I've been telling you that we're going to be in this book for a while, and we're finally going to jump into it today. We're just doing an overview study, so I'm just going to read the first passage, verses 1 through 7, where Paul introduces himself. We're not going to get into any particular passage today.

It's going to be a broad study to get you a broad outline of what the Book of Romans is so that when we actually jump into the verse by verse, that you'll be able to get more out of it. Okay? But I'm going to read the first seven verses before we jump in.

Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 7. "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 the resurrection of 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 are called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Let's pray.

Gracious Father, we entrust this time to you. We ask, Lord God, that you'd open up our hearts and soften it, Lord, that we may hear and to apply. You are the potter and we are the clay, so we ask that you would mold us, that you would sanctify us, help us, Lord God, to hear from you and not from man.

Protect us, Lord God, from wrong thinking, even wrong feelings. And we are utterly dependent upon you to lead and guide us, so help us, Lord God, to be humble before your throne and that your word would speak clearly. And again, as we begin our new series, we ask for your blessing over this time, Lord God, that everything that we study would be more than just simply academics.

It really would penetrate and judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts and our lives, that our church, our family, and our very lives, Lord God, may be molded according to your purpose and your will. So we ask for your blessing over this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

You know, I've been telling you we wanted to study through the Book of Romans, or I wanted to study through the Book of Romans for a while. I personally have benefited tremendously from studying quiet time, scripture memory, small groups. At the very beginning of the church, there's actually just a handful of you guys who were here, maybe about 15, 16 years ago, we were studying through the Book of Romans on every Friday evening, and it took us maybe about a couple years.

And I remember the beginning of the study every Friday, because we weren't able to have retreats. We were working during the weekday and just didn't have the time in the beginning of the church. And I remember the grumbling that I heard on some, not everybody, but some of the people saying, "All we're doing is Bible study." Because some of the youth group students who are now in their mid-30s, I remember, because they were in the youth group and there was a lot of activities, and they come to church and it's like, "We're just having Bible study." And at that time, I really did not have time for anything else.

So if I'm going to invest in something, I'm going to invest in this. And I remember just on Fridays, even though people were attending, they were just attending because it's the church that they were at, but I saw a tremendous difference in the beginning of the study and at the end.

Because at the end of the study of the Book of Romans, I could begin to see the seeds that were being planted, and not just from the content of the Book of Romans, but I began to see people realizing why the study of the Word of God is so important.

In particular, this book, every part of Scripture is obviously important, but the content in the Book of Romans is the foundation upon which we build Christianity. Sometimes if the foundation is shaky, and if the foundation is not strong, whatever we build upon it is not going to be strong.

So just like the Scripture says, if you build upon sand, when the storms come, it starts to crumble. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the Book of Romans is the foundation of Christianity. If you know it superficially, your application in your Christian life is going to be superficial.

If you appreciate it superficially, your appreciation of Christ and what it is you have in Christ is also going to be superficial. If there was one book, and again, I know it's an introduction and some of you may think like, "Ah, he's milking it." But if there was one book, I would say that I would choose to have it memorized.

If I couldn't have the rest of the Bible, if there's one book that I would put to memory so that even if I didn't have Scripture, which book would I choose? Without a doubt, it would be the Book of Romans. In fact, I probably would not be the only person.

In fact, many people in history have said that. If you study the beginning notes of the Book of Romans in any commentary, there's always a history behind the preaching of the Book of Romans. And again, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the preaching of the Book of Romans, the contents that are in the Book of Romans, was credited for a lot of revivals that took place in church history.

Augustine. Some of you guys may know who he is or may have heard of Augustine. Augustine is a very important figure in church history. And he was a fourth century monk who became a Christian as a result of his study in the Book of Romans or reading. And after studying the Book of Romans, you know, basically the outline of the Book of Romans is a detailed teaching of salvation.

Why we need salvation, how do we get saved, what's the result of salvation. And basically by the time you get to Chapter 12, it basically says, "As a result of knowing His mercies, this is how you ought to live." Well Augustine, who's been a tremendous influence in right thinking and about church and our, when we say we're an evangelical Christian, so much of our doctrines and our thinking and our church polity comes from the writing of this man Augustine.

And he says, after reading Romans 13, 13 to 14, where it may not even sound that spectacular to you, but this is a result of years of studying and reading this text, he says, this passage says this, "Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling, not in jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desire." Now if you look at that text, it's just an imperative saying this is how you ought to live.

But this is after his heart has been cultivated, after his heart has been softened, and when he heard these words, he said he was stopped at his track. And literally this is what he says in his book, Confession, "No further would I read, nor had I any need. Instantly, at the end of this sentence, a clear light flooded." And that was his testimony of his conversion.

Martin Luther, who's been heavily influenced by this man Augustine, says of the book of Romans, "The Epistle is the chief book of the New Testament, the purest gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation day by day.

The daily bread of his soul, the more time one spends in it, the more precious it becomes, and the better it appears." There's always a danger whenever we get into an academic study of a text where it just becomes academic. Where at the end of the study you can say, "I know this, but it makes no difference whether you know it or don't know it.

Your life doesn't change. Your heart doesn't change. How you treat other people do not change." In fact, at the end of an academic study of the scripture that doesn't change you, it actually does more harm. Because all it does is fill you with spiritual pride, thinking, "I know the scriptures." And you end up judging people based upon what you know and what they don't know.

But there's also a danger to think, "Therefore, we don't need this. We don't need the scriptures. We don't need to get into this theology. We're about application." If we apply the Word of God without properly knowing the Word of God, you'll end up building a Christian life on wrong and shaky foundation.

So we have to make sure that we understand that the study of the academic study of the Word of God, that our ultimate reason for why we study is really revival. And that's the main reason why I want to spend time in the Word of God. There are some things in the Book of Romans that are highly technical, especially when he gets into the relationship between the law and the Spirit, you know, the flesh.

And when you get into those nuances, by the time we get to chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, there's going to be a lot of grappling over, "What does this mean? How is this applied?" And we can easily just kind of get in that mode of, "You know what?

We're not about this. We're about the Holy Spirit." Well, the primary way that the Holy Spirit speaks to His people is through the Word of God. So a church who kind of nonchalantly commits himself to the Word of God is also limiting the work of the Holy Spirit. Now all of this is to encourage you that, again, maybe some of you guys are in the habit of listening to sermons passively.

And what I mean by that is you come every Sunday to judge me, right? You come to judge me to see, "I like the sermon. Oh, that story. I really like that story. That sermon was long, you know? I like it. I don't like it." It's kind of like the Facebook.

You put a status up there. You say, "Like, dislike," you know? And just passively listen to see, "What does He have for me?" I want to encourage you, especially as we begin to study the Book of Romans, to be active listeners, meaning to come prepared with your heart ready.

You know exactly where we're going to be the next week. You know, we're going to say, obviously, we're going to be done with a few verses. Next week we're going to be covering the next few verses. And what I really want to encourage you to do is to examine these verses before you come.

Be ready. You know, come with the bucket. So if you come and say, "Lord, bless me," and all you brought was a little thimble, you know what I mean? He blesses you and everything falls apart. You've got nothing to hold, right? So what I'm asking you to do by being an active listener is to bring a bigger container.

You know, get your heart ready to soften your heart. Be prepared and not to see Sunday morning as just, "I went and I went home." You know, "I attended this Sunday morning, but I really come to worship." Come prepared to worship God, right? Again, you can sit in the same service and while somebody hears the Word of God and is convicted and broken and life has changed, somebody can sit here year after year after year after year and all they hear is, "I heard that." I'll bet you there's somebody in this room already thinking, "I know Romans." You know, "I've studied it.

I've done quiet time. I've read books, commentaries. I know this. We'd studied it before. But again, it's a waste of time. Do something I don't know." Maybe some of you are already thinking that, you know. But again, the goal of our study is not simply to get you. It's like, "Oh, did you hear this?

I've been preaching at this church for over 18 years. Some of you who've been here, there's nothing that comes out of my mouth that hasn't come out of my mouth before. Guaranteed, right? Nothing that I say, even just what I just said right now, I said that about 100 times already, right?

There's nothing I'm going to say that's going to be new, right? So if our ability to listen is simply like it's something new, it'll be harder and harder and harder. The longer you're a Christian, it'll be harder and harder and harder to listen to anything new that is going to have any kind of impact in your life.

Because everything is old. Everything is old. And the most dangerous place for a Christian to be is when the things of God becomes old. Because once it becomes old, your heart becomes hardened. Once your heart is hardened, you no longer are a worshiper of God. You can attend service, you can study the Bible, you're not worshiping.

God is not speaking to you, and you're not speaking to God. My goal and my desire for the study of the Book of Romans is that as it has impact on me, and I'm praying that as we go through it, as we dissect and as we study through the detailed nuances of what the Gospel is and what the result of it is and how we ought to live as a result of understanding this, that that's exactly what would happen.

The intent of this letter would not simply be, "I know this." The intent of this letter would be the very result that Paul intended, the Holy Spirit intended for the recipients. And I know that you agree with me, right? I think the most difficult place to be in a community is a bunch of people who are fake, right?

No one wants to be a part of that, where we say one thing and do something else. No one wants to be fake. I don't want to be fake, you don't want to be fake. You don't want to listen to a pastor who's fake, nor do I want to lead a congregation that's fake.

Whatever it is, even while we're struggling, even while we're wrestling, even with sin, we want to be genuine. We want to be honest with our mistakes. We want to be honest with our faults. No matter where we are in our walk with God, I pray that the study of the Book of Romans, and as we, again, to dig in, that we would recognize where we are and then recognize what He's given us, and that we would be sanctified, we would mature and grow as God intended.

So this morning what I want to do is, I'm not going to be jumping into any one particular text. I'm going to give you a big picture. Remember, I think it was about six, seven months ago, remember I asked you to draw stick figures, and I said to draw a triangle, draw a square.

No? You guys don't remember that? All right, so some of you remember. Other people checked out. All right, so remember when we did that, and after I drew it, I showed you, like, okay, what I intended for you to draw is a house and a tree, right? But when you didn't understand what I was asking you to draw, all you drew was triangle and some stick figures, and it didn't look like anything.

What does this mean, right? So to study the Book of Romans, or study any text in the Bible, without understanding the bigger picture, you're not going to get as much out of it, right? You want to see the big picture. So the goal of this morning is I want to present to you the big picture of the Book of Romans, right?

I want to give you the big outline, and then we're going to jump into the text itself next week, okay? How many of you have heard of the term "Romans Road"? Raise your hand so I know how many, okay, "Romans Road." Okay, so this term, "Romans Road," for those of you who haven't heard it, basically is a way of presenting and understanding the Gospel.

So those of you who've maybe studied it, maybe in Sunday school, maybe you were going out to missions and you were memorizing certain texts, you had the Book of Romans and certain verses in the Book of Romans that you put to memory, and if you memorize it in sequence, it basically is the Gospel message, right?

And so, Book of Romans is presented very logically, systematically, where Paul builds upon one argument over the other argument and the next argument. So I know that we have a tendency to memorize scripture, like we'll get a verse like Romans 3.23, you know, we'll get a 6.23, and we have a tendency to memorize these scriptures, but this book in particular is not meant to be studied in isolation of the other texts, because Paul builds upon each argument.

Every argument he makes in Chapter 1, he refers back to and builds on that in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. So if you jump in at Chapter 5, of course you can still gain something from that, but that is a conclusion of four chapters of theological foundation that he builds, and then he builds on top of that.

So if you jump in at Chapter 5, you're not going to get the full meaning of what he means by that. You're not going to be able to interpret Chapter 7 without having properly interpreted Chapter 6. You understand what I'm saying? So obviously, all of New Testament should be studied systematically, but this book in particular, if you jump in in the middle, you can easily use it out of context, which that happens quite a bit, right?

So I want to give you a big picture of the Book of Romans, and a big outline. So basically, the Romans road goes like this, okay? And there's different variations of it, and some of you may have studied it and say, you know, you're going to come up to me and say, "That's not how I learned it," right?

But there's different variations of this, but in the end, this is the Gospel message presented to us in the Book of Romans. So those of you who are taking notes, you can just kind of put that on your notes and refer back to it at a later point. The first part of it, he spends three chapters talking about the need for salvation.

And then Chapter 3 and 4, the second part, he talks about after he established the need for salvation, he talks about the provision for salvation. Here's your need, and here's the answer. That's the second part. The third part is, here's the need, here's the answer. The third part in Chapter 5 through 8 is a result.

What happened as a result of this salvation? That's Chapter 5 through 8. And then after, again, so the meat of the Book of Romans is the first eight chapters. First eight chapters just kind of gives us, why do you need salvation? Well, what did he give so that you can be saved?

And if you're saved, what happened to you as a result of the salvation? And then the fourth part is the scope of salvation. Who is affected by this salvation? And he talks about the relationship between the Gentiles and the Jews. And so he talks about that in Chapter 9 through 11.

That's the fourth part. And then the fifth and final part is Chapter 12 through 16, where he talks about the life in view of salvation. So if you study, again, carefully the Romans Road, the Gospel presentation basically goes from this is why you need Jesus. Here's what Jesus has done.

And as a result of what Jesus has done, this is what you received. And it's not just you, it's the whole world. And as a result of that, in view of this mercy, this is how you ought to live. So it's important for us, before we jump into Chapter 12, say, "Hey, this is what you ought to do." Let's figure out what Paul, the foundation that he lays on, on the meaning of all of this.

Now, again, some of you guys may sit here and think, "I know this." If you're not a brand new Christian, you didn't get baptized yesterday, you've heard all of this. But studying Scripture is kind of like digging for treasure. If you dig just on the surface, there's something there on the surface.

And then you dig a little bit deeper. You've got better tools. So you get a little scooper and you scoop in and you dig a little bit more and there's more. In fact, the more precious stuff is underneath. The more precious it is, the deeper it is. You might bury it $2 on the surface and somebody finds it, no big deal.

But if you have real treasure, you want to bury it deep. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars and you don't trust the bank, you're going to bury it like six feet deep. You know what I'm saying? That may be a bad analogy, but you understand what I'm saying.

Scripture, studying the Scripture is like that. So if you sweep it superficially, and you say, "Yeah, I get it. I get it superficially. But I really want to dig. I want to dig and I want to help you see the dots, the connection and how this is a foundation not only for Romans, but all of what we know about Christianity." So let me jump into it this morning.

Just give you the broad outline. The first, and I'm not going to say the most important, but it is most important because if you miss this, all the other parts aren't going to make much sense. It may make sense, but it's going to be very superficial. Have you ever tried to share the Gospel with somebody and they don't see a need?

It's like, "Oh, you know, to be saved." It's like, "Well, I don't need a Savior." "But we're sin, you know, we're sinful." It's like, "You know, I know, I know I did some bad stuff, but you know, when I die, I think I'm a pretty good person." You can never share the Gospel beyond that point.

If the person says, "I don't think I need a Savior." If they don't recognize their sin, if they don't recognize the desperateness before God, you can't get to the cross. How do you explain to somebody that Jesus is a Savior when they say they don't need a Savior? How do you, you can have the nicest Lamborghini car and you go to the village and you say, "I can give you this Lamborghini if you feed me, but there's no roads." They don't need this car.

So no matter how precious this gift is, if that person doesn't see the need for it, it's not precious. So what Paul does in the first three chapters, three whole chapters, is to set the foundation of why you need Jesus. Now we may look at it and say, "Well, I'm talking to a room full of believers and why do we need to spend, you know, three chapters, so if we go fast, it might be three months, two, three months at best.

Two, three months I'm going to be telling you, you're a sinner. You know what I mean? So gear up for it, all right? So get ready, right? Get ready, you know, because we're going to spend a good chunk of time to go through the Romans to recognize what Paul says in need of salvation.

Even as Christians, you know, the Bible describes us when we fall away from God. It typically happens when we're desperate, we cry out to God. When God hears us, you know, we're thankful and we become satisfied. And then once we become satisfied, we forget God. And once we forget God, what happens?

We start drifting out to idolatry and then judgment comes. And then it's that cycle over and over again. And where the judgment comes is the moment that we forget that we need God. And usually when that happens is when life is going well. That's a challenge for all of us because we live in the comforts of Orange County.

Well, most of us, some of us in other counties, right? But most of us are living in Orange County. And Orange County, the general environment. So sometimes you don't even recognize the spiritual stupor that you and I are all in until we leave this area. Travel somewhere else, travel to another country and you come back and realize you can actually feel and sense there's a different spiritual environment.

In Orange County, because this is where we live, the greatest challenge that we have is that there is no sense of urgency for anything. And that includes spiritually. So it's nice, you know. You know, we talk about all this persecution because of the gay rights and, you know, all the stuff that happened.

We hear about it in liberal parts of the world. But to us, it's not real because we live in Orange County. You know, Orange County is known for mega churches. We have mega churches probably every six to seven minute drive from here, like in any direction, there's a mega church.

And it doesn't mean because there's a mega church that everybody is spiritually good. You know, what it means is there's a lot of people go to church. That's what that means. And as a result of a lot of people going to church and a lot of religious activity, there is a false sense of security of being a Christian in Orange County because there's no sense of urgency.

I believe that this part of the Book of Romans is probably one of the most important parts that we need to wrestle with. Because the moment we forget who we are before God without Christ, the Gospel becomes old. Church just becomes a community of people that we hang out with.

You know, these are friends that we have. But there's no sense of urgency. When there is no sense of urgency, first thing that happens is we don't pray. First thing that happens. You'll still come to church. You'll still study the Bible. You'll still do missions. The first thing that happens is we don't pray.

Because we can do everything without God. That's why the first summary and conclusion of what he says in Chapter 3, this is what he says. And again, in our generation, to say this is very offensive. But I'm going to read it to you. Romans 3, 9 through 18. And later on we're going to go into a little bit more detail of what Paul means.

This is the conclusion of what he's been trying to say. In Chapter 3, 9 through 18, "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no not one." Let me stop right there.

Don't read it like you're reading history. Imagine if you were a Jew. You committed all your life to be a faithful Jew. You went to the temple, gave sacrifices. And when you gave sacrifices, that's financial. That's money. Because that's how they measured someone's wealth. So when you went all your life to give financially, you've fasted.

In fact, you've traveled long distances to proselytize other people to be a Jew. And all your life you've been trying to be faithfully committing and to obey the law. Here's Paul when he says, "None is righteous, including you. All the things that you've been doing up to this point add nothing to your righteousness.

Not even one. No one understands." Wait a second. I've been studying the Book of Torah. I've had this memorized since I was five years old. I've had this written up and down my arm. It's written all over my house. I meditate on this. I memorize all of this. I mean, there are some Bible scholars in our generation, but in the Old Testament era, you know, a child by the time he was 13 had big chunks of the Torah memorized.

And that's how they passed it on. No one understands. How can this not be an exaggeration? No one seeks for God. Not even one. And then he goes, he doesn't end there. If he just ended there, it would have already been offensive. But he says, "All have turned aside." You mean all this time that I've been pursuing God at the temple, you're saying I'm part of this?

You mean I've become worthless? Think about that in our generation. I mean, you know, kids play what we call the, what do you call it? The tee ball. They go play football or soccer. They all come back with trophies. We got trophies in our, I don't know. I mean, we have trophies.

We have a lot of trophies. Right? And we're so concerned about the self-esteem of our children that we're going to ruin them if we don't encourage them. And as a result of that, I think that has brought corruption. But here he says, "No, everyone has become worthless. No one does any good.

Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their path are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes." Who are the "they"? Who are the "their" people? Who are those people that he's referring to? He's referring to all of us. He's referring to Gentiles, where God made it very plain to them through the creation who he was. And he says, "The only reason why you don't know God is because you suppress the truth by your wickedness.

You are more comfortable in the darkness." And as a result of that, you say you don't understand. You say this doesn't make any sense. And you reject the truth. But God says that was not an intellectual problem. It was a moral problem. And you Jews who had the law.

And you're saying that you've been obeying the law, but by the law you are judged. If you were judged by the law, you will all be under the curse. He's referring to all of us. And here's… let me go a step further than that. This is who we are the moment we forget Christ.

The moment that we are not motivated by the love of Christ. The moment that we are not affected by the cross. This is who we are. We drift. We're selfish. Nobody naturally drifts. I've never met somebody who just kind of woke up and did nothing and at the end of the day say, "I love Jesus." I've never met anybody who just kind of drifted along two, three years like that, just wasn't paying attention.

And I woke up one day and was like, "Man, I love Jesus." When we don't pay attention, when we aren't anchored, when we're not pursuing, and we're not paying attention, our natural inclination is to drift away from God. See, that's why Paul says, "Before I can even tell you about who Jesus is, do you know that you need Jesus?" We can talk about justification by faith until we're blue to the face and that we become experts.

Justification by faith. And we become experts of propitiation, about adoption, about atonement. You know? We can become experts in all of this, and yet have no effect on us. Because the only way that we can be affected by the cross is when we first and foremost recognize. And the people who are the most deeply affected are the ones who are the most deeply recognizing the need for the cross.

And that's why it's so hard to reach religious people. It's so hard to reach people who are at the church doing the right things, and yet it's always at the surface level. Because we talk about need for Christ, we praise God, and His name is on our lips constantly, but we don't really sense the need.

We don't realize how desperate we are. We don't realize, when we look at the cross, that that's the only way that I can possibly live. And when I talk about live, I'm not just talking about breathing, I'm talking about living. We spend so much time and energy and money to pretend like we're living.

And that's why we get so caught up in entertainment and traveling and all this stuff, and none of that stuff is bad in and of itself. But so much of that is so that we feel like we're living. See, that's why Paul spends so much time trying to convince them, pleading with them, "You need a Savior." The whole book begins, Romans 1:20, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Wrath of God is being poured out, and you don't even recognize it.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's why Paul, recognizing this, in 2 Corinthians 5:20, he describes his ministry as imploring sinners to be reconciled with God. He didn't just casually preach. He didn't just casually spread the word, you know, "I'm going to spread the seed and see what people say." He said he was imploring.

In fact, what does he say later on in the book of Romans? He said, "Knowing the judgment that's coming upon my people, the Jews, I wish I could be accursed, because I wish that all these countrymen would come to recognize who Jesus is and why they need Christ." So there was a sense of urgency in him.

Even as he asked for prayer, in 2 Thessalonians 3, he says, "Finally, brothers, pray for us. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may be spread rapidly." Speed ahead, it says in the ESV, but in the NIV and in the New American Standard, it says to spread rapidly.

Paul didn't simply say, "Can you pray for us that the doors will open?" And I just kind of sit casually until the door gets open so that we can do the ministry. There was a sense of urgency in him, you know. He was kind of watching the world drifting away, and the end of it, the Niagara Falls or whatever is coming, and he sees it.

And so there's a sense of urgency in him in ministry. He's not just casually floating along. When we don't recognize our need, worship becomes dull. Yes, we know justification by faith, but it doesn't inspire worship. It doesn't inspire devotion. Not only does it not inspire our worship and devotion, there's a sense of urgency to spread the Gospel.

You know, we talked about compassion. Where does compassion come from? I think everybody here, if you see a hungry child on the street, you'll have compassion. If you see people, you know, I told you stories in the Philippines, and these young, young teenage girls, barely teenage girls, selling their bodies so they can feed their family.

I mean, doesn't that just get you right here? It's like, we've got to do something. Even though you weren't there, even though you didn't meet them, just the thought of that, doesn't that instill some compassion in you? When compassion is not there, when we see people and we recognize that the wrath of God is upon them, and we do not recognize, we don't have compassion, something has definitely gone wrong.

That's why Paul says first and foremost that we need to recognize. I'm not just talking about them, us. Christians, religious people, committed Christians. Do we need a Savior? Do you need a Savior? After he sets that foundation, the second thing that he goes to is the provision. Justification by faith alone.

And again, I know this is not new to you. You've probably heard that term many times before. Justification by faith alone. Our whole Protestant Reformation was about justification by faith alone. Not faith plus works, but faith alone. In Romans 3.23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by the grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The Scripture is absolutely crystal clear.

Again, you may not be challenged in the church, you may not be challenged in this fellowship, but I know that the moment you step out of church and you're at work or you're at school, you're going to be challenged. That's such an arrogant thing to say. How can you possibly believe that Jesus is the only way?

I can accept it if you say Jesus is a way. I can accept it if you say Jesus is maybe a God and he was a great man and does great things just like a lot of other people have said. But to say that Jesus Christ is the only way?

You see, if our goal is to become better people, I don't know if you've ever read Buddhist literature. There's a lot of earthly wisdom in Buddhist literature. You know, saying, "Hey, he's telling us to be Buddhist." Okay, wake up, that's not what I'm saying, right? But if you've ever read Buddhist literature, the Buddhists spent a lot of time observing truths of life.

Confucius. Some of the best quotes of examination of life I've read from Confucius. I mean, Shakespeare. I don't know much about Shakespeare, but some of the things that I've read about Shakespeare is like, "Man, this guy knows the heart. He captures the essence of people." If you're looking to be a better person, there's a lot of stuff you can do.

You can be a Buddhist, you can be a Mormon. I mean, those are very moral people. There's a lot of things you could do. If your goal is to be financially successful, you don't need Jesus. Maybe praying to Jesus may be the easiest way. Just like if you want to get an A and you didn't study and it was pray.

Give me an A, Lord, because you blew it. But if your goal is financial, if your goal is health, if your goal is social, you don't need Jesus. One reason why you would need Christ is because you don't know what to do with the sin. There is no answer to your guilt that comes from sin, the corruption that comes from deep inside.

If it's financial, just work harder. Get a better job. See which company has the most potential. See which field has more potential to get ahead. And go there and work hard. If you don't have friends, don't be so awkward. Learn some social skills. I mean, there's a lot of things we can do.

If it's just health, run, eat better. If that's what we're seeking, you don't need Jesus. If Jesus is just an easier, faster way, you don't need justification by faith. But that's not what Jesus came to do. That's not what he offered. He said, "I do all of these things so that you would know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins." Until we recognize our corruption, justification by faith is just words.

It's just theology. It's just study, knowledge. But when you are desperate for holiness, when you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, there's no other name, no name given under heaven by which you and I can be saved. There is no other answer but Jesus Christ. That's why we establish the need, and then the means, which is Christ and Christ alone.

And then from there, he talks about the result. If you see the need, and you cling to Christ, and if you cling to Christ and you are saved, chapters 5 through 8 discusses what it is that you have in Christ. And again, sometimes because we forget what it is that we have in Christ, and I think again, part of the reason why prayer is so hard for us is because we forget what prayer is.

You're talking to God. You heard that so many times, "Of course you're talking to God." Let me say it again, okay? You're talking to God. Okay, let me say it again. Some of you guys are looking at me, it's like, "Don't be stupid. I heard that before. Let me say it again, okay?" You know, maybe everything needs to be said three times, so let me say it three times, okay?

You're talking to God. You're talking to God. The God who formed your inner being. The God who stops the ocean from, the water from coming in. The God who keeps enough oxygen in this room so that you and I can breathe. The God who was there from the beginning of time.

The God who's going to be there at the end of time. You're talking to that God. I hope that really sinks in. Sometimes we forget what it is that we have in Christ. Right? It just becomes active. We talked about that last week, right? And it just becomes a habit, and after it becomes a habit, you become blind, right?

You don't feel, it's just kind of like, "Oh, I heard this, heard this, heard this." I've heard this so many times, you become numb to it. I think it's important for us, as we study that, again, that section, like, we have peace with God. We have peace with God.

There was hostility. It's kind of like North and South Korea, you know, they get together, it's like, "Oh, they go one country, and there's a whole country in South Korea just pleading to have peace, to come together." Right? And I can just imagine when North and Korea opens, South and North Korea opens up and they become one, if that's within the will of God, I can imagine just, you know, 60, 70 years of being separated from your cousins and relatives, and I can just imagine the joy of celebration.

I want to be there, if that ever happens, and the day that they open it up, I want to be there, just to take pictures, just to take video, right? Can you imagine all of human history has been separated from this holy God, and now God has opened the door?

We have peace with God. That it would not just be some words that we express, it's not just some theological thing that we sign, but we have peace with God. And as a result of that, we have peace of God. If you have peace with God, the peace of God will guard you in all things.

Because you know what that means? If I have peace with God, everything is good. Sometimes I think about what's the most tragic thing that I could imagine in my life? You know? I could think of me dying too early. And not because of me, like I'm ready to go, because my kids and my wife, I don't want to leave them, so in my mind, that's probably the worst thing that can possibly happen in my life.

I get sick and I die. I worry a little bit about you people, but not as much. You know what I mean? You guys, I'm pretty sure somebody's going to come up here and do a better job than I am able to do, but I'm the only father in my home.

But even then, when I think about the worst case scenario, I'm at peace. Because God is in control. I believe in a sovereign God. He gave me His Son to save me. How will He not, along with Him, give me everything? Even if I die early, how will that not be in His control?

I have peace with God, therefore I have the peace of God, and therefore the scripture says you have this new life. You and I have this life. And Paul's going to expose it. What does that mean, to have new life? You were once slaves to sin, now you're slaves to righteousness.

And what does this new life look like? In the Spirit, in Romans chapter 8. Christianity is about life. It's not about Sunday morning. It's not about serving and sacrifice. It's about life. The life that you could not live because of sin, He gave life. That's what Christianity is about.

That's why Jesus says, "I have come to give life, and give this life abundantly." So if you're missing out on this life, you're missing out on the benefit of salvation. To be alive. That the greatest witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the life of the church. You have been crucified with Christ, and you were united with Him in His death, but now as a result of being united with Him in His death, now you are united with Him in His resurrected life.

Zoe. I'm able to live because I don't have to be successful. Because Jesus was successful for me. I don't have to walk down the street and feel any less than anybody else because somebody has better stuff. Somebody is playing basketball better than me. Somebody has a better job. Somebody is smarter than me.

Because all of this stuff is just fluff. In the end, when I die, I'm going to be in heaven in eternity with God. God saved me from this rat race. This miserable rat race that makes us feel less of a person because we're not doing better than the next guy.

Our family doesn't look better than the next family. God saved us from ourselves. From our constant need to exalt ourselves. As a result of justifying our sins, we have new life in Christ, and as a result, not only do we have new life, we are able to call Him our Abba Father.

He's not just some distant creator that He said, "Here I am, and just worship Me." He said, "No, come to Me." He has become our Abba Father. And then we're going to be, He's going to be talking about the scope in chapter 9 through 11, and again, we'll get into that more deeper.

But God is so faithful to His promises. What He said to Israel, He has not given up. His period of time, He's going to allow the Gentiles to come in, but He has not given up on that. And again, for the sake of time, we'll jump to the last.

This life, in view of this salvation, if we quickly jump over all of this and say, "You should do this, you should do that," we can change their behavior. I mean, peer pressure has a lot of power over us. Right? And some of you guys are thinking, "No, I'm not." You know, it was always interesting to me when I was younger, the punk rockers, when they first came in, they're about anarchy.

You know, "We're just going to do it. We're going to rebel." And they all rebelled the same way. You know what I'm saying? That was always interesting to me. They all had the mohawk, all dyed their hair the same way, all had a leather jacket with spikes. Anarchy! Right?

No, you just created another society of anarchists. You're just conforming to another group of people. Right? Even when we don't think that we're being influenced, we're all influenced. So if you can come to church, and all it becomes is about change of behavior to fit into this church, if we're not careful, we can easily become whitewashed tombs where we're washing the outside of the tomb, but inside is the same, filled with dead men's bones.

What really changes us is when we recognize who we are before God, and what it is that Christ has done, and that it is only Christ, and I'm desperate for Christ every single day. And then we recognize what it is that we have in Christ, which is the reason why I worship Him.

Not because if I don't worship, He's not going to bless my life, He's not going to bless my business, He's not going to bless my marriage. I don't worship God thinking that if I do some of these things that God's going to make my life better. I worship because He's given me everything I could possibly think of.

What more could I ask for than the Son of God Himself? And that's what worship is, coming into this sanctuary, living every day, and thank you for saving a wretched sinner like me. You know, I may not have all the money, I may not have all the blessings, I may not, you know, have all these superficial things, but I have Jesus.

Who can separate you from the love of Christ? And so you live a life of worship, and so therefore, chapter 12 through 16 is an explanation. When you do this, when you are motivated, when your inwards are changing, and you become a genuine worship of God, this is how you ought to express your worship to God.

That's chapter 12 through 16. So again, as I wrap up this morning, that's the big picture of what we're trying to get into. Now some of these things we're going to go into and spend a lot of time digging through, and again, my personal goal for this is not just, obviously it's not just academic.

I personally desire revival. Not because it's fun, not because I see something wrong, because when Christ is close, I experience life. And I know that that's the same with you. No matter how many trips you take, no matter how many shiny things you buy, no matter how secure you are, no matter how healthy you are, if you've seen a glimpse of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know that there is nothing like it.

So I pray that as we jump into the book of Romans, that the hungering and thirsting for righteousness will be stirred up in us, that every time we come, that we would come ready. Don't bring a little thimble. Fill me up, fill my cup up. Bring a bucket. Become active listeners and be ready.

Say, "Lord, here am I. Search me and know me." Let's take a few minutes to pray before God as we ask the worship team to come up. Again, it takes a few minutes to come before the Lord in prayer, examining our own hearts. If we've been distracted, to take this time to come before the Lord.

You know, I pray that our Lordship would not just be words, and that we can honestly pray before God. "Search me and know me. There are hurtful ways in me." And be sincere when you ask that prayer. I'm weak, but I need your strength. So let's take some time to pray before God, that God will soften our hearts to speak to us.

Okay.