Exposition of Romans 12:1-2, Part 2

Introduction and Review of Last Week's Lesson

0:03 This adult Sunday school class was held on February 14, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Pastor Albert Martin was unexpectedly delayed in arriving at the class, and so Pastor Gregory Nichols began the session with a review of last week's lesson.

0:24 Well, as Mr. Dixon said, we know not what a day may bring forth, and let's pray for our dear brother, that the Lord would calm his spirit as he's traveling here, and also then that the Lord would give us help as we seek to remember the things that we heard last week and prepare our hearts to receive the new teaching that he'll bring from his servant to us this morning. Let's pray.

0:49 Our Father, as we come into your presence, we do pray for your servant. We thank you for him and for every remembrance of him. We thank you for his willingness to come and to labor, and we pray now that you would quiet his heart, O God, and grant to him that he might know that, sweet communion with you and that rest and trusting upon you, even as he travels here through the unusual providence that has laid him up and kept him from us this morning. And then, Lord, we pray that as we consider together the things that we heard last week, that you would bring them to remembrance from our hearts, that you would write them upon our hearts, lest we quickly forget the things that we have learned and heard, that, O God, we may approach all of the practical duties of the Christian life in dependence on you. In dependence upon the Holy Spirit and in accordance with your Holy Word. And then we pray for this concern that Mr. Dixon has mentioned.

1:43 O God, we pray that you would raise up, that would be to the benefit of our own children and to the children in generations to come, a curriculum, O God, of Sunday school literature that would be balanced, that would be biblical and helpful and insightful, that would keep from error on the right hand and on the left, and that would be a means in your hand, O God, to bless these children, and the means of their conversion, and the means of good guidance to many others for generations to come for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you will lay this upon the heart of some, O Lord, and stir up within us a desire to see this done, that Jesus may be glorified and the gospel spread and the knowledge of Christ increased in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

2:43 I recall that there was one word written in big letters on the board at the end of the class. And I think if I write this word in big letters on the board, your memory may be jogged as well.

3:03 Do you remember that? You do. Right now, tell me, with reference to the introductory perspectives which ought to characterize our approach to the Christian life, what basically and fundamentally was the principle, that Pastor Martin set before us last Sunday? Who would like to take a stab at it?

3:27 Cliff. The great antictives are doctrines of the Bible, or the foundation for our parents' duties. Okay.

3:38 Good morning.

3:42 We're just doing a word of review. It's very nice to see you, sir. And I had opportunity to ask one question, and that was, what was the fundamental thesis set before us last week? And the answer was that the indicatives of the Bible are the foundation for all of the imperatives of the Bible.

4:07 With reference to the Christian life, this is the fundamental principle that was set before us. And also, two things,

4:18 and then I'll sit down because the teacher is here. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit. If we are to do the duties that are set before us as Christians, the Word of God, which teaches us, and the Holy Spirit, which enables us, are essential to implementing the duties of the Christian life and to being and becoming like Christ. And that's the fundamental principle that was set before us last week.

4:48 Pastor Mark.

Pastor Martin's Illustration of Growing in Grace

4:53 Was a word of explanation given as to... Oh, yes.

4:58 Okay. As I was telling Pastor Barker, when these strange providences occur, and, the heart of a Christian wants to know if there is any lesson in that providence, and when I discovered precisely what had happened, that I had left the dome light on Friday night in trying to be gracious in having people come into the house through the garage rather than slip and slide on our angled driveway, I said, Lord, what lesson am I to learn from this? And as I sat reflecting, I didn't hear any voice, but in answering my own question, I said, so the Lord said, well, did you get upset? I said, no.

5:42 Did you get irritated? No. He says, then you're growing in grace. I said, yes, Lord, I am.

5:51 And that may seem like a little thing, but my wife and children will bear witness that that's the kind of thing that in the past would have filled me, first of all, with self-accusation, you stupid idiot. I would have said to myself, not to someone else. I never used that term of my wife or children. Or anyone else that I know, but of myself.

6:10 And then I would have been feeling what a bad example to the people. And I would have felt that my credibility was being undermined. You say, you go through that? That's the truth.

6:20 My wife is here to bear witness to that. And I can say that the grace of God worked in me without me, even as it were thinking about it, that I was neither upset nor irritated nor casting firebrands on myself. And so I'm thankful if for no other reason, than to encourage my own heart that I may be growing in grace a little bit. The Lord allowed me to leave the dome light on.

The Illustrative Passage: Romans 12:1-2

6:43 And so for that, I am indeed thankful. All right. Now, Pastor Nichols has reviewed with you what was the major thrust of our introduction to this new series of studies last Lord's Day morning. Now, what I would like to do is pick up our review from there and ask this question and then complete our review as we answer it.

7:07 The question is this. What passage in the Word of God perhaps more clearly than any other illustrates this relationship between the indicatives of grace, that is, what God has done for us in Christ and the imperatives of grace, what we are to be and to do for Christ, what passage perhaps more clearly than any other illustrates this great principle? Anyone? Elmer?

7:40 All right. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. So let us turn to that passage. Though there are many passages, particularly in the letters of the Apostle Paul, this passage perhaps more clearly than any other and at least as clearly as any other illustrates the principle.

8:03 From chapter 12 in verse 3 all the way through to chapter 15 and verse 13 the Apostle is going to give very practical instruction on some burning issues of the Christian life with respect to the church at Rome. Issues that he knew were of real concern to them. But he would not address those burning practical issues until he had laid out the doctrinal foundation of the first 11 chapters and in these opening two verses of chapter 12 shows as it were the umbilical cord which ties together the doctrine and the practice, the indicatives and the imperatives. And we saw that connection that hinges on what key word in Romans 12?

8:58 Anyone?

9:01 Sense? Therefore. And whenever you see a therefore in the scriptures you should ask why is it there or what is it there for? It's telling you that there is a connective and that's why you want to be very careful of any Bible translation that leaves out God's inspired connectives.

9:23 And there are modern translations abroad today which in their interest to make the Bible read like newsprint nice little simple subject predicate sentences leaves totally untranslated not an occasional therefore but many of those divine connectives. And the little connectives chi and gar and other such Greek words are just as much inspired of the Holy Spirit as such words as dikaiosyune righteousness hilasterion hilismos the propitiatory family words all of those just as much inspired of God. And therefore we must not be indifferent to the therefores of scripture. So the word therefore illustrates this principle that all the practical instruction that follows is tied in by this living organic relationship this spiritual umbilical cord to all that precedes. And then we consider briefly who are the objects of this entreaty. The introduction to this entreaty first of all has its connective with what precedes and then the objects of the entreaty.

The Objects of the Entreaty: 'Brethren'

10:40 Who are they? It's right there in the text. Anyone? Elaine?

10:49 The brethren. And what does that tell us then about this entreaty? If the objects of the entreaty are the brethren what does that tell us about this entreaty? Several very vital things.

11:07 All right, Dan? The church there and people who have been dressed as brethren in that congregation. All right. But what does that tell us then about the entreaty itself?

11:18 If Paul consciously addresses it not to all men in general as God's creatures but to a specific group called the brethren those who have been born of the Spirit of God what does this tell us about this entreaty as we stand on the threshold of studying it as the Romans first received it and would have heard it read?

11:42 Well, all right. Tilly?

11:49 Okay. They are believers. They are Christians. They've been born of God and therefore they will have spiritual perception and understanding of what he's writing.

12:00 You remember we considered in closing last week 1 Corinthians 2.14 the natural man the person who has not been born of the Spirit who is spiritually a child of the devil whose only link is to Adam and not to Christ the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them. Neither can he know them. So in writing to brethren Paul assumes that having the Holy Spirit they have the ability to perceive spiritual truth and to feel the pressure of spiritual motivation and perspectives.

12:41 And then the second thing is he can assume there will be a desire to comply with the entreaty. In Romans 8 in verse 7 he had already said the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God here's that can again neither indeed can it be. So if all we have is a mindset a disposition of heart and will inherited from Adam it is at enmity with God and nothing provokes that enmity more than a clearer revelation of the will of God. That's why the Bible says that by the law comes the knowledge of sin and in Romans 7 Paul said the very law that should have pointed out the way of life and moved him in the way of life stirred up all manner of sin in him because the clearer the light of God's requirements come to an unregenerate heart the tighter is the fist of that heart against God. So Paul is assuming that when he says I beseech you he's going to entreat them and he's going to give directives he not only assumes they have spiritual understanding but he also assumes that they have a desire to comply with his entreaty and thirdly as Pastor Nichols has already intimated he's assuming they have ability to comply. Not only desire but ability. I might have had a very strong desire

14:09 to have laid my hands on the battery this morning and injected some electrical impulses into it but alas I had no such power. Now some would have said well if you had more faith you could have. Well that's another whole discussion. But I didn't lack desire.

14:28 It wasn't exactly an ego stroking thing to have to call the church at quarter after nine and say some dummy left his dome light on and can't get to church will you help him? Desire to put some electrical impulse into that battery was great but there was no power. And Romans 8 in verse 9 says they that are in the flesh cannot please God. They have no power.

14:55 Jesus said in John 15 5 without me you can do what? Nothing. So bound up in that little word brethren you see there's an awful lot of theology isn't it? I beseech you therefore brethren.

15:10 And Paul is assuming when he writes to these Roman Christians that because they are brethren that is they have been born of the spirit of God incorporated into the family of God they have been given the gift of sonship they are in vital union with Christ that they have spiritual understanding their minds are illuminated they have a spiritual desire their wills have been renovated and they have spiritual power their impotence has been replaced by gracious divine ability.

The Heart of Biblical Christianity and the Basis of the Entreaty: 'By the Mercies of God'

15:47 Now dear people that is the heart of biblical experimental saving Christianity. And without those things you see to talk about burning practical issues is to talk about matters that will just completely go outside the realm of our true understanding of our desire and of our ability. Well that's where we closed last week. Now we want to come this morning to consider under this introduction to the entreaty we looked first of all at its connective with what precedes.

16:22 Therefore the objects of the entreaty brethren now the basis of that entreaty what is the basis upon which Paul entreats the brethren at Rome? When you think you see it you want to raise your hand and venture a guess. All right Jeff. All right.

16:43 And where do we see that?

16:46 All right. Therefore brethren by the mercies of God. All right. I beseech you or urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God all right.

16:58 Or if we were giving it a wooden translation through the mercies of God. There is a particular preposition that used with a certain case means on account of in another case it means by or through. And so it's as though the apostle is saying I have baptized my appeal in the mercies of God and having brought it through that sea of God's mercies dripping with his mercies I now present. I beseech you by the mercies of God.

17:35 Now we need to do just a little work in trying to understand what did he mean by the mercies of God. You'll notice it's a plural word and that translation is accurate just like it's a parallel word in Hebrew often appears in the plural and it refers to the tender pities of God. A good parallel passage where the same word is used though translated differently in most English Bibles is 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3.

18:11 And this tells us something about these mercies of God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of and here's our word mercies.

18:27 For you Greek students it's oik tiermon by the mercies of God. By the mercies of God Romans 12 verse 1 2 Corinthians 1 3 God is designated described as the Father of mercies. The Father of tender pity. And it refers to that aspect of God's character that is not only moved with pity and compassion but which acts to bring the very gifts that relieve the misery of the afflicted.

19:07 So when Paul says I beseech you on the basis of the mercies of God he is referring to those things in which God has manifested his pity and his compassion calculated to relieve our misery. Now then that drives us back to the entire epistle up to this point in which everything that Paul has been teaching us about God's salvation in one sense can all be described as a manifestation of tender pity or compassion or in our text the mercies of God. For remember how he left us at the end of Romans 3 and verse 20. Lost, guilty, under wrath and condemnation unable to please God. Unable to extricate ourselves wallowing in the filth and rottenness and guilt and ill deservingness of our sin.

20:15 And when he opens up God's salvation that gives us a righteousness not our own that breaks the dominion of sin that gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit that promises us ultimate glorification that has come to us Romans 9 to 11 in the way of God's sovereign purpose and purpose to funnel that salvation for centuries primarily through the Jews and now to funnel it out to the Gentiles while bypassing the mass of Jews he writes over all of that activity of God from the incarnation of Christ and the obedience of Christ the death of Christ his resurrection the salvation offered in him the gift of the Spirit the pledge of everlasting life the intercession of Christ the certainty of the resurrection he writes over all of that the tender pities and mercies of God God's pity and compassion to hell deserving sinners and he says dear Christians at Rome I'm about to plead with you to do something and to be something and I bring my appeal to you dripping in the mercies of God the very mercies of God that I have been expounding in the previous part of my letter.

21:42 Now that should immediately tell us something as we come into this practical section of the epistle to the Romans where we're studying Romans or taking this as our launching pad for other areas of practical concern touched on in apostolic instruction and in other parts of the word of God. It should underscore at the very outset that we are not on legal ground, but we are on gospel ground. We are not on legal ground, we are on gospel ground. And the apostle makes his practical entreaty to practical godliness with grace and mercy filling his own mind to such an extent that the very things he asked the Roman Christians to do he regards as very reasonable. Not an unreasonable and high standard that would reveal God as being somehow narrow-spirited and oppressive. He calls the very thing to which he urges them, their logical, their reasonable service unto God. Paul's mind as he moves into the practical was still percolating with the imagination.

Satan's Tactic: Distracting from God's Mercies

23:02 Amazing display of mercies that he himself had expounded. And therefore he beseeches them, he makes an entreaty based upon the mercies of God. Now that leads me to a question that I want to throw out. What is one of Satan's most effective means in keeping us from a life of practical obedience to God?

23:26 What is one of Satan's most effective means of keeping us from a life of practical obedience? What is one of Satan's most effective means in keeping us from a life of practical obedience to God? In the light of this basis of the entreaty being the mercies of God. You think you see the answer?

23:41 Alright, Jim?

23:53 Alright. Satan will try to either falsely accuse us that we can do nothing to please him or will highlight those aspects of God's character that are true in themselves but which if they dominate us paralyze joyful obedience. Alright? It's not quite what I was fishing for but that's a valid answer.

24:13 Yes, Jack? Yes. That God expects too much of us. Alright.

24:17 He tells us God expects too much of us but how is that tied into Paul appealing on the basis of God's mercy? That's what I'm fishing for. In the light of the fact that the basis of his appeal is the mercy of God what is it that Satan does to keep us from practical obedience? Jack?

24:34 We forget the mercies of God. So it seems like it's not reasonable for man to put on this. Amen. That's the heart of the issue.

24:42 One of Satan's most effective... One of Satan's most effective means to keep the believer from a life of practical obedience is to try to take the mind of the believer off from constant amazement at the mercies of God.

25:01 Now have you come to grips with that? You see, if your mind starts thinking thoughts of envy, jealousy, thoughts of lust I hope you have a sense of recoil and say this is of the flesh, this is not of God. This is not of God. The enemy has his hand in here and that you reject those thoughts.

25:21 You repudiate those thoughts. But what you do when you go a whole day and you've not stood as it were before the cross stood before Mount Sinai stood before the great realities of the gift of the Spirit and the horrible, horrible agonies of Christ on behalf of sinners and what it is to be adopted into God's family and marked out forever by God. You see, many of us can go through a day without being amazed at God's mercies and not feel any sense of recoil and the devil's begun to gain ground. Because when the soul of the believer ceases to be percolated continually with the sense of God's mercies it is being weaned away from a life of practical obedience.

26:15 You see, Paul does not dare, if I may say it reverently enter in upon an earth of God's mercy. You see, Paul does not dare, if I may say it reverently, enter in upon an earth of God's mercy. You see, Paul does not dare, if I may say it reverently, without urging a practical obedience without seeking to rivet to the minds of these Romans that whatever he's calling them to they must view it in the light of God's tender pities towards them. The light of his mercies.

Legitimate Motives for Obedience vs. Dominant Motive

26:39 Now, I am not saying that the severity of God is never a legitimate motive to practical obedience. That would be to take a specific and build a universal and end the world. Now, you beware of anyone who does that. No, right in this epistle, Romans 8.13, he says, If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. If ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. Be not deceived, he says in Galatians. God is not mocked.

27:09 Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Ye that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. No, the terrors of God, the threats of God, as well as the hope of reward, these are legitimate motives. And they have their proper place.

27:25 But may I suggest that we will not know what their proper place is unless we see them ranged under this dominant motive of the mercies of God in Jesus Christ. That's the one that the apostle fastens upon after this full exposition of the gospel of the grace of God in which he speaks of wrath. Romans 1.8.

27:51 And all the way through chapter 2 and into chapter 3, the words wrath and judgment occur again and again and again. He brings in the matter of the dread and the fear of God's anger to those who give themselves over to the flesh. But here's the motive that he brings forward, the basis of the entreaty, the mercies of God to us in Jesus Christ. And could it be, could it be, among many other reasons, that that's why of all the things, the Lord could have had us remember, he makes us come back periodically to that central focal point of the display of God's mercies when he says, this do in remembrance of me.

28:37 This do. Take bread. Take the fruit of the vine. There in the...

28:44 Do this in remembrance of me. Don't ever let divine mercies revealed in a bleeding Savior get far from your...

28:54 consciousness as a believer. You see, it's one thing to retain these things as a biblical and theological and personal conviction. It's another thing to retain them as a present sensibility in the soul.

29:14 Know that difference? To retain them as theological convictions, not hypocritically, truly to retain them, but not to know them as present, as present spiritual graces percolating, as it were, through the cells of the soul so that when we face the day, we face it as those who are under a canopy of mercy. I beseech you by the mercies of God. You see, it is that awareness of God's mercies that forms the oil on the wheels of our obedience.

The Manner of the Entreaty: 'I Beseech You'

29:51 And when that oil dries up, the wheels drive heavily. All right, but then look at the manner of the entreaty. And I don't know we're going to get much beyond this because of my dome light left on. The manner of the entreaty.

30:09 What is the manner of Paul's entreaty in this passage?

30:15 Anyone want to venture a guess?

30:21 Oh, it's right there on the surface. Don't look for something...

30:24 All right, Jim? It's an appeal. And how do you know that?

30:32 All right. Jim has quoted the Greek word parakaleo. Paul said, I beseech you. I encourage you.

30:41 I urge you. The manner of his entreaty is not that of imperative.

30:51 Now, is there a place for apostolic imperatives and therefore in teaching and preaching to command? Yes or no? How do you know? We all agree.

31:02 That's fine. But on what basis do you agree?

31:06 Chapter and verse. Great commission according to Matthew. Make disciples, baptize them, teaching them to keep, to observe whatsoever I have entreated, urged, commanded you. All right?

31:26 A couple other texts to show that there is a clear place for straight commandments, clear imperatives.

31:34 Anyone?

31:39 All right? Obey them that have the rule over you. Of course, the Bible's full of imperatives and there's so many that that's why you're sort of paralyzed into...

31:47 embarrassed silences. There's just so many of them. They're there everywhere. And Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4.11, these things command and teach. Not only teach them, but command them. 2 Thessalonians 3.6.

32:01 Now you know the commandment we gave you, brethren. So again, you don't build a universal from this specific. See, I'm trying to give you principles of biblical interpretation all along the way. Beware of people who exegete a text properly, but they take, the principle in that text, and they make a universal out of it.

32:22 Beware of that. All kinds of stupid notions on the theories of the Christian life grow out of taking a legitimate principle in one text and making a universal out of the specific. For example, you hear someone saying, you know how you ought to witness? And they take you to John 4.

32:43 And they take the specifics of Jesus' particular approach to the woman at the well, and they build universal principles that they say you ought to use in every single witness situation. Well, what I do with people when I see them doing that is I say, wait a minute, back up a chapter. There Jesus is doing personal work with Nicodemus. Now, did he engage Nicodemus in sort of neutral conversation?

33:10 Did he draw Nicodemus out and begin to enter into dialogue and wait a while before he began to tighten the thumb screws on him spiritually? No. Well, Nicodemus came, started to flatter him. Jesus cut him off and said, you're blind as a bat.

33:23 You don't know what you're talking about. You need to be born from above. Well, what a rotten way to witness. You never get a fish in the boat that way.

33:33 I mean, that's like trying to set the hook in the jaw of a little crappie or a little sunfish when he just nibbles and doesn't even have the hook in his mouth as though you were setting it in a shark. You'll just miss your fish. Well, was Jesus...

33:50 Is this wrong?

33:52 No. You see, you can't build universals out of specifics and then ignore the rest of the Bible. Now, I underscore that. But in this context, the manner of the entreaty is not that of command, but it is that of beseeching, urging, encouraging.

Reasons for Paul's Entreaty, Not Command

34:14 Now, let me ask you a question. Why do you think in this context he says, I beseech you, rather than...

34:21 Do you think there might be any reason? Given now all that has preceded the fact that he bases his appeal on the mercies of God, do you think there might be a reason? Cliff? Well, he's just given them a marvelous display of God's mercy in Christ.

34:39 And if their hearts were ever going to be prepared to run out in love and obedience or to be at a time such as now where he's presented to them the marvelous mercy of God, I don't know. So, he doesn't have to use a bludgeon as if we're to urge them along by commanding them. He only has to lead them along easily by entreating them. And why do you think he can expect that of the Romans?

35:08 Cliff? They're brethren. All right. Fine.

35:12 Good. But I'm fishing for something more. Why do you think he has expectations that mere entreaty will move them? Jim?

35:21 He just got through in Romans 9 through 11 speaking about the place of the Gentiles in the kingdom of God. These are Gentile believers. And he just got through saying you Gentiles are now part of the people of God in the light of this great mercy. I urge you then to be obedient.

35:38 All right. So you would say the connection is that in a peculiar way this church made up predominantly of Gentiles has just had this climactic exposition of the uniqueness of God's mercy to them at this point in the history of redemption. Good?

35:55 Could it be? All right. Gabe?

36:00 All right. Gabe's conjecture is could it be that because he's not had previous face-to-face contact he's using some pastoral tact with them since this is not a matter of rebuke for sin and the rest that taking a little more low-key approach may be the part of pastoral wisdom. Good. You're teaching me all kinds of things that I hadn't thought and all of them are valid.

36:39 I think they all have some validity but that's still not what I'm fishing for. All right?

36:45 Perhaps because they came after all paganism and the fact that the mercies of God had to be so great to them. All right. The fact that they were such great sinners that God's mercy in a peculiar sense would be magnified to them. Jeff?

36:59 The Roman citizens they knew that the privileges they had as Roman citizens had with it responsibility that was expected of them and therefore he doesn't have to command them by manifesting the privileges that God has given them ordinarily to flow out of that in expectation of responsibility. All right. So maybe he was taking into consideration their peculiar mindset there at Rome. Good.

37:23 All of these things. I don't think there's one of them that's off the wall. That's a real possibility. Nate?

37:29 Could it be?

37:36 So then what should be their response to God? Mm-hmm.

37:47 All right.

37:49 All right. So that one of the very ways he's underscoring this in the sense the naturalness of this is not even to having to elevate it to the level of imperative. Well, let me tell you all of those things it seems to me could be valid. But what I had in mind was this.

Luther's Perspective on Grace-Driven Obedience

38:06 It's my own sneaking suspicion that his own mind and heart were so suffused with the sense of God's mercy to him. And as one who could say for the love of God Christ constrains me literally holds me in its vice-like grip that he just could not imagine that anyone could look at the display of mercy he's just penned and not feel toward God in the light of those mercies as he felt. And he didn't need an imperative to have his own life follow the channels that he's going to mark out for the Romans. And he's assuming that the grace that worked that disposition in him would likewise be operative in them. I want to give you a quote from Luther though it's typical Luther overstatement it's excellent. Luther writes quote Paul does not say I command you for he's preaching to those who are already Christians and godly through the faith in the new man who are not to be forced with commands but to be admonished to do willingly what is to be done in regard to the sinful old man. For he who does it not willingly solely as a result of admonition he is no Christian.

39:24 And he who compels it from the unwilling with laws he is no Christian preacher or ruler but a worldly club wielder. There's Luther. A law driver insists with threats and penalties. A preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to all to us.

39:50 For he wants no unwilling works and reluctant services. He wants joyful and delightful services of God. He who will not allow himself to be incited and lured with such sweet lovely words about God's compassion so abundantly presented and given to us in Christ so that with delight and love he also does as bidden for God's glory to the good of his neighbor he is nothing and everything is lost on him. How will he become soft and delighted by laws and threats who will not melt and soften before such fire of heavenly love and grace. Isn't that beautiful? A little bit of rhetorical overstatement but that's the difference between a preacher who puts a mark on his generation and his critics who sit around analyzing all of his rhetorical overstatements. Now really there Luther had critics by the zillions in his day but it was that fiery response to the gospel of grace that caused him at times to stretch the limits of what we would say legitimate rhetorical and homiletical excesses.

Conclusion: Praying for a Fresh Taste of God's Mercies

41:11 But you see Luther has captured the heart of this. Paul himself knows that it is the grace of God in Christ that consumes and constrains him to fall into the practical demands of the gospel and he cannot conceive that others would taste of that grace and not be moved by an entreaty that immediately points them to that same overwhelming and glorious what Luther calls sweet word of the gospel of the tender mercies of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. So then as we come to this study, you see we must not only pray for an understanding of the basic doctrines outlined in Romans 1 through 11, we must pray that God will suffuse our hearts with a fresh spiritual taste of the mercies that have brought those blessings to us. And it's the spirit of God alone who can do that. It is the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. God's love to us is known experimentally as the Holy Spirit ministers to us.

42:31 So let us pray that he will do that and then God willing we'll come next week to the substance of the entreaty and I'd like you to just sort of try to root around in the remainder of verse 1 and 2 and see if you can come up with three basic things from the text the most important means or I should say one thing the goal that Paul has in mind what is his ultimate goal and concern in this entreaty and then what means does he lay out by which that goal is to be attained and that will be the outline we'll follow and hopefully we'll be able to work through that material but again I'm not in a hurry to do so. I don't want to move into straight lecture and it takes a little more time but I've determined that we'll conduct the class as a class and I hope you don't find this slower pace on the threshold tedious as I said last week we've got to have these foundations well laid before we move on in to the specific practical concerns that we will be dealing with. Let us pray together. Our Father we thank you for your word and for the privilege of sitting before it with one another and in your presence this morning and we confess with shame that we are so quick to be able to lose sight of your tender compassions for your manifold

43:59 pity to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive us for this sinful forgetfulness. Forgive us that we leave ourselves so vulnerable to the work of that accuser of the brethren Satan our great enemy. Oh Lord forgive us that we so often think hard thoughts of you.

44:22 We pray that you'd suffice every one of our hearts with a fresh awareness of your tender mercies and compassions to us that the entreaties of this passage will carry our affections and our wills that we may feel as it were the whole ocean of your grace pressing us into the path of obedience. Hear our cry and answer us for Jesus' sake. Amen.