There are two things very prominent
in our text, which I read to you a few moments ago, that I
believe most people are totally ignorant of. The first is that of a Gentile. We read in the scripture about
Gentiles. They're mentioned in the Old
Testament. They're mentioned in the New Testament. Sometimes
he calls a certain sect of the Gentiles, he'll use the word
Greek. To the Greeks, it's foolishness. So I want to try to answer these
questions at the beginning of this message, what is a Gentile? The other word that we run into
here in our text is the word circumcision or circumcised. And why are these people mentioned
in this wonderful admonition of grace? Why does he mention
Gentiles and then talks about Christ ministering to the circumcision? What do they have to do with
the ministry of Christ and the ministry of his apostles? Well, this word Gentile is interchangeable
with the word heathen. When you read that word Gentile,
he's talking about heathens, heathens. Now, the minute I say
heathen, what's the first thing popped in your mind? I used to
watch these films, one of the big insurance companies had these
films and they were always over there in Africa and they'd go
up to this tribe over there in Africa and these guys would have
bones in their noses and they're dressed with a little loincloth
and they're dancing around naked out in this jungle, heathen. Isn't that what you think about
when you think about heathen? It's interchangeable. This word
Gentile is interchangeable with the words heathen. You often
see it substituted and it's the very same word in the Old Testament
as the word heathen is the word Gentile in a lot of cases. It's also interchangeable with
the word ignorant. These heathens are ignorant. It's interchangeable with non-elect,
those who are not the elect of God. And it's also interchangeable
with idolatrous nations. In Ephesians 2.11, Paul tells
the Ephesians to remember that in time past they were Gentiles
in the flesh. Now he's going to describe for
us what a Gentile is. Now listen, They called by the
circumcision, they're called uncircumcision. So whenever you
read in scriptures where he's talking about the uncircumcision,
he's talking about Gentiles. He tells them that's what they
were. You were called uncircumcision, and at that time you were without
Christ. Now wait a minute, Christ is
eternal. How were they without Christ? Because these people
eventually become believers. Well, that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about in their minds
and in their religion, they had no appointed savior or redeemer. That's what he's talking about. At least not prophesied by God. And so these Gentiles, he tells
us, were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. Anybody who's not
an Israelite is a Gentile. At that time, you were aliens
from the Commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise. God didn't, all his covenant
promises was to Israel. I didn't make any covenant promises
to the Gentile. Made it to Israel. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise and you had no hope. That is no hope set before you
by God. You had no hope. You had refuge
that you built for yourself. You had a hiding place that you
built for yourself, but you didn't have a hope given to you, set
before you by God. And you were without God in the
world. That is, you had no knowledge
of the true and living God. You had your superstitions. You
had all kinds of things, but you had no true knowledge of
God. And you were left, according
to Ephesians 4 and verse 17, to walk in the vanity of your
minds. Your religion was a vain thing
in your mind. And you walked by that. You rejoiced
in that. You gathered yourselves together
and you worshiped in the vanity of your mind. You lived out your
days in the vanity of your mind. You justified what you did in
the vanity of your mind. Darkness, aliens from God, filled
with darkness through the ignorance that's in them. And in short,
a Gentile is a heathen idolater. And anybody who's not a true
Jew is a Gentile. All right, preacher, so what
does a Gentile's relationship to God have to do with us and
our relationship to God? Well, it's got everything to
do with it. We're Gentiles. Aren't we? I'm not a Jew. I wasn't born
over there. I don't... Huh? We're Gentiles. This has everything to do, we're
heathens. We were raised hearing nothing
but idolatry. Now, maybe with the exception
of a few. Some of you, by the mercy of
God, may have been raised in great churches and you heard
the truth, but most of us didn't. Most of us was born and raised
in idolatry, that's all we've ever known. I never knew anything
else except walking down an aisle. I never heard anything except
the free will of man. I never heard anything but decisionism. I never heard anything except
God does what you let him do. That's all I'd ever heard. That's
all I'd ever known. We're Gentiles. We're raised
knowing nothing but idolatry. Raised in total ignorance of
the covenants of promise. I didn't know what a covenant
was until Henry Mahan got in the pulpit and taught me what
it was. I didn't know anything about covenants. Did you learn
about covenants? No. I didn't have anything to
say about covenants. We were raised believing in a
false god. God who was willing to compromise
to save the sinner. That's not God. That's not the
God of this Bible. And if he's not the God of this
Bible, he's not God. So what's that make him? That
makes him an idol. He's a figure of your imagination. That's an
idol. We're born heathens. And there's
not one person I've ever had an occasion to talk to who was
willing to say that they were a heathen. Well, I ain't always done the
right thing. But one thing I can say, they
all got one thing, one thing. I'm not as bad as he is. Alcohol
never touched his lips, that's what one man told me. I told
him he probably ought to get a drink then. I figured he needed
one. Not one that I ever talked to
that God has allowed me to talk to and have a conversation with
about God would ever own up to being a heathen. And throughout the Old Testament
economy, Gentiles were considered by the Jews as enemies of God.
You ever had anybody fess up they were enemies of God? God,
I don't hate God. Why you saying I hate God? We
don't hate God. We love God. That's what the
Jews said. Christ said you love your God.
If you love God, you love me. I proceeded and came forth from
God. You're of your father the devil. Listen to this verse over in
Colossians 1 verse 21. And you, and you, he said, that
were sometime alienated, You weren't a Jew, you was a foreigner,
you were alienated. And enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. The Jews under the Old Testament
economy were forbidden to take a spouse from the Gentiles. God said, if you take husbands
and wives of the Gentiles, they'll turn your heart from serving
the true and living God, and they'll have you taking place
in their worship of idols. That's exactly what happened
to Solomon. His wives turned his heart from God. Now the reality of the New Testament
is that there's no spiritual difference between the Jew and
the Gentile because it has before been proven that they're all
under sin. They're all born in darkness.
They're all born in ignorance. There's no difference. Romans
3, 9 through 23. The righteousness of God which
is by faith of Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that
believe for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Jew or Gentile. And this is a doctrine that the
devout Jew could never swallow. That being born of Abraham did
not make him the elect of God. He just could not swallow that.
He had a foot up on everybody. He had a foothold. He had a refuge. He had a covenant. He had this
and he had that. Turn with me to Romans chapter
9. In Romans 9 verse 1, Paul said, 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, 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, whose are the fathers, these
are the prophets, and of whom, as concerning the
flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Not
as though the word of God is taken on effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel. Are you listening? Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. What's that mean? Well, read
verse eight. That is, They which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed. In Galatians 3.26,
Paul tells us that ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. And in Christ, there's neither
Jew nor Greek. There's no Jew or Gentile in
Christ. We're all Jews in Christ. We're all Israelites in Christ.
In Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond
nor free. There's not even male or female. You're all one in
Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and your heirs according to the promise. So
Paul, who at one time hated both Gentiles and believers, now understands
the mystery, and by divine inspiration, he has no equal in the teaching
of it. You want to learn something about
Jews and true Israel, you read Paul's writing. Nobody in there
can hold a candle to him. Verses 9 through 12 of Romans
15, Paul quotes several Old Testament scriptures concerning the salvation
of the Gentiles. In verse 9 is a quote from Psalm
chapter 18 and verse 49. Verse 10 is a quotation from
Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 43. In verse 11, this is Psalm
117.1, and verse 12 from Isaiah chapter
11 and verse 10. And Paul quotes these verses
to assure the Roman believers that their salvation was according
to the purpose of God from the very beginning and that there
is a harmony between the promises of God to Israel and true believers. That's what he's telling us when
he talks about Gentiles and circumcision and so on. He's showing us that
there is a harmony and that that harmony existed long before the
coming of Christ. The nation of Israel was established
by God and maintained for thousands of years to establish the sovereign
election of God and his effectual purpose of grace. And he establishes
it over and over and over all through the Old Testament. And
if you ask the average person, you just find somebody on the
street and you say, What's the significance of the Jews? He's
God's elect. Huh? Did God establish that?
You bet He did. Even our senators and presidents
have said it on national TV. This is God's elect. This is
God's elect. We're not going to go against
Him. You do what you want to, but we're not going against Him.
God established that concerning the nation of Israel. Then in
the New Testament, he tells us who true Israel is. They're believing
saints. And they're the elect of God. So he quotes these scriptures
here and these verses here in Romans to show them that their
salvation was according to the purpose of God from the very
beginning. how did all these things happen? God purposed it to be done, willed
it to be done, and it was done. That's right. God did these things. And there's
another word here that we don't talk about much, circumcision. Israelites were all commanded
of God to be circumcised, which circumcision binded them to the
keeping of the law. In Colossians 2.11, telling us
of our total completeness in Christ, Paul says, in whom also
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting
off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. All believers are circumcised
in Christ. Is that right? Just as he was
the fulfillment of all the Sabbath days, he is the fulfillment of
circumcision. Everything required of God for
that believer was fulfilled in Christ. Everything God demanded
from the sinner, he fulfilled himself. He's the head of the
body of the church, and we're one in him, and we're all circumcised
in him. In Luke chapter 2 verse 21, he
tells us when the eight days were accomplished for the circumcision
of the child, his name was called Jesus. He submitted himself to
circumcision because he's our head and representative. And we're not only circumcised
in him as our representative, but we also kept the whole law
through him. in its perfection and now have
a righteousness acceptable of God. And there's also mentioned here
in Colossians a circumcision of the heart. You know back in
Romans chapter 2 verse 29 Paul says he is a Jew which is one
inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart and in the
spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but
of God. God the Holy Spirit circumcises
the believer in his heart. What's that mean? That has to
do with, it's a mysterious work, but this has to do with when
God the Holy Ghost comes in you and makes you new. Makes you
new, makes you different from everybody else. Convinces you
of sin. While other men are hesitant
to call themselves heathen to believers, well sure I'm a heathen. Huh? This guy's vehemently denying
that he's a heathen and here's a believer he's saying absolutely
I'm a heathen. There's a difference isn't there?
Sure there is. Sure there is. God the Holy Spirit circumcises
the believer. It's an inward cutting of the
heart. It has to do with the convincing of sin. Has to do
then with an imputed righteousness and a renewing of the mind and
heart to serve the true and living God. And he serves him with the
mind of Christ. In Philippians chapter three
and verse three, Paul says, we are the circumcision. Now listen
to this, which worship God. You come in here on Sunday morning
and we talk about these things and as I'm preaching to you here
this morning, can you worship God? You will if you're circumcised
by God. You can't help it. You start
talking about the things of Christ and the heart is raised up and
the heart and the mind begin to praise God for those things.
They're thankful to God for those things. We're able to pray to
God for those things and give Him thanks. Why? Because we're
circumcised. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. That is, we now see him revealed
in Christ, glorified in his person and work. And then it says we
worship God in the spirit. That's what that means. The Spirit
of God reveals to us who Christ is. And then he tells us that
we are the circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus. I tell you, I saw Georgia Faye
stretched out on that bed and saw the pain and the suffering
and she was bruised, her arms was just purple at both sides.
And I rejoiced. Oh, I rejoiced in Christ. In Christ. What are those who
are in that shape who don't know Christ, who don't know God? Huh? I know rejoicing. I know rejoicing. Everybody's
sad. Everybody... Let me tell you
something. She getting ready to step off
into glory, and I knew it. And she knew it. I tell you, don't wait till that
time to call me to give you comfort. I'm giving you to the best of
my ability what comfort I have to give. There's no comfort apart
from Christ. I'm going to hold your hand and
you can squeeze my hand and you can say things to me, but I can't
give you what you need. You get what you need right now
from what I'm telling you and from the Holy Spirit of God.
That's where that comfort comes from. And even when you're suffering,
and even when you can't hardly know what's going on, you'll
know that. You'll know it in your heart. Oh, we're the circumcision. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus. And then the third thing that
I know about true circumcision, that man has no confidence in
the flesh. He's X'd off the flesh. I'm not
saying he don't sin. That's not what I'm telling you.
I'm just saying he ain't got incompetence in the flesh. He
knows what a wretched man that I am, Paul said. You think he
had incompetence in the flesh? No. None. Paul said, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now, are we clear
about who the Gentiles are and what this thing of circumcision
is? Now, Paul goes on to say here
in Romans 15, 12, he said, Isaiah said, there shall
be a root of Jesse in he that shall rise to reign over the
Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Now let's take a look here just
briefly at these things that Paul sang to these Gentile believers. And I hope by this that you and
I might be filled with the same hope through the same power of
the same spirit. I wanna start where Paul did. He looked to the prophets concerning
this man Jesus of Nazareth. Now we were raised talking about
Jesus. We knew he was born in Bethlehem.
We knew all the facts about him. He was born in Bethlehem. The
angels attended his birth. The wise men came. The star bowed
over the, we knew all of that. We knew that Jesus was a Savior,
but we didn't know what Savior meant. We knew he was the Messiah. We used that word Messiah in
false religion, but we didn't know what the Messiah was. We
didn't know who he was, and why he came, and what he did, and
where he's at. We didn't know all that. We just knew the name
Jesus, and we said that name often, Jesus. We didn't use the
word Lord a whole lot, but we did use the name Jesus. Well, the Bible is a book of
promise and hope for sinners. And all of its hopes and promises
are pinned to a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that right? It's filled. It has promises
back in Genesis. It has promises in Exodus. It
has promises all the way through. Promise after promise after promise.
But every promise is pinned to a person, and that person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody said one time, I think
it was Brother Mahan, he said the Old Testament just tells
us over and over, somebody's coming. Somebody's coming. He's gonna be this, and he's
gonna be that, and he's gonna be the seed of Jesse, he's gonna
be a root out of dry ground, he's gonna be virgin born, he's
gonna be the king, he's gonna be a prophet, he's gonna be a
priest. Somebody's coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
tell us somebody came. Somebody came. And he fulfilled
all that the prophets wrote of him. And then comes the book
of Acts all the way through the book of Revelation of Jesus Christ. And he tells us somebody's coming
back. Now that's the message of the Bible. And all of these
promises are pinned to him. They're pinned to him. There's one foretold by Moses,
David, Isaiah. He said, shall the Gentiles trust. Now I'm going to tell you something.
The gospel is not a plan. I get so sick of hearing people
talk about the plan of salvation. The gospel is not a plan and
it's not a policy. You don't... I'm telling you,
people who don't even say it really believe it. They walk down an aisle, or they
make a decision, or they even might mimic salvation by grace. But they got no interest in anything.
They got no interest in worship. They got no interest in serving
God. They got no interest in anything
else. It's just a policy. It's an insurance policy. I did
what the Bible said, and I put it up here on the shelf, and
when I need it, I can run and get it. I beg your pardon. The gospel is not a policy and
it's not a plan. The gospel is a person. It is
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord. And if Jesus of Nazareth
is not the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament prophets
said he was, then he's not the Christ and there's no salvation
in him. That's how critical these Old
Testament prophecies are. Through him, both Jew and Gentile
have access by one spirit unto the Father. No man, Christ said, cometh unto
the Father but by me. Both Jews murmured. He said,
don't murmur. He said, nobody can come unto
me except my Father draw him. This one foretold by Moses and
David and Isaiah, he said, shall the Gentiles trust. All right.
Secondly, our hope is built upon him that shall rise to reign. Did you catch that when I read
that verse a while ago? In Romans 15, in verse 12. He shall rise to reign over the
Gentiles. What he did, what Jesus of Nazareth
did, would be of little effect if he did not have the power
to bring it to pass. What I say to you is absolutely
powerless apart from the working of the Spirit of God. Any little thing I say is sufficient
to turn your heart inside out if the Spirit of God is pleased
to bless it. He can take the simplest things
and convert a man in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus Christ rose from the
dead, he ascended to sit at his father's right hand. And before
he left, he told his disciples, he said, all power in heaven
and earth given unto me. I possess it. I have right to
it. I purchased this, I fulfilled
this and God in blessing me and accepting me is exalting me to
his throne and he's given me power over all flesh that I should
give eternal life to as many as he has given me. And I'm telling you, this is
where true hope is born in the sovereign, reigning King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, the blessed and only potentate, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And no hope for sinners based
upon their power and strength. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. That's what you can do, nothing. Read all you wanna
read, hear all you wanna hear. You can't do anything without
him. You're powerless. Men love to talk about their
free will and their will and their rights to choose and abilities
to do this, but the minute things get out of control, who do they
pray to? The sovereign Christ. You can fix it. You can fix it. You can make me whole. Why don't you live your life that
way? Why do you want to wait until everything is upside down
and then run to Him? He shall rise to reign. And when
he rose from the dead, he did reign, and he does reign. Now his reign, in keeping to
the context of the verse here, has to do with the reign of grace. He reigns over the dead and the
living. He gang over everybody. And he does according to his
will among everybody. But he especially reigns over
Israel. It is the saving rule of the
resurrected Redeemer. He talks about it over in the
Psalms. He said, God has set his king upon his holy hill of
Zion. That's his church. And I'm going to tell you something.
They love him as king. I wouldn't have him in any other
capacity. He king. What a mess would things be if
they was in my hands? I can't even manage my own affairs.
I get things tangled up sometimes. I can hardly see my way clear. He don't get tangled up. I wouldn't
have him any other way. He's king. He's king. I'm glad
he's king. His reign extends over their
wills. Are you listening? The reign
of Christ extends over his people's wills, over their hearts, over
their minds, and over their understanding. David prophesied of this in Psalm
110 verse 3, saying, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. And John spoke of this over in
John chapter 1 verse 12, to as many as received them, to them
gave he power to become sons of God. Paul spake of this over in Philippians
chapter 2 and verse 13 saying, it is God that worketh in you
both to will and to do his good pleasure. And again in Colossians
1 saying that God hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of enlightened saints. And then John said this over
in 1 John, I think chapter 2, he said this, You have an unction
from the Holy One, and you know all things. God is your teacher. And then he also tells us that
Christ has come and given to us an understanding. His reign
extends over our wills and over our hearts and over our minds,
and ain't you glad he does? Salvation comes to sinners as
the Lord of Glory establishes His reign in their hearts. It's
a reign of grace. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants are to whom
you obey? Don't you know that, Paul said? Whether sin under death or obedience
under righteousness. He shall rise to reign over the
Gentiles. Now listen, in Him, shall the
Gentiles trust. Who they trust in? Poor little
Jesus boy? No. The reigning king. That's who they trust in. He
that shall rise to reign. Oh, the Gentiles trust in him.
You read about it over in Antioch, when they heard that time of
the Old Testament prophets concerning the Gentiles, it said, oh, then
their hearts was glad when they heard that. Huh? And as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. He's the reign in Christ. He
shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. And in Him shall they
trust. And then quickly, Romans 15,
verse 13. He said, now the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the
power of the Holy Ghost. Our God is the God of hope. He's the God of hope. He alone
can give it. He has the right to give it.
He has the right to establish it. And he has the power to bring
it to pass in your hearts. He's the God of hope. Nobody
else has it. I was sitting around there, and
that doctor that came in the other night from Georgia Bay,
he didn't have any power to do anything. He said, well, I don't
think we ought to do anything. I think it's all over. He didn't
have any power. I didn't have any power. Her
daughter didn't have any power. But the God of hope has all power. You see what I'm saying? He's
the God of hope. Our God is the God of hope. It's
His. He can give it or simply leave
it to yourselves. It's His. It's His possession.
If you receive it, it must be given to you from above. Now
when He gives it, how does it come? When God establishes hope
in a man, where does it come from? How does it come? He fills
men and women with joy and peace, now listen, in believing. Isn't
that what he says? In believing. Boy, we want everything
else. We want a feeling, we want an
experience, we want a day and a time, we want this and we want
that. It comes by believing. That's how it comes. Believing. It comes through his gracious
gift of faith. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. What God? The God of all hope. And then I'll close with this.
He said that ye may abound in hope through the power of the
Holy Ghost. I tell you, there's no one else
but the person of the Holy Ghost that can make these things truly
yours. Yours. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth his spirit into your hearts and you have a father. who did that? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost, how does he do
that? Well, the Holy Ghost is the revealer
of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2. He tells us in the previous verse
there, that I have not seen or heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man the things that God hath made for us that love
him. Spirit of God hath revealed them
unto us. It's His purpose to convince
of sin and then of righteousness. And I've said this to you very
often, if He ever convinces you of sin, He'll have to convince
you of righteousness. Because you don't have any confidence
in the flesh. You won't have any confidence
in your self-righteousness, it'll go out the window. And so he convinces us of righteousness
and then he said the Holy Spirit when he's come will convince
us of judgment. That is judgment satisfied. Our judgment is passed. Our judgment
was poured out on Christ on the cross. strips us of all of our false
hopes and refuges, and convinces us of the sufficiency of Christ's
righteousness, and that our judgment has already taken place in Christ
on the cross. He's often called the Spirit
of Christ, and He will not speak of Himself when He comes. He'll
speak of Christ. That's how you know the Holy
Spirit's done a work in you, when there's nothing left but
Christ, when He shut you up to Christ. Christ said he'll take of mine
and show them unto you. Wouldn't it be something if God
was pleased to do that in somebody's heart here today? It was on a
day just like this when he did mine. I wasn't expecting it. I wanted it, but I wasn't expecting
it. But on that day, he did. He began
a good work in me, and he tells us through his apostle that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. That's why he's called the God
of hope. And that hope that he puts in
you, he establishes in you by the power of his Holy Ghost.
May God be pleased to do such a work today for Christ's sake.