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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty

The Gospel According To Romans

And I'm very thankful for this Sabbath especially.

I took national boards for neurology 2 days ago and it's nice to have that over with and I don't have to think about it anymore.

So, but the Lord blessed and it's good to be here with you this Sabbath day.

And before we begin I'd like to open up with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day.

We thank you for the blessings of this Sabbath day.

We thank you that we can Have another Thanksgiving season to think of all of the things that you've blessed us with and I pray as I speak today from the book of Romans it would give us more things to be thankful for That it would remind us of the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.

About 3 and a half years ago, some of us have the privilege of studying the first 8 chapters of Romans 3 nights a week for an hour and a half right here in Burden Hall with Peter Gregory.

It's hard to believe it's been that long already, but ever since that time I've never seen the book of Romans quite the same as I did since then.

How many of you have studied the book of Romans?

This book is the theological exposition of the everlasting gospel.

Because the everlasting gospel is the heart of the first angels message.

So in order to give that first angel's message with a loud voice, in order for that everlasting gospel to ring loudly, I would like to assert that having a clear understanding of the book of Romans is crucial to having a clear understanding of the first angels message, the everlasting gospel and how it connects with a judgment hour.

And those are some things we are going to look at today.

And you know, now more than ever is a time in earth's history when we need to know the everlasting gospel.

The everlasting gospel has never stopped from the time of Christ, from before the time of Christ, and from the time that Paul wrote this book, and to the time of 1844 when the first angels message really started to take off, and the judgment hour message.

The everlasting gospel still rings loud and clear and we see it very clearly here in the book of Romans.

Now just a little bit of background of the book of Romans, it's interesting Paul wrote this we believe when he was in Corinth on 1 of his missionary journeys.

And Rome by that time had become the leading center in the world.

And so there were people from all over the world in the city of Rome.

Specifically there were Christians in Rome.

And there were also some pretty wicked people in the city of Rome.

And this epistle was written for all those classes of people.

Now, I like how the Seventh-day Adventist Bible commentary defines the theme of Romans, and it's an accurate description.

The Bible commentary says the theme is the universal sinfulness of man and the universal grace of God in providing a way by which sinners may not only be pardoned but also restored to perfection and holiness.

So Romans encapsulates everything that you need to know for salvation.

All of us are in need of the grace of God.

And the grace of God offers pardon and offers power to live a new life.

Now just a little bit more background about Romans.

When we look back in history, it was Romans 117, the verse, the just shall live by faith, that Martin Luther heard when he was in none other than the city of Rome.

And this was the verse that sparked the Protestant Reformation.

Now what's interesting is the Protestant Reformation is what led to the downfall of spiritual Rome.

So the Book of Romans, in its clearest understanding, helped Martin Luther through the power of God to bring back a biblical understanding of righteousness by faith that brought down spiritual Rome who had clouded the clear teaching of the righteousness of Christ.

So Martin Luther rediscovered the everlasting gospel and it was the everlasting gospel that gave power and force to the Protestant Reformation.

Now here's the key point and don't miss it.

It's the same everlasting gospel, the same message that the just shall live by faith, that's going to take down spiritual Rome through the power of the 3 angels messages at the end of time.

So understanding Romans is crucial because Romans has the key to understanding the everlasting gospel.

So that's sort of an overview, that's sort of a preview of Romans, and there's no way we're going to cover everything in Romans that's important.

Paul of course starts off with his introduction and we're going to come back to that and spend some time in the introduction in the first 6 verses.

But Paul makes his first really theological point starting in verse 18 of chapter 1 when he talks about the wrath of God.

Now you may ask, what in the world does the wrath of God have to do with the everlasting gospel?

Well, here's a few key points to understand.

The gospel by definition means good news.

But you know from personal experience that the best news that you can get in life oftentimes follows bad news.

So you get some bad news And then when the good news totally trumps the bad news, then you get really excited.

And then you start forgetting the bad news.

But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God through Paul is giving us the bad news about ourselves first so that we can really understand what the good news of the gospel is.

And the bad news is is that every single 1 of us deserves the wrath of God.

And sometimes we think, or get into a habit of thinking perhaps, we get so used to coming to church or Sabbath school or you know being around fellow believers and we develop bad habits and we're not living up to the light that we have but we comfort our consciences by saying, well, I'm around a lot of good people, and I go to church, I pay my tithes, so I must be okay.

And we forget that we really need the grace of God, because all of us are sinners.

Not 1 of us deserves anything good from God.

It's only by God's grace and mercy that we can receive anything good.

So let's look a little bit at this concept of the wrath of God.

What's interesting is verses 18 through 32 describe a group of people which probably existed in the city of Rome at that time but certainly exist in our day and time who as we see in verse 20, can clearly see the invisible things of creation so that they are without excuse, but they still deny God as creator.

And they come up with all sorts of sophisticated intellectual arguments to say I don't believe in God.

Well what Paul makes very clear in verse 20 is that no person is without excuse when it comes to the knowledge of God.

Everybody has the opportunity to know who God is.

And the wrath of God is revealed against those who deny God as creator.

The first step towards receiving the wrath of God, and when you study scripture we know the wrath of God will be poured out in the judgment towards those who reject Him.

There's 2 classes of people at the end of time, the righteous and the unrighteous.

So there are going to be 2 classes of people.

The very first step down the pathway of receiving the wrath of God is denying God as creator.

So if you have doubts about the creatorship of God, that doubt will lead you down a pathway towards full-fledged disobedience towards God.

What kind of disobedience are we talking about?

You can see this in verses 25, 26, and 27 where it talks about vile affections and all sorts of manner of evil.

And then there's this list of wickedness verses 29 through 32.

Covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, backbiters, all sorts of things.

And these people are going to receive the wrath of God.

And the natural human reaction for, let's say, a Jewish Christian or even a Gentile Christian who's reading this letter says, yeah, Paul, I know, those wicked people here in the city of Rome, they're awful.

And we believe that you're a creator God and we go to church and we believe that you are God and we don't do all those wicked things that you just listed off here at the end of Romans 1, thank goodness.

And then he says in chapter 2, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.

For whereon thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

For thou that judgest doest the same things.

So okay, you're not a murderer, you're not a liar, but you're someone who likes to gossip about your neighbors.

So, yeah, you're not doing the wicked things that your neighbors are doing, but you're inexcusable because you're going to be guilty of the same thing in the judgment.

The Gospel According To Romans

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