Have you ever sensed an impending sense of doom? Much like when you have done something wrong and you know the punishment will just be terrible. I remember that once getting in trouble at Church and I knew my Dad was furious. I was on the front seat playing with a friend. He was breaking my hot A-Team van and I was pretty upset. In a moment I forgot I was in an assembly and my Dad was preaching. I guess me and this kid got into a type of tussle on the front row and my Dad stopped preaching and told me to go sit with my Mom and he would deal with me after church. I remember walking in embarrassment to the seat my Mom was sitting in and it felt like that as I walked I was floating. I knew it was bad and I was in big trouble. I remember my Dad was in the back greeting people after church and I thought I would just slip by. I thought that if I could just get to the foyer of the church I would make it free. I got up a head of steam and started to run down the aisle. There were steps that went down from the auditorium to the foyer of the church and I wanted to run and jump down into the foyer and by pass my dad shaking hands. Well in mid leap he caught me in the air and quickly took me in the bathroom and beat the snot out of me and then walked right out and kept shaking hands like nothing happened. That experience burned into my memory and I never acted up in Church again. I deserved that beating and probably deserved more. I was guilty and I knew I was wrong. I deserved punishment.
There is something inside all of us that makes us feel guilty when we do something bad. It sticks with us and we know that there is something bigger than us. Something that is greater than all. When we sin we offend God, the Creator of the Universe.
Scripture tells us that sin is an affront to God. God is Holy, God is Just and sin cannot be tolerated in any way.
Our sin is a serious problem.
Scripture tells us that there will be a day in which God will come in judgment. He will come and put this world to rights and people will answer for the deeds that they did in the body.
People long to KNOW GOD – People want to know God so that they can seek Him for salvation.
2 Thessalonians 1: 5-8
5 This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Paul is speaking to a group that is being persecuted for the faith and is letting them know that there will be retribution. God can put the world to rights and will bring Justice.
God will come and take retribution to those that do not know God.
Paul is talking about a cosmic collision course that the world is on to God. We are all going to stand before God.
All tongues will confess and every knee will bow, it will be done in this life or the life to come.
There are two types of KNOWING GOD that the Bible talks about and we all have to deal with that fact.
There is a knowing God that is positive and brings hope and assurance of salvation.
There is another type that deals with falling in the wrath of a God that will deal retribution in His JUSTICE on all that do not KNOW HIM through Jesus His Son.
Two types of KNOWING GOD we will look at this morning.
Also, we will look at two attributes of God that people have such a hard time holding together and hopefully we can make sense of them.
1) God’s Justice and Holy Nature
2) God’s infinite Love and Mercy
How can we hold together a Just God and a Loving and Merciful God at the same time?
There is a case in the OT that proves as an example of what this is like and the character of God.
Our story finds Israel crying out to God for help in slavery in Egypt. God hears their cry and sends Moses.
We read.
“And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it" (Exodus 7:5).
Yadah is translated as 'will know,' but can better be described as experiencing intimately.
It is not as much a story of freedom for Israelites as it is a story of confrontation between two great powers.
God is going to visit Egypt in His Just wrath because of their sin. God is going to let the Egyptians KNOW HIM.
This type of Knowing is knowing of His Justice and Holiness.
The Just HOLY God of Israel will come in judgment of Egypt.
Egypt had made an Empire of the backs of the Hebrew Slaves and God’s anger was hot against Egypt for what they had done. The warfare that God brings against Egypt is against all the gods of Egypt. Each plague was a particular attack on an Egyptian God.
This warfare of God against Egypt – this visitation – this getting to know God will be intense.
God declares war on the gods of Egypt.
– Each plague specifically targets an Egyptian god:
– Water to blood—Osiris
– Frogs—Heqet
– Gnats (lice)--Geb
– Flies (swarms)--Nepthys
– Plague on Livestock— Apis
– Boils—Thoth
– Hail—Isis
– Grasshoppers—Min
– Darkness—Amun Ra
With all the plagues that come upon Egypt we read that Pharaoh hardened his heart and eventually God Himself would harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Cavid is 'hardened,' or more accurately 'made heavy' —something God did to Pharaoh.
Egyptians believed that there was a scale as you approached the afterlife.
Your heart needed to be lighter than a feather in order to pass. Egyptians thought that sin (primarily doing something to offend the gods) made a person's heart heavy.
They believed that the only sinless person in Egypt was Pharaoh, and he was never to be judged.
Pharaoh's heart was made heavy by his stubbornness. The power of Pharaoh is undermined if he is a sinner.
IN THIS STORY OF THE EXODUS GOD IS TEACHING US THAT EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL LEADER IN THE WORLD IS UNDER THE JUDGMENT OF GOD.
HIS HEART WAS HEAVY AND GOD CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH A PERSON’S OUTWARD TO SEE THEIR HEART.
PHARAOH’S HEART WAS HARDENED TO GLORIFY GOD IN THE BRINGING OF THE FINAL PLAGUE OF ULTIMATE JUDGMENT.
GOD’S JUDGMENT WAS BROUGHT AGAINST EGYPT WITH THE DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN BUT ISRAEL WOULD BE SAVED FROM THIS PLAGUE.
The Final Plague will be the one that really shows God’s Just Final back breaking judgment of Egypt.
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).
They were to put the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their house that night of Passover.
The first Passover was a deliverance from the wrath of God.
If you had the blood on the door posts of the house you would be passed over by the death angel. Imagine the suspense but there is more to the story.
All of the 1st 9 plagues Israel had been an innocent bystander but the 10th plague would require Israel to be part of this plague.
God tells Israel to go get a lamb or ram and tie it up outside their house for 4 days and then on the 5th day they would sacrifice the lamb and roast it so that everyone in Egypt could smell the roasting Lamb.
There is one problem with this. Killing a lamb in Egypt was illegal.
They saw the Lamb as a protector of Pharaoh. Engravings in Ancient Egypt show Pharaoh under a lamb and the lamb acting as a protector.
Aman-RA, the chief god of Egypt, was symbolized by a lamb.
To kill a lamb, to tie one up in front of your house, to roast it so the entire city would smell it would require some guts and faith.
It break it down and make it simple God is saying this to Israel:
MY WRATH IS COMING – GET READY – PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME, FAITH THAT IS SO ALIVE THAT IT WILL RISK EVERYTHING AND YOU WILL BE SAVED.
ISRAEL IS REQUIRED TO DO THIS ACT OF FAITH TO BE SAVED.
WOULD THEY HAVE FAITH THAT TRUSTS TOTALLY IN GOD OR WILL THEY COWER IN FEAR OF THE EGYPTIANS?
We know this story – the Death Angel comes and passes over the houses of the Israelites with the blood on the doorposts.
God shows his gracious love to Israel but shows Justice to Egypt.
Israel knows God as a Redeemer but Egypt knows God as a God that takes retribution on those that do not do His will.
But this story goes further. It goes to the very ritual of Passover.
The Jews would celebrate this feast for many years to come.
Every year the Israelites would celebrate their deliverance from Egypt and would do so by sacrificing a Lamb, eating bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and cups of wine.
The ceremony at one point in Israel’s history was very concise. It had four cups of wine that would be celebrated.
There came to be a fifth cup that Israel would celebrate in this ceremony. This fifth cup would be set off on a Table to the side but would not be drunk from.
This cup would be called the cup of Elijah. The 5th cup of Passover or the cup of Elijah was the cup of God’s vengeance on the world. Just as God poured out His wrath on the Egyptians, the Jews believed that God would one day pour out His wrath on all the nations.
Malachi the Prophet foretells of this time when Elijah would return before the Day of the Lord.
Malachi 4:5
"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
The great Prophet Elijah would return right before this event. The cup of wrath would come when Elijah came back.
If you remember Jesus tells us that in the ministry of John the Baptist Elijah the prophet had returned to Israel. The Messiah would be coming soon and God’s wrath would come against the nations.
This cup of wrath would be identified with Messianic times.
Jeremiah the prophet speaks of this wrath to come against the nations that have rejected God.
Jeremiah’s prophecy was against Judah, the surrounding nations, and also Babylon.
Except for a couple of points of interest, this passage reads like a typical judgment chapter in the Old Testament prophets, so it is tempting to pass on its significance.
First of all, it goes to great lengths to describe not only God’s heavy judgment, but the depth of sin as well. We learn, through the weight of the judgment how weighty sin is: the punishment fits the crime, so to speak.
It is a lesson throughout the book of Jeremiah that judgment is neither arbitrary nor pleasant for God. It is always the just response to rebellion after God has pleaded with His people over and over to repent.
Secondly, Jeremiah uses the image of a cup of wrath.
A fairly common image for the Old Testament prophets, it is designed to give us an image of a goblet filled to the brim and overflowing with wine.
Jeremiah is vivid in his description of this cup.
Jeremiah 25: 13-16
13 'I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 '(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)' " 15 For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16 "They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them."
27 "You shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you."' 28 "And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts : "You shall surely drink !
These are images, not of someone who has had “one too many,” but of something akin to alcohol poisoning.
The rebellious decisions made by these people have destroyed them.
This, however, is not all there is to be said about this cup or wrath.
Isaiah 51:17-23 also describes this time in history for Judah with the same image. But near the end something drastic and unexpected is recorded.
Isaiah 51: 22
22 Thus says you Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more…”
How is it the cup is simply taken away from sinful and rebellious people?
The answer lies in a prayer spoken by Jesus moments before his trial and crucifixion.
Remember that Jesus accomplishes His Atonement at Passover.
It was at Passover that the mystery of the 5th cup of Wrath was celebrated. They wanted to know about this Cup.
There was a mystery to the Cup, how would it be given to the nations but not to Israel? In the prophets the wrath of God’s judgment was promised to all that were disobedient.
Then answer is found in Matthew’s Gospel.
In Matthew 26:39 He prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
You see, Jesus saw this cup of wrath, being poured out on Him, and shook.
At this part of the Passover ceremony, the door is opened, and the head of household says, “Pour out your wrath on the world!”
In the traditional ceremony, this cup is filled but not drunk — not until the coming of Elijah. But Jesus drank the cup.
Jesus has not only taken away this cup of wrath, He has provided a cup of a new relationship, the one provided by his blood shed on the cross.
Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against the nations
What we see in the passion of Jesus is the wrath of God that was reserved for the nations poured out on Jesus. Jesus willfully accepted the separation from God the Father by taking on that wrath that we deserve.
Jesus became sin on our behalf.
2 Corinthians 5: 21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The imagery from the story of the Exodus comes to its fruition in Jesus. Jesus takes on the wrath of God.
We talked earlier about two types of Knowing and two ways to look at God.
Scripture promises that there are two ways we are going to know God. We can KNOW GOD’s Wrath or we can know GOD’s Deliverance.
We can be like Pharaoh and have a hard heart and experience God in a way that lets us know that He is the living Just God of Israel.
We can be like the Israelites and step out in faith and believe in God’s deliverance and know him in a different way.
In Jesus we see the true LOVE of God. God is perfect and Just and out of His love He has provided a way to escape the wrath of our sin.
Jesus allowed that wrath to come crashing down on HIM.
Romans 2: 5
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Romans 5: 7-9
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man ; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him
Paul tells us the beautiful message of the Gospel that Jesus takes on the wrath so that through HIS blood we can be cleansed.
Without the blood of Jesus covering us, we will experience the wrath that we deserve.
On that final day we will fall into the hands of the living God either saved or lost.
1 Thessalonians 1: 9-10
you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
We can be rescued or we can turn our back on the loving sacrifice of Jesus.
John 3: 35-36
35 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life ; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Just as Israel was given a chance, we are given a chance.
The wrath of God will come on one great day. It can be a day of vindication for Christians or a day of wrath and destruction for those that do not know Jesus.
There is a way that you can have confidence and assurance that you are in fellowship with God.
Satan would like nothing more than dog you and accuse you of sin. Satan knows that his time is limited and would love nothing more than to take as many with him as he can.
One of the names of Satan is ACCUSER – He is the one that stands and accuses us against God. We see this in the book of Job and the book of Zechariah- Satan accuses God’s elect.
In the 14th century, Robert Bruce of Scotland was leading his men in a battle to gain independence from England. Near the end of the conflict, the English wanted to capture Bruce to keep him from the Scottish crown. So they put his own bloodhounds on his trail. When the bloodhounds got close, Bruce could hear their baying. His attendant said, 'We are done for. They are on your trail, and they will reveal your hiding place."
Bruce replied, 'It's all right." Then he headed for a stream that flowed through the forest. He plunged in and waded upstream a short distance. When he came out on the other bank, he was in the depths of the forest. Within minutes, the hounds, tracing their master's steps, came to the bank. They went no farther. The English soldiers urged them on, but the trail was broken. The stream had carried the scent away. A short time later, the crown of Scotland rested on the head of Robert Bruce.
The memory of our sins, prodded on by Satan, can be like those baying dogs,but a stream flows, red with the blood of God's own Son.
By grace through faith we are safe. No sin-hound can touch us. The trail is broken by the precious blood of Christ.
'The purpose of the cross," someone observed, 'is to repair the irreparable."
Today, put on Christ if you haven’t. Put your trust and faith in Him and put him on in Baptism being cleansed in His blood.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Grafted in and Called - AM sermon 12/06/10
GRAFTED IN AND CALLED
Jeff Foxworthy has put together a collection of many sayings that I find very humorous. I find them even more interesting because my first cousin was his friend growing up and my uncle and his father were friends. It always made me wonder if he modeled some of his sayings on my family.
One of these sayings of Foxworthy that I found quiet funny was, You may be a redneck if you stare for hours at an Orange Juice container because you read on the package CONCENTRATE
This morning I want to propose to you that sometimes we concentrate on the wrong phrases or methodologies of Bible study that lead us to some bad conclusions.
1st of all I want to tell you that our NT is firmly rooted in the OT. To be ignorant of the OT is to be ignorant of Christ.
It is to ignorant of Salvation and the world Christ lived in. I would go so far to propose to you that it is hard to understand our own salvation without understanding the Call and Election of Israel.
Many times we neglect words and phrases in our own churches because of ignorance of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Many times we speak of our own Salvation but to Paul in the NT the word he uses more than any is CALLED which is firmly rooted in the OT.
This morning I want build a case for a good knowledge of the OT and then spend some time in telling you how that informs us about our salvation.
First of all, one could look at Paul in Romans 11 and see how this argument takes shape and how we are founded on the foundation of Israel and the Hebrew Bible.
Paul in Romans 11 uses the analogy of Israel as being the root of an Olive Tree. In sermons past we have talked about the olive tree and how it had big gnarly roots and could live for 2000 years. They could seem dead but after being cut to the root could sprout new life.
In Romans 11 Paul goes to this analogy of the Olive Tree and talks how Israel is the root and uses an example for horticulture in which a wild olive branch could be grafted into the roots.
In this chapter Paul is referring to the Gentile Christians as wild olive shoots being grafted into the roots of Israel.
This chapter is packed full of other teachings that we don’t have time to talk about this morning but is one of the most dense and toughest of Paul’s teachings but it is something that would be good to read and grapple with as a Christian.
Paul’s argument goes as follows:
Israel was God’s chosen nation, their chosen status had not been revoked.
God was using the Gentile Converts to make the Jewish people Jealous so that they might turn to the Messiah Jesus.
But the point I would like to zero in is that we are firmly planted on Israel and the Hebrew Scripture. That is our roots and that is where we come from
The earliest Christians did not have the NT.
As a matter of fact the first NT book that was written did not come until at least 12 – 15 years after the ministry of Jesus.
The NT as an entire book was not completed until around 96 AD and those 27 books did not start getting circulated together until the 2nd century.
That tells us that in the earliest years of the Church were using the OT to preach the Gospel. When we look at passages like the Bereans in Acts that were more noble because they examined the Scripture to test Paul’s teaching were studying the OT because the NT did not exist at that time.
I think we have done ourselves a dis-service by not being steeped and founded in the OT. Most of Jesus ministry will not make sense without a firm knowledge of the OT.
Jesus will say something like let the dead bury the dead, and we think how tough is that teaching , it makes no sense but the earliest Christians knew that Jesus is referring to a story in Elijah about the remnant and the 7000 faithful.
The point is that Jesus constantly is making references to the OT in His teaching.
I think part of many people’s fear of looking too much at the OT is that they really don’t know how the OT and NT fit together.
This morning I hope we can make some headway into this and help you understand the role of the OT in light of the New.
Once we have made that connection I want to talk about how that informs us about our Salvation
Matthew 5: 17-20
17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets ; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
There is a lot that we can glean from this passage and this is one of the most misunderstood passages in the NT.
Jesus explains that he has come to fulfill the Law of Moses and not Abolish the Law.
This tandem of terms of Fulfill and Abolish were very commonly used of Judaism in the time of Jesus. They referred to how one interpreted the OT.
The term Fulfill comes from a Hebrew word KIYEM from which the Greek word in this passage Pleroo comes from.
This term KIYEM means to interpret or apply the OT properly. In the context of this verse this is the best way to understand what Jesus is saying.
The word abolish comes from a Rabbinic term of BATEL which means to interpret the Law wrongly so that one does not obey the OT.
If a teacher were to say, it is okay for a man to commit adultery in his heart or mind, a Rabbi might say you have abolished the Law.
This means you interpreted the Law so badly that one could not fulfill the requirements of the Law.
Jesus came to KIYEM – Fulfill – Complete or show the way to how to completely obey the Law – The purpose of the Law.
In Jesus you have the very author if the Law of Moses – God in Flesh – sanding there before them telling them that he has come to show the way to properly understand the place of the Law.
In God’s Kingdom that Christ came to establish the Law will be kept and people will exhibit righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Remember the Scribes and Pharisees were pretty righteous people. This would not be an easy task and pretty much would be humanly impossible for one to do on their own.
Jesus has inaugurated a new phase of salvation history. The temporal law of Moses was to help establish Israel as a temporal nation state in the Land.
Deuteronomy for a big part was about this identity as a nation. Now Jesus is coming to expand this covenant with Israel to encompass all flesh.
In doing so he is taking this covenant expectation to a new level. The Heart will be taken captive and God will look for people to change from the inside to become covenantly faithful.
God had always wanted people that were circumcised in the heart and not just outwardly.
To understand how Jesus would go about fulfilling the Law we would have to go back and look at the types of laws in the OT.
There were basically three types.
1) Moral Law/ Ethical Law – adultery, theft, Murder
2) Levitical or Sacrificial Law
3) Works of the Law
I believe that none of us would disagree that Jesus came to uphold the moral requirements of the Law such as theft, murder, respect for parents, idolatry, adultery, etc.
As a matter of fact he kicks it up a notch and says that anyone that has lusted for a woman has commited adultery in his heart.
The Levitical Law and the sacrificial system found their fulfillment in Jesus. No longer was the Temple system with its sacrifices needed because Jesus was perfected in Jesus.
Works of the Law- in the time of Jesus this was a technical term used in Judaism, and was also used by Paul
Works of the Law were the things that made one distinctively Jewish. They were Kosher diet, Sabbath day festivals, Tassels on the garments, how your hair was cut, and circumcision. We see at the Jerusalem Council that these things were abolished for the Gentile Christians.
There are other places where Jesus alludes to this:
Matthew 11: 28-30
28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus is referring here to a yoke that would be placed across the shoulders and commonly has been understood to be one used on oxen but the better usage is the yoke used by Jewish women to carry water.
This yoke would go across the shoulders and one could hang buckets on each end to carry water from the well to their home.
A yoke in the time of Jesus also referred to how one interpreted the Bible. A rabbi’s teaching would be called his yoke.
Many people look at this passage and think that Jesus was saying that his way of life is easy.
The point of this passage is not ease but where it will lead you.
We know that Jesus is talking about his interpretation of Scripture because he says to come and Learn from Him.
Much more is at work in this passage – Jesus is claiming to be God.
God said in Exodus-
Exodus 33:14
14 And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."
God’s presence will go out with the Israelites as He leads them and He will Give them REST
-God will Give Israel Rest
Now Jesus is claiming to be the one to bring them to Rest – Jesus is saying that He is Jehovah God.
This is also an allusion to Jeremiah-
Jeremiah 6: 16
16 Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
Israel’s doom is imminent and the Babylonians will soon conquer them. Jeremiah the prophet is telling them the way to go.
There are themes that recur here in this passage that tie back into Jesus’ ministry.
The Way or the Path – the same word is used for both
The Idea of Rest
How one finds rest is by following the Path of God. To find Rest in God and live with Him in harmony for eternity is to follow the ancient way or the path to God. One must be on the WAY of God to find this REST.
John 14: 6
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no one comes to the Father but through Me
Jesus is the way to Rest in God’s presence. If we want to be righteous we have to walk as Jesus walked and lived as Jesus lived.
Jesus is the way to God
IN tying all of this together we need to see that the New Covenant ties together what the Old Covenant was trying to do but could never do.
Jesus did not come to give cheap grace where it is easy to be saved and people can just punch their ticket, claim to be saved, and live how they want to.
It is just the opposite.
God worked in Christ to open up Heaven’s flood gates to infuse the world of his radical transforming Grace that comes in the work of the Holy Spirit.
I mentioned earlier that knowledge of the Old informs us on how to look at our own salvation. There is a word used by Paul that is a very OT Hebrew type of word and that is CALLED.
I would propose that instead of using salvation as much as we do we might want to consider ourselves as God’s Called or God’s Elect.
As we put back together a proper view of our salvation based on the OT we must put God back in the center. So much of our view of salvation is focused on man and our response to God but we need to understand that everything is wrapped up in God’s Sovereignty.
We are called by God just as Israel was called. Calling is a very well attested term used in the OT and it always referred to God calling Israel out of slavery, setting them on a path of holiness, and then bringing them to the inheritance of the Land.
CALLING:
2 Timothy 1: 8-9
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
God CALLED US – not because of our works but because of His Purposes.
Many people see salvation as something like this – I will pick up my Bible read it and then get so good on my own that God will look at their life and say okay that person is so good I am going to save them.
It doesn’t work that way. Every step of the way it is all about God. We are called out of the world by God, by the Gospel Call, we are changed, we undergo a heart transplant.
From the beginning it is God working in us. We are God’s cooperative friends but it is God as the author and finisher of our faith.
This is not saying that we just sit back and do nothing and just wait on God. We are constantly in a struggle with the flesh to work through these issues of sanctification.
One sure sign of one’s salvation is the change that takes place, saving faith is the type the begins a work of santificaiton that is evident in the works of the Spirit.
We have to rest in that it is God’s Sovereign purpose to work in us, through us and For His Glory.
Philippians 2: 12-13
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
This ties right in with what Jesus said in Matthew 5 about our righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees – we must be transformed.
Work out doesn’t mean you are working for your salvation. This would be heresy – We are already saved in this passage and are working out this process of transformation that takes place by God’s Spirit. We cooperate with this sanctification through study, prayer, worship and God working in us.
Paul ends this passage with the real Key – IT IS FOR GOD”s Pleasure
When a person is saved, when they exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, when the evidence of saving faith is there one can look to them and say that is for God’s Glory – It is God’s work not our work.
This was the mindset that Jesus came to transform and Paul came to display as false. Works of the Law mentality was that one would say look at me I have been circumcised, I eat Kosher, I keep the holidays, etc, Look God should merit that work – Paul would say NO – it is God’s work that matters – God must be at work in your life for you to bring about the righteousness that is pleasing to God.
Romans 8: 1-4
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The requirement of the Law – that moral code of living Holy – can now be fulfilled in our sinful flesh because the Spirit of God has been sent to transform our lives – The Spirit has come to transform and make us the people that God has always wanted us to be.
CONCLUSION –
In the beginning of our sermon I laid out the importance of the OT but it was for a purpose, for one thing – So you will be motivated to go out and learn it backwards and forwards to be able to better understand the New Covenant.
But most importantly to see our salvation in light of God’s dealing with Israel in this idea of the purpose of the Law- Paul provides a great backdrop for this in Romans 8.
God has filled our life with His Spirit.
The flesh is weak and even Paul says in Romans 7 that his state before his life in Christ was such.
In Romans 7 Paul speaks of how the mind wants to obey God’s law but the flesh is weak.
Because we have been Chosen by God we are given His Spirit. The Spirit of God makes obedience to the Law possible.
The Moral Law that man had failed at has been made possible because this sinful flesh has been give power.
This Power in the NT comes from the Greek word DUNAMIS where we get the word Dynamite.
How do we appropriate this Power – How do we get this power to live in harmony with God and live transformed lives?
Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be not drunk with wine, in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit."
[Greek., asotia, "dissipation"],
When you are filled with the Spirit, you are controlled by Him
Ephesians 5:19-21 lists the results of being filled with the Spirit: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things ... submitting yourselves one to another."
Colossians 3 is a parallel, condensed version of Ephesians 5:18--6:9. Verse 16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."
Notice that the results are the same as those from being filled with the Spirit. You will speak in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v. 16); give thanks (v. 17); and relationships among husbands and wives (vv. 18-19), children and parents (vv. 20-21), and servants and masters (3:22; 4:1) will be positively affected.
The only apparent difference between Colossians 3:16; 4:1 and Ephesians 5:18; 6:9 is what produces the results.
If you get the same results from letting "the word of Christ dwell in you" as you do when you are "filled with the Spirit," then they both must be the same thing.
We as Christians have been given Power to overcome and live a life that is different.
How many of you here today want to live a better life?
How many of us deal with guilt because we are not living as well as we should?
The Scripture makes it clear that you can live a life that is pleasing to God and that shows the fruits of the Spirit.
At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it. The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
As this anecdote illustrates, the "why" behind memorization is fully as important as the "what." The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God's Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
Sometimes we so emphasize the study of the Bible and knowing the word of God but we need in closing to understand that our hearts must change.
The word of God from cover to cover should challenge every aspect of our lives.
The WHY of study and living a Spirit filled life is important.
In closing:
Why are you here today?
What is your reason for getting up everyday?
Are you totally consumed with living a life that is pleasing to God?
Jeff Foxworthy has put together a collection of many sayings that I find very humorous. I find them even more interesting because my first cousin was his friend growing up and my uncle and his father were friends. It always made me wonder if he modeled some of his sayings on my family.
One of these sayings of Foxworthy that I found quiet funny was, You may be a redneck if you stare for hours at an Orange Juice container because you read on the package CONCENTRATE
This morning I want to propose to you that sometimes we concentrate on the wrong phrases or methodologies of Bible study that lead us to some bad conclusions.
1st of all I want to tell you that our NT is firmly rooted in the OT. To be ignorant of the OT is to be ignorant of Christ.
It is to ignorant of Salvation and the world Christ lived in. I would go so far to propose to you that it is hard to understand our own salvation without understanding the Call and Election of Israel.
Many times we neglect words and phrases in our own churches because of ignorance of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Many times we speak of our own Salvation but to Paul in the NT the word he uses more than any is CALLED which is firmly rooted in the OT.
This morning I want build a case for a good knowledge of the OT and then spend some time in telling you how that informs us about our salvation.
First of all, one could look at Paul in Romans 11 and see how this argument takes shape and how we are founded on the foundation of Israel and the Hebrew Bible.
Paul in Romans 11 uses the analogy of Israel as being the root of an Olive Tree. In sermons past we have talked about the olive tree and how it had big gnarly roots and could live for 2000 years. They could seem dead but after being cut to the root could sprout new life.
In Romans 11 Paul goes to this analogy of the Olive Tree and talks how Israel is the root and uses an example for horticulture in which a wild olive branch could be grafted into the roots.
In this chapter Paul is referring to the Gentile Christians as wild olive shoots being grafted into the roots of Israel.
This chapter is packed full of other teachings that we don’t have time to talk about this morning but is one of the most dense and toughest of Paul’s teachings but it is something that would be good to read and grapple with as a Christian.
Paul’s argument goes as follows:
Israel was God’s chosen nation, their chosen status had not been revoked.
God was using the Gentile Converts to make the Jewish people Jealous so that they might turn to the Messiah Jesus.
But the point I would like to zero in is that we are firmly planted on Israel and the Hebrew Scripture. That is our roots and that is where we come from
The earliest Christians did not have the NT.
As a matter of fact the first NT book that was written did not come until at least 12 – 15 years after the ministry of Jesus.
The NT as an entire book was not completed until around 96 AD and those 27 books did not start getting circulated together until the 2nd century.
That tells us that in the earliest years of the Church were using the OT to preach the Gospel. When we look at passages like the Bereans in Acts that were more noble because they examined the Scripture to test Paul’s teaching were studying the OT because the NT did not exist at that time.
I think we have done ourselves a dis-service by not being steeped and founded in the OT. Most of Jesus ministry will not make sense without a firm knowledge of the OT.
Jesus will say something like let the dead bury the dead, and we think how tough is that teaching , it makes no sense but the earliest Christians knew that Jesus is referring to a story in Elijah about the remnant and the 7000 faithful.
The point is that Jesus constantly is making references to the OT in His teaching.
I think part of many people’s fear of looking too much at the OT is that they really don’t know how the OT and NT fit together.
This morning I hope we can make some headway into this and help you understand the role of the OT in light of the New.
Once we have made that connection I want to talk about how that informs us about our Salvation
Matthew 5: 17-20
17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets ; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
There is a lot that we can glean from this passage and this is one of the most misunderstood passages in the NT.
Jesus explains that he has come to fulfill the Law of Moses and not Abolish the Law.
This tandem of terms of Fulfill and Abolish were very commonly used of Judaism in the time of Jesus. They referred to how one interpreted the OT.
The term Fulfill comes from a Hebrew word KIYEM from which the Greek word in this passage Pleroo comes from.
This term KIYEM means to interpret or apply the OT properly. In the context of this verse this is the best way to understand what Jesus is saying.
The word abolish comes from a Rabbinic term of BATEL which means to interpret the Law wrongly so that one does not obey the OT.
If a teacher were to say, it is okay for a man to commit adultery in his heart or mind, a Rabbi might say you have abolished the Law.
This means you interpreted the Law so badly that one could not fulfill the requirements of the Law.
Jesus came to KIYEM – Fulfill – Complete or show the way to how to completely obey the Law – The purpose of the Law.
In Jesus you have the very author if the Law of Moses – God in Flesh – sanding there before them telling them that he has come to show the way to properly understand the place of the Law.
In God’s Kingdom that Christ came to establish the Law will be kept and people will exhibit righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Remember the Scribes and Pharisees were pretty righteous people. This would not be an easy task and pretty much would be humanly impossible for one to do on their own.
Jesus has inaugurated a new phase of salvation history. The temporal law of Moses was to help establish Israel as a temporal nation state in the Land.
Deuteronomy for a big part was about this identity as a nation. Now Jesus is coming to expand this covenant with Israel to encompass all flesh.
In doing so he is taking this covenant expectation to a new level. The Heart will be taken captive and God will look for people to change from the inside to become covenantly faithful.
God had always wanted people that were circumcised in the heart and not just outwardly.
To understand how Jesus would go about fulfilling the Law we would have to go back and look at the types of laws in the OT.
There were basically three types.
1) Moral Law/ Ethical Law – adultery, theft, Murder
2) Levitical or Sacrificial Law
3) Works of the Law
I believe that none of us would disagree that Jesus came to uphold the moral requirements of the Law such as theft, murder, respect for parents, idolatry, adultery, etc.
As a matter of fact he kicks it up a notch and says that anyone that has lusted for a woman has commited adultery in his heart.
The Levitical Law and the sacrificial system found their fulfillment in Jesus. No longer was the Temple system with its sacrifices needed because Jesus was perfected in Jesus.
Works of the Law- in the time of Jesus this was a technical term used in Judaism, and was also used by Paul
Works of the Law were the things that made one distinctively Jewish. They were Kosher diet, Sabbath day festivals, Tassels on the garments, how your hair was cut, and circumcision. We see at the Jerusalem Council that these things were abolished for the Gentile Christians.
There are other places where Jesus alludes to this:
Matthew 11: 28-30
28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus is referring here to a yoke that would be placed across the shoulders and commonly has been understood to be one used on oxen but the better usage is the yoke used by Jewish women to carry water.
This yoke would go across the shoulders and one could hang buckets on each end to carry water from the well to their home.
A yoke in the time of Jesus also referred to how one interpreted the Bible. A rabbi’s teaching would be called his yoke.
Many people look at this passage and think that Jesus was saying that his way of life is easy.
The point of this passage is not ease but where it will lead you.
We know that Jesus is talking about his interpretation of Scripture because he says to come and Learn from Him.
Much more is at work in this passage – Jesus is claiming to be God.
God said in Exodus-
Exodus 33:14
14 And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."
God’s presence will go out with the Israelites as He leads them and He will Give them REST
-God will Give Israel Rest
Now Jesus is claiming to be the one to bring them to Rest – Jesus is saying that He is Jehovah God.
This is also an allusion to Jeremiah-
Jeremiah 6: 16
16 Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
Israel’s doom is imminent and the Babylonians will soon conquer them. Jeremiah the prophet is telling them the way to go.
There are themes that recur here in this passage that tie back into Jesus’ ministry.
The Way or the Path – the same word is used for both
The Idea of Rest
How one finds rest is by following the Path of God. To find Rest in God and live with Him in harmony for eternity is to follow the ancient way or the path to God. One must be on the WAY of God to find this REST.
John 14: 6
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no one comes to the Father but through Me
Jesus is the way to Rest in God’s presence. If we want to be righteous we have to walk as Jesus walked and lived as Jesus lived.
Jesus is the way to God
IN tying all of this together we need to see that the New Covenant ties together what the Old Covenant was trying to do but could never do.
Jesus did not come to give cheap grace where it is easy to be saved and people can just punch their ticket, claim to be saved, and live how they want to.
It is just the opposite.
God worked in Christ to open up Heaven’s flood gates to infuse the world of his radical transforming Grace that comes in the work of the Holy Spirit.
I mentioned earlier that knowledge of the Old informs us on how to look at our own salvation. There is a word used by Paul that is a very OT Hebrew type of word and that is CALLED.
I would propose that instead of using salvation as much as we do we might want to consider ourselves as God’s Called or God’s Elect.
As we put back together a proper view of our salvation based on the OT we must put God back in the center. So much of our view of salvation is focused on man and our response to God but we need to understand that everything is wrapped up in God’s Sovereignty.
We are called by God just as Israel was called. Calling is a very well attested term used in the OT and it always referred to God calling Israel out of slavery, setting them on a path of holiness, and then bringing them to the inheritance of the Land.
CALLING:
2 Timothy 1: 8-9
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
God CALLED US – not because of our works but because of His Purposes.
Many people see salvation as something like this – I will pick up my Bible read it and then get so good on my own that God will look at their life and say okay that person is so good I am going to save them.
It doesn’t work that way. Every step of the way it is all about God. We are called out of the world by God, by the Gospel Call, we are changed, we undergo a heart transplant.
From the beginning it is God working in us. We are God’s cooperative friends but it is God as the author and finisher of our faith.
This is not saying that we just sit back and do nothing and just wait on God. We are constantly in a struggle with the flesh to work through these issues of sanctification.
One sure sign of one’s salvation is the change that takes place, saving faith is the type the begins a work of santificaiton that is evident in the works of the Spirit.
We have to rest in that it is God’s Sovereign purpose to work in us, through us and For His Glory.
Philippians 2: 12-13
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
This ties right in with what Jesus said in Matthew 5 about our righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees – we must be transformed.
Work out doesn’t mean you are working for your salvation. This would be heresy – We are already saved in this passage and are working out this process of transformation that takes place by God’s Spirit. We cooperate with this sanctification through study, prayer, worship and God working in us.
Paul ends this passage with the real Key – IT IS FOR GOD”s Pleasure
When a person is saved, when they exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, when the evidence of saving faith is there one can look to them and say that is for God’s Glory – It is God’s work not our work.
This was the mindset that Jesus came to transform and Paul came to display as false. Works of the Law mentality was that one would say look at me I have been circumcised, I eat Kosher, I keep the holidays, etc, Look God should merit that work – Paul would say NO – it is God’s work that matters – God must be at work in your life for you to bring about the righteousness that is pleasing to God.
Romans 8: 1-4
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The requirement of the Law – that moral code of living Holy – can now be fulfilled in our sinful flesh because the Spirit of God has been sent to transform our lives – The Spirit has come to transform and make us the people that God has always wanted us to be.
CONCLUSION –
In the beginning of our sermon I laid out the importance of the OT but it was for a purpose, for one thing – So you will be motivated to go out and learn it backwards and forwards to be able to better understand the New Covenant.
But most importantly to see our salvation in light of God’s dealing with Israel in this idea of the purpose of the Law- Paul provides a great backdrop for this in Romans 8.
God has filled our life with His Spirit.
The flesh is weak and even Paul says in Romans 7 that his state before his life in Christ was such.
In Romans 7 Paul speaks of how the mind wants to obey God’s law but the flesh is weak.
Because we have been Chosen by God we are given His Spirit. The Spirit of God makes obedience to the Law possible.
The Moral Law that man had failed at has been made possible because this sinful flesh has been give power.
This Power in the NT comes from the Greek word DUNAMIS where we get the word Dynamite.
How do we appropriate this Power – How do we get this power to live in harmony with God and live transformed lives?
Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be not drunk with wine, in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit."
[Greek., asotia, "dissipation"],
When you are filled with the Spirit, you are controlled by Him
Ephesians 5:19-21 lists the results of being filled with the Spirit: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things ... submitting yourselves one to another."
Colossians 3 is a parallel, condensed version of Ephesians 5:18--6:9. Verse 16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."
Notice that the results are the same as those from being filled with the Spirit. You will speak in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (v. 16); give thanks (v. 17); and relationships among husbands and wives (vv. 18-19), children and parents (vv. 20-21), and servants and masters (3:22; 4:1) will be positively affected.
The only apparent difference between Colossians 3:16; 4:1 and Ephesians 5:18; 6:9 is what produces the results.
If you get the same results from letting "the word of Christ dwell in you" as you do when you are "filled with the Spirit," then they both must be the same thing.
We as Christians have been given Power to overcome and live a life that is different.
How many of you here today want to live a better life?
How many of us deal with guilt because we are not living as well as we should?
The Scripture makes it clear that you can live a life that is pleasing to God and that shows the fruits of the Spirit.
At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it. The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
As this anecdote illustrates, the "why" behind memorization is fully as important as the "what." The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God's Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
Sometimes we so emphasize the study of the Bible and knowing the word of God but we need in closing to understand that our hearts must change.
The word of God from cover to cover should challenge every aspect of our lives.
The WHY of study and living a Spirit filled life is important.
In closing:
Why are you here today?
What is your reason for getting up everyday?
Are you totally consumed with living a life that is pleasing to God?
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