Romans #21 - Predestination Problems: Unloving?

[Music] so [Music] the music is so dramatic i feel like i should it feels a little anti-climactic it's like i was like well here i am and here's my bible um my name is pastor mark i i don't have a smoke machine i feel i feel like i should come in like on a zip line or something you know something like a thing but i i don't i that's all i'm 50. i just i walked up that's all i did so good to have you with us live or online and what i like to do what we like to do is go through books of the bible so we're in the book of romans amazing incredible book we're in chapter nine find your place there and if you're new we're so glad to have you this is gonna be one of the greatest four or five hours of your life that's how we do the sermons here at the trinity church and if you're laughing it's because you're a visitor the people that are part of the church they know that's a prophecy right there that's what's gonna happen so uh and what we're talking about in romans nine and ten is what can be a kind of a big complicated controversial issue and that is do we choose god first or does god choose us first in any relationship both people need to agree they want a relationship but in our relationship with god does god choose us first or do we choose him first in the big category something called predestination and if you're from gcu you've argued about this for the last two years with all of your fellow classmates this is all you've talked about now that being said it does have some real importance because it explains how we are to tell our story and the difference between a christian and a non-christian on how we tell our life story for a non-christian it really is a biography and a biography is here's what i did here's what i overcame here's what i learned you know here's here's what i did to sort of pull myself up by my bootstraps for a christian the way we tell the story of our life is a testimony and that is that this is what god said this is what god did this is how god sustained me this is what god taught me the difference between a biography and a testimony is really who's the hero of the story who gets all the credit or to use a word from the bible the glory and for us it's god who saves us it's god who does the work and when we tell the story of our life we want to tell the story in such a way that people know who our god is and what our god does so i'll tell you a little bit about my story i grew up marginal jack catholic my mom knew the lord it was filled with the spirit and i i didn't know the lord and i didn't really have any interest of the things of god nobody's fault but my own i thought i was a good moral kid so i just tried to be a good person i believe there was a god didn't know jesus just tried to be a good person so i didn't drink i didn't smoke i didn't do drugs and i never bit anybody up that didn't deserve it because i was moral and you can ask them they all agree they're like i deserved it so um and then uh and then i did well in school i got an academic scholarship leadership scholarship i was most likely to succeed student body president four-year letterman man of the year played a little quarterback i wasn't very good that's why i'm free on sunday and uh and i played baseball which i really loved and then i went off to college and i was on a scholarship and everything was fine i didn't have some credit no addiction no cratering of life no major existential crisis and i wasn't really looking for god i wasn't going to church i was just going to class just a regular normal guy and i wasn't a particularly great guy my girlfriend was a pastor's daughter and i was sleeping with her so there's that and at the time i didn't think it was a big deal now that i'm a pastor with a daughter i have a totally different perspective on that so um i should have been set on fire and it should have been broadcast to the world as a warning to all other young men yeah so all the all the all the dads are ready to collect the offering now they're like that's something i can get behind right there okay so so i i remember i was in college and all of a sudden something in me just changed i i didn't do it god did it i remember grace uh called me my now wife she was many miles away to different college and she said so how are you doing i was like weird i said i i'm reading the bible i i'm going to church she's like you're what i said yeah she's like why i was like i have no i don't know i said i i want something in me wants to do this and this is totally new i remember sitting in my dormitory as a freshman reading romans 1 and it says and you are called to belong to jesus christ now okay i belong to jesus now i was like oh that was for me she's like well what did you do i was like i don't think i did anything i'm trying to figure out what happened to me i don't think i did anything i think god did something and i'm trying to figure out what happened she's like so what's different i said well i said i'm trying to figure out how to pray and i said i'm reading the bible a lot and i like it she said really i said yeah she said where are you going to church i was like i don't know and that's the scary thing when you're new you don't know if you're in a church or a cult and the problem is you never know till the last day you know you're like i love this church and white sneakers and i think kool-aid is amazing and and then you're like row that picker and i was like i think it's a church i don't know i think i'm in a church and and so grace was asking what happened you know what god did something god changed my desires he gave me a new nature he gave me a love for jesus a desire for scripture god changed me and ever since then i've been trying to figure out what that means for me okay and so for you for those of you who are a christian the bible is going to use some words to explain how god does this in our lives in the old testament use words like plan purpose and choose in the new testament words like pradesh and elect choose and appoint so here's the big question for someone to have a relationship with god who makes that choice do we make it or does someone else make it so this is the big sort of introduction to our theme for the day who chooses our salvation option number one so it's either satan us or god those are the satan and demons human beings uh or god so it's divine spirit beings human beings are god option one is satan how many of you are not really excited if satan's making choices for your life and just so you know he does make choices for your life he does question is does he make the choice regarding your salvation he said this in romans 8 38 39 we're going to stay in the book of romans neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers that's divine beings and that word for rulers can mean uh holy or unholy divine beings including angels nor things present nor to come nor powers the powers there would be supernatural powers that could include satan and demons nor height nor death nor anything else and all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus our lord what he's saying is this that satan and demons are trying to separate us from god's love that's what that's their mission god loves you satan hates god and he hates you and he wants you to be like him forever separated from the love of god satan and demons are separated from the love of god and you and i get an offer from god that they don't get that is an offer for a relationship satan and demons like us divine beings just like human beings rebelled against god and as a result they're separated from the love of god and the difference is jesus never came in the image and likeness of a demonic being he didn't die for them he didn't rise for them he doesn't give an opportunity or possibility of salvation for them so jesus says that hell was made for the devil and his angels they're all going there none of them are going to make it to heaven and so if satan makes the decision he's going to want us to join him in that doom project together forever the other option is that maybe we can choose and uh he said this in romans 3 10 through 12. none is righteous how many come on somebody like i'm a good person no you're not so like i'm offended you're like well that's really bad of you it's been like my mom said i'm a good person your mom's a liar mom's a liar she's a false prophet she said i have a good heart yeah she started a cult right then okay none is righteous no not one not one no one understands you're like i know i went to community college i got a minor in religion well you don't understand neither did you prof and no one seeks for god see people are looking for spirituality miracles the supernatural and power but not god all have turned aside together they've become worthless no one does good not even one so if it's up to us to choose how many of us choose god zero zero of us do see people will seek what god gives but they don't love who god is see we want the gifts not the giver and so if it's satan and demons we all go to hell if it's we choose we all go to hell and then the third option is god chooses in light of the options you should be pretty excited about this okay option three god and this is where he started the whole section that we'll jump into he introduces the themes here that he then unpacks in romans nine and ten and this is the introduction to our time together for those whom before knew he also predestined there's our word to be conformed to the image of his son god wants you to be like jesus and those who he predestined he called those whom he called he justified those whom he justified he also glorified so they called this the order of salvation and it goes from eternity past to eternity future it starts with four new before god created the heavens and the earth god foreknew that he was going to send his son jesus christ to seek to save to love to serve me and you god knows everything in totality god is not like you and i he's not stuck in the middle of history hoping to anticipate what comes next he rules over history and he knows the beginning and the end he's the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end god exists outside of time he can act in time he's not shocked because everything is foreknown by him so before before god made the world god knew what you and i were going to do in sin and he knew that he would send his son to fix our biggest problem and that is our relationship with god he foreknew not only that it says that then he predestined and what this is is that god predetermines a destiny for you and i want you to take this as such encouragement and hope so oftentimes we look into the future like i don't know where i'm going i don't know what i'm doing i don't know what to expect i don't know how to anticipate or even we found this last year you make a plan and things change things change the good news is god rules over all of history including the details of your life and he has a destiny for you i wake up every day quite frankly as a really excited hopeful person like god what do you have for me today what do you want me to do where i'm going to go who can i serve what can i give what can i learn you know what needs to change god today is a day of adventure my god has a destiny for every day for me and i want to wake up and i just want to walk in god's will and i want to find his destiny for that day and so for me it's not an anxious thing it's actually a really exciting thing my life is not without meaning value or purpose god is over it god is with me in it and he has something important for me every day to contribute to whatever he has planned for my destiny and i tell this to our family and our kids we're chasing god's destiny for our life and it's super exciting because god loves us and he has good plans for us and we want to discover what those are he says then at some point you get called and there's two kinds of called there is an external call and an internal call external is where somebody's talking to you about jesus right now we're talking about jesus this is an external call internal call is where the holy spirit flips the switch in your soul gives you faith brings you from death to life spiritually takes out your heart of stone gives you a heart of flesh to quote ezekiel how many of you you heard about jesus externally and then all of a sudden one day something just clicked internally and he was like okay i love jesus now i was talking to someone recently they'd only been to church a few times in their entire life and they're a newer christian they're like i heard about jesus a few times didn't make any sense to me and then one day i just loved jesus like every like the switch flipped in my soul i was like i love jesus and now they totally love jesus and and they're walking with jesus and they're excited about jesus that's god's calling bringing you from death to life this is what god does now out of this new heart this new nature and these new desires we'll call out to god because god has called on us we'll love god because he's first loved us we'll work out our salvation with fear and trembling because god has already worked in us to willing to do according to his good pleasure that god initiates that we respond to god leads and we follow and within this when god does call you it literally is a little bit like the story of a guy in the bible named lazarus he died he was a friend of jesus he and his two sisters and the bible says that he was very much dead the king james bible says he stinketh he stinketh okay so he's very dead and jesus comes and he says lazarus come forth and lazarus goes from death to life because he was called by name what jesus did for lazarus physically he does for every christian spiritually he calls you by name and he brings you from death to life so foreign predestined called and then he uses this word justified and if you've not been here you can go back and find it all online but this is one of the major themes in the book of romans and we looked at it in earlier chapters and this is that god is holy and we are unholy that god is good and we are bad and that we have been unfaithful to god we have behaved unlawfully toward god and now things are not right between us and god and so how do we be declared righteous and what that allows is things to be made right with god how can all that is made wrong be made right that's what justified means and the issue is this that god does that the god sent jesus christ i have the most exciting news for you jesus christ is god that ours is not an abandoned planet ours is a visited planet by our creator that he humbled himself and he entered into human history as jesus christ and he lived without any sin the life that you and i should have lived but we have failed to live he died the death we should have died the death for sin and what jesus did on the cross he brought justice justice and he justified us by taking places and trading places with us so jesus goes to the cross and he takes all of the wrath and the punishment and the death and he gives to you all of the righteousness the obedience and the life this is why we love jesus so much that jesus took care of our problem with god and he has justified us allowed us to be acceptable in the sight of god it's nothing that we do it's what jesus does for us and not only that ultimately as we trust in him this process that began an eternity pass with god for knowing you it continues into eternity future with god glorifying you you know there are so few people and things that we can ultimately count on this is a god we can count on when it says that you will be glorified what that means is one day jesus will return that heaven and earth will reunite and that god will resurrect you from the grave and there will be you perfect forever i want to encourage you don't look back at who you used to be look forward to who you're going to be when god sees you he sees you as he is completed with you god sees you as healthy not sick god sees you as living not dying god sees you as healed not broken god sees you as wise not foolish god sees you as you will be in christ when he is done with his work for in and through you and so what god is he's so committed to you that he is committed to making you like his son jesus christ together in relationship with him forever now within this there are two ways that we can respond one is very arrogant and it is well then i must be very important the other is very humble in saying he must be very loving i would just encourage you to take that second path don't stand before god and say you're welcome i'm here stand before god and say thank you i'm here all right that ultimately this is the difference between a biography and a testimony who's the one that's faithful god is the one who is faithful we have faith in a god who is faithful now in saying all of this paul anticipates five questions and or objections that people will have regarding god choosing us before we choose him we've already dealt with three of them today we'll deal with question number four and then after easter we'll finish up with question number five and here's basically the essence of this week's question does predestination make god unloving if god chooses some people but not all people is that unloving what shall we say then the gentiles those are non-jewish people that's the rest of us the naughty dirty gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it that is a righteousness that is by faith but that israel the jewish people and the descendants of abraham ultimately through whom came jesus christ who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law why because they did not pursue it by faith but as if it were based on works they have stumbled over the stumbling stone his name is jesus as it is written behold i am laying in zion a stone of stumbling in a rock of offense and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame let me unpack this for you the concept here is righteousness it's a concept that appears 33 times in the book of romans 8 times just in romans 9 30 to 10 just packed into this short little section and the issue of righteousness is this our relationship with god has gone wrong how will it be made right that's really the essence of the issue how many of you have had a strained or a broken relationship and how many of you that strained or broken relationship it was your fault okay if you're married you know exactly what this looks like we've all done this the question is well how do we take a broken relationship and make it right how do we bring righteousness into the position where everything has been wrong and people have been wronged and the same is true in our relationship with god and what he's saying ultimately is this the way that our relationship with god is made right is not that we make it right but that he makes it right in the same way in our personal relationships if you do something evil towards someone and it breaks that relationship they need to be the one who forgives you and embraces you and reconciles with you they need to be the one who is willing to make it right because you're the one who has made it wrong in our relationship with god because of sin offense rebellion and folly we have made it wrong and god through jesus christ he makes it all right that's the basic concept of righteousness and what he's saying is this it's a very loving thing for god to do so let me just say this how many of you don't devise very complicated plans so that you can love bless and care for your enemies see we all kind of chuckle if you have an enemy you're like yeah i'm not going to do all i can to make their life better i'm going to watch liam neeson movies and i'm going to do some stuff that's what i'm going to do right god we were his enemies and what he decided was he was going to make it right for some of us and he was going to do something special for some of us and so number one if work needs to be done for our salvation it is loving that god would do all the work see because something has gone wrong in our relationship with god namely sin some work needs to be done to make it right the question is who does the work what's very loving that god doesn't look at us and say here's all the work you need to do to make this right he says i'm sending jesus to do all the work for you he'll make it right this is a great gift that god gives and in most other religions they're all what we would call works based and it is here's what you need to do to get right with god and in christianity jesus does all the work that's why on the cross as he is dying in our place for our sins he utters this famous line it is finished all the work's done jesus did all the work and so we are saved by works but it's not our works it's the works of jesus jesus does all the work and he gives us this relationship with god this righteousness from god as a gift and what happens is most people still have some sense that some work needs to be done so some years ago there was a christian training that would send christians out to talk to non-christians about jesus it was for the purpose of evangelism introducing them to the lord jesus and one of their questions was if you died tonight do you know where you would go and one of the other questions was why should god let you into heaven was the basic question and the vast majority of people that answer that question answer it with some form of works i'm a good person i'm moral i believe in god i was baptized i went to camp i grew up in a christian family i i pray they would give some work they're like here's something i did but those works are not enough our problem is so big it's a god size problem and the work can only be done by god and so ultimately the good news is the love of god is that god does the work for us number two if all people are unrighteous it is loving for god to make some people righteous if everyone rebels if everyone acts like a criminal it is very kind of god to pursue some people to love them to change them to rehabilitate them and to serve them he's obligated to know one it's very loving that he would do that for anyone including someone like me number three paul's argument includes this if no one earns salvation it is loving of god to give it to us as a free gift think of it in this way think of and he talks about the jews and the gentiles let me compare and contrast the jews are the people who tried the gentiles are the people who don't even try historically okay so this is the bible uh in the old testament it's got a lot of laws the first five books are called the books of the law there's 600 rules or laws the jewish people are like okay we're going to do it and they tried really hard the guy who tried the hardest was maybe the author of the book of romans his name is paul he was devout he says as to the keeping of the law without blemish your fault that he was nearly perfect so these guys literally okay we don't eat pork we take you know sabbath off we tied 10 percent we learn hebrew we wait until we're married to have any sort of intimacy uh we don't take the lord's name like they got a lot of stuff to do they're working really hard how many of you grew up in more of a religious home a lot of rules and you were the raise your hand if you were the rule keeper i know you want to like yes mark tell me what to do i will do that right now i love doing what i'm told how many of you were the rule keeper you're like your parents told you something like i'll do it you were the good kid i wasn't that kid by the way i did raise one of those kids maybe more but at least one i had one daughter that was such a rule keeper rule follower i just reduced it to 50 percent chance you know i'm talking about um i told a story before but there was one day she did something wrong i didn't even raise my voice or y'all i just said her name and she threw up the thought that she didn't keep a rule destroyed her my sons didn't go like that they were gentiles they didn't even try okay how many of you in your family you were the jew you were the good one the rule keeper the law keeper right you were like the third parent mom said only two gummy bears that's three okay you're the pharisee gummy bear older sibling okay how many of you you didn't even you're like i don't even try whatever i'm putting pants on i don't even care all right that's you thank you for putting pants on by the way i mean we appreciate that so now imagine imagine there's a job and the uh the employer says okay if you complete this job i'll pay you now one group of people shows up on the job and they work really hard but they don't do the job did they succeed or fail they failed the other group is hungover they don't even show up to work their union okay i just say what i think i don't care if you want to complain feel free to send an email we'll delete it we minister we minister to people like that all the time so uh ministry ministry ministry minister okay so they don't even they don't even show up to work did they fail so so should either of them earn get the wage should they get paid no no but these people would say at least we at least we tried yeah but you both failed so neither of you has earned anything see whether you are sort of a a jew person who really tried or a gentile who did not either way if you failed you don't earn merit deserve salvation you didn't you didn't make it because here's god's standard god's standard is perfection jesus says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect god doesn't see good people and bad people he sees jesus and then those who are sinful and have fallen short of the glory of god it's perfect and imperfect okay now what happens with religious people sometimes they get a little frustrated because they were trying really hard and sometimes let me say this sometimes religious people are trying very hard are farther from god than those who didn't even try because what they're saying is i'm going to work my way to god and god's like actually that's not how this works and so sometimes the religious people the people who are all about the rule making and keeping at least we tried well actually that was your problem because when jesus shows up it's primarily the religious people who hate him and oppose him the most because they don't think that they need his works because they think that they have their own and sometimes your works makes your hands so full of your performance that you don't have room for jesus and his performance and so what he's talking about here is it's a gift it's a gracious gift it's not something that we earn merit or deserve but it is something that god gives and i love this as well he says if everyone acts shamefully it is loving that god does not put some people to shame let's just be honest in our world if you do something you're going to be put to shame i mean social media exists in large part to shame people amen cancel culture critical theory the whole goal is to shame you shame you rub your nose in it how do i know well i know a guy okay so [Music] i know a guy and how many of us we get put to shame for things that people know imagine if they knew everything imagine if if your critics your enemies they knew not only what you did but what you thought uh oh two or three witnesses there's a there's a confirmation do you know that god knows every word you've ever said every deed you've ever done every motive you've ever held and every every inclination of your heart if there was anyone who could ultimately and utterly put us to shame it would be god you know what he says if you trust in jesus you'll never be put to shame i i love that jesus not only died for your sin he died for your shame died for your shame it says in hebrews that he endured the cross scorning its shame you know what that means that in a world where people are shaming one another and what's so weird in our world they want to make you ashamed of jesus you know just god just reminds me early in romans 1 he says i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ you know we should be ashamed of some of the things we've done but we should not be ashamed of jesus and what he's done and if we're with jesus he doesn't put us to shame so we don't live under shame and we don't put other people to shame i want that lifted from you some of you have carried a burden of shame there are things you've said or done ways you have failed and it's almost like an identity that you wear it's a burden that you bear it's not a cross for you to carry he took it with him to the cross and he scorned its shame and those who trust in him will never be put to shame and what he's ultimately saying is this it all comes down to jesus and that jesus is either your cornerstone or your stumbling stone and he says that jesus is like a rock of a fence and some trip over him and jesus is called the rock right um throughout the scriptures that's a an indication of of his strength and of his stability and his certainty how many of you for many many years you stumbled over jesus christ in christianity you're like i disagree i'm offended i don't like that you just tripped over it even to this day people are still tripping over christ and christianity i don't think that's true i don't like that so this is where we have a little conversation thank you for being here what are some of the ways that people are still tripping over christ and christianity they're like i don't like that it's not fair that's not fair no it is not fair hell is fair you're like well i don't want fair oh so you want grace because if if god set us all on fire he'd be like fair and if he takes us to heaven it's like grace christianity is not fair it's gracious if it was fair we wouldn't be any happier i'll tell you that right now other ways that people trip or stumble over jesus it's very intolerant you know what i find that the most tolerant people are the most intolerant people when it comes to things that the bible says like there's one god we're male and female marriage is for a man and a woman life begins in the womb and that ultimately there are demonic beings that are propping up counterfeit religions you say that you'll find that those tolerant people they're very intolerant they suppress the truth is what romans 1 told us on social media we'll call this throttling or banning how do i know i know a guy other ways that people stumble or trip over jesus i don't deserve it i don't deserve it that's totally true that's the really good part right if you get something you don't deserve that's why it's good news see people tr they trip and stumble over jesus for this reason that if it's about see christianity is simple but it's not easy it's simple you need jesus but it's not easy because that means that you're the problem and you're not part of the solution and that requires a lot of humility i said it in a previous sermon people are like well what part do you play in salvation well i do the sinning he does the saving so i did my part but it's not a lot to brag about right he did all the saving that's why when i brag i brag about him and it's called worship and so ultimately what he's saying here is jesus is either the stumbling stone the trip over it says elsewhere in the bible that he can also be the cornerstone that you build your whole life on and that day when you want to build something you would start with a cornerstone and everything would be built on it and so for us as christians people are like why why are you so into jesus because he's the cornerstone of my life my marriage is built on jesus my parenting is built on jesus my budget is built on jesus our church is built on jesus real faith ministries is built on jesus my relationships are built on jesus my eternity is built on jesus my understanding of the bible is built on jesus you know why jesus is my cornerstone jesus is my everything and apart from jesus i have nothing okay that's that's that's it so then he goes on uh so some will say okay if god chooses us and we don't choose him and he's the one who initiates and we respond that's unloving so i was thinking about it as i was praying for you this week and god brought to mind in romans we're going to go through the whole book eventually but god uses some analogies for a relationship with him the first is a marriage analogy in romans 7. so i'll tell you a little story it was uh march 12th 1988. uh grace and i my best friend my incredible wife we had our first date and uh and we just celebrated 33 years after our first date and so uh on the first date when we were dating i was like i adore this girl she's my favorite person i want a life's lifetime supply of being with her i like having her around she has the most incredible laugh and i i this will shock you i say crazy stuff and then i know i know i know and then and then she laughs i love it i love it and i love this girl with all my heart every day i wake up and i look at my first choice okay and so when it came time to get married we were married at the age of 21 in college between our junior and senior year let me ask you this did she propose to me or did i propose to her this is not a true question [Music] i proposed to her and then she received my proposal this is how marriage works the man i know we're talking crazy now crazy like wait a minute that seems binary it is it is it is i have an adam's apple and a beard it should be fairly clear should be fairly clear okay should be very very clear what if i identify as a pony don't judge me nay so [Music] so in a marriage at least in a healthy marriage proposal the groom always proposes to the bride so the analogy of our relation with god it is a loving relationship but who's the groom well jesus is who's the bride the church is who does the proposing the groom does the next analogy that he uses is an adoption analogy so how many of you uh were adopted or have adopted a kid okay adoption okay can we say thank you to those people for adopting kids amen [Applause] [Music] here's what's crazy our god it was adopted jesus christ was not the biological son of a man named joseph but that man adopted him so not only was our god adopted our god adopts and this is where we learned in romans that god is a father and to have become a christian is to be adopted by god so for those of you who did adopt a child let me ask two questions first how many of you went in filled out the paperwork and you chose to adopt the child how many of you did that okay how many of you the child lawyered up filled out the paperwork and adopted you as their parent [Music] it doesn't work that way right i've never seen a child adopt a parent i've seen parents adopt a child in our relationship with god we don't choose him he chooses us see this is the way that it works but it is very loving ask any woman who's engaged if she's feeling loved ask any kid whose parents are adopting them if they feel loved this is love the choosing is the loving and then lastly he uses this analogy of the kingdom of god or zion he just used the he's going to use this word in our section today but he uses it again in romans 11. zion was god's earthly kingdom that was a shadow of his heavenly kingdom and one day the invisible invisible kingdoms of zion would come together with the second coming of the lord jesus christ we're here talking about heaven and eternal life that being said jesus says that this is the father's house so here's another question do you get to decide or does someone else get to decide who lives at your house we do right like this is why every house comes with a door right and and if you don't have a door on your house you have a problem we put a door on our house because there it's it's a barrier that says we get to decide who lives here we get to decide who dwells here the bible says that jesus is the narrow door that unless you pass through jesus you can't enter into the father's house and it would be silly for people to say well i i i decided i get to move in it's not your house see people who believe that everybody should go to heaven they literally should take the door off their house because they're hypocrites if everybody gets to go to his house then everybody should get to come to your house so ultimately in all of these metaphors or analogies marriage is a loving relationship adoption is a loving relationship uh inviting someone to be part of your family and live in your home is a loving relationship but it is the groom it is the father it is uh the head of household who makes those decisions all of those point to the fact that when it comes to our relationship with god god makes those decisions and so someone asked in sap bible say this week does god love the whole world he does god has a general love for the whole world right now people are living they're living on a planet that god made they're dwelling in the body that god gave them they're working the job that god gave them the ability and provision for they're eating food they're swimming in their pool they're hiking up camelback there's god's been very good very loving and then there's a special unique love for his kids in the same way i love everybody but i have a special unique devotion and commitment to my kids i i give time to people that my kids get my first and best time i give money to people but my kids get my first and best financial contribution people i care deeply about but my children are the first priority and if i'm committed to help somebody and my child has a crisis i cancel that commitment and i go with my first priority which is my children if you're the children of god you have a unique and special love that god has bestowed upon you and he wants you not to think about the people who don't know him but he wants you to think about his great love for you this is where it says in ephesians 1 before the foundations of the world he predestined us in love that the choosing is the loving the choosing is the loving he then continues god saves and softens people and before this man who writes this became a christian who was saved was he very tolerant patient loving and considerate of people who disagreed with him not at all he was religious he was punitive he was dangerous he was violent you'll meet some guys they've got a religious demonic spirit about them they're always right they're never wrong they're gonna work through bullying intimidating uh shoving pushing threatening that was this man if you disagreed with him he was going to eviscerate you he was a control freak and then he met jesus and he realized he wasn't in control the jesus was in control and it softened his heart toward people who disagree with him brothers speaking to christians my heart's desire so it's talked about god doing the work in his heart and prayer to god is for them his family friends neighbors coworkers who don't know the lord jesus 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 god is the righteous one were the unrighteous ones 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 for moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandments shall live by them so a couple of things if you know that you're chosen you should have more passion for lost people he says my heart's desire is that they would meet the jesus whom i have met how many of you have someone that you know you love you care about and your heart is for them but their heart is not for jesus and it breaks your heart you should have a longing to see people meet jesus sometimes people say well if god saves people why do we why do we pray why do we care why do we do missions why do we do evangelism why do we try let me say it's very simple he's going to get into it in the next section that god is not only sovereign over who he saves god is sovereign over how he saves he's not just sovereign over the ends he's sovereign over the means to the ends i'll give you an analogy some years ago i was the first born of five children my dad was a carpenter construction worker literally hung drywall until he broke his back to feed five kids i love my dad with all my heart and so when i was little my dad one time was like marky you want to go to work with me i do i wanted to be like my dad so i had little work boots i had little jeans i had a little white t-shirt a little vest a little tiny hard hat i got a little lunch box that had a little thermos and i was my dad's little buddy and i jumped in his truck and we're going to the job site to do construction i'm a little guy question am i needed if you have children you have power tools your your whole goal is to keep them apart amen i was a little kid like dad put me on the table so i got this no you don't no you don't no you don't you don't was i needed no was i even helpful no why did my dad bring me to work he loved me and he wanted he wanted me to see what he was doing and he wanted me to do it with him this is where for the christian when we talk to people about jesus when we pray for jesus when we give financially when we work faithfully we're just little kids that are going to work with our dad and it's not that he couldn't do the work without us it's that he wants to do the work with us so that we get to know our dad and we get to see what our dad is doing and when we get to participate in it we get to share in his joy okay i like to say that christianity is not what we have to do it's what we get to do and what makes it awesome is we get to do it with our dad it's about the relationship so paul says my heart's desire your heart should be open because let me say this sometimes people especially if you know and love them they're family friends they're close to you if they don't know jesus eventually they can annoy or frustrate you like why don't you just meet jesus at some point somebody felt that about you and they prayed for you so pray for them if god has a heart for you he wants you to have a heart for them the other thing that he's saying here is that if god has chosen you we sh you should be more inclined to pray for lost people people who don't know jesus says my prayer my prayer and what praying does it keeps our heart tender toward the people who don't have a heart that's tender toward jesus it also causes us to trust that god is at work in their life and when we are speaking to them if they can give us an opportunity to just tell them i really love you i'm praying for you and let me say this if you're dealing with a non-christian sometimes the best way to start to sort of introduce them to the work of jesus is to just ask them how can i pray for you how can i pray for you and what i find is if you if you come to people you're like okay give me all your objections to jesus and i'll argue with you about those things it tends not to go that well if you come he says there anything i can be praying for even people who don't believe in christianity they're like well i mean can't hurt just send it up and they'll give you a prayer request okay great and what that does that allows you then to follow up with them okay i've been praying for you about this i just want to check in how's it going anything else i could do to help see our heart needs to be for people and then praying is the beginning of ministering to people and if god has chosen you you should be more zealous than people who are zealous for misguided things and what he says is they have a zeal but it's misguided how many people do you know they're really excited about something that they shouldn't be you ever seen an election cycle people have zeal a little bit misguided a little bit misguided people get into relationships they're sports teams sports are coming back online and i'm pro-sports by the way but for some people it's a religion it is a religion man i mean they're tailgating they're wearing the colors if their team dies it's good friday and there's a funeral 13 wins it's easter sunday we've resurrected from the dead i mean it's a whole religion thing and what he's saying is this that people get really zealous we should be at least as zealous for jesus as misguided people are for misguided things that's why we believe in a passionate emotional activated christianity amen all right one guy's with me amen the rest of you are like we drink decaf tell more jokes okay and he says that we should have more if god has chosen us we should have more compassion for those who don't know jesus because he says they're ignorant meaning they don't understand are we better than non-christians no i know christians some of us are terrible if it was by works it wouldn't work [Music] are we smarter than non-christians no have you ever met a stupid christian i know a guy [Applause] right that ultimately we're not smarter we're not better we're just loved and we're blessed and so it should give us a compassion like you're not i'm not better than you and i'm not smarter than you ultimately he goes on to say as well that it should cause us not to seek to have salvation by manipulation if god chooses and he does the work that means that we don't get to choose and we don't get to do the work to save somebody and salvation by manipulation is i predestine you now i'm going to do something and make you do something so that i can make you saved this is where you get manipulative christianity i'll give you an example i was thinking about it in the last sermon uh some years ago i was at a a relative's house and all of us cousins were going to go swimming and our newly saved well-intended probably watching love you and forgive you but every time i get the christmas card i get a little nervous eye twitch ptsd because they pulled us into the shed where all the swimming stuff was housed the boats and the oars and the life jackets and they blocked the door and they're like nobody goes swimming until you give your life to jesus and get saved this was a hostage situation i was like why i'm a little kid i won't go swimming they're like if you drown you're going to hell it's like this is very serious it's got very intense i was like well no we just want to go swimming no you all need to pray this prayer and get saved okay what they were doing is predestinating and they were going to make us work right so i thought you know what we're going to wait this out we're going to see how committed they are by way loa i was like we go somewhere like not until you're saved well guess what i got saved i was like what do you mean they're like tell jesus you won't be a christian i'm like jesus i want to go swimming and be a christian so i prayed this prayer did i mean it in my heart no i didn't he's gonna say in just a moment if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth i confess with my mouth but i didn't believe in my heart i was like whatever i just want you to stop annoying me and i'm sure my this relative meant really well it meant super well but i'm sure they went home out there and i'm like i beg 10 pagans today i was like no you didn't you angered ten cousins that's what you did so we don't need to do salvation by manipulation because god predestines we don't and god does the work not us or them and god if god is choosing it should give us hope that god is doing more than we are seeing some people are like what about those who are aborted or miscarried well you know what if god chooses god can get somebody in the womb well what about those who've never heard him like i don't know who's never heard my god does dreams angels visions one day he talked through a bush like he's super creative he talked through a donkey he does every week right here i mean he's super he's super creative i don't know and so somebody recently they had their dad die and their dad didn't seem to know jesus and i can't believe my dad's in hell i said don't put your dad in hell and don't put him in heaven just let jesus figure it out i don't know were you there at the end do you know what they said or thought or did they're like no i said well look jesus and them will figure it out i do believe in hell but i don't believe i'm putting anybody in hell that's not my job i don't put anybody in heaven either i've seen 10 000 people baptized under my preaching in my lifetime i saved zero people god does the saving we can speak and serve only god can save let god figure it out i just you just don't know don't emotionally live with that just trust jesus and wait to see what in fact happened because have you ever seen somebody who got saved at the very last minute i have i i've been a people's death bed they got like one eye open one eye closed like they're they're they're almost done and they're like oh jesus forgive me you're like wow that was close that was really close that's really close [Music] i don't want that guy to visit me if i'm on my deathbed i don't want to deal with that guy and it also should cause us if god has chosen us to keep from religious legalism what he calls the law because here's the rules i need to keep them and i need to keep keeping them and then i'm going to make more rules and i'm going to enforce the rules and i'm going to force you to enforce the rules and this is where you get something called legalism it's all about works and performance and earning it and meriting it and it leads to judging everyone else and looking down on everyone else and not looking up to jesus because we're so focused on our works that we ignore his works right that ultimately it says that if god has chosen us that for us the end of everything should be christ he says that christ jesus is the end of the law what that means is the point and purpose of everything is to get you to jesus so the point of everything in the bible to get you to jesus the point of everything is just get it to jesus get your marriage to jesus get yourself to jesus get your sin to jesus get your money to jesus get your schedule to jesus the goal of everything the end of everything the telos the goal the the ultimate end zone everything should be driving for is just get it to jesus just get it to jesus and if god has chosen you what this means is let me say it this way for those who are not christians they are rejected by god because they have rejected god for those who are christians they love god because god first loved them that's how this works and then he closes with this section two kinds of righteousness 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 but what does it say and he's going to quote a ton of old testament verses for this reason the old testament new testament same god same means of salvation all right so he's saying everything ultimately in the bible's about jesus but what does it say the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith that we proclaim we trust in jesus because if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and believe in your heart it's both that god raised him from the dead this is what we're going to celebrate next week easter the church was closed last year and we're going to throw the biggest party ever this year to celebrate the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead you will be what save guaranteed if you call out to god it's because god has called out to you and if you call out to god everyone who calls out to god will be saved by god for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved for the scripture says keeps quoting the bible or a bible church everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between jew and greek those who try and those who don't for the same lord is lord overall his name is jesus bestowing his riches his generosity his inheritance on all who call on him for quote everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved okay we'll be saved this is our hope okay and it's believing in your heart so my question to you is do you believe in your heart that jesus christ is lord and that he died and rose and that he alone is your savior do you believe in your heart you see there was a season in my life that i would have confessed with my mouth but i didn't believe in my heart the bible says that man looks at the outward god looks at the heart god knows your heart and if you believe in your heart confess with your mouth and what this is this is how you love your neighbor and this is how you tell them about the jesus who has loved you and so ultimately god doesn't need you to confess with your mouth well your neighbor does and in our day there is this great pressure to keep your religion private keep that to yourself no no ours is public because our jesus is public his life death burial resurrection republic and his second coming will be public okay it is very public we don't just have jesus in our heart he's lord over all therefore we confess him everywhere and anywhere to anyone and everyone so my question is to you with the easter coming up we've got the the big party next weekend and uh we're gonna have seven services so two on good friday if you've never been my goal is to wreck your soul okay emotionally my goal is to break you okay so one guy says yes the rest are like i feel a cold coming on um and we're going to have a funeral where we look at the death of jesus christ in our place for our sins it's a funeral and then saturday night two services sunday morning three services celebrating the resurrection of jesus christ that he defeated satan's sin death held the wrath of god and here's the good news he also saves you from you see you can't save you you need to be saved from you i don't know about you all the bad decisions in my life i made them the good decisions in my life jesus made them for me and we're going to celebrate the resurrection of jesus so between now and then my question would be who are you praying for like paul did who is your heart's desire for and you need to be speaking to them about your testimony what god has done in your life and then inviting them to church and we're going to baptize people we're going to throw a huge carnival and party because our belief is that the kingdom of god is the party that never ends and everybody who's there is in a really good mood and there's bouncy houses and so it's in the greek trust me and then and we're gonna throw this big huge party and i would ask you between now and then um to give very generously up to half a million dollars every dollar that you give will be matched so that we can do all that we can to reach as many as we can and to be part of the father's work and what he's talking about here is when all is said and done there really only are two kinds of righteousness our righteousness and his righteousness the righteousness of god our righteousness shows up in political causes moral causes um you know woke social justice warriors who we're good you're bad we're here to judge we don't need god we've got this we live in this world that is filled with self-righteousness and oftentimes the self-righteousness and the sight of god is actually unrighteousness they're having parades for things they should have funerals for they're proud of things that they should be ashamed of the only other righteousness is not ours but it is god's that's what the apostle paul is saying and it's received as a gift it's just saying jesus i love you jesus i need you jesus i receive you and if that's what's in your heart let me tell you this god has changed your heart god has changed your heart i'm going to bring the band up and we're going to confess with our mouth we call it worship and singing but in the uh in the last service as we were singing i felt like god sort of reminded me of a story that i want to share with you in closing and where we're going to get to in romans 10 after easter paul's talking about how god works through us to save others and how god doesn't need us but god loves us and missions and ministry and evangelism is going to work with the father so i'll give you uh a story it was uh some years ago as a young pastor i've been a senior pastor 25 years half my life i started at 25 years of age i'm 50. and so i was a young pastor and somebody in our church was in the hospital and i needed to do a hospital visit and so i grabbed a little bible that would fit in my pocket because again i was in my 20s and i could read small print and if you don't understand that you're young okay congratulations so i grabbed the little bible i put it in my pocket and i was walking out of the house jumping in my truck to go to the hospital and i felt like god spoke to me and said bring your big bible and i started arguing with the lord i was like lord i have the little bible the little bible has all the same stuff as the big bible i'm not bringing the big bible i'm not bringing the big bible so now i'm arguing with god about the size of the bible and then ultimately i'm arguing with god he's like bring the big bible bring the big he didn't say it like that he was nice but like um bring the big bible no i bring in the little bible it's like bring the big bibles so what i did i was like okay i'm bringing both see it's like a half submission so i grab the big bible the little bible i jump in my truck i park at the hospital i'm gonna go in and do this hospital visit and uh god spoke to me and said bring the big bible i said i'm not bringing the big bible into the hospital i bring in a little bible the little bible is fine i was like no bring the big bible it's like i'm not bringing the big i put the big bible on the dash so the lord could see it like no no no there it is i got out i locked the truck i put the little bible in my pocket and i walked in as i'm entering toward the hospital god says you go back and get the big bible i was like i'm not going back get the big bible this is the hill i'm dying on today i'm little bible not big bible that's that's what we're doing today you picked the wrong guy god said go get the big bible okay so i go now i'm defiant i'm like okay i'm going to bring the big bible but i'm also bringing the little bible so i bring both bibles um so [Applause] you're from arizona you know what that is so um so i walk into the hospital there's a woman from another country looks up starts bawling runs to me she asked me this question she's she's very emotional anxious she asks are you the man of god i'm like now we're just fighting over how big the bible should be i was like yeah i don't i don't think i'm the man of god i said why's that she said she said i committed adultery on my husband he doesn't know she said i'm pregnant with another man's baby i'm here to have an abortion she said but something in me just feels like this is wrong and she said so i just said god if you're real send the man of god and she said i saw the big bible and i knew that you were the man of god [Applause] [Music] i kid you not so i told her i said well yeah here in this big bible it says that you're a sinner and what you've done deserves death but jesus died so you don't need to die and he will forgive you and he will love you and he will he will never change his mind regarding you i said furthermore that baby in your womb is probably a son and he doesn't need to die because the son of god died and god has a destiny for you and he has a destiny for your unborn baby and i kid you not she gave her life to jesus and she asked me could i have your big bible i said yeah i got a little one you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 4,520

Rating: 4.7083335 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: 3f0TQ-DuxKY

Length: 63min 36sec (3816 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021