Romans 9_1-5： How to Grieve for the Unconverted with Dale Partridge
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Summary
In Romans 9, Paul explains why the Jews are not saved, despite God's sovereignty over them, and how to deal with the paradox of God's control over their lives and the reality of their rejection of the messiah.
Transcript
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Would you open up your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 9.
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I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying.
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My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit
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that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
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For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
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according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory,
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the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs,
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and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.
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I started this about two years ago in Cottonwood before we moved the church up here, and it
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is great to see that we are back in probably the most controversial chapter of Romans,
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If you recall, in chapter 8, for those that maybe have not been with us these past several months,
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Paul spent 39 verses expounding upon the privileges of God.
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All the privileges that the people of God receive in Christ.
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He says that we've escaped the condemnation of the law in Romans 8.1.
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In these sufferings, as intense as they may be,
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they're not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.
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And not only will we experience resurrection bodies,
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but the earth will be renewed and we will dwell on the earth together.
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We have a God who intercedes with his spirit for us
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when our suffering is beyond our ability to bear.
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to work together for good for those who love him
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This degree of merciful sovereignty over his people led Paul to say,
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for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities
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nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth
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nor any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
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our Lord. So that's the context which chapter 9 is coming off the heels of these great privileges
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that are given to the people of God. Now as the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul is sharing
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excellent news. But as a Jew, Paul cannot help but see the paradox of grace. The people who had
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labored so hard for righteousness, who had the promise of the gospel, who held the heritage of
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God's prophets and priests and kings, who were by descendants, you know, by blood, Abraham of Isaac,
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of Jacob the people who are now after all of these great privileges are the
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people that are cut off from the gospel they actually forfeited their covenantal
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connection they rejected the very substance and pinnacle of everything
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that their entire heritage was pointing toward the irony is painful like the
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twist of fate it's so extreme when you understand it that it'll challenge your
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own sense of justice and this is the setting which Paul writes this chapter
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So in the first five verses of chapter 9, he's addressing the anguish that he has for the apostasy of his people, the Jews.
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Second, in verses 6 through 29, which is the chunk of this chapter, he explains why the Jews aren't saved.
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Why they're not saved, despite God's sovereignty over his people.
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If God causes all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called
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according to his purpose, how do we explain the contradiction between God's promise and
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How do you deal with the conflict between a God who says, I control the lives and the
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redemption of my people, yet Israel rejected the Messiah?
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That is what we're dealing with here in chapter 9.
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So essentially Romans 9 serves as an explanation of how, how the doctrine of election has always
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It clarifies that Israel's apostasy does not compromise the doctrine of God's sovereignty
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Instead, it reveals that the objects of salvation, the elected, are not who we assumed they were.
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Again, it'll challenge your sense of justice.
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So the question becomes, if the majority of the Jews are not elect, especially under Jesus' ministry,
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where is ethnic Israel's place in God's plan of salvation? Are they lost forever? How should the
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Gentiles think about the Jews? Is the church the new Israel? This is essentially all of the
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questions that Romans 9, 10, and 11 will be addressing. And so today I'm going to address
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Paul's attitude toward his unconverted people. And as you see, he's going to model humility
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and compassion that we must also have for those who are outside of Christ.
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So verse nine, or sorry, chapter nine, verse one, follow along with me.
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I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit
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that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. Okay, the structure of this sentence
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is interesting. Okay, it's designed for emphasis. Paul places three expressions of promise.
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okay he's essentially using two of them to even appeal appeal to divine support or divine witness
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one theologian referred to this as a triple oath he says i'm telling the truth in christ
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i am not lying my conscience testifies with me in the holy spirit all right so before i go forward
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i got to give you a little more context this will help you all right uh the jews hated paul
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The book of Acts records six times where Paul was either physically, verbally, legally attacked.
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And this is important because the tone of this passage demonstrates Paul's love for his enemies.
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Paul is having great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart for the people that want to kill him.
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It's easy to fall in the ditch of anger and only desiring justice upon your enemies.
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We stand with the justice of God that sends the unrighteous to hell.
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But Paul models a heart of sorrow that's required when we think about the perishing of the wicked.
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God says in Ezekiel 33 11, as I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
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Okay, loving our enemies and sincerely desiring their submission to the Lord Jesus
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is something that we have to practice as Christians.
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We cannot forget scripture's reminder that such were some of you.
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It's easy to think, oh, they're so wicked, without remembering your own biography.
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How can we be objects of mercy and have no mercy?
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How can we be recipients of grace and not extend grace?
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But this is not only a statement from Paul of sincerity.
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Paul is grieving over a truth he's about to declare.
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Separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
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Okay, there's a reason that Paul was hated by the Jews.
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Here, he softens the claim by expressing his sorrow over the claim, but the meaning of
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Now the Greek word for accursed, if you look it up in Greek, it's what we get our English word,
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it's the exact same word actually, it's anathema. Anathema. It means to be set apart
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for destruction. Now, what I want you to see is that it stands in complete contrast to holiness.
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Holiness. Holiness means to be set apart for blessing. Anathema means to be set apart for
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destruction. Okay, for a people whose entire heritage involved them being set apart,
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being told by Paul, who's a Jew, that they were now set apart for condemnation,
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that's going to ruffle feathers. Okay. We spent our entire heritage setting ourselves apart
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to be holy. And you're saying we're now set apart for condemnation. You can see why
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Paul is persecuted for the gospel. But Paul does not look to the Jews with an eye of disgust.
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in fact the sorrow is so great that if it were possible he would
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I want you to just like think about that for a moment
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grasp the degree of love required to make such a claim
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and agrees that the Jews' rejection of Christ
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And at the same time, he simultaneously weeps for them.
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This is the proper attitude that we should have about the wicked, about the broken, about the lost.
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Spurgeon says, I have sometimes felt willing to go to the gates of hell to save a soul.
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But the Redeemer went further, for he suffered the wrath of God for souls.
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What would be the result if we felt as Paul did, likeness to Christ, after that manner in which he loved?
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He did enter under the awful shadow of Jehovah's wrath for us.
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He accomplished what Paul wished he could, but knew he could not.
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It's difficult to love them, to care for them, to have a soul being anguished over the perishing.
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I want to briefly talk, this is going to be a little bit of a sidebar, I think it's important though.
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I want to briefly talk about this phrase, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
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Okay, globalism has made nationalism feel intolerant.
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It's made national pride or cultural dignity feel discriminatory.
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We have catchphrases like, diversity is our greatest strength.
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Is a nation that is so utterly diverse with religions and values and political views
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actually stronger? We have a generation that's like, but we
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need religious liberty. Jesus did not want religious liberty.
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Do you think the first and greatest commandment to love
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the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
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with all your mind, it leaves room for religious liberty? Yes,
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we should make sure that we have people be able to worship
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false gods and demons in our country. That's what we should stand for. No. Christ is not interested
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in religious liberty. Now, I'm not talking about racial diversity. I'm talking about
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moral diversity. Is our nation stronger because of its assortment of worldviews?
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would it be weaker if we were all united under christ according to the word of god
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with the ten commandments theonomically governing our nation's righteousness
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no way so today to favor your own people or culture is to be narrow-minded and bigoted
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Now, this ideology has certainly affected the church in many ways
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But it's important to note that Paul does not state
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that he's willing to sacrifice himself for the Romans
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or that he's willing to sacrifice himself for the Greeks.
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He's willing to sacrifice himself for his own people.
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Now, this ethic has been lost upon American culture
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because when you dilute what it means to be American
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there is no unifying cultural pride or ethic to uphold.
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And because of this kind of insatiable desire
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that's brought in Hinduism and new age garbage into our nation. And now we have, you know,
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Islam entering into the nation at great degree. And we have cults at every corner and we have
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demon worship everywhere. This is a fascinating time to be an American. We are a hodgepodge
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of worldviews. But we've had this fascination with foreign missions.
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We spent the last 75 years sending missionaries overseas while our own cities and hometowns are
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starving for the gospel. Young people are so motivated in the 90s and early 2000s
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to save African tribes and Peruvian villages, and they don't even care about their own cities.
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We've sent YWAM and global missions everywhere.
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While we starve our own people with the gospel.
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We have to be more like Paul, who always went to the synagogues first.
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Before he preached the gospel in a particular town.
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We've forgotten that global fruitfulness, the Great Commission.
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every tribe, nation, and tongue, every color of every person on earth, all of that global
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fruitfulness happens with local faithfulness. Global fruitfulness occurs by local faithfulness.
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We see that even in the midst of Israel's Babylonian exile, the Lord tells the Jews to
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prioritize local ministry. Check this out. Jeremiah 29 7 says, quote, but seek the welfare of the city
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where i have sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will
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find your welfare end quote psalm 122 6-7 instructs jews to pray for the peace of jerusalem may they be
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secure who love you peace be within your walls and security within your towers nehemiah grieves over
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the broken walls of jerusalem even jesus in luke 19 weeps over the coming destruction of his own
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homeland. Ultimately, again, we have to see that our geographic placement by God's providence
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should inform our ministry. Where does the gospel start? In your house, with your wife,
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with your kids, with your town, with your church. Yes. Do we love foreign missions? Absolutely.
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And when there is a called, qualified, and equipped man to be sent overseas to fulfill
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the Great Commission in another country? Let's send that guy. Praise God for those missionaries.
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But sending 18-year-olds that have never been trained up in the Word of God, who have no
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marriage, who have no kids, who have never had any experience, who are not called, who are not
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equipped, who are not qualified to go be missionaries all across the world is not what we see in the
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scriptures. It's not. What I'm saying is that it's honorable to prefer domestic
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ministry. It's honorable. It's an honorable option to slave away proclaiming
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the gospel in your own hometown. One of the strongest sentiments in our souls should be
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reserved for our own people. American people. Again, I'm not talking about color of skin.
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I'm talking about American culture. If Christians from all nations adopted this perspective,
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our homelands would be greatly blessed. You would see the Christians in India
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raising up godly cities in India. You would see the Christians in Europe
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raising up godly Christians and nations and cities in Europe. You would see the
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Christians in Mexico doing the same thing. You would see the Christians in
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We've had an obsession with international ministries for many, many
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years, and it has left this nation spiritually bankrupt. Do you know how many millions and
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millions of dollars that we've sent overseas in the last 40 years for missions? There's actually
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stats and stories that I did my research on that shows it has not actually been that productive.
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But when you look to faithful men that have stayed,
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the John MacArthur's and the John Piper's and the, you know,
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even the Alistair Beggs, the Douglas Wilson's that have stayed faithfully,
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locally, establishing the gospel in their own hometowns.
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The impact that those men have made across their own cities,
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ultimately prioritizing your desire for your own people.
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There's nothing wrong with sending people across borders.
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In fact, we must do it for the Great Commission.
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You can proclaim Christ here, within the borders of this city.
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Paul then explains why his sorrow for his own people is so profound.
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He highlights these kind of immense covenantal privileges.
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if you read with me Romans 9 4 through 5 he says who are Israelites to whom belong the adoption as
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sons and the glory of the covenants sorry and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law
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and the temple service and the promises whose are the fathers and from whom is the Christ
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according to the flesh who is overall God blessed forever amen
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okay i want to look at each one of these just briefly because i think it's going to give us
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a perspective of the irony the contrast the conflict my goodness these people have every
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privilege possible yet they still denied christ why and we'll answer that question
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first he says who are Israelites this is a term of distinction it's it's to show that they are
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the descendants of Abraham and Jacob or Abraham and Isaac and Jacob you we know that Jacob's name
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was changed in Genesis chapter 32 from Jacob to Israel means wrestle with God it was a distinction
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they took pride in because they were the chosen people of God they were a holy nation second it
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says, to whom belongs the adoption as sons. Now, in the Old Testament, it was common for God to
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address Israel as sons. Exodus 4.22 says, then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord,
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Israel is my son, my firstborn. Deuteronomy 14.1 says, you are the sons of the Lord your God.
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Now, this is not the same type of adoption that you see in chapter 8, verse 14. It's a different
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type of adoption, okay? We're going to see in the next few verses next week, Paul says,
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for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel,
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nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.
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We're not, what Paul's saying is that not everybody who is from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
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is actually an Israelite. It's not about the flesh, it's about the promise.
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True adoption comes from the spirit and is by faith, not by works from the covenant or by flesh.
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Third, he says, and the glory, which refers to the potency of God's glory being shown only to the Jews in the Old Testament.
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Exodus 24, 17 says, and the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.
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The people of God originated with the nation of Israel
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and the covenants remained in their custody alone.
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The Jews were the only people who had the standard of righteousness for the earth.
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They were the ones carrying the Ark of the Covenant,
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But again, instead of properly leading them to moral despair,
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showing them that the law is intended to teach you that you can't keep it.
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The reason you teach your children the Ten Commandments
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is to inform them that they can't keep it and they need a Savior who can.
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There was nations worshiping demons and worshiping false gods.
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Only the Jews had the proper way to worship.
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They had all these things that were all pointing to Christ.
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They were preparing God's people for and pointing people to Christ.
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The ESV translates it better. It says, to them belong the patriarchs.
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They had a blood relationship with those who communed and covenanted with God.
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And ninth, he says, from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is overall God blessed forever. Amen.
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this is the ultimate privilege of the Jews
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And when you consider the extent of all of those privileges of their cultural heritage
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with their rejection of Christ, when you put those two together,
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you begin to see the shocking and puzzling nature of the situation.
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How could a people with so many covenant blessings and divine benefits
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miss the very substance of everything they anticipated as a people? How could they miss it?
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It's right there. I still read the Old Testament and the New Testament, and I think about the Jews
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of today. I'm like, how can you not see that Jesus is the Messiah? It's frustrating.
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there's two reasons why they missed it two reasons god's sovereignty and man's responsibility
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and we get to see both dimensions for a second here so in chapter 9 if you look later in verses
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32 for 30 32 to 33 paul explains why the jews did not receive christ he says why question mark
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and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
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They stumble because they disobey the word, and catch this, as they were destined to do.
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I'm not sure what translation I'm reading it might be NASB it might be ESV
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John chapter 12 37 through 40 though he had done so many signs before them
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they still did not believe in him okay just full stop for a second
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the gospel is not about intellectual persuasion people are seeing jesus do signs miracles
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evidence vindicating his messiahship his divinity and they're still not believing
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it goes on it says they still do not believe him so that purpose clause the words spoken by the
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prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom
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has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, pay attention right here. Pay attention. It says,
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therefore, they could not believe. What do you do with that? They could not believe.
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there is a mass thousands upon thousands of jews that are fulfilling this prophecy
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whether it's speaking of just jesus's earthly ministry or beyond they could not believe could
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not it keeps going it says for again isaiah said he speaking of god he has blinded their eyes and
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hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their
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God, the blinding and hardening of hearts, God.
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Now, these curses of reprobation were not for all Jews, but they were for the majority
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the vast majority of the Jews rejected Christ. Now, if this
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doesn't convince you, if that doesn't convince you that God
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controls who believes and who doesn't, who receives mercy and
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who doesn't, I don't know what will. Later in Romans chapter
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nine, we're going to see it says, God says, I will have
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mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on
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whom I will have compassion. God gets to determine who he has compassion on. Every single one of us
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deserve hell. There is no unrighteousness or injustice on sending any one person to hell.
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To not give a particular person the right or ability to believe is not an injustice on God's
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part. There is only justice and mercy. That's it. Everybody
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deserves hell. God has for some reason granted mercy to some
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and left others to justice. There's no injustice. There's no
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one that deserves heaven and didn't get heaven. This is the
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scripture. We have to conform our flesh to the scripture. We
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yield our hearts to the scripture. The second reason for them being anathematized is their own
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responsibility. This is the conundrum of the scriptures. One of the great mysteries of the
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scripture is where does God's sovereignty and man's responsibility intersect? The other mysteries
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are the Trinity and the hypostatic union. God being or Jesus being fully God and fully man.
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Those are the three great mysteries of the Bible. There are no answers. You study those realities
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and you end up at a black door that you cannot open.
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We get to trust that somehow God is sovereign and yet we are still responsible.
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Man's responsibility. The Bible claims that the Jews exercise the sin of presumption.
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presumption believing that their national or religious identity equaled spiritual security
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that somehow what they did as individuals would secure salvation they didn't realize that it
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wasn't about doing it was about done in christ john the baptist says in matthew 3 9 quote and
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do not presume to say to yourselves that we have abraham as our father for i tell you god is able
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from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
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We live in America where thousands upon thousands of people
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They were in the church, spiritually dead, in the covenant, yet not alive.
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You know how common it is in America for people who, quote, said the sinner's prayer to think
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that they're saved, but they've actually never heard the real biblical gospel, a bad news gospel
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that sends them to absolute sorrow over their sin,
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that their baptism, that their taking the Lord's Supper
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that their intellectual grasp of the scriptures
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the only thing worse than not having the assurance of salvation
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and that that is somehow what we're talking about.
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Well, I have faith in Christ to earn a righteous verdict for me on judgment day that I cannot earn on my own.
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I also have faith that my sins have been punished justly, crushed upon the body of Christ.
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What we need to do as a people is see our utter inability to be found righteous before God.
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Legalism is right there creeping, right there hoping that you will rely on your works,
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that somehow God is happier with you, or he loves you more,
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or he thinks that you're more righteous because of something that you do.
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our obedience does not contribute to our salvation only the perfect obedience of Christ
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our faithfulness does not secure us or make us more loved by God now our obedience pleases God
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So when I sin, I don't panic that I lose my salvation,
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you get to rest in the fact that you have a rock to stand on that doesn't change.
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We must cast ourselves, body and soul, upon the cross.
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Without that happening, without recognizing how wicked you really are
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Part of having assurance is having a biblical anthropology to understand what the Bible says
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about who you are. Now, you're a saint if you are a believer, but you're a saint who sins.
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You don't just need the gospel once. You need the gospel on an ongoing, regular basis,
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a minute-by-minute basis. Without complete submission to the Lordship of Christ,
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And for those around you, for your fellow Americans, for the people in this city,
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for your parents and your in-laws and your cousins and your brothers and neighbors,
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Yes, recognize that wickedness must be punished.
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Yes, know that God will bring his wrath upon those who reject his son.
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But don't let them perish without your prayers.
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I'll close with a quote from Spurgeon that I think fits the occasion.
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If sinners be damned, at least let them leap over to hell over our dead bodies.
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And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around their knees,
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If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions,
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We thank you for the example of your Son on the cross,
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Father, we ask that you would impute that courage,
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Lord, that it would inform the way that we behave.
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That our cities would not perish uninformed and unprayed for.
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That our hearts would be to proclaim the gospel.
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To stand up for the righteousness of morality according to your law.