Podcasts about all paul

A topic much discussed on our show, but we've never done a proper Top 20 Countdown of Macca's B-Sides. Partly in reply to our wonderful friend Beatley Tone who did a fabulous ranking of his own. Tom and David did one back in the pre-Andy era but for E258 Andy and Tom revisit our favourite 20 Macca B-Sides. Some of them are so damn good they should be A Sides! We obviously agree on a good chunk but differ on a few too! All Paul. All The Time. Peace, Andy & Tom

A Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 2 Corinthians 3:1-11 by William Klock One morning back in my Macintosh technician days my boss walked up and put a resume on my bench.  “Does this look suspicious or is it just me?” he asked.  He pointed to the guy's work history.  Every one of his previous employers was defunct, but somehow he had the personal email address of every one of his old bosses.  If that wasn't odd enough, all of them had Yahoo and Hotmail email addresses using similar formats.  It was pretty obvious.  Every one of those email addresses was made up and would just go back to him and he could write his own references. Of course, the whole point of a reference is that someone—who is either known personally or known by reputation—someone else is vouching for you.  They did this in Paul's world just like we do today.  Jews, especially in the diaspora, would carry letters of recommendation indicating that other Jews could trust them.  In the pagan Greco-Roman world it was common for your patron to supply you with a letter of recommendation.  But writing your own recommendation, well, that kind of misses the whole point.  But that seems to be what the Corinthians are accusing Paul of doing in today's Epistle.  They read parts of his first epistle to them—parts like Chapter 9 where he defends himself as an apostle—and they took it as inflated self-commendation.  But now, people in Corinth have been making false accusations against him too, so he's going to have to do the same thing all over again.  We can hear his frustration as he writes to them, beginning Chapter 3 of Second Corinthians:   So, we're starting to “recommend ourselves” again, are we?  Or perhaps we need—as some do—official references to give to you?  Or perhaps even from you?   Maybe he should get one of his other churches—maybe the brothers and sisters in Ephesus—to write him a letter, vouching for him.  But Paul shouldn't have to do that.   Paul had a difficult relationship with the Corinthians.  When he left them in ad 50, the church was very supportive of him and his mission, but over the next several years their attitude towards him soured.  The church grew, new preachers arrived, attitudes changed.  Paul wrote to intervene in their struggles over leadership and to rebuke them for allowing pagan idolatry and immorality to get a foothold in the congregation.  They patted themselves on the back for being free in the Messiah and Paul rebuked them saying that this isn't what freedom in the Messiah means.  Of course, they didn't appreciate Paul's rebukes and so he became persona non grata in Corinth.  He wrote to them and they responded with a “Thanks, but no thanks, Paul.” So Paul responds sort of facetiously: “Am I going to need a recommendation before you'll listen to me?”  That would be a bit like telling our bishop that he needs a recommendation from some other church before we'll let him visit or preach here.  Others might have shaken the dust from their shoes at that point and left the ingrates in Corinth to themselves, but not Paul.  He has a pastor's heart.  He cares too much for them.  And he answers not to them, but to Jesus.  I don't think they actually asked for a letter of recommendation, but he offers one anyway—but not like any other—because Paul knew that the gospel commends itself.  So he writes to them: You yourselves are our letter… They rejected him.  They've told him not to come around and not to write to them anymore to give advice.  They've disrespected and insulted him.  And Paul writes: I don't need a letter of recommendation to prove my credentials as an apostle and servant of Jesus.  I don't.  Because you people yourselves are my letter of recommendation.  You people, even though you've rejected me, you're the proof of my gospel credentials. You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.  It's quite plain that you are a letter from the Messiah, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of beating hearts.   Brothers and Sisters, if that's not grace I don't know what is.  Paul doesn't need a letter written in ink on paper.  These messed up, confused, infuriating people are nevertheless filled with the life of the Spirit promised in the gospel.  For all their faults and for all their inability to see how they've been shaped by their culture in their rejection of him, their joy in the Lord and their hope in the good news is the result of Paul's ministry to them and that says everything about Paul that needs to be said.  Despite their imperfections and immaturity, their transformation by and their life in Jesus and the Spirit, make them his credentials. That's pretty astounding and it says something about the power of the gospel and Paul's expectation of its power to transform people, even when they looked hopeless and even when they're still far from perfect.  These were people he rebuked for putting the wisdom of the Greeks over the truth of the gospel.  These were people he rebuked for tolerating a church member who was sleeping with his step-mother.  These were people he rebuked for dragging each other through the courts, for divorce, for not treating each other as equals, for abusing spiritual gifts, for abusing the Lord's Supper, for having crazy, disordered worship.  The list is a long one.  And yet despite their multitude of failings, he says, “You want to see my credentials as a gospel minister, as an apostle?  You're it.”  Paul could see the gospel at work in them.  For all their faults, they were not the people they had once been.  As he had written to them in his first epistle, no one affirms that Jesus is Lord apart from the transforming work of the Spirit.  Paul could see through the flaws and immaturity and knew that they believed, that they loved Jesus, that they were full of the Spirit.  He had proclaimed the good news about Jesus to them and it had done its work, it was continuing to do its work, and he was confident, it would in time complete its work.  This is important.  Sometimes we look at other Christians or other churches and they're a mess and we're tempted to write them off completely.  Brothers and Sisters, be careful.  Is Jesus being proclaimed as Lord?  If he is, that means that the gospel and the Spirit are at work there.  Maybe the gospel and the Spirit have a lot of work yet to do.  The Corinthians needed correction—a lot of it.  But Paul didn't write them off.  They had the gospel.  These aren't the other folks Paul warns about who were preaching another, a different gospel.  That's a whole other problem.  But the Corinthians received the gospel and the gospel is a powerful thing.  It is the power of God to save.  Now, word of caution.  Their context was different from ours.  This was a first-generation church living in the days when these things were still being worked out.  We don't have that excuse today.  But still, no one, no church is perfect, but if the gospel is there, we should be confident that Jesus and the Spirit will be with a church to correct and to bring maturity. But how could Paul look at these messed up people in a messed up church and be so sure?  He could, because he knew that God is faithful.  Because he knew the story and because he knew the promises of God.  And so Paul reminds the Corinthians of Jeremiah 31 and of God's promise to Israel there.   In those days Israel was in exile.  Israel had been unfaithful to God.  She had been unfaithful to her covenant obligations.  She had refused to trust in his goodness and she had prostituted herself to foreign kings and to foreign Gods.  So the Lord had judged her and allowed the Babylonians to conquer her, to destroy Jerusalem, to tear the temple down to the ground, and to carry the people off into captivity, away from the land they'd been promised—and most importantly, away from his presence. But that was not the end.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord promised the people that he would redeem them.  They may be covenant-breakers—like a cheating spouse—but he was not.  He would always be faithful to his promises.  And so one day he would restore Israel by establishing a new covenant.  There would be a new agreement between the Lord and his people.  There would be a new marriage between Israel and her Lord.  He had established the old covenant through Moses when he gave Israel his law, written on stone tablets.  But that law carved on stone did not have the power to give the people the real life they needed and that the Lord desired for them.  And so the Lord promised a new covenant that would restore Israel.  The new covenant would deal fully with the sins of the people—that's what the cross of Jesus is about.  And the new covenant would give the people the new life they needed in order to truly be the renewed people the Lord wanted them to be—to remake humanity into what we were meant to be—God giving his people his own life, transforming their hearts and minds in a way that the law written on stone was never able to do.  In this new covenant, the Lord promised through Jeremiah, he would write the law on their hearts—he would give his people his own Spirit. That was the story and that was the promise.  And when Paul looked at the Christians in Corinth, even though they were confused and muddled and had rejected him, he could write to them and say that they were his letter, they were his credentials, because the life of God's Spirit was evident in their life as a church.  They themselves were a letter from Jesus the Messiah.  The powerful work promised through Jeremiah and the other prophets was manifest in the amazing work that the Spirit had accomplished in them.  Think about that.  Some of them had been Jews—the same sort of Jews that Paul himself had been when he persecuted Jesus' people.  Some of them had been Greek pagans, worshipping idols, offering incense to Caesar, deeply involved in a degenerate culture.  But Paul had brought them the good news that Jesus is Lord.  He preached Jesus' death and resurrection.  And they had been transformed.  The Spirit had moved them to repentance and given them a totally new life.  The living God had written something powerful on their hearts and they would never be the same people again.  And the pagan world around them could see it even if these people couldn't see it themselves anymore.  Again, think about that.  Think about your own stories.  Think of the way you were once met with the good news.  Think of the forgiveness you have found at the cross.  Think of the new life Jesus has given you.  Just like the Corinthians, each of us has a long road ahead of us as we grow into a mature faithfulness to Jesus and his lordship, but Jesus has poured his Spirit into us. In our baptism he has plunged us into the Holy Spirit and we are not the people we once were—and neither were the Corinthians. And so Paul goes on, getting back to his credentials, writing in verses 4-6: That's the kind of confidence we have towards God, through the Messiah.  It's not as though we are qualified in ourselves to reckon that we have anything to offer on our own account.  Our qualification comes from God.  God has qualified us to be stewards of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.  The letter kills, you see, but the Spirit gives life.   All the proof of Paul's faithfulness as a minister of the gospel, as a minister of God's new covenant is right there in the work accomplished in the Corinthians by Jesus and the Spirit.  It's not that Paul is competent himself.  He merely showed up in Corinth and preached the good news as he'd been called to do by Jesus himself.  But as a result of Paul preaching the good news of Jesus and the kingdom, God's new creation had unfolded right there in a powerful and very visible way.  The “letter”—the old law written on stone—brought death, but the Spirit now poured into these people had given them life.  In his resurrection Jesus unleashed life into the world.  All Paul did was preach that good news and where he did that the Spirit brought transformation—the Spirit brough the life promised by God all those centuries before. As frustrated as Paul was with the Corinthian Christians, the fact that they were Christians—well, Paul knew it was by the grace of God.  They'd been transformed and in that Paul saw the glory of God, the glory of the cross, the glory of gospel, the glory of Jesus and the Spirit.  Paul has been absolutely swept up and away by it all.  God's amazing faithfulness and his glory revealed in the cross and the empty tomb and in Jesus and the Spirit have captivated Paul.  It drives him on and it's the lens through which he sees literally everything.  But the Corinthians just aren't seeing it anymore.  They've been distracted by worldly things and by their petty disputes.  And so having declared how they themselves are the proof of God's faithfulness and the power of the gospel, in verse 7 he now goes on, trying to get them to look up again.  To forget the cheap and dingy things that have distracted them and to get them captivated again by the glory of what God has done in Jesus and the Spirit.  He says to them: Think about it: If the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came in glory, so glorious in fact that the children of Israel couldn't look at Moses because of the glory of his face—a glory that was to be abolished, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory?   From waxing eloquent about the glory of the new covenant, Paul takes them back to the dark days of the old.  And yet, as much as we might (and they) might think of the old covenant times, the time before Jesus and the Spirit, as dark, Paul reminds them of Moses face when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the law.  Moses had been in the presence of the Lord and he came down the mountain with his face radiating the Lord's glory.  It was so bright, so brilliant, so radiant of the holiness of God that the people pleaded with Moses to cover his face.  As glorious as it was, it was just too much for them to look upon. And Paul's point is this: If the law carved on stone came down from the mountain in such amazing glory, if the old covenant carried that much glory, how much more glorious is the ministry of the Spirit and God's new covenant with his people?  He goes on in verses 9-11: For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory?  In fact, what used to be glorious has come in this respect to have no glory at all, because of the new glory which goes so far beyond it.  For if the thing which was to be abolished came with glory, how much more glory will there be for the thing that lasts?   Like the Christians of Ephesus who, in Revelation, are described as having lost their first love, the Corinthians had lost sight of the glory of the Holy Spirit's ministry.  It wasn't that they'd lost the Holy Spirit.  That's impossible.  It's the Spirit who binds us to Jesus, he's the one who unites us to his life, he's the one who renews our minds and regenerates our hearts, turning us from everything that is not Jesus and giving us the desire and the faith to take hold of Jesus with both hands.  You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit.  But somehow they'd lost perspective.  The Spirit had empowered these people remarkably, they had no shortage of gifts, but they'd lost sight of the gospel, Jesus was no longer their centre, and they misused and abused those gifts.  And they'd slowly let the values of Greek culture creep in to displace a gospel-centred life.  Somehow they'd lost sight of the glory of God revealed in Jesus and the Spirit.  Does that sound familiar? Brothers and Sisters, we can all too easily fall prey to the same sorts of things.  Our own culture infiltrates the church in many, many ways.  It compromises our call to holiness and we become worldly in our living.  It creeps into our churches, too.  Our culture is overwhelmingly commercialistic, materialistic, and individualistic and too often, without even realizing it's happened, we start building our churches around these things.  We treat the gospel like a commodity to sell.  We displace it with programs and we tailor our preaching to appeal to our culture's self-centred individualism.  Programs can be good and useful in accomplishing the work of the church, but most of the time these days they're treated as sales tools.  But God doesn't give us programs.  He gives us his word.  Through the ministry of the Spirit he caused his word to be written by prophets, apostles, and evangelists so that we can know him and proclaim him to the world.  And in Jesus he sent his word to become flesh—not to give us programs or gimmicks or to tickle the itching ears of sinners—but to die for our sins and to rise again to unleash life into the world.  A church should never have its identity tied up with anything other than the gospel.  A church is a place where the word is faithfully preached and the sacraments faithfully administered.  That was the definition the Protestant reformers developed.  What constitutes a church?  A church is a body of believers that preaches the word and administers the sacraments.  But today it seems many preach everything but the word and the sacraments are often side-lined or even sometimes considered optional.  As ministers of the gospel, we—and that's both you and I—are not called to be flashy, we're not called to preach the pop-psychology and self-help that our culture obsesses over, we're not called to be motivational speakers, we're not called to preach health and wealth.  We're called to proclaim that Jesus has died and risen and that he is Lord.  We're called to summon the world to repentance before the throne of Jesus the Messiah.  And we're called to leave behind and to sacrifice everything that is not Jesus, everything that is not of his kingdom.  We're called to back-up our proclamation by living the life of the Spirit, by manifesting the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control that the Spirit bears in our lives.  We're called to live justly and to do mercy.  We're called to use the giftings of the Spirit not for our own ends, but for the sake of the gospel and for the well-being of the Church.  We're called to be gloriously counter-cultural: being poor in spirit, mourning sin, living in meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, and making peace—even when it means rejection and persecution.  As people filled with God's own Spirit, we are the earnest of God's promise and work of new creation.  By our preaching and by our lives, we're called to lift the veil on God's new creation, to pull God's future into the present so that the world can have a taste of it—and see the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.  Brothers and Sisters, it's this Jesus-centred and Spirit-empowered life that manifests the glory of God to the world, that makes us the light of the world and the salt of the earth—that marks us out as the people of God. Let us pray:  Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve:  Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

THE STORY OF JOSEPH - lesson 8 GOD'S PARADIGM OF SALVATION OF THE WORLD The connection between Joseph and Jesus is too awesome.  I recommend the following video on You Tube.  It is a great intro to this concept of Joseph being a paradigm of the Messiah; he is a prototype of Messiah Jesus.  Check out this short video at this link - https://youtu.be/QQKadh0fVCo?si=5ltTxeA6TSB2COZu The resource you have to have is the book by Elhanan ben Avraham of the Christian (Messianic) teaching ministry, Netivyah - the way of the Lord.  His book is entitled, "Mashiach ben Yosef," or "Messiah the Son of Joseph.  It is available at the ministry website in the STORE.  Here's the link to Netivyah - https://netivyah.org/ Elhanan goes through chapters 37-50 of Genesis, the complete saga of Joseph, and connects it events and situations in the New Testament that clearly show the Lord did this on purpose.  Joseph is a "picture" of what the true coming savior of the world would be like.  And in this lesson we will continue to see how Joseph and Jesus are so amazingly connected by the Lord's inspiration He gave to Moses to write this in Torah. A second major focus in lesson 89 is the phrase, SAVED BY GRACE.  So many today say we are saved by grace and do not need to do the law like Jews.  We're saved by grace and they imply all we need to do is now live as believers with no other responsibility.  That isn't true.  We'll see this brought out in Joseph's life.  He was saved by grace for a purpose.  The same for so many Bible characters like Moses or Ruth or David and even all Israel.  This is a common aspect of God's covenant with His people and US.  Paul teaches this in Eph. 2:8-10.  All Paul is doing is teaching a concept so common throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament.  Here's those verses ... For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-10) We'll see that the Lord has chosen each of us.  We're saved by grace.  But, He did this since He also has works, tasks, a purpose for each of us.  Saved by Grace??  You bet.  But that is only the beginning.  Now you have work He wants you to do. Rev. Ferret - who is this guy?  What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0

The game dudes get to the bottom of port vs starboard and destroying Tataku in Capcom's 1988 […] The post It's All Paul's Fault/1943 (NES) appeared first on NYEH Entertainment.

The Great Mystery Revealed - Jesus Came for ALL - Paul literally gives his life for the indescribable riches of the reality that Christ truly came for ALL. That there would no longer be outsiders and insiders but that ALL would be one body and together experience life in Christ.

The Great Mystery Revealed - Jesus Came for ALL - Paul literally gives his life for the indescribable riches of the reality that Christ truly came for ALL. That there would no longer be outsiders and insiders but that ALL would be one body and together experience life in Christ.

Greetings! It's good to have you with us as we continue our journey through the book of Acts together. Today we come to Acts 24, where we find Paul being brought to trial before the Roman governor, Felix by a group of unbelieving Jews. And yet, in the midst of that, we find Paul trusting Himself into the hands of God. And amazingly, by the end of the passage, we will see that it is Felix  (rather than Paul) who is brought under conviction. Go ahead and look with me, starting at verse 1… Acts 24:1 (ESV)— 1 And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. Why The Slap?— Now there's a lot to unpack just in this first verse. Ananias, remember, is not actually the high priest. He has retained the title. But it is Caiaphas who is the acting high priest. And yet it is Ananias who comes. And remember that it is he who had commanded (when Paul was on trial before the Sanhedrin) to have Paul illegal struck on the mouth. And remember that the Greek language conveys a vicious strike, not just a light smack in the face. And all that just for Paul's saying that he had a clear conscience.     Now I have to confess, I had a little Columbo moment this week. I said to myself, “Der's just dis ting dat bodders me.” It's been rolling around in my mind. And it has to do with that slap in response to what Paul had said. Because what Paul had said shouldn't have been that offensive, let alone something for him to get slapped for. All Paul had said was that he had a clean conscience. So I've had this question mark bouncing around in my mind. But then I felt God impressing on me the reality that to a dark and sinful world (and particularly to a man like Ananias, who is reported to have been one of the most brutal and sinister high priests the Jews ever had) a clean conscience is a very offensive thing; because somebody who is marked by the Holiness of God is living a life that is a rebuke to others.  The House In The Dark— This week I was reminded of a story of two families. [The O'Learys and the MacMillans lived as neighbors at the turn of the century. One day a young man in a suit came to their village to explain that they would soon have electricity for the first time. The MacMillans responded with their typical enthusiasm and filled out the appropriate papers to have their house wired.     The O'Learys were more cautious. After all, they had lived for generations without electricity and had managed just fine. They weren't about to throw money after every passing fad. So they decided to wait. If electricity was as good as everyone said, they could always sign up later.     In the weeks that followed, the MacMillans busily prepared their house for electrical power. They clamped wires and sockets to the walls and hung bulbs from the ceiling. When the big day finally came, the MacMillans invited their neighbors, including the O'Learys, to a grand lighting party. With a dramatic flourish, Mr. MacMillan threw a switch and the bulbs began to glow for the first time. The McMillan house was illuminated more brightly than it had ever been lit before. There was a gasp. “How lovely!” someone said. Then another gasp. "How filthy!” someone else said. It was true. No one had noticed it before in the dim light, but years of oil lamps had left a film of dingy soot over everything. The walls were grimy, there were cobwebs in the corner, and dust covered the floor.     The O'Learys decided right then and there that they would never install electricity in their home. They would never suffer the humiliation of having their dirty home exposed by the light. After the party, the MacMillans went to work. They scrubbed the soot off the walls and ceiling, cleaned the cobwebs, and swept away the dust. They had indeed been embarrassed by their dirty home when the lights came on, but within a day, their house was cleaner than it had ever been. Meanwhile, the O'Learys continued to live comfortably in their dimly lit home filled with soot, cobwebs, and filth.     Many people today choose to live in the dark. They don't want anyone to see the dirt—what's really going on in their lives. Sometimes they don't want to see it themselves. They avoid the light for fear that they will see the truth and be forced to clean up their acts. “This is the verdict {(writes John)}: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:19-21).] The Ear of Malchus— There is a man in the Bible you may remember: Malchus. He was the servant of the high priest who was with those who arrested Jesus. And you'll remember Peter drew his sword and hacked off his ear. And Jesus reaches down, picks up the ear off the ground, no doubt brushes it off (maybe gives it a few blows) and sticks it right back on. I mean, can you imagine!!!??? But one author I was reading pointed out how what we often don't consider is the conversation that no doubt happened later that night when Malchus returned to Caiaphas and Caiaphas asked for a report of what happened? “Did you succeed in arresting Jesus?”, asks Caiaphas. “Yes, High Priest, we did.”, responds Malchus. “Did you have any trouble?” “Well, yes, a little.”, said Malchus, scratching his ear. “Why, what happened?” “Well, one of the disciples got in the way and brazenly sliced off my ear.” “It looks okay to me.” “Well, High Priest, that's just it. This Jesus, whom you sent us to arrest, picked it up and stuck it right back on.”     I imagine things got really quiet at this point. And the author I was reading pointed out something so profound. He said Malchus (and particularly his ear) was God [the Father's last love note to Caiaphas.…In his gracious mercy Jesus restored Malchus's ear, and Malchus's witness to Caiaphas of that event was the high priest's last chance for repentance. It was God's final witness to him: he put someone right in Caiaphas's court who had been touched by the loving hand of Jesus. Oh, the unending mercy of God! If a person is lost, it will be in spite of himself and in spite of the evidence that God stacks up in his life. {But then he says this. And this is the kicker:} I am confident that Caiaphas did not employ Malchus for long after this incident of healing {(he writes)}. I imagine that the sight of Malchus's ear made Caiaphas uneasy and nervous. When we choose not to obey and do not act on the witness God gives to us, sooner or later we will banish that witness from our lives because we cannot tolerate its suggestive presence. The love of God continues to point to him in all areas of life, even in the lives of the most hardened unbelievers, but some of us refuse to see or hear it.]     You want to know why Ananias had Paul slapped; and why He and so many of the Jews were seeking to remove Paul from the face of the earth? I think this was why. And that's why it only took five days (a very short time) [for the Jewish leaders to put their case together, hire and attorney, and make the trip to Caesarea.] They were afraid that the longer they waited, the more likely Felix was to dismiss Paul's case. And they were eager to remove the source of their conviction. Now when the court convenes, it says of Paul… Acts 24:2-3 (ESV)— 2 And when he had been summoned, Tertullus {(he's the lawyer or orator)} began to accuse him, saying: “Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, 3 in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. Ummm….No— This was a lie. [Felix was a former slave whose brother (a favorite of Emperor Claudius) had obtained for him the position as governor.] The Romans did not see him as very influential. And though he had ousted the Egyptian assassin and his followers, the Jews despised him for his brutality; and he (two years after this) will actually be deposed by Emperor Nero. So (at least in his mind) to quote esteemed historian Rabbi Smash Mouth, Tertullus was looking kind of dumb with his finger and his thumb in the shape of a “L” on his forehead. He thought very little of Felix. But with the normal (and I might add “obligatory”) salutations out of the way, he continues. Verse 4… Acts 24:4-8  (ESV)— 4 But, to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. 5 For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. 6 He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him {(and some manuscripts add… and we would have judged him according to our law. 7 But the chief captain Lysias came and with great violence took him out of our hands, 8 commanding his accusers to come before you.)}. 8 By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.” Keep It Vague— Now note how they falsely say they had arrested Paul. That didn't happen. The Jews had instigated a riot and it was Lysias (the Tribune) who had saved him by taking him into custody. But in their version it is Paul who started it. And I want you to see something else; and it's the secret to a great accusation. Notice how Tertullus keeps everything vague. Notice the complete lack of any kind of specific detail as to when, where, and how Paul had supposedly instigated a riot. Now Rome took any kind of riot or insurrection very seriously; and if this charge against Paul could have been substantiated, Paul would have faced severe punishment and possibly even execution. But Tertullus knows that if he gets specific (naming specific incidents) Felix could have Paul's case transferred [to the governor in whose jurisdiction the incident took place. {But that's not what the Jews wanted.} The Jews wanted Paul tried before a governor over whom they had some influence.] So Tertullus keeps it vague. And so do the rest of his accusers. It says in… Acts 24:9 (ESV)— 9 The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so. Bad News & Good News— And next week we will see how Paul defends himself against their charges. But as we close our time together today, I want first say something hard and then something I hope will be an encouragement to you. It's a bad news/good news kind of a thing. The bad news is that if you are radically committed to Jesus Christ, persecution is always always always going to come from people whose consciences are disturbed by the presence of Christ they see in you. But Jesus himself offers us hope when He says in… Matthew 5:11-12 (NKJV)— 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Hold On— That is a truth that Paul held onto. And it is one that you and I should hang onto as well. Let's do so. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card in the worship guide. You fill it out legibly, and then just toss on the offering basket when it comes around after, and we'll get in touch with you over the course of the week. We have a members' meeting coming up, I think it's September 11th, and we have a membership class, I think it's the following week, September 18th. So if you are a member, plan to come to the members' meeting. If you are not a member, you'd like to become a member, come to the membership class. I think it's in the 18th. All the stuff's in the bulletin. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the richness of the epistle of Romans. We thank you for the truth of the gospel, that we are completely, totally, utterly at Your mercy. That's how sinful we are. That's how lost we are. That's how dire our situation apart from you. Lord, that's where we want to be, like King David when Nathan comes to him and calls him to repentance and gives him options of punishment. David said, "I'd rather be cast at the mercy of God." So that's what we cry out today, Lord. We plead for mercy. We thank you that Your Son Jesus Christ, He was not given mercy on the cross as He endured Your wrath for our law-breaking. He did that in order to extend mercy to us. We thank You, Lord, and we thank You for the gift of salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we today are continuing our sermon series through Romans. We're in chapter nine, verse 14 through 23. Next week, we're going to pause. We'll do a two-week series. We annually do this about our values, our vision, our philosophy of ministry. It's our Love Jesus Simple two-week series. That's next week and the following week because this is a time of the year where a lot of people are church shopping. And if that's you, well, you know what? God told me to tell you this is the church for you. So your shopping experience is over. We've got everything you need. We've got the Word of God. And we need help. We need you. To the sermon. The title is Only at God's Mercy. Have you ever been at someone's mercy, completely at someone's mercy where they have complete leverage over you, power, authority to do you harm or good, and there's nothing you can do to persuade them one way or another? This is how scripture talks about salvation, that we are totally at God's mercy. We're so at God's mercy we can't even cry out mercy unless God gives us mercy to cry out mercy. I remember almost drowning as a kid. I think I was seven or eight. I jumped in the pool and I didn't know how to swim. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, and apparently it was. I tried to yell help, and I knew if I yelled help the lifeguard would help me. I was in a problem, I couldn't yell help. I was drowning. And then some older kid gave me a boost. He gave me a boost, and that's all I needed. You're completely at someone's mercy. It's not just relying on God's mercy, we're completely at God's mercy. That's the plain force of the text, it's so clear. But because it's so clear and the message is so clear, it offends people. It should not. God's sovereignty must be understood against the backdrop of how sinful we are. Everything he said in Romans 1, in Romans 2, in Romans 3, gets to Romans 3 and he says, "No one seeks after God. No one seeks for salvation. No one merits salvation. No one's out there looking for salvation unless God first saves them, unless God pours out mercy on them so that they can start asking for mercy." So this whole salvation process must be traced back to God's mercy, not man's choice or goodness. And Paul, the seasoned apostle, he has taught this truth often, many occasions, and he's heard all the objections and all of them can be distilled into two. And that's the objections that he's dealing with. The first is, "Hey, this just isn't fair. If God wills that some person is saved and another person is not saved and it only, only ultimately is based in God's will, then that's not fair. He's not treating people fairly. He's doing for some what He will not do for others, even though they are equally undeserving." And then along with the not fair charge, God's hit with the, "How can you hold me responsible charge? If I'm just a lump of clay, how can I be responsible for being a lump of clay? That God makes two kinds of vessels from the same lump of clay and the difference between them, which lump of clay is saved and which is lost, it's only in the heart of the creator. Doesn't that make God unjust? I'm not guilty." That's really the objections that he's dealing with. By the way, he knows these objections come when he presents the true teaching of the gospel. So if you're presenting the true teaching of the gospel and you never get these objections, "Hey, that's not fair." or "How can God hold me a responsible?" if you never hear those objections, then you probably do not understand the fullness of the gospel as we'll see in Romans 9. So how do I deal with those tensions because I've been swimming in the depth of the waters of election for the past three weeks? My whole ministry, I've been waiting for this text. I've been chomping at the bit for this one. I wanted to call this one Double Predestination, but that wasn't going to get us all the clicks that we want. Maybe I should have done that. Maybe we still should do that because the elect will be drawn. No, but here's how I deal with it, "I hear what you're saying. It's only terrible if you're a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction. If you're a vessel of mercy prepared for mercy before the foundation of the world, well then it's pretty tremendous that God chose me to be a vessel of mercy. I could have been a vessel set apart for destruction. That choice is not up to me, it's only up to God." And that's where Paul wants to take us. He wants to say, "Christians, stop fighting this. Receive this doctrine. It's a difficult doctrine, but receive it because it's going to deepen your understanding of God. It's going to deepen your understanding of God's grace. It's going to deepen your understanding of mercy. It's going to deepen your whole understanding of Christianity." And then if you ask, "Well, how do I know which I am? Was I predestined to be a vessel of mercy or predestined to be a vessel of destruction?" The only answer I can give you is, have you tried casting yourself at the mercy of God? That it. That's how you discern which one you are. God says to everybody, "Come onto me and I will give you mercy. Cry out for mercy." I've also never met a person that genuinely, heartfelt, repentantly coming to God and saying, "God, give me mercy," and God refuses. I've never met a person like that. So as we dive into this text, throw yourself at the mercy of God. Romans 9:14-23, would you look at the text with me? "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I've raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills. You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory? This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. If you've ever heard a sermon on this text, this is the part of the sermon where I'm supposed to say, "Hey wait, wait, everybody, before you leave, let me just say the text is not saying what you think the text is saying." That's what I'm supposed to say. "He's not saying the thing that's offending you, because if you are offended," and this is what our culture teaches, "your sensibilities are infallible. And if you get offended, then you must be correct." Scripture says, "No, no, no, no, that's not how it works. Who's correct is defined by God and His Word. So no, no, no, I'm here to say, "What the text says, that's what it means. That's what it says. That's as clear as day." My three points: first, is God unjust? Paul's answer and God's answer is, "No, human." Second is, how's that fair? And the answer to that is, "Who are you?" The only thing we can do with this text is cry out for mercy. And once you receive mercy, cry out in praise. So first, is God unjust? His response is, "No, human," and he puts us into our place. "What shall we say then, is there injustice on God's part?" "By no means," that's his answer, "for He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" So is God unjust? No, He is not. And then he brings in mercy. What's the connection between justice and mercy? That's what he's wrestling with. One of the things we need to understand is we can never attribute unrighteousness to God in dealing with His creatures because God is holy by definition. And, in order to determine what is right or wrong, what is just or unjust, what is good or evil, the only standard, the line of demarcation that we have is God's character. So God acts justly because God always acts in accordance to His holiness. So everything that God does is always just. God is the definition of justice. When God acts, God acts justly. Why? Because God has a monopoly on truth. God has a monopoly on the law. God, He's literally the one that makes all the rules of what's just and what's unjust. The quotation here that he takes about God saying, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,' God is saying that to Moses, and He's saying that to Moses in the context of Exodus 32 where God gives His law to Moses on Mount Sinai. God writes His law with His finger. In the context of the larger context, God brought Israel out of captivity. He clearly showed all of His power on Pharaoh, on the Egyptians. It was miracle after miracle after miracle, culminating in the Passover where the first-born of everyone's household that was not covered with the blood of the lamb, those people would die. God sent a judgment. God brought them out miracles upon miracles, and then God's like, "All right, you're my people. I have saved you. I've poured My mercy on you. I'm going to give you my law so that you know what my Word, so that you obey and pursue a life of obedience and faith." And so, Moses goes on the mountain, he's pumped, he's with God, he's got the laws, he's excited. And on his way back from the mountain, he finds out that these people are worshiping a golden calf, that Aaron, who's supposed to be his partner in righteousness, well, turns out to be his partner in crime, Aaron made them the golden calf. What they're doing, they're worshiping an idol and having an orgy. That's what's happening. Moses is coming down the mountain, and God says, "I am going to kill everybody. I'm killing everybody. Moses, I'm killing everybody." Moses is like, "God, don't kill everybody because then all the people that we told that you're going to save us, they're going to be like, 'Oh, that God saves people only to kill them.' Don't kill everybody. Don't kill everybody. Let me intercede." So that's what was happening. And then, Moses's intercession is he takes the Levites and he's like, "All right, gentlemen, grab your sword." And then they go through the camp and he says, "Kill your brothers. Just go punish them." And then God on top of that, God's like, "All right, my anger, my wrath is assuaged a little bit." And then he still sends them a plague. That's Exodus 32 in a nutshell. That's the context for this verse. Finally, God's like, "With the remnant of Israel, I didn't kill everybody, I should have killed everybody, with the remnant that I had mercy on, I am going to create a great people with you." Moses says, "God, look, these people, they're exhausting. They're stiff-necked. They're exhausting. God, can You do this, can You show me Your glory? Because that's going to make all this work worth it. I just need Your glory. Can You please reveal your glory to me?" And that brings us to Exodus 33:18-23 where, "Moses said, 'Please show me Your glory." and He said, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, "The Lord." And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,' He said, 'you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.' And the Lord said, 'Behold, there was a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and then you shall see My back, but My face you shall not see.'" So Moses is begging God, "Send me glory. God, send me glory. Show me Your glory." And He said, "I will." This is how God reveals His glory, He says, "This is My name. I am the Lord. And I'm going to really reveal a part of my character that reveals just how glorious I am." And He says, "I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious, and I will have mercy on whom I will show mercy." So He's saying, "Do you want to see how glorious I am, Moses? I choose whom to save, and I choose whom to not save." Mercy implies a benefit one does not deserve. We don't deserve mercy. We're not entitled to mercy. God would have been just to save absolutely nobody, just like He chose not to save the fallen angels. They rebelled, and now they're condemned for all of eternity. There is no redemption for the fallen angels. That was God's decision. But the fact remains that no one has a claim in salvation because no one deserves it. Everyone ultimately will receive what they deserve. Some will be beaten with many stripes and some with a few, but everyone eventually gets what they deserve unless God pours out His mercy on them to satisfy every principle of justice just as He did when He sent His Son to the cross for people's sins. How is that fair? How is it fair that anybody gets saved because Jesus Christ got punished for my sins? How does that make any sense? That's not fair either. Paul's like, "If you want fair, we're all going to hell. Be happy that there's this thing called mercy and that God gives it to some people. And it depends ultimately on God." Romans 9:16, "So, then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy." What's the word it mean? What is it referring to? "So then it depends not on human... " Well, it's the word mercy. That's the context of verse 15, and he repeats it again in verse 16. So then it, the mercy, receiving mercy depends not on human will and not on exertion. Man's will and exertion are not for this reason of no consequences. In chapter 10, he's going to be hitting responsibility. You are to repent and belief. "You are to confess the name of Jesus Christ. You are to you trade your sin for a life of righteousness. Yes, receive God's grace. You, you, you, you." But before he gets to the you, he wants to park us here and says, "You can't do a thing unless God gives you mercy." If you think that you have some claim on God's salvation, some right to it, that there is some kind of consideration in you that obliges God to be merciful, you don't understand what mercy is, partially because in the words of Anselm, you failed to consider the terrible weight of sin. As you approach this text, are you coming to this text knowing how unworthy you are, knowing how sinful you are, knowing that we do deserve to be passed by? We deserve to not be chosen to God's kingdom. We deserve not to be adopted into His family, but He chose to give us mercy. He continues in verse 17, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'" So in verse 17, Paul is continuing to list out the illustrations of God's sovereignty now citing the Lord's own words from Exodus 9:16. So he first cited God speaking to Moses, "I will give mercy on whom I will give mercy to." Now it's words that He's speaking to Pharaoh. He says, "There's a flip side to salvation where God does harden specific sinners." And know how the scriptures personified. "It's as if God Himself is saying, because He is for this very person, "I have raised you up that I might show My power on you." The point of this citation is to illustrate that underneath everything that happens in this world, God is sovereign. Pharaoh is definitely an actor in the great drama. He did what he pleased. His exertions were real, but he completely served God in the entire affair. God had a purpose for Pharaoh's life, and the purpose was to not show him mercy. It's clear in Paul's thinking that God raised up Pharaoh for the very specific role in redemptive history. He raised him up and said, "I'm going to bring you to power for the sole purpose to crush you. I'm going to raise up an enemy that I will destroy." You know how we tell everybody, "God has a plan for you," and we quote Jeremiah, and we're like, "God has a good plan for you to further you and prosper you." Well, sometimes that's not true. "Pharaoh, I have a great plan for you. I'm going to raise you up and then I'm going to humiliate you, as I have mercy on these people that you have enslaved." That's what the text is saying. Romans 9:18, "So then, He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills." And now, if you're familiar with the Exodus account, you know the importance of the word hardened, that sometimes it's God hardening the heart of Pharaoh, and sometimes it's Pharaoh's heart being hardened toward God and it's his initiative. And then there's theologians, they go back and forth, they're like, "Well, there's five of these verses and five of these verses, so who's doing the hardening, is it God or is it Pharaoh?" We don't have to go to Exodus. Romans 9 clearly tells us who initiates the hardening. It's God. God, in verse 18, He hardens whomever He wills. God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't release Israel from captivity until God was good and ready to destroy him demonstrably, dramatically, decisively, so that God gets the glory in that whole event. And it's meant to prefigure the atonement of Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. This text is given to us so that we know in the final, in our salvation, the final, the ultimate decision, it's not ours. It's not ours. And I said this last week, if your theology has you making the decision, ultimately, then you don't know Scripture. In your salvation, who holds the ultimate trump card? Do you make the difference between you going to heaven or hell? If you are the one who makes the difference, then you have the power to save yourself, and salvation isn't a gift. It's not mercy. It's not grace. It's you saved yourself by you calling on the name of God. This Scripture says the only reason you called on the name of God is because God gave you the gift. In all such schemes, God does not do for those who are saved anything that He does for those who are not. So if you teach Arminianism or semi-plagiarism, if you say the person's responsible, then ultimately God just provided the gospel for everybody, but you are the one that has to save yourself. And Scripture clearly does not teach that. And also, if you are the one that did it, then you can always undo it. Scripture says, "No, if God poured out His love on you, you are His forever." God is absolutely free to be merciful to those whom He wishes. He's equally free to harden those whom He will harden. God is merciful, and sinful men and women can do nothing to earn it, nothing to get that mercy. Is mercy truly mercy if it's given for a defined behavior? No, no. It's just God decides whom to give it and whom not to give it. Now, why? Why? We can't say that it's arbitrary because nothing God does is arbitrary. We should say that God does this according to His own sovereign purpose. Sometimes He reveals what the purpose is, like with Pharaoh. Most of the time, He doesn't. Three errors before I move on to the next point. First error we got to avoid in speaking about this topic, some argue that God, He chooses his purpose, and the reason why He does is external to Himself. So He sees something in a person, He's like, "Yeah, I'm going to choose you because I see that you're going to be good in My kingdom. And then, no, you, I can see you're terrible. You're going to be a terrible recruit. I'm not choosing you." That's not how it works. The reason of why one person's chosen and the other isn't, it's only internal to God. God decides. That's it. So we can't go outside of God because Scripture doesn't allow that. The second error is it's just uncomfortable to talk about. Three weeks of election and CG, let's not talk about this. It makes people uncomfortable. Let's just talk about mercy. Let's only talk about mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. The reason we don't do that is because Scripture doesn't do that, Paul doesn't do that. He doesn't go from chapter eight to chapter 12 and he is like, "Nine through 11, that's the appendix, not everyone can handle it. We're just going to send it to the really, really erudite Christians." No, he gave it to everybody, and we're going through scripture verse by verse and we get to a text and we're going to handle the text even if it makes us uncomfortable, because then we got to ask, "Why am I uncomfortable?" and then you get to deeper issues of, "You know what? I think I'm uncomfortable because I'm in judgment over God, which is sin, and I should repent." And then the third error to avoid is that to assume that we can observe a person, look at them from the outside, and be like, "Yep, you're definitely elect. You dress like you're elect. You have an elect haircut. No, we have no idea who's elect and who's not. You see a human being, that's an image bearer of God. You love them with everything you got, and you share the gospel with them in faith that God has brought this person into your life because they're probably elect and He brought them into your life for the purpose of you ministering to him and telling him about the tremendous gospel of Jesus Christ. And because you know that God is sovereign, God can save them at any moment as they hear the gospel, so our only job isn't to worry, is this personal elect or not? My only job is to preach the gospel, just to explain to them, "Hey, are you a vessel of wrath set apart for destruction? That's what it looks like because your whole life is like a dumpster fire. It looks like you need Jesus a lot. Right now, this isn't working out for you. I know where you're headed. You should jump from this vessel to the vessel of mercy. Instead of going down river to hell, let's go to heaven together and spend eternity." That's my only job, preach the gospel. That's it. And then once people become a Christian, we're like, "You're so proud." And they're like, "Why am I proud?" "Because you think you saved yourself." And you're like, "What do you mean I didn't save myself? I chose Jesus." And then we explain to them that you didn't choose anything, Jesus chose you. So that's good for our humility. Point two is, how is that fair? His only answer is, "Who are you?" That's his only answer Romans 9:19, "You'll say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? Who can resist His will?'" This is Paul's answer... We could get to all the hypothetical answers. He just says, "Who are you? Who are you, O man, to answer back? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?'" What he's saying is there is a qualitative difference between creator and creation. It's not just quantitative, it's qualitative. He's totally other than we are. God is free completely. Paul doesn't answer as we might expect. There's no logical explanation of how God's will interplay with human responsibility. No, instead of taking the defensive where he is like, "Oh, you raised a good objection," he doesn't do any of that. All Paul says is, "Shut your mouth. That's it. That's the answer. You're a human being. Shut your mouth. You have no right to speak back to the creator. He created you." He could have said, "Well, the human will isn't nullified and you still are responsible." He'll do that in chapter 10, he's going to get the emphasis on, but here he just wants to put us in our place. Sometimes that's what we need. Sometimes we are arguing with God, we're arguing with God. You just need a megaphone from heaven. We don't have one, so just pretend it's me. I'm the megaphone. I've been sent here to tell you, "Shut your mouth. Sit there, be quiet, take God's Word, and meditate on it. It's going to be really helpful." That's why he says, "You're merely a person. How can you judge your own creator? He can do whatever He wants with you. He is the molder. He is the pot-maker." Verse 21, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" And here what he's doing is contrasting the saved and the lost. But more to the point, by putting the matter in this way, he is calculating to be offensive. He is making it unmistakably clear what he is actually saying, that salvation is God's doing, and the difference between the saved and the lost is the sovereign will of God. What this text is clearly saying, and he's going to continue it as he goes through, what he is saying is, "It's ultimately up to God." You have objections, "That's not fair. How can I be held responsible?" Paul's answer is, "Whatever God does is fair. Shut your mouth and ask for mercy." That's what he's saying. Verse 22, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." I don't even need to exegete the text. It's absolutely clear. It means exactly what he's saying, that God, before anything, creates some people to go to heaven and others He creates to go to hell. That's what the text is saying. What's the purpose? "In order to make the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy." The reason He does it is so Christians don't debate this ad nauseam, but for Christians, take it, take this hard truth that humbles us. He wants us to take it and glorify God for it. The reason why I'm so excited about this topic is because I love it. I absolutely, unabashedly love the doctrine of election. My heart gets filled with this incredible warmth when I read it, partially because God is God. This doctrine allows God to be God in all of His greatness in all of His freedom. It's a grander vision of God than just the like buddy Jesus doll, like He's here for you. This God could have made me a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction. I deserved it. God would have been just; He's God. But I'm not a vessel of destruction. I love Jesus Christ, and that's not my doing. I love the Holy Spirit, that's not my doing. I love God the Father, that's not my doing. I love holy Scripture, that's not my doing. I love obeying God, that's not my doing. None of it is my doing. God just chose to make me a vessel of mercy, not because of anything in me. This absolutely levels you with the ground. There's no pride left. There's no ego left. This absolutely shrinks us. I'm telling you, I've learned this from personal experience, I am at my best when I am at my least. You are at your best when you are at your least. When you are the absolutely most humble, that's when human beings are the best. They're kind, and they're gentle, and they're selfless, and they care for other people. You're at your best when there is no ego, where everything you do is because of love for God and love for people. That's why I love the doctrine of election because, first of all, it glorifies God, it humbles me. And I think it's important because it does take humility to receive a word like this. If this is the first time hearing it and you're like, "I don't like any of this. This is real," just check if pride is the thing in the way and repent and receive God's mercy. Nothing humbles me more than knowing I'm only saved by the grace of God. It deepens my thanksgiving and strengthens my sanctification. And yes, there is a dark side of election. Romans 9:6-23 teaches that individuals become Christians only because God, by a free act of His will, chooses them, predestines them to faith and glory. Our turning to Christ in faith is a real decision. We make it. It is essential for us to be saved, but we only turn to Christ because God elected us. If predestination is true, double predestination is true as well even if you don't want to say it out loud. This text teaches it clearly, God chooses who goes to heaven and God chooses who goes to hell. Both human salvation and damnation are sovereign acts of God. But the so-called dark side of election, it only looks dark if you're on the dark side. I'm just telling you, leave. Don't stay in the dark side. And then once you are transferred from the dark side into the light side by faith in Jesus Christ, then from this side, it's awesome. I'm telling you, the doctrine of election, it fills my heart with so much joy. Praise be to God. Now, what do we do as Christians? The tape doesn't make any sense because people are like, "If God is sovereign, then why do I have to do anything if I'm saved already?" If you are saying that the only reason why you do things in Christianity is to not lose your salvation, then you don't know God. You don't know the joy of walking with the Lord. You don't know the satisfaction it is to commune with God, to abide with Him. Once you know God, you don't want to lose your salvation because you don't want lose God. You don't want sin. You want more of God. You want more of holiness. You want more of the Holy Spirit. And once you realize, "Oh wow, God made me a vessel of mercy, then I should be the best vessel of mercy I can be." This is where I'm going to bring in 2 Timothy 2:20-26, where he uses the same concept of vessels, but now he's not talking about unsaved and saved, he's talking about those who are in the household. He's talking about Christians, and he's talking about different levels of use. So this is 2 Timothy 2:20, "Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable." In a house, there's different pots, there's different vessels. Some are really nice, the gold and silver. You take those out when the in-laws come. In-laws come, you take the good stuff out. And then for everyday use, you got vessels of wood. You just eat from the wood. Now, the clay vessels were used for something very particular. They were used for going to the bathroom. That's the clay vessel. What he's saying is that vessels of mercy, Christians, you're saved. You will be used by God one way or another. How do you want to be used? Do you want to be used like gold is used in a house, where your work is really important, you're holding the deliciousness, or do you want to be like the clay pot? It's still in the house, it's still useful, but no one really talks about it. What he's saying is there's some Christians that God will use them as an anti-example, where they received the mercy of God and did very little with it, and just pursued a life of sin and the just-barely-Christians. And they weren't used by God. I'm saying this truth because I'm combining this with the teaching of election, because that one should melt your heart. And then you should say, "What should I do? Lord, what do you want me to do? I want to be a vessel of mercy for honorable use." Paul says it in 2 Timothy verse 22, "Flee youthful passions." He's talking about sexual sin. Youthful passions, flee that stuff, dishonorable sin, so that you can be used honorably. "Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." What he is saying is, "Flee sin and join a church. Get brothers and sisters in your life. You need community of brothers and sisters who want to fight the good fight of faith. And that's how you become more useful for the Lord." Verse 23, "Have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." What he saying is, "God saved you, vessel of mercy. Now cleanse yourself from everything that is dishonorable so that you can be used powerfully in the Lord's house to draw people to repentance so that these unbelievers seeing your life, your life of honor and loyalty to the Lord and love and grace and mercy and thanksgiving and joy, they see that and they want to be part of it." And he's saying, "Maybe God through your witness is going to save some." So that should be incentive enough for us to follow the Lord and to fight sin. That's not fair. How is this fair? Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair. This teaching crushes our will, just completely. It crushes our human will. Here's what I do want to say about this, this is important, it's the only way our will can get freed. Because our will is not free. Our will isn't bondage to sin. That's why we can't choose God. That's why God takes truths like these, crushes our will. And then when our will is absolutely crushed, God can redeem. You need to know that you can't make new wine without crushing grapes. That's the teaching here. The Bible rests a great deal on the will of man, the exercises of that will, and lays the responsibility for condemnation on sinful people on. On them. The Bible says it's our fault; we chose sin. But the Bible unmistakably gives God all the glory for choosing us to salvation. He's absolutely sovereign. We are responsible. How's does it all work together? We'll find out in heaven. But this is true. Why do anything if God is sovereign? It's a silly question. Why do anything? Because God is sovereign. God tells us to do it. He brings us the end and the means. He wants us to pray for people. He wants us to share the gospel. He's told us things to do so we do it. I used to think of election like being recruited to the CIA. They show up out of nowhere, they know about you. They already chose you. But that's because you had a certain set of skills. If that's how you think of election, you're wrong. You had no skills. God actually probably chose you because you have very little skills. That's how God chooses people, like the most unlikely Christian. That's how I think of myself. I'm like, "I don't know why God picked me. I don't know." Here we are. No, no, no, you can't say He picked me because. That's pride. He picked you just because He decided that's how election works. We don't get recruited because the Lord saw some potential. No, the only good thing about us is that God poured out His mercy. But this should still deepen our honor. He doesn't recruit us for a job. That's why a lot of theologians get bogged down in texts like this. What I try to keep saying to the church is we don't need just theologians at this church. We need soldiers that know that the Bible is a battle manual and that we're not just a study, study, study, study and never do it. No, no, no, we're told this to equip us so that we go and we make disciples of all nations. Lord, I'm honored to serve in your army. I'm at your service. What would you have me do? How can I be an honorable vessel? We'll talk about that actually in the next two weeks. Good. And then point three is cry out for mercy and cry out in praise. How can I become a vessel of mercy? That sounds great, to become a child of God, have all my sins forgiven. Well, cry out to Jesus to save you. Jesus Christ went to the cross to save sinners. He shed His blood to pour out His mercy on sinners like me. So cry out. The best example I have of someone crying out to Jesus is a blind man on the road to Jericho. Luke 18:35, "As He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried out... " The guy, he can't even see Him. He has no idea if this report is true. He's like, "If there's a chance, I am going to scream at the top of my lungs. This is my one chance in life to scream at the Messiah, and maybe He'll have mercy on me." "'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.'" That's all he said, "Have mercy." "And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, He asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, let me recover my sight.' And Jesus said to him, 'Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.' And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God." Cry out for mercy, and once you receive it, cry out in praise. This is the point of this whole teaching, it is to bring us to loving giving God glory. God, I glorify your name. All glory, all praise to you. The reason I like this, I just love election, I love it, it zooms in on God. It zooms in, and it makes God massive. And when God is massive and we realize this God who is this great, this sovereign, He tells me, "Come onto me if you are burdened with your sin," and He welcomes everybody, so come to Jesus Christ, ask for mercy, receive it, and then Jesus tells you, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." Praise be to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to worship you now and give you all of the praise and the glory that you deserve. We deserve none of it. We deserve damnation. We deserve hell. We deserve separation from You. Instead, Lord, You came up with this incredible plan to save us. Before the foundation of the world, You chose us. Thanks be to Your Son Jesus Christ. You provided for the means of salvation through Your death, burial, and Your resurrection. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that You're with us. Lord, we pray that you just send elect, send your chosen, send your elect, save them powerfully in this church and show them that You have created us to glorify You, and when we glorify You, we experience the fullness of life. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card in the worship guide. You fill it out legibly, and then just toss on the offering basket when it comes around after, and we'll get in touch with you over the course of the week. We have a members' meeting coming up, I think it's September 11th, and we have a membership class, I think it's the following week, September 18th. So if you are a member, plan to come to the members' meeting. If you are not a member, you'd like to become a member, come to the membership class. I think it's in the 18th. All the stuff's in the bulletin.With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the richness of the epistle of Romans. We thank you for the truth of the gospel, that we are completely, totally, utterly at Your mercy. That's how sinful we are. That's how lost we are. That's how dire our situation apart from you. Lord, that's where we want to be, like King David when Nathan comes to him and calls him to repentance and gives him options of punishment. David said, "I'd rather be cast at the mercy of God." So that's what we cry out today, Lord. We plead for mercy. We thank you that Your Son Jesus Christ, He was not given mercy on the cross as He endured Your wrath for our law-breaking. He did that in order to extend mercy to us. We thank You, Lord, and we thank You for the gift of salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.So we today are continuing our sermon series through Romans. We're in chapter nine, verse 14 through 23. Next week, we're going to pause. We'll do a two-week series. We annually do this about our values, our vision, our philosophy of ministry. It's our Love Jesus Simple two-week series. That's next week and the following week because this is a time of the year where a lot of people are church shopping. And if that's you, well, you know what? God told me to tell you this is the church for you. So your shopping experience is over. We've got everything you need. We've got the Word of God. And we need help. We need you.To the sermon. The title is Only at God's Mercy. Have you ever been at someone's mercy, completely at someone's mercy where they have complete leverage over you, power, authority to do you harm or good, and there's nothing you can do to persuade them one way or another? This is how scripture talks about salvation, that we are totally at God's mercy. We're so at God's mercy we can't even cry out mercy unless God gives us mercy to cry out mercy.I remember almost drowning as a kid. I think I was seven or eight. I jumped in the pool and I didn't know how to swim. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, and apparently it was. I tried to yell help, and I knew if I yelled help the lifeguard would help me. I was in a problem, I couldn't yell help. I was drowning. And then some older kid gave me a boost. He gave me a boost, and that's all I needed.You're completely at someone's mercy. It's not just relying on God's mercy, we're completely at God's mercy. That's the plain force of the text, it's so clear. But because it's so clear and the message is so clear, it offends people. It should not. God's sovereignty must be understood against the backdrop of how sinful we are. Everything he said in Romans 1, in Romans 2, in Romans 3, gets to Romans 3 and he says, "No one seeks after God. No one seeks for salvation. No one merits salvation. No one's out there looking for salvation unless God first saves them, unless God pours out mercy on them so that they can start asking for mercy." So this whole salvation process must be traced back to God's mercy, not man's choice or goodness.And Paul, the seasoned apostle, he has taught this truth often, many occasions, and he's heard all the objections and all of them can be distilled into two. And that's the objections that he's dealing with. The first is, "Hey, this just isn't fair. If God wills that some person is saved and another person is not saved and it only, only ultimately is based in God's will, then that's not fair. He's not treating people fairly. He's doing for some what He will not do for others, even though they are equally undeserving." And then along with the not fair charge, God's hit with the, "How can you hold me responsible charge? If I'm just a lump of clay, how can I be responsible for being a lump of clay? That God makes two kinds of vessels from the same lump of clay and the difference between them, which lump of clay is saved and which is lost, it's only in the heart of the creator. Doesn't that make God unjust? I'm not guilty." That's really the objections that he's dealing with.By the way, he knows these objections come when he presents the true teaching of the gospel. So if you're presenting the true teaching of the gospel and you never get these objections, "Hey, that's not fair." or "How can God hold me a responsible?" if you never hear those objections, then you probably do not understand the fullness of the gospel as we'll see in Romans 9. So how do I deal with those tensions because I've been swimming in the depth of the waters of election for the past three weeks? My whole ministry, I've been waiting for this text. I've been chomping at the bit for this one. I wanted to call this one Double Predestination, but that wasn't going to get us all the clicks that we want. Maybe I should have done that. Maybe we still should do that because the elect will be drawn.No, but here's how I deal with it, "I hear what you're saying. It's only terrible if you're a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction. If you're a vessel of mercy prepared for mercy before the foundation of the world, well then it's pretty tremendous that God chose me to be a vessel of mercy. I could have been a vessel set apart for destruction. That choice is not up to me, it's only up to God." And that's where Paul wants to take us. He wants to say, "Christians, stop fighting this. Receive this doctrine. It's a difficult doctrine, but receive it because it's going to deepen your understanding of God. It's going to deepen your understanding of God's grace. It's going to deepen your understanding of mercy. It's going to deepen your whole understanding of Christianity."And then if you ask, "Well, how do I know which I am? Was I predestined to be a vessel of mercy or predestined to be a vessel of destruction?" The only answer I can give you is, have you tried casting yourself at the mercy of God? That it. That's how you discern which one you are. God says to everybody, "Come onto me and I will give you mercy. Cry out for mercy." I've also never met a person that genuinely, heartfelt, repentantly coming to God and saying, "God, give me mercy," and God refuses. I've never met a person like that.So as we dive into this text, throw yourself at the mercy of God. Romans 9:14-23, would you look at the text with me? "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I've raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills. You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory?This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. If you've ever heard a sermon on this text, this is the part of the sermon where I'm supposed to say, "Hey wait, wait, everybody, before you leave, let me just say the text is not saying what you think the text is saying." That's what I'm supposed to say. "He's not saying the thing that's offending you, because if you are offended," and this is what our culture teaches, "your sensibilities are infallible. And if you get offended, then you must be correct." Scripture says, "No, no, no, no, that's not how it works. Who's correct is defined by God and His Word. So no, no, no, I'm here to say, "What the text says, that's what it means. That's what it says. That's as clear as day."My three points: first, is God unjust? Paul's answer and God's answer is, "No, human." Second is, how's that fair? And the answer to that is, "Who are you?" The only thing we can do with this text is cry out for mercy. And once you receive mercy, cry out in praise. So first, is God unjust? His response is, "No, human," and he puts us into our place. "What shall we say then, is there injustice on God's part?" "By no means," that's his answer, "for He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" So is God unjust? No, He is not. And then he brings in mercy. What's the connection between justice and mercy? That's what he's wrestling with.One of the things we need to understand is we can never attribute unrighteousness to God in dealing with His creatures because God is holy by definition. And, in order to determine what is right or wrong, what is just or unjust, what is good or evil, the only standard, the line of demarcation that we have is God's character. So God acts justly because God always acts in accordance to His holiness. So everything that God does is always just. God is the definition of justice. When God acts, God acts justly. Why? Because God has a monopoly on truth. God has a monopoly on the law. God, He's literally the one that makes all the rules of what's just and what's unjust.The quotation here that he takes about God saying, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,' God is saying that to Moses, and He's saying that to Moses in the context of Exodus 32 where God gives His law to Moses on Mount Sinai. God writes His law with His finger. In the context of the larger context, God brought Israel out of captivity. He clearly showed all of His power on Pharaoh, on the Egyptians. It was miracle after miracle after miracle, culminating in the Passover where the first-born of everyone's household that was not covered with the blood of the lamb, those people would die. God sent a judgment. God brought them out miracles upon miracles, and then God's like, "All right, you're my people. I have saved you. I've poured My mercy on you. I'm going to give you my law so that you know what my Word, so that you obey and pursue a life of obedience and faith."And so, Moses goes on the mountain, he's pumped, he's with God, he's got the laws, he's excited. And on his way back from the mountain, he finds out that these people are worshiping a golden calf, that Aaron, who's supposed to be his partner in righteousness, well, turns out to be his partner in crime, Aaron made them the golden calf. What they're doing, they're worshiping an idol and having an orgy. That's what's happening. Moses is coming down the mountain, and God says, "I am going to kill everybody. I'm killing everybody. Moses, I'm killing everybody." Moses is like, "God, don't kill everybody because then all the people that we told that you're going to save us, they're going to be like, 'Oh, that God saves people only to kill them.' Don't kill everybody. Don't kill everybody. Let me intercede." So that's what was happening.And then, Moses's intercession is he takes the Levites and he's like, "All right, gentlemen, grab your sword." And then they go through the camp and he says, "Kill your brothers. Just go punish them." And then God on top of that, God's like, "All right, my anger, my wrath is assuaged a little bit." And then he still sends them a plague. That's Exodus 32 in a nutshell. That's the context for this verse. Finally, God's like, "With the remnant of Israel, I didn't kill everybody, I should have killed everybody, with the remnant that I had mercy on, I am going to create a great people with you." Moses says, "God, look, these people, they're exhausting. They're stiff-necked. They're exhausting. God, can You do this, can You show me Your glory? Because that's going to make all this work worth it. I just need Your glory. Can You please reveal your glory to me?"And that brings us to Exodus 33:18-23 where, "Moses said, 'Please show me Your glory." and He said, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, "The Lord." And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,' He said, 'you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.' And the Lord said, 'Behold, there was a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and then you shall see My back, but My face you shall not see.'"So Moses is begging God, "Send me glory. God, send me glory. Show me Your glory." And He said, "I will." This is how God reveals His glory, He says, "This is My name. I am the Lord. And I'm going to really reveal a part of my character that reveals just how glorious I am." And He says, "I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious, and I will have mercy on whom I will show mercy." So He's saying, "Do you want to see how glorious I am, Moses? I choose whom to save, and I choose whom to not save."Mercy implies a benefit one does not deserve. We don't deserve mercy. We're not entitled to mercy. God would have been just to save absolutely nobody, just like He chose not to save the fallen angels. They rebelled, and now they're condemned for all of eternity. There is no redemption for the fallen angels. That was God's decision. But the fact remains that no one has a claim in salvation because no one deserves it. Everyone ultimately will receive what they deserve. Some will be beaten with many stripes and some with a few, but everyone eventually gets what they deserve unless God pours out His mercy on them to satisfy every principle of justice just as He did when He sent His Son to the cross for people's sins.How is that fair? How is it fair that anybody gets saved because Jesus Christ got punished for my sins? How does that make any sense? That's not fair either. Paul's like, "If you want fair, we're all going to hell. Be happy that there's this thing called mercy and that God gives it to some people. And it depends ultimately on God." Romans 9:16, "So, then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy." What's the word it mean? What is it referring to? "So then it depends not on human... " Well, it's the word mercy. That's the context of verse 15, and he repeats it again in verse 16. So then it, the mercy, receiving mercy depends not on human will and not on exertion.Man's will and exertion are not for this reason of no consequences. In chapter 10, he's going to be hitting responsibility. You are to repent and belief. "You are to confess the name of Jesus Christ. You are to you trade your sin for a life of righteousness. Yes, receive God's grace. You, you, you, you." But before he gets to the you, he wants to park us here and says, "You can't do a thing unless God gives you mercy." If you think that you have some claim on God's salvation, some right to it, that there is some kind of consideration in you that obliges God to be merciful, you don't understand what mercy is, partially because in the words of Anselm, you failed to consider the terrible weight of sin.As you approach this text, are you coming to this text knowing how unworthy you are, knowing how sinful you are, knowing that we do deserve to be passed by? We deserve to not be chosen to God's kingdom. We deserve not to be adopted into His family, but He chose to give us mercy. He continues in verse 17, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'" So in verse 17, Paul is continuing to list out the illustrations of God's sovereignty now citing the Lord's own words from Exodus 9:16. So he first cited God speaking to Moses, "I will give mercy on whom I will give mercy to." Now it's words that He's speaking to Pharaoh. He says, "There's a flip side to salvation where God does harden specific sinners." And know how the scriptures personified. "It's as if God Himself is saying, because He is for this very person, "I have raised you up that I might show My power on you."The point of this citation is to illustrate that underneath everything that happens in this world, God is sovereign. Pharaoh is definitely an actor in the great drama. He did what he pleased. His exertions were real, but he completely served God in the entire affair. God had a purpose for Pharaoh's life, and the purpose was to not show him mercy. It's clear in Paul's thinking that God raised up Pharaoh for the very specific role in redemptive history. He raised him up and said, "I'm going to bring you to power for the sole purpose to crush you. I'm going to raise up an enemy that I will destroy."You know how we tell everybody, "God has a plan for you," and we quote Jeremiah, and we're like, "God has a good plan for you to further you and prosper you." Well, sometimes that's not true. "Pharaoh, I have a great plan for you. I'm going to raise you up and then I'm going to humiliate you, as I have mercy on these people that you have enslaved." That's what the text is saying. Romans 9:18, "So then, He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills." And now, if you're familiar with the Exodus account, you know the importance of the word hardened, that sometimes it's God hardening the heart of Pharaoh, and sometimes it's Pharaoh's heart being hardened toward God and it's his initiative.And then there's theologians, they go back and forth, they're like, "Well, there's five of these verses and five of these verses, so who's doing the hardening, is it God or is it Pharaoh?" We don't have to go to Exodus. Romans 9 clearly tells us who initiates the hardening. It's God. God, in verse 18, He hardens whomever He wills. God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he wouldn't release Israel from captivity until God was good and ready to destroy him demonstrably, dramatically, decisively, so that God gets the glory in that whole event. And it's meant to prefigure the atonement of Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.This text is given to us so that we know in the final, in our salvation, the final, the ultimate decision, it's not ours. It's not ours. And I said this last week, if your theology has you making the decision, ultimately, then you don't know Scripture. In your salvation, who holds the ultimate trump card? Do you make the difference between you going to heaven or hell? If you are the one who makes the difference, then you have the power to save yourself, and salvation isn't a gift. It's not mercy. It's not grace. It's you saved yourself by you calling on the name of God.This Scripture says the only reason you called on the name of God is because God gave you the gift. In all such schemes, God does not do for those who are saved anything that He does for those who are not. So if you teach Arminianism or semi-plagiarism, if you say the person's responsible, then ultimately God just provided the gospel for everybody, but you are the one that has to save yourself. And Scripture clearly does not teach that. And also, if you are the one that did it, then you can always undo it. Scripture says, "No, if God poured out His love on you, you are His forever." God is absolutely free to be merciful to those whom He wishes. He's equally free to harden those whom He will harden. God is merciful, and sinful men and women can do nothing to earn it, nothing to get that mercy. Is mercy truly mercy if it's given for a defined behavior? No, no. It's just God decides whom to give it and whom not to give it.Now, why? Why? We can't say that it's arbitrary because nothing God does is arbitrary. We should say that God does this according to His own sovereign purpose. Sometimes He reveals what the purpose is, like with Pharaoh. Most of the time, He doesn't. Three errors before I move on to the next point. First error we got to avoid in speaking about this topic, some argue that God, He chooses his purpose, and the reason why He does is external to Himself. So He sees something in a person, He's like, "Yeah, I'm going to choose you because I see that you're going to be good in My kingdom. And then, no, you, I can see you're terrible. You're going to be a terrible recruit. I'm not choosing you." That's not how it works. The reason of why one person's chosen and the other isn't, it's only internal to God. God decides. That's it. So we can't go outside of God because Scripture doesn't allow that.The second error is it's just uncomfortable to talk about. Three weeks of election and CG, let's not talk about this. It makes people uncomfortable. Let's just talk about mercy. Let's only talk about mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. The reason we don't do that is because Scripture doesn't do that, Paul doesn't do that. He doesn't go from chapter eight to chapter 12 and he is like, "Nine through 11, that's the appendix, not everyone can handle it. We're just going to send it to the really, really erudite Christians." No, he gave it to everybody, and we're going through scripture verse by verse and we get to a text and we're going to handle the text even if it makes us uncomfortable, because then we got to ask, "Why am I uncomfortable?" and then you get to deeper issues of, "You know what? I think I'm uncomfortable because I'm in judgment over God, which is sin, and I should repent."And then the third error to avoid is that to assume that we can observe a person, look at them from the outside, and be like, "Yep, you're definitely elect. You dress like you're elect. You have an elect haircut. No, we have no idea who's elect and who's not. You see a human being, that's an image bearer of God. You love them with everything you got, and you share the gospel with them in faith that God has brought this person into your life because they're probably elect and He brought them into your life for the purpose of you ministering to him and telling him about the tremendous gospel of Jesus Christ. And because you know that God is sovereign, God can save them at any moment as they hear the gospel, so our only job isn't to worry, is this personal elect or not? My only job is to preach the gospel, just to explain to them, "Hey, are you a vessel of wrath set apart for destruction? That's what it looks like because your whole life is like a dumpster fire. It looks like you need Jesus a lot. Right now, this isn't working out for you. I know where you're headed. You should jump from this vessel to the vessel of mercy. Instead of going down river to hell, let's go to heaven together and spend eternity."That's my only job, preach the gospel. That's it. And then once people become a Christian, we're like, "You're so proud." And they're like, "Why am I proud?" "Because you think you saved yourself." And you're like, "What do you mean I didn't save myself? I chose Jesus." And then we explain to them that you didn't choose anything, Jesus chose you. So that's good for our humility.Point two is, how is that fair? His only answer is, "Who are you?" That's his only answer Romans 9:19, "You'll say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? Who can resist His will?'" This is Paul's answer... We could get to all the hypothetical answers. He just says, "Who are you? Who are you, O man, to answer back? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?'" What he's saying is there is a qualitative difference between creator and creation. It's not just quantitative, it's qualitative. He's totally other than we are. God is free completely. Paul doesn't answer as we might expect. There's no logical explanation of how God's will interplay with human responsibility. No, instead of taking the defensive where he is like, "Oh, you raised a good objection," he doesn't do any of that. All Paul says is, "Shut your mouth. That's it. That's the answer. You're a human being. Shut your mouth. You have no right to speak back to the creator. He created you."He could have said, "Well, the human will isn't nullified and you still are responsible." He'll do that in chapter 10, he's going to get the emphasis on, but here he just wants to put us in our place. Sometimes that's what we need. Sometimes we are arguing with God, we're arguing with God. You just need a megaphone from heaven. We don't have one, so just pretend it's me. I'm the megaphone. I've been sent here to tell you, "Shut your mouth. Sit there, be quiet, take God's Word, and meditate on it. It's going to be really helpful." That's why he says, "You're merely a person. How can you judge your own creator? He can do whatever He wants with you. He is the molder. He is the pot-maker." Verse 21, "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"And here what he's doing is contrasting the saved and the lost. But more to the point, by putting the matter in this way, he is calculating to be offensive. He is making it unmistakably clear what he is actually saying, that salvation is God's doing, and the difference between the saved and the lost is the sovereign will of God. What this text is clearly saying, and he's going to continue it as he goes through, what he is saying is, "It's ultimately up to God." You have objections, "That's not fair. How can I be held responsible?" Paul's answer is, "Whatever God does is fair. Shut your mouth and ask for mercy." That's what he's saying.Verse 22, "What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." I don't even need to exegete the text. It's absolutely clear. It means exactly what he's saying, that God, before anything, creates some people to go to heaven and others He creates to go to hell. That's what the text is saying. What's the purpose? "In order to make the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy."The reason He does it is so Christians don't debate this ad nauseam, but for Christians, take it, take this hard truth that humbles us. He wants us to take it and glorify God for it. The reason why I'm so excited about this topic is because I love it. I absolutely, unabashedly love the doctrine of election. My heart gets filled with this incredible warmth when I read it, partially because God is God. This doctrine allows God to be God in all of His greatness in all of His freedom. It's a grander vision of God than just the like buddy Jesus doll, like He's here for you.This God could have made me a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction. I deserved it. God would have been just; He's God. But I'm not a vessel of destruction. I love Jesus Christ, and that's not my doing. I love the Holy Spirit, that's not my doing. I love God the Father, that's not my doing. I love holy Scripture, that's not my doing. I love obeying God, that's not my doing. None of it is my doing. God just chose to make me a vessel of mercy, not because of anything in me. This absolutely levels you with the ground.There's no pride left. There's no ego left. This absolutely shrinks us. I'm telling you, I've learned this from personal experience, I am at my best when I am at my least. You are at your best when you are at your least. When you are the absolutely most humble, that's when human beings are the best. They're kind, and they're gentle, and they're selfless, and they care for other people. You're at your best when there is no ego, where everything you do is because of love for God and love for people. That's why I love the doctrine of election because, first of all, it glorifies God, it humbles me. And I think it's important because it does take humility to receive a word like this.If this is the first time hearing it and you're like, "I don't like any of this. This is real," just check if pride is the thing in the way and repent and receive God's mercy. Nothing humbles me more than knowing I'm only saved by the grace of God. It deepens my thanksgiving and strengthens my sanctification. And yes, there is a dark side of election. Romans 9:6-23 teaches that individuals become Christians only because God, by a free act of His will, chooses them, predestines them to faith and glory. Our turning to Christ in faith is a real decision. We make it. It is essential for us to be saved, but we only turn to Christ because God elected us. If predestination is true, double predestination is true as well even if you don't want to say it out loud.This text teaches it clearly, God chooses who goes to heaven and God chooses who goes to hell. Both human salvation and damnation are sovereign acts of God. But the so-called dark side of election, it only looks dark if you're on the dark side. I'm just telling you, leave. Don't stay in the dark side. And then once you are transferred from the dark side into the light side by faith in Jesus Christ, then from this side, it's awesome. I'm telling you, the doctrine of election, it fills my heart with so much joy. Praise be to God.Now, what do we do as Christians? The tape doesn't make any sense because people are like, "If God is sovereign, then why do I have to do anything if I'm saved already?" If you are saying that the only reason why you do things in Christianity is to not lose your salvation, then you don't know God. You don't know the joy of walking with the Lord. You don't know the satisfaction it is to commune with God, to abide with Him. Once you know God, you don't want to lose your salvation because you don't want lose God. You don't want sin. You want more of God. You want more of holiness. You want more of the Holy Spirit. And once you realize, "Oh wow, God made me a vessel of mercy, then I should be the best vessel of mercy I can be."This is where I'm going to bring in 2 Timothy 2:20-26, where he uses the same concept of vessels, but now he's not talking about unsaved and saved, he's talking about those who are in the household. He's talking about Christians, and he's talking about different levels of use. So this is 2 Timothy 2:20, "Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable." In a house, there's different pots, there's different vessels. Some are really nice, the gold and silver. You take those out when the in-laws come. In-laws come, you take the good stuff out.And then for everyday use, you got vessels of wood. You just eat from the wood. Now, the clay vessels were used for something very particular. They were used for going to the bathroom. That's the clay vessel. What he's saying is that vessels of mercy, Christians, you're saved. You will be used by God one way or another. How do you want to be used? Do you want to be used like gold is used in a house, where your work is really important, you're holding the deliciousness, or do you want to be like the clay pot? It's still in the house, it's still useful, but no one really talks about it.What he's saying is there's some Christians that God will use them as an anti-example, where they received the mercy of God and did very little with it, and just pursued a life of sin and the just-barely-Christians. And they weren't used by God. I'm saying this truth because I'm combining this with the teaching of election, because that one should melt your heart. And then you should say, "What should I do? Lord, what do you want me to do? I want to be a vessel of mercy for honorable use." Paul says it in 2 Timothy verse 22, "Flee youthful passions." He's talking about sexual sin. Youthful passions, flee that stuff, dishonorable sin, so that you can be used honorably. "Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."What he is saying is, "Flee sin and join a church. Get brothers and sisters in your life. You need community of brothers and sisters who want to fight the good fight of faith. And that's how you become more useful for the Lord." Verse 23, "Have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will."What he saying is, "God saved you, vessel of mercy. Now cleanse yourself from everything that is dishonorable so that you can be used powerfully in the Lord's house to draw people to repentance so that these unbelievers seeing your life, your life of honor and loyalty to the Lord and love and grace and mercy and thanksgiving and joy, they see that and they want to be part of it." And he's saying, "Maybe God through your witness is going to save some." So that should be incentive enough for us to follow the Lord and to fight sin. That's not fair. How is this fair? Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair.This teaching crushes our will, just completely. It crushes our human will. Here's what I do want to say about this, this is important, it's the only way our will can get freed. Because our will is not free. Our will isn't bondage to sin. That's why we can't choose God. That's why God takes truths like these, crushes our will. And then when our will is absolutely crushed, God can redeem. You need to know that you can't make new wine without crushing grapes. That's the teaching here. The Bible rests a great deal on the will of man, the exercises of that will, and lays the responsibility for condemnation on sinful people on. On them. The Bible says it's our fault; we chose sin. But the Bible unmistakably gives God all the glory for choosing us to salvation. He's absolutely sovereign. We are responsible. How's does it all work together? We'll find out in heaven. But this is true.Why do anything if God is sovereign? It's a silly question. Why do anything? Because God is sovereign. God tells us to do it. He brings us the end and the means. He wants us to pray for people. He wants us to share the gospel. He's told us things to do so we do it.I used to think of election like being recruited to the CIA. They show up out of nowhere, they know about you. They already chose you. But that's because you had a certain set of skills. If that's how you think of election, you're wrong. You had no skills. God actually probably chose you because you have very little skills. That's how God chooses people, like the most unlikely Christian. That's how I think of myself. I'm like, "I don't know why God picked me. I don't know." Here we are. No, no, no, you can't say He picked me because. That's pride. He picked you just because He decided that's how election works. We don't get recruited because the Lord saw some potential. No, the only good thing about us is that God poured out His mercy.But this should still deepen our honor. He doesn't recruit us for a job. That's why a lot of theologians get bogged down in texts like this. What I try to keep saying to the church is we don't need just theologians at this church. We need soldiers that know that the Bible is a battle manual and that we're not just a study, study, study, study and never do it. No, no, no, we're told this to equip us so that we go and we make disciples of all nations. Lord, I'm honored to serve in your army. I'm at your service. What would you have me do? How can I be an honorable vessel? We'll talk about that actually in the next two weeks. Good.And then point three is cry out for mercy and cry out in praise. How can I become a vessel of mercy? That sounds great, to become a child of God, have all my sins forgiven. Well, cry out to Jesus to save you. Jesus Christ went to the cross to save sinners. He shed His blood to pour out His mercy on sinners like me. So cry out. The best example I have of someone crying out to Jesus is a blind man on the road to Jericho. Luke 18:35, "As He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried out... " The guy, he can't even see Him. He has no idea if this report is true. He's like, "If there's a chance, I am going to scream at the top of my lungs. This is my one chance in life to scream at the Messiah, and maybe He'll have mercy on me.""'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.'" That's all he said, "Have mercy." "And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, He asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, let me recover my sight.' And Jesus said to him, 'Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.' And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God."Cry out for mercy, and once you receive it, cry out in praise. This is the point of this whole teaching, it is to bring us to loving giving God glory. God, I glorify your name. All glory, all praise to you. The reason I like this, I just love election, I love it, it zooms in on God. It zooms in, and it makes God massive. And when God is massive and we realize this God who is this great, this sovereign, He tells me, "Come onto me if you are burdened with your sin," and He welcomes everybody, so come to Jesus Christ, ask for mercy, receive it, and then Jesus tells you, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." Praise be to God.Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to worship you now and give you all of the praise and the glory that you deserve. We deserve none of it. We deserve damnation. We deserve hell. We deserve separation from You. Instead, Lord, You came up with this incredible plan to save us. Before the foundation of the world, You chose us. Thanks be to Your Son Jesus Christ. You provided for the means of salvation through Your death, burial, and Your resurrection. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that You're with us. Lord, we pray that you just send elect, send your chosen, send your elect, save them powerfully in this church and show them that You have created us to glorify You, and when we glorify You, we experience the fullness of life. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

“Passionate Living” Philippians 3:8-12 –08/27/21 Philippians 3: CHRIST OUR GOAL 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained,[b] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me 8)Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  “Yet indeed” or “Yea Doubtless” (Kjv) In the construction of the Greek language Paul is making a passionate statement, a plea as it were to the Philippian Church about the force & passion with which he was pursuing Christ as an example for them to follow…it reads “yea, therefore, at least, EVEN” Paul wanted to Leave no doubt at as to His Pursuit in life. “Count” The same verb (counted) as used in vs. 7 …here it is in the present tense showing continuous action in present time. Paul had come to the steadfast CONVICTION that any supposed gain in the world he might attain was but total loss if He failed to GAIN CHRIST “loss”-- Paul continually held a tenacious& habitual focus & Mind-set against anything that might come between Him & the goal of Christ, so he counts EVERYTHING  personally to himself  as a Loss, except knowing Christ Acts 20:24 But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course[a] and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God's grace. Romans 8:18 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. “excellence,excellency”   of  a Higher, supreme , surpassing degree       8)Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, …speaks of the relationship that Paul developed with Jesus thru intimate communion & companionship with Him, He came to Know Jesus Heart & will; through  time spent in His (Jesus) presence I Cr. 2:2 2 For I didn't think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,[a] would give you a spirit[b] of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. II Peter 1:3 His[a] divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by[b] His own glory and goodness. I Jn. 5:20 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.[a] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 16:26 What shall it profit a man 13:44 Parable of treasure hidden in a field   for whom I have suffered the loss of all things  this speaks of ALL Paul gave up  at his Damascus conversion. Paul was brought up in what we would say was a ‘closed community'—TARSUS because he & his family were wealthy & only the wealthy could live there. Paul left a life of wealth & status to become the Gentile/Missionary Apostle who made tents to get by. This was NOT all , as his parents basically  disowned their son, because he left Jewry …He had been supported by his folks  studying under Gamaliel at the U. of TARSUS, as an up & coming Priest in the Jewish Synagogue. that I may gain Christ   Not Paul's salvation, BUT appropriating in His Life the graces & nature of Christ into his whole being…GAIN= (Kedaino) an acquisition made from shunning evil 9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; “Be found” more like ..'to turn out actually to be'( like grk. Expression here Gal. 2:17 we ourselves are found to be sinners). The idea here is that of a REVELATION of Character ,,that is, Paul LONGS to demonstrate in His Life that He is IN Christ…He wants others to observe this in his nature not having my own righteousness, ..The idea is not having a righteousness  ANY righteousness that could be called MY own…Paul wanted to completely divorce himself of any thought or effort that he was ‘A LAW Keeper' by his own efforts. He desired for men to see the Righteousness of a Life Hidden in Christ produced by Holy Spirit. 9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;   Romans 10:2-6 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end[a] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them.[b]6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?”[c] that is, to bring Christ down Romans 3:28 28 For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Romans 9:30 30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. Romans 4:1-16 Titus 3:5 He saved us— not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 8:3,10:4 faith in Christ, that Righteousness that is authored in Christ, which Paul now nourishes & maintains . This Faith is furnished to All believers & appropriates the Blessings which flow from Grace. I Cor. 1:30 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.[a] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. II Cor. 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things[a] have come. Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. “that I may know Him”  ..that  is to come to know by experience, an experiential knowing, or knowledge….Paul wants to come to a place of knowing Jesus in the FULNESS of EXPERIENCE that only comes by an intimate relationship With Him ..TO FULLY KNOW Him!    I Jn. 3:2 Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.   Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. “the power of His resurrection,” Paul wants to experience the SAME Power which Raised Christ from the dead surging through His whole being, overcoming all sin in his life & showing forth the very nature of Christ for all to see…POWER= DYNAMIS… power, ability, physical or moral, as residing in a person or thing;..power in action, force, a strength, violence, virtue, mighty power, miracle working power. In this context the meaning is a POWER that overcomes resistance. Romans 1:16 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel [a]of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Romans 6:4 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way[a] of life. II Cr. 4:10 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. I Peter 1:3 3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1:18-20 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 3:20-21 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 3:20-21 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.“fellowship of His sufferings,” = a joint participation…these refer to the sufferings of Christ for righteousness sake while here on earth….II Cor. 11:22-33 Paul's ‘resume of suffering' 1:24 24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, I Pe. 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. “being conformed to His death,” LITERALLY “ To Bring to the same form with some other person”…we already saw this Grk word Before in Phil. 2:5-8  in the great KENOSIS(an emptying out)passage…Phil 2:6(being in the form of God)= Form(morphe)…here 3:10 ‘made conformable, being conformed' (symmorphizo)…morfe/morphizo are of same root Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead. When These  Four Essentials are evident In Our Lives then we will CONSTANTLY be Made CONFORMABLE To Christ's Death : To show evidence by the very life we live To BE IN CHRIST By Coming To KNOW HIM Better All the time, a consistent deepening of relationship with HIM By Experiencing the same Dynamis that raised Christ from the dead surging through our being By Becoming Joint-Participants in Christ's Sufferings for Righteousness sake   **BOTTOM  LINEJ!! Paul's desire was that he might come to KNOW His Lord Jesus so intimately & with such Resurrection DUNAMIS operating  through His Being, along with a joint-participation  in Christ's sufferings that he would become both as to his inner heart  life & & as to His outward expression of just the same, like Jesus in respect to Christ's death , not just physically, but as we already showed in Phil. 2:7a KENOSIS..a death to self & denial of all things selfish …for the Blessing of others…THIS is what Paul strove for!!Paul was laying his life down in conformity& submission to the spirit & temperament of Christ's life, in all manner of lowliness  & meekness…both in Life & eventually in physical death   Vs. 10,11) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead.  “If  By Any Means”  This is not an expression of doubt but rather AUTHENTIC humility…Paul shows a modest yet assured Hope. “May/might  attain” =Greek language means “to arrive at a GOAL” “resurrection” exanastasis….This is the only place in the NT where this word is used…Literally from ‘OUT OF' …translation “Out Resurrection from(among) the dead”. Paul may be referring to the future resurrection of the physical body of the saint (I Cr. 15,Jn. 5:29,Lk. 20:35).However, This  more likely refers to a spiritual Resurrection         10,11)that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain[a] to the resurrection from the dead.   2:4-8  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, A resurrection…out from a state of sin where one is dead in trespasses, to a LIFE divinely Empowered motivating our every action Also refers to the Rapture   12 Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. “ Not that I have already attained” The conclusion, here is Paul has experienced to a measure a ‘Conformity To Christ's Death” (see points 1-4 above), yet he has yet to Appropriate= I may lay hold of  these to Their FULLEST MEASURE in His life….He is always looking to increase in these attributes…refers back to vs. 10 (To KNOW Him)   Am already perfected/either were already perfect…Perfect (teleioō) not perfect in the literal sense(sinless), But complete, meaning ‘Spiritually Mature' Paul is stating that he is STILL seeking Spiritual Growth & Maturity, He has not stopped or become stagnant or indifferent spiritually ‘But I press on/follow after' (dee-oko)  TO PURSUE…Paul has in mind. the metaphor of a Greek runner running in a race. He is pressing on to a FIXED Goal, keeping up the chase as it were with much Passion Rendering…Not that I have already (LAMBANO)or am already perfected but I press on that I may but I press on that I may lay hold(apprehend) of  (KATALAMBANO) that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of (Apprehended) (KATALAMBANOED) Me Forceful, passionate language…an INTENSE pursuit Lambano= accept, take, receive, obtain Katalambano = more forceful, to seize to “RUN DOWN”…see football highlight: Dk Metcalf runs down Budda BakerJ 12 Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Good translation” Grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasps me” –JB. Phillips   1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:--- This is what Paul was Apprehended/laid hold of FOR & In turn he wants to Apprehend Christ ( verses Phil. 3:10-11—ABSOLUTE CHRISTLIKENESS) I Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight for the faith; take hold of eternal life that you were called to and have made a good confession about in the presence of many witnesses. II Peter 1:5 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 63:1 God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You. I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. 84:2 my heart & flesh cry out for God, Ps. 42:1 as the deer panteth after water so my soul longs for thee Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. HEART REFLECTIONS: THOUGHT: Could it be that much of the church today over the last 50 years has been so busy showing the world how much we can do for Christ and lost sight of how the N.T. Church of Paul's day was just content to demonstrate to the world how much He could do through them List out all your positive attributes & gifts today…then get alone with ABBA & examine your heart to see if you are trusting Your Gifts or HIS Power As a Christian today, you have Christ Living in your heart, Have you taken the next step to really GAIN CHRIST fully? THINK: Knowing ABOUT Christ has Value, But Knowing HIM brings Vitality As MINISTERS…..we want /need 3 Things POWER = The Power of the Resurrection that eradicates all worry & despair Compassion =will come through sharing HIS sufferings (I Cr. 13:4) Purity = through Conformity to His Death…to accept the judgment & refuse to let ‘dead things' live any longer in our lives  

In a time-hopping edition of CheapShow, Paul is hopping backwards and forwards in time to challenge both Eli and Mr Biffo to a game of The Price of Shite. Why? Well… With Eli still in America, Paul has to record an episode of the podcast with someone, and luckily Mr Biffo was available to guess the cost of the charity shop tat. However, Paul realises that he can hop forward a week and task a returning Eli to the exact same game. As Paul bounces back and forth, Eli and Biffo go head-to-head to see who will reign supreme. Along the way they'll talk mutant trains, monkey cruelty, pepper holes, unusual smells, and old toys. All Paul needs to do is hand out the P'twings. Hopefully he can at least manage that. Confused? Don't be! You're getting two podcasts for the price of none! See pics/videos for this episode on our website: https://www.thecheapshow.co.uk/ep-274-a-tale-of-two-podcasts And if you like us, why not support us: www.patreon.com/cheapshow If you want to get involved, email us at thecheapshow@gmail.com And if you want to, follow us on Twitter @thecheapshowpod or @paulgannonshow & @elisnoid Like, Review, Share, Comment... LOVE US! Oh, and you can NOW listen to Urinevision 2021 on Bandcamp... For Free! Enjoy! https://cheapshowpodcast.bandcamp.com/album/urinevision-2021-the-album MERCH Official CheapShow Merch Shop: www.redbubble.com/people/cheapshow/shop www.cheapmag.shop Thanks also to @vorratony for the wonderful, exclusive art: www.tinyurl.com/rbcheapshow Send Us Stuff CheapShow PO BOX 1309 Harrow HA1 9QJ

Paul continues his defense before Felix the governor. Stating that he always exercises himself to have his conscience clear before both God and man, he proceeds to account for his actions in the temple in Jerusalem. All Paul did was tell the truth of what he did. It is noteworthy that none of the opposition could present any contrary evidence. Felix then decides to stop the proceedings inorder to give time for the Roman tribune, Lysias, and Felix with his Jewish wife, Drusilla to enter. This gave Paul an occasion to speak to Felix about the gospel. As we read, it caused no small discomfort to Felix because Paul reasoned of righteousness, self-control and of the judgment to come. What the governor really was hoping for was a pay-off from Paul. Here is Dr. Mitchell, Acts 24:17 on the Unchanging Word Bible Broadcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/unchanging-word/message

WEDNESDAY - Super Flower Blood Red Moon. To many moon names. Russ has a team of experts arrive at his house to track rats. Borat bounce content. RRR - Please say this sound is soothing. Are we the smartest thing in the universe? Monster Sports - Food Network. NBA. Rand vs Richard. All Paul brawl. Volkswagon Bus. Steven Kramer - college players making money from their likeness. Janna checks in with the show. Dreams. To The Top with Carlos - memory box. The Monster Whiskey tasting. K.O.D. - Investment tips from his highness. parallel parking.

It's a white hot blast of thick, hard nostalgia this week when Paul & Eli receive a PO Box delivery that is overflowing with joyous tat! This week, there's a rather colourful edition of Silverman's Platter that pitches an 80s edgy kids comic book flexidisc against the warm, familiar sounds of vintage pirate radio jingles! Elsewhere in the pod, a retro Price of Shite packs in all shades of pop culture oddities, from Garbage Pail Kids slime, He-Man storybooks and Ghostbusters 2 Topps trading cards to the absolutely brazen marketing strategies of The Care Bears. It's all very shocking. In other news, Paul tries to define the word "grumble" and Eli starts making lists. Absolutely pointless lists. All Paul can do is retaliate in kind! Share & Enjoy. Photos/Videos for this episode can be seen at https://www.thecheapshow.co.uk/ep-230-edit-point And if you like us, why not support us: www.patreon.com/cheapshow Oh, and you can NOW listen to Urinevision 2020 on Bandcamp... For Free! Enjoy! https://cheapshowpodcast.bandcamp.com/album/urinevision-2020-the-album If you want to get involved, email us at thecheapshow@gmail.com And if you have to, follow us on Twitter @thecheapshowpod or @paulgannonshow & @elisnoid Like, Review, Share, Comment... LOVE US! Also, you can NOW see Eli star in "Ashens & The Polybius Heist", download it from here: https://www.watchpolybiusheist.com MERCH Official CheapShow Merch Shop https://www.redbubble.com/people/cheapshow/shop Www.cheapmag.shop www.tinyurl.com/rbcheapshow Paul is writing a book! Want to help make it happen? https://unbound.com/books/ghosts/ Send Us Stuff CheapShow PO BOX 1309 Harrow HA1 9QJ

Philippians 1:21 (NIV): For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.This is the most gut-wrenching podcast I have ever recorded. On Thursday evening, my best friend and the woman I am honored to call mom went to sleep on Earth and woke up in the arms of her Savior Friday morning. She finally won her 12-year battle with Alzheimer's. She was 71 years old.Today, I will say goodbye to her. I have never felt so many emotions over a period of a few days. I am thrilled that she is set free from the prison of her mind. But, jealously, I want one more day with the incredible woman I knew 12 years ago before this cruel disease took her mind. THIS WILL GET EASIERWhen I had my first baby, 15 years ago, my mom came to stay with my husband and me for two weeks to help us through the many sleepless nights with a newborn. I remember one early morning during her stay, seeing the exhaustion written on my face, she turned to me and said, "Julie, I promise this will get easier."  There have been so many times during the past 3 days when I've felt her loving presence...Whether picking out her casket,Writing her obituary,Choosing her burial clothes,Or surviving the sleepless nights while fighting the tears...It's in those helpless moments that I hear her voice comforting me once again, "Julie, I promise this will get easier." TODAY'S VERSEToday's Bible verse exemplifies my mother's life beautifully. I am amazed at how God orchestrated that this would be the day we study this verse together. As we've been studying the book of Philippians, we've learned that Paul is in prison in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar Nero. Paul knew that he could live or he could die based upon the outcome of his trial, but to him, it didn't matter. All Paul cared about was that Christ was magnified in his life. My mother was the same way. I pray today's verse impacts you the way that it has me. And perhaps, today's verse will become your life verse, just as it did for my mother, the Apostle Paul, or countless other heroes of the faith. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORTThank you for your prayers and messages during this difficult day. I know that with your prayers and the Holy Spirit, I will get through this. And, yes, this will get easier.Julie Carruthjulie@juliecarruth.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Did you know that you can listen to a short Bible study just like this every weekday?

You Are Our Letter2 Corinthians 3:1-11by William KlockOur Epistle today reminds me of applying for my first summer job  when I was in University.  Through one of his contacts, my architectural history professor found me a job working for the county historic preservation society in Vancouver, Washington.  Of course, in reviewing my application the board asked for a couple of recommendations.  I went back to my prof.  He got me the job after all.  And he refused to write me a recommendation.  He said he didn’t have time for that sort of thing.  Instead, he told me to write my own recommendation, put his name on it, and he’d photocopy it on departmental letterhead and sign it.  I wasn’t comfortable with that, but I didn’t know what to do and ended up doing what he asked.  Writing your own recommendation is an awkward thing.  I tried to be conservative in praising myself.  And then I took it to him and he chided me for holding back.  At least I got the job.At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 3 St. Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians about “recommendations”.  In the ancient world, where Paul lived, recommendations or letters of introduction were even more important than they are today.  If someone showed up on your doorstep claiming to be a friend of a friend or representing some important person you couldn’t make a phone call or send an email to verify it.  You could have sent a letter, but it would have taken a long time to get a reply.  So people relied on written letters of introduction.  We know that this was true in the Church too.  A document from the late First Century called the Didache or “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” describes churches writing letters of recommendation for people so that when they went from one church to another claiming to be teachers and servants of Jesus the people in the new church could know it wasn’t a scam or know they weren’t heretics.  This is the background of this morning’s Epistle from 2 Corinthians.  In 3:1 Paul writes:Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? Paul had a difficult relationship with the Corinthians.  Even though he’d started the church and had spent a lot of time with them, the Corinthians didn’t have much respect for Paul.  The Christians in Corinth, in particular, were especially prone to getting carried away with the values of their Greco-Roman culture.  We see this in 1 Corinthians as well.  Greeks placed very high value on rhetorical skill.  They valued people who were good speakers and fast thinkers and from what we can gather, Paul didn’t shine in those areas the way some other teachers did.  The parallel in our culture would be the value we place on flashy production values, slick, feel-good talk, and preachers and churches that appeal to our egos and the things we want.  Paul’s the preacher who sometimes stumbles over his words, isn’t handsome, and wears a slightly shabby suit and if the Corinthians were modern North Americans they’d be passing him over in favour of the slick, handsome, prosperity huckster in his expensive suit and whose services seem more like rock concerts.  Paul didn’t meet their expectations and so when he heard about their problems and wrote to them giving advice, they’d write back and tell him “Thanks, but no thanks.  We’d rather take advice from So-and-so.Reading between the lines, it seems that they’ve told Paul that if he wants to come back to Corinth he’ll need a recommendation from someone they respect.  And at this point we might think Paul would have been in the right to shake the dust off his shoes and forget about these ingrates in Corinth.  But that’s not what he does.  If you want to see what grace looks like, look at verses 2 and 3.  He writes to them:You yourselves are our letter…They rejected him in favour of some slick-talker.  They’ve told him not to come around and not to write to them anymore to give advice.  They’ve disrespected and insulted him.  And Paul writes: I don’t need a letter of recommendation to prove my credentials as an apostle and servant of Jesus.  No.  You people yourselves are my letter of recommendation.  You people, even though you’ve rejected me, you’re the proof of my credentials.You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. If that’s not grace I don’t know what is.  Paul doesn’t need a letter written in ink on paper.  These messed up, confused, infuriating people are still loved by Paul, because despite being muddled and confused, they’re filled with the joy of the Lord and the hope of his kingdom.  For all their faults and for all their inability to see how they’ve been shaped by their culture in their rejection of him, their joy in the Lord and their hope in the Good News is the result of Paul’s ministry to them and that says everything about Paul that needs to be said.  Despite their imperfections, they’re his credentials.  Brothers and Sisters, would that we would all look at the church this way.  We get upset with our brothers and sisters over all sorts of things.  Some may be big deals.  Others are petty even though they seem big at the time.  We get upset because things in the church don’t go the way we want them to or someone doesn’t act the way we think they should.  Maybe they really are wrong.  But, Friends, the church isn’t perfect.  People make mistakes.  Just look at Corinth.  But Paul loved them anyway.  He could see their love for Jesus and that made him love them no matter how unruly they were.  I don’t know how to say it more clearly: Brothers and Sisters, if you love Jesus and someone else loves Jesus, it should be the most natural thing in the world to love each other regardless of your faults or their faults.  The same Spirit has bound you both to himself and to Jesus.  We are all one in him.  You can’t love Jesus and not love his body, the church, and all the people who make it up.Now, to make his point Paul takes them back to this idea of “covenant”.  Covenant is critical to who we are in Jesus, but it’s something we often forget.  We’ve been shaped more than a little by our own culture’s way of thinking.  For about the last century we’ve largely exchanged the biblical language of “covenant” for the language of “relationship” when we talk about how we relate to God.  Describing our relation to God in terms of “relationship” or talking about Jesus as our “personal Saviour” isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s not the language of the Bible and it doesn’t carry anywhere near the depth or the significance of the biblical language.  The Bible never speaks of “relationship”—that’s squishy modern language; it’s also very individualistic language.  God himself, speaks in the Bible of covenant and adoption.  And that’s what Paul goes back to: this idea of being in covenant with God.  We aren’t just in a “relationship” with him.  We’re his people.  We’re his sons and daughters.  And we’re in it together—all of us—as the Church, the Body of Christ with all its many parts and members. Paul takes the Corinthians back to Jeremiah 31.  Israel was in exile at that time.  God had judged her and allowed the Babylonians to conquer her, to destroy Jerusalem, to tear the temple down to the ground, and to carry the people off into captivity, away from the land they’d been promised.  His judgement came on Israel because she was in covenant with him and had failed and refused to live up to that covenant.  Relationship may or may not involve responsibility and commitment, but at the core of the idea of covenant are the ideas of mutual commitment and responsibility.  Israel had failed to live according to the law the Lord had given her, she’d refused to trust in his goodness and his care, she’d worshipped foreign pagan gods, she’d failed to obey him.  Ultimately, she had failed to love him as he loved her and she was unrepentant in her rejection of him.Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord promised the people that he would redeem them.  They may be covenant-breakers—like a cheating spouse—but he was not.  And so one day he would restore Israel by establishing a new covenant.  There would be a new agreement between the Lord and his people.  There would be a new marriage between Israel and her Lord.  He had established the old covenant through Moses when he gave Israel his law, written on stone tablets.  But that law carved on stone did not have the power to give the people the real life they needed and that the Lord desired for them.  And so the Lord promised a new covenant that would restore Israel.  The new covenant would deal with the sins of the people—that’s what the Cross of Jesus is about.  And the new covenant would give the people the new life they needed to truly be the renewed people the Lord wanted them to be—to remake humanity into what we were meant to be—God giving his people his own life, transforming their hearts and minds in a way that the law written on stone was never able to do.  In this new covenant, the Lord promised through Jeremiah, he would carve the law on their hearts—he would give his people his own Spirit.And despite how muddled and confused and wrong the Corinthians were on so many things, despite their rejection of Paul, he could write to them and say that they were his letter, they were his credentials, because the life of the Holy Spirit was evident in their life as a church.  They themselves are a letter from Jesus the Messiah.  The powerful work promised through Jeremiah and the other prophets is manifest in the amazing work that the Spirit has accomplished in them.  Think about that.  Some of them had been Jews—the same sort of Jews that Paul himself had been when he persecuted Jesus’ people.  Some of them had been Greek pagans, worshipping Aphrodite with ritual prostitution and some had been sold out to Caesar who claimed to be divine and the saviour of the world.  But Paul had brought them the Good News that Jesus is Lord.  He preached Jesus’ death and resurrection.  And they had been transformed.  The Spirit had moved them to repentance and given them a totally new life.  The living God had written something powerful on their hearts and they would never be the same people again.  And the pagan world around them could see it even if these people couldn’t see it themselves anymore.  Again, think about that.  Think about your own stories.  Think of the way you were once met with the Good News.  Think of the forgiveness you have found at the Cross.  Think of the new life Jesus has given you.  Just like the Corinthians, each of us has a long road ahead of us as we grow into a mature faithfulness to Jesus and his lordship.  In our baptism he has plunged us into the Holy Spirit and we are not the people we once were.And so Paul goes on, getting back to his credentials, writing in verses 4-6:Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. All the proof of Paul’s faithfulness as a minister of the Gospel, as a minister of God’s new covenant is right there in the work accomplished in the Corinthians by Jesus and the Spirit.  It’s not that Paul is competent himself.  He merely showed up in Corinth and preached the Word as he’d been called to do by Jesus himself.  But as a result of Paul preaching the Good News of Jesus and the kingdom the new covenant has unfolded right there in a powerful and very visible way.  The “letter”—the old law written on stone—brought death, but the Spirit now poured into them has given them life.  In his resurrection Jesus unleashed life into the world.  All Paul has done is preach that Good News and where he’s done that the Spirit has brought transformation.At this point Paul changes tack a bit.  The reason the Corinthians rejected him and the reason he’s had to explain all this about the new covenant to them is that they’ve lost sight of what’s important.  Again, they’d been captivated by teachers who met superficial criteria of Greek culture as to what a wise teacher was supposed to be like.  Again, the parallel today would be the way people are attracted to programs and high production values and slick talkers in faddish clothes or slick suits who pander to the consumerism and the materialism of our culture.  And so in verses 7 and 8 Paul starts trying to stress the glory of the new covenant that the Corinthians seem to have forgotten.Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? Paul takes them back to the Exodus as he does so often.  They all knew the story.  For those who were Jews this was part of their national and cultural identity.  In Exodus 34 we read how the Israelites became afraid after Moses had been up on Mt. Sinai for a long time.  They saw the thunder and lightning and they thought God was angry.  Ironically, Moses was up on the mountain being given instructions on how the tabernacle was to be built, how all the furnishing and vestments were to be made, and how the people were to worship the Lord.  But down at the base of the mountain the people were convincing Aaron, Moses’ brother, to take their gold and make them an idol in the shape of a calf.  Here they were on their honeymoon, prostituting themselves to an idol.  Moses came down from the mountain and the first words he was given by the Lord to speak to the people amounted to a death sentence for their idolatry.  Moses pleaded with the Lord to spare the people despite their guilt and as a result of his pleading prayer the Lord revealed his nature and character even further.  Even though the Lord insisted that Israel’s wickedness had to be addressed and dealt with, he was still a god of abundant mercy.  As a result of that revelation, Moses went down the mountain and his face was shining.  The radiance of the Lord, reflected from Moses’ face was so great that the Israelites were afraid—they knew their sin and cowered in the presence of the holy, even though it was only the reflection of the Lord’s holiness.  Moses had to veil his face.  The only time he unveiled it was when he went into the Lord’s presence in the Tabernacle, to speak with him face to face.  Now, Scripture doesn’t explain the mechanics of it.  I know I can’t quite picture how Moses’ face radiated the glory of God, but somehow it did.  And it was absolutely magnificent and utterly overwhelming.And Paul’s point is this: If the law carved on stone came down from the mountain in such amazing glory, and if the judgement of the Lord on Israel’s idolatry was manifested in such glory, how much more glorious is the ministry of the Spirit?  He goes on in verses 9-11:For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory!  Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory! Like the Christians of Ephesus who, in Revelation, are described as having lost their first love, the Corinthians had lost sight of the glory of the Holy Spirit’s ministry.  It wasn’t that they’d lost the Holy Spirit.  That’s impossible.  It’s the Spirit who binds us to Jesus, he’s the one who unites us to his life, he’s the one who renews our minds and regenerates our hearts, turning us from everything that is not Jesus and giving us the desire and the faith to take hold of Jesus with both hands.  You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit.  But the Spirit had become “old hat” for the Corinthians.  It’s remarkable considering the miraculous things that we read about going on there in Paul’s first letter to them.  Their church had no shortage of the Spirit’s ministry, but they’d let themselves be overwhelmed by the values of the culture around them.Brothers and Sisters, we need to be on guard in the same way.  Our own culture infiltrates the church in many, many ways.  Our culture is overwhelmingly commercialistic and too often, without even realizing it’s happened, we start building our churches around what amount to sales tactics, as if we’re trying to sell the Gospel.  Programs can be good and useful in accomplishing the work of the Church, but most of the time these days they’re seen as sales tools.  But God doesn’t give us programs.  He gives us his Word.  Through the ministry of the Spirit he caused his Word to be written by prophets, apostles, and evangelists so that we can know him and proclaim him to the world.  And in Jesus he sent his Word to become flesh—not to give us programs or gimmicks—but to die for our sins and to rise again to unleash life into the world.  A Church should never have its identity tied up with programs.  A Church should never be reliant on a slick preacher or putting on a show with high production values.  A Church is a place where the Word is faithfully preached and the Sacraments faithfully administered.  That was the definition the Protestant Reformers developed universally.  What constitutes a Church?  A Church is a body that preaches the Word and administers the Sacraments.  But today it seems many preach everything but the Word and the Sacraments are often side-lined or even sometimes considered optional.  As ministers of the Gospel, we—and that’s both you and I—are not called to be flashy, we’re not called to preach the pop-psychology and self-help that our culture obsesses over, we’re not called to be motivational speakers, we’re not called to preach health and wealth even though that’s what people want to hear—we’re called to proclaim that Jesus has died and risen and that he is Lord.  And we’re called to back-up that proclamation by living the life of the Spirit, by manifesting the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control that the Spirit bears in our lives.  We’re called to be gloriously counter-cultural: being poor in spirit, mourning sin, living in meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, and making peace—even when it means rejection and persecution.  It’s this Jesus-centred and Spirit-empowered life that manifests the glory of God to the world, that makes us the light of the world and the salt of the earth.Let us pray:  Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for the forgiveness and new life you’ve given us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We thank you for pouring your Spirit into us, uniting us to Jesus and transforming us.  In us you’ve revealed your glory.  We ask that you would, in your grace, keep us from taking the life of the Holy Spirit for granted and that you would keep us focused on your priorities despite the competing priorities that surround us in the world.  Keep us faithful to Jesus, to his kingdom, to your Word and to your Sacraments, and to preaching the Good News that Jesus has died and risen and is Creation’s true Lord.  We ask all of this through him.  Amen.

A simple premise, a complicated discussion. All Paul and Rob have to do is pick their top five Summerslam matches, but they find that this particularly PPV brand has as rich a history as any.Enjoy the boys' discussion to narrow this chat down to five crackers, and then afterwards, head to hookedonwrestling.co.uk/vote to make your own choice. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/hooked-on-podcast-how-to-be-great. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TBJ126: Trumpeter Susan Rider of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band on overcoming doubt, the importance of focus and jamming with her dad. Susan dropped serious conversation ninja on Andrew & Lance and made them have a normal conversation. Weird. From her bio: Trumpeter/cornetist Master Gunnery Sergeant Susan Rider joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in July 1997. Master Gunnery Sgt. Rider began her musical instruction at age 10. Upon graduating in 1985 from Northern University High School in Cedar Falls, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 1989 from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. She continued her studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, where in 1991 she earned a master’s degree in music and in 2000 earned a doctorate of music in brass pedagogy. Her trumpet instructors were Keith Johnson and Randy Grabowski of the University of Northern Iowa, and Charles Gorham and Edmund Cord of Indiana University. Prior to joining “The President’s Own,” Master Gunnery Sgt. Rider performed with the Midland/Odessa Symphony in Texas, the Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky, and the Evansville Philharmonic and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic in Indiana. She also played in the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra in Charleston, S.C., and was a substitute with the New World Symphony in Miami. In addition to performing, she also taught studio trumpet in Odessa and at Purdue University in Indiana, and was an associate instructor at Indiana University for the brass and music education departments. Master Gunnery Sgt. Rider has appeared as a Marine Band guest soloist with various groups including the Louisville Male High School Symphonic Band from Kentucky in 2001, and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony in 2005, both at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago. She has performed with Monarch Brass at the International Women’s Brass Conferences in Toronto, Canada in 2010 and Cincinnati, Ohio in 2014; the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Columbus, Ohio in 2015; and the International Trombone Festival in New York in 2016. In addition to her musical duties, Master Gunnery Sgt. Rider has served as a Tour Coordinator since 2003, advancing and serving as on-site manager during the band’s annual concert tour. In this fun and lively discussion, we cover: B&B Meat Deli Pat Sheridan Being nice Being from Iowa Her grandpa was a stride piano player Her Dad and uncles playing music together Dad, a career chemist at U of Northern Iowa is making one-man "All Paul" albums at the age of 79 Wanting to play sax and ending up as a trumpet player Jamming with her Dad at a Dixieland festival each year Playing and talking about music with her older brother The impact of her family and their support of her Studying with Keith Johnson at UNI Moving on to Indiana University and the influence of Ray Cramer Andrew's conducting prowess Auditioning in both 1996 and 1997 and the differences between the two auditions Working, playing and teaching in Texas before winning the Marine Band gig The importance of focus Overcoming doubt Studying with Ed Cord at IU and never really losing an audition Remember when something went well and carry it with you Trusting yourself Meat-flavored mouthpieces Links: Susan's Marine Band bio page Trumpet Blog Article Susan Rider in Her Own Words article Want to help the show? Here are some ways: Unlock bonus episodes galore by becoming a Patreon patron. We just launched a brand new Brass Junkies newsletter! It will change your life. Like, it's life-changing! Subscribe today to stay in the loop on all things Brass Junkies! Help others find the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. Show us some love on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Show some love to our sponsors: The brass program at The Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University and Parker Mouthpieces (including the Andrew Hitz and Lance LaDuke models.) Buy Pray for Jens and The Brass Junkies merch at The Brass Junkies online store! Tell your friends! Expertly produced by Will Houchin with love, care, and enthusiasm.

Podcast Notes: Our passage for today is Ephesians 4:17-32 We’ll begin by reading it and then we’ll: Briefly look at the background to the passage Offer a short overview of the passage Seek to apply the teaching of the passage to our lives today 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ 21 and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body. 26 ‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Background to the passage In the NIV the passage begins with the word ‘so’. However the Greek is somewhat stronger and is better translated ‘therefore’ This takes us back to what he has been saying previously So far in the letter Paul has emphasised: The many blessings of being in Christ The fact that Gentiles believers are fellow-heirs with Jewish believers That the church, the body of Christ, is a holy temple in which God lives by his Spirit Because of all this, at the beginning of Ch.4 he urges us to: Live lives worthy of our calling, which, as we saw last time, will involve each member of the body pulling its weight and fulfilling the role that Christ who is the head of the body has assigned to it. Now, in v17 he says: 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. In other words, in the light of all I’ve been telling you, don’t go back to what you were. Overview of the passage Don’t go back to what you were (17-19) Remember what you were taught when you became Christians (20-24) Let your attitude and behaviour reflect what you are in Christ (25-32)   Don’t go back to what you were (17-19) 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.   Remember what you were taught when you became Christians (20-24) 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ 21 and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught...   Let your attitude and behaviour reflect what you are in Christ (25-32) 25 ... put off falsehood and speak truthfully 26 ‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Application of the passage The application of Paul’s teachings to our lives today is fairly obvious. He gives a list of instructions telling us what to do and what not to do. Let’s look a little more closely at what I consider to be the heart of the passage - vv.20-24. 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ 21 and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. He tells us to put off our old self (22) and put on the new self (24). This is clearly a metaphor relating to clothing. We are to put off the old sin-stained clothes that we wore before we became Christians and put on the new clean clothes that we received when we were converted In other words, we are to stop behaving as we used to and to start behaving in accordance with the teaching and example of Jesus. But how do we do this? We need to know what is right and what is wrong Notice the emphasis on the mind in these verses: 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ 21 and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The Gentiles (or pagans) don’t act right because their thinking isn’t right As a result they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity (19) - and we used to do the same But now we know better because we’ve been taught the truth in Jesus We must act in accordance with what we know This involves a conscious decision (cf. given themselves over v.19) Putting off the old self means refusing to act in ways we know are wrong Putting on the new self involves a conscious decision to do what we know is right But we will only do this if the attitude of our mind is right (23) Paul says something similar in Romans 6 where, by using a somewhat different metaphor, he tells us to think of ourselves as dead to sin We must keep on doing this Putting off the old self and putting on the new is not a once off thing All Paul’s instructions in vv25-32 are in the Present Imperative We must keep on: putting off falsehood and speaking truthfully to your neighbour (25) not letting the sun go down while we are still angry (26) not giving the devil a foothold (27) stealing no longer (28) not letting any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths (29) not grieving the Holy Spirit, with whom we were sealed for the day of redemption (30) getting rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice (31) working, doing something useful, sharing with those in need (28) building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (29) being kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us (32) Finally, bearing in mind the theme of our last talk, it is only as we work at these things that the body will make increase of itself in love as each member does its work (vv.15-16). Compare v. 25 for we are all members of one body.

This sermon was preached on 31st March 2019 at all services of Helensburgh and Stanwell Park Anglican Church. The sermon outline was: The News That Changes Lives - Paul and Felix (Acts 24); The News That Spreads Even in Hardship - Paul and Festus (Acts 25:1-12); The News that is for All - Paul and Agrippa (25:13-26:32);

In Acts 18:12-19, Paul will attempt to give his defense to the Roman proconsul, Gallio, refuting the false accusations of the Jews. But before he can get a word out, Gallio will shut down the proceedings, refusing to hear what he deems to be the internal squabbles of the Jews. He has neither the time or interest to listen to what they have to say, instead, kicking them out of his court and allowing Paul to walk free and get back to his business of sharing the gospel. All Paul had been guilty of doing was attempting to persuade the people of Corinth to believe in God and His offer of salvation made possible through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. The Jews were not interested. At least some of them. They saw Paul as a heretic and a nuisance. And they had hoped to persuade the Roman government to see him as a dangerous troublemaker and a potential threat to the Roman way of life. But Gallio actually found them to be more irritating than Paul. And what we need to see in all of this is the sovereign hand of God, working in unforeseen and unpredictable ways, to accomplish His divine will. Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing happens outside His divine purview. It’s interesting to note that the Jews accused Paul of persuading the people to worship God contrary to the law. In fact, he was. He was teaching a means to have a right relationship apart from the keeping of the law. But the Jews would have nothing to do with it. Yet, God won the day.

All Paul wants is to have the deepest knowledge of Jesus possible, by any means possible. Is that your desire?

Welcome to Sacred Sunday! Today we are reading I Corinthians Chapter 9. Support Your Apostle Paul is kind of a big deal. He's an apostle. He's seen the Risen Christ. Even the fact that the church in Corinth exists is proof that God is working through him. Boo-ya.He explains that, as an apostle, he is entitled to monetary support from his fellow Christians. Must be in the fine print of his contract.He should get free food and beverages (no more BYOB for Paul!). He should have a faithful wife traveling by his side (a really cute one!). He shouldn't have to work little side jobs (tent-making can be a real drag). Really, the Corinthians should be fully supporting him. Eyes on the Prize But Paul doesn't roll this way.Even though these are his rights, even though this is what God demands, Paul never took advantage of these perks.And don't worry, he's not going to start doing it now. He's just trying to make a point. So put away your wallets, okay?All Paul is saying is that he chose this life freely. He gets to spread the gospel around free of charge to everyone.Paul might be free, but he's made himself into a slave (sans chains) in order to win more converts to Christ.Wherever he goes, he becomes like the people he's with so that he can help convince them that Jesus is Lord. We believe this is called empathy.And you've got to stay strong throughout. Christians are like world-class athletes. They have to train and be super discipled in order to win the prize at the end. The prize in this case is a little nicer than a trophy.This is how Paul lives his life. Just a hint, Corinthians. Thanks to www.shmoop.com

Welcome Church! We are here every Sunday to read the Bible, tell personal stories and pray together because when two or more are gathered.....In a non-judgemental down to earth format. God bless you every one! Paul In Caesarea Paul gets on a ship and starts the journey toward Jerusalem. Bon voyage!The group stops in a bunch of ports and are well-received by various Christians before arriving in Caesarea.Upon arrival, Paul meets with Philip (who was one of the seven that was appointed by the apostles in Chapter 6).At Philip's house, a local prophet named Agabus tells Paul that he will be imprisoned and turned over to the Gentiles.All Paul's friends hear this and beg Paul not to go to Jerusalem.No way, Paul tells them. He's ready to die if that's what God needs him to do to spread the word. Well, in that case, go ahead, they tell himWhen the ritual is almost over (it takes seven days to complete), the non-Jewish-Christians in town see him in the temple and freak out.They grab Paul and tell everyone that he's been teaching "everyone everywhere" that Jewish law stinks. They also (wrongly) assume that he has—horror of horrors—taken a Gentile into the temple. It's a pretty big no-no.The Jewish naysayers are all attacking Paul when a group of soldiers comes along and stops them from beating him up. They also arrest Paul, but hey, it's better than a beating by an angry mob.The soldiers are trying to figure out what Paul did, but the whole crowd is in chaos. The men lead Paul away while the mob is still trying to get at him.Before putting him in prison, Paul asks the soldiers if he can address the people. They tell him to have at it and then (we're guessing) sit back to watch Paul get torn apart.