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Romans-Our-Doctrinal-Constitution-Msg-1 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If you have a Bible near you, would you please
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Speaker 1: turn to the first chapter of the Letter to the Romans.
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Speaker 1: You will find in your worship folder and outline and
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Speaker 1: a chart that will help hold our feet to the fire.
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Speaker 1: As we stay on the subject of an overview today
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Speaker 1: of the letter, I want to cover sixteen chapters in
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Speaker 1: forty so minutes, so the era of miracles has not
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Speaker 1: yet ended. We'll do our best. Let me read several
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Speaker 1: sections through this letter to sort of give you that
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Speaker 1: sense of overview as you follow along. Chapter one, verse one. Paul,
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Speaker 1: a bond servant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle,
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Speaker 1: set apart for the Gospel of God. Verse seven. To
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Speaker 1: all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.
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Speaker 1: Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse sixteen. For I am not
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Speaker 1: ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of
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Speaker 1: God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the jew
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Speaker 1: first and also to the Greek. For in it the
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Speaker 1: righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as
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Speaker 1: it is written, But the righteous man shall live by
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Speaker 1: faith three verse twenty one. But now apart from the law,
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Speaker 1: the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by
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Speaker 1: the Law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God
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Speaker 1: through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe,
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Speaker 1: For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and
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Speaker 1: fall short of the glory of God, being justified as
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Speaker 1: a gift by His grace through the redemption which is
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Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus Chapter five, verse one. Therefore, having been
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Speaker 1: justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our
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Speaker 1: introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand,
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Speaker 1: and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
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Speaker 1: Toward the end of chapter eight, beginning at verse thirty
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Speaker 1: five eight thirty five, Who will separate us from the
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Speaker 1: Love of Christ? Little tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine,
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Speaker 1: or nakedness, or peril or sword, just as it is written,
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Speaker 1: for your sake, we are being put to death all
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Speaker 1: day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
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Speaker 1: But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him
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Speaker 1: who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death,
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Speaker 1: nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor
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Speaker 1: things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
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Speaker 1: any other creating. We'll be able to separate us from
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Speaker 1: the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
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Speaker 1: Lord of course, Chapter twelve, beginning at verse one. An
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Speaker 1: overview would be incomplete without this great reminder. Therefore, I
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Speaker 1: urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
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Speaker 1: your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God,
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Speaker 1: which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not
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Speaker 1: be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
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Speaker 1: renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what
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Speaker 1: the will of God is, that which is good and
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Speaker 1: acceptable and perfect. One more, the thirteenth verse of the
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Speaker 1: fifteenth chapter fifteen thirteen. Now, may the God of Hope
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Speaker 1: fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so
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Speaker 1: that you will abound in hope by the power of
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. If you will take your outline and
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Speaker 1: place it here at chapter one, we'll return to it
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Speaker 1: in a few moments and began our exposition of the
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Speaker 1: letter to the Romans. Now let's pray together. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for breathing out your word through men through time. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for preserving the message that you revealed through the
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Speaker 1: miracle of inspiration. Father, thank you for your word, the inerrant, authoritative,
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Speaker 1: infallible word of God. We live in a day where
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Speaker 1: other's words have now replaced the eternal words, at least
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Speaker 1: in the public's mind. In this difficulty era, it is
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Speaker 1: hard to hear again your words. We pray that the
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Speaker 1: scales will be lifted from our eyes, and that which
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Speaker 1: has blocked our hearing will be removed, that we might
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Speaker 1: see and hear and be comforted and encouraged by your
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Speaker 1: revealed word. May the truth that appears in this letter emerge.
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Speaker 1: May it make its flight through our minds, deep within
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Speaker 1: our hearts, so that our actions are transformed just as
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Speaker 1: our minds. Father, I pray that you will cause us
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Speaker 1: to glean from these sixteen chapters in the weeks and
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Speaker 1: months ahead. Truth to live by, truth to die for.
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Speaker 1: Ours is a troubled era. Chaos is not only in
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Speaker 1: Baghdad and a hundred other places around this world. It
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Speaker 1: is in our country as well. The battle for men
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Speaker 1: and women's souls and for youths minds is raging, and
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Speaker 1: rather than simply throwing a fit to screaming at the
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Speaker 1: top of our voices. We pray that your truth may
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Speaker 1: equip us with sufficient ammunition to do battle in a
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Speaker 1: world that's lost its way, guided by an enemy who
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Speaker 1: knows exactly where he's going. We pray that we will
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Speaker 1: grasp the value of doctrine as it establishes us. For
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Speaker 1: what remains in our lives, those surprises, those unexpected events,
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Speaker 1: those things we will call tragedies, and those joys and
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Speaker 1: promotions and delights that are before us. Anchor us, our Father,
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Speaker 1: to the bedrock of truth, and remind us that your son,
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that
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Speaker 1: it's all his story. Now, our Father, our eyes are
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Speaker 1: upon him as we give our offerings gratefully today, knowing
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Speaker 1: that you will sustain this work only as long as
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Speaker 1: your son receives the glory. It is in his name
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Speaker 1: we pray, and for his glory we give, And all
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Speaker 1: God's people said Amen. The Letter to the Romans is
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Speaker 1: the premier doctrine of Christian truth. It is the document
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Speaker 1: what the Constitution is to our United States. The Letter
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Speaker 1: to the Romans is to the Christian faith. Anyone who
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Speaker 1: hopes to grow deeply her understanding of the truth must
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Speaker 1: ultimately anchor his or her mind in the Letter to
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Speaker 1: the Romans. Every biblical expositor I know loves to guide
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Speaker 1: people on the journey that takes them through the sixteen chapters,
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Speaker 1: and I need to warn you ahead of time the
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Speaker 1: journey will be neither easy nor brief. As a matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, some have shaped their entire ministry on the
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Speaker 1: Letter to the Romans. Back in nineteen twenty seven, when
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Speaker 1: doctor Donald Gray Barnhouse became the senior pastor of the
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Speaker 1: tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, he wanted to establish his
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Speaker 1: congregation in the Truth, and so, not surprisingly, he began
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Speaker 1: in the Letter to the Romans, and for three and
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Speaker 1: a half years he stayed in the Letter to the Romans.
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Speaker 1: That isn't the record. As a matter of fact, Martin
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Speaker 1: Lloyd Jones preached Romans for thirteen years, and so I've
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Speaker 1: decided not to go there. Listen to Barnhouse's words. My
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Speaker 1: first Sunday in that Pulpe had found me giving an
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Speaker 1: exposition of the first verse of the epistle. The second
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Speaker 1: Sunday I started with the second verse, and as I
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Speaker 1: did not finish by the time it was necessary to
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Speaker 1: pronounce them a Benediction. I said, as I had when
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Speaker 1: I had been teaching history in the university, we will
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Speaker 1: suspend our study at this point, and we'll begin from
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Speaker 1: here in our next meeting together. For three and one
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Speaker 1: half years, I never took a text outside of the
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Speaker 1: Epistle to the Romans. I saw the church transformed, the
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Speaker 1: audience filled the pews and then the galleries, and the
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Speaker 1: work went on with great blessing. But just as important
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Speaker 1: as the transformation of the church, there was the transformation
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Speaker 1: of the preacher. The disciplined necessity of treating every verse
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Speaker 1: in an entire epistle formed habits of study that organized
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Speaker 1: the mind of the preure for the whole of his task.
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Speaker 1: Twenty years later, doctor Barnhouse had the opportunity to take
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Speaker 1: the message of the Gospel to the airways. It was
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Speaker 1: unusual back in the mid forties for that to occur,
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Speaker 1: but the door opened and he walked through it. Not surprisingly,
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Speaker 1: he decided to teach the Letter to the Romans on
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Speaker 1: the radio, and he spent even longer than three and
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Speaker 1: a half years going through it over the airways. Unknown
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Speaker 1: to doctor Barnhouse, there was a mother of three children
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Speaker 1: living in Houston, Texas, who decided to tune in on
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Speaker 1: that gospel broadcast, and she urged her three teenage children
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Speaker 1: to do the same. They were not quite as interested
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Speaker 1: as their mother, but they did listen, and since I
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Speaker 1: was the youngest of the three, I remember thinking, if
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Speaker 1: I'm ever grown and married and involved in a church,
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Speaker 1: I want to be in a church where this kind
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Speaker 1: of truth is taught by the pastor. Little did I
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Speaker 1: know what my future held. Fast forward to my mid
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Speaker 1: to later twenties, and you'll find me on the front
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Speaker 1: row of virtually every class I took at Dallas Seminary.
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Speaker 1: One in particular comes to mind because it was on Romans,
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Speaker 1: taught by one of my Greek professors named doctor s
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Speaker 1: Lewis Johnson, who was by the nunknown for his course
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Speaker 1: in Greek on Romans. As I listened to him lecture
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Speaker 1: from one day to the next, not only did I
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Speaker 1: occasionally wipe tears from my eyes, I also was reminded
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Speaker 1: these words sound a lot like the words of Donald
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Speaker 1: Barnhouse that I used to hear over the radio when
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Speaker 1: I was a young teenager. So after one class, I
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Speaker 1: finally worked up the courage to walk up front and
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Speaker 1: ask doctor Johnson have you ever heard of Donald Barnhouse.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Johnson from Charleston, South Carolina, said, Chuck, it was
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Speaker 1: Donald Barnhouse who led me to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: No other person could have reached me, but barn House did.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it was when he taught the Letter to
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Speaker 1: the Romans my heart was changed. Isn't it wonderful how
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Speaker 1: truth has a way of cycling? And I will say
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Speaker 1: to you, without one moment's hesitation, if you will allow
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Speaker 1: the truth of the Letter to the Romans find its
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Speaker 1: way deeply into your soul, you will never be the same.
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Speaker 1: It will equip you for whatever you have before you,
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Speaker 1: and you nor I knows what that is. It will
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Speaker 1: help you know how to live. It will give you
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Speaker 1: courage in knowing how to die. It will assist you
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Speaker 1: in what could be called life's contingencies and heartaches. It
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Speaker 1: will also keep your level and stabilized when things go
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Speaker 1: well for you and you prosper. The Letter to the
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Speaker 1: Romans is the absolute bedrock of Christian truth, ignited by
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of God. It will transform you and me. Now,
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Speaker 1: because this journey and he will be neither brief nor easy,
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Speaker 1: I must encourage you to concentrate and to do what
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Speaker 1: those in this post Christian era do not enjoy doing. Think.
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Speaker 1: You will at times be intimidated. You will occasionally be confused.
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Speaker 1: That's all par for the course. You will find yourself
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Speaker 1: scratching your head in one place and wanting to leap
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Speaker 1: from the seat where you're sitting. In another occasion, you
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Speaker 1: will see a truth and you will wonder how in
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Speaker 1: the world that squares with what you have always been
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Speaker 1: taught before. And on other occasions you will see a
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Speaker 1: truth and it will underscore what you have believed for
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Speaker 1: much of your life. Be ready for change. Jason Little
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Speaker 1: Baxter called Romans the St. Paul's magnum opus. Chris System
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Speaker 1: had the Letter read to him once a week, calling
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Speaker 1: it the cathedral of the Christian Faith. Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
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Speaker 1: the Great Poet, wrote, the most profound writing in existence
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Speaker 1: is the Letter to the Romans. Martin Luther said it
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Speaker 1: is the true masterpiece of the New Testament. F. F.
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Speaker 1: Bruce acknowledged very ordinary men and women have been affected
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Speaker 1: by it too. Indeed, there is no saying that of
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Speaker 1: what may happen when people began to study the Letter
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Speaker 1: to the Romans. So let those who have read thus
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Speaker 1: far be prepared for the consequences of reading farther. You
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Speaker 1: have been warned and the colorful Vernon Magee once said,
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Speaker 1: this epistle is the greatest document on our salvation. William
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Speaker 1: Newell Romans is the gospel. You will find it underwritten
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Speaker 1: time and time, and underscore time and time again. The
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Speaker 1: Gospel will come through in all shades and colors and settings.
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Speaker 1: Now today we don't want to get into the minutia
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Speaker 1: of the verses. We want to take an overview. I
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Speaker 1: remember when my family and I moved to Los Angeles
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Speaker 1: back in the early nineteen seventies, knowing that I would
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Speaker 1: be probably pretty confused when it came to how to
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Speaker 1: get around that vast city. A person sent me something
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Speaker 1: that I was grateful for for the rest of my
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Speaker 1: years there, almost twenty five years there. He sent me
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Speaker 1: a large map of the freeway system of Los Angeles.
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Speaker 1: I remember putting it on my study wall. I remember
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Speaker 1: memorizing the freeway system. Truth be told, I was never
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Speaker 1: lost in Los Angeles thanks to the freeway system that
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Speaker 1: I memorized in the overview of the entire city. Several
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Speaker 1: years earlier, we had lived in Boston. As I ministered
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Speaker 1: at a church in Waltham, Massachusetts, a friend took me
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Speaker 1: up at that time to the tallest building in Boston,
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Speaker 1: which is the Prudential Building, and we walked around the
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Speaker 1: top of the Prudential Building and we looked over all
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Speaker 1: the city. He would point out, over here is the
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Speaker 1: road that leads to the Cape. There on the north
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Speaker 1: side is Logan Airport. Here is Cambridge, where there's Harvard.
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Speaker 1: There's the city where you live in Waltham. Here here
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Speaker 1: is Storrow Drive, and over here is Route one twenty
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Speaker 1: eight that circles the city. Just pointed all out, and
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Speaker 1: I remember after that, for the next two years we
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Speaker 1: were woefully lost. It didn't work like that in Los Angeles,
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Speaker 1: but in Boston. You got to understand the guy who
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Speaker 1: laid out the streets. He's a very sick man. And
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Speaker 1: he started with a little wooden wagons and carriages that
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Speaker 1: work their way down and around, and then he reduced
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Speaker 1: the size of the streets by half again. Then he
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Speaker 1: let them double park as a result. So finding your
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Speaker 1: way around Boston is a tough thing. Finding your way
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Speaker 1: through Romans will at times be as clear as the
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Speaker 1: freeway system in la. At other times you'll want to
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Speaker 1: throw your hands up and say, it's the most complicated
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Speaker 1: thing I believe I've ever read. It's all part of
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Speaker 1: the Letter to the Romans. Remember, great treasure is deep.
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Speaker 1: It is never found easily or quickly, but it's always
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Speaker 1: worth the dig. Today, I want to answer at least
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Speaker 1: five questions that would come to the mind of anyone
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Speaker 1: who approaches the Letter to the Romans. First, most obviously,
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Speaker 1: is who wrote it? Second, who received it? Third? When
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Speaker 1: was it written? And while we're on that subject, from where,
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Speaker 1: what is the origin or the occasion of the letter? Fourth?
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Speaker 1: Why was it written? Why do we have sixteen chapters
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Speaker 1: with the name the Letter to the Romans on them?
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Speaker 1: Why was it written? And number five, what is its message?
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Speaker 1: We get those five questions answered and remembered, we are
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Speaker 1: on our way to a better understanding of Romans. We
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Speaker 1: don't have to wonder who wrote it because the very
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Speaker 1: first word in the very first verse announces who he was. Paul.
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Speaker 1: We've met Paul before in other letters, but this one
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Speaker 1: is his finest. However, Paul does not strut his stuff
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Speaker 1: and come across as an arrogant, well known preacher, though
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Speaker 1: he certainly was well known by the time he wrote it.
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Speaker 1: He identifies himself first in relation to his master Christ,
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Speaker 1: as a bond slave. There is no more lowly term
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Speaker 1: for oneself than a bond slave. Doesn't mean anything to
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Speaker 1: us because we don't live, thankfully in an era of slavery.
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Speaker 1: But a bond slave in the first century was the
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Speaker 1: lowest form of animal life. You had no will of
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Speaker 1: your own. You were owned by your master, and he
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Speaker 1: could do with you whatever he or she pleased. You
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Speaker 1: were chattel in his ownership, a piece of property, a
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Speaker 1: human tool. Paul identifies himself in this lowly term bond
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Speaker 1: slave before I go any further. What a great thing
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Speaker 1: to remember. He was no self serving preacher. He was
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Speaker 1: no conceited prophet. He was not a man out for
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Speaker 1: himself trying to make a name or draw a crowd.
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Speaker 1: Though every generation you will find preachers like that. Matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, it reminds me of the story of the
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Speaker 1: old country preacher, who was not in that category. He
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Speaker 1: wasn't educated, He murdered the King's English, but he loved
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Speaker 1: Christ and he did his best teaching the scriptures. On
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Speaker 1: one occasion he listened to one of these slick, self
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Speaker 1: appointed prophets. He heard him as he smoothed his way
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Speaker 1: through the section and referring to himself again and again,
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Speaker 1: and was sort of turned off by him, so much
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Speaker 1: so that when the sermon was over, he worked up
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Speaker 1: the courage to walk up front and ask the young preacher,
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Speaker 1: was you sent or did you just went? I love
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Speaker 1: that question. The apostle Paul would tell you he was sent.
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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, when it came to his
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Speaker 1: spiritual gift, he is called an apostle, And when it
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Speaker 1: came to his work, Verse one tells us he is
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Speaker 1: set apart for the Gospel of God. What stands out
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Speaker 1: is that Paul was not a self appointed preacher, but
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Speaker 1: a humble servant of the Lord himself. Take a quick
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Speaker 1: glance while we're on the subject of who wrote it
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Speaker 1: over to chapter sixteen. I remember we're getting an overview,
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Speaker 1: so don't get your hopes up. We're not through yet,
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Speaker 1: but we're in chapter sixteen, and I need to acquaint
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Speaker 1: you with a name you won't find anywhere else in
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Speaker 1: the Bible. Chapter sixteen, verse twenty two is a man
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Speaker 1: whose name is pronounced Tertius. We know nothing of Tertius
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Speaker 1: We don't know his background. We don't know where he
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Speaker 1: was born, We don't know anything about his life. All
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Speaker 1: we know is that he writes this one verse, I Tertius,
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Speaker 1: who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. But
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Speaker 1: I thought Paul said he wrote it verse one of
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Speaker 1: chapter one, Tertias says, he wrote it. You know me
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Speaker 1: to understand what we mean by he wrote it. Tertius was,
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Speaker 1: to use a now a dated term. He was Paul's
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Speaker 1: secretary stenographer. Through Paul's mind and through Paul's lips came
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Speaker 1: the truth of the letter. Through tertius pen came the
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Speaker 1: characters that formed the words of the letter. Tertius is
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Speaker 1: actually the one described who writes the letter onto Papyrus.
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Speaker 1: I love the way Bishop Mule describes this. Thus we
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Speaker 1: enter in spirit the Corinthian citizen's house, in the sunshine
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Speaker 1: of the early Greek spring, and find our way invisible
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Speaker 1: and unheard, to where Tertius sits with his read pen
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Speaker 1: and strips of papyrus. And for Paul is prepared to
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Speaker 1: give him, word by word, sentence by sentence, this immortal message.
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Speaker 1: The Lord is busy. The Lord is speaking through his servant.
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Speaker 1: The scribe is busy with his pen as the message
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Speaker 1: of Christ is uttered through the soul and from the
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Speaker 1: lips of Paul. Is that Greek writing. As Paul is
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Speaker 1: led by the Spirit of God through his mind and
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Speaker 1: lips to give the truth of the letter. Tertius is
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Speaker 1: guided by the Spirit in the writing of the letter
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Speaker 1: exactly as God would breathe it out. Theop nustas is
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Speaker 1: the Greek term found over in the Letter to Timothy,
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Speaker 1: where God breathed out his word. Never doubt it. The
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Speaker 1: watershed issue of every generation is the inerrancy of scripture.
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Speaker 1: If you have been through higher learning, you have had
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Speaker 1: a professor that has taken his shot at scripture. If
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Speaker 1: you have in circles that are academically oriented with no
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Speaker 1: spiritual life, you have had the errancy of scripture questioned, criticized,
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Speaker 1: and attacked, but never doubted. What we have in the scriptures,
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Speaker 1: at least in their original autographs, the original document written
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Speaker 1: by Tertius, given by Paul, originated by the Holy Spirit,
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Speaker 1: is the God breed message of the Living God. We
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Speaker 1: have in holy scripture, the reliable, authoritative, absolutely inerrant word
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Speaker 1: of God. Paul dictated it. If you will, Tertius wrote
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Speaker 1: the words. Now the next question, who received these words
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Speaker 1: from the Apostle? Chapter one again, verse seven, to all
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Speaker 1: who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.
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Speaker 1: While you're looking at the verse, noticed the little word
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Speaker 1: as is italicized. It doesn't mean as in our case
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Speaker 1: that font often means emphasize this. This is a term
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Speaker 1: added by the editors to make the verse a little
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Speaker 1: more clear and understandable. Literally, the Greek reads called saints.
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Speaker 1: These are Romans set apart to God. Romans means little
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Speaker 1: to us today, but in those days it was the
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Speaker 1: most powerful city in the empire. It was known as
28:40
Speaker 1: the Imperial City. It was there where Caesar sat. It
28:45
Speaker 1: was there where the decisions were made and edicts were
28:49
Speaker 1: formed that shaped the lives of those in the vast
28:54
Speaker 1: Roman Empire. Paul had never been to Rome, so he
28:58
Speaker 1: did not establish the church. Peter has not been to Rome.
29:01
Speaker 1: In spite of what you may have been taught in
29:03
Speaker 1: your Roman Catholic roots, Peter is not the founder of
29:06
Speaker 1: the church at Rome. No apostle is. The best we
29:10
Speaker 1: can determine is that from the day of Pentecost Acts
29:13
Speaker 1: Chapter two, in Jerusalem, there left a group of people
29:18
Speaker 1: or one or two people who made their way ultimately
29:21
Speaker 1: to Rome, and through their testimony, their influence, their sharing
29:25
Speaker 1: the gospel, a pocket of people was formed in the
29:29
Speaker 1: city of Rome. It was there that they faced life
29:35
Speaker 1: as it really was. Now never doubt it. Paul longed
29:40
Speaker 1: to be there, though he had never been there before
29:42
Speaker 1: the writing of the letter. Look at chapter one, verse eleven.
29:47
Speaker 1: I long to see you so that I may impart
29:49
Speaker 1: some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established.
29:53
Speaker 1: That is, that I may be encouraged together with you
29:56
Speaker 1: while among you. Verse thirteen. I do not want you
29:59
Speaker 1: to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to
30:03
Speaker 1: come to you and have been prevented so far, so
30:07
Speaker 1: that I may obtain some fruit among you. Also, that's
30:12
Speaker 1: a preacher's way of saying, I need some money, and
30:17
Speaker 1: the result of your giving me money will allow me
30:20
Speaker 1: to ultimately reach my goal. And what is that? His
30:26
Speaker 1: goal is ultimately to go to Spain. You know that
30:31
Speaker 1: because of chapter fifteen. So let's go there. Chapter fifteen,
30:35
Speaker 1: verse twenty two intriguing thought. He comes to the end
30:40
Speaker 1: of the letter and explains that he hopes to come
30:43
Speaker 1: through Rome on his way west. For this reason, chapter
30:47
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty two. I have often been prevented from coming
30:51
Speaker 1: to you, but now with no further place for me
30:55
Speaker 1: in these regions, and since I have had for many
30:59
Speaker 1: years a long to come to you whenever I go
31:01
Speaker 1: to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing
31:06
Speaker 1: and to be helped on my way there by you hint, hint,
31:11
Speaker 1: when I have first enjoyed your company for a while.
31:14
Speaker 1: But now I'm going to Jerusalem serving the saints. What's
31:17
Speaker 1: that all about? He has a collection of money that
31:21
Speaker 1: he's received while he has been in Macedonia and Greece.
31:25
Speaker 1: The monies were given so that the Church of Jerusalem
31:28
Speaker 1: and there around it, that was suffering at the time
31:31
Speaker 1: might be supported and strengthened to go on, he said,
31:35
Speaker 1: I've got to take the money back to Jerusalem. But
31:37
Speaker 1: never doubted I want to come through Rome on my
31:41
Speaker 1: way to Spain. Paul never got to Spain, but he
31:45
Speaker 1: did get to Rome. However, he didn't go because he
31:49
Speaker 1: bought a ticket and enjoyed the journey across the Aegean
31:53
Speaker 1: and Adriatic to the Rome, to the center of Rome.
31:57
Speaker 1: He got there because of the government, you see, he
32:00
Speaker 1: was arrested in Jerusalem when he went back with the
32:02
Speaker 1: money and they arrested him, and he finally appealed to Caesar,
32:06
Speaker 1: and they said, finally to Caesar, you will go. And
32:09
Speaker 1: he ultimately made his way to Rome thanks to the
32:12
Speaker 1: government that got him there in chains. I understand that
32:16
Speaker 1: I thought I'd see the other side of the world
32:18
Speaker 1: on my own someday by a ticket, but the government
32:21
Speaker 1: helped me get there thanks to the military. Wound up
32:24
Speaker 1: there in a Marine Corps uniform, seeing the far East
32:27
Speaker 1: through different eyes, and I am grateful to God. At
32:31
Speaker 1: the time I wasn't, but ultimately I have been. Paul said,
32:35
Speaker 1: I've planned to get to Rome, but I'm going to
32:38
Speaker 1: be on my way to Spain. He had his heart
32:40
Speaker 1: set on yet beyond Rome, to regions that have never
32:44
Speaker 1: been reached, never doubted. At heart, Paul is not a scholar.
32:51
Speaker 1: Paul is not a world traveler. Paul is not simply
32:54
Speaker 1: an apostle. Paul is a missionary. At heart. Paul's desire
33:01
Speaker 1: was to get to a place where no one had
33:04
Speaker 1: really laid much of a foundation, ultimately to get to Spain.
33:08
Speaker 1: I love the way one man writes of this, Oh oh,
33:14
Speaker 1: here it is He never saw a ship at anchor,
33:17
Speaker 1: but he wished to board her to carry the good
33:20
Speaker 1: news across the seas. He never saw a range of
33:22
Speaker 1: mountains blue in the distance, but he wished to cross
33:26
Speaker 1: them and to bring the story of the Cross to
33:28
Speaker 1: those who had never heard it. He saw the whole
33:32
Speaker 1: West lying in front of him, virgin territory to be
33:35
Speaker 1: won for Christ. But if he was to launch a
33:37
Speaker 1: campaign in the West, he needed a base of operations.
33:41
Speaker 1: There was only one such base possible, and that was Rome.
33:47
Speaker 1: So we have the Romans receiving the letter. When did
33:51
Speaker 1: that happen? Well, we mentioned Macedonia earlier. We don't have
33:54
Speaker 1: a Versus scripture that gives us a date or even
33:58
Speaker 1: says it was from here Paul wrote the letter to
34:00
Speaker 1: the Romans. But as best we're able to piece together
34:03
Speaker 1: the story of Paul's journeys about Acts twenty verse three,
34:09
Speaker 1: he is in Macedonia and most likely worked his way
34:13
Speaker 1: down to the streets of Corinth, and there he was
34:16
Speaker 1: hold up in a place where he and Tursius together
34:20
Speaker 1: would write the letter to the Romans from Corinth, probably
34:25
Speaker 1: around fifty eight AD fifty eight. I mentioned in passing
34:31
Speaker 1: the city of Corinth, and I want to return to
34:35
Speaker 1: that statement for just a moment. When we get to
34:38
Speaker 1: the depravity of humanity, as Paul writes of it in
34:41
Speaker 1: chapters one, two, and three of this letter, we are
34:46
Speaker 1: going to read some of the rawest, most definitive language
34:58
Speaker 1: used in any part of the Scripture. For sin, I
35:02
Speaker 1: call that section Cinorama. In panorama, you're going to see
35:07
Speaker 1: depravity on parade, and it will not be politically correct,
35:14
Speaker 1: thank God, so it will be the truth. You will
35:19
Speaker 1: not hear it anywhere but the scriptures, but you will
35:22
Speaker 1: hear it here. The reason I mentioned Corinth, it's believed
35:26
Speaker 1: by most New Testament, serious New Testament students that he
35:30
Speaker 1: got his illustrations of depravity by sitting in that room
35:35
Speaker 1: looking at the Corinthians life and lifestyle. If it happened
35:41
Speaker 1: in Corinth, you can believe it was to the extreme.
35:46
Speaker 1: So when he writes of depravity, while it tells us
35:48
Speaker 1: the story of our lives, it also is descriptive of
35:53
Speaker 1: what he was witnessing in that era of eighty fifty
35:56
Speaker 1: eight when he wrote the letter with Tertius by his side.
36:00
Speaker 1: Now the purpose, let me divide the answer, the purpose
36:03
Speaker 1: of the letter into two parts. First, there's a personal purpose,
36:08
Speaker 1: We've already alluded to that. Second, there's a theological purpose.
36:13
Speaker 1: The personal purpose is to prepare them for his visit.
36:17
Speaker 1: If you're going to have someone come and not only
36:19
Speaker 1: be with you, but to minister to you, you need
36:22
Speaker 1: to know his credentials. You need to be sure that
36:26
Speaker 1: this person is doctrinally straight. By now, I'm sure Paul
36:32
Speaker 1: had his critics who have gone ahead of him to Rome,
36:35
Speaker 1: and the word is out on him, much of it
36:38
Speaker 1: maligning him and erroneously presenting him to the people of
36:44
Speaker 1: the church in Rome. Paul establishes his position theologically as
36:49
Speaker 1: he writes the Letter to the Romans. You want to
36:51
Speaker 1: know what I believe as an apostle of Christ. Here
36:56
Speaker 1: it is the Letter to the Romans is a personal
36:59
Speaker 1: statement of his doctrinal beliefs. It also would assess them
37:04
Speaker 1: as they seek to be solidified in their beliefs, which
37:09
Speaker 1: brings me to the second. The doctrinal reason or purpose.
37:13
Speaker 1: Those believers in the central city of the world needed
37:17
Speaker 1: to know where they stood and what they believed, and
37:22
Speaker 1: how to defend against theological error, which I often referred
37:26
Speaker 1: to as theological infection. Germs are spread by cults false teachers,
37:35
Speaker 1: and they are among us by the hundreds. False teachers
37:41
Speaker 1: have a smooth and persuasive way of coming across that
37:46
Speaker 1: if you're not prepared to detect the error, you will
37:49
Speaker 1: be caught up in their teaching. You need to have
37:54
Speaker 1: the truth to stand against the infection of error. I
38:00
Speaker 1: put it this way. The best protection against the infection
38:04
Speaker 1: of false teaching is the antiseptic of doctrinal truths. Let
38:12
Speaker 1: me read that again, the best protection against the infection
38:16
Speaker 1: of false teaching is the antiseptic of doctrinal truths. Every
38:24
Speaker 1: once in a while, I will get sick or you
38:26
Speaker 1: will get sick. Thankfully, we are not sickly people, but
38:30
Speaker 1: when we are sick, we seem to make up for
38:33
Speaker 1: lost time. We get really sick. Ultimately we're so sick
38:38
Speaker 1: we have no other choice but to call our doctor,
38:41
Speaker 1: you know, the last resort. And you call the physician.
38:44
Speaker 1: He wants to see you or she wants to see you,
38:47
Speaker 1: and there's a brief examination. Usually there is followed that
38:52
Speaker 1: is followed with the prescription and they'll say, if you
38:56
Speaker 1: will take this regularly, it will help counteract the disease.
39:01
Speaker 1: Sometime it's an antibiotic. They don't give them often or freely,
39:06
Speaker 1: but on occasion you'll get an antibiotic. One of the
39:10
Speaker 1: powerful antibiotics I've learned is the Z pack. Okay, you've
39:15
Speaker 1: probably taken it. You take two the first day, then
39:18
Speaker 1: you take one the next day, and by the fourth
39:21
Speaker 1: day you're flying baby. No, not really, but you are
39:25
Speaker 1: on your way to recovery. Something about this pill, or
39:30
Speaker 1: these pills gets you through the sickness. Something about the
39:34
Speaker 1: truth will get you through the error. As you learn
39:38
Speaker 1: the truth and allow yourself to absorb it, you will
39:42
Speaker 1: find that it has given you the foundation you've needed.
39:45
Speaker 1: Cynthia and I are familiar with a couple who have
39:48
Speaker 1: moved into a new home. But the other oh, several
39:51
Speaker 1: months ago, they heard a crack and he looked up
39:55
Speaker 1: and he saw a crack in the wall. Not at
39:58
Speaker 1: the corner, the normal little place where you'd see a crack,
40:02
Speaker 1: but this is in the wall. And he noticed it
40:05
Speaker 1: another one down lowering, and his wife said, well, you
40:08
Speaker 1: should see the one in the bathroom. So he walks
40:11
Speaker 1: and he sees it in the bathroom. And after a while,
40:14
Speaker 1: the windows won't open very easily, and the door doesn't
40:18
Speaker 1: close several parts of the house, and by and by
40:22
Speaker 1: they find out that the home was built above phil
40:28
Speaker 1: fill dirt, and the fill dirt covers a ravine so
40:34
Speaker 1: he can fish from his house. And didn't realize it,
40:38
Speaker 1: he says. As he tries to get through the difficulty
40:41
Speaker 1: of it all, he calls it a crack house. Says,
40:43
Speaker 1: I'm living in a crackhouse. What's the problem. He's got
40:47
Speaker 1: a foundation problem. And if they don't put some piers
40:50
Speaker 1: in all the way down to what's called blue rock,
40:53
Speaker 1: all the way down to where there's a solid base,
40:56
Speaker 1: that house is going to crumble and fall. Even though
40:58
Speaker 1: it's new, you and your faith will find the necessity
41:03
Speaker 1: to have peers in your life. They are never easy
41:07
Speaker 1: to put in. It is always messy, it is always expensive.
41:11
Speaker 1: But if you don't have them in a place where
41:14
Speaker 1: your foundation is shaking, you will not recover from the
41:18
Speaker 1: foundation problems. The same for the letter to the Romans.
41:22
Speaker 1: You need the peers of this letter to submit you
41:26
Speaker 1: and to anchor you into the truth. This is like
41:31
Speaker 1: our constitution. Interestingly, when our country is threatened, we invariably
41:36
Speaker 1: go back to what the document, the Constitution. We rely
41:41
Speaker 1: on our Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution. We have
41:46
Speaker 1: attorneys who specialize in constitutional law. We have those who
41:51
Speaker 1: stand and help remind us where we stand on the
41:55
Speaker 1: constitution of our country. So it is with Romans. The
42:00
Speaker 1: Constitution is to our country what the foundation is to
42:03
Speaker 1: your house, Romans is to our faith. The better we
42:09
Speaker 1: get to know Romans, the stronger will be the foundation
42:13
Speaker 1: of our faith. And trust me, you will not be
42:17
Speaker 1: swept into the teaching of the cults, which by the way,
42:23
Speaker 1: are the fastest growing religious groups in the world. They
42:27
Speaker 1: are everywhere, and they are convincing, unless, of course, you
42:34
Speaker 1: know your constitution. And because you know this basis of
42:38
Speaker 1: your faith, you will not be taken by them. Now
42:41
Speaker 1: the message of the letter, The message is mentioned over
42:45
Speaker 1: and over again. Look at chapter one, verse sixteen. I
42:49
Speaker 1: am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power
42:52
Speaker 1: of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the
42:56
Speaker 1: jew first, and also to the Greek. Watch closely, because
43:00
Speaker 1: for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. Here
43:07
Speaker 1: is the purpose of the message of the letter, the
43:11
Speaker 1: justification of the guilty sinner, The justification of the guilty sinner.
43:19
Speaker 1: You're writing it down, thinking what does this mean, what
43:23
Speaker 1: does it mean to be justified? I want you to
43:26
Speaker 1: listen carefully to this. Justification is not a long term
43:30
Speaker 1: process where little by little you learn your way through
43:33
Speaker 1: the Christian life. Justification is the sovereign act of God, whereby,
43:39
Speaker 1: at the moment of your salvation, the righteousness of God
43:45
Speaker 1: is placed into your life. God declares you righteous the
43:53
Speaker 1: sovereign act of God, whereby He declares righteous the believing
43:58
Speaker 1: sinner while we're still in a sinning state. It doesn't
44:03
Speaker 1: mean you always act righteous. That's another subject. That's sanctification.
44:08
Speaker 1: Justification means from the moment you've believed to the rest
44:12
Speaker 1: of your life on this earth and beyond, God sees
44:15
Speaker 1: you as righteous as his son. He declares you righteous,
44:22
Speaker 1: and being righteous as an unworthy sinner, you live your
44:25
Speaker 1: life grateful for His grace. Now let me tell you
44:29
Speaker 1: the foundation of this message. It is a justification by
44:35
Speaker 1: God's grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. There
44:42
Speaker 1: were farmers referred to this as sola gracia, sola christas
44:48
Speaker 1: sola fide only by grace only in Christ, only through faith.
44:55
Speaker 1: You'll notice the absence of the word works the letter
44:59
Speaker 1: to the wrong Romans will take away any thought of
45:03
Speaker 1: your working or earning your way into God's favor. A
45:08
Speaker 1: depraved sinner has nothing in his or her flesh that
45:12
Speaker 1: can impress or favor God. God looks down and sees
45:17
Speaker 1: us all as equally undeserving, and by his grace in Christ,
45:23
Speaker 1: through faith in the Savior, the Lord God reaches down
45:28
Speaker 1: into humanity and pulls us from the ranks and then
45:31
Speaker 1: sets us free to serve him. He gives us a
45:34
Speaker 1: conquering power over sin. Roman describes it. He gives us
45:39
Speaker 1: an eternal home that secure. Romans explains it. He places
45:44
Speaker 1: us into Christ. And he does that for Jew and
45:47
Speaker 1: gentile a like. So there is no difference. There is
45:50
Speaker 1: no distinction, there is no discrimination, and there is no exception.
45:57
Speaker 1: In Paul's day, it was a big thing. The Jew
45:59
Speaker 1: was the priveleaed one to him, The scriptures were given
46:04
Speaker 1: to him. There was the church, there was the synagogue,
46:06
Speaker 1: there was the place of worship to him. There was
46:10
Speaker 1: this sense of of sort of divine favor. And the
46:14
Speaker 1: gentile was a dog. Paul comes with the message to
46:18
Speaker 1: the Romans, mainly people who are gentiles, and he says,
46:22
Speaker 1: whether you are gentile when you come to Christ, you
46:25
Speaker 1: are equally declared righteous. That is the message of the
46:31
Speaker 1: Letter to the Romans. Now the chart, Let's get the chart.
46:36
Speaker 1: I feel like Russ Limbaugh right now. Okay, here's the here,
46:38
Speaker 1: here's here's the chart. Look closely at the chart. This
46:42
Speaker 1: will give you an overview. And I want you to
46:44
Speaker 1: hang on to this. So don't just say, oh, this
46:46
Speaker 1: is great, Chuck, and then stick it in your glove compartment.
46:49
Speaker 1: I want you to hang on to this chart, okay.
46:52
Speaker 1: I want to see it emerging from time to time
46:55
Speaker 1: in your Bibles. Look at the far left margin you'll
46:58
Speaker 1: see introduction. The first seventeen verses very personal words regarding Paul,
47:05
Speaker 1: regarding the recipient, as well as Paul's message for the letter.
47:10
Speaker 1: First seventeen verse. Look at the very end of the letter,
47:13
Speaker 1: far right. The conclusion is relational. By the way, Paul
47:19
Speaker 1: is not some kind of distant, scholarly aloof individual that
47:25
Speaker 1: doesn't want to be bothered with human needs. He mentions
47:29
Speaker 1: thirty five different names at the end of the Letter
47:33
Speaker 1: to the Romans, most of which are not mentioned anywhere
47:35
Speaker 1: else in all the Bible. He's got a list of
47:39
Speaker 1: people who were friends or part of his contacts. Friends
47:41
Speaker 1: he knew are friends who knew the Romans, and he
47:44
Speaker 1: mentions them. That's why I call the ending of it relational,
47:47
Speaker 1: from fifteen fourteen all the way to the end of
47:50
Speaker 1: the book sixteen twenty seven. But the main three sections
47:53
Speaker 1: of the book. Look at these. There's the Gospel, the Gospel,
47:57
Speaker 1: the Gospel the first eight chapters the God Gospel regarding
48:01
Speaker 1: the sinner. And you will begin with sinnorama and panorama.
48:04
Speaker 1: You'll see all the depravity unfolding, and you will find
48:07
Speaker 1: God coming to our rescue. In Christ. You'll find we
48:10
Speaker 1: have peace with God ultimately in the struggle of the will.
48:14
Speaker 1: We ultimately are sure that God's love will hold us
48:17
Speaker 1: to Him the rest of our existence. So we have
48:20
Speaker 1: all of that in the doctrinal section of chapters one
48:23
Speaker 1: through eight. But what about the Jew. If we've got
48:27
Speaker 1: them all together in one body, does the Jew have
48:29
Speaker 1: no future? What about those promises made to the Jew
48:32
Speaker 1: over in the Old Testament that have never been fulfilled?
48:34
Speaker 1: What about the kingdom that is a promise the jew
48:40
Speaker 1: from their Messiah and related to their Messiah Chapters nine, ten,
48:44
Speaker 1: and eleven. You come to the Gospel as it relates
48:46
Speaker 1: to Israel it's a tough section of scripture. Admittedly, Here
48:51
Speaker 1: you'll encounter the sovereignty of God. You'll find the human
48:56
Speaker 1: will of men and women. Here you will find the past, present,
49:01
Speaker 1: and future of Israel. And you will find it ultimately
49:04
Speaker 1: stopping with the great doxology. By the way, all three
49:07
Speaker 1: of these sections, I'm trying to get all of this out,
49:10
Speaker 1: really as well as I can, all three of these
49:13
Speaker 1: sections in with a crescendo of the benediction or of
49:16
Speaker 1: a doxology at the end of chapter eight, Who shall
49:21
Speaker 1: separate us from the love of Christ? The tribulation of distress,
49:23
Speaker 1: or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, our sword,
49:27
Speaker 1: and all these things, we are more than conquerors through
49:29
Speaker 1: Him that loved us. I am persuaded. Either death nor life,
49:32
Speaker 1: nor angels or principle. Nothing can separate us from the
49:34
Speaker 1: love of It's like a great great benediction on the
49:38
Speaker 1: end of the eight chapter. When you get to the
49:40
Speaker 1: end of chapter eleven, it's another great benediction. Paul writes
49:46
Speaker 1: in Romans eleven thirty three. Oh, the depth of the riches,
49:48
Speaker 1: both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, How
49:51
Speaker 1: unsearchable are his judgments unfathomable. His ways of him and
49:55
Speaker 1: through him into Him are all things to whom be
49:57
Speaker 1: glory forever and ever. It's like a great doxae. Then
50:00
Speaker 1: you get to the end of this third section, which
50:03
Speaker 1: is the practical part of the Letter to the Romans.
50:05
Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, verse thirteen is another doxology where he leaves
50:10
Speaker 1: them before the Lord along with him in all by
50:14
Speaker 1: the way that third section some of the most practical
50:16
Speaker 1: writing in all the New Testament on the Christian life.
50:21
Speaker 1: We're told how to get along with each other in
50:23
Speaker 1: a social manner. After we've had our minds transformed. We're
50:26
Speaker 1: told how to handle ourselves before a government called here
50:29
Speaker 1: the civil authority. Remember it was Nero when Paul wrote Romans.
50:35
Speaker 1: And then there's a personal section in chapter fourteen where
50:39
Speaker 1: he talks about living by grace and being people of
50:43
Speaker 1: grace who treat others like that, followed by that great
50:46
Speaker 1: benediction I mentioned. Look at the rest of the chart.
50:51
Speaker 1: Interesting how it ties in with First Corinthians thirteen chapters
50:54
Speaker 1: one to eight. We have faith emphasized the hope of
50:58
Speaker 1: Israel nine through eleven, the love of the saints. Faith,
51:02
Speaker 1: hope and love outline through Romans. And then we have
51:07
Speaker 1: three great doctrines that unfold theology, which is the doctrine
51:12
Speaker 1: of God, anthropology as well as harmartiology, the doctrines of humanity,
51:19
Speaker 1: and sin. And you'll see all the way through the letter,
51:23
Speaker 1: sin is exposed, sin is conquered, sin is explained, and
51:26
Speaker 1: then sin is forgiven. I'll tell you something. It wasn't
51:29
Speaker 1: until I really got a hold of Romans that I
51:32
Speaker 1: finally learned that the greatest verse in the Bible is
51:35
Speaker 1: not First John one nine. When I first got started
51:39
Speaker 1: to Christian life, I was fed first John one nine.
51:41
Speaker 1: Love ought a gag. Everything was all about First John
51:45
Speaker 1: one nine. You're gonna sin. You're gonna sin. So when
51:48
Speaker 1: you sin, here's the Christian's bar of soap. So take
51:50
Speaker 1: this Versus scripture, and remember this is if we confess
51:54
Speaker 1: our sin, these faith on Joseph forgive us. It's a
51:56
Speaker 1: great verse. But there's a better way to live than that.
52:00
Speaker 1: You don't have to live under sin, you don't have
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Speaker 1: to sin. You tell that to Christians, they go, oh, here,
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Speaker 1: we God just get a little weird. That is not weird.
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Speaker 1: That's great truth. From Romans six, seven and eight, we
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Speaker 1: have a power greater than sin. We have a master
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Speaker 1: greater than the enemy, a Satan himself. Romans tells us
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Speaker 1: about it. And while there is the struggle, I call
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Speaker 1: it the yo yo back and forth of the life
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Speaker 1: that I want to live as opposed to life Christ
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Speaker 1: wants me to live all the way through. I don't
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Speaker 1: have to yield to sin. You can live a period
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Speaker 1: of your time and not sin. I think you can
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Speaker 1: live days in mutsin that great I just thought i'd
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Speaker 1: watch you when I said that. I didn't say you're perfect.
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Speaker 1: Ask your meat if you wonder if you're in my
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Speaker 1: perfect He'll let you know. You're not perfect. But you
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Speaker 1: can live above the drag of sin. Romans tells you
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Speaker 1: how to do it. Don't yield your members as instruments
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Speaker 1: unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as those
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Speaker 1: who are alive from the dead, and your instrument and
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Speaker 1: your members as instruments of righteousness to God. All of
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Speaker 1: that meaning you can live on a plane of obedience
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Speaker 1: that you never could have lived without Christ. And now
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Speaker 1: that you have Christ lived there, live there. Well, that's
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Speaker 1: a start. My hope is that God will use this
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Speaker 1: letter to transform us as a church, transform me as
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Speaker 1: a man, as a husband, as a father and grandfather,
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Speaker 1: Transform you as a person, so that as we begin
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Speaker 1: to live out the truth of the letter, we will
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Speaker 1: find ourselves really understanding who we are, where we're going.
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Speaker 1: See that concluding application. It's a little hooked to get
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Speaker 1: you back next time. I'll tell you that because I
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Speaker 1: really run out of time and I just don't want
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Speaker 1: to dump that on you. I want it to be
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Speaker 1: meaningful to you. I'd like you to buy your heads please,
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Speaker 1: just for a moment, make a journey that no one
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Speaker 1: else can make. Make a journey deep into your own mind.
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Speaker 1: Scripture calls it your soul. As you look into that
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Speaker 1: area that is a deep and admittedly dark, you find
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Speaker 1: a cross there. You find the Savior. There, You find
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Speaker 1: a place there where you have turned your heart to Christ.
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Speaker 1: The Lord Jesus has taken up residence in you where
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Speaker 1: you've been justified. You find that spot. Now, you probably
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Speaker 1: can't put a date on it. Few people can, but
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Speaker 1: you remember when. If you don't, you're lost. Now we
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Speaker 1: can't tell by looking, but the Lord knows, because he
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Speaker 1: knows the heart. Because we can't tell, we don't know
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Speaker 1: who to talk to about Christ. So we have to
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Speaker 1: rely on the Holy Spirit. And he's already begun to
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Speaker 1: nudge you, to tell you there's a better way to
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Speaker 1: live than you've been living. He's ready to empower you.
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Speaker 1: There's a power available that you've never tapped. And today
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Speaker 1: I have the privilege of telling you that this Savior
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Speaker 1: is still alive. His work at the Cross is still effective,
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Speaker 1: and the invitation is still open. Thankfully, you're still alive.
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Speaker 1: You don't know that you will be tomorrow. What is
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Speaker 1: your life is a vapor peering for a little while,
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Speaker 1: and then like a puff of smoke, vanishes away. So
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Speaker 1: it's my opportunity now to tell you that by coming
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Speaker 1: to Christ, you can begin to know a life you've
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Speaker 1: never known before. Don't try to get good before you
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Speaker 1: come to God. Come to God. He'll begin to make
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Speaker 1: you a better person. But come just like you are.
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Speaker 1: If we can help you, write us, or call us,
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Speaker 1: or email us if you'd like to deal with it today.
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Speaker 1: There's a prayer room here available, staffed with people who
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Speaker 1: were there for the express purpose to introduce you to
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Speaker 1: this whole new life. Believe on the Lord Jesus and
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Speaker 1: you will be saved. Thank you, Father for the transforming
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Speaker 1: influence us of the print from these pages into the
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Speaker 1: cells of our lives. Thank you for the letter you preserved,
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Speaker 1: and for the truth to take with us throughout our lives.
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Speaker 1: We pray that we will grasp as much of this
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Speaker 1: as we can take in that it will begin to
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Speaker 1: make it real difference and how we see ourselves, and
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Speaker 1: how we understand You, and how we relate to Your
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Speaker 1: son and Spirit, how we deal with sin. May it
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Speaker 1: begin to transform us in our minds so that we're
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Speaker 1: no longer urges helpless poems in the hands of our
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Speaker 1: urges and emotions and glands. And may the strength that
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Speaker 1: comes from these times we spend together bring the benefit
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Speaker 1: of a stabilized life solidified on the rock. Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: It's in his name we pray these things, And everyone
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Speaker 1: said amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, Romans our Doctrinal Constitution was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: two thousand and six, twenty ten, and twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 2: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five
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Speaker 2: by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited