The Kindness Of God

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All right, well let's get into the Word of God and study tonight the kindness of God. I'm trying to go through 26 attributes, one for every letter.
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So far we've got all -knowing, beautiful, creator, decree, eternal, faithful, grace, holy, incomprehensible, just, and now tonight,
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K, God is kind, or in other words, the kindness of God. I'm going to try my best to put this into first a children's book and then an adult book.
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Teaching children about the attributes of God I think would be very, very good. I was reminded again as we sang Victory in Jesus, my mother's favorite song, when she would be down and depressed and worried.
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Specifically towards the end, she was concerned that she would drown in her own fluids as the lung cancer was everywhere and causing her lungs to malfunction.
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She would begin to recite the attributes of God by letter. And so she would say, A, and we wouldn't have to use my list, but she might say, all -powerful,
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B, that he has a bountiful goodness, C, he's compassionate, D, he's the great deliverer,
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E, he's excellent, F, he's faithful, G, he's good. You could come up with your own list, and by the time she got to Q or to X, she was thinking properly about things and was very comforted as she would think about God.
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And so this is just a series that we want to focus on, who is God? Certainly he's a God of love, but God isn't only a
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God of love. A God of love only isn't the God of the Bible, and so we want to understand who is
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God in this series, and we'll work through different attributes of God. Tonight, K, God is kind.
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Who could tell me a definition of kindness? If you had to define kind, your child said,
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Daddy, Mommy, please tell me what kindness is. What would you say? I'm glad you're eager.
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How would we define kindness? Well, there would be an English definition in terms of English dictionary, and there would be a
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Greek one certainly as well. As I was studying the English dictionary, some synonyms for kindness would be benevolent, showing tender, considerate help would be another definition in the
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English dictionary. Having a kind disposition, implying gentleness and mildness, another
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English definition was that it was a benevolence which suggested charitableness and a desire to promote the welfare or happiness of others.
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Those are pretty good. Those are very close to the Greek word kindness. I could ask you this way if we try to define kindness from a biblical perspective, what would be the antonym for kindness?
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What would be a word that's opposite of kind? Okay, wrath, good.
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Who else? Simon? Selfish, okay. Mean, good.
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That just brings it down to children school level. Yes, I see a hand over here. Yeah, Anita, Anitra.
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Rude, okay, good. Maddie? Unkind, there you go. That's right.
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Just put an A in front of the word, the alpha privative, just changes everything, doesn't it? One of the opposite words in the
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New Testament for kindness is severity. And basically kindness in the
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New Testament is a word that talks about God's moral goodness.
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It talks about his benevolence. It, as one writer says, talks about God's love and tender action.
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Maybe the best definition I read this week was this, the quality of being helpful or beneficial.
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The quality of being helpful or beneficial. Would you think that would describe God? Helpful or is it, would it give you benefit to know
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God and have God do things for you? Well, the answer is obviously. So what we'll do tonight is there are four main passages in the
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New Testament that talk about the kindness of God and we'll look at each one of those in context. Four main passages that talk about the kindness of God.
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Does anybody know where in the New Testament the kindness of God is talked about? This morning we looked at Galatians 5 a little bit where we are to be kind because that's part of the fruit of the spirit.
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But what about God being kind? What would you guess the text would talk about the kindness of God? Bob? Good.
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So Romans chapter 2 verse 4, we'll look at that tonight. One down, three to go. Where would be the other one?
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Other ones. Well, I'm glad you came tonight so now you'll learn. Let's look at the first one.
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Ephesians chapter 2. The first passage that talks about the kindness of God and what
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I want this to do is to have you be motivated to behold God and his kindness so you'll have an increased awe, a better thankful heart for God and then eventually as we're image bearers, we want to be kinder as we relate to other people.
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First New Testament passage is from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 7. God shows his kindness as part of his, dare
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I say, publicity program, his public relation program as he is not some kind of management organization or anything like that but he is going to show who he is and communicate who he is via his kindness.
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Ephesians chapter 2 verse 7, let's look at the verse and then let's back up and see all the context.
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Verse 7 just simply reads and you can tell there's more context because it starts with this Hinnah clause, in order that in the ages to come, this purpose clause, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in, there's our word, kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
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Well, what's the context here? Why do we want to understand God's kindness? Let's back up to verse 4.
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Paul is trying to show the church at Ephesus and other churches that God saves sinners and he's trying to give motivation for,
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God's motivation for saving sinners. And so he says in verse 4, look,
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God has a motivation to save sinners because number one, he's rich in mercy. Verse 4, but God being rich in mercy.
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God is rich enough for bankrupt sinners. He has enough undeserved mercy for us as sinful rebels and that's what he's trying to tell the people there.
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It's not some kind of emotion only this mercy, but this actual assistance where God helps.
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God in sympathy and in compassion helps helpless people. Now, to understand how rich this mercy is, what do you have to do?
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If you want to understand the mercy of God and the richness of his mercy, you have to understand the contrast. And so if you see verses 1 through 3, that will frame everything.
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It reminds me of the story when Kim and I were flying from California to Omaha to visit my family.
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We flew through Phoenix and Phoenix, this happens to be December 24th, it was about 1991.
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We flew from LA to Phoenix and Phoenix, it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
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We then flew to Omaha and it was 20 below Fahrenheit without a windchill.
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And within one flight, we experienced 80 degrees to minus 20, a 100 degree
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Fahrenheit temperature change. And so to understand the richness of God and the richness of his mercy, we've got to understand the opposite.
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And here is chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, man's state without this.
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If God wasn't rich in mercy, what would happen to us? And we see chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, man's state without Christ.
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Man has fallen and he cannot get up. I don't know if you like the
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Pogo comic strip or not, I don't really read it, but I have read this in that comic strip.
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We have met the enemy, Pogo said, and the enemy is us. We need a
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God who's going to be rich in mercy because we have many sins, verse 1 of chapter 2 of Ephesians.
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And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. How many times would it take an employee to spit in the employer's face before there was a problem in the relationship?
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Once a year, radical depravity, total depravity doesn't mean you're as bad as you could be, but it means there's no way that you could save yourself.
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There's no way you can get rid of your own sin. It reminds me of the Dear Abby ad.
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Dear Abby, I'm 44 and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits.
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Rose. Dear Rose, so would I. Thought that was true.
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We are stuck in a spiritual Chinese finger puzzle.
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We can't get out. We can't extract ourselves from sin. That's why God has to be rich in mercy to get us out of this spiritual slavery.
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And we are dead. And what does the text say in trespasses, plural, and sins, plural?
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Two words that are specifically given by Paul, directed by the
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Spirit of God. Trespass means a false step, and then sin means missing the mark.
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You put those two words together, you've got positive and negative, and it just shows us that we are complete rebels and failures, and we can't save ourselves.
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Furthermore, we're shackled with some kind of handcuffs. Look at the first handcuff. The first handcuff is the evil world system cuffs us, verse 2, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world.
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Not running to God, but running from God. Devoted to our best friend, to our lover, sin, as not just a stroll down the boardwalk, but as a lifestyle.
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There's another shackle for these unbelievers that would lead us to want to have a lot of mercy, and that is
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Satan's control. It's a second handcuff. Verse 2 goes on to say, here's how people live as unbelievers, according to the prince of the power of the air.
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They, according to 2 Timothy chapter 2, think they have free will, but they're bound to do
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Satan's will. How do we get out of the control of the world system? How do we get out of the control of Satan?
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The third handcuff is found in verse 3. Bondage to their own sin and their own flesh.
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Among them, we too all formally lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
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We are stuck and we need help from the outside. People say, well, we have free will.
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However you want to determine free will and define it, that's up to you. But certainly, as a broken, as a winged...
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Let me rephrase that. As a bird that has a broken wing is free to fly, so too are we free to worship
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God, even though we cannot. So what do we do? We need someone who is rich in mercy to extract us.
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We can't do it on our own. We're free to do evil, but we're not free to do good before God.
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That's why someone like Robert Shuler, when he says this, it boggles my mind. Reformation theology failed to make clear that the core of sin is a lack of self -esteem.
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The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say, I am unworthy.
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Now, listen to what Shuler says. And you think of Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, who are you going to believe? Shuler said, for once one believes he is an unworthy sinner, it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace
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God offers in Jesus Christ. It's a pretty amazing statement.
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Pretty amazing statement. I would rather go along with whatever it says. No man can enter heaven until he is first convinced he deserves hell.
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Salvation doesn't show how worthy we are, it shows how sinful we are. We don't believe what
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Freud says, love for one's neighbor is something inherent and radiating from within man.
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It is his own power. No, it doesn't take very long to look at someone, and in the heart of everyone is the heart of Sirhan Sirhan who said, they can gas me but I'm famous.
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I have achieved in one day what it took Robert Kennedy all his life to do. So, what do we do?
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We have to look back to Ephesians 2, 4, a God who is rich in mercy. He has this treasury of great mercy for objects of wrath.
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Who is a God that abounds in mercy? Who is a God that is abundant in mercy? Who is a
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God like Micah says, who delights in mercy? Only one God, the true God, who gives his loving kindness to thousand generations in Deuteronomy 7.
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Now, not only does God save sinners because he's got mercy, but look at verse 4. There's another motivation for God and why he saves sinners.
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Not just mercy, but also love. Why does God save sinners? Because he loves sinners.
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Verse 4, because of his great love with which he loved us. Now, it's one thing to be merciful, but now to show this love, who could believe that?
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John Gershner said, love, impossible. Mercy, maybe. Perhaps he can even spare us.
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What is there to love? Hate, yes, there should be plenty of hate. Maybe God once loved us or maybe he could have loved us what we once were, but we're beyond love.
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Yet, the Bible says he loves us. Then he has forgotten who we are,
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Gershner said. What we have done? No, he has not forgotten who you are. He has not overlooked your condition.
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This is the love which loves where there is nothing to love. That's God's motivation.
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I thought the coup to the universe was finding out that Kim Duncan loved me.
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I couldn't believe it. But I thought, this is something that is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, put in a puzzle.
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I mean, I didn't know what that was, but I thought, this is the coup of the universe. Kim Duncan loves me.
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The first time I heard Kim say, I love you, I almost fell off my wherever I was sitting.
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Probably a bar stool, who knows where I was sitting then. That wasn't the coup of the universe.
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Not that kind of love, but this kind of love right here. How could God love Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3, sinners?
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How could he do that? His mercy was rich, and you see what his love is? Great. This great love.
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This great love. C .S. Lewis said, God who needs nothing, loves into existence holy, superfluous creations in order that he may love and perfect them.
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Here is God with his love, seeking the welfare of others, sinners.
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Paul said it, God loved me and gave himself for me. God's love is great.
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God's love is infinite. If you look at the passage there, the highlight,
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I think, is Calvary. He loved us. Past tense, it's talking about Calvary. It doesn't say he loves us, although Revelation chapter 1 would say that.
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Here it's a particular love amplified at Calvary. He loved us. Looking back to the death of Christ in our place when we were helpless, ungodly sinners.
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But there's more motivation. Is God merciful? Yes, look at the cross.
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Does God love me? Look at the cross. By the way, if you ever slip into doubt and say, I don't know if God loves me anymore, then look to the cross.
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That's where we see God's love. But there's another motivation, grace. Look at verse 5. God saves sinners because he's merciful, he's a loving
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God, and he's also a gracious God. God saves sinners like you because he's full of grace. Verse 5. Even when we were dead in transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ.
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By baptism, you've been saved. By being good, you've been saved.
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By going to Sunday night church, you've been saved. By giving money, you've been saved. You guys are looking at me and you're all smiling.
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By grace, you have been saved. This God has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ.
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God is provoked by sin with his full justice and holiness, yet he is a gracious God and he gives with his utter generous self love and grace and mercy to us.
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I didn't really have a lot of jobs when I was growing up where I had to clock in, but when you have to clock in and you get there and you say,
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I'm here at 8 .01 and you clock in and then at 5 .02 you clock out, that is a wage and you earn your wage.
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It's fair pay for a day's work. Sometimes you can earn a prize, dare
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I say. When the Lakers in the 1980s won several world championships, they received the
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O 'Brien trophy for the NBA championship, didn't they? Well, I guess last year it was a little different,
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I know. But when you compete, you get a prize. When you work, you get a wage.
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But when you don't deserve anything and you received a gift anyway, that's called grace.
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It's enough grace to cover all our sins. Verse 7, why does
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God in mercy, love and in grace save sinners? To show everybody how great he is.
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That's the answer here in Ephesians chapter 2. There are other reasons, but Ephesians says to display his glory. Why would
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God do that? What's his purpose when all is said and done? When I drove by the reservoir tonight,
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I saw the moon. Why is the moon up there tonight or any night? These things declare what?
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God's goodness, God's graciousness, God's magnificent wisdom in creating these things.
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They declare God's glory. And if the moon does that, how much more does saving sinners declare how great he is?
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Verse 7, rich mercy, great love, wonderful grace at Calvary specifically in order that in the ages to come, in every successive generation between Christ's ascension and his second coming, he might show, this is why
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I called it a publicity program, that he might demonstrate, that he might show, have you ever seen those things at the beach, those airplanes?
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And what do they have at the end of the airplane? This big banner, and the banner is usually what?
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Drink Red Bull or something, right? And you pay this plane, this biplane to fly up there with this big banner.
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Here's the big banner of God's riches, his mercy, his grace, his love. Here's the banner.
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He might show the surpassing riches of his grace in what? There's our word, kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
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The word there in the Greek in verse 7, show, means to display or to demonstrate.
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It is to make conspicuous. God shows at the cross all these great attributes.
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Certainly, at the flood in Genesis chapter 6, 7, and 8, God could show his justice, his anger, his holy wrath.
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And at Calvary, we see a glimpse of his wrath, certainly. But as he saves sinners,
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Paul says, here you see mercy, kindness, and grace. Listen to what
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Expositor's Bible commentary said. This was God's publicity program for the whole of history and beyond.
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He planned a continuing exhibition of his favor toward man to cover all the centuries between the ascension and the return of Christ, and after that, through all eternity.
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This eschatological dimension implies that it will be for the benefit of angels as well as men.
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God is kind by saving sinners, and he wants everyone to know. Passage number 2.
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Let's go to Titus chapter 3, the second passage that discusses the kindness of God so that we might be more thankful, we might be more full of praise.
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Titus chapter 3. God shows his kindness by the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
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Paul is writing to Titus in a pastoral epistle, how to be a good elder, how to be a good pastor.
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And as Ephesians showed, God's kindness is part of this wonderful eternal glory that's demonstrated.
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Now, we hone in a little bit more in Titus chapter 3, verse 4. And let's read the passage and then look at the context again.
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Always want to see the context. Titus 3, 4. But when the kindness, same word, same root word as we saw in Ephesians 2, when the kindness of God our
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Savior and his love for mankind appeared. That's what we're after. When did
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God's kindness and love for mankind appear? This is not a what, this is a who.
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This is the incarnation of Christ Jesus. This isn't Calvary, although that was kind.
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This is the incarnation. It was in Rome several years ago.
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Kim and I were trying to find the two prisons where the Apostle Paul was supposed to be held.
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And so, one they think is the Mamertine prison. Whether he was there or not, I'm not sure. But Paul supposedly wrote the prison epistles in the prison in Rome.
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So, it's weird to just sit on the little cinder block over there and there's kind of water running in there and there's supposed to be sewage 2 ,000 years ago and these other things.
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And I just sat down and I read Philippians in this jail. Well, then there was another jail that Paul went to before he was beheaded south of Rome.
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And Kim and I tried to find a place and it was in this Roman Catholic monastery and it was called the
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Three Fountains. What's three in Italian? Trey?
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Sounds good. And supposedly, the lore was, and I don't believe this, but it was called
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Three Fountains for this reason, that when they chopped off Paul's head, it fell down and hit one, two, three times and a water sprung up on those three.
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I didn't care about that because I thought that was superstitious, hocus -pocus, you know, weird kind of magic stuff that you just want to sell postcards.
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But I wanted to get in the jail. So I'm walking around. In Rome, people speak
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English, but where we were south of Rome, nobody really spoke English. So I kept walking around. Paul in jail.
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And, you know, it's the universal translator that if you don't speak the language, but you kind of open your face up and speak slowly, you think they understand you better.
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Jail, pronounced, you know. And by the way, my accent is a bad Spanish accent no matter what language
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I'm trying to speak. And so I'm, you know, then I thought, no, no. It's Paulos, Paulos, jail, and they're just looking at me like, you're the kookiest
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Protestant I've ever met. And jail, and then I thought, what's another word for jail?
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Prison, oh, that's true. Where Paul was incarcerated.
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Incarcer, incarcerate. That's jail. That's jail. Please come right here. Paulos incarcerated right here and looked at this jail.
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By the way, on a side note, there was just no way to get in the jail except there was a window up here about this high.
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It was about like that. So I said, all right, Kim, I got to get in that jail where Paul was. And so I had
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Kim go down the hall and she was to look up the stairs so if any flying nun came down the stairs, she could yell, might get out of the jail.
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So I climbed up into the jail because I wanted to look around. It didn't say, don't climb up on the wall to get in the jail.
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And I thought, OK, I'd rather be forgiven than ask permission. How do I say, could I please climb into the jail anyway?
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And so I got to sit in that jail. I have a picture crawling out of the jail.
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So what does it have to do with anything? Incarcerated, Jesus, in a sense, was incarcerated.
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It was the incarnation. Incarnate, same kind of root word.
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The God -man is in flesh, adding flesh. That's what this kindness here is.
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When you think of the incarnation, you ought to not just think of Christmas time, presents, but you ought to think, that was one of the most kind thing that's ever been done in the universe where the eternal
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Son of God has cloaked himself with humanity. That's one of the kindest things that's ever been done.
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Verse 4, but when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, in flesh, imprisoned, why incarnation?
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Certainly to fulfill prophecy, but here because he was going to set his face towards the cross.
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Good thing God was kind because like Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, look at Titus 3, 3. Pretty much my life verse as an unbeliever, for we were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
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We, I could go for we here, it's like a dagger in all of our hearts. We ourselves, but for the grace of God, he interrupted us.
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We were foolish. We didn't have any discernment. We didn't know what was right. We were disobedient. We refused to obey
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God's law. We were deceived. We thought we were going to go to heaven when we died. We thought everything was fine.
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We thought we didn't have to prepare for meeting God today. We'd do that later, maybe when we had kids, but we were enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.
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By the way, the word there is hedonism, enjoyment. That's who we worshipped, and our whole life was summarized by malice and envy and jealousy.
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But then what happened? But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, when
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God in his generosity and his kindness, his benevolence, his fondness for men, one person translates that word kindness, his fondness for men, then
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Jesus comes to do what? Verse 5, save us. Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the
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Holy Spirit. So, so far, two words for kindness. Number one, God shows his kindness,
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Ephesians 2, verse 7, by demonstrating throughout the entire universe that he's a Savior who saves sinners.
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Number two, God shows his kindness at the incarnation of Christ. Number three, as Bob said,
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Romans 2, verse 4, God shows his kindness to lead sinners to repentance.
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Let's turn there to Romans chapter 2, verse 4, God shows his kindness to lead sinners to repentance.
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I've talked to a lot of unbelievers and they'll say, you know, if God was really God, I would, you know, if there's really a
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God up there, strike me down with lightning this second and then I'll believe. What they don't know is
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God's tender mercy, patience, and kindness is supposed to show them it's time to repent.
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Verse 4 of Romans chapter 2, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
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Now, this has a context as well. Paul says in Romans, as he discusses righteousness, that Gentiles are without righteousness.
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Verse 18 of Romans chapter 1, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
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They don't want to live according to God's standard and right rule and so they push that underwater so they can live as they'd like to.
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What truth of God do they suppress? Verse 19, because that which is known about God is evident within them.
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For God made it evident to them, they have a conscience. Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen.
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There's no such thing as a real atheist because every person on this planet knows there's a God because of conscience and because of creation.
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That's why I've told you many times when the girls were born, Luke was born, my first comment out loud when the babies were born and they would say, it's a boy, it's a girl.
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I mean, I had that look on my face that had both joy and I was crying, couldn't believe what I was seeing.
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And then I got it out of my mouth as loud as I could so everybody in the room could hear. Ain't evolution grand?
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And they're like, would you like to cut the cord? Yeah. People know.
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Not just Gentiles know, but Jews, they know and they're without personal righteousness as well.
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Chapter 2 talks about that. In the middle of this discussion about whether you're
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Gentile or Jew, you're underneath God's condemnation because you don't have your own righteousness.
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He asks this question, do you think lightly? Meaning they do think lightly.
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Meaning the moralistic Jews think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.
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God doesn't immediately just damn and penalize the world. But you ought not to say to yourself, since he doesn't do that, then therefore, he doesn't exist.
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No, God's kind. Barnes said, the way in which people despise or abuse the goodness of God is to infer that he does not intend to punish sin, that they may do it safely.
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And instead of turning from it, to go on in committing it more constantly as if they were safe.
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Paul says, don't despise it. Literally, don't think down on this. You're underestimating this, he says.
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Don't underestimate it. God's good and God's kind, but don't underestimate it. By the way, I could ask you some questions.
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What are some of the things that God gives indiscriminately to believers and unbelievers alike? What are some things that are so kind of God that he just grants to unbelievers even though they don't earn it and even though they're not
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Christians? We call this common grace. What would be some benefits that every unbelieving friend that you know of is receiving from God day in and day out, many days in a row?
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Some of you are kind of, looks like I'm losing you, so I'm asking the question so we can wake you up a little bit.
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Air, the air they breathe. Good, good.
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This life now full of all kinds of joy, taste buds. I mean, things could taste like what? Mud, and we'd still have to eat it.
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And I think about my dog. I try to get her different dog foods, but after a while, they pretty much all taste the same. I put the dog food down, day in and day out, and she looks at me like, you know, can
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I have some bacon grease on this? And I tell her no, and she's forced to eat it. Food and the taste buds, what else?
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And every one of these things should make the unbeliever go, God is so kind, God is so good.
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If he's good in the temporal things and providing for me physically, he'd probably provide for me in a spiritual sense of my sins being taken away.
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What else does God give unbelievers that should make them go, I ought to repent, Carol. The beauty of the universe, and even the beauty is not as good as it used to be before the fall, is it?
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Creation sings in a minor key, but it still sings. It's a beautiful, stunning beauty where you just stand outside and think, wow, unbelievers get to see that.
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What else do underbelievers get? Sunshine. As a matter of fact,
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Matthew chapter 5, Jesus talks about sun that goes on to unbelievers. And what does Jesus call the sun?
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God's sun. Even his sun, S -U -N, shines on the face of unbelievers.
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Good, what else? Scott? Government. Government restrains sin.
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Does God restrain sin through government, through family, through leaders? Yes, he restrains sin. It could be bad.
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Hitler was horrible, and I've just got back from Germany and there's a legacy there, but he could have been more horrible than what he was.
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He even spared some people's lives. So the restraint of sin, Brian. Children, children are a gift from God.
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Christians have kids, but unbelievers get kids too. That's the goodness of God. And they shouldn't say, wow, this is a wonderful product of evolution.
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I wonder how many thousands and billions of times it takes for the placenta to do all that. They should be thinking, this is
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God's kindness. What else? What else does
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God commonly, without distinction, give to all in this sin -cursed world?
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Anything else? Carol? Music. How good is music? Unbelievers enjoy music.
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Anything else? Rain, good, like with the sun and the rain.
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It doesn't just fall on the heads of the Christians and only falls on their crops. How about this?
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I don't know if you've ever thought about this. God shows his goodness indiscriminately, even to unbelievers, as he restrains animals.
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Genesis chapter 9, verse 2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the field, upon all that moveth in the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea.
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Can you imagine the lions and the bears and all these kind of things if they didn't even have some fear of man? That's an interesting one.
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Cultural progress, the arts, there is courage in unbelievers.
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You walk by West Point and you see on the slabs of stone for the benches and you see courage, valor, duty, honor.
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Those are all given by God, even to unbelievers. The pleasures of marriage, food, these are things to point to the goodness of God.
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But what happens, verse 5, Romans chapter 2, verse 5, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart.
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By the way, the word stubbornness is the word where we get sclerosis, hardening.
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You get sclerosis of the liver, your liver hardens. You get arterial sclerosis, your arteries are hardened.
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Because of the hardening of your spiritual arteries, you're storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment of God.
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This hardened heart. I think I told you the story once. I was in the operating room and I saw a guy doing a carotid endarterectomy.
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Who knows what a carotid endarterectomy is? It's a very difficult procedure and it's when you have plaque in your carotid artery and they have to open it up and take the plaque out.
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You can easily die because it's your carotid artery. It's like having your carotid or your jugular vein open and cut.
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They have to do it and there's a lot of patients that die because of that. So I'm watching this carotid endarterectomy and there's this big white thing of plaque in there.
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And it's causing this stenosis, this kind of funneling down and that's how people have strokes. I said, how do you get those?
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The doctor said, genetics and potato chips. I said, what's that feel like?
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He said, put a glove on. I could only just be in the operating room, I couldn't touch anything.
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I put a glove on and I put my hand out like that and he took the big chunk of the sclerosis and he dropped it into my hand.
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I began to feel it with my thumb and I thought, you should see your faces.
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You're all doing this. It's kind of rubbery.
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It's kind of hard. You have a God who gives children joy, music, poetry, family, friends, son, everything.
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And there's this hard heart that says, you know what? You won't reign over us.
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I will not have this man reign over us. I've got a hard heart. I don't want you telling me what to do.
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I'm my own person. This is New England after all. Land of the free and home of the brave.
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Text says, because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart. The bad news is, you think
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God's not going to judge you because you get the sunshine today, but what are you storing up for yourself? What are you heaping up?
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What is in your big farm storage center? Wrath for yourself in the day of wrath.
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And the revelation of the righteous judgment. You don't have righteousness, but there's a righteous judgment of God. And verse 6, if Jesus doesn't pay for your sins, you will.
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Every sin in the universe will be punished. Our God wouldn't be just. And it's either going to be paid for by Jesus or paid for by you.
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And here's God's standard, verse 6, who will render to every man according to his deeds.
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And if it wasn't for God to rescue us, chapter 3, verse 21, we'd all get this.
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Jew or Gentile. We know why Wilberforce prayed, oh God, deliver me from myself.
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This kind of stubbornness found in verse 5, I think is described by John Murray, the great
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Scottish Presbyterian, when he said, in his darkness, man now supposes that he can satisfy
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God with something less than perfect obedience. In his low views of God, he hopes that the debt he owes is small enough for him to repay it himself.
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No longer knowing the infinite holiness of God, he is blind to the magnitude of the spiritual obedience for what he is responsible.
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And as one man said, only God can change our high views of ourselves. And what the unrepentant man does, the unbelieving man, as they say,
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God isn't quite as holy as the Bible says. And we're not quite as bad as we are.
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And so the gulf becomes maybe something that we can actually hurdle ourselves.
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Fourth passage, I don't know if we have time to do this tonight or not. Don't really think we do, but we're just going to try.
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Buckle up. There's a ride in Santa Cruz on the boardwalk, and you sit in this ride, and then it shoots up like seven stories.
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So it's got four people on this side, four on that side, four on that side, and four on this other. What's it called? Where's Matty?
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What's it called? Double shot. Why is it called double shot when there's four seats? And you sit on that thing, and then there's this countdown.
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And you can feel all the pneumatic pipes and everything. Everything's blowing. They're trying to create this idea in your mind that this is going to be bad, and it is.
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I hate heights now. I don't want to do this ever again. I'm done. Did my dad duty. My grandpa used to take me to the carnival all the time.
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I never knew why he didn't like to go on these rides. Now I know. So you sit in that thing, and you can feel the countdown.
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And they don't say 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It's just, I know it's going to happen any time. And then you rock it up.
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So what does this have to do with anything? Hold on, because we're going to go through this fast. That's what it has to do with. Fourth passage,
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Romans 11 .22. God shows his kindness by saving Gentiles, not just Jews.
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Number one, God shows his kindness to all as an eternal publicity program.
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Number two, God shows his kindness by the incarnation of Christ. Number three, God shows his kindness as he is to lead sinners to repentance.
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Number four, Romans 11 .22. God shows his kindness by saving Gentiles and not just Jews.
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For one, I am glad that that's the case. Aren't you? I don't think we have too many
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Jewish people here. I hope we have many. I don't care who you are. But this is a wonderful passage about God saving other people, not just his chosen people.
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God didn't have to choose the Jews. He could have chosen the Amalekites. He could have chosen the Hittites. He could have chosen the
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Jebusites. Anybody he wanted to, he could have chosen, but he chose the Israelites, mainly because they were weak and small and not very mighty.
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So when something happened in that country, everyone would know it's their God. And so Romans 11 .22
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is in the sovereign discussion of what God does, what about Israel, what about the
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Gentiles. And the text reads, and then we'll look at the context. The text reads in verse 22, behold then, the kindness, that's the same word, and severity of God to those who fell.
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We'll see in a minute context, Israel, severity. But to you, Gentiles, God's kindness.
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And then we're given the reminder, if you continue in his kindness, because that's not what the Jews did, otherwise you will also be cut off.
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As God sovereignly and temporarily puts aside Israel, as he proclaims justification by faith alone to all mankind, it's
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God's kindness. It's God's kindness. Now, what are we going to do with chapter 11?
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I have about 25 pages of notes for chapter 11, so I have no idea what we're going to do. I can't get through it all.
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And so we are not going to look at chapter 11, the early chapters, the early parts of the chapter.
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Let's go straight into verse 11. Chapter 11, verses 11 through 24.
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God has an all -wise, sovereign plan, and here's what's going to happen. Is there a purpose to Israel's rejection?
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Does God have a reason to do these things? Is God able to take the sinful actions of men and women and use them for good?
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That's the issue. Verse 11, I say then, they did not stumble as so to fail, excuse me, so as to fall, did they?
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May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous.
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Forever, no, purposefully, yes. Verse 12, now, if the transgression be richest for the world and their failure be richest for the
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Gentile, how much more will their fulfillment be? If the fall of Israel meant blessing for the world, what should we expect with her restoration?
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I'm speaking to you who are Gentiles. In so much then as I am apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.
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Peter to the Jews, Paul the apostle is going to the Gentiles. And then he says, if somehow I might move, verse 14, to jealousy, my fellow countrymen and save some of them.
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Literally, I hope to come alongside, even though I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, I hope to come alongside some of my
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Jewish friends and make them boil with jealousy is the Greek word. To seethe with jealousy.
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Verse 15, for if the rejection be reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
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Verse 16, I'm just going to have to read these, I think. And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also.
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And if the root be holy, the branches are too. Now, he's going to be contrasting in this next section, verses 17 through 24.
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Gentiles, don't be prideful because of Israel's rejection. But if some of the branches, verse 17, were broken off and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches.
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Gentiles, don't be arrogant towards the Jews. But if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.
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You will then say branches are broken off so that I might be grafted in. Interesting way to put it, verse 20, quite right.
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They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be conceited, but fear.
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For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. He didn't spare Israel, you think he's going to spare you?
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Israel set aside for unbelief, but if you don't believe, you're not going to be set aside? Oh, you would be.
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Behold then the kindness and severity of God. To those who fell, severity,
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Jews. But to you, Gentiles, God's kindness. If you continue in his kindness, otherwise you will also be cut.
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It is kind of God to temporarily put aside the Jews so the Gentiles could be saved.
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God is kind, he abounds in mercy, he is benevolent. How should then we live?
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You learn a truth, what do you do? You teach the kids, God is kind? Is that the end of the lesson?
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The end of the lesson should be what? Worship God for his kindness? And if we're able to mimic God, ought we not to act kind to other people?
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The answer is yes. The fruit of the spirit is kindness. I'm trying to see where my notes are.
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We have a bunch of verses that talk about how we ought to be kind to other people. How about this one?
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Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, put on kindness, humility, meekness, long -suffering.
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Be kind. If I ask your wife about you, would she say, among other things, my husband is kind.
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He has a sweet and generous disposition. He's considerate of others.
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He's considerate of their needs and their interests. He's a kind man. He reminds me of Jesus in his kindness.
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He's kind to believers, but he's also kind to ungrateful and evil men just like God.
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Or would your wife say of you, oh, he's not kind, but he's bitter. I don't know about you, but if love is patient and love is kind,
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I want to be kind. I'd like to follow John Wesley's rule, do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.
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And I don't know about you, but that's impossible for me. So I'll look to the kindness of God to be my stead, and I'll ask the spirit of God to produce in my heart kindness so I might be kind to other people.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this night. And we would ask for your help that we might be kind on the inside, that we might be kind by your spirit.
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Thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ. That was very, very kind of you. Thank you for giving us all kinds of blessings before we were saved even, to lead us to repentance.
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That was kind of you. Thank you for having Jesus bear our sins in our place, on his body, on the tree.
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We didn't have to be punished. He was in our place. It was very kind of you. Thank you,
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Lord, for not just saving Israelites, but saving Gentiles like us. That was very kind of you.