INTRO: Our text for this morning is Romans 4:25. Many years ago when I was in Bible school, Ted Rendall, who later became the president of the school talked to students about having, what he called a seed-plot for messages. So if you had an idea of a message you wanted to do some time, you would put that idea in a seed-plot. I do not know how many years ago I put Romans 4:23-25 in a seed-plot for a Good Friday message, but it is a long time ago.
I began working on this, this year in January. I was working ahead in case things worked out to preach in the Philippines. So let me begin by giving you a big outline of the book of Romans. In chapters 1-8 we have the doctrinal section of the book. Our chapter is on the doctrine of justification. Paul, in his letters, usually begins with a doctrinal section and then he has a section on duties. In Romans he begins with a doctrinal section and he ends with a section on duties. That is chapters 12-16. But in this book, between the doctrine section, 1-8; and the duties section 12-16, he has a dispensational section dealing with the Jews. So it is doctrines, 1-8; dispensations, 12-16; and duties, 9-11. |
