November 2010 - December 2014
Romans has always been one of the favorite books of thoughtful Christians. In this epistle, the apostle Paul logically delineates the foundation and structure of Christian doctrine. The righteousness of God has been accurately identified as the central message of this epistle. How the righteousness of God relates to a human history of suffering, pain, and injustice, has been a frequent question through the ages. In Romans, Paul's answer shows that this question cannot be addressed in a sound bite or executive summary. The character of God, the volition of man, the history of man's rejection of God, must form the backdrop to a serious discussion on the righteousness of God. But an accurate understanding of the righteousness of God also reveals to us the magnificence of God's grace and His gracious plan of justification available freely to all mankind.
But this does not stop with simple justification, but also explains God's righteousness in the life of the believer after salvation and how God's righteousness is vindicated in history as indicated through His faithful love for Israel.
Video DVDs of these lessons can be ordered here and here.
To view all video Bible studies in the Romans series, click here.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:14-23
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 4 mins 10 secs
Our challenge is to put into practice the reality we possess at salvation. Paul is laying the foundation for the spiritual life which begins with KNOWING what has already been accomplished. The provision we possess as believers is the freedom NOT to sin, not the freedom TO sin. We’ve always had the freedom TO sin. An irreversible break from our old nature has occurred and we are forever different. Sin is not dead but our proclivity to be comfortable in it is not the same. Reality is that we are slaves to righteousness, but free to respond to the master we choose, sin or righteousness. See how being under grace removes the mandate of law and gives us a freedom that wasn’t there for Old Testament believers. God’s righteousness gives life. Learn the about the life experiential righteousness can give.
Note that the class number (#78) on the video is incorrect.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:11-19
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 59 mins 47 secs
For the believer, the sin nature’s authority is a dead thing. To keep relying on him for orders and expecting victorious results is like jumping on the chest of a dead man. It’s futile, even a little disgusting. Our assignment is to climb out of the rut of old habits and focus on the mindset that we are completely new, completely different. When the opportunity arises to exercise our volition, relying on truth as its source, we begin building a new path above the familiar trench of muck and decay into the reality of the capacity for life in Christ. As a believer we are not commanded to be justified again. Our command is to be sanctified, an ongoing process of living the spiritual life, a result of our identification with Christ in the newness of His resurrection and a unique privilege for the church age believer.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:5-10
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 4 mins 32 secs
The foundation of understanding our passage is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. At that baptism the Old Man, everything we were before salvation, is crucified with Christ. He’s dead. We never have to kill him again. In his place we have been given a New Nature with new options. We don’t need to slap our New Nature awake periodically, but we do need to learn how to volitionally tap into the new life which is already ours. Sin did not die, but its power to rule is destroyed. This means we still must deal with sin, but the options we are given in our New Nature give us the power to do that through fellowship in confession and growth in our new Nature. Learn how the grammar of the passage clarifies any question regarding imperatives necessary to apply in our new lives and ones that are no longer an issue.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:5-7
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 2 mins 54 secs
As a believer what is my relationship to sin? Did the Baptism of the Holy Spirit destroy it completely so I can approach a higher realm of perfection? Are we in our resurrection bodies? The comfy carpet of self-serving sin has been yanked as our foundation and replaced by the potential of spirituality which we had NO capability to exercise before salvation. That’s a huge difference. We’re supported by a different mattress and given a PhD in spirituality before we’ve even matriculated. Do we risk attending class so that we can begin to exercise our elite position or remain satisfied with the honor and return to life as it was, filthy but familiar? What died? Is sin dead or is it the old guy who was so comfortable reclining in the filth? The old guy is dead. Beating that dead horse is futility. Serving the new master is life.
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:3-7
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 4 mins 22 secs
Romans 6 introduces us to a radical change that takes place once at salvation. The change isn’t an experience. Understanding identification is the reality, a prerequisite to comprehend how experience can be realized. Picture the act of baptism, going under water, as a teaching tool. Just like Christ, we are not only dead to sin, but further, buried to it. Christ did not remain dead and buried, and like Him, we too emerge from burial to a unique position where sin’s power over us is defeated, creating a fundamental and permanent change, giving us an open ended potential for the spiritual life. Beyond mere ritual, Christ performs the reality by means of the Holy Spirit to raise us up with Him, free from the tyranny of sin.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:1-4
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 58 mins 26 secs
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:1-2
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 3 mins 23 secs
We begin with a summary of what Pastor Dean learned at the Southeast AIPAC Regional Outreach Director’s Summit for Christian Leaders.Understand our new identity in Christ and the exclusive role the Holy Spirit has in our walk. This may be an abstract concept, but it is reality that is truer than empirical evidence can support. We are baptized by the Holy Spirit at salvation, a purification rite for us into Christ’s death which creates our own death to the tyranny of sin. But we continue to sin. The solution is supernatural, but ours none-the-less, to walk by the Spirit using knowledge of the Scripture which leads to a mature response to grace and abundance in this life. What are the eight baptisms and the roles some play in the life of the church age believer?
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Passage: Romans 6-8
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 4 mins 43 secs
Spiritual life begins when we believe in Jesus Christ as savior. This is not an end moment or a pause, but the initial thrust of God’s after burner that propels our potential to consume truth and focus on the transcendent difference God provides in our nature that empowers us to live differently in this life with consequences in time and eternity. Knowing who we are in Christ is the cornerstone of understanding spiritual growth. From there we move through Paul’s explanation of spiritual growth as a choice, plus truth, and the impossibility of achieving that growth independent of the Holy Spirit.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Passage: Romans 6:1
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 0 mins 46 secs
Phase II salvation is related to sanctification; learning to think and relate to one another. It takes time to rethink the baggage that comes from living in this world. May we conclude that the ethical, moral man is spiritual? Is the mandate to the Church to make it comfortable for everyone to fit in? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in spirituality? Contrasts and definitions of life, death, spiritual life and sanctification are clearly given in this lesson so that these terms are no longer a mystery in the Christian life.
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Passage: Romans 5:18-21 & Romans 6:1
Series: Romans (2010)
Duration: 1 hr 1 mins
May we have a conversation with just anyone about spirituality and have confidence that we’re even talking about the same thing? Spirituality is a popular term today, but its meanings vary widely. Without a Biblical absolute as a definition, any conversation about Spirituality is simply shared ignorance. As one's born positionally dead, how do Christians, in their newness of life, avoid LIVING as though they were dead and realize the potential God has for us to live in the righteousness He has provided?
