back to index2018-12-09 Summary of the Gospel Part 2
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All right, so if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16, verse 25 through 00:00:09.760 |
I'm going to read it again just as a reminder. 00:00:13.120 |
Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ 00:00:17.800 |
according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, 00:00:22.880 |
but now is manifested and by scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment 00:00:26.440 |
of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations leading to the obedience of 00:00:32.240 |
To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever. 00:00:39.560 |
Heavenly Father, we've gathered here together this morning because we want to hear from 00:00:48.220 |
Not to simply study this text, not to simply meet our friends. 00:00:52.940 |
We desire Father God to hear from you, to meet you, to drink of the living water, to 00:01:05.100 |
Help us to see your spirit, your very breath. 00:01:09.320 |
May our hearts, Lord God, be filled with you and reminders, Lord, of the reality of the 00:01:13.600 |
unseen things, Lord God, that we are hoping for. 00:01:17.040 |
We pray in our busyness, help us never to be distracted and to conform to the pattern 00:01:22.880 |
But I pray that preaching of your word and listening to your word would renew our minds 00:01:29.200 |
that we may discern what is good and perfect will of the Lord. 00:01:34.520 |
We entrust this time to you asking for your blessing. 00:01:40.520 |
We are finally at the last sermon of the Book of Romans. 00:01:44.040 |
I do not have any more after this unless I choose to do an overview survey for the next 00:01:52.880 |
I am kind of reluctant to get out of it because, again, Romans is, you know, I have shared 00:01:59.440 |
with you many times Romans is probably the book that if I had one book that I wanted 00:02:04.200 |
to put to memory and really have it regurgitating in my soul, it would be the Book of Romans 00:02:10.720 |
Every aspect of the gospel that we hear of all our lives, whether you have been a Christian 00:02:15.340 |
for a year or you have been a Christian for 30, 40 years, basically what we are doing 00:02:20.320 |
every single week is reexamining, deepening on our understanding of what Paul is saying 00:02:29.280 |
Paul is going to conclude this letter in the same way that he started the Book of Romans. 00:02:34.320 |
So again, assuming that none of you remember what we talked about in Romans chapter 1, 00:02:42.360 |
So basically the content of what he says here is repeated exactly the same thing that he 00:02:47.440 |
says when he opens up the letter in Romans chapter 1, 1 through 17. 00:02:51.560 |
It talks about God's power, the purpose of the gospel. 00:02:54.600 |
It talks about mystery that is to be revealed. 00:02:59.200 |
So everything that we are talking about, he says it. 00:03:02.040 |
So he is kind of wrapping it up with these two book ends of this is the gospel. 00:03:06.140 |
And that is basically what he has been expositing the last 16 chapters. 00:03:09.960 |
The two things that we looked at last week was the gospel is a demonstration of God's 00:03:14.200 |
So the power of God that people are constantly looking to connect with God with his power. 00:03:21.680 |
We want to see him doing miraculous things and if he heals or if he does something beyond 00:03:26.920 |
human ability, we say that is God's power and that would help me to see and believe 00:03:32.720 |
But the scripture says it is the gospel, the gospel, his death and resurrection. 00:03:40.160 |
And then the second part that we talked about how Jesus is the gospel. 00:03:45.320 |
That the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of Jesus Christ. 00:03:50.280 |
So the point of all that we have learned about the gospel is to bring us ultimately to him. 00:03:59.160 |
You can come to church all your life and never have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:04:04.960 |
Somebody can blaspheme his name and you get very offended when you say your mama is and 00:04:12.800 |
Because there is no personal affection for him. 00:04:16.280 |
You hear people blaspheming his name and it doesn't offend you because there is no personal 00:04:21.560 |
So if we are not careful, we can be an expert of the gospel, expert of what the word of 00:04:26.120 |
God says, but be completely emotionally in every practical aspect completely disconnected 00:04:38.560 |
The third, fourth and fifth, the third is the main part and the fourth and fourth and 00:04:42.720 |
fifth is going to be kind of tagging along with that. 00:04:45.160 |
So I'm going to be spending most of my time on the third point where the gospel is the 00:04:55.000 |
We have to be careful when we study the Bible that we don't project onto it what we think 00:05:02.360 |
So this was written obviously in 2000 years ago, the vocabulary that they used at that 00:05:08.480 |
So in interpreting the Bible, okay, this is a pop quiz and I know you college students 00:05:13.440 |
are in the middle of your finals, okay, but this is a pop quiz, all right? 00:05:18.400 |
In interpreting the Bible, what is the most important part of understanding what that 00:05:34.360 |
What is the most important part of Bible interpretation to get the right meaning? 00:05:39.720 |
And this isn't just the Bible, this is just common sense in anything that you read. 00:05:54.800 |
Some of you guys don't know what I'm talking about. 00:06:04.120 |
You have to understand what is being said in context, in context of the letter, in context 00:06:09.360 |
of the culture, in context of how the person is using the word, right? 00:06:15.560 |
The problem, the danger of interpreting the scripture where you take a passage out and 00:06:21.000 |
then you say, "Well, that's what I heard," right? 00:06:24.240 |
That's no different than jumping into the middle of a conversation and somebody says 00:06:27.480 |
something and said, "But you said this, but you didn't hear the whole conversation. 00:06:35.520 |
You can take it completely out of context and it has nothing to do with what he says 00:06:40.680 |
Well, this word here, mystery, is a contextual word. 00:06:47.760 |
The New Testament uses it in relation to the gospel over 26 separate times. 00:06:54.200 |
Jesus uses it repeatedly in the way he teaches the parables about the kingdom of God. 00:06:59.720 |
He says it repeatedly about the mystery of the kingdom, the mystery of the kingdom. 00:07:04.120 |
Paul uses it probably predominantly more than anybody else. 00:07:07.640 |
It's repeated again all the way through the book of Revelation that the gospel is the 00:07:11.920 |
mystery of God, which was at one point hidden and it is now revealed. 00:07:18.080 |
The first thing that we need to understand before we begin to project onto it what we 00:07:24.880 |
When we think of mystery, you're probably thinking of the genre of mystery, that you 00:07:29.480 |
have a bunch of things happening and you can't quite understand. 00:07:33.480 |
Or you would say something or someone is mysterious. 00:07:38.600 |
There's something about it that you can't quite put together, that it's hard to understand. 00:07:44.640 |
That is not how the Bible uses the term mystery. 00:07:48.120 |
I think the best way for us to understand the term mystery is something that was hidden, 00:07:53.240 |
but it is revealed to specific people, that it is meant for people to know, but the way 00:07:57.660 |
that he revealed it is through progressive revelation. 00:08:03.720 |
Now since we're all movie buffs, or at least many of you, let me ask you. 00:08:12.720 |
I'm talking about series of movies that they've created throughout maybe 10 years or 20 years 00:08:18.100 |
What do you think is the best series of movies in the last 50 years? 00:09:02.600 |
So Star Wars obviously came out many, many decades ago, and it didn't start at the beginning. 00:09:08.440 |
It started, and everybody, like people who are older than me, really got into Star Wars, 00:09:14.640 |
and then when the prequels began to come out, the story began to make more sense. 00:09:19.320 |
So you can watch it and enjoy it by itself, but when you began to understand the history 00:09:24.640 |
and the story behind it, it really made that much more, it made a lot more sense. 00:09:31.320 |
And then obviously they have other movies that were coming. 00:09:35.520 |
And you can say, "Well, I like this one better than the other ones." 00:09:37.760 |
But the storyline in and of itself, right, every one of those things fits together and 00:09:44.560 |
How they came about and where Darth Vader comes from and how he turned into Darth Vader 00:09:48.200 |
and who his son is and all of these things that was left, what, a mystery in the first 00:09:55.680 |
movie began to get revealed through the prequels. 00:10:01.240 |
The best way for us to understand this gospel is that God has implanted into human history, 00:10:07.600 |
and that's what we've been studying in the book of Revelation. 00:10:10.000 |
He's been planting in the history all these things that in and of itself for the nation 00:10:17.600 |
This is what it meant to be holy, this is what it meant to be atoned for, but the ultimate 00:10:21.840 |
purpose behind it was meant to be revealed in the future in Christ. 00:10:28.140 |
So it wasn't that the gospel was left a mystery and something for us to unravel like Rubik's 00:10:32.360 |
Cube and if you're really good at it, you can figure this out. 00:10:36.640 |
God deliberately left imprints of what he was about to do. 00:10:43.000 |
And so when Christ came, all of a sudden it became a reality. 00:10:46.760 |
In fact, Jesus himself in Matthew 13, 10 through 11, before his death and resurrection was 00:10:51.980 |
teaching about the kingdom through parables and the disciples asked him, "Why do you 00:10:58.640 |
The disciples came to him and said to him, in Matthew 13, 10 through 11, "Why do you 00:11:04.120 |
Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom 00:11:08.160 |
of heaven, but to them it has not been granted." 00:11:11.960 |
So for those of them who believed, he said the parables actually made more sense. 00:11:18.620 |
Just like we use illustrations today, we would give a teaching to really help us understand. 00:11:24.960 |
Just like what I use Star Wars as an illustration, to help us to understand what does the Bible 00:11:32.440 |
But to those who don't believe, the parables actually make it harder. 00:11:39.200 |
And he said he spoke in mystery for the purpose of revelation. 00:11:43.400 |
Romans 11, 25, "I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery," talking 00:11:49.360 |
about the gospel, "so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial 00:11:53.680 |
hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." 00:11:58.440 |
In other words, because of Israel's sin, this mystery that he gave the nation of Israel 00:12:05.800 |
that began to get revealed to the Gentiles, that the Israelites were experiencing this 00:12:13.880 |
continued hardening until the fullness of time of the Gentiles, which is the period 00:12:18.800 |
To clarify even further, 2 Corinthians 3, 14-18. 00:12:25.480 |
Paul says of the nation of Israel, "But their minds were hardened, for until this very day 00:12:29.560 |
at the reading of the old covenant," which is talking about the Old Testament, "the same 00:12:33.880 |
veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ." 00:12:37.720 |
In other words, the answer was in Christ, but because they refused to receive him to 00:12:50.320 |
Verse 15, "But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 00:12:58.200 |
But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." 00:13:05.840 |
So the way that the mystery was revealed wasn't simply through careful study. 00:13:16.240 |
According to what we read, who reveals this mystery and the reality that is found in Christ? 00:13:24.400 |
It wasn't simply, "Oh, they didn't study enough," or "They didn't read enough books." 00:13:28.280 |
He said, "Because they refused Christ, there's a veil that remains even to this day. 00:13:33.080 |
But whenever a person turns to the Lord, veil is taken away. 00:13:36.600 |
Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 00:13:40.480 |
But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, being transformed 00:13:47.920 |
So in other words, when the veil was taken away, and when he began to behold his glory, 00:14:01.200 |
Right now, he described not only justification, but also sanctification. 00:14:06.400 |
So glorification, justification happens when the veil is torn. 00:14:14.320 |
So the mystery that was behind the curtain, all of a sudden, we saw it, and it made sense. 00:14:19.480 |
All of what we've been studying in Leviticus began to make sense that Christ fulfills this, 00:14:24.160 |
and he tears the curtain, and now we behold the glory. 00:14:27.880 |
And then sanctification is continuing, right? 00:14:32.080 |
Continuing to see this glory that's been revealed. 00:14:34.640 |
So now we are transformed to his glory as we gaze upon his glory. 00:14:44.560 |
A greater and greater revelation of that glory, of this mystery that God begins to reveal. 00:15:00.640 |
"Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, 00:15:06.240 |
nor the rulers of this age, who are passing away." 00:15:09.880 |
He's talking about now not the Jews, but the rest of the world who do not believe. 00:15:15.120 |
And he says this wisdom that he is preaching is not a wisdom of this world, meaning you 00:15:22.720 |
You can't have the revelation of God simply because you read a lot of books or attended 00:15:31.880 |
"But we speak," verse 7, "God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined 00:15:38.360 |
before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. 00:15:43.720 |
With all the knowledge and education and access they have to information, it's that none of 00:15:48.240 |
them could figure out, for if they had understood, if they would not have crucified the Lord 00:15:52.320 |
of glory, but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard 00:15:58.200 |
and which have not entered the heart of man,' all that God has prepared for those who love 00:16:05.000 |
God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depth 00:16:23.280 |
When we believe and we begin to behold his glory, and that's exactly what the scripture 00:16:28.720 |
"The God of this age blinded the mind of the unbelievers so they do not see the glory of 00:16:37.600 |
So salvation is the blinders being taken away so that we may begin to gaze upon his glory. 00:16:44.120 |
That's why Jonathan Edwards says, "The greatest evidence of the salvation is this renewed 00:16:55.660 |
You can love the church, the people, the mission. 00:17:01.220 |
You can love whatever it is that the church is involved with and yet have no affection 00:17:15.580 |
But the greatest evidence of your justification is your renewed affection for Jesus Christ. 00:17:25.420 |
See, in the earthly kingdom, they only believe what they can see. 00:17:36.360 |
But in God's kingdom, we can only see what we believe. 00:17:42.260 |
In the earthly kingdom, they only believe what they can see. 00:17:45.760 |
But in God's kingdom, we can only see what we believe. 00:17:52.300 |
You listen to that and say, "Well, that sounds like a cop-out. 00:17:54.940 |
That sounds like something you say to somebody when you don't have an answer." 00:18:02.460 |
Have you ever had a funny moment with maybe a close friend of yours? 00:18:08.180 |
Maybe you went to missions and you came back and said, "Oh my gosh, it was so hilarious. 00:18:14.540 |
We cracked up for 10, 15 minutes and people were telling us to be quiet because we just 00:18:24.460 |
And then the moment you begin to share the story, there's a confusion that comes because 00:18:33.220 |
And even as you're telling it, you can tell that this is not funny. 00:18:40.740 |
And the only explanation you can give is, "You had to have been there." 00:18:51.340 |
And all of that contributed to why probably at that moment it must have been funny. 00:18:55.860 |
But when you try to recreate that by telling somebody, you just can't recreate it. 00:19:00.780 |
That's something that happened at that moment. 00:19:04.140 |
And all that led up to that and all that was around that. 00:19:07.860 |
And the connection maybe between that person. 00:19:10.740 |
In the same way, when we try to reveal the gospel, the Bible says it is veiled. 00:19:16.460 |
And it is open to those that God chooses to have it open. 00:19:21.780 |
And so once God opens our eyes, all of a sudden it makes sense. 00:19:29.900 |
You know that missionary who went out to India and found out that, I think, Jonathan Chow, 00:19:37.100 |
there's been a lot of stories and there's been a lot of confusion as to what to make 00:19:41.700 |
And the sad thing is even some of the Christians were looking at that and saying, "Oh, what 00:19:50.020 |
Some crazy person or people decided to risk their lives and translate the Bible into English 00:20:00.660 |
You know, what he did was very common in the context of the gospel history. 00:20:08.460 |
If you're not a Christian, that makes absolutely no sense. 00:20:11.020 |
Why would a young man who has a very promising career, educated, intelligent, why would he 00:20:21.020 |
Go to an area of the world to preach this silly message and give his life. 00:20:30.300 |
And so they're trying to figure out what led him to do that. 00:20:34.020 |
Oh, he was so adventurous and he just didn't care about... 00:20:36.860 |
And they're doing their best to try to understand. 00:20:38.700 |
But if you genuinely believe what the gospel message says, and that's the reason why you're 00:20:51.020 |
In fact, not only is it not confusing, it's challenging that that person was willing to 00:20:56.340 |
give his life to share the gospel to the unreached people. 00:21:01.140 |
No matter how much you try to explain that, that's not something you can explain until 00:21:07.900 |
I remember early on when we used to go out to China. 00:21:10.820 |
I remember some of the parents, when we used to go out to China, and at that time, China 00:21:20.220 |
And at that time, there's a lot of stories about underground church leaders getting jailed. 00:21:23.900 |
And I remember early on when we were going there to teach English, we would pay a lot 00:21:27.380 |
of money to go there to teach English, pay a lot of money to run the camps so we could 00:21:32.100 |
And I remember some of the parents who weren't Christian at the time saying, "What are you 00:21:38.100 |
If you go to Japan or Korea, you can make a lot of money in the summer. 00:21:41.740 |
Why would you pay money to go to a place in the world and work for them for free and come 00:21:48.740 |
I'm not going to tell you who they are, but eventually, one of the parents became Christians 00:22:00.740 |
They came with us at one point to China to do missions, to do the same thing. 00:22:08.740 |
Until the veil was torn, they began to see the mystery revealed. 00:22:13.140 |
All of a sudden, not only did it make sense, they participated. 00:22:20.820 |
That at one point when it was hidden, now it is open for people to see. 00:22:25.340 |
And it was not only was it hidden, he deliberately put it into the Old Testament to cause a stir. 00:22:33.340 |
Kind of like the way the movies are made today. 00:22:43.540 |
Remember a while back, there was a TV series called 24. 00:22:51.860 |
I don't like watching things for a long period of time. 00:22:54.100 |
If it's like one ends, then I want to be done with it. 00:23:00.040 |
But this thing, everybody at church got into it and I got curious. 00:23:04.340 |
I watched, me and Esther watched it, and we got hooked. 00:23:09.600 |
And the reason why is because at the end of everything, at the end of whatever the series 00:23:22.820 |
He's about to save the president and then if he doesn't do this one thing, the bomb 00:23:29.500 |
10, 9, 8, 7, then whatever else comes after that. 00:23:37.180 |
And then it would go black and then say next week. 00:23:41.940 |
So you have to go back to see, did he save him, not save him? 00:23:45.260 |
And every one, it would end like that and it would hook you. 00:23:49.540 |
Even if you got bored in the middle, at the very end, it would always hook you to make 00:23:55.060 |
We got caught up in this and by the time we got to the third series, we said, "We got 00:24:05.700 |
And just how many presidents are going to die? 00:24:09.420 |
How many times is he going to save the world? 00:24:13.220 |
But the genius behind what they did was to kind of hook you to make sure. 00:24:17.780 |
Well, the Bible says that that's exactly what God was doing in the Old Testament. 00:24:26.300 |
He was waiting for the perfect time to reveal, but he was trying to stir up, get people ready. 00:24:32.460 |
I mean, wouldn't that make sense if your son is about to come and give his life, the greatest 00:24:37.060 |
thing that happened in human history, depending on what it is, you're going to spend a lot 00:24:45.820 |
Those of you who got married and you're preparing for a wedding, and I know we have a bunch 00:24:50.140 |
of couples now, or if you're having a kid and you know that the kid is coming in the 00:24:54.580 |
next six months, as the time ticks, depending on how important this is, you're going to 00:24:59.940 |
spend more time, more money, more energy preparing to make sure. 00:25:05.140 |
Well, that's exactly what God was doing with Jesus. 00:25:10.060 |
All through Israel's history, in everything that he did, everything that he did in the 00:25:14.460 |
Old Testament was to point to and to prepare for the coming of Christ. 00:25:20.380 |
1 Peter 1, 10-11, it says, "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that 00:25:25.700 |
would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries." 00:25:30.220 |
Even as they were prophesying, what is God doing? 00:25:39.580 |
Can you imagine Isaiah prophesying, Isaiah 53? 00:25:43.860 |
And as he was prophesying, the Messiah is going to be slaughtered like a sheep? 00:25:53.740 |
All our iniquities are going to be laid upon him? 00:25:57.740 |
He said, "God gave these revelations, but even as it was coming through the prophets, 00:26:02.020 |
they began to ask the question, 'What is this? 00:26:05.340 |
Verse 11, "Seeking to know what person or time of the Spirit of Christ within them was 00:26:09.480 |
indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow." 00:26:15.540 |
He said that this mystery that was coming through the prophets was so spectacular that 00:26:26.220 |
They began to search and they began to look with envy. 00:26:33.220 |
So you can enjoy the New Testament independent of the Old Testament, just like you can watch 00:26:37.900 |
Star Wars, the first one, without seeing the other ones. 00:26:41.020 |
But when you study the Old Testament, when you study the book of Leviticus and Israel's 00:26:44.260 |
history and the prophets, all of a sudden you begin to see the depth of what God has 00:26:49.740 |
been doing in history to prepare for the coming of Christ. 00:26:55.380 |
Colossians 2, 2-3, "Even in Paul's prayer, Paul's pray that their hearts may be encouraged, 00:27:01.300 |
having been knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the fullness 00:27:06.100 |
assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, 00:27:10.620 |
Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 00:27:17.940 |
All the treasures, all the wisdom, all the knowledge is in Christ. 00:27:25.580 |
So this mystery that is revealed isn't simply a part of human history. 00:27:33.620 |
Anything that you and I have been fooled to believe can be found in this world because 00:27:41.540 |
of the lie, because of our sins and our lust. 00:27:44.700 |
He says it is found in Christ because he is the author of life. 00:27:52.380 |
All things were created by him and for him and is sustained through him. 00:28:01.900 |
So when this mystery is revealed, it is not simply a way to get to heaven. 00:28:08.980 |
Every longing and desire in sinful man is found in Christ. 00:28:15.740 |
All the treasures, all the wisdom, all the knowledge is found in Christ. 00:28:20.980 |
It is this mystery that he kept hidden and is now revealed. 00:28:27.420 |
That's why nominal Christianity isn't Christianity. 00:28:33.620 |
Nominal Christianity is not a sub-level of Christianity. 00:28:42.980 |
You can't behold this glory and walk away and say, "Well, you guys are fanatics. 00:28:51.540 |
It's not possible because it betrays what you profess to believe. 00:28:58.580 |
Either you beheld his glory and it changes everything about who you are or you didn't 00:29:04.580 |
You can love the church, you can love the people, you can love the teaching, you can 00:29:07.820 |
love the purpose, but that's not Jesus if it doesn't change everything about who we 00:29:18.860 |
He's talking about the end times, these false prophets. 00:29:21.340 |
They're always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 00:29:26.180 |
C.S. Lewis says it this way, "I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. 00:29:31.460 |
Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." 00:29:38.620 |
Beholding God's glory, I'm sure many of you can testify the same thing. 00:29:45.780 |
Once you met the Lord, whether it was an instantaneous meeting of the Lord or whether it was a gradual 00:29:50.260 |
unveiling of this mystery, once you met the Lord, your purpose looked different. 00:30:01.540 |
Even why you choose a major starts to change. 00:30:08.500 |
How you raise your kids, it changes because your perspective changes. 00:30:21.900 |
The kind of people that you want to be around, it changes. 00:30:26.220 |
How you view eternity, how you view your retirement, how you view life, how you view singleness, 00:30:33.540 |
how you view marriage, it all completely changes because through the lens of Christ, everything 00:30:44.880 |
Before we met Christ, we were kind of functioning in the dark and we were feeling, it's like, 00:30:52.420 |
You would go to the dining room table and it looks like, "Oh, this feels like a chair." 00:30:56.320 |
But all of a sudden, when the light gets turned on, all of a sudden you see what it is. 00:31:02.340 |
Your whole world changes when the light gets turned on. 00:31:10.580 |
But again, the danger that you and I are in, in a post-Christian culture where there is 00:31:16.420 |
a lot of description of what the world is supposed to be like, and a lot of people who 00:31:22.020 |
are living in darkness can tell you and say the right things and yet have never changed 00:31:34.260 |
They just added Christ to whatever it was they were pursuing before because they never 00:31:41.580 |
Jeremiah 29, 13, it says, "You will seek me and find me when you search me with all 00:31:50.340 |
He says in the scripture, he left all these imprints and for those who are searching, 00:31:55.140 |
like the prophets, when these prophecies were coming, they said, "What is this?" 00:31:59.020 |
And they began to search and they began to search him with all their hearts. 00:32:05.620 |
But the people who are just kind of nonchalant, satisfied with their life, he says, "No, 00:32:11.580 |
He left imprints and it will remain an imprint. 00:32:16.460 |
He allows the veil to remain because you are not interested. 00:32:24.420 |
You know, a while back, and I don't even know the author, but I didn't even want to look 00:32:30.980 |
You might have heard it where this guy wrote a book because he's not that into you. 00:32:35.500 |
It's a dating book, it's not a Christian book. 00:32:37.820 |
So basically in that book, he describes if he does this, right? 00:32:42.260 |
Like if you dated him and you came back and he does this, it just means he's not into 00:32:47.740 |
Don't get hurt because he's just not into you. 00:32:51.820 |
If he met you, no matter what he said, if he leaves and he doesn't call you back in 00:32:59.740 |
Or he goes out and then he asks you to split the bill and you pay your half and I pay mine. 00:33:08.540 |
You know, he always kind of meets you sideways, but when you say, "Hey, where are your friends?" 00:33:12.420 |
He never wants to introduce you to your friends. 00:33:15.100 |
So he's got all these lists of things that no matter what he said to you, his actions 00:33:24.700 |
In our faith, we nonchalantly put the minimum effort in pursuing Christ and constantly wonder 00:33:45.580 |
You haven't made up your mind that he is everything. 00:33:51.220 |
Maybe that's the reason why he always feels so distant. 00:33:56.140 |
You want the world and him and God made it very clear you cannot serve mammon and God 00:33:59.700 |
at the same time and you're trying so hard and it just isn't working because you're really 00:34:06.720 |
You want the benefit of Christianity without having Christ. 00:34:10.960 |
You want holiness without his presence and it doesn't happen. 00:34:16.780 |
See God left it a mystery to draw those who are hungry to him and when they came, he tore 00:34:23.180 |
the veil and he began to see and everything started to change. 00:34:28.480 |
It was manifested by the scriptures of prophets according to the commandments of the eternal 00:34:32.300 |
God through his word, primarily through Christ. 00:34:36.580 |
Hebrews chapter 1, 1 through 2, God after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets 00:34:41.020 |
in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in his son whom 00:34:51.580 |
The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to bring this mystery to us and make it known. 00:34:56.380 |
A lot of times we think of the Holy Spirit as being emotional in the middle of worship 00:35:01.700 |
like God touching us and bringing tears and yeah, we're not saying that that can't be 00:35:05.500 |
the work of the Holy Spirit but according to Jesus, the primary work of the Holy Spirit 00:35:14.940 |
John 14, 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, talking 00:35:20.180 |
about the Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that 00:35:26.500 |
His primary work is to make the revelation of Christ clear so that when the word of God 00:35:32.900 |
is taught that you understand it and then when you heard it that you would meditate 00:35:41.260 |
on it and it would actually cause you to bear fruit, that you don't just hear it and then 00:35:46.420 |
when you're out the door you forget about it. 00:35:48.340 |
He said the work of the Holy Spirit causes it to stick into your mind and in your heart 00:35:51.700 |
and it begins to challenge you and change you and sanctify you. 00:35:57.140 |
So a lot of times people think like well because we're not emotional, we're not raising our 00:36:00.340 |
hands and enough people are not crying, this Holy Spirit is not working. 00:36:05.420 |
That's not what the Holy Spirit, the Bible says the Holy Spirit does primarily. 00:36:11.340 |
Let me get to the fourth and fifth point because it's kind of tagged and I'm not going to spend 00:36:17.180 |
Considering all that we know about the gospel and that's pretty much the summary of what 00:36:20.380 |
Paul has said, in light of that he says this gospel is a mystery to be preached. 00:36:29.140 |
So faith, Romans 10 17 comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. 00:36:37.260 |
So first application of that is that the preacher upon this pulpit must preach his word. 00:36:46.500 |
My goal here is not to try to fill this room with as many people as possible. 00:36:51.440 |
My hope and desire is more and more people will come and hear the gospel. 00:36:54.940 |
But my primary purpose is to make his voice clear. 00:37:00.740 |
Not my voice, not my experience, not the wisdom of this world, but this mystery that's been 00:37:11.260 |
But it doesn't end with this pulpit because you have family and friends and strangers 00:37:22.260 |
And even if they came here, I preached to them from a distance. 00:37:26.700 |
In light of this mystery that's been revealed, the gospel is to be preached. 00:37:34.820 |
First Corinthians 1 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not 00:37:38.560 |
come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to 00:37:47.540 |
Our job, we don't have the power to save people. 00:37:52.700 |
If we just apply the right technique, if we have the right discipleship, if we're organized 00:37:57.340 |
certain way that somehow we can add to whatever Christ was doing. 00:38:04.180 |
The foolishness of the preaching of the cross is what brings them to Christ. 00:38:09.100 |
So our primary purpose outside of these walls is to make sure that everybody at least understands 00:38:19.980 |
That nobody around you dies not knowing what the gospel is. 00:38:24.860 |
They may die rejecting the gospel, but they should not be dying not knowing the gospel. 00:38:32.520 |
Because he says if you know this mystery, and that's why it's called euangelion, the 00:38:39.100 |
You can't hear the good news and just keep it to yourself. 00:38:43.580 |
Because it was a mystery that was revealed and once it is revealed you are to spend the 00:38:47.400 |
rest of the time telling as many people as possible. 00:38:50.940 |
This gospel is to be preached, to know him and to make him known. 00:39:01.780 |
If you've ever been involved with Navigators campus ministry, it's to know him, make him 00:39:08.180 |
I've always coveted that because I wanted that to be ours. 00:39:22.360 |
You can't make him known if you don't know him. 00:39:24.340 |
If you're not continuing to pursue him, you can't make him known. 00:39:27.000 |
But those two aspects have to go hand in hand. 00:39:30.180 |
Our goal has to be constantly to know him, to understand this great mystery that has 00:39:37.500 |
And then the more we know, the more we are to proclaim and to teach. 00:39:56.580 |
All our hobbies, all our desires, all of these things, they're not necessarily sinful. 00:40:04.260 |
But it's a distraction because it takes us away from our primary calling, to know him 00:40:13.540 |
That's what he means when he says, "Whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory 00:40:17.780 |
You know, so sometimes we compartmentalize God and so we have God things that we do and 00:40:22.940 |
then we have the non-God things that we do and then somehow these things never overlap. 00:40:29.300 |
I mean, God didn't just purchase a part of your life. 00:40:36.300 |
Everything that we do, eat or drink, is for his glory. 00:40:43.980 |
You can't obey something that you don't believe. 00:40:48.540 |
And here's the fundamental thing that I want to, again, encourage and challenge you. 00:40:52.660 |
Because we're afraid to ask the question if we really believe. 00:40:58.300 |
Because if the answer to that is, "Oh, maybe I don't," means maybe you're not saved. 00:41:03.960 |
So that's not something that I want to even entertain. 00:41:08.260 |
So we look at our life that doesn't make sense. 00:41:12.860 |
It doesn't make sense with what I'm reading in scripture. 00:41:16.820 |
But when we take that, "Maybe I don't really believe," and we're trying to make sense 00:41:21.260 |
of a life with no affection for Christ, no desire to evangelize, no desire to read his 00:41:27.020 |
word, no desire to obey, pursuing the things of this world, and yet we can never question 00:41:39.580 |
Where in the Bible it says, "If you believe, then go." 00:41:55.540 |
Because when we reorient ourselves based upon our faith, what we believe, it causes us to 00:42:04.380 |
If I believe that this world is temporary, why do I love it so much? 00:42:11.940 |
If I believe that all the money in the world and all the acclamation in this world, all 00:42:16.780 |
of it is under judgment of God, why do I cherish that so much? 00:42:22.060 |
If I believe that the world is condemned and if they die without knowing Christ, and condemnation 00:42:26.300 |
is waiting for them, why am I not motivated to teach them, to preach to them, to bring 00:42:36.340 |
Is it because I don't believe, or am I so distracted with the things of this world that 00:42:51.620 |
He says to bring obedience, the mystery of the gospel is ultimately to bring us to obedience. 00:42:57.020 |
Let me wrap it up this way, because that's exactly what he says. 00:42:59.580 |
That's how Paul started this letter in Romans chapter 1, 5. 00:43:02.100 |
"Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among 00:43:12.820 |
Baptize them, go, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 00:43:17.380 |
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. 00:43:20.380 |
So the end goal of discipleship is obedience. 00:43:23.380 |
The end goal of preaching the gospel is not simply to say, "Here's believers, here's the 00:43:26.860 |
non-believers, here's the atheists, and here are the theists." 00:43:34.020 |
So let me wrap this up, because the way he wraps it up is ultimately pointing to God. 00:43:40.940 |
"That has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience to the faith, to the 00:43:44.980 |
only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever. 00:43:49.660 |
And all of this culminates in human history, ends with this, "To the only wise God through 00:44:01.700 |
The goal, ultimate purpose of the revelation of this mystery is for his glory. 00:44:09.960 |
And it all points back to Genesis chapter 1 and 2. 00:44:20.980 |
And then when man rebelled against God, we can no longer bear his glory. 00:44:31.480 |
So when we are restored, that glory is restored. 00:44:38.020 |
We lost it because mankind decided that he wanted to be the object of worship. 00:44:44.140 |
And you can summarize all of human rebellion as pursuing his glory. 00:44:56.140 |
Isn't that oftentimes the source of our depression? 00:45:05.740 |
Isn't that ultimately the source of lying and slandering and oftentimes murder and theft? 00:45:14.300 |
Because we're pursuing our own glory and somebody else and something else or some circumstance 00:45:24.540 |
So when we pursue our happiness, when we pursue our own glory, it leads to the exact opposite 00:45:32.500 |
And that's what Jesus said, "If you seek your own life, you will find death." 00:45:36.740 |
But if you die in the name of Jesus, you will find life in him. 00:45:51.900 |
As much as that sounds attractive, to be the center of attention on a pedestal with people 00:46:00.420 |
clapping hands and saying, "Wow, you're so awesome." 00:46:04.020 |
As much as that may be appealing to us, we want to play football, we want to be the captain. 00:46:11.940 |
We want to be a multimillionaire, drive nice car. 00:46:15.540 |
We want to be the tallest, we want to be the most handsome, we want to be the most talented. 00:46:21.980 |
We want to be recognized, we want to become leaders. 00:46:26.300 |
All of that at the source is human rebellion, wanting to be worshipped rather than be worshippers. 00:46:34.020 |
The gospel, the mystery that is revealed, it flips that script and turns it back to 00:46:44.420 |
That's the end goal of human history, is to put God back on his throne and take ourselves 00:46:52.340 |
And we think, "Oh, that's kind of egotistical. 00:46:54.060 |
I mean, of course we all want to be the center of attention." 00:47:00.900 |
Think about how freeing it is if you didn't have to worry about your hair. 00:47:12.500 |
If you didn't have to worry about other people, think about how much time, energy is spent 00:47:16.540 |
to make sure that your hair is a certain way every morning. 00:47:22.180 |
So some guy is just kind of like, "I'm sick of this." 00:47:27.820 |
I think about something as trivial as your hair and how much time and effort goes into 00:47:33.160 |
making sure your hair is a certain way, combed a certain way, your skin, your pants. 00:47:51.180 |
Imagine how much time and effort goes into wanting attention a certain way. 00:48:25.260 |
Don't you think what Jesus says, "He who knows the truth, they are disciples of mine." 00:48:31.620 |
"And they shall know the truth and the truth shall set them free." 00:48:39.940 |
The sin of rebellion against God to glorify himself. 00:48:46.020 |
So what's going to save us from this desire to be glorified? 00:48:50.560 |
Is to reveal a glory that is so much better than us. 00:48:55.940 |
So much better than what we can possibly imagine. 00:49:00.180 |
That we don't trick ourselves to pursue that. 00:49:05.300 |
That we notice something so much more than us that all of a sudden we just forget. 00:49:12.700 |
Isn't that what Paul means in light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ? 00:49:19.920 |
And the reason why it's not rubbish is because we keep going back and looking at it and forgetting 00:49:32.280 |
That's why he had it hidden and then all of a sudden now it's revealed. 00:49:37.620 |
So that those who have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ would want nothing 00:49:47.280 |
To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever.