The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 1
04/16/16 (2/8) Video Broadcast
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 1 - Study
Part 1 - Comments and Questions
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 2 - Study01:20:44
Part 2 - Comments and Questions01:36:36
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 3 - Study01:15:40
Part 3 - Comments and Questions01:47:18
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 4 - Study01:10:27
Part 4 - Comments and Questions01:20:42
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 5 - Study01:28:14
Part 5 - Comments and Questions01:26:04
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse - Part 6 - Study01:21:26
Part 6 - Comments and Questions01:21:58
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 7 - Study01:33:37
Part 7 - Comments and Questions01:15:02
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 8 - Study01:30:39
Part 8 - Comments and Questions01:36:18
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 9 - Study01:43:15
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 10 - Study01:43:19
Part 10 - Comments and Questions01:59:03
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 11 - Study01:48:08
Part 11 - Comments and Questions02:41:41
The Book of Romans: Verse by Verse – Part 12 - Study01:35:34
Part 12 - Comments and Questions01:44:35
We are about to embark on
a multi part study once
again.
This time, we are going to
examine in detail the book
of Romans verse by verse.
We're gonna go through the
entire book of Romans, all
16 chapters and I don't
think it will take us 16
weeks, but we will go
through each of these
chapters.
And some of them will take
a little bit more time
than others, but though
it's pretty important that
we get a grasp on the book
of Romans, one of the most
controversial books in
terms of whether or not we
should keep Yahweh's
law as Torah.
And also some wonderful
details about what
Yahushua has done for us
in all the depths of that.
A lot, I don't think even
reaches the entirety of
all the depths of that,
but goes quite deep.
And so, if you have any
Bible handy, make sure you
open up to the book of
Romans, we're gonna be
reading from the New King
James version here, except
I do restore
the true names.
I use Yahweh as the name
of the Heavenly Father,
Yahushua as the name of
the Messiah instead of
Jesus, and I use Elohim or
Mighty one instead of the
term God.
And I do this because I
have a conviction to do
that.
A desire to be obedient
as the scriptures I found
concerning the importance
of the names of our
Heavenly Father
and the Messiah.
And I don't condemn those
who use the more common
names but I have simply
come to that conviction to
instead of Christ.
use, again Yahweh as
the name of the Heavenly
It just takes me back
to the more Hebraic word
Father, Yahushua for the
Messiah's name instead of
Jesus, and mighty one or
Elohim instead of God.
I also like to use the
Hebraic term Messiah
which the original word Mashiach meaning anointed one. Now, the book of Romans is commonly believed to be set in a time, approximately late 50s AD which would have been about 12 to 13 years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul is believed to have written this book around the time of Acts 19, 20 or so, particularly, probably they believed in while he was in Corinth. In this particular part of the book Acts of here, Acts 20:2-5 now when he got, remember that region and encouraged him with many words. They came to Greece and stayed three months and when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And So pater of Berea accompanied him to Asia also Aristarchus, and Secundus of Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy and Tychicus, I
guess that's how you say the name. And Trophimus of Asia. These men going ahead and waited for us at Troas. So, this is close to the time of around the Feast of Unleavened Bread, passover type season and this is what they believed. It's probably the time that Paul would have actually written this Epistle or letter to the Roman congregation that we now call a book. But it's actually a letter. A letter from one person to a group of people, actually people he has not... A congregation he hasn't met fully, he knew some of the people in the congregation from his travels throughout, but he did not personally visit the congregation in Rome as of yet, but he was wanting to. Now, Rome was of course the largest city of his day, with a population of more than a million. I think one of the scriptures says, four million. But about a third of the population was actually slaves. Now, there were two individuals that were important figures in the book of Acts who were actually from Rome and you can find that here, Acts18:1-2 it says, "After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius,
who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them." So they come from Rome, Italy and the reason why they had to leave Rome was Claudius, who was the Roman Emperor at that time, had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And so, they were not permitted to be there. They were basically kicked out, they were expelled from Rome sometime in the 40s, we're not sure exactly when, but we do know Emperor Nero who begin his reign approximately 54 AD, did allow the Jews back in to Rome. And so, he is writing to the Romans during a time period where the Jews are making their way back and have established some synagogues there. Priscilla and Aquila after they had gone to Corinth,
they did do some ministering in different places but it's apparent that they did actually go back to Rome after Nero permitted them to come
back, it says "Greet", at Romans 16:3-4 "Greet Priscilla and Aquilla my fellow workers and Messiah Yahushua who risked her own neck for my life; to whom not only I gave thanks, but also all congregations of the Gentile." So he's telling the Roman people to, Roman congregation to greet Priscilla and Aquilla indicating that they had made their way back to Rome. Now in 64 AD, there was a time that an important event took place, particularly a terrible fire that had burned for six days and seven nights and consumed almost 3/4th of the city. Now, the people accused the emperor Nero for the devastation claiming he set the fire just for his own amusement, but in order to deflect those accusations and gain favor in the sight of people, Nero decided to blame believers in Messiah for the fire. And the Roman historian Tacitus says, "Therefore to stop the rumor that he had set the room on fire, he falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures the persons commonly called Christians." Now, doesn't mean they call themselves Christians, means they were commonly called Christians. And I think that's kinda interesting that other people called believers in Messiah, Christians but you don't find any scripture anywhere where they call themselves Christians. And I think for that reason, I prefer not to call myself Christian, although I do believe in the Messiah and in the new testament 100%, but I like to try to call myself by the names in titles and things that the early believers did. Anyway, who were generally hated for their enormities. Christus, we're talking about the Messiah here, the founder of that name was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of this is a Roman historian and it's believed that Judah in the reign of Tiberius. Here's an actual historical evidence that the Messiah was put to death by Pontius Pilate,
this is an accurate...
There are some people claiming that the Roman historian Tacitus, this was messed with, but by a large majority of scholars do believe this is a genuine quote from Tacitus, "It's about the pernicious superstition repressed for a time broke out yet again, not only through Judea where the mischief orient originated, but through the city of Rome also whether all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters as to a common receptacle in where they are encouraged. Accordingly, first those who were arrested who confessed they were Christians, next on their information a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city as of hating the human race. Isn't that interesting that the whole... That the people of Rome saw believers as haters, haters of the human race. It says, "And in perishing they were additionally made into sports, they were killed by dogs, by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to the crosses or set aflame and when daylight passed away they were used as night time lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for the spectacle and performed a circus game, and then have a little bit of chariot races with the plebes or driving about the race course, even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the most reason example the consequences of crime. People begin to pity this sufferers because they were consumed, not for the public good, but on account of the fierceness of one man. So these are the things that begin to take place in the year 64. We're talking maybe six or seven years after he had written this letter to the Romans, and so for all we know people like Priscilla and Aquilla and others had fallen into this. And so pretty sad, pretty sad indeed. But I find interesting that they were accused of hate. We often get accused of hate because we believe in the Messiah Yahushua and standing for righteousness. And so, just because we're accused of hate does not mean obviously, we're doing something wrong, sometimes it can mean we're doing something right, but is actually, who was exhibiting a hatred here? It was Nero, it was the citizens of Rome who were exhibiting hatred, not the other way around. And we find that to be the case also often in today's society, which was very Roman like, becoming more and more Roman like and it's nature. But the citizens of Rome actually received food and entertainment from the government, wine was cheap, it was plentiful, the admission to Roman games was free and they had gladiators, and the theater and chariot races and kinda reminds me a lot of the modern era. A lot of food, a lot of entertainment and increased hostility towards believers and what we stand for and we, just like believers were at those days are accused of hating the human race, when really is not or about that at all. And so with these historical matters in mind, some of which we're beginning to relate to already more and more, let's begin our journey here into the Book of Romans. Paul, a bond-servant of Yahushua Messiah, called to be an apostle. Separate to the good news of Elohim, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son, Yahushua Messiah our master. He was born in the Seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Now, I notice first of all here, I see that Paul refers to himself as a bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah. Now, a bond-servant is simply a slave, and slaves
see themselves as being required to do what their master tells them, right? I mean, if a person's a slave or a bond-servant, you don't listen to what your owner tells you and then decide whether or not you're gonna do it, you just do it. You don't look at the other options as even being on the table. You don't look at other options as even being much of a choice because you've chosen already to become Yahushua's slave. This is a willing choice to become Yahushua's bond-servant. Now, Paul was willingly that slave, that bond-servant, and decided to completely and fully trust Yahushua to be that wise and loving leader and shepherd. But once the decision's made, the decision's made, and so he said, "I'm a bond-servant. I'm bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah." I wonder if we see ourselves as people who have been bought, or if we still see ourselves as people who, you know, we think we own ourselves, when really, he owns us. He owns us. So Luke 14:25, we see an admonition here, that we
need to make the decision of who's slave we're gonna be. We're gonna become slaves of sin or are we gonna choose to be Yahushua's slaves or bond-servants. Luke 14:25 talks about the importance of accounting the cost. It says, "Now great multitudes were sent with him." And he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes his own life also, he cannot be my disciples." Now, the term hate here means to love less. So we have to love messiah more than father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own life. If we don't, we cannot be his disciple. "Whoever does not bare his stake or stauros, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. Less, after he has laid the foundation, is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Where what king going to make war against another king does not set down first thing, consider whether he is able to a 10,000, to beat him who comes against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends delegation, asks conditions of peace, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple." And so, harsh
words. Hard words for some of us. But bootcamp is what we signed up for, right? We're in a spiritual bootcamp right now, learning how to be a solider. But when we graduate, when we complete, we will be mature men and women and fit for the kingdom that is to come. And so, we're in a time right now where we have willingly given ourselves to... In our flesh, which is constantly at war with Elohim, we've given it all up and we've said, "Not my will, your will be done." Now, Yahushua did that for us. He gave everything up and said, "Not my will, your will be done." And because of that, he was greatly blessed and because of that, the whole world was saved, and so we are called to follow that same pattern. And we need to embrace that kind of mentality that Paul had. We are Yahushua's bond-servants, his slaves. Now, I know the term slave maybe has some awful implications in American society, especially for the brothers who have darker colored skin than I do. So I hope I'm not hurting anybody by saying that word. But there is something about having that mentality that we need to embrace. That's something, you know, that is the first thing Paul identified himself: First as a bond-servant then as an apostle. There's something about having that mentality that I think we really could benefit from. You know, we already made the choice in commitment. To turn away from sin, and be willing to give up everything we have, even if it means our own relatives, our friends, our brothers and sisters, our wives, anybody. It means, they will no longer want to have a relationship with us. It won't matter. We're gonna still be Yahushua's disciple. And it's that time that we chose to no longer be a slave of sin, but chose to be a slave of Yahushua Hamashiach. John 8:34, Yahushua said, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who commits sin is a slave of sin." So in reality, we're all slaves. But we're no longer slaves of sin. We don't practice sinful behavior, because that would bring us in a place where we would be under bondage, once again, to a different master. Our carnal nature. Romans 6:16-18 says, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves to whom you obey, whether it's sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But Elohim be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness." So we gotta thank Yahweh that even while we were yet sinners, we saw the love of Elohim, we saw what he was offering us, eternal life. A permanent relationship with him, and the peace and joy and contentment that comes from that. And we chose to obey from the heart that form of doctrine to which we were delivered, and we were set free from sin and become new slaves of righteousness. Now, it's also true that we are sons and daughters of the King. But to become sons and daughters, we first had to be bought with the blood of Yahushua, we were on the slave market. We had to be bought with the blood of Yahushua, and he is our redeemer. And anyone who is bought, is by nature a slave. But he bought us so that he could free us from our old master, and cause us to be adopted sons and daughters of Yahweh, the father. As was said, "For you were bought at a price, therefore, glorify Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are Elohim's. This body does not belong to us, it belongs to Elohim, and we were bought at a price." And so therefore, we are under new ownership: Yahweh. He is willing to adopt us as sons and daughters, as his own children, but we must never forget how we got here. So it's safe to say we are Yahweh's slaves, we are his bond-servants, and the females are his maidservants, the men are his menservants and females are maidservants of Yahushua Ha-Mashiach. And that's how Paul saw himself. Now, he says he's also called to be an apostle. He made the term bond-servant a part of his identity, but also an apostle. This became entrenched in his mentality, this is who he is. It's what he called himself. A bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah and an
apostle. Now, he was not one of the 12. He never claimed to be one of the 12, but he was an apostle nonetheless. Now, what is an apostle? The word apostle simply means, it's from 6:52 Apostellos, a delegate, a messenger, one who is sent forth with orders.
Specifically applied to the 12 apostles, of Christian teachers, Barnabas, Timothy, and messiah, in a broader sense to other eminent Silvanus were all called apostles, either by inference or otherwise. And then, this is from first of all, go back here. This is actually from 6:49 Apostellos. Apostello means to order, to go to a place appointed, to send away and dismiss, to allow one to depart, and so on. It actually is translated "send" 110 times in the King James, "send forth" 15 times, so it definitely has to do with sending someone out. That is the meaning. So the word has to do with being one who is sent, and this actual word is found... The same word is found in John 13. The same word translated... We have Apostellos here, this Apostellos is actually found, also, in this verse, John 15-16 says, "For I have given you an example that you should do as I had done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent
greater than he who sent him." So the word Apostellos is actually found in the Greek text of John 13:16. Another instance will be found here in Philippians 2:25, it says, "Yet I considered it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who managed to attend my need." Once again, sent. And it's actually translated "messenger" in this verse, Apostellos. So Paul was an apostle, and Philippians, we see, Epaphroditus was referred to as an apostle. And an apostle is one who is sent. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're in an official office of 12 apostles.
It's someone who is sent, as simple as that.
Now Yahushua was the one who sent out Paul.
In Acts 9:13-16 it says, "Ananias answered when Yahushua came to him in a vision. Master I've heard from many about this man... " Talking about Paul. "and how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem." This was before his conversion. "And here he has authority from the Chief Priest to bind all who call on your name. The Master said to him, Go, for he's a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, Kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake." And later Acts 13:2-3 says, "As they
ministered to the Master and fasted, the Holy spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. And having fasted and prayed, laid hands on them. They sent them away." So Paul was Yahushua's chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles, Kings and children of Israel, and the Holy Spirit had separated Barnabas and Saul to this work of going forth in proclaiming His name. So, this is why Paul identifies himself as an Apostle because he was sent out by the Holy Spirit, by Yahushua Himself and he was separated from others and since then he had a specific role that he had to fulfill. And so it says, he was a born servant of Yahushua Messiah called to be an Apostle, separated to the good news. This word gospel means good news of Elohim.
The good news of Elohim before, says which He
promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son. Yahushua Messiah our Master, who was born in the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Now, one of the prophets actually said these things. Where in the holy prophets or scriptures that actually say that Yahweh would have a Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Well, we can look into the prophets. We can see first of all that Yahushua Hamashiach would be of a seed of Elohim. In Jeremiah 23:5 it says, "Behold the days are coming, says Yahweh. That I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A King shall reign and prosper, execute judgement and righteousness on the earth. In His days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now, this is His name by which He will be called: Yahweh Our Righteousness." So in the future time when Yahushua Hamashiach dwells on the earth and He reigns for a thousand years over men and we reign with Him, He will be called Yahweh Our Righteousness or in Hebrew, Yahweh Tsidkenu. He will bear Yahweh's name. And why is He called Our Righteousness? Well we're gonna find out here a little bit later, but He's called Our Righteousness. But first we wanna point out He has raised to David this branch, this offshoot from David. So, and we also see that David is saying, "Yahweh said to my Master, sit at my right hand 'til I make your enemies your footstool." So even though He is a Son of David, He is also David's Master.
And this is a High Priest at the order of Melchizedek if you look at the rest of Psalm 110. This is talking... There's a Messiah prophecy. Psalm 16 says, "You will not leave my soul in Sheol nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forever more." And so, this One who is at Yahweh's right hand, is the One who was killed and He was not left in the grave. He was not left to see corruption. His body was not left to be corrupted and decomposed, but that He was resurrected showing the path of life. And He would be in Yahweh's presence and at Yahweh's right hand. So this is a prophecy in the Psalms of the resurrection of the Messiah.
Concerning Sonship we see Psalm 2:6-9. Says, "I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare and decree Yahweh has said to me, "You are my Son. Today, I've begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a pot's vessel." Which calls us back to Isaiah 11 where it says, "You will rule with a rod of iron." And so, this is another prophecy of the Messiah and He is said to be the begotten Son of Yahweh. And so according to the scriptures, the things that Yahushua did and the things that He will do, are all predicted ahead of time. The seat of David, the coming Messiah who would sit at Yahweh's right hand in order for Yahushua to not see corruption he was raised from the dead on the third after he had been in the grave for four days, we do see here, John 11:39. Yahushua said, "Take away the stone," Martha said, sister of him who was dead said to him, "Master, by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days," talking about Lazarus there. So he was in the grave and raised on the third day, his body was not left to decompose.
If a body is in the hot sun it decomposes far faster than if it's in a cool area like underneath the ground in the stone tomb that he was laid in. But he was not left to corruption, he was not left to decompose, he was raised again. And that's why we see the apostles quoting this scripture in Acts 13:32-35, "And we declare to you glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers." Elohim has fulfilled this for their children this good news, this Gospel in that he has raised up Yahushua as it is written in the second Psalm, "You are my son, today I've begotten you." And that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus, "I will give you the sure mercies of David." And he says also in another Psalm, "You will not allow your holy one to see corruption." And so the early apostles saw these as prophecies of the coming Messiah. And that's confirmed for us in the book of Acts chapter 13. And we see here this begotten is actually a spiritual begotten in that when he raised up Yahushua, he became begotten in the spirit. So there was the begotten in the flesh which was through Mary and the begotten in the spirit. So he became the spiritual son here also. The begotten son. He was already the son but here he became the
begotten son. "For David after he had served his own generation by the will of Elohim fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom Elohim raised up saw no corruption." And so a reference back here to the Psalms, this is a prophecy of the resurrection and they like to point this out a lot to the Jewish countrymen that why would David say that he saw no corruption when his tomb was with us to this day. Acts chapter two, Peter gave that sermon and telling the Jews, "Here it is. Here's a prophecy of the Messiah's resurrection." And so they didn't know how to refute that, because obviously David was in the ground. So anyway, back to Romans chapter one, "Concerning
his son Yahushua, Messiah or master who was born of David according to the flesh declared to be the son of Elohim with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name among whom you also are called the called of Yahushua the Messiah." And so we are the called of Yahushua the Messiah. And Paul is declaring that he received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. In other words, he doesn't get grace and apostleship for no reason to be given and do nothing with it. But the point of being given to him was so that he would be obedient to the faith. And their apostleship, the thing they were sent out to do was call all people of all nations to be obedient also to the faith. To proclaim what Yahushua has done for all and call all men to submit to his call to repent and receive the master Yahushua for forgiveness of sins. And that was the consistent message of Paul the Apostle to both the Jews and the Gentiles. It says in Luke 24:46-47, Yahushua, after he expounded on himself concerning the scriptures, he said, "Thus it was written and thus it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." So repentance and remission of sins being a main message, that's the message of salvation. That's what we need, repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua for the remission of sins. And so that's the message that Paul proclaimed Acts Chapter 20 verses 20-21, "I kept nothing back that was helpful." He was defending himself here before the council, "But proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house testifying to Jews and also Greeks," what? "Repentance toward Elohim and faith toward our master Yahushua the Messiah." The two elements, the same things that Yahushua sent out the original 12 apostles to do, that's what Paul was doing from house to house, from place to place, taught publicly proclaimed it everywhere. That is the basic message, and I dare say that needs to be our main message as well. Repentance and faith in the Messiah Yahushua. And this letter to the Romans actually, is evidence of the very thing that he sang here because the first part of the Book of Romans contains a lot of admonitions to repent, and warnings about judgement, and the things that are going to take place. And why people chose to turn away from Elohim when the danger of turning from Elohim. And so these first few chapters of Romans emphasize repentance. And then we have several chapters explaining in detail, in depth, how our sins are forgiven through walk out repentance.
Yahushua but without neglecting the need to And then he goes on to discuss the life of a believer and some of the issues that had risen up in the congregation there at Rome. He talks about how to overcome temptations and sins, and different things. But sprinkled throughout the Book of Romans, there's a lot of the deep discussion regarding how all of the supplies to not only Gentiles but also Jews, and the kinds of issues that both of them face as they come together as one body in the Messiah Yahushua. But now notice the themes of repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua are both stressed throughout the entire Book of Romans, and what the very first part of The Romans talking about the need for repentance. And so, we're gonna talk about this need for repentance, the condition of man, and how we need a savior. So let's continue to read here in Romans. It says, "To all who are in Rome, beloved of Elohim. Called to be saints." I like how he names people. He identifies people with these names to the called. "Grace to you and peace from Elohim, our father, and the master Yahushua the Messiah." To say grace to someone was more of a Greek way or Roman way of greeting, and then shalom was the Hebraic common greeting among Hebraic circles. So he says, "Grace to you and shalom from Elohim, our father and the master Yahushua Messiah." Because that's where we get grace and that's where we get peace, is from Yahweh and Yahushua. He says, "First I thank my Elohim through Yahushua Messiah for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." So I love how he just makes these identity statements in his letters. He calls himself a bond-servant, he calls himself an apostle, and then he identify believers as the called of Yahushua, the beloved of Elohim and saints. Actually the word, "saints" means holy one. And that's what we are called to be is Holy Ones. And then he expresses thanksgiving to Elohim through Yahushua for the brethren in Rome. Now I'm sure that Paul, after the Jews made their way back to Rome, were pretty excited there was some believers going back there to proclaim the good news to all the Roman people, since it was the capital of the ancient world. The often-expressed thanksgiving to Yahweh for the Brethren... I like... He did this in almost every one of his letters. He would tell them that he was thankful to Yahweh for them. And we see First Corinthians 1:4, "I thank my Elohim always concerning you for the grace of Elohim, which was given to you by Messiah Yahushua. Ephesians 1:15 he says, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Master Yahushua and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." The Philippians he says, "I thank my Elohim upon every remembrance of you." To the Colossians he says, "We give thanks to the mighty one and father of our Master Yahushua Messiah praying always for you." To the Thessalonians he says, "We give thanks to Elohim always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." To Philemon he said, "I thank my Elohim, making mention of you always in my prayers." He was a thankful person for those that Yahweh had called out, and he would exhort Timothy here to follow the same pattern. In First Timothy 2:1 he says, "Therefore I exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." Giving of thanks be made for all men.
Do we do that? There's a pattern here. I think we need to look at the examples of righteous men in scripture, and look for things to emulate. How many people do you thank Yahweh for?
Especially our spouses and our children that... They need to hear, "We thank Yahweh for them." That we appreciate the good things Yahweh has worked in their lives. We see usually when Paul expresses he's thankful to Yahweh for the people he's writing to, he will point out some positive attribute that they're exhibiting. And that shows it was a sincere matter of thanksgiving rather than just empty praise. But he gave reasons. I really believe we need to do the same things. Thank Yahweh for the good things he's doing in the lives of your family, the lives of fellow believers, and even in world leaders.
I'm afraid we've become complainers instead. Instead, maybe we should be people who express thanksgiving for the good things that's coming out of the white house, it's not all bad. But the good thing is this coming out of the world government, it's not all bad. And the good things that are coming out of your brothers and sisters in the faith, even unbelievers who, they're making steps toward righteousness, give thanks to Yahweh for those things. That is Yahweh working in their life because He is love and if they're expressing love that is his presence in their life. And so, just we are compelled to do more when someone says, "Thank you," it would make sense to me that recognizing what Yahweh has done in another person's life will ultimately result in Yahweh doing more, and more, and more in that person's life. What kind of transformation would take place if we are all more diligent in giving thanks to Yahweh for what He's doing in our lives and the lives of others. And I see here in the case of Romans, book of Romans, that Paul shared he was thankful to Yahweh for them. It was not empty thanksgiving. He gave a reason why he was thankful. Romans 1:8, "First, I thank my Elohim Yahushua Messiah for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. People recognized their faith." And that took faith to go back to Rome, didn't it? After being kicked out, it took faith to go there. And their faith was spoken of throughout the world. I think that's significant to other places where he mentions this. Romans 6:17 says, "Elohim, be thanked that though you were slave of sin yet you obey from the heart therefore my doctrine to which you were delivered." Romans 16:19 says, "For your obedience has become known to all, therefore, I am glad on your behalf but I want you to be wise what is good and simple concerning evil." So their obedience had become known among the brothers and sisters out there. And I could really picture that. The good news of Yahushua, it's spreading all over the ancient world and a congregation is established in Rome. It must've been pretty exciting to know that that was happening. And so, he was very thankful to Yahweh that he had worked in the city of Rome which is very influential, and a lot of people are going in and out of there. So he says, "For Elohim is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel or good news of the son without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. Do we do that? Do we give thanks to Yahweh for His work in the lives of others? I find Paul's prayers quite inspiring. When we pray for some... Look at the book of Ephesians, when he prayed for the brothers in Ephesus, listen to his prayer. He says, "For this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our master, Yahushua Messiah, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might, according to His spirit and innerman that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the width, and length, and depth, and height to know the love of Messiah which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of Elohim." Now, to him it is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that what we ask or think according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the congregation by Messiah Yahushua to all generations, that's us too, forever and ever, amen. So, wow. What an amazing prayer. Beautiful, beautiful prayer. So Paul, we see here, in his prayers, he is making
request if by some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of Elohim to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. That is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both you and me. Now, I did not want you to be unaware brother and I often plan to come to you but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other gentiles. So he had not yet made his way to Rome. He wanted to go but he was hindered and we see that, actually. Acts 19:20-21 says, "The word of Yahweh grew mily and prevailed, when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit." When he passed through Macedonia in Achaea to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I've been there, I must also see Rome." I don't think he knew exactly how he's going to end up in Rome but he really wanted to go there. And it turned out, he went there because he made... When he went to Jerusalem, if you read the story, he was in Jerusalem and he got accused of bringing gentiles into the holy place and they seized him and tried to accuse him of all kinds of things. None of which were true and then, he escaped death a few times, different things were going on, and eventually, appealed to Cesar when under prosecution and prosecution by the unbelieving Jews. And so then, he ends up, ultimately, at the end of the book of Acts, he actually ends up in Rome, says Acts 28:31. The final words of the book of Acts says, "Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the Kingdom of Elohim and teaching the things which concerned the Master Yahushua Messiah with all confidence no one forbidding him." So there he was in Rome, there, at the very end of the book of Acts. It's probably for that reason, in our Bibles, the book of Romans actually follows the book of Acts. So he had made a request that he wanted to go to Rome, and he want to impart to them a spiritual gift so they could be established, so that he could be encouraged together with them in a mutual faith. And so, he had done so with the Corinthians, they had the gift of tongues and some gifts of prophecy. We see his manifestations here in 1 Corinthians 12:7. So "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another, working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues." So these are some examples of spiritual gifts, and we'll talk more about that in Romans chapter 12 as we get there. It says, "I am a debtor to both Greeks and Barbarians, both to wise and unwise, so as much as this in me, I am ready to preach the good news to those who are in Rome also, for I am not ashamed, not ashamed of the good news of Messiah." Why isn't he ashamed? For it is the power of Elohim to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also, for the Greeks, so both Jew and Gentile as acknowledgment that he was not going to be ashamed of Messiah. But then, he was going to boldly proclaim the good news of Messiah in Rome, of all places, is an indication that there are a lot of people that kinda looked at the faith in Messiah unfavorably.
Some are Jews who did not believe, and some of Gentiles who saw them maybe, as a threat to their business of idol worship. And so, Paul had to be willing to be unashamed
and actually, to glory in it, because he recognized, "How can I be ashamed of something that brings life to people? How can I be ashamed of one who loved me and gave Himself for me? Can't be ashamed of someone like that." And so, we, also, must not be ashamed of the good news of Messiah in our present world. And we are called to humbly, meekly, yet boldly, proclaim our faith to the culture that is
around us, and not be ashamed. Luke 9:24 says, "But whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is, himself, destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me in my words," Yahushua is speaking here, "Of him, the Son of man will be ashamed when he comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels." So if we're going to be ashamed of him in this present age, when we stand before Elohim, Yahushua will be ashamed of us. And so, we are called to not be ashamed. We see that there were people in the first century who were ashamed. John 12:42-43, "Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many did believe in Him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, they wouldn't do it publicly, lest, they should be put out of the synagogue for they," what? "Loved the praise of men more than the praise of Elohim." And we need to love the praise of Elohim far, far more than the praise of men. And so, we can't walk around in timidity, in fear of men in this present age. We need to actually find, not pride and boastfulness, but a certain amount of realizing this is the glorious way. This is the way of eternal life. This is the way we need to let shine before men; not hide it under a bushel, under a ball, or something, but we should proclaim, boldly, gladly to all who are willing to hear. And that means we have to fight against the current.
If a river is going downstream, at the end, there's a waterfall, and you're in a raft, what're you gonna do to avoid destruction? Are you gonna sit there with your arms folded? Let the current carry you? Or are you gonna fight against the current so that you don't go down there with a waterfall? Well, the whole world is just kind of flowing down this river and some of them are paddling towards the end as fast as they can, some are kind of just floating along, that's the lukewarm believer, and there is some who are hot, who are paddling, they're making effort, they're striving against sin, they're proclaiming the way of Yahweh, they are busy and active and reaching out towards those who are around them out of love for those around them. If you say people coming the other direction, you're paddling upstream. You're not gonna call out and say, "Hey guys, there's a waterfall there at the end. You're gonna die if you don't turn around and do what I'm doing." And that is paddling against the current. You know, we have to be bold in order to have the willingness to say, "Hey wait a minute. Look. There is destruction back there. You need to turn around, make a U-turn, it's gonna be hard, you'll have to fight, fight against the current, fight against the culture, fight against the enemy, fight, fight, fight against evil." Doesn't mean you have to hate people, doesn't mean you have to be contemptuous towards others who are going the wrong direction but woo them around with humbleness and meekness and gentleness. There really is a waterfall back here. We need to go far, we need to fight against it and so that's what we need to do as believers in Messiah-Yahushua. We are called not to be ashamed because why? Why is it? Why is it that we're not ashamed? Because it is the power of Elohim. It is what brings us salvation. It is the power of Elohim to salvation for everyone who believes regardless of your ethnic background or your biblical background or your mentality. We have to be bold in our culture today, not be mousy, hide in the corner and wait for someone to say something, what do you believe or whatever, but we have to be willing to engage the culture around us. Now Paul saw himself as a debtor, a man who is
redeeming a time. Romans 8:1-14, "I am a debtor to both Greeks and barbarians, to both wise and unwise." He was a debtor. He had persecuted believers in Messiah-Yahushua, he went into Gentile cities even to do so but now he's called to preach the good news to everyone, both Jew and Gentile, just as Yahushua had instructed him. And so he saw himself as this debtor.
"So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the good news to those who in Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the good news or the gospel of the Messiah for it is the power of Elohim for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also the Greek. Both. For in it the righteousness of Elohim is revealed form faith to faith just as it is written the just shall live by faith." And so the righteousness of Elohim is revealed through what? The proclamation of this good news, of Messiah-Yahushua. So how is the righteousness of Elohim revealed in the good news of the Messiah? First of all, it's revealed because Yahushua walked a righteous walk. Others can look at him and see a perfect example of righteousness. And secondly, the righteousness is seen because Yahweh is allowing us to have our sins laid on Yahushua the Messiah while having the Messiah Yahushua's righteousness placed on us. And so the righteousness of Elohim is seen in these things and that's why it's said in Jeremiah 23:1-6, that he would be called Yahweh, our righteousness, in that we would be saved and so because it is through the Messiah Yahushua that Yahweh brought us his righteousness so that when Yahweh looks at us he does not see sinful man, he sees righteousness through Yahushua who dwells in us.
Also, we see Isiah 45:23, "I have sworn by myself the words gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. What's the oath gonna say? He shall say surely in Yahweh I have righteousness and strength." So only in Yahweh do we have any righteousness at all and a day is gonna come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess with an oath that only through Yahweh do I have righteousness and strength. So not just righteousness but also strength, the strength to walk in righteousness by Yahweh and his spirit. "To him men shall come and all shall be ashamed who has sinned against him." They think that by their own righteousness they can be established? Nope. They are going to be ashamed because they are ashamed of the good news of Elohim. In Yahweh shall all the sons of Israel be justified as declared righteous in Yahweh because of the righteousness of Yahweh placed in man through Yahushua the Messiah. Only through him do we have any glory at all. Isaiah 59:15-17 says, "So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then Yahweh saw it and it displeased Him there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and He wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him." That is Yahushua. Isaiah 53:1 says, "To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" And it goes on to talk about a suffering servant that upon whom was laid the iniquity of us all. So His own arm brought salvation. His own righteousness sustained Him. Yahushua became this intercessor. And He, Yahushua, put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. So this good news of Elohim is all predicted ahead of time in the prophets that Yahushua would be the carrier of this good news. That He would bring righteousness to us, cleansing us from all of our sins through His indwelling. And so it's Messiah who causes Yahweh's righteousness to be imparted to us. He even Himself actually said, "Why do you call me good?" So it was Yahweh's righteousness that was in Him that caused Him to be righteous, so that's why He's called Yahweh our righteousness, Yahweh Tsidkenu. And if we want to have righteousness, we must be willing to accept Yahushua the Messiah by faith. So He's not ashamed, and we should not be ashamed of this good news. For in it the righteousness of Elohim is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, "The just shall live by faith." We want to be just, that means if we want to be righteous, and we want eternal life, we want to live, it's only by faith that we can get there. So the just, or the righteous will live, or have eternal life by faith. This is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4, it says, "Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him. But the just shall live by his faith." If one thought that their own righteousness was going to be enough, rather than living by faith, they're proud and their soul is not going to be upright. But if they're willing to humble themselves and say, "Only by faith am I able to be just. And as to the righteousness of Yahweh, only by faith can I be just and therefore have eternal life, then I need Yahweh's righteousness in me. My own righteousness will not be sufficient." This is important for us to understand because a lot of the things Paul writes about in the book of Romans is related to this very thing, righteousness, and faith, and eternal life by that through Yahweh's righteousness that is in Messiah. Much of the book of Romans talks about this in great length. If we don't realize that righteousness comes through faith we're gonna be proud, we're gonna be not considered upright. And that's what Habakkuk 2:4 is actually teaching.
So the book of Romans actually could be summed up as Paul's efforts to cause both Jew and Gentile believers in Rome to understand that very thing. First of all, a recognition that Yahweh is righteous, and we have not been righteous. And therefore we need to repent, that's the first part of the book of Romans. And then we need to receive Yahushua as the righteous one whom Yahweh has sent as a gift to us, so that we could be seen as righteous in the eyes of Yahushua, of Yahweh because Yahushua who dwells in us. It's no longer we who live, Messiah dwelling in us. And so then Paul begins to explain why the Gentiles, even those who had not heard the Law of Yahweh through Moshe, would actually even though they weren't necessarily hearers of the law, that they were still able to be declared as unrighteous and guilty in Yahweh's eyes. Even though they've never, they may not have heard of the scriptures, that Yahweh could still judge them, and say they're guilty in Yahweh's eyes. How is that? He goes on to say, "For the wrath of Elohim is revealed from Heaven against all irreverence, and unrighteousness of men." Now the King James version has "ungodliness" here, which is a terrible translation, actually it means irreverent. Doesn't even mean anything to do with godliness or anything. So, "The wrath of Elohim is revealed from Heaven against all irreverence, and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of Elohim is manifest in them. For Elohim has shown it to them." He's revealed it to them. How has Elohim shown Himself to Gentiles?
He tells us, verse 20, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity so that they are without excuse because although they knew Elohim, they did not glorify him as Elohim, nor were thankful, became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened." So since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes were clearly seen. Since the creation of the world being understood by the things that remain, even his eternal power and divinity so they're without excuse. So the creation of the world, the very beginning, the invisible attributes are seen in creation.
Be understood and that he's at least planted in the measure, in the mind of every man, a certain measure of faith." You know I read this, I can't help but think of modern atheism and humanism. The theory of evolution being their commonly accepted explanation of life on the earth today. But it's creation itself that should cause men to recognize there is an eternal, divine power at work here, and somewhere deep in the hearts of men, there is a recognition of a creator and that there is an Elohim. The design and the complexity of the world we live in makes it so obvious to the unbiased mind that he exists. There had to be a creator of all these. If you was to walk up and you saw, in the midst of random piles of rocks everywhere, 12 rocks that ran in a row right here, 12 rocks in a row, you would say it looks like somebody was here, right? Evidence of someone who had arranged the rocks. Well, the DNA, the cells in our body and all the arrangement of protein, all these things, how can that not tell us that, "Look, a creator was at work here." So design and the complexity of nature makes it obvious to me and the unbiased person, there is a creator, but if a person has a hard heart or a desire to just live how they want to live, sure they can believe what they want and say, "I don't believe in Elohim," but down deep they're just refusing to believe what should be obvious. Psalm 97:6 says, "The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory." Psalm 19:1-3 says, "The heavens declare the glory of Elohim and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard and what they're speaking to Yahweh's glory." We walk outside on a very dark night, especially out in the country and just look up and go, "Wow!" Just ponder your existence for a minute. It's amazing. Or look at the creatures and the complexity of life on the earth. Job said, "Ask the beasts and they will teach you, and the birds of the air and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of Yahweh has done this? In whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:7-10.
They speak. Creation itself speaks to us that there is an Elohim and we could see that without even noticing the Bible or anything. And so that's why Paul says Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power in... " Sorry this had "Elohim head" here but should be "divine nature." Godhead is how the King James... Does not mean Godhead. Why they put that word in there, I'll never know. It simply means "divinity." "So that they are without excuse, because although they knew Elohim, they did not glorify him as Elohim." They knew Elohim. They knew, and everybody knows down deep. We got the secret, they know. They won't confess it necessarily but they may have covered it up with a bunch of excuses, but in the depths of their heart, they know. "They did not glorify him as Elohim nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." Why'd they become fools? Because the fool has said in his heart, "There is no Elohim." "They are corrupt, they have done abominable and equally there is none who does good," and that's actually talking directly to Gentiles. So the reason why they're considered foolish is because they have chosen to not believe in an Elohim. And we see, "They profess to be wise but they actually became fools according to the word of Elohim and change the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and fort for the animals and creeping things." So how do they do this? By worshipping a corruptible man.
Themselves or some person or human being that they think is greater. By doing that, they change the glory of incorruptible Elohim into a corruptible man, by worshipping man, or by worshipping self and make them gods out of themselves or the case of the Roman emperors and so on he was referring to these Roman emperors who claim to be Elohim. And so, we got a lot of creature worship going on in the day, believe me. Man is worshipping himself and man's become his own idol and claiming he made himself. But they also, in those times, worshipped birds and fort for the animals and creeping things. And so since we were made in the image of Elohim, it says he changed the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man. So we are made in Elohim's image at first but then we corrupted ourselves and then we worship one another or we worshipped ourselves. And either way, you're a mess, and we are in this
"me" generation now where man's his own idol, claims as he made himself through evolution.
Psalm 100:3 says "Know that Yahweh, he is Elohim. It is he who has made us, not we ourselves. We are his people and his sheep of his pasture." That's a message for our generation. We did not make ourselves, but you make an idol out of yourself when you think you made yourself. And when you make an idol out of yourself, there are certain things that are sure to follow like this Romans 1:24-26, "Therefore, Elohim also gave him up to unclaimed this and the less of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of Elohim for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. He was blessed forever Amen." For this reason, Elohim gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural views for what is against nature. So if a person refuses to acknowledge the one true Elohim and instead, chooses to serve the creature rather than the creator, then the creature becomes the God, right? That's how it works. So you serve the creature rather than the creator who becomes the God, who becomes the one who is honored and worshipped. The creature whether itself or some other idol or whatever. And for this reason, it says for that reason. What reason? That they served and this creature rather than creator. Alright, if that's going to be your God, then your vile passions are going to rule over you.
And for that reasons, some almost have difficulty getting free from sexual passions and vile passions with grown up innocent in a culture that puts the creature self ahead of the creator, and so we have vile passions. And in order for us to be free, we need to realize
we're slaves of Messiah in terms of obedience our activity is one the service and slavery and even though we're sons and daughters, this is our act, our ultimate identity though is that of sons.
So rather than being slaves to our mortal body, we're now slaves of Messiah because we worship the creator, not the creature. And so therefore, the vile of passions that our carnal man stirs up, we're able to rule over them and we can rule over them because of who we have chosen as our Elohim. Worshipping and serving the creator rather than the creature. But those who do not, becomes slaves to sin and now that our culture is more, and more, and more hostile to the creator, we see the evidences that scripture speaks of, people walking out, these vile passions, lesbianism and homosexuality and so on. It says likewise also, "The man living the natural use of woman burn in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of error which was due. And we already see that homosexuals have a very low life expectancy compared to the rest of the world. That's sad, that's not something I gloat over at all. That's very sad, but that's the penalty.
So, and even as they did not like to retain, they don't wanna retain Elohim in their knowledge, therefore what? Elohim gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. And actually atheist Aldous Huxley, 1950s,
1940s, '50s or '60s. He admitted that him and his contemporaries, the people of his generation, actually rejected theism which is the believe in a divine creator, because it interfered with their sexual freedom. They wanted to be able to live the way they wanted and so they're looking for alternative explanations for how the world got where it is. And so, they have been given over to a debased mind, that's a word translated debased...
Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have it up there, I've put the wrong one up there. But what it means is, according to... It's Greek word number 96, it means not standing the test, not approved. It was used to... Of metals and coins, whether or not this would be good enough for use. But basically, unfit, reprobate, not willing to
stay in a test, a mind that cannot pass a test, cannot be approved. And the reason why they can't pass a test because they don't want to retain Elohim in their knowledge, instead removing Elohim from their knowledge and sin becoming more and more rampant. Because there is no longer any desire to fight against the carnal desires and the flesh, therefore the mind just won't fight against those desires and the mind will not win and stand up to the test is dead, the carnal nature just kinda runs rampant and takes over. And that's why we have the things that we have in the world today. And so we are admonished in Colossians 3:1-3, "If then you were raised with Messiah, seek those things which are above where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of Elohim, set your mind on things above not on things on the earth for you died and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim." So we need to set our mind on spiritual things and if we do set our mind on the spiritual things, we realize that's actually where the battle is. I heard a story this week, an eagle always fights a
snake in the air, that's where he's more skilled, he doesn't fight a snake on the ground because that's not where his strength is. We also need to realize that's where our battle is, it's spiritual. Weapon of our warfare are not carnal, they are mighty but you struggle not against flesh and blood, it begins spirit host and wickedness in high places and that's where we need to take the fight, to the spiritual realm, that's where our strength is going to be. If by our strength we think we buy our own flesh and buy our own power, we can overcome this with sheer willpower, we're gonna be mistaken.
We need to take it to the spiritual realm, that's where our strength is going to be, that's where we need to be doing the battle, the faith in Yahweh's word and through prayer.
Continuing, it says, "Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness, they are whisperers, back biters, haters of Elohim, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things," there are plenty of evil things been invented out there haven't we? "Disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing their righteous judgement of Elohim that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." And so, he is explaining these things
so that the gentiles recognize they are sinners. You'll have to go to the world and say these things, they know their behaviour is wrong, they have a conscience, they know their behavior is wrong and all the world is actually guilty and we all need the righteousness of Yahweh being placed on us. And so he's pointing out the evil conduct of these things, those who do not want to retain Elohim and their thoughts and choose to push him aside, this is what happens. And we're seeing this, these kinds of practices in our culture today and not only do they want you to accept their behaviour... Not only do they want to do this kind of behaviour, they want you to accept them who practice that kind of behaviour and we see this in the homosexual agenda and it's not enough that you even accept them, it's almost that you have to celebrate what they're doing before they'll be satisfied. I mean, it's not enough that you just go, "Okay, well, that's your life." No, they want you to celebrate it, they want you to enthusiastically as they do declare their sin like Satan and pridefully do so. But we see here, Paul is showing what happens.
And we have a culture that took Elohim, any mention of Elohim, out of schools, out of the childhood experience. And I'm not saying that schools are the answer, but you send your children off to a society, at an institution where Elohim is not in their thoughts for how many hours a day, how many hours in their lifetime? It can have an influence on culture. A tremendous influence on culture. So there's now these humanistic evolution and all this stuff, even though people don't always fully accept everything being taught by evolution, as we see actually in our culture, 95% of the people
according to Gallup who actually believe there is a creator, inspite of the best efforts to try influence. At least a recognition that there is some kind of superior creator out there. This goes to show we are not built to even accept this evolution thing, but there are people, who professing to be wise, they've gone along with this mentality, and it creates just enough doubt in people's minds that they'll go ahead and walk out the sin that they want to do.
So we see that Paul is declaring that Gentiles are guilty of offending their creator by a lack of faith in him and by doing things that are harmful. And so he was a debtor, he wanted to preach to both Jews and Gentiles. In our next segment, we're going to move forward in to chapter two in our next segment, but you'll notice next he picks on the Jews for a while. He's still got the Gentiles, but then he under conviction as well for their sin. starts talking about how the Jews need to be coming And he continues to mention these things throughout Jew and Gentile, because the Roman population did have Jews and Gentiles there in the congregation, and so he's addressing both. And really, what's he doing? He's giving them the same message, but he's just proving to them it's applicable to both, whether Jew or Gentile. Anyway, that wraps up our examination of Romans chapter one. Hopefully, it was enlightening here and there, and we're gonna continue in to chapter two next week, and so praise Yahweh for His word. I love to go through this things like this. I think we get... We really max out our benefit when we go through verse by verse as we have in Hebrews, as we have in Galatians, or the places that we can really benefit from this. So hopefully, it is a blessing to you, and until next time, my brothers and my sisters, may Yahweh guide you and strengthen you, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh truly have mercy on us all. Hallelujah.
which the original word Mashiach meaning anointed one. Now, the book of Romans is commonly believed to be set in a time, approximately late 50s AD which would have been about 12 to 13 years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul is believed to have written this book around the time of Acts 19, 20 or so, particularly, probably they believed in while he was in Corinth. In this particular part of the book Acts of here, Acts 20:2-5 now when he got, remember that region and encouraged him with many words. They came to Greece and stayed three months and when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And So pater of Berea accompanied him to Asia also Aristarchus, and Secundus of Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy and Tychicus, I
guess that's how you say the name. And Trophimus of Asia. These men going ahead and waited for us at Troas. So, this is close to the time of around the Feast of Unleavened Bread, passover type season and this is what they believed. It's probably the time that Paul would have actually written this Epistle or letter to the Roman congregation that we now call a book. But it's actually a letter. A letter from one person to a group of people, actually people he has not... A congregation he hasn't met fully, he knew some of the people in the congregation from his travels throughout, but he did not personally visit the congregation in Rome as of yet, but he was wanting to. Now, Rome was of course the largest city of his day, with a population of more than a million. I think one of the scriptures says, four million. But about a third of the population was actually slaves. Now, there were two individuals that were important figures in the book of Acts who were actually from Rome and you can find that here, Acts18:1-2 it says, "After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius,
who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them." So they come from Rome, Italy and the reason why they had to leave Rome was Claudius, who was the Roman Emperor at that time, had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And so, they were not permitted to be there. They were basically kicked out, they were expelled from Rome sometime in the 40s, we're not sure exactly when, but we do know Emperor Nero who begin his reign approximately 54 AD, did allow the Jews back in to Rome. And so, he is writing to the Romans during a time period where the Jews are making their way back and have established some synagogues there. Priscilla and Aquila after they had gone to Corinth,
they did do some ministering in different places but it's apparent that they did actually go back to Rome after Nero permitted them to come
back, it says "Greet", at Romans 16:3-4 "Greet Priscilla and Aquilla my fellow workers and Messiah Yahushua who risked her own neck for my life; to whom not only I gave thanks, but also all congregations of the Gentile." So he's telling the Roman people to, Roman congregation to greet Priscilla and Aquilla indicating that they had made their way back to Rome. Now in 64 AD, there was a time that an important event took place, particularly a terrible fire that had burned for six days and seven nights and consumed almost 3/4th of the city. Now, the people accused the emperor Nero for the devastation claiming he set the fire just for his own amusement, but in order to deflect those accusations and gain favor in the sight of people, Nero decided to blame believers in Messiah for the fire. And the Roman historian Tacitus says, "Therefore to stop the rumor that he had set the room on fire, he falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures the persons commonly called Christians." Now, doesn't mean they call themselves Christians, means they were commonly called Christians. And I think that's kinda interesting that other people called believers in Messiah, Christians but you don't find any scripture anywhere where they call themselves Christians. And I think for that reason, I prefer not to call myself Christian, although I do believe in the Messiah and in the new testament 100%, but I like to try to call myself by the names in titles and things that the early believers did. Anyway, who were generally hated for their enormities. Christus, we're talking about the Messiah here, the founder of that name was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of this is a Roman historian and it's believed that Judah in the reign of Tiberius. Here's an actual historical evidence that the Messiah was put to death by Pontius Pilate,
this is an accurate...
There are some people claiming that the Roman historian Tacitus, this was messed with, but by a large majority of scholars do believe this is a genuine quote from Tacitus, "It's about the pernicious superstition repressed for a time broke out yet again, not only through Judea where the mischief orient originated, but through the city of Rome also whether all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters as to a common receptacle in where they are encouraged. Accordingly, first those who were arrested who confessed they were Christians, next on their information a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city as of hating the human race. Isn't that interesting that the whole... That the people of Rome saw believers as haters, haters of the human race. It says, "And in perishing they were additionally made into sports, they were killed by dogs, by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to the crosses or set aflame and when daylight passed away they were used as night time lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for the spectacle and performed a circus game, and then have a little bit of chariot races with the plebes or driving about the race course, even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the most reason example the consequences of crime. People begin to pity this sufferers because they were consumed, not for the public good, but on account of the fierceness of one man. So these are the things that begin to take place in the year 64. We're talking maybe six or seven years after he had written this letter to the Romans, and so for all we know people like Priscilla and Aquilla and others had fallen into this. And so pretty sad, pretty sad indeed. But I find interesting that they were accused of hate. We often get accused of hate because we believe in the Messiah Yahushua and standing for righteousness. And so, just because we're accused of hate does not mean obviously, we're doing something wrong, sometimes it can mean we're doing something right, but is actually, who was exhibiting a hatred here? It was Nero, it was the citizens of Rome who were exhibiting hatred, not the other way around. And we find that to be the case also often in today's society, which was very Roman like, becoming more and more Roman like and it's nature. But the citizens of Rome actually received food and entertainment from the government, wine was cheap, it was plentiful, the admission to Roman games was free and they had gladiators, and the theater and chariot races and kinda reminds me a lot of the modern era. A lot of food, a lot of entertainment and increased hostility towards believers and what we stand for and we, just like believers were at those days are accused of hating the human race, when really is not or about that at all. And so with these historical matters in mind, some of which we're beginning to relate to already more and more, let's begin our journey here into the Book of Romans. Paul, a bond-servant of Yahushua Messiah, called to be an apostle. Separate to the good news of Elohim, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son, Yahushua Messiah our master. He was born in the Seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Now, I notice first of all here, I see that Paul refers to himself as a bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah. Now, a bond-servant is simply a slave, and slaves
see themselves as being required to do what their master tells them, right? I mean, if a person's a slave or a bond-servant, you don't listen to what your owner tells you and then decide whether or not you're gonna do it, you just do it. You don't look at the other options as even being on the table. You don't look at other options as even being much of a choice because you've chosen already to become Yahushua's slave. This is a willing choice to become Yahushua's bond-servant. Now, Paul was willingly that slave, that bond-servant, and decided to completely and fully trust Yahushua to be that wise and loving leader and shepherd. But once the decision's made, the decision's made, and so he said, "I'm a bond-servant. I'm bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah." I wonder if we see ourselves as people who have been bought, or if we still see ourselves as people who, you know, we think we own ourselves, when really, he owns us. He owns us. So Luke 14:25, we see an admonition here, that we
need to make the decision of who's slave we're gonna be. We're gonna become slaves of sin or are we gonna choose to be Yahushua's slaves or bond-servants. Luke 14:25 talks about the importance of accounting the cost. It says, "Now great multitudes were sent with him." And he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes his own life also, he cannot be my disciples." Now, the term hate here means to love less. So we have to love messiah more than father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own life. If we don't, we cannot be his disciple. "Whoever does not bare his stake or stauros, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. Less, after he has laid the foundation, is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Where what king going to make war against another king does not set down first thing, consider whether he is able to a 10,000, to beat him who comes against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends delegation, asks conditions of peace, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple." And so, harsh
words. Hard words for some of us. But bootcamp is what we signed up for, right? We're in a spiritual bootcamp right now, learning how to be a solider. But when we graduate, when we complete, we will be mature men and women and fit for the kingdom that is to come. And so, we're in a time right now where we have willingly given ourselves to... In our flesh, which is constantly at war with Elohim, we've given it all up and we've said, "Not my will, your will be done." Now, Yahushua did that for us. He gave everything up and said, "Not my will, your will be done." And because of that, he was greatly blessed and because of that, the whole world was saved, and so we are called to follow that same pattern. And we need to embrace that kind of mentality that Paul had. We are Yahushua's bond-servants, his slaves. Now, I know the term slave maybe has some awful implications in American society, especially for the brothers who have darker colored skin than I do. So I hope I'm not hurting anybody by saying that word. But there is something about having that mentality that we need to embrace. That's something, you know, that is the first thing Paul identified himself: First as a bond-servant then as an apostle. There's something about having that mentality that I think we really could benefit from. You know, we already made the choice in commitment. To turn away from sin, and be willing to give up everything we have, even if it means our own relatives, our friends, our brothers and sisters, our wives, anybody. It means, they will no longer want to have a relationship with us. It won't matter. We're gonna still be Yahushua's disciple. And it's that time that we chose to no longer be a slave of sin, but chose to be a slave of Yahushua Hamashiach. John 8:34, Yahushua said, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who commits sin is a slave of sin." So in reality, we're all slaves. But we're no longer slaves of sin. We don't practice sinful behavior, because that would bring us in a place where we would be under bondage, once again, to a different master. Our carnal nature. Romans 6:16-18 says, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves to whom you obey, whether it's sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But Elohim be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness." So we gotta thank Yahweh that even while we were yet sinners, we saw the love of Elohim, we saw what he was offering us, eternal life. A permanent relationship with him, and the peace and joy and contentment that comes from that. And we chose to obey from the heart that form of doctrine to which we were delivered, and we were set free from sin and become new slaves of righteousness. Now, it's also true that we are sons and daughters of the King. But to become sons and daughters, we first had to be bought with the blood of Yahushua, we were on the slave market. We had to be bought with the blood of Yahushua, and he is our redeemer. And anyone who is bought, is by nature a slave. But he bought us so that he could free us from our old master, and cause us to be adopted sons and daughters of Yahweh, the father. As was said, "For you were bought at a price, therefore, glorify Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are Elohim's. This body does not belong to us, it belongs to Elohim, and we were bought at a price." And so therefore, we are under new ownership: Yahweh. He is willing to adopt us as sons and daughters, as his own children, but we must never forget how we got here. So it's safe to say we are Yahweh's slaves, we are his bond-servants, and the females are his maidservants, the men are his menservants and females are maidservants of Yahushua Ha-Mashiach. And that's how Paul saw himself. Now, he says he's also called to be an apostle. He made the term bond-servant a part of his identity, but also an apostle. This became entrenched in his mentality, this is who he is. It's what he called himself. A bond-servant of Yahushua the Messiah and an
apostle. Now, he was not one of the 12. He never claimed to be one of the 12, but he was an apostle nonetheless. Now, what is an apostle? The word apostle simply means, it's from 6:52 Apostellos, a delegate, a messenger, one who is sent forth with orders.
Specifically applied to the 12 apostles, of Christian teachers, Barnabas, Timothy, and messiah, in a broader sense to other eminent Silvanus were all called apostles, either by inference or otherwise. And then, this is from first of all, go back here. This is actually from 6:49 Apostellos. Apostello means to order, to go to a place appointed, to send away and dismiss, to allow one to depart, and so on. It actually is translated "send" 110 times in the King James, "send forth" 15 times, so it definitely has to do with sending someone out. That is the meaning. So the word has to do with being one who is sent, and this actual word is found... The same word is found in John 13. The same word translated... We have Apostellos here, this Apostellos is actually found, also, in this verse, John 15-16 says, "For I have given you an example that you should do as I had done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent
greater than he who sent him." So the word Apostellos is actually found in the Greek text of John 13:16. Another instance will be found here in Philippians 2:25, it says, "Yet I considered it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who managed to attend my need." Once again, sent. And it's actually translated "messenger" in this verse, Apostellos. So Paul was an apostle, and Philippians, we see, Epaphroditus was referred to as an apostle. And an apostle is one who is sent. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're in an official office of 12 apostles.
It's someone who is sent, as simple as that.
Now Yahushua was the one who sent out Paul.
In Acts 9:13-16 it says, "Ananias answered when Yahushua came to him in a vision. Master I've heard from many about this man... " Talking about Paul. "and how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem." This was before his conversion. "And here he has authority from the Chief Priest to bind all who call on your name. The Master said to him, Go, for he's a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, Kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake." And later Acts 13:2-3 says, "As they
ministered to the Master and fasted, the Holy spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. And having fasted and prayed, laid hands on them. They sent them away." So Paul was Yahushua's chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles, Kings and children of Israel, and the Holy Spirit had separated Barnabas and Saul to this work of going forth in proclaiming His name. So, this is why Paul identifies himself as an Apostle because he was sent out by the Holy Spirit, by Yahushua Himself and he was separated from others and since then he had a specific role that he had to fulfill. And so it says, he was a born servant of Yahushua Messiah called to be an Apostle, separated to the good news. This word gospel means good news of Elohim.
The good news of Elohim before, says which He
promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son. Yahushua Messiah our Master, who was born in the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Now, one of the prophets actually said these things. Where in the holy prophets or scriptures that actually say that Yahweh would have a Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of Elohim with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Well, we can look into the prophets. We can see first of all that Yahushua Hamashiach would be of a seed of Elohim. In Jeremiah 23:5 it says, "Behold the days are coming, says Yahweh. That I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A King shall reign and prosper, execute judgement and righteousness on the earth. In His days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now, this is His name by which He will be called: Yahweh Our Righteousness." So in the future time when Yahushua Hamashiach dwells on the earth and He reigns for a thousand years over men and we reign with Him, He will be called Yahweh Our Righteousness or in Hebrew, Yahweh Tsidkenu. He will bear Yahweh's name. And why is He called Our Righteousness? Well we're gonna find out here a little bit later, but He's called Our Righteousness. But first we wanna point out He has raised to David this branch, this offshoot from David. So, and we also see that David is saying, "Yahweh said to my Master, sit at my right hand 'til I make your enemies your footstool." So even though He is a Son of David, He is also David's Master.
And this is a High Priest at the order of Melchizedek if you look at the rest of Psalm 110. This is talking... There's a Messiah prophecy. Psalm 16 says, "You will not leave my soul in Sheol nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forever more." And so, this One who is at Yahweh's right hand, is the One who was killed and He was not left in the grave. He was not left to see corruption. His body was not left to be corrupted and decomposed, but that He was resurrected showing the path of life. And He would be in Yahweh's presence and at Yahweh's right hand. So this is a prophecy in the Psalms of the resurrection of the Messiah.
Concerning Sonship we see Psalm 2:6-9. Says, "I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare and decree Yahweh has said to me, "You are my Son. Today, I've begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a pot's vessel." Which calls us back to Isaiah 11 where it says, "You will rule with a rod of iron." And so, this is another prophecy of the Messiah and He is said to be the begotten Son of Yahweh. And so according to the scriptures, the things that Yahushua did and the things that He will do, are all predicted ahead of time. The seat of David, the coming Messiah who would sit at Yahweh's right hand in order for Yahushua to not see corruption he was raised from the dead on the third after he had been in the grave for four days, we do see here, John 11:39. Yahushua said, "Take away the stone," Martha said, sister of him who was dead said to him, "Master, by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days," talking about Lazarus there. So he was in the grave and raised on the third day, his body was not left to decompose.
If a body is in the hot sun it decomposes far faster than if it's in a cool area like underneath the ground in the stone tomb that he was laid in. But he was not left to corruption, he was not left to decompose, he was raised again. And that's why we see the apostles quoting this scripture in Acts 13:32-35, "And we declare to you glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers." Elohim has fulfilled this for their children this good news, this Gospel in that he has raised up Yahushua as it is written in the second Psalm, "You are my son, today I've begotten you." And that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus, "I will give you the sure mercies of David." And he says also in another Psalm, "You will not allow your holy one to see corruption." And so the early apostles saw these as prophecies of the coming Messiah. And that's confirmed for us in the book of Acts chapter 13. And we see here this begotten is actually a spiritual begotten in that when he raised up Yahushua, he became begotten in the spirit. So there was the begotten in the flesh which was through Mary and the begotten in the spirit. So he became the spiritual son here also. The begotten son. He was already the son but here he became the
begotten son. "For David after he had served his own generation by the will of Elohim fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom Elohim raised up saw no corruption." And so a reference back here to the Psalms, this is a prophecy of the resurrection and they like to point this out a lot to the Jewish countrymen that why would David say that he saw no corruption when his tomb was with us to this day. Acts chapter two, Peter gave that sermon and telling the Jews, "Here it is. Here's a prophecy of the Messiah's resurrection." And so they didn't know how to refute that, because obviously David was in the ground. So anyway, back to Romans chapter one, "Concerning
his son Yahushua, Messiah or master who was born of David according to the flesh declared to be the son of Elohim with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name among whom you also are called the called of Yahushua the Messiah." And so we are the called of Yahushua the Messiah. And Paul is declaring that he received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. In other words, he doesn't get grace and apostleship for no reason to be given and do nothing with it. But the point of being given to him was so that he would be obedient to the faith. And their apostleship, the thing they were sent out to do was call all people of all nations to be obedient also to the faith. To proclaim what Yahushua has done for all and call all men to submit to his call to repent and receive the master Yahushua for forgiveness of sins. And that was the consistent message of Paul the Apostle to both the Jews and the Gentiles. It says in Luke 24:46-47, Yahushua, after he expounded on himself concerning the scriptures, he said, "Thus it was written and thus it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day." "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." So repentance and remission of sins being a main message, that's the message of salvation. That's what we need, repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua for the remission of sins. And so that's the message that Paul proclaimed Acts Chapter 20 verses 20-21, "I kept nothing back that was helpful." He was defending himself here before the council, "But proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house testifying to Jews and also Greeks," what? "Repentance toward Elohim and faith toward our master Yahushua the Messiah." The two elements, the same things that Yahushua sent out the original 12 apostles to do, that's what Paul was doing from house to house, from place to place, taught publicly proclaimed it everywhere. That is the basic message, and I dare say that needs to be our main message as well. Repentance and faith in the Messiah Yahushua. And this letter to the Romans actually, is evidence of the very thing that he sang here because the first part of the Book of Romans contains a lot of admonitions to repent, and warnings about judgement, and the things that are going to take place. And why people chose to turn away from Elohim when the danger of turning from Elohim. And so these first few chapters of Romans emphasize repentance. And then we have several chapters explaining in detail, in depth, how our sins are forgiven through walk out repentance.
Yahushua but without neglecting the need to And then he goes on to discuss the life of a believer and some of the issues that had risen up in the congregation there at Rome. He talks about how to overcome temptations and sins, and different things. But sprinkled throughout the Book of Romans, there's a lot of the deep discussion regarding how all of the supplies to not only Gentiles but also Jews, and the kinds of issues that both of them face as they come together as one body in the Messiah Yahushua. But now notice the themes of repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua are both stressed throughout the entire Book of Romans, and what the very first part of The Romans talking about the need for repentance. And so, we're gonna talk about this need for repentance, the condition of man, and how we need a savior. So let's continue to read here in Romans. It says, "To all who are in Rome, beloved of Elohim. Called to be saints." I like how he names people. He identifies people with these names to the called. "Grace to you and peace from Elohim, our father, and the master Yahushua the Messiah." To say grace to someone was more of a Greek way or Roman way of greeting, and then shalom was the Hebraic common greeting among Hebraic circles. So he says, "Grace to you and shalom from Elohim, our father and the master Yahushua Messiah." Because that's where we get grace and that's where we get peace, is from Yahweh and Yahushua. He says, "First I thank my Elohim through Yahushua Messiah for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." So I love how he just makes these identity statements in his letters. He calls himself a bond-servant, he calls himself an apostle, and then he identify believers as the called of Yahushua, the beloved of Elohim and saints. Actually the word, "saints" means holy one. And that's what we are called to be is Holy Ones. And then he expresses thanksgiving to Elohim through Yahushua for the brethren in Rome. Now I'm sure that Paul, after the Jews made their way back to Rome, were pretty excited there was some believers going back there to proclaim the good news to all the Roman people, since it was the capital of the ancient world. The often-expressed thanksgiving to Yahweh for the Brethren... I like... He did this in almost every one of his letters. He would tell them that he was thankful to Yahweh for them. And we see First Corinthians 1:4, "I thank my Elohim always concerning you for the grace of Elohim, which was given to you by Messiah Yahushua. Ephesians 1:15 he says, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Master Yahushua and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." The Philippians he says, "I thank my Elohim upon every remembrance of you." To the Colossians he says, "We give thanks to the mighty one and father of our Master Yahushua Messiah praying always for you." To the Thessalonians he says, "We give thanks to Elohim always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." To Philemon he said, "I thank my Elohim, making mention of you always in my prayers." He was a thankful person for those that Yahweh had called out, and he would exhort Timothy here to follow the same pattern. In First Timothy 2:1 he says, "Therefore I exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." Giving of thanks be made for all men.
Do we do that? There's a pattern here. I think we need to look at the examples of righteous men in scripture, and look for things to emulate. How many people do you thank Yahweh for?
Especially our spouses and our children that... They need to hear, "We thank Yahweh for them." That we appreciate the good things Yahweh has worked in their lives. We see usually when Paul expresses he's thankful to Yahweh for the people he's writing to, he will point out some positive attribute that they're exhibiting. And that shows it was a sincere matter of thanksgiving rather than just empty praise. But he gave reasons. I really believe we need to do the same things. Thank Yahweh for the good things he's doing in the lives of your family, the lives of fellow believers, and even in world leaders.
I'm afraid we've become complainers instead. Instead, maybe we should be people who express thanksgiving for the good things that's coming out of the white house, it's not all bad. But the good thing is this coming out of the world government, it's not all bad. And the good things that are coming out of your brothers and sisters in the faith, even unbelievers who, they're making steps toward righteousness, give thanks to Yahweh for those things. That is Yahweh working in their life because He is love and if they're expressing love that is his presence in their life. And so, just we are compelled to do more when someone says, "Thank you," it would make sense to me that recognizing what Yahweh has done in another person's life will ultimately result in Yahweh doing more, and more, and more in that person's life. What kind of transformation would take place if we are all more diligent in giving thanks to Yahweh for what He's doing in our lives and the lives of others. And I see here in the case of Romans, book of Romans, that Paul shared he was thankful to Yahweh for them. It was not empty thanksgiving. He gave a reason why he was thankful. Romans 1:8, "First, I thank my Elohim Yahushua Messiah for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. People recognized their faith." And that took faith to go back to Rome, didn't it? After being kicked out, it took faith to go there. And their faith was spoken of throughout the world. I think that's significant to other places where he mentions this. Romans 6:17 says, "Elohim, be thanked that though you were slave of sin yet you obey from the heart therefore my doctrine to which you were delivered." Romans 16:19 says, "For your obedience has become known to all, therefore, I am glad on your behalf but I want you to be wise what is good and simple concerning evil." So their obedience had become known among the brothers and sisters out there. And I could really picture that. The good news of Yahushua, it's spreading all over the ancient world and a congregation is established in Rome. It must've been pretty exciting to know that that was happening. And so, he was very thankful to Yahweh that he had worked in the city of Rome which is very influential, and a lot of people are going in and out of there. So he says, "For Elohim is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel or good news of the son without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. Do we do that? Do we give thanks to Yahweh for His work in the lives of others? I find Paul's prayers quite inspiring. When we pray for some... Look at the book of Ephesians, when he prayed for the brothers in Ephesus, listen to his prayer. He says, "For this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our master, Yahushua Messiah, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might, according to His spirit and innerman that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the width, and length, and depth, and height to know the love of Messiah which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of Elohim." Now, to him it is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that what we ask or think according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the congregation by Messiah Yahushua to all generations, that's us too, forever and ever, amen. So, wow. What an amazing prayer. Beautiful, beautiful prayer. So Paul, we see here, in his prayers, he is making
request if by some means, now at last, I may find a way in the will of Elohim to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. That is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both you and me. Now, I did not want you to be unaware brother and I often plan to come to you but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other gentiles. So he had not yet made his way to Rome. He wanted to go but he was hindered and we see that, actually. Acts 19:20-21 says, "The word of Yahweh grew mily and prevailed, when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit." When he passed through Macedonia in Achaea to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I've been there, I must also see Rome." I don't think he knew exactly how he's going to end up in Rome but he really wanted to go there. And it turned out, he went there because he made... When he went to Jerusalem, if you read the story, he was in Jerusalem and he got accused of bringing gentiles into the holy place and they seized him and tried to accuse him of all kinds of things. None of which were true and then, he escaped death a few times, different things were going on, and eventually, appealed to Cesar when under prosecution and prosecution by the unbelieving Jews. And so then, he ends up, ultimately, at the end of the book of Acts, he actually ends up in Rome, says Acts 28:31. The final words of the book of Acts says, "Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the Kingdom of Elohim and teaching the things which concerned the Master Yahushua Messiah with all confidence no one forbidding him." So there he was in Rome, there, at the very end of the book of Acts. It's probably for that reason, in our Bibles, the book of Romans actually follows the book of Acts. So he had made a request that he wanted to go to Rome, and he want to impart to them a spiritual gift so they could be established, so that he could be encouraged together with them in a mutual faith. And so, he had done so with the Corinthians, they had the gift of tongues and some gifts of prophecy. We see his manifestations here in 1 Corinthians 12:7. So "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another, working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues." So these are some examples of spiritual gifts, and we'll talk more about that in Romans chapter 12 as we get there. It says, "I am a debtor to both Greeks and Barbarians, both to wise and unwise, so as much as this in me, I am ready to preach the good news to those who are in Rome also, for I am not ashamed, not ashamed of the good news of Messiah." Why isn't he ashamed? For it is the power of Elohim to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also, for the Greeks, so both Jew and Gentile as acknowledgment that he was not going to be ashamed of Messiah. But then, he was going to boldly proclaim the good news of Messiah in Rome, of all places, is an indication that there are a lot of people that kinda looked at the faith in Messiah unfavorably.
Some are Jews who did not believe, and some of Gentiles who saw them maybe, as a threat to their business of idol worship. And so, Paul had to be willing to be unashamed
and actually, to glory in it, because he recognized, "How can I be ashamed of something that brings life to people? How can I be ashamed of one who loved me and gave Himself for me? Can't be ashamed of someone like that." And so, we, also, must not be ashamed of the good news of Messiah in our present world. And we are called to humbly, meekly, yet boldly, proclaim our faith to the culture that is
around us, and not be ashamed. Luke 9:24 says, "But whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is, himself, destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me in my words," Yahushua is speaking here, "Of him, the Son of man will be ashamed when he comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels." So if we're going to be ashamed of him in this present age, when we stand before Elohim, Yahushua will be ashamed of us. And so, we are called to not be ashamed. We see that there were people in the first century who were ashamed. John 12:42-43, "Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many did believe in Him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, they wouldn't do it publicly, lest, they should be put out of the synagogue for they," what? "Loved the praise of men more than the praise of Elohim." And we need to love the praise of Elohim far, far more than the praise of men. And so, we can't walk around in timidity, in fear of men in this present age. We need to actually find, not pride and boastfulness, but a certain amount of realizing this is the glorious way. This is the way of eternal life. This is the way we need to let shine before men; not hide it under a bushel, under a ball, or something, but we should proclaim, boldly, gladly to all who are willing to hear. And that means we have to fight against the current.
If a river is going downstream, at the end, there's a waterfall, and you're in a raft, what're you gonna do to avoid destruction? Are you gonna sit there with your arms folded? Let the current carry you? Or are you gonna fight against the current so that you don't go down there with a waterfall? Well, the whole world is just kind of flowing down this river and some of them are paddling towards the end as fast as they can, some are kind of just floating along, that's the lukewarm believer, and there is some who are hot, who are paddling, they're making effort, they're striving against sin, they're proclaiming the way of Yahweh, they are busy and active and reaching out towards those who are around them out of love for those around them. If you say people coming the other direction, you're paddling upstream. You're not gonna call out and say, "Hey guys, there's a waterfall there at the end. You're gonna die if you don't turn around and do what I'm doing." And that is paddling against the current. You know, we have to be bold in order to have the willingness to say, "Hey wait a minute. Look. There is destruction back there. You need to turn around, make a U-turn, it's gonna be hard, you'll have to fight, fight against the current, fight against the culture, fight against the enemy, fight, fight, fight against evil." Doesn't mean you have to hate people, doesn't mean you have to be contemptuous towards others who are going the wrong direction but woo them around with humbleness and meekness and gentleness. There really is a waterfall back here. We need to go far, we need to fight against it and so that's what we need to do as believers in Messiah-Yahushua. We are called not to be ashamed because why? Why is it? Why is it that we're not ashamed? Because it is the power of Elohim. It is what brings us salvation. It is the power of Elohim to salvation for everyone who believes regardless of your ethnic background or your biblical background or your mentality. We have to be bold in our culture today, not be mousy, hide in the corner and wait for someone to say something, what do you believe or whatever, but we have to be willing to engage the culture around us. Now Paul saw himself as a debtor, a man who is
redeeming a time. Romans 8:1-14, "I am a debtor to both Greeks and barbarians, to both wise and unwise." He was a debtor. He had persecuted believers in Messiah-Yahushua, he went into Gentile cities even to do so but now he's called to preach the good news to everyone, both Jew and Gentile, just as Yahushua had instructed him. And so he saw himself as this debtor.
"So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the good news to those who in Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the good news or the gospel of the Messiah for it is the power of Elohim for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also the Greek. Both. For in it the righteousness of Elohim is revealed form faith to faith just as it is written the just shall live by faith." And so the righteousness of Elohim is revealed through what? The proclamation of this good news, of Messiah-Yahushua. So how is the righteousness of Elohim revealed in the good news of the Messiah? First of all, it's revealed because Yahushua walked a righteous walk. Others can look at him and see a perfect example of righteousness. And secondly, the righteousness is seen because Yahweh is allowing us to have our sins laid on Yahushua the Messiah while having the Messiah Yahushua's righteousness placed on us. And so the righteousness of Elohim is seen in these things and that's why it's said in Jeremiah 23:1-6, that he would be called Yahweh, our righteousness, in that we would be saved and so because it is through the Messiah Yahushua that Yahweh brought us his righteousness so that when Yahweh looks at us he does not see sinful man, he sees righteousness through Yahushua who dwells in us.
Also, we see Isiah 45:23, "I have sworn by myself the words gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. What's the oath gonna say? He shall say surely in Yahweh I have righteousness and strength." So only in Yahweh do we have any righteousness at all and a day is gonna come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess with an oath that only through Yahweh do I have righteousness and strength. So not just righteousness but also strength, the strength to walk in righteousness by Yahweh and his spirit. "To him men shall come and all shall be ashamed who has sinned against him." They think that by their own righteousness they can be established? Nope. They are going to be ashamed because they are ashamed of the good news of Elohim. In Yahweh shall all the sons of Israel be justified as declared righteous in Yahweh because of the righteousness of Yahweh placed in man through Yahushua the Messiah. Only through him do we have any glory at all. Isaiah 59:15-17 says, "So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then Yahweh saw it and it displeased Him there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and He wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him." That is Yahushua. Isaiah 53:1 says, "To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" And it goes on to talk about a suffering servant that upon whom was laid the iniquity of us all. So His own arm brought salvation. His own righteousness sustained Him. Yahushua became this intercessor. And He, Yahushua, put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. So this good news of Elohim is all predicted ahead of time in the prophets that Yahushua would be the carrier of this good news. That He would bring righteousness to us, cleansing us from all of our sins through His indwelling. And so it's Messiah who causes Yahweh's righteousness to be imparted to us. He even Himself actually said, "Why do you call me good?" So it was Yahweh's righteousness that was in Him that caused Him to be righteous, so that's why He's called Yahweh our righteousness, Yahweh Tsidkenu. And if we want to have righteousness, we must be willing to accept Yahushua the Messiah by faith. So He's not ashamed, and we should not be ashamed of this good news. For in it the righteousness of Elohim is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, "The just shall live by faith." We want to be just, that means if we want to be righteous, and we want eternal life, we want to live, it's only by faith that we can get there. So the just, or the righteous will live, or have eternal life by faith. This is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4, it says, "Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him. But the just shall live by his faith." If one thought that their own righteousness was going to be enough, rather than living by faith, they're proud and their soul is not going to be upright. But if they're willing to humble themselves and say, "Only by faith am I able to be just. And as to the righteousness of Yahweh, only by faith can I be just and therefore have eternal life, then I need Yahweh's righteousness in me. My own righteousness will not be sufficient." This is important for us to understand because a lot of the things Paul writes about in the book of Romans is related to this very thing, righteousness, and faith, and eternal life by that through Yahweh's righteousness that is in Messiah. Much of the book of Romans talks about this in great length. If we don't realize that righteousness comes through faith we're gonna be proud, we're gonna be not considered upright. And that's what Habakkuk 2:4 is actually teaching.
So the book of Romans actually could be summed up as Paul's efforts to cause both Jew and Gentile believers in Rome to understand that very thing. First of all, a recognition that Yahweh is righteous, and we have not been righteous. And therefore we need to repent, that's the first part of the book of Romans. And then we need to receive Yahushua as the righteous one whom Yahweh has sent as a gift to us, so that we could be seen as righteous in the eyes of Yahushua, of Yahweh because Yahushua who dwells in us. It's no longer we who live, Messiah dwelling in us. And so then Paul begins to explain why the Gentiles, even those who had not heard the Law of Yahweh through Moshe, would actually even though they weren't necessarily hearers of the law, that they were still able to be declared as unrighteous and guilty in Yahweh's eyes. Even though they've never, they may not have heard of the scriptures, that Yahweh could still judge them, and say they're guilty in Yahweh's eyes. How is that? He goes on to say, "For the wrath of Elohim is revealed from Heaven against all irreverence, and unrighteousness of men." Now the King James version has "ungodliness" here, which is a terrible translation, actually it means irreverent. Doesn't even mean anything to do with godliness or anything. So, "The wrath of Elohim is revealed from Heaven against all irreverence, and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of Elohim is manifest in them. For Elohim has shown it to them." He's revealed it to them. How has Elohim shown Himself to Gentiles?
He tells us, verse 20, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity so that they are without excuse because although they knew Elohim, they did not glorify him as Elohim, nor were thankful, became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened." So since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes were clearly seen. Since the creation of the world being understood by the things that remain, even his eternal power and divinity so they're without excuse. So the creation of the world, the very beginning, the invisible attributes are seen in creation.
Be understood and that he's at least planted in the measure, in the mind of every man, a certain measure of faith." You know I read this, I can't help but think of modern atheism and humanism. The theory of evolution being their commonly accepted explanation of life on the earth today. But it's creation itself that should cause men to recognize there is an eternal, divine power at work here, and somewhere deep in the hearts of men, there is a recognition of a creator and that there is an Elohim. The design and the complexity of the world we live in makes it so obvious to the unbiased mind that he exists. There had to be a creator of all these. If you was to walk up and you saw, in the midst of random piles of rocks everywhere, 12 rocks that ran in a row right here, 12 rocks in a row, you would say it looks like somebody was here, right? Evidence of someone who had arranged the rocks. Well, the DNA, the cells in our body and all the arrangement of protein, all these things, how can that not tell us that, "Look, a creator was at work here." So design and the complexity of nature makes it obvious to me and the unbiased person, there is a creator, but if a person has a hard heart or a desire to just live how they want to live, sure they can believe what they want and say, "I don't believe in Elohim," but down deep they're just refusing to believe what should be obvious. Psalm 97:6 says, "The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory." Psalm 19:1-3 says, "The heavens declare the glory of Elohim and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard and what they're speaking to Yahweh's glory." We walk outside on a very dark night, especially out in the country and just look up and go, "Wow!" Just ponder your existence for a minute. It's amazing. Or look at the creatures and the complexity of life on the earth. Job said, "Ask the beasts and they will teach you, and the birds of the air and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of Yahweh has done this? In whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:7-10.
They speak. Creation itself speaks to us that there is an Elohim and we could see that without even noticing the Bible or anything. And so that's why Paul says Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power in... " Sorry this had "Elohim head" here but should be "divine nature." Godhead is how the King James... Does not mean Godhead. Why they put that word in there, I'll never know. It simply means "divinity." "So that they are without excuse, because although they knew Elohim, they did not glorify him as Elohim." They knew Elohim. They knew, and everybody knows down deep. We got the secret, they know. They won't confess it necessarily but they may have covered it up with a bunch of excuses, but in the depths of their heart, they know. "They did not glorify him as Elohim nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." Why'd they become fools? Because the fool has said in his heart, "There is no Elohim." "They are corrupt, they have done abominable and equally there is none who does good," and that's actually talking directly to Gentiles. So the reason why they're considered foolish is because they have chosen to not believe in an Elohim. And we see, "They profess to be wise but they actually became fools according to the word of Elohim and change the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and fort for the animals and creeping things." So how do they do this? By worshipping a corruptible man.
Themselves or some person or human being that they think is greater. By doing that, they change the glory of incorruptible Elohim into a corruptible man, by worshipping man, or by worshipping self and make them gods out of themselves or the case of the Roman emperors and so on he was referring to these Roman emperors who claim to be Elohim. And so, we got a lot of creature worship going on in the day, believe me. Man is worshipping himself and man's become his own idol and claiming he made himself. But they also, in those times, worshipped birds and fort for the animals and creeping things. And so since we were made in the image of Elohim, it says he changed the glory of the incorruptible Elohim into an image made like corruptible man. So we are made in Elohim's image at first but then we corrupted ourselves and then we worship one another or we worshipped ourselves. And either way, you're a mess, and we are in this
"me" generation now where man's his own idol, claims as he made himself through evolution.
Psalm 100:3 says "Know that Yahweh, he is Elohim. It is he who has made us, not we ourselves. We are his people and his sheep of his pasture." That's a message for our generation. We did not make ourselves, but you make an idol out of yourself when you think you made yourself. And when you make an idol out of yourself, there are certain things that are sure to follow like this Romans 1:24-26, "Therefore, Elohim also gave him up to unclaimed this and the less of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of Elohim for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. He was blessed forever Amen." For this reason, Elohim gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural views for what is against nature. So if a person refuses to acknowledge the one true Elohim and instead, chooses to serve the creature rather than the creator, then the creature becomes the God, right? That's how it works. So you serve the creature rather than the creator who becomes the God, who becomes the one who is honored and worshipped. The creature whether itself or some other idol or whatever. And for this reason, it says for that reason. What reason? That they served and this creature rather than creator. Alright, if that's going to be your God, then your vile passions are going to rule over you.
And for that reasons, some almost have difficulty getting free from sexual passions and vile passions with grown up innocent in a culture that puts the creature self ahead of the creator, and so we have vile passions. And in order for us to be free, we need to realize
we're slaves of Messiah in terms of obedience our activity is one the service and slavery and even though we're sons and daughters, this is our act, our ultimate identity though is that of sons.
So rather than being slaves to our mortal body, we're now slaves of Messiah because we worship the creator, not the creature. And so therefore, the vile of passions that our carnal man stirs up, we're able to rule over them and we can rule over them because of who we have chosen as our Elohim. Worshipping and serving the creator rather than the creature. But those who do not, becomes slaves to sin and now that our culture is more, and more, and more hostile to the creator, we see the evidences that scripture speaks of, people walking out, these vile passions, lesbianism and homosexuality and so on. It says likewise also, "The man living the natural use of woman burn in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of error which was due. And we already see that homosexuals have a very low life expectancy compared to the rest of the world. That's sad, that's not something I gloat over at all. That's very sad, but that's the penalty.
So, and even as they did not like to retain, they don't wanna retain Elohim in their knowledge, therefore what? Elohim gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. And actually atheist Aldous Huxley, 1950s,
1940s, '50s or '60s. He admitted that him and his contemporaries, the people of his generation, actually rejected theism which is the believe in a divine creator, because it interfered with their sexual freedom. They wanted to be able to live the way they wanted and so they're looking for alternative explanations for how the world got where it is. And so, they have been given over to a debased mind, that's a word translated debased...
Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have it up there, I've put the wrong one up there. But what it means is, according to... It's Greek word number 96, it means not standing the test, not approved. It was used to... Of metals and coins, whether or not this would be good enough for use. But basically, unfit, reprobate, not willing to
stay in a test, a mind that cannot pass a test, cannot be approved. And the reason why they can't pass a test because they don't want to retain Elohim in their knowledge, instead removing Elohim from their knowledge and sin becoming more and more rampant. Because there is no longer any desire to fight against the carnal desires and the flesh, therefore the mind just won't fight against those desires and the mind will not win and stand up to the test is dead, the carnal nature just kinda runs rampant and takes over. And that's why we have the things that we have in the world today. And so we are admonished in Colossians 3:1-3, "If then you were raised with Messiah, seek those things which are above where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of Elohim, set your mind on things above not on things on the earth for you died and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim." So we need to set our mind on spiritual things and if we do set our mind on the spiritual things, we realize that's actually where the battle is. I heard a story this week, an eagle always fights a
snake in the air, that's where he's more skilled, he doesn't fight a snake on the ground because that's not where his strength is. We also need to realize that's where our battle is, it's spiritual. Weapon of our warfare are not carnal, they are mighty but you struggle not against flesh and blood, it begins spirit host and wickedness in high places and that's where we need to take the fight, to the spiritual realm, that's where our strength is going to be. If by our strength we think we buy our own flesh and buy our own power, we can overcome this with sheer willpower, we're gonna be mistaken.
We need to take it to the spiritual realm, that's where our strength is going to be, that's where we need to be doing the battle, the faith in Yahweh's word and through prayer.
Continuing, it says, "Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness, they are whisperers, back biters, haters of Elohim, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things," there are plenty of evil things been invented out there haven't we? "Disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing their righteous judgement of Elohim that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." And so, he is explaining these things
so that the gentiles recognize they are sinners. You'll have to go to the world and say these things, they know their behaviour is wrong, they have a conscience, they know their behavior is wrong and all the world is actually guilty and we all need the righteousness of Yahweh being placed on us. And so he's pointing out the evil conduct of these things, those who do not want to retain Elohim and their thoughts and choose to push him aside, this is what happens. And we're seeing this, these kinds of practices in our culture today and not only do they want you to accept their behaviour... Not only do they want to do this kind of behaviour, they want you to accept them who practice that kind of behaviour and we see this in the homosexual agenda and it's not enough that you even accept them, it's almost that you have to celebrate what they're doing before they'll be satisfied. I mean, it's not enough that you just go, "Okay, well, that's your life." No, they want you to celebrate it, they want you to enthusiastically as they do declare their sin like Satan and pridefully do so. But we see here, Paul is showing what happens.
And we have a culture that took Elohim, any mention of Elohim, out of schools, out of the childhood experience. And I'm not saying that schools are the answer, but you send your children off to a society, at an institution where Elohim is not in their thoughts for how many hours a day, how many hours in their lifetime? It can have an influence on culture. A tremendous influence on culture. So there's now these humanistic evolution and all this stuff, even though people don't always fully accept everything being taught by evolution, as we see actually in our culture, 95% of the people
according to Gallup who actually believe there is a creator, inspite of the best efforts to try influence. At least a recognition that there is some kind of superior creator out there. This goes to show we are not built to even accept this evolution thing, but there are people, who professing to be wise, they've gone along with this mentality, and it creates just enough doubt in people's minds that they'll go ahead and walk out the sin that they want to do.
So we see that Paul is declaring that Gentiles are guilty of offending their creator by a lack of faith in him and by doing things that are harmful. And so he was a debtor, he wanted to preach to both Jews and Gentiles. In our next segment, we're going to move forward in to chapter two in our next segment, but you'll notice next he picks on the Jews for a while. He's still got the Gentiles, but then he under conviction as well for their sin. starts talking about how the Jews need to be coming And he continues to mention these things throughout Jew and Gentile, because the Roman population did have Jews and Gentiles there in the congregation, and so he's addressing both. And really, what's he doing? He's giving them the same message, but he's just proving to them it's applicable to both, whether Jew or Gentile. Anyway, that wraps up our examination of Romans chapter one. Hopefully, it was enlightening here and there, and we're gonna continue in to chapter two next week, and so praise Yahweh for His word. I love to go through this things like this. I think we get... We really max out our benefit when we go through verse by verse as we have in Hebrews, as we have in Galatians, or the places that we can really benefit from this. So hopefully, it is a blessing to you, and until next time, my brothers and my sisters, may Yahweh guide you and strengthen you, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh truly have mercy on us all. Hallelujah.