's the lens?

It's verse 7 to all those.

See, all this, this first six verses, goes in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope.

It's the return address.

This is who it's from.

This is who it's to.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.

That's the lens through which you've got to see Romans.

You say, What do you mean?

You're loved by God and called to be saints.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, if you had one point, why didn't you just give us that one point?

Because I wanted you, because when you hear you're loved by God, it doesn't cause your knees to buckle.

It doesn't take your breath away.

You don't think, oh my gosh, I'm loved by this God who has a long barrel on his gun of divine favor and affection and justice.

And way back in the garden when Adam and Eve screwed it up and didn't believe God and believed the serpent, believed the enemy, believed the devil, and they doubted God's word.

God comes along and says, That's okay.

Your seed, and he's like, I don't have a seed, I got eggs.

I mean, you're God, right?

You know how this works.

And he's, by the way, he says, Hey, I got a I got I got a Messiah that's gonna come from a virgin, and he's gonna die on the cross.

It's payment for your sin.

You're loved by God.

Don't forget that because you're gonna sin and you're gonna not, you're gonna be very aware.

I don't deserve to be loved by God.

You need to have a context and this frame of reference to all who are loved by God.

Loved by God because God knew we would be like high school kids who get their yearbook, you'd take the Bible, and you'd open it up and start looking for your picture.

He says, No, the focus of the gospel is concerning his son.

It's all about him.

And here's the last other part of the lens, the other part for the other eye.

You're loved by God and you're called to be saints.

Because you say, Well, what do you mean?

Let me just give you this question.

What if everything he says in the rest of the book of Romans is intended to give you and I a deeper understanding of these two truths?

Because I'm just putting all my chips out and tell you, that's what I think.

That's what I think just unspools in the rest of Romans.

You're loved by God.

And by the way, you're called to be saints.

What does that mean you're called to be saints?

That sounds kind of weird saying that, doesn't it?

You're, what do you mean?

You're you're you're you're called to be saints.

Whoa, wow.

Yeah.

That means you cannot leave here.

If you're a Christian, you can't leave here and excuse your life by saying, well, you know, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

Not true.

You're called to be saints.

And here's, let me maybe this will make it a little more available.

The focus is not on behavior, but on status.

And so here's what I want you to do this week, and we're done.

You can run free.

Go.

Hurry, the Presbyterians are getting all the good bacon.

There's a brunch somewhere happening without you.

Take me.

We'll leave the 11 o'clock service here.

This is what I'm saying.

More importantly, this is what the Bible says, this is what God is saying.

The focus is not on your behavior, but on your status.

And so what I want you to do is for the next seven days, is not think about your behavior.

I want you to think about your status, who you are according to the Bible.

It says you're saints.

That doesn't mean you're a winless football team in New Orleans.

Okay?

Oh, we're gonna have a fight up in here.

No crime to whack a surly bartender, let me tell you.

No, it doesn't mean that you're some holier than thou, perfect person.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

What it means is sanctified, set apart.

You so don't fit in this corrupted world full of immoral lying, cheating, people and politicians, that God had to create another world where you could exist forever, because you could be a saint forever.

That's why this world's not your home.

That's why John says I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because that's where saints go.

Because they're not contaminated by this world.

Philippians 2 says that you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life, as your life demonstrates what the Bible says.

And so for the next seven days, pardon me, I got a little excited there.

Because I get so tired of people saying, well, you know, Pastor, you know, we're all just sinners.

No, you're not.

You're loved by God.

And you're called to be saints.

That's your status.

And so for the next seven days, I want you to think about your behavior.

I want you to think about your status.

So every time you're tempted to sin, you'll have to ask yourself, now, if I'm a saint, why am I doing this?

And the ridiculous, preposterous, unsatisfying nature of sin becomes readily obvious.

The focus for God is not on your behavior, it's on your status.

And Paul writes to these people he's never met before, and he addresses them and says, To all who are loved by God and called to be saints.

And he says, Grace and peace to you.

Grace and peace are the byproduct of understanding who the Bible says you are.

Not keeping short accounts with God.

And this is the lens that you gotta put on and look at the rest of Romans.

I'm loved by God, and I'm called to be a saint.

And so if you teach school, you go to work tomorrow, you say your kids, you used to call me Mrs.

Jones, but now I want you to call me Saint Debbie.

Okay, you foolish little boy.

I'll slap the taste out of your mouth.

Don't be disrespecting me up in here.

You got that?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sorry, sorry.

That just sounds weird, doesn't it?

How'd they safe in a school classroom environment?

Can you imagine you worked on an oil rig?

We got some drilling fluid, we gotta get some concrete down in there.

Hey, Bill, Bill! It's not Bill, it's Saint Bill.

Get it right.

Because I will come up there and put a beat down on you.

Sounds weird, doesn't it?

You are loved by God and called to be saints.

It's not about your behavior, it's about your status.

It's not about what you do, it's about who you are.

And here's what I'm asking you to think about for the next seven days.

Let who you are be the determining factor in what you do.

Let's pray together.

And oh God, it's so easy to hear that and kind of go, yeah, well, that applies to them.

That applies to us.

And so, Holy Spirit, let us take with us today.

We had our name on it, and leave the rest of it here.

Truth is not heavy.

It's consequential, but it's not heavy.

And for that we're grateful.

We pray in Jesus' name that everyone said.

Amen.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

God loving you is not a new idea to God.

He's loved you from afar and from of old before you were born.

You might want to get used to the idea of being loved by a God who knows everything about you.

And it's never going to change his mind.

Also, says you're saints.

Depart now and let your status influence your behavior to the glory of God and to your pleasure.

In the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.