1. "Just as the widest ripple in the pond bears witness to the rock that was plunged into the middle of it sometime before. So this meeting today is just part of that wide spreading ripple that came from the great rock being rolled away from the mouth of Jesus' borrowed tomb as he emerged in victory over death that morning."

2. "You see, faith was the way. Faith was not some arbitrarily chosen virtue that God decided to use as the instrument of our salvation. No, faith, unlike, say, love or patience, is simply receiving. Faith is a description of the empty hand of the self-confessed, ungodly, held out to be filled with the righteousness of another, to be justified and declared righteous not with faith as a kind of substitute righteousness, but with faith as our reception of Christ's righteousness."

3. "Paul's whole letter is built around this glorious idea that you could come in here today and know yourself to be someone who has done that which is wrong, who has, as the Bible explains it, sinned against God. And you, sinner against God, can know that you can be forgiven by God, who is good, who does not compromise his goodness in order to forgive you."

4. "But something had happened that made Paul change. From seeing only Jewish privilege, being the treasured nation chosen by God, to seeing that change to an idea of Jewish priority. They were first, but they were never meant to be last. The Jews had only heard about the Messiah first. But the Messiah had, in fact, not come only for them."

5. "One of the problems with this subjective day is we tend to think that truth somehow must be what I want, what I like, that it's a projection. So truth is a way I express myself. But friends, that doesn't deal well with reality. That kind of expression and thought about the truth is cruel because truth is truth."

6. "It's amazing how wrong we can be, isn't it? How many decades did this church exist here with so many hundreds of members, but all of them of the same race? When we understand that the Gospel is not just for one race, how could that happen? Friends, we can be wrong."

7. "Parents, are you being clear with your kids that their being from a Christian family doesn't make them Christians? Do they understand that they themselves have to understand and believe this? They need to know that their love of their parents is not the same thing as their loving God."

8. "We hearing this today have to realize that we must move from simply getting this good news for us. It is good news for us. We must move from that to giving it to others. It's part of the nature of this news."

9. "It's more like a wedding. Have you been to a wedding recently? Have you seen two people stand up there and make vows to love each other for life? That commitment is what it's like to become a Christian. We come to know each other and we commit to each other."

10. "Our claim to love Jesus is ratified by our helping other people love Jesus."

Observation Questions

1. Read Romans 4:7–8. What specific words does Paul use to describe the “blessed” person and what has happened to their sins?
2. According to Romans 4:9, what question is Paul asking about who this blessing belongs to, and which two groups does he name?
3. In Romans 3:22–24, who is this righteousness “through faith in Jesus Christ” available to, and how does Paul say sinners are “justified”?
4. In Romans 3:25–26, what did God do with Christ, and how does this show that God is both “just” and the “justifier”?
5. Look at Romans 10:12–13. What does Paul say about any “distinction” between Jew and Greek, and who does he say will be saved?
6. In Romans 10:14, what four linked questions does Paul ask about calling, believing, hearing, and preaching?

Interpretation Questions

1. From Romans 4:7–9 and 3:24–26, how would you summarize “this blessing” in your own words, and why is it so central to Paul’s argument?
2. How does Paul’s emphasis on “faith” in Romans 3:22, 3:28, and 4:9 show that faith is not a new work we perform, but an empty hand receiving Christ’s work?
3. Why is it theologically significant that in Romans 4:9 and 10:12–13 Paul insists the same blessing is for both Jews and Gentiles?
4. How does the sermon connect Romans 4:9 to the wider Bible storyline (Abraham in Genesis 12, the prophets, the Great Commission), and what does that reveal about God’s long-term plan?
5. In light of Romans 10:14, why is the preaching and spreading of the gospel a necessary part of God’s design, rather than an optional add-on for especially keen Christians?

Application Questions

1. If “this blessing” is having our sins forgiven and not counted against us, how might remembering that truth change the way you approach God after you’ve sinned this week?
2. Where have you been tempted to think of the gospel as “mainly for people like me,” and how could Romans 4:9 and 10:12–13 reshape your attitude toward people of different backgrounds, cultures, or social classes?
3. Thinking about Romans 10:14, who in your current circle (family, neighbors, colleagues, classmates) has “never heard” the gospel clearly from you, and what could a next faithful step look like this week?
4. In your local church, what is one concrete way you could help “see others grow in Christ” (e.g., praying regularly for specific members, discipling a younger believer, serving with children or students)?
5. How might the sermon’s emphasis on sending workers (elders, missionaries, church planters) affect your decisions about your time, money, and openness to go—or to joyfully send others—even when it feels costly?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 12:1–3 — God’s call to Abram shows from the start that His plan was to bless “all the families of the earth” through Abram’s offspring, anticipating the inclusion of the nations.
2. Isaiah 49:5–6 — The Servant of the Lord is promised not only for Israel’s restoration but also as “a light for the nations,” that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
3. Matthew 28:16–20 — The risen Christ commissions His disciples to make disciples of “all nations,” echoing and advancing the Old Testament promise of worldwide blessing.
4. Romans 10:9–15 — Paul explains how people are saved by calling on the Lord and why preaching is essential for those who have never heard.
5. Revelation 5:6–10 — Heaven’s song praises Christ for ransoming people for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” displaying the final fulfillment of God’s global saving purpose.

Sermon Main Topics

I. World-Changing Discoveries Transform Understanding

II. What Is This Blessing Paul Refers To?

III. How Is This Blessing Received?

IV. Who Is This Blessing For?

V. The Message Was a Surprise for Paul

VI. The Message Was a Surprise for the Romans

VII. The Message Applies to Us Today

VIII. Application 1: Work to See Others Grow in Christ

IX. Application 2: Work to See Others Come to Christ

X. Application 3: Work to See Elders Raised Up

XI. Application 4: Work to See Elders Sent Out

XII. Application 5: Work to See New Churches Established Overseas

XIII. Our Gospel Resolve Must Match the Expansive Vision

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Imagine discovering something that changes the way you understand your very self.

Imagine that same discovery affecting not just you, but all the people around you, your whole community, understanding themselves.

And imagine if that new understanding was to reshape not just you and your community, but in fact the whole world and how it sees and understands the truth. Such discoveries you can find in the great stories in fiction and in fact. In fiction, think of Bilbo's discovery of the ring, J.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. Not thought to be much until at the beginning of the trilogy, the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf interprets this ring and shows that it's really the center of a great struggle for the world of Middle-earth. Or in history, sometimes it's One fateful act changes everything.

85 years ago today, Hitler decided to send his forces into Poland, changing the world forever. Or less dramatically, but perhaps even more lastingly significant, when a new view or understanding begins to reshape our world like 500 years ago when Luther posted his 95 Theses. Or Copernicus said that the sun didn't revolve around the world, but the world revolved around the sun.

Maybe later today you can discuss with your family or friends those you came with other examples you can think of of one insight, one realization that completely revolutionized your life. Some titanic significance discovered. We're actually living out an example of that this morning, even right now in just a little bit. We're going to be observing the Lord's Supper just as Jesus told His followers to do specifically. Christians have ever since that night followed Jesus' commands to have this symbolic meal in remembrance of Him.

And of His death for them, for us.

And another comes from that very same place, that very same weekend, those very same people, particularly meeting as we are right now on a Sunday morning. Why are we doing this? Because the Messiah who was crucified was raised from the dead that Sunday morning, following that. We see from Luke 24, those first Christians gathered on that day and ever since then, Christians have gathered on the first day of the week in memory of, in celebration of, and anticipation of the resurrection. Just as the widest ripple in the pond bears witness to the rock that was plunged into the middle of it sometime before.

So this meeting today is just part of that wide spreading ripple that came from the great rock being rolled away from the mouth of Jesus' borrowed as He emerged in victory over death that morning. It's showing the reality that came about with His resurrection. And that new reality changed me. It changed you if you're here as a Christian this morning. It changed how we organize our lives with each other.

The local church takes a major role in love and commitment. In service. It goes on to change how we spend our lives and our energies in the days the Lord gives us as we interact and look at the entire world.

One of those great shifts, those great discoveries is referenced in our text this morning. Our text is Romans chapter 4 verse 9, Romans chapter 4 verse 9, you'll find it. On page 941 in the Bibles provided. Let me encourage you to open there now.

As we look at it, notice that one word only, which, by the way, doesn't even occur in the original, but it's implied in the question. And it's correct of the ESV to put it there.

Romans 49. Page 941 in the Bible's provided, you'll find it. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. Three simple questions will illuminate our passage.

We'll look at the first two briefly and then the third will form the bulk of our reflections this morning. First, what is this blessing? Paul refers to there in verse 9. Well, it's the blessedness that Paul has just quoted from David in Psalm 32, writing about. Look at the verses just before it, verses 7 and 8.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So this blessing that Paul is referring to in verse 9 is our being right with God because our lawless deeds are forgiven, our sins are covered, our sins are not counted against us by the Lord. How could that be? How could God not know and care about our sins?

Well Paul has explained that back in chapter 3. If you look back at chapter 3, verses 24 and 25, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood. We'll be remembering that especially as we celebrate the Lord's Supper together. We've sung about it several times already in our service. My righteousness is Jesus' life.

My debt was paid by Jesus' death. My weary load was borne by Him, and He alone can give me rest. That's the blessing that Paul is writing about here in verse 9. Second question, how is this blessing received? And the simple, though revolutionary answer is what Paul has been saying really throughout this letter since chapter 3 verse 22, how is this blessing received?

By faith. And if you want to think more about what this means, simply read the letter of Romans up to this point. Especially starting in the middle of chapter 3. Additionally, you could listen to the sermons that we've been preaching here this summer on Romans chapter 4 to consider more of what this faith is, what it means, what it's like. This is one of the main themes of the book of Romans.

So if you turn back to its first chapter, look at verse 17. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And this is what Paul was particularly explaining at the end of chapter 3, right before the chapter we've been studying. So look at chapter 3, starting at verse 21.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the Law by this faith?

By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Law.

You see, faith was the way. Faith was not some arbitrarily chosen virtue that God decided to use as the instrument of our salvation. No, faith, unlike say love or patience, faith is simply receiving. Faith is a description of the empty hand of the self-confessed ungodly, held out to be filled with the righteousness of another, to be justified and declared righteous through faith. Not with faith as a kind of substitute righteousness, but with faith as our reception of Christ's righteousness.

So this believing Paul here in chapter 4, up in verse 5, he contrasts with the working in verse 4. Because the work for our salvation would be to be full of our own works. Instead, he says, by faith we're to rely on the righteousness of another given for us. And so we believe, that is we have faith, but believing is no meritorious work on our part. It doesn't deserve God's kindness.

Rather faith is the means, the instrument, as I say, the empty hand that receives the blessing given as a gift by God's grace. Friends, that's the theme of this book of Romans. Again, look back to chapter 1, verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. You see what Paul says there.

He talks about the gospel message as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Paul's whole letter is built around this glorious idea that you could come in here today and know Show yourself to be someone who has done that which is wrong, who has, as the Bible explains it, sinned against God. And you, sinner against God, can know that you can be forgiven by God who is good, who does not compromise His goodness in order to forgive you. But He has sent His only Son to be a sacrifice in the place of all of us who would believe in him, have faith in him, trust in him. And that's what we're called to do.

That's the good news, that you and I can actually be made right with God, be justified by having this faith in Christ. Friend, trust in Christ today. If you want to know more about what that means, ask your parents. Ask the people you came with. Ask those of us who stand at the doors afterwards.

We would love to talk to you about what that means. But now our third simple question, and this will propel the rest of our study for this morning, who is this blessing for?

Psalm 32 that he has just quoted in the two verses before was assumed to be written by a Jew, David, and presumably for Jews. But, and here is a big worldview shift right here, represented. But what Paul has been arguing here results in being right with God not being only for the Jews. So when it says circumcised here, it simply means Jews. When it says uncircumcised, it means non-Jews.

So, just to be clear, who are there other than Jews?

Well, there are what he calls here the non-circumcised, the non-Jews. Well, Mark, there were other people in the ancient Mediterranean world that practiced circumcision. Yeah, but that's not what he's talking about. He is using circumcision here simply as another name for the Jewish nation, men and women. He's just, these are the people of God.

And the uncircumcised are the nations, the Gentiles. That's how Paul frequently and here often uses this word. And what he's saying here is that the Jews, the circumcised, this gospel is for them, but he is also saying it's not only for them, it is also for those who are non-Jews and just to Be super clear again, who are the non-Jews?

Everyone else. Everyone else. So what I want us to do this morning is consider this sentence in kind of three concentric circles. First, what this understanding meant for Paul, because it revolutionized his life. He used to not think this.

And then second, I want to go out to the next concentric circle, this church at Rome that gets this letter in the first century. When they read this, how are they hearing this? What does it mean to them? And then the third one and where we'll spend most of our time, us, the people hearing it today. What does it mean for us?

All right? So stone of this idea goes in the pond and we want to see where it hits with Paul. And then what it's like when the Romans read it, and then what it's like for us today. That's what we're doing. So the central message of Romans had been, first of all, a big surprise for Paul.

And we have to start here, because this idea that he's writing about was not something he was born thinking. It was not something that his parents taught him. It was not something he learned in his local grade school. No, remember how Paul described himself in 1 Corinthians 15? He says, I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Now, if you're not a Paul scholar, you may be wondering, you, persecuted the church of God? I thought Paul wrote a lot of the New Testament, like Romans. He did. But Paul had like a whole other life. Before he wrote the Bible.

Paul was a persecutor of the church. He opposed the church. He fought against the church.

It's often not noted by people who are just sort of casually reading through, but if you turn over to Acts chapter 7, you can see how Luke first introduces us to Paul. Turn over there, Acts chapter 7. Sometimes people miss him there. Kind of like a minor character in a TV show who later gets a spin-off of his own series. You know, that's kind of Paul in this account, because this is about Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

So this is a very serious account, a movie account, a whole chapter long. Stephen's an amazing character. But Luke introduces us here in chapter 7, verse 58, Then they cast him out of the city, that's Stephen, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul, that's Paul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' and falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' and when he had said this, he fell asleep.

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Why would Paul be like that?

Because Paul was intensely devoted to Israel. Who is Israel that there should be such intense devotion to Israel? Well, friends, Israel is the one God himself had chosen. We'd read back in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6, For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

And Paul was a proud member of this nation. He later wrote about himself in Philippians 3, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. Remember that was his father, Israel's favorite son, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. So friends, this is the mindset that Paul had at the beginning of his adult life. But something had happened that made Paul change from seeing only Jewish privilege being the treasured nation chosen by God to seeing that change to an idea of Jewish priority.

They were first, but they were never meant to be the last. The Jews had only heard about the Messiah first, but the Messiah had in fact not come only for them. The risen Christ appeared to this most Phariseeist of the Pharisees, and said of Paul, He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry My name before the Gentiles.

And this helps us understand what Paul later in the Romans explains to them was going on with his plans going forward. If you look back at Romans toward the end of the letter, Romans chapter 15, he explains to them what he's hoping to do with his visit to them, Romans 15. Verse 18, For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

But as it is written, those who have never been told of Him will see, those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I've so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for the work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain. And to be helped on my journey there by you. Once I've enjoyed your company for a little while.

So how surprised was Paul by all this on the road to Damascus? Friends, the truth can surprise us too. One of the problems with a subjective day is we tend to think that truth somehow must be what I want, what I like, that it's a projection So truth is a way I express myself. But friends, that doesn't deal well with reality. That kind of expression and thought about the truth is cruel because truth is truth.

And you can decide you don't want to express yourself in a broken leg, but when you go to the doctor and he looks at it and he tells you it's broken, it actually helps you to know that truth. Even if you don't want that to be the truth. And your perception of that truth doesn't create that truth. That truth is just the truth. You can understand it or not.

So what Paul experienced here was the truth breaking in on him. Have you ever experienced that in your life? I've been surprised by the truth a lot of times. I've been surprised by ways people misunderstand me. Or misrepresent me.

I've been surprised by facts about historical figures. Part of my doctoral studies was figuring out that the received facts about the 17th century figure Richard Sibbes were wrong. Things printed in big fat books that lived in libraries were inaccurate. They were false. Part of my own life story was figuring out with my dear wife Connie that I was not supposed to spend my life teaching at a seminary, as I had spent 12 years preparing to do and collecting four degrees, but instead I was supposed to spend my life pastoring you, this church.

Even more basic and most surprising of all was for me as a teenage agnostic coming to realize that Jesus Christ was in fact God that he claimed to be. I would say that I've had my fair share of being mugged by the facts. Of truth surprising me. How about you? What about in your own life?

Do you have any examples of truth overtaking you and surprising you in a way you'd not expected? It's amazing how wrong we can be, isn't it? How many decades did this church exist here with so many hundreds of members but all of them are the same race.

When we understand that the gospel is not just for one race, how could that happen? Friends, we can be wrong. Have you been the first person in your family or among your friends to become a Christian? Or perhaps to understand some other important truth? What's that done to your relationships with them?

Paul certainly faced difficulties with his countrymen. Parents, are you being clear with your kids that their being from a Christian family doesn't make them Christians? Do they understand that they themselves have to understand and believe this? They need to know that their love of their parents is not the same thing as their loving God. We want to pray that we can make the gospel clear in our own families.

Anyway, you can imagine something of the shock that this realization was to Paul that day on the road to Damascus. He's going there confidently knowing he's doing the right thing, and then the risen Christ appears to him and made him see that this blessing of forgiveness through the Messiah had come by faith and that it come not only for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles, the nations. It's interesting if you look at Romans 4:9, that word only in the ESV isn't there in the Greek, but it is basically implied by the argument that Paul makes in any question, in asking it. And so the ESV translators are right to put it there. It's so right that the earliest translator of the Bible into English, John Wycliffe, he put an only there.

He knew that's the only way you could make sense of what was being said. And the early translators of the Bible into English, like the Geneva Bible, the Bible of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, or the later liberal translation, the King James Version, they put the only in there. Everybody put the only in there because that explains exactly what Paul is saying here. Explains the point of it. The point Paul was making here is that this news was not only for the Jews and that Paul That point had surprised Paul and had reshaped his world.

My second point is that this had also been a surprise for the Romans, no doubt. This letter was written sometime in the mid or late 50s A.D. to the church at Rome which had been founded by Christians whose names are lost to us. As the great city of the empire, new religions could quickly collect followers among the thousands that were in it. Many people were regularly relocated there without even choosing to go there, or they wanted to go there, all kinds of reasons for people around the empire to come to Rome. And we guessed that it was sometimes in the 40s A.D. that the gospel, probably initially among the Jews, had arrived in Rome, and some had believed.

A church had started, maybe several churches. We know that in 49 A.D. the Emperor Claudius issued an edict banning the Jews from Rome, throwing them out of Rome. And such an edict would have certainly affected a lot of the churches there because many of the people in the churches at that point would be Jewish. In Acts 18:2, it's interesting, Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla who were recent believing Jews who were exiled from Rome because of Claudius' edict. It even mentions it in Acts 18.

And by Acts 19, after the riot in Ephesus, Paul mentions that he wanted to go to Jerusalem. And then he said in Acts 1921, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. So Paul wanted to go to Rome. And the Roman church that Paul wrote this letter to existed then before Paul had ever been there. So it was not, as far as we know, a direct result of his work.

What Paul was doing in writing this letter to them, even here in chapter four, he was teaching them of the agreement that the apostles all understood that the church in Jerusalem understood that God's work among the Gentiles was part of God's saving work He had always intended. Paul was telling them this. Peter was telling them this from his experience at Cornelius' house. James summarized it in Acts 15 verse 14 saying that Peter has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name. That's the same kind of language God used about taking Israel as a people for His name.

Now they're talking about taking from the Gentiles a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, said James at the Jerusalem Council. And then he starts quoting Amos, chapter 9. The apostles began to understand that this thing that was a revelation to Paul on the road to Damascus actually was not new. It had lain there in plain sight for centuries in the Hebrew Scriptures, but people were just not noticing it.

So the Christians, the Jewish Christians, were beginning to understand that just as God had taken Israel in the Old Testament, like He has testified in Deuteronomy 7, so now they were looking at the Gentiles who were becoming followers of Christ in all their churches And they were looking at the back of their Bibles, what we call the Old Testament, and they were seeing that this revolutionary insight that Paul had been given on the road to Damascus, that God had a plan to include not just the Jews in salvation, but people from every nation. This plan was not new. This plan had actually been the plan all along. This was the plan from the prophets, from the passages in Amos that James had quoted at Jerusalem. Counsel.

Or if we go to another prophet over 800 years earlier than Paul, the prophet Isaiah, we see that in fact God had never been only about the people of Israel. In what must have seemed a very strange passage when these prophecies were first given, we read this ancient intention of God. Turn over to Isaiah 19. Isaiah chapter 19.

Back during the days of the prophets, the big enemies of God's people Israel at various centuries are the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians. So these are the big bad guys for centuries. So what does it sound like when a prophet of the Lord Says this in Isaiah 19, beginning at verse 23.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. And if you understand, that's going to run right through Israel from Egypt to Assyria.

And Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. And in that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed be Egypt, My people, and Assyria, the work of My hands. And Israel my inheritance. Oh my goodness. Or you turn over a little further in Isaiah to chapter 49, verse 6.

And friends, once you start seeing these verses in the Old Testament, you're gonna see them all over the place. But here's just one more example, Isaiah 49, verse 6, where the Lord says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Okay, so we just have to stagger back a little bit and go, okay, okay. So what shocked Paul on the road to Damascus was actually there 800 years earlier.

And the prophets. Oh, friends, that's not all. Let's go back to Abraham, the very founder of the faith, shall we? The very first time we encounter him. Go back to Genesis, chapter 12.

You're going to wonder what on earth. Genesis, chapter 12.

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. Okay, so far that's exactly what we expect. But then he keeps going. So that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. All the families, that means the tribes, the peoples of the earth shall be blessed in his choosing Abraham and his descendants to be special.

Okay, now I kind of just want to leave you there and let you wander through your afternoon thinking a bit. But I mean, let's just go to the most obvious place that maybe some of you are thinking about. So the end of Matthew's Gospel, the Great Commission, So in Matthew 28, what Jesus was saying was kind of nothing new. This was the original plan. This is that plan being picked up again and pushed forward now that He had come and died and been raised and would soon send His Spirit to empower.

Look at Matthew 28, verse 18, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. There seemed to be an understanding that the fulfilling of this worldwide task would take a long time. It wouldn't be done quickly.

It would take generations. So he says, I will be with you to the very end of the age.

And friends, we know from that wonderful study we did in Revelation last year that this is what's promised to happen. Go to Revelation chapter 5. Look at the song they're singing, this new song in Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10, Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10. They sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. So this inclusion of the nation surprised Paul, probably also surprised those first Christians like these in Rome. But this inclusion and expansion had always been God's plan. And so this blessing of forgiveness of our sins and being right with God being not only for the Jews but for people of every nation may be third point a surprise for us as well.

Not in the sense that many of us thought it was just for the Jews. Christianity has been around 2,000 years. Most of us are not Jewish, some are, but most of us are not. We've gotten the idea that God is about blessing people other than the Jews. But if you take it as an analogy, God's blessing coming to us but meant for others, well that still doesn't seem so second nature to us.

Kind of like the Jews of old, we get very satisfied very quickly so long as we are blessed. If we are blessed, we just hope that you'll learn from our license plate and maybe you'll get some blessing too. We don't think as much as maybe we should about like Abraham initially. We've been blessed specifically in order to be a blessing to others. Paul's mindset had to change.

He had to become a more careful student of his own scriptures.

Not less. The first century believers that Paul was writing to in Rome had to take this in. They had to understand what he was saying about salvation through faith alone, only in Christ. So Paul, the author of this letter, then the church in Rome, the first audience, and now finally and mainly for our purposes here today, finally us, this message hits us. We hearing this today have to realize that we must move from simply getting this good news for us, it is good news for us.

We must move from that to giving it to others. It's part of the nature of this news. So this series of sermons you'll see on the new church card that Jamie mentioned is only intending to go through the end of chapter 4, finishing in December. But were we to go on in Romans, we would find one of the most important sections for Paul's first readers, the people who read these verses, They would just a few minutes later, as they kept reading, read chapter 10. Friends, look over chapter 10:12.

He has this same idea, chapter 10:12, There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. Look what he does with it. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. And then Paul quotes the Bible. He quotes the Old Testament that was already teaching all this.

Joel 2:32, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Not everyone who's circumcised, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, that is, who believes in Him, has faith in Him, will be saved. That's what Joel teaches. And then Paul continues to press his reasoning in verse 14. So if you want to take away one verse for applying Romans 4:9 in your Christian life today, your pastor is suggesting you go to chapter 10 and verse 14.

You wanna tune out for the rest of the sermon, 'cause I'm quoting too many different Bible verses, I understand. Just write down this one, Romans 10:14 and stare at that this afternoon. This is what I'm suggesting for you, the main application of the truth in Romans 4:9 is, it's Romans 10:14. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

How does this ancient, unfolding, exciting, inclusive, expanding plan of God that has already engulfed all of us who are Christian believers here this morning, how else does it affect us? What else does it mean for us? How does this great surprise of God's worldwide goals influence the way we spend our time and our money, our efforts and our energies?

I want to make five specific applications to the congregation here at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Brothers and sisters, part of what this means and we can come up with a lot of other parts. But part of what this means is that, number one, we need to work to see others grow in Christ. The other four applications are more direct. This one is sort of preparing the ground for the other four.

But it's there. We need to work to see others grow in Christ. Becoming a Christian and being added to the church, to use Luke's language in Acts, is more like a wedding than a wave. You know what I mean? How many of you have been a part of a wave?

Let's do one right now. No, I'm kidding. But you know what I mean. You've been there, you laughed, you've seen the wave go around the stadium, right? For a lot of people, between prayers that are prayed or baptisms that are spontaneous, this is what becoming a Christian is these days.

It's something you do quickly, you're happy, it's joyous, and the memory fades. And that's all it is. That's not what I'm talking about. It's not what the Bible's talking about. It's more like a wedding.

Have you been to a wedding recently? Have you seen two people stand up there and make vows to love each other for life? That commitment is what it's like to become a Christian. We come to know each other and we commit to each other. Hebrews 10:24 charges us to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Now, of course, the pastors, the elders are to do this, but so is Emily. Emily is supposed to care about Paul and Lauren. And Gary and Shannon are supposed to pray for Jamie and Joan. And Paul and Lauren are to reach out to new members. And Jamie and Joan are to make sure they're caring for couples like them, but also those who are older than them.

Also for those who are younger than them, who are different from them in various ways. And so these veins of care run throughout our congregation, binding it together.

Much more I could say about this, but it's this most basic idea, basically for the rest of it. And it's important because in part, only if we do this, number one, will we number two, work to see others come to Christ, work to see others come to, you yourself have to be healthy and growing in your own relationship with the Lord if you're going to turn and share the gospel with others. Evangelism is what Paul's explanation here in Romans 4 is aiming at. He wants these Roman Christians to grow in their own faith in order in part to share this faith with others. Even as they somehow had heard and believed the gospel, had some of them maybe been in Jerusalem at Pentecost when it happened and then they went back, that could be, they would then need to share that good news of Jesus with others.

Friends, this congregation is filled with people who share the good news with those they love. I get stories from you guys almost daily of examples of this happening and it encourages me tremendously. I love the way you share the good news with your own children. That is the most important group you could share the good news with. We need more people to work with children here in the church to do that.

Please. Become as selfless as the generations before you were when we had even more volunteers. Volunteer. If you've been on the line about whether or not you should work with the kids, you should. So just volunteer, see what it's like.

Try to help the young people know more about what it means to follow Christ. But we also share this gospel with those that we work with and we live around. A normal part of following Jesus is to want to help others follow Jesus. And we don't all do it the same way. We don't all have the same extroverted personality.

And that's okay. The Lord means different kinds of people to play different kinds of roles in evangelism. Max Stiles' little book, evangelism gets this just right. If you want to read a book that will not make you feel guilty, but that will encourage you to be you and see how you can be used to help bring others to know Christ, read Max's little book on evangelism, Max Stiles' evangelism. Or if you want to know more specifically how you yourself can share the gospel, I wrote a little book called the Gospel and Personal Evangelism that might be of some encouragement to you.

But friends, if God is so good, if His mercy is so sure, if His truth does as we see always stand, if this news endures forever is true, let's share with others how they can be made right with God. Praise God we heard it. Let's share that with others. A third application for this church would be number three, to work to see elders raised up. Now that may surprise you as an implication of this, but follow along.

The only officers in our church who are particularly required to be able to teach God's Word according to the Bible are elders. Now their teaching may take different forms. Some may write, some may counsel, some may be really good applying proverbs to your life. It may be life wisdom for this or that passage, maybe leading a small group, or teaching a course seminar, maybe preaching sermons. But somehow some men among us are being raised up as those who teach God's word.

And this is what feeds our faith. This is what causes us to grow spiritually. So we want more Christians, more parents, but especially more pastors who can do this among us and beyond our membership. Do you ever look out and wonder how so many unbelievers will ever hear about Christ? Surely part of the answer is God raising up new workers, new preachers, new evangelists.

Jesus taught in Matthew 10:37, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He saw the same situation we do. And so what did he say? Come up with expressions that make people feel really guilty and manipulate them? No.

No, he says, Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Friends, let's resolve to work and pray to see new elders raised up. For some of you, that means you yourself being willing to serve.

It takes time to pray, to care, to study, to listen, to receive complaints, and then to receive complaints, and then to receive complaints, and then to receive encouragements and instructions and encouragements. For all of us it means being willing to pray as Jesus exhorts us here. It means being watchful of who God is using like this and letting our elders know. Thank you for how many of you write into our elders and say, Hey, have you noticed so and so? That helps us so much.

So please keep doing that. It means being willing to listen to new preachers so that both they and you get used to handling God's Word publicly and profitably. Because the more preachers you can profitably hear, the more elders we can see raised up and sent out. Which brings me to our fourth application for us as a church. Number four, work to see some of these elders sent out to pastor existing churches and to see new churches established.

Now some of you may be saying, oh Mark, stop it, this hurts. You're telling us to do exactly what we have painfully done this year. I mean we have done this with everybody from our friend Jacob Hargrave to Deepak Reju, to Bobby Jamieson, to Drew Olson, to Jonathan Kiesling. We could go on and on. We gave at the office, thank you, we've done enough.

But friends, the Lord could give still more through us and we should not want to pass off that blessing. Every time we listened to an inexperienced brother on Sunday morning or Sunday evening, we are making investments in our own church's future eldership or future eldership of other church. The way that new churches have been established ever since the Great Commission was first given was when local churches have more preachers than they need. And so they can go someone else, they can spare one to go preach someplace else. Like we've got brother Troy over at Potomac Baptist this morning.

We want as much as possible to see local churches raising up more preachers than they consume. We would love to see every church having a full eldership to care for their own congregation well and also a growing number of elders who can preach well and publicly so that as pastors age and pass on as they do, they may be succeeded by new faithful pastors and so that new churches can be established. In DC and Maryland and Virginia and beyond. Thank you for how well you participate in this. I do not in my own personal experience know or have heard of a congregation that does this better than you guys.

Thank you for how willing you have been to see this happen and for your own personal sacrifice that you make as part of that. I deeply appreciate that and trust that you will be pleased at the ultimate rewards that come because of that.

All of this brings me to a fifth application for us as a church. We work to see new churches established, particularly overseas. Some of the pastors we see trained here, either formally or informally, can be useful in seeing new churches be established, not just in Virginia or North Carolina or Texas, Ben Lacy, but in Dubai. Brian Parks or John Fulmer, or in Kuala Lumpur, Brian Korea, or in other cities around the world where large international communities could be well served by churches for expats from different countries.

Another way for us to work to see new churches established overseas is not to work to see only international churches established, but churches that are national, that is, that use the language of the people there. That are not just for international businessmen or expats. So that's why we work to see Mandarin language churches in Beijing or Shanghai, Hindi speaking churches in New Delhi and Spanish churches in Madrid and Malaga and Mexico City, Korean churches in Seoul. Sometimes God will give us interns from these nations who can also speak English, so we get a period of time with them, we get to help see them trained. Other times he gives us church members that grow up into pastors.

How many people are pastoring around the world that once were just members here? Matthias was here for 10 or 12 years growing as a Christian. Now for 15 years he's been pastoring a church in Munich. Brothers and sisters, we have other examples like this. God can help us to train pastors from other nations in that way, or through our internship program formally, or through our supportive seminarians financially, or seminaries.

Or through our prayers, through our support for nine marks, through our support for the work of translation in various languages, just through getting to know David Adams. You can encourage David and Danny in their work in the Spanish language around the Spanish-speaking world, through our support directly for work elsewhere. Like Geo has been helping to organize books to be sent for a new theological library in Zambia that Caleb will give us an update on Lord willing tonight. You can help out with International Intensive. This happened three times a year here where pastors come for a week of training and reflection.

So this coming Saturday, one of those intensives begins with a bunch of pastors from Brazil and a few from Jordan coming to read books and to reflect together, usually in their own language. Pray for this work. Ask the folks from 9Marks how you could be involved in it. One type of missions we might want to become more directly involved in is trying to see new languages and people personally engaged. I was struck being at Radius this last week, which trains people for this kind of work, how we as a church are involved kind of at a distance, but not as directly with this, the most clear and sharpest tip of the point kind of missions work.

That is, find not just those individuals who've never heard the gospel, there are billions of those individuals. But find those who are most remote from the gospel. That's why I think most people who give money to missions give it, they think they're really supporting that. But few of our missions dollars really go to that directly and that itself is worth thinking about. Often today these unreached people are going to be a language or two removed from our language.

So not only will they not speak English, they won't speak another major language. That a lot of English speakers would know. They'll speak some small language that is spoken by a small number of people, usually pretty physically remote. There's no Bible translated in their language. There are no churches in their language.

So if you want to know more about this, talk to Wilson and Eunice Ramsey. Wilson and Eunice, where are you guys? You want me to stand up? Wilson, Eunice, Wilson, Eunice, they're here somewhere. Oh, they're going to start a prayer group for everybody, aren't you?

For everybody interested in trying to see the Lord use us as a congregation to help reach people where Jesus is currently just unknown. Riley Barnes, one of our pastors, no need to stand. Riley, one of our pastors, is especially dedicated to helping our members see what they can do to make the gospel known where it has never yet been heard. This is a type of missions that Paul himself was wanting to do. When he's writing Romans 10, explaining that those who've never hear can never believe, so they are lost.

That's why he says in Romans 15, he has his own desire to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named. So friends, what am I saying? Very practically for you as a family, instead of watching a new series on Netflix, read a biography aloud together. Grab John Paton's autobiography if you've never read it. Just read it by yourself or read it out loud to your family or some friends.

Or Courtney Anderson's biography of Adoniram Judson, To the Golden Shore. Or what a great biography that is just to read by yourself even. Share with friends the names of other books you've found that are good. John Piper's great collection of 27 Servants of Sovereign Joy. John would take a year to research a person and then at their pastor's conference each year he would give a talk on a person, a biographical address.

And John always has an eye to the gospel going to the nations. So that's just a one hour address you're reading. It can't be that long. 27 of them in one big volume. Get that volume by John Piper.

Banner of Truth has a lot of good missionary biographies. Read about the Korean Pentecost, how the gospel went to this nation that was formerly completely unchristian and millions and millions of people became Christians over a period of about 60 years. This kind of work is difficult. It will only happen if we as a church and as individuals give ourselves to making the gospel known around our city and around our world. So pray that God make us more deliberate in this.

At this point, I intend to approach a conclusion.

This expansive vision of the good news of Jesus Christ going out to bless all the families of the earth, to use that language God used with Abraham, to bless all the families of the earth. Is what we are about. And Paul here in Romans chapter 4 verse 9 is noting a crucial part in this happening. It's when God's people are no longer merely those culturally set apart by the rites and rituals of the Old Testament, like circumcision and the sacrificial system at the Jerusalem Temple, but now they are marked out and set apart as those people who have been spiritually born again and who've shown this in baptism. Those who've had our sins forgiven by Christ's sacrifice, which we proclaim at the supper we're about to observe.

We are those who've had our worlds rearranged by realizing that this gospel is not only for us. The very nature of the gospel that saves us compels us to want to see other people hear this good news. Our claim to love Jesus is ratified by our helping other people. Love Jesus. I think one of the most moving accounts of this I've ever shared with you is worth sharing again.

It's in 1857 from Alberton on Northern Prince Edward Island in Canada. It's a young Canadian brother named George Gordon. He studied medicine in London. He met and married a young woman, Ellen.

And George persuaded Ellen to go with him to an island in the South Pacific to take the gospel to them. And so they went. They landed on the island of Erromango about 1,200 miles northeast of Brisbane, Australia. It was an island already well known for producing some of the first missionary martyrs of the islands. Gordon learned the language, shared his medical skills.

He established a good reputation for the new religion he brought them. As beneficial for them. Gordon established a school for the people. And while the Gordons were there, they were visited by John Paton, a well-known Scottish missionary, laboring on an island nearby. Gordon gave most of his time to translating the Bible into the language of the people.

He felt that was the longest lasting service that he could provide.

Though threatened repeatedly, Told he had to leave the island to get out, Gordon resolved that in order to do great things, a man must live as though he never had to die. Just live full speed until the Lord takes you out. After four years of being there and living like that, in 1861 one day, George, through a collection of people there on the island, was deliberately murdered. And a few minutes later when his wife asked what the cries were, they murdered her too.

When the news of the martyrdom reached his aged and sightless mother, she sounds like David with Absalom, she cried out, My son, my son. And she wept.

His brother James was a student for the ministry. And he was plowing when he was given the news.

James left his plow, filled out an application to the mission board that very day. He asked that he might be sent to take his brother's place on Eremango. He wanted to preach the message of forgiveness and love to his brother's murderers. He knew that even his brother's death had not ended God's plan for the gospel to go to the Eremangans. And in fact, his brother James did follow him there.

And he did see fruit. And in a strange providence of God, James too was martyred there.

News of the martyrdom reached Canada. And they were at first afraid to tell his mother.

When the story of her second son's death was finally told her, she quietly exclaimed, I wish that I had another boy to send that they may receive salvation.

Mrs. Gordon's gospel resolve matched her sons. She was as willing to give as they were to go. They remind me of Paul in his desire to preach to those who've never heard. What is our gospel resolve like as a church today?

How about yours?

This blessing of our sins being covered and not counted against us is available in Christ, not just for us here, but for people of every tribe and language and people and nation. Do they know it?

Can we help?

Let's pray.

Lord, the freeness of youf salvation that yout present based upon youn own righteousness so that we can say the Lord is our righteousness. Or that freedom brings to us not only joy but a sense of longing for others to know this great truth. Oh God, give us wisdom with our stewardship. Give us resolve with our actions. Lord, cause us to understand the gospel more completely so that we will treasure youe more fully and give ourselves to youo and youn purposes more entirely.

We pray for us as individuals and we pray this also for us as a church. Give us wisdom from youm Word and give us love to match the wisdom. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.