Ice Skating Uphill

Recap Who Makes us Worthy

We continue in our sermon series on the early church. Last week we looked at Paul’s heartfelt sadness for the fact that his Jewish brothers would not come to know the real truth. They had been studying their whole lives, but they missed the Messiah when He was in their midst. Paul had been like them at one point, but God got ahold of him and turned Paul into a mighty force for advancing the Gospel. We talked about the fact that there are people in our lives that, despite seeing the truth of God, will still miss it. It’s a shame and it should give us some level of sadness. So what do we do? Well, we continue to pray for them. We continue to ask God that He would open their hearts. I have a list of people that I pray for regularly. It’s a simple prayer. “Lord, please let today be the day of this person’s salvation”. I ask God to do it because I know that I am not going to be the one that does the changing. We can get wrapped up in that right, wondering what we are doing wrong when the loved ones in our lives won’t come to know Jesus. The fact is, we might not be. The best thing we can do is set a good example of what to do. And we continue praying for them. Spurgeon a long time ago said that we should be praying every day for the lost people in our lives. The fact is we don’t know what God is going to do with them.

Jesus tells the story of the seed sower. I think we are pretty familiar with it. Part of the seed he is sowing out there, winds up landing on the road. The road back then was essentially a beaten path in the dirt. Over time, because people kept walking on it, the ground became hard and things would not sink into it. So this seed that landed there did not stand a very good chance of rooting. However, there was always the possibility that the dirt was disturbed enough for it to sink in there and take root. I don’t know about you, but this time of year, I find things growing where they should not be. I went to clean out my gutters a while back and found a tree starting to grow. All that to say, someone might have a hard heart. They might have the appearance that they will never come to know Jesus. That doesn’t matter. We still keep praying for them because God is in the miracle business. The fact is that our salvation is a miracle and it came about because of what He did and because there were people praying for us.

So when it all comes down to it, it’s not us that makes ourselves worthy. God is the One who makes us worthy. We are unfit. We are broken. We are sinful. We mess up. Even when we are doing good we mess up, but God makes us worthy through the blood of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we would be unfit. When John is out baptizing people and they come to ask if He is the Messiah, He responds that one greater than him is coming. John 1:27 “He is the one coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.”” So here we have John that is out and doing God’s work. He is a cousin of Jesus, he is Chris’t herald. However, when the time comes, John readily admits that he is not even worthy to unstrap the sandal of Jesus. Mind you, this is the guy that will baptize Jesus just a few verses later. As God’s people, we must know where we fit in. We cannot get to the point where we think we have it all figured out or we think we are more than we are. I think that was one of the problems that Paul’s contemporaries fell into. They thought they knew better. One thing I have learned over time is that there is always something we can learn. We will never have it all figured out. When we get to the point where we think we have it all figured out, then we are in trouble. As believers we should never get to the point where our knowledge and our works make us worthy. Only God does that.

We also discussed how actions speak louder than words. To confess Christ as Lord is one thing, but to live life as if we truly believe Christ is Lord is a completely different subject. I can stand up here and tell people that I am a scuba diver, but unless I actually go scuba diving, am I really? In a similar fashion, I can tell you all that I am a golfer, which I sort of am, I am terrible at it, but at least I hit the links every couple of months. Which brings up another point. If the trick to getting better at our sports is to practice, then why would we think our walk with Christ would be any different? If we want our walk with Christ to get better, simply going to church on Sunday is not going to do much for our growth. It’s going to take consistent effort throughout the week to make that happen.

Today we are going to finish up chapter 9 of Romans. If you have your Bibles, please turn them to Romans 9:14-33

Romans 9:14–33 CSB

What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?” On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not my People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth. And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.

Paul addresses the idea of injustice. Some will say that there is injustice with God because some people are not going to come to know Christ as Lord. Some people, though they have heard the truth of Christ, will not come to know Him. So the question comes down to, whose fault is it? Is it God’s or is it theirs? Well, the fact is that God is not to blame for these people that won’t come to know Jesus. The individual is. This is one of those issues within predestination. I believe in predestination as far as Jesus being the predestined path to salvation. God knew that Adam and Eve were going to sin before He even made the earth. He knew what I was going to have for breakfast before my great great grandparents were born. God has what we call foreknowledge. He exists outside of time. He is not confined to the limits of the world. He sees the beginning, middle, and end all at the same time. He’s God. Now, just because He knows what we are going to do, that does not make Him responsible for our actions.

That’s the danger of hyper calvinism. Hyper Calvinism has such a belief in predestination, that there is really no need to share the Gospel with others because the die has already been cast on whether they are going to get into heaven or not. If that is the case, then it makes sense. If we are in a class and we are told we are failing and there is nothing we can do to get a passing grade, what are we going to do? We will just give up, because what’s the point?

That’s not the case when it comes to salvation. That invitation is open to all. If it was a matter of everyone already being secure in their faith and there being no choice to the matter, then what would the point of the Great Commission be? Matthew 28:19–20 “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” Jesus doesn’t tell them, “Okay guys, Dad already has it figured out, so just hang out until the end comes. He absolutely does not do that. Instead, He tells them to go and make disciples!

Some will come and others will not. Some will go on to heaven and others will go to the other place. Does that make God unjust? Just as Paul says, “Absolutely not!” God is just and He is fair. His standards are set and there is only one way to meet them, through the blood of Jesus. If God bended the rules of His righteousness requirements to let people on in without meeting His standards, that’s when we could say it is unjust and not fair. God is the good judge. He is just and fair.

Yet, some people are going to say that it is unfair. They will. One thing about people is that we always like to blame other people. It’s always someone else’s fault. Seldom do we sit back and think about what we could have done to prevent the outcome or make something happen. For instance, there’s the whole idea behind VA benefits. When I was joining the Navy, there were a bunch of my friends that thought I was an idiot. They told me I was a loser and would regret the decision I was making. I went anyway. I went, did my time, and now I get VA healthcare and a retirement check. Those 22 years were not easy, but they were worth it because it set me up for where I’m at now. So what do I hear from some of these friends that knew me before the Navy? “It must be nice to get all those benefits.” “It’s not fair, I’ve been working just as long as you, but I don’t have any of those benefits.” My simple answer is “Well, the recruiting station was open to everyone. You could have joined to.”

Salvation through Jesus is open to everyone. John 3:18 “Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

God will have mercy on who He has mercy. Some will say it’s not fair, but that mercy is open to everyone. I am reminded of Jonah’s visit to Nineveh. He preaches repentance and the Ninevites repent. Jonah doesn’t respond with happiness. Instead, he goes off to a cliff and pouts because God had mercy on them.

That’s what Paul is getting at here. God shows mercy to some people that we might not think should have mercy. Paul uses Pharaoh as and example. Here is a guy that was oppressing the Israelites. He is concerned about the Jewish people and how numerous they are. Remember, they had come to Egypt during the terrible famine. Egypt was the only territory that had good provision and the only reason for that was because Joseph, a Jew, had set them up for success. Well, a Pharaoh comes to power that does not know Joseph. Rather than get to know the story on why they are there, he develops fear in his heart. Exodus 1:9–10 “He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”” He thinks that by oppressing them, he will get them to stop having children. However, that only drives them to be even more productive. He makes their lives miserable, removing supplies, but still demanding that they meet the expectations. God sends Moses to free the people, but Pharaoh won’t listen. Paul quotes what God says to Pharaoh through Moses before the seventh plague hits. Exodus 9:15–17 “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth. However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you my power and to make my name known on the whole earth. You are still acting arrogantly against my people by not letting them go.” God explains to Pharoah that his power does not come from himself. It doesn’t come from any worldly authority. It comes from God Himself. God could have obliterated Pharaoh and Egypt, but He has kept them around so that He can display His power and might.

God is allowing them to continue on in their sinfulness. He still shows them mercy, but that mercy will later be used to show how powerful God is. That’s the thing about people in power. They might think that they are there because of something they did, but in reality it is God that puts them there. He does it for His will to be demonstrated. That is not to say that everyone in power is good. Pharaoh was not good. He was not doing the right thing. If we look at 1 and 2 Kings we will see that there were plenty of terrible and evil kings that ruled Israel and Judah. They were in power and remained in power, not because of what they have done, but because it was part of God’s plan to show His might.

Today we see people walking around and they benefit from God’s mercy. Everyone in the world, whether they belong to Jesus or not, receive some form of mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting something that we do deserve and grace is getting something we don’t deserve. General grace is why we see so many evil people still walking around on the earth. I have had people tell me before that they refuse to believe in God because He allows all of this evil to exist in the world. It’s a fair sentiment, but what that statement fails to confess is that if God terminated evil every time it was born, then none of us would be alive. We look out there and see terrible atrocities committed against people. It’s horrible and should not happen. Yet, it continues. Why? Well, if God stopped that form of evil, then He would stop all other forms of evil, which includes the sin in us. Because God is just and fair, He will mete out His judgment on all. Some of us will receive mercy and grace through Jesus Christ and His blood. Others will not.

Instead, they will try to rely on their works. How often do we hear “Of course I’m going to go to heaven, I’m a good person!” You know as well as I do that there is no such thing as a good person. We might be better than others, but we are still not good. Yet there are people out there that think they can earn their way into heaven. They think that if they just do some good things then it will outweigh the bad things and then they will get a pass into heaven. There are some religions outside of Christianity that teach that. Certain ones believe that as long as the person was 51 percent good, then they will enter into heaven. Even a lot of atheists believe in heaven. They think that by doing certain things they will get into heaven. That’s not how it works, though. There is no one that is good. As good as we think we might be, we are not. All are sinful, all fall short of the glory of God. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus in Matthew 19:16–17 “Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”” There is only One who is good. God is the One. Notice the question, though, “What must I do to get eternal life?” That’s the crux right there. Eternal life is a gift. We can’t do anything to earn it. We simply can’t. There is nothing that we can do that is going to be good enough to earn our way into heaven.

Sadly, there are going to be people that are going to spend their time trying to earn their way into heaven. They are going to think “If I just do these few works, then I’ll get in.” Trying to get into heaven on our own merit is like trying to ice skate uphill. We can try, we can maybe even move a few inches ahead, but try as we might, we are never going to reach the top on our own power. Instead, Jesus is the One. That’s why there is disparity for some of the Jews. They were God’s people, but now suddenly, Not My People are becoming God’s people. That’s because the Gospel is not for just a select group of individuals. The Gospel is for everyone. Jesus is for everyone.