Romans 11:22 "The Kindness and Severity of God"

[Music] it is a delight to be with you some of you we know very well and some we know from california and but it's it's a joy to be with you in this congregation that i know serves the lord and loves the lord deeply if you if you have your scriptures with you and i trust that you do i would invite you to open them to our texts for this morning which is found on page 947 of the pew bible it's a short text but a very necessary text and after we read this together i'll give you a bit of a context to put things into perspective as we launch into the proclamation of the word the text is found in romans chapter 11 and verse 22. paul has been discussing since chapter 9 the relationship of jews and gentiles and how mankind is saved and so we come to the 22nd verse that reads this way note then the kindness and severity of god severity toward those who have fallen but god's kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness otherwise you too will be cut off those last words were a stern warning to be cut off meant that you were out of the covenant you had nothing to do with god's kingdom and he's speaking these words both to jews and to gentiles that was the nature of the congregation in rome it was comprised of a jewish component as well as a gentile component it was very different in many regards from the church in ephesus and so the whole composition of the book of romans is also different in nature let me make a brief comparison if you look at the book of ephesians which is only six chapters you'll find that there is an even distribution almost between doctrine and the practical outworking of that doctrine so for example the first three chapters of the book of ephesians deal primarily with doctrine and if you're ever visiting in a congregation and the pastor says to you that you don't need doctrine i give you full permission to get up and walk out and the reason i say that is because we know from scripture and especially what we call the pastoral epistles first and second timothy and titus that in those three short epistles paul uses the words sound words sound teaching sound doctrine repeatedly to drive home his point i find it to be very interesting that the word sound that occurs in the greek text is the word from which we get our english word hygienic in other words doctrine sound words sound doctrine sound teaching is all hygienic so we've got the first three chapters of ephesians dealing primarily with doctrine 4 5 and 6 deal primarily with the practical application of that doctrine romans is different 16 chapters and the first 11 deal with doctrine it talks about how man is saved talks about how abraham an old testament patriarch was saved paul devotes an entire chapter chapter 4 to what was going on in abraham's life and how his faith was counted to him as righteousness chapter 6 is just a marvelous chapter on the union of the believer with christ and as i mentioned in the chapters 9 10 and 11 the theme is how does man get saved if one is a jew and how does man get saved if one is a gentile and not surprisingly the answer that's given there is the same way jews and gentiles are saved the same way there are things that we encounter in the scriptures at times that can sometimes shock us in american theology in a great part of american theology there is a notion that israel is a separate place and the church is the separate kingdom and so the old testament kingdom was saved by keeping the ten commandments and the new testament church is saved by grace if you have ever thought that i would like to encourage you to disavow yourself of that that's not the case so what we're going to be looking at this morning is what does paul mean after he's discussed over a long long period of time the way that man is saved chapters 9 10 and 11 and he comes to this particular verse where he speaks about something that it's almost as foreign to us as doctrine and that is the nature and the character of god a dear brother in christ that i was privileged to call friend was r.c sproul and sprole used to teach almost with every class the greatest gap in american christianity is that we no longer know the nature and the character of god we don't know who he is and because we don't know who is as often as not we create him in our own image it never has failed to strike me that when i talk with someone who says well my god isn't like that that by the time they begin to explain to me what their god is really like i come to the conclusion oh he's just like you he's just like you he likes the same things you like he dislikes the same things you dislike but that's not what the scriptures teach us is it scriptures teach us that man is created in god's image and as such he is not only the creator he is the redeemer and he is the sanctifier and we owe him allegiance and we owe him the lordship that is due his name i want to talk about three points in this sermon on the kindness and the severity of god this morning and i want you to to have your bibles open it's one thing for me to read you the text it's another thing for you to hear it and read it as well so let's start this morning we're going to start all the way back at the first chapter of the book of romans so if you'll turn to romans chapter 1 as you're turning there the first point is going to be the gospel is the power of god for salvation i was delighted to hear the other pastor gleason speaking this morning in his prayers about the gospel and we're going to come to that lord willing in the third point and what is the gospel but for now the gospel is the power of salvation romans 1 chapter 16 reads this way paul says for i am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes to the jew first and also to the greek now the first thing i want you to notice is how at the outset of the book of romans the jew and the greek are brought together under the power of the gospel it's the jew first and then the greek the jew has the covenants the jew has the oracles the jew has the whole history but paul reiterates i'm not ashamed of the gospel why because it is the power of god and whereas you and i may at times feel very powerless the truth of the matter is it's not what we say or how we say it but it's the power of the gospel that comes to men and women whose lives are just a mess and that is the clear message that the holy spirit wants us to have to whom does it come it comes to everyone everyone who believes how does one believe and paul is going to do that and get to that point and just for in just a moment but right now what he's saying is that the gospel is for everyone and maybe you've been out witnessing you've heard people say to you well you don't know what my life is like no i don't but i don't need to what i need to know and to understand and to apply in my life as a believer is that the gospel is the power of god for salvation the gospel is the power of god that can break through all of the mess that we have made of our lives and change those lives dramatically and change those lives radically the next thing we're told is that the kindness of god is manifested in the fact that the proclamation of the gospel of god's kindness is observed in the fact that it's for everyone that's part of the kindness now if you read through the westminster standards and i'm thinking now especially of the westminster confession of faith you will find three terms that describe god that are used repeatedly by the westminster divines the first one is the wisdom of god the second one is the power of god and the third one is the goodness of god i'm going to make the case that the goodness of god and the kindness of god are the same word they mean the same thing and we'll get to a definition of that in just a moment now when the gospel is brought to everyone it's quite possible that the gospel will not lead that person to repentance does the gospel fail then no the gospel doesn't fail because according to isaiah 55 11 the word of god will never return to him empty it will always accomplish the purpose for which god sends it if god means to soften the hardest heart the heart that is of stone the goodness and the kindness of god will shatter that hard heart if it is meant that this particular non-believer will hear the gospel and grind his or her teeth and scrunch up their faces and hate god even more that is the purpose of god in this particular instance in romans chapter 2 and verse 4 we're told that as christians god's kindness has a specific purpose in our lives what is that purpose well let's look at the text romans 2 4 reads this way or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that god's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance my wife and i had an interesting conversation recently and she said in our worship service when we have that time for our silent profession of sin to god do you find yourself sometimes praying the same request week in and week out i said it's almost invariable i pray the same things why is god so patient with us why does he do that it's because of his kindness and he wants to lead us to repent if you and i are praying that type of prayer weekly or frequently we ought to know that there's something that god is doing in our lives there and he's leading us to repentance and repentance does just doesn't mean to say i'm sorry it means to turn and take a new path with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts in second corinthians chapter 10 verse 4. paul talks about the gospel this way and he says for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds the kindness of god means that if you and i receive christ by faith with that we accept the gospel message that when we encounter these people in our lives and they have totally different views they are non-christians and maybe they are militant non-christians maybe they have a bullhorn and we don't have a bullhorn either but the purpose of the gospel is that we now have weapons of our warfare that are not of the flesh that have divine power to destroy satanic strongholds and if we're paying attention to what's going on in our country right now we certainly understand that we need to be making use of this because the curtain has been pulled back on evil in our time and we are lunging from one chaotic tumultuous crisis to the next in our country but we need not feel as if we are powerless in fact according to the word of god we are the ones who have been given this weapon of our warfare that's powerful it's of divine power and it's able because of its origin to destroy strongholds i think that in and of itself ought to be sufficient encouragement to every christian in the world to get involved in evangelism because it's not about what we say and it's not about how we say it but it's about the power of god and to salvation now thirdly i want us to notice that the very outset of paul's letter to the romans that he includes both the jew and the gentile in the reception of the gospel and in the salvation of god if jews and gentiles were to be saved differently this particular place in the book of romans would have been the place to mention it paul could have said oh and by the way i just want you to know that even though we are gathered together as a congregation and some of you are jews and some of you are gentiles this part's going to be saved one way and this part is going to be saved and done another way think with me theologically for a moment adam and eve transgress god's law and now everyone born is born with original sin and because we're born with original sin we commit actual sins theologically we call that being totally depraved how could a person who is totally depraved with the emphasis on the word totally ever keep one of the ten commandments let alone all ten how could anybody be saved that way paul doesn't say that in fact in the book of acts there are some very striking texts that say the same thing that paul is saying to the congregation in rome and by extension to the church today i invite you to turn to the 15th chapter of the book of acts as you're turning there let me give us a brief context this is a chapter in scripture that speaks about the church council that took place in jerusalem among other things and presbyterians tend to go to this chapter rightly to explain what's going on so let's look at the first two verses of acts 15 together but some men came down from judea and we're teaching the brothers unless you are circumcised according to the custom of moses you cannot be saved and after paul and barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them paul and barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question i think at times we are almost pollyanna-esque when it comes to the first century church and how things were you had jews and you had gentiles in the same congregation think of a simple example after service you decide to have a potluck or if you're a presbyterian a pot predestination and you do that and you go back and the table is arrayed there's potato salad there's coleslaw there's chips and everything else and the last item that you can pick up is a ham sandwich what do you think the jews would have said to that how could you possibly expect me to eat ham and so now we have these particular jewish people saying about the gentiles hey unless they are circumcised according to the custom of moses they cannot be saved circumcision saves you and that's the debate the debate is about how people are saved the jews argued that one had to be circumcised and paul and barnabas argue the opposite case and apparently it was intense fellowship there's no small dissension and debate that went on it was a back and forth so they decide we go to jerusalem we get this song so paul and barnabas we're told as we read through the text they pass through phoenicia and they pass through samaria and they as they do that they describe in some detail what has happened with the gentiles and all the believers there rejoice but then they arrive in jerusalem this is kind of the mecca at this particular time look with me at the verses 4 and 5. when they came to jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders and they declared all that god had done with them but some believers who belonged to the party of the pharisees rose up and said it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of moses i don't know how you do that but that was the mandate i order you to keep the law of moses and you have to be circumcised as well and once again the crux of the the discussion is how is a person saved and some insisted insisted that for anyone who was a male to be saved he had to be circumcised now let's look at the verses 6 through 12. the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter and after there had been much debate peter stood up and said to them brothers you know that in the early days god made a choice among you that by the my by my mouth the gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe and god who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the holy spirit look at those next words just as he did to us and he made no distinction between us jew gentile and them having cleansed their hearts by faith now therefore why are you putting god to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to hear but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the lord jesus just as they will jews and gentiles are saved the same way look at the 12th verse i think the 12th verse is probably one of the biggest understatements in the bible and all the assembly fell silent i bet they did how are the hearts of both jews and gentiles cleansed they're cleansed by faith alone and when it talks about the goodness of god the kindness of god what that describes for us is god's gracious attitude and his gracious acts towards sinners it's kind of what paul will go on to talk about later in the bible in chapter 5 of romans he'll talk about where we were sinners while we were ungodly while we were god's enemies christ died for us he didn't wait for us to clean up our act a little bit he didn't say do this do this to this and oh by the way get circumcised and keep the law of moses he came to us the bible tells us when we were sinners when we were enemies when we were godless and he saved us from our sins and that denotes god's gracious kind good attitude towards sinners it's a kind of a summary term of the comprehensive fullness of christian salvation it speaks to us of god's nature because by nature god is kind and god is good to his creation and to his creatures but especially to his church the love of god for his church is immeasurable well that brings us that was the good news and now i bring us the bad news the severity of god and this too is part and parcel of god's truth there was a saying that went around a while back and you may remember it and maybe you've even used it in a certain context and the saying went like this you cannot fix stupid remember that the general notion with that statement is there just certain things certain events in our lives that you cannot fix no matter how much you want to fix them and that's hard for us as americans isn't it we fix everything the very very very difficult might take us a week and the impossible might take us ten days but we'll get it done that's our attitude but there are certain things that you cannot fix we like to fix things we like to fix broken lives we like to fix broken machinery we like to fix broken finances and broken marriages and broken relationships between parents and children and all sorts of things but there are certain things you cannot you cannot fix again staying in the first chapter of romans when you come to the 18th verse of chapter one paul describes something there of i guess for lack of a better term we could call it a revolution and when paul uses the word god we need to know that paul is not talking about some kind of supreme being for paul god was father son holy spirit and so paul's argument in the verses 18 all the way to the end of the chapter in chapter one of romans is that everybody knows god everybody the real question is not does man know god the answer is yes he knows god the problem is that man knows god and he hates god and the real problem then is exacerbated by virtue of the fact that man then wants to push god out of the picture and i learned somewhere back in high school that nature hates the vacuum so something has to come in and take that place as paul goes on to describe it it is a kind of revolution against god it's a kind of rebellion against god and this particular rebellion manifests itself intellectually and it also manifests itself sexually and this is an ongoing process we're told at the outset that these people suppress god's truth they push it down they know him but they did not honor him as god or give thanks to him and they exchanged his glory for idols did you know and i didn't until recently that in 2018 the temple of satan was allowed or petitioned to allow a winged goat devil idol to be placed at the capitol building in little rock arkansas and they did that because the ten commandments had been put there and the non-believers wanted an idol put there and we're told in this first chapter of romans that man the sinner exchanged the glory of god for idols they became futile it says worthless is the real word in their thinking and they willingly willingly and knowingly darkened their hearts they did it on purpose and then in the verses 24 26 and 28 there's a refrain and here's the way the refrain goes therefore god gave them up that's verse 24. verse 26 for this reason god gave them up 28 god gave them up and the rest of that verse 28 reads this way and since they did not see fit to acknowledge god god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done what's the based mind the new american standard version and the niv called it a depraved mind the new king james also says it's a debased mind there's a version called the asv may have never heard of it it was a version that was very popular around 1901 that version and the king james version say they had a reprobate mind futile thinking worthless thinking results in a depraved mind a reprobate mind a debased mind the greek word there means a mind that is that has failed to meet the test a mind that is worthless a mind that is disqualified a mind that is rejected a mind that has been proven false unfit and untrustworthy and what is this then describing what is what are the verses 18 following in romans 1 describing for us they're describing something that you and i cannot fix we cannot it's describing something that you and i cannot alter and you and i cannot change what is that it's god's judgment it's god's judgment on unrepentant sin and that idea is not something that just popped up the day before yesterday this judgment that god announced in romans was nothing new it was the result of days and months and years and decades and centuries and millennia of disobedience historically we can trace how long this obedience occurred when we look at romans chapter one but it goes far beyond that as well it was around in the old testament it was around when the lord jesus walked the earth it was around in paul's day and it is with us today and it is with us today in spades god giving them up god giving them over means that unless there is repentance god's judgment will be absolute it will be inevitable you cannot turn it back is there any remedy for that can people who live this way extricate themselves from being given up by god is there ever really any hope that's an important question because when we ponder that we come to the conclusion that it is a life and death question and that eternally robert dabney was the southern presbyterian in 1863 which is when most of my kids think i was born and he preached a sermon in danville virginia and he preached a sermon where he in the course of the sermon he talked about how life begins at conception and i think for all of us we can say yes and i'm into that but he took it a step farther and i think it was a very very interesting point he said not only does life begin at conception but at conception an eternal soul is implanted by god in that conceived baby and he said that eternal soul will either spend eternity in heaven or in hell fathers how concerned are you to catechize your children and take teach them the things of god how concerned are we for as for one another as christians to talk about these eternal verities these eternal truths in our lives and in our families and when we gather together how important is that grandparents how important is that great grandparents if if you're like us how important is that it's very important because eternity eternal destinies are hanging in the balance but thankfully there is a positive answer to that question and that brings me to my last point bringing the good news to a world under judgment what you and i called the good news is just one word in greek it's called the you angelion well what does that word mean well it's a compound word really it has a little prefix on it eu and then it has a root word now we think about these words all the time we if you have ever heard of the term euphemism euphemism is a word that we're we're really adept at as believers and as americans especially we talk about things like that euthanasia there's that prefix again comes from the prefix and the greek word for death is thanatos so euthanasia means a good or a soft death euphemistically we speak of people who commit adultery we say they had an affair or that they slept together apparently there are a lot of tired people in the united states these days the greek word is just one word what does the re the root of that word angelia mean what does that mean well it means this it means to tell or to proclaim or to declare in other words the root of this word has to do with speaking have you ever heard the words preach the gospel and if you have to use words if you have ever heard that or ever said that please don't say that again the gospel the good news is meant to be a spoken word and this the word that we call the good news is the root word from which we get our words to evangelize or evangelical we must speak the good news in scripture the gospel is always connected always connected to god's truth in christ by the power of the holy spirit now i'm going to give us some text to look up and we'll close this morning let's start in the book of acts acts chapter 20. paul this is that very poignant scene where paul is leaving the ephesus and he's kneeling on the shore with the ephesian elders and they're having their farewell and he says there that i do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only i may finish my course and the ministry that i received from the lord jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of god paul wanted to end well and ending well meant finishing his course finishing his ministry by testifying to the gospel not just to the gospel but to the gospel of the grace of god that salvation how whoever you are or however you're living at any particular moment as the grace of god breaks into your life that is the most undeserved thing that could could happen to you and yet god's goodness and kindness and love toward you as an ungodly sinner as an enemy of god breaks into your life and saves you by his grace what a message to take to the world in the 15th chapter of the book of romans verse 20. paul says and thus i make it my ambition to preach the gospel that ought to be printed on every seminary door because we have been living in decades of time where it has not been the intent of many seminarians coming out of seminary to do that very thing make it their ambition to do nothing not to tell stories about their families not to tell cutesy tales not to be anecdotal but to preach the gospel and i have no difficulty at all saying to you that i know you will get that right here every sunday in first corinthians chapter 9 verse 16. paul says for if i preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me woe to me if i do not preach the gospel somebody said to me the other day you're kind of old school aren't you ron i said at 76 i'm old everything but in light of of all of that that is said there is this whole idea of woe to me if i do not preach the gospel what does that mean it means that is when you and i become christians by god's grace by this wondrous grace by his goodness and his kindness toward us that we understand that life is no longer about us is it when a person takes their vows to become a pastor the message is no longer if it ever was but it is no longer about them it's about christ and the glories of our savior ii corinthians 11 4 for if someone comes and proclaims another jesus than the one we proclaimed or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted you put up with it readily enough let's go along to get along live and let live paul says there's one gospel and he says that again at the very first chapter of the book of galatians where he says twice if someone comes to you and presents with to you a gospel different from the one that you heard from me let him be anathema in other words let him be accursed what is the gospel according to ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 that doctrinal statement there it says in him christ you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation you notice how these two concepts are just brought together gospel and truth gospel and truth so many times in our current society we ask the question who can we believe who can we believe anymore you believe god you believe god's truth because god is truth paul goes on and explains later in his other writings it's also it's not just the gospel of truth it's also he says the gospel of peace he says that in ephesians 6. he also says in philippians let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of christ that's an important concept for christians let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of christ and just by way of information whenever you see that little word let in your english bible that's not something that's kind of iffy it is a command the word let in greek means you have to do as a command so the command is that our manner of life must be worthy of the gospel of christ colossians 1 3 through 5 says this we always thank god the father of our lord jesus christ when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in christ jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this you have heard in the word of the truth the word of the truth the gospel and finally you haven't gotten there yet but you will in revelation 14 verse 6. john writes and says that i saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth to every nation and tribe and language and people an eternal gospel what we need to understand as church is that the most important thing we can do right now is to be church to be the church for which christ shed his precious blood it's not our calling to fix bad marriages it's not our calling to fix disrespectful and disobedient children it's not our calling to fix broken finances it's not our calling to fix pain and suffering or anything else that we experience in the world although if someone truly embraces the gospel those things will definitely change and improve the first step however the most important step the indispensable and essential step is first and foremost to speak the gospel of truth and peace and to declare to a lost world that the liberator has come he's not a worldly liberator he is the liberator with a capital l he died for sinners he died for his enemies he died for the ungodly on the accursed tree and he brought with him to those who were lost an eternal gospel now let's go out let's speak that gospel to a lot to a lost and to a dying world that's under god's judgment please pray with me

Channel: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church

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Length: 45min 30sec (2730 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021