Please take your Bibles and turn with me in the written word of God to the 9th chapter of Romans. We're continuing our expository survey of this wonderful book together and have just completed chapter 8 and are just now moving into the 9th chapter. We're going to begin our reading at chapter 8, verse 38, to remind us of something important to the next chapter. And then we'll read all the way down to chapter 9, verse 5. So beginning in Romans 8 verse 38, hear the word of the Lord. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we are very great sinners, but we have a very great Savior. And I pray that Your Holy Spirit, through the merits of Christ, would be poured out upon us to awaken us, to stir up holy affections in your people, to convict us, Lord, of our sins and of our neglect, particularly, Lord, our sins of omission when it comes to evangelizing those around us who are lost. But Lord, also comfort us and remind us of how glorious your gospel is. Help those who are outside of Christ, who are in our midst, Lord, particularly our children, to not take for granted the privileges you have given them, but rather to use those privileges to draw near to Christ and to close with him. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. If you want to understand the flow of thought in the book of Romans, you can really summarize it with five one-word headings. After Paul begins in chapter 1, verses 15 and 16, he gives there basically the central premise of his book, which is this. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also for the Greek. Why is it the power of God unto salvation? The next verse tells us, for in it The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for as the Scriptures say, the just shall live by faith. That is his central point, and he's unpacking all of that in the rest of the chapters. And so, starting off by talking about how glorious and good this news is, the very next thing he talks about is the bad news. You could summarize chapter 1, verse 18, all the way through chapter 3, verse 20, some 66 verses, under the word condemnation. He talks to us about the fact that a just God is angry with sinners every single day. And He has very great cause to be angry with sinners. And shows us that our own works cannot in any way, shape, or form make us right with God. He thoroughly convinces of that. And you say, why does Paul spend so much time on the subject of condemnation? I mean, that's a whole lot of fun, right? The reason he does that is before a man can be saved, he's first got to be lost. He's got to know that he's lost. He's got to know what he needs before he can know that there's a Savior that's been provided to meet that need. So condemnation is the first theme. But then when it gets to chapter 3, verse 21, all the way through the end of chapter 5, the subject is justification. That is, God has revealed His righteousness in a new way. He has done so through His Son. The bad news is that all the other ways God has revealed His righteousness mean your condemnation, but now God has revealed His righteousness in a way that means your salvation. That Jesus Himself has obeyed the law in our place, and because He has done so, therefore, He is able to be a substitute in our place. And He died upon the cross, taking our sins upon Himself. God has raised Him from the dead, meaning He has accepted His sacrifice. And because of that, those who cease from their works, and turn from their sins and simply believe on Jesus Christ, trusting Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So that the law of God is fulfilled in you because Jesus fulfilled it in your place. And that's the glory of justification. But then, in chapters 6, 7, and 8, he moves to a third thing, and that is sanctification. All whom God justifies, He then sanctifies. He sets you apart, and it's a process. It's not an act. Justification happens in an instant. Once you're justified, you're justified for all time and eternity. But sanctification is a process. It is the process of God's Holy Spirit making you more and more like Jesus, and less and less like yourself. And I had a professor in Bible college who used to say, justification is completely free. Sanctification is blood, sweat, and tears. And it's a process. It's a difficult thing. It's a journey that's always incomplete in this present age. And yet, God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. He's using everything in your life, good and bad, to make you more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That brings us then to where we are now, chapters 9, 10, and 11, which is unification. I'll come back to that in just a moment and explain what that means. And then finally in chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, and really even into chapter 16, you have application. In light of all this truth, how should we then live? Well, what does it mean then when we get to chapter 9 and we're dealing with the subject of unification? Well, in Romans 1.16, Paul had already said that this gospel is good news for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, but also for the Greek. What is the relationship of ethnic Jews to the surrounding Gentile nation? Or more pointedly, what's the relationship of Gentiles to Israel? What is our connection to this present day? The issue that he's addressing is this. In the Old Testament, God revealed himself to Israel and pretty much he left the surrounding Gentile nations just to rot. They were not given the same revelation that was given to the Hebrews. But here and there, you find an exception to the rule. You find Ruth, or Rahab, or Naaman, Gentiles who are blessed somehow by their connection to Israel. But that's the exception, not the rule. And yet, is it not obvious now that since Jesus has come, the vast majority of God's people are not made up of ethnic Jews? It's made up of pork-loving Gentiles like you and me. It's made up of non-kosher people who have believed in a Jewish Messiah. And the question is, God made all these promises to Israel. And has God forsaken His people now? This is kind of timely news, isn't it? Israel is in the papers a lot. They're on the news a lot. How are we supposed to think about it? How are we supposed to regard ourselves? I'm going to go ahead and give you the Cliff Notes version answer before we get into all these chapters. Here it is. The Israel of God, the true Israel of God, has always consisted not of the physical descendants of Abraham. That's visible Israel. That's external Israel. But the true Israel of God has always consisted of the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Those who had faith in the Messiah just like he did. And what Paul is telling us in the book of Romans is that whether you are ethnically Jewish or ethnically non-Jewish, it does not matter. If you have faith in Jesus, then you are Abraham's son or daughter. And you are an heir of all the spiritual blessings God promised to Israel. God has grafted you into their blessings, and that was His intention from the beginning, because when He made His covenant with Abraham, what did He say? In your seed, who's going to be blessed? Just all your descendants? Is that what He said? No, He said all families of all nations are going to be blessed in your seed, and that seed was Christ Himself. And that is the point that Paul is going to be reiterating over and over and over again. No, he hasn't cast off his people. But his promises were always intended for spiritual Jews. What does he say in chapter 2? He's not a Jew who's won outwardly, nor is circumcision that in the flesh, but he is a Jew who's won outwardly. inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. It's those who've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Those are the true Israel of God. That's what he's going to tell us in these chapters. But what is he dealing with here in verses 1-5 of chapter 9? He's beginning his entire discourse by telling us about two things. In verses 1 through 3, he tells us about the lostness of Israel. Verses 4 and 5, he talks about the privileges of Israel. So you have the lostness of Israel and the privileges of Israel, and those are going to be our two headings for this morning. First of all, the lostness of Israel. Paul begins this entire section by affirming his deep, deep love for his fellow countrymen. that he cares about Jews. Now remember, this is a man who has been relentlessly, mercilessly persecuted by his own countrymen. They have tried to kill him on numerous occasions. They've conspired against him in different ways. They want him dead. Whenever he goes into a synagogue and preaches in the book of Acts, is his reception wonderful? Oh boy, let's throw a party for Paul. Let's kick the man out. over and over again. He knows he's going to encounter this opposition. But nonetheless, he begins by saying some really hard things. He's going to be saying really hard things about many of his fellow countrymen. But as he does so, he begins by acknowledging, I want you to know just how much I love him. And what's interesting is in verse 1, he invokes an oath. He calls upon the name of God to verify that what he's about to say is true. And you think to yourself, why on earth would he do that? Anyone who's a Jew who reads that you swear an oath in the name of God will understand how serious that is. That's a big deal. So notice what he says, I tell the truth in Christ. He invokes the second person of the Godhead. I am telling you truth in Jesus' name. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit. So he's saying the Spirit knows that what I'm saying to you is not a lie, first of all, but not only is it not a lie, it's not hyperbole either. I'm not exaggerating. And what I'm about to say to you, and when you figure out what it is he's about to say, you'll understand why he's got such a buildup going on here. You're going to think I don't really mean what I'm about to say, because it's so out there that you're going to think, oh, you're a madman. But I'm invoking the name of God Himself to tell you that what I'm about to say It's true. It is sincerely what I feel in my heart. God bears witness to it. He knows it's true. I'm not lying. I'm not exaggerating. There's no hyperbole. I'm telling you what I really think. What is it that he thinks then? Verse 2, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart for my countrymen. I am deeply burdened. Emotionally, I am troubled. And it's not just an occasional thing. It's not that I have occasional heartburn and then get over it for six months. It is perpetual. It is continual. It's always with me. It never quite goes away. I'm burdened. I'm grieved. I'm grieved because my fellow countrymen are so very lost. And if they remain in the state that they're in, they're going to die and go to hell. And that stays with me constantly. Now, remember something here. Paul himself understood something of why he was being persecuted because he, before his conversion, had been one of the persecutors. Remember when Jesus said to his apostles in John 16, the time is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers God's service, and these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me? Paul believed that by persecuting Jesus and his disciples, by persecuting the church, he's going to huff and puff and blow the church away. He thought that by doing that, he was giving honor to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then when he encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, remember what he said. The very first thing he said to him, he said, who are you, Lord? He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He says, who are you, Lord? Whoever this is, obviously this is Yahweh. This is the Lord. Whoever he is, who are you? Tell me your name, please. And he says, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting. Do you realize that for Paul, what that suddenly meant was Paul thought he was honoring the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by resisting Jesus. And what Jesus just told him is, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You're resisting me. You're fighting against the God of the Hebrews. Because Jesus is the son of the God of the Hebrews. and you are persecuting me by persecuting them." And now, since his conversion, he has been on the receiving end of the same persecution himself. And he understands the mindset of his fellow countrymen because he had that same mindset himself. And yet, despite the fact that they desired his death and his extermination, yet he says, I am full of perpetual grief because I long for them to be saved. I've obtained mercy that I didn't deserve. If it's mercy, you didn't deserve it, right? And by definition, mercy is something you don't deserve. I've been given mercy I don't deserve. I want them to receive that same mercy. I want them to enjoy the same forgiveness and the same righteousness of Christ that I have enjoyed." And he says, I'm expressing my heart and I'm not exaggerating with hyperbole. And when you get to verse 3, you understand why he's making such a big deal about this. How strongly did he long for Israel to be saved? Look at it. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh. Do you understand what he just said? Do you know what he's claiming? He's giving two hypothetical ideas here, I think, that he knows cannot happen. But if they could happen, I could wish it upon myself. The first is this. If I could be estranged from Christ, if I could be severed from His love, Now can he be severed from his love? In chapter 8, he's just gotten through demonstrating he can't be. It's impossible that once you're in Christ to ever be severed from the love of God in Christ. That's why I began our reading at the end of chapter 8, was to be reminded that he's saying nothing can sever me from the love of God in Christ. But he says, but if I could be. If I could be accursed from Christ. The word accursed is the word anathema. If I could be anathematized, if I could be accursed of God and severed from Christ, that's the first premise. He can't be, but if I could be, he says. Second thing is this, for my brethren. What he means is this. As he's going to say in chapter 11, unbelieving Jews were cut out. They were cut off from the blessings of Israel. so that we as Gentiles could be grafted contrary to nature into those same blessings. It seems that what Paul is saying is, if I could be severed from Christ, and if my being severed from Christ would allow my countrymen to be grafted into Christ, then I would wish it upon myself. In other words, if I could be transformed from being an object of God's love and mercy to being an object of his damnation, And if doing so would mean that my fellow countrymen were converted to Christ, I could wish it upon myself. Can anyone in this room fathom that kind of love? How many lifetimes would I have to live to be sanctified, to be that sanctified, to have that pure emotive and that pure of a heart? to long for the salvation of others that way. It reminds me of two other people in Scripture. One is Moses. Remember when Moses had gone down and seen and been vexed in his spirit because of the golden calf, and he took the two tables of stone and literally smashed them to the ground, a visible illustration of what they had just done? And he goes back up after rebuking them harshly and goes back up before God and says, God, they have sinned greatly against you, but Lord, forgive them, please. And if you won't forgive them, you remember what he said? Blot my name out of your book. If you don't forgive them, don't forgive me either, even though he had not committed any sin. He puts his own welfare on the line for a bunch of rebels who've rebelled against God. It reminds me of Moses, but it reminds me of somebody else even more. And who do you think the other person is? The one far greater than Moses, Jesus Christ, who upon the cross, perfectly innocent, perfectly without sin, and yet He suffered in our place, became the sin that we have committed, as it were. Legally, it was transferred to Him, and the wrath of God was poured out upon Him. He suffered condemnation to set us free from all condemnation. And so Paul is simply imitating Christ. Now he knows, Paul knows this, and you need to know this. Could Paul have died for our sins? Would that have been accepted by God? Would that have been an acceptable substitute? Of course not. One sinner dying for another sinner isn't going to fix anything. The only way someone can make a sacrifice in our place is if he's perfectly sinless and perfectly innocent. Only Christ could die for our sins. But what he's saying is, if me being severed from Christ, could mean my countrymen who hate my guts could be grafted into Christ, I would wish it upon myself." Now, there's three things I want to draw to your attention or drive home about this. First of all, this shows just how much Paul had become like his Savior, that he could care that much about other people that he's saying, I'm willing to be condemned if that means that others can be justified. But secondly, A heart governed by such holy love and sanctified modus surely must have revealed itself in diligent evangelistic labor. In other words, Paul didn't just go around feeling bad all the time. This deep burden moved him to action. and moved him to action in two ways. One, he spoke to God about sinners. You find that in chapter 10, verse 1. My deep prayer to God is for Israel that they may be saved. He prayed continually that God would have mercy upon sinners and save them. So he was moved to speak to God about sinners, but here's the thing. He didn't just do that. You know, that's kind of easy. It's kind of easy to pray for people who are lost. It also moved Paul to speak to sinners about God. And when you look through the book of Acts, can you find any more zealous person than Paul? I've told you this before, but I'm telling you, I think when Paul walked through the forest and there was nobody with him, he would stop and witness to a tree stump, not because he thought the tree stump could be saved, but just because it gets more practice in. I want to be well-equipped to preach the gospel when I get there, so let me practice it and rehearse it. Because everywhere he goes, he's zealous to go to those who are lost and bring the gospel to them. He doesn't wait for them to find him. He reaches out to find them. He goes into the highways, and the hedges, and the streets, and the rooftops, and the marketplaces, and he tells them the gospel, and tells them about Christ, because he was motivated by such love. And I think there's a third thing here that we need to recognize. Paul has said a lot of harsh things about the Jews. He's going to say more harsh things about the Jews. And his words here clarify something, that as harsh as the things he says are, they're not said out of malice. They're not said out of a heart that hated the Jews. He's saying, I'm saying these things because I love you so much. I could wish myself a curse from Christ so that you would be saved. And that's what motivates me to say some hard things. Because at the end of the day, the wounds of a friend are faithful. And what I'm saying to you is not to hurt you. It's meant to help you. And I want you to understand, you can't accuse me of being anti-Semitic because I'm not. Because I love you so very much that I would die in your place if I could. I can't, but if I could, I would, because that's how much I care for you." It's interesting because later this is the very thing he would be accused of. The last third of Acts is all about Paul being arrested in the temple and taken to stand before Nero. In Acts 21 verse 28, the Israelites cry out this, Men of Israel, help. This is a man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law in this place. And furthermore, he's also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled the holy place. Now, what were they saying? He's anti-Semitic. He's Benedict Arnold. He is a traitor to the Jewish people. He wasn't a traitor to the Jewish people, but that's what he was accused of. That's why he was put in prison. And so, what he's saying is this, I have hard things to say to you, but please understand, it's not because I don't care. As a matter of fact, I'm saying hard things because I do care. Parents, sometimes you have to do hard things with your kids, don't you? You gotta say the hard things that are not fun, that are not pleasant, that you know are not exactly gonna go well with them. And they're not going to think necessarily very highly of you. And yet, you know that your heart is motivated by love and concern for them. And so you do hard things because you truly do care. Even so, Paul says, I truly care. Please know I really do love you. And that's why I'm saying hard things because here's the thing. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. And I want to tell you hard things because the truth will set you free. But in order for it to set you free, I've got to tell you the truth. And so that's what he's saying here. So what do we see first? We see the lostness of Israel. Paul, as he could say in Galatians 4, verse 16, have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Even so, that's what he's saying to the Jews as well. We see the lostness of Israel, but then we also see the privileges of Israel. That's verses four and five. He's speaking here in a similar way that he said back in chapter three, verses one and two. You can look back there if you wish. Or you can just listen. What advantage then has the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? His answer, much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. God gave them this word, that's the chief reason that they're blessed. So there are benefits to being a Jew. He's saying something of that here as well, but he's gonna enumerate literally eight specific benefits, eight specific privileges that God has given to the Jewish people. So let's work through them one by one, and we'll do so very quickly. First of all, to them belongs the adoption. The adoption. One of the most frequent designations for the Jews in the Old Testament was the children of Israel. The children of Israel. When God delivered Israel from her slavery in Egypt, the scriptures say, out of Egypt, I have called my son. Who else of all the nations in all of Old Testament history could call God their father? And yet Israel had the privilege of being able to say, God is our father. He has begotten our nation, as it were. The second thing, then, is the glory. To them belongs the glory. Now, what does that mean? Every commentator I've consulted says the same thing. They're convinced that what this is, speaking of, is the glory, the Shekinah glory of God that showed itself throughout the Old Testament. That is, these manifestations of God's presence that He gave to remind His people, I am still with you. Think about it when they left Egypt. You know, when you think about the 40 years of wilderness wandering, if in your mind, all you think about is these people going over here and then going over here and going over there and setting up camp and tearing down camp, and that's all there is, you're missing something important from the picture. Because throughout those 40 years, there was something else with them. During the day, there was a pillar of cloud. And at night, there was a pillar of fire. And that was with them for the entire 40 years. And whenever that cloud stopped, the people stopped and they set up camp. And whenever it started to move, all right, break down camp, the clouds moving again, and we got to fall. They learned to be dependent upon the presence of God and to go wherever he led them. That presence was with them when Solomon dedicated the temple. You remember what happened? The Spirit of God fell upon it in such a way that the priests couldn't stay inside and they ran out of it because God's holy presence was in it. When they rebuilt the temple after its destruction by Babylon. They prayed, and the men who were old and had seen the first temple wept because the second temple was less glorious than the first. But remember what happened. God's Spirit fell upon it again, and He would actually say to His prophets, this is actually going to be a greater temple than the first one. You know why? Because Jesus is going to come here in this temple. the Messiah will visit this temple. That's why it's gonna be greater than all the rest. But all these things were a reminder, I am with my people. What other people could say God was with them in that way? Only they, as a matter of fact, the day of Pentecost, the first day of the New Testament church, when the pillars of fire fell upon the heads of the 12 apostles, what was God saying? I'm still here. I'm with my people, and I will be with my people until Jesus comes back. That's what he was promising. So they were given the glory. They were also given, in the third place, the covenants. Some covenants were made with all men. God's covenant with Adam was made with all men. God's covenant with Noah was made with all men. As a matter of fact, God's covenant with Noah was made with the creeping things. It was made with the rats and the cockroaches. It was made with all of creation. But His covenant with Abraham, and His covenant with Moses, and His covenant with David were most specifically given to the people of Israel. We were, as Gentiles, excluded from that. Paul says that in Ephesians chapter 2, that we were strangers from the covenants of the promise. Did you hear that? The covenants, plural, of the singular promise. The covenants about the singular promise of a coming Redeemer. They're all about Jesus. But we were strangers at that time because those were made exclusively with the children of Israel. But now in the New Testament, Jesus has broken down the middle wall of division between us to make one new people of the two, out of Jew and Gentile, so that we're no longer strangers to the covenants, but heirs of their promises, as it were. But the covenants were originally given specifically to Israel and to them alone. The fourth thing is the giving of the law. They were given the word of God. In the Old Testament, the 39 books of the Old Testament, believe it or not, were not originally written in English. They were written in Hebrew. And only the Jews read Hebrew. It was given to them specifically in their specific language, their specific tongue, and not to anybody else. Exclusively to them. Now today, we have, I think, an even greater blessing. Because yes, we do have the 39 books of the Old Testament as well, translated into English, but what else do we have? We have the entire New Testament. We have the 27 books, the fullest revelation, the fulfillment of the Old Covenant is found in our New Testaments, and we have access to that. I would submit to you, God has given you and I greater light than He even gave to Israel. Because we even know the name of the Son. The Son is foretold in the Old Testament, but His name is not given. But how's our New Testament open? You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. So we have the fuller revelation of God, and brothers and sisters, don't ever take it for granted. Don't ever take it for granted that you have the Bible in your own language. But God in the Old Covenant gave His word to them. And then, not only the law of God, but the service of God. That is, the worship in the temple. This was given to the Old Testament people of God, Israel. He gave them the priesthood. He gave them the sacrificial system. And we think about that and realize, what was the priesthood and the sacrificial system pointing to? It was pointing to the greater priest and the greater sacrifice that would come of Christ. But here's the point. Okay, I've given you my law, and that's convicting because you break it all the time. But I'm also going to give you priest advocates for you before God who are going to offer blood atonement sacrifices in your place so that you can be forgiven for your breach of the law. All of which was pointing to Christ. But think about that. Who else was given priests? You know, was the Philistines given priesthood that represented them before God? No, they were not. These priests were given to you. The sacrificial system was given to you. The service of worship was given to you in a unique way. Then the sixth thing, to them were given the promises. You know, we talk about following Jesus, but we can't follow Jesus the way the multitudes who lived in His day did, where they literally physically followed Him from one place to another, from one city to another, can we? What's it mean then today in the 21st century to follow Jesus since I can't see Him with my eyes? It means two basic things. You follow Him by faith in His promises, and you follow Him by obedience to His precepts. That's what it means to follow Jesus. In other words, you believe what He said, and you obey what He said. That's what it means to follow the Lord. And you trust not just his promises, you trust the one who made the promises. You trust the person of God himself. But the promises in the Old Testament, they're so precious, were given specifically, peculiarly, to Israel. Seventh thing, of whom are the fathers? The fathers came from them. It's Christmas time and I grew up with a Christmas album by Bing Crosby. And one of the songs on that Christmas album is called Christmas in Killarney. Killarney is a village in Ireland. And there's one phrase that always stands out to me whenever I hear it. Santa Claus, you know of course, is one of the boys from home. That is St. Nicholas was from Ireland. And so Santa Claus, you know, of course is one of the boys from home. Well, what's Paul saying here? He's saying Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David and Samuel and all these wonderful prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, all these wonderful men. They are all the boys from home. In other words, they came from our lineage. They are part of our heritage because we are Israelites. And that's what he's saying here. King David arose from your midst. My friend, Pastor Kurt Smith, is a descendant of a man named Daniel Marshall. Daniel Marshall heard the preaching of George Whitefield, was very inspired by it, planted the first ever continuing Baptist church here in Georgia. Well, he is, my dear friend, is a descendant of Daniel Marshall. As a matter of fact, Kurt Smith's middle name is Marshall. He has a godly lineage, a godly heritage in his ancestry. Even so, the Israelites had a godly heritage in their ancestry, and that, Paul says, was a great blessing. But then the eighth thing, the final blessing, the final privilege they have is the best of all. He saved the best for last. And what is it? And from whom? According to the flesh, Christ came, who is overall the eternally blessed God. Amen. He ends this section with worship. He says the very best thing, the very best privilege that Israel has is the Messiah came from them. And that Messiah is not just the Savior of the Jews. He's the Savior of the world. He's the Savior of all nations. He's the Savior of all peoples from all languages and nations and tongues and ethnicities. He's come from Israel, but He's come to be the Savior of all men. Remember what Jesus said. to the woman at the well in Sychar. John chapter 4 says, You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Why is salvation of the Jews? Because the Savior of the world came from the Jews. And because we believe in this Jewish Messiah, we have life, even though we're Gentiles. But there's something else you need to notice here. The language, according to the flesh, is a little strange, isn't it? It came according to the flesh. Well, didn't we all come according to the flesh? In other words, aren't we all just flesh and blood and we all were born in the same manner that Jesus was because He was born of a woman and we were born of women? That kind of thing. But He's saying this language on purpose. Jesus came according to the flesh because He is, overall, the eternally blessed God. He's not talking about Jesus coming in the flesh and then turning our attention to the first person of the Godhead, God the Father. What he's saying is this One who is born of the flesh is the eternally blessed God. Jesus Himself has the fullness of the deity in Him. because He is Almighty God. He is not 50% God and 50% man, nor is He 25% God and 75% man. He is 100% God, 100% man, mixed together without any mixture, without any delusion. You put ice in your hot tea and what happens? You lose some heat, from the tea, and the ice loses some of its cool. There's an exchange going on. Well, when Jesus, when his two natures were put together, one didn't cool off in favor of another. He remained completely God, and yet became completely man. He's the eternally blessed God who is over all forever. Well, there's three applications I want to make. We've just gotten started, obviously, with chapter 9. But there's three applications I want to make. First of all, Fervent love for never-dying souls is a legitimate and powerful motivation for sustained evangelistic labors. Now, I said it's a motivation, not the only motivation. As a matter of fact, I would suggest it's not even the primary motivation. You ever heard someone get up and they're zealous about missions and they say, the Great Commission is the greatest command Jesus ever gave. You ever heard someone say that? You have a problem with that? Did Jesus say there was another command that was greater even than that? He did. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is the greatest commandment. The motivation for obeying the Great Commission is found first and foremost in our love for the Lord Himself. Brothers and sisters, that's important. There's a man named Tom Wells who wrote a book called A Vision for Mission. Some of you read it in our Great Commission class. But he said this. He was talking to a missionary from Thailand, a very difficult field to labor in. And he said, what's the secret of your staying power? What's kept you on the mission field? And without hesitation, this woman missionary said, God's command. If it wasn't for God's command, I wouldn't be there. He spoke to another man, another missionary, who said this, a need will not keep you on the mission field. People will rebuke and repel you. That is the very people you're trying to reach don't want to be reconciled to the God you've come to preach to them. They hate him and they hate you too. So they'd rather you just shut up and go back to your homeland. Because they don't care about being reconciled to you. They don't care what you've sacrificed in order to reach them. Left to themselves, they're totally depraved just like we are, and they don't want to be reconciled and have peace with this God. And if your only motivation is love for men, that motivation is not going to sustain you. You have to believe that Jesus Christ is worth it. That God is worth it. He's worth being made known to sinners, whether those sinners receive it or not. And so it has to be, first and foremost, your love for the Lord. But here's the thing. Let's not let that excuse our apathy for those who are lost. Because if you love the Lord, isn't it true that you're also going to love those who are made in His image? What is the second greatest commandment? That you should love your neighbor as yourself. Are you glad that somebody shared the gospel with you? If you were lost, wouldn't you want somebody to come preach the gospel to you? Well, if that's what you want people to do to you, what should you do to them? Paul could say that, I have continual grief in my heart. I have perpetual grief. Don't raise your hand, but if you're honest, how many of you would say, I have perpetual apathy when it comes to evangelism? And yet Paul could say, I have perpetual grief. I want the Lord to make me less like me, more like Jesus. I actually would also like for him to make me less like me, more like Paul. And to have less apathy when it comes to sharing the gospel with those who are outside the church. I truly want people to be saved, but I just kind of don't want to have to do anything uncomfortable to see it happen. How about you? Is that not how we often are? I appreciate the words of Henry Martin. If you don't know who Henry Martin was, he was a contemporary of William Carey. And he was honest enough to write in his journal, And so you know his journal was published and it was as influential on 19th century missions as David Brainerd's had been a century before. So Henry Martin's name was well known in those days. But Henry Martin was being real transparent and honest in his journal one day and he wrote this, quote, it is my will rather to sit down, content myself with reading and let the world perish. Now, do you feel that way sometimes? He did, but he didn't succumb to it. He went on to say, but I can't. Christ's honor is too great. Souls are too important. I've got to go ahead and share the gospel despite the fact that I feel apathetic in my heart. Dorothy Carey and his fellow missionaries wrote something called the Serampore Compact. They put it out in 1805. Basically, it was the constitution of their mission, if you will. And they would read it out loud three times a year just to remind them, why are we here? What are we doing here on the mission field here in India? And they say this, first, in order to be prepared for our great and solemn work, it is absolutely necessary that we set an infinite value upon immortal souls, that we often endeavor to affect our minds with the dreadful loss sustained by an unconverted soul launched into eternity. It becomes us to fix in our minds the awful doctrine of eternal punishment, and to realize frequently the inconceivably awful conditions of this vast country lying in the arms of the wicked one. If we have not this awful sense of the value of souls, it is impossible that we can feel a right in any other part of our work. And in this case, it had been better for us to have been in any other situation other than that of a missionary. Oh, may our hearts bleed over these poor idolaters. I don't know if that's convicting for you, it is for me, that I need more love for my fellow man. Brothers and sisters, as we walk through the days and you stare people in the eyes in your workplace, in the grocery store, wherever you are, can you look them right in the eyes and think that behind those eyes there's a never-dying soul? And those eyes are someday going to see Jesus face-to-face. they're going to see him on his throne of judgment. And their ears are going to hear one of two things said by him. Either he's going to look at them and say, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, or he's going to look them right in the eye and say, depart from me, you cursed. Into the everlasting fire, prepare for the devil and his angels. And the only thing standing between them and hearing Jesus say that is the gospel that's been given to you. You may be the only person who truly knows the gospel that they meet, and you need to be prepared to say to them, there's a way of escape. There's a judgment coming, but there's a way of escape, and his name is Jesus. So may God grant us that kind of a heart. Second application, beware of presuming upon the gospel privileges that God has surrounded you with. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write about eight specific privileges that the Jews were given, that the surrounding Gentiles were not given. They were given the Word of God. They were given the presence of God. They were given the promises concerning the coming Messiah. They were given the sacrificial system in the priesthood, which pointed them to Christ. They were told all these things. They were told that there was a coming Messiah who would die for their sins and would be raised from the dead. All these things they were told. And yet, when we get to the end of the Old Testament, did the majority of the people who heard these things take advantage of them? Or did they just die in their sins? They died in their sins. The vast majority did not heed the light they were given. They just stayed in darkness. They stayed in unbelief. I've already hinted at this, but let me say it again. You've been given greater privileges than they were. Children, listen. You're being raised in godly homes. You're being raised in God-fearing homes where the Scriptures are loved, where God is loved, where His praises are sung. You're being raised in churches where the Gospel is being preached and the whole counsel of the Word of God is being preached to you week in and week out. But there's a very wise old maxim, it's a sad one though, that says familiarity breeds what? Contempt. We learn to take for granted the things God has given us and just assume that they'll always be there with us forever. God doesn't owe us those things. God hasn't promised those things. He can remove your privileges like that. He can take it all away. Remember the scriptures that said that there's a famine in the land, not of eating bread or water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord. There's a famine of preaching. And the day's going to come when the young men and young women are going to run to and fro saying, where's the Word of the Lord? I want to have it preached to me. And it's not going to be found. Because you didn't take advantage of it when you had it. So God takes it away. The scriptures say, seek the Lord while he may be found. Today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow is the day of salvation. Do not presume upon tomorrow. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek Him today. What's the psalm say? If today you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Open your heart to Him. Run to Him. You can't run, walk to Him. You can't walk, crawl to Him. You can't crawl, fall that direction. I'm serious. Really. Do it. Close with Christ. Repent while there's time. Believe on Christ while there's time. Do not presume upon the advantages you've been given. Jesus said that some of the greatest sins ever committed are not people who are homosexuals or perverts. You know what He uses as one of the greatest sins? It's to be given great light and to remain unbelieving in the face of all that light. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the psalm of Gomorrah had seen the miracles done in you, they would have repented a long time ago in sackcloth and ashes. It'll be more tolerable for them. on the day of judgment than for you. You've been given great light. My hands are innocent of your blood. You've been given great light. Receive that light by repenting and putting your faith in Jesus. Third and finally, Jesus Christ is both God and man. That's what Paul ends with, isn't it, in verse five? He's the eternally blessed God over all things. It's important that you get that. Don't take that for granted either. Because think about it. Every single pseudo-Christian cult gets this wrong. The Mormons say that Jesus is God. They also say you're God. And He's not immutable. He's ever-changing. He's further along the spiritual evolutionary chain than you are, but you're catching up to Him gradually. But the Jesus of the Bible is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Jesus of the Mormons is also Satan's brother. I don't know if you knew that. It's not the Jesus of the Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus is the Son of God, but deny that He's God the Son. And they deny the entire doctrine of the Trinity, as do the Unitarians. The theological liberals believe Jesus was a good, righteous teacher, but He's still dead. And he's not risen, according to them. Gnostics deny he ever came in the flesh at all. He's God, but he's not man. And there's others who say he's man, but not God. And you realize, if you get that wrong, it doesn't matter what else you get right. Because if you get Jesus wrong, it doesn't matter what you get right. Because you can't put your faith in the false Jesus. You've got to put your faith in the Jesus of Holy Scripture that is revealed there, who's both God and man. And that is attested to nowhere greater. than in His resurrection. Remember what Paul says in Romans 1 verse 4? He says, Jesus is of the lineage of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit by what? By raising Him from the dead. The resurrection is the shout of God saying, this is the second person of the Godhead. Become a man and raise from the dead. So never let someone snatch from you the true Jesus. hold to the true Jesus who is, yes, the descendant of David, the Son of Man, but who also is the Son of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the revelation of Your truth. And we would pray that your spirit would be at work in our midst, that you would be poured out upon those who are outside of Christ to draw them to Christ. For us who are in the faith, Lord, forgive us for our perpetual apathy for those who are lost. Help us to have more of the heart of a Paul who could say he could wish himself a curse from Christ for the good of his countrymen. Help us to have that same heart for our culture. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.