Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 9, and I'm going to be reading from verse 25 through 29. Romans chapter 9, verse 25 through 29. As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who are not my people I will call my people, and her who is not beloved I will call beloved.

And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.

For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.' And as Isaiah predicted, 'If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.'" Let's pray. Gracious Father, we ask that you would anoint this time, that your word, that your living word would go forth and would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

We pray, Father God, that you give us fertile ground of hearts to listen, to apply, to be eager, Lord God, to hear from you. I pray that you would filter every word that comes out of this mouth, that it may be used for your grace, for your glory. So we ask for your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us and empower us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Again, we're jumping back into the book of Romans and as you know, Apostle Paul has been going over the details of the gospel and he's been answering in the last maybe about three or four weeks that we were together in the book of Romans.

In the book chapter nine, he's been answering the question, if the gospel of grace is true, what does that mean for the nation of Israel? Does it mean that God has changed his plan? Is God going another direction? So Paul has been expositing and he's been going through the Old Testament, he's been going through various passages to declare that our God is the same.

What I want to go through today, and I'm just going to jump right into the text this morning. The three things that we want to observe from this passage, because again, this is connected to the previous chapters, and the three things that we want to convey through this text of observation I want you to see is that one, that the gospel that he is declaring is the same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

That's point one, and we're going to take some time to talk about that. The point two is the gospel that he is declaring was always meant for the world and not just for Israel. The gospel was always meant for the world, not just for Israel. Third, the gospel reveals God's severity and his mercy, both.

So we're going to use that as an outline to kind of work through the text this morning. But the first thing that we want to look at that Paul has been arguing, and he will continue to argue in this text, is that the God of the Old Testament and the message of salvation is the same as the Old Testament and the New Testament.

See again, you and I lived during an era where, not just during an era, but in a place of the world where the New Testament is probably about 95% of the preaching and the teaching that you hear in our generation in this particular part of the world is primarily coming from the New Testament.

Now that in and of itself is not a problem, because the New Testament is also the Bible, so as long as we're learning the Bible, but there's a reason why two-thirds of the Bible is the Old Testament. And we have a tendency to kind of gravitate toward the New Testament because we superficially think that the God of the New Testament is an easier sell.

In fact, you hear a lot of non-Christians, the politicians, they'll talk about certain verses that are being quoted in the New Testament, that love is patient and is kind, and certain verses that are romantic or certain verses that may be useful for their political gain. But whenever they come to the Old Testament, they always mention about stoning homosexuals, or if they're disobedient to parents, there's capital punishment if you don't obey the Sabbath and certain dietary laws.

And so, because the Old Testament, at least on the surface, seems like it's a more difficult sell. It's a lot harder to explain the God of the Old Testament, so our tendency is to gravitate toward the New Testament. Now, I've always known that this to be true, but it was confirmed for me many years ago when our pastoral staff, I think, no, the very first one, it was me and a couple of my pastor friends, we attended together for the gospel.

And at that time, the presider asked, "How many of you, out of 3,500 pastors, how many of you are preaching through the Old Testament?" It just happened at that time, I happened to be in the Old Testament. So we stood up and, to my surprise, there was only about 11 to 12 people standing.

And so we were all shocked that out of this many pastors, two-thirds of the Bible being the Old Testament, that a very, very small percentage of people were actually teaching through the Old Testament. Now, it doesn't mean that it's not being read. It's not saying that it's not being quoted, but to teach systematically through the Old Testament.

Now, I didn't have to be at that conference to recognize that because when I was going through at that time, through the Old Testament, I found out that there's maybe about one-tenth of the study material available in the Old Testament than it is in the New Testament. In fact, any passage in the New Testament, if you go online saying, you know, Romans chapter 9, verse 25, you'll probably find, you know, several pages of sermons about, you know, documents and somebody's study on various words.

You go to the Old Testament, you type in a passage, you might find maybe two sermons in the Book of Judges, three sermons on 1 Kings, maybe one sermon on Chronicles. And so usually even the preaching through the Old Testament is very sparse. And so if you try to go find material on the Old Testament to study, it's very, very sparse.

So I had a very difficult time when we were going through the Old Testament. I know a handful of you were there when we were doing that, that it was very difficult to like, well, what do we focus on and how do I preach this? And week after week because I had to… I didn't have a lot of examples to follow.

Now having said that, again, that conference only confirmed to me, and the reason why I bring all this up is because you and I live in a generation where the God that we know, at least majority of our paradigm of understanding of who God is, is coming from selective passages in the New Testament.

Again, like I said, that in and of itself is not a problem. But a problem or a danger that that can cause is that we don't have this concept, we don't have this understanding of weightiness of who God is because God spends thousands of years trying to teach the nation of Israel and ultimately to the world who He is.

And that when we come to the New Testament and reveal the necessity of the cross, it was more than several thousand years of preparation through the tabernacle, through the giving of the law, through the history, through the various festivals of the nation of Israel, through God's judgment and restoration over and over again, revelation of God's character and who He is.

And all of that played as a foundation so that when Christ came, that there would be this recognition that there is a dire need for a Savior. When we see the God of the Old Testament disconnected with the God of the New Testament, or somehow different, we have clearly missed the point.

So if you happen to read the Old Testament and superficially look at it and say, "Wow, the God of the Old Testament seems like a different God," I strongly encourage you to go back and read it. And this is not just a pastor talking. Go back and read it.

I mean, really thoroughly read it, just like you read the New Testament. Read verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and really understand the context, not just certain verses that are taken as a quote, but I'm really talking about reading it. You will find the same God in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

But until you see the same God of the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's a disconnect in how you understand the Gospel. Because that's how the Gospel was presented to us. See, by the time we get to the New Testament, we're standing upon thousands of years God's preparation so that the nation of Israel will be to recognize their sins.

See, if you go to the God of the Old Testament, God spends all that time setting up the temple, the tabernacle, the giving of the law, and the first thing that impression that you get from the Old Testament is God doesn't say, "Come." That's not what He says. He doesn't say, "Here I am.

I'm so gentle and caring and merciful. Just come." That's not the God that we see in the Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament basically says, "Stay away. That if you draw near to me with dirty hands, you will die." And so all the process of the tabernacle is a process of warning people, "Do not come to me.

And if you do come, you must follow exactly what I tell you to do." So if you remember in Leviticus chapter 10, after he establishes the law of how to draw near to him, the very first two priests that come, they offer up strange fire. Remember what happens to them?

They get consumed and God destroys them. And He says, "Anyone who comes to me, I will show myself as holy." Now does that sound like an inviting God? The very first two priests that come because they offered something that was not prescribed, they get consumed and they die. Now if that was isolated incident and we say, "Well, that happened in Old Testament, but you know, later on, God just kind of softened up." That is not the case.

The whole stretching out of Israel's history is revelation of God who is holy, holy, holy. That a sinful man is not able to be in His presence. And so if we understood His nature, we would understand why the nation of Israel, every time they broke God's commandment, judgment came upon them, just like God said.

So when we come to the New Testament, we say, "Well, that's not the God of the New Testament since God consumed all His wrath upon Jesus." But you will study, when you study the New Testament carefully, you will find that that same God who detests sin of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.

And if you don't recognize that in the New Testament, again, I strongly encourage you to go back, read the New Testament systematically. Don't just take verses here and there and it is being quoted in sermons, but study through the Gospels. Study through Hebrews, study through Romans, study through the book of James, study Revelation.

If you don't get it, we'll study through Revelation and you'll see. It is the same God of the Old Testament. Or vice versa, you may look at the Old Testament and say, "Wow, God is so vengeful and hateful and you know, He can't stand it, He's just quick to judge." Study the Old Testament carefully, see if you don't see a patient and merciful God of the Old Testament.

He is the same God. Now why is this important? It's important because the nation of Israel, like Paul is writing this letter, this Gospel to the nation of Israel, and Israel is having a hard time reconciling the God that they thought that they knew. And so when Paul says this salvation is not of the law, but is by grace.

It has always been by grace. It's not by race, but by grace. And that's the part where they had a hard time reconciling. So the God that we knew was you have to keep the law and if you keep the law, God blesses you. If you don't keep the law, God's going to curse you.

And so we just thought that that was the God that we worshipped. You and I live in a generation where we try to kind of at least water down hell and judgment and wrath of God because it's a difficult self, right? At least where you and I live. So kind of water that down, we emphasize certain things that would be more palatable to people.

Well Israel, their issue with the Gospel is completely the opposite. Which was, well if what you're saying is right, if Gospel is by grace alone, this is a God that we couldn't approach. This is the God that we came to the temple and we had all these regulations to get to Him.

This is the God who wiped out the earth because they didn't obey. This is a God who sent His own people into captivity for 70 years because they wouldn't keep the law. Now you're saying that the Jews and the Gentiles are going to be saved simply by grace, by faith?

They have the exact opposite problem. How can that holy God be the same God that you're preaching? That doesn't make sense. So the problem that our generation have of like, wow, if God is so loving and generous and caring, how can He judge anybody where the Jews had an issue with the exact opposite?

If God is a holy, holy, holy God that we've been taught that we can't even mention His name. And now you're saying that even the Gentiles were pagans and eating whatever they want, now they can enter the throne of grace just like us? How could that be? That is why Paul has been spending all this time expositing the Old Testament.

That the gospel that he's been presenting in the first eight chapters of Romans is the same God of the Old Testament. That's why he says, he gives the example of Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael should have been the rightful heir because he was the son of the flesh, but he said no, Isaac is the son of the promise.

He gives the example of Jacob and Esau. Esau being the older brother should have been the heir. Instead, God chooses Jacob by His sovereign plan. He said, well, does that mean that there's any kind of injustice in God? How can that be if He just sovereignly chooses? Again he gives the example in Exodus 33, 19, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." And he gives an example of how he dealt with Israel and the nation of Egypt.

As an example of all the things that you're protesting has always been. That's how God has always worked. And then finally he said, well, if the gospel is true, how can he find fault? Again he goes to the Old Testament. He gives the illustration of how we are the clay and he is the potter.

How can we dare come before God and put him in the trial seat and say, well, if you don't prove yourself to me, I'm going to reject you. Again going back to, have you forgotten who God is? Who are you, oh man, to question God? Even the potter has the right to do this.

In other words, he may be beyond you, but don't forget who God is. So he's been systematically arguing through the Old Testament to teach us that this is the same God. Now, before I move on to the second point, I want to emphasize this. Because you and I, again, because we've been saturated in one end, right?

Where certain passages have been taken, maybe even in context have been taken to highlight certain aspects of the gospel and certain aspects of God's character. If we're not careful, we can have an incomplete picture of our God. Because it is not just important, it is absolutely essential that you understand who God is.

To understand what he does. The God of the Old Testament who detests sin is the same God of the New Testament. A God who looked at the earth and because of their multiplication of their sin and said, "I have had enough," and he wipes them all out and only allows eight to survive to repopulate the earth.

That's that same God who crucifies his son to save us. It's that same God. So if we don't recognize, if we don't see the cross in the light of the totality of God revealed to us in the Old and the New Testament, there's always going to be something about the gospel that we don't understand.

And typically what happens is when we don't understand, we just kind of sweep it under the rug. We don't have a good answer for it. So we just kind of like emphasize certain things and then when you talk about hell, kind of like, yeah, it's there, you know, you get separated from God, but we don't talk about the torment.

We don't talk about the punishment that is eternal. Because it's difficult for us to explain because the God that we've created in our generation, it's hard for us to reconcile all of that. We have to make sure that the gospel we understand and proclaim is the gospel that comes from the full counsel of God, all of God.

And our life and our application and our obedience is coming from the full counsel of God, not just taking one over the other. See, Paul is trying to bring God in the gospel of the whole Bible. It may not sit well with some people. There's certain things that the Gentiles had a problem with.

There's certain things that the Jews had a problem with, but the gospel itself was never compromised. God does not change. He does not change the core of his message and how somebody is saved because you have a harder time, or that person has a harder time, because he's the potter.

We are the clay. So the first thing that we wanted to continue on is the message that he's been giving, that God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. The second part is where I want to spend more time on, is that the gospel has always been for the world, not just for the Jews.

The gospel has always been for the world and not just for the Jews. He quotes Hosea chapter 2 in verse 25. He says, "Indeed," he says to Hosea, "those who are not my people, I will call my people, and her who is not beloved, I will call beloved." And then he quotes Hosea 1, "And in this very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God." So if you look at that text in the book of Hosea, you'll know, if you've ever studied the book of Hosea, that passage is referring to Israel, not Gentiles.

Paul here seems to be referring to the Gentiles. In other words, you mean all the Gentiles are coming to faith? And he uses this text that was originally used for the Jews in saying, see, God has always intended to bring people who were not his people and make them his people.

So how do we reconcile that? Is Paul just kind of taking liberty to apply it any way he wants, or is this a legitimate use of this text because it was meant for the Jews? I think if you were studying this text, that's a legitimate question to ask. You have to understand, whenever you see prophecies in the Old Testament, and we're going to be going over this when we study the book of Revelation, there's always three applications of prophecy.

And it is true, the Old Testament is true, the New Testament. There's an immediate historical application, there's an application in the second coming of Christ, and there's an application at the end times. So when you look at this prophecy in Hosea, basically God was telling them that because of their many sins, God says, I'm going to release you to your sins and I'm going to treat you like an unbeliever.

And he actually tells them to name your children, you are not my people, you are not loved. And that's not at the end of Hosea, it begins like that. And then so the rest of Hosea is a proclamation of the reason why God came to that point. So those of you who study the book of Hosea and say, wow, you know, God loves us despite all our adultery and sins, he still loves us.

Now that may be true, but the book of Hosea is not written that way. Book of Hosea begins with judgment, that God's going to call you not my people, you're not going to be beloved, and here's the reason why. He tells Hosea to go marry a wife named Gomer who was a prostitute, and he said, you're going to marry her and she's going to keep committing adultery, but I'm going to command you to keep going after her and reconcile with her and love her despite.

And then it's going to come to a point where God's going to turn around and he's going to indict the nation of Israel, this is you. And this is the reason why God is going to treat you like the Gentiles, like you are outside of the covenant because you kept on breaking my covenant and I'm going to release you to that.

Now why does he use that to convey that the gospel was meant for the Gentiles? Because though he proclaims that, he says, because of your many sins I've released you and you've broken the covenant, it is no longer relevant because now you are not my people, I'm going to treat you as if my love and my protection is not upon you, but despite that, he said, there's going to come a time in this very place where I told you that this covenant was broken, you're not my people, he said, I will call you again and call you my people.

In fact, he'll go further than that, he'll completely restore you and call you sons of the living God. Now the relevance of all of this is that the reason why the nation of Israel missed this and why they had such a hard time reconciling the gospel, even though the gospel first came to them, it was embedded into their culture, the reason why they missed it is because they forgot that they were simple instruments for his glory.

If you read the Old Testament, New Testament, there is one theme. And if you ever read any part of the Old Testament or the New Testament and you don't catch the seam, you probably misread it. The theme is God is in pursuit of his own glory. That theme is throughout every single chapter, every single historical document that you will read.

It's all about God pursuing his glory and he's pursuing his glory and the means to which he pursues his glory is by pursuing sinful men. Salvation of sinners. So his ultimate purpose is to declare his glory and the way he's going to declare his glory is by pursuing sinners and bringing them to salvation.

That's the underlying theme of the Old Testament and New Testament, every part, even book of numbers, even Leviticus, even Revelation, it's that same theme. God pursues his glory by the means of pursuing sinners. Where the nation of Israel missed all of this was, and I think the best way to illustrate this is to tell you a parable about the pride of the rooster.

Some of you guys may have heard this before, may not have heard this, but basically the pride of the rooster is, you know, the rooster, you know, lived on a farm. He was the only rooster and every morning he would wake up and he would crow. Cock-a-doodle-doo. Right? I was trying to do that this morning and then my throat hurt so I can't do it.

Cock-a-doodle-doo. So you can imagine, right? So if you've ever been on a farm early in the morning, you'll hear a rooster, cock-a-doodle-doo five in the morning. And this rooster thought that the sun came up because of him, that he was the one who raised the sun every morning because every time he cock-a-doodle-doo, the sun would come up.

And so he'd walk around in pride. And so all the farm animals, the cows and the chickens and the goats would look at that and they would look with envy. He said, "Wow, that rooster, you know, on the surface looks like nothing, but without him we wouldn't have the sun." Now everybody suspected that maybe it wasn't him, but nobody knew for sure because every morning he would crow and the sun would come up.

Well one day he was walking around and he tripped and he hurt his neck. And so he lost his voice, right? And so he was worried all day long, like how, if I don't crow tomorrow morning, if I don't cock-a-doodle-doo tomorrow morning, the sun's not going to come up, the farm is going to die, the cow is going to die, they're all so dependent upon me, you know?

So he couldn't sleep all night and he was thinking about all these different ways to bring the sun out. Maybe he can fake his voice. Is there a recording of my voice somewhere? And he couldn't figure it out. And sure enough, five o'clock came and the sun came up.

He said, "Huh, it still came up. Something must have gone wrong." So he thought maybe it was a special day. So he waited another day and was trying to figure it out. Next morning came, sure enough, he couldn't crow and his voice doesn't yield. And the sun still came up.

And after about a week or two, he realized, "Hmm, maybe it wasn't me after all." So he became humbled, right? That's the parable about the humility or the pride of the chicken, right? The rooster. See that's exactly what happened to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel, God said from the very beginning, He said, "Do not think that if I let you get into the promised land, that it is because you are a greater nation than any other nation.

It's not because you are more righteous than anybody. In fact," He said, "You are very stiff-necked. You deserve the same judgment that the Canaanites deserve because you will continue to always forget me and you will continue to worship idols." He said, "I am choosing you because I have a greater purpose and I'm going to use you as my instrument." And the nation of Israel, instead of recognizing that they were just instruments for God's greater purpose, they thought that they were it.

And so they had a hard time with the Gentiles. Like we had the patriarchs, we had the law, we had the prophets, we had all of this. And now you're going to simply say that the Gentiles are just going to come in by faith? That's why so much of the New Testament is written to combat these Judaizers because they just couldn't let go.

I thought God was glorified because of us. And that's why Paul says in the book of Romans, he's like, "God is not glorified because of you. God is blasphemed because of you." He said, "I thought the sun came up because we crowed." The nation of Israel, it filled them with pride and that's why he came after the Pharisees because that's exactly what the Pharisees were telling them.

It was because we're Jews that God was using us. And it's because of us that God is gracious to the world. And that's why they were resisting the gospel because the gospel basically says the door is open and is always intended to go to the world. People ask all the time, "Why did they choose the nation of Israel?

Why were they the special people?" Well, they were just chosen. He could have chosen any nation. He could have chosen any group because his ultimate purpose was always the world. Matthew 8, 11 to 12, "I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and recline at the table, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He always said it was for the world. He said people who are not Abraham's physical descendants are going to come in. And even while he is doing ministry, he kept on saying the kingdom of heaven is going to be for everybody.

Now why is this relevant to us? Because the same danger that the nation of Israel was under and why they had such a hard time accepting the gospel to the Gentiles is the same reason why we stop sometimes with our own salvation. We get saved, our family is taken care of, bills are paid, and we start saving money for retirement.

And then there's always in the back of our mind, "Oh yeah, it's about the Great Commission." And you hear it at the church. You hear it at the church. You hear it talked about. You know, we hear testimonies. But that's not us. And it's so easy to be filled with pride.

With desperation to need God. It's so easy to make someone proud. You fill them with a little bit of talent, immediately like, "Hmm, I'm better." They go to a little bit better school, "Hmm, my school's better than yours." Like, "I'm three centimeters taller than you. You lift 150, I lift 158." You play JV?

"I played varsity. I was a CIFJ." It doesn't take much, right? You make how much? How old are you? It really doesn't take much. It really doesn't take much. Because there's just something inside, innately, kind of like, wanting to be somebody, and then all you have to do is like, "Wow, you're good," or, "Ooh, you're doing this," and boom.

Not realizing that that very nature, that instinct to be somebody, blinds us for our desperation for God. We're easily like the roosters. All the things that we have, maybe because I'm smart, maybe I got a raise, maybe these things are happening to me because I'm talented and I'm just a little bit smarter than everybody.

You'll never say that. You're too smart to say that. If you say that out loud, you know how you're going to be perceived, and then you're not going to be too smart. But if you're really gifted and talented, you'll know how to convey that without saying that, so other people will say that about you.

Then you're really smart. It doesn't take much to fill us with pride. Once that pride creeps in, it ruins us. The nation of Israel just could not accept the gospel to the nations because they thought that their God was exclusive to them and said, "Well, okay, we're going to be generous.

We'll let the Gentiles in, but they need to first do everything that we've done. They need to put in their time. They need to do everything that we've done." You know, that happens in the church too. Be careful. It happens in the church too, because I see every church that's been around for a while, there's always a group of people who are kind of like, "This is my church.

I've been here. You've got to put in your time. You've got to sacrifice, and I've given longer. I've been here longer," and then that becomes a stumbling block. That's the nation of Israel. They just couldn't accept that, but the gospel was always meant for the world. Everything that God is doing.

Why does he bless a church? Why does he bless you? Why do you have what you have? It's like, "Oh, God bless us so I can have a nice family and raise my children in safety." It's like, all of that is great. But in God's big picture, in God's big picture of his will, what does that have to do with him?

Is God serving you or are you serving God? What does that have to do with his big picture? So does it end with your blessing that you have money and you have safety and your children are saved? It was the whole goal of our life, that, to reach that, and then we're there, and then we thank God when we have it, and we don't thank God when we don't have it.

What was the purpose of that? If God's consistent line in the Old and the New Testament, everything that he has done and said was for the purpose of his glory and pursuing sinners, what does your wealth have to do with that? What does your health have to do with that?

What does your youth, your talent, what does it have to do with that? If you don't see the connection, if you don't see the connection with all the blessing that God has given, with the bigger picture of what God is doing in human history, then you are outside the will of God.

I don't care how many times you read the Bible, I don't care how hard you serve the church or how much money you give, you are outside the will of God, because you have a chunk of things in your life, internal or external, that has nothing to do with God's greater plan.

Everything that he gives us is for the purpose of glorifying our Father and pursuing sinners. That's why Israel had such a hard time understanding the gospel, because God's blessings stopped with them. If God came and overturned the Roman government and put Israel in the place of Rome, that would have been the end, at least to them.

That's why they completely missed the Messiah, because the Messiah didn't come for Israel. The Messiah came for the world. Third and finally, the gospel shows, demonstrates God's severity and his mercy. Romans chapter 11, in the summary of all of his argument of the gospel, he says, "Note then that the kindness and the severity of God." Let me stop right there.

Note the kindness and the severity of God. How often do we think of the gospel as God's revelation of God's severity? But yet that's what Paul says. In summary of the gospel message, before he gets to the imperatives in chapter 12, in totality it says, "Then consider the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness.

Otherwise you too will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again." He describes the gospel as the revelation of God's severity and his kindness. In Numbers 14, 18, it says, "The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." He quotes in verse 27, the passage in Isaiah, again a warning to the nation of Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved." Basically in other words, you're saying God's going to bless your physical descendants and you're going to have descendants that's going to outnumber the sand, but despite that, despite that, he said only a few of you, only a few of you, a remnant will be saved.

In other words, you can look at all the external things and say, "Well, God has blessed us," and you can go to your grave thinking that, "Well, God's been so gracious and blessed us," but he said, "Among you, only a few will be saved." Now we can look at that and say, "Well, God's talking to the nation of Israel, he's not speaking to us who are at church raising our children and teaching them the gospel.

Is he talking to us?" Well, Jesus warned us in Matthew 7, 13, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. Those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few." Is that true today?

Now we know it was true in the New Testament because they were being persecuted and it was very difficult to say, "You are a follower of Jesus Christ." We know that this is true in Egypt and in Iran and areas of the world where persecution is heavy, but is that true?

I mean, on the surface, it looks exactly the opposite, right? If any of you fell away from your faith, you're going to have a hard time. You know why? Because we're going to come after you. We're going to come after you. You have family and friends who are Christians, they're going to be worried about you sending emails.

We're going to be showing up at your door. You can't play softball. You know what I mean? You're not going to be able to hang around with them. You're going to be uncomfortable. There's all kinds of pressure. If you don't at least have a minimum obedience or minimum standard that you keep.

I mean, to be a Christian in our generation, you hear the gospel and are you interested? Yes. Then become a member. Become a member. We give you some gifts. Here's some of your friends that you can hang out with and go drink boba with and play with. None of these things are evil.

Don't get me wrong. None of these things are evil. But is it narrow? Let's be honest. It's not narrow. It's broad. It's very easy to be a follower of Jesus Christ in Orange County. In fact, if you've been raised in the church and all of your friends are Christians, it's very hard not to be a Christian.

You're going to get persecuted for not coming to church. I'm not exaggerating. This is true, especially you college students. You're surrounded by people like, "Where were you Wednesday? How come you didn't show up to this? We went and cleaned the church, but you didn't show up." You've got all kinds of persecution in the church for not being faithful.

The concern that they had was if you preach gospel by grace and it was that easy, that's it? Just believe? And then we're in a kingdom and then no one can touch us because we're saved by grace and not by work, so even if we fail, God's going to love us anyway?

Wow, that doesn't sound narrow at all because it isn't. So there's a temptation to go there. Then you have the Jehovah's Witnesses and the different cults who say, "That doesn't sound right. That's too easy because that's not what the Bible says." And then we're to the other end, so now you've got to prove yourself and no one can be sure of their salvation, and yet they completely contradict the scripture.

The scripture does say that, but here's the catch. Salvation is by faith alone, but that faith has to be real. That faith has to be real. Coming to church doesn't make it real. Giving doesn't make it real. Being a part of a community doesn't make it real. Going out to short-term mission doesn't make it real.

Preaching doesn't make it real. None of that make it real. Here's an illustration I've used so many times but I'm going to use again. If I told you that this building is on fire and I said, "Do you believe me?" And you say, "Yes." And I said, "Really? You really believe me?" You say, "Yes." "You're absolutely certain what I said was true?" "Yes." Then I'll say, "Well, that's kind of shocking." "So why is it shocking?" I'm kind of shocked that you say that you believe that.

It's like, "Why? It's so hard to believe." Because none of you are running. Because none of you are getting out the door. None of you are picking up your stuff and moving out. And yet you tell me you are absolutely certain that this is true. So something doesn't fit.

Something doesn't fit. Either you believe that you're made out of Teflon so this fire is going to cause you no harm or you don't really believe what I'm saying. But something doesn't fit. You and I live in Orange County where we live in a, I don't know how the best way to put it, lukewarmness is normal.

It's normal to be a lukewarm Christian. It's normal to be nominal. If anybody catches on fire with God, they're the weirdos. They're the Jesus freaks. They're the ones who belong in a mission field. You should go to seminary so you can let some of that out on the pulpit.

It's become weird to live consistently with our faith. So yes, the gospel has not changed. It's the same. But it is by faith. But it is by real faith. Not superstition, not piggybacking off of other people, but real faith. That's why he begins with a warning. He says, "Though there are many in number, only a remnant will be saved." And we have to understand the kindness of God in the context of understanding the severity of God.

Because if you don't understand the severity of God, the kindness of God, it sounds like a great-grandfather just passing out candy. No matter what you do, God is okay with it, and that's the generation that we have. You can do whatever you want, say whatever you want. It doesn't matter because one saved always saved.

Again, we understand the kindness of God without understanding the God that is presented to us through a totality of Scripture. And why somebody who has no evidence of faith can have absolute assurance when it's completely unbiblical. See, in Psalm 3119, it says, "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, and worked for those who take refuge in you in the sight of the children of mankind." Did you see that?

He says that those who fear him are the ones that God will bless. Did you see that? Psalm 3119, those who fear, they are the ones who will take refuge. God reveals himself as a holy, holy, holy God. And he says, "If the Lord's host had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and we would have been like Gomorrah." Do we presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is what leads us to repentance, the very reason why you're able to even think about God, why you're sitting here listening and even understanding anything if you feel guilty or convicted, any of that is because the kindness of God has allowed you to hear it and to understand it.

Do you not understand that that in and of itself is God's kindness being revealed to us? How much of our complaining and excuses is because you and I live in first world, physically and spiritually. Physically, look at the things that we complain about, the air conditioner, it's a little bit hot in here, right?

No, you're okay? I'm hot. The air conditioner just turned off, so I don't know what happened, right? I spent so much time this week trying to fix the air conditioner, you know, because I heard that the air conditioner downstairs wasn't working, so we had to get electricians to come in and various people, so we were here all day trying to connect that.

We got it connected downstairs, now we got to work on the upstairs. So much of what we talk about, so much of the things that hinder us, like the rest of the world would be a joke. We buy an iPhone 7 and then we hear that iPhone 8 is going to come out in the next couple months, like, "Dang it!" You know, I wasn't wise.

Traffic is miserable, the co-workers, they don't cooperate, they're incompetent, and you know, we think about all of these things, and we do that even spiritually. I can't grow because I don't have this, and I don't have that, and I don't have anybody my age, and I don't have anybody younger, I don't have anybody older, nobody like me, you know?

I mean, we've got all kinds of reasons why we can't grow. See, the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, 44 to 36 is, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up, that in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Did you notice what he said?

He said, when he encountered the kingdom of heaven, he's talking about Jesus, he's talking about his own salvation, that he recognized the value of it, and what did he sell? Everything. Everything he had was worth selling to have Jesus. Everything. Again in verse 45, "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of pearls, who on finding one pearl of a great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." What did this merchant do?

He found this pearl, and he found the worth of it, and he sold everything in order to have it. You see, the kingdom of heaven, the gospel that he's talking about, is when an individual recognizing that that is worth more than anything else that I own, anything else I can possibly have in this world, so we sell everything.

He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who finds his life, loses his life for Christ, finds it. The one who recognizes what it is that he has in Christ will find life. And the ones who don't, at least in the church, will fake it, will salvage what he can, will go through the motions so that he can have friends and be a part of the community, but no life, no true joy.

Jesus is not your refuge. He's not your treasure. People are. Circumstances are. Money is. But true salvation is in Christ, in Christ alone. You know, it was interesting yesterday, we were going up and down, and as they were trying to fix the wires, there was a father and son team that was here, an electrician who was connecting these wires, and I was coming downstairs to check to make sure that it was working.

So they were upstairs, and so I was coming up and down the stairs, up and down the stairs, and then the last time I was coming up the stairs, the son looked at me with envy, and he said, "Oh, I wish one day I could come up the stairs like you." And I was like, "Like me?

I'm limping all over the place because my knee hurts." And the reason why he said that was because his son is in his 20s, he's like maybe 24, 25, but he got in a major motorcycle accident. And so he wasn't a Christian, but after he got in an accident, he was in the hospital for five months, and then he got out maybe about a month ago, so he's not in good condition to be able to work, so he's always limping around.

You could tell it permanently damaged his leg, so he's always limping around. And so it was interesting, it just kind of caught me off guard because here's this young man, and he's looking at me with envy. I wish I had your legs, like what? I've never heard that before, ever.

I would never hear somebody say, "I envy your legs." Like what? But then again, it caught me off guard, and I was like, "Huh, it's because of his accident." And then it kind of made me look, "Yeah, my legs aren't good, but it's not bad." It just kind of made me think, even as I was preparing for this message, like how much of our time is spent in self-pity, in playing a victim, and not fixating our eyes upon Christ, and forgetting what it is that we have in Him, considering the severity and the kindness of God that has led us to repentance.

Ultimately, that's what the gospel is. It humbles the proud and lifts up the humble, and the entrance into the kingdom is the same. Jews, Gentile, rich, poor, educated, uneducated. Christ has brought us so that we can all call Him our Abba Father, and in the end, that's what true worship is, isn't it?

When we recognize who we were before we met Him, and every Sunday we come, we're reminded what it is that we have. You and I, including myself, we're prone to wander. There's so many distractions. But in the end, didn't we believe in Jesus? Didn't we confess our faith because we were enamored with Christ, and Christ was enough?

If for whatever the reason, Christ hasn't become enough, that's the problem. That's where we need to take a step back and make Christ first. Let's take some time to pray. Well, actually, before we do that, I have a song that I wanted you to introduce to you. I don't know if at some point we might sing this, but this is a song that was popular back in the '80s and '90s.

So some of you who were born at that time may know this song. Okay? So if you can put that up. I'm just going to read it, and then we're just going to play the song. So I want you guys to just listen to the songs. Some of you guys just may be nostalgic.

You know what I'm talking about. I'm just kidding. I want to introduce this song to you because the lyrics are related to the passage that I just read. "Waiting for angry words to sear my soul, knowing I don't deserve another chance. Suddenly, the kindest words I've ever heard come flooding from God's heart.

It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, O Lord, knowing that you love us no matter what we do, makes us want to love you too. No excuse, no one to blame, nowhere to hide. The eyes of God have found my failures, found my pain. He understands my weaknesses and knows my shame, but his heart never leaves me.

It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, O Lord, knowing that you love us no matter what we do, makes us want to love you too." So I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to listen to the song and meditate upon that, and then after that, our worship team will come up and lead us in time of worship