Would you please open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4? Ephesians chapter 4, I will read verses 1 through 6 in your hearing. Again, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. The apostle Paul writes, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. This is the word of God, would you pray with me? Our father in heaven, We offer our hearts to you. We know that you do not look at the outward appearance as man does, but you look at the heart. Even this morning, you try and you examine our hearts. Father, I pray that by the power of your spirit that you would enable us to put sin to death, that you would enable us to take up our cross, to deny ourselves, to follow Christ, and to offer our hearts fully to you. You are infinitely worthy. of all that we have to give. And so it is to you that we give our praise, our trust, our worship. We glory and we boast in Jesus Christ. And we thank you that you have placed us into the very body of Christ. And we thank you that it is a single body, There is a oneness to this body of Christ. And Father, I pray that you would give us a deeper sense of that even today. As we are a group of people who have come out of the world by your grace to be united to Jesus Christ and to all of his people, We thank you that the Lord Jesus was indeed stricken and smitten and afflicted. As he was nailed to the tree, there were indeed many hands raised against him, but there was none to save. And the greatest stroke that afflicted him was the stroke that justice gave. We thank you, O righteous Father, that you have satisfied your own justice by imputing our sins to Jesus and punishing him for our guilt and our crimes so that we might be forgiven and free of our sins forever. There is no greater truth in all of the world than this truth, the gospel. Father, we thank you from the very depths of our being for the Lord Jesus, that we are in Christ where there is no condemnation, that we are fully accepted by you, that we are loved with an undying love, that we are forever secure in Christ. We thank you that you have not only rescued us by grace, but you keep us by grace, and that you will bring us safely home to heaven by grace. Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day, for the great privilege that is ours to gather with your people, to sing, to pray, to worship, to open your word, to hear you speak, And as we open your word in a few moments, I pray, O God, that you would give us the ability to focus upon what you have to say, that we would be instructed and nourished and helped by our time together. And we pray above all that the Lord Jesus Christ will be exalted in our midst and everywhere that your people gather around the world. And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. It is a great privilege to once again open our Bibles to Romans chapter 1. And I would direct your attention to verse 16. The title of our message is The Christian Manifesto, Part 3. And as we begin our time in the Word of God, let me read Romans 1, 16 and 17 in your hearing. The Apostle Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. This is the very word of God. We live in a country that is called the United States of America. And I am putting the accents on the word united. And yet, despite our name, the deadliest war that we have ever fought in as a country is the Civil War. Do you realize that the number of Americans who died in both World War I and World War II combined is less than the number of Americans who died in the Civil War? We are the United States of America and yet in our deadliest war, Americans fought and killed other Americans. Far more Americans were killed on American soil than those Americans who have been killed on foreign soil. We are the United States of America, and yet in reality, even as I speak, there is so much that divides us as a nation. Perhaps there is more that divides us than what actually unites us. There are progressives and there are conservatives. There are red states and there are blue states. There is tremendous division over politics and social issues and cultural matters that create a deep sense of unrest and angst, as you all know. Virtually every subject in our culture seems to be a point of contention and division, including things like masks, And vaccinations, these are deeply divisive issues. We are even divided over chicken sandwiches. Who has the best chicken sandwich? Chick-fil-A or Popeyes? You know it's Chick-fil-A, right? They have the best chicken sandwich. I could give you many, many more examples, but this is enough to demonstrate that we are living in very divided times. In fact, our nation is so divided that some refer to it as the divided states of America. H.B. Charles is an African American pastor who grew up in Los Angeles. He currently pastors a church in Jacksonville, Florida. that used to be predominantly African-American. But a few years ago, his predominantly African-American church merged with a predominantly white church, and now they are mixed in terms of their skin color. I highly commend his ministry to you. He is a faithful and gifted preacher of the Word of God. And H.B. Charles tells the story of a minister who ran an orphanage for young boys. But during their bus rides, the racial tensions were evident. All the black kids would sit on one side of the bus, and all of the white kids would sit on the other side of the bus. And one day, tension broke out, and in frustration, the minister pulled the bus over. He marched all of the boys off of the bus and he gave them a very stern lecture. He ended by saying that from now on, there is no more black and there is no more white in this orphanage. From now on, everyone is green. And then he put them back on the bus and they started driving. But while he was driving, he heard one of the kids murmur in the back of the bus, dark green on the left, light green on the right. That's just how we are as sinners. We find a way to divide. We find a way to be divisive. And so the divisions that we see all around us in our culture should not surprise us because division is the way of the world. And thus, division is not merely an American problem. It is a world problem. In fact, it is a human problem. But in our American context, something has happened in recent years that has really greased the slide, if you will, and is greatly deep in the already existing divisions that we have as a society. And that is the rise of the social justice movement, intersectionality, critical race theory, wokeness, whatever name you want to use. I have many, many concerns about this social justice movement, one of which is how divisive it is. At its core, At its heart, the social justice movement is deeply, deeply divisive. Everything that it touches, everywhere that it goes, it divides. It never unites. Despite its name, the social justice movement does not promote justice, not at all. It actually promotes injustice. How does it do this? It promotes injustice by imputing, listen carefully, by imputing the guilt of historical sins to people who had nothing to do with those sins. And to people who find those historical sins to be morally repugnant. The social justice movement fuels racial division, anger, resentment, and hatred. because it evaluates people based upon their skin color, their gender, and their economic standing. Despite its claims, the social justice movement does not promote equality for all. Instead, it promotes partiality and segregation. In 1963, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., before a crowd of more than 250,000 people, Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, and I quote, I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the contents of their character. Very famous words, very moving, very powerful words. Well that dream has been shattered into a thousand pieces because the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is not the dream of the social justice movement. The social justice movement promotes the exact opposite approach. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted a color blind society. But the social justice movement does not. They tell us that we are to judge people on the basis of their skin color. It teaches that we must divide humanity into classes and groups of people on the basis of their skin color, on the basis of their gender, on the basis of their social background. Again, it is deeply, deeply, deeply divisive. It does not value or promote peace. It does not value or promote forgiveness. It does not value or promote love. It does not value or promote unity. Instead, it only promotes division and destruction. And that is exactly what we are seeing in this culture. I agree with John MacArthur who says this on your notes, quote, as an analytical tool, and he's referring back to the Southern Baptist Convention from a couple of years ago where somebody proposed a resolution that called critical race theory an analytical tool. So he says, as an analytical tool, CRT, or critical race theory, has no more use than a wrecking ball. It can demolish core social structures and leave society in ruins, but it cannot clean up the mess, much less build anything worthwhile." He's exactly right. The social justice movement is very effective in doing one thing and only one thing, that is destroying society. It is like a wrecking ball that smashes and destroys everything that is in its path, but it is completely ineffective and incapable of building anything that is good. Our culture is so deceived, our culture is so lost, that it believes that our hope is found in the social justice movement. Dear people, that is a lie. of monumental proportions. The only hope for our culture, the only hope for our world is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing else in the world that can make a person have peace with God than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is nothing else in the world that can unite people together like the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings us to Romans chapter 1. As we have been learning now for some time, the first major section of Romans is what we are calling the gospel introduced. This introductory section is divided into three parts. We are currently looking at the third part, letter C, in our outline, the theme, in verses 16 and 17. In these two verses, the Apostle Paul gives us the theme of the letter. In these two verses, he also gives us the Christian manifesto as he summarizes and publicly declares the Christian message. There is so much for us to see and to learn in this Christian manifesto that we are going, as you know, very, very slowly through this text. We have stopped the car. We have gotten out of the car and we are lingering upon these two verses as you would if you were lingering upon the Grand Canyon. Using a different analogy, I have stated that the gospel is like a large, multifaceted diamond. And as you hold this diamond in your hand, you can turn it ever so slightly and see its truth and its beauty and its richness from various angles. And that is what we are doing with Romans 1, 16 and 17. We are holding this precious, precious text in our hand, and we are looking at it like a diamond by turning it ever so slightly to see its glorious richness and beauty from various angles. In these two verses we are looking at the gospel from six angles, the first three of which we have already seen, beginning with the goodness of the gospel. As we said, the message of the gospel is a message of good news from God about Jesus Christ. It is not just good news, it is the very best of news in a world that is filled with bad news. It is the message of Jesus Christ who has met our greatest need and who has accomplished our greatest good. There is nothing better in all the world than the gospel. There is nothing that is even close to the goodness of the gospel. The second angle is the declaration of the gospel. The message of the gospel is a message that is to be declared to the world, and it is to be declared to the world with courage and boldness, without shame and without embarrassment. The gospel is worthy to be preached. It is worthy to suffer for and to even die for. The third angle is the power of the gospel. The message of the gospel is a message that bears divine power. Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because of what the gospel is, namely the power of God unto or for salvation. The gospel is the most powerful message in all the world, and it is the means by which God changes lives and brings sinners to himself. It is through the preaching of the gospel that God is pleased to exercise his saving power in behalf of sinful men like you and like me. That brings us now to a fourth angle, the universality of the gospel. And we will spend the rest of our time on this one angle, this rich, beautiful, precious angle of the gospel. We see this also in verse 16 where Paul says, to everyone, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. I ask you, who is the gospel for? It is for all people. The gospel is not limited to certain kinds of people or certain classes of people. It is for all people. The gospel is not limited by gender. It is for men. It is also for women. The gospel is not limited by ethnicity. It is for all ethnicities. There are at least 195 nations in the world, and the gospel is for every one of those nations. It is for every ethnicity, for every nation, for every people group, for every tribe, for every tongue, every language. The gospel is not limited by our skin color. It's for every shade of melanin. It's for white people and black people and brown people and yellow people and red people, whatever other color there is. The gospel is not limited by economics or social standing. It is for rich people and poor people and everyone in between. The gospel is for the upper class and the lower class and the middle class. The gospel is for the rich and famous and for the nobodies. The gospel is for the educated and the uneducated, for the cultured and the uncultured, for the most beautiful people among us, as well as the most ordinary of people among us. One of my favorite verses in all of the Bible is Revelation 5, 9. It takes us into heaven, and it says this, and they sang a new song talking about the angels of God, and this is what they sang. Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you are slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. When Jesus died, he died for all peoples. He died to purchase with his precious blood people from every tribe, from every tongue, from every people group, from every nation that exists in the world. And so the gospel, beloved, is universal in its scope. It is universal in that it is For all peoples, it is for the world. There is one gospel, and only one gospel, and this one gospel is for all peoples. It transcends culture, it transcends language, it transcends skin color, and every other earthly and worldly division. The gospel, dear people, is not anything like the social justice movement. The social justice movement says that you must judge people based upon their skin color and their gender and their bank account. Listen, that is not good news. Who wants to live in a world, in a society like that? There is nothing good about that. In contrast, the gospel does not look at your appearance. It does not look at your skin color. It does not look at your gender, nor does it look at your bank accounts. The gospel does not judge people based upon such external things. As far as the gospel is concerned, listen, it does not matter what you look like. It does not matter what you look like. But what the gospel does look at is the heart, the heart. And when you peel away skin color and when you peel away all of the other external differences that we have, what you discover is that as people we are all the same. This is where we get into the vital subject of anthropology, that is the study of humanity, the study of mankind. We are a nation facing many crises, and one of the crises that we are facing is a crisis of anthropology. Our society is so confused about humanity. We desperately need a revival, of anthropology in the culture and even in the church. Let me give you a biblical anthropology that includes four major pillars. You will find these on your sermon notes. Number one, mankind as a creature. That is to say, we did not evolve. We did not evolve from nothing, as the world would tell us. You can summarize evolution very simply, from the goo to the zoo to you. That is a lie. In truth, we were made by God. The first and foremost pillar of a biblical anthropology is that we are, as human beings, creatures of God. Listen, you exist because of God. You exist because God made you. A second pillar of a biblical anthropology is this mankind as male and female. When God created the human race, he created the human race to consist of two, and only two genders. And we cannot say that loudly enough today, or clearly enough today. There are two and only two genders, male and female. Contrary to what our culture is telling us, the concept of gender is not a social construct. That is what the world says, that it's just a social construct. That is not true. Gender is a matter of divine design. It is a matter of divine design. People are not free to define and alter their gender based upon their feelings or how they want to identify because one's gender is fixed and determined by God according to one's biological sex. What we are seeing in our culture today in terms of gender confusion is an example of what happens to a culture that rejects the word of God. When people refuse to believe the Bible, listen, they will believe anything, including the most illogical, unreasonable, and unscientific ideas. A third major pillar of a biblical anthropology is mankind as the image bearer of God, or Imago Dei as it is expressed in Latin. Angels, animals, trees, and people are all creatures of God. We have that in common with those other things. But what sets mankind apart from every other creature is that God created us exclusively in his image. Plants and trees were not made in the image of God. Animals are not made in the image of God. Even the angels in heaven are not made in the image of God. Mankind is the only creature, the Bible says, that is made in the image of God. In this way, mankind is not only unique and distinct from the animals, but we are superior to the animals. Mankind is the crowning achievement in all of God's creation. As his image bears, God created us to exercise dominion over the earth, and given the fact that God created both male and female in his image, there is a glorious, a glorious equality, a glorious unity that men and women share in terms of being the equal image bearers of God. The world and the church needs to hear that. And as those who are made in the image of God, we find our deepest significance, our deepest joy in relationship with God, our maker. A fourth pillar of a biblical anthropology is mankind has fallen and sinful. When God created mankind, the human race was very good, Genesis 1, 31 affirms. But when our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God's command, they fell into sin and they plunged the human race into ruin and damnation. And thus, human beings, we are fallen creatures. We are sinful creatures. We are a broken people. We are broken because of sin. In the car on the way to church this morning, we listened to that song, Is He Worthy, twice. And it talks about at the beginning of the song, is the world broken? Yes, it is. It's all around us. The evidence is everywhere. And so in our culture, listen, we don't have a racial problem. We have a sin problem. That is the problem. And so despite the many differences that people have in our society, we all have this in common. Number one, we were all created by God in his image. And then number two, we are all fallen and sinful creatures in need of salvation. That is common to every single human being. Now, another very destructive idea that is being actively promoted in our culture today is to think of yourself as a victim. This is just everywhere. It's everywhere. To be clear, I would never deny the fact that bad things do happen to people, even terrible things, things that may never leave you for the rest of your life. I acknowledge that. But the world would have you to find your identity in being a victim. That is so destructive. That is so wrong for many reasons. One of the reasons it is wrong in finding your identity in being a victim is because all of us, the Bible says, are not victims in the sight of God. but sinners in the sight of God. In other words, in the ultimate sense, none of us are victims and all of us are offenders. You're an offender, and so am I. Obviously, that's not a popular view, but that is the truth. God made us. God gave us life and breath. God gave us all that we have. But we have all rebelled against God. We have sinned against God more times than we can number. We have spurned God's law. We have despised God's ways. We have rejected His will. Listen, we all have a rap sheet that is a mile long in the courtroom of God. And I'm being generous in saying it's only a mile long. It's probably longer than that. We all have a bad record in heaven and we all have a bad heart on the earth. We all have guilt before God and corruption that is at the very deepest part of our being as human beings. We are all legally condemned and we are all morally bankrupt. And so one of the things that unites us all together as humanity is our common sin problem. We all have the same problem. There is nothing that quite levels all people like sin. Whether you drive a Mercedes Benz or you ride the bus, you have a sin problem. Whether you live in a million dollar house or you live in a shack, you have a sin problem. Whether you are Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, or you are a custodian and you clean the toilets at Amazon, you have the same sin problem before God. And so again, I say to you, sin is unifying. Sin does not discriminate, and neither does death. A new study was conducted on death and what was discovered. is that 10 out of every 10 people die. 10 out of 10 people die. There were no exceptions. All people die. You can divide the world really into two groups. There are the dead and the dying. Not just poor people die, but rich people die. I, on Facebook this weekend, saw a couple of Facebook friends who were at a cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, where there were some famous people buried there, and they had very impressive tombs, very impressive graves. I mean, I was impressed. But if you were to unearth that person in the tomb, their body would be dust, just like the dead poor person's body would be dust. There's no difference. Look at your watch. Not because it's time for lunch or time to go, but look at your watch. And what I want you to see is not that it is 1143 according to that clock. What I want you to see in your watch is an hourglass. That is an hourglass. And every second that passes away on your watch is a second that you are closer to death. Every minute that passes away is one minute that you are closer to the grave. All of us are given a very short and limited amount of time to live on this earth. All of us are given only a certain number of heartbeats and then it's over. I am a dying man speaking to a dying people. Why? Because all of us have the same sin problem. Sin is a unifying thing when you think of it that way. And so we are all united together as creatures made in the image of God, and we are also all united together as sinners in need of salvation. And this is where the gospel comes in, dear people, in Romans 116, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There is only one thing that will level people more than sin and death, and that is the gospel. The grace of God. By the grace of God, Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came to live in your place. He came to live the kind of life that you couldn't live but were required by God to live, namely a life of perfect obedience. Jesus lived in your place. He kept the law of God. in your place and then in your place he was nailed to a tree. He was made sin. God the Father in heaven made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. On the cross Jesus was punished for our sins. He died a violent and a bloody death on the cross for our sins. so that we who believe in Christ would no longer be black or white or even green, but that we would all be red, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now, please notice how Paul speaks of the universality of the gospel in verse 16 in two ways. First, by the phrase, to everyone, to all who believe. And then secondly, by the next phrase, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In our society, we understand very well the divisions that exist based upon skin color and gender and social standing. But Paul here speaks of a division that existed in the ancient world in his day that is not as familiar to us. And yet it was a division that ran very, very deep between Jews and Gentiles. Of all the nations in the world, God chose only one nation to be his covenant nation, and that is the nation of Israel. And Paul has a lot to say about Israel in Romans. In chapter 9, if you'll turn there for just a moment, notice briefly what he says in Romans 9, verse 4. He says, who are Israelites. to whom belongs the adoption of sons, the glory and the covenants, and giving of the law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all God, blessed forever. Amen. And so there are extraordinary privileges that God gave to the nation of Israel. God chose Israel. They are his people, and they are his people in part to be a witness nation to the world. Yes, they were called to be a holy people. Yes, they were called to be set apart from the other nations of the world, but they were also at the same time called to be a witness nation. But they were not a witness nation. Instead of being a witness nation, they developed a real hatred for the nations. If you think I'm overstating it, read Jonah. Israel developed a real hatred for non-Jews. For all Gentiles, they referred to the Gentiles as the dogs. Dogs were not domesticated pets in the first century. They were nasty creatures. And that was the kind of derisive term that Jews would use of Gentiles. You'll notice in Romans 116 how Paul uses the word Greek here because that's the kind of Gentile people that dominated the city of Rome. He was also the kind of Gentile people that existed in the church in Rome. Now, in the very first message of this series on Romans, we talked about the reasons why Paul wrote Romans, and we stated that one of the reasons why he wrote Romans was to address the problem of division that existed in the church at Rome. Overall, the church in Rome was a solid church. They had a strong witness. They were theologically and spiritually mature. They were an obedient church. Paul commends them on all of those things in this letter. But there was a problem, a very serious problem that Paul did not overlook but addressed, and that was the problem of disunity between Gentiles and Jews, believing Gentiles and believing Jews. It is really amazing, if you were to read all of Romans and pay very careful attention, how often Paul talks about the Jews. The word Jew is used in this letter 22 times. He also speaks often about the nation of Israel. In chapter 14, he writes about Jewish dietary requirements. He writes about Jewish holy days. There were Jewish believers in the Church of Rome. In fact, at certain points in this letter, Paul directly speaks to them. Look at chapter 2 and verse 17. Chapter 2, verse 17. But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God, and then he goes on and on and on. But notice how he is directly addressing Jews. at that point. And so a major theme in this letter are the Jews. Another major theme in this letter are the Gentiles. He also refers to Greeks a number of times. As we said in our first message, it appears that the Church of Rome was founded by Jewish believers, but over time, Gentiles were added to the Church, and at certain points in this letter, Paul directly addresses these Gentile believers. Look at chapter 11 and verse 13. Chapter 11 and verse 13. But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles, Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry." So he speaks directly to Jews, he speaks directly to Gentiles in the same letter. It appears that by the time Paul wrote this letter, sometime between 55 and 58 AD, that the Gentile believers in the Church of Rome were in the majority. They were in the majority. And so with that said, the church in Rome was ethnically and culturally mixed with a majority of Gentile believers and a minority of Jewish believers. And between these two groups, there was real tension, real division. And it had to be addressed. And it was addressed by Paul in this letter. And the way Paul addressed it, the way he dealt with this problem of disunity was by the gospel. As a Jew who was called by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul was perfectly suited to be the peacemaker in the Church of Rome. He teaches them that despite their differences, they have more in common than not. If you look at chapter 3 and verse 9, This really begins to make more sense how Paul expresses it here in light of this division. In Romans 3, 9, what then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. You notice the unity of the sin problem. The Jews are not better than the Greeks. The Jews are not better than the Gentiles. They have a sin problem. We have a sin problem. Verse 23, for all, notice the unity language here, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. And so nothing, dear people, levels us like sin and grace. We all have the same sin problem before God, And we as believers have all received the same grace. As people often say, the ground is level at the cross. It's level at the cross. Now, please notice back in Romans 116 that Paul does not say that there are two gospels, one for the Jew and another for the Gentile. There is one gospel. And the one gospel unites all believers together as one in Christ. Paul does not teach in Romans or anywhere else in the New Testament that the believing Jews ought to have their own church and that the believing Gentiles ought to have their own church. I mean, in one sense, you might think that would be a very easy way to deal with the problems and the tensions and the divisions. But Paul never instructs that. Because that would undermine the character of the gospel and the character of the church. All believers, regardless of whatever their differences might be, are in one body. And thus we are to live together in harmony. And this is what Paul is talking about in Romans 15. If you'll go there with me now, Romans 15 in verse 5. And you'll again just see the emphasis of unity here. Romans 15, 5, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus. Verse 6, so that with one accord, you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice all the emphasis on the oneness, the one mind, one accord, one voice. And then in verses 7 to 9, he makes it clear he is talking about this tension between Gentiles and Jews. Verse 7, therefore, accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision. That is, the Jews, on behalf of the truth of God, to confirm the promise given to the fathers. Verse 9, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy. So what he has in mind there is the Jewish-Gentile division. That they were to accept one another, they were to be of the same mind, they were to be of one accord, they were to, with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were not to separate into different churches. but they were to live in harmony as the people of God. Now also in Romans 116, very curiously, Paul says the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Greek. What does he mean by that? Is he somehow saying the Jews are better than the Greeks? Is he showing partiality or preference? No, not at all. He is simply saying this, that the gospel came first to what people? To the Jews. And from the Jews, the gospel then went to the Greeks or the Gentiles. Again, the gospel is a universal message. If you look at chapter 10, I know we're flipping around a lot, but if you look at chapter 10, Just trying to pull all this together to emphasize the unity Paul emphasizes here. Romans 10 verse 12, very well-known verse, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. Verse 13, for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the language of unity and harmony. Last year, 2020, a year that most of us want to forget. So much tension, so many problems. But in the midst of 2020, I put thoughts together, put pen to the page, and I wrote down a few things concerning all the racial animus and the injustice in our society And I put together three ways of dealing with this, and you'll see these on your notes. How do you fight racism and injustice? Number one, teach people that the concept of race is a social construct that contradicts a biblical anthropology. That is, there is only one race created by God, the human race, with many ethnicities. The idea of race, listen, that's a myth. It's a lie. There's only one race, the human race. There's not a bunch of races, one race. Number two, teach people that there is no partiality with God. That is, He does not favor certain groups, classes, or ethnicities of people over others. And then number three, teach people that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world in order to purchase men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. That is, the church is a multi-ethnic body that is one in Christ. That is exactly what Romans is teaching. We find that even in this great theme verse of Romans 1.16. So what we find when we read the Bible is that we are all united by blood. We all come from the same blood, the blood of Adam and Eve. And all of us who believe have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are united by blood. And the blood of Jesus is so powerful that it not only makes us right with God, it reconciles man to man, it makes enemies into brothers. And for that, we praise God. The part of the world where there is the greatest conflict is the Middle East. The conflict there is between Jews and Arabs. It is deep. This conflict between Jews and Arabs has existed since the book of Genesis, and it continues to this very day. Theirs is a history that is filled with hatred and animus and great bloodshed. Several years ago, I was privileged to meet a man by the name of Baruch Maoz. Baruch Maoz is Jewish. He is a Jewish believer. In fact, at that time, he was a Jewish pastor. He is now retired. And at that time, he pastored the largest church in Israel. Now, when I say the largest church in Israel, It's nothing like a mega church in America. It had hundreds of people, not thousands of people. And what was so remarkable about hearing him speak and meeting him is that in that church that he pastored in Israel, that it was comprised of Christian Jews and Christian Arabs. Imagine. Historically and even presently, the Jews and the Arabs are bitter enemies. But the gospel, dear people, the gospel of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it is able to turn enemies into friends and even into brothers. And so I am happy to announce to you that there is peace in the Middle East. in that congregation because of the gospel between believing Jews and believing Arabs. You show me a believing Jew and a believing Arab, and I will show you two people who are one in Christ. Nothing in the world can do that except the gospel. And so, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, Jesus Christ is our peace. He is made believing Jews and Gentiles, even believing Arabs, into one new man. Despite our ethnic, cultural, historical, economic, and even social differences, we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are able to sit at the same table in peace, in love, with gladness. We are all pardoned criminals sitting at the table of Jesus, and his table is a table of grace. Christ is everything to us. He is our life. He is our Savior. He is our Lord. And despite any and all earthly differences, all of his people are our people. They're our people. In one way, the unity of the church and the oneness of the gospel is so profoundly demonstrated is in the Lord's Supper. Christ gave us this ordinance to remember him and to celebrate him often as the local church. This morning, it is our privilege to remember Christ that he died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again. The Lord's Supper is something that we celebrate, but we do not celebrate Christ and sin at the same time, and so we must examine our hearts, we must confess sin, we must deal with our hearts before God to prepare to eat and drink in a manner that is worthy. If you are a believer here, the table is open for you. If you are not a believer, this is not for you, and we would ask that you kindly not partake of the cup and the bread. Well, let's take a few moments to prepare our hearts to eat and drink as we remember and savor the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we thank you that when we confess our sins that we are not met with condemnation, but we are met with mercy. We thank you that you know everything about us. You know our thoughts from afar, you know our motives, you know our deeds in private. Father, as you examine us now, I pray that if there is unconfessed sin, if there are patterns of sin that we are not repenting of and dealing with, that you would expose that in our hearts now, and that you would enable us, O God, to confess it to you, and that you would apply the blood of Jesus to us anew. We thank you that Jesus came, that he came by taking upon himself a real body and that in that body he lived in our place and he died in our place. That in that body he was made sin and that he shed his blood in a violent death as the payment for our sins. There is no greater news in all the world than this, O God. And so despite whatever trials, whatever we may be suffering, I pray that you would encourage our hearts, that we would take fresh strength in the glories of Calvary. Father, thank you that we can remember and celebrate Jesus Christ together. We do this in Christ's name. Amen.