We were studying Romans in our last session
and we want to continue in Romans, just
a verse to begin with in Romans chapter
4.
We were looking about, looking at justification.
It says here in Romans 4 and verse
21 about Abraham that he was fully assured
that what God had promised he was able
also to perform.
There's a lot of teaching on faith today
which makes believers look inside to see, do
I have faith or do I have enough
faith?
If I don't get something it's because I
don't have enough faith and all the time
I'm looking inside.
The more we look inside the more into
bondage we're going to get.
Abraham did not look inside his body to
see whether he had enough faith to have
a son and you should never look inside
yourselves to see whether you have enough faith
to get us something that God has promised.
What was Abraham's faith founded on?
He was assured that God was able to
fulfill what he had promised.
Faith is always outward looking.
You know that beautiful chapter in Hebrews 11,
by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith
and then finally it comes to chapter 12
verse 2, looking unto Jesus.
That is the definition of faith for us
today, the author and finisher of our faith.
So faith is not something within us, it's
in the object, it's in what we look
at that determines whether our faith is strong
or not.
For example, if you want to cross a
river and you have to cross it over
a strong concrete bridge, you have no problem
with having faith but if you have to
cross it over a bamboo pole that's tied
across the river, you lose faith immediately.
It's got nothing to do with you, it's
got to do with the quality of that
bridge.
If it's a bamboo pole, I don't have
faith.
If it's a strong concrete bridge, I have
faith.
It's the same person, doesn't have faith in
one, has faith in another.
So faith is never resident within us.
You put money in a bank that's going
to crash, you don't have faith.
You want to put money in a bank
that's solid, supported by the government, you have
faith.
Where is faith resident?
In the object of faith.
So remember this, when you read the promise
of God, don't look inside and say, can
I do it?
Abraham believed that God would fulfill what he's
promised.
The New Testament emphasizes faith a lot and
Romans we saw spoke about going from faith
to faith.
Now many of us have had faith that
our sins can be forgiven.
Do you have faith in the same God
who forgave your sin that he will justify
you?
That means he will impute the righteousness of
Christ.
Like it says here, a count reckoned to
him as righteousness, verse 22, and it's not
only for him but it's reckoned to us
also.
That means apart from works, verse 6, righteousness
is imputed to us, put to our account.
I didn't work for it, but somebody puts
a million rupees into my bank account.
It's a gift.
I didn't work for it.
The one who tells me is trustworthy, I
believe it.
Even without going to the bank to check
up, I can write a check because I
know the person who told me that he's
put a million rupees into my account is
trustworthy.
So when the Lord says in his word
that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to
us, we believe.
See, God expects us to trust him.
It is the greatest insult to God to
say, I don't trust you.
Supposing your father says I've sent you some
money into your bank account here locally and
you say, Dad, I don't trust you.
That's one of the greatest insults you can
give to your father, particularly if he's a
thoroughly trustworthy person.
And that's why unbelief is such a serious
sin.
We miss a lot that God has for
us because of unbelief.
It says in Matthew 13, the last verse,
God could not do many mighty works for
people in one place because of their unbelief.
Jesus couldn't help them.
They needed help.
Jesus wanted to help them, but he couldn't
help them.
Please keep this in mind as we go
through Romans.
When we come to chapter five, we see
there about the blessings of justification.
And many times in this chapter, particularly from
verse 12 onwards to the end, a contrast
is drawn between what we got through Adam
and what we got through Christ.
Through Christ, through Adam, verse 12, sin entered
into the world through one man.
And in the same way, through one man,
verse 15, Jesus Christ, grace is abounded to
many.
And here is this contrast.
In Adam, I died.
In Christ, I can be made alive.
Right through this chapter, you find this emphasis.
And the point we need to recognize is
this.
I inherited something from Adam.
I didn't have to produce wickedness from the
time I was born.
I didn't have to learn to tell lies.
I didn't have to learn to fight with
other people.
I didn't have to learn to be selfish.
It was there within me.
Nobody teaches a child to tell lies.
It is within.
From within, you see a child's pride, selfishness,
quarrelsome nature, stubbornness coming out.
All children.
Why?
It's a nature inherited from Adam.
And the contrast here between Adam and Christ
should teach us one thing, that as complete
and as total is the inheritance I have
received from Adam, equally complete and total can
be the inheritance I received from Christ.
How did I behave like Adam?
Is it by trying to imitate Adam?
No.
I inherited his nature.
How am I going to follow Jesus?
Is it by looking at him and trying
to imitate him?
There are many people in the world who
have tried to imitate Christ who are not
even Christians.
No.
There are Christians who try to imitate Christ.
Did you try to imitate Adam?
Or did you inherit his nature?
Then why are you making the mistake of
trying to imitate Christ?
We first of all partake of his nature.
That is where we begin.
And just like Adam gave us his nature
completely, Christ can give us his nature completely
in the measure in which I open up
to him.
The Christian life is one of faith.
Faith means a dependence on God, a confidence
in God.
And I receive from him this nature.
This is the message of the New Testament.
And we will come to it more in
the subsequent episodes.
Here is where a lot of people make
a mistake.
They think holiness comes through my striving and
attaining.
There is striving in the Christian life.
There is putting to death.
But it is all based on partaking of
God's nature.
And if we think that we can produce
the divine nature, we are crazy.
You did not produce Adam's nature.
You inherited it.
And that is the contrast we need to
see.
Through Adam, death reigned.
For, verse 15, look what it says here.
If, middle of that verse, by the transgression
of the one many died, much more the
grace of God and gift by grace of
one man will abound to many.
And it also says in verse 10, if
while we were enemies, we were reconciled to
God through the death of his son, much
more, now that we are reconciled.
Please read this.
This is talking to believers who have been
reconciled.
After being reconciled, after their sins are forgiven,
after they are justified, they shall be saved.
Saved by what?
By his life.
We were saved by his death.
Now we are to be saved by his
life.
This is the point of Romans.
There are two salvations on this earth.
One is by the death of Christ, that
we saw earlier in chapter 3, through Christ's
death.
And here it speaks about being saved by
his life.
What does that mean?
By his death, I am saved from the
guilt of sin.
By his life, which he imparts to me
through the Holy Spirit, I can be saved
from the power of sin that drags me
down.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 6 says, now that God's grace abounds
so much, what shall we say?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
increase?
We have heard such a fantastic message of
the gospel being given to the worst of
sinners, that Jesus came to save the worst
of sinners.
And it's a free gift.
It's not something you can earn.
Any amount of good works will never save
you.
So some people can misunderstand it.
Oh, in that case, it doesn't matter how
we live.
And there are millions of Christians who misunderstand
it.
And that's why today's so-called Christian leaders
sometimes fall into sins, which even the Old
Testament leaders did not fall into.
You read of Christian leaders falling into adultery.
Did Elijah fall into adultery?
You read about Christian leaders running after money,
multitudes of them.
Did John the Baptist or Elisha run after
money?
They were under the old covenant, at a
lower level.
And at a lower level, they reached a
much higher standard of life than so many
Christian leaders today.
Why?
Because many Christian leaders have felt grace is
there.
Sin is not serious.
Those people didn't have grace.
They took sin more seriously.
We should take sin even more seriously.
Because what is the purpose of grace?
It says in verse two, how can we
sin more?
We who died to sin, how can we
live in it?
Don't you know what baptism means?
We were baptized into his death.
Verse three, baptism is a burial.
Verse four, it's not a sprinkling.
When you bury a man, you don't sprinkle
sand on him.
You put him right underneath the ground.
And so baptism is a burial in water
and a lifting up out of the water,
showing that a man is raised from the
dead.
The old man, the will to sin is
crucified and buried and gone.
And now he's a new person.
Now, if that has really happened, then your
will is no longer to sin.
You may fall, but because the lusts of
the flesh are still there, but you don't
desire to sin anymore.
And he says, how can you say let's
continue in sin?
And he goes on to give us this
wonderful promise.
If you're died to sin, first of all,
before the promise, he says, do you know,
verse six, that when Jesus died on the
cross, your old man was crucified with him?
You say, how do we know that?
How do we know that Jesus took our
sins on the cross?
God's word says it and we believe it
and we experience it.
That when Christ died, he took the punishment
of all my sins.
I never saw him die, but I believe
his word.
And I've found it's true in my life.
In the same way, the same word of
God says that this old will to sin,
which is in you was crucified with Christ
on the cross.
I accept it.
You won't get forgiveness of sins till you
accept it.
And you won't get the reality of Romans
six, verse six in your life till you
accept it.
It's not a question of what you did.
It's a question of what God did.
It's not a question of what you have
to do.
The old man is different from the flesh.
Many people confuse the old man in the
flesh and that's why they get confused.
The flesh is like a gang of robbers
who is trying to get inside my heart.
The flesh is that outside coming in.
My heart is my home.
And inside this heart in my home lives
an unfaithful servant called the old man who
always opens the door for these lusts to
come in, for these robbers to come and
steal my spiritual wealth.
What did God do?
He did not kill the gang of robbers.
He killed the unfaithful servant.
And that's why even after you're baptized, you
find you're tempted just as much as you
were tempted before, because the gang of robbers
are still alive.
They haven't died.
The lusts in your flesh haven't died.
What has died?
Your old man.
I've discovered in my travels through many, many
places that millions of Christians have studied the
scriptures can never tell you the difference between
the old man and the flesh.
They are so confused.
Even people who study to doctorates in theology
don't know what's the difference between an old
man and the flesh.
See, there's a difference.
There's a difference between the servant who opens
the door and the gang of robbers who
wants to come in.
God has killed the servant.
That means the desire to sin is killed.
I know it's killed in you if you
are born again.
If I were to ask those of you
who are born again here, do you want
to sin anymore?
What is your answer?
No, I don't want to sin.
Because God has put a new man within
who does not want to sin.
But the gang of robbers are still coming
every day.
In fact, after you're born again, the gang
of robbers are even more furious.
They are eager to come in still.
Then why is it believers fall into sin?
Because this new man sometimes doesn't eat enough.
He's weak and he doesn't keep the door
shut.
He tries to keep the door shut, but
the gang of robbers push their way in.
If you don't read God's word and meditate
on it, if you're not strong, if the
word of God doesn't abide in you, if
you're not filled with the Holy Spirit, you're
not strong enough to keep those lusts of
the flesh outside.
But if you fulfill those requirements, you'll find
that you can overcome sin.
So the Bible says here, therefore, verse 11,
now consider yourself to be dead.
Reckon yourself to be dead to sin.
Sin is not going to have any more
power over my life.
I'm dead.
I consider myself dead because God said so.
Like if my father wrote me a letter
saying he's put a million rupees in my
bank account, even without going there, I consider,
I reckon it is there.
I don't have to see it.
I believe my father.
And the same way, the Bible says, if
God says your old man was crucified with
Christ, you accept it and consider yourself dead
and say, Lord, I accept it.
Just like many years ago, I accepted that
Christ died for my sins.
I accept today that I have died to
sin.
I didn't realize that you also put my
old man on the cross, not only my
sins.
And from this day, I accept the fact
I've died to sin and every day of
my life, I'm going to consider myself dead
to sin alive to Christ.
And this is where I need the help
of the Holy Spirit.
And that's why it goes on to speak
about grace in verse 14.
Sin will now no longer rule you because
you're under grace, not under law.
Under law means, what is the difference between
law and grace?
Basically, in two sentences, I'll put it like
this.
Law means I do something for God.
Grace means God does something for me.
What a difference.
It's like a little baby trying to do
something perfectly.
That's law.
And grace is where the father holds the
hand of that little baby, supposing he's writing
a letter and the baby gets it all
crooked.
Here, grace is the father holding the hand
of that child and writing a perfect letter.
No spelling mistakes, no errors.
But if the baby is stubborn and say,
no, no, no, I'm not going to let
you hold my hand, then of course, there'll
be a lot of mistakes.
This is grace.
In the Old Testament, people who are under
law, they had to try and do everything
on their own.
They got such a lot of But we
are so reluctant to let God hold our
hand and write that letter perfectly.
That is grace.
Sin shall not rule over you.
No, you won't make a spelling mistake if
you let your heavenly father hold your hand
and write.
Submit.
Yield.
This is grace.
You got to experience it.
Sin may be there, but it won't rain.
It's like a king was being overthrown and
made a slave.
That's what's happened.
He's not killed.
He's there.
Sin dwells in me, but it cannot rule
anymore.
In chapter seven, we read about, you realize
that I'm just putting a few pieces of
the jigsaw puzzle here and there.
You've got to complete the picture yourself.
There really isn't time to go into every
verse.
But if you get an overall picture of
Romans, you'll be able to fill in the
blanks.
Romans chapter seven speaks about a person who's
got into this desire for victory over sin
and to live a holy life, but who
misunderstands how to live it.
He gets married.
The picture used here is of marriage.
He's married.
Instead of being married to Christ, he gets
married to the law.
And Romans chapter seven is basically in the
first part anyway, speaking about being delivered from
the law.
Now, what does this mean in practical terms?
In Romans six, we saw about being married
to the old man.
Now it speaks about being married to the
law.
And Romans seven four says you were made
to die to the law through the body
of Christ, that you might be married to
another, him who is raised from the dead.
So we can say here in Romans six
and seven, we see three marriages.
A marriage to the old man, a marriage
to the law, and a marriage to Christ.
There's a lot of difference.
The old man is like a wicked husband
who beats me and hammers me and turns
me into a prostitute and destroys my life.
And here's a wife who's battered and hammered
by this wicked husband, longing for deliverance.
And one day, her husband dies.
The old man is dead.
Praise the Lord.
He's born again.
And now, this believer is now free to
marry.
But instead of marrying Christ, he makes a
mistake and marries someone who looks like Christ,
the law.
The law is perfect.
And it's very easy to mistake the law
for Christ because it demands righteousness.
The law is not like the old man
husband.
He doesn't hammer you or beat you or
do anything to trouble you.
But the law demands perfect.
You must get up promptly at six o
'clock.
You must cook the breakfast and have it
ready on the table by eight o'clock.
Not eight zero one.
Eight o'clock.
That's the law.
Every part of the house must be absolutely
tidy.
The shoes must be in the proper place.
The clothes must be washed without any stain
and ironed and kept.
And the house must be spick and span.
He never asks for anything evil.
Now, how many of you sisters would be
like to marry such a man who demands
perfection in every area?
You'll say, boy, this is like getting out
of the frying pan into the fire.
And he's a good man, but he's so
demanding.
He never asked for anything evil.
But I can never measure up to his
standards.
And then you realize you married the wrong
man.
So what to do?
And this husband, this law never dies.
He's so healthy.
He doesn't have any blood pressure, diabetes, nothing.
He's healthy and strong.
He lived forever because it's a law of
God.
So you give up all hope.
I'm married to this man.
And it says if the married man, verse
seven, verse two, is bound by law to
her husband as long as he's alive and
he's going to live forever.
That's what I think.
And that's right.
The law of God lives forever.
And the woman gives up all hope.
Then God does something else.
He makes the woman die.
That also breaks the marriage.
You were made to die.
Verse four.
First time the old man, the husband died.
Now you, the wife, you were made to
die.
And your relationship with the law is broken.
And now you're raised up from the dead.
And you're married.
You can be married now to Christ.
That is the third marriage.
Where Christ also is very demanding.
He also says breakfast must be on the
table at eight o'clock, eight zero one.
His, not eight zero one.
Everything must be spick and span.
The house must be clean because Jesus standards
are not less than the standards of the
law.
It's more actually.
The law said you shall not commit adultery.
I say unto you that you shall not
even lust in your heart.
His standard is even higher.
But there's a difference.
He says, let's you and I do it
together.
We'll make breakfast together.
And supposing you're one of those lazy wives
who can have breakfast ready only by one
o'clock in the afternoon or something like
that.
The Lord doesn't throw you out.
He says, nevermind.
We work together.
And you and the Lord work together.
And gradually next day breakfast is at 11
o'clock in the morning.
It's not bad.
Yesterday it was one o'clock.
Today it's 11 in the afternoon.
You're doing better.
And the Lord says, wonderful.
We have moved from one o'clock to
11 o'clock.
We gradually move towards eight o'clock.
We're going to press on to perfection.
And maybe you're the type of person who
washes clothes and still all the stains will
be there.
And the Lord says, nevermind.
We'll work on it.
The next time you wash the clothes, there
are just a few stains left.
And he said, nevermind.
We're going to press on to perfection till
you wash the clothes and there won't be
one stain left in it.
Do you see how the Lord works with
us?
He's not just giving us commands like the
law.
He works with us.
We are co-workers with him.
That's the type of husband Jesus is.
And a legalistic Christian is one who's got
all types of rules and regulations and he
makes rules and regulations for everybody else also.
He is in bondage and he brings everybody
else into bondage.
Whereas the Bible speaks of the glorious liberty
of the children of God.
I want to show you in chapter eight.
It says in verse 21 of chapter eight,
the freedom of the glory of the children
of God or the glorious freedom of the
children of God.
There is a freedom and a liberty in
Christ.
And in the latter part of chapter seven,
he speaks of the struggle that goes on
within us.
The thing which I want to do, verse
16, I agree with the Lord's good, but
I'm not doing what I want to do.
The good that I wish, verse 19, I
don't do, but I practice the evil that
I do.
Now, this is not speaking of deliberate sin.
It's not saying, well, I don't want to
commit adultery, but I keep committing it.
He's not talking about that.
Not that I don't want to commit murder,
but I somehow go and kill people.
He's not talking about that.
He's talking about things he doesn't understand.
Notice in verse 15, that which I'm doing,
I don't understand.
That whole section is about areas in my
life where I want to do it perfectly,
but I slip up.
For example, supposing you're a person with a
bad temper.
You're coming back from your work one day
and say, well, I've always lost my temper
when I go home.
And today I don't want to lose my
temper at home with my wife or my
children.
You don't want to.
And then something happens and the children irritate
you or something, and again, you've lost your
temper.
Now, you can't say that you planned and
schemed to do that.
Sometimes you may plan and scheme to do
evil to somebody else.
This doesn't fall into that category.
You really didn't want to fall into anger
and you fell.
That happens.
There, it was not your old man.
It was your new man was not strong
enough to keep the door shut.
And so you say, how can I ever
be free from this wretched life?
A lot of good things I want to
do, and I'm going to do them.
I didn't want to lust with my eyes
there, but I still slipped up.
Is there a way wretched man that I
am?
Verse 24.
Thanks be to God.
There is.
In chapter eight, we read, there is no
condemnation.
Chapter eight describes, first of all, freedom from
the penalty of sin.
Verse one, no condemnation, freedom from the power
of sin.
Chapter verse two to 17.
And then finally, verse 18 to 25, freedom
from the very presence of sin.
And chapter eight, verse two, he says, the
law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set me free from the law
of sin and death.
There is a law called the law of
sin and death.
It's like the law of gravity.
It always pulls you down.
But the law of the spirit is what?
There is a law of the spirit.
The law of the spirit is not thou
shalt thou shalt not so many things like
that.
It's life.
It's life in Christ Jesus.
Let me give you an example.
Here is the law of sin and death
demonstrated by the law of gravity.
You see this?
The law of gravity pulls it down all
the time.
You can't stop the law of gravity.
Anything you leave drops.
Now, why is this book not falling?
Because I'm holding it up.
Is the law of gravity suspended in this
area?
Has it stopped operating?
No.
But another law, the law of life in
my body is overcoming this law of gravity,
so this book is not falling.
That's the meaning of Romans eight two.
The law of sin and death is still
working, pulling us down, pulling us down, pulling
us down.
But if I allow Jesus to hold me,
he is able to keep me from falling.
That's what Jude 24 says.
So the law of life in Christ Jesus,
which is the law of the spirit, is
able to keep me from falling into the
law of sin and death as long as
I allow the Lord to hold me.
This is how I am an overcomer.
What glory do I have for it?
What glory does this book have for not
falling?
All the credit goes to the life that's
holding it up.
But I've got to cooperate.
See, there's a difference between the book and
me in the sense that the book has
got no will of its own.
I have a will.
I can choose to jump out of that
hand and then I fall.
But if I submit and yield to the
Lord completely, he can keep me forever.
So I'm not saying a believer won't fall.
I'm saying that a believer need not fall.
And there's a lot of difference.
It depends on how much you yield and
trust the Lord.
Romans eight is a wonderful chapter.
I don't have time to go into all
the details, but let me just read something
here.
Verse 28 is a lovely verse.
God makes all things work together for good
to those who love him, to those who
are called according to his purpose.
See, this is the wonderful position into which
the gospel brings us.
We've seen how we started off as filthy
sinners and now we receive the gift of
forgiveness.
We go on to trusting God to declare
us righteous and move on to overcoming sin,
being free from the law.
And Romans eight speaks about life in the
Holy Spirit.
In chapter seven, forty-five times these words
come.
I, me, mine.
Forty-five times.
This is a picture of my struggle.
In chapter eight, it's not about I, me
and mine.
Nineteen times you read the word spirit, spirit,
spirit.
Romans eight is talking about life in the
spirit.
And when we come into this life where
the Holy Spirit, I submitted to the Holy
Spirit, God Almighty, God, my father, works in
all the circumstances of my life to make
everything work for my good.
Even if other people try to harm me,
it works for my good.
It's a wonderful gospel.
If you can believe Romans eight, twenty-eight,
you'll never be afraid of another man for
the rest of your life.
You'll never be afraid of any circumstance.
You'll never be afraid of road accidents or
cancer or anti-Christian people who try to
harm you.
If you believe that God is sovereign and
he's watching everything and everyone and he makes
everything, all things, Romans eight, twenty-eight means
all things.
Now, if Romans eight, twenty-eight had said
God makes most things work for our good,
then we should read in Ephesians five, twenty,
give thanks for most things.
And one Thessalonians five, eighteen, give thanks for
most things.
But since Romans eight, twenty-eight says God
works all things for our good, therefore one
Thessalonians five, eighteen and Ephesians five, twenty says
we give thanks for all things.
See, one is dependent on the other.
If God is in control of only ninety
percent of the circumstances in my life, I
can give thanks only for that ninety percent.
The remaining ten percent the devil controls.
But it's not true.
Romans eight, twenty-eight is absolute, all things.
And for many, many years I have believed
it and I've lived in the good of
it.
It's like this aqua guard filter.
You know, this water filter.
You pour filthy water in one side, they
demonstrate it for you, these people who bring
that equipment and you get clean water here.
Romans eight, twenty-eight is like that.
It's a filter.
Somebody tries to do evil to me, it
comes out for my good.
And if aqua guard can do it perfectly,
I tell you, God can do it much
more perfectly.
You wouldn't buy aqua guard unless you had
faith in it, that that filter could do
the job.
Do you believe that God can do it?
When his word says, if you believe it
for the rest of your life, you live
in this filter.
I've lived in it for many, many years
and I'm very, very blessed man.
Whether you pour clean water or dirty water,
it comes out clean here.
Whether people seek to do good to me
or bad to me, it always comes out
good for me.
Always.
I'm 61 years old now.
No one has ever, ever, ever, ever been
able to do harm to me till today.
Many have tried.
Many have spread scandals about me, false stories
and harmed me and tried to trap me
here, trap me there.
I've got a lot of people who hate
me because I stand up for the truth
of the gospel, but harm me.
None of them, because I live in Romans
8, 28.
You can live there all your life.
If you yield yourself totally to God, let
him hold you.
Always say, Lord, I have no ambition except
to do your will on earth.
I have no desire to make money, get
honor.
I don't want to be famous.
I don't want to be rich.
I don't want to be popular.
I don't want to seek my own comfort.
I don't want a single thing on earth
except to do your will, wherever it is.
Let it be in the most difficult place
in the world.
I'll do your will.
I'm not going to criticize other believers.
I'm going to judge myself and do your
will.
I only want to do your will, whatever
you say, whatever the cost.
Romans 8, 28 is yours because it says
it's not for everybody.
It's for those who love God and are
called according to his purpose.
If you don't want his purpose for your
life, Romans 8, 28 doesn't work for you.
If you got your own private agenda and
you got something you plan to do for
your own life, well, God bless you, brother,
sister, but Romans 8, 28 is not for
you.
If you're seeking comfort on this earth and
ease for yourself and pretending to serve the
Lord when you're seeking your own gain and
profit, brother, forget it.
Romans 8, 28 is not for you.
But if you can go to God and
say, Lord, I've got no purpose on earth
except your purpose.
I've got no ambition on earth except what
you plan for me.
Then Romans 8, 28 is for you.
So I don't believe that the vast majority
of Christians live in Romans 8, 28.
In fact, very, very few believers live in
Romans 8, 28 because most believers have got
their own private agenda.
They've got their own plan and they also
want God to come and bless them.
Well, I don't know what promises there are
for you then, but this is for those
who are called according to his purpose and
who love him with all their hearts.
Be one of them and your life will
be blessed on earth because then you can
say, only such people can say, verse 31,
if God is for us, who is against
us?
And all the rest of those wonderful verses
are for such people.
Nobody can be against me.
God is on my side.
Jesus Christ intercedes for me and he will
freely give me, verse 32, everything.
No one can bring a charge against me.
No one can condemn me, verse 33 and
34.
No one can separate me from the love
of Christ.
What a blessed position, even tribulation or the
sword.
Somebody can chop off my head, but he
can't separate me from the love of Christ.
Here's a man who is, verse 37, more
than a conqueror.
Do you want to be more than a
conqueror, an overwhelming conqueror?
This is the way.
This is the gospel leading us to the
height of triumph in our personal life.
In chapter 9, 10, and 11, we read
here that this is more about Israel.
It's like something written in brackets.
Chapter 9 deals with God's sovereignty, God's sovereign
choice, which applies to us also.
Chapter 10 deals with God's righteousness, the way
of righteousness.
And chapter 11 deals with God's faithfulness.
We could look at it another way.
Chapter 9 deals with God's election of Israel.
Chapter 10 deals with God's rejection of Israel.
And chapter 11 deals with God's restoration of
Israel.
See, Israel was chosen sovereignly.
Now, we must not misunderstand this as though
God predestined some people to go to hell.
It's not true.
God does not predestine anybody to go to
hell.
He does not predestine anyone to go to
heaven.
What was Israel chosen for?
He speaks about, I chose you.
I chose Jacob and not Esau.
We read in verse 11 to 13.
What for?
Was Israel chosen to populate heaven?
No.
Israel was chosen for a ministry on earth.
Please remember that.
Here is God's sovereign election for a ministry
on earth.
All people who are descendants of Jacob haven't
gone to heaven.
We saw that even Solomon went to hell.
So, it's not a question of being chosen
to go to heaven.
And for our ministry on earth, we must
recognize that God chooses us sovereignly.
You can't have the ministry you want.
God chose Israel for a particular ministry.
Why didn't He choose Egypt or China?
We can't question God.
He decides that.
Why has God given one brother a preaching
gift and He hasn't given it to you?
You can't question God.
That's His.
He may have given one brother a healing
gift and He hasn't given it to you.
We don't question God.
God's got a ministry for you and in
His sovereignty He chooses.
So, He doesn't predestine you to go to
heaven or to hell.
But the sovereignty of God, which we saw
in Romans 8.28, that controls all circumstances,
is also mentioned in chapter 9 as something
that chooses us for a particular task.
He prepares us as a vessel to accomplish
a certain purpose on earth.
Even Pharaoh, we read in 9.17, was
raised up to fulfill a certain purpose.
He didn't respond to God.
He could have repented, but he didn't.
He hardened his heart and so God says,
okay, I'll demonstrate my power through your hardening
your heart.
So, that's what we see.
In chapter 10, it speaks about how righteousness,
He says that the Jews did not achieve
righteousness for 9.31 because they pursued it
in the wrong way.
How do we come to this righteousness?
10.6 and 7 and 8.
It's not by something outside us, but it
says here, the word of faith is in
your mouth.
If you, verse 9, if you confess with
your mouth and believe in your heart, you
shall be saved.
There it speaks of the necessity of confession
with our mouth.
I believe in my heart and I confess.
Now, don't confuse this with a lot of
people telling you to confess all types of
things today.
Confess that I'll have a car or I'll
have a house.
You can only confess what God has written
in His word.
Romans 10.17, faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of Christ.
You have to start not with what you
want.
A lot of people today are being told,
ask God for what you want and trust
Him.
No, start with the word of God.
And the word of Christ refers especially to
the New Testament.
Start with some New Testament promise.
Sin shall not have dominion over you.
Good promise to start with.
Now, confess it with your mouth if you
believe it.
Do you believe that's God's word?
Maybe you're thoroughly defeated by sin.
Confess like Abraham said, I'm the father of
a multitude when he didn't even have one
son.
You say, sin will not have dominion over
me, even though you're thoroughly defeated by sin.
I know the number of times I told
that to the devil for years when I
was defeated.
I said, yes, I'm defeated.
But Satan, one of these days, sin will
not rule me anymore.
Confess that to God.
And then we shall be saved from the
power of sin.
Romans 11 speaks about God's faithfulness and tells
us not to be proud because of God
has been good to us.
There is a very strong word in verse
20.
Do not be conceited, but fear.
Because if God cut off the natural branches,
verse 21, neither will he spare you.
Romans chapter 11 teaches you can be in
and like God cut off the other branches,
he can cut you off also if you
become high-minded and proud.
Now, there are some people who feel that
once you're grafted into Christ, even Almighty God
will not cut you off.
But you read Romans chapter 11, that's not
what it says.
If you're high-minded, verse 20 and 21,
if he didn't spare the natural branches, neither
will he spare you.
He can cut you off.
So humble yourself.
Romans chapter 12.
In view of this fantastic gospel and these
tremendous mercies of God, what should you do?
God doesn't want your money.
He wants your body.
Present your body like the Old Testament burnt
offering and say, Lord, this is a wonderful
gospel.
I want to present my body to you.
Here is all my body, every part of
it, my eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, and
all my internal passions, ambitions, everything is on
the altar.
It's yours, my thoughts.
I present it to you.
That's the first thing.
Secondly, I must allow God to transform, to
renew my mind, verse 2.
First, my body, verse 1.
And second, my mind.
Allow God to renew your mind.
And that comes by saturating your mind with
the word of God.
A lot of us have tremendous problems with
dirty thoughts.
Why is that?
Because we are used, we have been used
in our past life to thinking along certain
lines, certain pattern of thought.
And now God wants to change our way
of thinking, that we don't think like the
worldly person anymore, but think like God thinks.
That is the renewal of our mind.
From the time we are born again, you
see, as soon as you're born again, you
don't think like God thinks in everything.
No, you probably think like God thinks in
0.001% of things.
But from that point, God wants to change
your way of thinking, so that you look
at everything like God looks at it.
You look at money the way God looks
at it, not like the world looks at
it.
Have you started looking at money the way
God looks at it?
You start looking at women the way God
looks at them, not the way the world
looks at them.
The world despises them or lusts after them.
God doesn't do either.
So you see, there are many areas where
our way of thinking has to change to
God's way of thinking.
That's called the renewal of our mind.
You look at your enemies the way Jesus
looks at them, not the way the world
looks at their enemies.
The world hates their enemies.
Jesus loved his enemies.
Our mind has to be renewed in every
area.
And that comes as we read God's word
and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us,
it says in verse 2, by the renewing
of our mind.
Transformation takes place inside.
Be not conformed to this world, verse 2.
Verse 2 teaches us that worldliness is in
your mind first.
Now most believers think that worldliness is in
a dress.
If some brother or sister wears a very
colorful dress, they say, oh, he's worldly.
And if he wears a very simple dress,
they say, oh, he's not worldly.
I wish it were so easy to get
rid of worldliness.
It isn't.
Worldliness is in the mind.
It's because of a certain trend of mind
that we do certain things.
A person may dress very simply and be
a fantastic lover of money.
He's more worldly than that other person who
wears a very gaudy dress and is a
very generous brother.
Do you know that?
God doesn't see as man sees.
Man sees the outward appearance.
Worldliness is in the mind.
God has to change us in our mind.
We are more concerned about changing our dress
and our appearance because we care for the
honor of men.
A true disciple of Jesus cares for the
honor of God.
Now, when we present our body and our
mind like this, we can understand God's perfect
will.
It says in verse 2, we can prove
the perfect will of God.
If you don't present your body and don't
give your mind to be transformed, you will
not be able to find God's perfect will.
In the remaining passages, he speaks about the
body of Christ.
You see, the goal of the gospel is
not just individual salvation like we came in
Romans 8.
It's to become a part of the body
of Christ where we, in humility, exercise the
gifts God has given us.
Verse 6, the person who prophesies in prophecy,
the person who serves in service.
There's a list of gifts that God gives
us.
It's not only in 1 Corinthians 12.
Here's a list of the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
Verse 6 to 8.
And there's one gift here which many people
don't seek for.
Verse 8.
That's the gift of giving money to other
people.
Many people don't want that gift.
The gift of generosity.
And it goes on to speak in the
rest of that chapter how we are to
relate to other people in the body of
Christ.
He says, mingle with people.
Don't be haughty in your mind.
Verse 16.
But associate with lowly people.
Don't just mingle with big shots.
Associate with poor, lowly people in the body
of Christ.
It's teaching us how to live with other
members of the body.
And if somebody harms you, verse 19, never,
never, never, never, never, you could say it
a million times, never take your own revenge.
Because vengeance belongs to God.
You have no right to take revenge.
You cannot take God's glory and you cannot
take revenge.
To take revenge on someone is just like
getting somebody to worship you.
Worship belongs to God.
Vengeance also belongs to God.
If you cannot receive worship, you cannot take
vengeance.
Please remember that.
That you have to allow God to take
revenge on your behalf.
Chapter 13 speaks about submission to the government.
Chapter 12 speaks about submission to, first part
speaks of submission to God.
Verse 1 and 2.
Then it goes on to speak about submission
within the body of Christ.
And the gospel leads us to submit to
secular authorities.
To pay our taxes.
Like it says in verse 7.
To submit to government authorities.
Because they are also appointed by God.
And chapter 14 and 15 speak about accepting
one another in the body of Christ.
In the body of Christ, we all don't
think alike yet.
One day, when Christ comes again, and our
minds become perfect, we will agree 100%
in doctrine, outlook, we will recognize what is
true spirituality, what is soulishness, what is worldliness.
Today we have little different opinions, because all
of us are growing.
None of us are perfect.
And because none of us are perfect, none
of us have a perfectly clear understanding of
everything.
We see through a glass darkly, Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 13.
And so, I must recognize that when I
see something different in you, your opinion about
something is different from mine, don't take that
stubborn, I should not take that stubborn position
which says I'm right and you're wrong.
This is how divisions come.
Now if you're dividing because somebody is saying
that Christ was not God and he's only
a man, definitely we need to divide.
I would even divide with a person in
building a church if he says you got
to baptize children who are not born again.
I'd say no, you must baptize people who
are born again.
Okay, there's some things like that where we
have to unfortunately separate.
But even with such people, if they are
born again, here's a brother for example who's
baptized as a child and believes in child
baptism and I believe in adult believers baptism,
even though we may not be able to
work together in the same church because of
different convictions, I must still accept him as
a brother in Christ because God has accepted
him.
I must be warm to him.
I must fellowship with him.
There are many people we can fellowship with,
with whom we may not be able to
work together.
Working together involves closer alignment of conviction.
But fellowship can be with all of God's
people.
Unfortunately, the tragedy today is many people feel
if I can't work with a person, I
can't fellowship with him.
This is crazy.
That's where Romans 14 and 15 come in.
Do you see a brother who's weak in
the faith?
Accept him.
How should I accept him?
Chapter 15, verse 7.
Just as Christ accepted you.
Did Christ accept any of you when you
were perfect?
No.
He didn't accept me when I was perfect.
Why do you wait till he becomes perfect
before you accept him?
If Jesus can accept you as an imperfect
person with so many weaknesses, think how weak
and stupid and foolish you were when the
day you were born again.
You knew hardly anything.
You were still defeated.
And even after you were born again, the
Lord knew how many sins you would commit,
and he still accepted you.
He knew how many things you were wrong
in, and he still accepted you.
Can you accept that brother who is wrong
in some areas, but who loves the Lord,
whom Christ has accepted?
If you can't, I'm sorry to say this,
but you're a cultist.
This is how cults are built.
Cults are built not only by wrong doctrine.
Cults are much more built by wrong attitudes
to others of God's children.
You can't accept that child of God because
he doesn't agree with you in some doctrine.
That's what Romans 14 and 15 is all
about.
Don't make your petty little rules and things
like that so important that you cut off
somebody from fellowship just because he doesn't agree
with you in some area.
So Romans 15, 7 says, accept one another.
And Romans 14, 10 says, why do you
judge your brother?
That is an outward action.
And why do you regard your brother with
contempt?
That is an inward attitude.
He says, don't have the outward action of
judging, and don't have the inward attitude of
looking down on him.
Both must be avoided.
And when we come like this, we come
to the end, the culmination of the gospel,
where we together with one mouth and with
one voice, verse 6, glorify God as one
body in Christ.
This is God's will, that together with one
voice, even though that brother doesn't see eye
to eye with me in certain things, we
can glorify God.
And then in chapter 16, he gives greetings
to all the different people in Rome.
And I just want you to notice one
thing here, that in the church in Rome,
if you read from verses 5 to 15,
you read there were five house churches.
They didn't all meet together.
There was a large church there in Rome,
but they met in five different houses.
It says in the house of this person
and those who were with this person and
those who are meeting with this person, five
house churches in one city.
They met in little groups.
That's how the church met.
And Paul, even though he had never been
to Rome, took sufficient interest in the church
in Rome to know different people there and
to give him his greetings.
There's a little expression that comes in verse
26, the obedience of faith, which also comes
in the beginning of the first chapter.
Paul says, God has given me this calling
to lead people not only to faith, but
to obey what they believe.
Have you believed something this morning?
May you be led to the obedience of
faith.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, help us to honor you and
to enjoy the fullness of the gospel of
God, described in this wonderful book.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.