(# 275) Romans 8 - Romans 8 Ends with God’s Love Letter to YouWelcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark. At Barah Ministries we are “pursuing the truth through the study of the Word of God.” Because of the gracious provision of the internet, from our omnipotent God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Barah Ministries has a worldwide reach and an intimate impact on lives. Thank you Lord for providing a way for anyone, anywhere to be reached with Your Word.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Romans 8 Ends with God’s Love Letter to You
The final passage of Romans, Chapter 8, begins at Verse 31…
Romans 8:31 What then shall we believers in Christ say face-to-face with all these things? If God is for us, and He is, who is ever to be successful in opposition against us?
That answer is, “NO ONE!” In the final two passages of Romans Chapter 8, passage four and passage five, as we bring closure over the next few lessons to the first half of Paul’s letter to the believers at Rome…we will get to enjoy a love letter from God intended to communicate to us that we are totally secure in union with Christ.
First, a few announcements.
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Deacon’s Meeting NEXT WEEK! April 30 7:30A-10:00A
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Next Lord’s Supper Celebration May 8, 2016
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Coeur d’Alene Bible Conference Coeur d’Alene, Idaho August 5-6, 2016
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Evening Lesson Only 6:00P-7:30P August 7, August 21, September 18
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! New York – Pennsylvania Conference Traditions at the Glen Johnson City, New York September 16-17, 2016
BARAH MINISTRIES LESSONS ARE ON! On Video On Audio On Readable Notes On the Radio On the APP
It’s never been easier to have the Word of God at your disposal all the time. Video lessons, audio lessons and notes you can read are on the Barah Ministries Website…barahministries.com…we’re on the radio at KXEG 1280AM - The Trumpet on Sundays at Noon in Phoenix…and the radio lessons are on line at 1280KXEG.com. The Barah Ministries APP is downloadable at Google Play, at the Windows Apps Store, at the iTunes Store, and from the Barah Ministries website. Barah Ministries lessons are ON! You can have all of the Word of God all the time from Barah Ministries!
PRAYERS Barah Ministries Prayer Request Group
Join me in prayer directed at all the intercessions and all the petitions of the people visiting the Barah Ministries Prayer Request Group.
Thanks Larry Collins Governor’s Prayer Breakfast
Thanks to Jacob Barker for providing the ticket.
John and Monica Miller In Town June 3-6, 2016 Let’s Roll Out the Purple Carpet
A quick hello and thanks to Stacey Snow and to Les Oldman of the non-resident congregation for their faithful support of the ministry.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
FIRST Laura Daigle
As we prepare our souls for worship, let’s enjoy Laura Daigle, singing FIRST.
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 loving us so much that You sent Your Son to die for us… and then You resurrected Him from the dead so that we could have proof of His power to provide us with a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with You…we have spent too much of our lives, Father, trying to gain Your acceptance when we already have it…we have tended to relate to You as if you are a stern task master rather than allowing ourselves to feel the depth of Your unconditional love for us…
In Your Word You say that “it was for freedom that Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, set us free” … help us to be free Father…help us to stand firm in freedom You have given us…help us to break away from the bondage of legalism, a yoke of slavery that calls us back to a meaningless life apart from relationship and intimacy with You…show us all the ways our minds are captive to legalism…and allow Your truth to set us free to enjoy the unconditional love, the grace and the freedom You provide…let these gifts lead us to voluntary obedience to You and Your Word…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name... Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Romans 8 Ends with God’s Love Letter to You
This week I was asking myself, “What kind of Pastor are you?”
Listening to and watching the dean of a theological seminary give a talk to members of a graduating class is what prompted me to ask myself the question. After beginning his talk by dismissing all the females in the audience as irrelevant for the purposes of his talk, leaving them to decipher his message’s application to them on their own, he proceeded to talk to the men of the audience about lust.
The long and short of the talk was that a Pastor, who was a graduate of the seminary, one of the dean’s two favorite students ever, had been dismissed from the pulpit of the church he was shepherding for a sexual indiscretion. A married man, the Pastor had an affair with the church secretary, and ended up divorcing his wife and marrying the secretary. He was removed from the Pastorate. The dean asked the audience, “Was she worth it?” Then as those in Systematic Theology are so apt to do, the dean used a bible verse out of context to make his point…First Corinthians, Chapter 10, Verse 12…
First Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
The talk had me thinking back to a time early in my journey into the study of Systematic Theology. I was at a business seminar with peers from the training industry, and we were learning how to teach a new workshop. One of my peers was a former Roman Catholic nun. She was a sweet woman, amiable, personable, and wonderful to be around…and she had left the convent for a new life in professional development. Frequently our discussions turned to God.
I told her of my journey through Roman Catholicism. I told her that one of the things I hated about Roman Catholicism was the over focus on God’s love. It seemed to me that Roman Catholics believed that God is arbitrary, and that in spite of what the bible says to the contrary, “a loving God would never cast one of His creatures into the Lake of Fire.” It disgusted me. I told her that since leaving Roman Catholicism, I had learned from Systematic Theology that God’s point of contact with human beings is justice. I had learned that first and foremost in every one of His dealings with us, God’s justice must be satisfied. I assured her that a loving God would have no problem whatsoever casting one of His creatures into the Lake of Fire, because God’s point of contact with human beings is His justice.
Truly, I’ll never forget the look she had on her face when those words came out of my mouth. It was as if I had violated her and she had just realized it at that moment. Her face revealed that she felt appalled, mortified, shocked, disgusted and horrified all at the same time. It was my message about God’s justice that had this affect. When she finally regained her balance, and was able to summon words again after recovering from this horrifying experience, she said, “If I believed what you just said is true about God, I would kill myself.” Then she walked away.
I wrote it off…in my mind, she was a hyper emotional, warm and fuzzy cuddly lady who was freaking out. To me she was one of those “all we are saying is give peace a chance” chicks. I didn’t give her comment another thought. Yet the look on her face is indelibly etched into my psyche.
Now years later, as I ask myself the question … “What kind of Pastor are you?” … her face pops back into my mind. You see, I left the dean’s talk thinking, “Where is the love, man?” I’m just glad the dean isn’t God. The Lord Jesus Christ would never say to us after a fall… therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We all fall. After His resurrection from the dead, the first male the Lord Jesus Christ sought out was Peter...the one who had denied knowing the Lord three times after swearing he would never betray the Lord, even if it mean that Peter had to go to his death! The Lord would never say, “Peter…my point of contact with you is justice…and my justice must be satisfied. Take heed now that you have fallen.” No…the Lord didn’t say that to Peter…nor did He say it to Adam and Eve after their fall…nor did He say it to Abraham after his fall…nor did He say it to Moses after his fall…nor did He say it to David after his fall…nor did He say it to Paul after his fall. How the Lord handles our indiscretions is quite different than how the self-righteous dean handled things…this dean who describes himself as unattractive, so he has never been tempted in the sexual arena, as had one of his favorite students been tempted. Do you believe that? I don’t.
The dean would have us believe that immorality is simply a matter of willpower…that one of his favorite students should simply have avoided the situation. It’s true to be sure…the Pastor should have avoided the situation with the help of God the Holy Spirit…yet it’s easier said than done. In fact, the only Person we know who has successfully accomplished resisting temptation is the Lord Himself. The dean may not have committed an offense like this…an offense of immorality…but his offense of legalistic morality is perhaps more deeply offensive that the indiscretion of one of his favorite students. His talk left me appalled, mortified, shocked, disgusted and horrified all at the same time…the same reaction my colleague had.
So this week I was asking myself, “What kind of Pastor are you?”
Perhaps in my seventh decade of life I am prepared to say what kind of Pastor I am…or at least what kind of Pastor I want to be. I’d like to be experienced and remembered as a Pastor who loved the Lord Jesus Christ so much that it was obvious. I’d like to be experienced and remembered as a Pastor who taught and who lived unconditional love, grace, forgiveness and obedience to the Lord and His Word. I certainly have not laid hold of mastery of any of these as yet, but I press on in the race to be found by the Lord as one who is willing to do all His will. I get knocked down…but I get up again… If you asked me to narrow down what kind of Pastor I want to be to just one thing, I’d want to be remembered as the Pastor who taught unconditional love. My colleague is smiling. God’s point of contact with His creatures is unconditional love. When I was involved with Systematic Theology, I didn’t know that…and I didn’t know that because I had not studied Paul’s letter to the Romans. In fact, I used to joke that I would never teach Romans, because when I was associated with a Systematic Theology church, we spent three years on Romans, Chapter 9, Verses 1 to 6. Ridiculous. I wanted no part of a book I could never finish.
Let’s be clear. While the Lord’s point of contact with us is His unconditional love, in loving us, every other part of His essence must be satisfied simultaneously, especially His justice. But if God’s point of contact with us were justice, our relationship with Him would be all about the rules. We know for a fact that is not at all descriptive of our relationship with the Lord. We value the relationship more than we obsess about the rules.
Studying Paul’s letter to the believers at Rome is an enlightening and marvelous look into the depths of our relationship with God. As we make the transition from the fourth passage to the final passage of Romans, Chapter 8…in fact, as we conclude the first half of Paul’s letter to the Romans nearly three hundred hours into our study, we pause to reflect on God’s love for us.
Let’s review the final passage…and in doing so, let’s look at passages four and five of Romans, Chapter 8 together…beginning at Verse 26…
Romans 8:26a In the same way we groan within ourselves (Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 23), waiting eagerly for our adoption as adult sons…waiting eagerly for the redemption of our bodies…and waiting eagerly for the freedom of the glory of the children of God…
Romans 8:26b …just the way we groan…God the Holy the Spirit, who is called the “first fruits” of our salvation, groans, to help our weakness; for example, we do not know how to pray as we should…but God the Holy Spirit Himself personally intercedes for us in prayer with groanings too deep for words… Romans 8:27 …and God the Father, who keeps on searching the hearts of all those who pray, knows what the mind of God the Holy Spirit is (through His groanings which cannot be uttered in words), because God the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints…for all believers in Christ…according to the will of God the Father.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God the Father causes all things to work together for good to those who love God the Father, to those who are called according to the Father’s purpose.
Romans 8:29 For those whom God the Father foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that the Lord Jesus Christ would be the firstborn among many brethren…
Romans 8:30 …and those whom God the Father predestined, He also called; and those whom God the Father called, He also justified; and those whom God the Father justified, He also glorified.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we believers in Christ say face-to-face with all these things? If God the Father is for us, and He is, who is ever to be successful in opposition against us?
Romans 8:32 God the Father who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will the Father not also with our union with Christ freely give us all things?
Romans 8:33 Who will bring a successful charge against God’s elect (all believers in Christ)? God is the one who justifies…
Romans 8:34 …who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather He who was raised…He who is at the right hand of God the Father…He who also intercedes for us.
Romans 8:35 Who will separate us from the unconditional love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword separate us from His love?
Romans 8:36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:38 For I (Paul) am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers…
Romans 8:39 …nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the unconditional love of God the Father, which is through our union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Congratulations! You just heard a love letter from the Lord Jesus Christ to you. Let’s take a five-minute break and see what it means to you.
MUSIC BREAK MORE LIKE FALLING IN LOVE Jason Gray
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Romans 8 Ends with God’s Love Letter to You
The dean’s indictment of the Pastor’s indiscretion was far less severe than the Lord’s indictment of the human race through Paul in Romans Chapter 3…and before we look into the depths of the Romans 8 love letter, we’ve got to remind ourselves about the journey we have made to the half way point of this letter. Romans, Chapter 3, Verses 10 to 18 is God’s indictment of the whole human race…and it applies to all of us, including the dean….
Romans 3:10 …as it is written, “There is no creature who is righteous, not even one…”
Romans 3:11 “There is no creature who understands God…there is no creature who seeks after a relationship with God…”
Romans 3:12 “All creatures have turned aside from God, together they have all become useless…there is no creature who does good…there is not even one.”
Romans 3:13 “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving…the poison of asps is under their lips…”
Romans 3:14 “…their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness…”
Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood…”
Romans 3:16 “Destruction and misery are in their paths…’
Romans 3:17 “…and the path of peace they have not known.”
Romans 3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
With all that we are according to God…before salvation…“In Adam” … with Adam’s imputed sin…as unrighteous, ungodly, unbelievers, it would seem we have quite a bit of work to do to get God to love us…to get back in His good graces…yet the bible paints a different picture of God’s attitude toward all of His creatures. It seems we don’t have to work for Gods love at all…our situation sounds hopeless until we hear this…Romans, Chapter 3, Verses 20 to 22… Romans 3:20 …by the works of the Mosaic Law no flesh will be justified in the Lord’s sight; for through the Mosaic Law comes the knowledge of sin.
No one can argue that he is more righteous than anyone else. Whether moral or immoral, we are all still under God’s indictment, even the dean. And we can’t work our way out of the situation. Then the ten best words a helpless, hopeless creature could ever hear…
Romans 3:21 BUT NOW…APART FROM THE LAW…THE RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD…has been manifested, being witnessed to by the Mosaic Law and by the Old Testament Prophets…
Romans 3:22 …even the righteousness from God the Father through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all those who believe…
Whether you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ or whether you are not, the Lord took care of your sin problem. All you have to do is accept the benefit of the free gift…Romans, Chapter 4, Verses 1 to 8…
Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
Romans 4:2 For if (for the sake of argument) Abraham was justified by works (even though he wasn’t), he has something to boast about, but he cannot boast before God.
Why? Because there is NO CREATURE who is righteous…not even one…but Abraham was not justified by works…he was justified by faith…
Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his payment is not credited as a favor (from the grace of God), but his payment is credited as what is due to him (because he worked for it)…
No thanks! I don’t want self-righteousness…it won’t get me into heaven!
Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work (those who enjoy the freedom of faith alone in Christ alone and the grace form God which imputes absolute righteousness), but instead believes in Him who justifies the ungodly (unrighteous, unbeliever…the Lord Jesus Christ), this person’s faith is credited as righteousness…
Romans 4:6 …just as King David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works…
Romans 4:7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered by Christ.”
Romans 4:8 “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
What man is this? Every man…every woman…everyone. Evidently there are some people who don’t have access to this letter to the Romans…like some deans of theological seminaries…maybe there are those who think they are righteous when the bible says they are not.
It wasn’t long ago that I was that person the dean is…I was that Pastor…a self-righteous one who thought that he was more special than others. Instead, as I grow older, I continue to be amazed at the generosity God displays toward me by allowing me to see just how deep my weakness goes, a weakness I never thought possible and would certainly never admit to…so forgive me if I get a little indignant toward those who forget what unconditional love really is. I forgot what it is for a long time…and not one day was it ever profitable. I apologize to you for my ungracious messages and thank you for putting up with me until I saw the light. GOD WANTS YOU! The Most Important Decision of Your Life
Matthew 22:42 “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?”
Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given to mankind by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door of your soul and I keep on knocking; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, (maybe you will and maybe you won’t…you have a choice) I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Acts 2:21 ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation will be saved.’
CLOSING SONG HE’S BEEN FAITHFUL June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
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