I heard something that was said,
and I think it was by Brother Charlie Payne. I don't know for
sure, but nonetheless, it was by one that had some confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was going in. He was going
in to have a serious operation. And I think it was Brother Henry
Mayhan that was there talking to him before he was going in.
And Brother Henry asked him. So how do you feel? He said,
well, I feel fine. He said, you know, the way I
see it, he said the Lord will either heal me temporarily or
heal me completely. I was thinking about that passage. Brother Scott just read, who
healeth all our diseases for those in Christ. They're all
going to be healed, spiritual and physical. They're all going
to be, one day it will be all over. Let's take our Bibles and
turn to Romans 15. We are coming down to the latter
part of this 15th chapter, and there is one more chapter after
this. I have enjoyed this study. It
has been a profitable book of Romans. The Apostle Paul had revealed
why. We are to receive one another
as Christ also received us to the glory of God. That's Romans
15, 7. And here's a reason, verse 8,
and this is where we'll pick up today. It says, Now I say
that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. unto the
spiritual circumcision." That is, he was a minister of the
spiritual circumcised. For the truth of God to confirm,
that is, to make good on. We just looked a moment ago at
God who is truthful, faithful, going to make good. will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy." Now, you know what? Boy, here's a good word. If God is purposed to show mercy
to anybody, He's going to do it. And He's going to make good
on it. He's going to do it justly. He's fair. He's going to show
mercy to this sinner right here. I'm talking about this rebel
against God that deserves in myself. I deserve a whipping. There's no doubt about that.
I deserve a whipping. I deserve more than that. In
myself, I deserve death. How is He going to show mercy
to me? His Son made sin. Made what I am. Actually made
sin. There He was. Made sin. upon that cross. And God dealt
with him in exactly what I deserved. All that the Father had everlastingly
promised to show mercy to. He gave the Lord Jesus Christ
the responsibility. Now, you make good on it. You
make good. And He did. The government, the
perseverance of God's purpose to show mercy, the government,
the rule of. That's just what he's doing right
now. That's what he's doing right now. That's what he's always
done. He's ruling. He rules. He led us here this morning.
Why? Because he chose to show mercy, give us a heart. But here's another great revelation
found within the body of the spiritual circumcision. Verse
9, And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as
it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among
the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. Now, you know, though the
ministry of our Lord was generally limited to the elect Jews. The Old Testament contains the
evidence of the Gentiles interest. Here's the amazing thing. The
Old Testament had prophesied that God was going to show mercy
to Gentiles and the Jews and the Pharisees. I mean, they just absolutely
just didn't believe that God was going to show mercy to Gentiles.
It wasn't going to happen. Let's just stop just a minute
and realize something. We're Gentiles. We are Gentiles. I don't know. I don't know of
a Jew by nationality in here. I don't know. We're Gentiles. So this is concerning
us. I'm thankful. that Almighty God
saw fit to show mercy to some Gentiles. Psalm 18, 19, For this cause
I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy
name. The Old Testament revealed that
God was going to show mercy. to some Gentiles. Turn to Mark
7. Mark chapter 7. This is all the
Scriptures. We rejoice. A few moments ago,
I was talking to Brother Scott and I said, Brother Scott, won't
you read something that you'd like to read? He said, it's all
good. I said, that's right. It's all good. What are you going
to read? Mark chapter 7. I love this. This passage of Scripture just
shows the humility of one that God's given some understanding
to. It says, From thence he arose
and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, entered into
a house and would have had no man know it, but he could not
be hid. For a certain woman, whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came and fell
at his feet. And the woman was a Greek. She was a Gentile, Syrophoenician
by nature. She besought Him that He would
cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto
her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meet, not
fit, not appropriate to take the children's bread and to cast
it unto dogs. And she answered and said unto
Him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs unto the table eat of the children's
crumbs. And He said unto her, For this
saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone
out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. Mercy. Shoulder mercy. Kindness. But all the blessing of spiritual
mercy. You're sitting here this morning
and the Lord's given you a heart that rejoices. Thankful. Glad. I was glad David said,
I'm glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the
Lord. Who knows? God may speak to me today. I
was thankful, thankful, thankful. I woke up this morning early,
early, still half asleep and thought about the services today. And I remembered saying, Lord,
thank you. Thank you, first of all, that
you've given us another day, but thank you that I want to
be there. Thank you. If you didn't give
me a heart to be here, I wouldn't. I'd think of something else to
do. I'd find something else that interested me. I'd be doing only
you know what. Thank you that we've got another
time just to be mercy to this Gentile. This prophecy, though
the Lord said He was going to speak to the Gentiles, He Himself
didn't, but He did it through His people. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5.20, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead.
be you reconciled to God." Now, here's the amazing thing of that
Scripture. Paul said, we speak for Him. We're ambassadors. This is not
my Word. This is the Word of God. People
might say, you know, Marvin, you're hard. I don't think I'm
hard. You know, I just cannot. by the grace of God be anything
other than truthful. There's some of you sitting right
here, and if I tried to flour this thing over, sugarcoat it,
you'd know it in a heartbeat. You'd say, Marvin, you're not
being straightforward. You're not being truthful. You're
not telling us the way that things are. I don't want to be mean. I'm not trying to be mean. The
only way that you exhibit love is by truthfulness. Truthful. I mean, you know, you're being
truthful. You love. I've said this before.
I love your neighbor. I can tell you this. I know I
know of one pastor that I personally can tell you and Brother Scott
has loved this community. Love your neighbor. Love them. Love them. Why? Because over
50 years there was a place in Katy, West Virginia where you
could go. You could go. I'm telling you,
love was exhibited, you know. I'm not saying that men like
it. I'm not saying they like that. I'm just saying that love
is exhibited by truthfulness. We're ambassadors when we consider
the marvelous wonder of this truth. Christ, a minister, sent
of God to confirm the promises of God. He himself went to the
Jews. He sent his people. Paul said,
we're preaching to you. But here's the amazing thing,
too, that this message of reconciliation came from the offended party. Who offended who? Did God turn
his back on me? No. He told Adam in the day that
you in the day that you rebel against me, so the offended party,
the Lord God Himself, showed mercy to those who had fallen,
rebelled against Him in Adam. And here the Lord is set forth
to be the one who will show mercy and kindness and compassion,
one who provided the only remedy, and one who has established the
way of reconciliation. One way. One. Men will say, well, you know,
we're all we're all working together, you know, like a giant wheel.
And here's the you know, it's got spokes. You know, this one
says this is coming to the hub and this one says this. But we're
all coming to the hub. No, no, we're not. I told someone
the other day, I told him I said I can understand why men will
hear the message The straight and narrow message of God's salvation
in Christ only. And they say, you know what?
You're just too narrow minded. You're just arrogant, you know.
I can only be as truthful as this scripture is truthful. Is
this scripture arrogant? No. This scripture is the truth. This is the truth concerning
God Almighty. Well, knowing what the Lord would
reveal in time, he prophesied what the elect Gentiles would
do. Verse 10, back in Romans 15,
the scripture sets forth. It says, And again he saith,
Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. The Lord knew what His
people, the Gentiles, would do. Rejoice with them. You remember
when in Jericho there was a woman named Rahab, and God was going
to give Jericho over to the nation of Israel. What did they do? They came to that city and there
was a woman named Rahab. And Rahab, by the grace of God,
knew that God was going to give that city over to the Jews, over
to the nation of Israel. And she said to those spies,
when you come in here, would you show mercy to me and my family? He told them and said, yeah.
and hang this scarlet ribbon in the window. When they come
through, they said, we'll show mercy. And she did. That scarlet ribbon, that scarlet,
that type of Christ. There's the reason right there.
Showed mercy to that woman because of a promise. Boy, we'd go a
long way on that one. But nonetheless, this woman,
this woman Rahab, She associated herself with God's people, took
the people of God's side against her own people. Rejoice, ye Gentiles,
with the people, with His people. And again, verse 11, Praise the
Lord, all ye Gentiles, and Lord Him, all ye people. That's a
quote from Psalm 117. Rejoice. He calls upon all Ye
Gentiles, all the nations, all of you, all nations, rejoice,
praise the Lord, every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue,
all of you. None can praise Him for His sovereignty
unless they know Him as He is revealed by the Spirit of God. This is life eternal, that they
may know Thee. Do you know why you rejoice this
morning? You that rejoice in the Lord,
do you know why you rejoice? Because you know Him. You know Him. You know something. I know we know Him in part. I
understand. I agree. We prophesy in part. We see through that glass darkly,
as we said a moment ago. But I'm telling you, you still
know Him. You know Him. You believe and you say, Lord,
help my unbelief. You know Him. You know Him spiritually,
and you know Him by experience too. I mean, you actually do
believe Him. You believe that He's God. You
believe that He created all things. He orders all things. He saves
whom He will. And you just rejoice in it because
here's the bottom line. There's no burden on you. I mean, let me tell you where
my burden is. That's my burden. But salvation,
that's of the Lord. I can rejoice, be glad in Him. All men, they ought to praise
the Lord. They're commanded to. Acts 17.30 that says, The times
of this ignorance God winked at, but now commanded all men
everywhere to repent. That is, all nations. have heard the gospel. What that
means is Jew and Gentile. God has sent the gospel into
all the world. I was doing some studying for
the study we're doing in the book of Acts, and Paul was sent. And he would go and he'd raise
up, you know, by the Lord's bidding and power, raise up a church
and he'd go somewhere else. And God would raise up a pastor
and, you know, Paul would go. He had been sent to go, and God
gave him a heart to go into these Gentile nations, and he went
to all these places. Why? Because God had promised
he was going to send the gospel to them. And one day, God sent the gospel
to this place. I never cease to be amazed. Katy,
West Virginia. The place is, I'm telling you,
I don't know anything, but I'm telling you this place is no
different than any place else, but for the grace of God. Here's a place right here that
family a couple of weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, was here
over at Eastern Park. I talked to them this morning.
They said, well, we've got a CD and we're going to listen to
it. And I told them, I said, I'm so thankful that you have
each other. Be together. And they said, we want to get
back over there where you guys are. I said, come when you can.
Just let us know. We'll be here. You've got to
go where God's raised up a church. That's the way it is. Be there. Lord Him. Approve Him. Applaud
Him. Thank You. Praise Him. All ye people. Verse 12, And
again, Elisha saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, He that shall
rise to reign over the Gentiles in Him shall the Gentiles trust." Now, as we see the Apostle, he
gives another scripture of proof concerning God's mercy to the
Gentiles. This is the only foundation.
How do we know that God was going to show mercy to anybody He said
He was? He said He was. This morning
we're here together and we're preaching the Gospel. I know
this. If God is going to show mercy, He's going to do it by the proclamation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be truthful. I want
to be straightforward. I want to be honoring to the
Lord. I would pray peradventure. Paul
said peradventure. As I've said before, who knows?
It may be your son or daughter. Who knows? If you're convinced that this
is the only message that God's going to bless, then what else
is there to preach? What else is there to say? If I were to get on any other
subject, I am being so disrespectful to Him and to you and to myself. I'm just wasting time. God is
going to be merciful to His people, Jew and Gentile. Well, there's some here. There's
some. There's some Gentiles here. And
God promised in His Word. I'm standing on the authority
of God's Word. He's going to show mercy. And when you take your last breath, I'll tell you, the only thing
that's going to matter, what do you think about Christ? What you've acquired in this
world? My dad was a very encouraging,
faithful man. I was thankful for him. He worked
hard. That's one thing my dad taught
me. I told people, I tried to tell
my son this. I may not be able to teach you
anything other than the ethic of work. I teach you how to work. Meaning this, be reliable, be
honorable, show up, be there. Go out there and start a brick
job, be there. Start at 8 o'clock, 7 o'clock,
be there. Truthfully, he taught me the
ethic of work. He was a hard worker. He was
a faithful man. He worked hard. And he acquired stuff. A couple of years ago, the Lord
took him. You know what he left with? Nothing. As far as this world
is concerned, not one thing. But he left with a good confession. What else can you leave with?
What else is there? This morning, if God is pleased
to show mercy to any, it is because God chose to do so. May God bless
this message to our hearts. May He be honored. Christ glorified. Christ be praised for His namesake. Amen.