Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We have been looking at eleven chapters in Romans over the past few months. But it is important to notice that Paul does not start in chapter 12. We must know the first eleven chapters to appreciate what Paul is going to tell us that we must do. So how should we sum up all that we have looked at over these chapters in the book of Romans? The apostle Paul has a simple phrase to sum up what he has taught to us. He calls them “the mercies of God” in Romans 12:1. It would probably be helpful for to scan back through through eleven chapters to remember the mercies of God that Paul proclaimed…

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The message of Romans 9-11 is that the mercy of God is here. The mercy of God is available to all who will receive it. In Romans 9 we observed Paul asking us to consider what we are doing with God’s mercy. Is God’s mercy moving us to serve him or to resist him? In our second lesson from Romans 9:30-10:4 we saw that the reason people resist God’s mercy is because they are establishing their own way of righteousness. We do not want to do things God’s way. We want to do things our way and believe that we are saved and that we are God’s people. In Romans 10 we saw Paul teach that it is not too hard or too far out of reach to do what God has asked us to do. God has not asked the impossible from us. The problem is not that it is too hard but that we do not want to listen. If we believed, then we would be transformed in heart to obey the gospel. This brings us to Romans 11. As we come to Romans 11 I want us to think about why God keeps telling us about his judgment and his offer of mercy. Is God being mean or insensitive or uncaring by telling us about his wrath and coming judgment? This is a common response that people have to hearing about the idea of wrath, judgment, hell, and the like. I want us to notice where this teaching concludes in Romans 11…

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Have you ever considered something to be too hard to do so that you do not even try to do it? There have been things that I have looked at, maybe did a little research on it, and then decided that it was too hard for me to do. This has been particularly true when it comes to working on my car. I have watched videos, saw the degree of difficulty, and thought that there was no way that I could do what I am watching. What I want us to think about as we begin is that there are many things in life that we do not attempt because we think it will be too hard to do. Sometimes this thinking bleeds into how we look at serving the Lord. Moses addressed this in one of his final sermons to the people of Israel…

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There is great power in influence. We even have a term today for a special group of people that we call influencers. An influencer is someone that people listen to and, because of that, are able to use their good will to encourage people to do or not do things. Businesses understand the power of influencers and will try to pay them or send them free products so that they will review their product and influence people to buy their product or service. Influence is powerful. We have another term for influence called peer pressure. Because we care about what other people think and respond, we will do certain things because of their influence. Things that we would not consider doing we might consider doing because of the influence of others. Influence is powerful. This is the key message that we are going to study in this lesson from 2 Chronicles 21-24. In these chapters were are going to read three examples of influence. As we read about these influencers I want us to think about who is influencing us and who are we influencing…

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In our last lesson we looked at the mercy of the gospel. God’s mercy generates two outcomes: either people will respond to his mercy and be saved or people will reject his mercy and remain lost. God’s patient mercy brought about Pharaoh’s hardening of his heart. Further, God’s patient mercy toward Israel only brought about a further rejection of God. Before we look into the next paragraph in Romans, I want us to think about why it is so important for us to look at the example of Israel. Twice in Romans the apostle Paul has marked off all of the blessings and privileges that Israel experienced (cf. Romans 3:1-4; 9:4-5). In 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 he also lists off some of those blessings. But then Paul says these words: “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:5). A few verses later Paul will say, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). These things are recorded for us so that we will learn from their example and not fail like they did. In Romans 9 we saw that it was not that God’s mercy or promises had failed. God was not the problem. God did what he said. God patiently offered mercy to Israel. So the word of God did not fail. So what happened so that the Jews are excluded and Gentiles have come into the kingdom of God? In Romans 9:30-10:4 the apostle Paul is going to explain what happened to Israel. In particular, he is going to help us understand why they failed so that we will not fail like they did…

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In our study of Romans we now come to Romans 9-11. These three chapters are considered the more difficult parts of this book. Volumes have been written about the meaning of these chapters. But are these chapters just deep theology and hard teachings that are reserved for intellectual academic studies? I think sometimes we can come across complicated scriptures and think that there is nothing there for us and these things are just for the academics to argue over. But I would like to remind us that all scriptures were given for the average person. Even scriptures that Peter may have called “hard to understand” (cf. 2 Peter 3:16) are scriptures that are given to all people. We recently looked at 1 Corinthians 1 in our Sunday morning Bible study where we learned that the Lord did not reveal these things to the noble, wise, or powerful (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). The point is that you do not have to be someone special to understand what the Lord is teaching us. So I want to challenge you to want to know the meaning of Romans 9-11. I am going to challenge myself to not get lost in the weeds and get too deep into the details that I lose the message of these chapters. I will not speak on every verse but try to capture the meaning, paragraph by paragraph, as we move through these chapters. Lord willing, we are going to take four lessons to cover these three chapters so we can see the main message Paul is teaching about the gospel and what these things mean for our walk with Christ today…

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“What then shall we say to these things?” (Romans 8:31). Romans 8 is a glorious chapter that has wrestled with the conflict between being children of God and experiencing suffering. The defining mark of the Christian is being led by the Spirit and no longer being led by the flesh. If we live according to the desires and the will of the flesh, we will die (Romans 8:13). But if we live according to the desires and the will of the Spirit, we will live (Romans 8:13). But suffering challenges and tests the way we think about our relationship with God. But Paul has put forward an important truth for every follower of Christ to hear. We are children of God, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him (Romans 8:16-17). But our suffering is so that we can be glorified with him (Romans 8:17). Paul then tells us that everything in God’s plan and everything in creation is moving us to our glorification. For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). This is what brings us to the important question Paul asks: “What then shall we say to these things?” You might notice that the rest of chapter 8 is filled with questions. People ask questions so that we will think and give a response. Paul is going to ask a flurry of questions so that we will think about our circumstances and our relationship with God and then provide the necessary answers. Open your copies of God’s word to Romans 8:31-39 and we are going to explore Paul’s questions so that the answers we give will provide hope and assurance as we see the love of gospel…

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Every year we are told to begin preparations because we live in south Florida. When June 1 rolls around we are told that we need to stock up on hurricane supplies. We need to have extra water on hand. We need to make sure we have batteries for flashlights and radios. Make sure your generator is ready to run. Have your trees trimmed back. There are many steps that are given to us so that we can be prepared for any named storms that head our way. But how many of us have done this? When the reminder on June 1 came, how many of us went through the checklist, made the necessary purchases, and have everything ready for this year’s hurricane season? I will not ask anyone to raise their hand. But if we did not make preparations, I want us to consider why not. Maybe we think we are not going to have a storm this year. Maybe we think we can get ready later. Maybe we think we will make preparations when we see the storm heading our way. Maybe we think we are ready and do not need to follow the recommendations given. We can be tempted to approach the return of Christ and our preparation in the same way. At the end of 1 Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul wrote to those Christians about the future hope of Christ’s return. When Christ comes, we will be gathered together and always be with the Lord. But this leads to Paul’s instruction about being ready for Christ’s return. As Paul concludes his teaching about excelling even more, he wants these Christians to excel even more in readiness…

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