Romans 1 | Who are we?

Intro

Hey y’all, everybody good? Great.

So tomorrow is January 19th, which doesn’t mean a lot to most of you but it is actually the 3 year anniversary of me starting here at FBC Gray. So i have had the pleasure of serving you for 3 years and hopefully many more. It feels like forever and it feels like not that long ago.

anyways.

In like the 40’s the yankees had this catcher named Yogi Berra, he was famous for his weird sayings but one of his more famous ones is, “when you come to a fork in the road. take it.” which is funny, but really doesn’t make sense.

But can any of you remember a time in your life where you have a big decision to make?

Basically you came to a fork in the road. and it was a big deal. hopefully salvation is on there for you, but you know one that kinda changed your life. If you have’t you will one day.

Seniors, it’s coming up, you have som big forks in the road.

For me coming here was a big fork in the road. Our life was not the same. Moving to New Orleans was a fork in the road, because that road lead here.

So tonight I want to offer you two pictures of what this life can be and what can await us in this life. and we have a lot to cover tonight.

So Romans is where we are going to be tonight, Romans 1, we are going to go through this whole book this year. Looking at everything in here.

So if you have a bible great, flip over to Romans 1, if you don’t have a bible throw a hand up and we’ll get one to you. Who needs a bible?If you do’t have one at home take that one with you. If you do have one at home that is currently at home, bring that with you. It is important to have the word with you.

last call for bibles. Cool Romans 1, whole thing.

Context

So let you give you some context while you flip over there to it.

Romans was written by Paul to the church at Rome. This is the book he is most famous for writing. We have done a lot of his letters in here, but this is The Letter by Paul.

This book is Paul’s Free Bird, it’s long and theres a lot going on in it.

This might be the most theologically rich book in the New Testament. It has everything in it.

But if you want to split the book up, the first 11 chapters are all about what God has done through the person and work of Christ. and the the second half is about what we do with the message we have been given through Christ.

And Paul is writing this around 56 AD. Basically Paul was gearing up to take the Gospel north of Rome on in to Europe.

Paul had already completed his missionary journeys in and around the Mediterranean and Aegean sea. Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, and now Paul is setting his sights on Rome for that to be a home base for his next missionary journeys.

His goal was to go on in to Spain and then north in to Gaul, modern day France and Germany, and probably had he had the chance to go as far a he could.

So Paul writes this letter to Rome. He writes this letter to the church and the believers of Rome.

Basically he wants them to know he is coming and he wants to equip them to spread the gospel so that when he gets there they can hit the ground running.

So he starts out by reminding them of all that God has done and who God is, what God’d attributes are and how they play out.

So that is what we are going to as we go through this book.

Through this I want to equip you theologically, and missionally, so that when you walk out those doors you are ready to face the world, together.

So Romans chapter 1, we are going to read this in chunks, and look at. I know it’s a lot of scripture but it’ll be alright.

So Romans 1:1-14 is the first chunk but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

pray

Okay, first chunk, let’s look at it.

Romans 1:1–14 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. v. 1-15

Okay so first off, we don’t normally start letters off like this do we?

Look at this, this is beyond your normal Name and address. Paul is saying something here.

First he says something about himself, he says he’s a servant of Christ, set apart for the Gospel of God. Now why would he say that?

What was Paul before he was called by Christ? What was Paul up to? any takers?

He was Saul, and what was Saul doing? Murdering. That’s what he was doing. And who was he murdering? Christians! And who was he writing this to? Christians!

It might have been a few years since he did any killing, but like he’s gonna make sure they know this is Paul and not Saul.

Paul, servant of Christ Jesus.

Then after telling them who he is, he tells them who sent him.

He saying something about himself and now about Jesus.

And what’s he saying?

That Christ is who He said He is.

Do you know how many people through history have claimed to be God? A bunch.

If we look though history, its a whole bunch, it’s a metric bunch. Every generation has someone who claims to be God.

What has happened to them? They all die. and when they die, they don’t get back up.

Even in Jewish history there are bunch of “messiahs” they’re all killed, and don’t get back up.

Christ is the one who got back up.

Answer me this, if you are on the fence about christianity, answer me this if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, how do you explain the rise and spread of Christianity in the face of persecution on Rome. Why continue a lie? Why were christians so willing to die for their faith. Because normally when you kill a god, the religion goes away, Christianity got bigger after Christ’s death and ascension. Answer that one for me.

He was foretold in the scriptures and prophets, he came through the line of David. and was raised from the dead.

This is what we talked about last week, Christ is actually risen, and what makes His words worth following and His words have any validity.

CS Lewis has this quote,

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”

Basically is Christ didn’t rise from the dead then what he said was kind of crazy, like, he’s a crazy person without rising from the dead. Because what he was teaching was so different from anything the world had heard. Just his teaching on what to do if someone sues you for your jacket, give them your shirt too. If someone hits you, let them hit you again. Love your enemy.

Paul is saying here, I am a servant of Christ, who was raised from the dead, who is the actual son of God, through we have this mission and mandate to bring the gospel to all the nations.

Then he tells them here is why I’m writing you.

To equip you so that we may do this together.

So what does this tell his?

Because we have been sent by Christ, who was raised from the dead, we are to work together through this, that our mandate is for us to spread the gospel to all nations.

For us, if you are a follower of Christ, this is for you, that we do this together.

So Paul is writing this to equip them so that they know the why and the how of the gospel.

We are all apostles and here is why you should act like an apostle. Look at all that God has done.

Righteousness live by faith, we can only live by faith. v 16-17

Okay, let’s keep going so that we can get in to the why and see what all God has done and fully grasp the weight of the gospel.

Read this next chunk with me. verse 16-17

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

16 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. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Look at this, why does Paul say, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”

For us this doesn’t translate well for us, “for most of our lives, it is slowly changing, but we haven’t been ashamed of the Gospel.”

Why would Paul make that distinction?

Because the Gospel is not about you. The Gospel says you were at one point a dead man walking, you were slave to your unrighteousness. There was nothing you could do about it.

Now in the Roman world, that was a wild statement, you could always do something about it. It was offensive Roman sensibilities.

For us, we grew up in a predominantly christian environment. Christianity was kind of the default. That’s changing, Christianity is start to get back some of it’s offensiveness, like the world says, what ever you want to do it cool, no harm, no foul. Just be you. You are inherently good by your own merits. If you are good person you go to this thing called heaven. The only sin is calling someone else.

So this is what I want to try impart to you. If you are going to follow Christ get some think skin.

I thought about asking you to raise your hand, but i know it won’t be accurate, but through conversations and different situations with y’all I have a decent understanding of how you think. You are programed to go out of your way not to offend people. cool, being nice is a good thing. But in the day we live in, the Gospel is going to offend people.

So you have got to learn how to look at those two things and determine whats more important? The Gospel or not offending people? I know the church answer is the gospel, but its a lot harder outside of church. Because once you open that can of you have offended someone with the gospel, you are going to have to live with what happens. and it’s okay. That is why we have christian community. That is why we have each other, so that when it gets sideways we have a community.

Paul was writing telling them this.

The Righteous live by faith, because in this world that all we are going to have to live by.

Paul is saying no matter what we have the righteousness of God upon us, because Hes the only one that can give it to us, through faith.

That is Eph. 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

not what we have done but what God has done. Thats the restoring part of the Gospel.

How does God deal with Unrighteousness v. 18-32

Let’s keep going, this is where the Gospel pull offense. This is the part that people especially in our day hear and have a hard time with.

Read this with me, it’s a lot, but lets finish the chapter.

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

So let’s get in to this.

The gospel is that we could do anything about our in problem but Christ died for our sins.

We all agree with that, I agree with that, but what did Christ save us from? When someone comes to know the Lord, we say they have been saved? From what?

What? Your sins? yeah, in a sense your sins, that’s a good answer, but what does your sin mean? What does sin do? What were saved from?

Paul writes, Rom 1:18 “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

What is unrighteousness?

So what is unrighteousness? We know that we have Christ’s righteousness put on us when we are saved, when we come to know Him. So what is unrighteousness? Unrighteousness is against God, it can also be called injustice.

It is an act against a holy and mighty God.

The word in Hebrew is the word for evil. It is against God.

So what were we saved from? The Wrath of God.

So think about this. hang in there with me.

Perfect Mercy

God is perfect, which means all of his attributes are perfect. Right? tracking? So when we say God is merciful, that means God’s mercy is perfect right?

When we say God is gracious, that means it is a perfect grace? It is those two things that allow us to be saved at all. If his Grace wS imperfect he could take back his gift, if his mercy was not perfect he could justify a belief like purgatory. You still gotta earn your spot.

but it’s not it is perfect. Tracking? God is perfect in all things.

Perfect Justice

This means that if God is a just God, a God of Justice, then his Justice is perfect, right?

That means God will deal with sin, if sin went unpunished then God is not perfectly just, his Justice demands that he deal with sin.

What is the Wrath of God?

So what is that? It’s the wrath of God, for the wrath of god is revealed fro heaven against all unrighteousness, against all evil.

So ultimately when we are saved we are saved from God’s wrath. That is what Hell is.

a lot of the time we think of Hell as the absence of God, and in one you might be right, like the personal relationship we could have will not be in Hell, but Hell will be the full presence and measure of God’s wrath. That is what Hell is and that is what we are being saved from.

no excuse

So this text answers a question for us, i’ve been asked this and we talked about it at the AMA last year. But this is the text that answers the question.

What happens to those who never hear about Jesus or the Gospel? What happens?

This chunk answers this, they are subject to God’s wrath, they are without excuse. verse 19-23 are that part.

Basically when someone decided they don’t need God, or come to think God isn’t there, this is what happens, they say to God i am god. They make themselves God.

Sin can take over

Then look what happens when we make ourselves god?

The rest of this passage is showing that the world devolves in to chaos.

Sin takes over.

Sin is a corrupting thing. have you ever seen wood rot? If you have a rotted board somewhere in your house, that rot can spread. because the bacteria that cause rot spreads. it consumes.

That is what we see here, sin consuming when we make ourselves god.

And when we do that, God says to us, fine do it your way, look at how it turns out. This is a warning to us. Sin must be cut out.

The heart of the gospel is that basically god takes away the rot in our life and gives us the life of Christ.

P2Christ

What can save the world? v. 32 Only Christ

Look at verse 32. Rom. 1:32

Romans 1:32 ESV

32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Does this not describe the world we live in today?

this should burden us for taking the Gospel. because they do deserve to die, just like we used to deserve to die but didn’t because we have been saved.

This is a weighty verse.

Who are we?

So we need to ask the question who are we?

Who are we? If we are followers of Christ, who are we? Are we going to be as Paul writes, Servants of Christ Jesus, messengers of good news? or are we going to sit on the side, watching? Are we going to see this good news and say, lucky me, or say, people need to hear of this.

If you are a follower of Christ this is calling us to lights in the dark world, those who know the way, showing others the way.

Christ is our only hope.

If you are not a follower of christ or don’t know what you are, this text is give you two pictures of what could be your future. Either with Christ or without. With Christ you have the righteousness of Christ on you, adopted as sons and daughters of the king. With out Christ, the wrath of God awaits. Sin is all consuming, sin leads to death.

Christ is the only hope we have, come see christ as lord, come see christ as king.

Pray with me.