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Speaker 1We just had a business meeting in here and so a lot of people came to the first service rather than the second because of the meeting being between but I'm glad you're here for this one and would you stand with me? And we're going to sing a few songs. Florine's going play em on the piano. We're to start off with what a friend we have in Jesus. It's good to see y'all.
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Come on. Join in. It's a long weekend and it's obvious, isn't it? Come on up, Scott. Bob's out of town.
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How about since Jesus came into my heart? We've got Judy as Florine to fill in. This morning, Renzy filled in for Carl. We've got people all over the place. I even went skiing yesterday.
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I started to call you Dave because you're in shape and I am not. And if I bend over or sit down during the sermon today, y'all know why. So, y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements this morning. First of all, there was an annual meeting that we just had before this one.
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The men's snowmobile retreat. Now, you don't have to rent that one but we are doing the men's snowmobile retreat. It's happening February 19 through the twenty first. It's going to be at the same place where it usually is. Old Faithful Christian Ranch in Island Park, Idaho and the cost on that for just for going for the weekend is $100 which is you know, meals and lodging, that sort of thing and if you wanted to rent snowmobiles outside of that, you're welcome to but the men's snowmobile retreat is always fun.
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It's after Valentine's Day weekend this year. That was a good move. Nineteenth through the twenty first, men's snowmobile retreat and that's that's always a good time. Even if you don't snowmobile, it's a lot of fun to just go hang out with the guys. Renzi is not here but MC Renzi is going to to be the master of ceremonies for the first beat talent show.
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He's trying to get you ahead heads up on it. February 13, the talent or talent less. He said, if you're calling in a talent, we'll trust you but call him ahead of time and he's gonna emcee the event but that's gonna be February 13. So, that is on Valentine's Day weekend but Renzy will be heading that up. Monday nights at First B are going along every Monday night as planned.
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Carl is taking it today and tomorrow off and Ren Lindsey led music form this morning but Eric Wachup is going speak tomorrow night. So, he's our head elder right now and just in this business meeting, he was nominated to be the moderator. So, it's kind of the chairman of the board of the of the entity that is First Baptist Church but he'll be speaking tomorrow night on Philippians two continuing in the series that Carl is in the middle of right now. Monday nights, meal music and a message always good place to be on Monday nights. Now, there is an announcement Brad's gonna do for a minute here about an upcoming class.
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There you go.
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Speaker 2Green. Hello? Okay. Okay. Yeah, we're having a class on Genesis phobia and what it is Nancy and I were trailing around last year and came across some friends and family but came across Christians who are and we've seen this quite quite a bit is that we're afraid to or say express our beliefs about Genesis because of I mean, some people are saying is that, well, Genesis is a poem.
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You know, Adam and Adam wasn't really a man. That stands for mankind, and then even there was a professor at a Christian college who says, well, I believe there was a flood, but it probably wasn't a global flood. So what is genesis phobia? It just it's not fully believing the Genesis account of creation and the flood. So, what causes it?
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You know, it's all coming from, you know, Darwinian evolution evolutionary theory that's crept into the church. You know, so we have our own little thing theistic evolution, the gap theory, and then day age theory. You know, we say that, well, a day isn't really a day, but it's millions of years. So we've adopted that kind of philosophy. So, why can't we just believe that Genesis for what it says?
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He said, why can't we believe a a day is just a day or God created man the way that he said and a big one is dinosaurs. Okay? We're told it's a slam dunk because that dinosaurs lived and died 65,000,000 before man would causes us a big problem because the scripture clearly says is that God created man, Adam, Adam sinned, and then death came after man. So, now, so we we gotta get these things kind of resolved. Okay.
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So, so that's what the class is to build up your faith, to be able to share with others, train your kids in this because they will be inundated as they grow up in the school systems. And then one thing I've discovered about evolutionary science is that it's filled, it's riddled with assumptions. Their science is science, but assumptions are assumptions. And so in the class, we're gonna be looking at that. One of the things we have three things we'll be doing this Wednesday is one is population.
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When we have 7,000,000,000 people on the Earth today, it when the ark landed, you know, when the flood ended, eight people walk off the ark. Is it feasible that 7,000,000,000 people could could be generated from that? And if that's the case, evolutionary leaders would teach is that mankind started maybe a million years ago or five million years ago or 200 that whatever. It's like pick a number because it's all assumptions. You know, so we'll look at the math on that.
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We'll look at the growth rate from the ark, those people getting off the ark, and see what that comes up to. Then, we're going talk about fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are coal, it's crude oil, natural gas. What is that? That's light.
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It was life that died and buried underground. That's what that is. It's organic material. It's plants, trees, people, and animals. So, we look at that as that is from the flood.
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Okay? And how did it get there? Because organic material usually decays before they get down there. So, we'll look at that, you know, even more more evidence for that and then, what does the evolutionary thought? You know, what do they have?
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And then we're gonna talk about dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were told about 65,000,000 ago that they lived and died. The asteroid came and wiped them all out. You know, but the thing about this, we're gonna show a sixty minute vid, not sixty minutes, not gonna take sixty minutes, but it's from sixty minutes where some evolutionary scientists came across some science, which totally, you know, puts that in question, and but, you know, just confirms is that man with land animals were created on day six. So, if you can be there, that'd be great.
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Thanks.
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Speaker 1Thank you, Brad. Alright. So, I've got a hand in the air. It's in the fellowship hall down the hall in the fellowship hall on Wednesday night at 06:30 to eight is the plan Brad and Alan Galbraith will be teaching. I'll be in band practice.
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So, anyway, that's just the way it is. Would y'all stand with me? We're going to sing a few more and then Scott, would you come on open to help, Florine? And oh, sorry, there are more announcements. Experiencing God class.
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That is still that's being postponed because Gary and Diane Geek are still down with Gary's father who is in really bad shape. They've called in hospice now in Southern Arizona, Tucson. And would you please pray for? This is a new one. Most of y'all have not heard of this guy yet.
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But y'all know Ferry who sets up the tables and chairs and tears down. This is Ferry's best friend in Romania and he asked me, so would you mention this in church? This guy's having a surgery and Ferrins Mandrut is how he's Mandrut like that but he is his best friend in Romania. Lot of y'all have been praying for my aunt Cynthia and my uncle Sonny and uncle Sonny passed away. He and his wife were in separate hospitals when he passed yesterday.
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So, Terry and Tina are my age and my brother's age. We grew up with them and so I was just letting you know my uncle Sonny passed and so be praying for Aunt Cynthia and my cousins Tina and Terry and Bob Geek is up there too. So, would y'all mind if I just stop right here before we sing? God, you are the great physician and last week, when we're looking at your majesty, lord, and about worship in particular. The thing that probably hit me and several other people that contacted me during the week that petition, prayer, asking you, supplication, petition is worship because we're admitting lord that we do not have the solution for these problems and we are asking you.
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We're throwing ourselves towards you, lord. Like the woman reaching up for the hem of your garment, Jesus. We are reaching out in faith and we know lord that you answer in faith. So, would you please bless aunt Cynthia and Terry and Tina as they prepare for the funeral arrangements and would you heal aunt Cynthia's body as she's she is still sick and not doing well. My mother and all of the brothers and sisters that will be coming in.
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Same thing for Bob Geek's whole family, Lord, for Diane and Gary being on mission down there and helping out with everything. Would you, Lord, superintend that whole position. Give the words at the right time, Lord. For everyone involved. In Jesus name, Lord, would you bless France Mandrut in Romania?
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And thank you. Thank you, God, that you do. What you do. We we bow to you. In Jesus name.
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We lay ourselves before you. Amen. Would you stand with me and we're going to sing a couple of others. Well, actually, why don't y'all shake hands? We'll bring you back together with a song.
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High fives, hugs, handshakes, holy kisses if you must. About Oh How I Love Jesus, hymn number 92. Would y'all y'all can have a seat and if I get the front line him to come forward. Appreciate it. I'm gonna ask a prayer.
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God, I thank you for I I just think about the business meeting that we just went through and saw how you, lord, have been at work in this community, in this past year as we look forward doing budget stuff and electing officers and all that stuff. We look back and see the last time that we did that and how you have been faithful lord just like you always are and God, you are building your church and you're doing it not just in this little local wooden building but you're building it in this community, in this state, in this country, and to the opposite side of the world, to the ends of the earth. God, would you take this and do as you see fit? Multiply it to do your kingdom's work. In Jesus name, would you advance the gospel with this acknowledgement that we put in this plate.
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In Jesus name, amen. For cross generational ministry right there. You don't like that? I don't know who you are. So, where have we been?
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I I we're between books right now and so, I did a a topical sermon last week and it was about the majesty of God. Worship, God's majesty, and kind of looking at that but we're between books and so, as I was thinking about it, state of the union address being last week for the country, president talking and I just had the congregational meeting today. I was thinking, where are we? Where have we been? Where we're going?
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That sort of stuff. So, y'all know I like to stay in the text which is I started off in first Peter. When I first got here, I did a couple of topical sermons to get my feet up under me and then we started with first Peter. The main reason is because first Peter, I think is the most pastoral book and at that time, I really needed it. Really, really needed it because it's about, you know, biblical eldership and about the glory of God and it's so good and it's such a such a comforting thing for me.
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That's the reason we did first Peter first and then, I realized that series preaching through a book was my lifeline to sanity because I didn't have to worry about what it was I was gonna preach that week topically. I'm not trying to fit exactly what's ailing you by applying something that I think is what you need. We all need the word all the time. And so, I said about prayer and through prayer and whatever. I said about just taking any order that you take it would be fine but to me, it made sense to start with the life of Jesus.
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So, we went to the gospel of John, studied the gospel of John section by section, didn't do literally verse by verse to begin with but before the end of it, we were going literally verse by verse, walking through expository preaching through John. Although it was written around ninety five AD, it's probably one of the last of the books written. We went from John to Acts. Acts, we did the life of the early church. So, we got life of Jesus and John, life of the early church in Acts and we've used Acts as a framework kind of for going through the rest of the books following Paul around his missionary journeys and seeing where he wrote which letters to whom, from where.
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So, we did John, life of Jesus, Acts, life of the early church and we went to the earliest book I think was written was probably James. James, thoroughly Jewish. James was Jesus's half brother and thoroughly Jews Jewish. So, we see a lot of an emphasis on works in that not salvation by works but we see how the gospel works. So, if you got the gospel, you get the works that come with it.
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It's not the other way around. So, I call it the gospel and work clothes. I like, I like that. It's when the gospel works itself out. That's James and we went from there to first Thessalonians.
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Man, how I love first Thessalonians because there's no sin mentioned. It's just a great group of Christians and Paul is encouraging this church that he has started and he is pushing them and he's answering a few questions about the end times especially but first Thessalonians is a really comfortable book. God is saying through Paul, yeah, y'all are doing it. I hear of your work all over the place where everywhere I go. It's really connecting the gospels.
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Growing there and it's growing through you and after first Thessalonians, we went to second Thessalonians. Again, more questions about end times but there was also a lot of encouragement in that book and that one's one that we got underway. First and second Thessalonians, probably the first two of Paul's letters. Although, well, then we got to Corinthians. I remember the goodbye Thessalonians.
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Hello, Corinthians sermon because first Corinthians is all about sin. All over the place, he mentions it multiple times and they are just in terrible shape. There's no unity, there's division, they're fussing about this and that. They don't know corporate worship is just a horrible mess and so Paul's calling to straighten them out on several things. In first Corinthians, we went through that.
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Now, the next one we did was Galatians. Galatians, I believe was probably one of the first books that might have been written just around the time of James just a little bit after maybe but it could be later. Some people argue for a later date depending on which part of Galatia he was sending it to. So, we did it right in the middle. Right in the middle of first and second Corinthians to give us a break from all that sin then we got to Galatians and it's so foolish Galatians.
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Paul is very passionately working with them because they had left that good old gospel way and been provoked towards either legalism or license and I walk back and forth across the stage for the whole book of Galatians enough to wear wear the carpet out up here. Now, Galatians is a very very passionate book. Like I said, the old foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It's very passionate. He knew the people but it's a sketch for Romans.
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It's a sketch for a greater, bigger, more theological masterpiece but it's incredibly passionate because he knows the people and he knows the ways that you can go wrong. Galatians, we did between first and second Corinthians. That was the next one and we just finished second Corinthians about two weeks ago for those of you who are visiting and we just walked through it verse by verse. Now, I say all this to say to those of you who are members here, in the last three and a half years going on four years, we've covered one third of the books of the New Testament. We've covered nine of em now.
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They're 27 books. So, we've covered nine and we're working our way through chronologically as the books were written. Second Corinthians, again, a lot of different things about sin. There's a harsh last three chapters we've studied. If you look at where we've been, not just in this room on Sunday mornings but where we have been with different studies.
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On Monday nights, Carl has walked through verse by verse, Matthew, first, second, and third John. He's in Philippians right now. We did a small groups did Philippians as all the small groups did Philippians at the same time a couple years ago. You look at the ladies ministry, they've done Ephesians, they've done Romans, they've done James. It's pretty impressive that this New Testament thing, there's a lot of.
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Now, there's also the the ladies in the precept study have done Colossians and Titus and James and Romans. Not to mention, they've done tons of books in the Old Testament. Last week, when I mentioned something from Jeremiah, the figs in Jeremiah, all of them are smiling like they just covered it the week before. So, they've covered a lot of the prophets. We are working at continuously applying the Bible.
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Now, where are we going? This is an introductory sermon today and it actually it feels a little more academic than usual. The last few sermons, I felt like it been really really not application heavy but they've been really spiritually heavy and moving to me at least and you can note that by the pauses and the tears. I can't help it. That's just the way it goes but Romans is not quite that way.
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Romans is beautiful but it's not quite that way. Now, the introduction to Romans, I was going to do verses one one and one two today and that was it and then I reduced it to just one one. There is so much there in Romans. I want to mention that it is only 15 pages long. So, we're between books right now.
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Romans is about in my little bitty Bible. It's 15 pages long. It's not hard to read. Will you read 15 pages this week at some point? Whether it's this or something else.
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Yeah. We all read 15 pages or something. Romans is only 15 pages long. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was a poet and a philosopher and literary critic and really smart guy, said, I think Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans to be the most profound work in existence. Now, if you had a work that was 15 pages long, and he's not the only one.
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There are lots of other people. Martin Luther said the same thing. Profoundest book ever written. It was the thing that started his thinking about justification by faith and led to the protestant reformation. The counter reformation was started by somebody else paying attention to Romans.
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It's approximately one twentieth of the New Testament. Just 15 pages in my little bitty Bible, 300 pages is the whole New Testament. It's manageable. I want you to read it. Can you tell?
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The longest book outside of the gospels. So, the first Corinthians is the next to longest and they're probably 10 or 12 words different. So, it's doable. Y'all can do this. Trust me.
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Many consider it to be the primary book of the New Testament. Now, I've got, these are the ones that I found right away. The ones that I have read this week, not all of em but I've read all of the section about the first part, just the introduction of Romans. I've read in each of these books this week and I've got more of em back there. A lot of these, most of these are available online.
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Bible Gateway has tons of commentaries. Not all of em are good. Some of these are terrible. They're just awful. Some of the theology is bad.
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Some of it, their points just don't connect but this is what people have written because this is the Magnus Opus of Paul. It is the show. It's the big show. It's everything about God's gospel and he lays it out in a very very cogent fashion. It's it's easy to follow or easier to follow than most other books because it's not complicated by the passion of him knowing the people.
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He's never been to Rome. He doesn't know them. Many, if not, most major positive movements in the history of church have been either catalyzed or initiated by someone somewhere studying Romans. Saint Augustine, one of the greatest minds, Augustine Hippo, greatest minds that the church has ever known was converted by hearing a child quoting Romans and it was at that point that he had to take this seriously when he meditated on what he's what the child had said and this man left his profligate lifestyle and went into studying. Romans first and then was open to the gospel of God.
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Not just the church, not just the church. He'd already had that. He'd already knew that. He started taking it seriously. So, Romans one one, Paul's never been to Rome at this point.
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We know that from later on the text him having said it but I'm gonna take a cue right here from James Montgomery Boyce who's the top guy in this stack right here and another pastor named Martin Lloyd Jones. Now, Martin Lloyd Jones preached on Romans from 1955 to 1968. The definitive commentary on Romans is about this tall and it's those messages and all of the preparation that he made for those messages. It's like this on a shelf. It's 14 volumes long.
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So, preached from 1955 to 1968 just on Romans, twelve and a half years. That's crazy. I'm probably not going to do that. I don't want to do that. I would rather not do that but they stopped.
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He did and boys stopped. After the first word and said, Paul, and I read, you know, up to up through verses 17 this week trying to manage it, see what what can you take. I had a professor in seminary. I said, how how long should a sermon be? He said, long enough to do justice to God's word and short enough to do justice to his people.
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That make sense? Paul, who is this guy? Let's consider him for just a minute. Now, y'all know him as the passionate church planner because we've talked about this and the churches that he has been writing. He's known personally until now.
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What do we know about him? If you ask anybody that is it just in church, just a pew sitter, anybody who's ever been around church much, they'd be able to answer and say about three things about Paul right away. Yeah, he persecuted Christians before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus in a very real tangible way which changed his life completely and then he went on three missionary journeys and wrote a lot of the New Testament, right? That's what most of us would know and that's true. It's good but let's consider Paul through all of the references that are made in the Bible is one thing but also some kinda just historical and geographical information.
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I I want you to think of it because it matters where you come from, right? So, he's born as Saul of Tarsus. Saul, Jewish name in Tarsus. Tarsus, does anybody know anything about Tarsus? In the first service, I was gonna, I knew you're gonna say that.
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So, she lived in Turkey. Tarsus is a city in Turkey. In the first century, this is the location of Tarsus. Tarsus is actually one of the oldest cities in the world. Archaeologically, we know that we have about six thousand years of history.
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That city has been occupied continuously for six thousand years. So, Tarsus, in relation to Jerusalem, Damascus, Antioch, all of those are important in Paul's life. These are places that are really important in the first century in Paul's life in particular. And Tarsus is right there, not too terribly far from Antioch. You see all of these others.
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We just got out of Corinth. Actually, he's writing the book of Romans from Corinth to the church at Rome, okay? So, this is the geographical area that takes place. If you were going to go there today, Turkey, Tarsus is in how do you say Mersen? Mersen?
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Mersen. Mersen is right here and the geographic kind of province that tar Tarsus is in is in the Mersen District, Turkey. There are about 3,000,000 people there. It is the fourth largest city in Turkey according to what I've read. Still very active.
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There's a topographical map for those of you who love the maps. It's a flat spot. It's about 10 miles in now from the Mediterranean. If you're looking at a modern map, you see Syria where so much trouble, Iraq, Iran, where all so much trouble has been going on here recently. Tarsus is not far away from there either.
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It's right in the thick of this. It's in Turkey. Born in Tarsus. We get that from Acts nine eleven and from twenty one thirty nine when he's telling his story. He's born and raised, he says, in Tarsus, which is no mean city in the King James.
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No mean city. Not like mean as opposed to nice, but like mean, like average. In fact, most translations now say no insignificant city. It's not an average place. It is a place to behold.
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It's a big deal. So, it's a university town with amazing educational opportunities and we know that outside of the biblical narrative but the reason that Paul brings it up is because this town is known as being a real smart place, okay? It is has one of the best libraries in the world according to Strabo, and I won't hopefully, I won't bore you, but I think this is interesting. Strabo, geographer and historian of the of the this era. He wrote this probably about thirty to forty years before Paul was born.
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Don't know exactly but somewhere right around that time. The people at Tarsus have devoted themselves so eagerly, not only to philosophy. Now, Paul is into philosophy, right? Not opposed to the, I mean, he's into philosophy. So, they devote themselves so eagerly not only to philosophy but also to the whole round of education in general that they have surpassed Athens and Alexandria or any other place that can be named.
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Strabo counts Tarsus as the top educational center in the world. Any other place can be named where there have been schools of lectures and philosophers, but it's so different from other cities that there in Tarsus, the men who are fond of learning are all natives. It's just what the people there do. It's a tradition of being engaged intellectually. They're all natives and foreigners are not so inclined to sojourn there neither do these natives stay there but they complete their education abroad.
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So, Paul says, he was raised or he's born, raised in Tarsus, and then, he studied at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem which is just exactly what Strabo is saying. He said, they grow up there, they get their education, and then, they go off to school and they study abroad. So, he, being a Jew, went to Jerusalem to study and when he studied there, he studied under Gamaliel, this very famous Pharisee, rabbi. Foreigners not inclined to sojourn there, neither do the natives stay there, but they complete their education abroad. And when they've completed it, they're pleased to live abroad and only few or but few go back home.
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You can skip the part. He's kinda bad mouthing Alexandria there for just a minute. And then further, the city of Tarsus has all kinds of schools of rhetoric. They had grammar, logic, and rhetoric. It was a classical education, is what it was.
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And in general, it only not only has a flourishing population, but it's also most powerful thus keeping up the reputation of the mother city. This is what Strabo had to say about Tarsus where Paul's from. That is the Cleopatra Gate still as it looks today. Cleopatra met Mark Antony in Tarsus. That's the king of snakes statues, Saramal, blah blah blah.
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I don't I can't quite pronounce that one but there's pagan idolatry and Greek gods, Greek culture still kind of persist in Tarsus but the pagan snake God is what that is. Harry Potter, the Slytherin house actually comes from that guy right there. This is a Roman road, a Roman street from the time of Paul in Tarsus, first century. That's what it looks like today or pretty close to today. Same kind of Roman street.
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This is the archaeological site downtown. They're finding coins right there from the right right around this time period. I just want to connect it to reality. Sometimes, when we read things, we don't always kind of connect them to, this is real life, you know? So, now that we have some great ground to stand on, by the way, that's the Tarsus bones.
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So, We've seen in Acts, Paul is quoting pagan poets and philosophers. Do y'all remember that? When he said, bad company corrupts good character, that's from one of the pagan philosophers. Now, Paul mentions a couple of different times when he's at Mars Hill preaching in Athens. Now, Athens is another center of learning and when he's presenting to the stoics on the one side and the Epicureans on the other, he's presenting a philosophical argument and as he's doing that, he's quoting their own guys.
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That's cool. He was steeped in Greek culture. He knew it. From the cradle up through probably about 14 years old or so. He was in Tarsus and then moved on.
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Consider Paul. He's a Roman citizen. That comes up couple or three times in Acts where he is beaten before they know because he's a Jew ethnically and he's a Christian. I ain't beat Jews and Christians. That's no big deal but you can't beat a Roman citizen.
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You can't do that. So, Paul brings it up and it's an embarrassing situation for the authorities a couple of different times and he uses that Roman citizenship. This was during a time called the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, an imposed peace on the world because Rome was so powerful. Now, a lot of people would say, we're living in the Pax Americana right now. It's an imposed peace, kinda tenuous, but because we have a power, we have the power to do so, we try to help out and keep situations at a minimum.
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That's what Rome did too. It was bloody. Rome was pretty bloody. Paul was also a Hebrew of Hebrews. Now, when he goes down his list of qualifications, a couple of different times in Philippians for being one of em.
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He says that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law. He was a Pharisee. He knows his culture very very well. Would have studied it all the way through the Shema and all all the way through his book learning phase but when he went to study at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he got even further study. So, he was somebody.
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Gamaliel is probably the most famous of the rabbis at the time of Paul and so he went. Now, it's interesting because Gamaliel was not on the same page with Paul. Now, Paul from his training and debate and rigorous philosophy didn't mind standing up for what he believed. We've seen that in Paul, right? He was not sheltered, not in the least.
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So he didn't grow up just believing one thing. Okay. I've got only this. My mommy and daddy tell me this and so this is all I know. He grew up with a broader view of the world, a philosophy, but he believed it.
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He was a sure believer in Jewish monotheism. He was full of natural talent, and he was very well trained to boot. So, this is Paul. Is everybody with me? I know this is academic.
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It's not super spiritual at this point but God used this man. Paul said this, to the Corinthians. Actually, first Corinthians, he says, for though I'm free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more. To the Jews, I became as a Jew so that I might win Jews. I'm going to argue with the Jews using the Torah.
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I'm going to argue with the Jews using the prophet. I'm going to bring about an interchange by the things that they know. To those who are under the law, that'd be the Jews, as under the law, but not being myself under the law because he's been set free by Christ. So that I might win those who are under the law. I'm willing to go into their territory and make their argument on their terms.
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To those who are without the law, that's pagans, right? Greeks, without the Jewish law. I'll go as without law. They're not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ. So that I might win those who are without the law.
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That's Gentiles. To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel. That's the Paul we know, right?
45:21
But he's a smart, smart guy. He's really, really intelligent. So, this is what we know. He's persecuted prior to his conversion. He met Jesus and he went on the missionary journeys.
45:31
That's what everybody knows about Paul. This is what Paul says about himself to Rome. As he's introducing himself to these people that he doesn't know, has never yet met but he knows that they have the gospel. He knows that there are Christians in Rome. How does he know that?
45:51
He never been there. He's getting reports back. For first of all, in Corinthians, we see Paul talking to Aquila and Priscilla. Aquila and Priscilla were Jews that had been kicked out of Rome by the emperor. Jews are causing too much trouble.
46:06
All Jews have to leave Rome. So, either you had to leave Rome or you had to stop being so Jewish. Which that was not an option for a zealous Jew. So, they left Rome. Well, as politics goes, somebody else gets in power a few years later.
46:20
Okay, you can come on back. Now, it's right in the time of the beginning of the church. So, the gospel is spreading like crazy through people just moving around. Not just famous people like Paul but the gospel, the vast unchronicled witness of people who have been set free by the gospel of God are telling other people about it and the church is growing. So, church is growing in Rome and all of the Jews and Jewish Christians by the way are taken out of the picture for a while and there's a Gentile church that starts in Rome that doesn't have the same kind of Jewish influence and then when the Jews come back into Rome, they're like, isn't the way we do things?
47:01
Can y'all can y'all feel that uncomfortable? Some of you came in. The song service is not like you like. This isn't the way we do things. Paul recognized that there were Gentile Christians and there were Jewish Christians.
47:14
Now, as architectural and as foundational as this book is, if you see it, sometimes he's arguing for the one side from, you know, to them to bring em to the center of God's good gospel and sometimes he's arguing with the other side to bring em back to the center of God's good gospel and as he's doing that, he's doing it for one purpose. He said on that last slide, I think. He said, I do all things for the sake of the gospel. He's willing to extend the arm and bring people together. A bond servant of Christ Jesus, Dulas, a slave.
47:47
He considers himself smart as he is. He's a doctor in anybody's book. I mean, he is an intellectually a smart, smart guy and could have and did do some teaching but he considers himself what he says about himself is not all the things I've said about him. He says, I'm a slave. I'm a slave to Christ.
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Christ Jesus. He's my master. Whatever he says, I will do. Doesn't matter what, I end up like I'm going after whatever he says. So, really quickly, super academic.
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I know today. This is born and raised in Tarsus. We've covered that. Educated at the feet of Gamaliel. He tells that in Acts 22 and if you don't know who Gamaliel is or you feel like, I've know I've heard that name.
48:31
Jewish historians still remember him very very well. He's one of the one of their guys that they call back on quite a bit. He was actually grandson of Hillel, the elder and so he is he's got a great long standing tradition in the Jewish church. They don't believe exactly what Christians believe about Gamaliel but they don't accept Acts as a canonical book. So, the Christians believe that Gamalia actually converted to Christianity later on.
48:59
Now, he's teaching Paul Judaism but if you read in Acts five where they come before, now, in Acts four, Peter and John are arrested, they're beaten, and they're told not to ever preach this name again. They come back to the rest of the disciples and they say, well, we're beaten, got thrown in jail. They told us never do it again but who are we going to please? God or man? We're going with, we're going to please God.
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So, they went out and they preached again and as they went out preaching again, they get stopped again and Gamaliel says, listen, folks. He stands up and he speaks out and he says, listen, do you remember Judas that started a revolt a while back and we all knew that he was off. He wasn't he wasn't saying things of God. He started a revolt against Rome and then, something, you know, it fizzled out. It was of man.
49:49
If it's of man, it's going to fizzle out. Remember that other guy? They got something started a while back and then it fizzled out. Yeah. So, if these guys, if it's just a man, Gamaliel is saying, if it's just a man, you don't have to worry about it.
50:02
It'll fizzle out but he said, Gamaliel said, if it is of God, then, we're going to find ourselves in the position of opposing God and we don't want to do that. So, let these guys preach, don't harass em, don't beat em, don't bring em before, and don't try to kill em. Just let em go. If it's of man, it'll die out. Well, it didn't die out and Gamaliel was converted according to Christianity tradition.
50:26
He was converted after seeing that this didn't die out. It keeps growing. So, he's educated at the feet of Gamaliel. Paul is a strident opponent of what they called at the time, the way. Followers of the way.
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Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except by me. His followers were called followers of the way and Paul was a strident opponent because he was a Pharisee. Absolute legalist and did not believe in Christ. Now, he's going to Damascus.
50:56
Going up to Damascus from Jerusalem, not a huge long journey and as he's going, he meets Jesus on the way. Now, he's persecuting the church to drag him back to Jerusalem to try him for blasphemy, heresy, all these different things and when he had the right, he had the paperwork. He could kill him if they wouldn't come with him. He's harassing and persecuting the church when he meets Jesus and what does Jesus say to him? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
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Me. He never met Jesus before. How's he persecuting? Because he's persecuting the body of Christ. The continuing body of Christ on Earth, the church.
51:39
He completely does a one eighty. No doubt about it. Struct blind. Y'all remember that? He goes to a straight called street and then as soon as he can see again, Paul begins preaching.
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Just immediately, right after his conversion, as soon as he can see, he gets up and goes to Damascus where he was going to persecute the Christians and he goes preaching. We see that in Acts nine seventeen through 22. He spent three years in Arabia. We get that from Galatians one hundred seventeen and eighteen somewhere around there. Three years in Arabia.
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What he's saying is he didn't go back to Jerusalem and get the party line, figure out exactly what's going on. He had a actual interaction with Jesus. The gospel made sense to him. All that he had studied before in philosophy. All that he had studied before in the Torah and in the prophets made sense and just dropped into place and he knew it.
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So, he spent three years wrestling with that on his own, figuring all this out, and preaching, it says in Arabia and teaching. He goes back to Damascus to preach again, spends a little time there. Where he escaped the plot to kill him? Unpopular guy when he's got this word of the Lord that he's presenting and it's not according to people's religious or philosophical traditions. So, in that case, it was the Jews that were trying to kill him.
52:57
He escapes. Thirty nine AD, he makes his first visit to Jerusalem since conversion. Now, he had been there studying Judaism in the temple with Gamaliel but his first visit as a Christian to Jerusalem, all of them knew him. They knew that he had been Saul, the guy who persecuted Christians. They were afraid when he got there.
53:21
He preached there in the temple. To Hellenistic Jews. These are Greek Jews. These should have been his people. He's steeped in Greek culture and Judaism and he's preaching to these guys and saying, come on, don't you, don't you get it?
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You're from the same background I am. Don't you get it? And they attempted to put him to death. That's in Acts nine also. 39 to 43, he returns to and he lives in Tarsus.
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So, he goes back after escaping that plot in Jerusalem. He goes back home to Tarsus. That's where I'd go. I thought someone's trying to put me to death. People love me there.
53:56
And it's a big old city. It's kind of anonymous. It's a good place. It's also wide open. Cosmopolitan areas tend to be wide open to minorities, right?
54:06
So he goes back in where he's got access to a library, where he's got access to all this education and philosophy. People are open minded about listening to interchange and debate. So he's there for like four years. We get this from Acts eleven twenty five twenty six. He's called away by Barnabas.
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So, Barnabas, Acts eleven twenty five and six, he, Barnabas, left for Tarsus to look for Saul. Now, Barnabas had been helping out a little church in Antioch that was growing like crazy, multicultural, multiracial, Gentiles and Jews getting along, struggling a bit but they needed a pastor and Barnabas said, I know just the guy. He's got everything that he needs. I'm going to go find Saul, Paul, and I bet he's in Tarsus. So, went to look for him and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch and for an entire year, they met with the church and talked considerable numbers the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
55:00
Now, they were followers of the way up until that point and this was a term of derision, little Christ. It happened when Paul was a pastor at that church that they started calling a calling us Christians. So, he spent that year preaching, teaching in Antioch. '45 was his second visit to Jerusalem and I love this. This to me, what was he doing when he went back to Jerusalem the second time?
55:20
It was not debate. It was not going in to preach. He was delivering relief to the Jew Jewish Christians in Rome. He was doing humanitarian aid mission to these guys because of what he believed, because of what he knew, and he knew that they were struggling. He gathered from Antioch and he took it to Jerusalem and he met with the elders and he said, hey, Antioch, Jews and Gentiles are getting together around the gospel, the center point of all of this is Jesus and I want to spread that word.
55:51
They sent him out on his first missionary journey. Now, that is where most of us know. We we lose the gap of how much experience. I mean, it was first missionary journey is forty five, forty five AD somewhere in there, 4546. Now, he got saved in about '36.
56:08
So, we had ten years of all of this turmoil. People chasing after him and then we pick up the story in Antioch. He goes from Antioch and he goes on his first missionary journey with John Mark and Barnabas. He goes on his second missionary journey, not with John Mark and Barnabas. They did have to split company there from a sharp disagreement but Paul went with other traveling companions and he went from Antioch and it says he went through Tarsus.
56:35
Make sense? Stop for some home cooking probably. Went on up to Troas, heard the Macedonian call, went across to Minneapolis, Philippi, Philippian jailer, Lydia, demon possessed slave girl, all of these stories on his second missionary journey, he makes it down to Athens, preaches at Mars Hill, pagan philosophers and poets. He knows them and what did they say to him at Mars Hill? They said, wow, this guy.
57:04
I want to hear more from you. He didn't close him off. He didn't say, this is the way it is. I'm not going to talk to you if you don't believe He said, I know what you believe. I know what you believe.
57:14
This is kinda true. This is kinda true, but this is the truth. He presented it very, very openly. And they said, we wanna hear you again on this matter. We we wanna hear you again.
57:25
So the unknown God, remember that? You have a statue to the unknown God. Well, I'm here to proclaim that one to you. Third missionary journey. That's what we're in the middle of right now.
57:36
So, he has written from Macedonia right up here. He has written to the Corinthians and we studied that second Corinthians letter written from Macedonia after Titus brings him his report and now, Paul has made his way down. You know, he said, I'm coming down. Soon, I'm giving you fair warning. I'll be there.
57:53
Y'all supposed to have a collection ready and I can't wait to see you. So, Paul finally makes it to Corinth. That's where he like writes the letter to the Romans. He sends it with Phoebe, a woman down to Rome and she delivered the message of Romans. Paul, a bond servant, a slave of Christ Jesus.
58:16
Everything is about the gospel to Paul. Called to be an apostle. That's somebody who has been sent out. We've covered that plenty of times. I won't belabor the point.
58:24
He was sent out by Jesus. You're going to be my witness to the Gentiles and he was set apart for the gospel of God. Now, it's the last point I want to make is this, the gospel of God. It grammatically can be either objective or subjective. It is the gospel that there is a god that's possible grammatically but the way Paul's presenting it here and I think it proves it through the rest of the book and in the benediction at the end of the book, he says, this is God's gospel.
58:54
There's one God and this is his good news. Philosophy can teach you a lot but it can only present you with bad news. The Torah, 10 commandments can present you with a lot and it's great stuff but it can only really bring you the bad news. The good news is that God God cares and that Jesus Christ has died to pay the penalty for sin. So, that's it.
59:16
The gospel of God. We'll do it again. Now, I'm going say it one more time. It's 15 pages long, people. Can you read 15 pages?
59:22
Even if you think it's hogwash, can you read 15 pages? Yes, I've read lots of hogwash. Actually, one of those books up there is absolute hogwash but I think we should have books on our shelf that boil our blood, that make us mad because it makes us sharper, right? Twentieth of the New Testament, longest book outside the gospels. It's the primary.
59:41
Martin Lloyd Jones says, that's why it's first. After the gospels, that's why a gospel's in Acts. That's why it's first. Out of all the epistles, it's the primary book of the New Testament. In most major positive movements in the church and I would argue that a lot of major positive movements in people's lives.
59:59
Wesley was listening to the introduction of Romans. Just an introductory sermon on Romans. When his heart was strangely warmed at Aldersgate. John Calvin, same thing. Augustine, same thing.
1:00:16
It's amazing if you just look at it. Trust me. It's very, very well written. So this is my head start for you. I just did the academic thing today.
1:00:27
I'm not pushing you. Actually, am pushing you. Start reading Romans. Please, get ahead of me. Start reading.
1:00:33
It's only 15 pages long. It will not disappoint you and I promise. Now, the rest, next week, scripture is gonna be verses two through seven. One probably will come up but that's it. Next week, if you won't read 15 pages, will you read seven verses?
1:00:48
Seven verses is all we're gonna cover next week. It's Romans one one through seven and I wanna read the rest of the Taylor Coleridge, same Samuel Taylor Coleridge quote. I think Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans is the most profound work in existence and I hardly believe that the writings of the old stoics that are now lost could have been any deeper. You will smile after this if I say that I think I understand Saint Paul. And I think so because really and truly, I recognize a cogent consecutiveness in the argument and that's the only evidence I know that you understand any book.
1:01:22
It's gotta make sense to you. He says, Roman, it makes sense and it makes so much sense that it it will change your life. So, if you're one of the guys here or if you are a guy here or some maybe a slightly masculine woman, I don't know. Just I don't know where that came from. If you, if you if you are more about reason than emotion, a lot of those other books have such incredible pathos.
1:01:47
It's all about how it's presented and it's all about the knowing the people. It's not so, it's often times, you can't see the logos, the content for the pathos, the emotion in it. Romans is all about the content. It's awesome. It is really, really, really good.
1:02:05
So, if you're a guy and you just usually say,
1:02:07
Speaker 2I
1:02:08
Speaker 1don't get this stuff. Don't care. I just can't do it. I'll wait and listen to what you have to say about it. That makes more sense anyway.
1:02:17
Trust me, this one will get you. It's really, really good and I think that's it. Jesus paid it all. The first thing we did for the invitation in a in a non sermon sermon here mostly about the life of Paul. What a friend we had in Jesus was the first one but Jesus did pay it all and the whole thing is the gospel of God.
1:02:35
This is the gospel of God. You If wanna talk to me about it, you're welcome to come on. Hit it. The benediction, I'll give you, I'll give you the first part of Romans. This is the last thing in Romans, last three verses and now to him who's able to establish you according to the gospel that Paul preached and the preaching of Jesus Christ.
1:05:09
According to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past but now has been made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets. According to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all of the nations leading to obedience of faith. It's about knowing and doing. To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever. Amen.
1:05:30
Amen.
