Oct. 8, 2017 The Judgment of the Gospel by Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Oct. 8, 2017 The Judgment of the Gospel Romans 10:14-21 Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Romans chapter 10, we continue this series through this great epistle written by the
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Apostle Paul. Romans 10, this morning, with God's help, we will finish that chapter, verses 14 through 21.
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But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard?
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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
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But they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord of whose belief will ye please hear from us?
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So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard?
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Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
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But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.
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With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me.
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I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But if Israel, he says, all day long
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I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. The word of our
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Lord Jesus Christ to us this morning. You know, as we get to this point in Romans chapter 10, we have to notice that the
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Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, has devoted an awful lot of text to explain to us what has happened with the gospel in regards to Israel.
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We can even turn that around and say, what has happened to Israel in regards to the gospel? Remembering that the thrust of this argument, really in the largest sense since we began in chapter 9, has been for Paul to establish the reliability of God.
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That Israel's disbelief does not change or impinge upon the faithfulness of God.
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That's really kind of one way to summarize the whole argument here. And what about Israel is a fair question.
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His people for all those centuries, his people under his promise, under a covenant that God made with them of his own free and sovereign will.
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And yet, they don't believe. If they have not fallen prey to this great gospel, which all their advantages, the orals of God, the worship, the sacrifices, all of that, all of that pointed to this gospel.
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And if they didn't fall to the gospel, what does that say about God? What does that say about Jesus Christ?
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What does it say about the gospel? We just came out of an argument from the previous verses in the chapter, finding out how
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Israel had pursued determination and zeal, how they stringed every cord by the catholic to break the tape first.
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What were they looking for? Righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. That was the goal.
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And then the Gentiles, sharing none of their advantages, which we just listed, did nothing, and yet attained what
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Israel had been after. Of course, they pursued it the wrong way,
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Israel did. They pursued it as if it was available to them, as if it was attained by the works of the law.
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And the Gentiles had no such idea, because they didn't like the gospel. They pursued it by faith.
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You think of an Olympic athlete training for a swimming event. Everything she does is for that one thing.
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All her zeal, all her energy, every bite of food she takes, she's counting the calories to see if it will help with this one event.
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And the starting gun goes off and she jumps in the pool as she's swimming.
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And all of a sudden somebody who didn't even know the event was taking place, doesn't even know how to swim, tries to get out of the way, trips, falls in the pool, and wins.
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That sounds a little silly, but that's sort of the way it is. With Israel and the Gentiles.
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Israel having all the rules, having all the knowledge, knowing what the goal is.
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And all of a sudden, someone just trips in the pool and goes home to God. Israel and the
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Gentiles in that short little parable are pretty easy to identify. Christ, of course, is God's righteousness.
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Gentiles gaining it while Israel stumbled. They stumbled because they sought it by the works of the law.
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They stumbled over the stumbling stone that is Christ. As we established a couple of weeks ago, Christ is
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Yahweh. That's where that reference came from in the Prophets.
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They stumbled over faith. Israel's way of acquiring
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God's righteousness was wrong from the start. And we established that in the last few messages. But it's more than just a mistake.
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It's more than just an error. You see, if you're in Yosemite and somebody comes to you and says,
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Where is Hafton? And they're looking at their map and say, You've got your map oriented wrong. You've made an error.
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They turn the map around. You turn with it. And look. There it is. That's just a mistake.
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Israel didn't so much misunderstand as they disposed of it.
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They didn't misread the map. They disposed of it all together. And for that, dear ones, and to point to this message, for that they were judged.
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The Gospel, you see, is God's final arbiter of whether or not you will receive in yourself judgment for your sin.
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The Gospel is judgment. It is good news. We want to be happy about it. We want to be joyous about it.
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We want to lift up our hands and say, Hallelujah. Praise God. I'm saved. It's good news.
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The Gospel, brethren, the Gospel is judgment.
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And that's what Paul means with these little Testament references that he brings in. What John just read to you from Isaiah 52.
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What is that good news? Judgment has been accomplished.
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And what we call the second Exodus, the return of Israel from Babylon and back to the land.
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Judgment accomplished. You see, we need to understand. There is a consequence to our actions.
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There's a consequence to our actions. The choices we make during these short lives we live have an eternal consequence.
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To reject this Gospel of judgment is more than just saying with a shrug, something like, well, thank you very much.
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That all sounds good. I'm going to check out something else and see if that fits me. It's a rejection of God himself.
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To reject this Gospel, which I plead with you, if you don't know Jesus Christ and believe, to reject this
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Gospel is to reject God and to reject the sacrifice of the Son. It's not something that he takes lightly.
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God judges. And there is a bar of judgment now. There's a final bar of judgment.
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There is no more Babylon coming to Jerusalem to take the people away. There's no more return from that exile back.
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The Gospel is the final word. So the psalmist says it twice.
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A fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And then in the second psalm, we have
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God holding the ones who say that in derision. And the second psalm goes on, it says,
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Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury. This all may seem a strange place to you, that I should go there when trying to preach
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Romans 10, 14 to 21. Because when we get there, normally we get the imperative of preaching.
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And imperative it is because it is the means God normally uses to set the Gospel before us.
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The first four verses of that, verses 14 through 18, it speaks of the way faith is birthed.
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Now I'm going to explain it a little bit, but understand that in those verses, Paul is still speaking about how the
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Gentiles came to faith. Now that doesn't mean that the Jews come to faith any other way.
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We all come by faith, by faith alone. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But understand that in these verses,
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Paul is still trying to explain how it is that the Gentiles did and the Jews did not. So the first four verses, 14 through 18,
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How is faith birthed within us? It is by the hearing of the Word of God, communicated to you by the way of preaching.
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Understand that my preaching, the best preaching in the world, the best preaching that history has ever known, cannot bring faith to you.
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But if God has given you faith to believe, it is preaching that excites it within you, and forces out of your mouth,
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I believe in the risen and the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ. I can't give you faith.
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I pray that God has given you faith, and something I say will make this faith that God has given you, burst forth into your spirit.
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So it doesn't happen, the preaching only comes alongside with what we pray
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God has already done. I want you to hear a particular moment. Titus chapter 3 verse 5 tells us, it is the
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Holy Spirit's work of conversion, it is His infusion of faith that is necessary, that is the only cause of conversion.
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Paul is explaining here, how the Gentiles came across the finish line in a race they weren't even running.
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That's what verses 14 -18 are about, we'll go into those in a moment. Verses 18 -21, then he explains how the
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Psalms, and the Law, and the Prophets, all confirm for us this course of events.
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So back to verse 14, How are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? That's the first of a short series of questions, it's sort of a backwards, it goes from believing, which is the end point, to the preaching that incited the belief.
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It's an assumed question that we have here. And it flows from verse 13, which we ended with last week, everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved. But that last piece of the argument, explaining the
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Gentiles' faith, and Israel's unbelief. And the question that sort of hangs in the air, is how did this happen?
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We understand that they got what they weren't after by God's solemn grace, we get that. But how?
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Let's take a moment and answer that question, how? You see, God doesn't just open our heads and pour in a measure of faith,
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He uses means. He uses the foolishness of preaching as the catalyst of faith.
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To preach the word, as I said, doesn't create faith. I'll take
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Paul's four questions here, in order, beginning with verse 14. I don't want to give the implied answer to these questions.
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The first one is, how are they to call on Him whom they have not believed? Now what's the quick answer to that?
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They can't. You cannot call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom you don't believe, that's very simple.
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You can't. And Paul's sort of saying here, well they did call on Him, therefore they believed in Him.
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How can they have done it if they didn't believe in Him? Calling on Christ, the one we met back in chapter 10, verse 13,
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I've referred to it a few times. What does that mean? Calling on the name of the Lord, being saved, is to call on Him as the resurrected and exalted
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Lord. It's to trust Him with your eternal soul, follow Him so long as we remain here.
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If someone doesn't believe that He is Lord, if you don't believe that He died for your sins, that He's resurrected, that He's now at the
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Father's right hand, if these are not believed, if these are not faithed, if you will, what?
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What's Paul saying here in this question? They did. How could they have if they didn't believe?
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Second, how are they going to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? Good question.
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They can't. You're not going to believe in someone you haven't heard of. That's very, very simple.
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To believe in Jesus, you have to hear about Jesus. Romans chapter 1, verses 18 and 25 speaks to us of the revelation of God in nature, what
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He's imparted of His nature in what we can see around us. As a powerful witness to God's eternal power,
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His divine nature, it can tell you much. It's awesome, this world
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He's given us. But it cannot tell you about Jesus. It cannot tell you about Jesus.
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You have to hear about Jesus. How are they going to believe in Him?
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How could they have believed in Him if they hadn't heard? They did. They heard.
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How are they going to hear without someone preaching? Answer, that depends on how you define preaching, doesn't it? Galatians chapter 3, verse 8 says that the
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Scriptures preached the gospel to Abraham. When Abraham believed the gospel,
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Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, he believed the Lord and that was counted to him as righteousness.
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He didn't have the Scripture as we think of Scripture. What Paul's saying here, it's Scripture when God speaks it.
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It didn't have to wait for 430 years for Moses to write it down to become Scripture. That was preached to him.
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But what Paul has in mind here when he says how are they to hear without someone preaching is the more ordinary sort of preaching.
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He means what's happening here this morning. And many churches throughout this world this morning as people come together, the gospel people come together to worship.
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Proclaiming the gospel of salvation through a microphone, a podium, to a people. That sort of preaching.
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Not just a lecture on a subject, the God -ordained way, the means he uses of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ.
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So all that being the case, the answer to Paul's question is they can't. They cannot hear the message unless it's preached to them.
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But again, it was preached to them and that's why they pleaded forth.
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How are they to preach unless they are sent? Being sent has the ring of a formal commissioning which is of course the normal case, isn't it?
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Evangelistic preachers are sent and supported by their church. This was the case with Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter 13.
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The Holy Spirit said to the church, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the work which
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I have to them. They laid hands on them and then they went in and preached the evangelistic message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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This doesn't mean that we're headed back to 17th century England where it was illegal to preach the gospel without a license.
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John Bunyan was arrested because of this. We all at some level, all of us, declare the gospel of salvation.
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John Bunyan's parents tell our children, we tell our families, we tell our friends, we tell whoever
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God has put in our spirit. And at some level, that is preaching the gospel. Paul, means by sent, denies none of that.
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He doesn't deny any of that at all. He's thinking again of his usual course where a man called, raised up, sent as preacher.
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So all that being the case, I know I went through this very quickly, but all that being the case, the answer to the question is, they can't.
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They can't believe unless they've heard. They're not going to hear unless they've heard the message preached to them.
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And someone's not going to preach unless they were sent to preach it. And at the end of verse 15, verse 15 starts with the fourth of those questions.
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The second half of that verse, as it is written, how beautiful in the feet of those who preach the good news.
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A couple of ways we can take this verse, there's a couple of ways that it applies. First, and let this be an encouragement to you.
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As you wonder, can I actually tell this person the gospel? Oh, they're so much smarter than me.
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They have all the arguments. I've heard him argue for his agnosticism. And I'm intimidated by him.
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And it is intimidating. This other one has never responded to anything.
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I don't have the way. I don't have the words. I don't have the clues to give him or her.
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But read these verses again, especially verse 15, where the
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Lord says, how beautiful are these feet. What is my point here? God has done what is needed.
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God has given what is needed. He's given you lips. He's given you faith. Perhaps he sent you to preach.
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Be confident in God. One of the ways to take Romans 10, 14 through 18 is just to have the completeness of the supply of God in the proclamation of his message.
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Now, most formally, most particularly, Paul is thinking of, as I said, this sort of preaching that I am doing at this moment.
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But it doesn't exclude the other. As you go to your sister, your brother, your mother, your father, your children, your neighbor, your boss, who supported it, tell them about Jesus.
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How beautiful are those feet. Don't ever think at the end, well, if only
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I had said this or explained that, then they would have come to faith. But we do try and frame the gospel the best way we can so people will understand it.
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When I was being drawn to faith, a pastor at our old church told my wife, if only so -and -so were here,
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I don't remember their name, because that person's Jewish, and so he'd be explaining to this Jewish guy how to come to faith in Christ or something like that.
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And my wife's answer was golden. She says, you don't need Him. You tell them about Jesus.
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That's what He is. That's what we all need. And brethren, God has supplied it.
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God has given you what you need. It's the old, old message. I love to tell the story.
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It will be my healing glory. To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love is just an old story.
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It's an old gospel. As we've been going through Romans, you see how long ago, before the cross, this was all prophesied.
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The gospel is all throughout the scripture. It's an old, old story. And we can fumble.
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We can stumble. We can dumb up the works. But brethren, it's a wonderful gospel.
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And put your hope in that and what God has done. You don't have to spruce it up.
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You don't have to fix the gospel. You don't even have to fix the way you proclaim it.
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You have testimony in Christ of your own life. You have lips that speak. And your feet bring you to a place where you can give testimony.
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You are standing on beautiful feet proclaiming a beautiful Savior. God has done it all, so don't worry about your eloquence, your delivery.
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Don't be concerned that you can't tie it all together. You can't bring judges and the Psalms into sync with each other.
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You can't explain holy war. It is the word of Christ that saves and it is a complete word in and of itself.
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Take anything else from the first four verses of this chapter, of this section.
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Take that. Faith comes from here, verse 17, hearing through the word of Christ.
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That's first. Everything necessary for faith provided by Christ.
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Well, that's the first direction for the beautiful feet. The second direction we can take that verse is the context of Isaiah 52, which is why
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I had John read the whole chapter to you. Now, the seventh verse is, of course, the one with the beautiful feet.
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Isaiah here is in the midst of what we call his servant's songs, which are all about Jesus Christ, of course.
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And the first six verses of chapter 52 are about Israel's return from exile, the so -called second
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Exodus. And the beautiful feet are the ones that carry this message to them. Now, if your
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Bible is open to Isaiah 52 or if you would please open there, I want to go through these a bit.
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I want us to understand what Isaiah was saying, and more importantly, bring that forward to how
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Paul is using this to explain everything that I said earlier he was trying to explain.
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See, the first verse there is addressed actually to the city of Jerusalem. But it means the people.
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His wall had been torn down, the temple had been desecrated by the Babylonians, and that is where, in Babylon, that's where they were in exile.
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Verse 1 tells them what? Put on your beautiful garments. And then the promise, so soon after that, there shall no more come into you these uncircumcised and the unclean.
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Look at the end of verse 2. Shake off the bonds from your back. It's a message of return.
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It's a message of forgiveness. It's a message of redemption. And what does Paul apply it to in Romans 10?
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The preached word, this message of return, this message of redemption. It's a message that God, who returned to His people, will return to Him.
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We can stop right now and just ask ourselves a few questions. Have you sinned against the Lord? Do you have now in you unconfessed sin?
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Is there something that you need to go to God with and seek Christ's forgiveness? Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
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Those are the beautiful feet of James, chapter 4, verse 8. Do you question?
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Will you be forgiven again and again and again? He is faithful and just. Forgive us our transgressions and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Say the beautiful feet of 1 John 1, 9. Has God's Spirit seemed distant to you as though He had moved from His abode within your heart?
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How beautiful are these feet! Malachi, chapter 3, verse 8. Return to me and I will return to you, says the
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Lord's host. This is the kind of beautiful feet Paul has in mind. The beautiful feet that told
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Israel in Babylon, your exile will come to an end. This was prophesied when
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Josiah said that they weren't there yet. There's a long ways off. And yet it did happen. It's how the
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Gentiles came to faith. By believing the preached word. When beautiful feet came, they welcomed them and they believed to the salvation of their souls.
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Now the last four verses here. Verses 18 -21. They alternate between the case of the
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Gentiles and the Israelites. And here is why my message is about judgment. Because judgment is the context of these final
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Old Testament references in verses 18 -21. But I ask, verse 18, have they not heard, that's the
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Gentiles again, have they not heard? Indeed, Paul answers, indeed they have.
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For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. This is a citation from Psalm chapter 19 or Psalm 19 verse 4.
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And again, I know you're flipping around a bit but turn there to Psalm 19. I think it would help us to go through this.
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Psalm 19. I'll read verses 1 -6.
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The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.
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There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line goes out throughout all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
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In them He has set a tent for the sun which comes out like a bright moon leaving its chamber and like a strong hand runs its course with joy.
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Its rising is from the ends of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them. For there is nothing hidden from its heat.
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Now if Paul's point here in Romans 10 were that the word of God has been made accessible everywhere he wouldn't have chosen verse 4.
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He would have chosen verses 1, 2, or 3. One, that the heavens proclaiming His handiwork.
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Or two, where His knowledge is revealed everywhere. There's no speech, no words where it's not heard.
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The sun which heats everything it sees. But he took verse 4.
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And I think there's a reason for that. He speaks of a measuring line in verse 4.
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Their measuring line. The measuring line of the words being spoken in the Testament of God. Their measuring line.
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In the original Hebrew is a word that means a way of judging things. Like a plumb line.
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To judge with a wall is straight and true. Metaphorically it's used as a standard of judgment.
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I'll just give you a few quick examples. You don't have to turn to these. Isaiah chapter 20 verse 17 speaks of a plumb line.
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Same word. A plumb line of righteousness. Lamentations chapter 2 verse 8 speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586
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B .C. Which I referred to a few moments ago as a line. The same word again.
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A line that got stretched over the sea. A line of judgment. Just one more.
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Isaiah chapter 34 verse 11. The plumb line of emptiness. Again. This line.
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This word going out. Chapter 19 verse 4. The way Paul took it. Their measuring line.
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This judgment standard. Is what he meant. So the meaning in Psalm 19 verse 4.
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That's the meaning. Originally. The declaration of the heavens of God's handiwork is a means of judgment on those who will not see and discern that it is
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God's glory they are seeing. You're not just looking at a beautiful scene of nature back east with the fall colors when the cold snaps and the colors just turn bright red and orange and it's just unbelievable.
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You see? This is judgment.
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And the judgment is you must discern that there's God in that. That God did that.
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The nature psalm. It's a beautiful psalm. It's a wonderful psalm. It's an encouraging psalm. It's a psalm that speaks of judgment for those who refuse to discern the glory of God being declared in the heavens.
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And the measuring line that nature represents. We need to consider a moment that God looks upon his gospel like this.
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With the utmost gravity. A joyous message, yes. It is also a grave message because souls hang in the balance depending upon the receipt of this message.
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This has to make us all the more deterred to proclaim this good news to everyone. At the same time, let us be sure that we tell it rightly.
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That we don't cut corners in order to make it more palatable. There's nothing new here about this judgment line and about God using others to judge his people.
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The Gentile Naaman, his healing of leprosy was a judgment on unbelieving Israel. When Pharaoh Nebo spoke for God and King Josiah of Judah refused to listen, that was judgment and King Josiah died in that battle.
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When the Word of God went with Jonah to Nineveh, that was judgment on Israel. Which is, by the way, why
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Jonah tried to desert his duties. Turn, if you would, please, to Matthew chapter 10.
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Matthew chapter 10 at verse 14. Jesus is giving instructions to his disciples on how to preach this gospel, this line of judgment going out.
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Now Paul didn't mean that the gospel's gone to every place indiscriminately, everywhere. He's just talking about the broadcast of the message.
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It did, in fact, go out. That's what he means there. But look what Jesus says to his disciples as he's sending them out to declare that the
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King has come, meaning himself, preaching the good news. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet,
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Luke adds, as a testimony against them. When you leave that house or town, think of the gravity of this.
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The Lord Jesus Christ is saying, you tell those people that their dirt is not good enough to cling to if they will not hear this message.
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This, brethren, is judgment. The line has gone out. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
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We don't have to turn to Genesis 19 to remind ourselves of what happened in and to those wicked citizens.
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If you've heard this gospel and yet you do not believe, I need to warn you the measuring line of judgment has been set before you.
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On this you will be judged. Do you or do you not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
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That's the measuring line. That has gone out in all the earth. And if you're going to count the number of counties it hasn't gone into,
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I say you're wasting your time. What are you doing? It's gone to you. The measuring line has been set forth and this is the standard by which
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God will judge every soul. Every soul from all history. Verse 19
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But I ask, do these who do not understand? First Moses says, I'll make you jealous of those who are not a nation.
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With a foolish nation I'll make you angry. Yes, they understood. Yes, they did understand.
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What about the Gentiles? We've covered them a bit. What about Israel? Yes, they understood.
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In Luke chapter 4 they understood so well they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. When Paul was converted, the
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Damascus Jews understood so well that they tried to kill him. And he had to go down to the wall in a basket.
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They did understand. And by a foolish nation, meaning one without the wall, without the sacrifices, without the oracles, without all their advantages, by that foolish nation they were made angry.
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Many more examples can be multiplied. Some were converted like the disciples, like myself, for which
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I thank God. But for the most part, Israelis, Jews today, just get angry exactly as the prophet said, exactly as Paul uses here in Romans 10 -19.
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Move on. Verse 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say I have been found by those who did not seek me.
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The Gentiles again. I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.
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And let's sort of take this back to chapter 9 verses 30 -33 of Romans where Gentiles are gaining that which they had not sought.
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But of Israel, he says, all day long
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I held out my hands to the disobedient and contrary people. Hands open.
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This welcoming gesture of God. One of warm fellowship. One of acceptance. And God has done this.
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He says, all day long, holding my hand open, giving them the prophet, giving them my word, giving them my judgment, showing them my forgiveness, restoring them into second
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Chronicles after the disaster of Babylon and what they did in Jerusalem.
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The author writes to the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messenger.
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The New King James says, he arose early and sent the messengers. I think sent persistently is a better translation.
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But I like the feel of God waking up early. God doesn't wake up. But just the idea of God getting up early first thing, first priority, most important item of my day is to send a messenger to this windward people.
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Sent persistently to them by his messengers because he had compassion on his people and on his growing place.
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But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the
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Lord rose against his people until there was no remedy. It's like Jesus is terrible about the tenants in the vineyard.
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The owner desires his fruit. He sends his servants and he, the servants are beaten and sent back and beaten and finally he sends his son.
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Sends his son. Who's treated even more shamefully. What is his son? Because there was no faith.
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There was no belief. Stumbling over that stumbling stone that is Christ. Jesus finishes his parable here.
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There's quite a few verses but I'm going to read it all. Finally he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son.
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But when the tenants saw the son they said to themselves this is the heir. Come let us kill him and have his inheritance.
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And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now to the listening Pharisees he asks when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes what will we do to those tenants?
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They said to him he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him their fruits and their seasons.
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Jesus said to them have you not read the scriptures? The stone of those who have been rejected has become the cornerstone.
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This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in your eyes. Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
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And the one who falls on his stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it will crush him.
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The gospel is joyously good news. The gospel is the final measured line of judgment by which every soul will have his or her eternal fate decided.
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Paul brings in these Old Testament verses speaking of this judgment that was coming and came.
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You see sin is judged. We should say sin was judged.
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It was judged in him. It was judged in Jesus Christ. God poured out his fury at your sin upon you.
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And as Paul is speaking in these Old Testament terms to these people trying to explain
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Israel. You say, but they did hear. They judged themselves here. Of course they heard.
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That's why they believed. But you know, Israel heard. Israel heard not only in God's word but in their history.
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Where Isaiah said in chapter 52, God will redeem you. He will bring you back. He will forgive.
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And then in history God spoke to them by doing what the prophet had centuries before said he would do.
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Sin is judged. Your sin will be judged. Your sin is judged or has been judged in Christ.
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And if not, if your faith is not in him, if you're not calling upon the name of the
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Lord, the risen, the resurrected, glorified Lord who died for your sins, then sin will be judged.
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You will answer. You will have a word to speak on that great day.
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But God will inquire the answer from you. His answer will be, or it's
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Christ. It's Christ. I pray God has given you faith and this sermon will incite that faith within you.
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You'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You will repent of your sins. The gospel, when you proclaim it to your friends, your neighbors, your children, your parents, your subordinates, your boss, do you know what these verses also tell us?
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That you have set before them the line of judgment. You have set before them this very measuring line, which is the way
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Paul uses, Psalm 19, verse 4 in Romans 10, 19. When a wife, first Peter 3, submits in a godly way to her unbelieving husband, it's with the hope that he will see her gentle and meek behavior for Christlikeness and believe.
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But how does this also work? It's a judgment upon him that she sets out when she lives the gospel.
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Just as for any of us in all the venues in which we live, you are living out the gospel even if you don't proclaim it in a gentle and faithful way.
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It's a setting forth of this judgment line. This gospel needs to be treated with great respect.
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We need to be careful with the gospel. We need to be sure that we understand the gospel when we're proclaiming it. It doesn't mean we have to have our
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PhD in theology. It just means we need to know what the gospel really is. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
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I am. Treat it with the gravity that Paul has.
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That it is a good message. It is a joyous message. It is good news.
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It is also grave because you're setting forth to borrow from Moses life and death.
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The final judgment line of which all will be judged. We just close with a word from Peter.
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For there is salvation in no one else but Jesus. For there is no other name under heaven given among men but the
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Father. Thank you again for the day you've given us and for the ordinance you have before us. I thank you,
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Father, that you've shown so many the judgment line of Christ and his gospel.
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And that you've granted faith so that many can believe to the Savior their soul is saved.
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I pray, Father, for anyone here in this place who knows not the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that you follow and give them faith to believe this ordinance and preach. And whatever clarity
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I've been able to put forth, Lord, that you would use these words to make that faith grow, that you,
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Lord, would water it and bring them to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do this,