Romans 9:1-5

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
Tonight, we're going to be using an outline from Dr.
00:09
John MacArthur.
00:11
Now, if I tried to say this for my outline, I know I'd get caught.
00:15
And I shouldn't say that anyway, because it wouldn't be true.
00:19
Sometimes pastors do that.
00:20
Sometimes pastors, if you know, if a good outline is there, there's no reason to try to reinvent the wheel.
00:26
There's no there's no reason to try and reinvent things.
00:28
And Dr.
00:29
MacArthur and all of his commentaries, he also produced, I don't know how many of you ever seen Dr.
00:35
MacArthur's commentaries, but they are massive.
00:38
But what has also been produced is what is called the companion for preachers and teachers.
00:44
And most people have never even seen that.
00:45
But what that is, is basically all of his commentaries condensed down to just the outlines.
00:51
So rather than having all the commentary material, it's just the outline.
00:55
And because I like a lot of what he has to say, and especially Romans 9 to 11 is one complete thought from the Apostle Paul, it's all about particularly the election of God and how his relationship is with the people of God, the Jews, the covenant people of God, of the Old Testament and the elect of the New Testament.
01:17
So the understanding that all works together, that Romans 9 to 11 is a unit, it's good to have an outline so that you can keep up with the pace of what the writer is trying to help us to understand.
01:36
So tonight I'm going to give you an outline to follow.
01:39
We've already gone over verses 1 to 24 in an overview, but tonight we're going to begin to sort of dig out some of the parts that I somewhat glossed over in the overview.
01:50
We're going to actually break down some of the words and we're going to look at some of the things that we didn't get to before.
01:55
I'm going to, I'm sure, repeat some things that I've said, but hopefully that will be for your benefit and you will not be bored in any way.
02:02
I don't know that you could be bored with Romans 9 to 11, but I'll just go ahead and say if I repeat something, just know that it bears repeating.
02:11
It was worth it.
02:13
All right.
02:13
So I'll pass these this way if you'd like to take one.
02:16
Pass it down and make sure the Acobs get one, please.
02:20
And you guys want one? OK.
02:24
All right.
02:28
OK, there you go.
02:29
There you go.
02:43
Hey, now, I didn't say I'm using their commentary.
02:47
I said I'm using their.
02:51
Well, don't flatter my ego too much.
02:53
It's dangerous enough as it is.
02:55
I can't fit any hats as it is.
02:59
I'm just kidding.
03:00
But the outline should be coming around.
03:07
I'm six one.
03:09
I don't know.
03:13
Yeah, if I could have any extras, if anyone, I don't mind sending copies.
03:22
Maybe we do have a whole stack over here.
03:24
Here you go.
03:26
OK, great.
03:36
As I said, this is this is not necessarily Dr.
03:40
MacArthur's commentary.
03:41
This is just simply his outline.
03:44
So keep that in mind.
04:02
I cannot imagine another text of scripture that has been as mistreated or mishandled as Romans chapter nine.
04:10
The reason for that is simple.
04:11
It speaks of ideas and concepts that are far beyond the scope of natural man.
04:15
Any person who attempts to read these verses without his or her anchor firmly within the veil will come away confused or with a wrong understanding based because the truth of this text requires a belief in the complete sovereignty of God and the complete righteousness of God.
04:32
Those two things are very important.
04:35
It's not enough that we believe God is sovereign.
04:42
We have to also believe that God is righteous.
04:46
Because I have people ask me difficult questions all the time, what about this and what about that in regard to how God does something? People ask me questions in regard to death or pain or suffering or national tragedy.
05:04
What we have to understand is not only is God in control of all things, but God is righteous and the control that he chooses to exercise, the ordination that he chooses to exercise is in keeping with his righteous character.
05:19
One of my favorite Bible verses is in the form of a question in the Old Testament.
05:26
When Abraham was speaking to the Lord and the Lord is promising judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham is going through those great list of questions.
05:37
Remember, well, if there be 50 righteous, Lord, would you spare them? And if there be 40 righteous and of course, Lord, if you could, if you could just once more be patient and let your servants speak, if there be 10 righteous, you remember the story.
05:54
The one thing that Abraham asks in that passage is, will not the judge of the universe do right? And you see, it's not a question that bears an answer because the answer to the question is based in the question.
06:12
If God is the judge of the universe, then he will by necessity do right because he is the standard for righteousness.
06:23
And when we proclaim God is sovereign, we must also very quickly contend that God is also righteous.
06:33
Whatever God chooses to do and however God chooses to do it, it is right because he has chosen to do it that way, even if we don't necessarily feel like it meets our sense of righteousness.
06:51
Paul has already shown the truth of God's predestinating grace in the final verses of chapter 8 in the book of Romans.
06:59
He's already made the case that those whom God has predestined are the called and those will be glorified because he knows this will naturally bring up questions concerning God's people.
07:11
Israel, he begins to add an apologetic for his word.
07:15
We talked about this last time we met.
07:17
Romans 9 is a defense of what he's already said in Romans 8.
07:21
He begins in the powerful way of saying, I'm speaking the truth in Christ.
07:25
I am not lying.
07:26
He wants the people to understand that God's purposes are not being thwarted, but in actuality, they are being fulfilled and all that is happening.
07:35
Understanding Romans 9 requires us to allow the text to speak for itself.
07:39
It requires that we not be bound by our traditions.
07:45
I have seen Romans 9 torn apart on the altar of tradition.
07:51
I have seen it sacrificed on the altar of tradition because Romans 9 says things that are difficult to hear, more so even difficult to understand.
08:01
And people have a paradigm, a traditional paradigm in their mind.
08:06
And because Romans 9 often does not fit into this traditional paradigm, rather than simply believing what it says, they reinterpret it in accord with their traditions rather than allowing scripture to change their traditions.
08:20
And that should be who we are.
08:23
Some of you have probably heard me say this before, but it's a good rule of thumb.
08:31
There is a Latin term tabula rasa.
08:38
The term tabula rasa means blank slate.
08:44
When we come to scripture to study, we should not impose upon scripture our traditions.
08:56
But rather, we should come as a slate ready to be written upon rather than trying to write our traditions or our ideas of right and wrong upon what the scripture says.
09:05
I had a person argue this with me one time because he misunderstood.
09:08
He said, I don't believe in that tabula rasa because when you go to scripture, you've got to take the context and you've got to take the historical.
09:17
Well, of course, I'm not saying that you leave out the historical context.
09:20
I'm not saying that you leave out scripture, interpreting scripture, analogous scriptura.
09:25
And we know this difference is that I do not impose upon the scripture my sense of right and wrong.
09:35
Because, you know what? God is not bound by my sense of right and wrong.
09:40
God is not bound by my prejudices.
09:46
God is God.
09:49
And I am not.
09:52
So when we study this chapter, as we already have done, we've looked over verses one through twenty four.
09:58
But I have to remind you every time I feel compelled as the one whom God has called here to teach.
10:04
I feel compelled to remind us always when we come to passages like this, that we must be willing to have the scripture change us, not ourselves seek to change the scripture.
10:19
So on your sheet, it has the tragic unbelief of Israel.
10:24
That's the first Roman numeral, Israel's tragic unbelief.
10:31
And the first blank that you have there is Paul's personal connection with unbelieving Israel.
10:40
This is your outline.
10:44
Paul's personal connection with unbelieving Israel.
10:48
And that is verses one through three.
10:50
So if we want to read that together with your Bibles open to Romans nine, it says, I am speaking the truth in Christ.
10:59
I'm not lying.
11:01
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.
11:06
That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
11:19
Now, we've talked about this in the past few weeks before the Seder.
11:25
We had some conversations about this, but I sort of glossed over it for the sake of trying to establish the context of Romans chapter nine.
11:35
I want to look a little further here at what Paul is saying, because he is making a statement about his relationship with his Jewish brethren that I think often goes missed.
11:51
Paul is actually here saying something very similar to what Moses said about the Israelites.
11:59
So I want you to, in your Bibles, hold your place in Romans chapter nine, and I want you to go back to the book of Exodus.
12:12
Paul says in Romans, he says, I wish myself to be accursed and cut off from Christ.
12:19
The word accursed there is the word anathema means to be doomed to destruction or to devote to destruction and eternal hell.
12:30
I would give myself up to hell if that would mean my people, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, would be saved.
12:37
Now, in Exodus chapter thirty two and verse thirty.
12:43
Sorry, I didn't give you the numbers there, you've got to catch me, you've got to and please remember that on Wednesday night, we do part of the reason why we come in here and we have the table set up because this is a Bible study.
12:54
If you have a question, if you want me to go deeper into something or I may not know the answer to your question, I may have to wait till next week.
13:01
But raise your hand if you do have a question.
13:05
Exodus 32, verse 30, this is after the people of God have sinned, it says in verse 30, the next day, Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord.
13:25
Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
13:29
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, the this people have sinned a great sin.
13:37
They have made for themselves gods of gold.
13:42
But now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please block me out of your book that you have written, consider the words of Moses because they are so akin to the words of the apostle Paul.
14:06
Moses is speaking to God and he is speaking to him as close to face to face as anyone ever has in the sense of no one has ever seen God the Father, but he's in the presence of the Lord and he is saying to the Lord, forgive them, please.
14:27
But if you choose not to forgive them, count me with them.
14:40
Yes, ma'am, not having a KJV is going to hurt me on this.
14:59
OK, read it.
15:01
You tell my verse 32.
15:02
But now if you forgive their sin and it's not a blank, it's a it's just a literary device that produces a pause in the sentence.
15:17
It's not a it's not leaving anything blank or anything out.
15:20
Mine has a similar one.
15:22
Mine doesn't have to.
15:24
Yours apparently has to.
15:26
But it's not in any maybe just one long one.
15:30
OK, it depends.
15:33
It might be that the page is getting old.
15:36
I have some money left together.
15:39
But the ESV also has a line in that very spot.
15:44
But it's not as if the line is is leaving anything out or anything like that.
15:53
Yeah.
15:57
What did you say? I'm here.
15:58
I'm sorry.
15:59
I was looking and it's an asterisk and a star and a circle and all that.
16:12
What is the NAS? Does it have the line? OK, so so at least we can say this.
16:17
There's a consensus among the scholars who wrote it that that line goes there.
16:22
There's a consensus there.
16:24
And it says, but again, the thing that I am most compelled in this is the the absolute leadership love that is being displayed by Moses and then later by Paul.
16:40
But since Moses is the direct, you know, Moses was up on the mountain when the people of God did what they did, when the Israelites took all the gold and they melted it down and they made the calf and they and they started worshiping the calf.
16:55
Moses has no lot in this.
16:58
Moses is not a part of this, yet he identifies with the people.
17:05
He says, Lord, if you're going to destroy them, then count me with them.
17:14
And as such, demonstrate such love and solidarity.
17:19
With the people of Israel, Paul is demonstrating a very similar love and solidarity with the people of Israel.
17:28
But here's what I find most compelling about the Apostle Paul.
17:36
Moses was loved.
17:38
By the Israelites, Paul was hated.
17:45
By the Israelites, it's one thing to stand up for people who like you.
17:53
It's most of us, honestly, if we had to, not that any of us go out seeking to do this, but most of us, if we had to, if it was between us and someone we loved, we would step in front of the dangerous thing, whether it be the bullet or the or the car or whatever.
18:12
We we would for our children, for our spouse, for someone that we love, we would be willing to take the death penalty that we that they could go free, that they would live.
18:28
And that's what Jesus said.
18:29
He says no greater love than this than a person lay down his life for his friend.
18:35
And some of us, some of us might even go as far as being so noble.
18:42
As Paul is here, I believe, being at the height of nobility in his Christian faith, some of us might even be so noble as to say that if it were a choice between myself and my wife spending an eternity in hell, that I would turn over my salvation to her, that she might not be in eternal torment.
19:12
But you see, that's.
19:15
That's your wife, that's a person who reciprocates love to you.
19:22
Paul is saying this about people who have stoned him, who have rejected him.
19:34
Who have not demonstrated love toward him, yet at the same time, Paul is saying, if I could.
19:45
And he's not saying that he can, he's not making some kind of case for some type of secondary form of atonement, like Paul could give his life and all of Israel would be saved, that's not what he's saying.
19:55
He's saying, but if it were possible.
19:58
That my damnation would bring about their salvation, that I would do it now, some of us may think Paul is exercising here some form of false humility.
20:11
I don't believe so, primarily because the Holy Spirit of God is keeping the word of God from error.
20:18
The Bible says that it is the inspired word of God.
20:22
It says that it is, it is God breathed, it is kept from error, which is why we say the Bible is inerrant, it is without error.
20:33
So if Paul is saying here that he would gratefully give up himself for his beloved Israelite brethren, I believe it to be so.
20:45
And my point tonight is that this is a.
20:49
Wonderful expression, an exhibition of true Christian love, one of the things that surprises me is how difficult it is to love people, it should be the most natural thing in the world, especially in the church where God's people, how easy is it for us to become disgruntled? How easy is it for us to become negative and unloving towards one another? Well, she said something about my dress and that's superficial, but or she didn't do this or he didn't do that or or he didn't he didn't show me enough attention or he showed me too much attention or he disagreed with me and how easy it is for us to not want to demonstrate love, but instead be more ready to demonstrate justice.
22:03
Well, he deserves what he's going to get.
22:07
One of the things, one of the saddest human traits of humanity.
22:13
As that almost every human being feels they are worthy of mercy, but that every other human being is worthy of justice, if I do something wrong, I need mercy.
22:29
But if you do something wrong, you need to pay for it.
22:34
That's how we feel.
22:35
That's how we treat one another.
22:39
If anybody needed justice, it would be those people who had rejected the apostle Paul.
22:45
This is Jesus Christ's chosen vessel of gospel proclamation.
22:53
But Paul is not here calling out for their justice or judgment said he's demonstrating again his love.
23:06
How? No, no, no, no, no.
23:14
I'm talking.
23:15
This is the Jews, Israelites.
23:17
He's talking about unbelieving Israel.
23:20
He's not talking about Christians.
23:23
He's talking about unbelieving Israel.
23:27
Yes, he's saying if I could, I would give my life for them so that they could know Christ and be saved.
23:35
Yes, yes.
23:36
He's not saying he would give his life for believers because believers have eternal life.
23:40
They have that.
23:41
He's saying those Israelites, those brethren, those people that are his kinsmen, according to the flesh, if they could somehow come to Christ, he would be willing to forfeit his eternal destiny.
23:56
Can you can you can you can you wrap your mind around that kind of love? Because I have a hard time wrapping my my my my head and my heart around that level of love.
24:09
I have a hard time doing because to love people that do not love us back.
24:18
Is the highest form of love, but it's also the least practiced form of love.
24:25
It's the highest form, but it's the least practiced.
24:30
And Jesus said, if you only love those who love you back, then what value is that? How does that demonstrate Christianity when we only love people who love us back? It doesn't.
24:53
If we could learn as a church.
24:57
To truly love each other.
25:00
So many of the things and beloved, I want to tell you, I want to commend you.
25:07
I love this church and you guys do love one another and you love me, don't love me a lot.
25:13
And I mean that what I mean by that is you all show your love towards me a lot.
25:17
Everybody is so kind to my to me and to my family and to and to I see this, but there's always going to be those times when the love fails and the indignation rises.
25:32
Those are the times that we need to step back and ask ourselves, are we demonstrating love towards one another or are we more concerned with justice than we are with mercy? Justice for that person.
25:52
They need to get called out for what they did.
25:54
They need to get in trouble for what they did rather than the sound like I'm beating a dead horse.
26:02
Maybe.
26:03
No, thank you.
26:04
I appreciate that because I really want to stress this because I truly believe that what is happening in our church right now is an amazing thing from Holy Week.
26:17
I wrote this on my Facebook page.
26:19
For those of you who don't use Facebook, I wrote that Holy Week this year was the most encouraging time I have ever spent in church and my whole life.
26:32
And I've had some good times in church, I've had some bad times, too, but I've had some really good times in church.
26:37
But what? And it wasn't about the numbers.
26:41
Sunday, we had more numbers than we've had in a long time.
26:44
But let me tell you something, I don't get too excited about numbers because numbers do this.
26:49
And if all you are is happy when the numbers are up here, then you're not going to be happy.
26:53
You're not going to have joy all the time because when that does that, you're not you know, you can't rely on us.
26:58
What I felt, though, and what gave me happiness.
27:03
Was it was a demonstration of love within the body of Christ.
27:08
We came together and we fellowship and some of us on Thursday night stayed till eleven o'clock.
27:14
Miss Val and Kim, we stayed up here just enjoying fellowship.
27:22
God's people, what? What did you say? Yeah.
27:28
And talking about the scripture.
27:30
And we were we were you asking questions.
27:32
We were we were.
27:33
And then the next day to come and to pray together and then on Saturday and again, I'm not I'm not just sitting here trying to rehearse these things.
27:41
My point is simple.
27:43
I see us.
27:46
I see God doing something in our congregation.
27:48
I'm not here to give you a pep talk tonight, but I just on my heart, I see God moving us in a direction as a congregation.
27:54
But we will only be able to manage what God is doing here if we maintain our love for one another.
28:04
Don't lose sight of that responsibility.
28:11
What happens if next six months from now, there's one hundred more people in church and some of them don't do things just the way we do them now? Are we going to call out for their justice? Or are we going to love them and try to demonstrate mercy? One of the greatest things God has given me is the ability to enjoy change.
28:35
And some of you probably think I like change too much, but it does.
28:39
My point is this.
28:41
I love to meet new people and I love to see new people become a part of the church because every person in this room has a gift that God has given to you as the body of Christ.
28:53
And part of what we are able to do as the body of Christ is to recognize one another's gifts.
28:59
And I know that each one of you has a purpose here and every person God brings to us is going to have a purpose here.
29:05
And we love one another in our in our in our talents and we build each other up in our failures.
29:13
And as such, we are the body of Christ.
29:16
We build one another up.
29:18
We love one another.
29:21
And beloved, just let that be an encouragement to you tonight.
29:26
That as Paul loved those people that couldn't love him, that didn't love him, that would not have even wanted his sacrificial language.
29:35
If they had heard Paul say that about him, they would have been offended by it.
29:40
But those words from Paul were true words because he loved them more than they had ever understood that they could be loved.
29:55
That's Paul's relationship with unbelieving Israel.
29:59
That's Paul's connection.
30:01
That's his personal connection with unbelieving Israel.
30:04
Now, let's look at the second and we'll probably only do the first Roman numeral tonight, which is fine.
30:12
I'm in no hurry.
30:13
I hope you're not.
30:17
But I do want to say this time out, time out.
30:23
OK, starting in June, we will stop the book of Romans because starting in June and from June, July and August, we are going to be doing comparative religion.
30:40
I promised this last summer because we did comparative denominations last summer and every summer I do a topical teaching series.
30:48
So I know Romans is great.
30:51
I love teaching it, but I've been promising to teach on comparative religion.
30:55
So just know that wherever we get to in Romans 9, 10 or 11, wherever we're at at the end of May, that's what comes before June.
31:04
All right.
31:05
When we get to the end of May, wherever we stop, we'll bookmark it and we'll come back.
31:09
So I'm really in no hurry.
31:10
Yes.
31:13
Yeah, I'm done with that part.
31:14
Yes.
31:27
I would look at it from the perspective of we're looking at two different situations here.
31:34
Jesus is making a comparison to our commitment to him.
31:39
Paul here is simply making a stress about how much he truly loves his brethren, even though they're unbelievers, even though they're they're they're not in Christ.
31:51
He truly cares for them, but his care for them is not trumping his care for Christ.
31:57
If it were, he would not be able to do the things that he's done among them.
32:00
He's gone to them.
32:01
He's preached the gospel to them.
32:03
He shared Christ with him.
32:04
He stood in their synagogues and got thrown out of the cities and stoned by them.
32:08
But he still cares for them enough to share with them the gospel.
32:12
And I think that's Christ's message to us is that if we share the gospel with our parents or our brothers or our sisters and I have family like this, I had an hour long conversation last night with a relative who, though he says he believes in Jesus, he doesn't seek after Christ in any way that I can see.
32:33
And as such, my love for him is not more than my love for Christ.
32:38
And I and but I share Christ with him and I take Christ to him.
32:43
And if he rejects Christ, then that cannot that cannot in any way hurt my relationship with Christ.
32:49
That can in any way affect my relationship.
32:50
I can't say, well, when I'm with you, I'm just not going to be a Christian or when I'm with you, I'm going to turn my back on Christ.
32:56
Christ says, you know what? If it offends your mother, if it offends your father, you must take up your cross and follow me.
33:02
And I know personally people in this room who had to do that very thing, that their families have literally disowned them.
33:11
But I know that those same people, if you ask them what their heart was, they would say if they could have their desire, it would be that their family would turn and follow Christ as they have.
33:21
And I think that's Paul's statement is not that he would allow them to take him away from Christ, but that his desire is that they would come behind him and follow Christ.
33:29
Makes sense.
33:33
All right.
33:34
So we said Paul's personal connection is with unbelieving Israel.
33:39
Now, let's look at God's personal connection with unbelieving Israel versus four and five.
33:50
They are Israelites.
33:51
Who are they? Well, in verse three, these are the ones that Paul has said are his kinsmen according to the flesh.
33:58
He says they are Israelites and to them belong.
34:02
And this is something I totally glossed over before and I wanted to go over it tonight because he says he gives a list of things he says to them belongs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises to them belong, the patriarchs and from their race, according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.
34:24
Amen.
34:27
If you think about the level of blessings that were given to the Israelite people and yet their obstinate hearts towards the God who loved them, it's an amazing thing.
34:47
And one of the things that I'm often reminded of, I hear people say this all the time.
34:50
I hear atheists say this all the time.
34:52
And they'll say, well, you know what? If God would just appear and he would part a sea or if God would appear and have a burning bush or God would appear and rain manna from heaven, then I would believe.
35:10
And you know what that is? That's called baloney.
35:14
It's an old Greek word, baloney, because the Israelites had that very thing.
35:24
They had the very presence of God with them and the Shekinah glory where they could visibly see his presence among them.
35:33
They saw the Red Sea part and the ground beneath their feet be dry.
35:47
They also saw the soldiers from Pharaoh's army enter into that same dry ground and die as the water crushed.
36:01
They witnessed Moses going up on to Mount Sinai.
36:08
And what did they do right after he went up there? Yeah, I like the melons and the leeks and the onions.
36:19
Wonderful breath in Egypt.
36:22
But that's what they said.
36:23
They like the food in Egypt.
36:27
They didn't like the manna.
36:30
But now what happened right when Moses went up on the mountain? They turned to Aaron and they said, make us a God that we might worship him.
36:46
As much as we talk about Paul loving the Israelites.
36:54
God love and in choosing that nation to be his his people in the world, not we and we must be careful with the word elect because there is the nation of Israel, which God chose.
37:14
But it is not every person in the nation of Israel that is chosen by God.
37:18
And that Paul goes on clearly to teach in Romans nine later.
37:21
And we'll probably get to that next week, how their unbelief, even the unbelief in Israel was consistent with what God had planned.
37:29
OK, but the point of it is God gave to the nation of Israel.
37:33
And there's a list of things here.
37:35
First, it says the adoption.
37:38
Now, the word adoption here, when it's talking about this in regard to Israel, is that God chose the nation of Israel to be his people outside of all other nations.
37:51
God made a special adoptive decision to take these people as his own.
37:59
The children, the sons and daughters of Abraham through Isaac, through Jacob.
38:08
And his sons, the twelve tribes of Israel.
38:13
That adoption was given by God.
38:15
That's a connection God had with Israel.
38:19
And the glory, imagine the glory that the Israelites had, they experienced the glory of God and the miracles of the Old Testament, including the Exodus, as we already talked about, the shock and a glory cloud which led the Israelites was a manifestation of the glory they held in having God with them.
38:38
The third thing was the covenants.
38:44
God had made covenants with Moses and David concerning the people of Israel.
38:49
As he said, this is one more testimony to the love of God, to his people.
38:56
God had given them the law.
38:58
It was Moses, the great lawgiver, who was chosen to receive and write down God's law.
39:03
And and the Israelites received that law.
39:07
Now, what does it mean when it says that to them belong the worship, because it says to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law? We understand what those things are.
39:19
What does it mean when it says God gave them the worship? That's because you have a King James.
39:35
I would have to look up the Hebrew, but I'm pretty sure the word here is Latria.
39:41
Is it Latria? They may know it's either Latria or Dulia, which is the Hebrew for Latria.
39:47
The two words for worship and service in the Old Testament, and neither one can be translated as either worship or service.
39:53
But in the context here, when it says the worship or the service, that's what it's talking about.
40:00
And anyway, the point is.
40:07
When it talks about worship here and I want to ask this question is very important, does God demand to be worshipped properly? Think, think this, think, think this through now before I before, because it's very important.
40:35
We ask the question, does God seek to be worshipped properly? And we say, yes.
40:41
But aren't the churches of America, particularly today, so willing to allow anything into worship? Oh, obviously.
41:11
So, yes, I would agree with that.
41:13
My point, though, is that one of the most dangerous things I think that is going on in the church today, and I'm kind of doing an offshoot here.
41:21
This is sort of a rabbit chasing.
41:23
So be kind to me.
41:25
One of the most dangerous things I think going on in the church today is the fact that worship has become a carnival act.
41:33
It has become an amusement park where we are simply trying to do more and more big shows to get people to come and watch rather than worship.
41:46
But here's why.
41:47
Here's the connection I want to make, because when it says they were given the worship, when it says they were given here the worship, they were given specific rules for how God was to be worshipped.
41:59
And what happened when those rules were forgotten? Take the story.
42:10
I believe it is in Leviticus 10 of Nadab and Abihu.
42:18
Nadab and Abihu, the Bible says, offered up strange fire unto the Lord and that the fire came out from the scepter and consumed them.
42:30
My only reason for bringing this up is because I've heard people say because they'll do something weird in worship and I'll say, well, should we be doing that? And they'll say, well, the Bible doesn't forbid it.
42:46
Well, you know, Nadab and Abihu could have said the same thing.
42:51
Well, the Bible doesn't say we're not supposed to be offering up this strange fire.
42:57
There's something that we have to remember.
42:59
It is called the regulative principle.
43:02
You familiar with the regulative principle, sometimes called the normative principle.
43:08
Maybe.
43:09
OK, basically what this means is this is not only does the Bible command us what not to do, but the Bible also commands us what to do, that the Bible tells us how we ought to do things, not just how we ought not to do things.
43:25
It regulates us, the regulative principle.
43:29
And as such, when we come together to worship, we ought to worship God the way he demands to be worshipped.
43:37
What is the one thing God demands in worship? What did he say to Aaron after what Moses say to Aaron after his sons were consumed with fire? Hey, man, sorry about that.
43:50
I know it's really tough on them.
43:51
And I know you had a bad day there.
43:53
You lost your sons and it was a bad day.
43:55
Is that what Moses did? Did he seek to console Aaron? No.
43:58
Was Aaron upset by the death of his sons? He'd have been a fool not to be.
44:01
His sons just died in a horrible fire from the very hand of God.
44:06
What did Moses say to Aaron? The Lord has said for those who draw near to me, I must be regarded as holy.
44:20
That was Moses's statement to Aaron as his sons lay dead.
44:28
Beloved, if we remember nothing else in worship, it should be this.
44:34
The principle of God's holiness and worship is not something that was just given to the Israelites when it says they were given the worship.
44:41
What that means is they were given how to worship God in a holy way.
44:47
And we, too, have the responsibility to worship God in a holy way.
44:50
Worship is not a time to play around.
44:55
At one time, I wrote a paper and I offended someone.
45:00
I have a tendency to do that.
45:02
I wrote a paper.
45:03
It was called Church is Not an Amusement Park.
45:07
And I wasn't talking about what a lot of you probably think of when you think about amusement amusement parks, because a lot of people think about amusement parks and you might think I'm thinking that I'm thinking about children.
45:18
But I'm not.
45:20
What I was talking about is the word muse.
45:24
What does the word muse mean? Let me know.
45:28
The word muse means what? No, it does not mean to entertain.
45:32
Good try, though.
45:33
Sorry.
45:34
The word, huh? No, the word muse means to think hard or to mull over in your mind, to muse upon something, to to consider it, to think hard, to to contemplate.
45:52
So when you put it in front of something, what does that mean? And means the opposite.
45:58
Atheist believes in God and an atheist does not.
46:02
All right.
46:04
So what does it mean to amuse means to participate in an activity that does not require thought, it means to be hardly thinking.
46:16
Yes, very good.
46:18
So the point of the paper that I wrote was this church is not a place that we should come in with our minds turned off.
46:27
That's what happened in a by who? They have a moment of stupidity is what they had.
46:34
They came before the Lord with their minds turned off, they forgot who it was, they were going for, they forgot whose presence they were entering into.
46:46
And as such, they became for ever the representation of what we ought not be in worship, those who choose to approach God without having thought hard about his holiness.
47:03
One of the greatest things that we do every week, I think, is take communion because you should think hard when you take.
47:11
The Bible says you should think hard before you take that bread and that cup that you and your mind should consider yourself and see if there's anything in your heart that is right now unpleasing to God and to jettison, repent of it and draw near to God.
47:39
So I just I see the word worship here.
47:41
And I think it's important because God gave them a specific way to worship.
47:46
That's love.
47:48
He loved them in demonstrating to them this is how I'm to be worshiped.
47:52
Did they do it right? No.
47:55
Did they happen to buy who demonstrate what happens when you don't do it right? In their case, yes, but it was something God gave his people, he gave them how to worship.
48:10
And then it says the promises.
48:12
There are promises all throughout the Old Testament to sit and try to label them all would be.
48:19
Would be a difficult task at best, but I will say this, the specific promises of God, I think you could you could go back to one particularly.
48:33
When God said to Abraham, he called Abraham out and the great Abrahamic covenant was given.
48:39
And he says, through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
48:44
And then later, the apostle Paul said that that promise was a proclamation of the coming of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the descendant of Abraham.
48:54
And through Christ, all the nations of the world would be blessed.
49:01
So we see the promises there.
49:02
And he goes on to say to them, belong the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and from their race, their race being there, the patriarchs from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God overall blessed forever.
49:17
Amen.
49:18
And of course, verse five, there is a very important Christological passage because it says Christ is God overall blessed forever.
49:27
Amen.
49:29
All right.
49:30
We have stopped now at verse five and you can see what we're doing this time is different than last time.
49:35
Remember how last time I really shot an overview of these passages and I didn't stick with anything.
49:39
I just I wanted to show you how it all fit together.
49:42
Now we're going verse by verse, really slowing it down, looking at each word, answering questions.
49:48
And over the next few weeks, hopefully we'll get to do the entire chapter together.
49:52
Yes.
50:52
If this the sense of the Lord and understanding God's continued relationship with Israel is where we find in or what we find in Romans nine through eleven, particularly in chapter eleven, God was Paul will stress that God has not abandoned Israel in any sense of the word, but that Christ having come from Israel and now there are Israelites who are being saved and who are still being saved.
51:52
And there may come a day when there will be a revival among Israel like we've never seen.
51:58
And I pray for that day, I pray for them, that God would bring a revival in Israel.
52:05
And Paul talks about the possibility of that, he talks about the fact that as we were the wild olive branch that was grafted in, so, too, is the root, which is Israel.
52:17
Could God graft them back in again? So we will definitely enjoy that when we get whenever we get to chapter 11, as we go through the text together.
52:29
Let's pray.
52:30
Father, as we thank you again for the opportunity to study your word and be a part, move on us to take what we've learned and apply it for our lives.
52:47
Help us to see, oh, Lord, how the apostle demonstrated his love and what he said and how God demonstrated his love and what he did and how we as a people should first and foremost, of course, be loving one another as the body of Christ and also demonstrate love outside of the body as to be able to demonstrate Christ's likeness and not be afraid to share the gospel, not be afraid to stand for Christ and allow that to be the demarcation point of our lives, but yet at the same time to do all things in gentleness and reverence as the scripture commands us to do.
53:24
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.