If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 15 verses 8 through 13. Romans chapter 15 verses 8 through 13. Reading out of the ESV. "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

As it is written, 'Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.' And again it is said, 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.' And again, 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let the peoples extol him.' And again Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles.

In him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy, peace, and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.'" Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come and worship you.

We pray that your word, Lord God, would be your words, not mine, not from human experience, not human thought. That your children will truly be able to hear your voice, that we may glorify and honor and follow you. We pray that you would anoint this time, Father God, that it would go forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The text that we're looking at this morning, obviously all of it is important, but especially this text here in verse 8 through 13, it's a conclusion of the argument that he's been making in the Book of Romans. Specifically in the context, he's been making the argument that in light of all the mercies that was taught from chapter 1 through 11, he says, "In view of this mercy," chapter 12, "through where we are today, how we ought to live.

What should be the life of a believer who confesses to believe in justification by faith, that we've been saved by this grace of God, that we are truly affected by the gospel?" If you've been paying attention in the last maybe about 10 to 12 years, there's been a movement called the gospel-centered movement.

And if you went to any kind of Christian bookstore, you've probably seen gospel-centered parenting, gospel-centered evangelism, gospel-centered church planting, gospel-centered marriage. And so this gospel-centricity has permeated every part of our Christian lives. It's taught in seminaries, it's in conferences, it's in books that we read. Sermons have been adjusted for that purpose.

And all of these things are great because the gospel is truly the foundation upon which we stand. And anytime we stray from that, it becomes something else, where Christ is not central. And we can easily become a gathering of people with good morals, doing good things, but then we forget why we're gathered together ultimately to honor and glorify Christ.

But if we're not careful, gospel-centrality can easily just become vocabulary in the way we say things, how we articulate something, and the way we think. But Paul's been teaching, starting from chapter 12 all the way to where we are today, what gospel-centrality means. And the most tangible way that gospel, being gospel-centric, the way it should be applied is in the way that we worship God, in the way that we serve one another.

And so specifically, he's been talking about how to handle a strong brother with a weak brother, in particular, these particular things that he's been talking about, eating and drinking. How do we handle that? How do we show grace, especially when we are right? So being gospel-centric is not having the right vocabulary and sermons sounding a certain way, and all of these things may be important, but the real application of that, where the rubber meets the road, is the way that we interact with one another.

You can be gospel-centric in your speech and have nothing to do with the gospel in the way that we deal with conflict, with people that annoy us, or when we think that we're right. Because ultimately, what we worship and why we're gathered together is because Christ saw our sins, and instead of turning away, he approached us and he saved us and covered us by his own righteousness.

That's what we believe. That's every song that we sing, at the core of it, that's the message that we sing. But today's text isn't simply a conclusion of that that he's been saying for the last three chapters. It's actually a conclusion of the larger text. Remember in the beginning of Romans, Paul is introducing the gospel, and do you remember how he introduced the gospel?

I was looking to see how many sermons that I gave on the book of Romans, and we're kind of at the tail end now, and I counted almost 120 sermons on the book of Romans. And I started preaching the book of Romans in June of 2015. So it's been a little over three years.

I think it's going to take us maybe to the end of this year to finish the book of Romans. So in all of these things that we've been talking about, even though there might be specific nuances that may have been different, but the central message has been the same, the salvation of the Jews and the Gentiles.

So he started the book of Romans by saying, what, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That those who are under the law will be judged under the law. Those who do not have the law will be judged without the law. And in chapter three, he summarizes this by saying all have sinned, all, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We are all under the judgment of God. The text that we're looking at today is a conclusion of that argument. So when I first started to prepare for the sermon, starting from maybe even last week, my intention was to go through the exposition of chapter eight, verse eight through 13.

But this is because it is the conclusion of the argument. And then the middle, starting from chapter 15, 14 to the end of chapter 16, he's kind of concluding his remarks. Like, this is the reason why I'm coming. I want to go to Spain. I need some of your support.

And so he's making concluding remarks. But the conclusion of what he's been saying from chapter one to all the way to chapter 15 is stated in the few verses that are here. So it was a three-part message or three-point message, but I divided it into two parts because I think we need to slow down and kind of really dissect what he is saying.

So I'm giving you a heads up that today's message is going to be a bit more heavier than normal. So if you came in kind of half asleep, wake yourself up. You know, I'm giving you a warning ahead of time because we're going to be diving into the nuances and the difference.

And so basically, Paul is going to be giving a broad redemptive outline of the Old Testament. Okay? So that in and of itself, you can already see how that's going to be a bit heavy. So I want you guys to prepare for that. In fact, not only is this a conclusion of 15 chapters of this argument of how all have sin and fall short of the glory of God, Jews and Gentiles, and then the concluding remark is all are saved by the grace of God, Jews and Gentiles.

So between chapter one and chapter 15, he's been giving the solution. He gave the problem, and then he's been giving the solution, and then he gives a conclusion, which is where we are today. So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to give you one point, and under that one point, there's four sub-points.

And then we're going to get to point two and three next week. So the beginning point, the beginning of his conclusion is stated in starting, I'm going to start reading from verse seven all the way to verse nine. He says, "Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God." Again, and that is the conclusion of chapter 12 to 15.

And then starting from verse eight, he concludes the larger argument that he's been making, "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's faithfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." For the sake of paying attention and to make it easier for you to follow along, the first point that I want to emphasize is Christ's sacrifice proves that God keeps his promises.

Christ's sacrifice proves that God keeps his promises. Some of you guys may remember a long time ago, a long time ago, it seems like a long time ago, in 1991, there was a movement called the Promise Keepers. Anybody remember that? Okay. Wow, really? Okay, so there was a movement called the Promise Keepers, and it was a bunch of men who started this revival among men, and just like the name says, they would gather all the men together, Christian men together, for the purpose of renewing our vows to our wives, renewing our commitment to our families, and thus, Promise Keepers.

Let's keep the promise that we made when we got married, right? Be godly Christian men. And so there was a huge movement at one point, over 800,000 people have attended this Promise Keepers. And the reason why this was so successful is because generally we're not good at keeping promises.

The reason why Promise Keepers as a movement took shape and was so popular is because majority, if not every single person, has a testimony of failing in our promises. There's a reason why Jesus says in Matthew 5, 33 to 37, he says, "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is a footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than that comes from evil." In fact, Jesus himself said, "Don't take any vows." I know some of you guys are already asking that question, then, you know, everyone who's married here has taken some kind of a vow that you violated God's command.

Well, I'm not going to deal with that today, okay? So I'm just going to let you wrestle with that, and we'll come another time to deal with that, okay? But the text, Jesus clearly says, "Do not take oaths." And the reason why is not simply because of the people who are there.

Think of it from God's perspective. For thousands of years, God's been dealing with his people, and the history of Israel is a history of God's faithfulness and the unfaithfulness of his people. That's basically, in a nutshell, the Old Testament. Repeatedly over and over again, you see in the book of Judges, where everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes, and then they would get into trouble because they would forget God, and the enemies would come and get attacked, and then God raises up a judge, and then a revival breaks out, and then sometimes, not even months, days after revival breaks out, they completely forget about God, and they go right back into their idolatry, and then this cycle over and over again in the book of Judges.

But every time revival breaks out, they're like, "We will not do this again," and then they fall right back in. Remember the book of Joshua, when Joshua, he stands before the nation of Israel at the end of his life, and he's tired of the people who are holding on to both the world and God, and he said, "Choose you this day whom you're going to serve," and as he is finishing up his life, I mean, you could see the frustration in his tone, in his writing in Joshua 24.

Just choose. Stop teeter-tottering between these two opinions. If it is God you want to serve, serve him. If it is Baal you want to serve, serve him, but stop holding on to both. But he says, "For me and my household, we will serve the Lord," and as a result of that powerful message, the nation of Israel responds in Joshua 24, 16, he says, "Then the people answered, 'Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.

For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites, who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God." So at the end of Joshua's life, he gives this great sermon, and a revival breaks out, and the nation of Israel says, "We will serve the Lord," and in their repentance, they recount his faithfulness to the nation of Israel, from delivering them from Egypt, from crossing the Red Sea, from his faithfulness and feeding them and caring for them, all throughout the desert and then entering into the Promised Land.

And yet, after this revival breaks out, after this promise, a vow that they take before God, it doesn't take long after Joshua dies, they fall right back into idolatry. And Israel's history is a cycle of promises broken, vows given and then broken over and over again. So think of it from Jesus' perspective.

He's been dealing with his people for thousands of years, and every single promise that they made, they broke. So he's not simply talking about the people who are standing before him. He's saying, "You do not have the power to keep your vow. So stop making promises that you can't keep.

Stop saying that I will do this and I will do that. You do not have the ability to do that." See the only person, only being in the universe who can make a promise and actually keep it, not just the next day, not just a hundred years later, but even thousands of years later, is God and God alone.

So he says all of this has been fulfilled to show you and to the world that God is faithful, that what he says, he does. Think about our lives. Think about even the friendships that we have. You know, the people that you were closest to the 10 years ago, that you say you're going to live and die with these people.

Are they all your friends today? Think about how easily our hearts can change. We don't have any control over tomorrow, whether it is our work, whether it is our family, even with our own children. We may desire it, but we don't have the ability. And even our desire will change from time to time.

Our salvation wasn't based upon our will. It wasn't based upon our discipline. It wasn't based upon our determination. It wasn't based upon our skill. It wasn't anything that you and I stirred up because it is unreliable. Anything that is dependent upon us is unreliable. And so he says all this happened to reveal that God is faithful, that God is consistent.

What he promises, he does. And the only reason why you and I are here is because that's who he is. The book all throughout Old Testament history is simply a record of the fulfillment of God's promise. In Genesis chapter 3, as soon as Adam and Eve falls, he makes a prophecy.

He promises the world that the seed of the woman is going to come. He's going to crush the head of the serpent, talking about Christ. And so the record of Genesis to the book of Malachi, all of Old Testament, is a record of God fulfilling that promise. There's a reason why there's so many genealogies in the Old Testament.

It's not so that you can go to sleep. You know, you've worked hard reading the Bible, so here's some genealogy for you to read, just kind of calm you down, right? Genealogies are there as a record of the seed of this woman coming. And that's why, again, the book of Matthew starts with genealogy, to point that Christ is a fulfillment of that promise.

So everything that we read in the book of Genesis all the way to Malachi is God's faithfulness. So Paul is going to make this argument, but he's not just going to say God's promise, he's faithful, he's going to show it to us. He's going to recite the Old Testament, and he's going to recite a broad view of the Old Testament, just basically the redemptive history recorded in the Scripture.

And obviously, Paul could have quoted thousands of verses, but he picks four particular verses, and there's a reason why. So if you can put up the next... Yeah. So if you look at it, Paul is going to say God is faithful, and he does what he does to show the world that he can be trusted.

And then he quotes four particular passages, and the four verses come from one section from the Torah, which is the law, two of them from the Psalms, and one from the prophets, which basically is the summary of the Old Testament. So he's basically saying this prophecy was not limited to just this one section.

All over the Old Testament, God has embedded what he was planning to do, and what you're seeing now is just the fulfillment of that promise. That's basically, in a nutshell, an overview of what he's saying here. So like I said, it's going to be a little bit heavier than normal, because I don't have any stories today, because I need the time to get into the text.

I may have a story. I may have forgotten. But I need some time for you to kind of like wrestle and digest this, and I'm going to tell you ahead of time that you need to be actively listening to this. And the reason why, again, I'm not saying that on some Sundays you shouldn't, but in particular today, because if you really understand what God's been doing in history, there's no way somebody who believes what he is reading here can walk away without a greater sense of confidence in everything that God is doing today.

So I don't want you to just have a superficial, "Oh yeah, God is speaking." Of course I know that. It's one thing to say, "No, no, you can trust him. He's faithful." It's another thing to have experienced that and have seen that. You may have the same opinion, but the depth is different.

So I really want you to see what Paul is trying to say. He's not just saying it. He's going to show it to us. So the first thing that he says in verse 9, he quotes Psalm 1849. He says, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name." Now out of the four verses, I want you to look at, if you look at the first three verses, which is starting from verse 9, I told you you're going to have to stay with me.

"Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name," verse 10. And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And then verse 11, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." Do you notice the slight difference between the three verses and where the Gentiles fit into that?

You don't need to answer. I just want you to think a little bit. Do you notice the slight difference in the three verses where the Gentiles fit into what he is saying? The first one, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles." So where the Gentiles are further out and the Israelites are exalting God and they are observing.

He said they are going to observe God's glory. In verse 10, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." So the Gentiles now have seen his glory and they have come to him and they are rejoicing and praising God together. If you go to verse 11, it says, "Praise the Lord," who?

"All you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." So now who is praising him? The Gentiles. So it is Israelites praising, Gentiles observing, Gentiles and Israel together praising God, and then verse 11 is the Gentiles who are praising God. And that, in a nutshell, up to this point, is redemptive history that he is outlining.

So the first verse in verse 9, it says, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles," quoted from Psalm 1849, where David is praising God for empowering Israel, the nation of Israel, to be successfully conquering their enemies. And it is in that context he is praising him. But he recognizes that God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel is causing the Gentiles, the nations, to observe that and praise God for it, which was always God's intent.

In Genesis chapter 12, 1-3, with the inception of the nation of Israel, he says, "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 you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, 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.'" So from the very get-go, his intention was not simply the nation of Israel. Israel was simply a conduit. Israel was simply an avenue in which God's glory was going to go to the ends of the world.

So it was never simply about Israel. And David recognizes this, that even in their greatest conquest of their enemies, he says, "All the Gentiles will praise you because of what you are doing with us." In Genesis 18, 18, "Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him." Genesis 22, 18, "And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Genesis 26, 4, "I will multiply your offsprings, and at the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." Genesis 28, 14, "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed." So the record in the book of Genesis is God bringing the nation of Israel, and through them as they are being blessed, all the other nations are coming to glorify God.

So even though the history is about, is specific about the nation of Israel, it was never specifically just about Israel. That was God's intent, always. And that's why Peter, when he speaks and gives his first sermon in Acts 3, 25, he says, "You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant of God made with your father, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed." So even a new covenant, as they recite the Old Testament, they said that this was God's intent, always.

Now I want you to just, you know, I know it's going to start sounding like a lecture, which is what my intent is this morning, right? I really want you to understand the depth of what Paul is saying here. Because if you miss that, or if you just kind of grasp it superficially, you're going to say, "God is good, God is love, God is faithful, God keeps his promises," because that's what you've heard, and that's what you've read, and that's what you've memorized, and that's a theology that you're supposed to hold.

There is a world of difference between someone who comes to recognize that in pursuit of God versus somebody who heard it and just regurgitated it, because that makes sense. So I want you to see it for yourself. This was always God's intent, and that's what he means when he quotes that verse in Psalm, in David's Psalm.

He says this is what God was doing. Secondly, in verse 10, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And this is a direct quote from Deuteronomy 32, 43, where Moses, at the end of his life, he writes a song. Moses has three songs, and this is the last song that he writes.

And in his song, he recites God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel in the desert. But even Moses, the greatest leader in Israel, at the end of his life, recognizes that it wasn't just about Israel. He said all the Gentiles, all together with God's people, rejoice. And so whenever God would touch them with his glory, it wasn't just Israel.

We saw that with Nebuchadnezzar, King Cyrus. We saw that with Naaman. We saw that with the king of Assyria and all their people. And when they recognize this tiny little nation that should have been squashed and disappeared many times over, not only in the Old Testament, but even in the New Testament, and they say, how can this tiny little group of people who are wandering in the desert possibly conquer nations that have been fortified, who are solidified in their battle?

They're better prepared, have more money, and they have walls to protect them. And yet this tiny little nation with a brand new young leader, Joshua, walks in and the walls just go crumbling down. So even the pagans were watching that from a distance and say, there's something about your God.

And even kings, pagan kings, would watch this and give God the glory. And so Moses, recognizing that, in his song says, because of what he is doing with the nation of Israel, all the Gentiles will join with him to praise his name. So by the time we come to the New Testament, we have a group of people called the God-fearers.

So some of your translation didn't translate it exactly that way, but I think the NASB has literally, it says just God-fearers. God-fearers are people who are worshiping Yahweh who didn't convert to Judaism. They somehow came into contact either with a Jew or the message of the Israelites, and they saw God's glory, and they began to worship him from a distance as well, and they were called God-fearers.

The Gentiles would join Israel to praise his name. And so you kind of see the progression. God establishes Israel. Gentiles watch from a distance. And then as God is glorified through Israel, they begin to come and worship him together. And then thirdly, we get to verse 11. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the people extol him.

And this is coming directly out of Psalm chapter 117, verse 1. The significance behind this particular Psalm, we don't know the context. There's a lot of people who are taking guesses, but we don't have a concrete context of this verse. But what we do know about this verse is that it is the shortest verse, shortest chapter in all of the Bible.

Let me ask you, what is the shortest verse in the New Testament? Jesus wept. So some of you guys may know the context of that, John chapter 11, where Jesus is standing in front of Lazarus' tomb, and he is overwhelmed with compassion and says, "Jesus wept." Most of you probably, if you've been a Christian for any period of time, probably already have known that.

Maybe not the context, but you probably knew Jesus wept was the smallest verse. Because it says, one of those Bible trivias. Because it is the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. But do you think that maybe in the synagogues, the rabbis may have asked his congregants the same question?

Maybe he was given a lecture and he said, "What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?" Psalm 117. So my guess is, just like many of you knew and heard Jesus wept was the shortest verse, this is a verse or this is a chapter that they probably knew well.

Knew probably pretty well. If you've been a Jew for any period of time, this is probably one of those verses that was memorized and recited often because of its uniqueness. And in 117, 1 and 2, it says, "Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast love toward us.

And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord." This short verse that probably every Jew knew, outside of Deuteronomy chapter 6, 6, the great Shema, this is probably one of those verses that they memorized because it was just easy. And the content is about how all the nations will come and praise him because of his faithfulness.

That this was embedded into their culture, into their psyche. So it is amazing that when Christ came and the kingdom began to get open to the Gentiles, why they were so resistant. Because it was embedded. And that's why, you know, Luke chapter 15, when Jesus was hanging around with the sinners, the Pharisees, like, "How can you possibly do that?

Why do you do that?" And then Jesus tells them three parables to return to tables and rebuke them. "How did you not know that this was your God? You're rebuking me for hanging around with them." And then he turns around and rebukes them. "How could you not join me in reaching out to them when God clearly is a God who pursues sinners?" This was so clearly stated in the Old Testament that Paul is giving redemptive history by reciting these verses that this is not just something that Paul is just kind of pulling out of his hat.

That if you read the scriptures carefully, that this is what God was intending to do all along. And that's why Jesus says, "You search the scriptures thinking that you're going to find life, but in it, what? Is all about me." It was the fulfillment of prophecy that the seed of the woman is going to come crushed ahead of the serpent.

And all that he is stating in these passages was for that purpose. In Romans 9, 25 to 26, Paul has already said, as indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who are not my people, I will call my people. And her who has not been loved, who has not been loved, I will call beloved.

And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God." And that's where you and I are today. At one point, God raised a nation of Israel, and because of them, all the Gentile world was in awe, because they clearly recognized that it wasn't their power, it wasn't their ability to conquer, it wasn't their expertise in warfare.

They recognized it was their God behind them that caused them to be a force to reckon with. And then as a result of that, many of the Gentiles began to come to Christ, and then when the time of Christ came, the Gentiles were prepared to come and join the nation of Israel.

But here in Romans, Paul says, "They have experienced the hardening of the heart." Now we're in a period of Gentiles, a period where the church has taken center stage, and now we are the light of the world. And the same purpose that he had for the nation of Israel, now he's exalting the church, that through the church, that the world may know the manifold wisdom of Christ.

All of this wasn't plan B. This is what God intended, this is what God promised, this is what God fulfilled, and the whole book of the Bible is a record of his faithfulness to his promise. But the fourth verse that we're going to be looking at is what really gives life to all of these things.

Verse 12, which is a direct quote from Isaiah 11, 10, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles put their hope." In other words, it's a prophecy of the Messiah, that all of this, the first three verses, the redemptive history, all of this is going to happen through the seed of the woman.

The Messiah that's going to come. In Isaiah 11, 1-2, it says, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." The reason why this is happening and will continue to happen, despite the unfaithfulness of his people, is because of the root of Jesse.

But I want you to notice here that he doesn't say the fruit of Jesse, but the root of Jesse. The fruit of Jesse basically would mean that the nation of Israel, Jesse, again, as another way of saying the nation of Israel, that somehow their work and then they maneuvered and some great things happened and the Messiah came from that.

And we know from Jesus' genealogy that that's not true. In fact, you look at Jesus' genealogy, you think, "How could the Messiah have come from this genealogy?" But you see, he doesn't say the fruit of Jesse, he says the root of Jesse. If you've ever had a tree in your backyard, in your front yard, when you want to take it out, you don't just cut off the branches, right?

Because if you cut off the branches and you cut off the tree, there's a possibility, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but at some point it'll grow back. But if you want that tree to completely die, what do you have to do? You have to dig up the roots.

Because the roots, if it is still in the ground, there's hope for life in that stump. And so when he says the reason why God is able to fulfill all of this is not because Israel's faithfulness, is not because the church's faithfulness, but because the root of Jesse, the root is Christ.

Christ is not the fruit of the church. Church is the fruit of Christ. And the reason why you and I still exist today, think about the chaos some of you guys have come from. And I mean, anybody who's been in church for more than 10 years have horror stories of what you've experienced.

Maybe it was your fault, maybe it was other people's fault, but you have stories. And it's not just you. If you look at church history, there's periods, chunks of periods in church history where the leaders of the church were killing people for reading their Bible. I mean, we're not talking about one or two events.

There are chunks of history where they were deliberately preaching false doctrines, selling the gospel, selling salvation for money. And I'm not just talking about one or two periods. We're talking about this was church history. You can't study church history without that somehow creeping in every other thing that you read.

How did we get here? How did the church survive? Was it because of smart men, determined people? Because people who have PhDs in theology, somehow that God used them to preserve the church? The only answer we have is Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Because Jesus is the root of the church.

Only reason why you and I are here is because of that fact. Study the Old Testament, study Israel's history. See if Old Testament history doesn't sound a lot like the New Testament history of the church. After reading Israel's history from Genesis to Malachi, your end feeling or end result is going to be, "How did Israel, why is Israel not destroyed?

Why does he put up with these people? How did they get to that point?" Simply because, he says, "The root of Jesse was coming." You see why this is so important? You see how easily you and I, without making any effort, put our confidence in man, put our confidence in the promises of people, friendships that we have at church, maybe even in leadership, certain systems.

How we so easily twist our confidence in everything that we see. Well, we know clearly that Scripture says that, "Just shall walk by faith." That our strength is not in numbers, that our strength is not in our experience or background or even in our leadership. Our strength is simply because God said it.

And he is not man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Has he not said it and will he not do it? Let me conclude with Romans 11, 11-15. It says, "So I ask, did they stumble, the Jews, stumble in order that they might fall by no means?

Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." Now, if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I am speaking to you Gentiles and as much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.

In order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. And then finally verse 15, "For if their rejection means a reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" Revival is coming. If the gospel was preserved all these years, despite the unfaithfulness of the church, imagine how often, how many promises that you and I have made.

After coming back from retreats, hearing this great sermon, coming back from revivals, conferences, short term missions, and every time we fail, we repent and we're resolved, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to be different. Every new year resolution, I'm going to be a better Christian, I'm going to know my Bible, I'm going to evangelize, I'm going to do this, I'm going to be more gracious.

And often times it doesn't take long, even on Sundays you'll hear a sermon and be convicted and on the way back home you forget. That's us. We're not here because we were better determined, we figured out a better way. Because the root of our salvation is Christ. If you believe that, why would you not build on this solid rock?

When the storm comes, you don't want to be in a boat because the ground is unstable. When the storm comes, you want to get to the shore as quickly as possible because you don't know what the ground is going to look like, you don't know when the wave is coming, you don't know when the disaster is going to come and flip your boat over.

That's why he says, "Build your house upon the rock." And that rock is Christ. Why are you so anxious? What are you chasing? What are you grieved over? What are you concerned about? I pray that the faithfulness of our God will ground you in him and in him alone.

Let's take some time to pray as we ask our worship team to come. I'm not going to ask you to do anything this morning other than praise God for who he is. Thank him that you're here and that you even understood any part of this message. It is by the kindness of God that he leads us to repentance.

So if any part of God's word has softened your heart, convicted you, reminded you, strengthened you, rebuked you, it's because it's the kindness of God. So let's fix our eyes upon Christ this morning, just thanking him and praising him for his goodness. Let's pray.