back to index2017-04-23 Same God Yesterday Today and Forevermore
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Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 9, and I'm going to be reading 00:00:19.900 |
As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who are not my people I will call my people, and her 00:00:28.960 |
And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they 00:00:35.600 |
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the 00:00:39.980 |
sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. 00:00:44.020 |
For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.' 00:00:48.400 |
And as Isaiah predicted, 'If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been 00:01:01.960 |
Gracious Father, we ask that you would anoint this time, that your word, that your living 00:01:07.520 |
word would go forth and would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 00:01:12.360 |
We pray, Father God, that you give us fertile ground of hearts to listen, to apply, to be 00:01:21.200 |
I pray that you would filter every word that comes out of this mouth, that it may be used 00:01:29.200 |
So we ask for your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us and empower us. 00:01:35.680 |
Again, we're jumping back into the book of Romans and as you know, Apostle Paul has been 00:01:41.480 |
going over the details of the gospel and he's been answering in the last maybe about three 00:01:46.200 |
or four weeks that we were together in the book of Romans. 00:01:49.200 |
In the book chapter nine, he's been answering the question, if the gospel of grace is true, 00:01:56.000 |
what does that mean for the nation of Israel? 00:02:05.920 |
So Paul has been expositing and he's been going through the Old Testament, he's been 00:02:10.080 |
going through various passages to declare that our God is the same. 00:02:15.220 |
What I want to go through today, and I'm just going to jump right into the text this morning. 00:02:20.040 |
The three things that we want to observe from this passage, because again, this is connected 00:02:23.600 |
to the previous chapters, and the three things that we want to convey through this text of 00:02:28.960 |
observation I want you to see is that one, that the gospel that he is declaring is the 00:02:35.200 |
same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. 00:02:38.440 |
That's point one, and we're going to take some time to talk about that. 00:02:41.240 |
The point two is the gospel that he is declaring was always meant for the world and not just 00:02:50.920 |
The gospel was always meant for the world, not just for Israel. 00:02:54.400 |
Third, the gospel reveals God's severity and his mercy, both. 00:03:01.680 |
So we're going to use that as an outline to kind of work through the text this morning. 00:03:06.000 |
But the first thing that we want to look at that Paul has been arguing, and he will continue 00:03:09.960 |
to argue in this text, is that the God of the Old Testament and the message of salvation 00:03:14.720 |
is the same as the Old Testament and the New Testament. 00:03:20.520 |
See again, you and I lived during an era where, not just during an era, but in a place of 00:03:27.720 |
the world where the New Testament is probably about 95% of the preaching and the teaching 00:03:34.200 |
that you hear in our generation in this particular part of the world is primarily coming from 00:03:41.840 |
Now that in and of itself is not a problem, because the New Testament is also the Bible, 00:03:46.520 |
so as long as we're learning the Bible, but there's a reason why two-thirds of the Bible 00:03:54.880 |
And we have a tendency to kind of gravitate toward the New Testament because we superficially 00:03:59.400 |
think that the God of the New Testament is an easier sell. 00:04:04.160 |
In fact, you hear a lot of non-Christians, the politicians, they'll talk about certain 00:04:08.200 |
verses that are being quoted in the New Testament, that love is patient and is kind, and certain 00:04:12.480 |
verses that are romantic or certain verses that may be useful for their political gain. 00:04:19.600 |
But whenever they come to the Old Testament, they always mention about stoning homosexuals, 00:04:25.800 |
or if they're disobedient to parents, there's capital punishment if you don't obey the Sabbath 00:04:31.480 |
And so, because the Old Testament, at least on the surface, seems like it's a more difficult 00:04:38.280 |
It's a lot harder to explain the God of the Old Testament, so our tendency is to gravitate 00:04:44.840 |
Now, I've always known that this to be true, but it was confirmed for me many years ago 00:04:50.280 |
when our pastoral staff, I think, no, the very first one, it was me and a couple of 00:04:55.120 |
my pastor friends, we attended together for the gospel. 00:04:59.000 |
And at that time, the presider asked, "How many of you, out of 3,500 pastors, how many 00:05:04.240 |
of you are preaching through the Old Testament?" 00:05:06.600 |
It just happened at that time, I happened to be in the Old Testament. 00:05:10.240 |
So we stood up and, to my surprise, there was only about 11 to 12 people standing. 00:05:16.240 |
And so we were all shocked that out of this many pastors, two-thirds of the Bible being 00:05:22.920 |
the Old Testament, that a very, very small percentage of people were actually teaching 00:05:28.680 |
Now, it doesn't mean that it's not being read. 00:05:32.120 |
It's not saying that it's not being quoted, but to teach systematically through the Old 00:05:36.440 |
Now, I didn't have to be at that conference to recognize that because when I was going 00:05:40.560 |
through at that time, through the Old Testament, I found out that there's maybe about one-tenth 00:05:46.000 |
of the study material available in the Old Testament than it is in the New Testament. 00:05:50.280 |
In fact, any passage in the New Testament, if you go online saying, you know, Romans 00:05:54.080 |
chapter 9, verse 25, you'll probably find, you know, several pages of sermons about, 00:05:59.680 |
you know, documents and somebody's study on various words. 00:06:03.660 |
You go to the Old Testament, you type in a passage, you might find maybe two sermons 00:06:07.760 |
in the Book of Judges, three sermons on 1 Kings, maybe one sermon on Chronicles. 00:06:14.560 |
And so usually even the preaching through the Old Testament is very sparse. 00:06:18.560 |
And so if you try to go find material on the Old Testament to study, it's very, very sparse. 00:06:25.780 |
So I had a very difficult time when we were going through the Old Testament. 00:06:28.680 |
I know a handful of you were there when we were doing that, that it was very difficult 00:06:33.740 |
to like, well, what do we focus on and how do I preach this? 00:06:43.520 |
Now having said that, again, that conference only confirmed to me, and the reason why I 00:06:49.140 |
bring all this up is because you and I live in a generation where the God that we know, 00:06:55.800 |
at least majority of our paradigm of understanding of who God is, is coming from selective passages 00:07:03.600 |
Again, like I said, that in and of itself is not a problem. 00:07:09.560 |
But a problem or a danger that that can cause is that we don't have this concept, we don't 00:07:16.800 |
have this understanding of weightiness of who God is because God spends thousands of 00:07:22.640 |
years trying to teach the nation of Israel and ultimately to the world who He is. 00:07:29.800 |
And that when we come to the New Testament and reveal the necessity of the cross, it 00:07:34.960 |
was more than several thousand years of preparation through the tabernacle, through the giving 00:07:40.580 |
of the law, through the history, through the various festivals of the nation of Israel, 00:07:45.200 |
through God's judgment and restoration over and over again, revelation of God's character 00:07:53.320 |
And all of that played as a foundation so that when Christ came, that there would be 00:07:58.680 |
this recognition that there is a dire need for a Savior. 00:08:04.120 |
When we see the God of the Old Testament disconnected with the God of the New Testament, or somehow 00:08:13.720 |
So if you happen to read the Old Testament and superficially look at it and say, "Wow, 00:08:18.440 |
the God of the Old Testament seems like a different God," I strongly encourage you 00:08:28.560 |
I mean, really thoroughly read it, just like you read the New Testament. 00:08:31.500 |
Read verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and really understand the context, not just certain 00:08:36.040 |
verses that are taken as a quote, but I'm really talking about reading it. 00:08:41.280 |
You will find the same God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. 00:08:45.080 |
But until you see the same God of the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's a 00:08:51.760 |
Because that's how the Gospel was presented to us. 00:08:54.360 |
See, by the time we get to the New Testament, we're standing upon thousands of years God's 00:09:01.160 |
preparation so that the nation of Israel will be to recognize their sins. 00:09:06.280 |
See, if you go to the God of the Old Testament, God spends all that time setting up the temple, 00:09:12.520 |
the tabernacle, the giving of the law, and the first thing that impression that you get 00:09:17.800 |
from the Old Testament is God doesn't say, "Come." 00:09:27.760 |
That's not the God that we see in the Old Testament. 00:09:30.520 |
The God of the Old Testament basically says, "Stay away. 00:09:35.900 |
That if you draw near to me with dirty hands, you will die." 00:09:41.780 |
And so all the process of the tabernacle is a process of warning people, "Do not come 00:09:49.060 |
And if you do come, you must follow exactly what I tell you to do." 00:09:54.400 |
So if you remember in Leviticus chapter 10, after he establishes the law of how to draw 00:10:00.120 |
near to him, the very first two priests that come, they offer up strange fire. 00:10:09.180 |
And He says, "Anyone who comes to me, I will show myself as holy." 00:10:16.760 |
The very first two priests that come because they offered something that was not prescribed, 00:10:24.160 |
Now if that was isolated incident and we say, "Well, that happened in Old Testament, but 00:10:28.520 |
you know, later on, God just kind of softened up." 00:10:34.260 |
The whole stretching out of Israel's history is revelation of God who is holy, holy, holy. 00:10:42.580 |
That a sinful man is not able to be in His presence. 00:10:46.720 |
And so if we understood His nature, we would understand why the nation of Israel, every 00:10:52.480 |
time they broke God's commandment, judgment came upon them, just like God said. 00:10:57.600 |
So when we come to the New Testament, we say, "Well, that's not the God of the New Testament 00:11:01.440 |
since God consumed all His wrath upon Jesus." 00:11:04.640 |
But you will study, when you study the New Testament carefully, you will find that that 00:11:10.240 |
same God who detests sin of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. 00:11:15.440 |
And if you don't recognize that in the New Testament, again, I strongly encourage you 00:11:19.520 |
to go back, read the New Testament systematically. 00:11:22.480 |
Don't just take verses here and there and it is being quoted in sermons, but study through 00:11:29.120 |
Study through Hebrews, study through Romans, study through the book of James, study Revelation. 00:11:34.960 |
If you don't get it, we'll study through Revelation and you'll see. 00:11:40.720 |
Or vice versa, you may look at the Old Testament and say, "Wow, God is so vengeful and hateful 00:11:44.440 |
and you know, He can't stand it, He's just quick to judge." 00:11:48.100 |
Study the Old Testament carefully, see if you don't see a patient and merciful God of 00:11:58.840 |
It's important because the nation of Israel, like Paul is writing this letter, this Gospel 00:12:03.040 |
to the nation of Israel, and Israel is having a hard time reconciling the God that they 00:12:11.040 |
And so when Paul says this salvation is not of the law, but is by grace. 00:12:22.260 |
And that's the part where they had a hard time reconciling. 00:12:25.400 |
So the God that we knew was you have to keep the law and if you keep the law, God blesses 00:12:31.240 |
If you don't keep the law, God's going to curse you. 00:12:32.240 |
And so we just thought that that was the God that we worshipped. 00:12:38.280 |
You and I live in a generation where we try to kind of at least water down hell and judgment 00:12:44.440 |
and wrath of God because it's a difficult self, right? 00:12:52.160 |
So kind of water that down, we emphasize certain things that would be more palatable to people. 00:12:57.680 |
Well Israel, their issue with the Gospel is completely the opposite. 00:13:03.760 |
Which was, well if what you're saying is right, if Gospel is by grace alone, this is 00:13:13.840 |
This is the God that we came to the temple and we had all these regulations to get to 00:13:19.040 |
This is the God who wiped out the earth because they didn't obey. 00:13:21.840 |
This is a God who sent His own people into captivity for 70 years because they wouldn't 00:13:27.360 |
Now you're saying that the Jews and the Gentiles are going to be saved simply by grace, by 00:13:35.480 |
How can that holy God be the same God that you're preaching? 00:13:42.100 |
So the problem that our generation have of like, wow, if God is so loving and generous 00:13:47.000 |
and caring, how can He judge anybody where the Jews had an issue with the exact opposite? 00:13:54.400 |
If God is a holy, holy, holy God that we've been taught that we can't even mention His 00:14:00.080 |
And now you're saying that even the Gentiles were pagans and eating whatever they want, 00:14:04.200 |
now they can enter the throne of grace just like us? 00:14:08.800 |
That is why Paul has been spending all this time expositing the Old Testament. 00:14:14.320 |
That the gospel that he's been presenting in the first eight chapters of Romans is the 00:14:20.960 |
That's why he says, he gives the example of Isaac and Ishmael. 00:14:25.600 |
Ishmael should have been the rightful heir because he was the son of the flesh, but he 00:14:35.760 |
Esau being the older brother should have been the heir. 00:14:38.480 |
Instead, God chooses Jacob by His sovereign plan. 00:14:42.400 |
He said, well, does that mean that there's any kind of injustice in God? 00:14:46.040 |
How can that be if He just sovereignly chooses? 00:14:49.120 |
Again he gives the example in Exodus 33, 19, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and 00:14:53.640 |
I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 00:14:55.600 |
And he gives an example of how he dealt with Israel and the nation of Egypt. 00:15:00.080 |
As an example of all the things that you're protesting has always been. 00:15:07.920 |
And then finally he said, well, if the gospel is true, how can he find fault? 00:15:16.240 |
He gives the illustration of how we are the clay and he is the potter. 00:15:20.720 |
How can we dare come before God and put him in the trial seat and say, well, if you don't 00:15:26.320 |
prove yourself to me, I'm going to reject you. 00:15:30.320 |
Again going back to, have you forgotten who God is? 00:15:39.000 |
In other words, he may be beyond you, but don't forget who God is. 00:15:44.160 |
So he's been systematically arguing through the Old Testament to teach us that this is 00:15:51.040 |
Now, before I move on to the second point, I want to emphasize this. 00:15:55.440 |
Because you and I, again, because we've been saturated in one end, right? 00:16:04.840 |
Where certain passages have been taken, maybe even in context have been taken to highlight 00:16:10.960 |
certain aspects of the gospel and certain aspects of God's character. 00:16:17.160 |
If we're not careful, we can have an incomplete picture of our God. 00:16:22.120 |
Because it is not just important, it is absolutely essential that you understand who God is. 00:16:31.960 |
The God of the Old Testament who detests sin is the same God of the New Testament. 00:16:38.280 |
A God who looked at the earth and because of their multiplication of their sin and said, 00:16:43.000 |
"I have had enough," and he wipes them all out and only allows eight to survive to repopulate 00:16:49.760 |
That's that same God who crucifies his son to save us. 00:16:58.620 |
So if we don't recognize, if we don't see the cross in the light of the totality of 00:17:03.120 |
God revealed to us in the Old and the New Testament, there's always going to be something 00:17:11.800 |
And typically what happens is when we don't understand, we just kind of sweep it under 00:17:18.320 |
So we just kind of like emphasize certain things and then when you talk about hell, 00:17:21.560 |
kind of like, yeah, it's there, you know, you get separated from God, but we don't talk 00:17:27.200 |
We don't talk about the punishment that is eternal. 00:17:30.440 |
Because it's difficult for us to explain because the God that we've created in our generation, 00:17:40.200 |
We have to make sure that the gospel we understand and proclaim is the gospel that comes from 00:17:48.480 |
And our life and our application and our obedience is coming from the full counsel of God, not 00:17:58.360 |
See, Paul is trying to bring God in the gospel of the whole Bible. 00:18:08.760 |
There's certain things that the Gentiles had a problem with. 00:18:10.720 |
There's certain things that the Jews had a problem with, but the gospel itself was never 00:18:18.900 |
He does not change the core of his message and how somebody is saved because you have 00:18:23.280 |
a harder time, or that person has a harder time, because he's the potter. 00:18:30.280 |
So the first thing that we wanted to continue on is the message that he's been giving, that 00:18:35.920 |
God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. 00:18:39.200 |
The second part is where I want to spend more time on, is that the gospel has always been 00:18:47.480 |
The gospel has always been for the world and not just for the Jews. 00:18:55.560 |
He says, "Indeed," he says to Hosea, "those who are not my people, I will call my people, 00:19:00.520 |
and her who is not beloved, I will call beloved." 00:19:05.000 |
And then he quotes Hosea 1, "And in this very place where it was said to them, 'You are 00:19:09.080 |
not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God." 00:19:13.360 |
So if you look at that text in the book of Hosea, you'll know, if you've ever studied 00:19:17.480 |
the book of Hosea, that passage is referring to Israel, not Gentiles. 00:19:22.600 |
Paul here seems to be referring to the Gentiles. 00:19:25.960 |
In other words, you mean all the Gentiles are coming to faith? 00:19:30.560 |
And he uses this text that was originally used for the Jews in saying, see, God has 00:19:36.600 |
always intended to bring people who were not his people and make them his people. 00:19:43.040 |
Is Paul just kind of taking liberty to apply it any way he wants, or is this a legitimate 00:19:47.800 |
use of this text because it was meant for the Jews? 00:19:51.080 |
I think if you were studying this text, that's a legitimate question to ask. 00:19:55.960 |
You have to understand, whenever you see prophecies in the Old Testament, and we're going to be 00:19:59.480 |
going over this when we study the book of Revelation, there's always three applications 00:20:04.080 |
And it is true, the Old Testament is true, the New Testament. 00:20:07.120 |
There's an immediate historical application, there's an application in the second coming 00:20:11.160 |
of Christ, and there's an application at the end times. 00:20:15.240 |
So when you look at this prophecy in Hosea, basically God was telling them that because 00:20:21.960 |
of their many sins, God says, I'm going to release you to your sins and I'm going to 00:20:30.560 |
And he actually tells them to name your children, you are not my people, you are not loved. 00:20:35.720 |
And that's not at the end of Hosea, it begins like that. 00:20:38.520 |
And then so the rest of Hosea is a proclamation of the reason why God came to that point. 00:20:46.480 |
So those of you who study the book of Hosea and say, wow, you know, God loves us despite 00:20:50.080 |
all our adultery and sins, he still loves us. 00:20:53.200 |
Now that may be true, but the book of Hosea is not written that way. 00:20:57.520 |
Book of Hosea begins with judgment, that God's going to call you not my people, you're not 00:21:01.800 |
going to be beloved, and here's the reason why. 00:21:04.820 |
He tells Hosea to go marry a wife named Gomer who was a prostitute, and he said, you're 00:21:09.480 |
going to marry her and she's going to keep committing adultery, but I'm going to command 00:21:14.100 |
you to keep going after her and reconcile with her and love her despite. 00:21:17.880 |
And then it's going to come to a point where God's going to turn around and he's going 00:21:25.360 |
And this is the reason why God is going to treat you like the Gentiles, like you are 00:21:29.240 |
outside of the covenant because you kept on breaking my covenant and I'm going to release 00:21:36.600 |
Now why does he use that to convey that the gospel was meant for the Gentiles? 00:21:44.000 |
Because though he proclaims that, he says, because of your many sins I've released you 00:21:48.080 |
and you've broken the covenant, it is no longer relevant because now you are not my people, 00:21:52.880 |
I'm going to treat you as if my love and my protection is not upon you, but despite that, 00:21:58.240 |
he said, there's going to come a time in this very place where I told you that this covenant 00:22:03.080 |
was broken, you're not my people, he said, I will call you again and call you my people. 00:22:08.520 |
In fact, he'll go further than that, he'll completely restore you and call you sons of 00:22:16.560 |
Now the relevance of all of this is that the reason why the nation of Israel missed this 00:22:24.920 |
and why they had such a hard time reconciling the gospel, even though the gospel first came 00:22:30.400 |
to them, it was embedded into their culture, the reason why they missed it is because they 00:22:35.240 |
forgot that they were simple instruments for his glory. 00:22:40.240 |
If you read the Old Testament, New Testament, there is one theme. 00:22:44.560 |
And if you ever read any part of the Old Testament or the New Testament and you don't catch the 00:22:52.240 |
The theme is God is in pursuit of his own glory. 00:22:56.200 |
That theme is throughout every single chapter, every single historical document that you 00:23:02.520 |
It's all about God pursuing his glory and he's pursuing his glory and the means to which 00:23:07.120 |
he pursues his glory is by pursuing sinful men. 00:23:13.840 |
So his ultimate purpose is to declare his glory and the way he's going to declare his 00:23:19.000 |
glory is by pursuing sinners and bringing them to salvation. 00:23:23.760 |
That's the underlying theme of the Old Testament and New Testament, every part, even book of 00:23:29.000 |
numbers, even Leviticus, even Revelation, it's that same theme. 00:23:34.800 |
God pursues his glory by the means of pursuing sinners. 00:23:41.520 |
Where the nation of Israel missed all of this was, and I think the best way to illustrate 00:23:45.400 |
this is to tell you a parable about the pride of the rooster. 00:23:49.960 |
Some of you guys may have heard this before, may not have heard this, but basically the 00:23:52.920 |
pride of the rooster is, you know, the rooster, you know, lived on a farm. 00:23:55.800 |
He was the only rooster and every morning he would wake up and he would crow. 00:24:01.560 |
I was trying to do that this morning and then my throat hurt so I can't do it. 00:24:09.360 |
So if you've ever been on a farm early in the morning, you'll hear a rooster, cock-a-doodle-doo 00:24:15.240 |
And this rooster thought that the sun came up because of him, that he was the one who 00:24:20.140 |
raised the sun every morning because every time he cock-a-doodle-doo, the sun would come 00:24:27.760 |
And so all the farm animals, the cows and the chickens and the goats would look at that 00:24:34.520 |
He said, "Wow, that rooster, you know, on the surface looks like nothing, but without 00:24:43.520 |
Now everybody suspected that maybe it wasn't him, but nobody knew for sure because every 00:24:49.200 |
morning he would crow and the sun would come up. 00:24:53.840 |
Well one day he was walking around and he tripped and he hurt his neck. 00:25:02.320 |
And so he was worried all day long, like how, if I don't crow tomorrow morning, if I don't 00:25:08.400 |
cock-a-doodle-doo tomorrow morning, the sun's not going to come up, the farm is going to 00:25:11.360 |
die, the cow is going to die, they're all so dependent upon me, you know? 00:25:16.040 |
So he couldn't sleep all night and he was thinking about all these different ways to 00:25:25.760 |
And sure enough, five o'clock came and the sun came up. 00:25:39.800 |
So he waited another day and was trying to figure it out. 00:25:42.420 |
Next morning came, sure enough, he couldn't crow and his voice doesn't yield. 00:25:47.960 |
And after about a week or two, he realized, "Hmm, maybe it wasn't me after all." 00:25:58.280 |
That's the parable about the humility or the pride of the chicken, right? 00:26:08.600 |
See that's exactly what happened to the nation of Israel. 00:26:12.760 |
The nation of Israel, God said from the very beginning, He said, "Do not think that if 00:26:16.360 |
I let you get into the promised land, that it is because you are a greater nation than 00:26:22.200 |
It's not because you are more righteous than anybody. 00:26:24.860 |
In fact," He said, "You are very stiff-necked. 00:26:28.780 |
You deserve the same judgment that the Canaanites deserve because you will continue to always 00:26:34.400 |
forget me and you will continue to worship idols." 00:26:36.720 |
He said, "I am choosing you because I have a greater purpose and I'm going to use you 00:26:44.120 |
And the nation of Israel, instead of recognizing that they were just instruments for God's 00:26:48.820 |
greater purpose, they thought that they were it. 00:26:52.200 |
And so they had a hard time with the Gentiles. 00:26:54.000 |
Like we had the patriarchs, we had the law, we had the prophets, we had all of this. 00:27:00.080 |
And now you're going to simply say that the Gentiles are just going to come in by faith? 00:27:05.080 |
That's why so much of the New Testament is written to combat these Judaizers because 00:27:15.920 |
And that's why Paul says in the book of Romans, he's like, "God is not glorified because of 00:27:22.240 |
He said, "I thought the sun came up because we crowed." 00:27:26.040 |
The nation of Israel, it filled them with pride and that's why he came after the Pharisees 00:27:32.680 |
because that's exactly what the Pharisees were telling them. 00:27:35.040 |
It was because we're Jews that God was using us. 00:27:38.400 |
And it's because of us that God is gracious to the world. 00:27:41.880 |
And that's why they were resisting the gospel because the gospel basically says the door 00:27:46.520 |
is open and is always intended to go to the world. 00:27:53.040 |
People ask all the time, "Why did they choose the nation of Israel? 00:28:01.760 |
He could have chosen any group because his ultimate purpose was always the world. 00:28:07.320 |
Matthew 8, 11 to 12, "I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and recline 00:28:12.480 |
at the table, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 00:28:16.360 |
While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness in that place, there 00:28:28.080 |
He said people who are not Abraham's physical descendants are going to come in. 00:28:33.080 |
And even while he is doing ministry, he kept on saying the kingdom of heaven is going to 00:28:44.900 |
Because the same danger that the nation of Israel was under and why they had such a hard 00:28:50.400 |
time accepting the gospel to the Gentiles is the same reason why we stop sometimes with 00:29:00.480 |
We get saved, our family is taken care of, bills are paid, and we start saving money 00:29:06.560 |
And then there's always in the back of our mind, "Oh yeah, it's about the Great Commission." 00:29:35.960 |
You fill them with a little bit of talent, immediately like, "Hmm, I'm better." 00:29:41.880 |
They go to a little bit better school, "Hmm, my school's better than yours." 00:29:45.600 |
Like, "I'm three centimeters taller than you. 00:30:12.280 |
Because there's just something inside, innately, kind of like, wanting to be somebody, and 00:30:17.640 |
then all you have to do is like, "Wow, you're good," or, "Ooh, you're doing this," and 00:30:23.920 |
Not realizing that that very nature, that instinct to be somebody, blinds us for our 00:30:38.600 |
All the things that we have, maybe because I'm smart, maybe I got a raise, maybe these 00:30:43.960 |
things are happening to me because I'm talented and I'm just a little bit smarter than everybody. 00:30:52.920 |
If you say that out loud, you know how you're going to be perceived, and then you're not 00:30:58.640 |
But if you're really gifted and talented, you'll know how to convey that without saying 00:31:03.640 |
that, so other people will say that about you. 00:31:15.680 |
The nation of Israel just could not accept the gospel to the nations because they thought 00:31:20.400 |
that their God was exclusive to them and said, "Well, okay, we're going to be generous. 00:31:23.520 |
We'll let the Gentiles in, but they need to first do everything that we've done. 00:31:38.280 |
It happens in the church too, because I see every church that's been around for a while, 00:31:42.120 |
there's always a group of people who are kind of like, "This is my church. 00:31:49.120 |
You've got to sacrifice, and I've given longer. 00:31:50.400 |
I've been here longer," and then that becomes a stumbling block. 00:31:58.000 |
They just couldn't accept that, but the gospel was always meant for the world. 00:32:12.000 |
It's like, "Oh, God bless us so I can have a nice family and raise my children in safety." 00:32:18.120 |
But in God's big picture, in God's big picture of his will, what does that have to do with 00:32:31.920 |
What does that have to do with his big picture? 00:32:34.920 |
So does it end with your blessing that you have money and you have safety and your children 00:32:40.240 |
It was the whole goal of our life, that, to reach that, and then we're there, and then 00:32:45.160 |
we thank God when we have it, and we don't thank God when we don't have it. 00:32:51.440 |
If God's consistent line in the Old and the New Testament, everything that he has done 00:32:56.200 |
and said was for the purpose of his glory and pursuing sinners, what does your wealth 00:33:04.480 |
What does your youth, your talent, what does it have to do with that? 00:33:08.980 |
If you don't see the connection, if you don't see the connection with all the blessing that 00:33:14.680 |
God has given, with the bigger picture of what God is doing in human history, then you 00:33:21.600 |
I don't care how many times you read the Bible, I don't care how hard you serve the church 00:33:25.880 |
or how much money you give, you are outside the will of God, because you have a chunk 00:33:31.360 |
of things in your life, internal or external, that has nothing to do with God's greater 00:33:39.560 |
Everything that he gives us is for the purpose of glorifying our Father and pursuing sinners. 00:33:48.520 |
That's why Israel had such a hard time understanding the gospel, because God's blessings stopped 00:33:56.060 |
If God came and overturned the Roman government and put Israel in the place of Rome, that 00:34:06.140 |
That's why they completely missed the Messiah, because the Messiah didn't come for Israel. 00:34:16.640 |
Third and finally, the gospel shows, demonstrates God's severity and his mercy. 00:34:24.400 |
Romans chapter 11, in the summary of all of his argument of the gospel, he says, "Note 00:34:28.280 |
then that the kindness and the severity of God." 00:34:36.500 |
How often do we think of the gospel as God's revelation of God's severity? 00:34:43.180 |
In summary of the gospel message, before he gets to the imperatives in chapter 12, in 00:34:48.740 |
totality it says, "Then consider the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those 00:34:54.540 |
who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. 00:35:00.020 |
Otherwise you too will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, 00:35:05.180 |
will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again." 00:35:10.620 |
He describes the gospel as the revelation of God's severity and his kindness. 00:35:16.680 |
In Numbers 14, 18, it says, "The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving 00:35:21.980 |
iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity 00:35:27.080 |
of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." 00:35:31.680 |
He quotes in verse 27, the passage in Isaiah, again a warning to the nation of Israel, "Though 00:35:38.040 |
the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will 00:35:43.800 |
Basically in other words, you're saying God's going to bless your physical descendants and 00:35:47.600 |
you're going to have descendants that's going to outnumber the sand, but despite that, despite 00:35:53.560 |
that, he said only a few of you, only a few of you, a remnant will be saved. 00:36:00.560 |
In other words, you can look at all the external things and say, "Well, God has blessed us," 00:36:05.480 |
and you can go to your grave thinking that, "Well, God's been so gracious and blessed 00:36:10.560 |
us," but he said, "Among you, only a few will be saved." 00:36:18.040 |
Now we can look at that and say, "Well, God's talking to the nation of Israel, he's not 00:36:21.320 |
speaking to us who are at church raising our children and teaching them the gospel. 00:36:29.520 |
Well, Jesus warned us in Matthew 7, 13, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and 00:36:39.200 |
Those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to 00:36:51.120 |
Now we know it was true in the New Testament because they were being persecuted and it 00:36:56.600 |
was very difficult to say, "You are a follower of Jesus Christ." 00:36:58.960 |
We know that this is true in Egypt and in Iran and areas of the world where persecution 00:37:07.760 |
I mean, on the surface, it looks exactly the opposite, right? 00:37:13.720 |
If any of you fell away from your faith, you're going to have a hard time. 00:37:22.160 |
You have family and friends who are Christians, they're going to be worried about you sending 00:37:33.120 |
You're not going to be able to hang around with them. 00:37:40.280 |
If you don't at least have a minimum obedience or minimum standard that you keep. 00:37:48.720 |
I mean, to be a Christian in our generation, you hear the gospel and are you interested? 00:37:59.000 |
Here's some of your friends that you can hang out with and go drink boba with and play with. 00:38:17.280 |
It's very easy to be a follower of Jesus Christ in Orange County. 00:38:22.480 |
In fact, if you've been raised in the church and all of your friends are Christians, it's 00:38:27.200 |
You're going to get persecuted for not coming to church. 00:38:34.440 |
This is true, especially you college students. 00:38:37.880 |
You're surrounded by people like, "Where were you Wednesday? 00:38:43.160 |
We went and cleaned the church, but you didn't show up." 00:38:45.120 |
You've got all kinds of persecution in the church for not being faithful. 00:38:52.600 |
The concern that they had was if you preach gospel by grace and it was that easy, that's 00:38:59.920 |
And then we're in a kingdom and then no one can touch us because we're saved by grace 00:39:03.280 |
and not by work, so even if we fail, God's going to love us anyway? 00:39:06.720 |
Wow, that doesn't sound narrow at all because it isn't. 00:39:14.160 |
Then you have the Jehovah's Witnesses and the different cults who say, "That doesn't 00:39:19.640 |
That's too easy because that's not what the Bible says." 00:39:22.400 |
And then we're to the other end, so now you've got to prove yourself and no one can be sure 00:39:25.400 |
of their salvation, and yet they completely contradict the scripture. 00:39:28.080 |
The scripture does say that, but here's the catch. 00:39:33.000 |
Salvation is by faith alone, but that faith has to be real. 00:39:52.840 |
Being a part of a community doesn't make it real. 00:39:56.160 |
Going out to short-term mission doesn't make it real. 00:40:05.200 |
Here's an illustration I've used so many times but I'm going to use again. 00:40:09.800 |
If I told you that this building is on fire and I said, "Do you believe me?" 00:40:23.400 |
"You're absolutely certain what I said was true?" 00:40:27.000 |
Then I'll say, "Well, that's kind of shocking." 00:40:34.280 |
I'm kind of shocked that you say that you believe that. 00:40:45.160 |
Because none of you are getting out the door. 00:40:48.040 |
None of you are picking up your stuff and moving out. 00:40:51.840 |
And yet you tell me you are absolutely certain that this is true. 00:41:04.560 |
Either you believe that you're made out of Teflon so this fire is going to cause you 00:41:11.560 |
no harm or you don't really believe what I'm saying. 00:41:22.040 |
You and I live in Orange County where we live in a, I don't know how the best way to put 00:41:40.240 |
If anybody catches on fire with God, they're the weirdos. 00:41:46.200 |
They're the ones who belong in a mission field. 00:41:49.320 |
You should go to seminary so you can let some of that out on the pulpit. 00:41:56.120 |
It's become weird to live consistently with our faith. 00:42:13.760 |
Not superstition, not piggybacking off of other people, but real faith. 00:42:21.960 |
He says, "Though there are many in number, only a remnant will be saved." 00:42:26.920 |
And we have to understand the kindness of God in the context of understanding the severity 00:42:33.280 |
Because if you don't understand the severity of God, the kindness of God, it sounds like 00:42:42.160 |
No matter what you do, God is okay with it, and that's the generation that we have. 00:42:46.960 |
You can do whatever you want, say whatever you want. 00:42:49.600 |
It doesn't matter because one saved always saved. 00:42:52.200 |
Again, we understand the kindness of God without understanding the God that is presented to 00:43:00.680 |
And why somebody who has no evidence of faith can have absolute assurance when it's completely 00:43:08.560 |
See, in Psalm 3119, it says, "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up 00:43:14.840 |
for those who fear you, and worked for those who take refuge in you in the sight of the 00:43:23.000 |
He says that those who fear him are the ones that God will bless. 00:43:30.280 |
Psalm 3119, those who fear, they are the ones who will take refuge. 00:43:37.360 |
God reveals himself as a holy, holy, holy God. 00:43:41.880 |
And he says, "If the Lord's host had not left us offspring, we would have been like 00:43:49.400 |
Do we presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that 00:43:53.080 |
God's kindness is what leads us to repentance, the very reason why you're able to even think 00:43:58.640 |
about God, why you're sitting here listening and even understanding anything if you feel 00:44:04.600 |
guilty or convicted, any of that is because the kindness of God has allowed you to hear 00:44:13.320 |
Do you not understand that that in and of itself is God's kindness being revealed to 00:44:20.120 |
How much of our complaining and excuses is because you and I live in first world, physically 00:44:29.360 |
Physically, look at the things that we complain about, the air conditioner, it's a little 00:44:39.000 |
The air conditioner just turned off, so I don't know what happened, right? 00:44:42.560 |
I spent so much time this week trying to fix the air conditioner, you know, because I heard 00:44:45.920 |
that the air conditioner downstairs wasn't working, so we had to get electricians to 00:44:49.280 |
come in and various people, so we were here all day trying to connect that. 00:44:53.240 |
We got it connected downstairs, now we got to work on the upstairs. 00:44:57.200 |
So much of what we talk about, so much of the things that hinder us, like the rest of 00:45:05.040 |
We buy an iPhone 7 and then we hear that iPhone 8 is going to come out in the next couple 00:45:17.640 |
Traffic is miserable, the co-workers, they don't cooperate, they're incompetent, and 00:45:22.240 |
you know, we think about all of these things, and we do that even spiritually. 00:45:28.480 |
I can't grow because I don't have this, and I don't have that, and I don't have anybody 00:45:32.280 |
my age, and I don't have anybody younger, I don't have anybody older, nobody like me, 00:45:37.400 |
I mean, we've got all kinds of reasons why we can't grow. 00:45:41.880 |
See, the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, 44 to 36 is, "The kingdom of heaven is like 00:45:48.120 |
a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up, that in his joy he goes 00:45:52.880 |
and sells all that he has and buys that field." 00:45:58.040 |
He said, when he encountered the kingdom of heaven, he's talking about Jesus, he's talking 00:46:03.800 |
about his own salvation, that he recognized the value of it, and what did he sell? 00:46:11.920 |
Everything he had was worth selling to have Jesus. 00:46:18.920 |
Again in verse 45, "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of pearls, who 00:46:22.920 |
on finding one pearl of a great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." 00:46:30.000 |
He found this pearl, and he found the worth of it, and he sold everything in order to 00:46:37.680 |
You see, the kingdom of heaven, the gospel that he's talking about, is when an individual 00:46:41.440 |
recognizing that that is worth more than anything else that I own, anything else I can possibly 00:46:51.240 |
He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who finds his life, loses his life for Christ, 00:46:59.720 |
The one who recognizes what it is that he has in Christ will find life. 00:47:06.360 |
And the ones who don't, at least in the church, will fake it, will salvage what he can, will 00:47:13.520 |
go through the motions so that he can have friends and be a part of the community, but 00:47:33.280 |
But true salvation is in Christ, in Christ alone. 00:47:38.880 |
You know, it was interesting yesterday, we were going up and down, and as they were trying 00:47:42.360 |
to fix the wires, there was a father and son team that was here, an electrician who was 00:47:46.960 |
connecting these wires, and I was coming downstairs to check to make sure that it was working. 00:47:53.060 |
So they were upstairs, and so I was coming up and down the stairs, up and down the stairs, 00:47:56.840 |
and then the last time I was coming up the stairs, the son looked at me with envy, and 00:48:02.080 |
he said, "Oh, I wish one day I could come up the stairs like you." 00:48:09.520 |
I'm limping all over the place because my knee hurts." 00:48:12.640 |
And the reason why he said that was because his son is in his 20s, he's like maybe 24, 00:48:17.160 |
25, but he got in a major motorcycle accident. 00:48:21.480 |
And so he wasn't a Christian, but after he got in an accident, he was in the hospital 00:48:25.920 |
for five months, and then he got out maybe about a month ago, so he's not in good condition 00:48:31.040 |
to be able to work, so he's always limping around. 00:48:32.760 |
You could tell it permanently damaged his leg, so he's always limping around. 00:48:37.560 |
And so it was interesting, it just kind of caught me off guard because here's this young 00:48:51.320 |
I would never hear somebody say, "I envy your legs." 00:48:56.160 |
But then again, it caught me off guard, and I was like, "Huh, it's because of his accident." 00:49:04.780 |
And then it kind of made me look, "Yeah, my legs aren't good, but it's not bad." 00:49:11.200 |
It just kind of made me think, even as I was preparing for this message, like how much 00:49:16.960 |
of our time is spent in self-pity, in playing a victim, and not fixating our eyes upon Christ, 00:49:29.200 |
and forgetting what it is that we have in Him, considering the severity and the kindness 00:49:41.720 |
It humbles the proud and lifts up the humble, and the entrance into the kingdom is the same. 00:49:48.040 |
Jews, Gentile, rich, poor, educated, uneducated. 00:49:53.120 |
Christ has brought us so that we can all call Him our Abba Father, and in the end, that's 00:50:01.480 |
When we recognize who we were before we met Him, and every Sunday we come, we're reminded 00:50:10.840 |
You and I, including myself, we're prone to wander. 00:50:20.280 |
Didn't we confess our faith because we were enamored with Christ, and Christ was enough? 00:50:25.880 |
If for whatever the reason, Christ hasn't become enough, that's the problem. 00:50:33.320 |
That's where we need to take a step back and make Christ first. 00:50:37.800 |
Well, actually, before we do that, I have a song that I wanted you to introduce to you. 00:50:42.000 |
I don't know if at some point we might sing this, but this is a song that was popular 00:50:47.160 |
So some of you who were born at that time may know this song. 00:50:54.640 |
I'm just going to read it, and then we're just going to play the song. 00:50:58.000 |
So I want you guys to just listen to the songs. 00:51:10.040 |
I want to introduce this song to you because the lyrics are related to the passage that 00:51:14.880 |
"Waiting for angry words to sear my soul, knowing I don't deserve another chance. 00:51:19.600 |
Suddenly, the kindest words I've ever heard come flooding from God's heart. 00:51:25.600 |
It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, O Lord, knowing that you love us no matter 00:51:37.440 |
The eyes of God have found my failures, found my pain. 00:51:41.200 |
He understands my weaknesses and knows my shame, but his heart never leaves me. 00:51:47.200 |
It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, O Lord, knowing that you love us no matter 00:51:54.640 |
So I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to listen to the song and meditate upon 00:51:58.960 |
that, and then after that, our worship team will come up and lead us in time of worship