Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00010B
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00:06 Welcome back, you know right before our break Jim, you
00:09 were talking in Galatians 5:5 of how it talks about how 00:12 we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 00:15 - yes! - You know it's powerful about this is we had talked 00:19 just before the break about how the Bible says there is 00:21 no one good, no not one. 00:23 The tendency, especially in our culture today is to feel 00:26 demeaned when it happens. 00:28 We have a hard time saying what do you mean if no one is 00:31 righteous, if no one is good then that means that 00:33 I am not a good person. 00:34 That is exactly right, but here's the beauty of it. 00:37 That is exactly who God offers righteousness to. 00:40 The whole idea is, all have sinned, there is none 00:43 righteous so we are all on the same playing field. 00:46 God says to us if you could recognize that, if you will 00:49 realize that, I have righteousness for you. 00:53 The only righteousness that you can find comes from Me 00:56 and I have it for you. 00:57 It says here, for we eagerly wait for this righteousness. 01:02 In other words it becomes the all-consuming desire of the 01:06 person who realizes their need because it is the only way 01:11 out. - that's right and just because we don't have 01:14 righteousness does not mean we are not valuable to God. 01:18 He paid everything, all of heaven for us, so He is 01:21 helping us to see here that we are bankrupt of what we 01:25 need and He is trying to rescue us by giving us that 01:28 very thing that we need. 01:30 I think of the story - well let me interject for 01:34 a moment, I think of a kitten caught up in the tree and 01:36 you are trying to get the kitten out of the tree. 01:38 Will that poor kitten doesn't always realize you're trying 01:40 to help it, right? 01:41 In the same way this is the picture that God is giving. 01:44 He wants us to see a condition, He didn't make the condition, 01:48 the condition exists. 01:49 This is the condition that we in, we're unrighteous. 01:52 We do not have the righteousness we need to continue and 01:54 so God is trying to make that condition known to us. 01:56 We don't necessarily perceive His goodness in making that 02:00 known, just as a kitten doesn't realize we're trying to help. 02:04 God is trying to bring us into an understanding that 02:06 this is for your good. 02:08 I'm just telling you condition that has already existed 02:10 if you will accept it and receive that, and then 02:14 you can receive My righteousness. 02:15 Amen, you know He had to deal with this along the way 02:20 during His earthly life. 02:21 I remember the story in John 6 when He was telling the 02:26 people that you need Me. 02:28 Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the 02:30 Son of Man, you have no life in you. 02:32 No righteousness, and many of them walked away because 02:35 it was too offensive to them. 02:37 But Peter, there was an interesting story that happened 02:40 with Peter because Jesus had asked His disciples, 02:43 "Will you also go away?" Peters said, to whom shall 02:47 we go? You have the words of eternal life. 02:50 Peter was essentially saying there is no other place 02:53 that we can go, there is no other place to find 02:56 righteousness, there is no other place where eternity 02:58 can be found or discovered or obtained. 03:01 So Jesus was being revealed to Peter and through Peter 03:06 as the only way. 03:08 That is right and so this is what starts to lead into 03:12 what we are dealing with here. 03:13 This offense of the cross, this offensiveness of the 03:17 cross, the root word there or Greek word is 'scandalon'. 03:21 It's where we get our English word scandal from. 03:24 You know a scandal is something that is a disgrace. 03:27 It is something shameful and this word appears other 03:31 places in Scripture instead of offense as stumbling block. 03:33 And I think you are going to go to one of those places. 03:38 One of those places is 1 Corinthians 1:20 to start with. 03:48 The apostle Paul says, "where is the wise? Where is the scribe? 03:53 "Where's the disputer of this age? Has not God made 03:56 "foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the 03:59 "wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, 04:02 "it pleased God through the foolishness of the message 04:05 "preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a 04:09 "sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ 04:14 "crucified, to the Jews a "stumbling block. " 04:17 So there's the cross, Christ crucified which is an offense, 04:21 it is the same word. 04:22 Right it's an offense it's a scandal, it's a stumbling 04:25 block, "and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those 04:27 "who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power 04:30 "of God and the wisdom of God. 04:32 So we have this idea here that the scandal 04:36 is something shameful. 04:40 Why is it that the Jews would see the 04:43 cross as so offensive? 04:45 Well when you think about the Jews took a lot of pride 04:47 in their position as God's chosen people. 04:51 To think that Jesus was claiming to be the King of the 04:56 Jews, claiming to be the Messiah, their leader, their 05:01 ruler, the representative and that He would be someone 05:05 who has died on a cross. 05:08 The most shameful, the most disgraceful of any possible 05:12 death that could be imposed upon someone. 05:18 That was so unreal to them, they could not fathom why we 05:22 would want to believe in someone who had only brought 05:26 shame and reproach upon them. 05:27 Absolutely, and that's where we find in Romans 9 where 05:33 the same word appears again as stumbling block, translated 05:37 stumbling block, Romans 9 and we have looked at this one 05:42 before Romans 9:30 we will start there. 05:46 The apostle Paul writes, "what shall we say then? 05:49 "That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, 05:52 "have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness 05:55 of faith. " You see this is the whole thing that we see 05:58 here in Galatia is that they were pursuing righteousness. 06:01 The only problem is they were pursuing it in all the wrong 06:04 places, instead of the only place that righteousness can 06:07 come, which he will flush out here in a moment. 06:10 They sought righteousness by other means, they sought 06:13 to be good and become just by other means. 06:17 And so it says, "That Gentiles, who did not pursue 06:20 "righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the 06:24 "righteousness that comes by faith; but Israel, pursuing 06:27 "the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of 06:31 "righteousness. Why?" Because they were trying to keep the law 06:35 That's not what it says is it? You see their whole issue 06:38 wasn't about trying to be good and whole issue was they 06:41 did not seek it by faith in Christ. 06:43 There is nothing wrong, in fact there is everything right 06:47 with seeking to obey the requirements of God, but we have 06:50 to realize that we must have Christ to do it. 06:53 We need that transformation, so he says, "why? Because 06:56 "they did not seek it by faith," why didn't they seek it 06:59 by faith? Notice! "But as it were, by the works of the 07:02 "law. For they stumbled at that" scandalon, at that 07:06 offense, "stumbling stone. As it is written: behold, 07:10 "I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, 07:13 "and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. " 07:17 Which is interesting, the word is a word about shame and 07:19 whoever believes on Him it will be just the opposite, 07:22 he will not be put to shame. 07:23 So we come to Chapter 10 - it's almost an encouragement 07:25 to them that think it's shameful to believe on Him and 07:28 if you believe on Me you will not be put to shame. 07:30 That's right, it's absolutely right so notice again in 07:32 verse 3 of chapter 10 where it says, 07:35 "for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. " 07:38 The fact God's righteousness can only come from God. 07:41 "In seeking to establish their own righteousness. " 07:44 See they were obeying and people will say the Jews 07:47 obeyed the law, they obeyed their own idea of law. 07:50 The Bible doesn't call it God's righteousness. 07:52 Up here before we read it being called the 07:55 Ten Commandments the law of righteousness. 07:57 It's a righteous law but "they sought their own 08:00 "righteousness, and have not submitted to the 08:03 "righteousness of God. " And notice verse 4 08:06 "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 08:10 "everyone who believes. " 08:11 That word end means the outcome, that the end justifies 08:16 the means in that kind of sense. 08:17 In other words, if you are looking for righteousness, 08:19 the final place for righteousness is Christ. 08:22 The end of the law, in other words, the outcome of the law 08:25 when you look at the law of God is a picture of God's 08:28 righteousness, but it is not the actual righteousness. 08:30 Where do you find that? In the person 08:32 of Jesus Christ alone. - Amen, that is powerful. 08:35 You know I think we need to go back to Galatians 08:38 for just a moment, it addresses a question here that we 08:42 haven't fully answered. 08:43 It is back in Galatians 5:11 and it says, 08:47 "and I, brethren... if I still preach circumcision, why do 08:51 "I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the 08:54 "cross has ceased. " 08:56 Something about preaching circumcision would cause the 08:59 offense of the cross to cease. 09:01 What is that? What is it about circumcision and the 09:04 gospel of circumcision, they were promoting, that would 09:06 cause the offense of the cross to no longer be there? 09:09 I think the answer is in what we have been talking about. 09:11 That Christ is the only way. 09:13 The Bible says, Jesus Himself says that I am the way, 09:16 the truth and the life. I am the door. 09:18 There is no other way to come to the Father except through 09:21 Me and so Jesus makes it very clear that there is only one 09:24 way and that is through Him. 09:25 When you preach circumcision now you are preaching you do 09:29 not need to go through Christ, you don't need the process 09:34 of confession and contrition of heart and all that is 09:38 involved in coming to Christ. 09:39 Instead you can very cleanly do something else, maybe 09:43 it's external behavior, in this case circumcision, and 09:46 that replaces and becomes another way there for the cross, 09:48 you can still believe in the cross but it is no longer as 09:51 offensive if you give me another way. 09:53 That's right, it reminds me Jim of that thing I hear 09:56 from some people where Christianity is a crutch 09:58 for weak minded people. 10:00 Christians believe in creation and they have this big God 10:03 because they are narrow minded, or what ever the case 10:07 may be and what it really is vaunting of human pride 10:11 and human righteousness. 10:12 I feel that I don't need Christ because I am better than 10:16 that, and that may be an outside Christianity aspect of 10:19 this, but an insight Christianity aspect is this. 10:22 When the Word of God says something, and this is becoming 10:26 more and more common. 10:27 We say well that is your interpretation and not 10:29 necessarily my interpretation and we start to make 10:31 leeway for doing exactly what God says. 10:35 What we are doing is making another way. 10:38 I know what God says but I don't think it applies to me. 10:40 We are making another way and that is our circumcision. 10:43 Suddenly the offensiveness of Christianity isn't so 10:46 offensive anymore, hey I can become a Christian if I don't 10:48 have to be completely Christian. 10:50 That's right, and the Bible says we can only serve one 10:53 master, we can't serve two masters. 10:54 If you allow them to have many masters then there is a lot 10:57 more adherence to Christianity. 10:58 This idea of the offense of the cross, it really has to 11:03 do with the fact that the cross is about me being 11:06 crucified with Christ and there is a statement out of 11:09 a book I want to share. 11:11 It's called 'The Great Controversy' on this point. 11:13 I thought I would read that to our viewers in closing. 11:16 "A religion of externals is attractive to the un-renewed 11:19 "heart. Thousands who have not an experimental 11:22 "knowledge of Christ will be led to accept the forms 11:25 "of godliness without the power. Such a religion is just 11:28 "what the multitudes desire. To him who loves self- 11:31 "indulgence it is more pleasing to confess to a fellow 11:34 "mortal then to open their soul to God. It is more 11:37 "palatable to human nature to do penitents than to 11:40 "renounce sin. It is easier to mortify the flesh by 11:43 "sackcloth and nettles and galling chains than to 11:46 "crucify fleshly lusts. 11:48 "Heavy as the yoke which the cardinal heart is 11:51 "willing to bear rather than bow to the yoke of Christ. " 11:54 They were willing to be circumcised, even though that 11:56 was a difficult thing, they were willing to do anything as 11:59 long as they didn't have to surrender their cardinal heart 12:03 and crucify the fleshly lusts, the cherished sins that 12:06 perhaps for more precious to them than Christ. 12:10 That's right, there are other experiences where everybody 12:16 follow some of what God says. 12:18 I believe that, everybody follow some of what God says. 12:22 But there are areas that especially tend to be areas 12:25 where we say well I have given up most of the big sins and 12:28 I only have a couple little ones left. 12:30 I would suggest to you that those little ones, those are 12:33 the big ones and that is why you can't give them up. 12:35 What happens is those are the areas where the flesh still 12:38 holds us in its grip. 12:40 Where the fallen nature, our sinful nature still has 12:44 dominion over us and we are slaves of sin. 12:46 What the Lord is trying to do here, what Paul is trying to 12:49 do with the Galatians and the Lord is trying to do for us 12:54 is address that need of a thorough submission to the will 12:58 of God, the accepting of God's will above my own will. 13:02 A total surrender to Christ. 13:06 I want to appeal to you who are watching, lay those things 13:09 aside, lay them at the feet of Jesus and receive 13:11 Him completely into your heart. |
Revised 2014-12-17