The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: The Plan and Purpose of the Gospel

Episode Date: January 14, 2018

The Point of ROMANS is the Gospel. The Gospel: the reconciling of sinful peoples with a Holy God through the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in accordance with the scriptures for the Glory of God.

Amen and amen. Church, you ready for this? You ready for the next eight months in the book of Romans? It doesn't sound like it, so I got a lot of work to do. If you would, please stand at all of our campuses for the reading of God's Word. I don't know some of you Catholics for the first time you feel at home at church. All right. Romans, a letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the God. of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about

the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God add blessing to the reading and the hearing of His Word. Amen. You can be seated. If you've got your Bibles, you can bust them open to Romans, or you can grab your study journal that we gave you on the way in. And if you didn't get one of these, make sure you get one on your way out. We have enough for everybody. I think, and so this is very, very important. This is going to be for you to study the book of Romans over the next eight months that we're

going to be studying it, okay? And it is our gift to you. And like any gift, it's free to you, but it is not free. We spend a lot of money investing in this, and we think it's worth every penny. And so this is an all-scape. Okay, this means everybody is involved. So get out your journal and open it to the inside cover, and there is a place for your very own name, all right?

And so you're going to write your name in there. Because when you lose this, we're going to get this back to you. We don't have one for you to get every single week. This is yours for the duration. And under that, there's your phone number. So write your phone number. So if you misplace this somehow, we're going to call you and say, we have your journal. And then under that, there's your email address.

All right? So write your email. Look, this is an all-skate. If your arm is around your wife, then you're not playing along. You need a seat. I mean, you need a pen. You need to get this out. And you need to write these things down.

Okay, we're going to study the Word of God together. and this is our gift to you. Now, here's why we're doing this, because when you leave your sunglasses, you call us before the next service. You're like, hey, did you find some Costa? Sure did. Come get them, all right?

But when you leave your Bible, you just donate it. By the way, if you don't have a Bible and you want a really nice leather-bound one with somebody else's name on it, you just check our lost and found. And be like, oh, look, Ted's Bible, and you're going to take it home with you,

okay? So, but you're going to keep up with these, all right? And so that's what that is. Go ahead and write your information in it. And then there's a letter from me to you about what Romans is, And then if you flip over to page two, you'll see that every single week we have the text that we're going to be studying. And there's no magical way it's broken up.

It's just the way that I've decided to teach it. And around it is a section for you to take notes. And then also, under it is a memory verse. Do you know what you're doing, memory verses? You memorize them. Look, class, you're so smart. And so I think there's 24 memory verses from the book of Romans. And don't you tell me, well, I can't memorize stuff.

That is a lie. That is a lie. All right? Some of you still remember your locker accommodation from high school, all right? It's crazy, isn't it? Or if I just go, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, words pop into your head. You know it. All right, stop.

Collaborate and listen. You know what I'm talking about. You know them all. So we can memorize verses. So some of them like this one, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, we're not going to get it for three weeks. So you've got three weeks to memorize that one. Also, you see the definition here for the word holy. I think there's, I don't know, 30-ish terms, maybe more, maybe 40 terms.

throughout the book of Romans that we will define for you, and we have two definitions in there. The one that will show up kind of on the page that you're studying is sort of the 1122 quick, easy-to-remember definition like Holy Mean Set Apart. There is a more robust, they're all theologically accurate, but a more theologically complete definition in the very back. There is a glossary of terms that you could go through there. We've got the majority of those definitions from a ministry called Desiring God. by Dr. John Piper.

And so this is your study journal to bring with you every single week. And also, you can write down questions, you could ask them in disciple group, etc., etc. Now, you may be saying, so why are we doing this? Because if you were here last week, you remember that a part of the vision for 2018 is that we are going to really focus on this part of our vision statement. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And so we're going to really drill down on what does it look like to deepen our relationship with Jesus. Christ. Now, one of the things we said we're going to do is that you could receive devotionals from me every week. A few thousand of you signed up for those. If you haven't done

that yet, you can go to our website, C-O-E-22.com slash deepen. And you can sign up to get those and receive divos and on that webpage. There's all these different ways that you can deepen with the faith family and you can deepen your faith in Jesus. And so, why Romans? For the next 34 weeks we are going to study the book of Romans. Now, I have had, well, nobody from here, but sometimes I've heard some people say, you mean you guys just study books of the Bible

for that long? Well, what if it doesn't address people's felt needs? So there's two things I want to say about that. One, Jimmy cracks corn, and I don't care what you feel, because here's why. Because your greatest need is Jesus, whether you feel it or not yet.

The reality is is that everybody lives forever somewhere. Hell is hot and forever's a long time. That is your greatest need. And so to be separated from God, the almighty, the source of all things good and beautiful and love it, to be separated from him forever is, man, that's the greatest need on your horizon. And you need to be reconciled unto him through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And nothing covers that better than the book of Romans.

So why Romans for the next eight months? Because it's the most important theological piece of literature ever written in the history of humanity. Every other epistle that Paul wrote, those are just letters to churches, were all in response to what those churches were doing wrong. He never visits Rome, not at least the church, he visits the jail there. And what he does here is he's not writing in response to what a church is messing up. He writes his doctrine of the gospel for people. Romans explains to us what happens to us when we trust Jesus as our Savior.

This will be really important for some of you. You see, some of you have the testimony like me. Some of you have a testimony kind of like Paul. We'll talk about him in a minute. That you were in rebellion against God on your way to do terrible things, and God miraculously saved you out of your sin and depravity. Some of you have the testimony like my wife Gretchen does. She can't remember not believing in Jesus.

She can't remember not loving God. She grew up in a great home and a great Christian family and a church that her granddad planted. And honestly, I pray as a parent that my kids have her testimony, not mine. Amen. But yet, she doesn't have to remember the day she surrendered her life to Christ because she can read about what happens in the book of Romans that describes her salvation. You see, Romans 323 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 623 says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Romans 5.8 says, but God demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Romans 109 says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, that God raised them from the dead, you will be saved. By the way, those are four of your memory verses, so catch up, okay? I'm already up on you four. And all the Baptists know what that is, the Roman road, okay? That in the book of Romans is the description of the gospel, what we're saved from, how we're saved, and what we're saved to.

That the book of Romans essentially started the Protestant Reformation. When Martin Luther read and realized that we are justified by faith alone and not our own religious deeds, it sparked in him this thing. that led to churches like we have now when you and I can read our Bible on our own and talk about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through faith alone by grace alone, in Christ alone. You see, if 2018 is going to be the year that we dive deep, there is no deeper pool in which to dive

than the book of Romans. And so we're going to dive in. Now, it's a tough book. There are going to be parts of it that to make you scratch your hand. Well, I don't think I believe that, to which we'll say, I don't care what you believe. Here's what the Bible says. and honestly, it's going to rock us all.

In fact, the key question is not to ask what you believe, but to ask what does God's words say? You know, Peter, one of the disciples, he goes on to write a couple epistles himself. They weren't real good at name and stuff. He called it first and second Peter. And so in Second Peter, here's what Peter says about Paul, the guy that wrote Romans.

And I think he's probably talking specifically about Romans. Peter says this, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he, that's Paul, speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them, in the letters that Paul wrote, there are some things in them that are hard to understand. So what Peter is saying about Romans is there are going to be some parts you get to,

and it's really hard to understand. So my job, as the preacher over the next eight months, even though there'll be a few others that preach to. My job is to present this in such a way that you can understand. That's my job. My job as a preacher is not to impress you, it's not to entertain you. It's just to deliver God's word to you in an understandable way. And honestly, I think it's the reason God put me on this planet the way he put me on this planet.

Because I'm not very impressive. In fact, this past summer I had the opportunity to preach at one of the most influential churches in the country right now. It's called the Summit Church. Pastor J.D. Greer is the pastor there. He's a good buddy of mine. He preached here for saturated and he'll be back next year. And so as he was introducing me at his church, he was like a video thing because he's got 11 campuses all over the state of North Carolina. And in his introduction of me, Pastor J.D. said this.

He said, if C.S. Lewis and Charles Spurgeon and Larry the cable guy could have a child, it would be Joe B. Martin. That's what he said. And I don't know if I was supposed to be offended, but I felt kind of honored. I was like, that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said about me, all right? Really what I thought was, that's funny right there. I don't care who you are. You can get out of here. Lord, I apologize.

So I say all that simply to say, I am into, I like Spurgeon and C.S. Lewis and, you know, blue-collar comedy tour is great too, but we're not going to dodge anything in the scriptures. And here's just what I know to be true. And I'm not going to try to confound you with theological terms. We're just going to explain that stuff. But my job as the preacher is simply this. is that I can expose you to the scriptures. I can.

I can tell you, this is when it was written, this is what it means, I can define terms, but only the Spirit of God can expose the scriptures to you. That's just how it works. So the real preacher-teacher-teacher always is the Holy Spirit. I can't teach you anything that the Spirit will not allow you to learn. And so that is what we're going to do as we dive in over the next eight weeks. And so I want you to consider the next 40 minutes or so together today, not so much as a sermon. It is a sermon. It's primarily an introduction and an invitation.

It's an introduction to the book of Romans and an invitation to join us, really, from now until the end of the summer, to take the deepest dive into the doctrine of the gospel that is the book of Romans. So Romans chapter 1, verse 1 starts out this way. Paul, comma. We've got to stop there. All right. This is why we're not going to be in a hurry. We got all summer, okay? Here we go. So you got to know who wrote it and why he wrote it and what's going on in the person that wrote it. Because the Bible says that the writers of the scripture are carried along by the Holy Spirit or all scripture is God to breathe. And what that does not mean is that they went into this trance and then God just sort of like put a pen in their hand and they unconsciously wrote stuff down and that's how we have the Bible. No.

But God is sovereign over every aspect of all of these men's lives of where they were born, who they were born to, their life experience. so that when they did sit down inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the Word of God that not only did he inspire them to write things, but they also leaned on their own culture, their own personalities, and those things are scripture. And so we see the personality of Paul, but we can trust that this is the Word of God. And so Paul, he was named Saul originally.

In the Bible, people would change their names when their lives begin to change. And so he was named after the first king of Israel, which was kind of weird because that king didn't turn out too good at the end. But I guess his parents didn't stay for that part of the Sunday school. And so they named him. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin, which was like the best tribe. He was circumcised on the eighth day. That means from the time he was a little kid, they raised him in the church. It would be the synagogue then.

He grew up in a city called Tarsus, which is a Greek city. He has Jewish heritage, and he's also a Roman citizen. And the reason this is important is because he's going to be the Apostle, to the Gentiles, which means, based on any culture that he is talking to, he knows how to speak their language. Now, here's the thing about Tarsus. Tarsus was a big old city with one of the, the best law school in the entire region. And Paul probably went to Tarsus to that law school.

So he's a lawyer from like an Ivy League school. In fact, the book of Romans is read in such a way, or written in such a way, that for the first hundred plus years of Harvard Law School, every first year Harvard Law student was required to read the book of Romans, all 16 chapters, not for its theological content, but for the way Paul put it together, because what you'll see Paul do is he will bob and weave between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man all through the book of Romans. You see, what Paul will do is, as he is stating one theological truth, he can predict the objections that you will have, that we will have, and then he answers our objections before we are ever able to object. And so Harvard Law would try to

to train their students to do that, like in their opening and closing statements, etc. And so he's a lawyer from the place called Tarsus. He was taught by Gamaliel. Now, here's why this is a really big deal. Gamaliel was the number one Pharisee or teacher in Jerusalem, but Paul's from Tarsus, and he's a Roman citizen. So the fact that Paul got to be in Gamaliel's class, you don't just get to sign up for this, okay? He had to either be very, very rich or come for a very, very famous family or probably both.

Paul is a Pharisee of Pharisees. What this means is that Paul would study the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi and he knew it. Listen, I know some of you grew up doing sword drills at Baptist churches and you know many verses, all right? You know many, like eight. Congratulations. Paul knew every verse in the entire Old Testament by memory. He knew it all. And not only did he know it, he knew the books about the Old Testament so as to not break the law.

Pharisee, what Pharisee means is separated one, and the idea was, if I can keep the law perfectly, then I will be in a right standing with God, and I will be the first person to identify the Messiah when he shows up. Not only that, Paul was zealous for the law, and he believed that his own works gave him a right standing before God. And so the first time we see Saul show up really in the text, it's around Acts chapter 7. There's this young man named Stephen, Stephen's a Christian, he's a Jesus follower, he's a part of the way. And Stephen was Jewish, and he started showing up at these Jewish synagogues, and on, they would go on Saturday, and they'd kind of do like this open mic thing, which is a really dangerous thing in a crowd of people that you don't know.

Just say, hey, anybody want to talk, and he would. And he would stand up, and he would read to the synagogues from the scriptures, from Genesis 1, 2, and 3, from Isaiah 53, from Psalm 22, from all these places in the scriptures and say, hey, listen, guys, you missed it. You missed the whole point. you've been so caught up in the letter of the law you've been so caught up in this religion that you missed the relationship with the Messiah. He came and you crucified him and he's resurrected.

And I don't know if you know this, but man, religious people don't like to be told they're wrong. And so after enough of that, you're wrong, they took Stephen and said, no, you're wrong. And they drag him out of the synagogue, and they take him to the Sanhedron. It'd be like the Supreme Court of the synagogue. And they give him a death sentence.

And they take Stephen up on this thing called the Rock of Judgment. It was about 20 feet off the ground. They throw him off of it. It wasn't to kill him. It was just so that he couldn't run away so that everybody else with stones could stone him. And they stone him to death. And standing right over in the corner is this Pharisee, this up-and-coming lawyer, Pharisee, named Saul. And he's holding everybody's coats and he's orchestrating the whole thing.

And I think, a little conjecture on my part, I think that here Saul, who wanted to be the best and the best, the brightest of the brightest, the who's who of who's who in Jerusalem. I think he saw the bloodthirstiness in the eyes of these men, and he thinks, I got an idea. If I do this in every city, I'll be the man. And so he goes to, like, the board of directors and says, can you give me papers? Can you give me a restaurant? And I will go to every synagogue all over this region, and I will stamp out this blasphemy called The Way, all these Jesus followers that are saying that Jesus is who he says he is. And so they write him some papers.

And so he's on his way. he's on his way to Damascus. And the reason that he's going on his way to Damascus is he wants to arrest and terrorize and kill anybody that believes in Jesus. These days, we would call that a hate crime. Or we would call that a religious terrorist. This is who Saul is. And on his way to Damascus, if you've been around Bible study, this is like, oh, you know this stuff. But if you're new, this is what happens to this dude.

He is on his way to Damascus, not to meet Jesus, but to stamp out anybody that would follow after Jesus. and a bright light shines on Paul, knocks him off his horse, and says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And it's Jesus himself has shown up. To which Saul could say, I'm not persecuting you. I'm persecuting your people. To which the response will be, Jesus would say, no, no, no, my people are my body now on earth. The expression of Jesus here on this earth is when we gather together in Jesus' name. But that's a different sermon.

We don't have time for that. Okay, keep up. So in that moment, he says, who are you, Lord? And he surrenders his life to the Lordship of Christ. A terrorist. becomes a Christian. And then he goes on this weird kind of supernatural, like Bible study where the Spirit of God kind of trains him up.

And eventually, he joins up with the other believers in Antioch. It's crazy. You think you've got some weird people joining your disciple group. Imagine if the brother that came walking in, you're like, wait a minute, wait, I know that guy. He killed my cousin, all right? And he's like, no, no, I'm into, I believe in Jesus now. Sure you do. Okay, that's what happened.

But the church in Antioch takes him on. He is appointed to be an apostasy. and then what happens, this always happens. When you get to Acts chapter 15 is the church has to get together to vote to see if God can do what he's already been doing. That's what churches do. God moves. We're like, well, we hadn't voted on this.

And so they get together is the first church business meetings while we don't do business meetings here. And they vote on, do you have to become Jewish to then become a Christian? And they vote, no. You just believe in Jesus. That's what it takes. And then, you know, be culturally sensitive to people around you. And then you remember in Acts chapter 1 8,

we studied this last week. Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And all of the other apostles, they say, okay, we'll stay here in Jerusalem. And Paul goes, cool, you take Jerusalem, I'll take the rest of the world, ready, break. And that's what he does. And so Paul begins to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He goes on three missionary journeys.

Man, this is the rest of the book of Acts. He goes on three missionary journeys. All in those missionary journeys, as he's planting churches all over that area, He writes 13 letters to churches that he is planted, really 12 that he's planted. He writes to a couple of the pastors. And on his second missionary journey, while he was in Corinth, wintering there, because it was too hard to get back home, probably in about 56 AD, he writes the letter to the church in Rome. And so, why do we share all this? You know, we're a movement for all people, a movement for all people, which means this.

Do you know that if you think you're too bad for the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul's way worse than you. Do you realize that? And God saved him. No matter what you've done. I mean, I know you've done some shady stuff. I've seen your Facebook. I'm not saying that you're not sinning, all right? But I don't know.

Anybody here persecute Christians? If so, we'd love for you to just raise your hand, identify yourself. We would have some people we would like to introduce you to, all right? We have a light for you too. It's a taser. Anyway. But if you're bad, man, if you're really good at being bad, good news. The gospel's for you.

But also, man, if you think you're good, Paul's better than you. Paul's better than you. He doesn't do that shady stuff you do. He ain't binging on Netflix, on some suspect content. He ain't doing that, all right? He was good at being good. And if you're really, really good, I've got good news. You can be saved too.

So the message of the gospel is for all people. And God used this man. Saved him, but he did not save him just to convert him. He saved him to commission him. And so, Paul, that's who wrote the letter. A servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. You see, what Paul wants us to know here is it's not about Paul. You see, Paul is the passive agent in all of these activities.

That he's a servant, the Greek word there is doulas. Some translations will use the word slave. It's kind of a problem in American thought life because we go to transatlantic savory and the awfulness and ruthlessness that that is and was. But this is like, this word duelous means, you paid for me and you were my Lord. And so he's saying, I'm not the boss of me. Christ paid for me and I do what he tells me to do.

And I'm called to be an apostle and I'm set apart. In other words, Paul wants us to know not who he is, but whose he is. That's what's most important. He's saying, I am not my own. I am his. been set apart for something. I have been set apart for the gospel of God. That word gospel just means good news. Good news. We'll start with news. In order for something to be news, two things have to happen. One, it has to happen. If it doesn't happen, it's just opinion. Secondly, it has to be

reported or heralded. And the news that Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, that is good news. The way I would define the gospel is this. I put it in the bottom of the notes that we handed you. This is my definition if you don't like it. Whatever, but this is the one I'm going with, okay? The gospel is the reconciling of sinful peoples, and that S is on purpose. That's not like a misprint, okay? Because the great commission says that we are to go to all peoples or all ethnos is the Greek word. It means every tribe, every tongue, every culture. The reconciling of sinful peoples with a holy God through the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in accordance with the scriptures for the glory of God.

That's what the gospel is. Or if you want the four-word definition, Jesus in our place. That's the gospel. And so Paul says, I have been set apart for that, for the reconciling of sinful peoples with a holy God

through the substitutionary atoning life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in accordance with the scriptures for the glory of God. Verse 2, which He, that's God, promised beforehand, through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Verse 3 concerning his son

who was descended from David according to the flesh. In other words, Jesus is fully man and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness. In other words, Jesus is fully God. He's fully God. He's fully man. He's 100% both, not lacking in either. By his resurrection from the dead,

Jesus Christ, our Lord. So here's what this means. This implies that not only did Jesus come that he died. Because in order to be resurrected, you have to die. And it implies that Christianity is built on an event, not a belief system. This is very, very big. The Christianity, that being a Jesus follower, the reason that we can believe and know that Jesus is who he says he is, and he always keeps his promises, is because if you go to the tomb, it is empty.

That on the third day, Christ was resurrected from the grave. Listen, people have claimed to do and be all kinds of people and crazy stuff. But the reason that we can trust that Jesus is who he says he is, is but. because of the resurrection. The C.S. Lewis says, when you claim the kind of things that Jesus claimed, and you cannot just be a good moral teacher, you're either a liar.

You know you're not telling the truth, but you're trying to mislead people for your own benefit. Or you're a lunatic. You think you are who you claim you are, but he says you're on the level of thinking you're a poached egg. Or he's the Lord. He is who he says he is. And so what Paul is saying here is,

I don't know people in Rome, I don't know why you're surprised about this whole Jesus being the Messiah thing, because verse two, he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. What he's saying is, this is not new, that God had a plan for the gospel, and the plan for the gospel was represented and spelled out all throughout the Old Testament. He wouldn't have called it Old Testament then because there was just A Testament, and he would say that in the Holy Scriptures, through the law and through the prophets,

the whole thing was about one thing, and it was not about you. The whole thing was about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Sometimes you hear people say like the Bible is like a roadmap to life. And I know what they mean. I mean, there are maps in the back, you know, but that's not what that means. The whole Bible is not really about you. It's about what Christ came to do for you. You see, the whole Bible starts out this way.

And again, the reason I'm sharing, we're going to do the whole Old Testament about eight minutes, okay? The reason is because Paul said this whole thing, the plan was set before you in the Old Testament. You see, it starts out this way. In the beginning, God, the God existed in and of himself apart from us, before us. He was in the beginning. Nobody began him. He is the beginning. And in the beginning was God. God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, coexisting in a perfect love relationship in and of himself. He was not needy. He did not need us at all. And God's love for God's self spills out into creation to display the glory of God. That's why God created us, just to display his glory, just as an overflow of his love for himself.

Because it's not like God was in heaven going, what are we going to do with all this time and space? I mean, we've got forever to do something, I know. Let's create some people that will sing us songs and then disobey us all week. I mean, that is not the plan. And then he speaks and stuff starts happening. And then he creates us, men and women, in his own image, that we are to reflect that love relationship of God with himself. And he creates man, the very first man. He gathers together the dust of the earth, the Adam.

That's the Hebrew word. We call it Adam. And it means dirt. He gathers together the dirt, and there is a shell of a man. And then he breathes the ruach of life. Ru is a Hebrew word. It means breath or spirit, either one. And so he breathes in him, his spirit.

And think about this. The very first human being opens his eyes, and he is face to face with the creator. And then he looks and said, it's not good for man to be alone. He creates Eve in his image, co-equal with him. He gives them some different jobs to compliment one another, and he says, okay, subdue and cultivate this world. And they are in a perfect relationship with God. There's walking around with God in the garden until they buy into the lie of the enemy, and the enemy convinces them. If you obey God, you will miss out on some happiness.

Sin enters the world. And when sin enters the world, it fractures this perfect relationship that they have with God, because God is holy and just. And a holy and just God must punish sin. And so they run and they hide and they sow fig leaves for themselves and the very first religion is ever created. God, I don't need you. By my own hard work, I can cover over my own sin and shame. And God catches them and he does two things. To show his justice, he kicks them out of the garden, but to show his grace, he makes a covering for their sin.

It is the nature of God right there. His holiness and his grace are represented there. And before he kicks him out and before he makes a covering, he curses man, he curses woman, he curses all creation. And to the woman, he says this, I will put enmity, that's like hate, between this enemy and your offspring. But there will come a day when this singular Jewish male will show up on the scene. And this enemy will bruise his heel, but your offspring will crush his head. It's called the Proto Evangalion, the first gospel. And from that moment, everything else in the Old Testament is looking for the serpent crusher.

And so a few hundred years pass, and God goes to Abraham, and he's just a regular guy, and he calls him out, and he goes, hey, I've got a purpose, I've got a plan for your life. You've got to trust me and follow me. And Abraham puts his faith in God, and God counts his faith as righteousness. He credits his fate as righteousness. In other words, before there was a law, God said, you can have a right standing before me through grace by faith, not by anything that you do. And he says, Abraham, you're going to be a father of many nations. And Abraham's like, look, I don't think you know how this works.

I'm old. And literally the Bible says that my wife is older than old. That was the way you would call people dead. I would not suggest you say that to your wife. I'm just telling you what's in the Bible, okay? And so he gives him a son, a promised son. And he says, Abraham, I am blessing you to be a blessing. I am choosing you to be a father of nations, not for your sake, but for my sake and for all the nations.

And so, fast forward, and Abraham has Isaac has Isaac. And Abraham has Isaac. Jacob's name means heel grabber and he wrestles with God and he changes the name to Israel. That's where Israel comes from. And Jacob has a son named Joseph and Joseph is sold into slavery and through a series of events, he ends up the vice president of Egypt basically. And at the end of Genesis he says, Joseph says, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. Thousands of years later when Jesus would show up on the scene and what men intended for evil to crucify the son of God,

God intended for good, that God decided to execute his plan with the execution of his son. And that's the book of Genesis. And then the people over hundreds of years, this little family grows into a nation under the heavy hand of Egypt and the people of God cry out to God and God hears their prayers. And so he sends Moses to go and go eyeball to eyeball with Pharaoh and say, let my people go. And they kind of get in this little wrestling match

that involves ten plagues and the tenth plague comes along. It's called the plague of the firstborn. And Moses tells all the people, you go get a perfect spotless lamb and you slaughter him and you put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of your house, and an angel of death is going to pass over whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of your house. It was a precursor of what to come.

And so Moses says, fine, you go. They cross the Red Sea. They end up wandering around in the desert. Moses hops up on the Mount Sinai, and he comes face to face with God, and God gives him the Ten Commandments. And the first part of the Ten Commandments is a covenant with God and His people. He said, you will be my God or you will be my people and I will be your God.

Even though they didn't do anything yet. God makes a covenant with him. And then he rolls out the Ten Commandments, and then 600 plus more. And the Ten Commandments are both a map and a mirror. It's a map to show us what a right living with God looks like. And it's a mirror for us to hold up and go, oh, Houston, there's a problem. I can't even pull the first one off.

So then what do we do with the broken laws of God? So Moses comes on down and he lays this out in the book of Leviticus. I know you're all super familiar with it. You read it for luxury over the weekend, okay? But in Leviticus, God establishes this sacrificial system. That one time of year on the Day of Atonement, the people of God would come together confess their sins. The priest would transfer the sin of the people to the head of a scapegoat.

They'd send him out to the desert. He'd die. They'd take the blood of a lamb. They'd slaughter him. They'd go in this place called the Holy of Holies. They'd sprinkle the blood of the lamb over the broken law of God to be a propitiation for our sin, a payment that satisfies. And it would cover over the sin of the Jewish people for one year. And they did it year after year after year.

You get the first and second chronicles. And then this Holy of Holies that used to be as a tent, they establish it. They formalize it. They build a temple. And it is a sacrificial system that by faith, the people that worship God would say, by faith, we know that we need a sacrifice to cover our sins. And then God began to send prophets. Just like Paul said. Jeremiah says this in 3131.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In other words, the old covenant was a covenant of law, but a different, a new covenant is coming. Isaiah 535 says But he was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our iniquities Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace And with his wounds we are healed You see Isaiah was talking about one would come

And do for us what we could not do for ourselves And again Paul is saying to the Romans How could you be surprised? The prophets talked about this. Didn't you read Psalm chapter 22? You remember when Jesus on the cross pushes up And says my God my God why have you forsaken me He wouldn't just making stuff up

That's the first line of Psalm 22 and all the good Jewish people there they would know the rest of the song. Just like if I started singing, Happy Birthday, you would know the rest of the words. And Psalm 22 is a play by play of crucifixion, written 1,000 years before Jesus was crucified,

written 500 years before the Persians ever invented crucifixion as a manner of torturing and killing people. And it goes all the way, all throughout the prophets. All of them point to Jesus. Even up to the very last book in our Old Testament, Malachi says. in Malachi 4-2, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you remember the woman with the issue of blood, she fights through the crowd just so she could get to the edge of Jesus's garment.

That was known as the edge of his wing. Why? Because she believed that this is who Malachi was talking about. And then Malachi wraps up his book with this. He says, I'm going to send you someone with the spirit of Elijah that's going to turn the hearts of men or fathers to their children and children to their fathers. Then you get that one page in your Bible with nothing on it. It's blank. That's 400 years of nothing. And then.

And then one day in a field, some shepherds are just doing shepherd stuff, which is super shady. And then the angels just show up and they say, fear not. So this is how they break through the silence. Fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. In other words, wake up. The thing we've been waiting on, he's coming.

not a rabbi, not a religious teacher, not a good moral teacher, but a savior. For who? For just the Jewish people? No, for all the people. So then for like 30 years, you don't really know what happens. And then one day, John the Baptist, this guy in the spirit of Elijah, he is out in the Jordan River, baptizing people and telling people, repent, repent, repent. And he's saying, I'm preparing the way of the Lord. Then one day, he stops everything.

It says, behold, there's his first cousin, Jesus. of Nazareth, this carpenter's boy, and he says, behold, everybody pay attention, the Lamb of God, who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. Jesus walks down into the water to be baptized, and the heavens open up, and God out loud confirms, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. For three years, Jesus demonstrates and declares what it looks like to be in a right relationship with God. And then on the cross, just like it was prophesied, he pushes up on his nail-pierced, and he says, is finished. And as soon as he gives his spirit up, an earthquake hits Jerusalem that cracks from

Galgotha right down the middle of the temple. And in the temple, there was this room that held the laws of God, the ark of the covenant. And there was this curtain that separated the people of God from the presence of God. And when Jesus says, it is finished and that earthquake hits, it rips the curtain from the top to the bottom, and it makes a way for the people of God to be invited through the blood of Jesus into the presence of God. And you and I, if you were in Christ, are reconciled. to God. In other words, just like Adam, when God breathed the spirit in him and he opened his eyes and became a living creature, that when you surrender your life to Christ by the blood of Jesus, that God breathes the breath of his spirit into you and you can open your eyes and be face to

face with the Almighty God. And Paul says, how did you miss it? The whole thing. That's what the whole thing was about. You see, the whole Old Testament was pointing to the coming king. See, in Genesis, Jesus is the ram at Abraham's author. In Exodus, he's the Passover land. In Leviticus, he's the high priest. In Numbers, he's the cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In Deuteronomy, he's the city of our refuge. In Joshua, he's the scarlet thread out of Rehab's window. In Judges, he is our judge.

In Ruth, he is our kinsman redeemer. In 1st and 2nd, Samuel, he is our trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, he is our reigning king. In Ezra, he is our faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, he is the rebuilder of everything that is broken. In Esther, he is the Mordecai sitting faithfully at the gate. In Job, he is our Redeemer that ever lives. In Psalms, he is my shepherd, and I shall not be in want.

In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he is our wisdom. In the Song of Solomon, he is the beautiful bridegroom. In Isaiah, he is the suffering prophet. In Jeremiah, in Lamentations, he is the weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, he is the one that brings the valley of dry bones to new life. In Daniel, he's the fourth man in the midst of the fiery furnace. In Hosea, he is my love that is forever faithful. In Joel, he is the baptizer of the Holy Spirit.

In Amos, he is our burden bearer. In Obadiah, he is our Savior. In Jonah, he is the great foreign missionary that takes the Word of God into all the world. In Micah, he is the messenger with beautiful feet. In Naham, he is the Avenger. In Habakkuk, he is the watchman that is ever praying for revival. In Zephaniah, he is the Lord mighty to save. In Hagai, he is the restore of our lost heritage.

In Zechariah, he is our fountain. In Malachi, he is the son of righteousness with healing in his wings, and in the New Testament and forevermore, he is Jesus. Amen, church. So Paul says, that's the plan of the gospel. The plan has been there from the beginning. And if that is the plan that Jesus would come on our behalf to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, then what is the purpose?

He says this, verse 5, through whom we have received grace, grace, that the gospel is rooted in grace. that before he gets into all of the doctrines and all of the stuff that's going to be hard for us to swallow, he wants us to know that we are saved by grace through faith. So you can't understand Romans without understanding grace. And so he says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship, that just means to tell somebody, two. Now this is important.

Sometimes we skip over the little conjunction words in the Bible, like two and four and therefore and but and however and however. And those are sometimes some of the most important words in the scriptures. A great way to study the scriptures is when you see something like two or four or because is to see why it's there. See what are the two ideas that he is linking together? So when he says through whom we have received grace and apostleship, in other words, why did God save you? He saved you to something. And here's what he saved us to.

There are three things he saved us to. One is to bring about the obedience of faith, two, for the sake of his name, three among all the nations. the first one, that he saved us to bring about the obedience of faith, that the gospel doesn't just save us, the gospel sanctifies us. And this is not an outside in thing, this is an inside out thing. You see, the danger, if you grow up in church, especially even if you're around like good Bible teaching churches, is you can begin to see Jesus as a truth to be believed in versus a treasure to be adored. And when you do that, it will not lead to an obedient.

of faith. You see, an obedience of faith is when you begin to get your mind around the idea of God's grace, that who am I, that he would save a wretch like me? What king leaves his throne, especially to come after a traitor and a treasoner like me? Who would do that? You're so overwhelmed with gratitude that from the inside out something begins to change, your obedience of faith. And it's not just like a bad people trying to do better. It's people that knew that we were We were dead in our transgressions and now we are made alive. You see, we have this fear. A lot of us had this fear that if we obey God this year, then we won't be as happy.

That's what we think. And when we do that, it's because we treasure something, some possession, some activity, some relationship. We treasure that more than the king of the universe that died on the cross for us. And what this is primarily about is not about changing our will, but changing our will. but changing our desires from the inside out. You see, next month, on February 26, Gretchen and I will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. All right? Amen. Amen.

I'm glad you're mildly impressed. I know you look at me and are like, wow, you look so young to be married 18. No, you don't. You look at her and think that, but here's the thing. So imagine, we'll be in Israel that day, I think. Yeah, we will. And so imagine if that day, though, I went out to the store and I got 18 red roses.

Okay? And I went and just pretend we were home and I went to my front door and I rang the doorbell, right? And she would think, who was that? Who comes to the front door? Nobody comes to the front door except Amazon every 30 minutes, but you know what I mean, right? And I'm waiting at the front door

and she opens at the door and I go, here you go, baby, I love you. And if she would go, oh, wow, 18 red roses, why would you do that? And I go, well, it's not only this. I want you to go put on a dress and we're going to go to like the nicest place in town. And there is nothing, there is no place I would rather be tonight than just with you.

And you and I are going to go and we're going to find some corner in a restaurant. There is not going to be a sports center anywhere within my peripheral vision. And on my back, I'm going to say, 1122, I love you, but please do not disturb. And we are going to like just, I'm going to order wine. I don't even like it that much, but I'm going to swirl it around. I'm going to sniff it. Why? Because it's just your night, okay?

and it's just going to be me and you because I love you. That's all. Don't you think she'd be honored in that? You think she'd say, all you ever think about is you? No, no, no, no. She would find great delight in the fact that I am satisfied in her. You see, that's an inside out thing. If she were to say, now, why are you doing, now go back, I go, I got the flowers, I rang the doorbell, hey, have your anniversary.

And she goes, why are you doing this? I go, yeah, go put on a dress. We're going to go to a nice dinner. And she goes, why are you doing this? I go, well, I made a commitment. Yeah, I covenant that I would love you until death do his part, and you're not dead, so come on, get dressed, let's go. The Bible says I have to, all right? You would think, hold on, something's wrong.

And if that's how you treat your relationship with the Lord, that's not an obedience from faith. That's just a workspace righteousness. And so we were saved to an obedience of faith for the sake of his name. Like the reason that he saved you is not for you. the reason that he wants you to walk in holiness is really not about you is for the glory of his name you see what will begin to happen as you as the gospel invades you you'll be able to understand listen he's for you anybody who dies for you is for you it's just not about you and when you realize that you're not the center of the universe then and only then can you have the peace that transcends

all understanding because when it's all about you then man that's a miserable way to live unless everything in the universe has aligned to your liking It's as little as this, man, you're in the fast lane, you're in the passing lane. What's it called? The passing lane, the fast lane. And you pull up on somebody who's not going fast enough. How do you feel in that moment? Hey, what is your problem?

Can you not read? Are you too, what is going to? I'm going to tell you, I want to shift in a four-wheel drive and just come up over. I'm like, what is wrong with you, all right? Because I got places to beat. Unless, unless, some days, I'm just riding around and I'm not in a hurry, and somebody rolls up on me. And I'm offended. Hey, what you do?

How are you going to roll up on somebody? Let me just slow this down to 55. Lord wants to teach you some patience, all right? Why? Because I'm offended anytime James 4-1, I don't get what I want. And so we are saved to bring about the obedience peace for the sake of his name. It is the freest way of you will ever live when you begin to understand that your story is a part of his glory and not the other way around. And then there's one more part of it, among the nations. The nations start with your roommate, whether you and F or you've been married forever.

The nations begin with your roommate. You ever wonder why God doesn't just take us home? I mean, the moment you get saved, if heaven is all that we say it is, and everybody wants to go there, you realize this, everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die. You ever notice that? But if heaven is all that it is, the glory of God, no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering, plenty of food, your team wins in double overtime. Even the referees can see. I mean, it is perfection, amen? Then why can God just take us home immediately?

Like you raise your hand in here and you're gone, all right? Why not? Here's why? because he didn't save you for you. He saved us to set us apart to make us like little A Apostles, not a big A Apostle. I explained that one day. He saved us to transform us from the inside out so that we would be like a shining star

in a crooked and depraved generation that you would live your life in such a way. It's not like, I believe in Jesus. Everything went awesome. Now everybody wants Jesus. Because if that's the testimony, people actually want awesome. And Jesus becomes their servant to try to be awesome. that is not the sake of the gospel. The God leaves us here on this earth,

plants us in strategic locations for the glory of his name in the nations. For a bunch of us, that's to travel all over the nations. For some of us, it's to take his name into your workplace and let people see you being transformed from the inside out. And when they see everything in your life not going well, and the declaration and the demonstration of your life is, it is well with my soul.

That Jesus is more than enough. That God does that to drive. all men and women unto himself because nothing glorifies God more than more people glorifying God. And so Paul says, so that's what this whole letter is all about, including you who are called to belong to Christ, to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, I got good news for you. If you are a follower of Jesus, if you've surrendered your life to the Lordship of Christ, then guess what, church, you're a saint.

You're a saint. I know some of you Catholics there. Are you sure? I'm positive. So you can take that other dude's necklace off. You can get a necklace with your own name, all right? Call your grandma. Look at there.

head. Don't pray to me, but I am right with Christ. Why? Because, because we'll get to this in Romans chapter 8, that we are justified by faith alone, but faith that justifies never comes alone. It also sanctifies, and then one day glorifies. Here's what that means. Is that when you put your faith in Christ, he saves you from the penalty of sin. I mean, as you go to heaven, not hell. He is continually saving you day by day from the power of sin. That's what sanctification is. That there's some stuff that you don't do anymore because you're not the person that you used to be. And then one day he will save us from the very presence of sin when we're glorified in heaven.

Therefore, we are saints. He's not in love with some future version of you, but that you right now. So he says, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, that's a good summation of the gospel, grace and peace. That because of the grace of God, we receive peace. we can receive what Adam started out with that because of the grace of God,

what Christ did for us on the cross, because of the gospel, that you and I can be reconciled unto God, that you can truly believe that God ain't mad at you because of what Christ did for you on the cross. And when you have, when you receive that kind of grace, not only do you have peace with God, but he also gives us peace with one another.

So the point, the point of Romans, the point of the whole, thing, the point of Romans, is the gospel. That's the point. And so over the next eight months, over the next eight months, I want to invite you to unpack the book of Romans with me. Now, the way Paul breaks it up, he's for about the first three chapters, he talks about our need for the gospel. From about three to eight, he talks about the gospel response and being justified by faith alone. In chapters eight through 11, he's going to talk about implications

of the gospel, and then from 12 to the end, he's going to talk about the gospel being for all people. And we are going to talk about free will and predestination and why do bad things happen to good people, and is there such a thing as a good person, and what happens when God doesn't answer my prayer, and what's wrong with this world, and we're going to talk about sex and sexuality, but the most important thing we can talk about is, and what's wrong with me? And my job is not to try to make the scriptures relevant because they are. But we are going to show how the gospel will transform. every single aspect of your life.

When we begin to see Jesus, not just as a truth to be believed in, but as a treasure, as a treasure to be adored. And I want to invite you, no matter where you are, some of you are seminary professors. We have seminary professors here. That kind of makes me nervous

about the way I pronounce words. But whatever. You're here, and I believe that if you abide in him, he will abide in you. You draw near to him, he will draw near to you. You will deepen your relationship with the Lord

as we walk through the book of Romans. even if it's remedial for you. And there are some of you, and you're kind of tearing the cellophane off of your very first Bible, still don't know the difference in the Old Testament and New Testament. I'm not even sure if you believe

all this Jesus stuff. I dare you. I dare you to dive in. Why don't we just kind of pass all the fluff and just dive in to the deep end of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as written by Paul, to the saints in Rome,

and also to us. So that's the challenge. I hope you're ready for the next eight months. Would you please stand and pray? with me. Our good and graceless Heavenly Father, God, we love you. God, we don't love you for some kind of philosophy or far-off ideology or some sort of mythical story about a God and his people and how we get to heaven. God, we thank you and we praise you for the gospel. The tangible, practical realities of the gospel that would invade the heart of an eight-year-old little girl and sitting on our

couch that she would admit that she's a sinner, that she would believe that somehow when Christ died on the cross that counted for her, and that she would confess, even though I confess, she doesn't have a full understanding of the gospel or a full understanding of ourselves, but none of us will until the day we glorify, but she confesses that you are her Lord. So God, I thank you for the gospel in my family that saves my daughter. And God, I thank you for the gospel in our lives that reconciles wretched blackhearted sinners like us to a holy God in accordance with the scripture for your glory. And then, God, I thank you that you don't take us immediately home,

but you set us among the nations. And so, God, we pray. We pray that good gospel work throughout this next eight months would bring forgiveness. It would bring obedience. faith would make much of you and God you would draw men and women under yourself we thank you and we praise you and we pray this in Jesus name amen