We live in a time when God's people desperately need to repent of their sin and turn back to him.
The spiritual climate of America is one of decay, where many people are religious, but very few are disciples of Christ, embracing the high cost of the grace that's been given to them.
We live in a day when evangelical Christians question the very basic doctrines of the Bible and lead untold thousands away from the cross of Christ in so doing.
America needs revival.
We need revival.
We need to abandon our pettiness and our comfort, the worship of stuff and ourselves in order to fix our gaze fully on Christ.
And subsequently, the mission that he's given us to the world.
And that's why I believe that we've been led by God to study Paul's letter to the Romans, because the good news of Jesus Christ is what we need to hear to restore our affections for him.
And it is the good news of Jesus Christ that this world needs to have peace with God and the salvation of their souls.
Paul gives us the theme of his letter to the Romans in chapter one, verses 16 and 17.
Let me ask you to turn there if you're not already.
Paul writes in verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
So there's the theme for us of the book of Romans.
It is the gospel.
An anonymous poet wrote this great poem that I think reflects pretty accurately what Romans is trying to portray and get across.
He wrote, oh, long and dark, the stairs I trod with trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit by bit, then slipping back and losing it.
Never progressing, striving still with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God while he serenely smiled, unnoting me.
Then came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell thereby down to the lowest steps.
My fall is if I had not climbed at all.
Now, when I lay despairing there, listen, a footfall on the stair on that same stair where I afraid faltered and fell and lay dismayed and low when hope had ceased to be.
My God came down the stairs to me.
So we know quite a lot about Paul's life.
We're going to get into a bit of that later.
And we know a lot about the occasion and the setting for the book of Romans.
There's some debate over exactly when it was written.
You'll either hear late A.D. 57 or early A.D. 58.
I don't think it really matters.
We know that he was in Corinth at the time of the writing and he was anticipating going to Rome and actually passing through it to go on to Spain.
The church in Rome had not been established by any apostle.
They believe that that Jews who traveled to and were at the day of Pentecost, heard the gospel, received the gospel and went back to Rome.
And so Paul is coming, writing to them to say, I want to fix some things that are going on with you.
I want to give to you a synopsis.
I want to give you a systematic theology so that you have apostolic teaching on which to build your church.
So he writes a pretty exhaustive presentation of the gospel.
And I broke it down for you into four sections.
Roughly, I think these are fairly accurate.
Firstly, Paul presents our need, humanity's need for justification through faith because of their sin.
In chapter 118 through 425, he argues that none of us are righteous, that all of us, because of original sin, have no good thing in and of ourselves.
And therefore, we deserve the just condemnation of God.
All of us, apart from Christ, stand before God condemned to hell.
Which does exist, in case you were wondering.
Secondly, Paul develops the results of justification through faith in terms of both present experience and future hope.
Chapter 5 through chapter 8, the end of chapter 8.
So, as we now are Christians, standing in a right place with God, seen as righteous before Him because of the redemptive work of Christ,
what does that mean both in our present experience, how is it that we experience God and His joy now,
and what is the hope that is to come as a result?
Thirdly, Paul expresses sorrow that many Israelites have not accepted the gospel,
and he wrestles with the theological implications of this fact in chapters 9 through 11.
There will be some of the more difficult chapters that we'll deal with in our study.
Fourthly, Paul concludes by describing how the gospel should affect our everyday lives.
So, not just doctrine for doctrine's sake, but what do we do then with all these great truths that are in Romans?
So, we believe that if we study this book faithfully,
the Spirit of God will use our study to yield fruit in our lives and the lives of the souls we contact every day.
God had used Paul's letter to the Romans in mighty ways in the past.
In mighty ways in the past.
In AD 386, a man took up a scroll of the book of Romans and read from it,
chapter 13, verses 13 and 14.
He later wrote of the occasion,
That man was Aurelius Augustine.
You might know him as Saint Augustine of Hippo.
He was a great defender of the doctrines of the sovereignty of God and of election.
A thousand years later, an Augustinian monk was teaching the book of Romans to his students.
And struggled with the expression found in verse 17,
The righteousness of God.
When he finally came to understand it, he wrote,
The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning.
And whereas before the righteousness of God had filled me with hate,
Now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.
This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven.
That guy was Martin Luther, who was the father of the Protestant Reformation.
Because of his understanding, the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone.
We all find our roots in Martin Luther and that movement of God through his life.
Several centuries later, another man would record the account of his salvation in these words.
I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street,
Where one was reading Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans.
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ,
I felt my heart strangely warmed.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation.
And an assurance was given to me that had taken me, that he had taken away my sins,
even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
And that guy's name was John Wesley.
And if you know much about his life, you know that thousands and thousands came to Christ as a result of his ministry.
I'm not trying to say to you that Romans is somehow a magical book.
That if we spend the next two years studying through it together,
that God will form a movement in us like he did with his name.
Because obviously God is the one who does the work.
But what I do know is that the power of God dwells in his word.
And if we will study it faithfully, if we will come to it honestly,
if we will examine our lives by it,
God will do some work amongst us.
I long to join this great lineage.
I would love somewhere down the road, a hundred years from now,
somebody to say,
and a church one day studied this book.
When Christ Family Church studied Romans together,
there ignited a flame amongst them that spread from their little congregation to North Georgia.
And we have yet to see that flame be extinguished.
That's what I want people to say of us as we study through the book of Romans.
Let's talk a little bit about the man, Paul the man.
Now you know, if you have read much of your Bible,
that Paul used to be called Saul.
And it's always an assumption that Paul's name was changed.
That somewhere along the way, after his conversion,
that God gave him a new name,
much as he had given Abram the name Abraham.
Do you know that's not actually the case?
You know that Saul was Paul's Jewish name,
but that he was also given the Greek name Paul.
He was named Saul after the king of Israel, Saul.
So he could be accepted in those circles.
And he was given the name Paul to be accepted amongst the Gentiles.
So we see his name transition in Scripture to Paul because of his mission to the Gentiles.
He began to go by that name to be able to hang out with them.
I thought that was rather fascinating.
So I'm just going to use the word Paul.
Now, just don't be hating me because of that.
Paul was born to a Roman father and a Jewish mother in the city of Tarsus.
Tarsus was located on the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea
in what is now modern-day Turkey
and was the center of learning and culture.
Tarsus contained one of the three greatest Roman universities.
So it was a pretty thriving town, a place where Greek life happened.
As a boy, Paul was more than likely trained in Greco-Roman literature and logic
because we see evidence of that in his writing.
And then probably at the age of 13,
we know none of this for fact,
but probably at the age of 13,
because that was the custom,
he was sent to Jerusalem to be educated
by a man named Hillel,
who was the grandson of Gamaliel.
Now, this is really important
because he was the most famous rabbi of the time.
The Jews actually didn't really use their scripture all that often in this time,
but they used the writings of the rabbis
to understand what the scripture said.
You'll hear Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount,
you have heard it said.
And what he's referring to are the writings of the rabbis.
You have heard it said,
you shall love your neighbor.
Then he corrects after that.
Okay?
So, that's what's going on.
Gamaliel was actually said to embody the Mosaic Law.
That's how famous he was.
So, Paul was being educated by the greatest of rabbis
when he went to be educated by Gamaliel's son, Hillel.
It's believed that Paul, after his education,
actually returned to Tarsus,
where he served as a rabbi there,
because he learned his father's trade.
We know that he was a tent maker by trade,
and he more than likely, as he served in the synagogue,
was a tent maker to make his living.
When Paul heard, though, what was happening in Jerusalem,
heard about Jesus and what was going on there,
he was enraged.
Something was attacking his religious order.
Very zealous, Paul was.
And he returns to Jerusalem.
You'll remember that he's actually the one standing there
with everybody's coats at his feet
as he hears the gospel presentation of Stephen,
and then everyone stoned Stephen to death.
Paul stood and observed that.
And he was absolutely driven,
so zealous that he was driven
to destroy anybody who claimed Christ.
In Acts chapter 9, verses 1 and 2,
it's recorded,
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest
and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus,
so that if he found any belonging to the way,
men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
And the wording there,
but Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples,
as if that was the fire that was kindling who he was.
That he hated disciples of the way.
He betrayed his God,
and he was bent on destroying it.
So much so,
that he was going to take a missionary journey
to another town, Damascus,
a large town,
and he heard things were going on there.
People were following the way,
as it's called here.
They were following Christ.
So he requested letters
to go and to persecute the Christians there.
And so we know the story.
I hope we know the story
of Paul on the Damascus road.
And I would ask you to turn to Acts chapter 9
as we look at this together.
Acts chapter 9, verses 3 through 9.
Verse 3.
Now as he went on his way,
he approached Damascus,
and suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him.
And falling to the ground,
he heard a voice saying to him,
Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me?
And he said,
Who are you, Lord?
And he said,
I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting.
But rise and enter the city,
and you will be told
what you are to do.
The men who were traveling with him
stood speechless,
hearing the voice,
but seeing no one.
Saul rose from the ground,
and although his eyes were opened,
he saw nothing.
So they led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus.
And for three days
he was without sight,
and neither ate nor drank.
Now later on,
as Paul is giving his defense
before King Agrippa
in Acts chapter 26,
he adds a little more of the dialogue.
So we've got a brief version
of the dialogue
between him and Christ here.
So he adds a little more detail
to that dialogue
in verse 14 of chapter 26.
And he says,
Jesus said to him,
Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me?
It is hard for you
to kick against the goads.
It is hard for you
to kick against the goads.
That's a very foreign term to us.
So to explain it,
a goad was a long pointed stick,
and it was used to herd
stubborn livestock,
such as oxen.
It was just a big pointed stick,
and it was used to prod oxen,
big stubborn animals,
as to where they should go.
And in Greek culture,
it had become a common term
to say,
hard to kick against the goads.
It's hard to kick against the goads.
And it was a common expression
used to indicate
opposition to deity.
All right?
So I say to John,
John,
my crops are just not coming in this year.
The rains,
there just haven't been
as much water as we need.
And John would say to me,
it's hard to kick against the goads.
What can you do against God?
And this is the expression
that Jesus uses
to talk to Paul.
Right?
Opposition to deity.
Saul had doubtlessly heard this term
on the streets
where he lived in Tarsus.
He knew what it meant.
Now imagine,
I had always read this story before,
and just like,
yeah, yeah,
oh, really?
Jesus is the way?
Okay, cool.
That's kind of how I read it.
Like, Paul was just doing
the wrong thing,
and suddenly he was doing
the right thing.
But he was very zealously
pursuing the wrong thing.
Right?
Think about this man
and his education.
And from the age of 13,
he's been trained to be a rabbi
under the most famous
of rabbis of the time,
Hillel,
who was the grandson
of Gamaliel.
He was a Jew among Jews.
He records that later for us
in Philippians.
He was devoted
in every way
to the way he thought
was right,
to his religion.
So zealous.
So much so,
not that he was just
going to stand his ground
in Tarsus
and teach his congregants
in the synagogue
that this Jesus
wasn't the way.
So zealous
that he was going to go
and actually abolish
that thing
that was attacking
his religion.
He was going
full force after it,
running in a direction.
And then he meets
the Christ on the road
who says to him,
you are living
in opposition
to the God
you say you serve.
Blow your mind, right?
I think some of us
might even stand
in that place today,
being found righteous
in Christ,
but pursuing
all these things,
doing all this stuff,
devoted
to discipleship
and going to Bible studies
and singing songs
with our eyes closed
and our hands in the air.
But we're going
directly against
our God.
We don't worship him
with our hearts.
We worship him
with petty
outward expression.
So Paul
heads to Damascus
as he was told to do
and he's visited
by a man named Ananias
who God sent to him
who restores his sight
and baptizes him.
And Paul gives us
a little summary
of this experience
in 1 Timothy
chapter 1.
And I'm just going
to read it to you.
If you'll just listen to me.
This is verses 12 through 15.
Paul writes,
Love does win,
doesn't it?
The saying is trustworthy
and deserving
of full acceptance
that Christ Jesus
came into the world
to save sinners
of whom
I am the foremost.
Do you see Paul's
opinion of himself?
Look at who I was.
A blasphemer,
a persecutor,
an insolent
opponent
of God.
Paul ranks himself
above us
but wrongly.
Right?
Paul was no worse
than any of us.
Now amazingly,
this blows my mind,
amazingly,
Paul in this
zealous character
that he had
to pursue
at all costs,
he continues
to do that.
He continues
to do that.
And that's chapter 9
verse 20
says,
And immediately
he proclaimed Jesus
in the synagogue
saying,
He is the Son of God.
And all who heard him
were amazed
and said,
Is this not the man
who made havoc
in Jerusalem
of those who called
upon this name?
And has he not
come here
for this purpose
to bring them
bound before
the chief priests?
But Saul increased
all the more
in strength
and confounded
the Jews
who lived in Damascus
by proving
that Jesus
was the Christ.
So he continues
to be intense.
But he goes
to those very same
synagogues
where he had intended
to bind up
these people
and take them
before the chief
priest
to be killed
and begin
proclaiming
the name of Christ.
That's awesome.
What a great work
God did in his life.
After a couple
of narrow escapes,
Paul became so good
at this gospel
presentation
that the men
who were traveling
with him
to persecute Christians
turned to kill him.
And after a couple
of narrow escapes,
which are recorded
in Galatians,
he goes to Arabia
for three years.
He writes
in verse 11
and 12 of Galatians,
For I would have you know,
brothers,
that the gospel
that was preached
by me
is not man's gospel.
For I did not receive
it from any man,
nor was I taught it,
for I received it
through a revelation
of Jesus Christ.
So he goes away
for three years
and he communes
with Christ
and he learns
this gospel.
It's one of the amazing
things about our Bibles
that our record
of what Paul taught
is the same
as what Peter taught
and the other apostles.
It's phenomenal
work of God
in that.
So this is the gospel
that he's speaking
about here
in 16 chapters.
That's the presentation
that he's giving
to us.
He wrote it later
in his life.
Paul's a little bit
older
and a little bit wiser
at the writing of it.
But he gives to us
the simplicity
of the gospel message
in an exhaustive form.
We should value that.
I'm really looking
forward to this study
in case you can't tell.
I think though
that there are
three lessons
we need to learn
this morning.
Not to just give you
a boring history lesson
but there's
three lessons
we need to learn
this morning
from the life of Paul
as we approach
this letter
that he wrote
to the Romans.
Three lessons
from the life of Paul.
Number one,
we should study it.
Paul's life
was saturated
with knowledge
of the scriptures.
Now when I say that
of course I mean
the Old Testament scriptures
the process
of this being written
the New Testament
which we all value
so highly
is still in play
but he was saturated
with the knowledge
of it.
He quotes
in the book of Romans
the Old Testament
57 times.
Isn't that phenomenal?
57 times.
He knew
the word of God.
I can imagine
that when Christ
came to him
and gave him
this revelation
of himself
Paul felt like
an idiot.
How did I miss?
How did I miss
all that?
I was blinded
before.
Number two,
we should study it
to know God
not simply
to know
about him.
This is a dangerous
trap
that I've
fallen into
on numerous occasions
in my life.
We should study it
to know God
not simply
to know
about him.
Paul's treatise
on the Christian faith
is absolutely
full
of doctrine.
Alright?
But we should be
very careful
unless we just
totally miss the point.
Totally miss the point
of what he's trying
to do for us.
So here's some tips.
Simple
tips
from
my own life.
Number one,
expect to meet
with God.
When you come
here on Sunday
morning,
when you approach
the scripture
on your own,
as we look
at Romans
together,
expect to meet
with God.
I'm fairly
recently out of
college.
I still have to
attend meetings.
Times that are
arranged for me
to get together
with people
to talk about
things,
to brainstorm
stuff,
to learn
new things.
And I typically
treat those
things fairly
flippantly,
as I should.
Meetings at work,
look over the
document we're
going to be
talking about,
have a little
bit of working
knowledge in my
head about it,
so I can sit
down and we
can talk about
those things.
Not a big deal.
Just get together
and have a
business meeting
and go on
our way.
But we tend
to do the
same thing
with our
meetings together
as a
congregation.
We treat it
like just a
meeting we've
got to go to.
Right?
So as long
as you get
your hair
combed and
get some
clothes on and
get here,
that's your
responsibility in
all of that.
Isn't it?
But I think if
you have in
mind that you
are expecting
to meet with
God,
to learn from
the Most High,
you'll treat
your morning a
little bit
differently.
Now I am
not God,
in case you
were wondering.
I don't,
my words that
come out of my
mouth are not
the words of
God.
But we have
the Word of
God, don't
we?
And our
job up here
is to
explain it
to you.
It's to
further develop
your understanding
of it.
Right?
What a
precious thing
it is to
have this
and to have
people who
spend hours
preparing to
tell you what
it means.
So you
should come
expectant.
What does
that mean?
What does
that look
like?
What does
that do
for your
morning?
I think it
starts a little
bit earlier.
prayer.
I think it
begins in
prayer.
I think it
begins in
confession.
You're going to
step into the
throne room.
This is not
the house of
God.
God dwells
within you.
Certainly you
ought to come to
Him clean as we
approach His
Word.
Number two,
worship God
in your
listening.
Worship God
in your
listening.
Certainly if you
expect to meet
with God and
you come
appropriately to
that, you'll
be worshiping
Him and
you're listening.
But I'm
guilty of
this.
I sit
sometimes and
listen to the
preaching of
the Word and
my mind is
all over the
place.
I can't quite
engage on
what's going
on.
It might seem
a little bit
boring to
me.
And so I'm
flipping my
pages.
I'm reading
the text before
I'm reading
the text after.
Sometimes I
go to an
entirely different
book altogether.
I'm like,
ah,
Colossians is
so boring.
I'm going to
Psalms.
I'm going to
read a
Psalm instead.
As if God
has nothing for
me in the
listening.
As if God
couldn't even
take boring
preaching and
do something
amazing with
it.
He can.
Some of the
sermons that I
preach that I
think are
horrid, I just
get done and I'm
like, oh, man,
what a waste of
the resources God
has given me.
People come up
to me and say,
God really taught
me something through
what you said.
You were kidding
me.
God's Word has
power that we
don't even
understand.
So worship
God in your
listening.
Be attentive.
Try to key in.
Do everything you
got to do to do
so.
It might mean that
you don't need to
stay up late on a
Saturday night.
It might mean that
you're a little
tired on Sunday
morning and you
need to wake up
when you get
here.
We have coffee
for that very
reason.
If you don't
like coffee,
buy Red Bull
on the way
here.
All right.
We have got to
start to get
away from this
idea that worship
is a time.
It's just a
certain segmented
time where we
sing songs
together.
All right.
Wes is a
worship leader,
but if we call
him that,
that's the only
time we worship,
right?
Wes is a music
leader and he
leads us to
worship in music.
All right.
I worship God
by preaching the
word.
You worship God
by listening to
the preaching of
the word.
We take the
Lord's Supper
together as an
act of worship.
I would argue
to you that
Aletheia Way is
an act of
worship.
Us participating
in teaching the
kids, singing the
songs with them,
making them excited
about what's going
on up here is an
act of worship.
Our prayer
together, our
giving to the
church is all
worship.
Number three,
take pen in
hand and take
notes.
Take pen in
hand and take
notes.
That's why I
provided this little
thing for you this
morning.
I don't know if
it's helpful to
you or not.
You know what?
It's okay if it's
not.
You have paper.
Take your own
notes.
It doesn't matter.
If you find me
giving you something
like that insulting,
just pretend I
didn't give it to
you and take your
own notes.
It's fine.
If you put a pen
in your hand,
you're going to
pay attention.
You're going to
want to write
things down.
How many of
you have heard
a sermon on a
Sunday morning
and by the time
you finished
eating lunch,
you couldn't
have repeated
back any part
of anything that
was said?
You probably
couldn't even
give the main
text of the
sermon.
I've been
there.
It's gone.
It's proven that
when we write
things down, we
remember them.
And certainly
if we don't, we
can go back and
look at what we
wrote down.
So I'm going to
make an effort to
give you notes.
It means I have to
be more prepared.
I made these
this morning and
I apologize if
they're not
complete enough
for you.
But I'm going
to work on
giving you
something that
helps you to
do this.
So take pen
in hand and
take notes.
J.I.
Packer wrote
in his book
Knowing God,
Knowing God
is more than
knowing about
him.
It is a matter
of dealing
with him as
he opens up
to you and
being dealt
with by him
as he takes
knowledge of
you.
Knowing about
him is a
necessary
precondition of
trusting in
him.
But the
width of our
knowledge about
him is no
gauge of our
knowledge of
him.
You catch
that?
Knowing about
God is a
prerequisite for
knowing him,
for being able to
trust in him,
place our faith in
him.
That last
sentence,
But the
width of our
knowledge about
him is no
gauge of our
knowledge of
him.
So let's
not approach
the study of
Romans to just
stack away a
bunch of stuff
in our files
about God.
Let's study
it to
actually know
him.
And then
number three,
we should be
mobilized by
it.
So we
should study
it, we
should study
it to know
God, not
simply know
about him.
And number
three, we
should be
mobilized by
it.
Firstly, to
share the
gospel with
others.
I am very
impacted by
Paul's
response to
the gospel.
He fasts for
three days and
then he's back
at it.
A baby
Christian in
our minds.
A guy who
doesn't know all
that much, but
he is passionate
and he is out
there and he is
sharing that
Jesus is
certainly the
son of God.
if we
value the
gospel, one
of the reasons
I think we
need a
revival is
that we
don't.
We value
too many
things more
than.
We need
that passion
rekindled in
us to say
look at the
great things
that God
has done
for us.
You will
talk about
the things
you love.
You
automatically
will.
Think about
yesterday.
If you hung
out with
anybody
yesterday,
what did
you talk
about
yesterday?
What did
you spend
your time
conversing
about?
It's what
you love.
I hope
that some
of us
talked about
the gospel
yesterday.
Then number
two,
secondly,
to send
others to
share the
gospel.
So we
have a
ministry
given to
our church
here.
Certainly
as people
who live
in our
communities,
we have
neighbors and
we have
co-workers,
we have
random
people we
encounter
on the
street,
classmates,
and we
have a
responsibility
to share
the gospel
with them.
And we
ought to
want to.
It ought
to be just
coming out
of us
all the
time to
share the
gospel.
But also,
we have a
responsibility to
the nations,
don't we,
to send
people out.
And I
hope many
of those
people come
from us.
But if
not, we
certainly play
a part in
sending those
people out.
Romans 15,
verse 24,
Paul actually
writes to the
Romans,
I hope to
see you in
passing as I
go to Spain
and to be
helped on my
journey there
by you,
once I have
enjoyed your
company for
a while.
So as
he begins
to develop
some of
the practical
implications
of the
gospel,
he says
to them,
on my
way
through
Spain,
I'm
hoping that
you guys
are going
to help
send me
on beyond
that.
I take
that to
mean you're
going to give
me some
provision for
my journey
as I go.
So we should be
mobilized to share
the gospel with
others and to
send others to
share the
gospel.
So I hope
and pray that
God finds us
faithful as we
study Romans
over the
coming months
and years,
years,
I think,
probably about
two.
I pray that
we take these
great gospel
truths and
meditate on
them,
that we roll
them over and
over in our
minds so that
in conjunction
with the
Spirit's work in
our life,
they'll change
our hearts and
then subsequently
they will change
our communities.
Christ Family
Church,
God's beloved,
let's permit
God to begin
a revival.
among us.
Let's pray
together.