Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

Romans, an intellectual work of first magnitude.

Paul is, without a doubt, the reigning genius of Western civilization.

The things that he wrote were very difficult things to be understood.

As Peter said, our brother Paul has written many things that are difficult to be understood, but he said they are profitable, nevertheless.

And we're going to forge ahead.

Paul writes at a time when Nero is on the throne, he refrains from politics entirely, from Roman politics,

and he goes right to the heart of a matter that is still very, very

current, as current as it was for him, namely the single factor in the world that accounts for

what we see when we look at the world is Gentile guilt. And he starts out on that note. In Chapter

1, Romans, if you recall, he gives the reason for Gentile guilt. Because he said, God has

made himself known, and yet the Gentiles failed to acknowledge him. They knew him, but they failed to glorify him as God,

and so he gave them over to a reprobate mind. The end result of that was a culture, a global

culture running wild in lust, and essentially following its heart. Paul refers to it as a foolish, darkened heart.

In chapter two, he turns to the Jews and he says, you guys should know better. Now, Romans is

written to the Jews. He only begins with the Gentiles in order to illustrate the problem.

When he gets to chapter 2, and we mentioned this last week in verses 1 through 16, he talks

about one class of Judaism, the self-righteous Jew.

And we're going to finish that this morning in verses 17 through 29.

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