Book of Romans - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-6 (06/13/2004)

I had promised Greg that I would look at Revelation, and that I am doing.

But in the meantime, we're going to look at the book of Romans. Joy, do angels have whiskers?

Dennis, what do you think? Greg, but angels do not have whiskers, as an angel.

Discernment is for you only. You cannot discern to or for others.

Now, some opening remarks concerning the book of Romans. Romans 1 .1

Dennis, tell me, what is prophecy? Alright.

Greg, what is a prophet? It's a declaration of that which cannot be known by natural means.

Is what you said. The purpose of prophecy is to edify, comfort, and encourage the believers.

Found in 1 Corinthians 14 .3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

Now, the teacher of today has replaced the prophet of yesterday.

There's no prophets today. Found in 2

Peter 2 .1 The Lord God did not use the

Greek language or the Arabic language. Why, Joy?

Well, he did not use the Greek language or the Arabic language, which is what he spoke in, just because it was here.

It was here. He didn't use it just because it was here.

Now, Greg, tell me, why did he use it? Well, he brought the

Greek language and the Arabic language into existence so that the most expressive type of speech could be used for his holy word.

Years ago, I used to think that God used the lamb because it was a perfect picture of his son.

That's not true. He put the lamb here for that reason.

He uses nothing because it is here. He put it here for a specific reason.

Is this on? Yes. In writing this letter,

Paul carries on a complicated method by design. While he is teaching on one thing, he gives us the opportunity of learning yet one or two other necessary things.

You must always remember, God is the center of all things, not man.

We're in the book of Romans 1 .1, John. Learn to look at every event from the viewpoint of God.

The more you can do that, the more you will understand of the scripture.

Paul had never been in Rome when he wrote this letter. It was sent to the metropolis of the world.

And if the gospel presented be the gospel of God, then there are some things that we must do.

We must entertain it in our judgments. We must retain it in our memories.

We must embrace it in our affections. We must hide it in our hearts, confess it in our mouths, and most of all, practice it in our lives.

Do you practice the word of God? I certainly hope so. Chapter 1, verse 1, was written

A .D. 58. Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes.

The word gospel, what does it mean, John? All right, the good news of who,

Dennis? The gospel has inherent power.

What do we mean by that, Joy? Inherent, all right.

What does it mean, Greg, the inherent power? All right.

Dennis, we do not give it the inherent power. It is in the gospel.

There are two seeds in the world. First of all, we have to learn that, know that, remember that, because it will color everything in your life.

Two seeds in the gospel. Now, you do not have to go broadcasting it, but you must remember the fact.

Romans 1 .1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

Dennis, I know I have gone over it many times, but what does the word servant mean?

All right. It is doulos in this particular place.

But first of all, I want you to notice who this gospel, who the gospel belongs to.

Now, whose gospel is it, Dennis? It is

God the Father. It is His gospel. He is speaking the last word in anything.

The word servant is doulos, and it means bond slave.

A bond slave, let me go over it again, is one who has been marked or branded in some way.

Back in Exodus 21, verses 5 and 6. If you will turn to that as we read.

Exodus 21, verses 5 and 6.

And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children,

I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges.

He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

So if a servant says, I want to be your slave forever, they go to court.

Then after it passes the court, the master, not someone else, but the master takes him to the doorpost.

And what is an awl, Dennis? Short ice pick.

Now with that instrument, he bores a hole through his earlobe. I don't know if you watched the service the other day of Brother Reagan, but one of his sons says that he had a thing for earlobes.

Did any of you see that? The only way this relationship can be broken is how,

John? One of those two people, the slave or the master, has to die.

If the master dies, the slave is free. If the free slave dies, then he is free.

Now you tell me, Greg, why is it that we started our salvation walk in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross?

Very good. It took a death to break this doulos bond.

We were placed into Jesus the Christ. We were placed into him.

It makes no difference whether you are alive in this world or dead in this world. You were placed into him.

All of the saved people that will be in heaven were placed into Christ at his death on the cross.

Can you comprehend that? And as Greg says,

Paul is telling us here, before he was a doulos of Jesus Christ, he was a doulos of Satan.

Now, he was never the seed of Satan. What's the difference, Dennis?

That's right. Very well put. Before we were notified of belonging to God, we also were bond slaves of Satan.

We were never the seed of Satan. Know the difference. Remember now, the only way this relationship can be severed is the death of one or the other.

John, is Jesus Christ ever going to die?

He will never die again. By the time we took up residence in him, we suffered his death with him and we will never be rid of him.

So, we have his life. He's never going to die. So, we will never die.

We find this death explained in Romans 6 and 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.

John, what does baptism mean? Beg your pardon?

What? Alright, it's the change.

This is the death that broke that connection. You had nothing to do with it.

The word called to be should read a called apostle.

If you'll notice in that first verse, Paul was called by our Lord. Therefore, he was a called apostle, divinely selected and appointed.

Now, you may ask, who are the called? In 1 John 3 .10,

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil are manifest.

Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

That is, they which are the children of flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

In Matthew 13 .38, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.

The Bible spells it out very, very plain when we know that there are two seeds.

And you know that fact, no question about it. As you study the scripture, you will see the two seeds.

If you do not know that fact, you will miss a lot of scripture.

Yes. Alright. That's right, that's good.

In John 10 .26, But ye believe not, because ye are not my sheep, as I have said unto you.

10 .27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen.

Now the last part of that word, that verse, I know whom I have chosen.

John 13 .18, In Genesis 3 .16,

we see the beginning of all of this. Unto the woman he said,

I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. Thy sorrow and thy conception.

Not sorrow in conception, but sorrow and conception. Two different things.

In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

In that verse we have the beginning and the prophecy of beginning and end of the two seeds.

Now, Greg, quickly tell me why, why was the multiplying of conception needed to bring, you're exactly right, to bring the seed of Satan into the world?

The separation of the seed started right here as we read. Separated.

Aphrodisio. In the good sense. It means to appoint, to set for some purpose.

This word is passive. The significance of this is that it was done to Paul by someone else.

You were separated unto, you can be separated unto or from, you were separated unto

God. Now, Joy, did you have a choice in that separation?

No. No choice in that at all. It also is imperative, denoting that it was done once for all, never to be done again, it's permanent, you cannot undo it.

The word gospel, the glad tidings of salvation through Christ.

Verse 2, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the

Holy Scripture. Now, it was the gospel that was promised, and it was not spelled out as gospel.

It had been prophesied by the writers of the Old Testament. They knew that there was something besides the

Messiah coming. They didn't know what it was. And they searched for it, but they could not understand it.

And the reason they could not understand was what, John? The reason that the writers of the

Old Testament could not understand this something that was coming, why was that?

Debbie, tell him. Who's on the back row?

Who's this sitting on that? Okay. Are you waving your hand?

Who is waving? All right, let's start over.

Debbie first. Well, I want to know about that word couldn't.

Greg, tell her.

That's true, they did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling, but God simply restricted their understanding.

Does he restrict our understanding today, or can we know anything that we might know,

Dennis? But it will never come up to everything that God knows.

So we're still restricted today. It may be hard to understand, but we are.

John? That's right.

Fred? Yes? All right.

He guides that on several counts. One is providence, and the other is word.

But you will never learn anything that will take you away completely, lose your salvation from God.

We had no choice in the matter. Verse 3.

Concerning his son Jesus the Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

Now let me ask you, did Jesus have a divine or human nature? All right,

I've got divine, I've got human. Well, the answer is both.

But the divine nature was not mentioned until after his resurrection.

Jesus had a human nature. Now, was that human nature sinful?

Dennis? He what?

All right. He had...

How can I say this? He had the sin nature as Adam had the sin nature.

Before Adam sinned, could he have sinned?

Before Adam sinned, could he have sinned, John? All right, from man's view, yes.

From God's view, no. But man's view, he could have sinned at any time.

But he didn't have the active sin nature. Now, when he sinned, it activated the sin nature in everybody.

We find in Genesis, we read that he beget...

I want to say Seth, where it mentions that he beget a man after his own image.

And Adam was made after the image of God. And by image, we think physical.

That's not true. The divine nature was not mentioned in Jesus until after his resurrection.

But he had them both. Was made, the little words was made.

Debbie, what does that refer to? He was made.

All right. God prepared for him a body. Why did he need a body,

Dennis? John, why did he need a body?

Debbie, why did he need a body?

Greg, tell him. So he could die. It's that simple.

He could not die with the body that he had, quote, unquote. He had to have a body.

Now, the body was of the King of David, which was of the lineage of Adam.

And the word was made refers to the flesh. He was not flesh, as he always existed.

Greg? All right, he's always existed as Christ, not as Jesus.

Jesus was the earthly body. They had to give a name to this body.

The most revered name of all, the highest name of all. It was above every name,

Jesus. Now, Jesus occupied the office of Christ.

Was made to become, to come to pass, happen to rise, appear in history, come upon the stage, to be made, finished, seed of David.

In John 7, 42, Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was?

Second Timothy, 2A, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.

According to an earthly body, he was a descendant of the King of David.

This came through his mother only because he had no earthly father.

Now, I'm going to say something that perhaps some people will disagree.

Why was the virgin birth necessary? Why was it necessary,

John? All right.

The substitute for our sins could not be a man with the activated sin nature.

He would have been no different than we. Jesus was innocent.

He was made without an earthly father. So was

Adam. The sin nature is passed on through the man.

Therefore, Jesus did not have the sin nature. And there's where the question arises.

You may say, prove it. All right, I will. If you will produce a child without an earthly father, that's the only way.

If you will produce a child using the woman only, no earthly father, then it would be innocent.

Do you believe that? Let me see your hands if you believe.

Do you understand that? The only way we can prove it is to produce a child without an earthly father.

Four. And declared to be the Son of God with power.

Now, he was declared. What's the word declare mean, Greg? All right.

Say it again. Yes, it was determined beforehand.

It was determined way back at the council. And I suppose before that, we don't know when the council occurred.

He was declared to be the Son, capital

S -O -N. And he had power. Power according to the spirit of holiness.

By the resurrection from the dead. This is when he was declared the

Son of God. That which is declared, that which has been determined according to appointment, decree, or ordained determinants.

A point, Jesus was ordained to be the slain lamb for the purchase of the elect.

Now, there was something he had to redeem.

And that was the Son of Man. The Sons of God. In Revelation 13, 8, we read,

So we find at that verse in Revelation that everybody is going to worship him.

Every single person that has ever been born.

How many would that be, Dennis? Then he uses the word with power.

Dunamis. It has inherent power.

Power residing in the thing by virtue of its nature. And we get our word dynamite from the same source.

Resurrected from the dead. This should read resurrection from among the dead.

Resurrection means a standing up. Which causes us to understand that it will be a bodily resurrection.

There are those that say it will just be a spirit. Why do we know it will be more than a spirit?

Why do we know it will be a body, Dennis? Alright, and we will be like him.

It will not be just a spiritual resurrection. Because the word resurrection gives us the word standing up.

Jesus was called the Son of God by the fact that he was resurrected. It was the power of the

Father that raised Jesus. And he was on this earth with all of the power of the

Holy Spirit. In fact, his entire ministry was conducted under the power of the full or all of the

Holy Spirit. In John 3 .34 He did not measure.

For this man to have the Holy Spirit, he gave it all. Well, how is that different from us?

Romans 12 .3 The measure of faith.

So, Greg, can you have more faith than you are supposed to have? No. None of us can.

Now, the amount of faith is different than the faith.

Greg may have the amount to enable him to do that that is ordained.

Fred may have a different amount because it does not require the same.

Maybe more, maybe less. But he has exactly what he needs to operate in this life.

Verse 5 Now we are obedient.

Have we received this obedience so that we can now be obedient?

Debbie? The word received is passive imperative.

We have received this grace of our Lord not because of our obedience.

Heaven forbid. He didn't. You were not obedient up until a level that he says, all right, you now qualify.

But we have received the obedience so that we can be obedient.

Does that make sense? We have received the obedience so that we can be obedient.

It is impossible for anyone to be an obedient servant without knowing what his master demands.

You cannot be a servant of Jesus without the study of his holy word.

Timothy 2 .15 Study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Study to show thyself. John, who is it you're showing?

That's right. Study to show yourself. I studied to show myself.

And this for the last. This obedience is that obedience which his obedience demands that he demand.

Let me say it again. This obedience is that obedience which his obedience demands that he demand.

Now remember that. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. That's right.

But the obedience itself was given to you.

It comes through the Holy Spirit. It comes from God the Father. Are there any words?