(#470) Romans 15 - You Don't Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

Class Outline:

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What's important is that God the Father makes the seed grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome To 

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries… a small, intimate, and local Christian Church with worldwide impact.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  At Barah Ministries, our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We make a difference by teaching the Word of God from God’s perspective, and not from man’s perspective…because how God sees things is very different from how we see things. 

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

You Don’t Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

 

God demanded that the members of The Jewish Race do something to be saved.  All they had to do is to keep the perfect law…perfectly. They couldn’t do it.  They couldn’t save themselves by keeping the law perfectly.  As Gentiles, God doesn’t ask us to do a thing for salvation, and many of us STILL cannot just do nothing.  Many of us Gentiles want to help God by doing things to earn our salvation.  And like the members of The Jewish Race, we can’t do it. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

 

When you are evangelizing…telling your friends the gospel message…the good news about what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us all at the Cross...are you a bold enough Christians to go out and tell all your friends they don’t have to do anything to be saved? In today’s lesson, we’ll learn more about evangelism, a critical part of your individual ministry as a Christian.

 

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers of the world, especially to the ones who have bothered to be Daddy as well.  It’s not enough for men who have children to simply to be the sperm donor.  There is a responsibility that goes with being Daddy. Human fathers do well when they imitate the perfect father…God the Father… whom we honor today as well.  God the Father is our PLANNER, our PROTECTOR, and our PROVIDER…and that’s what a great father does for his children. He plans for them, he protects them, and he provides for them.

 

I loved every minute of being a father. It’s a job I began planning for when I was nineteen years old, nearly a decade and a half before my first bundle of joy showed up.  He was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen…and still is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen to this day…and I love him much more today than I did then.  The depth of my love for Zachary Ian Clark is hard to put into words. Two years later Elliott Evan Clark joined the Clark Klan.  And there was plenty of room in my heart to love him with the same depth of caring and unconditional love God provided for them through me.  Both of my sons are believers in Christ, and evangelizing to them successfully is one of my greatest life accomplishments. 

 

A friend of mine…I call him Sweet Eddie J…recently posted a tribute to his father that I’d like to share with you as part of our tribute to fathers.  He said, much better than I ever could, what needs to be said to all of us today as we think about just how to honor our fathers.  Here’ what Ed had to say…

 

Twenty-six years ago today, I lost my Dad…and my Mom lost the love of her life…two days before her 42nd birthday.  Dad was always the center of my universe and he was a man bigger than life.  I was always in awe of how he could walk into a room, make everyone smile, and motivate everyone with his presence. 

 

Every year since he died…I have hurt…especially the week leading into the anniversary of Dad being taken away from my family. Most of the darkest days of my life have occurred in the week leading up to this tragic day. 

 

It hurts that in the future when Edward III comes, that Dad won’t be able to see that day. Yes…one day I’m having a son. When?  I can’t tell you that, but that day will come.  I know he will have a spark in his eye just like Dad’s. 

 

This year, by far, has been the hardest.  Dad encouraged me to surpass him as I create my own legacy.  Today, I went outside a few moments and I looked into the sky.  I told Dad that I love him so much and that I miss him every day. I told him it kills me every second that he is not here and I asked him to guide me on my path to greatness.  I asked if he was proud of me.  I looked away from the sky for a second, and when I looked back there was a flash that took me by surprise.  It reminded me of the same spark he had in his eyes when he connected with me and everyone else.

 

I know that I’m on the path to the greatness he encouraged, just as long as I stay focused and put in the work that is required.  I will continue to implement all Dad taught me…to be the man on the beach…a man who leads by example in my professional career, in my personal life, and in my community (New Orleans and Japan are my homes).  I love my Dad.  Like father…like son.

 

If your father is alive, hug him.  If he is not in the same city, call him.  Tell him you love him. Great fathers don’t get the respect they deserve.  I would trade everything to have another moment with my dad to tell him I love him and to let him know how much I cherished every moment we had together.

 

Edward Jackson Jr

 

Thank you, Sweet Eddie J, for giving us the perfect introduction to the Barah Ministries Father’s Day tribute…a song by Luther Vandross…DANCE WITH MY FATHER.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

DANCE WITH MY FATHER

Luther Vandross

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father, thank you for all the fathers who are just like you…fathers who plan and protect and provide for their children…and thank you for the next generation of men you are raising up who are preparing themselves to be fathers, knowing that it is an intentional job with a divine purpose…

 

I pray that you instruct these men in Your truth and that You help them to prepare for the most important task of fathering…evangelism… 

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

You Don’t Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

 

We’ve been studying Paul’s letter to the Romans for quite a while. What is the point?  Verse 14 highlights the point….and then we continue in the passage to Verse 21…

 

ROMANS 15:14 

And concerning you, my brethren (all believers in Christ, but specifically the Christians at first century Rome)…I myself stand absolutely convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness…having been filled with all knowledge (a basic understanding of Christianity)…and that you are able also both to counsel and to admonish one another (you’re in a position to share these truths with competence).

 

ROMANS 15:15 

But I wrote very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again (of these points through repetition), because of the grace that was given me from God the Father…

 

ROMANS 15:16 

…(the grace) to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles…ministering the gospel of God…serving as a priest does…so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable to God the Father…an offering having been sanctified (set apart for privilege) by God the Holy Spirit.

 

ROMANS 15:17 

Therefore, in union with Christ Jesus, I have found reason to be proud (to the point of boasting) about my work for God the Father (my spiritual achievements).

ROMANS 15:18 

For I (Paul) will not presume to speak of anything except what (supernatural things) Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in bringing the Gentiles who are obedient to the gospel message by the Word I have spoken to them and by the deeds I have done for them…

 

ROMANS 15:19 

…deeds done in the power of signs and wonders…deeds done in the power of the Spirit…so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum (from Jerusalem in a full thirty-three mile circle)…I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

 

ROMANS 15:20 

And thus, I aspired to preach the gospel…not where Christ was already 

known, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation (of preaching the gospel)…

 

ROMANS 15:21 

…but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see…and they who have not heard shall understand.”

 

The apostle Paul is winding down his letter to the believers in first century Rome.  He has never met them.  He doesn’t know them.  He hasn’t been where they live.  Yet Paul is impressed with them.  You may remember what he said about the believers in Christ at Rome at the beginning of his letter, in Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 8 to 12…

 

ROMANS 1:8

First, I thank my God, the Father…through Jesus Christ…for all of you believers in Christ at Rome…because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

 

Evangelism.  Paul is impressed with their evangelism.

 

ROMANS 1:9 

For God the Father, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you believers in Rome…

 

ROMANS 1:10 

…always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God the Father I may succeed in coming to you.

 

ROMANS 1:11 

For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established…

 

ROMANS 1:12 

…that is…that I may be encouraged together with you while among you…each of us being encouraged by the other’s faith…both your faith and my faith being encouraging.

 

It’s the first century as Paul writes.  The bible is interpreted in the time it was written.  Christianity is under persecution.  Yet a church in Rome that is non-resident to a Pastor they have never met is impressing him…especially with one of the hardest things to do at the time…a thing that would put lives in danger…evangelism…spreading the good news concerning The King of the Jews, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…in the most powerful kingdom on earth at the time…SPQR…amongst The Senate and the People of Rome.

 

Evangelism is one of the most critical functions in the Christian Way of Living.  The passage under study in Romans, Chapter 15, Verses 14 to 21 is an illumination of Paul’s ministry to Rome, the most important part of which is evangelism.  Paul is proud of his work on God’s behalf with the believers at first century Rome. He writes this letter from Corinth while on his third missionary journey.  The letter to the Romans is the longest of Paul’s thirteen New Testament letters, and its entire subject matter is the gospel message.

 

I can remember when our study of this letter to the Romans began nearly seven years ago.  I was wondering why we would be studying a letter about the gospel message when we were already believers in Christ.  The “why” is obvious now.  After the Christ, likely there is nothing in Christianity more important than the gospel message…spreading the good news about how to be saved…and the best news is that you don’t have to do anything to save yourself because you can’t do anything to save yourself.

 

So evangelism is our subject.  Whom does God pick to evangelize?

Cowards!  You and me.  The apostle Paul, admittedly, is the foremost of all the Cowards who have ever evangelized.  Acts, Chapter 22, Verse 4…

 

ACTS 22:4

I (Paul) persecuted the Way to the death…binding and putting both men and women into prisons…

 

Paul the Ruthless was committed to singlehandedly stomping out the Christian Church.  Galatians, Chapter 1, Verses 13 and 14…

 

GALATIANS 1:13

For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism…how I (Paul) used to persecute the church of God (Christians) beyond measure and tried to destroy it…

 

GALATIANS 1:14 

…and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen…being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions (The Law).

 

Paul was a fanatic persecutor of the Church, in frenzied opposition to anything not Jewish.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 9…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:9

For I (Paul) am the least of the apostles…and I am not fit to be called an apostle… because I persecuted the church of God.

 

God selected this coward to be the apostle to the Gentiles and to write the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, the doctrine proclaiming that Christ is indwelling you.

 

What does God want from cowards?  God wants his Cowardly Christians to have a ministry.  God gives us a spiritual gift.  God gives us a calling.  God wants us to do His work.  He gave Abraham The Jewish Race.  He gave Moses The Jewish Nation-Israel.  He gave Paul the task of uniting the Jews and Gentiles in this Age called the Church.

 

What is the ministry God has given to you, a Coward?

 

God gave me, a Coward, Barah Ministries.  He also gave me a ministry called a family.  For me…two marriages…five people…two wives and three kids…two boys and one girl. I am proud to say I am five for five. Of those given to me, I lost not even one.  Five believers in Christ.  Yet for this I take no credit.  It is God doing His work through me.

 

At Barah Ministries, twenty-five to fifty solid students of the Word of God.  Again, I take no credit because I deserve no credit.  The truth is, if I stopped to compile a spiritual resume, there is no way I could accurately identify all of the people I have evangelized to, and how many of them were led to Christ through my work.  No matter.  I just know that every week in this ministry we evangelize…we proclaim the good news of the gospel message…and I agree with Paul in First Corinthians, Chapter 3, Verses 6 and 7…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 3:8

I (Paul) planted (the gospel message)…Apollos watered…but God the Father was causing the growth.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 3:7 

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything…but the God who causes the growth is everything.

 

God alone gets the credit for what we do in evangelism.  We may plant…and we may water…but it is God who produces the results.  And the great thing is that all who come to the Lord do nothing to save themselves.

 

When we return from our five-minute break, we’ll take the offering and then we’ll continue our look at the importance of evangelism.

 

FIVE MINUTE BREAK

Unconditional Love

Donna Summers

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

You Don’t Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

 

Let’s welcome Deacon Denny Goodall with today’s offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

SECOND TIMOTHY 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of discipline.

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

SECOND TIMOTHY 1:8

Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…or of the testimony of me His prisoner…but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God…

 

OFFERING SONG

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

David Bauer, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

You Don’t Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

 

What do you want to happen when you close your eyes in this life?  I know what I want…I want to be where God is…and so does Don Moen.  Here’s his hit song I JUST WANT TO BE WHERE YOU ARE.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

I JUST WANT TO BE WHERE YOU ARE

Don Moen

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

You Don’t Have to Do Anything to Be Saved

 

Welcome back!

 

What we see in the apostle Paul is that God always picks the most unlikely people to evangelize.  God selects Cowards to be Christians.  The group Casting Crowns captured the sentiment well in one of their songs.  “Who am I…that the Lord of all the earth…would care to know my name…would look on me with love?”  God loves the helpless. 

 

God wants His Cowards to have a ministry…to use our calling and our spiritual gift to do His work. Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verse 10…

 

EPHESIANS 2:10

For we believers in Christ are God the Father’s workmanship…created to be in union with Christ Jesus for good works…which good works God the Father prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 

What does God want us Cowards to do with our ministry?  God wants us to EAT, to PRAY, and to LOVE.  You’ve probably seen or heard of the movie EAT-PRAY-LOVE.

 

God wants us to EAT…He wants us to ingest the Word of God. Matthew, Chapter 4, Verse 4…

 

MATTHEW 4:4

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone (physical food)…but on every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (spiritual food).’”

 

John, Chapter 4, Verses 13 and 14…Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well…

 

JOHN 4:13

“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again…”

 

JOHN 4:14 

“…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst…but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

 

How often are you ingesting the Word of God?  Once a week isn’t enough.

 

God wants us to PRAY…to count on Him for guidance…Matthew, Chapter 21, Verse 22…

 

MATTHEW 21:22

“And all things you ask in prayer…believing…you will receive.”

 

How is your prayer life?

 

God wants us to LOVE…in Matthew, Chapter 22, Verses 36 to 39 a lawyer asks…

 

MATTHEW 22:36

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

 

MATTHEW 22:37 

And Jesus said to the lawyer, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

 

MATTHEW 22:38 

“This is the great and foremost commandment.”

 

MATTHEW 22:39 

“The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor unconditionally as you love yourself…unconditionally.’”

 

How well do you treat others?  Those believers who EAT PRAY and LOVE are motivated by God to develop a ministry that evangelizes.

 

As the apostle Paul begins to summarize his thoughts in his letter to the Romans, he reflects on the purpose of his ministry…Romans, Chapter 15, Verse 14 to 21…

 

ROMANS 15:14 

And concerning you, my brethren (all believers in Christ, but specifically the Christians in first century Rome)…I myself stand absolutely convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness…having been filled with all knowledge (a basic understanding of Christianity)…and that you are able also both to counsel and to admonish one another (you’re in a position to share these truths with competence).

 

ROMANS 15:15 

But I wrote very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again (of these points through repetition), because of the grace that was given me from God the Father…

 

ROMANS 15:16 

…(the grace) to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles…ministering the gospel of God…serving as a priest does…so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable to God the Father…an offering having been sanctified (set apart for privilege) by God the Holy Spirit.

 

ROMANS 15:17 

Therefore, in union with Christ Jesus I have found reason to be proud (to the point of boasting) about my work for God the Father (my spiritual achievements).

 

ROMANS 15:18 

For I (Paul) will not presume to speak of anything except what (supernatural things) Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in bringing the Gentiles who are obedient to the gospel message by the Word I have spoken to them and by the deeds I have done for them…

 

ROMANS 15:19 

…deeds done in the power of signs and wonders…deeds done in the power of the Spirit…so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum (from Jerusalem in a full thirty-three mile circle)…I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

 

ROMANS 15:20 

And thus, I aspired to preach the gospel…not where Christ was already 

known, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation (of preaching the gospel)…

 

ROMANS 15:21 

…but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see…and they who have not heard shall understand.”

 

When we bring the gospel message to others, if we’re doing it well they quickly learn that they don’t really have to do anything to be saved…in fact, they learn that they can’t do anything to be saved.  Agreeing with God about what it takes to be saved isn’t really an action and it really isn’t hard work.  It’s a thought that puts into motion a mechanism created by the Sovereign God of the Universe by which we become His possession, a possession He is completely responsible for.  As we continue our study of this passage, each of us needs to reflect on how we are going to describe the purpose of our ministry, both here on earth, and when we kneel at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

After hearing these opening comments, an atheist would say, “There is no god.  God doesn’t exist.”

 

The bible has a different view.  The apostle John makes clear the function of the bible…John, Chapter 20, Verses 31…

 

JOHN 20:31 

…but these things written here (in the bible) have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah)…the Son of God (in human form)…and that by believing in Him you may have the resurrection life in Hisname.

 

Philosopher Blaise Pascal, in what has come to be known as “Pascal’s Wager,” says that human beings bet with their lives that God either exists or He does not.  Pascal is right.  Atheists would do well to at least consider what the bible has to say. Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 23 says…

 

ROMANS 3:23

…for all creatures have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

 

Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 10…

 

ROMANS 3:10

…as it is written, "There is no creature who is righteous, not even one…”

 

Since atheists are created creatures, human beings, they would do well to be

curious about exactly what the bible is proposing.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a

For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…

 

That’s horrible news for an atheist!  The good news is that the Lord has an interesting attitude toward ALL of His creatures…even those who think there is no god.  Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9…

 

SECOND PETER 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of...instead, He is patient toward you unbelievers (including atheists)…not wishing for any of you to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all of you to come to repentance (a change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).

 

The bible claims that God exists.  He lives in heaven.  How can you get to heaven?  If you’re an atheist, and you think Pascal was right, then there is no downside to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Right where you sit, RIGHT NOW, you can tell God the Father that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the moment of eternal life for you.  Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

ACTS 16:31 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is an atheist's acknowledgment that if there is a God, it might be smart to have faith in Him.  John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…

 

 

JOHN 14:6

Jesus said to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation), and I am the truth (through the Word of God), and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”

 

No creature can do a thing to get to heaven on his own.   Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 6 says…

 

ROMANS 11:6

But if salvation is by grace, and of course it is, it is no longer on the basis of works…otherwise, grace is no longer grace.

 

God’s grace makes your salvation a free gift to you…if you have to work for a gift then the work makes you deserve the gift.  In salvation, there is no way for you to impress God enough that He would allow you to save yourself.  It’s very wise to let God save you, because once God does something He never changes His mind. Heed the warning in John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

Who is this God who saves you?  The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ…in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4… 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3

For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance what I also received… that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 

…and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Scriptures…

 

The apostle Peter reminds us of the words of Old Testament prophet Joel in Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 21…

 

ACTS 2:21

‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.’

 

If you’re an atheist, I encourage you to keep investigating to see if you’re right about there being no god.  And if you’re not right, and you think there may be a God, there’s plenty of room for you in heaven!  

 

If you want to get to heaven, June Murphy says THERE’S JUST ONE HOPE!

 

CLOSING SONG

THERE’S JUST ONE HOPE

June Murphy                                 

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

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