In the sermon 'Christ, Servant for God's Glory' by Douglas Campbell, the speaker delves into Romans 15:8-13, highlighting Christ's role as a servant to the circumcised to confirm God's truthfulness, uphold promises to the patriarchs, and extend God's mercy to the Gentiles. The sermon emphasizes that Christ's mission was always inclusive of the Gentiles, illustrating God's eternal plan of salvation for all who repent and trust in Him, regardless of being Jew or Gentile. Campbell stresses the significance of true redemption, marked by a transformation of heart and a desire to draw near to God, rather than merely adhering to rules or traditions. He draws attention to the nature of hope in Christ, underscoring that it is a certainty for believers, unlike worldly hopes. The sermon calls for self-examination of one's faith and priorities, urging believers to embrace repentance, align their lives with God's will, and glorify Him for His boundless mercy and kindness.

Good morning. If you would turn with me to Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. This morning we're going to look at verses 8 through 13. Romans 15, 8 through 13.

Romans 15, 8 through 13. The Word of God tells us, 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 says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with this people. And again praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples exult him. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles.

And him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we come to you this morning and all father as we read your word. That father as Gentiles, probably most if not all in this room father, we would be considered Gentiles.

And yet your plan, even before the foundation of the earth, wasn't just to rescue your chosen people, the Jewish people, but that within your elect is also the Gentiles, that you would reach out to us, Father, that you would, your Son, dying upon a cross, that we might turn and trust in him. And Father, we too can be brought into your family. So Father, this morning, we sit and we stand in awe of a God who gives us what we don't deserve. For all who trust in you, Father, you give us beyond what we could ever imagine what we could ever Even comprehend to deserve Father you adopt us as your children So Father this morning as we come to Your Word, will this not be discouraged? Will this not be infernal?

Father, Father, Father, today we need you to draw us close. We need you to give us understanding. Father, as we come to your word, I pray that you would draw hearts, and that you would make us, conform us to the image of your Son, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Let's start this morning at Romans 15-8. We have come, We've had an amazing journey through Romans and we now find in the Book of Romans that it's starting to come to a close. That the meat of it, as we've said many, many, many weeks in the Book of Romans, as we've devoured and feasted on the meat, and as we've come to understand that the central theme of the book of Romans is God's salvation and how we might partake in that salvation and its effect upon us. At this point in the book of Romans, it's almost like we've come to the end of the letter and now, if you've ever, for us older people, if we used to write each other letters and I hope you know people write letters still too it's almost as if we've come to the the ps in the letter But oftentimes the PS or the thing that's at the end is either a great reminder or something that then adds to it or emphasizes the greatness of this letter that you've written or received. So this morning that's where we find ourselves.

Let's look at Romans 15 and 18 once again. It says, for I'll 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. Let's continue on to verse 9. 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." Right off the bat in verses 8 and 9, we find this principle that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. Essentially what that means is Christ became a servant to the Jewish people, those who were God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

And God specifically chose them that He would reveal His will to them, that they would have the words and the writings of the prophets, that they didn't walk in the blind, they didn't walk by their feelings, but that God revealed Himself to them specifically that they may come to know Him. Not just that they would have the law, not just that they would know how God expects us to behave, or even so, or even greater, to come to God's moral law, that we might know Him and know His moral character. But God gives us this, His word, that we might come to know Him in such a way that He would redeem us. If you remember the story of the woman at the well, Christ reminded her that the Jewish people were blessed in many ways, primarily because they worship in truth, or they have the ability to worship in truth. And now as we go through the Old Testament, we begin to understand that just as in the assembled body today, or the assembled church today, or the gathering together today, that there were those who were Sitting among them and then there were those who were of The remnant those who truly knew God There were those who had his word.

There were those who kept the rules the best that they could. There were those who strived to make the cup themselves up and say, look how good I fulfill the law. And then there was the remnant of those who really knew God, who were really redeemed. I don't believe that we could ever come to the Old Testament and look at the Israelites and make the claim that every single Jewish person was saved. I don't believe that that's a scriptural concept, but they were chosen in that they would have the Word of God that they might come to know.

Understand the difference. We can read this every single day of our life. We can memorize every single word. We could go to every single church service. We could Expel or spend our lives in the service of others, But if we don't come to know God, we are not redeemed.

We only have to be reminded of that concept in the book of James, that the demons believe in God and they tremble. The difference between the redeemed and the non-redeemed isn't so much of the belief in God, but that God has changed them, that God has changed their hearts. And this morning, our coming to Christ is less to do with how well we keep the rules and more to do with how much do I desire Him, how much will I draw near to Him, How close can I get to him so close that he would change my heart to desire him and this morning if that's you If you desire him You are blessed indeed whether you're Jewish or Gentile So we find that Christ became a servant to the circumcised? And it gives us three reasons or Three reasons why he did that. The first is to show God's truthfulness.

That Christ came into the flesh and He dwelt among us, that people might see the truthfulness of the Father. And it's reminded again in the second point, to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. As we go through the Old Testament, we find many, many promises that were revealed to us through the prophets. In fact, before Christ came, thousands of years before even, that there were hundreds of prophecies, there were hundreds of things about God's Son that they were to look for. And you and I, we may think back to a very short time, a time when churches appeared differently, when churches had the windows open, not just in the spring and the fall and the continuation of last fall that we have this year.

But it would have been all summer because they wouldn't have had air conditioning. They had big windows because they didn't have lights. As we go through time as time changes, there are those who would go to the Word of God and they would say, well this is kind of an old person quote. And I believe that that happened to some of those Israelites, some of those Jewish people. They would say, as you have, I'm sure have heard many, many times over, well, you know, my parents, when they were kids, they, people warned all the time that Jesus was going to return and He hasn't yet.

I can tell you this morning, he will return. But I believe we found ourselves in history, or at this point in history, as we come to the New Covenant or the New Testament, That same mentality among many people. Well people, they might have said, well people think, people said the Messiah is going to come. They said that. My grandparents said that.

He hasn't came. And yet, at this point in history, when Christ comes to the earth, he confirms that when God makes a promise, he keeps the promise. And this morning as we look to our future, as we stand in the hope and the looking forward to when we you and I are at the marriage supper of the Lamb when if we are with Christ and together there are some who would say well people have said that a long time. And yet, you and I, at some point, will find ourselves in glory, being confirmed that what God promises, God keeps. And thirdly, and what I would like to look at a little more this morning, is Christ became a servant to the serpent-sized in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.

Look at Romans 15, 10 through 12 again. We have this concept or this idea that in the Old Testament God was specifically concerned with the Israelites and that's true, that God never forgot about the Gentiles. In fact, in the Old Testament, the Israelites were supposed to be God's evangelism force for the Gentiles. That's why we have what we would call the quinquent purpose. God says, if you do this, I will do that.

If you don't eat pork, I will bless you with health. If you wash your hands before you eat, you will be healthy among the nations. And The nations looked at the Jewish people and they were in awe because these people had help that nobody else in the world had. It was God's choice in how he evangelized. It was partially for the purpose of reaching out to the Gentiles.

So we're reminded in Romans, we're given several passages from the Old Testament. Let's read 15, 10, through 12 again. These are, understand that I've shared this in Sunday school and probably many of you know this already, but when you see something indented in your Bible, it's typically because it's quoting from an Old Testament verse. There's usually a little letter recited and you can go and all that small writing and find what verse it's talking about. But this morning let's just read through these once again.

It says, and again it is said, and remember this is the Old Testament, rejoice, oh Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, O you Gentiles, and let all the people extol him. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, and him will the Gentiles hope. We're told in the Old Testament that God was concerned with the Gentiles. It was always His plan that in the New Covenant that there would be a way made not just for the Jewish people but also for the Gentiles.

That all those who would turn from their sin, who would turn to Christ, who would turn to the work of Christ on the cross, that God would place your sin upon His Son. And two thousand years ago, if He was on that cross, If this morning you have turned and put your trust in Jesus Christ, your sin was tagged into his account, and the punishment he received on the cross was on your behalf, and the wrath of his father being poured out upon him was a wrath that you rightly deserved. As Gentiles, if you are born again, we should be glorifying God. He is incredibly merciful to us. He is incredibly kind to us.

One only has to go back to God's moral law and compare himself to it. To compare yourself to the Ten Commandments. To go to commandment 9 that says, Thou shalt not lie. And to presume that I can stand before God as one who never told a lie would be comical to you all because you know that your heart is much like mine. If God kept a record, as he does, of every single lie that I've ever told, I would cower as I went through my teenage years.

But not just my teenage years, every year of my life I would cower before a holy and perfect God who does not lie. And how about the eighth amendment, Baal Shanaa Seel? God doesn't so much care about the value of what I stole but that I took that didn't belong to me. Or how about the one that everyone tends to think they've got thou shall not murder and go into scripture and see that if we hate our brother for any un for if we hate our brother God sees us as a murderer who has not hated someone and yet all of these things all of these sins God keeps track of and if God gave me what I deserve and if not gave you what you deserve from your works you would rightly be punished And as the one who is right before God is perfectly rewarded, you will be perfectly punished. It is what we deserve.

It's what I've earned for myself. It's what you have earned for yourself before a holy God. Yet God in His kindness sends forth His only Son to take the wrath on your behalf. It is a kindness that we will never experience from any person here on Earth. It's a kindness that we can't comprehend.

It's a kindness that is missed. My mind can't wrap around it. And the reason he does it is point number three in this letter. It's an order that the Gentiles might glorify Him for His mercy, that we might lift Him high, that we might go to the world and point to our Redeemer and our Savior, who has been so kind to save us, who has been so kind to adopt us, even into his family, for all those who would trust in him. We only have to turn back a few pages to Romans 2-4 and understand why He has been so kind.

It says, or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance of patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? When we understand what Christ has done for us, it should drive us to her knees. It should drive us to obedience. It should drive us to allegiance to the God who cares for me in a way that I can't even care for myself. Who provides a way of escape from the death that I deserve.

How could we not serve Him? How could we not love Him? How could we not cast every worldly thing to the fire, as long as we can just be with our Savior? To just be with the one who has loved us to this extent. We get so confused with that word repentance.

Because if we don't know Christ, repentance seems to be this, that I have to take everything I love and I have to do my best to get rid of it so that hopefully when I die, God will save me. That is not repentance. Repentance is the same as Jesus in the Gospels. We have the story of a man who discovered a treasure in a field and this treasure was so amazing that he sold everything that he had just so that he could buy this field and have this treasure. That is an image of Christ.

That if you come to know him, he is so amazing, he is so beautiful, he is so good, he is so kind and patient and so merciful. That repentance is, God have my junk. It is nothing compared to you. It is not hard to turn God because you are so good. And this morning I would plead with you, there is nothing in this world worth keeping between you and God.

There is nothing compared to His glory. There is nothing you have. There is nothing you can do. There is nothing you can possess. There is not a person that you can be with.

There's nothing that compares to the glory of God. And if you will come to know Him, Repentance will not be a chore. It will be a glory. It will be, God, I get this cash in this joke for you? For your forgiveness?

How could you not? How could you hold on another day to what this world has to offer? May today be the day of salvation. If you don't know Christ, If you aren't sold out to Him, I can tell you the word in that, it was one of blessing our brother shared this morning, Psalm 119. It says, blessed, truly happy is the one who searches after God with his whole heart.

Said this so many times in the last few weeks. There's something within us that we all are always wanting, whatever it is that will make us happy. And yet this world that sees us and tries to get us to go down all these paths. If I only have the newest fishing pole, or if I could only hit the golf ball better than somebody else, God then I'll truly be happy. And God puts it in plain words, you will not.

You will not. The one who is truly happy is the one who seeks after God with his whole heart. He finds a treasure that nothing else can compare to. Look in Romans, continue on, Romans 15-13. It says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

If you find Christ, if you know Him, the Bible says the Holy Spirit is going to make you abound in hope. And abound is just an older word that just means you're overflowing, you're full of hope, you're just, you're pounding in hope. And this morning, the question then is, where is your hope? Is it in Christ? Is it in the one true, sovereign God who has every detail of your life under control?

Is it that God who, when we look at every other being and putting the devil is like an animal that he can flick at any time he wants. Is that your king? Is that your father? Are you adopted into his family? Is your hope in him?

His singing like is your hope in him? These last this last week has been very has been an examination of our hearts. What is our hope in? Is our hope in a president? Is our hope in politics?

If it is, you're probably not abandoning your hope today. There's probably a deep weighing of your heart. Today we shouldn't be surprised at what's happening in our world. In fact, several months ago at the beginning of the year, we began to experience a pandemic in our land. And through the Old Testament, we're told and reminded that God allows pandemics to bring his people to repentance.

Yet in America we didn't see an outpouring of repentance in the church. Seemingly it was yet another reason why we don't need to gather together. We fear above more than we fear God. If His Church will not repent, What do we expect? Where do we expect God to take us?

God will do whatever it takes to draw His church close. In America we have been very busy about all kinds of things. We're really busy about seeking the God of scripture. We have somehow thought that the gospel or Christianity boiled down to taking a pill once or twice and then living our lives as we lived them before. But this morning, understand me clearly.

If Christ is not all to you, do you guys hear? If Christ is not all to you you guys here if Christ is not all to you he is nothing he's not a savior He's not a savior of those who think that he's a monopoly. Get out of your free card. If Christ hasn't transformed your heart, if you don't desire him more than just Sunday morning, more than just here or there, If you're not in his word, if you're not seeking after him, it's very strong evidence that he has not done a work in your heart. That doesn't mean that you're perfect about it.

It doesn't mean that you're... That's all you do in life. But in America, we're good, we're very good at many things. Seeking God typically isn't one of those. When things come up in our lives, we can best work for a lot of things.

Typically a church event isn't one of those things. Where is your hope? The Bible word hope. See, when we come to this, the Bible word hope, for those of you, for all who know Christ, hope is more than just hoping the fish are biting this weekend. I spent a lot of weekends in line with the fish are biting Saturday.

But that word hope isn't the word hope that's used here. If you are in Christ, that word hope, essentially we find 2 Corinthians 5, 7, a demonstration of it. That word hope, That verse says, for we walk by faith and not by sight. If my hope is in Christ, if I hope for the future, if I hope to be with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb, if I hope to be in Heaven one day, if I'm in Christ, it's as if it's already happened. It is completely sure if I'm in Christ.

If my hope is in a God who is sovereign, who controls every detail of the universe, I have nothing to fear. When things don't look good out there, I have nothing to fear. Kind of like I probably I'm sure I said and many of you know people said in preschool, my daddy is bigger than your daddy. They're worried about. Worry about.

Amen? As we go forward, the question of whether we're going to be happy or sad or fearful, the question has nothing to do with an election. It has to do with where is my hope? Do I really know Christ? We're a long way from Nero.

The early church didn't fret over who was the emperor or who was the king. Nero was crazier than we'll hopefully ever meet. Herod was a crazier guy than you and I will, I hope, ever meet. The church wasn't shaken about it. Normally the church is strengthened.

And this morning that is my hope. That we begin to see the value in Christ like never before. That we begin to seek him like never before. Because as times get worse, it's a blessing to us. It shows us how futile our stuff is.

It shows us how futile our stuff is it shows us how futile our activities are shows us how futile everything apart from Christ is. Amen? This morning I would encourage you, I would command you. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. If you don't know Christ, The Bible says to repent, to turn from the direction you're going, to turn to Christ and to put your trust in Him.

The Bible says if you do that in no way will He cast you out. So the confusion, in conclusion, the confusion is this, and the disciples actually have the same confusion Because they thought if they just associate with Christ if they travel with them if they if they can't out with them if they spend all kinds of time with them and do these things then that's really the end of it. But if you remember when they came to Christ about a couple of tragedies that happened, specifically that the ruler was mixing the blood of the martyrs with bad things. Christ reminded the disciples, he's telling the disciples, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. He's telling that to his disciples.

Unless you repent, You will likewise perish. It's more than about facts. Now, the Bible says faith comes by hearing, and so we should be in the Word of God, diligently in the Word of God, reading the word of God to our children. If you want children who serve Christ and faith comes by hearing, you must take every opportunity to share the word of God with your children. But this morning, I'd like you to look into yourself.

Have you repented? Is Christ all? Is that demonstrated by your schedule? Is that demonstrated by your pocketbook? Is that demonstrated by the things that you do?

Is it demonstrated by the priority of Christ in your life? See, I had this conversation with my kids all the time. There's a difference in what you say and what you do. The reason you behave the way you do, the reason that you sometimes say chores on them, is because your priority is something different than that. It doesn't matter if you say that it's your priority.

If your life demonstrates something different, It is not. This morning, coming back to the message, let me remind you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. The third reason was in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. This morning that mercy still pours out upon you. And if you look into your life, if you examine your schedule and your priorities and they don't line up the solution it's okay that you feel bad about it but the solution isn't to stay there thank god it's full of mercy that this morning If you would turn to Him and say, God, I have so messed up, but God today put me on the right path.

Let me make you be the one who I serve. Let me again say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Seek after him today. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. And when Father, we come to you this morning, primarily overjoyed. But today, as everyone in here who takes another breath, it demonstrates, Father, that your patience isn't over. That you're not through with us. But Father, as you give us the gift of another breath, let us use that breath in repentance towards you.

Father, let us as families seek you with our whole hearts. Father, whatever your plan is for the times to come, whatever it be, times of hardship, Father, Let us set our eyes upon you. Let us look upon you with joy, Father. Let us rest in the hope that one day you are going to return. That could be today.

Christ should return today, this very hour. If it's not for another 100, 000 years, it's not for another millennia. Our hope is still in you. Hope is still in Christ. Father, each are going to meet you within the next hundred years.

All the glimmer, tiny things of this world aren't going to matter remotely on that day. Others make our priorities correct today.