Podcasts about jews gentiles

In Ephesians 3, Paul writes about his ministry of bringing "the news of the boundless riches of Christ" to non-Jews (Gentiles), "to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God" (3:8) "now revealed...by the Spirit" (3:6).What is this mysterious plan now revealed?Would you believe that it's the church? "Through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known...in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord" (3:10-11).The good news is that all—Jew and Gentile alike—have "access to God" (2:17 cf. 3:12) as they are incorporated into a people, "members of the household of God" (2:19), even "a dwelling place for God" (2:22). Does the church, the Body of Christ, feel like good news to you?Join us this Sunday as we reflect on just how closely connected the good news of Jesus is to the church in the letters of the New Testament we've been reading together this summer. We'll make space for folks to share how they've experienced the good news of Jesus in and as an invitation into the church and also engage with God about what we might need to persist in or move closer to the church as the fundamental location of our lives with God. We'll also look at Ephesians 4, where Paul describes God as a giver of good gifts, empowering each person to build the Body of Christ and find a place in it through the exercise of those gifts. We'll make time to reflect on the gifts that we've each been given and seek both new gifts and an increase in fruitfulness as we invite the Holy Spirit and pray for one another.- Series Description -How often do we lose sight of God's character? We rupture a relationship and feel guilty. We sin and justify ourselves instead of seeking forgiveness. We lose our job and feel devastated. We need to remember who God is. God is powerful. God is alive. God is a unifier who makes us one. God is love. God is generous. God is light. The letter to Ephesus declares who God is, and we will ask God to help us not only believe these truths but walk them out in our lives.

Our 4 chapters listed for today are of great interest. David is re-installed as king, causing great heart-searching among those who had been drawn away to follow his vain son Absalom: an example of the type of leader many have followed or elected in recent years with Hitler being by far the worst example.  Our chapter in Jeremiah is firstly about God's extreme anger with his people at that time, “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house (the temple) I have found their evil, declares the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness …” [23 v.11-12]   So it is today!  The scene changes dramatically as God gives his prophet a vision of the distant future – our time!  The question is put, “who has paid attention to his word and listened” [v.18].  Surely a valid question for today! Then come the words, “Behold the storm of the LORD!  Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.  The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart.  In the latter days you will understand it clearly.” [v.19,20]  Only those who read God's word thoroughly know the intents of his heart.   Chapters 10 & 11 in Romans also climax with a latter day application. Paul is explaining the position of Israel as a nation “because they did not submit to God's righteousness” [10 v.3]  and have been “broken off” God's olive tree that non-Jews “might be grafted in” [11 v.19].  The non-Jews (Gentiles) are warned to “stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” [v.20,21]  We were fascinated to attend a Messianic Jewish Synagogue last week and hear a Jew expound this chapter. It seems significant that Jewish Christians have emerged in the last 20 years or so.  Finally note v.25 and its warning to non-Jews, “lest you be wise in your own conceits I want you to understand this mystery, brothers (and sisters): a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” We are surely nearing the point when the “fullness” – the full number from God's perspective – have “come in” and committed their lives to Christ and the original gospel Paul preached.  Then “the natural branches (will) be grafted back into their own olive tree.” [v.24]  Make sure you are among “the fullness of the Gentiles” and have “paid attention to his word”  “for the latter days” are surely here and nearly complete. 

We have had a comment on the channel trying to enlighten us that the Jews are still God's chosen people and all is as it was or, at least, it will be. Tune in and we'll actually look at what is being taught by Paul in Romans 11.   Link to the merch store: https://christainitynow.myshopify.com/   for Bible questions and show topic suggestions send and email to: www.christianityisnow@gmail.com   Be sure to follow us on "X" formerly known as Twitter: https://twitter.com/1Chronicles1232   If you want to support the show monthly, www.patreon.com/christianitynow   You can do a one time donation through PayPal: nearchurches@gmail.com   #christianitynow #christianitytoday #varietyshow #bibletime #biblestudy #gospel #antisemitism #Jesus #jesusislord #jesusisking #christisking

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In Jesus' day, Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) were not typically in the habit of associating with one another.  But Jesus spoke of "another flock" meaning the gentiles who would be coming into the family of God and Peter would the one who kicked off the new members' induction into the family.  Cornelius would be the gentile God chose for the plan as well.  

2/11/24 Living Stones Church - Our passion at Living Stones Church is to be the kind of church described in the Bible: A Culture of Faith. Together we love to actively pursue Spirit and Truth.

Send us a Text Message.Many of our Hebrew Roots friends claim that believers in Jesus are “grafted into Israel,” or have been made citizens in the commonwealth of Israel. One teacher says, “We're not Christians, we're not Jews, we are Israel.” Many Torah-keepers claim that once you come to faith in Jesus, you're no longer a Gentile. This is a topic that breeds a lot of confusion. What are we grafted into? What does it mean to say "we are Israel'? In this video, we untangle this issue and try to gain some clarity on what it means for believers in Jesus to be grafted in. And we do so by tracing the evolution of the name “Israel” in the Bible,. Because we need to use Scripture's definition of that word, not our own. LINK MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO6 Cultural Differences Every Student of the Bible Should Know: Kingdom of God through Eastern EyesCHAPTERS00:00 Introduction00:59 The name "Israel" in the Torah10:21 Israel in the New Testament27:07 What are we grafted into?33:23 Wrap it up, Professor.Defending the Biblical Roots of ChristianityOur websiteOur YouTube ChannelProf. Solberg's BlogSupport our Ministry (Thank you!)

In today's episode we will be covering Jews & Gentiles Part 4: What about the Other Nations? What salvation will they receive? Find out this and more in today's episode. Stay tuned. 

In today's episode we will be covering Jews and Gentiles: Part 3: Grafted In. Is it a free for all? Can anyone be grafted in? Or is it specific concerning who can be one with The Most High and the children of Israel? Lets dive deep and find out more in todays episode. Stay tuned. 

In today's episode we will be covering Jews and Gentiles: Part 2: The Diaspora Scattered and Separated Among the Gentiles. Stay tuned.

Romans 11:11-36. Preached Sunday, November 19, 2023.

Romans 11:11-36. Preached Sunday, November 19, 2023.

Romans 11:11-36. Preached Sunday, November 19, 2023.

In today's episode we will be covering  (Jews and Gentiles: To the Jew First and to the Greek) So now, if you have been listening to the past few episodes you know God came for Israel, Christ came for Israel, so now we seem to be faced with a dilemma… What about the gentiles? To the Jew first and also to the Greek right? Well, let us get an understanding of what was being conveyed and why? So, You better gone head and grab a swimsuit, cause I hope you're ready to dive into a little more biblical history on this one. Stay tuned. 

Did you know the Gentiles were included in God's promises and plans from the very beginning? Most likely that includes YOU. No one was an afterthought or second choice. Now how special do you feel? And the title of this podcast…trust us – it really will make sense. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-3/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-3/support

Sunday - Galatians (revisited) - 09 - Jews, Gentiles, and the Law - Galatians 1

Message from Harrison Holbrook on March 12, 2023

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...  The people of God have lived by the Old Covenant for hundreds of years and have sacrificed animals for their sins year by year.   Jesus walked on this earth in the form of a man for a short time doing the work of God and then the rulers of the Jewish nations crucified Jesus and Jesus died on a cross, paying for our sins and setting up the way for the New Covenant which would take the place of the Old Covenant.   God tells us about that covenant which came through the blood shed by Jesus.   Hebrews 8   7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, HE saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in MY covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put MY laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to ME a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know ME, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13 In that HE saith, A new covenant, HE hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.  

Zechariah 2--Introduction --- Zechariah means- -------------------------------------- The Prophets in the OT were writing about the -----------------------------.--- When we read about descriptions of Jerusalem on the books of the prophets, we should think about the ------------ picture it conveys regarding the ------------- ----------.---Question I- What immediate plans does God have for Jerusalem-- -v1-5- --Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-V1 - -measuring line- refers to-- -V4 - -Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls,--- -V4 - --multitude of men and livestock in it-- -V5 - -the LORD will be a ring of fire all around her...-- -V5 - -..I will be the glory in her midst.-- --John 13-35 - -..by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.---John 3-30 - -He must increase and I decease-.--- Jerusalem - the Christian Church will have Jews - Gentiles in every age - country submitting to Christ as their Saviour - King.--- God will protect His people - the Church like a ring of fire around her.-----Question II- What does God think about His people-- -v6-9---Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-V1 - --Flee from the land of the north..--V7 - --escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon..-- -V9 - -I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants-- -V8 - --apple of His eye-- --- God's people are precious to Him as the -apple of His eye-. --- Return to God - He will return to you----Question III- What will happen to Jerusalem in the near future-- -v10-13---Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-Who is Coming-- --V10 - -I am coming and I will dwell in your midst-

Zechariah 2--Introduction --- Zechariah means- -------------------------------------- The Prophets in the OT were writing about the -----------------------------.--- When we read about descriptions of Jerusalem on the books of the prophets, we should think about the ------------ picture it conveys regarding the ------------- ----------.---Question I- What immediate plans does God have for Jerusalem- -v1-5- --Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-V1 - -measuring line- refers to-- -V4 - -Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls,--- -V4 - --multitude of men and livestock in it-- -V5 - -the LORD will be a ring of fire all around her...-- -V5 - -..I will be the glory in her midst.-- --John 13-35 - -..by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.---John 3-30 - -He must increase and I decease-.--- Jerusalem - the Christian Church will have Jews - Gentiles in every age - country submitting to Christ as their Saviour - King.--- God will protect His people - the Church like a ring of fire around her.-----Question II- What does God think about His people- -v6-9---Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-V1 - --Flee from the land of the north..--V7 - --escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon..-- -V9 - -I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants-- -V8 - --apple of His eye-- --- God's people are precious to Him as the -apple of His eye-. --- Return to God - He will return to you----Question III- What will happen to Jerusalem in the near future- -v10-13---Verse reference Meaning-Lesson-Implication-Who is Coming- --V10 - -I am coming and I will dwell in your midst-

This week on #ASK! Pastor Jamie answers...What are the consequences for a believer who has participated in communion when they have unconfessed sin? When did the Jews/Gentiles split from Jews to form their own "Christian" church? Is it ok to have hobby's you are passionate about? Check it out!

This week on #ASK! Pastor Jamie answers...What are the consequences for a believer who has participated in communion when they have unconfessed sin? When did the Jews/Gentiles split from Jews to form their own "Christian" church? Is it ok to have hobby's you are passionate about? Check it out!

Revelation 7

In Hosea, God called Israel, "Not My people." Then He called them, "My people." Paul quotes those verses in a context that seems to be talking about Gentiles. But is it? And what do we make of Hosea's and Paul's statements regarding the status of Jews/Gentiles today? We work through these things in today's study.

Main Idea || There is only one love that is better than life, is enough to meet our needs, satisfy our longings, that will never let go of us: Gods love for us in Jesus. Fill-In Notes: https://churchlinkfeeds.blob.core.windows.net/notes/39900/note-154698.html CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: 1. Whats the greatest misconception about love that youve come across? 2. While reading Ephesians 3:1421 aloud, notice the phrases Paul uses to pray. If you were to borrow one phrase from Pauls prayer to use in your own prayers, which would it be, and why? 3. Whats been your experience trying to grasp experience Jesuss love (described below)? a. wide enough to encompass all humanity (especially Jews Gentiles), b. long enough to last for eternity, c. deep enough to reach the most damaged sinner, and d. high enough to exalt us to heaven. 4. Do you think its rare for Christians to love people (both insiders outsiders) the way Jesus did? If so, why do you think that might be?

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 and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit Mosaicboston.com.God, we thank you for these words that we just sang. Not just that we can sing them but that we can know that they are true. We see death and decay all around us. We need resurrection in our world, in our country, in our church, in our hearts, Lord. Jesus Christ, you are our living hope, you are the resurrection and the life. We just marvel at what a great and awesome and merciful God that you are. So Lord, we pray for those who are suffering. And we pray for those who are lost, that we are reminded then for many of us, this is the closest to hell that we will ever be. And yet, for some, this is the closest to heaven they could ever hope for. But you Lord have made a way to change that through your Son, through the gospel.So we just cry out for peace but we also out for revival, Lord. That we want to see you raise the dead, bring new life to those who are lost and dead in their sins, Lord. And we know that you can do it, you've done it and we praise you for that. God, right now I just ask for grace as we preach your word this morning, we pray that you would speak to us through this amazing text written by the Apostle Paul and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.All right. So if you are just joining us, we have been working our way through the Book of Romans. We're in chapter 2 and I'm going to be just looking at a small passage today. It's a small passage but it has a really big idea and that's one of those ideas you just kind of have to chew on. And it's a simple idea, it's simple but the implications of it are massive, they're huge. And the big idea is just simply this, that things are not as they ought to be. Now that statement isn't very shocking or profound, most of us would say, "Yeah, obviously things are not as they ought to be." I mean, how many of us, when we turn on the news, we think, "Wow. Things are so great, I can't even imagine them getting any better." Where you turn on the news and you think, "Wow, ..." I'm moving my mic pack. So cringe, this is worse than that episode of the Ringer... What's going on here? I'm going to move this down. There we go.Obviously, things are not as they ought to be. And Paul's big idea, the case that he's been trying to make for these first couple of chapters is just simply that, that creation is not blessed, it is cursed, that people are under God's wrath, that the world is not filled with the glory of God as it ought to be, it is filled with sin and death and decay. And it's not just that, that is it's that we all know it intuitively, we just know. We know this is true and yet we deny it, we suppress it and at the same time we don't want to face the truth so we suppress the truth because as much as we know that things are not as they ought to be, we also know that we ourselves are not as we ought to be and that scares us.And so we ignore it, we deny it, we rationalize it away and just try to pretend that this is normal. Quick example from this week, Thursday morning, I was having one of those days where I just couldn't wake up, right? You get out of bed and you're not fully awake, you're not really asleep, eyes are just kind of halfway open. Groggy, that's the word for it. I was groggy. And I get up, every morning we make the kids breakfast, I don't eat breakfast, I'm one of those intermittent fasting type people. So I make breakfast, we sit down and Kelly and the kids, they eat breakfast and as they're eating, I read scripture, we read through books of the Bible together. So they eat, I read and then we pray together.And then it's time to like, "Okay, hurry up. You've got to go get dressed, we've got to get ready for school." And so the kids run off, they get ready, go to get dressed and as they're getting dressed, I usually pack their bags. So every day they take a lunch, they take a water bottle and they take a snack to school with them. I pack them up a little snack in one of those Ziploc bags. And so I did that. I packed their bags, we walk them to school, we both work from home so we walk back home and go about our day. Later that day, I go into the kitchen, I open the pantry and I see laying there on the shelf is our son Owen's snack in his Ziploc bag. I was so out of it, I packed it up and then I just set it down and left it there and didn't put it in his bag.And I felt terrible, he's probably hangry, we're going to get a call from the principal, he's going to get in trouble and I felt terrible. But there's nothing really I could do about it so I just went back to work, forgot about it, put it out of my mind. Anyways, later that night we're sitting at dinner, we're talking, we're eating and all of a sudden Owen pipes up and he says, "Oh, hey dad, I wanted to say thank you so much for that boatload of Oreos you gave me and my snack today." I was like, "Wait, back that boat up. What are you talking about?" Here's the backstory. Tuesday night, we had community group, my wife and our daughter, Nora baked a cake and they crumbled Oreos all over the top and they took the rest of them, and there was a lot of them, and they put him in one of those big oversize Ziploc bags... You know where this is going?So that day 20, 25 of them, I don't know, it was this big and it was packed full. He opens up his backpack at snack time and he eats them all. Actually he said he saved a couple for lunch because he started to get a stomach ache, he couldn't quite power through those last few. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, "What were you thinking?" We don't do sugar in our house very much and I was like, "What would make you think that I would intentionally give you a massive bag of Oreos for your snack?" He's like, "I know, right? It didn't seem right but I jus ate them anyway." And the point is, things are not as they ought to be, we just go with it. This is us. That truth is obvious but it's also inconvenient. And so we know things are wrong, we do them anyway, we just go with it, we go with the flow and that's the problem.But the bigger problem is that the consequences of our wrongness and of the wrongness around us is a lot bigger than the consequences of a 10 year old eating 25 Oreos in one sitting. That had some pretty big consequences as well, I'm sure. But as truly as there are laws of gravity and physics governing the tangible things around us, there are laws of truth and justice and morality governing our hearts and souls and we all know it intuitively. We also know that we are in violation of those laws. We don't want to face the reality of those laws, we don't want to face the reality that we know that what goes up must come down. So instead of facing the truth, we suppress the truth because deep down we're terrified of the truth. We know what's gone up, our sin, our iniquity, our rebellion and we know what is coming down is judgment.If you have your Bibles open up to Romans, Chapter Two, we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 16 today. And the three points that we're going to be talking about during the sermon is number one, we need to face the reality of the law and its giver. Number two, we need to face the reality of our guilt and shame. And then three, we need to face the reality of our judge and our defender. So if you have your Bibles, Romans Chapter Two, starting in Verse 11, the words are also going to be up here on the screen.The Apostle Paul writes this, "For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature do with the requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. Point number one is that we need to face the reality of the law and its givers. So real quick, Paul's train of thought here is that number one, there is a divine and impartial judge. Number two, everyone knows what is right. Number three, no one has done what is right. And number four, therefore we are all going to stand justly condemned and without excuse, that's his basic argument. But within this argument lies the proof that this argument is true. The Jews knew it was true and even he says the Gentiles who did not have the law, that's everyone else, they know it is true as well.And so first of all, Paul was writing to Jews in Rome. And the Jews knew the reality of the law and its giver personally, right? Because their entire history as a people had been wrapped up in this God who had clearly and miraculously revealed him self to them. Now you see that all throughout all the Old Testament, that Israel's God revealed himself as the God of truth and grace, law and order, justice and mercy. That Israel's God is the one who had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt with undeniable signs and wonders. He gave them his word, he gave them his law, he had written it on tablets of stone and brought them into the Promised Land. The Jews knew the law and the Jews knew the giver of the law personally.And the problem was they didn't keep the law or obey the giver, they didn't love the Lord, their God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, they didn't love their neighbor as their self. And so Paul says in the second half of Verse 12 that, "All who have sinned under the law," that's the Jewish people, "Will be judged by the law. For it is not just the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified." That the Jews, they knew the reality of the law, they knew God the giver of the law, the problem was that, that law couldn't save them because they couldn't keep it. All they could do was reveal how guilty they were, reveal how desperately they needed mercy from God.And so Paul was writing to Jews but at the same time, Paul was writing to Gentiles in Rome. And the Gentiles, they did not have the law, they didn't have the history, the culture, they didn't have the miracles, they didn't have the personal relationship, the first hand encounters with God that the Jewish people had. And so the question that some might wonder then is, "Okay, on account of their ignorance, is God just going to let them off the hook? How can God judge them according to a law that they don't have, that they don't know?"And this is where things get really trippy and deep. The Gentiles did not have the advantage of having the law written in tablets of stone but Paul says, "Hold on. That's true. But their actions prove that they'll along with every other human being on the planet actually have the work of that law written on their hearts." That everyone, even if a person never reads the Hebrew scriptures, never hears the 10 Commandments, is never told of Israel's God, they still have the work of that law written on their hearts, their actions, their consciences, they bear witness to what the law requires, that deep down they all know how they ought to live but they don't. And so Paul says of the Gentiles in Verse 14, "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they don't have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears a witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them."If you've never read CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, read it. Get it, read it, that's your homework, chew on it, it's a dense book, you've got to take the time to process through what he's writing. But Lewis takes the theology of Romans 2:15, this idea that the law is written on every human heart. He takes that theology and he presents a case, a full fledged, philosophical apologetic for why this is just undeniably true. I was trying to think of a good illustration to give here and I couldn't think of anything better than just say what he says in his book. And so I'm just going to read a couple paragraphs, you can go read the rest of it on your own. But the premise is just this, God's moral law is written on our hearts, everyone intuitively knows it and we prove this every time we instinctively appeal to it.And so this is what Lewis writes in his first chapter of Mere Christianity he says, "Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say because they say things like this. 'Well, how would you like it if anyone did the same to you?' 'That's my seat, I was there first.' 'Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm.' 'Why should you shove in first?' 'Hey, give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine.' 'Come on, you promised.' People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated and children as well as grownups.""Now what interests me about all of these remarks is that the man who makes diem is not merely saying that the other man's behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies, 'Well, to hell with your standard.' Nearly always he tries to make out that what has been doing does not really go against the standard or that if it does there's some special excuse. He pretends there's some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat for should not keep it or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise.""It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of law or rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you want to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals but they cannot quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you had some sort of agreement as to what right and wrong are just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer has committed to foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football."And so the big idea is that there is this law, we all know it, we all appeal to it but more than that, we didn't make it, this is not something we came up with ourselves, it transcends us. It's a law that transcends individuals and cultures and time, that it's not just true for you or true for me, it's just simply true, transcendently true. And if this is true, we get to ask if there's this transcendent truth, where did that come from? If there's a transcendent moral law, there has to be a transcendent moral law giver. This is why Psalm 14 Verse One, the Psalmist writes that, "It is the fool who says in his heart that there is no God." That it is irrational to deny the reality of a moral God if we just sit down and think about it. If we're afraid to face that reality, if we're afraid to face the of the law and its giver, it's not because the idea is untrue, it's because the idea is uncomfortable. That facing the reality of God, that forces us to face the uncomfortable reality of our own guilt and shame.And that brings us to point number two, that we're all guilty. Verse 12, he says, "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and those who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. But it's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified." And there's none who have done, who have perfectly upheld the law. People in general, they don't object to the idea of a good and just God, we understand that without that existence would be hell. We want justice, we want God to be good and bring justice to stop evil, we want those things and we instinctively cry out for justice every time we are personally wronged.See the problem people have is not with that so much as we want God to be just, we just don't want him to be just towards us. We want justice for others but deep down we know that we're deserving of judgment ourselves. Lewis mentioned this briefly in the passage but have you ever noticed, then you get caught in moral violation, violation of this law that we're talking about, that the impulse is not to deny the law, the impulse is to pass the blame. And this began at the very beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, right? God comes to Adam and calls Adam to give an account and Adam didn't say, "Well, yeah. But God your rules weren't fair." No, he says, "Yeah, but it wasn't my fault. It was that woman that you gave me, it was her fault and you gave her to me so it's kind of your fault. But it's definitely not my fault."And we do this, right? "Yeah, I lied but everybody lies." "Yeah, I stole but not as much as that person over there." "Yeah, I'm bad but you're no better." "Yeah, I did X, Y and Z but I'm only human." I see how foolish that is, in what human courtroom would that defense stand up? "Okay judge, let me just say, I totally murdered that guy. Yep. My bad. I'm only human. Also, it's just one guy, he was kind of annoying, it's not like I'm Hitler." Why do we always go there? Where do we get this idea that the best standard for judgment should be comparing ourselves to the worst person in history, right? The measuring stick of morality is not Hitler's wickedness, the measuring stick of morality is God's holiness.And we acknowledge that. We see that no one even comes close to measuring up. We all fall short. Take a moment here to brag about some glory days, remember Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite? "Back in '82, I could throw a pig skin a quarter of a mile. I bet I could throw a football over the mountains." That's where we're going to go right now. Back in '82, I was born in '82, but back in '98, believe this or don't, I could dunk a volleyball. On a good day, with no one guarding me, at the right angle, give me a few tries, I could even dunk a girl's basketball. I could never quite dunk a men's basketball. The reason this is a big deal, I'm five foot seven and a half. That was a big deal for me for those couple years that I could accomplish it.I was always living in the shadow of Spud Webb, remember him? He was five foot seven and not a half and he won the '86 NBA Dunk Competition, that was always looming over my head. And then you had Muggsy Bogues, he was five foot three in the NBA and he could dunk. But at least for me, small town, Midwest Dutch boy, that was a big deal. I could dunk a girl's basketball, I could dunk a volleyball, I could jump. We're all jumping and some of us can jump higher than others. And we're looking this way and we're looking that way and we're thinking, "Hey, as long as I can jump higher than some of these other chumps around me, then I'm must be doing okay." We measure ourself against the standard of our peers and then we feel justified so long as we're at least somewhat average.And I know some of you and I know that you can jump and from a human perspective, your vertical is impressive but from God's perspective, looking down on earth, he's not impressed with any of our attempts to jump up to the heavens. I'm not talking about adding a few inches or even a few feet to our vertical jump, even the best of us, even those of us who can dunk a girl's basketball at five foot seven and a half, it's like, "Yeah, you've got light years to go before you hit the mark." Romans 3:23 says, "For there's no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." See the standard is not to see who can just do the least amount of evil, the goal is not even to see who can do the most amount of good, the goal is perfection, the goal is holiness, the goal is the glory of God. This is what we were created for and anything less falls short.And now I know what some of you might be thinking, you might be thinking like, "I can't believe that, that standard is just too high." And I get that. And so for the sake of the argument, then I would just ask you to ask yourself, if that is not the standard, then what is the standard? We know there's a standard. If you're going to be a law to yourself, as Paul talks about the Gentiles being a law to themself, are you even able to measure up to your own expectations of yourself or to the people around you for that matter? If you believe that honesty is better than deception, have you ever told a lie? If you believe that fidelity is better than betrayal, have you ever broken a promise? Have you ever let down your friends, your family, your spouse? If you believe that love is better than hate, have you ever been angry with a person in your heart? Can you really say that you are as you believe that you ought to be, without guilt and without shame? There's none of us who can.Just to put it into perspective, what if I told you... I sent this meme out in the newsletter yesterday? What if I told you that Morpheus never actually says the words, "What if I told you," in The Matrix? That's not the point but the point is this, what if I told you that all of your life you've been hooked up to The Matrix or the metaverse? How about that? And what if I told you that our good old friend Mark Zuckerberg, he has been secretly recording every moment of your life, your actions, what you do in private, your thoughts, your inner dialogue, all of it? I know this sermon's going to get shadowbanned under Facebook for this but whatever. And what if I told you that we've got your life on tape right now, up here on the screens, we're all going to pop some popcorn and we're going to just at least watch the highlight reel of all of the darkest moments of your life together?Could one confidently say, "Go ahead. I've got nothing to hide, I'm not ashamed, I am guiltless, I am fully as I ought to be." Or would you say, "Why on earth did I ever open a Facebook account?" We know. And we're not going to watch the tape of your life, don't worry, but Jesus has and he's seen it all. I'm going to hit pause and we're going to come back to that in just a moment because there's something else here that I want to deal with in this text. Because sometimes you maybe have heard, some people will use this text to suggest that Paul is teaching that people who have never heard the gospel can still be saved by their good deeds by keeping the law that is written on their hearts. And that might sound comforting at first, it's actually the opposite of what Paul is teaching here.What Paul is saying is that even those who never hear the gospel, never read the Bible, they have the law of God written on their hearts but instead of keeping it, they break it, none can keep it and so all of us, whether Jews Gentiles alike, we're all guilty, we're all without excuse. That's the big idea. Now, can a sovereign God intervene and save a person? Yeah. That happened with the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. He wasn't sitting in a church service, God just beamed him and said, "You're mine, I'm saving you, get up and go, I'm going to tell you what to do." And we've had, it's not common but we've had people come to Mosaic, they're like, "I grew up Muslim and Jesus came to me in a dream and said, you need to become a Christian and go to church." And they listened and they obeyed, they got baptized, they got saved.God can do that. Yeah. But scripture shows us that, that is the exception, that is not the rule. The rule, the application and where we're going to see Paul go with this train of thought as we move through the book is that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, that the name of Jesus Christ, there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved and so therefore there is an urgency to preach the gospel to anyone, to everyone who will listen and to take this message to the ends of the Earth. That's the application. Now, the reason that some might want to twist this text to say otherwise is because on the surface that doesn't seem fair, right? From a human perspective, it doesn't seem fair that some would never get the chance to hear the gospel.Now here's the problem. Where did we get this idea that the gospel was fair if the gospel is not fair? It is not fair that the holy, innocent, pure, spotless lamb of God, Jesus Christ would suffer and die for the wicked, depraved, sinful, rebellious enemies of God, that is not fair. So questioning the fairness of salvation is not where you want to start. Of course, it's not fair and praise God it's not fair, if it was fair that would mean that we all just go straight to hell right now, that would be fair. The question we should ask is not, why doesn't God just save everyone? The question we should ask is, why would God choose to save anyone at all and do so at such a tremendous cost to himself? He had to sacrifice everything that which he most loved and cherished in order to save us. And it wasn't because of anything good in us that deserved it, it was only because of him. It was because of his divine goodness, patience, kindness, mercy, compassion and love.And so this theme will probably come up some more as we work through Romans, we'll be it into it more detailed as we go. But for now we just see that the big idea is this, that everyone has the law written on their hearts and so therefore we are all guilty and without excuse because none of us have kept that law, none of us have measured up to that mark, none of us has lived up to that standard. Except for one person and that person was Jesus Christ, that God the law giver took on flesh, entered human history to become the law keeper so he could stand in the place of us who were the law breakers.And this brings us to the final point that we must face the reality of the law and its giver, we must face the reality of our guilt and our shame but the only way that we can do this with any sense of confidence and hope is by facing the reality of our judge and our defender and that's Jesus Christ. And so let me just start by saying Jesus is coming soon, maybe in our lifetime, but if not, I mean, the most any of us have is 70 years or so, soon we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And this should either be our greatest source of hope and joy in this life or our greatest source of misery and terror because you will either stand before the judge alone and without defense or you will stand there with Jesus Christ, who is your defense.And Jesus will judge the world in righteousness and praise God for that because without that heaven would become hell. The promise of Christ's return is the promise that even though things are not as they ought to be right now, a day is coming when that will no longer be true. The promise of Christ's return is that a day is coming when everything that is done in secret will be brought into the light. And it doesn't matter who you are, man, woman, Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, slave, free, you will give an account and when the judge sits on his throne, he will show no partiality. That's where Paul began. That Jesus will judge the world in his righteousness but he will also defend the church with his righteousness as well. And now whether that is true for you personally, then it depends on what you do with Jesus Christ right now. And before we talk about what you need to do with Jesus right now, I want to remind you about what Jesus did for us back then.And Paul writing to the church in Ephesus in the first chapter of Ephesians. He says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."Before the creation of the world and God saw everything that would to ever be, not just the metaverse, the entire universe, all of human history, he saw it all. And Jesus watched the movie of your life, past, present, future, every word, every thought, every action he saw it all. He saw the avatar, the facade, the shell of your outer life, he saw beyond your attempts to cover your guilt and your shame and he peered deep into the darkness of your soul. He watched that movie and as the credits began to roll, he stood up and he said, "I still love you and I have chosen you and you are my beloved. And though you have not been faithful and you fully deserve to die, I will not leave you or forsake you. I will make you mine."And Jesus looked at his bride, the church and he said, "I will take the nails of her iniquity into my own hands and feet. I will carry her sorrows and wash away her tears. I will be raised up on her cross to publicly bear the nakedness of her shame. I will pay her debt with my blood. I will take her punishment with my body. I will go through hell to give her heaven. I will die and she will live. I will bear her sin so that she can wear my righteousness. I will be wrapped in the linens of her death and buried in her tomb so that she can be born anew of my spirit and wrapped in the love of my father. And I will rise from the grave and ascend to the hand of my father and prepare a place for her where she will never be separated from my love and where everything will always be exactly as it ought to be."That is the hope of the gospel and what have we done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing. What do we do to receive this? We simply repent, turn from our sin, our idolatry, from constantly trying to justify ourselves, surrender and believe. Find our justification in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust him with everything and know that he will be our judge but he can also be our defender. Cry out to God, put your faith in Christ and the promise of scripture is that you will be saved. I'm going to close by reading a couple passages from scripture and then we're going to respond and worship together.Hebrew 4:14 says this, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. And let us confidence drawn near a throne of grace that we may receive the mercy and find grace to help in time of need."And Romans 5:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."If you would like to learn more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ or if you've made a decision to surrender your life to him today, we would love to talk with you and pray with you. Please come up, talk to us after the service. If you mark on your connection card, we'll follow up with you this week but we would love to follow up and just pray with you and just celebrate that decision. Right now, I'm going to pray and then we're going to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and worship him together. Let's pray.Father I ask that you would just stir our hearts to be just speechless and amazed by your mercy. God, give us a vision of your glory, of your majesty that allows us to grasp the glimpse, the depth of our depravity, not to crush us but to open our eyes to the gravity of the sacrifice that you made, of the blessing that has been offered to us through your son, Jesus Christ. God, teach us to live in a manner worthy of this good news, humble, joyful, confident, bold and always grateful for who you are and for all that you have done for us. God, I pray that your gospel would not return void but that even now that if there are any here today who walked in as strangers and enemies of God, that they would walk out in a newness of life, adopted by your grace, regenerated by your holy spirit, united with your son and help them to find their place in the body of your church. We thank you for Jesus, we pray all of this in his beautiful and powerful name and we worship you now together. 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 and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit Mosaicboston.com. God, we thank you for these words that we just sang. Not just that we can sing them but that we can know that they are true. We see death and decay all around us. We need resurrection in our world, in our country, in our church, in our hearts, Lord. Jesus Christ, you are our living hope, you are the resurrection and the life. We just marvel at what a great and awesome and merciful God that you are. So Lord, we pray for those who are suffering. And we pray for those who are lost, that we are reminded then for many of us, this is the closest to hell that we will ever be. And yet, for some, this is the closest to heaven they could ever hope for. But you Lord have made a way to change that through your Son, through the gospel. So we just cry out for peace but we also out for revival, Lord. That we want to see you raise the dead, bring new life to those who are lost and dead in their sins, Lord. And we know that you can do it, you've done it and we praise you for that. God, right now I just ask for grace as we preach your word this morning, we pray that you would speak to us through this amazing text written by the Apostle Paul and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So if you are just joining us, we have been working our way through the Book of Romans. We're in chapter 2 and I'm going to be just looking at a small passage today. It's a small passage but it has a really big idea and that's one of those ideas you just kind of have to chew on. And it's a simple idea, it's simple but the implications of it are massive, they're huge. And the big idea is just simply this, that things are not as they ought to be. Now that statement isn't very shocking or profound, most of us would say, "Yeah, obviously things are not as they ought to be." I mean, how many of us, when we turn on the news, we think, "Wow. Things are so great, I can't even imagine them getting any better." Where you turn on the news and you think, "Wow, ..." I'm moving my mic pack. So cringe, this is worse than that episode of the Ringer... What's going on here? I'm going to move this down. There we go. Obviously, things are not as they ought to be. And Paul's big idea, the case that he's been trying to make for these first couple of chapters is just simply that, that creation is not blessed, it is cursed, that people are under God's wrath, that the world is not filled with the glory of God as it ought to be, it is filled with sin and death and decay. And it's not just that, that is it's that we all know it intuitively, we just know. We know this is true and yet we deny it, we suppress it and at the same time we don't want to face the truth so we suppress the truth because as much as we know that things are not as they ought to be, we also know that we ourselves are not as we ought to be and that scares us. And so we ignore it, we deny it, we rationalize it away and just try to pretend that this is normal. Quick example from this week, Thursday morning, I was having one of those days where I just couldn't wake up, right? You get out of bed and you're not fully awake, you're not really asleep, eyes are just kind of halfway open. Groggy, that's the word for it. I was groggy. And I get up, every morning we make the kids breakfast, I don't eat breakfast, I'm one of those intermittent fasting type people. So I make breakfast, we sit down and Kelly and the kids, they eat breakfast and as they're eating, I read scripture, we read through books of the Bible together. So they eat, I read and then we pray together. And then it's time to like, "Okay, hurry up. You've got to go get dressed, we've got to get ready for school." And so the kids run off, they get ready, go to get dressed and as they're getting dressed, I usually pack their bags. So every day they take a lunch, they take a water bottle and they take a snack to school with them. I pack them up a little snack in one of those Ziploc bags. And so I did that. I packed their bags, we walk them to school, we both work from home so we walk back home and go about our day. Later that day, I go into the kitchen, I open the pantry and I see laying there on the shelf is our son Owen's snack in his Ziploc bag. I was so out of it, I packed it up and then I just set it down and left it there and didn't put it in his bag. And I felt terrible, he's probably hangry, we're going to get a call from the principal, he's going to get in trouble and I felt terrible. But there's nothing really I could do about it so I just went back to work, forgot about it, put it out of my mind. Anyways, later that night we're sitting at dinner, we're talking, we're eating and all of a sudden Owen pipes up and he says, "Oh, hey dad, I wanted to say thank you so much for that boatload of Oreos you gave me and my snack today." I was like, "Wait, back that boat up. What are you talking about?" Here's the backstory. Tuesday night, we had community group, my wife and our daughter, Nora baked a cake and they crumbled Oreos all over the top and they took the rest of them, and there was a lot of them, and they put him in one of those big oversize Ziploc bags... You know where this is going? So that day 20, 25 of them, I don't know, it was this big and it was packed full. He opens up his backpack at snack time and he eats them all. Actually he said he saved a couple for lunch because he started to get a stomach ache, he couldn't quite power through those last few. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, "What were you thinking?" We don't do sugar in our house very much and I was like, "What would make you think that I would intentionally give you a massive bag of Oreos for your snack?" He's like, "I know, right? It didn't seem right but I jus ate them anyway." And the point is, things are not as they ought to be, we just go with it. This is us. That truth is obvious but it's also inconvenient. And so we know things are wrong, we do them anyway, we just go with it, we go with the flow and that's the problem. But the bigger problem is that the consequences of our wrongness and of the wrongness around us is a lot bigger than the consequences of a 10 year old eating 25 Oreos in one sitting. That had some pretty big consequences as well, I'm sure. But as truly as there are laws of gravity and physics governing the tangible things around us, there are laws of truth and justice and morality governing our hearts and souls and we all know it intuitively. We also know that we are in violation of those laws. We don't want to face the reality of those laws, we don't want to face the reality that we know that what goes up must come down. So instead of facing the truth, we suppress the truth because deep down we're terrified of the truth. We know what's gone up, our sin, our iniquity, our rebellion and we know what is coming down is judgment. If you have your Bibles open up to Romans, Chapter Two, we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 16 today. And the three points that we're going to be talking about during the sermon is number one, we need to face the reality of the law and its giver. Number two, we need to face the reality of our guilt and shame. And then three, we need to face the reality of our judge and our defender. So if you have your Bibles, Romans Chapter Two, starting in Verse 11, the words are also going to be up here on the screen. The Apostle Paul writes this, "For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature do with the requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. Point number one is that we need to face the reality of the law and its givers. So real quick, Paul's train of thought here is that number one, there is a divine and impartial judge. Number two, everyone knows what is right. Number three, no one has done what is right. And number four, therefore we are all going to stand justly condemned and without excuse, that's his basic argument. But within this argument lies the proof that this argument is true. The Jews knew it was true and even he says the Gentiles who did not have the law, that's everyone else, they know it is true as well. And so first of all, Paul was writing to Jews in Rome. And the Jews knew the reality of the law and its giver personally, right? Because their entire history as a people had been wrapped up in this God who had clearly and miraculously revealed him self to them. Now you see that all throughout all the Old Testament, that Israel's God revealed himself as the God of truth and grace, law and order, justice and mercy. That Israel's God is the one who had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt with undeniable signs and wonders. He gave them his word, he gave them his law, he had written it on tablets of stone and brought them into the Promised Land. The Jews knew the law and the Jews knew the giver of the law personally. And the problem was they didn't keep the law or obey the giver, they didn't love the Lord, their God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, they didn't love their neighbor as their self. And so Paul says in the second half of Verse 12 that, "All who have sinned under the law," that's the Jewish people, "Will be judged by the law. For it is not just the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified." That the Jews, they knew the reality of the law, they knew God the giver of the law, the problem was that, that law couldn't save them because they couldn't keep it. All they could do was reveal how guilty they were, reveal how desperately they needed mercy from God. And so Paul was writing to Jews but at the same time, Paul was writing to Gentiles in Rome. And the Gentiles, they did not have the law, they didn't have the history, the culture, they didn't have the miracles, they didn't have the personal relationship, the first hand encounters with God that the Jewish people had. And so the question that some might wonder then is, "Okay, on account of their ignorance, is God just going to let them off the hook? How can God judge them according to a law that they don't have, that they don't know?" And this is where things get really trippy and deep. The Gentiles did not have the advantage of having the law written in tablets of stone but Paul says, "Hold on. That's true. But their actions prove that they'll along with every other human being on the planet actually have the work of that law written on their hearts." That everyone, even if a person never reads the Hebrew scriptures, never hears the 10 Commandments, is never told of Israel's God, they still have the work of that law written on their hearts, their actions, their consciences, they bear witness to what the law requires, that deep down they all know how they ought to live but they don't. And so Paul says of the Gentiles in Verse 14, "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they don't have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears a witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them." If you've never read CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, read it. Get it, read it, that's your homework, chew on it, it's a dense book, you've got to take the time to process through what he's writing. But Lewis takes the theology of Romans 2:15, this idea that the law is written on every human heart. He takes that theology and he presents a case, a full fledged, philosophical apologetic for why this is just undeniably true. I was trying to think of a good illustration to give here and I couldn't think of anything better than just say what he says in his book. And so I'm just going to read a couple paragraphs, you can go read the rest of it on your own. But the premise is just this, God's moral law is written on our hearts, everyone intuitively knows it and we prove this every time we instinctively appeal to it. And so this is what Lewis writes in his first chapter of Mere Christianity he says, "Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say because they say things like this. 'Well, how would you like it if anyone did the same to you?' 'That's my seat, I was there first.' 'Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm.' 'Why should you shove in first?' 'Hey, give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine.' 'Come on, you promised.' People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated and children as well as grownups." "Now what interests me about all of these remarks is that the man who makes diem is not merely saying that the other man's behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies, 'Well, to hell with your standard.' Nearly always he tries to make out that what has been doing does not really go against the standard or that if it does there's some special excuse. He pretends there's some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat for should not keep it or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise." "It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of law or rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you want to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals but they cannot quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you had some sort of agreement as to what right and wrong are just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer has committed to foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football." And so the big idea is that there is this law, we all know it, we all appeal to it but more than that, we didn't make it, this is not something we came up with ourselves, it transcends us. It's a law that transcends individuals and cultures and time, that it's not just true for you or true for me, it's just simply true, transcendently true. And if this is true, we get to ask if there's this transcendent truth, where did that come from? If there's a transcendent moral law, there has to be a transcendent moral law giver. This is why Psalm 14 Verse One, the Psalmist writes that, "It is the fool who says in his heart that there is no God." That it is irrational to deny the reality of a moral God if we just sit down and think about it. If we're afraid to face that reality, if we're afraid to face the of the law and its giver, it's not because the idea is untrue, it's because the idea is uncomfortable. That facing the reality of God, that forces us to face the uncomfortable reality of our own guilt and shame. And that brings us to point number two, that we're all guilty. Verse 12, he says, "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and those who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. But it's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified." And there's none who have done, who have perfectly upheld the law. People in general, they don't object to the idea of a good and just God, we understand that without that existence would be hell. We want justice, we want God to be good and bring justice to stop evil, we want those things and we instinctively cry out for justice every time we are personally wronged. See the problem people have is not with that so much as we want God to be just, we just don't want him to be just towards us. We want justice for others but deep down we know that we're deserving of judgment ourselves. Lewis mentioned this briefly in the passage but have you ever noticed, then you get caught in moral violation, violation of this law that we're talking about, that the impulse is not to deny the law, the impulse is to pass the blame. And this began at the very beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, right? God comes to Adam and calls Adam to give an account and Adam didn't say, "Well, yeah. But God your rules weren't fair." No, he says, "Yeah, but it wasn't my fault. It was that woman that you gave me, it was her fault and you gave her to me so it's kind of your fault. But it's definitely not my fault." And we do this, right? "Yeah, I lied but everybody lies." "Yeah, I stole but not as much as that person over there." "Yeah, I'm bad but you're no better." "Yeah, I did X, Y and Z but I'm only human." I see how foolish that is, in what human courtroom would that defense stand up? "Okay judge, let me just say, I totally murdered that guy. Yep. My bad. I'm only human. Also, it's just one guy, he was kind of annoying, it's not like I'm Hitler." Why do we always go there? Where do we get this idea that the best standard for judgment should be comparing ourselves to the worst person in history, right? The measuring stick of morality is not Hitler's wickedness, the measuring stick of morality is God's holiness. And we acknowledge that. We see that no one even comes close to measuring up. We all fall short. Take a moment here to brag about some glory days, remember Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite? "Back in '82, I could throw a pig skin a quarter of a mile. I bet I could throw a football over the mountains." That's where we're going to go right now. Back in '82, I was born in '82, but back in '98, believe this or don't, I could dunk a volleyball. On a good day, with no one guarding me, at the right angle, give me a few tries, I could even dunk a girl's basketball. I could never quite dunk a men's basketball. The reason this is a big deal, I'm five foot seven and a half. That was a big deal for me for those couple years that I could accomplish it. I was always living in the shadow of Spud Webb, remember him? He was five foot seven and not a half and he won the '86 NBA Dunk Competition, that was always looming over my head. And then you had Muggsy Bogues, he was five foot three in the NBA and he could dunk. But at least for me, small town, Midwest Dutch boy, that was a big deal. I could dunk a girl's basketball, I could dunk a volleyball, I could jump. We're all jumping and some of us can jump higher than others. And we're looking this way and we're looking that way and we're thinking, "Hey, as long as I can jump higher than some of these other chumps around me, then I'm must be doing okay." We measure ourself against the standard of our peers and then we feel justified so long as we're at least somewhat average. And I know some of you and I know that you can jump and from a human perspective, your vertical is impressive but from God's perspective, looking down on earth, he's not impressed with any of our attempts to jump up to the heavens. I'm not talking about adding a few inches or even a few feet to our vertical jump, even the best of us, even those of us who can dunk a girl's basketball at five foot seven and a half, it's like, "Yeah, you've got light years to go before you hit the mark." Romans 3:23 says, "For there's no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." See the standard is not to see who can just do the least amount of evil, the goal is not even to see who can do the most amount of good, the goal is perfection, the goal is holiness, the goal is the glory of God. This is what we were created for and anything less falls short. And now I know what some of you might be thinking, you might be thinking like, "I can't believe that, that standard is just too high." And I get that. And so for the sake of the argument, then I would just ask you to ask yourself, if that is not the standard, then what is the standard? We know there's a standard. If you're going to be a law to yourself, as Paul talks about the Gentiles being a law to themself, are you even able to measure up to your own expectations of yourself or to the people around you for that matter? If you believe that honesty is better than deception, have you ever told a lie? If you believe that fidelity is better than betrayal, have you ever broken a promise? Have you ever let down your friends, your family, your spouse? If you believe that love is better than hate, have you ever been angry with a person in your heart? Can you really say that you are as you believe that you ought to be, without guilt and without shame? There's none of us who can. Just to put it into perspective, what if I told you... I sent this meme out in the newsletter yesterday? What if I told you that Morpheus never actually says the words, "What if I told you," in The Matrix? That's not the point but the point is this, what if I told you that all of your life you've been hooked up to The Matrix or the metaverse? How about that? And what if I told you that our good old friend Mark Zuckerberg, he has been secretly recording every moment of your life, your actions, what you do in private, your thoughts, your inner dialogue, all of it? I know this sermon's going to get shadowbanned under Facebook for this but whatever. And what if I told you that we've got your life on tape right now, up here on the screens, we're all going to pop some popcorn and we're going to just at least watch the highlight reel of all of the darkest moments of your life together? Could one confidently say, "Go ahead. I've got nothing to hide, I'm not ashamed, I am guiltless, I am fully as I ought to be." Or would you say, "Why on earth did I ever open a Facebook account?" We know. And we're not going to watch the tape of your life, don't worry, but Jesus has and he's seen it all. I'm going to hit pause and we're going to come back to that in just a moment because there's something else here that I want to deal with in this text. Because sometimes you maybe have heard, some people will use this text to suggest that Paul is teaching that people who have never heard the gospel can still be saved by their good deeds by keeping the law that is written on their hearts. And that might sound comforting at first, it's actually the opposite of what Paul is teaching here. What Paul is saying is that even those who never hear the gospel, never read the Bible, they have the law of God written on their hearts but instead of keeping it, they break it, none can keep it and so all of us, whether Jews Gentiles alike, we're all guilty, we're all without excuse. That's the big idea. Now, can a sovereign God intervene and save a person? Yeah. That happened with the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. He wasn't sitting in a church service, God just beamed him and said, "You're mine, I'm saving you, get up and go, I'm going to tell you what to do." And we've had, it's not common but we've had people come to Mosaic, they're like, "I grew up Muslim and Jesus came to me in a dream and said, you need to become a Christian and go to church." And they listened and they obeyed, they got baptized, they got saved. God can do that. Yeah. But scripture shows us that, that is the exception, that is not the rule. The rule, the application and where we're going to see Paul go with this train of thought as we move through the book is that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, that the name of Jesus Christ, there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved and so therefore there is an urgency to preach the gospel to anyone, to everyone who will listen and to take this message to the ends of the Earth. That's the application. Now, the reason that some might want to twist this text to say otherwise is because on the surface that doesn't seem fair, right? From a human perspective, it doesn't seem fair that some would never get the chance to hear the gospel. Now here's the problem. Where did we get this idea that the gospel was fair if the gospel is not fair? It is not fair that the holy, innocent, pure, spotless lamb of God, Jesus Christ would suffer and die for the wicked, depraved, sinful, rebellious enemies of God, that is not fair. So questioning the fairness of salvation is not where you want to start. Of course, it's not fair and praise God it's not fair, if it was fair that would mean that we all just go straight to hell right now, that would be fair. The question we should ask is not, why doesn't God just save everyone? The question we should ask is, why would God choose to save anyone at all and do so at such a tremendous cost to himself? He had to sacrifice everything that which he most loved and cherished in order to save us. And it wasn't because of anything good in us that deserved it, it was only because of him. It was because of his divine goodness, patience, kindness, mercy, compassion and love. And so this theme will probably come up some more as we work through Romans, we'll be it into it more detailed as we go. But for now we just see that the big idea is this, that everyone has the law written on their hearts and so therefore we are all guilty and without excuse because none of us have kept that law, none of us have measured up to that mark, none of us has lived up to that standard. Except for one person and that person was Jesus Christ, that God the law giver took on flesh, entered human history to become the law keeper so he could stand in the place of us who were the law breakers. And this brings us to the final point that we must face the reality of the law and its giver, we must face the reality of our guilt and our shame but the only way that we can do this with any sense of confidence and hope is by facing the reality of our judge and our defender and that's Jesus Christ. And so let me just start by saying Jesus is coming soon, maybe in our lifetime, but if not, I mean, the most any of us have is 70 years or so, soon we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And this should either be our greatest source of hope and joy in this life or our greatest source of misery and terror because you will either stand before the judge alone and without defense or you will stand there with Jesus Christ, who is your defense. And Jesus will judge the world in righteousness and praise God for that because without that heaven would become hell. The promise of Christ's return is the promise that even though things are not as they ought to be right now, a day is coming when that will no longer be true. The promise of Christ's return is that a day is coming when everything that is done in secret will be brought into the light. And it doesn't matter who you are, man, woman, Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, slave, free, you will give an account and when the judge sits on his throne, he will show no partiality. That's where Paul began. That Jesus will judge the world in his righteousness but he will also defend the church with his righteousness as well. And now whether that is true for you personally, then it depends on what you do with Jesus Christ right now. And before we talk about what you need to do with Jesus right now, I want to remind you about what Jesus did for us back then. And Paul writing to the church in Ephesus in the first chapter of Ephesians. He says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Before the creation of the world and God saw everything that would to ever be, not just the metaverse, the entire universe, all of human history, he saw it all. And Jesus watched the movie of your life, past, present, future, every word, every thought, every action he saw it all. He saw the avatar, the facade, the shell of your outer life, he saw beyond your attempts to cover your guilt and your shame and he peered deep into the darkness of your soul. He watched that movie and as the credits began to roll, he stood up and he said, "I still love you and I have chosen you and you are my beloved. And though you have not been faithful and you fully deserve to die, I will not leave you or forsake you. I will make you mine." And Jesus looked at his bride, the church and he said, "I will take the nails of her iniquity into my own hands and feet. I will carry her sorrows and wash away her tears. I will be raised up on her cross to publicly bear the nakedness of her shame. I will pay her debt with my blood. I will take her punishment with my body. I will go through hell to give her heaven. I will die and she will live. I will bear her sin so that she can wear my righteousness. I will be wrapped in the linens of her death and buried in her tomb so that she can be born anew of my spirit and wrapped in the love of my father. And I will rise from the grave and ascend to the hand of my father and prepare a place for her where she will never be separated from my love and where everything will always be exactly as it ought to be." That is the hope of the gospel and what have we done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing. What do we do to receive this? We simply repent, turn from our sin, our idolatry, from constantly trying to justify ourselves, surrender and believe. Find our justification in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust him with everything and know that he will be our judge but he can also be our defender. Cry out to God, put your faith in Christ and the promise of scripture is that you will be saved. I'm going to close by reading a couple passages from scripture and then we're going to respond and worship together. Hebrew 4:14 says this, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. And let us confidence drawn near a throne of grace that we may receive the mercy and find grace to help in time of need." And Romans 5:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." If you would like to learn more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ or if you've made a decision to surrender your life to him today, we would love to talk with you and pray with you. Please come up, talk to us after the service. If you mark on your connection card, we'll follow up with you this week but we would love to follow up and just pray with you and just celebrate that decision. Right now, I'm going to pray and then we're going to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and worship him together. Let's pray. Father I ask that you would just stir our hearts to be just speechless and amazed by your mercy. God, give us a vision of your glory, of your majesty that allows us to grasp the glimpse, the depth of our depravity, not to crush us but to open our eyes to the gravity of the sacrifice that you made, of the blessing that has been offered to us through your son, Jesus Christ. God, teach us to live in a manner worthy of this good news, humble, joyful, confident, bold and always grateful for who you are and for all that you have done for us. God, I pray that your gospel would not return void but that even now that if there are any here today who walked in as strangers and enemies of God, that they would walk out in a newness of life, adopted by your grace, regenerated by your holy spirit, united with your son and help them to find their place in the body of your church. We thank you for Jesus, we pray all of this in his beautiful and powerful name and we worship you now together. Amen.

Who are the people of God, and do you belong? Learn more in our latest message.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." - Romans 15:13

"Jews & Gentiles" Supporting Verses: Colossians 3:11, John 10:16, Acts 28:28, Galatians 3:14, Galatians 3:28 Go Deeper: Acts 15:7-9, Ephesians 4:17-19, Romans 9:22-30, Isaiah 56:6-8 Bible Verse of the Day: Proverbs 21:21 GodSexandLove.com Support Us! https://anchor.fm/godsexandlove/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/godsexandlove/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/godsexandlove/support

Christ the King: Jews, Gentiles & Jesus

Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 Intro1. 0:04 {My Fault if Someone’s Not Saved?} I know God is in control, but since prayer and fasting makes a difference, is it my fault if someone is not saved because I didn’t pray or fast enough for them? I feel responsible when I eat or forget to pray.2. 9:31 {About the 2 Witnesses / Rapture?} It seems like the 2 witnesses in Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are like two peoples instead of individuals, as Romans 11: 17-21 speaks of olive trees/branches being Jews/Gentiles. If so, would the rapture be the "calling up" of them?3. 17:01 {Does Romans Teach Works for Salvation?} Does Romans 6: 22 preach salvation by works? John Piper claims that this verse suggests that at final salvation, our works coming from sanctification result in eternal life.4. 24:30 {Does God Grant People Faith? / Calvinism} How would you interpret the end of Matthew 11 in a non-Calvinist way, since it seems at a quick read to me that God grants people faith?5. 29:55 {Thinking Biblically about Trends} There is a trend in many young male Christians where they are wearing earrings, painting nails, fixing eyebrows, and putting on makeup. Help me think biblically about this, as it's a bit shocking.6. 35:04 {Advice for being a Godly Man} I just turned 18 today, and for the past few months, I've been struggling with the transition into adulthood. Got any advice for someone trying to become the man God wants them to be?7. 39:22 {Does Blindness Cover Sin?} In John 9: 41, Jesus says, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin..." What does it mean to be "blind" in this context? Does this blindness also cover sin?8. 45:43 {Discerning Extrabiblical Prophecies} When should extrabiblical prophecy be accepted or rejected? I don’t know how to discern or “test the spirits,” and I don’t want to be overly dismissive, even if the claims seem astonishing.9. 51:34 {About Submission in Marriage} If a husband's rule over his wife was a curse of the fall, why is it taught as God-ordained in the New Testament? Aren't husbands and wives called to submit to each other under the New Covenant?10. 54:18 {Right and Wrong Public Worship/Prayer} In Matthew 6:5, Jesus says not to pray like people in public who try to get attention. Would that include praying and worshiping in church?11. 58:18 {Interpreting the Psalms} In Psalm 2: 12, What does the psalmist mean by this verse in its non-messianic context?12. 1:02:23 {Judging & Correcting Non-Believers} Are we supposed to judge those outside of the Church, and do we have any right to control/direct what they do (Romans 1: 32; 1 Corinthians 5: 12)?13. 1:06:30 {Theological Differences while Dating} I've just discovered my long-term girlfriend does not believe homosexuality is a sin, and I'm really struggling with anxiety regarding this. Is it wrong to break up over this, and how should I approach this?14. 1:09:04 {How Does the HS Guide Us?} I'm a new born-again Christian and I'd like to know, how does the Holy Spirit guide us?15. 1:12:34 {Resources for Seniors} Are there any good sources for ministering to seniors you can recommend?16. 1:13:07 {Is Sheol/Hades the Same as Hell?} Are the biblical references to Sheol/Hades necessarily Hell? Some Christian traditions have it as the underworld, with Hell only being something after the resurrection.17. 1:15:45 {Abortion OK - Babies will Go to Heaven?} What would you say to a vicar who says that abortion isn't the biggest issue or problem for God as the babies will end up in Heaven anyway?18. 1:20:58 {Did Jesus Come to Abolish the Law?} Why does Paul say in Ephesians 2: 15 “…by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” when Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law in Matthew 5: 17?19. 1:27:14 {Book of Ecclesiastes – Enjoyi

Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 Intro1. 0:04 {My Fault if Someone’s Not Saved?} I know God is in control, but since prayer and fasting makes a difference, is it my fault if someone is not saved because I didn’t pray or fast enough for them? I feel responsible when I eat or forget to pray.2. 9:31 {About the 2 Witnesses / Rapture?} It seems like the 2 witnesses in Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are like two peoples instead of individuals, as Romans 11: 17-21 speaks of olive trees/branches being Jews/Gentiles. If so, would the rapture be the "calling up" of them?3. 17:01 {Does Romans Teach Works for Salvation?} Does Romans 6: 22 preach salvation by works? John Piper claims that this verse suggests that at final salvation, our works coming from sanctification result in eternal life.4. 24:30 {Does God Grant People Faith? / Calvinism} How would you interpret the end of Matthew 11 in a non-Calvinist way, since it seems at a quick read to me that God grants people faith?5. 29:55 {Thinking Biblically about Trends} There is a trend in many young male Christians where they are wearing earrings, painting nails, fixing eyebrows, and putting on makeup. Help me think biblically about this, as it's a bit shocking.6. 35:04 {Advice for being a Godly Man} I just turned 18 today, and for the past few months, I've been struggling with the transition into adulthood. Got any advice for someone trying to become the man God wants them to be?7. 39:22 {Does Blindness Cover Sin?} In John 9: 41, Jesus says, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin..." What does it mean to be "blind" in this context? Does this blindness also cover sin?8. 45:43 {Discerning Extrabiblical Prophecies} When should extrabiblical prophecy be accepted or rejected? I don’t know how to discern or “test the spirits,” and I don’t want to be overly dismissive, even if the claims seem astonishing.9. 51:34 {About Submission in Marriage} If a husband's rule over his wife was a curse of the fall, why is it taught as God-ordained in the New Testament? Aren't husbands and wives called to submit to each other under the New Covenant?10. 54:18 {Right and Wrong Public Worship/Prayer} In Matthew 6:5, Jesus says not to pray like people in public who try to get attention. Would that include praying and worshiping in church?11. 58:18 {Interpreting the Psalms} In Psalm 2: 12, What does the psalmist mean by this verse in its non-messianic context?12. 1:02:23 {Judging & Correcting Non-Believers} Are we supposed to judge those outside of the Church, and do we have any right to control/direct what they do (Romans 1: 32; 1 Corinthians 5: 12)?13. 1:06:30 {Theological Differences while Dating} I've just discovered my long-term girlfriend does not believe homosexuality is a sin, and I'm really struggling with anxiety regarding this. Is it wrong to break up over this, and how should I approach this?14. 1:09:04 {How Does the HS Guide Us?} I'm a new born-again Christian and I'd like to know, how does the Holy Spirit guide us?15. 1:12:34 {Resources for Seniors} Are there any good sources for ministering to seniors you can recommend?16. 1:13:07 {Is Sheol/Hades the Same as Hell?} Are the biblical references to Sheol/Hades necessarily Hell? Some Christian traditions have it as the underworld, with Hell only being something after the resurrection.17. 1:15:45 {Abortion OK - Babies will Go to Heaven?} What would you say to a vicar who says that abortion isn't the biggest issue or problem for God as the babies will end up in Heaven anyway?18. 1:20:58 {Did Jesus Come to Abolish the Law?} Why does Paul say in Ephesians 2: 15 “…by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” when Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law in Matthew 5: 17?19. 1:27:14 {Book of Ecclesiastes – Enjoyi

This week we address the topic of justification. However, we need to keep in mind that in Galatians, justification is in the context of Jewish believers and Gentile believers living in community together. The Jewish believers needed to realize that their believing in Jesus implied that keeping the Mosaic law did not make them accepted and approved by God otherwise there was no need to put their trust and faith in Jesus. The Mosaic law refers to practices such as special diet, circumcision, not associating with non-Jews (Gentiles), hence separation, keeping the Sabbath and many other regulations.   Our acceptance (justification) is based on our faith in Jesus the Christ. This faith is not merely mental agreement, it is a trust relationship. Faith is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8). Faith is a trust and personal dependence on what God has done in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our initial trust justified us (approved us) however we continue to have a trust relationship with the crucified and resurrected Jesus, continuing our acceptance and approval. We continue to endeavor to be justified (Gal. 2:17) based on this relationship of trust and faith. May we continue to have this personal dependence of trust on the crucified and resurrected Jesus and enjoy the table fellowship will all of those who have believed. 

Church conflicts are ugly & painful; yet they happen. Scripture eschews a utopian ideal; it realistically reports conflict, even among church leaders—e.g., Paul, Peter, & James. We can learn from their actions & reactions. The church's emergence from Judaism produced tensions–some soon resolved, others not. The ‘Antioch incident' was no ‘tempest in a teapot;' it was a major watershed. Both major players had divine revelations. Paul testified, “I did not disobey the heavenly vision.” Peter couldn't say that. When James' delegation arrived, insisting Jewish believers segregate from Gentile “sinners” at fellowship meals, Peter retreated, splitting the church between Jews & Gentiles. Paul reacted, rebuking Peter to his face. This was no power play. Paul saw that this violated the gospel truth–all believers justified by faith, are equal members in God's family. Paul's rearguard action, despite the other leaders' defection, prevented Christianity from being reabsorbed back  into Judaism. The other leaders' intransigence left Paul isolated, yet Church history vindicates Paul. In the church old distinctions along ethnic/racial lines can't coexist with faith in Christ—new creation's sole distinctive. At Antioch Paul was a ‘midwife' birthing the church out of Judaism.

In this message, I look at 9 distinctive elements of the New Covenant as I compare it with the Old Covenant.1. Better promises – Hebrews 8:6 – “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 2. Old is OLD…New is NEW…Hebrews 8:13 – “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” 3. Healing – OT provided vs. NT - provided AND authority to heal 4. Priesthood of ALL believers – Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then with confidence draw near to (boldly approach) the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 5. Prophethood of ALL believers – Cessationism? – Everyone CAN hear from God! Blessing and ABUSED. Risky relationships. 6. Everyone gets access – Joel 2/Acts 2 – young/old, rich/poor, male/female, Jews/Gentiles 7. Holy Spirit permanently resides INSIDE / New Creation & Nature / Law on hearts 1 John 2:27 - And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him. 8. Became Sons/Daughters – God became man so that mankind could become sons of God. Inheritance. New type of relationship. Father/Son! OT – Sons of God were ONLY angels.  9. Leadership's Purpose (5-fold Ministry) is different (upside-down pyramid) – Ephesian 4:11-12 -11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors) and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ Jesus vs. Moses – “greater works YOU SHALL DO…”

Final Days Report:   More End Time Signs, Get Ready. Make sure your saved. The River is drying up. Euphrates river is drying up as foretold in the Book of Revelations 16 vs 12. Also, a dream about Book of Revelations Chapter 9 and a wake up call for Jews / Gentiles to get saved. 1/3 of man will die from a plague. Get saved fast... Wild report showing sheep eating dirt and people having to walk 7 Kilometers to get waters. Famine of the word of GOD... Bookmark SJWellFire.com.

Volume 35 in this series contains the following 3 1/2 minute radio broadcasts: Why the Bible is as it is, Part 1  Why the Bible is as it is, Part 2  Rightly Dividing Israel and the Church, Part 1  Rightly Dividing Israel and the Church, Part 2 Rightly Dividing Israel and the Church, Part 3  Rightly Dividing Israel and the Church, Part 4 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 1  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 2 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 3  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 4  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 5 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 6  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 7  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 8 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 9  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 10 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 11  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 12 Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 13  Rightly Dividing Humanity's Mailboxes, Part 14  

Let me ask you this morning, what would you have done? The church is in its 2nd decade of existence, the believing Jews have been dispersed because of persecution, and the central church seems to be in danger of losing its influence. So, what does James (the brother of Jesus) do? He writes a letter to the Jewish churches as a guide to help Jewish Christians navigate cultures with completely different norms and their beliefs than those that existed in Jerusalem. His writings apply in today's world where social norms and beliefs often differ from those of Christianity. During the 1st decade of the church, the church was mostly dominated by Jews who knew the Old Testament scripture and were still able to participate in the complex Jewish social structure. During the 2nd decade, many non-Jews (Gentiles) became believers beginning when Peter was on the rooftop and received a vision and Cornelius was told by an angel to go get Peter, and then later with Saul's conversion and Saul (Paul) being sent to the Gentiles during his missionary travels. James probably stayed in Jerusalem instead of doing much traveling. So, James writes a letter to the Jews living outside Jerusalem (James 1:1) to establish the Jews in applicable truth and conduct and to encourage them in their journey of faith.Full Notes

Always Give ThanksEphesians 5:18-20 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”These verses are found under a subheading that said, “Walk in Love.”  Did you know that the book of Ephesians is a letter from St. Paul about the church?  If you read at the beginning of the book of Ephesians, it talks about how the purpose of this letter was to make God's plan for salvation known throughout the universe.  This theology that he is using is anchored in God's saving love shown in Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross for us to be saved.  He died for our sins.  St. Paul is sending out letters to the various newly formed Christian communities to instruct them in how they should walk in this faith.  It was clear that Christ came for both Jews & Gentiles and so St. Paul was instructing the early Christians on how to walk with faith.I think these are the parts of the bible that many don't like to read.  We want to follow in Jesus's footsteps, we want to go to heaven, and yet sometimes we don't want to be told what we can and can't do.  The Lord our God loves us and wants to be reunited with all of his children in heaven one day.  However, He gives us free will and we need to choose that path.  We need to choose to follow in his footsteps here on earth if we want to follow him into the kingdom of heaven.  This passage starts off by saying in Ephesians 1:18, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but we filled with the Spirit.”  Some of you may be hearing this and you already don't like where this is going.  This podcast is called Walk Boldly With Jesus and if we are going to do that then we need to look at all the scripture verses, even the ones that we don't want to hear.  I looked up the word debauchery online as I did not know what it meant.  This is what I found, excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures.  I think what this passage is trying to tell us is that if we get drunk then we are more likely to commit sin.  This is something we probably already know, however, I am not sure we all new it was in the bible.  I don't think I knew that.  Now, St. Paul is not saying do not drink wine at all.  Wine was a part of life back then just as it is now.  Jesus turned water into wine, He would not have done this if he felt wine was evil.  What I believe he is saying is don't drink so much wine or alcohol that you lose control over your thoughts and actions.  If you do not have control over your faculties then you could be led to stray away from your beliefs and do things that you know are sins.  St. Paul doesn't just say, don't get drunk, he also adds but be filled with the Holy Spirit.  If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then He can help you make the right decisions.  Whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit, or you are filled with alcohol, you have something influencing your decisions.  Which would you rather have, a good influence or a bad influence.  Life is hard enough and the devil is always trying to exploit any situation and convince us to do things that go against what we believe or what God wants for us.  Do we really want to give him the opportunity to take advantage of us in a weakened state?I am not sure if you have even been filled with he Holy Spirit before, but let me tell you, it is an amazing feeling.  It is similar to a drunk feeling.  Your body is warm, you are filled with so much joy that you are in an excellent mood.  You have this sense of calm, a sense of peace that everything will be ok.  A lot of people say they drink in social situations because they loose their inhibition and they stop caring what people think of them.  When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can also loose your inhibition and stop caring what people think.  If you get the chance to read this whole chapter, I highly recommend it.  In chapter 2 of Acts it talks about what the apostles were like after they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 2:13 it says, “Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”  Then Peter stands up and says in Acts 2:15-18 “ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 1 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says,     I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,     your young men will see visions,     your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women,     I will pour out my Spirit in those days,     and they will prophesy.”The apostles had been locked in an upper room.  They were afraid to go out and talk about Jesus as the Jews had put Him to death by crucification not that long ago.  And yet once they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were filled with a Holy boldness.  You too can be filled with a holy boldness.  All you have to do is ask God.  Have you ever prayed that before?  Did you know that was such a thing?  I remember when I first heard the term I loved it.  I started to pray for it often.  I am not sure I would be doing this podcast today if I hadn't started praying for that.  I knew that I wanted to share God's love with the whole world.  I knew I wanted to feel free to talk about my faith and my religion.  I also knew that I was a people pleaser and that I don't like confrontation.  I knew that talking about my faith would open me up to criticism and I knew it would make me vulnerable.  I grew up in a large family and yet I still felt uncomfortable in large crowds.  Especially if I didn't know anyone.  However, since praying for this holy boldness I am a lot less nervous in large crowds.  I have joined a Toastmasters club where I give speeches in front of all of the members and I am not really that nervous.  I think I have a healthy level nervousness.  If you are nervous or anxious about anything, take it the Lord.  He will help you.  If you are one that likes to drink so that you will feel more comfortable in certain situations I would ask you to give prayer a try.  Before heading out to do whatever you feel uncomfortable doing, try praying to God and asking Him for the courage to do the thing and then thank Him in advance for showing up.  I think you will be surprised with your level of confidence.I have spent most of this episode talking about the first part of these verses.  However, I don't want to end without touching on the last part as well.  The last verse says, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  This is something that I am not sure we always remember to do.  I think we are usually pretty good about asking God for things, especially when we really need something.  However, I am not sure we always remember to thank Him when He does what we asked Him to do.  How about  you, are you good at remembering to say Thank you when your prayers are answered?  What about when God gives you things you didn't pray for, do you remember to say thank you?  What has God done for you in the last few days that you could thank Him for?  Here are a few things that He may have given to you that you didn't ask for: a new day of life, a green light when you were running late, a nice cup of coffee, sun shine, rain, stars at night, a morning with no traffic…I am sure if you tried you could think of many things that we could thank God for.  The verse says to always give thanks for everything.  I was not asking you how you are doing with this so that you would get down on yourself if you weren't doing it.  I was asking because I think it is great to check in with ourselves from time to time and see how we are doing.  Especially if we are reminded about something like this with a scripture verse.  I was listening to the Big Life Devotional podcast by Pamela Crim the other day and she mentioned that she felt like her relationship with Jesus got a whole lot closer and more intimate when she developed a daily gratitude practice.  If you are feeling like you wish you had a closer relationship with Jesus I recommend you take a notebook and start writing down 5 things every day that you could be thankful for.  God gives us everything that we have.  It is nice when we can be grateful for all that we have, even if we don't feel like we have a lot.  No matter your circumstances, there is something to be grateful for.  Even if you can just find one thing and even if that one thing is that you got out of bed, or maybe you didn't get out of bed, but you did wake up, that is something.   Being grateful, especially in the hard times, is an especially powerful tool to strengthen your faith and your relationship with your creator.  If you do not currently have a daily practice of gratitude I challenge you to start one and see how much better your days are.  It does not have to be complicated.  It could be as simple as before you get out of bed in the morning you spend 1 minute thanking God for waking up that morning.  Thanking God can take less than a minute and yet can be life changing.  Will you give it a try?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  We thank you for being with us today and every day. Lord I ask that you bless each one of us with a holy boldness. We ask that you replace our nervousness or anxiety with a boldness to go out and do the things were afraid to do. Lord we ask for you to help us to not get drunk on wine or alcohol but to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Lord I ask that you rain down the Holy Spirit on all of us listening today. Lord we thank you for all that you've given to us. Lord you're so generous and so happily rain down blessings on us and we're so very grateful. Lord God we know sometimes we forget to thank you and we're sorry for that. We are thanking you now Lord because we are so truly grateful. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus is holy name, amen!

The Strength of Any Hostility, Is the Demand. The 630 laws of the Talmud makes a demand on all mankind to keep every law to have relationship with God. Keeping the Law is an impossible task creating Hostility between God & Man Jesus cane and made the Law or penalty of the Law inoperative & by the shedding of His blood brought peace to Mankind. Where there was once Hostility between different cultures like the Jews & Gentiles by exchanging the Life of Jesus for our life ...In Christ we are all Made into One New Man or culture.

Jews? Gentiles? What's going on with humanity and when did all of this happen? Let's talk about it on today's episode of the Amplify Israel podcast.

These are the three that will be discussed in this chapter. What happens to each group?  Please LIKE, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE and FOLLOW!

Jesus abolishes dividing distinctions between Jews - Gentiles.-1. Identifying the -wall of partition- -ceremonial law-.- -a- why did God erect the wall in the first place-- -b- what purpose did it serve and now is no longer valid--2. How did Jesus bring an end to the ceremonial law-- -c- mosaic covenant's sacrificial worship.- -d- Jesus the final priest and sacrifice for the Church. -3. Why did Jesus cause the ceremonial law to cease-- -e- covenantal implications.- -f- validity of New Covenant worship.- -g- errors of some Christians observing forms of Judaism.

This was supposed to be a quick lesson I was sharing with you. However it sort of spiraled a bit but it brought out certain issues that well could not be averted. I'm learning too as you are, I hope I dont offend anyone by this. It is controversial yes for growth sometimes we have to dig into the eeky stuff to snuff out your own truth. Which is totally objective, no pressure.

https://youtu.be/xyDfbVh1WEw Crazy Talk  (Acts 26:19-32)               *New King James Version* Read Acts 26:19-32 Previously, in the Book of Acts… - The Apostle Paul had been a Jewish Pharisees, and led the charge of persecuting Christians. He became radically saved, and given the mission by Jesus to preach the Gospel to the Jews/Gentiles. - Not long ago, when in Jerusalem, Paul was seized by an angry Jewish mob that wanted to kill him, accusing him of teaching against the Laws of Moses. - The Pharisees were mad that he taught salvation was also for the Gentiles, and the Sadducees were mad that he taught Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Both are key truths of the Gospel! - Paul was arrested and taken into custody by the Roman soldiers, mostly for his own protection. Even though they couldn't find a Roman law he had broken, he remained captive for over 2 years. - He now finds himself sharing his testimony in front of the King of Judea, King Agrippa, and a room full of the most influential people in Caesarea and the surrounding areas. #1: Fear did not stop Paul from being obedient. - Acts 26:15-19, So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?' And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.' “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, - Paul was obedient, but look where it has gotten him. He's standing trial, falsely accused, before Gentiles with the power to kill him, and Jews lying in wait to kill him if he is released. - Example: My fear of leadership, bootcamp story, setting up tents and getting punished for no reason. Avoided those with power over me ever since. Then invited Chiefs to church.           - I got burned before, but needed to get over that hurt, and move forward with ministry. - Paul dealt with significant hardship before this day, but he held onto the words of Jesus, “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,” - YOU have a word from the Lord too! Luke 12:4, (Jesus said) “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” - Just like for Paul, Jesus has given YOU the ability to share the gospel and your testimony “with both small and great.”  Don't be afraid to be committed to your Christian faith in public. - Psalm 56:11, In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? #2: Paul's “crazy talk” almost worked! - Verse 24, Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” (crazy) - Agrippa insulted Paul about his persistence in the faith, but Paul wasn't offended or deterred. - Christianity is counter cultural. It's common to get push back from people when you make life decisions based on your beliefs, especially when they conflict with the cultural norms. - Example: Vegan, many were antagonistic even almost offended by it, I couldn't understand why people cared so much about what I ate. I felt great, healthy, and getting good results… - Isn't this what happens with your Christian faith also? Healthy, good results, but people want to criticize it, and tell you what you're missing out on. (Instead of meat, cut out sin.) - The reason is, that you changing your life takes away their excuse for NOT changing theirs. You show it's possible to live for Jesus,

In this Part 1 series of the End Times Prophecy with Dr. Tom Davis we take an in-depth look at how both Jews and Gentiles perceive Jesus as Messiah and their roles in the End Times. What happened at Pentecost, why should we care about Israel and so many other topics will be covered during this first installment to the End Times with Dr. Tom Davis.