A Jet Tour Of Romans

is our custom to go through books of the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, with a similarity with our scripture reading as we go chapter by chapter.

We do the same thing when it comes to preaching on most Sundays. I don't know how many sermons it took me to get through Hebrews, maybe over a hundred.

Was it a thousand? I can't remember. We're in the book of Luke, and I think we've had about eight or nine sermons in Luke chapter one, getting ready for Luke chapter two.

Sometimes it's good to have an overview, though, because if you're not careful, you might get caught up in some of the details in a passage without seeing what the author is trying to say, big picture, forest and tree type of thing.

And so every once in a while, I like to do an overview of a book so that you can then go back and study it and say, oh,

I see the big picture. Sometimes it's hard to study minor, smaller passages in a book of the

Bible when you don't understand what's going on through the entire book. So I'd like you to take your Bibles today and turn to the book of Romans, the epistle of Paul to the

Romans, and we are going to look at this great book. It might be one of the greatest books in all the

Bible. It's probably one that many of you would take on the proverbial desert island if you had one book and one book only to take.

You've probably read it hundreds of times, if not more than that, because you love the truths about Jesus Christ in the book of Romans.

I have a goal for you this morning. Here's my goal. I want you to see the big picture of the book of Romans so that you might do exactly what the end of Romans says, that is, in chapter 11, that you might give

Him praise and glory and say, there's no one like God, there's no one like my Lord. I was dead in trespass sins and He rescued me and I see this entire plan that He has revealed in the book of Romans and I love the book of Romans.

I hope tomorrow when you wake up you think, I should listen to the book of Romans or I should read the book of Romans.

So this morning we're going to look at Romans chapter 1 through chapter 16.

I know what you're saying. Massachusetts is now legal to gamble.

I've heard some people saying he's never going to do it, but we will soon find out because I'm a prideful man and we're going to do 16 chapters of Romans.

Obviously, I'm not going to read every verse. Obviously, I'm not going to highlight every single thing.

This is like a teaser. This is the appetizer. You go to a Mexican restaurant and they've got some chips there.

They're super salty, are they not? Because they're wanting you to get that appetite ready and you just can kind of say, oh,

I'm ready for the main course. And so the main course, maybe in the future will be you studying the book of Romans and picking up a commentary or two on the book of Romans.

If you had to describe the book of Romans with one word, it would be righteousness.

That's the key to the book of Romans. If you can grasp that Romans is about righteousness, you will be on your way.

The key word for Romans is righteousness. And righteousness, if you don't know what it means, it's simple.

It's got the root word right. And when you obey God's law, because God's a creator, you're doing the right thing.

And you get credit for doing the right thing. Just like at school, you got credit for doing the right thing or a demerit for doing something wrong.

And so of course, the Lord Jesus obeys the law in our place and he's earning for us righteousness.

And so righteousness, yes, it's an attribute of God, but it's also something that's earned. And so we're going to see for the outline of Romans today that we need righteousness.

That's the first part of the book. We don't have righteousness and we need righteousness. The second part of the book is how

God gives righteousness. And then the last part of the book is how that righteousness is applied in our daily living as Christians.

As we want to walk in a holy manner. And so the book of Romans is about righteousness. And you could probably split it up this way if you would as well.

The first two and a half chapters is about guilt because we have no righteousness and we need righteousness.

If you're a believer here today, it's good to remember that we contributed nothing to our salvation. We were unrighteous.

Only by your mercy we can come to you, the song just sang. And if you're an unbeliever here,

I hope to convince you through scripture, you have no righteousness and you need the Lord Jesus. So we move from guilt to grace.

And that's going to be in chapter 3 verses 21 all the way through chapter 11.

That this grace that God has is giving us righteousness. He reveals righteousness and gives it.

So we have guilt, we need righteousness. Grace God gives us righteousness. And then chapters 12 through 16, we have righteousness applied.

That is, we respond with gratitude. Funny that Romans is guilt, grace, gratitude, isn't it?

That's a paradigm for Christianity. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. Heidelberg Catechism in the 1500s didn't come up with guilt, grace, gratitude.

Paul did because that's the paradigm for our Christian life. Romans 1 to 16, the key word righteousness, guilt, grace, and gratitude for our outline.

Before we get into the text, that's the main text, Paul has an intro, and let's take a look at the intro in Romans chapter 1.

Paul, verse 1, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of the gospel of God, which

He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Specifically, concerning His Son, that is

Jesus, and certainly He's truly human, who descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the

Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul starts right off at the very beginning. He introduces it by saying the gospel of God is about the

Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is perfectly human, perfectly divine, and the Spirit of God raises

Him from the dead so you can trust in the Lord Jesus. And Paul says, I can't wait to get to you at Rome to tell you about the gospel.

Do you see it in verse 15 of chapter 1? I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome.

Of course the gospel, the good news of Jesus, is for unbelievers, but he can't wait to get to Rome to remind believers about the risen

Savior. Christians need the gospel too because Christians still sin, and Christians still need to remember who

Jesus is. I find it fascinating that while Rome was full of incest, slavery, abortion, horrible, horrible sins,

Paul said, I can't wait to get there to tell you about Jesus. Because the key for Paul was not social equality and social justice, it was about justice of God satisfied in the person of the

Lord Jesus. What's the key to the book of Romans? It's righteousness. And you see that in verses 16 and 17, do you not?

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

That's how you receive the gospel, by the way, by belief. To the Jew first, and also the Greek. For in it, that is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So that's the introduction for the book of Romans.

Now let's go to the guilt part. Chapter 1, verses 18 through 320 is about guilt.

We need righteousness. And then once we're Christians, we look back and we say, yeah, we sure needed righteousness.

And as an unbeliever, if you're here today, you need righteousness. Here's what

Paul's going to do. He's going to say, whether you're a pagan, or whether you're a Jew, whether you have the

Bible, or you don't have the Bible, or you're just a really good moral person, you need righteousness.

Because self -righteousness isn't going to be enough. And certainly unrighteousness isn't going to be enough to stand in the presence of a holy

God. Everyone needs righteousness if they're going to go to heaven. And so Paul, in the next two and a half chapters, is going to try to obliterate anyone who says,

I can get to heaven just by dying. I can get to heaven by being good. I can get to heaven by doing more good things than bad things.

I can get to heaven by being kind of righteous, but maybe not ultimately righteous. And so he starts first with the pagans, with the unbelievers.

Because they're unrighteous and it says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, things that aren't like God, and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness, see that word is over and over and over, they're used, either negatively or positively, who suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it.

In other words, no one can say, you know what, I don't believe there's a God because I don't believe there's a

God. Paul is saying in this chapter, and he'll go on to say, that if you go outside and look at the sun, or you watch a baby being born, you'll say, there has to be some kind of wisdom to this.

There has to be some kind of plan. There has to be some kind of power. Joel came over yesterday and replaced my

Volvo's starter because the starter went bad. I mean, after 240 ,000 miles, I'm surprised everything's not bad.

But he changed the starter and I thought, why bother spending $100 on Amazon for a new starter for the

Volvo? If I could just wait a couple million years, the thing would have fixed itself. It would have been perfect.

Evolution is really wonderful. Paul says, if you stand outside and you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and experience gravity, you are without excuse.

Do you see it at the end of verse 20? If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you're without excuse. You can't say, well, I'm an atheist,

I'm an agnostic. No. You know who God is, verse 21, but you won't give thanks to him.

And you know what happens with sin? If an unbeliever says, I don't want to worship God, I can see it plainly in nature that there's a

God, sometimes the sin of unbelief, God punishes with other sins.

And three times you'll see that punishment in verse 24, 26, and 28,

God gave them up. Do you see it? Verse 24, God gave them up to lusts, sexual sin.

Verse 26, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, homosexual sin. Verse 28,

God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And your mind's to worship

God and to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so, it's as if he takes the dimmer switch on the light panel over there and just slowly starts turning it off.

If you want to act like I don't exist, here's the fruit, the bad fruit of your choices.

And then there's all kinds of things that happen after that. And if you look at verses 29 through 32, from gossiping, to slander, to murder, and sadly, verse 32, though they know

God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, not only do they do them, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them.

They applaud. Kind of sounds like today, doesn't it? Celebration of sin. It's one thing to just say, well, there's another sinner.

It's another thing to say, that sin is great. Well, at least I'm a moral person.

At least I'm a religious person. I don't do those things. Chapter 2 is this.

If you know those things are wrong and you're glad that you don't do them, you're accountable. Check it out.

Verse 1 of chapter 2. Therefore, you, moral person, you Jewish person, have no excuse.

Every one of you who judges for impassing judgment on another, chapter 1 people, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

Isn't that interesting? If you're smart enough to know that's wrong, do you perfectly obey? Did we perfectly obey before we were

Christians? Of course not. By the way, verse 6, it says of chapter 2, God will render to each one according to his works.

By the way, if you're going to be obedient to those who by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he'll give eternal life.

Hey, that's simple. All I have to do is perfectly obey God's law, perfectly be righteous, and I'll get eternal life.

But it's not that simple, because it's impossible, not because of just Adam's sin, but our own sin nature.

If you'd like to get to heaven without Jesus, here's your verse, verse 13. It's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

And so we have to look at our lives, and we say we're moral people, we pay taxes, we're faithful to our spouse, we don't look at pornography, we don't do all these other things, but do we do anything that falls short of the glory of God?

The Bible says that sin is falling short of the glory of God, missing the mark. And if we're honest with ourselves, we have to say, yes, we missed the mark.

We have self -righteousness, the pagans have unrighteousness, but we need

Jesus' righteousness. You say, well, what about circumcision?

At least that helps me. Verse 25. No, for circumcision is indeed of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

You can't get to heaven by saying I was circumcised, I was baptized, I was catechized, and I still don't really believe, but those things were just done.

Well, then why even bother being a Jew? Chapter 3, verse 1. What advantage has the

Jew? Well, there's lots of things. Verse 2. They have the oracles of God, they have the

Bible. It says in verse 3, what if some were unfaithful?

Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means.

Let God be true, though every one were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.

Verse 9. What then? Are the Jews any better off? Not at all when it comes to standing before God, for we have already charged that both

Jews and Greeks are under sin. And the key word of the book of Romans is righteous, and we need righteousness.

In verse 10 it says what? As it is written, none is righteous. What about that guy? No, not one.

And there's a whole list of psalms, basically, in Romans 3, verses 10 and 18, to try to show people that they need a

Savior. And that's why we tell people about who God is and the standards of God when we evangelize.

So they say, oh, there's a big gap there. I think I need a Savior. Verse 19 is the desired result of preaching the law to unbelievers.

Now we know that whatever the law says, love God, love neighbor, it speaks to those who are under the law.

They're creatures. I'm a creature. So that every mouth may be what? Stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by the works of the law, doing something on earth, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Can you imagine? Every mouth might be stopped. Tim said, for the children, may

Jesus Christ be praised. And then I read in Isaiah 19 something about these Egyptians were stupid.

And then now I'm going to actually say the word, shut up. From the pulpit. Can you imagine? Here's what happens.

The law goes to the unrighteous with this purpose, that the person stops saying, well,

I was baptized. I'm better than I used to be. I'm trying. I'm working on myself. Other people think

I'm fine. No, when the law comes and says, you're unrighteous, and you need God's righteousness, and to get in heaven, you have to perfectly obey since you were conceived, you ought to say, okay,

I have nothing to say. You're right. I'm condemned. I did sin. I have sinned. I'm going to keep sinning, and I'm not going to back talk anymore to God.

I'm just going to say, true. That's what the law is supposed to do. We, as unbelievers, we're unrighteous.

And by the way, the Spirit of God worked in your life, dear Christian, so that one day you said, not of your own power, but by divine grace, that's true.

I'm a sinner, and I deserve to go to hell. God, are you merciful? God, will you save?

We're guilty in Adam. Is there any grace? There doesn't have to be grace. God doesn't owe grace.

The angels that sin, they don't have grace. And now we move to the second part of the outline.

Guilt, grace. Chapter 3, verse 21, all the way through chapter 11.

This is righteousness, not needed, but given. Righteousness given.

Righteousness revealed. God is a kind God. The loving kindness of the

Lord is everlasting. And He knows that we're guilty in Adam, in our own sins.

And He doesn't leave us there. Here's the rescue mission. Verse 21 of Romans 3,

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. That is our law keeping.

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God. How do you get righteousness from God?

Through faith in Jesus for all who believe. There's no distinction. Jew or Gentile, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And then these words like justified by grace, redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

Verse 25, propitiation by His blood. Those are all acts of God. God the great saving

God. It's one thing to say when you're a new Christian, Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.

Great! But that word salvation is just like a, it's a zip drive full of all kinds of information that you unzip and you go, wow, words like justification.

That God takes Jesus' perfect law keeping, earning righteousness not for Himself, but for others, and gives them to me.

Like in my bank account, He gives them, He credits, He imputes. That's the word justification. And not only that in justification,

Jesus got all my sins and died for them on the cross, even though He was sinless. And you get a word like redemption.

Now when I was a kid, we had something called S &H green stamps. And you would get these stamps and you'd put them in a book and you'd go get them redeemed.

And then all of a sudden, I started eating bubble gum. And I loved Bazooka Joe bubble gum. It was way better than, what's the other kind?

Hubba Bubba. I was going to say Chubby Hubby. But that is an ice cream by a brand name that we will not utter from the pulpit.

And you could save the little comics and send it in and get a Bazooka Joe sweatshirt to redeem. You have to give something to get something.

So we're a slave to sin. And to get us out of the slave pit of sin, there had to be a price.

You don't redeem for free. You redeem with a price. Of course, that price is the

Lord Jesus. His own life. His own death. And then that word propitiation in verse 25.

It just means God is holy and He's angry at sin. And He's going to take out

His anger on someone. And so all the old gods would say, you know what?

You people that worship me, you give me fruit. You give me maidens. You give me other things and assuage my wrath.

We can never assuage God's wrath. So Jesus assuages the

Father's wrath. And it's called propitiation because it's a divine grace. And how do you receive it?

It says right there in verse 25 by faith. It says the same thing in verse 26.

The one who has faith in Jesus. And if it's all God, and we're recipients only, and we only contribute to our sin, and it's all salvation by grace alone, verse 27, then what becomes of our boasting?

Hey, I'm in heaven because I'm better than you. It's all gone because it's divine grace.

Yeah, yeah, I know all that, but Abraham, he was circumcised.

That got him into heaven. I mean, David was a pretty good person for most of the time. He was a man after God's own heart.

That got him into heaven too, right? Answer? Wrong. Chapter 4. What should we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works, our doing good, he'd have something to boast about.

Of course, but not before God. Let's bring Scripture to bear. It's always good to say, what does the

Bible say? Paul does the same thing. What do the Old Testament Scriptures say? Abraham believed

God, and it was credited to him, counted to him, reckoned to him, as righteousness.

Abraham wasn't saved by circumcision. Verse 4. To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

If you work, you get paid. And to the one who does not work to get to heaven, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Abraham is in heaven, not because he was good. It doesn't take you very long before you see

Abraham, and you think, why did he say, Sarah's not my wife, she's my sister, you can take her into your harem.

Not once, but twice. It's that Abraham trusted in the righteous one.

What about David? Verse 6. And you can see what Paul's doing. Jewish people, Christian people too, loved

Abraham, loved David. Also speaks of the blessing, verse 6, of the one to whom

God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count as sin. That's a Psalm of David. By the way, side note, dear

Christian, when's the last time you just said to the Lord, I am so thankful that you don't count my sin against me.

Can you imagine? Wisdom might say he should count it.

Omniscience might say he counts it. But divine grace, when you get to heaven, you won't have to be accountable for one sin you've ever committed.

Can you believe it? It's too good to believe. It's not just grace, it's amazing grace. Not one sin.

They're all covered. They're washed. They're at Calvary. Jesus paid it all. And verses 13 through 24, it talks not about circumcision to get to heaven, not about ordinances, but faith.

Verse 13, last word, faith. Verse 14, faith. Verse 16, that is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace.

If it was by works, then we would all have a pecking order when it comes to heaven, but it's by grace, and not works.

The faith of Abraham, the Father of us all, verse 16, he believed, verse 18.

Verse 19, he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead.

Verse 20, no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God.

I think the King James, does it not say Robert Muto, Abraham staggered not at the promises of God.

True? Okay, thank you. The kids respond, I've got to get

Muto to respond. And that's not all.

When God justifies and says, Jesus pays for your sins, you get his righteousness, which was law keeping.

Is there anything else? I mean, how does God give? Peace meal? Like when I was a kid, we loved like frosted flakes, and we loved apple jacks, and we loved other kinds of cereals.

And it just really bothered me that I'd open up a big thing of cereal, and open up the package, it was brand new, and it seemed like everything settled down to half way.

I'm like, what's going on? They're kind of, they're just like, they're not giving me what I should.

But then I remembered, well, this cereal box has a toy in it. Remember when we used to get toys in cereal boxes?

Like guns. I'm like, well, it's easier to get my hand at the very bottom of that cereal box, so it's a little bit better.

But when God gives, he just gives to the, like Jesus said in Luke chapter 6, above, filled up, overflowing.

And that's what happens with chapter 5. It says we're justified by faith. Are there other blessings that God gives when he justifies us by faith?

Yes, there's a slew of them. Verse 1, we have peace with God. When you're justified, you have peace with God.

This is not a feeling. This is God isn't at war with you anymore. People are afraid of Russia.

People are afraid of China. How would you like to have the Lord of Hosts after you to judge you for your sins?

But now, because of Jesus, we have peace with God. We have obtained access, verse 2, by faith.

If you were a Jew and you wanted to have direct access to God, good luck, because you would be dead.

You walk through the courtyard of the Gentiles and the women and the regular court, and you go to the holy places, and once a year there's a priest that could go into the

Holy of Holies. It'd be deadly to be standing in the face of God without a mediator.

But with a mediator, we're children. We're adopted. We rejoice.

And God even takes, verse 3, because of this great truth of justification, we can rejoice in our sufferings because we know

God's working on us and He'll produce perseverance. He just extols

Jesus. He can't stop talking about how great Jesus is. That man who met Him on Damascus Road years before.

Verse 6, while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8,

God shows His love for us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Yeah, but how does that all work?

How can you have one person affect the lives of many? It's one thing Jesus lives a perfect life for Himself, and then

He goes to Heaven, but how can He live a perfect life for me and be my representative? I mean, there's something funny about representation.

Maybe it's not really true. And verses 12 through 21, verse 21, talk about that.

And Paul says, if you'd like to talk about representation and federal headship, remember Adam? Adam sinned, verse 12.

Sin came in the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

How can all sin if only Adam sinned? Answer, Jesus, the Father, and the

Spirit of God say when Adam sinned as a federal representative, everyone else gets credit for what

Adam did. Well, that doesn't seem so fair, does it? Dear Christian, I think you like federal representation.

Why? Because there's another man named Adam, the last Adam, and when he obeyed, those trusting in Christ get credit for his work.

Now I kind of like it. I don't know if I liked it that Adam was my federal head, but I sure like it that Jesus is my federal head.

And what Adam did for the negative, Jesus does for the positive. And what Adam did with some, Jesus does for all those who

He's going to believe. Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace, that's you, dear

Christian, and the free gift of righteousness, that's what you received, Christian, reign in life through the one man,

Jesus. Therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation of all, Adam to all federal representation, so one act of righteousness, the whole life of Jesus, leads to justification in life for all men.

Isn't that good? I like federal representation. So do you. And even if you don't like it, it's true.

Yeah, but you know what? I'm completely forgiven. I'm justified. I won't have to pay for one of my sins ever.

Kind of sounds like a good deal. I mean, maybe I'll just sin. God likes to forgive. I like to sin.

I'll let Him forgive more. He'll give more glory for forgiving me, so I'll sin more so He can show off His grace.

How's that? Is that a good deal? It's a very bad deal. But Paul anticipates that. Verse 1 of chapter 6.

What should we say then? I mean, if it's grace, free grace, sovereign grace, we're justified, redeemed, propitiated, forgiven.

We're just trusting in the Lord by faith and by faith alone. What if we take advantage of grace? What if we turn that into license to sin?

And he knows that's a question because grace is so free. It is so sovereign. I guess you could sin, but you shouldn't.

And that's what Paul says. Verse 1. Are we to continue in sin that grace might abound?

And in ESV it says, by no means. In the Greek, it's two words that means with emphasis.

Don't even think about it. No way! God forbid! Don't ever do that! He asks the same kind of question in verse 15.

Are we to sin because we're not under law, but under grace? Answer, by no means!

Paul is saying this. Dear Christian, you're united with Jesus. You're in Christ Jesus.

There's a vital union and communion with Jesus. And in chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, he says, did you know, when

Jesus died, you died. When Jesus was buried, you were buried. When Jesus was raised from the dead, you were raised from the dead.

So why would I say I'm dead to sin, like Jesus died for sinners, and then say,

I'm going to go back to sin. The first command in all the book of Romans is found in verse 11 of chapter 6.

Did you know that? There's not a command in chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The first command in the book of Romans.

This is something for you, Christian. So you also must consider, or reckon, or think about it, not just in passing, but over and over and over, yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passion. Did you know you can say no to sin, dear

Christian? Do you know you should say no to sin? And you're able to say no to sin because the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Yeah, but I don't do what I want to do half the time. I have good plans. I've got my resolutions.

I've asked for forgiveness. And then I'm doing the exact same thing again. That's chapter 7. There's much in chapter 7.

But for today, verse 15 of chapter 7. Here is Paul, a mature Christian, in a section on holy living with present tense words.

Paul, the mature Christian, says this. Can you relate? For I do not understand my own actions.

I do not do what I want. But I do the very thing I hate. Verse 17,

So now it's no longer I who do, but sin dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good

I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. And he says, verse 25,

Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. He hasn't said much about the

Holy Spirit yet, but now he does in chapter 8. Here's chapter 8 for the Christians. And by the way,

I know what you're doing. You're thinking, he preaches 50 minutes usually. And there's 16 chapters.

He's gone through 7 chapters. That means how many are left? Nine. Were you thinking that?

I don't think you were thinking that either. I'm just trying to break it up. I'm giving you a chance to breathe. The book of Romans is about righteousness.

We need righteousness. God gives righteousness. And that's our section now. And by the way, it's such good righteousness.

There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Full stop. Full stop. No condemnation.

On judgment day, guess what the verdict is going to be? Paul takes the verdict on judgment day, that great day in the future, and he brings that verdict into the present tense for all

Christians. No condemnation. Yeah, but what about that one sin? I mean, how many O -rings does it take to fail to have the space shuttle explode?

Maybe God won't cover all my sins. Every sin forgiven, no condemnation. Why, verse 3, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,

He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but of the

Spirit. And if you read chapter 8 and just start looking at how many times capital S, Spirit is there, you're going to see the

Spirit -filled life. That you're able to obey the Lord. The law can't help you obey.

In chapter 7, the law just tells you what's right and what's wrong. It has no animating power. It's just like a

GPS. Tell me what to do or tell me when to turn around. I need an animating power. I need a force or an energy.

No, rather, you need a person and His name is the Holy Spirit. And you know what

He's done? He has made you a son or daughter and He even, verse 26, prays for you.

Isn't that amazing? But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us. And He makes it so that when we read verse 28, we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for good. We're called according to purpose. For those whom

He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. And it goes on and on and on. Justified and glorified.

And earlier called. I mean, this is like an overload of gospel grace and goodness.

And Paul anticipates in verse 31, what should we say to these things? What do we say to all that?

Answer? Church is going along today. Answer? It's kind of the same old truths we always hear.

Can't we get on something else besides Jesus? All this Jesus -Triune talk. What should we say to these things?

What's the answer? If God's for us, who can be against us? By the way, there are people against you, especially

Satan. Satan is real and Satan hates you. Did you know that? Satan's real.

But he can't make a charge against you because there's no condemnation. And verse 33, it's God who justifies.

Satan can't condemn. I mean, I feel that in my heart, don't you? When I sin, here's a typical thing that Abendroth goes through.

I can't believe I just sinned. I thought I had repented of that last sin. I keep sinning that sin.

I don't know what's going on. I wonder if I'm a Christian and keep sinning those sins. How can I be a pastor and sin those sins?

How can I look my wife in the eye and keep doing those sins? And the slanderer,

Satan, the tempter, he's got all these things that make me... Maybe it's my flesh or maybe it's Satan. I'm thinking, what is going on?

I need truth. And you know what?

Jesus is at the right hand of God. And while Satan might be saying, see my sins, who's at the right hand of God and what is

Jesus doing? Verse 34. He's interceding. And nothing can separate us from God's love.

Nothing can separate us from God's love. Hand goes up.

What about Jewish people? They seem separated from God's love. Jewish people seem separated from God's love.

Paul's writing when there's a lot of Gentiles saved, not many Jews saved. Paul says in chapter 9, 10 and 11, here's what

God is going to do with Jewish people. He's not done saving Jewish people. Do you know all elect

Jews will make it? Of course they will. I speak the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying. My conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit. Chapter 9, verse 1. But I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh,

Israelites. Chapter 4. Verse 4.

Verse 6. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

In other words, out in the wilderness, running from Egypt, not every person that had gone through the

Red Sea was a real believer in Yahweh. And just because you're Jewish, it doesn't mean you're going to go to heaven.

You need to be an elect Jew to go to heaven. And so, not everybody who's a Jew is an elect

Jew. That's what Paul is saying. Yeah, but here's what I don't like. I don't like it when God is sovereign and says, some

Jews make it and some Jews don't. Yes, they're disobedient, but behind it all, God's sovereign.

I don't like all this sovereignty of God stuff. And Paul anticipates that in chapter 9.

If you struggle with predestination or election or sovereignty, I want you to go home and read chapter 9 and just say,

I have to believe it because this is what God says. It says in verse 13,

Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What should we say then? Paul knows what we want to say.

That's unjust. Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. I'll have mercy on whom

I have mercy and compassion on whom I compassion. So then it does not depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

Well, if God chooses, I'm not responsible. Verse 19, You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

Who can resist his will? God, I sin because you want me to sin. The Jews that aren't elect sin because they're not elect.

What does Paul say? Who are you,

O man? Verse 20, to answer back to God. In other words, stop asking that question.

That's not for you to know. You're to submit to this truth. The Jews aren't believing chapter 10.

Why aren't Jews saved back in those days and these days? Because they don't believe. And how are they going to believe unless they hear the

Gospel? And of course, you know that chapter and those verses in chapter 10. It's related to the response that the

Jews should have and of course, all those other people as well. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised

Him from the dead, you will be saved. It's not a question about who's elect and who's not. It's a question, do you believe?

And how do they believe? In whom they haven't heard. Verse 14, The answer is we have to send preachers and missionaries.

Chapter 11, Paul says in verse 1, Has God rejected His people? Maybe there's no more elect

Jews. He says, by no means. God has had a plan.

And chapter 11 talks about the plan where He's going to have the Gentiles and they're going to be grafted in and Jews are going to be jealous and then

Jews are going to believe. I want you to know that every elect Jew will come to faith. And most commentators think there's going to be a lot of them.

Paul says in verse 33, Oh, the depths and the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. That's better than questioning

God earlier. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways. Here above me, who's known the mind of the

Lord? Who's been His counselor? Who's given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be glory forever. Amen. Guilt. We need righteousness.

Because we have none. Grace, God gives righteousness. And now that righteousness,

God works out in our life with works. And that's chapter 12 through 16.

What's the response to God's saving work? Gratitude. We do this out of gratitude. Not to keep our salvation.

Not to get our salvation. Works are evidence only. They're never the ground. Jesus is the one who saves.

And when He saves us, there's fruit. How should we respond to the grace of God?

Paul says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. That's probably chapters 1 through 11. The mercies of God.

Present your bodies. Forget the little works here or there. Let's start with bodies first. He wants you.

A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Negatively, don't be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by testing, you may discern what the will of God is. Good, acceptable, and perfect.

So the first thing that happens, we say, God, in response to that, by the Spirit's power, I'm all yours. You use me.

And I don't want to be conformed to the world. And here's one of the things the world says. Serve yourself.

Epicurean, hedonistic. It's all about you. That's different than chapter 12 verse 3.

And following. What do we do instead with our bodies presented to the Lord? And our minds captive by the word of God so we're not conformed to the world?

By the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought. By the way, that's the world's thinking.

But to think with sober judgment, that's the world's thinking. No. The world says, me, myself, and I.

And then he says, by the way, I'm giving you gifts. Verse 6. To serve other people.

It's not just that we get saved and we think, you know what? Instead of living for self now, I should live for others. God is so gracious and generous.

He says, I've saved you from living for yourself. And now I'm going to give you gifts so that you can more easily serve other people.

Verse 9. Let love be genuine. By the way, as I read verses 9 through 21, here's what

I say to myself with few exceptions. In Romans 8, it talked about how

God is conforming us to the image of His Son. Remember? Doesn't this remind you of the

Lord Jesus as I just show you what the marks of the true Christian are? Let love be genuine.

Does that sound like Jesus? Abhor what is evil. Does that sound like Jesus? Hold fast to what is good.

Does that sound like your Savior? Love one another with brotherly affections. Does that sound like the risen

Savior? Sounds like the Savior on earth even. Slothful? No.

Fervent in spirit? Yes. Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Constant in prayer.

It's like I'm just reading who Jesus is. And what do Christians do? We're empowered by the

Spirit to do the exact same thing. Well, what about this government that's in Rome though?

They're overpowering. They're ungodly. Paul says, one of the things I want you to do is be subject to them.

They don't have their own authority. Verse 1. It's from God. Authority is instituted by God.

And so make sure you think about authority properly. And when they call you to sin and when they do things they ought not to, you say,

I'm going to trust the Lord. But in general, verse 6, let's just cut to the chase. Pay taxes.

I got a letter from the IRS yesterday and I knew it wasn't going to be welcome back to Massachusetts.

I hope you had a good summer. Ever get a bill or something in the mail? Like, I don't want to open it.

I don't want to open it. I don't want to open it. And then I say to myself, stop being stupid. It is what it is. You're hoping not wanting to open it.

It isn't going to change the numbers on that thing. I open it up. There's been a miscalculation. Blah, blah, blah. And you owe $450.

I said, I shouldn't open it. Pay taxes to the government.

But what do they do with it? I mean, they're mutilating children. They're paying for abortions. They're this, they're that, and the other.

Pay your taxes. Verse 8, you love one another. You obey the commandments.

Jesus is coming back soon, verse 11. It's nearer to us now than when we first believed.

So put on the Lord Jesus, verse 14, and make no provision of the flesh. Well, what do

I do though, Paul, about preferences? We've got Jews and Gentiles in the same church. They've got a bunch of food laws.

What about sacrificing idols? Can we eat that meat that the

Gentiles have? There's all these differences. What do Christians do when we differ? Some of us think, well, it's proper if you smoke a cigar.

It's proper if you have a glass of wine. It's proper if you dress your kids up like bunny rabbits and go ask for candy at the door.

It's improper to do that. And the list goes on and on and on. There's homeschool, private school, public school. There's all these differences we have.

Here's the key, dear Christian, to preferences in Romans 14 and 15. The key to preferences is found in chapters 3, 4, and 5.

If you're justified in Christ Jesus and you can't be better or worse based on what you do or don't do, put in your mouth or don't put in your mouth, that should help us when it comes to Christian living and preferences and gray areas and being kind to one another because whether I do something or don't, my standing before God is true.

In other words, don't divorce chapters 3, 4, and 5 in the doctrine of justification by faith alone to preferences.

People that think they're going to be pleasing God, if I just do this, if I don't drink alcohol,

God's more pleased with me, don't understand justification. If I don't smoke cigarettes anymore and I'm not trying to get you to drink or smoke cigarettes at all,

I can just imagine the email that's coming. But it has to do with justification by faith alone.

And since we stand before God as righteous as Jesus is because we had no righteousness but we're given righteousness, then what we do, verse 14, chapter 1 says, as for the person who's weak in faith, they don't understand sola fide, justification by faith alone, shun him, make fun of him, put him in the dunk tank out in the parking lot.

Is that what it says? Although that might be fun. Let's put Makarowski up on the dunk tank and he's strong in the faith, but we want to see

John dunked. How's that? That's our sending off gift to you, by the way, John. I know you're moving to Arizona.

We can't dunk your wife. We're Baptists. What does it say? Welcome him.

Don't quarrel over opinions. Don't say, I'm going to invite those people to my house because I'm going to give that public school single mom a good lesson in the horrors of public school and I'm going to make them home school.

No, no, you welcome them. They have a season of life. Verse 12, each of us will give an account to himself, to God, not to other people.

Jesus is Lord, verse 9. He's the Lord of the dead and living. And so we need to bear with the failings of the weak, chapter 15, and not to please ourselves.

That's how we respond to sola fide. Paul has a lot of people to thank in chapter 16.

Many ladies. If memory serves me, 26 people he thanks. Unbelievably, he thanks eight ladies.

Not unbelievable in our society, but unbelievable back in that society where the men ruled. He says, some people don't teach the right things about this.

Verse 17, they don't talk about justification right. Avoid them. When it comes to federal vision, new perspectives on Paul, final judgment people, those are all three errors.

You just avoid those people. And then, what do you know?

Paul starts with the gospel and now there's a gospel bookend. He starts off with the gospel and he ends with the gospel.

Paul is talking about righteousness. We have none. We need perfect righteousness God has provided in Christ Jesus.

And we want to live out how righteousness flows to other people by the Spirit's power. And now he gives his doxology.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to the gospel. By the way, if you want to be strengthened to say no to anxiety and no to certain sins, it's not more law you need, although law will guide you.

It's about who Jesus is. And the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of his mystery that was kept secret for long ages but now has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings have been made known to all nations,

Jews and Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God. What a name! To bring about the obedience of faith.

That is believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ.

Amen. If you're a Christian, you had no righteousness and you needed to be perfectly righteous and Jesus provided that for you and you simply received it by faith and now you want to live a life commensurate to your calling to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

And if you're not a Christian, today would be a good day to bow your knee and to say

I have no righteousness. I don't have enough righteousness. God, if you could save a sinner like me, would you grant me saving faith?

The book of Romans is about righteousness and I'd like you to read it this week. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word. What a book! When I think of righteousness,

I think of Jesus. And I pray for this dear congregation. I'm sure we need to work through issues that are gray areas.

We need to work through how to love one another. Would you help us to do that very thing for which we're called in this day and age?