The Best Gospel Tract Ever Written (pt-2) - [Romans]

William Tyndale translated the Bible into English, and this is what he said in the preface to his translation to the book of Romans.

1534, quote, No man can verily read it, Romans, too oft, or study it too well.

For the more it is studied, the easier it is. The more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is.

Then the more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it, so great treasures of spiritual things lieth hid therein.

The book of Romans. Martin Luther said, Romans is worthy not only that every

Christian should know it word by word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul.

It can never be read or pondered too much. And the more it is dealt with, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.

And I would like to say, not quite as eloquently, that the book of Romans can never be preached too much.

So let's take our Bibles and open to the book of Romans, Paul's letter to the church at Rome found in the

New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and the letter to the Romans.

If you don't have a Bible, you might want to get one because you'll be lost without it. I have no great pedigree of wisdom or philosophy or schooling.

I can only offer to you what the Bible teaches about this book that will turn your life upside down.

And so you want to see with your very eyes what does the Bible say. This will be a good boost for many of us because as we struggle with indifference in our

Christian life, a book like Romans motivates us. If you're struggling with temptations and issues in your life, when you do weightlifting, you lift heavier items.

And the more often you lift those heavier items, the easier it becomes the more you lift, correct?

And so you can see your muscles grow and you can see, I used to be able to bench 300 pounds and now

I can bench 400 pounds. I'm not talking about me personally. I wish that was the case. That's exactly what this book is.

Even though it might be hard, even though it might be laced with difficult issues, as we bench press the book of Romans more and more and more,

God in his wisdom solidifies our spiritual maturity so we might be able to handle more doctrine, handle more trials, handle more temptations, and the list goes on.

Let's go to what I call the Mount Everest of the New Testament. And if you like, today what we'll do is the real

Romans road. Going through the book of Romans in jet tour fashion.

Maybe biplane today. We might slow down just a little bit. It is such a good book. It is so filled with the truth of God.

And beloved, don't we need to have our minds transformed by the renewing of the word of God?

If I could summarize Romans chapter 12, 1 and 2, we need the word of God to change the way we think.

Let's just push the envelope. I want the book of Romans to brainwash you. This is what you used to think, and everything that's biblical, great, keep it.

And everything that's not biblical, change the way you think, which is actually called repentance.

We have a change of thought about something that's true. And by the way, I'm looking for congregational members who are very, very closed -minded.

Think about what the world says. Oh, you just have to be more open -minded. Doesn't everyone say that? Let's be open -minded about things.

And to the Jewish person, that would be very bad. I almost said that would be muy mal. That wouldn't be very good.

Because an open -minded person doesn't care what goes in, and he doesn't care what goes out.

The closed -minded person, she says to herself, I will only accept what comes through the biblical grid, what the

Bible teaches me, and I will try to the best of my ability, and as the Spirit empowers me to do so, to excise my brain on biblical thoughts, and to keep those thoughts which are biblical, and then add, augment what

I believe the Bible says to my theology. And most of us are not privileged to grow up in Christian homes, except the little ones.

And I come to the Scriptures, and I have to say to myself, I have a background of liberal Lutheranism.

What do I believe about the Bible? Is it because the liberal Lutherans taught it to me? They were right on many things.

Or is it because I know the Bible, and I own it for myself? It's not even the BBC's statement of faith.

It's not because Pastor Abendroth believes that. Because it is what the Bible teaches, and God makes it clear in His Word that this is how

He wants to be thought of, with precision, clarity, and accuracy. And so Romans will help us with that.

It is going to be this week, and maybe next week, it's like a protein shake, if I can continue the gym analogy.

It's got some creatine in there. It doesn't have anything illegal, or anything banned, any kind of substance that Lance Armstrong didn't take.

This is like a protein powder filled, a vitamin supplement.

One time on my foolish days, I went to, I think it was 7 -Eleven. That's not the foolishness part.

And I picked up one of those bags, and it had about eight different vitamins. And I just thought, why waste the time to take a vitamin, and then drink, take a vitamin, drink.

So I just put them all in my mouth at once, and just guzzled. Well, sadly, I didn't know about the size of the vitamins, and the size of my throat began to choke.

And I'm doing the Heimlich to myself on top of the chair, thinking, what am I doing? And I praise

God that I am still alive, because he kept me alive until he made me born again. And today, we're not going to choke on this information.

I want it to just kind of fall upon you, as kind of the fog does sometimes.

And you can just kind of feel it, and you can sense it. And you think, I just want to think about the Bible properly.

And here, God wants you to think about his salvation correctly. The book of Romans, the great treatise on how unrighteous people can be counted righteous in God's eyes, and then live a life of righteousness in response to that very thing.

As you know, Romans has 16 chapters. And I will outline it this way, as last week.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3, a sin. Chapters 3, b, 4, and 5, salvation.

Chapter 6 and 7, sanctification. Chapter 8, security. Chapters 9 through 11, sovereignty.

Chapters 12 and 14, 12, 13, 14, 15, service. And then 16, salutations.

But did you notice, if you look at Romans chapter 1, the bookends of this gospel? We're going to look at Romans 1 and 16, so you can see these bookends, and I will call them the gospel bookends.

The gospel in Greek is to give good news, and if you look at chapter 1, you'll see that.

Eight times in the 11 occurrences of the word gospel or evangelize is found in the front part of Romans, and at the end.

If you take a look at chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

Then you look down in verse 14 and 15. Paul not only said, I'm obliged to teach it and eager to teach it, but I'm not ashamed to teach it.

Verse 14, I'm under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part,

I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

So good news, the good news that God saves sinners. Then if you turn all the way to the end, if you would please, chapter 16.

We'll be in Romans a lot. I think that will be the only book we're in today, but if you see the end of the book, it's got that same gospel emphasis that there is gospel good news that God paid the price for which people could never pay to make us right in his eyes by faith.

Look at Romans 16 .25. Not to him who is able to establish you according to my, there it is again, gospel, the good news and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but is now manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal

God has been made known to all the nations, leading to the obedience or obedience of faith.

The only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever, amen. And so now we have the bookends.

What is the book about? It's about the gospel. It is about how we are made right in the eyes of God.

And we too often, I struggle with, I want to be liked by certain people. I want to have, to be in on their good graces.

I want to be part of the group. And yet all those things might be fine and dandy, but we want to make sure that when it comes to one who we want to be glad we're in acquaintance with and in communion with, it is

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Well, let's just have a quick review of the first S, sin.

Take a look at verse 17, if you will, of chapter 1. And we want to make sure that we understand there'd be no reason for the crucifixion of Christ if there wasn't a problem.

It would be false to reason that Jesus' death on the cross is the supreme act of love, and it's the supreme act of love only.

Was it an act of love? Was it an act of sacrifice? Yes, but it was more than that.

Liberals believe that. Oh, look at what Jesus did. He believed in His cause so much, He died. It was not only an act of love, but in addition to, it was an act that quenched the

Father's wrath so that just God could not go elsewhere to be angry with anyone else because that wrath had been taken care of.

Romans 1, verse 17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. In the Gospel, there's rightness of God.

Righteousness of God. How do we get righteousness from God?

If we are unrighteous, we need His righteousness, and that's what the Gospel has. Well, who needs the Gospel? Therefore, chapter 1, 2, 3a.

Who needs the Gospel? Gentiles need the Gospel, don't they? Chapter 1, verses 18 and following.

Man minimizes sin. What does Paul do? Kind of exposes it, maximizes it, so people will see it.

We like to hide behind sin with words like this. Syndrome, disease. I was born that way.

It's my nationality. Paul maximizes it. If you look at chapter 2, verses 1 and 16, there are moral

Jews and certainly Gentiles, but they don't have their own righteousness before God. God isn't pleased with them.

They're not going to die and immediately go to heaven as sinners. We read this morning from Isaiah chapter 6, as Pastor Steve was reading it, that God is so holy, how can

He have unholiness in His presence? You can even have the Bible, and if you look at Romans chapter 2, verses 23 and following, verse 23 says, you are to boast in the law, though you're breaking of the law, do you dishonor

God? Hey Jews, you have the Bible. That doesn't mean you're going to be right before God. An unrighteous person having the

Scriptures does not make one in right standing before God. You can look down at verse 28, if you will, for he is not a

Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision, that which is outward in the flesh.

But he is a Jew, verse 29 of Romans 2, who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the

Spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but God. So everyone stands under God's judgment.

Romans chapter 3, verse 9, with almost a good summary verse for us, before we move on.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin.

Verse 20, because of the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

The harder you try to make yourself right in God's eyes, the more impossible it becomes.

John Murray, the great theologian, said, those who do not know that they are lawbreakers will not look to the one who has honored that law in the place of sinners.

Those who do not know the displeasure of God will not listen to a message of propitiation of wrath turned aside and forgiveness provided in Jesus Christ.

We want to be pleasing to God. We want to be in His presence when we die. And it's like John Bunyan, who saw that narrow gate in Pilgrim's Progress.

He said there was not room for body, soul, and sin to enter through that gate.

There was only enough for body and soul. So how do we get rid of this problem of sin when a leopard can't change his spots and you can't change your skin color?

What do we do? I was reading this week about what it's like to freeze to death. You say, oh, where'd that come from?

Well, winter's approaching. You're out on the bicycle this time of year and it is cold.

I had those little heater things that you put in your feet, you know, that keep your feet really hot.

Doesn't matter. And a man who was freezing, John Elliott, described this about freezing to death.

He had a Saint Bernard with him who kept him awake, but he said, if that dog hadn't have been with me,

I'd be dead today. When you're freezing to death, you actually feel warm all over and don't wake up because it feels too good.

Oblivious to the condition, it just feels good. You just want to kind of go to sleep. I'm tired and I don't want to deal with this anymore.

And you go to sleep and you're dead. And the state of people in Romans 1, 2, and 3 isn't just sleep, spiritual slumber.

People are dead, according to Ephesians 2, in trespasses and sins. And no amount of waking or pushing or moving by themselves or someone else will do anything unless it is

God. It's kind of like this illustration. If you're laying there in the morgue and the antidote is sitting just to your left, you can become alive again if you can just reach out and grab that antidote and drink it down.

But a dead man can't grab that. So that antidote has to be given to us.

And that antidote for our spiritual lack of unrighteousness is found, thankfully, with praise in chapter 3, verses 21 and following.

How sinners are received by God because of what

God has done. Through faith. Have you ever heard this before? Salvation is not something we achieve, but something we receive.

The gospel is not do, do, do. The gospel, as Spurgeon said, is done, done, done.

If someone were to come to you and say, I'm struggling in this particular sin and I just can't stop it, and so I'm sorry

I can't really be saved until I stop that sin, what would you tell them? You're enslaved to sin.

You can't stop it. You must stop it. You must repent. But you can't, as a preacher, you're knowing they can't stop it on their own.

Jesus didn't come to save people who had made their lives better. Say, I'm struggling with this horrible sin.

This is the kind of sin that makes me think I'm not even a Christian. I just need to clean that up in my life and then God might accept me.

No. People are passive in redemption.

Salvation is something that comes not by what we do but we receive it. It is something that is done to us.

And Paul just launches here and it should be a praise. But now, verse 21, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

What can satisfy God less than holy obedience, perfect obedience? Nothing. Who will be the one who perfectly obeys?

We know that's going to be Christ. We looked at words last week, justification, redemption, propitiation.

Go all the way down to verse 27, chapter 3 of Romans. Where then is boasting? If God did it all, if God justified,

God redeemed, God propitiated, then where is the boasting? Wow, look at us.

No. It's excluded. Who gets the praise? By what kind of law? Of works?

Not by a law. No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain, you can just hear Paul preach this, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

I was baptized as an infant. Does that give me pleasure before God? I was confirmed as an infant.

Somehow do I gain God's pleasure? I went to Mexico on a missionary trip.

Did God say, way to go? I went backpacking to Colorado with a Christian backpacking group and we sang around and sang

Steve Green songs. I like Steve Green. None of those things save.

Because I need salvation that comes from an outside source that can't come from within. And to prove that, we move to chapter 4.

A great illustration of salvation, of how we are made right in God's eyes.

Pre -cross or post -cross, it's the same. And here's a good illustration of how God saves a sinner.

When Abraham was born, true or false, he was Jewish. He was a pagan.

How can a pagan be made right in God's eyes? If God says, I want you to love me with everything you've got.

I want you to worship me. And by the way, here's my revelation on how I want you to worship me. Anything more is legalism.

Anything less is antinomianism. And for you to get in heaven, Abraham, you have to perfectly worship me. Abraham couldn't do it even though he was good.

According to other people, he wasn't good in God's eyes. Who's good except God alone? Romans 4, verse 1.

What should we say that Abraham, our forefather, what should we then say about him according to the flesh is found?

Well, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. Can you imagine Abraham in heaven right now?

Just zipping down the streets of gold and running around. Other people get to heaven.

Thief on the cross. Abraham just looked at the thief on the cross and said, you aren't anything. You know what

I did? I mean, it's ludicrous. I don't even feel like acting this way. I'm not a good actor, so let me just grab the pulpit again and just start.

For what does the scripture say? That would be good. Let's even go to the Old Testament. Romans 4, 3. And Abraham believed

God. He didn't believe in God. It was not just an intellectual belief.

Oh, I know all the facts. Yeah, he did this in Genesis chapter 1. And here's Leviticus 16 in Yom Kippur.

And all these other kind of things. He believed God. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

It was imputed. It was credited. That's the key word of this chapter. Do you see it in verse 6, 8, 11, 23, and 24?

This financial legal term that means God credits to our account in a legal judicial way a righteousness that we didn't deserve, earn, or merit.

And at the same time, then God credits to Christ's account our sin even though He didn't earn that sin because it wasn't

His sin. It was our sin. We're not saved by works.

Romans 4, 4. This is why we sing praises to God every week. Not to the one who works. His wage is not reckoned as a favor, but what is due.

You sin. What does God pay you with? The punishment that sin deserves.

But to the one who does not work, verse 5, but believes in Him who justifies thee, a person that's got almost all their life cleaned up except that one little area.

No. God justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted, are reckoned, are imputed as righteousness.

God said you're not righteous, but I'm going to treat you as you were righteous. Not because I made it up, but because there's other righteousness over here.

So much righteousness because Jesus is an infinite God. He can apply His righteousness to you who believe, to those who 3 ,005 believe, 8 ,005, 20 ,005.

Jesus is a Savior of all those who would ever come to Him. David knew it too.

Romans 4, 7. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.

Then we hear this lawyer language again. Verse 8. Blessed is the man whose sin the

Lord will not take into account. I look at my own life. Can you imagine before you're saved?

When I was 28 and a half years old, just six months before God saved me, if I were to die and stand before God, what a disaster that would have been.

Same for you. You stand before God and can you just imagine the sinner perfected in his sin.

Common grace and common mercy is gone. And isn't in the presence of a thrice holy God and it just would have been a complete disaster.

How can God save people? He can only save them because of what His Son has done, not because anybody can work for it.

In verses 9 -12, Paul said you're not saved by circumcision. Was Abraham saved before he was circumcised or circumcised after he was saved?

That's what he's getting at. You're not saved by keeping the law. You're saved by faith alone.

Look at verse 16 of Romans 4. For this reason it is by faith that it might be in accordance with grace. 99 billion parts of grace plus one part law equals destruction.

That's what that equals. In order, verse 16 goes on to say that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham who is the father of all.

One of my favorite verses of all the Bible, Romans 4 .20, yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not

Abraham waver in unbelief, but grew strong in the faith, giving glory to God.

I don't know if it's King James or just a better translation than even that. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not stagger.

He didn't trip over that. And not just for Abraham, hallelujah, verse 23, now not for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned to him, but all those who will believe.

You don't have to be a spiritual giant to get into heaven, but you have to believe in the great

God of the universe. You need to have faith in Him. Well, if God saves you, that must be a big deal, and that's what happens in chapter 5.

More benefits of righteousness. More benefits of God having you just in His sight.

And look at some of these. Chapter 5, verse 1, Therefore, having been justified by faith, these are the blessings, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? Where are the people these days that tell the unbeliever that God is at war with them?

This is not the peaceful feeling that we get when we pray with faith in Philippians 4. There are two kinds of peace in the

Bible. One piece is standing. Iran and Israel are enemies.

The other kind is kind of that, forgive me, peaceful, easy feeling that you get internally through the spirit kind of peace.

What kind of peace would you think this is? The piece of standing or the piece of feeling?

Certainly when you're justified, you feel, oh, I used to be an enemy and now I'm a friend. I used to be ostracized and now

I'm a child. I used to be running that way and God turned me around. But this is the kind of peace that means

God is no longer at war with us. We are friends. Irreconcilable differences through Christ at Calvary and His resurrection, we now have been made at peace with God.

Blown away by that. Verse 2, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

We have introduction. The French would call this entrée. Do you have entrée to the

Father? We have entrée to God the Father as we would read in Hebrews 4.

We can just come to the throne of grace and say, God, we're in heaven in need and there's a time that I need mercy.

God, please. And before salvation, God could look at you and say, you dishonor me. You're not part of my family.

You're not a child. You're not a son. You are a sinner. And God didn't have to answer. He might have, but He didn't have to.

Now we have introduction. God did everything. Look at some of the words in verse 6.

While we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. He was the helper.

And one of the best verses in Romans 5, you know it in your Romans Road material, but God demonstrates.

Literally it means, He makes conspicuous His love toward us.

That's why, beloved, don't ever say, I'm not sure if God loves me. Look at my circumstances.

If you're a Christian and you struggle with the fact that God may not be showing

His love to you at the exact moment that you need it in a trial, then I want to drive you back to the cross.

I want to drive you back to the place where He showed that He loved you more than any other place. And if ever

He loved you, as one man said, He'll love you forever. God's love is constant.

Remember, God the Father sees you in Christ. And can you imagine John chapter 17? It says,

As much as God, this is my own translation, Abe and Dorothy in the translation, As much as God the Father loves

His Son, He loves you. How much is that? And Paul just starts launching.

You know, my favorite illustration is 4th of July time with those Roman candles. That you're not supposed to hold like that, but very interesting lightsabers.

And out comes another just praise. I have peace with God. God is not angry with me anymore.

We do this whole thing, you know, in Christian circles. God's, you know, angry with your sin, but He loves the sinner.

As a creator, God does love the sinner. But Psalm chapter 5 makes it clear that He's angry with the wicked and no longer now angry because of what

Christ did. Instead of angry, He's at peace. Instead of angry, come talk to me. Come pray to me.

I'll give you mercy after mercy. If I've given you the best gift, Christ's death in your place that you didn't deserve, you think

I'll withhold anything else you need in life. And that's what verse 10 says of Romans 5.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. If God loved you so much to do that when you were an enemy, what about this?

Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And then comes to one of the most underpreached parts of all the

Bible is Romans chapter 5. Why would this be not preached? Chapter 5 verses 12 and following.

Well, one of the reasons it's hard. Another of the reasons it doesn't really kind of give us, you know, a double mint kick kind of feeling.

I have a professor back at the Master's Seminary who's now in Arkansas, and he said that if you were a theologian, when you take your

Bible and go like that and let it drop open, that your Bible should go to Romans chapter 5.

So I was in class and I put my Bible underneath the desk. I started making a crease as best as I could.

What is this saying? Paul is going to show in Romans chapter 5, 12 to the end of the chapter that the action of one man, the deeds of one person can affect many.

And he's going to show the negative act of Adam can affect all kinds of people, every person.

And the positive action of Christ, all His death, burial, resurrection, His crucifixion, everything lumped into one act, if you will, can affect all kinds of people.

It's a comparison. Look at 5 .12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the whole world, or into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Saving work of Christ condemning work of Adam. One man each did an action and it had a ripple effect.

Thomson Steele in the one little book you want to get on Romans called The Interpretive Outline of Romans by Steele and Thomas.

Ten bucks or less. Perfect book to get for Christmas. He said,

Paul's design is to show that just as the race was condemned on the ground of the imputation of Adam's one sin, even so believers are justified on the ground of the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

The central idea of the passage is that men are saved in precisely the same manner in which they were lost through the act of another.

Adam by his one transgression brought condemnation to all connected with him, so Christ by his act of righteousness brought justification to all connected with him.

Now there's some differences because Jesus did much more than Adam did. Jesus did positively what Adam did negatively.

But this is just great stuff. Go down to verse 19. For as through the one man's disobedience, who's that?

Adam, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of one,

I have even a capital O so I know it's Christ, the many will be made righteous.

And the summary of all these verses in Romans 5, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. There's going to be another garden and that garden that started with Eden has been fallen, paradise fallen and there's another garden in heaven as it were and it's going to be paradise regained all by what

God did. And for centuries and eons and ages we'll be up in heaven just with gawking stares seeing the wisdom and greatness of God.

Oh, this is so good. You mean to tell me that when God saves me He's forgiven me every sin past, present and future.

There's no sin I can commit as a Christian that will somehow make me fall out of the Father's hands. That's what

Paul is saying in chapters 3, 4 and 5. God the Father as John chapter 10 says, says no one,

Jesus talking about the Father's actions, no one can pluck anyone out of the Father's hand when it comes to salvation.

So this is great news for us, isn't it? Wow. If we can't sin our way out of God's favor eternally, if God takes sin and makes grace abound when there's a lot of sin to say you know what, you might sin a lot but I've got more sin than you've got,

I've got more grace than you've got sin, grace greater than all our sin, I've got a little proposition for God.

God if you like to forgive, I like to sin and I'm just going to sin a lot, you're going to forgive a lot, everybody's going to go

God you're so gracious and it works out nicely for me because I don't have to somehow go to hell to make you have a good display of your grace.

If you don't think that way, well, when you understand the grace of God at Calvary, if you don't ask the question then what about my future sin?

Then you don't understand how great the grace of God is but should we sin?

What does Romans chapter 6 say? What shall we say then? Look at how Paul does it, it's just lawyer like, anticipating, what shall we say?

You know, I'm in big trouble when my ACLU lawyer friend in Phoenix emails me but he never emails me a direct statement, he always emails me questions and so I know

I'm in big trouble when he does that. We're not in big trouble, Paul's trying to explain it. If God has given you eternal security, you will be preserved to the end no matter what you can do.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace that he talked about back in 521?

Might increase or abound? Hey, why worry about sin? It's okay, no big deal.

Justification by God's grace should lead the Christian to sin or should lead the

Christian to want to obey and to please God by acting righteously. Which one?

It's the second one. You still can't sin your way out of heaven if God has truly redeemed you but you won't want to sin.

That's a sign of a Christian by the way. I hate it when I sin God, I don't like to sin, I'm ashamed of myself,

I don't want to do it. Look at verse 2. May it never be is the answer to verse 1.

No possible way. Out of all the times Paul uses this word may it never be.

No way. Don't listen. It's not acceptable. He uses this kind of phrase 14 times. 10 of them here are in Romans.

71 % of the time. This is amazing.

He's not minimizing sin. He's saying sin's been dealt with and if it has been, since it has been, then live righteous lives.

Look at verses 2, 7 and 11. Do you see the theme? We who have died to sin. Verse 7.

He who has died is free from sin. Verse 11. Consider yourselves dead to sin.

If we are dead to sin, why go live in it is his point. By the way,

I don't think we do enough of verse 11 at all. When's the last time you just sat around and thought about this whole principle?

Even so consider, think, contemplate, ruminate, consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ.

Why would I go around and keep sinning when I'm dead to it? That's ridiculous. And then he says in chapter 7 some amazing things.

Earlier in 7, he said the law showed me that I was sinful, spiritually dead. But now here's hope for the

Christian who struggles. Look at verse 15 and following. Do you understand why you sin if you're a

Christian? I don't know why I sin. Have you ever sinned and said to yourself,

I say this all the time, what an idiot you are. I try not to say it to the congregants. I usually say that of myself.

But I figured you'll see my example and then do it to yourself as well. I hate it when

I sin. I despise it. I loathe it. Because if God has saved me, if I'm in Christ, I want to act like who

I am. You might get kind of an illustration with your kids and I say to my kids,

Haley and Luke and Maddie and Gracie, every other family might do these things but when we go out to eat, the

Ebendroths don't act that way. I want you to live up to the family name.

And if I, a sinful father, have that desire, how much more does God, the Holy Father, want

His people to live up to His name? Look at verse 15.

For that which I am doing, I do not understand. This is Paul, the mature Christian. For I am not practicing what

I'd like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. That's the

Christian life. John Newton, the great sailor and then sinner received by the grace of God, I am not what

I might be. I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be.

I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what

I once was. And I can say with the greatest apostle, by the grace of God, I am what

I am. When you struggle with sin, that, beloved, is a sign of growth.

People come in all the time and they want counseling and they want to meet. And I usually say to them after they've kind of poured their heart out,

I'm struggling with this sin. I usually say, well, this has been very good. I'm glad. Glad?

Am I glad that they're sinning? Yeah, come on, go out there. No, go for it.

No, but I'm glad because that struggle is good. We came out kind of in an environment of this Keswick, pietistic, you have some kind of second awakening or maybe it's a charismatic kind of second blessing where somehow something happened to you on that day and you had all those feelings and now you're kind of on a different spiritual plane and you've experienced kind of the second blessing and you sin a lot less now.

That's not Romans 7. Here's Romans 7. You can be a mature, solid, apostle

Paul and Paul said, I just struggle and struggle and struggle. When I was an unbeliever,

I did not struggle against sin. I struggled at the consequences of my sin and that was it.

Right? I don't want to sin because if I get caught, then this and that will happen. But I wasn't going,

God, I've done this. This is so shame to your son. Now when you say, God, I've sinned against you and I just am ashamed.

How could I ever do this? I want to say that's good. The response is good, not the sin is good.

Of course the sin is not good. The believer shouldn't excuse sin. This makes us want to go forward.

This makes us want to go straight ahead. So much so, I just saw the Australian coat of arms. It had two creatures on it.

The emu, a flightless bird and a kangaroo. Why were the animals chosen? The animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to the

Australian citizens. Both the emu and kangaroo can move forward only and not back.

The emu's three -toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backwards and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverse by its large tail.

And we are Christians. We struggle. We don't go backwards. We're going forward.

So much so, that if you ever read Romans 7, oh, wretched man that I am, don't forget Romans chapter what?

Eight. Here's what I see in churches. Let's just read the verses first. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Romans 7, verse 24. This is Paul the Christian. This is what we should feel like when we sin against God, especially we know better.

Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? I can't stand it.

One of the reasons we should desire to get to heaven is because we won't have to sin anymore. But then verse 25, don't forget it.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 1 of chapter 8.

Therefore now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. These are the two kinds of people we have at church.

The Romans 7 person to the exclusion of Romans 8 and the Romans 8 person to the exclusion of Romans 7.

The Romans 7 person just says, well, you know, I can't believe it. I struggle and I'm so mad at my sin and I can't do it and I've shamed

God and all the things in my life as an unbeliever just all caught up with me and I can't stand it.

Oh! Is everybody awake? I always hated drama too.

You know, it's all the church growth stuff. You don't want to do all kinds of dramatic things and I just watch myself thinking. And you've got the

Romans 8 person. My sin's not that big a deal. There's a lot of other people that sin more.

God works out everything for good. I'm not condemned. The opposite word to justification is condemnation.

God has justified me therefore there's no condemnation for those in Christ and it's not really that big a deal because I've got other things going on.

I've got ministry and work and service and everything else. When the mature Christian is going to put both together and live in this epistle.

By the way, were there chapter breaks originally? You finished reading chapter 7 and what would you probably read?

8. The Christian is the Roman 7 -8 Christian. I sin and I hate it but God, oh,

I so love it that even this sin I just committed I'm not condemned by you. And boy,

I dreaded that kind of background that I had when I was a new believer and even as an unbeliever.

Laying there at night thinking is there some sin I haven't confessed because if I haven't confessed them all

I'm surely going to bust hell wide open. Oh, what could I think of now? What did I do?

What did I think of? What about my motivations and just that whole make sure your sins all confessed before you go to bed type of thing or else.

For those that struggle with their state don't forget about Romans chapter 8.

For those who struggle with you know, I just don't think I live a holy enough life because I don't hate my sin as I ought to.

Learn from Paul. And boy, it's so good the security found in Romans chapter 8.

It doesn't get any better. Do Christians sin? Yes. Does God kick you out? No.

The beautiful arrangement and orchestra -like presentation of these facts in Romans chapter 8 where you are secure in Christ.

There's nothing you can do to jump out of His hand. Present miseries maybe they're the both.

Present miseries is what I wanted. As we say in ministry weary of the work but not weary in it.

You have miseries and struggles and trials and our swan song should be we are going to heaven.

I sometimes never get to Romans chapter 8 and involved in this because I pretty much think this is heaven.

I have a wife, kids people, a congregation that puts up with me every week cars, house all kinds of stuff.

Heaven. And all of a sudden God starts chipping away at our temporal focus and we start thinking lost a child lost a parent broken relationships it should all drive us to God you are great and I'm secure in you.

Romans chapter 8 verse 1 again there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Can you sin yourself out of God's pleasure?

Not saving pleasure that's for sure. When you're in your deathbed what are you going to think about if you're a

Christian? I thought about that when I was watching my mom die and it's one thing about a deathbed it's hard to get up and do anything and on my deathbed my comfort should be even though I should have sinned my way out of the glory of God in heaven there's no condemnation.

Luther's laying there dying what do you do for a dying person back in those days? well here's what you do you give them some powdered unicorn's horn and a glass of wine here you go chest pains the end is approaching and what did

Luther do? The old Luther before salvation would have done I sure hope I've done enough

I hope I've been a good enough person I hope I've done enough monkish things in the monkery I hope

I can do all the things that are better there's all these other people behind me they're a lot worse than I am you didn't think

I heard myself say monkery did you? of course I did I know other root words like monasticism too but that's not the point if you can excuse my monkery

I'll excuse your mockery yet Luther knew

God's righteous vindication of himself by the work of another Christ and here's his deathbed prayer for comfort oh

God my heavenly father the father of our Lord Jesus Christ God of all comfort

I give you thanks that you have revealed unto me your son Jesus Christ in whom

I have believed whom I have confessed whom I have loved whom I have declared and preached

I beg you my Lord Jesus Christ receive my soul oh heavenly father though I be snatched out of this life though I must now lay down my head yet I assuredly know that I shall abide with you forever and that no man can pluck me out of your hands he grew weaker and he mumbled out at the very end into your hands

I commit my spirit you have redeemed me oh God of truth that's the book of Romans we can't do what

God did and the response is a life that wants to say no to sin a life that wants to say yes to righteousness a life that says praise to God and a life that dies comes to an end and says

I will only trust in another into your hands God I commend my spirit now who said doctrine isn't practical let's pray

Lord we commend this time to your hand and Lord one thing is for certain we will all die we will all stand before you and oh

God even as I look out among all these people young and old visitors and charter members as it were

God be pleased to save today through this proclamation be pleased to save through a sinner like me as the glories of your grace have been trumpeted forth in the book of Romans Father I pray for those who are not yet Christians that you would make the next days and hours so convicting that they will finally have to say

God I believe help my unbelief and Lord for us as Christians oh

Lord would you help us would you help drive these points home and may it affect our complaining may it affect our service may it affect our relationship with our spouses may it affect our church and Lord may it affect our evangelism

Lord we are the evangelism program here at this church make us desire us to proclaim that there is no condemnation for those in Christ because every person without Christ is condemned

Lord give us a liberty to preach and to speak these things and oh God seal these things to our truth as Charles Simeon said preach the truths and screw that truth into their brains