A Walk Through the Bible With Bro. Bill Parker

1. Praise Chapel Puget Sound A Walk Through the BibleWith Bro. Bill Parker New Testament Lesson 5 The Book of Romans

2. A Walk Through the Bible Outline of Romans The epistle to the Romans is a cornerstone in the Scriptures. Sometimes called the Gospel according to Paul, it is the most comprehensive book in the New Testament. If you are going to study the New Testament, you must diligently address this book.

3. A Walk Through the Bible • Romans was written at the close of Paul's third missionary journey during the three months he was in Greece in either the late winter or the early spring of A.D. 57 or 58 This was just before he returned to Jerusalem with the offering from the Macedonian churches.

4. A Walk Through the Bible • The historical impact of Romans is probably unequaled by any other book. The Church thrived on the great truths of God's grace until grace began to erode into forms of legal­ism, plunging the world into the Dark Ages from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries.

5. A Walk Through the Bible The Great Reformation brought grace back into the picture. "By grace are we saved through faith." The Epistle to the Romans really altered the whole course of the world.

6. A Walk Through the Bible The book of Romans has a very international outlook. Paul was a Roman citizen. Since he was educated in Tarsus, he had a Greek cultural background and was well versed in the Greek philosophers. He was also a "Hebrew of the Hebrews,"

7. A Walk Through the Bible taught by Gamaliel himself, who was among the most venerated of the rabbis. Paul was bright, learned, and intellec­tual, yet he was also very sensitive. He knew how to reach people; he tailored his message to his audience.

8. A Walk Through the Bible This book will delight the greatest logician; it will hold the attention of the wisest of men; yet it will bring the humblest soul gently to the feet of the Savior. Romans emphasizes that a God small enough for our mind is not large enough for our need.

9. A Walk Through the Bible The name Paul means "the least; the little one." He, of all writers, really understood the grace of God. He acknowledged that he himself was the chief of sinners, and yet he was the most devoutly religious man who ever lived.

10. A Walk Through the Bible But if he was the most religious man who ever lived, and yet could also call himself the chief of sinners, that's really good news for you and me. God has already saved one far worse than us, by Paul's own testimony in the Scriptures.

11. A Walk Through the Bible Romans wasn't written to the world, but to believers. It wasn't written to the church at Rome, but rather to the individuals, to the believers, who were in Rome. This letter does not preach to the unsaved; the unsaved are never called "God's beloved," a term reserved for God's own children. Romans is intended to teach the saints. What are saints? I prefer Donald Grey Barnhouse's definition:

12. A Walk Through the Bible Saints are a group of displaced persons, uprooted from their natural home, and on their way to an extraterrestrial destination, not of this planet, neither in its roots or in its ideals. That describes us. If you feel a little estranged sometimes, rejoice in that. When you pick up the newspaper and see all of the nonsense and evil in the world, you can take comfort that we are just passing through.

13. A Walk Through the Bible The first section, chapters 1-8, is doctrinal, a masterpiece on the doctrine of faith. The first three chapters are the most complete diagnosis of sin in the Bible. They speak of three basic types of people: the Pagan Man, who has never heard the Gospel;

14. A Walk Through the Bible the Moral Man, who strives to live a good life; and the Religious Man, who keeps all the rules and regulations. All three stand con­demned because their righteousness is not adequate to avoid offending a perfect and holy God.

15. A Walk Through the Bible • The second section, chapters 9-11, deals with God's greatest predicament: How can God love us and save us without violating His own nature? Without violating His justice? Without impugning His own holiness?

16. A Walk Through the Bible God has a problem but He found a way to solve it by giving us the greatest gift conceiv­able-His Son. These chapters can also be called dispensational because they focus on Israel's past, present and future. We are interested in Israel, not because we are Jewish, but because even as Gentiles we are heirs through them.

17. A Walk Through the Bible • The third and last section, chapters 12-16, explains sanctification, the peace of God. We are not only delivered from the penalty of sin in the past tense, we can be delivered from sin in the present sense. • The three sections can be summarized as "Faith, Hope, and Love," or Doctrinal, Dispensational, and Practical.

18. A Walk Through the Bible The word "Gospel" is not a code of ethics or morals. It's not a creed to be accepted. It's not a system of religion to be adhered to. It's not good advice to follow. So what is the Gospel? It is a message concerning a Divine Person. A friend suggested to me the word GRACE could be an acronym to summarize Romans: "God's Righteousness At Christ's Expense."

19. A Walk Through the Bible God's grace is what Romans is really all about, and, specifically, God's predicament. Romans presents the most complete and penetrating statement of God's divine plan for redemption. Christ did not come to make bad men good, but to give dead men life!

20. A Walk Through the Bible • An illus­tration of that is the case of the Prodigal Son.' When the son came home, his father did not say, "My son has become good." Rather, he said, "My son was dead and is alive again! He was lost and now is found!" The point of the Prodigal Son is that, despite his misdeed, he never lost his sonship.

21. A Walk Through the Bible • Paul's entire commitment can be summarized, • 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.

22. A Walk Through the Bible The power of God unto what? Unto salvation-not unto reformation, education, progress, development, nor for the "fanning of some innate flame."

23. A Walk Through the Bible A TRILOGY AROUND A KEY VERSE • As we have reviewed in OT Lesson 12, the Epistle to the Romans is part of a trilogy on a key verse from the prophet Habakkuk, "The just shall live by faith." • • Who are the just? The answer to that question is the very focus of the Epistle to the Romans.

24. A Walk Through the Bible • How shall they live? The Epistle to the Galatians is the definitive guide." • The just shall live by what? By faith. The Epistle to the Hebrews focuses on faith in unparalleled terms." • These three epistles, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, are a trilogy on Habakkuk's declaration: The just shall live by faith.

25. A Walk Through the Bible What is the greatest possible thought? Daniel Webster's provocative declaration: "Our responsibility to our Maker." To meet this ultimate challenge of life, we have to know some­thing about God. What is He like? What is His personality? What does He require?

26. A Walk Through the Bible • Doctrine, the telling forth of Truth, helps us know what God is like. The first eight chap­ters of Romans emphasize doctrine. • The first part of this section deals with the judgment of pagan humanity.

27. A Walk Through the Bible They are judged for suppressing God's truth, for ignoring God's revelation, and for perverting God's glory. What about those primitive savages who have never heard the Gospel? Romans, chap­ter 1, nails it directly:

28. A Walk Through the Bible • 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 are with­out excuse:

29. A Walk Through the Bible • 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. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

30. A Walk Through the Bible • You can't deny God; just look at the night sky. Examine the DNA. No one has an excuse to deny God exists. It takes willful ignorance to deny the Creator. • And what was the result of their denying their Creator? Abandonment to a depraved lifestyle:

31. A Walk Through the Bible • 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: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

32. A Walk Through the Bible • As a matter of history, all the great cultures for the last six thousand years can be meas­ured in their decay by the rise in homosexuality and all of the depravity that accompanies it. • 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.

33. A Walk Through the Bible Paul then takes up the Moral Man, and the Religious Man. All fall short of the require­ments of a perfect and holy God. These passages are the great leveler: All men are equally accountable and all fall short of God's requirement.

34. A Walk Through the Bible This leads to God's greatest problem: How does He justify unrighteous man without violating His nature, His holiness, and His justice? Even Socrates could not imagine a way God could forgive and not compromise His own nature:

35. A Walk Through the Bible • It may be that the deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how. -Socrates, writing to Plato in 500 B.C. • But the dilemma was solved by God giving His greatest gift, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.

36. A Walk Through the Bible Chapter 5 starts with the path to maturity, and the first step is through tribulation. Troubles are God's way of helping us grow, because from tribulation comes perseverance, and through perseverance, we get experience. And you know what the climax of all of this is? Hope! The depth of our hope is the measure of our spiritual maturity.

37. A Walk Through the Bible • There are three tenses of being saved: • Past tense. You have been saved from the penalty of sin. Positionally you are saved from sin. That is technically called justification: You've been saved in the sense that the penalty of your past sins has been removed.

38. A Walk Through the Bible • Present tense. You are also being saved from the power of sin. That is present tense and con­tinuing. That is sometimes called sanctification. • Future tense. You also shall be saved from the presence of sin. That's called the redemption of our bodies.

39. A Walk Through the Bible • Paul contrasts the two Adams." Here are some characteristics of the first Adam, the one that we all know from Genesis. • By one man's offense many died. • By one (Adam), judgment and condemnation. • By one man's offense, death reigned.

40. A Walk Through the Bible • By one man's offense, condemnation came to all men. • By the disobedience of one, many were made sinners. • Sin reigned in death.

41. A Walk Through the Bible • The last Adam (Jesus Christ) has other characteristics. • By one Man's free gift, righteousness came to many. • Through one Man, believers reign in life.

42. A Walk Through the Bible • The righteousness of One brings justification to all. • The obedience of One causes many to be declared righteous. • Grace reigns-eternal life.

43. A Walk Through the Bible • Why did God introduce the Law? The answer may surprise you! • Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.

44. A Walk Through the Bible The Law was given that sin might abound? Realize what the Scripture is telling us. There is a perversion in us that the Law highlights. The Law was given so that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded grace did much more abound. That is good news because the Law eliminates any way for man to rationalize away his sin nature.

45. A Walk Through the Bible • Not only did grace abound to forgive us from the penalty of sin; sin no longer has domin­ion over us. • Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof

46. A Walk Through the Bible That imperative is a present imperfect: In other words, Do not let sin continue to reign in your life. Will you stumble from time to time? Certainly. But you have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in you, and sin does not have to continue to reign in your life. How do you do that? By your insisting that what God says is true. It's a matter of faith and applying it.

47. A Walk Through the Bible • Now, the dominion of sin is your choice. You never had a choice before; you were a slave to sin. But if you have accepted Jesus Christ-if you are a believe-then the Holy Spirit reigns in you, or can reign in you if you give Him a chance. It's now your choice.

48. A Walk Through the Bible And committing your life to Christ is just step one. It is a beginning, much like launch­ing a ship; you are on a whole new adventure. How do you keep sin from ruining your life? By choosing moment-by-moment to follow, not your feelings or impulses, but the Spirit's leading. They are faith choices. God will subsequently align your feelings to your choices.

49. A Walk Through the Bible • From the Book of Genesis on, revelation always follows obedience. God gives you some truth and sees what you can do with it. If you act on it, He'll give you some more. That's the pattern. We may say, "Seeing is believing." But the opposite is the actual truth: • "Believing is seeing."

50. A Walk Through the Bible • Paul then explains more about why the Law was given. The Law was given to expose our sin nature; to incite the sin nature to sin more; to drive us to despair of self-effort. You don't have a chance if you think you can clean yourself up before you come to the Lord. You come to the Lord first, then He will clean up your life. A fisherman cleans the fish after the fish are caught.