Well, almost 18 years now, I have been ministering the word here at Bethlehem, and again and again

I have waited, wondering when the time would be for

preaching through the book of Romans.

I have considered it over and over.

I've walked up to the mountain and looked up into the clouds that surround the peak of this

Everest and walked away to lower heights and contendeded myself with other things because it is absolutely

daunting to stand before these 16 chapters that have been so unbelievably used of God in the history of the church and think

that God would give me grace and life to preach through this book.

But in God's patience and grace, it seems to me that the time is right.

We're at the end of a millennium, and I am well into the second half of what, God willing, will be a 30-year pastorate at this church, if you will have me.

And at age 52, the pace of time seems quicker than it did when I came at age 34.

And the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ is more bright to me now.

It's brighter with every precious saint who dies.

And this book is the place where the Gospel of Christ

shines most brightly and most thoroughly in all the Bible, the book of Romans.

I'm not as moved today as I once was by the tyranny of the urgent or by the need to respond

to every trendy view that blows across the American cultural landscape

I'm well past midlife

and my confidence has grown very deep

that the way to be lastingly relevant is to take your stand on old tried, unshakable truths rather than jumping from pragmatic bandwagon to bandwagon trying to do the

latest thing to make things happen in the church. So I don't feel any need to do that sort of thing

any more. it fits where I am in my latter chapter. Now I've got a history with this book and I want to tell you the history.

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