The Big Ask

Father, we've had lots of difficulties this morning with our sound system and other things.

And Father, we are really very, very glad that we don't have to lean upon and depend

upon things like sound systems, but that we are to lean upon you.

So Father, at this time we ask that you would help us to lean upon you and lean into you.

We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would move deeply in our lives as we hear your word.

Lord, bring your word home to us, to the very center of our heart, so we might confess that

Jesus is Lord and that we might, Father, be gripped by the gospel, learning to live for

your glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I'd like to, just sort of as a way of beginning, if you're a guest here, you don't know this,

or maybe if you've been away for a few Sundays.

But this past, last two Sundays, I asked people in the congregation to pray for me.

I like to pray for me all the time, actually.

But on Wednesday, I was the guest speaker at church on Wednesday.

So we're at the University of Ottawa, right in the University Center in a public open spot.

And I ask that you would pray for me because I had to be in the University of Ottawa and

pray on the text, wives, submit to your husbands and slaves, obey your masters, which, as we

all know, is not even remotely controversial in the church or in the University of Ottawa

campus.

And I mean, you know, in heaven, we'll find out what the true fruit of such times are.

But I really want to thank you for your prayers.

God was very kind.

And he was very kind.

There were somewhere between 90 to 100 people who were there throughout all of it, plus different

people wandering by.

And one of the things is, and this comes from your prayers, I was not only, I think, able

to try to bring open the text to people, but to also share the gospel through it, which

sounds counterintuitive to a lot of people that you could take a text like that and use

it to talk about the wonder of Jesus and who he is and what he did for us on the cross.

But I made an attempt to do that, at least, and people were quiet and attentive.

One of the things that they do at church on Wednesday is after the talk is over, the sermon

is over, they, I think they sing a song, they announce that people can ask questions of the

speaker.

And they sing a song, and then we get to, they ask questions.

And I have to answer the questions.

And I think the very, very first question was, why should we trust the authority, why should

we trust or believe the authority of the Bible?

Why should we trust or believe the authority of the Bible?

And I responded, oh, that's easy.

And then I proceeded to give a very brief response.

How I answered that question, that it's easy, and how it is that we would trust the authority

of the Bible and why we should believe it.

Actually, it's not fully explained here, but in the text that we're about to look at, it

will come out as to why it is that Christians should, why not only Christians, but others

can trust the Bible and should believe that it's an authority.

So it'd be a great help to me as we look at this text.

And it's funny, this text is actually talking about something else, but it also helps us to

understand why it is that we can trust the Bible and it as an authority.

So the text is Romans chapter 9, verse 30.

Romans 9:30

Romans 9, 30.

And if you're one of the people here who's taken one of our free Bibles, it's page 653.

Romans 9, 30.

And this is how it begins.

Romans 9, 30.

And those of you who are listening to Nora speak, if you're not sort of a real keen student

of the Bible, some of it sounds a little bit confusing.

And I'm just going to sort of read a bit.

I'll make a couple of comments as we go, and it starts to get into sort of the big question

or issue today.

And you'll notice, by the way, that one of the things that the Bible is about to do is

to disagree with 95% of Canadians.

In fact, it's going to very specifically reject what 95% of Canadians believe, and which we

Christians, because we breathe Canadian air, are always tempted to want to believe as well.

Here's how it goes.

Romans 9, 30.

What shall we say then?

The Gentiles, here I'm going to use the word pagans, and it's a good word, and it refers

to basically everybody who's not Jewish at the time that this was written, that pagans

who did not pursue righteousness have attained it.

That is, a righteousness that is by faith.

Now, I'm going to pause here, because those of you who are following along, I'm going to

start doing something a little...

I'm not cheating, and I'm not trying to get away from the Bible, but I'm trying to bring

out something that's been established, if you've been here for previous weeks, about

the meaning of these words.

It's not saying that pagans don't try to be good people, and then all of a sudden something's

happened, and now they're good.

It's not trying to say that at all.

And it's also very interesting, if you look at your Bibles, it doesn't say that the Gentiles

are the pagans, because it's not going to say that everybody who's pagan, this has happened.

It's just going to say that for some people, this has happened, who are pagans.

And for the word righteousness here, I'm going to replace it by what it actually means more

literally, which is become or made right with God.

And I haven't talked about being made right with God for a while, but if all of a sudden

you just get this idea of making something right, every time I've talked about it, it's

shocked me how often in movies and in books this concept of making something right is

there.

You know, it could be something if you work at a Starbucks or something or a restaurant,

and you can hear that there's a kerfuffle going on outside, and there's somebody who's

unhappy or a couple of customers who are unhappy.

What you're hoping for if you're the poor person at the cash is that the manager will

come and make it right.

Okay, they'll make it right.

And maybe they'll make it right by firing the customer, getting the customer out of there,

calling the police.

Maybe they'll make it right by giving them a free drink and just, you know, talking and

listening to people.

But you want somebody to make it right.

You know, maybe you've been in a workplace, and there's lots of unhappiness going on.

There's lots of slander and backbiting and discontent.

And people are hoping maybe that at some point in time, the management or higher up in the

organization will come and make it right.

Okay, they'll come and make it right.

And you know, whether that making right is maybe firing somebody or, you know, a lateral

transfer or listening or whatever, it can involve a whole pile of things.

But we have this sort of basic understanding still in our culture of having something made

right.

Okay, and that's what's trying to get communicated here with this word righteousness in this particular

context as a range of meaning.

But that's what it means.

So now I'm going to keep reading.

And I'm going to say that rather than righteousness.

So we're not confused.

Okay, so we'll start again.

What shall we say then?

Verse 30 of chapter 9, that pagans who did not pursue being made right with God have attained

it.

That is, being made right with God that is by faith.

But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to being made right with God, did not

succeed in reaching that law.

In other words, they followed a principle and they didn't actually do what they wanted

to accomplish.

Why?

Because they did not pursue it by faith.

I'm going to explain this all in a moment.

But as it were, as if it were based on works.

They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, I am laying in Zion a stone

of stumbling and a rock of offense.

And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Now just sort of pause here for a second.

I don't know how many of you watch The Amazing Race.

It's one of my guilty pleasures.

It's, I think, about the only thing I watch on sort of normal network TV.

And it's, I think it's always 11 teams and they go around the world and they have to

complete a series of tasks in foreign cities and follow, you know, they get a direction.

They have to go somewhere and complete a task.

And one of the things which every year, it always happens several times, that the people

are trying to figure out what something means.

And they have it very, very firmly stuck in their mind that they know exactly what they're

being told to do and exactly what it is that they have to see.

And you as a viewer delight in the fact that the camera person will show them constantly

walking by the actual thing they're supposed to find.

And it's very interesting.

Sometimes, I remember this one time, there were these two young men and their self-talk

was about how spectacular they were and how good they were at, they won everything they

always did.

And that was their sort of their self-talk as they were building each other up.

But like complete doofuses, they spent a long time walking right by the thing that they

were supposed to do and the sign that they were supposed to see.

And they were so, in a sense, caught up with how excellent they were and how successful

they were that they couldn't find it.

And it was one of those things of the viewer, in a sense, laughing at them.

Now, Paul, we're going to see here in a moment, says that this just breaks his heart.

But he's talking about that for the Jewish people, that God has provided with them laws.

And that the law, that not only refers to just the books of the first five books of the Old Testament,

but in a sense, the whole Old Testament.

But what's happened, he said, to his brothers and sisters who are Jewish,

is they've gotten in their own head and in their own mind how it is that they're going to sort everything out

by their standards and their criteria.

And the irony is that while they're trying to do that, they literally keep tripping over Jesus,

so to speak.

That they don't recognize that the entire, what we call the Old Testament,

that the entire Old Testament was doing several types of things.

One of them is that it was trying to get people to understand that they couldn't keep it.

That at some point in time, they had to just lay down, in a sense, their Bibles,

lay down their sword and seal, lay down their prayer mats, lay down everything,

and just say, only God.

Only God.

Unless God does something, I'm in big trouble.

And at the same time, what we call the Old Testament was to try to bring people to this

recognition and this realization that unless God does it, we're really in trouble.

At the same time, the entire Old Testament is setting all these clues and hints and riddles

to point to how God is, in fact, going to do this.

That God didn't write the Old Testament as some type of, like, it's not like Kafka's book,

the trial, and some type of evil genius back behind the veil, creating all of these rules,

just trying to see people trying to keep them, and all of them always just fail,

and he's just up there laughing at us and scorn.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That, in fact, in the entire Old Testament, it's constantly giving us hints and riddles,

and that when Jesus comes, that if people had actually come to the point of looking at the Old Testament

and looking at the fact that why is it that I keep having to kill all these animals,

and I just keep messing up, and only God, unless God deals with it,

unless God, in a sense, provides that sacrifice, unless God is the one who sorts these things out,

I'm in big trouble, and then God actually does send the answer to all of these pointers.

But they're so intent on actually trying to accomplish their understanding

because they're so superior and they're so excellent,

and they keep, in a sense, tripping over Jesus.

That's what Paul is trying to communicate.

And then he continues in chapter 10, verse 1.

Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Now, this is really, really, really important.

You know, one of the views that non-Christians have of Christians is that we don't really care about people.

We think we're better than them.

And a lot of times, non-Christians, they're not being mean and prejudiced when they think that.

Because, in fact, this text is going to continually try to humble us

because the fact of the matter is that a lot of us view,

those of us who are Christians, a lot of us view a lot of the city as a threat.

That a lot of us view people who are same-sex attracted or trans

and living, from our point of view, a life that's not of God.

And rather than our heart being broken for them and loving them,

we find them as a threat.

Or we think of them as our enemies.

And we do that with politics as well.

And we as Christians, and I don't know, you know, I'm not going to pick,

you know, but those of us who, you know, really love Trudeau.

And we view those who like, who supported Harper as a threat.

Those who wanted to vote conservative.

And they view people who vote for Trudeau as a threat, as bad people, as evil people.

And it goes on and on and on.

Our hearts can actually be very, very, very hard to people.

And we like those people who are sort of like us and sort of think our way,

but we're hard-hearted towards other people.

And non-Christians, if they have that perception of Christians, it's not prejudice.

I mean, sometimes maybe it is, and sometimes maybe it's not really fair.

But the fact of the matter is that our hearts are not often broken for our neighbors.

And that we have a real love for them.

And that we want to view that there's nobody in our neighborhood who's our enemy.

And nobody in this city who is our enemy.

There might be people who don't like us, but we don't want,

I don't want to view them as my enemy.

My heart wants to be like Paul's here in verse 1.

We'll read it again in 10.1.

Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

I mean, for many of us, that's the point right now that we have to pause and do some work with God.

To recognize how many people, we don't think that at all.

We'd like to see that person crushed.

Those people who voted for Harper, I'd like to see them crushed.

Those people who voted for Trudeau, I'm just waiting for everything to fall apart.

So that I can just say, look, that's what's going on in our hearts.

Not that our hearts burn with love for them.

Then Paul continues.

And here's now where he's going to be actually quite un-Canadian.

We'll read verse 2, 3, and 4.

But for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,

but not according to knowledge.

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God,

in other words, the way that God has provided to make us right with himself,

and seeking to establish their own way of making themselves right with God,

they did not submit to God's way of making people right with himself.

In other words, the way that God was actually going to accomplish it.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

And I'm not going to talk much about this,

but that's something, a constant part of the teaching.

It's what Jesus says himself in Luke 24 after his resurrection,

that every single thing in the Old, what we call the Old Testament,

every single thing in the Bible points to him.

Everything points to him and who he is and what he's accomplished on the cross.

Everything.

Everything.

Everything in there is moving to its goal,

and in a sense, after Jesus,

we just keep funneling us back to him.

We're going to talk more about that in a moment.

But here, I just want to pause.

Do you notice that un-Canadian thing in verse 2?

Where he says, I have to turn the page,

for being ignorant of the, no, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,

but not according to knowledge.

In other words, they have,

they are deeply committed,

authentically committed,

and sincere.

But they're all wrong.

Now, if you could put the first point up, Andrew,

what is it that most Canadians say?

It does not matter what you believe as long as you're sincere.

And I've added something else.

It only applies to things that are not real and do not matter.

Now, I don't want to offend you if you're here.

I don't mean to offend you.

I just want to consider this is, you know,

is the Bible being judgmental and mean?

Or is it just trying to point out something,

which in fact, we realize,

but we don't want to express it this way.

That it does not matter what you believe as long as you're sincere.

Sincere only applies to things that are real and do not matter.

So, for instance,

just to give a very, very, you know, absurd example,

you're flying in a jet, an Air Canada jet.

You're flying somewhere, it doesn't matter.

I don't know, it has 150 people on it.

And it's at 33,000 feet.

And all of a sudden, over the intercom,

it's announced that the pilot says that

that Joe has a deep and sincere commitment

that he believes he can fly a plane and land it.

And he's never had any lessons,

never flown a plane before,

but he's talked to his inner self.

And both his inner self and him

have really firmly convinced him

that he knows how to fly jets and land them.

And so because the Air Canada pilot is a Canadian,

he wants to respect sincerely held beliefs.

And he's going to come and sit in the plane

while Joe flies the plane without instruments

and lands it.

Now, of course, we would all laugh

and we would all think it was hilarious,

but if we actually came to think that that was happening,

we would all be storming the cockpit.

Because planes are real,

and when they're at 33,000 feet,

landing them matters.

Okay?

So it is, you see,

so for many people when they say

it doesn't matter what you believe

as long as you're sincere,

well, you know what they mean is,

you know,

I keep picking on,

I keep saying,

I'll just use it.

You know, it doesn't really matter that much.

You know,

if somebody just wants to go off

and dance in a little circle at night

out in the bush

and call down the goddesses

and call down the moon

and get in touch with animal spirits,

if they want to do that,

that's completely fine.

Okay?

And if somebody believes,

it really gives them good meaning

to think that,

I don't know,

you know,

that the entire earth

rests on a turtle's back

and everything was created by,

you know,

when ravens talked

and then some seeds

fell out of their mouth

and it fell out,

and that's,

you know,

that's fine.

But if all of a sudden

they actually wanted to change

how biology and chemistry

and physics is taught

and you actually realize

that they actually think

that this is true,

then you'd start to really think

that they were actually psychotic.

But even then,

you'd still maybe just want

to lock them up

because it doesn't matter

as much as landing a plane.

And here's the part

which is hard for Canadians

to understand.

It's why Christians keep getting

in trouble in public.

That for Christians,

we believe it's real.

At least I do.

If you're here as a guest,

earlier on when I began my sermon,

when I closed my eyes and prayed,

I quite literally believe

there is a God that does exist

that I am speaking to.

It doesn't matter

if nobody here believes it,

that's actually what I believe.

And when I ask the Father

to pour out His Holy Spirit,

I literally,

I mean,

I don't know what images I have,

I don't really have any images,

but I literally believe

that I'm asking God

who really does exist

to really do something.

And when I say

that Jesus rose from the dead,

I believe there was

a real historical person

that He really did rise from the dead.

When I,

earlier on in the service,

when I said,

God,

you created all things,

sustain all things,

there's not a square inch

that you don't sustain yourself,

I actually literally believe that.

And if it brings me

into conflict

with the biology faculty,

then that on one hand

is a bit of a daunting

type of thing

to take on,

you know,

40 PhDs,

but at the end of the day,

I would say,

I believe that this is true

and real

and it matters

that when in John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

it says,

in the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God,

He was with God

in the beginning.

All things were made through Him

and without Him

nothing was made

that was made.

I believe that's literally true.

I believe it's just as true

as being on an airplane

at 33,000 feet

that has to land.

That's the Christian claim.

And so you see,

at first,

when this looks like

it's being very un-Canadian

by saying that it doesn't,

you know,

that being sincere

in fact isn't enough

and it sounds very un-Canadian

as if we're being rude.

Now,

on one hand,

for many Canadians

that we go,

good grief,

you don't accept

naturalistic evolution?

Like,

like,

good grief,

you actually believe

that, like,

there's demons

and angels?

Like,

you,

okay,

but it changes

the conversation,

right?

And that's what

the real,

robust,

historic,

biblical Christianity

is claiming.

We're saying

that we're not like

people who just

go and call down

the dark moon

and have beliefs

about,

you know,

chanting to the great,

that we're,

we're more,

in a sense,

like the chemistry faculty

and the biology faculty.

We're making

those type of claims.

believers.

And now,

what Paul is going

to do,

now that we sort

of grasp the problem,

I'm going to have,

I might have trouble,

anyway,

now that we've sort

of grasped the problem,

the Bible is going

to tell us now

three surprising,

counterintuitive truths.

In fact,

if you could put it up,

the point,

three counterintuitive

truths are taught

by the Bible

in very,

very quick,

summary fashion

in the next three verses.

The first

counterintuitive,

counterintuitive truth,

that's a bit of a tongue

twister for me,

counterintuitive truth

is that all attempts

to be right with God

by rule keeping fail.

This is a great shock

to non-Christians.

It's actually a great shock

to people who have

gone to church

for many,

many years.

Because,

in fact,

many Christians

believe that

rule keeping

is what Christianity

is all about.

But the Bible

is going to,

in fact,

completely reject this.

And the Bible

is going to say

that all attempts

to ascend to God

ascend to God

to know him fail.

I'm going to explain

what that means

in a moment.

And the Bible

is going to say

that all attempts

to descend to God

to know him fail.

And it does it

very,

very briefly.

And it's in

verses 5 to 7.

In a sense here,

there's a basic

rejection

rejection

of all of the

philosophies,

spiritualities,

and religions

of the world.

A basic rejection.

Not because

we think

we're smarter.

In fact,

as I'm going to try

to show,

the heart of the

Spurgeon

got it completely

right.

These rejections

are going to

humble us

and bring us

to our knees

and make us

realize

that every

Christian

is merely

one beggar

telling another

beggar

where to get

free bread.

It's going to

be a complete

and utter

rejection

of our

deep-seated

desire

to be a

superhero

and tell us

that we're

beggars.

That's the

deepest,

hardest part

of Christianity

that it

constantly

humbles us

to bring us

to our knees,

to have us

fall flat

on our face,

to acknowledge

that we are

beggars.

Here it is.

I'll read them

first and then

we'll go back

and look at each

very briefly.

Verse 5,

For Moses writes

about the

righteousness

or the way

of being right

with God

that is based

on the law

that the person

who does the

commandment

shall live by them.

And some of you

are saying,

George,

that contradicts

what you just

said,

but we're going

to go back

and look at it

and I'll show

you why that's

not the case.

Verse 6,

But the righteousness

based on faith,

the way of being

right with God

based on faith,

says,

Do not say in your

heart,

who will ascend

into heaven?

That is to bring

Christ down.

Or,

who will descend

into the abyss?

That is to bring

Christ up

from the dead.

So,

the three things,

the three counterintuitive

truths taught

by the Bible,

first,

all attempts

to be right

with God

by rule keeping

fail.

And verse 5,

that's where it

says it,

and it looks at first

as if it's saying

the opposite.

For Moses writes

about the righteousness,

the way of being

right with God

that is based

on the law,

that the person

who does the commandment

shall live by them.

What Paul is doing here,

and it's a little bit hard

if you haven't been

to any of the services,

you haven't heard

any of the sermons,

you haven't read

any of Romans,

but if you have a Bible

like this,

it's sort of very obvious

that Romans starts

over here,

and Romans has done,

he's talked about this,

he's talked about this,

he's talked about this,

he's talked about this,

he's talked about this,

now he gets to this.

Sometimes I come home

late at night,

and my wife and kids

are watching something

on Netflix,

and maybe they're

two-thirds of the way

through it,

and I just come,

I sit down

or do whatever,

and I come and watch

the movie,

and something said

on the TV

that to me

sounds completely innocuous,

and people,

the others,

chuckle or groan.

You know,

and I think,

wow,

they chuckle or groan,

it just sounds innocuous

to me.

And that's because

in the previous thing

leading up to it,

what they just say

has a context

that makes you

chuckle or groan.

And so what Paul

is doing here,

this is now

in chapter 10,

and if you go through

the book of Romans,

one of the main things

that Paul does

in the book of Romans,

he does it in the last

half of chapter 1,

all of chapter 2,

and most of chapter 3,

is he wants to try

to bring you to the point

of understanding

that if your goal

in life is to keep rules,

and keeping rules

is what's going to

make you right with God,

that you always fail.

You always fail,

everybody fails,

with no exception,

if they're completely

and utterly honest.

And Paul tries to show

that whether you follow

the perfect,

like God's rules,

ones that he wrote

that are in the Bible,

or whether God

will be completely

and utterly just,

and say,

okay, George,

you make your rules.

Okay, George,

you write down the things

that you have to accomplish,

and you write them down,

I'll let you choose.

You write them all down,

and then we'll just

have a video cam

that follows your life,

and we'll just spend

the next month

and seeing how long

it takes before

you can't even keep

the rules that you pick,

that you make for yourself.

And that God is

completely and utterly fair.

And so Paul is just using here

a very, very simple type

of a catchphrase

to remind us of the thing

that he's been saying

over and over and over again

in many, many, many

different forms

throughout the entire

book of Romans

up to this point.

And for many, many,

many, many, many Christians,

they believe that the Christian faith

is all about keeping rules.

Or, for you and I,

we say, oh yeah,

okay, no, no, no, no, no,

I have to get down

on my knees,

I make the sinner's prayer,

I give my life to God.

But then, it's almost

as soon as that's over,

before we know it,

how we evaluate

how we are with God

comes with how good we are

at keeping our standards

and our moral rules.

And how we end up

coming to church

feeling deeply depressed

because, in fact,

this past week

we haven't been very good

at keeping our rules,

and we somehow or another

believe that how we are

with God depends upon

our ability

to keep rules.

But it never does.

It never does.

In fact,

I'm going to share something.

If you're a non-Christian

and you are here today,

one of the things,

I'm going to tell you something

about your Christian friends

that maybe they don't even

know about themselves

or if they know it,

they don't want to share with you,

is that we Christians

sometimes are deeply

intimidated by people

who are very successful

at keeping rules.

That we look at,

you know,

maybe we look at

some Jewish person,

or we look at a Hindu,

or we look at a Buddhist,

or we just look at our neighbor

who's really good

at keeping financial rules,

or another person

who's really good

at just keeping the rules

about how you make promotions,

or how you have

the perfect house,

or how you have

the perfect wife,

or how you have

the perfect kid,

the perfect dog,

all together,

none of the above,

whatever it is.

And we Christians

can be deeply,

deeply,

deeply intimidated

by perfect rule keeping

and feel we have

nothing to say.

See,

this text wants

to humble us.

What should we say?

I'm a beggar.

I'm George.

I'm completely helpless.

I couldn't keep

all those laws

if my life depended upon it.

In fact,

the matter is,

is if you saw

how I ate,

you'd know

that I'm shortening

my life by how bad

I am at keeping rules.

We'd want to say,

you know what,

there's the good news

that being right with God

is never going to be

based on keeping rules.

Never.

And then,

we'll go and look,

and in fact,

here's another thing,

is basically,

all religion and spirituality

is advice about

the rules to keep.

All religion

and all spirituality

is advice about

the rules to keep

and follow.

And the Bible here

is saying,

you follow them

thinking you're going to live.

Nobody will live

because nobody keeps them.

Then verse 6,

but the way of being right

with God

based on faith

says,

it's a rejection.

Do not say in your heart

who will ascend

into heaven.

Now this is a,

that is,

who will ascend

into heaven,

that is to bring Christ down.

And here,

what the Bible

is telling us

is that

all ways of ascending

to know God,

they all fail.

Don't try to follow them.

And there's,

there's historically,

there's been all sorts

of different ways

to ascend to God.

The most common one

is to have a mystical experience.

And by having a mystical experience,

we ascend to God.

And people who have

mystical experiences

and ascend to God,

they're superior

to other people.

Or intellectuals

who are able to,

to think through

great things

and make great distinctions.

And their minds

become a series

of ever higher abstractions

and ever higher distinctions.

And they're just

unbelievably brilliant.

And maybe it's a matter

that there's going to be

these profound

ascetic disciplines

that just,

that their spirituality,

their mantras,

their chanting,

their yoga,

that that is going to be

a type of a way

of ascending

and ascending

and ascending

until we can actually

reach and grasp God.

And for others,

it's going to be

through aesthetic experiences.

The ability to appreciate

unbelievably great music

and get all of the nuances

out of that music.

And as the aesthetic experience

of the music

or the art

or the poetry

or the sculpture,

as it fills our minds

and our minds move

to higher things

and to higher things

and to higher things

so that we can grasp God.

And the Bible says

none of it works.

None of it works.

If you're a non-Christian

and you were here,

I want to share with you

another thing

about your Christian friend

that you don't realize,

we Christians

are profoundly,

profoundly uncomfortable

in the face

of profound assent

because part of us

wants to be like that ourselves.

We don't want to acknowledge

that we're beggars.

We want to think

we're superheroes too.

And when we come to people

who have finer distinctions

in their minds

and their aesthetic experiences

and their spiritual experience

and their mystical things,

we feel deeply uncomfortable

because part of us,

like fallen human beings,

wants to be a superhero

like that as well.

But the Bible says

none of it works.

One of the things

that constantly,

the people I talk to

in Starbucks,

one of the,

for many of them,

they'll bring up things

about Christopher Hitchens

and the presumption

of thinking that human beings

can know and capture God.

And they tell me that

thinking that they've got me

and I say,

I'm a Christian,

I completely believe,

I accept,

I,

Christopher Hitchens

and I like this,

we're bosom buddies,

we think alike on this one.

You haven't shocked me.

I agree with it.

And they go,

like they don't know

what to do next.

They thought they've got me.

That is presumptuous

to think that any human beings

can attain and grasp

by themselves,

by their minds,

through their aesthetic experiences,

the infinite God.

We accept that.

The Bible rejects it.

And then there's

the way of descent.

Verse 7,

where,

who will descend

into the abyss?

That is to bring Christ

up from the dead.

Now,

we're going to talk about

the second part of it,

but this way of descent,

once again,

that's a very,

very common way.

When I went to do

my master's in counseling,

the supposedly Christian place,

one of the things

that I had to do

in a class

is I had to go deep

within myself

to first of all

find,

not only go from myself,

but to go to my

higher self

and my higher self

and eventually touch

the transcendent

cosmic self.

And it was a journey

deep within.

And there's also people

who go,

in a sense,

a way of descent

as they go into the past.

They'll come and they'll tell us,

well,

you can just follow your God,

but the New Testament

was just written

2,000 years ago.

I follow some scripture

and some practice

that goes back

to 4,000 B.C.

long before Jesus

was even the gleam

in anybody's eyes.

This,

which is old

and far more ancient,

that's the path

that I follow.

Your thing

is just a Johnny

come lately.

Or there's a path

of descent

into that

which is purely physical,

often connected

with sex

because in sexual knowing

there's often something

which feels transcendent

and ecstatic about it.

And so as you enter

into this,

it feels as if

you're somehow

another connecting

to God.

That somehow,

and you think

of people

who believe

that by getting

themselves

into some unbelievable

trance

or some other

unbelievable act

of transgression,

that they're somehow

another connecting

by going down

and getting to that

which is base,

that they are somehow

connecting with that

which is real

and that which is God.

And the Bible said

none of them works.

None of them works.

And non-Christian friends,

I will tell you,

for many of us Christians,

we are profoundly

uncomfortable

in the face of that.

When somebody tells us

that their way

is far more ancient,

often for many of us

we don't quite know

what to say

because we wish

that we could say

that ours was more ancient.

And when people talk

about the experiences

they have through drugs

or through meditation

in their depths

or through profound experiences

of sexual knowing,

and for many of us

we don't know what it is

because we wish

that we could be

doing those things

and we can tell you

of our experiences

and how our experiences

are just as good as yours

and even better.

And once again,

the Bible is completely

and utterly humbling us

and we have to just say,

you know what,

that doesn't work either,

I'm a beggar.

And Canadians,

like most human beings,

don't like to acknowledge that.

And you were intimidated by it.

Before we go to the next verses,

we might go a little bit

over time today, folks.

Hopefully it's all right.

But could you put up

Romans 1, 16 to 17

for me at this time?

The way the book of Romans

is written

is that the first few verses

as Paul describes,

a little bit of

just sort of welcome.

Then he tells them

a little bit about his plans.

And then those of you

who have heard it,

I keep saying it

over and over again.

It's almost like

a modern academic paper

where there's the abstract

at the beginning

where the abstract

gives you the basic content

of the paper.

And Paul does that

in verses 1,

chapter 1,

verses 16 and 17.

And then after that,

he goes into the problem,

he goes into how God

solves the problem,

he goes into different

other things.

But everything in the book

of Romans

sort of unpacks this

or is revealed by this.

So could you help me

and read this with me,

please,

out loud.

for I am not ashamed

of the gospel,

for it is the power

of God for salvation

to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first

and also to the Greek.

For in the gospel,

the righteousness of God

is revealed from faith

to faith.

As it is written,

the righteous shall live

by faith.

So what Paul is saying here

is the gospel

is something completely

and utterly different.

that the gospel

is something completely

and utterly different.

Does rule keeping matter?

Rule keeping does matter.

But the good news is

that you and I

can't keep the rules.

But as Paul has described

up until now,

Jesus perfectly keeps

every rule

and has a life

of unbroken union

with God,

perfect obedience.

And that what happens

on the cross

is that Jesus

takes upon himself

my inability

to keep the rules

and the punishment

I deserve

and he offers me

his perfect keeping

of the rules.

That's what Jesus does

for me on the cross.

And what else

is happening

on the cross

is that God knows

that I,

by my finite,

fallen,

rebellious human mind,

cannot pierce

the heights of God.

That God

breaks into

our created order

in the person

of his son

that Jesus

comes

to us.

and that's

why all

Christian claims

of intellectual

superiority

have to die

because we have

to say that

none of it

came from our

thinking.

That God

comes down.

Jesus

descends.

And at the

same time,

and so that

what in a sense

is happening

when Jesus

dies upon the cross

is we are

observing

the coming

of Jesus

from the

Father's side

and he descends

to come to

our created

order.

He descends

to come

and actually

be within

the womb

of Mary

and then he

lives a normal

human life

and his

descent

continues

to actually

dine upon

the cross

and his

death upon

the cross

is going

to mean

that he's

going to

continue

to descend

and that

there is

no depth

so low

that Jesus

has not

gone lower,

that there

is no

type of

evil

that we

have done

or that we

know about

that has

not fallen

upon the

shoulders

of Jesus

that on

the cross

all of

the

that God

in his

descent

he comes

to us

he takes

upon himself

all that

keeps us

from God

all of

the evil

is going

to come

upon him

he continues

to descend

until he's

descended

and tasted

everything

there is

to taste

of death

everything

there is

to taste

of evil

everything

there is

to taste

of shame

everything

there is

to taste

about

separation

from God

that he

goes

lower

than anything

can possibly

be

to the very

very depths

and then

on the third

day

God

raises him

from the

dead

and he ascends

back into

heaven

that Jesus

is teaching

is teaching

that comes

from God

that his

death upon

the cross

is a

bearing of

our evil

and the

consequences

of our

evil

upon

himself

Jesus

comes

from above

descends

to the

depths

comes

back up

and as I'm

going to say

in a moment

if we just

put our

hands

in his

he is

the one

who takes

us to

God

that's what

the gospel

is

it's the

power of

God

for salvation

Andrew

can you put

up the

next point

the gospel

is the

good news

that by

the

resurrection

God

has

vindicated

who

Jesus

is

and what

he has

accomplished

the gospel

is the

good news

that by

the

resurrection

God

has

vindicated

who

Jesus

is

and what

he

has

accomplished

why

trust

the

Bible

it's

a coming

together

of

several

things

the

first

thing

it's

coming

together

about

is

that

the

resurrection

is

real

and it

matters

if you

study

history

if you study the historical records, if you study what went on,

I believe that if you study it with even a remotely open mind,

you will come to the conclusion that Jesus really existed, that he really died,

and that the only way to account for what happens on the third day

is that God raised him from the dead.

And that this is not just some isolated type of thing.

It wouldn't be as if all of a sudden Joey died,

and then three days later he came back to life.

That would just be weird.

Nothing personal, Joey, but it would just be weird.

Okay, it could be, ah, that would just be weird, okay?

But that Jesus dies and rises,

and he talked about the fact that he was going to do that.

He talked about the meaning and the significance of his life.

He talked about who he was.

So that the resurrection of Jesus is not just, that's weird,

but it vindicates who he said he was

and what he said he's going to accomplish on the cross,

which is this taking away of our rebellion

and the stowing upon us a righteousness of God.

And that all of this takes place within a rich system of thought found in the Bible,

a rich system of thought, a meta-narrative,

and wisdom within the Bible that makes sense of, well,

of abstract philosophy and of spirituality.

And on Wednesday I tried to show it,

it makes sense of the difference between human beings, of men and women.

And it makes sense in terms of how bosses and workers make,

and how it makes sense of social structures.

And it takes place within the context of arguments for the existence of God.

And it takes place, this life of Jesus and his death and his resurrection

and the vindication of him, it takes place within a rich thing.

And it's because of that that you can trust the authority of the Bible.

I urge you, if you're a non-Christian,

pursue to understand the historical record for who Jesus is

and what he accomplished from the cross.

I am not worried about that.

Search it.

I urge you to look into it for yourself.

I urge you to look into it for yourself.

Just very briefly in closing,

just before we go, the gospel is the good news, right?

It's not good advice.

It's not good rules.

It's not good yoga techniques.

It's not good community rules.

It's not good rituals.

It's not good institutions.

It's good news that by the resurrection,

God has vindicated who Jesus is and what he's accomplished.

We're just going to read these last verses

because the Bible is going to bring it all home now in a very powerful image.

Verse 8 to 13.

But what does it say?

What does the Bible say?

It's rejected rule keeping.

It's rejected ascending.

It's rejected descending.

But what does it say?

The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

This is not George saying this.

This is God saying this.

I have no authority.

I'm a beggar.

You will be saved.

Verse 10.

For with the heart,

and this doesn't mean emotions.

This means the command center of who you are.

It means the very, very underneath your mind,

underneath your will,

underneath your emotions,

the very command center of who you are,

the very center of who you are.

For with the heart one believes and is justified,

that is made right with God.

And with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says,

everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord is Lord of all,

bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Andrew, could you put up the next point?

Only God can cross the infinite gap of time and space and being

to come to you where you are,

as you are,

knowing who you are.

Only God can cross the infinite gap of time,

the infinite gap of space,

the infinite gap of being,

because God is so completely other and different than you and me.

To come to you where you are,

as you are,

knowing who you are.

If you could put up the final point, Andrew,

God says to us in verse 9 and 10,

I'm just changing the word slightly to make it,

this is God speaking to you directly and me directly.

If you confess with your mouth,

this is not George speaking,

it's as if God is saying to you and you and you and you.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

believe in your heart that I raised him from the dead,

I will make you right with me now and forever.

God says to you and you and me,

you're a beggar.

Get over yourself.

You're going to spend your entire Christian life getting over yourself.

I'm going to keep having you read my word,

and if you read my word correctly,

it's going to help you get over yourself.

Get over yourself.

You're a beggar.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that I raised him from the dead,

I will make you right with me now and forever.

You know, if you watch Hollywood movies,

this is the closing image I'm going to ask you to stand.

If you watch Hollywood movies,

a very, very regular thing in Hollywood movies is

there's a group of noble people,

and they're fighting the evil overlord,

and then very, very close to the end of the movie,

one of the heroes or the hero's best friend.

Bang, they get shot.

Bang, they get shot.

Bang, they get shot.

And down they go.

And the other team members are all completely inhorrified.

Not Sally.

Not Fred.

Whatever their name is.

And they rush over to the person who's lying there.

And the very, very next thing you see is

you can just tell that the person's dead.

And two of the people,

they're firing their guns at the bad guys,

keeping them off.

And there's a third person,

and they're on the radio.

They're calling in a helicopter support

or spaceship support to come

so there can be a medic to come and help their friend.

But their friend is dead.

They're not breathing.

And there's another friend on top of them,

and he's pushing on the chest,

and he's doing like this,

and he's doing like this,

but the person's dead.

And there's another two people,

and they're putting their hands

right where all the bullet holes are

because the blood's coming out

because they want to stop it,

but the person's dead.

And then there's another person,

and she or he is saying,

don't go away from me.

Come back to me.

I love you.

I'm your friend.

Come back to me.

But the person's dead.

They are dead, dead, dead.

And then the camera keeps going back and forth,

and you get into the mind of the person who is dead.

And they're just lying there.

Blood's coming out of their bullet holes

or their ray gun holes.

Somebody else is firing to keep all the dead,

all the bad guys.

Somebody else is calling for the medic.

Somebody else is doing the CPR.

Somebody else is putting their hands in the bullet hole.

Somebody else is doing all of that.

They're just lying there dead.

And you see in their mind

that they're starting to go away.

And then the person who's calling them back,

or maybe they have an image of their child at home,

or their mom or something,

their dog.

I don't know.

They have this image,

and the image is right there.

They're not doing anything.

They're just lying there dead.

And they can see this image now in their mind.

And they come back.

And the next thing you know,

as they come back,

because the person,

that has come to them where they are dead.

And the next thing Hollywood shows

is the eyes open.

Take a big breath.

And the people with the guns

are shooting even more now,

and then the helicopter comes,

and they take them away,

and they're all alive.

And then the next thing you know,

they live happily ever after.

That is an image of what Paul is talking about here.

That is an image of what Paul is talking about here.

God crosses the infinite distance.

God is the one through his son

who's fighting off the bad guys.

God is the one doing the CPR.

God is the one in the bullet holes.

God is the one calling to you.

He comes to you when you are dead and helpless.

He provides the power to make you right with him.

He provides the power for you to live.

He does it all through the cross

in the person of Jesus.

And this is what Paul proclaimed,

and this is what I am telling you.

And it is for you today.

If you have not done it,

there is, don't wait, don't wait.

If you feel the pressure of the Holy Spirit,

you feel Jesus,

and you know he's been knocking on your door,

there is no better time than now

to with your lips say,

Jesus is Lord.

You see, raised him from the dead,

you know that Jesus is the one vindicated by God,

that he is in fact the power of God for salvation.

And Jesus is Lord.

You're acknowledging not only what he's done,

but who he is,

and what he will be for you for all eternity.

Please stand.

Thank you.

You don't have to scream it out or shout it out,

but even if it's just very quietly under your breath,

there's no better time than right now,

maybe for the very first time in your life,

and you know that Jesus has come to you

to just say,

Jesus, you are Lord.

You are my Lord.

You are the one that God has provided

to make me right with you.

You are Lord.

You are Lord.

Father, we confess before you

that we love this idea

that we are redeemed by grace

and by what you've done for us

on the cross through Jesus,

but Father,

you know how quickly we think

that it depends upon

how good we are at keeping rules.

Father,

you know how quickly it is

that we desire

that we'd be a superstar at rule keeping

or a superstar at rule breaking

or a superstar at being brilliant

and thinking brilliant things

and having mystical experiences

or how soon we wish

that we can go into the depths of everything.

Father,

you know how deeply addicted

and divided we are as human beings

even after we've made Jesus as Lord

to somehow think

that it's all about us being superstars.

Father,

you know,

Father,

we thank you so much

that you know every single thing

there is to know about us

when your son died upon the cross

and still he died on the cross for us.

Still he loves us.

Father,

make us disciples of Jesus

who are gripped by the gospel.

Gripped by the gospel

that we, Father,

can humbly say,

I am a beggar

when it comes to rule keeping.

I am a beggar

when it comes to being brilliant.

I am a beggar

when it comes to descending

into the depths.

Father,

please pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.

Make us disciples of Jesus

gripped by the gospel.

So freed up

that we can humbly

with faltering steps

live for your glory.

And this we ask in Jesus' name.

Your son

and our savior

and God's people said,

Amen.