Go with me if you would again
to Romans chapter nine. Romans nine. I want to just talk
to you about something that I pray will be deeply impressed on us
as a congregation. I have a message, but I want
to, from the heart, just talk to you about something.
It's something that is and it's something that should be a great
burden for a ministry. It is the responsibility of a
God-called ministry. But it's also the great blessing
of a God called ministry. And we'll see what it is in just
a minute. But my hope is that by the end of this, we see the
necessity of declaring the clear, plain truth to men and women. the necessity. We know that everybody
has a need, but may God enable us to tell people the plain,
plain truth. And Romans chapter 9 is a wonderful
place to be for that. This chapter does just that.
This chapter tells that clear, plain truth. I believe that When
many people read this chapter, those of you who know Romans
chapter 9, all you've got to do is say Romans chapter 9, and
believers who have read that go, oh yeah, Romans chapter 9. Many people, when they read this
chapter for the first time, they see it to be a very hard chapter. A very dogmatic and maybe even
brutal chapter. They read verses like verse 13. It says, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Verse 18 says, therefore, hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will, he hardness. That sounds harsh to the natural
flesh. The natural flesh reads that,
and it's not something that it's used to saying. These words though,
are the truth. These words are the truth. The Apostle Paul dogmatically,
and what that means is, it doesn't mean arrogantly at all. It just
means this is how it is. It's no other way. He dogmatically declared the
truth. The truth. But if we pay close
attention to what he said at the beginning of this chapter,
how he opened We'll see that every word of this was spoken
in sincere love. Sincere, sincere love. It's not hard at all. It's love. It was spoken with true compassion. Every word of this is coming
from a deep concern for lost souls. A deep, deep concern for
lost souls. Every word of this. Now, let's
see what he said. And let's see if the Lord will
teach us something in this and impress something on our hearts
concerning the ministry of the gospel. This is something we've
been called into. In verse one, he said, I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not. And that's a dogmatic statement.
And that's a statement that every man who is preaching God's word
can say. Every man, this Word is the ground,
the confidence, the foundation. It is so critical that we preach
the Word. So critical. Only what God has
written in His Word. These same things over and over
and over. Paul said, it's not at all grievous
for me to do that. because it's so safe for you. It's so safe. The only way that
we can know that we are preaching and believing the truth. I love
knowing that we preach and believe the truth. I love that. And the only way we can know
that is if we are preaching and believing the word. That's the
only way we can know that. So he said in verse one, I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost. Now hold your place right here
and look with me at 2 Peter chapter one. 2 Peter 1. Verse 12. Peter said, Wherefore I will
not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,
Though you know them and be established in the present truth. He said,
you already know these things and you're established in these
things. But he said, I will not be negligent to constantly remind
you of it. Verse 13. Yay. I think it meet
as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance. knowing that shortly I must put
off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath
showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that
you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in
remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him
from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy. He said even more sure
than that, than what we physically heard. We have the word of prophecy. Where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Paul and Peter and John and the
rest of the apostles, they were confirmed in and they were confirmed
by the Holy Ghost. God's Spirit confirmed to them. He bore witness to them that
the words they were writing were not their own words. You think
about that. These men were writing this down,
feeling it, thinking it, writing it, going and telling people,
these are not my words. These are the words of God. And
God's Spirit confirmed it to them. These are not our words.
This is the word of God. And the spirit of God confirms
that to the hearts of every single one of his people. It's confirmed to us, isn't it?
These are not Paul's words. These are not Peter's words are
not John's words. They are God's words. These are
safe words. These are true words. There is no lie in them. Not one lie. Not one error. They're perfect. They are perfect.
The Spirit has borne that witness to our hearts, and we're confirmed
in it. All right? These are God's words.
So go with me back to Romans 9. Verse one says, I say the truth
in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the
Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow
in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh. Paul had great heaviness and
continual sorrow in his heart over the souls of men and women
that he knew were lost. Now this is what I pray the Lord
will impress on us. Before I was called to be pastor
here, I used to travel a lot like men do. Fill in, you fill
in for places who their pastor's out of town or they don't have
a pastor. And I traveled one Sunday to a very dear congregation
of people. And a dear brother who had been
there for a long time, decades and decades, he was presiding
over the service. He was making the announcements,
reading the scripture, leading in prayer. And in his prayer,
he cried, Lord, give us a greater concern for men's souls. And that has become embedded
in my brain. I've told you this many times.
But that has become embedded in my brain. When a man is called
to be a pastor, I believe that's part of it. I really do. Now,
the Lord doesn't just do that for pastors. The man who said
that was not a pastor. That's definitely a part of being
called to be a pastor. I believe God gives a concern
for men's souls. And I know you have it too. Thinking
about it though from my viewpoint, from where I stand, it's what
makes a man willing to open himself up to persecution and tribulation
for the truth's sake, that deep, deep burden, that concern over
men's souls. It becomes real to you that we're
not just dealing with who's right and wrong. Well, it's better
to be right than to be wrong. We're dealing with life and death. We're dealing with eternal matters.
We're not dealing like a doctor would in surgery. Well, can we
keep him alive for a couple more years? I mean, we're talking
eternity. And it just becomes so overwhelming. You think about these things
as you study and preach God's word, it's the driving force
of the heart to get the gospel out there. and not hide what
we have under a bushel. Well, let's just preach it in
the quiet of our own building. No, don't hide it under a bushel. You know that you're not going
to be popular for preaching the truth's sake. Popularity is over. Those days are over. In most
cases, you're not going to be liked. You're going to come into
places and people are not going to be happy to see you. But you also know that it's the
means that God has chosen to pull His people out of darkness
into His marvelous light. This amazing means. Preaching the Word. Just standing
up and preaching the Word. This is the only hope that lost
men have. I don't, I'm just a man. I don't have any, there's nothing
special about me. I've said so many times, the
Lord used a donkey one time in the scripture to preach the gospel.
He can use anything, not just anybody, but anything. But it
just hits me that what we are doing right now, this is the
power of God unto salvation. Just what we're doing right now.
This is what God uses to call his people out of blindness and
deafness and darkness into his light, into his truth. I think about people that I know
who don't know Christ. And I'm telling you, I hurt for
them. I honestly do. I sincerely hurt for them. Most of them are religious. Most
of them are very pleasant, very pleasant people, but they don't
know Christ. They don't know Christ. They
know religion. They know some things about religion, but they
don't know Christ. Paul said right here concerning
these same type of people in verse four, he said, who are
Israelites? to whom pertaineth the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises. What he's saying is we all come
from the same lump. All of us. They're just as much
a part of the lump as I am. The adoption of God's children
came from sinners just like they are. I'm a sinner just like they
are. Paul said they saw the glory.
You know, they saw on Mount Sinai, they saw the fire. They saw the
glory in the temple. They saw the pillar of fire,
the pillar of smoke. They received the 10 commandments
too, the law. They go through the motions of
the service of God. I was up early this morning.
And a lot of times I'll wake up first thing and drink a cup
of coffee before I start studying. And early in the morning is when
everybody over in England and Ireland and all that is on sermon
audio, having their services. And I watched quite a few men,
sometimes I'll do that. And I didn't hear the gospel
one time. One time. And they'll pan the
camera on the large crowds of people And I was thinking they're going
through the same service we're going through. Here we are at
a service. We're doing our service, presenting ourselves before the
Lord. And they're not hearing one stitch of gospel. Not one stitch, and my heart
just went out to them. They all hold the same promises
we hold. They're walking around with the
same word we're walking around with. I think about people I
know, they're so faithful. They're so faithful to their
religion, faithful to things, but they don't know anything
of the saving knowledge of Christ. And I want so desperately, and
I say this in humility, but I want so desperately to stop them.
Just stop them and say, listen, you're trusting lies. You're trusting lies. You're looking to everything
you're looking to for salvation is a lie. It's empty. It's not
going to save you. In the end, it's going to damn
you. This man you're listening to,
I know you like him, but he's preaching lies. People say, well, one religion
is as good as another. No, one religion is not as good
as another. One message is not as good as
another. The truth is hard to find. Few there be that find it, dig
for it, search for it, beg for it. Now, I just, I pray that
God will take the blinders off and wake men up. Caused them
to see, I'm about to go meet God. Opened their eyes to the
word. I wish most of all that I could
make men and women care. Men and women don't care. But
it hit me and I wrote it down that I can't even make myself
care. I was all passionate for a moment
thinking, I just wish I could make men and women care. Then
it hit me, I can't even make myself care. God has to do that. God has to do that. But this
continual burden, you prepare messages and they're coming from
a burden that God lays on your heart to tell people something.
That's where they come from. It's something that is so, so
serious. And I know you have the same
burden. I'm not telling you something that you don't have. We all have
mentioned so many times, we talk about these children. I want
Christ to know these children. This morning, we read it so many
times, the Lord said, depart from me, I never knew you. Now
we know what that means. He's sovereign and all-knowing.
We know what that means. I want Christ to know these children.
I want these children to know Christ, and I want Christ to
know these children. And I think that I have a great
burden for that right now because I have two of them. That's why
it's so fervently on my mind. I have two young children and
this is my prayer for you. This is my prayer for all of
you. It's that after my two children
are grown, I may never lose that burden to say, children, you
only have one hope. We're not promised tomorrow.
I don't care how young you are. You only have one hope. You have
to be in Christ. And if you don't know what that
means, ask God. If you don't know what that means,
ask God. Say, call Him Lord. When you
talk to Him, say, Lord, what does it mean to be in Christ? Will you teach me that? Ask Him
that. Will you teach me what it means to be in Christ? And
will you put me there? And I would encourage us adults
to say the same thing. When God calls us to salvation,
he calls us to Christ and he calls us to a heart to minister
Christ. A heart for the ministry of Christ. We have a lot of people are out
there ministering for their church. They're ministering for their
numbers. They're ministering for their
accounts. They're ministering. When God
brings a sinner to Christ, he has a heart to minister Christ. And we tell people, I say it
all the time, you don't, you know, people will call and I
don't have much money or they'll call and request a CD. I don't,
I'll try to get you what I can. You don't need any money here.
We don't need your money. This is free. This is all free. Well, I don't have the proper
clothes. I don't care what you have. You just come. We're here to minister Christ.
We've been given the ministry of preaching the gospel of reconciliation
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been called to
be ambassadors for Christ. And that is just a fearful thing
to say to me. That's just so humbling. Verse 18 is the absolute truth. It says, therefore, hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy and whom he will, he hardened. God
is absolutely sovereign over these things. He's sovereign
over who he will save. Only his chosen people will believe
the gospel of his reconciliation. Only His chosen people will receive
the light in the light of Christ. Only the ones He's purposed to
save. But the preaching of the gospel is the means that He will
use to call them out. It is the means. And I'm so thankful
for every avenue He's given us. I am so thankful. for every avenue
he's given us. And I honestly want to say that
I'm so thankful to you for supporting the gospel. I am so thankful. We are in this together. We're
all in this together. Thank you for giving your money.
Thank you. Thank you for giving your time.
Thank you for everything you do. I pray this gospel might
end up in every house in Kingsport. The Lord has opened up that avenue.
I pray the gospel might go. I don't know that the Lord will
save out of every house in Kingsport, but I pray that the gospel might
go to every house in Kingsport. I pray that we might never have
a heart that cries us for and no more, whether in pride or
whether in sorrow. It's just us, like Elijah said,
I'm the last one. May that never come to us. May
God save souls. May the lost be found. May the blind see. May the deaf
hear. May the dead live. And here's the thing we always
need to remember. He did it for us. He can do it for anybody. If he did it for us, he can do
it for anybody. Now, Paul said something in verse
three. that I thought about, I was asking
myself if I could say it with him, and sadly the answer is
no. I am too afraid. I'm too afraid. I'm too weak. I understand what he was saying
right here, but I just can't say it with him. Verse three,
he said, I could wish that myself were a curse. And if you look
at your center margin, it says separated. I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. He said, I could wish that I
was cursed by God as a substitute for them so that they wouldn't
be separated, wouldn't be cursed. He said, I could wish that. But
the fact is he knew he could not be that. Paul knew that,
he knew that he could not be a substitute for sinners. And the reason is because he
knew he was a sinner himself. He said in Romans 7, I'm a wretched
man. In 1 Timothy 1, he said, I'm
the chief sinner. And if one sinner tries to be
the substitute for another sinner, all you have is two sinners on
your hands. And if I trade my sins for your
sins, we're both just still gonna have to die in our sins. But
Paul, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, God's Holy
Spirit moved him. And in doing so, he was spiritually
pointing us to the one who actually could and actually did. One man, our hope, our only hope,
wished himself to be cursed for his brethren, as a substitute
for his brethren, according to the flesh. Who was it? Verse five says, whose are the
fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is
over all, God blessed forever. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who came and did something for his lost brethren. And here's
why he did it. It's because he had great heaviness
and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren who were lost,
they were blind, they were dead in sin. For them, because his
heart was so for them. because his concern for their
lost state was so great and because the ministry of reconciliation
had been given by his father to him. He actually wished himself
and he made himself to be cursed for his people. Look with me
at Mark 15. Mark 15 verse 24 it says, And
when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting
lots upon them, what every man should take. And it was the third
hour, and they crucified Him. And the superscription of His
accusation was written over, the King of the Jews. And with
Him they crucified two thieves, the one on His right hand and
the other on His left. And the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. And they
that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying,
ah, thou that destroy us the temple and build us it in three
days, save thyself and come down from the cross. Likewise, also
the chief priest mocking said among themselves with the scribes. And I love this. They thought
they were mocking Him. That's what they were, in their
heart, trying to do. They were actually declaring
the glory of His substitution. This is what they cried. He saved
others. In their mocking of Him, they
cried, He saved others. Himself, He cannot save. He cannot save Himself. Why? because He saved others. That's
the reason why. They needed a substitute to take
their cursed place so they could be redeemed from it. And that's
exactly what He did. Look with me at Galatians 3 verse
13. Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now every soul that Christ did
this for, God's Spirit is going to notify them of it. Every soul,
God's Spirit will bear witness to them. And He will do that
through the preaching of the gospel of Christ. And for every
person that we are burdened over, I have people that I am burdened
over, and I know that you have people that you are burdened
over. I know you are. Burdened over their lost state.
The Lord knows those who are His. He does. Only He knows whether
He's purposed to save the one we're burdened over or not. I
may be burdened over them, but I know that it's in His hands. Only He knows whether He's going
to save that person. But if He has burdened us to
get the gospel to them, there may be a reason for that. If
I can't get this person out of my mind, There may be a reason
for that. As long as there is breath in
a person, there's hope. As long as there's breath, there's
hope. Let's preach the gospel. Let's
be a preaching congregation of people. You say, well I don't
preach. Oh yes you do. Listen to that. You'll like that. Doesn't have to be me. Get somebody
that you know is preaching the gospel. Let's deliver the gospel. When I was called to preach,
I was called to deliver the gospel. As a congregation, let's preach
the gospel. Let's deliver the gospel. Let's
beg the Lord to give us more fervency in it with every year
that goes by. This year, you know, we're in
January. With this year, the Lord has
opened up so many wonderful opportunities for us. Maybe by the end of this
year, we'll be in another building and there'll be more seats, just in case somebody comes.
But with every year that goes by, may the Lord give us more
fervency. to preach this gospel and deliver
this gospel. Lord, give us a greater concern
for men's souls. A greater concern, a greater
fervency for the gospel. And Lord, would you bless it
according to your will. As we, all we're doing is throwing
seed. That's all we're doing. Lord,
would you bless it according to your will. Not our will, Thine
be done. But according to your will, call
out your people and have mercy for Christ's sake. All right,
let's all stand together.