[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]

       Turn in your Bibles, or tap in your Bible apps to Romans chapter 1 in the New Testament, in the New Testament. Today, we are going to start an entire series on the Book of Romans, and spend the next many months going over this book, verse by verse. There is perhaps no other Book in the whole entire Bible, whether you consider either the Old or New Testament, that is perhaps more famous, liked, and loved than Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Especially considering chapters 5 through 8, most of us have come to call these passages among our favorites in Scripture.

       The background behind this well loved book is, well, to tell the Roman believers about great foundational truths pertaining to Jesus Christ, to Christianity as a whole. Now, this book is not written primarily for Jewish people, though it definitely contains sections addressed to Jews. The focus is for those of the church in Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire. This would be comparable in some ways to Washington, D.C., or say, New York City or Los Angeles in the United States today. Paul always ministered to the major cities of his time. He went straight to the heart of the unbelieving world. If he got to the heart, he knew the other areas would get his message as well. Now, the members of church of Rome did not know Paul personally, as becomes clear in chapter 1. However, Paul did wish to come and get to know them. As this was likely in the 50s A.D., some twenty or more years after Christ’s ascension into Heaven, the church had stemmed from the first church in Jerusalem.

       One thing we have come to learn, as we’ve studied the New Testament over time is that the Apostle Paul is a servant. That is what God called him to be. A servant is one who serves others, who spends his time doing good things for others of which they cannot do themselves, or of which the servant can do better. That’s why he or she serves. He or she spends time helping others. Now Paul did this through teaching the love of Christ, which we see throughout his epistles. And he also modeled his behavior toward them in some instances. But mainly his governing was by words.

       Not only this, but also Paul, as we are all familiar with, was the great evangelist. “On what authority?” one might ask. Well, Jesus was the one who called him to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, and this without even the approval of the church’s headquarters in Jerusalem, at least for a large part of his ministry. Jesus called him and appointed him. During his time, Paul went from city to city, and evangelized to the different people groups who lived there. The Bible tells us that he would go to the marketplace and preach to people. We as current day folks would likely consider this kind of preaching to be old fashioned, or one that is reserved for radicals. But this is the way Paul preached. And, of course, just as Jesus taught, his preaching included water baptism, the casting out of demons, and even the healing of the sick. Paul took Jesus’ words that we read in Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” seriously.

       So, we read, starting in verse 1 of Romans chapter 1: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:1-3, ESV).

       Now, as Paul stated, he was called to be an Apostle. Theologians have differed on what the calling of apostleship encompasses. Some think that people can be Apostles today. An Apostle is a special messager, one who is set apart and sent by Christ—and that word is key—’sent’ by Jesus to accomplish a special mission. It’s a special calling. On another occasion, recall, Paul would use the word “ambassador.” We know what an ambassador is. We see on the news the ambassador from our country going to another country, and that person is sent by our President with a special message, a special mission, a work to be accomplished.

       Do we still have apostles today? It seems to me best to understand the term of apostle as pertaining to one of Jesus’ close disciples whom he gave the special task of the Gospel but who was a witness of the things of Jesus’ time—a person who saw Christ with their own eyes. In fact, we see Jesus choose the Twelve originally in Luke 6:13. It says, “And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” (ESV). We know that Matthias would be chosen later by Peter and the first church to replace Judas. That, then, would make Paul number thirteen. Paul was the last person to be called individually by Christ in person, in a one-on-one calling, so to speak, like the other Twelve. How did this happen? You remember. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him while he was traveling to persecute people in the early church. No doubt the early church during the time of Paul used the term to describe some of those messengers who were eyewitness of the things pertaining to Jesus, but let’s not get into that.

       All throughout the Old Testament, in many different places, God promised his chosen people, the Israelites, that he would send a Messiah, one who would save them from the tyranny of their sins. He was one who would make everything right, who would establish a kingdom for the Israelites, one that is everlasting. If you talk to Jewish folks today, they will tell you that Jesus is the Gentile Messiah—that they are still waiting on theirs. They will also tell you that their messiah is going to make everything right for them, that everything will be good for Israel when he comes. Yet, Jesus Christ has already fulfilled the prophecies that God laid out in the Old Testament. He is the one, and was the one, who matches the descriptions, who, as the four Gospel writers lay out, has died for the sins of his people and resurrected back to life. And he is the one who promises them a kingdom in the future. The Jews will get the messiah they are waiting for, but we all know how that is going to go.

       Back in the text: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1-7, ESV).

       Let us focus on the fact that Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power.” There’s no doubt about it. When God made his Son known to Israel, he accompanied his bringing of the Messiah with signs and wonders, signs and wonders. They were everywhere. The Gospel writers show us many of these events. Whether it was the casting out of demons, healing the sick of various kinds of diseases and ailments, or even raising dead people back to life, there were great signs that accompanied Jesus’ ministry. Evidence was prevalent for the skeptics of heart. The Jews demand a sign, there’s no doubt about that. And God gave them plenty. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is always accompanied by signs. Always. I’m sure many of you have personal experience with this. The mere fact that we got saved in the first place is often a sign and wonder for many of us.

       Some Jews will tell you that Jesus was a good moral teacher. Yes, he was a good teacher, but he was much more than that. It always confuses me how some want to say he was a moral teacher but then deny his claims about being the Son of God. But this is just not limited to Jewish people. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on this subject. Why, he edited a whole entire New Testament that excluded most of any passage that included supernatural power, and any claim that Jesus was the Christ. Take away the “power” though, from the Son of God, and you have no Son of God. You have just a moral teacher, and really one that isn’t good. The power of Jesus, from God, is important. The signs show, visible to all, that Jesus is the Son of God, one who can be depended on and trusted. Without the power, you have no true Son of God.

       And that’s interesting, isn’t it? For me, personally, this is something God has taught me over time. I have had to learn that with Jesus comes power, power to help us in time of need, power over demonic activity and oppression against us, power to heal our bodies of sicknesses… with Jesus, there is power. Unfortunately, I would have to say and report that many Christian brothers and sisters in the United States at least, have a disconnect with God’s power. I call them Christian deists. I know there really are Christian deists, but the people I’m talking about are the ones that fail to recognize God’s power. These folks are those “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” as Paul told Timothy (2 Timothy 3:5, ESV). I don’t want to take too high a horse here, as I am still learning, but I will say that many brothers and sisters believe that the power of God is limited mostly to remote regions of other countries, like in Africa, or China, or India. They really don’t believe that God’s power is here now, and can work in their lives. The power comes from believing, as we read in verse 8.

       “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you” (Romans 1:8-10, ESV).

       Now, the Christian deist would define “faith” here as just the simple act of the Roman believers actually believing, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Faith is necessary, isn’t it? Without faith, we really cannot live the Christian life. I recall living without faith… living with theoretical knowledge of Jesus Christ. Faith, though, faith is living and active. It is what we really believe. We can say we believe God will take care of us. We can say that, sure, that’s no problem. But when God is telling you to start a ministry, and even though your afraid, or you feel you may not have the strength and time to do what it requires, but you start it anyway, believing that God will take care of you nonetheless, that he will provide all your needs according to his riches and goodness, because you feel that’s what he wants you to do, that’s real faith, isn’t it? But if, when the time comes, you rationalize your way out of for fear it won’t go the way you want it to go, then you really don’t have faith, do you? Our faith is demonstrated.

       Faith is often avoided and stopped, and then replaced with wisdom. This is a so-called wisdom I should say. We can refuse to exercise faith saying that by doing so we are not being wise. One thing that God has been teaching me lately is that a failure to use faith can actually be a ‘control’ issue. We like to be in control. We want to feel we are in control of the various situations or circumstances of our lives. When we use faith, though, we are not in control. We have to forfeit the feeling of being in control. The man or woman who lives by wisdom over faith is the person who cares too much about being in control. They feel if they can control everything, there is nothing to worry about. And yet, God asks us to do things with an attitude of faith, to live stepping out without seeing the whole picture, or without the end result in front of us. That is faith indeed.

       Now Paul always mentioned the Roman believers in his prayers. So he shows us how significant it is then to be lifting up our brothers and sisters in prayer. This includes those who belong to our local congregation and those whom we know or are aware of in other areas—whether that is locally, or nationally, or throughout the world. And, on a personal level, Paul’s desire was that he could minister to them. Again, we see here Paul’s servants heart. Yes, God places various things on all our hearts, as we are going to see here shortly. Those things on our hearts, those heart desires we have, are often from the Spirit of God himself. They aren’t just our thoughts and desires. God gives us the heart drive for others in the body, so we can follow him by following what he has placed in our hearts.

       Verse 11: “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:11-17 ESV).

       So, we minister to our fellow members of Christ’s body by using our spiritual gifts, those things that we have a heart’s desire to perform. These are not mechanical. This is not the following of commandments from Jesus or Paul in being obedient to God. God is more than that. He aligns our obedience with our desires. Note how Paul said, “I long to see you.” It wasn’t that he said, “God commanded me to come to you so I am coming.” Do you know there are people who are serving as missionaries right now in different parts of the world who God never called to be missionaries? Do you know that there are people who are preachers right now whom God never called? It’s true, because, again, with God’s call always comes a corresponding heart’s desire to accomplish the task. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t use the uncalled individuals; he can still use them. But they weren’t called for that particular task.

       It’s a wonderful thing to be encouraged by a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Sometimes we go six or seven days with no encouragement, no direct contact with a brother, and then we go to church on Sunday morning and instantly feel better in a short matter of time. Yes, this is a great thing, isn’t it? It’s nice to know there are others who believe what we believe, especially for those of us who work in secular workplaces, those with mostly unbelievers. It can be easy to get bogged down in the world. Paul longed to be encouraged by the Romans. It’s nice to see others faith in action—to see others counting on God for the same things we are counting on him for. Witnessing the active faith of others can strengthen and grow our own faith. That’s one reason why it’s so important to be involved with a group of brothers and sisters.

       Paul spends some time here telling the Romans about how he is God’s minister to the Gentiles—the man sent by God to bear witness to them of Christ. God had called Paul to be the lead evangelist and teacher to the Gentiles. You remember. The Apostle Peter was the one called to the Jews—the Jews were his primary responsibility. If fact, Paul tells us here that the Gospel is for the Jew first. This is because the Jews were God’s original chosen people, and that still holds true today. The whole Old Testament is God’s dealings with Israel, the Jews. This is the race of people that God called to be his. And as we will see later in Romans, the Gentile believers came in due to Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, as I said, a rejection that unfortunately still holds true today. But please pray. Jews are coming to Christ.

       Again, we see Paul uses the word power here in describing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (ESV). That’s salvation he’s talking about—both salvation for eternity, being saved from our sins and living with God forever in complete happiness, but also salvation for us now, in this life. For Paul will tell us how we become new creations, or as Jesus put it, we are born again. We don’t have to wait for Heaven to experience salvation. We experienced salvation in our lives from the moment we believe. God transforms our spiritual man, though, we still struggle with the fleshly man.

       I was trying to come up with an illustration to understand the old man versus the new man. Most of you will likely can think back on the scene from the old Superman movie, the third one actually with Christopher Reeve as star, where the Krypto-infected, depraved Superman lands in the junkyard after he’s been on his errands of destructiveness around the world. Recall, he landed there in the junkyard, and as he’s standing there, Clark Kent comes forward from out of him, as if he was a spirit coming out of him who becomes a man. And Clark Kent here represents the good side of Superman. And, as we can bring to mind, the two fight it out in the junkyard, with the the good Superman finally prevailing over the bad one. And the bad one ceases to exist. That is what it is like for us when we are saved. The focus and goal of the bad Superman was to go about causing trouble, living by his own destructive and selfish standards. On the other hand, the good Superman’s purpose and goal is to serve others, to live by faith that he can accomplish the job of saving and helping people. That doesn’t mean he’s perfect. He lives in the freedom to accomplish what is right (1).

       Anyway, back in the text, then, as we read, Paul makes the big statement, “The righteous shall live by faith.” If we consider that we still struggle with our flesh, as believers, then that is one area in which we are going to have to live by faith. We are going to need to have faith in God’s mercy wherever it is that we lack. We have faith that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This tears down our pride in our falsified feeling that we are perfect. We also exercise our faith by doing what we cannot really do—but accomplishing our individual calls in life. We use faith to go and do whatever it is that God has called us to do. If we think we can do it already, that we don’t need faith, I think we better rethink that. That’s what the person does who goes overseas without being called, or who preaches without the call of God. Remember when God called Moses? He said he couldn’t do it. Or Jeremiah, or Jonah? Many in the Bible originally said they couldn’t do it, and may have even halfway in believed they couldn’t do it. What’d they do? They relied on God’s faith to accomplish God’s work. If you think you can do it all by yourself, without faith, it’s not going to have God’s anointing on it. We must live by faith.

       Time to move on to the other side of God, that is, his wrath. We read: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:18-23, ESV).

       To suppress the truth, suppressing the truth—that is a pretty serious problem. Yet, that’s the goal for us when we don’t believe. That’s the goal of the unbeliever. I know; I remember back when I wasn’t a Christian. The person who doesn’t believe has to suppress the truth to continue living in sin, to continue being unrighteous. If one does not suppress the truth, one’s sin comes out to be shown as sin. It’s not that people are afraid to flaunt their sin before others. Actually, they often love to do that. They just don’t want it to be seen as sin. No sin equals no accountability or responsibility. People suppress the truth by ignoring, denying, and refuting. Often, it’s easy just to ignore the truth. When that cannot be done, one may deny the truth’s authority or try to refute the principle as actually being truth. Christian’s can do this too—they can suppress the truth. This is something we definitely do not want to do.

       Paul talks about the creation, our surrounding world, as bearing witness to the fact that there is a God. What we see around us shows us that there is a Creator to all of this. I remember when I became a Christian that I gained such an appreciation for the natural world. When I would look at the flowers, trees, the blue sky, the blue ocean, whatever I considered, with my new faith everything had meaning behind it. It all felt fresh and new—the suppression or blindedness of my unsaved perspective was gone. Before, the ocean was just the ocean. There was no depth to it; no peace in beholding it on the shore. I was too shallow, too consumed in the flesh to stop and really appreciate it. It only makes good sense that the intricate complexity of everything shows that someone designed what we see.

       And yet people have suppressed the unmistakeable and undeniable evidence of the natural world in recent times by trying to use science. Theories like Evolution, which really is a theory and not fact like many folks try to tell us (your friends, my friends), and the Big Bang Theory seek to eliminate God from the equation. It is so incredibly obvious, Paul states. Even deists like Thomas Jefferson, during his time (which was not too long ago; 200 years ago) believed in a creator. And when people in the past didn't believe in the real Creator, they would create one themselves. It had always been absurd not to believe in a Creator, that is, until say, the last hundred years or so. There was never any argument that there was a creator. This isn’t advancement in science or smarter thinking; see the depravity of the human heart. A sign that we are in the end times I think.

       Anyhow, Paul gives us an explicit picture here of what it looks like when people suppress the Truth, and he gives the most extreme of examples. “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:24-27, ESV).

       The rejection of the True God leads people into idolatry, obviously. They create their own gods that have been manufactured from their own minds. Since they have created them, they can make them do or say whatever they want. But really, there is much more to it than that. Paul tells us elsewhere that behind every form of false religion is a demon, that is, behind all the false religions of the world lies demonic activity. Demons rule and control false religion, and carry people along to believe error. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (ESV). That’s what false religion really does. Jesus contrasted that in the next sentence: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, ESV). True life, then, true truth, only exists in a life of faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

       The total depravity of mankind, as we have come to call it, then is demonstrated in not only false religion, but in sinful actions, namely the practice of homosexuality. This form of sin is among the chief forms of sin in God’s eyes. And, as we know, if that’s the way God sees it, that’s the way it really is. There has been such a move in recent times in our society for the acceptance of the practice of homosexuality, so much so that one who disagrees with it, one who believes that it’s not right, is often maligned. Certainly the prevalence of this sin is a sign that we heading straight toward the end of our current world setup so that God’s kingdom can come for the Jewish people. A fellow Christian might say, “Nah, homosexuality has existed a long time, and is no sign of the end of time.” Homosexuality has existed for quite a long time, but I think it’s safe to say that it is most prevalent around the world now than ever, and probably had not since this kind of prevalence since before the Flood of Noah, in the previous world setup.

       And how do people who practice this sin receive “in themselves the due penalty for their error”? I don’t think we need much explanation here. We know of the diseases and the promiscuity associated with this sin. God judges, and his judgment is just.

       Paul finishes up with text here with a list of the lesser sins, but nonetheless still grotesk: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32, ESV).

       I want us to look at the beginning of verse 28 in the King James Version. It says, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Paul has already explained how people have the ability to know what is right, to be able to recognize God in what they see around them. People have this ability which what? Which gives them responsibility. The evil person is one who does not retain God in their knowledge. He or she does things without God's input in any and every area of life. People often see themselves as good, but no one is really good outside of faith, trusting in, Jesus Christ’s righteousness. Jesus makes us good. We have to have him in the forefront of our knowledge, since all things were created by him and for him. But it is by people's shunning of God's truth, their failure to acknowledge it and live by it, that they are coming to ruin. They fail to give God glory, and rather give their God-absent intellects the glory. And Paul explains then how people do this.

       So, these are the characteristics of the sin nature. Men and women, in their absence of God, have become totally depraved. People fellowship with their fellow peoples in their sin. This is in order to feel better about the fact they living in sin. You don't have to look very far to see this. The more who are doing a sin and approving a sin, the less bad people feel. That’s why there’s often that disconnect that we experience with unbelievers. We don’t feel comfortable sharing in their fellowship. And it’s these sinful characteristics that Paul mentioned, that, we as believers, should be seeking to eliminate from our lives. Notice that things like gossiping, or being faithless, or even being heartless are in fact sins. Some of these things here in Paul’s list we don’t always think of as sin, or we just try to water them down as ‘bad habits.’ But we need to have faith that, through God’s help and only by his help, we can eliminate the dominance of these sins from our lives and live in obedience to God, being pleasing to him.

       Today, if you’re a person who finds him or herself in bondage to sin, and you know that you are not following the right way of living, you know you’re not following God, the Good News is that you can come to God today. Anyone can. God leaves open the door of eternal salvation to anyone who will believe in his Son, Jesus Christ.

-Daniel Litton

Reference:

(1) Spengler, Pierre (Producer), & Lester, Richard (Director). (1983). Superman III [Motion picture]. United States of America: Warner Brothers.