back to index2017-02-26 Blessed and Cursed People of God
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Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 5, we're going to be focused on verse 4 through 5 today. 00:00:09.800 |
I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. 00:00:12.560 |
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing 00:00:19.200 |
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my 00:00:26.560 |
They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving 00:00:33.220 |
To them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ 00:00:47.800 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your word. 00:00:51.480 |
We want to thank you for your servant, Apostle Paul, that through his labor and sacrifice 00:00:57.080 |
that you've given us the book of Romans to wrestle, to be comforted, to be challenged, 00:01:03.480 |
and at times even rebuked, that we may live according to the calling of the gospel of 00:01:10.520 |
We pray that you would give us insight, help us to understand what you meant, that you 00:01:15.280 |
would take the blinders off of our eyes, the sinful filter sometimes that we use to understand 00:01:22.200 |
We pray that your Holy Spirit would get to the heart of who we are and where we are, 00:01:27.920 |
that we may see a clear vision of Christ and what he has done. 00:01:31.880 |
Help us, Lord God, to be simple-minded people, people with childlike faith who simply desires 00:01:42.080 |
We pray all the distractions, Lord, that we brought into this room. 00:01:46.120 |
Help us, Lord, to take our eyes off of these things and fixate it upon Christ and Christ 00:01:53.160 |
I pray that your word would be powerful and your word alone may be taught and listened 00:02:02.320 |
Again, I want to just kind of bring us back in our mind and our thinking to where we are 00:02:08.920 |
Apostle Paul has taken eight chapters to exposit and to dive into the gospel message. 00:02:14.200 |
He started out with, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Jews and Gentiles 00:02:18.760 |
And he brought us through details of what Christ has done. 00:02:23.120 |
And his message in the eight chapters is the most clearest presentation of Christ and what 00:02:31.720 |
So it's basically the gospel message in depth. 00:02:35.480 |
Now if you've been paying attention carefully and if you were a Jew, Paul already knows 00:02:42.480 |
what the Jews must have been thinking if they heard this for the first time. 00:02:47.320 |
If they believed that all their assurance, all their security was based upon their law 00:02:55.040 |
And then Paul all of a sudden says that all of that is not real. 00:03:00.360 |
That the very things that you held onto for security is actually going to bring condemnation. 00:03:05.920 |
That the same judgment that the Gentiles are under, you will also be under. 00:03:10.960 |
So Paul already knows that this message is not going to be well received. 00:03:16.200 |
And so in order to nullify the message, they know that the easiest way to do that is to 00:03:22.800 |
So Paul begins in chapter 9, 10 and 11 defending his message to the nation of Israel. 00:03:32.560 |
And so we're going to again, chapter 9, 10 and 11, he's going to be describing about 00:03:36.160 |
his promises to the nation of Israel and how God is still faithful to everything that he 00:03:41.920 |
But he begins the chapter by defending himself. 00:03:47.920 |
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit." 00:03:50.600 |
In fact he goes even further than that and says, "It's not because I hate the Jews. 00:03:54.720 |
It's not because I have something against the Jews." 00:03:57.560 |
In fact he says he loves them so much that if it was possible for him to be accursed 00:04:05.460 |
And obviously we know that that is not possible. 00:04:07.960 |
But Paul is trying to convey that my preaching, the gospel message, is the truth. 00:04:17.920 |
And then today he's going to be going into details of the privilege of the nation of 00:04:22.320 |
Again, he's saying all of this so that they could recognize that Paul knows very well 00:04:31.280 |
The privilege that they have and why he loves them and why he was so zealous before he met 00:04:38.300 |
You know in modern day era, when we think about the Jewish people, automatically we 00:04:48.380 |
If something terrible happens or you want to equate somebody with the most horrible 00:04:53.540 |
act in modern history, we would say, "Oh that guy's like Hitler. 00:04:59.620 |
Again, that's the worst thing that you can possibly say about a person or a group of 00:05:04.660 |
Because they wanted to extinguish all the Jews. 00:05:08.700 |
Six million people, from young children to grandparents, were slaughtered for no other 00:05:16.460 |
reason other than the fact that they were born into a particular race. 00:05:20.720 |
So in our modern day era, when we think about the Jewish people, we immediately think about 00:05:24.460 |
the tragedy, the suffering that they went through. 00:05:28.420 |
But from a biblical perspective, the greatest tragedy for the nation of Israel, as horrific 00:05:39.520 |
The greatest tragedy for the nation of Israel is that their Messiah came to save them. 00:05:45.660 |
That all the promises that God made to the nation of Israel for the sake of their own 00:05:49.540 |
sins to save them from condemnation, almost as a whole, rejected him. 00:05:58.060 |
And as a result of that, not six millions, and we don't know the exact number in the 00:06:03.180 |
last 2,000 years, but a much greater number will face condemnation before a holy, holy, 00:06:10.620 |
And this is not just true of the nation of Israel, but for any human being. 00:06:15.840 |
The biggest tragedy in our life is not poverty. 00:06:28.860 |
God does call us to stand up for the weak and the orphans and the widows. 00:06:34.540 |
But the greatest tragedy, from a biblical perspective, is whether you die young or old, 00:06:40.140 |
and whether you live to a ripe old age in your 90s, or maybe even beyond 100, the tragedy 00:06:44.900 |
is not knowing Christ and not recognizing him and dying without the atonement, the free 00:06:54.460 |
See, Paul is writing in the book of Romans, in particular verses that we're going to be 00:07:00.700 |
looking at in 4 through 5, he's going to be outlining nine specific blessings that the 00:07:09.500 |
The nation of Israel, their tragedy was that God blessed them so tremendously, and yet, 00:07:15.660 |
when Christ came, almost as a whole, they didn't recognize him, and they ended up crucifying 00:07:24.780 |
Now before I even get to the end, I'm going to tell you the application of all of this 00:07:29.100 |
as Christians in modern day era that is not just about the nation of Israel. 00:07:34.260 |
In fact, the statistics the last time that I saw was that almost 80% of children who 00:07:42.580 |
grew up in Christian homes and went to church and went to Sunday school, almost 80% of them 00:07:47.700 |
walk away from their faith before they turn 30. 00:07:51.440 |
Much of that happens sometime between college and young adult age. 00:07:56.660 |
Now you say, "Well, 80%, that seems kind of high, considering that our church is filled 00:08:04.340 |
But if you've been a Christian for more than 20, 30 years, you probably already have seen 00:08:07.940 |
that among your friends, your peers, the people that you walked diligently with when you were 00:08:15.180 |
The tragedy of being in a church and hearing the gospel, attending Awana Sunday school, 00:08:20.860 |
even having family worship, memorizing the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, going 00:08:26.580 |
to Awana, and even as a young adult, discipleship, short-term missions, and even after I've done 00:08:32.620 |
all that, the reality of the matter is that more than 80% of people who grew up in the 00:08:39.780 |
church with hearing the gospel, surrounded by Bible teaching, surrounded by preaching, 00:08:47.700 |
church, opportunities, fellowship, home groups, accountability, fellowship, beyond what most 00:08:55.540 |
people can barely even imagine that we have, and yet 80% of our generation has fallen out 00:09:04.380 |
See, the tragedy of the nation of Israel is reflective, and it is also a warning to anyone 00:09:10.400 |
who's been raised in the church, who've been around the gospel, who've been around God's 00:09:15.340 |
Word, and yet our hearts have become numb and dull. 00:09:20.060 |
And so when Christ comes, we can easily say, "That won't happen to me." 00:09:24.500 |
If Jesus walks on water and He heals a man who was born blind, He raised people from 00:09:31.940 |
If I saw that with my eyes, I would not reject Him. 00:09:40.100 |
But the reality of the nation of Israel is they did. 00:09:44.980 |
He begins by telling us nine things, and I want to go through the nine things that Paul 00:09:50.900 |
And I think every single one of these things, and I'm not going to mention it, but I think 00:09:55.420 |
every single one of these things, to some degree, is reflective of the blessing of being 00:10:06.060 |
I mean, that may, you may just kind of skim over that when you read it, but to say that 00:10:11.140 |
you are Israelites automatically meant to the nation of Israel that you were chosen 00:10:16.700 |
The name itself means people who wrestle with God. 00:10:19.620 |
That was a name given to Jacob after a long night of wrestling, or the name of Israel. 00:10:26.980 |
And basically that name automatically meant that you were separated from the rest of the 00:10:35.220 |
Deuteronomy 7, 6, it says, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. 00:10:39.740 |
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the 00:10:49.020 |
The fact that Paul says, "You are Israelites," automatically the Israelites would have understood 00:10:59.060 |
That they were the ones who were wrestling, and His presence was there. 00:11:03.540 |
Secondly, he says to them, "To you, the Jews, belong the adoptions." 00:11:10.620 |
Not only were they chosen by God, in Exodus 4, 22, it says, "You shall say to the Pharaoh, 00:11:15.340 |
'Thus says the Lord, 'Israel is my firstborn.'" 00:11:20.760 |
When we hear the term "firstborn" in our culture context, we mean He's first, second, third, 00:11:27.620 |
But God is not saying to the nation of Israel, "Firstborn," as in, "Well, I birthed you, 00:11:31.820 |
and then I'm going to birth another nation, and then another nation." 00:11:34.700 |
The term "firstborn" signifies a special blessing upon that particular nation. 00:11:42.960 |
Because the firstborn was the one where the inheritance, and the line of the predecessors, 00:11:48.820 |
the ancestors, would go through this particular line. 00:11:57.560 |
So when in the New Testament, Jesus is called the only begotten Son, He's not saying "begotten" 00:12:06.100 |
He's separating Him from all of other things. 00:12:11.420 |
And that's what He means when He calls a nation of Israel "firstborn." 00:12:14.420 |
There's no other nation like the nation of Israel. 00:12:16.700 |
Hosea 11, 1, it says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him. 00:12:26.800 |
When God calls a nation of Israel His children, or His son, it's basically saying that He 00:12:32.580 |
There's special concern, special affection for this nation that is unlike any other nation. 00:12:38.920 |
So if any of my children came and asked me, "Dad, can I come and eat something from the 00:12:48.220 |
And what I mean by that is, why would you even ask that? 00:12:54.660 |
What is the kind of relationship that you have with your children that you don't have 00:12:59.120 |
So when God says to the nation of Israel that you have the adoption, God is saying that 00:13:04.220 |
of all the people that I have fixated my attention and love in particular upon you, not only 00:13:12.780 |
were they people who contended with God, not only were they chosen to be loved, He says 00:13:20.880 |
Glory typically signifies God's real presence among His people. 00:13:26.300 |
Glory basically means to magnify His essence. 00:13:30.900 |
So whoever and whatever God is, is being displayed. 00:13:37.660 |
So when it says, "Glory is yours," meaning that God drew near to His people. 00:13:43.980 |
He wasn't a God who chose Him from a distance and said, "You know what? 00:13:46.820 |
I'm going to declare you and put a stamp on Him," and then He disappeared. 00:13:50.820 |
When He says, "Not only were you Israelites, not only are you adopted," He said, "Yours 00:13:55.740 |
is the glory," meaning that they had access to God's presence like no other nation. 00:14:06.240 |
They saw the miracles and how He performed miracles, how He fed them through 40 years 00:14:12.300 |
His glory would appear in the temple and He would rest upon the Holy of Holies permanently. 00:14:19.520 |
Anytime the Israelites wanted to be in His presence, they could just go to the temple. 00:14:26.240 |
They witnessed the glory of God like no other people. 00:14:31.600 |
Not only were they witnesses of His glory, He said they had the covenant. 00:14:41.160 |
See today when two people get married, we say, you know, two people get in a covenant. 00:14:44.800 |
But a lot of times people don't understand the biblical idea of a covenant. 00:14:53.440 |
Whether you're selling a property or you're going into business with somebody, you make 00:15:01.040 |
The biblical idea of a covenant is God choosing unilaterally to commit Himself to you. 00:15:09.400 |
So when He says yours is a covenant, it's that God separated you to adopt you, to reveal 00:15:22.620 |
He repeated to his son Isaac and then to his son Jacob. 00:15:30.000 |
See this covenant that God made with the nation of Israel was unlike any other covenant. 00:15:35.920 |
That's why over and over again when God reveals Himself to generations that came after Abraham, 00:15:42.880 |
He would often reveal Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 00:15:47.680 |
He's not simply saying that, oh, these three people that started the nation of Israel, 00:15:56.400 |
But by saying He's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He's reminding them. 00:16:01.360 |
I am that same God who made covenant with your forefathers and that covenant is still 00:16:08.080 |
See when He says He's covenanted, that covenant with the nation of Israel was very special. 00:16:17.920 |
And that's why if you know the story of Jacob and Esau, where Esau was the hairy guy, he's 00:16:26.160 |
He goes and he goes hunting and then he comes back famished and Jacob's the one who's at 00:16:35.840 |
And he comes back and he's famished and he said, give me some soup. 00:16:38.240 |
And he said, well, give me your birthright and I'll give you some soup. 00:16:42.920 |
And Esau being outdoorsy, like man's man, he said, well, what is that to me? 00:16:53.440 |
And then he said, okay, I'll give you my birthright and he gives it to him. 00:16:56.120 |
And because of that mistake, permanently that birthright was taken away. 00:17:02.640 |
Now we can look at that and say, any of you who have siblings, right? 00:17:06.680 |
Any of you who have siblings know that that type of conversation happens all the time 00:17:17.200 |
And it looks like a childish, maybe even a prank and selfishness on Jacob. 00:17:23.760 |
But because of that, God's blessing is upon him and not upon Esau. 00:17:28.920 |
Superficially we may look at that and say, well, that doesn't sound fair or just. 00:17:33.320 |
But do you have to remember the firstborn right, the inheritance in this particular 00:17:41.840 |
Because God covenanted with their predecessors, with their ancestors, that he was going to 00:17:46.960 |
make, he was going to bless them and make their nation great. 00:17:49.840 |
And eventually the Messiah was going to come through this line. 00:17:53.200 |
So for Esau to forsake his birthright, his inheritance, was to trivialize the covenant 00:18:02.660 |
And he wasn't just rejecting the inheritance, meaning property and cows and whatever inheritance, 00:18:07.600 |
whatever inheritance a typical firstborn child would get. 00:18:13.040 |
What good is all the promises of God, all of this to me if I'm hungry? 00:18:19.280 |
See this covenant that God made with the nation of Israel was unlike any other covenant. 00:18:33.940 |
And if that's not enough, he says, you have the law. 00:18:39.440 |
You know, biblically we say, you know, there's general revelation and there's special revelation. 00:18:45.240 |
Right now I could have general revelation of who you are. 00:19:00.360 |
You know, typically a lot of people look at me and they say, you know, they think I'm 00:19:05.000 |
angry because I have this scar on my, or it's not a scar. 00:19:14.480 |
And oftentimes I have to tell them, actually, I'm very happy. 00:19:18.400 |
You know, people are kind of intimidated to talk because they think I'm angry. 00:19:23.520 |
But there's things that you can know through general revelation. 00:19:26.240 |
You need the general observation that they're not all, you know, they're not all wrong, 00:19:37.800 |
But we also have special revelation where God speaks directly with languages and his 00:19:44.560 |
And it says to the nation of Israel, you were the first who received the law of God, where 00:19:49.120 |
God drew near to them and gave them the covenant and he presented his glory to them unlike 00:20:03.920 |
So there's certain things that you can know about me from a distance, from the way I 00:20:07.680 |
preach, the way I dress, my scowl and say, well, Peter is like this. 00:20:13.280 |
And then there's some of you had intimate knowledge of because I spent a lot of time 00:20:17.320 |
But you know, nobody knows me like my mom or my brothers or my wife and my kids. 00:20:22.720 |
See, the nation of Israel had special revelation of God through the law. 00:20:28.520 |
John Calvin says there's three particular uses of the law. 00:20:34.600 |
It is a reflection of who God is in every household. 00:20:42.600 |
So maybe the father and mother will say in our house, we don't eat with our hands. 00:20:46.120 |
We everybody is at the table at five o'clock and finishes at six and very regimented. 00:20:56.140 |
Some houses you go, it's very artsy, you know, paintings everywhere and everything's a little 00:21:02.720 |
But again, that's a reflection of of the people who are running that house. 00:21:07.280 |
So in every household you go, there's a little bit of the character of the person who owns 00:21:14.360 |
The law, the first thing that it does, it reveals his nature, his character, who he 00:21:20.440 |
And they had a special revelation where God spoke to them and said through the law, this 00:21:29.720 |
He talks about how what you should and should not do. 00:21:32.160 |
But oftentimes when we think about the law, we think of condemnation. 00:21:35.080 |
But the law also reveals his very gentle, caring, merciful, faithful, forgiving God. 00:21:43.380 |
This very law that said if you break the Sabbath, there is condemnation also tells them to save 00:21:50.420 |
a little piece of your harvest at the end so that the foreigners and the widows, when 00:21:57.120 |
That same law talked about the Jubilee, the forgiving of debt. 00:22:05.400 |
What the nations could have kind of known about God because he left his imprint on his 00:22:10.600 |
creation, Israel had firsthand knowledge because God spoke to them directly. 00:22:18.820 |
It's a tutor to guide and lead and ultimately reveals his will and his purpose. 00:22:25.280 |
So that's why Jesus says in John 4, 22 to the Samaritan woman, you worship what you 00:22:33.120 |
You kind of have an idea of who God is, but you don't really know him. 00:22:37.400 |
He's talking about the Jewish people for salvation is from the Jews. 00:22:44.200 |
See the scripture talks about how there was a general imprint that God existed and that 00:22:51.700 |
But to the nation of Israel, God specifically told them about what sins and how he was going 00:23:01.560 |
Not only do they have the law, he says, you have to worship. 00:23:05.880 |
Now the word worship in the New Testament, there's three specific words. 00:23:08.920 |
There is the most prominent word, proskuneo, which means to bow down, to prostrate oneself 00:23:15.640 |
and is the most prominent word where they're confronted by God's presence and they can 00:23:22.480 |
And true worship is almost always a reaction. 00:23:27.000 |
True worship almost always is when we encounter this God, it causes us to bow down. 00:23:33.800 |
Not something, I should say this, I should mean this, but when we're confronted with 00:23:42.280 |
Sabomai basically means to have reverence and emotion. 00:23:46.000 |
When the scripture says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, 00:23:49.280 |
God wants not just prostrating oneself, but genuinely from the heart. 00:23:55.800 |
But the word that is used here for worship is latruo. 00:24:00.520 |
Oftentimes the word latruo is translated as worship, but sometimes it's translated as 00:24:05.760 |
service because that's exactly the meaning of this word. 00:24:09.200 |
And in particular to the Jewish people, it's talking about service at the temple. 00:24:14.600 |
So in other words, what Paul is saying is you had the privilege to draw near to God 00:24:22.760 |
You know, oftentimes when we think about serving the church, it's like, well, I have to do 00:24:27.760 |
And we kind of give people guilt trips like, hey, you know, we need to toilet clean and 00:24:34.280 |
You haven't volunteered for doing this, so why don't you do it? 00:24:40.360 |
The reason why it was a privilege because the very fact that they're able to approach 00:24:48.080 |
If sin separated us from God, and that's what we lost at the fall because of the sin, the 00:24:55.280 |
atonement of sin means that we are able to draw near to God. 00:24:59.280 |
And that's the blessing that we have, restoration. 00:25:02.680 |
Oftentimes we think of salvation as not going to hell and going to heaven. 00:25:07.520 |
But what was lost at the fall was the ability to be able to glorify God, the ability to 00:25:14.680 |
So the fact that we are able to worship God, it says, draw near to the throne of grace 00:25:19.040 |
with confidence because of what Christ has done. 00:25:21.560 |
See, that's the word that is used here, "lutro," you have the worship. 00:25:25.480 |
That every aspect of the temple was a privilege. 00:25:29.880 |
Whether you are a priest sacrificing, whether you carry the poles, whether you cleaned outside, 00:25:43.920 |
Number seven, God made promises to this particular nation that he would be faithful to them. 00:25:50.800 |
That even in their sins and judgment, God promises that he will restore the remnant. 00:25:56.680 |
He promised them his protection, his provision. 00:26:00.440 |
But among all the promises that God made to the nation of Israel, nothing is as more significant 00:26:06.200 |
than the promise he made of the coming Messiah. 00:26:10.240 |
That every promise that he made to the nation of Israel will be fulfilled when the Messiah 00:26:15.760 |
There's over 400 separate prophecies about Jesus' coming, who he is, how he will come, 00:26:25.000 |
what he will look like, what will happen when he comes, how he will die, how he will suffer. 00:26:30.320 |
His perspective as he's hanging on the cross, who will betray him. 00:26:38.280 |
John 5, 46, Jesus says, "If you believed in Moses, you would believe in me, for he wrote 00:26:45.600 |
Of all the promises that God made, nothing is more significant than the coming of the 00:26:55.360 |
And he says, number eight, to them, to you, belong the patriarchs. 00:27:03.000 |
Hebrews chapter 11 lists a long list of majority Jewish people, patriarchs, who went before 00:27:12.080 |
And after talking about how these people, because of their faith, did these heroic things, 00:27:17.400 |
he says, "Considering the cloud of witnesses that has gone before us, let us run faithfully. 00:27:31.920 |
They weren't just studying some history, they were studying history of their own people 00:27:38.360 |
Men of faith to follow, women of faith to follow. 00:27:42.120 |
But finally, of all the blessings that God gave the nation of Israel, and I could stop 00:27:47.080 |
right here and say, "Well, there's no other nation that had this blessing." 00:27:50.880 |
But above all of that, he says at the end, "And from their race, according to the flesh, 00:27:55.760 |
is the Christ who is God overall, blessed forever. 00:28:00.380 |
That this Messiah was going to come in your line. 00:28:04.200 |
I mean, can you imagine, you know, every time I open the Bible, I have to consider the cultural 00:28:13.860 |
Every time I open up the scripture and try to figure out what it says, I have to understand 00:28:21.200 |
See, but the Jews, Jesus was from their culture. 00:28:25.320 |
So when he used his illustration, they knew exactly what he was talking about. 00:28:32.280 |
It was all within their culture with their own language. 00:28:36.080 |
That every little nuance of his relationship with his mom and his brothers, all of that 00:28:40.040 |
was within their context, because Jesus came from their line and their culture. 00:28:46.800 |
That the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, came to us as a Jew. 00:28:56.760 |
Knowing all of that, how privileged they were, all the blessings and the love and the law 00:29:04.560 |
and the promises and the covenant, the patriarchs, the examples, and Christ himself come into 00:29:17.880 |
You would think, if we didn't already know what happened, you would think that when Jesus 00:29:25.440 |
showed up, that they would have been loyal to him. 00:29:34.920 |
When the scripture says that the light came into the world, but the people did not desire 00:29:38.360 |
the light, for they desired darkness over the light. 00:29:42.800 |
First and foremost, he's talking about the Jewish people. 00:29:49.880 |
Before we flippantly just dismiss, "Oh, those Jews, they were so blind. 00:29:54.560 |
Just before we just simply dismiss that, we have to ask ourselves, were these people who 00:30:00.080 |
were so privileged, was eyewitnesses of his glory? 00:30:05.120 |
It was passed down from generation to generation, how he delivered these people from Egypt, 00:30:13.720 |
And every year, they were to tell this to their children as a story over and over, every 00:30:22.080 |
Everything that they did reminded them about the coming Messiah. 00:30:25.140 |
And yet when he came, they completely missed it. 00:30:28.640 |
See, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 through 13, that all of this is very relevant to us. 00:30:42.440 |
He says in 1 Corinthians 10, 1, he says, "I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers 00:30:46.080 |
were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in 00:30:50.920 |
the cloud and in the seas and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same 00:30:58.040 |
For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. 00:31:01.920 |
Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness." 00:31:33.220 |
Why is it that the people who have the greatest blessing on earth, and I'm talking about me 00:31:39.820 |
and you, the privilege that we have, the freedom that we have, the access that we have to his 00:31:45.820 |
words, no other generation, no other place in the world has the kind of freedom and access 00:31:51.700 |
we have to his word, to his church, to the fellowship, to the opportunities, to the worship. 00:31:59.500 |
And our greatest lack is not lack of fellowship, lack of opportunities, lack of leadership, 00:32:09.580 |
lack of preaching, it's lack of faith, lack of passion, lack of perseverance. 00:32:18.580 |
See, Paul says in verse six, "Now these things took place as an example for us that we might 00:32:26.420 |
So he said all the things that are the tragedy of the nation of Israel, he says, "To serve 00:32:31.420 |
as an example, as a warning to all of us, because we are just as susceptible to this 00:32:41.540 |
He says, there's six things I want to quickly mention here, he says in verse seven through 00:32:46.100 |
Number one, he says, "Well what does this look like? 00:32:49.740 |
The first thing that he says in verse seven, "Do not be idolaters as some of them were, 00:32:54.140 |
as it is written," and he describes this idolatry, and I want you to pay very close attention 00:33:00.760 |
This idolatry that he describes as, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." 00:33:06.100 |
Now that's not, that wasn't their only sin, but that's the first thing that's mentioned. 00:33:16.380 |
He talks about sexual immorality, he talks about other things, but the first, remember 00:33:20.940 |
in the Bible when they make a list of things, whether it's a list of disciples, list of 00:33:24.660 |
sin, the first is always significant, because they always wrote things in priority or of 00:33:33.020 |
So when he says the Israelites, they all fell away because they fell into idolatry, and 00:33:39.260 |
"The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." 00:33:43.740 |
I mean that sounds kind of trivial, considering we know what kind of sins that they fell into. 00:33:53.980 |
Constant sin of Asherah, worshiping Asherah, Paul and Baal, and chasing after adultery, 00:33:59.860 |
the sexual immoral sins that they committed, forsaking and blasphemy against God, considering 00:34:04.420 |
all of these things, that that would be the first thing? 00:34:11.100 |
He says in Hosea chapter 13, 5, "I cared for you," he's talking about the nation of Israel, 00:34:16.820 |
"I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. 00:34:22.320 |
When they were satisfied, they became proud, and then they forgot me." 00:34:34.700 |
The beginning of all their idolatry, the sexual immorality, everything that caused them to 00:34:38.740 |
be so blind, how can they have so much blessing, special revelation, the covenant, the worship, 00:34:45.300 |
the ancestors, Christ himself coming in their flesh, in their culture, and they were so 00:34:53.580 |
spiritually dense that they did not recognize him. 00:35:09.500 |
What causes our hearts to be more hardened than anything else is not persecution, it's 00:35:23.560 |
Overly concerned about things that don't matter. 00:35:27.160 |
They're not sinful, they're not things that we are naturally ashamed of, these are things 00:35:31.460 |
that we regularly participate in, they're not sinful, but we're just overly distracted 00:35:38.660 |
See, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 32, in argument for the resurrection, he says, "If 00:35:46.780 |
the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." 00:35:52.340 |
He's not saying this, he's not saying this as an encouragement or anything, he's sarcastic, 00:35:58.780 |
he's saying, "Well, I mean, that's the way we would, if the resurrection didn't take 00:36:07.900 |
In other words, what Paul is saying, "But that is not the case. 00:36:19.300 |
As much as it is appointed for all men to die once, after this comes judgment." 00:36:33.220 |
That's what Paul is saying, "If that didn't happen and we don't believe that, let us eat, 00:36:45.140 |
That is not what we sing about every single Sunday. 00:36:47.580 |
In other words, Paul is saying, "Let us examine ourselves, that we do not simply drift." 00:36:56.380 |
And that was a problem with the recipients of the letter of Hebrew. 00:37:00.880 |
They were apostate, or they were in danger of being apostate, simply because they were 00:37:09.920 |
Not only were they drifting, and he's warning them about this drifting, verse 8 he says, 00:37:14.060 |
"We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a 00:37:20.660 |
You know what's one of the first things that happens when we drift and our hearts become 00:37:31.060 |
We justify, we can pretty much justify anything in our lives, when our hearts have become 00:37:37.620 |
So he said, "Well, they just said, 'Let's eat, drink, be merry, and just kind of go play.'" 00:37:42.380 |
Their hearts are hardened, and then they began to indulge in sexual immorality, and they 00:37:50.540 |
You know, I became a Christian in the early 80s, and then now, obviously, 2017, and many 00:37:58.720 |
And what was acceptable 30 years ago, or 30-some years ago, is night and day today. 00:38:05.660 |
And I'm not going to make a judgment statement, because every generation has their own sins. 00:38:13.860 |
But I can tell you, and you can disagree with me, but I think most guys that I know who 00:38:19.500 |
are Christians with me in college, or younger, will universally testify that our generation 00:38:28.420 |
has become so desensitized to immorality, that even within the church, it's openly shared. 00:38:37.140 |
See, first it starts with, "Hey, let's just have fun. 00:38:47.220 |
Thirdly, it says, "We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were 00:38:53.420 |
And as a result of their persistent sin, they tested God, and as a result, judgment came. 00:38:59.900 |
And then it says, in verse 10, "And they also grumbled, as some of them did, and were destroyed 00:39:07.260 |
See when you're not right with God, and if you're separated from the author of life, 00:39:11.660 |
and you become desensitized to sin, and you persist in the sin, judgment comes upon you, 00:39:16.500 |
and as a result of trials and difficulties that sometimes we don't even recognize as 00:39:21.680 |
God's discipline upon our lives, then we start to grumble. 00:39:27.500 |
See worship is an expression of thanksgiving. 00:39:31.580 |
True worship is always an expression of thanksgiving toward what God has done. 00:39:36.340 |
But when you're under the pressure of God, you begin to grumble, not recognizing that 00:39:40.340 |
His hand might be upon you, and they begin to grumble. 00:39:49.060 |
That's why the scripture says, "Do nothing out of grumbling or complaining." 00:39:52.860 |
Because that is exactly the opposite of worship. 00:39:56.680 |
You won the lottery, the Son of God died for you, and then you're complaining about something, 00:40:02.540 |
So He said the Israelites were filled with grumbling, because there are certain things 00:40:08.900 |
And then verse 12 is, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he 00:40:15.060 |
Considering all these things that the Israelites fell into, He said, "Take a step back and 00:40:27.340 |
He said, "Take a step back and examine and humble ourselves before the Lord. 00:40:38.340 |
And then verse 13, He says, "There is no temptation that has taken you that is not coming to all 00:40:44.580 |
Now, that's a warning and an encouragement at the same time. 00:40:49.380 |
It's a warning because no matter how strong you think you are, no matter how clever you 00:40:53.000 |
think you are, there is no temptation that sees you that is not taking all man down. 00:40:58.460 |
So even the greatest of men have fallen because of their pride. 00:41:02.980 |
But it's also an encouragement that even among the weakest of us, the temptations are the 00:41:09.300 |
And He follows that up by saying, "God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted 00:41:15.300 |
But with temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure 00:41:25.000 |
The nation of Israel fell into the same thing, same apathy. 00:41:27.620 |
How can a nation who was so privileged, yet the Messiah come and standing right before 00:41:34.820 |
them and did not recognize Him and ended up crucifying Him, He said, "Take heed." 00:41:45.840 |
If we follow the same pattern, nation of Israel, our hearts become hardened the same. 00:41:57.800 |
And in our grumbling, we don't recognize God's hand. 00:42:05.680 |
I'm going to finish up with the same question I asked. 00:42:16.400 |
Before we flippantly dismiss them as, "Oh, the nation of Israel, those guys were so blind." 00:42:24.360 |
How can they see Him raise somebody from the dead, Lazarus, walking on water, feeding them 00:42:33.080 |
"Oh man, if I saw that, that would not happen to me." 00:42:37.360 |
Remember when Thomas saw Jesus and he said, "Let me see." 00:42:43.360 |
He said, "Thomas, you believe because you saw. 00:42:45.960 |
Blessed are those who do not see, and yet they believe." 00:42:48.240 |
You and I can easily think and say, "Well, if I was there, I don't think that would have 00:42:55.080 |
It's like, if Jesus came, would you recognize Him? 00:43:03.560 |
If Jesus came tomorrow, would you recognize Him? 00:43:06.200 |
I know we may be all asking the same question, and I hope that you don't just flippantly 00:43:10.400 |
answer that question, but we don't need to wait next month or next year to find that 00:43:19.400 |
Because the scripture says to the disciples, to all of us, He says, "I will not leave you 00:43:29.040 |
When He sent His disciples out, He said, "Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing 00:43:33.640 |
them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all 00:43:36.760 |
that I have commanded you, and lo, behold, I am with you to the end of the age." 00:43:47.080 |
We don't have to wait to see, will we recognize Him? 00:43:53.440 |
We don't have to wait until He comes again, because He said He is among us. 00:44:25.120 |
My prayer, again, for our church, and I know moving to a new building, and there's a lot 00:44:31.960 |
of superficial excitement and all that, and I hope you are excited. 00:44:39.200 |
But every blessing that God gives us can turn into tragedy if that causes us to think that 00:44:54.220 |
And I superficially follow Him, superficially worship Him, but it erases the desperateness 00:45:14.400 |
And until we recognize just how desperate we are, no matter how physically wealthy we 00:45:25.440 |
I pray that the example of the nation of Israel would convict our hearts to remind us of our 00:45:34.600 |
Let's take some time to pray as we invite our worship team comes up. 00:45:38.680 |
And again, I want to encourage you, those of you who have a hard time praying in private, 00:45:44.960 |
I think the best way to learn how to pray in private is to learn to pray in public. 00:45:51.000 |
The same muscles that help you to pray in public will also help you to pray in private. 00:45:59.000 |
And sometimes it's easier when we're praying together in a group. 00:46:02.760 |
To come before the Lord, you don't know what to say, say it. 00:46:13.800 |
So let's come before the Lord in simple honesty. 00:46:21.080 |
Open my eyes, soften my heart that your word would have its effect on me. 00:46:24.800 |
So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.