ROMAN ROAD TO SALVATION Intro: When we got

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ROMAN ROAD TO SALVATION Intro: When we got ready to go on a we get out the maps. In order to get from our church to the destinations we needed maps that will cover the entire distance. You cannot properly chart your course unless you can see the entire trip in perspective. The Epistle to the Romans tells us how to know God. It is a road map from where you are to the God who loves you. The gospels tell about the life and ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles tells about the history of the early church, particularly the ministries of Peter and Paul. Romans, the sixth book in your NT, tells about the nature of salvation. As you go through the Roman Road you are actually summarizing a good part of the message of this important book. You can lead someone to Christ by using the book of Romans. God is the one who saves, not our methods or programs. We are fully dependent upon him at every step. We prepare for any presentation of the Gospel with fervent prayer and full knowledge that all depends upon God. I want each of us to leave here to night equipped to show someone the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ by using the book of Romans. As with most vacationing, we are going to plan some stops along the way in our trip through Romans. There will be four of them. You may take excursions along the way if you choose, but these four stops will communicate clearly the message of salvation to those who are lost. I. FIRST STOP: ROMANS 3:23 "All have sinned" A. IN CONTEXT: Chapter One is about the lostness of all peoples, especially the heathen peoples. Chapter Two takes into the circle the Jews, the people of God. They are as well under condemnation. Chapter Three wraps up the first major movement of the book--all have sinned. B. PRESENTATION 1. I will ask the person at this point if he or she agrees with that statement. There is almost 100 percent agreement among those who are old enough to understand that they are sinners. 2. When you are talking to an adult, it is of utmost importance that they understand this truth. Children will often not be so burdened down with their sins, but adults frequently live with much guilt and blame. They are spiritually sick because of the things they are trying to do with their sin. 3. "This includes Mary, George, me, and you. All of us are sinners." When we get old enough, we go our own way and go against the Word and will of God. C. APPLICAITON: THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF SIN--doing it your own way. "Your own way" is the definition of sin. "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way." ***Sometimes when you are herding cattle or horses you get one that simply will not go the way you want it to. It heads out in another direction. This is what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of the 99 who were safe but the one that was lost. That lost condition is the "my way" condition. You may proudly sing, "I did it my way," but your way, by definition, is not God's way. God's way is submission to HIS will. II. SECOND STOP: ROMANS 6:23 "Wages of sin is death." We stop right there for a moment. A. CONTEXT: Paul began talking about wrath and condemnation in the first chapter. He includes a rather detailed account of spiritual death in Chapter 5 where he says that death reined from Adam to Moses. Death is linked to sin in this book. B. PRESENTATION 1. Define death. Death is separation. Being separated from God, we experience death. 2. Death is separation in three ways: a. Spiritual death--being separated from God in this life means that many beautiful things will die in our lives. b. Physical death--the Bible says that death came into the world because of sin. One day God will do away with death, but now it reigns by his permission because of sin. c. Eternal death--in a place called hell. When people refuse the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are literally choosing to be apart from God now and in the hereafter. This terrifying reality is something which Jesus talked about much. He compared such an eternal separation to the Jerusalem city dump, Gehenna. In that dump the carcasses of dead animals and other refuse of the city burned in almost perpetual flame and stench like many of our landfills have in the past. Jesus said that being separated from God eternally was like going into the darkness and loneliness of Gehenna. The essential dimension of Hell is separation. To be alone is to be in Hell. The individual retains his identity and self-awareness, but there is no longer any communication or fellowship with God or others. This is the terror of the eternal flme. C. APPLICATION: 1. Wages of sin is death. Often we think about earning favor with God, but God's favor is a free gift according to this verse. What we earn--our wages--is death, as the Scripture says here. 2. Ask the person if he or she understands what you have said. III. THIRD STOP: ROMANS 5:8 "God commended his love toward us" A. CONTEXT: Throughout the book of Romans Paul is describing the desperate human condition and the marvelous divine provision. This verse is set in the context of God's wrath (v9). B. PRESENTATION: 1. God has done something for you that you cannot do for yourself. 2. You have sinned and your sin has earned you death. These are two terrible realities. But God has moved before you were born to provide a way for you to escape the horrible consequences of your sin. He sent Jesus. 3. God has been at work preparing the way back. Even when you were a sinner, going your own way, intentionally excluding

God from your life, he loved you. He loved you when you didn't love him. 4. God has demonstrated something--his great love for you. C. APPLICATION: This is a very personal verse. We need to put our name in it. God demonstrates his own love toward David Crosby in that while David Crosby was a sinner, Christ died for him. Put your name there. ***I heard recently of a woman who was pregnant. Cancer was discovered. The pregnancy was aggravating the cancer. The doctors recommended an abortion to save the life of the mother. The mother chose to carry the baby to term and in so doing allowed the cancer to spread in her body. I do not know the outcome--whether she lived or died--but I do know this. That mother loved the baby before the baby could even understand what love was. She loved her child when the child could not love her back. This is God's love. NOTE: Knowing these three things does not make you a Christian, however. There are people who have heard and understood these three points that we have made, and yet they have not trusted Christ for salvation. They remain outside of Christ. The fourth stop is critical: IV. FOURTH STOP: ROMANS 10:9,10,13 "Confess with your mouth" A. CONTEXT: These verses are imbedded in three chapters--9,10, and 11--which clearly teach that salvation is all of God and not of us. They show without doubt that we are helpless unless God rescues us. Yet here is this marvelous truth. We must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. We do not fully understand all that God reveals in these chapters, but we know that these verses are absolutely true. B. PRESENTATION: 1. Believing in Jesus Christ means TRUSTING AND ENTRUSTING--trusting him as Lord and entrusting your life to him. 2. Confessing with your mouth means VERIFYING YOUR FAITH WITH YOUR WORDS. God is looking at your heart as you speak. He is seeing where no man can see. 3. This is the ancient confession of the church of Jesus Christ--"Jesus is Lord!" C. APPLICATION: 1. Have you ever trusted Christ as Saviour? Have you received Him as Lord? 2. Your confession may have been informal or formal, but it must have been real. 3. Your belief may have come in a crisis of personal faith or through the tutelage of godly parents, but it must be YOUR belief, not that of your parents or grandparents.