Thank you, Mark, for that soul, yesu, joy of man's desiring, one of the most beautiful and beloved of compositions. Would you take your Bible and turn with me now to Romans chapter 9. While you're looking down, I'm going to inadvertently remove my coat, so don't look up yet. Romans chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, will be our text today. Yes we are moving through Romans. This proves it. See, we're starting a new chapter today.
I think some of you thought that we were going to stay in Romans chapter 8 until the tribulation. Our text today begins a new section of the book of Romans. It says, 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 of sons, and 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. This begins a new section dealing with the nation of Israel and the fact that that nation rejected the righteousness which God offered to her. This text comes after the great statement at the end of chapter 8 dealing with God's unchanging eternal purpose for us and the security that we have as believers in Jesus Christ as far as our destiny is concerned.
And that's significant that it comes at this point because chapters 9, 10, and 11 are not parentheses as some commentators seem to think, but rather these chapters form an integral part of the Apostle Paul's argument. You see his thought process is this, we have been destined by God and are secure in that destiny to be just like Jesus Christ and to be heirs with him in his eternal kingdom. But Israel too was chosen and Israel too had promises and yet Israel was set aside by God in judgment.
What happened? Did God fail? Did God change his mind with Israel? If so, how do we know that God won't change his mind regarding us? Was God's purpose frustrated with Israel? If it was, then how do we know that God's purpose for us too will not be frustrated? You see at this point the Apostle Paul wants to underscore the character of God because it's at stake, at least in the minds of some people.
And so he talks about Israel and her rejection of the righteousness of God which he made available to that nation. In chapter 9 he looks at Israel's past and the election that she had of God. In chapter 10 he surveys the present situation of Israel, her rejection. And then in chapter 11 he moves to the future and talks about Israel's restoration to her destined purpose.
As we study these chapters you and I are going to discover that our security rests upon a God who is absolutely trustworthy because he is sovereign. As it says in chapter 11 verse 29, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. As the Apostle works his way into that theme, he begins in these five verses by sharing with us his own heart. He unveils a burdened heart. In verse 1 he explains to us the integrity of his burden. Paul says, I am telling the truth. I am not lying.
Paul was a man who could be trusted. And doesn't it seem rather strange to you that he would make a comment like this? I'm telling you the truth. I'm not lying. As a matter of fact, Paul had to say something like that many times in his letters. For example, in chapter 1 verse 9 of this very book he says, God is my witness. And he says that a number of times in his epistles. He says in 2 Corinthians 11, 10, the truth of Christ is in me. Galatians 1, 20, before God I am not lying.
Jesus, Timothy 2, 7, I am telling the truth. I am not lying. 2 Corinthians 11, 30, God knows that I am not lying. Why would the Apostle Paul have to over and over again assert his own integrity? It was because Satan did his utmost to undermine Paul's integrity in the minds of those people. You see he knows that if he can undermine the trustworthiness, the honesty, the integrity of the leadership, he can lead the people astray.
So there were Judaizers and there were other false teachers who went around saying Paul can't be trusted. He writes one way to you but when he's with you he's another way. He says he's coming for a visit but he hasn't showed up yet, has he? So you see in various ways they tried to attack Paul's integrity. And so he again and again asserted the fact that he could be trusted. Leadership has to be trusted. When leadership for some reason proves that it can't be, it needs to be replaced.
Leadership has to be trustworthy. And we as a people must guard ourselves against any tactic that Satan may use to wrongly get us to distrust our leaders. Satan constantly works that angle. Sad to say though that this whole idea of integrity is more rare today than many of us might like to think. The apostle Paul certifies the fact that he can be trusted by two statements that he uses in verse 1. He says, I am telling the truth in Christ.
He reminds them of his union with Jesus Christ that he's in Christ who said I am the way, the truth and the life. About whom it is said the truth is in Jesus. You see Paul is in union with one who is the truth. He's not going to be a liar. He is not going to exaggerate. He's not going to shade the truth in some way. He says I am speaking the truth as one who is united to Jesus Christ who is the truth. Furthermore he says I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.
So not only does he point to his union with Christ but to the witness of his conscience as certifications for his integrity. The conscience will either accuse or it will acquit. The apostle says that his conscience is under the control of the Holy Spirit and his conscience gave him a clean bill. It passed this statement as being truthful. It did not convict him. Paul's conscience was good. Is your conscience good?
My friend a good conscience is a rich treasure to be desired and to be kept as precious. In writing to Timothy the apostle says hold faith and a good conscience. Both are important. Frankly it's easier to keep the faith and to be evangelical than it is to keep a good conscience. Just look around you and see those who are evangelical and orthodox in doctrine but who in some ways have proven that their consciences are not very active.
We need a balance of both dear people because even though we may have sound doctrine if we have a weak conscience inevitably we will be led to false teaching. We will make shipwreck of the faith. So hold on to your faith, your doctrine, and hold on to a good conscience. Don't allow it to become seared by overriding it. Don't allow it to become inactive by ignoring it but rather listen to it and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through your conscience.
He did Paul. Paul says I'm telling you the truth. A couple of applications from verse 1. Have a genuine burden in your work for the Lord as did Paul. We are living in a day when people go through motions without any emotion. It is easy to preach a sermon without feeling it in the heart. It is easy to teach a Sunday school lesson without having its meaning down in one's own life. It's easy to get up and sing and make it a production instead of a ministry.
It's easy to witness out of a sense of obligation or guilt rather than a true burden of spirit. So in your work for the Lord have a genuine burden. As you see, God blesses the one who serves him with brokenness of heart. Is your heart broken? Do you have a burdened spirit for those that you minister to?
As you work in the nursery or as you help in a Sunday school class or as you go calling, as you witness to that person in the office or your neighbor across the fence in the backyard, does it really make any difference to you that there are results that God works or are you just going through the motions saying I'm working for the Lord? Paul had a burden about him and dear people we need burden today. We need burden in Grace Church Roseville in our work for God.
If we don't have it, our work doesn't amount to a hill of beans. And then the second application would be this. Conform your speech to the mold of honesty. Guard against exaggeration and hyperbole. Preachers are the greatest at this. How many did you have in church Sunday? Oh about a thousand. How many was it? Well about 800 and 77 let's say. But we're working toward a thousand. Just stretching the truth a little bit. How many sales did you make? Well, guard against exaggeration.
Guard against deceit. Guard against misrepresentation. Guard against shading the truth in some way so that you can get what you want. How easy it is to be dishonest and to write it off as being well so what. Especially in the day in which we live. When your parents say what time did you get in last night as if they didn't know. Where have you been? Who were you with? Be honest. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Let your word be your pledge.
I hear people from time to time who are frustrated even within our own church because they'll have a sign up list for something and 25 people maybe will sign up and 10 show up. And the other 15 people did not have the integrity to call up and say look I signed but I can't come because of. That's dishonest. We need the men and women whose word is our pledge. When we sign something or when we give our consent to something, mean it so that people can know we can be trusted.
It's part of Christian character. Is that application enough? Well, let's move ahead. The apostle Paul begins by talking about the integrity of his burden. He says I am telling you the truth, I am not lying. Then he tells us of the intensity of his burden, verses 2 and 3. He says I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. This is the same man who wrote rejoice in the Lord always. And yet he testifies I have great sorrow. Is that a contradiction? No, not at all.
For one can rejoice in the Lord and still have great sorrow as does Paul here. As he writes these words he reminds me of the Old Testament prophet whom? Who is the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, who prophesied to Judah when that nation was carried away. And again and again in his book you read of the tears he shed because of his burden for the people of God and the destruction of the temple in the city of Jerusalem. A weeping prophet. And here Paul is a weeping apostle.
Reminds me of the Lord Jesus Christ just a few days before his crucifixion when he came over the hill, the Mount of Olives, and saw the city of Jerusalem laid out before him there on that next hilltop. And he burst into tears and he said oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you like a mother hen does with her chicks but you would not. And then he told of judgment that was to come. And he wept, he wept. And Paul says here I have a great weight of sorrow.
Speaking about the grief in his mind he says I have continual heartache. And that may imply physical connotation there. That his grief, his sorrow affected him even physically. The death of his commitment was such that he could say in verse 3 I could wish that I myself were accursed. Separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren.
You see the apostle Paul is saying here if it were possible, and the way that he phrases is idiomatic, it's not something that's possible, but he says if I could, I could wish myself anathema, separated from Christ. That's impossible because in chapter 8 he's already said nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. But he said if it were possible I would be willing to, get this, he says I would be willing to go to hell.
To be separated from Jesus Christ to lose my salvation. If only that could bring my brethren to the Savior. In this he reminds me of Moses. Does he you? Exodus chapter 32, Moses came down from the mountain, here are the people of Israel, worshiping this golden calf, dancing naked before it, drunk, and his heart is grieved and God is angry. God threatens to destroy the nation and Moses goes before the Lord and pleads for them.
And part of his prayer for them, he says Lord, rather than destroying the nation, if you would do that then just blot me out of your book. See he was burdened for the people that God would spare them. Are you burdened for anything? Anything that really counts? I fear that so often our burdens are the involvements that we have in this life, the things we want to buy and the things we want to accomplish. I believe today that you and I need to judge our uncaring hearts dear people.
Hearts like many of us have are cause for us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. And I say that because how can it be that one who has been delivered from guilt and judgment for sin can then be thoughtless and careless and without burden for those in his family who are lost and his friends who are lost and those that he works with who are lost and strangers who are without the Savior. How can it make no difference to us if we are really saved?
Does it make any difference to you that a soul is in sin under the judgment of God and destined for hell? John Stuart Mill said, one person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who only have an interest. My fear is that too many of us only have an interest in the lost and not a conviction that they are bound for a Christless eternity and suffering. I condemn my own heart. I do not preach at you. I share with you this concern. How can our hearts be so cold and uncaring?
And yet when was the last time that you could honestly pray, God if it were possible I would go to hell if only that person could be saved? Who made that much difference to you recently? God I would be willing to give up my salvation if only you would move in the heart of that person.
When was the last time that you were at a high enough point around the Twin Cities that you were able to oversee your neighborhood or the metropolitan area and your heart was burdened because there are hundreds of thousands of people in the Twin Cities who have never heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ. A religious area, yes. A Christian area, no. Does it make any difference to you? Paul expresses here the intensity of a burden.
And then he shares with us the item of his burden, the focus of it. He says, I am burdened for the sake of my brethren, that is my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites. He does not call them Jews. That is a word that has racial and political connotation. Rather he calls them here Israelites, meaning the people of the covenant, God's people, God's Old Testament people, God's chosen ones, the Israelites.
He says they are my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh and they are in unbelief. He describes them further as the ones to whom belong the adoption as sons. Not many times, but a few times God calls Israel his sons. Deuteronomy 14.1, you are the sons of the Lord your God. That became the basis for all of his dealings with them, by the way. He says God chose them out to be called his sons. Furthermore, they had the advantage and the heritage of the glory.
That doesn't mean a lot to you and me because we've never seen it. The glory, that is the Shekinah, that visible luminous appearance of the presence of God. I believe it was the cloud that overshadowed them in the wilderness and the pillar of fire at night. I believe that it was that glory that manifested itself at the dedication of the tabernacle when it had been constructed and at the dedication of the temple, the Shekinah, the visible presence of the glory which dwelt in the Holy of Holies.
We'll talk more about that tonight. That was an advantage for them. Furthermore, they had the covenants, that is the agreements between God and Abraham and the nation of Israel, for example, the Palestinian covenant and David, the Davidic covenant. The covenants that God had established, agreements that he had established with them. That was their heritage. The Israelites also had the advantage of the giving of the law. That is Moses' experience in Mount Sinai.
The law was their boast according to chapter 2, 23 of Romans. They boasted in the law that was their most prized possession. He says, furthermore, the Israelites have had the temple service. Not the Greeks, not the Romans, the Israelites. They're the ones who had the priesthood, the sacrifices, the rituals, and they had the promises. God promised them the land of Palestine. He promised to make them a blessing to the world.
The promises here undoubtedly speak more directly though of the Messianic promises. Furthermore, he says that they had the advantage of the fathers. In verse 5 he says, whose are the fathers? In other words, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, they can boast of being relatives of those fathers. Finally, he comes to the Pinnacle in his list of eight benefits and privileges enjoyed by the Israelites. He says, from whom is the Christ?
Notice he doesn't say, as he did the fathers, whose is the Christ? He says, from whom is the Christ? The Christ does not belong to Israel. He belongs to the world, Jew and Gentile alike. But from them, physically, came the Christ. That is their blessing. And yet they were in unbelief. You know what this tells me? It tells me that privilege does not guarantee God's blessing. You better write that down in your heart, dear friend. Privilege does not guarantee God's blessing.
Obedience brings blessing. I say that because, and listen, you and I who are in Jesus Christ have far superior privileges than those which are listed here for the Israelites. Before we too roundly condemn them, we had better consider how we are using the advantages and privileges that we have. Just because we have every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ and the heavenlies does not mean that automatically, therefore, we are going to know blessing in this life.
It means it's available to us if we obey. If we believe. That hymn writer put it simply but accurately when he said, trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy or to be blessed in Jesus than to trust and obey. Does that summarize your life? Are you trusting? Are you obeying? As much as you understand the word of God, the will of God for your life, I'm sorry to tell you today that Israel failed.
Not that God completely wiped his hands of Israel as we shall see later, but Israel failed in unbelief and God judged her. That is a burden to Paul. It is a burden that Israel failed in her privileges, but as we come to the last part of verse 5, we see the real incentive of his burden, what really moved him. It was not just that Israel had failed to take advantage of what God had given her, but Israel had failed to receive her Christ.
He says, from whom is the Christ according to the flesh that is the long anticipated Redeemer, the anointed one, the one prophesied of throughout their Old Testament scriptures, the one that they longed for who would deliver them as a people when he came, they missed him. And who is he? He describes him as being the one who is over all. They didn't just miss another prophet. They didn't crucify just another good moral teacher.
They crucified the Christ who is over all in a position of absolute sovereignty over Jew and Gentile. Absolute sovereignty in judgment. You see the one to whom all judgment is committed, they had rejected. That is his burden. And he further says, he is God blessed forever. Strong statement of deity. Now there are some translations that change the punctuation here to what I think is an inferior interpretation. So there's kind of a doxology at the end.
But actually what Paul is affirming here is that the Christ is God who is blessed forever, praised, worshiped forever. You see the one who is the focus of all time, the one who is the object of all worship, Israel had rejected. And in rejecting that one, they had turned themselves to judgment. And you see that is the case with every person who rejects Jesus Christ. For any man or woman who rejects Jesus Christ does that to his own damnation.
If today you have rejected Jesus Christ as your savior and you're looking somewhere else, my friend you look in vain. And right now you are under the judgment of God. Your execution is coming. You say, oh listen preacher, I have never rejected Jesus Christ. I just haven't made up my mind yet. You see I'm not sure yet. The effect of that is just the same as rejection. For though you may not have made up your mind yet, you are still then under the judgment of God.
You are condemned already, John 3.36. And your execution is coming. A greater fear to me is that having grown up in a cultural kind of Christianity, some of us have only a superficial faith in Jesus Christ. Oh sure, we believe in Jesus Christ. Sure, I believe he's the son of God. Sure, I believe he died and rose again. I believe all that. But have you ever personally received him into your life as your Lord and savior? Has there been that relationship established with him that brings salvation?
That's the question. That's the question. To reject Jesus Christ is to turn away from any hope of salvation. Do not turn away any longer if that be your case today. Do not neglect any longer if that's your decision. Deepen that relationship beyond a superficial one to a personal, vital relationship with Christ. Do it today. Don't put it off any longer. Paul's burden was intense because of the fact that Israel had turned away from the only hope of her salvation.
My Christian brother, sister, what is your heart burdened with today? What are you burdened with that is going to make one whit of difference a hundred years from now when you're dead and buried? So you're burdened about your job, you're burdened about the new car that you want to buy or your home, you're burdened about this or that. What are you burdened with that counts for eternity? What is going to make a difference when you see Jesus Christ face to face? You see Paul was burdened for souls.
There's very little that we're going to take out of this world with us that will be in heaven with us. But one thing is people to whom we share, with whom we share our faith and who trust Jesus Christ. Are you burdened about that neighbor next door? God is looking today for people who will be burdened with eternal concerns. Or is your heart already overburdened with temporal concerns? Is all of your burden focused on things here and now and relationships now and possibilities and goals now?
May God help us. May God help us, dear people, in our cold and self-centeredness. May He help us to have concern, burden for the things that will matter forever. I fear that too many of us are not concerned about things that don't affect us directly. Unless my car breaks down, unless my home is broken into, unless my family member dies, when we live that way we are only reflecting the world around us. We are being conformed to the world. Our world is narcissistic, self-centered.
If it doesn't affect me, so what? How sadly that is influencing so many of us. It may not affect you at all, but my friend, if that person who pumps your gas goes to hell, is that not a tragedy? How do you measure that kind of loss? For what will a man or woman gain if he has the whole world and loses his soul? What about that attorney who works for you? What about that uncle? Who are you burdened for today? Who do you want to see get saved? Is there anybody? Anybody?
Let's bow together in prayer. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed as the Spirit of God penetrates our hearts with this point. The thing that God wants today, my friend, is a people who will be burdened with things that really matter. Will you confess the coldness of heart? The indifference that you may have? The lack of burden? Will you do that right now? I'm not going to ask you to lift your hand. I'm simply asking you to do business with God right where you're seated.
And then are you willing to pray, Lord, I am uncaring, but I'm willing to bear that burden. I want to be concerned about those things that concern you. How about it? Will you pray that way? Heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus' name that now one of your children will leave here today with a heart that remains calloused and uncaring and cold. But break our hearts, Lord. Break our hearts with those things that break your heart.
With that issue that broke Paul's heart, that there were those who had rejected the Christ, their only hope of salvation. May we give ourselves fully to you today, perhaps as never before, to see others come to faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.