Sermon Tone Analysis

Preliminaries:

It's been hot, but you know we’re only 72 days away from he earliest recorded measurable snow in Wichita, KS

Thank you to the camp board for asking me to come and teach the Bible study.

I appreciate their confidence and thank you to each one who is here and those who have joined us online.

I am excited about what God is going to do in these next four sessions.

In these next few sessions we have together I want to talk to you about a portion of scripture that was confusing, disturbing, and didn’t make any sense to me at all until a couple of years ago.

I had the privilege of taking a course on the book of Romans.

It helped but didn’t bring all of the answers I was looking for, and as a minister I feel it is our responsibility to expound or explain the Word of God as best we can.

I prayed for guidance and for God to open His Word to me.

shortly afterwards I was told about this little gem

“Fruit Unto Holiness” by the late Bro.

Dale Yocum.

As I began to read this study on chapter 5-8 of Romans the Lord began to open my mind and heart to better understand what He was trying to tell us in these few chapters.

Now I don’t have time for the entire book of Romans, or even all of these four chapters - nor do I claim to have all the answer, but I do want to deal with some of the parts of chapters 5-8 that were confusing and troublesome to me.

I pray God will help me as I can do nothing without His help and anointing.

Now this book is not why I am titling this Bible study “Fruit Unto Holiness” I’m calling it that because you will find it in

Romans 6:22 “22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

I want to look at some of the “fruit unto holiness” in these lessons.

Today I want to give an introduction of Romans and an overview of Romans 1-5 to help us see what has been written before and what is yet to come.

I hope to, if time permits this morning to deal with some important terms and concepts that will be used throughout this study as well.

What some have said of the book of Romans:

“It is the only part of Scripture which contains a detailed and systematic exhibition of the doctrines of Christianity” (Haldane).

“The principal part of the New Testament” (Luther).

Chrysostom had Romans read to him once a week.

Melanchthon copied it twice with his own hand in order to know it thoroughly, and it was the book he lectured on most frequently.

Introduction:

Romans was written by the Apostle Paul around the Spring of 58 AD While Paul was at Corinth staying with Gaius.

(As Phoebe will bring the epistle to them after it is written Rom.

16:1).

Paul did not start the church at Rome but had a great love and burden for it.

As a side note - It is interesting that when we first come to know him he is called Saul - later he is called Paul.

When I was younger I thought that was because of his conversion.

But in reality the Bible never says that.

But Saul was his Hebrew name and Paul was his Roman or Gentile name.

Paul is called Saul in Scripture until Acts 13:9 His clash with the sorcerer and false prophet Bar-Jesus (Elymas) at Paphos.

Romans was assigned the first position in the Epistles of Paul in our New Testament Canon, due to its size (they often arranged from largest books to smallest by author) but also because it forms one of the major bulwarks of evangelical Christianity.

His reason for writing seems to be four main reasons

To unify the Jews and Gentiles

To assist in maturity of believers Romans 1:11

Missionary deputation (Recruiting sponsors for Spain Missions) - Romans 15:24-29

To give a systematic doctrine of salvation

A brief outline that I will be following for this study will be:

Doctrine (Rom 1-8) - Faith and Theology

The Power of the Gospel

The Doctrine of sin (Rom 1:18-3:20)

The Doctrine of Justification (Rom 3:21-5:1-11)

The Doctrine of Sanctification (Rom 6-8:39)

Prophecy (Rom 9-11) - The Nation of Israel (hope)

Past Election (Rom 9)

Present Rejection (Rom 10)

Future Restoration (Rom 11)

Love (Rom.

12-15) - Practical Application of Holiness and Ethical behavior

If you notice we have Paul’s “Faith, Hope, and Love” trilogy.

We are mostly going to concern ourselves with a slice out of the first part of the outline Romans 5-8 but I want to give a quick overview of chapters 1-4 and attempt to speak on Romans 5 today.

I.

We begin with Doctrine - Faith and Theology (Rom 1-8)

The Gospel is God’s answer to the problem of sin

The Power of The Gospel (Rom 1:1-16)

After some introductory remarks and greetings Paul gets to the key text of Romans.

Rom.

1:16 “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

This doctrine of salvation is sometimes referred to as “the Gospel” or “Good News” While the term “The Gospel” encompasses even more than what Paul writes about it does seem to be the main theme of the book beginning with the first verse: THE GOSPEL OF GOD (Rom.

1:1)

Rom 1:1 “1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,”

You find another reference in Rom 1:16 “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Not Ashamed:

I believe it was John Stott who commented that for Paul to say this is indicative of the fact that he may have been tempted to be ashamed.

But he refused to allow the world, or opinions and criticism of others make him ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

WHY???

For it is the power of God unto salvation.... and Paul had personally experienced its transformative power!!!

The “Power of God unto salvation” is a strong truth statement that speaks of great things.

It is transformative power bringing everyone that believeth to salvation.

Romans has been a help and guide for many.

The Gospel it contains has helped shape church history.

A Brief History of the Influence of Romans on Church History - How the Gospel the “power of God” worked in transforming power in lives

Augustine - 354-430 AD

At age 32, while sitting in the garden when he lived, he heard the voice of a boy or girl from a nearby house repeating over and over: Tolle lege!

Tolle Lege! (Pick it up; read it; pick it up, read it).

He interpreted it as a divine command.

He writes, “So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle’s book when I had left there.

I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof’ (Rom.

13:14).

I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to.

For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away (Augustine, Confessions, Book VIII, p 108, trans.

Albert Outler).

Martin Luther,

Over 1,000 years later in 1483, Less than 10 years before Columbus would discover America, a young man was born.

Raised in poverty and later went to college to study law.

During a storm, a lightning bolt crashed very near to him, throwing him from his horse and in great fear he cried out, "Help me St. Anne, I will become a monk."

Young Martin Luther struggle for years to find assurance of forgiveness of sins.

He pondered as he said, "night and day" how he, a sinner, could ever stand forgiven before God, who is perfectly righteous and will one day judge all people.

It was while reading Romans 1:17 that his life was changed forever: "The just shall live by faith."

He is known as the founder or leader of the Reformation.

John Wesley

About 200 years later in England a young man, zealous for God and trying to walk in all the light he could, attended a church meeting according to his own words, "UNWILLINGLY" on May 24, 1738, and listened as the leader read from Luther's preface to his Romans commentary.

Wesley wrote about this experience later, "While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.

I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sins and death."

Some have said that “preaching from Romans particularly chapter six, has brought about more great revivals than any other part of the Word.

(Yocum, 1989 p3)

Without the book of Romans we would not have much of Church History as we have it today.

The Bible Holiness Church makes the confession of being Wesleyan/Arminian.

This means we subscribe in large part to the theology and interpretive methods of John Wesley and Jacob Arminius.