Romans 1 verse number 16 and 17 we'll read. And we'll finish verse 16 today. I just want to read verse 17 and have a little bit of the context from it because it does help to understand what's going on here. So Romans 1 verse 16. It says, "'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank You and praise You, God, for what You do. We pray that You would watch over us, help us, Lord, once again, as we come to hear Your Word and that You speak to every heart, that You would help us to appreciate the great beauty of what's seen within this verse. and help us walk away seeing, Lord, how much power is in the gospel to change the lives of everyone it touches. We thank you, God, for all this, and we ask it in your son Jesus' name, amen. Now, we've already talked about everything else the verse says. We've spent several weeks here, actually, already. So we've talked about not being ashamed. We've talked about the power that is in the gospel. Before that, we talked about being ready to preach the gospel. But I saved this specific phrase to the Jew first and also to the Greek because it's much deeper of a statement than most people realize. So he says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe. And we understand that from last week. If somebody's willing to hear the Word of God and believe that it has the power to save them, it has the power to change their life, it is the only message that can do that. And that's why we should not be ashamed of it, because if it saved you, it should be able to save them. You should only be ashamed of it if you yourself are not convinced that it's the power of God unto salvation. If you're convinced of that, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. The world can laugh at you, they can mock you, they can scorn at what you have to say, they can do whatever they want, but you have nothing to be ashamed of if you really believe that gospel message can save their souls. And so that's what we've seen so far throughout this verse, but then he adds to it what feels like a very strange statement to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So it's to whoever believes, but to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So why does that statement exist is what I want to look at. And I actually want to set it up before I give you the answer. I want you to see why this should stand out to you more than what most people do. Most people just read it and gloss over it and go on with their lives. But it's actually quite a profound statement. In fact, Romans brings this same statement up again, but in a completely different context. In Romans chapter 2, verse 9 and verse 10, we'll read through verse 11 as well, it says, "...tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentiles. But glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God." When you think about what Jesus read, it almost sounds like a contradiction that he says that punishment comes to those who disobey, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, and blessings come to those who obey, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, but God's not a respective person. But he doesn't say but, he says for, meaning that is part of the explanation. Like, to understand that God is not a respecter of persons, you have to understand that punishment comes to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, and blessings come to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, which, like I say, only a very short reading of it makes it sound contradictory. It's not. There's a very good reason. In fact, honestly, I could save you a lot of time just by reading chapter 3, and you would see what the answer is to the question. But I want you to consider it a little bit before we get there. Now, just so you understand that within the Bible, everybody is lumped together within three people groups, more or less. Now, that doesn't mean that he doesn't use other terms. We talked about what the barbarian meant the other week when he talked about that to those that don't understand, I would be a barbarian. We talked about how that God acknowledges countries, all these things. He's talking about people being saved of every nation and every tongue and every people. So He acknowledges things like that. He never acknowledges race. I always want to make sure I emphasize that. But He acknowledges nationalities and languages and all this kind of stuff. So there are those things. They exist. But when it comes to what you are, God defines everybody by one of three terms typically. And when you get to the New Testament, the Old Testament, one of those three terms doesn't exist. That's why he says a people which were not a people when talking about it. And so the first of those is the Jew. We understand that that's that nation of Israel, that's that people that he had called out and separated to come and serve him. And then the Gentile, and that's honestly everybody else. It means the Greek. I mean, that's what it means. That's why he can say to the Jew first and also to the Greek in Romans 1 and then change it to the Jew first and also to the Gentile in Romans 2 and still say the same thing. Because he's using the word for Greek, but he's using it to refer to everybody the same way we would use the word man to refer to everybody sometimes when It's a word that means a male. You have that in most any language. We were talking about that with Lurian Romanian the other day, that they do that, that there's the word for man, but you can also use it to say mankind without having to put that emphasis on it. It's the context that tells you. And the same is true of the word Gentile, that in the Bible, the word Gentile can be used to refer very specifically to Greek people. I mean, for example, when he's talking to Corinth and he throws that around, it's because they're Greek. So that's probably why he's calling them that. But in other places, you notice that he uses a broad term to describe people who don't know God, people who don't have God's Word, people who don't have access to God like the Jews have. And that's where the contrast comes from. And that's honestly selling you the answer to the question pretty quick. The difference between the Jew and the Gentile, as you're going to see if you read chapter 2 and chapter 3 of Romans, is that one of them had access to all the great blessings and promises and benefits and everything that God had to offer to that people. And the other one didn't. They had evidence that there was a God. They had reason to believe in God. So they were without excuse. They were not with an excuse to be atheist or turn against God or worship false gods or any of this kind of stuff. But the difference between those two people groups is how much light and opportunity they had. That's how God defines them. Now, when you get to the New Testament, you have the church, and the church is used to refer typically, and I'm saying the church. Honestly, the Bible, we always say church. The Bible uses a lot of other terms like the body of Christ and so forth. But I'm going to go with church today just because I don't feel like doing another Bible study on how the word church is actually used in the Bible to refer to the local congregation of believers. I'm not going to rewrite the doctrine of most every church today because we have something else to talk about. I will use the word church, but understand probably the word you'd more associate is like the body of Christ or in Christ are the terms that he actually uses. But we're going to use the word church now just to keep my life easy, but I trust that you understand that the Bible doesn't actually use the word church to refer to a universal body. It refers to local assemblies. The body of Christ and so forth are used to refer to the universal idea. Just keep my life easy and bear with me and grant me that, please, because it's not the point of my message at all. So with that, in the New Testament, you have a group of people that are those who are in Christ. And those who are in Christ, he says, are neither Jew nor Gentile or any of those things anymore. None of that stuff matters. The only thing that matters when you're in Christ is that you are in Christ. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't change that your gender no longer is relevant. There's things that are gender specific in the Bible. He's just saying that whatever you were before is irrelevant in terms of your spiritual destination, your standing with God, and so forth. So, as an American, that's irrelevant to God. God doesn't care about my Americanness when He's looking at me in the eyes of eternity and my destination and all of that and how I stand before Him. It has no bearing on any of that. Now, what does matter is the same thing we saw with the Jew and the Gentile, and that is the fact that God cares how much light somebody has because to whom much is given, much shall also be required. And so that's where I say there is...you have to understand there are three people groups within the Bible typically. A lot of people throw around the word church there for the last one, even though it's not really correct to say that. Many times you can do it, but you have to give a lot of asterisks and understanding to get there. So just to keep it simple, you have those who are in Christ, the Jew, that nation of Israel that was set out, and the Gentile. But once a Gentile is in Christ, he's in Christ. Gentile doesn't matter anymore. Once a Jew's in Christ, he's in Christ. That Jew part doesn't matter anymore. And there's a lot of stuff we could talk about about that. There's actually a great deal of lessons we could get into. And probably, if we live long enough to go through the Book of Romans at the pace we're going, we'll get to those. But right now, they're not part of the lesson today. Today we want to ask the question, why does he say that the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Gentile? Why does he say that salvation is available to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile? Why does he say that punishment comes on those who disobey, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile? Why does he say that blessings come to those who obey, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile? And honestly, I am very thankful that the passages lined up the way they did, because this is not something I organized because of the fact we're doing the Lord's Supper today, because the answer ties directly to the Lord's Supper. And so, again, I'm spoiling all my stuff for you. If you know your Bible, you already know where we're going. But Romans 2, verse number 12, we'll also read this. It says, for as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. So I'm taking that verse, I'm not giving you the context of the rest of the chapter. I trust that you know it. I trust that if you don't, you'll read it. But the context of the rest of this chapter and the context of chapter 3 is that nobody is excusable. Everybody will have to give an answer to God, but God will take into account what light that person had. And if you want to see the greatest illustration of that, it's not in my notes, but the greatest illustration of that in the Bible, or not necessarily, but one of the greatest, is when Jesus is talking to those cities that have rejected Him and all the miracles and all the things He's done and all the preaching and all the light that they have seen as God Himself, the light of the world, has been in their presence, and they rejected Him. They said, we don't want you. He says that Sodom and Gomorrah will have an easier time in the judgment than you do. That it will be easier on them than it will be for you, for those nations, for those cities that have rejected Christ when He was there in front of them. And the reason He's giving is because if Sodom and Gomorrah had seen the miracles that those cities saw, they would have believed. That's what He said of them. And just think about that being God's damning condemnation against you is that you had so much light available to you, so much opportunity to believe, so much given to you so that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and yet you reject it. And God says if Sodom and Gomorrah had that, they would have believed. And He names other places. He says like if they would have had that light, they would have believed. So when you stand before God and give an answer for why you rejected His Son, that's going to be taken into account that you had more light than they had. Now, hell is hell, I get that, but God does seem to indicate that there'll be a degree of judgment, like a degree of punishment for those suffering because of what light they had, that God's going to take that consideration in the judgment. So when we talk about the difference between the Jew and the Greek, he's telling you already that the difference is that one of them has the law available to them, the other one doesn't. And that's where you find the real difference between what the Jew and the Greek is in the first place. When he says the difference between the Jew and the Gentile, the Jew and everybody else, is that this nation was called out and separated unto God, and if you were born within that nation, then from the time you were born, you had the Word of God in front of you. It was written on people's doorposts. It was written on their houses. It was everywhere you looked. People wore it on their foreheads and all other kind of crazy things they could come up with. They took, I mean, it was everywhere you could go. The Word of God was there. Every Saturday they're standing up and they're reading it in the synagogue. You're not allowed to work because you're supposed to go listen to what God has to say and then take time to go home and reflect upon it. I mean, every week this is in front of you, every day this is in front of you so that it defines who you are, it defines your culture, it defines your personality. Everything you are as a human being has been defined by this law being present within your land and within your life and this relationship that your people are supposed to have with God. So he says, yeah, I'm going to hold you a lot more accountable than the one who grew up in a land where they worshiped false gods and they bowed down to statues and they sacrificed their children and they've never heard a word of God's Word. Not one verse has ever been read to them. I'm going to look at them a little bit differently than the one who had in front of them the faith that come by hearing and the hearing by the Word of God. They had that Word of God so that they could have faith. But they still rejected him. He says, I'm going to hold them accountable a little bit differently than the one who I said that they have it engraved in their heart to know that there's a God. I said that they have the sun that rises and sets every day as a preacher to tell them that there's a God. I'm going to consider that a little bit different than somebody who has a Bible and says, I don't believe in God. And you understand, like you're in the country where you would, while you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile as far as I know. I don't know your heritage for everybody. Maybe somebody surprised me in here. But the point being is that you live in a Gentile country, but you fit closer to what he's saying about the Jew because of the impact of the church or churches have had on the world and the impact it's had on this culture in particular. I mean, you live in one of the most Bible-saturated parts of the world, and I also come from one of those as well, to the point that, honestly, my entire culture has been shaped by the Bible in a way similar but different to yours. And if you come from this country or one of the surrounding countries, yours is different because the Catholic Church had their say in it, but your entire culture, your entire life has been shaped by it. I mean, coming from the Philippines, you have the same thing. Many African countries, you have the same thing. But it also can greatly depend there. Even in India, I guess it depends almost what family you're from. But the point is that, that there are some people, you grew up somewhere where light is not there, really. Like, the light is very, very dim to you. But then there's people like me who I could stand at one church and I could throw the rock and hit the next. I have a Bible sitting on a shelf that I've never opened other than to look at the picture of Jonah being swallowed by a whale in it. I mean, I have all that stuff in front of me, and I have little children's books at my grandma's house telling me the story of David and telling me about Abraham so that the gospel is all around me. The world I lived in growing up was saturated in it, but I did not seek that out. And you better believe that God has a higher standard for those who have it available to them than those who don't. God expects everybody, He wants everybody to be saved. He expects everybody to come to the knowledge of salvation, to come to God, but He also understands that there's a difference in some people's lives. Not everybody has the same light that everybody else has. Now, He's going to say very shortly in Romans that nobody's excusable, that everybody has enough light to know that there's a God. And if you are willing to believe there's a God, God will get a preacher to you. But you have to make the choice whether you believe. But even that's not necessarily the full answer of what it means to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, I want to read you some verses real quick. I'll try not to comment so much on each of them, otherwise we won't get through this thing. But Acts chapter number 10, verse number 34 and 35. Acts chapter number 10, verse number 34 and verse number 35. It says, then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him. Now, bear in mind when he talks about working righteousness throughout the Bible, so often he's talking about just simply trusting God and believing in Him. And in the context, we know that's what he's saying here as well. But Peter says, I realize, and he's talking about the salvation of Cornelius and the first Gentiles being saved there. He says, I realize now that God's really not a respecter of persons. That up to that point, it was Jews getting saved, but now they've seen that God's willing to save the Gentiles if they'll trust in Him, if they'll fear Him and put their faith in Him. Then he says in Romans chapter 10, if we go back to the direction we're already coming from, Romans chapter 10, And verse number 12 and verse number 13, it says, For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that calleth upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So God's telling us that in regards to salvation, there is no difference. Everybody God's not a respecter of persons. He is willing to save whosoever. There's not a person who has been excluded from salvation. He will save whosoever shall call upon His name. It doesn't matter what the background is or so forth. So, again, I'm building this. I want you to see that it's going to come to a very strange statement then. Then in Galatians chapter 3, verse number 26 through 29. So Galatians chapter 3, we'll skip all the way past Corinthians to get to Galatians. Galatians chapter number 3 verse number 26 through verse number 29. It says, For ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So he's showing you that in Christ, these things are irrelevant, like salvation is not separate to a gender, salvation is not separate to a nationality, it's not separate to whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, that in Christ, we are all together in Him. And so he says when someone gets saved, they're baptized with the Holy Spirit, they're baptized into Christ, and when you're in Christ, you're in Christ. There's no distinction of that. Again, that doesn't negate the fact that he gives gender-specific roles and stuff like that. He's speaking about what it means to be in Christ. Then in Colossians chapter 3 verse 10 and verse 11 says something very very similar. Colossians chapter 3 verse number 10 and 11. It says, And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, nor bond nor free, but Christ is all in all. So we know the barbarian is those who don't understand. Scythian should be then a contrast to that. You have circumcision, those who have designated themselves belonging to God through this physical act, and those who have not, Greek nor Jew. And he says none of that stuff matters in regards to salvation. And when somebody is saved, they are in Christ. And that's why he says there is a people, talking about believers, who were not a people before, there in the verse we actually used last week. in 2 Peter, chapter number 2, when he tells us that we are a chosen generation who were not a people before. In times past, we were not a people. Now we are a people who are in Christ, and the rest of that stuff ceases to matter in terms of who we are. But here's where we get to the question of this statement. John chapter 4 verse number 22, Jesus is talking to the woman of Samaria standing there by the well, and of course she's wanting to debate him concerning religion and telling him that your people say we worship at Jerusalem, our people say we worship at this mountain. I'm not going to give you a drawn-out history lesson, but more or less the answer So that question dates all the way back to Jonah and Nineveh, as that area is part of the area where that took place. And some people who come from that, who over time the Jews moved there, they mingled with them, they produced a group of people who were half Jewish, half Gentile, and those people worshiped God, but not the way God asked for. It doesn't sound simple, but that is actually the simplified version of the story. If I go any deeper than that, it's a complicated story. So John chapter 4, verse number 22, he's debating with her because when they began to worship God, they made their own place and their own rules and their own law for how to do it and ignored what God actually asked for. Whereas, the Jews were still doing what God told them to do, and Jesus responds to her with this statement. He says, "'Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.'" So think about what He's saying to her. The same God who's telling us He's not a respecter of persons, and that in Christ when someone's saved, none of that stuff matters, looks at this woman in the eyes who's wanting to argue with Him about religion, and says, you don't even understand. You don't even know what you're worshiping. Salvation belongs to the Jews. How can God who says that also say that He's not a respecter of persons? Like, where do you get from those two statements? Then in Matthew 15, this is the one probably most of you thought of when we first started this conversation, or at least the story, even if you don't know this verse by heart. Matthew chapter number 15, verse number 24, the same story appears in Mark chapter number 7. Matthew 15, verse number 24 says, then came she and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs." Sorry, I should have started a little bit sooner. Let's go back to verse 23. But he answered her not a word, and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Now you have that. And the next one I'll read you, I'll give it to you so that I can skip my point here. or get to the point here. Matthew 10, verse 5 and 7, when He sends out His disciples, He tells them to go only to the Jews, to not go by the way to Samaria or to the Gentiles, to go and preach the gospel to them. That's Matthew 10, verse 5 through 7, if you would like to read that as well while I'm saying this. If you understand what I'm getting ready to tell you, then it's actually going to change a little bit of the way you see that passage. Most people read the story of this Syrophoenician woman, this Gentile woman. They read this story, and what they take away from that is that the Jews use the word dog as a slang term for the Gentiles. I'm going to challenge you to show me that in the Bible, though. Because it's not actually true. Like, I've said it myself because I just have always been taught that. That's what everybody says. I've preached it. We learned it in Bible college. It makes sense. But the only indication or the only place you have in the whole Bible where it sounds like a Jew is calling a Gentile a dog is the passage we just read. But that comes from a misunderstanding of what is being said in that passage. The point he is making is actually the point we're getting to in the message here. That the reason why he was not sending his disciples to the Gentiles at that time or to the Samaritans is because God had something that he had to fulfill, some obligation to the Jews that he had to first do that. And this is part of what he means when he says in verse 17, which is why we read it for context of Romans chapter 1, when he said, therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Part of the intention of that is to see how righteous God is that he made a covenant with Israel and he is fulfilling what he told Israel he would do for them before he's going to spread the gospel to the entire world under the New Covenant, the New Testament. So, when he tells her it's not fit to take the meat from the children to give it to the dogs, what he's actually saying is this. Right now, I'm trying to prepare the food for my children. When I'm done feeding the children, I can feed other people. I can take care of the pets. I can take care of whatever, but it's not proper that while I have an obligation to my children that I would take food away from them to give it to something else. That's the point he's making. It's not that dog is a slanderous term for the Gentiles, a slang way of saying that. It's not that it's intended as an insult. If so, then you have your God, you have to answer why he's insulting this woman and calling her a dog if it was something that the Jews did that we're supposed to see it as a very racist and cruel thing that they would do that, which is what most people teach and preach when they say that that's what the Jews did. Now, the reason why that matters, it's not my message that says quick and then move on. The reason why that matters is because once you get that in your head, every time you read that God says something about a dog, you think, oh, he's talking about Gentiles. And you go and read that passage as if he's talking about Gentiles, when most of the time he's just talking about someone who can't understand what's going on. He's talking about someone who just doesn't have the ability to appreciate what's happening. That's why he says not to cast your pearl before swine in the same passage where he says to beware of dogs. He says beware of dogs and then he tells you not to cast your pearl before swine in the same thought. He also says almost the same exact thing in Philippians chapter 3 while talking about what should mostly be Jewish people. I mean, Philippians 3 is more so dealing with Jewish people when he says to beware of dogs. So the dogs he's talking about weren't Gentiles in that passage. But if you take this idea that if he says Gentile, it must be the Jews saying derogative things, negative things about the Gentiles, and apply that to your Bible, then you're going to read that passage and put something there that's not there. Which is not the point of my message. It's a side note. I had a really good side note this morning I didn't get to, so they're always there. I just don't always get to them. But the point is this, I want you to understand that when he tells her that I can't take time to feed you right now, it's not because the Jews thought that Gentiles were dogs and he thought she was beneath him and unworthy of him. He said concerning the woman in Samaria, I must needs go to Samaria to see that woman. He didn't think she was beneath him. He had a reason he wanted to go there. There was something he was preparing and something he was doing, but what he's telling her is that right now I have a very specific mission, a job that I am trying to fulfill, such as feeding my children, and I'm not going to be distracted from that for anybody right now. There's coming a time where the gospel is going to be preached throughout all of Samaria so that there's not one person in Samaria who doesn't hear the gospel. There's coming a time where everybody in Syrophoenician, they're going to hear the gospel. There's coming a time where God's going to send His disciples out and they'll preach the gospel throughout the world so that Paul says the area from Jerusalem all the way through Greece up into quite a bit of Europe, he said, all that area I preach to every person. There's not one more place for me to go where nobody has heard the gospel. So it's not that God is not caring of these people, it's not that God is not willing to go to them, it's that God had a reason, some reason we'll see, that He had to go to the Jew first before He could take and go to the Greek. Now we understand that part of what that term means is that there is an expectation, but we're going to see that it's also a term that implies God has an obligation to those people. So then if you'll turn with me to Acts 13, I can start to show you that. Acts chapter number 13, And verse number 46, Acts chapter number 13, verse number 46. I have another tangent attached to this verse, but I'll try to avoid it and I'll just send messages to people individually who want to know about it. Acts 13, verse 46, then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you, and judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turned to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I set thee to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Now, my tangent is talking about what it means, ordained to eternal life, but we will get to that another time. But what he's saying here is that Paul tells them it was necessary, it was correct that we would come to you, the Jews, and preach the gospel first. But if you don't want it, God's not going to sit here and let it go to waste. That's what we talked about in the wedding invitation the other week when He invited whosoever to come to the wedding feast. It's the same idea. He's saying, if you don't want it, you count yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Well, those who are determined to go that way, those who want to, not God's determining, but their own determination to go that way, we'll give it to them. Those who want to come to the wedding feast, we'll invite them to the wedding feast. That's what he's getting at in this passage. But he says it was necessary, it was proper that they went to the Jews first. So then Romans chapter 9, verse number 3 through 5, and believe it or not, I'm actually running through this message quite quickly. As I said, I would try. I mean, I don't know how long I've actually been preaching because I don't have my watch, and Maureen stole it. But Romans chapter 9, verse number 3, as we're coming closer to the end of this point, Romans 9 verse number 3 through verse number 5. We're going to get some more explanation on this. It says, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, I start in verse one, but we'll go with it. I lie not, my conscience also bear me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the laws and the service of God and the promises. whose are the fathers, and whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. You want to get, honestly, just straight to the point. Like, I mean, I can't say straight after we've been talking about it for 20, 30 minutes or whatever, but you want to get to the point, finally, of why he said it had to be to the Jew first, why it was necessary that the gospel should be preached to them, and why the salvation, he says, is available to whoever believes, but he emphasizes to them first. It's because God made a covenant with Israel. And while one aspect of that covenant means that they had more light and more opportunity than anybody else in the world to put their faith in God, they were the ones who had been prepared for generation after generation after generation that when the Messiah comes, you should be the one who first flocks to Him and accepts Him as your Savior. See, God had been preparing them from all the way back to Adam. for this moment. He called them out from Abraham. He separated them as a people. And Paul says concerning them, I would be willing to go to hell myself if I could, if they could be saved, because I want them to be saved. They're the ones that God made the promises to. He said the reason why you and I could be grafted into the promises is because God made it to them in the first place. If God didn't make it to them, you wouldn't have a promise to be grafted into. He said the reason why you and I can have Christ's blood being shed for our sins is because He made a covenant with them in the first place. He said the reason why you and I can have these stories in front of us of what God has done so that we have the testimony of God written in pen for us to read it is because of their prophets, their scribes, their fathers, their tradition, their people. They're the ones who put all of that out there in front of us. And He says, if anybody should be first in line to be served, it's the ones who've been sitting there waiting for the last thousand years to have their meal. It's the ones who've been sitting there for generation after generation being told, the Messiah is coming, the Messiah is coming. But if they're not willing to eat, you can come sit down. It's not just for them. The meal is for you too. But God had an obligation to fulfill to them. You see, He made a covenant with them that He was going to send to them, and He made a promise to them that He was going to send to them a Messiah, a Savior who would come to take away the sin of the world, who would come to be their King. And so that's why, if you pay attention, so much of Matthew is focused on Christ as the Messiah. And that's why terms like preach the gospel of the kingdom are thrown around so much. is because at that point in time there is a focus on fulfilling His obligations to the Jewish people, fulfilling His end. They didn't keep up their end of the covenant. They didn't obey God. That's why He had to take them out of the land for the time of captivity in Babylon. They didn't obey God. That's why Judges is the way it is, and there's so many times of failure. That's why you have all the time of the kings where there's bad king after bad king, the nation split, and all this kind of stuff is because they did not obey God. And that's why you see God keeping His promise to curse them because so much of what happens to them is exactly what He said He would do when they did not obey Him. And God says, I hold them responsible first because I made the promise to them first. He said, I'm going to bless them first because I made the promise to them first. And he said, I'm going to fulfill my covenant with them because I made the covenant with them in the first place. That's the point he's getting to, why salvation was to the Jew first but also to the Greek. It's because God had had a special covenant with Israel so that He said they were His people and He is their God. If you go back to Deuteronomy, he makes that plain, but on the way I want to read Acts 3, verse 25 and 26. Acts 3, verse 25 and verse 26. Acts 3 verse 25 says, "...who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood, and the rulers..." I'm sorry, I'm in chapter 4. Acts 3. I thought it didn't sound good. Acts 3 verse 25 and verse 26 says, "...he are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up His Son, Jesus, sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from His iniquities. So God says because He made a covenant and a promise with them, because He promised Abraham all the way back then, that's why Jesus came to them first. And that's why He says, I came not to the lost household of Israel, is because when the new covenant began, He's going to give the gospel to everybody. The same God who said, don't go and preach to the Samaritans or to the Gentiles, preach only to the lost sheep of Israel. The same God who said that is also the same God who said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. What's the difference? What changed between one statement and the other? God finished everything He needed to do for that covenant to be finished, so that He on the cross could cry, it is finished, it's done. The sacrifice has been done, the covenant is fulfilled, there's nothing left that He owes specifically. The new covenant is then sealed in His blood. as he took and he went to the mercy seat of God in heaven, and he sprinkled his blood upon the mercy seat, and the new covenant is sealed for you and I, so that now the gospel is preached to everybody openly, equally, so that in Christ there is no difference. So that in Christ, Jew, Gentile doesn't really matter. So it was proper he went to them first because of the promises he made to them. It's proper he went to them first because of the covenant he made with them. It's proper he went to them first because they had the prophets, because they were prepared. They were the wood that was supposed to be ready that as soon as the spark came, fire was lit. And yet when the time come, there was no fire. So it was proper He went to them first because He promised and said He would do all of those things. See, you think of the law many times and the prophecies, and you think about prophecies concerning how that down the road, you know, the Antichrist is going to come and all of this. But you understand so much of the prophecy, probably more of the prophecy, pertains to God saying that, when I come, I'm going to do this. I'm going to have men come and speak to you in diverse tongues, but you're not going to listen to them. I'm going to send my Savior, and you're going to crucify Him because you're not going to listen to Him. I'm going to cry out to you, but you're not going to listen because your heart is dull and your eyes are blinded to the truth." See, God told them He would do it, so He had to fulfill His part because it's righteousness. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed, that God didn't just skip over Israel and say, well, they're not going to listen, so let me go to somebody else. God said, no, I promised you I'd give you a chance. I promised you I would do everything at the time. That's why He said at the fullness of time He sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the law. He said, I promised you at the right time I was going to send my son and he was going to come to die for you. I promised you I would send you preachers. I told you I'd bring you a man who came in the spirit like Elijah, John the Baptist. I promised you that the Messiah would come and that he would heal the sick and he would raise the dead and he would open the eyes of the blind. And honestly, if you read the passages many times, he's talking about the second coming of Christ, but he still promised Israel that he would do those things. So He does it. He fulfilled everything He ever told them He was going to do so that they had every right and every reason and every purpose you could imagine to believe, and yet so many of them turned their back and refused to believe. So when He said, I come not but to the lost sheep of Israel, understand that's because at the time He's fulfilling His obligations to finalize that covenant so that He could do what He needs to do for that covenant. but then he says he's going to make a new covenant. And understand that new covenant is with Israel too. I mean, half of that new covenant pertains to them, them turning back to God and him putting a new heart in them and taking away their heart of stone and all this kind of stuff. So you can't throw Israel away just because he fulfilled the old covenant and made the new covenant. The new covenant, he told it to them in the first place. The new covenant comes from Isaiah when he tells them, a new covenant I will make with you and you'll turn to me and I'll take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And he's talking to Israel about them turning during the tribulation and all of these things in the passage. So understand that he fulfilled his obligations to them is why it was to the Jew first but also to the Greek and also to the Greek. And it goes back to what he told them in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6 through verse 9. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6 through verse 9. It says, For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon thee, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep his oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen. from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt." So he's talking to that specific group of people, but he tells them concerning them, he says, I want you to understand, I made a promise to your fathers. I made a promise to Abraham, and I didn't choose you because you were a great, mighty nation. I chose Abraham. And I chose to work through Abraham so that, he explains it in Galatians 3.16, I believe, that God promised not through many seeds of Abraham, but through one seed, and that seed is Christ. that all nations of the world would be blessed. God made a promise to Abraham and God has never broke a promise and He will never break one. And the reason why He put up with all the junk He put up with from Israel is because God made a promise and He'll never break one. The reason why He fulfilled His covenant to them even when they didn't fulfill their side of it is because God made a promise and He will never break one. The reason why Jesus was focused on Israel when He came is because He made a promise and He will never break it. Everything he was doing was to fulfill all the things he told them throughout that Old Testament he said he was going to do. And only then, that same God who tells her, I've not come but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that same God who tells His disciples, don't go and preach. And if you read it in other passages, it's indicated not now to go preach to the Samaritans or to the Gentiles, because that's for later. He says, now you just go preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He says, you go to those sheep who just don't want to listen. They don't want to believe me. But what changes between there and the New Testament then? Why is suddenly there something different? Well, John 10, verse 15 and verse 16. John chapter number 10, verse 15 and verse 16. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." So he tells them that, I'm going to die for everybody. And right now I've come not but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But he said, I have sheep that are not part of that fold. I have sheep that are not part of the lost fold of Israel. You understand, in the Old Testament you have that. You have people like Jethro who has no connection to Israel and yet he believes in God. You have men like Job, who has no connection to Abraham. I mean, the promise, depending on how you read it, Abraham may have came after Job, and yet, completely disconnected from this family line, he loves God more than anybody in this room ever loved God. I mean, you understand that there's people outside of Israel who love God, and Cornelius is your proof in the New Testament. But there was a man who prayed every day, God, show me how to know you. And God, when it was time, said, OK, I'm going to send you a preacher. His name's Peter. Go get him. This is where you'll find him. And then he told Peter, you're going to have to go preach to him. Even if you don't like him, it doesn't matter if you think Gentiles should get saved. Call not thou unclean what I have called clean. And he sends Peter to go preach to him, and he gets saved. And that's when Peter says, I know that God is not a respecter of persons, for in every place that man that fear God can be saved. What he's saying to them is that, right now, I made a promise to focus on these sheep, and I'm going to fulfill that promise. But as soon as I'm done, I've got sheep all over this world. I've got people all over this world who, inside their heart, they believe there's a God. They just want to know how to know Him. I've got people all over this world, and I'm not going to ask them to come to Israel anymore. I'm not going to ask them to come to this nation and let your rabbis and your priests tell them how to know me. I'm going to send somebody to them. I'm going to send preachers to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's going to be the difference when we get to this new covenant. Israel never was the lighthouse. They never declared His glory to all nations like they were supposed to. They were never able to be a light to the Gentiles like they were supposed to be. They never did any of that. And he said, that's done for now. Now, we know with the new covenant, there's coming a time where they'll do that. But he says, for now, that's done. I'm going to do everything I promised you I would do. I'm going to put you aside for a little while, and I'm going to focus on those that are in me, and I'm going to let them go take the gospel to those sheep that are scattered all over. I'm going to let them take the gospel to all those who are not part of the lost house of Israel." Don't get me wrong. He preached the gospel to the lost house of Israel, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He preached the gospel to all of them. I mean, just like in the Old Testament, they had more access to the truth than anybody at that point in time. But you see today that they don't necessarily have that because their own people hide it from them, and God's not focused on them the way He was in the Old Testament. He's got His preachers, His Word, and everything else lined up across this world trying to reach those across the world who are willing to hear the gospel. But something had to happen before that change could be made to separate, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to preach the gospel to every creature. And the simple answer is the New Covenant. Hebrews chapter 9, verse number 14. That's my last verse. Hebrews chapter 9 verse number 14 says, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives." And then he explains the Old Testament was not created without blood either. They shed the blood of animals for that. Now, I'm not going to go and preach all of Hebrews to you, but the simplified message is this. The Old Testament, you had Moses stand as a mediator between Israel and God on Mount Sinai, and he mediated the law. He talked to them and said, this is God's terms and conditions. Are you going to keep them? Yes, we will. God, this is what they said they'll do. This is what they want. Is that good with you? He went back and forth with them until everything was settled, it was signed in blood as they shed the blood of the animals, sprinkled the blood upon everything that they had to do, and all of it was marked in blood. But he says a testament, well that's your will and testament, that's what you carry out after you're dead. So he said the testament had to require death. The shedding of blood was necessary. So Jesus Christ went to that cross and He died, and with His blood, He brought in what is for us this New Testament. wherein he is not focused on the difference between the Jew and the Gentile. He's focused on, are you in Christ or not? And it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. Are you in Christ or are you not? It doesn't matter what country you live in. Are you in Christ or are you not? Are you a male or female? Are you in Christ or are you not? That's what matters to him. And that's why the focus goes from preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I'm going to give you power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you'll preach the gospel in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and in the uttermost parts of the earth." The places he said, don't go, he said, well I'm going to let you preach to the Jews first. You're going to start here where it all began. Where they have the light, where I've prepared them for thousands of years, but this time it's going to go a little bit different. You're going to preach to them, but you're not going to stay here. You're going to go to Samaria. You're going to go to the Gentiles. You're going to go out beyond all of this, because the gospel is, yes, to the Jew first, but it's also to the Gentile. He had obligations to the Jews. He had promises. He had commitments. He had things he set up, and he fulfilled all of that. But salvation was never limited to the Jews. Salvation was always intended to go out beyond that. They were supposed to be a lighthouse to get it to the world. They didn't do it. Now you are the light of the world. You are a people that's supposed to be sent out to go and give the gospel to every person. And that's why it may not sound like it matters much in the context of the verse, but it's everything in the context of the verse. You have been given a job that Israel never did. God took it upon Himself for three and a half years to do it Himself directly, and then He took His disciples and He pulled them aside and said, this is your job now. You take it and you do it, and now you're ready. Now you're not limited. Your hands are not tied to Israel. Every obligation's been fulfilled. You can preach the gospel to them, but you can keep on going. The ends of the world are your limits. Go into every nation, every people, every tongue and preach the gospel to them because everyone needs the gospel and we are debtors to every one of them that they can hear the truth of how to be saved. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't let anything stop you. Go and preach the gospel. He sealed it with his own blood. That's what, as small as the statement to the Jew first and also to the Greek may sound, that's what's intended. is that you understand what's needed to get us going is given. The fulfillments have been made, the covenant's made, the testament's done, all of it's ready, you have what you need, you have no need to be ashamed, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.