Would you please turn back in
your Bibles to Romans 1? Romans 1. And you can follow
me in your pastor's outline, your pastor's commentary, as
we begin to embark upon another journey through a book, the book
of Romans. Not only do I trust that it will
be a delight to our souls, but Romans should be viewed as a
privilege for us to reflect upon. It's going to take about a year
and a half, maybe even two, to get through the Book of Romans.
The Book of Romans is a massive, massive treatise on the glory
of God and the righteousness of God in Christ. We say treatise
because the Spirit of God moves so mightily in the life of the
Apostle Paul to write to one of the key figures in Scripture
in terms of nations, states, and people groups. And he was
inspired by the Spirit of God beyond his measure, I believe,
to give us 16 chapters of rich, rich, rich gospel truth concerning
the purpose of God and the plan of God, the redemption that's
in Christ, the church of the living God and her role in spreading
that glorious gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere in the world. And so as we go through the book
of Romans, there are there are multitudes of important truths
concrete to the gospel we preach and teach every day, which again,
I say this is a privilege because we will be confronted with those
basic doctrinal truths in virtually every chapter of the book of
Romans until we come to what we call the closing practical
response chapters, which calls the believer to a life of service
to God, chapters 12 through 13. Today we're going to do an excursion
through The Book of Romans by touching on highlights just to
let you know what we're going to be dealing with and then I
pray that God would just simply grant us health and strength
to attend the services and the studies of this Magna Carta of
the gospel of the glory of God these central Work of the Apostle
Paul to all of the churches. He wrote 85% of the New Testament
most of his epistles were small short letters and We rightly
call the book of Romans an anthem. An anthem of theology surrounding
the person and work of Jesus Christ to the glory of the triune
God. An anthem. This would be for
us a body of theology, a body of divinity of which you would
want that would deal with God from the standpoint of His nature.
and then would deal with God from the standpoint of His revelatory
glory, and would deal with God from the standpoint of His purpose
for humanity. The anthem of theology would
cover every discipline, every doctrine that we have come to
understand are critical to our knowledge of God and to our own
salvation. It's rooted in the book of Romans.
This is why the study is going to be so massively Good on a
practical level as we enter into the study the gospel to the Romans
Is what I title it because you can't get a more practical title
than that I'm actually echoing the words of the Apostle Paul.
I'm I'm actually getting behind him and contemplating his own
joy as he thought about the very fact that the gospel has come
to the Romans and The gospel has come to the Romans. He understands
how enormous an opportunity that was. The gospel has come to the
Romans. Like the gospel has come to the
Americas. Like the gospel has come to Northern
California. Like the gospel has come to the
Bay Area. God and gotten a hold of a multitude
of men and women the gospel has come has it not it has come for
many many years in the power and Projectory of God's providence
and it has saved the people for his own glory Has it not you
and I are objects of this statement. The gospel has come That ought
to have you excited And I really mean that because you and I could
have been designated to the darkness of our own willful sinfulness
against God, left in our pagan ignorance, in our pagan stupidity
to perish under the wrath of God. But the gospel has come
to us. And somebody was excited about
it. Someone was excited about it. This is what I mean, that
when we work with Paul, being guided by the spirit of God.
Here's what you're going to understand. He was elated at the idea of
a people for God's glory out of all people, the Romans. So, you know, I'm getting ready
to buttress up against the nature of the Romans. Because of all
people, the Romans were proud. Self-righteous. Not only did
they not need God, their basic worldview was that they were
God. And in the sovereignty of an almighty
God who purposed to have a people for himself at this time and
in this place, there's a word going all the way through the
Roman Empire. Do you know what that is? Jesus is Lord. All through the Roman Empire,
Jesus is Lord. Now, I know you don't like that
phraseology or you might have become maybe just callous towards
it because we use it in religion all the time, don't we? Jesus
is Lord. Let me say this. When you have heard religion
use a term ad infinitum, almost to a point of ad nauseum, don't
blame the term. Blame the users of the term.
Because Jesus is a wonderful concept. Jesus is Lord. And because of that, we are saved.
And there's a day coming when all of us will confess him as
Lord. Both the saved and the non-saved.
Both the elect and the non-elect. Both angels that are chosen and
devils will all acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. So, I mean, if
you want to back away from the phraseology, you can. But there's
no salvation apart from that reality, Jesus is Lord. Jesus
is Lord and and so I use that title because this is what we're
going to see through the whole book of Romans that in spite
of all of the machinations of the lofty Romans with their Caesars
and their emperors and their litany of Roman gods and Greek
gods and their false philosophies and their worldviews and their
philosophy and their wisdom and their might and their successes
and their avarice and greed and their bestiality and In spite
of all of their prowess, Christ is still going to cause that
kingdom to crumble. And out of the dust of it, there
will be a people who are called the Church of the Living God,
who are going to be known for 2,000 years. Let me say it like
this. There are folks that were living
in the Roman Empire at that time, who were very popular at that
time, that you and I don't know now. But guess who we know? The
Church. which was at Rome. We know the
church which was at Rome because the church which was at Rome
was written down by God's servant so that we can read about it
even 2,000 years later. When you finish reading your
Bible in Romans chapter 16, guess what? You got a list of names.
Families, friends, brothers and sisters, a whole litany of brothers
and sisters who preached the gospel, lived the gospel, loved
the gospel, and died for the gospel in Rome. While Rome now
is nothing but a fading memory in most of our minds and nothing
but dust we use to make movies in. Whose kingdom is going to
stand on the last day? The kingdom of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. So what I'm saying is that the
idea of the gospel to the Romans and Jesus is Lord ought to be
a joy to your soul. And I trust over time we will
be able to persuade our souls of the great blessing of this
objective on the part of God Almighty. When did the Roman
Empire come into existence? Probably around 200 BC, somewhere
around there. We have a biblical sort of geographical
and historiography of the nations that got it providentially. Raised
up to govern our world that's in Daniel chapter 7 and the fourth
beast is what we're talking about That's why in our PowerPoint
and your outline the first point. I want you to deal with is this
point The gospel to the Romans the message is Jesus is Lord
in the belly of the beast the belly of the beast this is what's
so remarkable to Paul because Paul being both a Roman citizen
and a Jew understood he understood that this was a critical of this
was a critical reality on the part of God that the kingdom
that was described in Daniel 7 to be the most diverse out
of all four beasts the most fierce the most devastatingly destructive
entity, a monstrosity of an image that you and I can't actually
describe. When you go to Daniel 7 and read
the fourth beast, the fourth kingdom, Daniel said, when I
saw that beast, I was so wrought, so set back at what it looked
like, I couldn't even describe this beast. And history tells
us of the madness and insanity of this beast called Rome. But
there was a prophecy in Daniel chapter 2 verses 34 and 35 which
tells us a stone was coming. I want you to see it in Daniel
chapter 2 verse 34 and 35. A stone was coming and that stone
was coming to demolish this fourth beast of which no beast could
withstand. This fourth beast dominated all
the subsequent kingdoms before it. And according to Revelation
13, he swallowed up those kingdoms into himself so that he rules
over all of the previous kingdoms going all the way back to Nimrod,
a mighty kingdom who in God's providence and sovereignty allowed
to be raised up to have dominion over the masses of the world
until he chose, as we're going to see here, to raise up a stone
that would gradually and incrementally not only break down that kingdom,
but subdue the whole world. Nebuchadnezzar is having fits
because he had a dream about an image that would be destroyed,
crumbling from the head all the way down to the feet Daniel is
called upon to interpret this dream And so we read in Daniel
chapter 2 verse 34 these words as Daniel begins to explain What
Nebuchadnezzar is seeing he says in verse 34 what you saw Neb? Was this that a stone was cut
out without hands? Now when the Bible uses that
phraseology ladies and gentlemen, what it is saying is this is
a work of God Man had nothing to do with it A stone was cut
out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that
were of iron and clay and break them in pieces. Do you see the
imagery, the picture? A stone is cut out. Obviously
now this stone is referring to someone or some entity that is
powerful enough or strong enough to actually withstand the forces
of Rome. And this stone now has smote
the image upon his feet. Now you imagine a big image.
We can actually conflate this image here in Daniel 2 with Daniel
chapter 4, where Daniel and Sadra, Meshach and Abednego are dealing
with this command for everyone to bow down and worship the great
image that Nebuchadnezzar made. You remember, To himself a golden
idol because Neb represents Babylon the Babylonian Kingdom is the
ultimate paradigm in the Bible of which God tells all his people
you must stand in opposition to the Babylonian Kingdom until
you die and What we see here in our text is that the way in
which Christ is to destroy the Babylonian Kingdom is at its
feet Not at its head This here is a time reference to the rule
of Rome between 190 BC and AD 33 when our master was brought
into the world in the incarnation. He was raised up as a gospel
preacher. He came to fulfill his task as
Messiah. And then he died on the cross
as the savior of his people. It was the very crosswork of
Jesus Christ that began to demolish and bring to the knees this kingdom
of Rome. So when we talk about the feet
being smashed, the feet being of iron and clay, And he break
them in pieces. He's talking about the work of
the gospel going into the Roman Empire and demolishing all of
the structures, all of the powers, all of the masses until Rome
becomes nothing while the gospel itself is spreading all through
Rome. When I say the belly of the beast,
we are saying that it was God's will to take a people for himself
and to spread them into the Roman Empire. An empire that had no
problem with killing men and women at will. An empire that
certainly had no toleration for biblical truth. An empire that
was threatened by anyone who would stand up and call themselves
curious over against their own little peon gods. An empire that
was known historically as the beast. And here God has a church
in the midst of the belly of the beast. Fascinating to me. And for the apostle, Paul is
fascinating because he's not trepidatious. He's not fearful.
He's not shrinking back in some kind of ominous, oh, I hope the
Lord, I hope the Lord keeps you. No, he's speaking with the greatest
of confidence and thankfulness that the gospel is there because
he understands the gospel to be that, a stone that is able
to destroy and demolish every institution and everything that
exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. In the belly of the
beast. I get that phraseology from first
Corinthians 15 verse 32 Do you remember what paul said as he
was speaking to the corinthians? And those corinthians were pagan
in their own native makeup, too. Weren't they some folks? He's
speaking to the church at corinth and he says in first corinthians
chapter 15 verse 32 these words I know you have thought about
this before if you've read your bible Here's what he said. Think
about this. Think about this that the apostle
says. In verse 31 he says, I protest by your rejoicing which I have
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Every day I'm dying. Paul said
every day I'm dying. That's kind of the tenor of our
elders prayer, was it not? We suffer for Christ's sake,
do we not? And every day there's a sense in which the believer
is dying. But look at verse 32. He says, now if after the manner
of men, I have what? Fought with beasts at Ephesus. Have you ever wondered what that
was all about? Do you think Paul was fighting with literal beasts
at Ephesus? No! It is speaking, however,
to the great analogy of the gladiators fighting in the auditorium where
the believers were often attacked by lions and tigers and ferocious
beasts to the entertainment of the masses. Here's what Paul
is saying. There's a worse beast than tigers
and lions. There's a worse beast than bears
and leopards. And that beast is mankind. Outside
of Christ, man is a beast. And there's a real sense in which
the church is always fighting against the beast. Do you hear
me? There's a real sense in which
we're always fighting against the beast. And what Paul said
is I'm fighting against the beast daily. And I'm not doing this
in vain, he says. I'm doing this for the gospel
sake. And the church that was at Rome is fighting against the
beast. And the prophecy in Daniel chapter
2 is we fight against the beast by the preaching of the gospel
and the ministry of the word, which is able to subdue everything
under the feet of God Almighty. So in your outline, under in
the belly of the beast, there are three perspectives, the stone
cut out in Daniel, the devil before this stone and John chapter
23 verse 12. See, this stone is Jesus, is
it not? Is Jesus not the stone? Is He not the stone of stumbling? Is He not the stone that the
builders rejected? Is He not the foundation stone
of the church of the living God? Christ is the cornerstone, is
He not? And this is the stone that had to actually face the
opposition of the beast. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 23,
verse 12, we have an interesting statement. Luke 23 12. I want
you to mark this. There are two rulers two evil
rulers Who have risen up to withstand this stone? They on one day became
great friends. Do you know who this was? Herod
and Pontius Pilate now I want you to see this because it's
prophetic here watch this and the same day. This is the day
that they were judging Jesus they were getting ready to bring
him to trial and To condemn him and to kill him with the objective
of getting rid of that stone Not knowing that the very act
that they're about to engage in would be the means by which
god would fulfill daniel chapter 2 The stone which the builders
rejected will become the head of the corner and he will smash
the feet Of that great image watch this the same day pilot
and herald would made what friends together? For before they were
enmity with themselves, but they were able to become one against
the stone Now let me make the application briefly here. Here's
how this goes. Herod represents the apostate
church. Pilate represents the secular
institutions. The two primary institutions
that oppose the gospel are the secular political powers of our
world, that's beast number one, and the apostate religious systems
of our world, that's beast number two, right? Revelation chapter
13. Those are the two entities constantly
working to destroy the biblical gospel. An apostate church is
just as beastly as the secular world system in its opposition
to truth. It simply comes on the backside
of the truth of the gospel to stop the truth from advancing
by distorting the truth, or obscuring the truth, or masquerading as
the truth, but being a lie. Now the political entities, they
have a frontal attack. And that frontal attack is through
the power of legislation, through politics, to destroy the capacity
for the Word of God to spread. And if it had its way, it would
not only get rid of the Word of God, but it would get rid
of everyone who believes the gospel. That's what these political
powers would do. And God knows that's the world
we live in. We live in a tension between these two entities constantly
squeezing in the body of believers. The trouble you have on a daily
level, if you're out mingling with people, is running across
the atheist, the agnostic, the secularist, the pluralist, the
relativist, and every other is basically called humanist who
oppose biblical truth, both in the secular world as well as
in the church. When they open their mouths,
I'm sorry to say, immediately we understand their worldviews.
Immediately we understand that they do not believe the Bible
to be the Word of God, nor do they believe Jesus Christ to
be the exclusive sovereign of the universe. And so we know
right then and there, we got a battle going on in terms of
us having two worldviews. They have an authority and I
have an authority. And I might be sandwiched between these two
dudes. One the humanist, the other the
religionist. Now the religionist gonna wrap
his arms around my shoulder and tell me how much he loves me.
But I'm gonna tell him, you can't love me if you don't love God.
And if you don't love God's word, you hate me. So take your arm
from around my neck and let's just get at the truth of this
matter. Now, the secular beast is going to pull out his sword
and go to war against me automatically because he feels like he has
the freedom to tell me I am a fool, I am a buffoon, a backyard Neanderthal
for even believing the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus
is the exclusive way. And I am comfortable with that
frontal attack. See, I don't mind enemies who
come straight at me. I don't like the guys that pretend
to be my friends. See, I don't mind the guys that
come straight at me because I grew up in the streets and we knew
how to handle people that came. In fact, I appreciate you. I
will take you to lunch. We can sit down and talk and
we can actually strategize when you want to go to war. Let's
set down the rules of engagement. Make sure we understand what
instruments of war we're going to use and we can go to war.
But with my religious folks who want to pretend that they love
the Jesus that I do I actually have to keep my one eye open
all the time Because they are hypocrites Pretending Here rod
you remember that fickle? Psychomaniac how he frequently
wanted to see Jesus doing miracles He was like so enamored with
john the baptist and jesus that he always wanted to see get jesus
to come get jesus I want to see him do a miracle. I want to see
him do it and then all of a sudden he ready to kill him That's the
religious folk i'm talking about Who have no allegiance to the
word of god? To the truth of the gospel the claims of jesus
christ as lord ladies and gentlemen you and are in the midst of the
belly of the beast too The devil is before him in Luke 23, 12.
The devil is before Jesus in Revelation 12, verse 1-3. Look at Revelation 12, 1-3. And in fact, make sure you correspond
Luke 23, 12 with Revelation 12, 1-3, because Revelation 12 is
the spiritual counterpart to Luke's historical narrative.
In Revelation 12, 1-3. And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Who is this?
The church of the living God. Who is this? The remnant of Israel. Who is this? The believers in
that first century who were waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Who is this? This is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
This is all of them who were believing on Christ and waiting
for the consolation of Israel to assume a human nature. So
Revelation 12-1 is also a historical prophecy of the time of the birth
of Christ. This is a woman who is clothed
with the sun, who has the moon under her feet and 12 stars over
her head. She's the queen. But she's also pregnant with
child. That child in her is the son of the living God. She is
the church of the living God. Every believer who trusts Christ
all the way back to Adam and Eve. Because Eve is the prototype
of the ultimate woman who would bring Christ into the world.
The promise was given to Eve, was it not? Out of your seed
shall come one who will crush his head. That's why when we
talk about marriage, as we do, the absolute necessity of a complementarian
relationship between men and women is this. The man needs
the woman and the woman needs the man. So much so that our
God made it the economy by which Christ came into the world. He
came into the world born of a woman, made under the law, that he might
redeem those that were under the curse of the law. So women
play a critical role in the advance of the gospel as well. Am I making
some sense? Just in case you sisters, you
know, have a little bit of trouble with the false notion that the
Bible does not exalt women. Listen, how much more exalted
can you be than to be viewed in the book of Revelation as
a queen having dominion over the universe? Having dominion
over the... Do you see the imagery? She's
clothed in the sun. That means she exercised regal
authority over the universe. This is a heavenly vision. The
moon is under her feet. The 12 stars are on her head.
She envelops heavenly authority. She rules the universe. This
is your Middle Eastern imagery. It may elude you. It doesn't
elude me. It represents her dignity, her majesty, her royalty, her
power with God in the cause of the gospel. Women are exalted
in the Bible. Women are exalted in the Bible.
Verse 2, look at it. Watch this and she being with
child trailing in a cried trailing in birth Travelling in birth
and pain to be delivered. This is the incarnation. This
is the birth of Christ Remember what happened to Mary as soon
as the child was born Herod wanted to kill the child has to run
to Egypt then he comes back and in obscurity He grows up and
then we face Herod again in Luke chapter 23, don't we that little
baby was constantly assaulted By these world powers verse three
Watch this and there appeared another wonder in heaven behold
a great red dragon. Who is that? satan having seven
heads ten horns and seven crowns that last clause there has to
do with the inexorable connection of satan To the political world
system in other words. He has a church too Just like
christ has a body satan has a body And according to daniel 7 his
body was given to the burning flames And I saw the body of
the beast given to the burning flames You know what that means
all of the secular powers of this world are going to hell
But before that happens there is a constant and unending and
relentless warfare between the church and the world and this
is why we see this language look at verse 4 watch this watch verse
4 and His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and
did cast them to the earth. What is that? That was the apostasy
of the fallen angels, right? and then The dragon stood before
the woman. Do you see it? Stood before the
woman. Who was the woman? That woman
that was pregnant with Jesus. Who was the dragon? Satan. How
was he working? Through Herod, through Pontius
Pilate, through the rulers in the church, all of the secular
powers. To do what? Watch what it says. And it stood
before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour
her child as soon as it be born. Was Jesus in the belly of the
beast? Yes, he was. And you and I are too. I just
want to give you the context, because what you have to understand
that Paul recognizes as we move forward is that the triumph of
Jesus Christ is clearly depicted by the fact that there is a gospel
church in the very Roman Empire that tried to kill Jesus from
the time he was born till the time he rose from the dead. It's
amazing. Some of you got it. Wow. Isn't
that amazing? The last point under number one,
Rome is really mystery Babylon of Revelation chapter 18. Rome
is really mystery Babylon of Revelation chapter 18. You don't
have to go there, but the code language of the book of Revelation
was given for the first century church to be able to talk about
what was going on politically and socially without directly
naming Rome as the beast of Revelation chapter 12 and 13. So when it
used the term Babylon, because Babylon was antiquated and not
in vogue, it was no threat to the Roman Empire. Am I making
some sense? See, now watch this now. Like, like folks who were
slaves, we always had to use code language and code techniques
and code methods in order to get by. We would point in one
direction just so we can get y'all looking that way while
we're doing something over here. And that's what the word of God
does. Now watch this because this is a slave's gospel. I'll
get there at the last point. This is a slave's gospel. Let's
go to point number two. I wanna quickly rush through
these. Here is gonna be a little time that I'm gonna have to take
because I wanna now give you a basic excursion of the book
of Romans. This is an awesome, awesome consideration. Point number two, peaks and valleys
of the letter. How many of you guys read the
book of Romans? Good group of you. Romans is an amazing book,
is it not? I mean, it's just phenomenal.
And if you've read it, You do believe and know that to read
the book of Romans is to get your gospel right. To read the
book of Romans is to get your gospel right. I don't think a
person can get their gospel right if they don't read Romans. Romans
is a careful, detailed explanation of the gospel of God's glory
to the believer so that he can have a handle, a clear handle
on who God is, who Christ is, what Christ did, why he did it,
who he did it for, and how the church is the byproduct of it.
You've got to know the book of Romans to know the gospel. And
yet the book of Romans is filled with so much information that
all I want to call your attention to right now are what I call
peaks and valleys. Can I do that? Peaks and valleys. If we wanted to argue what would
be the basic theme of the book of Romans, if we gave a compendium,
a title, sort of an appellation as to what the book of Romans
is, you know what we call it? The righteousness of God. If we wanted
to actually title the book of Romans, we could title it The
Righteousness of God. Really what Paul is doing when
he writes the letter to Rome, to the churches at Rome, is to
explain to them the righteousness of God. We're going to spend
some time learning that in Romans chapter 1. But Paul says in Romans
chapter 1 verse 16, I am so thankful that God has revealed his glory
to me, so much so that I am not ashamed of the gospel. It's the
power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes to
the Jew first and also to the Jews. That's why you got to preach
it in Rome, because therein is the what reveal the righteousness
of God. Stay with me now. If Paul is
jazzed about the righteousness of God being revealed, why is
he jazzed about that? For several reasons. We live
in a world that does not believe in God, nor does it believe in
righteousness. They don't believe in God because
they don't see God. They don't believe in righteousness
because righteousness is the furthest thing from our nature
and our makeup. But in order for men to know
God, they've got to know God in his righteousness. That's
why we preach the gospel. Now stay here, I want to touch
on a number of points under this first heading of peaks and valleys. Now you know what peaks and valleys
are. Peaks are when you go to the top of the mountain and you
can look over the horizon and see as far as the horizon allows
you. But you know between every mountain
peak there are valleys, right? So you and I are going to be
dealing with several mountain peaks wherein I can give you
an overall theme and principle of what we're dealing with, but
then we're going to have to go down into the valley. You know what
happens when you go down into the valley? You have to actually
deal with rough terrain, difficult contours, slippery slopes, dark
passages, issues that cause you to struggle theologically and
spiritually because they are challenging you to humble yourself
to a God who is both revelatory and mysterious at the same time.
It's cool when we're on the mountaintop because we can see a long way
off and we can sit up there and kind of gloat and imagine what
it's like to just fly over every peak. That's what I do. I don't
know about you. But when we got to now traverse
down into the deep crevices of those valleys, it gets a little
alarming. And I will tell you, by the time
we leave the first mountaintop of Romans chapter one and get
to the next mountaintop of Romans chapter five, you and I will
be challenged with peaks and valleys and contours and struggles
and challenges that are essential to our comprehending the gospel.
Am I making some sense? So let me give you a brief tour
of a number of peaks and valleys. The first one is chapters one
through five. Chapters one through five actually
allude to the righteousness of God. God is a righteous God. Do you believe that? Now, when
we talk about righteousness, both in the Old Testament and
the New, in the Old Testament, the word is tzedek or tzedek. It is used prominently of the
nature of god and god's righteous acts The bible will say very
plainly god is righteous And then it will subsequently say
this and the righteous lord loves righteousness And then it will
say this the righteous lord doeth righteousness always So now watch
this the old testament saints were always preoccupied with
the righteousness of god And when you go through the Psalms,
here's what you'll learn. If you go through the Psalms, the way
that most of the saints worship God in the Psalms was this way.
Lord, you are righteous. You are the righteous God that
executes justice and righteousness in the earth. And what's even
more remarkable when you think about the Sedeq of God, the righteousness
of God, are you ready? This is how God talks about his
people. Are you ready? He calls them the righteous. Now, isn't that a mind blower?
Watch this. This is what you're going to
learn as we go through the outline, is that when we contemplate the
righteousness of God, we are contemplating it from at least
five vantage points. Point number one, God is righteous
intrinsically by nature. He is righteous. In fact, Psalm
71 says this, your people speak of your righteousness and your
righteousness alone. In other words, when the people
of God talk about righteousness, they're talking about a righteousness
that comes from the nature of God. God is righteous by nature.
To be righteous means to be ethical, to be morally upright, to be
free from corruption or perversion or any kind of distortion of
ethical practice. To be righteous is to be free
from the condemnation and guilt of having broken the law. Is
not God then righteous? He is really truly the only righteous
being in the universe, is he not? And so when we talk about
the righteousness of God, we're going to talk about his nature.
But moreover, we're going to talk about in Romans chapter
one, not only the righteousness of God in terms of his nature,
Saint, but the righteousness of God in terms of his revelation.
Watch this. God is not only righteous in
nature. He's righteous in the way he reveals himself to us.
God is not only righteous in nature. He's righteous in the
way he reveals himself to us. I say that to say this. the atheists
and the agnostic and the gainsayer calls God unrighteous because
of the manner in which he reveals himself to us. They look at God's
creation and say, God is not righteous. Well, look at his
creation. This creation is falling apart. Look at all of the destruction.
Look at all the evil that's going on in our creation. How can God
do all this and be righteous? I submit to you that God is not
only righteous in His nature, He's righteous in His revelation.
Now watch this. If God gives you eyes to see
and ears to hear, He will help you understand that the universe
is gloriously made It's exquisite in its handiwork and that a sound
mind can only conclude that a holy God made the universe even though
we see it falling apart. Watch this. The revelation of
God is a righteous revelation because in his revelation to
us according to Romans 1, you know what he's letting us know?
He's upset with us. Now watch this now. He's righteous
in his nature, and he's righteous in his revelation. In his revelation,
he is letting us know that he is a powerful God, an infinite
God, a holy God, and a righteous God, and he's angry with the
wicked. This is why ungodly men want
to suppress the truth. They don't like that movie. That's
the movie they don't want to see. So they distort history. And they distort science. And
they distort the facts. Because the revelation of God
is a righteous revelation. When you go into the microscope
and you start looking at all of those sub-atomic particles,
guess what you see? War! Even down there, yes! Why? Because of sin! The revelation
of God is a righteous revelation that lets us know if you want
to see what my mind is Concerning where you are look at it and
be honest about it right out there in the galaxies It's wars
going on. You know, man kind of scared
that one day those big old groups of uh, of uh Asteroids and and
uh, all of those meteorites will come and just destroy the earth
flying past the world One day go tad up it might It might. And will God have been righteous
to let it happen? Therefore, is not God righteous
in His revelation to let us know, look, you're sitting on a ball
that could blow up any moment. Watch this now. Where is your
hope? Where's your standing? Did you make the universe? Can
you tell the constellations? Can you tell the meteorites?
Can you tell those showers that are hundreds of times larger
than the earth not to come here? You know what God says? I can.
And I've done it now for umpteen thousands of years in my mercy
and in my sovereignty I have told them to come close but don't
touch the earth because on the earth. I have a people for my
glory See God's righteous in his nature righteous in his revelation
righteous. That's what Romans 1 says. They
know God But they hate what they see Hate what they see God's
righteous in his nature righteous in his revelation. Here's the
other thing that God's righteous in he's righteous in his judgment
He's righteous in his judgment. Can I keep talking to you? See
Romans chapter 3 Concludes God's judgment on the whole of humanity
in verse 23 when God says now if you want to listen to me I'm
gonna tell you what all y'all problem is sin All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That's God's judgment on
humanity Ladies and gentlemen, that's a righteous judgment Now,
you can walk the earth, particularly here in the Bay Area, and you
can ask a thousand Christians. The stats have already been done.
Ask them, is mankind sinful? And you know what they'll say?
What do you mean by that? You already know their gospel
is defective, don't you? Well, what do you mean that they're
sinful? I mean, is there any good in man? And you know what
the average church folk will say? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, man's
pretty good. You know what that means? They
are ignorant of the righteousness of God. They are ignorant of
God's judgment. See, God has already judged us.
We are already guilty. That's a righteous revelation
of God, righteous attribute of God, and a righteous indictment
of us. You and I are unrighteous in
the sight of God. None good, right? No, not one. Looking forward to getting there.
See, that text beats us up because it destroys any human merit when
it comes to the salvation of sinners. Are you ready? This
is the diabolical part of religion today, where it will pretend
that it is submitting to the crown rights of Jesus. But when
we ask that individual, who saved you? Did God save you all by
himself or did you help God save you? Oh, I helped God save me. And as soon as you say that,
what we tell you is you don't know anything about the salvation
of the Lord. Am I making some sense? Because
the indictment is not only are all unrighteous, but we don't
want God. We are not looking for God. And
not only that, we can't even find him if we wanted him. And
we are dead, dead in trespasses and sins. If you know God today
and you love God today, it was because he hunted you down. raised
you from the dead, gave you life and faith in Jesus Christ, changed
your heart, put in a new heart, wrote his laws on your heart
and mind so that you love him for Christ's sake. And we agree
with God. Everybody's dead. Watch this.
And especially me. That's what we learn in marriage
series. You got to confess. Don't be critical. Confess. And
the man or the woman that admits those claims has had a saving
revelation of that God. A couple more things under that
particular concept. When you go through Romans chapter
1 through 5, not only you're going to see that God is righteous
in His nature, righteous in His revelation, righteous in His
judgment, you're going to see that God is righteous in His
mercy. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 24 through 26 tells us but
God apart from the works of the law sent Jesus Christ to be a
propitiation for our sins in Order that we might obtain the
righteousness of God apart from works through faith alone Can
I ask you the question for God to have sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins? Is that not a righteous mercy? See, the revelation of God's
mercy is a revelation of his righteous mercy. We're going
to look at that. And then the next one I call
the revelation of his righteous grace. Because see, the fact
that Christ died for our sins, if you're his child, if you're
his people, is that God would bestow upon you an undeserving
merit we call grace. And that was a righteous act
on God's part. You understand that when he gives you his grace,
he does it righteously. You understand what I'm saying
now? By the righteousness of God being revealed? By the time
we get to Romans chapter 5 and we come to understand that Jesus
is our representative, he's our surety, and he's our head, that
everything we need is wrapped up in Jesus, we're going to say
our salvation is a righteous salvation, coming from a righteous
God. And we are thankful for it. That's
what Romans 1 through 5 is going to teach you about the righteousness
of God. Did I make some sense there?
Let me move on a little bit. So, the next set of peaks we're
going to be dealing with is in chapters 6 and 7. And under the
outline, I'm just going to enumerate these for time's sake. Chapters
6 and 7 are going to cause you to struggle. Now, we'll get there
in about 6 months, if y'all show up every week. But when we get
to chapters 6 and 7, we're going to be struggling with the scandal
of free grace. Because it's a scandal. The language
is difficult in Romans 6. Romans 6 says, if we have been
buried with Christ, we've also been risen with Christ to walk
in newness of life. That's what it says. That's a
logical syllogism. If you're in Christ, you're risen
because He's risen. And then it tells us in Romans
7 that we've got this major war going on in the inside. I find
in my members a law that when I would seek to do good, evil
is present with me, bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin and death. Romans 6 and 7. 6 says I'm free. Romans 7 says I'm in bondage.
I'm fighting like hell just to survive every day. Which one
is true, pastor? Both. Both. That's what we call the scandal
of the gospel. See, Romans 7 is going to tell us we've been liberated
by a glorious husband. But you still got to fight because
you have a fallen nature that has not been redeemed, a body
that has not been redeemed yet. Are y'all hearing me? And the
scandal of the gospel is this. You, while you are struggling
with your issues, can confidently tell men and women that you are
the righteousness of God in Christ by faith without even being ashamed. And that's going to throw some
people back and it's going to make some sinners happy because
they're going to look at you and say, man, If God can save
this dude, this chick, you mean God saved you? I'm a shoo-in. If he saved you, then this grave's
got to really be free. You mean you saved? The way you
act? Really? All right, I think I'll
take a shot at that. That's the scandal of free graves.
It's scandalous because The nature of the gospel in its articulation
of the person and work of Jesus Christ is such a lofty message,
born in earthen vessels like you and me, that it can cause
people to stumble when they look at the messenger over against
the message. That's the scandal of Romans
6 and 7. And some people theologically falter there. But what Romans
chapter 8 has come to do is rescue you. I love it. Romans chapter
8 came to rescue you. We call Romans chapter 8 the
triumph Impute imputed and imparted righteousness. What do you mean
by imputed righteousness? Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says
there is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus
Who walk after the spirit and not after the flesh because Christ
condemns sin in the flesh Therefore we have become the righteousness
of God in him It is a beautiful declaration of the imputation
of Christ's righteousness to secure our standing before God
But the war ain't over You go through Romans chapter 8, you
know what it talks about? Groaning. Anybody know anything about groaning?
Crying and whining and wailing and having fits. There are three
folks that are groaning in Romans 8. You know who they are? The
believer. You know who else is groaning? The Holy Ghost. You
know who else is groaning? The whole universe. And all three
of them are destined to a glorious eternality. But we are all groaning
right now. Creation groaning. The saints
are groaning and the Holy Ghost is groaning. Now why is the Holy
Ghost groaning? Because the Holy Ghost sees the
end product and can't wait till we get there. So now watch this.
Sometimes parents groan over their kids. Can I be practical
for a minute? We groan over our kids. You know
why? Because they don't look like nor act like we want them
to act. We groan and hope that one day they come into the realities
of what we have promised for them. And in fact, groaning on
the part of the Holy Ghost is his longing as the servant of
God to conform you to the image of Christ in order to bring you
as a spotless bride to Isaac, according to the commandment
of God the Father. He groans with the same eagerness
that Jesus groaned with in Luke chapter 11, John chapter 12,
when Lazarus had died and the folks was having fits, Jesus
groaned and Jesus cried. Groaning and crying means we
long to be in a better state. Am I making some sense? So Romans
8 verse 1 declares the triumph of imputed righteousness Romans
chapter 8 verse 39 declares the triumph of imparted righteousness
Nothing will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus not heights nor depths nor nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor death, nor angels. Nothing will separate us. Watch
this. Imputed righteousness, nothing
can condemn us. Imparted righteousness, nothing
will separate us from God for all eternity. That's a glorious
promise that we must reach deep down into and be able to claim
in Romans chapter 8. All right, let's keep going with
our peaks and valleys. We're almost done. In Romans
chapter 9 through 11, I am looking forward to that. That'll be about
a year from now. We get to jump back on this whole
argument and issue of the doctrine, the glorious, glorious, glorious
doctrine of God's sovereign electing love. The doctrine that knocks
everyone over who still has the Ebola virus of humanism in their
system. If election causes you to have
the heebie-jeebies, you got the Ebola virus in your system. Let
me see if I can help you. You and I were not deserving
of God looking upon us in favor. So that God chooses to save you
and not save someone else, that's not your business. You better
hurry up and learn that. You better hurry up and learn
that God saves whom he wills, When he wills, where he wills. The sooner you get that, the
better you can get your praise on. Because you need to get your
praise on that God looked at you in eternity past and placed
you in Christ before the world began and determined to call
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And he dares
you to turn and look at somebody and say, Lord, why you didn't
save them? Oh, do you want me to give your salvation to them
and let you head on back to hell? See, and this is why we know
Jesus is God. This is why we know he's God.
Remember in the gospel of John, Peter had just messed up. In
God's mercy, the Lord Jesus brings him back into the mission of
the ministry. John 20, John 21, they sitting down eating catfish
and cornbread. I told you that. You can struggle
with it all you want. And then Peter gonna turn around
to the master and say, Master, I know you telling me I'm gonna
have to die for you. But what about this dude john, do you
know what the master said that ain't your business boy? That
ain't your business Your business ain't what i'm doing with the
other disciple what if I let that man live to be 100 years
old which he did That's not your business. Your business is to
walk in the liberty and grace of christ that he gave you And
to take opportunity to live to the full for his glory Now say,
listen to me now, I'm gonna make my way through this. You have
to actually believe that ethic because you will spoil your walk
with God, trying to think that you are either equally as righteous
with God in your thinking, which is insanity, or that you're more
righteous than God in your thinking. The people that despise election,
failed to understand that election is the only grounds by which
God can save anyone. Because none of us deserve saving.
Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? So when we go through Romans
9 through 11, we're going to understand the doctrine of election
from several standpoints. The right for God to choose,
the history of God's choice, the object of God's choice, and
the goal of election, which is to have a people to the praise
of the glory of his grace for all eternity, Ephesians 1.12.
Now chapters 12 through 15, awesome. I love chapters 12 through 15.
Again, in many of our churches, we struggle with juxtaposing
the doctrine of God's righteousness imputed and the power of God's
grace imparted to cause us to respond to the gospel in obedience.
But I would not be your pastor in a rightful way to tell you
to simply enjoy imputed righteousness and not affirm imputed righteousness
by imparted righteousness. See, when we get to Romans 12,
you know what he says? Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I beseech every
one of you children of God, says God, that you present your whole
being. Present your whole being. Come
into the presence of God. Coram Deo. That's what the word
means. It's an Old Testament language that refers to our coming
into the presence of God. Men had to come into the presence
of God three times every year. This happened before the law,
it happened during the law, and it's happening now. Remember
in the days of Job? The devil came among the sons of God when
they presented themselves before the Lord. You know why we are
to present ourselves before the Lord now? So that when we actually
have to stand before him on the last day, we will already be
used to worshiping the true and the living God. Are you hearing
me? And when you present yourself
before the Lord, you present your whole being a living sacrifice. Now, here's your challenge. Has
the gospel produced in you an ethic life that you walk Coram
Dale and you present your bodies an absolute living sacrifice
unto the Lord or is this just lip service see chapter 12 through
15 is going to tell us how we are to think how we are to view
the gift of faith how we are to love one another as the body
of Christ and how we are to live in the world. Chapters 12 through
15 cleans up all of the pride in the church, all of the self-righteousness
in the church, all of the criticism in the church, all of the judgmentality
in the church. Y'all know what chapter 14 says?
Receive one another without doubtful disputations. Receive one another
the way Christ did. Don't get narrow on your brother.
Don't look at him with your arm out, stiff-arming him because
he doesn't look like you or act like you or talk like you. See,
it gets the cleaning house. Cuz see we can actually come
into the church with all of our carnal baggage and think that
some God how God has to endorse that mess and what the Gospels
designed to do is level us all to the ground and make us nothing
but vessels of mercy and we're called to be brothers and sisters
in Christ and we are to esteem one another above ourselves preferring
one another over the other as we're learning in the marriage
series that's what we're called to do but in the church you got
some of the same maladies the same evils discrimination, and
racism, and bigotry, and carnality, and fleshliness, and pride, and
self-righteousness. All of the same stuff that's
in the world in the church. So when Paul gets to Romans chapter
12, he says, hey, y'all better clean that stuff up. Because
I want to present you as an acceptable sacrifice to God on the last
day. That's chapter 15. He says, I
want to present you as a priest to God as an acceptable sacrifice.
So we cannot get away from the responsibility to love God, to
submit to His authority, and to serve the true and the living
God, adorning the gospel of His grace. And let me finish up these
three points quickly. Third point. When you go to Romans
chapter 1, what you see are three unavoidable realities. And I'm
going to push these through here quick. Because we've actually
got to come back to Romans 1 and work them through. In Romans
chapter one, what you discover is a man who is passionate about
the gospel. Look at chapter one, verse 14
and 15 briefly. This is Paul. This is the man
that many of us adore. I adore him. I adore him. He
didn't have to love Gentiles like he did. He was a Jew. He
didn't have to love me the way he did. But there was something
going on inside Paul's heart. that caused him to break out
of the narrow parameters of his own Jewish elitism. Because remember,
he was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. Remember, he was born of the
tribe of Benjamin. He actually had the certificate that he was
circumcised on the eighth day, not the seventh and the ninth
day. Did you get that? His mom and
daddy were fastidious with making sure he was circumcised on the
8th day. Because sometimes they had problems with circumcising
on the 8th day. Some folks had to do it on the 7th, others on
the 9th, because of difficult issues. He said, my mom and daddy
got it right. You know what he's boasting in?
His self-righteousness. But when Christ revealed his glory to
Saul, and changed his name from Saul to Paul, and helped him
understand that he was Lord of all, Paul broke through that
narrow parameter of thinking that this is all about Judaism.
And he became the man, according to 1 Corinthians 9, around verse
19, who said, I have become all things to all men that if by
any means I might win some. I want to be like that. That's
my big brother. I want to be like him. I want
to become all things to all men that by any means I might win
some. I don't want to be narrow in
my view. I don't want to be limited in my comfort zone of only reaching
certain kind of people. I want to reach all kind of hell
bound sinners for Christ. God, make me capable of reaching
my brothers and sisters in the far regions of the world who
don't look like me, who don't act like me, who don't talk like
me, who don't think like me. Help me build a bridge between
me and them so that Christ can be glorified in both of our lives. And if that means humbling me,
humble me. Humble me. Humble me so that
I can be a means of redemption for those brothers and sisters
now in order to actually have that kind of ethic God has to
have deposited in your soul in your soul the love of God in
such enormous quantities That you are willing to constantly
fight against your own comfort zone Because we mostly capitulate
to our comfort zones Don't even care about people Am I telling
the truth? Can I keep going? Let me wrap
this up. Paul is amazing that way. Verse 14 and 15. He says,
I am a debtor both to the Greek and to the barbarian, both to
the wise and the unwise. Do you understand what kind of
message is in verse 14? Paul says, I am a debtor to the
Greek. I am a debtor to the barbarian.
Most of us cross the street when we see the barbarian. You know
that person we call a barbarian? Oh, that fool's a barbarian.
We start crossing the street. The last thing I'm going to do
is talk to a barbarian. Well, why talk to a barbarian? He ain't
going to understand me no way. See, we build all kinds of reasons
not to talk to the barbarian. I love Paul. He talks to barbarians. He goes to people whose brain
cells don't function at full capacity. because he believes
there is a God who can still reach down and give the barbarian
grace to know God. Powerful, powerful, powerful,
powerful. He's a debtor to grace. He's
passionate about the saints. Passionate about the saints,
and he's passionate about the saints because the saints are
the people of God. Can I say this? This is how you
can test whether your faith is authentic. If you love the God
that saved you, You love the people that got saved. Moreover,
Paul is passionate about the saints because they forgave him
for all that he did against them. Y'all got that? See, he went
about killing the saints. And you know what the saints
did? They forgave that brother. They welcomed him into the kingdom
and see that made him even more a debtor to the Saints. Are you
hearing me? See he'd have to sit there and worship with them
sometimes and look around said man There was a day when I was
trying to cut these folks head off and now these are my brothers
and sisters in Christ and they don't just Forgiving me and let
it go and they're worshiping with me and they're supporting
me in the cause of the gospel See that's the kind of ethic
that has to be in our soul. We got to remember that how hostile
we were against the gospel and against the people of God. I
love him. I love Paul. I love him. And then he was ready
to fellowship. Paul loved it. The chapter clearly
alludes to him wanting to fellowship with them, wanting to enjoy fellowship
with them. That's what he's talking about.
I can't wait to come to be with you in order to impart something
unto you of a spiritual nature and you to me as well. This is
what he's talking about. Let me move on to my last two
points. Point number four, the slaves gospel. I'm very quick
with this because I want to pick this one up and talk about it
next week. The slave's gospel. This was strategic on Paul's
part. Notice how he opens up chapter
one, verse one. Here it is. For those of us who hate the
undignified term slave, slave. Don't call me a slave. But what am I going to call you? A free man? A free woman? When I see you in bondage to
all kind of stuff? Trapped by all kinds of cords
of iniquity? Inhibited by all kinds of vices?
You mean you're really free? Listen, we're all slaves. Are
you ready? Of one thing or the other. We're
all slaves. Only God is free. Even the devil
is God's slave. Did you get that? Even the devil
is God's slave. He cannot do anything other than
what God tells that dog to do. Listen to what Paul says in verse
1. Paul, a doulos of Jesus Christ. See the word servant? In our
King James Bible, we didn't want to put the word slave in there
back in those days, because that would have created an uproar
in the kingdom. Because he professed to be a Christian, But he has
slaves everywhere. You know, that's the oxymoronic
history we've been dealing with, right? So he said, now, you theologians,
would y'all soften that word slave? That's why you don't see
the word slave hardly anywhere in the Bible. It's almost always
served, particularly in New Testament. Servant. Ladies and gentlemen,
this is the word doulos. It literally means a slave. And notice what Paul is doing.
He's calling himself a slave of Jesus. That's word contemplating
itself. Are you? slave of Christ. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Three
things under the slave's gospel. Paul is a servant of King Jesus,
and he is a servant of the message of the gospel. Verse 2 and 3.
Which he had promised aforetime by his prophets in the Holy Scripture
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh. Verse 4. And declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness.
by the resurrection from the dead. There's a lot in there
that we need to develop later on. In essence, what Paul is
saying is he's a slave of King Jesus. He's a slave of the message
of King Jesus. And the message is that King
Jesus is the son of the living God. And we know that because
he rose again from the dead. More than that, not only am I
a slave of King Jesus, a slave of his gospel, a slave of the
risen Lord, my job is to make sure this gospel is preached
everywhere. Verse 5. By whom we have received
grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith among
all Nations for his name you see his charter all nations Do
you guys see that all nations watch this? The reason you and
I are contemplating the gospel today is because of this charter
The gospel has reached us has it not because of this charter
Paul had a major vision Now watch it. Here it is. Let's get to
our last point Christ is Lord. Verse six and seven. God has
called us to preach the gospel, he says, to all nations for the
obedience of faith, among whom you are also the called of Jesus
Christ. He's affirming the salvation
of the Romans, right? Verse seven, to all that be in
Rome, beloved of God, called saints. Forget the word to be,
I'll straighten it out. You ain't called to be saints.
You're called saints. Now, this is not a verb called
here. This is what we call an adjective
in the Greek form. And what it's describing is your
status before God. You are called by God saints. That's good. Because you look
like it ain't. With the S missing, but God sees
the S. Say, surely say, but he looks
like an eight. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, call saints, grace to you, and peace from God our Father.
And here's where I want to close. Watch this now. And the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
are called fighting words. I'm done here. Watch this. Those
are fighting words. Those are fighting words. Paul
says, I'm coming to Rome so I can fight with you. Now, I've been
fighting in Asia Minor. I've been fighting up in Turkey.
I've been fighting everywhere. I'm ready to come to Rome and
fight with you. Now, what's the fight? To tell everybody in Rome. Are you ready? Caesar's not Lord. The emperor's not Lord. Our politicians
are not Lord. There ain't but one Lord. There
ain't but one name given among men by which we must be saved. And that's the name of Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is sovereign Lord of all.
He is Lord of the universe. He is Lord of the church. He
is the Lord of the salvation of God's people. And he is Lord
of us personally. He is Lord. And that's what we're
going to work through over these next 12, 13, 14, 15 months. Is he Lord? Is he Lord? Amen
and amen.