Episode Transcript
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Let's remain standing and hear God's word
now from Romans ten, Romans Chapter Ten,
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I'm going to be I'm reading from
verse ten through the end of the
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chapter, but focusing a particularly on
the last several verses, fourteen through the
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end. So we're starting our reading
this morning from Romans Chapter Ten, verse
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ten. This is God's word,
for with the heart one believes and is
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justified, and with the mouth one
confesses and is saved. For the Scripture
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says, everyone who believes in him
will not be put to shame, for
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there is no distinction between Jew and
Greek, for the same Lord is Lord
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of all, bestowing his riches on
all who call on him. For everyone
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who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved. How, then,
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will they call on him and whom
they have not believed? And how
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are they to believe in him of
whom they have never heard? And how
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are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless
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they are sent? As it is
written? How beautiful are the feet of
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those who preach the good news?
But they have not all obeyed the Gospel.
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For Isaiah says, Lord who has
believed what he has heard from us.
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So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing through the word of Christ.
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But I ask, have they not
heard? Indeed, they have, for
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their voice has gone out to all
the earth and their words to the ends
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of the world. But I ask, did is real not understand? First
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Moses says, I will make you
a jealous I will make you jealous of
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those who are not a nation with
a foolish nation. I will make you
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angry. Then Isaiah is so bold
to say, I have been found by
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those who did not seek me.
I have shown myselves or shown myself to
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those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says,
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all day long I have held out
my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
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You may be seated. We have
here in God's word, a message
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of Hope, a message that tells
us of the good news of Jesus and
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how it goes out into the world. But it's also a passage that is
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a message of warning. We have
heard the Gospel and we've heard that it
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goes out and by the power of
God and unto salvation. But there's a
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truth, another truth that must also
be admitted, and it is the focus
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of the last part of this chapter, and it's this. Not all who
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here believe. It's true. Isn't
it not all who here believe? Before
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we discuss this and think about it
from God's word, let me just ask
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you a question as we prepare our
minds. Why do we have to talk
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about this? Why do we have
to talk about this particular fact that not
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all who here believe, even if
we grant its truth, which of course
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we must, from both scripture and
observation? Why do we have to talk
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about it? Why dwell on such
a thing as the evil in men when
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we could be considering and focusing instead
on the goodness of God? Well,
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there's several reasons. One is that
it's not up for us to decide what's
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in and out of God's word.
This is always an important point and something
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to remember. It's one of the
reasons I preach just verse by verse,
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passage by passage, so that I
don't get caught up on the places that
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I'm afraid to preach or the things
that I particularly love to preach, but
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that you hear all of God's word
from beginning to end. And that's true
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not only for the preaching, but
for the reading and hearing of God's word.
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We don't decide what belongs and what
doesn't belong. If it's God's word,
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it's God's word and it's for us
all and it's for our benefit.
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A second reason we have to consider
this fact that not all who hear the
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Gospel believe the Gospel is that it
reminds us that we have an obligation,
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an opportunity to snatch people out of
the fire. How can we do such
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a thing? How can we talk
to people with urgency about the need to
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hear, the need to believe,
unless we have a certain urgency about it,
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unless we understand and cant and communicate
that to them? We have to
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be able to speak truthfully about the
heat of the fire, about the nearness
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of the danger, if we are
going to speak truthfully about the Gospel.
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Another reason is that speaking truthfully about
the reality of unbelief may very well open
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doors. On Open door is for
prayer and confession in our hearts. It's,
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of course, my hope that all
of you here believe and trust in
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the gospel of Jesus Christ, but
statistics tell us, and experience as a
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guide, that that's not always true, that not all believe, and Paul
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says that here and he quotes Isaiah
the same. And so I preach these
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things this morning from the word of
God and I ask you to consider them
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in your hearts so that if you
don't believe, you might repent, that
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you might call on the name of
the Lord and be saved. So let's
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consider it. First, consider what
it is that is being rejected when the
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word is rejected. This whole passage
starts with this meditation on the salvation that
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God brings into the world, or
rather how he brings it into the world,
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and it's based on this understanding that
everyone who believes in him will not
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be put to shame, as Paul
says in verse eleven or verse thirteen,
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this inclusiveness of the Gospel message that
everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved, or verse
twelve. There's no distinction Jew non Jew
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or Jew and Greek. The that
for the same Lord is Lord over all.
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That's what is being discussed here.
That's what's being pointed out. It
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shows us, this passage shows us
how the confession of repentance and faith comes
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comes to us, this confession that
we confess that everyone who calls on the
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name of the Lord will be saved, that the Lord is the one who's
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been raised from the dead, that
the Lord is the One Who bestows riches
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on those who call on him.
This confession is a good confession, it
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is a saving confession. But Paul
also talks about how it is that it
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comes to us, how this confession
that comes into our mouths comes into our
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mouths, how that happens, and
this is what we focused on last time.
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God sends preachers so that people would
hear and that in hearing they would
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believe and in believing they would call
and be saved, so that, in
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seeing their sins and seeing his righteousness, they would obtain the faith that is
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or the righteousness that is by faith. What is it that we receive,
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Paul says? He says that the
Lord bestows his riches on all who call
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on him. That's what we get
when we get salvation. It's another way
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of putting it. Think about that
for a moment as a way to consider
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what it is that's being rejected when
someone says I don't believe. As a
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summary of the benefits that come to
us when we believe in Christ, God
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says that the same Lord who is
Lord of them all is the one who
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is bestowing his riches on all who
call on them. Let me just ask
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you a question as a way to
impress this on your hearts. Have you
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ever wished that someone would bestow riches
on you? That's a pretty a lofty
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thing to ask or even to wish. I had a friend in college who
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was kind of into sports, and
basketball in particular, and he would look
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at these salaries and I remember him
saying sometimes of these sports players, if
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you would just give me a thousand
dollars, that'd be so helpful to me,
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and he could spare it, you
know, thinking of no one in
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particular, but just very wealthy people. My friend woulds have thousand bucks.
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That would make such a difference to
me right now. Maybe you've had similar
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thoughts, maybe not of sports people
but of friends or family, but if
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I could just have a little bit, a little bit extra, that would
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make such a difference. What about
bestowing riches? Bestowing riches this is not
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helping out, it's not a bump, it's not birthday money in a card.
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Bestowing riches is a phrase that speaks
to a kind of life changing event.
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I have something great now that I
once didn't have, and that's what
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the Lord offers to those who call
on him, to those who believe.
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Let's talk about specifics, just from
the book of Romans. What kinds of
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riches does God bestow on those who
put their faith in Christ? Well,
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he Paul quotes David in Romans for
seven eight and says blessed are those whose
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lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins
are covered. Well, that's not money,
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is it? But sure is better
than money to be forgiven of your
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lawless deeds, to not have to
be held to account for the things that
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you've done. Following from that,
Paul says in Romans five one that we
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have peace with God instead of standing
before God is those who are lawless and
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deserving of his wrath and condemnation.
He says that God bestows on us in
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Christ peace. Isn't it nice to
be at peace with your family or with
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your friends or work? We're talking
about peace with God, he says in
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Romans he said goes on to say
in that same chapter that we belonged to
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a family of faith. Abraham was
promised to become air of the world,
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a father of many nations. When
we believe in Jesus Christ, we are
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brought in to Abraham's family and all
the blessings that God promised him belong to
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us. We become part of a
community, a people. In Romans Five,
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God speaks about his love being poured
into our hearts, the love of
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God. Isn't it good to be
loved, the love of God poured into
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our hearts? Not only the love
of God poured into our hearts, but
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the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy
Spirit, he says, the love of
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God is poured into our hearts,
the Holy Spirit, who has been given
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to you. God has given to
us himself. He has given to us
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himself, the Holy Spirit living and
dwelling within us, making us holy,
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conforming us away from the lawless deeds
to the image of Christ. Well,
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this righteousness that we have in Jesus, the justification that we have, the
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growing sanctification, all leads to glorification, The resurrection of our bodies, life,
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everlasting future glory. Paul says in
Romans eight hundred and eighteen, a
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glorious new world we will be given
and belong to, a new heaven and
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a new earth that Isaiah and Isaiah
sixty seventeen speaks about is so wonderful that
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the remembrance of the former things won't
even have it. The former things shall
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not be remembered, they shall not
come to mind. The sadness, the
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sorrow, the shame, the guilt, the humiliation, the brokenness, the
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disease, the trials. What do
you remember it? Because life will be
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so good. Scripture talks about this
in various places, but you are starting
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to get the picture right. When
the God says that He bestows riches on
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all who call on him, we
are talking about a powerful, everlasting and
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very, very happy salvation. This
is what God brings into the world in
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sending his son, who is a
sacrifice for our sins, a giver of
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Righteousness, a guarantee of resurrection and
eternal life. It's a powerful and happy
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Good News, a Gospel message that
God continues to send into the world through
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the preaching of the word. But
now we must speak of difficult things,
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of sad things. We must confess
as true what Paul says, this apostle
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of God and Messenger sent from him, what he says in Verse Sixteen.
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They have not all obeyed the Gospel. He makes this point right. The
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Gospel is sent out through preaching for
the sake of hearing, but though many
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here, not all believe or,
as he puts it here, obey the
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Gospel. Using this phrase, obey
the Gospel, he doesn't Mean to say
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that the Gospel is somehow some kind
of work that we do to gain a
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righteous the standing before God, but
it's a message that we submit to.
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It's that kind of obedience. It's
the obedience of faith. You could put
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it this way. If a lawyer
comes into your family after a wrench a
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rich uncle dies, it's always an
uncle. I suppose it could be an
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aunt, family member dies, comes
into the room and the lawyer reads to
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you and says this is your inheritance. To access it, here are the
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bank account numbers and whatever else.
I've not gone through this, but they
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give you the information. They say
here's the gift. receive it. Okay,
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but then you, let's say,
in your unbelief and not trusting this
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message, you walk out. You
say that's a lie. I don't I
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don't believe it, I don't want
it, it's not for me. Of
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course, I suppose that would be
your right. I'm you are given this
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freedom to take it or to leave
it, but you haven't obeyed the message.
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In a sense, you haven't submitted
yourself to it. You haven't said
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that's true, I trust in it
and I will believe it. Instead,
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you've acted in a way that says
that's not true, or I don't want
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it, I'm not going to submit
myself to it. In faith, and
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that's what Paul has in mind here. He's talking about faith right, believing,
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calling believing, believing over and over
it again. He's talking about this,
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and that's what he has in mind
here. Not Everyone who hears submits
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them self in in the obedience of
faith. They don't react properly. Some,
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even many, refuse to submit their
hearts to good news and, instead
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of receiving the blessings through faith,
reject the blessings and say no. Now
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Paul speaks, is one, and
he speaks for the Lord. Is Not
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the first one to experience this.
In fact, he quotes Isaiah. Then,
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in also verse sixteen, he says, but they have not all bade
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obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says
Lord, who have believed what he has
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heard from us? This quote comes
from Isaiah fifty three. One which is
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significant because this is one of the
great chapters that we call about the suffering
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servant, these great messianic chapters that
speak to us of the Christ, of
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the anointed one who would come to
save and reconcile and bring the peace and
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riches that we've discussed. But Isaiah
says, Isaiah says Lord who has believed
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what he has heard from us.
Isaiah recognizes what Paul recognizes, that this
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message goes out and not all here
or not all believe. Rather, because
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Paul goes on to say in verse
eighteen, making this point, have they
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not heard? Indeed they have.
Their voice is gone out into the world
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and their words to the end of
the earth. This is a quote that
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comes from Psalm Nineteen, that is
about the heavens and the stars declaring to
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all the world the glory of God
and his handiwork in creation. What Paul's
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essentially doing, then, here is
he saying justice, the Voice of the
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Heavens has gone out into the world. So has the preaching of the Gospel.
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So if you imagine this link of
this, if you imagine the way
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that the word of Christ comes into
the world, kind of like a plumbing
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system, right there all these different
connections, at points at which the thing
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is put together, sending, preaching, hearing, believing, calling each part
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jointed together, fitted together. Where's
the leak right? Where's the leak happening?
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Paul asked this in verse eighteen.
Is it because they didn't hear?
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Is that where the leak is?
Is that why they aren't obeying The Gospel?
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And he says no, that's not
it. Indeed they have. They've
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heard that parts working. Indeed,
their voice is gone out into all the
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world, or in all the earth, and their words to the end of
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the world. Well, how about
understanding? Is that the problem? Did
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they hear but not understand? Well, he goes on to say, speaking
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of Israel and particular, no,
they understood. In fact, Moses says
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prophetically, I will make you jealous
of those who are not a nation,
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and with a foolish nation, I
will make you angry. What an example
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of that. Think about Jonah.
Think about God's mercy and salvation being poured
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out on the pagan city of Nineveh
and Jonah being mad, really really mad
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at about it. Jonah understood and
he Jonah understood the repentance and mercy that
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are the mercy that God would give
when people repent of their sins. It
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wasn't a problem with the understanding.
The problem was with, in his own
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heart, receiving and believing and trusting
God for that himself. No, I'm
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not saying Jonah wasn't saved or was, or anything like that. I'm just
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saying, at least at that moment, Jonah had a very serious problem with
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believing the Gospel. He understood it, he even spoken, he was the
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preacher himself, he was sent,
he was preached or he preached. They
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heard, they understand and they called
out to the Lord, but Jonah didn't.
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Instead, Jonah was jealous, angry. Mad Isaiah was so bold to
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say, and by bold it means
you're confident. He says, I have
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been found by those who did not
seek me. I've shown myself to those
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who did not ask for me.
Verse Twenty One. The contrast, then,
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with Israel. All Day Long,
I have held out my hands to
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a disobedient and contrary people. Here's
an image of that. The father in
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Jesus is parable of the Prodigal son, standing there way eating, ready to
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run to this sinner who's left and
taken all the riches of the father and
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squandered them and now is living among
pigs, standing there holding his arms open
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to a disobedient and contrary people,
but they remain disobedient, contrary, unbelieving.
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Now, in the next chapter,
Paul is going to talk about Israel
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and particular, and he'll start by
asking this question. Has God then rejected
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his people? You'll have to come
back for that one, but for now,
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consider what the Lord is saying when
he says that this is true,
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that not all have obeyed the Gospel. That's bad news, that's sad news
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and I don't want it to be
true for any of you. Let me
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speak to those who may still be
dead in their sins, who aren't hearing
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the word of the Lord by Faith, and let me ask you directly,
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why do you not come to Christ
when he's been so freely offered to you?
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This is a gift coming from God
himself, given directly to you.
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You have warrant to believe in the
very offering of it. Why not believe?
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Some of you don't believe because you
are satisfied. You don't think there's
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a need. You're satisfied in your
own righteousness. You are self righteous you
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don't need, you don't think,
you don't need the righteousness of God because
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you have it in yourself. Is
that why you don't come to Christ?
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Is it be cleeped? Because you
believe that your sins, though they be
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many and intentional and against a holy
and good God, are still no big
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deal? Is it because you think
that you won't be judged and judged worthy
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of hell? Is it that,
while you can pick out other people sins
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and see how bad they are,
you are able still to deceive yourself and
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consider yourself fine? If that's how
you think about yourself and your heart,
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then hear this. Consider the riches
of God that come to those who believe.
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And what is it that they believe
that the son of man came exclusively
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to save. As I said before, he's a doctor who comes for the
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sick and not others. If you
consider yourself just fine, then all of
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these riches, all of these blessed
things that I was speaking about, preaching
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about at the beginning of this sermon
and from the text here, from God's
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word, they're not for you,
because they come in Jesus, because Jesus
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came to save, and you're just
fine. You don't need salvation, you
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say to yourself. Do you see
the deception that's going on inside of your
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heart? So it is time for
a person, a selfrighteous person, to
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see and say, yes, I
am sick. It's time to stop pretending
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that there aren't problems and to recognize
and believe and trust the physician who's here
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and ready to heal. If you're
not a selfrighteous person, perhaps some of
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you just don't care, or a
pathetic and do you see how foolish this
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is? To imagine waking up in
the middle of the night, smelling smoke,
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hearing screams, feeling the heat of
your house on fire, and you
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say, you know, I'm just
really tired right now. What this is
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what God's word tells us. This
is why he warns us, to wake
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us out of our sleep, to
make us care. You cannot be apathetic
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about your soul, or can you? If you are sleeping in a house
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on fire, consider the danger,
consider the reward of leaving the house,
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of having life in Christ, and
consider also there is an unknown amount of
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time before it all comes crashing down
upon you. The Lord never promises US
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seventy, five eighty years of life
each and every one of us have a
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fixed amount of time and we don't
know what it is. There's no do
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date that can be procrastinated. At
any moment the Lord may take us and
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call us to account from our sin, for our sins. You cannot delay,
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you cannot be careless, you cannot
be apathetic and turn over and go
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to sleep. And finally, I'm
sorry to say that some of you know
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well the salvation of God, but
the fact is that the salvation of God
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is not yours, because your God
is your belly or your bank account or
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some other thing that you hold on
to. You do not come to the
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riches of God in Christ because you
love too much the riches of this world,
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even sin. I remember seeing once
hunters trapping baboon by getting the baboon
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to taste some salt and then showing
the monkey, if baboons are monkeys.
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Lost my son later showing this,
showing the baboon, I. The salt
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being placed in a tree where it
can reach its hand in grab the thing
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it's wants, but not be able
to pull it out because now it's hand
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it's too big, and there it's. It's on the tree and the hunter
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just walks right up and bags it. There's no guns, no arrows,
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no fight, even because the stupid
animal won't let go of its salt.
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It wants. It's so bad.
And some people are like this when it
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comes to sin. They stupidly hold
onto the very thing that is bringing them
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death, even as judgment approaches.
But you are not baboons. You are
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hearing the word of God. So
stop and think, consider what happens to
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the one who clings to his sin, and know what God is promising to
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you. And what he's promising to
you is salvation itself, including power over
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the sins that once enslaved you.
Love of sin is also enslavement to sin,
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and it's hard and it's entrapping and
it it's bondage. The Bible talks
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about it that way. But consider
for a moment. It's dangerous and consider
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how safe and loving and faithful God
is. He you need not face him
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in judgment when even now he is
offering you salvation in Christ. There are,
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of course, other reasons that people
don't believe. There are other reasons
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people hear the good news and walk
away. If any of them describe you
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know it in your heart and don't
be apathetic about it, don't wait till
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another day or procrastinated, but instead
hear the word of God as it is
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preached to you, understand it and
believe. Believe, submit to the Gospel,
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submit to the Lord God, who
is giving you, who wants to
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bestow on you the very riches that
are his everlasting life, the new heavens
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and the new earth, forgiveness of
your sins, joy in the Lord and
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many more things. Here the salvation
of God and believe. Let us pray
