Romans 9:1-5 "Does Your Heart Break for the Lost?"

1:03He was educated at the best schools. He was a star athlete, excelling at cricket, the most popular sport in his country and of the day. He was so good that after serving as the captain of his team at Eton and then at Cambridge, he captained the England national team and was determined to make a career of it. But God had other plans for him, and after his father's Conversion, C.T. professed faith in Christ, but his life didn't really change very much after that.

1:37A couple years later, his brother George got sick, really sick, and C.T. asked himself, What is all the fame and flattery worth when a man comes to face eternity? He said, I knew that the cricket wouldn't last. I knew the honor wouldn't last. I knew that nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile to live for eternity. At that point, Studd walked away from all of his fame, all of his fortune, and he devoted the next 50 years of his life to serving Christ as a missionary among the unreached.

2:25He served in China and India and Africa, eventually forming the Heart of Africa mission. He burned with passion for evangelism, and he left us some of the greatest quotes of all time. Take a look at a couple of these: Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. And then this is one of our family's favorite. We have this up in our living room.

2:55Only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ. Will last. C.T. Studd loved the lost. His heart broke for people who did not know Christ, and it motivated him to evangelism. What a challenge to every one of us who is a Christian here today. Friends, last year we preached Romans 1 through 8, the first half of Paul's most comprehensive letter in the Bible. And at the time Paul wrote this letter, he had never been to Rome before. He'd never met the vast majority of Christians who made up the church in the empire's capital city.

3:35And so as he expressed in Romans chapter 1, he wanted to visit them one day. He wanted to be able to teach and encourage them. And he hoped that they would be able to help send him on his way to Spain, the edge of the known world, where as far as Paul knew, no one had ever preached the gospel before. And so what Romans is, is a presentation of Paul's theology applied to the specific challenges and issues facing the church in Rome.

4:05And many of those issues surrounded the tensions between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, because all of these churches were made up of both. You had Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in every church. And so in Romans chapter 1, Paul demonstrates that the Gentiles are unrighteous before God. God has revealed himself through creation, but the Gentiles rejected him. Instead, they exchanged the glory of God for images. They worshipped and served created things. They exchanged the worship of God for sin of every kind.

4:41And then in Romans 2, Paul demonstrates that the Jews are also unrighteous before God. Though they passed judgment on the Gentiles for their sins, they sinned in most of the same ways, and they broke the law that they claimed to love. In Romans 3, Paul demonstrates that the whole world is unrighteous before God. Paul quotes from Psalm 14, there is no one righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. But there is hope, because although all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, anyone who trusts in Christ's death and resurrection will be justified, will be counted righteous as a free gift from a gracious God. Romans 4 then is all about justification, where Paul shows that justification is not a Christian idea, but it has been taught all throughout history through what he has revealed to his chosen people, the Israelites.

5:42And Paul takes us all the way back to Abraham, the father of the Jews, who was not justified by works, but by faith. Paul quotes Genesis 15, 6, which says, Abraham believed God and God credited to him as righteousness. Romans 5 and 6, Paul shows that Christ is the true and better Adam. He is the Savior of Jews and Gentiles because he is fully God and fully man. He died for Jews and Gentiles while all of us were still sinners.

6:16So in light of God's grace, we don't continue to live in sin. Instead, we live lives of holiness and obedience because we've died with Christ and we've risen with him through faith, which is symbolized in Christian baptism. And then in Romans 7, Paul shows that Christians who have died to sin still struggle with sin because of our sinful flesh. Through faith, we've been given new hearts, and God has put his Spirit within us. But our sinful flesh, the body of death, as Paul calls it in Romans 7, still wages war against our new hearts and the Spirit that God has put within us.

6:55And then finally, in Romans 8, Paul encourages us not to despair, because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He goes to show us that we are going to suffer in this life because of our own sin and because of the sins of other people, but that we can trust in God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God knew us before the foundation of the world.

7:24He predestined us to adoption into his family. He called us to. Himself, he justified us and he glorified us. And our hope is secure because it does not rest in our performance, it rests in the performance of Jesus Christ, which was perfect. And so today we're back in our Romans series covering chapter 9, verses 1 through 5. And in these verses, Paul is going to share his heart for his fellow Jews who have rejected Jesus Christ.

7:59And if you are a believer in Jesus, if you are a Christian, this text is really going to challenge you this morning. It really challenged me all week. And here's why. If we are being honest with ourselves, we do not feel like Paul felt about the lost. We do not feel like C.T. Studd felt about the lost. And as a result, we do not share our faith in Jesus Christ with non-Christians the way that they did or the way that some very faithful men and women among us do in our church.

8:47You ask us about our spiritual disciplines, about our Bible reading, about our prayer, about our church attendance, our obedience in other areas. I think many of us are doing fairly well. We are mostly faithful. In other areas of the Christian life. But if you ask us what non-Christians we are praying for, what non-Christians we're hoping to share the gospel with, when the last time was we shared the hope of Christ that is within us, we kind of shuffle our feet and avert our eyes, and we mumble something about needing to be more faithful in evangelism.

9:32So this morning we're going to think about the topic of evangelism through the lens of our feelings and actions toward non-Christians that we know. And we're going to do that by considering Paul's feelings and actions toward non-Christians, his fellow Jews. And so here's how we're going to be challenged this morning. Take a look at the screen. Lost souls should break our hearts and motivate our evangelism. Lost souls should break our hearts and motivate our evangelism. So let's look together at Romans 9, verses 1 through 3 to start.

10:14Here's Paul in Romans 9, verse 1. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Now that sounds pretty defensive, doesn't it? Like, why does Paul open the chapter like that? I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness. He doesn't just say, I'm speaking the truth. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. He says, I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness. Why does Paul write that? Why does he feel the need to defend himself and to say, you can trust what I'm saying here?

10:57Well, it's because Paul is about to say that he has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart on account of his brothers, his kinsmen, the Israelites, the Jews. And I think that some of the Jews would have found this very hard to believe, the Jewish Christians, at least. See, if you don't know Paul's background, he gives it in Philippians. Let me put that on the screen for you. This is Philippians 3, 5, and 6. Paul says that he was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

11:46In other words, Paul was a model Jew who initially viewed Christians as heretics. But when Jesus appeared to him, risen from the dead, Paul did a complete 180. And started preaching that Jesus was the Christ, that he had, in fact, risen from the dead and proven himself to be the Messiah, God's Son. But, friends, most Jews rejected his message. So he started preaching the gospel to non-Jewish people, to Gentiles, and teaching that through faith in Christ, the Gentiles would be adopted into God's family as well.

12:25And so, Jewish people might have wondered whether Paul and God himself had rejected them. They wondered if Paul and God had moved on, as it were. But Paul says, absolutely not. He is not lying, he is not exaggerating when he says that he has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart for his fellow Jews. Now, think about those words for a moment: great sorrow and unceasing anguish. That phrase great sorrow refers to a state of mental pain and anxiety, which is the result of great grief or sadness.

13:15And this phrase, unceasing anguish, is a figurative extension of a word meaning physical pain. Such severe emotional distress that it almost manifests in physical symptoms. So, in English, we might say heartbreak. That Paul had constant heartburn over his fellow Israelites. Now, why did Paul feel that way? Why did he feel great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart for those people? Look at verse 4. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption. They were God's adopted people. This is what Moses said to Pharaoh.

14:05The glory. They had seen God's glory fill the tabernacle and then the temple. The covenants. The covenants, the promises that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with Moses and with David. The giving of the law and the worship. God revealed his standard to them. He told them exactly how to worship him. And all of that sacrificial system is pointing forward to the perfect sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ. The promises. Think about every promise that is made throughout the Old Testament about the Messiah who is to come, to be born of a virgin, to be born in Bethlehem, to come and redeem the people from their sins.

14:48See, the Israelites should have recognized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the one that God had promised. And yet, in spite of all of these advantages that Paul enumerates here in verse 1, Most Israelites rejected Jesus. They could not believe that a man from Nazareth, a nobody who had been rejected by the religious leaders and crucified by the Roman authorities, they could not believe that a man from Nazareth could possibly be the Messiah. But he was, and he claimed to be. You see, Jesus did not say, I am a way and a truth and a life, and I am one of the ways that you can get to God the Father, that you can go to heaven when you die.

15:36Jesus said in John 14:6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Paul believed that, and Paul preached that. So his heart was broken. He felt great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart because the Jews had rejected Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. How strongly did Paul feel about this? How strong were his feelings about his fellow Israelites? Look at verse 3. Paul writes, For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

16:28I mean, that sounds crazy. Doesn't it? That sounds crazy to say that you feel such sorrow and such anguish over people that are lost that you could wish that you were cut off from salvation so that they could be saved. That sounds crazy. But Moses said the exact same thing. After the people of Israel had rebelled against God and they had fashioned their golden calves and were worshiping them and serving them, and God was going to strike them dead for it. Look at what happens in Exodus 32, verses 31 and 32.

17:08So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, blot me, please blot me out of your book that you have written. Please blot me out of your book. Friends, I don't know your heart, but let me tell you about mine. I do not have that depth of love for non-Christians. Could you say that? Could you say that you have that depth of love that is? If it were possible, you would give up your own salvation so that people who do not know the Lord could be saved? Could you say, I could wish that I were accursed and cut off from Christ so that others could come to know him? Could you honestly say that if it were possible, you would give up your salvation for others?

18:22Now, listen, I think most Christians, myself included, we do want lost people to be found. We do want non-Christians to be saved, to be set free from the penalty and the power of sin. We do want every person to become a Christian. We think about the lost, we pray about the lost, and at least on occasion, we share the good news of Jesus Christ with non-Christians. But I do not think that most of us could honestly say, along with Paul, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart over the lost. That is a very high bar.

19:07So the question then is, why not? Why don't we have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts for non-Christians? I'm sure that there could be many reasons, but let me give you what I think are the two biggest reasons that we may not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts over lost people. The first reason that we may not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts is because we might doubt the reality of eternal punishment.

19:43We might doubt the reality of eternal punishment. Jesus taught the reality of eternal punishment. In Matthew chapter 25, he's giving a parable about the final judgment, and he concludes with these words about the unrighteous. Take a look. He says of the unrighteous, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Jesus taught the reality of eternal punishment. And so did Paul. Back in Romans 2, he spoke of the wrath and fury, the tribulation and distress that awaits every human being who does evil.

20:27Paul taught that that was the destiny of every person who is accursed and cut off from Christ through unbelief. Wrath and fury, tribulation and distress. Brothers and sisters, both Jesus and the apostles taught the reality of eternal punishment. Hell is real. Hell is awful. And hell is forever. Those truths should result in great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts. For everyone who does not know and trust in Jesus Christ. But, friends, those truths are uncomfortable, and we do not like to believe uncomfortable truths. It is much more comfortable for us to believe that non-Christians simply cease to exist when they die.

21:20But that is not what the Bible teaches. Look at Revelation chapter 20. John says, And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. You see, the Bible says that when Jesus returns, everybody is going to be resurrected, the righteous and the unrighteous. We are all going to stand before him. We are all going to be judged, and we are all going to be sent someplace for eternity. Either to the new heavens and the new earth, to live in eternity with joy with Christ in the presence of God forever, or we are going to be sent to hell, to a literal place of eternal punishment. That is what Scripture teaches. And anyone with an ounce of compassion would not want anyone else to go to hell. But not one. Wanting people to go to hell does not make it any less real.

22:34Hell is real, hell is awful, and hell is forever. So, maybe if we don't feel great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts for the lost, it's because we doubt the reality of eternal punishment. The second reason that we may not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts for the lost is because we might hope that good enough will be good enough. We might hope that good enough will be good enough. According to researcher George Barna, 50% of professing Christians in America believe that salvation can be earned through good works.

23:21Keeping the Ten Commandments, trying to obey the teachings of Christ, trying to do more good than evil in your life. 50%. This is not half of Americans. This is half the people in this country who profess to be Christians. They believe that good enough will be good enough. And listen, it's tempting for us to believe that too, especially when it comes to family members and friends who we love, who are generally good people. But according to Scripture, there's no Such thing as good enough. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that if we want to go to heaven, we have to be perfect.

24:10Paul said that there's no one good, not even one. Nobody's perfect. Nobody is even good in God's eyes. And friends, Americans should know that. Americans, as much as any people, should know that. Because, like Israel, we have been given so many advantages. I mean, think about it. Religious freedom is baked into the founding documents of our country. Access to the Bible is available for every single person in this country. There are Christians and churches and ministries in every single city preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, so many Americans believe that good enough will be good enough, including many of our family members and friends.

25:08So we find ourselves tempted to believe that maybe good enough will be good enough, but it won't be. Saying that you believe in God will not get you to heaven. James says that even the demons believe and they shudder. Saying that you are a Christian will not get you to heaven. Jesus says that many are going to say to him on the last day, Lord, Lord, and he will say, depart from me. I never knew you.

25:41The only way to heaven is to believe that you are not good enough, that you need a Savior, and that Jesus is the Savior that you need. That your life isn't good enough, but his was. He obeyed God's law perfectly every single day of his life, and then he went and died in your place for you on the cross. He was buried, and he rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death for you. That is the only way to heaven, to believe that he is, as verse 5 says, the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. That is the way to heaven. Good enough will not be good enough, and eternal punishment is real. So lost souls should break our hearts and motivate our evangelism.

26:36So what should you do if you are a Christian and you are like me, where you have to admit that you do not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in your heart for lost people, for people who don't know Christ? What should you do if you find yourself as a Christian? not sharing the gospel very often with other people that you know and love. I want to give you four steps, four encouragements. Meditate, pray, plan, and act.

27:20Meditate, pray, plan, and act. First, I want to encourage you to meditate. Meditate on God's Word. See, when we become Christians, God doesn't zap us and immediately transform the way that we think about everything. That's why Paul writes in Romans 12, as we're going to see at the end of this semester, that we need to have our minds transformed and renewed. That's why he says that. And the way that that happens is through frequent meditation on God's word. So take a look at Proverbs 2, 1 through 5. This is what it looks like to meditate on God's Word. Proverbs 2 says, My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. I want to leave that up for a moment for you to reflect. On that. If you want to have your mind transformed and renewed, you've got to meditate on God's Word. What does this mean from the passage? Well, first, you've got to receive it. We receive, we don't reject the Word of God. You treasure it like silver. It is the most important thing to you in your life.

28:53You make your ear attentive to it. You listen carefully to what God says. You call out for insight and understanding. You don't lean on your own understanding the way that you think the world should be, but you let God tell you how the world actually is. And what is the result of all of that? That's where he closes. The writer of this proverb, he says, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

29:24When we meditate on God's word, our minds begin to be transformed and renewed. We begin to think the way that God thinks and feel the way that he feels. We begin to see what he sees, especially with respect to the lost. So first, we meditate on God's word. Second, we pray. We pray. And specifically, we pray, God, help me to feel the way that you feel about the lost. Help me to feel. The way that you feel. We know how Paul felt. We know how C.T. Studd felt. How does God feel about the lost? He says this kind of stuff all through the Bible. Look on the screen at Ezekiel 18.

30:16God says, Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? Look at 2 Peter 3:9. Peter testifies, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Friends, as we meditate on God's Word, our minds will be transformed and renewed. We'll begin to think the way that God thinks and see what God sees.

30:57But our hearts take time to catch up to our heads. And so we pray, God, help me to feel the way that you feel about the lost. Jesus does not look at the lost and shrug. He looks at the lost and weeps. So first we meditate. Second, we pray. Third, we plan. We plan. I mean, true. Truly, most of us don't evangelize because we don't have a plan to evangelize at all. We plan for so many unimportant things in our lives. Why would we not plan to share our faith?

31:44And so, students, maybe that looks like you plan to go to the free lunch at the BSM every Wednesday and meet an international student and sit down with them in hopes of striking up spiritual conversation and sharing the gospel. Or if not, then, through a friendship that you form at that time that will lead to a gospel conversation later on. That's a good plan for evangelism. Employees, maybe you realize, look, you've got five lunches every week. You've got breakfast before work. You've got coffee breaks during the day. Could you plan to intentionally take a few of those each week with a non-Christian coworker to build a relationship, to strike up spiritual conversation?

32:31Parents, maybe you plan play dates with another family or two who are lost or unchurched in hopes of striking up spiritual conversation with them while your kids play. Friends, if evangelism has to become something we add to our overcrowded schedules, it's never going to happen. You've got to take advantage of the everyday things in life. Yesterday I went to get my hair cut, and it's like when you go get your haircut, you're strapped in that chair for 30 minutes. Like, what are you going to talk about? The weather and Aggie football? It's hot and humid, and we're going to go 8-4. Okay, great. You want to talk about Jesus?

33:10I had a great spiritual conversation with the lady who was cutting my hair yesterday and got to share the gospel with her in that 30 minutes. Ladies, I mean, you're there for like half the day. I mean, you could read the entire Bible with the person cutting your hair. You're like, Philip, starting in Isaiah, just moving forward to the Christ. The point is, make a plan to evangelize, preferably, one that doesn't add another thing to your life, but simply redeems the time that you are already going to spend eating or going to the park or working out or whatever. Any plan is better than no plan. So we meditate, we pray, we plan, and then finally, we act. We act.

33:58All of that meditation and prayer and planning is for nothing if we don't actually open our mouth and share the good news of the gospel, remembering that the word of God is powerful and effective. Look at Hebrews 4. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So, Christians, lost souls should break. Our hearts and motivate our evangelism. And if that's not the case for you, then I want to encourage you, meditate on God's word. Pray that God would give you His heart, His feelings for the lost. Plan to evangelize and act with expectation, like Pastor Micah and I have talked about the last couple of weeks. Act with the expectation that God is going to move.

34:58And friends, if you are here today and you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope that you see through this passage how much God loves you. Paul's feelings that he expresses in this passage are merely an extension of the feelings of God. God has great sorrow and unceasing anguish for each person who is not a believer in Jesus Christ. He created you in his image and likeness. Every good and perfect gift, every blessing in your life comes down from the Father of lights as a gracious gift to you.

35:45But you, like all of us, have rebelled against God. You have said, I do not want to worship and serve God. I want to worship and serve myself. I don't want him to be God on the throne of my heart. I want to be God. To be in control, the Bible calls that sin. Sin is not so much the actions that we do, although it is that. Sin is the attitude and motivations and desires of the heart that those actions come from. Sin is not putting God first, but putting self first.

36:21And that is what we have all done. But as Paul talked about in Romans chapter 5, while you were still a sinner, while we were all still sinners, God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life of obedience, to die on a cross in your place for your sin, and to rise from the dead so that you could be set free from the power of sin and the penalty of sin through faith in Jesus. Oh, friends, if you're not a believer in Jesus, what keeps you from coming to Him today? Why would you not come to Jesus today, the one who loved you so much as to die for you? Why would you not make him the center of your life this morning?

37:13God's heart is broken for you. He is calling out to you. It is no accident that you are here today. You are here because he is drawing you to himself. All you have to do is repent, turn from your sin, and to turn to Jesus Christ. Christ in faith. Do that this morning, that there might not be sorrow in heaven, but rejoicing in heaven over your conversion today. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you this morning that most of us do not have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts over the lost.

38:16We do care about them. We do pray for them. We do occasionally share the gospel. But I don't think most of us could say honestly that we have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts. And so, Lord, would you help us to see what you see? Would you help us to feel what you feel when you look at the lost? I pray that you would motivate us to share the good news of Jesus Christ, that we would believe in the reality of eternal punishment, that we would believe the good and Will not be good enough, but that we can only be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

39:10God, I pray for anyone here this morning who is not yet a Christian, would you grant them saving faith this morning? Would you help them to turn from their sin to Christ in faith right now? I pray that today would be the day of salvation, that they could know the abundant joy, the peace, the hope, the eternal life that you promised to us, not just one day in the future when we die, or one day in the future when Jesus returns, but today, now.

39:44Draw them to yourself, Lord. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your spirit. Thank you for the opportunity to gather. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.