1. THE CONSTITUTION of the United States: Important.
• The Bill of Rights: Important.
• The Emancipation Proclamation: Important.
• We can think of document after document, and book after book, and even letter after letter that are very important.
• We think ‘what would life be without them!’?
BUT GUYS the book of Romans is quite possibly the most important document that has ever been written!
• It’s a letter of freedom & liberty & I believe God will use it in our lives in a very mighty and special way.
• It will bring great grace & liberty to you personally.
• It will infuse grace & love in your homes, in your marriages, in your everyday lives. -- Romans a powerful & revolutionary book!
• It will change your life!
Through the years of the church Romans has brought great change into leaders lives…
• Men like Augustine… changed by the Book of Romans.
• Martin Luther was transformed by Romans.
• He lived most of His Christian life in misery without any peace.
• On a pilgrimage to Rome he came to the sacred stairs that the Roman Catholic church said Jesus stood before Pilate.
NOTE: The custom was that you would crawl up the stairs saying the rosary one step at a time.
• So Luther began the climb, kissing the stairs, following through with the lifeless ritual.
• He was halfway up & he heard, “The just shall live by faith.”
• Another stair, another kiss, another rosary…
• The voice came again, “The just shall life by faith.”
• The voice got louder… until finally Luther jumped up to his feet and left the stairs and began a study in Romans that changed the entire course of history!
NOTE: The book of Romans is responsible for you not being at Mass this morning but enjoying a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!
• The book of Romans convicted Luther so deeply that he challenged the empty teachings of Roman Catholicism and stuck to the Word!
The Holy Spirit has used this book time and time again to free God’s people from ritual & religion.
It’s been called ’the profoundest book in existence.’
Chysostom had it read to him twice a week.
Luther, in his famous preface, says ’This Epistle is the chief book of the New Testament, the purest Gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation day by day, the daily bread of his soul.’ ...
Melanchthon, in order to make it more perfectly his own, copied it twice with his own hand. It is the book which he expounded most frequently in his lectures.
Even the English translation you hold in your hands traces itself back to the life changing power of God through the Book of Romans. William Tyndale said you can’t read it too much, it’s the principal and most excellent part of the NT.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, was touched by Romans. He was a spiritually dead preacher, preaching unlived truths. He spent a large part of his life evangelizing America but didn’t have one convert because he wasn’t’ saved… he wrote, “I went to save the Indians but who will save me?!”
Romans brought him to the cross and great forgiveness of God!
Wesley writes in his personal journal: “In the evening I went very unwilling to a society … while (the reader) was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
• GOD USED Romans to save this man and through Him bring about a Great Awakening.
OH how that is my prayer as we study this book together.
• Salvation and a Great Awakening!
• Both are mentioned in Romans… (1:16 & 13:11)
I love to read about revivals… seeing God do a new work, a fresh work, breathing life back into the church! It’s so encouraging!
• Well when you look back at the 2000 year history of the church, most if not all revivals can be traced back to Romans.
• So when the church fell into spiritual error, or laziness, or apathy, God has used Romans to bring fresh life!
AND WHAT A TIME in our lives today.
• This book isn’t just powerful in the past, it’s for today!
• It’s still changing lives today and I believe will breath fresh life and fresh GRACE and fresh LOVE in our hearts too!
NOTE: I really believe with all my heart that our precious Savior is doing something wonderful in and through us here at Calvary.
• He’s raised up a fellowship to worship Him and through our worship to spread His love throughout the Metro area!
• We’re a fellowship that is a full sprint, abiding in Jesus, seeking to seek and save the lost, building up the saints, evangelizing the lost, sending out servants & missionaries all over the place.
• It’s a perfect time to study through Romans opening our hearts to the Lord asking for wisdom & understanding…
• But also wanting more of His love & grace to control our lives!
ROME was the center of the known world in the ancient world.
• It was said that all roads led to Rome and all roads let out of Rome and we know it was Paul’s heart to go to Rome…
• I’m sure in the heart of Paul he knew that if the gospel could get to Rome, it would certainly launch out of Rome too!
• But it would be many, many years before Paul would ever reach Rome (Look back at 15:22-24)
• Yet God planted a church there and it was thriving!
• Under Nero’s persecution in AD64, the Roman historian Tacitus described the church as “an immense multitude”
• Some, no doubt, who in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost were saved, and took the good news home with them!
• AND NOW WE HAVE Paul jotting this letter from Corinth to them around 60AD, 26 years after Pentecost.
Paul opens up Romans in 1:1…
Romans has come to be known as the GOSPEL OF GRACE!
• It talks about our liberty in Jesus apart from the Law.
• The theme is seen in 1:16-17.
• The Righteousness of God revealed in the gospel of Christ.
• First to the Jews and also for the Greek.
• Men are born into spiritual slavery. No one is born free.
• Every human being comes into this world a slave to sin.
• So we need to be set from sin and become a slave of Jesus.
• And that is the message of Romans, really it’s the message of God through the gospel! You can be free, forgiven, & right!
NOW Before we study the book I want to break down the 16 chapters for you to get an overview of what to expect. Ready?
1. (CH 1-3) PROBLEM OF SIN & NEED FOR THE GOSPEL.
• Sin has touched very single human being!
• We are all touched and tainted by sin & its effects!
• Flip over to Romans 3:23
• None of us are immune from the effects of sin
• And it’s a huge problem.
THE PROBLEM of sin has led to all sorts of false religions, empty rituals, and vain activities trying to erase its reality.
CH1 – The sin of the unbeliever, (2) Religious Jew, (3) everyone!
2. (CH 4-5) THE PROVISION OF THE GOSPEL!
• Oh with the darkness of sin and it’s weight comes the solution!
• There is a way out and God has provided it through Jesus.
• Just like Abraham exercised His faith so can we.
• Look at CH 4:20-22
3. (CH 6-8) THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.
• The gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful (1:16).
• It is the power of God to salvation for ALL who believe.
• We don’t have to defend the gospel just share & release it!
• In it is has the power to change your life in a wonderful way.
1 Thess. 1.5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.
4. (CH 9-11) THE PERPLEXITY & PROMISE OF THE GOSPEL.
• This section really has 2 parts to it.
• First is the FULFILLMENT OF God’s PROMISES to Israel.
• God is NOT DONE with Israel & the church didn’t replace Israel.
• Genesis 12.3 & Zech 2:8 are still true!
Genesis 12.3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Zech 2:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts: "He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.
The 2nd part concerns the deep parts of God’s heart and character in relation to predestination, His foreknowledge, and His love.
• SO yes, the gospel is simple, yet there are some deep things too!
5. (CH 12-16) THE PRACTICE OF THE GOSPEL.
• The gospel is to be lived out in our lives.
• Paul spends the final chapters of his power letter with these words… jump to 12:1ff
AND SO Romans will change your life… change our lives as we learn to live in the grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ!
GRACE: The unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor of God.
• Through grace we enter into a LOVE RELATIONSHIP with God
• Our righteousness is NOT based on what we can do or have done for the Lord, but rather on what He has done for us.
• In Grace we live not by lists but by love!
APP: It’s so easy to make the mistake of TRYING HARDER to please the Lord.
• I will read MORE for YOU Lord. I will pray MORE FOR you Lord.
• I will witness MORE, help MORE, give MORE, for You Lord.
• We cannot be saved by trying, but by trusting.
• And in those areas of spiritual growth, it’s the same.
• He’s not looking for us to fulfill our obligations.
• He’s looking for us to live in His love.
THE TRUTH is Christianity is not based on performance, but upon the person & the work of Jesus Christ.
• Who is full of grace & truth, who extends grace for grace!
• We used to sing a song that said:
We love your grace. We love your mercy.
We love the way you help us when we call.
Romans is going to be awesome guys… just such a blessing for you personally and for us as a church!
• We’ll learn the importance of RIGHT DOCTRINE because right doctrine will lead us to RIGHT LIVING.
• And RIGHT LIVING will lead us to see so many more come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins!
