Month: May 2015

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 58 – The Heart of the Problem

/ adamrenken / Leave a comment
Romans 10:5-7 – “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.  But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
In the last message covering Romans 10:1-4 we saw that there is salvation is no one else apart from Jesus Christ.  No amount of morality will save you; the entire point of the law of Moses (10 commandments + other laws added in the Old Testament) was to point people to God, to His righteousness and our need for God as our Savior.  Today’s message continues that with a look at what Moses himself said in Deuteronomy 30.  In Deuteronomy 30:6 Moses writes – “the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” I could write an entire message on Deuteronomy 30, but sufficed to say that if you break down what Moses says in that chapter, it is clear that salvation and the outworkings of salvation are a work of God.  The first 10 verses of Deuteronomy 30 all speak of what God will do, climaxing in the verse above, that God will circumcise the hearts of His people, so that they will be free to love Him.  The latter 10 verses all speak to the outworking of that work of God, the obedience of man to the commandments of God.
Ultimately, unless God gives us hearts to love Him, our obedience to Him will be impossible.  The obedience of God is not a matter of works, but of the heart.  Jesus gives examples of this in Matthew 5:21-22,27-28 – “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
 
Being better people will get us no closer to God than jumping up in the air will get us closer to the Sun.  We as people have a massive problem called sin, just as some fool jumping in the air thinking they can reach the sun has a massive problem called gravity.  The Jews spoken of here in Romans 10 thought that by being “good people” according to the law, they would be able to reach God – it’s foolishness.  Does this mean we ignore God’s commandments – no, but we know that our hearts must be changed by God, rather than just cleaning up the outside.  We know that from beginning to end, our salvation, our righteousness, is a gift of God through the blood of Jesus, not a task to be completed by us.  
 
If you find yourself today stuck in sin or frustrated by trying to please God through your works, take a moment and just thank God from freeing you from both the sin of immorality and the sin of self righteousness in Jesus.  Consider the greatest sin you’ve ever committed and know that Jesus bore the wrath of God for you sin.  Now consider your best righteous act, and know that Jesus bore the wrath of God for your sin in that act too.  The gospel is meant to be a gospel of peace and rest.  Are you resting in Jesus alone?  Instead of trying to clean yourself up on the outside, start with your heart.  Ask God for affections for Him, to incline your heart towards Him, to give you desires to see Him in His Word, to delight and find joy in all that He is for us in our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He loves you, it’s not a prayer He will say no to.  
 
Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 57 – The End of the Law

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Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s message is an important one.  This is a section of scripture that if you do not take to heart, you will drift from the gospel of peace, into something else that is not the gospel at all.  If at the end of today’s message you do not feel pitiable, small, weak, and needy, I will not have done God’s word justice.  If at the end of today’s message you do not see Christ as all-sufficient, triumphant, massive, and mighty to save, I will not have done God’s word justice.  After laboring in Romans 9 to show that salvation is 100% of the Lord, and not a matter of birthright (by being born within the physical nation of Israel) or upholding of the old testament law (As given by Moses and the prophets) Paul is now directing his attention to his physical brothers of Israel who had believed both of these things.

Romans 10:1-4 – “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

From the section of scripture (Romans 9:31-33) immediately preceding the above we know that “them” that Paul’s heart and prayer is for is the physical people of Israel, his “kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3).  They are not saved, and Paul’s heart is burdened for their salvation overflowing into prayer for them to God.  They have a passion for God, but not according to knowledge.  I wonder how many inside and outside of the church today would fall into this same category.  They have a passion for God, but no true knowledge of Him.  How else do you explain that over 75% of the US considers themselves “Christian”, yet our country is so full of unrepentant, rampant, immorality?  Knowledge matters.  It is not enough to “believe” in God, if the God you believe in, is not grounded in the Truth, the revealed God of the Bible.  Here is a good measuring stick of whether you know God – if you are content in your knowledge of God, not wanting to pursue Him further, you may not know Him at all.  God will convict you, discipline you, push you, and guide you in a way your flesh and your own sinful desires would never lead you – but if you know Him, you know that His loves for you guides all that He does and you trust Him.

So what was the “knowledge of God” that was lacking for the people of Israel?  Verse 3 tells us.  They were ignorant of the righteousness of God.  Because they were ignorant of the righteousness of God, they attempted to pursue self-righteousness through adherence to rules and codes of morality.  To be sure, the pursuit of righteousness in your life is a good thing – until you believe that God will accept or love you based on “your righteousness”.  These holy men of Israel did not listen to their own great prophets, Isaiah and David; Isaiah when after being face to face with the righteousness of God had this to say (Isaiah 6:5) – “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” and later in Isaiah 64:6 – “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”  David said in Psalm 143:1-3 – “Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!  In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!  Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.”

The law was given to Israel not to produce in them a righteousness that would be accepted by God, but to show them their unrighteousness and need for a righteous Savior.  Why did Israel not see this?  Because they did not know how righteous God truly is, they did not know Him.  If I was trying to explain to a child what heat is, I might show them the warmth of the sun on a hot day (maybe 100˚F), a bowl of hot soup (200˚F), or a fire (1500˚F).  All of those things contain degrees of heat, but they do not compare to the heat of the sun (10,000˚F), and even our sun does not compare to the heat of other types of stars which can be over (350,000˚F).  For God, who created all things, has within himself not just a different understanding of “heat”, but the very essence of it.  In the same way, man was pointed to an understanding of God’s righteousness, but not to be able to attain it, but to know that God was the Righteous One.  The end, the whole point of the law of God was to lift up Jesus as the Righteous One, the essence of righteousness, who would reconcile a people to God – not because they had earned it somehow, but to demonstrate and magnify the love and mercy of God.

When man does not know the Righteousness of God, two things generally happen, which both were present in the people of Israel 1) a person will attempt to be accepted by God based on their own “righteousness” and “good works” and 2) they will not submit their lives to God.

Israel had a passion for God, but was not saved because they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  What does that mean?  It means two things 1) you recognize your total inability to have God accept you based on your own personal “righteousness” and 2) it means that you submit your life to pursue the righteousness of God in faith.  Faith that while you follow God, you are entrusting yourself to His mercy, not your ability or sacrifice. Submitting yourself to God’s righteousness means that in the fear of the Lord, you will reject sin in your life, reject comfort if need be, to pursue Him and His will in your life.  Knowing that as your grow in the knowledge of the Lord, you will see greater and greater depth to His righteousness, and as a counterpart to that knowledge, a greater and great understanding of your own sinfulness and need for God.  Jesus’s righteousness was not simply a better righteousness than ours; He is the essence of righteousness.  When the Lord in His mercy reaches us with faith to know Him, we are covered and clothed in the perfect essence of the righteousness of God.  The wrath of God poured out on our sin on Jesus was the essence of wrath, infinitely more powerful and horrible than we can fathom, but the life and righteousness of Jesus, by which we now stand in assured of our salvation, was infinitely more glorious than we can possibly fathom, as is the love of God for us in Jesus.

Do you know the righteousness of God?  Have you submitted to the righteousness of God?  What is stopping you today, from doing so?  Pursuing the Lord is seldom comfortable, but He is good and the only source of lasting joy.  Who would you entrust yourself to, today?  Yourself?  Someone else?  The world around you?  Why not a God whose love for you is indescribable in how great it is?  Why not a God who willingly died an excruciating death for you?  Why not a God who knows your days from the beginning to the end and has promised to walk with you every step of the way?  We come to God as sinners, empty handed, with nothing to offer.  We bring nothing to the table.  God doesn’t ask us to, He simply says “come”.  All who are weary and in need of rest, come.  Find your rest in Him.

Grace and Peace,

Adam