back to index2017-09-17 God's Perfect Plan Through Imperfect People
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11, I'll be reading from 00:00:14.800 |
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? 00:00:19.680 |
Rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel 00:00:24.360 |
Now, if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for 00:00:28.800 |
the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? 00:00:32.160 |
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I 00:00:36.720 |
magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some 00:00:43.640 |
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean 00:00:52.280 |
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would anoint this time and as you have promised that your 00:00:59.200 |
word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, help us Lord God to continue 00:01:04.000 |
to grow, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that we may know your perfect 00:01:10.960 |
I pray Father God that only your word would go forth and that your people will hear the 00:01:21.320 |
You know, Apostle Paul in a book, Letter to the Ephesians, he concludes his doxology, 00:01:33.240 |
his presentation of the gospel message about election, about predestination, about adoption 00:01:39.040 |
and about how we were saved and how he pursued us and then in conclusion before he gets to 00:01:43.960 |
the imperatives and how we ought to apply these things in our lives, he concludes by 00:01:50.920 |
I pray that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, what 00:01:55.360 |
is the length, what is the height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses 00:01:59.520 |
knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 00:02:05.800 |
The more I experience Christian life, the more I am compelled and the more I see how 00:02:13.240 |
important it is that everything that we do is compelled by the love of Christ. 00:02:18.400 |
Now we have all kinds of means to motivate people to do things, right? 00:02:22.760 |
There's accountability, rewards that if you do this, you know, you're going to be rewarded 00:02:28.160 |
this way or maybe even shaming or fear if you don't do this, you know, we're going to 00:02:34.360 |
judge you and there's all kinds of ways that we are motivated to do certain things or not 00:02:42.120 |
But ultimately in our walk with God, if the love of Christ isn't continually compelling 00:02:47.680 |
us, every good thing that we were doing can easily become a bitter memory, frustration, 00:02:55.800 |
maybe even anger because the only thing that compels us over and over again to go beyond 00:03:03.800 |
what is natural, you know, God calls us to slap, you know, you get slapped on your left 00:03:09.720 |
and then turn the other cheek and having slap, that's humanly impossible. 00:03:14.760 |
Jesus says that they're going to know that we are his disciples by the love that Jesus 00:03:21.980 |
Even in marriage, the marriage relationship is to reflect the love of Christ to his bride 00:03:29.760 |
So all of who we are, we are to reflect God's love. 00:03:36.700 |
So yes, we are motivated at times by fear, we're motivated by shame, we're motivated 00:03:41.200 |
by reward, but ultimately if the love of Christ is not compelling us, everything that we're 00:03:48.320 |
doing eventually, at least from my observation, from my own personal experience, eventually 00:03:53.480 |
becomes a bitter memory or we become discouraged or angry. 00:04:00.640 |
So Paul, the whole purpose before he gets to the imperatism, chapter four, he lays out 00:04:07.140 |
how he pursued sinners, how he loved us, how he predestined us, how he made us his children. 00:04:11.940 |
And so basically what he's been doing is he's been laying out the love of Christ for three 00:04:15.780 |
chapters and he concludes all of it by saying, "I presented this to you and I'm praying that 00:04:21.180 |
you would comprehend through all of the things that God has done to you and for you and in 00:04:26.340 |
you that you would understand the love of Christ. 00:04:30.500 |
You would understand the height, the depth, the width and length of the love of Christ 00:04:37.640 |
And then as you comprehend the love of Christ, that you will be compelled to practice this 00:04:44.500 |
All that we have been studying through the book of Romans and in particular the area 00:04:52.360 |
If we're not careful, we can study it and say, "Well, is it about Israel? 00:04:55.820 |
And we're debating back and forth, you know, and you have some groups that say, "Well, 00:04:59.060 |
it's not Israel, God has done, you know, the church is Israel." 00:05:02.020 |
And then we can get it back and forth and every theological system and some churches 00:05:06.900 |
obviously have their own opinions and I have my own opinion on this and I think I made 00:05:14.100 |
But if we don't see the big picture behind this and what God is doing, I think we can 00:05:19.160 |
just easily get entangled and learn a lot of theology and have a lot of opinions about 00:05:24.020 |
things without really having the ultimate effect of why this is even in the scripture. 00:05:30.580 |
See, he's been trying to answer this question in the last few chapters, "Has God rejected 00:05:39.660 |
And again, in a more recent context, "Have they fallen as to not be able to be restored?" 00:05:49.060 |
Paul has been trying to answer this question, "Where does Israel fit into God's salvation 00:05:54.220 |
If the gospel has been opened up to the Gentiles and if obedience to the law doesn't make 00:05:59.140 |
them any closer to God, then what is the purpose of Israel? 00:06:06.860 |
Have they fallen where they can't get back up? 00:06:11.140 |
Think carefully about why God established the nation of Israel in the first place. 00:06:15.740 |
Remember we go back to Genesis chapter 12, 1, 2, and 3, especially verse 3, he said he 00:06:20.780 |
was going to bless them and through the nation of Israel, he was going to reach the rest 00:06:25.900 |
So Israel was to function as a holy priesthood. 00:06:29.980 |
They were mediators so that through the nation of Israel, by giving them the law, the sacrificial 00:06:34.980 |
system, that through all of it, that God was going to be glorified. 00:06:41.140 |
If that was the purpose of the nation of Israel, humanly speaking, it was a miserable failure. 00:06:48.500 |
Because if God chose Israel to be a mediator and through their obedience and through their 00:06:54.100 |
righteousness, somehow they were going to reflect on the glory of God, they failed utterly. 00:06:59.380 |
In fact, isn't that exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter 2? 00:07:02.540 |
That because of you, the name of God is being blasphemed? 00:07:08.740 |
We're not talking about hundreds of years later. 00:07:11.140 |
We're talking about as soon as, as soon as they are established, they're on the other 00:07:16.860 |
side of the Red Sea and Moses is up in a mountain. 00:07:21.180 |
The very first thing that they do is they go out and they create, they create, they 00:07:30.780 |
And we're talking about the inception of the nation of Israel. 00:07:34.780 |
It begins there and all throughout the desert, they're constantly griping and complaining. 00:07:41.060 |
Then they immediately forgot what God had done. 00:07:43.960 |
All the miracles, the power encounter that he had, how he saved them miraculous through 00:07:51.060 |
They immediately, as soon as they get thirsty, they start to forget. 00:07:55.540 |
All throughout Israel's history, as soon as the kings get established, we're not talking 00:07:59.180 |
about out of dozens of kings, we have half of them that were good and half of them that 00:08:04.780 |
There are only a handful, maybe even one hand. 00:08:08.700 |
The total number of kings that they had for hundreds and hundreds of years were all corrupt. 00:08:14.900 |
Every single one of them led the nation astray. 00:08:17.760 |
And as a result of that, God brings judgment upon them. 00:08:20.560 |
And even as he is judging them, he says, only if you would return. 00:08:26.480 |
But ultimately in the large scheme of things, it was a record of Israel's failure after 00:08:36.280 |
Even after they go into captivity, God shows them mercy and he establishes a king, King 00:08:43.720 |
Cyrus, and uses him to allow the nation of Israel to come back and reestablish the temple. 00:08:50.280 |
And only a handful of them, a very small number of them, actually even come back. 00:08:54.520 |
The majority of them completely forgot about the covenant with God. 00:08:58.000 |
They got assimilated into Babylon and into Persia and they liked it there and they didn't 00:09:03.860 |
So majority of the nation of Israel, even after the judgment of God, they just continue. 00:09:10.560 |
Again, record of failure over and over and over and over again. 00:09:15.760 |
And from the very beginning of the inception of the nation of Israel until the very last 00:09:19.600 |
chapter of Malachi, it's a record of Israel's failure. 00:09:25.880 |
And I'm not just highlighting these bad things. 00:09:28.140 |
If you read through the Old Testament, that's what you see. 00:09:30.720 |
So when you first read it superficially, you say, "Wow, God is vengeful." 00:09:34.880 |
But when you read it carefully, the historical background and how God is responding to them, 00:09:39.320 |
I think you'll come to the same conclusion that everybody comes to is, "Why is God so 00:09:46.880 |
Why at some point you would think it's enough, but he says he's going to be faithful to his 00:09:53.800 |
So in every human angle, we have to say Israel failed. 00:09:58.900 |
If that was the case, and that's the question that Paul is trying to answer. 00:10:05.240 |
If God, if Israel was God's covenant people and they're just as standing, just as condemned 00:10:19.200 |
Have they fallen that they would not be restored? 00:10:25.680 |
Romans 8, 28, Paul says in the earlier chapters that God works all together for good. 00:10:32.080 |
So even though in human record, we could say, "Well, God intended to be glorified to the 00:10:40.060 |
So if they utterly failed, doesn't that mean that God has failed?" 00:10:44.200 |
If that was God's plan and it didn't work out, it's over and over again that Israel, 00:10:48.640 |
his handpicked chosen people did not bring glory. 00:10:53.440 |
Well, in Romans 11, 11, Paul says earlier, "So I asked, did they stumble in order that 00:11:02.320 |
Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles." 00:11:07.560 |
In other words, God is saying through Paul that the failure of Israel is a part of God's 00:11:17.420 |
That it was not plan B, that plan A failed, so now he's going to plan B and going to the 00:11:22.280 |
He says, "It is exactly their failure through which God was going to be glorified." 00:11:28.840 |
It was because they rejected Christ, now that was God's sovereign plan, that even through 00:11:34.520 |
that, he was going to bring salvation to the Gentiles. 00:11:41.800 |
Humanly speaking, it's like, well, at least from what we see, it's like, well, I mean, 00:11:47.680 |
his plan actually didn't work out, but all that Paul has been saying up to this point, 00:11:51.760 |
he's like, "No, it was always part of God's plan." 00:11:54.920 |
Even though we may not fully comprehend and understand what God was doing, but now we 00:11:58.360 |
look in retrospect, that's exactly what he ordained, and that's what he's been saying 00:12:03.760 |
So this morning, we're going to look at two things that Paul says, again, in these two 00:12:08.040 |
short verses, I want to highlight certain things. 00:12:10.400 |
One, that God's perfect plan was fulfilled through the failure of Israel. 00:12:15.800 |
That it wasn't that because Israel failed that God went through another plan. 00:12:19.880 |
He had another plan to the Gentiles, and hopefully this time it works out. 00:12:24.040 |
Since Israel failed, hopefully the church won't fail. 00:12:30.800 |
God intended from the very beginning that through the failure of Israel, that he was 00:12:38.360 |
In verse 13, it says, "I am speaking to you Gentiles." 00:12:45.360 |
Let me stop there and spend a little bit of time talking about what is his point here? 00:12:52.120 |
We can get easily caught up and talk about, "Well, is it about the Jews, or is it about 00:12:55.760 |
the church, or is it about the Gentiles, and what is his main point?" 00:13:01.360 |
We can get so caught up into saying, "What does this have to say about me, about marriage, 00:13:08.680 |
We kind of look to the scripture to see how all of these things are ultimately going to 00:13:13.560 |
I am not saying that that's wrong, but the ultimate author behind everything that we 00:13:25.280 |
It is not the Gentiles, and it is not the Jews. 00:13:30.760 |
The author and the main character all throughout the scripture was never about you, and it 00:14:03.840 |
The Roman church, were they predominantly Jews or Gentiles? 00:14:11.880 |
Don't say it, just in case I have to correct you. 00:14:26.120 |
If you have been following us all the way from chapter 1 to where we are now, I am asking 00:14:34.280 |
predominantly who is the letter addressed to? 00:14:40.400 |
I am not saying that he speaks to both Jews and Gentiles, but who is he predominantly 00:14:51.720 |
Who is it addressed to at least predominantly? 00:14:57.120 |
I just want you to go back to your memory of what you heard, what you remember. 00:15:01.720 |
It is predominantly argument for the Jews because he says, "Well, the Gentiles are 00:15:07.000 |
obviously, they have no excuse," but then he says, "So do you." 00:15:10.920 |
And then he says, "Those who are under the law will be judged under the law. 00:15:15.240 |
Those who don't have the law will be judged without the law." 00:15:17.840 |
And he says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 00:15:23.120 |
It was the Jews that he was trying to convince that you are also part of that condemnation. 00:15:27.680 |
And then he begins to explain what that means. 00:15:32.680 |
So he begins to explain the purpose of the law from chapter 5 on to chapter 7. 00:15:38.160 |
And so all of that is to explain what was God doing with the nation of Israel. 00:15:43.640 |
So we get chapter 8 where he said all of that culminates and says, "There is now no condemnation 00:15:49.440 |
And he explains what the gospel accomplished in chapter 8 both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. 00:15:54.480 |
And then he comes back to the argument with the Jews between chapter 9, 10, and 11. 00:16:01.360 |
And that's what we've been talking about in the last three chapters. 00:16:04.760 |
So predominantly, he is trying to explain what he's been doing with the Jews. 00:16:11.700 |
And yet in this text, and knowing the background of the Roman church, he's predominantly 00:16:22.040 |
He says, "I am speaking now to the Gentiles, and as much then as I am to the apostle Gentile, 00:16:26.040 |
I magnify my ministry in order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save 00:16:32.160 |
In fact, Paul's been saying this over and over again in Romans 1, 16. 00:16:35.680 |
He says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone 00:16:39.260 |
who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." 00:16:45.360 |
He's talking to predominantly Gentile church, and why even bring that up? 00:16:50.280 |
It's almost like, "I love you, but I love them first." 00:16:56.000 |
My salvation is for you, but those guys first. 00:17:03.280 |
He's talking to the Gentiles and just say, "I love you, and I saved you." 00:17:08.400 |
But he goes out of his way to make sure that they understand that it comes to the Jews 00:17:14.200 |
Jesus himself said of his ministry in Matthew 15, 24, he answered, "I was sent only to 00:17:22.620 |
His intent was always to go to the Gentiles, but why limit himself in the three years? 00:17:29.200 |
And predominantly, majority of his time and energy was for the house of Israel. 00:17:35.800 |
Again in John 4, 22, he makes it clear to the Samaritan woman. 00:17:42.820 |
You worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews." 00:17:46.400 |
Now he's not saying that if you're a Jew, you're going to be saved. 00:17:49.200 |
He said, "First, the message of salvation came through the Jewish community." 00:17:57.040 |
In Romans 2, verse 3, it says, "There will be tribulation and distress for every human 00:18:01.760 |
being who does evil, the Jew first and also to the Greek." 00:18:07.520 |
That condemnation and retribution will first come to the Jews because God's covenant people 00:18:15.120 |
And then he follows that up by saying, "But glory and honor, peace and everyone who does 00:18:26.280 |
One, he's basically warning the Gentiles that although that the gospel has come to you, 00:18:36.800 |
So that they would not become proud because now they have become that God's chosen, at 00:18:43.760 |
But secondly, more importantly, he is reminding the Gentile church that God is not done with 00:18:57.480 |
You see, from the beginning to the end, ultimately, we may look at that and say, "Well, I mean, 00:19:02.680 |
if he's not done with the nation, they're special people and we're kind of second-class 00:19:07.680 |
The whole point of the gospel message from Genesis to Revelation is a revelation ultimately 00:19:17.960 |
So everything that we know about God, everything that we can trust about God, every promise 00:19:22.320 |
that God has made to us, first come through his faithfulness to the nation of Israel. 00:19:29.920 |
So the covenant that he made with Israel, his faithfulness to Israel, his anger toward 00:19:34.500 |
their sin and judgment, and his faithfulness to forgive and to keep his covenant, all first 00:19:41.600 |
and foremost, we see this with the nation of Israel. 00:19:47.760 |
You can't tell if somebody is faithful by just looking at them. 00:19:50.480 |
It's like, "Oh, you know, everybody who looks this way are faithful." 00:19:55.880 |
If you apply for a job and they want to see if you're reliable, they always check your 00:20:03.720 |
And they want to see some references, some other people who have observed you in the 00:20:08.560 |
Because you can only tell a faithfulness if somebody is reliable based upon the record 00:20:18.000 |
You don't just look at them and say, "Oh, he's reliable, so I'm going to trust him." 00:20:21.960 |
God's relationship with the nation of Israel, as I mentioned in the previous sermons, is 00:20:29.280 |
And it is ultimately a revelation of himself. 00:20:33.760 |
And the reason why we can have confidence as a church to believe him and trust him is 00:20:39.520 |
because his track record with the nation of Israel. 00:20:43.080 |
That everything that has happened with the nation of Israel, according to 1 Corinthians 00:20:46.400 |
chapter 10, happened as an example for us to see what they went through, and we were 00:20:58.440 |
That's why Apostle Paul says, in the latter part of this, to you Gentiles, "Remember, 00:21:08.800 |
And he says, "I'm an apostle of the Gentiles. 00:21:10.880 |
I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save 00:21:19.600 |
You have to remember, Apostle Paul, I mean, there's all kinds of ways to share the gospel, 00:21:25.320 |
But when we go to certain areas, I mean, you don't want to blow the horn, right? 00:21:28.600 |
In fact, every time we go to India, because India is, the persecution meter is rising 00:21:33.760 |
rapidly in India, so we're always cautious that we don't garner too much attention. 00:21:39.320 |
And so every year, I mean, we're going to go back again in January, but every year we're 00:21:43.200 |
a bit more concerned because they know we're coming. 00:21:47.960 |
So we go to certain areas where we're not going to gather attention, and I remember 00:21:51.200 |
the first year we were there, we somehow got a reporter. 00:21:54.520 |
We didn't want that, but a reporter came, took pictures, and Sarah actually got on the 00:21:59.600 |
newspaper, and then we were kind of happy and not happy. 00:22:04.600 |
Happy that we had good press, not happy because we didn't want people to know. 00:22:08.960 |
See, Apostle Paul, everywhere he went, people were waiting for him. 00:22:14.960 |
And his fame began to spread, that this guy and his partners are going, and he's shaking 00:22:20.480 |
And Paul says he's deliberately magnifying his ministry. 00:22:25.520 |
He's deliberately doing it public so that people will know. 00:22:32.600 |
He's preaching it very vocally and publicly, even though that's also garnering all kinds 00:22:37.420 |
of persecution, and they're waiting for him even before he comes to the city. 00:22:41.520 |
But he was doing that all with a specific purpose, because he never forgot about the 00:22:48.320 |
You know, the question that he asked, "Is God done with the nation of Israel?" 00:22:52.600 |
I'm pretty sure that Paul was probably the first one to ask that question. 00:22:58.820 |
This guy was so zealous for the nation of Israel, he was responsible for the first martyr 00:23:08.640 |
And to be responsible for the death of somebody, I mean, he could have been put into capital 00:23:15.760 |
He was responsible for a lot of people, and he went all the way to Damascus, and he was 00:23:18.680 |
willing to risk his safety and his life to go get after them, to beat them, put them 00:23:23.040 |
in jail, and drag them all the way back to Jerusalem. 00:23:29.480 |
So on the way to Damascus, he gets thrown off of his horse, he sees Christ. 00:23:34.500 |
And so can you imagine for three days as he is blind, he must be thinking to himself that 00:23:54.400 |
Maybe you had a certain view of somebody because of some certain things that you may have heard, 00:24:00.640 |
and you kind of had negative feelings toward that person, and then maybe after you spent 00:24:04.280 |
time, got to know them, it's like, "Oh, I was completely wrong, and I feel bad about 00:24:10.800 |
I mean, we've all had experiences where we've been wrong about something, and then you think 00:24:14.320 |
about all the things that you said and done because you had a certain view, and then realized 00:24:21.880 |
Can you imagine Apostle Paul, where he dedicated his life for the nation of Israel? 00:24:28.320 |
That's why the Pharisees were committed to keep the law, because they thought that by 00:24:32.000 |
keeping the law, it was going to garner God's favor, and then when God favors them, they're 00:24:39.280 |
So that's why he was willing to give his life for his nation. 00:24:42.900 |
So now, all of a sudden, Christ appears in his life, and probably for those three days, 00:24:55.240 |
So I bet you, the first person who asked that question, before Paul ever put it in this 00:25:05.840 |
If I was wrong, are you done with Israel then? 00:25:10.480 |
That means not just me, that all of my friends, maybe my parents, my closest friends, the 00:25:15.720 |
whole Sanhedrin, all the Pharisees, Phariseic friends that I had, that we were all wrong, 00:25:26.800 |
My guess is, if not by those very words, but Jesus himself probably answered Paul exactly 00:25:36.760 |
the same way that Paul is stating it here, "By no means." 00:25:44.080 |
You know, today, people use the term all the time, "God told me to do this, God told me 00:25:55.440 |
Maybe you should take a nap, you know what I mean? 00:25:58.280 |
Or get some rest, and you're getting all kinds of thoughts and feelings in your head. 00:26:01.360 |
You say, "God told me to do this, and then all of a sudden, a year later, God told me 00:26:08.000 |
I mean, the only way that we know for sure God told you to do something is written in 00:26:17.760 |
But Apostle Paul had direct communication with Christ. 00:26:28.800 |
So my guess is the first person that he, that question that Paul would have had was, "Not 00:26:42.320 |
Maybe not those very words, but the first answer is, "By no means." 00:26:46.880 |
It wasn't that God was moving on for the nation of Israel. 00:26:49.280 |
It's just the way that they understood how the blessing was going to come to them. 00:26:58.680 |
If it was up to me, I would choose to be accursed rather than them. 00:27:06.680 |
He says he had great sorrow in chapter 9, verse 2. 00:27:10.960 |
He says he is constantly praying his heart's desire for them to be saved. 00:27:16.280 |
Paul never forgot about the nation of Israel. 00:27:19.240 |
Paul knew from the very get-go that his purpose of sending him to Gentiles wasn't to forsake 00:27:26.520 |
It was even in that that God was going to use him to stir up jealousy, to bring some 00:27:37.240 |
That to the very end, God is faithful to his covenant to his own people. 00:27:47.860 |
The parable of the prodigal son ends with a rebuke to the older brother. 00:27:54.820 |
He's talking to the older brother because he was hanging around with the tax collectors 00:27:58.380 |
and he said, "Why are you spending so much time with these sinners?" 00:28:00.980 |
And so Jesus turns it around and tells three parables. 00:28:04.180 |
The first parable is a 99 sheep and going after the one, the lost coin and how they 00:28:09.660 |
celebrate and then as a conclusion to these parables, he gives the parable of the prodigal 00:28:16.980 |
And you guys know the prodigal son story well. 00:28:19.620 |
He takes his dad's inheritance, he goes and he wastes it all and he comes back and dad 00:28:23.780 |
comes and celebrates and has a huge party for him and then the older brother is behind 00:28:40.580 |
That's the scene that is pictured for us by Christ and the prodigal son. 00:28:43.620 |
The older brother is in the background watching what his father is doing to the prodigal son, 00:28:49.420 |
killing a calf and celebrating and embracing him, kissing him, loving him and the older 00:28:54.900 |
I've been here all this time faithful but you've never killed a calf for me but this 00:28:59.620 |
guy blows all the inheritance and he comes back and you're just going to bring him right 00:29:08.860 |
That whole story was about the older brother, to stir in him and to rebuke him for his bad 00:29:20.780 |
Now we know that the story doesn't end with his jealousy turning into repentance because 00:29:26.220 |
jealousy could either turn to rejection or jealousy can turn to pursuit. 00:29:32.420 |
And so Paul is saying here is that through this ministry, through the prodigal son and 00:29:38.340 |
he's doing it publicly because this is what God told him, because what Jesus told him 00:29:44.140 |
that he's not done with the nation of Israel. 00:29:48.260 |
Do you see the heart of our God in the way he deals with this covenant people? 00:29:55.620 |
Do you see his perseverance with these people? 00:30:06.220 |
At what point would you give up on your partner? 00:30:12.340 |
At what point would you draw the line and say it's enough? 00:30:31.680 |
Look at the way our Father deals with his covenant people. 00:30:38.500 |
Every part of their history, they're blaspheming his name, they're turning around and every 00:30:43.940 |
time they get thirsty, it's like, "Who are you? 00:30:51.400 |
And if that wasn't enough, he sends his only begotten son and they crucify him. 00:30:57.160 |
At some point you would think that God would say, "You know, I know I made a covenant with 00:31:05.660 |
I know I told you that you're the apple of my eye, but man, that is enough." 00:31:13.540 |
But even as Paul is writing this letter, even as he's being stoned and put into prison, 00:31:30.280 |
You see the way our God deals with his people? 00:31:44.940 |
Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, 15, 17, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, 00:31:49.980 |
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 00:31:55.020 |
Not the lovely, not the ones with potential, but sinners. 00:31:58.700 |
And I want you to just take a minute to meditate on that because we know this passage so well. 00:32:06.380 |
It's very romantic to say, "Oh, you know, the God of the universe came down and saved 00:32:12.140 |
sinners and walked among us because we think we're the sinners." 00:32:28.400 |
Is there any sin that you can think of that you can't stand to even be around that person, 00:32:36.180 |
Because when you and I think of sin, we think of sin in the context of my sin. 00:32:44.700 |
But when you think about sin itself, the ugliness of sin, the depth of sin, the grotesqueness 00:32:53.740 |
And he says, "God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we are yet sinners." 00:33:01.700 |
Think about the most harsh things that somebody has ever done to you. 00:33:09.000 |
And he says, "He came into the world seeking sinners." 00:33:17.860 |
When somebody sins against you or you see something grotesque, what is your natural 00:33:22.540 |
Oh man, I do everything in my power to stay away from them. 00:33:27.300 |
I remember when I was in the Philippines through Compassion and I shared with you, I was at 00:33:31.420 |
a hotel and there were these old men in 50s and 60s hanging around with teenage Filipino 00:33:37.940 |
Eventually we found out that they were there because of sex trafficking. 00:33:41.300 |
And so the young girls were giving their bodies because they needed to pay bills and they 00:33:45.420 |
needed to help out their family and these old men were coming in bus loads in the middle 00:33:50.460 |
of nowhere so that they can have sexual relations with these girls. 00:33:55.420 |
And the guys are just dancing around getting drunk and me and a bunch of pastors were in 00:34:00.500 |
the room and they were joking around, "Hey, you guys want to come party with us?" 00:34:04.060 |
And when we found out what was going on, I remember we were stepped into a small elevator 00:34:10.900 |
and he must have been maybe in his mid-60s with it. 00:34:13.260 |
She must have been no more than 14, 15 years old, my daughter's age. 00:34:18.380 |
And he was dancing, living it up and she was there quiet and he was turning around saying, 00:34:26.420 |
And I remember just five or six of us standing in that room and had to do everything in our 00:34:32.380 |
power to restrain ourselves from just reaching out and grabbing this guy because we were 00:34:42.980 |
And after he left, after he walked out with this girl, we were in the elevator just looked 00:34:59.460 |
Because we were this close just grabbing this guy and just putting him on the ground, just 00:35:05.460 |
I mean, we're pastors so we can't do that, right? 00:35:09.140 |
But we all felt the same thing, the disgusting revelation of sin. 00:35:16.500 |
We think about sin, we think about us, mistakes that we've made. 00:35:25.020 |
So if that's grotesque to a sinful man who's also a sinner, imagine how filthy that is 00:35:32.740 |
in the hands and eyes of a holy, holy, holy God. 00:35:40.020 |
Imagine if we look at the sins of Israel and how we are frustrated with their sins. 00:35:48.740 |
Imagine what God must be feeling, a holy, holy, holy God who puts up with them over 00:35:55.540 |
and over and has loved them over and over again and yet even to his only begotten Son 00:36:02.740 |
See, it wasn't about me, it wasn't about Israel. 00:36:09.260 |
God received glory even in their failure because in their failure God is magnified. 00:36:15.580 |
This saying is trustworthy and disturbing of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came 00:36:18.700 |
into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost but I receive mercy for this 00:36:23.980 |
reason that in me the foremost Jesus Christ may display his perfect patience as an example 00:36:31.180 |
to those who are to believe in him for eternal life. 00:36:34.620 |
He was chosen because he was a grotesque sinner. 00:36:40.500 |
He says in order that those who come after him may say if God can forgive him then he 00:36:50.020 |
If God can pursue a sinner like him then he can forgive me. 00:36:56.340 |
He wasn't chosen because he was a member, possibly a member of the Sanhedrin or Pharisee 00:37:02.380 |
And that's what he means in Philippians chapter 3. 00:37:04.700 |
If you want to compare human righteousness, Hebrew among Hebrews, the tribe of Benjamin, 00:37:11.540 |
as to the law perfect, as to zeal persecuting the church, you want to go head to head but 00:37:16.740 |
in light of surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ all of that became rubbish. 00:37:31.220 |
The only person that comes out clean from Genesis to Revelation is not the prophets, 00:37:38.060 |
it's not the kings, it's not Israel, it's not even Apostle Paul, and it's not the church. 00:37:49.820 |
Christ and Christ alone is magnified through redemptive history. 00:37:54.100 |
It was always about Christ, not you, it's not me. 00:38:02.540 |
See his miracle and what he has done is nothing short of raising someone from the dead and 00:38:12.020 |
He says in 15, "For their rejection means reconciliation of the world. 00:38:16.100 |
What will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" 00:38:22.940 |
That as a result of David's sin, that Bathsheba is pregnant and God says as a result that 00:38:30.080 |
So the child becomes sick and for seven days David is fasting and praying and he is urging 00:38:43.600 |
And to the surprise of his men, David just gets up, washes up and then he just goes back 00:38:50.320 |
to normal life and so they're like, "What's going on? 00:38:52.720 |
You were begging God for seven days, what happened?" 00:38:58.340 |
He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. 00:39:02.400 |
For I said, 'Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?' 00:39:12.320 |
I shall go to him but he will not return to me." 00:39:15.320 |
In other words, what David is saying is he's dead. 00:39:24.620 |
But now that he's dead, I can go to him but he won't come to me. 00:39:27.800 |
In other words, I can die but he can't be brought back to life. 00:39:37.560 |
That's exactly how the Bible describes our state. 00:39:45.540 |
We weren't just holding on to a small thin red line. 00:39:55.780 |
We can't possibly will ourselves to get to God. 00:40:05.000 |
Those of you who like chocolate, how many of you guys like chocolate? 00:40:54.480 |
Even just the appetite of we like sugar or we like it spicy or don't like it spicy. 00:41:01.080 |
Imagine how difficult that is to change something as trivial as what you like to eat. 00:41:07.920 |
To possibly think a man who is dead in his trespass all of a sudden had the will to seek 00:41:26.280 |
Maybe you were a former gangster and all the youth could retreat skits were about you. 00:41:34.680 |
Most of us, our testimonies is like, "I don't have a great testimony." 00:41:39.520 |
I would raise up in the church and I didn't know Christ. 00:41:41.640 |
At some point, the gospel began to make sense, so I decided to take my faith seriously and 00:41:47.440 |
I can't pinpoint exactly what day, but it was sometime between 18 and 19. 00:41:53.960 |
I can't pinpoint exactly where it is and I don't really have anything to share. 00:41:59.600 |
Whether you have a radical testimony, at least you think it's radical or you think it's mundane, 00:42:08.080 |
every single one of us came back from the dead. 00:42:17.520 |
The fact that you were able to hear the Word of God and make sense, I didn't open those 00:42:32.500 |
We were once dead in our trespasses and He made us alive and that's exactly what He 00:42:38.240 |
He brought us back from the dead, so there is no mundane testimony. 00:42:43.120 |
It's just that you don't realize what happened. 00:42:48.760 |
Every single person, whether you were raised in the church, whether you can pinpoint it 00:42:51.880 |
or not pinpoint it, every single one of us came back from the dead because of Christ. 00:42:57.880 |
Ephesians 2.4, "But God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved 00:43:04.880 |
us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ." 00:43:12.320 |
You know, this was all prophesied for the nation of Israel. 00:43:14.640 |
If you can put that verse up, Ezekiel chapter 37, and it's a long passage but I want to 00:43:23.920 |
God prophesied to the nation of Israel long before He ever even says this in this verse, 00:43:30.240 |
"The hand of the Lord was upon me," and this is Ezekiel talking, "and He brought me out 00:43:36.600 |
in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. 00:43:39.520 |
It was full of bones and He led me around among them and behold, there were very many 00:43:44.680 |
on the surface of the valley and behold, they were very dry. 00:43:48.080 |
And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' 00:43:52.480 |
Then He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones and say to them, "Dry bones, hear the word 00:43:57.760 |
Thus says the Lord God of these bones, "Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall 00:44:03.600 |
live and I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you 00:44:08.400 |
with skid and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord." 00:44:16.520 |
God shows this scene to Ezekiel to prophesy about what He will do in the future to the 00:44:22.400 |
nation of Israel, but there's two things here. 00:44:24.640 |
One, He says, "These dry bones, there's no flesh." 00:44:27.840 |
He's not dealing with somebody who just passed away, the resuscitated. 00:44:36.740 |
If David didn't have hope because his son died, I can go to him, he can't come to me. 00:44:40.940 |
He's looking at a body that's already decomposed and all that is left is bones. 00:44:47.400 |
And God says to Ezekiel, "I am the Lord of these bones." 00:44:52.480 |
And then He prophesied, "I'm going to put the flesh back and eventually I'm going to 00:44:57.120 |
And then when that happens, what does He say at the end? 00:45:04.360 |
This was not by chance, this was not by human effort, this was not because something else 00:45:12.600 |
If you've ever read through the book of Ezekiel, next time I encourage you to take a marker 00:45:17.960 |
and mark every time God says, "I do this so that you may know that I am the Lord your 00:45:26.480 |
"I do this that you may know that I am the Lord your God." 00:45:29.520 |
So you're going to find out the whole book of Ezekiel's theme is for God to reveal Himself. 00:45:36.240 |
And so His judgment and His mercy and patience toward the nation of Israel, all of it is 00:45:42.880 |
so that they may know that the Lord God, that He is the Lord God. 00:45:50.560 |
He tells Ezekiel that this is what's going to happen. 00:45:52.300 |
So Ezekiel goes ahead and obeys and says in verse 7, "So I prophesied as I was commanded, 00:45:58.880 |
and as I prophesied, there was a sound and behold, a rattling and the bones came together, 00:46:04.920 |
And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them and flesh come upon them and skin 00:46:09.800 |
and covered them, but there was no breath in them. 00:46:12.680 |
Then He said to me, 'Prophesy to breathe, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 00:46:17.920 |
'Thus says the Lord God, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, 00:46:24.080 |
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and 00:46:28.040 |
stood on their feet an exceedingly great army." 00:46:31.160 |
So exactly as God said, this happens and then God explains what He is doing in verse 11 00:46:40.600 |
He said to them, "To me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. 00:46:45.720 |
Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. 00:46:55.040 |
Israel was the dry bones, not just fallen down, not just without breath. 00:47:04.880 |
"Therefore, prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I will open your 00:47:09.240 |
graves and raise you up from your grave, O my people, and I will bring you into the land 00:47:14.080 |
of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you 00:47:21.460 |
And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your 00:47:28.060 |
I have spoken, and I will do it,' declares the Lord." 00:47:32.020 |
Israel's history is God allowing their sin to become utterly sinful and they come to 00:47:44.740 |
And God had prophesied hundreds and hundreds of years before. 00:47:49.900 |
Paul ever said this, that this is exactly what he was going to do. 00:47:55.100 |
When Israel has absolutely no hope, when all they are are dry bones, he said, "I will restore 00:48:06.260 |
I'll put flesh back on them, and I will breathe life back into them." 00:48:12.060 |
Because then you will know that I am the Lord. 00:48:15.620 |
It wasn't Israel's righteousness, it wasn't Israel's hard work, it wasn't something about 00:48:28.260 |
Israel as a nation disappears off the face of the earth in AD 70. 00:48:36.300 |
And May 14th, 1948, they come back to their land. 00:48:48.340 |
And as the prophecy says, one day there's going to be a mass conversion of the Jews. 00:48:53.740 |
But just the fact that they have been restored in their flesh, the breath is not in there 00:49:02.460 |
Remember, there were two stages of the way that God restored this dry bone. 00:49:04.940 |
He put the flesh back on, and He said, "Well, they're not breathing yet." 00:49:07.380 |
But He said He's going to eventually bring the breath back in. 00:49:09.820 |
And so Israel has the flesh, they don't have the breath yet. 00:49:32.420 |
If you've been a Christian long enough, you've probably been disappointed with other Christians. 00:49:38.700 |
Don't nod your head, because we know already. 00:49:46.100 |
If you've been a Christian long enough, leaders have disappointed you. 00:49:51.820 |
If you've been a Christian long enough, churches have disappointed you. 00:49:56.940 |
If you've been a Christian long enough, maybe the whole Christian community you've lost 00:50:02.780 |
Again, if you've been a Christian long enough, even longer than that, even movements have 00:50:12.420 |
Depending on how long you've been a Christian, there's various stages of what you've been 00:50:17.020 |
And that's where you are, and I assume all of us to different degrees have experienced 00:50:26.180 |
Because our confidence should have never been on man to begin with. 00:50:36.500 |
It was never about a movement or a particular generation or a group of people. 00:50:41.740 |
All of it is so that you and I may know that there is one Lord. 00:50:48.100 |
And He's the only one who can resuscitate the dead. 00:50:53.060 |
Let me conclude with this, because as I was reading this and as I was preparing for the 00:50:57.740 |
sermon and I think about this friend that I had back in high school. 00:51:03.220 |
I think I mentioned it to him a few of you, but I've lost contact with him after we graduated 00:51:12.500 |
He went his way and I went my way, and we lost contact. 00:51:15.180 |
And about a few years ago, I got contacted through Facebook. 00:51:19.020 |
It was a mutual friend saying, "Hey, you know, Peter," and so we were talking and so we met 00:51:29.100 |
And so both him and I were like, "You're a pastor?" 00:51:33.580 |
And then I found out he's a deacon of a large church nearby, and he became a very successful 00:51:44.180 |
He's got a factory out in Turkey and Hong Kong. 00:51:46.460 |
So he's always traveling, but he's responsible for mission work. 00:51:49.980 |
So he's always taking people, he's always trying to get me to come with him to do missions. 00:51:53.300 |
So we get together, and every time we get together, I just dumbfound it, because the 00:51:56.900 |
last time I met him, he got kicked out of Kennedy High School for selling drugs. 00:52:07.680 |
And so we used to go around, like we started to do business together. 00:52:11.500 |
So his dad owned some plastic bag factory, so we used to take whatever was misprinted 00:52:15.900 |
and to walk out in South Central and areas where they have small markets, and we would 00:52:26.820 |
And this guy would always have a, like his trunk would always be filled with alcohol. 00:52:33.700 |
I think his dad owned a liquor store too, and I think that's why maybe he had it. 00:52:38.180 |
But it was always, so anytime he wanted a drink, he'd just pop up his trunk and would 00:52:43.220 |
And pretty sure it was illegal back then too. 00:52:50.660 |
And then so all of a sudden, we haven't seen each other over 20 some years and we get together, 00:52:54.700 |
and I'm a pastor and as a deacon of a church doing all kinds of missions. 00:52:58.540 |
And even now, I mean, this is several years ago, but even now, every time we get together, 00:53:02.300 |
I'm just looking at him and saying, "Oh my gosh, you're a drug dealer." 00:53:09.900 |
He's probably looking at me, he's like, "You're a pastor? 00:53:16.700 |
Every time I think about that, it's, humanly speaking, how could that be possible? 00:53:23.340 |
Humanly speaking, how could that be possible? 00:53:27.660 |
Like, you know, I just decided to just shape up and give my life, and I just decided to 00:53:42.420 |
Only the Lord Jesus Christ can raise somebody from the dead. 00:53:47.660 |
Everything that Paul has been saying here, even though we talk about the nation of Israel, 00:53:51.340 |
in the end, our hope is found in nothing less. 00:53:59.660 |
If you've been disappointed because you've placed your hope in something else, maybe 00:54:07.740 |
Maybe living with dissatisfaction, discouragement, maybe that's where you've gone wrong. 00:54:18.640 |
As we invite our praise team to come up, again, I want to invite you to take some time to 00:54:27.500 |
You know, I can give these messages and give broad strokes about we want to follow Christ, 00:54:31.260 |
but I want to really encourage you to think specifically in application, right? 00:54:35.740 |
If I'm pursuing things that is causing me to drift from Christ, what is it in your life 00:54:42.700 |
that's causing you to take your eyes off of Him? 00:54:48.780 |
Now I want you to take some time to pray and come before the Lord in earnest prayer as