Faith, Hope, Love
Notes
Transcript
You have probably heard me say before that heaven is a members only club.
Because if it were a club, it would be absolutely without a doubt, a members only admittance.
It shouldn’t surprise any of us that admittance is only open to a specific group of members.
You must be covered by the blood of Jesus, Amen.
Meaning you have fully, and sincerely submitted your life and being to the will of the Lord.
Thereby forming an unwavering bond, and relationship with Jesus.
To the point that He calls you His own.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Do you hear His voice?
Does He know you?
Do you follow Him?
If your answer is yes, then you have nothing to worry about, just keep following Him,
But, however, if your answer is,
“Well, not so much” Or
“Well, I believe He was spiritual, or a great spiritual teacher, and thats all.”
Then you have been deemed by Your Great Spiritual teacher, as someone, who’s
NOT His Sheep.
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
You have also no doubt heard me say, that
God did not send Jesus, His only begotten son, to die that terrible death on the cross, so that you
and I can be good people,
No!
He died so that dead people can live.
That is the gospel, the good news.
You have the opportunity to be forgiven of all of your sins and gain eternal life with Jesus, if you
Submit to him, all the way, 100%
If you don’t do that, then you will not be part of the “Club”
You’ll be counted as one that wasn’t a Follower of Jesus’, which leads to hell and weeping and
gnashing of teeth for eternity as you are infinitely removed from the grace of God for your willful
rejection of the grace you were offered through the blood of Jesus.
Now, if you are saved through the blood of Jesus, therefore now part of the club, so-to-speak.
You are expected to live as one who has been changed through the blood for the glory of the Lord.
Have you changed?
This change is an excellent indicator of your level of committment and sincere submission to the Word of the Lord.
Change is non-negotiable.
You cannot do this on your own.
You cannot pay for it, although it’s free
You must receive it.
This is what happened to a young university student near the beginning of the sixteenth century,
He struggled with commandments of the Catholic church at the time, and wrestled with its traditions and practices.
But it was when he studied the book we are now about to engage, it changed his life and worldview so much
That on Oct 31. 1517 he decided to risk it all by nailing his 95 page thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in protest.
It was all due to what he read in the detailed book of Romans, by Paul the Apostle.
Because the Catholic church has many traditions that don’t align with scripture,
Many people suffer needlessly attempting to satisfy God, by going doing what the Catholic Church tells them, they must do,
But when Martin Luther read over and over and surmised, that it meant exactly what was written.
Thats when he decided to push back against the church and demand Change, or Reform
In their understanding of God’s grace.
The term that defined this revolution that thereby “Changed” the face of Europe giving us what you and I see today,
Is a quote from
4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
The Just Shall Live by faith.
Not by mans tradition, or church requirements, but by faith alone,
Amen
That quote is one of the driving forces of the Book of Romans,
And it forms a kind of a trinity.
Because Paul uses it three times in three different books.
The Who are the just we’ll find in the letter to the Hebrews
The How they shall live by faith is in the letter to the Galatians.
And the Why we shall live by faith, we’ll uncover together reading through the letter to the Romans.
Because it does seem to form this little triple pattern of the term
“The Just Shall Live by faith,”
and Paul wrote both Galatians and the letter to the Romans, which no serious scholar denies,
Meaning, it is widely accepted that Paul wrote those books without any serious objections
Then it is only justified to assume then that Paul also wrote the other letter bearing this term,
The letter to the Hebrews, which is contested by some serious scholars.
One of obvious reasons being, Paul identifies himself in both the letter to the Roomans, and the Galatians,
But the writer does not identify himself in the letter to the Hebrews.
Regardless, I personally take the position that Paul did in fact write the letter to the Hebrews as well.
Who knows why he didn’t autograph it, so-to-speak.
But all three letters cling to this theme of the just living by faith.
Speaking of Faith, the letter to the Book of Romans can be divided into three parts.
The first part being chapters 1-8 which is considered the doctrine of Faith
Second part being chapters 9-11 about God’s grace not only to the believer but to His people the Jewish nation,
Focusing on their past, present, and future.
Because of God’s grace bestowed to the believer, we, You and I, now have Hope
And the third chapter 12-16 focuses on Sanctification.
The process in which we change, to imitate the express nature of God Himself in us, through, Love.
Therefore, the book of Romans, gives us through Jesus, another beautiful trinity.
Faith-Hope-Love
I was once asked by a fellow Preacher, which, in my opinion was the most doctrinal,
Or the weightiest book in all the Scripture.
My answer was the Book of Romans.
Within the first 8 chapters alone, it speaks to the three types of Man
The Pagan Man- and those who never heard of Jesus
The Moral Man- The man who tries to do what is right before the Lord.
The Religious Man- The man who strictly does whats right.
What it tells us is that all three are still not Worthy.
The Pagan because he rejects the Lord,
The Moral because he will fail at times.
The Religious because what human effort can produce will never be good enough for the price of sin we owe.
We are all three still condemned.
The book of Romans define for us what it means to be a Christian.
It is about God’s awesome Grace to you and I, believers.
You see, the Book of Romans wasn’t written to everyone, like the book of Revelation.
In the Book of Revelation, the Lord reminds the reader, whoever they are, they will be blessed by reading and doing according to those words.
But the Book of Romans is written to a specific class of people,
You and I believers.
This book is for the believer.
It isn’t an evangelistic Book, and it doesn’t try to convince you to cross over
Rather, it explains what is expected of you, and why we believe and how we should behave and live giving the reasons why.
It is a complete diagnosis of SIN.
Recently, a very famous Heavy Metal Musician passed through from this earthly life to the eternity beyond.
One of the biggest question being asked about his life and death, is
“Do we think he’s in Heaven or Hell?”
Well, here’s how I answer the question when posed to me.
“If we judge his public lifestyle against scripture, namely the Book of Romans, I’d say while he sat through his last performance recently, -
I could see the smoke rising from his feet beginning to burn.”
Meaning, I could see his earthly life was so close to an end, as if he was going into hell feet first.
One of the questions we preacher get asked all the time, is,
“Do you think so and so went to heaven?”
or
“What about those who never heard about Jesus?”
The answer to these questions is found in the Book of Romans.
It is believed that Paul wrote this book to the Romans at somepoint while he was in prison in Corinth, Greece.
According to the book of Acts.
To which at the end of the great book of Acts, we read Paul was taken to Rome, albeit as a prisoner.
So it makes a natural progression in the New Testament for the Book of Romans to follow the Book of Acts as it does.
In about 49-50 AD The Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome.
Due to the supposed in fighting between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christians.
All the blame of course fell on this belief in Chrestus, or Christ in English
At Claudius’ death, Jews were once again allowed back into Rome with the lifting of the ban on Jews in Rome.
Reports started coming back to Paul of the situation in Rome among the Christians and their supposed doctrines and practices.
Paul set the record straight.
But again notice, the Book of Romans was written only to the believers in Rome.
As I said, this book inspires change.
We are reaping the benefits of how it changed people like Martin Luther, in our day
not having to rely on the Ruling Church for our salvation, etc.
It inspires Change.
Have you been changed?
Think back to the day you were saved, have you been changed?
If not, I would pay special close attention to this Book to find out why, or to be inspired to change once and for all.
Remember, if you consider yourself a believer, then this book is for your.
This is the meat of the scripture, as Paul says in
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Is this your predicament?
Do you now consider yourself ready for the solid food of Scripture?
Are we now ready to put on our big kid clothes, and dive into solid Christian doctrine?
Praise God.
Please understand, it will inspire change.
And I say for the glory of the Lord, Let the change come.
Amen.
It also inspired another titan of the faith, by the name of John Wesley.
After having been so inspired by the weekly reading of Romans, he took the gospel by horseback all over Europe.
Although it would be a daunting task for any of us to trod around Europe spreading the Gospel, on horseback.
But,,,, If we can get you to invite people you meet down at the local supermarket here in Anna/Jonesboro, we’d be happy, to say the least.
Are you ready to be inspired by God?
Amen.
I don’t normally do this but sparingly,
I am going to give you Anna First and those watching a homework assignment for next week.
Please read the Book of Romans before we meet again.
Invitation:
If you aren’t sure you are a believer, then you came to the right place.
We can make sure before you leave this building that you are sheep that know the voice of our Lord Jesus.
Come on down to the altar,
Dont leave the same way you came in,
