Paul's Letter to the Romans

Final Faithful Instructions

January 15, 2023 • Tyler Burns • Romans 16:17–27

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com   So we finally made it to the last week of Romans. Yeah, praise God, we are very thankful for the year that we have been in it. This is a clap of celebration, not of it's over with. No, amen. It has been 11 months, I believe, two weeks and two days since we started the Book of Romans, and we are finally in the last section of this text. And so what we're going to see is how Paul is a master of communication. He knows how to communicate points to people. And any good public speaker, in any format, knows how to communicate clearly what they are trying to say. I pray that I communicate clearly to you what the Lord is trying to say through me today.   But if you've taken any classes on public speaking, on sermons, on how to communicate to people, there's a very common three part saying for how to communicate, and I'll get to it in a second. No one knows exactly where this phrase or idea or originated. Some people attribute it to Aristotle, some to like other philosophers and whoever. The earliest date that we have it written down is 1908, and it's in a piece called Three Parts of a Sermon. If you've been at Mosaic for a while, we love three-part sermons, but it's a little bit different here.   But it's by a pastor as Mr. Joette, and he talks of a preacher who was communicating to him how to communicate to others. So he says, "How do you prepare your sermon?" The elder pastor says, "I take my text and I divide my sermon into three parts. In the first part, I tell them what I'm going to tell them. In the second part, I will tell them. And in the third part, I tell them what I told him." And that's exactly what we see Paul doing in this text.   We have been in Romans for a long time, and if you remember way back to the first sermon in Romans, Paul told us what he is going to tell us. He had a thesis statement. And then we've spent a year hearing what Paul told us. And now, today, he's going to tell us what he has been telling us for the past year that we've been in this text. And so it's his conclusion, it's his summary, but it's not just a restatement of the same things for the sake of concluding. It's a restatement to show how each and every one of the themes and things he has been trying to say to us actually has practical implications for the church today.   So before I get into the reading of scripture and the preaching of God's word, I just want to break down the major overarching themes from the Book of Romans for us real quickly. We've spent a year real deep in the details. This is the high arching themes of the Book of Romans. So in Romans 1:1-15, he starts with a greeting to the church in Rome, and a expression of his desire of his wanting to be with them and be in fellowship with them. Then in verses five and then 16 and 17, we sort of see Paul's thesis statement twice stated. So in Romans 1:5, Paul says, "Through whom we have received grace," through whom is Christ, "we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all nations."   Then in verses 16 and 17, Paul says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith." Paul stated his point in writing the book of Romans is to produce faithful obedience from the church to the Lord, that's verse five. It's the same thing in 16 and 17, from faith, once you are saved, once you have saving faith in Christ for faith, for living a life of faithful obedience. That's why the righteous shall live by faith. So that's Paul's thesis to promote faithful obedience to the Lord and the church.   And then the rest of chapter one through the end of chapter five, Paul is arguing about how this faithful obedience is not the same as legal works. It's not the same thing as fulfilling the law or doing your duty. It's a joyous, faithful obedience to the Lord out of love for him. And when we strive to live in love for God, now in chapter six through the end of chapter eight, we get the battle of the spirit versus the flesh. We want to do good. We want to follow the Lord. We want to live by the Spirit. But there is the flesh, the sinful desires, the earthly nature within us that is waging war and trying to push against the Spirit.   And so we talked about how we are called to live by the Spirit, not by flesh, to follow the Spirit, to put our flesh to death. And that's a battle. It's a war that's waging. And so what do we do? How do we fight this? Well, first we start by trusting the sovereignty of God, that's chapters nine through the end of chapter 11. In this battle, in this life, all of it is under the umbrella of God is in control. He is Lord and sovereign.   Then in chapters 12 through the end of 14, he gets into the specific practicals, "Here's what you do. Here's how you live Christians. Here are the marks of a Christian. What to do as a church." Then he sums it all up, kind of saying, "This is how we're able to actually do it." In 15:1-21, he says, "It's all because of the hope we have in Christ." That everything Paul has written about in the Book of Romans, we need to focus on Christ and have hope that comes from him alone. To be able to live practically for God, to be able to recognize God's sovereignty in difficult times, to be able to fight in the Spirit and reject the flesh, to live in faithful obedience, not as one completing the law, it all requires hope in Christ.   And then last week we see how Paul is sort of completing his themes. We talked about his longing, his greeting to many brothers and sisters in the church. Last week we talked about that. And so this week we're seeing Paul's conclusion, and I'm summarizing all of what he has said before, because I want us to be looking at the text we'll read today and seeing where is Paul making connections to these themes? Where is he drawing from these points to try and bring it all about to the practical life of the church today?   So with that summary, let's pray over the reading and preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that we have the opportunity to gather here today to praise and worship and honor your name. We thank you that you give us your word, your scriptures to challenge us, to strengthen us, to provoke in us a desire for faithful obedience to you. We thank you for the gift that is our ability to serve and live for you. In this time, use your word, use your scriptures to challenge us, where we need to be challenge, to strengthen us, where we need to be strengthened, and encourage us ultimately to live lives that glorify your name. In Jesus' name, amen.   Alrighty. So with that, we actually are not going to have three points today, because I told you what I'm going to tell you, and I've told you that Paul's already told us it. So now I'm just going to go to the third point and tell you what he's been telling you. But what we're going to do is we'll read the text and then I'll go through verse by verse just to point out, this is the theme that Paul is arguing and drawing from.   So our text today is Romans 16:17-27 with you'll read with me, you can follow along in your bibles or on the screens behind me. It says this, "I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.   The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsman. I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen."   Alrighty, so we will start in verse 17, at the beginning of this text. And what Paul is focusing on is the practicalities of the Christian life. What we talked a lot about in these last few chapters, that was sort of the ending of Paul's argument, is how to live as a Christian. And Paul's argument for the practical life of a Christian, he summarizes with two points. First, focus on the gospel, and second, focus on unity within the church. That is the summary of all the things that Paul has written in terms of the practical life of a Christian.   And here in verse 17, he says, "I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them." And so he's drawing on the text from Romans 14:13. His point that he made there is says this, "Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother."   If you remember back in chapter 14, Paul's argument of not passing judgment was specifically, "If someone bears the name of Christ, if they are a Christian, they're in Christ. They are saved. It is not your ability to save them or not save them, to condemn them for what they say or do. God alone saves. So do not pass judgment on them, condemning them. And also rather than condemning them, now, decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of the brother." So focus on the gospel. If they are saved, that is the power of God, that is their identity through Christ, and do not put up any hindrances.   Now, the hindrance that Paul was talking about specifically in chapter 14 was meat offered to idols, right? Some Christians said, "We can't eat meat offered to idols, lest anyone think I'm dare worshiping that idol?" Then other Christians were like, "Idols aren't real. We could eat whatever we want." And there was division within churches because of this issue. And Paul's saying, "No, no, we don't have any divisions. We seek, we focus on unity within the church based on the gospel. If it is in the gospel, that is what we focus on."   What's interesting, and a brother in the church pointed out to me this week that it ends by saying, "Avoid people who causes division." Seems like it's causing division. Well, two things that we need to recognize here is that, first, Paul is calling for the flip of what he was saying before. Before he said, "Seek unity and don't create division yourselves." Now, "Avoid those who do cause division and reject the gospel."   Well, what is this about? It's first, we as Christians are called ourselves, specifically, individually but also corporately as a body to seek this, to seek unity, to pursue unity in practicality and to live it out. And to focus on the gospel ourselves, to hold the gospel of Jesus Christ in utmost authority over our lives. And when we do that for ourselves, we want to protect it. We want to protect that sanctity. We don't want anything to come in to this body and affect that belief. So we do need to protect the gospel of Christ.   Now, are we causing divisions by doing that? No, we aren't. Why? Because Paul is clear, "Those that are causing these divisions are not part of the body to begin with." This is verse 18, "For such persons," those causing divisions, "do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive." See, we cannot serve the Lord and our own appetites. You can't do both. It's one or the other.   And this is Paul's argument from chapter six through eight of the Spirit versus the flesh. You can't serve two masters. This is from Romans 8:5-8, it says, "For those who live according to their flesh, set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."   And so what Paul is talking about is not division within the church. It's about recognizing that if you are causing division, you are in sin, and you cannot please both your own satisfactions, your own appetites, it's literally your stomach, your hungers, your earthly desires, your flesh and the Lord. And so when we see those that are serving their own desires solely, they are not serving the Lord, we should recognize that, as not what Christ is about and not what Christ is like. And there's always grace and forgiveness and repentance. So if you see somebody who is causing divisions within the church, call them to repentance, and forgive them if they do. If you are causing divisions within the church, call you to repent, and there will be forgiveness, and you will be in the Lord.   And we can put aside the desires of our flesh to live in the Spirit. And again, it says that, "Those who set their mind on the Spirit, it brings life and peace." Well, what is the gospel? The gospel is the story of life. The life that we can have eternal life through the working of Christ. And peace is the unity that we seek in this church, but also the peace of our hearts and mind, because of the gospel of Christ. So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I want to tell you, there are two sides of this, Spirit and the flesh, serving Christ and serving yourself. Ultimately, we'll see that as serving the kingdom of Satan. But I urge of you to run to Christ, pray to Him, seek Him, go to Him, because He desires relationship with you. He died on the cross. He left everything in heaven above to come and save you from your sins, if you have faith and trust in Him. If you will say, "Lord Jesus, I submit my life to you. You are the only one who can save me and bring me into the Spirit, and save me from this sinful flesh of mine."   And Paul then goes on talking to the church in Rome, recognizing that they have been saved and they are sanctified, and he knows that by their obedience. Actually before I get to that, quick point, at the end of verse 18, it talks about that, "Those who do not serve the Christ but serve their own appetites, do so by smooth talk and flattery." I like the word flattery. Well, I don't like the word flattery, but I like that it's here. When I think about flattery, what I think about is people telling me I look good when I don't. Like, "Oh, Tyler, you smell great. Is that new cologne?" It's like, I've just been running up and down stairs. I've been sweating. I know I smell terrible. That's not good. That's not true. That's flattery. But that's what flattery is emphasizing here is praise that is not true.   So we just sang a song before the service about how God is worthy of praise. That's actually the same word as flattery here. But the difference is, yeah, God is worthy of praise. God is holy. He is worthy of glory. He is almighty. So it's not flattery, it's praise. Now, when someone gives us praise, and we know it's not true, that's flattery. I don't know about you, but my least favorite compliment to ever receive is, "You're such a good person." Jesus is very clear, there is none good but one and that is the Lord God. And so when I hear that, all that goes through my mind is, "You have no idea how much of a sinner I am. You have no idea how wicked I am that you say I'm good."   What Paul is saying here is, "Watch out for people who tell you what you want to hear. Watch out for people who tell you how great you are and amazing you are, when it's not true." You see, this was what was causing division in so many churches in the first century, and throughout all of history, is that people start to say, "You know what? I'm going to tell people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell them how awesome and great they are, and then they'll follow me." But, Paul's saying, "No, follow those not who speak well, not who have smooth talk, but those who live lives of faithful obedience."   Don't listen to what I'm saying or any other preacher at Mosaic says, because we are eloquent, check us. Are we faithfully following the Lord? And by God's grace we strive to, we desire to. And anyone who is faithfully obedient to the Lord, they are the ones to follow, regardless of how well they speak, regardless of how charismatic they are, are they bearing fruit of faithfulness to the Lord?   Follow them and praise them, because then it's true. Praise God that you are able to live a life of faithful obedience and bestow that honor upon such people. And that's what Paul does here, right? In verse 19, he says, "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." Paul rejoices, he brings praise over the church in Rome, because he knows that they have been obedient. He's also clarifying, he's like, "I'm not saying these things about you. You haven't been the ones causing division. You aren't the ones with smooth talk and flattery. I'm thankful and praising God for you because of your obedience."   And what Paul is drawing on is that faithful works, faithful obedience is not the same thing as fulfilling of the law. And where do we see that clearly is the rejoicing that Paul gives for their obedience. Have you ever rejoiced because someone followed the law? That's like, you're supposed to follow the law, just do it like we don't rejoice and celebrate the fact. Guys, I can tell you this past week I did not murder anyone. Great. Yeah, exactly. That proves my point. No one rejoices over me doing what the law says I'm supposed to do. You're like, "No, duh, just do what you're supposed to do."   But what we rejoice over is when people do things that they're not supposed to do, that they are not supposed to be able to do. And this is what Paul argues in Romans chapter four and in chapter five, kind of together, that whole argument he brings it about. But in 4:1-5, Paul says this, "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."   See, when we work, we get wages, right? You have a job, you get paid. So when you receive wages for the work you do, that's just what you're supposed to get. When you get a gift, that is a cause for rejoice and because you know don't deserve it. And what this text is saying, is that Abraham was counted as righteous, was counting as faithful before the Lord because of his faith. He was counted as doing good things, as fulfilling the law, because of his faith, not because of the works he did.   And so he is in a position of saved by grace through faith. And anyone who bears the name of Christ is in the same. We are in a position, a state of faith by grace, of grace by faith, I should say. Well, so then what do we do from that position? This was Paul's argument in his thesis that from faith, for faith, you are in faith. From that faith, now you go in faith, you do faith, you live in faith.   And this is Romans 5:2-5, "Through him," through Christ, "we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand," this is the state we are in because of faith, "and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."   We're in a position of faith, now, we live in faith. We live in a way that allows us to endure suffering, to build character, to produce hope in us. Why? Because of the faithful obedience to God that we are able to live in because of the state of grace through faith that we are in. And we rejoice over it, right? He says twice that, "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but we also rejoice in our sufferings." There is a rejoicing, and that's Paul's point here. He says, "I rejoice over your obedience," because when we see the obedience in our lives, when we see the obedience in other faithful Christians lives, we look at them and what we see is not them doing good things.   What we look at is we see that God has saved them and has allowed them to live a life that actually brings honor and glory to God. Praise God. That's not possible for any of us to do unless it's a gift of God. So when we see faithful obedience, we should rejoice, we should celebrate it, not because it's good work, but because it's a gift from God.   And then he says this little phrase, "Be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." The word innocent literally means unmixed, untainted. What he's talking about is purity. Be wise as to what is good without any evil mixed in. Okay, well, and what is wisdom? My working definition that I don't know where I got it from, but I've heard for many years and I love about wisdom is knowledge applied. It's not just knowing what is good, but actually living in it and applying it to day-to-day life. I can see what God says is good and apply it to my day-to-day situations.   So what Paul is calling for us to do is to strive for perfection. Oh, that's a hard thing to do, right? Now, none of us are perfect, none of us achieve it. But again, it is a gift from God in the first place that we could do anything good. And so if that is true, then we trust God and we seek him, and he will enable us to remove the evil within our hearts, within our lives. And so Christians, we are called to examine ourselves. We are called to look at our lives and say, "Where is their sin? Where is there evil? Where is there something within my heart and my life that I am not submitting to the Lord?" And we're called to cut it out. We're called to remove it. We're called to submit it fully to the Lord and be sanctified, so that we are unmixed, we're innocent to evil.   Now, Paul transitions very easily to verse 20, which is all about the sovereignty of God in this. If we want to strive for perfection, if we want to grow in sanctification, we need God to be in control of it. That's verse 20, where Paul says this, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." So Paul's encouragement for us as we're striving to be faithfully obedient, to do what is good and remove evil, is that God will crush Satan under our feet. This is my favorite verse in this text. I love this verse, it's good pre-workout. You should just read it before you lift.   But it's really interesting, because it's God doing the crushing. It says, "God will crush you." Sorry, "God will soon crush Satan." Sorry, slip of the talk. No, God's not going to crush you, by god's grace, if you're in Christ, so repent and believe. God will soon crush Satan. But it's under our feet, not under His feet, under our feet, but God is the one doing the crushing.   What is going on here? If you think back and remember to the story of creation and the fall of Adam and Eve, the very first prophecy of the Messiah is in Genesis 3, and it's about how Jesus, the Messiah, will crush the serpent's head, will crush him with His foot. And in Hebrews 2, we see that Jesus is that Messiah who has done this. In Hebrews 2:14, it says this, "Since therefore the children's share in flesh and blood, he himself," Jesus, "likewise, partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil."   What it's saying is that we are flesh and blood, we are people, and Jesus Christ, likewise, took on flesh. This is what we celebrated at Christmas. He became like us. He took on flesh. Why? So that through his death, his death on the cross, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. It is Satan. That word destroy and crush that it's the same idea. It's complete, utter destruction, completely destroys. It's the idea of a fine China vase that you just take and throw and smash on the ground. It's just shattered into millions and billions of pieces. And you could never put it back together the way it was before. It's completely destroyed. It's no longer what it was. Jesus did that. Jesus defeated Satan in that complete total way from his death and resurrection on the cross, because he proved that he has power over Satan, sin, and death.   And just like Christ's righteousness is applied to us through faith, so is this applied to us. This actually comes from the book of Luke. In Luke 10, Jesus sends out 72 disciples and tells them, "Go preach the gospel to anyone who will listen." And those 72 come back, and this is what it says in Luke 10:17, The 72 returned with joy saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."   See, God is in control of all things. Romans tells us that all things are from Him, through Him, and to Him. He is in control of all. And what He has ordained from the beginning is that Christ will defeat Satan. That the kingdom of God will reign and power and might and defeat and crush and utterly destroy the kingdom of Satan. And by God's sovereign grace, we are called to partake in that mission. We are called to partake in the treading of the kingdom of Satan underfoot. And how do we do that? Not by rejoicing in it, not by celebrating and getting power hungry and being like, "This is great. We can do all this."   No, but we rejoice that our rejoice that our names are written in heaven. We rejoice in the salvation that comes from Christ alone. And like those 72 that were sent out, the great commission calls us to be sent out, to go and preach the gospel to all nations, to all who have not heard. Why? Because it's good, it's true, because we desire for people to be saved? Yes, and this is how God ordained us to continually tread, excuse me, continually tread the kingdom of Satan underfoot. We recognize that it is the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan.   And so when we see places where God is not at, where the world is not in submission to the Lord, where kingdom of Satan is ruling, we march into those areas and boldly, faithfully proclaim the gospel to anyone and everyone who will listen. And we usher in the kingdom of God in places where it is not, because we recognize kingdom of Satan you have no power, you have been defeated from Christ. And as we look forward to the day that that is fully realized, at the second coming of Christ, we still are faithful in ushering the kingdom of God here and now.   We want to trust in the sovereignty of God. But specifically what Paul is calling us to do that in is the preaching and proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of those who hear. So in everything in life, trust in the sovereignty of God, but especially in the preaching of the gospel. And then in verses 21 through 23, Paul gets into a little bit more of greetings saying hello to more people. If you're here last week what we talked about was how the word greeting is Paul welcoming as if into their own home. We talked about how Paul genuinely loved and cared for other Christians, and he can't help but greet more people and send more greetings from other people, because they actually love and care for each other. So if you want more information on that, listen to last week sermon where we talk about how Christians, we are called to love each other here in this room, but every single person who bears the name of Christ, we are called to love and care for.   But in verses 21 through 23, Paul says this, "Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsman. I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greets you." So rather than greeting people who are at Rome, he's sending greetings from people that are with him, encouraging them like, "Church in Rome, there are people who love and care about you here too." And this is just like my personal head cannon. This is not certain, so don't... it's not certain, but Tertius and Quartus, it says, "Our brother Quartus," I believe they're physical, literal brothers. But anyway, here's why Tertius means third and Quartus means fourth. So great creativity, parents, they named their kids first, second, third, fourth. And praise God, I haven't had any teenagers roll through.   "Oh, you're the first one. What's your name? First, oh, second, third..." Thank you parents for creativity in naming your kids. And if you name is first, second, third, fourth, I'm sorry, but the Lord still loves you, and we will all receive a new name in heaven anyway, so it's okay. No, anyway, sorry. So he is just continually pointing out his themes that he is going through. He has his greetings, his longing to be with the people in Rome.   And then in verses 25 through 27, the largest part of his conclusion, his summary, he focuses on the most important thing. The most important thing for how all of this applies to us today is that we need to hope in Christ alone. So verses 25 to 27, he says this, "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel in the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen."   Starts by saying, "Now to him who is able to strengthen you..." Well, who is that? That is God. That is Christ. He is the one who is able to strengthen us. So when we're looking to live in faithful obedience, when we're looking for living in life in the Spirit and to follow all the practical wisdom and guidance that the scriptures give us, we first need to recognize that the strength we need to do this comes from Christ alone. Comes from the hope that we can have that He is with us, He is strengthening us, He is encouraging us, He is there.   Then he says, "According to my gospel." Paul, it's not your gospel, it's the gospel. Don't hold it for yourself. No, this is incredible, because what Paul is saying is he really truly believes the gospel applies to everything about him. He has internalized the gospel, recognizes the reality of the power it has over who he is. It's not just the gospel, it's not just the good news, it's his good news, because it's the only way that he can be saved. It's the only way that he can have hope in Christ. It's the only way he can have hope in this life.   So Christians, do we actually think the gospel applies to every single area of our life? Do we look at parts of our lives, what we think, what we say, what we do, and say, "Is this following the gospel? How does the gospel transform this?" And do we actually have pride in this? Paul is bold enough and proud enough to say, it is his gospel to declare to everyone that it is his. He takes ownership of it. It's not just something he thinks about or likes or prefers. It is his gospel. It's part of his identity. It is his identity.   Christians, are we bold enough to proclaim to those around us, "It's our gospel too"? We're not ashamed of the gospel, right? That was his thesis in verse 16, chapter one. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, we're not ashamed of it, because it's our gospel. It's the only thing that saves us, as we talked about earlier. It's the only thing that brings life and peace in this world and in the one to come.   Then he says, "In the preaching of Jesus Christ," I love this too because that's part of why I'm up here. That's part of why every preacher does what they do is we want you guys, we want all of us, myself included, to focus on Christ. To focus on Christ, so that you are strengthened, you have hope in Him, so that way we can live lives of faithful obedience.   I'm not up here just to talk about things that were written a long time ago. I'm not up here just to say whatever I want to. I'm up here so that we can all, as a church, as a body be unified and strengthened and encouraged. So that when we walk out those doors, we don't just say, "That was nice. I had a good time." No, that we walk out these doors saying, "I am ready. I am prepared. I am strengthened to be able to live this day, this week, this life in honor of God, to bring glory and praise to His name."   And in this text, Paul can't help but focus on the sovereignty of God still, right? That's the next part. "According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations..." Paul is saying, "This salvation through Christ alone has been God's plan, his sovereign plan for all of human history. And what gives us the strength to go and live lives of faith... we need His help in living lives of faithful obedience."   And it's his command. I love that, too, by God's command. God's command is do not fail. He is true. He keeps his word. He is honorable, and it is His command that all nations will hear the gospel. And so when we see that we take encouragement, we take hope in Christ, because Christ coming, His death and resurrection, His life here on earth is proof of God's sovereignty. It is validating to us that when we look at Christ, when we see the hope we have in Christ, yeah, God's sovereignty is real. It's not just in theological idea. It's not just something we think about, but it is proven true through the life of Christ. And He can change all nations by it, by this reality, by his sovereignty.   And within this conclusion, he just slips in his thesis one more time, just to make sure we all understood and we all heard it. Verse 26, "But has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings and has made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God..." Why? "To bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forever more through Jesus Christ! Amen."   The obedience of faith is a gift from God that we even get to live at all, let alone live a life that brings honor and glory to His name. And so we should live lives of obedience, faithful obedience to the Lord, joyfully, trusting in his sovereignty, focusing on the hope we have in Christ. And as it says in verse 27, "All for the glory of God." That is the way we bring the greatest glory to God's name by living lives that honor Him, by living lives that are faithfully obedient to His word. And that when others see it, they recognize it as God in us, and that we are then able to proclaim the gospel to all who witness and see.   So I told you what I was going to tell you, talked about what Paul has already told us. I just told you what I've been telling you. We are called to live lives of faithful obedience to the Lord. Let's pray.   Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good. We thank you that we get to honor and glorify your name. We thank you that we get to live in obedience to you. We thank you for that gift. Give us hearts that are able to recognize where sin is in us and to run to you, to repent of it to you, and remove it from our hearts, remove it from our lives. Lord, give us hearts that truly desire to see your kingdom come here on earth, to live faithfully marching forward for your kingdom. And give us hearts that no matter what circumstances come our way, are focused on Christ, are focused on the hope that you alone provide, and will strengthen us to be able to get through all of life's situations. We thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Greetings from Paul

January 8, 2023 • Tyler Burns • Romans 15:23—16:16

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com   So we will be in Romans 15:22 through chapter 16:16. So we got a lot. We're going through a lot real fast today. There's a lot of topics covered here. So instead of reading the whole thing and then going into it, we'll read it in chunks as we go along.   And I want us to focus on the major theme of Paul's argument here in Romans. And in this section, the idea that he is addressing is essentially how do we relate to one another? How do we interact with each other as Christians in real life, when sometimes things aren't always going as planned and aren't what you expect them to be? What should our mentality be towards one another? So with that, will you pray with me over the preaching of God's word.   Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that you allow us to be here together today to worship and bring honor and glory to your name. Lord, we thank you that you are a good and loving God and we ask that you give us love for one another in the same way that you love your church. Help us to truly seek the wellbeing and welfare of our brothers and sisters in Christ, to desire good for all your people. First and foremost, for those in your local church here that you have placed us in, but also for those who bear the name of Christ around the world. Help us to love and care for one another, all for the glory of your name. In Jesus' name. Amen.   Alrighty. So we will still be spending our time in three points here today. The first point is be encouraged by other Christians. Secondly, pray for other Christians. And third, praise God for other Christians. So first, be encouraged by other Christians. And this is in verses 22 through 29 of chapter 15 where it says this, "This is the reason why I've so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints for Macedonia and Achaea have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.   When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ."   We'll pause there for now. And so the first point, be encouraged by other Christians. And Paul is talking about his desire, his wants to visit this church in Rome, a church he has never met before, a church that he had no part in planting, it was not planted by him. So he just wanted to go and be encouraged by a faithful church somewhere in the world, because they were faithful, they were worshiping God and he wanted that to be an encouragement to his soul. But he says in the beginning, "This is the reason I have been hindered." Well, what is the reason? That goes back to chapter 15, verse 20.   He says, "I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named." So Paul is saying, "I really want to spend time in fellowship, be encouraged by this other church somewhere in the world, but God has placed a call on my life and I need to fulfill that call before I can go and experience that." So one thing that we should take note of here is we've been spending a lot of time talking about our calling, like that God has placed a calling on every single one of our lives, that God has placed us in specific cities, specific parts of the world, but also specific jobs, occupations, roles, and we are called to be faithful to the Lord in that calling wherever we are.   And we need to understand that that calling takes precedent in our lives. We talked last week about fully submitting everything in our lives to God, to his will, to his desires. And that for Paul took precedent even more than something that is good, fellowshipping with other believers. Now, fellowshipping with other believers is good and something to be desired and we should want to do that, but it's not more important than the mission. And why I point this out is to say Paul is talking about another church. He is not talking about fellowship in the local church that he is at. So what I bring up to say is that we are still called to fellowship with one another, but oftentimes we might see other churches doing great and glorious things for the Kingdom of God and praise God for those churches, and we should want and desire to be with them and just simply be encouraged by the work that they are doing that is good, and it's something we should desire and do. But it shouldn't be in place of our faithfulness to the ministry that God has placed on our lives.   Let us start by being faithful in service to the Lord here in our local church, the place where he has placed us, and as we are faithful here it grows the opportunity for more encouragement from other churches because we get to say, "Hey, I've been faithful. I need encouragement. I need strength and restoration. I can go to another faithful church and be encouraged by them." But we cannot neglect the call that God has placed on our lives wherever that may be. And secondly, I want to point out that this is Paul's view of rest. Paul views rest as fellowship with other believers. This is interesting. Is that how we view of rest?   I think oftentimes we idolize rest to the point of saying, "I just need to be alone and nobody talk to me and then I'll be better." It's good, spend time alone. Every person needs some time alone with the Lord and to get rest. Sleep. Sleep is important. That is all good. I'm not trying to say anything against those things, but intrinsic to rest is fellowship with one another, with believers.   This is part of the idea of Sabbathing, right? Sabbathing we talk about as a day of rest. But Sabbath is not a day to be alone by yourself and not talk to anybody. Sabbath is a time to be in fellowship with other believers. Alistair Begg is a preacher I believe in the Cleveland area who I love and respect and he has a sermon series on Sabbathing, I highly recommend it. It's a two-part series, but it completely changed the way I view Sabbathing and I'm sure it will for you. But one of the things Alistair says about it, I want you to read for us, he says this, "Loved ones, I've got to say something. Whenever our experience of worship is so devalued and our notion of the Lord's Day is so disintegrated so as to conceive of it in such a way that we believe that the religious exercises are supposed to get over and done with as fast as they possibly can so that we may get on with the day, then we stand condemned before the fourth commandment."   This is keep the Sabbath, "We ought actually to be getting down on our knees and thanking God for the privilege of being brought under the orb of influence of a church that has determined on the basis of holy scripture that we will give every opportunity on the Lord's day for all the things that the Lord's day was intended to mean, for worship, for prayer, for study, for fellowship, for holy contemplation. And the fact that it does not appeal to us says more about the low level of our spiritual appetites than it does about anything else."   Pretty harsh words. But it is meant to be an encouragement to us to say let's actually love and enjoy and praise God for the Sabbath. Let's honestly praise God for the opportunity that we get to meet in a church together and be encouraged by one another, that we have that power in each other's lives to strengthen and encourage and worship God together. And this is how much Paul loves God's people that he's like, "I'm working all the time, I'm planting churches." He's doing everything he can, "I want to go somewhere else. I want to go to Spain and plant churches. So for my rest and energy to plant another church, I'm just going to go and hang out in another faithful church. I'm just going to be there for a while. Be encouraged, be strengthened. Spend time together, be in each other's homes."   That's what Paul takes encouragement from. So dear Christians, do we love to be with each other? Do we like to spend time together? Do we encourage each other when we are together? Are we building each other up for the sake of the mission that God has called each and every one of us too for the spread of the gospel? And we are also called not to think just about ourselves in the local church.   Again, Paul is writing to other Christians that he has never met to the church in Rome, and he connects them with other churches that he has planted. This is in verses 26 and 27. He says, "For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings." So Paul recognizes that the church in Jerusalem was a spiritual blessing to all the other churches. What does that mean? Well, the gospel started, Christ came and was raised and the first church was in Jerusalem that worshiped him. And from there it went across the world.   And so Paul recognized the need of the gospel to spread and the influence of the church in Jerusalem to have influence on other churches, and then in response, those churches should still care for the church in Jerusalem. So there's two specific ways that Paul brings this up. But first is we are called to care for those Christians who have had an influence on our spiritual health and wellbeing and our growth in life. Praise God for Faith Baptist Church in Hamilton, New Jersey, the church I grew up in, because they played an integral part in my faith as a Christian. And without them I don't know if I would be a Christian, I do because God is sovereign and he's in control of all things and he chose me to be safe in his child, so I am. And he would work his will through all things, but he chose to use that church.   And I praise God for that and I want to honor them and be encouraged by the work that they're doing. And for many of us, we have home churches, we have places where we had heard the gospel for the first time and where we came to faith and we are called to honor them, we are called to remember them, be encouraged by them and encourage them in their times of need. For many people here Mosaic may be that church, Mosaic may be the church where you came to faith, it was instrumental in your growth. It is instrumental even to this day in my growth as a Christian. And I praise God for this church. And Paul says that those churches who are in need, like the church in Jerusalem, we are called to help. The churches in Galatia only existed because of the work of the church in Jerusalem.   So they owed it to them, he said, to help and to give. It was also their pleasure, right? It's that balance of they were pleased to give aid and to help the church in Jerusalem in their time of need, but they did owe it. It was their responsibility they should have, and in the same way if we see those that have been instrumental in our faith, in our salvation and our growth and walk with Christ, we should joyfully seek to help them. And we kind of owe it to them, because they have brought us to this place and our relationship with Christ.   And then secondly, he talks specifically about the poor in Jerusalem. And so before I get to the poor in Jerusalem, he points out that the church is giving to help the contribution of the poor in Jerusalem are Macedonia and Achaia. Well if you know anything about Macedonia, what the church in Macedonia is famous for as being poor. In Second Corinthians, Paul talks about the church in Macedonia as saying, "They're the ones that have suffered and endured great suffering and endured through poverty." And so they are known for being poor, yet they are the ones giving to the poor in Jerusalem.   Well, their portion that they save and keep it for themselves so that they can be prosperous and take it, what's important to know is that in Second Corinthians Paul says that they have endured through that poverty. Not that they aren't poor anymore, but that they have proven faithful even in poverty, that they have proven to be able to care for one another, to provide for each other's needs even in their own poverty. So that way they could, with whatever they had left, give to those in need.   So what does that mean for us. Christians do we care for those in need in our church first? Do we see people in this body who are in need, physical, financial needs, it's giving monetary value to those who are poor? Do we see brothers and sisters and help them? And the easiest way for this to start is our community groups, if you see somebody in your group who you know is in need, do we help them? Do we actually take steps to help. By God's grace a few years ago, I've been in a couple different community groups, but in one of the groups I was in a member was not able to pay for rent, was unable to afford rent, and another member of the group was financially blessed in that season and offered to pay for the rent of that person for a few months and was like, "I don't want them to know I'm going to do it, anonymously and give it to them." And I'm saying this because it's not me, I'm not involved in any of this. So this is I'm praising God for the work that he has done through other people.   But they genuinely cared and loved each other, and they saw somebody in their group in need and they provided. We as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ need to be prepared to do the same, to care for one another practically in reality, even if it costs money, even if it's financial, even if it's time, even if it's relational, no matter what it is, we need to love each other enough to actually care for each other practically.   And when you are able to do that, then your area of influence of generosity begins to grow, right? If you're able to provide for one another and care for each other in your group, maybe you get to the point where you say, "Hey, there's no one in our community group that has any needs." Praise God if that's your group, and if that's the case, maybe you should talk to other community group leaders and be like, "Hey, is there anyone in need? We have a wealth, we have an abundance within our group. Can we help you? Is there anyone in need?" And help each other.   And then when we as a church, when we as Mosaic are helping each other, genuinely, always providing for each other's needs, supporting and encouraging each other when we need it, then God gives us that margin, that blessing to be able to give even more generously, regardless of the amount of our finances. That's never the point for Paul. The point is that they were faithful regardless of their finances. The church in Macedonia was faithful in the little that they had, that God blessed them with the ability to bless others. So Christians, let's strive to be a church that is faithful with what we have to provide for each other, care for each other, so that way we can become a greater blessing to those around the world. To the other churches in the city, to other churches that love the Lord and are in need.   We want to be able to care for each other. And so you notice that the point is be encouraged by other Christians, but I'm talking a lot about how we can encourage other Christians. It's because to say be encouraged and encourage other Christians was too long of a point, it didn't really fit on the slide, but it's easy to say be encouraged. That's very passive. And how that happens is we have to encourage each other and then we will be encouraged by others when we are all living out this call.   But point number two is pray for other Christians. This is in chapter 15, verses 30 through 33. It says this, "I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen."   So Paul is begging, or is asking, appealing to this church in Rome and saying, "Please pray for me." Saying, "I am trying to do what God has called me to do. Please pray for me." He needed their help. He was asking specifically for prayer to be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea who sought his arrest, who wanted him to be arrested for preaching the gospel. And so he wanted deliverance from them so he could be faithful in delivering the gift to the church in Jerusalem and be faithful in proclaiming the gospel around the world, specifically in Spain. And so what we need to understand is that when we are apart physically from each other and from other believers, what we are primarily called to is prayer.   This is how we wage war, spiritual warfare, with brothers and sisters around the world when we are not able to physically be present with them. I know a lot of us have friends and family who are not from this area. Maybe we are not from this area, we're a transplant, and so we want to care and protect our friends and family back home, but we're not there. How can we do that? First and foremost, we pray. We pray hard. John Piper says, "You cannot know what prayer is for until you know that life is war." And so when we view that as the reality, we will be praying for each other and we will be praying for those we love and care about.   But it's also for just everybody who is calling and who is faithfully following the call of Christ in their life, who bears the name of Christian. We need to be praying for Christ's church universal, but for the people especially that we know are in need. And Paul's asking for the church that doesn't know him to be doing this. So it's not just our best friends that we pray for, but it's when we hear of a brother or sister in Christ that's in need we pray, we seek their wellbeing, we do what we can to help.   But what's really, I find interesting, I find really fun, I guess, fun may not be the right word but fun about this text is that Paul is asking for a deliverance and he was not delivered. If you know the story of Paul, he went to Jerusalem, delivered the gift, and he was arrested there. And it was actually because of his arrest that he appealed as a Roman citizen to go to Rome, and so Paul's desire, the reason he was asking for the church in Rome to pray for him is so that first he can go and be encouraged by the church in Rome, then he could go and preach the gospel where it had not yet been named, in Spain.   Well God didn't answer the prayer the way he wanted him to, but God's plans are bigger than our plans and God's thoughts are bigger than our thoughts. So God used Paul's imprisonment actually to bring him to Rome, that was the way through which Paul was able to arrive and land in Rome. And not only that, we are told in history that the church in Rome heard of Paul's arrival when his ship landed and the group of Roman soldiers, was escorting him to the city that they walked 30 to 40 miles south of Rome to meet him, to greet with him, to celebrate his arrival and worship and praise God together 30 and 40 mile walk back to Rome.   All in the witness of the Roman guards who are keeping him imprisoned. Paul wanted to be encouraged by the church in Rome, he was encouraged by the church in Rome, just not how he had planned or expected. And once he was in Rome, he was under house arrest where he was able to have as many visitors as he wanted coming and going. And so the church in Rome were primarily the ones visiting him and caring for him while he was in prison. The second thing Paul wanted to do was to go to Spain to preach the gospel where it had not been named. Sorry, Spain didn't get to hear Paul preach, but the gospel still has reached Spain. We're very thankful and praise God that the gospel reached Spain. We love Spain.   But what happened while Paul was in prison at Rome? He wrote Ephesians, he wrote Philippians, he wrote Colossians, he wrote the books to Timothy. You see, Paul's vision for the spread of the gospel was Spain, God's vision for the spread of the gospel was these books that we hold in our sacred scriptures to this day that have been used around the world and for generations to proclaim the gospel to those who have not heard it and had not yet known it.   So when we pray for Christians, those in need, those who need our help either in our local church or the church abroad, we need to recognize prayer does have power to change things. Prayer is important. It is how we wage war against the kingdom of Satan and for the Kingdom of God. And while we are persistent in our prayer, we trust the sovereignty of God. We trust that God is in control of all things and that his plans are greater than our plans and that even when we want things to go a certain way and the answer to our prayers may seem no in that moment, God is still working for good. He's still working for the spread and glory of his Kingdom and of the gospel.   And lastly, I want to point out verse 33 is prayer language in and of itself. In verse 33, Paul says, "May the God of peace be with you all. Amen." Paul is praying for the church as he is asking them to pray for him. This is our relationship, we need to be praying for each other. And lastly, in this point, sorry, I say lastly and people think it's the end, it's not. Lastly in this point. Don't be that guy that says, "Praying for you." And doesn't actually pray. We all know we all have been there. We all understand. But don't be that guy.   If prayer truly is how we wage war against the kingdom of Satan to say, "I'll pray for you." Is a promise to go out into the battlefield with somebody and then to not pray is to not go, and to leave them alone. So if you tell somebody, "I'm going to pray for you, pray for them." Do it, write, make notes, write calendar alarms, whatever you need to do to remember, do it. And that should also remind you to when you say it in the first place, to actually mean it, to be going in with the heart of, "I'm going to pray for you." And not a default response of, "They're saying something that's too much for me to handle. So I'll just say this to shut them up, I'm praying for you." No, no, no. We need to really mean it and truly pray for each other.   And lastly, point three, we are called to praise God for other Christians. This is chapter 16 verses one through 16. And there are a ton of names in here. I promise I'm going to butcher half of them. I'm sorry. But I'm going to read through it, because Paul wanted to honor these people. I want to honor these people. But I also want to encourage you, if you like history, if you like puzzles, if you like seeing how things all fit together, really delve into this text and into the names and who they are and what it's been. It's actually been really a blessing to me this past week, but it's really fun just to see who these people are and what they've done.   So if you like that kind of stuff, dig even deeper into the names. But I know a lot of us, the names, it's just a, okay, I'm going to skim through or skip over this section and get to the good stuff. But this is the good stuff too. So we're going to preach even the names, but Romans 16 versus one through 16 says this, "I commend to you our sister, Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her and the Lord in our way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you. For she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary who has worked hard for you. Greet Adronicus and Junia, my kinsman and fellow prisoners, they are well known to the apostles and they were in Christ before me.   Great Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ and my beloved Stachys, greet Apelles who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobolus, greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord. Also his mother who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philol-" Oh man, sorry, "Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you."   All right. Told first service this, so second service if any of you are in teens, I want you to know you're all going to have to read this out loud to each other tonight. Just, no, I'm just kidding. But Paul here lists and greets those Christians who he has worked with and served the Lord with together, and writes essentially a letter of recommendation to the church in Rome for these people.   So want to be clear about something, he is not writing to a church that he knows and picking out a couple of good people in there. I thought that's what was happening before I really started my study, and I was like, "Oh, maybe on Sunday I should go up and be like praise God for this person and that person and greet all of these people." And then I was like, "Yeah, that's just going to cause division because I don't know everybody who does everything in this church. And many of you that I do not know are still faithfully serving the Lord and are worthy of being honored before him for the work that you do."   So that's not what Paul is doing, that's not what he's doing. What he is doing is he's writing about Christians, primarily Christians that he had met in Ephesus, we'll get into that in a second, to a church in Rome that they are newcomers to. They are newly members of this church in Rome. And he is writing a greeting to the church to say, "Welcome these people. They are faithful, they have served the Lord with me. They have proclaimed the gospel and have been used powerfully for the Kingdom of God. Welcome them." And Paul is thankful for all of the work that these people have done. These are people that didn't move around with Paul, didn't always stay with him, didn't go everywhere he went. He understood that they had calls that were different than his, but were ultimately about proclaiming the gospel.   And so he was thankful and praised God for the impact that they had on his life and on the world around them. But I want to point out again that it is specifically people from Ephesus, mostly, not entirely. And we can go through all the names and see who is from where and go through all that, but to give just an example, I'm going to look at verse three where it says, "Greet Prisca and Aquila." For many of you, you might sound familiar and be like, "That sounds a little off." Well, it's Priscilla and Aquila, that's her full name. And why does he call her Prisca? It just shows that Paul actually was friends with these people. He actually liked them and they had nicknames for each other like, "Hey Priscilla, that's too formal. Prisca sounds good." So it's good. Have nicknames for each other, call each other by loving names. But they were people who helped him plant the church in Ephesus and helped him plant the church in Corinth.   They were founding members of those churches and had worked powerfully with Paul for the Kingdom of God. He praises God for them. He says in an event that we do not know about, that they risked their necks for his life. So he is thankful for them. I'm bringing this up specifically because some scholars will try and say, "Oh, there's a lot of people in Ephesus. This is the wrong church. He meant to write to Ephesus and then they threw on Rome later." And I'm just trying to show that it was meant for Rome, because what we know is that in Acts chapter 18, we are told that Priscilla and Aquila were removed and kicked out of Rome for being Christians, because all of the Christians were kicked out of Rome at that time by a decree, and that decree ended seven years before Paul wrote this letter to the Romans.   And so like many people there, you could see the floods of people, actually the church in Rome, the Jewish population in Rome grew more so after the people returned, because they had gone out, proclaimed the word of the Lord, and then more people came back with them than were there before. And so the church grew, but you saw a mass return of people who had been exiled from Rome, returned to Rome. And Priscilla and Aquila were likely these people. And we saw that, if you look at a map, you could see Ephesus is on Western Turkey, and that's what they called Asia in the Bible times, Asia was Western Turkey, just so you know.   But Ephesus was there. Then they traveled to Corinth with Paul, which is essentially halfway between Ephesus and Rome, so we see that throughout their faithful ministry proclaiming the gospel, helping Paul and all that he did, they were journeying back to Rome, which is why they're here now. And Paul is saying, "Hey, there's these people in your church Rome, and they're just faithful servants. Welcome them. Praise God for them." And the word for greet I love, because it literally just means as welcoming someone into your home, the same way that you would welcome someone into your home, welcome these people in your church.   So a few points that we should take away from this church is that first, do we welcome Christians? Do we welcome people into this building? When people enter this door, do we think of it as they are entering our home let's welcome them. Let's greet them. Let's genuinely care for them and love them, and greet them as you would to your own home. Not just a hello and goodbye, but actually spend time with them. Talk to them, get to know them. I just want, I got to point out the holy kiss thing, in verse 16, it says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches in Christ greet you." That had always been a little weird to me. Why are we kissing each other in church? That seems odd. But then thinking about greeting each other as welcoming into your own home, it makes all the sense in the world.   For those of you who don't know, I'm Italian, and what that means is you hug and kiss everybody when you see them and you welcome them. I learned at a young age that not everybody does that. I was a kid, my friend's grandfather had just passed away, I had never met her grandmother before and we were at the funeral and I saw the grandmother and I was just like, "I want to show her that I love her and I care for her." So I hugged her and I kissed her on the cheek and she was mortified. And I was like, "I am so sorry." I was seven so I think she brushed it off, but I was like... Anyway, so I learned not everybody kisses on the cheek. So I stopped doing that. And then I moved to Boston.   You all know. But I was in college at Northeastern and first day there, I met a few people, we became friends, it was good, the next day I was like, "We hung out, we had a good time, we're friends, I'm going to give everybody a hug." So I'm like going down the line, giving everybody a hug. And then I get to the first girl in the line and I give her a hug and she just freezes. And I was like, "Oh no, I did something horribly wrong." I am sorry to that person. We became really good friends after that. Praise God that she forgave me. But I was like, "Okay." That's not the point. The point is not that, but the point is to love and greet each other as if they're your family, so you need wisdom, you need to act wisely, but welcome people in your home as if they're your family.   What this means for me now is we have a community group in our home and our community group, we eat dinner at the start. Why? Because my family loves food. Again, we're Italian, but when I'm with my family, the primary thing we talk about is what food are we going to eat? Oh, we eat breakfast, we're done with breakfast, what are we going to eat for lunch? We're done with lunch, what are we going to eat for dinner? What are we eating for the rest of the week? And we spend time eating food together and having fun.   And so my community group is my family, and so therefore we eat together, we spend time together. And it doesn't have to be a meal. It doesn't matter what the thing is, but think about what do you do with your family? How do you welcome and greet your family? Are you willing to do that with each other here? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ enough to do that and actually welcome people, again, with wisdom, but actually loving and caring for one another?   I want to read a quote from Justin Martyr, because he gives the context for when and where this holy kiss was used in the churches primarily. So in his first writings, Justin Martyr says this, "But we, after we have thus washed him." So that's baptism, "Who has been convinced and has ascended to our teaching." So someone is saved, agrees with the gospel, they are baptized, "Bringing him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled in order that we may offer hearty prayers and communion in common for ourselves and for the baptized person, and for all others in every place that we may be counted worthy, not that we have learned the truth by our works." Sorry, lost my place, "Now that we have learned the truth by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers we salute one another with a kiss."   So this is literally how the early church welcomed people into the family. You're saved, you're baptized. We all kiss on the cheek. Holy kiss. But the point is that was how families greeted each other then, and when somebody is saved, when a person is saved, brought into the family of God, they are actually viewed as being brought into the family, not just another person in a building. So let's welcome people like that, and when we see the work that others are doing in the church, the ways that they have encouraged us, developed our faith in the church we bring praise to God and we love each other like Christ loved the church.   This is the summary of the whole sermon. Love each other like Christ loved the church. How's that? He actually loved them. That was real. And he did it practically. He gave up everything, he came to earth, he lived for them, provided for their needs, cared for them. Ultimately, and the most loving thing of all, died on the cross to save us all from our sins when we trust in him. And so we are called to love each other with real love, but a practical love, sometimes may be costly, but that is able to proclaim the love of God to all those who are witnesses. Let's pray.   Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you. We praise you that you have saved us through the working of your son Jesus, and that you loved us enough to not stay in heaven and shout that you love us, but to come and show us, to live it out practically. Lord, help us have hearts to love each other, help us practically with our hands, with our time, with our money, with everything that we have, provide and care for each other in times of need. Lord, help us to do this faithfully so that we can overflow with generosity, so that we can be a greater blessing to those around us, to the churches, to the missionaries, to the world around us, to those who bear the name of Christ, so that we can see your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Holy Spirit Powered Hope

December 11, 2022 • Tyler Burns • Romans 15:1–21

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com   What we will do today is I want to clarify a little bit of where we are at in the book of Romans. I'll introduce it, we'll read the text and then we will pray and continue. But we are in chapter 15, the second to last chapter. We're not reading the whole chapter. Verses one through 21 is where we will be. And the first part of this chapter, Paul is sort of summarizing what we talked about last week, what he talked about in the last chapter, but then he is connecting it to his summary of the book as a whole. Paul is starting to wrap up, remind us of everything that Paul has been trying to say in this letter to the church in Rome. So, if you remember, I mentioned last week, but also way back in the beginning of the series, we talked about how Paul's purpose in writing the book of Romans is to encourage the church to faithful obedience to the Lord.   So, here, Paul is going to be making that connection, be wrapping it up, summarizing how everything he has written is leading to that. So, as I read, I'm going to read the whole text all the way through. As I'm reading, be thinking, be meditating on what is Paul saying about faithful obedience? And then we will pray over the preaching of God's word. So, in Romans chapter 15 verse one, it says this, "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.' For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.   May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written. 'Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.' And again it is said, 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.' And again, praise the Lord all you gentiles and let all the peoples extol him.' And again, Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles in him will the Gentiles hope.'   May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by the way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, by word and deed, by the power and signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.   And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written, 'Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.'"   Let's pray over the preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you and we thank you that you are a God of endurance, encouragement, and hope. Lord, fill us with your spirit, fill us with the power of your spirit to be able to live lives of faithful obedience to you, lives full of hope in you. Help us, Lord, in our weakness, help us when life is hard and when seasons of difficulty are on us. Give us your strength, your power, so that we can praise you and we can glorify you as one body, your body, the church. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we will be spending our time in three points today. First point is be rooted in hope. The second point is abound in hope. And the third point is fulfill your call.   So, point number one, be rooted in hope. This is verses one through seven. I'm not going to read it all again, but he starts again with this summary of the strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And the failings, I don't like that word because it makes us look down on people, but it's just the weaknesses of the weak. Where people are weak, bear with them. And this is the idea we talked about in last chapter, in chapter 14, that it is the duty, it is the obligation of the strong to not hold onto their strength, to not hold onto their freedom and their rights to do whatever they want, but instead to use that to serve those who are weak. To bring about unity and harmony within the church so that way we can praise God.   And that's what Paul clarifies here in verses six and seven. He says that, "Together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God." So, unity within the church is not just for the sake of unity. Unity and laying down your rights for others is not just so we can all get along. That's true and good, but the point of it is so that we as one body in unity can bring praises and honor and glory to God, because he deserves it. That we as his church, unified, strong together, bring praises and glory to him. That is the point he was getting at last week and in this text of why we seek unity, why we seek harmony with one another.   But the emphasis of this section of the text is in verse four where he says, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope." We talk a lot about the idea of hope during the holiday seasons, during Christmas time. Hope is something that we look for then, but we always need hope. Every single day we need hope. Hope is something that is powerful. It has the power to encourage us to continue on, even when life is hard and when things look desperate and when times of despair are there, hope can power us through. And the base state that we as Christians are called to our at the very least to have hope.   Now how do we have hope? Paul is encouraging us and he's telling us, instructing us, that the ways we have hope are first and foremost, endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures. And so endurance, what does he mean by endurance? Paul is calling back, he is referencing his own writings in this book, in Romans chapter five, where he tells us the process of how we get to hope. So, in chapter five, verses two through five, it says this, "Through him, Christ Jesus, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."   And so Paul outlines the root of endurance to hope. And the connecting factor is character, but it assumes suffering. That is the start, the impetus of the endurance and the hope is actually suffering. And it's something that we can all admit is that life is hard and that if we are Christians, we will suffer. That is a promise actually that scripture gives to us, that Christians will suffer. And then we need to endure and then we have character and we have hope. So, what is character? Character is referring to the results of a test. Okay, what does that mean? So, suffering is that you are presented with a test. Endurance is you taking the test. And character is what was the result? Pass/fail? And the idea that Paul is saying for how endurance and character leads to hope, is that we can look back on times in our lives where God has caused us to endure through suffering to pass that test and endure and remain faithful to him and say, "Yeah, God helped me pass this. He helped me endure through the suffering. He can do it again."   Anytime I face suffering, I can have hope that God will help me endure through it. And so when Paul is saying endurance leads to hope, we need to look back. We need to look back on our lives, look back on the faithfulness of God to help us endure and say, "He's going to do it again. He can do it again. God is faithful, he will help me endure." And then secondly it says that we get hope from the encouragement of scripture. And here I asked myself a question and the question was, "How often do I go to scripture for encouragement?" Not just because I'm supposed to read it, not to learn more information, not because it's part of my routine, or I'm supposed to, or it's good, which it's good, it is. We should do it for those reasons as well. But do we actually read scripture to gain encouragement? To gain hope in this life?   And what Paul has said is that everything that has been written in former days was written for this reason. And the idea is what is in the Bible? What is this book about? It's a book filled with the faithfulness of God in times when people sometimes endured and sometimes failed in enduring, but regardless of the people, God was still faithful. And so we need to be going through scripture, not just to learn, but instead to say, "God, give me hope." Give me hope that you are faithful no matter what. Give me hope that you have power, you are sovereign, you are in control, you are a loving good God. Give me that hope always, so I can be encouraged. I can have hope.   And this is what we are called to as Christians, to be rooted in this. We need to have this as a foundation in our lives, because Christ is our source of hope. And in verse five, I love his transition to this. In verse five he says this, "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus." Paul just told us you want to have hope, seek endurance, be endure, and the encouragement of the scriptures. Read the scripture. And then immediately he prays. This is prayer language when he says, "May the God of..." He is praying over the church and he is saying, "May the God of encouragement and endurance..." The point is, it's not about us.   When we endure, it's not us enduring. It's God causing us, helping us to endure. He is the God of endurance, so he can help us endure. When we need encouragement from the scripture, we don't just pick up this book and be like, "I'm not encouraged." We go to God and seek encouragement from him, because he is the God of encouragement as well. And we cannot separate the fact that if we want hope, we need to pray. You can't separate those. Paul knows that this is intrinsically needed. It's not his ability to speak, it's not their ability to endure, be encouraged. It's our need to pray and cry out to God when we don't have endurance, when times are hard, when we are suffering, God help me. And when we are struggling and we're sad, depressed, we have no hope, God encourage me.   And he will. He's faithful to do that. But not only that, we need to be doing this for each other. Paul here is not looking at himself saying, "I need encouragement, I need endurance." He's looking at someone who is weak, a church who is weak and hurting. And he's saying to them, "May the God of endurance help you endure. May the God of encouragement fill you with encouragement." We, as the body of Christ, need to be doing that for each other, need to care about each other enough to do that. And once we are rooted in this hope, we have that as a foundation in our lives. It enables us to live, to move on, to carry on regardless of circumstances, you could say to live in faithful obedience to the Lord.   But we don't stop there. When we have hope, that is the base, the foundation. But actually Paul encourages us and scripture encourages us to now abound in hope. And this is verses eight through 13 where it says this, "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, 'Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.' And again it is said, 'Rejoice, Oh Gentiles, with his people.' And again, 'Praise the Lord all you gentiles and let all the peoples extol him.' And again, Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles in him will the Gentiles hope.' May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."   So, just some quick clarification and understanding. Paul starts with his talk about the circumcised and the Gentiles. What is he talking about here? He's talking about that regardless of any life circumstances, regardless of even where we come from, who we are, Christ is our only source of hope in this life. He's saying to the circumcised, to the religious Jews who knew and had heard and been raised in the law, Christ gives them hope. Why? Because he has fulfilled the promises of the scriptures. They can look at the faith that they were raised in and say, "Christ has fulfilled all the promises of God. God is trustworthy, he is reliable. We can depend on him. God that gives us hope." And to the Gentiles, to those who had no religious in the scripture's upbringing, he says, still, God is the hope for you. And he quotes a bunch of verses from the Old Testament. Why? To show that God always was the hope of the Gentiles, even before Christ came.   But he's hope for the Gentiles, because it shows the mercy of God on all. Gentiles, you didn't know the laws, you weren't raised in the people of Israel, yet God had mercy on you. That gives us hope. I don't know about everyone who's here, but me personally, I am a Gentile. I am a Gentile. I was not raised as a Jewish or of the nation of Israel or any of that. And I have hope, because God loved his people enough to say, "I'm going to even save this guy," and praise God for that. And we should praise God. And regardless of our nationality, our backgrounds, regardless of anything, Christ alone is our hope.   And again, in verse 13, it's prayer language. It's prayer language. "May the God of hope, the God who is hope, fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." The word abound, it's an overflow, it's an excess. It's a more than you could ever want or need. May the God of hope help you reach that point through the power of the Holy Spirit with joy and peace and believing. I like that part too, because as we believe we have hope, we believe, we trust in God, he promises to fill us with joy and with peace that we can then continue to grow in hope. And this points directly back to the last chapter, in chapter 14 verse 17 where it says, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."   What Paul is making the connection to is the kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace, it's a kingdom of joy, and we need the God of hope to fill us with that. But he will when we are faithful in obedience to him. When we are believing and trusting in him, he will do that. And then God will also help us grow in hope. And this is the cycle of growth for a Christian. We start with hope. We start with the gospel. The gospel and hope are interchangeable, because the gospel is the only reason we have hope. But also there's scripture to say that it's interchangeable. And this is from 1 Peter 1:3. It says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."   So, as Christians, we start in a place of hope. We start with the gospel. Why is the gospel hope? Well, the gospel is saying that we are all sinners. That God, Jesus Christ, left his throne above, did not count the freedom and rights that he had, like we talked about last week, as something to be held onto, but gave them up to come to earth, live a perfect life, die on the cross and save us from our sins, and be raised again to prove that he has the power, he has the command and dominion over everything in life and death. And we can have hope in him that through his work we can spend eternity with God when we put our trust in him and say, "Jesus, help me. I need a savior. I need you to save me. I need you to help me."   What this also means is that apart from Christ, there is no hope. This goes back to the first few chapters of Romans where we spent a lot of time talking about God's wrath. It was not a lot of fun, but it was true and it's good and it's helpful, because the idea is that when we are in sin, we have no hope. We are in sin. We are deserving of eternity apart from God, eternity in hell, condemned for our sins. But praise be to God that he did not leave us like that, and he sent his son Jesus Christ to save us. So, if you are here today and you are not a Christian, I beg of you, I urge you, take hope. Turn to Christ, submit to him and say, "Lord Jesus, I need hope. I have no source of hope in this life. Lord Jesus, help me."   Submit your life to him and he will help you, he will give you hope. So, that's the starting point, that's where we start, and then we endure. We get a little bit of suffering. We talked about this already. We endure, we suffer, we endure. We get more hope, we get encouragement from the scriptures. We get hope. We get a little more hope. And that more hope allows us to endure a little more. And the more we endure, the more that we are able to see hope. And the more that we have hope, the more we can endure. And it's a cycle and it's how we grow as Christians. But it also implies that it means more suffering is coming and that as you grow, life will get harder and harder. And that God knows that and he wants to help us endure and give us hope, but we can't rely on ourselves.   The moment we rely on our own strength, we are bound to break. And this is the greatest temptation in these seasons. When you endure, you feel pretty good. You're like, "Wow, I accomplished something." And as we already said, it's not us, it's God. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that lets us do it. But after time and time again of seeing God's faithfulness and helping us endure, we are tempted to say, "Wow, I did a good job of enduring," or, "I was able to do it. So, bring on the suffering. I'm ready to go. I can do it again." Once we do that, it's just a matter of time before we break. We cannot and should not allow ourselves to rely on our own strength. It's the power of God alone. This is why it says in this verse that, "By the power of the Holy Spirit, we may abound in hope."   We cannot break that chain. We cannot break our need and dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We need the spirit to strengthen us. And once we abound in hope, once we are overflowing, overwhelmed by hope, because of the power of the Holy Spirit, we actually have the ability to fulfill the call that God has placed on our lives.   This is verses 14 through 21. It says this, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, by word and deed, by signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ."   I'll pause there for a second. I want to point out real quick in verse 14 that Paul says he is satisfied about his brothers. Does that mean he's saying that he is satisfied with their maturity? He recognizes that they are mature, they are filled with goodness, they are seeking righteousness, they're filled with knowledge, they're able to instruct each other. They are a mature church. This is actually a very mature statement by Paul, because he is trusting in God for them. And what is natural and what is a natural temptation is to be cynical and to question and say, "Yeah, I've heard about you, but I'm not so sure." And what I mean by cynical is, cynical is an inherent distrust of someone or something else. And I'm bringing this up here specifically because it is in direct contradiction to the idea of hope. Cynicism is directly opposed to hope. Why? Because you're distrusting.   Well, who are you distrusting? When we are being cynical, we are showing we are distrusting God's sovereignty in all situations, that he is in control of everything. We as Christians are called to be hopeful, not cynical. And this is hard. The reason I bring this up specifically is because we live in a city that we talk about, it's really hard to be a Christian in Boston sometimes. We also talk about how it's just hard to be a Christian in general sometimes to faithfully obey the Lord. And what we are naturally drawn to is this cynical nature. The world has failed us. The world has disappointed us. We should not trust everything. That makes sense. So, naturally we are changed to that.   And the longer you're in this city, the more you see it. And I bring this up because I know it's something that our pastors, our staff, every single one of us in this church, we all struggle with this temptation to become cynical. I was talking with Pastor Shane earlier this week. He gave me permission to share this. But he talked about how he even felt in his life that cynicism had crept in and that he had stopped being as hopeful and as joyful as he once was. And he praised God that he was able to recognize that and see that, and we should all follow his example of recognizing it in our own lives and cutting it out, getting rid of it and seeking to be hopeful. We need to be hopeful again, because it's what enables us to carry on. When we are cynical, we will not carry on. We will not live lives of faithful obedience.   And cynicism is easier too. It's a lot easier than being hopeful. And this is a little bit of a tangent, but it's related, so hang with me for a second. The first service, I believe, is the first time ever that I've preached without mentioning my wife, which is crazy to me. And after the service, she came up to me and I didn't do as good of a job in the first service in explaining the cynicism part. And she was like what was speaking to her in this time, she texted me and it was really clear to me and I was like, "Wow, that's even better than what I said." So, I'm just going to read what she sent me. She just gave it as encouragement to me, but it's better than what I was saying, so I'm going to read it.   Cynicism is easier than hope. We hate to be disappointed. We hate to be wrong, to look foolish. Cynicism protects us from too high of an expectation, but God has proven his faithfulness. He's proven that our hope is not in vain. We don't need to fear disappointment because we know that in the end, God will always get the glory. God will always get the victory. And we have confident hope in knowing he wants to use our lives in his church in unity to give him that glory. Praise God. That's why I married her.   Amen. Yeah, we can clap. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Praise God. But that's the point. That's how cynicism contradicts hope, is like we stop trusting in God. Cynicism is easier. It's so much easier to do that. But we're not called to the easy thing, we're called to the faithful thing. And faithful obedience is to trust in God regardless. And so Paul here, bringing it back to verse 14, Paul is trusting in God over a church that he's never met. He doesn't know these people, he's never met these people. He just has heard good things and he's saying, "I'm trusting God that you're good." I'm not going to be skeptical and cynical and say, "Well, you're probably not as good as I've heard you are." He's trusting in them. Yet he wrote an entire book, a very long dense book of instruction of guidance to this church.   Paul, if they are a mature church that you are trusting God that they are solid and faithful, why are you even writing them all these instructions? Well, this is what he says in verse 15. He says, "On some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God." And the idea is that first and foremost, Paul did speak very boldly here. He had said some harsh things about the wrath of God, about sin, and he is proclaiming boldly that they need to be unified and all this stuff. Why? First, it's the grace of God that has been given to him. It was God's grace, the position, the call upon his life that God had put. And so he is just being faithful to the call that God has put upon him. But this idea is that God told him he needed to instruct and encourage the church in this way. So, he was faithful in doing it and he was like, "I understand. He's not perfect, I'm not perfect, we're not perfect. But I'm giving you this bold statement, because God told me I need to, I'm supposed to. That's the call on my life."   But he also says, "By way of reminder," he knows that they know this. He knows that they know the gospel. Specifically what he is reminding them of is the gospel. And I want to be clear when I'm up here, when any pastor or any preacher is up here, our job is not to give a good new idea, to give something for you to think about intellectually. Our job is to speak boldly on what God has given us grace to say by way of reminder, of drawing us all back to the gospel. The reminder is the gospel. And it's not just Paul that talks about this. Peter talks about this as well in 2 Peter. Give me a second to find it in 2 Peter 1:12 and 13 it says this, "Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this body, to stir up by way of reminder."   Peter, Paul, they both recognize churches know the gospel. You know the gospel. But if we are to have hope, and if we are to live in faithful obedience to the Lord, to do what God has called us to do, we always need to be reminded of the hope we first had. Again, once we remove ourselves from the power of the Holy Spirit, we'll lose hope. Once we rely on ourselves, we'll lose hope. So, we constantly need to be reminded of the reason we began to have hope in the first place. That is what should stir us up most to obedience to the Lord. And I want to be clear as well that Christians, we are not Gnostics. What do I mean by that? What does Gnostics mean?   We are not people who seek to grow and gain higher levels of Christianity by our continual growth in knowledge and information. It's not the idea that we get more information, so we get more knowledge, so we become a better Christian. And then we get more knowledge and higher knowledge and higher knowledge until we become the ultimate holy Christian. That's not what Christianity is. Instead, we are Christians seeking to have more and more hope in our lives by the continual reminder of Christ and him crucified and raised from the dead. That is again the cycle of growth, how we grow. It's not grow to be better, greater, more important or holy Christians. The goal is to be more hopeful, faithful Christians, to be faithful to serving the Lord, to live as he has called us to, and to fulfill the specific call he has on our lives.   And for me in this season, for me right now, the call that God has is to be up here preaching and proclaiming the gospel. That's not the call for every single person. That's not even the call for me in every season. But every single Christian has a call, has a purpose, has something that God has ordained for them to do and to fulfill. And we can, and scripture even says that we can be proud of it. It's interesting, verses 17 through 19, he says this, "In Christ Jesus then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ."   In Christ. So, in Christ, being rooted in Christ, Paul then has reason to be proud. What is his reason to be proud? Everything that Christ. Has done that's not really pride, it's honor and pride in God. He's saying, "I can be proud of everything that I've done, because it's not me. I had nothing to do with it. It's God. It's God who did it all." And here I'm just going to take a moment to be vulnerable with you guys, I have nothing in and of myself that means I should be here, that I should be up here. Last week I preached, but then afterwards at CG, one of the couples, good friends of ours in our CG was like, "Man, it was like it's a different Tyler up there, but it was good."   And it's like it's not just a different me, it's that the spirit is powerful and the spirit moves. And all that I am doing before service, while worship is happening, while the band is practicing, I'm sitting over there and I'm praying because I know how wicked of a sinner I am. I know I don't deserve to be up here. And I can say, "God, I am so weak. I have nothing to give that I should be here. Lord, pour out your spirit. Help me. Empower me through your Holy Spirit to be able to say anything that is encouraging to your church, that is helpful to your church." And so while I'm up here, if anything I say is good and encouraging and sanctifying you, that's from the Holy Spirit. If anything you don't like and is bad, that's all me. I'm sorry, I apologize.   But Paul says that he's speaking of nothing except for what Christ has done in every area of his life. This is where he says, "By word and by deed," by anything he says and anything he does, even the miraculous stuff, even he says, "By the power of signs and wonders." People looked at Paul and was like, "Wow, he was doing miracles. This is great. He is awesome. He is the super spiritual guy. He must be incredible." And Paul says, "It's by the power of the Spirit of God." If we want to be proud of the work we do, and if we want to be able to fulfill the call we have on our lives, we need to rely solely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul said something very bold here too. He says that he has fulfilled the ministry of the gospel. You sure, Paul?   You sure you couldn't have done a little bit more? You sure that you did everything? You completely, totally fulfilled the call of the ministry of the gospel from Jerusalem to all the areas you said? Are you sure? Paul says, "Yeah." He's confident. And why is Paul confident? Because when the Spirit led, he followed. This talks about in the rest of 15 and in some of 16, all the people he met and the ways he traveled and wanting to go one place, but the spirit preventing him and so he went another. Paul can say he has faithfully completed all that God had placed on his life, because he listened to the spirit. He trusted the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit said go, he went [inaudible] the call of the gospel on our lives when we remain faithful and reliant and dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit in everything we say, do and wherever we go.   Whatever that call is for each of us, you do have a call. God has a purpose for you here. Trust in the Holy Spirit. Ask God for the power of the Spirit to enable you to do what you need to do. And what is Paul's response when he says, "I have fulfilled, I've done everything?" "Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel." Wait, Paul, thought you fulfilled the ministry of the gospel? He's like, "Yeah, I fulfilled it in the ministry and the call that God had in that season. And once I fulfilled it, I have another call. I have something else that I am supposed to do." And as we grow in our faith, as we go from just being a base level of hope in Christ to growing and growing and growing in our hope and trust and dependence on God, he will continue to use us. We will never reach a point where we're done being useful to God. He can always use us for his glory and for his kingdom. Again, so long as we are dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit and on the power of God.   I want to close just by reading the two verses where Paul prays over the church. I want you to know that I do pray this over you, over me, over all of us. That this is something we should be praying for each other, but I want us all to take encouragement from it. So, I'll read those and then I'll close in prayer. In chapter 15:5 it says this, "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus. That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then in verse 13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Let's pray.   Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we lift up our voices to you and say, thank you, God. You are glorious. You are good. Strengthen us. Help us to endure. Encourage us, give us encouragement through your word so that we can have hope always in you. Grow our hope. Fill us with your spirit. Give us the power of your spirit. Equip us to live lives faithful to you. To be hopeful regardless of anything that this world throws at us, or that this life has to offer, that you are good, you are faithful, you are in control. You will give us peace. You will give us joy. Help us fulfill the call you have placed on our lives. Give us your power so that we can see your kingdom come here, so that we can see the world change for your glory and for your namesake. In Jesus' name, amen.

You Are Free

December 4, 2022 • Tyler Burns • Romans 14

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com I want to frame up our time with a quote from Martin Luther before we read the text and before we preach or before we pray for the preaching of God's word. And the reason why I want to do this is because this was a quote that I came across while preparing and while studying for preaching. And it really just stuck with me the whole time and it really has resonated with me. And I think it's a clear sort of encompassing statement about what Martin Luther is expounding upon in our text, the concept that we are going to deal with in our text, Martin Luther expounds upon it in this way. And so I think it's going to be helpful for us to think about. So I'll read it and then we can talk about it. But Martin Luther says this, "A Christian is a most free Lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all." Now this is a statement that kind of deals with a paradoxical concept that we are going to be wrestling with in our text. The idea is that we as Christians are free. We are free. Scripture teaches that we are co-heirs, that we are rulers with Christ. And so we even have authority, real practical authority in the world around us, and that we are not subject to one another. We'll get to what that means in a little bit, but just hang on to that. But at the same time, scripture is clear that we are to love one another, to serve one another and to put each other before ourselves. And so how do we live in freedom and authority as rulers, as lords, lowercase L, in this world, while still being a dutiful servant and being subject to all? That is the concept that we are going to be wrestling with today. And I'll read the text, I'm going to read the whole thing. It's a long text, but the reason why I'm reading it is because Paul is making one logical argument that I want us to sit on and think about. What is Paul saying here? And I just really want the word to penetrate our hearts and our minds and let us just sit and dwell on that. So I will read it and then we can pray over the preaching of our God's word. So Romans 14, starting in verse one, it says this, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, and the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike." "Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.'" "So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men, so then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding." "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." Let's pray over the preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You, we praise You that You are Lord of all, that You are in control always and of everything. We thank You and we praise You. Lord, we also thank You and praise You that we have an ability to join You in that freedom, that You have blessed us with that opportunity. We thank You. Help us to live in that freedom. Lord, we thank You that You did not count that freedom as something to be hold onto, that You willingly gave it up to save us, to sacrifice for us, to serve us. Help us to have hearts that desire to do the same. Grow our ability, our willingness to serve and to submit to one another in the freedom that You have blessed us with. Lord, challenge us, grow us. Use Your word, use Your scripture to strengthen Your church now. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alrighty, we will be spending our time in four points today. Normally we like the three-point sermon, I like the three-point sermon, but we're doing four. The last one is really short so it's really like three-and-a-half, but we're going with four. But the points that we will be spending our time in are that you are free to serve the master. You are free to give thanks to the Lord. You are free to be subject to all, and you are free by faith. So we'll start with you are free to serve the master. This is coming in verses one through four. I'll break it up a little bit, but verses one and two say this, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables." So Paul hates vegetarians of... No, that's not what he is talking about. There's a lot of contextualization going on that we need to understand what is happening here. But the first thing I want to point out is the word opinions. It's not a word that we talk a lot about from the pulpit, but did you know, dear Christian, you are free to have opinions? Wow, what a novel concept. You are allowed to think. You are allowed to have opinions. That's great, but you're not free to quarrel over them. It's interesting. It implies that as Christians we will have opinions that are inherently contradictory to other people in the same body of Christ. If you look around this room, we're going to have different opinions on the same subject matter. The Bible says that's okay. You are allowed to have differences of opinion, but what's not okay is to allow those differences to cause division, as to quarrel over them. We'll get into what the quarreling exactly means in a little bit, but I just wanted to start with that and point out like yeah, we can say it's okay to have opinions. It's okay to disagree, but we still need to live in unity and love with one another. The next thing I want to point out is the context of the eating whatever, and the weaker one only eats vegetables. So this has a lot to do with the history and the context of the day. But specifically, the church in Rome was living in a city where people offered sacrifices to pagan Gods, and that sacrifice was a meat offering that then after the sacrifice they would take the meat and they would just sell it in the market. And so the question that the Christians in this early church were dealing with, is it okay to eat meat that is offered to idols? Is it okay to eat meat if you don't know that it had been offered to idols or not? What should we do? And Paul goes into greater detail in his stance on that in 1 Corinthians. Feel free to check that out, but I'll just summarize it real quickly. What Paul's point is saying is we know there is one true God. Yahweh is the only God. And so any other God, lowercase G, that these sacrifices are made to, they're not real. So really what it is it's a barbecue. So Paul says, "I can eat it." There's nothing sinful, there's nothing unclean about eating it because in faith, Paul knows he's still praising the one true God who provided food. Makes sense, seems good. There was another group of dedicated Christians who loved the Lord that said, "I cannot eat meat dedicated to an idol. Less to anyone dare think I'm possibly worshiping that idol. I don't want to cause any confusion. I don't want to worship an idol I'm not going to eat the meat offer to them." But sometimes it's hard to know what meat at the market is offered to an idol and which is not. So they refrained completely from eating meat. They said, "We will not eat meat at all to make sure that we do not eat meat sacrificed to idols." Wow, what conviction. What strength to and dedication to the Lord to say, "I will not do anything that possibly can go against the Lord." Whoa, faithful Christians are disagreeing. Faithful Christians have a difference of opinion. And that's okay. And Paul is saying, "Welcome each other." And what's really interesting here is we're at church, I'm preaching, so we take this primarily at church, but primarily what he's talking about is at the home. He's talking about, well, let's just thought experiment practically. Let's say there's a group of us here that love meat. No one knows who's in that group. Let's say that there's a group of people here who don't eat just vegetarian, for whatever reasons. And then you come to church and you know who eats meat and who doesn't. What do you think's going to happen? Naturally, most people will probably separate, hang out with their friends, "Oh, I'm not a meat eater. I'll sit with the other people who don't eat meat." "Oh, I'm a meat eater. I'll sit with the people who eat meat." And then what do we do after service? Oh, let's go get lunch. Oh the meat eaters go get barbecue. The vegetarians go, I don't even know, I'm sorry, I'm a meat eater. I don't even know where you go. And the result is division. The result is division in the church over something that doesn't matter, over something that is an opinion. And what Paul is saying, have the people over your house and enjoy a meal together that you disagree with. I'm sticking with the meat and vegetable example because that's what Paul uses, but think about it yourself. Think about what opinions we disagree with one another within the church. Actively invite and welcome into your home people you know that you disagree with, and genuinely welcome them. It says don't quarrel, don't have them over to have a debate about the opinions. That's not helpful. Don't bring them over to try and persuade them or if you don't know, I'm having people over to find out who's on my side of this opinion so we could figure it out. Like that's not helpful, it's not helpful. Paul says to welcome them, and it gets a little bit stronger in language as he goes. In verse three it says, "Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand." The word for quarreling, it actually has to do with making a judgment over. And it's like when you are arguing with someone like oh, I'm right, they're wrong. I'm better than them. They're just weaker. They don't understand as much as I do. You're coming from a place that's not loving. And Paul recognizes that and he says, "Don't despise the one who eats. Don't despise the one who abstains. Don't hate them. Don't make a judgment over them." Why? Because you are not their master. And this is an important thing to know that we are given authority and we are given rule in this world, but we are not masters of one another. I am not your master. Praise God. You are not my master. Praise God. I have the freedom to live not concerned about you mastering yourself over me and you have the freedom to live without concern of me mastering over you. Why? Because we have one master and that master is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we still have to serve Him, right? This doesn't mean we have freedom to sin or freedom to do whatever we feel like. It's freedom to live in submission to our master. Freedom to serve our master. That's why it says before his own master, he will either stand or fall. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes our opinions are wrong and we will fall. And that's okay because we are not the ones who ultimately decide our standing before our master, the master decides that. And the Lord, it says, is able to make us stand. He is the one who upholds us. And so we can trust in Him. We can live in freedom to serve Him knowing He will uphold us. And that's something that we should be joyful about. We should be thankful for, that we are not masters of one another, but we do have a good master who will cause us to stand and we can serve Him. So then we should give thanks to Him. This is point number two. We are free to give thanks to the Lord. This is in verses five through 12. It says in verse five, "One person esteems one day as better than another. While another esteems all day as alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God." I'll stop there for now, but the first thing I want to point out is Paul brings in another contextual disagreement that the church was having when he says one esteems one day and one esteems all day is alike. And most often this is used to talk about things like what day do we worship God on. Like we're here on Sunday, we worship on Sundays. That's what we do. But actually it's a lot more nuanced than a lot more specific of what's going on. There's a group of people in the early church that believed God told us specific days are holidays, or specific days are sabbaths to worship Him, to remember Him, to do different things. So those days are inherently more holy than the rest because God had ordained them for the worship of Him at specific times. Okay, all days are holy, but those days are like extra holy. You could see that argument. Other people, and Paul falls into this camp, say the Lord made all days, all days are holy. We can worship God however we want on those days, whatever we are called to remember in those holidays, we can worship every single day. Every day is a holy day to serve the Lord. Praise God. That makes sense, too. People disagree again. But the idea is the esteeming has to do with holiness, and the emphasis is the esteeming of the days and not on the differences. The point is, do we actually think about days as ordained by God to serve Him? To love and serve and worship Him and specifically honor Him, right? It says if you abstain, if you partake, whatever your view on the days are, if you do it in honor of the Lord, then it's good. Then it's good. And this takes intentional, proactive thought, right? This is not just passive like, oh I go to church every Sunday. That's just because that's what I do. It's like, no, today is a day to honor the Lord. Praise God. And then when we go home and wake up tomorrow, still a day to worship and praise God. Praise God. And how do we honor Him in our eating, in our not eating, in our following of certain days or whatever? Says by giving thanks. Says that they honor Him by giving thanks. This is very applicable. We're just coming out of the Thanksgiving season, headed into the Christmas season, thinking a lot about thankfulness and things like that. We, as Christians, are called to proactively thank God for everything always, all the time. And this is the following statement where He gets into a totality statement. This is what He's saying in verse seven, "For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living." What's in the realm outside of the dead and of the living? Nothing. That's what there is. Either it is dead or it's alive, physically, spiritually, whatever category you want, alive and dead are the categories. And Paul's point here is everything, the good, the bad, the scary, the hard, the things that bring life, the things that lead to death, all of it is under God's sovereign control. Nothing is out of his hands. And so that gives us the ability to thank Him always, to thank Him when things are hard. To thank Him when things aren't going the way we want them to. He is master of all. He is the one in control. We can praise Him, we can thank Him. That doesn't mean it's easy. There will be seasons when it's hard to do. But as Christians, we are called to do this and we are free to do it, right? That's something that's important to think about. The freedom, the ability to recognize with one another yet may be hard. But even in the difficult seasons, we have the freedom, allow each other to praise God even when things are hard. Allow each other to give thanks to Him even when things are difficult. So we are free to give thanks to God. Whoa, we're free to do whatever we want in submission to the master, our Lord. And we are free to thank Him for it. That doesn't mean there's no accountability, right? And this is where it continues in verse 10, "Why do you pass judgment on your brother. Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to me, to confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God." We have the freedom to not judge one another because not only are we not their masters, we're not their judge. God is their judge. God is my judge. God is your judge. God is everyone's judge. And so we have the freedom when we see things wrong, when we disagree over opinions, we have the freedom to not pass judgment on one another and say, you know what? It's in the Lord's hands. This goes back to Romans 12 at the very end where he says, the Lord says, "Vengeance is mine and it's not for us." And so we have the freedom to not worry and be obsessed with and condemn each other because we know that God is in control and that He is a good and perfect judge. But we ourselves will stand before God and give an account for everything we have said and done. And that should cause us to faithfully serve Him, right? We have the freedom. We have freedom, great. But we do have to give account to God for what we do with that freedom. And then Paul's going to tell us what we should do with that freedom, what we are called to do in that freedom. This picks up in verse 13, "Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." We'll pause there for a second, but I like to tell people my favorite verse in text that I preach because I think it's helpful. But my favorite verse is verse 13. That's my favorite verse. Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. Well, it's saying that we have been passing judgment on one another and we need to stop doing that. And Paul is writing that to the church in Rome, but I know that it's applicable to every church, but it is applicable to our church here. We need to commit to not passing judgment on one another anymore. Then it says rather decide, and this is really why it's my favorite verse. The word decide is the same word that has been used throughout this text for pass judgment. So what does Paul mean by pass judgment? What does he mean by decide here? What is he talking about? Passing judgment is a legal thing. It's a legal term of making a decision of guilty, not guilty or making a sentencing, a final, complete, total statement on what to do or what you are. And so Paul is saying do not make a condemnation, a guilty, not guilty statement on other people. That's not your job. Stop doing that. Do instead make a legal decree over your own life, place a law over yourself that you will never, never, ever put a stumbling block in the way of a brother or sister. How many of us are perfect at that? None of us. We aren't perfect at this and there's grace and there's forgiveness and repentance when we fail at this. But do we even have this mentality? Is this something that we are even thinking about? Because it's not like, oh, remove stumbling blocks when you can. It's, do not put them there. That means is we're putting them there, and we need to proactively stop ourselves from doing it. Do we have the mentality that I love somebody else so much that I will not do anything at all that causes them to stumble? Even eating meat. You see, this is where the gospel makes clear of this balance of the paradox because Jesus is the Lord and ruler are one master. And so he has the most freedom of all. He is free to do whatever He wants. But He knew that we needed help. He knew that we were not all right. And He said rather than just letting them figure it out and I'm free to do whatever I want, I'm not going to let them bother me. He said no. Jesus Christ came down to earth. He gave up His freedom, submitted Himself to us to serve us, to die on the cross, save us from our sins so that way we can join the family of God, when we've put our faith and trust in Him. When we say, Lord Jesus, you are truly Lord of my life. You are in control. You are the one I need to submit everything to. And so do we love each other like Christ love the church? Do we say, "Yes, I may have freedom to have whatever opinions I want"? Sure, true. Do you say, "But I'm not willing to let them become a stumbling block for anyone else"? And it's very strong language. He says never. Don't dare put a stumbling block. And this is really important because it continues and says, "Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." Christ died for them. They are valuable to our master so they should be valuable to us, so we shouldn't do things that destroy them. And the word destroy isn't about salvation, but it is about physical breaking and hurt and pain and anguish. Do we recognize that's the severity of our actions at times? I think we can all agree experientially the times that we are hurt the most, the times that we feel destroyed are when we're hurt by the people we care about the most. Because it's not painful to be hurt by someone you don't care about. Like whatever, I don't care about you. But when you really truly care for someone, it is painful when they hurt you. And we, as a church, aren't primarily just a group of people that meet on Sundays. We are called the Body of Christ. We are called the family of Christ. We are relationally brothers and sisters. And so when we hurt one another, it hurts. It really has power to hurt. And so we need to proactively fight against that. We need to actively seek love, seek peace, seek the ability to help one another rather than hurting one another even when our opinions are right. This is important. What I find really interesting about this text is that Paul is talking about opinions. Well, making an argument for which opinion is right and which opinion is wrong. If you noticed, he started the first time he talked about it in the beginning, he said this, "One person believes he... The weak person eats only vegetables." So in the decision, should we refrain from eating all meat to serve the Lord or should we eat meat and freedom to serve The Lord? Calls the ones who refrain, weak. He's making a statement about who's right and who's wrong. He continues, "The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord. The one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord." But it's okay. If they eat, they eat. If they don't, they don't. It's okay. Then here he says, "I know and I am persuaded in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself." Then Paul is saying, Paul's convinced I know that there is nothing unclean about it. We should all eat meat. And then later we'll get to it in a second, he says even more strongly, "Everything is indeed clean." So Paul in this text is trying to show people what is true, what is right. But that's not the point. That's not what he's focusing on. He actually focuses on the unity. Nowhere does he tell the people who are refraining from eating vegetables, you're wrong, stop doing it. Start eating meat. No. And actually he corrects the people who eat meat and challenge them and says, "Let them do it. They're following their conscience, they're following the Lord. They're seeking to serve the Lord and doing it. Let them do it." We live in a city that prizes intelligence, that prizes knowing information and knowing the most and being right and all this stuff. Dear Christians, that's not your goal in life. That's not the purpose. And ultimately it doesn't matter as much as everything else that we are called to. What is the purpose? What is the goal? This is verse 17, and it says it very clearly, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." What is our purpose? We are to pursue righteousness. That does mean there are things that are right and wrong. We should not use freedom to do whatever we want. We submit to the Lord, we follow Him. If you remember, I know it's been a long time since we started Romans, but if you remember way back to week one, Bastion talked about how the purpose of this letter is to encourage the church to faithful obedience to the Lord. It's the idea of encouraging people to faithful. You could say righteousness. So we as Christians, we do pursue righteousness. We do pursue living lives according to God's word and doing what is right. But then we pursue peace, we pursue unity, we pursue that at the cost of our own freedoms. Talking a lot about opinions more than I like to talk about from the pulpit because I think it shouldn't be about opinions, and that's kind of Paul's point. But we have opinions, we disagree. But if I allow my opinion to get in the way of anyone else's faith, it's better that I don't have an opinion at all. It's better that I don't because that's not the point. The point is peace. The point is righteousness. The point is peace are what we're doing, what we're saying bringing about unity within the church. And joy. We can't forget about joy, too. Again, even when things are hard, even when you disagree, we still are called to righteousness, peace, and joy. So this is why I love singing songs of worship to the Lord here on Sundays, because for me music brings joy. I mentioned that the first service when I was a baby, I was a very cute baby, you'll have to take my word for it. But my parents said I was a joyful baby. I was a happy baby. And then from then until I got married, I was never once in my life called joyful. Now that I am married, I have been called joyful, and praise God, and I'm very thankful for my wife. But the point of that is I was actually in sin all those years of my life, because I wasn't following the Lord. I wasn't pursuing joy as I am called to. And joy is important. And sometimes you don't feel like being joyful. I get it. And that's why the church body is so important. That's why we need each other. I love to come to church on days when I don't feel like coming to church. You know what I mean? On days when you feel like it's the hardest, on days where you don't feel the joy and you show up at church and you see other people worshiping and praising God, it's a little bit easier to be joyful. It puts things in perspective, it's helpful to remind ourselves we're here to praise God. I can praise Him no matter what because He again is in control of all things. We are called to do this for the mutual upbuilding of the church. This is how the church strengthens, this is how the church grows. So when we are in seasons where we feel that the church is hurting and needs strengthening, this is the most important time to focus on this. Pursue righteousness, pursue peace, and pursue joy. I don't think I clarified when I switched to 0.3, but I switched to 0.3. We were subject to all. I hope you picked up on that. Going to transition to 0.4 because a lot of this gets confusing, like practically speaking, how do we do this? And 0.4 clarifies a lot of this for us. You are free to live by faith. This is verses 20 to 23. It says, "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself, for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." Do not let what we do destroy the work of God. Again, we said but do not let it destroy the one for whom God loved. But God is working in those situations, and the people are people that God is building and shaping and growing and so do not let our opinions destroy them. And I have to clarify this in verse... Sorry, I'm trying out of context that didn't go well. In verse 22 it says, "The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God." I want to clarify what this means. This is not talking about saving faith in the gospel, saving faith that Jesus died to save me from my sins. And He is Lord of all. No, nowhere else in scripture doesn't talk about that. Actually everywhere else in scripture it's like please tell everybody. Go tell the nations, proclaim it to everyone, we should not keep our faith and our love of the Lord Jesus Christ between us and God. No. We need to tell people about it. That is a command in scripture. Contextually what this is talking about goes back to verse one. Those who are weak in faith, quarreling over opinions. We can have faith that we are doing, living faithfully even in our opinions, but we need to keep that between ourselves and God sometimes. Now if you have good strong relationships with people and friends and brothers, like it's not saying never talk about it. Like, you can, that's all right. But the point is it for encouragement? Is it a building or is it going to bring about harm? Again, we can have opinions, but if it's going to cause somebody else to stumble, it's better to just keep it between me and God. It's better to just for you to keep it between you and God because the point is unity. And so think about how many things we do a day, how many decisions we make, how do we faithfully follow God in everything while serving Him, while submitting to all? Like what if there's an option to do something that might bring peace, but another one that would bring more joy, what do I do? Paul gives us more freedom. The freedom to live by faith, to trust in the Lord. That's what he's saying at the end here. If you eat when you don't have faith, you are condemned. Why? Because the point is about doing things in faith by trusting God. When we make decisions, do we seek after God's will? Do we pray? Do we read scriptures? Do we consult brothers and sisters in Christ and go from there? And once we make a decision, if we have been faithfully following the Lord, Paul says have the freedom to do it. Don't constantly be second guessing yourself. Don't constantly be having to go, oh, did I do the right thing or not? Live in freedom for the Lord. And if you make a mistake, repent. Because you will make mistakes, because we are all fallible people. But ultimately the motivation for everything we do, the decisions we make needs to come from a position of I have faith that the Lord is in control of all things. I am seeking after Him. I am doing the best I can to follow Him. And so I'm going to proceed in this life from there. I want to close by reading two things that I find helpful, and it's things that you've already heard. I'm going to read again the quote from Martin Luther to summarize what I've been saying. And then I'm going to read the verse that I think Paul used that summarized most what he said, which is verse 17. And I'm just going to read them in conjunction to one another because I think thinking about them together has really helped me understand this idea. So Martin Luther says, "A Christian is a most free Lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all." Verse 17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank You for all of the freedom that You have blessed us with, that we can be free from judgment from one another, that we can be free from Your wrath because of the work of Your son, Jesus Christ. That we can be free to live in this world following You. We thank you, we praise You for that. Lord, we also thank You for the opportunity You have blessed us with to serve and submit to one another. We thank You that we are able to proclaim the gospel to those who see us by our submission to one another. We thank You that you did not count your freedom as something to be hold onto, but gave it up for us. Lord, You are good. Lord, help grow in our hearts, the ability to view others more significant than ourselves, to view others as primary in us as secondary, to strengthen our faith in You so that we can be better at serving those around us. Bring unity to your church. Help us to pursue righteousness, peace, and joy. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Owe No One Anything, Except Love

November 20, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 13:8–14

God and Government

November 13, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 13:1–7

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com   Heavenly Father, as we find ourselves in a text that speaks about submission to the governing authorities, we also find ourselves as a nation the Sunday after an election. Lord, we thank you for this sovereign timing. We pray that you speak to us now and continue to shape our minds by the renewing of your Word, with the washing of water with the Word.   Lord, there are manmade categories in our minds. I pray that you break through them with the power of your holy Word. For each one of us, Lord, we pray that you give us an extra measure of grace to continue to humble ourselves before your kingship so that we do submit every single aspect of our lives to King Jesus. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen.   On this November 13th, we find ourselves in Romans 13:1-7. The historical context is this is a few decades after Pentecost. The church has started. The Apostle Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. He's preaching wherever he goes, planting churches.   Part of the reason why he had the freedom to plant church for a few decades is because the imperial authorities didn't distinguish between Christians and Jews. They said, "Oh, Christians are just a sect, just another stripe of Judaism." Left them alone. For several decades, there was no systemic persecution of Christians by the Roman state.   Things turned bad, and they turned bad fast. Eventually, in the Book of Acts, we see Paul on the run from the governing authorities, spent several years in prison, eventually put to death by the Roman government. For what? For resisting the state.   The state told him, "Stop preaching the gospel." He said, "I will not." Continued to preach even to the death. Same thing with Peter and the other apostles. When Paul wrote Romans, the situation wasn't as severe as it would become. Even then, no one thought that the Roman state was a friend. They just crucified Jesus, although at the instigation of the Jewish Sanhedrin.   It's important for us to recognize that the issues raised by this paragraph have been largely theoretical to believers in the United States. In the United States, for the last few centuries, we have experienced relative freedom to preach the gospel, partially why this land has been blessed.   Other Christians in other nations at other times have had to ask serious questions, adult questions, sober-minded questions, "Well, what if the government is forbidding me from worshiping God? What if the government is forcing me to do that which is against God? What if the government is preventing me from speaking truth? What about at those moments?" We'll get into all of this.   Just to set the context, before the theme of civil government, Paul talks about vengeance. This is in Romans 12:18-21. The passage right before ours, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord."   "To the contrary, 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."   This is a precursor for Paul's treatment of the civil government. He starts with God has the prerogative for vengeance. "Vengeance is mine," says the Lord. Then he tells the personal Christian, "Your personal duty is not to take vengeance." Take not vengeance, and leave it up to the Lord. God has vengeance. You can't take vengeance.   Between this, He gives us His command about the civil government, that the civil government has been entrusted by God with a sword in order to curb which is evil, to bring down the sword on the evil person. That's the context.   God keeps for Himself the prerogative of vengeance. He establishes order on earth with the civil magistrate to carry out justice under the authority of God. There are different spheres that we're talking about here. That's the civil sphere. We went from the personal sphere, "No, you don't have the right to take... " to the civil sphere.   This is all in the context, this conversation, of the church, that God has established the church with its redemptive mission. Our job is to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The government is also given special task by God for common grace ministry, to further their common good, to further shalom.   The church dispenses elements of special grace. That has to do with salvation, whereas the civil government attends to the common good of the human race, not just for Christians but for all people. Both church and state are established and governed by God.   This conversation about separation of church and state, well, that... originally, a division of labor. State, you focus on what you focus on, your God-given duty to promote good and curb evil, and we're going to focus on what we need to focus on, which is preaching the Word of God. That's the division of labor.   Today church and state means a church that is separated from God completely, divorced from God. Don't even mention. God don't speak about God in public sphere, public schools, or anywhere. No, keep your religion to yourself. That's private.   It's true that when the state declares independence from God and seeks autonomous rule apart from Him, well, that government... Be it the United States, or Russia, or any other nation, it becomes demonized and exists as an agent of opposition to God Himself. Such nations truly become godless. That's the context of Romans 13:1-7. Would you look at the text with me?   "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad."   "Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."   "Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."   This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points. First, submit to the governing authorities. *Second, to a point. Third, submit to King Jesus always.   First, the principle is given to us that we should submit, submit to the governing authorities. This is verse 1, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."   Paul begins with the basic rationale for Christian subjection to the state. The scriptures testifies that it's God who sets up governments. Even the bad ones, it's all under His sovereignty. Who elected the person in power? It doesn't matter who put that person into power. It was God Himself. God allowed for this to happen.   When there's a wicked ruler ruling over people, scripture is clear. It's judgment from God over the people. At those moments, if we don't like our rulers, yeah, vote. Yeah, yeah. We get on our knees as a nation, and we beg God, "God, please assuage your wrath. Remove your judgment from this nation." It only happens with the people who are humble before God.   Yes, God puts them in control, even the bad ones. When Daniel gave the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar's fall, he began by saying, in Daniel 2:20, "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and... He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kingdoms. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding."   Later, he summarized what Nebuchadnezzar had learned through his well-deserved humiliation. God punished him because he wouldn't give glory to God. Then Daniel 5:21, "Until he," Nebuchadnezzar, "knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will."   Christians are to recognize that God is sovereign over whoever He puts in charge of me. Christians should be models of civil obedience. That's where we start. This should be the natural spirit fill... We'll get to the disobedience part.   Point two is spicy. I like it. First, we start here. We start with, yes, we want to obey. We want to do everything. Jesus was the model of this for us. In Micah, it's prophesied that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem.   How did he end up in Bethlehem when His parents were from Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary were following the order of the emperor to go back to your hometown to be counted for the census. For what purpose? So that the emperor gets the most tax amount that he can.   Jesus in Mary's womb... Joseph and Mary taking the arduous journey at the risk of the unborn. They're risking the unborn child, all in obedience to the civil magistrate. In the second century, the apologist, Justin Martyr, gave a defense of the faith to the emperor, Antoninus Pius, in which he argued.   He's like, "Look, emperor. You want Christians. Leave the Christians alone. That's all they want. They want to be left alone, so they can preach the Word and build up their households and their churches. That's all they want. Leave them alone."   What he wrote was, "Compare them to any other citizens in the empire. The Christians pay their taxes in full, scrupulously, and they're in obedience to the civil magistrate. They're a humble people. Leave them alone."   The reason Christians must obey the state is because it has been instituted by God, and its authority derives from the Christian's own heavenly Father. All throughout the history of the church, we see God's people suffering to a phenomenal degree. Beautifully, they heeded the council of this great and important text from the earliest days. They also heeded other injunctions from scripture.   The St. Paul tells us, "Pray for those who persecute you. Pray for them." Even as they are about to slaughter you, you're praying for them. It was martyrdom of the Christian Church. Their blood was the seed for the church because there's no more powerful testimony.   Yes, these people really believe that the second that you slaughter them, they will meet Jesus Christ. They're dying with smiles. They refuse to lift up arms against their rulers. They're often mistreated above any other group of citizens. They remain obedient and dutiful citizens.   To be sure, they refused to do wrong when it was demanded of them. They refused to worship Caesar as God, but their refusal was made all the more powerful because they had shown themselves so ready to be obedient and loyal citizens in every way that they could. Then martyrdom was their ultimate resistance.   "I obeyed you in absolutely everything, but in this, I will not. No, Caesar, you are not God over me. I will give onto God's what is God's, which is ultimate allegiance, ultimate authority. Government, you are not God over me."   The one thing the Roman government could count on was that Christians would pay their taxes, keep the laws. As Augustine would later explain in The City of God, "The patience and faith of the saints wore down the fury of the churches' persecutors."   He continues in Romans 13:2, "Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment." This is a sober warning, and you have to take it at face value. If we resist the authorities that God has appointed, we might be regarded as heroes by some, but we can expect the visitation of God's judgment. That's on face value.   Verse 3, "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you'll receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."   Oh, this is masterful. Paul, this is masterful. Along with giving Christians our charge, "Submit to the authorities," he gives God's charge to the authorities. He's saying, "Government or anyone in a position of authority, this is your job." The government has two roles. Promote good, bring down the sword on wrongdoers. Promote good and restrain those who are evil by force, if necessary. That's why God gave you the sword.   In Romans 13:4, we read of the state as an avenger who carries out God's wrath on wrongdoers. That same verb was used in 12:19, talking about vengeance. Yes, this is God's sort of government. You are God's servant to wield God's sword upon the evildoer as you promote good. That's your job.   The state is to do a private individuals, and Christians in particular are never told to do. The state has a different function in the economy of God. It has different callings and authorities. The government's job is to protect us from evil. That is, they are to preserve the security of people. They are to protect us from attack from without and crime from within.   For that purpose, governments properly have armies, and police systems, and courts of justice to preserve us from evil in our midst. Submit to governing authorities but never blindly, never blindly, just like you don't submit to anybody blindly, except for Jesus Christ and God's Word.   As soon as those in authority over you contradict God's Word, they lost all authority over you, completely. That's a point. To a point, we submit to governing authorities to a point. We must realize what the passage does not tell us. It does not directly say what we ought to do when a government departs from the role God has given them.   What if the government starts using the sword to promote evil and bring down the sword upon those who do good? Wait, what about those cases? It doesn't specifically explain what to do when the government is committing a moral wrong. Neither are we told what to do in the midst of a revolution.   What if evil people came into the government, and evil people infiltrated, and now evil people are using the government for evil means? You got to ask hard questions. It also does not show us which form of government is best. It doesn't even commend democracy.   I'm mentioning these things because many of the difficulties found in this chapter result not from what we read in the text, but they result from what we read into the text. For example, Samuel Rutherford, in his classic 17th century work of political philosophy called Lex Rex: The Law Is King... He was arrested for writing the book by the king's men. He would've been executed had he not died of natural causes while seized by them.   He explained why Romans 13 does not prohibit Christians from rising in violent resistance to a tyrant. He goes through the scriptures and scholastic theologians. Basically, his point... This is what Lex Rex means in Latin: law is king. God's law is king. God's law is above the king.   When the king starts promoting evil and curbing that which is good, we got to ask some heavy questions. I say this because, look, it's a heavy text, and it's a heavy subject. It's important because we no longer look at the government as benign. I do not. You should not either.   My family immigrated from the Soviet Union to get away from tyrants that wouldn't let us preach the gospel. That's how we got here, on religious refugee status. We got here in 1989. I'm telling you, the '90s were the glory days. If you did not grow up in the '90s, man, you missed out. It was a different America. It was tremendous.   No, no, no, no, no. The things have changed: the way we're raising our children, what they're being taught. We now have to ask, will our children or grandchildren face a state overtly hostile to our Christian convictions, to our Christian way of life? Will our children be taken from us, as children have been taken from Christians before by rogue states, hostile governments determined to ensure that our children are not raised with our principles?   What do we do in those moments? What do we do in those moments when the state encroaches on the church, encroaches on even my family and my household? What do I do? Well, you got to recognize that Romans 13 is to be interpreted in the whole council of God.   This text, as so many biblical texts, must be interpreted according to the principle of ceteris paribus. In the Latin, ceteris paribus means all things being equal. I take that from equal, as in from the whole perspective of the council of God. You can't just take one text by itself in isolation and use that as a proof text for theology. No. How does this text read in light of all of the canon?   We do not have the teaching of the scripture on any subject unless we have examined all of the relevant passages. Not all the qualifications of a complex subject are to be found in any one passage. The principle that one must obey, the existing government, and that it is God's will that the government shall exist, and that lawless person is resisting this government that was ordained... In that context, yeah, that makes all the sense in the world.   When the government is doing its job, and, yes, it punishes bad people for doing bad things, and it approves of good people for doing good things, when all of that is function... Yeah, all things being equal, yes, submit to the governing authorities. But there are also exceptions.   The Apostle Peter and the Apostle John are preaching the gospel. All of a sudden, the Jewish leaders are like, "Stop." They said, "No, no, we must obey God rather than men." Well, that's an exception.   If there's an exception to a moral rule, then it's not a moral absolute. A moral absolute... This is true always. That's the Ten Commandments. True always, there's no exceptions. This is not a moral absolute. You submit, but if Caesar calls you to do something that God's Word prohibits or against God's Word, no, no, no, we're not submitting.   If authority commands us to do something that God forbids or forbids us from doing something God commands, we must obey. I'll repeat that. If authority commands us to do something God forbids or forbids us from doing something God commands, we must disobey. If the civil magistrate calls us to sin, we must say no.   History is replete with examples of governments that have commanded the citizens to do evil, right? This is the Nuremberg trials, right? If fascists after... Now all these Nazi lieutenants and high-ranking members, their whole case, justification-wise, "I was following orders." You know what they said? "That's not enough."   No, you should have followed your conscience that told you that this was evil. What were they appealing to? They were appealing... the moral law in the heart. You knew. You knew this was evil. When you know this is evil, whoever in authority tells you to do it, say, "No, no." It wasn't an excuse then, and it won't be.   I'll bring this example. Ephesians 5, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Oh yeah, tremendous text. Keep going. Then, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord in everything."   My wife and I have had very extensive theological conversations on what the word, everything, means. What does everything mean? Let's go to the original. Let's go into the dictionary. It means everything. It means everything.   We know. We know there are exceptions. What if your husband is abusive, huh? In everything? What if your husband is telling you not to worship Jesus, not to go to church? In everything? No, of course not. At that moment, when he goes against God's Word, he's lost all authority. No, there are exceptions. At some point, yes, divorce is actually encouraged.   Well, apply that to the nation. What if the government is an abusive spouse? You can't speak. You can't believe. You can't say things that are true about gender and about sexuality. What about those moments? It can happen in any country, even our own. We must know that God has the highest authority.   This comes from not just our text, but also Matthew 22:15-22. "Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him," Christ, "in his words. And they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, 'Teacher, we know that you were true and teach the way of God truthfully. You do not care about anyone's opinion.'" Sad.   "'For you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, 'Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.' And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' They said, 'Caesar's.'"   "Then he said to them, 'Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.' When they heard this, they marveled. They left him and went away." They're trying to trap Him. Bring a coin. It says inscription in the Greek's icon. Whose icon is on this coin? It's Caesar's. Okay, give onto Caesar's.   What He's saying is, "It's not that important. Give unto God's what is God's. That which is created in the image of the government, give them that. That which is created in the image of God, give that to God. Who's created in the image of God? That's you."   Meaning, ultimately, it's not the government that owns you. The government has no jurisdiction over your soul. It has no jurisdiction over your mind. It can't tell you what to think. It can't tell you what to believe, what to love.   No. We are to love God with our highest affections, heart, soul, strength, and mind. God has stamped His own image on us through our intellect, our will, the soul. It all bears the divine stamp. Thus, man may give outward things to Caesar but never inner loyalty, never inner allegiance, never hope. Don't put your hope in people. Don't put your ultimate trust in people.   The coin's use is determined by its likeness, and your use is to be determined by the likeness you bear, that of the Lord. 1 Peter 2:17, look at the order. "Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."   Before we get the emperor, yeah, yeah. It was Nero. Yeah. We'll give you the honor that your offices do even if you don't deserve the honor. We'll honor you. First, we fear God. Here in the text, he talks about a sword, that God's sword is given to civil authorities as restrain.   The first sword that we see in scripture is the angelic sword at the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, God puts the sword there as restrain. I am restraining you. I'm restraining your depravity.   In the Old Testament, several offenses were considered so heinous that God in the civil code of Israel required the death penalty. Death penalty wasn't just from the Mosaic Law. It was actually grounded in creation. We get that from Genesis 9... Excuse me, 1-6.   "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to him, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.' The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand, they are delivered."   "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I gave you everything, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it, and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.'"   God, rooted in creation, requires the death penalty for murder. Distinctions are made in the law code of the Old Testament that corresponds to our distinctions between first and second-degree murder or murder and manslaughter. In the case of manslaughter, the penalty was not death but banishment to cities of refuge.   If someone kills someone by accident, that was different than first-degree murder. When it was committed, the civil magistrates of Israel were commanded to execute the guilty one. The law of capital punishment for murder isn't restricted to law code of the civil penalties of Israel. No, it was grounded in creation.   Here I pause, and I want to deal with an abjection that you hear all the time. Christians are so inconsistent. How are you pro-life by being against abortion, but you're for capital punishment? That doesn't make any sense to people. That's inconsistent.     I would submit to you, it's absolutely consistent because at the heart of it, of our worldview, is the sanctity of human life. Human life is so sacred that if you rise up without just cause and kill your neighbor, you forfeit all your rights and privileges to your own. That makes all the sense in the world.   It's not consistent. It's not consistent. You're right. It's not consistent to say, "Abortion is murder, but we're not going to do anything about it." If we were to be consistent, if we would truly be consistent, we would say abortion is murder because life begins at conception. That's the Word of God. We should, or to make it illegal. Anyone who participates in abortion deserves capital punishment.   That would be consistent, including the man. The man that fathered the baby, you commit the abortion. That should be a capital offense. I'm telling you, that law would absolutely transform this country. Men would actually start taking responsibility. People wouldn't be so flippant about sexuality anymore.   Yes, it creates life. When we go against God's law, obviously, God's going to pour out His judgment on this nation. That's if we were truly consistent.   Then this also brings up the just war theory. The same verse, Romans 13:4, serves as a locus classic. It's in historic Christian ethics concerning just war theory. What is the fundamental principle of just war theory? If a nation or a people aggressively invades or attacks another nation, the attacked nation is the victim of external aggression, so has the right and responsibility to protect itself from the invading aggressor.   Yes, it's the sanctity of life that's at the heart of just war theory. Human life is so sacred that the civil magistrates have been given the sword to protect the innocent from the evildoer. When the civil magistrate uses reasonable force to restrain the evildoer, he serves not only the community but also God. In terms of just war, those principles are simply elevated to a larger domain of national security.   Also, I would say, Christian, we must be sure that whatever cause that we're picking up a gun or sword for is truly just. You got to ask the hard questions because it's silly to assume that the government can be trusted to engage in only just military activity. No, history proven that that's not true.   I remember I was 22 years old. One of my first jobs out of college was to work for the CIA as a Russian analyst. I hadn't thought through any of this. It was a job. I remember I had the Holy Spirit. I remember driving into the compound in Langley, and I remember just a darkness would come over me. All day, I was walking around in darkness as I'm writing these little reports about people.   I'm showing up. A week later, I find out that that person I wrote a report on is dead. Well, that forces you to ask some questions. Is this a just organization that I'm working for? Are the causes just? I was led by the Lord to believe, "No, it's not." I peaced out. There are more important things to do like building the church of Christ.   No, when the government turns its back on its primary responsibility, it's acting in utter defiance of the law of God and is exposing itself and the nation it governs to the judgment of God. The sword is necessary because there's sin in the world, and the sword is given to work against evildoers and restrain them. The primary responsibility of any civil government is to protect, defend, and maintain human life.   Third... This is where I land on all of this. I don't like talking about politics or any of that. Submit to King Jesus always because at the end of the day, look, you can only control what you can control. You are responsible for what God has entrusted you to bring all of what you influence, to bring it all in submission to Jesus Christ.   That's your mind. That's your soul. That's your body. That's your relationships. That's your finances. That's sexuality, everything. You are to bring in order unto the law of Jesus Christ. Submit to King Jesus always.   By the way, this is the posture of God. Remember when Israel was like, "Yeah, I think we want to be like other people. God, send us a king." God's like, "You don't want a king. You don't want a king. Trust me, you don't want a king. You want to pay taxes? You don't want to pay taxes."   God literally had that conversation with them. He said, "Look, the king's going to take your daughter. He's going to take your sons. You don't want a king." They said, "We want to be like everyone else. We want a king." God's like, "All right." This is what God told the prophet, "They rejected me, not you." They rejected the ultimate rule of God.   This is why God gives us scripture, that we are to be independently dependent on God, independently submissive to God's Word. When you do that, when you get a faithful populace of people who are submitting to God, you don't need as much government as we have. This is my plan to take over the world.   You tell everyone to submit to Jesus Christ. "Everybody, let's just submit our lives to Jesus Christ." The more of us there are, like democracy... Let's just use it. The more of us there are, we just vote our own people into power, and then we just dismantle the government. Just dismantle it. No more taxes. Because I want Christians to pay fewer taxes and more to the church, so we can build up the kingdom of God. That's just me.   This is verse 5, "Therefore, we must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." Why does he bring this in? Why not just stand back and say, "I said everything there is. Submit to the authorities."   He brings in conscience. We're not to submit simply because we're afraid of law enforcement agencies in our nation. We're to submit because it's a matter of conscience. Jesus told us to. If magistrates are oppressive and we disagree radically with them, we're still to render obedience because our consciences are held captive to the Word of God.   This is how God initially ruled, through His Word. Now what if your conscience is in submission to the Word of God, and the government calls you to something that is against your conscience? Well, if your conscience is to submit to the Word of God, at that point, believers must never go against their Christian conscience in order to obey the government. This is crucial.   If the Holy Spirit through your conscience and in God's Word is calling you a certain way... I bring the conscious part in because there's some things that it's not just black and white. It's not right or wrong. Those are morality issues. There are questions, discernment and wisdom. Which way is right or left? Which way should we go?   I'll bring you an example. For example, COVID, in 2020, March, we have to make a decision as a church. As the elders of the church, what do we do? By the way, we were one of the first churches to shut down because we got the data from the doctors, and they're like, "Yeah, this is going to be crazy." All right, two weeks to flatten the curve. Let's do it. We just stayed closed.   I remember we wrestled. The elders were wrestling. This is a question of discernment. It's not a question of law. We're wrestling. My conscience was not easy because in scripture, it says, "Do not forsake the gathering of the saints," the physical gathering of the saints. That wrestling led us, by the Lord, to open up much sooner than most churches. Why? Because we were trying to obey all of these texts.   Fundamental to Christian's loyalty to God is his submission to the state at every point possible, but we don't do it blindly. There are limits, of course. We must obey God rather than man. 1 Peter 2:13-14, "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good."   Then in Romans 13:6, everyone's favorite topic, taxes. "For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing." I find it interesting that he calls tax collectors, ministers. Also, in the Word, in the Greek, it's deacon. These are deacons of God. They just hired 87,000 more of them.   Make sure you're paying your taxes. The Roman government was, in terms of taxation, tribute policies and oppressive government. A lot of Christians are like, "Yeah, but my tax money is going to things that are immoral." Well, so it was during the Roman Empire, right? Jesus still paid the taxes. Paul still said to pay the taxes. We are to pay the taxes.   I will say to you, pay as little as possible, legally speaking. You pay as little as possible to Uncle Sam. When you're doing taxes, they're like, "Do you want to pay extra?" No, don't even ask me that. You should pay me extra for having to read. No, no, no, no, no.   Pay as little as possible. That's what the rich people do. That's what they do. They figure it out. They get the accountants. You know about foundations. You know about starting businesses and then K-1. You can look into that. Pay as little as possible because a lot of these rules are freaking arbitrary. They are just arbitrary.   You cross the border of New Hampshire, from Mass. to New Hampshire, and you go from paying 7% sales tax to nothing. All right? That's just arbitrary. Fake line, arbitrary rules. Manmade rules, you got to obey, but sometimes to an extent.   For example, driving, speed limit. I'm not the guy that's going to tell you to obey the speed limit because the governing authorities don't obey the speed limit. If there's exceptions sometimes, then it's not a moral absolute.   If my wife's pregnant and I'm in the car, I'm going to be going 120 because we got to get the baby to the hospital, or we're going to heaven together. I don't know. We're going to get her there. At that moment, you're not going to be like, "Romans 13:55." No, of course not. There are things that take precedent over these manmade rules. Okay. One of the great ethical debates in Christian ethics pertains to the sanctity of truth. Are we always in every circumstance obligated to give the unvarnished truth?   Rahab lied to protect Joshua and his people, and she made the roll call of saints for her valorous action. The midwives of Egypt were instructed by Pharaoh to kill every male born to Hebrew women. The midwives disobeyed, protected the newborn babies, and then lied about it to the authorities.   God commended them for that. Why? Because life takes precedent. Do you always tell the unvarnished truth? Well, here you got to say, "Well, what's the point of truth?" The point of truth is justice. Will this truth be used to further justice or not?   Here we got to pause and say, "How do you define justice?" How do you define justice? You wrestle with that. That's hard to define.   I think the biblical definition... This is a good shot at it. Justice is giving a person his due. Justice is giving a person his due. What you deserve, that's what you get. That's justice. We deserve because we are condemned because we have transgressed God's law. The justice that we deserve, the celestial justice, is damnation for eternity. We deserve that, but God is a loving God.   He wants to forgive us our sins, but He can't just forgive us our sins because He is just. This is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so powerful because God gets to remain just, and He justifies us because Jesus Christ got what He did not deserve. Jesus Christ on the cross got the sword of God's wrath. He did not deserve it. He was the only flawless one. He was the only sinless one. Never transgressed the law.   Through your repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ, and the work of the gospel, that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, bearing the justice that I deserve... The very moment that that sinks into your heart, becomes a reality that you are Christ's follower, you're submitting to Christ, all your sins are wiped out, and Christ's righteousness is counted to you. That's justice. Justice is giving a person his due.   The biblical principle is that we should always tell the truth when justice requires it, but righteousness and justice do not always require it. Case in point, a Nazi shows up to your house in the '40s and says, "Are you hiding a Jew?" Right? This is a classic example. If you say, "Oh, Romans 13. Yes, I am. Here they are," no, you'd be just as wicked as the fascist for doing that. You know exactly what this truth will lead to.   Yeah, if someone says, "Do I look fat in this dress?" you tell them, "No, you look tremendous." Just make them feel better. It's okay. Pastor Jan said, "It's okay." Everyone feels tremendous.   The principle that defines justice and righteousness is that which is due, owed, or obligatory. That's why he tells Roman Christians that we are obliged to pay our taxes. Give him what is due. We must give the state what is due the state. Justice and righteousness require that we submit to taxation.   We are to honor the king even if the king isn't honorable. He is to be honored. It's his due. We are to honor our father and mother even if they do not deserve. Because they're our parents, it's due.   Romans 13:7, "Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom our honor is owed."   I close with this. Hopefully, everyone voted on Tuesday. I voted. I primarily do it to get the sticker. Also, I like writing my name in. There are a bunch of boxes. That's not democracy. Jan Vezikov. A lot of people in the country were hoping for a red wave, right? As we find ourselves in church on Sunday after the midterm elections, people were hoping for a red wave because things are so bad, right?   It didn't materialize for reasons. This is what I say to you. This is my pastoral encouragement. Stop hoping in people. Stop hoping in red waves or blue waves.   The only red wave that will actually change this country, that will actually save this country, that will actually make a difference is the red wave of the blood of Jesus Christ that needs to pour over like a tsunami over this nation, bring us to our knees, and beg God for grace and mercy. That's the only way I see forward.   In the meantime, if you're not a Christian, repent of your sins. Trust in Jesus Christ. Have your sins forgiven, and then submit your life to Jesus Christ. Order your life according to God's Word. For dear Christians, for the rest of us, if there is a place in your life where you are not submitting to Christ, where you know that His Word does not reign in authority, repent. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray.   Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of grace. We thank you for the message of the cross. We thank you, Lord, that you remain just and that you became the justifier to all those who trust in Jesus Christ.   Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit upon each one of us in a measure that we've never experienced before, and use us powerfully to do what your church is called to do, to make disciples of all those who trust in Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.

True Love

November 6, 2022 • Shane Sikkema • Romans 12:14–21

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood Churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com   God, every good gift comes from Your hand and we thank You for allowing us to partner with You in the work that you are doing. We thank You for the way that You oftentimes bless the work of our hands. And we thank You that there are also times where You just flex, where You do miracles, where You do the impossible right before our eyes. You take our fish and our loaves and You miraculously multiply them, our efforts, our energy, our resources, in order to do more than we could ask or even imagine. That is the God that You are. And God we pray that Your sovereign will would be done in this situation and that by Your grace, we would just continue to be used by You as Your church, as Your witnesses here in the city.   God, we also pray right now for the preaching of Your Word. Our word today is a word that feels good in theory and yet feels impossible in practice and in and of ourselves that is calling us to do the impossible. But as Your word says, Lord, that what is impossible for man is possible with God because with You all things are possible. And so Lord, we pray that You would give us the faith to do the impossible, to believe and to help us overcome our unbelief. Help us to trust and obey all that Your word calls us to today. In Christ's name. Amen.   All right, well if you have done any kind of public speaking before, you know how important it is to kind of kick things off by saying something intriguing, a good story, a joke or sharing some interesting facts to kind of grab people's attention and help them listen more intently. I'm not going to do that today. I'm just going to read the first five words from our text, because these are some of the most intriguing words that we've read so far in Paul's letter to the Romans.   In Romans 12, Paul begins to tell us how we ought to live in light of God's mercy, to live as living sacrifices, to love one another, to be the body of Christ to one another. And then all of a sudden, without warning, without any transition, without any smooth segue, we get to verse 14 and he says, "Oh yeah, and by the way." This is Romans 12:14, "Also, you need to bless those who persecute you." Which sounds so crazy, right? What are you talking about, Paul?   There's this story in the gospels, where a young religious expert in the law comes and kind of has the same reaction to some things that Jesus was teaching. We see this in Luke 10:25. It says, "Behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And he said to him, 'What's written in the law. How do you read it?' And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength and with all of your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, 'You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live.' But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?" And that's really the question before us today, who is my neighbor? How far am I expected to extend this command to love my neighbor as my myself?   We're going to come back and see Jesus' answer to that question in a little bit. But if you have your Bibles, open up to Romans 12, we're going to be looking at verse 14 through 21, and we're going to begin by looking at the rest of what Paul has to say first. As we work through our texts today, there's going to be three big ideas that I want us to consider. Point number one, we're going to be talking about the litmus of love. What is the litmus test of love? What is true love? Two, what are the limits of love? And then number three, what is the latency? What is the unseen potential of this love that Jesus, that Paul are calling us to?   So if you have our Bibles, look at Romans 12. If not, you can follow along up here on the screen. We're beginning in verse 14 and the Apostle Paul writes this. He says, "Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."   This is the reading of God's Word for us today. Point number one today, the litmus of love. If you remember back to your high school chemistry class, you probably got to play with those little strips of paper that magically would change color in a solution. If they turned red, it was like acidic. If it turned blue, it was base. And the question is, what is the litmus test for love? What is true love? And if you've been paying attention, our culture has been struggling hard to answer this question. And it feels sometimes like we are just barreling downhill on a bus with no breaks, about to drive ourselves right off a cliff. The harder we try to answer this question, the further we get from the truth. And here's the problem, if we don't look for the answer to this question in scripture, well then our adversary Satan is more than happy to come along, to step in and to supply us with some answers of his own.   Last week, this section began with the Apostle Paul telling us to let our love be genuine, to be true, to be without hypocrisy. Now, one of Satan's favorite stratagems is to step in to persuade us to buy into a counterfeit, to buy into a fake, a hypocritical substitute for true love. He is a liar. He is a con artist. He is a master of propaganda. Scripture tells us, that he goes about, he masquerades as an angel of life. In other words, he's very skilled at packaging evil ideas and lies, in ways that seem plausible in good. He's got a great marketing department and he puts out slogans. He puts out messages into the air, things we're familiar with, things that we've heard, things like this. You need to follow your heart. You need to be true to yourself. He says things like, love is love. Takes a grain of truth, stretches it around a dark rotten pit of lies and goes about selling his fruit of deception.   So how do we expose this for what it is? What is the litmus test for love? Scripture tells us that the Word of God is like a lamp to our feet, like a light to our path. That which we need to avoid the snares, to avoid the trips and the pitfalls along the way, to see things for what they really are. So that even Christ when Satan comes to tempt Him in the wilderness, what is Christ's defense? Well, his defense is the Word of God. He quotes scripture as His defense against the devil's attacks. And so real quick, let's shine the light of scripture onto some of these popular slogans that are floating around in our culture today.   We hear things like follow your heart. Now, what does scripture say? Jeremiah 17:9 says that, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" David in Psalm 51, he cries out to God. He says, "God, I need you to create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me." And God promises his people in Ezekiel 36:26, He says, "Listen, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."   Be very careful about following your heart. You know who is really good at following their heart? People like Hitler, just a guy out there living his truth, right? We need to be cautious about following our hearts. Our hearts can be deceived and they can deceive us. Following your heart is great, but only in as much as your heart is filled and led by the Holy Spirit of God and submitting to His Word.   We hear things like, be true to yourself. Well, what does scripture say? Jesus says in Luke 9. He doesn't say, be true to yourself. He says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, for my sake will save it." And then finally, perhaps most diabolically recently has become this phrase, Love is love. Well, let's put that under the interrogation light of God's Word. The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 4, that God is love. Before doing this, though he first tells us to do what I'm kind of trying to do right now, which is he tells us to put the spirits to the test, test the spirits. In other words, test the messages, the narratives, the slogans, the ideologies, the popular ideas that are being preached by our world, knowing that we live in a world that is deceived and is that full of deception.   So this is what he says in 1 John 4. He says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the anti-Christ, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world." Look what he says. "Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God, does not listen to us. And by this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error."   So we test the spirit. Love is love. Isn't that true? Yeah, it's true, but it's true in the same sense of saying lamp is lamp or floor is floor. The statement is true, but if you bring it into the light, what do you really see? What you see is that, behind this phrase is an ideology. And at the heart of this slogan, love is love, is really a wanton declaration that God is not. God is not love. Love is not defined by God. It is not accountable to God. Love is accountable to me, right? Love is what I decide in my heart to make it. I define love for myself. I am love for myself. I am God for myself. And this deception, this is the reason that a world that is so obsessed with the idea about love in theory, seems so incapable of actually extending true love to anyone in particular, to put it into practice.   We have been duped into buying a counterfeit. It's a self-centered, self-serving, self-righteous, self-absorbed love. And it's no wonder that we're so miserable. If we want to know what love is, we're not going to find it within ourselves. We can't look inward to ourselves. We have to look upward to God. That's what John is telling us, that that's the only place where we're going to find the answer to this question. And so when we look to God and when we look to scripture, well what does scripture tell us?   1 Corinthians 13 tells us that, "Love is patient and kind. Love does not your boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own ways. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. Love never ends." And after telling us to test the spirits, John then goes on to give us what is the most profound and true definition of what love really is. In 1 John 4, continuing in verse seven, he says this, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God." It's not from us. It starts with God. It flows from God. "And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." It's actually a selfless, sacrificial, undeserved love that God extends to us.   We see that there is no love apart from God, that God is love. And John says, that God's love was made manifest to us in sending his Son Jesus Christ, to come to take on flesh, to die on the cross in our place, so that the propitiation for our sins could be made so that we could be reconciled to God. And then he says, "And those who love are born of God." You need to be born again. You need a new heart with new desires from God, so that the love of God that's been manifest from you can fill up your life and then begin to overflow to others.   Now with this understanding in mind, now we can go back to our text today and see what Paul does, because he's given us some really practical applications for what it looks like to manifest the love of God in real life. And so in verse 14, one example he gives is this. He says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly."   Do you ever wonder why Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus? It seems kind of strange. Jesus knew that he was going to die and Jesus knew that in just a few moments, he was going to bring him back to life. And so, what was Jesus doing? Was he just playing the crowd? Trying to keep up the act, make sure nobody was on to what he was about to do? No. So why does he weep? He knows this is easy for Him. He's going to undo this and in a few minutes from now, Lazarus is going to be alive again. Well, he weeps because he loves. And when you love someone, you are willing to enter into their pain and to weep with those who weep. And he sees his friends weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, then his heart breaks with theirs.   Now, I would submit to you that this is actually not that hard. Perhaps some of you are sympathetic criers and you just can't even help yourself. It just happens naturally. Even if not though, I think most of us have enough sympathy and compassion, even in our flesh to honor the grief of someone who has suffered a great loss. Weeping with those who weep, that's one thing. I think the first half of that sentence though is actually the part that is much harder. I think it's fair to say that, a much greater test of genuine love is not just can you weep with those who weep, but can you truly, authentically, genuinely rejoice with those who rejoice? And we live in a bit of a cutthroat city, right? People are clamoring for status, success, achievement, image, accolades. You feel the competition.   Now honestly, how do you feel when you see the people around you, your neighbors win? When a coworker gets recognized for their work on a big project? Or maybe they get a huge promotion before you? How do you feel when you're driving through your neighborhood and you see that neighbor with a big beautiful house, putting on a big beautiful addition to their big beautiful house, and they've got the perfect lawn and the picket fence and the yappy little dog that's got a better haircut than you do? I used to walk on my way to the gym through a neighborhood with a lot of those big, old, beautiful homes. And every day I'd walk by and one of them had this big window. And up in the window every day, I'd see this dog sitting on this cushy cushion. And I'd walk by the house and I'd look up at the dog and he would look down on me. And I'd just like, "This dog is judging me. He knows he's got it better than I do."   So when others win, when others are blessed, when they succeed, is your first impulse to think about yourself? Is it to maybe feel envy or maybe even anger? Maybe even bitterness? Or can you say that you are genuinely happy for them without hypocrisy, without a tinge of jealousy over their success? See, I think anyone who has experienced loss, can weep with those in similar circumstances. But it is only a soul that is fully satisfied in the love of Jesus Christ, that can freely, truly, authentically rejoice with those who rejoice and be happy for their success.   So Paul goes on, "Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep." And then he says, "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly." Associating with the lowly, it carries this idea of either people or things, lowly people or lowly things, and what's a servant hearted-ness. It's a humility where you're not too proud to give yourself to menial tasks, menial labor, and you're not too proud to associate with people of humble means. This is Jesus washing the disciples' feet, right?"To live in harmony with one another." It's translated more literally in the NASB, the New American Standard Bible. It translated it like this, "Be of the same mind toward one another." And this is the same phrase that Paul uses in Philippians 2, when he's talking about the love and the unity of the Church. He says, "If there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others, having this mind among yourselves."   Now how do we have it? What is it that he's talking about? He tells us this, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the most excruciating, painful, humiliating death on a cross." And this is the litmus of true love. It's humble, it's sacrificial. It desires what is best for others and is also willing and as much as it is able to seek what is best for others, even when that comes at a personal sacrificial cost to self.   This is not something we can muster up from within ourselves. This is something we can only have, as Paul says, in Christ Jesus. It begins with the generosity of the Father, who gives his only beloved Son, and is manifest in Jesus Christ who takes on flesh and goes to that cross in our place. And when we experience that love, scripture says, that the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, so that then it can begin to overflow out of our lives and into those of the people around us. We start here, and maybe so far this feels great.   I can say that I am a very, very, very long way off from living this perfectly, but I think I can say that I desire to live this way. I want to live this way. I can definitely say, I would love it if everyone else lived this way. It sounds good on paper, but the problem is that as soon as you try to put this into practice, you realize how impossible it is. And if it doesn't feel impossible just yet, we're going to keep going and talk about point two, which is the limits of love.   This is the kind of love that we're called to. And now we're going to see just how far we're called to extend it, because Paul told us in verse 14 and he's quoting Jesus. We'll come to that in a little bit to see where he gets this from. He's quoting Jesus from the Sermon of the Mount, and he says, "Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them." In verse 17, he says, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all."   Since Pastor Jan was gone this week, I decided to include some Russian literature for us this morning. And there's a famous quote you've probably heard from Fyodor Dostoevsky's, Brothers Karamazov. The father is recalling a conversation he had with a doctor. And in it, the doctor told him this. He said, "The more that I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams, I can often make plans for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually face crucifixion if it were suddenly necessary. And yet, I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together." This guy had some roommates in Boston.   He says, "I know from experience, as soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs me and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours, I begin to hate the best of men. One because he's too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I hate men individually, the more I love humanity." It's like, I love humanity. You love humanity. We all love humanity. It's just, it's people that we can't stand. That's what he's getting at. We love the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself in theory. But as soon as we begin thinking about applying that to real people with names, faces, personalities, problems, well all of a sudden, we find out that we are the lawyer going to test Jesus. We are the one asking, "Who exactly is my neighbor?"   so let's go back and see how Jesus answered that question. Going back to Luke 10:29 says that, "He desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?" And Jesus replies with a story. He tells him this parable. He says, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place, saw him and pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion." "He went to him and he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and he took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, 'Take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay when I come back. Now, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed him mercy.' And Jesus said to him, 'You go and do likewise."   So the guy asks, 'Who is my neighbor?' And Jesus answers and the big idea of this parable is, well you need to be a good neighbor. And to be a good neighbor, you have to have compassion for people, even your enemies, and be willing to show them mercy. And I always thought it was strange that Jesus doesn't really answer the question, who is my neighbor? And I was thinking about it some more this week, and I think that he actually does answer the question. He doesn't answer it directly, but he answers it and he does it in a really clever way, and this is what I mean.   If you really allow the parable to do what it is intended to do, well it's intended to bring you to this place where you do begin to see that every human being, every human soul really is a neighbor, in the sense that we all have the same condition, we all have the same need, we're all in the same boat. And so, how does the parable do this? Well, Jesus does it by reversing our expectations of who the good guys and the bad guys should be in the story. And so Jesus makes the good guys, the priest and the Levites do the wrong thing. And then, He makes this despised Samaritan come along, the bad guy who actually in the end ends up doing the right thing.   Now the purpose of this, we need to be clear. Jesus' purpose here is not to try to imply that religious people or Jewish people are bad and that Samaritans are good. That's not the point. The purpose is that by making the person we expect to do the wrong thing, the hero of the story, Jesus forces us to humble ourselves. He humbles us as the listener, while humanizing our enemies at the same time. He forces us to not listen to this parable with the assumption that we're the good Samaritan. And this instead forces us to try to figure out, "Well okay, well then which character am I?"   Now here's the train of thought. We all, if we're honest, come to Jesus and want to ask the question, who is my neighbor? And that kind of shows us right off the bat that we're not the good Samaritan. Actually, we are the Levite or the priest. We're the ones doing the wrong thing in the story, which is meant to humble us. And it's meant to humble us, so that eventually we come to accept that actually we're not the Levite or the priest. It's worse than that. We are the pathetic, half dead, naked, broke man beaten on the side of the road. That's who we are.   Jesus was very good at flattering his audience. Like, once upon a time, there was this pathetic loser who gets beat up and stripped left for dead on the side of the road. And oh yeah, by the way, that's you in the story. Brutal, but it's meant to humiliate us. It's meant to humble us. It's meant to bring us down to see that we are the despicable one. We are the one in desperate need of mercy. Because until we see that, we cannot appreciate what it means that Christ is the one who has come as our good Samaritan.   He is the one who saw us in our pathetic, weak state and had compassion. He's the one who showed us mercy, not because we deserved it. He showed us mercy even when we were His enemy. And once we get that, it is only once that finally sinks in, that we can begin to make sense of why we need to go and do likewise, of why we are called to show mercy to our enemies as well, because this is what Jesus has done for us. And apart from that, apart from the mercy and the grace of God, we would still be lying half naked, half dead, broke in the gutter of our sin.   Romans 5:6 says that, "While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we've now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." We have to begin with this foundation, because before we have this, what Paul tells us doesn't make sense. To bless those who persecute you and those who curse you?   As I said earlier, Paul didn't come up with this on his own. He's actually quoting Jesus from the gospels. In gospel of Matthew 5, Jesus is preaching the Sermon of the Mount and he tells his disciples. He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good. He sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do that?" He says, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."   Now, the problem that the lawyer, the teacher of the law had, is the text tells us, is that he came to Jesus to test Him and to justify Himself. And if you come before Jesus to test Him, if you come to stand over Him in judgment, proud, self-righteous, with a cynical heart thinking that you know better. If that is how you come to Christ, then when He tells you to go and do likewise, that's going to make no sense. It's going to seem impossible. It's going to seem absurd. It's probably even going to seem repulsive, because apart from Christ, it is. If you want to figure this all out, we need to stop trying to come to Jesus to test Him. We need to start coming to Jesus to thank Him and to trust Him, but this requires faith and we have to trust that Jesus is right.   We have to trust that by his power, this is possible. And we have to trust that Jesus had a good purpose in sacrificing and extending His mercy toward us. And we need to trust that, when He calls us to do the same, when He calls us to love like this, that when we do, when we deny ourselves, when we extend mercy, when we sacrificially love others, that are sacrifice will not be in vain either. There is a purpose, there's a greater potential at work. And this brings us to point number three, the latency of love.   In verse 17, Paul says, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. Beloved, to never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. 'To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good."   Now this idea of latency, familiar with it maybe in computing terms as that delay in a process between the input, the output. A more classical definition though, it has to do with something as unseen power, unseen potential. And that's what's going on here. That on the surface, this command to love our enemies, it seems irrational. It doesn't really make sense. But by faith, we're trusting that there is this latent unseen power at work, when we obey Christ's commands. We get a glimpse of this when Paul tells us in verse 20 and 21, "To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing." This is what he says, "You will keep burning coals on his head."   Now what is he talking about? Burning coals? "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good?" Paul is actually quoting Proverbs here. And Proverbs 25:21-22, tell us, "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he's thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head and the Lord will reward you." So this is a very strange phrase. What's going on here? There is three primary ways that this proverb could be interpreted. First of all, this could be talking about judgment. That when you bless those who curse you, you are increasing your innocence, your obedience for which you will eventually be rewarded. Paul does say, "Don't take vengeance, but leave it to the wrath of God, that God is going to settle things and bring about justice. And if you are obedient, you should will be rewarded. And at the same time as you do this, you are increasing your enemy's guilt for which sooner or later, they will one day be punished."   Now the problem here is, that doesn't really seem to fit the tone of what Paul is saying. It definitely doesn't fit the tone of what Jesus was saying in the Sermon of the Mount. It doesn't really seem to reflect the heart of God in this matter. Ezekiel 33:10 says, "As I live declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turns from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why will you die?" Likewise in 2 Peter 3:9, it tells us that, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you because he's not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach a repentance."   So it is true that we will be rewarded for our obedience and that the wicked will be punished, should they not repent, but we also see that the heart of God is that they would repent. So it could be talking about judgment. Second, this could be talking about shame, that by doing good to your enemies, by refusing to retaliate with an eye for an eye, with a tooth for a tooth, as Jesus says in the Sermon of Mount. And by choosing to extend mercy, instead in that process, you're heaping shame upon your enemy, that hopefully they begin to feel how wrong they are, that it wakes them up, that they come to their senses and feel shameful about their actions, and perhaps that that could even lead them to repentance. And then thirdly, this could just be talking more directly about repentance.   There was an ancient Near Eastern practice that seems to have originated in Egypt, where people would walk around with bowls of burning coals on their heads, and they would do it as a public demonstration of their repentance. And so it's hard to tell exactly what Paul is getting at in our text today, exactly what the Proverbs is talking about. But we do know from scripture, that all three of these things are true. That God will reward our obedience to this commandment, and that He will punish those who persecute us, should they not repent. And yet at the same time, it's also true that God's desire is that the wicked would not perish, but that they would come to repentance, that they would turn from their evil ways and be saved.   Then it is also often the case that, by refusing to take vengeance into our own hands and choosing to show mercy instead, that we will oftentimes cause a person to feel shame for their actions, which could in turn lead them to repentance, which could turn an enemy into a friend. This is the latent power of love that it's a love that demands justice because true love does require justice. But it's also willing to delay justice in order to leave room for mercy, so that evil may be overcome by good.   Now, I doubt that there is anyone who understood and appreciated this more than the Apostle Paul himself, because who was he? Well, he was a persecutor of the Church. That before Christ, the Apostle Paul, Saul, hunted Christians down and had them put to death. This is who he was. But by the mercy of God, he was transformed from a persecutor of the Church into an apostle to the church, an apostle to the Gentile, a man who was now willing to sacrifice and live and even die for the very people that he once sought to destroy. Now this is the power that we see, the potential that we see here.   Now, we need to be clear that loving our neighbor as ourselves, loving our enemies, this doesn't mean that we approve of what they do. It doesn't mean that what they're doing is not evil. It does not mean that we need to tolerate or enable bad behavior. It doesn't mean that their actions won't at times have consequences. And it doesn't mean that we should just allow them to walk all over us, walk all over the people we love. This doesn't mean that we allow the unrighteous, the unjust to trample the innocent. That's not what this means. But it does mean in a very real way that we have a true desire to see what is best for them come to reality, for them to find mercy and to be redeemed. And at times, that's going to require us to relate to them in a very generous and sacrificial way.   In a few moments, we're going to move into communion together. But before we do, I want to close by reading an excerpt from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. It's a talk that he gave, which eventually became the book that we're most of us are pretty familiar with. But in one of his sections, he is addressing the difficulty of forgiving one's enemies. And he's talking about fairly severe, like enemies of war, people who have done treacherous things and how difficult and even repulsive it is to think about forgiving them, and how could Christ call us to do this. And in that section of his talk, he says this.   He says, "We might make it easier by trying to understand exactly what loving your neighbor as yourself means. I am to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself? Now that I come to think of it, I don't exactly have feeling of fondness for myself. So apparently, 'Love your neighbor,' does not mean feel fond of him. I ought to have seen that before, because of course you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do I think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I'm afraid sometimes I do and those are no doubt my worst moments, but that's not why I love myself. In fact, it is the other way round. My self-love makes me think myself nice, but thinking myself nice is not why I love myself. So loving your enemy does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief." "For a good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are. Go a step further. In my most clear sighted moments, not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently, I am allowed to loa and hate some of the things my enemies do. Now that I come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad person's actions, but not hate the bad person, or as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner. And for a long time, I used to think this is a silly, straw-splitting distinction. How could you hate what a person did and not hate the person? But years later, it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life, namely myself." "However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. In fact, the very reason why I hated the things was that I love the person. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom, the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. We ought to hate them, but it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves, being sorry that the person should have done such things, and hoping, if it is any way possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere they can be cured." And in a world that is increasingly filled with hatred and rage and where it seems day by day that good is being overcome by evil, that we as the Church, as followers of Christ have an incredible opportunity before us to live lives of mercy, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to overcome evil with good.   If you are here today and you're not a Christian, I would implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God, to no longer live as an enemy of God, to consider that you have sinned against the Holy Righteous Creator of all things, and that God is just and His justice demands that His wrath be poured out on you for your rebellion, your lawlessness. And I would also implore you to consider this just holy God is being patient toward you. That He loves you and He has loved us to such an extent, that rather than pouring His wrath out on us as we deserved, He instead sent His Beloved Son to offer peace through His blood shed on the cross. Jesus came, He took the righteous anger, the wrath of God upon Himself, so that for all who repent and put their faith in Him, the love, the mercy, the grace of God could be poured out on us instead.   You can receive that grace right now. You just cry out to God. Surrender, repent, confess to God. I know that I am sinner. I know that I have lived as Your enemies, and I'm throwing myself upon the mercy of Christ, that I need Your grace. And I trust that Jesus Christ truly has paid the penalty for me to be forgiven and reconciled to You.

Christian Playbook

October 30, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 12:9–13

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you did not leave us in our sins and our trespasses, that you broke into this world through your son Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you lived a perfect life. You do live the life of suffering because the Christian life often entails suffering, and you went to a cross. And thanks to your resurrection, we have a way to be reconciled with God, redeemed, and we have a way to be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit, you apply the gospel to our hearts, our minds, our souls, and we pray that you do that today. We know that the gospel is the power of God onto salvation for whoever believes, and I pray if anyone is not yet a Christian today, that they turn from their sin and wicked ways and turn to you and follow you. And for us who are believers, Lord, show us what it means to daily take up our cross and follow Christ, that the crucifixion leads to a life of cruciform. The way of life is the way of the cross. Show us today from the holy scriptures what it means to live a Christian life of love. And Lord, no one, not one of us does it perfectly so we pray for much grace in it. We pray all this in Christ's name, Amen. Today we are continuing our sermon series through Romans. Today we're in 12:9-13. The title of the sermon is the Christian Wristband. And you say, "What's that mean?" Well, the title comes straight from football obviously, and in particular, New England Patriots' Mac Jones. I've been watching Mac Jones, he stinks. He's been stinking. He's been stinking, and one of the reasons why I've been trying to discern why he isn't that good, he's got like three layer wrist bands. In football, the quarterback gets a little wristband that's like a cheat sheet and he gets the play, he needs layers of it. He's going through pages of his wristband. That's why he stinks. And here today is just one little wristband, that's the verses. This is like the cheat sheet for the Christian life. And the text today is that yes, sometimes you have to call an audible, but for the most part, these verses have everything you need to live a God honoring daily life. And here the text wrestles with the question how do we, who are committed to Christ, who have had our minds renewed, how are we to love and how are we to live? Specifically, how do we love those in the church? And then next week the text we'll be looking at, how do we love those outside of the church? And throughout the epistle, the apostle Paul has given us lengthy, weighty concepts, and he's done that with very long sentences, run-on sentences. He would not have done well in my English AP class in 11th grade. He's just one sentence and that's the chapters. But here today he gives us staccato shots, rapid fire truths, terse, short, sweet, straight to the point, and I pray this text will be helpful in your Christian life. Today we're in Romans 12:9-13, and would you look at the text with me? Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Five verses with 13 exhorts, so the sermon has 13 points today to frame up our time together, and it's just from the text. I'm not even going to read them. I just read the text, so that's the 13 points, here they are. Verse one in verse nine, the first point, let love be genuine. And this comes in the context where verses four through eight, he's been telling us about our spiritual gifts, that we are given gifts and the gifts are not for ourselves, they're to be used in the church in all humility. And then immediately from the gifts, he goes to the Christian life of love. And he does the same thing 1 Corinthians 12 where he explains the spiritual gift, and then immediately he pivots in verse 13, he's given us that great chapter on love. Remember, love is patient, love was kind, et cetera. Here's a text, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1, be earnest but earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. Paul, why land on the word genuine as the descriptor of what our love should be like? He could have said, "Let love be great," or tremendous or earnest or joyful or constant or bold, I don't know. He says, "Let love be genuine," meaning let love be without hypocrisy. Well, I talk about hypocrisy here because the previous section he said, "Think humbly," meaning do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Humbly considering others more significant than self, that leads to self-forgetful service of Christ. That leads to genuine love, and genuine love takes humility. We talked about that last week. And pride is what leads to hypocritical love, where you pretend to love. Why? Because you're always asking, "Well, how will I appear if I don't look loving?" That's the driving question, or, "How can I create a good impression of myself," or, "How can I be liked more?" That's the consuming desire. And Paul says, "No. Put away hypocrisy. If you're going to love, that love on the outside needs to be matched by love on the inside," because what is hypocrisy? It's you're masking your true self, where you put forward it looks like loving behavior but there's nothing alive inside. 1 Corinthians 13:3, if I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. So to those who are adamant about saying love is a http://verb...that's me, I'm talking myself, I say that all the time, love is action, love is sacrifice, love of his giving... Paul would say you can give everything, but if you don't do it from a loving heart, it means nothing. And Jesus called out this kind of hypocrisy all the time, in particular with religious people. Matthew 15:7-9, "You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said these people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." External lip praise wasn't accompanied by an internal heart praise, and we as Christians need to remind ourselves that we have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And Christ calls us into his body, that's what we talked about last week, and another metaphor for that is the household of God. That God the father has children whom he adopts, and we are to have a special regard or love for Christians regardless of what they look like or social or cultural things that try to divide us all too often. So we are to manifest a love that's genuine, that's sincere, that's authentic, and as soon as you try to do this, you realize it's impossible apart from the Lord, that you don't have the natural resources, the internal power to do this. So we need to cry out for the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 says, "Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." So we're to love with a supernatural love that is not our own, it's God's love that's poured into our hearts. How would you define love? And that's an interesting conversation for community group this week. It's interesting that the Bible does not define love. There's no Bible verse that says, "This is what love is." It illustrates love, for God so love the world that he gave his one and only son. Jesus Christ loves me because he gave himself for me. The Bible defines sin. Sin is lawlessness, but it never defines love partially because we as humans, we know what love is. It's affection and commitment, the acts for the good of another. And here Paul, he focuses on the affection part. We're all too familiar with counterfeit love, love that doesn't act. We're all also familiar with a superficial love that doesn't sacrifice. But here he focused on hey, there should be a genuine affection, and he uses the word agape. Let love agape be genuine. It's the love of God. It's a Godlike, Christlike, sacrificial love. And this word has been used speaking about God up until this text, except with one exception in Romans 8:28 where it's used for our love for Christ, but does God feel affection toward us? Well, of course. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. That's the sacrifice, that's the act, but before going Jerusalem, scripture says that he stood over Jerusalem, he sees Jerusalem and he wept. He wept because he was moved with compassion. It's a Greek word, splagchnizomai, with his innards, with his in internal everything inside. It's visceral with a positive connotation of the word, a visceral love. And he said, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Oh, how I have longed to gather you like a hen gathers her chicks." That's the love. Jesus felt that love. He felt that compassion. It's a little statement that's so simple. It's so straightforward. Let love be genuine. It's the foundation for the Christian conduct, and despite its simplicity, it's so hard to do and it's so easy to fake. And we live in a culture, the fake it until we make it. And actually, in Christian circles I've heard love is a verb. Do love and then feelings will follow. Yes, but you need to cultivate as you're acting, as you're sacrificing. 1 Peter 4A "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Timothy 1:5, "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." It's a call to honestly examine our hearts, asking the question, "Do I love others, especially those in the church, without hypocrisy?" Second, abhor what is evil. And here there's an assumption. The assumption is that there is objective good in objective evil. It's not just consensus or polling or this is what we decided. No, no, no. There's a consensus that there's an objective good in evil because there is God and there is the will of God, and the reason the objective exists is because God exists outside of ourselves, therefore the objective morality flows out of him, it's outside of us. And how do we know what is good? How do we know what is evil? Well, we know from holy scripture, we know it from God's law. We know it from the 10 Commandments. We also know it from the power of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit renews our mind, be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will know what is God's good and pleasing and perfect will. If there were no God, if there were no Christ, then good would just be subjective, not objective, and good would be in the eye of the beholder, especially a strong beholder. And this is what history shows us. Might makes right. The people with the most power, they decide what is good and what is evil. And we as Christians, I don't care how much power you got out there, there is objective good, there is objective evil, and I as a Christian am called to love God with all my heart, soul, strength, mind, and love my neighbor as myself. And when I see things out there or things in here that are contrary to the love of God and the love of people flourishing, as God calls it, shalom human prosperity, I am to hate it. I am called as a Christian to abhor what is evil. If there were a universe in which there was no evil to hurt people or to dishonor Christ, we'd only have love, but there is evil out there. We see it every day. And so we are called as Christians to hate. Our love must include hate and true love includes hate, and this is hatred of the highest dimension. It's the word abhor, and in the Greek it's the highest level of hatred. It's an intense, inward rejection, not just mild displeasure or I don't like that. No, no, it's a hatred in the name of the Lord. We are called to loathe evil. In this world, love has to hate evil. We are to hate evil because if you love someone, you hate anything that hurts that person, even the sin within their hearts. And you've heard love the sinner, hate the sin. In a sense, that's true. We are called to love even our enemies, but we are to hate the evil out there and the evil in here. Why? Because evil is an assault on the character of God, on the sovereignty of God. And as we seek to grow in grace, we're to seek to gain the mind of Christ and be Christlike, love what Christ loves and hate what Christ hates. Did Jesus Christ exhibit hatred in his ministry? All the time. Read the gospels. Look at John 2, as Jesus methodically sits there making a whip before he goes into the temple and drives out the moneychangers who are standing in the way of people who wanted to worship God. Hatred is one of the strongest emotions that can inhabit the heart of a human. It's destructive, it's demeaning, but not when it's directed against evil. I wrote a whole section of this sermon about all the hatred, all the evil you got to hate out there. You already know. You already know. "Joe Biden, evil, evil, agenda, narratives. I'm going to save that for the Romans 13 sermon. I can't wait. But here I just want to focus on that hatred against evil, it has to start with hating the evil within your own heart first. Colossians 3:5-10, "Put to death." What a powerful phrase. "Mortified, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual morality and purity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you two once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self of its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." And it takes wisdom. There are times when people are more important than principle and there are times when principle is far more important than people's feelings. And it takes divine wisdom, which comes through the word of God, through the spirit of God, through godly counsel. Third is hold fast to what is good. As we are to despise evil, we're to cling to what is good. One of the most intense verbs in the Greek, the root is glue. The root word is glue. We have to hang on tightly to that which is good, allowing it to be cemented to our souls so that we do not drop or lose it with any cultural wind of fantasy, et cetera, et cetera. So hold onto to what is good. When you see something's good, cling on to it. Cling onto the Lord, cling onto holy scripture. Cling on to church. It's good to go to church, it's even better to join the church, to be part of the family of God. How do you do that? Well, you become a member. Well, what's the first step? You attend a membership class today at 1:00 PM. Cling on to membership, praise be to God. Fourth is love one another with a brotherly affection. That's verse 10, and this is addressed specifically to the fellowship of the believers, the household of faith. And he's talking about affection, a kind, a tender affection toward one another like in a family love. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Four Loves, I would highly commend it to you. and he says in it there are basically four kinds of love, and he goes through the four verbs that are used in scripture. The first is agape, which we just talked. It's a Godlike self-giving love even toward enemies. Then there's philia, the love of friendship and camaraderie. There's eros, the love of romance and desire and sexual attraction, and storge, the love of affection that arises through natural attachment. And this is the verb that he uses, philia/storge. It's not discriminating. Friends or lovers when they meet each other, they say, "We're made it for each other. You're my second half. You're just like me," or, "You completely," et cetera, cetera. But the special glory of storge is that it unites people who would never have been united otherwise. Storge exists between people who if they found themselves in the same household or community, if they had not found themselves in the same community, they would have nothing to do with each other, kind of like your siblings. If you have siblings, sometimes you look at your sibling and it's like, "I'm stuck with you. I am stuck with you." They're also stuck with you, so a little humility there. You don't choose your siblings, and don't blame your parents. They didn't choose your kids either. But the storge is you don't have a choice, you have to love each other. That's the love he's talking about. And he doesn't just say stand each other or bear with each other. That's other bible verses where he does say that, sometimes you just got to bear with it. He says, "No, no, no. There's got to be a tender affection, just like in a loving family. 1 Peter 1:22, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere, brotherly love. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart." Again, something that we need to feel, not just something that we do. It's a family affection. Look at Philippians 1:8. Paul says, "For God as my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." Splagchnizomai, again with the affection, the intestines, the inner organs, it comes from the inside. He says, "I long for you. I love you." Not just I want to see you or do something for you, but there's a tender affection. 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, "We've spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our church, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children. Widen your hearts also. Widen your hearts. May your hearts not be cramped or narrow with affection." I just want to pause. Sometimes we read a commandment like this, love one another and brotherly love and tender affection, and even without thinking, you are like, "Okay, but I don't feel anything. Oh. Since I don't feel anything, then I don't really have to do it." This is a commandment for people who have the personality type, and you take some personality tests and it's like, "This is for extroverts, brotherly affection. I'm an introvert. No, I don't have to do it." And Paul would say, "No, no, no. You have to sit under this." If you feel nothing for brothers and sisters or you're going through a season where your affections have fallen asleep, well, you need to sit under this word of God and you need to pray. Holy Spirit, reawaken the affection or give me new affections for my brothers and sisters. Give me this supernatural love for my brothers and sisters." And by the way, love is something you can grow in, just like faith is. 2 Thessalonians 1:3 says, "We are always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing." You can grow it, and I believe in you. I believe in you, Mosaic. Part of my work as a pastor, my job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I think of myself sometimes as a coach. I want to equip you to excel. I want you to win in life. And my daughters, they play soccer and I've seen over the years, I've seen two different types of coaches here in Brookline. And they're rare, the first type of coach, he yells at them. He's direct, he tells them what to do. He shows up and I remember one game, my daughter Elizabeth, coach showed up and said, "Today we're going to win 10-0," and he said it extra loud so the other team would hear. He said, "We are going to obliterate them," and the team's like, "Yeah," and the other girls are like, "Ah." And I'm like, "That's tremendous. That's really good coaching." And they won six to zero and they were kind of bummed. I was not bummed. I enjoyed every single goal. It was tremendous. And then there are coaches that are like, "Hi, ladies. We're here just to have fun," and those games never fu, I'll tell you that. You know what's fun? Winning. Winning is fun. You know what's not fun? Losing eight to one in the last game of the season. That's not fun at all for anybody. And the coach, he's like, "High five, good." They were down five nothing at the half and he's like, "Just pretend this score is 0-0." I'm like, "That's not the real world, man. That's not how it works." So I'm not that coach, and some churches are like that. They read it and they're like, "This is impossible. Try your hardest. Okay, let's go have some brunch." No, no, no. This is true, and I'm calling you to it and I believe in you, and you can work your heart. You can train your affections, just like if you start working out. You get under the barbell and squat that first time, it's excruciating. It's hell on Earth and then you can't walk for three days, it's awful, and no one taught you about taking protein supplements. But after a while that stress and that pressure makes you stronger, so how can you grow in this? How can you grow and love? You put yourself in positions where it's uncomfortable to love brothers and sisters. This is why we practice community groups. This is why we practice church membership, where you sit with brothers and sisters in their presence, they feel your presence. You pray together, you read scripture, you break bread together. And the longer you're together in a place, Boston's hard with brotherly affection and growing that love because transients, 30% of the people in the room today probably won't be here in a year, but I'm calling of you to stay forever. Please stay. And so they move away, so you get to know people for a year to two years and you don't really get to know them, but if you're in the same church for years and you see the ups and downs, you see how people handle prosperity, you see how people handle adversity and then you realize oh, it does take work and God does give power. Five is to outdo one another in showing honor, that's 10, be outdo one another in showing honor. We're not to seek honor for ourselves, but rather to deflect honor, reflect honor. So people honor us and you say, "Oh, you're good looking," and you say, "No, you're better looking," something like that. "You're tremendous." "No, you're even tremendous-er." You're always outdoing one another in showing honor. That's why I do call people sir. "Nice to see you, sir. It's good to see you, ma'am." Just honor. Honor. A person has a title, I'll call you by your title, whatever. You honor people. And part of it is this is what the trinity is. The Holy Trinity, Father, son, and holy spirit, one God, three persons. They're constantly outdoing one another in honoring. There's a humility. The Father wants to see the glory of the son, the son wants to see the glory of the Father, the Holy Spirit wants to give glory to both, so we are to prefer honoring others more than we prefer being honored. We are to prefer elevating others more than we are elevated. Sometimes people are not worthy of the honor, they don't act honorably, but scripture says even at those moments, even of those people, we are to treat them as if they were honorable. Look at 1 Timothy 6:1. This is Paul speaking to Christian bond servants. The equivalent culturally would be employees and bosses. "Let all who are under a yoke as bond servants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled." So how does this apply to us? We are to honor those in positions of authority over us, and we are to honor those who are not in positions over us. The people can be scoundrels, but you can regard them as worthy of honor, even if they're not worthy of it, in the same way that Jesus Christ counts you worthy of righteousness. You're not worthy of Christ's righteousness, it's imputed righteousness. Christ earned that righteousness, he counts it to us. Even people don't deserve the honor, we are called to honor in the church in particular. Another example is 1 Corinthians 12:23. He gives a comparison between the weak members of the church and certain parts of the body. 1 Corinthians 12:23, "And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty." So showing honor is not always a response to someone being honorable, and here, a word of caution. Beware of honoring only one kind of person or preferring to honor a certain kind of person, one race or one gender, one socioeconomic status or educational level, age, a way of dressing, a body weight or one personality. God gets actually angry. God hates that. God abhors this kind of partiality and dishonoring of the church. James 2:1-6, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, for if a man wearing a gold ring and a fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man you stand over there or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" Listen, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man, are not the rich ones who oppress you in the ones who drag you into court. My sister approached me after the first service. This is why second service is awesome, you got more content. She approached me and she's like, "James 2," she's like, "In my church back in Brooklyn," for the longest time this gentleman come in with just the shabbiest coat, just holes in it and shabby, shabby, and then the ladies in the church got together and for Christmas, they pooled money together to get this gentleman a brand new coat. And they give him the coat and he kind of doesn't know how to respond. He's like, "Oh that's nice of you." And then he is like, "Do you know I am the guy who just donated a brownstone to this church?" And they're like, "Oh." And so for two reasons I like that story. First of all, it illustrates James 2, and second of all, I'm like, "Lord, send us a gentleman with a shabby coat to donate us a brownstone. Praise be to God." And then also, that's Brooklyn. He's probably just being a hipster, I don't know. So don't show partiality. And then point six, there's a lot of points, six, seven and eight is basically together, so you're welcome. Do not be slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. Negatively, don't be slothful, lazy in zeal, positively be fervent in spirit, and both are describing how we are to serve the Lord. We are to serve the Lord. Do lots of work for the Lord, and it has to be passionate, it has to be zealous. God does not want your labor that is done begrudgingly. And the word for slothful here is used in another place in the parable of the talents. This is Matthew 25. You should go back and read it maybe even today, wonderful passage illustrating this idea of slothfulness and zeal. And the story is a gentleman is a master. He has many resources and he picks these three gentlemen and to one of them he gives five talents, the equivalent of basically $5 million. Another one he gives two talents, $2 million. Another guy, he gives one talent or $1 million and he says, "Go and invest. It's not your money. Go and invest this. I'm going to come back and I want not just what I gave you, but I want the return on that investment." So the guy that had $5 million goes and he invested, he's the manager of a stock portfolio or whatever, invests it, makes another $5, 100% return. Tremendous. The guy with the two talents does the same thing. The guy with the one talent goes and he buries it and he just waits until the guy returns, when the master returns. And to both the guy with the five and the two talents, the master said this, this is Matthew 25:21, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter the joy of your master." Whenever I read that text I'm like, "Oh, I can't wait to hear that in heaven on the Lord's day." And every Christian, you should long to hear these words. "Well done, good and faithful servant." God sees your service. When others don't see, God sees and God's keeping track of your service. Well done, good and faithful. Enter the joy. And the guy with one talent, the guy that buried the talent, did nothing with it comes back, gives him a talent, and this is what the master said. His master answered, "You wicked and slothful servant." Now, these a parallel verses and parallel language. So to the faithful ones he said, "Well done, good and faithful," and then to this guy he says, "Wicked and slothful," so the opposite of good is wicked and the opposite of faithful, we assume it should be unfaithful. That's not what he says. The opposite of faithfulness is slothfulness. The guy was just lazy when it came to the master. And for us, this is lazy. And slothfulness when it comes to our service to the Lord. I assume that guy didn't just go and sit on a haystack and just enjoy his life and do nothing. No, no, no. He was probably diligent toward himself, toward his own business and enterprise and didn't want to work for the master, and that's called pride and sin. So slothful is the opposite of faithful, and here the word fervent, "Be fervent in spirit," it's a synonym to zealous, fervent, same idea. The word fervent comes from the Latin fervens, which means boiling. There's a fire aspect to it, and that's exactly that Latin word, it comes from the original Greek zeontes, which is boiling. Boiling in spirit. So the idea clearly is not just mere hard work, it's not just efficiency for the Lord. The spirit is in view, not just the body. It's not just what you do with your body for the Lord, I'm going to do all the right things. No, your spirit has to be in it. Feeling is in the view, not just doing, so both these clauses together, put them together, don't just do lots. Do it, but feel for the lord. Feel this fire.1 Corinthians 15:58, Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your work is not in vain." Jesus speaks terrible words of warning to those who settle into lukewarm affections for the Lord. Actually, lukewarmness, scripture says, is nauseating to Jesus. This is Revelations 3:15-16. "I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot, would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." It's nauseating when God sees lukewarm Christians. And why is it nauseating? Because he's like, "I died for you. I poured out my blood for you and you're going to be lukewarm," and spits it out of the mouth. Hot or cold? Are you hot or cold? He wants us all hot. He wants us all hot. Hot or cold, it's like coffee. No one serves room temperature coffee. No one does. I've never gone to a coffee shop and they're like, "Here's some tepid coffee." Nobody does that for some reason, it's disgusting. It's either hot coffee or ice coffee with a straw, preferably plastic, not paper. Abhor what is evil. Over and over, the Bible says, "Intensity matters. Zeal matters. Wholeheartedness matters," and we aren't to settle for anything less. Why? Because we exist to tell people about how great God is. We exist to spread the passion for the supremacy of God, and you can't spread what you don't have. You can't. Evangelism without passion does not work. People see right through it. They want to know, do you really believe in this God, in this message? So if you don't have passion or passion wanes, go to the Lord in prayer. Sometimes it's just a matter of you got to take a break, you need rest, you need solitude, just time with the Lord. So when it comes to serving Christ, halfheartedness, lukewarmness, laziness, sluggish and slothfulness, utterly inappropriate. Why? Because we're saved by Jesus Christ. We know what it took to get us saved, and we need to never forget that. This is the greatest thing in the world. You have Christian eternal life, you cannot die. Your body will die, but you will not die. You will live forever in overwhelming joy. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Everything works for your good. All your troubles, all your sorrows produce in eternal weight of glory. Not to be passionate about that, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. And I see my fellow neighbor and I see brothers and sisters in the Lord so passionate about things, like football for example, and I'm preaching to myself. By the way, I'm getting a lot better at this. This season I haven't even watched one full game, praise be to God, because Mac Jones stinks, that's why. But you see people who go to Gillette Stadium, they go, they spend thousands of dollars. It's basically their church. That's their worship service. Their communion is beer and a chili dog, and those are their heroes, and at the end of the day, that means nothing. We are to get zeal, and where does that seal zeal come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit. Look at Colossians 1:28 and 29. "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone what's sure in Christ. For this I toil," Paul says, "Struggling with all whose energy? His energy. I'm struggling with his energy that he powerfully works within me. Lord, give us this energy. Lord give us this power. Lord give us this zeal. 1 Peter 4:11, "Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen." What do you do when the zeal wanes? Well, the zeal, what is a fire, you got to feed the fire. You got to feed the fire, you do that with scripture. Whatever feeds your fire, do that and never let it flag but be aglow with the spirit and serve the Lord. Such fervent zeal and fervency of spirit, it's costly. It takes our best energy. Martin Luther, he in his biographies, it said that at the end of the day, he would literally just fall into bed. Just *plump*. His bedtime prayer was, "Lord, I'm tired. Amen," so that connects Calvin's biographers marvel at his output. John Wesley rode 60 to 70 miles a day on average to preach three sermons. Where do they get this power? Jonathan Edwards talks about this in a sermon on the kingdom of God, Matthew 11:12, where it says, "From the days of John the Baptist, until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violence take it by force." There is a spiritual, there's a violence in your Christian walk. You need to have this violence. Why? Because you're mortifying sin. You're fighting the good fight, this demonic attack against you. You want more growth, you want more growth in faith, more growth in love, more growth in good work, Satan doesn't want that. Now there's attacks from the demonic, and what do you do in moments like that? You get stronger. You get more violent against the evil out there, the evil in here, and you take more faith, more love, more fervor and you take it by force. Nine is rejoice in hope. Don't just rejoice in circumstances, don't just rejoice in your whatever season of life. No, you'll rejoice in hope. You focus on the hope, not on the joy. There's a lot of things in life that if you focus on them, you're like, "There is no hope. There is no joy." No. You focused on hope. Hebrews 6:11, "And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end." He's talking to us about hope as being full of assurance. Well that's different than the way that we use hope in the English language. I hope it's nice tomorrow, I hope to go to vacation soon, I hope the Pats get a little better. I hope, and nothing's guaranteed. This hope is assured. So if you focused on this assured hope, what's that? That's the eschatological truth. We will spend eternity with God. What is this life? It's just a blip on the radar of eternity. We're going to spend eternity with God. We've got focus on the hope of the glory of God, and that fills your heart with joy, which is not just an act of the will. A lot of people look at the commandment. So in Philippians it says, "Rejoice in the Lord and rejoice in him always." That's an imperative. It's a commandment. And they were like, "God commands you to rejoice, so you have to use your will to rejoice." Well, that's part of it. That's part of it. The will, you have to have your will focused on the Lord, focused on the hope. Why are you downcast, oh my soul? You preach to yourself, but there are to be emotions that will up in your heart. As 1 Peter 1:8 says, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and a rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. A joy that is unutterable." The biblical concept of joy, it's connected to the Godhead himself. Well done, good and faithful servant, welcome into your master's what? Joy, meaning in the household of God, in the presence of God, that's where we experience this unutterable joy. So that's why when I tell people about the gospel and I'm like, "Hey, you should be Christian," I'm not just come to Jesus for all of your sons that are forgiven." Yes, that's the first step, and then you begin to feel this joy, this satisfaction. You can't even explain it. You're with the Lord, everything around you, it's like that meme of the little girl where there's a fire behind her and she's like, or the meme of the dog where it's like, "This is fine." You know that meme? Sometimes the Christian walk is like that, but you can really say this is fine because you're in the Lord and your eternity is secure. 10 is be patient in tribulation, and Paul's writing about patience here, the virtue of forbearance, of hanging on when things are tough. And we are to remember the patience of Job, who cried out in the midst of his agony. Lost everything, lost his kids, lost his health, and Job 13:5, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him. I will argue my ways to his face," that last part he should not have said, but you know what, I look at it and I'm like at least he kept the conversation with the Lord going. He didn't get pissed at the Lord and he turned around and said, "You know what? I'm done with this," he said, "I'm going to present my kid. I'm going to keep praying," and that's how you remain patient in tribulation, knowing that God is sovereign. And sometimes it does feel like God's slaying you, and why should we be surprised? We worship his son, Jesus Christ. Who put Jesus Christ on the cross? It was our sin, of course. It was also the will of God the father. In Gethsemane, Jesus under immense pressure, the capillaries in his face are bursting, mixed with blood. It's like he's sweating blood." Father, let this cup pass from me." Then what? "Not my will, but yours be done, tho he slay me." So there is tribulation. Psalm 23, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for you are with me." Oh, you're with me. How did I get in the valley of the shadow of death? He led you there, but keep going, keep going. Remain patient, keep going, keep going, and then you get to the end of the psalm, the greener pastures, still waters, et cetera. Christian joy allows you to flourish right in the midst of pain and suffering. Romans 5:3, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance." 2 Corinthians 8:2, For a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy in their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." 2 Corinthians 6:10, "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything." In a sense, there are spiritual mood swings where it's like spiritual moodiness, where it's like I'm suffering, I'm rejoicing, I'm suffering, I'm rejoicing. It's like the weather in New England, you never know what you're going to get. You have no idea. But despite the suffering, I can be rejoicing. Tribulation is a normal experience of believers in this life, and we shouldn't be surprised. Look at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He comes into this world in affliction. His birth was scandalous, conceived before marriage. He was born in an animal feeding trough, that was his bed, and he was threatened and hated by the political powers, Herod at that time. Barely escaped as a child, becomes a refugee in Egypt, and so that went until he was accused of sedition against Caesar and crucified. That was the life of our Lord and Savior. That's the way Christianity began, so we should not be surprised when with there is tribulation. Luke 14:27, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Matthew 10:25, in the words of Christ, "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If you have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household?" So Jesus was called Beelzebub, that's another name for Satan. Jesus by the religious people was called Satan, and Jesus was like, "Don't be surprised when they call you evil," because we live in a society, we live in a culture that looks at evil, calls it good, looks at good and calls it evil. So if you stand up and you say, "No, your good is actually evil and your evil is actually good," how do you think culture will respond, people will respond? 1 Peter 4:12, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you." So how do you remain patient in tribulation? Well, you remain constant in prayer. You devote yourself to prayer. Prayer is an ongoing dialogue between our heart and the heart of the Lord. We're always conscious of God's presence, relying on him, communicating with the Father in our thoughts and does take a devotion. You have to set part time for prayer. Acts 1:14, "All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 2:42, "And they, the early church, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Colossians 4:2, Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. And 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing." It's just a continuous dialogue even with God always. Why continue? Because we live in this world and there are many needs in life and family and churches and world missions and the culture, and so we pray. 12 is contribute to the needs of the saints, that's verse 13. The whole orientation of the Christian is not work to have but work to have to give. That should be the whole orientation of why we work. We work to have to give. Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." A little more descriptive in Luke 12:32, "Fear not little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the needy. Provide for yourselves with moneybag that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys, for where your treasurer is, there will your heart be also." Or Titus 3;145, "And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful." 2 Corinthians 9:7, "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Ephesians 4:28, "Let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labor, doing honest work with own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." I pray God prospers all of you. All of you. I pray the Lord blesses the work of your hands, your crypto investments, everything, everything, everything. I pray all of you are prospered and that you remember that when God prospers us, it's not just to increase my standard of living, but it's to increase my standard of giving. And love is sacrifice. It's costly. That's why the word for contribute here, it's from koinonia, which means fellowship. And what he's saying is when you understand that you're in the family of God, that you're part of the fellowship, that you are a family. Well, in a family, someone else's needs are actually your needs. And third is seek to show hospitality. When Job was protesting against his sickness, one of the virtues that he said he never neglected was hospitality. Job 31-32, "The sojourner or the immigrant has not lodged in the street. I have opened my doors to the traveler." So one of the God appointed duties of every righteous person is hospitality. How do I define hospitality? It's welcoming people into your home who do not belong there. That's hospitality. And I say the word home strategically, not house, because it can be an apartment. It can be just a room, your room in a basement in Austin, and it doesn't have to be lavish. This is why a lot of us, we don't practice hospitality. Don't tell my mom. My mom was like this growing up. She'd be like, "Okay, someone's coming over," and the house, everything is just perfect. Five course meal, just everything, mayonnaise on everything because we're Russian, just everything. And then after they would leave, she would get so mad at my dad for inviting everyone. Why? Because she's emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted. My house, we turn on the vacuum cleaner on Tuesdays. You know why? Because that's when our community group is. And I tell my wife, "Let's not even clean. Let's show everyone genuine love. I'm going to show you my authentic, this is how we live. Come on in, don't break an ankle, et cetera." Paper plates is fine. Plastic utensils, fine. Paper straws, not fine. That's not hospitable. You saw that coming. You saw that.1 Peter 4, 8-9, "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly. Since love covers a multitude of sins, show hospitality to one another without grumbling." It's not just a command to do something, it's a continuous verb, action, meaning it's not just about what you do, show hospitality, it's about who you are, a certain kind of person, where you are hospitable. He's saying let your hospitality be an extension of an overflow of God's hospitality to you. Hebrews 13, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." Sometimes angels show up, they look like they're human and they say, "Can I come over?" And you're like, "I don't have any food," and you say, "Let's go to Los Amigos, Angel." You go to Los Amigos, you give them a surf and turf and bring them to your house, and the angel blesses you. And you had no idea that was an angel, but you know when they left, just everything's different. Praise be to God. Has that ever happened to me? I don't know. I don't know, but you always feel better after hospitality. In conclusion, I just want to point out from the Old Testament, where do they get this idea of hospitality? Well, we get it from the fact that we did not belong in the household of God. We did not belong in the Promised Land, so to speak, just like Israel. In Leviticus19:33, Israel is told, "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God." So the motivation for being hospitable to strangers is you were an immigrant, therefore be hospitable to immigrants, but he doesn't just land there. He also says, "I am the Lord your God," because sometimes that's not enough motivation because you forget. The motivation that he gives us ultimately to be hospitable is God has been hospitable to us, Jesus Christ is hospitable to us. What is grace? Grace is the hospitality of God to welcome sinners who did not deserve a place in the household of God, and God adopts us as sons and daughters. God welcomes us into his house. How does he do this? By sending Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ leaves the father's house, comes lives in this miserable world, lives a perfect life, never sins. He was homeless. Jesus Christ said he did not have a place to rest his head. So be like Jesus, come move to Boston. You also will be homeless without a home, but that's what Jesus did. He did not have a house and he just served people, and he did all of that to welcome us into the household of God, so much so that Jesus experienced cosmic abandonment, cosmic alienation, cosmic homelessness. On the cross, he's crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God the Father forsakes God the Son so that we would have a place in the father's house. That's cosmic hospitality. God's been hospitable to us, so we are to be hospitable to others. When we started the church in the YMCA downtown, our tagline was, "Mosaic Boston, a church that feels like coming home," and that feels nice. It was also strategic marketing because we had a church full of college students, and that's basically anyone that would come to our church because I was like, 28 and no one... So we would feed them, we'd care for them, and little by little, it really became a church family. It really turned into a church that feels like coming home. So I pray that for us and I pray this text over us. If you missed any of the points, fret not. Just open your Bible, it's all there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a beautiful text, a powerful text, a text that's so simple in many ways and so difficult for us to live out so we ask for grace and we ask for mercy, and we ask for the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, continue to knit our hearts together and make us truly a Romans 12 church. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Think Humbly

October 23, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 12:3–8

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, you are a glorious God. And Lord, humanity, we followed Satan in rebelling against you. And the root of that rebellion, insubordination was pride. We decided we are more glorious than you are, that you exist for us, you exist to serve us, you exist to do our will, our bidding. Or even worse, we've just been indifferent toward you, which is even worse than hatred. So Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ. God incarnate. Fully God, fully man. Jesus, we thank you that you though being the glorious God, you humbled yourself. You took on flesh. You became a servant. You considered us more than significant than yourself in that you gave yourself for us on the cross as a substitute. Lord, we thank you for providing a means of being reconciled with you and also by showing us the pattern of life, the way of life. You told us to follow you. And this walk in following you is a walk of humility. So we pray that you give us grace today. We do repent of pride. We are so proud that we don't even know how proud we are. So today I pray, Lord. Begin to unravel the layers, onion layers of our pride. Holy Spirit, we love you and we thank you for gathering us and we pray today. Take your holy scriptures, your inspired scriptures and apply them with precision to our hearts, our souls, our minds. Bless our time in the word and we thank you for it. We pray this in Christ, holy name, amen. Today, we are in Romans 12:3-8 and the title of the sermon is think humbly. Jesus Christ, when he began his earthly ministry, the first words out of his mouth were the kingdom of God is at hand, therefore repent and believe. But the repentance and the belief, that's the beginning of the Christian walk. And then Jesus also said to the disciples, he said, "Follow me. On a daily basis, follow me." This is kind of the pattern that St. Paul, the apostle Paul gives us in Romans. Romans 1 through 11, we see in an exposition, a wonderful exposition of what it means to repent and believe of our state apart from Christ that we are wretched in our sin, lost. We're spiritually dead and it takes a work, mighty work of the Holy Spirit to give us the gift of grace and faith and to regenerate us. And then once we do, then Paul says, "Okay, here's what it means to follow Jesus Christ." And that's chapter 12 through 15 and then a little in 16. So he began chapter 12 last week by saying, "Therefore, in view of God's great mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that's how you know what God's will is, is good, pleasing and holy will. In that, he gives us the principle for the Christian life. The principle is that we are to present our physical bodies, everything we have to God as a sacrifice. And then Paul, beginning with verse 3, he begins to explain what that means. And the puritans in the 17th century, they had a term for this. They called it breaking grace up small, where you get the main principle of grace and then you have to give it in little bite size bits. Kind of like when I grill steak for my daughters. When I grill steak for myself, I don't even need a knife. I will just inhale that thing. But when I cook it for my daughters, they prefer that I slice it up and they prefer I slice it up in small little squares. They're kind of like steak nuggets. For some reason they're more tasty and palatable, et cetera. And that's what St. Paul does here with very specific application. What does it mean to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, wholly and acceptable? What does it mean to live the Christian life in the spirit? Well, St. Paul gives us exactly what he means in Romans 12:3-8. Would you please look at the text with me?"For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in is teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes in generosity; the one who leads with zeal; and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness." This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, fallible, authoritative word. May he write these beautiful truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, think humbly about yourself. That's verse 3. Second, think humbly about fellow believers, that's verses 4 through 5. And then think humbly about our gifts, verses 6 through 8. First think humbly about yourself, that's verse 3. "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. "I just want you to notice St. Paul is doing what he's calling us to do in the same verse. He says, "By the grace given to me, I say to you." Paul has been called by God. He's been gifted by God through no merit of his own. He's been given the position of apostle. And despite his calling, he never forgot that he was the chief of sinners. So he says in the same way that he does not think too highly of himself, he calls us to sober self-evaluation that we are not to esteem ourselves highly than we should. In particular with our abilities. Now why does he have to say this? One of the reasons he has to say this is because sin does make us self-centered. We tend to see the world centering and revolving around ourselves. We see ourselves as the most important person in the world. Question, who's the most important person in the world? You know the answer. It's church. There's only one answer in church. It's Jesus. We know this. We know Jesus is the most important person in the world. Okay? Yeah. Who's the person that you think most about during the day? We think about ourselves. We think about our needs. We think about our identity, our value, our worth. And even when we become Christians, there is this temptation and Satan does attack us with this temptation of pride. We begin to evaluate everything that God is doing in light of our current situation. We evaluate God is doing in terms of the benefit it's going to bring to us. Paul exhorts us not to do this. The renewed mind realizes that it's human sin that creates this self-centered perspective. We must strive to see ourselves in light of God's larger purpose. And God's larger purpose inevitably includes people. So don't just ask, dear Christian, don't just ask God what is your will for my life? That still remains very self-centered. It's better to ask, "Lord, what are you doing now? Where I am, Lord, in my town, in my city, in my church? Lord, what are you doing and how can I be of service in what you are doing?" While even each of us, we do have dignity and we have value because of the fact that we're creating the image of God, the imago dei. But still, we must not forget that we've been redeemed by Christ. Apart from Christ, we're nothing. We must see ourselves with a proper sense of proportion. The question you have to ask is, "Why start here, Paul? You gave us the principle that we are in view of God's mercy. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. That's the principle. And then the first application of the principles is not to think too highly of ourselves. Why start here?" Well we start here because humility is the first thing. There's nothing terribly surprising about that. Augustine said when he was asked, What is the key to godliness? He said, "First, humility. Second humility. And third, humility." It's humility that that draws us into a life of Christ's likeness. So why humility? First, a few other reasons. The life that Paul is going to describe here cannot be a life of self-admiration or pride because that's a contradiction to gratitude. In view of God's mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice because of Thanksgiving. Be thankful to the Lord for the undeserved mercy. Second of all, the Christian life is a life to be lived, to imitate Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. And Jesus though he was God, he did not think more highly of himself than he ought. And he humbled himself under the hand of God, the Father in obedience when it was the hardest. In the garden of Gethsemane, what did he say? As he is sweating, blood capillaries are bursting in his face, sweat mixed with blood, under immense pressure, untold pressure. And then ultimately he said, "Father, let this cup pass from me. I don't want to do it." He said, "I don't want to do. I don't want to do what you've called me to do, but it's not my will. Yours be done." Philippians 2 connects Christ's obedience with Christ's humility. Philippians 2:1-11, one of the preeminent texts about humility, which leads to unity in the church. Verse 1. "So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Jesus is our savior, but he's also our example in life. Thus he says, "Follow me." Finally, the life that Paul is going to describe later in this text is an other centered life. He's saying, "Don't count yourself too high." And then he starts talking about being members of one body and using the gifts that God has given us for what? The building up in the body for others. So he's saying, "If we are going to live a true life of love and service, we need to understand you can't experience love apart from humility, arrogance and the love of others can't live together in a single heart." Because the truly love another person is to be willing to deny self and sacrifice for them. And you'll never be able to do this if there's pride in your heart. Today is a very special day in the Vezikov household. October 23rd, 2005, 17 years ago, I woke up. I was a 22-year-old kid. I had a job and I had an apartment. I was like, "I am ready for a wife." I woke up and I was sleeping over at my friend's house, Mike's house, and I said, "Mike, you know what, today I'm going to go and I'm going to meet my wife." And then I got on the car and I drove from DC to Philadelphia and I went to a Slavic church, because I wanted Russian speaking babies. I don't know why. It was deep in my heart. So I go to the Slavic church and there's a gal at the door and she is greeting, she's greeting. She thought I was a pagan because I didn't have a tie on. If you go to Russian church without a tie, you're probably a pagan. So I go to this church and as soon as I saw her, I was like, love at first sight, baby. Come on. And for me, it took a little convincing for her. I asked for a number and she wouldn't give it to me. I was like, "Oh, playing hard to get, huh?" And then being who I am, I asked my mom who was there to ask her mom for a number and that's how it's all happened. I remember when we were getting ready to get married, my pastor, he came up to me, he is like, "Jan, do you think you're ready for marriage?" I was like, "Yeah." He's like, "All right, you don't need premarital counseling." I was like, "Yeah, of course I don't." He asked me one question. He was like, "What are your expectations?" I was like, "To have a good time." He's like, "You're all set." But I remember before marriage, before marriage, I thought I knew it. I was like, "I've got this." And I would tell other people, I'm getting married. I remember this one guy I work with, I told him, "We're getting married," and he's like, "Bro, it's a lot of work." I was like, "That's because you're not a romantic. You don't know how to do it, man." Then you get married and you realize, "Yeah, it is work because denying yourself on a daily basis is work to saying no to yourself, sacrificing for another is work." And then once you have, if Lord willing, you have children, once we start having children, you begin to understand that to the nth degree, just dimensions of it that it's sacrifice. Well, this is what he's saying. He's like, "If you are truly going to be the person that God has called you to be, if you're going to truly live the life that God has called you to live, which is a life of love, right?" Jesus Christ comes and he says, "The two great commandments that summarize all the commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength in mind." That takes humility to love God, obey him, and love your neighbor as yourself. That takes humility. That's why Paul starts here. Also, Paul has spent a great time already explaining that we're guilty sinners. That apart from Christ we deserve the wrath of God forever in a place called hell. It's only because of the love of the Father sending Jesus Christ. And then because of his work on the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing us and regenerating us, only because of grace. It's only because of grace that we are saved. But still, despite Paul's exposition of election, redemption, regeneration, et cetera, et cetera, he still needs to tell us not to think too highly of ourselves. If he feels the need to tell us after giving us Romans 1 through 11, not to think too highly of ourselves, that should tell us everything we need to hear that we, you and I must be very proud people indeed. CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, he said that, "Pride is the ultimate in the bottom vice of the human soul. Impurity, anger, greed, hatred, and all the rest are mere flea bites in comparison." For instance, it's pride that made the devil the devil. It was saying it was the devil that went to God and said, "No, I will not submit to you. Who are you to demand submission for me? I did not ask for the burden of existence. I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask to be alive. I didn't ask to be created. And you want me to serve you?" Do you feel that? Does that ever arise in your heart? Well, yes. It arises in each one of our hearts. And pride is the root. It's at the root of every single one of the other vices. Pride is the ugly lie we tell ourselves about our own worth, our own value, virtue, importance about how much we deserve from God, about how much he owes us. And then with people, it's pride that just ask these pestering questions. "Hey, these people ignored me or they're belittling me. They're failing to appreciate me. They're failing to serve me. I need to be served." That's all pride. It's so fundamental. It's so pervasive. We're so used to it that we usually almost entirely fail to recognize that we're in the grip of pride. Question, when's the last time you repented of pride? When's the last time you said, "God, you know what? Forgive me. I was so self-absorbed today. God forgive me. I was so self-centered. God I wanted glory. I wanted honor. I wanted attention. I wanted to root my identity in something other than the grace of God. We are as Augustine famously put it, homo incurvatus which is man curved in on himself. Why did he say that? Because God designed us to be outward looking, to look out to God, to look out to others. We have been so twisted that we look entirely at ourselves. We're so used to doing so that we find nothing strange in it. And the Christian, by the new birth, by the power of the Spirit can fight against it, but it does take work. Pride, I would submit to you, Dear Christian, not fear is the real reason that you, I, we do not share the gospel as boldly as we should. We start thinking, what will people think of me? What if people think I'm stupid? What if people think that I am regressive? What if people stop liking me? And to that I say, "Who cares? Do you really care more about someone's opinion of you than the fate of their eternal soul?" My friend, I wrestle with this as well. Last night, Caleb, who is our worship director, and he handled some of our media, he sent me a screenshot of comments to our Instagram reels. We do a little sermon reels. The comments were all trash talking. It was haters just hating. He sent it to me and he's like, "Should I delete these?" He sent it and one of the things that the guy said, "I think his pastor is half a brain," something like that. Then I was like, "That did not feel good." That did not feel good. All of a sudden I'm like defensive. I'm like, "You want to know what my GPA was in college?" And then I'm like, "You know what?" First I wrote... I was like, "Clap back and tell him to come to church and tell it to my face." The keyboard warrior. And then you know what I said, "Lord, thank you. I needed that." I'm preaching on humility and I was like, "Yes, I needed that. Who cares? Who cares what they think? Who cares? Let the Lord draw who he's going to draw." St. Francis was a powerful man of God. He preached the gospel powerfully. Lots of people came to faith and he got a lot of compliments as he would preach the word. It got to the point where it started getting to his head. So he hired a brother monk to follow him around all the time and to whisper, whispered into his ear of just about how terrible he was. So just to cancel out the compliment, so someone should go, "Brother St. Francis, that was the most powerful message I've ever heard." And then this guy, he'd be like, "That message stunk." Your introduction, we had no idea where you were going. There were no points. There was no structure. You did not stick the landing. And so a brother came up to me after the service and he's like, "Jan, that sermon stunk." And I said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Praise me to God." That's that's what he's saying, sober judgment. That's verse 3. Each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. So what's he saying? He's saying that God is the one that gives faith. It's God that's the gift giver and he gives as much as he decides. Have you noticed this from Ephesians 2:8-10. Famous text. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." This and this is not your own doing. What's this? What's this referring back to? Is it the grace or the faith? It's both. Both grace is a gift and faith is a gift from the Lord. And it's only through the eyes of faith that we see everything that we have. It comes from the hand of a merciful God and only light of faith that we realize we're wicked people. We have been justified not by works, but through the merits of Christ. And therefore we are to be humble. It does not hurt to remind ourselves every now and again that God is very good at humbling the proud. And also God is very good at raising up those who are down casting and disheartened. Those who have humbled themselves or those who have been humbled by life. James 4:10, "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you." 1 Peter 5:5-11. "Likewise you are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." It's fascinating he starts with younger people. Younger people subject yourself to the elders. And he's talking about elders in the church. He's speaking to younger people in... It applies to everybody. We have a hard time submitting ourselves to accountability. And this is why a lot of Christians do not join churches because they don't want to submit to other members. They won't submit to other Christians. They don't want to submit to the elders of the church. He says, "Be careful, humble yourself because..." And then he brings in Satan out of nowhere. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion. What's tempting us? What's he want to devour us with? It's with our pride. So perhaps it's no wonder at all that Paul would spend significant time here reminding us to humble ourselves. And as he does, he applies the principle of humility to our gifts that all of us, every Christian has gifts that the Lord has given us innate capacity or talents, but there are gifts to serve the Lord. And as Paul puts it in another place, what do you have that you have not been given? What do you have that you have not received? What makes you to differ? And he talks about these gifts and that's 0.2, think humbly about fellow believers. Verse 4, "For as in one body we have many members. And the members do not all have the same function so though many are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." It goes from present your body as a living sacrifice to don't think too highly of yourself humility, to we are members of one body that we belong to one another. What's the connection between those? And I'll try to weave it all together, but first he does bring in the body, the body of Christ, which is the church. The church is the mystical body of Christ. A very prominent theme elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. Paul talks much of this in 1 Corinthians 10:17, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread." In Ephesians, he talks about the church, which is the body, Ephesians 1:23 which is the body, his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Colossians 1:18, "And he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Yes, God does save us individually, but God does not save us as isolated individuals with individual destinies. Having been united to Jesus Christ where members of Christ's body. He gives us gifts. Those are our gifts and we are to serve the whole community with our unique gifts and abilities just as the different parts of the body serve the whole person. Who's the head? It's Jesus Christ. It's his body. We belong to him. We're in him. So we must submit to him. And this is the very essence of humility that Paul is describing. Paul is not saying, "I want you to humble yourself with sack cloth and ashes, prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting is incredible for humbling yourself." No, no, no. He's talking about humility in the context of sacrificing. Giving toward others, serving others in the same way that no part of the body functions, if it's severed from the whole. If you cut off my arm, there is no life in my arm apart from my body. So in the same way each Christian believer is useless if not an active part of the body. For St. Paul, for all of the writers of the epistles, there's no such thing as a Christian who's not a member of the body, who's not a member of the church. And the application here is so obvious. While we're personally justified by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone, we're not justified in isolation from other Christians. We are baptized into the church. We're called from death to life to be part of the larger body which is Christ and we can't exist independently of the body. We need to contribute using our gifts and we need the gifts of others. It's vital for our walk. Paul cannot even envision any believer, any Christian existing independently of the church as is common in modern America. If you go to other parts of the world, sermons on membership make all the sense in the world. Everyone understands that if you're in the church, if you're a Christian, you're a committed member of the church. For some reason in the United States, I think it's because back in the day we just said no to England and we're like, "Yeah, forget about that." We're independent. We want freedom. We're individuals. Freedom, America. And we bring that sentiment into the church and we should not, that we are a body of believers. And the public assembly of the body of Christ for worship and to receive God's word and sacraments, it's essential to the Christian life. And it's also a testimony. It's a testimony to the watching world. This is part of our collective evangelism. We're testifying to the world that God is bringing people together. And this is why the church is called Mosaic. There's a cross in the middle and it's fragments around that cross. It's a mosaic. That's who we are, that God takes these broken people, broken through our own rebellion and sin and God is the one weaving us together, creating a new society without racial and social barriers. They're all removed where each member serves the whole and each member benefits from the contributions of others. Interdependent, not independent. Interdependent and interconnected. In 1 Corinthians 12, we did this sermon series a few years back called Prodigal Church. You can find the sermons online. But at 1 Corinthians 12, he gives the next position of what this means. He says, "Someone is an eye in the body. Someone is a hand. Someone is an ear and so on and we need each other." And he says, "If you're an ear, don't say because I'm not an eye, I'm not that important. I don't need to belong here." No, we need ears and we need eyes and we need nose and we need every single body part of the body of Christ. And through this unity in diversity, God reveals his grace to his people and glorifies his name through the church. In Romans 12, Paul's point is simply the different members of the church have different gifts, all of which have their place. And there can't be any pride because it's all grace. They're gifts. They're called gifts. He doesn't answer here, are these gifts natural? Are they supernatural? Are we born with them and then we cultivate them? Or do they come when you get saved or you get an unction and filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit? He doesn't explain because it doesn't really matter. Because all the gifts, everything we have is by grace. This simply means that we cannot be something that we are not, nor because some people have visible gifts that they're more important in some way. No. This section, what gifts do you have? They're gifts. You can't take credit for them. They're meant for a blessing to the whole body, not to increase your name or status. And everyone else, Christians have been given other gifts and that there are no gifts that are useless. And it's only when our gifts are used in the service of God, in service of the body, that we can truly grow in the humility that God calls us to. So question, are you, dear Christian, a member of a local body of believers? And if so, how are you serving the body with what gifts are you serving the body? I ask this because it is counter-cultural even in the American church to practice church membership. We do practice church membership and we talk about church membership. I do get pushback on the church membership part. And people say things like this, "Oh, you're just trying to build up this church. You're trying to grow this church." Yeah. Of course that's my job. And then second of all, second of all, if we really wanted to grow the church just numerically, if that was the only objective, we would not practice church members. Church membership is so much work. It's so much work. And if you read any church growth books and I've read them all, they never talk about church membership. They don't talk about accountability. They don't talk about leadership structures. They don't talk about any of that regenerative church membership. Why? Because it is a lot hard. No, no, no. We don't want just numbers, we want a church of regenerative believers serving one another using the gifts that God has given us. So Christian, if you do not seek to become an official member of a local church, you must repent of the sin of pride because that's in the way where you say, "I don't need anybody. I don't need accountability. I don't need community. I don't need to serve. That's all pride." So join the church, serve fellow believers. And once you do, you'll begin to understand just how proud you are because you understand how difficult people are. I had a gentleman asked me this week, he said, "How's your week? How's a week going?" I go like, "Oh, stressful. I work with people." He's like... Sometimes it is stressful. Part of it because the emotional energy that it takes, the spiritual energy that it takes. I do get moments where I'm like, "God, how can you stand these people?" And then you know what? God responds. It's almost like every time he's like, "Yeah, how can I stand you, dear person." That's every single one of us. We've all had seasons. And even now at our holiest, we're still not as faithful as we should be. So it's the church that's God's plan for humble sanctification to grow you, stretch you in your humility. We cultivate humility by serving others. We do that by action on behalf of others. As so often in the Bible, the best antidote to a false state of mind is proper and decisive action. God gives us gifts and we are to present the gifts that he has given us to serve him. And the gifts have humility in them only if we use them to the Lord. So if you're not a member of a church... By the way, we did not plan this. I did not plan a membership sermon a week before our last membership class of the year. I did not plan that. We're not smart. Humility, it's all the Lord. And so next Sunday, we have our... I think it's our last membership class, or it's our last class before our last members meeting. So if you're not a member of this church, if you're not a member of any church, we welcome you to become a member of this church. This is a great church. This is a tremendous church. My favorite church ever. Best church ever. So next week, one to 3:00 PM, it's a great time. That's the first step to becoming a member. And last thing I'll say here, to be humble, one can attempt to bring his or her heart, soul into humble frame to cultivate a self, a facing spirit, a Christ honoring state of mind. We can do that. But then it's still you. It's still you're focused on you. |Lord, make me humble. Lord a humble, a humble. Me, me, me." The way he's saying to cultivate humility here is action, to serve others, to act on behalf of God and others. Why does he do that? Because love is a verb. It's not a feeling. God loved, so he gave. It was action. Christ loved me and he gave himself for me feelings usually follow, hopefully follow. And this is what humility is, serving others. And the simplest definition of humility in all of scripture, it's just a life lived for God and others. That's true, humility, a life lived for God and others. And then that brings us point three, think humbly about our gifts. Verse 6, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them. If prophecy and proportion to our faith." The operative verb here is let us use them. We have gifts, let's use the gift. A lot of people ask, "Okay, how do I find out what my gifts are?" And the most helpful framework I have come across is the Venn diagram. You know what those are? There are three circles. Circle, circle, circle and the sweet spot in the middle. That's what we want. The three circles are ability. Do you have the skills? Because we want to worship God and we want to do it skillfully. Do you have the skills? That's ability. And then the next circle is affinity. Do you like doing it? Do you enjoy doing this? And then opportunity. Is there an opportunity to use these particular gifts in your local body or are there other opportunities? It's not always like that. I remember when I was called to preach the gospel, to preach God's word, to prophesy. It says here. I knew I had the ability, I had the gift of gab. I always knew that. I have great short-term memory. That's how I got through high school and college. I did not have the affinity. I wanted nothing to do with being a pastor or anything like that. God just called me. And for some reason the juxtaposition of the way I look and the pastoral job, for some reason it's highly effective for evangelism in Boston. Because any time anyone asks me, "What do you do?" I say, "I'm a pastor." And they're like, "What?" I don't know why it's so shocking to be partially because I think I look like this like I could probably kill someone with my bare hands, which I think I could. I've never done that. But God says do it. And then the opportunity, does the opportunity present itself? And then also the internal call of whatever you think God is calling you too has to be confirmed by the external call of the brothers and sisters of the church around you. That's important. The other thing I just want to mention here is that Satan does tempt us with dissatisfaction of our gifts. So be careful. There's an example in holy scripture where King Uzziah came to the throne Jerusalem when he was 16 years old. He reigns for 52 years and then his monarchy for the most part was marvelous because he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. But in his later years, his status got to his head. He became dissatisfied with being just the king, he wanted to also be the priest. So he goes to the temple and he starts to offer sacrifice and the priests were horrified. When they tried to stop him, he went until wild rage. At that moment God struck him with leprosy and he dies alone, cut off from the temple and the royal house, and shame, and disgrace. He was discontented with the office that God had given him. Be careful there friends. Here he begins with prophecy. Prophecy and proportion to our faith. What does he mean by prophecy? A lot of people think prophecy is just telling the future or just understanding what's coming. It's a spirit given ability. In the Old Testament, the supreme agents of revelation were the prophets. And the counterpart to the Old Testament, capital P, prophets in the New Testament is capital A, apostle. There's a parity between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostle. Both are authoritative agents of revelation. That's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about prophesy as if you're revealing more of God's holy scriptures. No, he's saying prophesy here in the sense that in the Old Testament, the prophets weren't just telling the future foretelling, they were mostly forthtelling, telling people God's word, communicating the word of God to God's people, showing them where their lives were falling short of the word of God and alike manner. In New Testament, the prophet is one gift interpreting positing the word of God. So in contemporary terms, the prophet is just a preacher, someone who preaches the word of God. As Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching." Romans 12:7 continues, "If service in our serving." Here, the word for service is just meeting physical needs. In particular for widows, orphans and the poor. So some people just have the gift or the burden to help people who have been downtrodden by life. If you're called to serve, then to serve people in their practical needs. And then he says the one who teaches in his teaching, pretty straightforward. You have to teach the faith. And what's the difference between teaching and prophesying? Teaching is you're just bringing information to people. This is what God's word says. This is what it means. This is what the church has believed through millennia. You're just teaching, informing the mind. It's like in Sunday school. The prophet has a little more edge. It's not here's what Christianity teaches, it's you, sinner are to repent of your sinner or you're going to hell for eternity. So why won't you accept the grace of Jesus Christ, you wicked sinner? And now you're a saint. Praise be to God. That's kind of like a prophecy. I'm not really good at it. I'm still working on it little by little. So if you teach... He says teach. If you prophesy, you prophesy. And then verse 8, the one who exhorts in his exhortation some. What's exhortation? Exhortation is, I'm just telling you what you know. I'm just reminding you what you know. And some people are just really good at this. I have an uncle who's just gifted in exhortation. Every once in a while he calls me up and he's like, "Jan, you were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. His Holy Spirit is upon your anointing." And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all this." He's like, "Fight the good fight. Remain faithful." I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." So exhortation it's an important gift because it encourages us in a way to follow the Lord. So if you see brothers and sisters in community group or at church and need some exhortation, need some encouragement, do it and do it lovingly. Then he continues the one who contributes in generosity. So everyone has an obligation to give, but some really have a gift for it. And they give, and if so, if you have this gift, give generously with liberality. And there are people who go above and beyond. They give a lot more than required and they do it cheerfully. And nobody wants to get a gift from a sour puss who can't stand to be separated from his or her money. God doesn't want such gifts. What scripture does teach that God loves a cheerful giver. Praise be to God for all the generous givers at this church. I do want to emphasize that because we live in one of the, if not the most expensive place to do minister, to do church work. And through the years God has sent a very generous gospel patrons and we pray for more. If you have the gift of generosity, praise be to God that you are here and you're here in the nick of time. I just want to explain how expensive this place is. Just to explain. You know how much it costs us to lease this space for half a day on Sundays? You know how much? 4G's, 4G's. A brother came up to me after the service. He's like, "What does G's mean?" Like thousands, $4,000. Every single Sunday. My first car in high school was an Audi 80. It cost me $3,000 cash. So every Sunday I'm like, "Today is an Audi with rims every Sunday. Today is an Audi with a subwoofer every Sunday." But we're thankful to be here and we are praying to buy some real estate because something about being in the city... Before people really want to get to know you and be friends, they always ask, "Do you rent or do you own?" And I know why because I've been here for 13 years and it's sad to see people go. So we want to be rooted here. We'd like to buy a worship space. Space like this probably be a hundred mil. So we are thinking more humbly. We're going to ... We just like some office space. We want to buy some office space. We got eight people on staff. There's eight of us now by God's grace. So we started this campaign, http://mosaicbuild.org. You can find all the information there. We started last December. We were ready. But by your generosity and God's grace, raised $400,000. Praise be to God. And then this week we met with a banker. Get charismatic. The Lord deserves it. And this week we met with a banker and we're trying to qualify for a half a million dollar loan that brings $900,000. The properties that we're looking at for office space around 1.2 million. I know if you're like from a place like... Let's pick something, Nebraska. If you're from Nebraska and you're like, "One point... You're using decimals and M's? That's crazy." But I'm like, "That's because you're in Nebraska. Move here, get an apartment, a little studio basement, apartment in Allston, live here for a couple of years, and then you'll see, it's expensive." We have a goal of raising $300,000. We need lots of generous givers. If that's you, praise be to God. Leadership. He says, "If you lead, the one who leads with zeal, if a gifted leader is to be followed, he or she better know which way they're going." And you have to lead with zeal because it's zeal that inspires people to do things that they've never done before, to challenge people, to motivate people. And then he ends with the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Some people are just incredible peacemakers. They have the gift of mercy where two parties antagonistic toward each other. You come in, you throw a little counseling through mercy, there's peace. And mercy used to be dispensed with cheerfulness. Why? What's the connection between mercy and cheer... I know why. Because if you have this... It's not a gift for me. So it's super exhausting. I can do this a little... Even this morning, my daughter Milana had a meltdown on the way here. I'm trying to do the mercy. I'm like, "I'm going to go preach. It's a lot easier." But for some people, it's natural, but still it's work, especially with emotional energy. So he says to do it with cheerfulness. A few years back, I was in an Uber and this is my conclusion. I'm going to try to stick the landing. I was in Uber and I get picked up in Brighton. I'm going back to Brookline. The driver picks me up and immediately I was like, "This guy is a talker. He's a talker." He warns me, he's like, "I'm warning you, I am chatty because I used to work as a psychiatrist for decades." I was like, "Whoa, you got a psychiatrist and a pastor in one car. That's going to make for some interesting conversation." So we started chatting. Of all the profound wisdom he shared, this is what resonated the most and stuck with me. He had worked for decades trying to help people and he realized that these people didn't need the drugs that he was giving them. He said, "What they needed more than anything was friendship, love, and community." And he said this, he said, "Look, what I did was important, but what you are doing by working to create a true community where people are bound by genuine love is infinitely more important." And that's what I want to encourage you with, dear Mosaic. What you're doing matters far more than you realize. You're not just impacting people's physical lives, you are impacting their souls and their eternities. We're creating the image of the triune God, the Trinity, three persons. God is a God of humility. He's glorious. Humility in that each of the persons of the Trinity defers to the other. The Father wants to glorify the son. The son wants to glorify Father. The Holy Spirit wants to glorify all three. And what's important is, in this community, that is the trinity. There's perfect love and perfect harmony because there's perfect humility. We're created by this triune God and his image. We're created for community. What's in the way? It's our pride and it's our sin. Therefore, we need the cross of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ, which binds us vertically with God the Father. And once we receive grace from God the Father, he fills our hearts with love, a real love for real people, creating meaningful horizontal binds that we all desperately need. And that's God's heart for the church and that's God's heart for our church. Praise be to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time, the holy scriptures, the rich time and a rich text. We thank you for it. Holy Spirit, we do pray that you inspire us, exhort us through this text. Help us truly live this text out. Help us be a church that is a Romans 12 church, a church where each member counts others more significant than themselves, just like Christ. Jesus, we thank you for the gift of salvation, the gift of grace, the gift of mercy, and we pray that you make us to people who live in a man worthy of the gospel of Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you gave your body for us, broken for us. And in response, you call us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice for you and in service to the body, the church, the body of Christ. And we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Therefore

October 16, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 12:1–2

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you have not left us in the darkness of our sin. But you spoke a word to us, and your ultimate word, the final word, is that of your Son, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. Jesus, we thank you that you came, that you lived a perfect life, that you fulfilled all of the requirements of God's holy law. You love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and you love neighbor as self. So much so that you gave yourself as a substitute in our place, in our stead you went to a cross to bear the penalty for our sin, bear the wrath of God. Your word tells us that the penalty for sin is death. Either our death, eternally speaking, or the death of your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. So Jesus, I pray if there's anyone who's not yet a Christian today, make yourself alive to them, draw them to yourself, give them the gift of repentance. And Lord, for all of us who are yours, who have been predestined before the foundation of the world to be yours, you've written our name in the Book of Life before anything was even created. Lord, I pray in view of that great mercy, I pray, give us the grace to give our bodies as a living sacrifice holy, committed to you. Makers of people who on a daily basis seek the renewal of the mind, the cleansing, the washing of water with the holy scriptures, so that we may know you, so that we may think your thoughts along with you so that we may think like Christians, and live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for this blessing and gather as your people. Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you. Today, speak to us, minister to us, compel us, move us, appeal to us, to make us a glorious people who reflect your glory and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through Romans today when Romans 12:1-2. We've spent significant amount of time in Romans, nine through 11 in particular because we believe that Romans nine through 11 sets the context, the foundation for the practical living of life. Growing up, I did not hear many sermons on Romans one through 11. I've heard a lot of sermons on Romans 12 through 15 because Romans 12 through 15 is very easy to preach. It's just I'm telling you what to do. And with Christians, we love those kinds of sermons. "Just tell me what to do. Tell me how to live my life." And St. Paul says, "No, no, no. You do not have the power, the motivation to live the life that God has called you unless you understand His great mercy." So Paul spends 11 chapters elucidating the mercy of God so that we can then be propelled, motivated to live in light of that mercy. First doctrine, then practice. First theology, then ethics. First belief, then behavior. Paul wants us to know what God has done for us before He tells us what we are to do for God. And the title of this sermon today is one word, it's the word therefore. It's here in verse one, and the connection between, it is the hinge between the two sections of Romans one through 11, 12 through 15. It's a post positive in the Greek language, which means it's one of those small words that is never in the front of the sentence, but here in thought it is the primary word connecting the Romans one through 11 with 12. He's saying because of everything that I have explained, because of the fact that we with our debased mind have been rejected by God because we didn't thank Him, but thanks me to God that when we were still at enemies of God, that He's sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. So in light of this great salvation, because of the grace and mercy, God has lavished on you, because of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ to secure our eternal life because of His sacrifice. In view of all that, this is how we ought to live. So God doesn't just give us truth in doctrine for its own sake. He doesn't want us just to be full of knowledge, and do nothing with it. No, He gives us this truth to produce a response. What should that response be? Well, it's very simple, love and gratitude to God that seeks to express itself out in obedience to Him, and service to His cause. This is what Jesus told His disciples in the upper room before He was betrayed by Judas. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." It's love for God that motivates us to be faithful to Him. And the reason why I explain all that is because it gives incredible freedom where you understand the proper perspective of our ethics. The Christian life is the daily working out of the righteousness that Jesus gave us. He who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. By grace through faith, His righteousness is given to us, it's counted to us, imputed to us, and then we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. How do we do that? Well, Romans 12, one through two is the first step. Would you look at the text with me? Romans 12:1. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant and fallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, the motivation for transformation. Second, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice. And third, be not conformed, be transformed. First, the motivation for transformation. Romans 12:1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers or brethren, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God." Whenever you see in scripture the word therefore you got to ask, "What's it there for?" Because it's always there for a reason and we find this technique, he gives us theology, and then gives us the therefore, and He tells us this is how to live. He uses that same technique in most of his epistles. First, the theological section, and then the ethical section. For example, Ephesians the epistle in Ephesians is one of the most glorious theological treatises of our salvation. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, gets the chapter four, and he says, "I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called." He just spent half the book talking about that great calling and he says, "Now, live the in manner worthy of it." Colossians, he does something very similar. Colossians 3:1-4, first two chapters, just doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines about Christ. He gets to chapter three and he says, "If then you've been raised with Christ." His assumption is you have been raised with Christ. Therefore, "If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So he places the Christian life in a relationship with complete dependence upon the grace of God, and redemption of Jesus Christ. We find the same thought in other places, express in other ways. For example, Philippians 1:27, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." He says the whole sum of the Christian life should be lived in response to the fact that God saved me, He's forgiven me my sins. He's given me mercy, He's given me grace. Praise be to God. The apostle Peter does the same thing, exhorts Christians in the same exact way. 1 Peter 1-12, he explains our great salvation. And then verse 13 of chapter one, he continues and says, "Therefore, therefore preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." Once again, theology, doctrine, belief first, then practice, ethics, and behavior. One of my favorite Catechisms, the Catechisms are just a way of teaching the doctrines of Christianity to young believers is the Heidelberg Catechism. You can find online in PDF form for free since it was published in 1563. Well, the catechism is divided and set up like this. After two questions of introduction, we see that the next nine sections are entitled The Misery of Man. He just explains the fact that we're all sinners, we're all depraved, we are degenerates, we are dead in our sins and trespasses, we need grace. The next section has 72 questions and it's entitled The Redemption of Man. And here we see teaching of God's salvation, and how He communicates His grace to His people. The last 43 questions, those concerning the Christian life, and how it is to be lived. You know what that section is called? It's just called Thankfulness. This is a God thank you. God thank you for saving me. And, of course, it makes sense that you call me to live righteous life because of your great grace on me. In other words, the Christian life is the grateful, and the loving response of those who have received the salvation of God. Once again, the order is really important. First, the indicative. This is what God has done, then the imperative, this is what we are to do for God. And this is important because especially in a place like Boston, it's a hard place to be a Christian. It's temptation everywhere. Most of the people you know probably aren't believers. Most of the people that we spend time with, their worldview is not shaped by scripture, not shaped by grace, not shaped by mercy. And when your own zeal, your own enthusiasm, excitement for God, when it begins to wane, where do you get the power to remain faithful? And I submit to you, you will never worship God with a zealous, sincere, passionate heart, seeking to obey Him and everything unless you understand just how indebted you are to Him. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. And in this, this is really important, Christianity stands alone, utterly unique. And I'm not saying that other religions, and other people don't teach similar things that we teach. We do believe that people should be honest, and kind, and faithful, and humble, et cetera. Lots of non-Christians believe all of this. Lots of ethical instruction in other religions is very similar that of Christian. There's a lot of overlap to that of Christianity, which shouldn't come as a surprise at all. Why? Because God has written His law upon our hearts even as unbelievers. But the Bible places the ethical teaching in a particular context, in particular order. And if you switch that order around, you don't have Christianity, you just have a works-based religion, and that's how most religions work, it's all works-based salvation. Order is crucial to understanding salvation. For example, when you read the Old Testament and you read about the sacrificial rituals in the tabernacle, and the temple, there's an order given, and that order conveys meaning. In Leviticus, it tells us that an animal was to be brought as a sacrifice to take away guilt of sin because when you sin, the penalty for sin is death. It's always been like that. And in the Old Testament, before the sacrificial animal was killed, the person, the worshiper would lay his hands on the animal's head as a sign that there is a transfer of guilt from the person to the animal. And then the animal is slaughtered with blood gushing out, and then the animal is torched, and then the incense goes to heaven. But it's always laying of hands on the animal, and then second is killing of the animal. And this is immensely important, and it does ultimately show, and point to the sacrifice of the Son of God. The punishment for the sacrificial worshiper sins is born by the animal. The animal pays the penalty for the person's sin, it's identified as a substitute by the laying of hands. Now, if the animal were killed before the hands are laid, well, we would have a completely different religion, one in which we appease and placate God by our presence as if we do this thing for God, and then He gives us grace. As if we do this thing to God and He gives us mercy. As if this is how we earn our relationship with God. Well, that's what pagans thought. Pagans thought, "Well, the god's out there, we need to appease them somehow, and we're going to give them a sacrifice." They had no understanding of the substitutionary part that the animal is dying on behalf of my sin. God dying in our place, bearing the punishment for our sins, that's the heart of the gospel. Same two acts, only different order, and it changes everything. Take another example about the importance of order. If a man sleeps with a woman and then later marries her, well, according to the Bible, that's the order of death. If however, the man marries the woman and then sleeps with her, that's the order of life. And the world will look at that and say, "What makes the difference? There's no difference." Well, it makes all the difference in the world from God's perspective. The order in which things are done makes a huge difference. Sex outside of the place God made it, becomes an act of rebellion. And as we've seen in life outside's proper place, sex corrupts, and destroys rather than joining two hearts and two lives. But placed in proper order after marriage, sex becomes life-giving and love-completing, the act that God made it to be. The order's important. If you preach Romans 12 through 15 apart from Romans one through 11, you get a workspace salvation. You can't cut the Christian off from the source, and the source is Jesus Christ, the source is grace. So Christian, do you keep the commandments? Do you obey God? Do you seek to obey God, and please Him in order to be saved, or because you're saved? And it makes all the difference in the world. It makes a difference in any relationship. Is it a grace-based relationship or is it works-based relationship? You can parent with a works-based understanding like an iron fist. "Child, if you don't obey me, there are consequences." Or you'll appeal to the child and you say, "Because I love you, because I have loved you all of your life, because I fund your whole operation, your lodging, and I pay for you to live in Boston, Massachusetts, and I feed you, and I love you, I love you so go clean your room. Not because I'm going to stop loving you. No, no, no, I love you and I want my love to motivate you to do the things that are best for you." That's what God wants for us. God's grace always comes first. Christ's sacrifice always comes first. The Holy Spirit's renewing ministry comes first. And only then can men and women, boys and girls live a truly good life, the life that God calls us to live. Empowered by what? By God's love. He first loved us, that's the one reason, one reason only that we serve Him. Our power to live a truly good life, our motive to do so no matter the sacrifice required, and our pleasure in doing it where you serve God not begrudgingly, but because you want to. Where do you get that? You get that from the gospels. Theology first, salvation first, then the Christian life, then obedience, then purity, then love, and then service. Why is this true? Because if you have truly understood the gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, what does that mean? Well, just imagine yourself in Golgotha, Calvary, Jesus Christ that's just been carrying His cross in the Via Dolorosa He's going all the way to Golgotha, and then He's scourged, He's bleeding, He's got the crown of thorns, they put Him down on the cross, and they start nailing His hands and His feet to the cross, excruciating pain. And at that moment, He is the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world. And at that moment, you approach the cross of Christ, and you put your hands on His head. And what happens? Like by faith, your guilt is transferred to Him. He is dying in our place. If it wasn't for Him, you would be dead for all of eternity separated from God in a place called hell. When you understand that Jesus did that for you, He's dying instead of me, substitutionary atonement, well, that changes you. It can't not change you. Once you know what God has done, what Christ suffered for you, what the Holy Spirit has done in you, love, gratitude and honor compel you to live in a way that pleases God. And what's that way? Well, God says this is how you live in a manner worthy of Him. This is how you live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So this is point two, true spiritual worship is self-sacrifice. Look at verse one. "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers." Now, this is the apostle Paul. He could have as an apostle said, "I'm an apostle. Just do what I said." That's not what He does because he understands that begrudging obedience does not honor God. Now he says, "I appeal to you. I appeal to your heart." By what does he appeal to them? By the mercies of God, he's been explaining the mercies of God for 11 chapters. By these great mercies, I appeal to you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. The operating verb here is present your bodies, present your bodies as a sacrifice, as if you're putting your body on the altar before God and say, "God, my body is yours. All of me is yours." Paul has used the same language in Romans 6:12-14. He says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for unrighteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." So in chapter six, Paul in general says, "Do not present your body to sin, present your body to Christ. Live like the children of God should live. And here Paul begins to explain in chapter 12 what that looks like. What does it mean to present your body to Christ? He gives us the thought here. And then he explains it later. But what he's saying is same thing Christ taught. Jesus Christ on the Sermon of the Mount, He said, "Look, I haven't come to abolish the law I've come to fulfill it." And then he gives us the ethics, the law of Christ, if you will. Paul uses the same phrase to talk about the Christian life in Galatians 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Or 1 Corinthians 9:21, "To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law." Present your body as he's saying, He's saying not just. Not only your bodies, he's saying your whole self. Present all of yourself to God as a living sacrifice. We will never be completely worthy of God, of course, but we are to strive to live in a manner worthy of God. Present your body as a living sacrifice. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't hit us, that language doesn't hit us as it did the original audience 2000 years ago. They understood what it meant to sacrifice, sacrifice an animal. 1st century people were familiar with the offering of sacrifices, perhaps we're not. And they stood by their altar. They watched their animal that they identified as their own. It was slain in the ritual manner, blood gushing out, the whole animal burned on the altar. And he's saying that striking imagery should somehow characterize our walk with the Lord sacrifice. And it's noteworthy. Paul uses the word body here. He doesn't just use sarx, which is flesh uses soma, which is the physical body. Other places, 1 Corinthians 6, he says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to take care of our bodies in order to live righteously in the physical world. This is important because some Christians find it very easy to love God with their mind, or love God with their heart, and bifurcate living and loving God in the physical body. And this, of course, this teaching flies in the face of what Paul is saying here. No, it's not gnostic, dualistic schemes. No. God wants you to worship Him with your soul, and with your body. It's an embodied spirituality. What we do with our bodies matters. 1 Corinthians 6:20, "For you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." Other places he says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. As a living sacrifice he says. It's true that animals sacrifices were living when they were brought to the temple, but then they died. They were offered as a dead sacrifice. Now, Paul says, you are to be a living sacrifice. Your whole life, all of your life energy is to be lived out for God. This motivation is very different than what perhaps they teach in the Russian Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church. The motivation to live righteously is not just fear of punishment, and it's not just the reward that we get in heaven. And I agree with both of those. I believe in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 says that, "God, the good Father does discipline His loving children when they go wayward." He chastises us. So that should be a category that I don't want to disobey God because He will chastise me. And on the other hand, I want to be motivated by the rewards in heaven. I want as many rewards in heaven as possible. That's literally why I became a pastor and a church planter. I want the biggest mansion in heaven. I believe every single time I preach a sermon here, my spiritual Venmo is going cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. I am just racking up spiritual points. But even that can't be the ultimate motivation for why we obey God. Why? Because both of those if they're put in the primary part of our heart that motivates us, they become self-centered. Because I don't want punishment, I want to protect self, that's why I obey God. If that's the primary motivation, then you don't understand grace. And the same thing with rewards. If that's the primary motivation, then you're trying to earn something from God. No, he says the ultimate motivation has to be thanksgiving, that we are so thankful to God because Christ has sacrificed Him. I am going to be a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God. Friend, do you live for God? Do you live for God? If I looked at your calendar this week, if I looked at the way you spend your time, this the way you spend your best energy, the way you spend your finances, what you think about when you don't have to think about anything, about your affection, could a case be made that you live for God, that you love God? What can I do in my life today that shows I'm presenting myself as a sacrifice that is living for God? The Christian cannot live primarily for self. The Christian is defined by the fact that he or she lives for God, and that's what it means to be holy, a holy sacrifice, holy set apart for God. And he says that this is your spiritual worship. And it sums up the whole point of the verse that our lives are to be worshiped and serviced to God at all times in every way. The phrase spiritual worship, and if you are in the ESV there's a footnote, and at the bottom it says rational service. So is it spiritual worship or is it rational service? Well, what's fascinating is it could be both. And it is both because the word for spiritual here is [foreign language 00:26:08] in the Greek, logical, reasonable, rational. And the word for worship is the same word as for service. So spiritual worship is reasonable service. What do I mean? It's really important to understand that to be a Christian does not mean you turn your mind off because that's what a lot of people think that intellectuals are not Christians. And if you're a Christian, then you're not an intellectual. Or you have to turn off your brain in order to believe, but that's not how scripture talks about true faith. No, no, no. We don't need to turn our brains off. We need our minds renewed. And then when our minds are renewed, we begin to understand the world from God's perspective. We begin to understand that everything in God's Word is incredibly reasonable. And only things in God's Word make sense of God's world. So what are we calling you to? We're calling you to a reasonable life of service to God. The first step to becoming a Christian is to repent. If you're not a believer, you're not sure what it means to be a Christian, the first step to becoming Christians to repent. What is repentance? It's a change of mind. A change of mind about what? About the most important truths in the universe. Repentance is an acknowledgement that you have not been living a reasonable life. It's not reasonable to believe that everything came from nothing. It's not reasonable to believe that God doesn't care how you live. It's not reasonable to believe that God will not judge you for your sins. It's not reasonable to believe that the Bible is not God's Word in particular when you've never read it. And I met so many people that say, "No, no, no, I'm not a Christian. I don't need God's Word and I don't need the Bible." My question is, "Have you ever read it? Have you ever read it? You're very educated, you're very intellectual, you're very smart. Have you ever read the most influential book in the history of the universe, the book that has impacted humanity for the good and for the positive more than any other book?" Christianity is the most reasonable faith because it makes the most sense of reality. It makes the most sense of us. If you're honest, you know how wicked you are inside, you know how much of a sinner you are. We live in a world of sinners all around us, and we live in a world of brokenness, and pain, and injustice, and suffering. And the only thing that really makes sense of the whole world around us is the fact that God created everything. We rebelled against Him, bringing in evil, and sin into the world, and we need a salvation that comes from outside of us, and that's Jesus Christ, the incarnation. He breaks in and He lives that perfect life, goes to the cross for my sin. And in light of the fact that the Son of God died in my place for my sins. What's the most reasonable and spiritual thing I could do? Is to present my body today as a living sacrifice to God. And He continues the thought. This is point three. Do not be conformed but be transformed. Verse two, do not be conformed to what? "To this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern, what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." So offering ourselves as a living sacrifice stands in direct opposition to being conformed to the pattern of this world, to follow the human race into sin darkens our minds. And that darkening of the mind, it happens to everybody, and it takes God breaking in to transform us from that corruption. The pattern of the world he says is this age is an evil age, so we need a renewing of the mind, and this is a synonym for regeneration. The tense of the word of the verb renew your mind indicates that the renewal has to happen continually. It's a process of learning to think about the world from the perspective of God revealed in His word, seeing the world through the eyes of God. Do you look at the world through the eyes of holy scripture? It's like the lenses that you put on, and you see everything through it. And the scripture talks about the fact that Jesus is the Word of God and that scripture is the Word of God. And in Ephesians 5, it tells us, "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her." And later on it says, "With the washing of water with the word, He cleanses His bride." So this is why we love scripture at Mosaic, this is why our sermons are chock-full of scripture. This is why in community groups we focus on holy scripture because we need Jesus, and His blood to cleanse us from our guilt, but then we also need God's Word to cleanse us from the gunk of the world. And I'll give you an illustration, and you've been waiting for this I know, the illustration about my Suburban. So I recently purchased a Suburban family vehicle. My wife and I, we have four daughters, and as they're growing, we want them. We love family trips. So I bought a Suburban, but I bought a Suburban like immigrants do. My family are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. And for the longest time, I just wondered, "Why do immigrants, why do they all drive awesome vehicles?" Well, I'll tell you why. They buy their vehicles salvaged in an auction. Do you know how this works? So my friend sent me a link, he's like, "You like this Suburban?" I was like, "Yeah, it's great." All I saw was one picture, it looked nice, tremendous. And then he's like, "All right, you got a bid on it." And I was like, "What's wrong with it?" He said, "We'll find out when you win the bid." So you have no idea. And then I'm like, "You know what? I live by faith, not by sight. Let's do it. Let's do a Lord Jesus, please help me." I got the Suburban, I take it to the mechanic, and he looks at it and he's like, "This thing's been flooded." Oh no. I was like, "Where did it get flooded?" He said, "In New Jersey." And for some reason that just made it worse. I don't know. And so he was fixing it up, He fixed the seats. He had taken out the seats because the computer in the seats broken, and he fixed that bunch of stuff and he's like, "The vehicle's ready, come pick it up." So I go and pick it up, I drive it back home, and something's wrong with the transmission, and then I turn on the AC and it's kind of not working and kind of working. And then I turn on the music and one of the speakers goes off. So I go home, I take it a mechanic here when stuff is really just started ... Oh, I got the key and I bring it home. My wife's like, "Oh, tremendous. I got a wonderful key chain for you." I was like, "Oh, wonderful." She gives me the key with the key chain and it's a lemon. Like, "No, no, what did you do? You just jinxed the whole vehicle." She's like, "But we're not superstitious." I was like, "I'm a little stitious." No, no, no, no. So I got this lemon of a vehicle, a lemon on my key chain. So I take it to the mechanic, the mechanic's working on it and then he's like, "I think I fixed it, and I got it and the stuff's still break, the stuff's still break." And I finally take it, I was like, "Dude, keep it for as long as you need, just fix everything please." And then he calls me back, he's like, "You got to come." He dug deep into the engine, takes out the computer. The computer is what decides everything. This is like if the computer's not working, nothing's working. He takes out the computer and it's all covered in gunk, just New Jersey whatever, I don't know, just covered in gunk. He's like, "Do you see this is your vehicle? The computer doesn't work, obviously nothing else is going to work, you need a renewing of the computer mind." Yeah, he didn't say that, I said that. So he cleans out the whole thing. He's got before and after pictures and he gives me the vehicle. He's like, "I hope I won't see you for 48 hours. And praise be to God, I haven't been back since because my Suburban through the renewing of the computer, it was transformed. And he's like, "That's what we need to do.: I'm telling you, live in Boston and you don't even notice how the computer of your mind just get gunked up. And then after a while, Christianity doesn't seem as plausible. Your faith doesn't seem as strong. Your desire to follow the Lord wanes. And after a while you realize, "Ah, I have conformed to the world, the world that does not submit to the Lord." So he says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and part of that is the washing of water with the word. So dear Saint, Are you committed to holy scripture, to love scripture, read scripture, meditate on scripture? Yes, there is an intellectual part of Christianity. The intellectual part must lead to the devotional part, but the devotional part doesn't exist apart from the intellectual part. He says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Learn to think as a Christian, learn to think God's thoughts after Him. Practically, how are we to do this? He says, "Do not be conformed, but be transformed." It's an imperative, but it's a passive imperative. It's just like an Ephesians where Paul says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit," and you say, "How do I do that?" You can't do it yourself, it's passive, it has to be done to you. But there is a part that you have to do, there's an imperative. And what our part is, you have to place yourself in a position where the streams of God's grace can bless you. You place yourself in a position where you study God's Word, and as you study God's Word and you meditate upon God's Word, there is a transformation that happens by the renewal of your mind. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, "We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So we study God's Word in order to meet with the Word of God, and that's Jesus Christ. And as we do, we behold His glory and His glory is what transforms us. We must teach ourselves to think like Christians. Parents, we must teach our children to think like Christians. We can't outsource the spiritual formation of your child or the intellectual formation of your child to the school system, or to the government. We have to do this at home to teach our children to view the world as God tells us to view it. And here I also want to mention the following. We need to be careful to define worldliness biblically. Do not be conformed to this world. A lot of fundamentalists coming in right here into this verse, and they tell us exactly where you shouldn't be conforming to the world. And most of the time it's always outward, like confirmation of the world it has to do with alcohol, or smoking, or dancing, et cetera, et cetera. No, that's not what he's talking about at all. What he's talking about is the world, the evil age. They don't want to submit to God or even if they think of God, they think that it's works that saves us, or that good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. And we add man-made rules to keep us from sin and religious ceremony, external righteousness, et cetera, et cetera. Paul says, "Hold on, you don't get to define what worlds is, only God does. And anything outside of God's Word is just man-made." So we need to be careful there. So he exhorts us to renew our minds by learning God's will as it is revealed in God's Word. In conclusion, if you are not a Christian today, if you have not received the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I wonder what you're counting on. I wonder what you're hoping and what you're trusting in that when you die, and you will stand before the throne of God, and God will say, "Why should I let you in?" I wonder what your answer is. I wonder what your fallback plan is." Well, I was a good person, or I did a few good things. I went to church every once in a while." If your answer begins with I, then that's works-based salvation, and that's not going to save you. No, the only answer that we can give is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins as a substitute for my sins. So if you're not a Christian today, we appeal to you, we appeal to do the most reasonable, rational things to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. And if you do today, and you'd like to talk about the next steps in your walk with the Lord, I'll be up here right after the service, and I'd love to chat with you. For the Christian, are there areas of your life that you have been reluctant to put on the altar before God? And saying, "God, I know you're calling me to sacrifice this part of my life for you, and I just can't do it. I just can't do it." Today, I pray that you accept the grace of God and do it, sacrifice completely all of your life to the Lord. Where do you get the motivation to do that? From God's grace. There are many reasons to do the right thing, but nothing in human life can begin to compel a man or a woman to do the right thing from the heart. Religion can force you to do the right thing outwardly, but it's only the gospel that can transform your mind, and your heart, and the affections of your heart so that your actions are actually motivated by the great love of God. Where do you get the power to resist the most powerful of temptations? Where do you get the power to sacrifice time and the energy to live as you know the Lord would have you live? Where do you get the energy to love people selflessly from the heart? Where do you get the power to be humble before others to forgive and ask for forgiveness? Where do you get the power to set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth? Well, you get it from God's love, and all of that is given to us in one word therefore. God has loved you. He's poured out His mercy on you. He's you grace. Therefore, I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to Him. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word, and we thank you for our time in it. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you take this word and you apply it to our hearts, that you transform, renew our minds, and that you transform us to be a glorious people, men and women reflecting the glory of our God. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Chosen, not Special

October 9, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 11:16–36

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we come to you with all humility and trembling and trepidation before your word, because you promised that you look upon those who submit themselves to your word. And that's what we're doing today, Lord. We know that your word, it's spirit breathed. It's breathed out by the living God. So Holy Spirit, you wrote these scriptures and we pray today, you come and put your search light of illumination upon them and help us understand these scriptures and help us fall in love with this theology so much so that the theology takes root and goes from our mind into our heart and transforms us. Lord, you have called us to live a life of obedience, of faith. We're saved by grace through faith for works. And those works are the fruit that you call us to bear. And I pray that you continue to teach us to abide in Christ, abide in the vine, to be connected with Him, to remain in Him so that when we're by ourselves and there's no one there, and if Satan comes and there's attacks and temptation and accusation, we know who's we are and we know that we are connected to you. We're holding on to you with everything we have. And we pray Holy Spirit, come down a teach us and give us a zeal and a passion for your words, zeal and a passion for your gospel. And if there's anyone who's not a Christian today, Lord, today, remove the hardness on their heart. Give them ears to hear, remove the spirit of stupor. Help them realize their great need for forgiveness. If you are a holy God, a mighty God, an awesome God, and we are just sinners and we ask that you forgive and draw into your family. Lord, bless our time in the holy scriptures. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the sermon is Chosen, Not Special. And this is important because St. Paul wants us to know that we're saved by grace through faith and that God has predestined us to salvation before the foundation of the world. But it's not because anything in us, it's all God, it's all grace. He gets all the glory. At the end of Romans eight, Paul has been explaining the gospel, explaining the effulgent glory of God in the gospel, a lavish grace of God. And as he reflects in Romans eight, his heart is stirred so much so that he gives us one of the greatest, one of the grandest doxologies in all of scripture. That's Romans 8:37 through 39. "Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." But then in the very next chapter, in the very next verse, when contemplating the present condition of his own people, the Jewish people, Paul loves them, his mood darkens dramatically. And he says in Romans 9:1, "I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." For whom? For these people that don't know Christ. Jesus Christ was Jewish. He comes to the Jewish people, he says, "Hey, I'm God, everything in the Old Testament, everything points to me. Everything points to me. He comes to His own and His own received Him not." So Paul goes from the heights of joy to the depth of despair at the very thought of his people being abandoned by God. And then in Romans nine through 11, he explains, no God hasn't completely finally abandoned the people of Israel. No, He has great plans for them and He will draw many of them to salvation Jesus Christ. So as he explains all of that in Romans 11, all of a sudden again he's in doxological praise in Romans 11:33 through 35. "Oh the depth of the riches and 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." So he goes from the height of doxology to the depth of despair back to the height of doxology all within three chapters. But what brings him back, what brings him back? What brings him back is that, in Romans 11:26 he says, "All Israel will be saved." What does that mean? Well, this is what the chapter is about. This is what we're talking through today. He does use the imagery of grafting. I don't want to explain the grafting to you. You can find it on YouTube. I had a gentleman come to me at the end of the service, he's from Chile, he was here for two weeks for training. He's an agricultural engineer. And he said, "Everything you said is true." He said, "We do this all the time." He said "On my farm, when we see the crop isn't doing well, we break off branches that aren't bearing fruit. And we go and we find another branch and we graft it in just to make it more fruitful." And I said, "Praise be to God. The Lord gave me an illustration." So you can study up on the agricultural side. I'm going to give you the theological side today. So we're in Romans 11:16 through 36. Would you look at a text with me? "If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' That is true, they were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then 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. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers; a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion, and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards 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 now have 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 and the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are 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. Praise be to God. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. What a text, three points to frame up our time. First, do not become proud, but fear. That's verses 16 through 24. Second, the time to come in is running out. So come in. That's verses 25 to 32. And finally, our God is an awesome God. That's verses 33 to 36. First, do not become proud but fear. And I mentioned this last week and the last couple weeks. He's basically talking about grace swinging as a pendulum. So grace comes to Israel, the chosen people of God. Jesus comes to Israel full of grace and truth. Israel, as a whole, rejected Jesus. They crucified their own Messiah. And then Jesus comes back from the dead and he gives this message to go and preach the gospel to his disciples who are Jewish. So the disciples have this grace, have this message, they're preaching it. And who comes to faith? It's the Gentiles come into faith in droves. So Paul says Israel had the pendulum of grace, it swings back to the Gentiles and at some point it's going to swing back in a special way to the Jewish people. Just to set the context, Romans 11:14 through 15. "In order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead." Paul says in his ministry to the Gentiles, he wants to magnify it because he's doing the same thing God's doing. God is drawing Gentiles to himself in a miraculous way so that the Jewish people look at the Gentiles receiving grace and get provoked with envy, with jealousy and say, "How is it that they are enjoying a relationship with God and we are not?" And Paul says there will come a time when they will accept. God is going to send a special move in the spirit where the Jewish people en mass, are going to accept the gospel. And he says with their acceptance, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead. And this imagery he's using is, he looks at Israel and he says Israel, Jewish people, he says there's no spiritual vitality, and he's using language from Ezekiel. This is Ezekiel 37 where it says, "The hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down the middle of the valley. It was full of bones and He led me around among them and behold there were very many on the surface of the valley and behold they were very dry. And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'Oh Lord God, you know.' Then He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'Oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live and I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord.'" He has this incredible vision to the prophet of Ezekiel and he shows that just bones, the bones are the people of God. And he says, You, Ezekiel, a man of God, prophesy, speak God's word over these bones and watch the sphere of God take the word of God and apply it to dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead corpses, bones. And He speaks and they come to life. And this is just a picture of what will happen, what does happen with Gentiles, what does happen now with every single one of us. We hear the word of God and that's how people are converted. And in the same way as he's been saying in Romans 10, we are called to preach the gospel and we're called to preach a gospel in such a way where we believe that as we speak the gospel, as we explain who God is, that he's holy, that we're sinners, that Jesus is the only way. As we explain, we have to believe that Jesus Christ is going to draw people to himself by the power of the spirit. There will come incredible life. That's what He's promising. In Romans 11:16, he continues the argument. "If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches." He's mixing metaphors. That's what Paul does. There's first fruits, there's lumps and there's the root and the branches. But basically the idea is, he says the first fruits that were brought to the temple, at the harvest, you get the first fruit, the best fruit, you bring it to the Lord. And what happens is, as you give that to the Lord, the rest of your crop is consecrated to God because you have given him the first fruits. That's really the idea. What he's saying is because there is a true remnant in Israel, the first Jews, they've already come to faith. This was people at the time of St. Paul preaching Jewish people coming to faith, Gentiles coming to faith. He's saying since the remnant the true Israel is coming to faith, that's proof that national Israel, the rest of the dough one day will be reckoned as holy. And then he switches the metaphor back to the olive tree and branches and presses the olive tree metaphor in verse 17. "If some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree." He's saying this is the same metaphor that Jesus used in John 15. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the bridges. Whoever doesn't bear fruit shall be broken off and tossed into the fire." And in the same way he says the Jewish people thought that they were connected to the vine just by virtue of their birth, by virtue of their race, of their genealogy. He says, "No, the only way that we remain connected to Jesus Christ is by receiving his grace, repenting of sin, and being connected to him by faith." The broken off branches here are disobedient, apostate Jewish people, the ones who stumbled and were cut off from the promises of God. He uses this analogy of the olive tree because Jesus uses this one. God uses it to explain his relationship with the people of Israel. He chooses the olive tree because the olive tree is interesting in that it's one of the most durable trees. The roots go deep. The trees can live for three to 400 years. It's a symbol of strength and durability. But he's saying that the olive tree grows in particular in a place where you wouldn't expect anything to grow. But because the root is Jesus, because the root is divine, then there can be life when we're connected to Christ. The branches were broken off to Jewish people. But Paul says, you, the chosen Gentiles, verse 18, "Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root but the root that supports you." This is really what he wants us to understand. Hey, if you understand the gospel of election that God saved you. Before the foundation of the world, your name is written in the Book of Life, never, ever, ever, ever allow pride to enter your heart because of this. God shows you not because of anything special in you. So how could Paul be any more graphic? He says, Remember who you are. Remember the grace of God that brought you in. The root is Christ, the branch is Israel. And the grafted olive shoot is the Gentiles. And what keeps Gentiles connected to the root? It's grace, it's faith in God. Romans 11, 19 through 22, "Then you will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God; severity to those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off." Saying make sure, make sure that you are truly connected. Christian, make sure that you are truly elect. Confirm your election, confirm it by abiding in Jesus Christ. Confirm it by believing. You stand fast through faith. That is your responsibility in the chapters about election, God's great election, plans before the foundation of the world. He does give us a job to do. There's a responsibility. You stand firm in the faith. One of the great things and one of great purposes, objectives that we have at Mosaic is teaching you how to, teaching everyone, how to abide in Jesus Christ. Teaching you to have a one-on-one relationship with Christ. Teaching you how to have a relationship with Christ without a mediator, with no one in between you and the Lord, where you and the Lord have a relationship that's vibrant and full of vitality without someone in the middle. Because if you got someone in the middle, then God's just a friend of a friend. I want to get myself out of the way between you and Jesus. I'll just give one illustration. I've got four daughters, praise be to God. My youngest is Milana, she's five, she's a kindergartner. And Milana has been really excited about the fact that we purchased a new vehicle and I purchased this vehicle, I was praying for a long time. Lord, send us a vehicle because we were in a Toyota Highlander with third row that barely fit anyone. And if you know anything about girls, if they're not comfortable, they let you know about it. And I've got five of them. So I prayed about a vehicle. And the other thing is, I've been in the city for 13 years, everything's cramped. And I'm like, you know what, the Lord won't let me live in a suburb. So what's a vehicle that's the closest to feeling like you live in the suburbs? So I got a Chevy Suburban, it's tremendous. Tinted windows and black rims. I got it salvaged, so it was in a flood. So I've got an illustration for next week in Romans 12. But what I'm saying, Milana wanted me to drive her to school because she's like, "Dad, all my friends, are going to think I'm cool", because I pull up like a Fed and just let her out. And so I'm going to the back and we're going to the car. And then as we're about to get in the, there's a garbage, it's Tuesday, the garbage truck, it's pulling into my complex and we're not getting out. So then we're going around the building and she's like, "Dad, at least I can hold your hand." We're going to school. She's so sweet. And the way she holds my hand, she grabs my thumb. So we're walking and then as we go around our building, there's trees and there's a fence and there's a clearance of about six inches. So we're not going through together. And I stop. I said, "Milana, you got to let go of my thumb. You got to go first and you just got to go by yourself." That's what we try to do at Mosaic. There comes a point in your life where it's just you and God. Mom and dad aren't there, your friends aren't there. Your community group isn't there, it's just you and the Lord and you have a decision to make. Am I going to stand firm in faith? Am I going to stand in the faith? That's what abiding means. That's what we try to teach, to abide in the Lord. No one's forcing you to read the Bible. You open the Bible. No one's forcing you to pray. No one's forcing you to worship, no one's forcing you to share the gospel, but you do it because you're standing fast through faith. And I want you to notice that standing fast through faith is contrasted with being proud. He says, don't be proud. There's nothing in you. But pride is what gets in the way of seeing God for who He is. Pride gets in the way of saving faith. Most people today, they're not Christians, not because there's not information, information's out there. Any questions you have that are in the way of you receiving Christ as Lord and Savior, the answers are out there. We can help you with that. But what really gets in the way is the pride, pride of, am I going to submit to the God of the universe and that that's part of salvation, with the humility of repenting of sin. And he says, Look, you, Gentiles, beware. God is good to you. God is kind to you and we celebrate that. But there is also a severity of God, that God is an all-consuming fire, that for some people, God for all of eternity will be severe. And he says, you need to be aware of that. Make sure that you are not cut off. Make sure that you truly are connected to the Lord. Notice in verses 23 and 24, Paul clearly anticipates a dramatic reversal of Israel's present condition of being cut off from the messianic route. Verse 23. "And even they, the Jewish people, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in again. For if they were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree." God has the power to graft Jewish people in again if they do not continue in their unbelief. So in the future, when this move of God comes, and by the way, I think the move of God is already happening because if you look at the stats of how many Jewish people, how many people have converted from Judaism to Christianity in the past 50 years, it's higher than it's ever been in the past 2000 years. So what he's saying here is, in the end times, God is going to draw up Jewish people like never before, but they're going to be drawn in the same exact way. Nothing that we do is going to change when this happens. It's not like we become more Jewish. He says it's all about faith. It's all about faith. You got to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. If the root is capable of sustaining wild olive trees, then when a natural branch comes back, obviously, it can be grafted in naturally. Hosea 14 is alluded to here, Hosea 14:1 and four through six. God talking to Israel says, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily. He will take root like the trees of Lebanon. His shoot shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive and his fragrance like Lebanon." So that's good news. But the time to come in is running out. Verse 25. "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of Gentiles has come in." So he's talking about this partial hardening where God has closed off the hearts of many of the Jewish people as a consequence for their rejection of Jesus Christ. But there's going to be a change in the situation. And what's that change connected to? It's connected to the fullness of Gentiles coming in. Coming into what? Coming into the family of God, the household of God, being grafted into the vine. That's what he's saying. So he's saying the number of Gentiles, the elect number of gentiles, that number is already decided by God and with each passing day, that number is diminished. It's getting closer to being closed off. So the idea here is, there will come a time when it's too late to trust in Jesus Christ. We know this. We know this from the text. We know this from the fact that we're all going to die. There will come a time when any and every one of us, we will die. So we must be ready. We must be ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ even today. This is a change situation, he's talking about in verse 26. "And in this way, all Israel will be saved." What does he mean by all Israel will be saved? Well, what he means is the same thing he's been explaining in Romans nine through 11, the remnant elect. God is going to save a number, we don't know how many, of ethnic Jewish people. And by all, he means all of the elect that God has chosen. "The Deliverer will come from Zion." He's talking about Jesus. "And He will banish ungodliness from Jacob." You see how active that is? He's just banishing the ungodliness. It's almost as if they had no choice. He just comes in. His fear is going to come in, banish ungodliness and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sin. So since Israel is presently hardened toward their Messiah because of unbelief, what changes their situation is that God is going to bring in Gentiles and the fullness of Gentiles, once it comes in, it's almost as if the door closes to the Gentiles. And then God brings in the Jewish people in a powerful way. And the salvation of ethnic Israel is the beginning of the end. We must know that. When we start seeing Jewish people coming to faith in droves, in significant numbers, we need to know this is the beginning of the end. And this interpretation comports with Jesus' words in Luke 21:24. It says, "They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Once the times the Gentiles are fulfilled, God removes Israel's present hardness of heart and the nation will at long last return to their Messiah. So what do we do? God does that, but what's our job? Our job is to stand to the faith and our job is to preach the gospel, with faith, praying, God, remove hardness. God, remove hardness, please, God. In particular, the Jewish people. And as we're looking at Romans 11 and talking about Jewish people coming to faith and their messiah, Jesus Christ, I just find it uncanny. And I just want to point out that we are sitting in a synagogue. This is a synagogue and we're sitting here on a Sunday, Temple Ohabei Shalom, and we're talking about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. I do not think it's an accident that we're here. I think God has positioned us in a place like Boston where there there's a large Jewish community and we worship in a temple. I think it's a great opportunity for us to proactively share the gospel with our Jewish friends and neighbors. And as I was preaching this morning, a brother came up to me, he's like, "Bro, we're so ahead of you." I was like, "What?" He's like, "Yeah, we do sleepovers with our kids on Saturday nights." He said, "One condition. We'll only let you sleep over our house if you go to church with us on Sunday." I was like, "That's brilliant." And then he says, "And the Jewish kids, they always say, 'Yeah, but we're Jewish.'" And then he's trained his Christian kids to say, "Yeah, but we meet in the synagogue." So they cancel each other out and then you can continue a conversation, because if you tried to share the gospel with Jewish people around here, that's exactly ... You shared your gospel, and they're like, "I'm Jewish." And then we're like, "So is Jesus." And then they're like, "But I go to synagogue." And I'm like, "So do we." And they're like, "I'm busy on Saturdays." "Great, because we go to church on Sundays", and that's it. And you just continue the conversation. By then they're like, "All right, fine, I'll get saved." That's what we believe, but I think we're already seeing it. There are people like Jewish descent coming to faith at Mosaic. We're seeing it. We want more of it. And what I'm telling you is, you should be emboldened, dear Christians, to share the gospel. You know the Jewish scriptures probably a thousand times better than any Jewish person that you, like secular Jewish people around. It's because they don't know their own scriptures. So if you are Jewish and you're like, "You know what, that's offensive that I don't know my scriptures." Good, you should be offended. Read your own scriptures, read the Hebrew scriptures and then keep going and learn about Jesus. Romans 11:28. "As regards to gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they're beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." He says that the people that God has elected salvation, they will come to salvation. If God has promised the gift of salvation to one of the elect, those gifts are irrevocable because God can't take his gifts back. The supreme gift that he's talking about is the gift of salvation, the gift of grace, the gift of mercy. And God will never, under any circumstances, revoke that gift. If you are truly in Christ, if you're truly a child of God, if you're truly connected to Jesus Christ, he's saying that gift is irrevocable and he continues in verse 30, 31. "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." So God gives the gifts of his word to Israel. They become disobedient. Through their disobedience, the Gentiles receive mercy and then through the Gentiles mercy, through the Gentiles preaching the gospel to Jewish people, they will receive mercy as well. Verse 32. "For God has consigned all to disobedience that He may have mercy on all." What's he talking about? He's talked about this in Romans five, that in Adam we all stand condemned, but God will have mercy on those who are in Christ, the root, when both the wild branches and the natural branches, Gentiles, Israel crafted back in. As Paul realized is what he's saying, as Paul realizes what the Holy Spirit is writing through him, that God will send a powerful move for the Holy Spirit and draw many of His kinsmen into Himself. At the end, Paul has spent three chapters thinking about all of these incredible themes, all he can do is worship. That's how he concludes. And this is point three. Our God is an awesome God. Paul follows his extraordinary affirmation of everything he just said. He follows it up with a sigh, a holy groan, if you will. And you're like, Where's the holy groan? It's in the word, in the very next verse, verse 33. Oh. O-H. But it's right there in the Greek. It's like, oh. It's a holy groan where he's like, I can't even, I can't help myself. All I can do is just worship God. It just flies out of him. "Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Pastor Andy Davis was here today. He's a good friend and a mentor and he is a pastor in North Carolina. He was here today and he said you could preach three sermons through this one verse and you can. There's so much in this text, in verses 33 through 36. Reading between lines, you see that Paul's heart is filled with love for God, worship for God, and he wants to glorify God. And this is the point of all true theology. We want you to learn theology at Mosaic. We teach theology, but we never want theology to stay just in the mind. That is just useless in the mind. Theology, true theology, has to go from the mind and the roots have to go deep into the heart. That's the only way you will be transformed. And the first lesson of systematic theology deals with the fact that you will never completely know God. You'll never comprehend God 100%. And hopefully Romans nine through 11 has already shown you that. No, God is incomprehensible. The fullness of the essence of God's glory so far transcends human ability to understand. All it can do is stand in awe of God. Well, God reveals what we can grasp, but it's only to a certain degree. There's dimensions to God, there's levels to understanding God. God is infinite and we are finite creatures. Even after you spend 10,000 years in heaven, fear saying, even when we are no longer looking through the glass darkly but basking in the glory of God, even then you will never have an exhaustive knowledge of God. Eternity isn't long enough for creatures to completely, comprehensively understand Creator. Never in this world or the next will we be able to grasp God completely. So we're left where we worship. His judgments are unsearchable, therefore we need the spirit of God to lumen God's word and make God's word intelligible to us. Romans 11:34. "For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?" No one's fully known the mind of the Lord, his mind is absolutely perfect. There's no folly in his mind. His mind is a treasure store of wisdom. And God doesn't need us to counsel Him. Sometimes we try to, in our prayers. We try to inform God. We try to tell God how He should change His plan. Lord, I've got some advice for you, please. And God just laughs at us. No. No one can. You can't. What do you mean, counsel him? Romans 11:35. "Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?" No, you can't give Him anything. You can't get Him to owe you anything. That's not how it works. Romans 11:36. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be glory forever. Amen." In this single verse, we find the sum and the substance of the whole biblical revelation of the being and character of God. In these three succinct prepositions, from, through, and to Him are all things. This verse is so chockfull of spiritual power. I'm telling you, meditate on, chew over this verse all week. "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things." He's the ultimate source of everything. From Him comes everything. So meaning, nothing that happens, nothing that happens, occurs outside of the sovereign will of God. So every single thing that happens is in some sense from Him, all the good and all the bad. And if you walk with the Lord, you will know that there comes seasons of trial and tribulation and pain and suffering. And you, dear Christian, you go back to this verse and you say, from Him are all things. From Him. All the good and the bad. This is Job. Job says, God, you've given me, you've taken. Praise be the name of the Lord. From Him are all things. Truth, beauty, goodness, but also suffering, also pruning, also transformation through the gospel. From Him are all things. Through Him are all things. This is Colossians 1:15 through 17. He, Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things. And in Him all things hold together." Through him are all things. All things that come to pass in this world ultimately come to pass through the sovereign agency of God Himself. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. The word to indicates the purpose toward which everything is moving. What is the purpose? Where is everything going? What is the goal of the universe? What is the ultimate purpose of all history? In a word, the answer is God. He's the alpha and He is the omega. He's the beginning and He's the end. He's the source. And all things are moving in history and in the universe to fulfill the purpose of God. So where are we left, verse 36. "For from Him and through Him and to Him and all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." Glory. In the Hebrew, it's the word kavod, which means weightiness, significance, value, gravitas. God's glory is so transcendent and it is so singularly transcendent no one can possess any glory in a similar magnitude. God reveals his glory in the Old Testament through the shekinah cloud. And the shekinah cloud is so excellent in its brilliance that the human beings have to shield their eyes from this glory lest they go blind. And that's just the outward manifestation of the glory of God, of the eternal inward dignity of God. In Romans 21 and 22, this is how holy scripture ends and talks about a holy city descending, coming down out of heaven. And strangely, it is described as a place where the sun does not shine. There are no candles, there's no moon, there's no artificial source of light. And you would think that such a place would just be dark, perpetual darkness. No. The author of Revelation tells us there's no need of a sun or artificial light. Why? Because the glory of God, the very radiance of His son bathes the holy city in perpetual light. It's the glow from the very face of God. The manifestation of His glory illuminates every single square inch of the kingdom of heaven. And the light of the glory of God is never extinguished. That's why the apostle says to him, "Be glory forever." The glory of God begins in eternity, will continue for eternity. And when we come into His presence to worship him, the only appropriate response is reverence and awe, and humility and submission. Why? Why? Because this glorious God of inscrutable judgments, unsearchable ways, this glory, from Him through Him, to Him, just this glorious God who created everything. He humbled Himself to the point where He becomes a baby. The infinite breaks into the finite, the eternal breaks into the temporal. God comes and He lives with us. He becomes a baby. He comes into all of our garbage, all of our trash, just all of our sin and brokenness, this whole mess. And He comes and He lives and He lives this perfect life that He then offers up as a sacrifice. God, the Father, take my life, not theirs. He goes to the cross, this great God, glorious God on the cross. He's being crucified after being mocked and scourged. He's being crucified. And He says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They were clearly guilty. He says, "Forgive them." Lord, Lord Jesus. What are you doing on the cross? You created everything. Lord, why don't you just kill everybody? No, no, no. The only way that these people could be saved, the only way that any one of us can be saved is through Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins. Only He can bear the full weight of the wrath of God, the son of God, the son of man, fully God fully man. Only He can stand in the gap between us and God. He is the only mediator. So look to the cross, dear friend, repent of your sin. Trust in Jesus Christ. He came back from the dead. Now He's reigning and He's ruling and He will come back and He will judge and then it will be too late. So if you're not a Christian today, we ask that you cry out to the Lord from the depth of your soul. Cry out, Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sins. Lord, have mercy on me. I'm a wicked, a great sinner. And the very moment you do that from the bottom of your heart, you're saved. You're saved. You're welcome to the fold of God. Your eternity is secure. Your name is written in heaven. And once you're in the family, you know what we tell you? We say your name is written in heaven before the foundation of the world, so don't get proud. Stand fast through faith and fear, because we worship an awesome God. Lord God, we pray to you. It's all we can do. We thank you and we take this text, Lord, and we marvel at it. We marvel at your glory. We marvel at your goodness to us. We know that we deserve a severity, but you offer us a goodness because of your son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are amongst us through the preaching of your word. And we thank you, Holy Spirit, that you're with us today. I pray, Holy Spirit, stir us right now to worship you with everything we got, to worship you in spirit and in truth. And I pray if there's anyone who's still not sure of where they stand with you, I pray today that they will not leave this place without making sure. They will talk to someone or they pray to you and cry out and beg you for mercy. Lord, bless our time as we worship you and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Awaken oh you Dormant Remnant

October 2, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 11:1–15

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to you for this morning, for this life you've given us. Another opportunity today is to worship you, to glorify you with everything we have. Everything we have is yours, everything, absolutely everything. The only thing we can take responsibility for is our own sin and our own folly. Everything else, Lord is from you, so we thank you for life and we thank you for the opportunity to be redeemed, reconciled, restored, for the opportunity to be welcomed into your family, adopted as sons and daughters regenerated by the power of the Spirit. Holy Spirit, we pray for a special anointing upon each one of us today. I pray if there's anyone who's not yet a believer, I pray, speak to them in a very, very clear way so they know that it's your voice, it's not a man's voice. In the same way that Elijah heard from you in the whisper, I pray, whisper, whisper words of salvation. And we pray, Holy Spirit of blessed our time in the word for those who are elect. And in this general vicinity, I pray that you draw them to gospel proclaiming churches. I pray that they not be dormant in their faith, in particular as the days are growing darker. Lord Jesus, bless our time in the holy scriptures of praises in Jesus name, Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through Romans, which has been incredible. And the title of the sermon today is Awakened Oh You Dormant Remnant. As you watch the news and you see everything's going on and questions arise, are we living in the end times? Well, it's a question that's always been asked by Christians in all ages, and many answers to this question may be found locked in our text today in Romans 11 and then in the next couple weeks. But when people ask questions like, Are we on the brink of World War3? Only Lord knows. But it's the natural state of the fallen heart to say, Jesus, everything's falling apart. Everything around us right about now would be a tremendous time to come back. Can you please come back and fix everything? And I understand this heart cry of lament, but we as the people of God, we can't stay there. We can't sit on our hands waiting for Jesus to come back and fix everything. When Jesus is like, "Hey, I've literally given you the game plan. I've given you the strategy of how to fix everything." And then once you start implementing the game plan, then Jesus comes back. He said, "Preach the gospel of the kingdom in the whole world." This is Matthew 24:14. "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come." The gospel will be preached in the whole world. So our job, when we start thinking, "Oh my, this might be the end times." Our job as Christians to say, "Hey, am I preaching the gospel?" In particular in a place like Boston? I remember and when God called me the seminary and called me at the vocational ministry, I was like, "Lord, you know what? I'll do it as long as you come back during my lifetime. Just so I'm alive, just so I see Jesus Christ with the flaming sword. I want to be around for that." Just to be like, Ah, I told everyone. We were right. But in seminary they said, You got to preach the gospel to the whole world. And I said, "What? How can I do that? I can't do that." But I know a place where people from all over the world come, and that's Boston, Massachusetts. We're here and we are called to preach the gospel even when everything else is falling apart. And the gospel is very simple. The gospel is, God created you to worship him, we're to worship the king, King Jesus. We are to follow his world and build up his kingdom by following his word. And this is what St. Paul is doing as he's giving us a blueprint in the book of Romans of how to rebuild society. That's what Christianity is. Christianity is how can we recreate humanity? How can we have a humanity within the humanity, a city within the city, a people within a people who live life completely differently, live life in submission to God? And Romans nine, Paul establishes the fact, well, it's God's grace, we need God's grace. If anything's going to change, if we're going to do any kingdom work, if the church is going to grow, we need God's grace. And he establishes the principle of salvation is based only upon God's grace. Election isn't foresee on works or good faith, it's just that God chooses people, that's what grace is. Can you ever earn more grace? That's not a trick question. Can you ever earn more grace? No, we can't. We can never earn more grace. That's what he says, it's all grace. So God pours out grace. And the question is in Romans 10, what about the Jewish people? What about the remnant? And Paul says, it's still grace. They get saved, Jewish people in the same way the Gentiles get saved, it's all grace. Israel's problem says Paul is not a lack of zeal but a lack of knowledge. And as a result, Israel sought to establish a righteousness of their own through works and not through grace. And this was part of the divine purpose so that as Gentiles come to faith in Israel's God, this Jewish people are like, "We're are the chosen people." And then gentiles are come into faith and they're like, "Actually, we're the chosen people because we follow Jesus. He made us the chosen people and you're saved by grace through faith." And then the Jews are like, "Hey, that's not fair." And they're provoked, and Pastor Andy and the sermon last week had this incredible illustration about his two daughters, Clara and Audrey. Clara, he said, "Hey, come in for a hug." And she's like, Eh. Because she's taken her father's love for granted, not the fresh baby, not Audrey. She's like, oh, and then Clara is provoked. That's what's going on with Gentiles. This pendulum of grace that Israel had the gospel, they had grace and then they lost it. And then the pendulum of grace goes to the Gentiles. And then St. Paul says in chapter 11 that this pendulum of grace is going to swing to the Jews again. Romans 1:1 through 15. Sorry, I'm speaking really fast, there's a lot in this text and I want to cover all of it, that's my ambition. So would you pay attention with me? Romans chapter 11:1 through 15, "I asked then has God rejected his people? By no means for myself am and Israelite a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 'Lord, they've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars, and I alone and left and they seek my life.'" "But what is God's reply to him? 'I've kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So to at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, the elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day.' And David says, 'Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.' So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means? Rather though through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentile so as to make Israel jealous." "Now, if they're trespassed means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I'm speaking to you gentiles, in as much then as I am and apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. But if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? But life from the dead?" This is the reading of God's holy inherent infallible authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We'll just walk through the text today given that this is a text about eschatology. So when speaking about eschatology, eschatology is the knowledge or the science of the eschaton, which is the end times. Whenever speaking on things like this, it's very important to be precise. And the text has to do with future prophecies found in the Bible, both old and new testaments. And it has to do with the end times. One biblical scholar said that two thirds of the doctrinal matter in the New Testament focuses one way or another on eschatology. Now if you're aware of Christianity, if you spent time in churches, you're probably familiar that there are many camps when it comes to the end times. There's the post-millennialism, the pre-millennialism, the amillennialism, the preterism, partial-preterismism, dispensationalism, et cetera. And how we understand eschatology to a large degree is connected to how we understand Romans 11. And this is what the chapter's about. Much of the dispute about his eschatology is, hey, what happens to Jewish people in the end? What happens to the people of God? That's really the question that he is wrestling with here in the end times. Romans 11:1, "I ask then, has God rejected is people?" It's a rhetorical question. In the old Testament times, Israel was called out of paganism and they were set apart to be the people of God. That God says, "You are now mine. Your lives will be patterned according to my character. You will live in a way that is going to bring peace, shalom, not just to your own life, but to life of your marriage and life of your family and the life of your community." And that was the people of God. There was a theocratic nation with God as its ultimate king. And Israel was given a mandate and a destiny and Paul earlier lamented, "Hey, did God reject his people completely?" Well he says, "No." Verse one, "I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means, for I, myself am an Israel, a descendant of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." He's saying God is not categorically rejected the Jewish people. And here he argues from the lesser to the greater. He said, if God had rejected all the Jews, then he would've rejected Paul. But Paul was a Jew so, he's living, breathing, writing proof that God hasn't rejected the Jews just because of their ethnicity. Paul cites his pedigree, including a brief recounting of his background, traces a roots to the tribe of Benjamin all the way to Abraham. Verse two, "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." That's really the issue. He says, "Who are the chosen people?" It's not people who are born into a Jewish family. It's not people who identify as being Jewish. It's not people who identify as being Christian. That's not what saves anybody. What saves a person is repentance of faith. King Jesus, I have sinned against your law, have violated it, I have broken your code, your moral commandments. I have not loved God with all my heart, soul, strength and might. I have not loved neighbor as myself. When you repent of sin and you're drawn to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, sometimes it happens immediately and dramatically and you're a brand new person within five seconds. I haven't seen that happen often in Boston. Mostly in Boston, it's very progressive. It's you come, you listen, you read scripture, you meditate, you think, you ask God, you have conversation, you wrestle. And then after a while you don't know when you became a believer, but you say, "You know what I think I believe in Jesus Christ. I have repented my sin, I've accepted grace." You are part of these people that God has foreknew. That's what he's saying, that God is incapable of rejecting people whom he foreknew from the foundation of the world. Here he brings the concept of election to the Jewish people. Earlier he wrote in Romans 9:6, "It is not as though God's word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." That circumcision doesn't save a person, going to mass doesn't save a person, going to religious building doesn't save anybody, it doesn't save you from the wrath of God that we have earned. We have incurred through our law breaking. So what we need is grace. That's what he is talking about. And it's a grace that is completely under the sovereign will of God. So God hasn't finally rejected the Jews, Paul's living proof of that. So was the early church. The early church were mostly Jewish people. Jesus was Jewish, the disciples are Jewish. Most of the 500 eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ upon the resurrection were Jewish. And I don't mean like Jewish, I mean like religious Jews. And the fact that, and I marvel at this, the fact that Mosaic Boston meets in a synagogue every Sunday is weekly proof for the veracity of the historical bodily resurrection of Christ. And here's what I mean. Jewish people worship their Lord on what day? On Saturday. Well, they're not using the building on Sundays. So that's how we got in. Well, why are we worshiping God on a Sunday? Because the early Jews were told by Jesus Christ when he came back from the dead, "Hi, I am the Messiah and I came back from the dead. So that proves that everything I said is true. I am God, and now you'll worship me on the resurrection, day on Sundays." And this is how Paul did ministry, he would go to synagogues one day would meet and preach the gospel. So Romans 11:2 B, he continues, "Do not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars. And I alone him left and they seek my life." As is his custom, Paul often appeals to the Old Testament, to bolster the point. He's saying, "I'm not making this up. It's all in the Bible. Just read it. Read scripture, you'll understand God." In one of Israel's darkest hours, God preserved a believing remnant. There were people who were followers of God only because God preserved them. That's what he said. So this cry from the prophet of Elijah comes perhaps during the worst time of Apostacy in all of Old Testament Israel. So Elijah makes a plea, this plea while Ahab was the king. Ahab was married to Jezebel who was not a Christian. Jezebel was a priestess of the cult of Baal. So Ahab was to marry someone who worship Yahweh, who worshiped God, no, he married someone who worshiped Baal. And then little by little she had influence over the king and she invited pagan idolators into the royal house and persuaded Ahab to sanction all kinds of idolatrous religion. And under Ahab and Jebel, there was a massive persecution of the true believers of God. And a lot of the Jewish places of worship were destroyed. So Elijah had enough. Elijah gets to this point where he is like, I'd rather die than see the people of God hiding. I'd rather die than see the name of God defamed. It's kind of what happens when David, Young David, like David, Goliath, David. When he comes in and he goes to visit his brothers and he sees the army of Israel and then he sees the army of the Philistines, then he sees Goliath come out and for 40 days and 40 nights he came out and he cursed the name of God. Well there was a zeal kindled in the heart of David and he's like, "Hey, I love God and these people are cursing, God, I would rather die. I don't know... and I'm going to toss these stones with everything I've got at Goliath and if I die, I die." That's kind of the mindset of the zeal of God and the heart of Elijah where he's like, "You know what? I'm done with these priests of Baal. Hey, let's have a challenge. Let's have a prayer off. Let's see, God is real. So he challenges the prophets of Baal to this fair off in 1King's 18:27 through 29. The prophets of Baal. They build their little altar and then they're going around, and at noon, Elijah began to taunt them. They've been shouting for hours, "Shout louder. He said, Surely he is a God. Perhaps he's deep in thought or busy." That's a nice way in the English of translating that he's relieving himself or traveling maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened. "So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with sword and spears as was their custom until their blood flowed. Midday passed and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention." And then Elijah orders that the altar be doused with water. And then he saturates it with prayer and he begs God to send fire from heaven. The Lord God omnipotent sends fire from heaven that consumes the whole altar. And in the midst of Israel's hellish reversion to paganism, Elijah leads this revival because he got exhausted with seeing the name of God defamed. That's what happened in 1King's 18, huge win, huge win. Fire from heaven, huge win Elijah, you should go celebrate. Like this is the time you take a cruise or something, whatever prophets do. He doesn't. He falls into some kind of spiritual lament. He's exhausted with living, he's in this midst he cries out to God in first King's 19, "Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, 'Made the god's deal with me, be ever so severely if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.'" So this same guy who just saw fire come from heaven gets a death threat from Jezebel and says verse three, "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life when he came to Beersheba and Judah, he left his servant there. And while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness." "He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I've had enough Lord, he said, Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he laid down under the bush and fell asleep." Have you ever been there? We all have been there. We've all been on our side in a fetal position on the floor in a small room. We have been "God, I've had enough. Please nothing. Please take me, take me, I'm ready to go." And then says, "All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.'" Oh, he was just hungry. He was just, oh, he just needed some carbs. "So an angel comes, he looks around and thereby his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then laid down. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat for the journey is too much for you.'" "So he got up and ate and drank, strengthened by that food, he's traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' He replied, 'I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelis have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me too.' The Lord said, 'Go and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. For the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart. And shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper, Elijah heard it. He pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then the voice said to him, 'What are you doing here Elijah?' And he replied, Same thing. 'I been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty, the Israelites have rejected your covenant, tore down the author, put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left and now they're trying to kill me. They're trying to kill me too.' The Lord said to him, 'Go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, Anoint Hazael King over Iram, also annoyed Jehu the son of Nimshi king of over Israel. Anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escaped the sword of Hazael and Elisha will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu. Who yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel. All whose needs have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.'" The whole chapter Elijah is like, "Where is everybody? Where is every? I'm by myself." And God's like, I've got a remnant, they just haven't been awakened yet. That's kind of what's going on. There's a remnant but they haven't shown up yet. And God uses Elijah here to awaken these people out of apostasy, and that's what St. Paul is really talking about. We pray for revival, we pray for revival at this church, we pray for revival in Boston. Partially because historically speaking, this is a battleground, spiritually speaking in many ways. We pray for revival, but revival must always first come from the house of God. It must come first from our own hearts. And that's what the Old Testament is about, over and over and over. But not just paganism, but apostasy and they're different. An Apostate is one who at some point professed faith in God. Pagan just don't believe in God and the God of scripture, apostasy is at some point you believe, at some point your church believed that scripture, the Bible was the living word of God. At some point your church renounced it, your denomination renounced it and becomes apostate. That's what's going on here. Romans 11:4, but what is God's reply to him? "I've kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 7,000 within that godless nation. They had not kept themselves for God, but God had kept them. When you look back at your life, do you view God's movement in your life like this? That it's God keeping you, that it's God protecting you. This is what Jesus Christ taught us to pray. "Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. Lord, protect me. Protect me from sin. Lord, protect me from myself. Protect me from my spiritual lethargy. Lord, protect me." I do believe in the perseverance of the saints, but it's because I believe in the preservation of the saints. That whomever God does save, which is a miracle, he will continue that miracle all the way to heaven. Because whoever is truly a Christian is a walking miracle. Anyone, Every Christian is a walking miracle. It's the Holy Spirit did a miracle. And you recreated, you gave you a new heart. Verse five, "So too, at the present time there was a remnant chosen by grace." What does the word remnant mean? You ever think about that remnant? Well, it means fragment. It means scrap. Scripture has a lot of metaphors to explain Christians, seed left after the field has been plowed, drag's found to the bottom of a cup, loose ends that are only fit for a trash barrel. A stump left from a fell tree, drag's reserved by God in election. God doesn't choose the very best, no, he chooses the very worst. He's preserved his remnant, which he determined to redeem from the foundation of the world. This is why I do believe that the true faith of the church of Jesus Christ will continue until the end. We will never be erased, not the true chosen people of God. And Paul himself here is very hopeful for the people of God. He himself was disobedient and God saved him. If God could save someone as stubborn at St. Paul, God could save absolutely anybody. St. Paul was miraculously transformed from a ferocious wolf to a tamed sheep. He was the arch persecutor of the church and now becomes the apostle to the Gentiles. He knew God's mercy. And he's like, "If I got it, anyone can get it." And by the way, do you believe this? Do you view Christianity like this? Do you believe the gospel like the, salvation like this? "I can't believe I'm saved. And if God can save me, he can save absolutely everybody." Question, who are the least likely people on the planet to follow Jesus Christ? What group of people are the least likely to follow Jesus Christ? Well right up there I think, well whoever that is, that list, whatever your top five, your top 10, that's usually how God saves people. That's exactly who God is going to save. For me, I think that the least likely are Jewish people in New England. Jewish people in Brookline, Massachusetts. I think the least likely to become Christians, followers of God, I think the least likely. That's why I think God in his great humor has sent us here, just to see if this election stuff is true. I dare to test it. You know how? Share the gospel to Jewish people, share it. By the way, we as a church, we're positioned the best of anybody to share the gospel with Jewish people and share the good news with Jewish people. Because we literally tell, I do this all the time, I do this all the time. Because hey, "What do you do?" And I was like, "I'm a pastor." And they were like, "Where?" I was like, "Right here on Beacon Street, that massive building." He's like, "I've always wanted to go." "You should come, you should come. Sunday, 9:15, 11, you should come." God is doing a work, invite Jewish people to hear the gospel. And what is the gospel? What is the gospel? If you're Jewish, when you're like, all right, what's the gospel? Let's get the point. I'll tell you, the gospel is good news, Good news. Think of the best good news you've ever gotten, the best good news you've ever gotten. The first time, the best good news I can remember, the most tremendous news was when I made enough money to buy a car and I drove home in the Audi 80. That was tremendous news that I got to share with my friends. "Hey guys, I got a car, you don't." And that was tremendous news. Getting into college, that's always tremendous news, that's great. Getting engaged and you're like, "Hey, come to my wedding." That's great news. "We have a baby." That's tremendous news, tremendous news you... And usually the best news, it always has to do with people. It always has to do with relationships. Because look at the end of your life, you're going to be 95. You're going to be looking very, we all know this is so cliche, but you in the world, wind of life, you kind of forget. You're not going to be like, "I wish I worked hard at work. I wish I had made more money, I wish I'd bought more stuff, I wish I was more stylish, I wish I my percent body fat was lower, I wish I was." No, no one cares about. It's, "Who are the people I loved? And whom did I love?" It's all relationships. Well, scripture teaches us that the greatest relationship that is offered to us, the relationship with the God of the universe, has been severed by our own stubbornness. We're all stubborn. The fact that you don't think you are sinner proves the fact that you are a great sinner. Because when's the last time you have even considered the law of the living God? We don't. No one in our culture considers the law of God. That's how indifferent we are, that's how much we hate God. So obviously we're sinners, but God in this great love did not leave us in our sin. Sends his son Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who lives a perfect life, fulfills every single one of God's laws. Fulfills God's will even when he didn't want to, at that moment, when it matters most. The moment of garden of Gethsemane. "Lord, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me, but not my will. Your will be done. That moment, every single one of us, we have crossed. "Lord, let this cup fast from me." And Lord says, "No." And you're saying, "See you." That sin turning your back on God, running away from God, carrying nothing for the things of God. And then Jesus Christ comes, he goes to the cross after Gethsemane, he pours out his blood, he's crucified, nails through his hands, through his feet. He's crucified by his very own Jewish people whom he loved. He was Jewish, they're Jewish. And then he's buried and he comes back from the dead and he promises whoever repent of sin, that's all you have to... All repentance is turning your heart from being away from God to God. That's all Elijah was doing. His whole job was to turn the hearts of the people of God back to God. Stop saying you love God with your words, but your whole life, when no one sees you, you're not a believer. So share the gospel. And this one of the thing I do hear from people. They say, "Well, Paul had a cool testimony. Other people have cool testimonies. Like if you're a drug addict or you killed someone and then you met Jesus and then you knew person, that's awesome, that's cool. But me, my testimony's so boring." My testimony like this is the way I used to think. I grew up in a Christian family, we went to church, we tried to read the Bible here and there, things like that. And I'm like, But yeah, I met God a few points in my life where it's clear God exists, got into his word, you get saved. Your testimony only is boring if you're not honest about how wicked you are. And it's hard to say how wicked you are out loud to people. It's hard to say, "I was up and then that thing, but Jesus delivered me from." It's hard to say, it's even harder to hear that personal. So I say you just use biblical words. Just use, "I was lost as a sheep and then Jesus went and he found," use biblical words, but share your story. At what moments in life that God really showed up really ministered to you. So that's my encouragement to do, share the gospel, preach the gospel, proclaim the gospel, use words to people, explain what the gospel is, and then lead them to scripture. Romans 11:6 through seven, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking the elect obtain it, but the rest were hardened." Here he says that the due concepts grace and works, they're mutually exclusive as we have seen through this Epistle. Grace by definition is unmerited, you can't earn it. It's unearned, undeserved. And Paul makes it simple, it's one or the other. Our relationship with God is one or the other. It's based on one or the other. And our only hope is grace. And Paul is writing about the Jewish people as a whole, his kinsman, that they too can only be saved by grace. So the fact that you are ethnically Jewish does not necessarily put you in better terms relationship with God. No, it's only through race. It's only through Jesus Christ. Romans 11:8, "As it's written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day." People of Israel were blinded because God made them blind, that's what he's saying. But their blindness is punishment for their sin. They didn't want to see God. God had given them his word and they rejected it. If you don't want to hear God's word and there are parts of God's word that is hard to hear, friends. You never graduate from that. If you get to a point where you don't want to hear the word of God, well be careful because God does make people deaf. If you keep pushing, you keep pushing, you keep resisting, you keep being stubborn and stiff neck, there will come a time where you just become deaf to the word of God. You want nothing to do with it, I've seen it. If you don't want to see the kingdom of God, whatever you see vaguely will be taken away. If you're not alive and energetic to the things of God, when the spirit of God whispers, when the spirit of God blows, be careful that God does not visit you with the spirit of lethargy, taking away from you whatever zeal was already given. And Paul hear cites David, who's speaking about the enemies of God and God's kingdom in Romans 11:9, And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap. And a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be dark and so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever." What's he talking about here? Well, it's the imagery of a table. Elsewhere in Psalm 23, David says, "You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies." What is this table? It's a banquet feast that God has prepared and it's visible to the enemies of the kingdom. So in a sense, at the banquet where God is over this banquet, the enemies of God can see in. And concerning this imagery, Luther said that ultimately the table is imagery of God's word. God's word is the feast at the table. That's the spread. The banquet feast is the oracles of God's word. They were given, not to the Assyrians or the Babylonians and the Acadians, but to the people of Israel. And they had the Oracles of God and David saw how's enemies hated the word of God. That's where he wrote. And Psalm 69:22, "May the table set before them become a snare and may it become retribution and a trap." Once God's enemies come to the table and they hear God's word and they see the sumptuous food, because of pride in their heart, rebellion against the God who has given this feast, that same food becomes a trap for them. A trap that pounces like a hammer on their heads. Luther looking at Psalm 69:22 said, "It's like the flower in the field whose nectar is used to make honey for the bee, but the nectar is poison to the spider." You're saying to those who are being saved, the word of God is sweetness and honey. But for those who are perishing, it is poison. And this is one of the challenges of preaching the gospel. This is one of the challenges of not just my job, but your job, our job as collectively as the people of God. We are to make disciples proclaiming the word of God. For some people, they receive it and it is sweet, it's so sweet. It's so sweet to see a new Christian. One of the sweetest things where you just see the scales fall off, the eyes becoming tendered to the word of God. Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry questions just, it's one of the sweetest, sweetest things to see. And for some people that same exact message makes them want to fight. They want to fight. And usually... They don't want to really fight. They don't want to really fight. They want to fight on Google and Google reviews and things like that. But in a place like Boston, the odds are stacked against you. This is what Pastor Randy was talking about last week. You got to develop this tough skin of being able to take L's. Yeah, you share the gospel L, you share the gospel L. It's like nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And then like statistically speaking, very few people of those to whom you're going to tell the word of God in the gospel, statistically very few are going to become Christians around you. Very few. But they're going to start paying attention. For now, they're going to start paying attention. And it takes years, sometimes takes decades. And the seeds you sew now, God's word does not return void. Romans 11:11, "So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means, rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so has to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their inclusion mean?" He's saying Israel's present bareness was brought with a blessing to the Gentiles. That Israel stumbled for that purpose. It's a clear pattern in these verses that there is this pendulum, as I was saying, of God's grace and it climaxes in history, in salvation history immediately before the return of Christ. That's what he's talking about. This time, Israel's sin is described as bringing blessings to the Gentiles. That's our age. While Israel's loss becomes Gentiles gain, but as redemptive historical, this pendulum swings back the other way. Israel's fullness will in turn serve to bring greater riches to the Gentiles. So Israel, people of God, chosen, Jesus comes, they rejected. Pendulum, swings to the gentiles, swinging to the Gentiles. And toward the end times, this is what he's saying, the pendulum comes back, comes back, comes back. And those Jewish people, ethically Jewish religiously at that time, God is going to bring a great revival amongst them. This is verse 13, "Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles, in as much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world." So they've been rejected so that we gentiles can be reconciled. "How much more so, that's what you say, what will their acceptance mean? But life from the dead." How can Paul equate Israel's future acceptance with the resurrection? What's the connection between Israel's future acception and the resurrection life from the dead? Well, the phrase life from the dead is, in a figurative expression, meaning that it's the reception of Israel that will bring this blessing, this new life. Israel's acceptance does not mark the beginning of a golden age, according to this text. So this, a lot of post-millennial people point to this text and they're like, Oh, this is where a thousand year reign of Christ that begins here. No, he's saying when the Jews, when there is this revival amongst the Jewish people, it marks the end. Israel's conversions assigned that this present evil age is about to come to an end with the resurrection. Israel's acceptance is in some way connected to the general resurrection at the end of the age. But this is all happening so Israel's fullness and acceptance will trigger that climactic end of salvation history. So he's saying the acceptance of Israel and the resurrection, they're interconnected. And when Israel is converted, the end of the age is at hand. So when you do start hearing about Jewish people getting saved on mass, you should start getting worried if you're not a Christian and you should get saved. But I'm telling you, I'm already hearing about it, I'm already seeing it. So if you're not yet a Christian, I'm telling you the end is near. It's very near. And also we don't know how much we have left the end for any one of us might be today. So repent for today is the day of salvation. Will there be a role for Israel in the future? Likely, yes. Immediately before the end of the age, huge numbers of ethnic Jews will come to faith in Jesus Christ and then become members of Christ's church. Their conversion will herald the coming of Jesus Christ in the end of the age. And until then, what is our job? Until then, we joined with Paul in his impassioned prayer in Romans 10:1, "Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israel is that, they may be saved." That's our heart's desire, that's our heart's desire for every single person to be saved. First Corinthians 15:20, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through man. For as in Adam all dies, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him, then the end will come. When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. Pretty much reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy to be destroyed is death for he has put everything under his feet." In conclusion, Romans 10:11 tells us that there is a remnant, who's chosen by grace. And this was what Elijah was wrestling with. He's like, "Lord, I'm the only one, I'm the only one. They've killed everyone else." And then God's like, "I've got 7,000, relax." But the thing with Elijah is, the 7,000 weren't really helpful. And I wonder how many Christians like that are in Boston. I wonder because a friend text me, he is like, "Do you have any demographics of recently in churches?" And I was like, "Look man, every pastor I talk to looks like they've been like band of brothers, they just got back from World War II. COVID just diminished every church, just everyone's like barely hanging out." I was like, I don't care about demographics, I don't care about people who identify as Christians. I don't care about any of that. I care about the fruit. What's the fruit? The fruit I want to see is how many faithfully committed Christians are there in attendance today in churches in Greater Boston? How many? If you go around in every single church in Boston, Greater Boston, how many? Can we get 7,000? Can we get 7,000 men? Well, I believe that there is a remnant. But there's just a call to the remnant that is dormant. And I say this because, let me just connect this to football real quick. You know how in Texas football is amazing, Texas, Florida all down to Alabama, they've got third graders that could probably be in the NFL. I don't know what they're... So like huge stadiums, they got professional coaches and I'm from Rhode Island I played football in a school where no one played football. It's like whoever shows up, that's the team. And we never had enough people to play. So whoever signed up played every single position. So since freshman year, I played every single position. On offense, I was a lineman, on defense, I was a middle linebacker. On punt return, I was the returner kick. And I was the kicker on top of all that. And then when I got to senior year and our team stunk, and I remember my coach pulling me aside and he said, "Jan, I'm so sorry." I said, "What for coach? For you being an alcoholic?" And he said, "No, not for that." I said, "What you?" He said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry you didn't go to high school in Texas." Tremendous, a lot of support, a lot of infrastructure. That's kind of what the church situation is. Boston compared to other parts of the country. If you come from here, if you come and you're like, "Yeah, I'm only here for a year, I'm only here for two years, you know what? Boston's not really home." And then home is always back there. And you come here and you come to church here and you take, and you take and you take, everyone else who lives here is like, "You know what? I'm tired. I'm like Elijah, I'm like, Lord, kill me, kill me, please." Not me. Elijah. But that's the general. So this is my appeal to you, dormant remnant. If you are a Christian, you're like, "I am a believer, but I think I've been to sleep. I haven't read my Bible, I don't have ears to hear, I have a spirit of stupor. When I pray it seems like I'm just speaking to the ceiling." I guess the spirit of stupor, it is demonic. If there is a remnant and you're hearing my voice, I am calling you, I'm summoning the elect. I'm summoning the elect to you be faithful where you are. Be faithful to the Lord. If you really are elect, understand what that means, what kind of great gift that, and it comes with responsibilities to share the gospel with those who don't yet know the Lord. So I'll ask you the question of Elijah. If you're like, "I'm not sure, am I elect? Am I dormant? Am I not a Christian?" Well, I'll ask you the question, Elijah, how long will you waiver between two opinions? The Lord is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him. Is God the primary orienter of your life? Is he the true north star of your life? That everything is aligned according to God and his word. If not, then you're following something else. If God is Lord, follow him. Romans 10:9 through 13, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put the shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved." Everyone, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So today, friends call on the name of the Lord and as we transition to holy communion, call on the name of Jesus Christ, we're remembering him today. He said, Do to this in remembrance of me, of his person, of who he was, of his character, of who he is, of his word, of what he taught, of his sacrifice on the cross for us. For whom is holy communion. It's for repentant Christians, it's for this remnants, for the elect who repent of sin and follow Jesus faithfully. And when you stumble, you repent, you get up and you ask for grace. So if you're not a Christian, if you today do not respond to the gospel call. If you do not repent of sin and trust in Jesus, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service, this is for believers in Christ. And if you are a Christian living in sin, known sin that you have not repented of, we call you to repentance and leave that sin and then you're welcome partake. And if you don't repent and leave that sin, don't partake in this, it won't be helpful. It might actually cause physical harm according to first Corinthians 11. "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, 'The cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another if anyone's hungry, let them eat at home so that when you come together, it will be not be for judgment about the other things that will give directions when I come." If you would like to participate in holy community, you haven't received the elements, please raise your hand when the ushers will hand you one. I actually need one too. I forgot mine. Thanks. Actually I'll take two, I'll take two, I'll take two. One for a second service. Perfect. Would you please pray with me over Holy communion. Heavenly Father, as we today meditate on the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, we don't meditate on it just to feel bad for the physical anguish that you went through. And we meditate on it because Jesus, you won. You conquered Satan sin and death on the cross. We worship a God who conquered evil. We thank you Jesus that you today, the resurrected Christ, that you're seated at the right hand of God, the Father, and that we can commune with you, we can bow our hearts at the altar right before you're throne. We can get on our knees, we can ask for forgiveness and you grant it to us. Because of your victory on the cross, because of your victorious sacrifice. Lord, I pray today by the power of the Spirit that you increase our zeal, every single one of us. Make us the people who, like, Elijah are willing to suffer anything so that your name will not be defamed. Jesus, we thank you for dying on the cross for our sins, bearing our penalty and shame, and we worship you now. We thank you for your body, we thank you for your blood and we thank you for the spirit of God that is amongst us. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread and after breaking he said, This is my body broken for you. Take eat and do this in remembrance of me. Then proceed to take the cup. He said, "This cup is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, which poured out for the sins of many. Take drink and do this in remembrance of me. If today is the first time you've received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, would love to pray with you after the service. Pastor Andy will be right up here, or if you just want to talk more about the faith, we'd love to answer any questions. With that said, would you please pray with me as we continue our service? Lord, we worship you. We worship you for the God that you are the greatness of your glory, your blazing holiness, your totally otherness transcendence, and yet you bow down and you came down to us. We thank you Jesus for that. And I pray Jesus, that you make us people who want to share the good news just because we're thrilled about it. What incredible deal it really is, because of the work of Christ we can bring you our sin and you forgive us and we become yours. And now you reorder our lives, reorder the chaos of our lives by your word. And I pray you continue to do that, and I pray that you receive our worship now with heartfelt gratitude. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The Heart of Unbelief

September 25, 2022 • Andy Hoot • Romans 10:16–21

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Today we are continuing this long but lively journey in the Book of Romans. We're going to read Romans 10:16-21. Romans 10:16-21. Open that up in your Bibles if you have one. On the surface, as we read it, it might be a little confusing as to what it's about. There's a lot of Old Testament quotations. There's a lot of terminology. Ultimately, there is one clear message. The title of the sermon is the Heart of Unbelief. We'll get to the heart of an unbeliever, flesh out what that actually looks like. It'll really inform us about how to engage people in evangelism. There will be many other asides that we can take away through this piece of scripture. Please hear the reading of God's word, Romans 10:16-21, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ, but I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry.' Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I've been found by those who did not seek me. I've shown myself to those who did not ask for me.' But of Israel, he says, 'All day long, I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'" This is the reading of God's holy Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for who you are. You are a majestic, glorious, all-powerful, holy creator and king, and we are but lowly creatures. Lord, you created us to walk with you day to day in the garden, in the comfort of your care, your shield, your oversight, your embrace, your Word. Lord, as your Word says, we are disobedient and contrary people. Time and time again, the story of history shows that you offer your grace. You offer esteemed position before you out of the sheer love of your heart. We people, your people, turn and rebel. Holy Spirit, we pray today that you would guide our hearts to understand just how openhanded our God, our Savior, is to us in the offering of His love. Lord, let it be a sermon that draws us in closer to you. For those who already know you, help us to fight our hardheartedness as we step forward in the ministry field. Lord, we pray right now, use this sermon to call home your children. Give them ears to hear. Give them the ability to understand your Word. Let it come alive in their hearts. Let them leave here new in Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Jesus precious name. Amen. Throughout Romans, we've been learning many things, but, primarily, we've been learning about the nature of salvation that God gives to His children. God is the author of salvation. He saw man in his sin, and He gave His son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. What we've been learning the past couple weeks, especially in Romans 9 and into Romans 10, last week, is that God's work does not stop there. We learned that, last week, God is the one who sovereignly sends the message of the gospel to His children to call them home. In verse 12 to 15, we read, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" These verses teach God is sovereign over salvation. He sovereignly calls His children home through the preaching of the gospel. What is the gospel? We have to say this. We're going to revisit it and rehash it over and over. The gospel... It's an incredible and yet simple message. It's profound. It's changed the world, but it can just be consolidated into a few short words. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst." All you have to do to eat and drink to your delight, to be filled with never-ending streams of love from Christ that are the deepest longings of your soul is to believe that God is holy and righteous. You are sinful and, therefore, unrighteous, but Jesus who is sinless and righteous paid the penalty for you on the cross. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ can be granted righteousness in Jesus name sake before the Father. That's the gospel we've been discussing for a few weeks all throughout Romans. Today we turn to think about, what are the results of God's sovereign sending of preachers, of heralds, particularly to the Jews up to this point in history when Paul wrote Romans? Have all who have heard the gospel believed? What can we learn from Paul about his ministry to the Jews? Very quickly, what does Paul say? He's preached the gospel. Heralds have been sent from God. What does he say? Verse 16, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." The short answer is, no, not everybody who has heard the gospel has believed the gospel. This is just a teaching point to start off. Did you know that not everybody who you share the gospel with is going to believe it, hear it, believe it, place their faith in it? Do you really know this? It's okay for a Christian to read this and actually get relief from it. The Apostle Paul, person who the Lord used more than anybody in the history of the world to spread the gospel, was rejected, denied, and even beaten time and time again for preaching the gospel. He knew how to take a loss. I've been playing pickup soccer recently for the first time. Just played four or five times since 2020 after not playing, really, any sports since my son was born six years ago. My first few weeks of pickup soccer, I treated it like the World Cup. I went home, bragged about it to my wife. Week four, my team took an L for the first time. I was heartbroken. It was just like a child. I wanted to just train more, forsake all of my home responsibilities, work responsibilities, dig in, and find the method that's going to make me win. A lot of us, as Christians, we don't know how to take an L. We are really frightened when people don't receive us well. I want to emphasize this point because the Apostle Paul... It seems, scripture tells us, he had a solid ministry to the Gentiles. Pretty good success rate, maybe a 300, even 400 hitter, if we're talking batting average in terms of percentage of Gentiles that probably received him over the years. To the Jews, he was probably a 100 to 200 hitter, like a Minor Leaguer. We get the sense from this text, they have not obeyed the gospel. In the previous chapters, we get the sense that very few Jews have believed the gospel at this point. We have to emphasize this because too many Christians are shocked when they go out there. They preach the gospel, and they're not heard. Scripture makes it clear that it's going to happen. It tells us that sometimes when we share the gospel, it's going to be a fragrance of life that draws people in closer to God. For other people, it's going to be a fragrance, a stench of death that hardens people's hearts further against God. Hopefully, it's not. We want everyone to come and know the grace of our Lord and Savior. When we don't receive positive results, we should check our message and methods but, ultimately, rest in the fact that the Word of God does not return void. It always accomplishes its purpose according to God's will. Some of you, I just want to really harp on this to start off. Some of you have shared the gospel to a sample size of one to five people. Upon mixed results, you're staggering for... How do I change things? Do I change the message that God has given us for years and years? Do I make it more palatable? Hold tight. Keep putting your hand to the plow. Trust that the Lord is using you in the weakness when you share the gospel, and His spirit will do the work that, ultimately, God has foreordained to happen. Now this is important. Don't get discouraged. Keep putting it forward. Keep scattering seed. Now back to the text. Now it's really sad. From verse 16, we find that not all people who hear the gospel believe the gospel. This is no surprise because Paul teaches that Isaiah the prophet taught this 700-plus years before the birth of Christ. He says at the end of verse 16, "For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?'" This comes from chapter 53 of Isaiah, the chapter of the suffering servant by the one through whose stripes, we are healed. Isaiah teaches that in his day, in his time, there would be those who would not believe his call to repentance and faith in the Lord and that in future times, this time of Paul's ministry, that there would be many who would not hear and believe. The Apostle Paul knew that people would raise questions. Was the ministry to the Jews sufficient? Did they hear it? Right now, he's going into why have they... Yes, they've heard it. Why have they not believed? He's going to explore this question with two points. If they've not believed, is it because they have not heard? one. Two, though they have heard, did only a few obey the gospel because they did not understand? Let's start with number one. Why have only few Jews believed the gospel? Let's start reading verse 17, "So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ." Paul's leading with this premise, building off of verses 14 and 15 that I read. To have faith, you need to first hear the Word of God, particularly that which highlights Jesus Christ the Son of God as crucified and risen Savior. Paul asks, "Have the Jews heard this, the Word of Christ?" He says, "Indeed, they have." How can you say that they have heard? Paul... He's exploring this right now. In a confusing manner, he quotes Psalm 19:4 from the Old Testament. He says, "Their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the earth." Right here, we have another aside teaching point about the method that Paul uses in his evangelism. Notice that when he answers, anticipates questions from people in this text, he answers with scripture. He doesn't add to scripture anything that doesn't need to be said or take anything out of it to make it more palatable to his audience. Have the Jews heard? Indeed, they have. How do we know that? Because in Psalm 14, God tells us, 'Their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world." "That's the answer," says Paul, because thus saith the Lord. This is a method. When you don't know, you have to rely on the wisdom of God. Simply standing on His Word is sufficient. Scripture says about God, "Oh, the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgements 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." When we don't understand something from our creaturely standpoint, we have to be careful not to mislead our own hearts or others. We have to practice caution. Simply take scripture as our word and accept what limited information that we have. We have to believe it and restate it as God has given it to us. The past few weeks, I've heard about a lot of debates about this discussion of God's sovereign election versus man's responsibility. We've advocated at Mosaic that they're not versus. Essentially, they're antimonies. They're seemingly contradictory, just statements from God, that do run parallel to each other but in a way that we, by our creaturely... Cannot understand it. How do you engage this topic? What I'm saying, engage it as the Apostle Paul has. For some, God has decided to show mercy. He will give mercy to whom He will have mercy, and He will give wrath and justice to whom He will give wrath and justice. That's how we can handle some of these hard topics while we're sharing the gospel. Going back to the beginning of Romans, what's Paul say? "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith." When we stand on God's Word, we are not relying in our own power. When we don't try to explain away and make the message more palatable but stand on it as it is, that's when the power of the gospel goes out. We need to stand firm on the Word in these engagements where it's just not clear. In the same way that the Apostle Paul... He just quotes Psalm 19:4 here. It says, "Thus saith the Word." There's a humility in doing this. It's the mark of true salvation. In submitting to God's Word as in this manner, standing on it, quoting it, not trying to take away from it or add to it, we're placing ourselves at the feet of our creator. It's a good and healthy restoration to the position that we are created to thrive in when we let God be God of our lives. We let God be God of the gospel. We let God be God of the doctrines that are blatantly clear in scripture. That's what Paul does here with Psalm 19. It's kind of a weird quotation because it's... Psalm 19. It's a text that tells of how the whole creation shouts out that God is real, and He is reigning. Psalm 19 starts... It starts, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge." Psalm 19... It's a psalm that says, when you look at creation, it's shouts. There's a mighty and glorious God. Why do we take vacations to nature? Why are we amazed when we study the natural world, the body? Why does observation of these things take us to praise, and awe, and wonder? Because God communicates about Himself to us in it. It's His natural revelation. It's all around us, and it blatantly shouts, God is real and glorious. This is affirmed in Romans 1, which we've touched thoroughly a couple months ago. Verse 19, "For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. People are without excuse to acknowledge Him as God." Paul... He's quoting scripture to engage the question, have the Jews heard the gospel? The thing is is that he takes a passage described natural revelation of God, and he applies it to God's special revelation. His special revelation is his specific Word of the gospel that tells us that God is a just and holy God. He can't be in the position of sin. He cannot be in the presence of sin. No one with sin can approach Him. His special revelation tells us that those who are saved through faith by the works of Jesus Christ in His life, death, and resurrection can approach him. Paul's doing this imagery of blending natural revelation with special revelation with this quotation. What essentially is he doing? He's saying it's not that the Jews have not heard. In fact, what he's saying is that the gospel is as readily available to the Jews as is God's natural revelation. He's saying, did the Jews hear? Yes, they did. There's sufficient evidence that they have heard. The gospel was spread, particularly in the Roman Empire at that point where Jews would've been dispersed. Think Pentecost. Christ, before He ascends, He says, "You will receive power and be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Pentecost... When the disciples preach God's word, the Holy Spirit comes upon the crowds, and they start speaking in tongues of the nations. We're to believe that that Pentecost moment was the broad dispersion of the gospel to the Jewish population. Did the Jews hear? Yes, they can't claim that they haven't heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is their unbelief problem one of the ear? No. Okay. What is it next? Paul goes on. Maybe the Jews didn't believe because it's a problem of intellect. Did they not understand? Verse 19, "But I ask, 'Did Israel not understand?'" Again, where does Paul get his answer? Scripture. He says in a quote, from Deuteronomy, "I'll make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry." The question is, do few Jews believe because they didn't understand? The answer is no. With this quote from Deuteronomy 32, what he is really saying is because even the Gentiles in our day, the people who Paul mainly got positive results from in his preaching... Because they understand, certainly, the Jews who have had the oracles, the promises of God for centuries, for millennia... They certainly can understand. Paul's saying, "Have the Jews heard?" Yes, certainly, they have. Did they understand? Yes. Even the lowly Gentiles understand the gospel and are believing it. The Jews are without excuse. I just want to do another aside here. Pause and think about what's happening here, what Paul's saying. With this quote from Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible, one of the earliest written pieces of scripture, God's doing something quite profound. He's declaring that Israel... Very early on in history, he's declaring, God's chosen nation will one day reject their Messiah, and God will offer salvation to those who are not a people, not a nation, the Gentiles, to make them jealous. When you pause and think about this, this is a really convincing point for the divine inspiration of scripture. We're talking about the fifth book of the Bible. Couple thousand years before Christ's life, you have this prophetic statement that God's chosen people would reject the Messiah, the Savior, the one whom all the law, and the prophets, the scriptures were about. Who comes up with that stuff? If you're trying to form a fake religion, why would that be a part of the plan? It's not very convincing, but it's believable because it's real, and it did happen. Now, back to the scripture, Paul establishes that it's not a problem of the ear for the Jews, that they did not believe. It's not a problem of the head, the brain. They understood it. Before I go on, I want to just do another aside. An interesting thing from the quotation from Deuteronomy is... It says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation." What God's saying... He's doing at this moment in history with the Gentiles receiving the gospel, and cherishing it, and believing it, while the Jews are only doing so on a very tiny scale, he's offering salvation to the Gentiles as a means of making Israel jealous. It's all a ploy to get Israel jealous and to come back to Him. This is what we will delve into next week as we go into Romans 11. Some of you might read this as, I don't like this move by God. It seems twisted, seems conniving. He seems a little needy to be demanding this love, this worship from anybody. If He is God, He's worthy of that worship. This neediness to have someone, a people, always following him and trying to make the Jews feel jealous... It doesn't sit right with you. I assure you, as a father, this tactic works. Holding my two-year-old daughter, Clara, is the best feeling to have in life right now. Her name's Clara Joy. She was born in July of 2020 when everything was depressing. She's a bundle of warm joy. If you can get her to come, and hug you, and squeeze you, and just look you in the eye, she'll melt you. The thing about Clara is she's a little stubborn. Multiple times a day, I'm sitting on the floor, and I'm just saying, "Clara, I want a hug. I want your embrace." She just turns to me and says, "No," but there's a way of getting Clara to hug me. When she rejects me, when she denies me, do you know what I do? I walk over, and I pick up my three-month-old daughter, Audrey. I give her some snuggles and kisses. Immediately, Clara comes running over seeking that embrace. Is it wrong of me in that? Is it twisted of me in that to want Clara's embrace? No. Is it twisted of me to give my other child love at the moment, which is genuine and sincere, because there's nothing better than holding that baby? No. God... What He is doing, it's not twisted. It's not wrong. He wants Israel to be saved. We're going to just flesh that out, what that looks like, what His hope for the nation of Israel is, next week. Paul... He makes clear, the Jews have heard. They didn't understand. They did understand. Going forward, as if the quote from the law, first, the law from Moses wasn't enough, Paul quotes from Isaiah the prophet. It's as if in this whole text, it's kind of an interrogation of the Jews. It's, say, have they heard? Yes, they heard it from the gospel. The gospel's dispersed enough. Has it been made clear to them? Yes, it was made clear to them in the gospel. It's made clear to them in, first, the law, as the text says, through Moses. First, Moses, then, Isaiah. It's saying the Jews had enough information to have understanding of the gospel through the Old Testament scriptures. That was Paul's Bible. That was the Bible of the Jews that led Paul to understand Jesus as the Messiah. As if quoting from the law were not enough, to make it clear that it wasn't an issue of understanding, Paul quotes from Isaiah the prophet. He's the prince of prophets, the prophet of prophets. That's why he can be representative of the prophets, when I say the law and the prophets. Verse 20, "Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.'" Paul... He's saying again, even the Gentiles can understand and believe. So the Jews can understand and believe. They are without excuse. It's not a problem of hearing. It's not a problem of the ear. It's not a problem of understanding, a problem of the head. We're left to, what is it? What's the root of the disbelief of the Jews? Where does it come from? Ultimately, it's the heart. The Apostle Paul says in verse 21, "But of Israel, he says, 'All day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'" Other translations say, "Disobedient and obstinate." Others say, "Disobedient and gainsaying." Why have the Jews not believed on a large scale, not just collectively, but individually, to make up the collective lack of belief? They have an issue of the heart. They won't believe because they aren't willing to believe. They don't want to believe. They won't be persuaded. They are disobedient and contrary. They can have all the evidence before them as convincing as can be, and they will not turn and trust the Lord. In the face of obvious gospel realities, they will not be persuaded. Whatever you say, God, this is the heart. We are not going to do that. This disobedient, this contrary. We're going to go and do the opposite. An example of this is just my son, six years old. He can be eating pizza one day, and then the next day... and just loving it. He can have that memory fresh in his head. A week later, you can offer him the same exact pizza, and he will say that he does not want it. Why is he doing that? Simply because he doesn't want it. He is in a moment where he doesn't want to listen to anyone. He wants to do his own thing. That's the position of the Jews throughout the history of scripture. The Jews were just hardhearted. They did not want to follow God because they didn't want to follow God. This is their history. They saw God part the waters while leaving Egypt and essentially rebelled in the wilderness. He appeared to them at Sinai. He gave them the law. They questioned him. They built the idol of the bull around that time. He gave them the victory after victory by his power as they were entering the Promised Land. Establishing the kingdom, the prophets proved to be right over and over again in their foretelling and their forthtelling. He established His presence in Jerusalem. How could they just not see that God had a special hand of favor on their life, rejoice in that, and give Him their trust? The Jews had a heart problem. Christ says of them, Matthew 15:6-9, "And he said to them, 'Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?" He's talking to the Jewish leaders, scribes, and Pharisees. "As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. He said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition." The Jews had the law of God. They had the prophets, and they're always twisting it and tweaking it to give them temporal benefit in the short run. God's word, God's promises, God's law didn't seem to provide them convenience and joy in the short run, so they're constantly contriving it to work for them as history went on, to the point that when Christ came, they could not recognize Him. They could not see Him. They were the ones that eventually put Him on the cross because they did not recognize Him. Acts 7 says... Stephen says, "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart." This is the great deacon of the church as he was on his way to being martyred. He says of the Jews, "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You received the laws delivered by angels and did not keep it." It's not that the Jews could not hear, but that they did not want to hear. It's not that they couldn't see the light, but they chose darkness. That's the reason why very few believed. It's for the same reasons today that people, Jew and Gentile, do not believe. They have foolish, hardened hearts. All true Christians who've heard and believe the gospel know that at some point, they had a hard heart that was contrary to God and that when they turned from such hardness, the gospel appeared to them as a source of light and salvation. I remember... I grew up in the church. When I was 12, I understood the gospel enough, 12 or 13 when I took confirmation class in the church that I grew up in. We had to write a 100-word essay, which sounded like the hardest task, to explain why we wanted to get confirmed, essentially follow Jesus for the rest of our lives. I wrote this 100, probably 100 to 105-word essay, explaining just... I believe it because this story sounds too good to be true. Why would I not take God up on this offer to trust Him, to believe that all I have to do to be saved is to place my faith in Jesus. I remember I was shocked when, on confirmation Sunday, among a class of 15 people, the pastor went up there and said, "Wow, we have youth who understand the gospel so well." What he did was the whole time, he talked about my 101-word essay. Really, the reality of it was was that I understood it. I could write it. I could state it and explain it to people, but I did not truly admit that I was a stubborn and contrary person before God for another 10 years of my life. You see, we can understand the gospel. We can hear it. We can understand it. We can state it to other people, but if it doesn't hit our heart, we're not going to really understand Christianity. We're not going to know the experience of receiving God's grace. We're not going to be able to truly tell others of the joy of salvation. We're not really going to want to see the gospel go forward in our own hearts and in the world. This text... It's a check for those who are Christian, who are in the church, because the Jews where the people in the church. The Pharisees would've been great religious neighbors who kept the neighborhood tidy, people that were respectable, but they didn't get it. This text... It's a check for those who are in the church. Have you repented of having a hard and contrary heart toward God, or is this just your culture? Are you here only because the church aligns with some of your political preferences? Are you here because it aligns with some of your personal preferences, your marriage preferences? You're here to get someone to go on a date, whatever it is. No, we're here. The church is the assembly of all true believers that have faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior who see themselves as helpless, just condemned to a place called hell, free from the, just, loving existence and presence of God the Father for all of eternity. The church is the people who get that. It's always a gift that God would offer His hands, just open-handed. How many of you have ever wanted a benefactor to come into your life and just take care of all of your needs? The gospel is so much more. I had friends in college. There's this guy who would sponsor an international student on the college soccer team every year. I was a hardworking, vocal boy doing multiple work-study jobs. Well, he gifted these guys who came from other countries that went to the best schools in their other countries and were wealthy in their other countries. I said I wanted someone to come into my life and just throw me a bone, just meet my greatest, deepest needs. I didn't get that in college. I'm glad God kept me humble. My life really wasn't that bad. How many of you are just looking for that thing that's going to satisfy your deepest needs? What scripture says... That thing is not a thing. It's a person. It's God Himself. We're called to submit to him as Lord. That's the way it was in the garden before Adam and Eve got this message of God's offering His hands. What did God do with Adam in the garden? He walked with Adam in the garden. You get this imagery of maybe they held hands, naming the animals and the plants. How many of you just want someone to hold your hand through life and just give you the comfort that they love you because they love you, because they love you? They know everything about you, but they choose to offer you love. That's what God offered Israel throughout their history. They never receive that. That's what we as Christians need to believe. The greatest friendships in life, a good marriage... All the single people or married people obsessed with sex... The greatest thing of marriage is just having that friend to hold your hands with as you go through life. When you have that bliss in a marriage or you have that bliss in a brother or sister in Christ as a single in the church, just, you have that unity, that's all to direct us to the ultimate walk that we take with God our Father through this life and, ultimately, when we live in the fullness of His presence when He comes back and makes all things new. Christians, have you really repented of your heart condition? If you don't know what grace is, that's the real test. Do you know what grace is? It's, really, just someone gives you courtesy that you don't deserve. It's not Chick-fil-A. Walk in, they say hi to you. They're paid to do that. They make you feel like the best person in the world, but they pay you to do that. What God's grace is saying, everyone deserves wrath for their sin against me, but I am choosing to extend mercy and grace, unmerited favor, just because. When you know that love, you know that grace, that gives you the freedom, the security of identity to function and be who you were really created to be. Christians, do you know this? Non-Christians, if you think you have to clean yourself up to come into this relationship, you have it all wrong. It's just something you receive. You hear the call. You say, "Yes, Lord. I need you. I am a stubborn and contrary person. I see that that is rebellion against your law, your command. You are king, and I have rebelled against you. I see that you offer me forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Take me. Welcome me into your family as a child. I want to submit my whole life to you." When you do that, that's where true life... That's where true freedom begins. Have you done that? I just want to close with a point of when you share the gospel, you're fighting hardheartedness. In Boston, people want to over-intellectualize it. People want to take you, "Oh, well, it doesn't make sense: God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. It just doesn't make logical, earthly sense." You're right, it doesn't. You don't get caught in the theological, the philosophical, the distracting conversations. What this text teach us is the heart of non-belief is hardheartedness, a contrary heart. If you're having these conversations with people and not going for the jugular, saying, do you believe you're a sinner? and pressing on that... Do you really think that you are perfect? Does your heart sit right with that? If you're not going for that jugular and you're just kind of having palatable conversations with everybody, you're not sharing the gospel. Romans says, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation." This message, calling people out of their hardheartedness... That's what just gives people true salvation. Try to bring them in through the real deal. Don't make it palatable. The Lord moves. There's power behind the message when it's faithful. Let me just close and say, God is not a judge waiting to condemn his people. Verse 21, "All the day long, I've held out my hands." He's a father waiting to receive His children at the door of His house after they've run away in rebellion. He's waiting, calling, offering us restored relationship into the family. Take up His offer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you that in the gospel, we have the opportunity of restored relationship with you. All of nature, all over the world, the majesty of your creation, the complexities of small things, like the human body, the eye, the heart... Lord, all of these things direct us to the fact that there is a creator. He is good, and He is powerful. Lord, we just want to deny that. So often, we want to contrive a reality such that you do not exist. Even those of us who are in Christ, we're caught functioning in the habits of the old man, just living life according to our own principles, our own ways at the cost of submitting to your lordship overall. Holy Spirit, we pray, give us hearts to just see life for what it is. We are children with a Father who is sitting down, offering us His hand, offering us hugs, offering us to be our redeemer, our shield, our protector, to just give us a spot in His glorious kingdom forever. Lord, we continue to go on just choosing our own way. We pray, Holy Spirit, help us to repent of living for our own glory, our own momentary satisfaction, and to live a life of faith pursuing heavenly glory, pursuing heavenly, just, thriving. We pray, give us hearts of joy to share the gospel. Give us boldness to go after the heart as we engage people in the world around us. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Jesus is Lord

September 18, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 10:1–17

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the space that you've given us to gather as your people to worship your holy name. And Lord, we're not just confessing words, and these aren't just rote, ritualistic phrases. No, when we come to you and we say that you are Lord, we're also getting on our knees in humility before your Lordship, before your reign and your rule. So Lord, we pray as you taught us to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name", may your name be holy. "May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." So Lord Jesus, we start with that. We repent of any rebellion, any sin in our hearts, and we ask that you purify us now so that we can see you from your holy scriptures, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Give us a fresh vision of you. Give us a fresh vision of the gospel, and give us a fresh vision of our mission here on earth. And for as long as we're here as believers, you have given us this time to bear fruit for your holy name, and I pray that you give us fruitfulness as we study your word today, and we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. So we're continuing our sermon series through the Book of Romans, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it thus far. It's been an incredible text. Today when Romans 10: through 15, the title of the sermon is Jesus is Lord. In the last few weeks, we've been meditating on the glorious doctrine of election. And as we've been meditating on this, I've been meditating on this, swimming in the waters of election, soccer season has started by God's grace. And I say by God's grace, because in the whirlwind, that is life in the Vezikov household, we somehow this season forgot to sign up any of the girls. We just forgot. And then they show up to school and then their friends are like, "Hey, you weren't at practice." And they're like, "Practice? What practice?" And then they came home and there was a meltdown. In particular, my third daughter, Ekaterina, who's seven and last season was her first season. And she is amazing, she's amazing at soccer, she was built for it. She scored three goals in the first game. So for her, she was crestfallen that she wasn't on the team. Chaos ensued, sack cloth and ashes at the pastor's household. So then my wife, Tanya, started emailing the coaches and she emailed Ekat's coach from last season, Coach Andy. And she's like, "You got to help me. You got to save us. You got to save us from the hell that is soccerlessness. You got to save us. Can you get us on the team?" And Pastor Andy said, "She's on the team. She's on the team." Doesn't matter to Ekat, Ekaterina, if her name was on the list prior to my wife's email. No, she's pumped that she's on the team. Driving to the first game. She said, "Dad, God is real." I said, "How do you know?" She said, "I prayed to be on the soccer team and God made a miracle." I was like, "Praise God." And I noticed the difference in how she played, because this season it's all grace. It's all grace. She had a noon game yesterday. At 8:30 AM, she's in her pink cleats. She's got the shin guards on. She's ready to go. There's no pressure. It's all grace. All election is, this is all what scripture says, just ask to be on the team, just ask to be in the family of God. And then once you're in the family of God, the holy scriptures say God put your name on the list before the foundation of the world, that God chose you. It deepens the message of grace. God chose us, now play like it, live like it. And part of what it means to live out our faith is to share the message that Jesus is Lord. That's the confession of our faith. That's the center of our faith. The Christian message is very simple. It's just, Jesus is Lord. We've rebelled against his reign and this rule in our lives, that's sin. And because of that sin, our own choice of sinning, we are in the kingdom of Satan. But because Jesus is a loving king, he enters the kingdom of Satan, breaks through. Takes on flesh and then he lives a perfect life of obedience to God, the Father, and then he's crucified. And because of his crucifixion, death, resurrection, he's provided a way for us to break out of the kingdom of Satan and into the kingdom of God. And it happens, that door, Jesus is that doorway, that door is repenting of our sins and accepting Jesus as savior, which also means that you are now submitting to him as Lord. See, most people that you talk to around here, don't agree with the kingdom of Satan part. Ouch, harsh. I'm not that bad. I'm generally a good person. At least I try to be, and that's got to count for something, right? Well, most people today live with this confidence, and it's a confidence. It's a faith that everything will somehow turn out with them and God to be okay. That's the faith of most people around us. But the word of God calls that sentiment, self-righteousness, that you think you're good enough for God just because of who you are or just because you are. Another way that we talk about self righteousness, scripture talks about it as legalism, which is inevitably dishonest. If you are self-righteous, it requires you to believe that you're a lot better than you really are. And you ignore the full extent of your moral and ethical failures. We just assume in our culture that just because we exist, we're on team God, and he should be happy to have us. And Christianity says, no. There's only one way into the kingdom of God and that's confessing with your mouth because you believe it with your heart, that Jesus Christ, the risen Christ is Lord over everything. And then once you get into the kingdom, you live faithfully to serve the king. And that faithful service works itself out with proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what the text is about today. Would you look at Romans 10:1 through 15 with me. "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them." That's his Jewish kinsman. "Is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses rights about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven", that is to bring Christ down, "or who will descend into the abyss?" That is to bring Christ up from the dead. "But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart." That is the word of faith that we proclaim. "Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. I laugh at that last verse because I'm preaching the good news and scripture says I have beautiful feet. Praise God. Three points to frame up our time. Jesus is Lord. First of all, receive his righteousness. Second, Jesus is Lord, receive his riches. And third Jesus is Lord, so preach the good news. First, Jesus is Lord, receive his righteousness. Paul has been dealing with the question, why didn't more Jews of Jesus' day believe in Jesus Christ, the Messiah who came to the chosen people, the Jews? Well, the problem was most of the Jews of Jesus' day rejected him because they didn't have in their religious framework, a need for grace. Why do you need grace if you can just accumulate more merits? If you sin, if you break some commandments, don't worry about it. Just go to the religious place and pay the religious guy and he'll do the religious thing and say this prayer a few times and then you should be good. There's this idea, this was an idea in Judaism. This is the idea in every single religion apart from true gospel-based Christianity, that somehow you can cover your sins with merits, with righteous living. And Paul here says no, no, no. That righteousness is based on the law, it's based on works. And here he contrasts two ways of righteousness. There's a righteousness based on faith. And there's a righteousness that is based on works. Well, the people of Israel, they thought they could reach God, appease God ingratiate themselves to God with good works, just enough to cover the mountain of sin. If we plant enough trees on our mountain of sin, maybe God won't notice. But then Jesus Christ comes to these religious people, to the Pharisees, and he comes to them in Sadducees. They did the same thing. The Pharisees were the conservatives, the Sadducees were the liberals. He goes to both parties and he said, "No, you have rejected the word of God. In your attempt at being outwardly righteous, you lessened the word of God, but the word of God demands a righteousness that comes from the heart." And your righteousness, my righteousness. It's not enough because we are rotten to the core. Our hearts are rotten to the core. Jesus, this is what he proclaimed to them. "You don't love God with your heart", he said. "If you did, you'd love your neighbor as yourself, which you clearly don't because you're not welcoming them into the kingdom of God." And this is what the problem with Judaism at the time of Jesus Christ, they didn't care about the Gentiles. They didn't want the Gentiles in their services. They thought the Gentiles were filthy. "What do you mean, welcome them into our family?" And Jesus Christ comes and he's like, "That is proof. The fact that you don't care about the lost, the fact that you don't care about their eternal souls is proof that you don't love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And you don't love your neighbor as yourself." And the worst part of this self-righteousness was it led to a tragic failure to understand their own scriptures. The Gentiles got it. They didn't even have the scriptures, but they knew that they were outcasts. They knew they didn't deserve a place in the household of God. They knew they weren't enough. They knew they weren't measuring up. And then they heard the message of the gospel, that there's a God who is Lord over everything. He's bigger than just Lord over one people group. He's bigger than just Lord of one empire. He is Lord higher than any Lord. That's Jesus Christ. And he's welcoming you in to his kingdom and all you have to do is ask for forgiveness. You're reconciled with the king. Now you're in his kingdom, serving him. And the Jewish people didn't understand this while the Gentiles were signing up in droves. Just to get the context of Romans 9:30 through 33, he says, "What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that could lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching the law. Why? Because they do not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion, a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." Well, why is it that Israel didn't obtain the righteousness they saw? Well, the answer spelled out in verse 32, because they didn't pursue it by faith, they pursued it by works. They thought that they could earn their right to be in a relationship with God or keep that relationship by keeping the law. And it was all external conformity to the commandments and the people of Israel just never realized the whole point of the law was to get them to a place of contrition before God, absolute humility. God, I can't do this. We can't fulfill the law. God, we need a righteousness that is not our own. Now, they didn't understand that what God demands of us under the law, He freely gives us in the gospel. They were so close to the truth and that's why Paul's heart breaks for them. He says in verse one of Romans 10, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." Well, they were very passionate about God. They they're very sincere. Our culture says, doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere in your faith about God. Well, scripture says, no, that's false. You can sincerely believe that God is one way and be sincerely wrong. What is that sincerity? What is it based on? What is it based on? It is just based on what the culture tells you. It's not based on knowledge. This is what he's saying. They have a zeal, but it's a zeal without knowledge. And this is the very sad occasion. What this brings out is that you can be so close to the truth. You can go to church for years, you can hear some of the best expository sermons ever preached, and you can just miss it. You can miss it. The truth is right there. You can miss it. You can stumble over it. And then you just say it doesn't exist. So make sure that your knowledge lines up with a measure of truth. Well, what measure of truth are you using? What measure of truth do you have? There's no measure of truth other than the cornerstone that's Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus, and I sent this in the newsletter, Jesus goes from stumbling stone to cornerstone. When you understand that we need the grace of God. And once Jesus becomes your cornerstone of your life, you align everything in your life according to him, according to his truth. Paul got this and he's begging the same for his brothers. Paul also stumbled over the stumbling stone that is Jesus Christ. Paul also had a zeal without knowledge. He's describing his own situation. He of all people knows that Jesus Christ is Lord over salvation. Paul, how did you get saved? Jesus literally blindside him with his glory and says, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And then all of a sudden, Paul is made a Christian. He begs God to do the same for more of his people. There's a heartfelt concern. And then he contrasts the two ways of righteousness, that which comes through faith and that with which comes through works. I pray that his heart is given to each of us. Is your heart's desire for your neighbors to get saved? And by neighbors, I don't just mean literally physical neighbors because Boston's weird in that neighbors don't really talk to each other. So I mean neighbors like people that you interact with, that's your neighbors. So if you have a spouse, that is your closest neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself. You apply that commandment to the people in your circles of influence and then the concentric circles. Do you have a desire for the people in your life who don't know Christ to be saved? Do you pray to God for God to save them? We, as Christians, we have the truth. Do we have zeal about this truth? Do we have a zeal that says, you know what, this is true. That souls do hang in the balance. And every day, people around us who die and they go to hell, which is eternal separation from the goodness of God for all of eternal. Do we believe that this is true? And that there's only one way to salvation and that's faith in Jesus Christ, that God demands a righteousness that we do not have. We fall short of the righteousness of God. So we need an alien righteousness and that alien righteousness given to us when we just accept it as the gift it is. Romans 10:3, "For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they didn't submit the God's righteousness." That was the problem. Here's the nub of righteousness. That's their own. God, here's my accomplishments. God, here's why you should welcome me into heaven, into your family. And this is how Paul thought. He was raised in this theory of righteousness as well that you earn your way to God. Philippians 3:3 through nine. He shares his testimony. "For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." And here we see how the gospel transforms a religious person who has zeal, but doesn't have knowledge into one of the greatest missionaries that has ever lived. He got the gospel. He understood that in all of his efforts in trying to be righteous, that he never measured up. And then the gospel creates zeal with knowledge because you get the truth that there's nothing I can do to be in the presence of God. There's nothing I can do. He's holy and any sinful part of me is going to get destroyed in his presence. There's nothing I can do. But God cloths me in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so now I can walk into the throne room of grace and get on my knees in the very presence of God. It sets your heart on fire with this truth. That's why the gospel, with its demand and provision of an alien righteousness, is the power of God onto salvation. You're saved when you believe that you have no righteousness of your own and you are desperate for righteousness of Jesus. He gives it to you. And I don't have to theologize this. We know this deep inside, really honest with yourself. You know that there are parts of you that are just wrong, just wrong, if you're honest. Well, in the eyes of God, he sees it all. He sees it all. So yeah, we can be like, yeah, we're righteous in front of other people. Look at us, we're right. No, we're not. This guy actually tried. Paul actually tried to be a good legalist. He actually read the Bible and he is like, you know what, I'm going to try to do this thing. We live in day and age where the bar for being a good person is so low. It's so low. It's basically, just don't kill anybody and you're okay. That's the bar for morality. And scripture goes so much deeper and says, no, you have to be perfect as God is perfect if you want to be in a relationship with a holy God. So we need a righteousness that is not our own, a righteousness that is given to us, a righteousness in which we're clothed. And in Romans 10:4, he continues. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." He's not saying that Christ is put an end to the authority of God's law over people. A lot of people misunderstand this, that we have grace, so we don't need the law whatsoever. That's not true because such an interpretation will fly in the face of Jesus' own words where he said, "I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." And Paul said earlier that the teaching of justification by faith in no way nullifies the law, but rather establishes it. So what he's saying, he's saying that Christ puts an end to acquiring righteousness before God through means of the law. The law points to Christ, that's to tell us he's the end. And Jesus Christ, through his life and obedience, his active obedience, he fulfilled the law. So we don't look to the law to earn our righteousness before God, we get righteousness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And then the law becomes a rule of life. Not a way by which we earn salvation, but a way through which we work out our salvation. That's what he's getting at. That God justifies all who believe in Christ. That's what he ends, a righteousness to everyone who believes. So if you're not a Christian, receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ today. A righteousness that he gives us. It's a moral record. It's his perfect GPA of moral obedience. And he counts it to you, counts it to your name just because you ask for it. So receive his righteousness. Second, Jesus is Lord, so receive his riches. And I get that phrase from verse 12, but he's explaining all the riches of what it means to be saved and how that process happens. And he starts by pointing to the fact that he didn't come up with these rules. Romans 10:5. He says, "Moses writes about the righteousness based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them." So Paul here quotes Moses. Leviticus 18:5 where Moses writes, "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord." So Paul looks at Leviticus and he says, "What is God saying here?" He's saying that God demands a perfect obedience from his people. If a person does them, he shall live by them. And if you don't do them, you shall die. That's what the law is saying. We either obey the whole law or we do not. If you break one commandment, James says, you've broken the whole of the law. And what Paul is saying is that the whole point of the law was given to the people of God, to all people, to place us in a position of humility, where we cast ourselves on the rock of God's law, plead for mercy. God, give me mercy. I've broken these laws. And then you find out that the rock is actually Christ. And Christ says, don't stumble over the grace. Receive the grace and may this grace be foundational for everything else you do in life. And that's the connection between Jesus is Lord. You receive the grace and Jesus is Lord, because you are building your life on the rock of the grace of Jesus Christ under his Lordship. That's the whole point of the law, to bring us to Christ. Galatians 3:21. "Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law." And he said, Romans 3:19 through 20. "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin." So Paul teaches clearly the law never attended to be used as a means of acquiring merit before God. That's his approach in Galatians. If you want a righteousness under the law, you got to keep the whole thing. No one can keep the whole thing, so we need a righteousness that is not ours and that's that of Christ that we get by faith. In verse six, he continues. "But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven?" That is to bring Christ down. "Or who will descend into the abyss?" That is to bring Christ up from the dead. "But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Now, what Paul here is saying is you can't pull yourself up to heaven. You can't ascend into heaven. You want to make yourself righteous before God? You're a tiny little human being, you can't fly. You can't ascend to heaven. That's what he's saying. To even think that you can go into the place of God on your own is already pride. You can't go into the abyss. The only one who can do that is Christ. So what he's saying is, we're helpless. We need someone from outside to come and save us. And this is the great news that he brings in. You don't have to earn your way to heaven. You can't do it. That's the message of God's law. You can't do it. You can't pull yourself up. What an exploit that would be. You can't bring yourself down. What an exploit that would be. What he's saying is Christ has done at all. He has come from heaven, returned to heaven. We have just but to trust in him. That's the message. And how do we apply it to our lives? Verse nine, "Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture, says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of Lord will be saved." Well, how do you know you have saving faith? Well, saving faith always manifest itself in a confession, a verbal confession, a confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Paul isn't saying, if you say X words and you believe Y, then you're saved. It's some magical formula. That's not what he's doing. He's saying, no, if you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, is now Lord, you are believing that he has risen from the dead, saving faith necessarily leads to a confession of Christ's lordship. And we confess that Jesus is Lord, we're confessing that he is God. And he's telling us, there is a necessity to believe that he did come back from the dead. I was talking to a pastor who doesn't really believe in the Bible. And he said, "Jan, you know what your problem is?" That's what he said. He said, "You take this stuff literally." He said, "That's your problem." And my response to him was, "Yeah, if it's meant to be taken literally, then I take it literally." When we say that Jesus Christ literally died, we mean that he literally died. And when we say that Jesus literally, historically, bodily, physically, whatever, other really histo, veracity, whatever, [inaudible], I'm going to give you great word. Really, in reality, in reality, he was dead and on third day he came back from the dead. That's the confession. When we say that Jesus Christ is Lord, we're not saying that some spiritual resurrection happened or Jesus resurrected in my heart. We're saying no, no, no, everything hinges on the fact that this really happened, that there were eyewitnesses, hundreds of eyewitnesses, that all of world history was changed, that we changed the calendars based on all of this. We count our birth date from his birth. Everything changed because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you have to believe this, that this is a basic historical fact. And we must believe that he really, he, God raised Jesus from the dead. In Jesus Christ, there is life because he came back from the dead. And then he continues and he says, there's no difference, and the same phrase he uses for no difference in verse 12 is the same as he uses in Romans 3:23. He says, there's no difference. We're all sinners. We've all fallen short. And here he says, there's no difference, everyone has access to grace. There are many ways into how a person experiences God's grace, how they become Christians. And there's lots of stories. For Paul, the realization was forced upon him. He couldn't not be a Christian. God just made him a Christian. Some of you have a story like that. That's my story in many ways. God just forces you. You're going to do this. You're going to preach it and you're going to love it. In other people, they hear the invitation of Jesus. Come on to me, all who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And people come to Christ for relief or rest from just the burdens of life. Other people come to the Lord because they know they're spiritually helpless, spiritually impotent. They can't be the men and women that God has created us to be. But however the truth of the gospel welcomes you into the family of God, however you're drawn to the Lord, feelings are not. And I say this because some people, they just wait for some kind of spiritual, emotional experience. I'm waiting for that magical moment when I become a Christian. And some people just don't get that. And a lot of people in Boston don't really get that emotional thing. Maybe it'll come after. But it starts with this just knowing this truth. Only in Jesus Christ can we find a righteousness to stand before God on his judgment. On judgment day, only the righteousness of Christ is what will keep us safe. And only in Christ can we find that righteousness that makes us go from enemy of God, to friend. And that's why there's so much gratitude and joy and love in the Christian faith. Because you get that grace, you get that gift, you get that righteousness, you get the riches of the relationship with God and you understand it's all gifts. It's all undeserving and then you're filled with a zeal to tell others about it. You found the grace and you look at all the people around you and you're like ... Everyone with empty eyes, purposelessness, meaninglessness, people pursuing pleasure as the end of life and it never satisfies. And then we realize, you know what, that was us. We were living lost just for ourselves, very petty, small selfish lives. Then God saves us, we get grace. We're given a mission. We're given a purpose and we want to share that with other people. This is point three, that Jesus is Lord, so preach the good news. Verse 14. "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?" Do you have beautiful feet? No men are allowed to answer that question. Beautiful feet take beautiful saints to people who don't know Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. How are people to hear? Because this is how people get saved. They hear the gospel and they're like, oh my, yeah, you know what, I'm not righteous. I need a righteousness that's not my own, Jesus Christ. That's what saves a person. But people need to hear it, they need to hear it from real people. And this is why in the day of the internet, a lot of people are like, yeah, I just do evangelism online with my Facebook. I just make a post. And that's my evangelism for the day. That doesn't count. Do that, but that's not enough. We need real life preaching. When people see a real life person, I know you, I know your integrity. I know your character. I know your walk in life. And I know that you have a foundation that I do not. What is that? And you tell me, it's grace. I am a sinner and God welcomes me into his family. I am a beloved son of the living God. I know, I can't believe it. It's all grace. And you share the gospel. How are people to hear without someone preaching? We need to preach. We need to vocalize. Yes, we need to preach the gospel with our lives, but we also need to preach the gospel with our words. So we need to know the gospel. We need to be able to articulate the gospel, what is the gospel and welcome people into that. And how are they to preach unless they are sent? How are they preach unless they're sent? Well, Christian, the very second you become a Christian, you're drafted by God into his army of preachers sent to proclaim the gospel. What I do here on Sunday, what I do, this preaching, it's important, but this is only part of it. I think of worship ... Yes, this is theology, but I think of this like, this is halftime, you had it the first half that was last week. This is halftime. You're here. And I just give you the gospel, like, you guys crushed it this week. You were preaching the gospel. Yeah. God saw it, it was awesome. Let's worship him. Here's the gospel. And then go out the rest of the week and you're preaching the gospel. That's our job. We got to preach the gospel as the truth. We got to believe in that. Christ is the cornerstone and align our whole life around him. And the more your life is aligned with the message, the more compelling it is. And we do have to compel, and this is where I do want to land. We have to compel people. We have to persuade people that this is important, that there's actually nothing more important than having a conversation about the state of your soul, the eternal state of your soul. So the compelling part is you really do have to believe it. You really do have to center your whole life around it. And then you have to use words to bring people in. And I'll close with a parable that brings all of this together, election and then preaching and the gospel. And I love how Paul in Romans 10, he closes off this conversation about election with a call to go preach the gospel. And we go and preach the gospel because we know that God will draw his elect through the preaching of it. So Luke 14:12 through 24, and then I'll close it with prayer. "He said also to the man who had invited him, 'When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest stay also invite you in return and you be repaid. For when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid in the resurrection of the just.' When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, 'Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.' But he said to him, 'A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come for everything is now ready'. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' Another said, 'I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to the servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you have commanded me has been done and still there is more room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled, for I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'" If today, you're not sure that you are a Christian, we would like to help you be sure. We call you now to repent of sin and trust in Jesus Christ to truly believe that Jesus is Lord and submit to him. You can sit and do that in prayer and say, Lord, forgive me for my sins. I submit to you and I ask for grace to follow you all my days. If today you pray that prayer or you committed or recommitted your life to Christ, we'd love to pray with you after the service. Pastor Andy will be up here and he'd love to have a conversation with you and pray. With that said, would you please pray with me in conclusion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel. What a message it is that we stand before you in our sinful rags with shame and guilt and you purify us through this message that all who come to you with humility and beg for mercy will receive it. All who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. I pray, Lord, that anyone hearing this message today who is far from you, is drawn to you by the power of the Holy Spirit, draw the elect to yourself and use us in the process. Give us a zeal. We know the truth and help us believe the truth and give us a zeal to proclaim the truth, to preach the truth. So many in this city who are so far from you, living lives of boredom and restlessness, I pray draw them to yourself, because our hearts are restless until they find our rest in you. And we pray all this in Jesus' beautiful name. Amen.

Beloved Sons of the Living God

September 11, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 9:24–33

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood, churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we You thank You for the privilege, the blessing it is to gather as Your people, to hear from You, hear from Your Holy Scriptures. We pray, Holy Spirit, come down, and fill our being, our hearts, our souls, fill it with Your Spirit. We come to You, and with the words of Jesus Christ, who promised us, "Blessed are those who are poor in Spirit." Lord, we want that blessing. And we come to You, recognizing our poverty of Spirit. So we ask for the riches of Your Holy Spirit. We ask for more of You, Holy Spirit, come with the fullness of Your presence and power, and teach us. And Lord, teach us what it means to be Your bride. What it means to be Your Body, that You call each one of us to serve, to fulfill the job that You have called us to do. And I pray that You fill our hearts with zeal, to continue to serve You. And we thank You for the reminders from Holy Scripture, that You do adopt us into Your family. It's Your decision on whom to pour out Your Love. And for those of us who are believers today, Lord, we thank You for the great blessing it is, the great Truth it is that You call us beloved sons of the Living God, that we are Your beloved, that You pour out Your Love on us, that we are Your sons, we're Your daughters, that we are Your children, and that You are a Living God, You're Holy God and a Loving God. Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures today. And we pray this in Jesus's Name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the book of Romans, and the title of the sermon today is Beloved Sons Of The Living God. Last Sunday, if you weren't with us, we looked at the life of the early church, and we saw their devotion to worship, community, and service. Those were the main rhythms of their spiritual life, and God blessed their devotion, by sending them a harvest of thousands of souls. And we talked about the fact, why is devotion important? Because devotion is what keeps you faithful. When motivation wanes, when the Christian walk gets hard, we need devotion. And we challenged everyone last week to be more devoted to the Lord, and to the church, by worshiping the Lord, by getting into community here at Mosaic, and by serving the Lord. And if you're new, and you're like, "There's service opportunities at this church?" Yes, there are. We need, if you're church shopping, I'm telling you, this is the church for you. We need you. You could be very helpful here. You could be very useful. We have, as the church is growing, we have more opportunities to serve. Just to give you a glimpse, we need 20 greeting team members. So if smiling comes easy to you, if smiling does not hurt your face, we would love to have you join the greeting team. We need six welcome center team members, 10 special operations team members. Well, what's special operations? Well, there's only one way to find out. Four coffee team members. That's very important. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of caffeine. Three slides team members, three sound team members, three video team members. And then Mini Mosaic needs a ton of volunteers. We love our children here at Mosaic. We believe in investing in the next generation of the church, and that's our children. And we'd love to have you apply to help there as well. You can just fill out a connection card, or just let them know at the welcome center you'd like to serve, or you can get all the info online as well. Back to Romans nine, and Romans nine, one of the things that we've been learning and experiencing, and this is things I'm hearing, and in my community group and other community groups. We're learning that this chapter is expanding our vision of God. And what Romans nine reminds us, is that you can't box God. You can't box God, in the sense that you can't fight God, your arms are too short. And then also you can't box God in. And a lot of Christianity tries to box God in. And what Romans nine does, is destroys any theological categories that keep God safe, easy to understand, predictable, comfortable, Romans nine kicks down the sides of these manmade boxes, and tells us that God is God. He's the only one who has truly free will. A word of caution about the doctrine of election. Don't let the doctrine of election chill your heart. That is one of the temptations of the evil one, and to take a truth and to produce a fruit with that truth that was never intended by God. So how can we make sure that the doctrine of election warms our hearts instead of chilling our hearts? Well, we have to land where St. Paul wants to bring us. Yes, he's making a polemical argument. Yes, he's rejecting false thinking about God and salvation. But he's chiefly interested in getting us to the point where we see the greatness of the glory of God, and the riches of His mercy, on us, Christians, people that He's poured out this gift of love on. So we are to let the doctrine of God's Grace flame the fire of love in our heart, a love for God, a love for his people and a love for his mission. Today we're in Romans 9:24-33, would you look at the text with me. Romans 9:24, "Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. 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, you 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 a sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.' And as Isaiah predicted, 'If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would've become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.'. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is, a righteousness that is by faith. That Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as it were based on works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone as is written, 'Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in Him will not be put the shame.'" This is the reading of God's Holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, "Beloved Sons Of The Living God." Second, "Only a remnant will be saved." And third, "Don't stumble over Saving Grace." First beloved Sons of the Living God, just to help you get the flow of the argument, he begins it in verse 19 of chapter nine, "You will say to me then why does He," that's God, "Why does God still find fault, for who can resist His will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its Molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the Potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath, and to make known His power has endured with 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. Even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, 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 Paul's logic here is razor sharp, and it's very simple. If we are creatures created by God the Creator, does not God have the right to do with us what He wishes? Cannot the Creator do what He wants with what he makes? Of course. Dr. Gordon Clark, a defender of God's high sovereignty in the salvation of sinners, he was accused one time of making people into mere puppets, says that doesn't this turn us into just puppets? And his response is, "No, it doesn't turn us into puppets. It turns us into lumps of clay." That's who we are. That's what this text says. That is to humble us completely, just flatten us with the ground. We are absolutely nothing. And then Paul says, "But God, in the riches of His glory and His Grace, and His Mercy, He chooses to make out of some of the lump that he creates, His own people, His own children, His beloved, He calls it. This is the point of this whole doctrine, it's to land us in this place where we just revel in the fact that God is merciful. So He doesn't give us the doctrine in the abstract. I remember when I heard this doctrine for the first time, I remember wrestling with this in college, and then after college. And I didn't grow up in a church that preached through books of the Bible, or verse by verse expository, expositional preaching. And so when I heard it for the first time, I was shocked. I was like, "No, who is this God? I don't think I like this God. A God that is this sovereign, that is this powerful." But the doctrine is given to us for a reason, as believers. Instead, get us to enjoy the sweetness of the unfathomable Grace and Mercy of God. And that's why at the end of Roman's 11, Paul ends with doxology. He ends with worship, and true theology is to get us to a point of doxology, "Oh the depth of the riches and 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." So for Paul, there is no inconsistency between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Just like in Scripture, the two are taught side by side, and Scripture doesn't even attempt to give us a resolution. Is God sovereign? Or are we responsible? The answer is, yes. It's a spiritual tension. It's not a contradiction. It's a tension. And we are to live in that tension in this worshipful reveling, that God is kind enough to pour out His mercy on us. Two examples immediately that come to mind where God's sovereignty and human responsibility interplay, is the first one is Joseph, who just spent 13 years in, basically, prison. And then God raises him up. He's number two in the kingdom of Egypt. And then his brothers come to him, his brothers who sold him into captivity a long time ago. And they come asking for mercy, and this is Genesis 50:18, "His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, 'Behold, we are your servants.' But Joseph said to them, 'Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you, and your little ones.' Thus he comforted them, and spoke kindly to them." Their human will was to sell him, their brother, into captivity, "You meant it for evil. You wanted to harm me, but God took your evil, your will, and God superimposed His, and by His Grace turned the evil into good." Just like with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Who crucified Jesus, was it the Pharisees? Was it the Sadducees? Was it Pilate who crucified Jesus? Well, yes, it was all them. And it was also God, there was both. This is acts 2:22 and 24, "Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested to you by God, with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised Him up, losing the pangs of death until it was not possible for Him to be held by it." It's both. They are to blame. But yeah, this was part of God's plan as well. God is sovereign. So Paul beginning with Romans 9:6, he's been dealing with the objections to election. He knows people have problems with it. He deals with the objections, but then he does want to take the Christians to this place where they realize that God has poured out His mercy on them. Romans 9:6, "But it's not as though the Word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel." So that's what he's been doing in Romans nine. Why isn't all of Israel saved? Aren't they the chosen people? And what he's saying is, "Even from the chosen people, there's chosen people." That God's election isn't just based on the fact that Israel genetically, they're somehow part of the Family of God. No, God chooses people from Israel, from the Jews. God chooses people from the Gentiles as well. And ultimately the answer is, of why someone gets saved and another doesn't, is because that's what God decided. The lesson of Mercy and Grace that God taught in the Old Testament wasn't just that the Jews are going to get saved. From the very beginning, God told Abraham, "And from you, through you, a seed is coming, and you, through that seed, will be a blessing to all nations." This was to everybody. So Israel's Prophets, from the very beginning, they knew it was Jews and Gentiles that were going to be brought in, especially after the Messianic age was inaugurated by Jesus Christ. And here Paul quotes Hosea, he goes to the book of Hosea, to talk about the Mercy of God upon the Gentiles, and the lesson of Mercy and Grace that God taught Israel through the prophet Hosea, came at a great expense to himself, to Hosea the prophet. God goes to Hosea the prophet and says, "I have a ministry for you. I have a mission for you. And through this mission, you are going to show Israel what My Mercy is like, and what My Severity is like." The Mercy in accepting Gentiles, who did not deserve to be my People, and the severity of God in that there were Jewish people who rejected God through their spiritual idolatry. That's the promiscuity that he is talking about. So God goes to Hosea, and says, "You're going to marry a prostitute, and she's going to cheat on you. Her life, your marriage is going to be marked by her infidelity and promiscuity. You're going to have children. And those children are going to be object lessons of what is going to happen to Israel." So for example, in Hosea 1:8 and 9, it says, "When she," that was Hosea's wife, "Had weaned No Mercy," God told him, one of the children, call him No Mercy, "She conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, 'Call his name, Not My People, for you are not my people, and I'm not your God." This was an object lesson in divine rejection, that God told Israel, because of their sinfulness," they did get to a point where God says, "You're not Mine anymore. You're not Mine." And God says, "I'm going to choose another." And that's in, and he goes on later in Romans 10 and 11, talking about the fact that, we, the Gentiles, are grafted into the Vine that is Jesus. We are a wild olive branch grafted into the root of the tree. We bring nothing to the table, nothing in us could move God to include us into His kingdom. Our only hope is the riches of His glory and mercy. That's what election's all about. And that's where the emphasis is on verse 25. As he quotes Hosea, "As indeed, He says to Hosea, 'Those who are not my people,'" that's the Gentiles, that's us. "He will call, 'My people,'" and the emphasis on the word, "My." God says, "These are people that are not Mine, and I'm going to make them Mine." And then He says, "And her who was not beloved," not beloved because she did not deserve to be beloved. That was the whole lesson with Hosea and his wife. She got to a point where she, there was nothing in her that made her loving to Hosea. And God says, "Still love her, still redeem her, still pursue her." And God says, "There are people that have not been loved. There was nothing loving in them, but God, because of His loving kindness, pours out His Love and he calls us, 'Beloved.'" And then he quotes another place, "In the very place where it was said, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the Living God." So he's mixing all the metaphors together. "You weren't a people, now you're My people. You were not beloved," talking about spousal Love. Now God is going to pour out a spousal love on you. You are now beloved. And then he brings in the metaphor of children, "That you are sons of the Living God." And he quotes from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10. And all he is doing is saying, "This was only made possible because of Jesus Christ. How can we be sons of the Living God, when we've rejected God, we've run from God?" We're rebels. We're reprobate. We're degenerates. Only because of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ, the only true living Son of God comes lives the perfect life in a human body, fulfills all the moral law, is obedient to God, to absolutely every single one of the commandments. And then He goes to a cross bearing the wrath that He did not deserve. He didn't break any commandments. He took the wrath that we deserve for our law-breaking, and by Grace through faith, we can be adopted into the family of God. This is our identity. We are beloved sons of the living God. Every child longs to see the twinkle of the eye of their dad in delight over them. Every child does this. Every child, there's a hunger inside of Dad looking at the child and saying, "You are My beloved. I love you. I delight in you." Every single one of us. We long for that. That's exactly what God is doing. God is telling us here, "I have given you a brand new identity." And we just need to sit under this truth. We need someone to speak this truth over us. Who are you? Who are you? How do you answer that question? Well, you don't know who you are unless you know whose you are. Who are you? As a dear Christian, I belong to God. I am a child of the Living God, I am son of the Living God. And not just, I'm a beloved son of the Living God. Not based on anything I've done. Not based on my performance. You are not your job. You are not your education. You are not your GPA. You are not your looks. You are not your gender. You are not your height. You are not your weight. You are not your race. You are not any of this, none of the external stuff. You, dear Christian, if you are a child of, if you have repented of sin and trust in Jesus Christ, you're a beloved son of God. And I say that, because we live in a culture where, when people hear that God loves them. You just assume, "Well, of course He does. That's His job." And we just assume that God loves everybody the same. And behind that assumption is the idea that we deserve God's Love. That somehow we have a claim to the Love of God. But no, Love of God is not a birthright. It's a privilege. It's not a right. It's a privilege. And not everybody gets the Love of God. It's offered to everybody. Not everyone gets it. So if you have received the Love of God, you need to be reminded that there's nothing in us that would make God Love us. It was God and His Mercy. So He gets all the praise. And we are not to take it for granted, because this is true. Only a remnant will be saved. Only a remnant will be saved. Not everyone will be saved. This is Romans 9:27 through 29. And Paul goes from Hosea, talking about the Gentiles being grafted in, to Israel. He says, "Not all of Israel will be saved, but some will. The remnant will." And he quotes Isaiah in verse 27, "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've become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.'" What he is saying, is there will always be a believing remnant. And it's because of the Grace of God, God chooses to save a remnant. And in this context, Isaiah is talking about the fact that had God not chosen to pour out his mercy on a remnant of Israel, that all of Israel would've become like Sodom and Gomorrah. So we finished where we began. There was an election even within the election of Israel. And it's the election of Grace and Salvation. And the answer of who gets saved? It's because of God. If it were not for this teaching, and this teaching, by the way, the doctrine of election, it does change the way you do ministry. And I remember in seminary, wrestling with this text, and also wrestling with my call, "Lord, where do you want us? Lord, where do you want?" And the Lord said, "You got to go to Boston." And one of the reasons why we had peace in our heart about this, is because I believed in the sovereignty of God's Grace, that sometimes it does feel like we live in Sodom and Gomorrah. And sometimes it feels like Mosaic is this remnant that God is protecting, and God's calling and drawing people. But God is. And this is church is a testimony to the sovereignty of God. Theologians in the 18th century debated whether in the final analysis, the majority of humans would be redeemed, and their consensus was based on Scripture that a vast majority of people will not enter the Kingdom Of Heaven. We hope for the remnant, but clearly even the language of the remnant means that not everyone is going to be saved. This is a hard truth of Holy Scripture. There's only one way to salvation, and that's by faith in Jesus Christ. And if you reject Jesus Christ, there's no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. Even from among the Household of God, we ask for a remnant of all those who God redeemed from Egypt, how many of them made it into the promised land? God brings out millions from Egypt, and only a couple were permitted to enter the promised land. But whenever we get into this question of how many people get saved, Jesus never wanted to deal with it. He would never answer the question directly. He put all the emphasis on, "Don't worry about that. Worry about your own soul." Matthew 7:13, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the ways easy that leads to destruction. But 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." Luke 13:22 through 30, a little more explicitly. "He," Jesus, "Went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, 'Lord, well, those who are saved, be few?' And He said to them, 'Strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many I tell you will seek to enter, will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then He will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.' Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets.' But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.' In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. And the people will come from east and west, from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.'" So how do we make sure we're in the remnant? Receive the Grace of Jesus Christ. And this is where he says, moving forward, verse 30, 33, this is point three, "Don't stumble over Saving Grace." And that's what happened with Israel. Verse 30, he says, "What shall we say then? 'That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained it. That is a righteousness that is attained by faith. But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.' Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, 'Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in Him, will be put to shame." So Paul now is dealing with Israel. What happened with Israel? Why didn't all of Israel, accept the Messiah, Jesus Christ, He came to them. He was their own. Why didn't they receive Him? And here Paul puts all of the emphasis on their responsibility. They chose, the Jewish people chose not to receive their own Messiah. It was on them as it was their responsibility. And Paul has made it plain, that we're saved by Grace through faith. This is chapter two, chapter three, chapter four of Romans, that we need a righteousness, an alien righteousness, that is not our own it's given to us only by Grace, through faith. Ironically, the Godless Gentiles were the first to embrace the gospel. Why? Because the Gentiles knew, they lived in Rome. They knew debauchery, and they knew that they were far from God. So then someone shows up in Rome, and says, "Let me tell you the greatest news ever. It doesn't matter if you've been living your whole life in Godlessness and immorality, in sin, your whole life as if God didn't exist. If you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ, all of your sins are forgiven. And God gives you a righteousness that is not your own." This is a double substitution. You trust in Jesus Christ, your sin goes to him. His righteousness gets counted to you. The Gentiles Love this. They're like, "This is awesome. I didn't grow up in a Jewish family. I don't know the Torah. I don't know any of the ceremonial laws. I don't know the morals, but you're telling me if I trust in this Jesus Christ, all my sins forgiven, I spent eternity with God? That's all it takes to be accepted. That's all it takes to be adopted?" And Paul says, "Yes." So the Gentiles loved it. And the Jewish people are like, "Oh, hold on. You're telling us that the Gentiles did not keep any Kosher laws? They had all the pepperoni pizza. They didn't keep any, we went all in. We did circumcision. We did all in. We went all in, and you're telling us the Gentiles have the same access to God that we do?" Well, that was terribly offensive to them. So hold on. By the time Jesus shows up, Judaism had developed into a religion of self-salvation, where they didn't have room for a Redeemer. They didn't have a room for a Savior that would die for the sins of the world. Because they were taught that you save yourself through your own righteous living. You make yourself good enough for God. That's what they taught salvation by works, salvation by your own morality. And Jesus Christ shows up and says, "No, do you know what the standard is to be accepted by God? The standard is perfection. Be perfect as thou Father is perfect. No one's perfect. Except for the son of God. There's only one way." This is why this cornerstone, Jesus, the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God became a stumbling block for them. They tripped over Grace. They could not imagine that God gives Grace, that God gives Mercy even to Gentiles, and that the Jewish people needed as much Grace as the Gentiles. This is important for us to hear, because especially if you come from a multi-generational Christian family, or if you've been in the faith for a while, there is a temptation to start trusting in your own righteousness instead of trusting in the Grace of God. Where you get to a point where there is discipline in your life, there is character in your life, and you start trusting in yourself, trusting in your works. And this is a word for us, that apart from faith, we can do nothing to please God. Church membership, or receiving baptism, it's important, but doesn't guarantee redemption. A true Christian is a Christian internally, not just externally. Going through the outward works does not necessarily guarantee salvation. You have to have a regeneration of the heart, a transformation of the heart. Augustine was the one who Fathered the distinction between the visible church and the invisible church. And he made this distinction because he said, "Look at Jesus. He taught that there will be growing along with the wheat. And some people can honor Jesus with their lips, but their hearts are far from him." And Augustine said, "It's easy to count people in the visible church. You can't count the invisible church, because we can't see a person's soul. Only God can. God sees the heart." But Jesus does warn us to make sure that you are in, that you are the family of God. That you aren't just part of the visible church, but part of the invisible church. And the Matthew 7:21 through 23, Jesus gives a most dreadful warning. He says the following, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom Of Heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father, who is in Heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in Your name, or cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart for Me, you workers of lawlessness.'" And then when Augustine was asked, "How do we know where the invisible church is?" And he said, "Most of the invisible church is in the visible church. And yes, it's remotely possible that a true Christian is not part of the visible church, but I would submit to you that won't last long." If you are a true Christian, and you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will prompt you to join a church, to lock arms with like-minded believers. If our hearts are truly in tune with God, we will sooner or later, in most cases, unite with the visible church. I've heard often, "I don't have to go to church to be a Christian." Well, that's true. We're saved by Grace through faith, but if you're saved by Grace, through faith, you'll long to be with the people of God. Saying, "I don't need to go to church to be a Christian," is like saying, "I can be married without living with my spouse." Yeah, you can be, but it's not going to go well, it'll go downhill quickly. So this is the point where he's saying, "If God saves you, God welcomes you into this family, where God does call us beloved sons of the Living God. I imagine St. Paul, when he went to Heaven. And I imagine that for multiple reasons. The first is I'd like to see his theology in practice. When he gets up there, and then one of the angels says, "Paul, why should we let you into Heaven?" As if they were testing him. What do you think his answer was? What would your answer be when you die, and you stand before God, or you stand before one of the angels, and, "Why should we let you into heaven?" What's your answer? Well, the Jewish people thought God wanted to hear, "Well, here's all my good works. Here's all the commandments. Here's all the money I gave. Here's my church attendance. I was part ..." Well, that's how they miss Grace. The only thing that we can say is, "Lord, there's no reason at all why you should let me in. Absolutely not. All my righteousness is like filthy rags," the Word says. "The only reason why you should let me in, is because your son, Jesus Christ, that you promised, 'Whoever calls up on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'" That's the only answer. That's how you know, you're saved by Grace through faith. If you're not sure that you are a believer today, we appeal to you, we plead with you. We urge you call upon the name of the Lord, close your eyes, and just call out to Jesus Christ, "Lord, forgive me, have Mercy on me a great sinner. And Lord, I renounce not just my sins, but also my righteousness. You are the only grounds of my salvation. Trust in Jesus Christ." And we'd like to help you take the next steps in your faith. Let us know if you prayed today to receive Christ. If you committed your life to Him, or recommitted to Him, Pastor Andy will be up here after the service. He would love to pray with you. And one of the most shocking parts about the gospel. And this is why I like imagining St. Paul. All right, the angel lets him in. Now he's in, I think one of the very first people to welcome Paul in, I think Steven was one of the first ones. Remember Steven? The first martyr. And Paul was there, Paul hated Christians. This is why Paul really understands the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and of election, because Paul hated Christians. He hated the idea of Grace, to the point that he terrorized Christians. And then God stops him on the road to Damascus. And says, "Saul, why you persecuting Me?" Saves him, that's election. And then Paul realized, "My righteousness was nothing. I need a righteousness that is not my own." Receives the righteousness of Christ. And then in Heaven, Paul's there with people that he killed. That's the marvel of Grace. John 1:9-18, "The true Light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." God does the birthing, but it's given to all who receive. So you see both here. But it's not of the will of man. It's the Will of God. God's sovereign. It's both, but you do have to receive it. You have to receive that gift. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen in His Glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of Grace and Truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, 'This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me, ranks before me, because He was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received Grace upon Grace. For the law was given through Moses, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who was at the Father's side, He has made Him known. And I'll close it with Second Peter, 1:5-11, which is so important in putting the emphasis on, "Hey, you got to confirm your election. You got to make sure that you are elect from the foundation of the world. And you do that by abiding in Christ, and bearing good fruit today." Second Peter 1:5-11, "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with Godliness, and Godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective, or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind. Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you, and entrance into the Eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen." Let us pray. Lord, we thank You for the richness of this text. We thank You for the richness of the doctrine of election, but most important, we thank you for the richness of Your mercy on us sinners. Lord, we didn't deserve Your Mercy. We don't deserve Your Love. We don't have a claim to it, and yet Lord, You give it to us. So we receive it. And we thank You for that. Lord, I pray today, ground us in the foundation of this Gospel, that we're saved by Grace through faith. And that we're given a righteousness that is not our own, a righteousness of Christ. And we hold onto that righteousness. We grow into that righteousness, and remind us today that we are beloved by You, that we are sons and daughters of the Living God. Lord, make that the root and the heart of our identity, put that the core of our being, make us a people who live in a manner worthy of the name of God, and the image of God, and the very Holy Spirit of God that You've given us. Holy Spirit, minister to us as we worship You. Holy God, we pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.