PRECEPT STUDY

ROMANS PART 1 - LECTURE 2

Paul…Set Apart for the Gospel

INTRODUCTION. Don’t you feel good? You’ve completed reading the Book of Romans. You’ve put down what’s in every chapter. You’ve gotten an overview of that Book. And aren’t you excited about what’s coming. If you are not excited I just want to tell you that you will be because what is coming is absolutely great. What I’m going to do this week is I am not going to go into the overview of the Book because I feel that it’s important for me to finish Paul’s life. I want you to understand the author of the Book of Romans. Let’s look at Paul…set apart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY. Now what we did is we came up in the Chronology of Paul’s life to his second missionary journey. And his second missionary journey was centered around the cities that encompassed the Aegean Sea. Paul’s strategy was always to go where the gospel had not been preached. He didn’t want to build on another man’s foundation. He wanted to come in and establish the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Paul went—when he traveled—what he would do was he would go to metropolitan cities where there was a crossroads of people. And this is what you see especially as you move down to Corinth because what they would do is they would cut right through this isthmus. They would take the ships instead of sailing around the bottom of Greece here they would go through an isthmus canal that was here between Athens and Corinth. It was like a New York city—the boiling pot of America—and it was the boiling pot of the Roman Empire at that time. So he picked strategic places. It was while Paul was over here in his second missionary journey in Asia, that he had a vision and that vision was of a man that said, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9). So he took that vision from the Lord and he came over here to Macedonia—he went to Philippi—he went to Thessalonica—he went to Berea, etc. Now after he had been in Thessalonica, and he was there for just a very short time, while he was there by the way, he taught them about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. While he was there he truly was a living epistle because while he was there he was persecuted for the gospel. And in Thessalonians if you will turn there to chapter 1, I just want to show you one thing. I love that Book and if you have not done the Precept course on Thessalonians you may want to take it because it really is a good course and this first chapter is absolutely dynamite! But he talks in verse 6 of chapter 1—he says, 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. They say, “Look if you want to see the reality of Jesus Christ, look at the lives of those in Thessalonica.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people could say about your Precept group—about your In & Out Bible Study—if you want to see the reality of what those people believe, of what they are studying—look at their lives—because the whole purpose of Precept and the whole purpose of In & Out is not just to give you knowledge, but it’s to help you to know your God and knowing your God to live according to His statutes—to live that true life of righteousness that belongs to every child of God. And you see that in the gospel of Jesus Christ the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. By now you should have discovered that one of the key words in the Book of Romans is the word “righteousness.” And we’ll be talking about it next week and it will be good—you pray and it will be good. He’s on his second missionary journey—let me just read two more verses since I’m almost at the end -- it’s so good…in verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 it says, 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues (delivers) us from the wrath to come. You see, Paul was totally convinced that that gospel was able to save him from the wrath which was to come. And therefore, saving him from the wrath which was to come, he was waiting for his Savior. And you see in both the epistles to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians you see him mentioning the Second Coming of the Lord so much –as I said last week—it’s the purifying hope. Well it was on this second missionary journey after he left those in Thessalonica that he wrote 1 and 2 Thessalonians. So you want to put that down on your chart.

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY. Then the next thing we see is Paul’s Third Missionary Journey. And this third missionary journey was in 52-56 AD. Now remember on his second missionary journey Claudius was the emperor of Rome. I told you that last week. And Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome. Now I want you to answer me. When Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, what two Jews left Rome? Priscilla and Aquila. Where did they meet Paul, can you remember? Corinth. They met Paul in Corinth. How did they come to meet? What was the profession of Priscilla and Aquila? They were tent makers. What was Paul’s profession? He was a tent maker also. So the Lord used that decree of Claudius to bring Priscilla and Aquila to meet Paul and for him to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then Priscilla and Aquila became set apart also for the gospel of God. Now on this third missionary journey which took place between 52-56 AD, Claudius dies—Claudius dies in AD 54. When Claudius dies Nero becomes Emperor of Rome. You remember the story. Nero fiddled while (what?) Rome burned. So Nero then will be the emperor all the way down to the end of Paul’s life. Nero is the one that will have Paul put to death. Paul will die sometime between 67-68 AD. I’ll give that to you later. And Nero will die in 68 AD. So their deaths are almost simultaneous. Now on the third missionary journey—remember he’s been to Corinth. He’s met Priscilla and Aquila. He has brought these people to Christ. He has laid the foundation. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says, I have laid the foundation and no man can lay any other foundation then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. He says, Another came and built upon it. So after Paul left Corinth, Apollos came. And Apollos built on that foundation. Apollos was one of the teachers there in Corinth. So on his third missionary journey which is back in this same area he is revisiting the churches that he established on his second missionary journey. On his third missionary journey he sits down and he writes 1 and 2 Corinthians. So that’s what happened on this third missionary journey. Also he goes back to Corinth after he writes 1 and 2 Corinthians—or sometime in there—I’m sorry I don’t know exactly when—but he goes back to Corinth and when he goes back to Corinth then he writes the Book of Romans. He writes the epistle to the Romans. So you just want to remember that. When did Paul write his epistle to the Romans? He wrote it on his third missionary journey. Now he wrote it to a church that was already established. I’m going to give all of this to you in detail later so you don’t need to panic about getting it down because what I want to do is finish the history of Paul and then come back and look at this epistle to the Romans. But he wrote them because he wanted to visit them. He was going to go beyond, if you’ll look at the map here, or you’ll look at your map in your workbook if you’re not looking at this on videotape, he was going to go beyond the Aegean Sea, beyond Greece, on up here to Italy on his way to Spain. Now you know that from reading Romans 15. So Romans was written during his third missionary journey.

CONTEXT. Now go to Acts 20 and what I want to do is put you in context. He has written Romans, he has planned to go to Rome after he takes an offering down to Jerusalem. What he does not know when he writes the letter to the Romans in Rome, what he does not know is that when he goes to Jerusalem he is going to be arrested. Now he finds that out before he ever goes to Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit reveals that to him. But He has not revealed it to Paul at the time that he writes the epistle to the Romans.

·  Paul Proclaiming the Gospel. So we’re in Acts 20:17 it says, 17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. 18 And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; now remember here was a group of Jews who did not like the gospel—they were opposed to the gospel—so they were always plotting to get Paul. They were following him. They were agitating him. And yet in the midst of all this, this is what I love and this is what I want you to catch—Paul persevered. Nothing deterred Paul from preaching the gospel. Why? Because he was absolutely, totally convinced that it was the power of God. He knew that when he proclaimed the gospel he was not proclaiming ordinary words! He was not proclaiming a philosophic message. He was proclaiming the very words of God that was the power of God unto salvation that would take men out of hell and put them in heaven—that would loose men from their sin and from their chains to sin and set them free and let them be free indeed. It would take unrighteous, ungodly men and make righteous, godly men out of them. And because he knew the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing could deter him. As a matter of fact, I think that persecution just fanned his fire and made him more and more determined that he was going to get out that gospel no matter what it cost him—and it was going to cost him a lot. He was not a man—now remember those 5 deadly “D’s”—he was not a man that would allow disappointment in his life because every time disappointment came, he would see it as (what?) His appointment. He knew the truth of what he said, All things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are the called according to His purpose. For whom God (what?) foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Paul knew that and he walked in the light in what he taught. In verse 20 he says, 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, no matter that persecution I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house. Can’t you just imagine the women saying as they are wiping their hands on their aprons or skirts, “Guess what? Paul is coming over tonight and I’m going to make the nicest matzah and all this sort of stuff and I want you to come over and we are going to talk about God.” You know what?

·  Studying God’s Word. I’ve got to tell you this. I told you it’s 1985 and I don’t know if you’ve read the book, Dorie: the Girl Nobody Loved, but if you haven’t you need to read it. Dorie Van Stone and Lloyd Van Stone, who was a pastor, have been here at Precept Ministries and they’ve been in our training program and they were supposed to be here this time for this training program. When Lloyd was here the last time, that pastor sat and wept and he said, “Why don’t they teach this in seminaries?” He said, “You can graduate from seminary and not know how to study God’s Word.” And he says, “I am absolutely convinced that Precept needs to be in every church in the USA.” And he says, “I just want to give my life to that and they wanted to come on staff with us and he just wanted to help us to get out Precept. And he would sit and weep and weep at what he was learning and what he was seeing and what the Inductive Bible Study was doing. And they had just taken a church until some day they could come with us but he said I can’t take that church until I come for your three-week training program on Romans. Two weeks ago he was jogging and between jogs he went to be with the Lord. And I talked to Dorie last night and she said, “Kay, I want to be with you. I need that teaching. I need that fellowship that you all can provide. You know, Lloyd said to me so many times, ‘Dorie, we’ve traveled all over the USA, Canada and Alaska and I haven’t been in any place where people when they sit down they want to talk about the Lord and that’s what they want to do at Precept.’ ” It’s not talking about other things. We want to talk about the Lord. And they just love to talk about the Lord and I could just see them, “Come on over, we’re going to talk about the word of God. I’m telling you darling, it’s going to be wonderful.” And they want to come! I love it! I love the Jews! Oh I wish I could be a Jew. God didn’t see fit; I have to be an ‘ol Gentile. I’m glad I’m a saved Gentile--I’d have to be a saved Jew too if I was going to be a Jew.

·  Paul under God’s control. Back to Acts 20:21. It says, 21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 “And now, behold, (now catch this) bound by the Spirit, (I am bound in Spirit which is controlling me), bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, (I don’t know the details.) 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. I’m going to Jerusalem and I know this.