Why Did God Entrust Romans to a Woman? Romans 14-16 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good to have you all with us. Now this is the fourth half hour already for this afternoon, and I think we're going to wind up the Book of Romans. But anyway, the reason I've been wanting to do this is so that tape 25 will be complete of the study of Romans, and instead of having part of it run into tape 26, we'll have it all here. So I'm going to try my best to wrap it up. Now, speaking of tapes of course, we always like to remind our television audience that all the past programs clear from Genesis 1 up until the present are available in videotapes. We put 12 programs on one tape, six hours, and then each 12 hour tape has been transcribed into the print which you see on the screen. Now in the last half hour I introduced you to my oldest son and his wife Jeanette, and she does all the tape dubbing and everything, but their little son, my grandson, was out in the front watching other television, and he gets enough of grandpa all week long. We got him back with us this time, and we got him on the screen, and Jesse is something else, and he'll just be so tickled to see himself on television. Now let's get back into where we were in Romans chapter 14, and actually the first couple verses of chapter 15 are the wrap up, and I'll just use them. Now remember in chapter 14, Paul has been dealing with believers who are having trouble with other believers concerning doubtful practices. Now it doesn't have to be just eating meat offered to idols, it could be in the matter of diet, it could be in the matter of alcoholic beverages, it could be in the matter of so many things that are not necessarily delineated in Scripture, and it becomes then the option of the individual believer before God as to what he can and cannot do. There comes back our liberty again, but we have to be careful that we do not do something that in our own mind is not wrong, if it's going to cause a weak believer to stumble. That was the whole concept of chapter 14. If I see nothing wrong with eating a good juicy t-bone steak, but yet there's a weaker believer who says, �How in the world can you eat meat like that?� Then for his sake, I have to say, �Okay, then I won't eat meat for his sake until he gets to the place that he can see that I wasn't all that wrong Now don't get me wrong, I'm not telling people to forget about Sunday as our day of rest, and so on and so forth, and the operation of the local church, but Scripture says, day of the Lord the admonition is, that for you and I as believers, every day should be a Sunday, and every day I think it's a good thing that we've been taught that every day is a Sunday, and that I think it's a good thing that we've been taught that every day should be a Sunday, and that every day should be a day of recognizing God, and giving Him all His due, and we don't have to have a particular day programmed into our schedule. But this is all covered in chapter 14, and you can study that at home, and it's all self explanatory. Then he puts the wrap up here in the first verses of chapter 15. Ephesians 4.14 Ephesians 4.14 "...we then that are strong..." Those of you who have been believers for years on end, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, or the hang ups of younger believers. Now when I say younger believers, they may be 70 years old, but they've only been believers for maybe a few years. And so the mature believer has to take into consideration the weak ideas of that younger believer, and don�t cause him to stumble. We�re to give in to the infirmities of the weak, not to please ourselves, and then here we come to that attitude that we�re not going to just please ourselves, but the person next to us. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification, in other words to his growth in his Christian life. Here comes Christ as our primary example, of course, for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. In other words, as we pointed out in the last program, why did Christ die? Because He loved mankind. He had to die in order to settle the sin problem, but He could have rejected it. He could have said, �No,� but He didn�t, and He chose for the sake of mankind out of that motivating love to go to the cross and purchase our salvation. Now I�ll always like to use verse 4 in various other studies, and I�m going to hone in on it for a minute right now, for whatsoever things were written aforetime. Now as I said in the last program, you want to remember even as Paul wrote his epistles, I don�t think the Gospels had even been written yet. They certainly hadn�t come together as Scripture, and so when he speaks of Scripture or things written aforetime, what�s he referring to? The Old Testament. So what he�s really saying is that all the things written in the Old Testament are written for our learning. Now I always like to clarify where I�m afraid I�ve been misunderstood. Someone told me a while back that a pastor told this individual, �Don�t you listen to Lestali, because after all he says that you�re not to read the Gospels.� Now you know I�ve never said anything like that, but they can twist. I�ve never told anybody, �Don�t look at the Old Testament, don�t look at the Gospels,� but here it is. Everything that was written before Paul wrote is for the believer�s learning, and I�d say the same thing with the Gospels. Granted there�s not Church doctrine in the Gospels, and I make no apology for stating that, but that doesn�t mean we don�t study them, and that doesn�t mean that we don�t make application. In fact I always have the primary one. Remember when Jesus was talking to the twelve up there in the northern shores of Galilee, and he probably saw the city of Soffit as we now know it today, sitting up there on that mountainside, 10 or 15 miles away. Now what did he say to the disciples as a perfect illustration? �You, just like that city on a hill, you are the light of the world.� Now who was to be the light of the world according to all the Old Testament promises? Israel, the Jew, but Israel rejected that opportunity of becoming the light of the world, so now by application, who today is the light of the world? You and I as believers, and so we can still make the same application. It�s either in the next verse or the one just before. He uses salt as an example. �You,� he says to the twelve, indicative of the nation of Israel, �you are the salt of the earth.� Well Israel rejected that role, so today who�s the salt of the earth? Well you and I as believers, absolutely we are. In the same way throughout all the Gospel accounts, we can come in there and we can see perfect applications, even though it was spoken to Israel under the Law. So here�s where we have to be careful. But now Paul says, �All these Old Testament things were written not for our doctrine.� You won�t find grace and salvation back in the Old Testament, you won�t find anything concerning the Body of Christ, you won�t find anything concerning the Rapture, and all these things that are indicative of the Body of Christ. But does that mean we don�t study the Old Testament? No way! You all know how I love to teach Genesis. I could just teach Genesis year in and year out, because it all had it�s beginnings back there, and that�s where you get the foundation even for what we believe as grace age believers. Now let�s look at verse 4. Ephesians 4, and the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. I had a question come in from the television audience a while back, they had just lost a baby 7 days old, and the question was, �Will we see that little one again?� And I want some Scripture to back you up. Well my, where do you suppose I went? Right back to when David lost that child from Bathsheba, and you know how he mourned for that little one that died, do you remember? And finally, finally David came to the conclusion, and what was it? I can�t bring that child back to him, but I�ll go to him. Now there was the answer, that was a 7 day old baby. Was it secure? Was it in God�s presence? Yes, because you know David didn�t speak of going to hell, David�s going to be in heaven. And so when he could think of that 7 day old child that he had just lost from Bathsheba�s birth, he�s going to go to it again someday. Alright, where do you get that? The Old Testament is the first verse I could think of. And so all these things that we can glean from the Old Testament, even though they may not have the doctrines for our salvation, you won�t find the teaching that Christ died and was buried and rose from the dead in the Old Testament, of course not. But all the seeds of it are back there, going all the way back to Genesis 3. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision. Now who are the people of the circumcision? The Jews. So put that word in there, you won�t violate the Scripture. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the Jews, for the truth of God, for what purpose? To confirm the promises made unto the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Well what�s he talking about? Well here again I�d like to go back to Genesis chapter 12. What do we have? The Abrahamic Covenant, and what was in the Abrahamic Covenant? That from this man Abraham would come a nation of people, and God would put them in a geographical area of land, and then one day He Himself, in the person of the Son, would come and be their Messiah, and their King, and their Redeemer. Now this was all promised back there in the Old Testament, and so He was the minister to the Jews, first and foremost. Do you remember the verse in John? You all know it. He came unto His own, and when they had their final opportunity to yet repent of the horrible deed of crucifying their Messiah, and they rejected it. I told it when I was teaching back in the Book of Acts. It was like a crescendo of rejection, when Israel stoned Stephen. And from that point on, Israel just goes down through the cracks, and in its place comes Paul�s going to the Gentiles. But it all had its seed back there in the Old Testament, and so he came to the nation of Israel to confirm the promises, the covenants, made to the fathers, which of course like I said was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now verse 9. Ephesians 1.2a "...and that the Gentiles, even through the promises made to the father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." Now you see, I don�t think I�ve even understood it as far back as I should have, but I certainly do now, and that is the mercy and the grace of God. Because so often times I think mankind thinks that, oh well after all God didn�t do that much extra, we sort of deserved it, He made us, and He had to do something decent for us. No He didn�t. We deserve absolutely nothing. So why did He provide a way back to Himself? Because of His mercy. And as I�ve said so often on this program, when Christ died there on the cross, and took all the wrath of God for the sins of the world, not only did God pour out His wrath, but He also poured out His mercy. And we no longer have to beg for mercy, it�s already been poured out. It�s all there, and all we have to do is appropriate it by faith. Reading on, verse 10. Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 Ephesians 1.2-3 you Gentiles. Even though God was dealing primarily with the nation of Israel all the way up from Abraham until we get into the book of Acts, God didn�t forget about the Gentiles. He couldn�t deal with them until Christ went to the cross of course, but again He hasn�t forgotten. All ye Gentiles, laud Him, or praise Him, all ye people. Ephesians 1.2-3 Still back in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, there shall be a root of Jesse. Now remember Jesse was the father of David, and Christ is considered the son of David. So here�s the connection all the way back from Jesse through David, and Solomon, and that whole line of Jewish kings. Ephesians 1.2-3 And there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, and in him shall the Gentiles trust. Oh it never happened, but it�s going to. When Christ sets up His Millennial reign, He�s still going to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, not just over Israel, but over the whole Gentile world. Now the God of hope. Now hope in Scripture is not like, we hope it reigns. But hope in Scripture is that definite view to the future, that God is going to fulfill it. That�s hope, and that you may abound in that kind of hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Then Paul begins now talking about his own future, and how he is longing to go to Jerusalem, contrary to a lot of things that happened to him that he shouldn�t go. Yet he had such a burning love for his people the Jew, that he is just determined that he�s still going to get back to Jerusalem. Verse 14. Now remember who he�s writing to? He�s writing to believers in the city of Rome, who are primarily Gentiles. Ephesians 2.15-16 I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace, and the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2.17-18 I have therefore wherever I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I would not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed. Now as you come on down to verse 24, the Apostle has still been constantly looking for the day that he would not only stop at Rome, but he would also go on west to Spain. Ephesians 2.24-25 I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey, and be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I become filled with your company. But now first and foremost, I go to Jerusalem. Now you see Paul had no idea that he would be ending up going to Rome by virtue of the prisoner route, but he is determined to first go to Jerusalem to minister unto the saints, that is the believing Jews there in Jerusalem. Then verse 26. Ephesians 2.26 For it pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints who are at Jerusalem. Now I read an account the other day, and it just sort of gave me a whole new perspective on some of these things. What you have here is the Apostle Paul has been laboring there in western Turkey, and then a little later on in Greece, Achaia and Macedonia. Now I don�t know how much of you know of history or even geography today, but you see that area of Greece is totally mountainous, and there�s very little opportunity for creating any wealth to speak of. So those new believers that Paul had brought about in Achaia and Macedonia, in the more rural parts of Greece, were intensely poor. They were poverty stricken, and yet what did they do? They gave of what they had, so that Paul could take the offering to those poor saints in Jerusalem who were Jews. Now the guy made this analogy, and like I said, it just changed my whole perspective on all this. Here we sit in wealthy America, and we send missionaries to the poverty stricken areas of the world, and where they�ve never heard the Gospel. How would the average church feel today if some of those new believers out there in the jungles, where they have nothing more than what they can get with their spears and so forth, how would a church in America today feel if those new converts out there in New Guinea would send an offering back to them? Why it would almost repulse people, wouldn�t it? But see that�s exactly what they did here. Here these people that are now Paul�s new established converts to Christianity, dirt poor, and yet they bring together offerings for the Jewish believers back there in Jerusalem, where my land, civilization and everything has been head and shoulders above what these poor people were enjoying. But do you see the lesson? When people become true children of God, they just simply have a whole different outlook on everything. Instead of those people sitting over there saying, �We�ll send us some of that American money ,� what were they doing? They were sending it back to the homeland, in this case Jerusalem. It�s something I don�t think most of us ever think of. So it pleased them of Macedonia, and Achaia the two areas of Greece, to make a certain contribution for the poor saints who were at Jerusalem. And it hath pleased them verily, for their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things." Now you know what this verse says? Now I realize and I�ve taught it, and I hope I�ve made it plain, that on the spiritual level the Jew is absolutely no different from a Gentile tonight. He�s a sinner in need of saving grace just as well as a Gentile. He has no special privilege to the Gospel, and he has no position that puts him in a better place than a Gentile. He is just as much in need of the plan of salvation as any Gentile. But, and I had to write a letter to someone just the other day explaining my stand on this, even though they are not under the covenant promises tonight. They are out there sinners in need of salvation, but if God didn�t have His sovereign thumb on them, somehow or other, they would have long disappeared from the sea. That little nation would have been swallowed up by assimilation of all the other nations of the world. The other Hitler�s would have totally annihilated them, and he wasn�t the only one. So why are they still there? Because God has sovereignly watched over them. I got a snapshot at home that I just cherish. Our kids were little, and they were down on the seashore playing right on the edge of the water, and I often think, �My, how could we have been so stupid? We shouldn�t have been that far away from them.� But I took a snapshot of Iris as she was sitting there watching those three little kids, and it�s just exactly the same way. There she was watching every move that they were making, and I imagine she was ready to jump if suddenly one of them fell in the water or something. But isn�t that exactly what God is doing with Israel? Oh, they�re on their own, but He�s watching over them like a hawk, and He has brought them through. And listen, He has to, because this young Jew who watches my program in Hollywood, and he�s an Orthodox, and he�s under Rabbi teaching, and he made my point. He said, �You don�t dare evangelize all the Jews. You can�t make Christians of all of us.� It kind of shocked me, and I said, �Why not?� He said, �There wouldn�t be any Jews left to fulfill prophecy.� And isn�t that so true? The nation of Israel has to be there in unbelief. They have to be in the land in order for God to consummate those seven years of tribulation. And if every Jew was a Christian, and every Jew was a believer, and the rapture took place, what would be left? Well no one to fulfill prophecy. And so we have to understand this, that yes God in His sovereign eagle eye is watching over them, and He�s keeping them intact as a nation. Where in the world would the 144,000 come from if there weren�t any Jews left? You have to have 12,000 out of each one of the 12 tribes to fulfill that prophecy. Jeremiah 31 says that the sun would fall out of its place in the heavens, if Israel was to stop being a nation. The sun and the moon and the stars would cease to shine, it says, if Israel ceases to be. And so they have to stay there. So this is what Paul is talking about, that even you and I as believers have to have a concern for the carnal or the fleshly needs of the Jew, even today. And that flies in the face of so much anti-Semitism as it�s raising its head again around the world. Well anyway, in the couple of minutes that we have left, Paul now comes on into chapter 16, and there�s not a lot of doctrine in this chapter unless you want to call women�s role in Christian service as doctrinal, and I guess it is. I�ve heard Paul castigated over the years. I remember when we were still living in Iowa, a group of feminists down at the university were trying their utmost to get all the Bibles off the campus, for the simple reason that Paul was such an anti-feminist. Well bless their hearts, they�re so ignorant. There is not a man in Scripture that gives more commendation to the female of the species than the apostle Paul. I think in this Romans chapter 16 alone, there are at least 8 women that Paul enumerates who were intrinsic in helping him in the ministry. In fact, this epistle to the Romans, one of the most important books of our Bible, do you know that was entrusted to a woman to get it where it was supposed to go? Yes it was, look at Romans 16. I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church of Centurion, that you receive her in the Lord, as become of saints, and that you assist her in whatever business she hath need of you. For she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also." In other words, what does Paul do? He sends this tremendous epistle of Romans from Corinth to the Roman church by way of this lady we know as Phoebe, probably a business lady, but he entrusted this to a woman. And all the way through the chapter he commends over and over the women who helped him much in the ministry. Don�t ever say there�s not a place for the woman in the church. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552. That�s Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552. 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