WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.919 Okay, so we're going to start a big new series on Sunday mornings from Romans. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.759 What I want to stress as we begin this series on Romans is that it's about nothing less 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.600 than life, okay? 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:19.600 Nothing less than life. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:24.080 We'll say a little bit more about that as we unpack this passage here. 00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:26.160 I want you to keep that in mind. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:31.440 I want you to keep that at the forefront of your thinking that what Paul is speaking about 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:34.039 here is nothing less than life. 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.200 I think it's very easy for, especially in the routine of church and coming to church 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:43.879 and even the routine of being a Christian, that we lose that sense of urgency, that it's 00:00:43.879 --> 00:00:50.760 so easy for us to make Jesus Christ just an added extra into our lives. 00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:54.079 The icing on the cake of our lives. 00:00:54.079 --> 00:01:01.519 Just maybe if there's a gap there somewhere that he's the one that fits into it, as he 00:01:01.519 --> 00:01:08.280 offers something to me, it ceases, easy for it to cease to be life and death for us, the 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:11.000 gospel and the message. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:16.759 Yet, what I want all of us to remember and to think about again and again, and I need 00:01:16.759 --> 00:01:23.079 to remind myself of this all the time, is that life without Jesus Christ is living, you're 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:27.000 living on the edge, because life is His gift. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:34.640 You are here today because He is ordained and chosen that you breathe, that you—He's 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:39.400 gifted grace, the grace of living to you today. 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:46.280 And if you're not a Christian here today, then you are here because of His grace, and 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:52.680 He's here because He has given you life, and there's enough, more than enough in your 00:01:52.680 --> 00:02:03.120 life today for you to search for more, for you to question death, the reality of evil 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:10.200 and the brokenness of your life, because this life for all of us is temporary. 00:02:10.200 --> 00:02:16.000 And if you're not a Christian here today, then physical death for you enters you, ushers 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.520 you into an eternal separation from all that is life. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:25.680 And that's true of all of us, that we've been given that opportunity through what Jesus 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:33.879 has done to come back to God, the author of life, who restores not just ordinary living 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:42.000 to us, but life as He intended in relationship with Him, that is something that defeats even 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:47.240 the death that we will undoubtedly meet with. 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:53.200 So this is nothing—the Book of Romans is about nothing less than life. 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:57.680 And I want you to think about the Word as we go through over these weeks. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:03.320 I want you to think about your relationship to the Word, to the Gospel, to Romans. 00:03:03.320 --> 00:03:09.680 I want you to come prepared to meet with God, not just in church and in worship in a special 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:15.080 way, but each time you open Scripture that you would be prayerfully prepared and ready 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:21.160 to hear what God is saying into your life and into your situation. 00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:28.120 As we go through this book, Romans, I want you also to remember Romans is a letter. 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:31.320 Romans is a letter to a church. 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:37.720 It could just be as well be the letter of Paul to St. Columbus at that level, because it 00:03:37.720 --> 00:03:40.040 was written to ordinary people. 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:47.239 It's not a theological treatise written to theologians, for example, or to academics. 00:03:47.239 --> 00:03:54.919 Primarily, it's written just to a church that was full of all different kinds of people, 00:03:54.919 --> 00:04:00.120 including theologians and academics, but not exclusively ordinary people. 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:08.719 A church that had never had an apostolic visit from Paul or from any of the other apostles. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:16.439 And in this letter, Paul is setting out the significant truth of the doctrine of salvation. 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:22.879 It's an apologetic for what he had been given from God, what he had experienced both in 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:27.639 his own life and what he had been given by revelation from Jesus Christ. 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.240 It was to be a significant church. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:36.120 There was always the danger of heresy, and so he wanted to lay out exactly what salvation 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.639 means, not just for the church in Rome, of course, but for the church of all time. 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:46.759 The first eleven chapters gives us that great summary of the doctrine of salvation. 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:53.000 It's not a systematic theology per se. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:57.720 It doesn't deal with it, but it specifically speaks about salvation. 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:03.519 And then from chapter eleven onwards, there's the practical application of these truths, 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.120 what it means to be a Christian. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:16.039 So it must be—each time we take the word—I want to focus or stress this, that we take 00:05:16.039 --> 00:05:22.399 the word—it's an occasion primarily and firstly for worship and for spiritual nourishment 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:24.439 and for hearing what God says. 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:28.120 I don't want you simply to think, oh, I want to learn about Romans, it'll give me a deeper 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:31.159 understanding of theology and blah, blah, blah. 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:36.400 However significant that might be, I want us to see our interaction with God's word 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:38.800 as a worshipful one. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:46.600 And if you allow God to do so, he will strip you naked spiritually as we go through Romans, 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:50.080 and he'll clothe you with Christ. 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:52.640 And sometimes we don't like that. 00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:55.120 We need to be willing for that to happen in our lives. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:00.960 You need to be willing for that to happen, to allow the eye of God to strip you spiritually 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:04.399 naked and to cover you with Christ. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:07.959 That is hugely significant as we come to the word. 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:14.839 It's the first letter in the New Testament in terms of its preeminence coming after the 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:15.839 book of Acts. 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:22.279 That doesn't mean it was written first, but it is, I think, in its rightful place, first 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:26.240 in preeminence, first in significance, first in importance. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:31.759 It's a masterpiece, it's a fundamental truth. 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:36.480 And through reading and understanding Romans, which very often preachers kind of balk from 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:43.280 looking at or shy away from because there's some real, real meaty, gritty, challenging, 00:06:43.280 --> 00:06:48.960 frightening truths in it, through reading Romans, some of the greatest believers who 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:51.199 ever lived have been transformed. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:58.319 And Guston, Martin Luther, Calvin, John Wesley, and many others, let it speak. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:05.120 Invite your friends to come along to hear what God says about salvation in His word 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:07.120 as He lays it out through Paul. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.279 Invite your friends, pray for their conversion. 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:17.079 We want 2019—oh my goodness, I'm sure my age is there—2018, okay, even 1918, I 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:18.079 wasn't around, okay. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:24.680 In 2018, let it be a year when many people come to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:29.719 of the word here, through your testimony, through your understanding of this truth, 00:07:29.719 --> 00:07:34.039 and through your passion and concern for people. 00:07:34.039 --> 00:07:36.240 So we know and we see it's written by Paul. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.519 Paul loves these people, he's never been to them, but he loves them. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:42.560 He prays for them, he wants to help them. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.839 He's dead keen to visit them, to teach and encourage them. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:50.279 Verse 11 and 12 says that he wants to come and teach them and encourage them. 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:54.359 That's a letter to a people, to a church. 00:07:54.359 --> 00:07:57.039 And so it's also passionate and personal. 00:07:57.039 --> 00:08:03.279 A mixed church, mainly—not exclusively, it seems, but it would be a church that had 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:09.519 a lot of people who weren't originally Jews, who were Gentiles and who'd come to faith. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:16.359 And Paul is here, sitting out why he wants to speak to them, or why he feels and knows 00:08:16.359 --> 00:08:17.839 he has the authority to do so. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:23.000 He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:24.000 of God. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 A servant, he's a slave. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Now, you need to get the idea, away from the idea of it being a slavish—an unwh—our 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:40.000 idea of slavery is always unwilling slavery. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.279 It's something forced. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:47.559 But there's an idea in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, of a slave who became 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:53.960 a willing servant because he loved—she loved the people that she worked—or that 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:54.960 he worked for. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:04.400 It's absolutely voluntary, and he became this one who was willingly a servant of the 00:09:04.400 --> 00:09:09.879 Lord, who was changed, who was converted to know and love Jesus Christ, so that he came 00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:14.680 to the place where Christ was worth it, his identity. 00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:21.600 It was really a mark of identity and belonging. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:29.440 Someone who willingly would for life become a slave of a certain master would do so willingly 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:32.480 and identify with them. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:39.960 That's interesting, because isn't that the direct opposite of the society in which we 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:44.159 live, which is one which lods and speaks of independence? 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:46.320 It's important just to think for yourself. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:52.160 It's important to be true to yourself, to be completely free from any outside influence 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:53.960 and be what you can be. 00:09:53.960 --> 00:10:02.120 Now, there's a lot of good in some of that thinking, but in spiritual terms it's bonkers, 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:07.960 because we are to be people who recognize that there is an absolute truth and there 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:14.000 is a truth and a person to whom we are to give allegiance. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:19.960 And spiritually being independent from God is not a strength, it's a weakness. 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:26.559 So his mindset is one of identity with Christ, and he gets his authority as an apostle. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:31.240 In Galatians 1, verses 11 and 12, he speaks about that authority and he said, for I would 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.679 have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached to me is not man's gospel, it's 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:41.559 not Paul's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man or make it up, nor was I taught 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.479 it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 00:10:45.479 --> 00:10:53.159 So he sets out his authority as a called apostle, someone who had seen, although untimely, 00:10:53.159 --> 00:11:00.199 born, who had seen the risen Christ and who had met with the risen Christ and who was 00:11:00.199 --> 00:11:03.639 taught by the risen Christ. 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:09.799 And that was verified by the other apostles and by the churches it were, which gave him 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:14.439 his authority, it's not that some madman said, well, you know, or today some madman 00:11:14.439 --> 00:11:19.079 might say, you know, I've had a revelation from Jesus and I think this is that and the 00:11:19.079 --> 00:11:21.359 next thing. 00:11:21.359 --> 00:11:26.399 He wasn't like that, it was examined, it was tested, it was taken before the church, it 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:32.120 was taken before the apostles, he was recognized as an apostle, particularly to the Gentiles, 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:39.720 as one who like them met with Jesus was in the eyewitness of the resurrection, was gifted 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:46.399 by the Holy Spirit, was able to do miraculous signs as one who brought the gospel, and he 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:52.639 was set apart, not periling his own ideas. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:58.799 He did that previously, he did that when he tried to crush the church, he did that when 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:04.879 he thought the Christians had to be eradicated, that was his understanding of the Old Testament 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.159 and of God. 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:12.759 But God rescued him from that misunderstanding and gave him the calling which was to bring 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.439 the gospel to the Gentiles. 00:12:15.439 --> 00:12:22.519 And God used him, not mechanically, but used him with all his life up to that point, with 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:27.799 all his gifts, with his knowledge of the Old Testament, with his, the people he rubbed 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:33.359 shoulders with, with his life in Tarshis, with his being a Roman citizen, with his initial 00:12:33.359 --> 00:12:36.000 hatred and opposition to the gospel. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:42.279 God used all of these unique gifts and talents that Paul had been given. 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:46.799 He was no machine, he was uniquely set apart for this work. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:51.319 So it's a letter to an ordinary church and it's written by Paul. 00:12:51.319 --> 00:12:56.120 But I'll just say a little bit in conclusion about the gospel that's spoken of here, which 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:04.440 is the core of the book, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:10.399 through his prophets in the Holy Scripture concerning his son. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:18.120 The gospel is the gospel, when it says the gospel of God, what he means there, what we 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:28.879 have is the gospel not about God, it's the gospel that belongs to God, it's God's gospel. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:36.159 It's the gospel that comes from him, not just about him, it's his gospel. 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:42.240 Paul is simply an ambassador, he's simply passing on information that he's been given. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:48.600 It's originated, it's authenticated, it's designed, it's inspired and it's revealed 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:52.440 by God, it's God's gospel. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:55.080 It's hugely significant for us. 00:13:55.080 --> 00:14:00.159 It's not for Paul to take it and adapt it, it's not for me to take it and adapt it or 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:07.279 for you to take it and mold it into our own image, it's given. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:13.720 That's why the book of Romans and the doctrine of salvation is so significant for us. 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:19.799 It is God's gospel, God's idea, God's design. 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:23.319 Now over the last number of months we were looking at the Old Testament and we were looking 00:14:23.319 --> 00:14:28.879 at what the Old Testament said about the gospel and that's been a really good runner towards 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:37.240 this study in Romans because Paul quotes the Old Testament Scriptures over fifty-seven 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:44.960 years, nearly sixty times because it's the promised gospel, promised beforehand through 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:46.720 the prophets. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:52.879 Everything points towards this gospel that belongs to God being revealed. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:15:01.080 God drip feeds it into the consciousness of the world before the coming of Jesus Christ. 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:04.560 It's promised and that's why the Bible is significant. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:10.159 This one is good for you and good for me to read chunks of the Old Testament and to read 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:16.519 through the whole Bible in a year because it gives us a kind of overview of these promises. 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:22.239 I know there's lots of difficult bits but it gives us an overview. 00:15:22.239 --> 00:15:29.199 So our task is to recognize right at the very beginning that this is a message about life, 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:36.879 absolute life and our task is never to change it but it is to know it and it is to understand 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:37.879 it. 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:49.320 I just want a slight diversion here because I think sometimes we think that the gospel 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:53.200 is just a set of words. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:57.960 Simply as yes we know it's from God and we know it's unchanging but sometimes I think 00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:03.759 we think it's just like a magic incantation, like open sesame. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:07.160 If we say the words in the right way, in a certain way to the right people, the right 00:16:07.160 --> 00:16:15.240 time that God will open our hearts like open sesame opens Aladdin's cave and it's just 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.639 we need to get the kind of magic words right. 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:22.400 We need to get it all in the right order, sin, death, hell, heaven. 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:27.000 We need to say all and we need to say exactly what God has said and it doesn't matter how 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.600 we say it, it doesn't matter to whom we say it, when we say it, as long as we blurt it 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:33.080 out, that's all that matters and God will bless that. 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.039 I think it's more than that. 00:16:36.039 --> 00:16:41.519 I think it is an unchanging gospel and we do need to know it and we do need to live 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:50.879 it but we also need to share it in a way that people from our point of view will respond 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:51.879 to it. 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:53.279 Now we know that God is the one who opens that. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:59.159 I'm not denying that but I'm saying that Paul used all his natural gifts and abilities 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:04.839 to share the gospel, all his baggage, all his background, all his experiences. 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:10.720 He used it and he changed the way he presented the gospel depending on who he was with because 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:16.119 he was passionate and it was real and it mattered to him that they heard and they responded. 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:21.039 So he shared the gospel in Athens differently from the way he shared it in Jerusalem to 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.599 people who knew the Bible to people who didn't know the Bible. 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:30.039 And I think that's important for us as we hold on to the unchanging truth of the gospel 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:35.440 but don't just blurt it out like some kind of magic formula and then walk away because 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:41.240 God uses your tears and he uses your commitment to the people and he uses your experience 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:46.359 of the gospel in their lives to bring it open and bring it alive. 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:47.359 Can I give you an example? 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:53.639 It's probably a poor example and rip me apart if it is but how would you persuade someone 00:17:53.639 --> 00:17:59.399 who has an eating disorder that they need help? 00:17:59.399 --> 00:18:06.959 Because that condition is deeply complex and there's all kinds of things going on. 00:18:06.959 --> 00:18:10.959 Now the truth might be you could go up to them and say, you're too fat, you need to 00:18:10.959 --> 00:18:16.199 lose weight or you might say you're too thin, you need to eat more. 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:25.440 Now these may be bare truths but you would never say that because they can't see. 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:27.039 That's part of the problem. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:32.920 They don't understand their condition very often if it's a disorder. 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:38.000 And so there needs to be much more thought and much more time and much more energy and 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.200 much more concern and commitment to these people. 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:46.600 And so with the gospel, just simply telling people they're sinners and they're going to 00:18:46.600 --> 00:18:57.039 hell and walking away from them will generally not do the business because their concept 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:01.920 of what hell is, their concept of being sinners might be completely unbiblical. 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:09.640 And it involves us passionately and meaningfully like Paul and his commitment to people to 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:18.200 take that unchanging truth and recognize that people need to hear inner blindness and need 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:25.280 to be aware as we work out the gospel in our lives with them, this message. 00:19:25.280 --> 00:19:29.080 And the gospel is of course good news. 00:19:29.080 --> 00:19:30.080 That's what gospel means. 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:31.080 It's good news. 00:19:31.080 --> 00:19:34.200 We need to keep that in mind as we share it and as we live it. 00:19:34.200 --> 00:19:36.280 We often live like it's really bad news. 00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:42.799 I know there's bad news involved in it, but we also need to remember it's not just like 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:44.599 ordinary good news. 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:46.519 Ordinary good news everyone likes. 00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:50.119 And ordinary good news makes the front page of the papers occasionally and makes us feel 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:51.119 happy. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:52.119 Everyone will embrace it. 00:19:52.119 --> 00:20:00.879 But I do believe biblically that the gospel is only good news to those who see their need. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:07.920 It's only good news to those who see their need and then it becomes good news. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:14.840 Who recognize both the diagnosis of God and the remedy of God. 00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:20.560 Then it becomes absolute good news. 00:20:20.560 --> 00:20:27.200 And I do think that hits a square between the eyes today. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:32.799 Very often we look at the gospel and we want to change it. 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:36.680 And that maybe reflects that we don't really believe it. 00:20:36.680 --> 00:20:39.120 Or we want to ignore it. 00:20:39.120 --> 00:20:43.960 And maybe that reflects that we don't agree with God's diagnosis. 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:46.600 Or we want to abuse it. 00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:53.160 And maybe that's because we haven't appreciated what He has done for us and the cost of setting 00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:54.160 us free. 00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:00.720 So the gospel is the gospel that comes from God. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:05.640 And it's also the gospel that's about the Son of God. 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:08.040 That's what we're told here. 00:21:08.040 --> 00:21:11.480 Concerning His Son who was descended from David according to the flesh, declared to 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:16.080 be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of Holiness by His resurrection from 00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:17.080 the dead. 00:21:17.080 --> 00:21:20.440 He lays aside His divine nature. 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:22.279 He assumes a human nature. 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.039 He is called Jesus, the Savior. 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:28.240 He is called Christ, the anointed one. 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.920 He is called Lord because He is sovereign. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:36.680 And in taking Him, He becomes sovereign in our lives. 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:40.799 There's this remarkable, from His humiliation, there's this remarkable, and I don't have 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:47.920 time to look at this section, this remarkable declaration of power and victory in His resurrection, 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:52.360 His ascension, and His coordination with King of Kings. 00:21:52.360 --> 00:21:55.360 So He gives out the gift of the Spirit. 00:21:55.360 --> 00:22:01.240 But what we see here about the Son of God is that it's about life, nothing less than 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:02.240 life. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:08.120 And as we see it, biblically, it's nothing less than life through death. 00:22:08.120 --> 00:22:14.480 You know, He dies on the cross and He's resurrected from the dead. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.599 And that message of life is absolutely everything. 00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:23.960 It's the key to everything and to our understanding of this gospel and to our understanding of 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:27.440 our faith and of life. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:28.880 Suicide, isn't it? 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:37.079 It's the great indicator of the deepest disturbance, of the deepest disturbance at a human level. 00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:42.960 And we know and we recognize that there are great inhibitors to life as well, getting 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:54.680 old, becoming ill, separation from loved ones in death. 00:22:54.680 --> 00:23:00.200 And all of that speaks to the court of our existence. 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:03.360 On Friday some of us here were up at Kenny McDonald's funeral. 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:08.160 I know, I was going to say Kenny McDonald was my boss for five years and was a very powerful 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.720 evangelist and minister in the gospel. 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:16.519 And while that funeral was very sad, and it is always tremendously sad, I was very sad, 00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:20.000 but yet a part of my life was gone. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:27.559 But there was also great rejoicing, not just in the fact that he's a Christian and a believer 00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:32.759 and has gone to be with Christ, but because we spent the time with whoever it was, six, 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:38.920 five, six hundred people there, spent our time meeting with people who have been hugely 00:23:38.920 --> 00:23:42.880 important in the story of our life up to now. 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:46.720 That may be what you haven't seen for 10, 20, 30 years. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.720 And there's the richness of that, because it reminds us of what life is about. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:24:03.360 It reminds us of friendship, of belonging, of the pain of being separate, of all these 00:24:03.360 --> 00:24:04.360 kind of things. 00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:12.039 And so a funeral like that kind of is such a desperate mix of emotions, but it focuses 00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:16.159 so much on what is really important and what life's about. 00:24:16.159 --> 00:24:19.839 And you know, you come away from these places and those of you who are about my age and 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:23.639 older will know more about this and maybe you'll come away saying, we really need to 00:24:23.639 --> 00:24:25.519 catch up more. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:27.959 We need to see each other more. 00:24:27.959 --> 00:24:33.759 We shouldn't just meet at funerals, because they matter, and life and being in their company 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:34.759 matters. 00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:41.119 And that's just a shadow of what God wants for us. 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:48.200 He comes ultimately to bring life and life in all its fullness, to wipe away every tear, 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:53.440 to deal with all separation and to deal with all partings and to deal with all illness 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:59.240 and pain in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein lies righteousness. 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:01.799 But that's what the gospel is doing for us now. 00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:10.399 It applies to the very being of being a being, the very reality of living. 00:25:10.399 --> 00:25:13.039 That's what the gospel appeals to. 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:19.879 Appeals to your very deepest longings, your deepest needs, and because it deals with life. 00:25:19.879 --> 00:25:25.480 And you can go through life with your head in the sand and ignore who Jesus Christ is 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:28.079 and what He comes to offer. 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:31.680 But He comes and He clearly says He offers life. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:34.360 He comes with an authority to offer life. 00:25:34.360 --> 00:25:35.920 And it goes on, and I finish with this. 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:42.519 He speaks about not only Paul being called, but also He speaks about those in the church 00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:48.200 who says, including you who are called through the obedience of faith to belong to Jesus 00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:49.360 Christ. 00:25:49.360 --> 00:25:54.120 He knows that God comes with an authoritative call on our lives. 00:25:54.120 --> 00:25:59.720 Now we've often talked about the call of God like an invitation, which is right, it 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:03.880 is an invitation, but it's not like any other invitation. 00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:08.839 If you get an invitation to a wedding and you don't want to go, you can say no, you 00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:13.360 can decline the invitation and your life will go on, nothing will change, apart from a couple 00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:14.360 of might not speak to you. 00:26:14.360 --> 00:26:17.120 But apart from that, things don't change very much. 00:26:17.120 --> 00:26:20.960 You can go to things and not go to things by invitation. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:27.880 But Christ says, his invitation is also both a call and it's authoritative because it 00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:29.960 comes from Him. 00:26:29.960 --> 00:26:34.960 It's in Act of obedience, Acts 17, verse 30, says that, you know, for the time of God, 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:38.760 but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:26:38.760 --> 00:26:45.520 So there is a call, there is an invitation, but there is a call, because the reality is 00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:51.600 we either bow to His authoritative call on our lives now as Savior, or we recognize His 00:26:51.600 --> 00:26:55.680 authority in our lives as judge. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:58.680 And that is a very solemn reality. 00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:00.759 That's God's call. 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:03.799 And God, He's calling us. 00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:06.920 If you're not a Christian today, He's calling you back to Him. 00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:08.320 He's calling you to Himself. 00:27:08.320 --> 00:27:15.279 He's inviting you to come and believe and receive life. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:22.440 If you're a Christian, He's calling you back again and again and again. 00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:26.759 And we recognize His authority and we recognize our responsibility. 00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:33.960 Philippians 2, 12 and 13 makes that abundantly clear, the paradox of the gospel, that it 00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:39.039 is we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:41.759 in you, both to will and to work for His good plight. 00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:47.200 Great paradox of the gospel is we live as if it all depends on us, but we recognize 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:52.320 it all depends on God, and we respond in obedience. 00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:54.879 That's what He asks us to do. 00:27:54.879 --> 00:27:57.679 This is called here, the obedience of faith. 00:27:57.679 --> 00:28:02.200 That's what He wants from us, the call of love to obey and faith. 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:07.759 Don't walk away from church today if you're not a Christian, with whatever reason it might 00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:15.639 be for theological reason you may have in a very calmest, for not coming to Christ. 00:28:15.639 --> 00:28:22.279 He commands you, He calls you, with an authoritative and loving call, and it's the offer of life. 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:26.240 Life to the full. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:32.039 So this year, 2018, maybe we are far from God. 00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:37.119 Maybe you've drifted from when you knew Him once. 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:41.399 Maybe this year you respond to Him and respond to His call. 00:28:41.399 --> 00:28:48.160 Maybe it be that you will live for Him and live out the gospel and mold your sharing 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:54.960 of the gospel, sensitively and gently and yet powerfully and passionately and determinately, 00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:57.320 so that people will hear. 00:28:57.320 --> 00:29:02.560 This might be a year when many people come to faith in Jesus Christ from our friendship 00:29:02.560 --> 00:29:07.000 circles, from our contacts, from among our neighborhoods. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:12.400 And maybe that we see that work of the gospel and play our part by God's grace as He did 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:14.200 with Paul. 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:22.519 And remember His calling, His calling in your life isn't just to be some kind of indistinct 00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:25.000 metaphysical Christian. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:27.160 He's called you where you work. 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:28.400 He's called you where you serve. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:31.880 He's called you with all your, like Paul, with all your experience up to this point 00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:32.880 in life. 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.480 He's called you with your gifting, with your training, with your jobs, with your contacts. 00:29:36.480 --> 00:29:40.799 He's not asking you necessarily to change anything from that, but He's using where you 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:45.319 are and what you do to bring glory to Himself if you will let Him. 00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:46.319 This is where He wants you. 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:47.759 This is where He's called you. 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:53.680 You're His wherever you are as you depend and rely on Him. 00:29:53.680 --> 00:30:01.639 And Romans is all about teaching and encouraging you and me to persevere in that. 00:30:01.640 --> 00:30:12.080 Amen.