So let's take your Bibles and go to the book of Romans, if you would please. If you don't have a

Bible, I'm sure you can pull it up on your phone, the book of Romans. We're going to be looking at

chapter 1. And as I always do, whenever we start a new book study, I'm going to give a brief

introduction to the book so you can understand a little bit about the background and who wrote it and why it was written.

And if you're new to Cornerstone, this is what we do around here. We go straight through the

Bible from cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation. And so we find our place here in the book of

Romans. We finished the book of Acts just prior to Christmas. And so now we're coming to the next book in the Bible,

which is Romans. Now, if you were here for our study in the book of Acts, you might remember

that the book of Acts ended with Paul in Rome, standing trial before Emperor Caesar

Nero. There's no detail in the Bible about how that trial went.

All we can assume is that it went in Paul's favor because he obviously got released. He did a little

bit more in terms of missionary travels after that. So even though we don't have the details,

it must have gone favorably for Paul.

And you would think that because Acts ends with Paul being in Rome,

that the next book in our Bible is Romans,

and it would make sense that Paul, the author of Romans,

is writing from Rome, seeing us how he's there

at the close of the book of Acts. But in fact, the book of Romans is writing from Rome, seeing us how he's there at the close of the book of Acts.

But in fact, the book of Romans does not chronologically follow the book of Acts.

Yes, Acts ends with Paul being in Rome, but the book of Romans actually fits chronologically

back in the book of Acts in chapter 18 when Paul was in Corinth

because it was there in Corinth that Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

...