back to index2017-06-11 Righteousness that condemns, Righteousness that saves
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 10. 00:00:09.360 |
And I'm going to start reading from verse 1 all the way to verse 8 today. 00:00:18.840 |
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 00:00:25.760 |
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 00:00:30.960 |
For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they 00:00:37.120 |
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 00:00:41.560 |
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does 00:00:48.960 |
But the righteousness based on faith says, 'Do not say in your heart who will ascend 00:00:53.380 |
into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into abyss, that is to 00:01:01.880 |
The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. 00:01:11.360 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for today. 00:01:16.760 |
We thank you for constantly guiding and leading us. 00:01:20.680 |
You truly are beyond comprehension, worthy of our praise. 00:01:29.660 |
We pray that your word would speak to us and give us the energy and the strength that we 00:01:41.580 |
We've been talking about in Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11, Paul is specifically addressing 00:01:47.540 |
how the gospel relates to the nation of Israel. 00:01:52.500 |
Because Paul has been expositing why all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 00:01:57.180 |
and his need of the grace of God in order to be saved. 00:02:00.500 |
And so the obvious reaction of the Jews is, then what about us? 00:02:04.600 |
If we've been trying to keep the law, and we thought that if we just did the right things 00:02:08.760 |
and kept the Sabbath and went to the temple and gave sacrifices, and we followed what 00:02:13.060 |
we thought the scripture said, that we would be saved, and then Paul says, "No, that is 00:02:19.280 |
Those who live by the law will be condemned by the law, and those who don't live by the 00:02:25.940 |
And so he's been trying to address that issue in chapter 9 about the sovereignty of God. 00:02:31.680 |
Chapter 10, the text that we've been at, basically Paul begins by saying, "Brothers, my heart's 00:02:36.400 |
desire is that I desire that they would be saved." 00:02:40.980 |
And then he says, "Their problem was not that they lacked zeal. 00:02:46.660 |
Nobody gave as much effort as the Jews did to pray, to read the Bible, to even proselytize, 00:02:58.700 |
Everything that you and I would superficially look at and say, "Well, that's a great Christian. 00:03:06.500 |
They had all the external things to signify that they were close to God, and yet Jesus, 00:03:13.660 |
and in the Gospels, it says they are just as far as the Gentiles. 00:03:18.980 |
I remember years ago, there was a young lady that I met, and she told me that she was a 00:03:25.020 |
Sunday school teacher at a large church that I know of, and she was a Sunday school teacher 00:03:34.820 |
And so immediately I thought, "Wow, that's great," because I had friends that went to 00:03:37.980 |
that church, and I actually had pastor friends who ministered at that church, not at the 00:03:43.940 |
But as we were talking, I was interested in about her faith and how she came to Christ, 00:03:49.420 |
and immediately it caught my attention because she couldn't explain how she came to Christ. 00:03:55.340 |
You know, you were a Sunday school teacher teaching kids for over five years, and so 00:03:59.980 |
I just, out of curiosity, I asked her, "Do you know what the Gospel is?" 00:04:10.160 |
If somebody wanted to be saved, and they came to church and asked you, "How can I be saved? 00:04:16.160 |
And she started to just kind of, "Well, you need to come to church faithfully. 00:04:20.940 |
And she was telling me all of this stuff, and I was just dumbfounded that this person 00:04:26.080 |
was teaching Sunday school for five years and did not understand the Gospel. 00:04:32.220 |
And she herself, if based upon what we know of Scripture says, can't explain how she came 00:04:41.600 |
As strange as that may sound to some of you, I've run into so many people who've been in 00:04:48.580 |
the church for a certain period of time who just assumed that they knew, who just assumed 00:04:54.820 |
that when they died, that they're going to go to heaven. 00:04:58.060 |
They heard something when they were young, or they grew up in the church, or that's just 00:05:03.520 |
And just culturally, they identified with Christianity. 00:05:07.020 |
And so obviously, whether the Gospel was taught, and again, I believe that the Gospel was being 00:05:10.940 |
taught at that church, but for whatever the reason, she just tuned it out. 00:05:20.700 |
They knew the Old Testament than any of us, any modern day scholar today, compared to 00:05:25.820 |
an average Jew at that time, because they memorized the whole thing. 00:05:31.660 |
I mean, they fasted twice a week, every single week, Tuesday and Thursday. 00:05:38.040 |
You know anybody who does that on a regular basis? 00:05:42.100 |
In fact, if you were a faithful Jew, according to the commandments of the Old Testament, 00:05:46.700 |
you would be giving somewhere around 30% of your income. 00:05:50.940 |
Today we talk about 10%, and people have a fit. 00:05:54.540 |
You know, and I remember somebody telling me, "10% of my income is a Mercedes Benz every 00:06:01.260 |
If you were a faithful Jew, you probably gave somewhere around 30, 35% of your income, and 00:06:06.580 |
And then on top of that, they gave what's called a freewill offering, when they were 00:06:10.900 |
thankful and they wanted to give out of the spontaneity, because God did something great, 00:06:15.900 |
So a good Jew would have minimum given 30, 35%. 00:06:20.340 |
So if you were looking superficially on the surface who these Jews were, they were excellent. 00:06:28.140 |
And yet, when Paul preaches the same gospel, he says, "It wasn't because they lacked zeal. 00:06:35.900 |
It wasn't because they weren't giving enough. 00:06:37.340 |
It wasn't because they didn't give enough sacrifices at the temple." 00:06:44.460 |
So in the previous weeks, we talked about how the knowledge that he's talking about 00:06:52.660 |
And epinosis, whenever you see the word "epi" in front of the word, it's for the purpose 00:06:57.940 |
So he's not simply talking about, "Oh, they didn't have the right theology about God." 00:07:02.160 |
Though that could be a part of it, it's definitely a big part of it. 00:07:05.660 |
If you don't have the right view of God, definitely you're not going to be able to worship God 00:07:10.740 |
But the word "epi" in front of it is for the purpose of intensity. 00:07:15.540 |
That they knew something about God, but it wasn't in depth. 00:07:18.740 |
They knew about God, but they didn't know Him. 00:07:22.900 |
I think a couple weeks ago, when we were in the previous passage, we talked about how 00:07:28.540 |
Jesus says, or in the passage, Paul concludes that the reason why they missed the gospel 00:07:38.540 |
They were dedicated to the law of God, but he says all of it, the end of the law is Christ. 00:07:47.580 |
You can come to church, serve, give, even evangelize, but if it doesn't lead you to 00:07:53.500 |
Christ, if it doesn't cause other people to be led to Christ, if your love for Christ 00:07:58.180 |
isn't increasing with the knowledge that you have of the word of God, if your fellowship 00:08:02.900 |
or your gathering of the people doesn't inspire one another to love Christ more, then you 00:08:07.540 |
missed the whole point because he says the end of the law is Christ. 00:08:16.580 |
And then because of that, the termination of the law was because of Christ. 00:08:22.100 |
So again, that's the context that we have to make sure that we're reading chapter 10 00:08:26.340 |
verse 5 within the context of Paul making this argument that if you miss Christ, you 00:08:31.780 |
missed not something, you know, you don't get a B or a C, you fail. 00:08:37.940 |
If you miss Christ, it isn't something important in the church, it is the essence of the church. 00:08:42.620 |
The head of the body of the church is Christ. 00:08:47.660 |
So if the head of the church is Christ and you're not growing in affection for Christ, 00:08:57.160 |
You may grow in affection for your brothers and sisters in the church. 00:09:00.740 |
You may grow in affection for Berean Community Church. 00:09:04.540 |
But if it is not a growing affection for Christ, you missed the whole point of Christianity. 00:09:12.380 |
So again, within that context, after he says the end of the law is Christ, in verse 5, 00:09:17.140 |
for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does 00:09:22.940 |
them, does the commandment, shall live by them. 00:09:28.140 |
So there's three things that I want to look at this morning in this text. 00:09:31.940 |
A, salvation by works requires absolute perfection. 00:09:38.020 |
The only reason why anybody even attempts salvation by works is because they have no 00:09:46.180 |
Typically, when you talk to somebody who confesses that if I do good enough, if I did enough 00:09:54.140 |
right things, that if my good balances and it's heavier than the bad that I did, then 00:10:04.940 |
I've never heard anybody that says, "You know, I've never sinned." 00:10:10.020 |
Even the most arrogant and proud person will never say, "I've never sinned." 00:10:14.940 |
They just typically think that I'm not that bad. 00:10:22.500 |
My good outweighs the bad, which may be the case. 00:10:26.660 |
And I've met plenty of moral people, more moral than me, more upright, more generous, 00:10:38.820 |
So the point that Paul makes in verse five, when he says Christ is the end of the law, 00:10:45.220 |
he reminds us, yeah, there is a system where Moses introduced that righteousness that's 00:10:50.640 |
based on the law, if the person obeys the commandment, he shall live by them. 00:10:57.060 |
Again, the only reason why you have confidence in that is because you have no idea what the 00:11:02.900 |
James chapter 2, 9 and 10, it says, "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin 00:11:08.300 |
and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 00:11:11.500 |
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 00:11:16.700 |
For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' 00:11:21.020 |
If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." 00:11:25.460 |
Now he gave two very extreme examples of adultery and murder. 00:11:32.980 |
But the point that Paul was making, or James was making in the book of James, was not about 00:11:36.820 |
murder, because he's not talking to murderers. 00:11:40.380 |
He wasn't pointing out the sin of adultery because he doesn't mention adultery as a primary 00:11:46.780 |
Some of you guys who may have studied through the book of James know that the primary issue 00:11:51.660 |
that Paul was dealing with was partiality toward rich people instead of the poor. 00:11:57.500 |
That the rich people were receiving honor in the church and the poor people were not. 00:12:02.300 |
And so the poor people were envying the rich and the rich people were proud. 00:12:07.020 |
And so he was telling the Christians, if you show partiality, you're breaking the law of 00:12:12.380 |
If you who are rich are arrogant because of your riches and you don't give to a brother 00:12:17.580 |
who is poor, you are also arrogant before God. 00:12:21.560 |
So the sin he's referring to is not adultery, is not murder. 00:12:26.860 |
He's talking about a sin that dwells in probably every single one of us. 00:12:33.140 |
Somebody's better looking, somebody has better grades, somebody has a better personality, 00:12:40.420 |
And we try not to, but the partiality, the prejudice that we have in our hearts, that 00:12:47.980 |
You know, say, "Oh, you know, there's a certain this type of people are racist or those people 00:13:00.860 |
You can be a racist about people, the way they look. 00:13:10.060 |
See, the sin that he's referring to, he says if you break that law, you become a lawbreaker 00:13:17.180 |
and you are just as guilty as somebody who did something else. 00:13:22.580 |
If you try to gain life through righteousness, if you break even one of it, you're guilty. 00:13:32.700 |
That's why, again, in Galatians 3.10 it says, "For all who rely on the works of the law 00:13:39.740 |
For it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the 00:13:47.340 |
People who are relying on the law typically have two wrong applications. 00:13:54.620 |
If you're relying on the law, there's two wrong applications. 00:13:57.080 |
One is, you're living with unwarranted, unmerited confidence. 00:14:17.260 |
And there's a sense of pride that comes in if you are, again, you may not confess it, 00:14:23.540 |
But this righteousness of the law, the way that it is applied falsely is it gives you 00:14:39.400 |
Suddenly, just like remember we talked about the health and wealth gospel? 00:14:51.680 |
If God blesses us and gives us a good job or our stocks go up or we get a promotion, 00:15:02.400 |
That if God blesses you, you're going to have a health, wealth, and long life? 00:15:06.400 |
So we don't believe that, but every single one of us practices it. 00:15:12.000 |
See this salvation by works, this righteousness that comes from doing good, we don't believe 00:15:20.760 |
We don't believe that, but it gives us a false sense of pride. 00:15:24.160 |
The other extreme, those who live by salvation or righteousness by works, is you get a false 00:15:41.000 |
Those people always seem to be doing right, and I just can't do it. 00:15:44.840 |
You just kind of separate yourself from the church, and I can't fellowship, and I can't 00:15:48.800 |
serve, and I can't lead, and I don't have a testimony, and it's a false sense of humility, 00:15:54.280 |
but at the core of that false sense of humility is works-based righteousness. 00:16:02.040 |
See, what Paul is saying is if you are seeking righteousness by your works, if you want to 00:16:15.680 |
In Mark chapter 10, he comes to Jesus, like, "How can I inherit eternal life?" 00:16:23.560 |
And the arrogance of this young man, he says, "I did." 00:16:28.560 |
We know for a fact that he didn't do all of it. 00:16:32.360 |
There's nobody who is sinless, and yet this man, he probably worked very, very hard in 00:16:40.060 |
And then Jesus says, knowing that he is rich, knowing that he, this is one thing that is 00:16:44.480 |
precious to him that he cannot and will not give up, Jesus says, "Then sell all your possessions, 00:16:52.320 |
Jesus tells him that, not as a way of instruction that if you did this, you will be saved. 00:16:59.680 |
Knowing that he was rich and knowing that he couldn't do it, Jesus puts that obstacle 00:17:06.220 |
To tell him, "If you think the way of righteousness is by obeying the law, then do all of it. 00:17:13.200 |
He looked at all of it, and he couldn't do it. 00:17:17.520 |
Even if he did do it, was Jesus saying, "Okay, if you did do it, you're going to get saved." 00:17:24.400 |
If this man who obeyed all of the commandments, simply because he couldn't give up all of 00:17:28.960 |
his possessions, if he can't be saved, what about us fishermen who have foul mouths? 00:17:46.060 |
Was Jesus saying that God's going to make every single one of them perfectly moral? 00:17:50.980 |
Was Jesus saying that God was going to make every single person who followed him hate 00:17:55.260 |
money and that you were just going to automatically, if you just follow him, going to be a perfect 00:18:01.820 |
Is that what he was saying when he says, "What is impossible for man, God will do"? 00:18:07.980 |
What is impossible for man to do by his own work, what he cannot achieve, what was he 00:18:19.220 |
And then he was going to, by his works, going to offer up himself as a replacement. 00:18:31.260 |
The Jews already knew that they would never be able to keep the law perfectly. 00:18:36.860 |
In Deuteronomy 27, 26, after giving the law of God the second time, it says, "Cursed 00:18:42.540 |
be anyone who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them, and all the people 00:18:49.460 |
And so the whole congregation of Israel, after saying, "If you do not obey this, curse be 00:18:58.800 |
Not knowing that that "Amen" was inviting condemnation and curse upon them. 00:19:07.900 |
Psalm 133, the psalmist says, "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who 00:19:16.140 |
If Lord, if you were to judge us based upon our righteousness, who would be able to stand 00:19:23.700 |
Psalm 143, verse 2, "Enter not into the judgment with your servants, for no one living 00:19:30.900 |
We may be righteous in our eyes compared to other people, but who among us can be measured 00:19:43.540 |
They knew that they wouldn't be able to keep the law. 00:19:47.140 |
But their problem was, they were comparing, not before God. 00:19:54.340 |
They were comparing themselves with the idol worshippers or the Gentiles, with the tax 00:19:58.900 |
Instead of looking up, they were looking at each other. 00:20:08.380 |
What causes us to be complacent when we stand before this holy, holy, holy God? 00:20:14.780 |
What causes you to sit here this morning feeling somewhat decent about yourselves? 00:20:25.980 |
What measure of standard caused you to feel that way? 00:20:31.820 |
Typically it's because we measure ourselves with ourselves. 00:20:36.180 |
No one standing before God would have the audacity to say, "I am holy before God." 00:20:42.060 |
But we feel safe because we measure ourselves with ourselves, with the people sitting next 00:20:47.540 |
And there's always people around us who are worse off than we are. 00:20:52.100 |
Or we feel really guilty and really down, not because we've broken God's commandment, 00:20:56.980 |
but because compared to what other people are doing, I'm not living up. 00:21:01.260 |
See the Jews, they were measuring themselves with themselves, with others. 00:21:06.580 |
And the Pharisees were absolutely confident that they were better. 00:21:11.380 |
See when he says, "Moses introduced this commandment, and by them you shall live." 00:21:18.540 |
The only person that ever fulfilled that commandment completely and is able to say, "Amen," was 00:21:29.860 |
He says in 1 Peter 3, 18, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for 00:21:33.740 |
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but 00:21:39.700 |
Christ and Christ alone can claim that before God. 00:21:44.660 |
I remember years ago when I first got married, I wasn't a good driver. 00:21:50.660 |
And I debated whether I should share this with you or not. 00:21:53.100 |
Those who have known me for a long time, you already know that I don't have a good driving 00:21:59.420 |
I haven't gotten a ticket probably in the last, well, not, I got one. 00:22:07.060 |
But until I was about 30, you know, 33 to 34, I lived in fear because I was getting 00:22:19.420 |
But there was a point when I got married, I got three tickets in three weeks. 00:22:33.180 |
I didn't completely stop on the stop sign or made a left turn too fast or, you know, 00:22:39.540 |
But after getting pulled over three times, you know, like, "What is going on?" 00:22:43.900 |
You know, "Is there like a, you know, target in the back? 00:22:46.780 |
Are they trying to deliberately find a, 'Hey, hey, he left this house. 00:22:51.740 |
So I was kind of doing my best to drive carefully. 00:22:53.840 |
And then for our honeymoon, we drove off to San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, and I was driving 00:23:01.020 |
And those of you who've ever made that drive, basically, it's mostly downhill. 00:23:13.180 |
And so because I got the ticket, this is right when we got married, that I lost my driver's 00:23:20.500 |
I'm not proud of it, but that's what happened. 00:23:23.760 |
So I was a youth pastor at Irvine Baptist, and I couldn't drive. 00:23:27.900 |
So I remember, you know, Joe, he was just starting to drive at that time. 00:23:31.980 |
So we taught him how to drive, so he would come and pick me up. 00:23:35.580 |
You know, he was a youth student, and he was picking me up. 00:23:38.660 |
Or there was a bus that would go down Juana, and I would get in, test it, and drop me off 00:23:47.460 |
Well, this one day, Esther was at work, and I was at home, and it was raining like cats 00:23:55.440 |
So I tried scrounging everything, and it was raining so hard. 00:24:00.340 |
Maybe I'll just drive across the street to get something to eat." 00:24:05.220 |
All right, you guys are already losing respect already. 00:24:08.380 |
So I decided to get in the car, just drive across the street. 00:24:14.580 |
You know, literally, it's just from here to there. 00:24:16.940 |
But it was raining so hard, I said, "Okay, I'm just going to drive across the street." 00:24:20.240 |
So I got in my car, and those guys who, like Red Hill, on near, not Red Hill, Newport and 00:24:26.020 |
Juana, it was raining so hard, and I was about to make a left turn, and it was raining so 00:24:34.660 |
As soon as I turned into the parking lot, I see the red light going off. 00:24:39.780 |
I was literally in the car for like three minutes. 00:24:42.520 |
And I got pulled over, and I said, "What did I do wrong? 00:24:45.420 |
I just, I literally just crossed the street." 00:24:47.780 |
And he said, "You crossed the double yellow line." 00:24:56.320 |
And so he asked me to give my license, and I gave it to him, and then he did the background 00:25:01.120 |
check, and he said, "Yeah, you crossed the double yellow line." 00:25:07.160 |
Like you're going to give me a ticket for crossing a double yellow line in this rain? 00:25:14.640 |
And I thought, I was like, "How, you know, this is unfair." 00:25:16.880 |
And then he looked at me, he said, "Son, your license is suspended. 00:25:29.000 |
I'm going to let you go, and you're going to get this ticket." 00:25:32.480 |
He said, "I'm going to give you this ticket, but I'm not going to tow your car." 00:25:38.040 |
And I remember as soon as he said that, I went from, "How can you give me a ticket 00:25:44.920 |
As soon as he pointed out, "How can you possibly argue with me about me giving you 00:25:56.880 |
How much of our righteousness that we feel, righteous indignation, or righteous pride, 00:26:03.280 |
or even self-condemnation, whatever it may be, even the thought of thinking that somehow 00:26:08.360 |
we're going to argue our righteousness before God. 00:26:24.800 |
And when we forget that, we don't realize just how desperately we need Christ. 00:26:31.140 |
That it is only by the grace that you are here, that you're able to understand, that 00:26:36.920 |
you're able to sing songs, that you even have fellowship with your brothers and sisters. 00:26:41.120 |
Why you even have a copy of the Bible is simply by the grace of God. 00:26:46.760 |
How can we dare come before God and say, "Why? 00:26:51.920 |
See, salvation by works requires absolute submission. 00:26:56.600 |
Letter B, salvation by faith, on the other hand, must first acknowledge our inability 00:27:05.360 |
He says in verse 6, "But the righteousness based on faith says, 'Do not say in your 00:27:21.600 |
Paul basically is presenting a ridiculous argument because he just said, "If Christ 00:27:27.160 |
is the end of the law, if Christ is the end of the law, then where do I go? 00:27:33.880 |
He says the first thing that he says is what he should not say. 00:27:38.920 |
And he should not say, "If salvation is by grace, that I must ascend to heaven to 00:27:51.360 |
By nature of grace, you cannot and you do not deserve it. 00:27:57.160 |
How many people fall away from the grace of God because they don't think they deserve 00:28:02.560 |
I don't know how many times I sit in council and talk to people, this church or other churches 00:28:09.720 |
that I'm at, I'm sitting down talking and saying, "I don't deserve the grace of God. 00:28:17.000 |
Well the very nature of grace means you don't deserve it. 00:28:23.240 |
So if you say you don't deserve the love of God, you're absolutely correct. 00:28:27.440 |
Because the very beginning of our walk with God begins with you and I recognizing that 00:28:38.640 |
You and I don't deserve the grace of God and yet he gave us grace anyway. 00:28:43.320 |
That's what he means that let's do not say that I will have to climb up to God and somehow 00:28:50.060 |
Imagine that, the ridiculousness of that argument. 00:29:08.600 |
You can't climb this ladder and bring him down. 00:29:15.080 |
That somehow something that we did or something that we need to do to somehow bring Christ 00:29:21.280 |
He says, "The first thing is to recognize that we cannot." 00:29:26.360 |
I remember as a young Christian and somebody gave me the worst, in my opinion, one of the 00:29:39.720 |
And the illustration that he gave was the grace of God threw the rope down. 00:29:45.160 |
God opened up heaven and he threw the rope down and by his grace he said, "Climb that." 00:29:53.020 |
But before you didn't have a rope and now you have a rope. 00:30:16.480 |
After what, 33, almost going on 34 years as a Christian, I'm nowhere near climbing up 00:30:29.880 |
The only difference now and then was this rope was much further away than I thought 00:30:37.700 |
And I was a lot weaker than I thought I was when I first started. 00:30:41.860 |
When I first started, I thought, "Yes, Lord, I'm going to change the world for you. 00:30:49.320 |
I'm going to tell all the people, everybody who doesn't know you, I'm going to tell them, 00:30:54.640 |
And then I remember when early on I used to think to myself, "I'm going to die early. 00:31:01.040 |
I'm going to live hard and I'm going to do hard things and I'm going to preach the gospel 00:31:10.400 |
I don't need to live here a long period of time. 00:31:16.300 |
But after all these years, I realized, if there's anything that I realized, just how 00:31:30.060 |
He said, "Salvation by grace," first says, "do not say, 'Who's going to go up to heaven 00:31:34.700 |
and bring him down or is going to go to the abyss and raise him up?'" 00:31:45.600 |
What is it that you have to offer to God that God will look down upon us and say, "You know 00:31:52.160 |
So now I'm going to get off the throne and humiliate myself and allow them to stone and 00:32:03.320 |
And he's looking for somebody precious enough to do that for. 00:32:08.920 |
Imagine the ridiculousness of that argument that he saw something in you, he saw something 00:32:18.080 |
The only reason that scripture gives us of why he did what he did was because you and 00:32:29.640 |
It's not because you're more disciplined or there's something more precious about you 00:32:36.680 |
It simply says you needed it and he loved us. 00:32:50.840 |
I mean, you see something ugly, you know, I personally hate rats. 00:33:02.200 |
I don't know if that existed in the Garden of Eden. 00:33:08.680 |
If I even think a rat is in my neighborhood, it makes me uncomfortable. 00:33:15.640 |
There's a place, you know, I understand hell. 00:33:20.800 |
I've been angry enough and I think there are certain people in the world that the terrorists 00:33:29.680 |
I could think of situations where like, good, there's hell. 00:33:33.000 |
I can understand why a holy God would create hell. 00:33:43.520 |
There is no rational reason that justifies in my mind why the Son of God would go through 00:33:51.520 |
Why he who knew no sin became sin so that you and I might have the righteousness of 00:33:59.600 |
To the best of your ability, explain that to me. 00:34:13.080 |
You know, I remember when I was younger, I used to think, oh, when you get to heaven, 00:34:15.920 |
you know, what question are you going to ask God? 00:34:20.840 |
You know, one of the questions I have is about creation and the other question that I always 00:34:27.760 |
He introduces everybody to Jesus and then he's not part of the inner three. 00:34:38.640 |
I don't know what he did, but he wasn't invited into the inner circle. 00:34:42.120 |
No matter how much I try to dig the scriptures and find out, there's nothing there. 00:34:45.360 |
It just says he introduced them and then he's just on the side the whole time. 00:34:51.640 |
That's one of the questions I'm going to ask. 00:34:54.400 |
But really the biggest mystery when I get to heaven is why? 00:35:17.320 |
He knows every one of my sins better than I do. 00:35:25.840 |
Why would you get off your throne and humiliate yourself and go through that and persevere 00:35:42.320 |
He says if salvation is by grace, he says, then what becomes of boasting in Romans 3 00:36:00.000 |
Boasting and Christianity is a contradiction. 00:36:05.920 |
Like pride and the gospel, it's a contradiction. 00:36:17.720 |
They think they're right and other people are wrong. 00:36:29.840 |
Why is it so difficult to maintain relationship with people? 00:36:33.440 |
Because I think I'm right and I think you're wrong. 00:36:36.480 |
I'm not saying that there isn't room for discussion and argument, but the core why it would lead 00:36:50.840 |
Wanting to have what God has and trying to lift ourselves up. 00:36:55.040 |
When Christ says it is that very thing that you're trying to do in life which is causing 00:37:08.040 |
He who loses his life for my sake, he shall live. 00:37:14.840 |
He lived the perfect life and he gave it up so that you and I could live. 00:37:19.000 |
He calls us to follow him and do the same so that we may continue to live. 00:37:33.080 |
Even as an apostle who planted all of these churches in Acts 20, 24, he says, "But I do 00:37:37.400 |
not account my life of any value nor of precious to myself if only I may finish the course." 00:37:47.760 |
He says, "I count my life as nothing but I may finish the course." 00:37:51.840 |
Paul, he's like, "I'm going to finish the course because you know how many churches 00:37:58.520 |
He says, "It counts to me as nothing that I may hold on to the grace of God." 00:38:06.040 |
Philippians 1.20, "As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed." 00:38:17.360 |
But he's eager expectation, he said, "Pray for me so that I would have courage to magnify 00:38:31.840 |
That's why Paul says 1 Corinthians 9.27 through that passage, "I buff in my body, making 00:38:38.160 |
That's possibly after I have preached others that I may be disqualified. 00:38:40.640 |
"That he may hold on to the grace of God for dear life because it is not him, it is 00:38:50.040 |
Third and finally, salvation by faith requires belief and confession of the complete work 00:38:59.520 |
If you can't go up to bring him down, if you can't go down to bring him up, what does 00:39:03.560 |
"The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that 00:39:08.640 |
As simple and as foolish as that may sound, well, what do we need to do then? 00:39:19.840 |
He says, "No, God did not require you to climb up. 00:39:27.600 |
And then, we're not going to talk about it today, but next week, he says, "If you confess 00:39:31.520 |
with your mouth that Christ is Lord," he was raised from the dead, he said, "you shall 00:39:38.760 |
That all these years that we've been trying to keep the law and keep the Sabbath and giving 00:39:44.720 |
and proselytizing, he said, "All of that is nullified and all that we need to do is to 00:39:54.200 |
In the book of John, chapter 6, 27-30, there's a bunch of people coming to Jesus, and Jesus 00:40:01.280 |
said, "You're not coming to me because you saw signs. 00:40:04.640 |
You're coming to me because you ate and you want more." 00:40:07.200 |
And he gives them this instruction, "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for 00:40:11.400 |
the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him 00:40:19.320 |
Then they said to him, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?" 00:40:22.760 |
Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." 00:40:30.480 |
If we want to labor for things that are eternal, not temporary things, what should we do? 00:40:37.840 |
Our immediate thinking is, "Well, get organized. 00:40:46.200 |
Now, all of these things are things, these are imperatives in Scripture that tell us 00:40:51.480 |
what to do, but he says, "But what do we do?" 00:40:54.720 |
He said, "First, the most important thing," he says, "is to believe." 00:40:59.880 |
Now, superficially, we may sit here and think, "Well, that's it. 00:41:13.240 |
But do you know how often Jesus pointed out the lack of faith in his disciples? 00:41:19.560 |
When they couldn't cast out demons, he didn't say, "Hey, you lack technique. 00:41:25.160 |
Instead of putting hands on the head, put it on the back." 00:41:29.720 |
Instead of speaking Greek, speak Aramaic, because God loves Aramaic better. 00:41:42.360 |
He said, before he fed the 5,000, he said, "All these people here, and they have nothing 00:41:53.440 |
You didn't plan all these thousands of people here?" 00:42:02.920 |
When they were on the boat, and the storm was coming, and they were afraid that they 00:42:14.880 |
You know we're going to be over there in a minute." 00:42:23.640 |
How much of our complacency is directly linked to unbelief? 00:42:34.520 |
How much of our concerns for the future is because we don't believe? 00:42:41.880 |
How much of our lack of desire to read the Word of God is because of unbelief?" 00:42:50.840 |
If you really sit down and think about it, isn't it unbelief that we don't pray? 00:43:06.340 |
He said the first and the most important thing that God calls us to do is to believe. 00:43:31.440 |
And I want to leave you with that and for you to really meditate and think about throughout 00:43:40.040 |
Superficially, I meet people all the time who reject Christ and they say, "I don't 00:43:48.320 |
But when I sit down and talk to them, I say, "Oh, I'm an atheist." 00:43:50.560 |
And then when you sit down and talk to them about the different arguments and why atheism 00:43:54.080 |
doesn't make sense, and at the end of the argument, they say, "They really haven't 00:43:59.300 |
So they realize that their belief of atheism or anti-belief of Christianity was a prejudice. 00:44:05.860 |
And so I found that through all these years of talking to atheists, it's not really 00:44:09.600 |
that hard to have conversations with an atheist because the majority of the people haven't 00:44:15.440 |
They haven't really read through and know what the argument is and decided. 00:44:19.560 |
It's just, you know, I met a bunch of Christians who are jerks. 00:44:25.240 |
And they're all judgmental, therefore, they're all this way. 00:44:28.600 |
But if they're willing to have an honest, intelligent conversation, I found that so 00:44:32.320 |
much of rejection of Christ is not based on anything. 00:44:40.320 |
But then I also meet a bunch of Christians or confessing Christians who also say that 00:44:48.520 |
So unbelief is superficial, but then I meet people all the time who say that they believe 00:44:53.440 |
when you sit down and ask them, "What do you believe and why you believe it?" 00:45:01.200 |
So just as people reject Christ out of prejudice, a lot of people say they believe superficially 00:45:11.680 |
So the most important work of salvation by grace alone is to test and see if you are 00:45:25.320 |
The question is not, "Did you read the Bible? 00:45:34.160 |
If you have no heart to meet with God, the Word of God just sounds like words. 00:45:47.520 |
To tell people that if they don't believe in Jesus that there's judgment waiting for 00:46:01.000 |
How much of what you and I experience in life really is unbelief? 00:46:08.840 |
So my encouragement and challenge to us before we make plans to do more things is to think 00:46:36.040 |
As we come before the Lord, again in prayer I want to encourage you. 00:46:43.020 |
You can live the rest of your life just kind of filing away certain things that you hear. 00:46:50.440 |
But I guarantee at some point it will resurface. 00:46:54.220 |
When life gets hard and your heart becomes so numb that you don't care and you're okay 00:47:05.220 |
At some point in your life, if you don't believe, it will resurface. 00:47:12.240 |
So my encouragement to all of us as we come to the Lord in prayer, that whatever it is 00:47:17.120 |
that you have before God, whatever it is that you are doing or not doing, to be sincere 00:47:25.760 |
You're not just running this race and one day you're going to wake up and say, "How 00:47:30.800 |
To ask meaningful, serious, life-changing questions.