back to index2015-09-06 Own Up to Grow Up
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And I want to read from verse 16 all the way down to verse 25, although we're going to 00:00:12.440 |
But I want to read from verse 16 all the way to verse 25, just so that we can get a little 00:00:17.620 |
Okay, 1 Timothy, sorry, Romans chapter 1, 16 through 25. 00:00:24.120 |
Reading out of the ESV, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God 00:00:28.160 |
for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 00:00:33.200 |
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The 00:00:39.620 |
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 00:00:43.240 |
of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 00:00:47.120 |
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 00:00:51.400 |
For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly 00:00:55.320 |
perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they 00:01:01.800 |
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they 00:01:05.360 |
became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 00:01:09.760 |
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for 00:01:13.520 |
images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. 00:01:18.080 |
Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring 00:01:22.080 |
of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, 00:01:26.320 |
and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. 00:01:36.680 |
Gracious Father, we ask for your grace this morning as we come to examine your word, to 00:01:45.520 |
discern, Lord God, your will and your purpose. 00:01:49.400 |
Help us, Lord God, to have a deepening and deepening understanding, Lord God, of what 00:01:53.760 |
it is that we have in you, that we would learn to love you and to honor and glorify you, 00:02:00.760 |
that you would examine our hearts, Lord God, this morning to see if there's any hurtful 00:02:04.040 |
ways in us, that your word would do its work to judge the thoughts and intentions of our 00:02:15.360 |
Last week we looked at verse 15 and 16 and 17, talking about the power of the Gospel 00:02:19.400 |
and how in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. 00:02:23.400 |
And then we had that powerful statement that is repeated in three separate times in the 00:02:26.680 |
New Testament, a passage that again is quoted from Habakkuk, "The righteous shall live by 00:02:36.200 |
We talked about how starting from verse 18, Paul's going to jump into the heart of the 00:02:41.760 |
So if somebody asks you, "Well, what's Christianity about? 00:02:45.560 |
Maybe those of you who are Christians or young Christians or even mature Christians, to really 00:02:51.800 |
dive into the depth of what Paul has to say, because this is basically Christianity 101. 00:02:58.840 |
So he's going to jump into it, but one of the first things that we have to ask ourselves 00:03:08.400 |
Let me cause you to think that one more time. 00:03:15.240 |
Because everything else that we do in life, we are taught and we believe that you have 00:03:21.840 |
Now if you have any friend who is saying, "You know what? 00:03:24.280 |
I don't really need to work hard because I got this special number that I had in my dream 00:03:29.500 |
and I know that if I pick these numbers I'm going to win the lottery." 00:03:36.280 |
Or maybe a student who's at school and he's dropping out all of his classes because he's 00:03:41.520 |
trying to make the next social media thing and he's going to become a billionaire. 00:03:46.560 |
And he wants a quick road to get to fame and fortune. 00:03:51.320 |
Ever since we're young, we're taught you have to work hard to get what you want. 00:03:56.380 |
So if you're a student, you have to work hard to get good grades. 00:03:59.160 |
If you're an athlete, you have to practice hard. 00:04:02.000 |
If you're a student, you're again working hard to get good grades so you can get a good 00:04:06.640 |
If you have a good job, you have to work hard to get ahead and maybe get more money and 00:04:14.280 |
In every aspect of our life, in every part of our life, we are taught that you ought 00:04:22.080 |
Yet when it comes to Christianity, they say, "No, it's just by faith. 00:04:28.080 |
In fact, if you really sit down and think about it, think about it as somebody who's 00:04:44.720 |
Those of you who are working, if you're working, you've been in a company for about 10 years 00:04:49.420 |
and you've been working really hard, coming in early and working late. 00:04:53.520 |
And all of a sudden, this guy comes in, you know, and he gets hired and he's slacking 00:05:00.560 |
He's not even come to work on time, but yet he's the one who gets to race. 00:05:06.160 |
It's like, "Well, I mean, he, you know, he can do whatever he wants." 00:05:10.560 |
How many of you would sit there and think, "This is unjust." 00:05:14.920 |
I put on all that work and yet that's the guy that he gets to race? 00:05:24.360 |
When it comes to our spirituality, when it comes to our salvation, sometimes we just 00:05:28.680 |
kind of accept the grace of God without really thinking about how that would sound like to 00:05:35.840 |
That there's people in our lives who are, you know, very moral people. 00:05:41.640 |
And just because they didn't believe in Jesus, that they're not going to go to heaven? 00:05:48.800 |
Have you ever spoken to somebody who is trying to share the gospel with somebody who's not 00:05:52.320 |
a Christian and they say, "Wait a second, you know, I know a bunch of Christians who 00:05:56.960 |
don't work hard and they're not, you know, it's in my opinion, they're not great people, 00:06:01.840 |
yet they're going to go to heaven because they say they believe?" 00:06:04.640 |
And then here's these people who's sacrificing, giving to the poor, and they're adopting children 00:06:09.600 |
with special needs and they say they can't go to heaven because they don't believe, they 00:06:19.200 |
I mean, in life, you know, some of us are doing well, some of us are not doing well, 00:06:25.360 |
but in the end, just to say, "Yeah, I know, I have belief, though. 00:06:31.840 |
See, if we don't have a proper understanding of what the gospel is, even just embracing 00:06:37.680 |
the gospel without really thinking, we don't really realize how it sounds, and if you aren't 00:06:44.280 |
in the habit of sharing your faith, you don't know where the holes are, you know, holes 00:06:51.240 |
Because we just say, "Oh, he loves me so much, he died for me, and it's by grace of God." 00:06:55.760 |
But then until you sit down and somebody challenges you, like, how does that sound fair? 00:07:02.200 |
And even the gospel presentation itself, Jesus loves you and died for you, right? 00:07:14.040 |
Why would the God who created the universe, everything is made by him and for him, love 00:07:21.240 |
But even if you get past that, say, "God loves me, okay? 00:07:24.480 |
All right, let's now take your word for it, if he loves me, then why would he die for 00:07:33.560 |
If you're not a Christian and somebody said, somebody loves you and then died for you, 00:07:39.920 |
Okay, if you love me, you know, take me out to lunch. 00:07:46.160 |
If you love me, buy me something, or give me some clothes, or give me a lift to the 00:07:50.960 |
airport or something, if you love me, but he loved you so much he died for you. 00:08:00.840 |
We have to be able to answer that fundamental question, or else you don't know what the 00:08:07.880 |
You don't know what it is, and because we have such a superficial understanding of our 00:08:12.240 |
salvation, our response to what the scripture says is going to be just as superficial. 00:08:18.320 |
It's like, "Oh, he died for me, you know, now I'm going to go to heaven, and I'm going 00:08:21.960 |
to go to church and enjoy this in-between time with my friends." 00:08:29.040 |
See, Paul is going to take the next three chapters, chapter 1, verse 18, all the way 00:08:33.520 |
to chapter 3, verse 20, expositing why salvation can only be by faith. 00:08:40.320 |
Why your works is not going to get you into heaven. 00:08:43.920 |
And until we are convinced of this, the gospel is not good news. 00:08:49.520 |
It's going to sound like, "He just came and just threw out money." 00:08:53.840 |
God has just all this money left, and just like, "Here it is, and then whoever happened 00:08:57.520 |
to grab it are the ones that are going to be saved." 00:09:00.720 |
That is not how the gospel is presented to us. 00:09:03.680 |
In fact, if you look at verse 18, if you have the NIV, you don't have that word "for." 00:09:09.240 |
It just jumps straight into, "The wrath of God is being revealed." 00:09:12.000 |
If you have the NASV or the ESV, the other translation, it will have the word "for" 00:09:17.720 |
And that word "for" is actually an important word. 00:09:20.760 |
The word "for" connects this verse and what he's about to say in the next three chapters 00:09:28.280 |
So basically what he's saying is, the key statement in the previous verses is, "The 00:09:33.840 |
righteous, the just, shall live by faith for the wrath of God is being revealed." 00:09:39.760 |
Meaning, here's the reason why the just shall live by faith. 00:09:44.880 |
Here are the reasons that I'm going to give you in the next two to three chapters of why 00:09:53.760 |
So the first thing that he comes and tells us is that salvation is by faith first and 00:09:58.400 |
foremost because the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, 00:10:04.640 |
unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 00:10:08.960 |
Now obviously that statement is only one of many statements that he's going to make, but 00:10:13.520 |
he's going to introduce for us why Jesus had to die on the cross. 00:10:19.680 |
And why salvation is only by faith and by faith alone. 00:10:25.760 |
Now if I, again, yelled in this room, you know, that I have good news, right, and I 00:10:32.480 |
mentioned this before, if I said, you know, "You guys are all healed!" 00:10:41.280 |
Nobody even smiled, nobody even cracked a smile. 00:10:48.320 |
I just told you some great news, you're all healed! 00:10:55.520 |
See, it's not good news unless you understand what you're healed from, right? 00:11:01.440 |
If I just say, "You're healed!" and you don't really understand the sickness that you're 00:11:06.440 |
Now those of you, if I say, "You're healed from this," or "You guys were wrestling with 00:11:10.040 |
certain kind of ailment," and say, "You're healed from that," then you recognize, "Oh, 00:11:15.800 |
"Okay, I'd rather be healed than sick, though, okay, that's good," right? 00:11:21.400 |
So the Gospel message begins by identifying the sickness, right? 00:11:27.240 |
Because without identifying the sickness, it's just news. 00:11:34.080 |
Here's a reason why, if you read the Old Testament, if you've ever read the Old Testament consecutively 00:11:40.400 |
from Genesis to Malachi, it is dark and depressing, right? 00:11:47.120 |
You don't do quiet time through the Kings if you're having a bad day. 00:11:51.400 |
You know, "I want something to remind me of the grace of God," you know, "I want somebody 00:11:56.040 |
to lift me up because, you know, I'm just discouraged." 00:12:00.400 |
You might go through Philippians, maybe some parts of Psalms, some parts of Psalms, right? 00:12:06.180 |
But if you read consecutively the history of Israel, it is dark. 00:12:11.280 |
And not only is it dark, it gets darker and darker and darker until you get to the book 00:12:19.040 |
It is a history of, over and over again, mankind sinning. 00:12:22.320 |
You know how mankind sins, God is angry, and He wipes the earth of people, and He saves 00:12:29.480 |
Now, you would think that God's wrath would end there, but it's only the beginning. 00:12:34.480 |
And the history of Israel is a constantly falling away from the law, and God being angry, 00:12:39.800 |
judging them, and when God judges them, they come and cry out to God, "God has mercy." 00:12:44.720 |
And because God has mercy, the nation of Israel is restored. 00:12:48.000 |
And as soon as they're restored, they go right back and they forget God. 00:12:51.520 |
And when they forget God, they turn to idols. 00:12:53.840 |
When they turn to idols, God becomes angry and judges them, and this is a constant cycle. 00:12:58.940 |
And you would think that at some point, maybe the third cycle or fourth cycle, you know, 00:13:04.000 |
Israel would be, "You know what, we've seen this history before, right? 00:13:10.280 |
And then they would say, "You know what, from this day forward, we're not going to repeat 00:13:19.480 |
They go over and over again, until we get to the book of Malachi. 00:13:22.680 |
If you read through the Old Testament carefully, you're going to, by the time you get to Malachi, 00:13:28.320 |
you're going to be asking the same question that I ask. 00:13:35.520 |
Instead of asking, I used to think the same thing. 00:13:36.920 |
It's like, "Man, God is, God is, you know, an angry God in the Old Testament." 00:13:41.760 |
Instead, when you start reading through, it's like, "Why is He so patient with these people? 00:13:51.120 |
But all through the Old Testament, we have revelation of God's wrath and God's anger. 00:13:57.840 |
In fact, if you read the Old Testament carefully, you're going to see that it was intentional. 00:14:03.960 |
It was intentional that God and His wrath and His holiness and His justice was revealed 00:14:10.400 |
It wasn't just something that they just kind of passed over. 00:14:16.360 |
Deuteronomy 4, 23-24, it says, "Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your 00:14:21.600 |
God, which He had made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that 00:14:27.660 |
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 00:14:33.340 |
He told the nation of Israel, 'If you go into this promised land and you forget Me, 00:14:38.240 |
and you begin to worship idols, now watch out. 00:14:42.140 |
Every curse that I said that was going to come upon you is going to come upon you, because 00:14:50.760 |
A consuming fire is something where you can't go into. 00:14:53.760 |
The hotter the flame, the further you have to be away. 00:14:56.160 |
I don't know if you've ever been at a bonfire and then somebody got carried away and poured 00:15:05.360 |
That's the kind of picture that we see of who God is, that God is such a consuming fire, 00:15:11.440 |
In fact, Isaiah 53, 34, 14, it says, "Who among us can dwell within the consuming fire? 00:15:17.840 |
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?" 00:15:29.360 |
Now if anybody is sitting here thinking, "Well, thank God we're not in the Old Testament. 00:15:35.280 |
You know, He just kind of evolved into this nice, friendly, you know, Santa Claus figure 00:15:41.040 |
Thank God we don't live in the Old Testament." 00:15:43.400 |
But in fact, in the book of Hebrews, it describes Him exactly the same way. 00:15:48.400 |
Hebrews chapter 12, 28-29, "Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that 00:15:52.560 |
cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and 00:16:03.240 |
This is not just the God of the Old Testament. 00:16:08.180 |
If we do not recognize the God that we are worshiping, if we don't know who He is, salvation 00:16:19.040 |
You know, during Halloween, just knock on the right door and you get candy. 00:16:26.240 |
And so we don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ. 00:16:30.560 |
Just like if I gave you a dollar bill, you know, you may not be that thankful about it, 00:16:38.600 |
And that's about the level of appreciation that we have. 00:16:41.800 |
That's about the level of worship that we give. 00:16:44.840 |
Because we don't really appreciate and realize what it is that we have in Christ. 00:16:51.240 |
Well, you know, this morning I walked in and I found a lot of black widows in the sanctuary. 00:17:03.640 |
I know black widows are dangerous, so I thought maybe I should look it up to see how dangerous 00:17:09.160 |
So maybe we should tell people to not to be here. 00:17:10.760 |
Maybe we should fumigate it before we start in service. 00:17:25.720 |
This is from the National Geographic website about black widows. 00:17:29.760 |
The black widow spider's bite is much feared because its venom is reported to be 15 times 00:17:48.880 |
In humans, bites produce muscle aches, nausea, and paralysis of the diaphragm that can make 00:17:59.720 |
However, contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage, 00:18:08.680 |
But bites can be fatal, usually to small children, the elderly, or the infirm. 00:18:16.600 |
The spiders are non-aggressive and bite only in self-defense, such as when someone accidentally 00:18:22.360 |
sits on it or stomps on it or something like that. 00:18:31.280 |
If anybody here gets nauseous or partial paralysis and you can't breathe, you're not going to 00:18:49.360 |
Just the thought of having something that dangerous in the room makes you nervous. 00:19:00.800 |
So the thought of a black widow might be crawling underneath, even after I told you 00:19:05.840 |
it's not going to lead to fatality, makes us all nervous. 00:19:10.320 |
And we want to look around and say, "Make sure that we're not near." 00:19:16.760 |
And if I told you that it was concentrated in this area, you know, when you come in, 00:19:22.320 |
Remember when we had that beam that was broken? 00:19:30.760 |
The thought of having something that poisonous, that dangerous, even if it doesn't lead to 00:19:35.720 |
fatality, would cause us to be cautious, to examine carefully. 00:19:47.600 |
And that thought is going to be prevalent in your mind. 00:19:51.760 |
But when we think about God, we just assume we're safe. 00:19:59.080 |
We assume we're coming, we approach Him like we're approaching grandpa. 00:20:04.880 |
In fact, the scripture makes that very clear. 00:20:07.520 |
In fact, this week I was listening to a pastor, and his thesis, his main topic of sermon was, 00:20:13.960 |
God loves you no matter what, so what you do doesn't matter. 00:20:26.840 |
So anybody tells you, puts a guilt trip on you, what you're doing, they're not teaching 00:20:35.680 |
See, that's the kind of preaching that has made the church what it is today. 00:20:45.000 |
And so therefore, it's just nonchalant, just kind of like, hey, let's go. 00:20:48.400 |
We just assume that if we meet this God, that God is going to embrace us, and He's going 00:20:56.680 |
We never think, what if He's like the black, you know, the black widow? 00:21:01.760 |
Now there's nothing that says black widow, if He sees you, He's not going to bite you. 00:21:06.120 |
He says no, He's only going to bite you if you sit on it, if it's aggravated. 00:21:09.240 |
So as long as you don't aggravate it, He says it's okay. 00:21:20.360 |
Because it's going to make you feel uncomfortable. 00:21:21.360 |
It could cause you to be very seriously sick. 00:21:24.360 |
And as a result of that, you're very careful. 00:21:26.280 |
You want to examine, make sure you're not near it, you're not going to be bitten, no 00:21:30.680 |
But why do we think, when we think about this Holy God, that we automatically, I'm okay. 00:21:43.360 |
It's because the punch of the Gospel has been taken away. 00:21:50.480 |
The need for the cross has been muddled and dummied down and shaved off. 00:21:59.720 |
So we don't recognize why we need the cross in the first place. 00:22:12.560 |
So people stood in line and took it, not recognizing why the Son of God. 00:22:20.440 |
God Himself had to be crucified on the cross. 00:22:24.560 |
And the only way that we can be safe from His wrath, from His wrath, from His justice, 00:22:33.080 |
from His anger, is to be clothed in the blood of Christ. 00:22:40.360 |
And because we have not recognized it, and we just kind of glossed over it, our response 00:22:46.480 |
You know, I remember when I first came to the United States and got candy, it was so 00:22:53.920 |
You know, because back in Korea, back in the early 70s, you just didn't have candy like 00:23:03.360 |
I came to the United States and my cousin told us that if you put a makeup on, you go 00:23:14.000 |
So, me, my older brother was too embarrassed, so he didn't do it. 00:23:18.480 |
Me and Philip decided we're going to put a, we literally put a paper bag over our head. 00:23:26.200 |
So I go and knock, and then they give me some candy, and then he, it was his turn, and he 00:23:40.080 |
You know, we came home, it was probably about two bags, about that size. 00:23:43.160 |
I remember thinking, I was like, "Wow, America is great. 00:23:51.600 |
So, I get, I get so dumbfounded today, when now, with our, with kids, our kids or the 00:24:16.280 |
Because it's passed out left and right, because we have it everywhere. 00:24:18.920 |
We have it in the pocket, we have it in the car, we have it at school, we have it at home. 00:24:23.400 |
So if you don't get candy today, you might get it tonight. 00:24:26.680 |
You don't get it tonight, you probably get it tomorrow. 00:24:32.560 |
And as a result of that, there is no, you know, the candy doesn't have its power. 00:24:43.200 |
When I went to Kenya, you know, with the orphanage that we were visiting for Beloved, you know, 00:24:50.520 |
those kids, obviously, they don't have anything. 00:24:52.240 |
So I brought a bag of candy, and literally, they were staring at me like I had something 00:25:01.920 |
And I remember I gave that to them, and they followed me around for a week. 00:25:06.120 |
Because every time I reached into my pocket, they thought maybe candy's going to come out. 00:25:11.320 |
And I was just thinking, there's power there. 00:25:14.200 |
Candy has no power here, but there's power there. 00:25:17.640 |
When we don't recognize the preciousness of what it is, what we have been saved from, 00:25:29.440 |
And because it's news, there's no preciousness. 00:25:39.760 |
True worship is when we recognize that we have something great, and we come to worship 00:25:46.280 |
Just like a lot of us go to sports stadiums to watch something above us. 00:25:53.040 |
If Joe and I play basketball today, no one's going to come and pay money to see us play 00:26:06.160 |
We pay money to watch people who are above us do things that we can't possibly imagine 00:26:12.320 |
So when the Gospel becomes cheap grace, it's just something that we do, something that 00:26:17.720 |
we say, something that we regurgitate, until we recognize its greatness. 00:26:24.120 |
He says, "The Gospel, the wrath of God is being revealed." 00:26:31.400 |
You know how we talked about in the first part in verse 17, it says, "The righteousness 00:26:37.400 |
And then that same phrase, "But the wrath of God is being revealed." 00:26:41.600 |
Why is the righteousness of God being revealed important? 00:26:44.680 |
And then he says, "You need to understand why salvation is by faith. 00:26:52.920 |
It doesn't talk about past tense, it doesn't talk about future tense, it's talking about 00:26:56.960 |
So we may ask ourselves, "Well, I know wrath of God is being revealed in maybe in the Middle 00:27:01.920 |
East, maybe in North Korea, maybe in certain horrific events, but you know, living in Orange 00:27:07.720 |
County, California, you know, I feel like grace of God is being revealed every day." 00:27:14.680 |
Wake up every morning, see the sunshine, you know, especially get on the freeway and there's 00:27:19.760 |
no traffic, the grace of God is being revealed. 00:27:25.680 |
They have a sale, you get half off for going to Chipotle, grace of God is being revealed. 00:27:32.760 |
We live in Orange County and it's like wrath of God is being revealed. 00:27:35.960 |
When's the last time you saw something, you know, and we think like 9/11, we think of 00:27:41.200 |
some disastrous things, but he says present tense. 00:27:44.640 |
Is Paul talking about only at that time or is this a consistent thing? 00:27:48.680 |
Well, if you look at the tense in Greek, it is referring to an ongoing. 00:27:55.480 |
Something that was there and something that's continuous, it's part of life. 00:28:00.840 |
And if we don't recognize the wrath of God being revealed, then the grace of God being 00:28:10.160 |
Because we don't know what the grace of God is for. 00:28:13.400 |
First of all, the wrath of God is being revealed today in the universal human experience of 00:28:19.120 |
Because that's the first thing that the scripture talks about, that he said, "If you eat of 00:28:28.040 |
In fact, not only did death come in, in Romans 5, 17 it says, "Because of one man's trespass, 00:28:36.960 |
You know, it didn't just come in and affect some people, it said it reigned, meaning when 00:28:43.760 |
It means it has absolute sovereignty, absolute control over. 00:28:48.860 |
And that's how death is described in Romans chapter 5. 00:28:52.840 |
It didn't just affect us that one day we're going to die, it said this death, this separation 00:28:57.840 |
from God had reigned, meaning it affected everything that we do. 00:29:03.480 |
See, death is the most tangible evidence of the fallenness of man, it's God's judgment 00:29:12.000 |
He said that's what's going to happen, that's what happens. 00:29:16.920 |
Death was not intended in the Garden of Eden. 00:29:21.560 |
Death came in as a result of rebellion against God. 00:29:24.920 |
And this is the tangible evidence of his judgment. 00:29:28.560 |
So today, you know, we just kind of think about death as like, "Ah, that's just a natural 00:29:34.720 |
So because that's the only way the world can explain it. 00:29:41.560 |
And you just try to milk as much as you can while you're in between. 00:29:50.560 |
How does all of this affect what happens afterwards? 00:29:53.500 |
If you look about, look at our life in the context of just even human history, we're 00:29:59.000 |
We're literally a blip, we're like a mist that comes and then boom, it disappears. 00:30:10.040 |
Death was the most tangible evidence of judgment of God. 00:30:14.960 |
You look at Jesus again at the, in front of the tomb of Lazarus where he deliberately 00:30:21.520 |
And everybody is weeping because Lazarus is dead. 00:30:24.120 |
He deliberately goes there late and he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead and we find 00:30:30.980 |
Why would he weep when he's going to raise him from the dead? 00:30:33.200 |
Why would he weep when he deliberately went there, allowed him to die to raise him from 00:30:38.600 |
Now, we studied that before when we were studying that passage, but you know, the word for weep 00:30:43.120 |
there that Jesus is described doing is different than the word that the crowds were weeping. 00:30:50.920 |
I believe that John was expressing to us that his weeping was different. 00:30:57.360 |
And I believe the reason why he was weeping is because the most tangible evidence of God's 00:31:08.360 |
The only other time we see Jesus crying is when he's going into Jerusalem riding on a 00:31:13.480 |
Everybody's celebrating, but Jesus is weeping. 00:31:16.240 |
This is only if you knew this day what would bring you peace and because you missed the 00:31:20.240 |
coming of the Messiah, judgment is coming upon Israel. 00:31:25.200 |
So in both times, Jesus weeps because of the tangible evidence of the judgment upon mankind. 00:31:37.920 |
In as it is appointed for all men to die once, after this comes judgment. 00:31:45.560 |
Death is a constant reminder to us that judgment, the wrath of God is being revealed. 00:31:50.840 |
Secondly, wrath of God is revealed in futility of life. 00:31:57.480 |
If you look at the description of God's judgment upon mankind, you read Genesis chapter 317. 00:32:05.080 |
And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of 00:32:09.000 |
the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. 00:32:14.840 |
Not only are you cursed, he said life itself, ground itself is going to be cursed. 00:32:18.640 |
In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 00:32:23.560 |
He said not just one part, when you eat, you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the 00:32:31.600 |
So when he says from pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, he's talking 00:32:35.320 |
about from the moment you are born until the day you die, there's going to be suffering. 00:32:44.120 |
He says in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it 00:32:50.280 |
After long days of work, years of working, you may get fire. 00:33:00.600 |
After hard work you come back home and your husband is mad. 00:33:05.120 |
Your wife is not satisfied with what you've done. 00:33:16.760 |
He says verse 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the 00:33:21.280 |
ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return. 00:33:25.680 |
And at the end of your life it's just going to be it. 00:33:30.240 |
You know when we're younger we have this hope and the hope keeps us going, right. 00:33:37.020 |
And so up to college life, you know you're thinking like, I'm going to graduate, you 00:33:42.480 |
I see all these band people traveling and have money. 00:33:47.760 |
But when I get the job, when I get the job, I'm going to just have freedom. 00:34:04.680 |
And a year later it's like, oh my gosh, I've got to go to work again. 00:34:12.960 |
A year before you're praising him for the job. 00:34:15.320 |
And then for the rest of your life, you're going to be like, this is it? 00:34:23.520 |
Some of you guys are like still in the early stages of that. 00:34:28.040 |
And you're thinking in your head, maybe if I change my job, it'll get better. 00:34:33.520 |
There's some people in here who've changed their job about four or five times. 00:34:42.560 |
You know, it changes for a little bit because it's new. 00:34:45.440 |
Just like when you buy a new car, but after two, three years, it's no longer new. 00:35:01.220 |
That's modern interpretation of Genesis 317, right? 00:35:17.280 |
The wrath of God is being revealed in death, in corruption, in futility. 00:35:24.400 |
And when we recognize all of this, and we just think, oh, if I just tweak it here, and 00:35:27.720 |
if I got a different job, or went through a different career, or found a different person, 00:35:31.500 |
and we keep tweaking this, thinking that somehow if we keep tweaking it, we're going to just 00:35:34.980 |
get it right, and then everything's going to be okay. 00:35:46.940 |
And even in their 70s and 80s and 90s, they're still tweaking. 00:35:55.500 |
And they're all just tweaking just a little bit, thinking that if I can just get this 00:35:59.700 |
right, and then at some point you have to recognize that that's nothing new under the 00:36:24.340 |
The wrath of God is being revealed in human degradation. 00:36:30.700 |
Three separate times, and I'm not going to get into it this morning, but three separate 00:36:47.580 |
In other words, you keep chasing after that, I'll let you go. 00:37:00.340 |
Again, we're going to get into that when we get to this text. 00:37:04.820 |
But the final judgment of God, where God releases you, you want to be independent of me? 00:37:13.300 |
I'm not going to play tug of war with you anymore. 00:37:19.740 |
And we think somehow that freedom, oh we have freedom, now I don't have to do this and that. 00:37:26.580 |
The worst thing that I can do for my kids is kick them out of the house. 00:37:51.180 |
Now as parents we know exactly what that's going to lead to. 00:37:55.460 |
But the scripture says when God brings judgment upon mankind, he allows mankind to go the 00:38:07.580 |
And then human degradation, you see how far that goes. 00:38:17.660 |
He said the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness, unrighteousness. 00:38:24.300 |
Where the truth of God that God is trying to reveal is being suppressed by their unrighteousness. 00:38:31.620 |
And all of this is a revelation of God's judgment upon mankind. 00:38:38.100 |
Which you and I were born into, that every sinner is in, and every person who has not 00:38:46.940 |
been covered by the blood of Christ will meet this holy, holy, holy consuming fire of a 00:39:11.060 |
And every time I go to a grandma, she gives me candy. 00:39:16.100 |
You may not be thinking in those terms, but our attitude toward God is not much deeper 00:39:25.700 |
In Jeremiah 3, 9 through 10, God sends Jeremiah to an obstinate, stiff-necked people. 00:39:34.140 |
People who are sinning after God, chasing after idols, one generation after generation. 00:39:44.900 |
But they were doing it because they think if they appease God, that somehow God is going 00:39:57.160 |
Because she, meaning the nation of Israel, took her whoredom lightly. 00:40:02.220 |
She polluted the land committing adultery with stone and tree. 00:40:06.980 |
Meaning when God brought Jeremiah to expose their sin, they said, "What sin?" 00:40:23.780 |
You know, how many times do we say, you know, well, this, everybody, this is how everybody 00:40:30.580 |
Well, how many times do we cover over sin by excusing it by saying, "Where do you draw 00:40:41.700 |
How often do we just kind of cover over and justify our sins and not take it seriously 00:40:50.940 |
And then not only does He indict the individuals, He indicts most severely the leaders. 00:40:59.340 |
And in the indictment against the leadership, this is what He says, "They have healed the 00:41:09.620 |
The leaders didn't really care and they weren't gentle enough with the people and really cared 00:41:15.340 |
You know, that's what we can take out of that first. 00:41:20.500 |
Here's how the nation of Israel or their leaders were being rebuked and they're going to be 00:41:24.820 |
And He says, "They have healed the wounds of My people lightly saying, 'Peace, peace,' 00:41:35.820 |
They didn't confront them with God's judgment. 00:41:39.860 |
And they kept on telling Him, "Peace, peace." 00:41:42.780 |
And as a result of that, everybody thought, "Well, if the leaders, the priests, you know, 00:41:47.380 |
these prophets, they're telling us that God is fine. 00:42:00.340 |
And the whole time, until the judgment comes, they say, "Why? 00:42:11.340 |
There is only one way a sin can be justified. 00:42:16.140 |
You know, we could justify with dumbing down our theology. 00:42:19.680 |
We can lower the bar by changing, you know, our theology so that we don't feel guilty. 00:42:27.740 |
And all of that, the end result of it is just, sin is not that bad. 00:42:34.260 |
But real justification can only come by the blood of Christ. 00:42:39.860 |
When we recognize our sin in light of who He is, and we see the wrath of God being revealed, 00:42:46.400 |
and we come before God in desperation and repent. 00:42:53.580 |
Before there is forgiveness, there is repentance. 00:43:00.020 |
Sin causes us to recognize that the wrath of God is being revealed because of that, 00:43:06.240 |
and then we are convicted, we repent, and then so therefore, God forgives. 00:43:16.880 |
In Genesis chapter 3, when God confronted Adam, He said, "Who told you? 00:43:25.740 |
He said, "It's the woman, the woman you put here. 00:43:32.640 |
Think about how often we justify our sins because we do what we do because of them. 00:43:41.840 |
I mean, it's impossible to be a good Christian in this home. 00:43:45.040 |
Oh, my husband, you know what I mean, he doesn't appreciate anything I do, and so therefore, 00:43:56.400 |
The reason why I'm bitter and angry is because I've been wronged. 00:44:01.280 |
It's the woman that you put in here is causing me, is forcing me. 00:44:05.500 |
Put anybody else in my situation and they would sin too." 00:44:10.360 |
And how often we justify our sins in blaming everybody else. 00:44:13.440 |
"I am the way I am because the people that you put in my life is making me do this." 00:44:40.840 |
That our bitterness, our anger, our spiritual dryness, all of that is because of our surrounding. 00:44:57.680 |
So the moment we begin to justify our sins, there is no repentance. 00:45:03.760 |
The first step to come to God is to recognize that I'm a sinner. 00:45:14.280 |
It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 00:45:18.520 |
Not my brother, not my sister, but me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 00:45:28.640 |
If we're constantly justifying our sins, the wrath of God is being revealed against 00:45:35.520 |
all ungodliness, all unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the 00:45:42.360 |
Would you close your eyes with me for a minute? 00:45:45.400 |
Again, I invite you to take some time to pray. 00:45:52.520 |
I know that some of the problems that you are in, you know, say, "Hey, you know, you're 00:45:57.560 |
making, you're kind of, you know, belittling it, thinking like, "Oh, there's a simple answer." 00:46:02.040 |
And I understand life is complicated, and some of us are in very complicated situations, 00:46:07.000 |
whether it's work or family or whatever it may be. 00:46:16.000 |
He says, "Come to me, all who are weary and have related." 00:46:20.760 |
Jesus is the only one who can unburden this life. 00:46:24.280 |
And if we're constantly thinking that if we have the right people in our lives and right 00:46:27.320 |
circumstances, somehow things are going to get right, He says, "No, we're missing the 00:46:31.920 |
The only path to life is Christ, and the only way to Christ is by repentance through the 00:46:38.400 |
So I invite you this morning to own up to our sins, to own up to my part. 00:46:47.200 |
It's because of corruption in my heart that I am who I am. 00:46:56.200 |
So I want to invite you this morning to come before God in repentance and in prayer. 00:47:01.800 |
Thank you, Lord, for giving me a way of salvation by the blood of Christ. 00:47:06.080 |
That if I've taken His grace as just cheap candy, that I didn't really see the preciousness 00:47:12.000 |
of what it is that we have in Christ, that you would come before the Lord and ask, "Lord, 00:47:16.120 |
open my eyes to see that I may give worship and follow you with my whole heart."