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Bro. Otis Fisher
Last week we had made it through the first six verses of the first chapter of Romans. Who can tell me what baptism means?
Don't everybody jump up. Greg, tell me what does baptism mean?
All right. All right.
Being placed in two. Who remembers the long version?
Russell, do you? All right.
That's the meaning behind it. Come now to verse 7.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He's addressing this to Rome, but it could be to any hometown, even ours.
The little words to be should not be in there. It should read to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints.
All of God's people are called by the Lord. There's no other way that you can enter the kingdom of God.
So they're called saints. The word grace, grace to you and peace.
Grace is always first. When it's listed, it always comes first.
Why is that, Greg? That's right.
The grace of God makes it possible for you to have the peace of God.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Notice it is through Jesus Christ. I've asked you to do research work on just what is
Jesus? Why do we have him? Why was he created? Why is
Jesus Christ? Your faith is spoken of beyond your homeland.
Now, to that part of the world, when they say the whole world, they mean basically the
Roman Empire. We should live in such a way that our faith is spoken of outside of this church.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing,
I make mention of you always in my prayers. God is my witness.
Now, to call as a witness is not the same as to swear by.
Precaution to not swear. Matthew 5 .34,
But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is
God's throne. James 5 .12, Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, lest you fall into condemnation.
Greg, we're not supposed to hedge. He says let your yes be yes and your no, no.
That means there are no gray areas. How much we like to claim it is one thing.
God is my martos, one who is spectator of anything.
My spirit, sunamah, that part of me that makes it possible to be saved.
Your spirit, which makes you different than the animals, makes it possible for you to be saved.
Now the spirit is in every man, even the seed of Satan. Greg, why is the spirit in every man?
Yes. All right, all right.
Verge doesn't mean that everybody has equal chance to be saved.
Then I ask you again, why is the spirit in the unsaved? That's right.
To make us different than the animals, although there are some that act like animals.
In Ecclesiastes 12, we find, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it. In the garden, Adam was made.
Later, Eve was made of Adam. But they had a body, a soul, and a spirit.
Soul, spirit, body, soul, and spirit. Now, before sin, they were all three parts one.
They communed with God. But you remember that God, the
Lord, told Adam that in the day that you eat of the fruit, you shall die.
Now, Greg, they didn't die physically. So what happened? They were separated.
The spirit's still there, but they were separated. Now, when we are saved and the spirit is activated, we get a new life.
We don't take the old life and wed it to the spirit, but it's a new life.
And it's wedded, fastened, welded, however you want to say it, to the spirit that is in you.
Now, in Ecclesiastes 12 .7, we find that the spirit goes back to God when you die.
That's out of every human being. It goes back to God. Now, if you have the new life that's attached to the spirit, it goes home also.
If you do not have the new life, you're separated from him even in death.
Are there any questions about how sin came into the world and where it was?
Paul wants to teach them the word of God. When a teacher does not want to teach the word, he ceases to be a teacher and becomes a clergyman.
This is one that has no business trying to be a minister of the word. No one has any business in this field of teaching or preaching if they do not love to teach the word.
Establish. Sterizo. It means to make stable, to place firmly, set fast, to fix, to strengthen, make firm, to render constant, confirm in one's mind.
Establish. Romans 12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
What? Well, freedom.
Yes. There were some spiritual gifts that Paul could impart to these people that they didn't have.
The apostles were different than we. They lived in a time span at the beginning of the church.
The church had no history, so it was necessary that the apostles had these gifts.
So he said, I long to come to you that I may place on you some of these gifts.
Romans 12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Virge, what does mutual mean? All right.
Bill, what does mutual mean? That's right.
So it's the same faith in different places. Mutual faith, both of you and me.
While we are ministering to others, we minister to ourselves.
Romans 13. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oft times
I purposed to come to you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other
Gentiles. Now, I would not have you ignorant.
Clarence, what does ignorance mean? That's right.
We're all ignorant about certain things. Doesn't mean that you're not smart. It just means that you're ignorant on that one fact.
That I may have, that I might have fruit among you also, even as other
Gentiles. Let. He uses the word let hitherto.
Let's an old English, and it means to hinder. If I let you, if I let you go out of this room, what would that mean,
Greg? I would let you go out.
No, it means hinder. I would hinder you from going out.
It's just opposite of what we, but in the Bible, let usually means to hinder.
To prevent. To deny someone. Fruit, we know what fruit is, spiritual growth.
Fourteen, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
Now, he is in debt to the Greeks and the barbarians. That doesn't sound very good.
What does he mean, barbarian, Greg? All right.
Did I see David come in? Tell us what barbarian means.
All right. All right. To the Greek and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
Both of those means those of you that know and those that don't. Russell, Paul had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ after he had returned to heaven, which put him in debt to all other people.
Russell, how was it that Paul had this encounter with Jesus Christ after he had returned to heaven?
That's it. He had an encounter with Christ, both for his salvation and later for his teaching.
That which God has given me, I am to use for the betterment of others is what he meant by being in debt to others and thereby bettering myself.
The teacher always learns the most. Fifteen.
So as much as is in me, so as much as in me is, hard for me to read that,
I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. David, what does not ashamed mean?
That's right, he has no fear. Absolutely no fear about teaching the gospel.
Believeth the carnal mind, and Clarence, what do
I mean by carnal? Worldly mind could not believe and would not even if it could, but it can't.
So our belief had to be changed because we were worldly.
Jesse, there was a time that you were strictly worldly. I can say that not knowing you or when, but then there come a time when you changed.
Now, where is it in the Bible that we can read the scripture that says our belief has changed?
Alright, Diane, read it. Yes, if you will please.
That's the one I wanted. Yes, it was given on behalf of who?
Christ. On behalf of Christ. Because what Christ did. I'm anxious to get to that.
That's right. Yes. Yes. In Romans 8 -7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
For it is not subject to the laws of God, neither indeed can it be. So, Greg, that means
I can't go out here and get somebody and get them saved. No. In Romans 8 -8, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. Then we go to Philippians 1 -29.
It was given to us to believe, but also to suffer. You know, we overlooked the last part of that.
It was given to me to suffer with the belief. 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Well, let's start with righteousness.
Bill, can you give me a good definition of the word? Yes. Alright, that's very good.
David, is it an act of God or man? God. This is an act of God which removes all the guilt of sin and bestows a righteous relationship on the individual.
This act is performed by God and God alone on all of his elect at the time of his notification to that person of his salvation.
The reason righteousness is so important is that man doesn't have any.
Very simple. God says you must be as righteous as myself or you can't come live with me.
Man has forever tried to manufacture this righteousness.
That's why we see so many people trying to be good. I'm living a righteous life.
There is not a little bit of good in all people as the liberals would have you believe and if we just give you a chance, you'll be good.
Out of faith into faith. Not from faith to works nor works to faith.
From faith to faith. God used faith to bring us salvation. We live by faith and we die in faith.
Now, so we don't misunderstand. For therein is righteousness of God revealed.
That is, it's made seen from faith to faith.
From faith to faith. From the faith of God to the faith of man.
For man had no faith. I had a man get unhappy with me in class once.
Because I said that faith is Christ. It is of Christ, it's not of you.
And he couldn't see that and he finally quit coming. Romans 118.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.
Who hold or suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.
What does he mean his wrath is revealed? Well, wrath is of God.
This is present tense which means right now. It is of God. You could go out throughout the whole world and you would see the results of the wrath.
Unrighteousness of man. This is against man. It is the denial of the rule of God.
The person that disobeys God's law habitually.
Now the word habitually is taken from the Greek word and we get what? Another meaning from the word habitually.
What? No, no.
Breathing. Is that what you said? Habit comes from another word.
This is like breathing. Now, Greg do you have to stop and think
I must take a breath? No. Just comes natural. The state of unrighteousness of man is a natural state of man before God.
The natural state of man. Yes. Yes, yes.
Yes it does. For the wrath of God is revealed. It is revealed.
We live in a cursed world. As beautiful as we think some things are. They're not compared to what they were or will be.
And unrighteousness of men who hold or hold down the truth of unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it to them.
That that may be known of God. But there are some things that everybody knows of God.
The eastern world that is worshipping God. Whether it be
Buddha or Mohammedism or Islamic or whatever. They're worshipping
God. And they're convinced that they're right. They're not right.
God has showed it to them. No one has the excuse of ignorance as to the existence of God.
No one. Everybody worships something. This is a holdover of Adam.
Man is inherently worshipping something. All people have always known that there was a
God. Man has always worshipped something. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they have no excuse.
Invisible things. Now, just suppose that you come into this room for the very first time.
You've never been here. You come up and you come into this room. You're the only person on the earth.
How is it, Virge, that you know somebody's been here before you?
Right. So, just looking at the world, we know there must be somebody.
The invisible things. God is invisible or he is spirit.
It must be worshipped in spirit and truth. But we know he is because of the things that are.
We know that God exists. I care less what the evolutionists say that we just accidentally, a carbon atom collided with something and it grew and something else and we come up out of the sea and made our way, finally learned to talk and stand direct because that when they knew
God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
They became vain to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of.
They did not proclaim him to the people but shut him up in their ministries and gave the people in exchange a corruptible
God, an image made like corruptible man. In today's world, we have false gods in money, sports, entertainment, whatever you want.
Vain means void of all power and force and truth.
We're bombarded with sports and entertainment so much that I fear even we are practicing some.
But we say, no, we're holy, we won't do that. Then when we do it, we think, well, it's all right, everybody else is doing it.
Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. What is wise or wisdom?
Dennis, what is the word wise, all right?
Virge, what is wisdom? All right, that's all true but take it out of the
Bible and you're in an English class and someone says, what is the definition for the word wise or wisdom?
All right, that's good. All right, that's good.
Bill, what is wisdom? All right.
All right. Yes. Could we say this?
Wise, forming the best plans, using the best means for their execution.
Now, you may be wise within yourself because I'm forming the best plan.
Fools, their darkened minds seek for God nowhere except in the places where he never is.
You're a fool to seek for God in those places. And change the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like corruptible man and to birds and four -footed beasts and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanliness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between, and I think themselves is there.
Well, I must have been late at night. Themselves, yes. God gave them the right to do evil.
Is that right, Greg? That's right. But then he died on the cross.
Now, listen. For the assurance of their going to hell.
You didn't know the cross was for the lost also. But it was.
God gave them the right to do evil, then died on the cross for assurance of their going to hell forever.
Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever?
Amen. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections.
For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
Anytime you want to look for the truth, look at nature. You won't find homosexuality, lesbians in nature.
27. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another.
Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat or which was the normal outcome.
Homosexuality. It doesn't exist in nature. Genesis 4, 26.
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son and he called his name
Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. This wasn't just an overnight thing.
This gradually came, but the Christians were associating together and the seed of the devil were associating together.
Men to become worshippers of the devil right here. And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, not fit for man or beast.
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornications, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperings.
They were filled with this. Being filled they were.
Filled is a perfect participle. The perfect tense speaks of a past completed action having present results.
Those who had disapproved of holding
God in their knowledge were completely filled with a consequence that they remained in the full condition.
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do.
You cannot be angry and learn of God. You cannot partake of any of those things and learn of God.
You cannot witness and hate someone at the same moment. If you blame others for your mistakes, you have to blame them for the credit.
You have to credit them for your success. They murdered.
They took pleasure in murdering. They planned how to do it.
And there was a time several years ago that I thought surely man will learn to not do those things.
But man's doing more and more. Now, children, children are murdering.
Is there any word from anybody? Any questions?
Good. Next week I'll give you a test over the first chapter. Let's stand and Greg dismisses, please.