Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
If you're sitting in here with us today, we're going to have somewhat
of a recap Sunday.
Many of you know that before Christmas we were studying the Book
of Romans and we have gone through Romans 1 through 8.
That's a lot of ground that we have covered so far.
If you have not been with us, that's okay.
Every message is going to be individually unique to itself and
have lessons for us to learn and application in our lives.
But I do know that sometimes it's tempting and possible, sometimes
probable, that we will forget things after a while.
And I know for me, even I forget what I did last week, no less,
what I was doing before Christmas.
And so I want to recap Romans 1:8 here this morning.
And you say Romans 8.
We could talk about Romans 8 all day.
We're going to talk through Romans 1:8 today.
Well, we're going to go quickly, but it's all going to lead
up to Romans 9, because in Romans 9 we do have a very interesting
passage of scripture that many people debate about.
And I think it's good to understand context as we lead up
to that passage that we're going to be talking about here this
morning.
So by way of reminder, the book of Romans obviously is inspired
by God.
We know all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And so we know that this is from God to us.
But on a more personal level, the Apostle Paul wrote this letter
to the church in Rome, the Christians in Rome, teaching them
various things about what they should believe, teaching them why
they need Jesus, why they need salvation.
And really, we see in Romans chapter one, you're going to be turning
a lot with me here this morning.
Romans, chapter one, verse 16, he tells us, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ.
And so what we can see here is he starts his message to the church
with the message of the Gospel.
And that's really where it all starts.
All the way back In Matthew, chapter 16, Jesus asked a question
to his disciples.
He says, whom do men say that I am?
And if you remember, what did they say?
They say, well, some people think you're Jeremiah.
Some people think you're Isaiah.
Some people think that you're John the Baptist or one of the prophets.
And then Jesus said, okay, that's what people say about me,
but whom do you say that I am?
And Peter answers for them and says, well, you're the Christ.
You're the Messiah.
You're the Son of the living God.
That's the message of the gospel.
That Jesus is God.
That he came to this earth, that he lived that perfect life,
that he died on the cross for our sins, and that he conquered death
through the resurrection.
And so Jesus says, peter, upon that rock, upon that proclamation,
I'm going to build my church.
And so everything that we do in our lives is based on the truth
of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
We could say it this way.
The person and work of Jesus Christ, that is the foundation of
the church, that is the cornerstone to our Christian walk.
Everything that we do should be focused in the Gospel.
And so in verse number 16 of chapter one in the book of Romans,
Paul reminds us that we should not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
How many Christians today struggle with that shame of being
a believer?
Why?
Because culture tells us that it's wrong.
Culture tells us that living for Christ, believing in Jesus, believing
in his work, believing that he's God, believing that he can change
lives, believing that he can give us new life, that's wrong.
That's.
That's old, that's, that's antiquated.
That's not something for us today.
And so what we see today in our world is that there are some
people that claim to be Christians, but they're ashamed of
the gospel.
And the way that we know that people are ashamed of the gospel
is because we're ashamed to proclaim the gospel.
And Paul says, no, we should proclaim the gospel.
Why?
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
The Bible says that the gospel has power.
What's the power?
Well, it's the power of God to save.
Why do we need a savior?
Well, we're going to talk more about that later on in the book of
Romans.
But here in chapter one, Paul reminded us that we can't be ashamed
of the gospel.
Why?
Because it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it.
To the Jew first, we know that the word of God came to the Jews
first.
But then it says also to the Greek to all the Bible says that
anyone who comes and believes in Jesus Christ will be saved.
It's not a matter of your good works.
It's not about a matter of your Lineage, where you were born,
how you were born, how much money you have, how good you look.
The Bible says it's by faith in Jesus Christ that saves us.
That's what verse 17 is all about.
For therein is righteousness of God.
Some people are trying to find righteousness in all of the wrong
places.
People are trying to find righteousness in being a good person
or having good karma or doing enough to maybe justify themselves.
But the Bible says that none of that can justify us.
Why?
Because the righteousness of God is revealed.
What?
From faith to faith as it is written.
The just shall live by faith.
The only way that we can say that we're just.
The only way that we can say that God has justified us is by saying
that I have faith in him and through Jesus Christ.
John 14:6.
He is the way, the truth, and the life.
And so it starts with the gospel.
It starts with the truth.
Paul says, you need to know what the gospel is.
There's so many people today preaching different gospels.
Say, what is that?
Well, the word gospel literally means good news.
There's a lot of people trying to tell you that there's good news
in all these different places.
And you could turn on your tv, you can turn on your phone, you can
turn on whatever electronic device, and you could find someone
telling you what to believe.
Bible says that there's a lot of gospels out there.
And actually in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 4, it warns us
to be aware of false gospels.
Not every gospel that's preached to us is the gospel of the
truth of Jesus Christ.
And so what we have to do is we have to be very clear about what
the gospel is.
The good news is not, hey, just work really, really hard, and
you can make it be.
Be a good person, be better than your neighbor.
These are not things that are found in scripture.
Actually, what's found in scripture is that there is none good.
No, not one.
We're going to read that in Romans.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And so the reality is, is that all of us have a problem, and that
problem is sin.
Well, you might say, well, well, Pastor Josh, you don't know
me.
I'm better than my neighbor.
I'm better than my coworker.
I try my best.
The Bible never says that.
The basis on which he judges us is on how much we're trying.
Because there's a lot of people that are trying hard in this
world.
There's a lot of people that are genuinely doing their best.
But The Bible says that even our best does not save us.
The Bible says clearly that it is only by faith in Jesus Christ
and His work on the cross for.
For us.
So it says, the just shall live by what?
By faith?
Faith is believing, faith is trusting.
Now the works come after faith.
Yes, God does call us to serve him, but it doesn't come from a place
of our own strength.
It comes from the strength and his righteousness that he gives us.
So that's Romans chapter one.
And then we saw that God is righteously judging those that are
in sin.
God has the right to judge those.
Why?
Because He.
He created us, number one.
And the Bible says here in Romans chapter one and two, that
some people left their original state that God had planned
for them, and they had basically worshiped the creation
instead of the Creator.
That's what happens when we essentially fall into a life of sin
and flesh is that we begin to worship the creation of God instead
of the one who created it.
That is, that is he, that is our Savior.
And so Romans chapter two tells us that God is a righteous
judge.
He's.
He's willing to save us.
He's open to saving us, but he has every right to judge us in our
sin.
And then Romans 3 tells us why he judges us.
Romans 3:23.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
If you just go back a few verses, Romans 3:10.
As it is written, there is none righteous.
No, not one.
So we, if we left it at that, that would be hopeless.
And some people blame other people for their sin.
You know, sometimes in my life I've done that.
I. I've made a mistake.
And I said, you know what?
The reason why I did this is because of somebody else.
The reason why I went this path is because someone led me astray.
I know my kids all the time, like, they get in trouble.
And immediately it's deflecting to say like, it's my brother,
it's my sister, it's because of them.
And what the Bible says here is that we have no one else to blame
other than ourselves.
Romans 5:12 says, as for one man, one man, sin entered the world,
and that's Adam.
We know that Adam sinned.
And because of Adam's sin, there is death by sin.
And so death passed upon all men.
For that all have sinned.
And so it's not a matter of saying it's Adam's fault.
A lot of times I've heard people Say, man, if Adam just.
If he wouldn't have sinned, we'd all.
We'd be okay.
The truth is, is that all of us have sinned.
All of us are guilty.
So, so, so all of us have fallen into a place where we need
a Savior.
And that's really what we see.
Romans, chapter six talking about.
We read it this morning.
What shall we say then?
So, so Paul says, hey, you can be saved.
But then the idea would be that once we're saved, some people
abuse grace.
Some people say, well, you know what?
If I'm saved and God keeps forgiving me, why don't I just keep
sinning?
He says, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound Meaning, should
I just keep sinning even though God has saved me?
And he says, no, God forbid, because when you're saved, how shall
we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
The idea would be this.
The thought that Paul is explaining is this.
If we understand what God has saved us from and we understand that
he's given us newness of life, why would we want to walk in sin
anymore?
Know ye not, verse three, that so many of us were baptized into
Jesus, were baptized into his death.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.
That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The Bible says that when we are saved, we are given a new life.
John 3 says that we are born again.
You must be born again.
And remember, even Nicodemus in John 3 was so confused about that.
How can I be physically born again?
Well, it's not a.
A second physical birth, it's a second spiritual birth.
And, and the Bible says that we're new, we're now babes in Christ,
growing in his truth.
And so verse four of chapter six says that we're walking in newness
of life.
We're identified.
We missed the mark.
It actually was an ancient archery term that meant as, as I
was aiming for the target, I didn't hit the target, I hit something
else.
Well, what's the mark?
The mark is God's righteousness, his holiness, that
he lays out for us in his word.
So sin is missing the mark.
It's doing things against what God has intended for us in our life.
And so he says here, what is the wage of that?
What is the payment for that type of sin that we all have in our
lives?
Well, it's death.
And it's not just physical Death, even though that's part of
it, it's spiritual death.
It's separation from God, it's punishment.
But then we see a beautiful, beautiful verse at the very end of
Romans 6:23.
It says this.
But the gift of God, the grace of God, is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
What he says here is our hope.
The world's hope, the hope of pain, the hope of suffering, the
hope of sin, the hope of brokenness, the hope of evil.
Is Jesus Christ to come to him, as the Bible says, to have eternal
life.
And we say, well, why does Jesus offer us that?
How could Jesus do that for us?
The Bible says back in Romans 5, verse 8, but God commended or
demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us because of the love of Christ that He came to
this earth and gave Himself for us.
And so the book of Romans, really, through chapters one through
six, seven and even eight, is a picture of the salvation that God
gave to us.
And so what is the gospel?
It's the message and the work and the person of Jesus Christ.
What is salvation?
How do we find salvation?
By faith in Jesus Christ alone, by experiencing his gift of
grace and his forgiveness.
How can we have that salvation?
We have it through faith.
What do we have in salvation?
We have new life in Christ.
We have a new hope.
We have confidence in Him.
We're going to look at Romans 8 here this morning.
And.
And we see in Romans 8, 1, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation.
What's that word condemnation mean?
It means judgment.
It means punishment.
So if you're in Christ, if your identity is in Christ, the Bible
says that there's no more condemnation.
There is no more condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So the Bible says that, yes, in our sin, there is a ton of condemnation
there.
There, there.
There's a ton of reasons why we should be afraid that.
But in Jesus Christ there is no more fear, there is no more condemnation.
Why?
Because we have confidence in Him.
That word confidence is really two words in, in Latin that we understand
it to be one word.
In the English language, con means with fide, means faith.
So to live with confidence means to live with faith.
So if we're Christians and we're living with faith, we're living
with confidence, but confidence.
Not in ourselves, not in our church, not in our.
Our country necessarily, but in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And so the Bible throughout Romans 8 tells us that we have victory
in Jesus and, and it goes on further to say that we have a heavenly
Father who we can cry out in verse 15, Abba, Father, we have a
personal God.
We have a God who cares for us.
We have a God who wants to know what's going on in our lives.
And he already knows what's going on in our lives, but he wants
us to share that with Him.
He wants us to walk with Him.
He wants us to be identified with him in every single way.
And then we get to that end of Romans 8, which is, I believe, one
of the strongest passages of speaking of the power of God and
the confidence of a believer.
Verse 28.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
The Bible says that yes, God is working all things together for
good.
He's working together for.
For our good.
Sometimes that's a confusing understanding with our lives, the
way that it is within our circumstances.
But we have to know that God loves us.
And he has a bigger picture.
Then he says in verse 31, what shall we say to these things?
If God before us, who can be against us, he spared not his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall we not with him
also have freely give us all things?
And so he's saying that God gave us His Son, so He will give
us all the things that we need in our lives.
And then verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness
or peril or sword, as it is written, for Thy sake we are killed
all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
So Paul says, can any of these things separate us from the love
of God?
Can any of these things separate us from his promises in
our life?
Can anything separate us from his salvation?
Verse 37, Nay, no.
In all these things, we are more than conquerors.
The Greek word there is so amazing.
It actually literally means super conquerors.
We are super conquerors in Christ.
So what we know is this.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Nothing can separate us from the promises of God.
Nothing can separate us from the salvation that he extends to
us.
And then it goes further.
He says, verse 38, For I am persuaded.
He basically says, I. I'm bought out.
I'm.
I'm buying into everything that he says.
For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So what an amazing thing that is all of us.
If we are believers in Jesus Christ, if we have faith in him and
him alone for our salvation, we can claim Romans 8 as the confidence
that we have in our Savior.
That no matter where I'm at in my life, whether I'm stumbling where,
whether I'm struggling, whether I'm feeling strong, whatever
might be the case, that God is there with me and he's fighting for
me.
And then with Him, I'm more than a conqueror because I have his
identity in my life.
I have victory in Jesus.
And so sometimes we're tempted to doubt.
Sometimes we're tempted to think that God might not keep his
word.
Sometimes we're tempted to think that we're not enough.
And the truth is, let me tell you a secret here this morning, I
tell you guys this all the time.
It's not because I don't love you, because I would tell myself
this.
I'm not enough.
None of us are enough to save ourselves.
But in Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors.
And so we can find that love.
We can find that confidence.
We can find that strength.
And so that's the end of Romans 8.
Now, that's the quickest way that I could summarize Romans 1 through
8.
Okay, I probably needed about five weeks for that.
But we went in about 10 minutes, 15 minutes.
Okay, so we get to Romans 9, and Paul understands that some people
might still have some questions.
And that's one of the things I love about the Book of Romans.
Paul understands the readers, and he knows that they might have
questions.
And so he basically asked the questions for them.
He says, I know you might be thinking this.
And so this is the answer to that.
We saw that in Romans 6.
He says, what should we continue in sin?
Because he understood that people, if they truly understand,
understood grace, that they wouldn't abuse grace.
But some people didn't completely understand grace.
So they said, well, if God just loves me, no matter what, I
can just keep sinning.
He says, no, God forbid.
So he answered that question in their minds.
So the next possible question that the readers of the Book of Romans
would have had was this.
You say that you've been faithful.
You.
You say if you go back to Romans 8, he says those he did for
no, all of those Old Testament saints of the past, God was faithful
to.
God was faithful to Israel.
Then why do many people that are considered to be the Jewish leaders
of the day reject the Messiah that came for their sins.
Because that would have been the understanding, if you remember,
Paul was persecuted there in the Book of Acts.
Paul was persecuted throughout the whole New Testament.
And a lot of people think in their minds that it was just the
Romans that were persecuting Paul.
Though Paul did face persecution from the Romans, Paul
also faced a ton of persecution.
Most of his persecution from the religious leaders that he was
a part of before the Jewish religious leaders.
They did not accept the Messiah for the most part.
Many of the religious people there in Jerusalem did not.
And around the world for that matter, did not trust in Jesus.
So the question that some of these people that were very familiar
with the Jewish religion at that time would have said, well,
I thought you said that God has always been faithful to his people
and, and that his people will be faithful to Him.
So, so what's the problem?
What was, was basically what we see here, that God's word failed
to those people.
And Paul's going to address that.
And Paul shares his heart for the salvation of his people, the
Jewish people, the Israelite people.
And so at this point in time, many of Paul's enemies were his own
people.
And the persecution came from the Jewish religious, religious people
of the day.
And, and I think that the first few verses Here, Romans chapter
9, tell us a great example of how we should desire to grow in our
compassion for the lost and grow in our compassion for those
that are our enemies.
And then there's more to be said here.
And so really, Romans 9, 10 and 11.
Is Paul addressing the question of why did the people of
Israel who everything was entrusted to, why did they turn their
backs?
Why did, did they turn away?
And Paul addresses that here in Romans 9, 10 and 11.
And so I want you to see here in Romans 9, verse 1, it says this,
I say the truth in Christ.
I lie not.
My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.
So what's Paul saying?
He says, what I'm about to tell you is serious.
What I'm about to tell you is going to be hard for you to believe.
What I'm about to tell you is I'm standing before the Lord saying
that I'm telling you the truth.
This is what I believe and this is what I feel, and this is
what I live in.
Verse two, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in
my heart.
So Paul is saying that even right after Romans 8 because, because
you, you would see that kind of Romans 8 is the climax of victory.
It's, it's the excitement point of the book that basically
none of us can fail in Jesus Christ.
But then he says in verse two that he has heaviness in his heart,
that he has sorrow in his heart.
Why would he have that?
Well, he's going to explain why he has that sadness here.
But what I will say is this, and I think this is important for
us to note here in Romans chapter nine, is that this passage
of scripture, though dealing with many topics, is essentially
Paul dealing with the problem associated with the current condition
of Israel.
And so.
So what.
What did it mean that Israel, for the most part, missed its Messiah?
What does it say about God's power?
What does it say about God's love?
What does it say about Israel itself?
What does it say about our present position as Christians who
have confidence in God?
That's really what he's dealing with here.
But before.
Before Paul goes any further here, he wants to share his heart
about the lost people that he loves and that he wants to bring
the truth to.
So he says that his heart is broken over those people that don't
believe in Jesus Christ.
We talked a little bit about this last week.
Even in Matthew chapter 9, When Jesus comes and he sees all
the people that are hurting, he sees all the people that are wandering
without a shepherd.
And he says that his.
His heart, his.
His mind, his.
His body was moved with compassion.
And so the question that we have for.
For all of us here this morning is what is our response to
those that are in the world that are in rebellion to Jesus?
Are we against them?
Well, we should be against their actions.
We should never be condoning the actions of people that are in
rebellion to the Lord.
We, we never celebrate sin.
We never celebrate rebellion.
But the Bible does say for, for many of us as Christians, the
struggle might be having compassion and motivation and desire
and a broken heart over those that need Jesus Christ as Savior.
And I think that this is an awesome passage to show us really
where the goal should be when it comes to our love for the lost.
You know, we look around and, and maybe you have a broken heart
for your family.
May.
Maybe there's some people in your home that aren't believers and
you pray for them, you share the gospel with them.
That's a fantastic thing.
But think about it from a bigger level.
Think about it from the fact that not every single person that's
in the church building on Sunday morning is a believer in Jesus
Christ.
Maybe someone's coming in, they're searching.
Maybe someone's coming and they're a skeptic.
We should Never assume that the people around us are solid in
their belief in Jesus Christ.
And so what Paul says is that he's brokenhearted over the lost.
He desires to see them come to Christ.
He's brokenhearted over a few different things.
One would be the rebellion of his own people.
He's brokenhearted over their rebellion.
He's brokenhearted of their rejection of Jesus.
He's not broken.
He's not broken hearted that they persecuted him, Right?
If it was us, you know, if I was Paul, okay, I would be upset
that they persecuted me.
This, this.
This is my narrative.
If I was Paul and I went into one of these cities and, and the
guys who used to be my friends chase me out, whipping me, stoning
me, doing all the things that they did, I would have said this.
You know what?
I'm trying to serve Jesus.
I'm trying to do my best.
And all these people do is just come back and hurt me.
I'm.
I'm just so brokenhearted that my friends have turned their back
on me.
I. I'm just so brokenhearted that they don't love me.
They don't listen to my message.
That's where I would be in my flesh and in my mind.
I would be brokenhearted over people betraying me.
But.
But do you know where.
Where Paul's brokenhearted over?
He's not.
He doesn't even care about that.
What he's brokenhearted over is that they've rebelled against
his Lord.
He.
He's brokenhearted over the fact that they have turned their
backs against the One who has saved him and equipped Him.
And so that just shows you the perspective of evangelism that's
so much different than we have in our minds today is that it's all
about us, usually where Paul is all about Jesus.
And so ultimately, I believe this passage of Scripture can help
us understand how.
How we can have a heart for those around us as well.
So he explains verse three here.
He says, for I wish.
Now what I'm about to do here is I'm going to read verse three,
and when you understand what verse three says, it's going to be
hard for you to believe.
It's hard for me to believe, but it's here in Scripture.
So I'm going to do my best to say it in a way that I. I understand.
Okay?
I am not saying I'm where Paul is, right here I am.
I am not there yet.
But here's what Paul says.
For I wish.
For I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ for my Brethren,
my kidsmen according to the flesh.
So you might say, what's he talking about here?
The way that I understand this is that Paul says, I would be willing
to be separated from my Savior Jesus if my people could come to
Christ.
If this would be a great revival with my people, my own people,
my kinsmen.
That's.
That's a heart of compassion.
That's a sacrificial type of love.
Now, we don't want to elevate Paul to a place of.
We want to worship him, right?
Because Paul was fallible.
Paul was, was not God, and Paul was far from him.
He was a sinful person.
We know that.
But it's a great example of what the love of Christ can do in
our lives because we know that Jesus had that same heart, right?
He went to the cross not just for those who were kind to him, but
he went to the cross for those that, as the Bible says, but God
commendeth or demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
You know, if it was me, again, I would say this.
I'm going to really be sacrificial to those who care about
me or, or that have some type of association with me.
So I was having this conversation with, with my dad recently.
We were talking about certain things.
You know, when my dad used to tell me growing up, he was like,
you know, I take a boa for you, son.
I die for you.
I, I kind of understood that.
But I definitely understand it now with my own children, like, there,
there would be no consideration for me.
I wouldn't even think about it.
Like, if my kids were in danger, I would jump in front of
a car.
I would do anything for them.
I love them to death.
I understand that.
But we all understand that, like, it's, it's understandable for
us to sacrifice for people that are good to us.
That makes sense.
The Bible actually says that that's like the heathen do that and
makes complete sense.
But what Jesus teaches is that we would sacrifice and do something
beyond comprehension for someone that isn't kind to us, that
doesn't love us.
And that's exactly what Paul is saying here.
Paul says, I would sacrifice for those people so that they could
come to Christ.
That is crazy to think about.
And it's, it's beyond our human comprehension to some degree.
But what I will say is that I think that all of us as Christians
could grow in that direction to understand that we should be able
and willing to sacrifice some things to see People come to Christ.
And some people would argue that Paul's using this as a metaphor,
that he really doesn't mean this completely.
I don't really take that understanding.
I believe that that's why he's trying to explain in verses 1 and
other passages here, that he's being real about what he's saying.
But nonetheless, I think that if we had this type of perspective,
we would have a greater passion for the loss that's around
us.
You know, a lot of us get more worked up about things that don't
mean anything for the cause of the kingdom than what actually does
matter.
So for me, you know, when someone asked me, how's your week
going?
That's a loaded question.
Because as a pastor, I know I have to say it's a great week, but.
Well, all of you know what I mean.
Sometimes when you don't want to answer that it's a good week,
you know, like.
But.
But a lot of times.
Why is our week bad?
Well, maybe, you know, I'm not feeling well, or maybe someone was
rude to me at work, or maybe something happened with my, my.
My family or my spouse.
I don't know what it is.
There could be a lot of reasons why we would say we're having
a bad week.
And a lot of times we get so worked up about that, and sometimes
it's things that don't even really matter to us, even in our
own personal life.
Some of us.
And I'm going to try to be as kind as I can be with this.
Some of us get worked up about what we see on the news, and it makes
us have a bad week just because something has been told to
us.
And I'm not saying we shouldn't watch the news, but I would
say is what.
Watch the news with the lens of the gospel and, and watch the
news with the lens of knowing that God is in control and that you
are a believer in a lost world.
But what I will say is this, oftentimes, things that don't matter
in the grand scheme of eternity take up our minds, take
up our hearts, take up our time, take up our anger, take up
our bitterness, and we don't do the things that we should be doing
within the cause of the kingdom of God.
And so Paul says, I'm focused.
I know what I have before me, and that is to lead these folks to
Christ.
Now, we do know that Paul is called to be an apostle to the Gentiles.
So his sole focus is not just his own people, even though he has
a heart for his own people.
But Paul does have opportunities to preach the Gospel
in other places, which we're going to talk about later on in the
book of Romans as well.
So he says in verse three, basically, that for his kinsmen,
according to the flesh, he would be separated from Christ so
that they could come to Christ.
That, that is an amazing thing to think about.
And I think that that's something that we even see with,
with Moses in Exodus chapter 32.
Moses has that same spirit.
In Exodus 32, Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this
people have sinned a great sin, and I made them gods of gold.
Yet now if thou will forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I
pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written.
So even we see that Moses pictured that same type of love for
his people when it came to his relationship with God.
And I think that's something for all of us to understand.
But of course, we know that Paul shares the heart of Jesus, who
was cursed on behalf of others, that he might bring salvation
to, to many.
And so you would say, okay, so why is he so brokenhearted?
Why is he talking about the Israelites?
Why does that matter?
Well, verse four says this.
He says, lest you think he's not talking about the Israelites,
by the way, some people might think like, well, he's not really
talking about those people that are Israelites.
In verse three, he's, he says in verse four, who are the Israelites?
And he's about to explain why he has a heart for them and what
they were gifted in when being the chosen people of God.
Now, there are some people that will argue this.
And, and we're going to break this down in Romans, chapter nine.
Not all of the people that were part of God's chosen people
in the Old Testament were saved.
Okay?
The Bible says that from the book of Genesis all the way to the
book of Revelation, people are saved by faith.
That's, that's the book of Hebrews, Hebrews, chapter 11.
You can look that up.
Nobody was saved by ever keeping the law.
Nobody was ever saved by being born into a certain bloodline.
Everybody, throughout all of history is saved through faith.
And so a lot of people will read Romans chapter 9 and think that
Paul is specifically only talking about individual salvific
salvation, meaning salvation that brings them to everlasting life
with Jesus Christ.
But that's not essentially what he's talking about here.
He's talking about Israel, the people of Israel and what they were
chosen to do.
Why were the people of Israel chosen?
Well, we don't know why they were chosen, but we do know what
they were chosen for.
Verse 4.
He says, who were Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption?
Meaning they were adopted into the family of God and the glory and
the covenants.
Right?
Moses, the, the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant,
all these covenants come through the line of, of Israel.
And he says the covenants were entrusted to them and the giving
of the law, they, they had the, they had the benefit, they had
the blessing of being the mouthpiece for God for so many years
and the service of God and the promises.
Verse 5, who are the fathers?
They were gifted in being blessed with having all the patriarchs
and the prophets of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came.
And even so, the Bible says that Jesus came to the Israelites,
and so he's saying that these are all the blessings of Israel being
the chosen people.
Now, there's a lot of people that are arguing that today and arguing
whose role is what.
And there's different elements of doctrine and theology, but what
we're basically going to understand throughout this whole
passage is this.
Salvation is given to all who believe, regardless of nationality.
I need you to know that.
So, so I'm not saying that the Israel being the Israelites that
are chosen by God, every one of the Israelites for all of history,
are saved.
No, they don't believe in Jesus Christ as Savior.
They don't have faith in God.
They are.
They're not saved.
So all are saved through Jesus, regardless of nationality.
But Paul does explain, even back in Romans chapter three and
in Romans chapter nine, that there was a blessing for Israel as
God's chosen people, both past and future.
And we're going to talk about those two things as well.
So just note that what I'm saying here is that not all of the
people that were born through the line of Abraham were saved, were
walking with God.
And actually at this point in time in Romans chapter nine, many
were not.
So what is he saying here?
He says that they as people rejected the things of God and so
therefore there's brokenness there.
And so he says in verse five, they were even blessed with having
Christ come through their line, who is overall God blessed
forever.
Amen.
And so the first five verses is Paul explaining what, why he's
brokenhearted over the nation of Israel.
Essentially, they were gifted all these blessings about being the
mouthpiece of the word of God through the law, through the prophets,
through, through the patriarchs, through the covenants,
and ultimately through Christ, and yet they missed the mark.
Why?
Because they did not believe in Jesus.
Jesus was the stumbling block.
You remember back.
Remember, they thought that Jesus, as Jesus, was coming down
the Palm Sunday road, riding on a donkey, they were proclaiming
hosanna, he's come to save us.
They were waving palm branches, they were throwing clothes
on the ground.
And they were doing all this to basically expect that Jesus was
going to come as a political leader that was going to free them
from the bondage of Rome.
And when Jesus didn't come that way, they turned their backs
on him.
And you know that even Jesus wept over them because they did not
believe.
And so this is Paul trying to bring it all together and explain
how this can all cohesively be part of the message of God.
So Paul continues to amplify and develop these points throughout
the whole next section.
And so he explains that at the time that this is written, many Israelites
did not believe in the very words that had been entrusted to
them.
So God entrusts the Israelites with the Word of God.
They don't even trust in that anymore.
And so he shows that not every Israelite from the seed of Abraham
is chosen for the noble purpose of carrying the Word of God.
So he's about to explain that some parts of the Israelite people
were chosen for the Word to be proclaimed through them and others
were not.
There's going to be many people that take the passage in Romans
chapter nine and basically say this.
From the very beginning of time, God loves some and saved salmon
others he hated and did not save.
Determinism, however you want to call it.
But what we're going to see here in this passage is that I think
there's a different perspective to take when it comes
to when he gets talking about Jacob and Esau.
And so I know that this is a complex topic.
I know that there's a lot here.
We're not going to dive into all of it here.
But what I am going to say is this morning I'm going to ask you
a few questions, then I want to give you a few applications, and
then we're going to close off here this morning.
But it says that the one question that could be posed is,
is if Israel has failed their job, if you will, they were given
all of the law, they were given the covenants, they were given
the.
The promises, they were given the prophets, they were given the
patriarchs, they were even given the Messiah to come through
their line, and they failed.
They didn't believe.
What does that mean?
Some people would have argued and still argue that God failed then,
right?
If God chose Israel to do his work and they didn't do his work,
has God failed?
And if God failed the nation of Israel, will He fail us?
Right, because we're part now of the elect.
We're part of the family of God.
We have confidence in Romans 8.
And you just tell me in Romans 8 that he is going to not allow anything
to separate me from his love.
But then now, Romans 9, some things are separated from from the
love of God in Israel.
How can that be?
Has God failed to keep those that he chose and that he loved?
These are all questions that are being posed.
And if so, will he fail us who believed and are loved?
Now, as we see in Romans chapter eight, so, so essentially
there's a blessing to be an Israelite, but not all are chosen
to carry that blessing.
So has God failed?
And again, Paul is going to answer that question.
He always answers his questions.
In verse 6 he says, not as though the word of God hath taken
none effect, meaning this.
It's not that God's word has failed.
God has not failed.
He has never failed and he never will fail.
And then he explains, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel.
Israel, meaning not all of Israel, is called to present the
line of the truth of the word of God.
God never fails.
It is those who lack faith and openly reject Christ who fail.
God's purpose for Israel didn't fail.
God's purpose for us won't fail.
And so Paul explains the answer that not every descendant
of Israel is entrusted with the word of God, nor is everyone
who is a child of God made a child on the basis that he or she
is a natural descendant of Abraham.
Now we're going to get into a lot of nuances here in Romans chapter
nine.
And I don't want to lose you, so I'm going to wrap it up.
Pose here today is, well, if God rejected Israel, does he reject
some of us?
And we're going to talk more about that along with Romans chapter
9.
But what I will say is that anybody who comes to Christ in faith
will be seen.
There's no one that God is going to reject that comes to him
in faith.
The Bible does say that God does reject some people because of
the decisions that they make in rebellion to God.
Now there's going to be this interesting story of Esau and Jacob
that we're going to study coming up here in the next few weeks
and there's going to be more discussion with that.
But what I will want, want you to know here this morning that some
people that fall into this area of determinism would say this,
that some people from the beginning of time had no choice but.
But to just be unsaved that God did not allow them to be saved.
What I will tell you is that I believe that's not true.
I believe that, as the Bible says, that he is not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And the Bible says in Romans or in John 3:16, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him.
And so we have to rectify those two things.
And we have to see that sometimes from a different perspective
that God is not specifically talking about salvation here.
And as much as he's calling for the idea that God is using certain
people to present the word of God to the world.
And that's what we're going to be talking about.
But the lessons that we can take away with us here In Romans
chapter 9 is this.
Paul has a burden for those that are rejected.
Jesus.
His burden is not because they persecuted him.
That burden is because they need Jesus as Savior.
His heart is for his people, his nation.
And the question would be for us here this morning is do we have
a heart for the people of our nation?
Do we have a heart for people of other nations?
The Bible says in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, that we
are to go to our Jerusalem, we're to go to our Judea, we're to
go to Samaria, which is the people that we're not used to.
We're to go to the uttermost part of the earth.
Where is our heart when it comes to the profession of the proclamation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Go all the way back to where we started.
We started in Romans 1:16.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Paul is obviously not ashamed of the gospel.
Therefore he says, I'm going to bring it to people that love me.
I'm going to bring it to people who don't love me.
I'm going to bring it to people who persecute me.
I'm going to bring it to people who reject me.
And ultimately their rejection is going to bring them to a place
of judgment.
Therefore, I need to be more passionate about when I am preaching.
And so we're going to see that, yes, God does have the right
to show mercy upon who he shows mercy to.
I can't sit here and dictate to God what makes him righteous and
what makes him Unrighteous.
All I have to say is that I look at from the whole scope of Scripture
that God has a plan and he has a plan for those who trust in him
in faith.
God still has a plan for Israel, yet it to be in the future.
And we're going to see in Romans chapter 11 that there is this
idea that there will be a great revival there one day.
But the Bible says until that day, until they turn to Christ, it's
not a matter of their bloodline.
He tears that down earlier on in scripture.
He tears that down in many passages of scripture.
It's no longer about what bloodline you have where you're born
into.
Okay?
And I'm thankful for that.
I'm thankful for the fact that God could say someone that's as broken
and as.
As limited as me, I don't deserve the love of Jesus Christ.
I don't deserve it at all.
Sometimes people are tempted to think that because I'm a good
person, God loves me.
God does not love me because of the way that I look.
God does not love me because where I'm born, God does not love
me because how smart I am.
God doesn't love me because of any of those exterior reasons that
some of us might think that God loves us.
God loves us because he loves us.
God loves us because we are his creation.
And in spite of the fact that we are in many ways in rebellion
to him, he still loves us and he still extends grace that shows
the patience of God.
Some people say, why isn't God just taking us all away?
I've been using this analogy a lot.
If it was me, if it was me, I'd be done.
I'd be like, all right, guys, you messed it up.
It's over.
And the Bible does say that one day God's righteous hand will
drop upon the world and that every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
But until then, why?
The question is why?
The reason why.
The reason why I believe God has not done that yet is because
he is righteous and he is patient and he is loving and he's
extending that time of grace for many people.
But what I will tell you is that the Bible says that we need
to get busy.
Remember last week?
The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
Let's get busy about the process of proclaiming the gospel
to the world.
Let's not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't expect any of us today to have the same testimony as Paul
does.
There In Romans, chapter nine, that's a big step to say that you
would be willing to give up your relationship with Christ for
other people.
But what I will say is that I think all of us can take that step
closer to having a heart for people that are lost, that are having
a heart for people that are broken.
Never to, never to justify sin.
By the way, that's sometimes how the gospel's preached in our
culture today.
Like, to win people, we have to be okay with everything that they
do.
Folks.
I don't ever see that in scripture.
I, I never see Jesus when he's preaching the message, even to those
people that are sinners, that he comes in and he condones what
they do.
It's always go and sin no more.
It's.
It's always about changing their life.
But at the same time, there's grace extended.
So we have to understand that there's.
That there's that barrier there that sometimes we struggle
with is how much do we allow for.
When it comes to them coming to Christ, folks, the only thing
that is a delineating line between who is saved and who is unsaved
is faith in Jesus Christ.
All the other things of spiritual growth come after the Holy
Spirit indwells and people are taught.
So what we do is we lead people to Jesus.
We lead people to the truth.
If we say, okay, you can't come, you can't be saved unless you
clean up your life.
That, that's missing the point.
Because the only way that we can clean up our life is by coming
to Jesus Christ.
So as a church, what do we do?
We don't worry about, oh, well, we only invite people to our
church who look like they'd fit in.
We invite everybody, right?
I don't care what your background is, I don't care what
sin you're dealing with.
We welcome them in.
What do we do?
We don't just tell them, hey, be warm to fill and go.
We preach the gospel and we preach change, right?
Show up as you are, but leave different.
We should leave differently.
The.
The church should change us.
Jesus should change us.
Think about.
Think I'm.
I'm gonna get on my hobby horse for just like two minutes.
Okay?
Don't count that.
Don't.
The.
The idea in American Christianity that we can just come
into church, hear a good heartwarming message, go home and
leave unchanged is not a biblical message.
The biblical message is that Jesus changes us.
He changes the way we think.
He changes the way we live.
He changes the way we love.
He changes the way we serve.
He changes the way that we work.
He changes the way we do everything.
Why?
Because he's a life changer.
He's a life giver.
We're born again.
We're new in life.
And so you might say, well, I've gone to church for 50 years
and my.
I'm the same as I was when I started coming.
Well, it's never too late.
It's never too late.
Let's change today.
And the idea would be this.
It's not your change that makes you saved, because that's a
lot of people think that there's something out there called
lordship salvation, which would be this.
Basically, you.
You've got to be a good person to prove that you're saved.
Well, none of us are going to be perfect, right?
None of us can completely keep the word of God.
But what it does say in the Bible is that we are to transition,
to be transformed into newness of life.
And so we're going to talk about that as we come along.
We're going to be talking about the transformation.
That's really what Romans 12 is about.
Roman.
Romans 12 on is how we live out what we believe.
We live out what we believe.
So we're going to be going through some heavy stuff in Romans
9, 10, and 11.
Okay, don't skip that.
Okay, come.
Because there's some really interesting things that we're going
to be talking about and things that might be debated.
But what I will say is this.
Today, let's think about how Jesus can change our life.
And just as much as he changes our life, that's the message that
we take to other people.
Like, if I come to somebody and I witness to them and I say,
okay, hey, look, come to church and you'll.
And you'll learn how to cook a good, you know, potato salad or you're
not cooking potato salad, but, you know, preparing a potato salad,
right, the kapala.
We're missing the point.
Hey, come to church and you know, come.
Come to church and you can learn about what it means to have
friends.
Come to church and you can learn what it means to do whatever.
If we're missing the point of why we come together, that's not.
Evangelism is not telling people that church can make your
life better.
Evangelism is telling people that the word of God and the Gospel
of Jesus Christ can give them life and eternal life.
That is.
And so I want you to think about that as we move forward here
in this.
In this study.
Well, I'm going to ask if you're able to to stand with me,
every head bowed, every eye closed.
We're going to have the music playing here.
And I know that it was somewhat of a different message because
there was a lot of lead up to Romans 9.
So I will say this.
God can speak in different ways.
We know that.
We know that God could speak to somebody in one pew about Romans
1, and God could speak to someone in the other pew about Romans
8.
It's not for me to decide how God is speaking to you, but what
I will say is that the truth of God is presented here this morning
through the truth of who Jesus Christ is.
The question might be this.
This morning, have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior?
Not if you're a good person, not if you're working, not if you're
trying your best, not if you're going to church.
But that have you individually trusted in Jesus Christ as your personal
savior, faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
That's it.
But then secondly, if you have trusted in that, Romans 1, am I ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus or am I proclaiming it?
Romans 3, have I recognized that my sin is what has hindered
me, that has caused me pain?
And Romans 6, have I trusted in the gift of salvation?
And if I have trust in the gift of salvation, am I preparing
that and presenting that to those around me?
Do I have that type of compassion that Paul has there?
Do I have that type of desire and brokenheartedness over those
that are in rebellion?
If, if not, let's ask this morning for God to give us that type
of compassion and brokenheartedness and motivation
to spread the word of the truth of the Gospel.
Let me tell you who this morning, and I'm not trying to preach
a second message, but there's so many distractions out here today.
In our world, the enemy wants you to be distracted from the number
one mission, and that is the mission of glorifying our Savior
and telling other people about him.
If there's anything distracting you from that right now,
if there's something that's holding you back, if there's something
that's causing you inner turmoil and darkness and hindrance
to what God has for you, come this morning and give that over to
him.
Ask the Lord to give you wisdom and strength and discernment
to be busy about the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
I pray that you can move us to a place of following you to the best
of our ability in accordance to your word.
We thank you for the gospel.
We're thankful for the hope.
We're thankful for salvation.
So I pray that this morning there's someone who needs you, that
they come forward and see in the Word of God what it means to
know you as Savior.
Here today we ask all these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here today.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.