0:42
10 be focusing on verses 9-2 this morning in Romans 10 I'm going to read uh beginning in verse four and I'd like to ask um if I can see him Tim failer
0:52
Tim here where's Tim there you are sorry Tim fail asked the blessing on the preaching of the word this morning beginning in
1:03
beginning in 10:4 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes for Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is
1:13
based on law shall live by that righteousness but the righteousness based on faith speaks thus do not say in your heart who will Ascend into heaven
1:25
that is to BR bring Christ down or who will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead but what does it say the word is near you in your
1:38
mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith which we are preaching that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God
1:50
raised him from the dead you shall be saved for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in
2:01
Salvation for the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of
2:13
all abounding in riches for all who call upon him let us
2:26
pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this gift that you have granted that enes us to call upon you we ask
2:40
that you open our hearts and our minds and our mouths to your spirit we might hear your words we thank you that the spirit that
3:01
as we grow wai for the culmination of the new creation and intercedes for us we ask that you enable us to understand your work and all of this
3:13
we thank you for the gifts that you have given us to strengthen our faith and our trust in your faithfulness to work in us the gift of your word your revelation we
3:26
ask that you allow us to hear your words and understand in your preaching we thank you for the gift of communion as
3:36
we remember and Proclaim your work in Christ and with the strengthening of the body we thank you for the opportunity to strengthen each other and love as we
3:46
work in Christ be with Chuck as he preaches open our hearts and minds and strengthen him physically and spiritually as he proclaims your word to us in Jesus name amen
4:08
one of my favorite authors um among those who who are certainly lesser known within the Christian Community is a man by the name of Leslie nubin his first book I read of his was signs amidst the rubble which I highly
4:20
recommended he also wrote one called The Gospel in a pluralist society he defines pluralist in that book he defines that as a society in
4:31
which there is no officially approved pattern of belief or conduct I think that pretty well describes our society here in the 21st century that that
4:43
there's no officially approved there's no unofficially approved there's really no standard of belief and conduct in our country anymore um nobody can be told
4:54
that their belief or conduct is wrong that's offensive we we can't even we can't even joke about ourselves anymore that's a major change from when
5:06
when I grew up in the Northeast where there's a much more ethnically diverse Society than has for a long time been here in the South we didn't really have
5:17
a problem with the various jokes um The jokes and the poock jokes and whatnot you really can't even say those words anymore much less joke about your
5:30
ethnic Heritage we we take ourselves too seriously and yet not seriously enough but pluralism is actually the price of freedom and I've mentioned this before I
5:42
think it Bears repeating especially as we are looking at a general election in a couple of days where do you draw the line on line on Liberty because when you begin to draw
5:54
the line on Liberty you begin to retreat and retract freedoms we all exper experienced that in 9/11 in 2001 we decided to draw the line on freedoms and
6:06
to allow the government to essentially perform illegal search and seizure just because we want to get on a train or an airplane but we did that we we drew a
6:17
line on our freedoms we don't want to draw lines on our freedoms of religion our freedoms of conduct of behavior or of sexual orientation pluralism is the price of
6:30
freedom but at what cost to the gospel for the church that is really the issue unfortunately the church throughout its history has been far more interested in
6:42
its political face than its face before God its spiritual face what cost to the gospel the freedom that we have in our
6:53
country in an effort to reach a pluralistic audience the gospel is diluted and it is domesticated the gospel is changed in
7:05
order to reach people who have no interest in hearing it in any case we want to try to connect with this changed religious context in which we live this
7:17
pluralism where there's no basic understanding as there once was whether that understanding was right or wrong is not really the issue within a Roman Catholic dominated country the basic
7:29
frame framework was Roman Catholic in our country for a long time the basic framework was Protestant Christianity again whether right or
7:39
wrong is not the issue the issue was that there was a a vocabulary and there was an intellectual Paradigm that we all kind of knew it
7:50
doesn't exist anymore it's not that it's fading away it isn't there anymore that when we say things from a Christian perspective they fall on deaf ears not just
8:02
unbelieving ears they fall on ears that have never heard such things before and don't know what to do with them anyhow and so we live indeed in a pluralistic and very free Society but I
8:15
would say the most offensive aspect of Christianity as it's as it's presented biblically is not the doctrine of election that's the most offensive within the professing church but in
8:28
terms of the church's witness to the world I would say the most offensive characteristic of our message is the is the exclusivity of Jesus
8:39
Christ that is what offends that we say that Jesus is the only true God and the only true savior in fact I would say that John
8:52
3:16 is a pretty anemic verse to put up behind the goalpost at the football games it does fit very well for God so loved the world well yes that God is love we all got that
9:04
message everybody think God everybody who thinks there is a God thinks God loves them thank you John 3:16 of course it wasn't John 3:16 is fault I think John 14:6 would be better I am the way
9:17
the truth and the life no man comes to the father but through me that would be a better message a more consistent message with the with the age-old truth
9:28
of script scripture that there is not many ways to God there are not many ways to God but only one the person of Jesus Christ and
9:40
Christ and so much of the church today has acquiesced or is acquiescing to pluralism we see that in the in the Frantic move toward
9:51
wokeism that we need to be tolerant and flexible and embrace people where they are including what they are or what they identify as and so so many pulpits are
10:03
turning into woke platforms and that that's said to be the true love of God in Jesus Christ is to accept people with their sins and not to condemn them
10:16
that's the domesticating of God we have taken the teeth out of the Gospel entirely I was reading one article uh that starts out this way and I think is
10:26
very indicative of the condition of the church as it looks at itself in relationship to the pluralistic World in which it lives this
10:37
author says broadly speaking history has not prepared Christian communities well for fertile participation in
10:47
dialogue with a changing religious context is that what we're supposed to be doing fertile dialogue with a changing religious conscious uh context
11:00
I I don't see that in scripture I don't see that in Romans 10 that's for sure that we're supposed to be participating in a fertile dialogue with people who have no room for God in their lives and
11:11
completely reject Jesus Christ and whose lives themselves are denial of the created order we're supposed to have a dialogue a fertile dialogue I know where the manure is
11:22
coming from but I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of growth so I think this guy I didn't read very far okay it's like when you read that you think okay I'm not going to get much out of this
11:35
but it does seem to me that the church has always done too much of fertile dialogue with changing religious context especially in the modern world
11:47
especially since the 18th century and the enlightenment but on through the 19th century with the social action the temperance movement the abolition movement then into the 20th century with
11:57
liberalism we have done too much dialogue and we have emed too much of the changing religious context to where we have lost sight and touch with the
12:11
gospel what does Paul say about fertile dialogue in a changing religious he says if any man or Angel brings to you a gospel different than the one I have brought let him be a cursed I say it
12:24
again and he does say it again right it seems to me that this is not how Paul would have responded to a pluralistic society by the way he lived in one of
12:35
the most pluralistic society in human history which we'll touch upon in a moment but we have actually been tossed about by every wind
12:48
and wave of Doctrine every wind and wave of polit politics every wind and wave of social norms and of religious fads
12:59
the church the church's problem is not dialogue with a changing religious context not having enough of it the church's problem is having too much of it the dialogue of the world is now
13:11
almost immediately repeated from the pulpits and there is no message of truth going out from the Christian churches today basically we we huddle together
13:22
and we preach to the choir but we're really not a voice in the wilderness and we do live in a Wilderness so how does the church reach
13:34
the world in a pluralistic context well I want to give you one solution that that I have heard of and and done some reading about really more in in shock
13:47
than in any desire to embibe it one solution was put forward in the 20th century in century in 1950 called an anonymous Christian
13:59
this was put forward by the 20th century Jesuit teacher Carl rner within the Roman Catholic Church I want to I want to read a quote from him and to give you
14:09
the idea of how far some theologians will go to to somehow bring this changing religious context under the roof of the church this is from roner
14:22
himself there is such thing as an anonymous Christian there are men who think that they are not Christians but who are in the grace of God and hence
14:34
there is an anonymous humanism inspired by Grace which thinks that it is no more than human we Christians can understand it better than it does itself when we
14:47
affirm as a doctrine of faith that human morality even in the natural sphere needs the grace of God to be steadfast in its great task we recognize as
15:00
Christians that such humanism wherever it displays its true Visage and wherever it exists even outside professed
15:10
Christianity is a gift of the grace of God and a tribute to the Redemption even though it as yet knows nothing of
15:22
nothing of this Anonymous this Anonymous Christians people who have been born again by the grace of God and have no idea about it this even includes those
15:32
who do know of Christ and completely reject him and it includes those who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ and what is the criteria well he goes on very
15:44
much in his writings to describe the criteria and that is if they live in a Christian manner whatever that is but if they behave like Christians
15:57
then they are to be considered as Anonymous Christians these are people who according live according to Christian morals and they are thereby Christian
16:09
even if they reject Christ in his day car honor was actually dealing with what to do with with what we consider to be good people in the
16:19
world a at the time the the goodest person in the world in his day was Mahatma Gandhi the advocate of peaceful overthrow of British rule in India now
16:31
the more we know about Gandhi's life and more information has come out biography written we we do realize that Gandhi was in fact a human being and therefore
16:41
suffered from the same weaknesses corruption and sin as other human beings but we do know of people that just seem like nice people and we think well they maybe they're what what is your thought
16:53
when you meet somebody who's kind of nice I wonder if they're a Believer CS Lewis deals with this he deals with this in one of his essays that we tend to grade whether or not a
17:04
person is a Believer as to whether or not they're a nice person because of course the the key to being a Christian is being a nice person right chapter and verse I don't know it um Lewis points
17:16
out that that um niess can be just temperamental just just personality that there may be very very nice unbelievers and there may be very mean
17:27
Believers and his comment is just imagine what they would be without Christ okay and and so the bottom line is we really can't make Christianity into a
17:38
morality play and judge people who even reject the name and lordship of Jesus Christ as in fact being anonymous Christians because their life is so
17:48
Christian how can they not be ronner confuses God's common Grace with his special Grace God's grace brings the the
17:59
rain and the sunshine to all mankind scripture is very clear on that the sun rises the seasons come that is God's grace God's grace is that we are not all
18:09
as evil as we could be and therefore Society is not as hellish as it could be we are reminded of that in some episodes in history when men seem to be as bad as
18:23
they could be and there are certain men in history that we say that's about as bad as you can get and so we see that but we don't realize that the reason that isn't always the case everywhere
18:34
every man lives is because of God's common Grace he does by his Spirit by his grace restrain the evil that would
18:44
run rampant as it did Before the Flood but there is a special Grace and that's the grace Paul is speaking of that's the grace of the gospel and that
18:58
Grace cannot be received anonymously it cannot be received by those who have no awareness of what it
19:09
is they're receiving so Paul answers all of this ridiculous Anonymous Christian stuff by saying if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord if you believe in
19:20
your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved faith and confession as I mentioned Paul's
19:32
context As We are continuing to learn the more archaeological information we get from the first century from the second temple Jewish era from the Roman
19:43
empire under Augustus and tiberious the more we realize that his world was as pluralistic as pluralistic as ours when he was in Athens he marveled
19:54
and his heart was grieved and vexed by the many altars that he saw as he walked around the streets of Athens even an altar to the unknown God kind of the catchall we didn't quite get it with all
20:06
these others we're going to we're going to have an altar to the unknown God there there there there was really no official
20:16
religion but one and that was the worship of the emperor the deity of the Emperor as long as you acknowledge the Divine Caesar then whatever other God
20:28
that you wanted to worship were fine and as long as your behavior did not disturb the public peace in other words the Roman order then that's fine do what you
20:41
want pluralism very pluralistic and into that pluralistic Roman Empire Paul came preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ so
20:51
does Paul say along with roner the word isn't near you in fact you've never even heard it heard it but that doesn't matter you will all
21:01
still be saved anonymously put it that way it sounds pretty stupid doesn't it pretty ridiculous that somebody could be saved and not fortunately most of the church
21:13
including the Roman Catholic church has not accepted Ron's view there are still those who try to to resurrect it and bring it about you know bring it back and say well that's not what really what
21:23
ronner meant it is what he meant he meant that there are men and women in the world who never even heard of Jesus Christ but are in fact saved and are going to heaven no that that is that is
21:37
completely ridiculous what Paul does say is that salvation is not measured by moral Behavior at all it is not measured
21:47
by our assessment of one another's character or even of our own what he gives us here in verses 9 and 10 and these are some of the most
21:58
familiar verses in the scriptures especially within the the missions and evangelism circles Romans 109 and 10 what he says here is perhaps the most
22:09
concise method of conversion in scripture I would say perhaps Mo the most concise most concise definition of conversion that we have in
22:21
scripture confess and believe and yet even its Simplicity can be confusing and can be
22:31
misapplied it is it is not a mechanical process this is something that the church especially in the United States it's not so much what you'll find in the
22:44
writings of the fathers in the medieval church or even in the Reformation Church in Europe but here in the United States we became very early enamored with
22:54
mechanical processes and efficiency that's kind of what made our Mark and built our economy for example the the assembly line and interchangeable parts
23:08
you see we're all about doing things efficiently because then we can make what we're making for less and make more profit when we sell it we're the same way in the church our evangelism is very
23:22
efficient we have programs and booklets and four steps and walking the Roman we have Evangel evangelism explosion campus Crusade all of these very
23:33
efficient means by which we can go and share the gospel with other people and so Romans 9 Romans 109 and 10 incorporate themselves into that
23:47
efficiency Obsession that's not what Paul's doing here he's not giving us a mechanical process by which we have a two-step procedure we believe and we confess
23:58
confess or in if we took it in his order we confess and then we believe it seems um a little bit backwards so it's it's not simply
24:09
bringing someone to say the words Jesus is Lord It's not simply bringing someone to agree with the historical reality of the Resurrection that there are people
24:21
who believe that actually happened who are not actually saved there are people who can acknowledge that Jesus is Lord
24:32
especially as we come upon the Christmas season who are not actually converted so what Paul's talking about here is again not a mechanical process
24:43
it may have been from an early baptismal formula you know that before we baptize someone we do ask and basically kind of coming from this do you believe that
24:55
Jesus Christ is the son of God and he's a savior yes I do do you believe that God raised him from the dead and he seated at the right hand of the father Yes I do there are questions that were
25:06
asked before somebody was actually baptized and Paul may have been drawing from that we don't know but I do want to point out however that verses 9 and 10
25:16
are in a particular poetic style and those of you who have attended the plumline classes you've you've heard the phrase kaym the the Greek letter Kai
25:30
which is looks like our ex and so when a writer uses a chastic structure what he's doing is he's he's giving us a some type of comparison or
25:43
parallel and he's doing it in a poetic way so in verse n the order is confess believe but in verse 10 notice it's
25:56
reversed the order is believe confess now in doing that Paul is saying I'm this is kind of
26:06
dangerous don't take me too literally here not me Paul okay don't think that this is one step than another step because I mentioned two things and then
26:17
he's going to mention righteousness and salvation don't treat them as if they're two different steps okay don't think for example that you can believe and be righteous but not confess and be saved
26:30
right that see see the danger there is you think about he's talking that he's talking about two different things when he's actually presenting us the anatomy of conversion he's also not giving us
26:42
something that we can do in and of ourselves that's the other danger of taking this passage out of context that if we can bring somebody down the aisle and they say Jesus is my Lord then that
26:55
means they're saved we need to remember Simon major Simon major who believed and yet was still in the gall of gall of iniquity okay so we have to be careful
27:05
not to to go to follow our kind of American psyche and turn this into a new Evangelistic program this is also true with our
27:15
with our children that we need to be careful that we do not too
27:26
quickly accept their profession of faith not that we ever deny it but we do not too quickly accept it frankly that should be true of all who come to the Lord we just happen to live
27:38
in a day and age what Jeremiah called a day of small things we really are not seeing many adults come to the Lord we're seeing in a sense a Divine
27:50
judgment Upon Our Land in which the gospel is being kept from the minds of those who are perishing but we are seeing within the
28:01
church somewhat of a Revival and I don't just mean our church I mean in the Evangelical Church as a whole we're beginning to see somewhat a Revival of the generational passing along of the
28:13
faith that's a wonderful thing praise God but it also becomes something that we hope for so much as parents that we are in danger of
28:24
recognizing it when it isn't actually there oring bringing it about in a manner apart from the Holy Spirit and so we have to understand that
28:35
what Paul is describing here is nothing less than less than regeneration he's not saying that this is something The Sinner does in and of himself because elsewhere he will say
28:46
for example that even our faith is not of ourselves it is the gift of God we need to remember that all of this is solely and wholly by the grace of God
28:57
and the power of the Holy Spirit not by the convincing of somebody through evidences that Jesus is clearly the Messiah frankly I can't understand how anyone would doubt
29:09
that we don't have to convince people that the resurrection occurred in order to bring them to Salvation we can't really do that only the Holy Spirit can
29:20
bring about what we're reading in these two verses and so what we're reading here is not an Evangelistic method it is the anatomy of
29:30
conversion Paul says in 1 Corinthians chap 12 for example he says no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit now you would not think to take
29:41
his words his words literally as if if you asked an unbeliever to say Jesus is Lord he would
29:54
go you know you can say the words can't you an unbeliever could say the words if he were reading reading that passage he could read it he wouldn't say no one could say okay he would be able to say it so
30:05
we know when to take Paul literally and when to understand that really saying Jesus is Lord is only by the indwelling regenerative power of the Holy Spirit
30:17
and there are many who have said as Jesus says Lord Lord did I not cast out demons in your name they were able to say Jesus is Lord and in the name of
30:28
Jesus I cast you out and Jesus says depart from me you workers of iniquity I never knew you so there's something else going on here again we got to really resist that typically American desire to
30:40
get from A to B quickly and be able to wrap that up and say that's done our evangelism which we'll talk about Lord willing next week our whole system of evangelism is very Americanized it's
30:52
very efficient it's very based on the numbers if the numbers aren't coming in you change your method right and you fire your CEO right your pastor uh you know you you fire you you get a
31:03
new staff you get a new board you change things because you got to have the performance that's what we're all about it's not our
31:14
performance it's the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit who comes upon those as he will and not upon those that he won't he's already taught that in Romans
31:25
9 and he's not losing that message and saying you know you know what I'm going to change things here because we need to encourage the
31:36
people in Matthew chapter 10 Jesus talks about the importance of
31:47
confession there is not only no Anonymous Christian there is also no silent Christian because this is the anatomy of conversion and not a two-step process and it's not matter of you
31:58
believe at some point and then later on you have enough courage to actually confess what we're talking about here is the if I could use the word natural
32:09
results of a supernatural regeneration that when the spirit of God comes in and replaces the Heart of Stone with the heart of Flesh the absolute
32:21
First Response of that sinner now saved is to believe and from that comes the immediate verbalization of that I
32:34
believe belief and confession are not two steps they are two sides of the same coin and so Jesus says in Matthew 10
32:44
therefore whoever confesses my name before men him I will confess before my father and whoever denies me before men
32:57
him I will also deny before my father who is in heaven you see true conversion to Paul is not a choice of man's will it's an act of God's
33:09
grace and because it is an act of God's grace it will accomplish the purpose for which it is intended that when God in his spirit Power regenerates the heart
33:20
of a of a sinner there is no chance that that person will not believe and conf F now one thing I want to point out that if
33:30
you listen you listen carefully especially to celebrities which I wouldn't advise you doing that doing that often but if you listen to celebrity
33:42
Christians or even many theologians or even preachers you will often hear them talk
33:52
about God but listen for the name of Jesus and and often times you will not hear it this is especially true among one class of people known as
34:04
politicians we need to be careful a lot of people talk about God there are many gods and there are some people who think
34:14
that the god of the Jews and the god of the Muslims and the god of the Christians is the same God those people are not to be followed they are not to be trusted because they
34:25
are not willing to confess the name of Jesus before men and therefore Jesus will not confess them before his father who is in heaven we also need to look at
34:35
ourselves it is the name of Jesus that causes offense he is The Stumbling Stone as Paul has already reminded us and yet
34:45
those who put their trust in him will not be put to shame but putting their trust in him means more than just believing that God raised him from the
34:55
dead it means confessing that he is Lord it means a vocal announcement that you are aligned with Jesus Christ he is your
35:08
king and none other holds that position so true conversion is not a choice it is a regeneration in which the new heart
35:19
new heart believes okay it's not Preparatory we're not thinking on spiritual things the new heart believes and from that belief the old
35:33
mouth confesses and so that's why Paul can mention this as if it were a process or a procedure because he knows that this is what the Holy Spirit does when he regenerates the sinner's heart that
35:45
sinner believes that sinner confesses the writer of Hebrews says let us draw near with a sincere heart in full Assurance of Faith having our hearts
35:57
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water there's that illusion to baptism again okay that baptism is is in the background of all of these different
36:09
passages it's a very important ordinance of the of the church let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who
36:20
promised is promised is faithful we believe in our heart in the full Assurance of faith and in that faith we hold fast our confession of
36:32
hope it must be verbal but as I said we must be careful not to turn this into some form of
36:44
methodism that we are not looking at these verses as some new Evangelistic procedure by which we can bring people to the to the Lord faith and confession are evidence
36:55
of conversion they are not the source of it they are evidence of regeneration they are not that which brings regeneration there is something more
37:07
however than one time a come to Jesus moment as they say it is not simply okay I wrote in the date in my Bible when I confess Jesus as Lord and so I'm okay
37:18
that's not what Paul is teaching if this is in fact in the context of baptism then what are we then to do we are to rise to walk in newness of Life
37:31
there is an ongoing reality because conversion is nothing less than New Creation that again is Paul's teaching
37:43
in second Corinthians chapter 5 true conversion is a reality a new reality in which all things have passed
37:55
away Paul says behold all things are new our thinking our ambition our choices they're new does that mean we're
38:06
without sin no it doesn't mean that because as he has taught us in Romans 7 there still dwells within us this law of sin by which I do not do the things I wish to do he says the same thing in
38:17
Galatians so there is somewhat of a conflict going on within us but the identity of our being has completely changed we are no longer a child of Adam
38:29
we are now a son or daughter of God we are no longer destined for condemnation but rather for Glory in Jesus Christ and so this is not a one-time thing this is
38:41
not just getting showing up on someone's Ledger of how many people were saved at this particular
38:54
rally it's a matter of changed life that is the result of a changed reality and so Paul is teaching that there is an ongoing changed reality in
39:05
conversion he calls it salvation notice what he says here in verse 10 he says with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness and with the
39:16
mouth he confesses resulting in Salvation as I said earlier when we read that we say we T okay does that mean I don't yet have salvation even though I have righteousness does that mean I have
39:28
to go around maybe to be a Street Preacher constantly confessing Jesus as Lord so that I can be saved is righteousness something different than salvation here I think the answer is no except in
39:43
terms of chronological perspective we can say scripturally we can say biblically with Paul that in
39:54
Jesus Christ I am saved but we can also say biblically along with Paul that in Jesus Christ I will be will be saved one author I think makes a good
40:05
distinction between these two words he says righteousness is the status we have by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that is our status Paul writes in 2
40:17
Corinthians 5 that he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf why that we might become the righteousness of God in
40:27
him when we are in Jesus Christ through regeneration our status is righteous therefore there is no
40:38
condemnation but our status is not yet saved because salvation I think correctly defined is the state of final
40:49
Deliverance that we will have in the resurrection and I think we all know in ourselves in our hearts that we're not there yet there yet yet there have been throughout the
41:00
history of the Gospel including in Corinth Paul deals with this those who think that they have arrived there have been those who think that they can arrive at sinless perfection in this
41:12
world now in this life there are those who think that that what God is doing is just going to keep on doing what he's doing nothing's going to really change that's not the teaching of scripture that is not our blessed hope our blessed
41:25
hope is in the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ Christ knowing that when we see him we shall be as he is and we can say that in that day and in that moment we will still have the status of
41:37
righteousness by grace through faith in him but we will also be able to say I am saved we will be delivered from sin and death and we will live in the new Earth
41:49
where righteousness dwells that's all what Paul is teaching here this is the the fruit of conversion but he goes on here at the end in verse
42:00
12 and I want to close with this and it's a very I think appropriate verse considering the events taking place this Tuesday he says there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord
42:13
is Lord of all I did not always realize in just reading the scriptures reading the New
42:25
Testament just politically radical Paul radical Paul was but more reading of Roman history and particularly the decrees of the
42:37
Caesars and the rise of Emperor the emperor cult the Divine Tiberius for example the Divine Augustus the Divine
42:53
Claudius made me realize that Paul was an incredibly politically radical character now that kind of makes sense because everywhere he went a riot
43:07
occurred but if we look at the church today and he writes shares the story of a a bishop friend of his who was lamenting that everywhere Paul went there was a riot everywhere he goes they serve tea that's kind of a
43:20
commentary the church is not very radical anymore but when we are radical we're radical in a very political way and not a very biblically Christian way when we Orient ourselves to the
43:33
civil society in which we live we do so politically rather than biblically but Paul what Paul is saying
43:44
here is in complete and dangerous contradiction to the claim of Caesar whose title included gas in the Greek
43:54
and soter and soter Lord and Savior that was Caesar's claim it was on the coins it was on The Monuments it was in the speeches Caesar
44:08
is Lord and here comes this Jewish rabbi saying this crucified Jew who he claims rose from the dead on the third day and has gone up into
44:19
heaven he is Lord Panos of Panos of all not just Lord of Christians not just Lord of this small
44:30
group of people who worship him but Lord of all which of course Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection quoting basically from Daniel all authority
44:43
where in heaven and on Earth has been given unto me therefore go that's where we're going in the next passage he therefore go on the basis of all
44:56
authority in heaven and on Earth being in the hands of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ the God man our man in glory that is the power of Christian
45:06
evangelism not method not efficiency not numbers but the fact that the same Lord is Lord of all there can be no
45:17
distinction between Jew Greek black white hispanic American whatever there's no distinction he is the Lord of all there can be no real preference
45:27
in terms of political parties certainly there can be preferences in terms of political polity don't get me wrong they're not all equal not all Kings were equal either but they are all under the
45:41
Sovereign authority of the Risen Jesus that is the message that the church has in speaking truth to power the phrase that comes out of the
45:51
1960s the radical movement that we speak truth to power we don't have to speak truth to power we need to simply speak truth which means there's no dialogue
46:02
with the changing religious context there is one message and that is Jesus Christ is Lord of all and so when we do go to the polls
46:14
when we do get ourselves and our minds into the into the political machinations of our political parties I so often hear Christians say
46:27
well I I I know God is Sovereign but you know when they say that
46:38
Wednesday when their candidate didn't win now I know God is Sovereign did you know that know that Monday did you know that Tuesday or did you only realize that on
46:48
Wednesday are you saying that as a firm conviction of where you stand or are you saying it as a a kind of a prothetic wish that things had turned
47:00
out differently but I know God is Sovereign I just wish he would have done it differently it differently yesterday were somebody some people professing Christians in this country
47:12
will be in that situation Wednesday morning okay don't think for a moment that liberals do not profess to be Christian they do and they do think that they are doing the Lord's will as do
47:23
conservatives and yet and this has always been the case in our country that the church has always divided over the political winds and
47:35
waves it's not changed and so we go into each day knowing that the same Lord is the Lord of all the psalmist puts it this way
47:47
some trust in chariots I think the Hebrew word means Democrats and some trust in horses that would be Republicans but we trust in the Lord Our
48:10
pray father we do ask that the truth of this powerful statement by Paul by your Holy Spirit would be reality in each life that is here in this room and any
48:20
who might hear these words that if we confess that Jesus is Lord if we believe in our heart that you raised him from the dead confession and Faith might be a reality to each one of
48:33
us by the power of your Holy Spirit regenerating our regenerating our hearts and father I do ask that living in a pluralistic society living in a
48:44
free society that we very much enjoy and give thanks for that we would nonetheless maintain our integrity and the Integrity of the
48:55
Gospel that we would not compromise through dialogue in the changing religious context but rather hold fast the confession of Our Hope without
49:05
wavering and that we would not put trust even slightly in horses chariots and princes in presidents or congresses but our hope would firmly
49:18
remain solely and only in the Lord Our God may your will be done we do pray that your people would have wisdom as
49:29
they exercise their civil rights we do pray that you would have mercy on our country that you would give us leaders who care for the people that you would
49:39
give us leaders who have integrity of heart even if they might not be your children they be your they are your instruments and they report directly to
49:51
you and so we do pray and bring all this before you and ask for your mercy and Grace Upon Our Land wisdom for our leaders your light
50:01
upon your upon your people For Your Glory for the building up of the church we ask in Jesus name
50:15
amen this morning as we participate in the Lord's Supper I'd like to ask Josiah
