Bible Survey - Romans

All right, make sure you have a handout. We are at Romans, so we're at the beginning of the epistles or letters. So we'll be going through Paul's 13 epistles, beginning, of course, with Romans. And then one of the things we look at, here's Paul. Imagine, here's Paul.

He has a Roman citizenship, which he apparently had from birth, likely something that his father, also a tent maker, had made a deal for. There was a particular time when the Roman army was going through Tarsus, and you can imagine their need of tents along the way. And so Paul's father makes a deal. I want this much money, and I want a Roman citizenship, and I want one for my son. Can you imagine that kind of an arrangement?

And it just happens that, we don't know that specifically that that's how it occurred, but kind of the cross sections of what we know historically, that that's quite a likely reason for why here's Paul, a Jew, kind of out of place in Tarsus, would have a Roman citizenship and have it from, you know, young instead of, some guys would buy into it later and it didn't appear that he got it that way. So anyway, here he is, has a Roman citizenship. So far as we know, he had never been to Rome until the end of his fourth missionary journey, which was one he was... we call it a missionary journey, but he was taken, you know, in chains. So here's the Apostle Paul.

He had appealed to Caesar. If it had not been for that, the Roman governor said, I could have let you go. However, why did the Apostle Paul, when he was in Caesarea, in prison there, why did he appeal to Caesar? What would be a reason that he would appeal to Caesar instead of being let go? Because he probably knew that, you know, hey, I could just get out of here. Why would he want to go to Rome under a centurion rather than be let go?

Well, you're back to the basic driving force that occurred several times along the way. He felt he was doing God's will, and if the Romans wanted to give him a free trip to Rome to preach, it's like when he went back to Jerusalem with an offering. prophet said you go back there and here's what's going to happen for you you're going to be in trouble. He said but God has sent you there and I'm ready to live or die following God's will. Remember when he was in Jerusalem and got into trouble the Jews there had vowed to do what?

Kill him right? So because having a Roman citizenship at that time by the way some decades later had put it away into almost no significance but a Roman citizenship at that time brought you quite a bit of rights so the Roman centurion in Jerusalem assigned several hundred Roman soldiers including cavalrymen but several hundred Roman soldiers to escort Paul safely over to Caesarea and so here's the Apostle Paul He's in Caesarea, he knows that the governor could just let him go. Because he doesn't find a problem, right? The governor could let him go, but what happens if he's let go in Israel? The Jews still have a vow to kill this guy, so now that they get word that Paul's out, he's a dead man.

So, rather than have that risk, and he had already told, as we'll see, the Romans that he was planning to go to Rome and hoping to go there. He says, hey, this is a win-win. I get away from the Jews. I get a free escort to Rome, paid for by the Roman government. And I'll end up in Rome, which I've wanted to do for a long time. With only shipwrecks and other things. Oh, yes. And more shipwrecks than we have accounts for. So yes, that too. So here he is. It sheds light on his intentions.

Romans 11, excuse me, 1, 13 through 15 here. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

So he's wanting to go there. He's motivated to go there. By the way, he says, preach the gospel. Is this the gospel of salvation or something more? Preach the gospel to you. He's writing to Christians, right? So there's actually two definitions of the gospel.

One is, here's what you need to believe in order to be saved, right? The core term of, here's the gospel, here's what you need to believe. You believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. You believe that? You're saved. But he's using it in the larger term, the gospel, the good news, being everything that is the teaching of the apostles.

So here we have it, and so the book of Romans was dictated by the apostle Paul to a scribe named Tertius, and we know nothing else of him other than that. So the Romans at a Glance chart from Thomas Nelson looks like this. And we're going to find that this chart needs correction. And we're going to add some information to it, right?

But nonetheless, it breaks it out there with the division, need for God's righteousness, imputation of God's righteousness, And then the demonstration of God's righteousness. And then you get into a section on Israel. Chapters 9, 10, and 11. Section on Israel. What's Israel's past, present, and future.

Christian duties and then Christian liberties. These are the sections that we go through there. Paul follows in Romans a pattern that he follows elsewhere, and that is the first chapters are doctrinal and positional. Just like Ephesians, four and a half chapters before you get anything to do. Some people feel uncomfortable with that. Well, give me something to do. No. First you lay down position. Then you have, here's the stuff to do.

Why did the Apostle Paul particularly do that, whereas a lot of the other letters don't necessarily follow that pattern? Why did the Apostle Paul lay down position first, and then talk about what to do? It's like, why do you put a foundation on a house before you build a surgery? Yeah, that's a good analogy that helps. You put a foundation down, And then you build the superstructure. But still why, and I think you gave a partial answer, a good answer, but a partial answer, why would the Apostle Paul have to, in his letters, lay down position and doctrine first, and take chapters before he gives them anything to do?

They weren't under the law. Now you're onto something here. Think about the Jews. Do they understand their position? They automatically, as a part of their culture, understood their position, and so you don't have to lay it down. That's part one. The other thing is, in the Jewish culture, religion has an automatic and definite and clear connection to morality. In the pagan cultures, there was no connection between spirituality and morality. A pagan might pray something like this, Oh God, lowercase g, help me to lie better. Help me to steal better. I'm going to pray that this man will die so that I can have his wife. You get the picture there? So in the pagan culture, no connection between spirituality and morality.

So what did Paul have to do? He would write again and again and again about our position and establish the character of God, and then he would address morality. Because without doing that first, what would happen He'd come in and say, stop doing this, start doing this, and they'd go, huh?

They had no basis in their understanding of spirituality. They had no basis for having morality connected to spirituality. They would even have temple priests and priestesses they're available to carry out immorality. So there was no connection. He had to establish, here's where you are spiritually, here's who you are, here's who God is, and now that we've got that all straight, now let's talk about your problem with stealing and lying. Because God is a God of morality, versus the pagan gods, in which morality was not a point at all. Not a point at all.

So, that's why in Romans, how far do you get before you have anything to do? Where is the first something to do in Romans? It starts there, but it actually begins earlier. In chapter 6, verse 11. Here's where you reckon or consider. yourself dead to the sin nature, that's the first thing to do in Romans.

So you're one, two, three, four, five and a half chapters before there's anything to do in Romans. or there's any command to do this or an urging to do that. All right, so, yes? Right, yeah. We're going to talk briefly about that because we're not doing a deep study.

But why would the Apostle Paul, In chapter one, he's got this sort of a cascade of sinning that gets worse and worse, right? So he's got this cascade of sinning that gets worse and worse, and he starts off with that. And is there any salvation from those? From that first chapter? He talks about the cascade of sin, he doesn't really offer salvation at that point. He's showing the sinfulness of sin. Yes, here is the sinfulness of sin, and it gets worse and worse and worse. And it leads to death, not to enjoyment of life.

Right. People are going around trying to get life, and what it has is more death. And, what is knowable about God from nature, His eternal power and deity, is there, does knowing about God's eternal power and deity from nature save you? No, it doesn't get there. So, the first thing is, here's people sinning, they have a knowledge of God, it's not adequate to save them.

Chapter 2, he gets into, here are the Gentiles, they don't have the law, what's going to judge those Gentiles? Law of Conscience. Principle of Conscience. Probably a better way to put it. The Principle of Conscience. They have a law unto themselves. Even if they don't have the Mosaic Law, they have a sense that there is right and wrong, and this is what I think it is. It varies from culture to culture and person to person. But there is, by that, a basis for God to judge them. Has anybody saved from that yet? Nobody's saved yet. Okay, let's go to the Jews. The Jews have the Mosaic Law. All 613 individual laws, 365 of them say don't do this and don't do that.

Does that save them? No. So then he gets into chapter 3 where there is the basis to be saved. It's not from the conscience of the Gentile. It's not from the Mosaic Law. that have a basis to be saved, what's the basis to be saved? Faith. Justified by faith. Same message he sent to the Galatians. Justified by faith. Justified meaning declared righteous.

So all the things that people do and pursue, whether it's sin, whether it's their own conscience and their own culture, whether it's the Law of Moses, all those serve to judge, but nothing to save. It's only salvation by faith, and it's what God does, not what humans do. Nothing humans do is going to fix it. Nothing. There isn't any way to fix it. No way to deal with it.

So, salvation by faith. By the time we get into Chapter 5, It's also made real clear by grace. This grace in which we stand. Okay, let's take a look, kind of go down item by item underneath the chart. Paul both opened and closed Romans using the phrase, obedience of faith. Why would he do that? By the way, he didn't do that anywhere else. He didn't even use the phrase anywhere else. What is obedience of faith? And why, with Romans particularly, start and finish the book with that phrase? Good question. Okay, yeah. Yeah, it is a good question, but what's the answer? Now think about this. We think of the word obedience, and you could say our concept is frequently just do it. But this Greek word for obedience is two parts, two steps.

And it's an important distinction. The first part is listen, and the next part is place yourself under. So that's a key thing. It's listening and placing yourself under, not what you sometimes will hear from kids, you know, I'm obeying on the outside but I'm not obeying on the inside. This is obeying from the inside. It's listening first, get the message, and deliberately placing yourself under it. And this is key, because otherwise we kind of just have the just-do-it mentality, which the word obey in English can easily lead to.

It's similar to what you often use as an illustration in your sermons, faith in the facts. Yes, right. Rather than a faith that's some kind of nebulous, well yeah, I believe. Yes, this isn't just people of faith. People will say, oh yes, I believe in God. And then you say, well, what's this God like? Well, you know, He's God. Yes.

Yeah, and I think that if I'm listening and then placing myself under it, it has the implication at the outset that there is content. So faith is not just faith in faith, or having faith in something, but it's a specific content, and He is going to tell them what that content is. The thing about this, is obedience of faith my best effort? No, it's listening to the content, placing myself under it, and who is my faith in? My faith is in God, and my trust is in Him, not just having faith in some vague kind. So it's specific as to content, and specific as to person. Let's take a look at this next one.

Romans 1.18-32 reveals that truth is suppressed in the unbeliever and the result is a cascade of sin from one level to another. Let's talk about that truth is suppressed in the unbeliever. What does that mean? Truth is suppressed. Like Paul wrote in another letter, the God of this world has blinded their eyes so they cannot believe.

It's sort of like, I don't want to believe that somebody else is in control. I'd like to believe that I can choose a path and it will be okay. And Satan says, yeah, do it. Go ahead, here, try this fruit. It's good. Yeah, give it a shot. Yeah. Truth is suppressed, it's pushed down. Truth is pushed down.

Well, he says that back in Romans 1. Having a knowledge of God, they deliberately turned to idols of other sorts because that was easier for them to manage. set up a religious system and all the rest. God, by saying, well, as we're learning more and more, we're coming closer and closer to being in control of everything, and getting back to this idea of who's in charge.

Yes, good luck with that, huh? Right? Okay, so now, next we are justified, bottom of page one, we are justified, declared righteous, by faith. This is what we mentioned Earlier, that's how you get saved, not by chasing sin and going down the cascade, the downward spiral of sin. Conscience won't save you. The Mosaic Law won't save you. Only one way, salvation by faith.

And it's a specific content, not just some kind of faith. Not just faith in faith. The Word says faith in Christ. Yes. But then there's a knowledge aspect where she says, yes, I know that Christ is the Son of God. I know that He was crucified, buried, and resurrected. Now it almost sounds, and I don't know if some people believe, that knowledge is not enough. You have to have this extra step to say, I'm believing that He's going to save me, not just knowing who He is.

Is there a difference there? Let's think about that. What we have is kind of a pendulum swing. On the one hand, people get real heady, and I know this and I know that, and I've got a doctorate degree from seminary or something, and it's just all heady and intellectual. Will a doctorate degree, even three of them, from seminary save me?

No, it will not. That won't do it. So having lots of knowledge about God, spiritual things, the Bible, religion, it won't do it. It won't get you there. Now, let's go the other way. Suppose I just said, well, I just believe in Jesus. Okay? Is that going to do it? Yeah, I just believe in Jesus, but there's no content to it, and I really don't know who He is. That's not going to get you there either. So, a mistake can be made of just contentless faith, or I know a lot of stuff. And the bottom line is that it's the content of the gospel. It's real simple. It doesn't take 15 seconds to say it. Believe it. Christ the Son of God died for my sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. Do I believe that? Yep. That's it. It's that simple.

So belief in the content is salvation, but then the rest of it from then on is what we grow into. And in reality, we're spending the rest of our lives catching up with what happened that moment we believed. Because what happens is God says, you believe? That's it. I'll do the rest. Right? And we're spending the rest of our lives finding out what He did at that moment we believed. And He did it, not us. Yeah. First little testimony.

In 1952, I was a junior in college in chemical engineering at the Albuquerque, New Mexico. I attended an inter-varsity Christian fellowship Bible study at the invitation of one of the other students. They were studying Romans. I got in at the beginning. I got a lot of intellectual content. By the time we got to Romans 12, the leader of the Bible study drew me aside at the end of one session and said, Al, you know all this stuff.

You absorbed all this, but you need to do something with it. Not just collect the information. I've met seminary students since then who have collected the information and departed from the faith because they look at all the little dots and tittles and this and that that they can't explain and say, well because I can't explain it, it must not be true.

So the head and heart somehow... There's a disconnect. Yeah, you can get straight A through seminary and go to hell. You know? Yes. Have you heard this... I'm sure you've heard it. There's one preacher's lordship. Yes. He's lord of your life. Right. They do not really say because he's not lord of your life because they're not good enough. Yes. That's basically what he's saying. This is John MacArthur. Yeah.

He's the one that espoused lordship salvation, that is, you can't just believe the content of the gospel, you know, believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again, but you have to do that and make Him Lord, right? And if you get into some period of backsliding and struggling, then you must not have made Him Lord and therefore you're not saved and you're going to hell, right? So what they do is have backdoor loss of salvation. That's what that really leads to.

And the reality is, the truth is, that Christ being Lord of our life is something that we grow in. Not established as a once for all event. We grow in it. But grow, Peter wrote, in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grow in it. That's the key.

Not, you know, make him Lord once for all and I'm done with all that fleshly stuff. And where that position is really going to struggle, here's Paul writing to the Corinthians. Chapter 1, he says, in the perfect tense, you've been sanctified. Chapter 3 says, but boy, you guys are fleshly. Yes, I couldn't speak to you as spiritual men. Why? You're carnal.

How does that fit with their being saved and sanctified in the perfect tense? It doesn't. So, it's a failure to recognize that lordship is something that we grow in, not an essential for salvation. and the decision as to who is saved will be made by Jesus Christ and not by John MacArthur.

OK, let's take a look here. At the top of page 2, grace is where we stand, and by the way, that's perfect tense, so a completed action. Ongoing results on to the future, implying permanence, and it's the reigning principle. The reigning principle. All grace, all the time, it's where we stand completely, that's it, not one law.

Chapter 7, one of the ten. He says, I tried to follow it, and immediately the sin nature got all stirred up. One law is all it takes to mess you up. One law is all it takes to mess you up. And that's why you'll have people write commentaries on Romans. Here's John Stott. Commentary on Romans. Yet he still says we've got to follow the ten. And he also doesn't believe in hell for unbelievers. So what that says is he doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. And that's, by the way, real common.

Okay, next one. Identification with Christ is explained in its consequences for the believer in Romans 6.1 through 7.6. 6.1 you've been united with Christ It is death, burial, and resurrection. The next one, you've been separated from the law and joined to Christ. This is 7, 4 through 6. The points at which we're identified with Christ, where it is death, burial, and resurrection, and the believers in Rome knew this set of truths. 6, 3, do you not know? And chapter 7 reveals that do you not know means you do. And then verse 6 and verse 9 are both in the Greek construction, because you know. Because you know. So he knows that they know these truths. Why did the Apostle Paul not point out that they've been identified with Christ in his ascension and seeding? Was the Apostle Paul holding back something he knew? Do you think the Apostle Paul knew? But he says, I'm not going to tell him yet.

I think the indications, we've got Ephesians, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, seated with Christ, 2.6. Philippians, actually three times has heavenly citizenship. Chapter 1, chapter 3, chapter 4. You have a heavenly citizenship. There's Colossians. Set your mind on things above. Those kinds of things are not revealed in Romans, the flagship of the epistles. Identification? Yes.

Only in death, burial, and resurrection. And you won't find it in 1st and 2nd Corinthians. You won't find it in Galatians. It's only in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians that you see that. I don't think the Apostle Paul was saying, you know, I know this, but I'm not going to tell them about it. I'll just kind of keep it to myself. I think that it hadn't been revealed to them yet.

Just like in our own personal life, if we study the word and think about it, God shows us things that we have read before. We, in a sense, know it but sort of pass through our minds and suck in there. And as God makes these things stick, than as he would have said before.

Scripture says grow in the grace of the Lord. The Apostle Paul, starting in the middle of chapter 5 of Romans, through chapter 6 and into the beginning of chapter 7, talks about the sin, which we carry across as the sin nature, an inclination to think and to act, It actually does things. It is always inclined in certain ways, and it actually does things.

That's why we carry the cross as the sin nature. So that's something that is revealed. We are also given in that, here's how you deal with that sin nature. In chapters 6 and 7. Here's how we deal with that sin nature. The next thing we see is we're not under law, which actually increases sin and stirs up the sin nature and condemns, but we're under grace. And we're not under most laws, but that's where chapter 7 points out, even 1, just thou shalt not covet, that's it. That's all it takes.

Sin nature gets stirred up. Application of one law The old cartoon that I enjoy putting up from time to time shows us there's a pair of people standing on the street, on the curb, and they got a sign next to them that says, absolutely no machete juggling. And this one person says to the other, you know, suddenly I have this intense urge to juggle machetes. Right? This is the character of the sin nature. The sin nature on the one hand says, I can do it, and the sin nature on the other hand rebels.

Like you were telling us about your pink hippopotamus. Yes, the pink hippopotamus. Do not think of a pink hippopotamus. I am telling you, do not think of a pink hippopotamus. Absolutely. Blotted out from your memory, I do not want you to give any thought to a pink hippopotamus. So what are you thinking of? This is the character of the law. 365 things that you're not supposed to do. So what happens? Oh, that's what I want to do. Because I can't do it.

Please disregard the previous remarks. Good point. Important teachings of position and ministry regarding the Holy Spirit are given in Romans chapter 8. See, we're taught here at Holly Hills, you're in Christ and Christ is in you. So far so good. Is that a good thing to teach? Yeah. Fully biblical.

Romans chapter 8 says we're also in the Spirit and the Spirit's in us. Although it sounds the same, the purpose is different. The purpose is not identical. By the time you get through reading all of the New Testament, you find out we're in Christ and Christ is in us. We're in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in us. In John 17, we're in the Father, and the Father is in us.

All three persons of the Trinity, but each of those means something different. Each of those means something different. So, Romans chapter 8 significantly reveals things about the Holy Spirit. Here's where we've got an important correction. The division on the chart, Israel's present rejection is just plain wrong. So if you have that, you can scratch out rejection, and here's why. Romans 11, 1 and 2. I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be. For I, too, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." So did God reject Israel? The chart is just plain wrong. What is more appropriate is to put in there something like, set aside, or something like that, but not rejected. That wrong word. Explicitly contrary to Romans 11, 1 and 2. That is not rejected. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

And God still has a future plan for Israel. A future plan for Israel. Those plans are still in place. And that plan includes Christ's coming and reigning as King over Israel and that there being a new covenant in which the Holy Spirit will dwell in the Jews, every single one, dwell in the Jews to have them know and live out the law. Is that the purpose for the Holy Spirit dwelling in you? No. So the Holy Spirit in dwelling them meets a common need, but the expression of it is radically different. The Jews will know and live out the law from the heart by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Something very radically different was done with us. We were made to die in relationship to the law. Did the law die? No. But we were made to die in relationship to the law that we might be joined to Christ. and live life entirely apart from the law. Huge difference. And those two get mixed up by a lot of Christians. They don't get that clearly. So now, towards the end of the book of Romans, we find Paul urging towards unity of mind and voice.

Here is Romans 12.16.

Be of the same mind towards one another, and do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." This was contrary, as we pointed out, to the culture of the time in which humility was thought as a personality flaw. So that was something the Apostle Paul had to deal with the Romans, with the Corinthians, among others, and in urging Not only to correct the idea that spirituality has no connection to morality, but also to think that humility was some sort of a defect in a person. And now he says, no, humility is a good thing. Humility is a good thing. So this was going radically different from the culture. So you'll find a repeated thing in Paul's letters is this urging towards humility. because the culture is definitely not going to reinforce it. Culture is not going to reinforce it.

Here's Romans 15, 5 and 6. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind, here's the same mind message again, with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord, you may with one voice, literally one mouth, Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This likely indicates that there are some issues with division among the believers there. And why would there be issues of division? Because humility is not looked at in the culture as a virtue. And therefore, pride is, and that's divisive, isn't it?

What I'm teaching is right. What I say is correct. No, no, no, no, no, no. What I say is correct. That's the culture. And you try to get people underneath you and it divides up the body. Instead of saying, God's correct. We better find out what that is. Now, you have a supplement here.

This shows the progression of New Testament books. I suggest you hang on to it as we go through the rest of the New Testament. What we see is that Romans is the first of the epistles in sequence. It is not chronologically the first of the epistles. You have others that have been written first. And then another question for you at the end of Romans is greet this person and greet that one and greet this other one and that sort of thing.

We're not so inclined to write letters that way, but this was back in the time there was no email. There was no texting. And so for a letter to go a long distance was actually a rather rare thing. It was an unusual thing. And so everybody would try to get their greetings and hi's and you'll also see a pattern of last minute little details. We're seeing that in Hebrews. Switching from one subject to another, trying to fit all the last details in.

Because a letter was so unusual. As a matter of fact, this was likely written from Corinth. From Corinth and going to Rome. How long is it going to take for that letter to go from Corinth to Rome? Months. It's going to take months to get from Corinth to Rome.

Typical travel, about 20 miles a day. So you're talking hundreds of miles, this is going to take a while to get there. So that's one reason. The other thing is it was frequent that you would only have somebody carry maybe one to three letters at a time. So it's not only going to take months, but it takes a while to get there.

Whereas in our situation here, even in our paper post office, You know, people can send out all kinds of things and follow it up and all that sort of thing. So, you would end up a lot of the letters with kind of some final greetings like that. Now, here's something to test out.

The claim is that Peter was the Bishop of Rome for the last about 25 years of his life. Why? Because Paul is not saying, give my greetings to Peter. The claim is that he was the bishop for 25 years in Rome. Isn't this bizarre? If he's actually the bishop in Rome, to write to the Romans and not even mention Peter's name? That would be really weird and even offensive.

You're greeting all these people, some of whom we never hear from at all, but here's Peter's the bishop and you don't even say hi. Now let's take another test. The end of the book of Acts, Paul arrives in Rome and he talks to this group and he talks to that group. Does he ever greet Peter in Acts, the end of Acts? The last time you hear of Peter is Acts chapter 15. So those are some things that are real head-scratchers. Was Peter ever the bishop in Rome?

Other than a claim several centuries later, we have no evidence of it. And the Bible itself would be very bizarre for Paul not to say hi to Peter. not to arrive in Rome, or rather to arrive in Rome and to not say hi to Peter, not read him. So that's an interesting kind of historical test point. Yes? So by the time of Paul's writing Romans, he's not in prison yet, right? Nope, he's not in prison yet. So there's no chance of Peter being with him? No, there's no indication of it.

The only indications we have is that Paul and Peter were together in Jerusalem. And it's possible they were together, though we don't have a direct indication, in Antioch at some point. Paul went through Antioch and Peter did go to Antioch. But that's as far as we can tell. that Paul would write to Rome, to the church at Rome, that he would arrive in Rome and in neither case make any mention of Peter. It seems quite inconsistent with Peter being the bishop in Rome. Other thoughts? Questions?

1 and 22 where he talks about the branches. It says, For if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either, but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise you also will be cut off. Okay, what's the reference? Romans 11, 21 and 22. Okay.

Now he says, otherwise you will be cut off too. And what is cut off? I mean, sometimes this is not Romans 9-11 you have to look at it differently because he is presenting essentially Israel as a corporate group. Now is he threatening that you, the believers, are going to lose your salvation? I was just saying you have to go down to the end where he says the result of this is that they've been set aside for a while while the Gentiles were being given the gospel and carrying out the news of salvation.

Right. And then he finishes up saying, all Israel will be saved. Yes. All Israel meaning that remnant. Right, that remnant at the end. And he quotes the Old Testament scripture. Yes. So the point being that anything that seemed like rejection from God was not the final answer. Yes. It's sort of like Paul Harvey in his page 3. Right. The rest of the story.

And one of the other things in that is in Paul's writings and in the book of Hebrews, one of the things we see is writing hypothetically. And so a lot of those things, you've got to look at it in a larger context, that sometimes you'll have writing in a hypothetical sense, not in a direct threat. This is a case, for example, in Hebrews 6, where it sounds like, ooh, boy, but he's writing in a sense, hypothetically, if you chase this one down, that's where this leads. But that's not what I'm saying. We believe better things of you. Yes, yes. We believe better things of you. So that's the thing.

See things in a larger context and also leave room for, and I think this is the case there, he's chasing down, here's hypothetically what it would be, but that's not the reality. He does, especially in Romans, use lots of logic. therefore, because, and follows through with that kind of thing, so, and chasing down all the logical consequences and alternatives is, I would say, very well represented in the Book of Romans. Paul writes often, and this is kind of the case in point, as a logician. That's the way he's doing it. So what you have is what I see as a hypothetical circumstance that he presents there, but you see it in a larger context. No, he's not laying that out for, you know, this is what's going to happen to you.

Yes. Interesting. John writing at the end of his epistle, these things have been written, so you may believe. Paul, at the end of his epistle, it's not in chapter 16, it's chapter 15 verse 13, I have had occasion to run across it recently and it's just really become a wonderful verse.

Now may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing. And it ends up talking about The Holy Spirit continuing on. The hope. When we start getting old, you get that hope. The hope starts getting more and more bold and italicized and underlined, doesn't it? Yes.

I think that's one reason why as time goes on our bodies usually have more and more issues with it. I think to make us, I'm looking for the new one and not getting quite so comfortable on this one. Paul talks about leaving this tent that we have and having a stable residence. Any other thoughts, questions? Yes? Just going back to the beginning, excuse me. Yeah, it's a matter of magnitude. When we go through what's called polemics, that we're talking about doing again as an elective, we go through polemics.

What we do is we say, okay, there's what is to be presented and believed in order to be saved, and then from there on out, the rest of the doctrine, aside from what do you need to believe to be saved, That's the larger G gospel. So when we use the word gospel, we really have to ask, which one is it? Is it the things I need to believe to be saved, or is it the things that the Bible teaches in total? There is an equivalent term to the gospel of the uppercase G in the New Testament.

It starts in Acts 6, verse 7, and the term is the faith. And that term, THE FAITH, starts in Acts 6-7 and continues through the epistles all the way into the book of Revelation. THE FAITH meaning not just the things that you believe in in order to be saved, but the total set of teachings of the apostles. The total set of teachings of the apostles, that's THE FAITH. And so we talk about Here's an interesting one, Acts 6-7, it says, a great many, not just many, a great many of the priests believed in de-faith. Why would a great many of the priests believe in de-faith? Why would they be so influenced as compared to any other group?

Remember, this is only chapter 6. It had not been long since what happened. since Pentecost, but before that, what happened in the middle of, or at the end of Christ's crucifixion? What happened in the temple? The curtain tore from top to bottom. And if they didn't see it happen, or hear it happen, because they weren't on duty, they saw the consequences shortly thereafter. How on earth did that happen? And then the apostles would come and tell them. You know, when the temple tore, that was the day, that was the hour that Christ died. And they say, yep, I believe it. That's why a great many of them would be persuaded, yep, this is the truth.

There's no other way this thing is going to get torn from top to bottom. Nobody is up there at the top. It couldn't happen. There's no way the apostles could somehow manufacture this thing. Nobody is going to pull off any tricks. There is no way you can do this. This has to be God's doing. Tear from top to bottom. Some records indicate it was very thick.

So that's why a great many And then the first use of the word, the faith, the total set of teachings of the apostles. There could be some aspect of it which would have caused them to go back and consider the prophecies. And since they were well versed in the word, they could start to see maybe something like Isaiah 53 and other passages that said, well, maybe Messiah isn't coming as a ruling monarch. Maybe he's coming in disguise, so to speak.

And by the way, a great many of them were Sadducees, who don't believe in the Messiah, and don't believe in the Resurrection. A great many of the priests were Sadducees. The Pharisees were the more popular level group. But the priests, many of them were Sadducees, and certainly the high priests were Sadducees. No Resurrection, no miracles, no Messiah. But how did that temple curtain get ripped from top to bottom? No explanation. And why did it happen at the time Jesus died, to the hour?

That got their attention. Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the awesomeness of it. We look at this epistle to the Romans, and many amazing things in it. And we look to you, Lord, to continue to teach us the truths here, and just to learn from you as we continue to venture our way through the New Testament epistles. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Could you do me a favor? From time to time, I forget to turn this on. Is the microphone on? Just like this morning. So if you could do me a favor and listen for, you know, is it on? If not, say, hey, Vern, you know, remind me because then otherwise Bill has to come in and remind me. It's terrible. Thank you. I forgot to get that off the scanner. Yeah. Okay. All right. Did you, did he do the work? Yeah. And are you telling me that there's still somebody else?

It was upstairs in the back of the room. It's been like four hours or so. It wasn't too... I went up to the tree and it wasn't there. Yes, both for the consequences for his workers as well as the property. This has been an interesting year going on with scripture. Yeah. Sometimes taking over is very helpful.