Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Today we are called to go to what? All nations. To the Jew and to the Gentile. The only way to heaven is through Christ. There is no other way to get in. And that's the message: the Gospel. And so He died for your sins to get you in, to change your life. He is the only way to heaven. There is no other way. He is the only life to live. There is no other life that has real life. He is the only truth. There is no other truth that will free you than Him.

Guest (Male): It's not necessarily a nice thought, but it's true. If you take a stand for Christ today and live for the Lord, you should prepare to be hated. It's not hard to see the growing hostility toward the things of God in the world today. But today on Sound Doctrine we'd like to pause for a moment to consider our response. Hate them right back?

Pastor Jeff Johnson says we can learn a thing or two from the Apostle Paul's reaction towards those that hated him. Before we open Romans chapter nine, we pay a quick visit to Mark.

Jeff Johnson: In Mark's Gospel, chapter four, Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Fishers of men. And that was when He started to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And then He shared with them, "I'm going to make you fishers of men." Now, they were fishermen. Later on in Luke's Gospel, chapter five, Jesus said, "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men."

This was right after Jesus did that incredible miracle of "put your nets out." And they said, "Wait a minute, Lord, we fished all night. We were just cleaning our nets and then You preached from our boat. But now You want us to go out and let our nets down when we fished all night and there's no fish out there. We're fishermen." And they took in so many fish they didn't know how to handle it. They were screaming and hollering for help. And that's when Jesus said, "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. You're good fishermen."

Now, how many fishermen do we have out here? Not very many. How many really and truly caught a fish? Half of you. No. It's not easy to be a fisherman. I mean, I've got separate gear for freshwater and saltwater, and it's a whole different ballgame when you go out into the ocean than you're by a little stream or in a little pond area. And the bait you use, the equipment you use, everything is different in both areas.

And you have to know what you're going for and you have to know what they're going to bite on. You have to know the bait. You have to know the size of the hook. If you've got too big a hook, you're never going to get a fish. But the Lord wants to help us to catch men. So you have to know a lot of things to catch a man for the kingdom of God.

With the recent tragedy at Fort Hood where a major in the army, who was—and he made it very clear to all of his colleagues—a Muslim first and then an American, he shouted, "Allahu Akbar," God is greater, as he methodically took a whole group of people and took one out after another, killing 13 and wounding 44. The worst massacre in the army's history.

This horrific incident spread fear and anger throughout our nation. One Islamic cleric who was in Yemen said, "Well, he finally listened to his conscience and did the right thing." What should be our response to this horrific event? Is this isolated? Well, no, we know that those that crashed into the Twin Towers also yelled out "Allahu Akbar." It's kind of their "God is great," their God. It's a different God. We need to have a better understanding of this Islam, don't we?

Because they're everywhere. They live all around us, they work with us, they go to school with us. We have to get to know a little bit about what's going on here so we can be catchers of men. What should the church's response be to Islam and to religious Muslims that believe that all infidels—and what is an infidel? It's non-believer in Allah—that they must die, they should die.

Believe it or not, the Apostle Paul was once a religious fanatic. He believed that all Christians must be eradicated, and he went out to kill them and to throw them into prison in the name of God. The Apostle Paul? Yeah. But then something happened to Paul. He got saved. His heart was transformed, his eyes were opened, and he then sought to convert the Jews.

They turned on him. They lied about him. They sought to stone him, to kill him and all of his kind, to put an end to this sect called Christianity. So this religious hatred turned radical, and they threw him in prison. They took an oath. Remember, a bunch of guys took an oath that they were not going to eat or drink until we snuff this guy out. Can you imagine having a whole group of people that takes an oath to just snuff you out personally? And they're not going to eat or drink until they do. Were they able to do that? No, God put a hedge around Paul.

What's powerful, though, is—and this is what I want to look at this morning—Paul's reaction towards those who hated him and wanted to see him dead. And here we have Romans chapter nine. It's his response towards religious hatred and radical destructive beliefs. And I'm praying that God will open our eyes this morning also to respond God's way as Paul did.

Now we know that Romans chapters one through eight is an expanded version—and maybe you didn't know this, but there is a chapter in the Old Testament that really nails what Romans one through eight is all about. And that is Isaiah chapter six. You say, "Well, what does that say?" Well, in Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah sees the Lord and he is converted.

I mean, first of all, though, we know that he's convicted of his sin. And that's important. And then after he was convicted, he confessed his sin. He then was cleansed from his sin and consecrated his life and received his commission. So we've got these five Cs that took place in his life. And this is exactly what happened in Romans chapters one through eight. Each one of these things.

Now, it's shared in Isaiah chapter six. "Then I said, 'Woe is me,'" when he saw the presence of the Lord, experienced His presence. "For I am undone," he said. "I am a man of unclean lips. And mine eyes have seen the King." There's something about beholding the Lord. And when I say beholding the Lord, I'm not saying in a visual way, I'm saying when the Lord comes to you and busts you and puts His finger on your life and says, "You are the one I'm talking about. You're the one that I died for. You're the one that I want to come to me."

And you get convicted for your sins and how you've turned your back on God and the life you're living. So he was totally convicted. And then came the cleansing as he saw one of the angels of the Lord take a live coal in his hand. He took it off the altar and he said he laid it upon my mouth and "lo, he hath touched my lips, and mine iniquity he has taken away, my sin has been purged." So he received the cleansing of the Lord.

Then he heard the voice of the Lord and He said, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" And then I said, "Here am I, Lord, send me." And his consecrated life then, "I'm yours, Lord. Use me, send me." And the final thing is that then God said to him, "Go tell this people." He got his commission. I love that story because it sets out for us what Romans chapter eight finally is as Paul walks in the spirit and receives his commission and it is laid upon him what he's to be doing. "More than a conqueror," he says.

Remember when Jesus prayed for Peter? "Simon, Simon, Satan wants you, but I've prayed for you and that your faith would not fail. That your faith would continue on and that when you're converted, when you really get this, Peter, you're going to strengthen your brethren." And this is exactly what we see here in Romans nine: Paul reaching out to the Jews. Isaiah first was cleansed from his sin and in verse eight of Isaiah six it says he heard God's voice.

You see, that's what we need. We need an encounter with God so we can start hearing God and start obeying Him. We need to have our sins forgiven. We need Christ in our lives. And then once your sins have been forgiven, God's voice begins to speak. You begin to hear, "Who will go for us?" God says, "Whom shall I send?" And Isaiah listened and Isaiah cried back, "Send me! Send me! I'm yours, use me."

So here after Paul's conversion, he's filled with God's spirit in chapter eight. So now God does a work in us so He can do a work through us. That's so important to see. God didn't just save you so you can go to heaven. Oh no, you thought you got off easy, didn't you? No, He saved you to give you your commission, your call in your life to be a light, to be salt, to go into all the world, to make us fishers of men, to catch men for Christ.

It's called the pass-it-on principle. In other words, freely you have received, Jesus says, now freely give. Freely you have received this blessing in your life, this relationship. Now tell somebody about this relationship. So He saved us to send us. Go into all the world. So once you're converted, as you consecrate yourself and Paul has done that, then he gets his commission and it's simply like in Isaiah 6:9 says, "Now Isaiah, go tell this people." It's that simple. Go tell somebody.

So our success is to go in the power of His spirit, constrained by His love. Now listen to what I'm saying. You cannot do a spiritual work like this without God's spirit upon you and in you. This is a spiritual endeavor. Paul knew this. We need to know this. And he said, "I am constrained by God's love." That's our motivation. He first loved me, so I love Him back and I obey Him and I serve Him and I do what He says.

Go tell this people. Now, Paul was a Jew. So in chapter nine of the Book of Romans, Paul says this in verse one, "I say the truth in Christ. This is the truth. I lie not." Now, many people might lie and tell you an untruth, but he's saying, "No, this is the truth. You can count on this. This is a truth that will set you free." And I'm not lying here.

I didn't know this, but I find out and once you study into it a little bit more about Muslim faith and what it is to be Islam, you learn that in their Quran it says that you can lie, you can do anything you need to do to deal with the infidel. But Paul's saying, "No, I'm telling you I don't lie. I'm not lying here. I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness," notice, "in the Holy Ghost."

So his inspiration, his motivation, everything is coming from God's spirit in his life and his conscience. Notice how God's speaking to him. God is laying some things on his heart. God is moving upon his life. Naturally so. When you have an experience with the living God and you have relationship with Him, you're going to have spiritual awakenings in your life. Truths are going to become heartfelt. And His love begins to constrain, and that's what he was receiving here.

Verse two, "that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." Great heaviness on his life, not to bum him out, but it was always with him. He had the joy of the Lord, okay? But this was heavy. And sorrow in his heart. "For I could wish," notice what he says, "that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Paul now is being pulled towards his Jewish brothers in the flesh.

I remember when I first got saved, I had this burning desire to go tell my hippie friends about Jesus. Oh, I can't wait. They need to know this because we were all on a truth-seeking thing, but we always ended up getting the wall and getting into drugs again and wiping ourselves out and losing our lives. No, no, this is the truth. This will set you free. This is it. And so I immediately went up and I've told you those experiences.

It was just incredible as I shared with those that were serving Buddha or whatever and had different gurus and going after different things, being able to tell them the truth. But here it is interesting that later you see in Paul's life not just having a burden for his brothers, those Jews that he knew so much about, but God, it says, would send him to the Gentiles. That's over in Acts in chapter nine, verse 15. Listen to what Jesus says, Acts 9:15, "Lord said, 'Go your way, Paul, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles.'"

So Paul didn't know too much about that. Now, what's interesting is Peter really went to the Jews. Here's Peter a fisherman, "you're going to become a catcher of men, man. I'm going to tell you and I'm going to show you about the Jews in a way that you're going to catch them." Whereas Paul was initially going towards the Gentiles throughout the world. Didn't have a clue really what was going on with them. Today we are called to go to what? All nations. To the Jew and to the Gentile.

The only way to heaven is through Christ. There is no other way to get in. And that's the message: the Gospel. And so He died for your sins to get you in, to change your life. He is the only way to heaven. There is no other way. He is the only life to live. There is no other life that has real life. He is the only truth. There is no other truth that will free you than Him.

So Romans chapter nine, Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit. He shares with his brethren. He's got a broken heart over the lost sheep of Israel, seeking to reach out to these radical religious deceived lost Jews. I mean, they're blinded. They needed God's salvation. He knew that. They needed deliverance. He knew that. And Paul was even willing to be damned and go to hell for their salvation.

That's what he's saying here in verse three: "wish myself to be accursed," to be sent to hell. That's a pretty heavy thing. This is love, if you ask me. Willing to give his life for those that are radical in their hatred and in their beliefs. Over in Philippians, and you can just mark this in Philippians chapter one and verse 20, he says, "according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed," Paul says.

"But that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death." I just want Him to be glorified in me. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." For I am betwixt the two, though, having a desire to depart and be with Christ—check this out—which is far better. He's because remember he already visited a little bit of that stuff.

He was caught up in the third heaven and he saw God where God lives. He got to taste. And he goes, "Oh, I'd rather be with Christ, which is far better." But then he says, "Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." And so God's telling me I'm going to stick around a while because I want to share the Gospel with you. You too need to be saved. And I love that, what he's saying here.

Now, he was ready to die. I mean, he told his brethren over in Acts chapter 21, verse 13. In Acts 21:13, he says, "Listen, guys," and this is when they told him, "Please don't go to Jerusalem. They're going to take you and they're going to do this and they're going to do that." He goes, "Listen, listen, what mean ye to weep and to break my heart? As you're weeping telling me not to go, you're breaking my heart, guys. For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

I mean, that's how committed and dedicated he was. "Hey, I know you're telling me they're going to beat me up, they're going to tie me and they're going to do this, that and the other. Hey, I'm going because God wants me to go. But I'm ready to live or die for Him. Whatever the circumstance." Then later on in that same chapter in verse 30, he says, "and the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul: and as they went about to kill him, all Jerusalem was in an uproar." A riot began. And some cried one thing and another another thing.

And then the head of the Roman squad there said, "We need to take him into the Antonia Fortress." And they pulled him out of the temple area where the riot was going on. So it was that he was taken by the soldiers for the violence of the people. I mean, everybody just wanted him so bad they wanted to take him and shred him.

Guest (Male): Today on Sound Doctrine we've been encouraged to be fishers of men. In a world full of hate, the Apostle Paul is sure a good example to follow in this area. Don't rush away, Pastor Jeff Johnson has more to say from the book of Romans, chapter nine.

If you enjoyed today's message, I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's at sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen at oneplace.com and also through the Sound Doctrine Radio podcast app. And of course, speaking of podcasts, Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. As we return to Pastor Jeff now, he brings things down to a personal level.

Jeff Johnson: Now, what's your response? What's your reaction when someone seeks to hurt you or to hate you? How do you respond? Do you remember what Jesus did? Remember when they came and Peter writes it so well? He says in 1st Peter 2:23, they came and when He was threatened, when He was reviled, they cursed Him, they threatened Him at the cross when He's hanging there.

What did He do? I mean, He could have called a legion of angels down and His response and reaction would have been "snuff," they're history. He didn't do that, did He? No, it says there in that verse that He committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. He gave Himself to God so He could deal with the situation. And that's when He finally came out with, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing."

I think we're to follow His example. Peter says we are to follow that example. And so Paul, willing to die to go to heaven, but here in this scripture, Romans 9, he said that he would go to hell in their place. How do we respond with His love to those that are unlovable that come through our lives? Those who seek our demise, they seek to hurt us.

How do you respond to your irregular person? Now, that person is somebody that bugs you a lot. We'll just call them irregular person. But very unlovely, and always when you see them, goosebumps come and weird reactions happen inside of you. What is our response? Why do you respond that way? I mean, some things we need to check out when they lie about you and tell untruths about you.

And I think the key that we're going to focus in on, we're going to cheat a little bit because we're going to go a little bit ahead a chapter ahead in Romans chapter 10, verse one. And this is the key. Paul says, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved." Paul, willing to die. I'm willing to die for I believe my kids, I'd die for them, my grandkids, I'd die for them. I love them.

But Paul adds, "my heart's desire," not just to die, but "my heart's desire and continual prayer for them is that they could know Christ." Remember Jesus's prayer, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." It's just an incredible prayer.