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Getting-a-Grasp-of-the-Gospel-Msg-2-44 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Well, we're studying the Letter to the Romans.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: As we began this first chapter together, I invite you
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: to turn if you're unfamiliar with your Bible. There are
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: four Gospels in the New Testament, followed by a rather
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: lengthy book of history called the Acts, meaning the Acts
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: of the early Apostles, and then began the Letters of
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the New Testament. Paul wrote thirteen of them. Probably did
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: not write Hebrews, so we wouldn't say fourteen. His first
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: letter wasn't Romans, though in the compilation of our Bible
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: it's been placed first among his letters. His first one
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: was first Thessalonians. Probably the earliest letter of the New
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Testament is James, written before the middle of the century
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the first century by James the Lord's half brother. Anyway, Romans,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the doctrinal constitution of the Christian faith follow along, will you?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: As I read a verse one of chapter one, Paul
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: a Bond's servant of Christ, Jesus called as an apostle
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Concerning his son,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: who was born of a descendant of David. According to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the flesh, who has declared the Son of God with
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: spirit of Holiness Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: of faith among all the gentiles, for his Name's sake,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: To all who are beloved of God God in Rome
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: called Saints, Grace to you and peace from God our
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: God through Jesus Christ, for you all, because your faith
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: making request if perhaps now at last, by the will
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: of God, I may succeed in coming to you, for
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I long to see you, so that I may impart
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: That is, that I may be encouraged together with you,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: while among you, each of us by the other's faith,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: both yours and mine. I do not want you to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: to you, and have been prevented so far, so that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I may obtain some fruit among you, also, even as
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: among the rest of the gentiles. Before you close your Bible,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: just look again at the first section that we just read.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: First time you uncover a period is at the end
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of verse seven. This is one of those lengthy introductions
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: where Paul takes an excursion. Tying in verses one and seven.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You have the simple introduction Paul to the Romans, and
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in between you have an invisible parenthesis where he writes
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: of the gospel began between verses two and six. Then
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the parenthesis closes before the sentence ends, and you get
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to the end of the sentence in verse seven. Part
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: of the reason people lose interest and find themselves bored
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: in Romans is that they forget Paul. In this letter
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: like no other takes excursions. This is an excursion Paul takes.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: We'll get into that later, but just wanted you to
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: know that you are allowed to breathe at the end
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: of verse seven when you're reading these first seven verses
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: as the beginning of the letter, What a great God
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: we serve the prophet wrote, it shall come to pass,
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  Speaker 2: and before they call, I will answer. And while they
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: are yet speaking, I will hear Jesus said, asking, it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock,
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  Speaker 2: and it shall be open to you. When I memorize
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that verse, I had trouble remembering the order until I
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: realized that ask, seek and knock spell the word ask, asking,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and it shall be opened unto you.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: For whatever you.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Ask, he will give according to his will. You've come
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: today with a burden that no one else knows about.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: We're like that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: We just as we don't wear our feelings on our sleeves,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: we don't print our needs on our backs. But this
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  Speaker 2: is the time for you to present your need to
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. Let's enjoy some moments of sheer silence as
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  Speaker 2: we bow together. Then I will pray briefly, and we
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  Speaker 2: will offer up our offerings immortal, invisible, God only wise,
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  Speaker 2: ENLiGHT and accessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious,
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  Speaker 2: the Ancient of days, great name. We praise, unresting, unhasting, silent,
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  Speaker 2: is light, nor wanting, nor wasting. Thou rulest in might.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for ruling over our lives. Father, Thank you
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  Speaker 2: for the grace in giving us answers that read yes.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for patience learned in revealing answers that say no.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for the maturity that comes when we must wait.
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  Speaker 2: Every person under this roof, in this room of worship
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  Speaker 2: is waiting for something. We rate our father on you.
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  Speaker 2: You don't wait on us. We are the clay, You
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  Speaker 2: are the potter. We are the servants. You are the master.
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  Speaker 2: Teach us in the process of living this life. That
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  Speaker 2: great depth comes in knowing you better and trusting you more.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Rid us of the worries we brought with us this morning,
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  Speaker 2: may we cast them on you, remembering you have a
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  Speaker 2: care for us. Release from us the fears of our day,
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  Speaker 2: fear of terrorism, fear of lingering war, fear of the uncertain.
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  Speaker 2: Bring deep comfort to those in Lancaster County whose lives
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  Speaker 2: have been invaded and assaulted by a savage in a
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  Speaker 2: series of unconscionable acts that depict only the depravity of humanity.
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  Speaker 2: Meet the needs of these simple, great hearted folks whose
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  Speaker 2: arms today are empty and lives full of grief.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Father, we.
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  Speaker 2: Need a fresh reminder of the beauty of our Savior,
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  Speaker 2: the magnificence of his work, the fairness of his dealings
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  Speaker 2: with us. May may that come as we hear these
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  Speaker 2: words and enter into these melodies of this magnificent Savior, Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: to whom we give our gifts and in whose name
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  Speaker 2: we pray. And everyone said, amen. Electronic mail has just
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  Speaker 2: about ruined great writing.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: I know. It's efficient, it's simple, it's fast, it gets
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  Speaker 2: the job done, all of which is why I say
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: it ruins great writing, because great writing is never fast
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  Speaker 2: nor simple, and great writing frequently requires trial and error,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: over and over and over we work at it. Some
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: of my most treasured possessions are in the form of
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: handwritten letters. Let me explain a handwritten letter. It's a
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: person puts a pen in his fingers. And we had
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: a little fun moment the other evening, My wife and
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I participated in a little brief birthday time with one
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: of our grandchildren. And he's eleven, and we were all
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: celebrating is a passage into twelve, and it's a wonderful moment.
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  Speaker 2: So we had given him a card a little money
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  Speaker 2: in it. So he opened the card and he smiled,
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  Speaker 2: and we all smiled since they had written a note
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: there to him, And he smiled at us and said,
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  Speaker 2: I can't read cursive.
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  Speaker 1: Got amazing. He can run circles around me with a computer,
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  Speaker 1: but you can't read cursive. We don't write cursive. What
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  Speaker 1: a shame.
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  Speaker 2: The intimacy of a handwritten letter, with its inimitable touch
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  Speaker 2: and feel and sometimes even smell of the person we
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  Speaker 2: love who was taking time with her or his own
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  Speaker 2: hand to write.
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  Speaker 1: And to sign it.
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  Speaker 2: With the curl of a cursive character. Not today. Email
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  Speaker 2: has caused us to dread the arrival of mail. That's
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: why our favorite key on the computer is that delete button.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Get rid of that. Isn't that amazing?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Why we get letters by the multiple numbers every day,
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  Speaker 2: if you're like me, hundreds of them every week, most
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  Speaker 2: of them written quickly, discarded quickly, not designed really to
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  Speaker 2: be that significant. They just get an information across. Not
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: a bad idea for communicating information, but a dreadful idea
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  Speaker 2: in communicating significance. The ancient letters were never written in
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  Speaker 2: a hurry, nor electronically. Writers labored over them. Just the
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: putting of ink on a piece of papyrus was a
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  Speaker 2: massive task, and then rolling it and preserving it, and
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: hand delivering it another major task.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So when it comes to New Testament letters, what we
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  Speaker 1: have is the treasure of the scriptures.
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  Speaker 2: Some letters are corrective by nature, some are confronted, most
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  Speaker 2: of them inspiring and encouraging, a few of them profound,
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  Speaker 2: all of them instructive, none more so than the Letter
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  Speaker 2: to the Romans, written a little past the midway point
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  Speaker 2: of the first century by a man sitting in an
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  Speaker 2: unknown room with Tertius by his side, writing as a scribe,
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  Speaker 2: as the Spirit of God miraculously reveals the heart of
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  Speaker 2: God regarding his truth to the servant of God, Paul,
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  Speaker 2: who spoke God's.
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  Speaker 1: Truth to Tertius, who wrote the truth into the text.
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  Speaker 2: The miracle of revelation came when God gave his word.
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  Speaker 2: The miracle of inspiration came when God had his word written.
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  Speaker 2: Both of those processes have ended, But the joy of
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  Speaker 2: illumination goes on and on, and this great doctrine is
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  Speaker 2: ours to experience. As we glean from this ancient first
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  Speaker 2: century letter written by a man we've never met, to
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  Speaker 2: a group of people we've never known, living in a
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  Speaker 2: city that's all together different now than it was in
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  Speaker 2: the first century. Before we go further, let me say
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  Speaker 2: my last message I left unfinished because I wanted to
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  Speaker 2: attach that application to the beginning of this time together.
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  Speaker 2: So find a place somewhere on your outline, and let
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  Speaker 2: me give you these three thoughts. I wanted to close
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  Speaker 2: with last time, but chose to wait till now. First,
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  Speaker 2: if we see this only as a first century letter
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  Speaker 2: from Paul to the Romans, we'll miss it all. It'll
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  Speaker 2: become a historic document, artifact, irrelevant, nice for them.
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  Speaker 1: Having little to say to us. If anything, we'll miss
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  Speaker 1: it all.
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  Speaker 2: Second, if we see it only as a doctrinal treatise,
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  Speaker 2: just a theological statement written by a man in the
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  Speaker 2: first century, we'll only get half the message. God's word
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  Speaker 2: was not given just to fill our heads with doctrine.
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  Speaker 2: Though doctrine is the foundation, it is the anchor for
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  Speaker 2: our vessel. But it is not given simply to establish
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  Speaker 2: our minds with an understanding of logical truth, which doctrine does.
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  Speaker 1: You'll get only half the message.
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  Speaker 2: Much of Romans is practical, and we'll do our best
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  Speaker 2: to pull from it every chance we get the practical application. Third,
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  Speaker 2: and this is the best part. If we see it
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  Speaker 2: as a personal letter had written by the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Of God to us. We'll get it all.
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  Speaker 2: It'll make a difference in how we think. It'll build
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  Speaker 2: the necessary borders around our minds, so that we will
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  Speaker 2: know what to tolerate and what to reject, what to
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  Speaker 2: live with, what to fight against, what to stand for,
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  Speaker 2: what to ignore, and what to resist. So let's get
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  Speaker 2: into it. I love the way letters were written back then.
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  Speaker 2: They signed their letters at the beginning. Isn't that smart?
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  Speaker 2: We get a long, lengthy letter.
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  Speaker 1: What do we do?
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: We look to see who wrote it, don't we Because
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: if the electronically, you don't know what this is about.
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  Speaker 1: A handwriting, and so you.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Have to look at the end of it to see
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: who wrote the letter to you in those days, Paul
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: right out of the sheet, there's no question.
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  Speaker 1: Paul looked down.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: At verse seven, to all who are beloved of God
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  Speaker 2: in Rome, stop right there.
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  Speaker 1: I promise to keep this simple.
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  Speaker 2: So what we have is a lengthy sentence that introduces
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: the letter in over one hundred and twenty five English words,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: with one period that concludes the opening thought. The parenthesis
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: is wrapped around verse two down through verse six. Again,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I say If you miss the excursion, you will get confused.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Paul is a master in this letter to the Romans,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: connecting one thought to another, beginning a next verse that
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: modifies a word in the previous verse, tying together the
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: thoughts like dominoes that bump up against one another. So
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: introduces himself in verse one, tells us three things about himself.
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  Speaker 2: He tells us in verse seven he's writing to the Romans,
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  Speaker 2: and in between he highlights what is really on his heart,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the truth. Regarding the Gospel, how do I
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: know that it's mentioned four times in this introductory section.
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  Speaker 2: If you like to mark your Bible, it's mentioned in
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: verse one, the Gospel of God, verse nine, the preaching
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  Speaker 2: of the Gospel of his son, Verse fifteen. I am
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: eager to preach the Gospel to you also, who are
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  Speaker 2: in Rome. Verse sixteen. I am not ashamed of the gospel.
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  Speaker 2: If God includes in a few verses the same word
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: again and again and again, the repetition is to underscore it.
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  Speaker 2: It's to highlight it today's words. It's to put it
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  Speaker 2: into a bold font. It's God's way of saying, pay attention,
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  Speaker 2: this is what I want you to see, right out
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  Speaker 2: of the chute the gospel. So Paul caused himself to
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: begin with these three things. First, a bond servant. In
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  Speaker 2: Paul's day, there were six terms he could have chosen.
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  Speaker 2: He chose the one that is the strongest word to
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  Speaker 2: describe absolute servitude. We would call it a bond slave.
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  Speaker 2: In those days, slaves were sold on a block. Thank god,
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  Speaker 2: we no longer see that. But in big cities like Rome,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: it wasn't uncommon to have a slave market where there
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: were large rocks that were blocks of stone.
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  Speaker 1: Slaves were brought there in chains.
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  Speaker 2: They stood there, usually naked, as that a potential owner
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  Speaker 2: would bid to buy.
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  Speaker 1: This human tool.
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  Speaker 2: Having taken him in chains, he would bring him to
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: his place, either place of employment or place of living,
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  Speaker 2: and the slave would live like an animal for the
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  Speaker 2: rest of his life under the ownership of the man
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  Speaker 2: who bought him.
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  Speaker 1: Paul is saying, I'm a bond slave of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Christ has seen me on a slave block of sin,
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  Speaker 2: and he has paid the price for my freedom, and
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  Speaker 2: now I answer to him as my master. I'm a
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  Speaker 2: bond slave of Christ. Called an apostle. The little word
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  Speaker 2: as is italicized, and you can leave it out the
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: editors the translators have added it for the sake of clarifying.
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  Speaker 2: Sometime it does, sometime it doesn't. So Paul is called
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  Speaker 2: an apostle, meaning called of God, not of his own work,
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  Speaker 2: not of the word of any man, not the sucsation
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  Speaker 2: of some denomination or some religious authority or hierarchy. He
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  Speaker 2: has called from God to be an apostle. That was
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  Speaker 2: one of his spiritual gifts. And thirdly, he says of himself,
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  Speaker 2: I am set apart to the Gospel. The word apostle
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  Speaker 2: means one sent forth. Never forget that at the heart
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  Speaker 2: of Paul beat the heart of a missionary. If you
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  Speaker 2: miss that, you'll miss the thrust of his driving message.
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  Speaker 2: Again and again with the Gospel. He longed to see
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  Speaker 2: his fellow Jews born again. He longed to see the
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  Speaker 2: gentiles that surrounded him. Now in this case in Rome
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  Speaker 2: born again is a missionary heart. He is sent forth
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  Speaker 2: to take the Gospel. To get a grasp of the Gospel,
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  Speaker 2: it would help to know what the word means. The
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: ancient Anglo Saxons referred to it as the good spell.
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  Speaker 2: It came to mean the Gospel, the good News. Every
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: time you see the word gospel. You can substitute the
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  Speaker 2: words good news. This is the good news of God
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  Speaker 2: given to humanity regarding his son Christ. While I'm on
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: the subject, look at that word, the Gospel of God.
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  Speaker 2: The origin of the gospel is God. This isn't Paul's gospel,
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  Speaker 2: this isn't his church's gospel. And as we live our
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  Speaker 2: lives today, it's not our gospel. It's the Gospel of God.
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  Speaker 2: God originated it. God's love impelled him to come and
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  Speaker 2: to reach down to us in grace and to win us.
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  Speaker 2: It took someone to pay the price for sin, and
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  Speaker 2: that is Christ. So the content of the Gospel is
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  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, as we will see in working our way
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  Speaker 2: through this letter. But before we do that, drop down
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  Speaker 2: again to verse seven. Let's notice it goes to those
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  Speaker 2: who are beloved of God in Rome.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you love that?
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  Speaker 2: In the busy city of Rome, which was the busiest
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  Speaker 2: and most significant megalopolis of that first century, there existed
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  Speaker 2: a pocket of people who love Christ. Paul tells them,
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  Speaker 2: you are beloved of God, because that's what the Gospel
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  Speaker 2: is all about.
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  Speaker 1: You will have no idea if you're not faithful to
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  Speaker 1: share Christ.
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  Speaker 2: How few people know that God loves them. Most people
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  Speaker 2: have in their mind a caricature of God. Usually he's frowning,
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  Speaker 2: sometime he's carrying a club. He exists for the purpose
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  Speaker 2: of making life miserable and making you and me guilty.
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  Speaker 2: What a ridiculous and wicked concept, and what an error
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  Speaker 2: of thinking. God loves us? And the Bible is full
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  Speaker 2: of that kind of content. When Carl Bart came toward
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the end of his illustrious and significant years of teaching
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: and writing, he took a trip that touched virtually every
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: continent around the world. The journey took him really months
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  Speaker 2: to complete.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped at cathedrals and great places of worship and
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  Speaker 1: great schools of learning.
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  Speaker 2: He met people who had read him and knew of him,
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  Speaker 2: had their lives changed and shaped by his teaching. When
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: he finally got back home to Switzerland, he had a
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  Speaker 2: friend take him to a meal to eat, and while
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: they were sitting there eating together, his friend said to him,
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  Speaker 2: doctor Bart, what was your greatest thought while you were traveling?
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Now that you finished the journey around the world, what
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: would you say was your greatest thought? He smiled, with
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: a twinkle in his eye, without hesitation, said my greatest thought,
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  Speaker 2: as Jesus loves me.
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  Speaker 1: This I know, for the Bible tells me. So it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't get better than that.
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  Speaker 2: The Gospel is the good news that God loves you.
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  Speaker 2: He loved the people of Rome, and He loves the
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  Speaker 2: people today to whom I speak, and those to whom
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: you will speak in the week to come. This is
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: the good news that originates with God. How about our
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: receiving it the revelation? Remember giving it from heaven to earth?
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: How did we get the Gospel? Verse two answers it
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: which and that word modifies the Gospel. That's the first
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: time some of you have heard the word modified since
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: you got out of high school English class, isn't it?
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Don't you wish you'd have paid more attention to your
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: English teacher? Often think that when I work my way
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: through the sentence structure of a text like this which
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: answers back to the Gospel, think of a little arrow
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: that points back up to the Gospel.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: The Gospel is what he promised. He is capitalized. So
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: it's God.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: It's that which God promised beforehand through his prophets in
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the Holy scriptures. Look closely, God originated the Gospel. God
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: has communicated the Gospel through the channel of the Holy Scriptures.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Romans fifteen to four states whatever was written in earlier
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: times referring to the Old Testament was written for our learning,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: that we, through patients and comfort in the scriptures, should
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: have hope. So Paul is saying, as I deliver the
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Gospel as an apostle and as a carry it, being
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: called to this work of mission. As I do all
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: of this, I remember that it's not mine. It's really
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: that which I have received from centuries past. You'll be surprised,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: perhaps to know as I was when I found this week.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Sixty one times in the letter to the Romans, the
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Old Testament is quoted five times. He quotes Genesis four times,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Exodus twice, Leviticus five times, Deuteronomy twice, First King fifteen times,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: from the Psalms, twice, from Proverbs, nineteen times, from Isaiah,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: once from Ezekiel, twice from Hoseiah, and once in Joel, Nahem, Habakuk,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and Malachi. Sixty one times Paul quotes from that long
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: channel of information called the Holy Scriptures. As men were
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: born along by the Holy Spirit, they wrote the truth
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: of God, and it's found its way now to Paul
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: in the first century and comes all the way to
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: us here in the twenty first century. By the way,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: it occurred to me that all of Romans, chapters one
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: through eight, is contained in Isaiah fifty three six. Remember
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: the verse, all we like sheep have gone astray. That's
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: the depravity of humanity. We have turned everyone to his
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: own way. That's chapters three and four of Romans. And
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: all as chapters five, six, seven, and eight. In one
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: verse there is contained the message of the first eight
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: chapters of the letter to the Romans. So it comes
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: to us through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy scriptures.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: And please note the content the substance of the Gospel,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: verses three and four. It's concerning his son. And immediately
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Paul thinks chronologically, starts with his humanity, works his way
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: to deity, messiah, ship and authority. Watch how it unfolds.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: He was born of a descendant of David, that's the
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: birth in Bethlehem. According to the flesh, he was declared
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: the son of God with power by the resurrection, that's
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: the deity of Christ. According to the spirit of Holiness,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, our Lord. See the word Christ. It's the
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: term that means anointed one frequently can be rendered Messiah.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: The work of Messiah is the work that Christ carried out,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: fulfilling the promises and the requirements set forth in the
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Old Testament regarding Messiah.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And the term.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Lord always refers to authority. That's why Christians got in
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: trouble in their day. In the first century, Caesar was
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: curios k u r iOS, the word is Greek for lord.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: But Christians came along saying we serve another. We serve
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: our Lord Christ, not your lord Caesar. That was sure
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: death toward the end of Nero. We'll get to that
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: in a moment. Here he says, as you see it written,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: we have Jesus Christ, our Lord. Think of it, Jesus
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: the man Christ, the Messiah, Lord, our authority, and he
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: is set forth as the content of the Gospel. Paul
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: now pauses and says, through whom this is Jesus our Lord,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: through whom verse five we have received grace and apostleship.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I think that always made Paul pause and sort of
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: shake his head. He remembered that he was one unworthy soul.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: He writes, of himself in both the Letter to the
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Galatians and the Letter to Timothy, where he says that
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: I was a violent aggressor. I spent my days making
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: life miserable for Christians. And there I was on that
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: road to Damascus, and I was stopped in my tracks.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: I was blinded, and I fell to the ground, and
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I heard the words of another curios as He's converted
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: me and saved my soul. There is a marvelous sense
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: of grace that continues to be woven through the fabric
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: of Paul's writings, and it emerges quickly now in the
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: letter as we read through whom we have received grace.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: It was Donald Barnhouse who said, love that reaches down,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: love that reaches up is affection. Love that reaches out
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I forget it, So I'm gonna go home and memorize
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: that quote next time.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: is affection. But love that stoops is grace. That was
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: worth waiting for her, wasn't it. Love that reaches up
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: is adoration, and we do that every time we praise him.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Love that reaches out is affection, but love that stoops grace.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Some of you are convincing yourself these days that you're
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: just too far gone, that you have been a prodigal
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: beyond anyone's belief. Who would be sitting around you right now?
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Your life is too soiled, your past is too dirty,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: your world is too impure for God to care that
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: much about you.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: How wrong, how wrong you are.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Grace covers it all. Grace is greater than our sin.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Came across a wonderful story I think is worth reading.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: When R. A.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Tory was the president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: he received a letter from a distressed father. The man,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: a pastor, had a prodigal son named Bill who was
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: breaking his heart. Would doctor Tory let the boy enroll
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: in Moody, that's the question. Tory replied that while he
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: sympathized with a man, it wasn't possible to admit the boy.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: He said, after all, Moody's a Bible school, not a reformatory.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: The man rode back and doubled his efforts and intensified
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: his plea please, please, You're.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: My last hope.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Not to Tory agreed, finally, providing the boy would meet
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: with him every day. The arrangement didn't go well. At first,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Doctor Torrey thought the experiment was hopeless. The boy had
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: a serious problems and seemed torn apart by past turbulence.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: But day by day, as he vented his frustrations on
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Doctor Tory, there began to be some room left in
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: his life for hope. Ultimately, he turned his life over
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: to Christ. Make a long story short. Several years later,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: that boy became a beloved professor at that school.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: His name is William R. Newell.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: On one occasion eighteen ninety five, Newell was on his
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: way to class and he was working over his testimony,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: wanting to put it into some form of verse. Suddenly
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: he got the picture in his mind. He ducked into
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: an empty classroom and set down the back of an envelope.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: He wrote out in verse form his testimony.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: When he left the classroom on his way, now a
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: little bit late to his class, he ran into Daniel Towner,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: who was a director of music at the institute. He
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: handed him the envelope and said, this needs a good
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: tune to go with it. When he finished the class,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: he ran into Towner again, and the man told him
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: I was so taken with the poem.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: You gave me that.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: I went immediately to my studio and I composed the tune.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Here it is, he says, I feel that it could
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: be the best song that either of us will ever
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: write in our lifetime. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: from me. He died at Calvary. Mercy there was great,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: and grace was free. Pardon there was multi applied to
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: me there. My burden soul found liberty at Calgary. That great,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: that a great background. Your life worse than William R. Newles,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: You don't even know. No life here is worse than
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: the apostle.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Paul's was. He was the chief of sinners. He was
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the worst you could be.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Anybody here killed Christians, anybody here in a place of
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: authority where you deliberately misjudge those who claimed Christ as savior,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: and you throw him in prison. Nobody the grace of
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: God came to his rescue, and of all things became
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: an apostle. You imagine how surprised he lived his life.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: No wonder the disciples were afraid to be with him.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Word traveled that Paul was saved yeah right. I hadn't
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: been for Barnabas, I never would have given him a hearing.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: But grace came to his rescue. And now he presents
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: what it is that changed him Verse five, to bring
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: his namesake.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: What's the purpose of the Gospel?
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: The obedience of the faith, that's the purpose. The origin
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: is God, The revelation is the Holy scriptures, and how
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: grateful we are that they are still alive and powerful.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: The content, the substance is Christ himself, and the purpose
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: never doubted.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: It's obedience. It's obedience.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: God did not save us in order for us to
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: have a theological set of principles in our heads. We
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: are saved in order to surrender our lives to Christ.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: When you think of obedience attached to it the synonym submission.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: When you speak of obedience to Christ, think of submission
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: to Christ. And Paul, from Damascus to the end of
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: his life was submitted to Christ. Whatever was the Father's will,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: whatever was the Savior's will, out of obedience to the Gospel.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: He yielded.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: May I pause here and urge you to be a
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: person of balance. Please do not see the letter to
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: the Romans as simply a place to pack up great
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: doctrinal truths in a notebook. The world of fundamentalism is
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: full of people like that, with very little attention given
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: to the graciousness of an obedient life submission to Christ.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: It takes both.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Now, on the other hand, to just emphasize submission and
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: graciousness and love. The liberalism is full of that without
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: the truth of the Gospel the doctrines. We need both,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: but we never can prove the delight of His love
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: until all on the altar we lay for the favor
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: he shows and the joy He bestows for those who
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: will trust and obey, trust and obey. There's the balance,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: for there's no other way to be happy.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: In Jesus but to trust and obey.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Paul emphasizes this, and now he reaches to the people
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: in Rome.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: To all who are beloved of God.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: And can you imagine, can you imagine what it felt
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: like to be.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Distant, you know, thousands of miles.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Away from anything that these dear people would call Christian
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: and to get a letter, a letter signed by Paul
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: written to them to help them in their life. There
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: in the in the capital of the world.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Nowadays, except for the Vatican, there's not a lot of
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: attention on Rome.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: It's a great place to visit, full of art and beauty.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: But back in those days, it was the heartbeat of civilization.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: One man describes it.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: She was the eternal city which had given them peace,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: the fount of law, the center of civilization, the mecca
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: of poets and orators and artists.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: While being at the same time a home of every
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: kind of idolatrous worship. Yet God had his people there.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I love that in.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Every place in this world where there are tough cities,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: God has his people.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: You could name some of the cities around our country.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: The city of New York, God has his people. The
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: capital city of Washington, God has his people. I was
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: with one of them just this last week for lunch.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Lon Solomon, and I pastor of McLean Bible Church, and
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I had lunch with doctor Harold Honer. They came out
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: to our little city and we had a little while together,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: and it was great being with Lan to hear about
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: his work that's going on there.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Just outside the Beltway and walk Washington.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Made a couple of comments I wrote down one, Washington
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: is a tough city. Then he added this, a half
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: strike and you're out. Not good with all the eyes
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: of the nation on you. You've got a half strike
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: and you're gone.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of wobble room Rome. Half strike and
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: you're out. Part of the reason is Nero rule it.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: At this time, Nero is in the quasi peaceful time
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: of his reign. What some of you may not remember
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: from your study of ancient history. One month shy of
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: his seventeenth birthday, thanks to his mother murdering his predecessor,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Nero took the throne. He later murdered her, but that's
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: another story. Nero, at age seventeen, surrounds himself with a
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: few who will guide him, Tacitus being one of the
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: better of the councilors, until he removes him later when
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: he goes nuts and by and by, Nero becomes a
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: savage madman. At age thirty one, he finally takes his life.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: Between seventeen and thirty one, his world is marked by.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: A drag of blood.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: He took great delight in blaming the fire of Rome
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: on Christians, covered many of them with tar and pitch
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: and set them on fire, and their bodies lit. The
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: coddle sin as the games were played, and he played
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: in the games, saw himself as a charioteer. People held
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: back the laughter because he was the emperor. He was
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: given the award for winning, though he never won because
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: he was the emperor. And ultimately, after multiple multiple murders
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: and a series of homosexual relationships with boys he had castrated,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Nero finally met his match, came to be known by
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: the Senate as Public Enemy number one, and took his
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: life before they could kill him. Rome's a tough city.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: Living in this city is a body of people who
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: claim the name of Jesus, just like you.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Do in the city where you live and work. And
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: at Rome, he reminds them, they are.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: Beloved of God. Isn't that great? There we are against
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: the Gospel. You are loved by God. You who are
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: on that campus, you are loved by God on that campus.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: You who live in San Francisco, you are loved by
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: God there in the city. But the Bay, You who
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: are making your living in Chicago, you were there, or Boston,
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: you are there loved by God. In Dallas, you are
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: loved by God. Beloved of God.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: In whatever city you are, you are called saint. Is
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: that good Saint, Chuck. Is it funny when you put
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: your name after the words saint. Well, I've when I
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: was a kid. We grew up and.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: Down the street from where we lived was a Saint
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Andrew's church. It's called Saint Andrew's Church.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I remember as a.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Kid thinking, is he Is he a round? You're going
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: to run into Saint Andrews and then I finally saw him.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: He's a statue standing in the corner of dust on him.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: It's a kid.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: I'd walk in say wait, say Andy, I remember doing that,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: so I was. My mother never liked me to do that,
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: but I that's why I needed to be saved. But anyway,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: I remember Saint Andrew's and then I realized every one
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: of God's children is a saint.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Put your name after the word saint. Try not to smile.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean what we think it means, and
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: what we thought it man as kids.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: It's the word for set apart. We are not only
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: loved of God, we are set apart for God's purpose.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: That's what it means to be saint. So he says
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: to the people in Rome, you're set apart.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Right for God.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: You're loved by God. Unless you talk yourself out of it.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: You have the grace of God. There it is again,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: verse seven. You have the grace of God that has
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: come to your rescue. You were objects of his grace,
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: and you are recipients of his peace. That'll make all
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: the difference in the world when you exist in a
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: tough city. Are you working a tough office? Grace and
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: peace are yours? And they are from God, our Father,
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he hasn't even talked
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: to them. They just told them who they are. No
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: wonder the letter meant so much to them. I remember
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: my days in the Marine Corps, when I was eight
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: thousand miles from home and there'd be mail called and
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: there would be a letter from a woman who meant
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: more than life to me. I remember getting the letter
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: and I would open it. I'd see her handwriting. Then
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: I'd go smells just like her. And I'd read it,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: and I'd read it and I'd read it and.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I'd read it. Why Because she told me what I
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: meant to her.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: She told me my value. She reminded me of how
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: she was waiting for me, longing.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: To be with me. It's Paul to the Romans. Don't
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: let it be a sterile letter of ink on a page.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: It's a love letter from God to the Romans and
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: through them to us.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Paul tells them two things. First of all, he tells
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: them of his gratitude and prayers for them. He says,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for you all.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: It's from the southern part of Jerusalem. For y'all, because
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. And
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: that great they had a faith that was now spreading
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: throughout the whole world. They were existing in the tough city,
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: they were doing more than existing. The Word was traveling
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: about them and their faith. Here's why. Because the God
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: the Gospel, is my witness. How unceasingly I make mention
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: of you always in my prayers. This tells us that
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: we're to pray for people we don't know. Paul didn't
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  Speaker 2: know most of those people, if any of them. He's
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: never been to Rome. Pray for people you don't know.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Start at the top and work down. Start in your
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: family and work out started your office with those you
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: don't work with. Go to a school, choose a group
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: of coaches name the president and his wife and the
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: cabinet and their mates. Pray for people you don't know,
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  Speaker 2: and pray incessantly. I love this word he uses unceasingly.
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  Speaker 2: I make mention of you in my prayers. What's he
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: praying for in.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: The verse nine or verse ten?
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: If perhaps now it lasts by the will of God,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: I may succeed in coming to you.
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  Speaker 1: I long to see you verse eleven. Please notice sandwich
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: between this unceasing prayer and the longing to be with them.
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  Speaker 2: The will of God. There it appears in verse ten.
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  Speaker 2: If perhaps now it lasts by the will of God,
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: I mean I may succeed in coming to you. You know
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: why that's important because of the obedience to the Gospel,
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: the obedience in the faith. When you are submitted to Christ,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: you are waiting upon him for his will. Now we
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: plan our way, but the Lord directs our steps. We
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: put things in motion in hopes that we are in
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: his will, and then we wait to make certain. We
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: seek God's people to fill our staff, and then we
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: wait upon him to do that because we want.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: His person to take that role. We're building a building,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: but we want his will building of the building. We're
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  Speaker 1: raising funds that we want him to be the one
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: in charge of prompting his people to give. We want
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  Speaker 1: his will to be done. It's all a matter of submission.
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  Speaker 1: Submission to the will of God.
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  Speaker 2: The apostle says, I pray unceasingly for you, because my
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: desire is to be with you. If I had my way,
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't even go through. I'd come straight to Rome.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't have my way.
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  Speaker 2: One of the great things about Christian life is that
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  Speaker 2: you get first things first, and the first thing is Christ.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Remember in Colaussian's one, he is to be pre eminent,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: have first place and everything. So he said, I'm waiting
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: for the will of God. On that I long to
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: see you. Now, why do you want to see them?
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: He says verse eleven, that I may impart some spiritual
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: gift to you. I thought the Holy Spirit gave gifts.
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  Speaker 1: Well he does.
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  Speaker 2: It's easy to make every word walk on all fours.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: I would guard us against that and say here, the
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: spiritual gift is probably his teaching, his bringing them the truth,
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: which would be like a gift, because he said that
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: you may be established. In fact, he clarifies it this
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: is what we might call an explanatory correction when he
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: says that is verse twelve, not only that I may
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  Speaker 2: come and impart truth, but that I may be encouraged
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  Speaker 2: together with you while among you, each of us by
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: the other's faith, yours and mind. Every missionary knows when
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: you step onto the field and you're there to take
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: the good news of the Savior, you're also there to
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: learn from the people on the field, and those who
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: don't go in that way are not successful as missionaries.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Paul says, when I get to Rome, not only will
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: I benefit you by sharing, but I'm I'm going to
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: benefit from you. In fact, he says verse thirteen, I
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: don't want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: plan to come to you, and have been prevented so far,
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: so that I may obtained some fruit among you, even
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: as among.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: The rest of the gentiles.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: So his desire to be with them is for the
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: purpose of leading some of them, more the Romans, to Christ,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: as well as getting some of the money he needs
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: to make his journey on to Spain, which is what
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: is on his heart.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Now, how is all of this tie in? As lone
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Solomon said to me, this week, he said, every time
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I end a message, I always go so what, So
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that. So what? Why do you need to.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Know about the Gospel and the Letter to the Romans
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: and the truth of all of this. Well, I'll give
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: you three reasons. Glad you asked.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Number one, the gospel put a question mark after it.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: What do you do with the Gospel?
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: You accept it. You don't rewrite it, you don't reshape it.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: It doesn't need any correcting. The Gospel is given for
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: you to accept it. In case you don't know what
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: this is called, it's an invitation. People say you never
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: give an invity. I am now giving an invitation. Okay,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: just because I don't give it like you were raised
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: for people to give it, I'm giving it to you now.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: The good news is Christ died for your sin. According
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: to the scriptures, he was buried, he has been raised
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: from the dead, and he still lives. That's the good news.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: If you've accepted it, you're in the family of God.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: If you have not, you are not and you don't
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: know that you'll live to see tomorrow. So I suggest
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: you accept the Gospel, just take it right where you are.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: You won't walk out of the building here and see
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: skywriting says good for you.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: You're saved.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: You won't hear thunderclaps and lightning tonight. It won't be
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: accompanying the salvation.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: But you'll believe it. You will accept it. Take it,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Take the gift, accept the Gospel, the letter, apply it.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: My words regarding the letter all the way through will
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: be Let's apply this as it relates to prayer, as
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: it relates to understanding that we're set apart for the gospel,
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: as it has to do with sharing the gospel with
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: those we're around.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Apply this letter and now third the truth, share it
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: with the gospel we accepted, With the letter, we apply it,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: and with the truth we share it. Now. I remind you.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: That you know more truth in one morning than most
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: people will ever learn in a lifetime. Regarding Jesus, you
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: would be shocked to know how few people could answer
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: on a three y five card who is Jesus Christ.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: You would be shocked, because today he's whatever you want
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: him to be, whatever God you need.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: He's available. Just be open minded.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: My fellow pastor and friend, Irwin Lutzer writes, a few
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: years ago, my wife and I were sitting together on
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: a flight when I noticed the woman across the aisle
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: was wearing a cross necklace. Hoping to stimulate a discussion,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I said, thank you for wearing that cross. We do
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: have a wonderful savior, don't we. She rolled her eyes
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: and responded, well, I don't think the cross like you do.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Just look at this.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: She showed me that beneath the cross was a Jewish
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: star of David, and beneath that was a trinck at
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: to symbolized the Hindu god Om. I'm a social worker,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: she said, I've discovered people find God in all different ways.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: Christianity is just one path to the divine.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Whatever.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: Lutzer writes that she later said, I prefer spirituality to
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: like religion, the search of experience more important to me
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: than specific beliefs. Obviously, the woman wearing that cross was
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: what today's culture calls.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Open minded. Just be open. God of the Hindus, Fine,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: that turns your crank. Turn it on, the God of
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the hearing, God of the Muslim. That'll work. Whatever you're
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: sincere about your own self, Shirley MacLean, you're your own God.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: You'll see the crystal shining, You'll connect. Wait. Wait, wait
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: open minded. We had a lady in our following one
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: of our church services. She was so funny.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: She said, when I went through college, everything I heard
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: was be open minded, be open mind. Every proph said
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: stay open minded. You need to be open about that,
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: And she said, I got the round and think it
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: good night. Am I the only one around that is trouble?
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, how open can you be?
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: She said?
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: One day I was going to class and paste it
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: on the back of a kid's backpack walking in front
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: of me for these words, How open minded do I
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: have to be before my brains fall out? Red a
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: great light, listen to me. Your brains will never fall
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: out in romans. Romans will build a boundary around your
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: brain that you need and will help you know what
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: to say no to. It'll help you discern when you're
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: hearing error. It'll help you discover why the cross and
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: the death of Jesus Christ is the only way to God,
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: the only way to God.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads together.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: The invitation has been given, the only thing that remains
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: as you're responding to it. We can help you do that.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: That's why we exist. Connect with us any way you wish.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: We've got time to talk. Thank you, Father for Jesus.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: The Way, the Truth, the life.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you that no one comes to you but through Him.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: Teach us not to be ashamed of the Gospel, for
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: it is the power flowing from you for salvation to
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: everyone who believed, Jew and Greek gentile alike. Thank you,
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Father for finding us when we weren't looking for you.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you for delivering us from a destiny that would
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: have been disastrous, and remind us today that that invitation
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: remains open. Guard us again from being complacent and presumptuous.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: You still care about those in tough places. May we
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: count for you there genuinely, with authenticity in the beauty
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: of holiness. As we obey the Gospel in Jesus's name,
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: I pray everyone said Amen.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: The preceding message Getting a Grasp of the Gospel was
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: copyrighted in two thousand and six, twenty ten, and twenty
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: twenty five, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: twenty five by Charles Rswindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.