The Just Shall Live by Faith

The Just Shall Live by Faith
“The Apostle Paul’s Passion for the Lost”
Romans 9:1-5, 10:1

According to the Apostle Paul, the major evidence of a believer’s spiritual maturity is their compassion for the lost and their passion to see them saved.

• Criticizing the lost for living true to their nature is not a sign of Christian compassion, but rather the evidence of spiritual pride and judgementalism.
• In Romans 7, Paul described himself as a man who was caught in a battle between the power of evil and the power of the Holy Spirit that dwelled within him.
• In Romans 8, Paul described himself as a man who was filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
• In Romans 9-10, Paul expresses his desire to see his kinsmen accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
• Therefore, the evidence of being filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit is to be compassionate to those who are lost, and passionate about them hearing the gospel.

That truth is affirmed in Acts 2, as the disciples were gathered together and the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to share the gospel in many languages.

• So, the first evidence of being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit is that passion to share the love of Jesus with those who are lost.

1. Paul’s True Confession of Christ – Vs. 1 – “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost!”

• Another translation of this verse reads: “I am telling you the truth as a Christian!” Paul’s compassion for his people was the result of his confession of Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior and Lord.
• When Paul confessed Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Savior, the One sent from God to be our Redeemer, that dramatic event so changed his life that he would never lie about a subject as serious as one’s eternal salvation.
• Paul knew that apart from that Damascus Road experience with Christ, he would still be lost and on his way to hell, and Paul had the same travail of soul for those he loved as Jesus had for him.

No one can be a genuine Christian without sharing, at least in some degree, our Lord’s desire to see lost people saved, for in Luke 19:10, Jesus said He came to the world to “seek and to save that which was lost!”

• Therefore, if Christ is truly living within us, through the power of the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within us, then He is giving us the desire and the power to witness to them and to hopefully see them saved.
• Paul’s passion for his kinsmen was the “fruit” of the Holy Spirit indwelling him and empowering him – It came from the love of God that was shed abroad in his heart when he first believed in Jesus – it was the outflow of his heart that was filled with God’s love on the day He believed.

2. Paul’s True Compassion for The Lost – Vs. 2-3 – “I have a great heaviness and sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren!”

• Great heaviness – grief and mourning that leads to depression.
• Continual sorrow – intense sorrow that leads to bitter tears.
• Paul went about bearing the pain for the salvation of his kinsmen – there was never a moment where he was not concerned for their eternal welfare.
• Paul said he even found himself wishing he could trade places with them, and be separated from Christ, if doing so would bring his fellow Jews to the Lord!
• Paul said he was willing to be “accursed” from Christ himself, if in doing so he would see his kinsmen saved, and that word “accursed” means to be forever damned – separated from God with no way to be reconciled.
• Paul is saying he would be willing to take that eternal punishment for their sins, if that would be what it would take to see them saved.

3. Paul’s True Commission to See Them Saved – Chapter 10:1 – “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved!”

• The deepest desire of Paul’s heart was to see those he loved to know Christ as their Savior, and the word “desire” here means to have a longing or yearning or a craving.
• Paul longed for, yearned for, even craved for the salvation of his people, and because of that, the very least he could do, which was often all he could do, was to pray for them, and that word “prayer” in this passage means to cry out unto God for the eternal salvation of those He loved.

Our concern for the lost in our family, in our neighborhood, or in some specific area of the world God has placed on our heart it is the evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit in lives, and the more we increase our intimacy with God, through the study of His Word, the more we learn of the real meaning of the cross, and the more we learn of the value God places on one human soul!

• But we also learn of the loss which will be ours at the judgment seat of Christ when we come before Him empty handed – or the great reward which will be ours on that day when we stand before Christ with the crowds of those, we have either witnessed to personally, or provided the witness for them through some other way.
• If that day is today – what would your judgment be?
• Would Christ find you unfaithful in witnessing, in sharing your faith with those you love, or in providing ways for others to answer the call?
• Or would Christ find you to be faithful in the small things, so He can put you in charge of even greater things in His kingdom upon this earth, and in that Kingdom to Come.

The Basic Steps of Salvation – Romans 10:9-10:

• “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
• To declare your faith in the death of Jesus Christ as the sufficient sacrifice for your sins, and therefore, to submit your life unto His Lordship.