Imagine if Christ. Came from the Gentiles. Or imagine if he just showed up from An Eskimo tribe. How much would we have lost?
Well, we would have lost all the predictive prophecies concerning his coming. The value of the Ten Commandments, we would have had none of that. The origins of creation, of sin, the work of the devil, all that Genesis gives us gone. But we do have Because God knew what he was doing. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Romans chapter 15 as he begins his message again and again. Romans chapter 15.
Verses 8 through 12. Hopefully we'll get to verse 13. in the exposition. I'm going to give an interpretive rendering of one word. Instead of circumcision, I will read the Jews, because that's who he's talking to there.
And. I don't want to lose any of its meaning on those who might not be familiar with New Testament language.
Well, beginning at Romans chapter 15, verse 8, Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the Jews for the truth of God. to confirm the promises made to the fathers, And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy as it is written. For this reason, I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again he says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise Yahweh.
All you Gentiles, laud him, all you peoples, and again. Isaiah says There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise. to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope.
Well, the title of this message is again And again, And it comes out of the text. Paul uses it three times in this short paragraph.
Well, that makes it emphatic. That means there's a large meaning, there's a point to his. Repeating. that word again and again and again. When I came to Christ.
I was issued a box of white tissues. And you were too when he said, In the world, you will have much tribulation. There's your box of tissues right there. But there's a warning on the side of that box. Do not use as white flags.
Mm-hmm. Going to be tempted to do that a lot, to give up, to quit. But endurance dictates that we do not. We endure. We count them blessed, James says, who endure.
To serve in the body of Christ well You're going to have to have some stouth-heartedness with you. to serve well. You can serve in a sloppy way, you can get away with it in many circles, but serving before the Lord with all you've got. You're going to have to be stouth-hearted. Did you?
When they came to coronate King David, when all All the tribes of Judah had agreed, this is our king. And the tribes came, and the troops marched in review before the king. We read this about. The tribe of Zebulun. It says there in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, verse 33.
Of Zebulun, there were 50,000 who went out to battle, expert in war, with all weapons of war. stout hearted men who could keep ranks. I want to be that kind of man. I want to be that kind of servant. Before my king.
stout hearted and not ready to run. Not ready to convert the box of tissues into white flags.
Well, I can't do that if I'm going to trust in me, but I can do it if I trust in the Lord. even when I don't feel like it. When my inspiration comes from knowing who he is, Rather than how I feel. And I think all Christians should pay attention to this. It's a personal thing.
When I die, if I die. I hope it would be said that man always sought to edify the church and attack evil.
Well That's not easy. Do. It's easy to preach it, it's easy to encourage others, but to be able to stand in the gap and do it. That is going to call for Undivided attention. To the work of God in your heart and your life.
Now, things will come against you to make you not do that, but that's where the endurance in the fight is. That's where it says here again. They went to battle expert in war with all weapons of war. If you like the Old Testament and its teachings, What do you think about that? What do you think about 1 Corinthians 1233?
Do you think it has its application to you and to the body of Christ, to the church? Because I can tell you right now, there have been many Christians that live as though that verse was never put in the Bible. Don't be counted in that group.
So Paul He concludes His lesson on Jewish Gentile tradition. And it's connected to being stouth-hearted because there were troublemakers in the church. There were confused people in the church. There were weak people in the church. There were Christians who were still immature and didn't get it.
And while we waited for them to mature, they caused damage. Then there were the sharp ones, the strong ones. There was all this. that we have today in the church they had there too. And so he's concluding his teaching on The Jews and Gentiles in relation with each other because he knew there was infighting.
Based on these differences, based on what the New Testament called for. The Jewish church had in fighting also. They were not exempt from this. There were no Gentiles. unless they were proselytes in the churches that James wrote to, he specifies to those of the diaspora, to the Jews that are spread throughout the Roman Empire.
I'm writing to you. And when you get to James 4, he's saying, where does this fighting come from amongst yourselves?
So we accept that, we understand it, but how to deal with it long term? It's a righteous and noble quest.
So he has been telling the Jews that the scripture is clear about reaching and receiving Gentiles as Gentiles, and that's why he's quoting these Old Testament scriptures again and again and again. Because they lost sight of it. We have to receive them as equals and converts, Paul was saying. And when we get to verse eight eventually, there we'll find. He first singles out the Jews, then verse nine he goes back to the Gentiles.
But he's wrapping this session up. He'll move on to other things by the time he finishes verse 13. The truths that unite us must be far stronger than the petty. Things that divide us. That's his point.
You stronger Christians, you mature Christians, you're going to have to deal, you're going to have to put up with a lot of this stuff because. The truths that unite us are stronger than the petty things that will divide us.
Now, I repeated that on purpose, I'm not losing my memory. And if I did, I couldn't remember losing it anyway, so what would it matter to me?
So Paul could sidestep lightweight errors. And we need to learn how to do that. But heavyweight violations against truth and love and peace. He could not tolerate, and he would not tolerate, and he did not tolerate. He was a tiger for the truth.
If it was something that was, ah, we can deal with that, not a big one. But if it was a big one, here he comes. And we read about it in Galatians. I've been cross-referencing Galatians 2 several times as Paul has been dealing with this Gentile and Jewish relationship, this Old Testament versus New Covenant relationship. And there in Galatians, Writing about a confrontation he had with Peter and his beloved friend Barnabas, he says, And this occurred because of the false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty.
Which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. Are you kidding me? This people that are deceptive in the church? In the name of Jesus? Does that go on?
When we get to the next session, We're gonna hit a pet peeve of mine. that is trampled upon in the church. of people sneaking in and doing deceptive things. And Paul continues, he says, to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. And so there is an example of Paul.
Saying this is a heavyweight matter. They came in to take away our freedom in Christ, to put us into bondage, to make us participate in the Sabbath and the circumcision and all the other things that we are free from. They tried to bring us down. And Christianity would have been just another sect of Judaism had not a man with the guts and the knowledge and the love. of Paul stepped in.
And there's more to this story. He says, Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, and remember, Antioch was the happening church. It eclipsed Jerusalem. And there in Antioch, what made it so great was the movement of the Holy Spirit in Jews and Gentiles. And that's why those guys came up to Antioch from Jerusalem.
Because they were still confused about their identity in Christ. And so Paul says: Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed. And what we're talking about here are heavyweight issues versus lightweight issues. What the church that was in Rome was dealing with was relatively lightweight, but it could have escalated, and Paul knew that, and so he's dealing with it.
So Barnabas and Peter. They together painted themselves theologically. And practically, in a corner. By losing sight of repeated scripture. Again and again and again, Paul is saying it's all over our Old Testament Bibles.
We should not be confused about the Gentiles, we should not be confused about our freedom in Christ. It's been baked into the text.
Well, if those Jews could miss it. If men like Barnabas and Peter could miss it, How much am I missing?
So now we look at verse 8, understanding that's what's going on with all of this. Romans 14 and 15.
Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God. to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Paul When he writes, his words are not random. He chooses them very carefully. And not that the others don't also.
But particularly with him. And so when he uses the word circumcision, He is saying they're not just ethnic Jews. There, anybody who's come into Judaism, those Gentiles who are proselytes who are converted to Judaism, they too are in this group. Versus The New Testament church made of ethnic Jews and those who are ethnically not Jewish. That's now their identity.
Christians. And so writing to the Jews. And the benefit is what he is stressing. to the Jews of having the scripture. Imagine if Christ Came from the Gentiles.
Imagine if he just showed up from An Eskimo tribe. How much would we have lost?
Well, we would have lost all the predictive prophecies concerning his coming. The value of the Ten Commandments, we would have had none of that. The origins of creation, of sin, the work of the devil, all that Genesis gives us gone. But we do have it. Because God knew what he was doing.
And it is all part of his plan, and it's right here for us. We cherish the printed word because it was given to us by the living word. Is Jesus Christ in print once you begin to understand what's going on? Jesus Christ is the expected Messiah. And the Messiah is God the Son.
He is divine. And so for both Jew and Gentile Paul writes to the Hebrews in chapter 8. of that letter He says a new covenant. God says a new covenant he has made the first obsolete.
Now what is becoming obsolete? and growing old is ready to vanish away. You say, well, we've been dealing with this paragraph by paragraph as we've been going through Romans 14 and 15. When are we going to get out of it?
Well, when God's good and ready. which should be the end of this session.
So we don't lose sight of these things.
So you understand, and I understand as Christians, Our identity. who we are. And who we are not. And at this day and age, we're living amongst a bunch of people who are trying to. Corrupt.
The value and the meaning. of a person's identity. He says here in verse 8: Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision. For the truth of God.
Well, that's what it's all about. Jesus was personified. in scripture. By turning To the Gentiles, by God turning to the Gentiles in the New Testament, He did not turn his back on the Jews. They turned their backs on him.
And John the Apostle, many years after Paul had died, writing the Gospel of John as we know it. He tells us that. He looks back and he says, let me remind you what happened. John's Gospel, chapter one, verse eleven, speaking of Jesus, it says. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
Well, Paul is writing here to the Jews of the circumcision, and he's saying, Well, I'm a Jew, I've received him. Many of my colleagues are Jewish. They've received him. There's no excuse. But that does not mean That we're going to parade our ethnicity as though we are superior.
To the Gentiles, because God has planned to bring them in with equal. Equal Authority. and salvation. And so, he says, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. And he's going to rattle off these four Bible verses that we've just read a moment ago.
Because it's God's authority. And we have to learn how to minister the word. When you're a new Christian, maybe you're just a fireball. You know, you burn up everything. That's evil.
That's sin. You just go around, just crashing into everything before you begin to learn. That is just not that simple. that it calls for a little bit more. Consideration and a lot more leading of the Holy Spirit without ever violating what the Scripture says.
It is God's revelation to man of what God wants from man. John chapter 5, Jesus said, You search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me.
Well, they still do. And he was talking about the Old Testament. And that's what Paul has been using in this paragraph we are looking at. In the seventh chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus said, He who believes in me as the Scripture. has said Out of his heart will flow Rivers of living water.
Well, what comes out of a heart that has not received Jesus? according to the scripture. Usually it's blasphemy and heresy. And those things that would damn us all. Not save them.
So according to the scriptures, Paul never lost sight of it. The New Testament Believers and apostles, they did not lose sight of it. Miracle Reminding us of the story of Jesus. After he was risen again. We read in Luke 24, verse 27.
That Jesus said to these two disciples who were very confused about how prophecy was being fulfilled. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in the scriptures the things concerning himself. Expounded, expository teaching is based on that. He opened it up. He says, This is what this means.
This is to whom it pointed to. Without coming right out at that time and saying, That's me. They figured it out.
So, verse 9: Now he's going to turn to the Gentiles, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, for this reason I confess to you among the Gentiles. and sing to your name. You know, I don't picture myself speaking up here with energy. I would like to just be kind of monotone. And just, well, the Gentiles are now being addressed.
But But I love the word so much. And I'm so, you know, inadequate. in its presence. It evokes worship. What makes God so glorious to us is how big He is.
How awesome he is. And there's no one like him. And there's nothing like his word. In his day, our Lord Forbade the apostles from going to the Gentiles. And he forbade them from going to the half-breeds, those that were the Samaritans that were Jew and made up of Jews and Gentiles.
He forbade them. Don't bring the gospel to them. The timing was off. Matthew chapter 10. These 12 Jesus sent out.
And commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter the city of the Samaritans, but, Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To the Jew first, then the Gentile. perfect sense. And when the church is brought into the Gentile world, we see the wisdom of it. Could not have worked.
Before its time, the Jewish people had a hard enough time with just the Sermon on the Mount. John chapter 4, Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman at a well, you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. We can still use that line on people. You can still tell a lost soul.
The very thing, you worship what you do not know. You put value on, spiritual value, on things you are ignorant of. We Christians, we know what we worship and who we worship and why. And many get offended by that. They think, no, you should be just as off.
Coarse as they are. Matthew 15. Jesus again. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Because he had to line up prophecy first.
He had to give the coming church. All it needed For Paul to be able to write to Christians in Rome and say, again the Scripture says, and again the Scripture says, and again the Scripture says, it's in there, there's no way around it. And so Jesus bought time during his walk. His incarnation. But after he ascended The last thing that he said, the last thing we have from Jesus before he ascended.
He says, You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. And in all Judea, and Samaria And to the end of the earth. You say, well, wait a minute, maybe he just means witnesses to Jews at the end. No, because then the Samaritans would be left out. Samaria was all Jews, not Jews.
They were Mixed breeze, we would say. Jew and Gentile. And so when he said, don't take this. to the Gentiles. That was his commandment.
He knew he'd do it when it was right, and that is precisely what took place and it is up to the church. to be led by the Spirit. I think it calls for sobriety to be led by the Spirit. A lot of Christians blame God for a lot of things.
Well, God told me, God did this, and many times God didn't do anything near this. He's so annoyed with you saying that, in fact, he's got earplugs on now.
So he had to be careful. I'm not saying he doesn't talk to us. He certainly does. My sheep know my voice. But not a chatterbox.
John chapter 10. I would like to just come up and recite scripture. I just have no comments. I just want to recite these scriptures. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice.
And there will be one flock and one shepherd. And Paul is going to drive that home when we close up, quoting him, driving that point home from the Ephesian letter. I know I've been repeating some of these verses. In fact, in preparation, I said, Lord, I've been quoting this verse a lot. We'll quote it again.
The Old Testament demonstrates the omniscience of God. In that it Gave us this predetermined gospel. In the prophecies. And it tells us in those prophecies that The Jewish faith would be made available to the Gentiles, and it would no longer be the Jewish faith, it would be faith.
So again, his omniscience by giving us the prophecies of Christ, showing us, I know it all. And I'm telling you, thousands of years later, just what I'm telling you now about my Messiah, it will happen. And it has happened. There's his omnipotence because it takes power to keep the devil off of it. It takes power to make sure humans don't mess it up.
And he is all-powerful. He's able to preserve his word, and he has done just that. And some of what Christ's Coming from the Jews brings to humanity is worth Evaluating and learning and memorizing Luke chapter 24, he said to them. These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled. Which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms.
Then he says, Concerning me. It's all about Jesus because he's worthy. That's what worship is all about: worth. But you Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel at Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreference radio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreference radio.com.
That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio. Uh
