Good morning everyone. >> Good to see you this morning. It's been mentioned now a few times. In case you haven't picked up on it, there are some people downstairs watching right now. If you've noticed there's a little more space here. It's because there's about 25ish or so people that are downstairs right now. What we've done is we've we recognize the need for space. And so step one in trying to figure out a solution for that is our small groups are going to take turns, two groups per week, sitting downstairs and taking in the simal cast.
If you're real quiet and they hoot and holler, we might be able to hear them. Yep, they're there. All right. Good job down there. So, they are simal casting the service. So, they're worshiping with us, but they're sacrificing so that there's more room here. And so, we're grateful for that. And no solution is perfect. It's all imperfect until the Lord provides land for us. And so, we ask you to keep praying to that end. But that is what we're doing for now, at least for this little season, right, that we're in.
And they get the benefit, those who are downstairs right now, of smelling the hot dogs as they're cooking. To that end, please come downstairs with us. And what we do is on these fellowship events once a month we're going to do our birthday singing. So I'll lead happy birthday downstairs for anyone who's got a birthday in the month of month of October. So come downstairs. We'll sing happy birthday. We'll eat some hot dogs and we'll have some good fellowship together. Take your Bibles if you will. We're carrying on in Nehemiah and we're in chapter nine still.
So so take your Bible and turn there if you have one. As you're turning there, let me tell you a story. From what I understand, it's a true story about a a baseball coach. He had he was coaching eight-year-olds. We're in the World Series right now, so I thought a baseball illustration would be fitting, right, Pastor Bryce? >> Absolutely. >> Yep. Okay. And he was coaching eight-year-olds. If any of you have ever coached eight-year-olds, you know that it's fun. And yeah, it just is what it is. So he had a few players that excelled and the rest of them were your typical 8-year-olds, not very good.
No offense to the 8-year-old here, but you know, it's a work in progress. And so it they had not won a game all year. And so it came down to the last inning. They were down by one run apparently. And there two out. And a kid came to the bat who had not ever hit a ball the whole season. Hadn't hit once and he'd never caught a single ball that came in his direction. Not once. He So he never hit a ball and he never caught a ball.
And so he's up to bat and miracle of miracles, he hit the ball and he got a single. So he's on first base and now the team's best hitter came up to bat and the coach thought we might actually have a chance to win this game. So there was hope on the bench. And so the the kid that's at the bat, sure enough, he cracks the ball hard. And the kid that's on first for the first time in his life is now running to second. And he looks over and it's a line drive. And instinctively, he caught the ball. And the coach without hesitation said to the guys on the bench, "Quick, guys, cheer, cheer, cheer."
And so they're yay, they're cheering. Their team had just lost. But this kid had finally caught a ball and the coach had the wherewithal quickly in the moment to recognize that this matters more than the fact that they lost. And afterwards, apparently the kids parents came to the coach and said, "Thank you so much." Actually, before this, our kid had never been allowed to play in a game. In this season, he played every game and you just blessed him so much.
The kid made a colossal mistake, but the coach showed tremendous grace. Now, let's be clear. Sin by and large is not a mistake. We often call sin a mistake. Well, mistakes are something that you some you do accidentally. More often than not, sin is not accidental. It's almost always with intent. And it's something we do with knowledge for the most part.
And we're going to see in our text sin today. And yet we're going to see the response of God to that sin. And it's remarkable. So take your Bible if you will. Let's go to Nehemiah 9. We're going to pick it up in verse 22. And I want to read to you down to verse 31. Here's what we read. This is picking it up in the midst of this prayer of confession. It says this, "And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan.
You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess." So the descendants went in and possessed the land. And you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and you gave them into their hand with their kings and the peoples of the land that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of their houses full of all good things, sistns already huneed, vineyards all of orchards and fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets who had warned them in order to turn them back to you. And they committed great blasphemies. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering, they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven.
And according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors, who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they did evil again before you. And you abandoned them into the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, and you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them.
And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bore with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. What a text. Now, if you're sitting here listening to this, you might say to yourself, "Well, wait."
If you were here last week, you might say, "Isn't this almost identical to last Sunday?" sorry, I'm having mic issues here as always. Is it too It's You can hear me, but it's it's crackling now and again. Anyways, deal with the crackling. You'll be fine. If you if you're here going, "This sounds the same as last week." You're right. That's partly the point. There's a pattern to sin. Sin has a noticeable pattern.
You see through the entire Old Testament and into the New Testament. And friends, that pattern sadly is alive and well today. Let's examine it, shall we? Notice here if after coming through all of Israel's sin last week, notice how the first three verses of our text today start off. God brings them into this land by his enormous grace. He gives them possession of of this land. He He allows them and enables them by his power to subdue the people of the land so that they might take it over and have this wonderful land.
And according to verse 25, they ate, they were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. And the response, look at verse 26. Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. That's what we read here. In fact, we read that they cast God's law behind their back. What does that mean? Well, it's interesting.
If you do a word study, by the way, word studies are really good, but only in so far as we understand the context. Sometimes word studies can be misleading if we do them wrong. Because sometimes you can have the same word used in five different places, but the context helps us understand that that word means something a little different in each context. The same with English, we can sometimes use the same word in five different ways, and the meaning changes a bit. So, we always have to understand context when we're doing word studies. But the context is interesting. In Exodus 32, this word cast, the same Hebrew word comes up.
In Exodus 32, listen to what we read in verse 19. This is Moses coming down with a gold with with the tablets and but the people have sinned but with a golden calf by creating this golden calf. And this what we read. He says as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burned hot and he threw that is cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
There is this intensity of casting it down with with force and it's the same connotation here that we have in Nehemiah 9. They cast the law of God behind them. They threw it aside with intent. Forget the law of God. We're going to live how we want to live. And in that, they then go on to commit great blasphemies. That's what the ESV says at the end of verse 26.
They committed great blasphemies. There is within the Hebrew word here a sense of contempt. They were showing contempt toward God, blaspheming his holy name to treat with evil the very name and character of God. We see blasphemy all over the place in the scriptures and we see it today. You know, sometimes as a pastor when you're preaching, you try to find illustrations.
And so as I was praying about this this week and what can illustrate this, I opened up my Twitter and lo and behold, an illustration was right there in front of me of great blasphemy from none other than Whoopi Goldberg. Recently they had on the show The View, which I highly recommend you do not watch, but they had on the show a person named Dylan Mulaney. This is a transgender, it's a man, he's a man who is parading as a woman.
And they were talking about transgender sports and that many states are banning men from competing in women's sports as is right including even now the the the state of California and so they were talking about that and in the course of it Whoopi Goldberg brought God up and here's what she said I'm going to give you the direct quote talking about transgenderism She says this, "God doesn't make mistakes." Now, let me just pause there.
The entire ideology of transgenderism is built on the notion that God does make mistakes, right? I am born a man, but that's wrong. I'm actually a woman. You're saying God makes mistakes. So, her whole notion right off the bat is flawed. God doesn't make mistakes. And the challenge is not to the trans people. It is to the people who are not trans. That's who God is looking at to see how you will treat the trans people. In other words, the trans people have it right and the rest of us need to treat them the way God would treat them.
That's the implication here. Now, should we treat people with respect? Absolutely. As those born in the image of God? Absolutely. Should we treat everyone regardless of who they are with kindness, with care, with respect, with dignity? Absolutely. And one of the ways we love people is to to let them know of their impending peril and of their sin. But this was an incredible piece of blasphemy here.
Even though God has revealed himself here clearly and who he is and his character and his nature and his his statutes, I'm going to tell you who God actually is. I'm going to redefine God for you against the revealed truth of scripture. That's blasphemy. We see it all over the place. We saw it in the golden calf incident. We if you were here last week, we looked at that. Remember they God is the one the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one who led them out of bondage through the Red Sea through the Passover and all that happened into freedom.
Praise God for that. But then they created the golden calf and they said, "This is the God who led you out of bondage." That's blasphemy. So we see blasphemy all over the place. And here we read that they responded to God's great goodness as it says in verse 25 with among other things great blasphemy in verse 26. That's how they responded. And so how did God then respond to this great blasphemy? Well, verse 27 tells us that God gave them into the hand of their enemies.
We're going to come back to that in a few minutes. And he made them suffer. The point being to turn their hearts back. And so then we read that they did they they they cried out to God and God heard their cry. We read in verse 27 and according to his great mercy gave them saviors. And you might say saviors. Isn't there only one savior? Yes. There's only one savior. Capital S. Yes. But we read throughout the Old Testament God brought saviors. In fact we read that Samson was a savior to the people. Now he wasn't the savior but he was a savior to save them out of their particular predicament in that moment.
But it was always pointing forward to the great savior who was coming. Moses was a type of savior to lead them out of bondage. Now, it's really God leading them out of bondage, but through this person and God brought saviors to the people to save them from their enemies. But look at verse 28. After they had rest, okay, God's brought us back out. Great. Now, how do we respond to that? Right back to evil. They did evil again. Isn't this amazing?
And and part of that evil, we read that they turned a stubborn shoulder, verse 29, to God. What does that mean? Well, it's an interesting little phrase. It really means that when someone is trying to place a yoke on on an animal that the animal would turn their shoulder away, didn't want to be yolked to that other animal. And so we we have for example in Matthew 11 Jesus saying come to me all you who are weary and he heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for as he says at the end of that passage my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
When you yoke, when you're yolked to Christ and the believer is yolked to Christ, right? You guys understand what a yoke is? Two oxen yolked together with you know that big yoke, that big wooden thing ties them together so that when they plow, the work is done well. Maximum power. Well, when you yoke yourself to Christ, Christ says, "My yoke is easy. My burden is light." In other words, I'm taking the load. You're with me because I am dragging you along, if you will, in salvation. But I'm doing it all. My yoke is easy.
My burden is light. And the people here are turning a stubborn shoulder. We don't want to be yolked to our Lord. That's the response. This is incredible. This pattern according to verse 30 happens over many years. That's putting it mildly. Over and over. It says he bore with them. He warned them by their his spirit and through prophets. Yet they wouldn't hear. This is the pattern in the Old Testament.
Read Judges, read First Kings, read Second Kings, read the whole read the prophets. You see this over and over and over again. In fact, go with me if you will to Judges chapter 2. If you have a Bible, if you don't have a Bible, just just listen. You can look it up later if you want. Judges 2, starting at verse 16, listen what we read. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
Yet they did not listen to their judges. For they hoarded after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.
But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods and serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. And it goes on from there. This is the pattern that we see. The pattern of sin. Rebel, endure discipline, cry out for mercy, receive mercy, turn back to sin again. Repeat over and over and over and over throughout the Old Testament.
And you see it so often. Let me just take you to Amos 2. Amos is in the book we typically go to very much, but there's much good in it. Listen what we read here in Amos 2, starting at verse 6. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they sell their the righteousness pardon me, they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. Those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted.
A man and his father go in the go into the same girl so that my holy name is profane. They lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge and in the house of their god they drink the wine of those who have been fined. Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as oaks. I destroyed his fruit above the roots be above and his roots beneath. Also, it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you 40 years in the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorites.
And I raised up some of your sons for prophets and some of your young men for the for Nazarites. Is it not indeed so, oh people of Israel? Declares the Lord. But you made the Nazerites drink wine and commanded the prophets, saying, "You shall not prophesy. Behold, I will press you down in the place as a cart full of sheav pressed down." And it goes on from there. You were doing evil. You're doing evil. You're doing evil. But here's how I came along to save you, to spare you, to move you away from that evil to righteousness. But what did you say?
Prophets, be quiet. We don't want to hear your prophecy. So God said, "Okay, more discipline coming down." Over and over again, you can read I won't read it right now, but Ezekiel 20 has a whole section on the same thing. The pattern of sin, the grace of God, back to sin over and over and over again. And you might think to yourself, "Boy, am I glad we're not like that." Go with me if you will, to Romans chapter 1.
Romans 1, picking it up in verse 19. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. In other words, even the most carnal atheist in God's enormous gracious kindness has made himself known to them, even if they've never picked up a Bible.
Look at the stars. Look at creation. Look at the mountains. Look at how the birds work. Look at how all of creation works. And you can go, there has to be a God. It's all evident for them. And so this is God's great kindness even to a wicked world. And how does that wicked world respond? Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
And it goes on and explains in detail the wickedness of man. But then, unless you think, well, I don't engage in that wickedness, look at what 32 says. Actually, let me pick it up in verse 29. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, hotty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. -oh. Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they knew God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. It's not only those who do such things that sin. It's those who give approval to those who do such things that sin. This is the world we live in. We are persistently disobedient as a culture, as a people. I trust that the people of God are not content in that.
I trust that we're seeking to obey, but we live in a world where where sin is pervasively being shoved in our face and temptations are all around us. Sadly, many times we can dive right back into these patterns when we should be mourning over our sin, pleading with God to change our hearts and to change our affections. You might say, "Well, what do my affections have to do with this?" Your affections have a lot to do with it.
Your affections come forth from your heart. Your lusts, the things you long for and desire, they come from your heart. And what we need is a heart transplant. We need a heart change. We need God to take our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. It's a heart issue. As Romans 12 says, "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds that we might approve his good, pleasing, and perfect will."
In fact, let me take you to the book of James for a moment. In the book of James chapter 1, listen to what we read here starting at verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted. How is he tempted? Look at what it says. When he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it has fully grown brings forth death.
The affections, the desires, the longings of the heart are toward sin. James 4 carries that on and starting in verse one of James 4. What is it that causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war with you? Passions can be translated pleasures, affections, what have you. You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have because you do not ask. He goes on from there. Our affections reveal our heart. And the people here in this time revealed their hearts that though God has so kind to them and gracious and provide so much, their hearts are always bent toward evil. And apart from Christ and his intervention, that's my heart, too. That's your heart, too. Praise be to God.
That's not the only part of this passage, though. If it ended there, that'd be a thud of a sermon, wouldn't it? But there's lots more here. In the words of the great Paul Harvey, let's look at the rest of the story. There is a kindness to God's grace. An undeserved kindness. The title of the sermon, as you may have noted, is undeserved. Any kindness God shows us is undeserved. Truly, it is though these people continue in their wickedness and in their sin, God showers them with kindness and with grace.
Even as we look at last week, their sin there, even after all of that sin, then we read verses 22 to 25, God's enormous kindness. Though they were grumbling toward God in the wilderness, contankerous as all get out, God still leads them into the promised land. Parents, don't you just love to provide for your children when they're grumbling at you the whole time? Isn't that just a joy? Right? You've all you all know what I'm talking about here.
God provides amazing privileges for them even as his people are sinful and acting presumptuously as we looked at in the last text and is also here in our text. He sends his spirit to lead them and guide them. We read in our text here, he sent them various saviors to lead them out of their bondage. And he sent prophets to warn them. And when that failed, he brought severe discipline so as to turn their hearts toward him from their sin toward God.
Did you see that here? You gave them, verse 27, you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer. That's the kindness of God. You might say, "How is that kindness? That's enormous kindness." Because what is it God's doing? You're you're sinful. You're rebellious. You will not listen. Because I love you, I'm not going to forsake you, but I'm going to make sure you turn your heart to me.
That comes from discipline. Now, there's a difference between discipline and punishment. And every parent here knows what I'm talking about. So, when I was in grade 12, well, really 10, 11, and 12, I got sent to the principal's office a lot. I don't to all you who are in school, I don't recommend this, but I got sent there a lot. Teachers. And I got a reputation sadly. But see, the principal of the high school I went to, he loved my mom's chocolate chip coffee cake and she made it all the time, probably twice a week because I ate it so much.
And I would always take two pieces with me to school. So inevitably I would get sent to the principal's office and on my way I would just take a piece of cake with me and I would sit down with the principal. We had a great time together. We were talking about sports. You name it. In fact, there was one time he was setting up next year's times tables for the whole school and he sat down with me. He said, "Matt, can you help ME WITH THIS?" SURE. WE SET UP next year's timets. At the end of it, he said, "Oh yeah, you're supposed to be here for Can you just tell them you learned your lesson?" Yep.
Sounds good. I'd go back. I learned my lesson. And that'll never happen again. But the reason the teachers sent me there was to punish me. They didn't want to discipline me. They just wanted to lay the hammer down. They didn't actually care about me. They cared about themselves. Punishment has has a view to you are going to get what's coming to you and you deserve it. The Lord is going to punish those who are unrepentant, who do not turn to Christ, who on judgment day will stand before him and their names are not found written in the book of life and they will receive eternal punishment.
They will get the just rewards for their life of rebellion. Discipline, however, is something altogether different. When my parents would discipline me and sometimes well always needfully but some but I but I often felt man this is harsh this is heavy but I know my mom and dad's heart that it was the design of it was to get me to turn to do what was right. It wasn't just to lay the hammer down. It was so that I would turn and live a better life.
That I would learn a lesson that could help me be a better man one day. Hopefully that day would be soon. But that's the point of discipline. And God disciplines his people. Did you hear what was read for us when Kira read Hebrews 12? In case you weren't maybe maybe you missed it, let me just take you back there for a second. Hebrews 12. Listen to what we read here. Have you forgotten? This is verse 5. The exhortation that addresses you as sons.
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you were left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. If you are his child, you're going at times to face discipline because we've all sinned and we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
We're going to face discipline and that's God's kind grace toward you to turn your heart increasingly toward him. And if you are off the track, he will take your heart and seek to bring it back onto the track. And at times it takes a 2x4 across the head in God's loving kindness. And here he does that for his people. He gave them into the hand of their enemies and made them suffer so that their hearts would be turned back to him.
Don't doubt for a minute that that don't think that that wasn't kind of God. It was very kind of God. Very kind. And at the end of it all, they continue in their sin. Even after they cry out and God then hears their cry thankfully a their hearts have been turned back and he they cry out God spares them. He brings saviors to to help them and then they respond right away by going straight back into sin over and over and over and over and over etc etc etc etc and so how does God respond different than I would right I would not respond the way God did but look at what we read in verse 31 nevertheless in your great mercies remember what is mercy Mercy is when we are not given what we do deserve.
They deserved more than discipline. They deserved punishment. They deserved hell as does every person in this room. We are all sinners. We have all rebelled against God. None of us deserve heaven. Neither did they. That's what mercy is. When you're not given what you do actually deserve. In your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them. For you are a gracious.
What's grace? So, we've seen mercy. What's grace? Grace is when you are given what you don't deserve. I am I am given life. Eternal life. Do I deserve it? No. But God gives it to me in his grace, in his kindness. So you are gracious and a merciful God. This is how he treated them. This was not a license to continue in their sin. Far be it from that. They were to pursue holiness as we are to pursue holiness. Yet this is God's kindness to him to to to them and to us.
So why was it that God was so over-the-top abundantly merciful and kind to them and gracious to them? Why was it? What did they do to warrant such kindness? You want You know what the answer is? Nothing. Go with me to Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 7 starting at verse 6. Here is God explaining why it is he chose them. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who were on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people of that is that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with the one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules I command you today. Do you see that? Why did God choose them?
Simply because he chose to love them. Wasn't because they were especially great. Wasn't because they were big. In fact, at the time when he chose them, they were tiny, insignificant, nothing. But God chose to love them and stamp his love upon them and make a covenant with them. And so, their response should be, as verse 11 says, to live in obedience to them or to him, pardon me. This should remind us of God's enormous kindness to you and me. Why is it that I stand before you as one who is saved and redeemed? Because I'm especially great. No.
Is it because of my excellent hairdo? No. Bad day with a bald head is still better than a good day with a man bun. I'm just saying. Can I get an amen? But no, I am a worm according to scripture. I'm a wretch. I'm miserable. I'm a sinner. I'm a rebel. Why would God love me?
I don't know is the actual answer other than God's mercy and God's grace. Romans chapter 5. If you have your Bibles, I'll invite you to turn there. I think I said this to Pastor Bryce years ago. We did an interview up here. We were going through our testimonies. It was like I think Pastor Bryce's second year here or something. And we were asking each other what is our favorite verse of the Bible or verses of the Bible. This is my favorite text. Still is to this day. Romans 5 6 to 11. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. How does one receive this reconciliation? There's nothing we do other than we receive it. We repent. That is we turn from our life devoted to self and sin and we turn to Christ by faith. We repent and believe. And we received reconciliation. We must repent and we must believe in order to receive this reconciliation.
That's the totality of how we are justified. From there we grow in sanctification. Our expression of thanksgiving to God by living holy lives. But to be justified, repent and believe and be reconciled. You might s be sitting here going, "Well, but surely God won't cast me aside. He won't punish me. I'm I'm a good person. I I you know, I I help all kinds of poor people. That's a good thing. It really is a good thing.
I I serve at the local senior center to help folks who are who are in need. That's a good thing. I give to charities that that are good causes. That's a that's actually a really good thing. I I come to church every Sunday. That's a good thing. Those are all good endeavors, but they are not saving endeavors. How is it that we are saved by the work of Christ, not by the work of self? My works can't save me.
It's the work of Christ that saves me alone. Period. If you have not repented and believed upon Christ Jesus by faith, you aren't saved. No matter how good you've done. Why? Because my sin hasn't been dealt with yet. I'm still in my sin. No matter how many good works I do, all of my works according to Isaiah 64 before God are actually like filthy rags. They can't save me because they're all tainted by my sin. I need the righteousness of someone else to save me.
And so God provided that savior, the savior, Jesus Christ the righteous, to bear my sin that in him I might receive his righteousness. The great exchange. That's good news. This is the abundant kindness of God. Unless you think as as can easily happen, it can be easy to think of yourself as a good person, right? Ecclesiastes, we read that man is quick. Or is it Ecclesiastes or Psalms?
Now I'm trying to remember. Or maybe it's Proverbs actually. It's one of those three somewhere in there. Man is quick to to uphold his own goodness. Might be Proverbs, actually. And so it's it's natural for man to say, "Yeah, no, no. I I'm I'm not as I'm not perfect, but what we do is we compare. I'm better than that guy, so I should get in." Well, I want to read to you who you are. Who I am apart from Christ. Here is the picture of you and me apart from Christ.
Ephesians 2 first three verses. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world. That is to be as Romans 12 would say, being conformed to the patterns of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all, you know what the Greek word for all means? All, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires, that is the affections of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. This is you.
This is me apart from Christ. Who among you look at this description and if that person then stands before the Lord on judgment day, are they going to make it in? No. But then come the two greatest words in the entire Bible. Verse four, but God. There are no greater words in scripture than but God in Ephesians 2:4.
This is who I was but God. Rejoice friends. But God what? Being rich in mercy. Remember what mercy is? He's rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, while we were yet sinners, he made us alive together with Christ by grace. Remember what grace is? Yeah.
By grace, you have been saved. And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast. Undeserved.
Undeserved. I am very aware of my sin. Are you all have sinned? All have fallen short of the glory of God. And if you're sitting here today as one who is saved, you have repented, trusted Christ as your savior. Praise God for that. But let this humble us. It is God who's done this. I am closer in my natural heart to the people listed in Nehemiah 9. That's my natural heart apart from Christ's intervention.
Blasphemous, casting God's law behind me, rebellious, apart from Christ. That's my natural disposition. But God intervenes. He does not leave. He does not forsake his people whom he has chosen to love. And he's sealed it in Christ Jesus by his blood, by his spirit. Oh, may we never be a people who cast contempt upon the Lord. May we turn to him again and again, be thankful for his enormous kindness to us in Christ Jesus and live lives of holiness. Charles Wesley was right.
We're not going to sing. I don't know. I should have asked for this song at the end, but anyways, he was right when he said this. And can it be that I think about this? And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his pain for me who him to death pursued amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me?
Father, we thank you for your amazing love. We don't understand it because our grace is so much limited, so limited compared to yours. But yet you are a God rich in mercy, rich in grace, rich in kindness. May we not presume upon your grace, but may we pursue lives of holiness to say thank you for how you have saved us. Lord, if there are those that are currently caught in a pattern of sin, would you bring about a knowledge and conviction of that sin and bring them to repentance by your great kindness?
If there are those who don't know you as Lord, we pray that even this day as we heard about at the start of our service, this day is the day of salvation where they turn to you by faith and be welcomed, adopted into the family of God and know this great kindness and this great mercy. You are so good, Lord. We love you. We thank you for this time we've spent together in Jesus name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
