FBC 7-27-10 Romans 3:19-21 It’s A Real Good Thing

The Newsboys have a song entitled Real Good Thing and the chorus goes like this; “when we don't get what we deserve it's a real good thing when we get what we don't deserve it's a real good thing. In our scripture today Paul addresses this very idea of how it is a good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and it’s a good thing when we get what we don’t deserve.

Before we get too far into this mornings text, I want to back up to verse 10 this morning but I’m going to read it from a combination of translations.

"No one is good — not even one. 11 No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one." 13 "Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies." "The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "They are quick to commit murder. 16 Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them. 17 They do not know what true peace is." 18 "They have no fear of God to restrain them."

9 This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others, but to us, (to the Jews) to whom these Scriptures were addressed, and given too in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? 20 Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in sin.

Pastor Paul has laid out plainly that we are all guilty under the law and that the law, God’s word points that out. In fact Paul goes on to say that God’s word, His revelation doesn’t make us right with God, that is not it’s purpose but to force us to face our complicity in sin, it forces us to realize that we are sinners. That is our starting point period, end of sentence. We are sinners. Everyone look here at me, see me, I’m a sinner, look to your left, that person is a sinner, look to your right, that person is a sinner, look in the mirror, that person is a sinner. There is not a person among us this morning who is not a sinner. As sinners we fall under God’s wrath, we deserve His anger and we deserve whatever punishment God deems fitting for those who sin, which is death and eternal separation from God in Hell the place He first prepared for Satan and those angels that followed him many years ago. That’s what we deserve.

However, as the Newsboys have paraphrased It’s a real good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and a real good thing when we get what we don’t deserve. But Pastor Paul’s suggestion that this is how God operates is contrary to our sense of “justice” of what is right and what is wrong. We are at least satisfied when people get their “just desserts”, when the bad guy is punished, when the good girl gets the reward. But what is also important to note is that when Paul talks about being right or righteousness and the grace that Jesus gives us as well as the forgiveness it doesn’t mean that we won’t have to pay the piper here on earth.

To this day many people are infuriated that some would suggest that Ted Bundy, the convicted, confessed and executed serial killer would be in heaven because he has accepted the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers to all who accept it and follow Him. In his final interview Dr. James Dobson asked Ted Bundy; “Do you deserve the punishment the state has inflicted upon you?” To which he replied, “That’s a very good question. I don’t want to die; I won’t kid you. I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has. And I think society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me. That’s for sure.” Even King David, a man after God’s own heart had to suffer in this life because of his sin. Yet he and Ted Bundy did not get what they deserved and that is a real good thing for them and for us.

If David didn’t get what he deserved after he had an affair with a married woman, after he had her husband murdered to cover it up…If Ted Bundy doesn’t get what he deserved for brutally murdering 35 or more young women…then there is hope for all of us and we should all rejoice in the fact that God doesn’t give us what we deserve if we turn to Jesus, if we believe in Him and have faith in Him. In verse 23 this is probably one of Paul’s more famous declarations that, “all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standards.”

You notice how Pastor Paul adds that we fall short of God’s glorious standards. Often times we look at the world and those around us and we see evil, we see evil deeds and we say, “aha they deserve to be punished. They are doing evil, they are doing what isn’t right.” But Paul reminds us that ultimately having sinned means that we have not lived up to God’s glorious standards. Sometimes that is a foreign concept to us. We live in a world where we get credit for effort, for showing our work were 40% wrong is still passing. In College I took abnormal psych, I should have dropped the class when I heard how he was going to grade the class with a true bell curve. Those of you unfamiliar with a true bell curve I will explain it to you. Your grade depended upon the rest of the class. If you scored highest you got an A if scored lowest you got an F. To help ensure that not everyone scored the same the tests were all essay and not only did you need to know Psychological theories you needed to know who came up with them and when. I got an F in the class because I fell short of everyone else. Now you can argue whether that was fair or not, but those where the rules in that class, I knew the rules and I chose to stick it out and I failed.

With God it is the same way. We know the rules, and before you say well not everyone has the Bible Paul addresses that in chapter 1 verses 19 & 20 “For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”

So according to the scriptures, to God’s very own word we all deserve death and damnation, we don’t live up to His standards and if you don’t then that is what we deserve. But praise be to God we don’t get that, in fact what it is even more wonderful is that not only do we not get what we do deserve, death and damnation, we get what we don’t deserve, being adopted as God’s children, and spending eternity with Him in the place that Jesus Himself is preparing for us. The same Jesus who is God’s Son, who is God in the flesh, who came to earth and took the punishment in our place so that all who believe in Him have faith in Jesus are declared righteous in God’s sight.

I like the way Eugene Peterson translates verse 24 in chapter 3 as Paul describes that we cannot be righteous but that, “God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” In verse 22 Paul says that, “We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” And I want you to hear what Paul says again because it is important, “And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” There is nothing that we can do to separate us from God’s love, there is nothing that we can do that He will not forgive us for if we turn to Him. That is the caveat, we must turn to Jesus, we must confess our sins to Him, we must ask for His forgiveness, we must believe that Jesus is who He said He is and if we do that He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and grant us right standing with God and eternal life with Him.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your savior, sought His forgiveness then I encourage you to do so this morning so that you won’t get what you do deserve and so you can get what you don’t deserve.

FBC 7-25-10 Romans 6:1-23 Selling Your Soul

One of my favorite Brendan Frazer movies is Bedazzled. In it Brendan plays Elliot Richards, a socially incompetent technical advisor working at a call-center. He has had a crush on one of his co-workers, Allison Gardner, for nearly four years, but Allison barely notices Elliot exists. The plot begins when Elliot meets up with a beautiful young woman, played by Elizabeth Hurley, who introduces herself as the devil and offers Elliot wishes in exchange for his soul. The first one Elliot wastes on a Big Mac and Coke. Satan takes him to McDonald’s places the order and then has Elliot pay for the meal, because, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Elliot is finally convinced and agrees to the Devils terms and he quickly wishes to be rich and powerful with Allison as his wife. Satan makes him a Colombian drug lord whose wife despises him. Satan points out that he never wished for Alison to love him. The rest of the wishes go about as good as that one.

In the movie Elliot’s main problem is that he is a slave to his desire for Allison. He lets that cloud his judgment and it nearly costs him his life and his soul, and he is never happy. It takes Elliot 6 of his 7 wishes to figure out that he can’t win in this deal he has made with the Devil. Now we know it is a bad idea to make a deal with the Devil and Elliot is skeptical in the beginning but the Devil assures him he has nothing to loose and everything to gain and so Elliot signs up and makes a deal with the Devil. What Elliot fails to realize is that part of the reason his wishes fail miserably is because Elliot’s wishes are all about what he wants and don’t take into account what Allison, the object of his desire, wants. The same is true of sin in our own lives. It is seductive, it tells us we can have whatever we want, it clouds our judgment and can cost us our lives.

Towards the end of the movie Elliot is in danger of spending eternity in damnation and needs a way to get out of the deal, to break the contract he has made with the devil.

One of the great things when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior is that we are no longer under the law and we are justified through grace and made righteous in God’s sight not by what we have done but by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. The temptation for us once we are saved is that we can then live however we want secure in the knowledge that we are forgiven. But Paul addresses that in our scripture today. In verse 1 Paul asks the very question, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” and he answers it “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” And again in verse 15 Paul asks the same question in a slightly different form. “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

Richard Hays, professor of New Testament at Duke University, says “By no means” is the equivalent of a strong “Hell no!” In essence what Paul is asking is, should one remain in a situation that is spiritually corrosive and generally speaking, way bad, so that grace might be more abundant? And then he answers No way! Why? Because Christians, through their union with Jesus Christ, have died to sin and been raised to new life, which means not only a new status but a whole new way of living.

Now you might be wondering what all this has to do with selling your soul, and thinking you would never do that. You might be thinking if Satan appeared introduced himself to me and said, “I will grant you 7 wishes if you give me your soul” that you would never do that. But the truth is that we had sold our soul to the devil and we may even still be owned by him because we have been or are still slaves to sin.

Now we might not think that we are slaves or that slavery is even an appropriate comparison to our predicament but it is. We aren’t wearing leg irons or chains; our lives are mostly not restricted. But never the less we were and still might be slaves to sin, sold out to it by our own selfish desires.

Slavery is both unreal and even offensive until we fully understand Paul’s use of the concept in Romans 6. But, we can’t understand that concept until we become aware of the back story hidden behind Paul’s use of slavery and freedom.

When Paul uses terms such as slavery and bondage to sin, he is drawing upon the experience of the ancient exodus, when the people of God were delivered from slavery into the freedom of the promised land. Everything Paul writes about the experience of freedom in Jesus Christ is grounded in this exodus story. To perceive this underlying structure beneath the story of sin and redemption is like looking into one of those Magic Eye photos the moment a whole world that was once invisible becomes apparent.

Just as the people of God were delivered from slavery through the waters of the Red Sea, so Christians after believing in Jesus Christ demonstrate through the waters of baptism having been delivered from bondage to sin into eternal life (6:4). As the people of God, freed from slavery, began a new life under the covenant and tutelage of the Law, so Christians proclaim through baptism a new life of “sanctification,” under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of Christ, the end of which is life eternal (6:22).

Sanctification means “to set apart” and was used in the Hebrew Scripture to describe the sanctity or “set apartness” of the vessels of the tabernacle. They were “set apart” for use only in the tabernacle. They were thus “holy” vessels, set apart vessels. When it is written that we are now sanctified it means that we have been set apart for God’s divine purposes and we are not to be used for any other purpose. We are not to be used as instruments of evil, or wrongdoing. Those who’s lives are characterized by wrongdoing, intemperate living, selfish lifestyles, are slaves. Slaves to their own nature. Slaves to sin. They have sold their soul to the Devil to sin and at one time all of us have been owned by him.

But Paul calls on us to recognize that we can escape that deal, that slavery, that we can be set free or better come under new ownership for our lives are not our own, for those of us who have accepted Jesus, believed in Him, they belong to God and not to sin.

So the question is: Whose servant are we going to be? God’s? Or sin’s?

Interestingly, and perhaps confusing for those who cherish individual freedom, Paul has a radically different notion of freedom than most. We might sum it up this way: We are set free to be servants of God. Commenting on this notion of Christian freedom, N.T. Wright says “freedom from the slavery to sin involves a new kind of ‘liberated slavery,’ obedience to God who loves us and seeks out our true freedom, our true humanness.” Paul makes the provocative argument that slavery is a fact of human life. The question is to whom will one be enslaved: to sin with all its self-serving and self-destructive habits that lead ultimately to death ... or to God, with habits of life that display the grace of Christ and lead one to eternal life?

You see our souls have been sold, we are given ownership over them, that is our free well, and we are allowed to sell them to what we want. We all have chosen to sell them to sin, to enter into the slavery of sin, and it’s wages are death, eternal separation from God. But even though we choose sin and death, God still pursues us, and paid the price to liberate us to become His children, His workmanship. All we have to do is accept it, believe that Jesus Christ died to save us and we can have our soul purchased back by God and receive eternal life. But the choice is ours which will you choose.

FBC 9-26-10 Romans 12:1-8 What’cha Got to Offer

Those of you who know me know that I like gadgets…a lot. In fact those of you who know me know that is an understatement. I got my first PDA a number of years ago it was a palm100 pretty basic it only had 2 meg bytes of rom, probably could hold 500 or 600 addresses. A few years later I upgraded to the Palm M500 pictured here, it had 8 megabytes of ram 4 times as much and could also take up to a 32 mb sd card making it have 16 times more ram. I really liked how it stored addresses and appointments and even kept track of my mileage but I got tired of carrying it and a phone so eventually I upgraded my phone with a smart phone a Blackberry combining my phone and PDA. For awhile I have been thinking about getting a GPS unit and I had begun looking at them. I wanted one mainly so I would know which side of the river an address is on when I’m paged out in the middle of the night or during the day. But at 3:00am it takes awhile for my brain to start functioning and as I played with GPS units I couldn’t seem to find one that was easy enough to use while my brain was still coming on line.

While I was contemplating and still looking at GPS units I begin to see ads for the new Android phones, specifically the Motorola Droid and I knew my contract was coming due and I would be eligible for a new phone again. So I begin to do my research and I discovered that all Android based phones have turn by turn GPS. And I began to think well that would be handy only needing one thing instead of two. But then I discovered that the Android based phones allow you to speak the address and then it will give you turn by turn directions. Push a button, speak the address and viola the phone is directing me where I need to go. I knew then that my next phone was going to be an Android phone but which one to get.

Now I believe that the Android phones are really cool and they have a lot of neat features and applications, however I’m not ruled by what’s cool, functionality figures prime in my thinking and while I liked a lot of the features on my Blackberry I wasn’t entirely happy when I switched from my old Palm PDA to my Blackberry. I missed many of the Palms features especially its contacts and calendar and the seamless integration with the computer and the graffiti text entry. Granted the Palm has no color screen, no pictures, no bells and whistles so to speak but as an organizer I have not found its equal. So I spent a lot of time at the store looking at the Android phones. I had almost decided on the Motorola Droid when the Droid X came out. To cut to the chase I eventually went with the Droid X pictured here and despite all its bells and whistles and improvements over the Blackberry as a PDA I still find it lacking when compared to my old Palm. In fact while I don’t use my Palm anymore as you can see I haven’t ebayed it yet either.

Our society is quick to tell us that the next new thing is superior to the old one. We were told CD’s were superior to cassette tapes and vinyl albums, until you tried to go jogging and you only heard every other word to your song, and discovered the slightest scratch can make the CD unusable, and we were told DVD’s were superior to VHS, I never rented a VHS tape I couldn’t play, and now digital is better then analog, I never had any trouble with any of the stations until everything went digital, PBS sometimes comes in with no audio and sometimes I run across a station with audio and the picture isn’t moving. And now we are told Blue-Ray is better then DVD and they are beginning to come out with 3-D Blue-Ray players and 3-D televisions. I read an article about this new 3-D craze in a computer magazine and the author wrote that basically it is a gimmick because the brain processes everything in 3-D anyway, it’s called perspective and I learned about that in 7^th grade art class. Granted 2D might not seem to pop off the screen at you, but do you really want Tara Thomas and Ron Steele popping off the screen at you? And besides what happens to the old stuff when we are finally convinced or forced to upgrade them.

This is my old weed-eater. It’s around 20 years old. They don’t make this style anymore and a couple of years ago it wasn’t running at all and so I bought a new one, I used it once and hated its style so much that I took it back. I took this one up to get it fixed. The guy told me I could buy a new one for at least what it would cost me to fix this one. I said fine you have any that are this style? “No, they don’t make them like that anymore.” I said then fix this one.

In a world where computers double in speed and memory capability every 6 months, we are constantly bombarded with the message new is better, you need to upgrade, replace, get with the times, and we can began to feel that perhaps our time has passed. As we get older we might begin to think well the younger ones, they are better equipped, they know more, they are wiser, more able to cope, deal, lead…and so we might start to think, “What do I have to offer? Maybe it’s time for me to go out to pasture.”

Well Pastor Paul has some words for us on that subject, and perhaps it seems a little strange to have them right here after we have gone through all the heavy tricky stuff of the previous 3 chapters, but I think this is a perfect place because after the previous 3 chapters we might be tempted to think, “what have I got to offer, I didn’t really grasp all of what Pastor Paul was writing about, maybe I just can’t get it so I’ll give up.” And Pastor Paul says this to encourage us as translated in “The Message” “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

There is no shame in who any of us are. There is no shame in what any of us do for a living. There is no shame that some of us are older. There is no shame that some of us are younger. There is no shame that some us have less “book smarts” then others. There is no shame in me being a pastor of a small church in a small town, in rural north eastern Iowa. Just because 1000’s of people don’t hear me preach every Sunday doesn’t mean that I haven’t done anything for God. It doesn’t mean that I don’t count. There is no shame in being just a mother, a father, a homemaker, a daycare provider, a farmer, a bus driver. There is no shame in being just a grandparent, a librarian, a store clerk, a nurse, a janitor, a secretary, a garbage collector. Just because no one here has gone off to preach the gospel in the heart of Africa doesn’t mean you haven’t done great works for the Lord. Just because your job is not glamorous, that you don’t affect the lives of 1000’s or even 100’s of people, maybe you only affect the lives of 2 people. Just because in the eyes of the world you are not superstar doesn’t mean that you don’t count that you don’t have anything to offer the Lord that the Lord is not pleased as punch with you.

You notice Pastor Paul doesn’t say to the Romans you worthless lazy Christians, why aren’t you out traveling the world preaching the gospel? Why aren’t you planting churches? Why aren’t you out getting arrested and beaten in the synagogues? Why aren’t you finding a more glamorous job instead of pumping septic tanks? No Pastor Paul says “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”

God doesn’t want us to be “successful” people as the world defines it. We don’t need to be the CEO of a mega corporation, or teacher of the year, or even a pastor of a mega church. What we need, what God wants from us is to do everything to the best of our ability and do it for the Lord. So if you happen to be a custodian by trade then what Paul says you should do is to clean as if you are cleaning the mansions of heaven itself, do it as if you are cleaning the Lord’s house. If you are sandwich artist then make your sandwich as if you are making it for Jesus Himself, if you are a daycare worker look after the children as if they are the infant Jesus Himself. But it’s not just our jobs that we are to do for the Lord it’s our entire everyday life. You see some of us are retired, some of us are on disability and unable to work some of us may have been laid off so we are also to take our sleeping, our eating and our walking around life, that’s why I like how it is translated by “The Message” living sacrifices means that we are to take all of our lives every aspect of them. Sleeping, we are to sleep for the Lord, and to eat for our Lord and to walk around all for Him. We should take joy and pride in all that we do from the exciting to the most mundane. In short what each of us has to offer to the Lord is our complete self and the Lord will receive it with great joy, for we are His workmanship, His children, we have been made by Him in His image and purchased by the blood of His Son. We are immensely valuable to God and each and everyone of us has great and wonderful things to offer to Him, if we will simply allow Him to work in us, as it’s translated in “The Message” God will bring out the best in us and develop a well formed maturity. And so as God’s children and heirs with Christ we should never feel that we are past our prime that we are obsolete that we do not have anything to offer, never forget that you are God’s workmanship, He is transforming each of us into His good and perfect sons and daughters.

FBC 7-18-10 Romans 5:1-11 The Golden Hour

When I first took my first responder training one of the things I learned about was “The Golden Hour” for heart attack treatment. I learned that those patients who receive treatment within the first hour of experiencing heart attack symptoms reduce there chance of death from 10% to 1% and reduce the damage done to their heart by ½ in fact in one study 40% of patients who where treated within that first hour showed no damage to their heart at all, in situations such as this time is of the essence.

Many of us here today serve on fire departments, ambulance crews or as first responders. We wear pagers similar to this one and those of you who have heard it know that it is loud. When it goes off the tone is followed by the dispatcher who says, “Attention Plainfield First Responders! You’re needed at 815 Main street for a 13 year old female who fell down a flight of stairs.” Or something like that. When the pager goes off the clock is ticking for whoever needs help, time is of the essence and so that is why you will see whoever is needing to respond to the page rushing out to their vehicles and then rushing to the scene.

When people need rescuing or saving it becomes a race against the clock, a golden hour so to speak. Sometimes we have been called out on what is called a search and rescue mission. Those are when someone is lost or missing. Depending on the time of the year, and the situation surrounding the disappearance the lost may have more or less time but it is almost always a race against time. As a general rule a lost person in the dead of winter, when it’s 15 below, doesn’t have as much time as someone lost in the spring when the weather is milder. However if the person lost in the spring is suffering from a severe injury then their time may be shorter. But whatever the circumstances it is important for rescue crews to find and save them quickly because the patient or victim is helpless. They need someone else to save them, and anyone on the fire department or ambulance crews or first responders is more then willing to come help when they are called. And there is the key component, we must be called. When someone discovers they are lost, or realizes that they are having heart attack symptoms then they call for help and help is dispatched.

In our scripture today Pastor Paul writes about time and our condition in verse 6. The NLT translates it, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” When we needed it, when we were utterly helpless, Christ came and died for us sinners. He came to save and rescue us. But Christ acts like emergency response personnel in this regard He doesn’t come unless He is called. Christ, being omnipotent or all-knowing, knows that we need rescuing; we need the salvation that he offers. However, He doesn’t force it upon us but waits for us to call on Him.

I’m often amazed when I see stories of hikers rescued in the dead of winter in the mountains. I’m no expert hiker or mountain climber, but I know that the weather can change quickly in the mountains especially in the winter. I also see that some roads are closed in the winter. To me that is a good indication that perhaps in the winter getting too far off the beaten track, hiking in remote places isn’t such a good idea. You run a higher risk of getting lost, or running into bad weather that will trap you. And yet year after year lots of hikers must be rescued, most of the time the rescue teams go out after the hikers didn’t come back or missed some contact deadline, it’s late in the game before the rescue attempts begin and because of that sometimes the rescue ends with the finding of the hikers remains.

The main reason that it happens that way is because those hikers didn’t realize or wouldn’t admit that they needed rescuing or saving until it was too late. The same holds true for heart attack patients, sometimes they ignore the signs until it is too late. And the same is true for the salvation that God offers us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Every single one of us comes into this world lost, in need of rescuing, in need of saving by Jesus. God knew that and that is why He sent His Son Jesus who willing came to live as one of us die on the cross for our sins and be raised again on the third so that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life. But here is the catch. You have to call on Him. You have to take the initiative.

Another thing I learned as a first responder is that you have to have someone’s permission to treat them. If they don’t want help you cannot touch them. Their arm could be chopped off with an artery spurting blood but if they say, “No” when you ask if you can help them then you can’t touch them. It’s obvious that they need saving but without their permission you cannot save them.

It’s the same with Jesus. If you won’t admit that you need saving, that you are a sinner, then Jesus will not save you. Not because He doesn’t want to but because you need to ask Him too. Salvation is there, it’s right before you. God freely gives it but you have to ask for it, you have to realize that you need saving. Once you do that then Jesus does the rest, in fact He has already done the rest. He gave His life to save us.

I know that there are many of us here who have already realized that we need Jesus to save us and have admitted it and accepted the salvation He has to offer. But if you have never realized that you need the salvation Jesus offers then I hope and pray that today the Holy Spirit will convict you of that and you will accept Jesus’ saving grace this morning. Come as we sing.

FBC 7-4-10 Romans 4:13-28 Against All Odds

If you watch a lot of sports, every now and then you see a play that is against all odds. A moment when the incredible happens and despite what the “facts” say something else happens, such a moment happened last month as the U.S. soccer team beat the Algerian soccer team to advance to the next round of the World Cup finals. Unfortunately those moments don’t happen often enough in sports or in real life.

Consider the oil spill in the gulf. So far none of the attempts to seal the well and stop the leak have worked. They do have some kind of cap on it siphoning off some of the oil but a lot is still escaping and as the hurricane season gets under way they may have to pull that cap off. There are countless stories everyday in the papers, on the news and in our own lives that point to disappointment and despair. According to Dante, written over the gates of hell are the words; “Abandon Hope, You Who Enter.”

Now whether or not those words are actually written over the gates of hell doesn’t really matter for they speak the truth because in hell God is absent and where God is absent there is no hope. But where God is present then there is hope and everything works out according to His purpose against all odds.

Pastor Paul reminds us of this in our scripture today when he talks about Abraham and Abraham’s belief and faith in God. Now Abraham was 75 years old when God first came to him and told him to leave his country, his father’s house and that God would make Abraham into a great nation. Now 75 isn’t ancient, but lets face it those of us are getting close to that number or have attained it, well we aren’t spring chickens anymore. And we know that Abraham and Sarah didn’t have any children at this age. Abraham may not have been too worried after all his father was 70 when Abraham and his brothers were born. Of course we don’t know how old Abraham’s mother was when he was born. But I’m guessing that there were at least the seeds of doubt in Abraham’s mind when God told him at the ripe old age of 75 that he was going to be the father of a great nation.

It must have been a few years later when God appeared to Abraham again and made the promise to Abraham that he would be a great nation and have countless descendants. The account is found in Genesis 15 starting in verse 1; “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." 2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abraham believed that God would and could do what God promised and therefore it was credited to him as righteousness. Now this doesn’t mean Abraham didn’t stumble, or falter or even have doubts. In fact when Abraham was 86 years old he had a son with Sarah’s handmaiden Haggar, which we all know has caused all kinds of problems that persist to this day. That is often what happens when we try to take matters into our own hands. But this raises a question with us doesn’t it? Why did God wait so long to fulfill his promise to Abraham and Sarah? If God had given them a son right in the very beginning, when Abraham was 75 and Sarah 65, that would have been a miracle then too. Abraham and Sarah would not have attempted to make God’s promise come true.

But sometimes it’s hard for us to understand the ways of the Lord, it’s difficult for us to be patient, it’s difficult for us to keep hope when we must wait for it. Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for the promise of God to be fulfilled. What is so wonderful about their story is that after 25 years there wasn’t a snowballs chance that Sarah would bear any children. She was old by Biblical standards of old, and the writers make that clear I like how The Message translates it in Genesis 18 verse 11 “Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies.” And yet against all odds, Isaac is born, the promise is fulfilled, God has kept His word and done the impossible, for with God all things are possible. And because Abraham believed, had faith that God would do what God promised He would it is credited to him as righteousness and it also gave him hope.

As I was working on the sermon today I thought about Dante’s idea of the message that all who enter hell should abandon hope. And you may of have noticed the message I placed above the clock. You will see it as you leave if you didn’t see it earlier but it says, “Abandon Hope, You Who Exit Without Faith in Jesus”.

You see the world throws all kinds of hopeless situations at us that end in disappointment and ruin.

We hope…that the tests would be negative.

We hope…the fertility treatments will work.

We hope…he will stop drinking.

We hope…she will quit using drugs.

We hope…the therapy will work.

We hope…the economy will turn around.

We hope…we will get that job.

We hope…we will pass the test.

We hope…

But for those of us who believe our hope is different, it isn’t a wishing that something will happen it is knowing that we must wait patiently for that day when God will reveal to all of creation who His children really are and He will give eternal life to all who have believed in His Son Jesus.

If you leave here today without believing in Jesus, without accepting Him as your savior then you have no hope, because apart from Jesus and God the Father who gives all who believe in Jesus the right to become Children of God there is no hope. There is this life and then hell. I pray that you will not leave here today without knowing Jesus, knowing the love He has for you, knowing that He died to pay for your sins, knowing that by believing in Him you can have hope. If you haven’t ever confessed your belief in Jesus before, haven’t every accepted Him as your savior I encourage you to come forward as we prepare to celebrate what Jesus has done for us and the hope He has given to all who believe in Him.

FBC 6-13-10 Romans 1:16-32 Righteousness

In my younger years I received a few speeding tickets, which is somewhat ironic since I was usually driving an old VW Rabbit. I even received a speeding ticket in an 81 Diesel Rabbit, the officer said we where doing 81 m.p.h. I don’t recall what the limit was it was out on I-70 in Missouri in the middle of no where. But I don’t believe the car would have done 81 had we been going down hill with a tail wind.

There is one particular instance I remember when I got pulled over and I was innocent for sure, fortunately I didn’t receive a ticket. I had just gotten off work in the middle of rush hour and I was stopped at the light waiting for it to turn green. When it did I checked to make sure it was clear and then proceeded. Now I will admit I have a lead foot at the light, however, I never intentionally burn rubber because that is hard on the tires. I was half way through the intersection when a car on my right pulled into the intersection turning right. I hit the breaks to avoid hitting the car and locked up the wheels causing them to screech and leaving some skid marks. Immediately after that I saw flashing red lights in my rearview mirror. I pulled over trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Basically the officer thought I had laid some scratch at the stop light, he was 3 or 4 cars back and all he saw was the skid marks. I tried explaining to him that the skid marks where from breaking to avoid an accident. He let me off with a warning since at the time I didn’t have any other violations. For awhile I thought if that ever happens again I’m not going to try and avoid the accident and just run into the person.

Let’s face it none of us wants to be a law breaker. We want to be on the right side of the law. But there are some laws that we just don’t agree with…speed limits, seat belt requirements, and some we believe breaking are worth the risk, those who enter the country illegally for instance, or laws that we kind of dance around playing in the grey areas, like our politicians and the discussions they have with others over certain political appointments.

Now there are basically three ways to be righteous in the eyes of the law. The first is to not break the law to begin with. That is the easiest and probably the best way to be righteous. However, it is hard to obtain. The cruise control doesn’t work in my car and so sometimes I find myself going faster then I intended and have to correct the situation, and on occasion when I’m in an unfamiliar town looking for the place I need to be I have missed a stop sign or two. Those things happen, it is almost impossible for us to obey every single law. So trying not to be a law breaker is difficult if not down right impossible.

The second way to avoid being a law breaker is to have the law changed. When my friend Clint was ordained we went to Montana for the service. The prior month the state had just repealed its daytime unlimited speed limit. Well the correct speed limit was whatever was reasonable and prudent for the driving conditions, in effect no speed limit. So had we been driving during that time we could have driven as fast as we wanted. One of the debates raging across our political landscape now is the illegal immigrant situation. Some say the solution is a complete overhaul of our immigration laws and creating a way to basically make those who are here illegal not illegal anymore. Changing the law is a way to avoid being a law breaker. Of course if the law is always changing it makes it difficult to know what the law is and can lead to chaos. For those of you who where Calvin and Hobbes fans think of Calvin ball where Calvin and Hobbes where constantly changing the rules of the game and making them up as they went along always to their own advantage. It always degenerated into a brawl.

And the third way we have to avoid being a law breaker I suppose is to not get caught. Now technically that doesn’t help you avoid being a law breaker but it does help you avoid the consequences.

Now all three of these ways have obvious flaws and draw backs, to avoid being a law breaker, to make us righteous in the eyes of the law. Paul has a better way in our scripture today which has no draw backs or flaws. Paul writes , “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." So Paul tells us first how righteousness can truly be obtained through faith. What he writes next is a warning of why we need righteousness.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind; to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

As we can see when it comes to God’s laws there is no getting around being a law breaker. We cannot change the law, we cannot live up to the law, and there is no way to avoid being caught. Now there are many who are trying to change the law and they use science, and appeal to our empathy, and our sense of independence. They say things like what goes on between consenting adults… They argue that the scriptures are outdated and they didn’t understand what we understand now. But the fact is that God’s law cannot be changed. God doesn’t act under a democracy. In fact Paul writes there is no excuse because “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

That is the bad news, we can’t live up to the law, we can not change the law, we can not become righteous on our own and if we try without God, then He gives us over to our own sinful wicked nature. But the good news is what Paul writes in verse 17 “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Faith, that is the only thing that will make you righteous, that is the only thing that will make you not a law breaker. Faith in Jesus Christ, faith that He is the Son of God, faith that He became human, faith that He died to take the punishment for our own law breaking, faith that God raised Him from the dead. Without that, then you are dead in the law, and it doesn’t matter what you believe about the law, how you try to change it, or get away with breaking it. Only faith in Jesus makes us righteous in God’s sight. Only faith in Jesus helps us to live lives worthy of God. The law condemns us all but faith in Jesus makes us righteous in God’s sight.

FBC 5-30-10 Romans 1:8-17 Mutual Encouragement

First Baptist Church’s roots can be traced back to 1869 when the church was “officially” organized. That makes us 141 years old. There have been a lot of saints who have passed through the doors here. A great many Sunday school teachers, song leaders, accompanists, deacons, trustees and Christian education board members as well as pastors and missionaries. All of this is to say that it is no accident we are here today, but because of the work and foundation laid by others.

We do not exist as a community of faith in isolation and because of our own work. We exist because of the work of others and we exist with a time line and history and with other believers.

Paul has been working at spreading the gospel for quite awhile when he writes his letter to the believers in Rome. He has started quite a few churches, baptized quite a few saints but notice how Paul tells them how, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” I suppose it would be easy for Paul to feel jealous of the church in Rome or of its leaders, because its fame is being spread all over the world. I’m guessing that it is a fairly large church simply because Rome is a large city and the capital of a good chunk of the world at that time.

In our day and time there are some fairly large and famous churches. Willow Creek Community church, and Saddleback church, both of which have 5 locations, closer to home we might think about Prairie Lakes church. It is tempting for us to look at large churches like that and be jealous. But Paul shows us by example that we should not be jealous of other churches instead we should be thankful for them, remember them in our prayers and look forward to an opportunity to visit with them so that we might be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

This part of Paul’s letter is a reminder that we do not exist in isolation. As Christians we are not individuals, who follow Christ, we are not even individual churches that follow Christ. We are instead one, there is one Head that is Jesus Christ our lord and then He has one body which is made up of all believers, past, present and future including other denominations. Too often we erroneously believe that we can be a Christian by yourself, that we don’t need others. But Paul shows us that is not true, that it is important to belong to a caring community of believers.

Paul has long wanted to go to Rome but he has been prevented from doing so for one reason after another. His reasoning for going to Rome is not because it is a large and famous church but so that the Roman Christians and he may mutually encourage one another. I’m sure that Paul will teach and preach to them once he arrives and they will be Spiritual enriched and strengthened by Paul’s visit, but Paul makes it clear that he too will be spiritual enriched by his visit it to them. Even though Paul is an apostle and has much experience in preaching the word he expects to gain something from the visit too.

Something mystical happens when we gather together in Jesus’ name to worship together. The Spirit flows through each one of us stronger; we sense one another’s faith and are encouraged by it. We see a brother or sister struggling, and we go to them and lift them up but at the same time we see God at work in their life supporting them, we see that while they may be bowed down they are not crushed, and then our own faith is strengthened. Or maybe we are the one who is struggling who is being bowed down by the weight and troubles of this world and when we come to worship we feel the love and support of our brothers and sisters who come beside us to walk with us shouldering the burdens that we carry.

In gathering together we also witness answered prayers, see God’s mighty works in one another’s lives, and we look and see the how the saints who have died and gone to heaven have impacted our very own lives and the life of our church here in Plainfield.

Traditionally Memorial Day has been a day to recognize our service men and woman who gave their lives in the defense and service of our nation. We should continue to do so, it is important to realize the sacrifice that those men and woman gave defending the freedom of our nation and other nations. But I challenge us to also start using Memorial Day as a day to remember those who have given their lives in the service of Christ especially through the service of our church. The names I read this morning are our brothers and sisters who have given their entire lives to Christ’s service and the service of this church let us remember them, honor their memories, give thanks for their gifts that have helped us to know Christ and most importantly let us continue the work that they started so that some day our spiritual descendants can remember our service to Christ.

FBC 5-23-10 Romans 1:1-8 Power Person

Throughout the year, millions of letters pour into Washington, D.C. Some go to Congress, some go to the White House, some go to the governmental agencies best known by an alphabet soup of acronyms: NASA, HUD, DOD, NIH, HHS, DHS. These epistles complain, compliment and cry out for help, and they are directed to Washington because the city is a center of power. It is a city that has power to make things happen, for good or for ill, across this country and around the world.

How can this power be defined? It is surely more than a set of duties and responsibilities described by the U.S. Constitution. As much as anything, it is seen in the "power people" within the beltway that fill the federal buildings and law firms of the nation's capital, "power people" who push legislation and pull strings to make things happen, "power people" who trade opinions and favors and access to people even more powerful than themselves.

When you think of powerful people in Washington I imagine these are some of the names that come to mind, President Obama, V.P. Biden, Congresswoman Pelosi, Senators Reed, Frank, Grassley and Harkin, Chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, just to name a few. These are some of the people who hold positions of power, have the ability and the power to make decisions. But behind them are many more people that hold perhaps even greater power, these are the people who have the ears of the people in power. Their advisors, confidants, some we may know some of them such as Valerie Jarrett while others we may not have a clue as to who they are. But these people have the ear of the people in power and so they themselves weld a great deal of power. These are the movers and shakers of the world and one might well argue that all roads lead to Washing D.C. today.

When the Pastor Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, he addressed it to the center of power in the ancient world. Rome was the city that had power to make things happen, for good or for ill, across the Italian peninsula and around the known world. But when he sent his epistle "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints," he wasn't sending it to the "power people" who pushed legislation and pulled strings to make things happen. Instead, he was mailing it to their slaves: the Christian slaves of Rome who were highly educated and serving the government and wealthy patrician class.

In other words, the letter didn't go to Rahm Emanuel or Valerie Jarrett. It went to their assistants. But maybe it should have gone right to the top, because Paul is very good at speaking the truth to power. In fact if Paul where writing the letter today he may very well have addressed it “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:”

What does Paul tell the Romans that should also be told today "to all God's beloved in Washington"? But let us also remember that what Paul tells to those in power is also good for us peons to here also.

The first thing that Paul tells us is that it is okay to be a servant. Paul begins his letter by identifying himself as a “servant” or “slave” in the Greek it is the word “doulous” which means a slave either voluntarily or involuntarily but always being in a position of subjection or subservience. Paul sees no shame in this position as he gladly identifies himself as a slave in the beginning of his letter and so he doesn’t think the Christian slaves in Rome should be ashamed of their position either. I would even go on to say that if asked Paul would say that everyone is a slave or servant of something, a slave of good or evil, you need to be clear about what or who you are serving. As Bob Dylan said says in his 1979 hit “Gotta Serve Somebody”;

"You may be an ambassador to England or France, You may like to gamble, you might like to dance, You may be the heavyweight champion of the world, You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls, But you're gonna have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, But you're gonna have to serve somebody."

Every one of us has to serve somebody, whether we are power people in Washington or powerless persons in North Eastern Iowa. The truth Paul speaks to the Washington insiders is, "you're gonna have to serve somebody." It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. As Joshua told the Israelite community "Choose this day whom you will serve", we have to make that choice too.

The second thing Paul tells them is that real power belongs to the Son of God. It is easy to be misled by the power of the world. After all, we look at the residents of the White House and Congress and Washington law firms and cannot help but think: Those people are powerful! The decisions they make and the laws they pass affect us in very real and tangible ways. When they speak people listen, they command the largest corporations to appear before them and give account of their actions. But the influence of earthly leaders should not blind us to the true power that creates, redeems and sustains life throughout the universe. Paul reminds us that Jesus is the real power person, in verse 4 he writes that Jesus is "declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead" (v.4). Let’s see congress try to outlaw death, or pass a law requiring us to be resurrected. And lets be honest the power brokers in Washington derive their power from us, if we suddenly choose to quit obeying them then they become powerless. Jesus on the other hand His power comes from God and His might and influence are everywhere, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Author Nancy Mairs makes this point in a conversation with her daughter: "I'm just not a believer," my daughter once said to me in the mildly defensive tone one uses to deliver unwelcome news. "Don't worry about it," I told her. "God believes in you." I wasn't being cute. I really do hold that being believed in is a matter of supreme indifference to the Holy. I take Jesus Christ not as my personal Savior but as the Redeemer of all creation, who bears into the world news that is no less good for being ignored (Nancy Mairs, The Christian Century, April 1, 1998, quoted in Context, July 1, 1998).

Now one might argue with Ms. Mairs on her point that God does not care about being "believed in," yet I believe we can still agree completely with her statement that Christ is the Redeemer of all creation, and that this news is good whether it is accepted or not. Our Lord does not depend on us to give his gospel power. Our belief or disbelief does not diminish the power of the gospel to save. Our Savior does not ask the U.S. Government to give its approval to his resurrection from the dead. Our God does not ask Congress for a resolution declaring that Jesus is his Son with power according to the spirit of holiness. Christ is already the Redeemer of all creation, whether the leaders of the world agree or not it makes no difference. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Until that day the challenge for us is to plug into this power - plug in through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If we do, we will enjoy a life of wholeness and hope, a life full of the "power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith" (v.16).

The third thing is that the greatest gift is apostleship or the opportunity to spread the good news. There are many gifts given to Washington insiders: door-to-door limo service, skyboxes at sporting events, trips to exotic and far off places and fabulous receptions with wise, wealthy and well-connected people. But the greatest gift and highest honor is not something we receive as a treat, according to Paul. It is, instead, the chance to give of ourselves as apostles: to be sent out to spread the good news of what God has done in Christ.

Although this sounds like an assignment, it is really a gift. Paul makes clear to the Romans that his apostleship is a gracious gift (charis), designed to bring about faith among the Gentiles, "including yourselves," the people of Rome, "who are called to belong to Jesus Christ" (v.6). He sees his call to be an apostle as a joy, not a burden; as a privilege, not a duty. He has been given the greatest of gifts: the chance to deliver good news to all God's beloved in Rome ... and in Washington.

Last week I preached about good news and how we rarely hear good news and what a joy it is to here it. Well how many of you like to deliver bad news? No one wants to be the one who has to fire someone. I a number of years ago I had to tell two very young children their dad was dead. No one wants to deliver bad news. But delivering good news well who doesn’t want to give good news in fact giving good news is not only a joy but also a very high honor. But as well as giving good news the news must also be belivable, and be delivered by trustworthy people.

The public today is growing more and more skeptical about the press's trustworthiness, and people are desperate for news they can believe and use. Newsweek took a poll which asked: How much of what you see, hear or read in the news media do you think you can believe? The results: Only 46 percent said "almost all of it" or "most of it." A full 42 percent said "only some," while 11 percent said "very little" (Newsweek poll, July 20, 1998). What you might find amazing is that poll was conducted 12 years ago in 1998. It seems even then the majority of Americans are finding the news being delivered to them to be less than completely truthful.

Can the same be said about the good news being delivered by today's apostles? Our goal should be to be so truthful that "almost all" of what we say will be believed. The challenge for each of us is to see our apostleship as the greatest of gifts. To accept, with joy, the opportunity to deliver good news to all God's beloved. To speak truth to the powerful and the powerless, through word and through deed. This can be done any number of ways:
- Tell a friend about your faith, instead of keeping it a secret. In society today, we talk openly about problems with our jobs, children and even our sex lives, but we are reluctant to speak about the faith that sustains us and helps us to cope. Why not say a word about your experience of the power of Christ for wholeness and salvation?
- Look for opportunities to serve, rather than to be served. If you are going to spend a week of vacation in Mexico, why not build a medical clinic on the border instead of working on that tan at the beach?
- Speak out about the greater good, instead of only those things that are good for you. Why not write your senator about human rights in China, or vaccinations for poor children, or issues that offend your sense of morality and fair play? The challenge for Christians is to see beyond self-interest, and work for the welfare of all the beloved children of God.

Let us join the apostle Paul in sending a letter to the most powerful city in the world. Such an epistle can provide guidance to our leaders in the nation's capital, and to ourselves:

It might begin something like this; "To all God's beloved in Washington, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The truth is that you do not have to be a power person to have an impact - it is okay to be a slave, as long as you serve Jesus Christ. You may have power in your agency or law firm, but remember - real power belongs to the Son of God. And while you may enjoy the earthly treats that go along with life in Washington, don't forget - the greatest gift is apostleship, the chance to spread the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

In the end, affiliations with particular political parties and congressional staffs and K Street megafirms don't really count very much. All that matters, for any of us, is that we belong to Jesus Christ who has the real power.

Cutting Your Nose off to Spite Your Face

These past few weeks we’ve been working through some tough sections of Romans. In fact as I was preparing today I was wondering why I was preaching through Romans in the first place? This is tough stuff, we are working through the very tough things that pastor Paul was working through, in essence we are dealing with God’s plan of salvation in relation to all His promises throughout history. This section has been wrestling with where the ethnic Jews fit in with God’s plan of salvation and it is in these chapters where theologies and dogmas take shape, where theologians draw lines in the sand, and where dispensationalists splash about, happier than a dog with two bones. Romans 9-11 presents a cadre of conundrums. What is Israel’s role in light of the good news of Christ? Who are the people of God — Israel, the church or both? What is the extent of God’s predetermination? Will there be a special salvation for Jews (“Sonderweg”) beyond the gospel of Christ?

To help explore these questions I want to look at a parable Jesus told it’s found in Luke 15 starting in verse 11 and we call it the story of the prodigal son. To refresh your memories I will summarize before we look at what we really need to look at which is the ending. A man has two sons and one day his younger son comes to him and basically says, “I wish you where dead, give me my share of the inheritance now.” The father does so, the son sells off the land and stuff and the proceeds to squander the proceeds on drugs, alcohol, loose woman and friends of ill repute. Soon he is living on the streets cleaning out hog pits and other gross jobs to earn a few table scraps. After hitting rock bottom he comes to his senses and decides to go home and work as a servant in his father’s home. The father’s reaction is where I want to pick up reading.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. 25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' 28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 31 "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

I wonder how many times the older son thought about his younger brother and the “fun” he was having while he worked the land. Breaking his back to make a living, keeping the family farm going, never getting even a goat given him to celebrate with his friends. I wonder if he ever asked for one. But the older son represents Israel. They are the ones who had the law, the temple worship all the glory, and then Christ comes, the Messiah and says you have to believe in me, faith in me, Paul says they have to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in Him. But they wanted to cling to their “works” to their heritage to the fact that they had been following the law, “working the farm”, and these upstarts, Gentiles, who all their lives have been serving other gods, are now being welcomed into the family with a big celebration, well we will have none of it, “We reject the Messiah because He is not what we expected, we will cut our noses off in spite of our face.”

It is this section that some draw out a parallel form of salvation for the Jews, dispensationalism is born here, but Paul is clear early that unless you confess Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart then you can not be saved. He points out that natural branches have been cut off and wild branches have been grafted in, and Judgment has been suspended so that grace may flow. As Paul says in verses 28 and 29 “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

So what does this mean? Will all ethnic Jews be saved? Only if they confess Jesus is Lord and believe in Him. That is the way to salvation, grace and mercy that is granted to us by faith. Abraham was righteous in God’s sight because he believed. Contrary to popular belief not everyone will be saved, because all roads do not lead to God and to His kingdom. The road is narrow and so is the gate that leads to eternal life. It is only through Jesus Christ, He is the way, the truth and the life “no one” comes to the Father except by Him. No one. Doesn’t matter if they are Jew or Gentile, the only way to salvation is through belief in and confession of Jesus as Lord.

Paul wants to also make it clear that Jesus does not supersede the law but fulfill the law. And our being grafted in is to make the Jews jealous Pastor Paul says. Like the prodigal son’s older brother, they will be on the outside looking in and be so envious that they will not cut their nose off but instead give in and receive the same grace and mercy that we who confessed that Jesus is Lord and believed in His name have received.

And our hope and prayer should be that everyone who has not confessed Jesus is Lord and believed would see us and the forgiveness we have received and the difference it makes in our life and that they too would be moved either by jealousy or longing or whatever to want what we have.

We may look at passages of scripture where it reads that God hardened their hearts and think how unfair. But how often are we like the prodigal son, and come upon the joyous celebration only to refuse to go in because it’s not in our honor? Or because we didn’t get to have a party and so we are left on the outside looking in, cutting our nose off in spite of our face.

On the one hand salvation is so near and so easy, confess Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. That’s it that’s all you got to do. But in doing that then you admit other things, such as you yourself are not lord, that someone else has a claim to your life and that you are subject to God. Or that you have been wrong and sometimes that is the hardest part for us not confessing Jesus is Lord but in giving up what that confession means, we refuse to receive the grace and mercy out of fear, or anger or hard heartedness or hard headeness.