Romans 15:16 - How We Are Made Believer-Priests, Pt. 1 (10/30/2022)

Opening Greetings, Missing Members, and Sabbath Rest

Good morning everybody. We are missing brother Ron today because he's not able to be with us and I'm not going to lead singing so Glenda just led singing for us. Thank you. That was beautiful by the way and brother Paul is out ill today as well so we miss him and both Huber families on their way back from a family vacation.

The Huber seniors are not though. They're staying a little longer with their daughter up in the Virginia area so they won't quite be heading this way but Katie and Dave will be back late tonight so we'll be happy to have them back next Sunday and tell Ron I said hello.

I know he's making progress with his treatments. I got a great report from all of our school teachers and Paul and Glenda were off to Florida last week for the teachers. What do you call it? Not training I guess but I mean I'm sure they have a fancier word than that for it at Pensacola but it's a great time of refreshing for them but also they get all kinds of great new ideas, educational ideas to bring back with them and bring into the classroom here at Park Meadows Academy and so Glenda told me they're really fired up.

They got some great new ideas. They got a lot of encouragement and they're ready to hit it again Monday and I hope Paul feels better by tomorrow. Paul if you're listening we hope you're getting some rest and feel better because they traveled a lot of miles in a van this week to Florida and back and while they were there it was really compacted and a whole lot of information and I'm sure they're all very tired so I hope they'll be refreshed today and they'll all be back with us next Sunday Lord willing.

Rest of you guys glad to see you. I got to speak with a few of you about how your weeks went and it seemed like it was a busy week for a lot of us and that's okay. We get to come in and rest today and that's what Sabbath means, a rest in the Lord.

Of course we get to do that every minute of every day while we're having a busy week too don't we because we wouldn't make it through that busy week. We didn't have that ability but I hope that this would be a time of refreshing for all of you today.

I need it today. Most of you know I'm bi-vocational which means I have several jobs that I do other than preaching and so I had a busy week too and kind of you know you go through a week sometimes where you feel just a little bit beat up by the world the flesh and the devil and you need refreshing and so I need it you need it so let's go Lord in prayer and he will bring it to us from this right here.

That book that's where the refreshing comes from. Let's pray. Lord thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the beautiful music we've already heard together today and Lord we pray for those who are traveling.

Thank you so much for bringing our teachers and brother Paul and Miss Glenda back safely. We ask you to bring our other travelers back safely today so we can all be back together next Sunday and Lord we thank you for still having freedom in this nation.

We can only sense that it's dwindling. It's hanging by a thread and so we just simply pray for your will Lord that you would show it to us. Show us what we're supposed to do as salt and light in this time in your history and Lord we appreciate so much that you have preserved your word and kept it for us.

We just would have nothing if we didn't have your word today and thank you that we do. Thank you for the beautiful words you gave us in Sunday school this morning. The encouragement, seeing a bit of the future and seeing the fact that we win and we thank you for that in Jesus name amen.

You heard me didn't you? We win. Just keep that in mind. Now you sometimes have to go through a bit of a battle to win but we win. Well we're in Romans chapter 15 verse 16 offering up of the Gentiles is acceptable to the Lord and we've talked about how the Lord has made us to be believer priests and we've had several sections.

First preliminary duties and we found there's about 24 of them in the passages we studied. 24 preliminary duties. Things that we need to be praying the Holy Spirit would work through us in our lives to make us be good believer priests.

Rejection of the Messiah and the Meaning of 1 Peter 2:8

Secondly we talked about promises to the believer priests which were just magnificent. I mean you could spend a year just talking about those things and the fact that we are chosen by him to be believer priests.

It was his choice according to his will not because of anything we've done to deserve it and all these wonderful things and we talked about a lot of that and then last time was kind of interesting to me.

We talked about well what is the purpose of those who reject the Messiah because in the same passages in first and in second Peter we're kind of going back and forth from second Peter passage to first Peter passage.

That's almost hard to say but in these in these passages where it talks about the believer priest it also talks about people who reject the Messiah and why they do it and we talked about that a little bit last time.

If you remember in first Peter chapter two you could be turning there if you want to first Peter chapter two. Last time we looked at verse eight where it talks about a stone of stumbling. The same Messiah that we love and look forward to his coming is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to the lost is he not so the same gospel that is good news to us will be used in judgment on those who don't receive it who don't obey it and when I say obey the gospel I mean what is there to obey it but to believe right but to those who don't choose to obey it woe unto them because they reject the Son of God and God the Father will have no mercy on those who reject the Son of God and so we talk about these people who are like that though in verse eight there first Peter chapter two verse eight it says a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word one of the first symptoms of these kinds of people I mean they can come into church with you and talk the talk and you might even think they're a brother or sister but one of the first things you'll notice about them is they will stumble at the word like you'll show them clear passage and they say I don't think it means that are they sometimes you say I don't believe that.

You say well well I mean this is God saying this right here what do you mean. You don't believe it because they claim to be a Christian. Oh well I just don't believe that. Well let me read it again. You read it I don't believe that.

Well you know what you're talking to a goat or a lost sheep at best because they're stumbling at the word. And then it says they are disobedient. And if you remember last time we talked about how that word comes from the root word.

Root word root word in greek pistis which means believe or trust or and so forth. So it's not really disobeying like we would use the word today. So what it really means is disobeying the gospel. They're refusing to believe is what the word means that makes sense.

So and so they have two symptoms. They stumble at the word of God and they can't. They don't believe God. They find impossible to trust God. They find it impossible to depend upon him. And part of what the greek word means is they're unpersuadable.

You can't talk them into believing it. Isn't that interesting. Well you've all noticed that though because you've all got loved ones that you've talked to. And it's like you're hitting a deaf ear. Right.

Well sometimes you just quit talking to them. The holy spirit doesn't lead you to talk to him anymore. Just quit talking to him. But if he leads you to talk to him again then talk to him again. And you just go by what the holy spirit leads you to do.

And so these are these unbelievers that we talked about now. As far as why they are unbelievers. Uh i think we touched on that too. But here in first peter chapter 2 verse 8 the first part of the verse is the verse that says that he is the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

But look at the second part of first peter chapter 2 verse 8 it says wherein to they also were appointed now. That's that is phenomenal information because 98 of the christian world today does not believe this verse.

You can show it to them. It's one of those verses where you can flat show it to them. You can show them in the book of jude jude 3 jude 4 jude 20 12 jude 13 jude 18 jude 19. Show them these verses and they go.

Well i don't believe that they stumble at it. You know why. Because they don't want to believe he's in control. Like the great charles spurgeon the prince of preachers. That wonderful baptist preacher from england said they believe that we get to choose our own bride.

But they don't believe jesus should be able to choose his own bride. Because they stumble at the idea that he elects or chooses who will be saved. Well that's his bride isn't it. And i think virgin you don't want to get in a debate with charles virgin not about that issue.

And all of the baptists all my lifetime had called him the prince of preachers. Most of the pentecostals called charles virgin the prince of preachers. Uh most everybody recognizes him as perhaps the greatest preacher in the last two thousand years.

And more has been published in his sermons than any other pastor in two thousand years. And yet they don't read his sermons because if they did they would not agree with those portions. It's it's quite humorous.

But he uh he certainly of all people believe that god is in control. God is god. And we're not. That's what he believed. That's what we believe here at park meadows. So these very people that stumble at the word were appointed by god to do so.

Now you say well that doesn't seem fair. Well let me tell you what fair is. Fair is that we are a lost race. And a hundred percent of this human race should be lost in hell forever. That's fair. God said don't eat the fruit of that tree.

And the first two humans ate the fruit of that tree and said the day you do it you'll die spiritually. They died that day later they died physically. And then all through the bible that first law is echoed throughout scripture from beginning to end.

The soul that sinneth it shall die spiritual death which means separation from god forever. Romans in the chapter 10 of romans says we well chapter 3 chapter 6 and chapter 10 says we've all sinned fallen short of the glory of god.

Right. And uh so there we are. We are a doomed fallen race because of our own choice to do so. And so we don't like the fact that god. Why do we not like this fact that god chose to save a few anyway even though they don't deserve it.

It's called the remnant. It's called the elect. It's called the chosen ones. It's called the sons of god as opposed to the sons of belial in the old testament. And so there is a remnant of humans that god the father decided he would save in his mercy and grace which means none of it is deserved.

None of it is fair. It's not done on the basis of fairness. It's done on the basis of justice because jesus died for the sins of that particular group of people. And since he died for those sins they are redeemed.

They're bought and paid for by the blood of jesus. And since they are bought and paid for and their sins have been totally removed they now can be in heaven with him. And so that's a beautiful story. But humans don't like that story.

So they certainly don't like um first peter chapter 2 verse 8b that means the second half of the verse. Nor do they like the book of jude where it says that god actually foreordains predetermines that certain people will go to hell now you know what's interesting about it.

The baptists don't like to believe that today i pick on them because i grew up baptist. By the way they don't like to believe that today. But the roman catholics have never believed it. If you want to go in and read some real interesting material read what they say about predestination.

It's oh we accept the fact that god's sovereign he's in control. He he determines that certain people will be saved. But we will not accept the fact that he determines certain people will go to hell. Well i mean how can you have one without like god is only half god.

He's he's god on the positive side but on the negative side. Satan is god or humans are god. Or we're god or someone's god beside him. How do you do that. Well i understand how a roman catholic could do it because they're blinded.

I mean they're totally blinded to the truth. But baptists are doing it now. That's why i call them bapto-catholics. They're doing the same stuff. All it is is it's bringing humanism into this book here and saying okay we got to get ourselves in there a little bit.

It can't be just god. It can't be that only jesus with only his blood saves us. And we have no part in it other than receiving it as a free gift. Can't be that way. Well it is that way. And so when god's in control that much i'd tell you this because some of you guys haven't heard this story.

But brother uh otis they used to sit on that second pew. Right there otis and b. For 13 years he taught our adult sunday school class. Ben you did a great job this morning. By the way i encourage you guys come to sunday school.

You're missing out. If you don't come you're missing out. Let us forsake not the assembly of ourselves together. This church is ordained that we have bible study at 10. Come guys. Yeah i'm rebuking you a little bit all.

Right. But i gotta smile on my face smile. But um i'm serious about it though. But listen you otis who sat there um and then finally he came up here and talked for 13 years and i had coffee with him three times a week to talk about the bible with this man because he had been teaching the bible 50 years when he joined our church and i was 40 something and i was his pastor.

So yeah i wanted to learn from this guy right. But um you know he he said to me he said look i believe the bible teaches man's choice is real but i believe it also teaches god is sovereign. He said the older i get the more interested i am in god's viewpoint.

And the less interested i am in man's. Because i know all about man. I am one i know all about that. I want to know more about god's viewpoint. And is it okay if i emphasize that when i teach and i said yeah absolutely.

So he was such a wonderful teacher. And i i've now forgotten what i was going to tell you that he said but i told you about it. I hate it when that happens um it may come back to me what. Oh i don't know where i was going.

I honestly don't. It was really good though. So maybe so maybe it'll come back because i hate to be selfish and just keep it for myself. But um it was something that otis taught. It's probably up here from the pulpit but i may think of it um i guess that's the lord calling me back to my notes here uh.

But um anyway god oh i know what it was. Okay. So he had he had bible study monday night uh and three other nights of the week every week in his home and had done that for years. I'd heard about him years before we met him and all different denominations people from different cities coming to his bible studies.

But he had this older lady in there and um she was really sweet. We got to know her for a little while she was presbyterian and uh she had been sitting in his class for years. I had only been there for several weeks because i went to his class to check out his doctrine before i let him teach here.

Right. And so it was awesome though. His teaching was awesome but i remember her saying brother otis i've always known god was sovereign but i just didn't know how sovereign he was. And i think i mentioned that last week.

But i mean he's think about that you can either be totally sovereign or not where you there's no in between. So it's a funny statement i didn't know how sovereign. Well i hear totally sovereign. But you see it's so odd to me that the roman catholics and most of the bapto-catholics and the pento-catholics and the methodo-catholics they all want him to be mostly sovereign but not total.

Man gets to play a big part in it with his choices. In fact he has to submit to what man does and respond to it which god never does. By the way now jesus does god with us does. But the father does not respond.

He acts he does not allow he causes now see that's all different than what we've been taught in churches all of our lives. But it's what the scripture says. So anyway now what i want to do now is switch now away from why these certain people reject him and come to a third major topic in this study is how are we made to be believer priests.

I mean this just this is. This is probably some of the best uh information we've had on this subject and but it's going to even get better because once we get through this part we're going to go into the old testament and see how that is a type or a picture those old testament priests of what we are.

And it's amazing. But this is great. This is great. So turn to first peter chapter two and i just want to remind you there in verse one it says. Wherefore laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies envies evil speaking as newborn babes desire the milk of the word.

And that's where it listed those 24 duties of the believer priest. Remember that we already covered it but i want you to notice it starts with the word wherefore and that word means you got to go up above that and read the stuff above it to understand what this is talking about which takes you all the way back to uh not only to chapter one of first peter but eventually it's got it's got to take you uh into several passages there.

So let's go back to chapter one in first peter. And we've already looked at this and by the way if you weren't here last time the first word in verse two of chapter one uh i'm sorry first peter chapter one verse two is the word elect and in the greek it's not in verse two it's in verse one.

So you could go up and read verse one peter an apostle jesus christ to the right there you need to put a little carrot and put the word elect because it says peter an apostle of jesus christ to the elect stranger scattered throughout etc.

That's where that word goes. You totally get it wrong if you don't put it there. That's where it is in the original greek. And so we've looked at that last time. And so what i want you to do now is jump to chapter to second peter chapter three in verse one and look at this second peter same same human uh penman the holy spirit's the author.

So it's the same author same human penman second letter though he says this second epistle beloved i now write unto you in both which i stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. So he's going to remind them of some stuff he talked about in first peter in the first letter.

Are you with me some things he's preached to them before we always have to be reminded because we really our mind we use like three percent of our brain you know that. Right. So like we got to be reminded because it's in there but it's way at the back and you pull it up and good preachers are always doing that uh.

But look at uh second peter uh chapter one verse one simon peter a servant and an apostle of jesus christ to them that have obtained light light precious faith with us now who is this book written to this letter.

Simon peter to them who have already obtained like precious faith. So save people. Right. You always need to ask what's the book written to. Who's it written to. What's it written about. And keep it in context as you study the book.

So we talked about that a little bit last time. So this we we noticed last time that first peter was written to the elect to christians. Now second peter is written to christian. It is not written to christians.

Plus the whole world is just to christians. Now it may give us some information and some duties that we owe the world as we go out as as witnesses. Right. But it's written to us not to them. You got to keep that in mind or you'll miss some of the information.

You'll get it wrong. So anyway we see here it's written to those who have obtained. So one thing i want to point out to you if you're born again today if your bible says he's made you to be a believer priest then this is something that you have obtained now i've told you before greek is like math that so if you learn to study a little bit of greek what you can do with great tools you don't have to totally be a greek scholar.

But you can have tools like logos which can go on your phone and on your laptop. Uh blue letter bible's another good one where you can actually look up the greek grammar behind what you're reading. And it's like math a lot of the arguments that you get into with your family or friends where they're a on doctrine um can be handled by the grammar because it's so mathematical it can usually only mean one thing.

It can't mean two things. So if you're debating with someone probably at least one of you is wrong. Maybe both right. But you can't both be right because god doesn't mean two different things. He means one thing by what he says.

So look at this look at this grammar right here you have obtained like precious faith. That is in what we call the perfect passive participle. Now participle is an action that is already completed in the past.

It has to be that or wouldn't be in the participle. So this is an action that has already happened that you can't change that you didn't have anything to do with it because it already happened in the past even though it happened to you at this point looking back it's past tense now the fact that it's perfect passive.

Passive means someone bigger and greater than you did it to you. It doesn't mean you did it. And salvation is that way. When you see these salvation passages check them out. They're almost always in the passive which means god did it to you.

You didn't do it for him. It's not active. It would have to be in the active if you did it. Like if you had to do stuff to get saved. Like the catholics teach like the bapto-catholics and the pentecostal-o-catholics and the methodo-catholics.

They all teach. You got to do something. I love to pick on the bad to say oh no no we don't believe that. That's catholic catholics believe that we only believe. You got to do two things. You got to believe and repent.

So you only got to do two things. Well that's two things that are not included in how you got regenerated. You say well yeah they they are. You have to repent believe. Yeah. But those are effects. They're not the cause of it.

They're not the cause of your salvation. You did that because you are saved. You just think it's the cause. Because you grew up in church with the church telling you it's the cause. But if you'd have grown up catholic you'd have thought there were like 50 things you need to do right.

Including worship mary. And you have to take the lord. So they don't call it that the eucharist every sunday. Or you lose your salvation. Oh they got like 50 things. It's not the right number. I don't know how many things.

Church of christ down the street here's got five things. Most baptists have one believe. But some of them have to believe and repent depending on how fundamental they are. You see how silly it is. So we all go to separate buildings because we don't agree on the effects.

And we think the effects are the causes. If we understood that the cause was why we were getting our sins had he quickened us. The holy spirit called us and saved us and did 33 things to us that it's everyone got saved the same way in that regard.

Doesn't matter which church you're in. If you're saved you got saved that way because it's passive. He did it to you. You understand anyone not understand. He did it to you. You didn't do it. It's not active you he did it to you and you found yourself saved like a little baby born who now starts nursing.

Does the nursing make him be born. Or did he just get born because of his parents. They did all the work the baby just was born. And now he receives it as a free gift. And he nurses the milk of the word.

Right. It's a picture of salvation. We didn't do any of the work. God did all of it 100 of it long before we ever existed. Before anything was made he already knew who his children were and he ordained who they were.

It's not just for knowledge. He predestinated who they would be. He predestinated every hair on your head exactly how you would look. And you would be his baby. And if the others would belong to satan and call him father you think that was.

Listen. You really think a god that loves his own children more than you can even conceive. I mean i'm a grandpa paul so i kind of know a lot about love at this point. But i don't know anything about how much he loves me even let alone you guys.

And you think a god that loves us so much that before the foundation of the word he already knew us with love. That he would put whether or not you got to heaven or not on you to determine that. What if you messed up.

Well jesus said no man comes to me unless the father draws him. And of them i will lose nothing. Well man he'd be losing quite a few of them if he let it be in your hands to save yourself. Or what if he let it be in my hands to save you.

What if he put it in a preacher's hand for me to tell you exactly the right way. And if you miss it by a little bit you don't make it. And then he loses some of those sheep because the preacher messed up.

Well goodness i would already sent probably several hundred people to hell when i was 20 my preaching wasn't that great when i was 30 and it's still not that great. That's why i need to live to be 100 so i can be a good preacher someday.

But listen do you really think god put it in my hands on who gets saved and who doesn't. How many think he would do that. How many think he puts it in your own hands. How many think he would put it in a mother's hands of whether her children would be saved or not.

Because if that's how it worked ladies you would have to live a perfect life in front of your kids. Or else they think well they screwed up. That can't be real. I saw mom whatever. So god can't be real.

I mean i'm not going to do it. They're not even doing that. Well right. I mean would you really want it to be in your hands to save your kids. Or would you rather be god be in complete control and totally make that decision.

Who gets saved. Who doesn't see the world gets that so wrong. And people think it's one of my favorite topics. It's one of god's favorite topics. All i do is preach verse by verse through the bible. And it's just on every page.

I can't help that. So look at this to them that have obtained in the passive which means god did it to you in the past like precious faith with us. You mean to tell me that your faith is like peter's who was the first pope.

You see it read it. God has already in the past done this to you and made you a person who is of like faith with peter who we know was the first pope. Right. Why. Because the roman catholics say so. But guess what history says peter never went to rome.

How could he be the first pope. If there was going to be a pope it would have been paul who was the apostle to the gentiles which is what the romans were. None of it makes any sense. And you can actually go back and find the first date.

And in history when the first person among the catholics said this is true. Because right before that it was not a truth. Because it's not in here. So they made it up. And there's a date i can get you.

If you want to see it i'll email it to you. It's got a date that everything they invented got invented. It's man-made stuff. But even if you thought peter was a pope i have i have catholic friends that i'm very close to that i believe are born again.

Okay. I believe they're saved by grace. And then they got a bunch of other junk with it that they need to lose eventually come out from among them and be separate. Say the lord yeah eventually you need to come out.

But here's here's here's. The truth is is if they are saved they're saved because god saved them by grace by nothing that they deserve. And the minute that god saved them even even in god's mind before anything was made already.

But from the human viewpoint there's a time and space and time when you have a spiritual birthday and at that moment you become as great as the first pope which is peter. Now you know i'm talking tongue in cheek.

I don't believe he was a pope. He was an apostle. He was an apostle. And this book says that you have the same faith he had now. Imagine imagine let's just take peter for who he actually was. Imagine this man who walked on water.

Imagine this man who could heal people by touching him. Imagine this man who cursed three times and denied jesus. They were denied him three times and cursed and said i don't know him. And and then the holy spirit dave's not here.

So i can say this. The holy spirit put him under so much conviction except day's listening listening on his radio right now. So i'm i'm teasing dave. I'm not picking on you. But the holy spirit let peter know he had messed up.

Did he not. And he wept. Didn't he. And he repented got right with the lord said. And guess what he did after pentecost he went out preaching 5 000 people got saved in the same sermon. At one time this man was a powerful christian at that point and for the whole rest of his walk on the earth and until he went to be with the lord.

And this says we have a light faith as he has at the moment you get saved. So you see this is where the catholics are a little bit off because they think there's some people that are a higher you know they're a higher level.

They're a giant of the faith. They want to call them saints. Did you know that saints in the bible and the greek just means the same person. And you you see here we're on the same level as peter. Wow.

That kind of makes me excited. Um i don't know if i'm gonna try walking on water this afternoon. I might wait till it freezes in the middle of december and try that. I don't know. So to them that have obtained like precious faith with us us meaning with peter.

Uh how. Through the righteousness of god and our savior jesus christ. Now did that say through me jumping through this hoop and this hoop and this hoop and getting baptized and taking the lord's supper and getting in the water back here we have a baptistry back behind this glass.

Um and then repenting and living right and never messing up. And then if i do i lose my salvation and i got to get it back by doing some good stuff. Does it say that. Or does it say i get saved because god did it to me.

And it's through the righteousness of god not my own righteousness. Is that what it says. Oh does it say through the righteousness of god and jesus's righteousness. Or through my righteousness. You see that is the great doctrine of imputation.

What god did for us was he gave us his righteousness and he took our sin and gave that to jesus and he died for it. He paid the price. He paid the debt. It's paid in full. We don't have to pay the debt.

That's why it's free. So he did that and we got his righteousness. And so therefore we're saved. All of that is in one little verse there. Now it's in a hundred other places two hundred a thousand other places from genesis to revelation.

The same gospel. But all of it is right there in second peter chapter one verse one. Oh but that's not all. When it says he saved us with what gave us like precious faith through the word through is the word ain in greek and it means in so he gave us this like precious faith same as peter had in the righteousness of god and jesus christ.

So the only way you have this is if you're in christ. That's what the word ain means. It's translated through. But it should be in. You might want to mark that out with the word in. You are saved because you're in christ.