Untitled Sermon (21)

Order of Service

Call to Worship

Announcements

Please don’t forget November 12th is our Thanksgiving meal.

Tonight is the 5th Sunday, we’ll gather at the Church @630 for fellowship time. Please bring snacks and such.

This Tuesday is game night, I can’t be there, any volunteers?

Steve sing two songs

Layne

Discussion about fellowship time.

15 minute fellowship

Song

Preaching

Introduction

Let’s turn in our Bibles to a short portion of Romans.

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Read and Pray

Well as we come together this final week of the month of October, I’d like to take a second and breathe in all of what has been spoken of for the last several weeks.

At the beginning of this entire series, it may have seemed as though these topics that were being spoken of were pointless.

They may have seemed outdated or something that really had no purpose in being spoken of in the Church today.

Yet it is my hope and prayer that once we have completed this series on the Protestant Reformation that you would have a better understanding of the fight that the reformers had early on in the Church.

Not only is that my hope but I would pray that through this time of teaching and the proclamation of the Word of God, you will now see the importance of the need for reform within our very own Church’s.

I have spoken of this often but it is none the less a sad state of the church today.

Many of you are aware that we have recently begun a ministry work here in the local Jail.

For the last two weeks Charlie and myself have went in and visited with the men and met with them for a small Bible Study.

But what you may not be aware of is that this last Tuesday evening, my heart over what God is allowing us to do there was pierced.

And the truths that we’ve been speaking of here lately shined bright before my eyes and yet with sadness, reality of the culture set into my heart.

You see we sat before a group of men where all but one professed to be a Christian.

They professed to be a Christian and yet when I asked them what the Gospel was not a soul in that room was able to tell me.

Not a man in the room was able to tell me about Jesus.

Not a soul in the room pointed out that Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh here on earth took upon Himself the punishment that we deserved at Calvary.

Not a soul in the room could share with me why it is that the Gospel is truly good news.

You see as these doctrines are being discussed, we at this very moment live in a culture much like that of Reformation.

You have countless many people walking the streets of this town, sitting in Church pews this very Lords day who would tell you that they are Christians.

Yet the vast majority of them wouldn’t be much different from those men Charlie and I sat with the other day.

Sure they may write big checks and place them in the offering plate.

Sure they may have walked an aisle and said a little prayer and they were told to write in the front of their Bible this day.

Write this day down so that you’ll know that you allowed Jesus to come into your heart and never doubt it again.

Yet this very people couldn’t even tell you what the Gospel really is.

In the Protestant Reformation the true Biblical Gospel was being hidden from the people for the sake the Church’s power and authority.

I place before you this morning that in our very own time, it is no different!

Rome wanted a people ignorant of the Gospel because there is freedom found within its knowledge.

The Church in the West wants people ignorant because it allows them to keep their numbers and giving up.

In Rome the Pope was thought to be a direct link to Christ on earth which gave him much power and authority.

In the Church today those inflated numbers in the pews, pads the ego of the one preaching and gives to him a pride not much different from that of the Popes.

Before last week, I am not sure that I would have seen this connection to Rome and our modern culture in the way that I do today.

I am not sure that I would have looked at the Church down the road wondering how many of its members are deceived and are believing themselves into eternal punishment.

This morning I stand before you as your pastor.

An Elder in your Church.

Our Church.

In Christ’s Church!

I stand here broken when it comes to the ignorance about Jesus in this Bible Belt Culture.

Men Like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Huss, Sibbs and Bunyan all put something on the line to make Jesus known to a lost and dying world.

And the men who’ve led that Church through the ages have either by intention or by their own ignorance led the church right back into the same place they once were under while in Rome.

I’m here as one of your Elders telling you that making Christ known throughout all of this community is my purpose.

Not only is it my purpose but it better be yours as well!

Spurgeon once said it this way, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter!”

I am not trying to insult the culture as a whole.

But I want to sink the culture concerning their knowledge of who Jesus is!

I pray that it is your purpose as well.

We cannot afford to leave the Protestant Reformation 500 years behind us any longer.

For it was the Church’s and the Peoples disregard for the past that allowed them to repeat it once again.

It was a flagrant disregard for the Glory of God and the beauty of the Gospel that has allowed the Church of the west to disregard its entire reason for being.

I want to argue before you this morning that the reason that this has happened isn’t only because of the Pastors though.

It wasn’t only because of the church’s either.

Instead it’s because we as individuals have lost track of what our entire purpose in this life really is.

This skewed view concerning the purpose of all of this didn’t just impact the Church.

It impacted our hearts as well.

We as individuals have allowed ourselves to be overcome with some form of theology that is a borderline prosperity Gospel.

In our hearts we have believed the selfishness of the Church’s latest teachings that tell us that everything is about us.

You see the human heart is a fickle thing!

We can for a moment or for even a short season of time have our hearts pointed in the right direction and have the right purpose in mind.

Yet overtime our focus becomes dulled.

The mission of the Church becomes blurred and we begin to interject our own view into that of the Church.

We begin to take dreams, ambitions and goals that we think are good and interject them into the Christian life.

And over time this ideology gets passed down to our children and before you know it, our children profess the faith of their mothers and fathers and yet have no desire for the Jesus of that faith.

The purpose of the Church and the individual becomes skewed and you begin wrestling with questions that are perfectly normal.

Yet what is not normal is when we begin answering those questions with answers that have not been given to us by God.

You see the human heart is a fickle thing and it leads you all over the place.

Whether its in misguiding the purpose of the Church or with the individual, the heart is often quickly misguided.

One moment it seems as though all is moving well and another moment your heart is wrestling through many of the very principles we’ve discussed here lately.

Am I really saved only by Grace or is there something I can do.

Is this faith enough or is their obedience that’s required for salvation.

Is Christ truly the only way or there another possibility.

I realize that its very likely that you have wrestled with many of these questions.

And todays doctrine will be no different!

Today my goal will be to answer the big question that often flows through our minds and that question is this;

What’s the point?

What’s the point of all this?

Not just us gathering together to worship but the larger picture of that.

What’s the point of this little blip of time that each of us get, called life?

In fact I would have to say that if we were to be honest with one another, most of us struggle with some form of that question.

Another way that you can ask the same question is this; what’s God’s will for my life?

What is God’s will for my life, what is God’s purpose for my life?

These two questions are synonomous with each other.

And even though I am not a betting man, I’d be willing to bet that that very question has found its way into your mind more times than you can count.

Though it may come in different forms, I would venture to bet that it sounds very familiar in these words.

Lord, what would you have me to do in this situation?

Father, what career would you have me to pursue?

Lord, my marriage is falling down a long spiral of destruction, what would you have me to do?

Father, I’m struggling with pornography and lustful thoughts, how should I approach this?

All of these questions can trace their origin back to one primary place and thats this; Lord, what is your will for my life?

What is your purpose for all of this life where you have taken a broken and miserable man and breathed into me new life through Christ Alone and by your Grace alone you’ve given me the faith to believe.

Yet what is all of this for?

Wouldn’t you do well Lord to just call me home and bring me into your presence before Christ so that I can for the rest of eternity never sin before you again?

Lord wouldn’t you do well to do away with me as a wretched and miserable sinner?

What if I told you that many years ago, the very reformers of the Church that we’ve been discussing, established these doctrines to give the Biblical answer to these questions?

You see, this question of man’s purpose of being here hasn’t been something new that just came along with the modern generations.

You asking this very question at some point in your life isn’t something new that just came along one day.

Instead, this has been an issue for countless many years.

Man has wrestled within his heart of what his purpose is here on earth.

And not only that but when man is confronted with the goodness of God, they develop this sense of brokenness.

They begin to really see themselves in light of the holiness of God.

If you remember we talked about this some time back where we drew this diagram up on the board.

The more that we begin to know and understand the holiness of the Lord, the more you really begin to see yourself in light of Him.

And this process produces in us a sense of helplessness.

Yet this isn’t a bad thing.

You see we talked about this a few weeks ago when we discussed the Grace of God towards mankind.

God in His righteousness would have been perfectly just to leave each and every single one of us in our fallen state.

Yet because of one attribute of His character, He saw fit to look upon you in the depths of your broken and sinful state and bring you unto Himself.

This attribute that really defines the character of God is this;

His Glory.

His Glory.

Not our glory, not your glory and not mine but His.

You see there is something very unique about the character of God in this area.

This attribute of God that would reveal itself to all of humanity by taking the most sinful and wretched man.

And applying to them a work that is not their own.

But there is one question that you will never reach the depths of and it is this,

In what ways is God glorified in this plan of redemption?

By giving unto the most miserable of a person the most profound answer to the problem of his evil.

This overarching theme is found on basically every page of Holy Scripture.

And this theme is the Glory of God.

You see over the last several weeks we’ve examined one of the core doctrines of the Reformation and today, they all culminate into one feature.

And this one features answers a question that all of us have asked in one way or another.

We discussed the idea of Scripture alone.

And in this teaching we found that the Word of God is wholly sufficient for not only our lives today but also for the Church.

And not only is the Word of God sufficient, but it comes directly from the Lord for the purpose of growing, building, establishing, discipling and admonishing His Church.

And this is an authority placed onto the Church.

That we would follow His Word in our faith and in our practice of our observance of our worshipping Him.

That apart from any council or Church authority, God’s Word is sufficient for us as a people.

It was sufficient for the earliest Church’s in the first century and it is sufficient for us today in the twenty-first century.

We learned that the Lord takes a broken people who should have been left unto themselves to waller around in their sin and bestows upon them this idea of Grace.

And it is by this Grace Alone that God justifies the ungodly in spite of themselves.

No merit of the individual could ever attain the righteousness of Jesus Christ and it was designed that way for a reason.

We learned that God takes and instills in the heart of man in this process of regeneration the faith that is necessary to believe in the perfect work of Christ.

And we learned that there is no addition on our end that could be nor ever should be added to this faith.

It is simply by faith alone that the ungodly is made right before the Father.

And last week we were reminded that there could only ever be one who would be sufficient before the Father to do this work.

And that one is the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of this builds and establishes itself in this last and final doctrine and it’s this:

God gave us His word to bring about salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone because it brings Him Glory.

It brings glory to the Lord and it is only to Him.

God is glorified in taking the vessel prepared for glory and through Christ, forgiving what was once in complete rebellion to Him.

Not only is God glorified in this, but as our passage points out, that is our purpose.

Paul in this passage of Scripture in answers the key objection that most people would have on the doctrine of election.

Yet I want to find another application from this passage so I’m not going to go into great depths explaining it.

As you very well do know, a passage has but only one interpretation but it has many ways in which it can apply to us today.

And in this passage what you find is that Paul has been conversing back and forth with himself in what can only be described as a mock conversation.

Paul is both playing the role of a Jew and a who might ask questions of how it is that God could bring gentiles into this beautiful plan of redemption.

And in these verses, Paul lays the groundwork for an argument against any objections that one may have concerning God’s purpose in salvation.

Paul just finished laying the foundation of the Sovereignty of God using national Israel as the illustration and now, you see Paul getting to the point.

What is God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

What does this passage say about us?

It depends on which category you fall into.

One may be a vessel prepared for wrath.

That is those whom the Father passed over in the process of Election and those are the people that because of their own sinful state are bound to Hell.

Then there is the other vessel, those who have been bought by Christ Jesus, they are a vessel prepared beforehand for a different purpose.

For those who have been bought by Christ Jesus, you are a vessel prepared beforehand.

They have been prepared to give God glory in the most peculiar way.

Now lest we think that this passage is talking about something else as many argue it does.

One chapter prior Paul used the same language when He said that those whom God Foreknew He also Predestined.

That they may be made into the image of His Son.

So these vessels were before the foundations of the world prepared for a purpose.

What does this passage say about the purpose of these vessels?

One is fitted for destruction and the wrath of Almighty God shall be upon them.

Now before I go any farther here I want to address something.

Some people have argued back and said to me concerning this view that its not fair.

It’s not fair that God would take and choose to redeem some through His process of Election and because of this, God is now guilty of sending the others to hell.

Well let me ask of you a question.

Where will each and every single one of us be going if God was to leave us in our sinful state?

Not a single person in this room would choose God.

I don’t care how good you may think you or your neighbor is, here is the reality.

You are born with a nature that prevents you from desiring after God and because of that nature, you could care less about who God is.

So if what we’re truly asking for is that God be fair in this process of redemption, the fairest thing that God could do is leave us in our sin and walk away.

Instead what we want and what we seek after is mercy.

And for whatever purpose it is that God has chosen to redeem some, we should rejoice in this knowing that HE has given Grace and mercy to some.

Not to mention there is another place in this chapter where Paul argues back against this very idea when he says this:

“Who are you O’ Man to question God?”

“Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why has though made me thus?”

Why have you made me like this?

Not I am not striving to get into this topic very heavy today but the truth is, you cannot avoid this topic in this passage.

The reality is that God has set aside a people that He has called unto Himself through Christ Jesus.

And the purpose of their calling is clear.

It’s to make known the riches of His glory through the redemption of a people.

Did you catch that?

This purpose is for His glory.

God is glorified in looking upon you in your lost and broken state and dragging you out of the muck and the mire of your sin.

God is glorified by setting you apart before the foundation of the world had even begun, knowing every ounce of who you were and redeeming you.

The problem though is that in the time of the Reformation, this wasn’t being taught.

Instead what was being taught was that if it be in the Popes favor for the day, you may receive salvation.

But it shall only be after something additional is done for you.

Whether that something was someone paying to remove you from Purgatory or merely the Pope having mercy upon your soul.

And in this idea and view that was being espoused, God was not the one who was receiving glory in the salvation of sinners.

Instead it was the Pope who received glory for showing you favor.

Yet God will not share His glory with any man.

But Rome did not care!

For countless many years the people of God were left in the dark and at the mercy of the Pope to bestow favor upon them.

You know I see some parallels to the modern Church here.

Not only was this not taught during the Reformation but its viewed by most in the western Church as being horrendous.

And because of that this isn’t being taught today either.

The church of the west has taken away man’s reason for redemption has placed upon Him an answer not given by God.

Come to Jesus if you want a better life.

Come to Jesus if you want to be successful.

Look unto Jesus if you want a new car.

If you would just come to Jesus, He would give you the desires of your heart!

Come to Jesus to get your place in heaven where your life will look just how you envision it.

You can do what it was that you loved the most here on this earth in heaven because after all, that’s what its all about!

Can I just be honest with you for a moment.

I am sick and tired of the Jesus portrayed by the western Church.

I’m ready for the Christ of the Bible to be proclaimed.

The redeemer of men’s soul who doesn’t save you to give you a better marriage.

The Jesus who didn’t redeem you so that you can have the desires of a sinful heart.

Instead I am ready for the Jesus who is the Messiah.

The one foretold throughout all of the Old Covenant.

The one who is truly able to redeem those whom are His.

The Jesus who is the Sovereign King who redeems you and me for the Glory of His Father!

That is our purpose.

That question we asked earlier about our purpose, it was answered long ago by the Puritans who rediscovered what Rome had kept hidden.

Beca

What is the Chief end of man?

To Glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Your purpose is not to be redeemed through Church programs or through a fallible man who would grant to you pardon.

Your purpose is to Glorify your King by being redeemed by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone in Christ Alone.

For His Glory Alone!

Soli Deo Gloria.