This morning, we’re gonna start a new study, the book of Romans. When I went to Trinity Bible College, over the two years of biblical studies
that we did, we had many five-week classes.
It just went year round five weeks at a time through that. As far as the classes dedicated to the
books of the Bible directly, we had three, three long. We had an Old Testament study where we
looked at all the books of the Old Testament.
We had a New Testament study, and we looked at all the books of the New Testament. And
then we had one class on the book of Romans, one class, five weeks. We could have went a
year, it’s so deep.
It’s so deep, this book is. And I remember, as we were studying through the book of Revelation
of Jesus Christ, and I’m looking at the world and what’s going on in the world and what’s going
on around us, many people in the world think they have a false security as far as claiming to be
Christians. I think many people have a false security here.
Many that think they will be going to heaven because they think they’re a good person, and
they may not be, but they may well be. They’re special in some ways. They’ll think, I’m special,
look how I am, and I deserve to be in heaven.
Many people will do that. Or maybe they give a lot of money to charities, and because I give
money to charities, that I will be going to heaven. Maybe they never got in trouble, or they
never hurt anyone.
Maybe that would be a reason to think that I could go to heaven because of that. Many, they
believe in a higher power and respect that higher power, and they feel intellectually they
belong in heaven because their wisdom and knowing of this higher power that I deserve to be
there. Some even believe going to church every week, or bi-weekly, or monthly, or maybe twice
a year will get them to heaven.
See, a lot of these things mentioned are all based on what can I do, what can I do, not what can
they do. What does God do? Many will be caught by surprise and be left behind. And I think that
after the rapture, it’ll be the largest amount of people that will come to Jesus, but this being
after the rapture, then they still have to go through the tribulation, which we read about, which
really wasn’t too good.
And these people will be surprised at their situation, their circumstances, and many, even those
who truly believe they’re going to heaven. See, I was one of these people thinking I’m better
than this person, or I’m good, or I’ve never been to jail, or I never hurt anybody. And there is
the problem, there is the problem.
We hear and believe what we want based on nothing. Nothing told me that except for myself.
We believe or we follow what others say also.
We’ll hear it on TV, we’ll hear it being taught, even in churches, some of it we will believe. And
that’s why I always ask you to test it. Whatever’s said from this pulpit, look it up for yourself.
Don’t take it as a gospel, find out for yourself. That’s why God gave us his Bible. But sometimes
when we’re following others, it may be a political party that we’re following, or a radical party.
We might be following certain news channels that lean a certain way, different TV personalities,
bloggers, politicians, leaders in the community, friends, and even family. And then even
ourselves we’ll listen to as we can talk ourselves into almost anything. We’ll listen to others and
let them decide or influence our decision on the thing of God.
We listen to others, but many times we never listen to God. We never listen to God. We listen to
others.
This is why I think God has led us to this book of Romans after the revelation of Jesus Christ. To
hear what he says about how we should act, live, and believe. And I have to take a second here.
For those of you who are in Bible study this morning, a lot of what we’re gonna talk about, we
talked about Bible study. So it’s confirmation of what we just read in Matthew and studied in
Matthew this morning. And scripture builds upon scripture.
It should build upon each other. It should make the truth come to you and believe it even more.
Book of Romans will do this for us, explain these things to us, and we’ll then go against the
politically correct thinking of the lost world we live in.
So it won’t be, it’ll be tough in that matter, the political way we think anymore. And that’s why
we are lost. We are not paying attention to God, and we think that his ways are right and true.
And we think that they’re old-fashioned or they’re out of style, not the way today. I listened to
these songs today, these old hymns. They don’t go out of style.
God doesn’t go out of style. The truth does not go out of style. Those songs are still meaningful
in worship, and the word of God is the same.
So we’ll begin this study in Romans to see what God has to say with the way many of us have
been indoctrinated with the world and its lures, the things that lure us to it. It’ll be hard, and it
is the word of God. This is not the pastor that’s telling you this.
It’s not the church putting their spin on things here. God should set the tone for the
requirements, the righteousness that is needed to be like Christ. Not our perceptions, not our
life experiences, but the word of God.
So my thoughts and my hopes are for us to hear the word of God on these things and lose the
false hope that many have to the things of God that they’re imagining, wanting to fit their
lifestyle or just dreaming up what they’re thinking. There’s nothing based on it, it’s nothing. The
word of God should be our basis.
That is what we should be structured on. So let’s begin in Romans 1, 1. As we do in our church,
we’re gonna read 1 through 11 as we would read it, and then we’ll look at it a little bit deeper.
And it says this.
Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which
he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who
was born of a detendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with
power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness. Jesus Christ, our
Lord, though through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the
obedience of faith among all the Gentiles of his name you say, among whom you also are the
call of Jesus Christ. To all our beloved in God, in Rome, called as saints, grace to you and peace
from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all because of your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel
of his son is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you. Always in my prayers,
making requests, perhaps not at last by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you.
For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gifts to you that you may be
established. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Father, forgive me for my stumbling of the word that
we read this morning.
I just ask now that even that’s how we read things sometimes we stumble over and maybe
don’t understand and we keep on moving. I pray now as we do that, as we come to the study
part of this time, Lord, that you’ll open our eyes and our ears and our heart to what we’re about
to hear. That my stumbling of reading through the scripture that we see what you’re talking
about, Lord.
It’s not what I do, it’s what you do in this time. And we ask for you, Lord, to just make your
presence felt at this time. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
It says Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. If
you’ve read any of Paul’s book, almost all of them start similarly to this, that he’s a bondservant
of Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul introducing himself to the Roman Christians.
Notice he first lists himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. Maybe these Roman Christians have not
heard of Paul before. He was commissioned by Jesus Christ to bring the gospel, to bring the
good news of Jesus to the Gentiles.
We have heard the term bondservant before, like I mentioned from the other books of Paul. In
Greek ways, a servant often was referred to as an involuntary permanent service of a slave. But
Paul elevates this word by using it in its Hebrew sense to describe a servant who has willingly
convinced himself to serve a master he loves and respects.
So he’s not being forced to do this, he’s chose to do this. An apostle means one who is set in the
Greek. In the New Testament, it primarily refers to the 12 men Jesus chose to accompany him.
Christ gave them power to confirm their apostleship with miracles and authority to speak his
proxies. I can also add that the New Testament book was written either by an apostle or under
their guidance. Their teaching is the foundation of the church.
And Christ himself chose Paul for this position and trained him to fulfill his ministry. Verse two,
which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Paul’s writings, if
you’ve been in any of them, there’s a lot of long sentences.
There’s no periods, there’s nowhere to break. So a lot of this is why I stumble over it. I’m
waiting for it to come.
It’s not difficult, but it’s a little different because they’re very long sentences. So right here, he’s
again in the middle of a sentence, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the
Holy Scriptures, verse two. Paul’s adversaries accused him of preaching a revolutionary new
message that was unrelated to Judaism in any way.
But the Old Testament was a replete. And what I mean by that, it’s well fed or it’s filled or it’s
full, it’s complete concerning the prophecies concerning Christ and the gospel. So everything
was fulfilled.
The book of Isaiah, we see many, many prophecies. And all the prophets of the Old Testament
prophesied of Jesus, but Isaiah probably had the most. And I’m just gonna give you a few from
the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 11.3 prophesied that Jesus would be a judge, which we saw in Revelation. 42.4 says Jesus
was as a lawgiver. 42.7 shows him as a liberator.
53.4 shows him as a burden-bearer. 53.6 shows him as a sin-bearer. 53.12 shows him as an
intercessor.
And 53.35 shows him as only saving, the only saving, the only way to be saved. We can list more
as there’s over 35 of Isaiah alone on Jesus, as well as many other books in the Bible like
Jeremiah’s Psalms and Ezekiel and all the others that profess of Jesus as well. All through the
book, you know, many times when I first started getting into Christianity, I was like, I never saw
the word Jesus in the Old Testament.
I just, how are they talking about him all the way through? But as you study it, all the way
through is prophesied about Isaiah, and that’s who he was. And so we don’t see that word
particularly in Jesus. It sometimes makes, confuses us.
It’s like, it’s all through the Bible, it is the Messiah, who was Jesus, who they were talking about.
And that brings us into verse three, concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of
David, to the flesh. There were many well-known ancient writers like Josephus.
And John makes believing that Christ has come into flesh a crucial test of orthodoxy. And what I
mean by that is, is authorized or generally accepted as theory or doctrine or a practice. That’s
orthodoxy, because he’s fully human, as well as fully God, which many have a hard time
understanding.
And that’s what we talked about in Sunday school this morning, some of the son of man. Some
of that, who’s fully human, the son of man. He can serve as man’s substitute and also a
sympathetic high priest.
In Matthew, we see Jesus as a descendant of David. Matthew 1.1, the book of generation of
Jesus Christ, son of David, the son of Abraham. We can see this genealogy.
And then in Luke 3.31, we see this genealogy of the flesh and not the spirit of Jesus Christ, the
man side, fully man and fully God. Verse four says, who was declared the son of God with the
power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. See, the son of God is used as a title for Jesus almost 30 times in the gospels.
We talked about the title son of man. Now we’re talking about the son of God. This title
identifies Jesus as the same essence of God.
Jesus was definitely God the son. The proof on the third day that he rose from the tomb. The
resurrection clearly declared that Jesus was clearly deity.
The expression of God himself in human form. While he was eternally the son in anticipation of
his incarnation, he embodied him of a deity of spirit in the earthly form of his body. It was when
he entered the world in incarnation, they declared for the entire world as the son of God.
They took on a role of submission to the father. See, Jesus’ victory over death, it was the
ultimate demonstration. And it was the most conclusive evidence that he is God the son.
That was what it was. And Jesus’ victory over death, it was the ultimate. It was only by his
resurrection power, but it is fact the resurrection of the life.
He told Lazarus’ sister on the way to the tomb. In John 11, 25, Jesus said, there I am the
resurrection and the life that he believes in me through me is dead, yet now shall we live. See,
Jesus was the son of God.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. In Luke 1, 35, it says, the
angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most
high will overshadow you. And the reason that the holy child shall be called the son of God.
Spirit of holiness we saw in his incarnation, Christ voluntarily submitted himself to do the will of
the father only through the direction, the agency, the power of the Holy Spirit empowering him
as the Holy Spirit empowers each one of us. And we see the power of Jesus Christ is unlimited.
And it leaves no doubt that Jesus is the all powerful one.
Verse five, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about obedience of
faith among Gentiles for his name’s sake. See, grace is the unmerited favor that God shows
guilty sinners. The unmerited favor that God shows guilty sinners.
And unmerited is it’s unearned, we don’t deserve it, but yet he still gives it. This is the book’s
first reference to the most crucial part of the gospel message. Salvation is a gift from God.
It is a gift from God. We can’t earn it. We can’t buy it.
We can’t make it happen. It’s a gift from God. This is completely separate from any human
effort or achievement.
See, you are no different in this congregation than a pastor, a deacon, an elder, or anyone who
you may look up or put up in a higher spot in the church, because this is the truth. The gift of
salvation is the same for all. It’s the same for all.
It doesn’t matter. Your class or your status or what it is. God doesn’t see any of that.
Faith is what saved Abraham. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, six says
this.
And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he
is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. See, we must make Jesus Christ not only
savior, but Lord as well.
We’re all very good at wanting a savior, somebody to save us from our, whatever it is, whatever
life, we want that. But as far as Christianity, we want to be saved. We want a savior.
But the Lord part is a little bit more difficult. The Lord part is where you turn your life over to
him and you let him, his will, his decisions, determine where and how you move forward. And
that’s the hard part.
First Samuel 15, 22 said this. Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices? So
when we talk about sacrifices and we talk about being obedient, in the second part it says, as in
obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to heed then from
the fowl of rams.
See, if we obey, if we obey the word of God, we will sacrifice. If we sacrifice, we may not obey.
Because if you think about it, anytime we sacrifice anything, I sacrifice my time, I sacrifice my
money, I sacrifice something.
When I say I sacrifice something, we almost think we’re owing something. So when we sacrifice
something first, many of us will think that. So obedience to God is more important than
sacrifice.
See, we’re not saved by our good deeds, but we’re saved because we have faith in God. To work
for God, we must submit our will to him. We must be obedient to his word and his will.
We will not know what his will is unless we know and have heard his word. So it kind of works
on itself and works together. Verse six, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ.
Always in the New Testament epistles, the call of God refers to God’s effectual call of elected
sinners to salvation rather than a general call to all men that believe. That’s the difference.
Matthew 20, 16 said, so the last will be first and the first will be last.
And John 3, 16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God will call all to salvation.
Everyone will be called to salvation, but he will not override your will.
He will not override. All people are called to God, but it’s your will to follow him. That’s what
we’re talking about there.
See, we have to decide to follow him. We blame God for our lives, our situations. We blame God
when we don’t go to heaven, but this is when we have to decide to follow him.
There’s no other way. He decided to follow me. He is God in the flesh.
Ephesians 4, 10 through 13 says this. He who has descended himself also who ascended afar
above the heavens so that he might fill all things. He gave some as apostles and some as
prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors, and some as teachers for the equipping of the
saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we attain to the unity
of faith and of knowledge of the son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
See, there is a group of the called who are called to the ministry. Many believe, and I leave this
way, that those called to work for God, that they are called even before birth. We see something
like John the Baptist.
We’ve heard of it. We read that in the Bible. He was called before he was even born.
And God protects these people supernaturally when they accept their call. There is not, there is
even before the, there is, this is so even before they know that there is a call in their lives. And I
know this feeling.
I was never rich, but I was always well taken care of throughout my life. I worked hard, but I
was always seen to be rewarded well. And I remember telling Melanie many times before I
decided to turn towards God, my thought process was, I am a lucky person.
What man, am I lucky? I’m just a lucky guy. I just, I fall in something and I come out smelling
like a rose. Isn’t that amazing? It wasn’t so as we read here.
You see, I’ve had my shares of what we may call tragedies and heartaches in life, yet blessed in
love. My so-called love, as we call it in the world, was protection from God. I was wild.
I used to often wonder why I wasn’t in jail for the escapades that were mostly alcohol-related in
my younger life. I always thought I was lucky. Here it tells us something different.
Protection from God, blessed. Oh, there will be tragedies and there will be things that go wrong
in life, but still, I have a hedge of protection over all around that. Even we see that in the prison.
I’m sitting here saying, I don’t know why I wasn’t in jail, but then when some of those men that
are in prison, they’re telling me that God saved them by putting them in. So that hedge of
protection, maybe I didn’t, God knew me and I wasn’t gonna be well in that situation, and
maybe he, we know he had another purpose, but he also has a purpose for those that are even
in prison, as Tiffany and Melanie and all the ones in Kairos are here. They know that, they’ve
seen that, and it’s amazing whenever these men and women that are incarcerated notice it,
notice that God has a purpose in their life.
It’s just amazing. Seventh, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our verse says, beloved of God,
called to become saints.
The Greek text, of course, that there are three separate privileges here, and there’s three of
them here. The one, that God has set his love on his own. The two, he has extended them not
only the general external invitation to believe the gospel, but his effectual calling, or his
drawing to himself, all those he has chosen for salvation.
And three, that he has, that God has set believers apart from sin unto himself, so that they are
the holy ones, and that’s only through Christ do we can be considered holy, through Christ, and
what he did made us to be considered holy, so when God looks down at us, he sees Jesus
Christ. He doesn’t see Bill in a sinful light. He sees what Jesus has done.
Eight, first, I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the whole world. It seems as though that not long before Paul goes to Rome, there
are many Christians there already. It seems they are zealous to the Lord, that it is common
knowledge, and this spreading of information to the world just means Rome was a trade
center, and people who come there to sell or buy have heard of the Christian movement in
Rome.
As the center of the Roman Empire in the inhabited world, it was the center of the world, per se,
so whatever happened in Rome became known universally throughout the world. Verse nine,
for God whom I serve in my spirit and in the preaching of the gospel in the sun is my witness as
to how unceasingly I make mention of you. See, we see here Paul says intercessory prayers for
those new Christians in Rome.
Notice in the verse above that Paul doesn’t serve the Lord in his flesh, but in his spirit. It seems
as though he is saying, only God and myself know the hours I have spent praying for you. It’s
not here talking that Paul is patting himself on the back and saying that I understand this, what
he’s saying there, how he’s praying for you ceaselessly, that I pray for you all daily.
I pray for you all daily. It’s a need, it’s a want, it’s an obligation to lift you all up to God as
pastors, so I pray in general for us as a church, but specifically for you as you have needs. And
many times whenever I’m laying in bed and I’m trying to pray, I try to visualize you all where
you sit and then I pray for you to wait for it so I don’t miss anybody.
And that’s also why we have a prayer list so that we can lift others up to prayer. That we’re all
called to intercession, lifting each other up in prayer. So assume you all are lifting each other up
in prayer, just as it says here.
But by a side note, by the way, quit moving your seats because I have a hard time finding you in
my prayer. So, yeah. Ten, always in my prayers make me request that perhaps now at last by
the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
See, Paul will leave Corinth here and then he’ll go to Jerusalem and be sought after by the
authorities. It’ll be several years after this as Rick, before Paul, does reach Rome. Important
statement here is for us to remember as we make plans of life, by the will of God, even if it’s
good, even if it’s something good, even if it’s for God, it has to be in the will of God and in His
time.
And I’ve learned this lesson in this church many times. We’ve tried many good programs, many
things that are successful in other churches, but it wasn’t God’s time here. We were trying to
force it.
And we see it with the youth, how we want to use so bad and how we try so hard to get youth
groups going. And whenever God decided it was time, they showed up at the door. It wasn’t
anything that we did.
It has to be in the… We weren’t doing anything bad. We were trying to start a youth group. We
wanted to spread the gospel.
But God was like, it’s not time yet. We’re still preparing. Whatever His thought was.
So we get disappointed many times. I know myself, why didn’t this work? Why didn’t that work?
And whenever we take that pressure off ourselves and allow God to work and trust in God, then
it changes everything. And then like I said, with the youth showing up at that door, what a
testimony of what God is doing in His church.
Not by anything that I’m doing or anything that we’re doing overall, but what God is doing
because of what we’re being faithful and obedient. And He’s rewarding us. Verse 11.
For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be
established. This is our last verse. And Paul is speaking here of laying his hands on them that
they might receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians explains what spiritual gifts are. I would hope that you have a
chance to read the

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