back to index2015-12-06 The Justification of God
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And then we'll jump into the text this morning. Romans chapter 3 verses 1-8. And we'll continue 00:00:11.680 |
what we started last week. Romans chapter 3 verses 1-8, reading out of the ESV. "Then 00:00:18.660 |
what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. 00:00:24.120 |
To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? 00:00:29.200 |
Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though 00:00:34.120 |
everyone were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail 00:00:39.120 |
when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what 00:00:44.680 |
shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way, by no 00:00:50.840 |
means. For then how could God judge the world? But if through my life God's truth abounds 00:00:56.040 |
to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good 00:01:00.920 |
may come, as some people slanderously charge us with saying? Their condemnation is just." 00:01:06.520 |
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead and guide us. 00:01:13.440 |
That the words that come out of my mouth, Lord God, would be filtered by your Holy Spirit. 00:01:18.980 |
That only your words and your thoughts and your intentions, Lord God, would bear fruit. 00:01:23.720 |
So I pray, Father, with trembling, with cautiousness, Lord God, that your word may be revealed to 00:01:30.040 |
your children. That we may hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him. And 00:01:36.680 |
so we pray for your anointing this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:01:41.400 |
How many of you have heard the ministry called Promise Keepers? Okay. Also a few of you. 00:01:47.760 |
Okay, so I know exactly how old you are. All right. So Promise Keepers, yes I see you. 00:01:53.960 |
Okay. So Promise Keepers was a ministry that started in 1990 by the head football coach 00:01:59.520 |
at University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, Bill McCartney. And basically the ministry, 00:02:05.320 |
again I've never been to their conference, but the conference started mainly geared toward 00:02:10.880 |
bringing revival among men. And the reason why they kept making Promise Keepers is to 00:02:15.320 |
remind the men of the covenant that they made with their wives. Yesterday we had a wedding 00:02:20.840 |
with Eugene and Susie and every time you get married, obviously when we have marriages 00:02:25.920 |
we have the same covenant that we make, that the husband is going to represent Christ in 00:02:29.760 |
this home. And to love sacrificially to lead her as Christ did to the church. And so it's 00:02:37.000 |
called the Promise Keepers, again it's to challenge the men to lead in their homes. 00:02:41.520 |
To keep the promise that they made at the altar. It was a huge movement. I believe it's 00:02:47.160 |
still going on today. Again, I've never been to one. I don't know the content of what is 00:02:51.760 |
taught, but I know the history behind it. And it was a big movement. Especially early 00:02:56.240 |
on you heard about Promise Keepers everywhere in Los Angeles, Orange County, in every segment 00:03:00.880 |
of United States and even outside the United States because there was a tremendous need 00:03:06.240 |
to challenge, especially the men, to act like men. To keep the promises. I mean think about 00:03:13.200 |
in our generation, how many people you can think of that say, "That guy makes a promise, 00:03:18.640 |
he keeps it. His word is basically, you can bank on it." I think today in our generation 00:03:29.640 |
to find people who are really true to their word, again it's becoming more and more of 00:03:35.840 |
a difficult reality. In fact today, when people make promises, and again the older you get, 00:03:40.520 |
you get jaded with promises of people because you get so disappointed. Typically when people 00:03:45.600 |
make promises, when you're younger you get excited when people promise certain things, 00:03:50.280 |
but the older you get you're just kind of like, "Okay, we'll see." You know what I mean? 00:03:54.240 |
Like everything, we say, "Yeah, we'll see." Because we get disappointed by people. See, 00:04:01.400 |
question that comes up in this text in chapter 3 is related to this idea of keeping promise. 00:04:07.840 |
The reason why is because Paul's been telling the Jews in the first two chapters, "You're 00:04:12.360 |
no different than the Gentiles." Think about it, for hundreds of years, that's exactly 00:04:16.840 |
what they thought. They thought they were completely different than the Gentiles because 00:04:21.280 |
they were God's chosen people. And God continually reminds them over and over again that you 00:04:27.240 |
are not like other nations. God tells them, if you go into the Promised Land, do not intermarry 00:04:32.640 |
with them because you are a chosen generation. You're a holy nation, right? You're a royal 00:04:38.640 |
priesthood. But all of a sudden, Paul, in presenting the Gospel, setting the foundation, 00:04:45.680 |
he's saying, "No, Gentiles are Jews and Jews are no different." So last week, the first 00:04:50.160 |
question that came up was, "If that's the case, then what is the benefit of being a 00:04:54.760 |
Jew?" What is the benefit? So that's the first question that came up. And the answer 00:04:59.240 |
that he says, "Of course, in every way. How can you possibly even ask that question?" 00:05:03.880 |
He said, "Of all the benefits that you have, first and foremost, you have the Word of God." 00:05:10.400 |
God gave His general revelation, left His imprint in creation. But to you, you have 00:05:15.320 |
special revelation. God drew near and spoke to you and gave you the specifics of His redemptive 00:05:21.680 |
plan. So this is a follow-up question from that, that if that's the case, if God is faithful 00:05:29.360 |
to Himself, right, and we are no different, and we just have the Law of God, and that's 00:05:35.440 |
the only difference between us and the Gentiles, the follow-up question to that is, what if 00:05:40.080 |
some were unfaithful? Meaning that if, because of the unfaithfulness of the Jews, does their 00:05:44.680 |
faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? That's basically what they're saying 00:05:51.960 |
is all these years we've been told that God made a covenant with our forefathers, right, 00:05:58.680 |
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And for generations to come, to David, to Solomon, God made a 00:06:04.800 |
covenant that He was going to remain faithful to the nation of Israel. Now you're telling 00:06:09.000 |
me that we're no different. If a Jew died in his state, that he would stand before a 00:06:15.240 |
God and be judged the same way as a Gentile. So if that's the case, because of the faithlessness 00:06:23.040 |
of the Jews, does that mean that God will become faithless? That He will nullify His 00:06:28.120 |
covenant that He made with us? Well, He deals with this question in a more elaborate way 00:06:35.320 |
in 1st chapter 9, 10, and 11. So He's going to spend three chapters basically expounding 00:06:41.200 |
this idea, trying to answer this question. So today He's just going to answer it in a 00:06:45.480 |
couple sentences, and then He's going to leave the bigger dissertation in the next, when 00:06:49.920 |
we get to chapter 9, 10, and 11. But let me give you a glimpse of the idea that He gives. 00:06:54.600 |
In Romans 11, 1 through 2, the same answer is given, same question is given. I asked 00:06:59.960 |
him, "Has God rejected His people?" Is He done with Israel? "By no means." Next time 00:07:08.120 |
you read the book of Romans and you see that term "by no means," try to circle it or highlight 00:07:13.580 |
it because He's using the strongest of a language that He can possibly use to answer this question. 00:07:20.960 |
Basically what He's saying is, "Of course not. Are you kidding?" That's the way you 00:07:24.680 |
really should read in English, right? It seems a lot more gentle, "By no means," right? A 00:07:29.840 |
lot more civilized. But He's basically saying, "Are you kidding me? By no means, for I myself 00:07:37.880 |
am an Israelite." So in other words, saying, "Hey, this guy Paul is coming around and saying 00:07:43.120 |
God is done with the nation of Israel." He's basically saying that everything that we've 00:07:47.600 |
been standing, we've stood for, for hundreds of years, this guy's nullifying. And He says, 00:07:52.840 |
"No, by no means. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe 00:07:58.080 |
of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. God has not rejected His 00:08:04.960 |
people." So the answer is crystal clear. That is not the case. The Gospel does not nullify 00:08:10.720 |
the nation of Israel. In Genesis chapter 12, right, verse 2, when God first makes a covenant 00:08:19.960 |
with Abraham and his descendants, the nation of Israel, He says, "And I will make of you 00:08:26.360 |
a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." 00:08:32.360 |
So He begins this covenant that He makes with Abraham, what we will say is an unconditional 00:08:37.840 |
covenant. Meaning, just like a marriage covenant, we don't have two people stand up and say, 00:08:44.240 |
"You know what? I'm going to enter this covenant relationship. And if you do the dishes, I 00:08:48.200 |
will do the laundry. If you clean your master bedroom, I will clean the bathroom." That 00:08:53.240 |
is not the covenant that a husband and wife enters into. A covenant a husband and wife 00:08:57.760 |
enters into is an unconditional covenant. That is a covenant saying, "Just as Christ 00:09:02.560 |
loved the Church unconditionally, I will love you unconditionally. And just as the Church 00:09:07.560 |
submits to the Lord unconditionally, I will serve the Lord unconditionally." It is a unilateral, 00:09:13.560 |
unconditional covenant that a husband and wife enters into. It is not contingent upon 00:09:19.040 |
the other person and what they do. That even if they don't do their part, you're saying, 00:09:24.200 |
"I'm committing to this covenant." Well, that is the covenant that God enters into with 00:09:29.720 |
the nation of Israel. He says, "I will do this. I will do this." Again, in Genesis chapter 00:09:36.880 |
15, 17-18. When God ratifies this covenant, typically the way that a covenant is ratified 00:09:44.040 |
is they would take two animals, cut them in half, and it's a very brutal, violent scene. 00:09:49.040 |
They would take these two animals, put them in a long row, and it would be a bloody scene. 00:09:53.760 |
And the two people who were entering this covenant would hold hands, and they would 00:09:57.080 |
walk right in the middle. And what that symbolized was that if either you or I break this covenant, 00:10:05.400 |
that what happened to these animals will happen to us. I welcome it. In other words, that 00:10:10.760 |
I'm going to risk my life going into this covenant. Well, in Genesis 15, 17-18, I want 00:10:16.320 |
you to listen carefully. It said, "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, 00:10:20.960 |
a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these two, these pieces. On that day, 00:10:27.680 |
the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your offspring I give this land, from 00:10:32.520 |
the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.'" If you paid attention 00:10:38.080 |
very closely to what I read, you're going to see that something is missing. What's missing 00:10:43.520 |
is right before this passage, it says that Abraham fell asleep. Abraham fell asleep. 00:10:49.320 |
Abraham basically did not walk through the middle. God shows up as a flaming torch, and 00:10:56.680 |
he goes through this covenant by himself. What that means is that this covenant that 00:11:02.320 |
God makes with Abraham and his descendants is completely unconditional. There is no part 00:11:08.560 |
that Abraham plays in this particular covenant with the nation of Israel. If you study the 00:11:14.280 |
book of Genesis and all throughout Israel's history, God clarifies this covenant over 00:11:19.980 |
and over. So, there are some covenants that God makes that are conditional, and then there 00:11:25.160 |
are some covenants that are unconditional. The conditional covenant is He makes with 00:11:29.960 |
the nation of Israel, if you go there and then if you obey My commandments, God will 00:11:33.720 |
cause you to live long, you'll be blessed, you'll be healthy, your children are going 00:11:39.800 |
to live well, peacefully in this land. But if you don't, judgment is coming. But the 00:11:44.120 |
unconditional covenant that God makes with the nation of Israel is that He was going 00:11:48.000 |
to bless them, and that through blessing them, all the other nations will be blessed. And 00:11:53.160 |
that was unconditional. So, the nation of Israel hearing this, obviously, thought we 00:11:59.120 |
are special because God made this covenant with us. He didn't make this covenant with 00:12:02.560 |
every other nation. He made this covenant specifically with the nation of Israel. And 00:12:07.920 |
for the purpose, not just the nation of Israel, to for the whole world. He just chose them 00:12:14.400 |
to work through. So, the question that they're asking is, if we stand guilty like the Gentiles, 00:12:25.960 |
does that mean that God is going to nullify His covenant? That if the faithlessness of 00:12:31.400 |
some of the Gentile or Israelites, is that going to cause God to be unfaithful as well? 00:12:38.440 |
And the answer is, of course not. By no means. May it never be. Absolutely not. Romans 3, 00:12:48.040 |
4, "Let God be true, though everyone were a liar." Even if every human being, even if 00:12:55.480 |
they are found to be false, God will never, He cannot deny Himself. God can't deny Himself. 00:13:04.220 |
God is not man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent. God never 00:13:08.080 |
says anything and have to take it back. God never says that He's going to do something 00:13:12.720 |
and say, "You know what? Maybe my plan wasn't good." You know, every single one of us, when 00:13:16.480 |
we make plans, we have plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, plan F, whatever, right? We have 00:13:23.520 |
all these plans because our desire is A. You know, you may work hard. Some of you guys 00:13:28.560 |
working hard to get an A on your finals. You have every intention. And you're going to 00:13:33.240 |
make every effort. You're not a slacker. You're going to stay up until 3 in the morning. Everybody 00:13:37.140 |
else is going to be outside, you know, like playing around with their friends, but not 00:13:40.960 |
you. You're going to be here until 2 in the morning, and then you're going to go home, 00:13:44.400 |
drink some coffee, you're going to study until 4, and you've been diligent all year, right? 00:13:50.760 |
And you have every intent. But you're a human being. You don't know what's going to be on 00:13:54.840 |
the test, right? You may be a worker, you know, and you have some kind of assignment. 00:14:00.880 |
You have every intent to please your boss and to get this assignment right. But the 00:14:06.920 |
problem is we're human beings. We can't control the outcome. So you always have plan A, and 00:14:10.840 |
then you have plan B, plan C, plan D. What Paul is saying is even if every man falls 00:14:16.820 |
short of his plan, God will not. God cannot because he cannot deny himself. He cannot 00:14:24.040 |
deny, he cannot change his mind, and he cannot change his nature. It is because of the covenant 00:14:30.780 |
that he had made with the nation of Israel and to mankind that you and I are even here 00:14:36.120 |
today, right? Think about the symbol of the rainbow. I know today when we think rainbow, 00:14:43.160 |
we think of the LGBT community. But the original sign of the rainbow in the Old Testament was 00:14:48.640 |
to remind us of his unconditional covenant with his people. Genesis 9, 15-16, he says, 00:14:56.600 |
"I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. 00:15:03.000 |
Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow 00:15:07.160 |
appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all 00:15:11.600 |
living creatures, every kind on the earth." The only reason why you and I are here today 00:15:20.600 |
is because God is faithful to his promises. Think about how often we work on something 00:15:26.540 |
and we get frustrated and we just want to just scratch everything, right? I don't know 00:15:30.720 |
about you, but I'm like that with computers. Like I'm not detail-oriented and I didn't 00:15:36.200 |
really mess around with computers until probably my 30s. So computer, you know, some of you 00:15:41.600 |
guys who were, you know, engineers when you were back in college, and I'm sure computer 00:15:45.740 |
was in at that time, but I was a Bible major. So, you know, I remember sharing with somebody 00:15:50.200 |
that I never wrote a paper on the computer until I graduated seminary. Like what? Yeah, 00:15:57.840 |
computer was just not around in the late 80s, early 90s, you know, it was just starting 00:16:01.960 |
to come in. So today, if I'm doing something and something goes wrong with the computer, 00:16:07.040 |
like I usually have to call Brian, you know, or when Pastor Aaron was here, I used to always 00:16:12.480 |
just, "Hey, can you take a look at this?" And they'll fix it. But most of the times, 00:16:16.320 |
you know, I don't have people around and I would try to mess around with it and it'd 00:16:18.880 |
take me a couple hours and my immediate inclination is, "Buy a new computer." Like that's, so 00:16:25.400 |
if it was up to me, I would buy a new computer every two, three months. You know, and I just 00:16:29.480 |
scratch it. Like, you know, I don't have the patience for this, right? Imagine when God, 00:16:36.040 |
God was so frustrated with creation that He was so angry and grieved, He wiped out the 00:16:40.520 |
whole earth and repopulated with eight people. Imagine how often He must have been tempted. 00:16:48.040 |
Imagine all the sins of the nation of Israel, right? Periods when they were outright just 00:16:54.600 |
denying Him, even after feeding them, caring for them, being patient with them. And as 00:17:00.080 |
soon as He turned around, they said, "Oh, you don't give us water. I wish we were back 00:17:03.340 |
in Egypt." There were periods in Israel's history where they were actually sacrificing 00:17:07.960 |
their own children to the God of Malak. I mean, think about how often God must have 00:17:14.760 |
been grieved and angered by the sins of His people that He said, "That's enough." Even 00:17:21.200 |
if as patient as our God is, if you've ever read through the Bible, Old Testament, Israelite's 00:17:27.760 |
history, just from beginning to the end, by the time you get to about first Kings, you 00:17:32.000 |
don't even have to get to second Kings, first Kings. You're not thinking like, "Oh, God 00:17:36.080 |
is so, you know, wrathful." You know, that's how you normally think of Old Testament when 00:17:40.280 |
you just hear bits and pieces. But when you read the history of Israel, just systematically, 00:17:46.320 |
by the time you get to about third or fourth King in Israel, you start thinking like, "Oh 00:17:52.360 |
my gosh, why does God put up with these people?" Right? I mean, you would think at some point 00:17:59.160 |
God would say, "Enough." Think about the last 2,000 years of church history. Think about 00:18:05.840 |
the chaos and the mess. Think about the Crusades. Think about the Inquisition, the selling of 00:18:12.000 |
indulgences. Think about just even in modern history, how divided we are. Right? How chaotic 00:18:18.920 |
the modern day church is, the church growth. Think about in the last 2,000 years what church 00:18:25.560 |
history looked like. Think about how tempted our God must be knowing how angry He is towards 00:18:34.000 |
us. And we say, "Just start over." Right? But the only reason why you and I are here 00:18:40.440 |
is because God is faithful to His covenant. It's because He's been faithful that you and 00:18:46.000 |
I are not consumed. That's exactly what it says in Lamentations 3.22. "Because of the 00:18:50.800 |
Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fails. They are new every 00:18:56.240 |
morning. Great is your faithfulness." So He said, "Because of the faithlessness of some, 00:19:02.600 |
will God nullify the covenant?" He says, "By no means. Of course not. Let every man found 00:19:07.960 |
to be a liar, but God will remain true to Himself. He is faithful." The question that 00:19:14.760 |
comes up with that is, yes, God is faithful. And that's the reason why you and I are here. 00:19:18.520 |
Right? And that's why having the Word of God is so precious to us. Because we have these 00:19:23.840 |
promises. They're not just general revelation. We have special promises of God's covenant 00:19:30.000 |
with His people. And so that's our source of comfort. That's our hope. That's what gives 00:19:35.200 |
us strength. That even in the times of trial, we know that God will never change. What He 00:19:40.640 |
says, He will do. And we can bank on it. Even if we can't trust anybody else in this world. 00:19:47.640 |
Even if we can't trust our own wives or children. He said, "You can bank on the things that 00:19:52.280 |
God has said." But here comes the next question that comes along with that. Well, if God is 00:19:57.800 |
faithful, you know, typically when we think of the faithfulness of God, we think, well, 00:20:02.200 |
God is faithful of His mercy. God is faithful in His grace. God is faithful in His compassion. 00:20:10.520 |
But when we talk about the faithfulness of God, we're not just talking about His mercy 00:20:15.000 |
and compassion. We're also talking about His promise of judgment. And that's exactly what 00:20:20.400 |
Paul quotes. Paul quotes Psalm 51, verse 4, in the next passage, when he says that, "You 00:20:25.720 |
may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged." He's quoting a text 00:20:31.840 |
from David's repentance. David repents and he's crying out to God and he said, "You are 00:20:37.400 |
just in your judgment." David's life is a perfect example of God's faithfulness to all 00:20:43.800 |
of His covenants. God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, an unconditional 00:20:49.520 |
covenant that He's going to be faithful to His people. But He also promised them that 00:20:54.640 |
if you disobey My commandments, judgment will come. As you guys know, David ends up committing 00:21:00.920 |
a horrendous sin. And he tries to cover it up. God sends a prophet, exposes him. And 00:21:07.840 |
God says, "As a result of your sin, what happens? There will be bloodshed in your family. And 00:21:14.160 |
your children are going to be divided. Your kingdom is going to be divided in two. And 00:21:17.720 |
bloodshed will remain in your family." It's in that context where David is crying out 00:21:23.000 |
to God. He said, "No, God, You are just." He doesn't stand before God and say, "Lord, 00:21:27.320 |
You're not fair. How come You're not being merciful?" He says, "No, in Your judgment 00:21:32.400 |
You are fair." See, God remained faithful to His covenant that despite David's sin, 00:21:38.880 |
God remained faithful to the nation of Israel. And He even despite all the sins of all the 00:21:45.560 |
kings that followed David, one after another, through all the false prophets that came into 00:21:50.800 |
the nation of Israel, God remained faithful to His people. He never squashed the nation 00:21:55.900 |
of Israel and said, "We're done with you. Look at all your leaders." So He was faithful 00:22:01.220 |
to His promise of His covenant, but He was also faithful to all the promise of judgment 00:22:07.540 |
that would come upon that nation if they did not follow Him. See, that's a perfect example 00:22:14.240 |
that's expressed in 2 Timothy 2, 11-13, where Paul says, "The saying is trustworthy, for 00:22:20.480 |
if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign 00:22:25.600 |
with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful." 00:22:33.640 |
See, typically when we think about faithfulness, we just like to choose the faithfulness of 00:22:39.040 |
His promise of grace and mercy. But God's faithfulness means that He is faithful first 00:22:44.360 |
and foremost to Himself. He is faithful in His righteousness, and He is faithful in His 00:22:51.200 |
mercy. He is faithful in judgment. He is faithful in grace. But He is faithful to Himself. That's 00:22:57.880 |
why what God says, He will do. If He said He's going to punish sin, He's going to punish 00:23:03.800 |
sin. He's not just going to sweep it under the rug. He's not going to all of a sudden 00:23:08.280 |
say, "You know what, because I'm merciful, my mercy is going to overpower my justice." 00:23:12.160 |
He's just going to sweep it under the rug. You know, "I know I said that judgment is 00:23:15.760 |
going to come upon you, and I know I told you all these curses that's going to come 00:23:19.200 |
in Deuteronomy chapter 27, 28, but I'm just going to forget that I said that. And I'm 00:23:24.440 |
just going to hold on to these promises." No. He said He's going to be faithful. Even 00:23:32.640 |
if we're not faithful, God will remain faithful because He cannot deny Himself. That everything 00:23:38.160 |
that He says in Scripture, He will do. Salvation and judgment. As much as we would love to 00:23:46.520 |
just talk about heaven, the Bible is very clear about the warning of hell. So He is 00:23:53.320 |
faithful in the promise of salvation, but He's also faithful in the promise of judgment. 00:24:00.620 |
And you see that clearly represented at the cross. Clearly represented at the cross. Because, 00:24:07.400 |
again, when we think about the cross of Christ, our immediate thought is His mercy and compassion. 00:24:14.800 |
And the reason why we think that is because we're the recipients. We're the recipients. 00:24:21.280 |
See that from the perspective of God the Father. See that from the perspective of Jesus. See 00:24:27.840 |
that in the perspective of the angels. Jesus didn't necessarily die for them because they 00:24:33.400 |
didn't sin. So see that from the perspective of people where that wasn't for them. We look 00:24:39.080 |
upon that and say, "Wait a second." Right? If you weren't the recipients of this atonement, 00:24:44.520 |
and all you saw was an innocent man, the Son of God, being crucified for our sins, you 00:24:50.800 |
would look at that and say, "This is horrendous. This is horrendous. How can God do this to 00:24:57.760 |
His Son for these people?" So as much as we look at the cross on this side and say, "Wow, 00:25:04.200 |
God is merciful and gracious and loving," if you were to look at it from this side, the 00:25:09.120 |
cross is also a magnification of His wrath. That's why in Scripture, John 12, 23, when 00:25:17.280 |
Jesus is about to go to the cross, His prayer is, "The hour has come for the Son of Man 00:25:22.240 |
to be glorified." And then He also states that, "As you glorify the Son, I glorify the 00:25:27.920 |
Father." He's talking about His crucifixion. When we talk about glorifying something, right? 00:25:36.880 |
Like if, let's say you're talking about, you know, I don't know what's going on, you know, 00:25:40.360 |
Steve Curry, right? Stephen Curry is going nuts and we're, Stephen Curry is going nuts 00:25:45.200 |
and he's shooting the basketball, whatever. And when we say we glorify Him, we're talking 00:25:49.200 |
about, we're taking His attributes and who He is, we're putting Him on a pedestal for 00:25:53.240 |
everyone to see, right? We're not exaggerating. All we're doing is we're putting it on a pedestal, 00:25:58.960 |
look what He's doing. So you might have video highlights, you might talk about Him, you 00:26:02.240 |
might say, "Wow, that was awesome." That's what we mean by glorifying something, right? 00:26:07.320 |
So when the Son says, "It's time now," like all throughout history, we've been preparing 00:26:12.760 |
for this, "Now is the time. Now is the time that everything that God has been doing has 00:26:18.400 |
been leading up to this point. Now is the time to put me on that pedestal," right? "To 00:26:23.880 |
be glorified. And when I do that, I'm going to glorify the Father." And so where God and 00:26:31.280 |
His Son and the Holy Spirit is magnified more than any other time in history is at the cross. 00:26:38.760 |
That's why we say that everything from the Old Testament leading up to the cross was 00:26:42.840 |
kind of like this, it was like a crescendo to Christ and then His crucifixion. And ever 00:26:48.040 |
since then, everything else is to look back. So all of us is to point to the cross, and 00:26:53.360 |
everybody in the Old Testament is to point toward the cross. The cross is the perfect 00:26:59.200 |
example of God's faithfulness to His holiness and His mercy. Again, you and I have a tendency, 00:27:08.240 |
because we're recipients of this grace, that we just think about His grace. See, but that 00:27:12.560 |
cross without God's holy justice and His wrath would not make any sense. Why not just forgive? 00:27:20.880 |
Right? If you did me wrong, and you come and ask for forgiveness, I don't sit there and 00:27:27.360 |
cut my wrist and then let it bleed and say, "Now I forgive you." Right? You're going to 00:27:33.480 |
think, "What's wrong with this guy? This guy's crazy. Why is he cutting himself?" See, the 00:27:38.280 |
cross without His justice and wrath would not make any sense. And the cross, though 00:27:46.280 |
it is a revelation of His wrath, without His mercy and love would not make any sense. It 00:27:51.880 |
is the perfect union of God's faithfulness to Himself, where He, by His nature, who is 00:28:00.040 |
love, desires to save sinful men, without compromising His justice, decided to lay all 00:28:08.920 |
that burden, all that wrath upon His Son, so that He is faithful to Himself, because 00:28:14.560 |
He cannot deny Himself. The backdrop behind the cross is everything that we know of who 00:28:23.920 |
God is, perfectly displayed. In fact, when Jesus came, He started rebuking the Pharisees, 00:28:30.000 |
saying, "You know, you guys are obeying all the commandments, and you don't understand 00:28:33.120 |
the spirit of the Law. You're just going and going through the motion, but that's not what 00:28:37.280 |
God desires." And so He started rebuking them for their Pharisee tendencies. So they said, 00:28:41.880 |
"You know what? Here comes a man who's trying to abolish the Law." Right? Remember what 00:28:46.800 |
Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17-18? "I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it." 00:28:53.360 |
He said, "Not an iota, not the smallest letter of the Law, will pass away until it is complete." 00:28:59.120 |
In other words, everything God says will happen. And the way that it was going to be fulfilled 00:29:07.040 |
was by His Son crucified on the cross. See, that's the point that Jesus is trying to make, 00:29:12.760 |
because they're having a hard time understanding, if Jesus was crucified for us, or if the Gospel 00:29:18.960 |
says that we are in need of His mercy, and we're no different than the Gentiles, then 00:29:24.320 |
what was the purpose of all of this? And He says, "No, it's going to be fulfilled in Christ." 00:29:28.360 |
Right? Not only does God not nullify the covenant, His faithfulness shines even brighter because 00:29:36.000 |
of their sins. Because of it. You know, I read yesterday that you guys heard about the 00:29:43.080 |
shooting in San Bernardino, and the more is coming out. And I read yesterday that one 00:29:50.800 |
of the men, the husband and wife that went and shot up all these people, that one of 00:29:54.600 |
the guys, you probably read it, that the people that he shot up were his old co-workers. They 00:29:59.880 |
were having some sort of a Christmas gathering, and that's where he shot up everybody. And 00:30:03.960 |
they found out that they had a small child. They had a small child, and before the child 00:30:09.440 |
came, the same co-workers that he shot up actually threw him a baby shower. They threw 00:30:16.680 |
him a baby shower. So, after hearing that, I said, "Oh my gosh." You know? I mean, what 00:30:21.840 |
he did in and of itself was horrendous. But considering that his co-worker, and they say, 00:30:27.120 |
"Oh, we're all very tight-knit group," and it was shocking for all of us that he did 00:30:30.240 |
all of this, especially to the people that he did it. Considering just a few months ago, 00:30:34.760 |
they gathered together and got their money together, and during their break, had a baby 00:30:38.160 |
shower for him. And those are the people that he shot up. So, when we find the details of 00:30:43.640 |
the background behind what happened, it makes his horrendous act even that much more horrendous. 00:30:50.880 |
Scripture tells us that the law came to make sin utterly sinful, to reveal to us just exactly 00:31:00.320 |
what you and I were deserving of. You know, when we first become Christians, we say, "Oh, 00:31:06.880 |
thank God Jesus loved me, and I'm a sinner." But the more we dig, the more we understand 00:31:12.960 |
the law, the more we understand who God is, the more we come to grips with exactly what 00:31:19.320 |
he did on the cross. You may have at one point said, "Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for 00:31:25.600 |
him on the cross." But the sanctification, part of our spiritual maturity, and why the 00:31:30.160 |
blessing of having the Word of God, is because the Word of God reveals to us just how sinful 00:31:36.960 |
we really were. And it is in that backdrop that God's love is displayed. So, when the 00:31:44.520 |
Scripture says in Romans 5a, God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were 00:31:48.480 |
yet sinners. See, the study of the Scriptures gives us a deeper understanding of what that 00:31:55.760 |
means, "yet sinners." It's one thing for us to see, it's like, "Oh yeah, you know, we did 00:32:01.280 |
what we shouldn't have done. Oh, there's a bunch of things that we should have done that 00:32:05.400 |
we didn't do." But it's another thing to understand, just like this man, that the people that he 00:32:10.720 |
killed, not only were they his co-workers, but these are the people who poured love into 00:32:14.960 |
their life for their child, just a few months ago. And then you just recognize just the 00:32:20.280 |
utter depravity of his heart to do something like that. See, when we examine the Gospel, 00:32:28.760 |
when we examine the nature of our God, when we examine the nature of our sin, and God, 00:32:34.240 |
like a physician, you know, with an x-ray, and just digging deeply, seeing how deep this 00:32:39.960 |
problem goes, the more the cross begins to shine. And here's the response to that, that 00:32:48.560 |
leads to the third question. Well, if that's the case, if our unrighteousness leads to 00:32:52.680 |
greater glory to His name, again, serves to show, if our unrighteousness serves to show 00:32:58.960 |
His righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous, that He inflicts 00:33:02.440 |
wrath on us? And then he continues in verse 7, "But through my lie God's truth abounds 00:33:08.360 |
to His glory. Why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good 00:33:13.040 |
may come?" If that's the case, if the law comes to make sin utterly sinful, why am I 00:33:19.680 |
being condemned? Because God's using my sin to glorify Himself. Should we sin that God's 00:33:25.360 |
goodness may abound more, as some people slanderously were charging us with saying? Their condemnation 00:33:32.040 |
is just. See, these Judaizers couldn't understand what Paul was saying. He's saying, like, if 00:33:36.240 |
salvation is by grace, if God came to forgive us of our sins, then are you saying that we 00:33:42.720 |
should continue to sin, that God's glory may be magnified that much more? And he says, 00:33:47.200 |
"Of course not. By no means." How can your thought possibly go that direction? Again, 00:33:53.160 |
in Romans 6, 1-4, he makes this very clear. He asks the same question, "What shall we 00:33:58.120 |
say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die 00:34:05.080 |
to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ 00:34:10.600 |
Jesus were baptized into death? We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death, 00:34:16.120 |
in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too 00:34:20.120 |
might walk in the newness of life." The whole reason why Jesus Christ died and was crucified 00:34:26.680 |
for us is so that He may make us new creatures and save us from this sin, this empty way 00:34:31.800 |
of life. So how can you possibly think that by God saving us by grace, gives us license 00:34:38.720 |
to sin? "By no means." Again, verse 15 and 16, "What then? Are we to sin because we are 00:34:46.400 |
under the law, not under the law, but under grace?" Let me stop right there for a second. 00:34:52.280 |
I don't know how many conversations I've had with somebody saying almost exactly the same 00:34:56.920 |
thing. "We're not under the law. Stop preaching about what we should do because we're not 00:35:02.240 |
under the law. Stop making us feel guilty, you know, because we've been set free. We're 00:35:07.760 |
not under the law. We're under grace. So because we're under grace, we shouldn't feel guilty. 00:35:14.320 |
We have the freedom to live any way that we want." He says his answer to that question, 00:35:22.680 |
"By no means." If that's your logical conclusion to the grace of God, "By no means." Do you 00:35:30.040 |
not know that if you present yourself to anyone as disobedient slaves, you are slaves to the 00:35:35.120 |
one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. 00:35:41.480 |
In other words, if your understanding of the grace of God leads you to live in sin, you 00:35:49.320 |
haven't been set free. That is evident that you are still bound to sin. And he's going 00:35:53.480 |
to exposit that when we get to chapter 6, what it means to be a slave to sin, what it 00:35:57.520 |
means to be a slave to righteousness. We'll get to that when we get to chapter 6. I'm 00:36:00.960 |
not sure when we're going to get there, but we'll get there, right? But he says, "If your 00:36:05.640 |
thinking leads, because we're saved by grace, that I can kind of live in freedom," again, 00:36:11.880 |
using the misuse of the term "Christian liberty." So liberty basically means I'm free to enjoy 00:36:18.320 |
life as I please. But he says, "By no means." If you live to gratify the flesh, you are 00:36:26.600 |
a slave to your flesh. You are not set free. Let me make this absolutely crystal clear. 00:36:35.280 |
Any movement of God, any revival of God that focuses on one aspect of God without the other 00:36:42.280 |
is not God's movement. Because God does not contradict himself. Any movement that emphasizes 00:36:50.200 |
grace and does not emphasize His holiness is not a movement of God. Because God will 00:36:56.560 |
not contradict Himself. He is faithful to all His promises. He is faithful to who He 00:37:02.440 |
is. Now let me give you an example of a wrong application of grace, which sometimes, if 00:37:10.480 |
we're not careful, this is usually how our logic goes. I hear people say things like, 00:37:16.720 |
and again as an example, "My mom is so gracious and loving, and no matter what I do, she's 00:37:21.960 |
always accepting. I'm so thankful that my mom is so gracious. She sacrificed so much 00:37:27.840 |
for me. She got two jobs, three jobs, so that I can have a good life. Thank God." And then 00:37:35.960 |
your friend says, "Hey, shouldn't we go home? Your mom's waiting for you." "No, no, no. 00:37:39.200 |
Don't worry. My mom's so gracious. You don't know what my mom is. My mom works three jobs 00:37:45.760 |
so that I can have a good life. She's so gracious." "Well, isn't she waiting for you at home? 00:37:51.560 |
Didn't she tell you to come home at 10 o'clock?" "Didn't you hear what I said? My mom is gracious. 00:37:58.720 |
She's not going to punish me because she loves me so much. She is so gracious." It's like, 00:38:04.120 |
"Well, yeah, but she told you to come home at 10." "I know, but she's so gracious." That's 00:38:10.000 |
the wrong application of the grace of God. Wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you say, with somebody 00:38:16.360 |
saying like, "Oh, because my God is so gracious, and he saved me because of his grace, and 00:38:20.080 |
we have Christian liberty, so let's be free." How is that any different? See, the right 00:38:26.280 |
response to the grace of God is recognizing, considering what my mom has done, I want to 00:38:34.000 |
please her even more. She told me to come home at 10. I want to get up there earlier. 00:38:40.240 |
What can I do to possibly show her how much appreciation I have for what she has done 00:38:44.160 |
for me? How can I live a holier life so that I can honor God and to show him my appreciation 00:38:51.280 |
for what he's done? How can I sacrifice? How can I give? How can I love like he is loved? 00:38:56.080 |
How can I live holy like he is holy? You see, those two responses are kind of responses 00:39:03.700 |
that people have. And you have one saying, "No, we're saved by grace." And any talk 00:39:11.040 |
of any kind of rules or any challenge, you say, "You're nullifying the grace of God." 00:39:17.680 |
No. It is because of the grace of God, we strive for holiness that much more. It's because 00:39:25.320 |
God's been gracious, we pursue holiness. He says, "God is love, so we must love." God 00:39:32.280 |
is holy, so what? Be holy. His grace doesn't nullify our requirement to be holy. It actually 00:39:41.840 |
accentuates it that much more. His love and grace and his mercy, his unconditional sacrifice 00:39:48.560 |
that he's given us is a grounds to passionately pursue him more, not less. And isn't that 00:39:58.720 |
what the author of Hebrews is saying? Considering this great mercy to offer your bodies as a 00:40:04.960 |
living sacrifice where before his sacrifice, you did it to think that you were somehow 00:40:09.680 |
going to earn his love, but considering what he has given, considering what you and I confess 00:40:16.000 |
that we have received, now live up to the calling that you have been given. Live up 00:40:23.080 |
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live up to that grace that you've been given. See, that's 00:40:28.080 |
what Paul is trying to argue. They're saying like, you're trying to nullify the grace of 00:40:31.200 |
God by saying that if you keep saying this, that people are going to live licentiously. 00:40:36.240 |
No. Yes, some who do not know the grace of God, who are going to pervert the grace of 00:40:41.000 |
God, and they're going to receive it like a spoiled brat. It's like, "Oh, my mom is 00:40:44.800 |
lovely. She forgives. Don't worry, we're not going to be punished. She says 10, but it 00:40:49.120 |
doesn't matter. God doesn't punish. He doesn't punish us. I can just do whatever I want." 00:40:54.920 |
Then I can say, "At minimum, that person is a spoiled brat." Okay? If that offended you, 00:41:05.080 |
it should, okay? Because I meant to offend you, okay? Because if that's the response 00:41:10.300 |
of the grace of God, we're spoiled brats. That's exactly what we're doing. God is gracious, 00:41:15.720 |
so I can do whatever I want, and anybody who tells me otherwise is perverting my mom's 00:41:19.840 |
love. It's like, "No, you're perverting your mom's love." Possible second is actually even 00:41:26.620 |
more offensive, that you don't really know the grace of God. You've never really been 00:41:32.760 |
affected by the grace of God, and that's why you don't have any personal affection for 00:41:40.160 |
the grace of God. See, a true response to the gospel of Jesus Christ would lead us to 00:41:49.560 |
repent. It would melt us. Yesterday, I wasn't kidding when Susie and Eugene was doing a 00:41:59.480 |
feet washing ceremony. I was like, "Okay, it's going to be a little bit awkward. There's 00:42:03.800 |
a lot of non-Christians here, and they don't know what it is." Even among Christians, I 00:42:07.280 |
haven't seen that done before, at least not in a wedding. It was so beautiful. The whole 00:42:12.320 |
time that they were doing that, I was thinking, "Jesus did this as a last thing before he 00:42:17.960 |
went to the cross." Last thing. I mean, he's going to go to the cross. He's going to sacrifice 00:42:22.620 |
for sins for people that don't deserve it. And the last thing he did was he humbled himself 00:42:29.720 |
and became nothing. Serving them, washing their dirty, filthy feet. He didn't glorify 00:42:37.640 |
himself. He emptied himself, became nothing. And the way he attracted his disciples is 00:42:44.480 |
by serving us, by giving us more grace, by giving us more love. So that now when we remember 00:42:52.040 |
Christ, it is not his fist. It is his love that attracts us. We're compelled by the love 00:42:59.200 |
of Christ. And that's what real grace is. That's what gospel-centeredness really ought 00:43:05.160 |
to be, is that we are so compelled by this love that we pursue holiness like we've never 00:43:12.660 |
done before. We're broken like we've never been before. We're gracious like we've never 00:43:18.900 |
been gracious before. And we love his word more than we've ever done before. Because 00:43:25.380 |
we are drawn to the love of God like a magnet. And that's his faithfulness. His faithfulness 00:43:33.980 |
is that he calls us to holiness by his grace. And if you get any part of that wrong, that's 00:43:41.300 |
not a movement of God. No movement of God highlights his forgiveness without highlighting 00:43:48.420 |
his holiness. Because God is faithful to himself. Would you take a minute to close your eyes 00:43:54.580 |
and pray with me? And I know what we're talking about may be theology, may be just simple 00:44:00.600 |
principles, but the application is absolutely crystal clear. God is faithful to everything 00:44:07.600 |
that he has revealed in scripture. So what does that mean to us in application? That 00:44:13.120 |
we need to be faithful to everything that he has set an example of. As he is faithful 00:44:19.980 |
to his grace, we need to be faithful to his grace. As he is faithful to his holiness, 00:44:24.160 |
we need to be faithful to his holiness. Anything less than that is not the gospel. Let's take 00:44:30.900 |
a few minutes to come before the Lord in prayer. And honestly pray before God. Search me and 00:44:37.160 |
know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. If there's anything that I have embraced 00:44:40.640 |
or thought or projected for my selfish gain, instead of really seeking the truth, ask the 00:44:48.400 |
Lord to reveal that in your heart. That we may continue to repent, continue to confess, 00:44:54.040 |
and continue to have a deep and gracious and growing fellowship with our Lord. So let's 00:45:02.160 |
take some time to pray as we come before the Lord in prayer.