Romans 15_8-13 Finding Unity Between Jews and Gentiles
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Summary
The Israel Delusion, Challenging Christian Zionism and Reclaiming the Church as the True Israel. The Israel that the Bible talks about in the Bible is not the nation of Israel, it is the body of Christ, the Church.
Transcript
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Amen. Well, let's wake up and get in the Word, right? So this last week, I was able to deliver
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a sermon on really the relationship between Christians and the Jewish people. I don't
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think that I expected that sermon to be so perfectly timed with all the events of the past
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week. I had been working in the weeks prior on that content, and it actually released this week
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in a small little booklet. We will have these in about a week or two for our congregation for free.
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And so if you want one of these, just come find me.
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I talk about that because this is really part two of a part of the first part that we did last week.
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The title of this little booklet is called The Israel Delusion, Challenging Christian Zionism and Reclaiming the Church as the True Israel.
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now last week we learned that identity precedes unity identity precedes unity and for jews and
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gentiles to be truly united as the scriptures call us to we must first understand who paul
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is referring to when he says the term the jews is he talking about those jews who have rejected
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Christ as the Messiah? Or is he talking about those believing Jews who came to him by faith?
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Now, at first, the answer might seem obvious. You think, well, of course, he's talking about
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the believing Jews. But in our day, with what we call Christian Zionism, or with what Corbin
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had mentioned is dispensationalism, it's actually more complicated than that. Many believers,
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shockingly will show more zeal in aligning with and supporting the nation of Israel who rejects
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Christ than they will in supporting and aligning with other Christians and local churches in their
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own hometown. Think about that for a second. We have been raised up in a generation that has
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elevated the Jews who reject Christ, and we are more willing as a church in America to support
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that nation than we are to support one another. Now, the real trouble with this doctrine
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of dispensationalism, and these are real brothers and sisters in the Lord who hold these positions.
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This position was really obviously, it came onto the scene in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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It was popularized by the Schofield Reference Bible.
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But it is not the position of all of church history.
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In fact, for about 1900 years, that was not the position of either the Protestants, the Orthodox Church, or the Roman Catholic Church.
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Now, it's hard to come to that realization when you realize, wow, we believe something that 1900 years of Christians did not.
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and what is the cost what is the cost of mixing up israel as the church the body of christ
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and israel the nation that has rejected christ what is the cost now just for a second i'd like
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you to imagine with me imagine all of the passion and the influence and the prayer and the finances
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that America has directed toward the nation of Israel.
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Imagine if all of that had been directed toward the church.
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We have many churches that are struggling to find a building.
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We have many churches that are fighting political and legal battles in their own hometowns.
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We have many churches that are persecuted in a variety of ways.
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But imagine how much effort has been put into the focus on the Middle East.
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Imagine for a second that the Israel that the Bible talks about is truly Christ and his body, the church.
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Which includes believing Jews and believing Gentiles.
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We have believed that the nation of Israel is, quote, God's chosen people.
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And I challenged that last week saying, what about the many Jews that have died rejecting Christ
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and who are now, according to scripture, in hell?
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Are we fair to say that God's chosen people are in hell?
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And so, again, we find the systematic coherence of the true Israel being the body of Christ.
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Now, I showed how Gentiles have been grafted in to a root that was ethnic and national and temporary.
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that vine has now blossomed into something that is spiritual global and eternal what started off
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as a seed and in the cradle of national ethnic israel has now blossomed into an international
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body of christ this is again why jesus says in the great commission go and get the nations
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for they are mine. Ultimately, what I was communicating is that the church doesn't
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replace Israel. This is the argument that dispensationalists will use against covenant
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theologians. They will say, oh, you hold to replacement theology. No, I do not truly. In
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fact, that term replacement theology is simply a straw man term that they use because they're not
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willing to deal with the real debate around covenant theology. No, the reality is that the
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church doesn't replace Israel. It is Israel. We know and we saw last week that Christ is the true
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Israel. He is the true and better Jacob. He is the true and better Moses. He is the true and better
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Joshua. He is the true and better Adam. Christ is the true Israel. And his body, the church, is the
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true and better Israel. Now, when we look at Israel, the church, it is the matured form.
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It is the blossomed form. It is the ultimate form. In a sense, any Gentile believer grafted
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into the true Israel becomes a true Israelite. Think about that for a second. Spiritually,
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we are Jews, a true Jew, according to scripture. There is actually a several passages of scripture
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that says that there are true Jews and there are not true Jews. There are Jews who lie and
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there are Jews who are truly circumcised of the heart. And so, when we come to Christ,
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we actually become a true Israelite. And in fact, when a Jewish person rejects Jesus,
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they become a true Gentile. It's very strange in the sense that they actually become someone who
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rejects, a pagan, apostate, away, separated, unholy from the people of God. Now again,
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all of this is meant to clarify exactly who Paul is referring to when he speaks of unity between
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the Jews and the Gentiles. Now, in contrast to the confusion of the dispensationalism that's in
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America, especially within, you know, maybe the more conservative church, biblical unity between
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Christians and Christ-rejecting Jews is not what Christ wants. There's been a little bit of a
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sentimentality, where we find this kind of desire to almost make Jews feel comfortable
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in the presence of Christians, almost as if they are kind of like halfway Christians.
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In fact, years ago, many years ago now, when I was a member at a church, I remember that they
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brought in a Jewish rabbi to explain parts of the Old Testament to us. Now, this rabbi
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was a Talmudic Jew who rejected Christ. And for a moment you sit there and you're almost
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going, oh, well, this is really helpful. I'm appreciating this. But then you come to your
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senses and you realize we are asking a man who does not understand to see Christ in all
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of the Scriptures to help us interpret the Scriptures. And then, right after that, they ask
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for an opportunity for us to give to his Hebrew Institute of Interpreting Old Testament Scriptures.
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And then the entire church is now donating money to this man who rejects Christ, while not giving
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it to the other churches in their own hometown that are desperate. It is a very strange thing
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neither Jesus nor Paul ever called for spiritual unity
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In fact, it is our duty to make people feel uncomfortable
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It is never loving to make someone feel comfortable
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In fact, it is very anti-Semitic to make somebody feel that Jesus is not their Messiah.
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Tell them to repent of their sin and to show them from the Old Testament that this is their Messiah.
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It's a great way to love the nation who rejects Christ.
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2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through 15, it says,
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For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?
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And what fellowship has light with darkness?
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Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
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Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
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That man who came into our church, we brought a liar into our church.
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In fact, there's probably a few churches today that are having situations like that in their church this morning.
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You start to see pretty quickly why Jesus was crucified
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and they're going you telling me that i hate god and the christian response is yes yes i am telling
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you that if you hate jesus christ that you do not love god the father
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that is a shocking message for an american churchianity
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philippians 3 2 through 3 it says look out for the dogs look out for the evildoers
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to see those that are born of Jewish descent come and see Jesus as the Messiah.
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We want that. We love that. We hope and pray for that.
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And so now that we know that Paul's emphasis on unity is between believing Jews and believing Gentiles
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and not that the American church should be out here uniting with Christ rejecting Israel in the Middle East.
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and let me say something real quick because we are in the middle of this political conflict
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i'm not saying that what happened yesterday was completely wrong
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iran hates america iran hates christians it's an islamic nation it's ran by sharia law
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it's not good in fact anytime i get an opportunity to be against the muslims i'm in
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okay what i'm saying is that i want every possibility to fight against
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lies and what happened yesterday is difficult to discern because you have two sides one
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you go wow we have jumped into a war primarily seemingly because of the conflict between
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Israel in this nation. On the other side, you also have a nation who hates us and has very likely
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threatened our president and has also probably not a great reality of them having nuclear weapons.
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So there is arguments on both sides, and I'm not saying that all of what happened yesterday is
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because of dispensationalism. No, it's more complicated than that, certainly. What I am
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saying is that dispensationalism certainly had some involvement in the position and the way that
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we think about geopolitical realities in the Middle East. And I believe it is time for us to
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be thinking Christianly. I saw actually a quote. It was a meme that showed a picture of Donald
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Trump, and it said, America first, and then it said, Israel firstess. And that can seem truly
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what it feels like. No, what we want is we want Christ first. We want our beliefs to inform our
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behavior. And we want, really, the scriptures to inform how we ought to relate with these other
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nations. Now, my hope is that through the power of Christ, that Christ conquers Iran. And how would
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he conquer Iran? The same way he conquered you and me, through the gospel. Christ conquers his enemies
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through conversion. That's what he does. He preaches the gospel through the body of Christ
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and sends missionaries into a land that is hostile, and people
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come to Christ. When it says faith by hearing and hearing by the word
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struggled to let go of their ethnic, legalistic
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And it led Gentile believers at that time to question the legitimacy of the Jews in receiving the gospel of grace.
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Just imagine for a moment, you're surrounded by a society and there was a handful of Jews that were in our church
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that were really struggling to grasp the gospel of grace.
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All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
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The freedom that we have in the gospel was a stumbling block for many of the Jews.
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We saw that in the previous sermons that I was delivering a few weeks ago.
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At the same time, the struggle of a Gentile watching these Jews struggle with the externalism
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and letting go of the legalistic reality and traditions of their past
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in order to receive the gospel of grace in which they rest not on their works,
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but they rest on the work and finished righteousness of Christ.
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On the other side, you have Gentiles coming out of paganism
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who were learning how to integrate into a covenant community
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that is filled with these centuries of traditions from the Jews,
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causing some Jews to question the legitimacy of the Gentiles conversion.
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and here's the apostle paul with a duty and mission to unite these two groups together
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what a work what a work that would be in fact i struggle with unifying people that have
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dispensationalism and or a legalistic background to unify into a body imagine taking two people
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from two radically different cultures and working that together that is a work of the holy spirit
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alone. Now, as we saw the tensions surrounding identity, tradition, spiritual maturity,
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weak and strong Christians, the friction that was happening there, now we're seeing those
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same tensions and those same conflicts between Jewish and Gentile believers. That's what
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this text is talking about. Now, one of the more common tensions seen in the early church
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was the Jewish doubts of the legitimacy of Gentile inclusion in the people of God.
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Now, it's not so clear, maybe in the scriptures,
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but when you start to read extra biblical literature around the first century,
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There was the Judaizers, there were Christians that were in the church
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Some of these Jews were likely pointing out to Paul and even to Gentiles and to their Jewish friends that Christ's earthly ministry was primarily and almost exclusively to the Jews.
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Using that as an argument against Paul's ministry to the Gentiles.
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But Jesus spent 99% of his ministry talking to the Jews.
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It's pretty quick and short jump to the idea that,
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well, look, even Jesus didn't go after the Gentiles.
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Are you sure that it was really God's will that the Gentiles be saved?
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If it was, why didn't Jesus go and seek the Gentiles?
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It's a pretty strong argument, actually, in the first century.
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Now, in response, we're going to see Paul turn to the Old Testament
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to show that the inclusion of the Gentiles was always part of God's plan
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and that God calls both groups to humility and to unity,
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not as two separate peoples, but as one new humanity,
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Let's just back up a few verses, and you can follow along in Romans chapter 15, verses 5 through 7.
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8 through 13. He says, Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a minister to the circumcision
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for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles
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might glorify God for His mercy. Now we're grammarians in this church, right? We like
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grammar because we're not going to be those people that don't know how to interpret the
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scriptures after being in the church for 20 years. So just look for a second. I mean,
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there's a variety of translations that are in our
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has become a minister to the circumcision.
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So this passage we're going to see has somewhat of a rotating focus.
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It's got a rotating focus affirming the legitimacy of the Jews in God's people
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and the legitimacy of the Gentiles in God's people.
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It kind of goes back and forth affirming both of them.
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And in the first sentence, Paul is affirming the legitimacy of the Jews
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and two, that he ministered primarily to the Jews.
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Now, I want to just jot off a few scriptures right now.
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I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
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That's a real strong passage of scripture to use against the Gentile inclusion.
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If Paul had not came out with his doctrine,
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I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
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The term house of Israel refers more to the bloodline or the ethnic reality of Israel.
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Jesus uses that phrase again, Matthew 10, 5, saying these 12.
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These twelve Jesus sent out instructing them, quote, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
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Here he narrows it down a little bit more, not just the house of Israel, but now to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
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which again in my opinion shows that there was a remnant within the group just as Romans chapter
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9 verse 6 says not all who are descended from Israel are Israel and not all who are born of
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Abraham are truly the sons of Abraham but it is those who are of faith that show the same faith
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of Abraham and so there is a group within a group again we understand this right not all Israel is
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Israel. When Jesus says that, or when the Old Testament says to bless Israel, he's not speaking
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of the nation of Israel. He's speaking of the elect within Israel. He's speaking of the true
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seed that's inside of the covenant of Israel. You have people that are in the covenant and you have
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people that are of the covenant. You have people who have been circumcised of the flesh and then
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you have people who are circumcised of the heart. There is a group within the group.
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in the new testament you see this reality that jesus says that we have wheat and we have tares
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in fact jesus says don't uproot the tares because they look so much like the wheat that you might
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actually uproot one of the wheat on accident let me do it he says at the end of time we still have
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it the israel the church there is a group within a group some people are actually born again
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Some people have been baptized, but some people have not been baptized at the heart.
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You have to learn to be able to see the visible and the invisible church.
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36% of the world population claims to be Christian right now.
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Do we believe that 36% of the world is regenerate?
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No, the reality is there is always a group within a group.
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Now, here he narrows this focus down to the lost sheep of Israel.
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Now, this actually really aligns with John 1, verse 11.
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And it says, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
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Well, that's pretty clear that the vast majority of his people rejected him.
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There was a remnant, a remnant of his people received him.
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That's the teaching of Romans chapter 11, 9, 10 and 11.
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were excluded from salvation. That's not the reason.
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But because his primary mission was, according to verse 8,
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To confirm the promises that were made to the patriarchs.
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It's the kind of verse that you could put in your house.
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For all the promises of God find their yes in Christ.
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Just let that sit in your mind just for a second.
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All the promises of God find their yes in Christ.
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It goes on to say that is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
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Think about the weight of that statement for a second.
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Every single promise, every promise from God, from Adam to David, from Abraham to Israel,
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every single promise finds their yes and amen in Jesus.
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Christ coming only to the Jews was not to limit the gospel to the Jews.
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But it was to fulfill the covenant promise that was made to the patriarchs promising that in God's timing, the gospel would extend to the Gentiles.
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It's again why Jesus goes, by the way, if you don't know, the Greek word for nations is Gentile.
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Okay, so when Jesus says, go therefore and get the nations in the Great Commission, he's saying, go therefore and get the Gentiles.
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and so why well twofold one is to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs and two
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that the gentiles would glory in the undeserved mercy of the ministry of christ so although many
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jews denied christ and persecuted many early christians and even those who believed still
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wrestled with understanding grace, Paul affirms their legitimacy by reminding the Gentiles
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that Christ came first to minister to the Jews, and then secondarily that the mercy
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But then Paul shifts his focus to the legitimacy of God's plan to save the Gentiles, which
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is comforting for us who are not born of Jewish descent.
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He does this by quoting four different passages from the Old Testament.
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He quotes from, so in Hebrew, you have the Torah, which is the law.
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And then you have the Ketavim, which is the writings or the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the poetry books.
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And whenever somebody shows a passage from each one of those catalogs of scriptures, it's basically a way to communicate that the entire scripture testifies of this particular point.
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Now, Paul just grabs a handful of these verses, four of them, and he says, as it is written, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.
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In verse 10, he says, and again, it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.
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And verse 11, and again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.
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And then verse 12, he says, and again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles.
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One, he shows the Jewish certitude that they are included in the new covenant people of God.
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And two, he's provoking Gentile believers to humility.
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Now this is a common work of Paul, to provoke the Gentiles to humility.
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He's a Jewish man called to deliver the gospel to a Gentile people.
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Now, he was constantly concerned with three things.
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Jewish clarity, Gentile humility, and Christian unity.
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When you start to read the corpus of Paul's writings, you can see that pretty clear.
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Jewish clarity, Gentile humility, and Christian unity.
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I'm going to give you a few examples on Jewish clarity.
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This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the covenant.
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That's a mystery to Paul and to fellow Jews.
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and you realize the hostility between Jews and Gentiles,
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we're members of the same body with the jews oh yeah you know why because we are one we are
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members of what the true israel the body of christ it goes on to say in ephesians 3 6 and
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partakers of the promise in christ jesus through the gospel i'm going to read it just one more time
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because it's an amazing passage of scripture this mystery is that the gentiles are the fellow heirs
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Bringing clarity to the Jews about the Gentiles.
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that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh
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But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once a far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
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But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among those,
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and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree.
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themselves Christians and I think that's a better
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11. I'm going to go back to 17 through 21. It says
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But if some of you, but if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
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If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root who supports you.
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Then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
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They were broken off because of their unbelief.
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For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
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Now, I did an entire exegetical breakdown of Romans chapter 11 about four months ago.
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And so if you want to go back and listen to those and how we balance that out.
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you you have covenant theology you have dispensationalism you have
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romans chapter 11 where does all of that connect together
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and as much as i would love to reteach it again i'm going to keep moving on
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now peter adds in this kind of section of gentile humility he says once you were not a people
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it's not that unity in christ erases all other metrics of identity all right
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it's that being in christ supersedes all metrics of identity it becomes the primary
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identity doesn't mean that you don't become i'm in christ now i'm not a woman now i'm not a man
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no you are just because it says there is neither male nor female no you're still a male and you're
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still a female. It's just the primary identity is not that you're male or female. It's actually
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that you're in Christ. It's not that you're Greek or American or Jewish. It doesn't mean that you
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lose your Americanness. I'm an American. And that is a part of my identity. And there's nothing
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wrong with identifying and being proud of the fact that I'm an American. But that identity
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is not to supersede the identity that we have in Christ.
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The word citizenship in the Greek is actually the Greek word politouma.
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It's the word that we get for police and for politics.
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And the reality is that our citizenship is there.
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Now, for believing Jews and Gentiles, Christ becomes the marrow of their unity.
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It is pretty amazing when you meet somebody that you might not even speak their own language,
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but if you have Christ in common, how much you have in common.
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Now, it's not to say that we don't appreciate that we have much in common with just those people that live next door.
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No, but the reality is, is that we have a beautiful, deep marrow of unity in Christ.
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And this should inform how we relate to those Christians of Jewish descent.
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I actually have a few friends that grew up in Jewish households that have come to Christ.
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And by the way, he was commenting on this book.
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He was saying, hey man, I got the e-book version of your book.
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And I thought, what an amazing thing to hear a Jewish man who came to Christ
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understand that the true Israel is not the nation in the Middle East,
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but the people of God, the true offspring of Abraham by faith.
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And the vast majority of Jews that understand systematic theology understand that.
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Now, does it mean that he doesn't care what happens in Israel?
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He is actually Jewish, and he actually has family members that live in that country.
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And so there is some degree of care that he ought to have for those people.
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I would give myself up for my people that have denied Christ, my people of the flesh.
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In the same way that I would care about Americans.
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In the same way that somebody else might care about the Japanese.
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No, but it should change how we relate to those who are Christians in Jewish descent.
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In fact, this gentleman who is a Jew and came to Christ, who was raised learning and speaking Hebrew,
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he is actually a really great resource to understand Hebrew.
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And I trust his interpretation because he understands how it is all fulfilled in Christ.
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It also is helpful how Jewish believers are to relate with us as Gentiles.
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Tell me how to unite with my brothers and sisters
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And this prayer doesn't give instruction for unity.
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It doesn't give instruction on how to be unified.
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It prays for the substance that overcomes all division.
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Paul is asking that God would fill the contending parties with more fruits of the spirit and the ground of their differences will begin to dwindle.
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When the tide rises, the little pools on the rocks are all merged into one.
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In other words, sometimes the best remedy for division.
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Sometimes the best remedy for division isn't addressing every complaint individually.
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But asking God to increase your love and peace and joy and hope for one another.
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Now this wisdom isn't limited to the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles.
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I don't know if you've ever been in such a difficult conflict
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is not trying to deal with every particular complaint and frustration.
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We know the scriptures say that what covers a multitude of sins?
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Do you know why I don't divide against my children,
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even though they sin against me many times per week?
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Do you want to overcome some sort of division in your life?
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With a relationship, with a friend, with a family member, with your parents,
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with your husband or with your wife, with your children.
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Sometimes the solution is not just going and attacking every particular point.
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It's sitting before the Lord and going, give me more love for this person.
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Let me see the hope of salvation that I might look upon these small things
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When you realize how much you've been forgiven,
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sometimes the best way for unity and in this church is to go back and pray that you might
00:46:39.980
have love and peace and joy and hope in christ and when that comes in i think we're going to see
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a very united church amen amen let's pray father we thank you lord for the work that you're doing
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And we pray, Lord, that this message of unity would extend not just in our walls,
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but beyond, between churches, between churches across different states and nations.
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We know that there is one Lord and one faith, one baptism, one gospel, one people.