AMAZING Overview of The Book of Romans in 90 Minutes!

So, guys, we've got a lot to cover today. We've got a lot to cover, so I'm not going to waste your time. We're going to jump right in with a word of prayer. You guys know how I do this on these live streams. I teach primarily from slides, and I do that because it's been proven that you will remember more than just listening. You'll remember more, 50% more, by what you see and what you hear. So that's one of the reasons why I use the slides. I also like to make it fun, make the stories come to life for you by using images and graphics and all sorts of things to keep your attention. So let's go ahead and pray and let's jump in.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this amazing book, the Book of Romans. We thank you, God, that in it, we learn about what you've done for us, our salvation, and all the things that we have in Christ. So God, I pray for everyone who may be joining us all around the world, as well as anyone who may be watching this on the replay later. God, I pray, Lord, that you would just encourage them today, God, and remind them of who you are and what they have in Christ. I pray that you'd fill me with your Spirit so that we can get through this book and we can learn its amazing truths. It's in your Son Jesus' name we pray and give thanks. Amen.

All right, now if you're watching this on the replay later, just know that below this video, there will be timestamps so you can skip ahead to the parts of the video that you would like. I hope that you would watch the entire thing all the way through, but if you're just in a hurry and you want to catch a chapter here, a chapter there, I don't know why you'd want to do that, but if so, timestamps are in the description below this video.

Okay, guys, let's jump in. All right, I'm going to go ahead and go over to my slides now, and we're going to jump in. All right, we're going to learn today an overview of the Book of Romans. Now, I said maybe 60 minutes, maybe 70. I'm going to try to get through it as quickly as I possibly can, as quickly as I possibly can, but I want to do due diligence to this book, and you're going to see why today.

All right, so, uh, we're going to go ahead and jump in. We're going to do an overview of the Book of Romans. So let's start with a little bit of background information. As I'm sure you know, the author of the Book of Romans is none other than the Apostle Paul. He identifies himself as the author in this book. We believe that he wrote this book somewhere around 57 to 58 A.D.

Now, where did Paul write this book? He wrote this book from the city of Corinth. You may be familiar with Corinth, but in the Book of Acts, we see that Paul spent about 18 months in a city called Corinth. He probably should have spent a lot more time there because that city was crazy, right? And so he stayed in Corinth, and while he was there, we believe that he wrote the book of, uh, the Book of, uh, Romans.

Okay, and how do we know that? Well, when you look at a couple of scriptures in Romans, for instance, Romans 16:23, which says, "Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you." So these are members of the Corinthian church. These are people in the city of Corinth. So if Paul is saying, "Hey, these people want to greet you, Roman Christians," then it seems likely that that is where he is when he's writing this letter. And so we see that he's writing this from the city of Corinth.

Now, uh, let's talk a little bit about the recipients because this is important to understand. Paul is writing this letter to the church located in the city of Rome. Now, what do we know about the church located in the city of Rome? Well, first and foremost, they were much different than some of the other churches that Paul wrote to. For instance, the church in Galatia, where they were being deceived by false teachers, and Paul had to come in and correct them. The church in Corinth was very, very worldly and out of control, and because of that, Paul had to go in and fix them. But the church in Rome was a little bit more spiritually mature. They were a little bit further down the road in terms of their understanding of doctrine. So Paul didn't necessarily write the Book of Romans to correct any sort of wrong theology, but to rather expand on what the gospel was. And you can see this because in Romans chapter 1, verse 8, it says, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because what your faith is proclaimed in all the world." And then in Romans 16:19, towards the end of the book, this is another thing that the church of Rome was known for: "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you." So this church was known for their understanding of God, their faith, and their obedience. They were a more mature church, and this is the church that Paul is writing to.

Now, let's jump in. If you don't have your Bibles open, you need to have your Bibles open because we're going to be looking at many scriptures in the Book of Romans today. All right, let's jump in.

So, first and foremost, Paul's desire to visit. This is all background information, okay? We're still in the background. He expresses his desire to visit. So understand, Paul did not found this, uh, he did not plant the church at Rome. He always had a desire to want to go there, but he had never been there before. So he says here, "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." So it's clear here that Paul had never actually been to the church at Rome, but it was his sincere desire one day to go and be encouraged by the city of Rome, the church at Rome.

Now, this book that we're getting ready to unpack is literally filled with some of the most important theological concepts that every Christian needs to understand, which is why this book is so amazing, and it is a book that needs to be studied by all. Here are just a few of some of the main theological key points in the Book of Romans: You have this idea of the depravity of man, that man is not able to save himself, that we are thoroughly depraved. You have this idea of justification, the fact that God declared us righteous even though we do not live a righteous life. You have this idea of sanctification, the process by which God makes us look more like Christ. The idea of glorification, that one day we are going to receive a new glorified body and be in heaven with Christ. You have this idea of Him, God has the sovereignty to be able to choose some and to not choose others. We'll get to that. And then the idea of soteriology, which is just a fancy word for the study of our salvation, redemption, the fact that God purchased us back from the slave market of sin. You and I were enslaved to sin, and God, through Christ Jesus, went and purchased us back. And then you have this idea of propitiation, which is the idea that He covered our sins. So all of this is the theological concepts that many Christians don't want to study because it's not that it's not as exciting, but it is just as important.

Okay, so those are all of those things. Now, the overall theme of Romans. We haven't even gotten to chapter one yet. This is just background. The overall theme of Romans can be found in Romans 1:16 and 17. And it says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." Let's just stop right there. Are you ashamed of the gospel? Whenever you share the gospel with people, do you do it with boldness and with gladness and with courage, or are you kind of shrinking back because you're ashamed? Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." And then he says why. He says, "Because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." He said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because I know the power that is contained in the gospel. It has the power to save." And then he says this, and this phrase is what Martin Luther, the reformer, not Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist, but Martin Luther, the reformer, this is the phrase that he just got stumped up on so much, and we're going to read a quote from him in just a moment. But in it, "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" My friends, that is the key to the entire Book of Romans. If you want to understand the Book of Romans, it's right there. It's the idea that you and I, in and of ourselves, are not righteous, but when we are saved, we are clothed with the righteousness that only God can give us.

Now, speaking of this concept of the righteousness of God, this is what Martin Luther, who was largely, um, responsible for the Protestant Reformation, the breaking away from the Catholic Church, he says this: "As a monk, I led an irreproachable life. Nevertheless, I felt that I was a sinner before God. My conscience was restless." Do you see this? He's saying, "I led as near a perfect life as I possibly could because I had to live up to the standards of the Catholic Church, but even when I tried to live a perfect life, my conscience was restless because I always felt guilty before a holy God." And he couldn't understand this idea of righteousness. And so he writes and says this: "I began to understand that the righteousness of God is a gift of God, by which a righteous man lives, namely faith." And that sentence, "the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel," is passive, meaning it's not something you have to do to get it. It's passive. It's something that you receive, is what he's saying. And then it goes on and he says this, "indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" And notice his words: "Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered paradise." Martin Luther says, "Man, it was like I had a Damascus Road experience. The scales fell off my eyes. I don't have to work in order to be accepted by God. I am righteous because of what God has said to me and about me." So this freed him up and ultimately led him to break away from the Catholic Church and start the Protestant Reformation.

Okay, so now let's keep going. Now, and let me give you a suggested outline to the Book of Romans because we've got 16 chapters to cover. Here we go. We're going to break this book up into five sections. Section number one, we're going to call this the need for salvation, and that's going to be Romans 1 through Romans 3:20. The second part is going to be the provision for salvation. That's going to be Romans 3:21 to Romans 4:25. And then the third section is going to be the result of salvation, what happens as a result of our salvation, right? So that's the third section. And then the fourth section, the scope of salvation, who can be saved, right? Who can be saved? And so that's the fourth section. And then finally, the fifth section, the practice of salvation. And much like many of Paul's letters, you have these first 11 chapters, which is the beliefs, and then chapters 12 through 16, it's the behavior, right? It's creed and then conduct. It's doctrine and then duty. It's beliefs followed by behavior. So this is the pattern that we see in the Book of Romans.

So let's jump right into the first section, the need for salvation. So Paul starts off and he says, basically, chapter one can be summarized in this sentence: "You Gentiles are sinful, and God's wrath is coming for you." Now, let's read a little bit about this. We're going to pull certain verses out of every chapter to help you understand this absolutely amazing book. It says here, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Do you see what he's saying? He's saying Gentiles suppress, they push down, they hold down what they ultimately know in their heart to actually be true. And this is the reason why God is so angry and His wrath is abiding on the Gentiles. He says, "Why? For what can be known about God is plain to them." Right? This is called general revelation. It's the revelation that God gives to every human being. He reveals himself in creation and in nature. He says it's so evident that I exist because God has what shown it to them. And so he goes on and he says some other things about creation and so on and so forth. So basically, God is saying this: "You look up into the stars and you see the moon, you see the sun, you see the clouds, you see nature, you see trees, you see animals, you see all these things. How can you actively suppress the truth and deny the the true God, right? How can you actually see how beautiful my creation is, things that only a God would be able to create, and yet you continue to suppress that?" He goes on and he says, "That's not the only reason why my wrath is going to be abiding upon you, but it's also because you have idolatry in your life." He says, "Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." God says, "Am I not supposed to be angry, right? Am I not supposed to be angry when you worship something that looks like this rather than worshiping me, the God who created you, the God who gave you life, the God who gave you, uh, everything that you have? I'm angry because you are worshiping things that you created by your own hands instead of worshiping me." But that's not all. God says, "I'm angry with you and my wrath abides on you because of your immorality." He says here, "For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations," thank you for the super chat, "for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another." Paul says, God says, "Do you think I'm not supposed to be angry when I see this? When I see two women coming together as the way that a man and a woman should? Should I not be angry when I see two men coming together when in a way that a man and a woman should only be coming together?" He says, "I'm angry, and my wrath is abiding on you." But not only that, he says, "Another reason, Gentiles, where I'm coming for you is because you're not only guilty of sin, you're encouraging other people to also engage in sin." It says, "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Be careful, my friends, if you're struggling with sin in your life, be careful that you are not encouraging or approving the sin in other people's lives, and you're being a stumbling block for other people. And for all of these reasons, God is angry, and His wrath is being revealed against those who are gentile.

Now, I can imagine that Paul is anticipating that the Jews are sitting back and saying, "Hahaha, Gentiles! God's going to get you! His wrath is abiding upon you! You guys are going to be in trouble!" Kind of like the older brother or the older sister, "Hey, you know, like, hey, Mommy and Daddy are mad at you." Oh, but wait a second. Paul says, "Before you Jews point the finger at the Gentiles, hold up, wait a minute, because you are just as guilty, if not more guilty, or even if not guiltier, than the Gentiles."

So now we move on to chapter two, and Paul is going to now come back and say, "Jews, you all are guiltier than the Gentiles." And let me explain why. He says, "Therefore you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you actually condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." Notice he says, "But if you call yourself a Jew, and you, what?" Here, notice the several things here. This is how you do Bible study. You break it down into bits and pieces. Number one, you rely on the law. Okay, so you know the law. You know the Gentiles don't know what to do. They don't have the Old Testament law. They don't have the Ten Commandments. They don't know anything about my plan and my purposes and my righteousness. You all do. Moses gave it to you, and you read it and recite it every day. So you rely on the law. You boast in God. You know His will for your life, and you agree that that will is right because you approve of what is excellent, and you are instructed on the regular basis from the law. You have teachers who are teaching you these things, teaching you the law. And it goes on to say in the next verse, it says, "You are a light to those who are in darkness. You are also an instructor of the foolish. You're now teaching other people. You're teaching children, having in the law the embodiment, embodiment of knowledge and truth. You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?" So Paul is basically saying, "Hey, you all are guiltier than the Gentiles because you all knew better. You have all of these amazing benefits and blessings, and you know better, and yet you still do it." And notice, because of this reason, notice what it says at the end of this verse: "For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Let me just stop right there. Is the name of Christianity being blasphemed? Is God being blasphemed because of the conduct and behavior of Christians around the world today? Isn't that a sad commentary that we, out of all people, ought to know better in terms of how to obey God and what He, excuse me, what He requires of us, and yet our lifestyle, our living, our behavior, our conduct, is not consistent with who we say we worship? And because of that, God's name is being blasphemed around the world. And so that's why he says that is a shame.

Now, let's keep going. So basically, he says, "Hey, I'm judging you all, Gentiles and Jews." So essentially, now let's move into chapter three. Okay? In chapter three, but Paul basically comes out and says this: "Here's my final verdict." Chapter one, I went after the Gentiles. Y'all know y'all cray-cray, you're crazy, you're doing all these things, homosexual, all this stuff. But the Jews, I already condemned you all as well because you are guilty. So my final verdict is: everybody's guilty. Everybody is guilty, and everybody needs salvation.

So Paul then says, "What then are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, as the Gentiles, are under sin. As it is written, 'None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands; no one seeks for God.' Nobody. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one." So do you see what Paul is saying? He's saying all of us are depraved. All of us are without hope. All of us are sinful. All of us deserve death, right? That's what he's saying.

So let's keep going. So the question that this section starts to leave off, it leaves off with this question of, "Is there any hope?" If I'm a Jew and I'm guilty, and if I'm a Gentile, I'm guilty, is there any hope for me? Is there any hope that God will look at me one day and approve me and accept me? And then you have these two amazing words: "But now." But now. You see this in verse 21. You see, even though you may feel like you don't have hope and you are sinful, but now Paul introduces this concept that he's going to weave throughout the entire Book of Romans, this concept that's repeated again and again called the righteousness of God. It says here, "But now the righteousness of God has been revealed or manifested apart from the law." See, he's getting ready to explain to you that you don't get this type of righteousness by obeying the law. It's the righteousness that God clothes you with through Jesus Christ. "Although the law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness that you and I are supposed to be able to live, you can't get that righteousness by trying to obey the law. It has to come from God." I.e., righteousness of God.

So now let's move on into the second section of the book because we've got a lot of work to do. The first section of the book was expressing man's need for salvation. We need it. We're in bad shape. We're depraved. But now, the second section, we're going to talk about is the provision for salvation. What has God done in order to achieve salvation for us? How can we actually attain this salvation? Whoa, and this is when the book of Romans gets absolutely amazing. It's absolutely amazing how Paul created and put together this argument that he's getting ready to, to hit us with, okay? So check this out. The concept in Romans chapter 4 is this: You must have the faith of Abraham in order to be saved. If you want to be saved, you need to have the same faith that Abraham had. Now, what is that faith? Okay, we'll talk about that in a moment, but here is the, the overarching principle in Romans 4: Obedience to the law was never the way to get to God. Faith is and always will be the way. Let me repeat that: Obeying the law was never the way to get to God, just simply doing things and and checking off a list and having a bunch of do's and don'ts and checking off every single 613 laws in the Old Testament. He said that's never been the way to get to God. It's always been faith, and he's getting ready to prove it to us now.

Now, let's just flash back for a second here because we're getting ready to introduce a biblical character that you probably are very familiar with. His name is Abraham. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, and let's just explore a little bit about Abraham. It says here that God brought him outside and said, "Look to heaven, and can you count the stars?" He says, "If you can count all the stars, that's going to be how many offspring you will have." And Abraham believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness. Now, pay attention and stay with me here because this is very, very important. Abraham and Sarah were not able to have children. So God takes Abraham out, says, "Abram," at the time, God takes him outside and says, "I want you to look up at the stars. Can you count them all?" Abram clearly said, "No, I can't." Right? But he says, "If you could, that's how many offspring you are going to have." Now, obviously, Abram had a choice here. Do I believe that this is true, in spite of the fact that Sarah and I have been trying to have, uh, Sarah and I have been trying to have children? Or am I just going to say, "No, that's not true"? Abram took God at His word and believed Him by faith that He was going to have these children. And because of that, before the Old Testament law had ever been given, Moses, remember, this is Genesis 15. The law did not come on the scene until Moses got the Ten Commandments in Exodus 32, and that was way later. There was no law for, for, uh, Abraham to follow. So the fact that God credited to his account righteousness, which is Paul getting ready to say this here back to Romans now.

Let's get back to Romans. "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited or counted to him as righteousness.'" Paul is basically saying that God considered Abraham a righteous man before the law had ever been established, which is the proof that Paul is getting ready to use in this chapter to prove that the way to get to God was never by obeying the law. It was always by exercising faith in what God had revealed, faith in the word of God.

Now let's keep going. "And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." He says, "Hey, it's not about trying to work, work, work." Some of you watching this right now, that's where you're at. You're on the hamster wheel. You're trying so hard to work. You believe that the more you can do, the more you'll impress God, and you can somehow merit God's favor and God's, uh, grace and God's acceptance and the blessings of God. Paul says, "It doesn't work like that. If it's not about working to get something, it's about having faith." Okay, so let's keep going.

So now Paul anticipates that the Jews are going to assume that they're in good shape because, after all, they're God's chosen people. So we are good. You must be talking to the Gentiles, Paul, because I'm a Jew, and I've been circumcised, and we all know from the Old Testament that circumcision is the sign that God has a covenant with His chosen people. If you are circumcised, you're done. You're it. You are in. That you're in there. So Jews believed that the outward circumcision was a sign of their covenant to God and what sealed their salvation. Paul's about to break that false belief. He's about to break that down. He says, "Circumcision won't get you there." He says, "Let's go back and look at Abraham's life again. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?" So Paul says to the Jew who thinks that he's good just because he's circumcised, Paul says, "Did God consider Abraham righteous before or after he got circumcised?" Okay, it was not after. It was before he got circumcised. Now, let me prove it to you. Let me prove it to you. Look at the scripture reference at the bottom of your screen, Genesis 17:11. Where did God create a reckon, uh, credit righteousness to Abraham's account? Genesis 15:6. Now, two chapters later, he now gives Abraham the command, "You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you." So we see here that God gave him the command to get circumcised after he got, uh, after he was credited to be righteous. Thank you for the super chat. Appreciate the support, you guys.

So basically, timing is everything. Let me read this real quick. "He received the sign of circumcision, that salvation as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised." God said, "Hey, you are righteous while you're uncircumcised." Now watch this, watch this. "The purpose was to make him Abraham the father of the Jews." No. "The father of all who believe without being circumcised." Abraham became the father of all who will believe before he ever became circumcised, so that the righteousness would be counted to them as. Let's keep going. "And to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised." See, Paul's drilling this home. He's saying, "To be a believer, to be saved, it's not just merely that you're circumcised, but you have to also, what? Walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised." It's not about being circumcised. You have to have expressed the same faith that Abraham had before Abraham was ever circumcised, and that is the idea that he's trying to get across to us.

Now watch this. This is beautiful. When you put this all together, what you see here is that it was always God's plan to save Jews and Gentiles alike. It was never God's plan to only choose the Jews for salvation. How do we know? Because if we go back to the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 12, it says this: "In you," or I'll read the whole thing, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Do you see that? We see a picture of God's sovereign plan to have a multi-ethnic family of God, salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike, all the way even back in Genesis chapter 12. It's never just been about the Jews. God's ultimate plan was to include the Jews and the Gentiles.

Okay, so notice it says here, "That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace." Let me skip through the red part here. "Not only to the inheritor of the law," that's the Jew, "but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham," that could be Jew or Gentile, "who is the father of us all." So do you see this now?

All right, so hopefully, let's review a little bit. First and foremost, we have the need for salvation. We're all depraved. We need it. Second, the provision of salvation. It's only by faith. And now the question is, okay, so now let's say I've exercised my faith in God, my faith, right? What are the results of this salvation? What happens as a result? Okay, we're going to skip through this a little bit quickly, but in chapter 5, this is going to be chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. This section right here. Chapter 5: The basic concept is that you are now free from the wrath of God. That's good news, right? It's good news that you and I no longer have to fear the wrath of God because why? Paul says it this way in verse 1: "Therefore, since we have been declared righteous," or justified, or as one person put it, "justified." If you break it down, word down, it means "just as if I'd never sinned." Justified. Just as if I'd never sinned. That's what the concept of it is. We have what? Peace with God. We have peace with God. God is no longer angry. No matter what you do, He may be displeased, but His wrath no longer abides on you. No matter what you think, no matter what you've done, His wrath no longer abides on you. We have peace with God. But it gets better. We also have access to this grace of God. He says here, "Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand." You and I stand right now in the grace of God, and he says that's the result of putting your faith in Christ and exercising your faith. Not only that, we have the precious gift of reconciliation, which is nothing more than, watch this now, the Greek word was a medical term that talked about mending a broken bone. A bone that had been broken, and how a physician would mend that broken bone and put it back together again. The idea is that you and I, our relationship with God was broken because of sin, and so as a result, now through Christ, it has been mended back together again. We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, not while we were doing right, but while we were enemies. See, while we were enemies, we were reconciled.

All right, it's about to get good, y'all. All right, so now Paul now goes into a shorter little section in, in Romans 5, about how this was accomplished. And I like to call this the tale of two trees. The tale of two trees. Let's just look at it real quick, okay? So notice it says here, you can sum up this entire section with this one verse. It says, "For as by the one man's disobedience," that's Adam, "the many were made sinners." That's you and I. "So by the one man's obedience," that's Jesus, "the many," that's you and I, "will be made righteous." Now, this is what I call the tale of two trees because with this first tree, there's this tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and God says, "You can eat from all of these other trees, but don't eat from this one." And of course, we know the story, Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit of that tree, and as a result, you and I inherited a sin nature. And so you may say, "Well, that's not fair. I mean, I didn't, I didn't eat from the tree. It wasn't my fault. I wasn't there. I wasn't even born. So why should I have to pay the price for something that Adam and Eve did a long time ago when I wasn't even there? I'm not even responsible for it. That's not fair, God. It's not fair that I would have to pay a price for something that somebody else had done." That's the first tree. But remember, he says that that's not it, because he says, "Through one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." But there's another tree. There's another tree that we need to talk about, and that's the tree, or the cross, that Jesus Christ died on. Now, while you're saying, "It's not fair that I shouldn't have to pay the price of Adam and what he did," we could also say, "It's also not fair that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross for nothing that He had done." But He died on the cross for sins that you and I committed, and by the way, sins that we would have committed if we were in the garden too. So it's not fair either way. So whatever we feel is not fair, God fixed it, or God, uh, well, not fixed it, but He, He, uh, uh, He also created another situation that was also not fair: the fact that His Son had to die on the cross for something that He did not do. So now we see this, and we see here that it says, "Now the law came in to increase the trespass." Now, what does Paul mean by that? It means essentially, he's going to talk about this in chapter 7. It means that you and I are only aware of our sin because there are laws. You only know that it's wrong to covet because it says, "Do not covet." You only know that it's wrong to, to do certain things because you see it in the written laws. The law is also written on our hearts. But because of that, there's something in us that says, "Why does God not want me to do this? Why should I not eat of this forbidden fruit? Why does God not want me to have sex before marriage? Why does God not want me to steal? Why does God not want me to do these things?" So it creates within us a curiosity to do more. He'll talk about that in chapter 7. And so, "where sin increased, thankfully," he says, "grace abounded all the more." Essentially, this is the idea of this: When you think that you've sinned too much, God says, "I've got just some more grace for you." Now, that doesn't mean that you should take advantage of God's grace. It doesn't mean that you could just go and do what you want to do, but it's the security and knowing that when you sin, God has grace for you.

Okay, now let's keep going. Now let's move on to now chapter 6. So not only are you free from the wrath of God, you're also free from the power of sin. Sin no longer has to have power in your life. Let's keep going.

So Paul anticipates what his readers are going to think, maybe the same thing that some of you are thinking right now: "Is Alan teaching that we can sin as much as we want to because the grace of God is going to cover us no matter what we do?" And Paul anticipates that some are going to think that way, and that's why he says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" Right? In other words, "Should we just sin more because the more we sin, the more God's grace is highlighted and put on display in our lives?" And Paul shuts that thought down real quick. The strongest negative that you can use in the Greek language. No! I want to say something else, but you think y'all think you know what I'm wanting to say. Paul says, "No." Like, "No, by no means. How can you who have died to sin continue to live in it?"

So now he talks about how to be free from sin, and I'm going to go through this very, very quickly here because we have still so much to cover. All right, so how do we experience true freedom from sin? He's getting ready to tell us. Number one, realize that you are no longer a slave to sin. He says that in verse 6. "We know that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." My friends, you got to get that. You got to get that in your mind, right? You got to get this reality that no matter how much you're struggling with sin, you are not enslaved to it. What Paul is saying here is that whenever you were a sinner and you were not connected with, with the Lord, you weren't a Christian, sin said, "Jump!" You said, "How high?" You didn't have the power within you to resist it. He says, "You're no longer a slave to that thing. It no longer has the power to order you to do something, and you're, you're powerless to, to, to not fulfill what that sin is telling you to do." He says, "That's the first thing I need to get you to believe about your sin if you're going to be free from it, is that I'm not a slave to it anymore."

Now let's keep going. The second thing is, you need to consider yourself dead to sin. He says, "This is a mental state. You must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." Number three, super important one. You want to be free from sin? Stop partnering with sin. He says, "Don't present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness." Don't just go over the girl's house at 10 o'clock at night and spend the night, right? Don't just go on a vacation with somebody you're not married to and get a one-bedroom hotel room. You're presenting yourself as a, as a right, as an instrument of unrighteousness. You are cooperating, you're partnering with the enemy in your own sin struggles. He says, "Don't do that." Right? Now, instead, he says, "Transfer your energy." He says, "Essentially," he says this, "as passionate as you were in your sinful state, just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity, now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification." So you want to be sanctified? He says, "All the energy that you used to put in the worldly type of activities, just transfer it, and now put all that energy into serving God." And when you do, it says it'll lead to your sanctification.

All right, now let's go on to now chapter 7. We're almost halfway through this book, and it says here, "You are free from the law." So if you're going to write something down for chapter 7, the concept here is: You are free from the law.

Now let's look at this. Now Paul anticipates what some of his listeners are going to say. He's going to, they're saying, "Some of you probably think that I'm saying that the law is evil because I've been talking about grace through faith all this time." And he says, "What shall we say then? That the law is sin?" He says, "No." Use that strong negative again. "Yet if it had not been for the law, it would not have known sin." So he says, "No, no, the law is good because the law reveals to me what my, what my sin is. I wouldn't have known what it was to covet if the law told me not to covet." So he said, "No, no, I'm not saying the law is evil in any stretch of the imagination." But he says, "Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, what does it say? Produced in me all kinds of covetousness." He says, "When I saw the law and I saw all these things that God said don't do, something in me stirred up and said, 'Man, I want to know why it, I shouldn't do these things. What is it that God is keeping me from that for some reason God doesn't want me to have fun or enjoy this? Or let me see what it is that's so forbidden.'" And he said, "Sin took the opportunity to create all of this stuff in me." So that's the idea. "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin." So Paul basically establishes the fact that, you know what, the law is good, and the law is great. I mean, it shows you the righteous commandments of God. There's only one problem: I'm not. I'm sinful. I'm under the flesh. I struggle. I can't seem to do what I want to do. And so now he launches into this discussion about his own personal struggle with sin, present tense. And he says, "For I know that nothing good in me 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." Let me just stop right there. Whoa, man. If that verse doesn't encourage you in some way, that you are in good company. If you've ever felt that way, if you've ever felt like, "Man, God, I have the desire to stop looking at these websites, to stop sleeping around, to stop drinking, to stop cheating, to stop lying, to stop cheating on my wife," whatever it is, "I have the desire, I just can't seem to carry it out. I can't seem to carry it out." Well, guess what, my friends? Paul said the same thing about his own self. He says, "My desire is there. My desire is right, but I just can't seem to find a way to get past the sin struggles that are in my life." And so basically, he comes to this conclusion, and he says, "Wretched man that I am! I'm just a wretch. I'm just a mess. I am messed up. Who is going to deliver me from this body that is just infested with sin? How am I ever going to get free?" And then we have one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" He says, "Thank you!" Paul says, "I can imagine him lifting his hands as he's writing this and saying, 'I am a wretched mess. I am a hot mess. Who can possibly deliver me from my flesh?' Oh, thanks be to God, who through Christ Jesus can deliver us!" So you see here, so you're saying you are free from the law. You're free from the law.

Now let's move on into chapter 8, because we're getting ready to enter into a very exciting part of the book, y'all. Chapters 9 through 11. So stay with me, because chapters 9 through 11 are going to be some of the most misunderstood and confusing portions of the Book of Romans. We're going to break it down for you. That's an exciting part. So just hang with me for just a second. All right, here we go. Chapter 8: You can have freedom through the Spirit. He says, "Hey, how do you tangibly get free from sin?" He says, "The Spirit of God." It's all. This is by far Paul's greatest discussion about the power of the Holy Spirit. He mentions the Holy Spirit several times in this chapter, and he starts off with this beautiful verse: "There is therefore now." I want wherever you are right now, I want you to say the word "now." You may be in Indonesia, you may be in Spain, you may be in the UK, you may be in the Bahamas. I want you to say the word "now." Right now, no matter what you've done last night, no matter what you did before you got on this stream, no matter what you did last week, there is right now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's not something that has to come later. It's not something that happened before. It's now. Right now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You cannot be condemned because you are in Christ Jesus.

Now Paul talks about this here, and he says here, "For what God has done," excuse me, "for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could..."

Not do, let me break that down for you. Paul's basically saying this: the law, let me just go to this, the law is really nothing more than a mirror. It shows you all the things that are wrong with you, but it doesn't do anything to help you fix it. It just tells you, it reveals to you, back to you. It shows you the sleep in your eyes, it shows you the stuff up your nose, the crust on your lips. But that mirror cannot fix any of that. It just reveals it to you. It just shows it to you.

So, Paul is basically saying, God came and did for us what the law could never do for us. He gave us a fixer. He enabled us to get fixed, and that person is none other than the person of the Holy Spirit. He gave us the Holy Spirit. And how do we experience this? By walking in the Spirit. Woo! I could do a whole live stream on that phrase.

"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." I don't have time to unpack that, guy, but I think it's pretty obvious, right? If you want to really be free from sin in your life, it's all about where you are putting your mind. Are you applying your mind to the things of the flesh, the worldly things? Because he says if you do, you're going to live a fleshly life. But if you want to live a spirit-filled life, you have to put your mind focused on the things of the Spirit: the Word of God, prayer, fasting, fellowship with other believers, and things like that. And he said that's basically as simple as it gets.

Now, let's keep going. Okay, now not only do you have the power of the Holy Spirit, but you have the Spirit interceding for you. This is how you can be free. He says, "Hey, the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we don't know how to pray." But we can rest assured that the Holy Spirit is praying for us on our behalf.

Okay, so now he finishes this chapter out with this celebration to know that, you know what, you are secure. You are eternal. The rest, you can rest in God's eternal life, in God's eternal grace for you. God's love secures you. Now, let me ask you this question: Is there something that you've done in your life that's not on this list? For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present (stuff that you're doing right now), nor things to come (stuff that you may do later), nor powers, nor height, nor depth (demons and things like that), nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Is there anything that you've done? Thank you for the super chat, Maria. Is there anything that you may have done that's not on this list? He says there's nothing that will separate you from the love of God. Isn't that good news today, guys? We can stay on that point, but we've got about eight more chapters to go. These are going to go a little bit quicker than the first eight.

But now, guys, we're moving into section number four. This one's, this one's a confusing one, but we're gonna break it down. So stay with me now. Stay with me. We're gonna call this section, "The Scope of Salvation," and this is chapters 9, 10, and 11. And if there's a portion of Romans that is either misunderstood or just skipped over, it's probably this portion right here. So we're gonna break it down.

Basically, the idea is this: In chapter 9, if the Jews have nationally rejected the Messiah, the question that Paul anticipates that would naturally be in the mind of a Jew is, "Well, has God now rejected us? I thought we were God's chosen people." So the fact that if we've rejected the Messiah, then has God no longer have plans for us? So now, in the next three chapters, Paul explains, thank you so much, Heather, that God's plan for Israel, God's plan for Israel. And so first, he starts off, this is beautiful, you got to get this. He starts off talking about God's sovereignty and election. God's sovereignty and election.

Now, let's break it down. First and foremost, we see the heart of Paul put on display more in these three chapters than we see in the whole book. It turns into somewhat of a personal letter for Paul now because he says this: "That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Paul says, "My heart is broken because so many of my Israelite brothers and sisters don't have the truth. They have rejected Jesus as the Messiah." And Paul says, "I've been there because I used to be a Pharisee of the Pharisees, Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was zealous, but I did not have the right knowledge." And he says, "My heart is for my own people."

And notice, he goes on as far as says this: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Wow. Paul says, "If I could take your place and be eternally separated from God so that you all would know the riches that are available to you in Christ Jesus, I would. I would take your place in a heartbeat." That's how much I long for my own people to know Christ.

Now, watch this. Now Paul is getting ready to talk about a concept called election. It's a theological concept, and it's the idea that God, the Creator of all, has every right to choose some for salvation. Now, let's look. And he gives three examples of this from the Old Testament. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

First of all, he says, "Let's look at Isaac over Ishmael." Now, the point that he's trying to make here is that it's not enough to be a descendant of Abraham and say, "I'm good. I'm a descendant of Abraham, that means I'm saved." Paul says, "No, no, no, no. Let's go back and look." Paul says, "But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named."

Now, I know that's confusing. Let me explain it. Paul is basically saying this: Did God choose Isaac or Ishmael? They're both descendants of Abraham. They're both descendants of Abraham, but God clearly chose Isaac and did not choose Ishmael. So if you think as a Jew that you're good and you're saved because you're a descendant of Abraham, he says you're walking in deception because clearly, in the Old Testament, we see an example of the fact that there was a nation of people that came from Abraham whom God did not select, Ishmaelites, but God did choose Isaac, even though they both were descendants physically of Abraham. Are you seeing the flow of thought that we, that we have here in the book of Romans?

Now, not only that, in the event that somebody may say, "Well, yeah, that makes sense why he would choose Isaac instead of Ishmael because Ishmael was the child that Abraham had out of his flesh when he had an affair on his wife Sarah with Sarah's maidservant." So it makes sense why he wouldn't choose Ishmael. Paul now gives a second illustration. He says, "Okay, so if you think that's the case, what about Esau and Jacob?" You see, it says here that, "And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not done nothing and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls, she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'"

Do you see this? Rebekah was given clear instructions before they were born, before they ever did anything wrong, and they both came from the same father, from the same mama. And God clearly said, "Uh, Jacob, I have loved." Let me actually read the next verse. I believe it says, "Uh, actually, no." That's the next one. It clearly said, "Jacob, I have loved, and Esau, I have hated." He chose Jacob and did not choose Esau. So God, Paul is establishing this idea that God has every right to choose people, and it's not just about being a descendant. All right.

Now, let's keep going. Now he gives this third illustration in chapter 9: Pharaoh. Let's check it out. "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'" What in the world is Paul talking about here? Why did he bring Pharaoh into all this? What is he trying to convey?

Let's keep going. The idea here, let me go to the next slide here. He says this: "Just as I used Pharaoh's rejection of me to redeem my chosen people from Egypt, I can now have the right in my sovereignty to use the Jews' rejection of me through Jesus Christ to fulfill my plan of salvation to now save the Gentiles." Let me repeat that again. Let me repeat that again. Paul is basically saying, "Just as God used Pharaoh's rejection of me, he used that rejection to redeem a nation of people from Egyptian slavery and bondage, i.e., the nation of Israel. But he used the rejection of one nation or one nation's leader." He says, "In that same way, I can now use the rejection of the Jewish people rejecting Jesus the Messiah as a way to fulfill my plan of redemption to save another group of people called the Gentiles." Are you putting it all together now, right? Are you seeing this?

So now, let's keep going. So now Paul anticipates. It's like, "Are you, hopefully, you're seeing all the questions that Paul asks that he knows his readers are and he's anticipating his readers are going to think, 'Well, that's not fair. It's not fair that God can choose who he wants to choose and some he's going to choose and somebody does, and Jacob I love and Esau I hate, and he chose Isaac and Ishmael didn't choose, and this bill didn't really do anything wrong, and he didn't even ask to be born, and all this stuff. It's not fair.'"

So Paul anticipates that some are going to blame God for not being fair. Notice it says here: "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I will 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." He says, "God has every right to have mercy on whoever he wants to have mercy on." And by the way, here's a news flash: God doesn't have to have mercy on any of us. He doesn't have to choose any of us to be saved. We do realize that, right? But the fact that God has chosen some of us to be on his team, to experience the blessings of God for a lifetime, he said that is grace, and we should praise him for that.

Okay, so he establishes God's sovereignty. He says, "Self-righteousness is not enough." Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. Gentiles weren't trying to be righteous, but somehow they attained it. Why? Because they got a righteousness by what? Faith. You see, he's going after that idea of faith again. But then it says here, "They go back, but that Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness. They did not succeed in reaching that law." Why? Because they didn't pursue it by what? Faith. But as it were, based on works. They stumbled over Jesus, the stumbling stone. They never received Jesus. They never accepted Christ the Messiah. And so they kept stumbling over Christ to the point where they crucified him. And that's why they could never get free.

Okay, now let's keep going. Now, because now we've got to go into chapter 10. We're moving along, guys. Israel trusts in their own righteousness. Let's keep going. "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them (talking about his own people) is that they may be saved." Do you hear his heart? Do you hear Paul is anguishing, wishing that his brothers in the Jewish community would would accept Christ as their Savior? But I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Isn't it sad, guys, that you have so many people in this world who have such a zeal for what they believe, but it's without knowledge? You have a lot of cults that are out here today that are very, very zealous for what they believe, but it's without knowledge. You have Jehovah's Witnesses who have a lot of zeal and they're without knowledge. You have Hebrew Israelites, a lot of zeal without knowledge. You have Mormons, have a lot of zeal, but they don't have the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a lot of these groups that have a lot of knowledge, they have a lot of zeal, but they don't possess the right knowledge. And Paul says, "You know what? I can bear witness to that because I was in the same shoes." All right, I was in the same shoes.

But he says here, "It's not hard to understand how you can accept and and be saved." He says, "It's not hard to understand this." He says, "But the righteous is based on faith." Says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' that is to bring Christ down." In other words, you know, it's not like I have to go up to heaven and get Christ to come down from heaven to explain it. Or, "Who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead?" I don't have to go into the grave and somehow resurrect Christ so that he can come back from the dead and explain this to you. He said, "It's not that hard to understand, my Jewish brothers and sisters. If you really want to get saved, it's not that hard to understand." He says, "What the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." That is the word of faith that we proclaim. It's, it's right here in your heart. It's just right there. You just have to do what, where he tells you what to do. He says, "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." He says, "Not that hard. You just have to express faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

So now he continues on, and now we're going to get into chapter 11, which is the final chapter in this section of the book that's all about the beliefs. And then chapters 12 through 16, we're not going to spend a ton of time in those. And those are all about the behavior. We'll get to that in just a second. So stay with me, guys. We're moving forward. Let's keep going.

So the concept here in chapter 11, rather, is that both Jews and Gentiles alike can both be saved. That's the good news. This isn't something that's unique to only Gentiles, or, you know what, now that God is working with Gentiles, no, Jews can be saved. No, no. Everyone can be saved. And notice he says, "I ask then, has God rejected his people? Has God just rejected all Israelites, all Jewish people?" Paul says, "No, by no means." He said, "I myself, I'm an Israelite, and I'm saved. I'm a Christian." He says, "I myself, I'm an Israelite, I'm a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." So the fact that I am here writing this letter to you is proof that God has not just rejected his people, right? That's not the case.

So I ask then, "Did they stumble in order that they might fall?" Meaning, have the Jews just so messed up that there's no hope for them to be restored? He says, "No, rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." We'll talk about that in a second. Paul says, "You know what? It was all part of God's plan. God was able to use their sin and their rejection of Jesus Christ to now open the door of salvation to the Gentiles."

So notice it says here, "Now if their trespass (speaking of the Jews rejecting Christ), their trespass means riches for the world (that's you and I, Gentiles), and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles (that's you and I), how much more will their full inclusion mean?" You see this? So now, says Paul, "You know what? There should be a healthy jealousy."

Notice it says here, "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles..." So you have to understand, by the time this Roman church was built, there were a lot more Gentiles that were part of the Roman community than the Jews. So Paul's ministry was primarily to the Gentiles, and Peter's ministry was primarily to the Jews. He says, "I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them." He says, "Hopefully, when people see how many Christians are coming in the door as Gentiles, hopefully there'll be something that happens that the Jews will be looking on and saying, 'Okay, I want a piece of that. How do I get saved? I want to be in God's family as well.'" And it'll spark a healthy jealousy within them.

Okay, so now, now we're getting into this concept of this tree. And Paul paints this tree, this picture of this tree. And and let me just go to the picture real quick. He paints a picture of this tree, and in this tree, you have a root or a foundation, and out of that are many branches. And Paul is basically saying that I had to break off several branches of this tree, and I had to graft in wild olive branches so that they could also be part of the family of God. See, so the foundation of the family of God are the Jews, right? Those are the Jews. But they didn't obey God. They rejected Jesus. So I had to break off some of those natural branches, and then I had to graft in some of the other branches.

So it knows what it says: "That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief (speaking of the Jews), but you stand fast through faith." And notice God's warning. Paul's warning to them: "Do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches (those, that's the children of Israel), if he broke them off, right, separated them from the family of God, neither will he spare you." He said, "Don't get the big head and be like, 'Ah, yeah, God broke you guys off so that we could come in and we could be saved, and God doesn't have a plan for you.'" And he said, "No, no, don't get the big head in thinking that, because if God broke them off, he can also break you off too."

Okay, so now, uh, we looked at the tree. So we went through that. All right, guys. So now we're moving into the last section of the book. And this is really where the book becomes practical. This is where Paul says, "Okay, I've told you everything that you need to know. Now, based on what you know, how do you live, right? How do you live?" So now, let's, let's start with Romans chapter 12. In this chapter, I'll just say, "How to practically live out your faith." And we're going to go through this relatively quickly. Here we go.

Paul says this: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Paul says, "Look, based on everything that I just shared with you in the first 11 chapters: saved by grace through faith, redemption through Christ, peace with God, you've got the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, God's wrath does not abide on you any longer, you're free from the law, you're free from the power of sin, you're no longer slaves." He said, "Based on all the stuff that I just told you that God did for you, the least you can do is present your bodies to him in obedience as a living sacrifice to him." He said, "That's the reasonable service. The reasonable service."

And he says, "The second thing is, don't be conformed to this world. Reject worldliness." Right? Reject worldliness. This worldly idea of partying, drinking, and smoking, and sex, and all that stuff before marriage. He says, "You need to reject that. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you will be able to prove what is the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God." So he says, "This is what you have to do."

But not only that, he says, "What should you naturally be doing in light of everything that God did for you? You should be serving and using your spiritual gifts." So Paul now talks about that. He says, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them." Right? Are you using your gifts today? Are you using your gifts, your spiritual gifts? Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Are you serving in the body of Christ? Is the body of Christ a better place because you are using your gifts? He says, "If it's prophecy, then prophesy in proportion to your faith." And he lists these different gifts that they should use.

And then he says, "Hey, let's just not talk about what you do. Let's talk about who you are." He says, "Your Christian character should be loving people, and it should be genuine. Hating what is evil. Showing honor." Right? "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Being zealous for the things of God. Being fervent in spirit. Serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, because you do, out of all people, have hope. Being patient in whatever you're going through in life. And being constant in prayer." Now, you could do a whole Bible study right there with just that chapter, just that paragraph. But he says, "This is the natural byproduct when you think about what all God has done for you."

Now let's keep going because now in chapter 13, it's all about obeying godly authority. Obeying godly authority. Hopefully, you guys are still with me here. All right. Um, looking in the comments section. Is this, I'm like 50 pages back. Obeying God, the authority. This is going to be a quick chapter. He says, "Hey, what should you also be doing naturally in light of what God has done for you? Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." He says, "Hey, Christians should not be trying to start a social revolution and say, 'You know what? My Christianity is, uh, supersedes my responsibility to be under the law because I, you know, Christ told me to do this.'" No, no. If you're a Christian, you should be the first people to be under the law and to submit to the godly authority. And so that's what he's saying there in chapter 13.

Now, in chapter 14, I could spend a whole Bible study on this: Accepting others who are different. Accepting others who are different. Notice it says here, "As for the..." Okay, let me break this down for you. First and foremost, in the church at Rome, there was a contingency of Jews and Gentiles. Historically, these two groups did not get along for obvious reasons. And so now, for the first time in history, God is commissioning and commanding the Jew and the Gentile to coexist and to love one another and to get along. This comes with its own set of challenges, right? Jews, some, many of them are circumcised. Many of them don't eat certain foods. Many of them still obey the Sabbath, even though they're Christian. Gentiles, they're kind of wild. They don't have any of those type of things. They don't have any dietary restrictions. They don't even care about the Sabbath, things like that. So this concept of them coexisting together is a difficult one.

And Paul says this: "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." "One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person..." Now notice how Paul describes the weak person. He clearly tells you who the weak person is. The weak person eats only vegetables. Now, now, let me be careful for all my vegetarians out there. This is not, they're choosing to eat vegetables because of dietary and health reasons. If you do that, that's okay. He's saying if you think you are sinning by eating meat, that's a weak conscience. That's a weak faith. You may want to do it for health reasons, and that's respectable. But to not eat meat because you think it's going to be a sin against God, he says that is a weak faith. That is a weak conscience. Right? And and so that's his idea.

So he says, "You know what? Some people, they're gonna just eat vegetables." And you know what? If that's how they are, then you need to accept them and don't quarrel and argue over different opinions about, "Well, you need to eat this, you need to eat that." And other people, they're going to eat meat. They're going to eat beef. They're going to eat steaks. They're going to eat that and vegetables, right? So he says, "It's not worth arguing back and forth over."

And guys, if I could just put a parenthetical statement right here, and this, let me just say this, and I'm going to get past this, we're almost done. There is too much arguing and division in the body of Christ, and too many people are being used by the enemy as a tool of the enemy to further disrupt the body of Christ because we spend more time arguing over disputable matters that at the end of the day are not that, basically don't have any effect on your salvation. We argue over baptism, we argue over tongues, we argue over women in ministry, we argue over, uh, all of these different things that at the end of the day, it's a nice debate, and it's a nice argument, but it's just dividing the body of Christ. You're just further dividing. If you can't fellowship with somebody because they believe that women should be preachers and women should, whatever. I don't believe women should be senior pastors, but I can still fellowship with people that do. I can still fellowship with people who believe, you know, in speaking in tongues and that it's essential for salvation, whatever. I can still feel, I don't agree with them, but I can still fellowship with them. I can still fellowship with people who say, "You know what? You can be baptized by sprinkling versus full immersion." It's not worth breaking fellowship over. And that's what Paul is trying to get across to this church is that you've got to learn to coexist, even though you may see some things differently.

Okay, now let's keep going. He says, "Let not the one who eats (that's the person who eats all the meat) despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains (that's the vegetarian in this time) pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him." Don't pass judgment. And he also goes on in this chapter to talk about one person sees every day as the same, and others see that you have to worship on one single day. "Let each be fully convinced in his own mind." And this is the verse that I use to a lot of my Adventist friends is, "Hey, you know what? Hey, I believe that you can worship God every day. That there's not one specific day that you have to worship God only on." And many of them say, "Okay, we believe that too. But you also have to worship on this day, right?" So Paul says, "Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind."

We're rounding into home base. Weak faith are the legalistic, legalistic Christians who lack freedom. We must be patient with them. We're rounding, grinding into home base. So he ends this chapter by saying this: "Whatever you, wherever you stand, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." He says, "Whatever you do, just don't be a stumbling block to another person. Just don't be a stumbling block." If you believe that you can eat meat, right, don't force somebody to go against their conscience when they don't feel comfortable about eating meat. If you believe it's free, you can drink wine, then that's fine. But when somebody in their mind doesn't think that they should be doing that, don't be a stumbling block because they're convicted about that for a reason.

All right, so here we go. Now, in this final section of the book, chapter, section six, Paul describes his future plans and final remarks. You guys have made it this far. Give yourselves a hand. Virtual high five. All right, because he's getting ready to say this: "Future Plans and Final Remarks." Paul's future plans. Notice what it says here. Now, we're going to read this in its entirety, about five or six verses here, because it's important for you to understand what Paul is doing here in this book and why he's writing it. It says, "This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now..."

So let me just stop right there. Do you see how much Paul wants to visit this church in Rome? He said it in chapter one. He wants to visit this church so badly. To him, this, this marks like the creme de la creme. Like this is his greatest accomplishment to go and visit the people in the church of Rome. He's been to Corinth, he's been to Galatia and Ephesus. He wants to go to Rome. And he says, "I've been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, I've done all the work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years..." Do you see this? It's been years. Paul has wanted to come to you. "I have longed for many years to come to you. I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain."

Now, do you understand this? Now, this is important. Paul's desire is to go to Spain and share the gospel there. That's where he wants to go. But in order to get to Spain, which I'm going to show you on a map in just a moment, he has to first, well, he could choose to go through Rome. And so what he's saying here is, "While I'm on my way to going to Spain, I am hoping, hint, hint, right? He's dropping something and he's planting a seed in their minds. Hint, hint. I'm hoping that I could be helped on my journey by you. You can break brother off some cash. Can you break me off some, some financial support? Because I'm trying to go to Spain to do the good work of the Lord, but I'm going to stop by and see you all in Rome, and I'm hoping that after you see how much I'm pouring into you guys, will help me get there. Put a little cash in my pocket, right? Once I have enjoyed your company for a while." So I'm not just going to, you know, eat and run. I'm going to hang out with you for a while.

"At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing a to the saints." So Paul is on his way now to Jerusalem with a bag of money, or whatever you want to call it, right? And he is trying to go to Jerusalem, or Judea, as you can see on this map. And he is taking with him money from the regions of Macedonia, which you can see in the middle of this map. And they took up a collection for the poor saints that were in Jerusalem. And Paul says, "I want to get to you. I want to get to you, Romans, but I can't get to you right now. First, I got to go back to Jerusalem, drop off this money that the church has collected for the poor saints in Jerusalem. Once I get that established and break that off, then I will come and hang out with you, which you can see in red, the star there, Rome. And then I'm gonna hang out with you for a while. But ultimately, I'm gonna go through you all so I can eventually get to Spain." And that's basically what he's trying to say here.

"For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. So they were pleased to give to the poor. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings." "When, therefore, I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I'll go to Spain, but I'm going to come through you all." And that is the idea here.

So now, here's the interesting thing. Did you guys know that Paul actually never made it to Rome the way he intended to go? All the hope, all the desire for Paul to want to get to Rome, and he actually never got to Rome the way he intended to get there. Notice on the screen, I say, "Paul finally made it to Rome, but not the way he had planned." You see, the book of Acts ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel. He never actually got to Rome as a free man. He's actually imprisoned in Rome, and then he went to appeal as a Roman citizen. You see, sometimes what you may think is God's plan for your life, and you make all these plans, "I'm going to go to Rome, I'm going to go to Spain, I'm going to do all these things." And God did not allow it to happen the way God intended. Every way Paul intended it to happen. And my friends, that's the sovereignty of God.

Let's finish right here. A couple more verses, and we're done. "Final Remarks of this amazing book." Paul in chapter 16 mentions 26 people in this chapter. And you'll be glad to know that nine of the people that he mentions are women in ministry. You see, if you're a woman out there and you're in ministry, you need to be affirmed today that God has an amazing ministry for you. God can use you. God can empower you. God can gift you supernaturally to do some amazing things for the kingdom. And I'm in the text. Paul mentions out of 26 names, nine of them are women. One of them is a very prominent leader in the church named Phoebe. Romans 16:1. And you can read about her and the other women that served faithfully in the ministry with Paul.

One final verse here. Paul's final warning. And he says, "Rome, there's a group of people that are going around and they're, they're spreading false gospels and things like that. I want to appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive." And my friends, that is how the book of Romans ends. What an amazing book. What an amazing book, guys. I didn't even have time to go into depth. Every chapter in the book of Romans could have easily been an hour and a half live stream. And maybe one day I'll have the privilege and the honor of teaching through the entire book on this, on this, this stream, on this chapter. But my friends, if not anything else, I hope that the overview that we just did in the book of Romans in these last, oh, 90 minutes or so, actually end up being 90 minutes. Hopefully not. Hopefully, for no other reason you were here today, to hopefully wet your appetite so that you will go back and you will now be excited to study this book. You will more than likely have to watch this video a few times now in hopes that you can use this as a guide or as an aide as you're walking through the book of Romans, as you're studying it.

So guys, I'm going to go ahead and pray. And for those watching the live stream on the replay, the video is going to end here. But I'm going to go ahead and pray, and then we're going to stick around for some questions that you may have about the book of Romans. Father God, I thank you so much for this day. I thank you for the amazing book of Romans. I thank you, God, that you've made it so simple for us to understand. And I pray, God, that you would wet the appetite of every person who's here, that they would have a desire to want to not just read the Bible, but study it, and they would understand it on a deeper level. It's in your Son Jesus, then we pray and give thanks. Amen.

Now, guys, before you leave, even if you're watching this on the replay, a couple of things. Guys, if you want to learn how to study the Bible the way I just broke it down for you, we do have a course. We actually have a couple of courses, guys, that will show you how to study the Bible. And so that you could literally be doing the same thing that I just got done doing. And if you want to learn more about that program, just go to Bible Study Made Easy. The letter is E, not the word easy. Bible Study Made Easy. And you can learn about the course that we have that teaches you how to study the Bible. Super excited about it. Many of you are already enrolled, but many of you are not. And I promise you, if you get in that six-hour, 50 lessons, 70-page workbook, interactive, that you're doing exercises and assignments in on your own, right? And you get monthly training with me, which, by the way, the next monthly training is this Monday coming up, where we have Bible studies similar to the one that you do, but it's in a private Facebook community via Zoom. If you want access to all that, guys, there's a community of thousands of people that we've brought into our, our community that are waiting to meet you. So if you're interested in that, head on over to Bible Study Made Easy dot com.

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