Alright. Well, let me kinda explain what we're gonna do tonight,
Speaker 2:and
Joel Brooks:then we will get started because I need a good 70 minutes of uninterrupted teaching time, and then we're gonna have a little break and some q and a. But, for for 70 minutes, we're we're gonna go through the book of Romans. And, our goal tonight is one is to just provide a good opportunity for you guys to go deeper in your faith. Our goal is worship. That's what it is.
Joel Brooks:Even during the the question and answer time, we'll explain this later. It's it's not stump the teacher with the book of Romans, as your ammunition. It would not be hard to stump the teacher. And so that's not the point. Our goal is to, and to ask the Holy Spirit to build our faith, to increase our passion for Lord Jesus.
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna do that looking at the book of Romans. And, let me open this up in prayer, and then we will we will hit it. Our father, we thank you for this time that we could gather together freely. Thank you for providing us this place. Thank you for Urban Standard.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for all the people that are here. I ask that you would bless them for coming. Open up their ears. Open up their hearts to receive your truth. We're gonna go over a lot of information tonight, and I don't want people to leave smarter.
Joel Brooks:That's not the goal. I want people to walk away with a greater understanding of the gospel that saves us a greater passion for our savior, Jesus Christ, who saves us. That's my goal. I can't do that apart from you. Spirit, you're welcome.
Joel Brooks:Have your way in our midst. Give me great clarity as I present this. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. My goal tonight in going through this is, not a verse by verse exposition.
Joel Brooks:That would be impossible. You know, John Piper recently did that, and it took him eight and a half years, and he still skipped over a few things. One of my favorite pastors, Martyn Lloyd Jones did that. Took him over 14 years. So we're not gonna do verse by verse.
Joel Brooks:My goal is to give you a greater understanding of the the themes and the flow of this letter. We are gonna look at some very specific verses, but I just want you to know the major themes and major flow of this letter. If you can understand these major arguments that Paul is making and the flow of his thoughts, that will be your aid for figuring out those difficult verses. Once you kinda know the direction he's moving and you see it in context, a lot of the the heresies that that pop up, in just some really whacked out theology is because people take a verse out of Romans, just that verse, stand alone, have no clue about its context, and they usually pick a very difficult verse to understand. And that becomes a foundation of their theology.
Joel Brooks:And so I don't want you to do that. I want you to have a good holistic view of this book. And so having said this, let's get started. Don't make the mistake when opening Romans, the book of Romans, and think that it's a systematic theology. A lot of people make that mistake because it is Paul's most exhaustive explanation of his theology and the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And so you tend to think of it as, okay. This is a systematic theology. It's not. It's a letter. It's a letter to real people that is dealing with real situations, and so you have to put it in that context.
Joel Brooks:There's, there's a lot of things he just leaves out that if he was writing a systematic theology, he would put in there. He doesn't write expansively about the church. He doesn't mention the Lord's Supper. He doesn't really have a a a well written out Christology or or end times, anything like that. So it's not a full explanation of his theology.
Joel Brooks:It's it's mainly centered around the gospel. We find one of his purposes, and I I will not say this is his complete purpose, but one of his purposes in Romans 15, chapter 15 verse 18. Now I'm gonna read a few verses here. And we're gonna be I hope your Bibles are open to Romans because we're gonna be flipping like crazy. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I guess that's how you pronounce that.
Joel Brooks:I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on somebody else's foundation. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I've so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I enjoyed your company for a while. So right there, we see at the end of this letter that Paul is preparing the Church of Rome for a visitation.
Joel Brooks:He is coming to visit them. Paul did not found the Church of Rome. We're not really sure who did found the Church of Rome, and this makes his coming to them unusual, because you just heard Paul say that he doesn't want to build on another man's foundation. He says, I I don't want to preach the gospel where it's already been preached. I don't want to build on another person's foundation, but I'm coming to you to preach the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And so right there, Paul seems to be doing the very thing he just said he he did not want to do. And so there's got to be an important reason for that. And the reason for that, Paul talks about, is that he's running out of room. Everywhere he goes now to preach the gospel, he's finding out that people have already heard the gospel. And so look at verse 23 again.
Joel Brooks:It says, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, there's there's nowhere he could go right now and not meet somebody who hasn't heard the gospel. He but to pass through to Spain to where there is no church. And so, he's just going to pass through Rome, and then go to where the gospel has not been proclaimed. And and when he goes to Spain, he wants to be helped on his journey by all the Christians there. He wants them to give to him money to him.
Joel Brooks:He wants them to to help him any any way possible. He wants them to come with him to Spain. Help me in this mission. And so in order for him to be received when he comes to Rome, in order for their, for the pump to be primed, so when he gets there they're ready to join him in this missionary cause to Spain. He writes Romans.
Joel Brooks:He wants them to have such an understanding of the gospel, to be so gripped by the gospel that they freely give their money, that they freely give their time, that the gospel ignites in them such a passion that they will join him and go to the ends of the earth. So, his hope is that Rome, this great city of Rome, will become the launching spot for missions, for frontier work. Rome, the great city of Rome, now that becomes the launching pad to go to where people have not heard. That's why we're studying this letter. That's why I'm teaching through this because my hope is that through a study of this letter that those of you here belong to the most powerful nation in the world, you would have in you the same flame ignited through understanding the gospel to go spread the gospel to the world.
Joel Brooks:That all of a sudden God would begin loosening your hands to your wealth. He would begin freeing up your time to be spent, your prayers spent praying for the nations. That that your lives would be turned upside down. He would start to live radical lives thinking about how it could take the gospel to the nations. By the way, I just need to say, if I start preaching, y'all just say tone it down.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Just I don't know. This isn't supposed to be preaching, but I'm probably gonna get excited through some of this stuff. But just if I get look. Just just kinda do that.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Just just just rein it in. Rein it in. Not the entire time, but, but I I wanna just kinda teach through this. I think God's put us in a unique position as, you know, the most powerful, wealthy, free nation on this planet, similar to Rome, that if we actually understand the gospel, we can become a tremendous launching pad to reaching the world.
Joel Brooks:So the same purpose that Paul had in this letter is a is a purpose that I have for teaching through this letter tonight. Paul gives, Paul says this from in chapter 1 verse 14. Says, I am under no obligation. I am under obligation, sorry, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome.
Joel Brooks:For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so he says the gospel is not just for you Romans. The gospel isn't just for smart people. I'm going to the wise. I'm going to the idiots.
Joel Brooks:I'm going to to the moral people, the the Jewish people. I'm going to the immoral people. It doesn't matter what your background, what ethnicity you are, what culture you belong to, how smart you are, how much money you have, the gospel changes you. It's very important because a lot of other religions only work within a a certain culture. And Paul says, no.
Joel Brooks:The gospel is for every culture. It's for everybody. Alright. Let's start digging in. And I'm gonna warn you.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna think there's no way we're gonna finish this because I'm gonna spend a lot of time on the very first verse and a lot of time on chapter 1. Don't be worried if 15 minutes pass by and you're like he's still on verse 1. Alright? It's gonna be like a slow once we get moving, we'll we'll really get moving. Alright?
Joel Brooks:But we gotta lay the foundation. So let's start with chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. The very first word is Paul. Paul wrote this letter about 25 years after Jesus had risen.
Joel Brooks:Paul is the author of this. No serious scholar disputes this. But you need to understand, Paul is not who this opening verse is about. He has his word his name first, Paul. But the opening verse is not about Paul.
Joel Brooks:Because look how Paul describes himself. He's a servant. He's called. He is set apart. And so instantly see that there's there's another another person at work here.
Joel Brooks:It's not just Paul. There's there's somebody else who he is a servant to. There is somebody else who has called him. There is somebody else who has set him apart. And so although Paul starts with his name, we have to realize he's not the main subject of the very first verse.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at each one of these three descriptions. And I love what Piper says about this. John Piper, who preached 8 something years on this, he says the important question when looking at this first verse is not who you are but whose you are. And you can see Paul belongs to another. There's there's that other personality kinda lurking behind him.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at a servant, or a bondservant, some of your translations might say. If you want to see it in Greek, look at Dwight's tattoo on his foot. This is doulos of Jesus Christ. Now remember that 25 years ago, you know, Jesus was dead. And yet here he said, he is Jesus's servant.
Joel Brooks:So we know right off the bat, Paul believes Jesus to be alive. You're not a servant of somebody who's dead. So he believes Jesus to be alive. He calls him the Christ or the King. And so, he is serving a risen king.
Joel Brooks:Now, a servant, their their only goal, their their only reward in life is the the smile A A servant doesn't care what you think about him, doesn't care what I think about him. A servant only cares what his master thinks about him. And so, Paul's gonna let some things rip in here throughout Romans, and he could care less what you think about him because he's trying to please another. You see this in Galatians 1:10 when he says, for am I seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man?
Joel Brooks:If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. So Paul does not care what you think about him. He does not care. He is living his life to serve another. He's called to be an apostle.
Joel Brooks:Now, an apostle is somebody there's 2 requirements. They have to have seen the risen Lord, and they have to be called out to to be the Lord's ambassador and spokesperson. So you have a special calling there, and you have to have seen the Lord. So when you are driving down some country road and you see a little church sign that says, apostle so and so is preaching at the tent revival, they're wrong. There are there there is no more apostles now.
Joel Brooks:That was a a role that ended almost 2000 years ago. Very specific calling. Those who've seen the risen Lord, and those who are his ambassador and speak his words. Just a little side note here. Some people actually think that the disciples, the 11 apostles after Judas had died, actually made a mistake.
Joel Brooks:If you read Acts 1, you know, they're like, we gotta replace Judas. And so they pull 2 guys together, and they they draw lots, roll the die, or, you know, short stick. I don't know what they did, but they drew lots. And Matthias became the 12th apostle. Now, has anybody ever heard of a work that Matthias did?
Joel Brooks:Like, anybody? You have all these stories and, you know, probably some are legendary of all these apostles going and reaching all these different countries and doing all this. You don't hear anything about Matthias. And so some some people actually think, well, they acted too soon. God picked the 12th apostle 25 years later in Paul.
Joel Brooks:Up to you to decide that. That's just a little tidbit. Some people think that Paul was actually rightly the 12th apostle. Matthias was not. Neither one's a heresy.
Joel Brooks:I won't think any more or less of you, whichever you decide. But Paul became an apostle. As you know in the familiar story, when he was on the road going to Damascus, the Lord appears to him, strikes him blind, and the Lord says this about Paul in Acts 9. Says, Paul is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. That is a awesome calling because some apostles are just apostles to the Gentiles or just to the Jews.
Joel Brooks:Here he is. He is an apostle before the Gentiles, before kings, and the children of Israel. So so Paul is I mean, there there's a huge mission in front of him. Let's look at the 3rd description of Paul. He is set apart for the gospel of God.
Joel Brooks:Now, in Galatians 1, he says that he was set apart for the gospel before he was even born. Says before I was even born, I was set apart for this, which is astonishing when you look at the life of Paul. You should be flabbergasted when you think, Wait a second. You say you were set apart before you were born. What happened?
Joel Brooks:I mean, Paul was the one who was breathing all these threats against the church. He's arresting Christians. He hates Christians. Jesus hates them. He's responsible for the first Christian martyr.
Joel Brooks:He helped killed Stephen. Yet he was set apart from the time he was born. In 1st Timothy, he even calls himself the chief of all sinners and a blasphemer of God, a persecutor of the church. So you have to ask the question there. How is this possible?
Joel Brooks:How can Paul be set apart from God before he was born and yet be the greatest persecutor of the church? And you've got to understand this in order to really get Romans. This has got to register there for you to get Romans, to understand the gospel he's presenting. And Paul gives his explanation in 1 Timothy 1 15. I'll read it for you.
Joel Brooks:Says, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners, who I am the foremost. Notice he doesn't even say past tense. I presently am the foremost. But I receive mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. So what we see here is that God allowed Paul for a season to rebel, to hate him, to kill his church.
Joel Brooks:He allowed that for a season so that when he saved Paul, people would look at Paul and say, he was saved? If if the gospel can change him, the gospel can change anybody. The gospel can change me no matter what my addictions, no matter how deep in sin I am, no matter what my problems are, the gospel can change me. Just look at Paul. That's why God allowed this to happen to Paul.
Joel Brooks:He he allowed this to happen to Paul so he could someday write the book of Romans. Because Romans, when when when you look, and I hope you'll see this at the end of tonight, is very autobiographical. A lot of his theology, he's just saying what happened to him. How he was an enemy of a God, but God saved him. Now all these things, you're gonna see the life of Paul over and over again through this letter.
Joel Brooks:And so by allowing Paul to go off and rebel, God was preparing Paul to write Romans and to present the gospel to us. It's verse 1. Spend about 24 minutes on it. We're gonna speed up. Let's look at Paul's thesis statement in verse chapter 1 verse 16.
Joel Brooks:For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For in it, the righteousness of God or from God, same word or translation, either one, is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now for the rest of the letter, Paul is going to unpack this for us. That's his thesis.
Joel Brooks:He's going to unpack it. That the message of the gospel has power in it, can save anyone. Now, this thesis statement raises a question. Whenever the word salvation comes into play, it whenever it's used in a multicultural, you know, all inclusive, pluralistic culture, kinda like we have here, People wanna go, saved? Saved from what?
Joel Brooks:What could you What do we possibly need to be saved from? Why are you using this word salvation? And so Paul anticipates this question, and he is going to spend the rest of chapter 1 and halfway through chapter 3 answering that question. Let me tell you what you need to be saved from, why you need to be saved. Begins his answer in verse 18.
Joel Brooks:For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So Paul says, the problem that you need to be saved from is that the wrath of God is against all ungodliness. It's against all unrighteousness. And this is a pretty heavy statement. I was thinking on the way over here that, you know, if I just had a friend who kinda turned against me and spilled their wrath at me.
Joel Brooks:If it was just a friend, I'd be a little scared. You know? Then you could take it a notch up and think, what if the government was against you? I mean, was spilling out its wrath. What if the president said, I am going to get you.
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna use all of my energy, all my resources to pour my wrath on you. You guys would be terrifi there's no place you could hide. There's nothing you could do, the wrath will find you. And here Paul says, the wrath of God. So you have the the most powerful force in person in all of the universe.
Joel Brooks:His wrath is against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. It's being spilled out there. So, if you're ungodly, and if you're unrighteous, you've got a big problem. Big problem. You're gonna need to be saved from.
Joel Brooks:So perhaps there's some of you who are thinking, well, it's a good thing I'm godly and I'm righteous. Otherwise, I'd be pretty scared. So Paul's going to have to demolish that thought and say that, no, no, no. All of us are ungodly and unrighteous. And so what Paul does is he divides up humanity into 3 sections here.
Joel Brooks:He divides in Romans 8 that or Romans 1 to the end here, the complete pagans, those with no real knowledge of God. Those they're just pagan people. Then he starts in chapter 2. He talks about the religious moralizers, those who think they're pretty good moral people. And then after that, he's gonna talk about the Jews who think they're a very religious moral people and that well, they have the heritage.
Joel Brooks:God's not gonna pour his wrath out on them. And so he's gonna take those 3 groups, and he's gonna demolish each one of them. Say, no. No. All of you are under the wrath of god.
Joel Brooks:So let's look at this first group, chapter 1 verse 19. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts and and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So Paul argues here, everyone knows that there is a God. We know it because all you have to do is look around. The evidence is all around.
Joel Brooks:The fact that you're breathing deep inside of you, you know there's a God. Creation tells us there's a God. And so there's no excuse for us rejecting this knowledge. And although every person knows there's a god, the problem is this. They do not honor god or give thanks to him.
Joel Brooks:So the reason that people are sitting underneath the wrath of god is that they didn't honor him, or they didn't give thanks to him. This is important because I think most of us think that people deserve to be under the wrath of God for what they do to other people. You know, like, you know, the person if they commit mass genocide deserves the wrath of God. You know, a person who abuses her spouse, spouse deserves the wrath of God. Murderers deserve the wrath of God.
Joel Brooks:Those who are unjust deserve his wrath. Those who trample over the poor deserve his wrath. But that's not what Paul says. He says, those who don't honor him deserve his wrath. It says that we deserve God's wrath be because we don't honor him.
Joel Brooks:We don't treasure him. We don't see him as supremely valuable. We're not thinking about him all the time. We don't hide him and hold esteem. He's not the center of our lives.
Joel Brooks:To be truthful, I I think I think we hardly think about him. Not like he deserves. I mean, we we can we can have breakfast and not think about God. We can be driving to work and not think about God. Read our paper and look at all the world events, and not even think about God, Who's in control of all the world events?
Joel Brooks:We we think about him maybe on Sunday for a little bit, and then we leave. The paper doesn't report Him, only maybe in the religious section, you know, in some little cheesy article about, you know, some church billboard will mention God. That's dishonoring Him, not seeing Him supremely valuable above all else. Paul defines this sin later in Romans 3 chapter 23. Familiar verse.
Joel Brooks:For all have sinned and have fallen short, or have fallen short of God's glory. That's a terrific definition of sin. And once again, notice, he doesn't say anything about what you do to other people. He says, you wanna understand sin? It's not glorifying God.
Joel Brooks:It's falling short of that. It's not treasuring him. It's not esteeming him. It's not holding him as supremely valuable. That's sin.
Joel Brooks:Now, not honoring and treasuring God will lead to other sin against man. And you see that in the end of Romans 1, where it talks about all these sins that man does with one another. You know, there's gonna be all this murder. There's gonna be this strife. There's gonna be this gossiping.
Joel Brooks:There's gonna be all this. It will lead to that. That's not primarily what sin is. That's chapter 1. Chapter 2 is that even the most moralistic person is going to stand condemned.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 1. Therefore, you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things. So every time you have, whether in your mind or said it to somebody, liar, when they've not told you the truth, liar, You just cast judgment on yourself because all of you at one point in your life have lied, and you just judge that person for lying. Or that person is just being cruel, like you've never been cruel.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we're we're judging people all the time for sins we have also committed. And so, Paul's saying, when you do that, listen to yourself. You're judging yourself, oh righteous moral one. Let's move on. Let's look at, the 3rd 3rd group.
Joel Brooks:Says that even the chosen people, the Jews, stand condemned because their hearts are just as bad as everyone else. We'll go to the closing argument, verse 9 of chapter 3. This is think of it as like Paul is a prosecutor, and here he's closing argument, I guess. It says, what then? Are are we Jews any better off?
Joel Brooks:No. Not at all. For we have already charged that all. Both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.
Joel Brooks:No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.
Joel Brooks:Go to verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. As Paul closing his argument, what he's saying is, I have so thoroughly demolished your righteousness, and your, godliness. The only thing for you to do is to cover your mouth. Every mouth is stopped.
Joel Brooks:There's no defense any person can bring. All of us are accountable to God. Now, the knee jerk reaction to hearing this news that one is a sinner, one is under the wrath of God. Your knee jerk reaction to that is, I've got to do something. I've got to live a better life.
Joel Brooks:I've got to turn over a new leaf. I've got to start going to church. You know, you're just, I've got to do something to get out from this wrath. Maybe if I start doing enough good works, you know, that at the end of the life, the scales might balance or tilt to where the good works prevail. I was sitting on 280 traffic for about an hour and a half yesterday, going about 2 miles.
Joel Brooks:And so, I was listening to talk radio, and I can't tell you what station it was on. But some guy was ranting, and he goes, You know what's wrong with America? They've forsaken God. I'm like, Alright. I wanna listen to this.
Joel Brooks:It's like, this is what they need to do. It's like, they need to just strap their boots on, go to church, and become better people. I was like, that's a knee jerk reaction. That's what you you know, that's what's wrong. That's how you fix it, start doing good works.
Joel Brooks:And Paul understands that that's that's the reaction we're gonna have upon such news, and so he cuts it off on the past. Chapter 3 verse 20. Very simple line. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. Don't even try.
Joel Brooks:You will never be justified by trying to be good. So it's it's, you know, pretty devastating. Aren't you glad he doesn't end the letter there? You know, got distracted. That was all we got.
Joel Brooks:Pretty devastating. And then, you get to verse 21, which this is going to sound strange. It is the most beautiful but in all the Bible that it leads with verse 21 is gorgeous. But alright. You hear that?
Joel Brooks:He is just I mean, he has laid this huge argument. You're under the wrath of god. All of you, there's no hope. But now the righteousness of God or from God has been manifested, or has been made known to us apart from the law, or apart from trying to do good works here. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith from God available to you through Jesus Christ, if you believe.
Joel Brooks:And now, he is going to spend 2 chapters unpacking that. And we get to 1, if if not, I would say the greatest 2 or 3 verses in all of the Bible. I would say they are you could debate me later. Romans 3/23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.
Joel Brooks:This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. There is a ton here, a ton here. Ask me more about it during the q and a time because you just can't dig into all of this here. So just just ask something.
Joel Brooks:Find a question. Ask. Alright? Every word's important. Keywords like redemption.
Joel Brooks:Redemption means that you have been bought. You have been bought. That means God owns you. That means you're his servant. He he has bought you.
Joel Brooks:Actually, you're doubly bought if you are a Christian, because he owns you at creation. He created you, and then he doubly bought you by the blood of his son. You're you're doubly owned. Propitiation. Most translations actually keep the word propitiation because it's a it's a really rich theological word, And it just simply means the the wrath of God satisfied.
Joel Brooks:Think of it that way, the wrath of God being satisfied. So Jesus, he came to this world. He lived the perfect life that we should have lived. And and then God the father is going to execute his wrath on humanity, and Jesus says, no, no, no. No, no, no.
Joel Brooks:Don't do that. God says, why not? Jesus doesn't say, hey, because, you know, I saw him walk a little old lady across the street, you know, they're not that bad, you know. He's lived with people for a long time. He knows they're they're horrible.
Joel Brooks:He says, no. No. Don't don't punish them. Punish me. Let your wrath fall on me.
Joel Brooks:God says, okay. That's propitiation. It's not that no wrath was spilled out. It's that it wasn't spilled out on you. It was spilled out on Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus that the wrath of God was satisfied on Jesus, propitiated. So remember, ask me more if you want later. So, Paul says, all we have to do is believe this, and then we'll be justified or we will become righteous before God. The word justified and righteous is the same word. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:It's the same word. Our good works won't justify us, but believing in Jesus will. That's Chapter 3. Alright, so now y'all know all the way up to Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, Paul shows that even Abraham was justified by faith, not by works.
Joel Brooks:He wasn't justified by sacrificing Isaac. He wasn't justified by, circumcision. He wasn't justified by those things. He was justified because he believed. It's Romans 4.
Joel Brooks:Romans 5, Paul gives summary statements here in verse 6 that are just glorious. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Can you hear Paul's autobiography kind of lurking in the background there? For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare to die, but God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have been justified by his blood, how much shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?
Joel Brooks:Saved by the wrath of God. There's our hope through the blood of Jesus. And so now, Paul moves into his next subject here. After explaining how we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, Paul then discusses sanctification for the next three chapters. Sanctification is a fancy word.
Joel Brooks:Notice that all theological words either end in ology or -shon. It's a fancy word that simply means living a holy life. Sanctification, living a holy life. And this will be chapters 6 through 8. And before we dig into that, be sure you understand Paul's progression and his order here.
Joel Brooks:You have to be justified before you can begin sanctification. You could think of it as a legal issue and then as justification. The moral issue is sanctification. And so you've gotta get the legal issue settled. You're guilty.
Joel Brooks:You've got to be declared not guilty. Until that happens, sanctification can't even start. Okay? You don't try to become a better person. You don't try to get your life in order, and then you ask Jesus into your heart.
Joel Brooks:That's not the way it works. You're justified, and justification happens in a moment. It's when you're declared not guilty. Sanctification begins at that moment and will take a lifetime. So let's look at chapter 6.
Joel Brooks:Paul addresses a question here that he knows we are all thinking. Question goes like this. If we are justified by faith, and not by works, then why does it matter what we do? Let's just sin. Kinda makes sense.
Joel Brooks:That's that's that's he knows people are thinking this. And so he begins his answer in verse 3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. So Paul says to, you know, the Christian, he's saying, Well, we just sinned.
Joel Brooks:Since, you know, we're not saved by works. He says, Hey, remember your baptism. Remember your baptism because in your baptism, in a very mysterious way, you are uniting with Christ and his death. Okay? You're uniting with him in his death.
Joel Brooks:So in a very real way, you died too. You died to sin. Okay? You died to your old life. You've now been raised into a new life in which you are a slave to God, a slave to righteousness.
Joel Brooks:Before you were a slave to sin, now you've been bought and you're a slave to righteousness. Look at verse 22. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification. And its end, eternal life. Jump up to Romans 7.
Joel Brooks:I think verse 4 is a pretty helpful verse concerning sanctification. Says this, likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another. Man, underline that if you don't have that you may belong to another. To him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. I love that line, you belong to another.
Joel Brooks:Through the gospel, you belong to Jesus. And because he has bought you, because he has saved you, because he has revealed himself as glorious to you, this is a person you're trying to please. You'll do anything to please him. That's sanctification. You belong to him.
Joel Brooks:And so you see, at this point, Paul has shown both your justification depends on the gospel and Jesus, and your sanctification depends on the gospel and Jesus. You don't belong to rules. You don't belong to law, you belong to a person, Jesus. And you're so moved by that you want to always be pleasing him. You want to always present your your the members of your body for sanctification, for good works, to to bring a smile to his face.
Joel Brooks:The rest of chapter 7, somewhat controversial, because some people are wondering when Paul says things like, The good I wish I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. They ask a question, was Paul just kind of talking about what life was like before he was a Christian? Or is he talking about now? Like, can Paul say, hey, the good I wish, I don't do. I practice the very evil that I do not wish.
Joel Brooks:Which is it? We could go into that more depth during the q and a. I I believe that Paul is talking about his current experience. He's not saying everything there is to say about sanctification. He's not saying that, alright, in sanctification there's always defeat.
Joel Brooks:He's not saying you have to balance that with the rest of the bible. But he is saying that, yeah, defeat comes sometimes. Yeah. It's hard. And the main argument of Romans 7 is Paul's been bashing the law, it seems like.
Joel Brooks:You know, you can't get righteous before the law. The laws, you know, you're slaves. You were slaves to that. God set you free then. So people are pretty much asking, well, I guess the law is sinful.
Joel Brooks:And Romans 7 is answering that saying, no, no, no, no. The law's not sinful. No, no, no, no. It's the sin indwelling in me. The law is good.
Joel Brooks:The law is good. But I, even though I want to do the law, there's a sin in me, and I fail. So, Paul's defending the law and the goodness of it, but he's saying that sanctification, you're going to have some peaks, you're going to have some valleys. Even Paul did. Now, verse 4, chapter 7 verse 4 leads us to the theme of chapter 8, that you belong to another.
Joel Brooks:You belong to another. So that theme is chapter 8 because what chapter 8 is about, when when you belong to another, when you are now joined with that other, joined with Christ, he will never, never, never, never let you go, ever, the one you are now joined to. Romans 8 Romans 3 has the greatest verses in the Bible. Romans 8 is the greatest chapter. You should memorize Romans 8.
Joel Brooks:It's it's incredible. Look at just go go to chapter 8. We'll just read I don't even know where to start reading because it's all glorious. We'll start at verse 35. It it doesn't take that much to memorize all of chapter 8.
Joel Brooks:You really you can do it, but at least memorize 35 to the end. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress, shall persecution, shall famine, shall nakedness, shall danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Joel Brooks:No. In all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor debts, nor powers, nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Should all be highlighted, starred, underlined, everything. Printed up on a sheet of paper, laminate it, put it in the shower.
Joel Brooks:Some of the greatest verses in the bible. After this glorious exaltation, we hit Romans 9 through 11. A lot has been said about Romans 9. I probably could divide the room in half over Romans 9, and we could just duke it out. It's all about, you know, election, predestination, sovereignty of God, things like that.
Joel Brooks:I can remember as a freshman in college is when I first studied Romans 9, and it turned my whole world upside down. Really, it turned it upside down. Before, I had used words like sovereign to describe God, but I realized after I studied Romans 9, I had no clue what I had been ascribing to God. I didn't know he was that sovereign. Romans 9 is one of the hardest, greatest chapters of the bible.
Joel Brooks:It is not hard because it is difficult to understand. It's actually really easy to understand. Paul is blunt. I mean, he just, boom. You can't wiggle around some of his statements.
Joel Brooks:It's just there. It's hard because there's little room for misunderstanding, and that truth kinda hurts us. Now, having said this, I want to be clear that the primary point of chapters 9, 10, and 11 is not about predestination or sovereignty. That's not the primary point. He certainly discusses those things, but he uses that in context of a much bigger discussion that's going on.
Joel Brooks:So it's not just a treatise on predestination or election. These three chapters are there to answer a single question that's been raised in the first 8. The question goes would go something like this. This isn't the verse, but this is the question he's answering is, Paul, you've said some pretty amazing things. Pretty amazing.
Joel Brooks:I'd love to believe it. I would love to believe that all I have to do is believe in Jesus Christ, and his death and resurrection. And then I could take God at his word that he declares me as righteous. I'd love to do that. But didn't God also make some promises to Israel?
Joel Brooks:And yet, when I look around, most of Israel has rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So why should I take God at His word? He made all those promises, covenant promises to Israel, yet when I look at Israel, they didn't embrace Jesus. So if Jesus failed to deliver on his promise to them, why in the world would I trust him with this promise? He'll just fail me.
Joel Brooks:That's that's the question. It's a it's a huge question that Paul has got to answer in these three chapters. Verse 6 of Romans 9. This is the point here. But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
Joel Brooks:This is gonna if the word of God fails, the gospel is useless. There is no gospel if the Word of God fails. But the Word of God has not failed. And he he explains it this this two ways, these two ways. And it's simplified to 2 ways.
Joel Brooks:There's there's a few more. Not all of Israel are of Israel. So, when he made the promises to Israel, don't think of it as all of physical Israel. There is a elect or a Israel within Israel. There's the physical Israel, and then there's the spiritual Israel.
Joel Brooks:And he has kept his promise to that physical spiritual Israel there. Then, I think later, he also says, all Israel will at some point be saved. So, there's always been a he says, there's always been a remnant of Israel. That's the 3rd argument. Sorry.
Joel Brooks:I didn't mean to bring that one in. Three arguments. One, not all of Israel is Israel. He has kept it to the elect Israel. There's always been actually the second is there's always been a ethnic Jewish Israel that has been saved.
Joel Brooks:It's not just the Gentiles. And 3rd, all Israel will be saved at some point. And, you can ask me more about that. All Israel will be saved later. We can't really unpack that here.
Joel Brooks:I don't think all means every single individual. And they certainly are not saved apart from accepting Christ as their savior. You can ask more about that during the q and a. So Paul's explanation for why the Word of God has not failed is election. No, no, no.
Joel Brooks:God's Word didn't fail. It actually accomplished exactly what he wanted his word to accomplish. Look at verse 10 of Romans 9. He brings up a story to illustrate this. When Rebecca had conceived children by 1 man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done anything or nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call or his effectual word.
Joel Brooks:She was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated. Jacob did not work for his salvation. He was in no way different than Esau. They had the same father and mother.
Joel Brooks:They even shared the same womb. You can't get any more equal than that. But before they were born, God said he had loved Jacob and he hated Esau. Now, a doctrine like that just kind of, you know, kind of hits you sideways a little bit, raises a lot of questions which Paul anticipates. And so, he's gonna go ahead and ask and answer the questions.
Joel Brooks:And so, the first question, which probably most people have is, what should we say then? This is verse 14. What should we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? That certainly sounds like God's not just.
Joel Brooks:Answer. By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Then to make it even more clear, so then it does not depend so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. That raises another question, verse 20.
Joel Brooks:You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will? It's a great question. It's like, well, then we're not responsible. If God has has predestined us, if he's he's ordained this, and and just, you know, bring up pharaoh and all that, He can't blame us.
Joel Brooks:Answer. Who are you, oh man, to answer back to god? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump Jacob and Esau to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use. So he anticipates the questions. He answers them bluntly, very directly.
Joel Brooks:And if you want to ask more about those in the Q and A, you can. He goes on in chapter 11 to explain why most of physical Israel has rejected the Messiah. His explanation is that they rejected it. God's plan that most of them, not all, but most of them reject it in order that the Gentiles might come in, that the Gentiles might come in. Look at chapter 11, verse 11.
Joel Brooks:So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. Then look at verse 25. It says, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers.
Joel Brooks:A partial hardening has come upon Israel, and so the fullness of Gentiles has come in. Do you even see once again there Paul's autobiographical nature? The partial hardening and rejection in order to later be brought in for a very specific purpose. The illustration he uses for this is an olive tree. He says, hey, just think of an olive tree, this Jewish olive tree, and branches were cut off that olive tree in order that Gentile branches might be grafted in.
Joel Brooks:But it's the same tree. It's both built on the covenant with Abraham, both saved by Jesus. It's now Gentiles, Jews, same tree. And he says, and someday, the Jews will be grafted back in. It's the same tree which is still being saved by Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Paul realizes this is heavy. I can look at some of y'all's wheels turning. It's heavy. And so he ends with this spectacular doxology. I guess I can't keep saying one of the most fantastic verses in the Bible.
Joel Brooks:Also, it should be highlighted, starred, underlined, tattooed if you want. Verse 33, chapter 11. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, Or who has been his counselor?
Joel Brooks:Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. We'll be done in 5 minutes.
Joel Brooks:It'll be 70 minutes. We're there, right on track. Maybe 6 minutes. We we come to the rest of the letter, which is all about now from 12 on, how to live the Christian life. You've got the theology.
Joel Brooks:Boom. We don't have to spend that much time 12 through 15 because if you got the theology, if it's gripped you, you're going to live out the rest. Alright? Chapter 12 begins with these famous words about worship. Probably memorized them in Vacation Bible School, growing up.
Joel Brooks:I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now I hope here to both comfort and offend Calvinists and Armenians here. If you don't know what that word means, Calvinist is a camp. I consider myself to be a Calvinist that believes in the sovereignty of God and predestination. Arminians highlight more free will.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Calvinists hear me. Understand where Paul puts worship and understand where he puts election and predestination and the gospel. Understand the order of all this because I've known many Calvinists who put predestination at the front end of their gospel. Boom.
Joel Brooks:Front end. Hit heavy. Jacob, I love you. Esau hated. You're either elect or you're not.
Joel Brooks:That's a great lead in there. You know, that's not what Paul does. He starts off saying, Hey, everybody's sinned, all of us. But we can be justified by grace through faith through Jesus. Alright?
Joel Brooks:And then sanctification begins. He deals with all of that first, then he hits election after that. Now for Arminians who might downplay election, realize its importance. He puts it before worship. Alright?
Joel Brooks:So it's after you get all the gospel here, sanctification. But it's before worship. Because this is what an understanding of predestination and election does to us. It creates the posture necessary for worship. It humbles you tremendously.
Joel Brooks:Puts you on your knees when you realize you did nothing, absolutely nothing to deserve your salvation, except provide the sin that needed to be forgiven. That's your contribution, is sin, alright, to your salvation. And so your good works stand for nothing. Even the very faith that you have was given to you by God. You didn't muster it up on your own.
Joel Brooks:It was given to you by God. And so, like Paul says in Romans 3:27, you cannot boast. If election wasn't true, then you could boast over the other person. Some Gentile might boast over that Jew. Hey, that Jew didn't decide, but I did.
Joel Brooks:I mustered up the faith. Paul says, no. You can't boast. Nobody boasts before one another or before God. And that creates the posture necessary for worship.
Joel Brooks:Alright, so So Calvinists understand the place of election. Armenians understand the place of election. Alright? It is a very important doctrine. Chapter 12, when it talks about, you know, you could go there.
Joel Brooks:We're just going to 1, 2 sentences on each chapter. Talks about worship. He goes in and talks about that Use it in service of the church. Love one another. Okay?
Joel Brooks:Now that you understand the gospel, love one another. Chapter 13 says, submit to the authorities. Even the Roman Chapter 14 to the end, basically. He goes on, love the weak. There will be weak people in your congregation who don't understand fully the gospel I just presented.
Joel Brooks:They stumble up on little things like, you know, am I allowed to eat this? Or do I need to observe this day? It's like, you know what? Love them. Serve them.
Joel Brooks:You who are strong, Look at look at verse 15. It says, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. And then Paul ends his letter with what we started, his explanation for why he is coming to Rome, and then says goodbyes and greetings and all of that. All right. I finished 70 minutes on the nose, I believe.
Joel Brooks:Maybe 71. I don't know. So, we're gonna take a 10 minute break, and, y'all can get some coffee, cupcakes, and then we will, resume. Alright. Once again, this is how the Q and A works.
Joel Brooks:It's not stuff to teach you. That's pretty easy, but if there's any questions that have come up or you just want me to talk more about, go ahead. And, we will end at 10 o'clock no matter what or earlier if y'all get extremely bored. So, just make sure I can see your hand, and, let's go. No.
Joel Brooks:It's it's once again, it's the in context of 9 through 11 when he's talking about this, the primary purpose for him talking about predestination, not the primary. One of his purposes for talking about predestination is to humble the Gentiles. He wants to humble them because I didn't go into this, but the Jews at this point in Rome had been expelled. Claudius was emperor, and in 49 AD, he kicked out all the Jews. This letter was written about 54, 55 AD right when, Claudius died, and so they were allowed to come back.
Joel Brooks:But the church is predominantly Gentile with a few trickling in Jews. And there's definitely conflict there. The Gentiles are probably looking down at the Jews. The Gentiles carry the weight in a sense. And so, he brings out this part, Romans 11 there to say, Hey, Gentiles, look what God did to the Jews.
Joel Brooks:He cut them off. And if he did that, you know, to a natural branch, he could do that for one that had been grafted in. It's a warning to them. That's the overall thing. It's a warning promoting humility here among them.
Joel Brooks:And when he says, note the kindness and the severity of God, severity towards those who have fallen, but kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness. I mean, it's just saying, basically, sober up in this. Look at both of the things. This could happen to you. Continue on in your faith, or continue in his kindness.
Joel Brooks:And that doesn't go against, you know, election or predestination at all when you tell somebody to continue in this. You know, you understand that the way you continue in that is if the faith of God sustains you. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:How would you address that if someone like my mother goes to a church that, believes you can lose your salvation? Yeah. A very charismatic church, and she thinks that you can lose your salvation. I have this discussion with her all the time about we talked about this messed up. I'm I'm very confident, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Tampa is the salvation. So that verse kinda she would take that verse and say, but you will be cut off if you don't continue in it.
Joel Brooks:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In her mind, she thinks you'll lose your salvation if you don't continue.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. And and the truth is absolutely. There's a it's a true warning. You will be cut off. The thing is, you know, later in 1st John when people leave the church, he says that just proves that when people left us they were not really of us.
Joel Brooks:That was his explanation. It's not that they, you know, they all of a sudden changed their mind or they lost their salvation. He says, their leaving proved that they were never really of us. And it'd be similar here to that if they stopped having the kindness, it would prove that they never really were. And so I I think the question, by the way, is basically, you know, can you lose your salvation in a sense.
Joel Brooks:I think Romans 9 through 11, other verses, Ephesians 2, different places, show in such a way that you had nothing to do with your salvation. Therefore, you can't lose your salvation. It's a gift from God. Any other question? Chapter.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. Absolutely. It's saying, you know, yes, he could believe chapter 8 because God's word doesn't fail. Where you see failure because people are dropping off, don't see. It's actually accomplishing his very word.
Joel Brooks:And then he explains it. You know, not all of Israel are of Israel. There's this elect in Israel that were saved by his word. It's good. Prior.
Joel Brooks:Speaking
Speaker 2:of that, somebody mentioned that there's geographical, physical where Israel
Joel Brooks:Gotcha. The question is, concerns the church in Israel. I'll just say when I had my ordination examination, I don't know how this happened, but I was asked about 2 hours on the church's relationship to Israel. I wanted to put a gun to my head. But basically the question is, if I get this right, what is you have the physical geographical Israel there, and and how does the church relate to that?
Joel Brooks:Okay. Excuse me? Okay. I would say this. Paul uses the image of now there's one tree.
Joel Brooks:There is one tree that the church, Israel, they're one tree. It's all the Covenant of Abraham right there. And so, those who are physical and spiritual Israel are now united with the Gentiles who believe in Christ, who are now I mean, you could call yourself Jewish in an extent, if you want. We have Abraham for our father. So, the church, I don't see any distinction there between the church and Israel.
Joel Brooks:I will say that I believe, and you could differ in this and not be a heretic whatsoever, when you come to chapter 11, when it talks about all Israel will be saved, there's multiple options there. And and none of your these options are going to make you a heretic. You can either believe that when it says all Israel will be saved, it's talking about the church, because the Church is now the replacement of Israel. Therefore, all Israel, the Church, will be saved. Option B is
Speaker 2:all
Joel Brooks:Israel will be saved. That Israel is the small elect remnant that He has kept throughout. There's always been physical Jewish people who've accepted Jesus as Messiah. That small remnant throughout history will be saved. Option 3 is know at some point physical Israel as a whole.
Joel Brooks:I mean, when it says all, once again don't think of every single person because the Bible uses that a lot when it says all of Israel was at some place. Well, not every Jew was at some place. But as a large multitude, a mass of Israel, physical Israel will be saved. That's the view I hold to. A lot of it is because if you if you want to keep the pronouns they, when it's always talking about they, they, they consistent in Romans 11, I think that's the view you have to hold.
Joel Brooks:Otherwise, you'll take a one they has to mean the church while the other they has to mean physical Israel, and it gets really, really confusing. And so, I think at some point, as Paul would say, the Gentiles were brought in to make the Jews jealous. But since we share the same roots, that same tree, at some point they're going to realize, I belong in that tree. Jesus is the Messiah. And at some point, you're going to have this massive intake, I believe, of Jewish descendants, physical Jewish people who will accept Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Joel Brooks:That's not the only view. I mean, there's those other views, and, I couldn't even tell you which is the majority view. So good question. Yeah. The question is Romans 7.
Joel Brooks:You know, lines like, The good I wish I do not do, but I practice a very evil that I do not wish. Is Paul talking about before he was a Christian, after he was a Christian? This would just be a guess, but I would say probably 2 thirds of people fall on the this is he is a Christian here, and about a third fall to, no. This is a pre Christian Paul that he's talking about. You know, one of the most respected theologians who wrote a commentary on Romans, a guy named Douglas Mu, takes that position.
Joel Brooks:This is not Paul as a Christian. I disagree with that. For one, there's no indication that he's shifting here to all of a sudden talking about an old life or before. You don't see that. 2, it's a very common experience.
Joel Brooks:I bet if I were to ask how many of you can relate to that, every one of you would probably raise your hand, and say, I relate to that. That I don't think that means that you're not a Christian. So I think it's very relatable that we we it's just a common Christian experience. We see that. 3rd, I think just seeing it in the flow of argument is basically, you know, once again, Paul's defending the law.
Joel Brooks:People have come up based on this accusation. So you're saying the law's evil, that the law is sinful? And he's saying, No. No. No.
Joel Brooks:No. No. No. No no. Not at all.
Joel Brooks:The the law's good. It's the sin in me that's bad. You know? And when it met the law, it inflamed it. You know, I reacted against it, but the law's good.
Joel Brooks:And I've used I used this story at Redeemer just a few weeks ago. But if if I were to go home and put a sign in my front yard that said, do not throw rocks at my roof or at my house. If I were to do that, I guarantee you that night or or maybe the next, I'd have people throwing rocks. Now, in which nobody ever has, and don't. But when people see law, it stirs in them the sin that's there.
Joel Brooks:Nobody tells me what to do. And and Paul's making that kind of argument. The law itself is not bad. It's good, But it stirred in me this sin. And he said, And at times, I agree, which means I see the law and I recognize it's good.
Joel Brooks:I want to do the law. I agree with it, but there's times I fail. It's the sinew dwelling in me. And, once again, this is not a complete total picture of sanctification. Do not get all of your theology from sanctification from this right here.
Joel Brooks:He's talking about this one experience. And this is how I an analogy I would use, and this isn't mine. This comes from Martin Lloyd Jones, and he's talking about, it just left me. I hate when verses leave me. About God taking us out of the domain of darkness and placing us in the dominion of light.
Joel Brooks:So this is sanctification. God takes you out of the domain of darkness and he places you in this new kingdom. Jesus is your Lord. Jesus is your king. The problem is, you can still hear your old master over the wall.
Joel Brooks:He still says commands, and by reflex, you just you still do it. You're no longer a slave to him. You're no longer in his kingdom. You're in the kingdom of of God here, but but you still fall. Over time, sanctification, that voice, you begin to distinguish it and to not listen to it and to hear and obey your own master more and more.
Joel Brooks:That sanctification takes a process. Good questions. Next.
Speaker 2:Could you explain the logic in chapter 11 when he talks about part of Israel rejecting Christ so that the Gentiles come in. Like, I don't really understand why that would have to be. Like, I could come up with some other reasons why Yeah. Part of Israel would reject, like, so that they wouldn't be proud, so that they wouldn't feel entitled to this thinking. But, like, he he directly relates that with the Gentiles being drafted.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. I don't know. No. No. I mean, by the way, I'll say, if I don't know, I will tell you I don't know.
Joel Brooks:I'm not gonna just make up some long answer. One of the first questions I had in reading through them, like, Paul, I don't really know if I get your logic here. And so that's just something I'd have to keep beating my head on until I get the logic. The the question was, how is it sorry. How is it when when Paul says that basically the Jews were cut off in order for the Gentiles to be grafted in or they or so there could be an inclusion of the Gentiles.
Joel Brooks:It's like, well, why did they have to be cut off cut off for Gentiles to be included in? You know, why couldn't they just include Gentiles? And, but Paul says it had to be this way in order for the Gentiles. And my answer was profound. Sorry you missed it.
Joel Brooks:Oh, sorry. I heard the answer. Any other questions? Good questions so far. A lot of Romans 11.
Speaker 2:Good. There's
Joel Brooks:something else you wanted to share in the first half that I have shared. Something I wanted to share in the first half or first part? Man, Rome Romans 3, I could land on. Go to Romans 3. I love this.
Joel Brooks:But I will will I'll preach on this sometime later. So let's go to the greatest verses in all the Bible. Look at verse 24. And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was this is what I'll look at right here.
Joel Brooks:This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. Paul is addressing another accusation that could be made of God. 1 that this generation or that I shouldn't even just say this generation. Just us here in this room, and and I guess it's not limited to this generation. Probably the last 2000 years.
Joel Brooks:Just don't think about. You don't ponder. You know, you you lay in bed at night, and you just kind of think of how can God allow this evil to happen and all that. Those are the big questions. Here, he's saying the question is, how in the world can God forgive sin?
Joel Brooks:That's the question that you should be pondering is, how in the world is forgiveness possible? And so, because you look at some of the Old Testament people, they sinned, and they said, God, forgive me. And God goes, okay. I forgive you. And we move on.
Joel Brooks:You see that sometimes. You know, David sins against Bathsheba, And he says, I have sinned. And and then the prophet, Nathan, comes in and says, the Lord has taken away your your sin. You're like, what the heck? How did you just did you just take it away?
Joel Brooks:It it would be like if if I'm a judge and somebody came before me. They have committed murder. They've committed all these terrible acts. And, the guy says, you know what? Oops.
Joel Brooks:Sorry about that. You know? Didn't, you know, killed all those people. Won't happen again. And I'd say, you know what?
Joel Brooks:It's alright. You just you're free. Free to go. Now, for 1, I would not be reelected as a judge. It would not it would not happen because all of you would cry out, that's unjust.
Joel Brooks:That's unjust. Yet, nobody makes that cry to God. Nobody lays on their bed at night thinking, okay, how in the world can God forgive sin? That's what this verse is about. Because it says, in His divine forbearance or patience, He just passed over the former saints.
Joel Brooks:Yeah, you're forgiven, you're forgiven. And then he says, this is why Jesus was killed. He says, It was to show his righteousness at the present time. So Jesus was put forward and killed to show God, no. He will punish sin.
Joel Brooks:And that He will be both just, because that was the accusation. God, if you forgive sin, you're not just. And he goes, No, I'm just. I am so just my son will die. But he's not just just, he's also the justifier.
Joel Brooks:It's like, he's both just, and he makes us just as well. He's the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And it's just if you if you just really unpack it, it's glorious. I'm gonna end there. Alright.
Joel Brooks:I I just realized I will go on. So, I think one of the one of the alright. Real quick. One of the things I love about that is so much we think the gospel is always about me, about me, about me. And here God says, no.
Joel Brooks:I'm demonstrating something about me. Jesus died so that I might show I am just. You know, this is Once again, this all goes back to God is is glorified in this instead of man. Now I'm really doing it. Next question.
Joel Brooks:Go ahead.
Connor Coskery:Whatever happened in Spain, you don't really hear much about his journey?
Joel Brooks:Yeah. I don't know. I'm sure I mean, there's Christians in Spain. So we'll, no. I I don't know.
Joel Brooks:I can't tell you what all happened there. Yes. It says in, 911. 911. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Well, the the question in order that God's purpose of election, what is his purpose? Is this just that, as creator, he could do what he will with his own. His purpose is that he's glorified and not man. So that is his purpose in election nor that that might stand. And so salvation depends on god, not man.
Joel Brooks:And in order that that might stand, then he shows this is this is what happens. Anybody else? Go ahead. Okay. The question is basically how did I prepare this and a little bit more about Romans 5, which I I didn't even talk about Christ and being the new Adam.
Joel Brooks:The main way I prepared for this, those of you who go to redeemer, I've kinda mentioned I prepare for sermons as I read a text over, over, over, over, and I just ask questions. I just have tons of questions, and I just try to go and answer them. I have more unanswered questions in Romans than than answered ones, just when you get to some really specific issues. So I've read through Romans every day for the last 2 or 3 weeks, and you just start getting you get the feel for flow of the letter. And that only takes an hour and a half.
Joel Brooks:You know? It doesn't take that long. Started trying to memorize a few chapters, just different key chapters, which also doesn't take that long. I am not a good memorizer, but, you know, you can memorize Romans 3, Romans 4, Romans 8 not that long. And the reason I I I kinda skipped over that part about in 5 is simply I just had to skip over some parts.
Joel Brooks:I thought we'd already pretty much developed that. The argument is basically, Hey. We've talked about sin. We've talked about all this stuff. Now it brings up Adam and death.
Joel Brooks:I didn't even talk about one one theme in Romans is suffering. Like, we can now suffer. We join Christ in suffering, which is what he's asking these Romans to do. Suffer now for the gospel. But he talks about death, Adam.
Joel Brooks:It's like, alright. When Adam sinned, we all died. Okay? Jesus is the new Adam. Adam was a type pointing to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He's this new humanity. So just as we all died in Adam, we can be saved. Just like you did nothing to really to inherit that, you know, sinful nature, Very similarly, you know, in Christ, he can make you righteous. And so that's just the comparison. Now he doesn't develop it hugely.
Joel Brooks:It's just like another point or illustration that he can hack on. Just cement that. Another question? Question? I have so some people are going I can't read lips.
Joel Brooks:I'd like to go ahead. Wait. Wait. Where where is it? Oh, gotcha.
Connor Coskery:Yeah. Yeah. I was hoping somebody wouldn't ask me that one.
Joel Brooks:I kinda knew. I was like, you know, being in the south, somebody will ask me that. The question is basically Romans 14 20 kinda to the end of the chapter. What does this say? Can we apply this to drinking?
Joel Brooks:Apply it to anything. I mean, drinking is just the the hot thing in the south. Apply it to smoking. You know? Apply it to, I don't know, watching football on Sundays.
Joel Brooks:I'll object to that. It causes me to stumble. So, basically, Paul says, you know, do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. First of all, I mean, you've got to understand that the situation here is the Jews and the Gentiles in which there are certain foods that God prohibited for them to eat.
Joel Brooks:And because of their weak and the argument is because of their weak state, their weak faith, they still think they need to eat this, or or they need to abstain from this. They can't eat pork. And he's saying, you know, because that was a direct commandment from god earlier, you know, and that that was part of who they were. They haven't been they don't understand they've been liberated from that. And so Paul is saying, hey.
Joel Brooks:Be very sensitive. If you're going to talk or you're going to, you know, to to try to reach the Jews here, which Romans 9 through 11 is basically saying, don't give up on the Jews. Go after them. It's like, don't be stupid and cause them to stumble. And like, you know, hey.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna order some barbecue. Alright? You know, and we're gonna do that. And for the Christians that are there, the the Jewish Christians who still have that hiccup, it's like, just be sensitive to that. I think it falls apart a number of levels when it comes to things like drinking.
Joel Brooks:For 1, you could argue scripturally that you have the opposite command in scripture about drinking. I'm not saying all of y'all go get drunk or anything. But, you know, talking about, wine gladdens the heart. You know, there's this gift aspect of it. Jesus's first miracles turned water into wine, you know.
Joel Brooks:You don't have that against there. And so it it is a more cultural argument there. When I was doing college ministry, I abstained from alcohol whenever I was in public. You know, I went home and drank in my closet. But, no, I didn't do that because I knew I would not some college student would come and see me across the room, and they'd be like, rock their world.
Joel Brooks:And I wouldn't have the chance to explain it. I wouldn't have the chance to sit down and be, Hey. You know, let's let's sit down. He's talking about table fellowship here. There's a chance to really kinda work through these things.
Joel Brooks:This isn't like somebody looking across the room and like, oh my gosh. Is he eating pork? You know? So, anyway, I didn't do that in college, and so I decided to start my own church so I could drink. Just in public, no.
Joel Brooks:Good question. We have we have time for a easy softball toss it up.
Speaker 2:Alright. Kind of when the.
Joel Brooks:When and how? Yeah. The the question is when and how did I begin loving the book of Romans? I bet most people here love it more than they would think. If you were to compile right now most of the verses you have memorized in the bible, you would be stunned at how many come from Romans.
Joel Brooks:It's like I mean, it's just it's phenomenal. And so simply you cannot understand Romans I mean, you can't understand the rest of the Bible or the the gospel apart from Romans. I think one of the things that intrigued me is Saint Augustine got saved through Romans. You know, he's sitting under a tree, and he hears pick up and read. And so he reads Romans 13, and before that, he was a sex addict, God saved him through Romans.
Joel Brooks:Martin Luther, it was through studying Psalms and Romans that he became a Christian. John Wesley, he wasn't reading Romans. He heard somebody reading a preface to Martin Luther's commentary on Romans, and it saved him. That's, you know, that's so I felt my heart strangely warmed. That was from hearing somebody speak about a preface to Romans.
Joel Brooks:And so just justice has this power in that. And so, that's always attracted me. Alright. Let me end. Let me pray for us and, we could give.
Joel Brooks:God, we thank you for your word. We just got the tip of the iceberg. I pray that you would, ignite something in us. Want to go home digging your word, but such a passion for you. We are so joyful and thankful that we have been delivered from the wrath of God.
Joel Brooks:You would radically change our lives, That we would want to see your name proclaimed to all the nations at all cost. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.