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Take a look at our bulletin this morning. Just a couple of items to bring to your attention. Uh the plumline class began. It's the third installment of the Leviticus study this past Thursday. If
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you are planning on attending either by remote or here on Thursday evenings, there are some books downstairs on the little table uh by the piano. So, go
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ahead and pick up a book. If you want to receive the notes through uh via email, PDF, uh let me know. Send me your email address and I'll add you to the list for
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the the weekly distribution of the notes. So, um that's that is now ongoing. And then the midweek fellowship supper is scheduled uh for this Wednesday. Um it was uh cancelled this
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past Wednesday because of illnesses. So, please also be in prayer for our family. uh our church family as there there is still quite a bit of illness going along
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as you can see by the empty front row. Um the Wells family is is going through a bug right now. So be in prayer for one another. But let's turn our hearts to
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worship the Lord with the words of Psalm 106, the first five verses. Praise the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. For his loving kindness is
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everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord? Or who can show forth all his praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, who practice righteousness at all times? Remember me,
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O Lord, in thy favor toward thy people. Visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the prosperity of thy chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of
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thy nation, that I may glorify with thine inheritance. Let us pray. Father, we do ask that you would give us a spirit of rejoicing that as we think
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upon what you have done on our behalf through Jesus Christ. We think about how you have taken us from death to life. That you have given us the spirit of adoption that we might cry out, "Aba,
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Father, that you have granted us an inheritance with the saints on high. and that you have given us all things in heavenly places, all the spiritual
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blessings we can imagine. We pray that our response would not only be thanksgiving but joy that we would rejoice in our salvation as David prayed
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for your glory, for our good and for the edification of of the body of Christ. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
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I invite you to turn in your himnels this morning as we turn to number 13.
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Oh worship the king. All glorious above. Oh gratefully Oh gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender.
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and defender. The ancient of days. A million in splendor and ged with praise.
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Oh tell of his might. Oh sing of his grace. Whose robe is the light. Whose
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can of peace face. His chariots of wrath. The deep thunder clouds form and
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ar is his path on the wings of the storm. The earth with his sword of wonders
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Almighty, thy power hath founded above has established it fast by a changeless
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sea. I bountiful I bountiful care. What tongue can recite. It breathes in the air. It shines in the
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light. It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain. And sweetly it stills in
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the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust and fe as frail
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in thee do we trust nor kindly to fail. Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the
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end. our maker, defender, redeemer and friend. and friend. Oh meless
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might in heaven love while angels delight to him thee above.
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A humbler creation, though female their lace, with true adoration
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That man is blessed to fearing God from sin restrains his feet. Who will not stand with wicked men? who
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shines the corner sea. Yay. Blessed is he who makes God's law
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his portion and delight and meditates and meditates upon that law with gladness day and
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night. That man is nourished by a tree set by a river side.
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His leaf is green, his fruit is sure, and thus his work.
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Awakening like a driven chap are swept from off the land.
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the land. They shall not gather with the just nor in the judgement
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stand. The Lord will guard the rightuous well. Their way to him is known.
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The way of sinners far from God shall surely be overrown.
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Welcome to Fellowship Bible Church. Seems like last time I was up here, the pews were even emptier. So, these sicknesses have been going around and going around. Just
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continue to lift up our body in prayer. We're going to continue reading in 1 Corinthians. We're reading the 10th chapter. Um, I think we need the spirit to explain this to us like we heard this
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morning in Sunday school. So, um, listen in the spirit as Paul continues to remmonstrate with the Corinthians, I
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think. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And
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all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was
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Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also
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craved. Do not be idoltors as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally as
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some of them did and 23,000 fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents. nor grumble as some of them
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did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who
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thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
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but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. You
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judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who
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are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?
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What do I mean then? That a sacrifice that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No. But I say that the things which the
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Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the
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table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we? All things are lawful, but not
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all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking
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questions for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and all it contains. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions
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for conscience sake. But if anyone says to you, "This is meat sacrificed to idols," do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for conscience sake. I mean, not your own
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conscience, but the other man's. For why is my freedom judged by another man's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?
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Whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks, or to the church of God. Just
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as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved. Let's continue to worship our
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Let's invite you to stand as we continue to sing.
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Praise God in his holy temple. Praise the Lord in heaven's high. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for
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you. and I long to worship you. Please be seated.
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Let's take this time now and just lift up the body corporately in prayer. After a time, I'll close.
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Father, you are indeed a good God, awesome in majesty, creator of the universe, all consuming fire. And yet you are love, you are mercy, you are
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Father, we thank you and praise you for your mercy and grace people out of all tongues and tribes and
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nations, none of whom remotely deserve your love. And yet you have loved us with an everlasting love.
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We cannot we cannot praise you enough. We cannot thank you enough. We ask that your spirit would fill us to overflow with gratitude with gratitude and adoration.
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You are great and awesome God through Jesus Christ.
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Father, it is true that we cannot possibly deserve even the smallest drop of the blood of grace that you poured out upon us. That you should look upon man at all,
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consider him as anything. The dust of which you is mercy enough. And yet, Father, not only have you regarded man, you have
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sent your son to die on the cross to shed his blood, be resurrected as the first fruits from the dead, to make a way to reconcile man to yourself.
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Having accomplished these things, you sent that spirit to us that we might companion with us. We might have that instruction from within our own hearts
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according to the word that we read and the power that he has in us with. And father, even this was not enough that you have appointed the body of
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Christ, the fellowship of the saints, that we might gather together to support one another, to grow, to edify, to be built up with you.
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as our father and Jesus Christ as the head that you have adopted us into the family. Father, there are more beyond that we
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can name. Time would fail us to list out all of the great works that you have done, all the individual mercies that you have seen to even Lord, the common graces that you have ensured, the
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changing of the seasons, the rain to water the earth, passage of time, the ordering of light, all of these things by your wisdom, your greatness, your
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power, and yet you have done these things in kindness and in love to us. Father, yes, we are grateful and we humble ourselves before you recognizing
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that you are God and we are but thus, and yet you have called us to magnify, to glorify that in whatever possible.
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Lord, we ask that it would be so. That these people praises that we offer would indeed glorify you and magnify your name. We
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you've drawn us to you, that you brought us here safely. We worship you, Father. That we can edify one another
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that we come together, Father, and all the things that you have shown us and continue to do within us. We thank you for the power and the
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wisdom, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, Father, that guides us in our walk that helps us draw closer to you and to
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our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you for all.
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those who are sick among us and ask that you would be
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Gracious Lord, we as a body say amen to these prayers lifted up lifted up and we and we look forward to the restoration of those
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who are physically ill to the body. We pray that you be with them.
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We are blessed and have been blessed already to hear the work of your spirit and the life that it gives. We can be reminded as we gather today in this rainy weather yet we look forward to
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spring where life will bloom again. And if we can understand the physical work that that flowing water does, we
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can also comprehend the spiritual work that your living water does for us. So Lord, I pray that your spirit would be poured out on those that are here, on
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also our brethren that are not here, and anywhere that your word is preached today, that the spirit would be magnified, Christ would be praised, and his work
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would be furthered in the growth of your body, the church. In his name we pray.
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How good it is to thank the Lord and praise to thee most highore to show thy love with pouring light and
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tell thy faithfulness each night. each night. It is thy praise to sing and all our
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sweetest music bring. music bring. Oh Lord with joy my heart expands
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before the wonders of thy hands. Thy worship thou has brought exceeding
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me thy every thought. A foolish man knows not their word. For he whose mind
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is of the earth. When has a grass the wagon ro when
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sinners flourish here below there is their endless ru
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but thou oh Lord our throne on high thy shall fall before thy My mind might the
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wicked shall be put to fight. The rightous man shall flish
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well and in the house of God shall dwell. He shall be like, a godly tree,
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and all his life shall fruitful. For rightuous, For rightuous, the Lord and just, he is my rock, in him
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We'll be finishing up chapter 14. The passage 17- 23 is is repetitive. It it is what Paul has been saying. And um while it it makes
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the passage a little bit more difficult to preach because we've already covered it, we do need to remember the repetition in scripture is emphasis. And so when things are repeated, it is not
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because the author is is a bad writer um or scenile. or scenile. It is because this is a very important point. This this goes to the very heart of what it means to be the people of
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God. So I want to read verses 17 through 23. And I'd like to ask Abe if you'd pray for the ministry of the word this morning. Romans 14 beginning in verse
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17. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable
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to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of
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God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.
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It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before
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God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from
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faith and whatever is not from faith is sin. Let us pray. Christ our father in heaven
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to us that we may be able to receive it. some greater than others. We thank you, God, for loving us, allowing us to hear.
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Kingdom of God, Paul says, is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This may seem a little bit out of place. He hasn't mentioned
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the kingdom of God actually at all in his letter, and he hasn't mentioned it here in Romans 14. And so when he brings it up here in verse 17, I think it is it is um
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reasonable for us to ask the question, what what is the kingdom of God and what is its uh application to this section?
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I thought we were talking about the congregation of Rome, the church itself, the believers, some of whom are are weak and not able in good conscience to eat
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or drink or or to do certain things on certain days. Others strong in conscience, knowing that all things are clean in the Lord have no problem doing these things. What does the kingdom of God have to do with this?
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It's a pretty significant statement because it it starts with that little word for word for which means it is the basis or the explanation for everything that Paul has
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been saying. been saying. He's saying that the kingdom of God is what it's all about. And he's saying the kingdom of God is the the foundation of our understanding
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of how we treat one another. So what is the kingdom of God? I think it has to be admitted that Paul doesn't in his letters mention the kingdom of God all
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that often. We'll look at some of the places where he does mention it, but we do know that the kingdom of God was pretty important to the preaching of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 4, after Jesus
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has been in the wilderness and tempted and dueling with the devil and he comes out to preach and to take up his ministry, we read from that time Jesus
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began to preach and say, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Let me throw in an exogetical note that I'm not going to defend or expand but
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kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are the same thing. I know that is not universally believed but I think there are many many examples especially in the
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parallel parables between Matthew and Luke. We'll show you that Matthew used kingdom of heaven because he was Jewish. The Jewish people did not say the name of God. Luke
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being a good Greek physician used the name God, but it is a parallel or synonymous phrase. I don't want anybody to get tripped up on that. So he came forth saying repent for the kingdom of
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heaven is at hand. So what happened to the kingdom? the kingdom? When we move on into the New Testament, I think that's a very valid question.
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What happened to the kingdom? After his resurrection and just before his ascens ascension, Jesus's disciples asked him, "Is it now that you are going
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to reestablish the kingdom in Jerusalem?" And Jesus response was, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons set by the Father, but you will be my
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witnesses." and he promises the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which we talked about in Sunday school today. So has the kingdom been delayed in in our day? That is the primary
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I would say evangelical Christian response as influenced by the teaching of dispensationalism over the past 200 years that the kingdom has been delayed.
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And the way it works very simply is that Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, came to the people of God, Israel, and offered them the kingdom and they turned it
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down. And so the kingdom has been delayed. It has been taken back. Never mind the fact that Jesus tells the Jews that the kingdom will be taken from you and given to another.
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But it's taught that the kingdom has been delayed because the Jewish nation rejected it when it first came through Jesus. And it is taught that the kingdom
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will return when Jesus returns and he will set up his thousand-year or millennial reign. A thought occurred to me as I was lying in bed last night, and
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I wonder why. I've never thought this before, but what's going to happen if the Jews refuse him then too? Or will God become a Calvinist
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and make them believe? Of course, that is the straw man that is used. The whole idea, the whole logic behind the kingdom being contingent upon the people
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receiving it renders the future no more hopeful than the past. Because if they reject Jesus, then they will reject Jesus later and there will
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be nothing that will change that. And if God does something the second time in order to somehow make them believe, then
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why didn't he do that the first time and make them believe? The logic isn't there. And so we're still left with the question, what happened to the kingdom?
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Furthermore, if we do conclude that the kingdom has been delayed, then what do we do with Romans 14:E1 17?
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Paul is talking about how believers relate to one another in the churches. Now, for him to use an analogy
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that is someplace off in the future is nonsense. is nonsense. To say for the kingdom of God is not food and drink. Well, that's what we're
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talking about. talking about. And if the kingdom of God has been delayed until that future glorious realm when I don't think we're really going to have to eat and drink anyhow, then it
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doesn't really make sense what he's saying here. saying here. His analogy with the kingdom of God only makes sense makes sense if we understand the kingdom of God as
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somehow here now. Otherwise, what he is saying is basically this and especially if you're familiar with dispensational theology
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and esquetology, what Paul is saying is accept one another because the kingdom of God, which by the way doesn't pertain to you Gentiles anyhow, will be here
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someday. Again, that's nonsense. And Paul is is very tight in his logic throughout his letters. In fact, sometimes he's he's so tight with his
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logic that he writes things that are somewhat hard to understand as Peter reminds us. reminds us. And so, we have to look at verse 17 when he he mentions somewhat out of the blue
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the kingdom of God as being somehow fundamental to Paul's ecclesiology. In other words, his doctrine of the
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church, of the body of Christ, and of how believers are to relate to one another is all integrally related to the kingdom of God now,
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not the kingdom of God then, even though both are aspects of the kingdom of God. All right. So,
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what is the kingdom of God? Well, any kingdom is the realm in which the king is sovereign. That's kind of the definition
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of a kingdom. And so if we talk about the kingdom of God, we say, well, that's the realm in which God is sovereign. Well, is he sovereign on earth today?
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Now, that's that's a that's a difficult question because when we look around it doesn't appear to be so. The nations are not submitting to the
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rule of the king of kings. The peoples are not bowing the knee to the only true God, the only true king through Jesus Christ. So it it seems like no,
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the the reign of God is not covering the earth. And that is why many have reasoned that the that the kingdom has not come primarily because they consider
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the kingdom to come in the same way human kingdoms come. Now, now think about the monarchs of Europe today. For a little bit of silly recreation, go ahead and think about the monarchs of
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because one of their ancestors managed to kill somebody who was somebody else's ancestor and to take the throne for himself. This is the way the Gentiles lorded over
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as Jesus puts it. This is the way kingdoms come in our world even within the the corporate world or the political world. It comes not through through
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righteousness, peace and joy. It comes not as leaven in in a loaf that slowly pervades the whole, which is what Jesus says the kingdom of God is like. Rather,
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it comes with force and visible killing. And sadly, And sadly, that's how dispensationalism views the
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way the kingdom will come in the age to But our kingdom did come with violence. It came with violence. In fact, holy
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violence. Violence executed on one man on a cross upon whom the wrath of God was poured out and was satisfied for all for whom he died. There's the
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violence of the kingdom. Not the violence of mankind, not the violence of armies, not the violence of corporations, not the violence of political conventions, but rather the
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silent and quiet levan of the gospel. So we can get deceived by our own eyes when we look at the world and say, "Well, God's not reigning, so the
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kingdom must not be here." And we forget what Jesus said after his resurrection. He said, "All authority has been given to me in heaven
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and on earth." And what Jesus was saying there is a direct fulfillment of something we read back in Daniel chapter 7 starting
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in verse 13 of that chapter. This is the vision that Daniel had of the various kingdoms, the Babylonian, the Meo Persian, the Greek, and the Roman that would come in the time in the days after
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him. And it was in that time, going back to Daniel 2 of the fourth kingdom that that little rock cut without hands would roll down the mountain and crush Nebuchadnezzar's statue and grind it
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into dust. into dust. And then that little rock would grow into a mountain that fills the whole earth. and a different vision in Daniel 7 of living creatures, especially the last
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one, Rome, being frightening beyond measure. Daniel writes, "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man
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was coming, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the
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peoples, nations, and men of every language, or as we read in Revelation, from every tongue, tribe, and nation
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might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and I'd like to add, will not be delayed either. and his kingdom is
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one which will not be destroyed. When Jesus said repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he meant
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it was at hand. It was here. When Jesus did defeat the one enemy of all mankind, death, he went before the ancient of days and
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was presented the kingdom. And all authority on heaven on earth belongs to him today. him today. The church needs to live under that
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banner. Believers need to meditate and and accept and rejoice in that reality that the kingdom, which is not food and
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drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy, is not some time off in the future. We're not living in some interim where we do the best we can and go to heaven when we die.
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There's no power of the Holy Spirit in that incipid view of the church. Let me also give another caveat. The church is not the kingdom.
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We'll speak about that in a moment. But when we read Daniel 7 and Matthew 28, it sounds very much like a kingdom and a king that transcends what
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the disciples were looking for. Transcends the kingdoms of men because it is a kingdom of all creation and all mankind. And Paul did teach that. He
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uses the phrase infrequently in his letters. And I think that's a very interesting um phenomenon why Paul doesn't really talk about the kingdom as
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much as we might expect him to. But the more you listen to Paul and when you listen to Paul's view of who Jesus is now, you realize the kingdom of God
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undergirds everything Paul writes. And so when he does use the phrase explicitly, it's merely pepper or seasoning to what
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he's already been saying about the reign and the rule of Christ over his people and about his people whose citizensship is not of this world but rather from heaven. We have our own king and it is
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Jesus Christ. Paul Paul's references explicit references fall into kind of two categories. The most frequent is kingdom as inheritance.
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And that's why a lot of people do conclude that the kingdom has been delayed because an inheritance is something that you get after someone else passes on. It's often the future is
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the way he's using it. For example, he says in um Ephesians 5, for this you know with certainty. And and I guess we should stop and ask the
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question as we hear the rest of the f the verse. Do we know this with certainty? Paul wrote this, you know, with certainty. And I think he was thinking
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because I taught you this with certainty. And it reminds me of my chemistry class when sometimes I I want to say, you know, the things you learned last
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semester, but what I need to say is the things I taught last semester. And and that may be what Paul's saying here, but this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or
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covetous man who is an idoltor has an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now, that verse is representative of about a half a dozen in Paul's letter where he
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he treats it negatively and he says, "You're not going to inherit the kingdom of God if you participate in these manners of life." But he also
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speaks of the kingdom as possession. Now, and another example, Colossians 1:13 that I referenced last week. For he delivered us from the domain of darkness
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and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. The verb tense there is past. He delivered us. He transferred
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us. There's no future element in that. He's not saying he will deliver. He's not saying he will transfer. He says he has done it. And therefore, he says to
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the Thessalonians, "Therefore, walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." There's
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the behavior. There's Romans 14. There's 1 Corinthians 10. How are we supposed to live with one another? having been delivered from the kingdom
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of darkness, having been transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son. So, it's that frequently recognized now and
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not yet. We're not in the kingdom. And as I said earlier, the church is not the kingdom. They are not co-extensive.
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What the church is is the manifestation of the kingdom within the church by the work of the
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Holy Spirit and the word of God. What the kingdom also is however is the manifestation of the grace of God through the church to the surrounding
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world. So you cannot say the church is the kingdom. The kingdom is broader than the church. The kingdom is not just the church. It is all of creation. That's Paul speaks of in Romans 8 as
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still groaning and yearning for the revelation of the sons of God. The kingdom will be the universal reign of God through Jesus Christ. All things will be subjected to him. And then he
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will turn and take the kingdom. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, he will take the kingdom and present it to his father so that God might be all in all. That's the kingdom.
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the kingdom. But the kingdom does not denigrate the church. The concept of the kingdom does not replace the reality of of the church. The church is, you might say,
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the face of the kingdom until the consummation. within the church are the citizens of the kingdom. All who are in Christ are
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citizens of the kingdom, servants of the true king. And that changes our perspective with regard to the kingdoms in which we live. Not that we abandon them any more than
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the Jews were abandoned praying for Babylon when they were exiled there. We do the same. But we are not part of that world. And that world's government does
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not rule over our consciences because we belong to the true king. And the way we live is what witnesses the
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kingdom of God to all the kingdoms of men. That is the true witness of the church. And I believe that it is manifested, as
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Paul says here in verse 17, in righteousness and peace and joy, things that the world doesn't have.
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And so I want to focus on those three in this message this morning. the idea of of the the righteousness and peace
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and joy of the body through the Holy Spirit being the manifestation of the kingdom of God. One other place does Paul make a statement of this uh similar nature in 1
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Corinthians 4. Corinthians 4. He says the kingdom of God does not come merely with word but in power. And in the context he's talking about
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how the Corinthians have their favorite preachers. And he's showing that that shows them to be merely carnal, not mature and not spiritual because they're saying, "I am
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of Paul and I am of Cphus and I am of Apollos." And he points out that that's not what the kingdom is. The kingdom is not eloquent speech. The kingdom is the
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power of the Holy Spirit. Now I believe to large extent a passage like that has been co-opted by our
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charismatic brethren charismatic brethren who who I think have mis a misconception concerning the word
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power. And I'm not going to go into the details that they they teach what that power is, but you can see it oftentimes on Instagram or YouTube and um it's somewhat throw up in your mouth type
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stuff, but that's not what Paul is talking about. In fact, I would submit to you that we can describe the power that is the kingdom's presentation in
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this world is the power of righteousness. It's the power of peace. It's the power of joy. that righteousness and peace and joy are themselves the manifestation of the
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power of the Holy Spirit in the world today. So what is righteousness? Righteousness in terms of a word, it belongs to the
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same root family both in the Hebrew and the Greek as the word often translated justified or justification. So when you're reading through the New
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Testament and you read the words righteousness and then you read the word justification, more often than not, it's the exact same word. And the English translators have chosen to use one word,
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one place, and another word, another place, so that they can write their commentaries and argue with one another what it really means. We might say that righteousness is what we are because of
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what has been done for us, justification. But we tend to think of righteousness in a moral manner. That righteousness, you might even hear someone preach it this
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way. Righteousness is right behavior. Well, I would submit to you that it is right standing before it is right behavior. In fact, if there is no right standing,
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then there can be no right behavior. If you are not in right standing with a holy God, holy God, then nothing that you do can be right
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before him. And so I I think to some extent our understanding of righteousness needs to be oriented toward the way Paul uses the word that
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it is not so much a matter of behavior, it is a matter of standing. It is both. But priority of order is important.
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Righteousness as right standing is merely moralism. I'm sorry. Right behavior is merely moralism. And we do descend into that as churches
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and as religion. And that is we establish what we consider to be the proper behavior that will please God. And then we enforce that behavior upon all of our adherence. and we call it
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righteousness, but that's not biblical righteousness. What we find in the Bible is that the righteousness of God and the righteousness that we receive is in fact a gift of grace.
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So Paul writes back in chapter 5 of Romans, "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the
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abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ." And so righteousness is first and
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foremost our standing before God which we receive we receive through faith as a gift.
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And unless that gift is received, there can be no true righteousness in behavior. Paul writes again in 2 Corinthians 5, he
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made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Not we
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might do but we might become. Ezekiel 36 was referenced in Sunday school today and the comment was made on and a very very good comment was made on
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the priority of the Holy Spirit bringing life. But the order of Ezekiel 36 is critical where God says I will take out your heart of stone. I will give you a heart
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of flesh and then you will walk in my statutes and obey my commandments. What religion wants to do is turn that around and say, "You walk in my
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commandments and you obey my statutes and then I will give you a heart of flesh." No. The gospel is in the right order. You must be born again. You must
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receive the gift of righteousness through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. And then by that spirit, yes, you will walk in the statutes. This is not to minimize the reality of sin.
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It is rather to recognize the priority of the gift of righteousness from God by his grace. And so when he says the kingdom is righteousness, the first
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thing that we must understand is that the kingdom is something that we receive as a gift. It is not something that we fight for or work for. It is not something that we earned or deserved.
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It's the gift of God through the gospel. And that is what unites all believers. That one gift of citizenship in the
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kingdom of God through righteousness. So when he says weak, strong, this is how you live to with one another, we understand it's because we are all
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united in the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. We were all once alienated from God, strangers of God, without God and without hope in
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the world. And by his grace, you who were once dead, he has made alive. That that is our common ground for all believers in the church is we have that
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gift of righteousness. So having that gift of righteousness, he says the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but it's peace.
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sin. Sin is the symptom. The problem is rebellion against God, which of course is sin. But sin has become so manifest within
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human society that that we think that's the problem. That is not the main problem. Again, I'm not minimizing the reality
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and importance of sin, but if we focus on sin, we cannot help but turn Christianity and the gospel into a moralizing influence rather than a
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redeeming one, rather than a regenerating one. The problem is that all mankind, as Paul makes clear in Romans 3, all mankind
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abides under the wrath of God. All mankind in Adam are at enmity with God. What is needed is not just
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cleansing. What is needed is peace with God. We need to be brought back into a relationship of peace with our maker.
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And we cannot do that ourselves. All we can do now that we have rebelled against God is continue in that rebellion. Only God can intervene and bring peace.
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And so going back again to to Romans 5 where I have it written here. Therefore, having been justified,
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that's the same root word as righteousness. We might say, "Therefore, having been made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through
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our Lord Jesus Christ." See, the gift of righteousness comes through faith by the preaching of the
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gospel. And it restores the relationship of peace with a holy God. It's all God's doing. And so we might say, okay, righteousness is the new standing that
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we have in Jesus Christ. Peace is the new relationship we have with God the Father. That there is no condemnation left for us. All things have been taken
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away. Behold, all things have become new. The relationship is now one of peace. Peace that the world cannot give. But praise God, peace that the world cannot take away. And so within the
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church, having been made righteous by the grace of God through faith and have having been brought to that relationship of peace with God through Jesus Christ,
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Paul is simply reasoning, how can there be discord among you if you all have peace with God? Yes, you have differences.
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Some people can drink, others can't. Some people can eat meat, others can't. Some people can mow the yard on Sunday and others can't. But you have peace with God. Which is
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why Paul can say don't judge your other your brother who is the servant of another the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand. So it's not
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uniformity but it's unity. And and this is what he's saying in verse 17. This is what the unity is based on. Number one, all who are in Christ have received a new standing. It is no longer unrighteous.
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It is no longer condemned. It is now righteous. We have become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ because of Jesus Christ. That's number one. We're all We all have the same
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standing. Because of that standing, now we all have the same relationship with God the Father. We no longer dwell under his wrath, but rather under his everlasting love. everlasting love. And therefore, if we dwell under with
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peace with God, there should be no discord among brothers. That's the logic. Obviously, it looks good on paper and a little harder to
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work out in real life. And that's where the third one comes in. Joy. Joy. I'm sure many of you have heard this, but some of you younger people haven't. Uh I've always found it to be
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quite humorous. To dwell above with saints we love. Oh, that will be glory. But to live below with saints we know now that's a different story.
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Joy. Where's the joy? I'm sure all of you at some point in time have asked that question. Where is as as David writes in Psalm 51, the joy
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of my salvation? We live in a veil of tears. We live in a world that is still heavily influenced by the prince of the power of the air. And more than that, we still
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have the sin that dwells within our members. Romans 7. We do not walk in perfection. We do not attain to the perfect love and unity to which we are called. And often what suffers is joy.
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Where's the joy? Well, again, it is a matter of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. It's a matter of seeing things that
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aren't as though they are. It's a matter of seeing things as already seen, even though they have only been promised, but they have been promised by a faithful God. And it's a matter of not
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looking at circumstances, but rather at hope. Hope, I think, is the root of Christian joy. Again, back to Romans 5. Actually,
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what he's saying here in Romans 14, he's echoing the much larger passage in Romans 5. But listen to what Paul says. He goes on. He says, "Through whom Jesus
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Christ, we have obtained our introduction by faith into the grace in which we stand." Now, that's what he means. That's what I mean by the kingdom. Not yet, but now. Our
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introduction into the grace which is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God. So we have obtained the introduction into this grace in which we
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stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God. We exalt. That's joy. We rejoice because we have hope. And we have hope
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that is living and abiding and passes through the veil. We have hope that that cannot be dissuaded because ours is a faithful God. And knowing that he began a good work in us, he will bring it to
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perfection until the day of Jesus Christ. We know he is faithful who has called us and he will bring it to pass. There is that hope that even in the
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midst of struggles and trials which we have to acknowledge exist, we can still rejoice in the hope of our
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calling. There is still there are still tears. There is still grief. There is still discord. There is still schism. There's still heartache. still heartache. And all of that can overwhelm us if we
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do not hold fast fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So our jo our joy again is not in
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circumstances. But this is the hardest part I would think. I think righteousness as a gift and a standing is something that we can all kind of get
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our mind around and be thankful to God. And we can do that and should do that on our own.
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Peace is a tough one. Maintaining peace takes work. But oftentimes we can maintain we can maintain an attitude that appears to be peace when is simply the absence of open
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conflict. That's the UN peacekeeping forces. Okay. A ridiculous name for the people because they are not maintaining peace. They are just simply keeping two sides
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from killing each other. And that's not biblical peace. That is not the peace that Christ gives. And yet we may have the the facade of peace, but we don't
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have joy. have joy. It's a hard one, but also it's even made it's made even harder by the fact that we can't do that alone.
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That we must find joy together. That's what Paul is driving out really in most of his letters that this is not something that you can do on your own.
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It's as if he says, "Do not try this at home." This is only something that works within the body of Christ. It is only something that works when the distribution of the
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Holy Spirit is brought together into one body, the local church. It is not something that can be done on one's in one's living room in front of a television set or computer screen. It
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has to be done in the midst of the weak and the strong. And it's done with joy. Like I said, that's a tough one.
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Paul writes in Philippians and and I do think that Philippians chapter 2 uh is a great commentary on most of the book of Romans, especially the latter chapters that we're looking
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at now. But Paul writes, "If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, is there? is there? Is there any encouragement in Christ?"
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These are all rhetorical. You know the the what's it questions? If any consolation of love, how about the love of God in Jesus Christ? The love that
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says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus. Is that not consolation? So we have encouragement, we have consolation. If there is any fellowship
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of the spirit, are we a church? Because frankly, if there is no fellowship of the spirit, there's no church, just a gathering of people. Are
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we a church? Then the answer, yes, there is fellowship of the spirit. If any affection, any compassion, are we
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brethren? That's another one. Are we truly brothers and sisters because of our common father through Jesus Christ? This is not easy.
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But there is the Holy Spirit as Paul says in Romans and here in Philippians. It this is the goal. This is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ. Paul says, "Make my joy complete
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by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." This is what the kingdom of God looks like now.
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And if the church looks like this, then the world beholds the kingdom of God through the church. And that is what Paul is driving at.
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Thomas Reiner writes, "The kingdom of God consists God consists in his transforming power, induction into esqueological peace and
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joy. May this be true of our congregation forever." Let us pray.
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Father, this is what we yearn for. And and may this be the object of our earnest prayer earnest prayer that by your spirit you would unite our hearts knowing that we have become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
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That you have given us the gift of the standing of righteousness before your holy throne. holy throne. that you have restored peace between
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rebellious sinners as we were and not only peace adoption. That you call us sons and daughters.
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We ask that you would grant us the joy of our salvation. And not just each one of us, rejoicing that we have no condemnation, that we will be able to stand in that day, not
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through any merit of our own, but because of the blood of Jesus Christ. But may we rejoice and exalt together in that grace. And may the world witness the kingdom, your kingdom, through this
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congregation because of that righteousness, because of our peace with God. and therefore with one another and because of our mutual joy and hope of a promise that must come to pass for you
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are a faithful God and we give you all the glory and honor through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Please rise for the benediction
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from Ephesians chapter 3. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that
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works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
