that let's go ahead and pray and then we'll look at this introduction of the letter to Romans. Father, thank you again for this time. Lord, we just ask your blessing upon us. Thank you that we can come and worship you, Father, in our singing and worship you in our giving. Lord, worship you in our preaching and our teaching. Lord, thank you this morning for the discussion that we've had in Sunday school. What a joy and what a delight to hear people's hearts. Father, we just ask now that you would accompany this introduction. We pray that you would guide us. We pray that you would lead us. We pray, Father, that you would open this letter to us in amazing ways, Lord, that we would see your glory in it. We just ask this in your name. Amen. So I would encourage you all to read through Romans, or start to read through Romans. I was gonna ask all of us to stand as we read all 16 chapters today, but I didn't think that would be too good. But I would encourage you guys to read Romans, and I would encourage you guys to read Romans in a way of no chapter breaks. Because when Paul wrote the letter, Paul didn't write in chapter breaks. And so his thought process doesn't stop at the chapters. So I would encourage you to read through Romans, because the more you read through it, the more knowledge we gain, the more things we see, the more beautiful Christ becomes. And so with the letter to the Romans, it was written a little bit later in Paul's ministry. One of the first letters he wrote. There's some conversions from the book of Romans that I thought was interesting. St. Augustine was reading through Romans and saw his sinfulness. Martin Luther in the same way was reading through Romans and the Lord used this letter to draw them to him. John Wesley, to name three of them. John Bunyan was in Romans and reading in Romans when he was going through the Pilgrim's Progress. So I know some of you are going through the Pilgrim's Progress now and some of us have already gone through that. So the Book of Romans, it quotes the Old Testament 57 times. Some key words in the Book of Romans is the word God is used 154 times, the word law is used 77 times, Christ is 66 times, sin is 45 times, Lord is 44 times, and faith is 40 times. Now these can differ depending on what translation that you're reading in. So John Calvin writes this about the Book of Romans. He says, when anyone gains knowledge of this epistle, he has an entrance open to him to all the hidden treasures of scripture. Romans is essentially a mini Bible. We can draw all kinds of things out of Romans. Martin Luther said this in Romans, he said, it's the chief part of the New Testament, and the very purest gospel. And then Frederick Godot said in Romans, is the cathedral of Christian faith. In the book of Romans, we see Paul's doctrine, we see Paul's theology, is what we will see within this. The author, of course, is Paul. Paul was formerly known as Saul. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. We read this in Philippians 3, 4, and 5 where he says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, and as to the law, he was a Pharisee. Paul knew his Old Testament. And as a matter of fact, when Paul was on his missionary journeys and any of the teachings that the apostles used, they would use the Old Testament. They would use the Torah. Paul was born in Tarsus, Acts 9, 11. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight. At the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying. He was a persecutor of the church. In Acts 9, 1, but Saul, still breathing threats, murders against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. In Galatians 1, 13, and 14, if we remember back then, he says, for you've heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own. Age among my people so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my father This was who Paul was he was Saul He was one who persecuted the church and then he has this experience on the road to Damascus and Jesus saves him and what does he end up becoming but he becomes a minister of the Gentiles This is who he is sent to And in Galatians 1.15 he writes, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Paul wanted to visit Rome before he went to Spain. This was his missionary journey that he was headed to Spain. In Romans 15.24, Paul writes in there, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain. He was headed to Jerusalem first with a gift offering. In Romans 15, 25, and 26, he says, at present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contributions for the poor among the saints of Jerusalem. So he was still heading on his journey to where he was going. But where Paul was when he wrote this letter is he was in Corinth at the time. He was actually kind of taking a little bit of a break from his missionary journeys and he had kind of settled in Corinth for a little bit. And this is where he was writing it from and we see that in Romans 16.1 where he says, I commend to you our sisters Phoebe, a servant of the church of Centria. And Centria was the eastern harbor of Corinth, is where he was. And according to the data furnished in the Book of Acts and the letter, it's believed that the Romans was written somewhere between 56 to 58 AD. That's where Paul was. So, that's kind of a little bit about the author, but we know a lot about Paul already because we've studied Paul. And we've seen his journey. So what about the purpose of the letter? What's the purpose of the letter? Why did Paul write the letter? Because when we go through the letter, Paul's not correcting a lot of stuff. Like in Corinth, he's doing a lot of correcting, right? The Corinthians, they were confused, and they were corrupt, and he had to do a lot of correction, right? Where we see a guy is sleeping with his father's wife. You know, we don't see that in Romans. And we see how the gifts were being abused in Corinth, and Paul is correcting them. But in Romans, we don't see a lot of correction. We don't see a lot, so what's the purpose of the book? So there's three thoughts that are out there. The first thought is it's a summary of Paul's theological beliefs, which we can see clearly as you go through this, you can see what his theologically beliefs are. Some believe it was a speech Paul was going to deliver in Jerusalem. Others believe that Romans is a letter of Paul's doctrinal statement. What do you believe doctrinally? What we should believe doctrinally. So if we look at this, think about some of the doctrines that we see in Romans. I've hoped that most of you have read through Romans already in your normal reading. But think about the doctrines we see in Romans. We see the doctrine of sin in Romans. In Romans 3.23, he says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Romans 6.23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He deals with sin in passages from 1.18 to 3.23, he deals with sin. We see in Romans 6 where we're to now use our instruments for righteousness. We are to not let sin reign in our moral bodies. We are to let sin have no more dominion over us because of who we are in Christ Jesus. So sin, we will talk about sin. But not only sin, but we'll talk about substitutionary atonement. Christ's death for us. In Romans 3, 25 and 26, it says, whom God put forward as a propitiation, this satisfaction, this appeasement by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. His substitutionary atonement is seen throughout Romans of what Christ has done. We even see in chapter four where his death is brought forward so that we would have peace with God, that we wouldn't be at enmity with God anymore. We will clearly see in here justification by faith. In Romans 3, 24, it says, and are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is where he starts in with the justification by faith, and he carries that through the rest of three, all of four, and partly in the five. This is why I'm telling you that you have to read this according to Paul's thoughts, not according to the chapter breaks. will deal with sanctification. Now, sanctification simply is our holiness, right? Our working out, our pursuing holiness. In Romans 6, 18 and 19, he says, "'have become slaves of righteousness.'" This is our sanctification. "'I'm speaking in human terms "'because of your natural limitations. "'For just as you once presented your members "'as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, "'leading to more lawlessness, "'so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, "'leading to sanctification.'" This holiness, this holy life, right? Peter tells us that we are to be holy because God is holy. And we read that all the way through Leviticus when he's talking about the law. We read, be holy because God is holy. We also will see the doctrine of adoption. Adoption is a beautiful thing. Right, when you go to an orphanage, you don't adopt them all, but we see where we set our affections on one child, and that's who we adopt. And we see the same thing with God, that God has set his affections on his children, and he brings them into his family. He adopts us into his family. In Romans 8, 15, it says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. We have this new relationship with God that we will explore, where we get to call God Daddy, essentially, this intimate term that we have with him now, this Abba, Father. We will see the highly debatable doctrine of election. is clear in Romans, and Romans 9, 15, it's actually a bigger section, but I just pulled out these two verses. It says, he says to Moses, I have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. We will see that Paul in this letter writes to us and to the Romans believers who are in Christ what Christ has done for us. and what our response is to what Christ has done for us. If you want a bigger division within the book of Romans, we look at Romans chapter one through chapter 11, and you can see everything that Christ has done for us, and who we are in Christ, and what he has freed us from. And then 12 through 15 is going to tell us how we are to live in light of what Christ has done for us. If you want a bigger break, chapter 12 one starts with therefore. Well, what's the therefore therefore? Well, it's therefore because we want to go back to see what's it therefore. So Paul argues, and he says, therefore, this is how we are to live. That's Romans 12, when I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. In addition, with Paul, we see in here that Paul, early on, wanted to visit the Roman church. He wanted to visit them. In Romans 1.13, he says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you. And he wanted to come to them to bring this doctrine, to bring these things, that we see these doctrines. But not only that, he wanted to bring them encouragement. We should find encouragement in this letter. And encouragement, he says in Romans 1 12, that is, that I may be mutually encouraged by each other, faith both yours and mine. He wanted to be encouraged and he wanted to encourage. He wanted them to strive for prayer for him. In Romans 15 30 he says, I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. And in Romans 15 32, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. The essence of Paul's letter to the Romans is that there is good news and it is truly good news. This is what we see in the letter. We see about the author, Paul, and we see these doctrines that he is going to teach within Romans. That's the purpose of this, this encouragement. He wanted to do evangelistic work. He wanted to preach the gospel to them. So now purposes or themes can be brought in. There's some other themes. Now there's been some themes that people say that justification by faith is the theme of Romans. It's there. Me personally, I don't think it's the theme of Romans. I think it's there and we'll deal with that. But I think the book of Romans is all about the gospel. So I was challenged by one in our little congregation here. to go deeper into the gospel, because we get the simpleness of the gospel, right? Jesus died for sin. He was buried, and three days later, he rose from the grave according to Scripture. That's what 1 Corinthians 15 tells us, the simpleness of the gospel. But the gospel is very deep. It's got deep, deep roots, and we see that in Romans. And so this is why I'm going into Romans, so that we can see a deepness of the gospel, of that good news. That is what I think the theme is. And I see where this was Paul's heart in the book of Romans. His heart was to the gospel. In Romans 1.15, he says, so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you. In Romans 15.16, he says, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God. He writes in regards to the gospel of his thing, he says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the gospel is the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith that is written, the righteous shall live by faith. In Romans 1, 1 and 2, Paul declares himself as this. He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through the prophets and the holy scriptures. In 1, 9, he says, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. Romans 1, 15 and 16, so I'm eager to preach to you the gospel to you. Or, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Romans 15, 16. To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel, and again in 15, 19. By the power and signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all the way around Elytrium, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. So we see the gospel is within the book of Romans. This is the overarching theme, I think, of Romans is the gospel. As Martin Luther said, it's the purest gospel. We will see in Romans a progression, right? We see where Paul has an introduction, then he comes and he talks about the gospel. And then when verse 18 of Romans 118 hits, he talks about sin. It doesn't matter if you're good or if you're bad or if you're religious or what you think, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But then he brings in that substitutionary atonement where we have justified, where we are now justified in him. He's going to bring bad news, brothers and sisters. And when we get into this, there's gonna be weeks of bad news. I'm just gonna share that with you now. We're gonna have a few weeks where we just deal with sin, period. Because that's what Paul deals with. And we have sanctification. And then we have this adoption. We get to good news. We get to this election, we get to this grafting in, and then we get to how we are to live with one another. It's a beautiful book, and it's all centered around the gospel. It's a deeper probe into the gospel. So what about Paul's audience? What was the Roman church made up of. Well in Acts 2 we know that there was Jewish people that heard the gospel and were from Rome and so we know that they probably went to Rome and they started churches. But there was Gentile believers that were in Rome in Romans 15, 15, and 16. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given to me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. And there was Jewish believers in 16, three and four. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, these were Jewish believers. My fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who rest their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches that Gentiles give thanks as well. In Romans 16, 17, greet Androconus and Junia, my kinsmen. In 16, 11, greet my kinsmen, Herodian. So we know that Roman church was filled with, had both Jew and Gentile alike, but what most scholars believe is that it was more to the point of Gentile believers, is what we see. Now, we know from Acts later chapters, Paul never got to Spain. He never got out of Rome because this is where he died, right? This is where he gave his testimonies to the Caesars, to Agrippa. But while he was in Rome, he was under arrest, right? And most likely while he was in Rome, he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. So brothers and sisters, this is kind of an overview of what Romans is going to bring us. So next week, what we'll get into is we'll get into the first seven verses of Romans. And we will see the gospel brought forth right away in these seven verses. Listen to them. It says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures. concerning his son who was 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 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you, peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. May you and I see the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ as we unpack and dive deeper into the gospel of Jesus as we journey through the book of Romans. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, thank you again for just this little time Lord. I just pray that this week that all of us would Would read this letter. I just pray Lord that we would just read your word and That we would be enamored by your word Lord. I pray that during this time weak you would grow us you would challenge us you would comfort us and you would just give us a greater desire for your son and to see him that we would be waiting for that glorious appearing of your son in your name amen please let's stand as we sing our