The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Yoga, Eastern Meditation, And The Gospel

00:00:00.000 Our text for today is Romans chapter 1 verse 16 through 17. Again that's Romans chapter 1 verse

00:00:05.780 16 through 17. I'll read the text in its entirety when I finish. I'm going to say this is the word

00:00:11.420 of the Lord at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to

00:00:16.220 God. One final time our text for this morning is Romans chapter 1 verse 16 through 17. The Bible

00:00:22.400 says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone

00:00:28.860 who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for it is in it is the righteousness of

00:00:35.740 God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith this

00:00:44.080 is the word of the Lord all right please be seated by way of introduction I've written these following

00:00:49.600 words in order to proclaim the gospel without shame as the apostle Paul most certainly did

00:00:55.180 we must first believe the gospel and in order to truly believe the gospel we must first rightly

00:01:01.640 understand the gospel so in our text today the apostle paul provides his readers with no less

00:01:07.760 than four characteristics of the gospel of jesus christ number one the gospel is mankind's greatest

00:01:15.080 need number two the gospel is the power of god for salvation number three the gospel reveals

00:01:23.020 the righteousness of god and number four the gospel is to be received by faith now again as

00:01:31.280 i've said in this brief introduction in order for us to truly preach the gospel without shame

00:01:36.980 i am not ashamed of the gospel if we are to preach the gospel share the gospel proclaim the gospel

00:01:43.460 to others we must believe it and if we are to believe it we must understand it it is a heretical

00:01:51.160 gnostic notion to think that understanding and belief are somehow divorced from one another

00:01:58.220 that's what much of our modern evangelical culture has insisted they'll say yeah sure to preach the

00:02:06.960 gospel shamelessly unapologetically certainly you must believe it if you're going to shamelessly

00:02:14.280 preach the gospel then you have to be authentic it has to be genuine it has to be something that

00:02:21.060 you yourself believe. Like any good salesman, if he's going to be successful, it helps tremendously

00:02:28.320 if he actually believes in the product that he's attempting to get others to buy.

00:02:33.820 So evangelicalism doesn't really have much of an opposition to the principle up to this point.

00:02:40.620 The idea that if you're going to preach the gospel well, if you're going to do so persuasively,

00:02:45.780 and if you're going to do so unapologetically you must believe it yourself what you are presenting

00:02:52.140 to others must be something that you believe yourself where evangelicals will then derail

00:02:58.080 is when you follow that statement up by saying and that which you yourself believe it must also

00:03:05.740 be something necessarily that you understand this idea that well you believe with your heart and

00:03:13.400 you know with your mind,

00:03:14.820 and these are two completely unrelated things.

00:03:19.540 That is a misconception.

00:03:22.240 That is not biblical.

00:03:24.460 Even the greatest commandment that Jesus says

00:03:27.320 in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37 through 40,

00:03:31.200 he said to him,

00:03:32.840 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

00:03:35.500 with all your soul, with all your mind.

00:03:37.660 Elsewhere in the gospel narratives,

00:03:39.760 strength is also included with all your strength.

00:03:43.400 And the second greatest commandment is like it, that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

00:03:48.220 All the law and the prophets hinge, that is, they depend upon these two commandments. The greatest,

00:03:55.740 first and foremost, love God. The second, love your neighbor as you love yourself. But in regards

00:04:02.260 to the first, in regards to man's moral obligation to love the Lord his God, above all other things,

00:04:09.380 what's included in this command is that you should love the lord your god with everything

00:04:15.580 that's what jesus is expressing and he's quoting old testament scripture but what he's expressing

00:04:23.260 that the chief principle the headline of the story is that man is called to love god with every part

00:04:30.400 of him with all of his being reserving nothing for himself what jesus is not expressing

00:04:38.140 is that love for God is like a Luby's buffet

00:04:42.500 and that you can step in line

00:04:45.280 and you can say, you know what?

00:04:46.800 I'm more of a heart guy.

00:04:48.380 And the commandment is love the Lord your God

00:04:51.000 with all your heart, soul, mind, and or strength.

00:04:56.080 And I'm a heart guy.

00:04:57.240 And so I've opted for a Christian life

00:05:00.600 of loving the Lord with all my heart.

00:05:02.920 And I'm fulfilling the first and greatest commandment.

00:05:05.860 You see, what evangelicals have done

00:05:07.600 is instead of the word and they have replaced it with the word or what's the greatest commandment

00:05:14.700 love the lord your god with your heart soul mind or strength and you get to choose which option

00:05:21.860 you prefer and the heart people this is what they do and i would say this is 98 percent of

00:05:28.020 evangelicals they all opt for heart it's not a coincidence what they do essentially is they say

00:05:32.680 this. Number one, I've chosen to love the Lord with all my heart. And first and foremost, that's

00:05:38.420 better than everybody else, right? There's some guys, you know, they love the Lord with all their

00:05:42.060 mind, but I've loved the Lord with all my heart. And I think the Lord prefers this one. I'm better

00:05:49.300 than those mind loving Christians. Those who just, they love God with their thoughts, but I love God 0.88

00:05:56.960 with my feelings. And that trumps loving God with your mind and with your thoughts. Why? What verse

00:06:02.220 told you that? Well, I think it was Disney, chapter 12, verse 13. Feelings trump everything.

00:06:11.220 And I feel, you know, I mean, when I'm worshiping the Lord, I get the feels. I cried four times this

00:06:17.900 week while listening to a worship, you know, song in my car. That's not how it works. It's not a

00:06:24.880 buffet. Jesus doesn't say, here are four, three or four different ways to love me, and all you have

00:06:31.260 to do is one. No, Jesus is saying, you must love me with every element of your being. It's not this,

00:06:40.660 this, this, or that. It's this, this, this, and that. You must love the Lord your God with all your

00:06:49.440 heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. We are not

00:07:00.040 Gnostics. We do not believe that the fleshly is demonized, that it's of no value, and that all

00:07:08.960 that matters is the eternal, the spiritual, the invisible, and that these two things are somehow

00:07:15.820 completely severed and divorced from one another. Now we want to love God with our eternal soul

00:07:23.000 and we also want to love God with our mind. David says that I meditate upon your law day and night.

00:07:31.540 That he delights in the law of God and he's meditating on the law. Now meditation and

00:07:37.680 memorization are not synonymous. Meditation, I believe, that it necessitates, it assumes

00:07:46.440 memorization, because you cannot begin to meditate on that which you have not committed to memory,

00:07:53.320 that which you do not know. Now, Christian meditation is absolutely opposed, is diametrically

00:08:01.820 opposite to eastern or mantra meditation eastern pagan demonic mantra meditation yoga would be an

00:08:11.980 example oh but i love yoga and i love wearing my tight painted on yoga pants oh get saved get saved

00:08:19.860 all right if you want to stretch there are other ways to stretch at home

00:08:24.340 right then then going to your your yoga your yoga instructor your yoga instructor is a pagan i

00:08:32.340 promise you they are and they're not just trying to teach you to be physically healthy they want

00:08:37.300 you to be physically healthy and by the end of that six month class worship satan that is the

00:08:42.640 goal so all that being said mantra meditation that was for free you're welcome you can leave a gift

00:08:47.920 at the door uh that that was you know mantra meditation pagan eastern meditation this is the

00:08:53.100 dynamic difference between that and Christian meditation. It's not that Christian thought

00:08:56.980 that within the Christian faith that there is no meditation. There is. I meditate, David says in

00:09:02.500 the Psalms, on your law day and night. Here's the difference. Mantra meditation, Eastern meditation,

00:09:07.540 it seeks to empty the mind of all rational thought. And that by somehow emptying the mind of all,

00:09:15.220 because it sees rational thought, it sees the mind latching on to anything of substance as a mere

00:09:22.760 distraction from real true inward enlightenment but christian meditation however in precisely

00:09:31.080 opposite terms christian meditation only meditates on that which is substance namely

00:09:37.420 that which is eternal the flower fades the grass withers but the word of the lord

00:09:43.780 endures forever so in christian meditation david doesn't say i meditate day and night

00:09:48.040 no he says i meditate on there's substance there there's rational thought there's truth

00:09:55.980 on thy law day and night so in christian meditation what we must do is first again

00:10:03.440 meditation memorization not the same however meditation assumes memorization so first we're

00:10:10.780 committing god's precepts his law his commands his word to memory and then once the word has

00:10:17.900 been hidden in my heart, once it's been memorized, I begin to meditate on thy law, on thy law word,

00:10:26.240 thy truth, which means I begin to think about the word. And in thinking about the word, I'm thinking

00:10:33.200 at least two things. Number one, I'm thinking about the word and its meaning and not what it

00:10:39.520 means to me. Not a relativistic, subjective, interpersonal meaning. Well, God's word means

00:10:48.380 this to me, and it means that to you. No, no, no. If we have contradicting interpretations of the

00:10:55.220 word of God, we cannot all be right. Now, you can, and an egalitarian, you know, I'll throw you an

00:11:00.700 egalitarian bone here. You can all be wrong. You can all be wrong together, but you can't all be

00:11:06.100 right. And so when it comes to interpretation, that is God's meaning, it's not what it means to

00:11:13.080 you. It's what it means to him. What does God intend to convey in this given passage of scripture?

00:11:20.200 So memorize the word of God, hide it in your heart, commit it to memory in your mind, and then

00:11:25.860 begin to meditate. That is to think deeply upon God's word. In the first sense, thinking about

00:11:33.160 its meaning. What does God mean by this? What does God intend to say? What is God communicating to

00:11:40.920 his people? Second, we move from interpretation or meaning to application, doing. In light of this

00:11:50.880 text, in light of meditating upon it and thinking about its meaning and now deriving its meaning

00:11:58.220 from God and not from myself, how then should we live? How do I live in light of the meaning of

00:12:05.660 what God is saying in this given passage of scripture? Thinking deeply upon application.

00:12:12.300 This is what Constantine did, that vile, vile enemy of the church, a hero. This is what King

00:12:19.300 Alfred did, a hero. They thought upon the scripture, its meaning first, and its application

00:12:27.920 second. How does this scripture apply to all of life? Not just my pietistic, private little heart.

00:12:38.720 Jesus is not merely Lord of your heart. Jesus is Lord of all, and not just all peoples, but every

00:12:47.060 single realm of human life and society. He is lord of the arts. He is lord of medicine. He is lord of

00:12:55.220 business and economics, and he most certainly is lord of Caesar. Caesar is not God. Caesar has a

00:13:04.060 God above him, the one true triune God, the king of kings and lord of lords, Jesus the Christ. And

00:13:12.580 what Caesar does when he's born again and truly loves the Lord with all his heart and his soul

00:13:18.420 and his mind is he seeks to understand the meaning of scripture as he meditates upon it day and night

00:13:24.900 and also its application. Not just merely how Caesar should behave in his family, in his marriage,

00:13:32.040 in his fatherhood, but how Caesar should behave and live as Caesar in the public square as one

00:13:39.380 who legislates, as one who executes, as one who oversees the affairs of society and the civil

00:13:47.100 realm. This is what it is to meditate upon God's word. So Jesus is not providing for us options of

00:13:56.920 how to love him. Rather, he is insisting that we must love him in every single way that we can.

00:14:05.240 we must love him from the heart we must love him from the mind from the soul and from the body

00:14:12.540 and the strength that he provides we love him with all that he has given to us we turn and give it

00:14:19.600 back to him loving him deeply in our thoughts deeply in our passions and in our zeal deeply

00:14:27.300 even with our physical labors and strength and deeply from the soul in all these ways we must

00:14:35.160 love him. So if we are like the apostle Paul to preach the gospel unashamed, for I am not ashamed

00:14:43.120 of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. If we are to preach the gospel without

00:14:49.540 shame, we must believe it. And if we are to believe the gospel truly and deeply, we must

00:14:58.560 understand it. We must know it. You cannot believe that which you do not know. Said another way,

00:15:08.900 the heart cannot adore that which the mind does not know. The heart cannot love what the mind

00:15:16.940 does not know. The mind must be filled with substance, not emptied, but filled with substance,

00:15:25.200 and then that substance begins like a rudder

00:15:28.380 to shift and guide and turn the ship

00:15:32.200 of our powerful affections and zeal and love for God.

00:15:39.500 Preach the gospel without shame.

00:15:42.320 Believe the gospel.

00:15:43.560 Believe the gospel truly

00:15:44.900 and therefore you must understand the gospel.

00:15:49.160 So now we're ready for four different key characteristics

00:15:53.140 that we should understand about the gospel from our text today. The first is that the gospel is

00:16:01.640 mankind's greatest need. In your notes, I've written the following. The gospel contains many

00:16:08.140 positive promises, such as experiencing the peace of God, that's Romans 5.1, and enjoying a

00:16:16.280 reconciled relationship with God, as we see in Romans chapter 5 verse 10. However, the foundational

00:16:22.680 message of the gospel is a message of salvation. The gospel is the very power of God which saves

00:16:29.800 fallen sinners from the penalty of sin, that is justification, the power of sin, that is

00:16:36.080 sanctification, and eventually the very presence of sin, that is glorification. From Romans 1

00:16:44.720 chapter 18, just a verse later from our text today, all the way to Romans chapter 3 verse 20,

00:16:51.300 the apostle Paul goes to extraordinary lengths to clearly demonstrate that all have sinned against

00:16:57.140 God and therefore all have fallen under his just condemnation. This message is highly offensive to

00:17:03.400 man in his natural state, but to pull our punches at this point is to hate our fellow man and deprive

00:17:10.660 him of the only hope he has. The gospel is only good news to those who first recognize the bad

00:17:19.240 news. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all

00:17:26.260 ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

00:17:34.960 In other words, the gospel is a message of grace and not only or merely a message of love.

00:17:43.880 god does in fact love his people god loves us more than we love our own children

00:17:52.920 but the gospel is not merely a message of love if we are to be more precise in our language and

00:18:01.860 our understanding we should recognize that the gospel of god is a message of love but a particular

00:18:09.800 kind of love, namely what the Bible refers to as grace. And the main difference between grace

00:18:18.920 and mere love is that love can be shown to a perfect being. You can have love for God,

00:18:28.900 but you cannot have grace for him. He has no need of grace. Grace, in its very definition,

00:18:37.920 is unmerited favor grace is love but of a particular nature it is undeserved love it is

00:18:48.460 love that has not been merited it is love despite the fact that that the person is unworthy of that

00:18:56.040 love we love God and God loves us but we do not have grace for God but he most assuredly has grace

00:19:07.440 for us the scripture says of the angels in regards to the gospel of god that it is a great mystery

00:19:16.400 that even they that is the angels long to look into and the reason why is not because the angels

00:19:23.560 are unloved god loves his angelic host the psalms say that he has compassion on all he has made

00:19:33.000 that not even a sparrow would fall to the ground without God seeing it.

00:19:37.800 And the implication is that God also cares.

00:19:42.620 That he cares even to the point of clothing the very lilies of the field.

00:19:48.900 God has compassion on all his creation.

00:19:52.200 God cares for grass.

00:19:54.720 He cares for cows on a thousand hills.

00:19:57.560 He cares for sparrows.

00:19:59.060 and much more exponentially so he cares for angelic hosts and he loves them but he does not

00:20:07.120 have grace for them of the angels there are two primary kinds there are those who have fallen

00:20:15.440 and never once have they nor will they receive a single opportunity for redemption

00:20:22.720 there is no chance of salvation of those fallen angels God has condemned them

00:20:30.300 and justly so to an eternity of torment in the lake of fire and one day that is precisely where

00:20:39.120 they will arrive of the other angels God loves them and he loves them deeply but he does not

00:20:47.100 have grace for them these angels who are not fallen are angels who have never rebelled they

00:20:53.960 have never once sinned against the almighty never once had the audacity to raise a fist in defiance

00:21:01.880 against the god who created them and so they have no need of grace the love that god bestows upon

00:21:09.840 them is not a gracious love but the love that God has for his elect people is a love that is

00:21:17.860 characterized from start to finish by grace that is undeserved love that is unmerited favor the

00:21:29.320 gospel therefore is not fundamentally a message of love but it is a message of grace and that is

00:21:38.400 precisely what makes the gospel an offense. The gospel is an offensive message because it doesn't

00:21:47.200 say merely that there is a God in heaven who loves you. It says there's a God in heaven who's holy

00:21:53.420 and that you're vile and that he rightly would be within his just means to hate you.

00:22:02.100 and yet in grace he loves you for christ's sake

00:22:08.620 the reason why the gospel is offensive is because the gospel it does not start with the love of god

00:22:18.660 but it begins with the righteousness of god and so i want to go ahead and move on now to the third

00:22:25.640 characteristic. The third characteristic of the gospel that we see in these two small verses

00:22:33.580 today, Romans 1, 16, and 17, is this, that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.

00:22:44.080 Far too often and for far too long, when the gospel is preached,

00:22:49.620 it is preached as though the only thing, or at least the biggest thing, or certainly the first

00:22:55.360 thing that is revealed in the gospel of God is his love but the apostle Paul under the inspiration

00:23:02.780 of the spirit of God says that what is revealed is not God's love but his righteousness for in it

00:23:11.780 the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live

00:23:19.700 by faith. In your notes, I've written the following. In verse 17, Paul explains precisely how the

00:23:26.760 gospel is the power of God for salvation. For in, that is, the gospel, the righteousness of God is

00:23:34.260 revealed. Notice Paul does not begin with the love of God in the gospel, but rather he begins

00:23:40.100 with the righteousness of God in the gospel. The gospel demonstrates God's love for sinners,

00:23:46.360 Romans 5.8, but the gospel must also demonstrate something else in order for it to be viewed as a

00:23:53.960 stumbling block by some and foolishness by others. 1 Corinthians 1.23, the love of God is not

00:24:02.320 offensive to most sinners. In fact, God's love seems to make perfect sense to man in his natural

00:24:11.280 state. On the other hand, the righteousness of God is highly offensive because it presents a major

00:24:18.620 problem for sinful man. If God is righteous and we are not, then each of us stands condemned before

00:24:25.720 him. And without a savior, a mediator, a substitute, a go-between, then this condemnation of God is

00:24:34.440 permanent and eternal. Permanent and eternal. See, the love of God is not offensive to most

00:24:43.000 sinners. In fact, these days, if you tell someone who is an unbeliever, an unbelieving neighbor 0.87

00:24:51.080 perhaps, that you see them as you're going for a walk with your children and you start to sync up

00:24:58.280 for a while and conversate and it comes out that you're a christian and that you go to church on

00:25:04.880 the lord's day and the person says hey i've been wondering about christianity over the last couple

00:25:11.320 years and i've started to read a little bit of the bible for myself and i have some questions if you

00:25:16.340 don't mind me asking and you begin to articulate to them and seeking to explain the central theme

00:25:23.960 and message of the Christian faith, the Bible,

00:25:29.320 that the gospel of Jesus Christ

00:25:32.920 is the only hope of salvation for sinners.

00:25:36.620 And as you explain this,

00:25:38.780 let's say that you are not unashamed,

00:25:41.800 but rather you compromise and shrink back.

00:25:45.360 And you choose to lean on,

00:25:48.280 not saying anything that is untrue,

00:25:50.980 but conveniently neglecting to say other things

00:25:53.400 that are true, you lean on and emphasize the love of God for people. And we don't even say the love

00:26:01.280 of God for sinners because that just might be a little bit, a little bit too harsh. Just God loves

00:26:08.200 people. The central message of the Christian faith is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you need

00:26:13.620 for salvation. Okay, what's the gospel neighbor? The gospel is that God loves people. They're not

00:26:20.760 wowed by that message. Do you know why they're not wowed by that message? Because they would

00:26:26.660 actually be shocked if God didn't love people. Because they think that the love of God is

00:26:34.640 something that every single person deserves, except for maybe Donald Trump, depending on

00:26:40.740 your neighbor. All right, if you have a liberal, you know, crazy person as a neighbor. But they 0.98

00:26:47.520 think for the most part that the bulk, the mass of humanity, 98% of them, that they actually deserve

00:26:54.340 the love of God. That what would be shocking to your unbelieving neighbor is saying, well, God

00:26:59.580 actually doesn't love all people. And the Bible doesn't even just say that God, you know, hates

00:27:05.980 the sin but loves the sinner. But there are multiple verses in scripture that says that God

00:27:10.780 loathes the sinner, that God hates this sinner, that his heart detests a particular type of sin.

00:27:19.440 No, sinner. And that the absolute shock of the gospel is not that God justly would condemn all,

00:27:31.580 but that in his mercy and grace, he would choose to save even some, much less many.

00:27:38.240 when you tell people today who are unbelieving that God loves them they think of course he does

00:27:45.540 of course he does in fact not only not only does he love me I think that he would be wrong not to

00:27:54.600 I think that God if there is a God that he's obligated to love me he'd be a monster if he

00:28:02.080 did anything else. Of course he loves me. He must love me because I'm special.

00:28:11.500 And I've been told that I'm special since the day I was born.

00:28:16.140 And yeah, I've made a few mistakes along the way, but even those mistakes, it wasn't really me. It

00:28:21.780 was because of my toxic environment. I've done some things, but you know, if you let me frame

00:28:29.380 the narrative right,

00:28:30.560 you probably would admit

00:28:31.780 that you do the same things yourself.

00:28:33.780 Really, I haven't sinned at all

00:28:35.720 when we really think about it.

00:28:38.640 If we get just a little creative

00:28:40.900 in the way that we define sin,

00:28:42.820 the worst things I've ever done in life

00:28:44.360 is simply a response to, you know,

00:28:46.680 to these toxic people

00:28:48.320 that have been surrounding me,

00:28:50.560 giving off their negative energy.

00:28:53.700 I'm late for my yoga class.

00:28:55.280 you tell a person like that that god loves them and they say of course

00:29:03.740 but you tell a person like that in the gospel not beginning with the love of god but rather

00:29:12.180 revealing the righteousness of god that god is holy and that they are sinful well now you have

00:29:19.640 their attention you also have their anger very likely but their attention nonetheless

00:29:26.080 I've found that if I want to get someone's attention in order to possibly persuade them

00:29:31.460 making them angry often works they may not like me but it's kind of like you know you see like a

00:29:41.660 wreck on the side of the highway and you know that there's just going to be another wreck if

00:29:46.400 everybody keeps turning their heads, but you just, you can't look away. It's kind of my preaching

00:29:53.380 style. And people, you know, I hate you, but I'm still watching because I'm even taking notes

00:30:01.500 because I want to remember, were there 17 reasons to hate Joel or 20? You know, so like that, you

00:30:07.300 know, but it works. That's what the apostles do. The apostles, every town they entered, it was

00:30:13.160 either revival or a riot and if it was a riot well then they just viewed it within the sovereignty

00:30:19.860 of god that he had ordained for them a prison ministry in that particular town

00:30:23.960 and they would minister to the inmates there until they died or were let loose or an angel

00:30:32.840 came in the night caused an earthquake and shook and rattled and opened the bars

00:30:38.060 the gospel is an offense now lest i make it more than offense of an offense than it actually is

00:30:48.140 the gospel is also we should remember good news the gospel is the very proclamation

00:30:56.060 of good news the gospel is the salve that heals the wound that hosea chapter 6 that the lord not

00:31:06.260 life, not sin, not that toxic friend, but the Lord himself has torn us to pieces, but he will bind us

00:31:14.860 up again. The Lord has slain me, but on the third day, he will revive us. He will come to us like

00:31:23.040 the spring rains, the spring rains that water the earth. The Lord and the sword of the spirit and

00:31:30.600 his law he slices and cuts to pieces but in his grace and gospel he binds back up again

00:31:39.060 and makes whole the gospel is good news the gospel is salve the gospel is honey

00:31:46.340 but only to those who are being saved remember what the apostle paul says in second corinthians

00:31:55.140 The same message, but perceived in two starkly different ways, depending on the hearer.

00:32:06.360 Have you ever heard the expression that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

00:32:12.080 Generally, I don't like that expression because it assumes that beauty is subjective.

00:32:18.680 It's a postmodern idea.

00:32:21.280 No, there are things that are just beautiful.

00:32:23.140 and if you don't think it's beautiful that's fine you're wrong and there are things that

00:32:29.680 are just objectively not beautiful like modern art that one day i pray that we'll have classical

00:32:37.600 christian schools maybe once a year that there would be a field trip where all the children

00:32:43.000 load up and we go to a museum we look at a pollock painting just oil splattered at random on the

00:32:52.820 canvas and all the children look not in appreciation but the teachers there to guide 0.99

00:32:56.840 say children let's all have a good chuckle isn't it stupid and silly that people used to think 0.99

00:33:03.700 this was beautiful do you see what the enlightenment did do you see what post-modernism did do you see 1.00

00:33:12.560 what the rejection and rebellion against God accomplished in western society thinking 0.99

00:33:19.240 themselves wise they became fools and not only were they foolish in their theology 0.98

00:33:26.600 but it is impossible for man to compartmentalize that as they rejected the truth of god of 0.99

00:33:33.120 scripture they began to not be able to see clearly anything else in all of life

00:33:39.060 even down to the arts even down to science even down to engineering

00:33:44.900 they created suspension bridges and towers and cathedrals but then in the name of DEI

00:33:54.020 diversity and equity inclusion they can't get a plane off the ground anymore

00:33:58.640 because there are things that are universally true and not only true but good and beautiful

00:34:07.260 beauty is in the eye of the beholder well I've explained now why I don't

00:34:13.620 on the whole appreciate that expression. However, I'll use it for this purpose.

00:34:19.700 If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then according to scripture, truth, goodness, and beauty

00:34:27.240 is in the nose of the beholder. In 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul says that the gospel and knowledge

00:34:36.480 of christ is like a fragrance a smell and to those who are being saved it's a sweet perfume

00:34:44.340 it's attractive but to those who are perishing it is a staunch odor that smells like putrid death

00:34:54.400 and rotting and it repels them now notice it's not because the gospel was presented in two

00:35:01.780 different ways. The Apostle Paul is not saying this, saying that, well, I went to one town and

00:35:07.680 when I preached the gospel, I was very careful to be winsome. And therefore, it was a life-giving

00:35:14.300 perfume to this audience. But when I went to the next town, my old-timey traditions got the best

00:35:22.120 of me. I gave them some old-time religion, some fire and brimstone. I left the Timothy Keller

00:35:30.760 sermons at home and i picked up jonathan edwards sinners in the hands of an angry god it was not a

00:35:36.240 fan favorite wasn't the way to go and so for them the gospel was a putrid rotting smell now the

00:35:45.080 apostle paul what he's saying is that the same gospel the same tenants the same content the same

00:35:52.360 message and even the same methods the same tone the same communicating of this gospel

00:36:01.360 was perceived in completely opposite ways depending on not who preached the gospel

00:36:08.380 but who heard the gospel that one group of people were perishing because God had ordained it to be

00:36:17.160 so and because they were perishing they heard the gospel not as good news but as an offense

00:36:24.680 but there was another group by God's sovereign merciful election that he had ordained to life

00:36:32.080 not death to save those who are being saved and to them they received the gospel as good news as

00:36:43.120 honey as salt and that in their nostrils as it were it was a sweet smelling perfume

00:36:50.600 the beauty of the gospel in a real sense is in the nose of the beholder

00:36:56.960 but as a sidebar post-modernism is fake and bad

00:37:04.880 for the kids all right so all that being said in it that is the gospel verse 17 the righteousness

00:37:17.520 of God is revealed this does not mean that we do not communicate to people the love of God for his

00:37:25.200 elect those who are sinners but those who he has determined to save by grace and grace alone

00:37:32.140 of course we tell them about the love of God but the question is where we begin

00:37:39.580 the gospel begins it does it's not that it for for occludes the love of God but it begins with

00:37:48.640 the righteousness of God that's the starting place step one God is holy holy holy step two

00:37:57.900 by way of consequence in contrast man is sinful and separated from God incapable of meriting his

00:38:08.020 favor or earning his love step three Jesus died for sinners there comes now the grace of God

00:38:18.820 there we began to speak of the depths and heights the breadth and length of the love of God for his

00:38:26.760 own. So the gospel is mankind's greatest need. And the gospel is the power of God for salvation,

00:38:37.940 the only means which he has designated to save. And the gospel in it is revealed the righteousness

00:38:46.240 of God, first and foremost, not merely the love of God. Lastly, the fourth and final point,

00:38:54.340 a key characteristic of the gospel that we must understand so that we might believe so that we

00:39:00.840 might unapologetically preach is this the gospel is to be received by faith in your notes i've

00:39:09.680 written this furthermore paul says the righteousness of god is revealed from faith

00:39:15.340 for, or some translations say to faith. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith

00:39:25.620 to faith. What does that mean? In short, it means that genuine Christians receive the gospel by

00:39:33.640 faith and then continue living by that same faith. We never arrive at a place where we can begin 0.99

00:39:42.980 entrusting in our own good works as sufficient for our salvation. So Paul, he quotes here. He's

00:39:51.500 quoting from the Old Testament. He's quoting Habakkuk, not only to make this point, but also

00:39:57.900 to show that his gospel is not a new idea. This is Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4, which says,

00:40:04.700 his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous, that is speaking of the

00:40:12.240 wicked at first but now shifting gears the righteous however shall live by faith this is

00:40:19.560 what the apostle paul is referencing the shortest and simplest way that i could say it is this

00:40:25.060 the way in is the way on the way in is the way on we do not merely come into the family of god

00:40:34.600 by grace alone through faith alone and christ alone and then continue by another means this

00:40:41.320 is the entirety of the book of Galatians. This was the Galatian heresy that Paul condemns them and

00:40:48.680 says, who has bewitched you, you foolish Galatians? How have you been so quickly deceived to abandon 0.98

00:40:56.380 the gospel of grace? Are you now attempting to finish by the flesh that which was begun

00:41:03.600 by the Spirit of God?

00:41:06.340 If it is by grace,

00:41:08.400 then it will be finished by grace.

00:41:11.560 That we are saved by grace alone,

00:41:13.980 through faith alone in Christ alone,

00:41:15.780 but we also live by grace alone,

00:41:19.400 through faith alone in Christ alone.

00:41:22.720 Shall the Christian seek to be obedient

00:41:25.000 to the law, word of God in every realm of life?

00:41:28.720 Yes.

00:41:30.200 But if he succeeds,

00:41:31.620 it will be by grace through faith in Christ.

00:41:35.880 Faith to lay hold of the gospel and salvation

00:41:40.040 and then faith to now live out of the gospel

00:41:44.360 and live a life of salvation.

00:41:48.840 The way in is the way on.

00:41:51.780 Faith is the door and faith is the road.

00:41:56.480 The guide, the compass, the map,

00:41:58.880 as Connor said earlier, is the law word of God.

00:42:02.080 It is his commands.

00:42:04.700 It's like the course that has been charted

00:42:07.840 on the open waters.

00:42:09.860 But the wind and the sail is not the law, but grace.

00:42:15.260 The wind and the sails that propels you forward

00:42:20.000 is the grace of God, which is received again and again,

00:42:24.540 fresh mercies, which are new every morning through faith.

00:42:28.880 Faith is the empty hand that receives the grace of God.

00:42:32.420 Faith is the instrument that lays hold to the grace of God.

00:42:35.940 In two days, we celebrate the Reformation.

00:42:38.920 This is Reformation Sunday.

00:42:42.360 If you've been wondering, why did he select this text?

00:42:45.660 I wanted to choose a text that, from the balcony of heaven, Luther could cheer on.

00:42:53.880 Faith.

00:42:55.020 It's the empty hand that lays hold of the grace of God.

00:42:58.140 It's the instrument that receives the grace of God.

00:43:01.180 And that grace brings us in.

00:43:03.380 It draws us near.

00:43:04.780 It grants to us eternal life.

00:43:06.520 But it also then becomes the fuel in our tank, the wind in our sails that propels us forward in a life of obedience.

00:43:16.580 So the final thing that I want us to look at is this.

00:43:22.220 Saving faith in Christ is not merely a general belief that Jesus is the Savior.

00:43:28.140 Remember, brothers and sisters, that the scripture tells us even demons believe.

00:43:35.280 Instead, true saving faith, it has three basic elements.

00:43:42.060 Knowledge, assent, and trust.

00:43:46.240 This was one of the few cruxes of the Reformation.

00:43:51.500 a sola fide a faith alone but in that the reformers sought to flesh out and define

00:44:03.960 faith what is faith true saving christian faith and they came up with three primary components

00:44:14.040 Again, knowledge, assent, and trust.

00:44:18.380 And this takes us full circle all the way back

00:44:20.800 to the outset of this sermon in the introduction.

00:44:24.800 That the heart cannot love what the mind does not know.

00:44:29.660 That faith, first and foremost, it includes knowledge.

00:44:34.160 You cannot believe in something that you don't know.

00:44:39.320 Faith is knowledge.

00:44:42.100 Is it more? Yes.

00:44:44.040 but it cannot be less faith begins with knowledge knowing god's truth hiding it in your heart

00:44:52.380 knowing the gospel but secondly it is not a mere knowledge but also assent that is agreement

00:45:01.760 and see there are things that we can know that we don't necessarily agree with i know of many

00:45:10.220 heresies, and I could articulate to you and explain them to you. I can explain to you the

00:45:18.200 prosperity gospel. I can explain to you Arianism, Docetism, all the isms. Maybe not all. There's a

00:45:29.580 lot. Some of the isms. I can explain them because I know them, but I don't agree with them. I haven't

00:45:37.760 given them my ascent. So faith, that is Christian faith, the empty hand, and everything rests on 1.00

00:45:45.060 faith. The empty hand that receives salvation, the grace of God for sinners, this faith in Christian 0.99

00:45:51.460 terms, it's nothing less. It starts with knowledge. You have to know. But secondly, beyond mere knowing,

00:45:58.040 you must agree. I know this about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I agree with it.

00:46:04.460 but even knowledge plus assent still ultimately equates to what the bible might call

00:46:12.580 demonic faith not saving faith remember the demons don't only know the triune god

00:46:21.400 but they even agree they do it reluctantly regrettably with weeping and gnashing of teeth

00:46:30.460 through bitterness and anger and hatred,

00:46:33.980 but nonetheless, they agree that God exists

00:46:38.100 and that he is Lord.

00:46:41.680 But the last element of true saving faith,

00:46:45.720 knowledge, agreement, that is assent,

00:46:48.240 and then trust, this is what the demons lack.

00:46:53.040 And this is also what the reprobate lacks.

00:46:56.320 This is what the sinner lacks 1.00

00:46:58.000 unless he first be born again. 1.00

00:47:01.500 You must know, you must agree,

00:47:04.960 but then lastly comes implicit personal trust.

00:47:11.500 Another way that we could say trust in this regard

00:47:15.120 might be rest.

00:47:17.800 To say, I know this truth of God.

00:47:19.920 I've given it my assent.

00:47:21.580 I agree that this particular truth of God

00:47:24.160 is in fact true.

00:47:25.340 It's real.

00:47:26.420 but lastly I'm going to cast myself upon this truth I'm gonna bet the house on this truth

00:47:37.260 I am counting everything on this truth it's not just something I know or even something that I

00:47:47.320 assent to that i agree is true but it's something that i have bet everything upon i'm actually

00:47:55.840 standing on this truth i'm resting on this truth like a child if they were to stand on the edge of

00:48:04.000 this stage at the risk of using a cheesy analogy or illustration they turn around to do the classic

00:48:13.360 trust fall and we're all standing behind them and we assure them we're right here and we even let

00:48:18.820 them peek you know they turn around they see they know that we're behind them and they agree that

00:48:25.860 we have committed to catch them but they have not given implicit trust until they fall backward

00:48:33.520 saving faith is all three i know i've seen i've read i've heard assent i agree

00:48:43.880 but trust i rest i'm falling upon the mercy of god and this is my only hope let's pray

00:48:57.340 father thank you for your word bless it to your people and through the preaching of your word

00:49:02.800 this Reformation Sunday in many faithful churches all across the world. We pray that you would be

00:49:08.700 glorified. We pray this for Christ's sake and his name. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - October 29, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Yoga, Eastern Meditation, And The Gospel

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