Bible Study: June 4, 2025

Tonight we are going to start the book of Romans. I think we are going to find that the book of Romans is well like every book of the Bible. We can say that all 66 books as we enter into them. A fascinating book, if that's the word we can use, but one in which there's so much included, you could literally spend an hour almost on every scripture. As I was reading some of the commentaries on some of the backgrounds of the book of Romans, which I'll talk about in a little bit, because it helps us have the context of what Paul was writing to and the group that he was writing to when he wrote to the Romans.

It's that of all the books in the Bible. Well, I don't know about all the books in the Bible. It was one of the foundational books of the Bible, because as Paul is writing to a group, and it's a newer church that's forming in Rome that's being built with Gentiles, if we can use that term, who live in Rome that God is calling, and some Jews who are moving back to Rome as part of the change of an emperor and a change of administration in Rome, we see a church that has two diverse backgrounds. Paul hasn't met them, but he is putting them together and teaching them how to be unified.

So we learn as we go through Romans, as he's dealing with people he hasn't met, but he understands both cultures. He understands what it is to be a Gentile. He's been working with Gentiles. He understands what it means to be a Jew, because he is a Jew and has practiced that faith until God called him. So he knows what needs to happen. In this book, we do find fundamental beliefs and fundamental doctrines that are important to all of us. So we'll talk about that, and I think we will find, as I said in the email I sent yesterday, we're going to find things that we need to do in our lives today.

This isn't just about the Romans that lived in first-century Rome. This is about us. These books that God inspired and have recorded for us is as much about us as it is today. We just have to apply the times and the circumstances to where we are today. So we're going to learn about Christian living, what we need to do, living in a diverse society. We might not have Jews and Gentiles, we call them, but we live in a society that is Democrats and Republicans in America, and I guess conservatives and liberals in Canada.

We have all this contesting around us, and we even have some people among us who have what we would say are liberal ideas, political, leading in that way, more conservative. So we have the pressures on us that Paul and the Romans had as well. So I'm going to start pulling up more guidelines or little notes that I put up on there to help us guide through that because I think it's probably easier for you to follow what we're talking about if I have some notes on the screen rather than you just looking at me and hearing me talk.

So let me pull up a screen here that will talk about some of the introduction to the Romans. Let me see what we've got here. So let me, as I mentioned, it is important to understand the context under which the epistles or really any book is written. Paul, as I mentioned, he was probably in Corinth when he was writing this book.

It was written sometime around 56 to 58 AD. It wasn't the first book that he, the first letter that he wrote. Before this, he would have written letters to the Corinthians and to the Galatians. And we see that as we go through the book of Romans because we see as he talks in Romans, he's expounding on more of the principles that he said to or wrote to the Corinthians and some of the issues that they were having as they were having some divisions develop in their church.

And the Galatians, who, if you remember Galatians 1, he mentioned that, I marvel that you have so soon turned away from the gospel that was preached to you. And yet it wasn't a totally different gospel. They were just mixing some of the old with the new and kind of watering down things. And it wasn't the exact gospel that Jesus Christ preached or that was preached to them. And so he has experienced some of these things. So he knows what's going to happen in Rome because it happens in the churches of God. It's expedient on us, then, to be sure that we are staying close to the truth.

We are staying close to God, that we know what's in the Bible, that we are following the words of the Bible and not buying into some other gospel as the Galatians did, or the words of a person as opposed to the words of God. Listen for his voice. Listen for the Bible and the things that you do. So he wrote this book somewhere around 56 to 58 BC. It was a unique time in Roman history because the Jews had been expelled from Rome in 49 AD under Claudius. I can see I'm getting my head on myself here a little bit.

But Claudius, the emperor at that time, in 41 AD, he began to issue edicts against the Jews. He didn't want them asking for anything else. He saw them in kind of a pain, the things that they wanted to request of the government, even though they were living in a society that kind of catered and allowed them to do the things they wanted.

They kept asking for things and pushing the envelope, if you will, with the emperor. So he said no more. And finally, in 49 AD, he was fed up, and he expelled them all from Rome. So we find that they left. And when he died in 54 AD, Nero, his son or grandson, I think it was just his son, became emperor. He was the emperor who persecuted the Christians relentlessly and mercilessly later on, burning them at the stake, burning them as lightposts, killing them whatever chance he had, the Jews and the Christians. But at the beginning, he allowed the Jews to come back in.

So we'll see, you know, as we go through here, that, you know, some of those people then who were expelled from Rome, the Jews, are now coming back into the church in Rome. And they're kind of leaders in the church because they've experienced some things since they've been in the church in Corinth, for instance, as they come back and they can help the fledgling church get off the ground as well.

So let's walk through some of this here that I have and just look at some of the verses because, again, it's helpful to see that how these epistles fit together. You know, Paul, it's Paul writing, you know, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. And there's a series of letters, and just much like you would write a letter and write to your friends or write to a group, it would build on one another. And so you see that progression in Paul's letters too as we look to him. So, you know, he hadn't been to Rome at the time, we say. So he's writing to a group of people he hasn't met in person before.

And if we look back into the book of Acts, we can see what his plans were. In Acts 19, in verse 21, he makes the comment that it says, when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. Things were beginning to happen in Rome, but he hadn't been there yet. And you'll remember, as he was going through to Jerusalem, he wanted to hurry and be in Jerusalem for Pentecost, he made the comment. He went to Pentecost, there he was arrested, there he ended up going to Caesarea.

And finally, he went to Rome as a prisoner. But he hadn't been to Rome at the time this was written. The letter was written, they say, four years before he came to Rome as a prisoner. God was calling people there. And they were scattered. They may have been scattered. Again, if we look in the book of Acts, we see how God worked. So we have the very notable Deacon Stephen and the witness that he made to the Sanhedrin of the truth of God and how he just boldly and courageously told them the truth of God, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and told them that they had been the one to put the Messiah to death.

All these things that they didn't want to hear, and they put Stephen to death just because they didn't want to hear what he said. But in verses 1-4, you know, we see here's Saul that says in verse 1 of Acts 8, he's the same Saul who's now Paul that's writing the letter to the Romans, as you recall, God called him on his way to Danaskis, says, now Saul was consenting to Stephen's death. At that time, a great persecution rose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judah and Samaria, except the apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial.

And you see that as you go through the book of Acts, you see that people had gone to various places and the word began to spread that way as they had to leave Jerusalem because persecution came to the church. And when we were going through the book of Acts, we talk about that. Sometimes God brings persecution on, but it is so that the gospel can be spread because he does tell us when persecution comes in one city, flee to another. You don't have to stay there.

Go to another. Keep following God. Keep faith in him. Keep speaking about him. Keep your eyes on the Bible. But leave one place, and then go to another. And so this may be where some of the people in Rome relocated eventually from one area to another as they went up there. Or God was just calling brand new people there, and others were coming in to help them along the way. I referenced there about Claudius the Emperor. It actually mentions that in Acts 18. It actually mentions that in Acts 18 too. It's not just history that says it.

The Bible we've learned is a good history book too. It says in Acts 18, verse 1, After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, you'll remember her, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and Paul came to them. So as he came there to Corinth, he met Aquila and Priscilla. They were part. God had called them. He used them. He trained them. They became very useful, useful tools to God and Paul.

But they came during the Exodus from Rome. They came to Corinth. Paul met him there. And then later here in Romans, we're going to see that they're back in the Roman Church after Nero became emperor and the Jews could return again. So I thought what we would do is, you know, at the end of the book, at the end of Romans, Paul has chapter 16, which is kind of a, you know, a goodbye or not goodbye, but a greeting to everyone in the Roman Church. And I think it's notable because he mentioned so many of the people that are there, maybe everyone that was in the Rome Church at that time that he's writing.

And he leaves us an example of in this chapter of how important every single person God calls is to his church. He knew them all by name, even though he hadn't been there in person. He was there, too. And he greets them all by name. So I just make a few of them here. In verse one, for instance, he mentions Phoebe. He says, I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister. So she'd been in the church who was a servant of the church in St.

Crea. So Phoebe was now in Rome, whether she was there visiting or whether she had moved to Rome, Rome, she was there in St. Crea. Your Bible, you know, mentions Acts 18 verse 18. Paul talks about the time that he was in St. Crea and the people that he met there. So apparently he met Phoebe in St. Crea. So he says, just like you and I would, hey, it is good to see you. I'm glad to know you're down there. Hello to St. Crea. Verse three, he talks about Priscilla and Quiapula, the same Priscilla and Quiapula that we read about in Acts, where Paul, you know, where Paul met them, where they learned from him, that where they became very, you know, leaders in the church as they worked with the people there.

And there in verse three, he says, great Priscilla and Quiapula, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. And there again, you know, that's back in Acts 18, too. You can tie these things together and see how Paul is writing this letter. In verse five, he talks about this beloved Epinatas, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ, the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. And interestingly enough, then, he, in 1 Corinthians 16, another book that he wrote before he wrote the book of Romans, he talks about the first fruits of Achaia.

And verse 15 of 1 Corinthians 16, he says, I urge you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanus, that is the first fruits of Achaia, that they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints. And so you have this familiarity. You see this church that is beginning. It's not all brand new people. There are people that Paul is familiar with, that God placed there to help the church alone, to grow, to become more indoctrinated, fully understand the truths that that he has called them to. In verse seven, then, he mentions, you know, Andronychus and Junia, who were in Christ before me. So they were Christians before Paul was called.

And then down in verse 11, you see, I think, what's our reference to the Jews and Greeks together, you know, Herodian, he says, my countryman, that means he's a fellow Jew. So Paul probably knew who he was. But then we have the household of Narcissus. And Narcissus is a Greek word, I guess, a common name, kind of in Rome, which may indicate that here's someone that, kind of like Peter, ran into the household of Cornelius, that God called a number of the household of Cornelius, if you remember in the book of Acts, to the truth. And here's this household of Narcissus. The commentaries say, even though Narcissus isn't mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, they say that this man was probably, probably a secretary or someone in the court of the emperor at that time. But his household, and he became a devout Christian, and his household came along with him later on, later on, when Nero became not the emperor of terror, if you will. The commentary suggests, and I guess the legends suggest, that Narcissus was put to death along with all the other Christians, even though he was known in the courts of the emperor at that time. That's how much they hated God's truth. So you have, you know, you have this really friendly picture of the church in Rome. You know, here in just a few verses, we've met many of the people in that church at that time. We've heard Paul's greetings to him, and we can see how united and how at one they are at this point in time. And it's a lesson for all of us that no matter what our backgrounds are, you know, if we are all focused on God's Word, doing his will, following him implicitly, and learning to live by every word of God, we will be united. There. And that's what this church is. It's already begun, but still beginning, and they're still in that stage where they're all there for the exact right purpose. But Paul has had experience with some of the churches. He's seen what's happened to them. As I mentioned, you know, the letter to the Corinthians was because of all these problems that they were having in Corinth, and he had to set them straight and point them back to the Bible and resolve some issues for them and point them in the right direction. To the church in Corinth's credit, they listened to what he had to say. In Galatia, he had the problem where the gospel was being perverted. It was becoming misleading, away from the pure truth of God's Word and the intent of it. So he was familiar with what was going on, and he cautions them at the end of Romans 16 with a warning. You know, in verse 16, he says, "'Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.'" And then he moves into, "'I urge you, brethren, I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.'" There's no indication of that.

In the book of Romans, he's going to take us deeper into the foundational principles of God, the Spirit of God, the law of God, Jews and Gentiles, how they're both sinners, and how what sin is, and how works, you know, you must have faith, you must have works with your faith, but works don't earn you salvation. All those foundational principles are explained here in this book. No divisions, but he knows that that's going to come upon them, because that seems to be the history of the church, that these things happen. As Paul himself, you know, said back in Acts, Acts 28.

I'll just remind you of that, because it's words that God gave him as he was leaving the elders there at Ephesus. In Acts 20, verse 28, he talks about, you know, there will be wolves that come from outside the church, but in verse 29, he talks about something that's even more dangerous, you know, or more that could be more misleading or lead more people away than someone from the outside, outside ministers talking against the church or bringing in false doctrines.

But is that which can happen on the inside? He says in verse 29, I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among yourselves, verse 30, men will rise up, speaking perverse or misleading things, things that are just a little different from the Bible, maybe confusing things that aren't exactly the way Jesus Christ said or the Bible says, close, close but not, but speaking misleading things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

Therefore, he says, watch and remember that for three years I didn't cease to warn every one night and day with tears. And he continued to do that with the churches to remind us, keep your eyes on God. Follow him. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to say, don't believe me, believe the Bible. Go to the Bible, check the fruits, see what's going on there, and follow Christ. You know, the first two words he said to the disciples as he called them was, follow me. And he didn't mean for a few weeks or a few months or a few years, he meant follow me forever.

And that's our job, too, to follow him and keep our eyes on him as he works with his church and through the voice he sets things up. So he says that in verse 17 in Romans, as he concludes here, and he says, you know, watch those who preach contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the simple.

And then he praises them, for your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf, but I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. You know, flee evil, flee evil and don't partake in it. You know, so with that, you know, we, with all that behind us, we find ourselves then there at the, you know, at the beginning of the book of Romans.

And you have a pretty good view of what God is talking about here or where we're going to go in this book as was Paul is writing it and where it's coming from. So let's go back to Romans 1 and kind of dissect some of the verses. I will have to say as I read through, as I read through, you know, Romans in preparation for this study and beyond a little bit, there were things that, and it happens with all of us every time we read a book, things that jump out at you that you haven't seen before.

And then I did notice that one of the commentaries, and there is no UCG Bible commentary on the New Testament, so, you know, we pretty much, you know, let God, as we always do, interpret these scriptures for us and lead us and whatever, but I noticed that one of the commentaries, they made that comment as well, that you could read the book of Romans a hundred times, and every single time you read the book of Romans, you will learn something new. There's something you won't have seen before. Such is the case with us, so why don't I pause for a second, and if there's any questions or comments, I will pull down this and wait for a few minutes, minute, or a few seconds, and then we'll move into chapter one.

Okay, Marta.

Marta, you'll have to put your microphone on.

Do you hear me now? We do. We do. Okay, hello from Pasadena. Hello. You were on chapter 16.

Uh-huh. I noticed that this person, this male, he says, I, uh, the 30th, who wrote this epistle, salute you and the Lord. Now, meaning that he wrote this book in place of Paul? Wrote down the scriptures. Wrote down the scriptures for him, yes. 16, it's 1622. 1622. I, Turdius, who wrote this epistle, greet you and the Lord. Yeah, so Paul was dictating, if you will, and Tertius, Turdius, if you say that, actually wrote down the words. Okay, does that mean he was like a, um, a deacon? Uh, I don't know.

Okay. I didn't do any research into him. You know, I actually, I actually should have. Um, I went down to Amen and I didn't really pair. Yeah, okay, gotcha. Okay, but let me write that down. I think that's an interesting question. So, Turdius, who is he? Okay. Thank you. Bill.

Yes, hi, thank you. Just a curious question. If there was ever any evidence that you might know of, of the original apostles when there was a death, when they dispersed from Jerusalem after the book of Acts chapter one, two, three, four, the disciples went wherever, didn't they?

I was reading a history book, a secular book, that indicated the possibility that maybe one of them entered into the Roman area, perhaps even going to Spain. Have you heard any of that kind of I haven't heard anything about, I haven't heard anything about Spain, so no.

Maybe Xavier, because Xavier. Paul himself went to Spain. He wanted to go to Spain. I don't know if he ever got there. So, yeah. Yeah, um, yeah, brother, hi everyone. Um, but when we were reading verse 117, that word where it says, note, as I said, note the people, the Greek scopio, it means the scoped them out, mark them, keep your eye on them, and then if, so there's that, what's that, the proposition? No. What's that? You're in verse 17, note those who cross the Asians and offenses. Yeah. Yes, and then you act. After you have scoped them, watch them for a while.

If they don't change, then you respond. Yep. But the word is scope, like in the military term. No, you know what? I looked up some other things. I didn't look that one up, but that's good. Scope them out. They're dangerous, right? They're dangerous to the church and the flock. Okay.

Hey, Fred. Oh, hi. To answer that, man, I apologize for guy's name, about the apostles, where the apostle goes. There was an old article in the Days of Worldwide Church of God, and it was entitled, Where Did the Twelve Apostles Go? But I don't know whether it was written by Herbert W. Armstrong or somebody else, but I'm sure you'll be able to find the book if you go into Herbert W. Armstrong's library. Okay. I think that's, you know, yeah, there's some good information back at that, Where Did the Twelve Apostles Go article. Okay. Very good, Fred. I saw another hand, but I don't see another hand now, so. Oh, Dave. Dave Pramara. Hiya. Good evening, everyone. Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing Sir Lam did, mention that article that you can, that was published back years ago. I don't know if it was Mr. Armstrong, or it might have been Dr. Hay who wrote that. Okay. Very good. Hey, Jim. Hi, Mr. Chibi. So, one of the things that I learned when I went many times through Romans was how seriously affected the church was by the Edict, Claudius Edict, that cast all of the Jews out, because the church in the hands of the Gentile.

So, when they returned, there was a problem, because Gentile was getting a little puffy, thinking that the failure of the Jew left them in first place. And so, when you read, go through the book of Romans, you find that there is a lot of discourse on how badly they were treating the Gentile, which was treating the unconverted Jew. And so, that's why he goes into the law, and he reminds the Gentile that, hey, you know what, you're the one that's grafted in.

So, it's just a very interesting thing, because it affects the reading of a lot of things. That's what I found. Yep. And actually, the first two chapters of Romans, Paul is taking, of course, the Gentiles, the task, because they were a sinful people, right? I mean, they're easy to point out the sins of the Gentile world. But the Jews, some of the Jews, could have been looking down on them, too, saying, well, we didn't do that. We didn't have temples and temple prostitutes and all those things. Clearly sins. But then, in chapter 2, he takes the Jews and reminds them, you're sinners, too. We're all sinners. We all need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to be in constant repentance in doing that. So, he sets the book off with that standard.

Let's begin. I see no other hands right now. Let's delve into chapter 1 here.

I don't like to look at every word as we go through this, because I think it may break up some of the context that we have. In the first part of chapter 1, Paul is, of course, introducing the letter. At the latter part of chapter 1, he'll talk about the specific things of what happens when you deny God and move away from God, things that we can see happening in the world around us today.

But he introduces himself, and he does give us some principles that we need to keep in mind as well. In verse 1, then, he talks about himself. He introduces himself as a bondservant. And that's a notable word, because it really does show what Paul saw himself as. He didn't see himself as some superior person who was out there doing all these things. He was simply serving God, and he was there to serve the people.

And you know, as you've read, you know the Bible, how many times he was beaten, suffered, persecuted. He did it all. He did it all, and suffered through all that simply because he was dedicated to doing the will of God. Now, whatever came, he was still going to continue doing that. And so when he says there a bondservant, you know, that's the great word doulos, and probably most everyone on here has heard the term doulos sometime in the past.

And it means literally slave. He's a slave to God. But that slavery is not a bad slavery. That slavery is one of freedom. That's one of joy. That's one of peace. That's where, you know, when you're doing God's work, you are just joyous no matter what situation you are in.

And you recognize, as he says, as he says in several of his epistles, count it all joy when you fall into these trials, because you know God is working with you, preparing you, and everything. And as we all go forward into a time, you know, that is ahead of us in the world and maybe within other places as well, you know, we learn just be thankful God is working with us and that he is leading us and preparing us for what he wants.

That's Paul's mindset throughout his entire life once God called him and he committed his life to God. So Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. Now, we talked about the word called before. We're going to see it a few more times here in these introductory verses. Think of called, you know, we know that we are all called, but think of invited.

God has invited us. I mentioned not too long ago about the wedding banquet. We know one of the parables there in Matthew where he invites people to the wedding banquet, but people come with the wrong attitude. The one notable in one of those parables, he didn't come with the proper garments. We talked about that. We're invited. He has invited us all to his kingdom. That is a privilege and an honor and there's not even words to describe it in the English language what that means, you know, to have been invited to this.

And our job is to be good guests, good guests, and give ourselves and count that invitation as the most important thing in our life. Paul says he was called to be an apostle separated, separated to the gospel of God. Oh, you know what? I know what I didn't do. I actually have some notes for you to follow along in here as well. So let me put those up. So, yeah, so we have doulos there and we have this word separated.

And it's, you know, it might remind us of what Christ said in John 17-17 when he said sanctify them or set them apart by truth. Your word is truth. But this word that Paul uses for separated is it means he was set apart for a special purpose. He had something specific that God wanted him to do. And, you know, there's something specific that God wants us all to learn.

We just need to yield to him and let him train us for whatever he has, you know, in mind for us. Just want to show a few other places where that same great word set apart for a special purpose is used. In Acts 13 verse 2, it says, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me, or set apart, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. That is to go and witness to the Gentiles. Set them apart. They've been called for a special purpose. I've got something specific for them to do. In Luke 6, in Christ's words, Luke 6 and verse 22. Well, that's not true. Let me look at Luke 6.22.

Nope, I wrote down the wrong thing. Let me check 9 and see if I just...

Well, anyway, I'll get... Let me look at my hand with my nose here.

Anyway, there's another one there where it's like separated for a specific purpose. And then in 2 Corinthians 6, another one of Paul's letters before written, they say before Romans, in verse 17, he says, verse of the Scripture, very familiar to us, Therefore come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord. Don't touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. God has separated us for a purpose, and we don't know exactly what that purpose is or what role he wants us to fill in the kingdom. We know it's part of the bride of Christ, but he separated us. Paul saw himself as, this is my life now. This is where my focus is, is to be separated for the work of God. You're in my lives are for that as well, to do the work of God and to follow him and to learn him.

So, you know, as he begins in that very first verse, he says quite a bit of who he is and what he is writing to them about, because if he is separated, so are we. We're the called-out ones, the churches the called-out ones. And then in verses 2 through 4, he talks about the Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the resurrection, all this prophecy that was in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah and how it's been fulfilled, and we have Jesus Christ.

All that has been fulfilled. We know he's the Messiah. He died for us, and we owe our lives to him. So he says, here he is. He's this bond servant separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures. He's going to preach the gospel concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So he starts it off reminding Jesus Christ is our Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Lord. He is the one who we follow. Rich and Diane, go ahead if you have a comment.

I just wanted to mention that Luke 6.22 is correct. It's the word exclude. Oh, okay. You know what? Well, very good. Thank you for pointing that out because I thought when I read that, I thought I didn't circle it there. Okay, so when they exclude you, when they separate you, okay, they cast you out as they don't... Yeah, you're not one of them. Interesting. Let me start. The word can be positive or negative. Okay, very good. Thank you for pointing that out. I thought I did one of my typical things right down the wrong scripture, but I didn't see separate in there any place. Okay, let's go on then in verse 5. Continuing to talk about Jesus Christ, through Him we have received grace. You know, grace is one of those words that the world's Christianity has, it seems, a different meaning to it. It is 100% about mercy and forgiveness, and God does it does it all. And it's the Greek word chorizo, but when you look at what the meaning of that word is, and when you look at the meaning of that word, as it's from the Greek, it means it's a divine influence on the heart. And here we go again in the New Testament. God is looking at what is in our hearts, and He says in the Old Testament, Joel, I will write my law on their minds and in their minds and on their hearts. God is looking to see who are we, what makes us tick, how do we march through life, what is our way of operating. It's the divine influence on the heart, and it's reflection in the life. And that's the part that the world wants to leave out so much. If you believe God, if you believe Jesus Christ is the Savior, and God puts His grace on you, it affects your heart, but it must affect your life. The world will say, God automatically forgives us. The world will say, Joel Osteen is famous for this, but I understand Franklin Graham uses it a lot, too. All you have to do is say a little prayer, and your sins are forgiven.

God is very willing to forgive sins. That is what Jesus Christ died for, that we could have forgiveness, but it has to be met with heartfelt repentance. Not just, hey God, I sinned, forgive me, go on life, and just say a little prayer. It must be met with repentance, and the scriptures are clear on that. And that is what Paul is saying here. We are called to a life of grace. It influences our entire life. God is watching over us. He has us. He has us. The word I used to use more often than I do now, a Greek word, a pia dia, a training program. He knows what we're going through. He knows where we're weak and where we need to be strengthened. We know it happens only through His Holy Spirit. None of us have the might, intelligence, or anything. We are dependent on God for everything that He is working in us. It's only from Him comes wisdom, knowledge of the scriptures, the strength to stand up, even when stand up and tell the truth and stand in the gap as we read in Ezekiel and all these things. And certainly that strength that is going to be there, as we march forward in the world, moves into a darker sphere than it's currently in. And the same power and strength that you see in the apostles after the day of Pentecost. When Pentecost came and they received the Holy Spirit, it had an influence on their heart. And they went out from there and they were different people. Paul Peter went out and he preached a powerful sermon. He preached a powerful sermon. And to the people gathered there who were listening to him, he convinced them. Of course, it was God opening their minds so they could understand it.

Some of them, not all of them. That Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And so grace is the atmosphere or where we live under God's watchful present. Yes, He forgives. But yes, He is. We are living in grace. And He watches over what we're doing. And His Spirit has a divine purpose or influence on our hearts. Or should. You know, it should. Later on, Paul gets into that in Romans and later chapters about it's not just about works. If all you're doing is keeping the Sabbath day and keeping the Holy Days and check, we did it, check, we did it, and it's not in your heart, then you're wasting your time. And that was that was that's a difficult thing for people to understand because they'll want to accuse, you know, you're keeping out Sabbath, but you don't have to. Yes, you do. If you love God, if you're living under grace, you do what pleases God and it influences your life.

It influences your life as well. You know, for those who are newer on there, I would recommend that you go on online at ucg.org. Either download, go ahead and download the grace booklet. I think that if you would read through that, that maybe if we haven't read through that for a while, it would be a good thing to do again. There's sermons on grace, I'm sure. Pick out, you know, pick out a sermon that would be, you know, pay attention to the sermon that you're given. I'm sure any of them that are online there at ucg.org would be good sermons to listen to on that. Grace is there, and Paul, you know, he'll use the word grace quite a bit in this book. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.

There's a worldwide mission that we're all part of. Okay, let me see. Let me pause there so you can absorb that a little bit. Let me go to Bill Hellebrand and then Kay.

A very interesting thing in verse 4 there is he's declared to be the Son of God with power.

When Jesus walked on the earth, he said, I don't have any power as the Father. But now that he's resurrected, he's called the Son of God with power. Yeah, very good. Very good. According to the Spirit of Holiness. Very good. Good point. Okay. Yeah, another word for grace is also favor. Favor. Yeah, I have a different Bible. My Bible is different. It's called the ISR scriptures, but it's interesting because they use the word set apart a lot.

Okay. And set apart can mean sanctified or a special people.

And we are a peculiar people. Yeah, yep, indeed. Anyway, that's all. Hey, Darlene.

Hi. You know, I'm just a little so that I'm confused that we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. He was an apostle. The Twelve, we're not receiving that. So, yeah, I'm not sure. I think he's referring to himself there when he says we will receive grace. We have all received grace. We have not all received apostleship. Correct. Yeah. Okay. He just made it sound like we, you know. Yeah, he's the word we there. But yeah, he was an apostle. We are not. Okay. Yeah. No, I got that. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Let's move on to verse, um, where are we? Okay. And then we read verse five about grace and for obedience to the faith, among whom he says you also are the called of Jesus Christ. We are all called. If we are on this line and anyone listening to it, you wouldn't be listening to this unless God was opening your mind to understand these scriptures. And he wants you to understand and be one of the firstfruits. He is willing, and this is our time to work with him, to all who are in Rome. Then he gets into begins being as the epistle. So he has this inter-reductory thing to put them in mind of who he is, what this letter is about, what their calling is, how important it is. And so, hey, to all of you who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. You and I are called to be saints. We are called to be firstfruits. We are called to be the bride of Christ. We are called to that. Doesn't guarantee it. It's up to us to to live the life under the influence of the Spirit, to have that happen with us. But that is what he wants us to become. Now, if we look at the word saints again, I mean, the Catholic Church, I mean, with a recent, you know, the recent conclave and the naming of the new pope, they would talk about all these saints, and they have their, you know, their whole thing about saints. Again, to remind us, you know, the definition of saints in the Bible, we find in a couple places. One, you don't need to turn to, but it's in Revelation 14. 1412, you know it well. It says, here's the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the forgiveness of God and the faith of Jesus. It's the entire Bible. You live by every word of God, Jesus Christ said. It's all applicable to us. We have to know the whole Bible, how it fits together to understand the plan of God, to commit to it and understand that we have to live it, not just know it or be able to repeat it. But also in 1 Corinthians 1, you know, we see this word sanctified again that Paul uses. This is different from the separated that are there, but in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2, he says to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all who in every place call in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. So this sanctified means God makes us holy. Again, we are his special people. These are the people that he has called out to be saints. This is how we live our lives, not like the world, not catering to the world, not on the fence with the world, but coming out of the world. Longer, you know, more each day, month, year that we're in the church and living with God's Holy Spirit, with his Spirit leading us, that we are out of the world and becoming more like him. Doesn't mean we don't work in the world. Doesn't mean that we don't do commerce in the world. Doesn't mean that we don't interact with the world and that we go off and run in communes, but that we conduct ourselves by the laws of God and the principles of the Bible, as he says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, as ambassadors of Christ. So we have these people who are holy. That's who God has called you and me to be, to be holy, his special people, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2.9. Let me go to Galaxy. Is that Yasmin?

Oh, we'll need your mic on, Yasmin.

Okay, I'm sorry. I want to ask you why is it that we call ourselves Christian?

I can't remember. I'm a weird person without a word, you know?

When the Bible specifically says, saints, I have an aversion to that word. I can't remember.

You have an aversion to that word?

Yes, just to remember. Yes, ever since it's like, it's a problem. I don't want to call myself that.

Honestly speaking, it just kind of... no.

Yeah, what they call saints is different. So I see where you're coming from, but call it first fruits. That's who God is calling us to be.

For me, I call myself a saint in training.

A saint in training. And that's the training program, exactly. Yeah, I just can't remember.

That's me. Honestly speaking, maybe I'm too, you know? Yeah. But that's saints.

That's just how I see you.

Hey, Rich. I think it's just to what the Bible says.

Yes. It's just to what the Bible says. Okay. That's me.

I got you. I know. I know.

Think of a different word when you do that, but just know who God is talking about when the Bible says that word. So...

Mm-hmm. Okay. Very good. Hey, Rich.

Yeah, I just want to point out we received grace, and the word in the concordance is commission.

So we received grace and a commission, not apostleship. Yeah. He did give us... Oh, okay. Very good. So a grace and a commission.

You know, I didn't look... Yeah, okay. Very good.

That makes more perfect sense, right? We've all been given a commission, exactly. The church has been given a commission. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Okay.

Bill, another one? Yes.

Very, very important.

As somebody mentioned earlier, favor is the correct meaning.

I have before me, Tomorrow's World, 1969, by Herbert Armstrong, and he says, does the word grace sound a little religious?

I've gotten very strong about this.

Grace is an ugly word. It is favor. The word haris is translated favor, and then eight other ways to deceive.

It is not a divine influence of the heart. Favor can come from a king. A favor comes from God.

If we want to be under favor with God, we keep the commandments.

When Don Ward was chairman of the board, he taught favor.

That's how we can understand.

As Herbert Armstrong mentioned, there's the word grace sound theological.

It's a religious word.

We would not say, Franklin Graham or Billy Graham. We wouldn't say Billy Graham is in hell to any Sunday keeper, because we know that word means the grave, but the world, that's the ever burning.

So the word grace, I gave my first sermonette in 1974, saying that grace was a wrong word, and favor is the correct word.

How do we stay in favor with God? We keep the commandments.

It starts out being favored with him by having his image.

It's very, very important, and I consider it one of the most deceptive things that we have, because everybody's trying to figure out what does it mean for under grace.

I've talked to Gary Petty about this with total agreement, and I even mentioned to Mario Sigli at one time, and he said, well, if you knew Spanish, you'd know that it was not the English word grace.

I'm sorry if I get zealous about this, but it is very, very important, and we keep trying to explain what grace is, instead of explaining the Greek word, haris, and what it means. Okay, I'm done. Yeah, I think if you read the booklet, you will see, and I think we have to train ourselves and see the word grace. It isn't what the world thinks of grace. That's the problem. We think of what the world has conditioned everyone to think grace is, and it's not just that. It does include mercy. It does include forgiveness, but that's not all it is, and it does...

God does show his favor on us, but it is his Holy Spirit, and it does have an influence on us when we're living under grace. I don't disagree with you. I think we have to condition ourselves to what is the difference between the world's grace and our grace, just like the world's definition of once saved, always saved. And I hear some people in the church once in a while saying, you know, once we're baptized, we are sealed and misusing that verse as well. And that's not the case. We have to be aware of what the Bible really means in those situations.

1 Peter 2, 19 and 20 are a typical example of the King James' deception because Ha-Rees, the Greek word, is used twice there, and they use two different words in 19 and 20, acceptable and thank-worthy, trying to get away from the fact that if we keep the commandments under duress, we grow in favor with God. All right, I'm done. Yeah. Well, we don't keep the commandments under duress. We do it because we love God, and we learned that. Yeah, okay. Tim.

Matthew 4, 4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Correct. The verse to live by every day.

Okay. Leah, Leah and Jim.

Oh, there we go. Hi. I just comment on the grace piece.

The chorise. One of the definitions is loving kindness, which in the Hebrew that is hesed, loving kindness, which is also covenant loyalty.

So, yeah, it's something that probably people in the world don't think too much of God's covenant and have the meaning of what a covenant is, but a grace is tied to that kind of covenant. So that loving kindness, that covenant loyalty that God offers us. Yes. And so it's something kind of special that, yes, people don't really know what grace means because they don't understand kind of the covenants that God gave. Yeah, it's a big subject that includes a lot. Yes, it's a complex idea. I think a little bit beyond us, actually, because it's God's loving kindness, which is always a bit greater than what we can understand. Anyways, just a thought. Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, can I just read something from my Bible here? Sure. It says, through whom we have received favor and office of the emissary for belief obedience among all the nations on behalf of his name. So, the world thinks of grace as unmerited favor, but that is not true. We have to merit that favor by obedience to him, right?

If we agape God, we do what he says. So, yes, we make him, but we don't do it just because we have to. It's because we love him as part of our is. Absolutely, yes. So, anyway, that's all I want to say. Zoom user, you're right on. You're right on. Thank you. Very good. Tracy.

Should be like to be the point, but interestingly, the further along we go in society, I'm finding it here at the nursing home. When I first came here, I prayed for favor and I got it, and now suddenly people are starting to turn in contradiction to the way I live, like wanting to be confrontational. We were sitting at the table doing an activity, and this woman was talking about how disgusting and rude the Bible is. I did not get in that conversation, but just like Grace, these words that are in the Bible, I once said when I was little, we watched, didn't come every single year. I never read the Ten Commandments in the Bible, except the story my mom wrote as a baby. One day I was reading the Bible, and I was like, that can't be, right? Because it wasn't in the movie that way, until it dawned on me. Wait a minute, the Bible is right, the movie is wrong.

I think the way the world presents Jesus or Grace or anything else doesn't pertain to us.

What pertains to us is what words God uses and why. I remember in the old worldwide days, we weren't allowed to use the word Jesus. It was two sanctumonies, it was two churchy-churchy, it was this and that. Jesus, whichever you want to use, are the most important aspect of the Holy Testament. It is what the Gospel is about that came from Christ. I think, personally, I want to move away from what the world sees as these definitions and to what God sees as these definitions, because the world will pollute anything we say or do, and that seems to be becoming more and more prominent. That's just my thoughts on it.

I think those of us who have been around a long time remember those things. That's why we have to train ourselves when we hear words. We know they're not the way, and we say words, it's not the way the world is going to understand them. There has to be that. I see we've hit on a subject we probably need to talk about more than is grace. I might even ask before the next Bible study that you look at that grace booklet online and see what it is. I think it'll help if we look at it, because what Paul is talking about here is not the grace that your everyday church on the corner is talking about. We have to realize that. It's the same word when I look in verse 5. We have the word faith. As we go through the rest of chapter 1, faith shows up over and over and over again. We know faith, the way the world sees it, is not the way of the Bible. They say, as long as you believe in Christ, that's all you need to do. That is not the faith of the Bible. That is not the belief of the Bible. When we get down later on where it says, from faith to faith, and it talks about how you grow in faith. The faith that we have when we are first baptized is not the faith that we should have a year, two, ten, twenty, fifty down. We grow in trust and faith. It's a growing dynamic thing as we grow closer and closer to God and live through our lives and focus on Him. So we have some terms in here that the world has polluted. It has done a really good job of watering down the Word of God in here and defining it in ways that make it very easy to be a Christian. And that you pretty much would have to really work hard to not be in the rapture, they would say. Basically, they say all you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and you're going to be whisked away. We know all that is garbage. But sometimes some of those things can tend to wrap off on some of us, too. We think, you know what? We were baptized and whatever. We've got to be cautious, not to become watered down in our way of thinking and just be looking for smooth words. Let's look for the Word of God. I've gone on here too long. I don't know who user is, but user, you are up. You are up. Turn your microphone on. So...

Yeah, if you... there's only one person with a hand up. I don't know your name or I call your name, so... but you turn your microphone on if you got a question or a comment.

Okay. Well, you know what? I think... what time is it here? 8.10.

We've been going at it for an hour. Let's just stop there. We didn't get as far as I thought, but I... we don't want to rush through this book either. It is a very important book, and we're going to touch on some things that we do need to... we do need to spend some time talking about, so we're all of the same... we're all of the same understanding. Otherwise, we'll miss... we'll miss the the meaning of this book and what Paul is writing about, just as I'm looking... things that I marked here. You know, we've got words like, debtor, what is Paul mean by that? How can we be ashamed of the gospel? He talks later on there. He's not ashamed of the gospel. Could we ever be ashamed of the gospel? And there's things that are in our everyday lives. We do need to... you know, we need to... to spend some time thinking about it, and making sure that we're doing... we're doing what Paul says in these very early verses of Romans, which is writing to a church at Rome, but God is preserved because He's writing to us today.

To upon whom the ends of the ages have come, you know Paul said. So let me just... let me just stop there. We'll take it up next week, but if there's any other comments or anything, where do we get through? Just through verse six, it sounds like. So... or verse seven, it looks like. So... or did we get all the comments out? So... oh, okay, Randy. Randy and Elaine.

Hey, how you doing, Mr. JB? How are you? I'm doing great. I... I got a request. I don't know if it's something that we could do, but these articles that you're putting up on the screen are very helpful.

That we could get them right away, and maybe in the future, you email them out ahead of time, and that way we could follow along. Because sometimes it's kind of hard to read on the screen. Yeah, I agree. I would have to be a little more disciplined to get it done ahead of time.

Otherwise, otherwise I would. But if you want those... if you want those notes, there's more that was on the screen tonight than we got to, but you know, I'd be more than happy to email them to anyone who wants. Yeah, we would... we would really like them. One of the things that we're... yeah, send me an email. It's easy for me to just attach and respond to an email. So if you want those, just do that, and I can attach and send to you. Much of what you saw on the screen there in room as well, we'll be talking about next week. So you will have them at the time, and you can drop down notes or comments that you want to make on that as well. I will tell you that, you know, it has been suggested, and I think it's a good idea that if we had videos of the Bible studies, it would be more meaningful to people than just the audios. And so as we put these notes up and stuff like that, there's something at least for people to look at, but also guides the study along too. So I'm going to be trying to do more of that, and so that we can kind of follow better.

Let me go to Danny and Rose.

Can you hear me? We can hear you, yes. Okay, thank you. Mr. Shaby, this is my second time watching y'all. Could you do or comment maybe on your next Bible study on Romans, your next?

We know that Apostle Paul was saw. He put members into prison, had them killed.

Could it be possible that the churches that he visited and ruled over when he became Paul, the Apostle, could they have had some members, you know, like the family members or members of themselves that was put into prison by him? And now he's become their minister. And how should they or could they, how did they feel about that? And that's all I have to say, I think.

We have a little bit of picture of that, right? When he was being called and then Barnabas brought him to Jerusalem. You remember that? And he wasn't well received by the apostles, right? Because they knew kind of who Paul was. He preached against the truth, he preached against the way, he was rounding up Christians, and no one really wanted to talk to him. He wasn't well received, so he had to go back to Damascus. And there God trained him. It's helpful to look at Galatians 1 too, where he talks about it was Jesus Christ who trained him, right? To become the Deuteronomy disciple. Then later on, you know, they compared notes and he was trained in exactly the same way they were. But no, they were not happy with him. They didn't receive him well, but they learned of his sincerity. They learned of his sincerity and that he had been converted.

That he was converted. Okay, yeah. I think it is possible. Yes. Yeah, I mean, with all that, I understand and stuff like that, but there might have been lingering attitudes that throughout the years, that they have to pray to God, say, hey, I know our leadership, our minister was bad or whatever, but do, you know, help me to, you know, be okay with it.

We can look at that. Look out for that. I wrote Mark that down. If I see anything like that in here, we'll point that out. Okay, thank you. Bill Brett.

I missed the first half hour of your Bible study night. How soon would it be posted online where I could pick that up? We usually have it up by Friday afternoon. I sent this to Dave Permar, and he posted for us. So it'll be up by Friday. All right, thank you.

And Bill Hellebrand. Romans 1.5, the last verse we talked about, by whom we have received, and it should receive favor, by whom we have received favor for obedience to the faith. I'm done. Okay, that's what it says. I hope I didn't say anything that would have countered that, because that is clearly what the word received. 1 Peter 2, 19 and 20 are perfect examples of the deceit in the King James, because the Greek word haris is both places. 19, they say thank worthy, and 20, they say acceptable.

And it's clearly saying that, I mean, like we lost our job because of having to keep the Sabbath. If we obey God under duress, we grow in favor with God. The world can't understand that. I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna, I'll look at those verses. But that's why we, that's why we have these things, too, that we point out those things, so that we can talk about what the truth of the Bible is versus what the world would interpret it as. We just have to kind of be aware of that as we go through this as well. So, yeah, okay. Let's see, we got Xavier again.

Brother Shabia, I appreciate, regardless of what you said about the world police words don't mean that we should disregard them. You know, we grow up and people say gay, gay, and yet you have people going on and saying they're gay, they're homosexual. We're often at least at work. We even sing gaily.

But on the light side, in regards to what the one brother said just earlier, but when Paul first came, the people were skeptical. I'm going to say maybe they thought he was a Mossad. Trying to be.

Thought he was a... A Jewish Mossad! Oh, I gotcha, I gotcha. Yes, yeah, trying to scope them out, trying to find where everybody's staying, keeping services, then come get them. Yeah. I'll blow their beepers.

Okay. I thought I saw another hand. Any other hands up?

Okay, then tell you what, we will call it a night. We will call it a night.

Have a good rest of the week, a good Sabbath, and we will be... we will look forward to seeing you June 11th, next Wednesday night, okay?

Thank you for hosting. Okay, very good. Thank you for hosting.

A way to enter any night. Yes, yes, yes.