back to index2017-09-10 The Mystery of God's Divine Plan Fulfilled
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We're going to be mainly focused on 11 and 12, but I want to read the context because 00:00:08.480 |
it's been a couple of weeks since we've been here. 00:00:10.800 |
Romans chapter 11 verses 1 and I'm going to read all 12 verses this morning. 00:00:22.680 |
By no means for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe 00:00:28.480 |
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. 00:00:30.840 |
Do not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel. 00:00:37.460 |
They have demolished your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life. 00:00:43.280 |
I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 00:00:48.440 |
So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 00:00:52.040 |
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. 00:00:58.040 |
But then Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. 00:01:00.920 |
They elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written. 00:01:04.640 |
God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear 00:01:10.760 |
And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution 00:01:16.180 |
Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. 00:01:20.560 |
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they may not fall? 00:01:25.040 |
But through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 00:01:29.800 |
Now if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for 00:01:33.360 |
the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion meet? 00:01:39.560 |
Heavenly Father, we entrust this time to you. 00:01:44.920 |
We ask that your word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 00:01:49.040 |
Help us, Lord God, to glean from it what you have ordained through your word, that it would 00:01:54.040 |
go forth, it would produce fruits before it returns. 00:02:02.520 |
You know, as we've been studying through the book of Romans in the last nine, ten, and 00:02:07.400 |
elevens talking about Israel, and I know when we're talking about Israel, we can easily 00:02:11.960 |
kind of check out and say, well, that doesn't seem a practical relevance to us other than, 00:02:17.360 |
you know, it's interesting to know that God is still faithful to the nation of Israel, 00:02:21.040 |
so what practical application does it have for us? 00:02:24.280 |
Well Paul says in the book of Corinthians, he's writing to a church where all kinds of 00:02:30.920 |
They're divided, sexual immorality, their communion table is corrupt, and so he warns 00:02:36.560 |
them and he uses the nation of Israel as an example, and he says in 1 Corinthians 10, 00:02:42.720 |
I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and he's talking 00:02:46.040 |
about the nation of Israel, and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into 00:02:50.080 |
Moses and he's saying basically all of them experienced the same grace of God and yet, 00:02:56.120 |
in verse 5, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown 00:03:01.800 |
Now these things took place as an example for us. 00:03:05.400 |
Everything that God did with the nation of Israel, we are to look at it because it has 00:03:11.040 |
That we might not desire evil as they did, do not be idolaters as some of them were, 00:03:15.160 |
as it is written, that people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. 00:03:20.240 |
You know what's interesting here, one, first he says that everything that happened with 00:03:23.440 |
the nation of Israel is relevant to us because they are an example of how God deals with 00:03:31.640 |
You know, but the thing that I want to highlight for you is that when God was bringing judgment 00:03:36.160 |
upon the nation of Israel, the way God describes Israel is that they were just sitting down, 00:03:48.160 |
Even though God was telling them that judgment was coming, their response was simply they 00:03:51.760 |
were eating, drinking, and as if life was going to go on like the rest of the world. 00:03:56.720 |
In fact, Jesus describes the judgment of Noah, the flood coming, and this is how he describes 00:04:02.920 |
it, in Matthew 24, 36, "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels 00:04:11.140 |
As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 00:04:14.640 |
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving 00:04:18.880 |
in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood 00:04:23.340 |
came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." 00:04:28.480 |
We've been studying the end times in the book of Revelation, and the scripture constantly 00:04:33.720 |
reminds us that the end times should not take us and surprise us like a thief coming to 00:04:41.320 |
He says the rest of the world is not going to be aware of it because they're not thinking 00:04:48.880 |
Even though Christian or non-Christian, we know that there's an end to life. 00:04:52.960 |
Whether you live 100 years or whether you live 30 years or 40 years or even younger 00:04:56.760 |
than that, it's a fact that death is imminent for everybody. 00:05:02.240 |
But the scripture tells the church that we ought not to be overtaken by the second coming 00:05:10.520 |
But again, Jesus describes that in the end before the coming of judgment, people are 00:05:14.920 |
just going to be living like every other day. 00:05:16.480 |
They're going to be eating, drinking, marrying, and it's like life is going to go on forever. 00:05:21.900 |
There isn't this stirring of something's going to happen. 00:05:25.560 |
You know what's interesting is I know that you guys know I was out in Asia for about 00:05:29.320 |
a week and a half and I'm basically preaching with 10 hours of sleep this week. 00:05:35.600 |
So if I say something weird, it's because I haven't been sleeping. 00:05:40.620 |
But I was out in China and then I was out in Korea and last Sunday here at your time, 00:05:46.680 |
but Saturday while I was in Korea, the nuclear bomb that they tested, the hydrogen bomb in 00:05:51.700 |
North Korea, and I didn't feel the effects of it. 00:05:54.280 |
I just heard about it because I turned on the news and it was on the news 24/7 about 00:06:01.640 |
And so that happened on Saturday and I walked out in the afternoon to go to the market to 00:06:06.960 |
get something and it was one of those areas where it's just thousands of people, whether 00:06:11.360 |
they're foreigners or locals out shopping, and they were filming one of those K-dramas 00:06:19.720 |
And I could tell because there was cameras everywhere and these are like a tall, good 00:06:23.560 |
looking young man and fair skinned young Korean lady was having a conversation and I was like, 00:06:33.320 |
And you could tell the directors were yelling at the whole crowd. 00:06:35.000 |
And this was happening in the middle of hundreds of people just walking right in the middle. 00:06:39.320 |
And so we, and I ended up becoming an extra on the K-drama. 00:06:45.500 |
So the director was yelling at all of us and he said, "Hey, stop looking at the camera. 00:06:50.800 |
We were all just staring and said, "What is going on here?" 00:06:59.280 |
But through the whole process, I was thinking, "Wow, you know, the news is going crazy about 00:07:05.600 |
And for years, people have been concerned that if North Korea ever gets a hand on nuclear 00:07:11.320 |
bomb that I don't think there's ever been a question that this regime is crazy enough 00:07:24.780 |
If you look at the pattern of what they've been doing and how that country is and just 00:07:28.480 |
getting rid of family members that threaten this regime, I don't think they're desperate 00:07:33.680 |
enough where if they had it and they were provoked that they would actually use this 00:07:38.620 |
And they've actually gone to the place where it's, I mean, clear proof that they have it. 00:07:45.720 |
You know, obviously they should be freaking out. 00:07:49.260 |
We don't know exactly how this is going to be resolved, but it is a dangerous time. 00:07:54.840 |
But as I was just walking down the street and as they were, you know, filming this thing 00:07:58.420 |
and hundreds of thousands of people just walking around, just, just another threat. 00:08:06.000 |
You know, Seoul, South Korea has been living under this threat for so many years. 00:08:10.120 |
It's just kind of like, you know, they just do that. 00:08:19.440 |
But now that they actually have the bomb, like kind of interesting to see what, how 00:08:26.200 |
As crazy as that is, South Korea has become so numb to this threat. 00:08:32.500 |
It's just whatever, you know, I mean, if this ever happens, if there's, if this conflict 00:08:39.960 |
actually escalates to the next level, and I don't know what the next level might be, 00:08:43.400 |
but other than the actual war itself, but if it actually escalates to the next level, 00:08:47.680 |
South Korea, North Korea will be completely wiped out. 00:08:50.240 |
I mean, forget the K-drama, the shopping, you know, all the, all the wealth that they've 00:08:58.400 |
I mean, I'm sure it's going to have effects even in the United States, but South Korea 00:09:02.960 |
in particular, they're only miles away from the border. 00:09:07.080 |
Instantly millions of people can be wiped out instantly. 00:09:14.160 |
This is the reality that they're living under. 00:09:17.800 |
But here's the reality as Christians that we need to remember, that whether the nuclear 00:09:22.360 |
bomb goes off or doesn't go off, God has not lost control. 00:09:28.880 |
That we are not to be rattled in our cages because a crazy man has gotten his hand on 00:09:36.320 |
According to what we see in scripture, if God is a sovereign God, and if the hydrogen 00:09:40.640 |
bomb does go off and millions of people are killed, our God is still sovereign. 00:09:47.240 |
That nothing that's going to happen in human history is going to be outside of his will, 00:09:51.920 |
where God's going to be shocked, "Oh my gosh, look what happened because he didn't pay attention 00:09:58.480 |
But what we do need to pay attention to are what is written in scripture. 00:10:04.980 |
The man or the being who is absolutely in control of this judgment, whether he uses 00:10:11.480 |
the means of a nuclear bomb or disaster or famine or hurricane, whatever it may be, that 00:10:22.600 |
And that the only resolution for this penalty is the blood of Christ. 00:10:28.400 |
And that we are not to be caught off guard and to be rattled like the rest of the world. 00:10:33.240 |
That we are no longer safe today or a year ago when they didn't have the hydrogen bomb. 00:10:40.780 |
We are no longer more threatened today than when they did have the hydrogen bomb. 00:10:45.620 |
Because we believe in a power much greater than the things that you and I can see. 00:10:50.380 |
So we need to pay attention to what the scripture says. 00:10:55.440 |
And again, that we do not get caught off guard like those people in the time of Noah and 00:11:00.440 |
like the Israelites, just eating and drinking and living as if everything is just going 00:11:09.000 |
The nation of Israel, God is not done with the nation of Israel. 00:11:14.440 |
And we've been talking about that in the text. 00:11:17.160 |
That God, he says, has God rejected his people and he says, "By no means." 00:11:26.000 |
He said, "God whom he foreknew, he ordained to love, he didn't all of a sudden quit on 00:11:32.640 |
Though they experienced partially for a time being a hardening of their heart." 00:11:38.800 |
Verse 11, "Have they stumbled to the point where they fell." 00:11:47.440 |
And the answer to that again in verse 11 is, "By no means." 00:11:52.880 |
Further, he says there's a clear purpose for that. 00:11:56.240 |
That even in their hardening, even in their rejection of their Messiah, he says God has 00:12:02.640 |
He says, "Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to 00:12:08.080 |
So even in their rejection, it says God is sovereign. 00:12:13.040 |
God has deliberately ordained that the gospel would go to the Gentiles and bring it to us 00:12:17.680 |
through the hardening of the heart with the nation of Israel. 00:12:21.480 |
I want to try to answer or at least deal with these two questions that come up in this text. 00:12:25.880 |
One is, why does the failure of Israel lead to salvation of Gentiles? 00:12:29.960 |
Why does God use this means to bring salvation to us, to the rest of the world? 00:12:37.400 |
Why does Israel have to fail for the gospel to come to us? 00:12:43.280 |
The second question that we ought to be asking and try to answer this morning, why does he 00:12:49.080 |
provoke jealousy in the nation of Israel to bring them back to repentance? 00:12:53.080 |
So it seems like his end goal is clear, but the means that he uses to get us there is 00:13:02.160 |
You would think that if God's intention was to bring salvation to the Gentiles, that he 00:13:09.480 |
And he said their failure meant that now the gospel is open to the Gentiles. 00:13:13.760 |
And if his goal is to bring Israel back to repentance, why does he use this means of 00:13:18.440 |
provoking them to jealousy to bring them back to repentance? 00:13:22.840 |
So we're going to try to answer these two questions this morning. 00:13:28.600 |
Why does he wait until Israel fails before he brings them to salvation? 00:13:32.840 |
Clearly salvation to the Gentile is not plan B. He wasn't trying to be glorified to the 00:13:38.360 |
nation of Israel and because they rejected, now he's going to go and go to the highways 00:13:42.760 |
and byways and now he's going to bring the Gentiles on. 00:13:45.080 |
That's not how it's explained in the scripture. 00:13:48.260 |
From the very get go, his intention was to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. 00:13:52.840 |
Genesis chapter 12, 3, as he makes a covenant with Abraham, he makes it very clear from 00:13:59.000 |
the very beginning, his intention was that through Abraham, that all the nations will 00:14:05.840 |
Genesis 12, 3, "I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse 00:14:11.040 |
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 00:14:15.200 |
So very inception of the nation of Israel, God's intent was to use them to get the gospel 00:14:20.940 |
Psalm 22, 27, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all 00:14:25.300 |
the families of the nations shall worship before you." 00:14:29.660 |
Again in Zechariah 2, 11, "And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that 00:14:33.860 |
day and shall be my people and I will dwell in your midst and you shall know that the 00:14:40.300 |
I could have chosen dozens and dozens of passages that I could have added to this that could 00:14:45.060 |
have clearly states, that clearly states that the salvation to the Gentile was not plan 00:14:51.640 |
It's not because Israel failed, now he's giving up on them, now he's going to go to 00:14:56.480 |
He says from the very beginning, his intent was through them that he was going to be glorified. 00:15:03.280 |
If that was the case, why does he use the means of a failure of one nation to bring 00:15:13.360 |
In Galatians 4, 4 and Ephesians 1, 10, Paul says that Christ came at the fullness of time, 00:15:22.880 |
meaning at God's ordained time, that it was the perfect time, that God was waiting for 00:15:28.480 |
So typically when we think about the fullness of time for the gospel to come, we think of 00:15:34.120 |
He didn't wait until Alexander the Great had to grow up and he needed to conquer the 00:15:39.960 |
nations, that he needed to unify the culture and the Greek language, and then they needed 00:15:45.760 |
to wait until Rome came into power and then overthrew them and then united all the kingdoms 00:15:51.480 |
so that the roads would be connected to each other, there would be cultural unity, they 00:15:57.000 |
So all of these things were necessary so when the gospel came that they could go to these 00:16:01.880 |
Now a lot of times we think about that maybe that's what God was waiting for, but there's 00:16:08.760 |
All of that is just human conjecture when it says fullness of time, that all the cultural 00:16:12.680 |
language and all of these things have to take place. 00:16:20.800 |
I'm not saying that all of that stuff didn't contribute to the gospel being spread, but 00:16:27.080 |
what the scripture clearly states what the fullness of time was, he said that the law 00:16:34.160 |
was given so that sin would become utterly sinful. 00:16:40.880 |
He was waiting for the sin of Israel to have its full effect, and that's clearly stated 00:16:48.960 |
He was waiting for the hardening of the nation of Israel to have its full effect, that they 00:16:54.800 |
would be hardened, not just partially, but to the point where even the Messiah that they've 00:16:59.480 |
been talking about and waiting for for hundreds and hundreds of years, that even as he stood 00:17:03.760 |
before them performing miracles, they would be so blind and so hardened that they wouldn't 00:17:09.600 |
Not only did they not recognize him, they were so deep into their hypocrisy. 00:17:14.880 |
They were so deep into their own sins and hardening of their own heart, they ended up 00:17:20.760 |
crucifying the very Messiah that they were telling each other every single day. 00:17:30.700 |
So all of these external things obviously can be superficially, it could be helpful, 00:17:36.780 |
but the scripture clearly states that God allowed sin to run its course. 00:17:43.740 |
He allowed sin to run its course so that those who are hardened would continue to be hardened. 00:17:49.320 |
Those who are rebellious would take the rebellion to its full effect because until sin becomes 00:17:58.560 |
utterly sinful, his grace doesn't become utterly gracious. 00:18:10.320 |
You know, the people who, like Jesus said, those who have been forgiven most, those are 00:18:14.120 |
the ones who love most, sometimes God will allow a hardening of our heart to take its 00:18:20.800 |
full effect because God doesn't want partial worship. 00:18:24.400 |
If you're going to give partial worship, God's going to allow you to just kind of keep going 00:18:27.160 |
down that path until we are hardened to the point where you feel nothing. 00:18:31.560 |
The Word of God doesn't penetrate into your heart anymore because until we've gotten to 00:18:34.760 |
the point where it's become so dark, we don't recognize the light even when the light comes. 00:18:42.160 |
Even when the Word of God is preached, we don't recognize it as God. 00:18:44.680 |
We can't, we don't discern if it is from God or not. 00:18:47.240 |
So God deliberately allows darkness to get utterly dark. 00:19:01.640 |
And yet, the whole purpose of why even Scripture was written, you know that the seed of the 00:19:07.600 |
man, seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent to bring salvation. 00:19:12.680 |
So the whole Israel's history and their genealogy was for Jesus to come. 00:19:17.200 |
And how many times does Jesus say in his ministry, "It is to fulfill all prophecy." 00:19:29.880 |
He quotes Isaiah to say, "Today this is going to be fulfilled in you." 00:19:33.720 |
He clearly states he's the Messiah and everything that he does, he said, "It's to fulfill prophecy." 00:19:39.260 |
So it was God ordained that he was going to come and give his life for the sins of many. 00:19:45.600 |
And yet, he also says he's going to die in the hands of the leaders of Israel. 00:19:53.960 |
And even his disciples betraying him was prophesied. 00:20:01.520 |
His failure and his betrayal of his master was also prophesied. 00:20:06.120 |
Why does God use these human failures even as this was ordained and volunteered? 00:20:15.000 |
See God allows darkness to take its full effect. 00:20:22.720 |
In Romans 5.20, Paul explained earlier, he said, "Now the law came into increase to trespass, 00:20:28.360 |
but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." 00:20:34.440 |
Part of the reason why the scripture says why it is difficult for a rich man to enter 00:20:38.000 |
the kingdom of heaven is because a rich man is not desperate. 00:20:48.720 |
And again, every single one of us, I'm filthy rich. 00:21:03.360 |
And so the deception of where you and I live with all the blessings that we have is that 00:21:08.720 |
we have to constantly remind ourselves how desperate we are. 00:21:12.920 |
Because the scripture tells us that a man living in a mansion versus a man living in 00:21:17.320 |
a hut is no more safer and no better off in the presence of God. 00:21:23.760 |
That he is just as poor and wretched in the eyes of God than the worst of sinners. 00:21:29.140 |
But that's the deception of being rich, of being moral, of going to church, is because 00:21:36.200 |
we are deceived to think that we're better off. 00:21:41.840 |
God allows sin to become utterly sinful because until we recognize sin as sin in the presence 00:21:47.320 |
of a holy God, and until he allows sin to have its full effect, our religion just becomes 00:22:00.240 |
I have to go to church or else God's not going to bless my business or my family or, you 00:22:10.180 |
But how much of it is because God saved wretched sinners? 00:22:18.080 |
But is that why you're worshiping this morning? 00:22:21.960 |
Is that what caused you to when you see the words up on the screen, "Bless the Lord, 00:22:30.720 |
Are those words that you repeated, do you just like the rhythm? 00:22:35.760 |
Or is that a sinner in a wretched state that has been saved and as a result of that you 00:22:42.880 |
can't help but to cry out, "Bless the Lord, O my soul"? 00:22:48.360 |
God allowed sin to take its full effect in the nation of Israel. 00:22:55.800 |
The greatest hindrance to salvation is almost always pride. 00:23:01.320 |
Because the first thing that the gospel says is that we are needy. 00:23:06.600 |
We're wretched sinners in need of forgiveness. 00:23:08.080 |
That's the first thing that it says, that everything that you were thinking was wrong. 00:23:17.020 |
How you evaluated the value of people was wrong. 00:23:25.460 |
What preoccupied your mornings and night, it was wrong. 00:23:30.560 |
We were outside of the will of God, living our own lives, seeking our own glory. 00:23:36.680 |
And when we first hear the gospel, it says, "No, we were wrong." 00:23:41.680 |
It causes a beat on our chest like that tax collector, "I am worthy to even look up to 00:23:48.440 |
God allows sin to become utterly sinful because until we get to that point of darkness, our 00:23:58.320 |
Be something that is good to have, but not a necessity. 00:24:02.960 |
See, God uses the failure of Israel to display His glory. 00:24:08.520 |
We know that God chose a nation of Israel that they would display His glory, but if 00:24:13.000 |
you look at the history of Israel, it wasn't at the peak of their success where God was 00:24:22.280 |
There are few periods in Israel's history where you can look at them and say, "Wow." 00:24:31.240 |
In fact, the majority of the time, God's glory was displayed in the midst of their 00:24:42.560 |
When you first read the Old Testament, your first response is, "Man, God is vengeful. 00:24:48.200 |
He says He's going to bring judgment, and He actually brings judgment over and over 00:24:54.040 |
But when you take your time to read through what is happening behind the scenes, not just 00:24:58.320 |
the judgment, but what caused this judgment, you can't help but to think, "Why are 00:25:06.520 |
Why do you forgive them over and over and over and over?" 00:25:09.600 |
They just won't learn, even as they are being taken into captivity. 00:25:19.920 |
Even in that context, He says, "Yet I am not done with you." 00:25:23.680 |
There's going to come a time when He's going to make a new covenant, and He's going 00:25:26.600 |
to place His Word and His Spirit inside of you, so no one has to teach you, even in the 00:25:34.400 |
So if you look at the nation of Israel, God clearly was glorified through the nation of 00:25:37.880 |
Israel, but it wasn't when they were righteous. 00:25:46.280 |
And even as we are reading it through the eyes of the outsiders, you almost demand, 00:26:01.040 |
That's where you and I come in, that all of this is evidence of His grace to us. 00:26:09.000 |
Even as the nation of Israel experienced the hardening of their heart partially, He says 00:26:13.040 |
in verse 12, "Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure 00:26:19.680 |
means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean?" 00:26:26.240 |
In other words, if His grace has gone to us, even as they failed, how much more of His 00:26:34.520 |
grace will you experience when they actually are restored? 00:26:39.840 |
See, if this is the case, if grace abounds in our failure, the natural response in Romans 00:26:49.040 |
3, 5, 6 is, "But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall 00:26:53.880 |
That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?" 00:26:58.800 |
Again, in Romans 6, 1-2, "What shall we say then? 00:27:01.920 |
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" 00:27:07.040 |
You know, there's two ways to wrongly respond to the gospel message and its grace. 00:27:14.520 |
One is, and obviously we're always trying to earn, we're always like, "What should 00:27:19.880 |
And you're always doing the right things, thinking that somehow when you're doing good, 00:27:24.680 |
you walk around stiff-necked, like, "Nobody's like me. 00:27:29.600 |
That's probably one of the, you know, it's the ugliest people to be around are self-righteous 00:27:39.680 |
Nobody, they're the ugliest group to be around, right? 00:27:47.040 |
And don't say, "Yeah, those people, those people." 00:27:51.840 |
We are all guilty of, you know, when we're usually good at something. 00:27:54.760 |
If you happen to be good at serving, you know, those people who don't serve. 00:28:00.480 |
If you happen to be good at praying, those people don't pray. 00:28:03.600 |
If you happen to be good at missions and sharing the gospel, oh, you know, those people don't 00:28:09.760 |
Hey, there's self-righteousness in all of us. 00:28:13.260 |
The other end of it is that we become so flippant with grace. 00:28:17.440 |
Well, if, you know, sin, grace abounds more if there's more sin, then let us sin that 00:28:29.440 |
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:28:36.520 |
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into 00:28:42.400 |
That grace wasn't just grace and just panned out candy. 00:28:44.720 |
He said, no, we have been crucified with Christ. 00:28:47.280 |
In other words, our old self died when Christ died. 00:28:50.520 |
And then verse 4, we were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that 00:28:56.280 |
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk 00:29:01.600 |
For we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with 00:29:08.880 |
If you respond to the grace of God saying, let us sin that grace may abound, you miss 00:29:14.440 |
The whole point of salvation is to deliver us from an empty way of life that we could 00:29:21.600 |
Someone who is dead in his trespasses all of a sudden does not make a decision saying, 00:29:27.960 |
The whole point of salvation is to take us from death and sin and to give us an opportunity 00:29:37.380 |
So it completely contradicts the gospel for us to say, let us sin that grace may abound. 00:29:42.360 |
And that's basically what the argument Paul is making. 00:29:44.920 |
If you've truly been saved, we would understand that our salvation means a newness of life. 00:29:52.860 |
So one, the first question, He saves us, but first He allows sin to become utterly sinful. 00:30:04.320 |
The second question is, why does God arouse jealousy to bring about repentance of His 00:30:10.240 |
Jealousy, typically when we think about it in our culture, is not a good thing. 00:30:16.920 |
If somebody says, wow, Pastor Peter is really jealous, you say, wow, that's a good qualification 00:30:27.640 |
I'm jealous of your shoes, of your car, your relationship. 00:30:32.840 |
Everybody thinks of the way we use the term jealous as a good thing. 00:30:35.920 |
The Bible, the word jealous basically means passion, to have zeal. 00:30:41.320 |
So the Greek word for jealous here is para-zealous. 00:30:47.000 |
And the word para basically means to provoke. 00:30:49.040 |
So some of your translations actually says that God is using the failure of Israel and 00:30:53.400 |
gospel to the Gentiles to provoke jealousy among His people. 00:31:05.120 |
So Galatians 5, 19-20 uses negatively and it says, "Now the works of the flesh are 00:31:09.360 |
evidence sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, 00:31:16.600 |
So here clearly, when you're coveting something that doesn't belong to you, it's negative. 00:31:24.260 |
It's actually detrimental to you and it's not yours. 00:31:27.520 |
So if you're jealous or coveting something that doesn't belong to you, obviously it is 00:31:31.840 |
You're talking about something that is not yours. 00:31:35.120 |
So if we're jealous and coveting the world, it's negative. 00:31:46.700 |
So when we covet the things that God never intended to give to us and does not belong 00:31:54.320 |
But coveting and jealousy in the context of God's will is actually righteousness. 00:32:07.120 |
God forbid, but if my wife that I've been married to for over 25 years found out, again 00:32:14.520 |
this is God forbid, so don't wake up now and just hear this part, okay? 00:32:20.480 |
God forbid if my wife, I found out for the last 20 years has been involved in a secret 00:32:25.880 |
chat room with this guy and all the time that she's been telling me that she was at Target 00:32:33.960 |
And spending all our time sharing all our secrets and spending all our money to connect 00:32:41.120 |
And then I found out about it and then you come and ask, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe 00:32:53.600 |
How many of you would look at that response and say, "Wow, he's really a righteous 00:33:06.360 |
Immediately you would think, "What's wrong with your marriage? 00:33:14.920 |
Because you would expect if the marriage was what it should be that you're supposed 00:33:22.880 |
So if I'm not jealous, if I see that my wife is doing something, is connecting with 00:33:26.520 |
somebody that she shouldn't be connecting with, that belongs to me, and she gives herself 00:33:42.760 |
So when the Scripture describes God's love for His people, He uses the strongest term 00:33:48.080 |
that He can use to say that He cares for His nation. 00:33:53.600 |
In Exodus 25, it says, "You should not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord 00:34:01.520 |
When you understand in the context of what God is saying, that there is a covenant relationship. 00:34:07.720 |
God made a unilateral covenant to love the nation of Israel unconditionally. 00:34:16.400 |
I have chosen you, not because you are numerous, not because you are more righteous than any 00:34:20.360 |
other nation, but I have just simply chosen to love you." 00:34:25.880 |
And that's why He describes His love for them as jealousy. 00:34:28.280 |
Zechariah 1.14, "I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion." 00:34:33.160 |
Remember when Jesus was turning tables over at the temple? 00:34:38.640 |
The disciples remember later on a prophecy in the Scripture that the Messiah, the zeal 00:34:47.760 |
Passion, jealousy, coveting, what belongs to Him. 00:34:54.480 |
As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11.2, "I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed 00:35:00.680 |
you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." 00:35:06.560 |
Jealousy or coveting, something that doesn't belong to us, that God didn't give to us, 00:35:15.880 |
In fact, it would be strange not to have that. 00:35:20.320 |
That's why in Deuteronomy 32.21, God says, "They have made me jealous with what is not 00:35:27.680 |
They have provoked me to anger with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those 00:35:31.600 |
who are no people, and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." 00:35:36.080 |
Now, the point of all of this, obviously, one, it describes His love for His people. 00:35:43.160 |
But the reason why He's trying to provoke jealousy among the nation of Israel is because 00:35:48.000 |
God does not simply want Israel to stop doing bad things and do good things. 00:35:55.700 |
The reason why He describes Israel's repentance as provoking to jealousy is because He is 00:36:05.860 |
He wants that love that He gave to His people to return to Him in love. 00:36:12.220 |
He doesn't want people just to come in, check in, and check out. 00:36:14.960 |
That's why He says He doesn't care whether you worship here or there. 00:36:19.580 |
He's looking for people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. 00:36:30.600 |
Because we've been carefully trying to obey all the commandments, so they come to Jesus 00:36:38.620 |
Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, 00:36:47.240 |
In other words, He only gave them one answer, and that one answer is love the Lord. 00:36:55.140 |
Again in Hosea chapter 6, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice." 00:37:01.780 |
The knowledge of God rather than burnt offering. 00:37:13.460 |
They just thought that if they did the right thing that God would be pleased. 00:37:16.840 |
But over and over again, God calls out their superficial fake worship, their lip service, 00:37:24.400 |
singing of songs that they don't really care about, serving without a devotion of 00:37:34.560 |
Anything that we do to appease other people, to simply a check off list, eventually will 00:37:45.480 |
I've been a pastorate long enough to know and see and experience that people who are 00:37:54.760 |
the most dedicated at one point in the church are the ones who end up hating the church 00:38:04.020 |
And I'm not saying, "So therefore don't serve the church." 00:38:15.880 |
But I've seen so much devotion to the things of God that is not motivated for the love 00:38:22.440 |
for God that eventually turns into bitterness toward God. 00:38:29.160 |
It starts out with, "I'm going to serve the church," and then you get disappointed 00:38:37.000 |
And then when things don't get resolved, the tolerance of the church becomes hatred 00:38:42.320 |
That's exactly what it says in Psalm chapter one. 00:38:44.280 |
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the 00:38:48.280 |
way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers." 00:38:54.640 |
Walk in a council, stand with sinners, and then sit with mockers. 00:39:02.960 |
When we give ourselves simply to appease and we are not compelled by the love of Christ, 00:39:11.840 |
We cannot bear, as Paul described in the previous passage. 00:39:17.880 |
His provoking of the nation of Israel reveals to us exactly what God desires of His people. 00:39:26.760 |
He doesn't simply want us to do the right thing. 00:39:30.480 |
He doesn't simply want us to change our behavior from one behavior to another. 00:39:40.840 |
But He wants holiness to be inspired and compelled by the love of Christ. 00:39:46.520 |
So you can come to church and serve, give, lead, go to missions, do all of that thing, 00:39:53.400 |
make all the sacrifices, and completely miss the point. 00:39:59.640 |
Because what God desires more than anything else is for us to be just as jealous for Him. 00:40:16.440 |
That our salvation isn't just deliverance from hell. 00:40:32.000 |
The real gift of salvation is that the barrier between us and God was taken away now that 00:40:40.920 |
The author of life I can call my Abba Father. 00:40:45.160 |
So all the blessings come as a result of knowing Him. 00:41:02.320 |
And some of you guys may have seen it before because I think I put it up years ago. 00:41:06.120 |
But I think it makes the point that I want to make. 00:41:12.120 |
And then after we watch this video, I'm going to ask the praise team to just come up and 00:41:17.600 |
In verse 12 it says, "Now, if their," meaning the nation of Israel, "if their trespass means 00:41:24.320 |
riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more 00:41:32.400 |
In other words, when God finally brings the Gentiles into His fold and then He provokes 00:41:38.520 |
them to jealousy and they begin to come to Christ, the nation of Israel begins to get 00:41:42.880 |
reestablished, how much more the blessing, how much more the rejoicing? 00:41:48.880 |
Let's take a few minutes to watch this video and then we'll ask the praise team to come