Let's begin again this afternoon by considering the first seven verses of the epistle to the Romans. And this afternoon, I would like to complete our consideration of verse five, which really brings to a close Paul's statement, essentially in a very broad way, of who the epistle is from. And we've seen that in this prescript that takes us through verse seven, What Paul is doing most generically is explaining who the letter is from and who the letter is to. But we're still in the context of his explanation of who the letter is from as he shows himself in relation to this gospel. And so he writes, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle or a called apostle, as it were, set apart for the gospel of God. which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake. among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Last time we considered Paul's calling in terms of this great mandate of the gospel. Paul understood from a redemptive historical standpoint that what God had done in the coming of Christ was to open up a door for the gospel. and to bring to fulfillment what the prophets had spoken of, this revelation of the Son. And he said that his mandate was Christ's mandate, the bringing about of obedience of faith. The obedience of faith. And we considered last time the way in which this is to be properly understood as the great mandate of men is faith. The Gospel is a message that calls men to the compulsion of faith. Repent and believe the gospel. Great obligation of men is faith. And so Paul is speaking first and foremost of this issue of faith, the obedience that is faith. Faith itself is the great obligation that works itself out in the fruit of a transformed life. And now he tells us, secondly, as we'll consider today, that this obedience of faith is pertaining specifically to the Gentiles. Paul's mandate was the mandate that Christ had given to him. And we saw how in Acts 9, when he was commissioned, Christ sent Ananias to him and he told him, go. Go. In spite of Ananias' concern about this man, because as he had been a persecutor of the church, a terrorizer of the church, Christ said, go. He is a chosen instrument of mine to the Gentiles. I will send him to kings. and even to the sons of Israel. And I will show him all that he must suffer for my namesake." Paul's commission was a commission to go and proclaim the gospel. To labor for the obedience of faith. To see men come to faith. And here he tells us specifically that it pertains to the Gentiles. Now, he's not telling us that this gospel has nothing to do with the Jews. He's not telling us that it pertains to the Gentiles in a way that it doesn't pertain to the Jews. That they have no place in this gospel or no place in God's salvation. That's not what he's saying to us. Nor is he saying that now God has instituted a Gentile dispensation, so to speak, and now is the time of the Gentiles when the gospel and God's salvation, His purposes really are focused on the Gentiles and the Jewish people have been put on hold awaiting a time in the future when their destiny will come. And God will get back to his original program, which is the salvation of the Jews. That's a common idea today, but that's not at all Paul's point. Paul is again looking at this issue of the gospel and his relationship to it as Christ's steward in terms of a redemptive historical reality. That with the coming of the fullness of time, with the coming of the fulfillment of all things in principle in Christ, there is a new reality that defines now the people of God. And one of the most important, and we've seen this, I think, in other contexts, but we're going to consider it again today. One of the very most important aspects of this kingdom, the new eon of the Spirit, in contrast with the eon of the flesh, is the definition of the people of God. One of the most conspicuous things about the coming of the kingdom is that now in the new eon of the Spirit, you have a globalizing of this idea of the people of God. An entirely different reality of what constitutes the people of God. Not in terms of replacement, not in terms of A going to B per se, but in terms of a fulfillment. Israel has come to its fulfillment. But we know that under the old eon that characterized the period leading up to the coming of Christ, the Abrahamic promise, the definition of the people of God, if you will, was really constrained to a certain specific line of Abraham's seed. Not all of his seed. Not Ishmael, but Isaac. Not Esau, but Jacob. Not the sons of Keturah. God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we know that after the 400 years when Joseph went into Egypt and he became God's deliverer in the sense that he was the one through whom God preserved the household of Israel alive in the context of a great famine that filled the land. And the household of Jacob, 70 some in number, went down into Egypt and they sojourned there. And they became oppressed and they became subjugated. And when the time came for a deliverance What did God do? He sent Moses and He told Moses to tell the people, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hundreds of years have passed. Centuries have gone away. All of these generations have come and gone, even among the household of Israel. And now God is again emerging in a very visible way and saying, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In other words, the God of your fathers. And I have remembered my covenant with them. I have remembered my promise to Abraham. And what was the promise? That I will make you into a great nation. I will cause you to prosper. I will give you the land of Canaan for your inheritance. I will give you all the land from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt to the great sea. And I will make you a great and blessed nation. And I will bring forth a multitude of nations from you. Abram's name was changed to Abraham because he was declared by God in promise to be the father of a multitude of nations. And now God is telling the sons of Israel, it's in accordance with that promise that I am bringing you out of bondage to fulfill my promise to the patriarch and to bring you into the land of Canaan. And so, Israel was uniquely God's covenant people. The sons of Israel were uniquely the children of the promise. When God said, I make my covenant, Abraham, with you and with your seed after you, that pertained in that fulfillment to the physical descendants of Abraham. A specific line of the physical descendants, but nonetheless the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so Israel's covenant status, the whole event of Sinai where God entered into a covenant with a nation, the first time in human history God had ever entered into a covenant with a nation. He did it in a promissory way with Abraham, but now he made a covenant with a nation in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that covenant status, Israel's covenant identity, represented the fulfillment of that promise to Abraham. The covenant people of God were associated with Abraham himself. And so, this is why God can refer to Israel as an elect and as a beloved son. If you turn to Exodus chapter 3, or chapter 4 rather, God has now raised up Moses and he sent him to Egypt and he tells him what it is that he's to proclaim to Pharaoh. When Moses appears before Pharaoh, here is what It is that he's to say, in chapter 4, verse 21, And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. And then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says Yahweh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And so I said to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn." And Moses is already speaking of what's to come in what? The Passover. But God says you are to tell Pharaoh, as he looks at this group of subjugated Hebrew slaves, that they are the elect firstborn son of Yahweh. And you are to let my son go that he may worship and serve me in the wilderness." Turn over to chapter 19. This is now right on the verge of the Sinai covenant. Moses has now indeed led the sons of Israel out of Egypt. They've been delivered through the Red Sea. Pharaoh's army has been drowned. And now they have come into the wilderness of Sinai and they have camped at the very foot of Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai. And God is about to enter into His covenant with the nation. Chapter 19, verse 1. In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. And there Israel camped in front of the mountain. And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus, you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel. It's just Hebrew parallelism. It's the same individuals, the house of Jacob, the sons of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and I brought you to myself. Now, then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. He's speaking in anticipation of this covenant that is to come. He's setting the stage, as it were, for their responsibility to this covenant. If you will keep it, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. But you will still uniquely be my people in the context of me possessing all things. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words, Moses, that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. By being constituted with this covenant, Israel became uniquely the people of God. Uniquely His people among all the people of the earth. And He said that you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Real quickly, turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 7. I just want to show you how again God set Israel out as uniquely belonging to Him God tells them how they're to stand in uniqueness with respect to the nations around them. Can you all hear me? I think my microphone went dead. When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. These were the great peoples that inhabited the land of Canaan. God says, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Lord will be kindled against you and he will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them, you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and hew down their Asherim and burn their graven images with fire. Why? Because you are a holy people to the Lord your God, holy meaning consecrated, set apart, marked out, you're to destroy these nations around you because of your consecration, you are to have no interaction with them that would defile you. and lead you away from me. Now, God did not mean no interaction, absolutely. But as he's giving them the land, he's establishing very intense parameters for how they're to view themselves as his people. The Lord, your God, has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more a number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But he did so because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers. The Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I chose you and put my love upon you because of my good pleasure, in accordance with the promise that I made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And so Israel was an elect nation. It was God's first born son, first born, not meaning the first one, but preeminent. Of all the nations of the earth, God chose Israel to be his covenant people, a unique people, distinct and discreet. Separate from all the nations of the earth. But now Paul is saying that with the fulfillment of the fullness of times, This spiritual category, this religious category of the people of God has undergone a transformation. It's undergone a transformation, the identity of that covenant people has been altered, not by way of replacement, but by way of fulfillment. You hear often today among people that they don't like this replacement theology that takes Israel and replaces it with the church. Well, the Bible doesn't say that Israel is replaced by the church. It says that Israel has found its own ordained destiny. In the church, the engrafting of the Gentiles into the people of God, this is very fundamental to Paul's understanding, and I'm not going to read a lot of context, there are many that support this. By obviously, by the time we get to chapter nine through 11 of Romans, we're going to see this very clearly in Paul's understanding where he answers the rhetorical question. What about Israel? What about the Jewish people? What about my kinsmen, according to the flesh? But Paul understands this issue of Israel in the church in terms of a principle of fulfillment, not replacement fulfillment. And I want you to see this from Ephesians chapter two. On into chapter three. Paul, again, has been setting a context for an absolute sovereign salvation, not simply sovereign in its accomplishment or in its outworking in individual people's lives, but sovereign in an eternal intention, in an eternal determination, in an eternal love, an eternal election, an eternal predestination. And now he's talking about how this has come about in relation to the Gentiles. He says in verse 11 of chapter two, therefore, remember that formerly you who's the you, the Gentiles in the flesh, he means according to their human identity, according to their human ancestry, you who are non-Jews, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. You who are called uncircumcision by the Jews, remember that you were at that time at what time in the former age, in the former eon. In the reality of things prior to the coming of this fulfillment in Christ, the inauguration of the new age of the spirit that has come upon the resurrection and the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the spirit formerly you. were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. You see, Paul is acknowledging that before the coming of Christ, there was a very real distinction. The people of God was a category constrained to Israel. The Gentiles were outside of the covenants. They were outside of the promises. They were outside of that commonwealth that was God's covenant people. But but now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh The enmity, what enmity he's talking about, the enmity between Jew and Gentile. The enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances that in himself he might make the two who Jew and Gentile into one new man. Thus establishing peace. And might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by by it having put to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who were far and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the father. So then you, you, the Gentiles, are no longer strangers and aliens as you were. But you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the cornerstone. in whom the whole building. Jew, Gentile, the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. And he goes on and talks about how God gave to him this this ministry of the gospel and this understanding of this reconciliation. He calls it a mystery. Verse four of chapter three. By referring to this, this revelation that had come to him, by which he came to understand what it was that Christ had accomplished. He says, when you read, you can understand when you read what I'm referring to. You can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit or by the spirit. And what is this mystery of Christ? Verse six. that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body. And fellow partakers of the promise. In Christ Jesus, through the gospel of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to me to do what? To preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things in order that now in this unfolding, this unveiling, this illumination, that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. And he goes on and talks about how in this humility, in this great sense of longing for the church, he bows his knees before the father in whom all the families are joined together, all the families in heaven and earth, the families of God. Paul understood that the great mystery that was hidden, that was not understood as it would be revealed that the fullness of Christ is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. with the nation of Israel, not replacement, but fulfillment that the Gentiles are to be grafted in. And this becomes very clear when you get to Romans 11 and Paul puts this in terms of the patriarchal structure, the patriarchal promise and covenant embodied in this olive tree idea and the breaking off of the natural branches, the grafting in of the wild branches. And that just as the wild branches can be grafted in and they stand by faith. So also the wild branches, too, are grafted or the natural branches are grafted in by faith. One olive tree, natural branches, wild branches grafted into one reality, not replacement theology, fulfillment. And so the covenant community of Israel had represented typologically This reality that has now come in Christ, the physical seed of Abraham were the ones to whom the promise was made. And so can we say that the promise was made to the Jewish people when God spoke to Abraham? God himself said that when he brought the Jews out of Egypt and he brought them into Canaan and made his covenant with them, he said, I'm doing this to fulfill my promises to Abraham. And yet, in the light of fulfillment, in the light of the New Testament, we come to see that ultimately the issue In true fulfillment is not one of physical ancestry, but one of spiritual union. Spiritual reality. So that Paul will tell us again, even in Romans two and then again in chapter nine, have the promises of God to Israel fail. No, not all Israel is Israel. It's an issue of promise, it's an issue of a spiritual inheritance, it's not an issue of physical descent. And so the fulfillment that we see in the sons of Israel was a physical, typological fulfillment. And God has revealed now that in the fullness of times, what has happened is that it's become an issue of spiritual union so that Paul can tell us in Galatians 3 that the promise was made to Abraham and his seed, seed singular, not plural. And who is that seed? Christ. And I mentioned before on Wednesday when we had our class that It's not that Paul is making a grammatical determination there. You couldn't say, well, gee, if I could only go back and read Hebrew, then I would be able to understand how Paul came to that conclusion. The nouns are off seed occurs almost always in a singular form. So how is it that Paul can say the promise was made to the singular seed and it wasn't made to all the seed when God said it does pertain to a plurality of seed? It's not a grammatical understanding. Paul has a redemptive historical understanding. You see, what was the promise to Abraham? Righteousness through faith. What is the blessing Paul will talk in Romans four when we get there about how the blessing to Abraham and his seed is the blessing of a righteousness reckoned through faith. That's the great blessing that was promised to Abraham. But how is it that Righteousness can be reckoned to sinful man, to sinful man, by a righteous God. With God upholding his own righteousness, how is it that God can say, well, I'll just think of you as righteous, you're really not, but I'll just reckon you as righteous. And still uphold his integrity, he can't. And so the very promise of a righteousness through faith that is shown to be God's own righteousness tells us that there is an issue of mediation of righteousness. Faith looks to an object. Faith entrusts itself to someone or something that is the agency of that righteousness. And so the very promise of a righteousness through faith speaks to an agency for the mediation of that righteousness. And that's what Paul is saying. The promise was made to Abraham and his seed. That seed is Christ. Why? Because he is the point of that righteousness. He's the point of that mediation so that now the promise can be true even for Abraham. And ultimately for men beyond Abraham. So Paul goes on in Galatians and he tells us what therefore it's all who belong to Christ. Who are the seed of Abraham and heirs of the promise made to him. They're heirs of the promise of a righteousness by faith because they belong to the one in whom that righteousness is mediated and found, first of all, found and secured, but then mediated. That's what Paul's getting at. And so the issue of the Abrahamic promise becomes one of fulfillment in a righteousness through faith, and it's no longer an issue of physical ancestry. We know that in every generation, most of the Jews perished in unbelief. And yet they continued physically to be the seed of Abraham, bearing the mark of circumcision in their flesh. Even while Manasseh and these other kings were offering their sons in the fire to Moloch, they were still covenant sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Who bore in their flesh. the mark of consecration to Yahweh, and yet they were not true sons. And that's what Paul is saying. Not all Israel is Israel. And it comes, in a sense, to that climax in that Elijah event, where all of Israel has basically been taken captive to Baal worship. And you have Elijah standing before Yahweh and saying, Lord, take my life. I'm all that's left. They've killed your prophets. They're all gone. There's nobody left who's faithful to you. And God says, what, even now I've reserved seven thousand who haven't bowed the knee to bail. Not all Israel is Israel. And so now, with the understanding of how it is that this Abrahamic promises to be realized of a righteousness by faith, now Paul sees very clearly how the promises to Abraham ultimately pertain to Abraham's true spiritual seed, Jew and Gentile, not only those who are according to the flesh of Abraham, but those who also have the faith. of Abraham, and this will become fundamental in our understanding of the book of Romans, this understanding of Israel's destiny and Israel's fulfillment in the church, a spiritual Israel defined by this principle of faith. And the reckoning of a righteousness by that faith tied to the singular Israel, the true son, who is Christ himself, becomes very foundational to all of Paul's understanding, and that's why he's speaking in Romans one about this obedience of faith that pertains to the Gentiles. Because Paul understood that the kingdom now pertains to a different reality, you now have a globalizing of this category of the people of God. And this is why Peter can now, without even explaining to us or making any sort of a defense of what he's saying, use the terminology of Israel's covenant status in reference to the church. Turn to First Peter, chapter two. If you would. And the reason why I wanted to read those context from numbers or excuse me, from Exodus, as I wanted you to see that this is exactly what he's doing. Again, he talks about how the point of winnowing is Christ himself, he is the true stone upon whom his people as living stones are being built into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ. He is this stone upon whom the whole building is being erected, and he winnows this on the basis of a faith in Christ. Now, to you who believe this stone is precious, but to those who disbelieve the stone, the builders rejected has become the capstone and a stone of stumbling in a rock of offense. So this winnowing is now on the basis of this issue of faith. And he's again in speaking to the Gentiles, he says in verse nine, but you You these stumble, these who disbelieve stumble. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that's the language of covenant Israel in the Old Testament. A chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. And Peter says you are that. Why? Because you're a Gentile? No. Why? Because you're a Jew? No. Why? Because you are a living stone being built upon the living stone. That's what makes you one of these individuals that was used of Israel in its typological expression as God was painting a portrait of what the church would finally be, what the true people of God would be. And God used to say that to Israel over and over again. The greatest expression of that is in the articulation of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Israel was a people that had a law written on tablets of stone. And God says the day is coming when I will put my righteousness, the principles of righteousness that I'm calling my law. I'm going to put that in your hearts. And you will be my people and I will be your God. The covenant language of Israel was if you obey me, if you keep the words of my covenant, if you follow all of my priests, prescriptions and my my precepts and my ordinances, then you will be my people and I will be your God. And now God says, I will be your God and you will be my people because my righteousness will be written on your heart and they will all know me. Everyone in this covenant will know me. Israel did not know her God, but now they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. And so as a result, we have union with Christ being the point of the constitution of the true people of God. The language of Israel's covenant status is now applied to those who are joined to Christ, those who are built upon him as the true stone. You see the same thing in terms of the language of Israel's theocratic identity, her history, her theocratic life. Turn to Romans chapter 12. I'm going to move through some of these very quickly, but I want you to see that this is very much at the very heart of Paul's understanding. And it needs to be very importantly understood by us. This is a great line of demarcation in the church today, the relationship between Israel and the church. And I think that the fundamental misunderstanding that so plagues the church with respect to the Old Testament is because they don't understand what I think the New Testament is so clear about. Listen to the language that Paul brings forth here, and we're going to look at some things in Hebrews as well and also in the vision of the revelation and a couple of things from Christ himself to show you that the language of Israel's Theocratic life, Israel's history, the things that really made Israel Israel are now applied to the people of God, who are those that are joined to Christ. The language of sacrifice, the temple, consecration, circumcision, redemptive rest, Yom Kippur, Jerusalem, the altar, all of that language is now applied to the church. Look at Romans 12, one. I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The language of Israel's religious life sacrifices to God worship in the context of sacrifice. First Corinthians three. Israel's theocratic life centered in the temple, that was the place of Yahweh's habitation. That was the place where the Lord dwelled in the midst of the people of Israel. God peculiarly dwelt in his temple. Now you have Paul saying to the Corinthians, he says in verse 16, and again, this is a context in which he's talking about specifically leaders, how they are to build on the foundation of Christ and to realize the responsibility to the saints. But also Even broader than that, our responsibility to one another, how we build on the foundation of Christ in relation to one another. But he says in verse 16, do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? That's the significance. The temple is where Yahweh dwelt. If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are. The language of the temple is now brought into a fulfillment that first finds its its focal point in Christ himself. He's the sanctuary of the living God. And ultimately, all those who are joined to him become again, even as they are stones built on the living stone, the one stone. So they also are a temple in the Holy Spirit. They are the dwelling place of God. Second Corinthians six, Paul quotes from the Old Testament, Israel's law of consecration, separation, holiness and cleanliness had nothing to do with anything except in the most general way. Issues of separation, whether from physical, biological uncleanness, but also from spiritual uncleanness. And Paul brings this out in his instruction to the Corinthians, second Corinthians six, verse 14, do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness. What harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? We are the temple of the living God. Just as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. That's the language of the old covenant. The language of the mosaic prescription come out from among them. Touch not anything unclean, unclean garments, dead bodies, unclean food. Unclean people come out from among them. You see this over and over again in the book of Hebrews, you have the language of Israel's redemptive rest in Canaan now applying to the rest that comes in Christ in chapter two and three. In chapter nine, you have the language of Yom Kippur, the great sacrifice of atonement that is now seen and shown to be fulfilled in Christ. And therefore, for all who are joined to him as well. You have the language of Jerusalem, Paul says, you know, to the author of Hebrews says you haven't come to Mount Sinai, you've come to the New Jerusalem, you've come to the heavenly city. Jerusalem was the focal point of Israel's self-identity. It represented the place where God had put his name. And you see in the in the portrait in Revelation, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. And it manifests itself in the vision is a perfect cube, the sanctuary of God was a perfect cube, the holy of holies height with depth. And in John's vision, what he sees now is that the sanctuary where God dwelt, that was separate from men by the veil that has now been torn at the death of Christ, the veil that the author of Hebrews says is even his flesh through which we now enter. Now you have in this vision the angel proclaiming, behold, the sanctuary of God is now with men and God himself will dwell among them. The language of Israel is used in relation to fulfillment. The typology is very, very broad and very strong. You see it also even in Christ's kingdom teaching. And I'm just going to give you one example here. Much more of this is in the the notes. But I want you to see that Jesus spoke in the same way he takes the patriarchal promises and he extends them beyond national Israel. This is in a context where he talks again about who those who are really going to enter his kingdom will be. He's already spoken in terms of this obligation of entering or he's going to talk about entering through the narrow door. Let's look at verse 22 of chapter 13 of Luke as he was passing through one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem. He's already set his face towards Jerusalem, towards his day of his crucifixion. Someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And is it always the case with Christ or at least almost always, he doesn't answer the question directly the way you would expect, he answers the question in a way that is a more thorough answer and gets to the heart of the issue. He said, strive to enter by the narrow door for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. I am the door of the sheep. I am the door of the sheep. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer and say, I do not know where you are from. And then here's what you will answer. You will say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. And he will say, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers. You see their responses. We had a proximity to you, Lord. We sat under your preaching. We heard the word we had some sort of fellowship with you in the context of the church, and he says, I never knew you. I don't know where you're from. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets. Here's the great Abrahamic promise, the great Israelite hope. of the kingdom, the fulfillment of all things, the final consummation of all things. When you see them all together in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves being cast out and they will come, men will come from east and west and from north and south and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And some who are last will be first in the first last. You see what Jesus is doing and he's asked a question about salvation. He's talking again about how it bears upon the Abrahamic promise, the kingdom of God and the promise to the patriarchs, the promise that the prophets kept articulating. And he says that many are going to come from all over the world and sit with the patriarchs and with the prophets at the table in the kingdom of God. But you, the sons of the kingdom. The national historical people of Israel are going to find yourselves being cast out. And over and over again, Christ's kingdom parables take the same idea, the parable of the vineyard owner. The kingdom is going to be taken from you and given to those who will bear the fruit of it. And so the language of the patriarch, the language of the Abrahamic promise is applied to the Gentiles. You see it where Jesus draws upon their history and in the serpent that's lifted up when the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness and those who had been bitten by the snakes lived. And Jesus said, so as it was then, when you see the Son of Man lifted up, I will draw all men to myself, not all Jews, all men to myself. The bread from heaven, God fed the Jews, the manna from heaven, and Jesus said, I am the true bread that comes down out of heaven, who gives his himself for the life of the world. The language of Israel is put in terms of the kingdom as it pertains to men of every tribe and tongue and nation and people. And this was central to Paul's understanding, the unveiling of the great mystery that is the church. Israel's own fullness, Israel's own destiny, the mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow heirs, fellow partakers in the promise. Fellow partakers, the prophet spoke of it, we saw that even in Isaiah this morning, but what you see with the prophets is that they still retained an Israelite distinction in a sense. There were Gentiles who were a part of the kingdom of God at that time, but they were a part of it in the sense that they were grafted into Israel. They adopted Israel's covenant, Israel's religious practice, Israel's religious ritual. They were circumcised in the flesh. And yet even then, they were still held in distinction from the true sons of Abraham. They were proselytes, but they weren't really sons of Israel. They weren't sons of Abraham. And in the same way, the prophet spoke of the same distinction. It's only now with the coming of Christ that, as Paul says, all of the barriers are broken down in a way that there is now no longer any distinction between the two. So the idea in the prophets, the idea in the Old Testament of a single global covenant community free of all ethnic, cultural, linguistic and or geographical parameters was entirely unknown. Let me say that again. The idea of a single global covenant community free of all ethnic, cultural, linguistic and or geographical parameters was entirely unknown. Paul says this is the mystery of the church. This is what has been revealed with the coming of Christ. This is what Paul now took in his mouth as the proclamation of the good news of the gospel, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. You who were far have now been brought near. You who lived outside of the knowledge of God have now been brought near in Christ. And this was Paul's message everywhere he went. God lets you go your way. He didn't leave himself without witness, but he lets you go your way. But now he's coming to you with the gospel and he's calling you to come. He's calling all men to come. The obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. And Paul says that this is for his name's sake. The great doxology of Paul and his epistles, even as he can speak of Christ himself, it's interesting that in Chapter 11 of Romans, he says of the father of God himself from him, through him and to him are all things. And yet in Colossians, he can say the same thing of Christ. The same thing of Christ. Paul sees that all of this is for his name sake. Jesus made it clear he came into the world according to the mandate of the father. And what was the mandate of the father that of all that he has given me, I would lose none. I am the shepherd who comes to gather his sheep. My sheep from the house of Israel and I have sheep of another fold and I must bring them also. And I will not lose one. The father promised his son a kingdom. A kingdom inhabited by men of every tribe and tongue and nation and people. And this is the great vision of Revelation five that we heard earlier, where there's who is there able to prevail, who can really accomplish this determined will of God, who can really bring to pass the divine purpose. Behold, I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. A lion that appears as a lamb looking as if it had been slain. And the whole multitude sing his praises, because with his blood he purchased for God men of every tribe and tongue and nation and people. The father promised to his son an inheritance. He promised him that he would be the firstborn among many brethren, that he would have a kingdom and he would have brethren who would come from every tribe and tongue and nation of people. He would draw all men to himself. That was the great promise to the son. as his servant and Redeemer, the great conqueror. And so as you have the father, even in Paul's mouth, Paul tells us that the father's great eternal will was the summing up of all things in Christ, the gathering in of men of every tribe and tongue and nation of people, the summing up of all things, the redemption of the whole cosmic order in him. So Paul also tells us that all things have reference to Christ. All things are summed up in him and all things have reference to him, whether it's justification or condemnation. Blessing and life or destruction. They all have reference to him. The condemnation, the separation of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 is tied to what? What have you done with the son of man? What have you done with the son of man? Everything has reference to him, even as all authority and dominion are given to him. Paul says again in Colossians one, he is before all things in him. All things consist. He is the beginning. He is the first born from the dead, so that in him he might have all preeminence. He says it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And even though you were once alienated and hostile in mind, yet now he has reconciled you in his fleshly, but his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. God has made him to be all things. To the church, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So by way of summary, then in closing, we've seen that Paul's great mandate from Christ was the proclamation of the gospel in such a way that it would bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. He was the one who was charged with carrying out the great mandate of a gospel going into all the world. This was in accordance with the father's good purpose to sum up everything in Christ. Paul was an ambassador and he was an instrument of God for the accomplishing of the eternal purpose. And this goal demanded if all things are to be summed up in Christ, If the promises of the prophets are to be fulfilled, that is salvations to go into all the ends of the earth. Paul understood that that had to be accomplished by a global proclamation, the proclamation of the gospel to all nations. And not simply a proclamation to the nations, but a proclamation that would seek to bring about the obedience of faith in Christ. Faith among all the nations and disobedience, we're going to see this as we get into the balance of chapter one, But this issue of the obedience of faith is effectively a person's deliverance from himself. Paul could go and he could talk to to these people that he administered to, and he could talk about the greatness as he went to the Thessalonians, he could talk about the greatness of their salvation and saying how God had delivered them from the darkness. He had caused them to step back from this empty and foolish way this this life engaged in the worship of idols. He delivered them from that to worship the true and living God and to wait for his son from heaven. There was the mandate of the obligation of faith, the obedience of faith, a deliverance from the dominion of self, from the idolatry of self. There are two gods, there is God and there is self. And every manifestation of idolatry is ultimately the idolatrization of ourselves. The great sin in the garden was self as God. And it continues that way to this day. And the darkness that's over the world is the darkness of self bondage. And the deliverance of the gospel that Paul sought was the faith that is entrance into the life and the light of Christ himself. That's what he saw, that's what he labored for, the darkness that fills the minds and the hearts of men because of sin. And he pled with them to find reconciliation and forgiveness and peace and life. in Christ to turn from their worship of dead things, to worship the true and living God. And this is the supreme need of all men. Paul wasn't going to go and build on another man's foundation. He wanted to go where Christ hadn't been preached because he knew the mandate was that the gospel goes into all the world. It goes into all the world. Light and life have come in Christ and the obedience of faith is each of our great privilege and each of our great responsibility. with respect to our own souls first, but respect to the world is large. So what does that mean? I have to go some to some island in in the remote end of Indonesia. Is that what it means? Go to where the gospel hasn't been preached. This country is a mission field. I challenge you to go and talk to Christians and see how many people who profess Christ even really understand the gospel. How many of them can even give any kind of an articulation of their faith? So how does the church grow, the church grows on the basis of pandering to people's self idolatry. Come visit us, we have new seats, come visit us, we have remodeled sanctuary, we got a new air conditioning system. We have womb to tomb programs. We have everything your little hearts can desire. Tell us how we can meet your needs. That's how the church grows today. Because the church has lost its identity, it's lost its moorings, it's lost its sense of itself, and so it's lost its sense of its mission. And a couple of meetings this week with different men, this issue of how churches are so struggling today and very many churches are becoming very small. And they're becoming very not desperate, but they're becoming very beleaguered because of financial issues and struggles to even survive. And I believe and I may be wrong, but I believe we may be coming to a time in this country where you really have only two phenomenon with respect to the church. You'll have the megachurches that are rich and prosperous and successful and full of thousands of people. And you'll have small beleaguered faithful churches. I had two men ask me, one of whom is not a pastor, but he's in a small church and another man who is a pastor say, how do you get people to come to your church when you're small and you don't have all these programs and you don't have an orchestra and you don't have a praise band and you don't have drama clubs and you don't have this and you don't have that. How do you get people to come? And I said, you know what? In the culture of the church today, you can't. You can't. But the church's mandate is not to build the church by entertaining unbelievers. Its mandate is not to build the church by trying to woo people away from other churches by saying we have more programs than they do. Our praise band is better than their praise band. The mandate for building the church. Is people being converted to Christ? That was Paul's mandate. He labored to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles, Those who dwelt in the darkness of their sin of their own heart, he labored to go with the good news. Of a great salvation. Even as the angel could proclaim at the night of Christ's birth, do not fear, behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all the people, because today is born in the city of David, the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. That's how you build the church, that's how we need to build the church. With the testimony of our lives. Not trying to build a gymnasium, not trying to get a basketball program going. Not trying to give people a reason to come to church on Sunday instead of play golf or go out to eat or whatever it is they do. We are to labor with the gospel, do we believe that we have the good news? Do we believe that we have the good news with our children? Is our gospel positive? Do we come with a cool drink of water to those who are perishing, the psalmist says that Yahweh himself, the knowledge of the Lord, is like a drink of cool water in a dry and a barren land. The language of the psalmist is that in the Lord himself is refreshment in the Lord himself is blessing in his right hands or pleasures forever. Is that our evangelism? Or is it prayed and so that God can tell you whether you're elect and then you'll know whether you can be saved or not, is that our evangelism? Our mandate is Paul's mandate. A savior who has come, whose salvation pertains to all the world, in the sense that all will be saved or condemned in reference to him. What have you done with the son of man? And we have the good news. People are starving. Spiritually, people are living in the blindness of their sin, they think the answer to life is to get more stuff or to have more money or to do more things or to, you know, go through more and more and more relationships or have this or have that. Everybody's looking for answers under the sun. We have the answer. Do our lives show that we have the answer? Does our message say that we have the answer? Or is it come to church because we have new air conditioning? I hope that this is how we view the gospel, and this is how we view our evangelism A descendant of David, according to the flesh, the son of God, with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our Lord. In whose power brings about the obedience of faith among the nations. Paul had no constraint, he had no restraint, he had no lack of confidence in the message, he had no lack of confidence in the power of God. I am not ashamed of the gospel. He's going to tell us in a very few verses why, because it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. We have been given the words of life. Do we live it? Do we proclaim it? If our culture comes to the point where Churches that will speak the truth are. Persecuted and beleaguered and starving. And the apostate. Christian climate is flourishing in the land. Will we be faithful and realize that we have a mission field in our own country? We don't need to go to the ends of the earth to be stewards of this gospel. We need to be it in our homes. We need to be it in our neighborhoods. Let's pray. Father, how much we have to ask ourselves. Whether the impotency that we see in the church today is the result. Of impotent people. And father, we don't at all deny your sovereignty, we don't at all deny. The names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we don't at all deny the fact of Christ's proclamation that he builds his church and that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. But at the same time, of whom much is given, much is required. And we can look at the lives of a handful of men. Who literally in less than a century. With no mass transportation. No telephone. No Internet. No television or radio. They literally turned the world upside down. Because they were constrained. By the gospel. They were constrained to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. They were constrained to not be concerned about the wisdom of the world. But they knew that through the foolishness of the word preached that you would save those who believe. Father, it's to our own condemnation that we want something more than the gospel. Oh, yes, the gospel is the power of God, but we also need programs. We also need lively brochures. We also need lively outreach. We need to have praise band concerts to get in the unbelievers. Father, indeed, it is necessary and proper that we become all things to all men in order that we may win some. But the question remains, how are men won? Are they won by glitz and glitter? And a pandering mindset. Or are they won by the foolishness of the word preached? Father, it is very easy for us to be ashamed of the gospel. The world wants so much more. The church wants so much more. People will not come and simply hear the word preached. They must be entertained. And Father, in a culture that demands that, ministries that will not do that are destined to suffer for it. But again, the question remains, how does Christ build his church? The Lord could say in that day, I will. Question. Will I find faith in the earth? Will I find those who really do know me, those who really do love me, those who really do live for me, those who really have labored to be conformed to me. Those who have had the heart of Paul. Father, give us grace toward that end. We cannot cause men to be saved, but we can certainly hinder them. And far too often, I think that not only the lives that we live, but certainly the The culture that we try to be so relevant with respect to in in the day and age of the American church is a huge barrier to faith. Father, may it not be so with us. May we be like Paul and resolve to know nothing among men that Christ Jesus and him crucifying. Help us, Father, to maintain that simplicity of devotion, that simplicity of commitment, that simplicity of zeal. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel. Help us to see our responsibility to this world. We are the bearers of light, we need to let our light shine in this world. Help us with these things cause us to be faithful. We ask all of these things in the name of our Savior. Amen.