Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans 9-16

by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan

Table of Contents

ROMANS 9

The Righteousness of God For Salvation - Romans 9: 1-5

Can God's Promises Fail? - Romans 9: 6-13

Isn't It Unfair for God to Choose Some and Not Others? - Romans 9:14-18

How Can God Condemn If We Can't Resist His Will? - Romans 9:19-23

God's Purpose to Display His Mercy Against the Backdrop of Evil - Romans 9:22-29

Why Would Someone Reject Salvation? - Romans 9:30-33

ROMANS 10

The Two Ways of Righteousness - Romans 10:1-13

Faith Comes by Hearing - Romans 10:14-21

ROMANS 11

A Remnant Believes, Just as Promised - Romans 11:1-5

The Hardening of Israel - Romans 11:6-10

A Hardening for Mercy's Sake - Romans 11:11-16

A Warning Against Arrogance - Romans 11:17-22

All Israel Will Be Saved - Romans 11:23-27

A Glimpse Into the Decree - Romans 11:28-32

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder - Romans 11:33-36

ROMANS 12

A Call to Give Yourself to God - Romans 12:1-2

A Call to Humility and Service - Romans 12:3-8

A Call to Love and Other-centeredness - Romans 12:9-10

A Call to Diligence - Romans 12:11-16

A Call to Seek Peace - Romans 12:17-21

ROMANS 13

A Christian Response to the 2012 Elections - Romans 13:1-7

A Call to Fulfill the Law Through Love - Romans 13:8-10

A Call to Live in Light of the Coming End - Romans 13:11-14

ROMANS 14

A Warning Against Judging Brothers (1) - Romans 14:1-12

A Warning Against Judging Brothers (2) - Romans 14:1-12

On Christian Freedom - Romans 14:13-23

ROMANS 15

Accept One Another - Romans 15:7-13

The Goal of Paul's Mission - Romans 15:14-21

Our Concern, Desire, Purpose, and Fruit - Romans 15:22-29

A Call to Prayer - Romans 15:30-33

ROMANS 16

Phoebe and the Ministry of Women in the Early Church - Romans 16:1-2

Ministry in the Family of God - Romans 16:3-16

A Warning Against Schismatics and an Expression of Hope - Romans 16:17-20

Greeting to the Church and Glory to God - on Romans 16:21-27

Romans 9

The Righteousness of God for Salvation - Romans 9:1-5

If you have your bibles, I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Today as we launch into a study of this great chapter a few preparatory remarks are in order. The first thing I want to say is this; this is a difficult passage. Don't let that put you off. It's not difficult to understand, it's just difficult to accept. What Paul says does not require a rocket scientist to understand in this passage, but it takes a little bit of grace in the heart. You know there are many fine and godly Christians who find what Paul says in Romans 9 through 11 to be a little bit hard to swallow. This passage is a difficult passage because it's hard to accept, but it's the word of God and we're going to study it as such.

The second thing I want to say is this, if you are looking for answers to questions like, "Is God fair in salvation?" " How can he choose some, but not others?" "How can we possibly think that God would actually deliberately pass over some while choosing others?" If God chooses and elects, doesn't that mean that our choices don't matter? Doesn't election make us robots? If you're looking for biblical answers to hard theological questions like that, well this is the place for you, because there is no place in the Bible that more systematically or comprehensively addresses directly those kinds of questions than in Romans 9 through 11. And we are going to be able to discern God's answer through the apostle Paul to those very important questions.

Now, thirdly, let me say this. Some of you may be visiting with us for the first time and you may be thinking, " There those Presbyterian go again, all they want to talk about is God's sovereignty and predestination and election." Well, let me respond on behalf of the congregation and say two or three things. First of all, we are just working through Bible books; that's what we normally do here. I didn't decide that I was going to sit down and talk to you about God's sovereignty. We're working through Romans and here we are in Romans 9, and if I don't talk about it, then I can't talk about Romans 9, because that's what Romans 9 is about. So there is no special or hidden agenda here. We're just working through Bible books and the only way we couldn't talk about these things is to simply skip these chapters. That's the first thing I'd like to say to any skeptical minds out there.

The second thing is this, let me clue you in one reason why Presbyterians love to talk about the doctrines of God's sovereignty and predestination and election and such, it's because they're in the Bible and Presbyterians believe that the Bible is inspired, it's inerrant, it's authoritative, it's the final rule in faith and in life. Therefore because these teachings are found in the word, we love them.

But thirdly, let me say, the reason that we so love to talk about God's sovereignty is because God's sovereignty exalts His grace. We love to think about sovereignty because we have tasted of God's grace and we know that God's sovereignty more that any other doctrine magnifies the grace of God and so we hope that you would taste and see that the Lord is gracious even as we learn of His sovereignty.

Now, let me give you a little taste of what we are going to be doing as work through Romans 9 together. Let me outline the passage for you. Just allow your eyes to scan the chapter as we work through it. In verses 1 through 5, Paul displays his heart for Israel. We're going to see why he does this in just a few moments, but Paul is preparing the way to answer a question that has been put to him about the fulfillment of God's promises. Is there a problem here, have God's promises to Israel failed in the time of the apostles and the time of Lord Jesus Christ since Israel by a large has not accepted Jesus as Messiah? That's the big problem that Paul is going to begin to address in this passage.

In the first five verses, Paul gives you a little glimpse into his heart before he gives you the answer. And frankly seeing Paul's heart I think will help you to embrace the answer that he gives.

Then in verses 6 through 13, we see a second thing. Here Paul explains why God's promises have not failed and here's his answer: Not all Israel is Israel. Now, I'm not going to explain that right now. You're going to have to come back next time to find out what that means, but that's Paul's answer to the question, "Have God's promises to Israel failed?" - not all Israel is Israel. And we'll explain that the next time. But that's the second thing that he says in the chapter.

Then if you look it verses 14 through 18 you'll see him take up a third question. Somebody out there in the audience goes, " But wait a minute Paul, it's not fair for God to choose some in Israel, and not others." Now, if you believe in the doctrine of God's sovereignty and you've talked to anybody who doesn't, chances are you've heard that question. Well, in verses 14 through 18 you get the divinely inspired apostle Paul's answer to that question. Don't you want to know what that is? Don't you want to know what that answer is? Well, you'll get it as we study Romans 9 verses 14 through 18.

Then fourthly, in verses 19 through 23, he moves on to another objection. "But wait a minute Paul, you're saying that God is sovereign. How can He condemn us for resisting His will since nobody can resist His will since He's sovereign?" And the Apostle Paul answers that question in Romans 9 verses 19 through 23.

Then again in verses 24 through 29, Paul goes to the Old Testament and he gives you quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures to show, just like he did with justification, that he's not making this stuff up on the fly. He's not the first one to ever expound these particular teachings. These are, in fact, the teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures and so he roots what he says in what God has already taught to the people of God in the Old Testament prophets.

Then finally, in verses 30 through 33, the Apostle explains why it is that Israel failed to embrace the promise, why they failed to obtain the promise, and I trust you will be helped in your faith as we work through this great chapter, because I want you to understand not only the structure of it and the original meaning and purpose for it, but I want you to understand as well it's significance for you. As we work through this chapter you will deal with a range of significant questions. You'll find out whether you have a heart for Christ or not, and what it looks like to have a heart for the lost. You'll, as we work through this, get an answer to the question, "Can God's promises fail?" We'll learn together an answer to "Is it unfair for God to chose some and not others?" We'll learn an answer to the question of, "How can God condemn if we can't resist his will?' We'll learn an answer to the question, "Does the Old Testament teach God's sovereignty and election?' And we'll get and answer to the question, an important question, "Why in the world would somebody reject God's salvation?" Answers to all those questions are found in Romans 9 and we will be learning them as we study it together over the next few weeks. So let's hear God's word today in Romans 9 beginning in verse 1.

" I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the promises. Whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all. God blessed forever. Amen."

Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word, may He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Heaven Father, we ask that You would give us grace as we study Your word this day. Bring its truth home to us and give us a heart for you and for the lost, like the Apostle Paul. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

These few little verses at the beginning of Romans 9 are a prologue to a problem. Paul is going to be answering a significant problem and challenge to his gospel message which is afoot in his on time. That problem is, why is it, Paul, that Israel has, by and large, rejected this Messiah that you say is the sent Messiah of God to Israel? Why is it that, by and large, Paul, that your kinsmen in the flesh are not in droves embracing Jesus as their Redeemer? Why is it that there are more Gentiles, Paul, in your ministry responding to the gospel than the people that you say that this Messiah was promised to in the first place?

This is the problem that the Apostle Paul is going to have to answer in Romans 9 through 11 and it's not the first gigantic problem that a preacher of God has had to answer. You see, the prophets had a similar huge problem to answer with regard the promises of God. You remember that God has promised to Abraham that he would be a God to him and his descendents forever. He also promised to Abraham that He would settle him and his descendants in the land of Canaan forever. Then God promised to David, supplementing those promises to Abraham, that he would reign on the throne of His people and that his descendants would reign on the throne of Israel forever. And then something happened. And that something was the exile. Not only the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but the Southern Kingdom of Judah was sent into exile, and suddenly the people of God felt far from God. They were outside of the land that He had promised. The kingly line of David, though it had reigned for four hundred and something years, the longest single dynasty to reign in the history of the world, was no longer on the throne. And God had promised that that line would go on forever. And the people of God were left scratching their heads, and here's the question they were asking, "Okay Lord, have Your promises failed? You promised to be a God to Abraham. You promised to give his descendants the land of Canaan. You promised to David that his descendents would reign on the throne forever. Now our nation doesn't exist, the kingly line is done and we're long and forgotten in exile. Have Your promises failed?" This is the question that so many of the prophets were wrestling with. You'll find Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and most of the Minor Prophets addressing this very question, "How is it that God could all have allowed this to happen? How is it that God could have ordained this to happen in light of the promises that He has made?"

And the prophets have certain answers to that. They state, for instance, that God is going to bring His people out of captivity, in Isaiah 51. This morning, that is a promise of God through Isaiah, "Remind the people to take heart" that God is going to return His people from captivity. So that's one way that they answer that problem.

Another way is that they talk about what they call the remnant. That is, that there is a faithful believing part of God's people that always remains loyal to Him and with whom His favor always rests no matter where there are, no matter whether they be in Judah, or whether they be in Babylon. And you'll find that phrase, the remnant throughout the later prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets all talk about the remnant. That's one way that they give and answer to this problem of can God's promises fail.

But they also answer it by saying this, "God is going to send a Messiah who will reestablish the throne of David and reign forever." That is the biggest solution to the problem of the seeming failure of God's promises during the time of the exile. That is the biggest solution and answer that the prophets give to the people. And so the people of Israel, from the time of the exile on, begin looking very intently for what? The coming of the Messiah who is going to reestablish David's throne.

Now that is the problem that the Old Testament prophets had to deal with. But you see Paul's problem was even bigger than that, because Paul's problem is a new problem and the problem is this, that when the Messiah came, that God had sent to fulfill these promises, the people of God rejected him. The Old Testament people of God, the children of Israel, by and large rejected the solution, and now we have this new problem: "Why could this happen? How could this be Paul? Can God's promises fail?"

And the Apostle Paul's answer to that, in large measure, is the assertion of the sovereignty of God. In Romans chapter 9 he says, "The only way you could understand this is if you understand God's individual electing love." In other words, he says the only other way you'll ever understand that is if you understand that God's grace is God's choice. And so in this great passage he begins to explain that profound truth.

And in this introduction here, in verses 1 though 5, he prepares us for that discussion, but he also reveals to us his heart. And by revealing to us his heart, it makes us more able to receive the teaching, because his teaching is hard, just like out Lord Jesus' teaching in many places, it's hard to accept. Not hard to understand, but hard to accept. And understanding Paul's heart helps us to accept this truth, but it also shows us what the truth of Romans 9 ought to produce in our heart. For Paul shows us a heart of great love and mercy and grace and compassion toward the lost. And we have to ask ourselves and I want to ask at the very outset, "Do you have that kind of a heart, of mercy and compassion for the lost?"

Well, let's hear what Paul has to say in verses 1 through 5. Three things I'd like for you to see here. Let me outline that passage for you very quickly. In verses 1 and 2, we see Paul make an emphatic declaration of compassion and heartbreak over Israel. In verse 3 and the first few words of verse 4, Paul reveals to us his heart of mercy over his unbelieving people, the children of Israel. And then through the end of verse 4 and verse 5, we see Paul list these special covenant advantages that belong to the children of Israel. And in the course of this Paul reveals to us his heart. He gives us a warning and he challenges us to have a heart like this.

I. We should grieve over the lost.

Let's look at verses 1 and 2 first. Here Paul grieves over the lost and he shows us the posture that we ought to have toward those who are unbelieving in both the church and the world. In verses 1 through 5, Paul seems to be responding to a charge that has been brought against him. The charge is apparently something like this, "Well Paul, you don't care about your people, you have abandoned and rejected your own heritage by preaching this gospel, by going to the Gentiles. By saying the same things that you have said about Israel and about Israel's spiritual leaders, you have rejected Judaism, you have rejected Israel, you have turned your back on your own people, you don't care about them." And so the apostle is starting right here at the outset and saying, "Before I get into this explanation, I want you understand what I really think about my people. I want you to see a glimpse of my heart." And by way of contrast of accusation, he makes it clear that he has a large heart of compassion. Indeed he agonizes over them. He rejoins this charge of having antipathy for Israel, by asserting here in the most emphatic way imaginable his love for Israel.

And I want to say this, our attitude to those who are lost, like Paul's, shows us a lot about our Christianity and it show us about whether our heart has really tasted the grace of God. Paul shows us here a heart of agony over his own people who are lost. And I want to ask you a question. Do you agonize over the fate of the lost? Is it a burden to you? If you don't, let me ask you this question, why not? Maybe somewhere in the back of your mind you believe, "Well, in the end God just couldn't condemn anybody." Or maybe you believe in the end everybody will be saved, or maybe you have come to the point where you think that hell is an outdated doctrine and you can't really believe in God's eternal punishment of anyone. Well, let me say that if you believe that it's clear that Paul doesn't believe that. Because he agonizes over those who have not embraced Christ. If Paul believed like you, he wouldn't be agonizing over the lost. So, if you're not believing or if you're not agonizing over the lost because of any of those reasons, make sure that you understand that you simple disagree with what the Bible says. You disagree with Paul with regard to the fate of the lost, but Paul realizes that that's true and so he agonizes over the lost.

But perhaps, perhaps your heart has simple not grown large in compassion for those who have not embraced Christ. Perhaps you have embraced Christ and you love Him and you're growing and you love His word, but you have not gotten a heart of compassion. One of the things that learning Romans 9 through 11 will do, if you learn it rightly, it will give you a heart of compassion for the lost. You see, when Paul saw God in His sovereignty and he saw Him in His holiness and he saw his own sin and he saw what his sin deserved and then he saw the plight of the lost and he saw what God had done for him in Jesus Christ, he had abounding compassion for those who were apart from Jesus Christ. And clearly we ought to join Him in that. Paul's heart grieves over the lost and that ought to be our attitude toward the lost as well. That's the first thing I'd like for you to see.

II. The doctrine of grace has a heart for mercy.

The second thing is this, you'll see it verses 3 and 4. Here Paul reveals his heart of mercy for his own unbelieving people and we learn this; Paul's doctrine of grace ought to be accompanied by a heart for mercy. Paul's teaching on God's grace and own God's sovereignty ought to be accompanied by a heart of mercy. Paul in this passage was willing to be damned if only his own people would come to the saving knowledge of Christ. This is an indication of the intensity of his love for his people and it's all the more striking since in Romans 8:35 through 39, the verses that butt up right against these verses, what has Paul just said? He's just said that it's impossible to separate a believer from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ and then he turns right around and says this, "If only my people would embrace Christ, I would be willing to be separated from them." Paul know it's hypothetical. Paul knows that it can't happen, but Paul is saying this in order to express the intensity of his love for people who are lost, indeed, people who claim to be those who love and follow God, and yet in fact do not embrace the Messiah who is the only way to salvation. And this attachment that Paul has is not merely an attachment of blood kinship, but it's an attachment born of a profound understanding of the historical role of Israel and plan of God and the unique privileges Israel enjoyed.

And this heart that Paul has toward the Jews is also the heart of the mature Christian toward the ancient people of God. I'm perfectly aware that Christians over the ages have performed many great atrocities toward the Jewish people. In so doing, they have failed to live up to the heart of Paul. And I want to say to you, many of you love the doctrines of grace taught by Paul in Romans 9 through11, and if you really love those doctrines, and if you really understand those doctrines you'll have a heart like Paul. You'll have a heart of grace. It won't be a shriveled, small heart with no love in compassion. It will be a heart, which is large with grace, because Calvinists ought to manifest grace as well as to teach it. We ought to have more heart for the lost than anyone. We ought to, along side of our embrace of the doctrines of grace, we ought to manifest a heart of grace. Listen to what Phil Ryken says about this, "We respond to God's mercy by becoming merciful ourselves. Sadly, people who believe in election are not always known for their mercy. In fact, sometimes it seems like there is an ornery streak in Calvinism. But it seems that someone who understands the wonder of God's mercy would seek to become a living demonstration of it. Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." But you know, we could also reverse that statement and say, 'blessed are those who have been shown mercy for they will be merciful.'

One way to test your grasp of God's mercy is to ask how you treat other sinners. How do you respond when you encounter a homeless person or a gay prostitute or a drug addict, or a drunk, or whatever co-worker, or family member or church member is most difficult to deal with? Usually my response is to get angry and wonder, "Why these people can't get their act together?" That is hardly the response of someone who has known God's mercy, who knows that the bondage of sin can only be broken through the mercy of the Cross.

I have observed that some Christians are Calvinists when they deal with their own sins, but are minions when they deal with others. Oh, they've learned that the only solution for their own depravity is divine grace, but they still expect other people to saves them. Certainly, God holds sinners responsible for their sins, but He also reaches out to them in mercy. If you really understand the doctrine of election, you will not be judgmental or proud; you will be a messenger of God's mercy. "What does the Lord require of you." Micah says, "but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humble with your God." Are you merciful, do you have a heart of mercy? If you embrace the doctrines of grace does your heart reflect a heart enlarged by the taste of those doctrines of grace?

III. We are not to presume upon God.

Thirdly and finally, in verse 4 and 5, Paul gives us this list of advantages of Israel and he reminds us here that God's covenant privileges are real even when they are not embraced, and at the same time they must never be presumed upon. Paul does not deny that God has given these privileges and advantages to Israel. He gives this incredible list of things that God has done for Israel, but two things need to be noted. These privileges are real. They are just like the privileges that we experience in the Christian church today. Even when they are neglected, the means of grace are real and important, and they always accomplish what God wants them to accomplish. Paul says that's true then and it's true now, but it is also true that these privileges can never be presumed upon. The Jews had these privileges, but by and large rejected the Lord Jesus Christ in Paul's time. And the Apostle is saying, it doesn't matter what privileges and advantages you've had, if you have not embraced Christ, you have no part of Him or of the blessing of God.

And my friends, that message is just as relevant to this congregation and it was to the Jewish Christian congregation to whom Paul was speaking in Rome. We may have been members of First Presbyterian Church for fifty years, given faithfully, given regularly, but if we have not embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, then we are not part of Him, and we have no interest in His blessings and benefits. And so these privileges can never be presumed upon for real saving faith in Christ and Paul's message certainly speaks to this. We should never discount the significance of the means of grace, even when people neglect, or abuse or reject them. But we should never presume that just because we have the privilege of being a part of a congregation that loves the Lord, loves His word, teaches it in pulpit and classroom, that just thereby that we are guaranteed an interest in salvation. No, that must be when we deal with God ourselves, trusting in Him by faith alone as Christ is offered in the gospel. May God grant that you would do just that. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, by the work of the Spirit in our heart grant not only that we would embrace Christ savingly, but that our hearts would be enlarged to be hearts of compassion for the lost. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Can God's Promise Fail? - Romans 9: 6-13

If you have your Bibles with you I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9 as we continue to work through this great passage together. I'll remind you that last week we saw a glimpse into Paul's own heart of compassion and that's very important for us to remember today for a couple of reasons. For one we need to remember that the apostle, as convinced as he is of the sovereignty of God, there's no one ever who has been more diligent in working for the conversion of Israel. You remember he refers to this in the book of Romans and it said about him in Luke's account of his ministry in the book of Acts that his whole philosophy was to preach to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The Apostle loved Israel and he worked hard to see the conversion of his own people. It was his primary strategy. First to go to the synagogue and proclaim the word of truth from the Scriptures, and then to go to those God-fearers and Gentiles who might be somewhere in the area of those synagogues, all across Asia Minor, and share the word of truth. So he was a man who believed in God's sovereignty and yet who worked very hard for the conversion of his people.

Secondly it's important for us to remember his heart for Israel because in the verses to come, not only verses 6 though 13 that we'll study in just a few moments, but through the rest of this chapter, Paul says some things that are very difficult to take in. It's not that they are hard to understand it's just that they are difficult to swallow. Some very godly Christians wrestle with swallowing the full force of the truth that Paul metes out in Romans chapter 9 and it's important for us to go back and remember his heart of compassion. He had been shown his sin and he knew the grace and mercy of God, and because of this he was able to be compassionate to those who resisted the word and those who rejected the word. His heart was for them to be found and saved, and should ours be as well.

So, as we look at this passage let me give you a brief outline. In the very first words of verse 6, the first half, we're going to see Paul put a question. Now he doesn't put it in a question form, but he's putting a question out before out minds. He's already raised this question in verses 1 through 5. Then in the second half of verse 6, down to verse 8, he gives his answer, his elongated answer to that question. The answer to the question is actually implicit even in the very phrase that he gives us in at the beginning of verse 6, but he gives sort of an expanded answer from the end of verse 6 down to verse 8. Then in verse 11 he gives us an explanation of why his answer is the case. He gives us an explanation of the basis of the answer that he has given in verse 6. And then finally, in the whole passage from the end of verse 6 down to verse 13 he gives three examples from the Bible that prove his case. That's the outline of what we're going to do together today, so let's turn our attention to God's word in Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 6.

Romans 9:6-13

men. And thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired work. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, there are many of us here for whom the truths of this passage have been precious and encouraging. We ask that You would teach us then a fresh of the greatness of Your grace as we recount them. There are others, however, who have been disturbed, their hearts have been troubled, they love You, yet their hearts have been troubled by the truths of this passage. Comfort their hearts and show Yourself to be gracious in such a way that they are lead to praise you. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

You look out on the world and you see some people, some incredibly intelligent and wise and talented and lovely people who've never heard the gospel. They've never sat under the preaching of the gospel, they've never seen the Bible, or read the Bible regularly. And then you look out on the world and there are others who have heard the gospel, and some have embraced it and some have rejected it. And you wonder, why? Why is it that lovely and intelligent and talented and gifted people would never hear the gospel, why would this be? Why would God allow this to happen? You look our on the world and you see some people who hear the gospel and they embrace it. It may be the first time they have heard it, and they embrace they gospel truth and they love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts and trust in Him, and the other people who have heard the gospel over and over and over and over again reject it. And you ask yourself the question, why? Why would it be that some people with the same opportunities and the same advantages would hear the gospel and reject it while others embrace it. You look out on the church; perhaps it's a Bible-believing church; perhaps it's a church where the word of God is preached faithfully and where the people of God rejoice in Him and encourage one another to live in the ways of the Lord. And yet even in the church, you see some who are true believers and they trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, they love Him with all their heart. And then there are others who just are going through the motions, and they really bear no evidence, no fruit, no marks in their life that they've ever tasted of God's grace and you wonder, why? The same opportunities are there. They're under the same preaching of the word. Why the difference?

You see, the Apostle Paul is answering that question in this great passage. He's going to answer it by starting with another question first, but it's that question that Paul is getting to here in Romans 9, but especially here in Romans 9 verses 6 through 13. And I'd like to walk through this passage with you and see how Paul answers that question. As we said, he answers that question of why is it that some embrace God and others reject Him. He answers that question by tackling another thorny question, and you'll see that question at the beginning of verse 6.

The question is basically, has God's word of promise to Israel failed? You see, there is a specific historical situation that leads Paul to ask some questions about God's ways and purposes and plans. In verses 1 through 5, Paul has indicated, and he has raised the issue of the rejection of Jesus the Messiah by the people of Israel. He said his heart breaks over it. He mourns for his people. He even wishes he could take his peoples' punishments if only they would embrace Jesus as Messiah, and that's a problem that many New Testament writers are aware of. If you have your Bibles, I'd ask you to turn to John chapter 1. In the introduction to John's gospel, before he tells you about the incredible life and ministry and deeds and works and saving acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, before he gets to it, in the middle of the prologue in verses 10 and 11, he pauses to say something absolutely flabbergasting. He says this, " He," speaking of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God incarnate, "He was in the world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him." He sets up this paradox: He made the world, but the world doesn't recognize Him doesn't embrace Him, doesn't know Him, doesn't love Him, doesn't follow Him, doesn't trust Him.

But it gets worse. Look at verse 11. "He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him. You see what John's saying? Jesus the Messiah was of Israel. By the flesh He was an Israelite, indeed a son of David. Yet the sons of David turned their back on Him. They rejected him. See, John knows the tension of this, those glorious promises made to Israel of old, made to Abraham, made to Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and David and Jeremiah. And yet when the Messiah comes, the people of Israel reject Him, by in large they reject Him. Oh yes, there are the disciples and there are exceptions to that rule, but by and large they reject Him and it's this problem, this question that Paul is raising.

Since this is the case, does that mean that God's promises have failed? Have God's promises to Israel failed? And you see, even the way Paul phrases the first part of verse 6 gives you his answer. No! It is not as though the word of God has failed. But you see the issue that he's tackling. How do you square God's covenant promises to Israel, and Israel's unbelief? How do they go together? How do you square God making promises to Israel and yet Israel rejecting the promises? Has God's word failed? And so Paul's reference here is to this alleged failure of God's word and it relates to this problem of the Jewish rejection of Jesus the Messiah and His answer to the question, "Is there a problem with God's promises" is an emphatic, "NO! God's promises have not failed."

It is that question, you see, that leads Paul to talk to you and me about God's sovereignty in salvation. It's the question of what in the world happened in Israel that lead him to talk with us about the sovereignty and the mercy of God in salvation. It's that historical question that leads us into the issue of God's election. And that's exactly where Paul takes you. In verses 6 though 8, you'll see his answer to that question. We said we'd look at the question and then the answer.

I. God's promises have not failed.

Verses 6 through 8 are the first part of his answer to that question, have God's promises failed? "No," he said, "Let me explain why." And look what he says, "It's not as through the word of God has failed, for they are not Israel who are descended from Israel." You see Paul's response. No, God's promises have not failed because not all Israel is Israel. Now you're saying, what in the world does that mean? So he says it three different ways for you. He starts off in verse 6 by saying that not all Israel is Israel, then in verse 7 he says, nor are they children because they are Abraham's descendants, and then in verse 8 He says, but not all the children of the flesh are also children of God or children of the promise. So he says the same thing three different ways just to make sure he's clear.

What's he saying? He's saying this, that the covenant promises of God have always found their fulfillment in a subset of the people of Israel. The covenant promises of God to Israel have never in the history of time been fulfilled in such a way that every last Israelite was counted a child of God. But in fact, there has always been a remnant, there has always been a believing group within God's people. There is the external community, many of whom simply go through the motion and there is with in that external community many who truly trust in the living God, have rested on His promises, have believed His promises, and enjoyed the blessing of His salvation. And in each of the phrases that he uses you see an echo of his teaching or of John's teaching in other parts in the Bible.

For instance, when Paul says, "Not all Israel is Israel" doesn't that remind you of something else he said earlier in the book of Romans. Maybe you can't remember back that far, but if you'll turn back to Romans chapter 2 verse 28 and 29, you'll remember that even there Paul had said this, " He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is the circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly and the circumcision is that which is of the heart by this spirit, not by the letter and his praise is not from men, but from God." He's making it clear that it doesn't matter whether you're a physical Israelite, unless your heart has been changed. The promises of God are fulfilled upon those Israelites whose hearts have responded to the promise of the Lord. They are Jews inwardly as well as outwardly, and so you see that distinction, not all Israel is Israel. There are some who embrace the promises and some who don't.

II. Not all the physical descendants are children of promise.

Then he says again in verse 7 that not all the descendants are children. Doesn't that remind you of a dialogue that Jesus had with the Pharisees or with some of their followers in John chapter 8. Turn with me there. John 8 beginning in verse 33 all the way down to verse 44, we won't read the whole section, but we'll read some snippets of it. You remember what's going on. Jesus is talking about what it means to be a true disciple, a true follower of Him. Really He's talking about what it means to be true Israel. And in the course of the conversation He offends these people and they say, what do you mean that we need to be set free? We've always been free. Children of Abraham have always been free. And in verse 33 they say to Him, we're descendants of Abraham. And you see what happens over the next few verses. Jesus says, " Oh I know you're descendants of Abraham, but you're trying to kill Me and Abraham wouldn't have done that. And therefore, by your deeds, you're showing Me who your father is." And you see what he says in verse 44. By the way, your father is the devil. You're descendants of Abraham, but your father is the devil. Not all Israel is Israel. See what Paul's saying here in Romans chapter 9? Not all descendants are children. They may be physical descendants, but it doesn't mean they're truly trusting or receiving the promises of God.

Then he has another image to share with you. Not all children of the flesh are children of God, or children of the promise. Go to Galatians 4:22 through 28 where he contrasts those descended from Hagar and Ishmael with those descended from Sara and Isaac. And he says, Isaac is the child of promise, and you, speaking to believers, you are sons of the promise, you are children of the promise just like Isaac. There's a difference, there's a difference between those two. And so he makes it clear that not all Israel is Israel. This is vital because it is clear that the Kingdom of God is not inherited by physical decent. There may be great promises given to the people of God in that regard, but the kingdom of God is not inherited by mere physical decent.

This of course reminds us that church membership cannot save us either. You can be a part of the visible community as all within Israel were and yet not have a heart for God and never experience His saving work. We must be in vital saving relationship with God. Church membership ought to flow from that saving relationship. It's one of the great privileges and duties of those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but it doesn't cause salvation. We can sit in church Lord's day after Lord's day and never embrace the promises or the warnings and not be in a vital saving relationship with God, and this passage is a warning about just that. Paul says, "No the promises of God haven't failed," because always there have been some within Israel who trusted and rested in Him, then there have been others who have not.

Now, Paul in verse 11 explains why this is. And you might expect him to do something like this, you might expect him to say the difference is faith, the difference is some have faith in Jesus Christ and some don't. That would be perfectly appropriate for the Apostle Paul to do. In fact later on in verses 30 through 33 he'll talk about that, and in Romans 10 verses 1 through 14, he'll talk about faith. Paul loved to talk about faith. But isn't it interesting that he doesn't mention it in verse 11 now when he wants to explain to you why it is that not all Israel is Israel and why it is that God's promises have not come to bare on all of Israel and why it is that some have rejected Him and some have Him. He goes right to the source, the choice and the sovereignty of God. He mentions nothing about us or what we do. Look what he does in verse11 as he explains to us the basis of this distinction. Why the distinction? Why the distinction within Israel, why Isaac and Ishmael? Why Jacob and Esau? Why the distinction between these? And Paul gives a stunning answer. The difference, he says, is not to be found in deeds of works, it's not to be found in foreseen deeds or works, rather it's to be found in God's choice. The distinction within the visible covenant community is in order to display God's purpose and choice. Phil Ryken puts it this way, "Notice God's reason for choosing Jacob in verse 11. It was in order that God's purpose and election might stand. God chose Jacob in order to teach the mystery of election that God is sovereign in dispensing His mercy. Even before birth He predestines those who will receive His saving grace and Jacob was chosen for the very purpose of demonstrating that God's grace is God's choice. Paul's answer in verse 11 over and over emphasizes God. Three times. God's choice. God's purpose. God's calling. That's Paul's answer. There's more to say, but that's all that Paul has to say here. So keep your eye on the ball.

Let me ask you this question. Does that bother you? Does it grate just a little bit, does it make you mad? Do you immediately recoil from it? Is your instinct to recoil from that answer? If it is, be certain that you're not recoiling from the words of man, you're recoiling from what God says through the Apostle Paul. It may be uncomfortable, but it is absolutely indisputably clear what he's saying. The difference goes back to God's purpose and God's choice. Paul is determined to show that every possible human factor is excluded as the basis of the action of God. And my friends, if you are resisting that particular teaching of Paul, if you are resisting that Bible truth, let me say that you're missing out on a very precious and comforting teaching of God's word, because by emphasizing this Paul is making it clear that God's grace does not find its origins in us. God's grace is not compelled by something in us or by something that we do, but God's grace is self-originating. God's love falls upon us out of the infinite bounds of His own heart of compassion and it's not moved by something that we have done and hence it can not be turned away because of something that we do. God's grace is pursuing and before that foundation of the world he has set his love on us. Toplady sings about that in that wonderful hymn of his, How Vast The Benefits Divine. Turn to hymn number 470. He expresses the same truth. "How vast the benefits divine, which we in Christ possess we are redeemed from guilt and shame and called to holiness, but not for works which we have done or shall here after do hath God decreased on sinful men salvation to bestow." In other words, God's shown us this grace, but it's not because of works that we have done, and it's not because of works that we will do, it's because of His mercy. His grace, God's choice shows his grace and his grace is his choice.

Now Paul knows that's hard to swallow, so he gives you three bible proofs of it. In verses 6 through 13 he shows you three Old Testament characters in order to give you evidence to make it clear again that he's not making this up as he goes along, that it's just something that he learned as a little Hebrew boy reading his Bible. He first tells you about Abraham. Now was Abraham a great man of faith, a worshiper of the one true God? No he was a idol worshiping Mesopotamian. And God called him out of that and made him into a trophy of grace and them he goes from Abraham to Isaac and he says, "Look at Isaac. I've chosen Isaac. He wasn't the first born," and then you immediately retort, "Yeah yeah, but Isaac's mom was Sara and Ishmael's mom was Hagar. That's the reason for the difference." So Paul says, "Ok let's think about Jacob and let's think about Esau. They had the same mother. Yet before they were born, before they had either done good or evil God chose the second born Jacob. To be the recipient of his promise. God is sovereign in the bestowal in His mercy."

Phil Ryken explains it this way. "Having stated the general principle in verse 6, that not every Israelite was among the elect, Paul proceeds to give examples and he describes three generations of patriarchs. The first was Abraham. He himself is an example of divine election for at the time God called him he was still worshiping idols. So Abraham did not choose God, God chose him. Then Abraham had two sons Isaac and Ishmael, the next generation; where they both saved? No. God told Abraham that his spiritual children would only come through Isaac and not through Ishmael. The reason was that although Ishmael was his natural born child, he did not have God's promise. Isaac was the chosen one. That was a pretty good example, however, even Isaac could not prove Paul's case because Ishmael was a half-breed. His mother was an Egyptian.

Perhaps then the reason Isaac was chosen was an accident of birth, and so in verse 10 Paul moves on to the next generation — Jacob and Esau. This was the clincher because they had the same mother. They were twins with nothing to chose between them and yet even before they were born, before they has done anything right and wrong, God chose Jacob and not Esau. He discriminated between them, He gave preferential treatment, which is what the Bible means when it says, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' Jacobs's election did not depend on his godliness, it didn't even depend on his birthright. Esau was the first born, never the less Jacob was the son of God's choice. Paul's meaning is unmistakable. Election is not based on anything in the elect themselves, but on the mercy of God."

Now my friend, I'm perfectly aware that there are some who fear that some that such a teaching will lead us to spiritual pride, but such a teaching, apprehended by God's Holy Spirit in fact, produces the opposite. Turn to the hymn we are going to sing at the end of the service, number 469. See, Isaac Watts understood this and he draws this picture of what we're going to do at the Lamb's Supper as we're gathered, and the Lord Jesus Christ has clothed himself again as He's going to feed His people the marriage supper of the lamb. And he pictures us sitting there and asking a question. He pictures our hearts being full with the mercies of salvation and look at the second stanza, "While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful tongue, 'Lord why was I a guest?'"

You see the question is not, "Why is he not a guest?" the question is "Why am I a guest?" This is the confession of the believer that he doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve this kind of mercy and he's so aware of it. Look at the third stanza, "Why was I made to hear Your voice and enter while there's room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?"

If salvation is all of grace, than I do not have the shred of a stick of a plank on which to base my pride for it's all of God's doing, it's all of grace. And so God's sovereignty serves to demonstrate His grace. Let's Pray.

Our Lord and our God help us to see Your grace in Your sovereign rule and in Your electing love. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Isn't it Unfair for God to Choose Some and Not Others? - Romans 9:14-18

If you have your Bibles with you I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans 9 as we continue through this great chapter. We are going to be looking at verses 14 to 18 today, but I'd ask you to look back at verses 1 through 13 and allow your eyes to scan it because I am going to remind you of a couple of things Paul has already said. It will help you understand the subject that he will introduce in verse 14 today. In verses 1 through 5, the Apostle made it clear that he had a heart of compassion for his own people. He was an Israelite of Israelites and even though his people in his own time had, by and large, turned their back on Jesus the Messiah and were rejecting the gospel that Paul was preaching, he makes it clear that he loves them. He loves them from the bottom of his heart. He loves them with a quite extraordinary word. That, at the very least, should let you know that what he is going to talk about from verse 6 to the end of this chapter is not some sort of an arid, dry, abstract, speculative, theological diatribe. Paul is invested in witness, he is invested in evangelism, and he is invested in gospel witness to the Jewish people, and their rejection of Jesus as Messiah is not simply the occasion of some sort of a philosophical thought fest on his part. This is something that strikes at the core of his heart. I hope that that will help what he has to say in this chapter be more digestible to you because he has some very hard things to say. But realize that Paul does not say them as someone who is detached from this particular crisis, detached from this particular trauma and trial. He is very much invested in the plight of his own people and yet he can speak very clearly and forcefully of God's sovereignty in this.

Then in verses 6 through 13 he introduces the problem. The problem is this: "Paul, if God has made these promises to Israel, if He made them hundreds and hundreds of years ago to Abraham, why is it, then, if the gospel is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, that Israel has by and large rejected God's promises?" In verses 6 through 13 the Apostle Paul answers that question by appealing to God's election. He says, "No, God has not forsaken His promises because you need to understand that those promises are not simply made generically to all those who are physically descended from Abraham; they are made specifically and covenantally to those whom God has chosen." "Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated" is the culminating point of Paul's argument in chapter 9 verses 6 through 13.

In other words, Paul is saying, "If you want to understand how it is that God's promises have not failed, you have to understand that God chooses." God chooses Jacob; he passes by Esau the dispensation of His mercy. That is His choice.

Now as you might suspect this immediately raises an objection. And that objection is what Paul is going to respond to in Romans 9 verses 14 through 18. So let's hear God's holy word:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, " I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our heavenly Father, Paul's words are hard not because they are unclear, they are painfully clear, but because they are difficult for our rebellious hearts to accept. We are curious. We want to call You to account. We want to inquire. We want to interrogate the Almighty. But You have a greater design in Your word so humble our hearts to teach us that we might see Your grace. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Fallen human beings have a hard time swallowing the sovereignty of God. We have a hard time anywhere we bump into the sovereignty of God in Scripture or experience swallowing it. I well remember as a fifteen year-old boy at my grandmother's house, reading through the first chapter of Ephesians with grandmother and granddad and my aunt and the family for our morning devotions. And at the end of those devotions, knowing that my grandmother did not share my same love for Calvinistic doctrine, knowing that I better not open my mouth about the word predestination that had popped up a couple of times in that passage. And after about thirty five seconds of awkward silence my grandmother could resist it no longer and she said to me, "Now son," referring to herself and to grandfather, "we're Southern Baptist and we don't believe in predestination." Now with all the tact of a fifteen year-old, I restrained myself from engaging in a theological dialog and I said, very diplomatically, "Grandmother, you believe in predestination. It's just that you think it means something different than what we as Presbyterians believe that it means." She immediately responded, "Son you don't understand. We're Southern Baptist and we don't believe in predestination." And I quickly responded again, "But Grandmother, you believe in predestination, the word is there in Ephesians 1, it's just you think that it means something like God 'foresees that we're going to chose Him' and I believe that it means 'God ordains that we are going to chose Him.'" And she immediately responded, "Son you don't understand. We're Southern Baptist and we don't believe in predestination."

I realized about fifteen years later that my Grandmother had two control beliefs: The Bible is true and predestination is not and therefore there is no place in the Bible that teaches predestination. It doesn't matter if the word is used or not. Now I want to quickly say, I love Southern Baptists. My elders are actually a little bit suspicious of me because I hang out with Southern Baptists so much. Let me also say that Southern Baptists used to believe exactly what Presbyterians believe and in fact many, many Southern Baptists believe right now what Presbyterians believe about God's sovereignty and salvation. It's in all the Baptist confessions. Look at the Philadelphia Confession, the New Hampshire Baptist Confession, the abstract principles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Southern Baptist and Presbyterians used to agree on this entirely. There has just been this collective amnesia among Baptists for the last hundred years.

The point is, we sometimes have a hard time swallowing God's sovereignty. It makes us uncomfortable. A friend of mine shared with me a quote that he had found in the Atlanta Journal Constitution just a few weeks ago. A Presbyterian minister stood up in the pulpit for his Sunday morning message. He's not a minister of the Presbyterian Church in America. He told his 475- member congregation this right after his 49 year- old wife had died in an automobile accident. He said this; "This was not a preordained part of God's plan. It was an accident and luckily no one has yet said to me it was God's will or there would have been two tragedies. It was an accident pure and simple." We find it sometimes very hard in Scripture and experience to accept God's sovereignty and Paul knew that because the minute he had asserted God's sovereignty in verses 11 through 13 in this chapter, he gets the objection, "That's not fair." And that's precisely the objection that Paul is going to respond to in verses 14 though 18.

He does it in three ways. In verse 14 he states the objection in the form of a question and he gives a short answer to it. In verses 15 and 16 he explains that salvation is not about fairness; it's about mercy. Then in verses 17 through 18 he says, anytime you're talking about God's judgment; you're dealing with a matter of God's choice and God's purpose. So let's look at what Paul says in this great passage today. If we find God's sovereignty in providence hard to swallow, if we find God's sovereignty in salvation hard to swallow, if we're tempted to say 'that's just not fair' we need to recognize that Paul is responding in these verses precisely to those kinds of concerns. And may I suggest that as we approach this passage, if that is your struggle today, that you determine to separate two questions in your mind. Instead of simultaneously asking, "What does the Bible teach" and at the same time how can that be so?" Simply ask the question, "What does the Bible teach?" Leave the other question for later. That's what Paul does in this passage. He simply addresses "What does the Bible teach" and then he explains how that can be so.

I. The Bible teaching of God's sovereignty strikes many as unfair.

First in verse 14 notice the objection, "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God is there? May it never be." In this passage Paul asserts that God and God's choice, God's electing love, God's election of some is not unjust. The question you see is, "Isn't it unjust for God to chose some but not others?" Paul has just said what? "Jacob have I love and Esau have I hated" and immediately someone says, "That's not fair." And the apostle says, "No, no, no God's electing love is just. It is not unjust." The Bible teaching of God's sovereignty may strike us as unfair, but the Apostle Paul immediately meets that objection with the assertion that God's election is not unjust. People often react as if God's absolute authority in salvation is arbitrary, it's capricious. The Apostle Paul says, "Oh no it's the farthest thing from arbitrary, it's the farthest thing from caprice, it's the farthest thing from injustice." And I want to say that the very fact that Paul gets this objection to his teaching is proof that he is teaching election. If Paul in verses 11 through 13 had said, "Look the reason Jacob was saved and Esau was not was because Jacob made a decision and Esau didn't." Nobody would have said, "But wait a minute, that's not fair." But the fact that Paul did not say that, but that rather the difference between them was to be found solely in the sovereign choosing mercy of God provokes the reaction "That's not fair." And so the very objection that Paul's teaching gets proves that he is indeed teaching the doctrine of election. Listen to what Phil Ryken says, "As soon as we say that God chooses we immediately encounter objection. It is the objection that Paul himself raises in verse 14, 'Hey that's not fair.' Even if election is biblical, as Paul has just proven, some people still wonder if it is fair. Now before we look at Paul's answer we should consider the objection itself. What do we learn from the very fact that the question of fairness is raised at this point in the argument? I think that we learn that Paul really is teaching election. One of the things that convinces me that Romans 9 actually does teach the Reformed doctrine of election is that this passage deals with exactly the kinds of objections that people usually have against that doctrine. As soon as we say that salvation comes from God's sovereign mercy, the first thing people say is 'That's not fair.' And that's exactly what Paul expects people to say, which, you see, confirms that he really is teaching the doctrine of election." Let me say that if this is your objection, that election isn't fair you may be sure that what you are objecting to is what the Bible actually teaches. That's the first thing we learn in this passage.

II. Our salvation is wholly dependent upon God's sovereign mercy.

The second thing you'll see in verses 15 and 16; God's salvation is rooted in mercy. Isn't it interesting that once Paul raises this question, 'Is God unjust in His election?' He answers it this way. Look at what he says in verses 15 and 16: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Notice that in verses 15 and 16 He says nothing about justice. Now that's strange. The question is about God's justice. Is God being unjust? And in Paul's answer he says nothing about justice. He only speaks about mercy. So let me ask you a question. Has Paul's answer answered the question? The question was about justice. His answer is all about mercy. Is his answer an adequate answer to the question? The answer is "Yes." Why? Because Paul, by referring strictly to mercy in response to the question about God's justice, is teaching you this; salvation is not about fair; it's about mercy. Salvation is not about fairness; it's about mercy. Salvation is not about getting what you deserve, salvation is about mercy. If you want to get what you deserve, well that's simple. The answer is hell. Salvation isn't about justice. If you want justice in salvation you have to look at Isaiah 53. There is the justice of salvation. That's what we should have deserved. That's what we deserve. That's what we should have gotten, but because of what Jesus did, recorded there for us in Isaiah 53 we receive glory at the hand of God's mercy. Paul is telling you, "No, no, no, if you are worried about God's justice and salvation you're thinking about the wrong category. The category you need to be thinking about is mercy." Salvation is all of grace. If we demand strict justice, then punishment, judgment, God's ban, God's curse, God's hell is what we get.

Furthermore, if we discount God's sovereign mercy, then we forfeit assurance. If we think that our salvation is based on something that we have done we'll never ever get it or we'll never ever be assured of it. Notice what Paul says in verse 16, "So it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." So many people say, "Oh no, salvation is about my free will." Notice what Paul says, "So it does not depend on man who wills." You see, you're not arguing that this is Calvin here. That's Paul that you're arguing with. And others say, "Oh no, salvation is about doing good deeds and being a good person and earning your salvation so it does depend on man who runs." It's not the things that man does; it's not the perseverance that we do on our own that garners salvation. No, it depends on God who has mercy.

You know it's the same thing that John says in John 1:11-13, do you remember that? Jesus comes to His own and his own receive Him not. And then what does John say in verse 12? "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born." How was it that they believed on His name? They were born not of blood. They didn't get it by their natural descent. Nor of the will of the flesh. They didn't get it by their free will. Nor of the will of man. They didn't get it from their dad; but of God. Salvation is of God. Salvation is all of grace. God's salvation is rooted in mercy. Our salvation is holy dependant on God's sovereign mercy.

Now I know immediately that someone is going to say, "Well then, what are we supposed to do then? How are we supposed to respond to this? Does this mean we don't have to do anything?" Paul answers that next week. Come back and I'll give you his answer. But for now all he wants you to see is this: If you're thinking about God's fairness in salvation with regard to some being saved and others not, you're thinking about the wrong category. The category is mercy. See, the only thing you can complain about is that God gives to some something that they don't deserve; heaven. While He gives to others precisely what they deserve. That's the only thing that you can say. You can say, "Lord you are entirely too generous." Yes, you can say that, but you cannot say that He is unjust.

III. God's discrimination in His dealings with men is both just and sovereign.

Finally he speaks of that very hard truth of God's passing some by. You see this is one of the objections that people have to election. If you say that God chooses some, then that inherently means that He must pass over others. Yes, you are right and that is precisely what the Bible teaches. It's hard to swallow, but it's crystal clear. Look at verses 17 and 18. Here Paul makes it clear that God's judgment is purposeful and that His passing by of some is fair and discretionary. He quotes this passage from Exodus that occurs around the sixth plague when God speaks to Pharaoh and says, "For this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then, He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires."

Now I want you to notice that once again, what's the problem that Paul's responding to? "God's being unfair in choosing some and passing by others." First Paul says, "No you need to think about the category of mercy, not justice." Notice that once again he's responding to an objection about God's justice and he says nothing about justice in this passage. He only speaks about God's purposes.

So first he wants to talk with you about mercy, now he talks about God's purposes. What is he saying to you? He's saying this: God has a reason for what He does and it's not unjust. And just because He hasn't let you in on the secret doesn't mean that it's unjust and it doesn't mean that it can be called into question. Notice how he stresses this in four ways. He says, "For this very purpose I raised you up." God had a reason what He did with Pharaoh. He had a purpose. I raised you up to demonstrate My power in you. So God's passing over Pharaoh was purposeful and it was demonstrative. It was to demonstrate God's power.

Furthermore He goes on to say "that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." In other words, God raised up Pharaoh and passed Him by because it was part of His purpose in order to demonstrate His power, and in order to declare Himself to the nations. So it even had an evangelistic purpose to it.

And finally, notice He has mercy on whom He desires, He hardens whom He desires. It's volitional. It all boils down to the choice of God. Now Paul just lays it down there. He doesn't apologize for it. That's just the way it is and you can think of one hundred objections in your mind to it right now because it's uncomfortable, but you know, you can't argue that that's not what Paul is saying because Paul is crystal clear. He says, in answer to the question, "Is God's election just, with regard to those who are saved?" he says, "You have to look at the category of mercy." With regard to those who reject God, you have to look to the category of God's purpose.

Now of course it's also true that God is just in his judgment of Pharaoh because Pharaoh was a sinner. He was a sinner who had rebelled against God and had mocked His name, but isn't it interesting that Paul doesn't even bring that up in this passage because he wants our focus to be on the sovereign choice of God. Why in the world would Paul give us such a teaching here? There are a lot of answers to that question, but I want to say this morning that believing the plain teaching of the Bible, even when it is hard to accept is a very important component of Christian discipleship. Because if we will reject this teaching, so clear in its word, because it is uncomfortable to us then there are other teachings that we will be willing to object to and reject because they are uncomfortable to us. But the mark of a disciple is that he believes the word of his master and so because we believe the words of our Master, we believe even when do not fully understand what God teaches us in His word.

And of course the great point of this passage is that God's electing purposes exalt His mercy. Toplady put it this way, "A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing." When we see God's choice as sovereign in salvation we realize that our salvation is all of grace. It is not based on our inherent worthiness, it is not based upon our deeds, it is not based upon our backgrounds, it is not even ultimately based upon our choice or our faith. Those are instruments of God's grace. It is based upon God's grace alone and therefore we may be assured that His grace will persevere because perseverance isn't based on us, it's based on Him. And therefore we may be assured of His love because of His acceptance of us is not based on something in us, it's based wholly on Him. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the truth of Your word. Grant that we might believe it for the good of our souls and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.

How Can God Condemn If We Can't Resist His Will? - Romans 9:19-23

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9 as we continue to work our way through this great book and chapter. "If God chooses then our choices don't matter." Have you ever had somebody say that to you before? Maybe you said it yourself, or maybe it was put in the form of a question. If God chooses, then do our choices matter? Paul is going to address this very issue in the verses that we are going to study today, verses 19 through 23 of Romans chapter 9. We are in what may be the most difficult chapter of the Bible and my friends, for the next several weeks we are right in the middle of the deepest part of that most difficult chapter. But never fear; God wrote His word for our good and there are practical lessons He intends us to learn.

It will help us to remember where we've been so far. Paul, in Romans 9 verses 1 through 5 has assured us of his love for the lost, especially speaking about his kinsmen of the flesh, the Israelites who have rejected the gospel and they've rejected Jesus the Messiah by and large in Paul's time. And Paul tells us right at the outset that he still has a heart of love for them. That's going to be very important for us as we work through this chapter. If this were coming from someone who was cold and detached without a concern for evangelism, without a concern for the lost, the things Paul says here would be difficult indeed to swallow. But at the very outset we remember that God's instrument for telling us these things is the greatest missionary of the apostles. And he has a large heart for those who are lost and that helps us as we work through the rest of this chapter.

Now in verses 6 through 13 he has to address a difficult problem. The problem is this: "Have God's promises failed?" Through Abraham, the children of Israel had been promised the fulfillment of God's covenant promises. And now the question is, "Paul, in light of the fact that you are acknowledging that Israel, by and large, has rejected Jesus as the Messiah in His time and in yours, does that mean that God's promises to Abraham and to Israel have failed." And Paul's answer is emphatically, "No." And basically he answers that question by saying, "You need to understand God's choosing, God's electing purposes; for the promises were not simply made to those who were ethnically Jewish. The promises were made to those whom God had chosen from amongst the descendents of Israel, those who trusted in His promises, those who loved Him, those who loved Him because He had first loved them." And He gives, of course, as his clinching example, Jacob and Esau, sons of the same mother, sons of the same father, sons of the covenant as regards to their descent and yet one loved God and the other didn't. And in fact God could say at the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi, "Jacob have I loved and Esau I have I hated."

Now, that of course immediately raises an objection and we saw that objection last week in verses 14 through 18. "Hey, that's not fair. It's not fair for God to choose that way. Election is not fair." And you'll remember how the Apostle Paul answered it. First he said, "Look election is not unjust. Let's clear that up right away." Secondly he says, "God's judgment, God's reprobation, God's passing over of some is not arbitrary, but rather purposeful." But finally he said, "Look, if you really want to understand election you've got to get outside the category of fairness and justice and you've got to move into the category of mercy, because if your salvation was a matter of fairness, well, then none of us would be saved. If election was a matter of justice, none of us would be elect." To talk about election in the first place, you have to move away from an over focus on the justice and fairness of God which, after all isn't in question, and you have to move into an entirely different category, the category of mercy. And so Paul argued.

But in verses 17 and 18 he throws out one more illustration that raised a problem in the minds in some who were listening to him. Do you remember, he mentions Moses and Pharaoh and he said, as an example of how God's election works, "Look at Moses, the Lord blessed him and He drew him to Himself and He chose him and He showed mercy to him. But Pharaoh, God hardened his heart." And immediately somebody says, "But wait a minute, that's not fair either. How can God condemn Pharaoh if Pharaoh can't resist God's will?"

You see the question that's being asked is, "If God's sovereign choice ultimately decides, then how can there be blamed for what we do, since His will can't be thwarted?" That's the question that Paul is answering in Romans 9 verses 19 - 23. Let's hear God's word.

You will say to me then, " Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, " Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared before hand for glory. Amen.

This is God's inspired and inerrant word may He write its eternal truth upon our heart. Let's pray.

O Lord, we bow before You and we ask that You would open our eyes to understand hard things, things that are not intellectually hard to understand. The reason and the logic is impeccable and clear, but these things are hard for our hearts to get around. Some of us resist them. They just don't sound right. They're counter intuitive. Others of us are in the process of resisting Your grace and using this type of a teaching to do it. Still others of us have never tasted the joy of salvation because we don't realize how gracious and how sovereign You are. To all of these we pray, O God, You would speak in Your word today. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

One of the fundamental differences between those who have been able to accept what the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty and those who have not comes at this point: those who accept what the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty have come to understand that God's sovereignty is compatible with man's responsibility. In other words, they have come to accept that it is simultaneously true that God is sovereign and man is responsible. And those who have rejected what the Bible says about God sovereignty have almost uniformly come to the conclusion that if God is sovereign, then man can not be responsible, that if God chooses then man's choice is irrelevant and meaningless. In other words, they see an opposition between those two things and so they choose to believe one or the other, but not both at the same time.

That is, of course, precisely the struggle that is going on here in Romans 9 verse 19. "Paul," the objector says, "you have just said that ultimately the difference between Moses and Pharaoh was the choice of God. Well let me ask you this. How can God condemn Pharaoh, how can God condemn anybody since you've just asserted that it all boils down to the choice of God? It all boils down to the sovereignty of God. If God is sovereign, how can our choices mean anything?"

It's that question that the Apostle Paul is going to tackle in this passage. And if you believe that God's choice and our choice are fundamentally opposed and incompatible, you will have a tendency to choose our choice over God's choice and reject some very clear teaching of Scripture.

And so I'd like to walk you through this argument of Paul's today, and I'd like to do it in four stages. In verse 19 you'll see the question, you'll see the objection that's raised against what Paul has just said. In verse 20, just the first part of verse 20, you'll see Paul's answer part A. In the second half of verse 20, and in verse 21, you'll see Paul's answer part B. And then amazingly, in verses 22 and 23, Paul will give you a glimpse in to the secret will of God. He'll give you a glimpse in to the purposes of God and I'd like to walk you through these things today.

I. Why does God find fault if no one can resist His will?

First let's look at verse 19 and the question which is raised. "Why does he still find fault for who resists His will?" You see the question here; you see the objection here. The objection is this, "How can it be just for God to still find fault since there is no one who can resist His will?"

You see, the belief that God is sovereign or that because God is sovereign we cannot be responsible is at the heart of many rejections of the Bible's teaching of God's sovereignty. And I want you to know at the outset that Paul's answer to this question is very instructive and the question itself is instructive. Think of it for a minute. If Paul were not teaching God's sovereignty, if Paul were not teaching election, if Paul were not teaching reprobation, this question never would have been asked. Have you ever thought that your friends who don't embrace the doctrines of grace, your friends who may even identity themselves as Arminians, have you ever thought to say to them, "Well if what you believe is true then how can we be responsible?" Why you never would think to say that is because their point is "our choice is the ultimate difference, not God's." So you would never think to make that objection to them.

That, by the way, proves that Paul is not teaching what they teach. Can I pause for a moment and say, many of those who do not embrace these teachings think that those of us who do sort of sit around thinking, "Whoops, they're headed to hell." That's not the case. There are many godly Christians who have not been able to get their hearts around this truth, and we know that. There are many who are godlier than I who have not been able to get their hearts around this truth. But here is the concern: sometimes resistance to this teaching is, in fact, a symptom of resistance of grace. That's our first concern.

Our second concern if this: if someone has not seen the glory of God's sovereign grace they can never experience the joy and the security and the assurance that God means for all of us to experience in this life and which is so important in our motivation in gospel service. That's why we dwell on it. Of course, the ultimate reason we dwell on it is because God's talking about it right here in the word. At any rate, nobody would think to make an objection to those who say 'it all boils down to man's choice' to say to them, "Well, then, how can we resist His will if He is not sovereign?" You wouldn't say that to that particular teaching and it shows that Paul is not teaching what our Arminian friends teach, or to put it the other way around, it shows that Paul is teaching the sovereignty of God's grace.

But notice Paul's answer also confirms that. If ever there were an opportunity for the Apostle Paul to say, "Whoa, wait a minute, you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that God chooses. I'm not saying that God's election is determinative. I'm really saying that God chooses because we choose Him." If ever there were a time for Paul to say that; if Paul thought it, now's the time. Verse 20 is it. That's his big chance to say, "Look, oops you misunderstood me, I didn't mean that." Guess what? He doesn't do it. He doesn't say, "Oh, let me dispel a misconception. I really didn't mean that the ultimate difference is that God chose Moses and not Pharaoh." He doesn't back away for a second. That's the second proof that Paul is in fact teaching the sovereignty of God's mercy.

Now I realize that many struggle with this very point, but I just want to say this. If this is your objection to election, then I want you to notice that it's the same objection that Paul got to his teaching. Can I retranslate that? You're beef isn't with me, it's with Paul. Can I retranslate that? You're argument is with the Bible. One more time. Your argument is with God. Your argument is the same argument that's being lodged against what is found in the divinely inspired word of God.

Now many struggle with this. I understand that. And many think, "Look, you preachers are so contradictory in what you say. One the one hand you say that God is sovereign, and on the other hand you tell people that they must believe in order to be saved. Okay, which one do you believe?" Take comfort my friends, you're not the first one to have that struggle.

I'm looking now at a story that's recorded in the life and letters of Benjamin Morgan Palmer. Palmer, by the way, preached the dedication service of the second building that this congregation occupied in 1892. For fifty years he was the minister of First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. But before he went to New Orleans, he pastored in Savannah for a time and was there in a time of great revival. And he had just preached an evangelistic message in which he had exalted the sovereignty of God and called on sinners to trust in Him, but he had emphasized that sinners did not have the inherent ability to save themselves or to trust in God. And a man who heard him was frankly very angry about this and showed up in his study on Monday morning to argue with him. Let me tell you what happened. During the 1840s when revival was sweeping through Savannah this young a man came to Benjamin Morgan Palmer to complain about his Calvinism. "You preachers are the most contradictory men in the world," he said. "Why, you said in your sermon that sinners were perfectly helpless in themselves, utterly unable to repent or believe, and then you turned around and said we would be damned if did not." Palmer sensed that his visitor was wrestling with the great issues of life and death, and to make sure that the man really dealt with the gospel, he gave him an indifferent response. "Well, my dear sir, there is no use in quarreling; either you can or you can't. If you can repent and believe, all I have to say is, 'I just hope you go and do it.'" Palmer then describes what happened next. "As I did not raise my eyes from writing, I had no means of marking the effect of these words on the gentleman until after a moment's silence, with a choking utterance, the reply came back, 'I have been trying my best for three whole days and I can not.'" "Ah," I responded, "that puts a different face upon it. We will go and tell this difficulty straight to God. We knelt down and I prayed as though this was the first time in human history that this trouble had ever arisen, and that here was a soul in the most desperate extremity who must believe or perish, and hopelessly unable of it self to do it, and consequently that it was just a case of divine interposition. Upon rising I offered not one single word of comfort or advice. And so I left my friend, in his powerlessness, in the hands of God as his only helper. In a short time he came through the struggle rejoicing in the hope of eternal life."

You see, my friends, the point of stressing God's sovereignty is not to deny man's responsibility, but to exalt the sovereignty of God's mercy and to establish it is He who is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day. And that sinner learned that. Not because he was told that he had the power, but because he was told he did not have the power and the only one who did was God. And so he had to seek God for the grace that he needed to stand.

So here is the objection that Paul is getting. "How can God condemn if no one can resist His will?" Now in the next few minutes we're going to give his response, in verses 20 through 23. Look at what he ways, first in verse 20, here is Paul's answer part one. "God's not on trial here. You've missed the boat. You're in the wrong courtroom, men. God is not on trial here." Paul is making sure when he says, "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God" that we take care not to transgress the proper boundaries of our humilities in this area. Make sure you understand what Paul is not saying. Paul is not trying to stifle the discussion here. It's not like an embarrassing question has been addressed to Paul and he doesn't have an answer for it so he just comes back and he presses raw authority. That's not what's happening. He's not making a brutal appeal to authority to snuff out our inquiry. He's not like some guilty husband saying to his wife, "Well that's just the way it is." That's not what he's doing. He's attempting not to bowl his way through some important question

He's reminding us of two vitally important realities. The first one is this. We are mere creatures and the very fact of our finitude should warn us to be careful about our deductions and our conclusions and our presuppositions in the realm of the infinite and sovereign. Who are we to say what the Sovereign One who is above heaven and earth can and cannot do? Our minds can't even comprehend all of Him and He has to speak baby talk for us to understand Him. That's the first thing he's reminding us when he says, "Who are you, O man, who answers that to God?" He's emphasizing the Creator-creature distinction.

Secondly he's reminding us that no one on earth has a right or reason to call into question God's mercy. There hangs the Son. There hangs the Son of His love. There is no question about the heart of mercy of God the Father. There may be question about my heart of mercy; there may be question about your heart of mercy; but there is no question about the heart of mercy of God the Father. That's not on trial here.

Now let me ask you this. Have you shown a heart of mercy to the lost and to your enemies? God has. His mercy, His justice isn't on trial. Ours may be, but His is not. It's as if Paul is saying, "Look, all those who have done deeds of mercy toward the lost and toward their enemies like God has, you line up in this line right over here and you can ask God that question. Okay, go ahead, form the line." And nobody's there. Because though our heart of mercy may indeed deserve some trial, but God's does not. His mercy is indisputable. It's not up for discussion. That's the first thing that Paul wants us to see in answer to this question.

II. God, as Creator, has sovereign prerogative over His creation.

The second thing you'll see at the end of verse 20 and 21. The Bible clearly asserts God's sovereign prerogatives as Creator. Paul goes to an Old Testament illustration. It's a favorite analogy, a favorite illustration in Old Testament books. You'll find it in Isaiah, you'll find it in Ezekiel, and you'll find it most famously in Jeremiah. It's the picture of the potter and the clay. And Paul is making this bold appeal to these Old Testament 'potter passages' that stress what? That God is God and He is Lord and He is beyond your questioning. He is not manageable. You see, so many people, in order to make God safe scale Him down. They domesticate Him. They make Him manageable.

I've shared with you before the wonderful story that comes from The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe where Susan is talking to Mr. And Mrs. Beaver and is asking them about Aslan, the great lion. And Susan asks if Aslan is a man and Mr. Beaver replies, "Aslan, a man, certainly not. I tell you he's the king of the wood and Son of the great Emperor beyond the sea. Don't you know who is the kind of the beasts? Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion." "Oh, Susan said, I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they are either braver than most or else just silly." "Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. "Safe," said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe. Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king. The king I tell you." You see what a beautiful picture Lewis has painted of our incarnate Savior. There is nothing safe about Him. There is absolutely nothing domesticatable about Him. There is nothing manageable about Him. He is sovereign, and let me say that if He weren't merciful and that if He weren't just, He's so sovereign that there is nothing we could do about it.

But you see the place that we run for our safety if not the denial of His sovereignty. We run to two places, the Bible says. We run to His unchanging faithfulness. He does what He says and we run to His goodness. But we do not run to the denial of His sovereignty because that's futile. He's not safe. There is nothing safe about Him. God cannot be managed or domesticated. That's the second part of Paul's answer.

III. God's glory displayed through His mercy.

And then he ushers you into the inner sanctuary. In verses 22 and 23 he gives you a glimpse into the secret purposes of God and shows you the display of God's glory through His mercy. And basically Paul tells you this, God's purpose in election, God's purpose in choosing, God's purpose in foreordaining His people before the foundation of the world is to make known His glory to the objects of His mercy. You see, that's one of the fundamental problems we have with election. We say, "How can you say that a loving God would choose some and condemn others to eternal damnation? How can you say a loving God would do that?" And here is Paul's answer: "Everything that God does, including that, is part of the design to reveal His mercy."

Now immediately you recoil and you say, "I'm sorry, that answer just does not compute. How can it be that you can say to me that the loving God chooses some and passes over others and it doesn't compromise His love?" And Paul comes back and he says, "It is the purpose of the secret counsel of God that everything that He does conspires to reveal His glory to those who have tasted His mercy."

And you're still scratching your head and you're saying, "I don't understand that" and my friend, I'm scratching my head with you. But, I'm believing because the Bible is absolutely crystal clear about that.

Notice the three steps of Paul's argument in response in verses 22 through 23. First, although God had every right to immediately judge the wicked, notice Paul's word, "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known." Notice what he says, although He has every right to immediately judge all the wicked, but He didn't. You see, Paul says, exhibit A of the mercy of God. We should have been fried to a smolder already. Exhibit A, the mercy of God.

Then the second part of the argument. Look at the second half of verse 22. Instead, what did God do? He patiently endured the sin of the reprobate. He "endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." Think of Jezebel. How many of God's men would she slaughter before God put an end to her. What was it? Elisha says, the New Testament says, "the forbearance of God lest she should return and repent." Think of Calvin's comments on John 13 when the Lord Jesus kneels to wash the feet of the disciples including Judas. Do you remember what Calvin says? That as the savior knelt to wash Judas, His betrayer's feet, "He was once more opening the gate of repentance." That's Calvin talking. The Savior is opening the gate of repentance to a reprobate, yes. You see, Paul is drawing your attention to the graciousness in the long suffering of God with the wicked.

And here is his clincher. Verse 23, why did he do this? He did this in order to show his mercy to His chosen ones. You see, we may not be able to take that all in right now. I suspect few of us, if any of us, can take all of that in right now. Paul is assuring you that when, on the day of wrath and judgment and glory, on the day that God the Father reveals His Son in all His transubstantiated glory, that on that day we will look at every deed, including God's choosing and passing over, and we will say, "Ah, I see now how that exalts God's mercy. That is why He did it." For the display of His glory and mercy to those who have tasted His mercy.

We may not understand all of that in light of nature. But in the light of grace we believe it. And in the light of glory we will see it. That's what Paul says in response to the question, "How can God condemn?" Even God's condemnation serves to exalt His mercy. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, the Apostle Peter once said that there were things in Paul's writing that were difficult to understand. Surely, surely, we are in the midst of them, but You've given them for our good and for Your glory. So make it so. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

God's Purpose to Display His Mercy Against Evil - Romans 9:22-29

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans 9. We come this morning with burdened hearts to the house of the Lord. It's not that there is just a national crisis; our own congregation has been touched in many ways. We have sons and daughter, and sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law, friends and colleagues who have been touched in different ways, the Wares, the Yandells, the Welborns, many others in the congregation with friends who have been in harm's way. We have some friends who have stories of being remarkably spared from being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and so our hearts are acutely burdened, but there is no better place to be in that situation than right here, with these people praising Him, in the house of the Lord.

And before we turn to Romans 9 and pick up in verse 22, I want to reflect with you just for a few moments and say four things about our study of the book of Romans and this national calamity. The first thing is this; our study in Romans 8 and 9 has been uniquely, peculiarly amazingly timely because of its emphasis on God's sovereignty. How many times in the last few days and hours have you heard someone attempt to get God off the hook? "He didn't know this was coming. He didn't want this to happen. This wasn't part of His will." We've had many very sincere people that have tried to cope with the magnitude of this calamity by just moving God off the stage, and I can't imagine a place that would be more unsafe for us than a world in which God was not only on the stage, but controlling the play. It's one of the great comforts of our hearts that He is on His throne, and He is in charge even though we are not. And even though we don't understand what's going on, isn't it a mercy that God has been teaching us that about Himself in these last months. It's as if He has been pre-preparing us for the living of this day and hour. That's the first thing I want to say.

The second thing is that Romans 8 and 9 have over and over stressed the grace of God, and isn't that a word we need in this hour. We look to September the eleventh and we look to New York City and it is hard to see any grace in that great manifestation. We wonder how God's grace will be displayed, but one of the great lessons we have been learning in Roman 8 and 9 is that God's sovereignty is unto the display of His grace, and He is always about the purpose of displaying His grace. And so even though we may not know now how the purposes of His grace will be served by Tuesday, September eleventh in New York, in Washington, and in Pittsburgh, we can be assured that the sovereignty of His grace will triumph and His grace will be displayed. Isn't it a mercy that He's been rubbing our noses in His grace for weeks in these great chapters that we might be prepared for this hour.

There is a third thing that I'd like to say to you as well. Our study of Romans 8 and 9 has confirmed to us, if we have been listening, the relevance of Scripture. You know, so often we wonder, "Is the Bible really applicable? Is it really practical? Does it really speak to my needs?" Well, tell me something more practical than the sovereignty of God's grace in the face of this. Name me something more practical than the reality that God is on His throne and it is His good and perfect, and merciful will that will be accomplished even through the wrath of men. Tell me something more practical than that. You see, we've learned in working through this great book, that God's word matters, and it relates, and it's relevant, and it's practical and it's suitable for the building up of men and women in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And there is one last thing that I want you to remember as we approach this passage today and it's this; the crisis about which Paul is speaking in Romans 9 is not a lesser crisis than the crisis we are facing this week. The crisis about which Paul is speaking in Romans 9 is not a lesser crisis than the one we are facing this week. It is numerically a greater crisis and it is spiritually a greater crisis. I don't want to underestimate at all the intensity of what we have gone through. The magnitude is absolutely mind boggling, and we're going to talk about that later in the sermon today, but I want you to realize Paul is talking about a catastrophe of exponentially greater proportions in Romans 9.

You see, we often come to the Bible and we ask, "Can the Bible really speak to where I am? Can it really get down to the things that I'm going through? Can the Bible live up to the intensity of the trials that I'm going through?" And I'm going to tell you right now, that's not the problem. You see, the question is, "Can you live up to the intensity of the trial that the Bible is speaking of here?" Because as intense as what we have gone through in this week, Paul is talking about a large-scale rejection of the one true Messiah by his own people that entailed thousands upon tens of thousands in his own day and has numbered now millions over the course of twenty centuries. My friends, what we are trying to pull our heads together and our hearts together about this week pales in comparison with the crisis and catastrophe that Paul is speaking about. I say that simply to say this: the question is never "Can the Scripture live up to our experience?" It is always "Will our experience live up to Scripture?" Now let's hear God's word in Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 22.

"What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, " I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,' and Her who was not beloved, 'beloved' " And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, 'you are not My people,'There they shall be called sons of the living GOD." And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly AND quickly." And just as Isaiah foretold, "EXCEPT THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME AS SODOM AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH."

Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired words. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God from Your word, cause us to behold wonderful truth. Help us as we pray to believe, to trust, to see You as You are, to acknowledge the goodness of Your purposes and to embrace Jesus Christ in faith. We ask it in His name. Amen.

I. God's purpose in election is to make His glory known.

What does this passage have to say to us today? Four things, the first thing you'll see in verses 22 through 24, that long unfinished sentence. There Paul is telling us that God's purpose in election is to make known His glory to the recipients of His mercy. In other words, Paul is teaching us there, and this is the first thing we need to learn today, that God has a purpose to reveal the glory of His mercy against a backdrop of evil. Paul is providing for us, not only an inner philosophy of God' choosing, of God's gracious election, but he's also providing for us a philosophy of providence that God has the purpose to reveal the glory of His mercy even against the backdrop of evil. Walk through Paul's argument. You wonder, how in the world can Paul say that God has a purpose to reveal His mercy in all these people rejecting Him? How can God's purposes be served with people rejecting Jesus the Messiah, the Son of His love, the one who is the Savior of the world? How can God's mercy be displayed in that? Paul says, actually three ways, let me tell you. Look at verse 22.

Although, Paul says, although God had every right to immediately judge the wicked, He didn't. You see, this is a sign of His mercy. They rejected the Messiah, and yet He didn't immediately rain down judgment on them. It's a sign of His mercy, and what's more, go on and look at the end of verse 22. Instead, He patiently endured the sin of the reprobate. What is this but an example of His graciousness, and we can see this going all the way back to Genesis. Adam and Eve are not immediately exterminated; a covenant of grace is established for them. Abraham is told that his descendants are going to be in captivity in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years, why? Because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. The Canaanites are godless pagans and God could have, with all due rights, sent the children to Israel into the Land of Canaan and wiped them all out and it would have been just. But He endured their sin for four hundred and thirty years that they might have the chance to turn to the one true God.

Think of the Lord Jesus dealings with Judas. John, in chapter 1, tells us that He knew every man's heart. He knew the heart of Judas who He chose his to be His disciple. He ministered along side of him for three years. He knew that he was His betrayer and yet He knelt to wash his feet that He might open the gate of repentance to him. God is forbearing with sinners, and this is a display of His grace and mercy.

Paul goes on to say in verse 23 that He did this in order to show His mercy to His chosen ones. That God's purposes in forbearing with sinners is not only to display His mercy in His patience, but to display His mercy to those who embrace Him so we we'll see both what we deserve, and what God has, in His mind-boggling grace, given to us instead. Something that we could never deserve; the mercy of God, friendship with Him, citizenship in His kingdom, sons and daughters of the most high king. All of these things He has given, and against the backdrop of sin, and rebellion, and rejection, and hardness of heart, those who embrace and have been embraced by the mercy of God see more clearly then they ever could have before, their own sin, and the greatness of God's grace.

Paul is telling us that God's purpose in providence and election is to display the glory of His mercy. And my friends, God always has a purpose to show the glory of His mercy, even in the events of last Tuesday. I don't know what they are. I may have an inkling of some of them. I may die not knowing all the purposes of God's mercy, but I do know this, that God always has a plan to reveal the glory of His mercy to those who are the objects of His mercy. And that's what Paul is telling you in this great passage. And then he's going to give you three examples of just how he does this.

II. Examples of God's mercy.

First, let's look at verses 25 and 26. Here Paul says, God reveals His purpose to show the glory of His mercy against the backdrop of evil in the calling of the Gentiles. God reveals His mercy in the calling of the Gentiles. Example A, exhibit A of God's mercy and forbearance according to Paul, is the Gentiles themselves. He quotes from Hosea, and he applies this passage from Hosea to God's calling of the Gentiles. They were not God's people and yet, in His mercy, He's going to make them His people. He's doing this through Paul's ministry. It's Old Testament proof that God has chosen the Gentiles, and Paul is appealing to it to illustrate the mercy of God. You see, these Gentiles had not received the covenant promises. God had not come to the father of the Gentiles like he had come to the father of Israel and given this glorious covenant of grace, and yet God in His mercy has now included these Gentiles in those Abrahamic promises. But the Gentiles were debauched, they were idolaters, they were enemies of God's people, they deserved judgment, and there, in God choosing then to be His children, He displays His mercy. Against the backdrop of evil He displays His mercy by calling these Gentiles out of the world and into His kingdom, and into His family, so that they worship Him, and love Him, and serve Him, and become brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deserved immediate judgment, but God restrained Himself in mercy, and He chose them in mercy. The salvation of every sinner is a display of God's mercy in mitigating the judgment that we deserve, and showing us a favor that we don't deserve.

Do you remember throughout this passage Paul has taught us two things which are prime truths. Judgment is always just. Whenever we see God judge, it's always just. And mercy, God's mercy on us is always more that just, more that fair. It's mercy, it's not deserved, it's not merited, it's not earned. It's always a gratuitous display of His mind boggling love, and Paul has said that to us over and over, "When ever you see God judge don't say, 'Well, how can He be so mean?' It's just. Whenever you see God show mercy, think, 'There is no earthly reason for that, but the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God.'"

And my friends, I want to say to you that God's mercy was even revealed Tuesday in many ways. We saw a reminder on Tuesday of the restraining of God's immediate judgment. You know, that was a horrendous occurrence on Tuesday, we've never seen the like of that, and yet in seeing the catastrophe that occurred on Tuesday in New York, and Washington, and just out of Pittsburgh, we only saw a glimpse of what we deserve. We always think that we deserve better, but that's what we deserve, we deserve the judgment of God. And we were reminded that God has spared us, that in His infinite mercy He has not given us what we deserve, He's given what we could never deserve in His son Jesus Christ.

Then in verses 27 and 28 Paul gives example B, here is his second incident, his second indication of God's mercy. He says here that through God's election a portion of Israel has come to be saved. Paul is teaching us here that God reveals His mercy by saving a remnant of Israel. Paul himself is exhibit A. Here he is, I'm a Jew of Jews, I'm a Benjaminite, and I'm saved. I love Jesus the Messiah, and there are hundreds and hundreds like me. We worship the one true God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though none of Israel deserved God's mercy and all of Israel deserved His judgment, yet God chose a remnant for Himself.

You see the root of salvation is always in the grace of God. The root of salvation is always found in the gracious choosing of God. The root of condemnation is in ourselves. We don't usually look at it that way. We tend to think that God has an obligation to save, and that if He doesn't save everybody, it's not fair. That's not how the Bible looks at it. The Bible says, God's obligation is to justice. The surprising thing, the thing that catches your breath is that God Himself provides a way that His justice is assuaged and His mercy is visited upon a multitude that no man can number.

From the Bible's standpoint, that's not God's obligation. That's the most surprising thing in the world, because God's gracious choosing is the root of our salvation, but our sin is the root of our condemnation. And my friends, we saw God's mercy revealed on Tuesday, there were thousands who were spared on Tuesday. I don't want to make light of what went on. Let's pull back and think for a minute my friends, twice as many people left this world on Tuesday than died at Pearl Harbor. We have not seen bloodshed on U.S. soil in this quantity and dimension in the mist of war for one hundred and forty years. You must go back to the days of Antietam to see so many Americans fall on American soil, and yet, and yet, my friends, 45,000 people occupied those towers. I don't know how only 5,000 could have been lost. I just don't know, I have no idea. I don't think anybody in Manhattan has any idea. God, in His mercy, spared what could have temporally been an even greater calamity.

But you know, God's mercy will also be shown in the events of Tuesday by the drawing of many to a Savior that before Tuesday they had no time for. Right in the center of the hustle and bustle of American life where we are all about the business of building up the strongest, the mightiest economic super power in the history of the cosmos, right in the middle of our pursuing the world to the 'nth' degree, God brings a stop to it, and suddenly men realize there is something bigger than the dollar and there is something bigger than the market, and there is something bigger than today; there is eternity. And many will be drawn into an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ through the harsh realizations, the costly realizations of Tuesday, September 11.

And my friends, don't our hearts go out right now to Tim Keller and to his flock at Redeemer as they minister in the midst of Manhattan. Don't you want to help them in any way possible to minister mercy to their neighbors, to their friends, to their effected congregation and to the unbelievers which are in teaming multitudes around them. Oh my friends, we ought not simply in word, but in deed supporting their work. We'll be telling you how you can do that in the days to come, but you be thinking how God can help those people minister the grace of the gospel in this time.

III. Without God's grace, death is the result.

But there's one last thing I want you to see, you'll see in verse 29. Without God's electing intervention, the natural result is always death in judgment. If God doesn't intervene with grace, the natural result is always death in judgment. Look at these strong words, "just as Isaiah foretold, unless the Lord of Sabbath had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah." You understand what Paul is saying, and this is the most uncomfortable truth. Paul is saying that God's mercy is the one thing that stands between us and judgment, it's the one thing that stands between us and decadence, it's the one thing that stands between us and depravity. Paul is reminding us here, that even the remnant could not take credit for persevering itself. That credit belongs wholly with God. If He doesn't intervene, only death in judgment awaits.

Do you realize how shocking what Paul is saying is? He's looking out and he has a believing company in his midst. He's got Gentiles believers, and he's Jewish believers, and he's looking at those Jewish believers and he's saying this, "Look, even the remnant of Israel would be like Sodom and Gomorrah were it not for the grace of God. There is nothing in us, there is nothing in us that made us to be the remnant. It's only the grace of God." I don't know about you, but that's a little offensive to me. I don't like to have somebody say, "You know Ligon, I'm going to pull back the curtain of your heart and we're going to show exhibit A what your heart looks like." And here Paul pulls back the curtain of my heart and he says, "Ah ha, Ligon, you look like Sodom and Gomorrah." That's what Paul's saying here. Paul is saying, apart from the grace of God, here's what the remnant looks like; Sodom and Gomorrah. The only thing that stands between us and dedadence in judgment is the grace of God, because my friend, the human heart is capable of untold evil apart from the grace of God.

And didn't we see that revealed on Tuesday? We saw, my friends, what we could become apart from the grace of God. We saw just a millisecond of a sliver, of a glimpse of what hell looks like, just a tiny glimpse into what happens when the restraining common grace of God is let go for an instant, this is where man can go.

And here is the Apostle Paul saying, if you want fellowship with the living God, than the only place you can go is to the grace of God, and the only way you can go to the grace of God is to go to Jesus Christ and to trust that He is who He said He is, and to rest in Him alone for your salvation as He is offered in the gospel. And then you will find that He has displayed in you the object of His mercy, the glory of His mercy. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, help us to see our sin and to see our Savior. In Jesus name. Amen.

Why Would Someone Reject Salvation? - Romans 9:30-33

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9. When last we were together, we were in Romans 9, verses 22 through 29 in which Paul stressed the fact that God has a purpose: to reveal the glory of His mercy against the backdrop of evil. How timely that word of Paul was for us last week as we gathered in the wake of terror and tragedy in New York City and in Washington. We've entered into a new era and we feel that acutely. As Americans and as Christians and we were comforted by God's word. God is in control. God's plan is not thwarted. God's purposes are the same and His purpose is to reveal the glory of His mercy even against the backdrop of evil.

But as we prepare to look at this next section in Romans 9, the last few verses of this great chapter, it would be good for us to look back at the bigger picture that Paul has been addressing so far, and to ask ourselves a couple of questions. One question is, why is Paul talking about Israel at all in Romans 9,10, and 11 in the center of this great book? Most of you know that beginning in chapter 12, he picks up what we might call a practical section of the book in which he addresses Christians about matters of Christian living. In chapters 1 through 8, he had been dealing with a variety of theological matters, but especially the teaching of justification by grace through faith. You may be asking yourself, "Why in the world is Paul even talking about Israel in Romans 9 through 11? How does that relate to what goes before this and how does it relate to what comes after it, and that's a good question. I think there are basically two answers to that. First of all, Paul is talking about Israel in Romans 9, 10, and 11 because of a very practical problem, and that is that Israel, who had received the promises of God through Abraham had not embraced Him who was the embodiment of those promises, the Lord Jesus Christ. By and large, in Jesus' day, and in Paul's day, the mass of Israel had turned their back on the claims of Jesus as the Messiah. You know, this is a very significant fact, Paul had just in Romans chapter 8 been assuring believers that they never need to fear being abandoned or deserted by God because God is powerful and God had made promises. But God was powerful in the Old Testament and He made promises in the Old Testament and Paul's already introduced in Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 5 the fact that, by and large, Israel has turned their back on Christ and has not come to the fruition of the promises made in the Old Testament to Abraham. So Paul needs to explain that particular issue. So, what Paul is talking about in Romans 9, 10, and 11 is not disconnected with what he's been talking about in Romans 8.

But let's go further back because there is a second reason why Paul's comments about Israel in Romans 9 through 11 are very germane in the rest of the book and that's simply this. Paul has been talking about justification by grace through faith alone, and in the very passage that we are going to study today, he raises this reality that Israel, in his own time, sought to be right with God by works and not by faith. And therefore the case of Israel is directly related to what Paul has been teaching about how a person can be right with God. You are either right with God by His grace through faith alone, or through some other way, but it can't be both as far as the Apostle Paul is concerned. And he's going to tell us in the very passage that we study today, that Israel sought to be right with God through works, and not through Jesus Christ, and not through faith alone. And so for both these reasons, it's very, very practical for Paul to be speaking about Israel in this passage.

Now, you'll also remember that as Paul raises the question in Romans 9 verses 1 through 5, why is it that Israel has turned her back on the promises of God? The first answer he gives in Romans 9 verses 6 through 29 is God's sovereignty. First, he points us in the direction of God's sovereign mercy and he says, "Look, God's grace is God's choice." That's a very hard lesson to swallow for many, many people, and of course he explains two or three things to help mitigate the force of that very powerful teaching. He says, for instance, God's choice is not arbitrary, and he makes it clear that God's judgment is always just; it's never unfair. He makes it clear that God's electing mercy isn't about fairness; it's about mercy. It's a sovereign act of grace and mercy; it's not about fair. Fair is Hell. Salvation, that's in a different category than fairness, that's the category of mercy.

And that might lead some of you to think, "Where does Paul leave us room for man's responsibility? Where does Paul leave us room for faith?" Well, he starts right here. From Romans 9 verses 6 through 29, Paul emphasizes the sovereignty of God in this current situation with Israel. Then, in Romans 9 verse 30 through Romans 10 verse 21, he emphasizes mans responsibility. For Paul those two things aren't contradictory, they work side by side, they are compatible, they are not in opposition.

And so, having told us as the first part of his answer to the question, why has Israel turned his back on the promises on God, having given the first part of that by saying you have to look at God's sovereignty, he now turns to the second part of the answer. And that is, you have to look at man's responsibility. That's where we are today. Let's hear God's holy word.

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness, which is by faith; but Israel pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, " BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

Amen. This is God's word, may He as His blessing to it. Let's pray.

O Lord, we ask that You would open our eyes and our ears, and our hearts to receive Your word of truth from the holy Scripture. By the Spirit you would apply it to us and that we would be quick not to think how it applies to others, but to see its application to ourselves that we might embrace Jesus by faith as He is offered in the gospel. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Why would someone reject salvation? Have you ever thought about that? Why would someone reject salvation? That's the question that Paul is talking about in these verses, except it's even more pointed than that. Paul is asking, "Why would a religious person reject salvation? Why would God's covenant people, schooled in God's law, taught by God's prophets who had read the writings of the Old Testament, who had recited the Psalms of praise of David, why would they reject salvation? Why would someone whose focus in life was to be in fellowship with God, why would someone whose focus in life to be obedient to God, why would a person like that reject salvation?" That's a hard question. It's a hard question, not only because it is perplexing to the mind, why would somebody do that, but because it was a reality. You see, for the people of God who had been given the Scripture of the Old Testament and the predictions of the Messiah had, by and large, closed their ears to the gospel that the apostles were preaching. They had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they had rejected the gospel that Jesus Christ was the only way of salvation, and Paul was broken hearted over it, as we saw in Romans 9 verses 1 through 5. So he raises this issue for us again at the end of the chapter and he asks us to scratch our heads with him for a few minutes and ask, "Why would someone reject salvation?"

I. Unbelieving Israel has not found right standing with God, but the believing Gentiles have.

I'd like to say two or three things in response to that this morning. The first you'll see in verse 30 and 31. Paul is stating the question for us there. He's recapitulating the argument that he had introduced in the first part of the chapter, and he's asking us to think with him, "What are we to make of this fascinating situation?" What has in fact come about, Paul says, is not what we would have expected. We would have expected a mass of Israel to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. We would have expected the Gentiles to be resistant to Him, but what we found, in fact, was just what Isaiah was telling us this morning, that the foreigners, the nations are flocking to Him, but the complacent people of God are turning their ears against Him. They are turning their hearts against Him. What are we to make of this fascinating situation? The Gentiles have come to the righteousness, which is by faith and yet Israel has not attained the righteousness of the law. Unbelieving Israel has not found right standing with God, but believing Gentiles have found right standing with God. What are we to make of this situation? Now, Paul has already started answering that question for us in Romans 9, 6 though 29. He said, well, first you have to look at God's sovereignty. God has a purpose even in the rejection of Jesus by Israel, and that purpose is to reveal His mercy.

Now, he says, the second part of that answer you have to look for in man's responsibility. That's the focus of Paul's argument in Romans 9 verse 30 through Romans 10 verse 21. He's going to emphasize here human responsibility and the centrality of faith. He says, if you want to understand why Israel rejected the Messiah, why Israel rejected salvation, then you have to understand something about faith, and so here in Romans 9, 30 through 31, Paul is recapitulating his concern and he's highlighting this irony that pagans, who cared nothing about righteousness, have obtained right standing with God, whereas the people of God have not, they've missed it. And he's raising this very difficult question.

But even in raising the question in verses 30 and 31, he is reminding us that God's sovereignty is compatible with man's responsibility; it is not contradictory of it. You see, Paul is not saying, "Ok now, some of you can believe Romans 9, 6 though 29, and then others of you can believe Romans 9, 30 through 10, 21. You can believe either way, God is either sovereign or man is responsible." Paul doesn't ever pause to see any kind of contradiction here, and as far as Paul is concerned both of these things are perfectly compatible and both are absolutely true. God is sovereign. God's grace is God's choice, but man is responsible and, we must believe. It is precisely in the failure of Israel to believe, and in the believing of the Gentiles, that we see this tremendous distinction. God is sovereign and man is responsible, and God's mercy is not exhausted even in the saving of the Gentiles.

It's so surprising, you never would have thought it, but that's precisely how God chose to reveal His mercy. And so he begins to ask the question and answer the question, why, in verse 32, and that's the second thing I'd like you to see.

II. This is because Israel sought right standing in the wrong way.

Here Paul asks, why did this happen? Why did it happen this way? Why did Israel reject salvation? And he gives us a two-part answer. He says that they rejected salvation because they sought it the wrong way, and because they rejected the Savior. They rejected salvation because they sought it the wrong way, by works, and because they rejected the Savior, Christ crucified. In other words, Paul is saying that Israel sought right standing with God the wrong way.

What led to this disaster? How could God's people miss the mark so badly? Paul's answer, part one, look at the first words of verse 32. "Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works." Israel sought right standing with God the wrong way; they sought it by works.

You know, that's an amazing thing Paul is saying, that there is a wrong way to seek fellowship with God. That thought is antithetical to our generation and culture. We figure, if a person is seeking God, he's going to find Him. If a person wants to be a follower of God, God is just totally happy with it. There are many ways up the mountain, how many times have you heard that in the last twelve days? All religions are the same, everybody who seeks God is a child of God, and the Apostle Paul is here in verse 32 saying, "Wrong, there is a right way to seek fellowship with God, and there is a wrong way." The wrong way is by works, and he is saying precisely what the Israel of his own day did. They sought right standing with God by their own works.

Now, people who seek salvation, people who seek right standing with God by works usually make along with that two other mistakes. First of all, they underestimate their own sin. They do not see themselves as sinners in the way that the Bible sees them as sinners, they discount their sin, they underplay their sin, they ignore their sin, they see themselves as basically good people. You know, we can look at those who perpetrated the acts in Washington and New York, and it's perfectly clear in our minds that they are sinners, but you see, there is often a mind set among us that they're the sinners, but we're not. We do much more respectable sins than they do. Our sins are certainly less displeasing to the Lord, we think. Surely we have not been so bad as to deserve God's judgment in condemnation, but the Apostle Paul has reminded us over and over that there is none righteous, no, not one. So, the sinner that thinks he is going to save himself by works, the first thing he does is he under estimates his sin.

Secondly, he underestimates the cost of salvation. He underestimates the cost of grace, he thinks that by doing a few things he can make up for the few foibles of his past. Not only does he refer to his sin as mistakes, not only does he downplay and sanitize his sin and make it respectable, but he also downplays the cost of salvation. The Apostle Paul says, that's impossible because Christ Himself is the price that the Father has paid for salvation. So salvation is the costliest thing in the world, even though it is offered freely to you, and the one who desires to save himself by works doesn't reckon with either of those things.

Now there are not many of us in a polite, Christianized, Southern culture, who would just come right out and say, "I'm not a sinner, and I don't need to be saved by Jesus Christ," but, there are a lot of people who think that. They think of other people as sinners. They think of other people who need Jesus Christ, and they believe that they are able to do certain things in order to accrue God's favor to them. They believe, in effect, that they can earn God's favor through doing certain acts; being obedient, keeping certain stipulations or rituals, or ceremonies, and the Apostle Paul is saying that is precisely the mistake the Israel of his own day made, and therefore they missed salvation, they rejected it.

Now, the second thing that he has to say you'll see in the second half of verse 32. Look at those words: Paul succinctly says, "They stumbled over the stumbling stone." Now, you know that the stumbling stone is a favorite Old Testament reference to Jesus Christ, and you'll find it in the Psalms. We quoted a psalm this morning in the call to worship, which refers to Jesus as that cornerstone that was rejected by the builders, and a symbol of the stumbling stone was often applied by the New Testament writers to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Paul is saying here that Israel could not accept Christ and His cross. You see, there are always people who are looking for a way into fellowship with God that short circuits or goes around the cross. They want a relationship with God, but apart from Jesus Christ, and apart from the cross. And the Apostle Paul says, there is no such thing, and it's vitally important for us to think about right now, my friends.

Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. That is not a popular thing to say. It's not even a popular thing to say in the wake of the tragedy last week. How many people have we had assure us that all religions are the same? All roads lead up the mountain. There are many ways into fellowship with God, Jesus Christ is one way, but there are others, and here the Apostle Paul is saying that it is a stumbling stone to think that there is any way into fellowship with God apart from Jesus Christ. He is asserting that there is a wrong way into fellowship with God, and that wrong way is by your own works, by your own merits, by your own efforts and apart from Jesus Christ. And there is a right way, and it is by faith alone, in Christ alone, and it's just that simple.

The apostle is saying, if you are trying to enter into a fellowship with a living God, (let's stop picking on Israel of Paul's day for a minute and let's pick on ourselves, because what Paul is saying here applies to everyone if you are trying to enter into a fellowship with the living God apart from Jesus Christ) there is no hope. Why? Because you're a sinner, you are the problem. You're the problem. Jesus is the solution to the problem that you have caused. The problem can't solve itself; only Jesus can solve this problem, and so we must except Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel, or we must part with salvation. That's the mystery here.

Why would religious people reject salvation? Because they began to trust in there own goodness, and they began to discount their need of God's grace. That's why someone would reject salvation, because the gospel is offensive. Paul didn't go out and market test. He didn't data test this gospel and find out that nine out of ten in the test market really respond affirmatively to the idea that salvation is by grace alone, that we're all sinners and that we need Jesus Christ to die for us in order to be saved. That's the most offensive message in the world if you listen to it. If you're a natural man it offends your pride, because it says that you're such a sinner that you need a Savior like that to save. It offends your character, it offends your person, but it's the way of salvation, it's the word of grace. Paul didn't test it to see if people liked it, because it's the truth. It still offends people today, and it still will offend, and it will increasingly offend them. In fact, people who claim that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation are sure to be targeted as the terrorist of the future, because we have people running around, all around us saying, the problem is that people out there believe that truth has a capitol 'T' on it. When all truth is truth, many different truths are truths, contradictory truths are truths, and only reasonable people can possible get along, people agree truth is relative. Other people say, "You know, the first step to terrorism is somebody that thinks there is only one way to God, so we've got to wipe out everybody who believes there is only one way to God," and so they begin to relativize the teaching of Scripture. And the Apostle Paul doesn't back down an inch here. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.

III. Christ is appointed for the rise and fall of many in Israel, and beyond.

And then he gives an Old Testament quote to prove that this would be the case, in verse 33, where you'll see the third thing that Paul says in this passage. He says, the Old Testament predicted that Christ would both be a stumbling block and the way of salvation; that many would take offense at Him, but also those that trust in Him would be saved. Look at what he says, "Behold I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." There is the negative side; He is going to be one upon whom some stumble. Here's the positive side, "and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed." In other words, Jesus would simultaneously be one who would be rejected by His people and would become the occasion of them taking offense, and at the same time, He would be the very heart of salvation of those who believe in Him.

Now isn't it interesting? In Luke chapter 2, you remember Luke chapter 2, you probably read it every year at Christmas time. It's that wonderful passage you probably still have ringing in your ears, that says when Caesar sent out for all the world to be taxed and everyone went unto his own city, and etcetera, etcetera. Only, if you look all the way down to verse 34 in that chapter, you will find an interesting verse. Mary and Joseph have taken baby Jesus to Simeon to be blessed, and Simeon lays his hand on the child, and he looks into Mary's eyes, and he says to Mary, "This one is appointed for the rise and the fall of many in Israel." You see what he's saying: he is saying that he recognized that the Messiah will both be the occasion of salvation and destruction of many in Israel, and what will be the difference? Believing on Him or rejecting Him. Trusting in our own works, or trusting in His works. Trying to save ourselves, or acknowledging that we can't save ourselves and that only He can save us, and that will be the difference, and that is precisely what Paul is saying.

Why would someone reject salvation? Because they refuse to acknowledge their need and they refuse to put their hope in Jesus Christ. That's why salvation is offensive It's offensive to say that you need to be saved, but it's the truth of the gospel, Paul says, and all those who embrace Jesus Christ find that the word of warning and judgment in the gospel is but a word of blessing because it has driven them from themselves and from their sin to Jesus Christ and to His salvation. Salvation, Paul is saying, is in Jesus Christ alone.

How do you reject salvation? You reject Christ; you refuse to believe on Him, and my friends, that is a challenge for us today. That's a challenge for people who are religious people who have grown up in the church. Will we acknowledge that Jesus Christ alone is the way into a saving fellowship with God? Will we trust in Him alone, as He is offered in the gospel for salvation? That's what Paul is saying, Paul is standing before you and saying this today. My dear friend, Douglas McMillan, who in his own time was perhaps the greatest evangelist in Scotland, had in his pre-Christian days been a great athlete. He was a massive man, and he tossed the caber and he threw the hammer, and he did all those heavy lifting Highland sports, and he could have been a national champion in it. He eventually became a Christian, but his struggle to become a Christian was hard, partly because he did not want to let go of so many things in his life in which he took pleasure. He was a ladies man, and he was known to be a hard drinker as well, and he liked his life style. He liked being a man's man, and he liked doing what he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it, how he wanted to do it, with no accountability to anyone. And the minister who came to speak with him about the gospel really challenged him with that, and he said to him one day, he said, "Douglas, in this hand I'll give you Christ, and in this hand, I'll give you everything that you think you have to give up in order to embrace Christ. Which is it going to be? Christ or everything else?" Douglas, reflecting on that, later looked back and he said, "You didn't make it easy on me, and I'm so thankful"

That's a problem with so many in the church today, they want Christ, but they want everything else too. You see, Christ, plus this is Hell. Christ plus our works is Hell. Christ plus anything else is Hell. It's Christ alone, faith alone, in Christ alone. That's salvation, Paul says, and that's the choice that's before every one of us. Will we trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? That's the difference. Why would someone reject salvation? Because they cannot come to the realization that they are a sinner in need of grace, and so trust in the only One who can deliver them. Why does a person come to salvation? Because by the mercy of God, He opens their eyes to see both their sin, and their Savior, and so to trust in Him. May God enable you to trust in Him who is the only way to salvation. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, keep us near the cross of Christ, however offensive it may be to the world, remind us that is the only way. He is the only way, and the way is the way of faith, for our deeds will not avail, only His deeds. These things we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 10

The Two Ways of Righteousness - Romans 10:1-13

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 10. We've been working our way through the book of Romans, and over the last number of weeks, have been in Romans chapter 9. At the end of Romans 9, beginning in verse 30 we really move into a new section of this part of the book of Romans. In Romans 9, 10, and 11 Paul is answering the question, "But what about Israel? Paul, you've said that your gospel of justification by faith alone through the finished work of Christ alone was the teaching of the Bible, the Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the world, but what's happened Paul, Israel has by and large rejects the Messiah, they have rejected your gospel." They said, "No, that's not for us Paul, we disagree with you." What's happened? That's the question that's being put to the Apostle Paul. What's happened with Israel?

Paul answer's that question basically in three parts, roughly corresponding to Romans 9,10, and 11. His first answer is this: God's sovereignty. God has chosen some and He's passed by others, and he knows immediately there are going to be five hundred hand that go up and say, "Wait a minute, that's not fair." And so he spends a whole chapter explaining why it's not only fair, it's merciful.

Then in Romans chapter 9 beginning in verse 30 and in the bulk of chapter 10, he moves to the second part of his answer, which is man's responsibility, and especially faith in Jesus the Messiah. And then we'll see what he says in Romans chapter 11 when we get there as the third part of his answer. But that's the flow of the argument.

The last time we were together, looking at verses 30-33 of Romans chapter 9, Paul had explained that Israel's failure to embrace the gospel was directly related to their stumbling over Jesus Christ. He had argued in those verses that Israel was seeking salvation by law keeping, rather than by trusting in Jesus Christ, and that Israel had stumbled over the stumbling stone. The one who was the rock of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, was appointed both for the rise and the fall of many in Israel. Many had embraced Him, including Paul. Many more had turned their backs on Him and thus had stumbled over the very one appointed as the rock of salvation. Paul continues that argument in Romans chapter 10, especially in verses 1 through 13. That's what we're going to look at today. So let's hear God's word.

Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into Heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or ' Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed" For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Amen.

This is God's word, may He write His eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, as we consider this Your word, we pray that You would open our eyes to embrace Jesus as he is offered in the gospel. We recognize that this is a word due to Your grace and so we ask for Your grace. In Jesus name. Amen.

This passage is rich with truth. So rich that we could spend many, many weeks and not have exhausted it looking at all of its phrases and aspects, but I want to help narrow down our focus by focusing on four particular phrases in this passage. Many of the phrases in this passage have become part of Christian vocabulary and many of those phrases have actually become anchor or summary phrases for major points of Christian understanding. I'd like to look at four of them in this passage with you. The first phrase you'll see in verse 2. Their zeal for God is unquestioned, but it is not enlightened, or to put it this way, they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. The second phrase you'll see in verse 4, Christ in the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The third phrase is in verse 9, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in you heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. The final phrase is in verse 12; the same Lord is Lord of all. I'd like to look at those four phrases with you as we unpack this great passage.

Paul again opens up Romans 10, just as he did in Romans 9, and just as he will in Romans 11 expressing his great desire for the salvation of Israel, now, this is very significant. As you have already seen, Paul has some fairly hard words for Israel in Romans 9, 10, and 11. He has some hard words for the Gentiles, by the way in Romans 11, but here he has some hard words for Israel. My suspicion is, if you were talking with a Jewish friend about the gospel, Romans 9,10, and 11 is probably not going to be the first passage you put in their hands. Chances are you'd take the opportunity to hand, say, a gospel of Matthew to them, but you wouldn't turn first and foremost to Romans 9, 10, and 11 because Paul is plain and unvarnished and his words are uncomfortable. He knows that, and so for the second time in this passage he says, now you need to understand I don't hate Israel. I am an Israelite, in fact, it is the desire of my heart and it is the goal of all my prayers that my own people will come to embrace the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is again showing his heart because he has hard words to say to us.

I. Sincerity and earnestness in religion cannot save.

In verses 1 though 3, what he is going to do first is show us the problem of current Jewish religious practice, and he sums that problem up in verse 3, by saying that the problem is this, they have failed to subject themselves to God's righteousness. Now, what does he mean by that? Well, the context makes it clear, he was already talking about this in Romans chapter 9 verses 30 through 33, and if you look specifically at verse 2 of Romans chapter 10 you'll see what he's talking about. His people, the Jewish people of his own time, had been seeking to establish their own righteousness through law keeping, rather than through trust through the promised Messiah. They have looked for right standing with God through their own obedience to the law. It is that law keeping that they see as the ground of their acceptance with, and continuing in the blessings of God.

But in verses 1 through 3, Paul, first of all makes it clear here that sincerity and earnestness in religion can not save you, and that is vitally important for us as American Christians to understand. Paul says, he grants the Jewish people that they have an intensity and earnestness, a zeal for God, but what does he say? Our first great phrase sums it up: they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. We Americans believe that as long as you're sincere it doesn't matter. As long your intentions are good, it doesn't matter. If you really are seeking God and you're sincere, well, surely God will accept that and the Apostle Paul has a splash of cold water for our faces. His word is this, zeal is of no value unless it is according to knowledge, and of course, by that the Apostle Paul means that our zeal in religion must be directed by the word of God. His fundamental charge here is that Israel has not understood it's own Scripture, and therefore their spiritual zeal, their religious practice, is not in accordance with the knowledge of God, which is revealed in the Scriptures. He is saying that they have not understood their own Scriptures and they have sought salvation in the wrong way, and that's vitally important for us as American Christians to understand.

We often value experience over Scripture, we often value enthusiasm over right teaching, and so it is vitally important for us to understand that Paul is saying that it is the prerogative of God to say how we must approach Him, and He tells us how we must approach Him in His Scripture, and we can not make it up as we go along. And Paul is saying, this is one of the fundamental problems of his own people. At the time that he's preaching this word of the gospel they think that they can gain their salvation by law keeping, and he says, if they had read their Scriptures correctly, they would have known that is not right, because as far as Paul is concerned both the Old Testament and the New Testament make it clear that salvation is by God's grace. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament make it clear that God's grace is received by faith, and that law keeping is not able to justify anyone. So, both the Old Testament and the New Testament scriptures make it clear that perfect law keeping by sinners is impossible and therefore if there is going to be salvation, it must be by God's grace. That's the first thing that Paul points out in this passage. His people have a zeal for God, but it's not in accordance with knowledge, and they have sought for salvation by their own righteousness rather than seeking God's mercy and His righteousness.

II. Trust in Jesus Christ means the end of vain attempts at salvation by our own righteousness.

The second thing we see is this; you'll see it in verses 4 through 7. Here, Paul begins a two-part contrast between salvation by Christ and salvation by our own efforts, and he teaches us that trust in Jesus Christ means the end of our attempts at salvation by our own righteousness. Verse 4 is one of the most disputed verses in all of the New Testament. New Testament scholars of great learning disagree on exactly what Paul is saying, and we're not going to go into any great detail in answering this. What does he mean by "Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to those who believe"? I think the basic meaning of it is very, very clear. He is not simply saying that Christ is the fulfillment of the law, though that is true. Matthew stresses that. He's not just saying that Christ is the goal of the law, though that is true. He's saying that Christ is the end of the law. Paul's not saying that the law was ever a separate way of salvation apart from grace, in fact, the very point of quoting the Old Testament in this passage by the Apostle Paul is to show that the Old Testament teaches salvation by grace. So he's not saying, once upon a time you were saved by law, but now that Christ has come, you're not. What he's saying is this: that there are many people who are acting as if the law of Moses is the covenant of works, it's the way that you're saved, and that obedience to it gains you right standing with God, and Paul is saying, Christ is the end to that. The covenant of works in the garden had demanded personal and perfect obedience to its stipulations. God had commanded Adam to obey Him perfectly, and when he disobeyed he was cast from the garden. But some have come along and they've treated Moses' law as if it were a separate way of salvation, that keeping its stipulation was the way to have a right relationship with God, and Paul is saying, Christ is the end of that. Christ has brought an end to that.

Think of it, if God had to send His son into the world to be incarnate, to live, to minister, to die, to be buried, to be raised again in order to fulfill the law, then could there be any other way of fulfilling the law? If God had to do that in order to fulfill the law, then is there any other way of right standing with God? And the answer is, of course, self-evident. Of course there is no other way. It would have been immoral. Had there been any other way for God to bring about a rectification of our relationship and to bring us back into reconciliation and fellowship with Him, He would have surely done it rather than giving the price of His own son. And so the very presence of Jesus Christ as the way of salvation is an end to the idea that we can earn our way back into fellowship with God by our own righteousness and deeds. Christ is the end of the law for our righteousness to everyone who believes, and this a very important message for religious people.

You see, most of us don't have a problem believing that sinners need to be saved from their sins. When we look at disaster, like the one that occurred on September the 11th, it's very apparent to us that those who do wicked deeds need to be forgiven of their sins, or else face the justice of God. But it may not be so apparent for us that we are not able to establish a righteousness for ourselves that enables us to be excepted by God. You see, we need to be saved not only from our sin, but from our righteousness. It is Christ's righteousness, and Christ alone that causes us to be accepted by God, and Christ's work is to save us from our own righteousness. The righteousness by faith does not look at our own deeds as the basis on which we are accepted by God; it looks to Christ and to His deeds, and it trusts in Him, and recognizes that He has kept the law perfectly alone. He has born the penalty for sin for His people alone, and it trusts in Him as a substitute. The law as a method for obtaining righteousness is abolished in Jesus Christ, and Paul makes that clear here in verses 4 through 7. And so, the great intent of that phrase, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, is to contrast two different approaches to a relationship with God: Salvation by Christ and salvation by our own righteousness. The apostle says, salvation by Christ is the only way and all other ways including attempts at obeying God's law in order be accepted by Him are wrong.

III. Trust in Jesus Christ means the embrace of Jesus as Lord, acceptance of Him as Divine Master.

Thirdly, in verses 8 through 10, Paul continues this contrast. He contrasts the demands of the law, which he spoke about in verses 6 and 7, with the requirement of faith. If you'll look very quickly at verses 6 and 7, you'll see two strange phrases: "Do not say in your heart, who shall ascend into Heaven or who shall descend into the abyss," and you may be scratching your head as to what in the world Paul is talking about. Paul is using two phrases which had become very common in Jewish literature to stand in for things that are impossible, and he's saying this, "Look in the way of salvation by faith, God is not asking you to do the Odyssey. He is not asking you to perform some monumental task of ascending into heaven, or descending into the abyss. In order to be saved, in order to have right standing with Him, in order to be right with God, you don't have to perform some Herculean task." You have to, as Paul says in verse 8, do what? Believe, because the word is near you. God hasn't called you to go up into heaven, or down in the abyss. The Lord Jesus Christ has come from heaven to you, near you, and He has been raised up from the dead, to you, near you, in order that you will believe on Him.

Paul is contrasting the demands of the law and the requirement of faith, and in verse 9 especially, he is stressing that trust in Jesus Christ means embracing Jesus Christ as Lord, and that means embracing Jesus Christ in three ways. I want you to think about them for a moment. Look at what he says in verses 9 and 10, and you'll see three things that Paul says are absolutely necessary in order to embrace Jesus Christ. You must embrace Him as Lord. Now you know that Lord is an Old Testament name for God, and so Paul is clearly testifying to the fact that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God. Just in case you missed that, he quotes a couple of Old Testament passages that talk about the Lord and he applies them to Jesus Christ later in verses 1 through 13.

Secondly, when he says you embrace Jesus Christ as Lord, he means that you embrace Him as master, as king of your life. So often, we think of embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and then subsequently as Lord, but the basic, New Testament profession of faith is not Jesus as Savior, that is self evident. It is what? Jesus is Lord. That is the first and fundamental confession of the Christian.

Thirdly, look at verse 10. He says, what else must you do? You must believe that God raised Him from the dead. Now, I want to pause right there and say, there are many people who want to say, "Look, I'm a Christian, but I'm not sure I can really buy this, that Jesus is fully God. I think He was a great teacher who taught about love and gave us many principles for life, and so I follow Him and consider myself a Christian." As far as the Apostle Paul is concerned, A. a person who does not embrace the truth that Jesus is Lord, that is that He is divine, is not a Christian. Furthermore, the Apostle Paul demands that as a central confession of the Christian. Others will say, "Well I don't want to embrace Jesus as Lord, I only want Him as Savior," and then again Paul doesn't give you that option. You must confess Jesus is Lord. There are still others you want to say, "Well you know, I have problems with this whole idea of the resurrection. I believe in Jesus, but I'm not sure I believe in the resurrection." Paul says this, "The Jesus who saves, is the Jesus about whom Scripture testifies, and so if you are believing in a Jesus who is not divine, who is not Lord and Master, and King, and who is not raised from the dead, you are not believing in the Jesus who saves."

You see, we can't pick and choose and make Jesus up to be the person we want Him to be. We must accept Him as He is offered in the word of God. That's one of the things that I love in the phrases of our membership questions, when we say, "Do you receive the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in Him alone for your salvation as He is offered in the gospel." This is the Jesus of the Bible, not the Jesus of our own fabrication, and it's the Jesus of the Bible who saves.

I have a former student, who is actually sitting in the congregation today, who said to me once, "You know, there are forty thousand people in Mexico named Jesus, and none of them will get you saved, because it's the Jesus of Scripture who saves." Not just this magical name Jesus, you have to believe the Jesus who is described in the gospels. So, the word of God cannot be set over against the person of Jesus Christ, they go together. The Scriptures tell us who the saving Jesus is. Jesus, of course, is the Lord of the book, and the author of the book, and so Jesus' person and work, and Jesus' person and the Scripture go hand in hand and we must embrace the Jesus of the Bible if we are to be Christians. Salvation depends on looking away from our own works, away from our own righteousness and looking to Jesus Christ alone.

IV. Trust in Jesus as Lord is the only way of salvation because "the Bible tells me so."

The last thing I want to say is this and you'll see it in verses 11 through 13. Paul, throughout this passage, has been emphasizing that the Bible, that the Old Testament teaches that the way of salvation is salvation by grace through faith. In other words, Paul is telling us in verses 11 through 13 specifically, that trust in Jesus as Lord, is the only way of salvation because it's what the Bible teaches us. Trust in Jesus as Lord is the only way of salvation because, Paul might put it this way, the Bible tells me so.

When I open up Moses, when I open up the law, the law tells me what? Trust in God for salvation, and he gives you some wonderful passages from the five books of Moses: whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. He emphasizes that the law itself teaches salvation by grace.

Now of course, along the way, he also says something very important in verse 12: there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. There is not one way of salvation for the Jews, and another way for the Gentiles, much less multiple ways for the Gentiles. We've heard from many people over the last few weeks, that salvation happens in many ways, and by many means. One God is as good as another one, one religion is as good as another, and many of the people who have been saying that have been Christians, or at least they profess to be Christians. Paul here is emphatically saying that there is one way of salvation, and that one way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. There is "No other name under Heaven by which a man may be saved than Jesus Christ," if I may paraphrase from Acts chapter 4. Paul is saying, and look at the phrase, "the same Lord is Lord of all." Jesus is the one way of salvation.

That again directly contradicts our modern pluralistic relativistic tenants of the age. It goes against the spirit of the age, but let me say this, the Apostle Paul is perfectly aware of pluralism. Do you realize that the New Testament was written in a context, in a day and age in the Greco Roman world where pluralism was every bit as strong as it is now? Don't think, "Well, these people were primitive, they just didn't understand pluralism." My friends, the New Testament was written in a pluralistic world, and here is the Apostle Paul saying, "Ok, hear me Greco Romans, there is one way of salvation." But nobody believes that. But hear me, there is one way of salvation. Paul wrote in a pluralistic age and he says, "There is one way."

The second thing is this, if you're a Christian and you have a hard time swallowing the idea that there is one way of salvation, realize you are arguing with Paul. This is clearly what Paul is saying. If ever Paul had a chance to say, "There are many roads up the mountain, there are lots of different maps for the way home to heaven that work, now is the time. And guess what, not only did he not say that, he explicitly says the exact opposite, "There is one Lord of all and it's Jesus Christ."

The third thing I would say is this. If you're doubting Jesus as the only way of salvation, if that sounds narrow minded to you, if that sounds primitive to you, consider this, there is no other religion in the world that says, "God so loved His people that He gave His own Son, that we were so desperately sinful and in need that we needed the grace of God manifested in God in the flesh to save us ." Think of it, what man would have invented a religion that said, 'Man is so bad that only God can save you?' And there is no other religion like that in the world. There is no other God amongst all the other world religions who knows what it is to lose a son, to give a son because of His love, and the Apostle Paul is saying, "I will not have any of that glory taken from Jesus Christ. He is Lord, He is the only Lord, He is Lord of all."

So it doesn't matter to say to Paul, "Oh I think Jesus is a great moral teacher." That's an insult to say that that's all Jesus is. He's Lord of all, He's not a great moral teacher. To say to Paul, "Oh, well we believe Jesus is a prophet." That's no compliment. He's Lord of all. You see, the Apostle Paul is calling on you right now to bow the knee to Jesus who is Lord. You see, that's the issue before every one of us today, in the church or out of it. Do we bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ? May God by His great grace grant that you do. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father Jesus, there is no other friend of sinners like Him. We praise You for Him and we ask, O God, that we would love Him and bow the knee to Him in faith. We ask it in His name. Amen.

Romans 10:14-21 - Faith Comes by Hearing

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Last week we were in verses 1 through 13 and Paul went out of his way to stress the centrality of faith; we're not saved by our own works, we're not even saved by our own righteousness, we're saved by the righteousness of Christ. How do you get that righteousness? You call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust Him, you confess with your mouth and with your heart that He is the Lord and you shall be saved. Paul goes out of his way to stress the importance of saving faith. We don't contribute to our right standing before God through our deeds. It's not our righteousness that makes us right with God. We don't have to perform great feats in order to be in saving relationship with God. No, we simply must confess Christ. We trust Him. We turn away from our righteousness, we turn away from our vain attempts at satisfying the demands of God's justice and we renounce our own attempts, instead trust in what Jesus has done in who He is and what He had done. We cry to God, we cry to God in the name of the Lord Jesus and in Him we find salvation.

Now Paul, in Romans 10 verses 1 through 13, says that that is not unique New Testament teaching. He says, that's Old Testament teaching. Even the Old Testament teaches that the way you're saved is that you call on the name of the Lord, and so Paul continues that argument this week, in Romans 10 verses 14 through 21. And you ask yourself the question, "If that is so, if that's what the Old Testament taught, how could you miss that?" More pointedly, you ask the question, "If that's what the Old Testament taught, how did Israel miss that?" That's precisely the question that Paul is asking today in Romans 10: 14 through 21. Let's hear God's inerrant word.

"How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!" However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?" So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; "THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD." But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? At the first Moses says, "I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU." And Isaiah is very bold and says, "I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO SOUGHT ME NOT, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME." But as for Israel He says, " ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE." Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we ask that You would give us ears to hear and hearts to respond to the truth of Your word, especially the word of Christ. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

How is it that a person comes to reject salvation? How is it that a person comes to bless the gospel? That is a question that we've thought about a lot in the book of Romans. Paul gave some very strong answers to that very question in Romans 9, having to do with God's sovereignty. But you know, at the end of Romans 9 he was asking the same question again, when in verses 30 through 33 he asks, how could it be that Israel would have stumbled at the stumbling block of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was made to be the corner stone. How could they have made a stumbling block out of Him and rejected Him and the gospel?

And Paul is asking that same question again here in Romans chapter 10. Is it because the gospel is not intellectually compelling? It doesn't measure up to the intellectual demands of men and women. Is it because there is not enough proof of the gospel, is that why some reject salvation? Is it because the church has failed to present the gospel, or because the church has failed to present it compellingly or because the church has failed to present it attractively? Is because of cultural barriers, is it because of communication problems? Well, Paul is dealing with that very question here in Romans 10 verses 14 through 21, "How is it that a person comes to reject the gospel?"

That's the question that he's asking, and I want you to see three things that he teaches us here. He begins with four questions in verses 14 and then in the very first sentence of verse 15. Then he gives you four answers in the second part of verse 15 all the way down to verse 21, skipping verse 17, and then in verse 17, he tells you two very important things about saving faith. Those are the three things I'd like to look at with you this morning, Paul's four questions, and Paul's words about saving faith.

I. Why hasn't Israel been saved?

Let's start off in verse 14 in the first phrases of verse 15 and let's see what four questions Paul has for us. The big question in this, if you are saved by calling on the Lord, then why hasn't Israel been saved? That's the big question that Paul is facing, and in order to help you get at that question, he has four questions which he states in succession in verses 14 and 15 and he doesn't give an answer to them there. He just puts the questions out and then later in this passage, the end of verse 15 all the way down to verse 21 he'll give you his answers.

Here, he's giving you questions, and the reasons that he's giving you these questions is for diagnostic purposes. He wants you to ask these questions so that you rightly locate where the problem is when people reject the gospel and that's actually the first thing we learn here in this passage. In verses 14 and 15 we learn that it is vital to our evangelism to understand the root causes of rejection of the gospel. You have to understand why people reject the gospel, and that's why Paul is asking these four question. Go back for a second to verse 13. In verse 13, Paul says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, of course by that he means, whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, and that immediately raises a question. He has said, that's the teaching of the Old Testament and so the question pops into your mind, "Surely if that is the Old Testament teaching, of all the people on earth, Israel would have gotten that message because that book was uniquely given to Israel. But in fact, Israel has not, in general, called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in fact as we look around, Gentiles have. And so the question is, "Why? Why has Israel not called on the name of the Lord and in so doing found salvation?" That's the big question.

So Paul asks four questions in order to diagnose that situation. Here they are. Verse 14, "How will Israel call on Christ if they have not believed in Him." That's what Paul means when he asks, how will they call on Him whom they have not believed. That's the first question. Second question, "How will Israel believe in Christ if they have not heard the gospel of Christ" or perhaps he means, if they have not heard Christ himself personally make these claims? How will Israel believe in Christ if they have not heard the gospel of Christ. That's what he means when he says, how will they believe in whom they have not heard? Third question, "How will Israel hear the gospel of Christ without a preacher of the gospel?" That's what he means when he says, how will they hear without a preacher? And fourth and finally, "How will preachers ever herald the gospel unless they are sent by God. " That's what he means when he asks the question, how will they preach unless they are sent?

So, what's the point of these questions? Why does Paul throw out a series of questions as part of the beginning of his response? Well, it's very simple, Paul wants us to understand specifically the problem of salvation. It is vital to rightly understand the reason why people reject the gospel, why they reject salvation, and Paul in asking these four questions, is basically saying this, "Is the problem that God didn't send messengers, is the problem that the messengers didn't proclaim the message that God sent them to proclaim, is the problem that the people didn't hear that message, or didn't understand that message, or is the problem that the people did not obey and in their disobedience they refused to believe?"

He's asking these questions as a diagnostic, and my friends, it's very timely for us to pause and ask if we have it clear in our own minds, "Why it is that people reject the gospel?" If you answer that question wrongly it could have disastrous effects on the church. Let me take you back two centuries. There was a very pious man who lived in Germany and as he looked all around him he saw the most intelligent people, the leaders of the culture, the cutting edge educated class rejecting Christianity in droves, and this concerned him. He said, "What could be the problem?" And so he wrote a series of lecture called, "Lectures on Christianity To Its Cultured Despisers." His name was Fredrick Schleiermacher and he decided that this was the problem: Christianity was not sophisticated enough in the eyes of the leaders of the culture around him, it didn't seem to be up to date, it didn't seem to be answering the questions that they were asking, it didn't seem to be such a form of belief which was sufficient for modern educated people, so he attempted to update Christianity and to make it more relevant and appealing to his peers. The problem was, that he changed the gospel in the process, because he misdiagnosed the problem. The problem wasn't with the gospel, it didn't need updating, it didn't need to be made more relevant. My friends, the gospel is painfully relevant, it speaks to sin. And what's the biggest problem in the world? And you know it in your relationships, and the gospel gives a solution to that. What could be more timely?

But the problem is this: he located the problem in the wrong place. He thought the problem was with the message or with the way the message was communicated, and he ended up changing the message in the process.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "I've never read a book by Fredrick Schleiermacher, you've totally missed me in that particular illustration." Well, I say to you, "I'm glad you haven't read a book by Fredrick Scheiermacher, thank God, but this is still relevant to you." Because some of you have brought friends to evangelical churches to hear the gospel and they've been offended by something. They may have been offended by not being welcomed, or they may have been offended by the worship, it wasn't traditional and they wanted traditional, or it wasn't contemporary and they wanted contemporary, or some other thing and they've said to you, I'm not coming back. You've thought, well maybe we need to change the church, maybe we need to change the presentation of the gospel to make it more appealing to them. My friends, you've located the problem in the wrong place. Paul is giving you these questions so that you make sure that you understand that the problem isn't with the gospel, and it isn't even ultimately with the church, and I know there are more problems in the church than you know about. The problem is somewhere else, and Paul in his answers is going to put his finger right on the place where the problem is, so listen closely.

II. Paul's answers.

Look at His four answers now as we get to verses 15 through 21. Now, notice he answers these questions in the reverse order. He's building up to something, he answers the fourth question first, the third question second, the second question third, and the first question fourth. He goes in reverse order working through these questions. Again, let's come back to the big question, "If you're saved by calling on the Lord, then why hasn't Israel been saved?" He answers that by his four questions in verses 14 and 15, and then he brings you back to it again.

So, why is it that Israel has not called on the Lord? Here is his grand message in verses 15 though 21. It is vital in our evangelism to understand that the problem is with the will. The problem in the people rejecting the gospel resides in the will. You know, one clever preacher put it this way, "The heart of the problem in the problem of the heart." It sounds silly, but it's true. The problem he fingers is the problem of will. Look at his answer to these questions. What are his answers, where is the real problem to be found, why hasn't Israel called on the Lord? Well, let's walk through it and see what he says.

Look at verse 15, at the second half of the verse. He says, Israel has failed to call on the Lord not because God didn't send preachers to preach the good news. He says in verse 15 they did. In fact the Old Testament proves God sent preachers to preach the good new, and he quotes from Isaiah 52:7 and he says, look, even Isaiah preached the good news to the people of God in the Old Testament, so the problem isn't that God fails to send messengers.

Secondly, look at verse 15 and 16 this time. Secondly, he says the problem is not that Israel didn't have preachers to proclaim the good news to them, or that the preachers failed to proclaim that good news. He says they did, and the Old Testament proves it, and he goes to Isaiah 53 verse 1 and he says, look Isaiah said I proclaimed it and nobody listened to me, so it wasn't that the preachers had failed. The message was delivered.

Thirdly, look at verse 18, he says, it's not because Israel didn't hear the good news. They didn't heed the good news, but they did hear it. They heard the good news, and the Old Testament proves it, and he quotes from Psalm 19 verse 4 and he says, their words have gone out in all the lands. And you immediately stop and you say, wait a minute, that's a miss-application. The first part of Psalm 19 deals with general revelation, God's revelation in nature. How can you appeal to that passage Paul and say that they've heard the gospel, when that passage is talking about general revelation? Because Paul is saying this, just like God has given a witness to Himself and to all the world through creation, so also since the days of Jesus Christ and the apostles, He is sending His message to the ends of the earth, and the Jews have had every opportunity to hear the message and respond to it. Just as he set out witness to Himself through the creation, now He's sending out a universal witness to Himself through the gospel. The gospel is going out to all the ends of the earth, and so Israel has heard the good news.

Fourthly, in verses 19 and 20, he says the problem is not that Israel did not understand it. They did or should have. It may be that Paul is saying in response to the question, did Israel understand? Well, yes and no. Yes, there is no intellectual problem here, and the way he proves that is to quote from both the law and the prophets. Notice that the first quote in verse 19 comes from Deuteronomy 32 verse 21, then the second quote in verse 20 comes from Isaiah 65:1 as if to say, look both the law and the prophets in the Old Testament make it clear that the gospel was clearly understood by the people of Israel, and it was made so clear, even the Gentiles understood it. Here's the idea, Paul is saying, look at the Gentiles, they were never theologically very sharp, they were a bit dim witted, they were a nation without understanding, and they understood the message of the gospel in the Old Testament. Well, if they understood the message of the gospel in the Old Testament and they were D students, how could the A students have not understood it?

The point is there is not an intellectual problem here. This isn't an intellectual problem, the problem is located somewhere else, so you say, "Where is the problem?" He tells you in verse 21 doesn't he? The problem is with the heart. The problem is with the will of Israel, the disobedience and unbelief of Israel is the problem. Look at his words, Isaiah says, "All day long I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." Do you notice the correlation between disobedience and unbelief? Because of their obstinance and moral depravity, they refused to believe. Their moral rebellion lead to a refusal to trust in the only way of salvation. My friends, never underestimate the impact of moral depravity. You know, it's very easy for us as believers to say, "Oh, well I'll go ahead and do that sin, I know that God will forgive me," but what the Bible teaches is that moral depravity steels our hearts to the gospel. When we follow our own way, when we are disobedient to God's word, to God's law, when we sin and transgress that law, it hardens us to the gospel. That's what happened to Israel.

Let me give you an example. Maybe you have a problem with pride, and you excuse it because you know lots of people who have problems with pride, but do you know what pride can do? Pride can be translated into a self-reliance, which in the spiritual sphere is deadly because the gospel teaches you that you can't rely on yourself, you must only rely on the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you are the captive of pride you have been steeled to the message of the gospel, which is, you can't do it, you must trust in Jesus Christ, and so your very pride has made you impervious to the message of the gospel.

Or maybe you're captive to a sexual sin, and you're seeking fulfillment of your sexual desires outside the bounds of marriage, and you think, "Oh the Lord will forgive that, He's a gracious and forgiving God," but if you continue to pursue that way, what you'll find is your heart becomes divided because your satisfaction is being found in a temporal thing, a fleshly thing which is against the commands of the Lord. And you find it's a very powerful and gratifying thing and suddenly you find that your desires are different from the desires that a believer ought to have. The believer is satisfied in communion with God, and that's a very different kind of satisfaction than illicit sexual activity. But the greater the gratification of that activity, the less appealing the communion of God and the satisfaction that comes from it is to the person when the gospel is offered, and so the pursuit of that sin becomes a barrier to embracing the gospel.

You see, friends, we could give thousands of illustrations like that where our wills and our moral depravity make us impervious to the gospel and incapable of believing it. The apostle is saying that unbelief is disobedient. You see, the will is the battleground of faith, and the great satanic weapon against faith is moral depravity. Paul is saying, why is it that Israel didn't call on the name of the Lord? Because she was disobedient, and you could list any of the ten commandments: she went after other gods, she sought the right god in the wrong way and you could go down the list and in each of these ways you could see how the depravity of Israel kept her from embracing the Savior.

Finally, there is this, let's go back to verse 17. Paul here makes an amazing statement. It's one of those verses that you memorized a long time ago: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." What in the world does that mean? What is saving faith? What is Paul saying here? Well, let me say this, Paul is saying that saving faith entails believing the gospel's message about Jesus and trusting in Him. Saving faith entails believing the Bible's gospel message about Jesus and trusting in Him. Faith, saving faith, presupposes and requires the word heard from Christ and about Christ. So saving faith requires that we hear the message that Christ has appointed and commissioned preachers to preach about Himself, and that we believe that message and the message is fundamentally about Christ: who He is and what He has done. In other words, Paul is saying, saving faith comes from Christ Himself appointing preachers of the word to preach a word which is about Him, and saving faith is an embrace of that word, from Christ and about Christ.

And I just want to pause and say that is why Bible preaching, expository preaching is so important my friends. I realize there are other kinds of preaching and some are easy to listen to, but I want to call you to realize how significant this is. If faith comes by hearing, and that hearing is the hearing of the word of Christ, then you need messages preached from the pulpit, which are suffused with Scripture. You need messages from the pulpit that are full of Bible and of gospel and of Christ Jesus because that's the only thing that is productive of saving faith. I want to say that there are many churches, many fine churches, evangelical churches, that are out there preaching a lot of things, but not the Bible. You can hear about 'Seven Plans to Better Financial Planning,' you can hear 'Eight Steps to Being a Better Parent,' 'How to Improve Your Love Life,' 'How to Be a Better Husband,' 'How to Be a Better Wife,' but you hear very little gospel, you hear little Bible. The Bible is used as a launching point and the preacher talks about what he wants to preach about.

The reason we are so doggedly committed to Bible exposition is because faith comes by hearing, and that hearing is the hearing of the word of Christ, not the latest ways to have a more satisfactory life, but about God and about His mercy, and His grace, and about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are doggedly committed. And that means that when you pack up and move to some other place or to some other city you ought to seek out with an absolute deliberation a church that will preach the Bible. It may have all manner of other deficiencies, but if it's preaching the Bible, preaching the gospel, that's where you want to be, you want to be feeding on that because that's where saving faith comes from. The Apostle Paul is saying it is precisely because Israel, somewhere along the line, began to feed upon something else other than the word of God that she did not believe.

My friends, as best as we can, the elders and the ministers of this congregation, we're not going to be a party to that happening here, but you must look to the word of Christ yourself if you would have salvation. Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father, help us to be hearers and doers of Your word. In Jesus Name, amen.

Romans 11

Romans 11:1-5 - A Remnant Believes, Just as Promised

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. We're continuing to study our way through the entire book of Romans, and today we come to the 11th chapter which is the last chapter in the so called theological portion of the book. Chapters 12 through 16 are concerned with practical matters and the Christian life, the answers that Paul gives to those practical issues are of course based on what he has taught in Romans 1 through 11 in the so called theological section. Chapter 11 is also the last chapter in a three-chapter section in the middle of the book in which Paul is concerned to address the so-called problem of Israel. That is the question of why Israel, the old covenant people of God, have rejected the Messiah, prophesied in the old covenant to come for Israel and of course for the Gentiles? Why is it that God's own chosen people from old covenant times, the descendents of Abraham, spiritual as well as physically, why is it that so many within Israel have turned their back on the gospel, turned their back on the message of Jesus Christ, and rejected His claims to be the Messiah?

Paul has been dealing with that very issue in Romans 9 and 10. In fact, Romans 9, 10, and 11 form a three-part argument, in which Paul gives three answers to the question, why has Israel rejected God? In Romans 9, his answer had to do with the sovereignty of God, and especially God's electing love and mercy in which He has chosen some and passed by others. In Romans chapter 10, his answer had to do with man's responsibility, and especially the essentialness, the centrality of faith, and of course, he speaks of Israel's lack of faith in Romans chapter 10 as an example of their disobedience. Their knowledgeable, willful disobedience to the word of God is why they refused to believe and why they have not come to receive the promises made to Abraham.

When he gets to Romans chapter 11, he has yet another argument, yet another line of reasoning in order to help us to understand Israel's rejection of the gospel. Now, before we turn to Romans chapter 11, perhaps we ought to say one more thing about its practicality. How are the contents of Romans 11 relevant for day to day Christian living? Isn't the subject of Israel in the plan of God purely speculative and theoretical, and not practical in terms of the way we live our Christian life? Well, what is a Christian who is struggling with marriage, or having difficulty with parenting, or dealing with serious moral deficiencies or issues in his life, or struggling with vocational matters, what is a Christian in that kind of situation to learn from what God teaches about His plan of salvation and Israel's part in it from Romans chapter 11?

That's a good question. Let me offer a quick answer, in fact, let me offer four quick answers to that question. The first thing is this: this chapter reminds us of the importance of a vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ, because throughout this chapter we're going to be told about people who had exposure to the Bible, exposure to the promises of God, sat under faithful preaching, not only for years and years, but centuries and centuries, and yet didn't know God, and that reminds us that in religious communities today, including the church, people can go through all manner of efforts to know God and in the end not know Him. That means that we must take care ourselves to see that we are trusting in God through Jesus Christ, that we have received Him by faith, that we're walking with Him and that there is a vital personal faith. Romans 11 reminds us of that stark truth just because of the material that it covers.

Secondly, in this great passage, we learn about the trustworthiness and the faithfulness of God. You see, the question that Paul has raised is a question that raises the issue of whether God can be trusted, and that is a very practical question for a Christian to have an answer to. You see, if you ask the question, "Has God failed to keep His promise to Israel?" then the next question you're going to ask is, "Well, if the answer is, 'Yes, He's failed to keep His promise to Israel,' will He keep His promise to the church?" And so having a firm answer to the question, "Has God been faithful to Israel?" is actually most practical answer for you in believing that God will be faithful to you.

Thirdly, as we look at this great passage, it confirms that our attitude toward the Jewish people ought to be of a sincere desire to see them brought to a saving knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. You know, from the very first days of the early church, there were Jewish persecutions of the early Christians, and over the course of years, as the church became more and more Gentile, a certain type of hostility grew up against the Jewish people. Sometimes in the Middle Ages it would break out in pogroms against the Jewish people in various parts of Europe. And yet Paul in this passage, and elsewhere, supplies for us what ought to be the Christian's attitude toward the Jewish people: not to see them as scapegoats to be stoned, but as those whom we ought to pray to the Lord that they would be objects of His mercy, that they would find the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ. And we learned that in Romans chapter 11.

One last thing. This chapter is about the big picture, it's about the plan of God, and that in and of itself is most helpful and practical. You know, sometimes when we are down in the problems of life we lose the big picture in the details. You know, we're struggling in our marriages, we're wrestling as parents, we're having a hard time at work, or with our colleges, and the details are overwhelming to us. We feel as if we're never going to come back up for air, and being able to pull back for a moment and realize that we are part of a big plan, a much bigger plan, a plan that's far bigger than our own problems, our own circumstances and the particularity of our own situation is actually quiet refreshing. To pull back for a moment and realize this is not all about us, it's about His plan, it's about His glory, that is not only practical, it's essential, without it we cease to truly live. So for all those reasons and frankly for many more, the study of Romans chapter 11 is far from speculative or theoretical, but practical and essential for healthy Christian living. So with that as an introduction let's hear God's holy word in Romans chapter 11 in verses 1 through 5.

I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? "Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED THY PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN THINE ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE." But what is the divine response to him? "I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL." In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's holy inspired and inerrant word. My He write it's eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Lord, this is Your word, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things in Your law. We ask, O God, that You would enable us to see the Savior, to appreciate the glory of the mercy of Your plan and to embrace it and Him by faith. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

So, why is this question so important to answer? Why is the question of verse 1 so important for us to answer? Why do we ask the question, "Has God rejected Israel?" and why is it so important to answer? Well, Paul would give you many replies to that, but first and foremost it is important because the question, "Could God reject the church?" is a very significant question to answer. Paul, you see, has been wrestling with the issue of the role of Israel in the plan of God since at least Romans 9. He's introduced the problem early on in the book of Romans, but especially beginning with Romans chapter 9. And in the first few verses in the chapter he's been concentrating on answering the question, "Why would it be that God's old covenant people who had been given the Scriptures, who'd been given the promises, who had a wonderful heritage of truth and teaching from the law, from the writing and from the prophets, why would they reject the Messiah, why would they reject the gospel if the law, and the prophets, and the writings all testified to the Messiah? Why would they reject the gospel if the law, and the prophets, and the writings all testified to the gospel?"

That question Paul has been grappling with for two chapters, and in chapter 9, as we said, he pointed us to the sovereignty of God and he said, this is part of the mysterious plan of God. In chapter 10 he said, but you also have to realize that men are responsible, and they are responsible to believe because God had made it plain that He is to be believed and trusted, and yet Israel in her disobedience has refused to believe.

In Romans chapter 11, he's going to give a third answer to that particular question, but before he does he reiterates in asking the question himself, and notice he emphasizes that in verse 1. " I say then, has God rejected His people," or "God has not rejected His people has He?" In reiterating this question himself, he is setting you up in order to hear His emphatic answer, and what's his answer in verse 1? "Absolutely not. God has not rejected His people." Paul asks this question having been talking about Israel's rejection of God in chapter 10. In chapter 11 he turns the question around and he asks, has God rejected them? He gives an emphatic reply of, no.

I'd like for you to see two things that he does in verses 1 through 5. In verse 1, Paul gives us his answer to the question, has God rejected Israel? No. He's going to spend the rest of the chapter telling you why that's the case, demonstrating to you, proving to you that it is the case that God's promises have not failed, that God has not failed to come through, that God is indeed trustworthy and that His word can be taken as absolutely true, and he's going to give a variety of arguments. In the passage that we are going to look at today, he gives two arguments as to why God's promises have not failed and why it is true that God has not rejected His people. The first argument you see in verse 1, and it's a one-word argument: me. The second argument you'll see in verses 2 through 5 and it is: them. His first argument, his first exhibit for the defense is: Paul the apostle. He says, I am evidence that God has not rejected His people. Then he sort of turns his eyes out on the Roman congregation and says, now look at all those Jewish Christians in your midst. They are evidence that God has not rejected His people. There is a remnant today. Those are the two parts of Paul's argument. Let's look at what he says then in verse 1.

I. Paul's salvation is evidence that God has not rejected His people.

Paul teaches that God has not rejected His people and that this can be demonstrated by His own salvation. Paul says, I too am an Israelite, a descendent of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. And so Paul starts off by saying, of course God hasn't rejected His people, I'm a Jew and I'm a Christian. Therefore God has not turned His back on the promises that He made to His people who believe in Him. I'm a Jew and I'm a Christian. Now, I'd like you to see two things about the way Paul argues this point in verse1. One of them is explicit and one of them is implicit. In verse 1 he describes himself as a Jew in three ways. He says, I'm an Israelite, I'm of the seed of Abraham, and I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. He's an Israelite; he is a Jew indeed. If anybody thinks that Paul is anti-Semitic, he starts off by saying, let me remind you, I am a Jew myself. Then he says, I'm of the seed of Abraham. I am descended from the one who is the forefather of Israel and who is the example of Israel in faith. I am descended from him; I'm physically descended from him.

And then he says, furthermore I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. He's telling them where he's from. You know, we do that in the South. We meet somebody new and we say, "Who's your daddy?" You apply for a job, first question you get asked, "Who are your folks? Are you from around here?" We want to know where you're from. Well, Paul is telling you where he's from and by saying he's from the tribe of Benjamin. He's actually making some good claims. You may remember some fairly unpleasant things about the tribe of Benjamin from the book of Judges. I do, and also from the book of Joshua, but there were some good things about the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin, for instance, you will remember, is the only one of Jacobs' sons who was born in the land. Furthermore, Benjamin is the territory in which the city of Jerusalem sits in the land of Israel. Furthermore, when the ten tribes of the north rebelled against the king of Israel who would become the king of Judah, and when they rebelled against Judah and set up their on worship to the gods at the two cities at the north, Benjamin was the only tribe who stayed with Judah aligned to the God of Israel. So, for all these reasons Benjamin had a choice roll. And Paul is saying, my pedigree is impeccable and yet through I am a Jew of Jews, yet I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, so I am living proof, I am exhibit A that God has not rejected His people.

That's the explicit thing that he says, but implicit in this is also another reminder, and that is that Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus was the major threat to the existence of the church. Saul, humanly speaking was the person who came closest in the history of Christianity to extinguishing the church. Saul of Tarsus, he was public enemy number one to the church. He was the Osama bin Laden of his day, as far as the Christian church was concerned. When they heard the name of 'Saul of Tarsus' they saw in him the greatest threat to their own personal welfare. And Paul is saying, look, if I can be saved then anybody can be saved. If any Jew ought to have been rejected it should have been me and look at me, I'm not only saved, I'm preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. Isn't Paul a standing hope? Isn't he a standing representative of hope to us that all those friends and relations of ours that we so vainly hope will embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he not a standing representation of hope that anybody can be brought to the Lord? If anybody should have been rejected, if anybody wasn't a candidate for salvation, it was Saul of Tarsus and yet God made him the apostle to the Gentiles.

My friends, that's a great encouragement for us because there may be some of you who are thinking, 'You know, there is something I have done in my past that disqualifies me from being a Christian, I'll never be able to follow the Lord Jesus Christ." Then, there is the Apostle Paul waiting for you and he's saying, "Look, if there is anybody like that it was me." I mean, Paul says quiet plainly doesn't he, "I am the chiefest of sinners." He's not using hyperbole. He meant it. So you say, "I can't get close to Christ because there is something in my past," the Apostle Paul wants to say, "No, no, no step aside, I'm first in line here. If there was anybody who had something in his past, in her past that could keep him from God, that could keep him from Christ, it's me, and look at me, I'm following Him. I'm telling of His praise." So, what's keeping you from God is not something in your past it's something in your present, you're refusal to simply trust in Him because when you trust in Him you find that He wraps the everlasting arms around you and He saves you from all your sins. So the Apostle Paul is saying, it's not something in your past that keeps you from Him, it's something now; it's the refusal to believe in Him. He's such an encouragement to us that all can come to the Lord Jesus Christ and bring their burdens lifted and their sins forgiven. That's the first thing we learn in this great passage. God's continuing mercy to Israel is made manifest even in the salvation of the Apostle Paul, but there is a second thing as well.

II. Believing Jews are evidence God has not rejected His people.

If you look at verses 2 through 5, Paul makes it clear that God has not rejected His people and this can be seen from the present remnant of Israel. He states the case this way. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. That's that word for God's foreknowledge, His fore love, His eternal love for His people from the foundation of the world. And he says, God can not reject those that He has set His love on before the foundation of the world and He says, let me prove it to you from Scripture.

In verses 3 and 4 he takes you back to the story of Elijah, and you remember Elijah as he contested with the prophets of Baal. Almost all of the prophets of the Lord in the northern kingdom in Elijah's day had been slaughtered by the wicked king and his wife, and Elijah felt utterly alone and isolated as he opposed this idolatry. At one point he even cries out a prayer to the Lord against Israel, "Lord, I'm the only one left who believes in You. I'm the only one who worships the God of Israel, they all worship idols now, they worship the Baals of Canaan."

And Paul says in verse 4 that God's divine response to Elijah was, "No, Elijah, there is still a significant number of people in this land that worship Me," but of course that's not quite how he says it in verse 4. He says, "There are still seven thousand that I have kept for Myself." Paul inserts those words, for myself, into that quotation to emphasis that it's God's grace that has kept them. It's not something special in them or about them. It's God's grace who has kept them for Himself and he says, "Look, if God was keeping a remnant for Himself in Elijah's day, so also, He keeping a remnant of Israel in this day." And he looks out on the Roman congregation and he sees Jewish Christians there and he says, "Look you're the remnant that God is keeping for Himself today at the present time." He draws the conclusion that just as there is a remnant then, so also there is a remnant now and it's all due to God's gracious choice.

Look at the way he put it in verse 5. "There has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. So his point is that God continues to show His mercy to Israel and that that is manifest in His gracious choice of a continuing Jewish remnant. There are still Jewish Christians and there always have been in every generation. This reminds us of the mercy of God, for surely Israel should have done better that she did. And yet God continues to be pervasive in His mercy towards Israel, and God's mercy toward the likes of us ought to make us hopeful for His mercy for others.

See, in this passage Paul is reiterating that God can be trusted and in the end when someone stands and believes in the Lord and embraces Him for salvation, it is all due to the gracious choice and mercy of God. Now, I can't imagine something more practical or more comforting than that. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we would embrace Jesus Christ by faith and we ask for Your mercy, that by the Holy Spirit our eyes would be opened and we would see that the Lord is God and worship Him, bowing the knee and calling out upon Him whom You have given the name which is above every name, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Romans 11:6-10 - The Hardening of Israel

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. As we continue with Paul in this great passage, you'll remember Paul has opened Romans 11 with a big question, and that question is, "Has God rejected Israel?" To put it more pointedly, has God failed in His promises to Israel? We've already seen him in verses 1 through 5 give an emphatic "No" in response to that. God has not rejected His people, He has not failed in His promise, and He presents exhibit "A" and exhibit "B" in Romans 11 verses 1 through 5. He says, first of all look at me, Paul. He's a Jewish Christian, he's the apostle to the Gentiles, he's of the tribe of Benjamin, he's a Hebrew of Hebrews, and yet he's a believer in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and so he says, "Of course God hasn't rejected His people, look at me. I'm one of His ancient people and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I have know the fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham in my own life through Jesus Christ." Then he says, furthermore there is a remnant today just like there was in the old days in Israel. He says, look around you Roman Christians, there are Jewish Christians in the congregation, all over the world and every part of the Christian world. There are those from God's ancient people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So, no God has a remnant for Himself, He's not forgotten His promises, He's not forgotten His people.

Paul is going to continue on that argument right here in Romans 11 verses 6 through 10. Let me show you what he does. In verse 6 he pauses for a moment and he says, now I just told you about that remnant that God had saved by grace. I want to make it clear that that remnant is saved by grace and not by their works. That's what he says in verse 6.

Then in verse 7 he emphasizes again that the source of our salvation is in the grace of God. How is it that that remnant came to saving faith in God? Through the grace of God. He chose them and they obtained it. Then in verse 7, the second part of the verse, all the way down to verse 10, Paul piles up four Scripture passages in two Old Testament quotations to prove his case, and in the course of it he makes it clear that God's grace makes distinctions. With that as a word of introduction let's hear God's word in Romans 11 beginning in verse 6.

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, "GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY." And David says, "LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. "LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER." Amen. This is God's word may He as His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord, I pray that you would blind not our eyes, but that You would open them, that we might see wonderful truth in Your word. Above all, grant that we would see Christ and His gospel, and embrace it and Him. In Jesus' name. Amen.

You're talking to a person who is a member of a church; a local congregation that believes that salvation is by God's grace, but also by our works. What do you say to them? Paul tells you here. You're struggling with your assurance because you look at your faith and it's weak, and you question the fullness and the sincerity and the comprehension of your repentance, and you wonder sometimes about your Christian walk. How do you respond? Paul tells you here. You're talking with someone who believes that God is love and because God is love believes that He will save everyone, or at least He'll give everyone a chance, even apart from Christ and apart from the gospel. How do you reply? Paul tells you here.

It's an amazing thing isn't it, that Paul is dealing with a big picture question. He is answering one of the hard questions of God's purposes in the history of redemption. He's asking, how do you deal with Israel? How do you deal with the reality that Israel has rejected Christ? And what do you say about God's promises to Israel in light of Israel's rejections of the Messiah?

But even while he's answering that big picture question, he's answering a whole host of smaller practical issues that face every single one of us in the Christian life. I'd like you to see two or three things this morning, which Paul says by way of application, which are very practical and indeed essential for us to understand. The first thing I want you to see is that Paul makes it clear that grace and work don't mix in salvation. Secondly, Paul makes it clear that God's grace is the soul source of salvation for believers. Thirdly, he makes it clear that the rejection of the gospel comes not from ignorance, not from the lack of opportunity, but the rejection of the gospel comes from a hardened heart and leads to further hardening. Those three things I'd like us to discover today.

I. We must emphatically distinguish and refuse to intermingle our works and God's grace in justification.

Let's begin in verse 6. Paul has just said that God has chosen, even this day, a remnant of His ancient people for and He emphasizes that He's done this by grace. Look at verse 5 if you want to refresh your memory. "In the same way there has also come to be present, to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice." He emphasizes that if there are believing Jewish Christians in his own day and in ours, it's because of the grace of God. And lest we missed that point, he pauses in verse 6 to drive it home one more time. He says, "but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." In other words, he is saying, look, when you look out there in Israel and you see a believing remnant, and you see an unbelieving multitude, don't think that the difference between the believing remnant and the unbelieving multitude is to be found in the innate goodness of the believing remnant. Don't believe that some were inherently better that others. Don't believe that some have the ability to exercise faith and others didn't. Don't find the source of the distinction in themselves. Find it in the grace of God, because that is the only source of salvation. Paul is telling us here that we must emphatically distinguish God's grace from our works, and we must refuse to intermingle God's grace and our works with regard to our salvation because they do not mix. Paul is saying that God's grace to us is not contingent upon our works.

We'll see in a few moments that in fact, our works flow from God's grace, but God's grace is not caused by something that we do. Salvation is by grace alone and it is not caused by something in us or something that we do. When we stress salvation by grace alone we are not just engaging in a quibbling theological discussion, as far as Paul is concerned. Paul says we are right at the heart of the truth of the Christian faith when we assert that works and grace can not be mixed in the matter of our right standing before God, in the matter of our justification, in the matter of our salvation.

Why? Well, for a couple of reasons, first of all, to mix works and grace is to misunderstand the necessity of God's divine favor. If we include works as a source of our salvation, if we include works as a means of our salvation, if we include works, even as a part of our salvation, we are robbing God of His glory and shifting the emphasis from what God has done to what we have done, and we're suggesting that God loves us because we first loved Him, that God has shown us grace because we first reached out to Him, and of course that is the exact opposite message of the Scriptures. God, while we were yet ungodly sent His son to die, to draw us in. We love Him, John says, because He first loved us. So, mixing works and grace in salvation undercuts this consistent Biblical emphasis on the grace of God. We are going to see it tonight when we look at Exodus chapter 14 and 15, how God emphasizes that He alone saves His people.

Then in the second instance, salvation by grace can not be met, mixed with works because of the perfection of Christ's work. We are saved by God's grace and Jesus' work in life and in death. For us to say that we need to mix our works in order to be saved is actually to suggest that Jesus' work was not good enough, that Jesus' work was insufficient, that Jesus' work lacked perfection, and of course that is something highly offensive to say to the heavenly Father. Do you remember the Father's words about the Lord Jesus? "This is My son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." And when we suggest that our works need to be added to Jesus' work in order to be right before God, we are denigrating the work of Jesus Christ, and so we must emphatically refuse to mix grace and works in salvation.

II. When we contemplate our salvation we must ascribe its source and means to God alone.

Secondly, if you look at the first part of verse 7, Paul emphasizes this, salvation flows from the choice of God. We must remember that salvation finds it's source and it's means in God alone. God's grace is the soul source of the salvation of believers. Here you might have expected Paul to emphasis that the difference between unbelieving Israel and believing Israel, the difference between Jewish Christians and those Jews who have rejected Christ was to be found in their faith. He had made something of that distinction in Romans chapter 10, but that's not what he says. Notice what he says in verse 7. "What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it." Paul is locating the source of the salvation of believing Israel in the choice of God.

We often talk about making a decision, but as far as Paul is concerned, that decision in which we must indeed make is itself a result of a prior decision God has made. It is the divine decision that is most important, and if we do not understand that we will lack assurance.

As a young boy and into my early teenage years I greatly struggled with assurance of salvation, and the reason was I was a closet Arminian. I had been reared in a Presbyterian Church, I had been taught the Shorter Catechism, I had forgotten it once and started memorizing it again, and yet I didn't realize the grace of God in salvation. I thought that my faith and my repentance caused the grace of God to be effective for me. I thought that my grace and my repentance conditioned God's grace, and so consequently when I looked at my faith, and I looked at my repentance, and I saw their imperfections I lacked assurance. I struggled. I struggled so mightily that I decided the safest thing to do would be to accept Christ many times, just to make sure I covered my bases and did it right. So, sometimes I would repent first and then have faith, and then other times I would have faith first and then repent because I thought that the quality of my faith and the quality of my repentance conditioned and assured God's grace. Then suddenly in a youth conference I heard a minister preaching on Ephesians 1. It dawned on me for the first time that my faith and my repentance did not cause God's grace, or secure God's grace for me, but my very desire to have faith and to repent was the result of God's prior grace towards me. Suddenly I realized that it is God's grace that is productive of every impulse to relationship with Him. It is not my impulse of faith that coaxes Him into a relationship with me, but it is His prior grace for me, which produces in me, the slightest desire to trust in Him or to repent of my sins.

Isn't it interesting how the Bible's application works? Paul is in the middle of a discussion which may seem remote and theoretical about why Israel rejected God, and whether God's promises had failed, and in the middle of that discussion, which might sound theoretical, or remote, or impractical to you, in the middle of that discussion he has just taught you a doctrine of enormous practical importance for your Christian life. He has taught you that God's sovereign grace is the source of your salvation, and if you understand that correctly you will not lack assurance. So, even in the midst of this great, this tremendous question he has practical truths for you and me to learn. So in verse 7 he makes it clear that God's grace is the soul source of our salvation.

III. When we contemplate God's sovereignty in the hardening of Israel, we must remember the He is just.

Then he goes on at the end of that verse and all the way down through verse 10 to make one more point, and that is that the rejection of the gospel reflects a hardened heart and leads to a further hardening of heart. Paul is going to give us scriptural proof in that the rest of Israel refused to believe, because of their hardness of heart, and as a result they were hardened further in unbelief. Paul's point of course is not to excuse them for not believing. His point is to bring out the seriousness of their plight and the fact that God is at work in their punishment.

You know, there are all sorts of people today, and you hear them talking all the time saying, "Jesus is not necessary for salvation, the gospel is not necessary for salvation." But Paul is saying right here that the very rejection of Christ in the gospel, any attempt to go around Christ or the gospel in the fellowship with God itself reflects a hardened heart. You see, the people who do that may seem nice, and moral and upstanding, and possess numerous qualities that we admire, but their very rejection of the gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ is a reflection of a hardened heart. The frightening thing is, it will inevitably lead to further hardening. Those who refuse the gospel steel themselves more and more to the overtures of God's grace.

My friends, that's why it's so important for us as Christians not to stand by and say, "Look, you don't have to embrace Christ, you don't have to embrace the gospel, all roads lead up the mountain." My friends when we do that we are assisting in the hardening of a sinner's heart. A sinner's heart doesn't need any help. You yourself know that. It took divine grace to open your eyes. Don't contribute to the darkening of a sinner's heart by giving him or her hope in nothing. Paul says, a person's response to the gospel, a person's response to Christ is a gauge of the heart, and the frightening thing is, when we are disobedient God hardens the heart further. Isn't that the message of Pharaoh? Pharaoh was a man with a hard heart, he was also a man whose heart had been hardened by God, and as he hardened his own heart, God hardened his heart as well. Even though Pharaoh was on a course of action that was going to lead him to destruction that became increasingly apparent to everyone around him, precisely because of the hardness of his heart, he continued down that path.

My friends, Paul is saying, you see, that hardness of heart is reflective of a rejection of the overtures of God's grace and in fact the punishment for the rejection of the overtures of God's grace. God's grace makes distinctions. God's grace is sovereign, and we should never trifle with the invitations of the gospel. They are sovereign and free, and we can never put God off. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. We don't know what the rest of this day will bring. So, Paul's overture to us is this, embrace Christ and embrace the gospel. He is the only hope of salvation. Then having embraced Him, realize the only reason you embraced Him in the first place is because of the initiative of His grace. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God we bow before You and we thank You for the grace that has been shown to us in Jesus Christ. Grant that we would acknowledge Your sovereignty in it, the freeness of Your grace and take comfort in assurance. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 11:11-16 - A Hardening for Mercy's Sake

This chapter has been the occasion of many disputes and interpretation over the matter of God's dealing with Israel and the end times. There would be some who come to this chapter and say that this chapter predicts that Israel will come together as a nation in the end time, that there will be an almost or complete conversion of Israel as a nation state to God and that there will be a reign of one thousand years of that nation state on earth prior to Christ coming. Then others have said, "No actually this passage says nothing about the Israel of the future, it's all about the present, it's all about Paul's contemporary time frame and there is no future role for Israel in God's plan of redemption." So, there have been many disputes about what it means.

The famous Southern Presbyterian theologian, James Henley Thornwell, when he was about forty years old, received a letter from a man inquiring as to what were his views of the end times, and especially of Romans 11. Thornwell wrote back a letter and he said, " I'm only forty years old and I consider that too young to have an answer to that question." That was very encouraging to me. I was just asked this last week, "What's your view of Romans 11?" I said, "I'll tell you when I get to the end of it." I'm learning with you as we go through and I trust God will speak to us directly as we learn together from His word, because the main points of Paul in Romans chapter 11 are crystal clear. We'll look at verses 11 through 16 together today.

Before we do, let me just say two or three things. First, Paul is dealing with the question of, "Has God failed to keep His promises to Israel?" He made certain promises to the patriarchs. He made certain promises to David. Has He failed to keep those promises to Israel? Or, to put it this way, "Has God rejected His chosen people of Israel?" That's the big question that Paul opens with in chapter 11.

He has answered it so far in two phases. He has answered, "No" and "No", and he has answered it by using himself as an example and by pointing to other Jewish Christians. That is, others around him who are ethnically Jewish, but who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are a part of his church. First of all he says, look, I Paul, am a Jewish man and Christian. I trust in Jesus the Messiah, and that shows that God has not rejected His ancient people Israel, because here I am, a Hebrew of Hebrews and I am a believer in the Messiah. So I am Exhibit A that God's promises have not failed.

But, he's not done. He goes on in verses 1 through 5 of Romans 11 to give an argument that the remnant of Israel, the many other Jewish Christian of His time are also evidence that God has not failed in His promise. He says, "Look around you." Even to the Roman Christians, many of whom where Gentiles, he says, 'look in your own church, there are Jewish Christians in your own church. That shows that God's promises have not failed." And so he points to this remnant of Israel that believes in the Messiah.

But Paul is not finished yet. Beginning in verse 11, be begins to develop another part of his argument to show that God has not indeed failed in His promises to His ancient people. That's where we are going to be looking today. So let's hear God's word in Romans 11 beginning in verse 11.

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also; and if the root be holy, the branches are too." Amen. This is God's word, may He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for this word, and we ask that You would teach us from this word. It is possible when we look at this passage that we wonder if it directly speaks to us today in our own situation. Show us once again just how official your word is to every situation and give us cause to thank you for it. In Jesus name. Amen.

Paul is preaching in this passage, to a congregation that is made up predominantly of Gentile Christians. There are Jewish Christians that are part of the congregation and there is a larger Jewish community which would have some sort of contact, perhaps, with this congregation in the city of Rome. But, Paul is speaking in a context where Gentile Christians are the majority party. And they, perhaps, themselves think that the greatest thing that God has done to this point in His great plan of redemption, which has been unfolding in history, has been to reach out to the Gentile world and to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And who can argue with the greatness of that? Who would have thought that five or six or seven hundred years ago, that within a matter of years of the ministry of the Messiah, there would be more Gentile believers in the Messiah than there were Jewish believer in the Messiah. That particular reality also was leading to a misapprehension and a misunderstanding on the part of the Gentile Christians. Some of them had thoughts of anger and a lack of love towards the Jewish people in whose community found themselves. Many of them had experienced persecution from the Jewish people and so there was an antipathy between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and then those who were Jewish and not following the Messiah. Paul, in that context wants to correct some misunderstandings on the part of theses Gentiles.

Then, in the course of this passage, he teaches them two or three things and I'd like you to see them with me today. First, in verse 11 Paul shows us how God's plan is gracious. Then if you look in verse 12 and then skip down to verses 15 and 16, he shows us how the salvation of the Jews is designed to be a blessing for the Gentiles. Then thirdly, in verses 13 and 14, he shows us what our attitude as Gentile Christians ought to be toward the Jewish people. I'd like to walk through this with you very briefly today.

I. God's plan is gracious.

Let's begin in verse 11, here's Paul's first point. He says, I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall did they, may it never be, but by their transgressions, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. Paul is doing two things in that little verse. He is denying that God's purpose in Israel's rejection of the gospel and of the Messiah was to cause Israel to finally fall. Secondly, he is denying that God is done with Israel. He's says, no God still has a future hope for Israel.

Look what he does. He begins by asking a question, they did not stumble so as to fall did they? And he answers, "Absolutely not. God forbid, may it never be." So, he gives a "no" answer.

Now, you may have been expecting him to say "Yes." You may have been expecting him to say, "Well, yes, Israel stumbled over the stumbling stone and they fell. Yes they did fall finally. God is done with them." But Paul's answer is the opposite. He says, "No, no God didn't do it for that purpose and God is not finished with His people yet." Paul's answer to this question is an emphatic, "No." On the contrary, in verse 11 he says God had two purposes in sending His son into the world and being rejected by His people and sending the apostles in to the world and their gospel being largely rejected or neglected by the Jewish people of their time. He said God had two purposes.

First of all, look at verse 11. By their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Paul says, in God's wisdom, He used the unbelief of Israel to result in the salvation of Gentiles all around the world. So, God had a gracious purpose even in the sin and unbelief of Israel. But that's not where Paul stops. That's where we usually stop. Lord, though the Messiah came to Israel and His own received Him not, yet we received Him and that's true, but that's not where Paul stops. Look at what he says at the end of verse 11: "To make them jealous." To make who jealous? To make the Jewish people jealous.

Now, Paul uses a provocative phrase here and we'll explain it in just a few moments, but Paul's point is this. The conversion of the Gentiles itself has a view to the evangelism of the Jews. The conversion of the Gentiles, has a view to the benefit of the Jewish people.

Now you say, "Oh that's all well and good and that's very interesting and that's an interesting unveiling of the secret plan of God, but what in the world does that have to do with my day to day Christian walk?" The answer is at least this. Doesn't God, in doing this as part of His plan bringing blessing out of sin and judgment, bringing blessing out of conversion of the Jews, does that not in and of itself teach us how God uses the severest judgments for the purposes of grace? How God always has a purpose to bring blessing out of cursing, and isn't that an important thing for us to remember? Isn't it an important thing when we see, for instance, Christians martyred in other lands, to remember that the blood of the martyrs is sealed and God uses it for His own gracious purposes. Isn't it important to see when we experience hard things in our own lives, isn't it important for us to see that God's gracious purposes are always at work, even in the hardest of circumstances. Well, certainly we learn this here, because as God had a gracious plan in the sin of Israel, so also he had a gracious plan for Israel in the salvation of the Gentiles, so that He brought blessing out of a very difficult situation, a situation of judgment and unbelief. That's the first thing that Paul teaches us in this passage.

II. The salvation of the Jews is a blessing for Gentile believers.

The second thing is this, and you will see it in verse 12 and in verse 15, a parallel verse to verse 12. It echoes what Paul has just said. He repeats himself so as to be understood. In this verse, Paul is showing us how the salvation of the Jews is a blessing for Gentile believers. Paul suggests this. He makes an argument. He says, if it was a blessing to the Gentiles that Israel, by and large, rejected the Messiah, how much greater a blessing to the Gentiles is it going to be when Israel accepts the Messiah? If it's a great blessing to the Gentiles when Israel rejected the Messiah, how much greater a blessing is it going to be when Israel is reconciled, when Israel embraces the Messiah? Look at his words, "if their transgression is riches for the world, and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be?" Then down to verse15, "if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" So Paul is saying that if blessing resulted to Gentile Christians all over the world because Jewish people rejected the Messiah and the gospel, who much greater blessing is going to result for the Gentiles when Israel embraces the gospel? Their rejection of the gospel brought blessing to the whole Gentile world. Their acceptance, Paul says, is going to do even more. In other words, Paul is saying that God's works of grace in the present and future are going to be greater than His works of grace in the past.

That is a very, very important thing for us to learn. We often have a idea that the greatest things were done in the past. These Gentiles, for instance for whom Paul was speaking could have said, "You know, the greatest thing that God has done in the history of the world in terms of the scope of His work is to send the gospel to the nations. Isn't it amazing that all these Gentile, all these non-Hebrew speakers are out there worshipping the Messiah of Israel." And the Gentiles could have thought that is the greatest thing that God has ever done. He's never going to do anything greater that that. The Apostle Paul is saying, "You've seen nothing yet." God's grace is going to eclipse, in the future, even the glories of the past and we easily slip into that.

Those of us who love the doctrines of grace in the Reformed faith, we fondly look back to the Great Awakening and we think, oh if it can only be like that. It will never be like that again. We look back to the days of Knox and Calvin and we say, "Oh it will never be that good again," and the Apostle Paul is saying, God's works of grace in the future are going to eclipse what He has done in the past.

There is literature that we read that sort of reinforces to us the idea that the great days were always in the past. I'm a great fan of J.R Tolkien, and I'm waiting like many of you for the Lord of The Rings to come to the movie theaters, but I'm sure I'm going to be disappointed because the book is so good. In that book, isn't it interesting that the greatest of the heroes are always the hero's past. You go through the book thinking Saruman, he's pretty powerful, but then you find out he's sort of small potatoes in the whole scheme of things when you find out who the evil people were behind him. The same way you find out, you think these heroes are great heroes and then you find out about the Valinor and all these other people in the past and they're greater and you have this idea that history is sort of winding down and it's never going to be as good as it was in the past.

You know my father sort of held that belief about baseball. I could be bragging to him about the current Atlanta Braves or the St. Louis Cardinals and he was always a Yankee fan. You have to understand he was from Union County, South Carolina and he taught me there was only one kind of Yankee you could like, a New York Yankee, he said. He had these exalted memories of the Yankees of his youth. So I would be bragging, for instance, about how good the pitching staff batted for a particular baseball team. He would say, "Oh son that's nothing. I remember the days when the Yankee batters all batted three hundred." Now, look, I went back and looked at the records. I never found a Yankee pitching staff that batted three hundred, but my father thought that over the years they had become larger than life and it was better back then. The Apostle Paul is saying to these Gentiles, "It is amazing what God has done in bringing the Gentiles in, but you've seen nothing yet." God is going to do something in the future even greater and it is going to entail, not only blessing for Israel, but it's going to entail blessing for you.

Isn't it interesting how Paul sets forth a salvation in which the salvation of the Gentile itself is for the benefit of the Jew, and the salvation of the Jew is for the benefit of the Gentile. They can still be distinguished, but God's plan of redemption is designed to work for their mutual betterment so that the Jew is for the Gentile and the Gentile for the Jew.

Now my friends, there are many practical applications to this passage, but one of them is absolutely crystal clear, and that is that this passage ought to move Christians to a practical love of the Jewish people and a longing for their salvation. This passage does not teach us that we have to take a particular stance with regard to the modern nation state of Israel, but it certainly says that the Christian must have in his or her heart a longing to see the salvation of God come to the people of Israel. Now that's very important, because over the course of Christians history many horrible things have been done to the Jewish people by erstwhile Christians under the pretence of following Christian teaching, and the Apostle Paul, had he been listened to here in Romans chapter 11, would have forestalled those things. Because he is saying to these Gentile Christians, "I don't care whether the Jewish people are part of Nero's plan against you right now. You ought to love them for the sake of Christ because their salvation will be for your benefit as well and your salvation in the plan of God is for their benefit." So he's teaching them to have a heart for these people even thought they may be against them. So, this passage is designed to move us to a practical love of the Jewish people.

Now let me just stop right there and say, I understand that is not going to win us friends in the Jewish community today. The Jewish community is very, very concerned about conversion and they find it offensive that Christians attempt to share with them the gospel and ask them to trust in Jesus Christ. It's to turn their back on their heritage, their culture, their religion, and I understand that evokes a negative response. But do you understand that from Paul's perspective, the greatest act of anti-Semitism that you can commit against a Jewish person, or against the Jewish people as a whole, is to refuse to share the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with them and to refuse to pray that they might enter into the same benefits that you enjoy yourself. Paul is teaching us to have a heart of love for the Jewish people and that includes a longing to see them converted. That's very difficult, and I understand in our day and age it must be done with great sensitivity, but Paul is teaching us to have a heart for the Jewish people.

Secondly, I simply want to say by way of practical application, that Paul is teaching us here in verses 12 ,15 and 16, that God has designed the salvation of all His people in such a way that the salvation of each serves the interest of the other. In this passage, and we're going to look at it in just a few moments, in this passage Paul says, this is how the plan of God works: The Jewish people reject the Messiah, this is God's purpose that results in the conversion of the Gentiles, which in turn results in a blessing to Israel, which in turn results in a blessing to the Gentiles.

Isn't that interesting? The rejection of the Messiah by Israel, results in the conversion of the Gentiles, the conversion of the Gentiles results in a blessing for Israel, and the blessing of Israel in turn results in a blessing for the Gentiles. It's this divine conspiracy in which the blessing for one redounds to the benefit of the other, and isn't that the way it ought to be? Isn't that the way our salvation is? Your salvation belongs to me, it encourages me, it strengths me, I benefit from it.

I've had the privilege listening recently to testimonies given during wedding rehearsal dinners, where both children who are being married are believing and they love the Lord and they love His word, and to hear their friends testify of the grace of God in their lives is one of the soul enlivinest things that I can possible conceive of. It strengthens my faith, it gets me excited again. I remember how I felt in the first flush of my discovery of those truths. They are mature for their age and it redounds to my benefit. I grow and I'm strengthened in my faith. Well, our salvations are designed by God to accrue to the benefit of one another. That's the way we ought to be thinking. We ought to be thinking about what God has given to us in our experience and how it can be a blessing to our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Those are just a couple of ways in which the truth that Paul speaks applies to us today.

III. Our proper attitude to the Jewish people.

Now, one last thing, if you look at verse 13 and 14. Paul here identifies himself as the apostle to the Gentiles, but then he says, I want you to understand that I have an emphatically pro Jewish ministry. You see, there would have been some in Paul's own race who would have seen him as a traitor, as a turncoat.

I remember the first time that I heard Mitch Glazer, who was one of the chief evangelists for 'Jews for Jesus' speaking in a chapel, and he said, "When I became a Christian, my parents rejected me. They refused to acknowledge that I existed. They don't correspond with me, they don't speak with me, but my grandmother, my grandmother still loves me and she'll speak to me." Grandmothers have that amazing ability to do that. No matter what's going on. He was talking with his grandmother and he said, "Grandmother, I don't understand this. Dad doesn't even believe in God, dad's an atheist, he's Jewish ethnically, but he's an atheist. He doesn't believe in the Torah, he doesn't believe in the writings, he doesn't believe in the prophecies, he doesn't believe in the prophets, I believe in all those things. I believe in God, I believe in the Torah, I believe in the writings, I believe in the prophets, it's just in addition to that I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that He fulfills all those things. Which one of us is the better Jew? Me or Dad?" And she immediately said, "Oh, your dad, because he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ."

I know that there would have been many Jews in Paul's day who would have seen him as turning his back on the truth because of his embrace of Jesus Christ, but Paul saw his ministry to the Gentiles as a way to bless Israel. In verses 13 and 14 he's saying, "Look, here is how I think of my ministry to the Gentiles, you Gentile Christians in Rome, and this is how I want you to think about your ministry to the Jews." He says, "If I seek to move my fellow country man to jealousy and to save some of them, I am magnifying my ministry to the Gentiles." In other words, there is no conflict of interest. When I try to move Gentiles to trust in God, I'm not doing that to the exclusion of the salvation of my own fellow countryman. In fact, in God's plan, the blessing of salvation of the Gentiles is designed to bring Israel to saving faith. And so, he says, there is no conflict of interest. Every time I witness to a Gentile, I'm praying God will bring in my fellow countryman, and he's saying, you Gentile Christians in Rome, you ought to be thinking the same way.

My friends, he's saying to you today, "You ought to be thinking the same way." He's saying that we ought to have a longing for the salvation for the Jewish people. He's saying here, and he uses the shocking phrase, jealousy, that we ought to have a desire that Israel will see the blessings of Abraham coming to the Gentiles. And then that Israel will say, you know, God promised those blessings to us long ago and we ought to be enjoying those blessings ourselves. He's not saying we're to provoke them to jealousy in some sort of crass why. Envy is not the instrument of grace, faith is. He is saying this, our experience of the grace and the promises of God ought to be an evident display to His ancient people so that they desire to embrace Him too. May God bless His word. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we long to see the whole number of Your people throughout the ages, throughout the span of this world, brought into the fellowship of union and communion with Christ. Grant that we would have hearts large with this desire and be found well pleasing in your sight. In Jesus name. Amen.

A Warning Against Arrogance - Romans 11:17-22

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11 to the 17th verse as we continue to work our way through this great book. We are right in the thick of it now in one of the most difficult chapters in one of the most difficult sections of one of the most profound books of the Scriptures. Fear not, we are coming up for air soon. Next week we come to a chapter which is climatic in the declarations that it makes about God's purposes. After that Paul is going to sing the doxology and enter, in chapter 12, to the practical portion of the book.

Beginning in chapter 12, to the end of the book, he then takes all of these glorious truths that he has been setting forth in Romans chapter 1 through 11 and he says, now this is how this works out in the living of the Christian life. So, if you're cross-eyed with ideas that boggle your mind, there is hope and help on the way.

But we are now in the midst of this chapter where Paul has been speaking to Christians, both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians about their relationship to Israel. He has been explaining how the church is to view and relate to present day Israel. He is speaking to Romans, some of whom would have been Roman Christians, some of whom who would have been Gentile Christians who were living in a society which had a general contempt for all things Jewish. The Romans looked down their noses at Israel. Israel was a conquered, surrogate state, and there was some Roman contempt for all things Jewish. Perhaps Paul had caught in the attitude of the Christians in Rome, something of the flavor of that general secular attitude toward Israel and he wanted to very quickly nip it in the bud. How wise it was of Paul to speak to these things pastorally because this issue would become a standing issue of the Christian church of the west over the next twenty centuries.

But as we begin to look at a subject like this again, you may be asking yourself, "Look, I came here today and I've got so many problems, I've got business problems, I've got family problems, what can this message possibly have to say to me?" Well, it has a lot to say to us my friends. Paul is not only going to teach us what our attitude ought to be to Israel, an important point enough in and of itself in terms of the great scheme of God's salvation, but he's also going to teach us about humility. He's going to teach us about faith, and he's going to teach us about what God is like. Those three things my friends are never impractical. In fact, we really could outline the passage, humility, faith, and God. We'll come back to that in a moment though. Let's turn to God's word here in Romans 11 beginning in verse 17.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then. "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. Amen. This is God's holy and inspired word, may He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

O Lord, we ask that You would teach us by Your word, humble us by Your spirit, increase and focus our faith as we attend to Your word and teach us of Yourself for Jesus sake. Amen.

You know, Paul's theology about Israel and about Jesus the Messiah and about Christianity has been blamed for spawning twenty centuries of Christian anti-Semitism. Many people go right back to Paul and say, "Paul, you're the problem. It's this cursed exclusivism of yours, it's this cursed focus on Jesus Christ, it's this blaming of the Jews for all things wrong in the religious scene of your day that has spawned countless acts of injustice and oppression and immorality by ostensible Christians on the Jewish people." The same thing has been said about Martin Luther's' theology. You know, when you look at what Paul says, you have to pronounce him not guilty, because had the Christian church been listening to what the Apostle Paul had to say, not only about the Israel of the past, but the Israel of the present, our attitude would have been entirely different from those dark scenes which have so often populated the past history of our peoples. Now, Paul not only gives us a glimpse into this theology in this passage, he also teaches us that grace produces humility, that grace produces faith, and that grace always carries with it a large view of God. It's those things that I'd like to attend with you this morning.

Let me outline the passage for you. In verses 17 and 18 we see Paul here teaching that a proper view of God's grace will bring about humility in Christians and not arrogance. In verses 19 through 21 we see Paul saying, that an understanding of how God has saved us in His grace will produce the response of faith. In verse 22, he lets us know that if you have the right view of the God of grace, that is in and of itself a product of God's grace for you. That having tasted of God's grace, you realize both the justice and mercy of God to the exclusion of neither. I'd like to look at this passage with you, first in verses 17 and 18.

I. A proper view of God's grace will produce humility, not arrogance.

Paul first starts by speaking of the need of Gentile Christian humility in view of the fact that its spiritual root is found in Israel, in the patriarchs, in the promises that God has given to Israel. Look at what Paul says, "if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches." Now, let's stop right there and say a couple of things. First of all, when Paul trucks out the olive tree illustration, he knows that everyone in his hearing with an inkling of Old Testament teaching, in the synagogue or in the local house church where he was meeting and teaching them, or in the church which was listening to his letter being read, that everyone who hears it with any inkling of Old Testament prophetic teaching will know that the olive tree is an illustration of Israel. Haggai uses it. Habakkuk uses it. Other prophets use it to talk about Israel. Israel is the olive tree, and God is the gardener. It's an illustration that everyone with any biblical literacy would have understood when Paul was speaking, so he knows that when he brings out the olive tree, everyone is going to be thinking, "Ah ha, Paul is getting ready to talk about something that the prophets often talked about." How God tends and cares for His people. The body of His people.

Now, the second thing to note is that Paul knows that the illustration that he is giving here is horticulturally strange. In other words, Paul knows that it is not common practice to take a wild olive branch, and graft it into an old cultivated olive root. He knows that normally it's the other way around. He knows that the olive farmers of his time would normally have taken a branch from an older, cultivated olive that was becoming less strong and less fruitful and more vulnerable to disease and would have grafted it into a wild olive root, which would have produced good fruits. He knew it was normally that way, but the illustration itself is designed to show you what a surprising thing God had done by bringing the Gentiles into His people. In fact, if you let your eyes run down to verse 24, you will see Paul explicitly says that he knows that this is not natural, to take a wild olive branch and graft it into a root of an old cultivated olive tree. He says what? That this is contrary to nature. You see, then, that's his whole point. God's showing of grace to the Gentiles was mind blowing. We think of it as, "Oh it's the plan of God," and it is. We've grown accustomed to it and perhaps we've taken it for granted. Paul is reminding us again what a surprising thing God has done to the Gentile Christians.

So, he's got this olive tree illustration, which reminds everyone of God's teaching about His people in the Old Testament, and then he has an illustration, which is sort of unusual. It's contrary to nature. Now, he uses this illustration in order to emphasize what the attitude of the Gentile ought to be to present-day Israel, and he's basically telling them three things. First, in this illustration he is telling Gentile Christians that they must always be mindful of the root of the Church. They are never to forget where the promises originated, where the hope was first set forth in the world and from whom they have inherited their legacy. They are never to forget their roots.

I remember meeting a professor who was from Pumpkinville, South Carolina. He was teaching outside of the South, and he was ashamed that he was from Pumpkinville, South Carolina. I remember another friend who was from another city in South Carolina saying, "I don't like a man who is ashamed of his roots." The apostle is saying, "You Gentile Christians, don't forget your roots. Your roots are found right back there with Abraham and the promises of God and they are bound up with and every promise you have received is a promise originally given to Israel. So, be mindful of where you came from. Don't forget where you're from son," he's saying.

Secondly, he's saying they should remember the way they entered into the body of God's people. They were grafted in unnaturally. It's the most surprising thing in the world that they would have been included in the people of God. You never would have guessed it. This pagan, idolatrous, polytheistic, animistic, sub- cultural Gentiles engrafted into the people of God. He says, "You remember how you came into this, sheer grace of God it was."

Thirdly he says, "And be humbled." Remember your roots, remember how you were brought into the people of God, and be humbled. You've inherited something that wasn't promised to you when you weren't a people. You've been brought in unnaturally. You ought to be humble about that. Don't look over at Israel and gloat. Be humbled by the fact that God has included you in His purposes.

Now, I want to apply that, but before I do, I want you to understand that underneath Paul's illustration are several important theological assumptions that he is making which are essential to understanding his argument. The first one is that the Church is one with Israel. The Church may be able to be distinguished from Israel. The Church, as the new covenant people of God which includes both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians as distinct from the old covenant people of God, which was represented in the nation state of Israel, they may be able to be distinguished, but they are all part of one body. You see, he doesn't say there is the olive tree of Israel, and then there is the olive tree of the Church. They are all part of the same tree. Everybody who heard the illustration would have understood that, but there are very Godly Christians who believe that the Church has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. There are some Godly Christians that don't even think the Church was provided of or known of in the Old Testament. It was the result of the Jews surprising God by rejecting the Messiah and God had to fall back on plan "B" and "pop" the church came out. Then one day, God will be finished with the Church and he'll get back to Israel. No, Paul's conception is that the Church and Israel are all part of the one people of God. That's the first assumption in Paul's illustration. He emphasizes it elsewhere like Ephesians 2, and we could look to many other passages.

The second assumption is this. Paul indicated that Gentile Christians are to view themselves as united with the old covenant people of God, as sharers by grace in the same inheritance. It's not that the Jews were promised the Abrahamic covenant, and I was promised something else, it's that we are both the recipients, the inheritors of the Abrahamic blessings by faith. All those, whether Jew or Greek, male or female, share in those blessings by faith. So, he's pointing to the legacy that we need to recognize and acknowledge.

You know, if your sixth grader was in a history class and had been given an assignment by the history teacher, to study a European nation, and they looked back at their old atlas and they decided, "We're going to study Romania." They really go into the study of Romania and really loved Romania, and felt a kinship with Romania, and came home one day and said, "Mom, dad, I'm a Romanian, we are Romanians." You would say, " No you're not, there is not a drop of Romanian blood in us." You know when your children come home from Sunday school, and talk about the stories of the Old Testament as if they are the stories of their own people, what do you think? You're exactly right. Those are our people. That's us. That's our people. We are sinful like they were, and reconciled like they were, and recipients of God's grace like they were. Those are our people. We shouldn't take that for granted. But Paul is laying the groundwork for that understanding right here.

Paul is also saying that Gentile Christians are beneficiaries of the covenant promises that were first given to Abraham, to the patriarchs, and so we are to view old Israel as the view as the root of the blessing. We are to think of present day Israel in view of the fact that it is descended from that root. You see, there have always been times in Christianity when people have attempted to expunge the Jewish-ness from Christianity. Did you know that within one hundred years of the writing of the New Testament, some called Gnostics, some called Marcionites, that literally went through the New Testament and tried to take out every bit of the New Testament that referred to the Old Testament? You know, you don't have much of the New Testament left when you try that. You can't expunge the Jewishness of Christianity. Christianity is Jewish inherently, and the Apostle Paul is warning these Gentile Christians to understand that and think of the present Israel in view of the root of God's word.

Then, finally, Paul wants Gentile Christians to remember and take stock of the surprising way called them into union with God. They were, as it were, a wild olive branch that was grafted in. It shouldn't have happened, it just shouldn't have happened, but God in His grace and mercy did so. Therefore, Paul says, "This is how I want you look at present day Israel. I want you to thank the Lord for the patriarchs and the promises God has given to them, and why was I a guest." See, those are the two things that we ought to think. Thank the Lord for what He has said and what He has done in Israel, and Lord, I don't even deserve to be here. That's how I want you to think. Take your hymnals out and turn to 459. You know the hymn, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place. I've even got a verse that you don't have in your hymnals. You may be relieved that you don't have it in your hymnal because we'd probably sing it, but let me give it to you. Hymn 469, How sweet and awesome is the place with Christ within the doors, while everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores. Here's the verse you don't have, "Here every feeling of our God would soft compassion rolls, where peace and pardoned bought with blood is food for dying souls, while all our hearts and all songs join to admire the feast, each of us cry with thankful tongues, 'Lord, why was I a guest?' Why was I made to hear Thy voice and enter while there is room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?"

Do you see the humility that has been wrought in the heart of Isaac Watts? I hope of us, as we sing that song, have the realization that God has, against all odds drawn us into the fellowship with His people. Yet, so often the world thinks of us as arrogant. Sometimes it's because of that doctrine isn't it? You think you're chosen, you think you're pretty special. There is a suspicion to that. Sometimes though, it's because we are. O my brothers and sisters it should not be so. You can be proud or you can be Presbyterian, but you can't be both consistently. If you've really seen God's grace it always has the quality of humbling you in the dust.

I'll never forget a pamphlet that I read many years ago by Al Martin in which he was describing the practical implications of the doctrines of grace, and I was expecting him to say something else, and he said this, "A man who has seen God is humbled to the dust." O my friends, grace humbles you. Paul is saying that to these Gentile Christians, and it colors the way they relate to other people, even Israel.

II. Grace produces faith.

Secondly you'll see in verses 19 through 21, Paul teaches us about how grace is productive of faith. Paul has someone in his audience who is arguing with him. He disagrees with him. He thinks Paul is wrong. He's got to quibble with Paul's argument. You see the quibble in verse 20, and the quibble is basically this, "Well Paul, I understand that God used the people of old, you know, Israel back then, but Israel today has rejected Him. In fact, by your own theology, Israel has been cut off so that I can be grafted in. So why, Paul, should I have any care whatsoever for present day Israel? Present day Israel has been cut off. The root may have been a part of God's plan, but the branches have been cut off."

The Apostle Paul basically responds in one of his typically Pauline ways. "Well, you know, you have a point there, but you know how Israel got cut off? They got cut off by not believing. Do you know how you'll get cut off? You'll get cut off by not believing. Instead of sitting over there and gloating about the fact that Israel in this time has by and large turned its back on the Messiah, you be careful to stand, lest you fall, for you were saved by faith. And should you reject the Messiah, you to will find out you are rejected."

What a tremendous warning to nominal Christianity. You know, we can go to church and go through the motions and never be trusting in Christ. We can have a grandmother that has been a member here since 1856. We can memorize The Shorter Catechism seven times; force-fed to us at Sunday dinner. We can have an aunt who has prayed for us for years, a father who is an elder, and they can't believe for us. We, you individually, have to believe in Christ, nobody can do it for you. You must put your faith in Jesus Christ. You have to trust in Him. You have to respond to the gospel claims. You have to live in His grace. You have to walk in the life of faith. The Apostle Paul is saying to these Gentiles, "Instead of looking over there at those who have been cut off, you need to do a little self examination and ask yourself, 'Gentile Christians, are you trusting in Christ?'"

Now, what an important lesson for us to learn in the American style, where all nice people still go to church. You know, I love that. I'm glad that all nice people are still in church in the American South. But all that is, is a gospel opportunity, because just because you are in church doesn't mean that you know Jesus. I like it that you are in church, but I would even more like it if you knew Jesus. And that's what Paul is remaining these Gentiles.

III. A right view of God is in and of itself a gift of grace.

Then one last thing. Look at verse 22, he says, "Behold the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness." He's saying, Gentile Christians, think about it for a moment. In the salvation of God and in the judgment of God, you have seen two aspects of His character, two attributes of God. You have seen His love and His justice, and both have been served to the full. Seeing His love and His justice ought to make you tremble, because we serve an awesome and living God, a consuming fire.

I want to say that the Apostle Paul's God is so politically incorrect. The God you've been hearing about on CNN and MSNBC and FOX news over the last two months, you know, the god who is the same for everybody, the god who is the god of the Muslims, the god of the Christians, it's all the same god. The god who is totally beneficent, he wouldn't judge anybody; he's just kind and good and loving. That god has no relation to Paul's God. God, the god of Paul is a God of kindness and severity. How out of step can you be Paul? And that's how most people look at it. You believe in a God who judges, you believe in a narrow minded, mean spirited small hearted, shriveled up God. It's the other way around.

How do I mean that? A god who is beneficent and nothing else cannot deal with the injustice that exists in this world. That's the first thing. It's like somebody comes along side of you and your world's falling apart and all that they have to offer is, "I really feel for you. That must be really tough." But there is absolutely nothing constructive they can do for you. That's a shriveled up god.

Secondly, a god who is nothing but benevolent and is not holy and is not just and does not judge, it doesn't cost him anything to come into relationship with sinners. But a God who is holy and a God who is just, and a God who is awesome, and who is loving beyond your capacity to conceive, it cost Him everything to come into fellowship with you. It cost Him the outrages of the injustices suffered by His own Son so that you could experience the outrages of His love. And that's the God of the New Testament. Not a sterile grandfather, omni-beneficent figure in the sky, distant from our injustice, and indifferent towards our sin. But a God who loved us enough to become involved in our condition and to shed the blood of His own Son so that we could taste of the lavishness of His mercy. That God may not be politically correct, but I'll serve that God anywhere, anytime. Paul is saying to theses Gentile Christians, look at your God. Look at what He's done to bring you into fellowship with Him. Don't you have a heart of longing that everyone out there, Israel included would know the greatness of that love? Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we can't describe You. We mumble words, and we can't do justice, but we love You. Show us Yourself and then give us the grace to believe, in Jesus name. Amen.

All Israel Will Be Saved - Romans 11:23-27

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11, the 23 verse. We'll actually begin reading in the 22 verse in order to catch a thought mid phrase from the apostle. We're continuing to work our way through this great gospel of Romans. We've been looking at Romans 11 for a number of weeks, and Romans 11: 23 through 27 is the culminating point of Paul's argument in this chapter to this point that when we get to Romans 11: 28 he slightly changes the subject. It's a related subject, but he's slightly refocusing our attention by the time we get there. He's reiterating some things for us in this passage that he's been telling us all along.

Of course we have indicated that Paul's discussion here in Romans 9 through 11 is designed, in part, to explain how the church is to view Israel and how Gentile Christians are to relate to Israel and think about present day Israel. It was a very practical thing for Paul to raise this issue with this Roman Christian congregation. That congregation would have had Jewish Christians in it to be sure but it was apparently dominated by Gentile Christians and further more it was in a cultural context where Israel would have been somewhat despised and condescended to. These Gentile Roman Christians may well have been infected by the general Roman snobbery towards Israel. The Romans didn't think much of Israel. They looked down on Israel. Josephus perhaps wrote his books precisely trying to get the Romans to think more highly of Israel and its history and its culture. What ever the case is, Paul seems to understand that these Roman Gentile Christians had adopted some sort of an attitude towards the Jewish people that was inappropriate and he writes in part to correct that.

Furthermore, these Gentile Christians would have been well aware of the wide spread unbelief of Israel in the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul, and that may have been impacting the attitude of those Gentile Christians towards Israel and towards Jewish evangelism. Their response might have been, "Well, look Paul, most of the Jewish people we talk to are rejecting this gospel that you are proclaiming and that we are proclaiming too. Yes, we have Jewish Christians, friends in the congregation, but most of their relations, most of their friends, most of the Jews that we know don't believe this Paul, and their attitude may be, 'Why bother?' The Gentiles, Paul, are accepting this gospel everywhere we turn. We're being more effective, you're getting more bang for your buck and mission dollars by going to the Gentiles. These Jews, boy, they are a hard sell."

Then there is another problem. That is, before the Romans began to persecute the Christians, Israel had begun to persecute the Christians. These Gentile Christians might well be saying to Paul, "Look Paul, theses are the first people who turned against us. They are enemies of the gospel, they are enemies of the church, how can you ask us to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. That doesn't make sense Paul?" So for those reasons and no doubt more, Paul is spending a lot of time in addressing this issue.

Of course, Paul's wisdom, his divinely inspired wisdom, has been born out in age after age because it would not be too long before the Christian church, dominated as it was by a Gentile outlook, would eventually look wholly negatively against the Jews. The would blame them for everything that had gone wrong in the days of the New Testament and even participate in a tax upon the Jewish people. Paul's words were very timely for this congregation.

Perhaps you're asking yourself today, that's fine and good for a Roman Gentile Christian congregation in the city of Rome around the time of the Apostle Paul, but what about me? This just doesn't speak to the situation that I'm in today. Oh, yes it does. Let's see how as we turn to Paul's word, God's words, in Romans 11. We'll begin in verse 22.

Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches be grafter into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." "AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS." Amen. Thus ends this reading with God's holy and inspired word. May He write it's eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, these words contain mind-boggling truths. They humble us, but You mean to do more than humble us by boggling our minds through things that we find it hard to comprehend. You intend us, by Your Holy Spirit, to comprehend truth, which changes our lives. Help that to be the reality today as we study Your word. In Jesus name. Amen.

Those of you who are students of the Bible will know that these verses are the occasion of much debate and discussion and disagreement in the Christian church. More than one phrase in this passage has provoked rigorous analysis. The phrase for instance, all Israel will be saved, what does it mean? There are some that believe that phrase means that one day the nation of Israel itself will be re-instituted and every member thereof will be a believer in God through Jesus Christ. Others believe that that phrase, all Israel will be saved, refers to a future generation when before the end, God will bring a tremendous influx of the Jewish people into His kingdom believing in Jesus Christ. And it will be, as it were, life from the dead, from the church that will be floundering under persecution and will gain new light from this influx of Jewish believers and Jewish participation in the kingdom of God. Others believe that this verse simply states that God will continue to deal with the people of Israel generation after generation and that once we have gotten to the end of time we will look back and we will see this great cumulative work that God has done amongst His ancient people in all generations. And still others look at this passage and say, 'Well really, it doesn't give us any hope at all for Israel in the future. Paul is really just saying that all the church will be saved. Both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians and that this isn't speaking necessarily to some future for ethnic Israel."

Well, having heard that you might be tempted to say, "Look, if all these scholars, all these professors, all these great commentators on Scripture over the generations can't figure this out, well how can you expect me to figure this out? And if you can't expect me to figure this out, how can I get anything of practical use out of this passage?"

I want to say that despite what things we may continue to scratch our heads about, there is a core of teaching in these verses which is crystal clear and which is practical as the day is long. And I'd like to point you to two particular aspects of it today as we look first at verses 23 and 24, and then at verses 25 through 27.

As we said, Paul is summarizing his grand argument in Romans chapter 11: 23 through 27, and he is making it clear, especially here in verses 23 and 24, that no one could have guessed God's plan of salvation for the Gentiles and for the Jewish people unless God Himself had revealed it. This plan is so amazing, it is so mind boggling, that no one could have come up with this on their own. They couldn't have seen it ahead of time, they couldn't have figured it out, had not God revealed it to us in His word. And in teaching us that, Paul has in mind several important lessons.

I. All Jewish people who embrace Christ by faith will be brought into the kingdom.

First, let's look at verses 23 and 24. Paul makes a very simple argument here and it goes like this. If God could have worked for the salvation of the Gentiles, so that those who were not a people became a people, and those who were not part of the olive tree were engrafted into the olive tree, then it will be a lot easier for God to re-graft those of His ancient people who trust in Jesus Christ into their own olive tree. His argument is this, "Look Gentile Christians, if God can do this amazing, this mind boggling thing and bring you into the kingdom, well don't think that it's beyond God to bring His own ancient people back into His own kingdom, their own kingdom." Paul is asserting here that all Jewish people who embrace Christ by faith will be engrafted into the body of Christ. He's holding out a firm hope for Israel here and he is speaking unequivocally about God's ability to save.

But as he does so, he does not downplay the necessity of faith. I want you to see both of those things in this passage. Look at verse 23, "They will be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again." Paul is emphasizing the sovereignty of God. It seems that there is some Gentile Christian saying, "Look, we can't get very many of the Jewish people at all to embrace the gospel, Paul. Perhaps God's done with them, perhaps they are just too hard, perhaps we need to focus our attention somewhere else." The Apostle Paul is saying, "There is nothing that is beyond God's ability." He is emphasizing God's ability to save those who are lost. He's emphasizing God's ability to save those who seem hard to the truth of the gospel.

What a comforting message that is to us today. There can be few in this room who love the Lord Jesus Christ who do not have near relatives that do not love the Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him and trust in Him. There can be few in this room that do not have friends and colleagues for whom we have a deep love and loyalty and commitment, but who do not share our common love and trust for salvation in Jesus Christ, and some of them are very hard to the gospel. We bring it up and they say, "Look, we're friends, let's keep our friendship. Don't mention that." We shake our heads sometimes and we wonder if God can save them. The Apostle Paul is emphatically saying, "God has the ability to save. God is the source of salvation. He is sovereign in salvation and there is no one who is to hard a case for Him."

God is sovereign and what a tremendous encouragement that is to you. Maybe you've been praying for years like Monica prayed for Augustin, and you haven't seen results. You need to remember what Paul says here, God is able to save.

But that's not all that Paul says. Paul doesn't say that God is sovereign in salvation to the expense of the requirement of faith. Look at what he says again in verse 13, "They also, if they do not continue in their unbelief will be grafted in." You see, the Apostle is emphasizing the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ. He's not saying God is able to save, and so maybe He's going to save in some other way than faith in Jesus Christ. He doesn't say, "Well, in this case, faith in Christ doesn't matter," nor does he say, "Since God is able to save, it doesn't matter whether we believe or not."

Now, the Apostle Paul always emphasizes God's sovereignty and our responsibility side by side without compromising either. Let me put that another way. The Apostle Paul always emphasizes God's sovereignty, but not at the expense of our responsibility. Let me put it yet another way. Paul emphasizes the sovereignty of God in salvation. He is the source. He is the one who saves without denying that we must believe, without denying that we must respond to the gospel by faith. Both of those things he sees as simultaneous truths, neither to be demeaned or de-emphasized. So he holds both sovereignty and responsibility together.

So often those of us who believe in the doctrines of grace as we sometimes call them, or in the Reformed faith, or in the sovereignty of God, have friends who say to us, "You know, what you believe is something like this. 'God has chosen some; He's passed over others. Those whom He has chosen, whether they believe or not, will be saved. Those whom He has passed over, whether they believe or not, will be lost so that there are people in Heaven who do not believe and there are people who would, but God won't let them.'" The Apostle Paul is saying to them, "That is the most gross distortion of what I've been teaching in the book of Romans." He's saying, "No, God is sovereign and we are responsible. There is no one that God has chosen who does not believe and there is no one who believes whom God has not chosen. Both of those truths are true. Neither can be compromised, both are essential." And so Paul speaks of God's grace in such a way as not to de-emphasis the necessity of our faith. Faith is the means of salvation.

Again, if you look at verse 24 Paul goes on to argue to these Gentile Christians who are saying, "Boy, Paul, this looks like an uphill battle in witnessing to the ancient people of God because they're hard to the gospel." And the apostle basically says this, "It will be easier for God to re-graft the Jewish people into their own olive tree than it was to bring the Gentiles and to en-graft them into the cultivated olive tree from which they did not spring." He's saying, "If God can bring the Gentiles in, well, it's going to be a piece of cake for Him to bring the Jewish people in."

You see again that Paul's illustration makes it clear that the church is one. God's plan is not to have two peoples, two destinies, two ways to salvation, but one people, one body, one church, one way of salvation, one common destiny. The illustration of the olive tree we've already seen emphasizes that. God hasn't planted two trees; He's planted one. When He saves us, He en-grafts us into the one tree. Our Confession of Faith beautifully emphasizes this. If you've got your hymnal, pull it out and turn to page 863, and look sort of toward the bottom. It's in the Confession's chapter on the church, chapter 25 section 1, and listen to what the Confession says, "The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof, and is the spouse and body and fullness of Him that fill us all and all." In other words, the Confession is saying that the people of God, the Church, consist of all of God's people in all generations, both those who have gone before, those who are a part of it now, those who will be a part of it in the future, and we're all brought into one spiritual body, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul emphasizes that again here. He's emphasizing the spiritual unity of the people of God,

And so here in verses 23 and 24, in this mystifying, mind-boggling section, Paul's already given you three very practical and very understandable truths. First, God is sovereign in salvation and we are responsible to believe. Second, faith is the way of salvation and God's sovereignty is not an argument against the responsibility that we have to believe. Thirdly, when God saves us, He brings us into one family, one body, one temple, one vine, one tree, one church. That's His plan. To bring about spiritual unity. So, there is Paul's first practical point found in verses 23 and 24. Let's move to the harder part now, verses 25 through 27.

II. God will keep His promises to Israel.

Again Paul's teaching here in outline is very clear. He says that the plan of God for His church and the future place of Israel could not have been gleamed from our common sense. We wouldn't have picked this up from general revelation. We'd never have been able to figure this out on our own. It is, he says, a mystery. That is, a truth dependent upon the explanation of God. Therefore, in this passage, Paul will assert that God is not done with the Jewish people, that God will keep His promises, and that Gentiles should be humbled.

Look with me at verse 25. In verse 25 alone the Apostle Paul does four things. Look at it very closely. First of all, he tells his Gentile brethren that he does not want then to be uninformed about the things that he's going to talk about. It's as if the Apostle Paul clears his throat and says, "Uh hum, I don't want you not to know about this." I'm so thankful he did that, because Gentile Christians today might be very tempted to say, "You know, this is very confusing and I don't really need to know about this." Here is Paul at the very outset saying, "Oh yes you do. You do need to know about this, I don't want you not to be uninformed about what I'm going to speak about." That's the first thing that he does.

Then secondly, he tells them why he doesn't want them to be uninformed about it. That is because this truth, he says, impacts your humility. What's the phrase he uses? So that you will not be wise in your own estimation. You see, some of these Gentile Christians were wise in their own estimation with regard to what God was doing with the Jews. The apostle says, don't allow your present view and the response of present Israel to you right now to alter your view of the importance of Jewish evangelism. To alter your understanding of the ingathering of both Jew and Gentile into my one body. Don't be arrogant. This truth humbles you to see that God has a plan for both Gentile and Jew. That's the second thing that he says.

Thirdly he says, that God's dealing with the Gentiles and the Jews in His plan of salvation is a mystery. Now, when Paul uses the word mystery, don't think Agatha Christie novel. Mystery doesn't mean a really exciting 'Who done It?' that you figure out at the end and you have to have all sorts of secret clues. Paul is also not talking about a mystery in the way that mystery religions talk about mysteries. Mystery religions are religions that say, "All of you unwashed, uninitiated don't understand the secrets of us super spiritual types, but if you go through all thirty degrees, you'll eventually get to the point where you're let in on the real secrets of the club." That's not what Paul means by a mystery either.

For Paul, a mystery is an open secret, if I can use that oxymoron. It is something that once was concealed, but which is now revealed. It is something that we could not have understood in ourselves unless God revealed it to us in His word, but once it is revealed to us in His word, it is to be declared openly to everybody. It is not something for just super Christians to understand, it's something for everybody to understand, and it's something that every Christian minister is to make proclamation of in His preaching.

So, Paul says, the plan of God with regard to the Gentiles and Jews is a mystery. You couldn't have understood this unless God had explained it to you.

Finally he says, that what God has done with Israel in their rejection of the Messiah has reference to His work of salvation amongst the Gentiles, but does not mean that God is finished with Israel. He's emphasized this twice before in the passage. Look at verse 12 and verse 15 and look at the end of verse 25 and the beginning of verse 26 and you will find that each of those phrases are parallel. In verse12 God says, "If their transgression, if the Jews transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be?" The embrace of the gospel by the Jewish people will be a blessing for the world, He says. Verse 15, "If their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" The embrace of the gospel by the Jewish people will be a blessing for the Gentile church. Verse 25b, "A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and thus all Israel will be saved." The hardening of Israel has become a blessing for the Gentiles and led to the fullness of the Gentiles, but not to God's being finished with Israel.

You see, over and over Paul is stating what he says is the order of God's strategy: The Jews reject the Messiah, the Gentiles embrace Him, so that the Jews embrace Him in order that unparallel benefit comes to the Gentiles within the Church and the Jews and the Gentiles dwell there together in faith in Christ. So, Paul's point is again that the wide spread embrace of the gospel by the Gentiles doesn't mean that God no longer has a plan for His ancient people. The quote from the Old Testament found there in verses 26 and 27 is designed to buttress our hope in Israel's salvation. It refers to God's promise; "The deliverer will come from Zion." The deliverer there is Jesus Christ; He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. He has an agenda to redeem His ancient people. This is My covenant with them. When I take away their sins through the covenant of grace they will experience the forgiveness of sins. Now, this is Paul's great message. That God is not just finished with the ancient people with His people Israel.

Now, you may ask me, "Well, how's that going to work out?" Friends, I have some suspicions and I'm not going to share them with you today. We've already indicated there are many different views of how that's going to happen, but the fundamental point is very clear. God's goodness is mind boggling. He keeps His promises beyond our wildest dreams. So, we who have been brought into the kingdom as Gentiles by grace must not suspect that He does not have the power to save His ancient people. And indeed we ought to have a love for the Jewish people and belief that He is doing something yet among His ancient people. Did you know that in the twentieth century more Jews became Christians than in the previous nineteen centuries?

Now, I have no idea of the eschatological significance of that, but I do know that the Apostle Paul would want me to praise the Lord, and that he would want me then to grow in my love for the ancient people and to grow in my determination to bear witness to them in Jesus Christ. You see, the Apostle Paul is cultivating here an attitude amongst Gentile Christians so that they will practically acknowledge God's bringing down a division between His ancient people in Jesus Christ. Because my friends, if we can be united through Jesus Christ as Jew and Gentile, there is no other barrier in the world that can not be transcended in the Church. And that is God's goal for His people in the gospel, that in our embrace of the gospel and in our communion of Jesus Christ, we would be one and we would reflect that oneness to the world. That is a prayer for Christians in the twenty- first century, and one of the most practical prayers we could ever lift up. Let's do so in faith, let's go to the Lord now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we do pray as our brother has already prayed that You would bring in Your ancient people and that You would glorify Yourself in them and in us and that our spiritual unity in Jesus Christ would be a bright beckon of witness to a world in need of the gospel. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 11:28 — 32 - A Glimpse into the Decree

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Today we come to the end of the argumentation of the first part of this great book. For eleven chapters Paul has been pressing an argument to us, making points about sin and judgment and atonement and justification and union with Christ and sanctification and the law and the work of the Holy Spirit and predestination and the place of Israel and more.

Today we come to the culminating point of those first eleven chapters of teaching, vital teaching of theology. These verses that we are going to look at today, verses 28 through 31 summarize Romans 9 through 11. You'll remember that in Romans 9 through 11 Paul has been concerned to speak with us about the place of Israel in God's plan. In three phrases here in verses 28 through 32, Paul is going to summarize the key points of his teaching about the place of Israel in God's plan. But he is going to do more. He's going to give us, actually he's going to provide for us, a God-given glimpse into the divine decree.

When we say that word, the divine decree, or that phrase, or those words, we mean the secret workings of God's providence in His plan for salvation. God does not often pull back the veil in the word of God and say, "Now I'm going to show you what's going on behind the scenes." Occasionally, however, He does that, as He does that at the beginning of Job in Job 1 and 2. Although, as far as we know, He never tells Job, He tells us and we're thankful for that, but Job went through those experiences not having the veil lifted for him. He was called upon to trust the Lord with all his heart and lean not on his own understanding. Occasionally in His word, God pulls the veil back and says, "Now this is what I'm doing and this is why I have done what I am doing." Paul is going to show us one of those passages right here in verses 28 through 32.

Now again, in chapters 9 through 11 of Romans, Paul has been explaining to us the continuing place of Israel in God's plan. He's speaking to a predominantly Gentile church. He's speaking to a predominantly Gentile church that knows that all around the Mediterranean world that most people in their time that are coming to the Lord Jesus Christ are Gentiles. They are very aware of the fact that though all of the apostolic churches were planted out of synagogues, that already the Gentiles are coming more quickly to the Messiah than are the ancient people of Israel. They are wondering, "What are you doing Lord? What's going on? How is Israel going to factor into Your plan? Do they factor into Your plan? Do they factor into Your plan anymore?" In these verses, Paul will summarize and highlight for us that place of Israel through a series of parallels and contrast and paradoxes. So let's hear God's word in Romans chapter 11.

" From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience that he might show mercy to all." Amen.

Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word, may He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Lord, open our eyes to see Your truth, to hear, to adore You, to worship You, to praise You, to give You the glory. But also to live in worship of You as well, trustingly, obediently leaning not on our own understanding. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

In summing up his teaching on the place of Israel, the continuing place of Israel in the plan of God, Paul emphasizes three things in this passage. You'll see the first thing in verses 28 and 29. The second thing in verses 30 and 31. The third thing in verse 32. He emphasizes three things.

First, in verse 28 and 29, he shows us two ways that we need to think about Israel now. Paul says, when you're thinking about Israel now you have to keep two things in mind, Christian. Secondly, verses 30 and 31, he shows us how God's means of salvation relate to His end in salvation. He shows us how God's method relates to His goal. Then finally he shows us in verse 32 how God's mercy operates even in the strictest of His judgments. In doing each of those three things, in showing us each of those aspects of how God is dealing with Israel in His time and in ours. He's giving us a glimpse into the divine plan of salvation. So, let's give some attention to Paul's great words here.

I. How the Gentile church should view Israel.

First we'll begin in verse 28 and 29. Now he's going to show you how to view Israel. How should the church, how should the Gentile Christian view Israel now? He tells us in verse 28 and 29 that Gentile Christians must view the Jewish people from two perspectives simultaneously. We have to consider how they relate to the gospel, but we also have to consider God's divine election. So Paul says, to understand Israel today, to understand the role of Israel today, you have to take into consideration their gospel rejection and also divine election. You have to consider their rejection of the gospel, but you must also consider God's divine election. So, our assessment of Israel's gospel opposition must entail both human sin and divine sovereignty. They sin by rejecting Christ and the gospel, but we must also consider God's purposes in this, Paul says.

Let's look at these two things for a few moments. In verses 28 and 29, Paul is telling you how to view Israel now and you see there in verse 28 that he summarizes in two parallel but contrasting statements. From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake. From the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the Father. There you have it, gospel rejection first, divine election second. What's Paul saying? They are enemies, he says. Paul is saying that the Jewish people in his own time have by and large become God's enemies. He's saying God is an enemy with them because they have rejected the gospel. Their rejection of the gospel has brought with them, or to them, the enemies of God.

Then he adds this curious phrase. What are the three words that follow? They are enemies for your sake. What a strange thing to say. They are enemies of God for your sake. That's not how we're accustomed to talking about enemies. What does that mean? It's very clear, in light of what Paul's been saying in Romans chapter 11, that he's saying that the general Jewish rejection of Jesus in his gospel has resulted in a stunningly glorious reception of the grace of God by the Gentiles. He's saying that it is part of God's plan that Israel's rejection of her own Messiah would result in the nation's embracing that Messiah. So they are enemies, he says, for your sake. So, even as we consider their enmity, Paul is beckoning us to have a heart of thanksgiving to God for the amazing way in which he brought us Gentiles into His kingdom in the first place.

Then he goes on to say in the second half of verse 28, the second thing: they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. They are enemies for your sake, that's the gospel rejection, but they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. There is the divine election. In other words, Paul is saying that the Jewish people continue to enjoy a unique position in God's redeeming purposes not because of something in them, but because of the promise He made to their fathers, the patriarchs, the covenant of grace. Paul is saying, "Now here, Gentile Christian, here is how you need to think about Israel. On the one hand, she has rejected the gospel and those who reject the gospel will be visited with the judgment of God, the condemnation of God, the enmity of God. At the same time, God is not finished with His ancient people yet. His gifts and His calling are irrevocable," he will say in verse 29, referring back to those things mentioned in Romans chapter 9 verse 4 at the beginning of this section, the covenant, the promises. God is not done with His ancient people.

Paul is teaching many practical lessons in this passage. For one thing, Paul is emphasizing for the umpteenth time that whether you are Jew or Gentile, if you reject Christ you are at enmity with God. That's not a very politically correct thing to say today. Seems out of date, seems intolerant. Maybe you've heard people over the last three or four months say that "people that believe things like that bomb world trade centers." "If you really believe your god is the only god and he is the only way, well, you're intolerant you are a purveyor of hatred in this world."

What Paul is saying is that if you are not a friend of Christ, you are His enemy. If you have not embraced the one true God through Jesus Christ our Lord, He is at enmity with you. That is what Paul is saying. Absolutely crystal clear.

And some might say, "Paul and Jesus would never say something like that." Try this on for size. Matthew chapter 12 verse 30, "He who is not with Me is against Me." Now, that's not some contorted, small-minded, narrow-minded, mean spirited, fundamentalist extremist. That's Jesus Christ our Lord. "He who is not with Me is against Me."

I want to say two things about the concept that that belief is intolerant and the cause of hatred. The first thing is this: if what Jesus and Paul say is true about reality, that there is one God and that He is loved and worshiped and experienced only through faith in Jesus Christ, then to say otherwise, would in fact be the ultimate act of hate. If He is the only way of salvation and I tell you 'anyway will do' then that is unloving. Reality is like Jesus and Paul say that reality is, and it is, because Jesus created it.

The second thing is this: toleration, which by the way, Christians invented, toleration is not based on an absence of truth and relativism as it is taught today. In the absence of truth tolerance will not last, because something always fills the truth void. Usually it's power and power is the most intolerant thing in this world and it was Christians who spoke truth to power who invented tolerance, Tolerance is not built on saying that everybody can have their own beliefs as long as what they believe doesn't matter. That's intolerance. Tolerance is built upon the command of God and the universal moral principles which He has woven into this reality, among which are teachings such as the image of God in man, which say that no matter how unbelieving a human being is, he still an image-bearer of God, therefore I must treat him in accordance with that dignity, no matter how he believes, no matter how he feels about me. So therefore tolerance is rooted in truth, not in the absence of it. You can be assured that when the purveyors of modern tolerance theory finally win, then tolerance will not last long. We are already seeing it crumbling all around us, but I digress.

Let us go back to what Paul is saying. Why does Paul tell us that we need to have this two-fold view of the Jewish people? Well, for many reasons. First of all, because he doesn't want Gentile Christians to boast and view themselves as better than the Jewish people. He doesn't want Gentile Christians saying, "You know, when it all boils down to it, the fact is they didn't believe and we did" and puff the chest out. Faith is a gift, my friend. Faith is the most unnatural think that there is in a fallen world. Faith isn't something that is innate to the human heart. Faith is an exotic transplant into the human soul. And if Gentile Christians puff themselves up and say, "Ultimately the difference between us and between the Jewish people is that they failed to believe and we believed," they have failed to realize that God gives faith. Faith is a grace; it's the greatest of graces.

Secondly, Paul tells us this because he does not want the Gentiles to cease to evangelize the Jewish people. You can imagine the meeting of the mission committee there in Rome: "Paul, our demographic studies are showing to us that for every Jewish person coming to Christ in Rome and the surrounding area, there are twenty Gentiles coming to Christ. Now, the Spirit is clearly moving amongst the Gentiles. We are wasting mission dollars going to the Jewish people. They are not receptive." How did Paul begin this book? "To the Jew first and also to the Greek." Paul is saying, "Oh no, Christian, you've always got to have a heart to go with the gospel to the Jewish people."

Now look my friends, I know that that is going to win no friends for us amongst the Jewish people today. They see Jewish evangelism by Christians as the supreme example of intolerance and aggression and hate. Again, let me ask you a question. If this is the truth, and Jesus and Paul say that it is, would it not be more hateful not to take this truth to the Jewish people? When your Jewish friend says to you, "This is offensive to me," should you not respond, "I understand that my friend, but I do this for two reasons. I do it because in Romans chapter 11 verse 28 God told me I had to and I do it because I love you. It's the supreme expression of my love to share with you the gospel. I understand that it is offensive, but I do it because the book tells me to, I do it because God tells me to, and I do it because I love you and I want you to share in the glories promised to your own Fathers." Paul tells these Gentile Christians this because he doesn't want them to fail in their hope for what God will do amongst His people. He does not want them to fail to hope for God's saving work amongst the Jewish people. So there is Paul's teaching in verses 28 and 29. Two ways we have to think about the Jewish people simultaneously.

II. God's method and goal.

Then in verses 30 and 31 he shows us how God's end relates to His means. How the method of God in salvation relates to the goal of God in salvation. He's pulling back the curtain and He's saying, let me show you something marvelously wise and intricate that God is doing in salvation. What is the goal of God in His plan of salvation? Well, we could turn to many places to see it, but turn with me to the book of Ephesians for a moment, chapter 2, verse 11. "Therefore remember, that formally you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by the so-call Circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands - remember that 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 this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were formally 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, which is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death and enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, 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 Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom 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."

The whole point is that the two are being brought into one, one family, one temple, one house, one tree, one olive tree. God is bringing believing Jews, believing Gentiles, and making them into this one family, this one body, this one people, people for themselves.

In Romans 11, verses 30 and 31, God says, interestingly enough, the way that He is working to those to bring those two groups into one beautifully witnesses to the goal of bringing the two groups into one. In Romans 11 verse 30 He says, look Gentiles, there was a time when you were all disobedient. You did not know Christ, you did not know the gospel, you did not embrace it. For thousands of years My people Israel believed in Me while you were in your immorality and disobedience. But now you Gentile Christians, in God's mercy, He has used the disobedience of Israel to show you mercy. Israel had been since the time of Adam waiting for the coming of her Messiah. When the Messiah came, for whom she had been hoping, she rejected Him. Can you imagine a greater tragedy? The Apostle Paul says, in precisely that tragedy God was working to show mercy to the Gentile to the ends of the earth.

But He's not finished, because in verse 31, He says the flip side in the same way. Though Israel now is unbelieving, though Israel now is disobedient, through the mercy that God is showing through you Gentiles He is going to show mercy to His ancient people so that their disobedience that led to the mercy you received will lead to their mercy. So that as His goal is to bring the two groups into one, so His means show the mutuality of blessing that exist between the two groups. What He does amongst the Jews He does for the sake of the Gentiles. What He does amongst the Gentiles, He does for the sake of the Jews.

So Paul shows you this amazingly intricate, surprising plan of God. Why? Because He wants you to admire the wisdom and the intricacy and the surprising character of God's plan of redemption. We never could have made that up. You never would have guessed it. You would have never written that out in the story of redemption, that you were making up in your own mind. Only God could have created such a plan. God's goal of oneness amongst His people, Jew and Gentile, is reflected in the reciprocity of the saving plan. What happens to Israel impacts the Gentile, and what happens to the Gentile impacts Israel.

III. God has mercy even in judgment.

Then finally in verse 32, Paul shows you that God has a mercy agenda even in His severe judgments. God's merciful purposes are at work even in the hardening of the Gentiles and Jews. He's reminding us here that any assessment of gospel opposition must keep in mind God's merciful purposes in His decree. In verse 32, he says that in the wise and redeeming plan of God He had a purpose, and His purpose was in both the disobedience of the Jews and the Gentiles and that purpose was? To show mercy to both the Jews and the Gentiles. Listen to the words, "God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all." Now I need to pause here and say very quickly that this passage gives absolutely no comfort to universalists, those who teach that all in fact are in saving favor and relation to the one true God. That idea is totally out of accord with what Paul is saying in the context of the passage, and of course, it is also out of accord with what Paul says elsewhere. The doctrine of universalism, whether it be explicit or implicit, leads to a spiritual lethargy which is soul killing. To say that all are already saved is to say, 'peace, peace where there is no peace' and that is hateful, it is not loving. Even though you and I will know universalists who are among the most loving kind people we have ever met, they are in serious disagreement with what the Apostle Paul has to say. At any rate, Paul's point is this: that as there was a time when Gentiles and Jews had been in disobedience, even in those times God was at work for mercy in order to show His mercy both to Jew and Gentile. Paul is again showing us this that we might admire the overwhelming mercy that pervades God's plan. Even in this severe judgment against Israel because of her unbelief God has a purpose for mercy.

You know, when you think about it, all men, all mankind is like Golem. We're ugly, we're self serving and yet God loves a multitude that no man can number so much that He gives His own Son and He draws us out of our disobedience using even the times of disobedience for the purposes of His mercy into a saving relationship with Him. The Apostle Paul wants us to pause and admire how the operation of God's mercy is always at work in the most surprising places. We look around and we see friends who are heartened in unbelief, we see evil acts in this world and we are tempted to say, "Why this, why that?" Paul's answer is, "Don't ever think that God's mercy is not in operation. It's always in operation. Let's pray and then let's sing it to God's praise. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we're so often tempted to ask, "Why. Why this, why that?" Paul teaches us here that the answer is, "Because He was pleased to do so and because it serves the greater interest of His mercy." Now the hard thing is believing that, so help us to do it. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 11:33-36 - Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. We've been studying through this gospel of the apostle Paul to the Romans for a number of months now. We have worked our way through almost the whole of the first eleven chapters, the section of the book that is normally called the theological portion of the book. Chapters 12 through 16 now turn their attention to practical matters of the Christian life in which Paul gives some specific instructions on how Christians ought to live in light of the truth that he has revealed. But Paul would not have accepted the idea that the theology of the first eleven chapters was impractical. In fact, he would have argued that in order to be practical one must embrace the truth of the first eleven chapters, and in order to actually embrace the truth of the first eleven chapters, one would have to put that truth into practice. So there is an inseparable nexus between truth and practice, biblical teaching and biblical Christian living in the mind of the Apostle Paul. For Paul, there is no practicality divorced from an embrace from the truth and so, in most of his letters, he begins by teaching truth and in setting out how that might impact the specifics of daily Christian life. He does that here in Romans. Generally the book of Romans is divided in chapters 1 through 11 and 12 through 16 in the theological and practical portions.

I do want to suggest to you today that it may well be that the so-called practical portion of Romans begins in verse 33 of chapter 11. It is with praise that the Christian begins his response to the truth of God. And though Paul speaks in Romans 12 of things of which we will immediately see as practical for Christian living, Romans 11 verses 33 through 36 is no less practical in the sense that it is the first and proper response of the believer to the glorious truth that has been revealed.

Do you remember, all the way back in Romans chapter 1 Paul had begun to reveal to us our sin, our need. He had revealed to us in Romans chapter 1 verses 18 to the end of the chapter, the wrath of God that we deserved. In Romans chapter 2, he had made it clear that Jew and Gentile both stood under the condemnation of God. In Romans chapter 3 he had begun to teach us this glorious truth, that though there is no hope for us because of our sin, yet there is hope for us through the grace and mercy of God, and so begins to show us this teaching, this doctrine of justification by God's grace received through faith alone. He confirms it from the Bible, from the Old Testament in Romans chapter 4. In Romans chapter 5 he begins to work out some of its practical applications and ramifications for us. In Romans chapter 6 he teaches us about what it means to be united to Jesus Christ, but he also makes it clear that we continue to have a struggle against sin. He expands on that in Romans chapter 7 and he talks about the ongoing struggle of sin, even of the believer with sin, even as he tells us about the proper role of the law in the Christian life. In Romans chapter 8 he tells us about the power of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life. In the second part of that chapter he teaches us about God's gospel providence over believers. How He causes all things to work together for good for those whom the Lord has called according to His purpose and he reveals to us the teaching of election and he begins to expand on the teaching of predestination. Then in Romans 9 through 11, he begins to tell about God's plan of salvation and how it encompasses both Jew and Gentile. In response to all these things here in Romans 11 verses 33 through 36 he lifts up a doxology. He says, in light of what we've learned, we praise God. Let us hear God's word together in Romans chapter 11 beginning in verse 33.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unreachable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Our Heavenly Father, open our eyes to behold wonderful things from Your word and give us a heart and a voice to sing Your praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

Occasionally preachers come across passages in the Scripture that we feel supremely incapable of doing justice to. You tremble a little bit when you come to passages like that. Sometimes they are beloved passages which the people of God have treasured up in their hearts for years. They are familiar and it's hard to do justice to a passage where you have years and years of treasured memory and a specialness associated in your minds. This is one of those passages. This great doxology is compact. The prose is beautiful; the content is shot through with significance. You couldn't say this again and say all the things Paul says without writing a long paragraph and you tremble a little bit when you get ready to teach a passage like this. You wonder how in the world you can do justice. Well I can't do justice to this passage, but the same apostle who wrote these words said that all Scripture is given by inspiration and it is profitable for your instruction in training and righteousness. With the confidence that that is true about this word of Scripture, we tremblingly approach this great doxology of the Apostle Paul, realizing that as Paul lifted up this doxology to God, perhaps spontaneously as he reflected on the glorious truth which he had been writing down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul meant not only to praise God, but to give us an example of how to praise God, to explain to us why we ought to praise God and to instruct us in why we ought to praise God.

I'd like you to see two or three things that Paul reveals to us, two or three things Paul instructs us in, in this great passage. Paul, in the midst of this great passage teaches us at least three things. First, in verse 33, he reminds us that we ought to praise God for what we do know and for what we don't know. In verse 34, secondly, he teaches us that God's exalted knowledge and His infinite wisdom enable us to trust Him and praise Him at all times. We not only praise God because of what we know and because of what we don't know, but we praise God for His exhaustive wisdom and knowledge. Thirdly, in verses 35 and 36, we see that God's sole ownership of this world demands that His glory be acknowledged. So as Paul lifts up this doxology, he teaches us these things.

I. The revelation of God's plan of redemption.

Let's look then to verse 33 where we see this exclamation of praise. Paul begins to sing of the depth of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge. He speaks of the wisdom and the knowledge of God as they are displayed in God's judgments and God's ways. We see in this verse the revelation of God's plan of redemption that involves both Jew and Gentile. Paul, when he thinks about this story which he has been revealing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 9 through 11 especially, when he thinks of it, it moves him to praise God. His mind is boggled at the wisdom of God. Of course, as Paul's mind is boggled at the wisdom of God, he gives us an example of how we ought to respond to that same story. We ought to join him in praise. He says, "Oh the depth of the riches both and of the knowledge of God, how un-searchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways." Let's look at some of the words in this passage and appreciate how Paul is using them when he speaks of the depth of God's riches. He's reminding us that God's riches are incalculable, they are immeasurable. You can't come up with a number that matches the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge. It's beyond all telling.

My father served in the South Pacific with the Marines in the Second World War and after his division was being moved from Palau and the battlefront there on towards Japan in preparation for the invasion for the mainland of Japan, they stopped the fleet of ships over the great Marianas Trench. Now, I love globes. I don't know whether you're a globe meister like I am, but I love globes. I especially like globes that have topographical indications on them so you can see how high things are and how deep things are. I especially like globes that don't just have thirty thousand feet above sea level, but actually have the raised mountains and such so you can see the relative height of the land. Well, if you look on a globe on the western end of the Pacific Ocean, you will see a very deep blue patch known as the Great Marianas Trench. It is the deepest body of water anywhere in the world. It is so deep that you could put Mount Everest into the Great Marianas Trench and the top of Mount Everest would be one thousand feet below the sea level. It is a tremendous place. And so they stopped this fleet of ships and they said, "Would you like to jump off the deck of the ship and swim in the Great Marianas Trench so you can go back and tell your family that you have swum in the deepest part of the ocean any where in the world?" My father said that he foolishly decided to join the men that were doing this. So he dove off the deck of the ship. I'm not sure how high that would have been above sea level, a lot higher than any high dive I've been off of. He said that when he hit that water he went down, and down, and down, and he wondered if he was ever coming back up again. He said it was a strange thing to finally come back up to the surface that he would have had to have gone down thirty thousand feet in order to touch bottom. It was beyond him. He said, "I couldn't even comprehend how deep this water was." Well, this is what Paul is saying; "You can't even begin to comprehend the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge." So when he speaks of the depth, he is speaking of the immeasurable nature of God's wisdom and knowledge. When he speaks, of course, of God's knowledge, he's referring to God's exhausted understanding of all things. When he speaks of God's wisdom, he's referring to God's intelligently directing all things. God is causing all things to work in accordance with His knowledge towards a specific end, so he speaks of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

When he speaks in the second part of verse 33 of the judgments of God, he's using a judicial term. Judgments were normally judicial deliverances. A judge makes a judgment of a case and the apostle Paul is saying, when I look at the judgments that God has handed down, my mind is boggled at the wisdom, at the justice, and perhaps even sometimes at the mercy of God's judgments. Then when he speaks of the ways of God, he is speaking of the way in which God deals with men in His providence. So Paul in this verse is praising God because of the incalculable wisdom and knowledge that He displays in His judgments and in His dealings with men. In light of this plan of salvation, which has been revealed and which has been explained to a certain extent, the Apostle Paul marvels and praises God.

My friends, there are many practical things to be learned from that. For one, notice that in this verse Paul praises God both for what He knows and for what He doesn't know. What starts Paul off on this doxology? The thought of God's plan of redemption. God has revealed that plan of redemption. Paul knows a lot about that plan of redemption. Paul wants you to know a lot about that plan of redemption, and it moves him to praise, but it doesn't mean that Paul understands everything. I mean, what is the point of the verse? His judgment and His ways are unseachable and unfathomable. So Paul is praising God both for what he knows, because God revealed it to him, and for what he doesn't know.

Don't get the idea that at the end of Romans 11 verse 32, Paul is saying; "Now I have sorted out every possible question that you could ever have about life. There are no more questions left, I have answered them all." Don't get the idea that that is what Paul is saying. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul has explained many things. He's explained many things to us beyond our previous understanding. He's explained some things to us that we are still scratching our heads about. Paul has had many questions in His mind solved by God's answers in biblical teaching and revelation, but Paul hasn't answered every question that has ever existed, oh no. Paul is keenly aware, even as much as he has revealed to us by God's own word that there are many things which are unsearchable and unfathomable for us, but God is praised here by Paul for both the things that He has revealed and the things that He has not revealed. He's praised for both the things that we know and for the things that we don't know, and that is a tremendously important lesson for Christians.

You know, those who have embraced the doctrines of grace, call it whatever you want, the Reformed faith, or Calvinism, or whatever, have often moved from a period of time in which they had numerous question, especially about how God's sovereignty related to man's responsibility. And as they have embraced the Reformed faith, because they've studied the Scriptures and they believed the Scriptures to teach it, many of their previous questions have been answered. But don't get the idea that the Reformed faith purports to have explained everything, or to have answered every question. That's not the source of our confidence in the Reformed faith. The source of our confidence in the Reformed faith is not that we now have all the answers, although we now have some answers that we didn't have before now. The great confidence of the reformed faith is not that you have the answer, or that Calvin had the answer, or that Paul has all the answers, but that God has all the answers. He has revealed to us that which we need to know and He knows that which He has not revealed to us and both those things ought to cause us to praise Him. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying to us here. God's redeeming plan, which He has revealed to us, ought to move us to praise, but even those things that He hasn't revealed to us ought to move us to praise Him. We praise God because of what we do know and because of what we don't know. That's one great practical lesson we learn from this verse.

You know, another great and practical lesson we learn is this. Paul starts off in this verse praising God because of His plan of redemption. What's he doing there? He's reminding us of the greatness of our God, the bigness of our God and he's reminding us of the bigness of our God's plan. The bigness of our God and the bigness of His plan puts our little problems in perspective. You know, so often we go the Scripture looking for something that will practically speak to us today and sometimes what we need is something that will practically speak to us today about what ever our small problem is. Sometimes we need to go to the Scripture and get lost in the bigness of the plan of which we are a part by God's grace, and realize that we have been caught up in this stream of God's grace, in this grand design, which is going to be accomplished and will not fail. Sometimes we just need to be lost in wonder, love, and praise. We need to go to the Scripture, maybe hoping for a solution or an idea, or some guidance and get there and just be awash with a sense of awe at the mystery of God's grace and greatness. Paul's words here remind us of that. We may have gone to Romans looking for a specific answer to a specific question that remains unanswered for us. And yet still be praising God because we've seen how big He is and we've seen how great His is and we've seen how great His grace is to us. And we learn that from Paul's praise to God here. We praise God for what we do know and for what we don't know. Aren't you glad that you don't know everything? Haven't there been things in your life, which having gone through them you've looked back and you've said, "Lord thank you for not revealing to me that You had called me to go through that. I couldn't have borne the knowledge." He bares that knowledge for us in His love and bids us praise Him both for what we know and for what we don't know.

II. The Bible's teaching about His wisdom and knowledge evoke our praise and trust in Him.

Then look at verse 34. Here Paul begins a set of scriptural quotations. Actually he has a set of quotations in verses 34 and 35 . He asks three questions out of two biblical quotations. The first quotation comes from Isaiah, the second comes from Job. He's quoting Scripture in order to confirm to you that he's not just dreaming this stuff up. How often have you seen Paul do this? Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells you a truth, but he knows that you may be a little bit suspicious, so he quotes Scripture to you because the book settles all. Paul is quoting in verses 34 and 35 from Scripture, from Isaiah and from Job, in order to confirm in your mind what he says is true, because it's one thing to say these things, but it's another thing to believe them.

In verse 34 he makes a quote in order to confirm what he says in verse 33. In verse 35 he makes a quote in order to confirm what he is going to say in verse 36. So, let's look at verse 34 alone for a moment even though the two quotes are back to back. These two questions in verse 34 and one scriptural quotation in verse 34 concern the wisdom and knowledge of God. Paul is confirming what he has just told us in verse 33 about the wisdom and knowledge of God. He's reminding us that the Bible teaching about God's wisdom and knowledge enables us to trust in Him, but more than that it enables us to praise Him at all times. He makes a beeline for Isaiah 40 verse 13. Did you notice, by the way, in the Scripture reading today that Mark starts with Isaiah? He gives you that glorious header, that this is the gospel of the Son of God and then he goes right to Isaiah. That beautiful link between Isaiah and the New Testament is where Paul's going. How many times has he done this? Here is Paul going back to Isaiah 40 verse 13, and he quotes a pretty accurate rendering of the Greek translation of this verse, "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or as His counselor has informed Him."

Paul's point is two-fold. His first point is that we don't know all the things that God knows. God's mind is filled with all knowledge. His knowledge is exhaustive and so there is not one of us who knows the mind of the Lord. His second point is this. Since none of us knows the mind of the Lord, who among us is in the position to give Him advice? It's like Paul is saying, "Over here in this line everybody who knows what's in the mind of the Lord." Line is empty. "Over here, everybody who's ready to give God some advice." Now the interesting thing is that that line is often fairly long and Paul wants nobody to be in that line, because there is nobody in this line. There is nobody that knows the things that the Lord knows. There is nobody that knows the mind of the Lord. Therefore there is nobody in the position to give Him advice, but we so often want to help. "Lord, we would have done it better if we had been in charge," but we don't know what the Lord knows.

The Greek pagans, philosophers that they were, even they understood this. They would say, "Whom the gods would destroy, they answer their prayers." What does that mean? It means, that we don't know what's best for us. Sometimes the things that we want would destroy us, but God knows everything and in His wisdom He causes all things to work toward His good end in light of His exhaustive knowledge of everything. So Paul is practically saying, "Look, if God is possessed of all knowledge and wisdom and we are not, shouldn't we close our mouths in complaint against Him? If we are not in the position to advise Him because we don't know His mind and we can't counsel Him, shouldn't we acknowledge our finitude and His unbounded wisdom and understanding?" You know, Paul asks us to do more than that here. Paul isn't just asking us to survive the outrageous slings of fortune. Paul is not just asking us to just sort of grit our teeth and endure God's sovereignty. He is asking us to praise God for His exhaustive knowledge and His wisdom and that entails an element of trust.

You see the Scriptures' teaching about God's wisdom and our lack of it ought to check our size of complaint and it ought to evoke our praise because one indispensable basis of being able to trust God is the realization that He knows everything. If He doesn't, my friends, we're undone.

You know, one of the sad things that's going on today is that there are people who call themselves evangelical Bible-believing Christians, who are working hard to impose the teaching on the Church today that God does not know everything. Now, they literally put it that way. "God does not know everything," for instance. They say, "He does not know the future." Why? Well, "We create the future with the decisions that we make and therefore God can't know the future because we're creating the future, it doesn't exist yet, we create the future by the decisions we make." They say, "Isn't this comforting, because just as we have uncertainties in life, God has to face uncertainties too."

My friends, that is the least comforting thing that I have ever heard. They go on to say that "Because that is true, in prayer we can actually change God's mind and we can actually create the future through our prayer to God." That, my friends, is an even more unsettling thing for me to think about. I know my black heart. I don't want God to let my black heart determine the course of the future. You all are in trouble if I am determining the course of the future. You want God to be determining that, not me. So it is precisely the reality that God knows everything that enables us not only to trust Him, but to praise Him.

My friends, there are some times in life where that is very hard to do. I had a father sitting in my office not long ago and he looked at me and he said, "Ligon, I never thought I'd be planning my son's funeral." You know, if you don't believe in the exhaustive wisdom and knowledge of God, I don't know how you get through things like that. There are many, many, many people with different kinds of challenges just like that here today, but because your God is wise and exhaustively so, and because He knows exhaustively, we can not only trust Him but we can praise Him. That's what Paul is doing right here. We hasten on.

III. Our glorious God is the source, supplier, and owner of all things, and therefore worthy of praise.

In verses 35 and 36, Paul teaches us one more thing. Here in verse 35 we get another question and we get it in the context of a scriptural quotation from the book of Job, Job 41:11. It concerns God's ownership of everything. Then it's followed in verse 36 by a doxology. It's followed by a word of praise because of God's sole ownership of everything. His sole sovereignty, His universal ownership and because of the wisdom of His plan, and providence. What's Paul teaching us here in verses 35 and 36? He's teaching us that our glorious God is the source and the supplier and the owner of all things and therefore He's worthy of praise.

Look at what he says in verse 35. He quotes Job 41:11 which says, "Who has given to Me that I should repay Him? Whatever is under the whole Heaven is Mine." It reminds us of David's word in I Chronicles 29:14 when he says, "All things come from You. O Lord, and from Your hand we have given to You." In other words, David is saying there is nothing that we can give back to You, Lord, that You haven't given to us first. Therefore, Paul's point: none of us can put God under obligation. None of us can ever say, "Lord you have not given me what belongs to me," because nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to Him. He is the sole proprietor of the universe. Listen to what Paul says, "From Him," He is the source of everything. "Through Him," He is the agent, the instrument, the supplier, and "to Him," everything belongs, everything goes, everything finds its goal in Him. From Him and through Him, and to Him are some things, most things, the vast majority of things? No! All things, so no man can say, "Lord You haven't given me what is mine," because it's all His. No man can give to Him and say, "Lord I'm giving You this and You've never had it before," because it was all His in the first place. No one can say, "Lord you haven't given me what I deserved," because He's the sole owner and everything that He gives is literally a gift. There is no obligation from Him. Because of that the Apostle Paul says, we need to praise God.

Our Shorter Catechism asks the question, "What is the chief end of man?" We answer rightly and biblically, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." What we don't often ask is, "Why is the chief end of man to glorify and enjoy Him forever?" The Child's Catechism answers that question. Children, you remember the children's catechism begins with, "Who made you?" "God." "What else did God make?" "God made everything." "Why did God make you and everything else?" "For His own glory." That's why the chief end of man is to glorify God, because God made you and He made you for His own glory.

That's exactly what Paul is saying here. We're made for His glory, the universe was made for His glory and we're obligated to give Him back the praise and glory which is due His name. Everything that is good in this life He has been gifted to us by His grace. Everything bad, well we deserved worse and therefore we praise Him. Now it's easy to know that that's what the Bible teaches. It's fairly easy to demonstrate that. It's harder to believe that, it's harder yet to live that way. By God's grace may He enable you to praise Him at all times in all circumstances because you know that He made this world for His glory and He knows all things. Let us pray.

Lord and God, grant that we may love and sing and wonder at You, Your knowledge, You mercy, Your judgment, Your plan, Your sole ownership. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 12

Romans 12:1-2 - A Call to Give Yourself to God

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12, as we continue our series of Romans. Paul is going to make a grand declaration about the first principles of Christians living. He's going to issue a Christian manifesto on living the Christian life. You can't get more practical or theological than Paul is here. For Paul, Christian living is a theological matter. If you don't understand the truth of grace, then you're not able to live the life of grace, and the life of grace is grounded in the truth of grace. So, Paul having told us so much about the truth of God's grace, the sovereignty of His grace, the mercy of God, the free justification of God and so many other of these grand truths in Romans 1 through 11, now comes here in Romans 12 and begins to flesh out for us grace in the Christian life.

For much of the rest of the book, he's going to be showing and telling us what grace produces in the Christian life. Now, this is not new news. You remember all the way back at the end of Romans 5, he had already told us that grace reigns in righteousness and that one of the goals of grace was to produce holiness, to produce righteousness in the life of those who are transformed by that grace. In Romans 6 and 7, he talked about how that looked a little bit. But, as was typical for Paul, at least in the book of Romans and Ephesians and Galatians, and some of his other books, he often concentrated on the theological and laid the ground work and in the second portion of his book turned to Christians living concerns, or we might say, to ethical concerns, or behavior concerns in the Christian life. So he does here in Romans. Let's turn our attention then to God's word in Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2.

"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. And so not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Amen. This is God's word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank You for Your word and we sense the significance of what Paul is saying to everyone of us. So we ask by Your spirit that you would grip us by the truth of Your word and change us by it, encourage us by it, strengthen us by it, this we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

These are two small, but hugely important verses in which Paul lays down the first principles of Christian living. He states in these two little verses at least six truths that are vital for the living of the Christian life. He first of all tells you that the basis of holiness is God's mercy. The starting point of the Christian's life is God's mercy. Then, successively, he walks you through this call of holiness and he reminds you that the call to holiness means a life of whole life sacrifice, that it means a whole life worship. That it means a godly non-conformity. It means an inside out transformation and it means knowing and doing the truth of God, each of those things. I'd like to walk through those things with you briefly.

First of all notice Paul's words, therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God. The basis of the Christian holiness that God is calling us to, in the whole of the second half of this book, is God's mercy. Paul is calling us to live for God, to love God, to obey God, to delight in God's word; to delight in God's will, to delight in God's law, to live it out because of the mercy of God toward us. So that Christian living, Paul says, is founded on our having received grace and on our understanding grace. Paul is exhorting us to obedience to God because of what God has done for us. He says, in light of God's grace and mercy, you do this. You be a living sacrifice, you give yourself as a sacrifice for God in view of the mercies of God, you do this.

This is vital for us to understand at the outset. The Christian life is not, do this and live. It is, I have given you life, now do this. So, doing is transformed. It is not something whereby we purchase acceptability with God. It is that whereby we express our gratitude for the grace of God as well as manifest what God's grace designs to accomplish in us. God's grace not only has the goal of seeing us justified before Him and accepted and accounted as righteous, it has the goal of making us to be righteous.

Calvin, you may remember if you're read his Institutes of the Christian Religion, calls this double grace. God wants us to be acquitted and declared righteous, but He also has the goal of one day standing us before Him, perfect. He begins that labor now. It never ends in this life, we may wish that it did. It never ends in this life. It's an ongoing project, it is never complete in this life, but its goal is that we would, not only on that last day be declared righteous, but that we would actually be righteous as we stand before Him through the work of His grace and mercy.

The Apostle Paul wants you to understand that all His calls to obedience must be set against that backdrop of what God has already been done, or you'll be entirely confused, you'll be tremendously discouraged and some of you will become resentful. If you think that what Paul is saying is, "That if you'll just obey, and if you'll just obey well enough, God will love you," you'll probably either end up rejecting Christianity, or you'll end up clinging on to some kind of Christianity, but you'll be angry with God all the time. That's not what Paul is asking you. He's not saying, just obey well enough and God will show you His mercy. He's saying, God's already shown you His mercy in Jesus Christ. In light of that, give yourself as a living sacrifice. Love God and obey God and love His law and live the Christian life because of His mercy to you.

That's the first thing that he's saying in this verse. It's not just something that Paul is saying in passing. Everything else will be warped if you don't understand what he's saying there. "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," are the first words out of Paul's mouth in the second part of this verse and there is a reason. There is a reason, because our living for God is because of His prior mercy to us.

Secondly, notice the next phrase. What does he urge us to do? He urges us to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. So, he's telling us this call to holiness that he's issuing here means a whole life sacrifice. Christian living, Paul could say in another way, means dying for Christ.

Now, we don't live in a culture where people are regularly offering animal sacrifices or even libation sacrifices and other types of ritual sacrifices. That doesn't go on in our culture. We're not familiar with it. The people that Paul was writing too knew very well the typical practices of sacrifice, so something of the shock of what Paul is saying would have hit home to them. They would have been used to putting something else up on an altar to sacrifice and suddenly Paul says, "Climb up there yourself and give yourself as a sacrifice to God." It would be like Paul is saying, "Here is my evangelistic campaign theme, 'Die for Jesus.'" Now, you're expecting something more uplifting. Something more positive, like, Here's Life or I found it, or Change Your World, or something like that. That is something that would draw somebody to an evangelistic campaign. Positive, uplifting, What's In It for Me kind of theme.

Here is Paul's theme: Die for Jesus. Now you're seeing why he had to start off by, "I urge you in light of the mercies of God." The Apostle Paul is calling for us to give everything for Jesus Christ. To put ourselves on the altar and to give up everything for Him. You know, salvation is the free gift that costs you everything. The Apostle Paul is looking for whole life sacrifice from Christians and he stresses that in the very words that he uses. Isn't it strange that he says, "I want you to present yourself, I want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." Paul is not saying, "All I want is your external you. You know, you can keep the internal stuff, I want the external you. I want the body and the actions that the body can do." No, Paul uses that to make it clear that he is interested in more that a disembodied spirit. He's not interested in simply promoting your giving yourself in your inner world to God; he wants the whole of your world given to God, so he uses this language of giving your bodies as a living sacrifice.

If I could be crass for just a moment and shock you with a phrase. It's almost like Paul is saying, "Don't give Jesus your heart, He wants more than that." My friends, that's a standing issue for evangelicals today, because there are a lot of people who want to give Jesus their hearts and they don't give Jesus anything else. They want to live their own way, they want to act their own way, they want to have their own priorities, they want to give Jesus their hearts an hour or two, at most, a week. The rest of themselves and the rest of their lives they want to keep under somebody else's rule, their own. The Apostle Paul is saying, "Don't give Jesus your heart, He wants more than that. He wants all of you. Give Jesus all of you, die for Jesus. Give your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God."

John Calvin understood that. He understood that in a very intense and personal way. He once wrote in the Institutes these words, "We are not our own, therefore let not our reason, nor our will sway our plans and deeds. We are not our own, let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own. In so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Conversely, we belong to God. Let us therefore, let us live for Him and die for Him, we belong to God. Let His wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We belong to God. Let all the parts of our lives accordingly strive toward Him as our only lawful goal."

Beautiful words, powerful words, and you may think, "Well, that's real nice, but he never had to do the things that I'm having to do." I want to say that you can say this about John Calvin's Christian testimony, he lived that particular truth. He had been run off by the congregation in Geneva. He pastored them for just over two and a half years. They got tired of him and they ran him off. He went to Strasbourg and he took up a charge with the French speaking congregation there and those people loved it. They absolutely loved it and he loved the ministry, he was growing, and he was fellowshipping, with friends in the faith. They were having a major continental impact for the Reformation. Then he received a letter in the mail from the congregation in Geneva saying, "John Calvin you are needed back here in Geneva". He writes to his friend, I think it's Beza and he says to him, "When I received that letter, I would have rather died than go back to Geneva, but I am not my own. I belong to God and therefore that is where I am going."

The Apostle here is calling on us to realize that salvation is the free gift that costs us everything. That Christian discipleship means giving the totality of ourselves to God. Paul goes on to expand on this again at the end of verse 1 and he calls this "Your spiritual service of worship." He goes on defining what he means by giving a whole life sacrifice by talking about whole life worship.

What's his point? This is your spiritual service of worship. His point is this, Christian living, Christian service, Christian worship is not a one or a two or a three hour a week activity. It's a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week activity, it's a whole life activity. In other words, the kind of worship God wants from us is whole life worship; it's all of life worship. Worship isn't an activity confined to Sunday morning or evening. I don't mean by saying this to downplay the importance of corporate worship at all. It's just that God wants His worship in all of our lives, in the priorities that we choose, He wants us to be worshiping Him. In the restraint of our own sinful habits, He wants us to be worshipping Him.

Derek Thomas just shared with me a letter this afternoon that was incredible convicting because it told a story of a friend of ours who is a minister, he's been over preaching in Latvia. He was robbed and he wasn't robbed on the sidewalk. As he went into his house, a man burst through his door, held a knife to his head, blindfolded him, stuffed a rag down his throat, and put him on the floor. The man thought he was going to die right there. As he was on the floor, he tells us he thought, "You know, I had this knife and it was poking at my back in my spine and I thought I could die at any moment and it's always been my practice that when I experience pain in life, to think of the pain that Christ experienced for me. So, I began meditating." He was on the floor for forty-five minutes experiencing this thing, he's meditating on the pain of Christ, the suffering of Christ on his behalf, the sovereignty of God, the mercies of God to him, while he's being robbed. What was he doing? He was worshipping God. In all of what? There was no corporate worship service call for that hour, but he was worshipping God with his mind, with his heart while he was being robbed.

The Apostle Paul is saying, that's what I want from you, Christian. I want a Christians who is a twenty-four hour, seven-day a week worship machine. You are always thinking about glorifying God, you're always thinking about adoring God and in every mundane event of life, or every extraordinary event of life your agenda is to be a person who is worshipping God.

Fourthly, the Apostle in verse two goes on to say some negatives. Paul is willing in his commands about the Christian life to say some 'do nots'. You might think, "That's not good for Paul to be negative. There are so many negatives out there," but it's realistic friends. You've got to have some 'do nots' in a fallen world and here is Paul's first 'do not.'

Do not be conformed to this world. In other words, Paul is calling us to a godly nonconformity. Now, this isn't some sort of a sixties radical subversive thing going on. This isn't just nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity. This isn't deciding, "Ok, everybody else in my culture has really nice china so I'm not going to have really nice china." That's not what Paul is after here. Paul is talking about a godly nonconformity. He's talking about your life being based on divine norms not ruled by the culture around you. You're not dominated by the mores of the society around you. You, in your living, have God's will uppermost in your heart and mind and behavior. Not the prevailing social norms, but God's will. Conformity to this world and to its way of thinking and behaving is the great problem of nominal Christianity.

Now, the good news is, nominal Christianity is dying in America. In probably in another thirty years, it will be almost dead. The bad news is, in our part of the culture, in the Bible belt, it's still big. Nominal Christianity is big, and so you run into disconnects all the time in talking to professing Christians. Like a young Christian who came to me and said, "Well look, I want to get married to so and so." "Well, tell me about so and so." "Well, she's very intelligent and she's got a great job and we've known one another for a long time." "Tell me about her church and her spiritual life." "Well, she's not a Christian." "Ok, you are a professing Christian right? Grew up in the Presbyterian Church right? You're engaged to this person and she's not a Christian, she's not a professing Christian, she's not a member of a church, and you want to marry her. Is that right?" "Uh-huh." Ok, what's wrong with this picture here? It happens all the time.

A friend of mine who has an office right next to the abortion clinic on Northside Drive says that one of his habits is to look at the bumper stickers on the cars that go into the abortion clinic. You'll see bumper stickers like this as they pull in to the abortion clinic, "Take your children to Sunday school next Sunday, they need and deserve it." "Prayer changes things" or maybe even, "Come visit us at First Baptist Church,' or First Pentecostal Church, or First Methodist Church or what ever church they come from. In fact, he was telling me one day, that he sat with a man outside the abortion clinic who was a minister who was reading his Bible and who had brought his granddaughter to have an abortion. Where is the disconnect here?

Don't be conformed to the world. That is what Paul is saying. Paul is looking for Christians whose mind is not double. It's not dominated by the prevailing thoughts about what's acceptable around them. It's dominated by what God says in His word.

He goes on to say how that happens in the next phrase and that's the fifth thing I'd like to point to you. He points us to this inside out transformation. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." This call of holiness involves an inside out transformation. Christian life flows from a renewed inner man. It's brought about by a recreated mind and heart under the control and influence of the word of God. Be transformed. Paul is interested in the inner life. When I used the crass statement in the beginning, "Jesus doesn't want your heart, don't give Jesus your heart, He wants more than that," I didn't mean to denigrate the importance of the inner life, because Paul goes right to that in verse 2.

You know, Paul is always talking about the inner man. He's always talking about the mind or the heart. He knows that true religion flows from a renewed inner life. When he speaks of the mind, he's talking about our believing faculty, our thinking faculty, our willing faculty, and our desiring faculty, especially those things. Feelings are probably thrown in there somewhere, but they are not as important as those things, the faculty in which we believe and think and will and desire. He says, that has to be transformed in order to live the Christian life. Well how is it transformed? Through its renewal. Well how is it renewed? Through being brought captive to the word of God.

You know one of those beautiful things and one of those brave things that Martin Luther said when he stood before that Diet of Worms was "My conscience is captive to the word of God" and that's what the apostle wants for every Christian. He wants Christians whose consciences, their minds, their inner man is captive to the word of God because the Christian life flows from a renewed inner man.

We live in a world where it is increasingly common for Christians to think that their opinions about a particular matter are just as valid as God's, or that their opinions about a particular matter including theology are just as valid as say, the Bible's. A dear friend of mine, Mark Dever, pastor at Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, was teaching a theological seminar at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary before Al Mohler came as the president. Before there was an evangelical president, before there was a evangelical faculty there, he was one of the few evangelicals there. In fact, a professor said to him one day, "Mark you show some signs of intelligence, how can you be an evangelical?" It wasn't a friendly environment. Mark was teaching a theological seminar one day and he made an assertion from Scripture about God. A student in the class interrupted him and said, " Excuse me Mark, but I like to think of God as wise, but not meddling; compassionate but not overpowering; resourceful but not interrupting. That's how I like to think about God." Mark responded, "Thank you Bill for telling us so much about yourself, but we're here to learn about God from the Bible."

Now it is funny, but frankly you run into Christians like that all the time. They don't like what the Bible says about God, so they come up with an improved version. That will not renew a mind, it will not produce the transformation which grounds the Christians life. The Bible must be the force which works in the transforming and the renewal of our deepest inner self. That inner mind must be subdued in recreated but the word of God.

One last thing, Here in verse 2, Paul says, why is all this? "So that you might prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Paul knows that minds which have been transformed by the renewing work of God's Holy Spirit in accordance with the word of God will be able to discern what they ought to do. You can't do the will of God if you don't know the will of God, and you can't make a discerning choice if you don't know the truth of God. And so the renewed mind ,according to God's word, is a mind that is able to be discerning in a world that needs discernment.

Sin never makes things easier friends, it always complicates things. We live in a fallen world. That means to live as Christians in a fallen world can be a complicated thing and you need discernment and the Apostle Paul says that transformed mind that is captive to the word of God becomes a discerning mind.

You know, as you look at these two verses you've got to think that Psalm 119 is in the background of Paul's thoughts and verse 78 in the psalm comes to mind at this time. When the psalmist says, "Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies," what's the psalmist saying? He's saying that Your word gives me discernment, it makes me wise. I don't just know stuff, I know how to put it to work. Paul is saying, you want to live the Christian life? You need a mind transformed by the word of God in order that you can be a discerning Christian, knowing and therefore doing the will of God. There is much more to be said, but we don't have more time to say it. May God bless you as you seek to give yourselves as living sacrifices. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, hear our prayer. Bless Your word and grant that we would be discerning, whole life worshippers and sacrifices for Jesus sake. Amen.

Romans 12:3-8 - A Call to Humility and Service

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12, as we continue to work through this great passage together. Last week we looked at Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. In this passage Paul makes a grand declaration about Christian living and we've said this whole second section of the book, from chapter 12 through 15, is about living of the Christian life, the Christian way of life Paul is now speaking about, and he's making a manifesto in these opening verses of Romans chapter 12. He says, in a very provocative way in the verse first two verses, that he wants us to live our lives for God. He wants us to give ourselves for God and he does it in a striking way. He says that he wants us to put ourselves up on the altar. All the people in his day and time would have been familiar with sacrifices and Paul is saying to them, climb up on that altar and give yourself for God. It would be like Paul starting a campaign for Christian living and inviting everyone in the city to come and the campaign banner is unfurled and the campaign theme is "Die for Jesus."

Now, that would be a fairly shocking way of putting that, but it's no less shocking than what Paul says in verse 1 of Romans chapter 12 when he says that he wants you to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice." He is talking about a whole soul, whole life commitment to live for God. In fact we put it in this way last week. It says as if Paul is saying to us, "don't give your heart to Jesus, He wants more than that." In our day and time people very often think that they can have a private and personal relationship with God which impacts no other part of their life. It doesn't impact their living with their husband or their wife, with their children, with their job, with their neighbors. It impacts nothing. They have this personal relationship with God. They feel close to God, they have nice thoughts about God, they seek for the comfort of God, but it does not impact any area of life and the Apostle Paul is saying, I don't want that kind of disembodied spirituality from you Christians. I want a Christianity that pervades every aspect of your life. In fact he is going to talk about the heart in verse 2. He wants it to emanate from the heart, from our inner man, from the inside out. He wants us to be transformed. He says, "by the renewing of our mind," but he wants that to transform the totality of ourselves. Paul is laying down a grand manifesto that touches every area of the Christians life in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2.

Then when he gets to Romans 12 verse 3, he wants to talk with us about how we relate to others in the family of God. He wants us to think about how grace works out in the life of the family of God. That's what we're going to look at tonight as we hear God's word. So, let's turn to that word in Romans 12 beginning in verse 3.

For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy accounting to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Amen.

And thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired and inerrant word, may He write His eternal truth upon out hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord we thank you for Your word. We ask that by Your spirit You would cause the truth of Your word to be realized in our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.

Paul, in these verses is speaking to Christians, not just those Roman Christians almost two thousand years ago, but to Christians today by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about how we ought to relate to one another. How Christians ought to serve one another. How Christians ought to serve one another. How Christians ought to use their gifts and their abilities and resources to help one another.

In this context of the discussion, he gives us three platforms for serving one another in the church. They are humility, the communion of the saints and the purpose of spiritual gifts. I'd like to walk through those with you in this passage tonight. You'll notice in verse three he is speaking about humility. In verses 4 and 5, he's speaking about the reality of the communion of the saints. In verses 6 through 8, he's speaking about the purpose of spiritual gifts and the way he wants to see them used. Let's walk through this passage then together. Let's begin in verse 3.

I. Grace should lead to humility.

Grace, Paul knows, can lead to pride if we're not careful. It ought not to, it's not designed to, but there is no blessing that God gives that we can't turn upside down. So the apostle knows that grace on occasion led to spiritual pride and he doesn't want it to, he wants it to lead to humility. So he says, "for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." Paul is speaking here not just as an apostle, but as an example. He's standing before them as a person who has been given the grace of apostleship. Now, none of us here has been given the grace of apostleship. If you think you have, don't raise your hand. None of us here have been given the gift of prophecy as Paul had the gift given to him and we could name many other gifts that Paul had that we don't have.

Paul is emphasizing here that he is speaking to us as Christians in the light of the graces that had been given to him and in light of the fact that those graces that God had given to him had not led him to spiritual pride, but had cultivated real humility in him. In fact, you can trace Paul's humility in passing comments that he makes in his letters. He can refer to himself in one place as "the least of the apostles." In another place he can refer to himself as "the chief of sinners." This apostle was confident in what the Lord had called him to do. He was secure in his relationship with the living God, but he was not puffed up and that is marvelous in light of the gifting that God had given him. So when he says in verse three that "in light of the grace given to him," he's wanting to tell you something. He's letting you know that this not a dry land sailor that is about to address to you. It's important for us not to be puffed up by the spiritual graces that God has given to us. Paul can come to us and say, look I have been given grace upon grace and by God's grace I have not cultivated a spirit of spiritual pride, but of humility therefore you to ought to cultivate humility. We are able to see then that Paul is not telling us to do something that he has done himself also had to do. The apostle is telling us here in this passage that Christians ought to serve one another. That is the theme throughout verses 3 through 8. In verse 3, he is telling us that we ought to serve one another because of humility. Grace ought to cause us to be humble.

The apostle wants us to see that that humility is necessary in order to serve one another as we ought. He says in verse 3, "I say to everyone among you." There is evidently a possibility amongst these Roman Christians that some of them are allowing spiritual pride to get the best of them. These gifts and graces that they have received had led them to be spiritually prideful and Paul wants to deal with that pride and selfishness here. He wants to deal with the problem of the over inflated ego to be sure, but it is also clear from what follows that he wants to deal with the attitude which looks out for number one first. Paul wants to cultivate another attitude amongst these Christians. He doesn't want them internal and self-centered. He wants them humbled and other serving. So Paul says, "I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think."

Now, Paul's not asking up to poor mouth ourselves. You know, Paul's not trying to start a contest amongst Christians for those who can seem most self-abasing. You know, the Christians who never looks up at you, just sort of holds the head over thinking that this is the most spiritual posture that you can possible be in, never to look up. Sort of hunched over and arched way down with a great burden of self-doubt. This is not what the apostle is asking for. In fact he is explicitly says that he's asking for a sober self-assessment. Be realistic about yourself he's says. That on the one hand means realize that every gift you have is just that, a gift of God. You didn't create that in you, He created that in you. On the other hand He wants us to be mindful of what our gifts are. This kind of humility is a fertile soil for Christian service to others. I'll never forget standing in the little kitchenette in the Dean Center at Reformed Theological Seminary the first time I met Dr. Yusufu . Some of you know Dr. . He's teaching at Belhaven College right now. All I knew of him at that time was that he was an international student, a tall, lean, black African, and Mr. Jinkiri was empting the trash can and he was mopping the floor and he was scrubbing the walls. He was doing maintenance in the Dean Center and we struck up a conversation. Dr. Jinkiri never told me he was an education professor in his homeland. He never told me the important positions that he had held in his denomination and in his nation. He only told me that he had come to RTS in order to study with Will Norton. He went on and on and talked about Will Norton. Later I heard in a chapel presentation, both who Dr. Jinkiri was and why Dr. Jinkiri had come to the seminary. You see, he had read a history of missions in his native country written by Dr. Will Norton. Now, Dr. Will Norton had played a key role in the bringing of the gospel to Dr. Jinkiri people, yet in all the pages, the hundreds of pages of this history, Will Norton had never mentioned his own name. Dr. Jinkiri read that history from cover to cover and the only time he saw Will Norton's name was under the author's indication. He said, that's the man that I want to study under. A man who can have that kind of impact and never mention his own name. You see, Yusufu Jinkiri was a man just like that. He was cleaning the Dean Center and he did not introduce himself to me as some exalted minister and leader from his own land, but simply as a student seeking to learn God's word. He was an apt servant because of the humility planted in his heart and the apostle is asking for us to cultivate that same kind of humility. It's the fertile ground, it's the launching point for service. Humility, that's the first thing that Paul says in this passage. We ought to serve one another out of humility.

II. We should serve others.

Then in verses 4 and 5, Paul speaks about the communion of saints. He says, because of the reality of the communion of saints, we ought to serve one another. Now, let me throw out a confusing phrase and then I'll try to explain it in just a few moments. Unity does not mean identity, but diversity is to be used for the unity. If I had to sum up everything that Paul is saying in these two verses, that would be a one sentence short hand of how to do it.

Now, I just said that you wouldn't have a clue as to what I was saying, so let me try and explain it. Unity does not mean identity, but diversity is to be used for unity. Look at verse 4 closely. Paul asks you to contemplate two realities at the same time in verse 4. First, he asks you to remember that we are part of one body. Second, he asks you to remember that we are not the same - just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function. So, stop right there, half way through the sentence see what he's pointing you to. We're part of one body, we're not the same.

This is a vital truth in a day dominated by egalitarianism of various sorts, that wants to say to you, "If you tell me that people have different functions, you're robbing them of equality." For instance, if you say that a woman can't be a preacher, you're robbing her of equality with men because she can't perform the same function. The logic goes like this: sameness of function means real equality. The Apostle Paul's says, I want you to understand that we are one, but we do not share the same functions. Paul emphatically asserts both of those at the same time. Christian unity, rightly understood, does not undercut the differences that exist amongst Christians, and differences among Christians are not to undercut the reality of Christian unity. I know that they can, but Paul says they are not to do this.

So, let me give you three things that Paul is saying in verse 4. First, he's saying that unity does not mean sameness. Unity does not mean identity. That's the cryptic meaning of that little phrase. Just because we are all part of the family of God doesn't mean that I am you and you are me. You're you and I'm me and I'm not you and you're not me. That's okay. Paul is not saying that Christian salvation transforms us into a bunch of interchangeable units. No, it doesn't. We continue to be distinct personalities. We continue to have distinct gifts. Those gifts are to be used in a particular way, but that does not mean that our unity is there by disrupted simply because there are differences between us. Unity does not mean sameness.

Secondly, he says, unity does not mean interchangeability. One size does not fit all in the kingdom of God. There are differing gifts. Paul stresses this in verse 4. All the members do not have the same function. He'll stress it again in verse 6, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us." So, there are differing gifts in the body. Not everybody in the body has the same set of gifts.

Finally, unity does not mean that we are unable to differentiate between members of the kingdom. I thought of using a word that I invented this afternoon, indiscrimnitablilty, but somehow I wasn't sure that that would communicate. So, unity does not mean that we can't differentiate between members of the kingdom. There are nontransferable functions that we each have in the kingdom of God. I can't have babies. That's a non-transferable function in the family of God. I can't do it, I don't have the plumbing and it's a non-transferable thing and that's okay. We have different gifts and responsibilities in the kingdom of God.

Now comes the flip side. Look at verse 5. Paul wants us to know two things again in verse 5: that there is diversity in our unity and we belong to one another. There is diversity in our unity and we belong to one another. Look at the two parts of verse 5, "We who are many are one and individually members of one another." So, Paul is telling us that just because we are different doesn't mean that we lack unity. Diversity does not mean disunity. In fact, Paul says even though we are different, we are part of one in the same body of Christ.

Then he goes on in the second half of verse 5 to say again that this difference in us does not mean disunity. Why? Because we each belong to the other. Each to all others, each lives for the others. Paul is reminding us of the over arching reality of the communion of the saints. We are one, we belong to one another, we're part of one another, and we are in a shared fellowship of life because of our union with Jesus Christ. We are different. Some of us are as different as night and day, but we are for one another and we are to live to and for one another. It's almost like that motto of the Three Musketeers, "One for all and all of one." And one of the real challenges we face in living this reality in twenty-first century America is our individualism. We think first of the self and then everybody else and then if we get outside of our self box we think of our own nuclear family and then everybody else is way down on the list. The Apostle Paul is encouraging us again to remember that we are part of the body. That body is the greatest spiritual reality of fellowship that we could possible conceive. So that we have, as Dan Doriani was reminding us, a spiritual family to care for and we ought to serve one another because of the reality of being in that body. So there is an impetus for Christians serve, because of humility in verse 4 or in verse 3, and because of the communion of saints in verses 4 and 5.

III. Christians serve one another because the spiritual gifts are meant for the body.

Finally look at verses 6 though 8. Here, Paul says that Christians serve one another because the spiritual gifts given by God are meant for service in the body. The spiritual gifts are meant for the body of Christ. We serve one another because of humility. We serve one another because we are in this body, this communion of saints, and we serve one another because the spiritual gifts that God gives to us are for service to the body.

Paul has already indicated that there are real differences of functions amongst believers and he does again in verse 6 and he draws an implication from it in verse 6. He says, that since this is so, since we have differing gifts, and since we have received those gifts from a gracious God, then we ought to use them accordingly for His glory and for the edification of the saints and for the building up of the body. Paul is saying in verse 6 that the Christian church is charismatic. Now don't all raise your hands at once. You know that Paul's word for gifts here is charisma so he is telling us that he wants us to contemplate this fact, that our ability to edify one another in the Christian church is a singular manifestation of the work of the sovereign holy spirit in our lives. You're ability to edify one another does not derive from native powers. It derives from spiritually gifted graces. That is what it means for the church to be charismatic, not speaking in tongues or prophesizing or even raising our hands. Being charismatic means being indwelt by and gifted through the Holy Spirit for ministry to one another and the Apostle tells us that right there in verse 6. By the way, Paul's emphasis that we have gifts that differ here in verse 6, does remind us that the Pentecostal idea that all Christians ought to be able to speak in tongues is not Pauline or biblical, because Paul's whole emphasis, not just in this section, we could look at others, is that Christians have differing gifts. Now that leaves aside the issue of "Are there some of these extraordinary gifts that continue or have they passed away?" but that's another story for another time.

Now, Paul in verses 6 though 8, begins to rattle off seven gifts. Now this is not a complete list. Paul will give another list, a larger list elsewhere, but he's giving these gifts as examples of things given to the church by the Holy Spirit and as he does so he speaks of how they ought to be used.

First he speaks of prophecy. The ability to pass along direct words of revelation from God. But notice what Paul says. He's speaking to a fellowship in which there were people who had the ability to prophecy, that is, to convey a special revelation directly from God to His people. Notice what he says, "Yet according to the proportion of his faith." The prophet must, as a person of faith, show his trust and obedience to God's word. Paul does not want to see the specter of someone claiming to be a prophet pronouncing the words of God and yet not living in accordance with those words. That can happen. Not long ago I was meeting with someone who claimed to have the gift of prophecy and yet wanted to divorce his spouse because they didn't have the gift. She was able to convey direct words of revelation from God, but couldn't obey God's written word.

If service, in his serving, Paul says in verse 7. All the various services in the Christian life are included, high and low, known and unknown. Paul is saying, "If you have the gift of serving, exercise it. Don't wait for someone to honor you. Don't think, 'Well I'd like to have a flashier gift than that. Prophecy would really get me recognized in this bottle.'" If you have the gift of service, serve. Those with the gift of serving must exercise it rather than seeking for something more exalted to do. This gift perhaps has some special application to those who were deacons of the church.

Teaching. Paul says in verse7, "he who teaches in his teaching." The teaching which Paul is speaking is the teaching of the truth, the conveying of the life of faith and you can imagine how vital that would have been in the life of the early church. It's vital today, but think of then, there were no Bible dictionaries. Many of the members of the congregation would not have been able to read themselves, and even if they could, they would have had no Bibles. Those were very rare things. The teacher was in the position of vital importance for conveying the faith and the life of faith to the people of God and so Paul says, he who teaches in his teaching. The teacher ought to be cognizant that that teaching is a gift to him and that teaching is not for his own self satisfaction or for his self aggrandizement, but rather for the people of God.

Paul goes on to speak of exhortation in verse 8. I'm not sure if Paul is wanting to draw a complete contrast between teaching and exhortation, but a good teacher exhorts, a good exhorter teaches. They go together. But perhaps with exhortation he has in mind the encouragement, the stimulating, and the prompting of the people of God to embrace the truth and life of faith. Not only to teach them about it, but to encourage them to actually live it.

He speaks of giving in verse 8. "He who gives with liberality." He speaks of those who contribute to the needs of others and come to the aid of the poor and he's saying, this should be done freely, generously, not grudgingly.

He speaks of the gift of leadership in verse 8. He who leads with diligence. He's saying that those that are gifted with leadership in the church must not be side tracked, but rather diligent. I heard a lecture by Ian Murray comparing and contrasting Charles Spurgeon and Martin Lloyd-Jones. Spurgeon wrote many books, Lloyd-Jones never wrote a book. The books that we have of Lloyd-Jones are transcribed sermons. They had many differences, but one thing that he did note that they had in common was that they were wholly focused on their work. The kingdom was everything to them. The kingdom of God was the focus of their lives and in that sense they were men very much alike and the apostle Paul is saying that those who are gifted with the abilities of leading the church need to be diligent and need not to be side tracked in that work. This of course has some special application to those who are elders in the church.

Finally he speaks of the gift of mercy. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. He's speaking of those who show compassion to those who are sick or suffering, or indigent, and this has to be done, he says, cheerfully not resentfully. Paul's point is this, whatever God has given you by way of personal abilities and resources is for the edification of the body. It belongs to the body. You are not to put it under a bushel, you're not to squander it, you are to use it for the body and so in this way Paul has said, Christian humility compels us to serve one another. A realization that we're part of the communion of saints compels us to serve one another. A realization that everything that God has given us He's given to us for one another ought to compel us to serve one another. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your word. We ask that You would bring about this call to other service by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 12:9-10 - A Call to Love and Other-Centeredness

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12. As we go back to the book of Romans, remember where we have been. This is Paul's great declaration about the first principles of Christians living. You can't get more practical than Paul is here. You can't get more theological than Paul is here. He mixes those things together. All his theology is practical and all his practice is based on good theology. For much of the rest of the book, beginning here in Romans 12:1, Paul is going to be showing and telling us what grace produces in the Christian life. You remember all the way back in Romans chapter 5, he told us that grace reigns in righteousness. Well, beginning in Romans 12:1 he is going to show us what the reign of grace produces in the way of righteousness in the Christina life. It wouldn't be inappropriate to call this section of Romans 'The Christian Way Life,' because Paul is wanting to show us what God's righteousness looks like in everyday life.

Let's look back at verses 1 through 8. In verses 1 and 2, Paul made a tremendous statement. It's a statement in which there are six distinct parts about the nature of the Christian life, and he lays out six truths that make all the difference in the Christian life in verses 1 and 2. He reminds us of the basis of God's call to holiness, and the basis of our holiness in the Christian life is God's mercy. Without God's mercy we wouldn't be able to be holy. Without God's grace we wouldn't be able to live the Christian life, and he reminds us of that in Romans 12:1.

He also tells us the call of holiness is a whole life call. It's a call to a life of sacrifice in which we give the hole of ourselves to the Lord. He tells us that the call of holiness is the call of whole life worship. We worship not just on Sunday mornings, but throughout the whole of our lives. We glorify God. He tells us that the call of holiness is to a godly nonconformity. We just don't go along with the general fads and trends of the age and assume that however our culture and society are doing it now, that must be fine. We try and think 'Christianly' and we strive not to simply conform ourselves to the ways and the behavior and the habit and the attitudes of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

He reminds us in this passage that the call of holiness is to an inside-out transformation. It's by the renewing of the heart. God, from the inside, out transforms all of us. Finally, he reminds us that the call of holiness is to knowing and doing the truth of God. Romans 12:1 and 2 give us a grand manifesto for the Christian life.

Then in verses 3 through 8, Paul begins talking about how we ought to relate to other believers. He's spoken in verses 1 and 2 about what God has made us to be and how we are to live in light of what God has made us to be. In verses 3 through 8 he starts to talk about how we are to relate to other believers. He is addressing the Spirit's gifts to the church in these verses. As he does so, he tells us several things. He gives us three platforms for our service in the church. He tells us, first of all, we are to serve one another out of humility, and secondly he tells us we are to serve one another because we are united and because we are different. So both our unity and our diversity supply a reason to serve one another. He tells us that we are to serve one another because the spiritual gifts God has given us are for the purpose of ministering to one another. The principle of reciprocity works in the Christians life. What God has given to you, he has not simply given to you for your enjoyment or for your well being, but he has given it to you for your Christian brother and sisters help and well being and encouragement and fullness and completeness in times of need there comfort and their aid in the Christian life.

At this point, when you get to the end of Romans 12 verse 8, Paul moves from discussing the Spirit's charismatic gifting of the church and he turns his focus on the virtues that he expects to see in believers. He's talked about how the Spirit has gifted us in order to minister to one another in verses 3 through 8.

And beginning in verse 9, he speaks to us about what kind of virtues ought to be present in the Christian life as we are indwelt be the Holy Spirit. As he does typically, he starts with love, it's the very first virtue that he wants to talk about in this passage. This is not the only place that Paul does this. I say he typically does this. If you were to turn, for instance, to Galatians 5:22 and were to begin to look at the fruits that Paul says result from the Spirit's grace work in us, the very first one you would see is love. If you were to turn to I Corinthians 13, where Paul is addresses this fairly cantankerous charismatic church in Corinth, where the people are fairly proud of the fact that they speak in tongues and have words of knowledge and are able to prophesy, he says to them that love is a greater gift than those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. And he goes on to say in I Corinthians 13, that "if you have faith to move mountains and you give all your money to feed the poor and if you do not have love you are nothing," which is his way of saying you are not even a believer. So the apostle in both of those passages wants to start off with an emphasis on love. That's where we are right here. In fact, Paul's argument in I Corinthians 13, following on his discussion of the spiritual gifts is exactly identical in its order here in Romans 12 because he has just discussed what? The spiritual gifting of the church in verses 3 through 8 and now in verses 9 and 10 he is going to talk about love. Like a good teacher Paul repeats himself. So let's hear God's word here in Romans 12 verses 9 and 10.

"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor."

Amen. This is God's word, may He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God we thank You for Your word and we ask now that You not only enable us by Your spirit to understand it clearly, but that by Your spirit You would work it's reality into our hearts. We confess right now that we have not loved You as we ought, nor have we loved our neighbor as ourselves, nor have we loved our Christian brothers and sisters as we should have. So we pray that by Your Spirit You would change us, transform us, amend us by Your grace. In Jesus name. Amen.

Many, many years ago the Beatles sang, "All You Need is Love." Now, actually I'm not quiet sure what they meant by that. I'm not even sure what they meant by love in that song. You have to ask them. I don't even remember if it was John or Paul that wrote that particular lyric. Whatever the case is, I have this sneaking suspicion that what they meant by love there was not what the Apostle Paul meant by love here. The Apostle Paul doesn't leave you guessing here. In fact, this little two-verse section could be very aptly designated as Paul's description of what Christian love is and what it isn't. What it does and what it doesn't, because through this four part description, Paul is interested in showing you what Christian love looks like in order to move you to display that kind of Christian love. Not simply to stand back and admire, "Oh, that's what love looks like," and not only simple to aspire to it, "I'd like to be like that some day," but actually to act that way, especially in the context of the church, the communion of the saints. Paul teaches us here that because Christian love is sincere, and godly, and affectionate, and self-denying, we must love really and discerningly, and fervently, and selflessly. Let's look at the four parts of this great passage together.

First in verse 9, the first part of the verse you see Paul describing love as sincere. Christian love, Paul says, first and foremost is sincere, it is un-feigned. That is the nature of Christian love. In 9 "b", he explains to us that Christian love is not to be confused with some sort of an sentimentality. Christian love isn't love that is totally blind. Sometimes we say love is blind in a good way, and by that we mean that love is so loving that it overlooks some rather obvious flaws in the one we are loving. In that sense, love is blind for me. I am very thankful for that. I am very thankful that my wife loves blindly sometimes, but if we mean love is blind in the sense that love makes no distinctions, then Paul doesn't want to have anything to do with that kind of definition of love. He talks about that in the second part of verse 9.

Then if you look at verse 10, the first part of that verse, he emphasizes the brotherly aspect of love. He emphasizes the family aspect of love. That love is loyal and fervent. And then in the second half of verse 10, he emphasizes the selflessness of love. How love is interested in giving honor and preference to the other first. Let's look at each part of love as Paul describes it here.

I. Love is sincere.

Beginning in verse 9 with the phrase, let love be without hypocrisy. Paul is telling us there that love is sincere. That Christian love is unfeigned. He is telling us that Christians must love really, not superficially. Paul has emphasized in Romans 8, and now again in Romans 12, that the believer in Christ is set free not to do as he pleases, not to do nothing at all, not simply to be, but the Christian to set free in order to love. To love, Someone once said, is to fulfill the law. So Paul's words in the New Testament about 'freedom' are not to be set over against 'responsibility.' Christian freedom is for the purpose of responsibility and Christian freedom actually cultivates and enables and prompts and encourages Christian responsibility. So, we need to be careful when we use the word Christian freedom because our culture hears 'freedom' and hears 'no responsibility.' That is the very last thing that would have entered into Paul or the early Christian mind when it talked about Christian freedom. This underlying theme of Christian freedom being unto the purposes of love is evident from Romans 8:2 on and it pervades and explains this section.

Given that we are to love as Christians, what does it mean to love? What is love like? Everybody, or almost everybody in our day and time in our culture, says that they believe in love, but very few agree on what that means. What is love? Paul begins to answer that question in this four-part description. He does it again in I Corinthians 13:2 and it's a little bit longer there, but here you are seeing a four part description of love.

His first statement about love is that love is genuine. It's not merely apparent, it's not merely superficial, it's not merely spoken or claimed. It's actual, it's real, it's genuine, it's tangible, it's not just in words, it's in deed. It's not just in our outward perceptions that love exist, but it is the product of a whole heart. Paul tells us here that real Christian love is sincere and genuine and therefore must do more than merely talk about love and more than merely mentally assent to the call of love. Christian love is wholehearted love that is, as in word, so also in deed.

One commentator on this passage says, "as our new relationship as believers to God can be summed up in one word-faith, so also our relationship to men, because of this new relationship with God can be summed up in one word-love." Since through faith the door become unlocked to God, the one towards men is also open. This whole section could actually be entitled, "What Genuine Love Does And Does Not Do." Paul starts off by saying love is genuine, now he shows you in the next three points what genuine love does and doesn't do. So there is the first thing. Christian love is sincere, it 's real, it's tangible, it's not merely superficial, but it's real.

That's so important my friends especially in the South. We are good at superficial niceties. You know inviting people to drop by any time, then being absolutely horrified if they do, or beauty pageant niceties. Ever been behind the stage at a beauty pageant when the girls are smiling at one another, and then behind their backs they are stabbing one another? Those kinds of niceties, those kinds of superficialities are not what Paul is calling us to. He is calling us to real genuine love.

II. Abhor what is evil.

Secondly, in verse 9, the second half of the passage, he says abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. What's he doing there? He's telling you, let me put this as provocatively as I can, he's telling you that love discriminates. Paul is telling you that love, Christians love is not some sort of sentimentality that feels strongly toward someone, but passes no judgment on the behavior or the absolute qualities of good or evil. In other words, Paul is saying that Christians must love with a holy and a goodly love. You see, some would say that to love, to truly love, means that you do not hate; but not Paul. In fact, Paul says that you cannot love if you do not hate.

Now that I have your attention, let me explain what I mean by that. Love does not mean ignoring right and wrong. Love always makes that distinction. Love may chose to love in the face of wrong, and often does. It does not call wrong, right, and it does not ignore the distinction between wrong and right. Love distinguishes. In fact, love is not able to manifest itself to the fullness without making the distinction between wrong and right because the greatest display of love in the history of the world was when God loved what? His enemies. And had His love confused enemies and friends and said, after all, there is really no distinction, then we would never have known the greatness of the depths of His love. For Paul says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for the ungodly." When people tell you that to truly love you must treat everyone the same, they lie. Because to treat everyone the same would not be to acknowledge the distinctions that exist in humanity. True love has its eyes wide open as to right and wrong, enemies and friends, and love manifests itself in such a way that those distinctions are not evaporated.

Furthermore, Paul says, true love hates certain kinds of behaviors. Look at what he says in verse 9, "Abhor what is evil." This is in the context of a passage in which he is talking about love. Abhor what is evil. Notice what he goes on to say, "Cling to what is good." He doesn't tell us to just sort of assent. Stick to it like glue. Stick to what is good like glue, cling to it. Love doesn't blur distinctions. The contrast between love and hate is graphic, but when the meaning of love is understood, that contrast is inevitable for love has the nature of an absolute. It is sensitive to evil, it holds fast to what is good. Love is not anemic, it is dynamic, therefore it recognizes the difference between good and evil, right and wrong.

I have heard a minister say, not to long ago, that when you really understand love, you'll not make a distinction between gay and straight. Well, I'm sorry friends, there is nothing in the Bible that remotely comes close to that claim. That may be an idea that is popular in the culture today, but it's absolutely alien to the Bible. Now, does that mean that one hates those who have chosen to flaunt God's word and go against His will, and ways, and commands, in the way they are living? No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I am saying that to say, love means that you pay no mind to the distinction, is an ideal totally alien to Paul and, I might also add, totally alien to the Lord Jesus. Paul says that true love discriminates. It's not mere sentimentality; it knows the difference between right and wrong and it clings to the good rather than the evil.

III. Love is affectionately devoted.

Thirdly in verse 10, Paul says that love is affectionately devoted. Look at this beautiful phrase, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love." Paul is talking about the loyalty and the fervency of Christian love. I am told by scholars of the New Testament and the early Church and of the late Jewish period, that in no other religion does the idea of 'brotherly love' exist amongst those who are not related to one another. That the idea of brotherly love between a Christian community which is not drawn together by ethnic or racial or bloodline ties, but rather by a mutual relationship to Jesus Christ and the resulting communion with one another because of our membership in His body, that idea is entirely unique in the ancient world. We may take it for granted. It shows up in city names like Philadelphia. This call to brotherly love is graphic isn't it.

Paul is describing love as affectionately devoted. Perhaps from time to time you parents and grandparents have seen sibling when they are not at war and they have truly manifest love towards one another it is a beautiful thing to see. Whether they are very young or older, it is a beautiful thing to see. Siblings loving one another. The Apostle is saying that kind of love, when it is right, ought to be the way it should be in the Christian Church. There ought to be Davids and Jonathans. You know, the Bible does say that there is "a friend that sticks closer than a brother." Paul is saying, that's what the Church ought to be like. There ought to be those kinds of love relationships in the church. Jim Phillip puts this in a phrase that is almost impossibly hopeful, but listen to it, "The Christian Church is the one place on earth where it should be possible to trust one another's love and loyally without being hurt."

Now I want to say two things about that phrase. First, I want to exhort you to strive for the church to be like, and start, with you. Strive for the church to be like that. A place where the love and the loyalty is so strong and so manifest that it's safe for people. Now I want to turn to the flip side. If you have found the opposite in the Christian Church, and you have been wounded in the Christian Church, and you have been shown disloyalty and dismissal in the context of relationships in the Christian Church, don't be cynical. That reality shouldn't surprise you. After all, we're sinners and "the Church is a hospital where sick sinners get well," Augustine once said. It shouldn't surprise you that sinners don't live up to this vision, but you yourself strive to make sure it's a place where at least with you, love and loyalty can be experienced in such a way that people are safe. Paul is calling on us to show family love to one another.

It's beautiful isn't it when you see two friends utterly devoted to one another, I get to see this in this church maybe more than any of you. When someone is facing a serious problem here, I often get to see other people in this church who love and care for those people that you don't know about. One of the very first visits I made to the funeral home when a wife of a congregation member died, I remember being surprised by one of our elders who was quietly sitting and waiting outside of the room where a husband who was now a widower was meeting with the funeral home help to plan his wife's funeral. That elder was just quietly sitting there biding his time. He could not wait to minister. I had no idea that those two had any type of a relationship at all. It was very interesting. Not long ago the man that I saw being ministered to in that situation, I met outside of the door of Baptist Hospital ministering to the wife of a former deacon of this congregation, whose husband was dying. He hadn't known her husband that long, but he had known him long enough to want to show him Christian love. Let me tell you, that pleases me no end when we see those kinds of tangible expressions of love. No blood relationship whatsoever there. The only thing pulling those people together is the common bond that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet treating one another like family when the chips are down. That ought to be a goal for us here at First Presbyterian Church. We shouldn't use the excuse, "Well, you know there are 3500 people on the role" as an excuse not to be a family. We ought to say, "Ok, if there are that many people on the role, let's find the family first, then when we find them, let's love them." That should be our goal, friends. That kind of family love.

IV. Christian love is selfless and self-giving and honors the beloved.

One last thing. At the end of verse 10 he says Christian love is selfless and self-giving and honors first the beloved. Love honors the One who loved first. Give preference to one another in honor Paul says. Christians are to be other-centered in other words. Now other-centered is different than other- directed you understand. One sociologist has characterized this day and age as an other-directed age. We look to others, desiring their approval so much, that we allow their choices and their lives and their ways and their patterns to dictate to us what we ought to be doing. Being other-centered is not being other-directed. It's not having no guts to our own choices and priorities and no sense of anchoring in the word of God, as opposed to the ways of the world in the way we behave. Being other-centered is not being directed by others, it's being concerned with for the well being of others. It's being driven by a desire to look out for the best interest of someone else other than yourself. That's the kind of other-centeredness that Paul is calling us to hear.

In this passage he speaks of it in giving preference to one another in honor. You know, another encouraging thing a minister gets to see is people who minister in the church not because they want a title, not because they want status, not because they want to be recognized, not because they want a plaque on the wall somewhere, but because they genuinely love. Paul is basically saying here, if you genuinely love, if you love like God wants you to love, you will find yourself giving yourself selflessly and preferring others over yourself.

I want to say, as I looked through this description of love during the last couple of weeks, and especially yesterday and the day before as I was meditating on this about myself, I began to wonder if I had ever loved. So often love is associated with a profound feeling. It may be the love of a husband and a wife. It may be a love of two engaged to be married. It may be the love of a friend and a friend, and in those loves there is locked up so much of a mutual satisfaction that you wonder sometimes how much altruism there is in that love. It may be that there is so much gratification in those love relationships, where you are full and completed and complimented and helped, that the other directives of that love are minimal. Paul is calling us to other-centeredness and love. To give ourselves away in love. If you've been hurt in love, that can be very hard to do. If you have been hurt and disappointed in the church, that can be very hard to do. Paul doesn't tell you to do this because of the hope that the people that you are loving and caring for, because of the hope that they are going to get it right all the time or that they are not going to let you down, or that your love is going to be reciprocated or responded to in the way that you hope it will be. He tells you to do this because of what God has done in you, Romans 12:1 and 2, because of the Spirit He has given you, Romans12:3 through 8, and because of what God has done for you, Romans 1 through 11. That makes all the difference. Let's pray.

Lord and God, help us to love and help us to know what it looks like and then grant us, O Lord, the grace to do it in the face of disappointment because of what You've done for us. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 12:11-16 - A Call to Diligence

If you have your Bible's I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Let's remind ourselves where we've been in Romans chapter 12. In verses 1 and 2, Paul sets forth a Magna Carta for Christian life. It's a grand declaration of some first principles for Christian living and he continues in verses 3 through 8 by talking about how Christians should relate to other believers in the context of addressing the Spirit's gift to the church. He speaks about out platforms for using those gifts in the church. He talks about our serving one another out of humility. He talks about serving one another out of our unity and diversity. He talks about serving one another because the spiritual gifts that God gives to the church are for the purpose of mutual benefit and mutual encouragement.

At that point, Paul moves from this discussion of the employment of these spiritual gifts to talk about virtues that he is interested in seeing in the Christian life, its evidence of the graces of the Spirit. The first one that he chooses to talk about is love. He does that in other places. He does that in Galatians chapter 5. He does that in I Corinthians 13. He transitions from talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit to talking about the priority of love in the Christian life. This is not an unusual thing that he does. In verses 9 and 10 he basically spells out what love means. He describes Christian love as sincere, as godly, as affectionate, and as self-denying and so basically says to us that our love must be real love, discerning love, fervent love, and selfless love.

Now, tonight he begins to talk again about character qualities that he expects to see cultivated in the lives of believers, as well as discussing ways that we need to relate to one another and attitudes that we ought to have about ourselves. Let's hear God's word in Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 11 and reading down to verse 16. This is God's word.

"Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation."

Amen. This is God's word, may He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord and God, as we study this passage filled with grand directives, we pause and acknowledge that just having heard these things, having them in our ears, we realize how far short we fall from what Your Spirit would have done in the lives of Your people and in the body of Christ. We ask, O Lord, that You would grip us with the desire to be like this and that by Your Holy Spirit You would work this growth in grace so that we would resemble not only this description given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, but so that we would resemble Your Son, our Lord. That we might bare His likeness and people might see our discipleship, our trust our belief in Him in the quality of the transformed light evident in our character. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

What are the character qualities of a Christian? How does a Christian relate to others, even persecutors? What ought the Christian attitude be to ourselves? Paul is concerned in this passage to speak to each of those questions. He doesn't say everything that could be said, but he does highlight several important things. He's not going to be finished, for instance, just in these verses addressing the issue of how Christians should relate to non-Christians and to their enemies and to those who persecute them. He's actually going to turn back to that subject again later in this chapter and in this section of the book of Romans.

In this passage tonight he does speak to each of those three questions. What are the character qualities of a Christian? You see that in verses 11 through 13. How does a Christian relate to others, even enemies? You'll see that in verse 14. And what is the Christians attitude to himself? You'll see that in verse 16. Let's look at the passage together.

I. The character qualities of a Christian.

First at verses 11 through 15 where he describes a faithful Christian disciple. A faithful Christian disciple, he says, works, toils. That is going to be the mystery statement. Think about that for a minute, a faithful Christian disciple toils. That is literally what he says, but I'll have to explain that a little bit. He works, he toils, he serves, he rejoices, he perseveres, he prays, he gives, he shares.

Paul gives us eight qualities in this passage. Eight qualities of the disciple of Jesus. Let's just walk through these qualities. I've got to give you a disclaimer at the outset. I've got eight points under point one, three points under point two, three points under three, there is no way I'm going to get through this stuff. It's rich and we will take our time and we will work through what we can get through and do justice to it. Paul starts off by saying, "Not lagging behind in diligence." He's exhorting us as believers in love, not to lag behind in diligence. He is telling us not to be slack in zeal. He is warning us against spiritual laziness. When he tells us that he doesn't want us to lag behind in diligence, the word that he uses combines the ideas of urgency and diligence. This is a stricture against spiritual laziness in the Christians life and a corresponding call to do the opposite comes in the very next phrase.

Now, this is not an argument from Paul against planning. It's not an argument from Paul against being deliberate and careful and measured. Remember, Paul's the one who is going to talk about doing all things "decently and in order" in I Corinthians 14, in the very context of talking about spiritual fervency and diligence. So, those things for the apostle are not mutual exclusives, they are not opposites, they are not things that can't fit together, but Paul is talking about a real urgency and diligence in the Christian life and he's warning Christians against an attitude or posture of spiritual laziness.

That's very important because very often in the Christian life you will hear people talk about sanctification in terms which are, for instance all passive or mainly passive, as if the main thrust of growth in the Christian life was sort of to sit back in your easy chair and 'let go and let God.' That type of view of growth in grace and the Christian life actually contradicts these kinds of Pauline imperatives that we are not to lag behind in diligence. This kind of imperative is typical of the intensity with which the apostle expects us to live the Christian life.

Now again, Paul in this phrase and in the very next phrase is not calling on us all to be the same personality type. He's not calling us all to do the same things or to be the same way. There is going to be a diversity in the Christian church. He's already talked about that. He wants all of us to avoid spiritual laziness and that is where he begins in this list of qualities.

I've always appreciated my mother's attitude towards this. She never felt imposed upon in her duties in the Christian life, but she took them up with gusto and she loved the work, and she loved to work for the Lord, and one of her mottos in life was, "You may be smarter than me, but I'll out work you." She lived that in front of us day by day. She never felt like she was being pushed into doing something against her will. She served in the Christian church. It was something that she delighted in doing. So this kind of call to diligence and avoidance of spiritual laziness certainly came home to her in her Christian experience.

Paul goes on, secondly, to say in contrast to this we aught to be fervent in the Spirit. We are to work with spiritual energy. There should be drive and intensity in our ministrations. This passage translates literally "in the spirit toiling." That's how Paul puts it. He's emphasizing to us something of the intensity that ought to characterize out desire to serve in the Christian church. Isn't it interesting that in Revelation 3:15, one of the charges, one of the severest charges that Jesus brings home against one of the seven Christian churches is the charge of lukewarmness. He goes on to say, "I would rather it be that you were hot or cold." Anything but lukewarm.

Here the apostle is talking about one or the other of those particular manifestations in the Christian life, in this case toiling, that is, in the Spirit. He's calling for a certain enthusiasm in Christian experience. The Christian is to be on fire for God.

Again, this is not a personality description, he is not asking us to act more like Pentecostals in our demeanor in relating to one another. Fire in one's belly can manifest itself in very different ways. One the one hand, there can be people with very obvious outward zeal for the Lord. They may have a zeal for truth, they may have a zeal for love, they may have a zeal for some particular cause that is being threatened in their day and time. On the other hand, zeal can often be manifested in quiet determination. A person who sticks to a particular course and does not vary one way or another. The person does not draw attention to one's self, the person isn't trying to make a name for himself or herself, but he quietly with determination presses on in a particular cause. You need this kind of spiritually derived energy in order to walk faithfully in that way. So, however the manifestation comes, Paul is asking for us to work with the spiritual energy.

That kind of energy is manifested in different ways. For instance, in preaching there was a minister last century named James Henley Thornwell, and as he preached, a person once remarked, "This man preaches as with logic on fire." The comment was, he's clearly, intellectually equipped, he's clearly literate in the Scriptures, but there is an intensity and an enthusiasm about his preaching that is very evident. That is a person who evidencing this kind of spiritual energy in his work.

Thirdly, Paul does on again in verse 11 to say that we ought to be serving the Lord. Serving the Lord. If you're going to be a servant, serve. The apostle, notice again, is concerned that spiritual energy be put to work in Christian service. What's the manifestation of spiritual energy for Paul? Some ecstatic experience that the individual has? No, the great manifestation of spiritual energy in the Christian life is serving the Lord. Not serving our own interest, not seeking to build up our own reputation, not pressing our own agendas, but genuinely doing what we do because we want to please the Lord. From time to time ministers and those involved in Christian work have to ask themselves, "Why are we doing what we are doing?" Sometimes, Christian service can be incredible self-gratifying. When you go out and you teach a lesson and it really helps somebody and they express that to you and it feels good. Or you counsel with somebody and they come back in several weeks later and say, "You know, what you said helped me more than anybody else has helped me," that feels good. After a while you can find yourself serving because you want to hear those kinds of encouragements and you want to be built up by the compliments and the help of the saints and you have to stop and ask yourself, "What am I doing here? Am I serving the Lord, or am I serving myself?" The apostle here is calling us again to serve the Lord. The true evidence of a spiritually originated inner fervency in the Christian life is not ecstasy, it's serving the Lord. Serving Him. Period. Serving His agenda.

Fourthly, look again at verse 12, where Paul says that we are to rejoice in hope, rejoicing in hope. The faithful Christian disciple rejoices in hope. He has an ability to rejoice in light of this profound hope of glory and of salvation to come. Present circumstances cannot remove that rejoicing because present circumstances cannot, in the long run, impact that hope. The hope of future glory in salvation is able to animate our rejoicing even in the midst in the most real and severe and overwhelming trials in this life. If our ultimate hope was derived even from the desire that bad situations we are in now will eventually become good, we could not rejoice in all circumstance. Not all the bad circumstances that we are in now will be good in the long run in our lives. There will be some things that will never be rectified in this live. That hope of glory, however, enables us to rejoice in every circumstance Paul says, rejoicing in hope.

Then fifthly he says, that we are to be persevere in tribulation. His language is to say that we are to endure in the midst of deep and serious trouble. That is an important and a practical New Testament imperative. When the Spirit enables us to perseverance, the spirit enables us to not simply bear up under stress, to survive the things that we are going through, but the Spirit enables us to continue to be useful in kingdom service despite that stress and despite that trial. Paul is calling on us to manifest this in our Christian life and experience. Persevering in tribulation.

Look again at verse 12, "Devoted to prayer," he says. Pray faithfully and constantly. Be devoted to prayer. Persistent prayer is of course a part of the Christian life. We could pile up examples of the statements of godly men about prayer over the years to emphasis this. C.H. Spurgeon, for instance said, "A prayer-less soul is a Christ-less soul." Matthew Henry once said that "Those who live without prayer live without God in this world." Calvin believed that prayer was the summary evidence of everything in the Christian life. The Apostle Paul is here calling us to be faithful and persistent in our prayer as a necessary part of the Christian life.

Seventh, he goes on in verse 13 to speak of our giving generously to needy Christians without any condescension. Notice in his phrase, "contributing to the needs of the saints." That is a very interesting passage and it's harder to translate than it might sound. "Contributing to the needs of the saints" sounds fairly straight forward, but the word for contributing here is actually the verbal form of the word that you frequently hear translated as fellowship. You use the word even in English koinonia to talk about Christian fellowship. That word actually means to share in or having a share in. This is the verbal form of that particular word. It's speaking of a sharing between Christians. Paul is calling on Christians to give generously to those Christians who are in need. There is a connection between fellowship and sharing in the church. Fellowship is actually shared life. Paul is calling on Christians who are part of the Christian fellowship, or shared life to tangibly share with one another especially those who are in need.

Then he adds to that, in verse 13, practice hospitality. When I first looked at this, I thought, well maybe he's saying the same thing in two different phrases. That is of course possible, but it's more likely that Paul is thinking in the first part of that phrase about Christians who are part of the local congregation and in the second part of the phrase he's thinking about Christians who are not part of that local congregation. The word hospitality actually means, kindness to strangers. Of course, that is a very important part of life in the early Christian church. If you were persecuted in one region and fled to another, the only family you might have to go to is the Christian congregation in that other region, and if you were a member of the Christian congregation in that other region you might find yourself bringing someone in your home who you've never met before only because that person is a Christian. When Dr. Doriani was here he talked about the importance of realizing there is not only a natural family that the Bible talks about, but there is a spiritual family and we have a kinship to one another. Jesus talked about that constantly in His own stories to the disciples. Do you remember where He talked to the disciples about if they gave up their natural families for His sake, that the Lord would give them one hundred fold what they gave up in the earthly family. So Paul here is giving this exhortation to us to take in brothers who are strangers for the sake of the gospel, to practice hospitality to brothers in the Lord who you don't know.

Now, our congregation has opportunity to do that from time to time. You do that in the missions conference. The word hospitality here shouldn't immediately cause your mind to run to china and silverware and crystal and perfect houses. This is kindness to strangers who are brothers and sisters in Christ in time of need. Willingness to take them in and care for them and to show them love. When I went to Britain to study I was taken in by Christians who were total strangers to me and to whom I was a total stranger and I was shown many manifestations of Christian love for which I am profoundly grateful. They were practicing what Paul speaks of here as hospitality. Paul is saying, when you see these kinds of things in a person's life, you are seeing the grace of the Holy Spirit at work.

I'd like to suggest to you that a very helpful exercise for you would be not simply to go through this list and ask, "Well Lord, to what extent does this characterize me," but actually go through the list and say, "Lord, cultivate this quality in me. Lord, you called me not to lag behind in diligence. Make me diligent in your kingdom, Lord. You call me to be fervent in the spirit, so by your Holy Spirit cause me to be on fire for God. You called me to serve the Lord. Make sure, O Lord by Your Spirit that I don't serve myself or my own self interest, but that I serve the Lord." Turn it into a prayer; reverse it. You see the character qualities listed by God? Well, pray them back to Him. You can be sure that He will be anxious to respond to that particular prayer. So there you see some character qualities of the disciples of Jesus as set forth by the Apostle Paul. You see why you really can take much longer to do justice to this passage.

II. How the Christian relates to others, even enemies.

In verse 14 and 15, Paul turns from the subject of character qualities to talk about relating to others. He talks about relating not only to those with whom we might be on a friendly basis, but about relating to those who are enemies. He tells us here that the faithful Christian disciple blesses and refrains from cursing and sympathizes with others. He gives us three imperatives for relating to others.

The first one you see in verse 14, it's perhaps the most surprising where he says, "Seek God's blessings on your persecutors. Bless those who persecute you." Then he repeats just in case we didn't hear him the first time. "Bless and do not curse." He knows how hard this particular directive is and so he repeats it and states it in the negative. This is an utterly otherworldly approach to ones enemies. You know, you've heard a lot in the media over the last few months how Islam and Christianity are the same. It's these kinds of directives, in comparison to the coordinate directive in the, Koran that set Christianity and Islam in bold relief. Look at how Islam used those outside of the brotherhood of Islam and then look at these kinds of directives peppered throughout the New Testament, and you'll see one of the real ethical divides between those two religions. At any rate, Paul is calling on us here to bless those who persecute us.

This isn't the only thing that Christians are to do in relation to persecution, this isn't a directive saying that, for instance, that you are never to do anything to avoid being persecuted. It doesn't say that you can never protect yourself and seek legal protection from persecutors. Paul, interestingly in the course of his ministry, took at least two different tacts to those who were persecuting him. Sometimes Paul let himself be persecuted, despite the fact that he could have sought legal refuge from that persecution. The choice that he made was usually dependant upon what would best serve the interest of the kingdom. Other times, Paul avoided that persecution by seeking legal protection. You can watch him do it on his missionary journey. Paul is not telling you everything about how you relate to persecutors, but he is saying, "Here is the big picture." I do not want your hearts to grow narrowed and hardened against those who are now your enemies and the enemies of God. I want your hearts to be large with them and to desire God's blessings on them.

Then he goes on to give two other words about relating to others. "Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep." For one thing this reminds of that the Christian has a generous spirit in relating to others and has a tremendous concern for the state of hearts for others. The Christian isn't insensitive to the state of another person's heart. The first directive I think, here in verse 15, is the hardest of these two directions. I think that it is harder to rejoice with those who rejoice than it is to weep with those who weep. Many of you, just because God has cultivated a Christian Spirit in you, find it easy to sympathize and empathize with those who are going through difficulty. Of course, there is always the challenge of ministering to someone who is going through something that you have never, ever gone through. I understand there are all sort of choices and difficulties there, but in rejoicing with those who rejoice, I think we manifest our Christian love in an extraordinary way. It is perhaps harder than mourning with those who are in mourning. Why?

Often times we are called upon to rejoice with other people for whom God has granted a certain blessing that he has not granted to us. When my wife and I were at Reformed Seminary, we longed to have children and we were unable to. A ministry really developed for my wife and we discovered there were several other young women at the seminary who were unable to have children and she developed a community of fellowship with many of those woman because they knew that she understood what they were going through not being able to have children. When we conceived Sarah Kennedy, it is amazing how difficult it was for some of those women to be able to rejoice with Anne. Now, I don't say that as a criticism. I understand that entirely. We ourselves had experienced that when friends conceived and were going to have children. It is difficult to rejoice with them in the very thing that you are waiting upon for the Lord to do in your own experience, but isn't it a mark of grace when you are able to do so. Paul is calling on us here to rejoice with those who are rejoicing as well to weep with those who weep. So, those imperatives he gives for our relating to others.

III. The Christian's attitude toward himself.

Then we come back to verse 16. Again he give three directives regarding our attitude towards others and our own self-estimation. He tells us that basically the basic Christian disciple is humble. He tells us in verse 16, the very first part of the verse, "be of the same mind toward one another." In other words, have the same concern for all the brethren. Favoritism is pandemic in life. Favoritism is everywhere, it's universal. Paul is saying that in the Christian church we ought to contradict that epidemic. We ought to have a love for all the brethren, have the same concern for all the brethren. It doesn't mean that you don't have friends that who are especially close, but it means that you guard against the spirit of favoritism in the congregation.

He goes on to say, "do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly." In other words, don't think to highly of yourself. Don't think that there are some people within the Christian church who are just frankly, beneath you. An over estimation of one's own self importance is a sure sign that gospel humility is lacking in an individual. When a person becomes too important to do something, well that's not a good spiritual sign. I will not tell his name because there are family relations present, but my wife once went to a seminary and met a person who was a high ranking official at that seminary. She was with me while I was teaching there for a couple of week, and the administrator, at the end of the day, was going around the classroom empting trash cans. My wife caught that immediately and loved him on the spot for it, because there was a person who could have thought of himself as above certain things, who was giving himself to even menial tasks in the church. Paul is saying that that type of attitude in service ought to also be there in our relationships. Even when we are really different from other people, even when people are from a different socioeconomic standing than us, even when they are in different social situations than we are in , we ought to be ready to associate with everyone in the Christian church.

Then he goes on to conclude by saying, "Do not be wise in your own estimation." Don't be conceited, don't be wise in your own sight. This again is a mark of a lack of spiritual grace in a person's life. Humility is one of the great graces of life and Robert Haldane says that "self conceit is an evidence both of a weakness of mind and of ignorance." I once knew a very gifted seminary student who went off and did graduate study. He sat through many false teachings during his Bible studies and came back to minister, thinking himself much smarter than those who were his teachers in seminary and his pastors growing up, and even his family relations and friends back home. He thought very highly of himself. I had four conversations with him. I have never gotten a word in edgewise. I remember a friend of his, who is now a church planter, saying to me, "So and so is educated beyond his intelligence." It was a very apt way of explaining this person. Though he may have been educated beyond his intelligence, he was far less intelligent than he thought himself. The apostle is bringing this to bare on all of us. None of us ought to think to highly of ourselves. When we do, we are waiting for a fall. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, these words are so practical and they hit so close to home with all of us that we now pray that by your Holy Spirit You would give us a heart that we would want to be like this. That we would want to manifest the graces of the Spirit in our lives. That we would show humility and that we would show sympathy, and that we would show these qualities of life that are brought in your people by the Spirit of God. Bring this about, we pray, that we might be a better testimony to You and the world and that we might please You. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 12: 17-21 - A Call to Seek Peace

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 12 as we continue to work our way through this great book of the gospel written by the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In this whole chapter Paul has been delivering practical direction for Christian living. The things that he calls us to do in this chapter are very hard to do in a fallen world. The kinds of instructions that he gives are practical and understandable. If you have ever been in the circumstance of being called upon to do these things when you have been wounded or offended, or persecuted, or abused by the person to whom you are called to do this, then it is an entirely different matter. That's why all of the previous eleven chapters of Romans serve as a preface to Romans 12 and are absolutely essential for appreciating what Paul is calling on us to do here. Paul is just not throwing out a few ethical standards in saying, "Go out and live that way," because nobody could just go out and live the way that Paul describes here. Paul is the first one to tell you that. This isn't an ethical system that is practical or obtainable by someone who hasn't been transformed by grace. The Apostle Paul knows that. That's why he spent eleven chapters telling you about the grace of God before he got to his ethical system. That's so important for us to understand as Christians.

One of the things that is so distinctive about Christianity is not simply the beauty and the loveliness of the moral life to which the Christian is called, but the fact that God realized that it would be utterly impracticable and unobtainable were it not for the Holy Spirit indwelling us, were it not for God's grace enabling us. So, when the Apostle calls on you to do these things, bear in mind that the Apostle himself understands that it is only God's grace, operative in us, that enables us to live this way.

Secondly, we also have to remember the controlling principle that we learned in verses 1 and 2 in Romans chapter 12, before the rest of these directions fall into place. In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, the apostle has urged us to lay ourselves on the altar, to be ready to die for Christ. He's asserted that the Lord Jesus wants all of us. He wants our heart, He wants our bodies, He wants the totality of our lives. Therefore, Paul is saying that in every circumstance, in every relationship, we must factor in our service of the Lord Jesus. For instance, when I'm going through a particular trial, my only concern or my prime concern cannot be, "Well, how am I going to get through this? This discourages me, it causes me doubts, I'm having difficulty coping. How am I going to get through then?" If what Paul says in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 is true, and it is, it's God's word, then we have to be asking, "In these difficult trials and circumstances of life, how am I going to be a witness to God in this?" Since I have laid myself on the altar, I've died to self, I live for the Lord Jesus Christ. His honor is at stake in how I respond in the circumstance. See, that's not even a question on our plate. If that's not part of our agenda, then there is no way that we are going to be able to do the other things that Paul calls us to do in this passage, I might add, especially in the verses we are going to study tonight.

So, Paul has been thinking with us in verse 3 all the way down to verse 16 about our relationships with believers. He's given direction after direction, imperative after imperative, character quality description after character quality description, in order to show us what Christians ought to be doing, expressing their Christian living in relationship with one another.

Now, when we get to verse 17, he turns his attention on how we ought to relate to those who do not profess the faith how we ought to relate to those who are unbelievers, how we ought to relate to those who are pagans. I don't use that word in a derogatory way, I use it in a descriptive way. It's a very good description of someone who is not a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, a pagan. He's telling us how we ought to relate to pagans, how we ought to relate to the world, in other words.

It's not that what he says here doesn't apply to our relationships with one another as believers, or that that subject is completely our of his mind, but it is that the focus of his concern, it's very clear, the focus of his concern is our relationship with the world and our consequent witness to the world. Paul knows that our relationship to the world is fundamental to our witness to the world. I am going to make that argument several times tonight. Our relationship to the world, and the way the world perceives our quality of life, is fundamental to our witness to the world. So he's calling on us to think about how we relate to the world.

Now, one warning here as we look at these verses. You will miss Paul's point in these verses if you think that he is ruling out the magistrate, the military, and the judicial system applying justice and judgment in the world. If you think that what Paul is about to say rules out the possibility of the civil magistrate, the government, the military, or the judicial system ever bringing to bear justice in any given situation, you'll miss what Paul is talking about. He is primarily thinking here about our personal relationships. I can prove that folks. What is the very next thing he is going to talk about? Romans 13, 1 through 7: the government. One of the things that he is going to say in that section is, "The government does not bare the sword for nothing." Now a sword isn't to hang up on the wall and look impressive; a sword is to chop people's head off. So, Paul is not denying that there are circumstances and institutions in society that are called upon to administer justice and judgment against evildoers. He is concerned that in our personal relationships, our kindness and our goodness and the qualities of compassion and mercy, and forbearance, and non-retaliation, and non revenge would show through in the way that we relate to the world so that it grabs the world and makes the world think for a few fleeting moments, "Ya know, those Christians, they really are different." With that in mind as an overlong introduction, let's hear God's word beginning in Romans chapter 12 verse 17:

"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Amen and thus ends this reading with God's holy and inspired and inerrant word, may He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Father we thank You for this word. We are convicted just in the reading of this word. We need the grace of Your Holy Spirit not just to understand what Paul, what You are teaching us here, but to do, to live what You are teaching us here. Grant that it would be so for our good, for our witness, for Your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.

It's a great passage isn't it? It's almost like Paul haphazardly heaps up all these directions on how we are to live. How do you organize this? With difficulty I assure you. Paul is a good teacher, he repeats himself, you've already just in glancing at this passage tonight noticed that he has repeated certain themes in verses 14 ,and verses17, and verse 19. He's a good teacher and he knows you need to hear over and over.

I'm going to outline this in four parts. I'd like to give you just a couple of words for each of the sections to get it in your mind. In verse 17, just the first half of that verse and then in verses 19 and 20 one theme seems to refrain: reject revenge. That's what Paul is saying, reject revenge. Then if you allow your eyes to scan back to the second half of verse 17 you see this theme: live the good. Now don't ask me to explain that right now. I will explain it in a few moments. Live the good. Reject revenge. Then in verse 18, Paul says: pursue peace. In verse 21: over come evil with good. I'd like to look at those four grand themes that pervade the section with you for a few moments.

I. Reject revenge.

First look at verse 17, then allow your eyes to fall down to verses 19 and 20. Here Paul is giving us a restraint against the natural instinct to retaliation. When somebody punches you in the nose, you get mad. It happens, the natural instinct, the fists are clinched, the blood rushes to your head, and you are ready for some sort of retaliation, even if it's running. You're looking for some form of retaliation, and revenge is an unfortunately, natural instinct of the fallen human soul. Paul is offering to Christians here an exhortation, a restraint to this instinct of retaliation. He's saying to us that in our personal relationships with the world, he wants us to reject the inclination to revenge and he wants us to show kindness instead. The instinct is revenge. He says, reject that inclination to revenge and instead show kindness. Look at what Paul says, in verse 17. Paul's language is absolutely emphatic. He uses a particular form that makes it clear that he is saying that Christians should repay evil with absolutely no one at all, Jew or Gentile, Pagan or otherwise. He wants us not to be in the habit of repaying evil for evil, but the very opposite.

He goes on in verse 19 to expand on this very point, don't repay evil for evil. He goes on in verse 19 to outright repute revenge. He says that we are not to take on the spirit of revenge, we are not to take to our selves that right which God holds for vengeance in this temporal world, that which resides with the state and with the justice system and with the military. With regard to our personal relationships, we are not to take on that spirit of revenge or the act of revenge and he explains in verse 19 why this is and how we are able to do it. Look at what he says, "For it is written, vengeance is Mine, I will repay." Paul is not saying, don't take revenge my friend, and never worry again about justice being done. He's saying, my friend you can leave the issue of justice and even vengeance in the hands of almighty God. He has not said, vengeance is not mine and I'll never do it. He said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay."

Therefore the application for justice and judgment that God Himself will deliver will be better than anything you could have ever though of. Not because God is petty, not because God has a small unforgiving heart, but precisely because God has a perfectly just heart. He will settle accounts. And every Christian should live in this world forbearing personal offenses, not because those personal offenses will never be righted, but certain that one day, one way or another those offenses will be righted. The Christian, as he or she grows, no doubt grows hoping those offenses will be righted one day in the mercy of God when that person's heart is changed. All along there is that realization in the back of the believer's mind that there is a day of judgment and that day will be a day of recompense. You can safely leave that recompense to God. He'll handle it. He'll handle it better than you will. He'll handle it with more justice than you would, but He will handle it. Because of that, the Christian can rest in the deliverance of justice that God will bring.

You see God's not saying that you must personally forgo justice in your experience eternally. That's not what God is saying to you as a believer. He's saying, "My child, I'll take care of this. Your business now, is to love your enemy, but I will settle these accounts, trust Me. Leave it with Me." So the apostle reminds us of that, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." Therefore we are to leave room for the wrath of God.

We are not only to refrain from revenge, Paul says in verse 20, we are even to do acts of kindness toward those who have offended us. Those acts of kindness are not merely to be mental, "Ok I'm going to think nice thoughts about my enemy." Those acts of kindness are to be tangible; if my enemy is hungry, I am to feed him, thirsty, I am to give him drink. I am to tangibly minister to his needs. Paul explains in verse 20 that that will bring a conviction upon those who offend us and perhaps it will lead them to repentance, "In so doing you will heap coals of fire upon their head." You will bring conviction to them. Now mind you, that conviction can cut in two different directions. Sometimes when the sinner is convicted he responds with an obstinate hatred that is even more intense than his previous hatred for those who have done right and well.

I know not all of you are fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of The Rings, but there is a great incident in the books, it actually happens in the third volume of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. One of the heroes in the books meets an evil wizard who has been cast down from his high estate and the wizard attempts to kill him. When he attempts to kill him, all his friends come to his rescue and attempt to kill the wizard, and the hero says, No don't do it." I want to read the section, it is very instructive on what happens sometimes when you show mercy. "No Sam," said Frodo speaking to Sam, who was going to bring revenge to the wizard. "Do no kill him even now for he has not hurt me and in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once of a noble kind that we should not dare raise our hands against. He has fallen and his cure is beyond us, but I would still spare him in hope that he may find it." Saruman, the wizard rose to his feet and started at Frodo. There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect, and hatred. "You have grown Hafling," he said. "Yes you have grown very much. You are wise and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness and now I must go hence in bitterness in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you."

Paul is perfectly aware that that is sometime the response to our mercy. That is, in fact, sometimes the response to our forbearance and our refusal to take revenge and our acts of kindnesses and our acts of kindness to those who have wronged us. Of course, the believer holds out hope that this would not be so. Think of Elisabeth Elliot. Word comes that her husband and his fellow missionaries have been killed by the Indians in the Amazon to whom they had gone to minister. In her heart comes, what? A love for those Indians that compels her into the wilderness of Brazil to minister the gospel to them. God honors that love.

Or think of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We are told in the gospels, that at the beginning of the day, two thieves were hurling abuse at Him and mocking Him. But at the end of the day, we are also told in the gospel that one thief, one of those thieves, one of those robbers, is defending His honor and begging Him for forgiveness and mercy. You see, the mercy of the Lord Jesus, even in the hour of His death, heaped coals of fire upon that man's head. That conviction was wrought by grace for salvation. That is our desire in dealing with those who have offended us.

Jim Phillips says, "The test of reality in Christian profession is scene when life turns against the believer." That's where your mettle is tested. That's where the grace of God in you is tested. That's where the fruit of the Spirit is tested in you. When life turns against you, how you respond shows some measure of the grace in you. The distinctive behavior of Christians in this area is to bare witness to the world of the truth of the gospel. They say they are struck, but they strike not back. What are these men, what are these women? Where does this come from. Paul teaches us here to reject revenge.

II. Live the good.

Look with me at the second half of verse 17. Here he says, live the good. In other words, Paul is saying that he wants us to cultivate a regard for what is seen to be good and right in common grace by even unregenerate men. In other words, he's saying that in our personal relationships with the world, do those good things that are recognized to be good even by Pagans. Do those things that even the Pagans understand are good.

This passage is unclear in the New American Standard Version. It says,' respect what is right in the sight of men.' It makes you think you are going to sort of sit back and think well about what men think is good. The ESV translates a little better, 'give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.' Paul is not asking you to theoretically think about how nice it is that Pagans think that some things are good. He's asking you to live that way. This doesn't mean to do what is right in the sight of the world as opposed to what God says in His word. It doesn't mean to follow the moral maximum of the age rather than the word of God, but it does mean that even pagans, even pagans still have a sense of right and wrong. They have it via the image of God, which is implanted in every human being, every human being. They have it via general revelation. They have it via common sense. Though all of those things are impacted in one way or another by the fall and by sin, yet so often pagans can still recognize a person who is upright and even admire that person. Paul is saying, do those things which are good, which even pagan society recognize as good, and do it for the sake of your witness.

Tertullian, in the days of the early church and recorded in his Apology, the words of a heathen, a pagan in Rome, who said, "Gaius Seius is a good man even though he is a Christian." It was the attitude of the heathen in ancient Rome, these Christians they are sort of substandard human beings, they don't live up to the moral quality of a virtuous Roman, but the life of some Christian has caused this one pagan to say, you know these Christians, they are good people, even though they are Christians. The apostle is saying, I want people to look at you and say, ya know even though he's a Christian, even though he's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he believes the gospel — can you imagine somebody believing that gospel, he's a good person. Your life is to confront them with the reality of its moral quality and thus bring a beautiful witness to Jesus.

The greatest single barrier my friends, the greatest single barrier to our witness and evangelism to the world is that we do not bare the mark of goodness in us. The world looks at us and they say, "You are no different from us." You are no different. In many cases we are better. You have heard the conversations, you have stood around with Christians before who said, "I'm not going to go to a Christians doctor, I'm not going to go to a Christian mechanic, I'm not going to go to a Christian attorney, I'm not going to go to a Christian business because they can't be trusted." That testimony is a sham. That is exactly what the apostle is saying needs to be avoided in our conduct. They ought to say, the pagan world around us ought to say, "Even though he's a Christian, he does the best job of anyone. Even though he is a Christian, he's the most upstanding moral person I know. Even though I don't respect what he believes, his life bears a quality of goodness that I can't deny." That's what Paul's saying there in verse 17.

III. Pursue peace.

Then in verse 18, he gives us this plea for peace. He calls us to pursue peace. He tells us that in our personal relationships with the world, we are to aim for a principle of peace. Notice three things in this little verse. He says, if possible, Paul makes it clear that it is not always a possibility to be at peace with the world. Secondly, notice he says, so far as it depends on you. Paul makes it clear that peace does not depend on the actions of Christians. It takes two and cooperation in order to have peace and you can't control the other end of that too. But he's saying; if there is not peace, let it be their fault, Christian. Let it be the pagan's fault. If there is not peace, let it be their fault, Christians. Let it be the pagan's fault. Don't let it be your fault. If there is not peace, don't let anybody say that it was because of what you did. Don't you instigate the peace breaking, don't you disrupt the peace. Let the pagan disrupt the peace, but in so far as is possible, as far as it depends on you, you be at peace with all men. We live in a world of peace breaking. Paul is saying that he wants us to be a part of peace making instead.

IV. Overcome evil with good.

Finally if you look at verse 21, he gives us a key to the defeat of evil in this world. Overcome evil with good. Paul is saying that in our personal relationships with the world, the cycle of evil can only be broken by good. You see, Paul doesn't intend that we should be defeated in this life by the forces of evil that we encounter and from which we sometimes suffer, but we cannot he says, we cannot fight fire with fire. In this instance we have to use a different weapon. Our tact must be unworldly and other worldly. It must be distinctively derived from the way Jesus behaved in this world as people offended Him. The key to overcoming evil is to employ the good to do it. The cycle of evil can only be overcome, can only be broken by good.

William Hendriksen tells the story of a pastor who left a church because of a moral offense. Now, most of the congregation didn't know about his moral failure. He was extremely popular; he was extremely well loved. When the next pastor came along, there were many people who didn't like him. They liked their previous pastor though they didn't know some of the failings of their previous pastor. They didn't know his moral failings. So when this man met one particular gentleman in the congregation, the man met him with these words, you're not my pastor. It hurt. Now what was the temptation of that new man coming in that circumstance? To tear down the reputation of the former pastor. Well, I could tell you a few things about your former pastor. He did not do that. Three or so months later, the man who said those very mean words to him became seriously ill. Quietly, lovingly, steadily the new pastor ministered to him in his hospital and in his home. After many months the man said to him, you have become my pastor and I thank you. You see, that man had two great challenges. The first great challenge was to respond with goodness initially when he had been dealt with evil. The second challenge was when that man had come around to continue to respond to him in love and say, you don't deserve me to be your pastor the way you've acted toward me, but to continue in love, evil can only be overcome by such goodness.

We are more than conquerors and so we can only conquer the cycle of evil with Christ weapons and so foil our foes with joy. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your word and we realize with all our hearts that we are incapable of living this way apart from the aid of Your holy spirit and His divine grace. So, Lord command what You will and give what You command. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 13

A Christian Response to the 2012 Elections - Romans 13:1-7

One of my interns pointed out to me that four of the sermons in the Romans series had, for one reason or another, not been recorded, so we had an entire series of messages covering from Romans 1 all the way to Romans 16, but we were missing four of them. And in order to complete that series, which that intern is turning into a series of articles that are being published in The Madison County Journal, he suggested that we try and find a place sometime where we could address those passages in Romans. And I looked at the passages and low and behold they were from Romans 13, 14, 15, and 7. And when I looked at the topics that they covered — Romans 13, which deals with the Christian's relation to government, Romans 14, which deals with Christian freedom, Romans 7, which deals with the Christian's struggle with ongoing sin, and Romans 15, which deals with Paul's priority in ministry — I said, "Well there's a little sermon series wrapped up in those four passages!" It was just a couple of weeks before the election and I already knew folks were praying regularly in the congregation regularly, I had been talking to so many folks here at First Presbyterian Church who had been faithfully, regularly praying for the upcoming elections, I thought, "We're finishing our series in the Psalms and just a week or so after the elections there's going to be a slot on Sunday evening, wouldn't it be a helpful thing for us as a congregation to think through again what Paul tells Christians about how we're to relate to civil government?" And so that's sort of how we got here. And I wanted to make that clear. In fact, next Lord's Day, God willing, we'll be looking at two passages from Romans in the morning and the evening, and then maybe we'll finally get to Romans 15 sometime in the new year because we're going to do a Christmas series on Christ in the Old Testament called, "An Ancient Christmas — The Coming of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament" during the month of December.

But tonight, we have an opportunity to look at Romans chapter 13 verses 1 to 7. Now let me say a few other words by way of preface to this particular passage. If we were going to do this passage justice, I would need to spend some time explaining to you four views of the way the church and Christians relate to the state, the government, that have been utilized and deployed and believed over the course of Christian history. They are Erastianism, Constantinianism, they are, in addition to that, the view of cooperation and the view of theocracy. There's one view that says the church ought to be over the state. There's another view that says the state ought to be over the church. There's another view that says the state establishes the church and the church renders certain responsibilities to the state in order to stay in favor and power. And then there's a view, and this is the view that has been held during most of protestant history, that the church and the state are distinct but that they are actually partners in cooperation for the good of the subjects in a particular realm.

Well I'm not going to address those things tonight. There are excellent discussions of those things in many of the commentaries, including John Stott's little commentary in The Bible Speaks Today series on this passage, and I commend them to you. In fact, I may even post them at some point. If I were to discuss this passage in detail I would also need to compare this passage in Romans to other passages in the New Testament which address the issue of the Christian's relation to the state. And though I'm briefly going to do that tonight, there's no way that I can exhaustively do that. You know it was very tempting to me to spend all my time on that kind of introductory material so that I could get out of addressing the really hard questions, but I thought that it would actually be more helpful to you if I addressed some of the hard questions. So I'm not going to do that kind of introductory material, as important and as useful as it is. For instance, when you compare Romans 13 which was written in the 60s, AD 60, and you compare it to, say, the book of Revelation which may have been written in the 90s, there is clearly a more negative view of Rome as a nation and empire in John's depiction in the book of Revelation than you find here in Romans 13. And it raises the question, "What do we make of that?" That's a very legitimate question to study, but I'm not going to spend my time on all the kind of introductory material, as useful and helpful as it might be.

I want to concentrate on three things in particular tonight. First, I want you to appreciate what Paul says in this passage that actually helps Christians precisely in the social and cultural moment that we find ourselves right now. Secondly, I want you to see what Paul says here how it helps us to know how to pray for our country, for our nation, for our government, for the culture, for our community, for our unbelieving fellow citizens. And then third, I want you to see how what Paul says here teaches us how we may engage as Christians in our own day and time with the society and culture in which we live. I want to do those three things together tonight. Before we read Romans 13 verses 1 to 7, let's look to God in prayer and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word and we find Your Word timely at all times, and especially in this season of our national life. We ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things from Your Word, that You would teach us hearts that are ready to embrace that Word and put it into practice. We pray that You would encourage us by what we study tonight, and we ask that You would enable us to glorify You, not only in our private lives and in our families, but in our civic life. We want to bear a strong, brave, but also winsome and compelling testimony to Jesus Christ in the way that we conduct ourselves in society. Give us the grace to do that, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now let's hear the Word of God from Romans 13, verses 1 to 7:

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, the avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

When I was preparing for the worship services related to the inauguration of our previous governor, Governor Barbour, both his first and his second inaugural, Governor Barbour specifically asked me not to read this passage during his inaugural service, not because he doubted their authority as the word of God, no he affirms every word of the Scripture as God's authoritative, inspired, inerrant Word, but because this passage has a note of calling on Christians to show subjection to civil authorities, and Governor Barbour did not want to send the message that you needed to be in subjection to him. He wanted to send the message that he was responsible to God, that he had particular responsibilities in the exercise of his governing authority to the living God, not that you had a responsibility to be subject to him. He also didn't like the idea of implying that he was some sort of king. And so he asked me politely and deferentially if I would find some other passages. And he had some other passages to suggest and we used those in the inaugural ceremony.

Well that's very significant because you could read this passage to be calling on believers to give an absolute unqualified submission to government authority, no matter how evil it is. Is this passage really saying that Christians, under no circumstances, may ever oppose a Hitler, a Stalin, a Chairman Mao, a Pol Pot, or fill in any of the tyrannical despots who've existed over the course of human history? Is that what Paul is saying? No. No, it's not. But what he is saying is very, very helpful to us precisely where we are right now in this cultural moment. Because I believe that one of the things that we learned in the most recent election, and it's something that we've been seeing coming for some time, but we learned, I think, perhaps in a way that we haven't before, that things are not the way they used to be. I was recently talking to a senior member of this congregation and he asked me a very poignant question. He said, "Do you think things will ever be again like they used to be?" He was speaking of these kinds of cultural and moral and spiritual issues that came to the fore in the last election. And I had to shake my head sadly and say, "No, I don't believe things will ever be again like they used to be." But Christian, do not be discouraged because God is sovereign and He has appointed us, Esther-like, for such a time as this.

What do we do then? Paul has wisdom for us. He has wisdom for us in how we respond to this cultural moment. He has wisdom for us in how we pray in this cultural moment. And He has wisdom for us in how we engage in this cultural moment. Respond, engage, pray. Let me walk those things through with you for just a few moments.

WISDOM FOR THIS CULTURAL MOMENT

First, Paul has wisdom for us in how we respond in this cultural moment. His words are liberating for the Christian, not enslaving. In other words, when he calls on us to acknowledge the authority of the government and to respect the authority of the government, Paul's purpose is not to relegate Christians to an absolute submission to unjust despots, but to alleviate consciences of the inevitable conundrums that Christians face in all societies. Think of it, my friends. These Christians in Rome were living under Nero! Paul is writing this letter while Nero is the Caesar. Nero's justice system will eventually put Paul to death. Now can you imagine the kind of ethical conundrums that Christians would have had under that situation? You're a Christian, you live in Asia Minor or you live in Rome, and you begin to ask yourself, "Should I pay taxes? I mean, after all, my tax money is going to a government that is actively persecuting Christians. Surely it would be wrong for me to pay taxes because if I pay taxes because if I pay taxes I'm paying taxes that will at least in part go to the persecution of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ." And then you don't pay taxes and then you find yourself the object of even more aggressive persecution by the Roman authorities. And what Paul is saying in this passage is, "Christian, don't tie yourself up in knots about that kind of question because there is no end to that question. You understand that in all human societies, all governments, even the best of them, do things that are immoral and if Christians must not pay taxes because of any immorality done by a government, guess what? We can't pay taxes anywhere."

Now that may be happy news for some of you, but in fact it puts us in a very difficult situation and that's exactly what Paul is addressing here. He's saying, "No, no, no. Roman Christians, don't paint yourselves in a corner where you have to either go off the grid or come out swinging against this multi-national empire. No, you have liberty because God is in fact sovereign over this government of this empire in which you live. And you don't have to figure out personally all the ins and outs of where every aspect of your tax money is going to or whether your subjection to that government is in fact furthering aims that it has that are contrary to the Christian cause because God is in control of this." You see, Paul is saying this in order to alleviate Christian's consciences, not to burden them. This is quite important for us to remember.

It's also important for us to remember that this is not the only thing that the Bible says about a believer's relationship to an unjust state. Let me point you to four other examples. In the book of Exodus, in the very opening verses, we encounter a command of Pharaoh to the Hebrew midwives that they are to put to death the children, of the male children, who are born to the Hebrews. Do those Hebrew midwives follow Romans 13, if I can speak anachronistically, in such a way that they say, "Well, Pharaoh told me that I need to put to death the male children of the Hebrews so I guess in order to show my respect for the government, I guess I'm just going to do that." No. The Hebrew midwives defy Pharaoh's authority and they're commended for it by God. They're commended by Moses for defying Pharaoh's authority. In fact, one of the beautiful things that happening in the opening chapter of Exodus is this. Pharaoh, in Egypt, is worshiped as a god, and he declares that his will is for the male Hebrew children to die, and these Hebrew midwives, not high up on the social hierarchy of Egypt, but slave women in the land of Goshen, thwart the will of the one who is supposedly the god of Egypt. It's a way that God is mocking Pharaoh. He's saying, "Oh, Pharaoh, you're a god? Oh let's see. I'll choose some slave women to thwart your will to show that I am sovereign." And so they are not required to give in to what the government tells them to do.

Another example is of course the situation with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego under Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar calls upon everyone to bow to a golden image of him. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, "No, we're not going to worship that image, king." Not long after that, you'll remember Darius, the Mede, commanded that no one should pray to anyone but him. And what did Daniel do? He opened up his windows just like he always did and he prayed not to Darius but to the living God. Was he violating Romans 13? No. And think of the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 4 and 5 when they commanded Peter not to preach in Jesus' name. What did Peter say? "We must obey God rather than men."

Now in all of those cases, we see godly believers defying wicked, despotic authority. So Romans 13 is not the whole story. You have to put all that the Bible says about the believers' response to government together to have a full picture. But what Paul is doing is saying, "Christian, don't paint yourself into a corner." We are likely going to have a very real situation, soon, where we are asking ourselves, "To what extent may we participate in an HHS mandate that requires us to do things that are against our conscience as informed by Christians?" Already you may know that there are many, many universities and hospitals across our country that have been prepared to oppose in the courts a mandate that would require them to supply abortifacient contraceptives to all of those who are insured under their health plan. That is a situation that is going to come upon us sooner rather than later, and it will raise in the minds of many Christians, "Can I be involved at all in supporting a government that does things like this?" Paul is saying, "Christian, don't paint yourself into a corner too quickly."

And notice by the way that the situations in the Bible in which believers defy unbiblical authority in the government are very direct circumstances. The Hebrew midwives, it's the issue of murder, just like Ralph was talking about tonight. You're told you must murder, the answer as a believer is, "No, I will not." Or the issue of worship. "You will bow down and worship this golden statue." "No, I will not." Or the issue of prayer. "You will not pray to the one, true God. You'll pray to me." "No, I will not." Or preaching. "You will not preach in the name of Jesus." "Yes, I will preach in the name of Jesus." They are all situations in which direct commands are given to believers to violate the fundamental teachings of Scripture. And in those situations we have to say, "I must obey God rather than men." But Paul is saying don't be too quick to paint yourself in a corner to have to oppose every injustice that is performed by a government everywhere or we would never ever be able to be citizens of any country in this world.

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PRAY FOR OUR GOVERNMENT

The second thing that I want to say is that Paul's words teach us something about how we are to pray. And I want to point you to a couple of things. First, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." And then look down to verse 7. "Pay to all what is owed them" — and this is especially what I want you to see; not the words about taxes and revenue but this — "respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed." Now what do we learn about how we pray in that passage? Two things.

First of all, as Christians, we know that we are to pray for those in governmental authority. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy that we are to pray for kings and all who are in authority. We know we're to do that because God has instituted government. But do you know that we not only pray for those who are in authority because God had told us to pray for those in authority and God has told us that He has instituted all authority, we pray out of neighbor love. We pray out of neighbor love. And especially in a democracy in which we may vigorously disagree, even over very clear moral issues, with people who are in fact unbelievers that are fellow citizens and hold positions of authority, we are called to pray in neighbor love for them, respecting their person. So Christian, when you pray for those who in public life you vigorously disagree with, let me urge you to remember the second great commandment that Ralph mentioned tonight, "Love your neighbor," and determine to pray for the wellbeing of those even with whom you disagree. That does not mean that you set aside your principles. No, we remember that God is the one who determines what is right and wrong and we serve God, not man. And the Lord has promised to establish the distinction between righteousness and wickedness, and we serve God and not man. And so we will oppose all who undermine Biblical, moral standards in our society and who fail to uphold justice for the unborn and who undermine religious liberty or condone an ethos that is hostile to the Gospel. And we'll pray for God's purposes to triumph over their plans, but we will, insofar as we are able, do so with a respect for their persons and with a neighbor love for them. We want to show a genuine Gospel neighbor love even for those with whom we disagree most vigorously.

ENGAGING WITH CULTURE

Third, how do we engage in this culture and what does Paul teach us here in Romans 13? Well, I want to offer six particular ways in which we may engage.

DO NOT WITHDRAW

The first thing I want to urge you to do is do not withdraw. Do not withdraw. There have been many folks that I've talked to over the last few weeks who have been deeply discouraged about the state of our nation and it's been their temptation to withdraw in despair. Do not withdraw. Alternatively, get to know your neighbors and show them your Christian love. It's more important than ever before that Christians not withdraw in our society but that we reach out and show Christian neighbor love.

STAND FOR CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES AND CONVICTIONS

Secondly, be prepared to stand on your Christian principles and convictions, even if it costs you. This will increasingly be the case for us in our culture.

EXPLAIN YOUR ETHICAL CONVICTIONS TO YOUR CHILDREN

Third, explain to your children the Biblical basis of your ethical convictions and do not assume that they will agree with you. Explain to your children, and might I add, explain to your grandchildren, the Biblical basis of your ethical convictions and do not assume that they will agree. I can remember my younger brother, John, asking my father some questions about why he believed certain things ought to be the way that he thought they ought to be in terms of family and society and politics. And my father got mad just because my brother was asking the question. He didn't like that my brother was even considering the alternative! Well, we live in a day and age where you probably need to assume that your children and grandchildren have imbibed a difference sentiment from the culture than the convictions which you hold. And the only way in which you will be able to inculcate the next generation in those strong Biblical convictions is if you carefully, clearly, Biblically, and persuasively present why you hold the moral principles that you hold. Rejoice in those opportunities. Don't be offended when a young person says to you, "But why do we think traditional marriage is the only way? Isn't that being narrow? Isn't that discriminating against people? Isn't that being arbitrary that we're telling some people that they can love who they want to love but we're telling other people that they can't love who they want to love?" If we do not articulate clearly, Biblically, and persuasively our convictions on these key moral principles to the next generation, they will adopt the outlook of the world.

DO NOT STOP PRAYING FOR YOUR COUNTRY

Fourth, don't stop praying for your country and don't disengage from the political process or the culture. It is my hunch that we, as Bible believing Christians, are going to be in a minority in the political process here in the United States for the foreseeable future, whereas, up until our own time, Bible believing Christians have constituted, if not an outright majority, a dominant plurality in our culture. And in that context it would be very easy to be discouraged, to stop praying for our culture, and to stop engaging in the political process. Don't do that. Why? Well for a lot of reasons, but one is simply this. Remember that the Christians to whom Paul was writing in Romans 13 were a tiny minority, a tiny minority in the most powerful, polytheistic empire in the world, in the West, in its time. And within two hundred years they had turned it upside down. Don't be discouraged; don't stop praying; don't cease to engage in the political process or the culture.

ENGAGE IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS

Fifth, be prepared to engage in the cultural and political process disagreeing with dominant voices which are denigrating Biblical truth but do so while you do it with powerful argument and with passion and with intelligence and with persuasion, but do it with absolutely no hatred, disrespect, or condescension. We have to be in the mode of not assuming that our culture is with us anymore, and you won't win the culture by hating it. You'll win the culture by persuading it. If you hate, the choir will love you — not our choir, I'm talking about the people you agree with — will love it when you hate on that culture. But you won't persuade anybody. Don't respond with condescension and disrespect, but persuade. You know, our media doesn't encourage us to do this. On left and right there is a pervasive tone of disrespect that is cultivated in the way we think about and speak about our governmental leaders. Christians ought to speak more respectfully about our government, our nation, and our government leaders than anyone else, even if we passionately disagree with the morality and the policies of those same leaders. And we want to show people that we have reasons, we want to persuade people, we want people to understand that we've thought through these issues. We're not just name calling, we're not denigrating; we're engaging in rigorous, intelligent disagreement, which is the bedrock of a democratic republic. But the language of denigration and condescension and hatred, it should be far from us. We should remember that our God is King. We know how this story ends. When it ends, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And therefore, we can engage with some confidence in the political process because it doesn't matter who long it takes, it will get there.

VIEW YOURSELF AS A CITIZEN OF GOD'S KINGDOM

Sixth and finally, determine to view yourself more than ever as citizens of another kingdom. You know, I grew up in a culture where it would have been very easy to mistake this nation as a Christian nation, as a city on the hill. But we look for a city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God. This world is not our home. We're not home yet. And we can engage with profound love for our country, while knowing that we were ultimately made for another country and we are ultimately citizens of another country, a heavenly one. And so our hopes and dreams, though they may be deeply impacted by what goes on here, and they should be, we should weep tears and we should sing songs of joy when God is glorified or when His Word is denigrated. We should care about the things that we see in our culture, but we should remember that we are citizens of another country, heavenly citizens, and in that country, God is always honored and Christ is always loved and proclaimed.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this opportunity to think all too briefly about how to respond to what is happening in our own day and time. Speak to our hearts over and over Your promises. "Be of good courage; be not dismayed; I am with you. In My hand is the heart of the king. There is no authority that I have not set up. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." Speak these words into our ears and our hearts and give us courage, courage to be Your witnesses, courage to respond to the discouraging things in our day and time, courage to pray as we ought, courage to engage as we should. And we'll give You all the praise and glory, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you please stand and receive God's blessing?

Peace be to the brethren and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, until the daybreak and the shadows flee away. Amen.

Romans 13:8-10- A Call to Fulfill the Law Through Love

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 13. We are working our way through a marvelous section of the book of Romans in which Paul spells out the Christian way of life. Last week we considered Paul's directives regarding our conduct in relation to the state and to the government authorities. This week Paul continues on the theme on how Christians are to relate to their general societal relationships. This directive of love which Paul is going to put forth in this passage concerns our love for fellow men, not just our love for believers, not just our love for our family relations, but for our love of all men as we are going to see.

This whole section of Romans in chapter 12 and chapter 13 is Paul's fleshing out of what it means to live your life in light of the realities that you are to be a living sacrifice to the Lord as your spiritual service of worship. This is what it means to put your life on the altar. It's what it means to die for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what it means to live the whole of life as an act of worship. Paul is putting flesh on that particular command as he goes through each of these areas and gives us directions under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let's hear God's holy and inspired word in Romans 13 beginning in verse 8.

"Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law."

Amen. This is God's holy an inspired word. May He write it's eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we ask that You would cause us by Your Spirit to behold wonderful things from Your law, and we ask as well that You would, by that same Spirit, give us the impetus of love so that we might fill up the commands of your law. In Jesus name. Amen.

Paul in these three great little verses tells us several important things. He tells us to pay our debts so that we might be good witnesses. He tells us that can never pay off the debt of love we owe. He tells us the wants us to love everyone, not just believers. He tells us that this kind of love fulfills the law. I'd like to spend a few moments with you tonight looking at two or three things that Paul emphasizes in this great passage. Let's begin in verse 8 where Paul says two things.

I. The Christian who practices real NT love in neighbor relations is in fact fulfilling the law.

He tells us to pay off our debts and then he comments that we can't really pay off the debt of love. We are to pay off our debts, except the debt of love that cannot be paid off, but in fact fulfills the law of God. Paul makes it clear here in verse 8 that the Christian who practices real New Testament love in his neighbor relations is, in fact, fulfilling the law that God gave through Moses pertaining to our relationship to neighbors. This passage as a whole is a call to Christian love, it is about our love to man in general. In Romans 12, Paul does use the famous "love one another" phrase to refer specifically to love for our neighbor. Remember, in verses 1 through 7 of Romans 13 Paul's already been talking about how we relate to civil authorities. Now, it is clear from the context, his concern is our general witness to mankind based upon our general love for mankind. So the Apostle Paul is speaking is speaking specifically of our love to man in general, our love to fellow man, and our love to neighbor.

Paul begins by saying several interesting things in verse 8. First, he says that we are to owe nothing to anyone. When Paul says owe nothing to anyone he's not forbidding Christians to borrow. He is, however, saying that the believer should be faithful and responsible in the payment of his debts. He should not leave debts unpaid. This passage could be literally translated, do not continue owing, pay your debts. He's just said, pay your taxes, and now he says, pay your debts. The logic makes perfect sense. Christian witness is compromised by a failure to fulfill lawful responsibility to the civil authorities. Christian witness is compromised by a failure to deal honestly and rightly with regard to our own debts and things that we owe. So the Apostle first gives this practical direction with regard to our relationship to our fellow man, owe nothing to anyone, and then secondly he adds this in verse eight, except to love one another. In other words, there is one debt that can never be discharged. You can pay your taxes and be done with them. You can become inspired and pay off all your credit card debts and be done with them. But you can never be done with the debt of love, the Apostle Paul says.

Think of Isaac Watts' expression of that truth in a familiar hymn that you often sing when we come to the Lord's table at First Presbyterian Church. Do you remember what Watts says, "When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, and save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See, from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down, did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown. Would the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

We are debtors to His love. But Paul in this passage, however, regards us not only to be debtors to God through the mercy that He has shown to us through Jesus Christ, he considers us to be indebted to our fellow men. Paul is saying here that we are to act as if we are indebted to mankind in general. We are indebted to them for a return of love. This is a Pauline principle that you find elsewhere in the book of Romans. He will say to the churches in Macedonia, 'Look, those Christians in Jerusalem and the other Christians in Palestine sent out missionaries. That's how you're a Christian now. The poor congregation in Jerusalem is in need of help, you are indebted to them. You need to help them.'

He can talk about our indebtedness to believers, but in Romans 1:14, the apostle can talk about his indebtedness to Pagan and barbarian Gentiles. He can say, "I am under obligation. I am indebted to both slave and free for the gospel. The apostle is saying here that he expresses that indebtedness in love in sharing the gospel. Here he is asking all believers to show their realization of their indebtedness to mankind in general. Those who even know not Christ. Paul is calling on us here to love one another and not simply believers, but our fellow men.

He adds thirdly here in verse 8, "That he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." That is, the Christian who fulfills this New Testament directive of neighbor love, the Apostle Paul says, is in fact fulfilling the law of Moses in its directives to neighbor love. Fulfill is a beautiful way of saying this. John Murray says this about the word fulfill: " Fulfill is a richer term than obey. It means the law has received the full measure of that which it requires." Paul is calling on us here to infuse Christian neighbor love into all our societal relationships. Often times Christian ministers and teachers emphasis this truth from passages like Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46, where Jesus talks about His judgment at the end of time and indicates that He will judge those who refuse to care for and minister to those who are prison and who are without clothing and that are in need. And He will reward those who minister to those who are in that condition. And this is often times pressed upon Christians as why we need to love mankind in general.

However, that passage is in fact directly applied to our relationship to believers by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You remember He adds that crucial phrase in that passage, "As you do it to the least of these My brethren so you have done it to Me." Sometimes people go to John 13 and the command, "A new commandment I give you. That you love one another as I have loved you," and they enjoin upon Christians that kind of love for fellow man. In John 13, the focus again is upon the disciples literally loving one another as Jesus has loved them.

In this passage in Romans 13, Paul is in fact directly addressing this issue of the Christian love for his fellow man and he is calling on us to exercise this kind of love. "While we may satisfy every claim of the law, but nothing can satisfy the claims of love," Robinson said about this passage. The interesting thing about the exercise of this debt is that you get richer as you pay the debt. Listen to what Robert Haldane says, "The more they pay off this debt, the richer they will be in the thing that is paid."

You pay off this debt with love, and as you pay off this debt, you don't end up with less love, you end up with more love. That's the amazing, the ironic, the paradoxical nature of the Christians relation to the world. Paul's calling on us to show real New Testament love, neighbor love in our relationship with our fellow man in this passage. That is the first great thing that I want you to see.

II. The second table of the law is summed up in neighbor love.

The second thing is this. Look at verse 9, Paul goes on to list some of the specific duties of the second table of the law of Moses, commandments 5 through 10, which specifically deal with our relationship to our fellow man. As he lists these specific duties of the law's second table, he says that they are entailed, not only in that Levitical command of neighbor love in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18, but they are also entailed in the dominical command to neighbor love which comes from Jesus Christ, when he repeats in His teaching the words, and expands and interprets those words from Leviticus 19, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." So Paul in verse 9 rattles off a number of the second table commands and reminds us that they fulfilled the law of love, the law first set down expressly in Leviticus regarding neighbor love and reiterated so often in the teaching of Jesus.

Now we might want to pause here and make a couple of observations. The first thing is, it is very common to hear Leviticus 19:18, especially as it is quoted and explained and exhorted by Jesus Christ in the gospels as a call to self-love. As a matter of fact, that is not a gospel or New Testament or even a distinctively Christian idea, that you have to work at loving yourself before you are able to love other people. It is assumed by Paul and Jesus and by Moses and Leviticus that we naturally care for ourselves. There is a natural instinct in self-preservation and it is that which is to be extended to even to the point of preferring the needs and interest of others which is the basis of this call to love your neighbor as yourself.

So it's not a call to sit around and spend several years working on loving yourself so you can eventually move on to loving your neighbor. In fact, the gospel logic that is constantly found in the Scripture is, you can't really love your neighbor until you have been loved savingly by God. When you have experienced the fullness of God's saving love you are filled up to the brim and overflow in love to neighbor. So, God's love for us is the foundation of our love to others.

There is, of course, another sense in which self-love is an impossibility. There is no love in solitude, there must always be another to love for love to exist, because love is relational. So in that sense, self-love is an oxymoron, it's a contradiction, it's an impossibility. That's one side.

One other side is this: we need to pause and ask ourselves what love is. That's word that we use a great deal. We may have an impressionistic idea of what love means. In our culture we tend to think of love first in emotional categories. The Old Testament, we might say, if we were to make a broad-brush generalization, thinks of and describes love in action categories more than emotional categories. You'll find passages like this in the Scriptures, "If you love Me keep My commandments, where keeping the commandments is parallel to loving. We see that in Jesus teaching in John 15, but it's based on the very principles that we've already studies in Exodus chapter 20 verses 4 through 6 in the second commandment. Those who love the Lord keep His commandments," Those who hate the Lord don't keep His commandments. That's more of an action statement than an emotional statement about people.

But what is love? John Murray says this, and I'm going to read this to you twice because it's very thick, but it's also very good: "Love is emotive, motive, and expulsive. It is emotive and therefore creates infinity with an affection for the object of love. It is motive in that it impels us to action. It is expulsive because it expels that which is alien to the interest in which love seeks to promote." Listen to that one more time. "Love is emotive, motive and expulsive. It is emotive and therefore creates an infinity with and affection for the object of love. It is motive in that it impels us to action. It is expulsive because it expels what is alien to the interest of which love seeks to promote." That is really a rich definition. It's hard to hear; it's easier to read and meditate upon. I encourage you to take it perhaps, and meditate on that definition.

Let me give you an easier one. "Love is seeking the best interest of another." It's that kind of practical love that Paul is clearing calling us to in this passage, having started off with these commands, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet. By refraining from those activities one is expressing a practical, tangible love to neighbor. So, we see that love is not some sort of an alternative ethical system to the moral law. No, Paul says, the love command is summary of that same law.

We might also say that Paul is saying that if we're not loving our fellow man that way, we are not fulfilling the law. He is saying that to people who took fulfilling the law very seriously. That meant a great deal. He's calling us, if we are serious about the law, to show love in this sort of way. The second table of the law is summed up in neighbor love we learn here in verse 9.

III. The law proscribes harm to neighbor, love abstains from harm to neighbor, therefore love fulfills the law.

One last thing I draw your attention to, and you'll see it in verse 10. Paul again emphasizes that love and law are not contradictory tendencies in the Christian life, as if obeying the law somehow made one less loving or that being more loving made you less interested in obeying the law. They are not contradictory tendencies in the Christian life. One, love, is the fulfillment of the other — law. The law, he tells us in verse 10, proscribes harm to our neighbor. Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't covet, he's just said that in verse 9. And what he tells us in verse 10, love abstains from that kind of harm, for neighbor love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, Paul says, love impels you to do precisely what the law would have you do. So, love and law are not enemies in the Christian life, they are not competitors in the Christian life, they are not contradictory tendencies in the Christian life, they are friends.

Note that Paul even begins with a negative definition of love in verse 10, "Love does no wrong." You see, there are 'Nos' in love just as there are 'Nos' in the law. True love is always going to have a negative side. The point here is rather to parallel the law, which is often itself stated in the negative, thou shall not, and to imply that refraining from doing our neighbor harm implies the opposite, that is, doing our neighbor good, showing him love. Love, Paul says here fills the law.

If I could explain it this way, I would say that if we looked at the standard of God's law as a vessel, as a cup to be filled, we can say that it is love and love alone that fills that vessel as God intended it to be filled. Now, we need to pause here and quickly say that this love is not the means of justification. This love is not the means of salvation. It's the expression of gratitude of the antecedent regenerating grace of God which has saved us. It's the ethical channel through which the new life in Christ flows from our free justification. If we think about that for a few moments we will understand why this is so important. The great Southern Presbyterian commentator, W.S. Plummer, at the end of each of his commentary sections on the book of Romans, has a series of questions and comments that he calls Doctrinal and Practical Remarks. In one of those in his commentary on Romans, he asks a series of questions to prompt his self-examination about whether we love our fellow man. It was convicting to read it and it was more convicting to have to type it. Listen to it and ask yourselves these questions as I read them: Is your love to man genuine? Will it bear the test found in the second table of the law? Are you guilty of sinful anger? Of hatred? Envy? The desire of revenge? Excessive passions? Distracting cares? Sinful indulgences? Do you hate peevish and provoking words? Are your thoughts, feeling, and actions kind, meek, gentle, charitable, courteous, forgiving? Do you cherish all chaste and pure thoughts, purposes, and imaginations? Are your actions virtuous? Is your apparel modest? Is your behavior light or impudent? Do you abhor all that is unchaste in songs, books, pictures and thoughts? Do you practice oppression, usury, lawsuits, deception? Is your calling lawful? Ought you not to make restitution in some case? Do you promote truth and the good name of all men as you can? Do you hate reviling, scoffing, whispering flatteries slander, exaggeration? Do you grieve at the good name of any lost? Do you needlessly mention the faults of any? Do you love to show kindness to all? Are you fair at making bargains? Do you plead your rank, condition or former standing as a reason why you should not love your poor neighbor?"

It is precisely because that kind of practical action is demanded in the command to love that we need grace, because none of us love that way. That is what the law and the gospel calls us to- to love that way. It is precisely because we do not love that way that we need grace. That's why Paul spends eleven chapters on that before he begins to lay out this beautiful representation of what it means to live the Christian life. The foundation for this kind of living in love is found only in the grace of God, and experienced, received, lived out in dependence upon the Holy Spirit's divine grace. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, make us to love Thee as Thine angels love and our neighbors as ourselves. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 13:11-14 - A Call to Live Life in Light of the Coming End

If you have your Bibles, I'd like to invite you to turn with me to chapter 13. We are working our way through a marvelous section of the book of Romans in which Paul spells out the Christian way of life. Two weeks ago we considered Romans 13:1 through 7, regarding our conduct as Christians in relationship to the state, to the government. Last week, Paul focused our attention on general societal responsibilities, our responsibility to love our neighbors in our communities. His concern in Romans 13:8-10 is to cultivate in us to call Christians to a profound love of neighbor. He uses 'love one another' language which he typically reserves for Christians loving Christians, but the context clearly indicates that he expects us to love our neighbor expansively and extensively.

Today he continues speaking about the circumstances in which we ought to love one another and live the Christian life, and especially he draws our attention to living and loving as Christians in light of the end to come. Taking care to think to live and act and to love with a view to the coming end, with a view to the judgment day. That's his great theme in this great passage.

Romans 13, beginning in verse 11. Remember, Paul has already said, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. Then he picks up in verse 11 saying,

"And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regard to its lusts."

Amen. Thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word. May He write it's eternal truth upon our hearts.

Have you ever been or are you now in a relationship where you find it hard to love? Where you find it difficult to live as you know that a Christian ought to live? Perhaps it's your marriage. Perhaps your husband has been unfaithful to you. You've stayed in the relationship with him for the children's sake, but you can't let the anger go. Or maybe you're married to a man who ignores you. All your hopes for a relationship in marriage have been dashed. Maybe your wife doesn't respect you. She doesn't respond to you. You are humiliated and frustrated and you're dominated by a mean spirit and you don't quiet know how to love in that circumstance. Not just marital love; just basic Christian love. Maybe it is a relationship with a child or a parent. Maybe you have poured love and discipline into a child's life and the response has been rebellion and ingratitude. Maybe you find yourself caring for a parent who now has dementia and doesn't even know who you are there is no one to relate to there. How do you love in those circumstances as a Christian? Maybe it's a broken friendship. You try to tell a friend's wife about a minor offense that she had given to someone. You are trying to be helpful, you were trying to make sure that she was respected and honored in another's eyes, but her husband resented it. There are insecurities in the relationship there, and your words sparked off a problem and they both cut you off. How do you love as a Christian? Maybe it's just shear endurance in a hard situation. How do you keep on living and loving as a Christian? That's what Paul is talking about tonight.

I'd like you to see three or four things that he says to us practically to help us in precisely those kinds of hard circumstances, and every circumstance of life in which he calls us to love and to live as Christians. He's calling on us, first of all, to life our lives in light of the coming of the Lord. You see that in verse 11.

I. Christians must live their lives in light of the coming of the Lord.

His first directive in this passage is love your neighbor. Of course, he's referring also to the other things that he has commanded in this great passage. Not only love your neighbor, but the other principles of Christian living. "Love your neighbor because of the coming day of the Lord," he says in verse 11. Do this knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep for now salvation is nearer to us than we believed. He's teaching us here that Christians must live their life in the awareness of the coming of the Lord. We are to do this, he says, not just in verses 8 through 10, but probably stretching all the way back to Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 when that grand declaration was made, in light of the day of salvation. Paul is pointing your attention to the coming day of the Lord. Indeed in verse 11, Paul has three thoughts for us to latch on to, even in this one little phrase. "Knowing the time," that is the first thing he says. Our love and obedience must be mindful of the time in which we are called to live and serve.

Paul is asking us to think eschatalogically as Christians. What does that mean? To think in light of the coming of Jesus at the end. Christian ethics are rooted in what Christians believe about the end. Jesus is coming again. We don't know when, but He is coming to judge and He's coming to draw His people to Himself and Christians are conscious of that reality in their Christian living, and the Apostle Paul is saying here, do these things because you know the time. You live in the last days. You live in the days between the first advent of the Lord and the second advent of the Lord, and the next great event, the next grand event in God's redemptive scheme is going to be the coming of the Lord. And you live in light of that particular reality.

He secondly goes on to say that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. That is an interesting way to talk about the Christian's experience of the last day, but you see, Paul is pointing to that day in which we will be transformed, and that day of transformation is not far off.

What the apostle is pressing home here is the incompatibility of our moral and religious slumber with the position which believers occupy in the great drama in redemption. If, in that day we will be transformed, then in this day it is already time for us to awaken from sleep, to be active in our pursuit of holiness.

He goes on to say, thirdly, "for now salvation is nearer than when we believed." In other words, our experience of the fullness of what it means to be saved is nearer now. You know that the New Testament uses the concept of salvation in the past, in the present, and in the future. It speaks of believers as having been saved in the past, as being saved, and usually in regard to our sanctification we are being saved, and it speaks in the future that we will be saved. That is, we will experience the fullness of what God's salvation entails. The apostle says that we as Christians must think and live with an eye to that future coming and judgment.

You've heard the story about how Jonathan Edwards meditated on heaven 20 minutes every day at the beginning of the day. Why? So that he could root his present actions in the reality of that coming event. That is precisely the spirit of the apostle's words here. We are to live with an eye on the coming judgment.

Faith is indeed nothing but living in light of what is to come, one great commentator said. Jesus' story of the rich fool is the negative side of this exhortation. The rich fool made lots of money, had tons of grain, built new granaries but oops, he forgot two things. He had a soul and he was going to die. The Lord came to him and he said, "You fool, tonight your soul is required of you." Paul's urge to Christians is to hear this exhortation, this strong admonition, that we would not be like that, that we would live our lives in light of the coming judgment day. That's the first thing that he says here.

II. Christians must live their lives conscious that they are in spiritual war.

Secondly, if you look at verse 12, he goes on to give one other directive. That is, take off immorality and put on the armor of light. This is sort of a two-sided direction. It's a twin directive. Take off immorality and put on the armor of light. Paul is telling us in verse 12 that Christians must live their lives conscious that they are in a spiritual war. We are in a battle and Paul again, in this verse, reminds us of the nearness and the reality of the coming of judgment. He compares it to the last night watch: "The night is almost gone and the day is near, therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." This is a call to Christians to be constantly vigilant for the rest of their Christian lives, and he's borrowing military metaphor after military metaphor. We are at war, Paul wants us to understand. We must be unencumbered by the deeds of the darkness and we must be armed.

This battle and warfare image is clearly important to Paul. Look at the second half of verse 12. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, 'let us lay aside the deeds of darkness,' or 'let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the deeds or works of light.' He says, "Put aside the darkness, lay aside the darkness and put on the armor of light." That draws attention to the fact that he wants to make this military metaphor. He even mixes the metaphor, so interested is he is in bringing home the point about Christians being at war. This armor of light is being understood ethically and religiously and it suggests that the believer is in a good fight of faith. He is wanting to shake Christians awake and remind them that they are not in a truce time, they are not in a peace time, they are not in a time of repose; they are in a fight for their lives.

The armor illustration is a favorite illustration of the Apostle Paul and sometimes he switches different aspects of the army. You hear him talking about it in II Corinthians 6:7, you see him describe it in detail in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 13 through 17, but he picks it up again in I Thessalonians 5:8 and maybe even in Romans 6:13 and certainly again here.

Notice as well that he not only tells us to lay aside, but to take up. He not only tells us to put away or to lay aside the deeds of darkness, but to put on the armor of light. Paul's general ethical pattern is not merely to say, don't do this, but also to say, instead do this. The 'do this' instead usually points to, not a new standard of living, not to a new standard of morality, but to the new dynamic of morality, the new power of morality. Don't live this way.

But notice in this passage, "Put on the armor of light." It is very clear that whatever "putting on the armor of light" means in detail, in specifics it is parallel to what he says in verse 14, which is of course, "put on Christ." He says, don't do these things, but instead put on the armor of light. Later he'll say, put on the armor of Christ. There is tremendous wisdom in Paul's words. When we have a don't not accompanied by a positive solution we simply leave ourselves open for frustration. Paul is giving us this military metaphor here. He is reminding us that we are in a moral, a spiritual, an ethical warfare and to be in cumbered by sin and to be unarmed and without armor would be like a soldier on the front failing his duty, disobeying his commanders and occasionally shooting his comrades. Without the armor of light, this ethical transformation which comes in our union with Christ, we are not armed for the fight of faith. The Christian's life is not sleep; it's a fight. The Christian's life is not sleep, but a battle. So, Christians must live their lives conscious that they are in spiritual war. They are to love in light of both those realities. They are to love in light of the fact that there is a coming end in judgment and they are to love in light of the fact that we are in a war.

That is an interesting thing to say now isn't it? The fact is that is in the hardest places that we are called to love. That is a helpful thought. The way that we usually think is, this relationship is a battlefield and the only way to respond to that is to be angry and hate. The Apostle Paul says, you are in a battlefield: love. The weapons of our battle are not human weapons, they are spiritual weapons. The battle that we are fighting is not a human conflict between nation states and competing ideologies, it's a spiritual and moral and religious battle. It's about the establishment of God's purposes in the world and we know His purpose for us is that we would be like His son in His love.

III. Christians must live in accord with the new world order, the order that the judgment will bring in.

Thirdly, he goes on to say in verse 13 this: "Live as if you were before the Lord in the day of the Lord." He's telling us in verse 13 that we must live in accord with the new world order which is established by Jesus Christ. The order that the judgment is going to bring in full. Listen to what he says, "Let us behave properly as in the day." You know that in the New Testament, that day is often coupled with the phrase, in the day of the Lord. So, this points forward to that day of the coming of the Lord and here again Paul calls us to conduct appropriate to a Christian, but he does it negatively. Notice what he says, let us behave properly. Not like this. Let us walk becomingly as in the day. Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.

So he describes proper Christian conduct and behavior and he enjoins it negatively. Don't act like this, he says. The acts that he mentions here are all evidences of gracelessness. They are essentially sins of self-indulgence and self will. In verse 13, you see carousing and drunkenness, the abuse of strong drink, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, and all a manner of sexual sins. Strife and jealousy, self-preoccupation, self-will, and selfishness that leads to contention.

You see, all six of these vices stream from self-will. They are all the outreach of a determined selfishness that seeks only one's own pleasure. So many of the first century Christians were from the dregs of society and the Apostle Paul could not ignore the types of behavior which were generally practiced and tolerated in their midst, and so he aims at those behaviors. And he's mindful of these struggles in their past and he warns them against a relapse into that way of living. My friends, it strikes me when I read these words of direction, not that they are the particular sins of a particular segment of society, but what strikes me is how unbelievable common they are in the midst of the best of our society.

The Apostle Paul says, "Not like that." Notice his call in verse 13 is to behave, or literally, walk appropriately. He often uses the metaphor of walking to indicate that the Christian life isn't a sprint, it isn't just one burst of energy, but it's a steady, long walk. It's a long obedience in the same direction. The behaviors of the old order, Paul says in this passage, those things are to be eschewed and instead we are to live and act appropriately as Christians. So we are to live, and we are to love, and we are to behave in light of the day.

IV. Christians, fundamentally, must put on Christ, that is, strive after the moral transformation that flows from union with Christ.

One last thing in verse 14, he gives us this fourth directive: Put on Christ. Make no provision for the flesh. He's saying that Christians must fundamentally put on Christ. That is, strive after that moral transformation that flows from union from Christ. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," he says, "make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust." At the very heart of Paul's epic is not simply grace, not simply the work of the Holy Spirit, but especially union with Christ. It is the work of the Spirit to establish that union with Christ, and all the graces of growth in the Christian life flow from the source of that union with Christ and it is a perennial emphasis of Paul's writings that we are united in Christ. This is what enables us to walk in newness of life and it is expressed here in these words, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Clothe the soul with the disposition and the habits of Christ. The Christian identifies himself with Christ in baptism and in his profession of faith. These things signify his union with Christ, but it is in actual union with Christ in regeneration and faith and repentance that the believer is actually clothed with Christ. Yet Paul here is not even referring to that initial experience of union with Christ with conversion. He's referring to the ongoing growth in grace in sanctification which flows from our union with Christ, and he's telling us to avail ourselves of the means of grace and put on Jesus Christ, to walk in accordance to our profession. The person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ are the ground of our salvation. Union with Him is the source of our grace growth in Christian life. So, when we are called to love in hard circumstances, Paul calls on us to love in light of that grand transforming reality of union with Christ.

By the way, when Paul says, "Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust," he's warning us against a wrong use of the body. Beware of indulging the desires of the flesh because they may lead to further, and even more entrapable, sins. Do not plan for sin, give it no welcome, kick it off your doorstep, refuse it a place in your house. There is no point in the Christian life when the flesh and its desires no longer constitute a danger for the believer. Here as elsewhere in the Christian life, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Paul is calling us to beware the desires of the flesh and see them as a potential foothold for the domination of sin in our life.

This is a word of exhortation to Christians, but it is also a word which has evangelistic significance. Do you know that this was the passage that the Lord used to convert a young man from North Africa named Augustine, who was, at that time, in Milan. It was the summer of the year 386, Augustine and his companions had gone to Milan to hear Ambrose preach. His friends had tired even of the orations of the great Ambrose and went back to Rome. Augustine stayed on, wrestling deeply and spiritually. Augustine was a fornicator, he was an indulger of the pleasures and the desires of the flesh, and though he had grown up in a Christian home, he did not know God. Yet, in the mercy in God, he had a faithful praying mother and the Lord had placed him under faithful preaching. Ambrose had been expounding the book of Genesis and Augustine was out in a garden praying. Beside him on a bench where he was praying, there was a copy of Paul's epistles. He wasn't able to keep his interest in the passages that he was reading, so he threw himself on the ground next to the bench in the grass and he began to cry. He heard the voice of children somewhere over the courtyard wall. He never could say if it was little boys or little girls, but over and over they were repeating the Latin phrase, "Tolle, lege; tolle, lege", take up and read, take up and read. He picked up the epistle to the Romans of the Apostle Paul, opened it to Romans 13b and 14, and read these words: "Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust." He was converted.

His story shows that the domination of the flesh in our lives can reveal the power of sin and damnation, and by the Spirit it can drive us to Christ to seek His grace from relief from the domination of sin and the expectation of damnation. That is the relief that Augustine found and it is still the relief that you can find if you're under the domination of sin and you cannot find the power to really love in the face of difficult circumstances. God's grace can enable you. Paul is telling us here to live and love in light of the end, in light of the warfare, in light of our union of Christ. May God help us to do so. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for the richness of your word. We ask that You would bring it home to our heart and grow us in grace and in love. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 14

A Warning Against Judging Brothers (1) - Romans 14:1-12

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 14. If you came in and did not pick up an outline and you want you, you still have an opportunity to pick one up and some of the entrances. If you don't have one, you may want to let someone who is on the end of the row go out and pick up a handful if you want to follow along with the outline. We are working our way through a marvelous section of the book of Romans in which Paul is speaking about the Christian way of life.

You could really call Romans 12 and 13, God's righteousness in everyday life. Now, he is continuing on in much the same vain as Romans chapter 14 and in chapter 15 down to the thirteenth verse. Although, the focus there seems to be more on life in the body of Christ. Do you remember in Romans 12, he talked to us about our relationship to the world; he talked about our relationship to one another as believers. In Romans 13, he talked about our relationship with the government. He also came back to talking about our relationship with those outside the walls of the church and our loving them as neighbors. That was the focus, as we look at Romans 13, verses 11 through 14.

Here in Romans 14, he will especially address particular situations in the life of the local congregation which test our living up to our profession of faith, and it's relevant to every local congregation of Christians. In the passage tonight, for instance, he is going to talk about how you deal with differences that are exhibited amongst believers in the local congregation. Differences of opinion about moral and ethical and religious matters that are of great significance to the individuals who hold those opinions. How do you deal with that with in the local body? Paul is going to address that here. This whole section of Romans treats of life in the body of Christ.

Now, we are going to look at verses 1 through 12 tonight. This is not only a fairly large chunk to take up in one message; we have been taking a little bit less than that. It is also a very important and yet difficult passage in the book of Romans. What we are going to do is take it up in two consecutive sermons, looking to try and deal with some contemporary applications of the principles. The first message will be fairly heavy Bible study as we try and make sure we understand the main outlines of the passage clearly in our mind so that we can then take the next step of asking, "Ok, how does this speak to specific issues that we relate too?" I think that if we jump to that second thing before dealing with the first matter here in Romans 14, verses 1 through 12, we are still going to be left foggy on the principles.

It is the principles that Paul wants to get across to us. That is very important here. I'll make this comment again in the message, that Paul, in the face of specific situations refused to come up with a list of rules on how to deal with the situation. Well, in this situation do this, in that situation do that; rather, he will give principles that are always to be observed. Then he asks Christians to think Christianly about those principles in specific situations. The wisdom of that is manifold because you can never come up with a comprehensive rule to deal with every particular situation in life. So you have to have some basic principles that are able to be applied in multiple circumstances. That's what Paul does here in Romans 14. With that as a word of introduction, let's look at Romans 14 beginning in verse 1.

Now, accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands of falls and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he eats not, for the Lord does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD." So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Amen this is God's word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord, as we contemplate the truth of Your word, clarify our minds and rule our hearts we pray. Rein us in by the truth of Your word and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and enable us to live in accordance with these principles that you have set forth in Your most holy Scripture. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

How are Christians who are more mature to get along with Christians who are less mature in the faith in areas in which there are differences or questions, or scruples, or opinions about matters religious or spiritual, or ethical? How is life in the body to go on when there are differences in these areas; not differences over the gospel, not differences over fundamental matters of faith. The Apostle Paul is clear in all his writings on that. There is to be no flexibility with regard to the gospel. There is to be no flexibility with regard to the fundamental teachings of the faith. The Christian is to zealously hold to them and is to tolerate any variation within the body about those basic commitments. What about other types of spiritual and religious and ethical differences or scruples regarding various matters that come up in the life of the church?

Paul is addressing precisely that question tonight. I'd like to look at three parts of this passage in Romans 14 verses 1 — 12. The first part has to do with food and a particular issue that has come up in regard to the eating of meat. The second section has to do again, mentioning the issue of food, but adds to it the observance of specific days. The third section has to do with the general principle of judging one another.

I. Mutual forbearance in the body of Christ.

Verses 1 through 4 give us a call for mutual forbearance in the body of Christ. Forbear with one another. Paul gives us the specific example of differing views on meat with in the congregation in Rome. Perhaps this is an example that is even broader than the church there in Rome, but is repeating itself in various Christian churches with whom Paul has some experience. Paul says here in verse 1 through 4, that because God himself is the master of all His children, His children are not to stand over one another in judgment in spiritual scruples. Let's walk through this passage and see several points that Paul makes. Look at verse 1. Here Paul instructs strong Christians to welcome weaker Christians, but not to quarrel with them about their particular issues or scruples, except the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

This immediately raises two questions in your mind. We will only answer those partially this week. We will come back to them the next time. The first question that comes to your mind is, "Just who exactly are the ones who are weak in faith?" Who is in this class of Christians that Paul is speaking about. Well, probably they are Jewish Christians or a subset of Jewish Christians who are struggling with some of the new freedoms of the gospel. They are having a hard time taking it in that they no longer have to do certain things that they were accustomed to doing as part of their faithful religious performance, now that they are believers in Jesus who is the Messiah. We will work through that next time.

In this passage, it is very clear that the ones who are weak in faith are the ones who are refusing to eat the meat. That should give great comfort to those of you who are vegetarians tonight. The ones who are weak in faith are the ones who are articulating a position against the usage of meat. That's what we are facing in this passage. The weak, the ones who are weak in faith are probably Jewish Christians struggling with new freedoms of the gospel.

Secondly, we have to ask this question: "What are the opinions that are being referenced here?" Paul calls on us not to pass judgment on their opinions. Are these opinions related to Paul's teaching on justification? For instance, is Paul saying, you may have some in the congregation who believer what I teach about justification by faith, and you have others who believe in justification by faith and works — don't pass judgment on them. Do you think that is what Paul is saying? If it is, he certainly has changed his tune from the book of Galatians. Paul again was not about to tolerate divergence on that particular teaching because he saw it fundamental to the Christian embrace of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Paul's references here are not to divergences from the gospel, but to what we might call things indifferent, things that are not commanded or spoken in the word of God. Paul in this verse is calling on us to welcome a brother in and to let him know our esteem and love for him and not to just pick on his doubtful points. Issues are perhaps side issues in the greater scheme of things, but very significant to him. Paul is calling for a magnanimous attitude on the part of stronger brothers in dealing with weaker brothers.

Look at verse 2 then. Paul goes on to describe two groups in this passage. One is meat eating and the other is vegetarian. If we take his words literally, one person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak, and eats vegetables only. Again, aren't you glad it's the weaker brother is the one who eats only vegetables, I certainly am. You can tell from my physique. At any rate, this may not simply be speaking to abstinence from meat, period, but this may well be referring to abstinence from meat offered to idols. If this passage is dealing with the same kind of subject that say, I Corinthians 8 is dealing with, then that is the case. Paul doesn't give us enough of a clue to be absolutely sure.

Paul goes on to say, if you look at verse 3, that the ones who are eating this meat should not hold those brothers who are abstaining from meat in contempt, and that those who are not partaking of the meat should not despise those who are partaking of the meat. They are both free to do their conscience in this area, Paul says, because God has accepted them.

I want you to understand that in verse 3 that Paul's major concern here is that those who are abstaining from the meat, do not pass judgment on those who are partaking of the meat. In this case, he is concerned that the weaker brother, to use his phrase from verse 1, not become the Lord of the conscience of the stronger brothers. Paul is concerned here that the fellowship not be held hostage by the scruples of those who are weaker brethren.

Look again then at verse 4. Paul then brings in a thunderous principle: God is our master and so we don't have a right to pass judgment on His servants. Look at verse 4, "Who are you to judge the servant of another. To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

Now I will come back to that principle in just a moment, but even reading this, a couple of questions come to mind. The first question is this, "What does it mean to judge the servant of another?" Following that, another questions, "Does this rule out all judgment or discretion or discrimination?" Are we to cease making judgments whatsoever about fellow believers? Well, the answer of course is no. Paul is not asking for that type of a sweeping restriction on the exercise of our judgment. Paul himself is ready to judge in the body. For instance, he has judged on group to be stronger brethren and one group to be weaker brethren. That's a judgment. So, Paul is not calling on us not to make any kind of estimation about one another.

He is, however, asking for us to restrain ourselves in matters that are indifferent. To refrain from judging one another in those areas. Now we are going to have to expand on that next week. That's why I said we'd walk through the passage this week, deal with the principle. Then we will try to get down into the nitty gritty and the practice. That is where the difficulty comes in the details.

Let's go back to this big principle in verse 4. Paul says, "God is our master." He's telling us to accept one another in these areas of secondary opinion, to do so in light of a tremendous truth: That is God is master, God is judge because He is the master of His children. We should not be too quick to take upon ourselves the role of judge and master. We should refrain from it. We should be ready to give as much room as we possibly can to the consciences of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a tremendous principle that he sets down. There is the first thing that he says in this passage. God is our master and therefore we need to remember that as we estimate, as we exercise discretion as we practice judgment with regard to those in the body of Christ.

II. Mutual forbearance because what we do we do for the Lord.

The second thing I want you to see is this, if you'd look at verses 5 through 9. Paul here calls us to mutual forbearance in the body of Christ because we do what we do for the Lord and we belong to the Lord. Paul wants us to remember that our relating is controlled by this particular truth: That we do everything that we do for the Lord. We do it as unto the Lord. We belong to the Lord and because we live for God and because we belong to Him. His children are not to stand over one another in judgment, in spiritual scruples, because we live for God. And because we belong to him, we are not to stand over one another in these matter of spiritual scruples.

Look again at verse 5, as Paul moves on to a second illustration. He started with this issue of meat or no meat, meat or vegetables, or meat offered to idols or meat not offered to idols, whatever the particular case is. Now he brings in another illustration. This illustration regards the observance or the estimation of days. One person, he says, esteems one day above others while another person treats all alike. Both, he says, should be fully convinced in their own minds. Again, two comments we make in passage and we will come back to it next time. Paul, in this passage, is not talking about a difference of the status of the Christian Sabbath, or Lord's day, or Sunday. I'll explain why he's not doing that when we come back next week together.

So we have to ask the question, "What is going on here?" What is he talking about, one honoring or esteeming or valuing or treating one day differently and others treating all days alike. Again, this probably has to do with the Jewish Christians and the observance of certain holy days within the calendar of the covenant people, and so I will speak to that directly when we come back.

Paul goes on in verse 6 to say, if you observe the day, do so for the Lord and not with your eye primarily on others. So also one ought either to eat meat or not eat meat with thankfulness to God. He is wanting to focus us on what our heart motivation is for doing whatever it is we do. For observing the day or not observing the day. What is our heart motivation? Do it for the Lord, Paul says in verse 6.

Then in verses 7 and 8, Paul articulates the second huge principle in this passage. The first principle he wanted to bring to bare was this. You are not your fellow Christians master. God is their master, it's not your job to be the Lord of their conscience, it's not your job to be the thought police, it's not your job to sort them out on every single that they may have theologically. God is their master. The second major principle however, that he begins to articulate here in verse 7, is that no Christians lives or dies to, or for himself; we serve a higher master. Rather, he says in verse 8, we all live and die to the Lord. We are His whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. We live for the Lord, we belong to the Lord, we have been united to the Lord, and in light of that grand reality we ought to treat one another with forbearance and magnanimity. Jim Phillips says, "It's only when we are captive to God's word and God's will that we attain real freedom."

Notice that in addressing the differences, one group that wants to observe a day, another group that doesn't; one group that eats meat, one group that abstains, Paul refuses to say, in this situation, "Here is the answer. Eat meat without misgiving, or don't eat meat at all, or observe that day, or don't observe that day." That's not the answer that he gives. The answer that he gives is, "No Christian lives for himself. Whether he lives or he dies, he belongs to the Lord." He refuses to set up a specific rule to solve the issue. He appeals to this general principle. He longs for the Christian to be captive to God's word and to God's will and he presses home this great principle of God's ownership of us. We belong to Him, we live for Him and what ever we do, whether we live or we die, we do for the Lord because we are the Lord's.

In fact, he goes on to say in verse 9 that it was for this very purpose that Christ died and rose. What purpose? That he would be our Lord. He lived, He died, He rose again in order that He might be our Lord. Notice how Paul drives home the point that it's not just that God is our Lord, but it's Christ who is our Lord. Christ is the Lord. Our attitude toward other believers must be governed by the realization that we live for God and that we belong to Him and that Christ is Lord. So, there is the second thing that Paul says in this passage as we deal with these differences. Remember the principle, we live for God, we belong to God. God is our master, we live for God we belong to God.

III. Mutual forbearance because God will judge and we will give account.

Thirdly, if you look at verses 10 through 12, Paul brings this particular argument home by quoting from the Old Testament. He calls us here to a mutual forbearance in the body of Christ because God will judge and we will give an account. Paul is talking about people who have a propensity for judging one another in the body and he says, "Remember it's God who is going to be judging, you are going to give account, so don't be to quick to be in the position of judging here since you will give an account." We will all stand under God's searching judgment, because we will all give an account of ourselves. Paul tells us here that God's children are not to stand over one another in judgment in spiritual scruples. Paul asks a penetrating question in verse 10, "Why are we passing judgment on lesser religious scruples or holding our brethren in contempt since we ourselves will all stand before the judgment seat of God?"

Now, let me come back again with a couple of questions to ask about this great statement. Is this a call to cease and desist from any kind of judgment? Anytime someone makes a judgment on the ethical behavior of a Christian, on the doctoral position of a Christian, in our day and age you may expect the quotation to be given to him, "Judge not one another lest ye be judged." Our culture doesn't like people making judgments of any type. Is Paul saying, make no judgments at all? Is he calling us here to cease and desist from all exercise of discretion of doctrine and ethics? No, no, he himself is ready to engage in that. The gospels and the epistles of the New Testament constantly cause Christians to be ready to make just those kinds of judgment. What, then, is being forbidden here?

What is Paul telling us not to do? If he is not ruling it all out, where do we draw the line? Where is Paul drawing the line on the exercise of judgment. If it's not an absolute forbidding of making judgments and exercising discretion, where do we draw the line? Well, in this passage it's clear that there is no violation, there is no violation in God's will involved in the discretion that is being exercised. Rather, Paul seems to be calling on us to forbear restrictions of conscience in weaker brethren that they will gradually grow up and grow beyond. At any rate, Paul quotes from the Old Testament to reinforce this truth. He says, "'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to Me and every tongue shall give praise to God.'" The point is that God has sworn that all will stand before Him in judgment. Paul is reminding us then that God will judge.

In verse 12, Paul again reiterates that we will give an account of ourselves and so, rather than spending time judging others in these areas, we should be preparing for the general accounting. We may have a tendency to be to quick to judge and so we need to remember that we will be judged.

Now, there is one major thing I want you to see from verses 10 through 13, and that is this: For Paul, the final judgment is a significant factor in our present Christian living. The final judgment is to be a significant part in our thinking and in our behaving. We are not to do anything in this life or in the church without thinking every once in a while about The Great Assize. There will be a day of judgment. This is a very, very significant thing for us to take into account.

Some Christians would say that if we use anything but grace as a motivation to the Christian living we are in danger of falling into works righteousness. I want you to notice that Paul is grounding our motivation in this passage in the apprehension of God's final judgment. Everything is under girded by grace and what the Apostle Paul has said in the book of Romans. That's why he spends so much time on Romans 1 through 11 to drive that point through. That reality of grace, however, does not set aside these other considerations in the Christian life. In this passage Paul says, "Christian, remember God will judge one day, you will give an account one day, so before you pass judgment to quickly remember that on the last day it will not be you on the judgment seat, it will be God and He will cause your weaker brethren to stand." He's already said that in the passage. He's going to cause the weaker brethren to stand so you show then the same kind of generosity in your judgments as does God. Now we will come back and try to work out the hard part of application of that to our own situation when we come back next week. Let's pray.

Romans 14:1-12 - A Warning Against Judging Brothers (part 2)

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 14. We started looking at this passage last week , working our way through a marvelous section of the book of Romans. Romans 12 through 15 is a tremendous portion of this great gospel. It spells out the way of the Christian life. It tells us about what life ought to be like with in the body of Christ. How we ought to relate to one another. In Romans 14, verses 1 through 12, Paul is continuing his discussion of Christian living. We noted in Romans 12 and in 13 that he had statements that were directed to Christians about their relating to one another, as well as statements to Christians about how they were to relate to society and government and pagans outside the church. He has talked about relationships in the church and the world and the government.

In Romans 14, verses 1 through 12, he comes back to the specific matter of stronger and weaker Christians in the church. He is addressing the question of how are genuine Christians to get along when they have spiritual and religious and ethical differences and scruples over various matters in the church. Especially, how are those who are more mature in the faith to deal with and treat those who are less mature in the faith when they have particular varying views and scruples and such. Paul is telling us here in this passage. So, let's attend directly God's word in Romans 14 verses 1 through 12:

Romans 16:1-12

Our Lord we thank You for Your word as we seek to do justice to it again tonight ,thinking how it applies to our own hearts. Soften our hearts, make our minds fruitful from ways that this word applies to us. Help us to understand it. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Now, this week I want to spend our time together simply applying this word. We attempted to outline the passage so it is very clear in our minds what Paul was speaking about and the circumstance in which he was giving this counsel. Let's start with that as our first point of application. What is this passage about. It's very clear that whatever difficulties there are in understanding the details that Paul is talking about more mature Christians being patient with less mature Christians. He has some words in this passage about less mature Christians and the way they relate to more mature Christians, but primarily his concern is how more mature Christians relate to younger Christians in the Lord; those who are less mature, those who are not as well grounded in the teaching in the Scripture and in the practice of the Christian life. How do we deal with them in the Christian church, especially when differences of opinion arise? Paul's first verse addresses this question: "Accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions."

We need to stop right there and say, many people take this passage to mean that Christians should never exercise judgment towards other Christians about anything. Have you ever said, we have a real problem because 'so and so' is teaching something that is out of accord with Scripture, and been met with the words, "Oh well, we can't judge one another." Or maybe there is a Christian who has committed gross immorality and we say, "This is real problem to have a Christian behaving this way," and we are met with a word, "We can't judge one another." Often times this passage is appealed to along with the words that Jesus says, and along with the words that James says, to be an example of why we cannot exercise any discretion or judgment towards fellow believers, or maybe to anybody else for that matter. That cannot be the meaning of this passage, however. It cannot be, that cannot be what this passage means for a variety of reasons.

In this very book, Romans, Paul is going to exercise discretion of judgment in regard to teaching about the doctrine of justification by faith, and if you are teaching the doctrine of justification by works, Paul is definitely going to have a judgment about that. He went on for eleven chapters about that particular point. So, Paul is not saying, "Throw your mind out at the door when you are at the Christian church. Throw your judgment and discretion out the door."

There is another reason why that can't be the meaning. Do you remember Jesus' letters to the seven churches? Why don't you quickly turn there, Revelation 1, 2, and 3. Jesus described in Revelation 1 His communications to the seven churches. Scan those chapters as I tell you something. You will find in those letters from Jesus to His Church, over and over two things. Jesus judging His church because it failed to judge in the areas of doctrine and morality. In other words, Jesus writes words of condemnation warning and exhortation to most of the churches. Not all of them had this problem, but most of them, because they had failed to exercise judgment in doctrine and discretion. In other words, there were people who were being allowed to teach against true biblical doctrine in those churches and nobody in the church had done anything about it. There were people who were actually living and encouraging other people to live in immoral ways, and they weren't being confronted with it in the churches. Jesus judges those churches for not judging. So, this passage and Jesus' words about not judging can't mean that we are never to exercise discretion or judgment about other Christians.

Then what does it mean? Well, actually Revelation 2 and 3 helps us as does James. Turn back just a few pages from the book of Revelation to James. James is one of the books in the Bible that gives us that dominical phrase, do not judge one another. James is also concerned about quarrels in the church as well. Notice what he says in James chapter 3 verse 1, "Let not many of you become teachers my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment." Now it is interesting that if you read Paul's letter to Timothy, I Timothy, Paul is much harder on teachers than he is on baby Christians. He is ready to give young Christians, immature Christians, Christians who are not in a position of authority, responsibility, accountability, creedal commitment, and so on, he is ready to give them a lot more latitude. He is ready to give them more slack, more patience than to teachers who ought to know better, to people who claim to be mature in the faith. Those who have the responsibility of the eldership, those who have the responsibility of teaching in the church, they are held to a higher standard.

There was an article in the newspaper not long ago, in the wake of several prominent falls in pastoral morality, and it asked, "Should we hold our preachers to a higher standard?" In a sort of hand ringing, "Oh, aren't we being unfair to preachers?" You better believe you ought to hold them to a higher standard. God says you ought to hold them to a higher standard. James says that we shall incur a stricter judgment. Yes, preachers should be held to a higher standard. So, I think that there is a wonderful hint at how we ought to apply I Corinthians 14 in light of that. Clearly Paul is concerned in I Corinthians 14 about our being too hard on those who are younger and more immature in the faith. They ought not be expected to think and act like extremely mature Christians who have been walking with the Lord for years and years and have been studying His word for years and years; they ought to be given room to grow. They ought to be given patience and encouragement and not harsh and censorious judgment from the people of God. Once again we see the principle here that Paul is not saying, "Don't exercise any discretion in regard to other Christians." Be very, very, very careful before you come in and treat a young Christian as if that Christian ought to know and be like a Christian who has been walking with the Lord for many years. It's just common sense.

Let's go back to the Romans chapter 14 and let me go back to this point one more time. More mature Christians ought to be more patient with less mature Christians. The context of Romans 14 is this. Paul has a church of mixed Jews and Christians, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians still are having a hard time making that transition. The ceremonial law is gone, the rituals of the Old Testament are gone, the various ritual practices of the Old Testament are gone, numerous requirements of the Old Testament are gone and the Gentile Christians who have never been under that are exalting in that freedom. They realize the reality of that freedom. Some of the Jewish Christians are having a hard time letting it go. Paul refers to them as the weaker brethren. They are having a struggle coming along understanding some of the new freedoms of being a Christian in the time of the new covenant. They are wrestling and struggling with it. Let me tell you, Calvin has a beautiful brief description of the problem that is going on here. Let me just read it to you. "Paul passes on now to lay down a precept, especially for the instruction of the church, that they who have made the most progress in Christian doctrine should accommodate themselves to the more ignorant, and employ their own strength to sustain their weakness, for among the people of God there are some weaker than others, who except they are treated with great tenderness and kindness will be discouraged and become at length alienated from religion."

It is very probable that this happened, especially at that time, for the churches were formed of both Jews and Gentiles. Some of whom having been long accustomed to the rights of the Mosaic Law, having been brought up in them from their childhood, were not easily drawn away from them. There were others who, having never learned such things, refused a yolk to which they had not been accustomed. Now, as man's disposition is to slide from a difference of opinion to quarrels and contentions, the apostle shows us how they, who thus vary in their options, may live together without any discord. He prescribes this as the best mode. They who are strong should spend their labor in assisting the weak. They who have made the greatest advances should bare with the more ignorant, for God, by making us stronger than others, does not bestow strength that we may oppresses the weak, nor is it the part of Christian wisdom to be above measure insolent and to despise others. The import then, of what he addresses to the more intelligent and the already confirmed is this: the ampler grace which they have received from the Lord, the more bound they are to help their neighbors. It's a glorious principle here. The more grace God has given you, the more light God has given you, the more wisdom God has given you, the more maturity God has given you is there not to be stridently harsh with younger Christians, but to help them along. To nurture them, to be tender with them. To be patient with them like parents. To aid them, to woo them into the walk of the Christian faith. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 14.

Now, what are some of the specific applications? This passage reminds us that there is a diversity of spiritual and doctrinal maturity in the church. There will always be a range of levels of spiritual maturity and doctrinal maturity in the church. That impacts our approach to discipleship. One size does not fit all. That's why one-to-one ministry is absolutely essential in the church. That's why fellowship is absolutely essential in the church. There is not just one program that can help everybody because we are all at different levels of maturity . We all have different life backgrounds. We all have different experiences. We all have our own gaps, our own weaknesses, our own strengths, and our own abilities. So, in our discipleship, one size does not fit all. We must be ready to be patient in the Christian nurture of disciples and, listen to this friends, and churches, not just patient in dealing with individuals, but patient in dealing with whole congregations of individuals. Even churches are different. There is a corporate personality that attends to churches as well as personalities that attend to individuals. There are some churches that are strong on doctrine and weak on mercy. There are some churches that are strong on mercy and weak on doctrine. There are some churches that are strong on mutual care in the fellowship and sort of flabby when it comes to thinking and to worldview. On and on and on you can go. Churches are different and Paul is reminding us here that we must be ready to be patient in our Christian nurture of disciples and churches.

III. Let's go on to the third thing. Notice, here is a controversial statement. Listen to it. Young converts in young churches aren't not be equally pressed with all the truths of scripture. What do you mean, "It's all the Bible, it's all God's word." True. It's all true. True. It's all important. True. Young converts in young churches ought not to be equally pressed with all the truths of Scripture at the same time. You don't come in to the guy that professed faith in Jesus Christ and say, "By the way I have a copy of Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology we are going to work through the section on epistemology and then we are going to move on to the doctrine of the decrees and deal with infralapsarianism tomorrow. That's not what you do, wrong move, bad move. There is milk and there is meat. You attend to the maturity of the Christian when you discern what you're going to deal with. That difference in the church, that diversity in the church, and that diversity in that teaching in the word, need to be attended to. Listen to what William Plummer, the great Southern Presbyterian Bible commentator says, "It is not wise to equally press among young converts and newly formed churches all the truths of Scripture. There is an order in divine instruction. Milk for babes, strong meat for men. Let that order be observed. At all events let us keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The inspired rule is, 'let us therefore as many be perfect be thus minded. If in anything you be otherwise minded, God will reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing.'" Very wise counsel. Young converts in young churches ought not to be equally pressed with all the truths of Scriptures.

IV. Number four, those who are called weak in the faith are thereby encouraged to not stay that way, but to grow. Paul is looking out for those who are younger and more immature in the congregation, but by gently prodding them and labeling them with the title weak, he is pressing them not to be comfortable with that. Who wants to be called a weakling? You know the little cartoons with the bully on the beach kicking sand on the little scrawny weakling. It made you want to go get the Charles Atlas Bodybuilding Program and get strong. That's what Paul's doing. See, you don't want to be weak forever, do you? You want to grow up, you want to get strong. You want to grow in the Lord. Paul is subtlety prodding us encouraging us not to stay this way, but to grow.

V. Fifth, we ought to aim to prevent divisions and schisms in the body of Christ. Notice Paul's language, "accept one another." Don't accept one another for the purpose of judging one another's opinions. Don't despise one another. Don't condemn one another. Why does he use this language? We ought to aim to prevent division and schism.

VI. Sixth, we should discourage doubtful disputations. In other words we should discourage strife about words about secondary matters. Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish minister said this, "Instead of contentious argumentation and vexatious controversies, at one endless and unfruitful, Paul inculcates here a discrete silence. Meanwhile a respectful toleration in the confidence we have no doubt that with mind and patient forbearance, all will come right at the last." So there is a time to simply not open our mouths, not to encourage a dispute to develop, and thus to be edifying to the body of Christ. This isn't just a counsel to pick your fights carefully, it's a counsel to just forbear from time to time for the sake of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We should discourage doubtful disputations.

VII. Seventh, every member of the body of Christ, weak or strong, should labor not to despise the brethren. In this passage there are two ways to despise the brethren. There are those who are strong looking down on the weak, condemning them, and then there are those who are weak who are looking at the strong and thinking, that the strong aren't as spiritual as they are because they are not doing these things that they are doing. Despising one another is a two way street and we need to labor in the body of Christ, whether weak or strong, not to despise the brethren. Listen to again to what Plummer says, "Let every member of Christ's Church, whether weak or strong, carefully avoid the sin if despising others. It is a very dangerous sin to set at naught one of those little ones that had believed in Jesus." Do you remember what Jesus said, "Woe unto you who make one of these little ones stumble. It would be better for you if you had a millstone tied around you neck and were thrown into the sea." You couldn't get a more graphic warning about being a stumbling block to a weaker brother than that. Plummer goes on, "It is the duty of parents and older children in a family to be especially careful of younger children of the family and be tender with them. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any case in which contempt of them is a virtue."

Perhaps it is always older children in the family who need to be especially careful of younger children in the family and tender with them. It is hard, if not impossible, to find any case in which contempt of them is a virtue. Perhaps there is haughtiness. Compassion would in every case perhaps be a much more becoming sentiment. Let us indulge contempt. You know that happens from time to time. We have disagreements, we are in meetings we have strong opinions about things and we are tempted to indulge contempt towards one another. "Well, he just doesn't understand. He's just not as committed as I am." And on and on and on. Don't indulge that.

VIII. Eighth, we should avoid hasty and harsh denunciations of the brethren. Listen to what Philip Dodderidge said. We sing Philip Dodderidge's hymns from time to time. Listen to what he says, "Let us not add to all the offenses which may justly cause us to tremble before God's tribunal. The criminal arrogance of you usurping the place and prerogative of our Judge." Charles Hodge goes on to say, "A denunciatory or censorious spirit is hostile to the Spirit of the gospel. If we are quick to denounce, if we are strident and harsh and shrill in that denunciation, we need to do some repenting and some reflection."

IX. Ninth, passing Old Testament rituals were problematic, and that was the problem that was going on in the church here in Romans 14. It was really hard for the people that had been under the Mosaic code to let it go. It was really hard for them to believe that the Gentiles didn't have to do it. It was really hard for them. If that's hard, how much more difficult is the problem of humanly invented ideas in the church. When somebody comes up with the idea that this is really the way to do it. There is no chapter, no verse, that says I need to do this, there is no biblical principle that says I need to do this, but you know, we have been doing it for one hundred and twenty five years. If you don't do it this way, you don't love Jesus as much as I do. That happens in the church today. It happens in the evangelical church. We don't have to point to other places we don't have to point at other places; we can talk about evangelical churches. It happens. Listen again to William Plummer, "Human inventions in religion, however presented, are troublesome even when they are not forced on our brethren." We come upon an idea that is not set forth through the word of God and we decide that is the best way to do it and we foist it on everybody else. We don't help matters. That brings dissention in the church.

X. Tenth, this passage does not justify you to loathe the Lord's Day. This is very important. Look back in Romans 14, verse 5, "One man regards one day above another. Another regards everyday alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind." We said last time, why do people read that this way, "some people believe in keeping the Lord's Day, others don't. It's up to you, just pick and do one with all your conviction and all your sincerity." That's not what Paul is talking about. Remember, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Guess what the Jewish Christians were doing. They wanted to keep the Shabbat, the seventh day. They wanted to keep the holy days of Israel. They wanted to keep Passover, wanted to keep the various other feast of Israel, and they wanted the Gentiles to do it too. They considered the Gentiles who were not doing it, less spiritual. The Apostle Paul basically says this, "Look, Jewish Christians, if you want to do that, fine, that is great, go ahead and do it. Don't tell the Gentile Christians they have to do it. They don't. They need to meet here on the Lord's Day. That's all they are asked to do. Be here on the Lord's Day, worship the Lord. They don't have to show up on the Seventh day at the Synagogue, they don't have to keep the feast days. They don't have to do it." That's what's going on in Romans 14. Not, whether or not they are going to meet on Sunday.

Let me prove that. When Paul speaks of the Lord's Day, he speaks of it in terms of the normal directive of Christian worship. Not only was Jesus raised on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, but on the first day of the second week of the resurrection, He assembled with His disciples and they continued to meet on that week thereafter, we are told in the book of Acts. Further more, Paul will say in I Corinthians 16 verses 1 and 2, that the people were together when? On the first day of the week. To do what? To give their tithes and offerings as an act of worship. It is the normal pattern in the New Testament for the people of God to gather on the Lord's Day. By Revelation chapter 1 verse 10, at the end of the New Testament period when John was carried up into the heavens to see the vision of the book of Revelation, we are told that he was what - in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. By John's time, that phrase was the standard for the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day. Paul is not undercutting the Christian Sabbath. There is a different debate going on here in Romans 14.

XI. Eleventh, we are not our own. We are not our own, and rather belong to God, and we need to live like it. That is one of Paul's big points right here. If God has given you maturity, do you know why He's given you that maturity? He's given you that maturity for your brethren who are less mature. Not so you can lord it over them, but so that you can help them. We are for one another. What God has given to me belongs to you. What God has given to you belongs to me. We are here for one another. Why? Because we belong to the Lord. So he says we need to live like that. Look, if we just did that, if we just did that, most of the problems that arise relating to issues like Paul is dealing with in Romans 14 would be taken care of. If we just did that.

XII. Twelfth, Jesus is not merely our gracious friend and redeemer, He is the judge of the quick and the dead. We need to remember that. Paul pauses, look at what he says, verse 9, " Christ died and lived again." Why? So that He might be Lord of the living and the dead, or of the dead and the living. What is Paul doing? He's saying Jesus is the Judge, He is the Lord, He is coming to judge the quick and the dead. Remember that He is your gracious friend and redeemer. Remember that He is the friend of sinners. Remember that He is your brother. Remember that He is God's precious son, but remember that He is the Lord and will be the Judge of the quick and the dead.

XIII. Thirteenth, Paul wants us to remember the reality of our mortality in the coming judgment. We will die and we will give an account. That is Paul's emphasis in verses 9 through 12. One day we will die and we will give an account. Remember Jesus' parable of the rich fool, "Fool, do you not realize tonight your soul is required of you." Paul is saying that we need to live in the reality that we are going to be judged. How does that help us? When I am struggling with having contempt for my brethren, I need to pause and remind myself that even though nobody else in the church may know that I have contempt for one of my brothers and sisters, Jesus knows. I will give account of that. Let me tell you my friends. That helps me, that helps me to deal with that kind of contempt. I know there is going to be one day when that contempt is going to be unveiled. Frankly I'd rather handle that here by repentance before it gets to be unveiled so I can at least say, "Ok, I repented of that. I did that, I know it, I did it for twelve weeks, but then I repented of it."

XIV. Fourteen, we can never be too accountable to God in our conduct towards one another. Could you be too accountable to God in the way you relate to one another? No! God wants us to be accountable to Him in the way we relate to one another.

Finally, the truths of this passage ought to temper out relations with Christians of other denominational backgrounds as well. I am often asked this with some suspicion. "Why do you have so many Baptist friends?" I'm not a crypto- Baptist. I'm the real thing, the knuckle dragging Presbyterian. I really believe this stuff. I am not friends with Baptists because I don't think baptism matters. I don't want them to be friends with me because they think baptism doesn't matter. I think we ought to both think it matters a whole lot because the Bible says it does. We may not, on this side of glory, have any agreement on that issue. We will on the other side of glory. In the mean time, the things that I share in common with many of those brethren right here in our midst, cause my soul to delight in them. I fellowship with them not because our differences don't matter, but because I love them and I am committed to the things they are committed to and we are working toward the same great ends. In fact, we are the only people left on earth who can have an honest disagreement. So it's not because these things don't matter that we are able to work across differences like that. It's because of the great and grand commonalities that we share in the gospel. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your word. It is practical as the day is long. We haven't done near justice to it. Bless us as we attempt to walk and live in it. In Jesus name. Amen.

On Christian Freedom - Romans 14:13-23

Now let me go ahead and tell you something. Tonight's message is really a one-point message. Now there will be four steps in that one-point message but it's really a one-point message! And I can sum up that one-point message in the final line of the little song that we're going to sing at the end of the service. "Christ-bought freedom. Grace-wrought holiness." And here's the one-point message: Our Christ-bought freedom as Christians does not contradict grace-wrought holiness in the Christian life. Christ-bought freedom is not a contradiction of grace-wrought holiness. Those things go together. They are two great tastes that go together. Those things are not in competition with one another, in tension with one another. Those things go together in the Christian life. That's one of the major themes of Romans 14.

Now let me ask you to take your bulletin again before we open our Bibles and turn to the back of the bulletin, I think it's the back panel, right there, and there you will see a twelve-point outline of this passage in Romans 14 verses 13 to 23. That is simply there for your benefit. I tried to go through that passage and make sense out of the flow of Paul's arguments and turn it into twelve specific propositions that he was making about the unique freedoms that we have as Christians. And it's just there for your edification. I'm not going to preach a twelve-point sermon; it's simply there to guide you through the passage because we're not going to work phrase by phrase through the passage. I want to hit the high points and I want to draw attention to this one great theme.

Now if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Romans chapter 14. We're going to be looking at verses 13 to 23, and as we do so, let me tell you why. I mentioned to you last Lord's Day Evening that we're looking at the passage in Romans 13:1-7 last Lord's Day Evening, the passage this morning, Romans 15:22-29, and Romans 14:13-23, in part because as we were going back through and tagging sermons for the new website we noticed that we did not have transcriptions for those passages in the exposition that we did through the entire book of Romans about ten years ago. And so it was suggested to me that I preach another sermon on those passages so that they could be tagged and transcribed and put into that series and we'd have a complete series on the book of Romans.

But as I saw the passage that were missing I realized actually that each of those speak to important issues in the life of the church today that would be helpful to address. And so last Lord's Day Evening we looked at Romans 13 which is very timely for us as we try and figure out, as Christians, how we live in a culture that is increasingly antagonistic to the things that we believe the Bible teaches about the way people ought to live and what is important in life and it's important for us as believers to know what our responsibilities are to a government and in a culture that is not friendly to the things that we believe are true and right and good. And so we spent some time doing that last Lord's Day Evening. Then this morning we looked at a passage in which Paul articulates something very close to the heart of his theology of ministry and we especially looked at some aspirations of the Christian life that grow out of Paul's words to the Roman church in Romans 15 verses 22 to 29.

Tonight I want to look at the issue of Christian freedom. And here's what I want you to have in mind before we even read the passage. Sanctification and Christian freedom are closely linked ideas. Christian freedom and sanctification are things that go together. Understanding our freedoms as Christians is very important for sanctification. Pursuing sanctification is very important for Christian freedom. And again, just like the last phrase in the song that we're going to sing at the end of the service, those things go together. They're not in competition or contradiction, but Christian freedom and sanctification go together. Now that's important because we live in a day and age where there is renewed attention being given to the doctrine of sanctification. And I'm talking about in our circles, the sort of evangelical, Presbyterian, and reformed world is doing a lot of thinking about sanctification.

And there's some interesting proposals that are being made in our day and time as to how one ought to pursue or not pursue sanctification. One thing that I find - and I'm not at that age where I can start talking about "the younger generation" — one thing that I find in my younger brothers and sisters in Christ now is there is an increased desire for us to be transparent about struggles in the Christian life. And so, whereas, in my generation or older, you might die before you let someone know what your besetting sins were. My younger brothers and sisters in Christ are very likely to walk into my office, sit down, and say, "I have an addiction to pornography" or "I'm cheating on my husband" or "I have a substance abuse problem." Whereas, my parents, who didn't have those things, but if they had wouldn't have told you if they did! And that has led to some interesting challenges in how we pursue sanctification. Is transparency and authenticity so important that there is no expectation of progress or change? Or is there such an expectation of progress or change that a person doesn't want to let you know what they're actually struggling with? And that becomes a significant issue in our day and age. And I think Paul, in Romans 14, has some things that actually help us there. And that's why I was so happy to see this passage pop up and so happy to address it with you tonight.

Before we read God's Word let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Father, we come before You tonight and ask for Your help. We want to be more like our Savior. We want, when we sing, "May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day," we mean that Lord, and yet many of us are painfully aware of how far we fall short of that ideal. How do we handle that, Lord? How do we pursue holiness and honesty at the same time? How do we deal with besetting sins without becoming either flippant in the way we approach them or so deeply discouraged by backsliding and struggles and falls that we can't go on in the Christian life? Help us. Bless us as we read God's Word. Grant that we would receive it as the very Word of God, not simply as the opinions of men, but as Paul the inspired apostle speaking Your Word to us for Your glory and our good. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in Romans 14 verses 13 to 23:

"Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

There is an approach to sanctification, and you can read it in books that are read, again, in our theological neck of the woods in the evangelical world, you can hear it in sermons and talks and conferences, there is an approach to sanctification that is essentially saying this — there are many real Christians that are burdened with a fear that God is going to reject them because of their besetting sins. And what they need to understand is that the doctrine of justification sets us free from a fear of being condemned when we stumble along the way and we need to understand that for the believer, God did not send His Son to die for us so that we would become more and more holy, less and less sinful. He sent His Son to die for us so that we would be free, free from having to worry about His condemnation, free from having to worry about Him rejecting us, free from even having to worry about becoming more holy. And once you understand that fundamental principle then your life will change.

Now if you follow that line of argument, the line of argument is essentially this — let me give you the good side of it. The good side of it is that there are many Christians out there that don't understand the doctrine of justification. And my guess is, everybody in this room who's involved in Christian ministry in an evangelical context has encountered exactly that — good Christians who have not realized the full ramifications, the freeing ramifications, of the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone in their lives. That's absolutely true; we meet it all the time — sincere believers in our Lord Jesus Christ who, because of struggles with besetting sins, fear the condemnation of God, when in fact what they are dealing with are the normal struggles of a vibrant Christian life. The life of the Spirit in us does not end warfare with sin, it begins it, and the fact that you're having to battle sin isn't proof that you're dead, it's proof that you're alive! And so the good side of this material that you get in books and conferences and articles and sermons is that we need to understand the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone better and that that will help our assurance. That's absolutely true.

The bad side of that argument is that it seems to suggest that holiness is in competition and even contradiction of freedom, the kind of freedoms that God gives us in Jesus Christ. And that's of course a significant mistake. It's clearly a mistake in light of what we've just read here in Romans chapter 14. The pursuit of holiness is not a contradiction of the freedom that Christ brings, and yet there are many people that almost present it that way, that to pursue holiness is to deny the objective basis of our relationship with God in Jesus Christ, that we have a relationship with God that is based on what Jesus has done outside of us, it's not based on what God is doing in us, and therefore to pursue holiness and to hope to become better is actually a contradiction of the glorious truth of justification by faith.

Now I want to come right out and say that teaching fundamentally misunderstands Christian freedom. Christian freedom is not freedom to not care about sin anymore. Christian freedom is not freedom to not care about becoming more Christ-like. It's the very opposite of that. In the Christian life, to go back to the little song at the bottom of your bulletin, Christian freedom, Christ-bought freedom, is the perfect complement of grace-wrought holiness. Those two things go together.

And I want to present an argument for that from Romans 14 very briefly tonight. The arguments for the view that I've been describing essentially go like this. If Christians understand the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are not condemned by our sin but He has paid the penalty of that sin and therefore there is now no condemnation for us, if they really understand that Gospel, they will understand that they are now free to do whatever they want to do, even if it's sin, because if you can't do what you want to do, even sin, then you're really not free. Now I've actually read those words in a book by a Presbyterian evangelical pastor. If you're not free to sin, then you're not really free. The apostle Paul would vigorously object to that particular line and let me explain why. It starts with understanding the freedom of God. Now I said it's a one-point sermon but this is the first of my four steps on the way to that one-point sermon, okay?

CHRISTIAN FREEDOM IS GROUNDED IN THE FREEDOM OF GOD

The first step is to understand the freedom of God. Our Christian freedom is grounded in the freedom of God. Think with me for just a moment about the freedom of God. God is totally free. There is a sense in which He is the only Being in the universe who is totally free. He does what He pleases. And think of how the Word of God emphasizes this over and over. "I know that the Lord is great. Our God is above all gods. He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths." That's Psalm 135 verses 5 and 6. "What His soul desires, He does" — Job 23:13. "God works all things after the council of His own will" — Ephesians 1:11. "He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants on the earth" — Daniel 4:35. "His purpose is established and He accomplishes His good pleasure" — Isaiah 46:10. "Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases" — Psalm 115:3. Notice over and over the emphasis that God does what He pleases. By the way, that phrase finds its way into The Westminster Confession of Faith and over and over and over again if you read The Westminster Confession of Faith, which is only about twelve to fourteen pages, single-spaced, if you take out all the Scripture references, it's a pretty short document. But over and over, I've never counted up the number of times but it's at least twenty or twenty-five times that document says, "It pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord." In other words, the Lord decided to do such-and-such because it pleased Him. He wanted to do it.

Now let me ask you this. Does the fact that the Lord does whatever He pleases mean that God is free to sin? No. For instance, Paul tells us in Titus chapter 1 verse 2 that God cannot lie. Does it make God less free that He cannot lie? No! It makes Him more free that He cannot lie! The very famous 20th century theologian Karl Barth suggested that for God to be free He had to be able to become His opposite, but that's not Biblical logic. God can't choose to not exist. God can't choose to do evil. Those are not limitations, those are perfections! The freedom of God consists not in His ability to choose the opposite of good, the freedom of God consists in His ability to choose in accordance with His character. We believe that God is good and God is sovereign, and He is more free when His sovereignty is exercised in consistently with His character. Now once we understand that, we will understand that true Christian freedom is not indifferent to sin. True Christian freedom mirrors the kind of freedom God has. We are most like God not when we sin but when we want to not to. We will be perfectly like God in that way in glory one day. Right now, it's a rocky road, but you are not less free when you choose not to sin; you are more free now when you choose not to sin. And the freedom that you're experiencing is the freedom of choosing to be what God has made you and redeemed you to be. So Christian freedom is when your desires line up with a renewed heart.

Think of how the Old Testament emphasized that when the new covenant came, what was God going to do? He was going to give you a new heart or a new spirit. Or the way Jeremiah would put it, "He's going to write the law on your heart." What's the point there? So that you want to do what you ought to do. Many Christians today are trying to assure struggling Christians by saying, "You don't need to worry about 'ought' anymore. You don't need to worry about commands anymore. You don't need to worry about directives anymore. You don't need to worry about musts and shoulds and oughts." Whereas Paul says, "No, no, no. Christian freedom is when the want to and the ought to line up, when you want to do what you ought to do." That's how God's freedom works. He always wants to do what is consistent with His nature and He is good. And Christian freedom mirrors that.

CHRISTIAN FREEDOM IS NOT FREEDOM TO SIN

The second thing that we need to know — Christian freedom is not freedom to sin. Over and over that is emphasized in this passage. Isn't it interesting that Paul, in a passage where he's emphasizing Christian freedom, constantly does it in reference to other believers in Christ? Now he says, "If you use your freedom and it causes a brother or sister to stumble, you're not using your freedom right." And so that means that it's not an unconstrained freedom that Paul is talking about, to just do whatever you feel like, whether it's right or wrong, you're always having to think about the significance and the impact on brothers and sisters in Christ.

Well The Westminster Confession of Faith speaks on that as well. If you'd turn in your hymnals, if you'd look at the back of your hymnals, turn to page 859 and you will see a description of Christian freedom there:

"The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers" — bottom of page 859, so it's talking about Christian freedom - "under the gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law; and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation;" — so that's a pretty big list of things that consists in our Christian freedom that goes on to — "as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience to him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love, and a willing mind. All which were common also to believers under the law; but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their (1) freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected; (2) and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and (3) in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of."

So the confession outlines for us three ways in which the freedom of believers in the new covenant is greater than the believer's experience of freedom under the old covenant. But here's what I want you to see. Look at section two, or section three, sorry — chapter twenty section three on page 860:

"They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty; which is, that, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life."

My one point there is simply this. Christian freedom is not freedom to sin. Christian freedom is not freedom to sin.

CHRISTIANS UNDER THE NEW COVENANT HAVE GREATER

FREEDOM THAN BELIEVERS DID UNDER THE OLD COVENANT

Third point, Christians under the new covenant - that's you and me — do have greater freedom than believers did under the old covenant. You've heard the confession spell that out. How does Paul spell that out in Romans 14? Well, he spells it out when he says, "There is no longer any unclean food." Look at Romans 14:14. "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself." Well my friends, you don't have to look very far in the Old Testament to know that there were things that were unclean. And the apostle Paul is saying to these believers in Romans 14, "There is nothing unclean anymore. That's done. The old ceremonial ordinances are gone. They are no longer binding on you as believers. The unclean/clean food law distinction is gone. It was eradicated by Jesus." So there is a greater freedom from the ceremonial law and The Confession of Faith speaks to that.

But ultimately, Paul makes it clear that Christian freedom is the freedom of righteousness and peace and joy. Look at what he says in verse 17. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." In other words, Paul is saying, "Even better than the fact that we can eat shrimp and lobster, and that is a great freedom that believers ought to celebrate regularly, I hope you do, because those kinds of shellfish were outlawed under the unclean regulations of the Old Testament ceremonial code. Even better than the fact that we can eat all of those things that were once outlawed under the old covenant is the fact of the reign of the freedom of God in the believer's heart in righteousness, peace, and joy. And notice how freedom and righteousness are not in contradiction. Righteousness is one of the new liberties and blessings of the new covenant. It's not a contradiction of the freedom or the liberty of the Christian.

So what does the freedom of the Christian consist in? The freedom of the Christian consists in the Spirit's work in us so that we yearn to do what God wants us to do and so that we yearn to be what God has made us to be and what He has re-made us to be in Christ Jesus, not in throwing off the commands of God, not in saying "It doesn't matter whether I sin anymore," but in fact in pursuing righteousness in confidence, knowing that we are not going to be perfectly righteous until after we take our last breath. Perfect righteousness is never going to happen here. We are going to have to ask forgiveness every day. We are going to have to repent every day until we take our last breath and we go to glory. But there is a joy that is experienced in the freedom of righteousness that cannot be experienced when you are indifferent to righteousness. You see, initially it seems freeing to many people to be told, "It doesn't matter if you sin. It doesn't matter if you don't get better, because the freedom that God wants to give you is the freedom from worry about the fact that you're not getting any better." That sounds good at first to some discouraged Christian, except that God didn't make us to be satisfied with that because He made us to be like Him. And that is not how He exercises His freedom. So to the extent that we are satisfied with that formula we will actually be robbed of the joy that comes from growing, yes in little incremental itty bitty steps sometimes, yes with pitfalls and backslides and struggles and ups and downs along the way, but nevertheless growing just a little bit to want to do the things that God wants to do and to want to be the way that God made us to be. And this is the kind of freedom that Paul is talking about in Romans 14. It is not an indifference to holiness; it's an embrace of holiness.

Now this is only an hors d'oeuvre. I hope that you will go yourselves and study more the doctrine of Christian freedom. You could study Romans 14 and pull out some commentaries. John Murray's commentary on Romans 14 would provide you a rich feast on which you could meditate for many, many weeks with great profit. Or, you could get out a book like, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, which you'll find in the Banner of Truth paperback series and meditate on the freedom that we have in Christ.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we want to be free, not free to sin but free to be who You made us to be, free to want what You want us to want, free to do what You want us to do. We want to want to choose that. We know that sometimes the wanting to do it is the hardest part. So by Your Spirit, work that wanting to do what we ought to do in our hearts so that it is not burdensome, so that it doesn't come from a craven fear, a cringing fear, but from childlike faith and filial love and reverent awe of the God who loved us and gave His Son for us. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you stand for God's blessing? And go ahead and take your bulletin out and we'll be ready to sing, "Father By Your Spirit Grant Us" to the tune of "May the Mind of Christ My Savior."

Receive now the Lord's benediction. Peace be to the brethren and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ until the daybreak and the shadows flee away. Amen.

Romans 15

Romans 15:7-13 - Accept One Another, As Christ has Accepted You

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 15. As we come to Romans 15, verses 7 through 13, you need to realize we are coming to the end of this long argument in the book of Romans. For fifteen chapters, Paul has been bringing home a sustained argument. For eleven full chapters he expounded the truth of justification by grace through faith, grounding it into the doctrine of our union with Christ and working out the truth of that glorious doctrine in numerous different directions. He makes an argument for it from the Scripture of the Old Testament in Romans chapter 4, then applies it in Romans chapter 5 and 6, and 7 in specific ways to the Christian life, drawing encouragement from it in Romans chapter 8, and explaining the relationship of the Jewish Christian community and the Gentile Christian community in Romans 9, 10, and 11 as he talked about what God was going amongst the Jewish people.

Then when he gets to Romans chapter 12, he begins to make ethical deductions from that truth. If it is true about how God has saved us, what does that say about how we ought to live our lives. He's talked about how we are to relate to non-Christians. He's talked about how we are to relate to one another in the Christian community. He's talked about how we are to relate to the civil government. He's talked about how we are to deal with one another, in Romans chapter 14, when we have even theological differences and distinctives existing amongst us in a local community. Then in Romans chapter 15, he makes a number of grand concluding statements, the first of which you studied last week when we were together.

Today, we come to the end of the argument. Now he has more to say after Romans 15 :13. He's got two chapters worth of things to say to us and to this local body of believers in Rome to whom he is writing, and yet the main part of his argument concludes in the passage that we are going to study today. He has important things to say. For instance, when we come to Romans 15 verses 14 to the end of the chapter, he will spend the rest of the time in chapter 15 talking about his pattern of ministry. It is very important what he has to say. It's not part of this main argument that has been going on since Romans 1:1, so you might anticipate a culminating emphasis in this section, verses 7 through 13 and sure enough, you will find it there. So, let's hear God's holy word in Romans 15 beginning in verse 7.

Wherefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, "THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO THEE AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO THY NAME." And again he says, "REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE." And again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE." Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thus ends this reading of God's holy word. May He has His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Lord we thank You for Your word. Teach us by it we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Usually when we talk about accepting in the Christian church, we are talking about accepting Christ. Ever given your testimony and said, "I accepted Christ when I was 13," or "I accepted Christ when I was 21." By that language we mean that we have received Him into our hearts, in the sense that we have owned Him as our only hope of salvation. We have asked Him to indwell us by His holy spirit and to change us from the inside out. Sometimes we mean, and this is a biblical usage of the term, that we have accepted the claims that He makes about Himself in the gospel, the claim to be our Savior and Lord, the claim to be the Messiah descended from David, the Son of God sent to save sinners.

It's interesting here that Paul sees that Christian conduct is to be controlled not so much by our accepting Christ, but by Christ accepting us. In fact, He sees Christ's accepting us as key for how we get along with one another and instructive in how life ought to be in a local body of believers.

I want to look at this great fellowship exhortation tonight that Paul gives in Romans 15:7. I want to look at how he grounds it in Scripture in verses 8 through 12, and then I want to look at the prayer that he lifts up, the benediction that he pronounces in verse 13. We'll look at this in three parts.

I. General exhortation to accept one another despite differences.

First, in verse 7 where we see this general fellowship exhortation. That is, Paul calls on believers in Rome to accept one another even though they are very different. We learn from Paul's words there that we are to accept one another in the Christian church the same way that Christ accepted us. That is Paul's point. We are to accept one another in light of the fact that Christ has accepted us. We are to accept one another the same way, following after the example of the way that Christ has accepted us. Paul's exhortation here for believers is for us to emulate the same kind of patience and forbearance that Christ has shown towards us. If Christ had dealt with us as we deserved, He would have condemned us. He told His own disciples that "I do not come into the world to condemn the word, but that the world might believe on Him and be saved." The apostle is saying, just as Christ showed patience towards us, just as Christ showed forbearance towards us, just as Christ shows love towards us, so also in our dealings with one another, we ought to emulate Him.

Think of it, there were enormous cultural and religious and background differences that existed in that local congregation. Some of these people were from Jewish backgrounds. They could have traced their genealogy for fifty generations. They were grounded in the Scriptures. They had been taught the moral law of God. They had walked as aliens in this dominate Greco- Roman culture, never feeling really a part of it, being faithful to God, and suddenly they are united in a local congregation with the very people who wouldn't have acknowledged their existence socially, who would have been their enemies politically, who would have perhaps stabbed them in the back in their local community in regard to their pursuit of their own economic and financial well-being. Now, they are going to be part of the same congregation in Rome. Getting along was going to be hard. Getting along was going to mean working hard at being gracious and accepting of one another. Paul comes along with this grand exhortation, "Accept one another" He means, show a wholehearted acceptance to one another. Embrace one another. Welcome one another. Forebear with one another. Be patient and kind to one another. But acceptance, real acceptance is never easy. So he says, "Accept one another and do it because you remember that Jesus accepted you." Both sides of this relationship, the Jewish Christian side and the Gentile Christian side was bringing plenty of their own baggage towards one another into this local church. There was real enmity that existed between these groups, not just a perceived enmity. There was a real enmity. There had been a real enmity that God had placed there. In Christ, they had been called into this local fellowship of believers and they needed some incentives for getting along. Paul comes along in verse 7 with this enormous incentive and here it is. Paul basically said this, "If Christ has accepted that Jewish brother, my Gentile brother in Christ, who are you not to accept him?" Or, he says, "If Christ has accepted the Gentile brother, who are you, my Jewish brother, not to accept him? Christ has brought him into the fellowship of His people. Therefore, you too ought to accept Him."

He goes on to say in verse 7, this accepting of one another is promotive of the glory of God. Now, sometimes you get the idea that in order to glorify God you have to go out and perform some kind of spectacular feat, and you have to go convert a city, or a nation, or an un-reached people group. Well, try this: we glorify God by accepting one another, because Christ glorified God by accepting us. That is phenomenal. That you are doing the work of glorifying God when you accept brothers and sisters in the Lord who are different from you. Just as Jesus' acceptance of us is promotive of God's glory, so our acceptance of one another promotes the glory of God.

Let me say just a few things about that. This whole discussion that Paul is having with us here assumes that the church is made up widely different constituencies. It is diverse. There are people with different ideas about life, there are people from different backgrounds, and there are people from different socioeconomic groups. There are people from different political persuasions. There are people from all over the map. They are different. They are not the kind of people that would have just naturally drawn together out of all those normal socioeconomic impulses that draw us together with people that are like us. The church is not a collection of people that are like one another naturally and sociologically. That is one thing that is underlining the discussion here. The church is not a homogonous people group. It's not a collection of all sort of people who are all the same. It's a collection of all sorts of people, many of whom are really different.

This whole discussion also assumes that is precisely our unity, in spite of that diversity, that glorifies God in the world. The thing that gets God glory in this world is the world looking in at the Church and saying, "How in the world do those people get along with one another? They're not like one another. Some are rich and some are poor. Some have tremendous family pedigrees, some don't. Some have been following this Savior since diapers, and some have been following the Savior since yesterday. Some are from the wrong side of the tracks and some are from the right. Some have been Presbyterians since Methuselah and some have been Methodist since whenever. They all get along. They have some common bond, but it's not their background. It's not that they're socially alike one another or politically alike one another." And that unity in midst of diversity glorifies God in the world . The principal behind that latter presupposition is counter intuitive, it runs against every instinct of ours. We like to be with people that are like us. The Apostle Paul says that it is the unity of the church, especially in its local expression, where people are gathered together that are not like one another, yet they love one another, and accept one another because they have a prior and a deeper bond that is not bound in all the natural similarities that seem to form the major groupings of other people everywhere in the rest of the world.

Realizing those dynamics, friends, would force us to create an exclusively gospel based community in the church, and that's what Paul is looking for here. A community that is based not on our background, not on our social preferences and orders and experiences, but is based on our having been accepted by Jesus Christ, brought into His family and embracing His gospel. The gospel, the Lord Jesus, becomes the bond that unites these diverse peoples, that other wise never would have migrated towards one another.

You see, we are to glorify God through our personal promotion of the unity of the body in mutual acceptance, despite all the things that are different about us. Do you realize you are glorifying God when you do that? When a person of privilege begins an accepting Christian friendship, relationship with a person from poverty in a local congregation, and the only bond they have of experience is life is Jesus. There is genuine mutual respect and acceptance when a person from a different political background preference befriends another person from a very different political background and persuasion, and the only thing they have in common isn't found in the area of politics, but it's found in Jesus and the gospel. They accept one another and they love one another. I was with Mark Dever in Washington D.C., a few weeks ago and you can imagine what life could be like in local congregations there where maybe there are some different political views being expressed. Low and behold, there are two men who are U.S. House staffers, both working on the Farm Bill, one working for the Democratic side, one working for the Republican side. Can't you imagine their shoptalk, and there they are, sitting next to one another on Sunday morning under the ministry of the word. It's not their politics that brought them together, it's their work for God, it's their love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the bond that unites them has nothing to do with the natural order. It has everything to do with the super natural grace of God. Nothing glorifies God as much as the unity of His children which alone is in harmony with His essential will of love. Leon Morris says, "God's glory was promoted when Christ received us as sinners. It is further advanced when we, who are by nature sinners and wrapped up in our own concerns, instead receive our brothers and sister in Christ with warmth and love."

Do you have an agenda to promote unity in this local congregation? An agenda to promote unity by embracing people that naturally would not be the people that you would want to hang around with, just because you know that you share a common love for the love for the Lord Jesus Christ and an embrace of His gospel, or rather have been accepted and embraced by Him in the gospel. Does it get you excited to be with people with whom you have nothing in common, except Jesus and the gospel? This is the vision that Paul is setting before these people in Rome. They have differences and, frankly, they're got some baggage with one another. There are some chips on the shoulder on the part of the Gentiles toward the Jews and on the part of the Jews towards the Gentiles, but they are together and they are loving one another and they are accepting one another because they have been accepted by Jesus. That's the first thing that Paul is saying here. We are to accept one another in the Christian church the same way Christ has accepted us.

II. Our fellowship is based in the work of the Messiah.

Here is the second thing I want to point out. Paul gives us, in verses 8 through 12, the basis of this fellowship exhortation. He's called us to real fellowship, real acceptance of one another, real care and love for one another. He gives us the basis for that in verses 8 through 12. It's very simple. He says, that's why Jesus came. Jesus' mission, the mission of the Messiah, the purpose of the Messiah's mission was to build one Church of Jew and Gentile. That was His purpose, that Jew and Gentile would be together in one church. We fellowship in the Christian Church across boundaries of difference. That fellowship, those fellowship relations are rooted in the mission of Christ as revealed in the Scripture of the Old Testament. The way we are able to fellowship across all these difference and diversities, is because of the mission of Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Scriptures. Paul piles up Scripture passages here. He quotes the Psalms and he quotes from the Law and he quotes from the Prophets. In other words, he quotes from all the major portions of the Old Testament just to make it clear to us that this isn't some peripheral emphasis of the Old Testament. It's a central emphasis of the Old Testament and here it is.

He starts out in verse 8, by reminding us that Christ's calling to the Jewish people as Savior is a permanent calling. Look what he says, "I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers." You can imagine there are some Gentile Christians in the church of Rome and maybe they are saying out loud, God is done with the Jews, it's our time now. The big outreach, it's with the Gentiles. Paul says, let me just say that the Son of God has become a servant to the Jews for the sake of the gospel of the glory of God. In other words, Paul is saying that Jesus' calling to the Jewish people as Savior is a permanent calling. He is the great evangelist to the Jewish people. He has a heart for the Jewish people, so he says to the Gentiles who are saying, well God is kind of done with them and now we're moving on to something else. He says, don't you think that Jesus doesn't' have a big heart to see the Jewish people converted to Him. Don't you think this unity in the church between Jew and Gentile is something that is going to be over in my time. Paul says, this is something that God expects through out the course of the history of this people.

Then in verses 9, 10, and 11 and 12, he piles on the Scriptures references to go on and make another point, and that is that the same Jesus who is the great evangelist of the Hebrew people also is the Messiah of the Gentiles. He quotes from Psalm 18 verse 49, and he shows that Jesus is the appointed Savior of the Gentile people, thus glorifying the mercy of God. He quotes from Deuteronomy 32 :43, and he says that the Old Testament Scriptures indicate that the Gentiles will sing for joy along with Israel. He quotes from Psalm 117:1-11, and again reiterates the call of the Psalmist for the Gentiles to praise the God of Israel.

Paul's point is simple. Why would they be praising the God of Israel, if the Old Testament were not teaching us to hope for the salvation of the Gentiles through the Messiah of Israel. In verse 12, he quotes from Isaiah 11:10, he says look, the one who is the root of Jesse is also the Savior of the Gentiles. In other words, the Savior of the Gentiles was a Jewish descendant from Jesse. So he piles up examples here that Jesus is the Messiah, not only of Israel, but He's the only hope of the Gentiles.

By the way, you see once again here how Paul has never entertained the idea that there was some other way for any of the Gentiles into fellowship with God apart from Jesus. You hear that all the time. That's fine. "Jesus is Messiah for you; that's great, but not for me. There is another way for me." Or, "We could never say that Jesus is the only way, now could we?" Paul says it all the time, and he just said it again right there in verses 8 through 12, "Jesus is the only way." He is the Messiah of the Gentiles, but it is the mission of the Messiah to bring unity to His body, bring unity in His church between Jew and Gentile, to bring unity in His church out of that former enmity between Jew and Gentile, And so these fellowship relationships in the church between Jewish Christians and Gentiles Christians are brought about why? Because that was the mission of Jesus as the Messiah, coming into the world to build His one church. It would have both Jewish and Gentiles believers in it.

III. The source of peace and fellowship is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Then finally in verse 13, he reminds us of the source of peace and fellowship in the church. It's in the work of God. It's in the power of the Holy Spirit. The antidote for a divided congregation, Paul says, is found at the throne of grace. That is where the antidote is for a divided congregation. It's right at the throne of grace. Paul has just come to the end of his argumentation in the most important polemical presentation of the gospel and its effects ever written in the history of man, and how does he conclude it? He concludes it with prayer. You know what I would have been doing? There would have been some sort of subscript there Boy, I just smashed your argument didn't I? Boy, I just wiped you off of the map theologically, didn't I? Paul concludes it in prayer. A prayer which expresses a desire of his heart, and it has two parts. Look at verse 13.

Part one tells you that God is the origin and object of hope. "Now, may the God of hope." God is the One who gives hope. He is the source, He is the origin of hope. He is the object of our hope and He grants His people peace and joy as they believe. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing." Notice how Paul, and by the way, do you realize that Paul is the apostle who talks about joy more than anybody else in the New Testament? John will talk about the joy of the believer nine times or so. Paul talks about it twenty one times.

The God of hope is the one who fills you with joy and with peace. In this case, this is not the peace that we have with God because of His reconciliation of us in Christ, but the subjective peace that we experience because of that peace He has made with us. Paul pauses here and says, I pray that God would inundate you with joy and peace as you trust in Him. Notice, Paul has to get faith in just one more time. It's 'as you believe God.' It's 'as you believe the gospel.' It's 'as you believe the Scripture.' It's 'as you believe the promises of God' that you experience God's filling of joy and peace. That's the first thing that he prays, that God, the God of hope will fill us with joy and peace as we believe.

Then secondly he goes on to tell you the goal of his prayer. He petitions God that He would fill you with joy and peace as you believe. Why? Well, it's that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the prayer, the so that, of the prayer, is that we would be characterized by the abounding hope derivative of the power of the Spirit. Paul knows that unity in the church is no automatic proposition. He knows that this unity in the church can be soul killing. It's so discouraging. Some of you have come to a point where you have become so disappointed in the church that you wondered if you could go on. You've been so disappointed by broken relationships that you wondered if you could go on. The Apostle Paul is saying, "This is how you can go on. Because the God of hope will fill you with joy and peace as you believer so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." The ability to experience the gospel, to experience unity in the church, depends upon the work of God in us. It's not something that comes to us naturally. The hope that we have to have to go on doesn't come naturally within us. It comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit.

So Paul concludes his grand argument in Romans with a prayer for you, that you would know the hope of God, and it would lead to a unity of fellowship in the body of believers that would witness to God's glory. May He bring that about as a reality in our congregation. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace and we recognize that this comes from You and from grace and not from us. Bring it about in our lives and our experience, even now in Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 15:14-21 - The Goal of Paul's Mission

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 15 and to the 14th verse. We have now worked our way through a marvelous section of the book of Romans chapters 12 through 15 in which Paul spells out something of the Christian way of life.

Last week we came to the end of that section and indeed the end of the main argument of the book of Romans, but we said even then that Paul had much more to say in the remainder of Chapter 15 and in chapter 16. That was the end of his application of his doctrine of justification, but he has more to say.

Tonight we will begin a new section of the book. Indeed Paul spells out in the rest of this chapter, from verses 14 forward, his plan and pattern and goals and prayer for ministry. Tonight we are going to have an opportunity to look at his plan and pattern of ministry together. Let's hear God's word here in Romans 15 beginning in verse 14.

"And concerning you my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of sign and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far a Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man's foundation; but as it is written, "THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND."

Amen and thus ends this reading of Gods holy and inspired and inerrant word. May he write it's eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Lord we thank you for this word of encouragement and energy and exhortation from Paul. We pray that we would take heed even as he explains to us his ministry or what this word has to say to us about how we view the Christian life. About the things that we care most about. About the things that we glory in. About the things that we aught to be aspiring too teach us from it we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.

As I said, in this brief passage, Paul tells us something of his plan and pattern of ministry. He tells us of his desire to go to places where the gospel had not been heard. He tells us about his desire to see people converted to Christ who have never heard His name named. He tells us about his desire, not simply to be the one who sees a person make a profession of faith in Christ, but the one who sees a person built up by the Holy Spirit, changed, transformed, growing, a real disciple. He tells the Romans why he wrote to them and why he wrote so boldly and he gives a beautiful estimation what he sees in them in terms of the spirits work in sanctification. I would like to look at some of those things with you tonight. Paul is not just describing for us something that has no relevance to other Christians but himself. He's not just telling you how he went about his business because he wanted to talk about himself. Paul is sharing with us his designs in ministry and his desires in ministry and his goals in ministry and his pattern in ministry because he wants these things to capture our hearts too. He wants us to think in these terms in the way we relate to one another. He wants us to think in these terms as we view ourselves as disciples in the world who are witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'd like for you to see five things that we learn in this passage tonight. I have five Es for you. In verse 14, we see Paul's estimation of the Romans Christians. Paul's estimation of the Romans Christians. In verses 15 and 16, we see his explanation for why he wrote so boldly. In verse 17, we see his exaltation in his ministry. In verses 18 and 19, we see his evangelization, we see his description of what he did round about from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricium. In verses 20 and 21, we see what we might call his expedition or if you want to drop the Es, his aspiration. Let's look at these verses together.

I. Paul's estimation.

First in verse 14, Paul's estimation. Here in verse14 you get Paul's words of compliment to the Romans church. You might have thought Paul was scolding the Romans Christians in chapters 14 and the first part of chapter 15. You might have though he was getting on them a bit about how they get along with one another. No doubt they had sins and no doubt they had ways to grow.

In verse 14 of Romans 15, Paul gives a compliment to the Roman Christians. He gives them an assurance of how he sees them just in case the Romans miss understand the vehemence with which he writes the letter. Paul can get carried away when he is writing. You can feel the intensity of this man as he writes to the people of God in the book of Galatians, and in the epistle to the Corinthians, and in the book of Romans. You can feel the intensity. Paul doesn't want the Romans to misunderstand him. So he tells them here in verse 14, "Concerning you, my brethren, I am convinced that you are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge and you are also able to admonish one another." He gives them this tremendous compliment, he says, I want you to know I see your growth in grace.

But there are a few things I'd like you to see in this verse. Let me ask you two questions. What do you think a healthy Christian looks like? What do you think a healthy Christian looks like? Secondly, if you could list three qualities about a healthy Christian, what would they be? Paul is certain. He is convinced that the Romans church is spiritually healthy and he describes three ways that they are spiritually healthy in this verse alone.

Pause for a second with those words, "Concerning you, my brethren, I myself am convinced that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another." Do we encourage one another that way? Do we give spiritual encouragement like that? Do we stop and note, "Brother I have noted the way you have a zeal for God's word and I want to tell you, it encourages me," or, "Brother, I've seen you growing in grace and I don't know what's going on in your life, but I have seen you growing in grace over the last three or four years. I can see it in how you are relating to people. I can see it in what you care about. I can see it in the kindness and goodness of your heart." Do you pause to encourage one another in spiritual ways? William Plummer says, "Whenever truth will allow and fit occasion shall offer, we should express favorable options of our Christian brethren. Good men need encouragement as well as warning." That is what Paul does here, he pauses in the midst of this great letter to heap encouragement on these Romans Christians. He says, "Now listen friends, after I have said what I said about getting along with one another in Romans 14 and 15, don't think that I'm saying you're a bunch of little bratty children that just can't get along. Don't think that that is my estimation of you. You people are filled with goodness, you're growing in the knowledge of God of the faith of the Bible. You're so mature to confront one another in love." Paul stops to encourage the Romans Christians.

I've just given you the three qualities that he compliments them for. He compliments them for their goodness. See, he has a three fold description of the healthy Christian, goodness, knowledge and capability of mutual admonition. Is that how you would have described a healthy Christian? He's full of goodness, he has knowledge of the faith, knowledge of the truth, knowledge of Bible doctrine. He's able to confront his brothers and sisters in a loving way. I'm not sure those would be under the three things I would have come up with friends. I don't know about you. Here he is, he's talking about goodness. A person who is opposed to evil and meanness. He's upright, he's kind. He's beneficent.

Notice Paul is looking for the gospel to result in virtue. Goodness is one of the virtues, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control are fruit of the spirit and Paul compliments these Christians that they display these fruits of the spirit. You can see their goodness. Their knowledge, their firm grasp of Christian truth. They had a genuine comprehension of Christian teaching allied with a deep concern to do what is good. Indeed, is that not the goal of Pauline teaching? Truth is unto godliness. Notice how he allies goodness and truth here? They have knowledge of the truth. The display goodness. They now what the truth is for, they use it with discernment. They are mature in their knowledge and they have a capacity for admonition. Admonition is very simply to correct. It's to lovingly confront and correct. He said that these Christians are capable of admonition. These Romans are mature enough to do admonition.

There is maybe nothing trickier to do, in the bonds of the fellowship of the Christian church, than to admonish a friend and still stay a friend, or to admonish in proportion to where you don't become Mister Admonition, or Mrs. Admonition, or Miss Admonition. Every time you turn around you're getting corrected. It's an amazingly difficult thing and it's a mark of maturity. Paul says that these Romans were mature enough to do it. They were able to engage in this reciprocal brotherly and sisterly ministry of church members holding one another accountable to live the Christian live and kindly challenging one another to do so.

You know a healthy mature Christian evidences the spirits gift of goodness and has a strong understanding and grace of Christian truth and cares so much about the Brethren that he admonishes them and he's wise enough to do it lovingly. That's how Paul describes these Romans Christians. Wouldn't you like to be accounted that way? Wouldn't you like to be thought of in that way? Can you imagine an apostle saying that about you? Just hearing Paul this to the Romans makes you want to be like that. That is the first thing that he has to say in verse 14. That's his estimation of the Romans Christians.

II. His explanation for writing boldly.

Second thing I want you to see is his explanation for writing so boldly. You will see it in verses 15 and 16. Paul feels a necessity to explain himself to the Romans Christians as to why he's been so bold in this letter. He tells us in verses 15 and 16 that the source of this boldness is found in his unquenchable desire to see the sanctification of his converts. He's been so bold in what he said because he longs to see the people that he has lead to a profession of faith in Christ holy, sanctified, Christ-like, Spirit-filled.

Paul now explains in verses 15 and 16 that he wrote boldly because of his role as a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles, out of a concern to offer then to God, and out of a concern that they be sanctified and holy by the Spirit's work . Look at his words, "I've written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God."

Notice how Paul used his whole ministry as a grace. His whole ministry is a gift from God. Paul understood his unworthiness to be in this ministry. He was a Christian killer. He was a Christian persecutor. He was the scourge of the Church. He was the single most dangerous individual to the continuance and survival of Christianity in the world of his time, the greatest persecutor that the Church knew. He had a keen sense of his unworthiness to be the minister of the gospel and so there was no question in his mind that it was a grace that he had been called into this ministry.

My friends, we are all unworthy of the privilege of sharing the truth about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with those who don't know Him because none of us deserve it and none of us have earned it ourselves. We are right where Paul was. We are right where he was in unworthiness. You don't have to have persecuted the Church. You don't have to have been unstintingly and publicly immoral. All you have to do is be a sinner, by nature a child of the wrath of God, saved by grace to be able to stand right where Paul is and say, "I'm not worthy to have the privilege to lead people to the Lord Jesus Christ, but thank you, God, for the gift of giving that to me anyway."

He goes on to use priestly language about his ministry. Kind of makes a Calvinist a little nervous when Paul starts talking about being a priest. Notice he doesn't use that priestly language of worship. He doesn't use that priestly language of acts of spiritual gathered devotion of the people of God. He doesn't talk about the worship service being priestly. He doesn't talk about being a priest in the context of a worship service. What does he do? He says to us that he is a priest, a minister of Christ to the Gentiles in this sense: that he's offering the Gentiles to God. Just like the priest would offer a sacrifice on the altar to God, he's offering the Gentiles to God.

I want you to notice just a couple of things about his. First of all when is the last time in the book of Romans that Paul talked about a sacrifice? Romans 12:1-2. What was he talking about offering to God there? He was talking about you offering yourself. He challenged us. Remember what he said? "I urge you to present your bodies as living sacrifices." So, Paul is saying here in Romans 15:15-16, as a believer I am a priest. My life is the sacrifice, but furthermore, so also are the lives of those that I help to bring to a saving knowledge of God. I am rendering them up to God. I am giving them over to Him just like a priest gives a sacrifice to God. Not to atone for me. I have already been atoned for. That is the point of the first 15 chapters of Romans. Don't think that Paul is putting in the idea that "if I don't get enough souls on my belt buckle I can't atone for my sins." He dismissed that type of thinking in the first 15 chapters. But he is saying this, I long to offer sanctified sacrifices to God. Just like the sacrifices of the Old Testament, had to be what? Perfect. So also I long to give Gentiles who are sanctified to God.

Now what is the great message there? The great message is this. Paul was not satisfied with somebody simply praying a prayer or saying that they believed in Christ, or signing a card. Paul wanted to see people's lives who had been turned inside out by the work of the Holy Spirit and had been conformed to Jesus Christ. He wanted to see Gentiles who not only professed Christ, but they had become, notice his words in verse 16, acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He wanted to see not nearly professions of faith, but heaven wrought godliness in saved sinners. He wanted to see the transformation of life. That's what he was excited about. That's what he wanted to give to God. "Lord, I want to give you people that are on fire for Christ, who love the word of God, who are growing in grace, who are being conformed to Your image."

My friends, we need to have that aim ourselves. We need to have it as our aim to not merely see a confession of Christ, but a transformed life, a godliness worked by the Holy Spirit in those who profess faith in Christ. That's where Paul says his boldness comes from . Why was I so bold in writing to you Romans? Because I wanted to see you grow in grace. How do you grow in grace? You grow in grace through the means of grace. What are the means of grace? The truth of God applied to our hearts.

III. Paul's exaltation.

Thirdly, in verse 17 we see Paul's exaltation. We saw his estimation of the Romans in verse 14, his explanation of his letter in verse 15 and 16, and we see his exaltation in verse17. By exaltation I mean Paul's words of exalting. He is exalting. In fact, technically what he says here is that he is boasting in his work. Why is that surprising? Well, it's so surprising because what he said back in Romans 3. Look with me. In Romans 3: 27, after giving us a synopsis of the gospel that he was preaching, what does Paul say? Paul says "I have extinguished all boasting." I have exterminated all boasting by the gospel that I preached. I have ended the last boast, it's over. Where then is boasting? It is excluded by faith. That's why it is absolutely mind boggling when he says here, friends, "I've found something to boast about." He had laid it in the grave and buried it six feet under twelve chapters ago and now, oops, here it is again, I found something to boast about. What is it? Well, let's not go there yet. "Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God." He's given you answer right there. There are two parts are aren't there?

Paul is able to glory in his work for two reasons. Union with Christ in Christ Jesus. I found something to boast about in the work of God in things pertaining to God which he elaborates on in verses 18 and 19. In other words, Paul says I'm able to boast because I'm in union with Christ and it is not I who work, but Christ is at work in and through me. These things are pertaining to God. In other words, the things that I am going to boast about are not things that Paul did, they are things that God did, and not only things that God did, but that only God could do. Paul could not do the things that I'm getting ready to boast about. Even an apostle doesn't have a power to do what I'm about to boast about so I'm going to boast about the fact that I'm in union with Christ and it's Christ working through me and I'm going to boast about the fact what I'm about to tell has happened, happened because of the work of God.

Notice how even Paul's boasting turns credit away from himself and gives it to God. So there is his exaltation. He is able to glory in his work for two reasons. Because of Christ and his union with him and because of this divine nature of the ministry. God does the work.

IV. Paul's evangelization.

He expands on that in verses 18 and 19, there you see Paul's evangelization. Paul tells us here about his Christ accomplished Spirit empowered, successful gospel preaching. "For I will not presume to speak of anything, except what Christ has accomplished through me resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed in the power of signs and wonders in the power of the spirit so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricium, I have fully preached the gospel." In other words, through my ministry, the Gentiles have not only given lip service to Christ, they have served Christ in their lives by word and deed. It's been done how? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through the power of the Apostle Paul. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit empowered, Christ accomplished ministry has yielded fruit and it has been Paul's desire to spread that word of truth from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricium. He has fully preached the gospel of Christ, which he has already told us is "the power of God unto salvation."

V. Paul's expedition or aspiration.

Then finally in verses 20 and 21, he tells you about his aspirations or if we're going to our Es, his expedition. Paul had a desire not merely to preach the gospel where Christ had not been preached before, but especially to preach Christ where he had not been heard before. He liked to go where there was no Church, where there was no witness, and give witness and build up a church. Paul's aim is to reach the un-reached and to church the un-churched. He tells you this in verses 20 and 21, "Thus I aspire to preach the gospel not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another mans foundation."

Then he tells you why. He goes right to Isaiah and he quotes, "they who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand." That passage is a redemptive historical passage. It's a passage that is describing what God is going to do in the glories of the new covenant. I want you to see that Paul had an ethical application of that redemptive historical account of what God is going to do in the future. He goes right back to Isaiah and he says, "Isaiah says, 'because God said that,' that's what I want to do." God said, that was going to be what would be happening in the last days. Those who haven't heard would hear and I want to be right in the middle of that, Paul says.

That's where our hearts ought to be friends. That's why we as a congregation ought to be excited about missions. That's why we as a congregation ought to be supporting missions. That's why we ought to be sacrificing in support of missions. That's why we ought to be praying that the most talented men and women from this congregation should consider giving themselves to the work of the Lord on the fields of mission, because we have a heart like Paul.

Do we? See, Paul's words to us giving us his plan and pattern just tell us something about Paul and about his heart. They ought to stoke a desire in our heart to have hearts like that. Let's pray.

Lord God, thank You for Your word. Grow us in it and grant that we would be like Paul, like Christ. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Our Concern, Desire, Purpose, and Fruit - Romans 15:22-29

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 15. We'll be looking at verses 22 to 29 today. Last Lord's Day Evening, we looked at Romans 13 verses 1 to 7 and thought about what the Christian response ought to be to the 2012 elections. Today and tonight we'll be looking at Romans 15 and 14, respectively. These three important passages we're going to study together before we begin the December series in, "An Ancient Christmas," looking at Christ and His coming from the Old Testament.

Well when you're looking at Romans 15 you're looking at a passage that addresses some of the heartbeat of Paul's philosophy or theology of ministry. For instance, if you'll allow your eyes to look at verses 14 to 21, you'll see Paul address what a healthy Christian looks like. He'll talk about the goal of sanctification in God's people, he'll talk about the only real ground for Christian boasting, he'll speak of the true source of successful ministry, and he'll even articulate his desire to take the Gospel to the unreached. You see that especially in verses 20 and 21. Well that forms the backdrop to the passage that we're going to be studying today. As we prepare to read and hear Romans 15 verses 22 to 29, I want you to be on the lookout for three or four things.

First of all, in this passage, Paul articulates his concern for evangelism and missions and especially to reach the unreached with the Gospel. Second, I want you to see how Paul emphasizes his purpose to serve fellow believers and his purpose for fellow believers to serve fellow believers. Then, I want you to see his concern for fellowship. There's a strong emphasis on the importance of Christian community and fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ on a Gospel basis. And then finally, he talks about the fruit of blessedness in this passage and we'll talk about what that means when we come to the final two verses of the passage that we're going to read. Well let's pray before we ask God's help and blessing as we hear His Word.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word of God. We thank You that it is powerful and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword and that it discerns the deep things of our hearts. We pray that You would convict us and encourage us, that You would instruct us and strengthen us from Your Word, that You would equip us for every good work, that You would enlighten us to our sin and show us our Savior, and build us up in grace, all by Your Word of God. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it beginning in Romans 15 verse 22:

"This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

In this section of the book of Romans, Paul very much shares his heart with the Roman Christians and thus with you and me as well. And what we learn, not only gives us an insight into the heart of this great man, this pastor, this theologian, this missionary, this church planter, it also shows us what we ought to aspire to ourselves as believers. And I'd like to think with you about three or four things that Paul shares about his heart that ought to characterize our hearts as well. There are four things that Christians ought to emulate in Paul that we ought to aspire to.

THE PRIORITY MISSIONARY EVANGELISM AND CHURCH PLANTING

And the first thing that I want you to see is this. Look at verse 22. I want you to see the priority of missionary evangelism and church planting for the apostle Paul. Paul says, "This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you." Now you ask me, "Where in the world do you get the priority of missionary evangelism and church planting out of the verse?" Well you have to look back at verse 20 to understand verse 22. Verse 20 explains what Paul says there in verse 22. He says, in verse 20, "I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel not where Christ has already been named." In other words, he wants to go places where there aren't already churches and there aren't already Christians and he wants to share the Gospel with people that have never heard the Gospel, who haven't named the name of Jesus Christ, who haven't had who Jesus is and what He has done for our salvation explained to them. He wants to do pioneer missionary work. He wants to do church planting in places where there are not churches. And Paul says, "That's why I haven't been able to come to you," in verse 22. "I've wanted to. I've wanted to fellowship with you dear Roman Christians. I was involved in planting your church many, many years before, I've ministered to your church, I have good friends in your congregation, I wish that I could be there with you, but I've been about this work of reaching unreached peoples. It's a priority for me."

And what I want to say to you is this. Every Christian ought to have an increasing concern for the missionary spread of the Gospel and the expansion and the establishment of the church. And Paul shows what a priority it was for him even though he would have loved to have had fellowship with those Roman Christians, it was such a priority for him to go and share the Gospel where it had not been shared, that he was committed to being there, though it kept him away from them for a long time. And what I want to ask you is simply this. Do you find that to be an aspiration of your own heart? Do you find yourself growing in an increasing concern that the Gospel go places where it has not yet gone and that people who have never heard the claims of Christ hear those claims proclaimed to them from the Scripture. There are billions of people on this planet that have not heard the Gospel Biblically and carefully and passionately explained to them in their own language. Do we have a concern that the Gospel will go and reach those who have been unreached with that Gospel? That was an aspiration of the apostle Paul and he showed that priority in the fact that he deprived himself from sweet fellowship that he would have enjoyed so that he could be out there in the fields himself sharing the Gospel. Do we have that same kind of aspiration? It's really one mark of a vital, vibrant, evangelical church that we have that kind of evangelistic concern and that we're ready to send our best and our brightest to do it.

You know, it's one thing to say, "Lord, call missionaries." But what if those missionaries are your children or your grandchildren or your dear friends who you've known for many, many years and you treasure those friendships? Would you pray for the Lord to raise them up and send them to the unreached with the Gospel, into dangerous places where they might lose their lives or experience persecution or other great difficulties? Well, one of the marks of a maturing heart of a believer is an increasing concern that the Gospel would go out and reach the unreached. And you see that, even in verse 22, when Paul says, "It's for this reason that I haven't come to visit you. It's not because I don't love you, it's not because I don't want to fellowship with you. I do." You're going to find out in the next few verses that he thinks about this a lot. He thinks about fellowshipping with the Romans. Why hasn't he been there? Because he's been doing pioneer missionary work, evangelism, and church planting. That ought to be a concern for all of us., not just the people that set the budge for evangelism and church planting and missionary work at First Pres., not just for the people that give to that. All of us ought to be concerned and involved in that.

THE PRIORITY OF GOSPEL FELLOWSHIP

Secondly, I want you to see this. Look at verses 23 and 24. Look at the priority that Paul puts on Gospel fellowship. He says it several different ways. "Now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you" — in other words, Paul's been on their minds. He's wanted to come back and fellowship with the Romans. He goes on. Look at verse 24. "I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain." Paul's already planning for another missionary activity to unreached people in Spain but he wants to go to Spain by way of Rome so that he can fellowship with them. So he's been thinking for many years about coming with them and he says he wants to see them. And then listen to the third thing that he says. "Once I have enjoyed your company, then you can help me on my way in my journey." So in three different phrases, Paul holds up before us a picture of what's in his heart. He longs to fellowship with these Roman Christians.

Now I want you to think about how remarkable that is. Thirty years before this time, Paul, whose name then would have been Saul, would have had not the slightest interest in hanging out with Roman Gentiles. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees and he would have had both religious and racial prejudice against those Romans. And let me say, they would have had the same towards him. And now, because they both believe the Gospel, because they've both been changed, transformed, by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, because they've both experienced the new birth, these Roman Gentile Christians — there would have been Jewish Christians in the congregation too, but a predominately Gentile congregation — and this former Jewish Pharisee wanted to be with one another. And that's a picture of the Gospel, how the Gospel brings together people that, if you were just looking at the normal affinities and kinships of life, they would have had no desire to be with one another. But what brought them together? The Gospel did. Jesus did. And so they wanted to be together. And believers want to have that kind of Gospel based fellowship.

And this is what I want you to learn from verses 23 and 24. Every Christian ought to have a growing desire for Gospel fellowship with other Christ-worshiping, Gospel-loving, Bible-believing Christians, not just because you share the same background or the same affinity group, you pull for the same football team or you were a member of the same fraternity or sorority, or you grew up in the same neighborhood with one another, but the Gospel brings you together. That's why churches are made up of people who wouldn't be hanging out with one another if it weren't for Jesus and the Gospel. The very diversity of the background of believers in local churches is a witness to how the Gospel brings people together. People who would never fellowship with one another because they come from different backgrounds and walks of life come together around the Gospel. And it shows the power of the Gospel, the reality of the Gospel, and Paul longs for that kind of fellowship with these Roman Christians and we ought to long for that same kind of Gospel-based fellowship as well.

THE PRIORITY OF TANGIBLY SERVING THE SAINTS

There's a third thing that I want you to see in this passage. Look with me, if you would, at verses 25 to 27. Here, Paul emphasizes the priority of tangibly serving the saints, and every Christian ought to have this priority. Paul says, "Why is it that I can't come to you right now, dear friends in Rome, fellow Christians in Rome, members of the believing church there in Rome? It's because I'm on my way to Jerusalem." Why is Paul on his way to Jerusalem? Because Gentile Christians all around Asia Minor and Greece, have been collecting money to send to believers who are in poverty back in Jerusalem. Now this problem is found in a number of places in the New Testament. If you remember in Acts chapter 6, one of the concerns for the Jerusalem congregation was widows who were impoverished and who needed to be cared for by the congregation there in Jerusalem. So the problem of poor believers in Jerusalem is a prevalent one in the New Testament.

But here's Paul saying that he wants these Gentile believers to help these Jewish believers. And he explains in a very interesting phrase why he wants them to do this. Look at verse 27. "If the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings" — who's he talking about? The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. "If the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings" — what are those spiritual blessings? Well, in Galatians chapter 3, Paul explains that the Gentiles who believe in Jesus are coheirs and coinheritors of the Abrahamic promises along with their Jewish Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. So he's saying, "If the Gentiles have come to share in the blessings that their Jewish Christian brothers and sisters have, then what? What does he go on to say? "They they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings." You know, if those, many of those Jewish Christians had been involved in Jerusalem and especially in Antioch in doing what? Sending out missionaries to go share the Gospel with Gentiles. Now those Gentiles have come to faith in Christ and what should they do? They should then serve their brothers and sisters who are in need back in Jerusalem.

What does Paul want? He wants all parts of the church serving one another. He wants us looking out for one another. You know, Paul could have used this occasion to pull the church apart. He could have said, "You know, there are a lot of people in Jerusalem who really didn't want me to come to you on a missionary trip. There are a lot of people in Jerusalem who didn't think we ought to take the Gospel to the Gentiles." And would that have promoted unity between the church in Jerusalem and the church in Rome? No, it wouldn't. But what does Paul say? Paul says, "We were sent out by them and you got to share in their blessings because they sent us out with the Gospel. Now, they are facing poverty and oppression and you have the privilege of serving them now by taking by this offering to Jerusalem to relieve them in their time of need." Isn't it interesting?

It's a sweet obligation, by the way. Look at verse 27 how he says it. "They were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them." Don't you love the way that both sides of that are emphasized? They owe it to them and they were pleased to do it. Paul uses this idea of being a debtor or under obligation or owing the Gospel to the Gentiles of himself and he speaks of this idea of our indebtedness to one another on a number of occasions. Once, earlier in Romans in Romans chapter 1 verse 14, he mentions it in his letter to the Corinthians, he mentions it in the letter to the Galatians — it's an idea that pops up in the apostle Paul. But isn't it interesting how he says it? The Gentile believers are under obligation to help their Jewish Christian brothers and sisters back in Jerusalem. He says they owe it to them. But did they view it as a burdensome, onerous obligation? "Awe, do I have to do that?" No, it pleased them to do so, Paul says! They wanted to do it! They wanted to help their brothers and sisters in Christ back in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine how that would have helped the unity of the church in Paul's day? You know, with the controversy going on of what the proper relationship was going to be between Gentile Christians and the ceremonial law and what the fellowship in the church was going to be between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians? Can you imagine how it would have helped the unity of the church for the Gentile Christians to know that Jewish Christians had sent them missionaries and for the Jewish Christians to know that Gentile Christians had sent them poverty relief in their time of need? And Paul wants to foster that kind of unity in the church. He wants us to serve one another. And that again is an aspiration that we ought to have — a longing to serve one another, to serve one another within the congregation and to serve brothers and sisters in Christ elsewhere. That's the third thing that I want you to see.

"THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF CHRIST"

The fourth thing is this. Look in the final two verses of the passage, verses 28 and 29, because here Paul talks about the fruit of blessing that comes from this gift that the Gentiles have given to the Jewish Christians. "When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ." Now that's one of those phrases — don't you very often come across phrases in the New Testament that you could just meditate on them for hours and hours and days? "The fullness of the blessing of Christ" — what a beautiful phrase. I don't know all that Paul means by that phrase, but I think that at the very least Paul is saying this. He's saying, "Roman Christians, when you see me the next time I will have delivered that gift of the collection to the impoverished believers in Jerusalem, and so when you see me next, you will see me, you will see the shine on my face from having received the blessing that our Savior talked about." You remember what Paul quotes elsewhere? What did our Savior say? "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And Paul is saying, "When you see me next, you are going to see a man who has enjoyed the fullness of the blessing of Christ because I will have been able to take a gift from Gentiles, many of whom themselves are experiencing persecution and difficulty, and they have given to their brothers and sisters back in Jerusalem, and I'm going to be a part of that giving and it's going to bring a blessing. I'm coming to you in the fullness of the blessing of Christ."

You know, our forebears were so concerned to give thanks to God that hundreds of years ago they started observing Thanksgiving Day. Now that Thanksgiving Day has been normalized close to our lifetime — a little before my lifetime but in the lifetime of many of you on the Thursday that we call Thanksgiving in November. And it is a supreme irony to me in our culture that this day that our forebears established to give thanks to God for all the bountiful blessings that He's poured out on us is followed by the day which is the paragon of consumerism in our culture. So we give thanks to God on one day for all the stuff that He's given us and then on the next day we go out to acquire more stuff. And Black Friday is now easing its way back onto Thanksgiving Day. Target was open at nine o'clock on Thanksgiving evening. I hope none of you were in the lines there waiting to get in. But isn't that an interesting thing? And to me, it is a picture of a materialistic consumer culture. Our culture defines ourselves by consumption. We view ourselves fundamentally as consumers. We are consumers of goods and products and services.

Well here's Paul saying, "Not Christians. We believe it's more blessed to give than to receive." And so we know that the fullness of the blessing of Christ comes not when we're taking but when we're giving. Our giving is what fundamentally defines us. And what a glorious passage this is for us as believers to remind ourselves, "Oh yes, even though my culture is telling me twenty-four seven that what I am fundamentally is I'm a consumer, that's not who I am. I'm a Christian and I'm very thankful for the bountiful gifts that God has given me. And I know that there are things that I have to consume and I'm very thankful for free markets and I'm very thankful for the country and for the abundance in which we live, but I'm not going to let myself fundamentally be defined by that. I am a giver and it is more blessed to give than to receive."

Well the apostle Paul in this beautiful passage is showing us so many things that ought to be aspirations of our hearts. We ought to aspire to see the Gospel reach the unreached. That ought to be a concern for every growing Christian in this room. And we ought to be engaged in that ourselves. We ought to have a concern for Christian fellowship, a purpose to serve one another, and then an understanding that real blessedness comes not in taking and receiving but in giving. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word and we ask that You would bless it to our everlasting good and to Your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.

Would you take your hymnals and turn with me to number 141 and we'll sing, "God In the Gospel Of His Son"?

We don't have to be caught up in what the world tells us consists blessing because God has given us what we really need — the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Romans 15:30-33 - A Call to Prayer

We come to the end of this great chapter and this section of the book of Romans, and in verses 30-33, what we find is a prayer request from Paul to the Roman Christians. And, as you know, Paul very frequently requests prayers in his letters. For instance, in Ephesians chapter six, verses 19 and 20, he'll say to the Ephesians, "Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Or in Colossians, chapter four, verses two through four, Paul will say to the Colossians, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak." And in I Thessalonians 5:25, he simply says, "Brethren, pray for us." And in II Thessalonians, chapter three, verses one and two, he says, "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you, and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith."

Well, like those passages, the passage that we're about to read tonight is a prayer request from Paul, and he outlines three petitions in particular that he wants the Roman Christians to pray for him. And then fourthly, he pronounces a benediction himself. So let's attend to God's word here in Romans 15:30.

"Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God, and find refreshing rest in your company. Now, the God of peace be with you all. Amen."

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy and inspired word; may He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we do thank You for this word, and we ask again that You would open our hearts to be filled with petitions for one another and especially for ministry, and we pray that we would learn from this, Your word, and that we would be changed by Your word applied by the Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Paul is writing this letter, it's coming to a conclusion, and he knows that before him are some great responsibilities and some great opportunities, and some great opposition and, frankly, a lot of potential peril. And so, Paul asks these Christians in Rome to pray for three things: he asks that they would join his mission by praying with and for him; secondly, he asks that they would pray specifically for his safety and his service; thirdly, he asks that they would pray that he would be able to return to them encouraged, and to be refreshed by their fellowship. And then he pronounces a peculiarly appropriate word of blessing on them, and in so doing he supplies us with an outline of prayer for ministers. He supplies us with the matter, or substance, of prayers for ministers and missionaries and church planters and campus ministers. And I'd like to look at this passage with you very briefly tonight in four parts.

I. An appeal for prayer.

First, in verse 30, I want you to see this earnest appeal for urgent prayer that the apostle makes to the Roman Christians. Paul is telling us here in verse 30 that wrestling in prayer for ministers of the word is like joining in their struggle for the Lord's work. When we join our hearts in prayer for the ministry of the word, we ourselves are joining in that ministry of the word. Notice what he says: "I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Notice that Paul doesn't just ask for prayer here, he begs for it. He urges that the Roman Christians would strive with him in prayer. It was clearly important to him that they would join him in prayer. He knows that he's got challenges to face, and there are dangers ahead, and so he knows that he needs prayer, and he's importunate in asking for it. He begs that they would pray.

And if you look at verse 30, you'll see that he makes his appeal to the Roman Christians on two bases. He says, "…first, I urge you by our Lord Jesus Christ." That is, he appeals to us on the basis of our regard for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you regard the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, please pray for me.

But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say, "…and by the love of the Spirit." In other words, he appeals to the Spirit's work of love within our hearts. It's as if he's saying, "if you have any regard for the Lord Jesus Christ, or if the Holy Spirit has wrought any love in you at all for your fellow believers and for ministers of the Gospel, and for the word of God, then please, please, I beseech you, pray for me." And so Paul calls for these believers on these two bases to join with him in his ministry by prayer. In fact, he sees believers' prayers as actually co-laboring or co-striving with him in the work of ministry. "I urge you to strive together with me in prayer," he says. Now there are a number of observations I'd like to make about this one statement for a few moments with you.

First of all, remember that Paul's visit to Judea was not going to be without hazard. We know the end of the Book of Acts. It hadn't happened by this time, though. But we do know that by Acts 20 the Holy Spirit had burdened Paul with the sense that he was facing serious danger when he went back to Judea. But he was determined to go back anyway, for the sake of ministry. So he's asking prayer in light of this burden that the Spirit has placed on him, knowing that troubles are coming. But even Paul doesn't know the kind of troubles that are going to face him! You remember, he's going to get to Judea, and he's going to be assaulted by some of the unbelieving Jews; he's going to be imprisoned by the Roman governor; as he is eventually transported back towards Rome, he's going to be shipwrecked; he's going to be bitten by a viper; he's almost going to be killed by a mob; and he's eventually going to get back to Rome, but he's going to get back to Rome in chains.

So when Paul has this sense of danger impending, he is not suffering from hypochondria! He is, in fact, being utterly realistic about what he's up against, and so he's begging these Christians to pray for him.

Secondly, isn't it interesting that this prayer request begins with Paul asking the Roman Christians to "strive, to "wrestle," to "labor" —fight with him in prayer…but it ends with a blessing about the peace of God, or the God of peace. So the prayer request begins with a request for co-striving, and it ends with a blessing about peace.

Thirdly, have you noticed that Luke's account of Paul's arrest and deliverance might have read differently without the prayers of these Roman Christians? God uses prayers as the instrument of His divine providence. And who knows how the Book of Acts might have read had these Christians and others like them not prayed for Paul in his dangerous journeys. In fact, Paul calls attention to this in II Corinthians 1:8-11. Listen to his words: "We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia; that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, Who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us-- He on whom we have set our hope, and He will yet deliver us. You also, joining in helping u through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many." Paul is acknowledging that God's favor came to him, as it were, through the prayers of the saints. He knows that the success in ministry that he's had, and the protection in ministry that he has had, is in large measure due to the faithful praying of the saints. No wonder he wants these Roman Christians to pray for him!

And one other thing: have you noticed how Luke emphasizes in the Book of Acts the great peace that Paul had even after he was taken prisoner? Paul desperately wanted to go to Rome and beyond to preach the Gospel. Surely it would have been frustrating to him to have been imprisoned, and thus thwarted in some of his desires, and yet Luke makes it clear that Paul had a tremendous peace about God's purposes. Could it be, my friends, that that was one of the specific results of the faithful praying of these Christians for Paul? That he was able to have peace because these Christians were interceding for him to the God of peace.

Well, Paul is calling for us to join in to co-labor and to strive for ministry in prayer. And if we need to pray, if Paul needed prayers for himself as an inspired, Spirit-empowered apostle, Heaven knows that we poor ministers today need prayer as we minister the Gospel! If Paul needed prayer, how much more the minister of today.

Leon Morris says "There is a very real struggle going on between the forces of good and evil, and a most significant part of that struggle is in prayer." Paul knows that, and so he begs for prayer in ministry.

II. A petition for safety and service.

Now there's a second thing I want you to see, as well. Look at verse 31. Here we see a petition for safety and service. "Pray…", Paul says, "…that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints." Paul's prayer here, his prayer request here, is a prayer request for prayer for ministry. And prayer for ministry has in view God's goals for ministry. Not just the comfort of the minister, but it always has in view God's goals for ministry. And I want you to understand that Paul's prayer here, in both verse 31 and verse 32, is not a selfish prayer. It may seem to be at certain points, but it's not a selfish prayer. Paul reels off two petitions in verses 31 and 32, followed by a desired result, each of them beginning with "that." Look at verse 31: "…that I may be rescued…that my service may prove acceptable…" (verse 32): "…that I may come to you in joy."

So there are the three parts. The first two are the main petitions; the third "that" is the result of the first two petitions having been answered by the Lord. So let's look at verse 31. Paul first asks that he would be spared from the designs of the non-Christian Jews in Judea. This is not a self-serving request for security, it's a petition that he would be kept safe in order to do ministry. Paul, you remember, was willing to be beaten--as long as he could do ministry. He was willing to be threatened–as long as he could do ministry. He was willing to die–as long as he could do ministry. And he's praying that he would be kept safe from these non-believing Jews not because he was concerned for his own security, but because he was desirous of doing ministry.

Secondly, in verse 31, he asks that the Jerusalem church would accept his ministry and the collection he was bringing. Remember, friends, there were some Jewish Christians that weren't real sure about Paul. There were Jewish Christian believers in Jerusalem who thought that Paul was just a little on the edge, and they weren't sure they liked what Paul was doing in Asia Minor and in Rome. And yet, Paul has been going all around the churches of Asia Minor raising money to help those poor Jerusalem Jewish Christians. And you know what he asks these Gentile Christians to pray? He says, "would you pray that when I get there to take them this collection for the relief of their needs, and when I get there to minister to them, would you just pray that they would accept it."

Now, I don't think I need to point out to you the tremendous humility of this. Paul, the inspired apostle to the Gentiles, begging prayers of Gentiles that Jewish Christians who are suspicious of him will simply accept his ministry. If that is not a great heart wrought by the work of the Holy Spirit in love, then I've never seen one. Here's the apostle, begging for just the acceptance of his ministry with people who are a little suspicious of him. What a tremendous testimony to Paul's humility and his heart for service.

And Paul had a good reason to be concerned about both of these things. Indeed, Luke will tell us that it is those non-believing Jews that will stir up the rabble of the mob against Paul and will wind up being a cause for him being taken under house arrest by the Roman government. And of course, though James and the other apostles received Paul's ministry, after his arrest there were many Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who were a little bit suspicious about the Apostle Paul.

And I want to point out again that these prayers were answered, but they were not answered, perhaps, in the way that Paul was expecting them. Paul was kept safe from the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, but he was kept safe by being locked up by the Romans for two years. Paul's ministry was accepted, and the offering, as far as we know, was accepted by the Jewish Christians. But his subsequent arrest in the temple precincts must have raised some more suspicions about him. Paul did get to Rome, but he got to Rome in chains. We pray, we propose, God answers, He disposes. And God does not always answer our prayers in the way that we pray them, or in the way that we expect those prayers to be answered. But Paul's basic prayer, I want you to see, for ministerial protection and usefulness, was answered. Just not in a way that Paul could ever have foreseen or conceived himself. So, in accordance with God's will, this prayer was answered.

III. Paul's desire for encouragement and fellowship.

Thirdly, if you look at verse 32, you'll see Paul express a desire for encouragement and fellowship. You know, prayer ought to reflect our chief desires, and Paul's prayer request here clearly reflects a chief desire of his. He wants these first two requests to be answered so that (verse 32) "…I may come to you in joy by the will of God, and find refreshing rest in your company." These first two petitions in verse 31 have another goal and purpose in view. And that goal and purpose would be that Paul would be able to come back to the Romans in joy, that he would be able to come back encouraged that his ministry had been accepted in Judea, and that he would be able to rest in the company of the Romans. Paul wants protection, and he wants ministry acceptance in order that when he comes back to the Romans, he comes back encouraged. He doesn't come back downcast, he doesn't come back discouraged because the fellowship of the believers in Jerusalem have rejected him.

Ministerial discouragement is a powerful thing. And the Apostle Paul himself is saying. "I'm wanting you to pray that I'd be protected from ministerial discouragement, because when I come back I want to be encouraged when I'm in your midst." But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to say that he longs for fellowship with the Romans. He feeds on their company, and he desires to be refreshed by them. Rome, you see, was a place, apparently, for Paul, of ministry refuge. He felt encouraged and challenged and strengthened by his fellowship with these Roman Christians. And again, we see in that the humility of the Apostle Paul. He wanted to be refreshed by the Romans? He had been the one who had brought to them the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But even he saw that his relationship with them was not a one-way street. It was not simply that he was the great teacher and they were the recipients of his ministry. He realized that they had a ministry to offer to him! In fact, he craved it! He longed to be in their presence.

I was talking with a friend of mine a few years ago who served as an assistant under a minister that I've always admired. And he said to me once that he was talking with him at a conference in a hotel room. And that the minister had said to him, "You know, I really feel at home right now." He was away from home, he was on the road, he was at a conference. He said, "I really feel at home right now." And a lot of that was because he was having tensions in his home church, and he really didn't feel 'at home' in his own church.

And I want to tell you that it's one of the great blessings that I have serving here, that there is no place that I would rather be than right in your midst. It's nice to go off and do other things, but there's no place I would rather be than in your midst. And Paul felt like that about the Roman church. He wanted to be with them in their midst and be encouraged by them. And he prays that the Lord would answer the petitions in verse 31 so that he could experience that in verse 32. And that's a good prayer to pray for ministers: that they would have a place for refuge in a community of believers that would refresh them for ministry.

IV. Paul's benediction.

And then Paul concludes in verse 33 with this beautiful benediction. "The God of peace be with you all." It's a benediction of presence and peace. Only the God of peace can grant peace in every circumstance. He prays here, in this blessing, in this word of benediction, that these brethren, all of them–all the Roman Christians–notice his word–"…be with you all"–all the Jews and Gentiles–that they would experience the results of peace with God, and that they would realize that God gives peace, not circumstances. What an important blessing for those Roman Christians would know the oppression of Nero in the years to come.

May God grant us to pray this way for one another, and for ministry. Let's look to Him in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. Refresh our hearts by it, build us up in it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Romans 16

Romans 16:1-2 - Phoebe: The Ministry of Women in the Early Church

Romans 16 is a chapter filled with greetings and personal commendation, and you might be tempted to think that it is somewhat extraneous in terms of giving you any profitable direction for day-to-day Christian life; and if you think that, you're wrong because there is much to learn not only from the commendation that we are going to study today but the greetings and the words of appreciation and expressions of gratitude which this chapter is filled with. In fact, in the passage we study today, you are going to find that there is implicit guidance on a very vital subject for our own times in fact several vital subjects for our day-to-day living as Christians.

Today we are looking at a passage in which Paul commends Phoebe, servant of the church in Cenchrea, the seaport of Corinth. He commends her to the Roman church. We'll see why in just a few moments, but it is a passage that has occasioned much speculation. You see, the word servant that is used for Phoebe in verse one of Romans chapter 16, in some places is translated minister in the New Testament. In other places it is translated deacon in the New Testament, and those who believe in women holding office in the church often appeal to Romans 16:1 as an example of the practice of the early church in regard to women being involved in the eldership or the deaconate.

And so, this subject is extremely important for us as we begin a season of officer election; because as your eyes, as a congregation, fall down onto the sheet that has the list of nominees from the Session for the office of elder and deacon, you will notice it is a sheet of men. Now, are we doing that simply because of tradition, or because of chauvinism, or because we think it's what the Bible says and we have the opportunity in God's providence to study the clear teaching of Scripture on this matter today.

I also want to say that as we approach this subject, we should pause and recognize that there are wonderful people whom we know and love with whom we disagree on this matter. We do so in a spirit of charity and humility, but we also do so with resolution because the word of God is clear. And more than anything else, we long to be faithful to the word of God. That's really the issue, isn't it--fidelity to the word of God.

You know, many people would say, "Why even talk about this issue? It's just not important; it's not important to the gospel." Well, let me ask you a question. Is fidelity to the word of God important to the gospel? Yes it is. Is fidelity to the word of God where the culture is pressing against us, important? Yes, it is extremely important. And so, the real issue here is the authority of Scripture. So let's hear God's word in Romans 16, verses one and two.

"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well." Amen.

And thus ends the reading of God's holy and inerrant word; may He write its truth upon our hearts. May we pray.

Lord, we bow before You to learn from Your word. We pray that You would teach us that every part of Your word is inspired and is profitable for reproof and correction for instruction and training in righteousness. We ask that by Your Spirit, You would open our eyes to behold wonderful truth from Your word, and that by Your same Spirit You would apply that truth to our hearts in such a way that we would acknowledge its authority and live in its light. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let me begin with three affirmations as we tackle the subject of women in ministry in the early church. This commendation of Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2 invites us to pause and reflect on the total ministry of women in the early church, as well as to learn specific applications from Paul's words about Phoebe. But let's begin this study with three affirmations, and here is the first one. From the Bible's perspective, there is no question that women are to be involved in the ministry of the church. The only question is: how? From the Bible's perspective, there is no question that women are to be involved in the ministry of the church. The question is: how? Second affirmation. We are going to believe and do what the Bible says on this matter even if it is uncomfortable and is politically incorrect. Third affirmation. There is no way I can answer all of your questions on this subject in one sermon. So let's begin with those three affirmations, and then let me reduce those three affirmations to two propositions that will help clarify our thought as we look at this passage and others today.

Here's the first proposition for clarity's sake: 1. Women have a major ministry role to play in the church, and 2, the New Testament restricts church office to mature, qualified, gifted, male members. I'm going to seek to demonstrate those propositions today from the Bible itself, but let's begin by attending to Romans 16:1-2 and learn what Paul teaches us there.

I. Paul's words of recommendation regarding Phoebe totally dispel the myth of "Paul the misogynist."

First, I want you to see his commendation of Phoebe to the Roman church and then in verse two, I want you to see what he asks the Roman church to do for Phoebe. In verse one Paul says, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea." As we have already said, Cenchrea is a seaport town of Corinth and she is a person of some significance in the ministry of that congregation, and the apostle is commending her to the church in Rome. Now you need to ask, "What's going on? Why is Paul commending this person to the church in Rome?" The background of verse one is the fact that in the Mediterranean world, as you traveled from place to place, and especially when you were sent on an errand of some importance, you often brought with you a letter of commendation from the people who were sending you. And that letter was addressed to the people to whom you were sent, because the people to whom you were sent didn't know what you looked like, and they didn't know who you were, and they didn't know why you had been sent, and they didn't know what your credentials were. And so letters of commendation were sent in order to attest to the standing and to the legitimacy of people who were doing significant errands. And so Paul is giving a commendation to Phoebe because she is doing something very important. We're going to see what it was that she was doing in just a few moments, but this is the background of this commendation.

By reading between the lines, we can learn three or four things about Phoebe. First of all, it is very probable that Phoebe is the one who is carrying this letter–this letter from Paul to the Romans to the Romans. Now, how do we know that? We know because of Romans 16:1. Why else would Paul have commended her to the church at Rome unless she was on an errand of great significance for Paul to the Roman church? The very fact that he is commending her suggests that she is on a very important errand. Otherwise the commendation seems unnecessary.

Secondly, it is very probable that Phoebe was a Gentile woman--maybe even a freed servant. Why? Because Phoebe's name derives from pagan Greco-Roman mythology. It was common for masters to name their servant this name in Phoebe's time, and it is unlikely that a Jewish family would have named their daughter after a Greco-Roman mythological figure because of fidelity to the one true God; and so, it is very likely that Phoebe was a Gentile Christian. She had been converted into the church there in Cenchrea through the ministry of the word and came from a Gentile background.

Thirdly, it is also very likely that she was a very wealthy businesswoman not unlike Lydia in Acts 16. Why do I say that? Well, because she's on a visit to Rome and Paul doesn't tell us who those are who are with her. If she had been accompanied by a number of other members in the church, surely Paul at this time would have said, "Receive not only Phoebe but receive these other members of the church who are with her." This apparently indicates that Phoebe was doing well enough in business to have her own servants going along with her to Rome and those servants did not need to be introduced to the church in Rome. So she is apparently on a business trip to Rome with her own retinue. And on this occasion she brings the letter of Paul to the Romans.

And fourthly, we find out in verse two that she was the patroness, or helper, of the Cenchrean church. Paul says, if you'll look at verse two, that she has been a "helper of many." Now that word helper literally means patron. It indicates that she had means at her disposal and she used those means for the edification of the local church. She was a patroness supporting the local church. Paul goes on to say that she even supported his ministry. And so, not unlike the women who followed Jesus with the disciples, who gave of their own means as a stewardship to support Jesus' ministry, apparently Phoebe did this in the church in Cenchrea and in Corinth.

Now Phoebe is called a servant here, and the term servant is literally diakanos. Deacon she is called. And so we ask ourselves, what does this mean? Does it mean minister or does it mean the person holding the office of deacon? We are going to answer that question in just a moment, but let me say that it is very clear, no matter how you translate in verses one and two, that she is identified as a particularly valuable and outstanding member of the Corinthian, or Cenchrean church. Paul has a high esteem for Phoebe and he gives her this title, servant of the church, and that title is the standard title and role for every Christian in the New Testament. Jesus is called servant, his apostles are called servants, elders are called servants, deacons are called servants, and congregation members are called servants in the Christian church because our whole business in the Christian church is mutual edification and that means denying ourselves and ministering to one another with preference over ourselves. And so the title for every Christian is servant in the New Testament.

Now, let me just pause here, and say by way of application, that Paul's commendation of Phoebe in verse one is an example to us; it shows the importance of people to the Apostle Paul, and it commends to us the same attitude that Paul had–this duty of showing appreciation and gratitude for the people of God. Isn't it encouraging to see the pre-eminent theologian of the New Testament (apart from our Savior), the Apostle Paul, taking up an entire chapter of his theological masterpiece, the Book of Romans, to thank people. So often in our day we hear people pit theology over against people. Have you ever heard someone say something like this: People are more important than theology. Or something like this: People are more important than truth. Or: we should be more concerned about people than we are about theology. Well, as far as the Apostle Paul was concerned, that was a false contradiction because people and truth were both important to the Apostle Paul. In fact, as far as Paul was concerned, truth was for people, it was good for them; it made their lives better and his concern for truth was not one that he held at the expense of his concern for people. And so at the end of his book, before he closes, he refuses to close until he has thanked and appreciated and commended and expressed gratitude for a whole host of people.

And that attitude, my friends, ought to be our attitude towards one another. When was the last time when you encouraged one another and thanked and expressed appreciation for one another for spiritual edification? Many of you will do that for your ministers. You will write to us and you will say, "Thank you for your spiritual edification." When's the last time you encouraged your brothers and sisters that way? When's the last time you wrote a note–"Thank you for being faithful and trusting in God through the trial that you are going through because it's a witness to me and I appreciate you, sister." When's the last time you sat down and said, "Thank you for teaching me the Word of God in that small group. It ministers to my soul. Thank you for serving faithfully as an elder of this congregation. Thank you for serving in the ministry of diaconal work through the women in the church." When is the last time that you expressed that kind of appreciation for ministry to one another? We ought to be doing that and edifying one another and appreciating one another in the church that way. Paul's example shows us this in this passage.

That's the first thing I want you to see-- Paul's commendation of Phoebe. By the way, doesn't that totally dispel the myth of Paul the woman hater, Paul the misogynist, Paul the man who just can't stand women? Here he is commending this godly woman, Phoebe, to the church and you know what? It's not going to be the last time he commends a woman in this chapter. In fact, this is not going to be the only place in the New Testament in which Paul expresses his profound appreciation for the ministry of women in the life of local congregations. Doesn't this show that Paul is a person fully capable of fully appreciating the ministry of women in the church? This chapter not only teaches the grace of Christian courtesy and the grace of caring, but it shows us something of the heart of Paul in his appreciation of the important role of women in the local congregation.

II. Paul clearly acknowledges the substantive help that Phoebe has provided to the Church and to himself.

Secondly, I'd like you to see in verse two Paul enjoins the Roman church here to show hospitality and to give help to Phoebe. He clearly acknowledges the substantive help that Phoebe has given the church back in the seaport of Corinth, and now he asks Rome to give her substantive help. If you look at verse two, Paul calls on the Roman Christians to do two things: to receive Phoebe and to help her. What does that mean? When he calls on the Romans Christians to receive her, he is asking them to show hospitality to her. He tells them that they are to do this Christianly and he uses two phrases to emphasize this: Receive her. How? In the Lord and in a manner worthy of the saints. So in two phrases, he presses home the fact that he wants them to treat her with special Christian hospitality. Not just southern hospitality but Christian hospitality. Hospitality that is born out of the fact that we are united to Christ and that all who are united to Christ are united to one another. So he wants them to show her Christian hospitality.

Secondly, he asks them to help her. When he says that he means for them to give tangible aid and assistance to her. Again he presses this home with two arguments. Not only, as he said in verse one, that she's been a faithful servant in the church at Cenchrea, but he goes on to say that she has been its patroness and helper and that she has even been his patroness and helper and that for these reasons he calls on them to give her help. As she has helped the church; he wants the church to help her. And again, there can be no doubt as to Paul's evaluation of the importance of godly feminine contribution to the ministry of the early church. His appreciation is emphatic here and frankly, it is ubiquitous not only in the rest of this chapter but in his other books, he speaks to this appreciation.

Furthermore, in verse two, we see this emphasis on hospitality. Paul is very concerned that the Christian church shows radical Christian hospitality. That emphasis was a mark of the early Christian churches and it needs to be a mark of our churches as well–not simply a cultural manifestation, but something which is deliberately derived from and driven by the gospel and our grasp of the gospel. So we see here Paul commending Phoebe.

But what role does she play in the church? Is she an elder? Is she a deacon? Does she have the ministry of the word, or the ministry of the rule, or is she given the authority for the diaconal care in the church? What is it? Well, Paul clearly answers that question for us in three other places in the New Testament. Let's turn there. First, turn to 1 Timothy 2:11-15, where we read: "A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet for it was Adam who was first created and then Eve, and it was not Adam who was deceived; but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self restraint."

Now it's hard to imagine four verses that would evoke a more visceral and adverse response from our generation than those. Paul's words are uncomfortable to read even in our day and age in the context of the Christian Church. But Paul is making two things crystal clear here. First, he's making it clear that women are to be the receivers of instruction in the public assembly or the church; and secondly, he is emphasizing that women are not to teach or exercise authority over men in the public assembly of the church. You see this in verses 11 and 12. Paul makes it clear that the headship of men and the authority of the elders are never to be challenged by the women of the congregation in the public assembly. Instead, they are to receive the teaching of the elders of the church rather than give it. And that's made clear by verses 12-15 where Paul again emphasizes that women are not to teach men in the public assembly or to hold authority over men in the church. So Paul is explicitly restricting the teaching and ruling ministry of the church to qualified and called men.

And notice that this is a functional restriction, not just an official or title restriction. He doesn't say that it's 'ok' for men to hold the titles but women can do the work. He says "No, the work is to be the work of the elders of the men in the church," and he gives his rationale in verses 13-15. In those three little verses he makes it clear, first of all, that Adam's priority in creation has an impact on male headship in the church. In other words, he's saying that there is a significance in the fact that Adam was created first. Secondly, he speaks of the deception of woman in the fall as one of the reasons why men are to lead in the church. This does not mean that Paul believes that women are more gullible than men; it means that in the role reversal that occurred in the fall, we see the effects of that role reversal. When Eve was tempted by Satan she was the one who carried on the conversation. Where was Adam? He was right there. She doesn't have to go looking for him. She turns and gives him the forbidden fruit. Where was Adam? Why wasn't he speaking up? The roles were reversed and the apostle says that's what happens when we fail to keep the creational roles in the life of the local congregation.

III. Paul consistently teaches that the ministry of the word and rule in the church is to be exercised only by qualified male leadership.

Verse 15 is notoriously difficult; I won't give you the four major interpretations of it, but I will say this. Whatever the difficulties of understanding its specifics, the general point is well understood–Paul believes that the role relationship of godly, gifted qualified male leadership in the church is for the well being of women.

Now Paul establishes here that there are to be role distinctions in the ministry of the church. Yes, women are going to be involved in the activity and ministry in the church, but there are going to be role distinctions in regard to the offices of teaching and ruling and preaching in the church.

Those who argue against the interpretation that I've just given you basically say one of three things. There are only three arguments that are brought against this. Anybody you read that doesn't agree with that interpretation will say one of three things. They will either say, "Well, Paul doesn't mean what he seems to be saying here. He's really writing to a specific circumstance and this is not a general rule for all the churches." Let me invite you to look down to chapter 3, verse 16, and look at what Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15. He says in verse 14 to Timothy: "I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the church of the living God; the pillar and support of the truth." In other words, Paul says to Timothy, I'm writing these things to you about the order of the church not because this is some particular urgent exceptional situation, but because this is the way it is supposed to be in the church. I'm writing this to you because this is the way it's supposed to be everywhere in the church of God.

Secondly, people will say, "Well, Paul contradicts himself. In Galatians 3, he says 'that there is neither male nor female,' and then in 1 Timothy 2, and 1 Corinthians 14, he makes role distinctions between men and women in the church and in the home, and that's just a contradiction. And we choose to agree with Paul in Galatians 3 and you are just following him in 1 Timothy and in 1 Corinthians 14. Well the first thing I would say to that is that if you look at those passages, they are not contradicting one another. They are perfectly harmonious in the way they go together. Secondly, the very idea that the inspired Apostle Paul can contradict himself opens up a whole host of problems. We can go out and find out all sorts of seeming contradictions and pick one side of the contradiction as opposed to another to believe ourselves. If we believe in the authority of Scripture, we can't believe that there are ultimate contradictions in the Word of God.

Thirdly, some people will just say, "Well, Paul was wrong. Paul was culturally bound; he couldn't see beyond his own day and time. He lived in a chauvinistic era. He was culturally bound. Or he was theologically confused." But once again friends, once you do that, what can you not reject in the Scripture? You could say, "Well, we've got to reject what the Scripture says about male/female relationships in the church because it's outdated. Well, why don't we then say, "We've got to realize that in our day and time the idea that Jesus is the only Savior of the world is just outmoded. There are many roads that lead up the mountain, and all religions have truth, and all religions can get you to God and the idea that Jesus is the only way is outmoded. Where could you stop in the Scriptures? Once you start deciding the one part of the Scripture is wrong, what about the rest?

And so Paul consistently teaches that the ministry of the word and rule in the church is to be exercised only by qualified male leadership. Let me ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians 14, verses 34 and 35, where he reiterates this very thing. He says the "women are to keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but are to subject themselves just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home for it is improper for a woman to speak in the church."

Now, first of all, that sounds harsh; secondly, it sounds like a gag order. But if you look at it in its context, it is crystal clear. If you will allow your eyes to scan back up from 1 Corinthians 14:34 to the list of things that Paul says that are done in the church in edification, it's very clear that this command 'not to speak in the church' directly relates to teaching. So Paul is not issuing a universal gag order–women can't speak once they get under the roof of the church. I don't even think that he is saying that women can't ask questions, period. I suspect he is saying: Don't use a question to try and teach the class what you want to teach. Don't use a question to try and teach the congregation what you want to teach. He's saying that he wants women to respect the order that has been established by God in the church of elders teaching and preaching in the congregation. Paul's language in verse 34a and 35b of "keep silent" and "improper to speak" is not a universal gag order, it's a restriction against women engaging in authoritative teaching or didactic speech in the assembly of the Lord's people. Women are not to preach or teach. Paul is reiterating that there is to be a role distinction in the ministry activity of the Christian church. Yes, women participate in ministry; no, they don't preach. Yes, women participate in ministry; no, they don't rule over the church.

Thirdly, if you turn back with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 3, let's get to the sticky question of deacons. Many good evangelicals differ on this issue, but 1 Timothy 3:11 is the verse we need to look at. This is the verse we said we would come back to when we were studying deacons just a few weeks ago and it reads like this: "Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips but temperate, faithful in all things." Now, what does that mean? Is this passage talking about women deacons? Is it talking about deaconesses? Is it talking about female assistants to the deacons? Is it talking about wives of deacons? Is it talking about wives of elders and deacons?

I would suggest to you that it's speaking about female assistants to the deacons and may also include wives of deacons and wives of elders who are assisting them in their work. It is very clear in chapter 5 that women were actively involved in the diaconal work of the church, but that they weren't called deacons. And the fact that Paul doesn't call the women deacons in verse 11, speaks volumes. It's the perfect place for Paul to use the title deacon for women if he wants to, and he doesn't.

Furthermore, if you look back at Acts, chapter 6, verses 1-7 when the deaconate is first established, the apostles explicitly say, "Choose from among you seven men who are qualified," he doesn't use the generic term anthropos; Luke uses the term andros, the word for men.

And so in this passage it seems that we are speaking in 1 Timothy 3:11 of the women who assist the deacons in diaconal ministry and Paul is saying that they must possess godly character. It shows the involvement and qualifications of the women who are involved in the diaconal care of the church. And that is exactly what we are trying to do at First Presbyterian Church. The women of the church are not only actively involved in discipling one another but they are actively involved in the comprehensive diaconal care of the whole congregation. In fact, I want to make a challenge. Of the churches that I have seen where women hold office, I have never seen a congregation where the women are more actively involved in the ministry of the church than at First Presbyterian Church where we don't have women as officers. It's not a matter of status; it's a matter of service. And those who are conserved to serve in the congregation are not so anxious to grasp for a status, especially when the word of God restricts the certain activity of roles in the ministry of the church. So fidelity to Scripture presses us to understand that the offices of the church are for qualified, gifted male leaders, but that women will be comprehensively involved in the ministry of the church. Let's pray.

Romans 16:3-16 - Ministry in the Family of God.

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans 16. We are continuing to work through the book of Romans on Sunday morning. Over the next two or three weeks, God willing, we'll come to an end of this book and begin an exposition of the book of James together. We started last week in Romans 16: 1-2 looking at the ministry of Phoebe and thinking broadly about the role of ministry of women in the early church. And today we come to a section in Romans 16 filled with greetings. In fact, from verse three to verse sixteen, twenty-six different people are mentioned. Greetings are given to them from several different groups, the churches in the east, the churches of the Gentiles planted by Paul in Asia Minor.

You might be asking yourself a question, "Isn't this fairly extraneous stuff. What are we going to get out of a list of greetings. Isn't this kind of like studying a genealogy or some of those tables in the book of Chronicles or Numbers?"Well, I want to assure you, this is not a futile exercise. In fact, the passage we're going to study today is filled with implicit guidance on a number of vital subjects for our own time. If we were going to outline this section, I would outline it by looking at the first three verses, three to five, or halfway through verse five, which focus on Priscilla and Aquilla. Then, looking at the second half of verse five down to verse fifteen, which contains all the other specific greetings to individuals, and then finally, verse sixteen, the third part of the passage gives a general command for the members of the church to greet one another with a holy kiss.

But I'm going to follow a thematic approach to this passage to help you pick up on some of the lessons contained in it and, in fact, reiterated in it. Indeed, if you're looking for a challenging test case for 2 timothy 3:16, you've got it in this passage. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "All Scripture is inspired and given by God and profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work." And you may be wondering, "How is this passage going to equip me. How is this passage going to show its quality of being profitable for instruction.?"Well, I think after we study it, you will be able to say that this passage of Scripture, like all others, has come through with flying colors. So let's approach this section thematically and let's hear God's word beginning in chapter 16 verse three.

"Greet Prisca and Aquilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risk their own necks. To whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the gentiles. Also, greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplidas, my beloved in the lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved. Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are in the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, workers in the lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who has worked hard in the lord. Greet Rufus, a choice man in the lord. Also, his mother, and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and brethren with them. Greet Philologus, and Julia, and Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. Amen." This is God's word. May He add His blessing to it. Let's pray.

Our Lord, open our eyes to behold wonderful things, even from this passage, which is part of the inspired, inerrant, authoritative, infallible, profitable, and sufficient word of God. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

In the midst of all these greetings, Paul teaches us something about missions and the spread of the gospel. He teaches us something about the church as the family of God, and he teaches us something about the ministry of the church, or the work of the church. And those three things are the things that I'd like to explore with you today as we look at this passage thematically, looking through the whole passage to see what the total passage teaches us about missions and the spread of the gospel, the church as the family of god, and the ministry, or work, of the church.

Let's start with the first theme, the theme of missions and the spread of the gospel. Now, let me give you a hint at the passages that we're going to draw these points from now. Look at verse 3, the second half of verse 4, the second half of verse 5. Look at verse 7, the second half of verse 10, and the second half of verse 11.

I. The local church as a mission sending body.

Let's start in verse three. Here we are told of Paul's greetings to Prisca, or Priscilla, as she's usually called in the New Testament, and Aquilla. Now, the first time we meet Priscilla and Aquilla, we meet them in Acts 18:1-2. They've been in Rome, they've had to flee from Rome because of the persecution of the Jews by the Emperor Claudius. Now they're in Corinth, and now here in Romans, they are back in Rome again. And some Bible critics have said, "Hey, aren't these people moving around a little too much to be actually the way things would have happened in those days. I mean, surely people didn't travel back and forth that long a distance over that dangerous and long a road in those days and times." Well, the fact of the matter is, our study of the pattern of Jewish trades people lets us know that people did move like that. Jewish tradesmen often relocated to major city centers in order to be more profitable in their trade. But, I want to suggest to you that there is probably another reason why we see Priscilla and Aquilla moving from these locations like they have. And that is, despite the fact that Aquilla was pressing his trade, which was tentmaking. By the way, when we talk about tentmaking missionaries today, we get that language right from Priscilla and Aquilla and Paul. Remember, Paul worked with Priscilla and Aquilla in order to support the mission. We are told this in Acts chapter 18. And we get that phrase, tentmaking missionaries, right from Aquilla, who was by profession a tentmaker. That's how he made his money.

But I want to suggest to you that as they move back and forth from Corinth to Rome and back that their purpose was not only economic, but it was missional. In other words, they had a missions goal. Their goal was to establish the kingdom. Their goal was to spread the gospel. Their goal was to plant churches. We know from the book of Acts that this couple was used to disciple Apollos, a mighty minister in the Lord, who understood the teaching of John the Baptist, but didn't understand the fullness of Jesus' and Paul's preaching. And this couple discipled him so that he could preach the gospel with all its glory and all its power. We know that this couple had a church meeting in their home in Rome. We're told that in verse four, "Greet the church which is in your house." This couple was committed to the spread of the gospel, and we see something of the early Christian attitude toward missions in this couple.

In fact, as we look at missions and the spread of the gospel in these verses, I think you'll see several things. First of all, you'll see that early Christians were non- professionally mission-minded. In other words, they didn't leave it up to the professionals. They didn't say, "Okay, we need a missions board or agency to send a well-trained group to the spread of the gospel. They went and did it themselves. They were non-professionally committed to missions. They expected gospel success in their missions. They sent out missionaries from their local churches and Christianity generally took root below and worked up the ladder in social classes. It didn't start with the influential and the prominent and trickle down. It started with those who were the last, the lost, the least, and the limping. And it worked its way up into the very highest parts of the empire. And the Gentile mission had already resulted in much fruit. We learn all of that from these greetings.

Let me give you another example. Look at the second half of verse five. Epaenetus was not merely the first convert in Asia. Your translations are right to put it that way. But Paul uses a special word. Paul uses the word firstfruits. Just like an offering was given to God from the first fruits, expecting that the rest of the harvest would come in, so also Paul calls Epaenetus not just the first convert, but the firstfruits. In other words, he was the first convert, but he wasn't going to be the last. There was a whole region of converts coming behind him. There were Gentiles from that whole area who were going to come to Christ. He was just the firstfruits. He was just a foretaste of the conversions that were to come.

It kind of reminds you of William Carey. Remember William Carey went to India and ministered seven years as a missionary before he saw his first convert. What would a modern evangelical missions agency say about that. About three about three years I think you'd probably get pulled home. When he finally got his first convert, remember what Carey said to his friends at the compound: "He may be the first, but there's a continent behind him." He was the firstfruits of the work of God's grace. By the Spirit, multitudes were going to be brought in, and Epaenetus is the first. Paul expected more to come.

Notice verse seven. Andronicus and Junias are called here apostles. Now, we're going to talk about this later if we get there. But, notice that they're called apostles. Now, the word apostles is used in at least two and probably three ways in the New Testament. One of the ways it is used is the way it is used here. That is, apostles with a little "a." That is, missionaries sent out by local churches. And so, we see again the emphasis on missions work by local churches in the very title which is given to Andronicus and Junius. They are given the title of missionaries or apostles, people sent out to do missions work by local churches.

Look at the end of verse ten and the end of verse eleven. Here greetings are given to the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus. Now, we think we know who these men were. And from what we know of them, neither of them were Christians. Isn't it interesting. We're not asked to give greetings to Aristobulus and Narcissus. We're asked to give greetings to the household members of Aristobulus and Narcissus, who are in the Lord. These were servants in the very court of Caesar. And there were apparently already Christians within their households, though they themselves were not Christians. In other words, already among the servants of Caesar, God had planted seeds of faith, and there were gospel believing Christians. It would be almost three centuries before a Caesar would bow the knee to Jesus Christ, but already in the days of Paul, God had planted Christians amongst the servants of his household.

I want to pause right there and say, it's okay for us to go out and evangelize the influential and the powerful. Nothing wrong with that. When you have limited resources you have to decide where you are going to go evangelize. But we should never think that unless we can convince the influential and the powerful the gospel won't work, because God started with slaves and in three centuries, Caesar bowed the knee. Now that should be encouraging to us because the influential and the powerful in our day and time don't like the gospel. They don't like Christianity. That's okay. We'll be faithful and if God is willing, in three centuries their children will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are faithful.

Notice the missions-mindedness and the confidence in the gospel of the early church. Look at verse four. This phrase at the end of verse four reminds us of the importance and the success of Paul's and others' labors thus far. Notice all the churches of the Gentiles know about what Priscilla and Aquilla have done on behalf of Paul and on behalf of the gospel. Already Paul has told all these churches that have been planted by him and by others in Asia Minor and elsewhere the deeds of Priscilla and Aquilla. And we get some sense of the success of Paul's labor.

Early Christians were non-professionally mission-minded. We learn that even from these greetings. Are you missions-minded? The early Christians expected gospel success in their missions, and they were patient. They were ready for it to happen. They knew it was coming. They were patient. Are you expectant in gospel missions? They sent out missionaries from their local churches.

Let me ask you a question. Are you being called to go into the fields of mission? Are you being called to be a missionary? Has that been a burden on your heart that you've been resisting? Or have you never considered it but you ought to? The early Christians sent out missionaries from their own home churches. Christianity took root below and it worked up the social ladder. Is that our expectation? Do we really believe it can happen that way? That those who are most peripheral in society can eventually have a leavening effect. Well, I seem to remember a parable that Jesus told about the mustard seed as to how the kingdom grows. Do we really believe that? Do we believe that the gospel is that mighty, that it can start with the weakest and show itself to be strong? The early Christians did. All of these things we learned from these greetings. Lists of names and appellations.

II. The church as a family.

Look with me then, at the second thing. Let's look at the church as a family. And you could look at verses three through five, eight, nine, and twelve, especially, although I'm going to draw from every verse in the passage. And as we think about the church as a family, we learn from this passage that Christians are expected to manifest the reality of the communion of the saints in their greetings, in their gratitude, in their cordially, and in their relationships. And we learn from these greetings that Christian women need never fear a lack of opportunity for meaningful kingdom service. And we learn that Christians ought to know about one another's spiritual condition and service. And we learn that we can have a close relationship with certain brothers and sisters within the community of faith without violating the general principle of all of us being brothers and sisters in Christ. Where do we learn that? Well, let's look at some of these things.

First of all, notice the constant "to-ing and fro-ing" of greetings, from the Gentile Christians to the church at Rome. From the Jewish Christians back east to the church in Rome. Greetings from Paul to individuals. Ascriptions of what these individuals have done for the church in Rome and have done for Paul. The communion of saints is not some idealistic dream. It is an expected, practical reality in the body of Christ, and Romans chapter sixteen proves that it was experienced.

In Romans 14 and 15, Paul talked about what it meant to be the body of Christ, the family of God.

In Romans 16, he shows us that these Christians were living that out. He wasn't just talking about it in theory or in the abstract. They were living it out. They were ministering to one another. They were loving one another. They were greeting one another. They were caring for one another. They were in deep and significant and distinctively gospel and Christian relationships with one another. We're all part of one body, but every single one of us has different roles. And this is seen even by some of the things that are said about these people. If you look at verses three and four, you find out that some of these people risk themselves for ministry. If you look at verses four and five you'll find out that some of these people hosted gospel work in their homes. If you look at verses six and seven and eight you'll find that some people worked hard in the ministry. Some of them worked for the church at Rome. Some of them worked hard for the gospel. Some of them worked hard in the Lord. And you'll also find from other passages that some of these were especially beloved by Paul or were especially choice individuals. They're all part of one body. They have different roles. And we learn that even from studying the greetings.

Now let your eyes fall onto verses three through five. Let me say again that the importance of women in the early Christian ministry is here again made clear. Of the 26 people mentioned in this passage, thanked by Paul, greeted by Paul, nine of them are women. That is astonishing in a male-dominated culture and in the male-dominated background of Jewish Christianity, that nine of these 26 people are women. It shows you the expansive role of women in ministering in early Christianity. Furthermore, notice Paul's commendation of Priscilla and Aquilla. He credits them with having risked their life for him. Now, we're never told how. We're never told when. But they did. And we're also, as we usually see it in the New Testament, introduced to Priscilla and Aquilla with Priscilla's name first. Now, that normally would not have happened according to conventions of Greco-Roman writing. And they're all sorts of speculations on why. Some people have suggested that Priscilla came from a higher social class than Aquilla, so she was listed first. Others have said, well, Priscilla was more accomplished in her ministry than Aquilla. There are various speculations. We don't know why. But one thing we do know. Look at what Paul calls her. Did you notice, did your translation change the name Prisca to Priscilla? Well, Paul didn't call her Priscilla. He called her Prisca. Now, Priscilla is the diminutive of Prisca. It would be like calling a woman named Priscilla today "Prissy" or calling a woman named Elizabeth "Bessie" or "Lizzie" or "Liz." Everybody else in the New Testament, Luke and everybody else, calls Priscilla Priscilla. Paul never calls her that. Paul always calls her Prisca.

Now, I don't want to read too much into this and I don't want to allow my imagination to go too wild, but think about this, my friend. You've got a woman who's a faithful minister in a congregation. She's serving the saints in the ways that are made available to her according to the Scriptures. And everybody knows her as "Lizzie." and Paul comes along and he just can't bring himself to call her that. To him she is "Elizabeth." Now, do you see the respect and the love that are poured into that formal name. And I want to suggest to you that we see even in what Paul calls Priscilla, the enormity of his respect and love and regard for this woman and what she has done for the sake of the early church.

Notice, also, as we look at verses five and eight and nine, that we see Paul talk about people with whom he is especially close. You see, it's possible to have an especially close friendship with certain Christians without offensively or inappropriately discriminating against other Christians. You know, we might think if we're all brothers and sisters, maybe we're supposed to love everyone else the same, and we're not to have especially favorite friends. Well, that wasn't the case for Jesus and it wasn't the case for Paul, either. Epaenetus and Ampliaetus and Stachys are all called people who are beloved to Paul. These are especially dear and close friends to him. And yet, he doesn't discriminate against the other Christians and the other Christians aren't jealous of this particular relationship. And that's something very important for us to understand, especially those of us who go into gospel ministry. There will be people with whom we have an especially close friendship. We may have to be careful about discrimination, but that's not inappropriate.

One last thing I want to mention in this passage. Look at verse 12. Tryphena and Ttryphosa. Those are two female names. It's very apparent from the similarity of these names that these names have been given to two girls from one family. They're a lot alike. Even their meanings are similar. It's even possible to speculate that these were given to twin girls. You can imagine twin girls coming into the world being named Tryphena and Tryphosa. Now, the really interesting and gentle irony about this greeting is this: Tryphena and Tryphosa are names that mean something like delicate and dainty. And look at what Paul commends them for: For being hard workers. Now you can see Paul's tongue in his cheek really enjoying the fact that two women named delicate and dainty are hard workers for the Lord. Sort of like some of our sweet, diminutive southern belles who could run small Caribbean countries for the Lord, and the apostle loves the fact that these women, delicate and demurring as they are, are workers for the Lord. You see, you get some sense of the reality of the communion of the saints in these greetings.

Do you have those kinds of relationships with one another. Paul did. Do you. And you see in these greetings that Christian women never need fear a lack of opportunity for meaningful kingdom service. And we see from these greetings that Christians ought to know about one another's spiritual condition and service. Do you? Do you know when your brothers and sisters in Christ were converted and what trials they've been through and what the Lord is doing in their lives now and their testimony and where they're growing and where they're struggling? If you don't, you're impoverished. That's what it means to be the family of God, to be in the communion of saints, to know the spiritual stories of one another. And you know what. Right now, today, is not too soon to start beginning to learn the spiritual story of one another.

One last thing–let's look at the ministry or the work of the church in this passage. Look at verses 3,4,5,6,7, 9, 12, 13, and 16. But we won't get all the way through it. In these thematic sections I want you to see that Christians are expected to work hard from the kingdom. We learned that from Paul's greetings. And that God sees all that work, and that God uses the most surprising things to advance His kingdom. And that a distinctive love for fellow-Christians is not an option, and that the local church is the discipleship plan of Jesus and Paul.

How do we get that in these greetings. Well, let's look. If you look in verses 3,6,9, and 12, you will find similar phrases about workers–my fellow workers, worked hard for you, our fellow worker, workers in the Lord, worked hard in the Lord. Notice how Paul notices the work of Christians. He knows about it, he notices it, he draws attention to it. If Paul knows the work of Christians, you can best believe that there is no work of a Christian which is unnoticed or unrewarded by the lord, and we see that from Paul's constant reference of appreciation to the work of Christians.

There's another thing we see, too. Turn to verse 13. God uses even dark providences to bring the generations into His kingdom and to prepare encouragement for His people. And one dark providence is hinted at in verse 13. You're looking at it and going, "What in the world are you talking about, Ligon?" "Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine." To understand this, you're going to have to turn with me to Mark 15. You will remember that Mark, we think, was written especially for the roman Christians. Mark was the amaneusis for Peter. It's always been assumed that Peter was the man behind Mark's gospel, and that it was written especially for the Roman Christians. And in Mark 15:21, we read that Jesus is on His way to Golgotha, and we read: "And they pressed into a service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyreni, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross." Now, we think that Mark included that detail precisely because he was writing to the Roman church, and because they knew who Alexander and Rufus were. And the apostle Paul, in giving greetings to Rufus, brings that to mind. We're not told anything more about this, so I don't want to let my imagination run too wild. But it doesn't take too much to figure this one out. Simon of Cyreni is pressed into doing the very last thing he ever wanted to do–bear a cross for a condemned criminal. Here's a good Jewish man visiting Jerusalem for the feast, and suddenly he is pressed into doing the most odious thing that a jew could possibly imagine doing–that is carrying a cross to allow the Romans to put a criminal to death. No doubt, it would have meant he would have been ceremonially unclean for the rest of the feast. And yet, apparently, in God's providence, Simon was brought to the Lord through that experience, and his son Rufus believes in Christ so that Paul can greet him as a choice servant of the Lord, part of the core group of Christians in Rome.

Now, think about it, my friends, God in His wise providence, begins to plant a core group of believers in Rome by having a man bear the tree on which His Son would die. Now, there is a story there. I cannot wait to ask Simon and Rufus and Peter and Mark and Paul about that story. There is a story there. But you see God using dark providences to build up His kingdom.

My friends, we don't have time to go on. But you get a sense here already of the ministry and the work of the church. Paul calling attention to faithful servants of the Lord in the church, calling attention to how God uses surprising and even dark providences into His kingdom.

But I can't miss this one. Look again at verse 13. I skipped over one thing. You must hear this. Notice that Paul says, "Greet Rufus and also greet his mother, and mine." That could mean a couple of things, but it probably means that Rufus' mother had been as a mother to Paul, so that Paul himself was ministered to by this saint whose son had been brought to the Lord by this horrendous experience of participating in the crucifixion of the Savior, and Paul had received aid and encouragement and comfort through it. God is always thinking. He's always working in His church to bring about His will.

My friends, you might not have thought it, but even greetings in God's word are profitable for reproof and correction and training in righteousness that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. May God bless His word. Let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your infallible and Your applicable word. Help us not only to stagger at its wisdom, but to walk in its way. In Jesus' name, Amen

Romans 16:17-20 - A Warning Against Schismatics and an Expression of Hope

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans, chapter 16. We have been in Romans, 16 for the last couple of weeks and at the end of this month, on the last Lord's day of this month, God willing, we will complete our study of Romans and begin the next Lord's day a study of the book of James. Today, we come to a passage sandwiched in between greetings. A passage which may surprise you, and strike some of you as a little bit strange. This is a passage perhaps penned by Paul, himself. We know that this letter of Romans was dictated by Paul to a man named Tertius, because in Romans, 16:22, Tertius, the amanuensis, or scribe, or secretary of Paul, actually gives greetings to the Roman Christians, and identifies himself as the one who had written the bulk of the letter.

But apparently, in verses 17 through 20, Paul, himself, had picked up the pen in order to identify himself. When letters were sent, in those days, they were often dictated, and the only way that you would know for certain that the person who supposedly was sending the letter was the person who was sending the letter, as he would take the letter up, sign his name and perhaps write a few sentences of the last part of the letter so that you could see his handwriting and that it was, indeed, the person who the letter claimed to be from. And so, Paul has picked up the pen, himself, and before he closes in this list of greetings, a few things pop into his mind that he wants to say. It is of vital importance and significance to the spiritual health and welfare of the Roman Christians to listen to what he says, but its also important for our spiritual health and welfare as we listen to this, God's holy, inspired, profitable and sufficient word. This is God's word:

"Now I urge you , brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teachings which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil. And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Amen. Let's pray.

O Lord, this is Your word, meant not simply for a fledgling congregation of Roman Christians nineteen hundred and forty something years ago, but meant for us today. By Your Spirit, open our eyes that we might behold truth from Your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The things that Paul says in this passage may strike some of us as strange. They aren't exactly what we would expect to hear from a pastor, as he is bringing final words of greeting to the church. There have been some very tender words that he has spoken from verse one all the way down to verse 16 of this chapter, and perhaps you weren't expecting him to go back into the mode of exhortation again. And, perhaps you weren't expecting him to exhort in these areas. In fact, some of the things that he says in these few verses before us are alien in the thought world of our age. We live in a relativistic and pluralistic society, for instance, and talking about people who hold to doctrinal error, error of opinion about religious matters, talking about them being cut off, talking about them being shunned by the people of God, talking about them being divisive, and schismatic, and hindrances, and obstacles to the gospel... That's fairly strong language, and we don't naturally talk in those categories today.

But Paul says these things to the church for a reason. And for the very reason that these things are alien to the thought world of our age, they are extremely important for us to understand, especially as we come to the Lord's Table. In fact, in this passage we are going to see three things together. In Paul's warning, which you'll find in verse 17 and 18, we are going to learn the truth that 'unity is in the truth'. It's in the truth. It's not in setting the truth aside. It's not in not caring about the truth. It's not in thinking, "Well your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth," and "We can just agree to disagree, and just all get along." Unity is in the truth. Paul teaches that very clearly in this passage.

Secondly, in verse 19, where you see that beautiful exhortation wrapped up in an encouragement, we learn that it is our individual duty and responsibility as Christians to exercise discernment about spiritual teaching. As believers, we must be spiritually discerning about the biblical and theological teaching we are getting. Even Christian teachers need to be tested against Scripture, for there are many who claim to be Christians who teach against the doctrine of the apostle.

And thirdly, in verse 20, in the expectation of hope which Paul expresses there, he points us to the source of our victory in this world, the source of our victory against Satan, our enemy, the source of our victory against the opposition of the world, and that source of victory is in God, Himself. So I would like to look at these three things with you briefly.

I. The Church must be wary of those who cause divisions by teaching things out of accord with Apostolic doctrine.

Look first at verses 17 and 18, where we see this warning against schismatics, or dividers; those who cause division in the Church. It's an admonition about people who are dividers and hindrances to the work of the gospel. And Paul is saying, in verses 17 and 18, that the Church must be wary of those who cause division by teaching things that are out of accord with the apostle's doctrine. Notice that Paul directs this urging, this appeal, not to the elders, but to the whole Church. Look at his language in verse 17: "You brethren." Now, elsewhere, Peter and Paul will make exhortations like this to the elders. Yes, it is especially the elders' job to guard the flock. Yes, the elders especially must have their eyes open for those who are teaching false teachings in the church. Paul makes that clear in 1 Timothy, chapter one, verses three and four. He makes it clear, again, in Titus, chapter one, verse nine. We find it in numerous places in Paul's letters. In Acts 20:28, when he speaks to the elders at Ephesus, he reminds them that they are shepherds of the flock and they are to keep their guard up for the sake of the flock. So, it is especially the elders' job to do this.

But in Romans, chapter 16, verse 17, Paul explicitly directs this exhortation to us: "You brethren," you brothers and sisters in Christ, - the whole congregation - keep a lookout for those who bring division through wrong teaching; dividers, schismatics, and for those who create resistance to right teaching through their wrong teaching, those who are hinderers of the work of the gospel. Yes, elders are to be concerned about that, but every Christian is to be discerning.

Now, you may be asking yourself, why in the midst of a list of greetings, greetings which have run from verse 3 to verse 16, greetings which will pick up again with Tertius' note in verse 21 and will continue except for one benediction - or one doxology - to the end of the chapter? Why, suddenly this exhortation? Well, think about it. Where is Paul writing from? He's writing from Corinth to Rome. Now, in Corinth, there was division over doctrine in the church. There were already people there who were teaching false doctrine and Paul was having to confront that and here he is, signing his name to this letter, and he thinks, "O my, I don't want that to happen in Rome"! And so, he pauses to give an exhortation to the whole congregation - be on the lookout for those who bring false teaching. Paul doesn't say for the church in Rome to argue with those people. He doesn't say to try and convince them, or try to win them over. He says, "Cut them off, shove them out. Have nothing to do with them. Leave them completely alone." And he gives a very unflattering description of their character in verse 18. He says two things. They serve their own appetites. They are serving their own desires, in other words, and they are deceiving those who are naive. And they are preying on those who are least able to discern their false teaching. And Paul's exhortation here is a call to every Christian to be discerning. Every Christian has a duty to be on guard against false teaching and to reject false teachers.

But, that's against the spirit of the age. We live in a day and age where calling something false teaching isn't considered nice. It's not nice to call something false teaching. Its not nice to call someone a false teacher, and in fact, it's often charged that those giving false teaching, they are the ones who are bringing division in the churches.

About 25 or 30 years ago, when the wonderful evangelical renaissance began in the Southern Baptist churches, Southern Baptist leaders, in many parts of the United States, realized that they needed to recapture the seminaries, because liberals had taken control of the Southern Baptist seminaries. And as they did so, they held forth for the inerrancy and the authority of Scripture. And do you know what happened? The liberals who were in charge of the seminaries said, "You people are dividing the church. You are keeping the church from doing its mission. We need to get along - get on with the work of evangelizing and not arguing over the inerrancy of Scripture." Well, as far as the apostle Paul was concerned, it's not those who believe in the authority of Scripture who are dividing the Church - it is those who don't believe in the authority of Scripture. It is not those who are questioning the apostolic teaching who are the great defenders of the faith. It's those who believe the apostolic teaching who are the great defenders of the faith. And so, Paul makes it clear that it is not faithful doctrine which divides; it is false doctrine. And Christians are called to be discerning in precisely that area. For Paul, doctrine -right teaching - is very important. And it is false doctrine that always brings division to the Church, and not faithful doctrine. And therefore, Christians must be on the lookout for those who cause division through false teaching.

We have had to do that in our own congregation. It is a painful thing to do, but Paul calls us to task right here. It may be that you are a student getting ready to go off to school. It may be a liberal arts college or a state university. You may be required to take a religion course from someone who claims to be a Christian, and yet teaches against historic Christian doctrine. You will be called upon in that circumstance to discern the truth. You need to know the truth in order to do that. You may be a person listening to a teacher in some setting, a preacher, a religious authority who claims to be Christian, but who is against the apostolic teachings of Christianity. You are called upon here to be discerning.

II. Christians are to be "too good to deceive and too wise to be deceived, "wise as serpents, harmless as doves."

Secondly, if you will look at verse 19, Paul's word of encouragement and exhortation here is directly connected with what he's already said in verse 17. You see that connection in the little word, for. "I urge you to keep an eye out, he says in verse 17, "for the report of your obedience has reached to all." Now, that doesn't seem to make sense at first. Keep an eye out for false teachers because I already know that you are doing such a good job, and you are growing in grace and you are obedient.

That doesn't seem to make sense, but it makes perfect sense. Paul is writing from Corinth where this is a problem, to Rome where it's not. And he is wanting to make it clear that he's not telling them to be on the lookout because they've messed up. He's not telling them to be on the lookout because he sees them falling down on the job. He's saying, look, I've already heard the reports of your obedience. You are doing wonderfully. You are growing in grace. In fact, he says in verse 19, I'm rejoicing in you. And so I want you to understand, Paul is saying, I am not exhorting you in this because I am disappointed in you. I'm not exhorting you in this because I'm critical of you. I'm exhorting you in this precisely because you are doing so well, and I don't want you to fall into the trap. And so, that's what I mean by saying the exhortation is wrapped up inside of an encouragement. Because, in verse 19, Paul is calling these Christians to be too good to deceive, and too wise to be deceived. He's calling them, in Jesus' language, to be wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. But he's doing it not because they've messed up, but because he doesn't want them to fall into a trap. He knows how faithful and obedient they are. He's rejoicing over them, but he wants them in their faithfulness to be innocent and wise - wise in that which is good, innocent in that which is evil. And this is the call to every Christian, a call for spiritual and biblical discernment. We need to know the truth. We need to know the difference between truth and error, and we need to exercise discretion in regard to those who are supposedly preachers of God's word.

Have you ever turned on the television and seen the diet of what passes as Christian teaching in religious programing? The vast majority of it, the great bulk of it, is crazy. And yet, when you see the dollar amounts given by sensible Christians to these essentially Christian ministries, you have to ask yourself, "What in the world are these people doing? Do they have no discernment? Can they not see the patent falsehood of the 'health and wealth' gospel? Of the get rich quick schemes? Of the total lack of biblical and gospel content of many of these shows?" You can watch the shows for minutes, and minutes, and maybe hours and wonder, "What possible spiritual benefit could have been conveyed by that. Even if I could get my cavities turned into gold, what possible spiritual benefit could that have given to me?" People who sit under these kinds of hucksters are culpable, Paul says, because they are called to spiritual discernment. Christians, all Christians, are called to know what is good and what is wise, and what is right and to exercise discernment regarding false teaching.

III. God Himself is the source of our peace, unity, victory and we need His grace.

Thirdly, in verse 20, Paul goes on to give an optimistic expectation. He's given a warning, and he's given an exhortation wrapped up in encouragement, but here he gives an expectation of hope. He is very, very optimistic. And he closes with a benediction. He says, "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under their feet." There's his expectation for the church in Rome. He has great hopes for them. God will soon crush Satan under their feet. God, Himself, he is saying, God Himself is their source of peace and unity, and victory, and we need His grace.

Now, you need to understand the link of what he says in verse 19 and verse 20. Just as you might wonder what the link is between verse 19 and verses 17 and 18, so also you might ask why does he suddenly start talking about God crushing Satan under our feet in verse 20? Where does that come from? Well, it comes from verse 19. In verse 19, what did he tell you to do? He told you to exercise spiritual discernment, to be wise in that which is good, and innocent in that which is evil. Now, that does make you think of Jesus' words "to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves?" But it actually takes you further back than that. It takes you back to a very old story in Genesis, chapter three, when Eve was tempted, and what did she show herself to be? Not wise in that which is good, and discerning and innocent of that which is evil, but naive and deceived in that which is concerning evil. And so, Paul in verse 19, is saying, don't you make the same mistake. You be discerning about those flattering words that sound good, but in the heart of them they are death. You be discerning about those words. You know the truth. You know error. You know the difference between the truths. You be wise with that regard, but be innocent with regard to doing evil.

And then he says in verse 20, he says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. He is expressing the expectation that when you are faithful to be discerning, that God will crush Satan under your feet. Do you realize this is the first reference to Satan in the book of Romans? Up to this point there has been no explicit mention of Satan, and the first time he is mentioned, what is emphasized? That the power of God in the gospel is greater than the power of Satan. Now, my friends, that's not the impression that you get from so much of popular literature in Christianity. There is a major series currently being read and seen by people right now, that would give you the idea that Satan has the upper hand in everything. But Paul's emphasis is that the power of the gospel is greater than Satan's, and God will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Notice this interesting juxtaposition in verse 20 - the God of peace will crush Satan. What? The God of peace? Will crush? Yes! Because our peace does not come from the absence of warfare. It comes, in fact, directly from divine warfare against the enemy of our souls. God wins peace for us through divine warfare. God is the source of our peace. God's peace comes to us through God's war. Indeed, it comes to us from God's victory in God's war against our enemy. And so our peace is brought about by the victory of God, especially in the life and death of Jesus Christ. And so, the apostle wants us to be mindful of where the source of our peace is, and he wants us to be mindful of how that peace has been won for us.

Now, Paul ends this part of this letter with this statement in verse 20, which is the normal way that he concludes his written communication. "The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." And I just want you to note three things about that benediction, that prayer, that blessing. The first thing is that it emphasizes the favor and aid of Christ for His people. "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you." It is the favor and aid of Christ that enables us to have victory over Satan. Notice, also, that this benediction, or prayer, or blessing is an act of worship. It acknowledges Christ as the source of grace. And then thirdly, notice that it is a witness to Jesus' divinity. He calls Jesus here, "Lord," and he recognizes Jesus as the fountain of grace. Now, every good Jew knew that all grace and favor came from God, and God alone. And so, when Paul announces that Jesus is the source of grace, he is identifying Jesus as divine, the Son of God, deity, and he is recognizing His divinity and His Lordship. If God is the source of peace, then no peace He offers, or authors, will be at the expense of His truth. That is one of the great lessons that Romans 16, verses 17 through 20 teaches. May God bless us as we believe it and live it. Let's pray.

Our Lord, and our God, as we come to the table to commune with Christ and His people, we pray that we would do so in truth, believing Your word, acknowledging its authority, coming to you in Christ alone who, Your word has said, is the only way of salvation. Grant then that we might feed by faith on the One who renders Himself up as an a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice for all those who receive and trust in Him. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

Romans 16:21-27 - Greetings to the Church and Glory to God

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 16. Today we come to our last study in Romans for now, a study that began April 2, 2000, a little longer than 100 sermons and two and one quarter years ago. I do want to say, though, we haven't scratched the surface. And I hope that this study has been somewhat of an hors d'oeuvres and an appetizer to you to go back and truly plumb the depths of this great book.

Isn't it interesting that Paul closes this great book, a theological treatise, a practical, pastoral exhortation, an exhortation to unity. Isn't it interesting that he closes this book with greetings and prayer, specifically a prayer of adoration to God that simultaneously serves to encourage God's people. Paul's love for and his concern for God's people comes out in the greetings. His awe of God, his sense of the greatness of God, comes out in this prayer of adoration as the only suitable response to the glorious plan of salvation revealed in this letter.

We're going to study this passage today then in two parts. We're going to look at the greetings and the repeated benediction in verses 21 through 24, and then we're going to look at the doxology, or the word of praise, in verses 25 through 27. Let's turn to God's word and hear that word in Romans 16:21 and following.

"Timothy my fellow worker greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."

Amen, and may the Lord add His blessing to this reading of His holy and inspired word. Let's pray.

Our Lord, speak to us, we pray, by Your word, by Your Spirit applying it to our hearts and causing us to obediently submit ourselves to its teaching and to be conformed to the image of Your Son. These things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

How would you have ended the greatest theological masterpiece ever written? Augustine ended his 22-chapter 1,100 page epic, The City of God, with these words, "It may be too much for some, too little for others. Of both these groups I ask forgiveness." Now, maybe some of you are thinking that should be my statement at the end this sermon series. Well, Paul ended this letter with greetings and doxology. Does that surprise you? Does that surprise you that he would end a letter with this sort of exalted material in it in that sort of a mundane way?

I. The glory of Christian community

Well I want to suggest to you that two grand messages come through in those greetings and in that doxology. First, the message of the glory of the communion of the saints comes through loud and clear. In the greetings here in verses 21 through 23 to be sure, but also in the greetings that we've already seen in this chapter from verse 3 down to verse 17, the glory of the communion of the saints comes through. And then in the doxology, the greatness and the glory of God comes through loud and clear. And it's on those two messages that I would like to dwell with you for a few moments.

The first one you will see in verses 21 through 23. Here we have more greetings and then six passing comments made about the people who are sending the greetings and then in verse 24 an identical benediction to the one that we saw in verse 20. And here in verses 21 through 23 we see something of the glory of Christian community. There is a distinctive and unworldly, other worldly, fellowship of all true believers and that comes through in this set of greetings. Whereas the previous greetings in verses 3 through 17 had been focused on people in the Roman church who were receiving greetings, these greetings list the names of people in the Corinthian church who are sending greetings. So, if you wonder why Paul would have separated these sets of greetings that seems to supply a rationale. The first set of greetings are greetings to people, they are greetings being received by people in the Roman church. The second list of people are people in the Corinthian church sending greetings to the church in Rome.

And in the course of these greetings we catch something of the community of spirit of the Corinthian church and the Roman church. You get the feeling at the end of this letter it's almost as if a crowd is around Paul and Tertius as they are finishing the final words of this letter saying, "Paul, would you tell them that I send them my greetings." Now, we don't know whether all of these Christians listed in verses 21 through 23 had any personal knowledge, had any personal relationship with anybody in the Roman church. We know that Phoebe was going to be in Rome, and she was going to carry the letter. We know that Priscilla and Aquilla had knowledge of people in Roman church. They had worked there for a period of time. But we don't know whether any of these folk had personal knowledge of the people who were being greeted. As far as we know, the only thing that they may have shared in common with the Christians that they were so anxious to greet in Rome was the fact that they were fellow believers in Jesus Christ. They were united to Christ and therefore they were united to these fellow believers who were also united to Christ, and so they were anxious to give their greetings. And I think that shows you something about the quality of Christian community which existed in the early church.

And there's one other example, if you'll look at verse 23, that I want to draw your attention to. I could talk about Timothy, I could talk about Paul's kinsmen, I could talk about Tertius and Erastus and Quartus but I want to focus on Gaius for a minute. Gaius, we're told in verse 23, had shown hospitality not only to Paul, or maybe this means that he had shown hospitality to Tertius. Maybe Tertius had stayed at his home, but we're told that Gaius had shown hospitality to the whole church. Now, either Gaius had a really large house or the Corinthian church was a really small congregation, or maybe it was some combination of both. But here was a man whose quality of hospitality is highlighted by the apostle as this letter is sent to Rome and it is indicative of the sense of community in the early church that such a high price is placed on hospitality.

Why is hospitality lauded? Why is it drawn attention to here? Because Christian community is important. Christian fellowship is important. And you're seeing something here of the glory of Christian community as Paul ends this grand letter in greetings from Christians to Christians because of the importance he places on community and unity in the church. Christians love one another and care about each other because of the communion that we have which flows from our union with Christ. And the greetings at the end of this letter actually help foster that unity in at least two ways.

First of all, those greetings show the practical love of one group of Christians to another group of Christians and so enhance their sense of fellowship. I'm sure it would have been very flattering for the Roman Christians to see all of these Corinthians so anxious to greet them. Secondly, the greetings at the end of this letter also let us know that the Corinthian Christians were in agreement with the contents of the letter being sent to the Roman Christians. And the Roman Christians would have said, "You know, this isn't just Paul's opinion, apparently this whole Corinthian church agrees with the teachings which Paul has given to us in this letter." And so the unity was not only fostered by a sort of common sense of fellowship but it was also fostered by the embrace of the truth of this letter by the Corinthian Christians and their willingness to attach their names and greeting at the end of it so that the Roman Christians would have said, "Well, they believe this too. This is a truth that we hold in common when we receive this letter." And so the unity of the church was foster not only in the expression of love in these Christian greetings but also in the Roman church's realization that the Corinthian church was aware of the content of the letter and in agreement with it.

Now we have a lot of community at first Presbyterian Church, Jackson. Not everybody at first Presbyterian Church, Jackson, senses that community. And there are a lot of reasons; there are many reasons for that. But I want to urge you, though we do know much about community, and a lot of that just comes to us inherently, we're in a part of the country where community is more important. Many of us grew up with the people that we're sitting in the pews with. Many of us went to the same school and had the same network of friends with the people that we're sitting in the pews with. And community in that setting is very easy. But Paul's not just calling us to a natural or inherent or cultural unity; he's calling us to a uniquely Christian unity and community here. And that means that the distinctive thing about this community is that the one thing that establishes its basis is our common union to Christ. And I want to urge you to express and to have an agenda to express that kind of community and family and fellowship in this congregation but seeking to reach out to those people that you don't know, that you don't have natural ties and common bonds with because you went to school with them or you been friends with them for a long time, but simply because you share the same savior and you desire to express the reality of the family of God in fellowship. And if that happens there won't be anybody in the congregation of first Presbyterian Church who does not feel like they are not part of this community.

But as we are right now there are many who often feel excluded and peripheral. We need to work at community, Christian community, gospel community, community that is based on our commonality in the gospel. One thing that will happen if that kind of community exists is that we won't all be like one another. There'll be more and more different kinds of people here that are united to us simply because of their common bond in the gospel. And that's a sign that God's spirit is at work in a fellowship when that kind of gospel-oriented unity manifests itself in a church. That's the first thing I want to draw your attention to in verses 21 through 23, the glory of Christian community that is seen even in those greetings.

II. The goal of God's glory.

Secondly however, if you look at the doxology in verses 25 through 27, you'll see a concluding, indeed you'll see a climactic word of praise and glory from Paul. Here, Paul focuses us on the goal of God's glory and we with Paul need to be overwhelmed at the greatness of God. The greatness of God is at a discount in our generation. Man the sinner is big and God the Savior is small in our generation. Man is central. God is peripheral. Man is important. God is way down the list of important things in life in our culture today. And Paul is drawing our attention to the greatness of God in this doxology. And we, with Paul, need to be overwhelmed at the truth of the greatness of God.

Now let me, by the way, show you the difference between a benediction and a doxology by asking you to look at verses 24 through 27. The benediction is in verse 24. Paul normally will end his letters or somewhere close to the end of his letters with a benediction. The doxology is verses 25 and 26. I want to show you the distinction because people get these things confused. I've seen preachers that pronounce benedictions that are doxologies.

A benediction is from God to you. A doxology is from you to God. A benediction is towards God's people from God. A doxology is towards God from God's people. A benediction is when God blesses His people. A doxology is when His people bless God. A benediction is God's blessing on us. A doxology is our praise to God. But we often confuse those.

You see the benediction in verse 24. "The grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you all." That's the blessing from God to you. And then the doxology, the praise from you to God, and in this case the praise from Paul to God, comes in verses 25 through 27. "Now, to Him who is able…" So the focus is to God, it's to Him who is able. The benediction to us. The doxology to God.

Now let's break down this doxology into its four essential parts. There are four parts to this doxology. It is a praise to the mighty God. It is a praise to the wise God. It is a praise to Him through Jesus Christ. And it is a praise of glory, it is an inscription of glory to him. Let's look at it together. The first part you see in these words, "Now to him who is able." Those words show us the might of God. They show us the mighty God. They draw attention to the power of God, "Him who is able."

Now you may ask, "Able to what?" Well Paul tells you immediately. He is able to establish you, and that is vitally important in light of what Paul has been talking to us in this letter about. He's been talking to us about being established in the faith. He's been talking about us enduring and persevering in the faith. And Paul is saying that God is able to make us endure. He is able to establish us in the faith. The sight of the greatness of God, the sight of the goal of all things in His glory grounds us in assurance. We are comforted that we will be established, not because we have the ability to establish ourselves, but because God has the ability to establish us. And so Paul begins by praising God for His power.

Now, isn't it interesting, that here at the end the book in this final doxology, Paul is going back to themes which he had explored much earlier in the book. For instance, in Romans chapter 1, what did Paul say the gospel was? The power of God to salvation. Now what does he praise God for in the very last words of this book? For His power to establish us. And, by the way, he'll say explicitly, to establish us in the gospel.

He'll later on in this doxology praise God for His wisdom. Where had he talked about that before? Do you remember the doxology at the end of Romans 11, in which he praised God for the wisdom of His plan to bring both Jew and gentile into one kingdom? What does Paul praise God for here? His wisdom. And so we see Paul summing up great things in this book, in this final word of praise to God.

The only wise God. The wisdom of God is the second thing that we see in this doxology. Paul is acknowledging, and indeed glorying, in the wisdom of God's plan. That plan is set forth in verses 25 and 26. We are established according to preaching, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages past but is now manifested. In other words, Paul is saying that the gospel that he has proclaimed is about a redemptive event that God had been working on from eternity past, but had only revealed fully in Jesus Christ. Yes, the Scriptures of the prophets had witnessed to it, he makes that clear in verse 26, but, it had not fully been revealed, it couldn't fully be understood except in Jesus Christ. The people of God looked at Jesus Christ and they said, "Oh, now I understand what that passage in Isaiah 53 means. Now I understand what that passage in Jeremiah 31 means. Now I understand what psalm 118 and what psalm 110 and what psalm 2 means. Now that I see what God has done in Jesus Christ. Now I understand what the prophets were talking about." And Paul says, in this we see the wisdom of God revealed. This plan, we never would have guessed this plan. If you had asked somebody to sit down in the days of Abraham and say, "okay, now just explain it to me. What's the plan of God going to be?" nobody would have said "Well, here's how it's going to happen. God is going to send His only begotten Son into the world. He's going to be infleshed. He's going to die in our place. He's going to assume our guilt and our sin. He's going to bear that sin and guilt on our behalf. He's going to die. He's going to be buried. He's going to be raised again from the dead. He's going to ascend on high and He's going to take us with Him."

Well, nobody could have given you that kind of full disclosure of the gospel. The prophets, even as they wrote, Peter tells us, strained to see the truth that they were writing. It was beyond their full comprehension. Nobody would have guessed this plan. The wisdom of this plan is overwhelming. He is the only wise God. Calvin says, "If angels themselves regard the treasures of heavenly wisdom with wonder, then no human being can admire them enough." You can't be impressed too much with God's wisdom. And unless you are impressed with the wisdom of God, you will not be able to be confident in those experiences in your life where you scratch your head and you wonder, "What in the world is going on?" Because if you can't believe in the wisdom of God, as it is displayed in the plan of God, you won't be able to believe in the wisdom of God in your own life when the lights go out.

And so isn't it interesting that this very praise to God for His power and for His wisdom ends up establishing us in confidence and assurance, because when we realize that it is this great, and powerful, and wise God who is at work in the plan of salvation, and who is also at work in our lives, then we don't have to have the answers to all the questions in our lives. We just need to know that the wise and powerful is behind them, working them for our good, Romans 8:28 and following. And so even this doxology results in comforting and strengthening the people of God. Paul says that this praise is given to God through Jesus Christ, that is, through the mediation of Jesus Christ. And he says that this glory is God's glory, to Him be the glory forever.

Now, what's the believing response to that doxology at the end of Romans 16? Well, Paul actually has outlined for us the believing response. There are five parts to it. In the greetings we see that the right response to the doctrine of Romans is love for the brethren. That's one of the right responses to the doctrine that Paul has taught in this book. It's to love one another, it's to have real Christian community.

The second right response is prayer. Isn't it interesting that Paul ends this book in prayer. What is the right response to understandings the teaching of the word of God? To drop to your knees in prayer.

But not only prayer, but thirdly, praise. Not just prayer of intercession, not just prayer of supplication, not just prayer of asking God for something else, but for thanking God for what He's already given us. For adoring him for who he is. Paul ends this book with adoration. He ends this book with praise. And that's the right response to the doctrines that are set forth in the book of Romans.

Fourth right response, confidence. Him who is able to establish you. If your confidence is based on your ability to establish yourself here's some bad news. You're never going to be confident. But if your confidence is based upon the fact that you believe in the power of Him who is able to keep you from falling, then you can have confidence in this Christian life.

And of course the fifth and final response is consecration, living for the glory of God. To Him be the glory, forever, amen, Paul says. The whole goal of life is to glorify God.

How would you end the greatest theological treatise ever written? Paul ends it by emphasizing love for the brethren, prayer, praise, the confidence that the Christian can have in God, and consecration to work for His glory. Let me give you the rest of that Augustine quote that I didn't finish. At the end of The City of God, after 1100 pages and 22 chapters of wrestling with how God is at work in the world, Augustine says, "It may be too much for some, too little for others. Of both these groups I ask forgiveness. But of those for whom it is enough I would make this request, that they do not thank me but join with me in rendering thanks to God."

I think that is entirely consonant with the spirit of Paul at the end of Romans 16, and it is certainly consonant with my spirit as we come to the conclusion of this great study. May your response be to thank God for rendering to you the kind of great mercy that He has revealed in this great book.

Let us pray. Our lord and our God, we thank you for your greatness and for the greatness of your mercy. And we pray that this would result in us loving you and loving one another as Christians. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Table of Contents

ROMANS 9

The Righteousness of God For Salvation - Romans 9: 1-5

Can God's Promises Fail? - Romans 9: 6-13

Isn't It Unfair for God to Choose Some and Not Others? - Romans 9:14-18

How Can God Condemn If We Can't Resist His Will? - Romans 9:19-23

God's Purpose to Display His Mercy Against the Backdrop of Evil - Romans 9:22-29

Why Would Someone Reject Salvation? - Romans 9:30-33

ROMANS 10

The Two Ways of Righteousness - Romans 10:1-13

Faith Comes by Hearing - Romans 10:14-21

ROMANS 11

A Remnant Believes, Just as Promised - Romans 11:1-5

The Hardening of Israel - Romans 11:6-10

A Hardening for Mercy's Sake - Romans 11:11-16

A Warning Against Arrogance - Romans 11:17-22

All Israel Will Be Saved - Romans 11:23-27

A Glimpse Into the Decree - Romans 11:28-32

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder - Romans 11:33-36

ROMANS 12

A Call to Give Yourself to God - Romans 12:1-2

A Call to Humility and Service - Romans 12:3-8

A Call to Love and Other-centeredness - Romans 12:9-10

A Call to Diligence - Romans 12:11-16

A Call to Seek Peace - Romans 12:17-21

ROMANS 13

A Christian Response to the 2012 Elections - Romans 13:1-7

A Call to Fulfill the Law Through Love - Romans 13:8-10

A Call to Live in Light of the Coming End - Romans 13:11-14

ROMANS 14

A Warning Against Judging Brothers (1) - Romans 14:1-12

A Warning Against Judging Brothers (2) - Romans 14:1-12

On Christian Freedom - Romans 14:13-23

ROMANS 15

Accept One Another - Romans 15:7-13

The Goal of Paul's Mission - Romans 15:14-21

Our Concern, Desire, Purpose, and Fruit - Romans 15:22-29

A Call to Prayer - Romans 15:30-33

ROMANS 16

Phoebe and the Ministry of Women in the Early Church - Romans 16:1-2

Ministry in the Family of God - Romans 16:3-16

A Warning Against Schismatics and an Expression of Hope - Romans 16:17-20

Greeting to the Church and Glory to God - on Romans 16:21-27