Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles for Romans, chapter nine. Romans, chapter nine, verses one through three here now the Word of God. I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. But 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. Thus far, the reading of God's Word. Father in heaven, we do pray that you would grant us and deepen within our hearts the true meaning of this text inspired by your very spirit for your own glory and for the nurturing of your children. We do pray that we, to the extent that the Apostle Paul imitated Christ, would imitate him. And that, Father, you would cultivate this type of thing in our hearts. So let us look, Father, very intently at your word, by your spirit, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As some of you know, I was recently engaged in a formal debate, and one of the texts for which was the ninth chapter of Romans. That was a big part of this debate. I won't get into what the debate was. Afterward, a fellow, some fellow, a Christian fellow met me back in the hallway back here and put his finger right in my chest and told me, you'd better watch yourself. He was a big guy. And I'm like, I am like about to get beat up in Christian love. Now, I only mention that that we might recognize that we are entering into a somewhat controversial portion of Paul's grand epistle, Romans chapter nine, really nine to eleven. And as we transition into this, these three chapters, it almost appears that the Apostle Paul is just abruptly changing the subject. A lot of people think that he's just like going, OK, on another note, I'm going to talk about something else entirely. You know, it's no hard argument. to say that Romans 8 is one of the most comforting chapters in all of Holy Scripture. I preached on Romans 8 at the Beacon Light Rescue Mission, and it's just so full of peace and comfort and joy, although there's some heavy stuff in there nonetheless. The end of Romans 8 especially. And we are now yanked from the warmth of the Romans 8 campfire to the Romans 9 trial by fire. Paul engages now in topics that you just don't want the camp speaker talking about. The troublemakers can engage in these topics over coffee after everybody else has gone to bed. We don't want the camp speaker talking about the sovereignty of God, predestination, reprobation, the place of Israel in prophecy. I mean, these things are the dream team of controversy. These things are what cause division. So let me state at the get-go that I don't think Romans 9-11 is primarily a systematic on the sovereignty of God. I don't think the primary point the Apostle Paul is making in Romans 9 is predestination. I don't think Paul's main point is Israel and prophecy. I don't think that's his main point at all. I agree with Schreiner who says At the forefront of Paul's thinking is God's faithfulness to his promises. I think that's what the Apostle Paul is entering into here in Romans 9-11, that God has been faithful. Matter of fact, if I were to pick a theme verse, really half verse, for the Romans 9-11 treatise, It would be Romans 9.6, the very first half of the verse, which says, But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. You see, what we see in Romans 9-11 is not an abrupt change in topic, but an explanation. It's Paul's apologetic for the comfort found in Romans 8. He's explaining now why it is that we can have the comfort of Romans 8. We find it in Romans 9 through 11. Paul will demonstrate that God is a promise-making, promise-keeping God. There was confusion as to who were the objects of God's covenant promises. Was it Israel? Was it the church? I mean, has God welched on his deal? Have God made promises to Israel? Now He's giving them to the church? And where's Israel in all of this? And we see this so clearly if we take a deeper look at Romans 8, not to go all the way back to Romans 8, but when we look at Romans 8, we see that it was the church that received the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit was promised to Israel in Ezekiel 36, 26. As a matter of fact, Israel had been promised a future resurrection in Ezekiel 37 with the dry bones. But Paul tells the church that God, who raised Christ, will do what? Give life to your mortal bodies. It's the church that receives this great resurrection. Israel was God's son. Exodus 4.22. Now believers in Christ are God's sons and daughters, right? Romans 8.14-17. And inheritance was promised to Israel, Isaiah 60. But now believers are joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8, 17. Israel was God's chosen people, Amos 3, 2. But Paul aims this blessed designation to those who have faith in Christ. They're the chosen ones. God had promised never to forsake Israel, Deuteronomy 31, 6. But it is the church, the believer, who can have the blessed assurance that nothing can separate them from the love of God in Christ. Romans 9 through 11 is Paul's treatise on the faithfulness of God. And all these subtopics, sovereignty, election, prophecy that Paul is going to offer in this excursion becomes the mortar on which our comfort and God's honor and glory are built. Now, we're going to we're going to seek to grasp those things in the weeks and the months to come. I mean, we're looking at these promises to Israel. Were they so oblique? Were they so obscure? Were they so vague and so ambiguous and uncertain that if God's not going to keep... I mean, here's where a lot of people go with this. If God's not going to keep those promises, then how do we know he's going to keep the promises that he's made to us? It's kind of where this all ends up. But Paul is going to argue for the faithfulness of God. God has not changed his mind at all. This isn't some new plan. Paul is going to bring it to the attention of his readers, especially his Hebrew readers, that this is God's plan all the time. And we're going to see that as we go through Romans chapter nine. Paul is going to give us a little history lesson on the Old Testament and how it should be read and how it should be understood. So we'll get all we'll get to all of that and we're going to have some enjoyable times and Q&A and we can talk all about those things that are so controversial. But right now, let's just look at verses one through three. Paul starts, I tell the truth in Christ, I'm not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness 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, from my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh. In the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, we observe a very unsettling example of God's justice. I was just going to use one phrase out of there to make a point, but I think there is value in reading the word of God. And so we're going to take a look at the major portion of that text. You have probably heard a lot of the sensationalism revolving around the mark of the beast, right? Who's who's heard of the mark of the beast? Yeah. OK, we've all heard about that. And I'm going to challenge you with the fact that there's going to be a mark in this passage we're about to read that many of us have never heard of at all. And so let's take a look here at Ezekiel chapter nine, starting in verse three, and I'm just going to read the whole thing. But then I'm just going to kind of zero in on one thing in particular that I think speaks to where Paul is coming from here. Now, the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested. to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. Just for your information, we're talking about like angelic beings here. And the Lord said to him, pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. And to the others, he said, in my hearing, pass through the city after him and strike. Your eyes shall not spare and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark and begin in my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them to file the house and fill the courts with the slaying. Go out. So they went out. And struck in the city and while they were striking, And I was left alone. I fell upon my face and I cried, Oh, Lord God, will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem? And he said to me, the guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood and a city full of injustice, for they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see. As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will bring their deeds upon their heads and behold, the man clothed in linen with a writing cast at his waist brought back word saying, I have done as you've commanded me. Well, there's a lot there, obviously, that could be the topic of many sermons, but I just want to point one thing out here, and that is in verse four, there is a mark and I don't think it's a literal mark. I think it's God's in his own celestial way, tagging, as it were, the ear of his sheep. put on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations committed in Jerusalem. Those who exhibited that compassion and sorrow for the lost receive the mark and escape the judgment. I think it would be an unwarranted conclusion to say That they somehow merited clemency, even as Mike prayed. We don't merit clemency from God by their ability to sigh and groan. It wasn't as if I better come up with enough groaning or sighing to somehow merit, you know, a pardon from God. It would be more accurate to say that their grief, their sorrow was the natural outpouring of eyes, ears, and hearts quickened by the grace of God. This is what Christians do. This is an indicator that you have a circumcised heart, and that is that you sigh and you groan for what you see. For those who have truly called upon the name of the Lord, friends, indifference to the plight of the lost is simply not an option. It is so easy for Christians and the churches they form to fall into a niche of social comfort and exclusivity. It is so easy for us to do that. I mean, we think we don't do that. We think we're not moving in that direction. Then all of a sudden we find ourselves knee-high in it. It is something that we have to fight against. I remember years ago I spent quite a bit of time in a little beach village called Piha in New Zealand. And when I was in my mid-20s, it was a little place on the Tasman Sea, and the currents there were really dangerous. I mean, it was a very dangerous place to be. A lot of people drowned. And I became friends with the lifeguards, who were almost all hardworking volunteers. I mean, they had a volunteer lifeguard organization. And I have to say, they were an enjoyable and effective group of volunteers. They loved their job. They did it really well. Consequently, because they were so committed to what they were doing, because they had a heart for it, they developed this deep and abiding love and fellowship with each other to whatever extent, you know, that type of thing takes place. I mean, you felt it. You felt very much like an outsider when you walked into their group because they're the ones doing it. And I remember meeting them and it was kind of like, you know, well, you know, it was almost like you could tell they had something going on together here. They had a tight group. They were doing something meaningful. And it took me a while for them to kind of accept me, even though I wasn't a very good swimmer and I never saved anybody. I probably needed to be saved. Anyways, a few years later, I heard a little parable comparing a life-saving station to a church, and I thought it was appropriate. I'd like to read that little story to you and see if you can pick up kind of the analogous comparisons of this to what happens. The story goes like this. On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut and there was only one boat, but a few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for those who were lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding sea or area wanted to become associated with the station. and gave of their time, money, and effort to support its work. New boats were bought. New crews were trained. The little life station grew. Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. And they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions. So they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club's decorations. And there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club's initiations were held. About this time, a large ship wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of the shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting, there was a split among club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did. As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown. It reminds me of Europe. When I was later, I remember driving through Europe and you see all these beautiful churches. Don't you ever been there? Beautiful buildings. And I'm thinking, how much would it cost to have that building just brought here and put in torrents? But I fear that this is not just Europe. We it is around us. The Christian, my friends, has been given the great responsibility of caring about the souls of other people. Later in Ezekiel, I mean, the point is made very starkly in verses 6 through 9 of 33, and we'll read that. Ezekiel 33, verses 6 through 9. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for me. When I say to the wicked, oh, wicked man, you shall surely die and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul. The short, you know, the summary of this is indifference is a sin and God takes it very seriously. But there is a flip side to this problem. It is. I was listening to Dr. Greg Bonson give a lecture and he was talking about going to Russia. And he had a discussion with a Russian Orthodox priest, and the priest, initially, they didn't want Dr. Bonson there. Those of you who don't know who Dr. Bonson is, I think, in my opinion, one of the top thinkers of the 20th century in terms of apologetics, in terms of, you know, prophecy in terms of the law of God, and just died as a fairly young man, but had just a lot of work out there. He would be invited to speak to different places, and they invited him there, but apparently a lot of people didn't want him there because he was just a Western evangelical, and they just don't have any depth. They don't really have the ability to think clearly, and I think it didn't take long before they realized that that simply wasn't the case with this particular guest speaker. But after he was done speaking, one of the Russian Orthodox priests came up to him and spoke of, quote, the Protestant problem. The Protestant problem. Now, the Protestant problem is not just the opposite, but it's kind of the opposite of the lifesaving station problem. The Protestant problem unfolds when a person hears the gospel and joyfully responds. They attend church and are excited about worshiping God and and their young enthusiasm takes over and they invite others who invite others and so forth. So you've got this energy generated, something we've seen in the last 40 or 50 years in the Jesus movement and what have you. So what's the problem? I mean, that seems great. But what is the problem? There is either no or very limited interest in true piety. in the Protestant problem. There's very little interest in in-depth study. There's very little interest in the hard teachings. You have huge churches, but they don't really have the marks of churches. They may or may not, you know, they'll preach, but they may or may not have the sacraments. And many of them, most of them, don't have discipline. So they're big. The Protestant problem is like you want to stay in Chapter 8 of Romans, but you really don't want to get into Chapter 9 at all. We'll just stay in Chapter 8 indefinitely. You might say that the life saving station is full of unbridled and an uninformed enthusiasm. You got a huge group of people and they're very excited about being lifesavers. And there's a shipwreck and everybody jumps in the water only to find themselves overtaken by the current. They're ill equipped for the task and the station itself needs to be rescued. So you've got two problems. One is the station just becomes a club and the other. You've got people in the station who are excited about doing the work, but they just haven't been trained in how to do the work. Let me just say, the Apostle Paul, though admittedly a sinful man, did not fall into either of these categories. He was neither dispassionate nor was he ignorant. But apparently not everyone believed he had their best interest at heart. Why else would he begin this chapter by calling his own conscience before the tribunal of God? It's a very interesting beginning of the chapter. I tell the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. Why would he have to start the chapter by writing that? Here we see what I call the Christian conflict. It's the very common Christian conflict. By any outward observation, if you and I were just going around filming the Apostle Paul, Paul was viewed as an enemy to his Jewish brothers, as the way he put it. Their reaction to him was similar to their reaction to Jesus. They responded to Paul. And did not Jesus teach that this would happen? They responded to Paul the way they responded to Jesus. In Acts 25-24, we see yet one example, and Festus said, King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man, they're talking about Paul, about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. That was their opinion of Paul. The best thing for you would be to just not live any longer. My wife was reading a text to me this morning of a high-profile Christian leader who came out in a certain moral, social position recently and is receiving numerous texts from people within our nation saying, you need to just die. Matter of fact, he said, I went to bed last night after reading, I think it was 74 texts of people telling me that I just need to die. And not to get into what he was talking about, but it was an explicit Christian position that he was holding. But you see, here's where the life-saving story loses its analogous value. For even though the people you seek to save might, in a panic—we have some lifesavers in here, you know what I'm going to say—you save somebody, and in a panic they might try to kill you, right? You know, they say, don't jump in the water unless you really have to. You want to put a pole in or throw them a life—you know, because they, in a panic, will try to drown you. where you get to the point where you have to punch them and knock them out, or whatever you have to do in order to get that taken care of. But it's generally not premeditated and conspiratorial. I mean, if they're drowning and they need help, they generally aren't going to go, and my plan is to kill the person who's trying to save me. I recall when I first came to faith in Christ as a teenager, thinking people would be happy for me. I remember thinking, this is going to be good news for everybody. And some people were, but some people weren't very happy. I recall thinking people would appreciate my concern for their souls when I would tell them about Jesus. I'm thinking, at the very least, you're going to like the fact that I am concerned for your souls. And you know what? Some were, but most were not. Most were quite offended by the fact that I had some kind of concern for their soul. They almost equated it to me telling them to go to hell when I would tell them that there is a hell. Those are two different things. As time went on, I found that seeking to live out the faith was like signing up for the military during a war. And the war was a war with many fronts. There's conflict. Conflict with the world. Conflict with your own family. Conflict with an apostate church, which is what the Apostle Paul was dealing with. With pagan religions. Unidentified and sometimes unidentifiable philosophies and ideologies So many lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God. So you got this multifaceted conflict that you've signed up for. Of course, with this comes the internal conflict with our own sin, ignorance that we have ourselves. And this is where, my friends, it gets very tricky. This is it gets it gets very difficult. If you think one of the things I tell young pastors as they're going into the ministry, I'm like, oh, and beware of seeking the gift of reciprocation. Beware of the fact that you're going to get some kind of psychic income from this job, you're not signing up for psychic income. You know, this idea that you don't get paid a lot, but you're going to feel really good about it by the end of the day, because I don't think Moses felt that way. And I don't think the Apostle Paul felt that way either. There is a great, great temptation to be offended When your effort to love and minister to others is spurned and they get mad at you for trying to love them. This weakness in the human heart is little doubt the reason we read in Proverbs 27, 5 and 6. Better is an open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Or in Psalms, Psalm 141, 5, let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. Let me tell you, this is one of those passages that you love until it applies to you. The apostle Paul found himself sharing in the sufferings of Christ, that was his prayer, wasn't it not? I wanted to share in the sufferings of Christ. And that's exactly what was happening. He was loving others and they were not loving him back. You wonder if he took comfort in the Psalm 109 verses four and five in return for my love. They accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good and hatred for my love. Let me tell you, friends, that's the theme. That's the way it works. As we launch into this chapter, really these three chapters so rich in content, so weighty in theology. Let's be careful to enter into our study with an eye on the apostles heart. And he said, to the extent that I imitate Christ, you imitate me and we should. Toward those who sought his life, we're talking about people who wanted him dead. Who had the opinion that he ought not to live any longer, He writes 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, for my countrymen, according to the flesh. Now, as we are going to see in the weeks to come, there's more to this than Paul's friendships. I mean, he's grieving over an entire apostate religious community. But we shouldn't exclude the humanity of Paul's outburst of sorrow. These are his brethren and countrymen. Now, that he depicts them as brethren and countrymen according to the flesh might lead us in a couple of different directions. What's his point? I hesitate to call people brothers who aren't Christians. But he's saying, these are my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Well, he may be emphasizing that they are not brothers in the faith, a designation reserved to those who have faith in Christ. Those are your only true brothers. The brothers in the faith, only those who believe in Jesus. Paul makes a point in Galatians 3 7. Only those who have the faith of Abraham are children of Abraham. Or he may be appealing to the life of a tight community with his fellow Israelites and the great sorrow of seeing them in such darkness. I mean, it's a very tight community of people that he was raised with, right? So which is it? I see no logical reason that it can't really be both. He they're not his brothers. They're not his sisters in Christ. But there's no way we're going to draw the conclusion that these were just a community of people that he didn't really care about. And he's writing this with such angst in his heart. What kind of maturity must he have had to look past their slanders? I mean, what is going on in the mind of a person who can actually pull this off? to allow such love to be cultivated in his heart that he would grieve for them the way a loving parent might grieve over their own wayward, recalcitrant child. You know, you think about that. You're like, OK, I can get loving my child if they go astray. I can follow that. What kind of grace had Paul tasted that he would view himself as a debtor to all people? What happened to him? That he would walk through this life looking at everybody, Jew and Gentile alike, saying, I owe you. I mean, is that the way we walk through life? You get up in the morning going, I owe everybody. That's how Paul viewed himself. Well. I would argue that that type of conviction, that type of glorious revelation of God's grace, of understanding, of Paul's understanding and drinking deeply of what Christ had done with him transitioned into this, I'm not going to say this in the Sarge way or the philosophical way, but this transitioned into a very existential love, care, sorrow, and passion for the community that was rejecting him. It was only because he understood what had been bestowed upon him that he could turn and look. And let me tell you, it wasn't just some cold theological conviction. He wasn't just going, I know I'm supposed to love you. I remember when I was first a Christian, people would say they didn't really like me very much. They say, I love you in faith. And that was just their way of saying that I don't really love you at all. Matter of fact, I barely can deal with you. But I know I've been commanded to love you. But let me argue, I would argue this, that a person who lives this out, the person who, you know, imbibes the word of God, who goes to the Lord's table, who meditates upon the grace that has been lavished upon them, and then has that conviction going, OK, Lord, if you've loved me, I should love others, that eventually that just takes over. It sanctifies every part of you. And I think we can't read Paul's words honestly without recognizing that the passion he had went down to the very core of his emotional system as well as his convictions as a Christian man. There is no stronger verbiage available for the apostle when he says that he that I myself wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren. That's about as strongly language as you can come up with. I mean, you think about that. Now, I have to say, and not to get into the details of all of the arguments about this verse, I have arrived at the conclusion myself, and you're welcome to study it if you'd like, that that is hyperbolic language. He's making a point by overstating an issue because he had just written in chapter eight that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Like, you know, he's saying it. He's just it's a it's a flowing that he's getting out there and knowing, you know, We see this type of thing. Moses did the same thing in Exodus 32, 31. So we see this type of heart that leaders have, that Christians have, that believers have, even for the people around them who are making life so difficult. We see that with Paul. We saw that with Moses. It wasn't like he had a congregation of people that was making his job joyful. And yet we read in Exodus 32, verses 31 and 32. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, these people have sinned a great sin. He's talking about his fellow Israelites. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive them their sin. Let me just rephrase the way that would have sounded, but now not in the Hebrew, but in English. But now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. So Moses did it. Paul did it. They were extending this great love, sorrow and concern, not only for the people around them, who they had a natural love for, but even those who sought their lives. There are some great and glorious teachings in the chapters upon which we will now embark. But let us ever be reminded how the apostle begins his message, not as a professor at a chalkboard, but as a pastor whose grief and sorrow for the lost, even the lost who sought to inflict him, were driving influences in his heart and in his life. As the psalmist wrote, my my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. Let us pray. Father in heaven, how closely we come on such a regular basis. To violate your commandment of using the name of the Lord in vain. Any time that we Go to your word and contemplate what it means to be a Christian. Without father recognizing intently what that means, what that call is. We so often, even as I had recently heard, read the Bible or listen to the word of God as if its background music rather than a person in an ambulance tending To someone who is dying, listening to the advice of the doctor on the other end of the radio. Listening so closely. Recognizing how critical the information is. How transforming and life-giving it is. We do pray that you would forgive us, Father, for our lack of love, care, and concern for the lost. Forgive us that we've catered to our own sinful natures when it comes to being offended Help us, Father, to live in that world of grace where we recognize that all that really matters is that no one really can bring a charge against God's elect. Help us to recognize what it must have felt like when Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. What else matters when we hear those words? How easily we should be able to love others having received such love ourselves. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.