Hello and welcome to Hackberry House. Welcome to God's Word. Father, thank you that we have the opportunity to share and to listen to the Word of God in this nation and throughout the world. You have made your plans known. I pray that you help us to understand them now. In Jesus' name, Amen. Hackberry House will take you to a lot of different kinds of Bible stories and studies and various topics are discussed there. I'd like you to try it out sometime. And it's at myheartcry.net, myheartcry.net. Just go there. And if you want to stay with me in this Bible study today, just go to the library page and find Unit 10, Lesson 45, The Book of Romans. there on the library page. You can print it out and just copy answers with us as we go along on this little worksheet. We're beginning at the beginning of the lesson. Although we've done the introduction part, we're just now getting to the first question. Romans chapter 1 in your Bible. We'll try to cover, Lord willing, the first half of this book. We'll see what happens here. We're going through the Bible in chronological order over the last several months, many months, we've been going through the Bible. We're just about to wrap it up here in a few weeks, Lord willing. Let's begin then with Romans chapter 1, written, as I said, in A.D. 57, the end of his third missionary journey by the Apostle Paul, who he calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the Gospel of God. And he just launches right into his argument. You'll kind of find it a little difficult, Romans is. And some of his sentences just go on forever and ever. His first one just goes on and on for several verses here. He talks about what the gospel is. Let's start with verse 3, concerning his son Jesus, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit by the resurrection from the dead." That's his intro and he's giving this to the people of Rome who he may never have even visited at this point. Verse 7, To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, perhaps never been there. Going on to verse 8, First, I want to thank God through Jesus, that your faith is spoken of throughout the world. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." Always praying for the Romans, again, though he has perhaps never been there. But he's heard about their faith. Verse 10, he wants to visit them. I may find a way in the will of God." Well, you know what? He will find a way to visit the Roman church. I long to see you. Verse 11 could mean, I long to meet you. I don't want you to be unaware, verse 13, that I've been wanting to come there for a long time. Isn't it interesting how God had put it in his heart to go to Rome? And perhaps God has put something in your heart and you tried to do it, but you couldn't do it. But it's there because someday you are going to do it. That's how it was with Paul. And so we sometimes get ahead of things by trying to do this thing right now. I've got to go now. But he'll get there. He'll get there in a way that perhaps he didn't want to be there. But we'll find that all out later. But he was hindered from coming there. But he won't be forever hindered from coming there. If I'm ready to preach the Gospel, he says, to you who are in Rome. As I said, he's not been there. Verse 15. Ready to preach it, but I haven't. Because I'm not ashamed of this Gospel. Verse 16. Why? Because it's the power of God. How do people get saved? Through the Gospel. Through the Gospel. That's why it's called the power of God. Inside the Gospel, the very righteousness of God is revealed. The righteousness of God is revealed in the good news of Jesus Christ. The death and burial and resurrection of Jesus, that's how God makes people righteous. It's through what Jesus did. He doesn't do it through what we do, but through what Jesus did. And it has to do with faith from beginning to end. Works is not a part of being righteous. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness." And then he goes on in these verses, and on into chapter 2, talking about man's unrighteousness, and how evil man is, and how all men are included in this unrighteousness. He talks about all the different things that men have done. He's making a case here about salvation and how you cannot be saved by your own works because everybody is evil. Even though from the beginning of the world, verse 20, we've had access to who God is and how great He is, and that we are without excuse. Do you realize that the world is without excuse? If people are lost, they're going to be lost on their own because of their evil. They knew God. They knew there was a God. But they didn't glorify Him as God, verse 21. They weren't thankful. They went off from the very beginning of the creation. That's how it's been. Professing to be wise, verse 22. They became fools, verse 23. And it talks about idolatry that entered into the human condition in verse 23. changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, birds. These are the things that men have made, thinking they were worshipping God. And so God eventually, through the years, just said, I've had enough of this. And He just gives them up, verse 24, to uncleanness, in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies. Now He talks about moral failures that people have. the sexual things that men get into. God just gives them up to that. He eventually just says, I've had enough, and he has to find a way to save these people, even though they can't save themselves. They've just gone off. It started off with just a little bit away, and then farther and farther away, and now man is just totally, totally lost. What's God going to do? Verse 28, they didn't want to keep God in their knowledge, and so God gave them up. Look how many times he says God just gave them up, gave them up. If that's how they're going to be, then I'll just give them up. If they don't want me, if they really don't want me that much, then I'll just let them go their way. That's essentially what chapter 1 is talking about. It gets into lesbianism, homosexuality, and then the disease that comes because of it. It says they received in themselves the penalty of their error. So, when man just goes his own way enough, he's going to have to pay. God gave them over to a debased mind. Sin is a mental illness. They know the righteous judgment of God. Somehow they know, through the years, they know what God does. when sin comes in, but they keep doing it anyway. And they not only do these things, but they approve people who do them. The world loves its own, doesn't it? The world takes care of its own, and approves its own, and confirms and affirms its own. That's what happens in Chapter 1. That was all about them. Chapter 1 is all about them, but Chapter 2 is talking about you. It's more direction. He was giving you a history of sin in the world in chapter 1. But when he goes to chapter 2, he starts talking to people that are listening to him. Anyone in the church. Anyone in the church now that wants to listen. You are inexcusable. Anybody who's listening to me now. Whoever you are who judge So he says, seeing the sin that's everywhere in this world, you who are hearing me now must understand that you can't judge somebody because you yourself, because you're a part of this too, you can't judge someone. You're a sinner too. All of them and all of you are sinners. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth. against those who practice such things. Do you think that you will escape the judgment of God if you keep sinning? So, everybody is included in sin. Do you despise the riches of His goodness, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So, there is a way There is a way to come back to God, and it's through repentance. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, if you're treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of revelation of the righteous judgment of God, and he goes on to another one of his long sentences here, and his bottom line is that anybody who continues on in sin is bringing upon himself judgment. tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil. The Jew first and also the Greek. Everybody. He's trying to let us know that everybody who sins is going to be judged. But if they don't sin, verse 10, if there could be somebody that didn't sin, they would get glory and honor and peace if they would work what is good. There's no partiality with God. There's no partiality with God. If anybody could do this, if anybody could do good things, he would be rewarded. But the problem is nobody does. Nobody can do these good things that God wants. For as many as have sinned outside the law, that's the Gentiles, are going to perish outside the law. And as many as have sinned in the law, that's the Jews, will be judged by the law. See, everybody's in this. Verse 13, it's not just the hearers of the law that will be judged, but the doers. You've got to do You've got to do the law of God to be saved. If you don't do the law of God, you're going to be lost. Gentiles never heard it. They can't do it. Jews did hear it. But just hearing it wasn't enough. They've got to do it also. For when the Gentiles, verse 14 of chapter 2, who do not have the law, by nature do the things that were in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves and will be judged. by it. Because they show the work of the law written in their hearts. They know also. They also know through the conscience. They seem to have a knowledge. And their thoughts accuse them, excuse them. There's a certain knowledge within them. And God's going to judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. Every thought every motive, everything they knew but didn't do, it's all going to be judged. Now, Jesus died for sin. Those rejecting His death must perish. So, there's not a good word about anybody in chapters 1 and 2. Verse 17, he says, you're a Jew? And he's talking to the church Rome, but also to the surrounding area. You call yourself a Jew, and you rest on the law, like you know the law. You say you know His will, and you've been telling everybody that the law is true, and you're such a guide, and you tell everybody what is right, and you teach other people, but do you teach yourselves? You say that you shouldn't do this, but do you do this wrong? Don't you see that you too are guilty of God's law? The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you Jews, he says, who know the law, but don't keep it. Circumcision is profitable for you if you can keep the law, but you can't keep the law. I know you've got circumcision. I know you have this sign in your flesh that God gave to Abraham. But in fact, If you don't keep the law, your circumcision is a fleshly sign of a fleshly obedience. It never saved anyone. God wants to be in us, living his life in us. It's a sign of a covenant, the circumcision, but a covenant is broken and circumcision means nothing. That's what he's saying. Again, trying to get them good and lost so he can get them good and saved in the right way. He is a Jew who was won inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart. You see, even though you've been circumcised, you Jews, if you haven't been living the life perfectly, you're lost. So what advantage does a Jew have, chapter 3? What advantage does a Jew have? What profit is circumcision? Well, it's good that you were a Jew because the law of God was given to you. Okay, some didn't believe it. But their unbelief doesn't make the faithfulness of God ineffectual. The law is still true. God is still true. All people are liars. But God is still true. And our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God. But God is still going to judge people. The truth of God increases through my lie. The righteousness of God increases through my unrighteousness. So you say, well, let's just keep doing bad so that good can come. We'll keep sinning so God will look better. No, that's not what I'm saying. It's not what I'm saying. But are we Jews any better than the Gentiles? This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm trying to get at. We Jews, we say we've got the law. But we're no better than the Gentiles if we don't keep the law. God has put Jews and Greeks, Gentiles, under sin. You see, verse 10, there's nobody righteous. Not one person righteous. Nobody that understands. He quotes from Psalm 14 in chapter 3. Nobody. They've all gone out of the way. All together become unprofitable. There's nobody that does good. Not even Mary. No, Mary didn't do good either. She sinned also. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit." And he goes on to talk about how evil it is from Psalm 5, from Psalm 140, from Psalm 10, from Proverbs 1, from Psalm 36. All these New Testament writers love their Old Testament. No fear of God before their eyes. Verse 19, we know that whatever the law says, and he just quoted all the Psalms, so he uses the term law to refer to the whole Old Testament. But whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. And by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. You can't get in. by your good works. You just can't get into chapter 1, chapter 2, most of chapter 3, all bad news. And his bottom line is, all have sinned. All have sinned. All have sinned. That's verse 23. But wait a minute, I skipped verses 21 and 22, for there is some good news here. Even though man is not righteous, even though man can't get in by his own righteousness now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. It's though he's just taken the cover off of something here and he's showing you a statue. You know how people will uncover a statue and dedicate it. Well, he's taking the cover off now. He's saying, I want to show you something here. I've been showing you all this unrighteousness. Let me show you righteousness. And it's Jesus. It's being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even in the Law. If you read it, if you read the Prophets, if you read the Psalms, if you read your Old Testament, you'll see this righteousness. If you look carefully, you'll see about the coming of Jesus. Even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference. There is righteousness available. It's in Christ Jesus by knowing Him, by having Him come in and be your righteousness. Yes, it's available. Everybody's sinned. But verse 24, we're justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ. Verse 25, God set Him to be a propitiation, a covering, for our sins by His blood, by His blood to demonstrate His righteousness. He became sin for us so that we could have His righteousness. So, verse 27, can you brag about this? No, not at all. Not at all. Can you boast? No, it's excluded. What about your works then? No, your works don't count anymore. It's faith that counts. We boast in God. We can't boast because we didn't do anything to bring about this righteousness. And so we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from all the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Verse 29. Or is He the God of the Gentiles? Ah, so He's the God of the Gentiles too. Even though they sin, they can have access now to this same grace. You see, there were some problems in the church at Rome. Jews and Gentiles not able to get along, and God's able now to save them both. He wants Jew and Gentile to see that they're in the same boat, both lost, and they both saved through Christ. So we established the law. We're not saying the law is no good. No, it was our unrighteousness that established how holy the law is, chapter 4. So what has Abraham found in the flesh? You know, you all want to go back to Abraham. So, Jews, what's Abraham all about to us? Why is he important to us anyway? Was Abraham Justified? No. I mean, Abraham's a good man. We don't want to give up on Abraham. He is our father in a sense. But he's going to show that Abraham's the father of the Jews, of the Gentiles too. But if Abraham was justified by works, then he could boast, and us Jews could boast, and it would be a very Jewish thing. It would be a very Jewish thing that we have here. But it's not just a Jewish thing. He has something to boast about, but not before God. What is he going to be boasting about? Well, Abraham, verse 3, believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, Paul and James, as we talked about before, are not in contradiction. Paul and James quote the same scripture to prove two different points. James says that Abraham was justified by works. Paul says that Abraham was not justified by works, but was justified by faith. These two men are not in contradiction. They're talking about two totally different issues. The church at Rome, Paul is dealing with those who elevate the law. Paul is dealing with those who believe that the law was the thing that saved them. James is dealing with those who want easy believism. All you've got to do is mentally accept Jesus Christ, say He's the Son of God, and you're in, and you're fine, you're fine. And Paul, as I said, is dealing with people who are trying to use the law, to stand before God and say, I'm righteous. And he has to approach them different than he does James, but he uses the same verse. He uses the same verse. Paul is saying that the law of Moses cannot bring a person into the saving grace of God. James is saying true faith will always produce works. But as I said, he uses the same verse as Paul. Paul says, we are made righteous before God. James says, we are made righteous before man. He says, show me, show me your works. Show me your works. Now, when we try to show God our works, God says, I'm not interested in your works. They don't impress me. But we must show men our works. Let your light so shine before men. We are justified in the sight of God by faith. We are justified in the eyes of men by works. That's how they know we have the faith that pleased God. Yes, there is a harmony between Paul and James. They are not in contradiction. They have two different audiences. Well, let's move on here in chapter 4. I like the word imputation in verse 6. The man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. It's a legal justification. It truly is. God imputes it to us. He just gives it to us. He says that we have it. We don't earn it. Then He puts His Spirit in us and we work it out. It's God working it in, but us. working it out. Verse 7, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and those whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. We are not credited with sin anymore. We're credited with righteousness. And when did Abraham receive all this? When he was in uncircumcision. While he was uncircumcised. He received this. He received the sign of circumcision afterwards, verse 11. It was a seal of something that he already had. He didn't get circumcised to be acceptable to God. He got circumcised because he was already acceptable. Same as in our water baptism today. Alright. Let's move on down to verse 17. He makes Abraham a father of many nations. And he hadn't even had a son yet. He calls those things which do not exist as though they did exist. And who, Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope, And it was because of the hope that was planted in his heart and him reaching out to God by faith that he got saved. When God speaks to you, just reach back to Him and say, yes, I believe that. When He speaks through His Word, you just say, yes, I believe that. That pleases God. But when you doubt it, that doesn't please God. It's that simple. Don't be weak in faith, verse 19. He didn't look at his own body. When God says that something is true, don't look at the circumstances. Don't look at what just seems to be. Look at what God said. He didn't consider his own body. He didn't waver at the promise of God. He was fully convinced that what God had promised, he would perform. And therefore, it all happened. Therefore, verse 22, it was accounted to him for righteousness. That thing which God said would happen, did happen. And it happened through Abraham, through his faith. God loves that. He can change worlds through faith. Now, all of this stuff that we have in the New Testament and the Old Testament wasn't written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but it was for us. and it shall be imputed to us too." Anybody who believes what Abraham believed, that we can have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by just accepting it, anybody who believes that will have it. If you believe in God that raised up Jesus from the dead, do you really believe that? Then you can have the righteousness of God too. It's for you. He was delivered up because of our sin. but raised because of our justification. You believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the good news, and you too are made righteous. Believe in what God did, and it's done in you. Think that you have to do it yourself, and you will have to do it yourself, but you won't get it done, and you'll be lost forever. Well, we've been ignoring the questions for a while. Number one of the questions. Describe the Gospel as defined in chapter one. Well, it's the promise. It's given in the Bible. It's about Jesus, the Son of God who was resurrected. It's about grace that was given. It's about power. It's the righteousness of God. All of that's in the Gospel in chapter one. Number two. Describe Paul's concern for this church he had never visited. Well, that they be established. that they might bear fruit. Number three, what is Paul's motivation to preach? Debt. I'm in debt to you. You see, God gave me so much and I'm in debt to everybody in the world to give them the gospel. Why are all Gentiles condemned and without excuse? Well, they could have known God, but they didn't. Number five, what does God finally do to sin-approving, unclean humans? He gives them up Number six, since all are sinners, what else is true? There's no room for judging others. Number seven, what are the rules of the game for all men? Well, we're going to be judged by our deeds. God-seekers will receive eternal life, but self-seekers will receive wrath. But according to the original rules, who is just before God? Chapter 2, verse 13, anyone who does the law. and not just the hearers of Moses. Number 9, after including Gentiles and now Jews as disobedient to God, what conclusion does Paul make? The true Jewishness is in the Spirit and through Christ. Number 10, any advantage to being a Jew while they receive the Scriptures? Number 11, another conclusion about man's sinfulness? They're all sinners with absolutely nobody Who isn't one? Number 12, but what sets aside the original rule, that is, if you do, then you get to be saved? The righteousness of God through Christ sets all of that aside, because He did it for us. Number 13, so God found a way to be blank, just, and blank, the justifier at the same time. I skipped that verse, that is such a good one. to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He, God, might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Well, of course He's just. Well, it was a problem, though. How could He be just if He saved people who sinned? Well, He did it Himself by dying Himself for us. Then He becomes just and the justifier. Oh, it's an incredible plan. But what does the Jesus way do away with, verse 14? Number 14, that's boasting. Number 15, what about the law? It's established as a holy standard through which God looks good and we look very bad. What do we learn from Abraham about how this righteousness works? Well, faith, we learn, equals righteousness. Truly believing in Jesus. equals righteousness of God. Number 17, how do we know that the Jewish seal of circumcision has nothing to do with our salvation? Well, Abraham received approval before he was circumcised. 18, how do we know that the law of Moses is not required to be saved? Because the promise was given before the law. The promise was given before the law. That's in chapter 4, 13-15. The law brings wrath. But the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham through the law. The promise came through the law. Before the law, I'm sorry. Number 19, why was Genesis 15-6 recorded then? It was recorded for us. For us, anyone that believes. Number 20 gets us into chapter 5. Let's go there also. Therefore. When something starts with therefore, you've got to find out what it's there for, they said. We're talking about the first four chapters of Romans here. The first four chapters of Romans where he puts everybody under sin, and then he announces the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ and everything that Jesus did. Because Jesus is our righteousness, therefore, we are justified by faith. We've been justified by faith. And because of that, we have peace with God. It's through Christ. We have access by Jesus into the grace that God wants to give. He wanted to give. He wanted to save men all along. Now we have access to it. and we stand in it and we rejoice in it. Don't go back into works now. Stand in that grace. Not only that, we glory in all of the trouble that we have. We know that the trouble that we're having is producing perseverance in us. And that's producing character. Character is producing hope. We're so thankful for all the things that are happening in us because we know just all is working toward God's salvation in us. And the hope that we have. doesn't disappoint us, because God's love is in us. You see, even though we go through all these troubles, we have the love of God, and the love of God's there because of the Spirit. You see, it's not just a legal justification that I have, but the Spirit of God Himself is now in me, pouring His love in me, showing me these things. Because even though we were weak, Even though we didn't know where we were going, we didn't know what to do. God, through Christ, died for us. Through the Spirit, He came into us. God demonstrates the great love that He had for us by dying while we were still sinners. He didn't need to do this. And I didn't want to do this. He didn't need to die for me. I wouldn't die for anybody else. But He did it. So, while we were enemies, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Well, verse 12, just as through one man sin entered the world, and so death spread to everybody. This is one of these long, long sentences here, starting in chapter 5, verse 12. He talks about how death reigned from Adam to Moses. all the way from Adam to Moses, it was death. There was no way. Everybody was sinning and dying, sinning and dying, even though the law hadn't been given yet. Sin was in the world from the curse, from the days of the curse. But Moses now writes it down, and all that writing goes back to the beginning and includes all those people. But the free gift, verse 15, is not like the offense. Even though through one man, Sin came into all the world and just everybody gets cursed through Adam and through Moses later when it's written. But also through one man, the man Christ Jesus. He does one good thing and everybody gets to be taken out of that. It's different. The free gift is not like the offense. The gift is not like that which comes through the one who sinned. The one sin brought everybody into judgment, but the one gift brings everybody into life. That's how it's different. Verse 17, If by the one man's offense death reign through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So, he says, yeah, it doesn't seem fair to you that one man's sin and everybody has to sin. Everybody has to be judged and go to hell. But it's also not fair, even greater than that, it's not fair that one man, Jesus, should die, and that everybody could be set free. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. It could be everyone. Everybody could be made righteous. But not everyone will, because not everyone will come out of this. As sin reigned in death, so grace might reign to righteousness. Well, you say, since there was so much sin that God was addressing here, there was so much sin in the world, because there was so much sin in the world, Jesus came and just gave so much grace back. Well, then it would just seem logical to keep on sinning so that more grace will come, because he's eventually going to save everybody anyway, because that's how he is. No, no, no, no. Let the world think that way if they must. Let the world think that way, but you don't think that way. Are we going to continue in sin that grace may bound? Oh, no. How shall we who die to sin? If you're thinking that way, I don't see how you can be saved, he says. You died to your sin. When you found out about Jesus Christ and what He did for you, how He saved you, immediately you wanted out of sin. You wanted to be delivered from the bondage of sin and death and hell. How can you even think about, well, let's just sin some more? No, you're dead. When you came to Christ, you became a dead man. And you were buried in the water. I believe this is talking about water baptism. Buried with Him through the baptism. Yeah, when something is dead, you bury it. Does baptism say? No. Does burial make a person dead? No. We're not talking about that. But it's still part of the package here. We're buried with Him. We were identified with Him. When we went under the water, we were identifying with the burial of Jesus Christ, just as we had identified with Him in His death. And we rise up to walk in newness of life. Our old man is crucified with Him. Our old man is crucified with Him. We came to life in Christ. We just wanted to show people what we had done. The death that he died, verse 10, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. And you've got to think of yourself the same way. He died, verse 11, you die. You be dead. Consider yourself dead now. Consider yourself a dead man. Consider yourself dead to sin. Don't let sin reign anymore. You're not under the law anymore. You're free. Let the grace, the gifts of God flow through you. You're free from that old life now. So, shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? No, no. Not when we say grace and you're free. We're not talking about free to sin anymore. And if you give yourself back to sin, verse 16, you're going to be back in that bondage and needing that grace again. No, no. Let the grace of God keep you from sin. Not have to keep saving you from it. Present yourself to Christ. If you're in Christ, you're not going to have a desire for that anymore. You obeyed the Gospel from the heart. Now, just stay there. Stay there. Don't go back. Back into your sin again. Because the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Stay with your life. And I'm not sure exactly what issue he was addressing here, but we surely have it in our churches today where people just seem to want to go back. They're not experiencing perhaps everything they want to experience in the Lord, and they want a little more grace, maybe a little attention. I don't know what it is. But they feel like they've got to go back into sin to get more grace. Stay out of that mess. Stay out of that. That's very dangerous thinking. Very dangerous thinking. No, we've come out. Let's remain dead to sin. Let's look at questions on 5 and 6. What is it about the tense of Romans 5, 1 that is so comforting? And the King James Bible is not quite as comforting. In the New King James, they put the tense in that it should be, having been justified. Not being, but having been. It's all over. It's finished. We have been justified. It's comforting. It's a finished work. Verse 21, for whom did Jesus die? He died for the ungodly. Before we were saved, while we were in our sins, He died for us. So if He loved us as enemies, what? What follows? Well, He's going to keep us and love us as friends, too. Name the man of 512 and 518. Well, that was Adam and Jesus. In 512, Adam. In 518, it's Jesus. 24. For hundreds of years there was no law, but still there was death. Ignorance is no excuse. Though they didn't know the written law. It wasn't all written down, but they knew. They knew. That's what Romans 1 and 2 is all about. They knew it. But they deliberately turned away from this God. Still, there was death. Ignorance is no excuse. Number 25. Just as condemnation is not originally from the law, but from a holy God, so what? Well, grace is not from keeping the law, but from God. That's in chapter 5, 15-17. Condemnation is not originally from the law, but from God. So grace also is not from the law. Number 26, what does water baptism picture? It pictures the death and the burial and the resurrection. Number 27, how is the death of Christ to be lived out daily by us? He says, reckon yourselves dead, not given to sin. You're members of your body, not given to sin. Present yourselves as alive to Christ. 28, now what picture does Paul use to describe our past and present life? He uses the picture of slavery. And they understood that quite a bit. They said half of the city of Rome at one time was slaves. And he knows that they know what slavery is all about. Many of the people of that church were probably slaves or ex-slaves. Let's move to chapter 7. He uses another picture now about marriage. He's just using illustrations. He says when you're married, if you're married, the law says The Law of Moses says you've got to stay with that woman all your life. Until one of you dies, you stay with that woman. But when the woman dies, then there's freedom there. If the husband dies, she's released from the law of her husband. If, while her husband would live, she would marry somebody else, she'd be considered adulteress. He says, here's the picture then. As far as the law is concerned, there's been a death that's taken place. It's like you've been divorced or separated from the law. Dead to the law, he says, through the body of Christ. And I want you to be married now to somebody else. The law is dead as far as you're concerned. It's dead. When we were in the flesh, verse 5, the passions of sin, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members. to bear fruit to death. You had the Law living, and the Law was not a good husband. The Law just kept making you sin and sin, but that Law is dead now. The Law is perfect now. We're not saying that the Law is bad. He'll make a point of that later. The Law is good and holy. Verse 7, is the Law sin? No, no, no. The Law is holy, but sin was in me, and I wasn't able to stay married to that. So the Law had to die. Now I want to be married to Christ. That's a picture. He wants you to see in the first 12 verses of chapter 7. The law can't save you from sin. That's the point. So, has that what is good become death to me? No, no. But sin, sin is in me. I'm just not able. The law is good. I'm not good. We know the law is spiritual, but I'm not spiritual. In my flesh, I'm nothing. I'm carnal. Goodbye self-esteem, verse 18. I know that in me, that is in my flesh, in my all carnal nature, there's nothing good at all. I have a will in there that says, yeah, I'd kind of like to do good, but I don't have the power to do it. My flesh is not powerful. There's a law, the law of human nature, verse 21. Evil is present with me. I want to do good, but evil is present. I would even like to do the will of God. The more that I find about it, the more I'd like to do it, but the more frustrated I become because I can't do it. There's another law. There's the law of God inside of me saying, do this, do this. My conscience says, do this. But there's this other law in me that says, don't do this. You can't do this. Do the flesh. And I'm in captivity and it just gets more and more frustrating until he calls out in verse 24, Oh God! deliver me from this body. This body I'm bound by. My body won't let me serve God. Who's going to deliver me? Well, He has a Deliverer. The Deliverer is Jesus Christ. Verse 25. We're set free from death. Yeah, that's later. We are now. But we're set free from death, eternal death. We're set free from the sin. We're set free from our bodies. Oh, you can't leave your body. But you can have control over your body now, that's one of the fruits of the Spirit, self-control. You can rise above sin now, you don't have to sin anymore. So then with the mind though, I still serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. There is, therefore. Now, you don't want to stop after chapter 7. You want to move right into chapter 8 right away because these are connected. Don't just leave it hanging. Oh, wretched man, who's going to deliver me? Sure, it's Jesus, but how? How is Jesus delivering me? First, legally, I am saved the moment I come to Christ. And all of my sins are nailed to His cross legally. But now there's no condemnation also. because I'm walking it out. I'm walking out what He did legally. See, I start from a position of victory. I don't keep working to try to get to victory. I start with the victory. The victory's at the cross. The victory's already been won. It's in Christ what He did for me. And if I walk according to the Spirit of God who's in me, I'm going to keep walking in that victory day after day. Because that law, there's a new law now inside of me. There were two laws to begin with. There was the law of my flesh, saying you can't do it. Then there was the law of God, but it was written down on a book outside of me. And I couldn't get it inside. Now I've got the law inside of me. I've got the Holy Spirit inside of me. He's walking through me. When I yield to Him totally at the beginning of every day and whenever, yielding to Him, He lives the Law of Moses and the Law of God through me. The righteous requirement, verse 4, of the Law is fulfilled in us who don't walk according to the flesh anymore, but we walk according to the Spirit. If you live according to the flesh, you're going to be doing what the flesh wants. But if you live according to the Spirit, how do you do that? Well, you just reach out to Jesus constantly. Let Him come in. Begin to praise Him all the time. Thank Him. Let Him just know you love Him. Walk in relationship to Him all the day long. Not talking five minutes of prayer in the morning. Not talking church once a week. We're talking a daily, constant, constant relationship with Him. You are not in the flesh anymore. Those who are in the flesh can't please God. But if you're in the Spirit of God, if you're in the Spirit, you are pleasing to Him. The moment you go into the... and you just sense it. You know when you're walking in the flesh. If you've got doubt and fear and sin in your life, you're not pleasing to Him. You just know that. You don't have to worry if you're not or not. You aren't. But when the... in those moments I'm talking about. But when the Holy Ghost comes in and you allow Him to come in, you say, just fill me again, Lord, with the Spirit. Let me walk with you. You begin to praise Him and love Him and just, you know, tell Him how much you care about Him and just believe His Word. He begins to just live His life through you and you just feel that peace and that joy again. And the body's dead, you know, as far as wanting. It wants to do stuff still, but you're not letting it, so it's dead. And the Holy Spirit's got control of you. If the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead is not only living in you, but living His life through you, while you just have that hope that continues to grow, well, this is just going to go on forever. And God's going to raise me from the dead through that same Spirit that He raised Jesus from the dead. Yes, it's yours. So verse 12, don't think for one minute that you owe the flesh anything, or you owe the world anything. If you keep going back to the flesh, and he's reminding believers here, I think he's reminding himself. And he's reminding believers. He's talking to the church. You don't owe the flesh anything. You know how Corinth was. There were people who had the Spirit of God there, but living in the flesh. And he's telling them, you don't have to do this anymore. You don't owe the flesh anything. The flesh isn't going to do anything good for you. By the Spirit, you put the deeds of the flesh to death. Keep walking in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit, verse 14. Be led by the Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. Are you being led by the Spirit today? The Spirit's inside of you, crying, Abba, Father. We just cry out to Him. We reach out to Him. and He lets us know who we are. He's inside of us telling, yes, you're a son of God. Now, the doubt comes when you get into the flesh again. It's going to go back and forth and you're going to be a double-minded person until you just decide, I've had enough of the flesh. The flesh I owe nothing to. I'm not going to walk in those ways anymore. I'm going to follow after Jesus today. When you do that, When you do that, you just become assured that you're one of His. And the suffering that you have to go through from time to time, it just means nothing all of a sudden. But you know, you've got to suffer if you're going to live with Jesus. If you're going to go the way of Jesus, you are going to suffer, but He gives you hope and comfort. In verses 18, 19, 20, it talks about how the whole creation is suffering. Don't feel lonely. The whole creation is suffering, but it's going to be delivered. It's going to be set free. And the sons of God, that's you and me, and all the people of God all over the earth that have suffered with Him now, we are going to be raised from the dead, given new bodies. We're going to rule the planet as it was supposed to be ruled from the beginning. And the creation's waiting for this. You better believe it. They're crying out, hoping that we'll get this eventually. And we will. Now, he talks about our hope all the way through verse 24, 25. Likewise, 26, the Spirit Himself helps when we're weak because we don't know how to pray. But when we pray in the Spirit, and I'll let you find out in the Word of God, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? We don't know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself is making intercession for us. It's the Spirit in us now, not the Spirit out there. We're talking about the Spirit in us, and he's praying, he's making intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered. Words do not express what's going on inside the heart. And God, the Holy Spirit in us, is reaching out to Jesus, God in heaven, look at verse 27, the one who searches the hearts. When He looks at your heart, He's seeing the Holy Ghost in there praying. So you need to get in a place where the Holy Ghost can pray through you. Get in a place often and always where the Holy Spirit can pray His prayers through you so that when God is putting that radar screen on and He's scanning your heart, He'll see the work of the Holy Spirit coming through you and your prayers will be answered. But if you don't yield yourself to Him, if you don't allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you, God's going to see nothing when He scans your heart. Do you see how verses 26 and 27 go together? And don't read verse 28 ever again unless you read it with 26 and 27. Now, while the Holy Ghost is praying through you, and while God the Father is reaching down, making those prayers come to pass, we know that all things work together for good if you love God that way. You better read that verse with the others. This isn't just a catch-all for you to get anything you want from God. Well, I'll just do this and I'll do that and He'll make it work out. No, sir. This is for those who pray in the Holy Ghost. And who's going to be blessed this way? The called people. We love to fight about verses 29 and 30. But there's nothing to fight about. He's called us to Him. He's called us to Himself. Who are we? The ones He knew from the foundation of the world. He saw you. He saw you a long time ago. And He predestined that you would get where you're at right now. to be conformed to the image of your Son. He had a thing before you. He had the image of Jesus before you to look at and He wants you to keep being conformed with it. That's God's will. He saw you. He called you. He justified you. He's going to glorify you. He's already glorified you some. He's going to glorify you more with a new body. He brings all of the ones that he saw through this process. He sees everybody that said whosoever will to God. He sees all those people. He sees them right now. You can't ignore that. He sees them. And it's through the process of verses 29 and 30 that these people that he sees, he brings to glory. And you can deal with Calvin if you want. You can deal with Arminius if you want. I don't get into all that. All I know is he saw you. And when he saw you, he said, I'm going to bring that person to myself. And he used the process in verse 30. Enough of that. Let me get to the questions. I don't think we quite can finish chapter 8. But back to the questions. Number 29, still another picture to drive home his point was marriage. Number 30, what's wrong with the law? Nothing! It's my flesh that's bad. Number 31, what's wrong with this body of death? It does the opposite of what my mind wants me to do. 32, another tense, another assurance. It's the present tense in chapter 8, verse 1. Those in Christ are not judged and they're not judged right now. Number 33, what law are we under now? The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Beautiful law. 34. How does that law work? Well, we're walking in the Spirit. We just naturally obey God through the new life in us. We're dead to sin automatically when we walk in the Spirit. How do we know we are sons of God? We're led by the Spirit. We cry out, Father. He just cries out through us. The Spirit tells us. Number 36. What makes us eagerly await a new body? These corrupted bodies tell us that. The sample of the Spirit that we already have of God, that tells us that. We want to move on. 37. While waiting, how do we know what to pray? The Spirit makes intercession through us. God knows our heart and He knows the Spirit's heart and He answers those prayers. Well, verse 38, since the foreknown and the glorified are the same group, what assurance is ours? Well, if we are His now, we'll be His then. We can't be separated. I got ahead of that and went on into those last verses. I think I'll start with verse 31 next time, just as a kind of a review of this glorious truth. And Lord willing, we'll try to finish the book of Romans the next time we come together. It has been kind of quick. I'm sorry I have to rush so fast. I get into it and want to cover a certain amount of territory, but this is not true justice to the Book of Romans. I'm sure you know that. You get back into it yourself and study it piece at a time, detail at a time. Remember, we're doing a survey here. May God bless you as you hear and believe the truths that God has given his people. Amen.