Set Apart for the Gospel, Romans 1:1-7

We are beginning a new study today on Sunday mornings in the book of Romans.  I have preached through Romans before many years ago, but I don’t think very many of you were here then.  And so I want to look at it again as Romans is the most thorough book concerning the nature of our salvation.  Many notable people down through the years  have credited the book of Romans as the source of their salvation, such as Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley to name a few.  And so it is an unparalleled source for understanding our great salvation.

In beginning this book today though I want to skip the usual longwinded background information that one would commonly begin with.  I think that in the course of our study a lot of that information will be covered in due time and so I would rather just jump right into a verse by verse exposition of the word and let it explain itself as we come to it.  

In this first section Paul is giving us an introduction of sorts to the letter and to himself and so let’s start by looking at the first verse. Vs1, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.”

So the author obviously is Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus,  who was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew, once a persecutor of the church, now residing temporarily in Corinth, who is  on his third missionary journey, headed ultimately for Jerusalem.  He is the author of this letter to the church at Rome whom he had never met.  And it’s an unusual letter in that respect because all the other letters by Paul were written to churches he had either begun or visited personally. 

Now notice this phrase, Paul; called to be an apostle.  Being a Pharisee, being a Jew, being of the school of Gamaliel, was not the credentials of importance to Paul.  It was that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. And furthermore, that he was called to that office.  God appointed him. Not through the agency of man.  Apostle means sent one.  And Paul had been expressly sent by Christ. Christ revealed Himself to Paul, so that he had seen the resurrected Christ.  Acts 1:22 says that the requirement for an apostle was that they were witnesses of Christ’s resurrection.

Paul says in 1Cor. 15:4-8 concerning the resurrected Christ  “that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that He appeared to [Peter], then to the twelve.  After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;  then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;  and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” So Paul had met that criteria.

There were also the signs of an apostle, which are given to confirm that apostleship. In 2Cor. 12:12 Paul wrote that “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” And Paul certainly had exhibited those signs.  But though his apostleship was something that was important to him and also for the sake of the authenticity and authority of the gospel which he preached, yet he emphasizes still another aspect of his ministry, that of being a bondservant of Christ.

It’s interesting that Israelites came from a background of slavery.  They were enslaved to Egypt for 400 years.  So to be called a slave was abhorrent to a Jew.  It invoked the worst aspects of their heritage and one that conjured up feelings of shame.  So it is remarkable that Paul embraces this title, with all it’s implications of servitude and humility.  He embraces it because this attitude is essential not only for the preaching of the gospel, but it is essential to the foundation of Christianity.  Christianity is submission to Christ as Lord.  There is a general attitude of modern Christianity which freely accepts Christ humbling Himself to be our servant, to bring us to God by virtue of giving up HIs life for us so that we might receive grace. We have little problem accepting Christ as a servant, but we balk at becoming a servant of Christ.  We balk at Jesus being Lord of our lives and having complete control of us. And yet there can be no real conversion without that kind of submission.  

The crux of our problem before conversion is that we want to live for ourselves, to choose for ourselves what is good, or what is wrong.  We want to be independent, we want to make our own decisions.  And that is essentially rebellion against God.  So many so called Christians eagerly accept what they think is the whole of Christianity - the grace of God whereby we are declared righteous and forgiven - and then continue to live a life characterized by making their own decisions, living as they think is right, doing as they please.  There is no sense whatsoever after their so called conversion that they are now servants of Christ.  Unfortunately, they have failed to seize upon true saving faith.  They have merely seized upon a license to sin with impunity; to go on living in sin without any sense of judgment.  And I’m afraid many who think that they are justified before God on the basis of grace will be found to be lacking at the judgment on the basis of obedience. Notice in vs 5 that Paul says that grace was given to bring about obedience. Rom. 1:5 “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about [the] obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake.”

Now concerning his ministry as a servant and an apostle, Paul says he was set apart for the gospel.  Set apart means appointed, separated for a specific purpose.  Paul says in Galatians 1:15 “But when God, who had set me apart [even] from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased  to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”  Notice in that verse Paul equates being set apart from the time before he was born. While he was still in the womb, decades before he even had been converted on the road to Damascus, God had set him apart to preach the gospel.  That is a wonderful expression of the foreknowledge and election of God in regards to our conversion.  Heb.12:2 says, Jesus is the author and the finisher of our salvation.  

But I think that to be set apart also speaks of sanctification.  It speaks of being set apart from the world for the purpose of righteousness. I think it means being set apart from the normal priorities of the world so that we might fulfill the priorities of God. It speaks of the purpose of all believers in being  ministers of the gospel.  That is the reason that we are here on earth.  To be holy, to live righteously, and to be a witness to the power of the gospel to those who are without God.  Our light is to shine so that we might be a beacon of hope to a world that is perishing, that is in darkness.  It is not to hide our light under a bushel so that we don’t offend.  It’s not to try to placate the ungodly so that we do not make them mad at us or not like us anymore.  It’s not to sit on our hands and do nothing and sanctimoniously say that we are just going to trust God to do it, when in fact God has entrusted us to be ministers of the gospel. And that includes you.  If you are a Christian, then you are called, you are set apart from your mother’s womb for the purpose of the gospel.  I pray that you did not receive the grace of God in vain but that you are obedient to your calling.

Now what was Paul set apart for? He says he was set apart for the gospel of God.  Gospel means good news.  It is the good news given to a world that is dying, that God sent Jesus to die in our place, that we might receive life from God.  The good news is what God has done for us, not what we might do.  God did what we could never do, and that is provide atonement for our sins, and give us the righteousness of Christ, that we might have eternal life.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

This gospel of God that Paul is set aside for is further described in vs 2 as the same gospel “which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.”  Its important to understand that there is but one gospel in all of the Bible.  The gospel is promised in the Old Testament, proclaimed in the gospels, and explained in the epistles.  

There are so very many scriptures in the Old Testament which prophesy of the fulfillment of the gospel in Jesus Christ.  One prime example is that found in Isaiah 53 which speaks of the  suffering and death of the Christ which provided an atonement for sinners. And in our sermon last week from Matthew 1, the story of Christ’s birth, we read the prophecy from Isaiah which was fulfilled concerning the virgin birth of Immanuel, meaning God with us. Jesus was promised as far back as in the garden of Eden, at the fall, when God said that one would come from the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head.  Furthermore, all the types and shadows and symbols of the temple and offerings and sacrifices were in fact prophecies foretelling the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

So this gospel was promised by the prophets of the Old Testament, but furthermore, Paul says it is the gospel concerning His Son, “who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  

This is as I said last week when we talked about the birth of Jesus Christ the most important thing to note.  The virgin birth emphasizes Jesus’s humanity, to be sure, but  more importantly it emphasizes His deity.  Mary was a descendant of David and it is important that the Messiah came from the Davidic line, but more importantly that Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit.  He was the only begotten Son of the Father.  Paul says in Titus 2:3 that Jesus is “our great God and Savior.”  He says in Col. 2:9 that “in Him all the fullness of the godhead is concentrated.” 

So Paul makes clear here the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ; He was fully man and fully God.  The Son who without laying aside His divine nature took on the human nature.  In 2Sam. 7:16  is found the beginning of the promise to David for a kingdom that will not end.  God promised him that "Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”  And this promise was repeated to David through the Psalms and then by  Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah so that when the wise men sought the new born King of the Jews, they were told that He must be born in Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, for He was to be of the seed of David. 

In saying that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power Paul is saying that though Jesus was from all eternity the Son of God, yet during His life on earth His power and glory was hidden from view. But by means of His resurrection from the dead, that glory was manifested to His disciples.  His resurrection declared His deity, and manifested HIs glory as the Son of God in all His power and glory.  

And Paul adds to that statement that Christ’s manifestation with power was according to the Spirit of Holiness.  That simply means that the Spirit of Holiness that dwelled in Him became evident.  His Spirit shone forth in a way that had not heretofore been seen by men.  God who was in Him, who was Him, who is Spirit, became evident, or was manifested in Him after the resurrection. In a way that is hard for finite, mortal man to comprehend, God is one and yet separate.  Listen to how Jesus prays to God speaking of this unity in the upper room; John 17:20-23 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, [are] in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”  Now I am not going to take the time now to delineate that doctrine further, but that indicates the unity with God, the oneness with the Spirit of God that Christ manifested in His resurrection.

In Romans 8:9 Paul gives us some additional insight into the mystery of the Godhead.  He says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  So you see in that verse the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are used interchangeably.   So Paul in saying that Christ was raised from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness is just another indication of the deity of Jesus Christ which is he delineates further with the name and title, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this title Paul combines the human name of Jesus (Jehovah saves) with the title of Messiah (Christ is the Greek equivalent to Messiah) and then Lord (owner, master, ruler, soveriegn).   It is in this full name and title of Jesus Christ the Lord that the gospel reaches it’s fullest expression.  Without Him existing in all those realms salvation is impossible. 

Now it’s to this doctrine of Jesus is Christ and Lord, that Paul ascribes himself as an  apostle.  Vs.5,  “through whom (Jesus Christ the Lord) we have received grace and apostleship to bring about [the] obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake…”  This statement may be interpreted as I have read it in the NASB, which list grace and apostleship as two distinct things Paul has received. Or it might be better translated as the “gift of apostleship”.

That gift of apostleship was described in Acts 26 when Paul recounts his experience on the Damascus road, and a bright light shone upon him, and the voice of the Lord spoke to him.  Acts 26:15-18  "And I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.  'But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the [Jewish] people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,  to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’”

So it’s clear from that text that Paul received his apostolic commission directly from the Lord Jesus. The purpose of Paul’s appointment was to bring about the obedience of faith.  Please understand this principle; that obedience is based on faith and springs from faith. Obedience is the evidence of faith. That’s why James said, show me your faith by your works.  Faith without works is dead.  That’s why the Lord said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  Faith and obedience can be compared to identical twins. When you see one you see the other. A person cannot have genuine faith without obedience, and cannot have obedience without faith.

Paul illustrates this symbiotic relationship of faith and obedience in two passages; one regarding faith, and the other regarding obedience.  He says in Rom. 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”  Then in Romans 16:19, “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you.” So to put it another way, justification and sanctification are both essential elements of our salvation.

So having related that the gospel has brought about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles, Paul then includes the church at Rome as those who are being obedient to the faith thus proclaimed.  He says in vs 6 “among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” It’s interesting that Paul equates his call with the effectual call of those in Rome, these Gentile believers.  God called them with the same effectual call that He has employed to call all the saints of God.  For without that call of God men cannot respond to the gospel.  Jesus said in John 6:44  "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

And notice how in the next verse that essential call of God is reiterated.  Vs7 “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called [as] saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Let’s not miss the love of God Paul speaks of here; to all who are beloved of God in Rome…”  So much is made of God’s love today that love has become in certain circles a euphemism of God.  I do not agree with that kind of title, because I think it shortchanges God to assign Him only one attribute and define Him by only one definition. 

However the fact that God loved the world is clearly the motivation for the gospel. John said in 1John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.” In John 3:16 again he states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  

Divine love then is God seeing our helpless estate, and sending Jesus Christ to take our place in death so that we might be receive pardon and new life in Christ.  God’s love is not winking at sin.  God’s love is not ambivalence towards sin. God’s love is not loving us just the way we are.  But love is making it possible for us to be born again, to be made new, to be righteous. 

Notice that we are called as saints.  The effective call of the Holy Spirit illumines our eyes to the truth, gives understanding to the gospel, convicts us of our sin, makes clear our need for a Savior, and as we receive that light by faith, He gives us the power to become sons of God.  He gives us new life, new desires, that we might turn from serving ourselves to become servants of God. It’s an effectual call of God that transforms us from sinners to saints, and translates us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God.  John 1:12-13 says “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Now to such saints as we who have believed are, Paul gives a salutation that only Christians can receive.  “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Only by the gift of God can we have  peace with God.  We have grace because He loved us and sent Christ to die on the cross in our place and because His Spirit has called us with an effectual call as saints.  

And because we have received the grace of God then and only then can we have peace with God.  We who were formerly enemies of God have been brought close by the blood of Jesus Christ. So that by faith we are obedient to Him and we love Him because He first loved us.

I pray that if you have not yet been born again, that you have heard the call of God today, and that you will receive the gift of HIs Son, believing in Him, and following Him with the obedience of faith.  This is the gospel which was manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord.  This is the gospel that Paul writes of here in Romans.  I pray that you will receive it as the word of God.

The Birth of the King, Matthew 1:18-25

As most of you probably are aware, I do not usually make a point to preach messages that correlate with the holidays.  We are usually studying a certain book of the Bible verse by verse, and I let that be the guide for the subject matter of my sermon, and not what a holiday, either secular or religious, might suggest. 

However, we have recently concluded a long study in the Sermon on the Mount.  And as I said, I believe that sermon title might better be titled “The Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.”  In that sermon Jesus laid out the character and nature of the Kingdom of Heaven and particularly the character of it’s citizens.  Then last week, I added to that series a message which attempted to define the characteristics of the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven which is yet future.  To explain in light of Jesus’s teaching what we tend to call “heaven;” or the future state of the Kingdom of Heaven, which I titled “The Kingdom to Come.” 

So in light of this series on the Kingdom of Heaven, I felt that today we should look at the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the origin of the title of this message; “The  Birth of the King.  Matthew in particular presents the birth of Jesus Christ as the birth of the King of Heaven on earth.  And so I want to spend some time this morning looking at the origin and nature and ministry of the Coming of the King as the Kingdom of Heaven as manifested on earth. 

One of the most important doctrines in the Bible is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.  But though it is of tremendous importance, yet it is possible in the expression of that doctrine to emphasize the wrong person.  The emphasis should not be to venerate and exalt the virgin Mary, but to recognize and worship the divinity of the Son born of Mary who was the only begotten Son of  God.  The fact that Jesus was born without the instrument of a human father, but was born of the Holy Spirit through the flesh of the woman is the doctrine of the incarnation. 

Those sects which do not recognize the deity of Jesus Christ must totally ignore such accounts as this found in Matthew, where twice it says that the Child was conceived in her was  of the Holy Spirit.  And in Luke chapter 1,  when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bring forth the Holy Child, she could not help but ask how such a thing was possible, since she was a virgin.  Gabriel responded, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

The fact that Jesus was born of God and thus God is supported by the fact that men worshipped Him.  Worship is not given to men.  But when the wise men sought to visit the Christ Child they asked, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

Now I find it interesting to note that the scriptures, while it has a lot to say about the birth of Christ, yet it does not command us to celebrate nor commemorate His birth.  Our celebration of Christmas is something that the Bible doesn’t really instruct us to do. The only holy day that we are told to celebrate in the New Testament is the day of the Lord’s death.  That is why we observe the Lord’s Supper.  Paul said in this way we celebrate the Lord’s death until He comes again. And also of course every Sunday we celebrate the Lord’s Day, which is the day of His resurrection.  But we are never instructed to celebrate His birth.

Now that is not to say that observing Christmas is in itself the wrong thing to do.  But I will say that certain aspects of it can be less than advantageous to the gospel as it is often practiced by the popular traditions.  Because the idea of a poor little baby born in a stable to a young mother and father plays to a sentimentalism that emphasizes the humanity of Jesus.  It’s possible to diminish the significance of Jesus’s birth to purely the human pathos of a helpless little baby boy born to poor Jewish peasants on a  cold, dark night some 2000 years ago who was misunderstood and unappreciated by the world. But of course, though those things may be true to some extent, the point that He was the Son of God, God incarnate in human flesh, veiled in all the humility of flesh, so that He might be the Savior of the world is often obscured by our fixation on the human elements of His birth.

But what the scripture teaches is that Jesus was born of the woman so that He was fully man, yet fathered by the Holy Spirit so that He is also fully God.  That is what is called by theologians the hypostatic union of Christ.  Both natures, divine and human, fully existent and operational in one person, that He might truly be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And to that end, Matthew begins his account of the birth of Jesus Christ by setting forth the lineage of Joseph, who was HIs legal father, though not by blood. In Luke, a similar lineage is given of Mary.  And what is important to understand is that from a human standpoint the heritage of Jesus was from the royal line of David from both Joseph and Mary’s lineage.  That is given to establish that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah, the future King, would come from the line of David and would even be born in the city of David, which is Bethlehem.

Now it was the custom in those days for marriages to be an arrangement between families and it was a contractual agreement that was binding from the moment of betrothal.  For Joseph and Mary, this betrothal was considered legally married, but not yet consummated. But ordinarily, after a betrothal period of about a year, the two came together by means of a wedding banquet and other ceremonies, and then they consummated their married life by moving into the same home. But they were considered married from the time of their betrothal. Our text states that when his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,(that being a more legal bond than simply an engagement) before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.  And again, that emphasizes the divine origin of Jesus Christ.

The statement, “before they came together” obviously refers to the consummation of their marriage.  They were betrothed, legally bound together to be married, but the marriage had not progressed to the stage where they had come together physically.  And so Mary was still a virgin.  So when Mary was found to be with child, Joseph, as a righteous man, as a man who was concerned about the seemliness of things, was going to divorce her.  That’s what it means when the text says he was going to put her away privately.  At that point, Joseph had undoubtedly been told by Mary the source of her pregnancy, but as you can imagine, it was just something that must have seemed fantastic to him.  As much as he loved her, it must have seemed so illogical to him that he felt compelled to divorce her in order to maintain his sense of decorum.  It’s evident from scripture later on when Jesus speaks of divorce that the Jews considered divorce in such cases as obligatory in light of the law.  Jesus refutes that idea, but at this point, Joseph may have felt as if the law actually required him to divorce her.  And that may be why he wanted to do it privately, so as to protect Mary to some extent, and not disgrace her publicly.

Now all of that is important of course because of the fact that Jesus was fathered by the Holy Spirit.  The passage tells us that, but how it must have appeared to the world would have given rise to speculation and scandal.  But God is concerned that Joseph know this for sure, and so God sent an angel to communicate it to Joseph. So vs 20 tells us that as Joseph had decided to send Mary away to be divorced, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’”

Notice also that the angel makes a point of saying of Jospeh that he was the  “son of David”.  God through the angel is announcing the birth of the promised King who would come through the line of David. So according to the flesh Jesus was of the royal line of David and thus qualified to take the throne of Israel.  I would like to just take a moment to look at a few verses from the Old Testament, which of course was already in existence, written hundreds of years before, which speak of David’s future descendant taking the throne.  Isaiah 11:1 “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Jer. 23:5 “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.”

Now Jesus is announced to be born a King, not only from a human standpoint, but from a heavenly one. Notice what Psalm 132:11 says;  “The LORD has sworn [in] truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne.” So God speaking to David says I will sit on your throne.

Now that this future King is God Himself is an important point, and the evidence of it is that it is repeated twice in our text of Matthew 1.  In the 18th verse, we read, Mary was “found to be with child by the Holy Spirit,” and  in the 20th verse, we read, “the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”  So then according to God Jesus is qualified to be the King of Heaven, because He is the Son of God.

Hebrews 2:17 says concerning Christ, that He had to be made like HIs brethren in all things.  So Jesus had to be human, born of flesh.  But in order for us to be His brethren, we must be made like Him, and that is born of the Spirit. That is why we must be born again, born of God in our Spirit, so that we also have two natures, that of the flesh, and that of the Spirit.  And so Jesus, in order to be our substitute, and our Savior, must be born of the flesh and born of the Spirit, even like we must be.  In order to be the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, He must be born in the flesh on earth, but eternal God in Heaven.  So that John might say in his gospel, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.”

Then in Matthew’s account of His coming, we read further that the angel spoke of the ministry of the King.  Vs. 21 "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word “Joshua,” so that the Lord’s name was Joshua.

“Joshua” is a name that  means “Jehovah saves.”  And so we see that the very name of Jesus is connected with the word, salvation. So the fact that the Lord Jesus is called “Joshua” is very suggestive spiritually. For he is—by virtue of the name that is given to him—he is to be the Savior of His people. As I mentioned at the Christmas party the other night, Savior was a term given to kings, to the Caesars, to deity.  It was a term in Greek and Roman culture which had political overtones.  In Luke’s account, we read that the angels announced to the shepherds “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Jesus was to be the Savior, not politically, but spiritually, He will save His people from their sins.

As a matter of fact, this has a direct application to the world we live in today. Our problem today is not an environmental problem. Our problem today is not an economic problem. And our problem today is not a political problem. Our problem is a spiritual problem, and that is that sin has separated man from God, who is the source of life, and without Him, we all are dead spiritually, and thus condemned to die both spiritually and physically. But Jesus the Savior of the world came to die in our place, that we might receive pardon and given life through Him.

So every time someone pronounced the name of Jesus, he was preaching the gospel.  Jehovah saves.  God saves. Man can not save himself. Men do not save other men. Only God can save.  So that Jesus could say, “no man comes to the Father, except by Me.”  Christ is the only way man can be reconciled to God.  Because only the death of God could atone for the sins of the world.

Matthew goes on to cite texts of the Old Testament in support of his teaching regarding the purpose of Christ’s birth.  What he’s trying to do is to make plain to us the fact that Jesus is the Messiah as the Old Testament Scriptures have prophesied. And so he  interrupts his narrative by saying, “now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was written through the prophet, saying, behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

The 7th chapter of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ,  is the text which he quotes here. Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Then Isaiah says in the 9th chapter of that same book, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” And finally, in the 11th chapter, we read, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the result of his ministry shall be, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

As you can see, the sweep of Isaiah’s prophecy is that the Child who is born of the virgin in Isaiah chapter 7, is the Child upon whose shoulder the government shall rest, and it is through His ministry that we shall find a universal knowledge of the Lord throughout all of the earth in which we live. We have, then, a prophecy here that is fulfilled in the birth of our Lord Jesus, he is truly born of a virgin, but it is the same person who is ultimately going to rule and reign over an entirely renewed earth when the  kingdom of God  is consummated on the earth.

Now, notice that here we have another name for our Lord Jesus, and it is not a name that emphasizes his human nature, but a name that emphasizes his deity.  "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is ‘God with us.’”

So Isaiah says what John later says, that God became man and dwelt among us. He became like us, fully human, so that He might share in our sufferings, so that He might become our example, and so that He might become our substitute, taking our place in death so that we might receive His life.  And that life came from His divine nature; because He was fully God.  As God, He is the giver of life.  John 1 says without Him nothing was made that was made.  He says that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

And because of His substitutionary death on the cross, by faith in Him we are made righteous and holy with His righteousness, and we are given life in the spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So that we also are made sons of God.   So as Paul says in 1 Cor. 3:16, Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  That is the full import of the name  Immanuel, God with us.

So Joseph, then, responds to words of the angel, and we read in the 25th verse—24th and 25th—“Then Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, ]but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

There is much that could be said about all the various names and titles of the Lord. The Savior.  Immanuel.  The Christ.  The Messiah. The Anointed One.  I love the titles found in Isaiah; Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  But there is so much that we can learn from just the simplest of names; Jesus. This is the name that was divinely given. And so when we plead the name of our Lord Jesus as the one who saves, we are bringing back to God His own promises concerning the Lord Jesus.  When He was  called by the name of Jesus by man it identified Him as the Savior of His people. He is called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins. And it is the name that marks out his ministry here on earth.  No one ever lived up to HIs name more so than the Lord Jesus. And if you trust in Him, He will not fail to perform His atoning work on your behalf. He cannot deny His name.  Jesus saves because He is God who saves.

Did you notice Matthew’s words, “God with us?” Is this really true? Phillips Brooks was correct when he wrote, “O little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie, above thy deep and dreamless sleep thy silent years go by; yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” But Phillips Brooks was a preacher, and he also emphasized the need of personal appropriation. Is Immanuel really God with you?

Have you responded according to the last stanza of the hymn? “O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray, cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today; we hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell, O come to us, abide with us, our Lord, Emmanuel.”

There is one other word in this passage that might easily be overlooked. It’s a most unlikely word. It’s the word “interpreted.” You’ll notice that when he is said to be Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Why should it be necessary to interpret? Why should not the word Emmanuel be sufficient? What is the point of it being “interpreted?”  Well,  the reason we have an interpretation of this statement is that God wants it to be known. It means that is the  desire of the heart of God to have you know that through Christ  God with us. If we needed any further encouragement that God is interested in gathering a people  unto Himself, it’s found in that word, “interpreted.”

That’s God's way of saying I want Gentiles, as well as Jews, I want the whole world to belong to this King. May God help you to respond in faith to His gospel.

The Kingdom to Come, 2 Cor. 5:1-10

We have finished our study of the Sermon on the Mount, or what I prefer to call the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  This message of Christ described and delineated the character and nature and practices of those who are citizens of the Kingdom.  And yet sprinkled throughout this message are references to different aspects of the Kingdom which are what I would like us to think about today.  Because as Jesus teaches it, there is a progression to the present and future aspects of the Kingdom which are not always that clear to us.  Modern Christians often have a view of heaven  that incorporates many preconceptions that do not necessarily line up with what the Bible teaches.  And so I would like to expound on the subject of heaven today.

Right at the beginning of the Sermon, Jesus says that the characteristics of the Beatitudes are a description of the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He begins with that in ch 5 vs 5, with the first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  In another place, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven has come near you. And so there is a present reality of the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus was referring to.

But as Jesus gets to the end of his sermon, He speaks of another aspect of the kingdom.  For instance, in ch.7 He speaks of a future aspect; Matt. 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.] Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” The phrase “In that day”, refers to the day of judgment, which comes at the end of the age, or the end of this world.  It actually seems to refer to the kingdom of heaven as something in the future, what we often think of as “going to heaven” when we die. 

This connection of the Kingdom of Heaven with the end of the age, or the end of the world, is found again right after the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 8.  After healing the centurion’s servant.  Jesus said in vs 11 "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline [at the table] with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;  but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

So again we see this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven, which Christians are supposed to be a part of now, being connected to the end time, when the Lord judges the just and the unjust.  And some come to their reward, and some to their condemnation and judgement.  In chapter 5 vs 12, where Jesus is talking about being persecuted for His name sake, He says, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.”  So there is a reward for the just, and judgment for the unjust in the future dimension of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We have learned from the Sermon on the Mount and other teachings of Christ that the Kingdom of Heaven is the spiritual realm of the Lord. Heaven is a term that is used in the Bible to speak of the atmosphere around the earth, or to speak of the space in which are the stars, or to speak of the realm of God. What all those indicate is heaven is the invisible, spiritual realm over all the earth. In the scope of time and matter it’s not finite, it’s infinite. It’s the invisible characteristics of the Lord of Heaven manifested on the earth. “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool” speaks of an infinite God in an infinite heaven ruling over a finite earth. 

It might be helpful to think of the Kingdom of Heaven in three stages: inauguration, continuation, and consummation. In the inauguration, the Lord was manifested on earth. John says “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.” God’s kingdom was inaugurated "on earth as it is in heaven.”  So we should understand the fact that heaven is where God is.  Thus Jesus could say the Kingdom of Heaven has come near you, it is in your midst. 

With Christ's first coming, Christ on the cross broke the curse of sin and made it possible for the world to be reconciled to God. In Christ, God offered the perfect sacrifice for sin so that man might become citizens of heaven. All of Jesus' ministry—the words He spoke, the miracles He performed—showed the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven. When Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead,, He was giving a foretaste of the future state of the Kingdom of Heaven when it comes in it’s fullness. That was a preview of what will eventually be a universal reality—a kingdom of righteousness and justice, without death, disease, on earth.

And the victory that Christ accomplished on earth at His inauguration as King is that  He overcame death, which was the means by which Satan kept the world in chains. He now holds the keys of death and hell.  He took captivity captive.  He has overcome the world, and Satan and death, and provided liberty to the captives. Heb. 2:14-15 says “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Col. 1:13  “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

The continuation stage of the kingdom of God is the stage we are in now—living in between Christ's first and second coming. It's a stage of redemptive history often referred to as "already and not yet": the kingdom of heaven is already in existence, but not yet complete. We have been given the deposit of the Holy Sprit to live in us and govern us until Christ comes again. 1John 3:2 says,“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” So at this present time we live by the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit. 2 Cor.5:7, “we walk by faith and not by sight.”

The third stage, the kingdom's consummation, will take place when the King comes back visibly and with power and every knee will bow to Him.  1Cor. 15:51-57 says,  “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, [that is to die in the Lord] but we will all [both dead and living in Christ] be changed,  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.  But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.  "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;  but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”   Christ has accomplished victory over death. When He returns there'll be no more sickness, death, tears, division, or tension. The "peace on earth" which the angels announced the night Christ was born will become a universal actuality.

Now it’s to this third phase of the Kingdom of Heaven that I would like to speak for a while.  The consummation of the Kingdom, the idea of heaven, future.  And I would suggest to you that there are two stages of the future Kingdom of Heaven.  There is the intermediate state, and the glorified state.  Unfortunately, most Christian’s theology makes little distinction between the two.  There is a nebulous view of heaven that you go there when you die, and there is no distinction.  To add to that confusion, there is the idea of the rapture of the church, which they are usually taught happens at the beginning of the tribulation at the end time.  Then there is another  belief that there is a 1000 year reign of Christ on earth called the Millennium where Christ will reign with a rod of iron and yet there will still be unbelievers on the earth.  And then they believe that there is another rebellion, and then Armaggedon, and then finally, sometime in the far future, there is the eternal reign of Christ.  I don’t have time this morning to deal with all the various views.  But I feel that it’s important that we understand what the Bible calls our “blessed hope.” I think it’s important that we understand what we have to look forward to in heaven.  I think that the problem with most Christians is that their view of heaven is so dim, that the reality of this world far outshines heaven, so that it has no future appeal.

But that was not the case with the earlier saints.  Hebrews tells us that they looked eagerly for a city  “which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”  “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

Now the simple teachings of Christ and the apostles is that one must be born again spiritually into the Kingdom of God, which is the spiritual reign of Christ in the hearts and minds of His people.  It was inaugurated by the appearance, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is entered into by faith in Christ’s finished work.   And though Christ our King has ascended into heaven, His Spirit was sent into the hearts of His people to dwell in us and rule over our soul and body.  Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5:5 that the Holy Spirit was given to us as a deposit in this intermediate state of the future glorification that we will enjoy. We have new life in the Spirit.  We walk by the Spirit. 

I would like for you to look at 2 Cor. 5, because it speaks to this principle of the intermediate state as well as the glorified state.  Notice vs 1, Paul says, 2Cor. 5:1 “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”    Those of you who are part of our Wednesday night studies will remember that 1 Cor. 3 says we are God’s building.  And Paul here says that this building that is in us, is not made with hands, but is eternal in the heavens.  So there is already an aspect of heaven abiding in us.  That which is eternal.  We have new life in the Spirit, even eternal life.  And that eternal life which is from God is, according to Ephesians 2:5, already  seated in the heavenlies. “[God} made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” So heaven is not just a place, but a state of being.  It’s a spiritual state.  

But this body which we are in Paul compares to a tent.  A tent is a temporary dwelling. It’s not permanent.  However the building we have from God is permanent.  It’s spiritual. It’s our soul and spirit.  And I would point out that all men were created as living souls.  In Genesis 2 it says God breathed His breath into man’s nostrils, and man became a living soul. Man will live forever in his soul.  But because of the curse of sin, “it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.”  This body will be torn down.  It will be folded up.  It will die. But Paul says the spirit of the Christian is eternal in the heavens.  We already have been given eternal life.  Jesus said in John 11:26, “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

Then in 2Cor. 5:2 Paul says, “For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”  What Paul is referring to is perhaps the statement in Ecclesiastes 3:11, that God has set eternity in their hearts.  There is a consciousness of something more, something beyond the grave.  Man wasn’t designed to be temporal, but eternal. 

Paul speaks further on this subject in Rom 8:19-23 “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for [our] adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

Now this is speaking of waiting for the redemption of our body.  That is the glorified state, when we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  When this corruptible shall put on the incorruptible.  But that is speaking of the resurrection of the body and the recreation of the heavens and the earth in the glorified state.

Paul speaks of that day in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of [the] archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

The second coming of Christ then ushers in the consummation, the completeness of the Kingdom of Heaven.  But notice the reference to those who are asleep.  That’s talking about those who are dead in Christ. In the scriptures, sleep refers to those who are believers who have died. And Paul says here that those living when Christ returns will not precede those who are asleep (that is dead in Christ) but the dead in Christ will rise first. Now this is speaking of the resurrection of those believers who have died in the time between the first and second coming of Christ. 

But why would they need to be resurrected if they are already in heaven? That they have not already been raised into heaven is evident because the resurrection follows after the Lord descending with the trumpet of God.  That’s the second coming.  And so it behooves us to understand what constitutes this being asleep in Christ.

And to answer that, perhaps the best answer is found in Luke 14 in the story that Jesus tells of Lazarus and the rich man who both died, and Lazarus was taken by the angels into Abraham’s bosom, which was a reference to Paradise, and the rich man lifted up His eyes in torment. Jesus said that in between the abode of these two men was a great chasm, and no one could cross from one to the other. That was in keeping with the Jewish tradition of what was known as Sheol in the Hebrew, or Hades in the Greek.  It is the abode of the dead. It is believed to be in the center of the earth.  It is the intermediate state of the soul while waiting for the resurrection.  And as we have seen in 1Thess. 4, the resurrection of the dead comes at the last trumpet and the descent of Christ at His second coming, which ushers in the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now I do not believe that this is a parable.  The writer does not identify it as a parable, for one.  And two, there is no other example of a parable being told by Christ in which He uses actual names of people. So I think our understanding should be that this is an actual event, though some aspects might be allegorized. But we should understand the setting and events as realistic descriptions of an actual place and actual people.

Now there are some important things we can learn from this story concerning this intermediate state - what happens when a person dies.  One is that the dead are conscious.  This is not soul sleep. That is not taught.  The body is correlated to sleeping but the spirit is alive and conscious.  Peter says that Christ also descended into Hades during the time of His physical death.  Though His body was dead,  He was alive in the Spirit.  1Peter 3:18-19 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [now] in prison.”  Paul makes it clear in Eph.4:9 that Jesus descended into Hades, the abode of the dead, in the lower parts of the earth.

Furthermore, the story of Lazarus teaches us that the believer is comforted, while the unbeliever is in torment.  It teaches a common refrain in the OT that the saint is gathered unto his fathers, as we see Him seated in Abraham’s bosom.  Furthermore, we learn that they engage in conversation.  That they are conversant about current events, even the present condition of things on earth.  We also see that point confirmed at the transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the mountain and they talked about things to come.  So we can be certain those qualities of our life immediately after death, in what we call the intermediate state, awaiting the final appearing of Jesus Christ. 

And if we go back to the passage in 2 Cor. 5, we see in vs 6-8 that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord.  Vs 8 “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”  Now I cannot say exactly how this is accomplished.  The mystery of God that He can be everywhere at once.  He is omniscient as well as omnipresent.  Christians all over the world, at all times, are promised the presence of the Lord.  Jesus said “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”  

Jesus said further on that subject in John 14:16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  So millions of Christians have the presence of the Lord with us now, and I think Paul indicates that we shall have His presence with us after death in an even more intimate way.  Because we are spirits in the intermediate state, we can know the Spirit in a more direct way. And remember, the Spirit is called the Comforter, and Jesus said He will be with us forever. Notice also that Abraham was described as comforting Lazarus in Luke 14.  In that sense, I think that Abraham, though an actual forefather to Lazarus, was allegorically a figure of our Heavenly Father who comforts us and welcomes us into His presence.  And I would remind you that where God is, there heaven is.

The glorification of the Kingdom is the last act of the consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Paul only speaks of one aspect of it in 2 Cor. 5, but it is a major part of what is involved in it.  And that is the judgment for all men that occurs when Christ comes the second time.  Paul says in vs 10, 2Cor. 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” 

Jesus speaks of that in conjunction with HIs coming, in Matt. 25:31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;  and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ... 41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ... 46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This same event is described in Revelation 20, as the second death for those whose names are not written in the book of life.  And it says that they were cast into the Lake of Fire.  But there is another outcome for those who are saved, who are the church, the bride of Christ.  And that is described in symbolic language in the next chapter, 21. Rev 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer [any] sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be [any] death; there will no longer be [any] mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

This is then the city the patriarchs looked for whose architect and builder is God.  This is the heavenly Jerusalem which will be the eternal dwelling of God with His saints, the church. And notice that this heavenly city came down out of heaven, to a new heaven and a new earth. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3 at the day of the Lord this present heaven and earth will be burned up, and we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth.  This is the consummation of the kingdom of heaven,  a place of no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow.The Kingdom of Heaven will be on earth as it is in heaven.  And God will dwell among them.  He tabernacles among them. This city is described further in the vision as a cube, the same shape as the Holy of Holies in the old tabernacle.  We will dwell in the unadulterated, unveiled presence of the Lord God Almighty in all His fullness.  We will dwell in the beatific vision, in the midst of the source of all life, all wisdom, and all power.   And we shall be given a glorified body like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  We shall rule and reign with Christ, as co heirs with Christ in a body that is glorified, immortal, incorruptible, forever and ever in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

This is the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven.  If you would enter it, you must do so now, in this age, in this life, by faith in the life and work and word of Jesus Christ.  You must be born again spiritually, that you might have eternal life, which will never die, so that you might attain through the resurrection of the dead that which is imperishable, incorruptible, reserved in heaven for you.

1Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  to [obtain] an inheritance [which is] imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,  who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Two houses, Matthew 7:24-29

Today, after more than 7 months of exhaustive study,  we reach the conclusion of the first recorded sermon the Lord preached, known as the Sermon on the Mount. And in the last chapter of His sermon He has shown us that there are only  two types of people, two ways in which to live, and two possible destinations or outcomes of their lives.  He has shown us three illustrations of that principle, and now the one in today’s passage is another one, which is the third.  In the first illustration, Jesus presented two ways, entered into by two gates, leading to two destinations.  There was the narrow way, through the narrow gate, which led to life, which only a few found,  and there was the broad way entered by the broad gate, which led to destruction, and many were on that path.  Everyone is on either one of two paths of life, leading to only two destinations. One way leading to life and one leading to destruction.

In the second illustration Jesus pictures the life of a person as like either a good tree or a bad tree. The good tree produces good fruit, but the bad tree produces bad fruit.  And He says the bad tree will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  So, He says, you shall know them by their fruit. That is, the fruit of their lives indicates whether they are a good tree or a bad tree, resulting in either life or death.

In the third illustration which we are considering this morning, the Lord compares  two men who are builders of houses.  The wise man builds a house with a foundation upon a rock and the foolish man builds his house on the sand.  And when the rain came, and the floods rose, and the winds blew, the house that was built upon a rock stood firm, but the house that was built upon the sand was destroyed.

Now as I said, this is the conclusion of Jesus’s sermon.  He has been showing throughout this message that there is an important difference between the natural man and the spiritual man.  We learned when we studied the Beatitudes that the characteristics of the man described was not natural. It was not normal. But rather the attitudes and nature of that man showed a supernatural character which indicated that there had been a fundamental change in him.  And we deducted that this man had been born again into the kingdom of God.  He had been changed from natural to spiritual as the result of a supernatural conversion.  And in this new life, new nature, new character, he exhibited spiritual life which came from God. 

Then as Jesus continues His sermon, He continues to show this difference between the two type of people, the natural and the spiritual man, which is a continual theme running through the entire sermon.  Now at the culmination, Jesus shows the two possible outcomes of these two different types of people. And as a preacher, as a teacher of the gospel, Jesus uses these illustrations to press for a decision.  He warns against doing nothing, of simply going along with the natural flow of the world.  He warns that it’s important to examine yourself, to judge yourself, lest you be judged at the last day.  He is pressing us towards a decision to enter into the narrow way that leads to life, or be found on that day to hear, “depart from Me, I never knew you.”

So in this illustration, Jesus presents two men who build two houses.  Now most commentators say that these represent two different things; one is the men, and secondly is the houses they build.  I recognize that I am not as smart as those commentators, but I think that they are one and the same.  The man is represented by the house.  In other words, the man is indistinguishable from the life he lives.  And I think that is an important point which Jesus is emphasizing here.  It’s not possible to consider a person without considering his life.  It’s impossible to say, so and so is a good man, and yet they live as a bad man.  I think that this is the point of the comparison of the fruit tree.  Jesus said a bad tree bears bad fruit.  What you are is evidenced by how you live.  What you are on the inside shows itself on the outside. 

I think this speaks to a lot of Christians who want to claim justification by grace, but their lives never show any sign of sanctification.  But Hebrews says without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. So their life is a betrayal of their profession.  There life is a reflection of who they are.  The house they build is their fruit, it’s the life they live. As Jesus says, you shall know them by their fruits.  He doesn’t say, you will know them by what they claim to be.  In fact, the false prophets Jesus spoke of in vs15 claim all sorts of things; they claim to be prophets, they claim to be able to perform miracles, they claim to speak in Jesus’s name, and yet He says “I never knew you, DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”  Their fruit was lawlessness, which was evidence that they were not of God.

Notice also in this illustration that from outward appearances, both houses seem the same. They are built in the same location.  They are subject to the same storms, the same stresses of life.  The difference between them was one was founded upon a rock and one was built on the sand.  We get some further insight into this illustration if we look at Luke 6, where on another occasion Jesus uses this same illustration in a very similar sermon.  Look at Luke 6:47.  Jesus said, "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:  he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted [accordingly,] is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

So what is the difference between Matthew and Luke?  In Luke, Jesus says that the difference is the wise man laid a foundation which was built on the rock.  The foolish man built his house without a foundation.  Now that gives us some insight into what Jesus was getting at.  

Those of you that were at Bible study last Wednesday night will remember we looked at another passage which talked about a foundation.  Paul says in 1 Cor. 3 vs 9 that you are God’s field, and God’s building.  There the analogy is established that Jesus likens a man to a house.  Paul says that we that are Christians are God’s house.  God’s temple.   Paul says in another place, 2 Cor.  5:1 “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  So there should be no doubt that our life is correlated to a house, and the house which is built on a foundation is the life that is born of God.  It’s a spiritual house, a spiritual life, which we received from God.  The natural man does not have it.  He is natural, carnal, still in his sins. He too builds a house, but it’s natural, it’s not of God.  And as a result, it has no spiritual, eternal character. Paul says in 1Cor. 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  So there is a great difference between the natural man and the spiritual man.  The spiritual man’s life has a foundation which is Jesus Christ, and the natural man has no foundation.  He cannot ascertain that which is spiritual.

Go back to 1 Cor. chapter 3 again, and see what Paul has to say about this foundation.  1Cor. 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.  For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is [to be] revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.  If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Now Paul is speaking in that passage to Christians.  He is addressing the church at Corinth.  The foundation Paul makes clear is faith in Jesus Christ.  It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the word of Jesus Christ.  It’s not just believing that Christ existed, but believing in His gospel.  And you will notice that Paul says it’s important to build the right kind of building on that foundation.  That which is built which is not of God, which is not spiritual, will be burned up at that day.  And that which remains, in other words, that which remains which is spiritual, shall receive a reward.  If all you built on your salvation is carnal, is natural, is things of this earth, then you will still be saved, Paul says, but yet as through fire.  All of your works will be burned up.

Now I wanted to share that passage because it speaks clearly that the house is your life, and the judgment that is to come for all men, both good and bad, and it speaks clearly about the nature of our foundation.

But I want to point out that Jesus is giving us another type of comparison using a similar analogy.  He is saying one man has a foundation, and the other one does not.  So one person is a Christian and the other is not.  That’s simply what it means.  One has put their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and have been given spiritual life, and one has not.  Their faith is in themselves, in science, in philosophy, in false religion, in wealth, in prestige,  in power, whatever. Whatever they are building, it is not for the glory of God, it is not a spiritual life, it is something they are attempting to do on their own. 

Jesus says the wise man dug deep and built a foundation.  A foundation is analogous to being born again.  When we are born, that is the beginning of our life.  And when you build a house, the foundation is the beginning of a sound, well built house.  You cannot have spiritual life without new birth.  And new birth spiritually is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The other man Jesus describes as foolish.  He doesn’t see the need for a foundation.  He thinks the efforts of his life are sufficient.  He may have all the external appearances of a good life, but without a foundation which is laid in Jesus Christ his life is destined for destruction.

I want to point out another aspect of this foundation which the wise man built upon.  When you build a house the foundation is something that is not really seen.  It’s hidden.  It’s what is underneath the ground, underneath the framing.  But even though it is unseen, it’s vital to the stability of that house.  And so it is with our new birth.  From the outward appearance the natural man and the spiritual man may look very similar.  On the surface, the natural man may even have a bigger or nicer house than the spiritual man.  But the inner quality, the hidden quality of the spiritual man is what gives his life that indestructible quality, even immortality. Without the right foundation, the house cannot stand the tests and trials of life and the judgment to come.

There is another aspect of this foundation which Jesus wants us to consider.  And that is it’s based on obedience to the word of Christ.  Notice Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  And then in regards to the foolish man He says, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”

Now the Lord is not teaching here that the way to eternal life is by doing works.  But rather He is saying what James says in his epistle, that faith without works is dead. When Jesus says that everyone who believes in Me will be saved, He is not talking about merely an intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel, but believing and trusting to the point of being obedient to it, of acting upon His word. 

Jesus said previously that “not everyone who says to Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven will enter.”  So there is a difference between a life founded on faith and obedience to the word and a life that may have an intellectual acknowledgement of the truth, but does not actually live in accordance with the truth.  

The difference between faith and intellectual assent is that intellectual assent says “Lord, Lord” but does not do His will.  Faith is dying to self and putting God’s will above your own.  Paul says in Gal. 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  

Now that is possible for the spiritual man because in regeneration God has changed my desires.  I have a new heart.  Salvation is not just a clean heart, being forgiven, but being changed.  It’s a new heart, new desires, a new character.  It’s being remade in the image of Christ.  It’s being a new creation, old things are passed away and all things become new.  And so there is now a desire now to do the things of God.  As Jesus said in the Beatitudes at the beginning of this message, “blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  As a new creation I have a hunger for righteousness, I have a hunger for the word, I want to live to please my Lord and Savior.  I am willing to make a sacrifice of my old way of life in order to obey and please the Lord.

So you have pictured here two men, whose lives are characterized as two houses, which look very similar on the outside, but inwardly one has a foundation and one does not.  One man hears and does the word of God, and one does his own will.  So then what?  To each his own?  You have your religion and I have mine?  Is that the outcome?

No, Jesus says that both these houses will endure storms.  He describes it as rain, floods and wind which beat upon the houses.  And Jesus says that the house which was built on the foundation did not fall, but for the house without foundation, great was it’s fall.  Now what does that mean? 

Well, some preachers have tried to break down this allegory to the point of identifying things that I don’t think Jesus Himself even thought of.  I read one theologian who said that the rain symbolized things like illness, loss or disappointment, something going wrong in your life.  Floods, they say, represent the world, and the things of the world like the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life.  And the winds blowing they say symbolizes the attacks of the devil. I must say, I do sometimes think the devil is in the wind.  But I don’t know how we can really determine what specific things are symbolized here. 

However, in light of the text, one thing I think we can be certain of.  These storms of life come upon the whole world. Notice Jesus says the same storms come to the wise and the unwise. They come upon the Christian and the non Christian.  Christians in Christ’s analogy are not immune to the storms of life. Rather, Jesus said in John 16:33  “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." So if we are to understand this illustration correctly, Jesus is saying that trouble and trials, the storms of life, are universal.  It’s something that happens to everyone.

For the Christian, I believe the Bible teaches that God uses trials to refine us, to sanctify us, to mature us and to strengthen us.  But for the unbeliever, who does not have a foundation, such trials will wreck destruction upon them.  So that is one interpretation.

But I think the intent of this illustration goes further than that.  I think He is not just speaking of the trials of this life, while we are living, but that Jesus is speaking of the end of our life. Death is universal. If you look at the other illustrations that Jesus gave in His sermon, He speaks of the day of judgment.  He says the broad way leads to destruction.  He says the bad tree will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  He says that may will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord” and He will say, “depart from Me I never knew you.”

So I think that Jesus is referring to the storms as a metaphor for death, and the judgment to come.  And I find support for that by His reference to the rain and the floods.  And I find it similar to language found in the Genesis account of the flood.  The flood in Genesis was an act of God’s judgment upon the wickedness of the world.  It had never rained, and so men were not concerned about that possibility. Yet the day came when God closed Noah and his family up in the ark, and the rains came, and the waters of the deep broke loose, and the floods came and destroyed all living things upon the earth.  And great was it’s fall.  

Listen, Hebrews 9:27 says, it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgement.  I think Paul is speaking of the same event  in 1 Cor. 3, in the conversation about the foundation and building upon it, Paul changes the metaphor from water to fire, saying in vs12 “Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,  each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is [to be] revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.”

You will remember that Peter said the first world was destroyed by a flood, but the next time the world will be destroyed by fire.  And so I believe this is a reference to the day of judgment, when those who are without a spiritual foundation will be cast into hell, for eternal destruction, and great will be their fall.  It’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.  God will pour out His wrath upon those who considered the blood of Jesus Christ as something common, something to be trampled underfoot in their hurry to live life like they wanted.  And as the wicked were destroyed in the day of the flood, so also at the end of the age, on that day, the wicked will be cast into the eternal flame, undergoing eternal destruction.

But in the account of the flood, you will remember that one family was saved.  They had a firm foundation.  They had built upon that foundation of faith in obedience to what God had said.  And so they built an ark in obedience to God’s word, and when the rain and the floods and the wind came, which destroyed all the rest, they were delivered. 

Listen, Jesus gave this illustration to say that there is a choice that is set before you.  To receive the life of Christ by faith in Him and repentance of your sins, or to go on your way, trusting in your own ability to make a life for yourself.  But the fact remains, that none of us get out of here alive.  It is appointed for all men to die and after that the judgment.  But a life lived in Christ is a life that endures beyond the grave.  It is a life that will be resurrected in a better body, in a better world, for a better future.  But for the life that rejects Christ, that refuses to bow to His will, for that soul there is nothing but eternal destruction.  I pray that you will hear His invitation today to come to Him, to receive Him as your Savior and Lord, and to follow Him all your days.  If you will come to Him, He said He will never cast you out.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  You are not guaranteed tomorrow.  Come to Jesus for forgiveness and a new life in Him.