Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Okay, what book are we doing right now?
[00:00:06] Romans. That's right. And what kind of study are we doing in Romans?
[00:00:12] Yeah. Inductive. An inductive Bible study. That's right.
[00:00:16] What is an inductive Bible study?
[00:00:21] What does that mean? How do you do that?
[00:00:29] Anyone know?
[00:00:31] Yeah. Studying the Bible using the Bible. Studying the Bible using the Bible.
[00:00:36] Sometimes I like to say it's studying the Bible from the inside out.
[00:00:40] You start near with what you're reading, the immediate context, and you work your way out to greater and greater context because each word has a sentence. Each sentence a paragraph, a passage, a book, a testament, and a whole Bible surrounding it. All these things help us understand the meaning.
[00:01:00] That doesn't mean when you're reading practically you have to read the whole Bible every time you read a sentence. That's impractical. But the Bible as a whole does give us answers to help us interpret it. So the more we can know the whole Bible, the more we can understand the little parts. So hopefully we kind of are getting a decent demonstration of what that looks like. Inductive Bible studying is a great thing for you to do. Personally, this is a great method for personal Bible study.
[00:01:32] Just looking immediately around. It helps if, you know, you have Bibles that maybe give you cross references and notes and those sorts of things.
[00:01:41] But just by reading the Bible, we can start to connect these dots.
[00:01:44] So we're in Romans. And what verses did we cover last week?
[00:01:54] Does anyone remember?
[00:01:58] Yeah, that's right. Verses one through four of chapter one. So we've only just begun. Hopefully we get through more today. I think we will.
[00:02:06] Do you guys remember what did I say is really the main point of Romans? Like, what is Romans doing?
[00:02:15] Or what is Paul doing in Romans?
[00:02:26] Does anyone remember.
[00:02:28] How did you describe it? Yeah, yeah. It's like a summary of the gospel. So the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome.
[00:02:37] He almost certainly has not been to Rome yet. He's been trying to get there. He's been stopped.
[00:02:43] We will see some of that.
[00:02:45] He wants to get there and he wants them to know the gospel. And particularly he's going to show them how the gospel applies both to Jews and to Gentiles, something that the whole Christian world was struggling through in the first century of the church.
[00:03:01] So that's.
[00:03:03] That's what he's doing. We're kind of picking up in the middle of this greeting in verse five, and hopefully we'll get through that next section as well, through verse 15.
[00:03:13] But I want to start with a question.
[00:03:18] What is your Job.
[00:03:21] Who has a job?
[00:03:25] Anyone have a job? Yeah.
[00:03:28] You go to school? I like that answer.
[00:03:31] You also feed the dogs. I like that. Yeah.
[00:03:36] You mow your neighbor's yard? And yours?
[00:03:40] Yes. Yeah.
[00:03:42] Selling 12 count nuggets. You sell 12 count nuggets? Yeah, yeah.
[00:03:48] Mowing as well. Okay.
[00:03:51] Yeah, yeah. Those are all jobs.
[00:03:56] I like that. Because what I'm thinking of when I think of job is not necessarily something where you have a W2 or a 1099 and you pay taxes because you get an income.
[00:04:09] Those are boring numbers. You can just ignore them.
[00:04:14] I'm not necessarily speaking of that. I have in mind a job like Ken has in Barbie, a movie I think is quite good. Barbie.
[00:04:27] And Ken's job. What's his job?
[00:04:30] You know, in the movie and probably, I guess in like the world, the Barbie world. Do you know it?
[00:04:36] His job is like to just like hang out. How does he say it? What's it called? Beach. Beach. His job is beach. You know, that's his job.
[00:04:46] You know, sometimes in light of this, to explain to my 2 year old, oh, my job is church. She knows what church is. Or sometimes my job is talking. We say that sometimes we can kind of distill what our jobs are in various ways.
[00:05:05] I think in the verses I'm hoping to get through, we kind of see that there is a job for Christians to have and it really should be our job. It doesn't mean we're not going to have other things like mowing or selling chicken nuggets, but it is a job in that it's a vocation. You guys know what a vocation is?
[00:05:26] It means a calling. It's a calling.
[00:05:30] So it includes jobs. But it has more of a purpose and a direction to it. So let's resume. I'm going to start with verse one because we just started it last week. And I'll read through verse seven and we'll stop there and then we'll go on to the next passage after that. So just to remind us where we've been, this is from 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 in 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 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 and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus christ.
[00:06:36] So verse five is where we're going to begin. We first see him say, through whom we have received grace.
[00:06:44] Okay, so who's the whom? Who is the whom?
[00:06:48] Might be the right way to say it.
[00:06:51] We know this. Easy answer.
[00:06:55] Say it louder. Christ. Yeah, that's right. Christ, Jesus christ, through whom we have received grace. Now, what sort of grace is Paul talking about here?
[00:07:05] You might remember from our systematic study, there were a couple kinds of grace we talked about which were saving grace and common grace. Common grace is grace that we observe in creation to all people, you know, even having good health, to the arts, to the world around us. All of those are common graces. Saving grace is that which saves. So which grace is Paul talking about here?
[00:07:37] Saving grace. That's right, Lincoln. Yeah, saving grace. And that is unpacked in this book, this saving grace that Christ provides that we can be saved through whom we remember. He is speaking to Christians, a church, so he can say we have received this saving grace. He is speaking to people that weren't in a church. He would say we would expect him to be talking about common grace, but he's speaking to believers, so we understand. He's talking about saving grace, a grace that they in particular have received.
[00:08:11] What else have they received?
[00:08:12] Apostleship, he says in verse five.
[00:08:16] Now, this can be a little confusing.
[00:08:19] Apostleship.
[00:08:20] You know, sometimes it's referring to a title, the title of apostle.
[00:08:25] Sometimes it's referring to kind of like a missionary, someone that is sent a wooden translation, might be an anointed one from the Greek, we translate it as apostle. So I think he's actually referring to his own apostleship mostly, but also to the ministry of all the apostles.
[00:08:45] And I think he's talking not just about some generic, hey, we're all sent as like little a apostles. I think he's talking more about the apostleship of him, Peter, James, John and so forth.
[00:08:58] He's.
[00:09:00] I think we kind of see it in the next phrase where he says to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.
[00:09:10] And this is the focus of Paul's apostolic ministry. So as an apostle, one that has seen the resurrected Christ and been commissioned by him to serve, this is what Paul does. He wants them to have a faith that obeys God and brings the gospel to all nations. That is a central theme in all of Paul's Writings in the New Testament have a faith that obeys God and brings the gospel to all nations. That's what Paul is doing. He wants to bring the gospel to all nations. You know, whereas for good reason, Peter and others stayed in Israel, even in Jerusalem to minister. Paul is going to the Gentiles to say, this gospel is also for you guys. And that is why he's writing to Rome, a largely gentile city city.
[00:10:00] So this faith that obeys God and brings the gospel to all nations, does this characterize your life?
[00:10:10] Would somebody think of you as a Christian and they think this is. Yeah, that is something that this person pursues, at least in some measure.
[00:10:20] How can you think about this? How can you pursue a faith that obeys?
[00:10:26] How can you take the gospel to the nations?
[00:10:31] You know, the obvious answer are sometimes people become missionaries. That may not be you. It's definitely not you. Now you're in high school, so you're not going to become a full time missionary in China.
[00:10:44] But there are still ways that we can work and support this. So I'm encouraging you to write something down.
[00:10:52] How can you have this sort of faith that Paul is talking about that works, that acts? You know, we just talked about this with the church.
[00:11:01] Pastor Ryan preached through the last part of James 2.
[00:11:05] A faith without works is dead. How can we have a living faith? So we can see here that Paul and James are agreeing with one another that there needs to be life to our faith. And that includes not just obedience, but includes gospel proclamation.
[00:11:21] So I encourage you to write that down and think of how you can pursue that even this week.
[00:11:29] Then we get to verse 6 where he says, including you who are called to belong to Jesus christ.
[00:11:39] What is the purpose of this phrase?
[00:11:41] I need to read the sentence because we take a lot of pauses, so it's easy to kind of lose our way.
[00:11:47] Including you who are called to belong to Jesus christ.
[00:11:50] What is the purpose of this?
[00:12:02] Anyone know?
[00:12:10] So he's saying, including you, the. You are the Roman Christians, right?
[00:12:16] What is he including them in?
[00:12:30] Yeah, I think you're right, David. Yeah, he's including them. They have also received grace. So we have received grace, including you. And also this brings about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations, including you. So they are both receivers of this grace. They're answers because they are examples of this.
[00:12:55] The obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations. The fact that Romans are Christians, some of these Romans are Christians, means that Paul's mission is, is working itself out and now that they have been converted by this grace, they've received this grace, they now are a part of pushing it further.
[00:13:14] This is what we see in Christianity. You are both the result of gospel proclamation. If you're a believer, and once you are, you are now a gospel proclaimer.
[00:13:24] So what has helped you to become a Christian, you now do to others. It is this continual cycle that is the Christian faith.
[00:13:34] And then verse seven, this is how he's saying to. This is to whom he writes, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his saints. So again, he rephrases what he just said. Roman Christians, you are loved by God. And if you are loved by God, then you are called to be a saint.
[00:13:54] Does anybody know what a saint is?
[00:14:05] How do we typically use the word saint?
[00:14:08] Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I think that's a really good answer. That's usually how we think of it. You know, I have said many times about my grandmother that died several years ago, she was a saint because she was particularly holy and loving and kind in a lot of ways. And we kind of use it like that. Roman Catholics use it in a different way. More of an official title. But the word it comes from is actually the word holy. It's the plural form of holy. So it means holy ones.
[00:14:49] And so if we are holy, well, that's what we're being called to be. We're called to be holy, a holy one. You must be holy. And it doesn't mean there is a specific moment where you attain sainthood as a believer. If you're in Christ, we believe that he has gifted you his holiness and you are seen as holy in God's eyes already. And so you want to bring your actions into accord with how God already sees you and be holy.
[00:15:17] It says grace to you and peace from God, our Father and Lord Jesus christ. Grace that saves peace, that assures, comes from the Father and the Son.
[00:15:27] Now, interestingly, do you guys know if you remember our lessons on the Trinity? I'm trying to connect a lot of those lessons from a long time ago.
[00:15:34] Who else comes from the Father and the Son?
[00:15:38] The Holy Spirit. That's right. So grace and peace, they come from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit delivers that grace that renews our hearts, and he assures us of our faith with the peace of God. And so how is this grace and peace delivered to us? It is through this Holy Spirit that is given to people when they believe in the Lord Jesus christ.
[00:15:59] Okay, we definitely have time. So now we're going to the next section, starting in verse 8.
[00:16:06] Let's just read through these verses. So we just got this greeting.
[00:16:09] This is from Paul. It is to the Romans. This is going to be a summary of the gospel. And now these are some introductory remarks. He says, first, I thank my God through Jesus christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
[00:16:40] For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.
[00:16:45] That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
[00:16:51] I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
[00:17:03] I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
[00:17:11] So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
[00:17:15] So back up to verse eight. He says, first, I thank my God through Jesus christ for all of you. Who's all of you?
[00:17:24] The Roman Christians. That's right. And why is Paul so thankful? Does he tell us, That's right.
[00:17:38] Your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Now, did the Roman Church proclaim the gospel to all the world? That's not what he's saying. What is he saying? He's saying that news of their faith has reached Christians from all over.
[00:17:55] All over the world as he knows it.
[00:17:59] They are an encouragement to others.
[00:18:01] You guys maybe might recall that Paul has similar sentiments about the Thessalonians and first Thessalonians, that their faith is making an impact beyond them. Other people are hearing of their faith and being encouraged either, you know, it's hard to tell, either because their faith is so strong in the midst of persecution or something or just because, wow, people there believe.
[00:18:26] You could think of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem thinking, wow, there are Christians all the way in Rome.
[00:18:33] You know, that is amazing.
[00:18:36] I sometimes think, wow, there are Christians literally in every like, nation state that I know of. You know, there are people groups all throughout that maybe don't have. That definitely don't have the gospel. But there are believers all over the world in all sorts of circumstances. And that is an encouragement. It's an encouragement that the gospel, it has to be True, there are these people all over believing it in all sorts of circumstances. And this is what the Roman faith is doing for Paul and other Christians.
[00:19:10] So I want to ask you just to reflect and maybe share an answer.
[00:19:18] Who has faith that encourages you?
[00:19:21] Is there anyone that you know personally or even if you don't know personally, you just look up to as a faith that encourages you? Does anybody want to share that?
[00:19:30] Yeah, your dad. That's great.
[00:19:34] Uh huh, yeah, my dad also. Yeah, that's great.
[00:19:44] Yeah, good. You know, even if you're not answering, I hope you're thinking of somebody you know. And I hope one day, you know, my kids would say me, but who are you thinking of?
[00:19:56] Do you ever thank God for that person and his or her faith?
[00:20:03] Again, I just want to encourage you to write that down as an application to thank the Lord that that person is in your life or you at least know of that person in their faith and that it's an encouragement to you just to be able to know that and pray that you would have faith like him or like her.
[00:20:25] And then continuing in verse nine, he says, for God is my witness.
[00:20:31] So this is like him saying, I promise God can testify to what I'm saying. This is a thing. People are encouraged by your faith.
[00:20:43] And then he describes God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son.
[00:20:52] So later in the letter, Paul calls this service. So he says, I serve with my spirit. He calls this the reasonable service of someone who believes in the gospel. We'll see that I don't know when in Romans 12:1, you know, the reasonable service, the reasonable acceptable worship of a Christian is to worship and serve the Lord in spirit.
[00:21:20] And so he serves with his Spirit in the gospel that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayer. So this is what he's saying. God can testify that I never stop praying for you, praying about you, pointing to you in prayer, thanking God for you.
[00:21:41] So again, you know, I encourage you to think about that person, maybe even think about praying for someone. Maybe there's been someone on your heart lately. Even if it's not related to this context of thanking someone for their faith, maybe there's just someone, you know, that you think, I need to pray for him, I need to pray for her. Write that down too and pray for that person.
[00:22:07] You know, we should always be mentioning the people we love in our prayers, just as Paul is doing here.
[00:22:15] Then verse 10, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
[00:22:24] So what does this tell us about Paul and the Romans? We've mentioned it already.
[00:22:29] What does it tell us?
[00:22:32] He has not. That's right. He has not been able to see them. He has not been there.
[00:22:37] But he has been constantly trying to go to Rome.
[00:22:42] Constantly.
[00:22:44] I too, would love to go to Rome and have been unable to go. So maybe I can relate a little bit, but a bit. Little, Little different.
[00:22:51] But that kind of makes me think, maybe you think this as well. How can Paul love a church so much without ever being there?
[00:23:04] How can he love a church so much without being there?
[00:23:21] Does anybody have an idea? Yeah. Because they share the same faith. Because they share the same faith. Yeah.
[00:23:28] So what does this tell us about their faith, about the gospel?
[00:23:33] It tells us that it is something. It tells us a lot of things. One thing is that it binds us together.
[00:23:40] There's a oneness in God's people. That's why we can call it his people, the church.
[00:23:48] We are a people, a community.
[00:23:51] We are not, as you know, I grew up thinking and kind of is maybe our default setting, that I am saved. You know, I wouldn't think in these terms, but I'm saved. Me, it's my faith, and then I'm saved. I don't save anybody else with me. And that's true.
[00:24:06] That's not the whole picture. We are saved to his people. We are saved to be in the church, to worship God with the church.
[00:24:15] So it's not an individualistic thing. We are brought into this community that spans ages, millennia, and all over the globe.
[00:24:26] It is a community thing. It binds us together with people we have never met and will never meet. We couldn't meet because they've lived in the past or the future or on the other side of the world. And yet it binds us together.
[00:24:40] I can read of historic Christians, I can read a biography and feel unity and have a sense of something in common with someone that lived hundreds of years ago because we have the same faith in the exact same beliefs. That is wonderful. And that's something we can celebrate too. Just as a side point, a lot of times Protestants even, especially Baptists, we don't appreciate history enough.
[00:25:08] And eventually someone tells you, you have no history. The history is Catholic Church only. And that's not true. It's just not true. We have history. We have the gospel in common with the church throughout all the ages. And so history is important for that reason.
[00:25:26] That's a little bit of a soapbox. Verse 11 For I long to see you. So he hasn't been there I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. What does the word impart mean?
[00:25:40] You guys know what that word means? Is that used very much?
[00:25:48] What's like a near synonym for impart?
[00:25:53] Yeah, Come. I'm sorry, Come. Not quite. Not quite. Deepart might be like go, or I see where you're going. Give. Give. I think that's a good one.
[00:26:06] Yeah, we can go with it's like giving.
[00:26:11] So what does it mean by some spiritual gift?
[00:26:14] You know, that is a little confusing. We might understandably think of the spiritual gifts like teaching, discernment, prophecy, so on. Right, we might think of those, but based on the context, I think this would seem kind of out of left field. Why is he talking about these spiritual gifts, teaching, discernment, faith, all that stuff?
[00:26:40] I think what Paul is saying is that he has a gift for them. Not like a present in a box, one of a spiritual nature, a spiritual gift to give them. And it is not only his presence and teaching, which would be a gift to have an apostle come and to teach and preach. It is also a disclosure of the gospel itself.
[00:27:02] The gift he wants to bring in person is the message that's contained in Romans.
[00:27:09] He wants to unfold the gospel for them, to make it clear and plain to them that they.
[00:27:14] All their questions would be answered, any doubts would be settled. He wants to deliver the gospel to them.
[00:27:21] So again, the letter to the Romans is what Paul offers.
[00:27:25] This is the gift because he's been unable to come. So I'll just write it down and send it to you. That's what he's saying. That's the spiritual gift he's imparting to them.
[00:27:38] Numbers 12. That is.
[00:27:40] So this is maybe kind of a purpose. So that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
[00:27:53] So how does this phrase help confirm what I just said about the spiritual gift being the message in the letter?
[00:28:03] It's a little bit of a weird question. I think what he's saying here is that since this gift he wants to deliver them is the gospel message itself in the book, what encourages them mutually together, both their faith and his faith, is the fact that they all believe this message.
[00:28:30] I think he's confident that they're going to read this letter and wholeheartedly agree with it.
[00:28:36] He might help them understand things a little bit better, but they're not going to disagree.
[00:28:41] And I think that in itself is remarkable. They've never met. This is before. You know, everyone has their own bound copy of God's Word. I don't even believe all of the books in the New Testament had been written when this letter had been written. And yet he's going to go there eventually they're going to talk about the letter and they're going to be wholeheartedly in agreement with it.
[00:29:05] I think that is remarkable. That's encouraging.
[00:29:09] The faith that they have is the same.
[00:29:11] It's mutual. It's encouraging. The faith is the same.
[00:29:18] And so for them to be mutually encouraged, I think is a great comfort for us. We can be mutually encouraged with other Christians when we see that we believe the same things.
[00:29:30] We believe the same things with people throughout time, all over the world. And I think that gives us better confirmation and affirmation that we believe the truth.
[00:29:42] And then continuing on in verse 13, he says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers.
[00:29:48] So who are the brothers?
[00:29:51] Yes, the fellow believers in Christ. That's right, the fellow believers in Christ. I think in this case, you know, this is like a generic folks. Hey, everybody. Brothers and sisters. Sometimes your Bibles might translate, you know, Greek was a gendered language. So it says, brothers, he's speaking to the family of God. I think that's the first time we encounter that in the book.
[00:30:15] He says, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. So again, Paul's affirming that he's had every intention to come.
[00:30:24] Now do we know why or how he's been prevented?
[00:30:28] We don't. You know, it could be the enemy preventing him from going, or it could be the Lord.
[00:30:34] You know, the Lord might be preventing him. For example, Acts 16:6 says they, this is talking about Paul and his companions.
[00:30:43] They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So God has his purposes. We don't know why Paul's been prevented, but he has been, and he has intended to come to them in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
[00:31:04] Now, what does the phrase in order that mean? What does that indicate? You'll see that phrase in the New Testament a lot. In order that.
[00:31:12] What is happening with those words?
[00:31:23] Yes, purpose. Yes. It's saying whatever I just said. Here's the purpose of that. So in order that it's simple, but just know, you see those words. This is going to explain the purpose of what I just read. So in Order that, you know he's intended to come in order that he would reap harvest among them.
[00:31:45] What do you think it means to reap some harvest?
[00:31:49] Do we have any farmers?
[00:31:53] Anyone? You don't have to be a farmer. You can know what this means in other ways.
[00:32:11] That might be included in it.
[00:32:15] To reap a harvest would be to take in the fruit, to gather and collect what has been produced.
[00:32:24] And so there would be a harvest from sharing the gospel. So I think you're close to it.
[00:32:32] So I don't think it means converts to Christ because he's writing to a church. So he's not expecting to go there and then reap all of these conversions from the church.
[00:32:43] It must mean that he would be spiritually benefited or they would be spiritually benefited by hearing his teaching.
[00:32:50] They would reap the harvest.
[00:32:52] There would be fruit from them. Hearing his teaching of the gospel and being with him.
[00:32:58] Now, why would the Gentiles be especially benefited?
[00:33:02] Because he says that, right? He says as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
[00:33:08] Well, Romans helps us understand that in the place of the Gentiles. Much more later, so we won't spend time on that now. But he has a heart to help the Gentiles reap the harvest of the gospel in their lives.
[00:33:21] Continuing, he says in verse 14, I am under no obligation or I'm sorry, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians. Why Greeks and barbarians?
[00:33:32] Does anybody know why he chooses these groups? What do we know about Greeks?
[00:33:37] Well, they have dances. Seth told us a little bit ago. But what else?
[00:33:42] They are educated.
[00:33:43] They're known to be wise, philosophers, a smart people, civilized. What about barbarians?
[00:33:55] They win a bunch of wars. Okay. Yeah, they win a bunch of wars.
[00:34:00] Maybe I think he's emphasizing some other part about them.
[00:34:04] Huh?
[00:34:06] Yeah.
[00:34:08] Are you saying an answer? No. Okay.
[00:34:13] Oh, sorry, I didn't see your hand. Yeah, yeah. They're not organized. They're not civilized.
[00:34:20] They're not educated, at least by Greek terms. Probably really not educated very much at all.
[00:34:27] This is not to say Greeks are worth more than barbarians. In fact, Paul's kind of saying the opposite. He's saying these people are opposite Greeks and barbarians. The civilized were going to philosophize on the marble stairs. And the guys with, like, clubs and swords that are just going to kill you, you know, those are very different peoples. Yet he is called to preach to them. Both the same.
[00:34:50] That's what he's saying here.
[00:34:52] He's obligated to them.
[00:34:54] And in what way is he obligated to them. Christ has called Paul specifically to the Gentiles, so he must preach the gospel to all the nations, civilized and uncivilized.
[00:35:07] He says both to the wise and to the foolish as well. This phrase kind of helps us interpret what he means. At first it's kind of saying the same thing but with different words.
[00:35:17] Sometimes in Scripture and other literature, you'll kind of see two phrases with different words, but it's like the same structure and format. The Greeks and the barbarians, the wise and the foolish, it kind of mirrors itself. And that's how authors will show. They'll kind of explain the less clear with the more clear right next to each other to give us a more full idea. So that's what he's doing. He's just clarifying the meaning. He's coming to wise, foolish, civilized, uncivilized, because he's been called to preach the gospel to everybody.
[00:35:51] And then verse 15.
[00:35:53] So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
[00:35:58] So again, what's the main point of Romans?
[00:36:02] What's it doing?
[00:36:06] Equipping churches with the gospel? Yeah, it's equipping churches with the gospel. It's summarizing the gospel. It is the white hot core of justification through faith alone and an eternal union with Christ. That is the subject of Romans.
[00:36:22] Now, I'm not here to make you question if you're a believer or not, but I want you to think, do you really know the gospel?
[00:36:30] Could you meet with me or someone else individually and tell me what the gospel is and what it means for you? Could you put it into words?
[00:36:38] Just because you can't put it into words, I don't think necessarily means you don't believe it. But we want to be able to put it into words. We want to practice that so we can tell others.
[00:36:48] If you can't, I would encourage you to come to some adult you trust and ask for help.
[00:36:54] Help to kind of think of how we can put the gospel words. No one will cast you out for struggling in this way. In fact, many of I trust even the adults we have in the room have probably struggled with this at some point in their life.
[00:37:08] Do you long to be encouraged by others belief in the gospel? Do you long to believe in the gospel?
[00:37:15] Do you want to share it with others?
[00:37:17] This is the Christian's job.
[00:37:21] gospel proclamation.
[00:37:23] That is our duty, our work. That's our job.
[00:37:26] We need to figure out how that job fits in with our lives. But it must fit in in some way. So that's my encouragement for you to think about this week. Next week we'll pick up with a very famous verse. Romans 1:16.
[00:37:38] Let's pray.
[00:37:40] Father, thank you for your word and the gospel that saves both wise and foolish, civilized, uncivilized, you know, people that appear to be righteous and people that are the worst, the chief of sinners. Lord, we thank you that wherever we are in this matrix, we can be saved by your grace. Lord, we pray that you would help all of us recognize, if we haven't already, the gravity of our sin and help us, if we haven't already, to believe in your son, Jesus christ, for salvation. We pray this in his name. Amen.
