All Good Theology Should Lead to Doxology
First B Jackson
2016-08-07

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good good morning, everybody. It got a little bit quiet in here. I wondered what was going on. Good to see you all this morning. Very good to see you.

Would you stand up? And while you're standing up, I I wanna I wanna share a verse before we get into a song. It's a new song, so don't freak out. But really, some say, sing a new song, and I and I take that seriously. But it's from Psalm eight, it says, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've set in place, what is what is mankind?

Who are we that you would be mindful of us, that you would care for us? And, really, we serve a great and awesome God. And, so what do you say we we sing a new song to him? So the chorus goes like this. Verse two.

I've got a announcements this morning. Honestly, I have not because I know if I need to know where something is, I can look at my bulletin. So, there's a bulletin out there for you. If you didn't get one and all the information you need to know is downstairs for Bailey, Bailey Moore And I'll let her talk about that for a minute. Hi.

It should be.

I'm Bailey, and I'm the nursery coordinator downstairs. And we are looking for thanks, Carl. We're looking for volunteers always. Right now we have a great group of volunteers but we're always looking for more so that we can spread out your time in the nursery. And so I would just ask that y'all would pray about maybe volunteering or that more volunteers would step up because the more we have, the more we get to serve our kids in the nursery, which serves our families, which serves the whole congregation.

So my information is up well, should be up here in a minute. But I'm also around between the services. I'm almost always down in the nursery on Sundays as well as Mondays as well. So, please let me know if you'd be interested. We would love to have you.

Thanks.

Alright. So, it's Bailey Kay LarsonGmail dot com and that's the phone number right there. Please just see her in between services or after and let her know. Microphone was not working, so this is a different one. Here we go.

Monday nights at first speed. Carl, talk about that for a minute. Yeah.

It is. Always a meal, music message, getting into Luke. Good stuff to be had. So know that the door's open. Know that you're invited.

Okay?

Thank you. There's a young adult cookout this week. It's gonna be held down at River Crossing on Tuesday at seven. Chris Darren in the house? You wanna say something?

Sure. Why not? Yeah. Please do.

I never get to come up.

Never trust an improv company.

Never trust. I'll be up here all day. So at 07:00, we've had a lot of young adults, twenties and thirties, asking about wanting to meet more twenties and thirties. If you have kids, if you don't have kids, come. There's gonna be four churches involved at least.

So come on, invite your friends. You're all invited. Great.

Thank you. Now, is this thing on now? It works now? Thank you. Okay.

Eli Kaufman. Is Eli Kaufman in the house? Not Wally Kaufman. There's Eli. Eli, would you come up?

So,

Eli is is heading out this week, right? Tomorrow. Tomorrow and he is heading from Wyoming to West Central Georgia. I'm from West Central Georgia, now stationed here in Wyoming. He is going into the army.

Would you wanna tell the particulars? Probably not. You're gonna do it anyway? Alright. We go.

Calorie or what's what's your So I'm going into one station unit training. So that'll be a four and a half month course down in Georgia. Fort Benning, Georgia. Fort Benning, Georgia. And I guess I'll learn to be soldier there.

Amen. Hold on right here. Actually, I'm gonna ask if we can get our elders to come forward. Current or former whenever you have served here as an elder. Would you come forward?

We love Eli and we're sending him off back to where I'm from. I actually have some great places to eat and know a lot of people there. So, we're sending them out from our family into the the military into The United States. We're going to ask a blessing for him as we send him out. Just lay hands on him fellows if you would.

God, we always are praying for you to make us aware of our calling that we would be able to serve. Lord, for Eli, we pray that you would make it very apparent every step of the way that you're with him, that he would grow in the knowledge of his savior and God that he'd become become a channel of grace for the guys around him and God, we pray that you would protect him, that you would guide him, he would sense your presence and your blessing in all the heat and the humidity of Georgia that you would acclimate him well and that you would do exactly like he said. Let him learn to be a soldier. In Jesus name, lord, we pray your blessing on him and we ask your blessing on his family as they are here and somewhat in the dark as to what he's doing. God, I pray that a family there would take him in and that he would feel a sense of home whether it's in the barracks or in the line or in the the lines for exercise in the morning.

Wherever it is that he would be filled up, overwhelmed by your presence. In Jesus name, lord, we ask a blessing on our brother as we send him out. Amen. Amen. Is there anything else?

No, for everything else, check your bulletins for announcements. Would you stand with us and let's praise God together this morning? And handshakes. We'll get to that later.

God, as we're singing here, I just I'm I'm just overwhelmed by how good you are, how you laid your life down for us, and and just how good you are to us, and that you give us that very real invitation to to be hidden with you in Christ and to be in Christ. Lord, how wonderful that really is. How marvelous. And, God, forgive us if we forfeit this incredible treasure That is you, Jesus. And I thank you, God, for giving it all for us, really.

And, and that's why we're singing to you. That's why we're here. That's why we're gathered. Praise the one who paid our debt. I want you to sing nice and loud, would you?

How about just voices on this y'all can be seated and I'll invite the frontline team up and participate here in the worship through giving.

Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful that we don't worship a god who's dead in the grave somewhere but lord that you have risen, you are alive, you are seated at the right hand of the father, and lord that you have the power as it says in Philippians four one to to submit all authority and power and bring it underneath your power. Lord, sometimes in this world, it doesn't look like that but we hold on to that truth that by faith that you, lord, have made us citizens of heaven and through the blood, through the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the great sacrifice that you have made on our behalf so that we can live and we can be alive and we praise you for that.

Lord, that you have blessed us. I am blown away by your faithfulness how day after day. Lord, even through a drought, you send rains in the evening and early mornings, lord and you you you refresh the dry grass and the plants and we're grateful. We look at the harvest lord as we travel and we see your fields of of grain. Lord, you are faithful and big things and little things and we are grateful for that.

So, use these gifts lord that we give. They're small. We confess that but we know that you can multiply them. We ask that you would spread them throughout this town, throughout this state, throughout our country, lord and then send them to the ends of the earth And would you please multiply them and Lord that every penny that's given this morning that you would multiply it and bring souls to Jesus Christ for your name's sake. In Jesus name, amen.

Amen. Alright. This morning, I I was at a wedding yesterday and it took, I got there at 11:45 and I got home last night at 09:45. Yeah. I thought that we're going run out of wine.

No, I'm just kidding. I thought it was a week long celebration. I'm glad to be here this morning. I hope this thing works. Blake, is it going to work?

Because if not, here we go. Here we go. Alright. Perfect. This looks like a just a wonderful sermon, doesn't it?

There's already a diagram like, a chiastic, it's spelled wrong too. That's great. A chaotic instruction. No, a chiastic construction. A chias chiasm or a chiastic construction is it's a Hebrew way of thinking.

It's named after the letter chi, key in Greek because it starts A to B and then goes B to A and it makes this chiastic construction. And x marks the spot. The center of whatever chiastic construction you're dealing with is the most important point of the construction. Now, typically, goes a, b, c, d, C, B, A, something like that and in that case, A would lead off and you'd finish up about the same place I started usually and you would, in the center of that, D would be your most important point. That's what the point is.

Now, last week, I finished out Romans eight. You know, we went Romans eight twenty eight through 39. One of the absolute mountaintop passages in scripture and it is good. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. That's great mountain top.

Well, Romans nine starts something that if you just read Romans nine, is upsetting and even disturbing. Now, it's written to comfort people. It was written to comfort people. So, if it's upsetting you and disturbing you, you probably have not grasped it. Probably haven't gotten it.

In fact, you've probably only gotten the first few points of the ABCD, okay? Does that make sense? We are not all the way to the center point of this construction until the middle of chapter 10. So, Paul starts off this chiasm. I'm gonna ask you all and I know some of your visitors and you won't be here next week.

I know that. I'm gonna ask you to study Romans nine through 11. All of chapter nine, all of chapter 10, and all of chapter 11 because I can't preach all of nine, ten, and 11 at one time. I did do eight chapters of Romans earlier in the month but or last month but I want you to study it. So, I'm asking you right now.

The beginning of it, I said, hey, Romans is 15 pages long. Would you read Romans please? And a lot of you did. Y'all text me. Let me know that you were going through it.

Things that you're hitting and some of you hit some stuff in chapter nine that you're like, wait, just a second. I don't like this. It does not fit my view of God. Well, keep reading to chapter 10. It will.

In chapter 11, we'll confirm that. So, what we're gonna do today, I'm gonna try to cover the A point and the A point, okay? The start and the finish of Romans nine through 11 and I will hit the middle point just kinda say, you have to focus what you're seeing here. It's a Hebrew way of thinking. It's a presentation that Paul made to these Christians.

They were Christians in the church at Rome and there were some of em Gentile flavored Christians, pagan flavored Christians and others of em were Jewish flavored Christians. Now, among us today, we have people who grew up in church and we have folks who did not. So, there are some of you who didn't go through the outright rebellion that we think of as rebellion but we all went through rebellion. Does that make sense? We're all against God.

We are all hostile towards God. Even the ones of us who are raised in church. Now, we might fall off in the legalistic ditch and others of us might fall off in the license ditch. The license ditch is sometimes easier to see when people are going through that. This passage, the chaostic construction here, the way that this goes, I think gets to the heart of the gospel.

Yet again, in Romans, it's he says, in Romans one sixteen, the kind of the theme of the whole book is, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power unto salvation for all who believe. For all who believe, for the Jew first and also the Gentile. So, he is saying that these constructs that we have where there is us and them, the gospel is available for all of you. If you just read Romans nine only, you're gonna see Jacob I loved and Esau I hated and it's gonna stand out that some people are outside of this. They are outside of it.

If you read chapter 10, it says, because they don't call on the name of the Lord. So, I wanna keep the balance this morning of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Now, the passage, I actually have an example of a kiosk of construction. Look at this. This is and it's found all over the Bible and seminary students love to find them.

I'm not the only one who's found this one. Trust me. Nine through 11 is a kiosk that construction it is. Noah and his sons starting in Genesis six ten is the A point. All life on earth.

Curse on earth, flood announced, ark, all living creatures, food, animals, and man's hands entering the ark, waters increasing then. God remembers Noah. That's the center point. Do you see how that's the most important thing we've hit so far? Not really.

Sometimes and the reason I'm starting this this week with both A points, I I don't have time to preach the whole thing. Y'all won't stay here that long. I promise. This helps you know that God remember and know and now, the waters decrease. It's a mirror image of the waters increasing, exiting the ark, mirrors entering ark.

Animals, mentioned again, food. It's a mnemonic device too. It helps you when you're having to tell the story over and over again. You remember it if you can remember A, B, C, D, C, B, A and so, it's it is very much divinely inspired and it is very much a human story for human beings. Does that make sense?

Everybody with me? Still? Alright. So, Noah and his sons start and finish and then God remembering Noah right in the middle. That is the kiosk and structure of the flood narrative.

Now, it's all over the Old Testament but it's also all over the New Testament especially when Paul starts and he's got lots of Old Testament quotes in mind. For some reason, he goes into this mode again. You can tell that he has been preaching by this point for twenty two years probably, twenty something years and he has had every place that he's gone, he started in the synagogue and then he moves on to Gentiles. So, if you read Romans nine through 11, it's gonna be about Israel and how God deals with his people, Israel. It's gonna be about an open call in the middle and it's gonna be ending up in doxology.

So, Romans nine one through five is the A part that we're gonna cover today and we're gonna cover the last four verses also of chapter 11 today. The rest of it, we'll have to wait for next week but I'm gonna put it up there so you can see how this goes, alright? Romans nine one through five is that. Romans nine six through 29 is the B part of this. We got it up there in yellow and it keeps going for a while.

That's the B part. The C part is right here and this is, I'm gonna go ABC today, not ABCD but the C part is the center of this meaty, meaty text in Romans and the C part is this, It is so hard not to preach this as it flashes up there. The absolute center point of this is the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, Gentile. For the same lord is lord of all abounding and riches for all who call on him, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

That's the center point. That's the framework. What you have to judge everything that comes before and after. It is a hard truth either way. Keeps on going.

This is the C part still. Great missionary passage about beautiful feet. No. That's the C part. It keeps going.

He's got some Old Testament backup there and then we get back to B again. The B part backing away from the main point and reassuring people that there has not been a rejection on God's behalf. It's not his fault. He's got some old testament backup for that too and then we get back to the A part and the A part will go through today is this, alright, are you with me? We also have communion today.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is welcome to take part in an open table here this morning, okay? Are you with me? Good. If I was Charles Stanley right there, would say, listen to me now. Chaotic construction.

Chaotic construction. So, here we go. Romans nine one through five is the beginning point and then, Romans 11 is the ending point for this and y'all are going to study it this week. If you were going to study it this week, would you say yes, please? Because I can preach faster if you know what I'm talking about already.

If you've gotten the first glance over it, you will hit the problems, I promise. In chapter nine, but keep reading until you get to the end of chapter 11. Don't just do it a verse at the time taking a morsel at the time. Read the whole thing as one unit, alright? Okay.

So, I'm telling you the truth in Christ, Paul says. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit. Now, he's just gotten through saying that the Holy Spirit is there for our weaknesses in verse 26 chapter eight. He says, he's there for our weaknesses and he lifts us up.

He calls out to God in the ways that we don't even know we need but he says right here, I'm telling the truth in Christ and I'm not lying. My conscience is testifying with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. Now, Paul is just shared with us one of the most hopeful and joyful passages in the whole Bible and the next thing he says is, truthful, right up in front of you right now. I'm telling you that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief. So, what's his unceasing grief for?

He says, I could wish. Some people translate that pray. It's a Yucami is the is the word. I could wish or I desire, long for, I hope for, or wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers and sisters, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Do you get what he's saying right there?

This great apostle who has been sent out and he always starts in every town. He starts in the synagogue with his people that he knows, the ones who know the Old Testament, the way that he can show them their way to the Messiah. He always starts with them and after he is rejected which is almost always the case by the majority of the synagogue, Jews, he goes out to the Gentiles and he's saying, after all of this about calling and all of the available salvation for Gentile, for Jew. He says, I wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers and sisters, the Jews. He is feeling such deep empathy for them that he's saying that I would take the hit.

I would be damned myself if it meant that they could but it's contrary to reality. I wish that I myself were but I'm not. I'm not a curse. I am in Jesus Christ and I am going to be there in glory and he's just said how great that hope is and how his looking forward to heaven and looking forward to being with Jesus is but he's saying that I would give it up if it would turn all of my brothers and sisters to Christ. You get his empathy?

My kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites? To whom belongs the adoption as sons. God had to, he chose somebody and when he chose somebody, he chose Abraham. This is who the Jews look back to as their father, Abraham. Isaac, the line goes through the child of promise.

He'll argue that in a bit. Jacob, the younger will serve. I mean, the older will serve the younger. Who are Israelites? To whom belongs the adoption of sons?

God's chosen people. He chose them and adopted them in way back when and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the promises. All of those promises that God made to his people, Israel. Paul says, I wish that I, myself, could be a curse for the sake of my brother. I would take the hit if it would help them but you know what?

Paul knows that he is the chief of sinners and he cannot pay the debt. Jesus has already done that. If his brothers and sisters, according to the flesh, reject Jesus Christ, then they are damned. They are separated from God and he's saying, I would swap places with them. This is a an empathetic man.

He knows that they know part of the truth but they haven't connected the dots to the whole truth. Does that make sense? They're Israelites. It belongs to them to be adopted as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving the law and the temple service and promises. Whose are the fathers and from whom is the Christ?

They're the ones who had had all of the prophecies about Jesus. They're the ones where those Old Testament quotes originated that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. They know it. Yet, they won't call on his name and so therefore, they're separated or they will call on his name and they're saved. Paul is saying, for everybody who has not accepted it, that knows part of the truth, I would fill in that gap.

What is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. I I'm trying to do everything I can to let them know every way I can that they are accepted by God on because of Christ. Because of his sacrifice. He's saying, it's such a shame. That's what he's saying right here.

It's such a shame that the people who knew exactly what to be looking for have gotten the tradition stuck in their head to the point that they can't see the forest for the trees. They can't see that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything. Now, Paul is saying this from the point of having been converted directly and he knows and he knows where he was and he knows how deluded he was. Whose are the fathers and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh whose overall. God blessed forever.

Amen. The forever amen is kind of a tag right there at the end. God blessed Christ forever. Amen. And it'll come back.

Now, all good theology should lead to doxology. Do you all know what that mean? Doxology is about glory. God's glory. It is a word about glory.

All words about God should lead to the praise of God. If it's good theology, it will lead to doxology, not confusion, not aggravation, not being upset. It should lead to doxology. Now, you might go through confusion and being upset for a while until you accept his way. All good theology should lead to doxology.

So, the end of this chiasm or chastatic construction is this, oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. It's a confusing passage. Paul's admitting that at the end of this confusing passage, okay? It's unsearchable and unfathomable how good God is but the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge, knowing him.

For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor? This whole passage is about the way that God chose to save people. Nine through 11 is the way that God chose to save people and the center point is whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How would you do it? Right here.

If you have created something, okay? You've created this race. I'm I don't often ask you to put yourself in the place of almighty God but I'm asking you to do that this morning. How would you do it? If you force your will on them, is it love coming back at you?

You can answer it. No. They're robots, automatons that are designed to do exactly what you say. No, they have to have free will. They have to have a choice in order for it to be love, in order for it to be real.

Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor? God chose a way of doing it and he chose a people for getting his Messiah to the rest of the world. Now, Paul will say in the middle of this passage that the rejection of Israel opened the door for the Gentiles. That's tough but he also says, Israel is not rejected. Israel still has the same opportunity because everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

It this is the place I think where the balance of the sovereignty God and the free will of man is the most evident and the most beautiful and I agree with Paul. The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways? Though he gives us his word, who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor? Or who has given to him that it might be paid back to him again?

Nobody. Nothing in my hand I bring. We say, we said just a few minutes ago, we all sang together. Nothing in my hand I bring. Wash me, savior.

That's the only way. It's exclusive and that's upsetting. That's upsetting for us but it's also open. It's open to all who will call upon the name of the Lord. For from him and through him and to him, ultimately, it's all about God's glory are all things to him be the glory forever.

Amen. So, the forever amen is the tag right there. He starts out with this deep, deep, empathetic longing that everyone would be saved. That echoes God's heart too. He says, he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to him.

We'll all come to him. No. That's hard too. From him and through him and to him are all things. It is about God's glory and and and to him be that glory forever.

Amen. Now, I have barely scratched the surface of this. I hopefully, I have intrigued you enough that you'll actually read this. Nine through 11, read it as a unit. Concentrating on what is right there in the dead center, that C part.

Some people split it even further. I just think that simpler is better. Believe it or not. And that's it. That's the A part.

Just the beginning, just the end. This should lead you to praising God for his good and perfect plan. If it doesn't or if it's upsetting to you, it's gonna be upsetting in the b part, not the c part. Does that make sense to you? Okay.

For most of you, it'll be the b part, not the c part. There are few of you that the c part might upset. I've talked to you. So, what holds us together is Christ. Now, when I started out the application points for this sermon, if you're looking at it Jew, Gentile, it might just feel like, what does that have to do with me?

But if you look at it as churched and unchurched, it might be easier for you to see. Our backgrounds, especially in here, I know that how how many of y'all come from wildly different denominational backgrounds. I'm looking at some of you right now. We've got Dutch reformed, squeaky, Dutch reformed on one side and we've got free Methodist on the other side and we've got lots of baptist that fall in different places. We've got Lutherans.

We've got Catholics. We've got outright pagans, former pagans, and current pagans. We've got everybody in this room right now. What binds us together as one body, one spirit, one baptism, the blood of Christ is what? Paul says, binds us together and he says that as we do this, we proclaim his death.

Now, we identify with his death because that is what washes us from sin. That's what clears our account. Paul could not die for his countrymen. He could not die for his kinsmen. Oh, that he could.

He would have taken the hit if he could but he couldn't pay that debt. Now, Jesus paid it all. Amen. So, if Jesus paid it all and that's the only way to the father. I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

If anyone would come to the father, he has to do it through me. That's upsetting in some ways. I know it is in our society but that is the way And if you've trusted in that way today, whether it was five minutes ago, two minutes ago, or twenty years ago, fifty years ago, eighty years ago, whatever, you're welcome to partake of this open table. Can I get the elders to come forward? And the band actually, I guess.

Well, just wait for a minute, man. We'll we'll wait for a minute on that. God, as we come into this time where we consider you and we consider the depth of the knowledge of the riches and the glory and all of that and the fact that we are sinful people that have been declared righteous because of the blood of Christ. We want to remember that perfect life that he lived and that cleansing blood that flowed. So God, as we distribute this bread right now, we remember the broken body of Christ that was broken on our behalf.

By his stripes, we're healed. He was bruised for our iniquities. He had no sin. We do. And that transaction in God's economy makes sense.

In ours, it is very difficult to understand, but we take it on faith. So God, if you would bless each one that takes this bread as the plates pass and bless each one that knows that they don't believe this and they have to let the plate pass without partaking. God, would you touch us right where we live? Would you draw us into closer and closer communion with you and closer and closer communion with one another on the grounds of Christ's perfect life and shed blood. Would you bless this bread?

Amen. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and he, after giving thanks, broke it, and he said, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat and do it in remembrance of me. Lord, for doing everything just as you should have and for walking in the spirit your whole life, never succumb into the temptations of the flesh. We thank you.

We thank you that you had that perfect life that you had that perfect record that you could exchange your righteousness for our unrighteousness by the transaction at Calvary. Lord, we ask that you'd bless this little cup of grape juice as we distribute it. Lord, that we would see this as a symbol for your blood. In Jesus name, Lord, would you bless each that partakes and would you draw each that doesn't. In Jesus name, amen.

And in the same manner that he had taken the bread, he took the cup after supper and he said, this is the new covenant, the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink and do it in remembrance of me. Lord God, it is not our good attitude, our good deeds, our good pleasure that brings us together, but it is your blood. In Jesus' name, Lord, we thank you for the shed blood of your perfect lamb of God. Amen.

Would you stand with me as I invite the band back up? Can we sing Jesus Paid It All again? Carl. Lord God, your children promised that they will read these three chapters altogether. Will you illuminate, Holy Spirit?

Will you convict us of our sin, convince us of your righteousness, and illuminate what you have in this passage so that we may have some beautiful feet proclaiming this good and glorious news. Amen.