back to index2018-07-22 Paul's Defense of His Ministry Part 2
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 15, I'll be reading 14 to 21, but 00:00:11.120 |
again, our main focus this morning is going to be 14 to 16. 00:00:22.560 |
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, 00:00:27.640 |
filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 00:00:30.520 |
But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the 00:00:33.960 |
grace given me by God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, to the priestly 00:00:38.440 |
service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, 00:00:44.720 |
In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture 00:00:49.160 |
to speak anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, 00:00:56.400 |
By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem 00:01:00.400 |
and all the way around to Iliquium, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, 00:01:04.960 |
and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been 00:01:09.240 |
named lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, those who have never 00:01:13.840 |
been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. 00:01:24.920 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you for this morning, and as we have gathered 00:01:30.120 |
together corporately to worship you, to honor you, to give you our hearts, Lord God, a reasonable 00:01:37.480 |
response to your grace, we pray this morning that your Holy Spirit would lead and guide. 00:01:44.000 |
Help us, Lord, to be eager to hear and eager to apply your word. 00:01:49.480 |
All right, as you know, we're in the study of the Book of Romans, and we're at the 00:01:56.200 |
And Paul has been expositing the gospel message beginning chapter 1 all the way to chapter 00:02:01.960 |
15, and we're kind of in the middle part of it where the end of chapter 15 and 16 is 00:02:08.280 |
It's kind of the end of the letter where he's saying, you know, bye to the church, 00:02:12.960 |
So you know, if we're not careful, we can look at the last chapter and a half thinking 00:02:17.080 |
like, well, he's done with the gospel, so he's just saying bye, so it's not really 00:02:20.880 |
important for us to dig too deep into that, which is not the case. 00:02:26.120 |
Obviously, there's no part of Scripture where we should ever skim over. 00:02:30.640 |
In fact, the reason why this part of Scripture is so important is Paul started in Romans 00:02:36.600 |
chapter 1 the necessity of the gospel, why we need it, because we've all sinned, fall 00:02:40.400 |
short of the glory of God, Jew and Gentile alike. 00:02:43.260 |
And then he introduced us to Christ and his sacrifice, and then the ramification of that. 00:02:48.180 |
What did we receive as a result of that in chapter 8? 00:02:51.060 |
Chapter 9 through 11 connects us to the Old Testament, what he has been doing with the 00:02:55.020 |
nation of Israel, what he's planning to do going forward with Israel and Gentiles. 00:03:00.020 |
And then we got to chapter 12, and view of all of that, and view of all that he has done, 00:03:05.240 |
we ought to give our lives as a living sacrifice, and in the sacrifice, the greatest application 00:03:10.260 |
of that is to live a life of worship, to love one another, to reflect that gospel in our 00:03:17.540 |
That's where we ended in verse 13 in chapter 5. 00:03:21.700 |
Chapter 14 is Paul's defense of his ministry. 00:03:25.100 |
So last week, this week, and probably for the next maybe about two or three more weeks, 00:03:28.980 |
we're going to be talking about Paul's application of that gospel in his own life. 00:03:34.620 |
So up to this point, Paul has been preaching about the message of the cross, he's been 00:03:37.980 |
teaching about how it ought to look in the life of the individual and in the church, 00:03:42.100 |
now he's going to be showing us what it looks like in his life. 00:03:46.060 |
What is the preaching of the gospel, and why is he engaged in what he is engaged in? 00:03:49.620 |
So last week, we looked at Paul said that he spoke with boldness, that despite the persecution 00:03:56.180 |
everywhere he is going, he's been persecuted, possibility of death, eventually he gets beheaded 00:04:03.820 |
But he says the reason why he spoke with boldness was because there was clarity that he was 00:04:09.820 |
This was not a bunch of people who got together in a think tank and said, you know, maybe 00:04:14.920 |
we should have these ideas spread and start this. 00:04:18.500 |
It was a direct revelation that he got from God, and he clearly knew who he was serving, 00:04:26.100 |
He said, so one, his message itself came with clarity because he knew who he was representing. 00:04:33.260 |
The second point we're going to look at, and that's the main point, main thing that we're 00:04:36.340 |
going to stay at this morning, is that Paul wrote to transform and not simply to inform. 00:04:44.020 |
Paul wrote to transform and not just simply to inform. 00:04:48.060 |
We're going to see that the content of what he is saying here, majority of it is not new 00:04:55.860 |
Paul starts in verse 14, he says, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers." 00:05:02.220 |
He's not writing to a church filled with non-Christians who needed to hear the gospel so they can 00:05:10.340 |
He actually starts the letter in Romans 1.8, and he says, "First, I thank my God through 00:05:15.260 |
Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world." 00:05:20.980 |
So one other church we hear Paul saying this is the church of Thessalonica, because they 00:05:26.720 |
received the gospel and they're loved for one another, and the way that they were responding 00:05:31.540 |
to the gospel was exemplary, that even before Paul would go to distant parts of Macedonia, 00:05:37.820 |
the news about their conversion went ahead of them. 00:05:41.780 |
And so Paul used the same words to describe the Roman Christians. 00:05:45.020 |
He hasn't come to this church, but he heard of them. 00:05:49.720 |
So he's not talking to non-Christians, and he's not talking to young Christians. 00:05:54.060 |
He goes on, he says, "I'm satisfied about you," and I'm convinced that they are full 00:06:01.060 |
They're not just good in application, they're full of it. 00:06:08.460 |
Again, Paul is not writing this because they did not know. 00:06:12.300 |
It says Paul describes them as people who are filled with knowledge. 00:06:16.420 |
And then finally, it says they are able to instruct one another. 00:06:20.340 |
Not only were they strong Christians, not only did they apply it exemplary, and not 00:06:25.020 |
only did they have knowledge, they were actually able to disciple one another. 00:06:30.180 |
They had everything that you would want from a good, solid, healthy church. 00:06:35.940 |
So the natural question that we would ask is, why did he spend so much time and effort, 00:06:42.100 |
the longest and the most tedious of all of his letters, to a church that may on the surface 00:06:50.900 |
We can understand why he wrote to the Galatians. 00:06:54.060 |
We understand the length in the Corinthians, because they had all kinds of problems in 00:06:59.620 |
But there is no particular problem that Paul was writing to for the Romans. 00:07:05.340 |
In fact, the way he describes them, they're a model church. 00:07:09.020 |
They were full of knowledge, full of goodness. 00:07:16.380 |
And again, before I begin to kind of hopefully unfold what's happening here, what Paul says 00:07:32.980 |
When I say modern-day, I'm talking about in particular here. 00:07:35.980 |
It may be more specifically to Orange County, maybe even more specifically to this particular 00:07:40.780 |
area, because we are surrounded by mega-churches. 00:07:46.020 |
There's new church plant coming into this area all the time. 00:07:49.220 |
I meet young pastors who want to plant a church in Irvine or Tustin or at least in Orange 00:07:53.660 |
County, and I probably meet at least about five to ten of them per year. 00:08:01.180 |
And I would talk to them about different church plants and what's going on. 00:08:08.900 |
In fact, if during the summertime, around June, July, and August, if you go to the airport, 00:08:17.020 |
Obviously, you see typical people who are at the airport just traveling. 00:08:23.460 |
You see a lot of young people headed out to short-term missions. 00:08:27.980 |
And then if you hang out there long enough, you see a lot of young people coming back 00:08:32.920 |
We have several seminaries that are about 10 to 15, 20-minute driving distance in this 00:08:38.300 |
In any direction, about 10 to 15-minute drive, you will hit some kind of a mega-church, meaning 00:08:43.420 |
there's probably more than 5,000 to 10,000 people gathering together every Sunday in 00:08:49.820 |
So we are saturated, at least on the surface, with superficial knowledge about Christ, about 00:08:56.460 |
the gospel, about the Bible, various theologies. 00:09:00.020 |
You and I are living not only in a particular time in history, but a particular place in 00:09:05.500 |
the world where there is more information about Christ, more talks, more access, more 00:09:13.540 |
preaching, more gathering, more worshiping, more evangelism, at least on the surface, 00:09:18.980 |
more short-term missions taking place than any other time in human history, in Christian 00:09:25.460 |
Yet, the biggest problem that you and I have is our passion. 00:09:34.260 |
We have it, but everything we have has become convenient. 00:09:39.780 |
And along with that, we are saturated with churches and with people, and even up on the 00:09:46.420 |
pulpits where the gospel of Jesus Christ has become old. 00:09:51.860 |
It's something that we already know, something we've already heard, something we've already 00:10:00.860 |
Paul says in verse 15, "But on some points," he says, "I know you are full of knowledge, 00:10:06.140 |
I know you are full of goodness, I know you are believers, I know you are able to instruct 00:10:08.900 |
one another, but on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because 00:10:19.900 |
I mean, if he knew that they already know this, why speak boldly? 00:10:28.580 |
Why is he so passionate about reinstating the things that they already know, that he 00:10:39.300 |
They're even able to instruct one another with this, and yet he says he is bold by way 00:10:49.340 |
And I'm going to get to this point over and over again in today's text. 00:10:54.900 |
The point that Paul is trying to make, and the reason why I believe this is so important, 00:11:00.780 |
is because we have to admit, you've heard enough about the gospel. 00:11:09.100 |
You know the scriptures, especially, I mean, you're at a Bible teaching church, so the 00:11:12.460 |
Word of God is being exposited in your presence in Bible study, in small groups. 00:11:17.380 |
We're discussed, we have retreats, we have Sunday sermons, and we're so saturated with 00:11:21.500 |
God's Word, we're always looking for something different, something new. 00:11:29.420 |
I'm going to tell you what you already know, and I'm going to keep reminding you of the 00:11:35.140 |
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Peter 1, 3 to 15. 00:11:38.880 |
If you don't have your Bible, the text will be up on the screen, but if you do have your 00:11:44.340 |
Bible, I want you to be in the habit of looking at your Bible. 00:11:49.580 |
In 2 Peter 1, 3 to 15, Peter says something very similar to the reason why he's writing 00:11:55.820 |
He says, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." 00:12:02.260 |
Everything that you and I need for our spiritual growth, we have. 00:12:07.460 |
So if any Christian, in particular today, considering everything that we have on top 00:12:12.620 |
of what the early church had, if we ever say, "I can't grow because I don't have this," 00:12:19.740 |
that's no different than Adam saying, "I've sinned because of that woman that you put 00:12:24.220 |
It's not my fault, it's a circumstance that you put me in. 00:12:28.420 |
Peter says, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and 00:12:32.860 |
godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence." 00:12:37.780 |
He's not talking about the information about Christ. 00:12:40.140 |
He's talking about knowledge, meaning personal encounter with Christ. 00:12:44.700 |
That everything that I need for life of godliness, I have in this relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:12:52.980 |
So for any Christian, any genuine Christian who's been saved, had the Holy Spirit, who 00:12:59.180 |
says, "I can't grow because of this," is denying what Peter clearly says here. 00:13:05.860 |
Verse four, "By which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that 00:13:10.180 |
through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption 00:13:14.020 |
that is in the world because of sinful desire." 00:13:16.580 |
In other words, the reason why we were saved is because we encountered Christ. 00:13:21.260 |
And it is this relationship, this knowledge of Him, and in Him we have all these things. 00:13:26.780 |
Verse five, "For this very reason, since you have everything that you need for a life of 00:13:31.660 |
godliness, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, 00:13:36.500 |
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control steadfastness, steadfastness 00:13:40.500 |
with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love." 00:13:45.220 |
In other words, since you have already everything that you need for a life of godliness, now 00:13:58.500 |
The ball is not on God's court and saying, "Well, God, do something." 00:14:09.860 |
He's saying, "Considering all of this, make every effort, make every effort to add to 00:14:18.420 |
And then He says, "This knowledge that you have received," and then He gives all these 00:14:24.060 |
different things that we ought to respond, and ultimately He says, "to practice this 00:14:28.260 |
love," which is what Paul has been saying in chapter 12 up to chapter 15. 00:14:34.740 |
But I wanted to continue in verse 8 where He says, "For if these qualities are yours 00:14:38.020 |
and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord 00:14:45.920 |
If we're just hearers of the Word, and we say, "Well, I can't grow because of this," 00:14:51.540 |
and as a result, we just kind of passively wait for revival to come, we're passively 00:14:57.060 |
waiting for somebody else or something else to happen in order that I can respond to God, 00:15:02.860 |
it says you become ineffective and unfruitful in what you have already been given. 00:15:11.380 |
You already have everything that you need for a life of godliness, and you say, "I 00:15:14.900 |
can't be godly because I don't have this," and then you're not bearing fruit, and you 00:15:25.860 |
"For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind." 00:15:34.060 |
Nearsightedness basically means that you can only see what is immediately in front of you, 00:15:37.220 |
and you don't have a perspective of what's coming. 00:15:41.660 |
So He says that if you hear and you do not apply the Word of God, and there's no radical 00:15:48.100 |
change, you're ineffective, you're being unfruitful, what is the result of that? 00:15:57.060 |
If I do this, how is it going to affect me today? 00:15:58.840 |
So all the decisions that we make are no different than the world. 00:16:02.920 |
If I do this, if I sacrifice, what do I get today? 00:16:05.780 |
But we don't live for eternity, because we don't have eternal perspective. 00:16:10.140 |
That's what He says, we become nearsighted and blind. 00:16:12.860 |
Having forgotten that He was cleansed from His former sins, therefore, brothers, be all 00:16:16.900 |
the more diligent to make your calling and election sure. 00:16:22.260 |
Because once you become ineffective, unfruitful, and you become nearsighted and blind, what's 00:16:36.060 |
And why is this so important to make your election sure? 00:16:40.500 |
Because the Scripture says, "If you abide in My Word, My Word abides in you. 00:16:43.660 |
Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." 00:16:46.260 |
Prayer is not a free ticket for everyone to just come and say, "Ask God whatever you want." 00:16:53.380 |
If you abide in Me, My Word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for 00:16:57.500 |
So when you don't have assurance of salvation, you don't have assurance that God is listening 00:17:01.940 |
And this is the reason why so many people do not regularly pray. 00:17:06.300 |
Why engage in something when you're not sure if God is even listening? 00:17:12.060 |
And the reason why it's hard for us to invest in the things that are long-term, because 00:17:18.140 |
those are promises given to those who have assurance of salvation. 00:17:23.140 |
It was not a blanket statement for the world. 00:17:26.340 |
All the promises on Scripture are for those who have repented of their sins, has declared 00:17:30.580 |
Him Lord and Savior, and who has a personal relationship with Him. 00:17:35.300 |
So if you hear and you are not applying, you're not making every effort in your spiritual 00:17:42.980 |
growth, and you become ineffective and unfruitful, you become nearsighted and you're blind to 00:17:49.080 |
what is coming, and you forget all of these things, you begin to doubt whether you express 00:18:00.140 |
Does any of this have anything to do with me? 00:18:03.380 |
And once you begin to doubt your assurance of salvation, it affects your prayer, it affects 00:18:08.820 |
your fellowship, it affects evangelism, it affects the promises of God, it basically 00:18:16.140 |
nullifies everything that we do as Christians. 00:18:21.740 |
For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. 00:18:24.400 |
For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom 00:18:30.580 |
So again, what Peter is saying to them is not just to be hearers, but to hear it and 00:18:41.460 |
That's what Paul has been saying, in view of this mercy, give your life as a living 00:18:45.100 |
sacrifice and in particular, to live a life of love in practice. 00:18:51.660 |
Paul is writing to this church who has all of this knowledge already, not simply to inform 00:19:00.740 |
So in verse 12, "Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities. 00:19:06.340 |
Though you know them and are established in the truth that you have, I think it right 00:19:10.960 |
as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the 00:19:17.020 |
putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I 00:19:21.220 |
will make every effort so that after my departure you will be able at any time to recall these 00:19:29.620 |
I'm telling you what you already know and I'm trying to remind you that even after I 00:19:36.780 |
Because the core of who we are is founded upon these truths of the gospel. 00:19:43.440 |
So the moment that it becomes dull, the moment you think that you've mastered it, you've 00:19:52.420 |
That's why in John chapter 15, Jesus says to his disciple before he departs, he says, 00:19:59.380 |
"If you abide in me," my words abide in you, "ask whatever you wish." 00:20:04.180 |
You cannot bear any fruit unless you abide in me. 00:20:06.740 |
The word abide, for the longest time I thought he was talking about abiding, obeying his 00:20:14.300 |
But the more natural understanding of the word abide in Greek, which is meno, it means 00:20:23.300 |
And the reason why Jesus says you need to continue or remain in me is because Jesus 00:20:30.220 |
As long as they were with Christ, they felt safe. 00:20:38.800 |
Because Jesus has been telling them, he's about to go where I go you cannot come. 00:20:43.540 |
And he says, no, the Holy Spirit's going to come. 00:20:46.140 |
And he's going to remind you of everything that I told you. 00:20:51.300 |
So the primary work of the Holy Spirit to the non-Christians is to convict them of their 00:20:57.620 |
The primary work of the Holy Spirit to Christians is to remind us of Christ. 00:21:11.720 |
The danger that you and I fall into is that we hear the gospel and we begin to study the 00:21:16.520 |
word of God and then we become so sophisticated in our walk with God. 00:21:22.020 |
We become experts in church planting, small group discipleship, evangelism, missions. 00:21:27.800 |
And we become experts because we have so much knowledge, so much experience, so much books. 00:21:39.900 |
Paul says in Philippians 3, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. 00:21:42.520 |
To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you." 00:21:47.340 |
I need to keep reminding you to keep you safe. 00:21:50.920 |
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. 00:21:53.560 |
In both of them, I am stirring up a sincere mind by way of reminder. 00:22:04.500 |
Revelation 2.5, "Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. 00:22:10.860 |
Again, Revelation 3.3, "Remember then what you received and heard. 00:22:19.260 |
We are told in the Old Testament, New Testament, "Remember." 00:22:23.380 |
Because our primary challenge living in this world is just drifting. 00:22:43.620 |
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." 00:22:47.540 |
So if that's the greatest commandment, that ought to be our greatest pursuit. 00:23:06.300 |
I would guess, and I would say it's a somewhat educated guess because of years of just counseling 00:23:12.080 |
and talking and even from my own testimony, I would guess that the time that you were 00:23:16.280 |
the most passionate, you were the greatest witness, you loved fellowship the most, you 00:23:20.300 |
sang with the greatest passion, was when you first met the Lord. 00:23:27.000 |
That's why in Revelation chapter 2, when he's rebuking this church that had all these great 00:23:31.120 |
qualities, he says, "Remember the height from which you had fallen." 00:23:34.960 |
He doesn't say, "Go look and see if there's other things that you can do to make your 00:23:39.820 |
He says, "Remember the height from which you had fallen." 00:23:50.840 |
We always talk about how we ought to go back to the early church. 00:24:04.620 |
Was there, did they sit under some great teaching for so many years? 00:24:10.120 |
Was it the one-to-one discipleship that 3,000 and the 4,000 received from the previous mentors? 00:24:16.400 |
What was it about the early church that they were so selfless and even in the context of 00:24:20.680 |
being stoned and running for their lives, they couldn't contain sharing the gospel? 00:24:29.120 |
The only thing that we can point to is they met Christ and they were convicted over their 00:24:38.100 |
And so Jesus is telling his disciples, "Don't move from that. 00:24:44.260 |
Don't move from that because that's when you're the most powerful. 00:24:50.780 |
That's when you're singing and worship is the most genuine. 00:24:54.220 |
Because when you've been affected by this relationship with Christ, it wasn't because 00:25:06.980 |
So if the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, 00:25:10.540 |
mind, and strength, and the greatest time when that was true, it has nothing to do with 00:25:26.180 |
That's why he says, "I'm stirring up as a reminder to you to tell you again to go back 00:25:35.700 |
See, the danger that you and I have, just like anything else, we're in an area where 00:25:42.820 |
we have all the food that we can possibly eat all the time. 00:25:48.620 |
And people often ask me, "Hey, Pastor Peter, I want to take you out and treat you out to 00:25:57.300 |
Because whatever I like to eat, I eat all the time. 00:26:01.540 |
I tell you I like sushi, but sometimes I'm tired of it because I've eaten it yesterday. 00:26:07.040 |
So I'd like some Mexican today, or tomorrow I might want some pho, or the next day some 00:26:14.700 |
But we get to have everything that we want all the time, so we don't necessarily value 00:26:22.420 |
And sometimes that's the way we are spiritually. 00:26:26.320 |
Because we are so saturated with everything, everything has become old, just dull. 00:26:32.620 |
And so we have to hear messages with some great presentation. 00:26:38.060 |
It's not the message itself, but the presentation. 00:26:48.380 |
And that's why Paul is telling you, "I know you know all these things. 00:26:55.260 |
Your Christianity, your response is being heralded all over the world. 00:27:04.520 |
Because on some of these points, I want to stir you up by way of reminder so that you 00:27:13.580 |
Because our fruitfulness comes directly linked to Him. 00:27:21.020 |
People have a tendency, once you have heard certain things so many times, it's like, "I 00:27:26.740 |
Every once in a while, we'll say, "Hey, we're going to study Philippines." 00:27:28.460 |
And somebody will say, "I already studied that." 00:27:37.740 |
"Oh, we're going to do quiet time in Ephesians." 00:27:41.260 |
"Oh, I've already done that a couple years ago." 00:27:45.140 |
I've been a Christian for a while, so let me teach." 00:27:48.860 |
And that's one of the greatest dangers of being a leader of any kind, especially somebody 00:27:52.580 |
who stands up here, where I'm constantly having to tell you things. 00:27:58.920 |
Because once you become a pastor, or even a leader, you start putting on a teacher hat. 00:28:09.500 |
So whenever I get together with my pastor friends, I shared this with you before, I 00:28:28.340 |
And that's the detriment of leadership at times. 00:28:33.980 |
Because once we think that we know, from that moment on, we begin to deteriorate. 00:28:42.020 |
Don't ever trust somebody who always has the answer to everything. 00:28:47.740 |
Because that is not the person who is nearest to Christ. 00:28:52.060 |
The person who is nearest to Christ is more aware of his weakness than when he first started. 00:28:59.580 |
Because that's what he does when you're in his presence. 00:29:03.860 |
Anything that you had desire to boast, anything that you boasted of in the presence of anybody 00:29:10.620 |
else, but in the presence of God, all of a sudden, you become a babbling idiot. 00:29:21.380 |
So that's why Paul is saying, I'm telling you, I'm going to remind you. 00:29:24.380 |
I had a missionary friend who went out to missions, and he came back on furlough about 00:29:29.820 |
And I asked him, what was the hardest part of being a missionary? 00:29:33.040 |
And he said, the hardest part is continuing to go. 00:29:39.120 |
They sacrificed everything, sold all their things, moved to a country and lived in a 00:29:46.020 |
But once they got out there, it became their home. 00:30:01.600 |
After we've been a Christian for a while, we know. 00:30:05.420 |
After we've led a little bit of worship, we know. 00:30:08.780 |
After we've been a leader for a while, we know. 00:30:13.180 |
If we've been a Christian for a while, we know. 00:30:16.300 |
And as a result of that, we begin to drift away. 00:30:19.580 |
First Corinthians 10, 12, "Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, 00:30:29.160 |
When you first plant the church, everybody's excited. 00:30:32.640 |
But after the church gets to a certain size, we're no longer thinking about the lost. 00:30:39.860 |
Because people are gathering whether we pray or not. 00:30:44.620 |
Fellowship just happens because there's a number of people. 00:30:47.140 |
And we begin to forget why we were planted in the first place. 00:31:00.020 |
When I first became a Christian, I started reading through the Gospels. 00:31:03.940 |
One, it started with a genealogy, so I just skimmed over that. 00:31:10.780 |
But I was so excited about reading the Bible. 00:31:29.580 |
There's another genealogy here in chapter three." 00:31:32.420 |
And I began to wonder, like, why is there three separate accounts of the same story? 00:31:38.780 |
John, over 80% of the content is different, but more than half of John's Gospel is about 00:31:46.740 |
But even that period, there's a lot of things that overlap. 00:31:50.780 |
The wisdom behind the four different Gospels is to highlight the life and the glory of 00:31:56.940 |
Christ in different angles because of its importance. 00:32:04.220 |
If you've ever bought a car, you went to a dealership, and whether it's like a $20,000 00:32:08.940 |
car or $30,000 car, you know, I don't think anybody in this room, or at least that I know 00:32:14.220 |
of, is so rich that $30,000 is nothing to you. 00:32:17.620 |
So that's a lot of money you're going to invest. 00:32:19.540 |
So you don't walk into the dealership and look at the front of the car and say, "This 00:32:34.220 |
Or underneath the hood, you open it up and check out the engine, whether you know anything 00:32:39.120 |
You have to pretend like you know so you don't get ripped off. 00:32:50.580 |
So you walk to the side and look at the door, look at the paint, the windows, power windows, 00:32:56.020 |
what kind of power, what kind of gas mileage you have. 00:32:58.460 |
You open up the trunk and you look at how much space and you're thinking, "If I had 00:33:01.980 |
to put groceries in here, would it fit all of this?" 00:33:08.020 |
Then you look at all the car, what does it look like with the lights turned off, the 00:33:13.300 |
And then you get in the car and you drive it for a while to test what it looks like. 00:33:16.980 |
And then you come back and then you start contemplating, "Do I know enough to make 00:33:24.860 |
And the more important it is, the more time you will take examining what it is. 00:33:31.100 |
See, the life of Christ, the book of Matthew is kind of like the dealership presenting 00:33:42.860 |
He's the king that's fulfilling the prophecy. 00:33:44.700 |
So he's the dealership kind of like, "Here it is. 00:33:46.580 |
This is the one that you've been looking for." 00:33:49.260 |
Book of Mark is the mark that has all these actions. 00:33:52.340 |
It records more miracles than any other book. 00:33:54.460 |
The book of Mark is kind of like getting in the car and test driving you. 00:34:00.900 |
He's healing people, raising people, and opening the eyes. 00:34:06.900 |
Luke is the buyer's perspective, is the human perspective, like, "What would I look like 00:34:13.940 |
Are my kids going to fit into the back seat?" 00:34:16.580 |
So it's the humanitarian, the human perspective. 00:34:20.140 |
And the book of John is from above, where God is presenting his son to the world. 00:34:28.020 |
Every aspect of it is being presented to us because it is that important. 00:34:33.700 |
In Hebrews 1.1, it says, "Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers 00:34:41.740 |
This message of Christ was so important that God used narratives, poetry, laws, prophecies, 00:34:49.060 |
visions, signs, wonders, through kings, peasants, young, old, farmers, aristocrats, all for 00:35:04.980 |
You know, when we take pictures to put on Instagram or Facebook, a lot of people have 00:35:09.220 |
a certain angle that they like, because you know you look better this way than this way. 00:35:18.860 |
So you like to take pictures because you know you look different. 00:35:33.400 |
Think about the ramification of what he has done. 00:35:37.320 |
Think about the consequence of what you and I study. 00:35:43.540 |
To come to that and look at the hood and say, "I know," is arrogance. 00:35:53.820 |
That's why all of Scripture is a revelation that gives us a different angle of Christ. 00:35:59.780 |
That all of human history prepared us to the cross, and all of human history after that 00:36:06.760 |
So do you think that there was only one sign pointing to Jesus and one sign pointing back 00:36:17.300 |
That's why some of you guys who never knew anything about Leviticus, you had no idea. 00:36:21.340 |
If you've never studied through Leviticus, you had no idea how rich it was about Christ. 00:36:30.060 |
How all of these little intricate details prepared the nation of Israel to Christ. 00:36:36.660 |
And then when you study the New Testament, every part of that, even the rebukes, all 00:36:43.940 |
And so the more we study, the more we spread light upon the cross, what happens? 00:36:56.120 |
When we love something, it just doesn't get old. 00:36:59.700 |
I don't know how many of you guys listen to ESPN Talk Radio on 710. 00:37:05.140 |
It is amazing to me how much time they spend talking about everything related to sports. 00:37:14.620 |
Like only sport that I have some interest in is in basketball. 00:37:22.260 |
So I have a very small tolerance for what they talk about. 00:37:25.900 |
So when they talk about Lakers, I can sit there and listen, especially now that LeBron 00:37:31.460 |
But before LeBron came, they were talking about his shoe size. 00:37:34.460 |
What company, how much money he was making, where his sons are going to go to school, 00:37:52.900 |
They were talking to all of his friends and asking them, what does he like to eat? 00:38:03.100 |
And the reason why they do that is because there are hundreds of thousands and millions 00:38:06.900 |
of people listening to this radio and they make a living off of that. 00:38:11.460 |
If you're not interested in Lakers, if you're not interested in basketball, it sounds like 00:38:26.300 |
And yet, they're making hundreds of millions of dollars talking about that. 00:38:32.340 |
So how can we get bored talking about Christ? 00:38:38.420 |
How can the study of the Word of God become so dull? 00:38:42.820 |
How can the worship of this Savior, when all things are created by him and for him, when 00:38:49.300 |
something so trivial like basketball can captivate our attention for hours and months and years, 00:38:56.220 |
yet be so easily bored when it comes to our faith and our salvation in eternity? 00:39:04.460 |
This is why he said, I know you know it, but I'm going to keep telling you. 00:39:21.380 |
To stir up as a way of reminder so we do not drift from this great salvation. 00:39:30.180 |
If we're not careful, the most important person in our life can easily become an it instead 00:39:44.140 |
Our relationship with him is no different than our relationship with Donald Trump. 00:39:47.500 |
He's just the President of the United States. 00:39:50.420 |
He makes big decisions, and we happen to live in the United States. 00:40:00.900 |
He doesn't want us from a distance and pointing and say, oh, I believe in that God. 00:40:05.900 |
He opened a door so that he can invite us to come to the throne of grace to worship. 00:40:26.780 |
God's not eager to see the church filled with nominal Christians. 00:40:32.180 |
God is not waiting for Christians to regurgitate information that they heard, and so he regurgitated 00:40:39.140 |
God's not looking at us to see how many people we're going to tolerate in our lives, add 00:40:47.980 |
All of it is so that he can rekindle worship, rekindle worship, that we may love our Lord 00:40:55.540 |
with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:40:59.480 |
Let's take some time to pray this morning as we invite our worship to come up. 00:41:12.100 |
Have we become teachers before we really study? 00:41:16.540 |
Let's take some time to come before the Lord, and again, in our weakness, ask the Lord. 00:41:24.860 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship can lead us.