Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to turn me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. As we begin a new section in this incredible book that Paul wrote, to all people, the Romans. But in writing to the Romans, he wrote to us. And we come to what is a new section. Some scholars will say this about the section. They'll call it a parenthetical section. In other words, it's kind of parentheses that, while interesting, may not be necessary to the flow of the book. I couldn't disagree more. Because what Paul is doing is, having talked in chapters 1 through 8 about salvation from an individual standpoint, some would argue you can now skip over to chapter 12 and begin to learn about how the gospel has lived out. Very, very practical teaching from chapter 12 through chapter 16 in terms of day-to-day practice, how you live out the gospel. But chapter 9, chapter 10, and chapter 11 are very, very important.
In chapter 9, we learn about the doctrine of predestination and election, which every Christian ought to understand how it works. There are some very, very interesting passages that I think when you read it, you're like, "Say what? What does that mean? How does that fit into the heart of God, the love of God?" For example, it says in chapter 9, this one verse, I think it's verse 12, "Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated." Say what? I mean, what in the world? What's that mean? Why would God say that? What is, how do we understand that? And he's saying it before either one were born, that God's purpose and election might stand. He said this. So, did that really? How do we understand that? You'll need to come back. We're not going to get to that verse today. But for those issues, you know, here's why it's critical. Because, you know, a person would read correctly that God chose us individually. We saw that chapter 8, remember? We quoted Ephesians 1, "In love, he predestined us to be adopted his sons." So immediately, what would happen? As Paul is writing, he's Jewish. He's writing not only to Gentiles but to Jewish people. And immediately, people could say, "Well, now, wait a minute. If God predestined, if God chooses, if God elects people to salvation, then why aren't the Jewish people all Christians?" And that's a very interesting question. We're going to look at that. Paul answers that in Romans chapter 9 as well.
Some people have the idea, especially if they lean toward what doctrinally we might call a hyper-Calvinism, they could say this. They could say, "You know what? God predestined and God elects. God, salvation is all of God, all from God. Therefore, man has no responsibility." So the way it works in a hyper-Calvinistic setting can work against missions, can work against evangelism. Because what happens? This is what one pastor said. A woman came up to him and said, "You know, I've been listening to you and I'm thinking about becoming a Christian." His response was, "Good, keep coming." What do we not have? Betsy, when you're a hyper-Calvinist, then you believe that God is the one who does it all. And, and it would be manipulative or it would be presumptuous on our part to try to lead somebody through to a clear understanding of salvation. That's not correct. That's why we need chapter 10. Because chapter 10 talks about the doctrine of justification. And we learn that there is a responsibility that people have toward their salvation. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." We're going to look at justification. We're going to understand that more thoroughly in chapter 10.
And then the big question of Israel. Well, what's God's plan for Israel? And there's some idea who have misunderstood God's plan for Israel and have, have taught what is essentially replacement theology. That now God has replaced Israel with the church, and the church is the inheritor of all God's promises. That is not true. The church certainly has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ where his bride. But the promises that God made to national Israel still stand. God still has a plan for the Jewish people. And the Word of God that says, "And so all Israel will be saved," will in fact come true. And it is to our benefit that it does come true. Paul will explain that in Romans chapter 11. And then it gets down to the end, and he's like, "Oh, that wisdom! The, the amazing, matchless, unsearchable wisdom of God. Who can understand it?" And he bursts out in this doxology of praise. So we're going to see some tremendous truth.
But before all of that, what Paul does in Romans chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, he, he lays out, if you will, a bit of a preamble, a little bit of an insight into his heart, an understanding of what drives him, what motivates him. And it is a challenge to every Christian that we too would have the kind of motivation that Paul had. Verses 1 through 5 of chapter 9 is insight into the heart of a man of God. And if the man of God has that kind of heart, it's because God desires the people of God to have that kind of heart. Paul is, we're going to see, and indeed as we have seen, has a heart for God. And that is proven, that is demonstrated by his heart for people. Always our heart for God will be demonstrated by heart for people. If you say you love God, you have to love people. If you say your heart's on fire with the things of God, it will be demonstrated in a desire that people around you may know, or people far away from you may know, the love of God. And so we see this impulse life.
Romans chapter 9, verse 1. Let's read it. "I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." They're Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Now, as we look at this passage, what I want to do is I want to give you three principles. And I hope you write them down, or you have the James River app and you can follow along. But three principles. And they're a bit long, so we'll give you just a moment. We'll leave them on the screen. Principle number one is this: Personal passion for the lost will lead to personal interaction with the lost. Personal passion for those who don't know Jesus will lead to personal interaction with those who don't know Jesus. It all starts with passion. I want to ask you this morning, what are you passionate about? What do you care about? If you're passionate about everything, you're passionate about nothing. When somebody's passionate, there's a singularity of focus. When somebody's passionate, there is a power that drives them to the desired goal. Nothing great, nothing worthwhile, nothing significant in life is accomplished without passion. Passion wins championships. Passion pushes through fatigue. Passion moves a person outside of their comfort zone. Passion refuses to make excuses regarding their upbringing, their education, or their opportunity. Passion isn't merely intellectual, nor is it just emotional. Passion is an energy that drives the whole body. It's all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, focused in a direction. For the Apostle Paul, reaching people with the gospel was not just a nice thought. It was not just a moral obligation. It was not just something he would do on the side. It was what he lived for, that people might come to know Christ. He was driven by a passion for the lost. And you see it in the word he writes.
Let's look at it. "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying." My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Paul, why in the world are you having to make this this massive disclaimer? Why are you starting what you're about to say without the reason why? Is because Paul is passionate about lost people. Paul is so passionate about lost people that he understands the statement he is going to make in verse two, in verse three, is so strong that people might say, "He's just exaggerating. Paul, would you know, Paul, you probably are using hyperbole on this." So Paul makes it very, very clear. No, I'm not exaggerating, and I'm not using just an expression. I'm sharing with you my heartbeat, my passion. So look what he says. "I am speaking the truth in Christ." In other words, what I'm telling you is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And Christ is my witness. I'm in Christ, and he is in me. He is the one who knows the truth of which I speak. So, "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying." This is true, true, true, what I'm about to say. "My conscience bears me witness." You know, sometimes a person can talk, but when they're just trying to sell somebody, when they're just trying to make a statement, the conscience is saying, "Well, you don't really believe that. You don't really feel that way." The conscience is accusing them, not Paul. Paul says, "My conscience bears me witness." And it's interesting how many times in the writings of Paul, he talks about conscience. He says, "My conscience is clear." First Corinthians chapter 4. He says, "That doesn't make me innocent." I mean, he doesn't. He knows that his conscience isn't the whole deal. Because you can have a clear conscience and not know you did something wrong, right? And another place, he says in Acts, I think it's 23, he says, "I serve Christ with a clear conscience." This is a man who wasn't saying one thing and doing another and having his conscience accusing him. This is a man who has a clear conscience. And he says, on the statement I'm about to make, I've got a clear conscience. And not only that, it is witnessed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bears witness to what I'm saying, that it's true. You say, "What in the world is the statement he's making?" Look at it.
"For I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers." Who's he talking about? The Jewish people. Here's what he's saying: "If I could, I would trade places with them, and I'd go to hell so they could go to heaven." I want to ask you, do you love people like that? That that is about as high a standard as you can get. "I so love people that I would do whatever it would take that they might know Christ." Do you so love the lost? Do you so care for the souls of men and women, boys and girls, that you're like, "Whatever it takes. I don't care if I look foolish. I don't care if I'm embarrassed. I don't care if they say no. I don't care if they get mad. I don't. I'm not trying to make them mad. I'm gonna be as kind as I can. I'm gonna be bold, but I'm not gonna be brash. I'm gonna be courageous, but I'm not gonna be in any way condescending or contentious. But I just so want people to know Christ. I so want people to be saved that if it were possible, if it were necessary, I take their place." That's an unbelievable statement. Paul says, "I am so." He says, "I wish I could do it." He knows he can't. Nobody can do that. Nobody can make that kind of deal for a soul of another person. Each person must have fought side for themselves where they'll spend eternity. But as Paul thinks about that, and as he thinks about the fate of people who are headed to an eternity in hell, Paul says it tears him up. He says, "I have great sorrow. I'm brokenhearted." He says, "I have unceasing anguish." I mean, I mean, I am in pain over the fact that people around me are heading to hell. And again, let me just remind you, he's talking about his countrymen, the Jews, who repeatedly maligned him, attacked him, beat him, threatened to crush him with stones, ran him out of town, wanted nothing to do with him. It's not what he's not talking about his immediate family, though it may include that. He's talking about the Jewish people. He himself, a Jew. And the Jews didn't receive the gospel as Paul tried to present it. And so they, at times, where it had a lot of animosity towards Paul. And yet still, Paul says, "I love them, and I want them to be saved." He says, "I wish I could take their place."
I simply want to ask, do you have a passion for lost people? How much does it bother you that this week, thousands, tens of thousands of people will go to an eternal hell? Does it, does it work you up at all? Does it give you any anguish? Does it give you any sorrow? If not, then somewhere along the line, if it doesn't bother us, we've lost the heart of God. I mean, we can say we love God, but when we love God, we love the things that God loves. This is very, very convicting for us. This is a reality, with a reality check. This is a calibration of the compass of our life. Do we have a passion for the lost? Let me, let me personalize it this way. Who do you know who does not know Christ? Does it bother you? Does it, do you agonize over it? To say, "Bother you that billions of people, billions, not millions, billions don't know Jesus?" And without a gospel witness, they're headed to an eternal hell. You say, "Well, it, that's what missionaries are for." But there's not enough. There's still way more to do. Does it cause you to agonize? Does it cause you to say, "How can I help? What can I do? What can I give? Where can I go? How should I pray?" Let me ask you this. When's the last time you wept over the unsaved? Mr. Paul said, "I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish." This is a man who weeps over the fact people don't know Jesus. Read that and reminded of the story of General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. He had sent some Salvation soldiers, true story, to the United States to work in the shadows of some of America's great cities. One particular team had bet after three years with very limited success. And so they sent General Booth a telegram. It read this: "Won't work. Stop. We tried everything. Stop. The gospel is not received here. Stop." Two days later, they received this two-word telegram from General Booth: "Try tears. Stop." You know, until we have a passion for the lost, until we weep over people, until we're brokenhearted over people, we will do little to reach people. And what we do will not be effective. Listen, all around us are people who don't know Jesus. And we have to have a heart for them. We have to reach out to them. Listen, in a city like Springfield, it's a massive mistake to think it's a city of churches. Most churches in Springfield today, this morning, are half-filled or less. Most. And if you filled every church in the Greater Springfield area, if you filled every single church, if there are 460,000 people in the Greater Springfield area, and you filled every church twice to capacity, you would seat about 175,000 people. Which tells you more than half of the people wouldn't even have a place to sit on Sunday morning in the Greater Springfield area. So please disabuse yourself of the notion, "Everybody's a Christian." They're not. I mean, there are tens of thousands of people who don't know Jesus. And until we get that in our heart and understand that a part of the purpose of following Christ is bringing people to Christ, we'll never make a difference or a dent in this area. It's true in the Joplin area. It's true in North Springfield, South Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, wherever you want to look. There are thousands of people who don't know Jesus.
I want to ask you this. Who have you talked to about the Lord in the last month? Who have you tried to share? Some of you say, "Well, I talked to." And that's awesome. You know, but others, it's been a long time. There's something you'd say, "Well, you know, I just don't know any unsaved people." Then you need to get out a little more. You've got a very limited circle. Praise God for Christian fellowship and friendship. But when you have a passion for God, you'll have a passion for people. Jesus spent a ton of time around sinners. And all of this, you know, let me just say this too. If you say, "Well, man, you know, he's really throwing it at us." If it feels like I'm pointing at you with one finger, I've got three fingers pointing back at me. Actually, two and a half. But who's counting? I'm just simply saying, all of us need to do all that we can to reach all the people we can for Christ, to lead them to Jesus, to care enough about them to not worry about ourselves. To say, "You know what? I'm gonna have that conversation. I'm gonna talk to that person. I'm gonna share Christ with that family member." We're coming into the holiday season where you're going to see family members you haven't seen for a while. And maybe you were praying for at one time, but if you stopped praying for them, now's the time to really begin praying and to really ask God to grip your heart with an urgency regarding their salvation. We've given you these cards so that you can use them as an opportunity to invite people. Listen, you don't have to know somebody very well, if at all, to invite them to come to one of the services where they're going to hear the gospel. And who knows what God's going to do in their heart and the way that God's going to work. All of that is a passion for the lost.
Second, affiliation with the things of God is not the same as salvation through the gospel. Affiliation with the things of God is not the same as salvation through the gospel. You say, "What do you mean by that?" Well, sometimes people have the idea that because they hang out with Christians, they're Christian. You know, "I go to church, so I'm a Christian." Or they have the idea, you know, you ask them, you say, "Are you a Christian?" Have you ever had this? I've had this conversation a lot. You say, "Are you a Christian?" Or, "Do you know the Lord?" They'll say, "Well, I'm Baptist." What does that have to do with anything? Or, "I'm Catholic." Thank you. Just as easily say, "Well, I'm Assembly of God." That doesn't mean anything. I mean, people have a tendency to allow their affiliation with the things of God to blind them toward their need for God, or the salvation that only comes through the gospel. That's what happened to the Jews in Paul's time, and it's still happening today. Now, Paul lists out some advantages that the Jewish people had. Things that should have drawn them to the Lord. Not these are not things that saved them. They were things that pointed out their need for God. But they thought because they had these things, or they were around these things, that they didn't need Jesus as a savior. "They're Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." Several advantages. I want you to notice. First of all, there is reality. It's like, "Well, hey, we are Israelites. And to be an Israelite means that you know God." Not necessarily. Like a lot of people say, "Well, hey, I go to church. So since I go to church, doesn't that mean that I'm okay with God?" Not necessarily. It might. I'm not. Notice as well, "to them belong the adoption." In other words, they saw themselves as being chosen by God, correctly. Out of all the nations of the earth, God chose the Jewish people. He adopted them as his own. They thought because God chose them, that automatically it was good between them and God. Not necessarily. Notice as well, "the glory." They saw the glory of God. They witnessed that the pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day in the desert. They saw it at their temple as they dedicated the temple, and the glory came down, consumed the sacrifice, filled the temple. The priests couldn't go in. They have seen God's glory manifest time and time again. You can say the glory of God and not be saved by the God of glory. Some of you, and you think because you sat in the service and you heard the worship, and it touched your heart, do you think somehow you're okay with God? You're not. It's simply Him trying to show you. Listen, I'm reaching out to you. Don't confuse an experience with God's glory as being the same as encountering the gospel. You can know God's glory. You can. There are some of you, and here's what I fear for you. You've hung around church so much now that you can tell who's a good speaker, who's not. You can tell when God's moving in the place and when he's not. But you're not saved. That's a dangerous place to be, spiritually speaking. Honestly, it's a dangerous place to be. You're like the drunk who sits at the bar and tells everybody what God's Word says. Able to describe it, able to talk about it, but never experienced it. You see, affiliation can do that to people.
They had the covenants. The covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Jacob, the covenant that Moses received, the covenant David received. They had the giving of the law. That one time, two million people heard the voice of God. And honestly, there's times God speaks, but hearing God speak is not the same as having your heart transformed by His grace. Look at this. It says, "the worship." In other words, they had all of the ceremonial trappings that showed them how to access and how to enter the presence of the Lord. Things that speak to us today, and as the temple worship, a picture of the worship which has to come. They knew how to access the presence of God. And you can know how to access it and never really enter it, or more importantly, have it enter you. And the promises. That one promise after another of the promises. "To them belong the patriarchs." Had this great ancestry, this great lineage. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and all of these people that, that whose life said, "This is what it's like to serve God." And they would say, "Oh yes, Abraham, he served God. And I'm, I'm a descendant of Abraham, so I'm with him." When in fact, they never embraced by faith the God of Abraham. Therefore, they're not with Abraham. But they think they are. Do you follow what I'm saying? So easy to have affiliation with something become substituted for salvation by grace, which is what the gospel is about. "According to the flesh." And it says, "and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, and blessed forever." You know, all those advantages, if they missed the gospel, why? Because affiliation with the things of God is not the same as salvation through the gospel. I mean, listen, I want to ask you a question. Has there been a moment you gave your heart to Christ? And in response to that, His miracle-working power turned you into a different person? You may not have recognized it in that very moment, but in a matter of weeks, you saw it to be true. Your life changed. Your heart toward God, your heart toward people, your heart toward His Word, the way you process life, the things you valued have changed. If not, then you're not a Christian, not in the sense that will get you to heaven. Here's the shocking thing. What happens is people have a tendency to think that they're a Christian because they go to church, because grandma is from my grandma, she prayed, my grandma, she's still praying for me. Well, that's great. She's probably the one thing it's saying between you and an eternity in hell. She's probably the one reason why you've not encountered something that's ended your life. But her prayers cannot get you to heaven. They can maybe delay your entrance into hell, and they certainly can expose you to the truth of the gospel and bring conviction. But ultimately, you have to decide. There are other people who've seen amazing things, or they know the Bible, or they're a good person, which often is translated as they're better than a lot of other people they know who maybe call themselves Christians. But they have this, this idea that somehow because they're this, because they do that, because they've experienced this thing or that thing, that they're gonna make it to heaven. Listen, there's only one way a person makes it to heaven, and that's through faith in Jesus Christ, period. In a way that transforms your life, where you become a new person in Christ.
It's a third principle I want you to see. What you keep by rejecting Christ cannot compare with what you gain by receiving Christ. What you keep by rejecting Christ can't compare with what you gain by receiving Christ. Here's what I'm saying. It'll take a long time with this fact. I'll have the musicians come up. A lot of times, people are like, "You know what? I become a Christian, but, man, you know, I just don't want to give up my freedom. You know, I just, I kind of want to do what I want to do." Can I just tell you, you're not as free as you think you are. When you're exercising what you think is freedom, but actually the Bible, when your eyes are cleared up spiritually and you see things as they are, you are probably a slave to sin. And that freedom you're hanging on to is really a slavery and a bondage that's keeping you from experiencing a lot of things God wants to do and would do. You're a slave to your own purpose instead of knowing the purpose for which you were created. The one thing that will give you true fulfillment. People say, "You know, I don't want to give up my friends." Or sometimes people are afraid of what their family will think. And they're like, "Well, if I become a Christian, then what is my family going to think?" Or they feel they're turning their backs on, on somehow their, their family heritage or the family tradition. And, and in fact, the family may not be happy. But the fact of the matter is, whatever you give up to follow Christ, Jesus said this: "He who leaves father, mother, brothers, and sisters, houses and lands for my sake and for the gospel, will receive a hundred times as much in this life and in the life to come." What Jesus is saying is, nothing you ever give up for the gospel will ever be lost to you. But actually, Jesus will him multiplied to you. Moses, and in the book of Hebrews, it says he considered the value of being despised with God's people as being better than being elevated in Pharaoh's court. He was royalty in the court of Egypt, the most powerful nation of his day. But he turned his back on that because he saw rejection with the people of God as being a far greater value and far greater worth than anything this world could offer. So I'm just here to tell you, Jesus Christ is the most important thing. The most important person. In a relationship with Him is the most important thing that you could ever possess. In the words of that old song, "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather have Him than riches untold. Rather be know Him than be the king of a vast domain." Listen, knowing Jesus is the most important thing you can ever possess in this life.
Someone asked, is to bring the message to a close. I want to ask, do you know Jesus? Has there been a moment you gave your heart to Him? Because I'm telling you, He is worth more than anything you can imagine. Some of you here today who are either away from God, or you don't, you've never given your heart to the Lord. And you know why you're here? You're here because somebody had a passion for your salvation. You're here because somebody's been praying for you. You're here because God loves you so much, He brought you here on this cloudy Sunday morning that you might hear the gospel and your life might be transformed. And you might see God in a whole different way. But if you will, or if you won't, depends on a decision you make. You have the choice. You've got to choose. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." You have to call. For you, I tend. No one else can. And nothing else will save you. And then I want to ask, who are you passionate about? If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are you passionate about sharing Christ with? Have you gotten away from reaching people for Christ? From talking about Christ? From sharing Christ? From inviting people to church? Listen, it's outside. I'm just spending time with the Lord personally. The most important thing you and I can do. I mean, our, we're here on earth for one reason: to reach the lost. Everything else we do, we could do better and having fellowship better, pray better, read the word better. Everything else we do, sing better. We'd all do it better in heaven. But we can't reach people for Christ in heaven. We can only do that now. Our goal is to empty hell and populate heaven. That's the call of every single Christian. It's something the Lord calls us to be passionate about.