Point 1Paul's point: the gospel is for all people
Everybody turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Today we're looking at a few verses. I want to go back to 11, really. I'm looking at verses 14 and 15 today, but I think it's important for us to hop back to verse 11. If you go to verse 5, right above verse 5, at least in my ESV Bible, it has a section break here, and the section break is "the message of salvation to all," or the gospel for all people. I think that is the point that Paul is trying to make here. At the close of chapter 9 and the first four verses of chapter 10, it's speaking of Israel's unbelief, and part of the reason for their unbelief is Christ. He is the stumbling block. They also felt, the Jews, the nation of Israel, felt that the gospel was for them and them alone and for no one else, and that really kind of lays the foundation then of Paul's message to the Jews. And from verse 5 all the way through the remainder of chapter 10, he's trying to compel the nation of Israel to understand that the message of salvation, or the gospel message, is for all people, not just for them. This would have been offensive to the Jews, that the message would go to the Gentiles, and Paul is really arguing with them and trying to help them understand that it is for all people. If you go to verse 11, that's kind of what he's saying. Let's look at 11 and let's go through 15, and then we'll stop there and then I'll share a few things that are on my heart. "For the Scripture says, 'Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek." You can hear Paul compelling them to understand this is for more than just them. "For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" Now verse 14, he poses several questions, and in these questions he's trying to help the nation of Israel understand that the gospel message is to be sent to all people. That's the point, right? The emphasis. Okay, and I don't, don't get me wrong, I think it's important that we go, amen. It's part of the Great Commission that we go. That is a good thing. It's not bad if we talk about that this morning. But if you pull and extrapolate out verses 14 and 15 without understanding the context of what Paul is doing and what he's trying to communicate, then all you really care about is putting emphasis on whether you should go, how we should go, why we should go, the way we should go, and we don't understand that there are some of us, similar to the Jews, that we don't understand that the gospel is for all people.
That's really what he's getting at here. He's saying to them, it is important that you understand that it's for all people. For them, they don't want to go, they don't want the gospel to go to all people. If it's a gospel that goes to all people, it's a gospel they will reject. Are you with me? That's what Paul is speaking to here. Last week we talked a little bit, and once again I want to be sensitive in light of all that's going on in Israel right now. It's hard to talk about these things and really get an understanding of the heart of the Jews in this time as Paul is speaking to them. In light of all that's happening in our world, it seems insensitive, but the truth is the truth, and the reality is, although we have a heart for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, and although we are appalled by the atrocities that are taking place there even now, as we're meeting this morning, the facts still remain that Jews reject Christ, and Paul is concerned about that. And ladies and gentlemen, more than the physical bodies of the Jews today, you should be concerned about their eternal souls. And as you pray for that nation today, it is their soul you should be concerned about. Paul is concerned for their soul. Now I'm going to say this, and I'm not trying to be insensitive, but to lay groundwork and to help us remember what is going on: the Apostle Paul has basically said, and actually exactly said, that the nation of Israel chooses to remain in ignorant unbelief because, listen to this, of their love of sin. Now that is not how I would describe the Jewish people, their love for sin. Is that how you would describe them? I mean, we went there and visited with Dwight and Anita, took us, and my wife and I got to go there, and it was amazing to see the dedication to the law, to the things that God commands, yet that then runs crossways when I began to think about the words of Paul of them remaining in ignorant unbelief and their love of sin. That's not the picture I felt I saw. So there's this conflicting thing, the message that Paul is speaking and the behavior I saw when I traveled there, they didn't line up. It should help us understand today that your outward behavior is not all that God is concerned about. It is your heart. You can have all the right behaviors and you can still love sin.
Point 2Rejection comes from a love of sin
To put it in other terms, it's basically what we see happening with the Jews rejecting the gospel. We see the parable of the soils, Matthew 13, and that helps us with this. See, you have a sower sowing seed. There's nothing wrong with the sower and there's nothing wrong with the seed. The sower is adept, he throws the seed well. The seed is the word of God, and you can't improve on that, amen. It's good all by itself. And the sower sows the seed, and some are hard and the seed never penetrates at all. It says some are soft and it penetrates for a little while but there's a rock underneath it and it dies, and some soil is filled with weeds, and as the seed falls and dies and decomposes and starts to grow, the weeds choke it out. And then the parable goes on, and then some falls on good ground and it flourishes and it brings forth fruit. The point is this: it isn't the sower and it isn't the seed, it's the soil. It's the soil. And where you have good soil, where you have soil, not good soil, where you have soil that loves evil, soil that is hard, soil that is unplowed, soil that is never turned over by conviction or never cleaned out of its weeds and the love of the world and the love of evil, there cannot be the growth of the seed that gives life, ever. The issue then is the love of sin.
And in the case of Israel, they did not respond to the gospel because they wanted it the way that it was. They wanted to indulge themselves in the present sinning rather than be called to a transformed life. Do you remember being that? Do you remember being in that place where you'd rather have it the way you've always had it, and the thing that prevents you from trusting in him is you don't want anything to change?
How many of you know that change costs you something? Change costs you everything.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:58
And just like the Jews, they're the Jews, they have rejected it because they have grown to appreciate and like the way that it was, but to be saved they couldn't continue on the way that it was. There might be somebody in here today that's teetering on the brink of a decision. Will you be like the Jews, you continue on in ignorance and willful rebellion because you like the way that it is and you don't want things to change, or will you trust in your only hope, which is Christ? And if you do, everything will change. There will be people who walk out today who reject the gospel. That should not be lost on us.
It is not our duty to convince, it is our duty to tell.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:03
And so we tell the gospel, much like Paul told the gospel, and every time he preached the gospel some were convinced and some rejected it.
Some produce fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some hundredfold, and some did not produce fruit at all. Why? Because some loved their sin more than they loved God. Which are you? We can sit today, we can pass judgment on the Jews, the nation of Israel, we can pass judgment on all those other people who reject the gospel, who don't go to church. There are people who come to church faithfully who know God's word, who love sin as much as those who won't grace the doors of church and who reject him verbally.
Just because you come here and you can quote a few verses doesn't mean you're not a rejector of Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:08
Which are you?
Which are you? This is really nothing new. We looked at two prophetic books this past week in our small groups. I want to talk about a few things, I want to bring light to this. This is really nothing new. In Isaiah chapter 30:9 we read this, and I quote, "This is a rebellious people." Israel, once again, it's not how I would after going there, is not necessarily how I would label them, because we judge based on the outward appearance, not the heart. God cares about the heart. So when God sends a messenger to speak to the people, this is what he says to them: "This is a rebellious people, lying children who will not hear the law of God, who say to the seers, 'See not,' and to the prophets, 'Prophesy not to us what is right.'" Does this sound familiar? When the word goes out and people in the church say, can't you just encourage us a little? Why do you have to be so harsh? We've had a hard week all week, can't we just come to church and be encouraged? Sound familiar? At least it does to me, because I've had people come to my office and say that and I'm like, I don't know what to do. The Bible's rough, and when you preach it is encouraging, but it's challenging. And just like the Israel didn't want prophets coming and telling them true things, it literally says don't prophesy to us right things. That's like our generation today. "Speak to us smooth things." This is from the Bible, this is what they're saying: "Prophesy to us deceits." Can you imagine that they would rather hear lies than the truth? Sound familiar? Sound familiar today? Sound familiar outside of the nation of Israel, here in America? Does this sound familiar to you in our churches? Sounds familiar, right? It's crazy. And then, and I quote, going on in chapter 30 of Isaiah, verse 9: "Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." Huh? "Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you," and so forth and so on. In other words, they weren't interested in the truth, they would rather hear lies. You know how many people will hop church to try to find a lie, because the truth is offensive? This is good stuff, track with me now. Now this is not you, we can sit here all day in judgment of the Jews and the nation of Israel, we can sit in judgment of when we read Isaiah, but listen, this is not far from you. This issue sits at your table, or at least the other table across from you. Are you with me?
All of us are guilty at some point or another of hearing the truth and preferring a lie, because the truth cuts us to the quick and it's offensive and it's hurtful,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:15
and the reality is life is hard enough without having to be cut by the thing we hope will heal our wounds. It's hard, and we are all guilty of this kind of attitude. Let us not move into insanity by choosing to hear lies over truth. And Lord, please give us the discernment to know the difference. Lord, help us, because I think part of our problem is we just simply don't know what is true and what is false today. We don't know. They wanted to hear smooth things, they wanted to be pacified, they wanted to be indulged in their sin, and that was nothing really very new at all. In fact, you'll find many other passages in the Old Testament that speak to this same type of attitude, where the hearts of men are not even interested in the truth of God, they're utterly resistant to it, because they love sin more than they love him.
Let's look at Job. We talk about going, somebody being sent, how will they hear if no one goes, and how, you know, if someone doesn't preach, and how will they preach if someone doesn't go, and how will they go if no one is sent? Let's consider Job. Let's go to the Old Testament, shall we? Because we think a lot about the Great Commission and going, but we don't think about, this was always God's plan. Cameron messaged me this week and said, hey, newsflash, he didn't say newsflash, I'm just putting those words in his mouth, he said, I have something I think that is interesting. This was always God's plan for someone to preach and someone to hear and someone to be sent and someone to go. This is how he sent the prophets. I was like, cool, I'm going to use that, thank you, in my sermon. So let's go back to Job, shall we? In Job 24:13 it says this, it says this of sinful people, Job 24:13, "They are of those who rebel against the light." That's what sinfulness is. It's those who reject the message of truth. They are rejectors of light. So you can be someone who does a lot of lawful things, but if you're a rejector of light, you're a sinful individual, and you choose evil over him and darkness over light. Are you with me? So he classifies you by either your acceptance of light or your rejection of light. He classifies you as a sinful and evil and perverse generation when you reject him. It's not about what you do, it is, but what you do is birthed out of what you receive, and you receive or you reject. Are you with me? So sin is a natural outflow of who you are, and who you are is determined by what you believe. Are you with me? So he labels the Jews different than we might today, and God today labels people in the church who look like they are believers in everything they do who really reject the light, they trust more in what they do than the one who makes us. "They rebel against the light, they know not its ways, nor abide in its paths," and the reason they don't is because they rebel against it, they're not interested at all in responding to it. In Proverbs 1, verse 29, it says this, it says, "My counsel," "because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord." Because they hated knowledge.
I think this is an issue today, we have sacrificed knowledge on the altar of emotions in our churches.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:54
This sounds familiar for me today. "Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel." Let me give you a phrase that speaks to this kind of attitude, and the entirety of this phrase is not bad in
Point 3Making God your homeboy shuts out others
And of itself, but let us consider for a moment what birthed this phrase. Somebody help me with it. "God is about relationship, not about religion." Yeah, no, yes, no, religion is not bad. Look it up in your dictionary while I'm preaching, so look up "religion" in Webster and tell me if that's bad. You know what this, you know what the attitude is? I'm going to reject the knowledge, I'm going to reject theology, I'm going to reject understanding, I'm going to reject all of that, it's not about what you know, it's not about your knowledge, it's not, I reject that, I just want relationship. Sound familiar? Sound familiar to Proverbs: "Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel"? And I want your counsel, I want to be your buddy, I don't want your counsel, don't correct me, don't rebuke me, don't call me into question, don't challenge me in my sinful ways, don't you dare do that, who do you think you are? Jesus is and has always been my homeboy, didn't you know? You don't get it that way, and out of that heart of Jesus, you wanting so bad for Jesus to be your daddy, you reject him as your God. Come on now, listen to me. This is what Paul is saying. Is it bad to desire intimacy? Absolutely not. But don't you forget who you're, who's presence you're in. And there was this attitude, we don't want to know what God has to say, he's our homie, don't you know that he hooked us up with the law and nobody else had it? He's our homeboy, we're tight, as a matter of fact he chose us and we're tight, and we're tighter with God than the Gentiles. Let me tell you, an attitude of pulling God down and making him your homeboy causes you to not desire for the same gospel that came to you to go to others, because you're special. And that's why the church stays in its home and stays quiet about the gospel, because there's something within us that we begin to think that it's really for us and not everyone else. And there's some comments made today: I have special connection with the Lord, I have special intimacy with the Lord, he speaks to me in ways he don't speak to you, cause he's my homeboy. And then we take the gifts of the Spirit and we begin to speak of them in such a fashion that I'm special because of my gift and all you other derelicts who don't have my gift, you aren't as tight with him as I am. Are you with me today?
This is not just a Jew problem, this is also a you problem.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:26
Paul constantly has to remind himself, I'm not all that in a bag of chips. He goes on these small soapbox journeys down a slippery slide, a diatribe, if you will, to talk about how everything he's done is as filthy rags before the Lord, to remind himself although he was chosen by God to be an apostle, he ain't all that, because the gospel didn't just come to him, it came to all men, and God came to him that he might be sent to all men. That's good stuff. They hated knowledge and they did not choose to believe the things of God.
That's a willful choice based upon a love of sin. Now as you come into the New Testament, it's very clear that the people of Israel loved their own indulgent sins and they did not want to turn from them. They loved their false religion, they loved their works of righteousness, they loved their adulteries, they loved their lying, they loved their extortion, extortion, they loved all the stuff. And in Matthew chapter 11, as the Lord confronts the cities of Galilee, he says this: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hell. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." That's the New Testament, same attitude, same heart. What do you see here? You see a sinful people who come to grips with the fact that they're sinful, and the whole city repents, everyone. You see a chosen people who refuse to admit they're sinful, reject God, and no one repents. You see the, you see the difference. Do you see this today in people?
Paul is warning us, he's warning us to understand that all of us have sinned, all of us do, and it is the acknowledgment of sin that births repentance to a nation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:33
What we need in America is not to begin to preach sermons from political stages that we're God's chosen people.
What we need in America is for us to repent, because we are infinitely wicked above all things,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:58
and it is out of that acknowledgment of our sinfulness that repentance changes the nation. It's not through puffing up that kills it kills the nations. In other words, they had all the information and all the exposure to all the miracles and all the truths and they rejected, and the reason is they love sin more than God. Then we find in John 7:7 another Scripture that speaks very pointedly to this matter. It says this, "The world cannot hate you," Jesus speaking, of course, "but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil." Nothing is more offensive than when Christ comes to you and testifies of you that you're evil. You're like, whoa, wait a minute, don't you know, have you forgotten we're homeboys? Wait a minute, we're tight, right? And he says, no, you're evil. You're evil. Sinful people do not want to be confronted about their sinfulness. They want to go on entertaining their sin and indulging themselves in malice and evil as they have in the past. That's why people will stay around godly people and godliness but never fully accept Christ, because they would rather continue on in their sinfulness. This is serious. Today there are some people in here today, I'm sure of it, that are being confronted with their sinfulness. This is serious business, and God's remedy for this is the gospel and your acknowledgment of your sinfulness. It's only the ones who have had enough of their sinfulness, the ones who abandon it, who want to turn from it because it does not offer the hope and peace that they thought it would, and truly come to God that will be saved. In fact, in Romans chapter 1, do you remember verse 32, which says, "They know the righteous decree of God that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them"? They have pleasure in doing them. And so they would rather hear a lie and keep doing it. Sound familiar? They know the message of truth, they know the judgment of God, they keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it without repentance, without change, without a desire to be different, and they would choose to hear and believe a lie than to change. Although he's speaking to the nation of Israel, he is speaking to us this morning as well. Paul writing in 2 Thessalonians 2:12 says this, "They have pleasure in unrighteousness." They have pleasure in unrighteousness. 1 Peter 2:8 says this, "They stumble because they disobey the word,"
They're disobedient, they want to live against the law of God, and that's the bottom line. So when you look at the nation of Israel and you try to understand their unbelief, you must realize that is not the unbelief of ignorant people in terms of doctrine, because they know doctrine. Are you with me today? The nation of Israel knows doctrine. There are people in here today that know, there are atheists that could bury some people who go to small groups in this church and try to learn doctrine. They could bury you in doctrine and they reject God. They can bury you in doctrine. You knowing doctrine doesn't save you.
You should know doctrine, but the Jews knew doctrine, they could bury you, they had a large portion of the Old Testament memorized. They know their stuff, but they're rejectors of God. Isn't it crazy?
You can accept what comes from God and be a rejector of God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:46
Sound familiar? Sound familiar? When we write worship songs, we want what comes from God but we reject God. We worship the things that come from God but we reject God. How did we get here? I'll tell you, I know the answer. You want to know the answer? I can tell you the answer. You want me to tell you the answer?
Sin. Sin. It isn't that they were ignorant because they didn't hear the truth, they heard it more than anyone. It is that they were ignorant because they never allowed themselves to perceive it, because they wouldn't let the message in, because it unmasked their sin before the world. They were guilty of willful unbelief because they love sin. So Israel loves sin. They had a zeal for God, we learned in Romans 10, and a zeal for religion, but it was not according to truth, it was according to lies. They rejected the truth due to love of their own sin. In fact, would you notice the last verse in chapter 10, God says this: "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." "All the day long" counts the Old Testament.
Ladies and gentlemen, grace didn't start at Christ. Grace was always abounding to all people.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:29
That's important today. If you're going to say grace started with Christ, I'll let you get away with that, but just make sure you don't place Christ in the New Testament when he shows up and dies on a cross and resurrects from the grave. Make sure you include Christ in "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." Then yes, grace started with Christ, because Christ always was and Christ is God. And even in the Old Testament when we see God the Father behaving in a way that we don't think God the Son would behave, just know they are one and they are God and he endorsed it all, and grace abounded from generation to generation until now. Be thankful that grace abounds to you, because if not, you think flipping tables and making whips is bad? Grace abounds to us. We have much to celebrate in your sinfulness today. Let me just say to you need to thank your lucky stars that God's grace abounds to you. Israel was ignorant of the proportions of salvation. What do I mean by the proportions of salvation? That it was not just for them but it was for all people. They were so offended by this statement, and that's why we can't get off this. We want to focus on the going, and going matters, and we need to send missionaries and the church is the sending agent. You know, Christ showed up and called the apostles and sent the apostles, and the apostles started the church, and now the church has become the sending agent by which we send missionaries to the world, and it isn't that, you know, Jesus shows up and talks to you through a mule. Now the church is the sending agent that sends missionaries to the world. That's the way God designed it, and all that is important and we should have discussion about that, but the issue that Paul is dealing with here is not so much on the going and not so much on the being sent, but it is the fact that, don't be the type of person who doesn't want the gospel to go to all people. That's the point of this. That's the point of
This. Some of you may say, well, Shawn, I mean, good thing I'm so awesome, because I want the gospel to
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:07
go to all people. Well,
Point 4The beauty of your feet shows your heart
We can know what you want not by your profession of your mouth but by the beauty of your feet. Are you with me today? If you can't walk across the street to your neighbor and share the gospel, the profession of your mouth means nothing and it's possibly a lie.
The reality is many of us get a picture of our heart by the ugliness of our feet.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:42
Are you with me today? And the evaluation we have today is really much like Paul trying to help the Jews evaluate: do you really want the gospel to be for all people, or just for you? Who's silenced a little bit? Just a little bit on that right there right now. God had a reason, I'm going to
Point 5Jonah and Nineveh shame Israel's reluctance
Say this. There's this city called Nineveh. You know that story of, you know, that story, right? Jonah. You notice it said that it was a great city, and it literally was a great city. They said that it would take to travel from one side of the city of Nineveh to the other it would take three full days. Now in this time, in this century, in this day and age, and that day and age, that's a long time, and also that's a big city for that time, it's huge. Some believe that the population was 600,000 people, and historians say a three-day journey across the city, that's large for the ancient world. Nahum, the prophet, called it a bloody city. He said it was a city full of fraud, full of lies, full of robbery, full of sensuality, full of violence, full of witchcraft, full of idolatry, and the Assyrian soldiers were known for their cruelty and their brutality. People were scared to go near that city because of the way they would kill and torture people, and the Jewish people hated this city. They hated this city. And God then comes to jonah and he tells him, who hates this city, go to them. Go to them. And he knew what for, because he was a prophet, and he didn't want them to hear the truth because he didn't think they deserved to hear the truth. What, neither did you. That's the problem, isn't it? Who here can think of a person in their mind, just everybody close your eyes for just a moment, you think of a person that has hurt you. How many of you want to go tell that person about Christ so that they can be set free? How many of you, look at me, how many of you when you were hurt by that person have actually thought, I hope they get theirs? Okay, maybe that's just me, because I'm evil and abundantly wicked above all things. Okay, how many of you ever prayed a prayer when you were hurt by somebody, God, let your righteousness fall and just wipe them out? You ever prayed that in a time of lostness and total depravity, right? I've actually prayed this and I thought it was a righteous thing to do because it was in the Bible and a prophet did it. God, may your she-bears come down and eat them. I'm going to get an email: I just can't believe you have a heart like that and you're that terrible and you're our pastor and I just feel really concerned for you and I've been praying for you all day. Good, I need it. I need prayer, because I understand one thing: if not for God... Oh, and I don't just need him one time, I need him every day. Are you with me today? And when you think that you've arrived, you can never pray a prayer like that and never feel feelings like that, never think thoughts like that makes you a person who stops going. It makes you a person who doesn't feel other people deserve it. And that was Jonah. Oh, they wouldn't. I believe that God had a reason for sending him, and I think I can give it to you in a very simple statement: he sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach a message of salvation to the Gentiles to shame Israel. Well, God doesn't bring shame on anybody, that's the devil. Wrong. That's right, to shame them, because they were so resistant to doing that. And they probably said, oh, they won't believe, they're too steeped in paganism, they're too steeped in idolatry, they're too steeped in witchcraft, they're so far gone, the proverbial tubes, down the proverbial tubes in terms of their evil and the sin, we wouldn't bother to go to pagan Gentiles and tell them about godly things. And so they just isolated themselves and they never went, and so God gave them one classic lesson. One prophet went one time, by the way, he didn't want to go, preached one time in a city that was a three-day journey across, one sermon one time in a city three-day journey across, 600,000 people, one message one time from a man who didn't want to preach it, who didn't like the people, who was disqualified. Why would God choose this person who's rebellious against the things of God and the truth of God, from a nation, track with me, a nation that it says in the Bible preferred to have lies over truth? Why would God choose this person to go preach? Why? That's the lesson, I think. To shame Israel by the fact that a heathen city would repent at one sermon of a strange Jew that came to their town. Israel's reluctance to reach the Gentiles was thus rebuked by the tremendous ministry and the result of Jonah's work. The whole city turned in repentance. You say, what was Jonah's response? He must have been excited and thrilled. Wrong. Chapter 4, verse 1 says, "It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry." He was very mad when they repented. He sat under a bush and wished he were dead because they repented.
What? Well, you should be disqualified from being a prophet. Who's qualified today? Some of you are going, well, I'm not qualified, I don't have all the answers. Yeah, you don't. The gospel is the answer. That's the answer. And listen to how the gospel started by Jonah: "Repent, you evil sinners." He got that right, that was actually from his heart because he believed that. How does that line up with our evangelistic pursuits now? God loves you just the way you are. Thank you for opening the gate to eternal hell for that person. But Shawn, that's not nice. Yeah, you're right. And just like Israel, we'd rather have a lie than the truth. Come on now, this is good stuff. So when the message of salvation came in the New Testament through the apostles and it started extending itself to the Gentiles, it became something the Jews did not want to receive. And you remember the strategy of Apostle Paul when he went to a new city, always went to the Jews first. Why? Because he would have no chance of speaking there if he went to the Gentiles first. Whenever he went into a new city, it said that he would go and he would set up shop and he would go to the synagogues first and preach. Why? Because the Jews would reject him if he went to the Gentiles first, and the gospel is for all people. Notice here that Paul doesn't get mad at the Jews, he becomes all things to all people that he might reach some. So before you get so puffed up and highbrow and arrogant and think that you get to determine who gets to receive the gospel and how they get to receive the gospel, just remember you don't. Sometimes we become all things to all people that we might reach some. As you flow through the book of Acts, they rejected it, they rejected it, they rejected it, they rejected it, and finally, in almost a climactic thing, they see the Apostle Paul as a great threat to Judaism, who preaches this Gentile gospel, and in the 21st chapter of Acts, the Apostle Paul comes into the temple and people stir up, and he stirs up the people, and they grab the Apostle Paul and they cry this, and I quote, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the people and against the law and against this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." And they saw Christianity as something distasteful and offensive. Joel 2:32, and I'm about to close, Joel 2:32, this refers to God, listen to this, and this was trigger-inducing, we read this in our small group, Joel 2:32 in the Old Testament, this refers to God. Now this is the thing that triggered them. They accepted this: "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That refers to God in this text. That we read this morning, this reference to God in the Old Testament, that calling on the name of God to save you, Jews would have accepted that. Paul repositions, and he places the object of the call on Christ and says that Christ is God. That would have blown their mind. That would have blown their mind, and therefore this text equates God with Christ. It is one of the strongest texts in the epistle to make that equation. We know he's talking about Christ because verse 9 says, "Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved." But they stumbled over Christ and they did not believe him to be God. So to preach Christ would be preaching a stumbling block to the Jews. Are you with me today? If you go, if you share the gospel and if you preach Christ, there will be some who stumble over him and there will be some who are saved by him.
The results are not yours. The commission is to go and tell, not to go and convert.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:45
It is the telling. Some of you become overwhelmed because you want to control the result, and the result is not yours. You are not God. Christ is Lord of that situation. Should the Jews have known this? Sure they should have. Should have known it. They had Joel 2:32, they had Isaiah 28:16, they knew the stories of Jonah, they knew that God sent him to the Ninevites, they knew that God had a burden for the Ninevites, who were wicked people, they knew God's heart was toward redemption for those people, and they knew that there was a revival and they were in fact redeemed. They had all the revelation about the proportion of God's saving grace, that it was not just for the Jews, it was for all people. They knew all of that, they just didn't like it, and so they rejected it.
You cannot reject what comes from God and think you're not a rejector of him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:53
In other words, if God doesn't send preachers who preach the truth so that men can believe and call on the name of God, that they can be saved. What a statement. What it says to me is you don't get saved by some mystical meditation. You don't get saved by contemplating eternity or space or going in yourself or getting in a yoga position or looking to the stars or meditating. You can't be saved unless you call on the name of the Lord, and you call on his name when you realize you are a sinner that needs a savior.
Paul's speaking about the hearts of the Jews. They do not want the gospel to go to all people. In what ways are you like the nation of Israel today? When you evaluate your life, what could you learn from God's call to all? In what ways has arrogance risen up in your godly pursuit, made you feel that you're worthy and others are not? In what ways have you forgotten that you too are a sinner much in need of a savior, not just one time in the past but day by day, you need him? In what ways have you become arrogant? In what ways has God become your homeboy and not your God?
59:50
47:38
1:07:10
59:54
43:23
58:38
1:01:23
1:01:52
55:00
59:37
1:06:11
56:45
48:39
1:05:37
53:34
53:13
46:18
46:48
51:37
46:49
46:49
52:24
38:25
49:40
46:46
56:32
49:07
52:26
57:06
53:13
53:25
43:54
53:31
55:11
1:05:02
52:46
56:50
49:24
1:00:47
57:40
1:00:38
1:05:48
1:01:52
58:42
49:08
55:21
1:07:01
43:50
1:00:48
25:19
1:01:55
52:24
50:27
53:32
46:08
44:21
53:02
57:17
1:05:02
57:58
46:28
49:35
1:11:12
1:01:36
55:05Now playing
51:04
43:28
44:26
43:23
36:54
55:05
53:46