Did Romans move in my Bible?
No, there it is. Same place it's always been.
Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for your
word and for the opportunity to just hear it and to read it
and to understand it by your mercy. Lord, by the Holy Spirit,
we know that we can grasp not just what is said there in a
general way, but, Father, in a supernatural way, in a spiritual
way. We can understand the perfection of Christ and his crosswork and
your love for us in him. And so help us to be encouraged,
help us to be more in love with you and more in love with one
another. For the sake of Christ, we pray these things. Amen. All
right. We're still in chapter 15. And
last week we talked about bearing with the weak. So we who are
strong have the obligation to bear with the failings of the
weak and not to please ourselves. So that's sort of what we talked
about over and over again. And if you look there in chapter
15, and we'll just do a little review of the first seven verses,
and then we'll read, starting in verse eight. But in the first
seven verses, we see that the primary reality of this functioning
in our lives. So the way we can do these things
is to put our focus on what Christ has done. And when we put our
focus on what Christ has done, we understand that he took the
sins and the guilt of sinners and did not please Himself. He
did not establish His own glory, but yet He glorified the Father
in the redemption of the elect. And in doing so, He set us free. He gave us life. He granted us
unity with the Father. We are justified and we now will
one day be glorified. And because of the gospel of
grace, because of the gospel of free and sovereign grace,
we want to always make those distinctions that we give glory
to God in our unity. in our forbearing with one another,
in our love for one another, even when it seems so easy to
let our flesh just go with it, even when we, as we've talked
about over the last few weeks, can justify our complaints, even
if we can find a biblical context to try to prove that what we're
saying and how we're saying it is good, we know that the gospel
is the ruling reality of our hearts. And so we are to welcome
one another. That's what verse 7 says there.
Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for
the glory of God. Let's read verses 8 through 13.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised
to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises
given to the patriarchs. And in order that the Gentiles
might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, therefore I
will praise you among the Gentiles, I will sing to your name. And
again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise
the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let the peoples extol him. And
Isaiah says again, The root of Jesse will come, even he who
arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles hope. Then, verse 13, as we've already
looked at, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing. so that by the power of the Holy
Spirit you may abound in hope. So let's unpack that. And if
we get an opportunity, we probably will have a little more time,
we'll go into verse 14 as well. We saw that there was instruction,
look at verse 4 of 15, that there was instruction written in the
former days that through endurance and through the encouragement
of the scriptures we might have hope. And he closes out this phraseology
with that same thing. May the God of hope, fill you
with all joy and with all peace in believing so that by power
of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. So what we are supposed
to take from this is that hope is one of the primary, what is
the word there, the primary fruits of the gospel, that we are no
longer worried, we are no longer fearful, we're no longer hoping
in the sense of like well-wishing, we're no longer scattering around
in our flesh trying to accomplish justification, trying to work
toward righteousness, but Christ in His frailty, in His humility,
He has given us hope. And that even in our circumstances,
when we have animosity, when we have problems, when we have
relationship issues, speaking with a brother today and talking
about how, you know, it's obvious to many Christians when there
is sin in the life of a believer, when there's sinful things that
take place in the fellowship, and when there's sinful things
relationally that begin to cause division. But sometimes we need
to recognize and take a step back and go, wow, those are not
the majority of the problems, are they? It's not usually the
grievous sin and the obvious wickedness that causes all the
divisions in the church. It's the small, subtle, personal
things. It's the personal preferences.
It's the way we speak or the way we think others are speaking.
Growing up, there was one thing that my mother, she is very cool
as a mother. She was sort of laid back, but
when she got angry, Yosemite Sam. For those of you who know
that, all the kids are going, yeah. Yosemite Sam. He was the sick, shooting, wild,
cowboy Texan that just, whoa! And he'd go, runner, runner,
runner, runner. You know, that was sort of his profanity, I guess, on the
kid's cartoon. And that's sort of like, how
my mother would be, and when she sees me, she sees this, she's
probably watching it now, she's going to get on to me, but she
was always cool. When she got upset or she got
angry, buddy, you were scared to death. You were scared to
death. And it was always similar in our relationship with other
people. Most people are sort of cool. Most people are sort
of laid back. Most people don't really have
a whole lot of problem with anybody, but man, when you poke them,
when you set that one button off, everything comes undone.
The phrase I like to use is the wheels come off. Can you imagine
a car and the wheels just fly off while it's riding down the
highway? It's a tragedy. It's an accident. It's a dumpster
fire, as the millennials would call it today. And those things often are slow,
slow, unseen, small, princess-in-the-pea type thing that start to drive
people insane. That's what really causes most
of the divisions within the body of Christ. It's not that, oh,
Brother James is sinful, look at what he's doing. You know
what, I'm suspicious. Or you know what, I'm speculating. Or I'm making an assumption.
But one thing my mother could not stand, one thing that would
set her off, is if I rolled my eyes. Now what does a rolling
the eyes look like? Well I say in like manner, it
makes me furious. When I'm talking to my children,
And you have to watch my face, because here they are. And I'm
saying, this or that, or this or that. And I'm the primary
head of this household. And I'm speaking in my parental
voice. And they go, that. The head bobbing, or the eye
rolling, or the sighing. I want to just chuck them like
this. was something else. And so when
I see people roll their eyes, because I did it when I was young,
when I see young people roll their eyes, I automatically assume
disrespect. I assume disrespect. I assume
arrogance. I assume pride. And when I see
adults do it, I'm thinking, what a child, you know. How dare they
roll their eyes. And there was a person one time
in one of the fellowships that I was a pastor of. And as I would
preach, now see I look at your faces and I look at your facial
expressions. And as I would preach, sometimes this person would be
like... And I'm sitting there thinking,
for weeks I'm going, this woman is rolling her eyes at my teaching.
I'm going to get closer, I'm going to spit on her. I mean,
you know, this woman is rolling her eyes. And it began to get
under my skin so much so that I found myself talking about
haughtiness when we weren't even in the text with it. It wasn't
even the text. We're looking at justification. I'm saying,
you know, one of the reasons Jesus had to die was haughtiness.
I mean, you know, rolling your eyes at the truth and all this
kind of stuff. And I mean, I was, I was infested with assumption. So I went up to one of the brothers
in the church and I said, there's sister so-and-so out there, if
she's a sister. And about every, about four times
a Sunday, she's rolling her eyes at me. He goes, oh, no, no, no,
no. She's got a problem. And she's
got nerve damage in her ocular nerves or something. And so even
if she's sleeping, her eyes roll sometimes. And I felt so bad.
You see? But that little thing that had
no significance whatsoever I assumed was directed toward me or something
or to the Lord and I just took it for everything and it's all
I could do not to look at her but I didn't want to look at
her so I would look at her through my peripheral, you know. So I'm
rolling my eyes while I'm teaching. And that is indicative of how
most of us fall into conflict in the assembly. It's not even
a big deal. It's not even true. It's not
even real. It's our view of how we look
at a circumstance, a person or hear words. We said this earlier
today that we are only able to see what we're prepared to see
in most senses. So if I'm looking at you and you're looking at
me and I love you and you love me and then everything I say,
even if what I say is flat off color, you go, oh, he had a reason
for that. Surely he didn't misspeak. Surely there's something he's
going to come out and say, I got you. There's going to be something good that comes
out of whatever he just said, or the fact that he looks angry,
but I'm going to promise you this is going to be for our good.
Versus if you think ill of me, or if I think ill of you, then
everything you say, no matter if it's endearing, is going to
be a problem. Well, I'm praying for you. Yeah,
I bet you are, liar. I mean, you know, you're praying like
David prayed for his enemies. Let me see how that works. And
the buzzword today, the buzzword today, and I've been trying to
piece this together, and I'm just gonna give you a little, I've
been doing some practical theology digging, not a lot, but a couple
of hours over the last few months, of trying to understand the idea
of this new term, phraseology in our vernacular, toxic. Toxic. We all know what it looks like,
don't we? I mean, we've got a toxic work environment, we've got a
toxic home life, we've got a toxic relationship, we've got a toxic
boss, we've got a toxic child. And what does it mean? Toxic,
by definition, is something that's poisonous. It's poisonous, so
it's not good. If something is toxic and you
ingest it, you die. That's the point. If it's toxic
and you spray it on your food, and your food dies, or your vegetation,
pesticides. But attitudes can be toxic. That's
what I'm learning. It's attitudes can be toxic.
People are toxic. Places aren't toxic. Well, they
can be if there's poisonous in the atmosphere. But in that sense,
you know, I was talking with someone yesterday and they were
telling me that the job that they have, that they've had for
almost 25 years, is so toxic that there's nobody there who
enjoys the job. I've been there. Some of you
are there now. School could be the same way.
And I had someone tell me, often, but just recently in the last
few months, my church is toxic. All of them. The whole place.
The whole place is toxic. It's just toxic. And I'd like
to try to make a joke about it, but I don't want to joke because
it's a serious issue. But I've been trying to put it all together
through inquiry, and here's what I've understood. There's no such
thing as a toxic place in the context of that use. It's people. It's toxic people. So when you
have the idea that where you are is toxic, you're talking
about the people that are around you. And that is the conclusion
that is obvious. And now I'm trying to sort of
extrapolate how we identify toxicity from a biblical point of view
and from a psychological point of view. And here's what I've
realized. When we first start to evaluate things, where should
we start? with ourselves. And I've realized, I've gone
back through all of my last 25 years and I've gone through and
I said, okay, that was toxic, this was toxic, they were toxic,
this circumstance was toxic. And so I've been applying that
label, that's a new label, to all of my past experiences. And
I wrote them down and I thought, okay, now I get it. What's the
common denominator? Me. I'm the common denominator in
everything that I've experienced that was toxic. Does that mean
that I'm the poison? No, but it means I need to rule
myself out. I need to rule myself out. And
that's what Paul has told us here in chapters 14 and 15. Rule
yourself out of being the poison. So if you are assuming wrongly
of the woman rolling her eyes, if you are negatively inclined
to your co-worker, if you are always, every time your spouse
opens his mouth, thinking that he's just going to irritate you,
that's exactly what you're going to be. And so it's not necessarily
that they are toxic, it's that you are poisoned already. And
no matter how good something may be, when you filter it through
a poisonous filter, it's poisonous. So that we must filter things
through not what is I have all sorts of water filtration systems
in my house Certain things certain there that some of my washing
machine. I got one in my sink. I got reverse osmosis system
for running through my For my drinking water and our clean
cooking water cleaning water Because I don't want all of the
chemicals and the toxins That are in municipal water and its
treatment to come into my house if I can help it and it doesn't
taste good. That's really the reason I got
it, because it just didn't taste good. Then I started realizing
what I was trying to filter out. I'm like, I've got to get more
filters. So it doesn't taste good, so how do I filter it out? What is the filter for determining
if we are looking at it wrongly or if we are truly observing
poisonous relationships? The Word of God. It's the Word
of God. The Word of God is greater than
any system of filtration that you could ever have. And the
Word of God's filter is not the practical, not the welcome one
another, not the command there, it's not the rejoice, it's the
why. The filter of God's word to our
soul and to our observational minds is the gospel of free and
sovereign grace. What has Christ done and what
difference does it make? Now that sounds so simple, doesn't
it? It's easy to say, harder to do. Why is it harder to do?
Because our flesh is at war with the spirit inside of us. Our corrupt, depraved, broken,
dead flesh that has been crucified with Christ is at war with the
new man who is God the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus Christ. Paul
says it is not I who live but Christ who lives within me. Paul
never said I got a new man inside of me fighting with the old man.
And that new man is some part of me and this old man is...
Humanity doesn't have two natures. We have one nature and we have
the imputation of another. Jesus Christ the righteous. and
the Holy Spirit that seals us and dwells us, the whole of the
Godhead here within us fights the flesh. And so that filter
is the encouragement of the Scriptures, of who Jesus is and what He accomplished. And if you don't think there's
toxicity in the spiritual realm, oh brothers and sisters, look
at it. Here is the universe created by the majestic God with all sovereignty. And then. Not only do we do it,
but God purposes it that human beings would fall. By their own
volition, through the temptation in the garden. and that God in
His righteousness would condemn them forever, and that is good
and just, but in His mercy He purposed before the world began
to become a man and to die for His people. And while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were enemies, Christ
laid His life down for us. Christ, if anyone could label,
a toxic environment, Jesus can. Matter of fact, because if there
were any good in the time of Christ, he probably could have
escaped the cross. So Christ became a slave to the
circumcised. This is this Old Testament, the
scriptures that were written in former days for our encouragement
so that we may have hope. Where is our hope? And this is
why Paul does what he does here. He's saying, this is how you
ought to relate to one another. And this is how you should love
one another. And this is how you should treat one another.
And this is the power behind your ability to do so. It is
Jesus Christ. But your hope is not in your
unity and in your love. your hope is in the finished
work of Christ. So your encouragement is in the finished work of Christ.
Your encouragement is Christ alone. For I tell you, Christ
became, verse 8, a slave to the circumcised in order to show
God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given
to Abraham, given to Adam, given to Noah, given to Moses, given
to Jacob, given to David. And in order that the Gentiles,
the world, the dogs might glorify God for His kindness and mercy.
That's it. That is it. That is the remedy
of our hopelessness. Because does not division cause
hopelessness? Does not toxicity cause hopelessness? Let me tell you one thing. I
could be having the best season of my life. I get one ugly text
message and my life is over. I'm not kidding. I'm not strong
in that way. I'm not emotionally strong when
someone calls me in a place that I haven't been. It is my kryptonite. To falsely
accuse me of being unloving is my kryptonite. because I'd rather
die and I'd rather go to hell than to be known as someone who
was unloving. Just to my own reputation. I don't want to be
that guy. So it's my kryptonite. And when
someone accuses me, you're so helpful, you don't care, I can't
believe you're such a heretic, you don't love people, how do
you love that? How do you do that? And it's not often, but
it is coming. They always come in the most
opportune times. I don't get much mail anymore,
but email, oh my goodness. And I've just learned to let
those go, because I've grown up a little bit to not take so
personally people that I've never met. Well, that's offensive. Delete. That's a little true
to it. Who, what's your name? I don't
know you. Delete. Why? Because if I didn't, I'd go crazy.
Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. I can go through my email
in the mornings. If there's 300 in there, I can
delete 200 without ever reading them. because they're mostly
like, $435,000,000 preserved in your name. Delete. I mean,
you know. Your car warranty. I know, it's expired. Delete.
It's a 14-year-old car, please. Spam, spam, spam. Then you get
the messages, right? Then you get the business, and
then you get State Farm, like, okay, your bill's due. Oh, okay, I
know that. It's on auto pay. Why you gonna send me an email
for me to read that my bill's about to pay? I appreciate that.
Delete. So, I mean, there's a lot of things you can weed through,
but there's always the one or two. And if I open it up and it's
sister so-and-so from such-and-such that I've never even known and
she's polite, oh, I appreciate your ministry, oh, that's awesome,
yeah. Oh, you need prayer requests? I'll write that down, I'll pray
for people. But if it's a nag, somebody I don't know, this poor
person spent all this time writing this email and I'm going to bleep.
But if it's one of you, my life's over, you see? I hate you, you're
a terrible pastor, you're the most unloving man I've ever met."
I used to get letters like that, especially in my humor. I'd say
things in a humoristic way, a little satirical, and then I'd get these
letters. I actually got a letter one time stabbed into my office
door with a knife, a steak knife, from the church kitchen. It wasn't signed, but it was
personal. I didn't stay much longer after
that. So guess what? We're gonna be
hated. People are gonna not like us. But are these people our brothers
and sisters in Christ? Are they in our local family?
Do they live in our spiritual house? And if they do, whether
they're local or even afar, if we have a relationship with them,
then we must do anything in our power to strive for unity. But
notice, in our power, it's not possible for unity. But as long
as it is up to us, that means we lay aside all assumptions.
We lay aside all previous poisonings. When I left that particular church
and I went to a new congregation, it was interesting that when
you smell smoke, you automatically think fire, when you've just
escaped a fire. But if you've just had a really
nice barbecue and you step outside and you smell smoke, you say,
somebody's cooking. Same smell. different circumstances, different
outlooks. For unity and for love, for the sake of the fellowship
of the saints, it is always and always will be a disciplined look at the work
of Jesus. And that God's truthfulness is
faithful and it confirms the promises so that we might glorify
God for His kindness. And then what does Paul do? He
gives, verse 9, 10, 11, 12, He gives several Old Testament references
and we don't have to go through all of them but look at what
they are. I will praise you among the Gentiles and I will sing
your name. I will sing your name. 2 Samuel
22. And in verse 10, Rejoice, O Gentiles. Deuteronomy 32. Psalm. What else is there? There's
two things there. There's a psalm there as well.
If I could read the footnotes in my scripture, I could tell
you, but I can't. It's too small. And then Isaiah says, I know
where this one is. In Isaiah, Isaiah says, verse 12, the root
of Jesse. Jesus Christ will come even he
who arises to rule the Gentiles in him will the Gentiles hope.
So see the Old Testament message of the cross was clear and certain
but it wasn't understood very well until after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. That is what we talked about
this past Sunday about Jesus said you will do works and greater
works than these that you will do because the magnification
of these works are so much greater and clearer because we know now
what they all pointed to. What the hope of the glory of
God for the believer is the finished work of Jesus Christ. And then
that prayer that we see Paul sort of exclaim on verse 13. Look how he identifies God. He's
done that many ways, hasn't he? The God of mercy. He's already
said, the God of creation. The God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God, our Father. And now He's
establishing where our hope lies. And it's not even in the unity
of the saints, interpersonally. It's in the unity of the saints,
supernaturally. The God of hope. He's the God of hope! He's not
the God of well-wishing. He's not the God of good opportunities.
He's not the God of second chances. There's no such thing as a second
chance in the economy of justice. There's no such thing as a second
chance in the spiritual realm of righteousness. There is no
such thing as second chances when righteousness prevails. For the wages of sin is death.
Not the wages of sin could be death. But sometimes God pays
a little bonus. That isn't what it is. No, God
pays bonuses of death. Recompense for every ounce, for
every iteration, for every thought, for every desire that goes against
His holiness. He will double and triple down
His recompense for all of eternity. And that's exactly what He did
on His Son for the sake of His elect that He chose before the
foundations of the world. And in that we hope. And that's
the only hope we really can have. Because hope is not alone. It's
not just a cognitive experience. It's not just an academic pursuit
of rolling through the gospel narrative and saying, okay, where's
the magic word that helps me have hope? No, the hope comes. through the power of God who
fills us. And the power of God that fills
us, He fills us with all joy. Now let me ask you this, when
you hear that text, may the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit
you may abound in hope. When you hear that text, does Ephesians
chapter 3 hop into your head? It should. Because as Paul prays
for the church of Ephesus, what does he say? For this reason, verse 14 of
Ephesians 3, listen to the word of the Lord, I bow my knees before
the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you
to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length
and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. In this doxology, verse 20, now
to Him, now to Him, who is able to do far more abundantly. Then
all we ask or could think of. How, according to the power at
work within us. To him, be the glory in the church,
in the assembly and in Christ Jesus throughout all the generations
forever and ever. Truly. That's what he says. So may the God that is giving
His saints this hope by the Spirit, anchored in the knowledge of
Christ, that surpasses understanding, and surpasses the knowledge of
humanity. Because it is a divine gift through
God Himself, this same God who is the God of hope. That's what
He does for His people. That's the point of the Gospel.
It is a living, active, absolute, divine, majestic, permanent hope
that cannot be shaken. What else just came to your mind?
Hebrews chapter 12. It should come to your mind when
you hear that. And if it doesn't, it's okay. It comes to my mind
because I read Hebrews four times this week. And it comes to my
mind often because we have not come to what can be shaken. We
have not come to the tempest. We have not come to Moses. We
have not come to the law. We have not come to the rules
that kill. We have not come to the mountain
That the people who heard the commands of God could bear to
hear it no more. That even if an animal touched
the holiness and the presence of God, it should be stoned. We have not come to that, but
we have come to Zion. To the jubilee, to the festive
of angels and the assembly of all the saints. The only time
there will we see an invisible church in the future. It's the
only time the word Ecclesia is dealt with in the context of
a church that is yet to be. And that's when we all stand
together in Christ, assembled, the church forever visible with
Christ. In the assembly of all the ages,
we stand, we have come not to the judgment of God, where a
hopelessness sits, but we have come to Christ. And a covenant
that is never ending. A promise of a full hope. This
is a paraphrase of that chapter, of that verse. Eternal life. Messiah. God with us. Not God
standing over us in judgment. God with us who took our judgment. It's a big difference. And to Christ, the mediator of
a new covenant. What does Paul say in Hebrews
12? Whose blood cries out greater than the blood of Abel. By the power of the Holy Spirit,
you may abound in hope. What happens in the interpersonal
relationships of our assembly when toxicity is real? We do
our best to filter it. We do our best to put it aside.
And even when we see it put aside, our hope is not in that, yeah,
we're together again. That's not our hope. Our hope is the abounding hope
of Christ throughout all the ages by the power of the Holy
Spirit. That's the ultimate end, this
joy and peace in believing, in believing, in trusting, pestilence.
I'm sure it's probably some variation there. Believing. What are the
three aspects of faith? A knowledge of something. You
can believe that you know something. That's good. But we've seen that
the power of Christ surpasses knowledge. The joy of Christ
surpasses knowledge. It surpasses what theologians
can write down on a piece of paper. Saving faith or believing is
the ascent. Oh, I know that it's true. That
knowledge that you gave me. Yes, I believe. A confession
in that sense. But it's beyond that. It's beyond
that. It is resting in believing that
brings peace and joy and hope that is filling us and abounding
in us because of the finished work of Christ by God the Holy
Spirit Himself, so that true saving faith rests in the bottom
of the foundations of Christ. We're biased not just that we
know Christ in knowledge and that we assent and believe and
truly, absolutely agree with the knowledge we've received,
but we have an undying and everlasting resolve that Christ is our hope,
you see. It's not just about the facts
of Christ. It's that all the facts of Christ give us our hope. That means we have assurance
in Jesus. Saving faith is confidence in
the work of Christ for us, the elect, for the sake of His glory
and His name, that He will not lose any for whom He has died.
And then I could pile on a bunch to that. We've already heard
it, haven't we, in the last 70 weeks. And we'll keep going here. Look
at verse 14. Paul, in the same breath, writes these words because
he's talking to his brothers and sisters in Christ who have
this hope. But when strife comes, when persecution
comes, when personal division within the body comes, it's easy
to let that hope slip straight away, like that bad email or
that bad text or that bad news. There's nothing worse to me than
a sheep who hates me. There's nothing worse to me than
to see the sheep fight with each other. There's nothing worse
to me than to see a hopeless sheep. Paul says in verse 14, I myself
am satisfied about you, that you yourselves are full of goodness,
filled with all the knowledge and able to instruct one another.
Let's stop there. What's going on here? Just like
He says in the warning passages of Hebrews, this, this, this,
but this is not you. This is not you. This is someone else. This is
the world that hates the gospel even though many of them are
around you. Beloved brothers and sisters, I'm satisfied about
you. I'm satisfied about you that
you yourselves are full of goodness." Now that seems a little controversial,
doesn't it? You're full of goodness? I thought we were supposed to
recognize when we hear that, we're like, no, Jesus is good.
Okay, that's great. But if we are filled with the
fullness of God, are we not also good before him? See, this isn't dealing with
With the constant example and the measurement of outward behavior,
this is about the work of God the Father, and the killing of
God the Son, and the resurrection of that Son, and the regeneration
of the Holy Spirit. Establishing goodness in the
hearts of sinners, once and for all. We are sanctified by the
one who sanctifies. The one who sets apart is the
only one who can set us apart, and we are set apart when the
Father gives us to the Son, and the Father gave us to the Son
before the foundation of the world, that when the Son died,
He said, it is finished. But we are filled with, we are
full of goodness. That means we do have, by the
power of the Holy Spirit, in good times, a resolve to desire
affection, a resolve to be unified in love with one another. We
do love. But most of all, our hope is
in the goodness of Christ so that Christ is in us. We are
full of goodness. And not only that, but we're
filled with all knowledge. You see this? Paul seems to be
sort of hyperbolic, but if we are filled with Christ, if we're
filled with the Spirit, if we have all hope, then we have all
goodness and we have all knowledge. Though we might say, well, we
don't know everything. It doesn't matter. We know all things concerning
Christ. We are okay in our understanding
of the work of Christ. We will learn more and more about
His grace. We will have better grasp on
the learning. But in this reality, we are filled
with all knowledge to the point that we are able to instruct
one another because Paul has already written to us these instructions. So we're all instructed because
of the writing of Paul and the teaching that he's given us thus
far in these 15 chapters. And we have enough information
here in this letter to instruct one another and to have joy and
for the Holy Spirit of God to give us all understanding that
our hope may rest in the person of Christ. And not just that,
but also the Old Testament writings that we also have, including
of this apostolic literature and letters, really. We have it all. We have it all. And even though you have it all
and you're filled with goodness, you're able to instruct one another.
This is where I want to take a pastoral prerogative and say,
as a proof text, this is one of many in context that teach
us that our greatest ministry to one another is the Word of
God. Not wisdom. Not answers. Not quick comebacks. Not a viewpoint
change or a paradigm shift or a lens. The lens should be the
word of God. The lens and the word of God
should then be the gospel of Christ, His body, His blood,
His resurrection, His promises, His power, period. But you have
all that. But on some points, look at this,
verse 15, I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder. Remember all this instruction
we've had that seemed like Paul was saying the same thing chapter
after chapter after chapter, verse after verse after verse,
and we're thinking, couldn't you just like replay the sermon
you did last week? You ever felt that way and you
read the Bible? Okay, I get it. Paul is saying by way of reminder,
I've written to you very boldly. Why? Because of the grace given
me by God to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles
in the priestly service of the Gospel of God. The whole point
of God's mercy is that all the elect of all the world in every
nation, every tongue, every tribe will be saved in the person of
Christ and is secure in Christ and by faith alone will they
recognize this assurance. And that the offering of the
Gentiles may be acceptable. Now see, now all of a sudden he's
speaking and I guarantee his Jewish audience is going, wait
a minute, I hear what he's saying. The offerings of the Jews were
acceptable to God in the temple. Offering of the Gentiles were
not necessarily as acceptable. There was a lot of things to
go through. In the whole of it all, what did the Gentiles offer
to God? Rebellion. In the reality of
it all, what did Israel really offer to God? Rebellion. that the offering of the Gentiles
may be accepted, acceptable, set apart by the Holy Spirit,
so that who they are, who our brothers and sisters are in Christ,
are affirmed by God the Holy Spirit as sanctified. We are
perfect. Listen to this, church. We are
perfect in Christ right now. We're perfect. He's still working
on me. I remember that as a kid. You
don't know that? He's still working on me to make
me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make
the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and
Mars. How loving and patient he must be, he's still working
on me. Not necessarily a bad song, but
without any theological context, what the world am I singing about,
pun intended? What am I singing about? To what
end is Christ, is God working on? To what image is God working
on? What is this working a little
bit more today or tomorrow? What is it there? We don't see
it. Maybe this was a little bit of an error back in
the 70s or whenever that song came out. God has saved me. I am holy before
him. I am sanctified fully in Christ.
And whether my life matures or doesn't, at whatever rate it
does or it doesn't, nothing can separate me from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in that and in
that alone, and only in that, lest I fall away from Christ,
do I hope. Jew or Gentile. Jews, your worship
and your religion and your obedience and your prayers and your sacrifices
are like trying to wash a mountain with a water gun. And you pagan
Gentiles who spat in the face of God from generation to generation,
you're washed clean by the blood of Christ. Now the Jews and the
Gentiles who are all condemned by their obedience and their
disobedience stand sanctified before God because Jesus Christ
took their sin. Of course, I didn't just preach
universalism, I'm just talking about the segments of groups
here. So then Paul continues, in Christ
Jesus then I have reason to be proud of my work for God. That
means he's thankful, he boasts in the Lord for working through
him to teach them these things about Christ. And then he goes on to say, four,
he explains what he means. I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring
the Gentiles. To faith. To obedience. By word and deed. By the power
of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God, so
that from Jerusalem and all the way around to a liquorium, I
have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus,
I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not what Christ has
already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation,
as it is written, those who have never been told of Him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand. And so with
that, we'll pick up there next week, and probably two more weeks,
we'll be done with 15, and about one sermon for 16. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for your
gospel. Lord, there's so much stuff in
that text that I could really just labor over and unwind. But Father, you've written this
as a letter for your people, so in the fullness of what we've
learned thus far, it resonates as a reminder of the gospel of
free and sovereign grace. Your gospel, your good news,
not our iteration of good news, not our man-centered good news,
not our cultural good news, but Father, the good news of Jesus
Christ. The teaching of Christ. And you
have taught us all, as Christ reminds us in the Word, they
will all be taught by God. You have taught us the truth
of God. You have taught us the truth of God the Son. You have
taught us the truth of God the Holy Spirit. You have taught
us truth, Father, of your own glory, revealed yourself to us
in a mighty and powerful way through word and through deed.
And you have caused us to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And you have snatched
us out of the domain of darkness and transferred us to the light
of your beloved son. And you have sent him to die
and killed him and crushed him and crucified him that in his
death we are holy. And in his life, we shall be
glorified. We await that day. And as we
live this life together, Father, help us to strive. Oh, Lord,
help us to strive with great patience and endurance in the
turmoil of this life, and most of all, relationally with one
another, that we would not filter some preconceived poison in the
lobs of each other. but that we would look at one
another as Christ looked at us. Though we are sinners, He laid
down His life to save us. Though we were His enemies, He
gave His life as a friend. And Father, through it all, let
us exult in the hope we have around all those who are so vile
and bitter and complaining and toxic. Let us rejoice, not with
a like a farce or some foolish worldly joy, but sometimes without
even a smile on our face, the gravity of the glory in the death
of Jesus that we might live through the life of Christ. And it's
in His name we pray. Amen. Amen.