Romans: Therefore Introduction

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Friday, August the sixteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently oneh eight pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central. Studio located right. Here in Albilene, Texas. August Does that month mean anything to you? The month of August Does it mean anything to you? Well, for some of you, because today is August the sixteenth.

0:43 It probably holds very important significance to you. If maybe not. Maybe significance is not a word, it has a It may have an impact on you, or at least it did a number of years ago, because it was on August the sixteenth, nineteen seventy s at three thirty pm Central time, that Elvis Presley passed away. August sixteenth, I believe it was nineteen seventy seven, at three thirty pm Central time, Elvis Presley passed away. And that had a profound impact on many people. Right. I'll never forget it because I was sitting at home. It was an afternoon, Me and my brother were just sitting there watching television.

1:26 I don't know what we were doing. We were just sitting there. Next thing, you know, the front door just got I mean it felt like someone kicked the front door in, and my mother came in yelling and screaming. Elvis is dead. Elvis is dead. Elvis is dead. And we were like, what is going on? Okay, everything will be okay, and so. But many people probably had similar reactions who were alive at that time, who were old enough to kind of grow up with Elvis, or was a teenager when Elvis was you know, rising to his you know, popularity and fame. I'm becoming this kind of. Culture icon that he became, whether you liked his music, disliked his music, whether you liked him or disliked him, whether you thought his music was of the devil, whatever the case may be. He cannot deny his cultural impact.

2:11 But well, August the sixteenth, a lot of people will remember, well, when August comes around, that's what they remember. Oh, August the sixteenth, that's the day Elvis Presley died. But do you remember anything else about August? Now, this is far less significant, This probably will have no impact on you at all. But it was August the seventh, twenty twenty two, August the seventh, twenty twenty two, when I preached what would be at that at that time the last message in our series on the Book of Romans. I know it has no significance to you, but it was August the seventh, twenty twenty two.

2:59 Now, from that moment, we took a turn. We took a turn, and we stayed working on something very very important that was very adjacent, very much connected to the Book of Romans. And that was our very long series on Law and Gospel that. Came out of the Book of Romans. Right, So, we'd been working on the Book of Romans, and then I felt this absolute important need to discuss the proper distinction between law and gospel, and we started a lot of work on the Book of Romans at that time. I think it was very beneficial. In fact, I still believe that our series on long Gospel is the most important series.

3:40 I have ever done. I believe, I do believe other people may think, no, I liked that, no, law and gospel, that distinction. Maybe it's the most important because it's more needed than it's ever been needed in the history of American Christianity. But the blurring of the lines between law and Gospel is at a crisis level, and well, I think what we did there was very important. So then it was like, okay, well, we still need to do more work on long Gospel. But then, how do we get back to the Book of Romans? Well, how do we get back to the Book of Romans? What about four am? Maybe five am in the morning, I was listening to I don't even I think it was listening to Fundamental Broadcasting Network FBN. I think I had FBN on. Yeah, I'm almost positive. And I don't even know the name of the program. I don't know the name of the preacher.

4:34 I have no idea what he was talking about. But because I was kind of like asleep, half asleep, awake, not awake, I don't even know like I was. I don't know if I was even in my right state of mind. But all of a sudden, he mentioned a word, and he mentioned it as it's found in the Book of. Romans, and that word is there four. Therefore, and he's we started talking about just briefly. It wasn't even his major main point is how therefore is utilized a lot in the Book of Romans, and it's a very significant word. So I just kind of like noted it in my brain. I'm like, okay, remember this, remember this, remember this, And then.

5:14 I went back out. I slipped it back into oblivion. Well then when I woke up, I kept thinking about that today. Well, therefore, therefore therefore in the Book of Romans. Okay, well what do I do with this? You know what? I could do this for a Bible pop quiz, Right, I could turn on the microphone and go, welcome everyone to a Bible pop quiz for this Friday, August the sixteenth, twenty twenty four. Here's what we're going to do today. Your job is to find every therefore in the Book of Romans and kind of make it as an assignment. So I thought about doing that. I'm like, that'd be a quick broadcast. It would be simple, it would be easy, go and then just kind of be just move on with my day. So I thought about doing that.

5:57 Then I thought, well, wait a minute, that's the Book of Romans. Man, we were working in the Book of Romans. Were kind of done with PSAW eighty three. So if we're done with Psaw eighty three, I've got to do something. This would not be an easy transition. Back into the Book of Romans. But it would be a great way to kind of work our way through the entirety of the. Book in a unique way. So I'm like, you know what I'll do. I'll start kind of a study within our study, within our study of the Book of Romans, we will do a study of all of the their force in the Book of Romans. So within our study of the Book of Romans, we'll do a study of all the their force within the Book of Romans. And then this will have us go all the way back to the beginning of the book, work our way through all the material we've already.

6:51 Looked at, and then advance forward. And then we can kind of circle back and start back, I think in chapter ten, and then go back verse by verse through ten, eleven to twelve and finish up the book. I think I think we could possibly pull this off somehow. I think I think this could work. So I just started trying to think about it and think about it, like, well, what what what can we do? What can we not do? I'm like, well, at least let's let's throw out the introduction and we'll just see how this works. For a couple of weeks, because it's going to take us a while. And here's the reason why. The word therefore appears. Twenty seven times in the Book of Romans, in the King James version.

7:31 Twenty seven times. Now, I did find it weird. I looked up on the Blue Letter Bible app therefore, and then it skipped Romans one twenty four where it says therefore God also. Gave them up. I don't know why. I'm like, it's therefore there. I don't know because I didn't Maybe I didn't have the T capitalized. I don't know. It gave me the others, but it skipped that one. So maybe I'll have to make sure I do it. With without a capital T and with a capital T. I don't know. I'd have to go back and mess with it. But other sources tell me there are twenty seven times. So maybe it's twenty six, maybe it's twenty eight. Maybe maybe there's some disagreement, but around twenty seven times the word therefore appears in the Book of Romans.

8:18 Now that's that's quite a few times. Now. Typically what we say when we see a therefore, we ask what is it there for? Right? I think that's just a clever way well, we've all heard that. You've heard that said in church a million times. But I think it's significant as we as when we were working about a week ago. Remember we were working in the Book of Ephesians, right, we were working in the Book of Ephesians. I'm going to turn the air. We were looking at Ephesians chapter four I therefore, and remember I focused on the fact that that was a transitional that in Ephesians four to one therefore serves as a transitional term transitioning from the philological exposition to the practical exposition. I remember, we still got to get back to Ephesians four and do some work on that. But we so we've already been talking a little bit about therefore. Well, if it's used twenty seven times each time, it's got a significance.

9:18 It's there's something. Is it a transition? Is it? Is it comparing contra like all the different things that could possibly do. So that is. What we're going to do beginning on Sunday at Victory Baptist Church. What we are going to do is we're going to launch into a study of every therefore in the Book of Romans. Maybe maybe we'll just make it primarily happens there. Maybe we'll do some supplemental work here on the podcast. But here's what your assignment is. I need you to look up every therefore in the Book of Romans, and I need you to just like look it up and then just write down the reference, right, the reference, Read it, write it down. And it's easy to just make a list, but I need you to look up each reference, read it, and write it down. And then as you read it, try to just write out a very like one sentence reason why you think it's there, Just one like a one sentence.

10:16 Just and it doesn't matter. It can just be like you're just very first impression, this therefore is there for this reason. Right, and then well, when we work through it, we will try to expand on that all right. According to one source, the word therefore appears twenty seven times in the Book of Romans. This number may vary slightly depending on the translation, as different versions might use synonyms like so or then, and some instances where the original Greek word often translated is therefore appears okay so so. In other words, in some instances you're going to get some variation depending on the translation, because some will translate it therefore, and some may translate it so or then.

10:58 This frequent use. Underscores how Paul continually draws conclusions from his theiological arguments and applies them to practical living. So, simply put, simply put, just as we found in Ephesians four, every time we see a therefore, there is a high probability that what Paul is doing is he is he is underscoring how he continually draws conclusions from his pillological arguments and applies them to practical living. So it's almost like, here's the philological reality. Therefore, now this is how it should play out practically in a roundabout way. We did this in a real way in Saw eighty three when we talked about prayer, right so much the way so many people pray, they're thinking about prayer, their discussion about prayer, they're talking about prayer almost inevitably does not actually flow from proper theological understanding. Because if you have a proper theological understanding of God allowing something to happen or not doing anything to intervene to stop it, or literally, depending on your theology, decreeing it and in his providence directing it, that though, that theological reality should lead to a Therefore, this is how you should pray.

12:21 So what we did is we. Looked at theilological perspectives on God and how they should impact how you pray. Well, I know people who hold to those theological understandings of God and they don't pray that way. They pray contradictory to their theology. Well, our theology should lead to practice or practical application that is consistent with our theology. Now that's the inevitable war with every Christian. We have theological things we believe about God, we just don't practically live consistently with it. And I'm not just talking about sin. I'm just talking about the way we think, our philosophies opects. We don't always act. It's just like a church that will say philologically we hold to the regulative principle. Well, then your church is doing this and this and this.

13:09 The regulative principle would not allow that. So you you you say you hold to the regulative principle, but you're violating it. You just hold to the regulative principle because you. Don't want that that that in your church, and you use the regulative principle as an excuse to keep that out, but. You're not really following it. I mean, I could give you countless examples of this kind of thing of how these things take place. This is the struggle. Well, therefore is going to challenge us. Okay, how does this philological truth? What do we do with it? Practically? Whatever philological truth you have, right, you just name your you like, you just start writing down the philological truths you hold to. Well, what should be the practical outcome of.

14:00 That philological truth? So the frequent use of therefore underscores how Paul continually draws conclusions from his philological arguments and applies them to practical living. All right, there are a number. Of lessons that one can take from the use of Therefore, there are a number of lessons that we should be able to take from the frequent use of Therefore in the Book of Romans, I'm just going to throw out some of these. I'm not going to explain them very much. I'm just gonna throw them out because you'll probably hear me talk about this. Again on Sunday. All right, So because Sunday we'll probably kind of serve as an introduction as well, let me call that therefore Part one. I don't know, but this is just trying to get everyone ready. So here's what again your assignment.

14:47 Look up every therefore in the Book of Romans. Read it, then look at the verse, the verses before, look at the verses after, and then just write out a one sentence summary of what the there for is there for? Right? Try to explain it. And if you say, well, it's a he's he's now he's transitioning from theology to practice, well, then explain what was the philological truth and then now what is the practical truth or the practical application he's drawn from it? Just summarize it. It doesn't have to be a detailed explanation. It can just be he's going from the philological truth of sin to the practical application of grace or.

15:28 Whatever the case may be. Again, I'm just trying to give you very simple ways of doing it. So look up every use of the word therefore, write them down, and then write a one sentence summary of what the there for is there for? Right? You can work on that. Then when I work through them, you may go, way, wait a minute, that's not what I came up with, and that'll. Be perfectly okay. You'll get different perspectives. Also, what you can do for the sermon's two point oh app challenge. It's Friday, from this Friday till next fa Friday. Look up sermons for the Their Force and the Book of Romans. The first therefore is Romans one twenty four. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanliness.

16:13 All right, Now look up sermons on Romans one twenty four and see how they handle the Therefore. You may agree, you may disagree. Now in Romans one twenty four, God. Also gave them who's the them? All right? We we get into a lot of discussions here. There's a lot of things we could do in Romans one twenty four. I'm not going to go back and preach it all but again, so you've got clear assignments. Look up every use of the word therefore write and the Book of Romans. Write them down, read the verses before and after, write out a one sentence summary of why it's there. Then start listening to sermons for the Their Force and the Book of Romans. For the sermons two point oh app sermon challenge, see how I try to bring all these things together?

16:56 All right? Then you can listen to what we start at one day at Victory Baptist Church and our series on the Book of Romans, where now the series on the Book of Romans is going to turn into Therefore, and we're going to go back through the entire book. Of things we've already covered to then catch us up. Then we can. Advance through and finish up the book at some point. That is at least the that is the goal. We have no idea if that will happen. We don't there's a lot of uncertainties obviously when it comes to the church right now, so we will see how that advances. So I think this will be and even if it doesn't, even if we can't finish it at the church, we can finish it right here, all right.

17:38 So one way or the other, we will finish the Their Force. I don't know if we'll ever finish the Book of Romans, but we will finish the Their Force because that's very I think that's the manageable to do, especially in a podcast format. All right, So you want some of the major lessons we can possibly gain from learn from the use of Therefore, all right, here's one doctrine leads. To practice. I think I would if I was to rewrite that now now that I see it, doctrine should. Doctrine should lead to practice, or I maybe even rewrite it again.

18:23 Theology should lead to practice. Your theological understanding should impact practical application. It should. The reason I stress should is so many times it doesn't in fact in me again, I think prayer is a great example. So the way people think about prayer, I know they'll say it comes from scripture, but so much of it is contrary to their theological understanding of God. It really is, and they never seem to catch on or never seem to understand. Like, wait a minute, we got to pray about this situation. So you want me to pray to the very God who knew this situation would happen and did nothing to prevent it from happening.

19:04 Now you want me to pray to him to change it, even though he knew it was going to happen and didn't stop it from happening in the first place. But now you want me to convince him to stop what he didn't what he allowed in the first place. Or depending on your theological understanding, now you want me to pray to the God who not only knew this was going to happen, decree that it would happen before the foundations of the world, and then in his providence is guiding and directing it. Now you want me to pray for him to change it that seems to be going. Against his will. Like, those are theological realities that should impact your practical understanding of prayer. It's like people who reject, say a calvinistic understanding of salvation. We've got to pray for these people's salvation. Well, you believe in the complete libertarian free will of man, What do you want God to do?

19:55 Do you want God to impose something upon their free will? Punish them further? What do you want or do you want God to respect their free will? If God, then why do you praying for? What can God do? He has to respect their free will or it's not free. Right, So then like there's there's always these like contradictory things. So, but I think we should just write down a very simple lesson as theology should lead to practice. Now, I don't necessarily I'm already kind of giving more information than I want, But I just want you to write some of these things down right next, there is a logical flow of philological arguments. Therefore demonstrates a logical flow of philological arguments. Philological arguments should have a logical flow. If you're making philological arguments, there should be a logical flow.

20:51 There should be a logical way they are being developed. Therefore, demonstrates Paul does that he's logically proceeding. There's a logical flow in his discussions and. Arguments therefore could possibly be used to underscore the universality of sin and salvation. The universality of sin and salvation, I'm not talking about universalism. I'm talking about the universality that there's a that this impacts everyone. Sin and salvation therefore also could be used.

21:34 To demonstrate the importance of response to God's grace. Possibly, next, it could be used to demonstrate the assurance of salvation and its implications. Possibly I still go through these again. Therefore, we should learn the lesson of how doctrine the theology should lead to practice. At number two, it should demonstrate the logical flow of theological arguments. Number three, it should demonstrate possibly the universality of sin and salvation. Now, while with all of these you can put a little question mark, these are hypotheses. These are concepts I'm throwing out. I am not being dogmatic. We may work through these after we're done looking at all of the therefores and determine we disagree with all of these all right, So just make sure you keep that in mind. Next, the importance of response to God's grace.

22:29 Therefore sometimes demonstrates the importance of responding to God's grace. Next, the assurance of salvation and its implications. The assurance of salvation and its implications. Next, Unity and community in the Body of Christ. Now that when I'm very skeptical of therefore should teach us about unity and community and the Body of Christ. You know how jaded I am when it comes to that. Next, ethical living as. A response to God's sovereignty. Therefore demonstrates ethical living as a response to God's sovereignty. Did you get all of those?

23:22 Do you need me to do them one more time? I just heard someone say yes. Number one. Therefore, what we can learn from the use of therefore in the Book of Romans is that theology or doctrine leads to practice. Number two. It should teach us the logical flow of philological arguments. Number three, it should teach us something about the universality of sin and salvation. Number four, it should teach us the importance of responding to God's grace. Number five, it should give some kind of assurance of salvation and its implications. Number six. It has something to do possibly with unity and community and the body of Christ. That when I'm not so sure of. And next, ethical living as a response to God's sovereignty.

24:05 That one, I think possibly is a little bit more. I think I can possibly do something with that one. All right. That is therefore all right. Now, the first one I see, the first one you're going to have to deal with, I believe is Romans one twenty four, where we read these words therefore God also gave them up to the uncleanliness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. That's the first one.

24:46 I believe. The second one is in chapter two, verse one, therefore you are inexcusable. Oh man, I think that's the second one. I think the third one. I think the third one doesn't show up. I don't think the third one shows up till chapter four. I think it's verse Let see, where's the next one? Is four? Four sixteen? Now, therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to the grace, so that the promises might be sure to all the seed, and not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us.

25:38 All. Yeah, I think that's the next one. Right. So the point is work through them. I say, I want to start teaching them. I want to start teaching them therefore in the Book of Romans. So your assignment is very simple. Find everyone read every there four in the Book of Roman. Write down the reference. Then write down a one sentence summary of what that therefore is there for. Right, If you say, well, this is a transition from this section to this section, then what is it transsitioning from? Right? Was talking about sin? Now therefore here's grace, or whatever the case may be. Here's grace.

26:20 Therefore this whatever the case may be, if it's there for a different reason, whatever the case may be. Just summarize it simple and you're just going with your first impression. Don't overthink it. Just go here's what I see. You may be completely right, you may be completely wrong. The rest of the study will then demonstrate it. Then you start looking up sermons on the sermon's two point oh app. On those there fours. So if the first one is Romans one twenty four, you're gonna look up a sermon on Romans one twenty four. Then you're going to look up a sermon on Romans two to one. Then you're gonna look up a sermon on Romans four sixteen. And then you'll hear how they handled the Therefore it may be according to the way you did it. And then you'll start listening to then my working through the their force, and then we'll see what we can come up with. Now I've given you some things to look out for, giving you some possible lessons learning. You'll learn from those their force. But those are hypotheses. Those are not dogmatic assertions. I took those from a different source. And then we will call them into question, of course. All right, I could give you more assignments, but I think that's a good place to start.

27:44 All right, there we go. The last time we were in the Book of Romans was August the seventh, twenty twenty two. Here we are August the sixteenth, twenty twenty four, two years plus after we stopped and we did that long study in long Gospel. Now we're going to kind of return to the Book of Romans, but we're gonna do so in a unique way. Instead of just trying to go back into we're going to work right back through the book looking at all of their force. What should then help us hit every major section and every major transition between one to another, So we should get us somewhat back on the same page.

28:27 And even if it doesn't get us back. On the same page, it will be an interesting look at this very common word used over twenty something times, twenty four to twenty seven times, and the Book of Romans itself. And it also will be a hermeneutical exercise and trying to figure out what it's there for, which will only help you whenever you see therefore anywhere else, we'll know what is it there for? All right, I think it's a good idea. I'm going to convince myself it's a great I'm going to tell myself what a great idea. Yeah, this is absolutely brilliant. I can't even believe. Okay, all right now, now I'm being ridiculous. Sorry, let's look here.

29:11 I am curious. Yeah, okay, the map is not working. Telling me zero people listen to this, So that's great. If nobody listened, well, then you know, then this didn't really happen. I'll just delete it now. I'm not going to delete it because this really gets a setup for Sunday. Now, Well, the members of hopefully the members of Victory Baptist Church will listen. You'll you'll be the first to know. Right, So on Sunday when I'm like, all right, guys, everyone knows what we're doing today, right, and when everyone looks at me like they don't, you'll know, Wow, that's embarrassing. Should I Should I do that? Should I do that?

29:53 There's a part of me that wants to do that, but I won't accomplish anything other than making everyone mad that I'm putting them on the spot. But yeah, we will see, all right. I wanna I want to dig into one right now. I want to. I want to dig into one, right, don't you don't you want to? Don't you want to? I mean, I mean that first one seems pretty straightforward, right, yeah, I mean yeah, I could ask some difficult questions about the first one, couldn't you? All right? All right, I'll stop right there. All right, thanks for listening. There's your assignments. Go forth and work, all right, go forth and do the work.

30:33 You will benefit greatly from it. And of course you're utilizing the Sermon's two point. Oh app which that's helping us maintain our challenge. I know it's already. Can you believe it's already. August to sixteenth? Ladies and gentlemen, can you believe this? Before you know it? August will be September, and then it's going to be October. Then we're going to get to Thanksgiving, and then it's going to be Christmas, and then it's going to be New Year's Eve, and that we're saying hello to twenty twenty five. Wow, and then the sermon's two point oh app challenge will be over. I sure hope you've gotten something from that.

31:18 I really do. I hope you have. All right, Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless