Romans 8:18-39 (Sermon)

Romans 8: 18-39

I.                   From Suffering to Glory: Read 18-25: Paul has just been speaking of the glory of adoption into the family of God; and then comes back to the troubled state of this present world. He draws a great picture. He actually starts speaking like a poet. He sees all nature waiting for the glory that shall be. But at the moment creation is in bondage, death, and decay. The world is one where beauty fades and loveliness decays; it’s a dying world. BUT it’s waiting for it’s liberation from all this and the coming state of glory.  When Paul was painting this picture he was working with the ideas that any Jew would understand. In Jewish thought it divided time into two sections: The Present age and the Age to Come. The present age being wholly bad, subject to sin, and death, and decay. Some day there would come The Day of the Lord. That would be a day of judgment when the world would be shaken to its foundations; but out of it there would come a NEW WORLD. It’s the picture of the renovated world. Example (Fixer Upper Demo Day/New Creation). Isaiah 65:17 Behold I create a new heavens and new earth. There was a time between the testaments when the Jews were oppressed, enslaved, and persecuted, and they had great dreams of the renovated world. Then Paul has some specific insight into God’s created world. Man had sinned deliberately; but it was involuntary that nature was subjected to sin. Gen. 3:17 “Cursed is the ground because of you,” So with Paul’s poet eye he sees nature waiting for freedom from the death and decay that man’s sin brought onto the world. Now if that’s true of nature. It’s truer of man. In the experience of being saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit we get just a taste. Kind of like a first installment of the glory that’s to come. Now we’re longing for the FULL realization of what adoption into the family of God means. That final adoption will be the redemption of our bodies. In our final state of glory, Paul did not think we’d be just spirits floating around in the atmosphere. In God’s New Creation, We’ll get a new body that will no longer be a victim of decay and used for sin. It will be a spiritual body fit for the life of a spiritual man or woman.  Then comes the great saying, “We are saved by hope.” Paul was no pessimist. There was quote by H.G Wells that read, “Man who began in a cave behind a windbreak, will end in the disease soaked ruins of a slum.” Let’s just say that’s the opposite of what Apostle Paul believed. Granted Paul saw man’s sin and the state of the world. Don’t we see the sin of the world that surrounds us and the state of our country and all the cares of this world surrounding not just America but the state of the world. BUT Paul also saw God’s redeeming power; and the end of it all for him was HOPE! Because of that Paul was not despairing waiting for the ruin of the world. Life was an eager anticipation  for the renovation and a recreation by the glory and power of God(Fixer Upper folks waiting for their home). Paul’s life was not a weary, defeated waiting. He lived his life with earnest anticipation and expectation for a new heaven and new earth. Everyday we must battle with our own evil human nature, and we must live in this dying sinful world. Nevertheless, We do not live only in this world. We also live IN CHRIST! We not only see the world; We look beyond it. We not only see the consequences of sin; We see the power of God’s mercy and love. Therefore our lives should always be marked always with hope and never despair. THE CHRISTIAN WAITS, NOT FOR DEATH, BUT FOR LIFE.

II.                Rom 8:26-30: All is of God. The first two verses from one of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament. Paul is saying because of our weakness, we do not know what we should pray for, but the prayers that we should offer should be offered by the Holy Spirit. C.H Dodd defines prayer this way, “Prayer is the divine in us appealing to the divine above us.” There’s 2 reasons we can’t pray as we should. 1) We can’t see the future. Since we can’t see a day, year, or minute into the future the Holy Spirit could save us from praying for things which could actually cause us harm. 2) In any given situation we don’t know what’s best for us. We’re often in the position of a child who wants something which would only be bound to hurt them, and God is often in the position of a loving Father to refuse our request because He knows what is far better for us than we do ourselves. Perfect prayer is simply, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Not my will, but Thine be done.” Or the Lord’s Prayer.  Paul then goes on to say “All things work together for our good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” We don’t need to go back very far in our lives to realize this is true. Look over your own life, and think of all that God has brought you out of and worked for your better. I heard a quote a long time ago, and it’s this. “Setbacks are Setups.” You may be experiencing a setback in your life right now, but God is setting you up for something wonderful! It’s very important to notice that the experience only comes to those who love God. If a man loves and trusts and accepts God, if he is convinced that God is an all-wise and all-loving Father, then he can humbly accept all that God sends to him. If a man does not love and trust God, he may resent what happens to him and more than likely fight against God. It is only the man who loves and trusts God that all things work together for good, for to him they come from a Father who in perfect wisdom, love, and power is working ever for the best on their behalf. God is for us and not against us!!!

III.             Read V. 29-30: This is a very tricky passage that has been very seriously misused. If we are to understand it we must understand that Paul never meant it to be a statement or expression of Theology or Philosophy; he meant it to be an expression of the Christian experience. Let me explain what I mean. If we take it as philosophy and theology and apply the standards of cold logic to it, it must mean that God chose some and did not choose others. But that is not what it means. Now think of your Christian experience. The more you think about it the more you realize that you had nothing to do with it and all is of God. Jesus Christ came into the world, he lived, went to the cross; and rose again. We did nothing to bring that about; that is God’s work. We heard the story of God’s wonderful love. We did not make the story; we only received the story. Love came alive in our hearts, We were convicted of our sin, and we asked God to forgive us, and we received salvation. We did not achieve that that’s all God. And knowing this does not take freewill away. God knew Israel in the OT, but the day came when Israel refused the destiny God meant her to have. The Holy Spirit’s guiding is all our lives, but at the end of the day we can refuse it and take our own way. It is the Christian’s experience that all is of God. That we did nothing and God did everything. That’s what Paul mean’s here. He means that from the beginning of time God marked us out for salvation; that in due time His call came to us; but the pride of man’s heart can wreck God’s plan and the disobedience of man’s will can refuse the call.

IV.            Rom 8:31-39: The Love which Nothing can Separate us: In verse 32 there is a verse that stuck out to any Jew who knew their OT. Paul says, “God for us did not spare His own Son; THAT’S THE FINAL GUARANTEE that He loves us enough to supply us all our needs. The words Paul uses are the very words God used when Abraham proved his loyalty by being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command. Paul seems to say, “Think of the greatest human example in the world of a man’s loyalty to God; God’s loyalty to you is like that. Just as Abraham was so loyal to God that he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac; God is so loyal to men that He sacrificed His own Son for us. Surely we can trust a loyalty like that for anything. 

V.               V 33-35 There are two ways to take v. 33-35. 1) v. 33. It is God who justifies men-that is the statement.  If that is true than who can possibly condemn men? If man is justified by God, then he is saved from every condemnation. Our belief is in a Christ who died and rose again, and is alive forevermore. If that’s true is there anything in this or any other world that can separate us from our Risen Lord? If we take the scripture that way two great truths are laid down. 1) God has justified us; therefore no one can condemn us. 2) Christ is risen; therefore nothing can ever separate us from him. The second way to look at this passage is this. 2) God has justified us then who can condemn us? The answer is the judge of all men Jesus Christ. He is the one who has the right to condemn-BUT SO FAR FROM CONDEMNING HE IS! He is at the right hand of God interceding for us, and therefore we are safe. He is not there to be the prosecuting lawyer. He is there to be our advocate our defender! Paul see Christ not as the judge but the lover of men’s souls.

VI.            V 35-39 He begins one of my favorite parts of scriptures on how nothing can separate us from the love of God in our Risen Savior. The disasters of this world don’t separate us from God they actually bring us closer. In verses 38-39 Paul makes a list of terrible things. Neither death nor life can separate us from Christ. If life we live with Christ. In death we die with him and because we die with him, we will also rise with him. Death, so far from being a separation, is really only a step into his nearer presence; not the end, but the leading into God’s presence. For me to live is Christ but to die is gain. Here is a picture to take away all loneliness and fear. Paul is saying, “You can think of every terrifying thing that this world, or any other world can produce. Not one of them is able to separate the Christian from the love of which is in Jesus Christ, Lord of every terror and Master of every world. Of what then shall we be afraid? Yet is all these things we are more than Conquerors through Him who loved us. Hupernikao We’re super victorious through Christ’s love. 

Inductive Bible Study - Zephaniah

Inductive Bible Study-Zephaniah

I.                   Theme- The Day of The Lord, A Call to Repentance, and A Faithful Remnant-The wrath of a loving God.  

-The day of the Lord is portrayed as the day God will pour out his judgment and wrath on the children of Israel for their wickedness and disobedience to His commandment by turning their backs on Him and serving other gods. Zephaniah issues a call to repentance for the children of Israel to repent and turn back to God for the God’s judgment is unleashed. Through God’s faithfulness and love there is a remnant of Israel who repents and keep their hearts for God. The book of Zephaniah perfectly portrays the wrath of God on disobedience, and the love of God that will be forever poured out on His remnant.

II.                Table of Contents:

1.      The Great Day of The Lord (God’s judgment on Judah) 1: 1-18

2.      A Call to Repentance 2:1-3

3.      Judgment on Nations 2:4-15

4.      Wickedness of Jerusalem 3:1-7

5.      A Faithful Remnant 3:8-13

6.      God’s Love and Faithfulness 3:14-20

III.             Observation Questions

1.      The Great Day of The Lord (God’s Judgment on Judah)

1.1  Who is Zephaniah?

1.2  When was Zephaniah writing?

1.3  Who was his audience?

1.4  How did his audience respond to Zephaniah and to God?

1.5  What were the actions of disobedience by his audience?

1.6  What judgments were to come from the Lord?

IV.             2.  A Call to Repentance

2.1 What was Zephaniah’s heart for the people of Israel?

2.2 What was God’s heart?

2.3 What did the people of Israel need to do before judgment?

2.4 What did Israel need to seek according to verse 3?

              V.      3. Judgment on Nations

                        3.1 What nations does God choose to judge?

                        3.2 Why does he judge the nations?

                        3.3 What kind of pagan worship is taking place at this time?

                        3.4 What does Zephaniah say about the remnant in these verses?

                        3.5 Who is the remnant?

            VI.       4. Wickedness of Jerusalem

4.1  What wickedness was Jerusalem committing?

4.2  What was the conduct of the priests like?

4.3  What was the culture of Jerusalem like at this time in history?

4.4  How did they get this way?

4.5  What are some of the signs of Judah’s demise?

VII.     5. A Faithful Remnant

            5.1 What is God’s cry for the people of Judah in v 8?

            5.2 What is God’s determination?

            5.3 What will God restore in v 9?

            5.4 What is Zephaniah referring to when he says, “A pure language”?

            5.5 What will be the characteristics of the remnant of Israel?

VIII.    6.  God’s Love and Faithfullness

6.1  What has God done for the ones who remain faithful?

6.2  What will The Mighty One do for us?

6.3  How is Christ revealed in this passage?

6.4  How is the Holy Spirit at work in Zephaniah?

6.5  What do you get most out of this book on a personal level?

Application:

It seemed it was a time of prosperity during Zephaniah’s time of Judah there was very complacent according to 1:12. We do not need to become complacent in our walk with Christ. I’ve heard it said that complacency is the enemy of spiritual growth. I read a quote that said, “The chief danger in the quest for knowing God is the temptation to be satisfied with past encounters so that no fresh pursuits are made.” We can’t be satisfied with our experiences with God from last year or even last week. We need to continually every day need to be seeking the Lord. We need to remain zealous for God. I also noticed that Judah was very prideful. God resists the proud, but he will give grace to the humble. We can’t think just because we call ourselves Christians, or were water baptized that we can live any way we want to live. We always need to maintain an attitude of humility and be teachable. If we’re not humble, and we’re not teachable then the enemy will come in like a flood and take us out before we know what hit us. We need to reject anything that may come into our life to try and take God out of His role in our life. What the Bible calls idolatry. Israel had fallen into deep idolatry, and they had been in their idolatry so long they had no desire to get out.  If we realize that there is something in our life that is taking the place of God, and we are becoming disobedient to His word we need to quickly repent. If we don’t quickly repent our hearts can become hard like the Israelites, and we can become apostate. As I was reading I noticed the conduct of the priests, and leaders of the Israelite people in chapter 3. It seemed they were doing unrighteous acts in the temple, and committing sin in the sanctuary of God. We need to diligently avoid any form of pride or arrogance that would cause us to misuse the word of God, or manipulate people for our personal benefit. We should never teach our opinions of the Word. We’re supposed to take the Word and apply it to our life, not the opposite where we pick and choose what we want and leave out the rest.  As I was studying this book, I began to realize how this story in three chapters basically summarized the story of the Bible. It described God’s people along with the nations wallowing in sin, and refusing to repent. It described a God who would gather those who would repent, and hide those from his anger. And at the end, Zephaniah, described The Mighty One who will save us. He began with wrath, and ended in love. In Summary, there were three components to these three chapters: 1) God’s righteous judgment of sin 2) A plea for repentance because God is ready and willing to forgive and 3) The remnant who have put their trust in God will be saved.

            

Romans Ch. 7 (Sermon)

ROMANS 7

Freed from the Law 7:1-6

I.                   While the law still fulfills its function of guiding us to know God’s moral standards, we are free from enslavement to it as a way of righteousness (see Rom 6:14). Paul illustrates this analogy of our freedom from the law with the analogy of marriage, showing how the death of one partner frees the other from lifelong obligations. The subject under discussion here is not divorce and remarriage but the Christian’s relationship with the system called “law”. Paul is speaking in general terms without making detailed qualifications, and his statements should not be pressed to exclude grounds for divorce and remarriage which are mentioned in Matt 19 and 1 Cor. 7:15 which divorce and remarriage are specifically under discussion. The basic thought of this passage is that death cancels all contracts. Basically, Paul is saying we were married to sin; sin was slain by Christ and now we are free to be married to God. He also could have said we were married to the law; that the law was killed by the work of Christ; and now we’re free to be married to God. Then in v 4 he changes it up, and says we’re the one who dies. How can this be? As we studied last week, by baptism we share in the death of Christ, and having died with Christ we are free from the obligations of the law and free to marry again. This time not the law, but Christ. The point is clear because a death occurred, old obligations and powers are broken, and we are no longer under a system of trying to obey in our own strength. We are dead to that system of “law”. In v 5, In our preconversion state our sinful passions, originating in the flesh, were aroused by the law, leading to death, As believers similar struggles with sin in the flesh occur, but need not prevail in our lives. The difference is the presence of the Spirit to bring them under Christ’s kingdom dominion within us. Paul is drawing a contrast between the 2 states of man. 1) Without Christ and 2) With Christ. Before we knew Christ we tried to rule life by obeying the law-when we were in the flesh. When Paul says, “the flesh” he doesn’t mean just the physical body, because a man will always be in his physical body. He’s saying inside each of us there is something which answers to the seduction of sin; and it is that part of man which he calls the flesh. Paul is saying that when our human nature was unaided by God, the law actually moved our passions to sin. What does he mean by that? More than once in Romans so far Paul has thought that the law actually produces sin, because of the very fact that a thing is forbidden makes us want it more. When we had nothing but the law, we were at the mercy of sin. Now In v 6. He turns to a state of man with Christ. When a man rules his life by union with Christ he rules it not by a written code of law which may actually awaken the desire to sin but by an allegiance to Jesus Christ within his spirit and heart. Not Law, but love is the motive of our life and the inspiration of love can make him able to do what the restraint of the law was powerless to help us do.  In the newness of the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit gives power to obey God, a power the Law by itself could never give. The Greek work for Spirit in v 6 is Pneuma. It means breath, breeze, a current of air, wind, spirit. Pneuma is that part of a person capable of responding to God. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity, who draws us to Christ, convicts us of sin, enables us to accept Christ as our personal savior, assures us of salvation, enables us to live victorious lives, understand the Bible, pray according to God’s will, and share Christ with others.

Sin’s Advantage in the Law Ch. 7:7-13

II.                 Scholars say this is one of the greatest of all passages in the New Testament; and one of the most moving; because here Paul is giving us his very own spiritual autobiography and laying bare his heart and soul. He hits this torturing paradox of the law head on. He says the law is a very awesome and splendid thing. It’s holy. It’s the very voice of God. The root word of Holy is hagios which means different. It means the law from a sphere other than this world. The law is divine and has the very voice of God in it. We have seen the root idea of justice is to give to man and to God what is due them. Therefore the law settles all relationships human and divine. If a man perfectly kept the law, he would be in a perfect relationship with God and with his fellow man. The law is good. It’s designed for nothing other than our highest welfare. It is meant to make a man good. All that is true. And yet the fact remains that this same law is the very thing through which sin gains entry into a man. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?! There are 2 ways in which the law may said to be , in one sense, the source for sin. 1) It defines sin. Sin without the law, as Paul said, has no existence. Until a thing is defined as sin by the law, a man cannot know that it is sin. (Sports Analogy)*Tennis* *Football* *Baseball* The law creates sin in the sense that it defines it. *Driving down a one way street analogy*The new regulation creates the fault. The law, by making men aware of what it is, creates sin. (James 4:17). 1) It defines sin, and 2) There is a much more serious sense in which the law produces sin. One of the strange fact of life is the fascination of the forbidden thing. This started back in the Garden of Eden. Adam lived in innocence; a commandment was given him not to touch the forbidden tree, but the serpent came and turned it into a temptation. The fact the tree was forbidden made it desirable; so Adam was seduced into sin by the forbidden fruit; and death was the result. Read the excerpt from Confessions by St Augustine. Page 96. Set a thing in the category of forbidden things or put a place out of bounds, and immediately they become fascinating. In that sense the law produces sin. Paul has one revealing word which he uses of sin. He says sin seduced me. There is always a deception in sin. There are always 3 deceptions with sin. (i) We are deceived regarding the satisfaction to be found in sin. No man ever took a forbidden thing without thinking that it would make him happy, and no man ever found that it did. (ii) We are deceived regarding  the excuse that can be made for it. Every man thinks that he can put up a defense for doing the wrong thing; but no man’s defense ever sounded anything else but futile when made in the presence of God. (iii) We are deceived regarding the probability of escaping the consequences of it. No man sins without the hope that he can get away with it. But it is true, soon or later, our sin will find us out. What we sow, we’re going to reap! OK! Is, then, the law a bad thing because it actually produces sin? Paul is certain there is wisdom in this whole sequence. (i) First he’s convinced that, whatever the consequence, sin had to be defined as sin. (ii) The process shows the terrible nature of sin, because sin took a thing-the law-which was holy and just and good, and twisted it into something which served the ends of evil. The awfulness of sin is shown by the fact that it could take a fine thing and make it a weapon of evil. That is what sin does. It can take the loveliness of love and turn it into lust. It can take the honorable desire for independence and turn it into an obsession for money, power, and greed. It can take the beauty of friendship and use it as a seduction to the wrong things. One scholar called this “the infinite damnability of sin.” The very fact that it took the law and made it a bridge for sin to walk across shows the supreme sinfulness of sin. The whole terrible process is not accidental; it is all designed to show us how awful sin is, because it can take the loveliest things and defile them in a moment.

THE HUMAN SITUATION Ch 7:14-25

III.              Paul continues to bare his soul to the Christian church in Rome telling them of his experience which is in essence-let’s face it-our experience as well. He’s saying he knew what was right to do and wanted to do it, and yet somehow never could. He knew what was wrong and the last thing he wanted was to do it, and yet somehow he did. He felt himself to be a split personality. It was as if two men were in the same skin, pulling in different directions. He really was haunted by this feeling of frustration, his ability to see what was good and his inability to do it; his ability to recognize what was wrong and his inability to refrain from doing it. We all have felt this in our own lives especially if we’re trying to live a godly life in this day and age. A man named Seneca said, “Men hate their sins, and love them at the same time.” There was a roman poet named Ovid, who tagged a line. “I see the better things, and I approve them, but I follow the worse.” No one knew this problem better than the Jews. They believed God made every person with two natures and called them Yetser Hatob and Yetser Hara meaning every person was born with a good impulse and an evil impulse, but the belief was that you didn’t have to succumb to the evil impulse, but it was a matter of choice. When the evil impulse attacked, the Jew held that wisdom and reason could defeat it, to be occupied with study of the word of the Lord was safety. The law was your defense. Paul knew that; and knew as well it was theoretically true, but in practice it was not true. There were things in man’s human nature which answered to the seduction of sin. It is part of the human situation that we know the right and yet do the wrong, that we are never as good as we know we ought to be. And at the same time we are haunted by goodness and haunted by sin. Some scholars point of view of this passage call this the “demonstration of inadequacies”. (i) It demonstrates the inadequacy of human knowledge. If to know the right thing was to do it, life would be easy. But knowledge by itself does not make a man good. It is the same in every walk of life. We may know exactly how golf should be played but that if far from being able to play it. We may know how poetry ought to be written but that is very far from being able to write it. We may know how to behave in any given situation but that is very far from being able to behave appropriately. That’s the difference between Morality or religion and relationship. Morality and Religion is knowledge of a code of law. Relationship is knowledge of a person, and it is only when we know Christ that we are able to do what we know we ought to do. (ii) It demonstrates the inadequacy of human resolution. To resolve to do a thing is very far from doing it. In human nature an essential weakness of the will. The will comes up against the problems, the difficulties, the opposition-and it fails. Once Peter had a great resolution. In Matt. 26:35, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.” He failed pretty badly when the rubber hit the road didn’t he. The human will unstrengthened by Christ will crack. (iii) It also demonstrates the inadequacy or limitations of diagnosis. Paul knew quite clearly what was wrong, but he was unable to put it right. He was like a doctor who could accurately diagnose a disease but was powerless to prescribe the cure. Jesus is the one person who not only knows what is wrong, but who can also put the wrong to rights. It is not criticism he offers but help.

IV.              Closing

Reread v24 Believe with conviction that it is your old sinful nature, not your new nature in Christ that manifest itself in acts of sin. Throughout this life a conflict goes on between the new nature and the old, but there is a way to victory; Christ frees us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans Ch. 5 & 6 (Sermon)

ROMANS 5 & 6

DEATH IN ADAM, LIFE IN CHRIST ROM 5:12-21

I.                   This passage must be understood within the context of 3:21-5:11, which sets forth the gospel of the grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ. This passage continues to magnify God’s grace by presenting the universal scope of Christ’s redemptive work. V 18. Summarizes Paul’s teaching (READ IT). One (disobedient) act of one man brought sin and its penalty of death upon the human race. On the other hand, the obedience of one Man counteracted this deed and made righteousness and eternal life available for humankind. Adam headed the old humanity characterized by sin and death. Jesus Christ heads a new humanity characterized by righteousness and life. We come under the consequences of Adams disobedient deed naturally. We’re born into it. We come under Christ’s obedient deed by faith.  The expression “just as” is a key to understanding the passage v 12-21. Paul shows several parallels between the way Adam affected us and the way Christ affected us. The phrase is v 12 “because all sinned” probably means that “all sinned” in Adam-that is when one man sinned, God thought of all who would descend from Adam as having sinned since Adam was our representative. In v. 13-14 Paul enforces and proves his assertion by pointing to the fact that people died before the law was given out. The time between Adam and Moses. His argument is that they died because all of humanity was counted guilty because of Adam’s sin and suffered sins penalty which is death. In verse 14. It calls Adam a “type” of Christ. A type is a living prediction or pattern or model of one who is to come later. In the following verses 15-19 draws an analogy between Adam and Christ. They are similar in the fact that their deeds have affected many people. However, their differences are quite pronounced and Paul gives 3 contrasting points. First, Adam’s act was an offence, a deliberate going astray, where Christ’s deed was one of grace. 2^nd, Adam’s sin resulted in condemnation and death, where Christ’s deed brought justification and life. Third Adam was characterized by disobedience, while Christ was characterized by obedience. We are in Adam by birth, but we are in Christ by faith. In v 19, Here is the summary of God’s plan for the representative heads of the human race. Adam sinned once, and all whom Adam represented were found guilty. Christ obeyed His whole life and all whom Christ represented will be made righteous. Some critics reject and object to this idea of “representative heads of the human race”. But if we do not think it fair that we were found guilty for Adam’s sin, then we also should not think it fair that we are counted righteous for Christ’s obedience. And Finally, V 20 and 21 One of the purposes of the law was to make sin obvious and make it more evident we are in need of redemption. And just as sinned reigned in Adam and abounded. Grace abounds MUCH MORE IN JESUS CHRIST!

DEAD TO SIN ALIVE TO GOD ROMANS 6:1-14

I.                   Paul’s teaching in 5:20-21 that increased sin brings increased grace was liable to distortion. Some might claim that if by sinning they were providing God an opportunity to display the greatness of His grace then they should sin more. In 6:2, Paul makes it clear the idea of a Christian continuing in sin is entirely contrary to the gospel. Sin is hateful and destructive, and those who have died to the love of sin and the ruling power of sin should never want to live in it any longer. V. 3-4 talk about the significance of water baptism. Water Baptism is a symbol of the believers union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. In v 6, Our old man is our pre conversion life. This is what we were before becoming Christians under the unrestrained dominion of the flesh(sin nature). The body of sin refers to the sinful nature within us, not the human body. The Greek verb translated “done away with” does not mean to become extinct, but to be defeated or deprived of power. Here Romans reveals a new, victorious method for dealing with sin. Living free from sin’s rule is now possible because we are no longer slaves of sin, but have become slaves of God, able to choose righteousness rather than being bound to the old nature. Obedience to the Word of God gains a new nature of holiness. In v. 11, We need to consider ourselves dead to sin. We’re no longer controlled by the love of sin or sins ruling power in our lives. We are dead to sins enslaving power. We need to say, “NO!” to sin whenever it confronts us. Recognize that you are really free from sins demands. Obey Christ, your New Master, not sin, your old master. We are dead to the enslaving power, but we’re not dead to all of its influence. In v 12, the natural conclusion is that if we are dead to the ruling power of sin, and if sin has destructive effects in our lives, then, of course, we should not let it reign in our bodies. V13. We have a continual choice day after day whether to yield ourselves to sin or to God. When it talks about “Members”: These are the various parts of our bodies that represent all the different aspects of our lives. Though we can never say in this life that we are free from all sin, we also should never say, “This one sin has defeated me-I give up.” The power of Christ’s resurrection at work within us is greater that the power of any sin, no matter how long established in our lives. To be under law is to be under a system of trying to earn salvation in our strength by obeying the law, but to be under grace is to be justified and to live by the indwelling resurrection power of Christ. We can die to sin, not because of the law forbidding it, but through all the resources that grace provides. Some erroneously misinterpret these verses to mean that it doesn’t matter if Christians disobey God’s moral commands, because they are no longer under law. The view or outlook on scripture has a name it’s called “antinomianism”, and it’s contrary to Paul’s whole discussion on sin and Jesus’s own words about the law.

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves to God Rom 6:15-23

I.                   Here again he responds to the belief that grace encourages or permits sin. He uses the analogy of slavery to combat a casual attitude toward sin and issues a stern warning on the serious consequences of yielding to sin. A person is a slave of that to which he gives obedience or that which he recognizes as his master. If he obeys the commands of sin, then sin is his master and he is moving in the direction of death. If he obeys the commands of righteousness, then righteousness is his master, and he experiences true life. In verses 17 and 18, his readers, which now include us were once slaves of sin, or some of us here may feel like you’re slaves of sin. We can renounce sin as our master and commit ourselves as slaves of righteousness. Being a slave of sin leads surely to death, but being a slave to God everlasting life.

Romans Ch. 4 (Sermon)

ROMANS 4

INTRO:  Gas Tank Compared to Faith Tank Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word

I.                   Abraham Justified by Faith.

a.      Justified means “declared righteous” by Faith

II.                WORD STUDY Faith Greek Word pístis  OCCURS 243 times in NT.41 times in Romans and 10 times in CH 4.  "persuade, be persuaded") – properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust); faith.

Faith is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, ("faith") for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4).

In secular antiquity referred to a guarantee (warranty). In Scripture, faith is God's warranty, certifying that His revelation will come to pass (His way).

Faith is also used collectively – of all the times God has revealed (given the persuasion of) His will, which includes the full revelation of Scripture (Jude 3). Indeed, God the Lord guarantees that all of this revelation will come to pass!

1. The root of pistis "to persuade, be persuaded") which supplies the core-meaning of faith ("divine persuasion"). It is God's warranty that guarantees the fulfillment of the revelation He births within the receptive believer

Faith is always received from God, and never generated by us.

Ro 12:3: "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith 

Eph 2:8,9: " For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹not as a result of works, so that no one may boast"

Gal 5:22,23: "²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness, faith (4102/pistis),²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Reflection: Faith is only (exclusively) given to the redeemed. It is not a virtue that can be worked up by human effort.

2. Faith enables the believer to know God's preferred-will. Accordingly, faith and "God's preferred-will are directly connected in Scripture.

Heb 10:36,38: "³⁶For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" " BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BYFAITH AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK,MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM"

1 Jn 5:4: "For whatever is born of God conquers the world; and this is the conquest that has conquered the world – our faith

3. In summary Faith is a persuasion from God that we receive as He grants impulse ("divine spark"; Faith is always the work of God and involves hearing His voice – whereby the believer lays hold of His preferred-will (cf. J. Calvin).

More on what faith is . . . and isn't

1.     In Scripture, faith and belief are not exactly the same. Faith always comes from God and involves His revelation therefore faith is beyond belief!

2.     Faith is God's work; faith is never the work of people. We cannot produce faith ourselves, nor can we "drum it up at will." Rather, faith comes as Christ speaks His rhçma-word within

3.     In all of Scripture, only the term faith is ever used in the following way: Ro 14:23: Whatever is not of faith is sin." Heb 11:6: "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (NASU).

Key quotes

"Faith always pre-supposes revelation"  "Faith is always a response to a divine revelation" "Faith . . . both in its initiation and every step of the way, is Spirit given . . . faith is God given"  "Faith precedes works, and is not something merely deduced by reason of existing"  "Faith is always a gift of God"

"Faith is the divine response, wrought in man, by God"

"Faith always has the element of assurance, certainty and confidence . . . and evidential value substantiating the thing we hope for . . . with faith, there is no strain or tension; rather, it has the element of assurance and confidence in it . . . if there is strain or tension . . . trying to persuade yourself to keep from doubting, you can be quite sure that it is not faith . . . faith is not the law of mathematical probability, . . . faith is not natural . . .faith is spiritual, the gift of God . . . you cannot command faith at will, faith is always something that is given-inwrought by God; . . . therefore, if you want to be a man of faith, it will always be the result of becoming a certain type of person"

"Faith is the divinely given conviction of things unseen"

"Faith is the organ which enables people to see the invisible order"

"Right faith is a thing wrought in us by the Holy Spirit"

Summary

Belief and faith are not exactly equivalent terms. When Jesus told people, "Your faith has made you well," faith was still His gift (Eph 2:8,9). Any gift however, once received, becomes the "possession" of the recipient. Faith however is always from God and is purely His work (2 Thes 1:11).

Faith involves belief but it goes beyond human believing because it involves the personal revelation (inworking) of God. Faith is always God's work. Our believing has eternal meaning when it becomes "faith-believing" by the transforming grace of God. Reflection: Demons believe (and shudder) . . . but they do not have (experience) faith! Js 2:19: "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder" (NASU).

Romans Ch. 3 (Sermon)

I.                   Open your Bible to Romans Ch. 3, and let’s pray.

He’d been preaching about 21 years from the road to Damascus.  One commentator said that it is as if Paul was writing his theological last will and testament, as if into Romans he was distilling the very essence of his faith and belief. Rome was the greatest city in the world, the capital of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen. Paul had never been there, and he did not know if he ever would be there, but in writing to such a Church in such a city, it was fitting he should set down the very center and core of his belief in the Gospel. He also wished to send to the Church in the center of the world a letter which would so build up the structure of the faith that if false teachings about Jesus should ever come, they might have the true word of Christian doctrine.

II.                 Rom Ch 1 painted a terrible picture of the heathen world, a world that is under the condemnation of God. With every word of that condemnation the Jew thoroughly agreed. But he never for a moment dreamed he was under a like condemnation. He thought he occupied a privileged position. God might be the judge of the heathen, but he was the special protector of the Jews. In Chapter 2 Paul is pointing forcibly at the Jews that he is just as much a sinner as the Gentile is and that when he condemning the Gentile he is condemning himself. He will be judged, not by his racial heritage, but by the kind of life that he lives. The Jews always considered themselves in a specially privileged position with God. They believed God will judge the Gentiles with one measure and the Jews with another. The Jew believed that everyone was destined for judgment except himself. The Jew believed it would not be any special goodness that kept him immune from the wrath of God, but simply the fact that he was a Jew. So you can imagine when the Jew read v. 11 “There is no partiality with God.” His thoughts might be defensive. This context put the scripture in a whole new light. Paul is writing this letter to Jewish Christians in Rome not Jews in Rome. He’s not Anti-Semetic, but Paul is trying to get the Christian Faith of the Gospel in them, and establish them so they have a true picture of what Jesus did for them. So when Jews come to them and try to persuade them back to Judaism or a form of Judaism they have the true/whole picture of the Gospel. Before we continue to chapter 3. We need to back up to verse 25-29. We need to understand the significance of circumcision to the Jews if we’re going to understand this part of the Word. It goes all the way back to Genesis 17. LET’S READ Gen 17 :1-14 Circumcision was a sign of the Blood Covenant. Becoming circumcised was not a new covenant but an external sign that Abraham and his descendants were to execute to show that they were God’s covenant people. The fact that it was performed on the male reproductive organ had a two-fold significance. 1) The cutting away of the foreskin spoke of the cutting away of fleshly dependence, and 2) their hope for the future was not on their own ability. Circumcision was a statement that confidence was being placed in the promise of God and His faithfulness rather than in their own ability. Now fast forward to the time when Paul is writing Romans the pride of the Jewish people had turned circumcision into an idolatrous symbol, which they assumed would demand God’s favor. How we can apply that principle to our Christian culture. It’s the same as Christian baptism without faith is meaningless for justification.

III.              Romans 3:1-8 It’s going to make it easier for us to understand these passages if we realize Paul is carrying on an argument with an imaginary objector to his statements. The OBJECTOR says in v1 basically tells Paul. “So what you’re saying then is that there is no difference between Gentile and Jew and they’re in the exact same position. Do you really mean that?” Paul then says in verse 2 “No By NO Means!” The OBJECTOR. “What, then, is the difference?” PAUL “For one thing, the Jew possesses what the Gentile never so directly possessed-the commandments of God.”What it shows is there is no favoritism with God and that he punishes sin wherever he sees it. The very fact that he condemns the Jews is the best possible proof of his absolute justice because they are His chosen people. He may have been expected to overlook their sins, but He doesn’t is what Paul is saying. At the end of the day Paul believed the Jews to be in a special position in regard to God as they believed about themselves. The difference is that Paul believed their special position was one of special responsibility; the Jew believed it to be one of special privilege. Paul said in verse 2 you’ve been specially trusted with the “oracles of God”. Here is means the 10 Commandments. You are a special people therefore you must live a special life.” He did not say, “You are a special people; therefore do what you like.” How can we apply that to us as Christians? Has he committed to us His Word? Do we live however we want because we think God’s grace will cover our sin because God loves me?

IV.              Responsibility is always on the opposite end of privilege. The more opportunity a man has to do right, the greater his condemnation if he does wrong. We must note that Paul does not place all the Jews under one condemnation. Not all the Jews were unfaithful. Paul never forgets, and we should never forget about what the Bible calls the remnant of Israel. Paul never forgets the faithful remnant  however small it was was the true Jewish race. Paul was always sure that God’s rejection of Israel was not final. Because of their rejection, a door opened for the Gentiles; and in the end the Gentiles will bring the Jews back into the fold, and Gentile and Jew will be one in Christ. Further, this passage contains two great universal human truths. 1) The root of all sin is disobedience. The root of the Jew’s sin was disobedience to the know law of God. When pride sets up the will of man against the will of God, there is sin. If there were no disobedience, there would be no sin. Once a man has sinned he displays an amazing ingenuity in justifying his sin. There is an argument that appears and reappears in church. Sin gives God a chance to show at once his justice and his mercy and my sin is therefore a good thing. It’s twisted. Here is what I argue to that. Sinning on purpose and you know the truth of the Gospel is like saying it’s a good thing to break a person’s heart because it gives him a chance to show how much he loves you. When a man sins, the need is not for ingenuity to justify sin, but for humility to confess it and repent. Let’s keep moving

V.                Rom 3:9-18 Paul’s answer is that the Jew and Gentile are alike, so long as they are without Christ, and under the dominion of sin. In a Christless state a man is under the control of sin, and helpless to escape from it. Paul’s conclusion of the argument going on from Chapter 1:18-3:8 is that all people in the world are guilty before God. WE in v 9 is the Jews and THEY Gentiles. The underlying reason for the increasing corruption of societies is that they have no fear of God, that is, thinking they will not have to answer to God for their immorality. Even though Paul clearly saw the evil in human nature it wasn’t to him a call to hopelessness, but a challenge to hope. Paul never underrated the sin of man and he never underrated the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. There was a quote I read by William Jay Bath. When he was an old man he said: “My memory is failing, but there are two things that I never forget-that I am a great sinner and that Jesus Christ is a great Savior.” Paul believed men without Christ to be bad, but he never believed them too bad to be saved. He was confident that what Christ had done for him Christ could do for any man.

VI.              Read 3:19-26: The supreme problem of life is, How can man get into a right relationship with God? The religion of Judaism answered the question. “A man can attain right relationship with God by keeping meticulously all that the law lays down.” But to say that is to simply say there is no possibility of any man ever attaining right relationship with God, for no man ever can keep it all all the time. One might ask, what’s the use of the law? The law makes us aware of sin. It’s only when we know the law and try to satisfy it all the time that we realize we’ll never satisfy it. It’s designed to show us our weakness and sinfulness. So are we shut out from God? No Far from it. The way of God is not the way of law, but the way of grace. Not the way of works, but the way of faith. V22. Faith in Jesus Christ means a genuine reliance on Christ, heartfelt trust in Him, rather than in oneself for salvation. No one will ever reach God’s standard of absolute moral perfection. Salvation must come another way then the law. The point about a man’s relationship to God is that he is utterly guilty, and yet God, in His amazing mercy treats him as if he was innocent. V. 24 Justified means “declared righteous”. When Paul says “God justifies the ungodly” he means that God treats the ungodly as if he had been a good man. That’s what shocked the Jews to their being to them to treat the bad man as he was good was the sign of a wicked judge. Paul says that’s exactly what God does. How can I know God is like that? I know because of Jesus said so. He came to tell us God loves us as bad as we are. When we discover that and believe that, it changes our whole relationship to God. V 25 PROPITIATION: Means the appeasement of divine wrath by a sacrificial offering. Some deny the Bible contains this idea because they do not think that a loving God would ever personally exercise wrath against His creatures. This idea of propitiation is the only saving solution to the fact of God’s wrath against sin that Paul has been developing in Romans so far. At the heart of the Gospel is the fact that if Christ did not bear the wrath of God that we deserved, then that wrath is still stored up for us. Propitiation is described in Is 53:4,5,10,11. Let’s turn there. To demonstrate His righteousness God had not punished all the sins previously committed in the time of the OT. Therefore, he appeared to be unjust: for sin had been committed but no penalty had been paid. But when Christ died, He paid even for those previous sins that God had forgiven showing He truly is just and never forgives any sin without full payment of the penalty for that sin. Paul insists that what happened on the cross opens the door back to right relationship with God, a door which every other sacrifice is powerless to open.  So what do we make of all this: This is called by some to be the “supreme paradox of the gospel” Think what this mean: God is just and accepts the sinner as a just man. The natural thing would be to say. God is just, and therefore, condemns the sinner as a criminal. What is the difference between the law and grace? The basic difference is this. The way of obedience to the law is concerned with what man can do for himself; the way of grace  is concerned with what God can do, and has done, for us. It’s not based on our performance, but Jesus Christ’s performance on the cross. Sending Christ to the cross to die for our sins was God’s amazing solution to the problem of how He could remain just punish all sin and still justify us declaring us perfectly righteous in His sight.

VII.           Romans 3:27-31 If the way to God is the way of faith and of acceptance, then all boasting in human achievement is gone. There was a certain kind of Judaism which kind of held a profit and loss account with God. In the end a man often came to a frame of mind in which he rather held that God was in his debt.  Paul’s position was that every man is a sinner in God’s debt. Our boasting no longer exist. So the Jew asked does this mean the end of the law. Paul says at the end…CERTAINLY NOT! We establish the law. It strengthens the Law. What this means is that prior to grace they kept the law for fear of punishment for breaking God’s law. We strive for goodness not because we’re afraid but because we love him. Sin isn’t so much as breaking the law as it is breaking God’s heart and therefore doubly terrible. LET ME CLOSE: With this analogy. Man a man is tempted to do a wrong thing and does not do it. It is not so much that he fears the law. What keeps him right is the simple fact that he could not meet the sorrow that would be seen in the eyes of the ones who love him if he made a shipwreck of his life. It’s not the law of fear that make him right, but the law of love. Jesus has fulfilled the law in the law of love.

VIII.         COMMUNION