As regards to the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake, but as regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.

For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of riches in the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gathering of believers. We thank you for the church that you have purchased through the blood of your son, Jesus. I pray that you would help us to put away all distractions, that the time that we have together may be fixated on Christ, who he is and what he has done.

Help us, Lord God, to gain a glimpse of his glory, that we may be changed, that our burdens, Lord God, may be laid at the cross. I pray you would bless this time. You help us to be fruitful. Help us to long for your presence, thirsting, Lord, for righteousness, that we may find satisfaction in him and him alone.

So we ask for your blessing and your guidance. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As you guys know, we've been preaching and studying through the book of Romans for quite a while now. And I probably, if there's any one book that I've really dedicated myself to get to know and familiar with, it's probably this book.

And I preached through it maybe about three times already in ministry. I mean, from chapter one all the way to chapter 16. We started it, probably there's more verses that I've memorized in this book than any other book. So I can say I'm not a master of this book, but I can say that I probably dedicated more time in this book than any other book.

You know, one thing that was really interesting to me this time through is that, you know, typically when we think about the meat of the gospel or meat of the book of Romans, we usually think of chapter eight, right? Chapter eight of the book of Romans. Or chapter one through eight is the presentation of the gospel, right?

The first three chapters is about how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and it introduces us for need for Christ and what does it mean to be saved. And then chapter eight, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then that takes us to chapter nine through 11.

And typically, even some of the commentaries, if you read the commentaries, it'll say chapter nine through 11. It's kind of a parenthetical, you know, chapters where he's been making an argument, he's made his point in chapter eight and that's kind of like the pinnacle of what Paul was trying to say.

And then before he moves on to the imperatives in chapter 12, so therefore this is how you ought to live, he takes three chapters to explain why God is not done with Israel, which in essence, that's what he does. He does take three chapters to explain to us where does Israel fit into all of this.

If God has opened the door to the kingdom of God to the Gentiles and all this time that the Jews believed that they were the kingdom, right, and then what does this mean? Well, this time going through it, I realized that chapter nine through 11 isn't parenthetical at all.

It fits right in. It fits right in with Paul's argument. So what I realized with that chapter one through eight was the presentation of the gospel and to chapter nine through 11 is an illustration of that gospel. It is the actual outworking of that gospel in the nation of Israel, what God has been doing through the Old Testament, New Testament, and what God will continue to do going forward.

So in actuality, he's not taking a break from his argument. In reality, what he's doing is he's given the argument, full scope of the argument up to chapter eight, and then he actually illustrates it. This is how it played out with the nation of Israel, and that serves as an example of how it will play out with the church, to the Gentile church.

So I don't know if you were able to follow it or not, but for me personally, chapter nine through 11 has been a huge blessing for me personally. Just a tangible way that God has been working through the nation of Israel, what he has been doing, that even in the context of judgment, even in the context of the failure of the nation of Israel to see and to accept and believe their Messiah, that God's promise and his word is irrevocable, that what he says, he does.

And I don't know about you, but that sets a firm foundation in my faith in Christ, that we always say that it is not by our works, right? It's not by our works. God doesn't measure us based upon our righteousness, but you see how that is being illustrated with the nation of Israel.

Well, the text that we're looking at this morning, this week and then next week, we're going to be summarizing Paul's argument that he's been making. And so there's three parts to today's message and then we're going to be talking about the very last verse, verse 36 next week. But basically what he's doing, he's summarizing the message of the cross in these verses.

There's going to be a huge transition that's going to take place from chapter 11 to chapter 12. So chapter 12, he's going to start going into the imperatives. So he's given us the gospel. This is how the gospel has been playing out in the history of Israel and how it will play out with the Gentile world.

And then chapter 12 to 16, he's going to say, "Therefore, this is what it means to you in your personal life." It's not Paul's whole intention wasn't just, "Well, I hope you understand what the gospel is." It's like, "Well, okay, now we're better educated on who God is and what he has done." There's a point to all of this, at least practically.

And that is because of what he has done, because of who he is, "Therefore, live out your life and offer your body as a living sacrifice." And so that's going to be the main argument he's going to be making and challenge he's going to give us starting from chapter 12.

But before he does that, he concludes and wraps up his 11 chapters of presentation of the gospel. And so again, what he has to say in these passages are rich. So I hope if some of you guys had took some time to read it or at least wrestle through it, you'll hopefully get more out of it than if you didn't.

But either way, we're going to be looking at the three arguments that he's making here and basically in summary. So we could probably spend the whole month or even more just talking about each one of these points. But again, as Paul has already made these arguments and now he's giving it to us as a summary before he moves on.

So this morning, I want to look at three things that he gives, three qualities of the gospel that he gives, again, as a summary of what he's been saying up to this point. So the number one, the first thing that he says, we find in verse 32 where he says, "For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all." He's made the argument up to this point that the Jews, because of their disobedience, that they have been hardened, but temporarily.

And as a result of their hardening, God allowed the Gentiles to come in. And then he reminds the Gentiles that at one point you were hardened and God had mercy on you and he brought you to faith. So in the end, God has consigned everyone, Jew and Gentile, to disobedience that God may have mercy on all.

So the first point that we want to see in this is the gospel is made manifest through the disobedience of mankind. The first summary, the gospel is made manifest through the disobedience of mankind. Before we move on, and I know if you were paying attention, a question that you should have, okay, so if you're sitting here right now with absolutely blank, kind of like, "Oh, okay, that's, you know, he read what he read." But if you're paying attention, my guess is you should be asking, if God consigned people to disobedience, how can he keep, how can he bring judgment upon mankind if God's the one who consigned it?

I mean, clearly he says he consigned them to disobedience, right? If he led them to disobedience, if he pushed them toward unfaithfulness, how can he come and say, "Now you are condemned"? That's probably what you should be asking. If you're not asking that, you probably weren't paying attention, right?

So in order to properly understand what he means by that, we need to really dissect what he means. So the understanding of the word disobedience, the word disobedience in and of itself in Greek is apatheia. That's the word that is translated in the ESV as disobedience. What does that word apatheia sound like?

Apathy. And that's exactly what it means. It means unwilling to be dissuaded, persuaded, meaning you have no feelings toward it, that you're going to hold your position and God is not moving you toward any direction. You're refusing. That's a literal understanding of this word disobedience. Some of your translations probably have translated this word as unbelief.

Unbelief. So unbelief and disobedience is translated the same way, from the same word. In fact, so much of our rebellion against God, oftentimes in Scripture, is simply described as unbelief. When Israel rebels against God, God looks at their rebellion and says, "They did not believe." Jesus uses it the same way.

In Matthew 6:30, he looks at the anxiousness over material goods. He says to the crowd, "Do not be anxious about what you will eat or wear and that God's going to take good care of you." Basically, in that context, he says, "Do not have little faith." He equates anxiousness for the things of this world, temptation to go after them, as unbelief.

Matthew 8:26, when the disciples, when the storms came and they were fearful of their life, Jesus woke up and he said, "You have little faith." He accused them of unbelief, that the core of their fear came from not having enough faith. Matthew 17:20, he said, "When the disciples came back and they had lack of power to be able to cast out the demons," he said, "it's because you have little faith." He described lack of power to be able to cast out demons as also connected to unbelief.

How at the core of everything that we do, he says, "It is a demonstration of our faith or lack of faith." So here in this passage, when he talks about disobedience, the very word that is translated here literally means unwilling to move, to be changed, or unbelief. And that's how Israel's rebellion and the Gentile, when they resist God, ultimately is described as unbelief, because they refuse to believe that God is sovereign.

They refuse to believe the things that Christ has done. They refuse to believe his resurrection. They refuse to believe his death and burial. And as a result of that, they live independently from God. Now having said that, this is kind of a side point. Whenever we think about Christian life and sanctification, our natural tendency is what are we doing wrong?

What are we doing wrong? And there's nothing wrong with that question, because we need to examine ourselves. What are we doing? What are the decisions that are making that are kind of leading us to the wrong path? But even before we get to the question of what are we doing wrong, how do we fix the physical, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, "Why am I not doing that?

How did I get here?" Because if you look at the scripture, the target is always internal. See, sin is not something that comes and lands on us. Sin is something that comes out of us, he said. Is what comes out of a man. So we take a step back and ask ourselves, "What is it do I not believe about God that is causing me to not believe that if I give myself to him that he's going to take care of me?" "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you." What is it about that do you not believe?

That is causing you to be anxious that if I do give it to him, that maybe he's not going to offer it up. Maybe he's not going to answer my prayers. So sanctification is not simply about you were doing the wrong thing and now you're doing the right thing.

Sanctification simply isn't about you didn't go to church and now you're going to church. You didn't read your Bible so now you're reading your Bible. Sanctification ultimately is initiated when we get a glimpse of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are changed internally. And then now that begins to change our behavior.

We worship God not because if we don't worship God, God's going to punish us. We worship God as a natural response. And so when you look at chapter 12, he says, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, in view of this mercy, in view of what God has done, in view of the glory of what you have seen," he said, "present your body as a living sacrifice." So the first question that we need to ask ourselves is do we have faith?

Do we have faith? Because that's how Israel's rebellion and mankind's rebellion is described as unbelief, unwilling to be changed. But what does it mean then if he's saying that their disobedience is ultimately unbelief, then what does it mean for God to consign it to them? Because it kind of sounds like God pushed them toward that.

How are they going to believe if God pushed them to unbelief? Well, this is one of those words that's really difficult to translate with one word. So what I did was I listed all the different translations and all the different ways that each of the translations – did I put it up all together?

Okay, there it is. So NIV translate this as "bound all men to disobedience." NASB has it "shut up all in disobedience." New King James has "committed them all to disobedience." King James has "concluded them all to unbelief." The Living Translation, "given them all to sin." New RSV, "imprisoned all to disobedience." TEV, "made all people prisoners of disobedience." And here's the message.

This is the long version, the most, I guess, friendly, user-friendly. God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. So the Message Bible, I'm assuming, is about this thick. But you can tell by the way that this word is translated in each one of these translations, every single one of them has used a different word.

And so collectively, all of this gives some idea. Not all of it. There's no one word that captures in totality the meaning of this particular word. So just to understand it consigned, you won't get the full understanding. So every single one of us. To bind men, to put them together, to shut up.

And this is kind of the word, the idea of when you go fishing and then you cast a net and you catch it up, catch it all into a net. That's the meaning behind that. Committed them all to disobedience. Concluded the end result of their unbelief. Given them all up.

Let it run its course. Imprisoned because of their disobedience that they were given the just penalty for their disobedience. They were made sinners. So the idea of the word consigned isn't God took these innocent people and then he began to influence them toward unbelief. That is not the idea that is taught here.

In fact, in Galatians chapter 322, this word, this exact word is used to describe how the scriptures led people to sin. Galatians 322, it says, "But the scripture imprisoned everyone, everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." Clearly he's not saying that scripture forced you to sin.

That's not what he means here. He's not saying that scripture imprisoned everything under sin. It's not somebody who was righteous read the scriptures and the scriptures incited you to sin. That's clearly not what he is saying here. What he is saying, and I think Barnes makes a good note, and I think there's a quote of Barnes that I think I gave.

The next one. Barnes says in describing this, "The keeper of a prison does no wrong in confining a criminal or the judge in condemning him or the executioner in fulfilling the sentence of the law. So of God." What he does is not to compel people to remain under unbelief, but to declare that they are so.

So his quote is up there. "All this to say what Paul has already said. All of this to say what Paul has already said, that he allowed sin to become orderly sinful before he presented a way out. He allows the hardening of the heart to take his full course, to not only dabble in sin, but to be bound in sin before they are able to recognize their dire need for Christ.

The greatest problem with the nation of Israel when Christ came was that they did not see the need for a Savior to be crucified for their sins. The greatest problem that we have today in our culture in having a very superficial response to the cross is that though we raise our hands and walk down the aisle, that because the effect of what Christ has done for us hits us superficially.

We do not act like men and women who have been saved from hell. We do not act and respond and worship a God who saved us, who are utterly hopeless, dead in our trespasses, weighed down by our sin, who are desperate and cried out to God. Many people in the church have simply made a choice.

I didn't know Christ. I'd rather have Christ. I wanted to give him a chance, so I came to church. I read the scriptures because my small group accountability partner told me this is what I should do. I committed to the church because I want to belong to the body of Christ and I want to have good friends to run this race with.

But at the core of who we are are sinners who have been saved from our sins. So what unites us is not our hair, it's not our language, it is not our common experience. What unites us is every single one of us who are dead in our trespasses, Christ saved.

So there is a sense of desperateness that everyone was in before we met Christ. That's what unites us together. If you've ever been in a situation of an emergency, whether it was with your family or a group of friends, there's a camaraderie that is created. So I don't know if you've ever met military people who just came back from war.

They have a lot of problems, PTSD or whatever, they have all these struggles. And I have a few friends who were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq during the last 10, 15 years, and some of them two to three times, and they've seen some horrendous stuff. They've seen friends with their legs blown off and partners that drive it in the car and the car would blow up or they get shot and he would die, but he didn't.

And I remember having a conversation with a young man who came back from war, and he said in the beginning of the war, he would walk in down and his friends would get shot. And in the beginning, he said he was having such a hard time, you know, digesting all of this, what do I do with this?

But the only way for him to survive is to just keep going. So he said he got numb to it. He got numb to his friends dying. And then he said when they came back, he said he had a hard time adjusting to that. But they would cling to each other.

It created this, because they survived this horrendous war, it created this fellowship among them, whether they were Asian or Caucasian or whether they were Hispanic, whatever background they came from, the fact that every single one of them was saved from this horrendous experience that they can't relate to us.

They can share with me and I can sympathize with them, but it's not the same. And they would get together with their buddies and they would share and they don't have to say a word, they understand the experience that they had. See, real fellowship in the church happens when a gathering of people who recognize what they have been saved from, and they see the value of who Jesus is.

And it creates this camaraderie in the church, not superficially because we're same age or same background or same experience, but because we were saved by the same blood of Christ and we have the same Father. See that's what Paul means, he said consigned all to disobedience, because until they recognize their sin as utterly sinful, they do not cling to Christ with all their might.

How much of our superficial fellowship in the church is because we have a superficial affection for Christ? How much of our superficial desire to share the gospel is because we don't see the desperate need for the gospel in the world? That's what he means when he says he consigned all to disobedience, to unbelief.

He allowed it to take its full course so that he can turn on the light in the darkness, so that the men and women who are saved by this would recognize that they were in dire need of a Savior. So the first thing that he says in summary, the gospel is made manifest through the disobedience of mankind, how God uses our weakness and sometimes even rebellion to fulfill his promise.

In fact what's interesting to me is from the very get-go of the gospel, God always uses the closing of one door, rejection and hostility of one people to open the door to another. Salvation came to the world because his own people rejected him and crucified him on the cross.

Mission in the early church happened because of persecution in Jerusalem. They were running for their lives and then as they were running back home and running away from Jerusalem, they began to share the gospel. The gospel came to the Gentiles because Paul went to the synagogue and began to preach and they shut the door on him so he went to the marketplace and so the gospel began to go to the Gentiles.

Paul wanted to go to Rome and ultimately to Spain and because he was imprisoned, he had to start writing letters and he started making disciples in prison and as a result of that, the gospel began to spread all over and now we have these prison epistles. That every single instance where it seemed like the gospel was facing resistance, God had greater plans.

That even in the rejection of his gospel, God is allowing hardness to take its full course because God has greater plans. He is a sovereign God. In fact, today and I'm sure maybe even 10 years ago, this persecution in the Middle East, in fact, a lot of people refuse to travel to the Middle East, especially Christians because of all the things that we're hearing about the persecution, the bombing of churches, beheading, horrendous stuff that's happening.

But along with that, if you've been reading carefully about what's happening in the Middle East, there's a revival breaking out, the gospel. They said there's more mass conversions that are taking place in the Middle East because of these persecutions than they've ever seen in modern history. That in every instance where we see resistance, we see the light going even stronger through another door.

God is absolutely sovereign. That even while the Jews were rejecting Christ, God was using that to bring the gospel to the Gentiles and He's reminding the Gentiles that one day that though they are hardened, God will use their hardening to open their eyes to see the need for this revival and God will ultimately bring them back again.

The gospel is made manifest through the disobedience of mankind. Secondly, the gospel is the revelation of the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God ultimately. The first one teaches us that God is completely sovereign, that God allows disobedience and unfaithfulness and unbelief to take its course, that sin may become utterly sinful and that man may need, may come to an understanding that we're desperately in need of Christ.

But second part of the gospel, again, all of this is a summary of what Paul has already been saying, that the gospel, the purpose of the gospel is to reveal the depth of his riches, his wisdom, and his knowledge. In our text, it begins by saying, "Oh." Oh, I don't know if any of you use that word, like, "Oh, take a look at…" We just use it in literature, we may see it, but that's an actual word.

That's an actual word in Greek and basically it means to pay attention. It's basically an exclamation mark, right? So maybe the way we would write it today is, "Pay attention," or "Look here." But in the Greek, it basically causes us to stop and say, "Look at this," right? We've seen that in other parts of the scripture when Paul says earlier, he says, "Look, consider," right?

Consider his kindness and his severity. That is important for us to recognize that God is holy and he is mercy, that these two things go hand in hand. So now he's also saying, "Oh, look at this." Take a close look at the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge.

Because the whole purpose of the gospel, the revelation of everything that he has done and who he is, was to reveal to the world who he is. When Jesus was going to the cross, he says, "I'm now going to," what? "To glorify the Father, and the Father is going to glorify the Son." To glorify something is to take something that is there and put it on a pedestal so that the whole world could see.

That's what I mean to glorify something. That's the way we use that language. So when Jesus went to the cross, he says, "Now, what may have been hidden, what may have not been clear, if they didn't get the glory of God," he said, "He's going to go to the cross so that the world can see, so that the world can see who he is." So before we even think about what he has done for us and how it affects us, first and foremost, the gospel is a glorification of the rich and the depth of his riches, his wisdom and his knowledge.

We see Christ. We see God. We see the Holy Spirit in his maximum display at the cross. You want to understand God's holiness? Look at the cross. You want to understand his mercy and his grace? Look at the cross. You want to understand his nature? Look at the cross.

You want to understand his patience? Look at the cross. You want to understand his hatred towards sin? Look at the cross. You want to understand his patience towards sinners? Look at the cross. The cross is the display of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of our Savior.

First and foremost, the scripture describes the fall of mankind as being blind, being blinded to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's because the world does not see who he is. That's why they don't worship him. That's why there is even a temptation. That's why we're even tempted, even as Christians.

You're not going to win temptation of this world by being disciplined because there's just too many good things out there. There's just too many good things out there. I mean, who doesn't want to live in a nice, comfortable house? Who doesn't want to live on a nice bed? Who doesn't want to have more money?

Who doesn't want to travel the world? I mean, naturally, that's the inclination and temptation of everybody. I mean, the reason why pornography is such a big issue is because it's not calculated. You don't sit there and think, "Oh, I think this is good for me." I don't know anybody who wrestles with that actually thought it out.

You're just giving into the temptation of your flesh. You desire it, you want it, and you give into it. We don't conquer temptation by being more disciplined. Temptation is conquered when there is a greater affection for something else that conquers that temptation. The whole point of Him revealing His glory is to say, "Don't go there, come here." It's not like, "Oh, you know, I'm just a righteous, good person, so I'm going to resist myself from doing bad, and I'm going to do what is right and do this." The whole reason why Christ came was because we couldn't do that.

You and I did not have the ability to say one day, "I'd rather be a good person," and then chose to be a good person. That's not how sanctification happens either. Sanctification happens when we see and treasure Christ above all the other temptations. When Christ is better than what you are tempted by.

When He is what you desire more than anything else that is tempting you. And so, sanctification ultimately is selfish. Sanctification ultimately is not at the core noble. Ultimately sanctification and pursuit of holiness is selfish, is when we recognize Christ above everything else. The gospel ultimately is a revelation of His riches, of His depth.

See, an individual, no matter how he confesses that Jesus saved him, you can tell if there is an affection for Christ. Whether somebody is just doing the minimum to get by. Whether they're just checking in and checking out. You can tell. You can tell in the fellowship. You can tell in the way that they do Bible study.

You can tell in the way that they serve people, share the gospel, that they're just checking in and checking out. Every Sunday they check in and check out. They sing the songs, they open their mouth, but it's not real worship. There's a huge difference between somebody who is worshiping God in view of the mercy that He has shown them.

Because they're so enamored by the cross. I can't begin to fathom why He did this to me. Why He chose me. And this mystery is causing Him to come to Christ and give worship to Him. Versus, "I'm a Christian. I should be doing this. I shouldn't be doing this." See Romans chapter 9, 22-23, he says, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." In other words, He did all that He did in order to demonstrate the richness of His mercy toward us.

Paul describes his own ministry as declaring God's glory, Colossians 1-2, 1-3, "For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those that lay hold of this here and all those who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ.

That all of who God is, all of the richness about who He is and His knowledge contained in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Everything that we treasure, everything that we are seeking for, he says, is found in Christ. And that's what the cross was.

And that's how Paul describes his ministry. He doesn't simply describe his ministry as getting sinners to repent. He doesn't simply describe his ministry as people who didn't go to church to get to come to church and to read the Bible. He says, "So that they may come to a full understanding of the richness that is found in Christ." That's what the gospel ultimately is, is a display of God's glory.

Again in Ephesians 3, 8-10, Paul says, "To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold, the various wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places." Think about how much of the rhetoric and talk today, whether you are for Trump or against Trump and whatever we think the answer is.

Everybody who comes into politics says, "Well, they have better wisdom than the other party." Whether you're a Democrat or Independent or Republican or Libertarian, whatever you may be, every politician comes and says, "They have the wisdom that the other party does not have." That they have the answer. If we tweak this and if we tweak that, and I'm sure it will have some effect, but ultimately the problem of mankind isn't politics.

Ultimately the problem with mankind isn't what we can or cannot say or how much money we have in our bank account. Ultimately the problem of mankind is we have been separated from the author of life. Everything that we are doing outside of Christ is trying to imitate fake life.

We're trying to gain it through politics, through money, through pleasure, through traveling, whatever it may be. What Paul is declaring is what you are searching for is in Christ. What you are searching for, you may not be aware of it, but is in Christ. The riches are in Christ.

The wisdom is in Christ. His knowledge is in Christ. So he describes his whole ministry as declaring the glory of Christ. Third and finally, the gospel is ultimately a mystery. The gospel is ultimately a mystery. He says how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? There is a huge difference between asking question and questioning. If you've ever tried to evangelize to somebody and you're having a conversation with them and the way that they're asking questions, you could tell whether they are open or whether they are just poking holes.

And I've had so many conversations with people, like sometimes for hours and hours and hours, and it would lead to nothing. Even if I make a good point, they refuse to acknowledge it and they try to come up with, "Well, that," and then they'll go and do some more research and come back.

And they're not necessarily searching. They're trying to prove their point, why they're right. So even if they don't have a good answer, they'll say, "Okay, you know, I don't have an answer, but I will have one for you." And if they don't have one, they don't want to talk to you.

So they're not necessarily really searching. There's a huge difference between asking questions versus questioning. If you're raising kids, there's a huge difference. When they're young kids, right, they'll ask a lot of questions and they'll test your patience, but they'll ask a lot of questions. Like, "Where are we going?" You know, "We're going here." Like, "Why?" "Oh, because we have to go." It's like, "Why?" And "Because we have this." "Why?" "Why are we eating this?" "We're having spaghetti." "Why?" "Because it's good for you." You know?

But it's not hard to be patient with little kids because they're genuinely curious. Like, "Why are we doing this? What is this?" And they'll have a thousand questions. And then when they become teenagers, the "whys" become "why." It turns from asking questions to questioning. Why do you do that?

Why do we do this? Why do I have to do that? Why do I have to wake up in the morning? Why? Because we're asking the same questions, but there's a huge difference between asking questions versus questioning. See, a questioning, you've already determined, and you're trying to convince the other person.

Where you're asking questions, you're genuinely curious, and you're trying to learn. See, the Scripture tells us that the gospel is a mystery. But it is not a mystery that God has hidden and said, "Well, you can't find." It is a mystery that God desires us to look into, and we could be asking questions and searching for the rest of eternity, and more will be revealed to us, but we will never exhaust His wisdom.

We will never exhaust His glory. It's almost as if God kept it a mystery so that all of eternity, that there will be something new that will be revealed to us, that would all us, as it was from the very first day that we met Christ. If we recognize the mystery of the gospel, and we continue to pursue Him just as we did when we first met Him, for the rest of eternity.

You know, whenever I meet a Christian, I say, "Oh, I've already studied that. I already know that." You already know that there's something wrong in their relationship with God. You already understand that just the shallowness, that they're just kind of like, "I get it. I get it now. Like, oh, God is holy.

I get it." He is merciful. I get it. Like, can we move on to something more meaty, like dispensationalism, or covenant theology, or hypostatic union of Christ? Something meaty. But holiness, I get it. You know, so every once in a while, we're going to study Ephesians. It's like, "Oh, I studied that." You know, oh, Revelation.

Oh, I took a class on that. The scripture tells us the gospel itself is a mystery. Mystery not hidden, where He doesn't want to reveal to us, is a mystery that causes us to seek, to ask, to learn, to grow, and to be amazed for eternity. And I think many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Whether you've been a Christian, or whether you're a brand new Christian, or you've been Christian for 40, 50 years, the more you gaze upon the cross, the more amazing it is. And I remember, you know, I would always be given, it's like, "Well, the cross, the love of Christ is kind of like the mother's love for the son, and you know, there's nothing like it." And so I've always kind of like, "Well, that's what it's like." Right?

It is closer than any other love that I know, but the more I gaze upon the cross, there's nothing like it. Even the mother's love falls far short. Falls far short. You know, as a father, I can honestly confess to you. I love my kids more than anything else, but it's nothing like God's love for me.

As much as I love my kids, as much as I think I know what's best for them, it is nothing like God's love. We have a hard time even understanding our own heart. In Jeremiah 17, 9, it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick." Who can understand it?

We don't even understand our own heart, let alone understand His. To come before God questioning, like, "Why did He do this? Why did He do that?" And then we say, "I believe this, but I don't believe that, because this makes sense to me, and that doesn't." You don't even understand your own heart.

And though you married men, you don't even understand your wife. You don't even understand your own husband. I mean, that's why we get into struggles and fights and arguments, because I don't understand what you're saying. I don't understand my kids sometimes. And we try so hard to communicate with each other.

How can we possibly come in judgment of a God when we don't even understand ourselves? In Isaiah 55, 8 through 11, it says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." See, the whole point that he was trying to make in Isaiah, so when we recognize that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, he's immediately pointing to his word.

There are certain things that you may not understand, but God has ordained it. He has ordained it for a greater purpose. See, let me read a couple more passages with you, and then I'm going to conclude for this morning. Psalm 139, 1 through 6 says, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. For you have me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it." We don't understand ourselves. Sometimes your husband, your wife may not understand you. Your parents may not understand you. Your friends may not understand you, but a sovereign God who created you knows your inner being, and that God chose to get off his throne and pursue us, to love us, to point us to the cross, and then told us, "If you want to live, deny your flesh.

Deny the life that you think you can live in this world. Pick up your cross and follow me." Sometimes it may not make sense to you. Sometimes the balance sheet may not come out right. Sometimes there are certain things that may be happening in your life that you can't really put together, and you have a hard time letting go.

But the God who created you, who knows every part of you, who loves you more than any other living creature in this world, said to come. Ultimately, that's the gospel. He says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord.

Isn't our life found in Christ? Then shouldn't he be the one that we are seeking with all our might? That's the gospel. The gospel isn't just, "He finished it, and now just wait to go to heaven." He declared his glory so that when we see his glory, that for the rest of eternity, not just in this life, but for the rest of eternity, that we would come.

Why? Why did you do this for me? The more you recognize your sin, you ask, "Why? Why are you so patient with me?" The more you fail, "Why? Why would you not cut me off? Why did you send your only begotten Son? Why did you prepare a place for me in eternity?

Why would you let your Son suffer for sinners like me? Why would you be so patient with me?" And for the rest of eternity, to seek him with all your heart, because he promised he will be found if you seek him. If I can ask, again, the praise team to come, take some time to pray.

You know the difference between checking in and checking out versus meeting Christ. You know the difference. You know the difference in yourself, and you can see the difference in other people. Church is a miserable place to be if this is just checking in and checking out. You're hard-earned money.

I mean, it's hard to let go. I mean, how many people love paying taxes? It's like paying taxes. If it's not an act of worship, it's like paying taxes. Like, "I worked so hard and over time, and I got to give this money," if it's not an act of worship.

Fellowship is miserable. There's reasons why so much, like very few people talk to their neighbors, because it's a burden. You don't know what these people are like. You don't know what they're going to say, or you don't know. It's a burden. I mean, coming to the church, and then you have to love your neighbors as yourself.

Fellowship in the church is miserable if it is just checking in and checking out. Serving the church, I mean, you work hard enough as it is, and then you come to church, you got to serve other people, make food, and clean up, and set up chairs. You went to college, so you didn't have to do that, right?

If it is not an act of worship, it's night and day. For those people who have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and because we've seen the depth of the riches of His wisdom and knowledge, and because we can't begin to fathom what He has done, a gathering of people who have been saved from their sins, pursuing together to glorify Christ, is what we are seeking, what we are after.

So let's take some time as we come before the Lord in prayer. And every single one of us, I know that we struggle in different ways, but let's take this time to come before the Lord. Once you've drifted away from Christ in your heart, make that the primary priority in everything that we pursue.

So let's do that first as our worship team leads us.