I Love Them!
Romans 9:1-5
This morning I want to share with you on a subsequent message to what I've shared over the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, I shared that God loves me. Last week, I shared that our response is to love Him. It's a command that is really a privilege. This morning, I want to share on the topic, "I love them!" That's what we're called to do! We looked at the passage that Jesus revealed was the greatest commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." But I didn't emphasize what Jesus said was like that first commandment, and that is, we are to also love our neighbors as ourselves. Put another way, we show that we love God when we love those around us.
I want to take you to an incredible passage that helps us to see what just such love looks like. We find ourselves back in Romans in chapter 9. And the tone in chapter 9 is much different than the end of chapter 8, but it helps us to see all the more the love that Paul had for his fellow countrymen, his Jewish kin. What's the difference? "Chapter 8 closes on the high plane of triumph and joy in the prospect of no separation from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Chapter 9 opens on the low plane of despair and sorrow. Obviously a change of subject matter brought about this heartbreak in the apostle."1 "When he looked at Christ, he rejoiced; but when he looked at the lost people of Israel, he wept."2
Friend, I want you to know that what Paul shares in these verses is largely missing in the lives of many Christians - and it's showing. Have we really taken to heart God's great commandment to us - to love Him AND to love them? If so, it will show. Let's see how it was evident in Paul's life.
Romans 9:1-5
9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
9:2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
9:4 who are Israelites, to whom [pertain] the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service [of God,] and the promises;
9:5 of whom [are] the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ [came,] who is over all, [the] eternally blessed God. Amen.
I want you to see two major points,
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The Means of loving others 8:31-39
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Love for Others is Based on God's sacrificial love for us. As we noted a couple of weeks ago, God's love for us is beyond description, and Paul helped to express in his best attempt a wonderful fact that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can separate us from God's love for us. But what we also see from Scripture is that when someone personally experiences God's love, it's going to do more than just bless those two - God and the person. It always spills over into other relationships. Always. Just look at Paul's life.
Paul's love for others was not of human nature; it is supernatural and a fruit of the Spirit. This same supernatural love today sends missionaries to labor in leper colonies; to unlovely, primitive, dangerous tribes; and into the vile slums of the world's great cities. It is this kind of love which writes the glowing pages of church's history. It sends a Livingstone to blaze a trail through the wilds of Africa; and a Judson to the jungles of Burma."3
Many ask, "Why would someone be a missionary? Just to see other parts of the world? I don't think so. Why would others like Paul subject themselves to ridicule and hatred? Because he was an instigator? No. He was deeply impacted by God's love for him in that God gave His Son to die for him, and that God pursued Paul.
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We will never love others as God has called us to love them apart from a relationship with Him. Let's be honest, loving some others is next to impossible if there is no relationship with Christ. Left to ourselves, I can pretty well guarantee you that you'll not turn the other cheek or forgive others when they wronged you.
Can I clarify something before we go any further? Loving others does not mean that we become a door mat or that we must accept everything everyone else is doing - all in the name of love. That's not love, but gross irresponsibility! When those that are pushing hard this "tolerance" movement and how they tolerate everything except those with godly values, it is nothing more than defiance against moral absolutes.
I want you to understand this isn't easy. In fact, the apostle Paul here reveals in a small way that he was "accused of being an enemy of his own people. We are told in Acts 23:12, "And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul."4
The means of loving others is to embrace the first part of the Great Commandment, "love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."
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The Meaning of loving others vv 1-5
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Paul is an incredible example of loving others. I want you to see what this looks like,
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A broken heart for their soul. Notice how he begins in chapter 9, and it's such a powerful statement, "I tell the truth in Christ (how could he or would he lie before Him), I'm not lying (a restatement to insure that people know that he is not lying), my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit (this is not a conscience that has no leadership or accountability, but it's one that has been quickened by God's Spirit …." A.T. Robertson calls this a triple oath - "tell the truth… not lying… my conscience bearing me witness…." What he is about to share is nothing short of a very strong yearning for his kinsmen.
With that introduction, then we see Paul's broken heart. He said, "I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart." Now what makes this amazing here is that he has just come off the great fact that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. That really is a reason to celebrate and be comforted! But there was something that moved Paul to a broken heart - the lost souls of his kinsmen. As I shared a moment ago, when he looked at Christ, he rejoiced; when he looked at his kinsmen, he wept.
When you think about the souls of your family, your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends that do not know the Lord - would verse two be a description of your concern for them? This could be said of Jeremiah the prophet. In fact, he was known as the weeping prophet because he cried out to God (Jeremiah 9:1), "Oh, that my head were a fountain of waters, and oh, that my eyes were a river of tears, so I could have enough moisture that I could weep day and night for the slain of my people." Jeremiah was so burdened over the people, that he wept rivers of sorrow!
This could also be said of Jesus. As Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem less than a week before His crucifixion the Bible says that He wept (literally, to cry like a baby) and He said, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often I would have gathered you like a mother hen gathers her chicks. But you wouldn't receive me." Jesus was broken hearted over the very people that God had chosen as His own possession, yet they chose not to believe in Him!
This week, I read where Leonard Ravenhill, wrote some time ago in "Decision" Magazine and the title was, "Who Weeps Anymore?" And this is what he said, "The problem with Christians in America today is we're not concerned over lost people. We're not concerned enough to cry. A man and woman will weep when their pet dog gets run over in the street, but that same man has never wept a tear because their neighbor is lost without Jesus. Something is wrong! A woman will cry when her daughter walks down the aisle of a church to be married, but that same mother has never shed one tear because that daughter has never been saved. Something's wrong!"
The founder of the Salvation Army was General William Booth, and some of his salvation soldiers went into the ghettos of Los Angeles during the "Roaring Twenties," and after working there for three years, they sent a telegram to General Booth saying, "It just won't work. We have tried everything. The gospel is just not being received here." William Booth, telegraphed back a two-word message which was, "Try tears."
I heard Bud Klugh share last Sunday morning of his broken heart over a lost family member. He was a living example of this verse. We were praying in the tent early Thursday morning and one man prayed, with tears, for the salvation of his son.
I want you to understand that, "No pastor and no people can serve God effectively, until their heart is broken for the people!" I know that there is a lot to be said for community involvement and community activities. It's fine if you want to be a part of Habitat for Humanity. But if all there is to it is a desire to do something nice, but never addresses the real need of the soul - it's no good. God, give us broken hearts for lost souls! God, give us tears for those lost souls!
It was David that wrote (Psalm 126:5-6), "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He, who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
Paul expressed his love for others in that he had,
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A burning zeal for their salvation. What we find here is nothing short of amazing. We find out that not only is Paul concerned about their soul, but we see to what extent he could go IF it were possible. Put another way, verse 3 could read, "For I was wishing (but it is not possible) that I myself were accursed (devoted to destruction) from the Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."5 Let's make one point very clear, just because Paul had a wish that he could take his kinsmen's place in lostness if they could be saved, does not mean that it is possible. In fact, it is IMPOSSIBLE. I want to remind you of some good news believer - at least I hope it's good news. Paul said, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price…." Paul knew that he was not master of his own life and does not have the power to cast away the eternal.
"Paul's soul-winning passion for men, especially for his own countrymen, was such that he could actually, soberly, honestly say that he would be willing to go to hell and be eternally damned, if that were possible, if by so doing it would lead his kinsmen to a saving knowledge of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no wonder that Paul was such a successful soul winner!"6 Isn't that amazing? In fact, believer, I would ask you to honestly consider if you have ever had that thought for one that you long to be saved. This truly is a picture of when Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, that he should lay down his life for a brother." Paul deeply loved his kinsmen!
Oh to be like Paul, or Moses! If you go back to Exodus 32, you'll find that God had enough of the children of Israel and was about to wipe them off the face of the earth. Yet, it was in that moment that Moses, the leader of the Jews said to the Lord, "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written" (Exodus 32:32).7 Amazing, the hearts of these men!
Believer, can I ask you if you have forgotten so quickly just what is at stake for one that dies apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Liberal theologians and spineless preachers have lulled so many to sleep saying that there really isn't such a place called hell. Others will say that everybody really is okay and there is no way that a loving God will send anyone to hell. And others will say that those preachers that talk about hell are just trying to scare people to heaven.
I'm not trying to scare anyone there, but God forbid if I don't sound forth a clear call to inform every person that if they die apart from a relationship with Christ, they will spend eternity in a real, a regretting, a hopeless and Christless place called hell. And there will never be an end to the agony. Just when that lost person in hell thinks that it could get no worse, it will get worse. There's a real place called hell that awaits the lost. But there's also a real condition called hopelessness that marks the soul of every lost person now. Just think believer, we've been forgiven of our sin - yet the lost person doesn't know what it's like to be forgiven. Just think believer, we've been given the Holy Spirit as a promise of heaven to come, yet the lost person has nothing as a hopeful promise to look forward to. God, help us to have a burning zeal for the salvation of every person that is lost, especially those that we know and love!
But the meaning of loving others also expressed itself in,
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A bold desire for their understanding vv 4-5. I want you to see what Paul does in these two verses. He describes all that the Israelites had as an advantage of knowing that Jesus Christ really is the Messiah and that they should make Him their Savior. In other words, they should have known better than to resist.
They received the adoption - God choosing Israel out of all the countries in the world to be their God and them alone His people. They received the glory - the very physical presence of God with them as manifested in the tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple in Jerusalem when it was constructed. God made covenants with Israel - promises to them that He would be faithful to them and watch over them. Many of them have been fulfilled and those that haven't will be carried out. They also had the Law given to them to follow. More than that, they also had the very service of God. What's that? It's when they were able to offer up sacrifices and offerings to the Lord in the tabernacle and temple. As the Scripture taught, they were to be a kingdom of priests before Almighty God. They also had the promises - one promise after another for this chosen group of people. They could also look back to their fathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and know that the God of their fathers is still God today; and that God is not God of the dead but of the living.
But the best was saved for the last. In fact, all of these beforehand simply pointed to the last way for the people to see God's love for them. Christ the Messiah came according to the flesh as a Jew. But just who is this Jesus? John said it well (John 1:14), "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." That is, this Jesus is also the eternally blessed God! It is amazing, literally amazing, to see all that the Jews had in their favor, yet most chose to resist Jesus as their Savior, their Messiah. All of that, yet they chose not to follow Him. Why? Because their sinful flesh still wanted to be boss.
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Friend, I want to tell you that you have had just as many blessings made available to you to come to Christ. God has blessed us with the privilege of having His Word in its completed form - the Bible. There is no need for another testament; this is complete. God has also blessed this age with the Church - the Church that is to be faithful to carrying out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We have been blessed with God's Holy Spirit who convicts, draws and woos people to Jesus. We have been blessed with others around us that have experienced that great gift of salvation and they care enough to live it and love others through that change.
"I'm looking for a sign out of heaven, preacher." I can give you two or three right now! Look, this is His love letter, the Bible that makes clear you desperately need a Savior! You are assembled with His Church - the bride of Christ. God has called us together through the Church that we should be holy and without spot. And God's Holy Spirit is likely speaking to you right now urging you to give up your selfish ways and bad arguments for a relationship with Christ right now. What more do you need? Don't place your hope in a sign, but in the Son! He deeply loves you!