Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 30, 2023 | Reconstructing Faith - Judgment Before Gospel

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July 30, 2023 | Reconstructing Faith - Judgment Before Gospel · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are finishing our series called Reconstructing Faith.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And reconstructing faith has been, over the last four weeks, a look at those who are deconstructing their faith.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if that you know word, that vocab word is new to you, simply what it means is there is a an exploding population of people, and by that I don't mean they're p, but I just mean like it's growing, right?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: A growing population of people who are walking away from their Christian faith.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason they're doing it is because they are questioning the things that they have always grown up knowing.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The traditions and the sort of information that they were given, maybe as a child or an adolescent, now begins to receive a critical eye.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And deconstruction is pulling apart all the aspects of the Christian faith and questioning them.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, well, to an extent, that's a healthy activity if the goal is then to reconstruct your faith, to take out the things that don't belong.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we've looked at some of those, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We said that, you know, we idolize Christians far too often.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: We said that, you know, we don't always understand how the Bible can truly be relevant to us.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We sometimes think that church is just about going to hear a sermon and not about the body of believers that benefit when we participate.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We also last week looked at how Christians often divide far too often, but it is worthy sometimes to divide when false teaching is present.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning we are going to look at a final criticism that those who are deconstructing bring against our faith.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to tell you, it is far and away the most popular.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why would I be a Christian when they are so judgmental?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: 87% of 16 to 29-year-olds in a Barnes study felt that Christianity was judgmental.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: 87%.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: When asked why they had such unfavorable reviews, the top two comments were one, that Christianity changed what it used to be, and Christianity in today's society no longer looks like Jesus.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: That study was actually from 2007, though just anecdotally I would say that that certainly applies today.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in 2017, Lifeway Research did a study that said two-thirds of people 23 to 30 years old have left the church for at least one year after they were 18.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Two-thirds of people 23 to 30 left the church for at least one year, perhaps more.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that was given is that church members seem divisive, judgmental, and hypocritical.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've talked about being divisive, and we've talked about being hypocritical.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now's the time to talk about being judgmental, right?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's a certain defensiveness, though, that comes up, and I know you probably feel it.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I feel it when I'm reading these reports and they're saying, hey, all Christians are judgmental, right?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: We sort of get lumped into this group of people.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And normally that defense comes out something like, you know, the gospel is offensive, and I'm just sharing the gospel, or I stand for the gospel, and there should be an expectation that people would be offended by the gospel message.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually going to get to that in a second, but the problem with that defense is that's not why people think we're judgmental.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Over and over again in all of these studies, what is consistently shown is that those who are walking away from the faith don't have problems with what we believe.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They have problems with our behavior.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have problems with what we believe, they have a problem with our behavior.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to talk about the behavior of Christians in a moment.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But before I do that, though, I want to show you kind of my backstop.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because as I've kind of taken on the role these last few weeks of the antagonist, you know, of Christianity, there are some criticisms that are valid here.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I also want you to know that my goal in all of this is that we are reconstructing our faith, that we're growing from these things.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so here's my backstop on this issue.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where I kind of don't give any ground.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is offensive.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: The core message that we proclaim is that we are sinners in need of a savior because we're deserving of judgment.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not an easy message to take in, okay?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's not an easy message for anybody to accept that they aren't naturally righteous, they aren't a fantastic person by themselves, but that every single person has fallen short of God's glory, is deserving of judgment, and needs a savior who died for them.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is our core message.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't back off of that, and that in and of itself is offensive.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul says, For Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul went out, and as the greatest evangelist, is going out and planting all of these churches, and see, the Jews didn't like Paul, and the non-Jews didn't like Paul.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody liked Paul.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason nobody liked Paul was because the message that he proclaimed very bluntly at times was one that didn't live up to or meet the expectations of the two primary cultures that were present there.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: See, to the Jews, what Paul was saying was not only has the Messiah come that you had heard about in the Old Testament, but the Messiah has come and he is God and you killed him.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a stumbling block to the Jews as well that the cross, a sign of, before it was ever sort of the thing that we put on necklaces or put on, you know, windows or things like that, the cross was a sign of humiliation.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was the worst way that somebody could die in the ancient world.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so to the Jews, it was so dishonorable they have in the Old Testament that the one who dies on a tree is cursed.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was a stumbling block to them that their Messiah was killed, that he didn't overthrow the government that they thought he was going to overthrow.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's message of the gospel to them is crazy.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then you get to the Gentiles, right?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And those who are not Jewish, and in this case it would be the Greeks that Paul is speaking to, and it's a foolishness to them because it doesn't align.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: This message of obedience to God's desire for holiness certainly doesn't meet their cultural standard for vanity, excess, pride, and vulgarity.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so to them, Paul's coming along and saying, hey, there's a way that you should be living your life, and it isn't all about excess and hedonism, but it's about being submitted to a savior.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul comes in with this message, right?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And people oppose the gospel back then, and people oppose the gospel today for various different reasons.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: The problem, though, is that when we encounter people who disagree, who reject the gospel, our response is normally not the one that the Bible tells us to have, which is that, like Paul, we are still to preach Christ crucified under the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the only way that we can truly change anybody's life.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you remember us when we went through 1 Corinthians, the whole first chapter is Paul saying, like, I didn't come to you with human wisdom, I didn't come to you with eloquent speech, I didn't come to you in the ways that you thought I should come to you.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I came to you with Christ crucified and sort of lifted him up, and that is the thing that changes lives.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of pressing into the gospel message, what normally happens is we grow frustrated, or we become concerned about the let me back up.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's hopefully say we become concerned about the individual who has rejected the gospel.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of presenting them with that, normally we grow frustrated and we begin to argue about morality and ethics and the way that things are going.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to argue about the things that only people who care about the gospel should care about.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make any sense to argue with somebody about what God says in his word if they have no concern for God or His Word.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a very good book that came out in 2020 titled The Rise and Fall of the Modern Self.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of a doozy, but it's a really good book if you want to read it.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what he says relating to this topic.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, our culture consists of groups of people who simply think about the moral structure of the world in utterly incompatible ways.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when conflict arises, there is no real argument taking place.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is no common authority on which they might agree to the terms of debate.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying here in so many words is that as Christians, and as we look and compare ourselves to a society that often does seem to be moving further away from the truth of Scripture, we have become oftentimes the antagonists for those who don't fit our model of morality or ethics or lifestyle.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we begin to argue about these things and justify for these things to a group of people who have no concern for the gospel and therefore have no concern for what Jesus says should be our way of life.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is like two ships passing each other in the night.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is part of the reason why we have a PR problem, is because we are not speaking the gospel as we should in a way and manner that is well received, but instead we, and I would say out of a genuine concern, we are desiring for people.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you understand what it means?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your life will be so much fuller if you live the way that God has told us to live.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you see that this life it isn't going to be fulfilling to you?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What you're pursuing isn't going to make you happy.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to find joy, you're not going to find hope away from the cross.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: All of these kinds of things, but we begin to argue on a platform where we are not standing at the same level.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what that looks like to the world around us, when we begin to use language of condemnation and judgment, even though those things are true, when they go before the gospel instead of after it, we run into a bit of a problem.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so what that means is that your pro-life argument, because God values life, doesn't mean anything to somebody who rejects God.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your Christ-centered view of marriage doesn't mean anything to somebody who rejects Jesus Christ.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And your views about the rise of pornography in our culture mean nothing to people who reject the Bible's standard of morality.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things come together.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And though I'm what I'm trying to say is you are right in many regards to say that these things are good, right?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That what the Bible says is good is something to be fought for.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is we have sort of bypassed the key that unlocks the garden, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And as our culture increasingly does not believe in Christ, when they hear these messages, they are just chalking it up to judgment.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: When they hear that we don't agree, that's what is their that is their perception.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so the energy that we are spending, and I would say good energy, right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to defame those, but the energy that we are spending for arguing for the morality and the ethics and the lifestyle of Christianity in our schools, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, for our favorite clothing brand that had a social media campaign that we didn't like, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: For all of these things, that same energy should be put into sharing the gospel, because that is the only thing that changes the hearts and minds so that people might live a life that is fulfilling and joyful with God.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So then that becomes, then this creates a new problem, right?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Which is we have a PR situation on our hands.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then the new goal is that, well, if I need to share the gospel with people, then the question becomes: how can I share the gospel to a watching world who where 87% of people who are younger in 2007, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be specific to the data, but I think we understand that it's more widespread than that.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where the vast number of people are going to say, You're a Christian, you hate me, you despise me, you're judgmental because you don't agree with me.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so our duty becomes expressing the gospel that is in a way that is well received.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You might be familiar with the parable of the seeds, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: The parable of the soils, that the seed is cast out onto different types of soil, and one of them is fertile and beautiful and allows the seed to grow, and then one of them is hard and packed, and there's a spectrum there.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But when the world is sort of predisposed to thinking of us in a way that gives them a hard-packed soil, then when we give the seed of the gospel, it falls on hard ground.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be acting in a way that creates fertile ground.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, before we go forward, if you think this doesn't apply to you, you're wrong.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: You might not be the one who is doing this sort of thing, or perhaps adding to the perception that Christians are judgmental.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are a Christian and recognized as such, and by the way, if you're not recognized as a Christian in your daily walk of life, then that's its own situation that we need to figure out, right?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have a problem that's even come before this, which is people should know that you're a Christian.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: But once we go beyond that, they know you're a Christian, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have got the weight of a culture that is railing against our faith, pressing against you.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a hurdle that you now have to overcome just to say that Jesus died for your sins.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Paul speaks into this when he is, uh he sent a letter to a young Timothy, excuse me, to a young Titus when he was on the island of Crete.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Titus was in an environment surrounded by people who didn't care about Jesus.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Titus was in an environment where he was trying to share the gospel with those who had no concern for it, and specifically for him, were living a very immoral lifestyle.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul speaks with Titus about all the things he should be encouraging those within the church to be doing, all the things that he should be instructing them and sort of giving them, he's teaching them to live like the Bible says.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Titus is supposed to be doing.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: But then Paul shifts his view and he says, But Titus, there are outsiders around you.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: There are those who don't believe in Jesus Christ.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And while all of this instruction about fighting against false teachers and morality and truth and living a lifestyle of abiding with Jesus are for those who are within the church, to those who are outside of the church, this is what he says Titus's lifestyle and those in his church should represent.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of long.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read two slides here, and then we'll go back.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Remind Christians to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: But when the kindness of God, our Saviour, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: The saying is trustworthy.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to insist on these things, Titus, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: These are good and profitable for everyone, but avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at the core argument here.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's whole thing that he's saying is the way that you are to treat those who don't know Christ and believe in Christ is the exact same way that God treated those of you who didn't believe in Christ, who now do.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning that the way that we treat those who don't believe Jesus is supposed to be suffused with grace and mercy and understanding, because as he says at the beginning, right, we again, Paul doesn't pull any punches.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: We were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is not stepping back from describing the world around Titus.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I know it's rough.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know it doesn't look like it should within the church.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you have a lot of criticisms about all the Cretans who are living on your little island and don't know Jesus and don't care about him.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, You were once like that, Titus.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: You once didn't believe in Jesus Christ.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of this argument, to be honest with you, is lost for those of us who sort of grew up, blessedly grew up in Christian households where we believed at a very young age.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody who is in the church here on Crete is somebody who, as an adult, has trusted in Christ.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so they do, they have a history where they were living in this way.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so the message hits home even more.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you have no reason to be sort of justified and propped up, prideful, and the way that you were looking at those around you because you were just like them.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus came along and said, You know what?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love you, even though you're a sinner, even though you're somebody who doesn't deserve grace, even though you've done nothing, no works of righteousness that you can boast about.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to die for you.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Hey Titus, that's how you're supposed to treat those people.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the list that he gives here is not exhaustive, right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things that we're supposed to do in the way we live and act and breathe so that we reflect Christ to the world around us, but what is non-exhaustive is certainly still true.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he brings up two primary points.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: The first one he says is we are to submit to rulers and authorities.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: The ancient rulers in Greece and Rome were worse than whatever political opinions you have about our rulers today.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: The same kind of command that Paul gave the Roman church to respect their rulers and authorities was written to a group of people who were being martyred because of their faith.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: The command that God has given to us and that he expresses to us is that rulers and authorities have been placed over us by God.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says in a bunch of different places.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that submission and the thing that sort of makes us, you know, endearing to outsiders, those who don't know Christ, is our submission to these rulers and authorities.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know the counterpoint you're about to make.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I will get to it.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: But our submission to our rulers and authorities is not based upon whether they agree with our Christian ideology.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody in Titus's world who was a political leader, or the vast, vast majority of them, they were not Christians.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the instruction that he is given is that they are to submit.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Though Titus wasn't in danger of death like the Roman church was, this was still the activity that he was supposed to adopt.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's message was not about storming Athens to overturn an election.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's message was not that young Titus should gather a bunch of spears in a bunker in case the Cretan government or the Greece government in Greece came for him.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he says you are to submit to rulers and authorities.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to the claim, what about when government asks us to do something that is sinful?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to think about the prophet Daniel.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: The prophet Daniel in the Old Testament was a righteous man.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of the few individuals in the entire Bible where nothing bad is said about him.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Daniel was taken as a young child, showed tremendous aptitude, was exceedingly intelligent, but also had the Spirit of God upon him.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Daniel is taken into the Babylonian government.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Easily one of the most corrupt, vile, terrible places to be throughout human history.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: The things that the nation of Babylon did to their enemies is, they can be described as an atrocity.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Daniel works within this government and rises up to very nearly the top.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: He would be effective.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: What we would call a governor today.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Daniel was still a righteous man.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then the king of Babylon tells him, because of some people who are jealous of Daniel and his righteous life, that he was still living in this government, they said, You know what, King, Daniel is praying to this God, and he's not treating you like a God.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else in Babylon is worshiping you like a God, and you should make it illegal for anybody to worship this God.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, they don't specifically target Daniel, but they give this general rule that will certainly encompass him.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so what does Daniel do when it becomes a crime to worship God?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: He worships God in the privacy of his own home.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: He continues to do it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can look elsewhere in the book of Daniel, in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it's in Veggie Tales, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the fiery furnace.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when Daniel's friends, right, who are also a part of the government and who are submitting to rulers and authorities until they are told to bow down and worship the king instead of their heavenly king.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, when it became a crime to worship God, they rebelled and were punished for it, though God saved them.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: My point being here is that I know that it is very popular right now to talk about all of the things that we don't like with government.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it has been the case forever.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you know it?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: That the system that God put in place, that Israel, right?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is rabbit trail.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: When Israel's like, hey God, we want a king, and he's like, just so you know, you're not gonna like it very much.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then God's like, you know, I mean, we sort of had this thing worked out where I was gonna rule over you and you were gonna follow me and everything was gonna be great, and they're like, no thanks.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: The neighboring nations have a king, we'd like a king too.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we trace it back to there.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your frustration now or five years ago, or 20 years ago, or all of those things.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your Christian identity, though, and the gospel being well received is incumbent upon this.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: That you are not known as somebody who is trying to overthrow the government, but you are known as somebody who submits to it up and until you're being forced to sin.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that covers basically all of our bases.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And all along this way, for those of you who are feeling frustrated right now with me, also notice what uh Paul says to Titus that you're supposed to do this with a smile on your face.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, right, we keep being drawn back into this space.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: At the very first sentence, we are to submit and to avoid fighting, to slander no one, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to be mean.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to get into Facebook arguments that make you not friends with somebody any longer, right?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to speak ill of somebody, you're not supposed to gossip about them.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: The command to be kind in a world that is increasingly growing resistant and emotionally violent towards what you believe is the exact same thing that Jesus encountered, only to a greater degree.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: He was living in a world that rejected him, and ultimately his submission to authority put him on a cross, right?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: He could overthrow the government, he's Jesus.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it takes him to the cross, and then he's going to be kind the entire way that he has been crucified.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately asking the Lord to forgive the people who are crucifying him.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when Paul brings up, hey, Titus, tell your people that because of Jesus, this is how you're supposed to act, he's not pulling it out of thin air.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, This is the same lifestyle that made everybody follow after Jesus and made almost every single one of the apostles and the disciples get killed for their faith because it is worth being martyred so that other people might know the gospel, even though it means that they are going to be killed.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the lifestyle that Jesus lived, and I understand and don't hear me saying that the gospel is not the thing that changes lives, but it would be a lot harder to accept the gospel if Jesus was not kind to those who were sinners.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when we are unkind to people, the same thing happens.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel often falls on hard-packed ground.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon says this kindness and gentleness are two of the ornaments of our faith.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would that some professed Christians would understand that unholy contentiousness is not after the mind of Christ.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Christian must be willing to suffer wrongfully and to bear it in patience.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: He is never to be one who renders evil for evil or railing for railing.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: If it weren't for the Holy Spirit, all of these things would be impossible.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: But because of the Holy Spirit, and these things are included, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Being self-controlled, being gentle, being kind, those are fruits of the Spirit.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the Spirit of God, the same thing that gives the gospel its power, we have the ability to live like this.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is why when people who are deconstructing their faith are walking away and they're saying, Christianity is judgmental, we want to say we value evangelism, not condemnation.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: We value the gospel, not telling everybody why they're wrong.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get to the part also that you probably disagree with here, right?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to express the gospel in a way that doesn't include condemnation?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because part and parcel of the gospel is that you're going to be judged for your sins.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't believe the gospel if you don't believe that judgment is coming against the sins of the world, and therefore you need to repent and be saved by the blood of Christ so that you are not in that judgment any longer.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: That you are exempted because you are covered by the blood of Christ.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: You must believe in judgment in order to express the gospel.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying that we present a bait and switch here, that we just tell everybody why Jesus is great, and then once they walk into the church doors, we're like, do you know what else?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here comes the other foot.
• 28:44
  unknown: Bam.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what I'm saying.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a way to do it where the first words out of out of your mouth are not, you're going to hell if you don't believe in Jesus.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would, I might not leave out the foot, I might not make it my lead foot if we're talking about judgment.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: There is the whole point of the gospel is that we are being saved from coming judgment, and that we can't do it on our own, and it is only by the grace of God.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as you are considering all of these things, remember it is the gospel and the life of Jesus and what he has done for us that draws us forth into our behavior that we're supposed to treat outsiders with.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And also then we, when we have that behavior that is hopefully captivating to people because we are not condemning them constantly, but saying, Don't you know about the love of Jesus?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you know how you can find fulfillment?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you know how you can have hope from a coming judgment?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: These are the kinds of things that make it all the easier to accept.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: We have a PR problem.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not what we believe, it's our behavior.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's making it harder for people to accept what we believe because of the way we're acting.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have um a prop for you, because I'm carrot top, right?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, some of you don't know the humor of carrot top, that's fine.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a steering wheel lock.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: This was sent to my house because um my wife has a vehicle that, along with nine million other vehicles that are similar, was created without proper anti-theft um mechanisms.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of a social media campaign over the last couple years, there have been a lot of them that have been stolen.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, the car company that made it knew about this problem but didn't fix it for a very, very long time, you could say until the past year, when they started sending out letters to people saying you have a problem with your vehicle after like thousands of them were stolen.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, you have a problem with your vehicle, and here's our fix is we're going to give you an anti-the steering wheel lock that you were supposed to carry in your car, and you're supposed to put it on your steering wheel every single time you leave your car so as to ward off the thieves.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a fix.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's not addressing the real problem.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is a cheap solution to avoid getting into legal trouble that you can say that you are no longer like technically guilty because you have technically solved the problem, but it is not solving the problem.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a steering wheel lock.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are far too many of us today who treat evangelism with the kind of technical precision that befits somebody who isn't really interested in whether or not somebody believes the gospel, but just making sure that we have dropped the information that we're being told to drop, no matter the wake that it causes because of the strategy that we have used to tell somebody about the grace of Jesus Christ, no matter that some of the people who are most fervent and telling somebody that they are going to go to hell are some of the people that are making it the hardest for those who are non-believers to understand the gospel and appreciate it because it has fallen onto hard-packed ground.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the Holy Spirit works in spite of everything that we could do.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, some of the worst sermons I've ever heard in my life brought people to Jesus Christ.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, some of the things that we do and the truth that we proclaim does have the ability to help somebody understand that they might be wrong.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if we are not concerned with the way that we are living our lives and we are just concerned about transmitting truth, that is a technical solution that does not truly get to the depth of the problem.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are supposed to be people who live the way that not only Jesus commanded us to live, but that somebody by watching our life can pick up on the way that Jesus was living.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And, and, and then when you verbally share the gospel with them, because set aside all this, my life is the only Bible that some people are going to read stuff.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Get out of here with that.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: You are supposed to verbally share the gospel with people, but it is going to be so much easier when it is done with somebody who says, you know what?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: That message fits the way that I've seen you living your life.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is what we're aiming towards.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for a significant number of people, that's not been their experience.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so the best thing that we can do is we desire to change.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: We desire to live our lives in a way where we value evangelism, not condemnation.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we are concerned about the way that somebody receives the gospel while they are hearing the gospel, and the way to do that is through effort and sacrifice and intentionality, because doing it in a way that the gospel is received well is not something that happens in one conversation.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are supposed to share the gospel with those who need to hear it.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody who doesn't know Christ needs to hear it.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that that seed is going to best fall on fertile ground is going to be the relationship and the quality of your behavior that you have done, leading up to that point.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Paul summarizes it when he says believers are supposed to do good works.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're not saved by good works, but believers are supposed to do good works because the unbelievers that's not ships passing in the night.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: They see that we're doing good works, they see that we care, they see that we love, they see that we're compassionate, they see that we're kind, they see that we're patient, they see these things, and they say, what is different about that person?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, you know what?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in this guy named Jesus Christ, and he died for my sins so that I may have hope for a future because I deserve judgment, and so does everybody else.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: But by grace, through faith, I've been saved.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, I thank you for today.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to preach your word, because Lord, I recognize that I do not deserve that opportunity.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I, like so many other people, everybody else, Lord, I am foolish, I am inconsistent, I am sinful, I am prideful.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you still came and you saved me, and you saved everybody else who trusts in Jesus Christ for their salvation.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, might we keep these things in mind when we interact with a world that doesn't believe the same things that we believe?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord, the reason they don't is because they don't know the gospel.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And God, by the power of your spirit, would you embolden us to share the gospel more often, or just to share it at all?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that you would give us the words to speak, that you would show us the right opportunities.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: God, that you would make it so that we have no excuse that we are not sharing the gospel with the world around us.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: And God, also, as we recognize that our behavior is a significant reason why some people have a hard time accepting the gospel, Lord, might you help us to humbly look at our lives and say, How may I present the truth in love just as you have done?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are good to us, far better than we deserve.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we pray all of these things in your name.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.