At our house, we have a little, almost liturgical response that's taken hold and is being used more and more frequently. When in the middle of a project that isn't going so well, or when looking ahead at a crazy week of events and need-to-get-dones, we are getting into the habit of saying: "Rule #1 - Don't freak out." All the kids know the rule and say it to one another. One of our favorite things to do is get Hallie to tell it to us. If the situation calls for a reminder with a touch of humor, one of us will say, "Hallie, what's Rule #1?" She'll respond, "Don't feak out!" That usually helps us laugh, calm down, and keep working.

I bring it up because we are easily tempted not to laugh, but to take ourselves much too seriously. We are tempted not to calm down, but to hit the hysteria button. And we are tempted not to keep working, but to start looking for whatever responsibility is closest to us that we can throw overboard.

Before I get any further, let me say that we need to be wise. Some of us may be trying to dig a new Suez Canal with a spoon. Not only are we using the wrong tool, it's a dumb project and we've got other priorities. So yes, we need to examine if we're really working on the best things and if we really should cut back.

Also, I've recently been thinking a lot about how most (though not all) of the things we tend to stress out about are first-world problems. We are not, for the most part, concerned about our next meal or trying to figure out how we can wash the clothes we're wearing since they are the only clothes we have. We have bills, even big bills, for extra minutes on our pocket phones, for insurance for tomorrow's possible problems, for houses with doors between rooms and plumbing inside, and for bread that won't upset our sensitive stomachs. These are all fine things, but most of the time we are blessed to be in these sorts of "troubles." We're tempted to freak out in situations that are far removed from life and death dilemmas.

And if you're a Christian, YOUR SINS ARE PAID FOR BY JESUS AND ETERNAL LIFE IS YOURS! What can man do to you? Who can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord?

So, we've got it really good. We're tempted to over a number of things that are first-world problems. Let's try to keep perspective.

Because life--with people, taking care of things, earning money, etc.--is still hard and tiring and challenging. Not only that, there are a lot of evil, unresolved things still happening in the world, even if those things aren't happening directly to us.

In the midst of this, God calls us to something very specific. He wants us to have endurance. James tells us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds because God is producing "endurance" (NAS, or "steadfastness" ESV).

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4, ESV)

Why should that give us joy? We might say, "I'll take my joy another way, please." Paul sounds much like James in Romans 5:3-5.

we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3–5, ESV)

Again, we're in first-world discussions when these passages apply more to our list of to-dos than to our list of trials. We think being tired is a trial. Perhaps in some cases it is, or being tired is the result of severe adversity. Nevertheless, some of our tasks are heavy and we have hardships mixed in.

James 1 and Romans 5 are passages of truth we know. If someone asked us the question, "What is the benefit of trials?" we can answer clearly, "We get endurance that is making us perfect." But being able to answer the question correctly, even quickly, does not seem to help our emotional responses in the middle of the troubles or tired mornings unfinished tasks. Why?

The harsh answer is that we're idolators, or at least little-faithed worshippers of the true God. G.K. Beale, in his book We Become What We Worship, said,

God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core of our beings we are imaging creatures. It is not possible to be neutral on this issue: we either reflect the Creator or something in creation. (16)

The thesis of his book is that "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration" (16).

We've learned to dislike endurance because we love other gods. We love the god of comfort who takes the form of a Lazy Boy recliner or the snooze button. We love the god of immediacy who takes the form of overnight, even same day delivery (from Amazon, the holy grail of online retail). We love the god of security who takes the form of long numbers printed in black ink on our bank statements. We love the god of someone-else-will-do-it who takes the form that I'll let someone else describe some other time.

Where is the true God in all of this? Where is the sovereign God who does whatever He pleases? Didn't He say that wickedness doesn't please Him? Did He change His mind or lose His ability? Where is the loving God who didn't spare His own Son for us? Didn't He promise that He would give us all things? Sometimes it doesn't even seem like He can help me figure out what to take off my calendar, how to arrange my priorities. How can all of this be good? And why does He persist in wanting us to have endurance?

It's because He is the God of endurance. He wants us to have endurance because He wants us to bear His image. We don't value endurance because we don't really know God that well.

I've said this before, but I believe it's a healthy exercise. It's a question we can (and should) ask when it comes to worldview and worship, when it comes to life-application and how we should respond in any given situation. If we were made to bear His likeness, then we should always be asking, "What is He like?" If we want to know how to handle something, shouldn't we ask: "How does God handle that?"

For our encouragement tonight, He is not a basket case. Rule #1: God doesn't freak out.

Out of all the beings in the universe, who should be most upset that 10 year-olds in Sudan are eating from the dump or being stolen from their families or being killed? As the infinitely loving Father, who cares more that your boss assigned you a big project that is taking time away from your family? Of all the beings in the universe, who knows the most problems? Combining His omniscience and omnipresence, He sees all the visible horrors everywhere as well as all the sins in every heart everywhere. God has the most problematic material to work with.

Out of all the beings in the universe, whose name is on the line most? The sovereign God, the holy God, the God of love, the God who made grandiose promises, including numerous specific promises to Israel who rejects Him. Who should be bothered most that rebels and unbelievers and transgressors persist? That men take His Son's name in vain? That men persecute, and mock, His adopted children?

Yet God is not freaking out. There's no fretting or frenzy or fussing. He endures. That is not to say that He has to endure as if someone else is forcing Him to wait. He's waiting for a reason. He's not ignoring the problems, He's solving them according to His timeline. And He is the God of endurance.

I'm reading through the New Testament in Greek this year. I'm not creating a super detailed translation of every verse, but I've got enough proficiency and tools to make it a do-able discipline. One of the benefits for me is that I don't know Greek so well that I can just skip over phrases. I suppose translating between any two languages requires the translator to slow down. When it comes to Bible reading, slowing down helps avoid skipping over.

Paul makes a few comments in Romans 15 that are readable in English but that I hadn't given much time.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6, ESV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)

God is the God of endurance, and the "God of encouragement" and the "God of hope." The point of this benediction prayer is that God who is characterized by His own endurance will be working that out among us. He wants us to share His enduring-ability, which includes enduring one another (see also Colossians 3:12-13). He is faithful, steadfast, long-suffering, and patient. He's restoring us to His image, and He's doing that will the whole group. Talk about a project that seems impossible! That we would live in such harmony with one another...that together [we] may with one voice glorify God? Weak people with strong people? Selfish people with sensitive people? Sinners with other being saved sinners? God loves it.

If you were Him, and you had excellent, truly praiseworthy endurance, how would you show it off? If that sort of endurance were worth others having, how would you go about sharing it with them? You'd need some plots with conflict and some long books with many chapters.

If you were an endurance runner, you wouldn't show it by running across the room. If you wanted someone else to have the joy of endurance running, you wouldn't say that they were done after one lap around the track.

God--based on revelation in His word as well as revelation through providence in the world--loves Him some difficult stories. He likes dark and stormy nights, and late ones, too. He's a master at telling uncertain, page-turning suspense thrillers. He writes in enemies and heaviness and pain. He delights in improbable heroes and impossible victories. He likes the weak, the despised, and the small.

Think of all the conflict adjectives God writes with: dark, small, unfinished, uncertain, unlikely, distant, hostile, relentless, vulnerable. But think of all the resolution nouns He creates: dark turns to the dawn, small turns into a platform, hostility turns into friend(s), weakness turns into muscle, vulnerability turns into a shield, relentless turns into choruses, unlikely turns into fruit, distant turns into history.

When we're in one of those chapters, or even when we're into the next chapter that starts in the calm, we may not feel as if something magnificent occurred. But we did share more of His magnificent endurance.

God is spinning a lot of plates. Some of those plates crash because He wants them too. While we obviously can't do all that He can do, we can (and should) do like He does. So spin some plates and stop freaking out about how many it is and don't freak out if one (or more) plates shatter.

We'd rather, I think, just keep the plates in the cupboard and rent a DVD. We'll sit this one out. We've already got a lot going on, so one more plate might throw everything out of kilter.

If you can figure out a way to manage everything in your life than you don't need God. If you can eliminate all the hard things than you don't need faith. If it doesn't require faith, then it's not pleasing to God. Until you get the point where you want to give up, you can't endure.

Because we have hard decisions doesn't (always) mean that we're in the wrong place. Sometimes it does, and we need to repent for our sinful choices that got us there. But when we live by faith we'll be tired. We'll be afflicted by not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed in order to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7-8). But His power is supposed to be visible in our dying to bring life.

A strange thing is not happening to you. Are you frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, uncertain? Sweet. Don't quit, unless you do it like a man. As the King James says, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13). No wimps.

Wisdom knows, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small" (Proverbs 24:10). God is reshaping us into His image, an improbable proposition. But He loves it, even if it takes a while. And of course it will. He's the God of endurance, the God of encouragement, and the God of hope.

Endurance brings joy because we're being remade. God's plan is to remake us into the image of His Son. Jesus knew endurance.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3, ESV)

Some people respond like vultures to difficulties, taking advantage and circling overhead waiting for the worst moment. Other people, Christians included, respond like chickens, running around with their heads cut off. Still others respond like ostriches, burying their heads in the sand. Others, and I think this is what we're shooting for, respond like eagles, mounting up to fly.

The whole chapter of Isaiah 40 is worth reading, but in order to encourage our endurance:

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

Mount up!

Men are good at overestimating what they deserve and what they can do. In John 6, the crowd expected Jesus to provide bread for them as He had the previous day. They acted as if they were entitled to it. The crowd also expected that they could figure Jesus out, that they could determine if He really was someone they should pay attention to. In fact, they figured that if Jesus did whey they deserved (that is, made them easy food), then they would know what to do.

They overestimated what they deserved because they thought that they already had life. But Jesus told them that they didn't have true life, eternal life. They also overestimated their abilities. But they weren't able to measure Jesus. They saw His miracle(s) but couldn't see who He really was. They heard His invitation but couldn't come. They hungered but had no taste. They grumbled and quarreled rather than understand. And then they left (verse 66).

The audience gets smaller as the chapter gets longer.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (John 6:60, ESV)

A group of so-called disciples left the synagogue (see verse 59) and were thinking about what they had heard (the aorist participle suggests, "having heard" or "after hearing"). These men were "followers" of Jesus without really following Him. This group of disciples must also be distinguished from "the Twelve" in verse 67.

Because of verse 61, we know that these "disciples" were not taking their questions to Jesus. It is always easier to complain about a person than to that person. They said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" Or, it is a "harsh word," a σκληρός λόγος. That it was hard doesn't mean that it was "difficult" to understand (as the NAS translation suggests), but that it was tough to accept. They didn't like it.

What is the "hard word"? It seems to be the whole idea that Jesus came down from heaven (paralleled with talk about Him ascending in verse 62) and also that Jesus would give His flesh for others to eat and His blood for others to drink. They didn't appreciate His claim to heavenly, divine origin or the connotations of His metaphor. That meant that there was no such thing as a free meal with Jesus; He was the Messiah. They asked for earthly food, not eternal food. They wanted breakfast and lunch, not the Bread of life.

In the question, Who can listen to it?, the word listen is the same Greek verb as at the beginning of the verse, when many of his disciples heard it. "Many who heard said, 'Who can hear?'" Or, their ears were open enough to open long enough for them to close them. What Jesus said was unacceptable and they objected. In our day we might hear someone say, "My God isn't like that." The play on words points out that hearing is not enough, especially when it's not what you want to hear.

The remaining verses of the paragraph are Jesus' answer along with a couple extra insights about Jesus' perspective provided by John. Here are four responses that underline the need for spiritual initiative.

Jesus, on the other hand, didn't need to hear them to understand completely that they had a problem with Him.

But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? (John 6:61–62, ESV)

Just as the crowd grumbled (verse 41, from γογγύζω), these disciples also grumbled. Jesus knew in himself, He knew because of divine omniscience, not just because He saw them pouting off in a corner with fussy faces. Jesus knew the heart of men (see John 2:23-25) because He was God.

Jesus asked first, "Do you take offense at this?" He knew the answer. They were grumbling because they didn't like it. Jesus points out that they were about to fumble what they most needed to hold onto. To be scandalized (σκανδαλίζει), to be offended like this is to be on the precipice of downfall, at the crossroads of walking away. They didn't like His truth, His life, or His authority. But without Him, they would remain in darkness, death, and slavery to human reason.

The bread that came down from heaven was there, right in front of their faces and they couldn't see it. Jesus' second question, "Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?", leads to the rhetorical answer. The point is, they would miss that and find a reason to grumble about His ascension, too. Their reasoning wasn't getting them anywhere, their senses were broken, and they weren't going to whine themselves out of ignorance or offense.

They think that they have what they need. Jesus says that they don't.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63, ESV)

Here is the first time in the chapter that Jesus mentions the third member of the Triune life-giving team. Not only is it important for us to know who gives life, but it is even more important for us to realize that someone else must give life. The flesh is no help at all. The flesh provides no "assistance," no "aid" in giving life. Whatever the flesh can do, the flesh is useless to bring life. No amount of investigating, reasoning, or working enables a man to get life for himself.

The Jews, and especially these followers of Jesus, had every possible fleshly advantage. They were in the presence of the Son of Man in the flesh, hearing the words of the Word of God, watching His wonder-working power. They had the Old Testament, they knew the Scriptural promises, they even knew the importance of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. In terms of human advantages, no one had more. And what good did their flesh do them? They couldn't hear Him, come to Him, or believe Him. Their flesh was no advantage. They could not make themselves a life.

Instead, It is the Spirit that gives life. Actually, it's another substantival participle: "the Spirit is the one making living."

Why say this here? What does verse 63 have to do with how they would react if they saw the Son ascending? Because the Spirit is the life-giver and therefore the Spirit is the difference-maker. Because if they had life, they wouldn't be grumbling and they wouldn't be offended. They weren't understanding because the Spirit hadn't given them life. They could no more get life than a baby can birth itself or a dead man can resuscitate himself. It's harder than you think. In fact, it's impossible for the flesh. Every man needs spiritual initiative, that is, for the Spirit to initiate life.

The Holy Spirit doesn't cooperate with life already in us, the Holy Spirit initiates life absolutely in us.

What does that have to do with the next statement? The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. Jesus was telling them the best possible news and they had no taste for it. He was offering life to dead people and, surprise surprise, they didn't want it.

Does that mean that the words weren't effectual, that the words weren't actually spirit and life? Does that mean that Jesus failed? No, it means that the Word of God works by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit gives life and enables a man to receive the food of the Holy Word.

He knows. Nothing is hidden from Him.

But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) (John 6:64, ESV)

Jesus has explained why men don't believe throughout chapter 6 and now He exposes that many of these disciples don't believe. He knew it all along.

They John adds a parenthesis. For Jesus knew from the beginning not only those...who did not believe but also the one who would betray him. Why introduce such a negative theme here? Why insert a comment about the betrayal so early in the story? Jesus will mention Judas in verse 70, which John expands in verse 71. The betraying-one is the foremost example of the unbelieving-ones. Jesus saw current invisible realities as well as future history.

Their inability is their hope, because what they need is what His Father does.

And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (John 6:65, ESV)

Jesus repeats His own point; it's the same melody with a slight twist on the lyrics. He said in verse 37 that the Father gives a group of men to the Son.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37, ESV)

He said in verse 44 that the Father draws the ones He's giving to the Son.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. (John 6:44a, ESV)

Now He states that the Father gives the coming-ability as part of His drawing. In light of verse 63, He does it by making a person alive in the Spirit.

It's why coming to Jesus is no drag even though God is sovereign from the beginning to the end of the process. In fact, not a single person would ever take a step toward Jesus unless the Father and Son and Spirit initiate. Jesus repeats human inability and the grace of God, that God changes the wants, overcomes willful resistance, and overcomes their inability to change their will themselves.

No one comes to Jesus who does not believe; they come because they want to. No one wants to unless the Spirit gives them life; they believe because the Father grants them belief. They need spiritual, that is, the Spirit's initiative. Otherwise, now would have been a fine time for Jesus to say, "There are some of you who do not believe, I've known it all along, and I don't know what else I could do to help you."

This is a hard saying. Who can accept it? It is even harder than you think.

What's hard here? There is no salvation without Jesus. Believing Jesus means receiving who He is--the Son sent from heaven, and identifying with His death--eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Accepting the exclusivity of salvation is hard. Accepting the bloody sacrifice is hard. And you can't accept any of it unless the Father gives you life by the Spirit. Accepting the truth of His sovereign initiation is hard.

You can't do it on your own. You can't hear and accept (verse 60), you can't believe (verses 63-64), and you can't come (verse 65) without God. You can't live without God. Knowing who Jesus is is harder than you think (verse 60). Understanding Jesus' words is harder than you think (verse 63). Believing in Jesus is harder than you think (verse 64). Coming to Jesus is harder than you think (verse 65).

God is sovereign. The Father draws and gives. The Son knows hearts, knows the future, gives His flesh, and guarantees to raise His gift on the last day. The Spirit gives life. We can do none of those things. "God saves sinners."

God's sovereignty is a stone of offense to the pretentious, a staff of correction to the forgetful, and a sanctuary of refuge to the trusting.

It's hard to determine the point of this paragraph--of the last half of John chapter six for that matter--because it appears to send two conflicting messages. Jesus, the one doing most of the talking in the story, is explaining why men don't believe. Not only do they grumble and quarrel, they also won't come to Jesus unless the Father gives them to the Son and draws them. Jesus explains why men don't believe.

John, however, the one doing the writing of the story, is inviting men to believe. That's the point of his entire gospel. Even though men grumble and quarrel, even though the Father must draw them, they won't have life without believing in Jesus. John invites them to believe.

So which is the point? Both. Besides, I think it's probable that Jesus, while explaining their unbelieving, is at the same time inviting them to believe. And John, while inviting believing, is also explaining men who don't. We are benefited by both. We need to hear the invitation and the explanation. That said, both are hard to chew.

The flow of verses 52-59 follows this path: verse 52 - Arguing, the crowd of Jews respond with agitation to Jesus telling them His flesh was bread. Verses 53-58 - Answering, Jesus answers the crowd and agitates them even more. Verse 59 - Abridging, John ties a bow on the paragraph and summarizes why Jesus was so agitating. Let's start there.

Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. (John 6:59 ESV)

These things goes back to verse 22. The crowd followed Jesus seeking further food from Him since He fed them the previous day (verse 26). They're in Capernaum and, in particular, in the synagogue. This is a group of religious people in a place of worship. These people might be hungry, but they're civilized; they have some culture. Jesus taught that they needed to seek a different sort of food, true food, food that endures to eternal life. He called it the Bread of Life and then said that He Himself was the Bread and that they needed to come to Him. He just told them that they needed to "eat this bread" (verse 50) and then said that the bread is His "flesh" (verse 51).

They freaked out.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52, ESV)

They began arguing with each other. Disputed is more heated than "grumble" in verse 41. They were fighting and bickering. But just as their grumbling, their arguing wasn't with Jesus, it was about Him. They're talking about this man, not a pronoun of compliment. There is no indication that anyone in the debate was on Jesus' side. They were divided about how to disagree with Him, stumbling over each other to differ with Jesus.

The general question was, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? That doesn't make any sense. This wouldn't be the first time that people misunderstood Jesus' metaphors. Nicodemus asked about crawling back into his momma's belly. The woman at the well wondered where His bucket was. Eating the flesh of of a man is no less problematic. Even if they did understand that it was a figure of speech, they didn't ask Him what He meant.

Jesus sticks His spoon in the boiling pot and turns up the heat.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53, ESV)

He's serious. Truly, truly. He's not playing games here. But He doesn't answer their question, not yet, nor does He back down and try to make them feel better. In fact, He makes it worse. Now they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

Not only is that repulsive and monstrous, it was unlawful. God said He would set His face against that person who eats blood and that He would cut him off from among His people. God prohibited the Jews from eating the flesh of animals with blood remaining in it (Leviticus 17:10-14), let alone drinking animal blood or human blood. The only use for blood was to splatter it on the altar, not to slurp it from a cup. Just as Jesus intentionally jump-started irritation by telling the paralyzed man to walk with his bed on the Sabbath (John 5:8-12, 18), so Jesus intentionally stirs the pot.

Finley Peter Dunne, a Chicago journalist who lived at the turn of the 19th century, wrote about how a newspaper "comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable." Afflicting the comfortable, offending the easily offended, is exactly what they need. Stirring the pot might make the beans uncomfortable, but it keeps them from burning on the bottom. These Jews were stuck and burning in their death. Jesus tells them that life is found in one place: unless you eat and drink you are dead. You have no life in you. They are disputing with each other rather than digesting the food Jesus offers.

Jesus continues His response with four descriptions of the bread-eater. The ESV appropriately uses a different word in verse 54, 56, 57, and 58 from verse 53. "Eat" in verse 53 is from esthio (ἐσθίω), the basic word for taking something in through the mouth, eating. But the word use in verse 54 and following is from trogo (τρώγω), "to bite or chew food," to munch, "audible eating" (Lenski, 492). But unlike the ESV, it's not an emphasis on whoever, it's an emphasis on "the one chewing" or "he who eats" (NAS). The construction, "the one chewing" is used four times and describes the Bread-feeder.

Eaters and drinkers of Jesus are promised things no one else gets.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. (John 6:54-55, ESV)

Jesus repeats the eating flesh and drinking blood from verse 53, stating the it from the positive angle; you're dead without it, you live with it. Verse 54 also parallels verse 40:

everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40, ESV)

The parallel makes the meaning of "eating flesh" and "drinking blood" clear. Since only the one eating and drinking has life, it is vital to understand looking and believing in Christ. Eating and drinking represent the believing, and the flesh and blood specifically connect the believing with Christ's sacrifice. Jesus characterizes the Bread-feeder by the activity. It is their habit, ongoing, non-quitting eating and drinking. It is a constant receiving, just as the body is constantly fed by eating.

They have, now, already started, eternal life. It's a different kind of life, and there will be more to say about what makes it "eternal" rather than just meaning "unending." They also will be raised by Jesus on the last day. That means they get two lives, one for the soul now and another for the body later. Those who don't eat and drink go from one death to another. They are spiritually dead in soul now and will be physically dead in body soon.

Eaters get eternal life because of what they're eating. Verse 55 starts with a "for" (though not in the ESV). It is the explanation for verse 54. Jesus is true food and true drink. He's the only one who can give and sustain true life, eternal life. To switch illustrations, as drawing a map with the earth at the center is improper, so true life with anyone but Jesus at the center is impossible. No one has life apart from the true Life.

Eaters and drinkers of Jesus are joined to Jesus.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. (John 6:56, ESV)

They key is "in me are abiding and also (I am abiding) in him" (SKHV). Abides is a general word, to remain or stay or dwell. The most famous use in John comes in chapter 15 with the illustration of the vine and the branches. Abiding is another way to say eating and drinking, not that abiding is a result of it. There is ongoing connectivity and non-stop dependence.

This is part of the reason why eaters and drinkers refers to believers. Those who believe live in Jesus and Jesus lives in them. The life principle is integrated, fused into us.

But it's not reciprocal; life doesn't flow back and forth. Though both sides do the dwelling, only one side does the depending. Jesus doesn't get life from us like we get life from Him. He does, though, enjoy fellowship with us. By sharing His life with us, we get what we didn't deserve and we both get joy.

Eaters and drinkers share in God's life. The comparison proves the certainty.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. (John 6:57, ESV)

The living Father (the only time in the Bible this description is used) sent the Son on a life-giving mission. The Son lives because of the Father. The Father is the ultimate and absolute fountain, and He gave the Son life in Himself (John 3). There are no hiccups, no disruption of life in the shared life of the Three Persons united together. Likewise, eaters will live because of being united to Jesus. Just as Jesus lives because of the living Father, we live because of the living Son. If you could separate those Two, then we could be separated from life.

Eaters and drinkers of Jesus have way more than daily manna.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:58, ESV)

He repeats Himself about coming down from heaven. They didn't like it the first time He said it and questioned His paternity. He repeats that the bread their fathers ate was limited. He repeats that He is better bread. Eating Him will bring a forever king of "life unto the ages."

These are amazing things available only to those who: come, believe, eat, drink, abide. In other words, those who live in an ongoing, dependent, loving, sharing relationship with the Son. For however much eating His flesh and drinking His blood was a graphic offense, it was even more a graphic offer. Eat and drink for eternal, true life!

True life is exclusive: "unless" we eat and drink Jesus we can't have it. True life is dependent: we must always be feeding, receiving.

Being offended is easy. It's natural. And it's a sign of death. Being offended into true life is hard. But humility is a sign of life. Only the humbled will bow before Jesus, will trust Jesus, will share life with Jesus. Truth drives unbelief crazy and yet truth brings belief by God's grace.

The group Jesus addresses dwindles. The crowd gets smaller and so-called disciples will grumble and leave Him. We hear nothing about the Capernaum Jews' response but are left to assume that most, if not all, did not become eaters. It was too hard for them to chew.

What do we do daily to eat and drink Jesus? What does it look like to abide in Him and He in us? Behold and believe, look to and come to and trust in Jesus in all the events and decisions, whether hard or happy.

Jesus took on flesh and gave His flesh so that we might have life. In Him was life (John 1:4). John wrote his gospel so that we might behold the glory of Jesus, believe in Him and have life in His name (John 20:31). Our study in the Gospel of John has brought us to chapter 6 and John's account of Jesus offering Himself to men as the bread of life. "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51). He is living bread.

Jesus offered "living water" to the woman at the well in Sychar (John 4:10). Now He's offering "living bread" (verse 51). Living water would quench a forever thirst, living bread satisfies a forever hunger.

But Jesus' audience wasn't buying, or eating or believing. It started for most of this crowd the day before on the other side of the Sea when Jesus turned a little snack into a 10,000+ person meal with leftovers (John 6:1-15). Many of the bread eaters followed Him back to Capernaum and were seeking more provisions (John 6:22ff).

They didn't like Jesus' answers so much that they "grumbled about him" (verse 41). After this round of complaining (verses 41-51) they will start quarreling (verses 52-59). Nevertheless, Jesus is offering them something good, something vital, and they don't want it.

In verse 43 we saw that Jesus gave them an odd imperative. The command seems odd since He knew why they couldn't believe, which He explained in verse 44. Why did He tell them to stop grumbling when He knew that they needed outside help in order to understand what He was saying? I think it's because they weren't paying attention. Jesus wasn't telling them to calm down as much as He was telling them to wake up and deal with Him.

Then He explained the irresistible attraction in verse 44. It is an expanded version of verse 37: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." The point is that God must initiate or no man will come.

Men don't have a knowing problem. The truth is out there, especially in the case of this group of grumblers, since the Truth was standing right in front of them. Men have a wanting problem. They are hungry but have no taste for Jesus. They don't want Him. Only the Father, by the work of the Spirit (think new birth from chapter 3) can give men a taste. Then they will want Jesus, then they will come to Him.

God draws men and His drawing is:

God's work is the decisive difference between a man who eats the bread and a man who won't. Both are hungry but only one has a taste. The other grumbles.

Divine want-changing is an old promise. Jesus refers to the "Prophets" and then paraphrases Isaiah 54:13 in verse 45 and it's an idea found in numerous Old Testament passages. The Jews had God's law but could not perform it all. They had the sacrifices God prescribed but that couldn't keep them from sinning. They saw God's miraculous deliverances and provisions but that didn't make them faithful. They needed new hearts. The New Covenant promised just that.

And we saw in the second half of verse 45 and into verse 46 that the new hearts always recognize Jesus and His Father. Men can't claim that God is directly working in their hearts if disconnected from the Son because only the Son "has seen the Father" and can bring us to the Father.

All along, even with their grumbling, everything they needed was right in front of them.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. (John 6:47, ESV)

Jesus told them "Truly, truly" (verse 26) and then to "work for the food that endures to eternal life" (verse 27). He offered to give them "true bread from heaven" (verse 32) and the He explained the bread was a who, "I am the bread of life" (verse 35). "Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life" (verse 40). This is what set them off.

Their fussing doesn't stop Jesus. The fact that God must initiate does not mean that God doesn't use invitations as instruments to draw men. He says again, ἀμὴν ἀμὴν, the one believing has life eternal. So, believe! Look that you get!

It seems to be a common misunderstanding about God's sovereignty, namely that God plans the end apart from any means. But He never does. He plans the way and the tools and the people as well as the destination. If God predestined you to go to St. Louis, He also planned the car, gas, the Interstates, GPS, and so on. He also planned for you to want to go.

So, He plans (ordains, destines, predetermines) eternal life for His people. He will give them to His Son (verse 37). He will draw them to His Son (verse 44). He will also use invitations to believe proclaimed (here by Jesus Himself). He will use the powerful, but initially unobservable Spirit to bring men to believing (John 3:8). No man has eternal life who doesn't believe. No man believes who hasn't been "born of God" (John 1:13), and all the drawn are marked by believing.

And everyone who believes, no matter whoever believes, will have eternal life. "Whoever believes" (which is more truly "the one believing") is only indefinite to us, from our perspective.

We don't ask if you've been drawn, we ask if you believe. If you do believe we know you've been drawn. God has "taught" you (verse 45). We know that you wouldn't behold and believe without God making the bread of life seem tasty. If you don't believe, we point out Jesus' invitation. He may use that to draw you.

Jesus makes His point again.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. (John 6:48-50, ESV)

He said, "I am the bread of life" already in verse 35. He already told them that His Father gave "true bread from heaven" that was better than the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness (verse 31). As miraculous (and genuinely helpful) as the manna was, it was limited. He presses home their need for more, their need for Him.

Verse 49 is a concessive idea: Even though your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, they still died. The manna wasn't a bread that could keep them from the worst kind of dying. That food was temporary and it was for their physical bodies. Jesus is offering a bread for the soul, a bread that keeps one from eternal death.

Jesus summarizes and makes a significant addition while preparing us for the following section (verses 52-59).

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51, ESV)

Now He says He is the living bread rather than "the bread of life." He is a food characterized by life. The bread gives life because He is life. Then He reads the package: the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The ingredients: His flesh. Distributed from: heaven. The effects of eating: eternal life.

First He said He would give bread (verse 27). Then He said He was the bread (verses 35 and 48 and 51). Now He says His flesh is the bread. This is the most intense, and personal, declaration yet.

When He says He will give He's talking about His sacrifice. And this giving is voluntary (no one will require or force Him into it) and vicarious (it is on behalf of others) (Carson, 295). This giving is future tense, I will and the flesh means He would die. Not only did "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14), the Word will give His flesh for sake of life.

Commenting on verse 51, John Calvin wrote,

We all desire life, but in seeking it, we foolishly and improperly wander about in circuitous roads; and when it is offered, the greater part disdainfully reject it. For who is there that does not contrive for himself life out of Christ? And how few are there who are satisfied with Christ alone! (Calvin, 261)

Men don't naturally want the bread of life. They are hungry, but being hungry is not spiritual death. Having no taste for Jesus is spiritual death. This is why it's good news not only that those who come to Jesus will never die, but also that God will bring men to Jesus who otherwise would have remained forever in their death. It is good news that God changes hearts.

It's important to keep repeating the truth to someone who keeps refusing to believe because God may use it to draw someone else within earshot to His Son. So, John believes this story will be used by God to draw men to Christ. It also reminds us who have been drawn that our life is in Him.

I've been speaking on personal discipleship the last couple weeks. The subject has been on my mind, and the application of the Trinity for our church seems as important as ever.

Personal (life on life) discipleship isn't merely one methodological option, it is deeply, eternally theological. The ground and the goal, and the process in between, are all Trinitarian.

Interestingly enough, one of the clearest, conspicuous statements of the Trinity comes in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). We also see the Trinity at work in the ascension account (Acts 1:1-8).

Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen [the Great Commission]. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

This is more Great Commission speak: "be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." In other words, make disciples of all nations. The Trinity is hidden in plain sight again. We see the Father with authority, a global witness program for Jesus, carried out by the power of the Spirit! The ground and the goal of discipleship, as well as the entire process of discipleship, are all Trinitarian.

Why, oh why, so much Trinity stuff? Is this really necessary? How much of this is on the test? Isn't the God-man difficult enough to explain to people? Isn't the cross enough of a scandal and offense? Isn't the call to take up your cross and lose your life demanding enough?

It's safe to assume that God knows exactly how difficult the doctrine of the Trinity is for us to wrap our minds around. I think it's also safe to assume that He revealed it because it is important, and that there is also a reason it is so intricately woven into our disciple-making commission. In fact, perhaps one of the reasons we don't know how to approach personal discipleship (as well as marriage and Body life) is because we don't know how to approach the Trinity. So? There are at least two reasons the Trinity is the theological basis for discipleship.

Disciple-making relates to a particular God. God is unique above the gods of the nations and God reveals Himself as one-of-a-kind and three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Disciple-making is Trinitarian, not unitarian (one God - one Person). We talk about three Persons, not three different modes of God, as if He changes from one form into another depending on the time or situation. All three Persons have always existed as their own Person.

There is a confessional commitment to discipleship. When we baptize disciples, the disciples identify with a specific God. From the earliest doctrinal debates, the church has worked hard to distinguish the Trinity with accuracy.

Certain facts about God must be communicated in the form of words to disciples. God is who He is, we are to worship Him as He is, not as we imagine or prefer, and God is Triune. "God minus creation would still be God, but God minus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would not be God" (Sanders, 70). If we do not teach who He is, if we leave the Godhead vague or foggy, we are making disciples of another god. Unless disciples identify with and worship the triune God, they are idolators.

That doesn't mean that a person must be able to explain the eternal generation of the Son and procession of the Spirit in addition to the hypostatic union before they can repent and believe for salvation. It does mean, however, that we are responsible to teach theology proper in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

I think we probably get that part okay; we're mindful of the need to stay out of the ditch of inaccuracy. So is that it? Is discipleship nothing more than passing along true, though often undigested propositions about God and parroting a Trinitarian formula when we dunk disciples under water?

Disciple-making relates to a particular God who is a personal God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all three Persons, work as a tri-unit, not only that we may know certain facts about them, but also that we would have fellowship with them! Yes, there is a confessional commitment to discipleship. But we also have a relational commitment.

There are two ditches, not one, to avoid. The Trinity keeps disciple-making from being idolatrous. The Trinity also keeps disciple-making from being impersonal. Which implies that, to the degree that our disciple-making is impersonal, we are reflecting another god/idol, too.

Many truth-toting Christians are in this ditch. We can see all the people in the opposite ditch because we're standing on our Bibles, and we may presume that since their heads aren't as high as ours that our ditch is better. It isn't.

God reveals Himself in creation and redemption for sake of our fellowship with Himself. Let's take a little time to work through this.

Why did God create persons? Because He is Persons and we're made to reflect Him. "Let us make man in Our image" (Genesis 1:26); "image" includes the capacity for relationship because He enjoyed His own relationships so much. Why is it not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18)? Why are two better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9)? How can two totally different persons be so intimate that they become one (Genesis 2:24)? Because of the Trinity.

He made us social beings because He is social by nature. Though He could have left us with horizontal experience of relationships only, He also invited men into a vertical relationship with Himself. It's almost impossible to imagine how good Adam and Eve had it in the garden with the LORD. What made it good, though, was not that Adam and Eve were able to write the best systematic theology book about God. They had fellowship with God.

Then what happened at the fall? The intimacy (horizontal, but especially vertical) was shattered; the fellowship was broken. Note that Adam and Eve still had the facts, what they lost was the fellowship.

But don't miss that God made men and women to reflect His own nature, His relational nature, His eternal joy shared with other Persons.

Redemption is the work of the Trinity to save sinners. That's the gospel, that's the message of disciple-making. But we can make that sound so impersonal depending on how we say it.

Maybe this question would help to clarify the difference in tone. Do you think God prefers justification or adoption? Based on how we usually speak and disciple, adoption sounds good, but "justification is the doctrine by which the church rises and falls" (per Luther). In it's Reformation context, sola fide was a watershed that provided relief to many burdened souls who believed they needed to purchase or earn their approval with God, no doubt. But in itself, would you rather get your freedom from prison or a Father who provides?

Consider the purpose statements in these verses.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...

The substitution of Christ, the righteous taking on our unrighteousness, justification, was so that "He might bring us to God"!

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

The Father's eternal plan, the history of redemption, involves delivering men from the law in order to adopt sons. We're brought close enough to cry, "Abba, Father!" The Son redeems "so that we might receive adoption as sons," making us brothers with Himself (cf. Romans 8:29). The third Person of the Trinity, "the Spirit of His Son" (v.6), "the Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:18), indwells us. We are brought into the family of the Trinity.

God's redeem-to-adopt (not foster to adopt) mission is Trinitarian, and He funds every part of it personally. "Christian salvation comes from the Trinity, happens through the Trinity, and brings us home to the Trinity" (Sanders, 10).

Consider Jesus' high priestly prayer.

John 17

Is disciple-making about eternal life? Yes. Truth-telling? Yes. Sanctification by truth? Yes. But why? So that we might be one just as the Father and Son are one (v.11). So that we might be brought into Trinitarian unity and into Trinitarian joy (v.13). So that we might be with Him and see eternal glory (v.24). So that the Father's love for the Son--and what kind of love is that?--might be in us, too (v.26).

So, when we tell others the gospel, what are we telling them? Yes, we are telling them that they can have forgiveness. But that's not it! God does not forgive you and let you into heaven reluctantly (because He said He would) and then keep you as far away from Himself in heaven as He can.

God’s eternal purpose is to bring individuals into eternal life, that is, to invite persons into intimacy like the Trinity and with the Persons of the Trinity. It’s not business. It’s personal.

That means that impersonal discipleship is false discipleship. That's why the air war can only do so much. When I stand behind the music stand, I can set a direction, I can set a tone, but that is only a start and a small part of the process. The disciples of Jesus weren't His disciples because they heard all His sermons, but because they followed Him around and asked Him questions later in small group. Discipleship (and life itself) requires relationship.

The basis for us to make personal disciples, to bring men and women from every nation into fellowship with God the Father through Christ by the Spirit, is that making disciples is God's goal to share Himself, eternal life, the relational joy of the Trinity with men and women from every nation. God delights in Himself, and discipleship is His delight extended and shared with persons.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Let's pray and then we'll get started. Father, we come to this study knowing that you are the supreme ruler of the universe. We know that. You've declared that. You were the one that made it. You've spoken into existence. And help us always to remember that as we look into these things. Help us be accurate as we talk about these different terms and where they're used. Help us to understand you better. And thank you for those things. Amen. OK. The proposition. Do I just touch this? Got to swipe it over? I see. It's got to be to the left. OK. So here's the situation. When you read your Bible, you read, this man wished this.

This man desired that. This man purposed to do this. This man counseled to do that. This man planned to do that. And these two words are the words that are used in the New Testament for that and in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So there's two words, and they get used interchangeably. The proposition I want to make is that they are not interchangeable. The first word, which is thello, is a Greek word that should be translated desire. The second word is bulimai or bulay should be translated plan. Just simply that. One desire, one plan. Now the issue comes if you translate the word that says plan as desire or wish, it doesn't make any sense.

It weakens it to where it's nothing. I wish I could go to Disneyland. That's not the same as planning to go to Disneyland, gathering my clothes together, packing my trunk, getting a roadmap, buying gas, having a car, all of that. I can wish and desire a lot of things, okay? Now these terms do become trickier when we start talking about God, but you'll see as we examine where men state them, where God states them, they start to clarify if you just think about it this way, that the first word is desire, the second word is plan. Now the next question is, why would you get a bunch of Bibles with all these different words in them?

How come they don't stick to it? John MacArthur, in the last couple of years, has written this book called Slave. And what he did there was say everywhere in the New Testament due loss is used, it is slave. That's the common term for a slave. Not a bondservant, not a special deal where I go and make a deal and become under somebody like that, but a common slave. And so he wrote that book, Slave, showing we are slaves of Christ. Okay? And it's the same thing. Translators say, well, that just gets boring to put slave every time. So sometime we'll put bondservant, sometime we'll put this. And it's more literarily acceptable.

The problem is when you start doing that with God's word, you can start fudging the meanings if you don't know what it is. And you'll see as we go through this, there are some tricky passages where people come up with different conclusions because a word that means plan is being translated as wish or desire or one of those kind of things. You'll see how that works. So that's where I'm going with this. Where I got this idea was back when I was in seminary and talking with people, a guy named George Zemek, whose theology wonk, and he looked at these words and did a whole word study on him when he was going through theology too, and said that somebody should attack this as a doctoral thesis and write a whole big book on it, because throughout the ages people have done this.

You're gonna see, I'm gonna bring up terms that theologians have come up with, and all these things, and you can read these theological books where I, Oh, in this particular case, that's God's permissive will. In this particular case, it says decreed will. Well, the problem is solved if you just translate these words in those verses this way, and you don't have to have all these fancy terms. You just see exactly what God has said. So that's the proposition of the thing. So people say, well, why would they do that that way? Bibles are translated by committee. A bunch of people from different denominations and they're experts in the languages, but different denominations and theological points of view get together and have to come together and agree on the words and the phrases as they go through these things.

And that causes them to say, well, I am not gonna give on this particular word in this particular place, or it could cause our whole denomination to have a problem. That's why, like in the Russian translation of the Bible, most Russians believe they can lose their salvation because the Russian translation is very weak in those areas where you could lose your salvation. Once they come to learn what the original language says, most of the students get very upset with their Russian Bibles. So then they go back to their Russian Baptist churches and say, well, that word should be this. Now, that causes a big ruckus. What do you mean we can't lose our salvation?

If you tell people their destiny is secure, then they won't obey and they'll run off. So they protect those kind of things. So translation committees are kind of a unique thing. As we go through this, though, we need to pay attention to these particular verses, keeping in mind as we talk about these things that there's an overarching principle, all right? Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law. Isaiah 55, eight, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways, higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Romans 11.33 says, Oh, the depth and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again. For for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever and amen. Now that obviously says we should be careful when you start making these judgments. But to the things he's revealed to us, we should embrace. So there's no sense in being afraid if there's clear verses on different subjects. It's just when you're out there farming around where it isn't clear.

The other thing that we have to keep in mind as we study these kind of things is the absolute sovereignty of God, and that the word of God knows nothing about a semi-sovereignty or a contingent sovereignty. That would be no sovereignty at all. So in other words, this does away with process theology. If God says, oh my goodness, only 30 people showed up tonight and I had it planned, 40 people showed up, so those 10 people aren't where I had them planned, so now I have to rearrange my plan for the universe because it didn't work out how I wanted it. See how ridiculous that is? If God made it and he knows the beginning from the end, all in the middle he is planned perfectly out.

The other thing that happens when you study the Bible is the bottom sentence, the wretched sinfulness of man, and yet the genuine responsibility of man. God is totally sovereign and we are totally responsible. That's one of those things that even though you can't put it in your head, you have to keep it balanced. You have to know that God is three in one. If you don't, you're a heretic, and if you do say you understand it, you're crazy. It's beyond us, but it's something that he's declared and that we should believe by faith. The other thing to always keep in mind is my favorite saying, there is a God, and you're not him.

If you remember that every time you think you're going to do something, that's a really good thing. Because what is sin anyway? It's you doing what you want to do, regardless of what God wants. You're not God. You don't get to do that. So keep that in mind as you walk along the street and go everywhere. All right. Next one is that every translation is an interpretation. I've said this a lot of times, people have heard me, but you start translating something, you're interpreting it. So what this defense is, you're gonna say, well, you're suggesting I pick this word and do that. Yeah, but if you're quote, woodenly literal, it may not read easy, but everybody understands, oh, you're using that word in place of that Greek word.

Now, translations are that, you know, it's a difficult thing to get an exact equivalent in each language. But in this kind of thing, it's not so difficult in these particular words, I think. And then the problem of the translation committee, which I've already spoken about, and that they come with their own presuppositions. The other thing to remember is everybody comes with their own presuppositions, all right? You always want to guard against that and recognize that. The next thing is the whole discussion that you've probably read in theology books. The secret will of God, the revealed will of God, permissive decrees, the order of the decrees, all of those kind of things.

What makes a decree and what makes God's will in doing something? Or if God really desires to do something, can't he just do anything he wants? So therefore, if he desires it, he will do it? You know, those are interesting questions. If he desires it, then he will do it. Not necessarily. That desire may be a description of his character. If he's long suffering, yeah, he's long suffering, he's going to wait, but that doesn't mean he's not going to do what he's going to do in the end. If he, like for instance, desires all men to be saved, then does that mean everybody's saved? that they aren't, but it shows his heart and his compassion for us. And that's where the divine sovereignty and our responsibility get on that teeter-totter.

You know, so you have to keep those things in mind. So the next thing is we're going to look at these words and start looking at examples of them, and as we do that it'll start to gel, I hope, as we talk about it. This is the Greek word This is a dictionary definition. This is on your piece of paper. You don't need to read through it now. This is a Freiburg Greek lexicon. It's a recognized lexicon. And you'll see all of these things put in here, what it could be translated, and the different verses in them. What you'll see on your paper is I've... This is a computer search giving you all the forms of each word, of each of the four words, their verb form and their noun form.

form and both things and every reference is there. We're not going to look at everyone, we will look at some examples. Then on the second side is the plan word, bulimai, with the same thing and then the last thing where we will spend some time is both words in the same verse. So there are places where both words come together in the same verse that I think really clarify why I'm making the case that it should be translated this way. So the first one is, and what I did was choose some examples that when you're looking at it in the English, you might not see the word and wonder, how did they come up with that word?

And I'll show you that if you just go back to my premise that you just translated desire, oh, that makes sense now instead of these other kind of phrases that help you with the meaning. And the, there's another thing on this little paper that I gave you guys. If you don't have a Strong's Concordance, all right, Strong's is one that gives it to you in English in the King James Version, and it'll give you reference numbers to the words so that you look at the word and then you can look at that reference number and then in a different section of the Strong's it'll tell you that's this Greek word or that Greek word where that translator got that word from.

And if you don't know Greek, that's kind of the way you're going to have to go about this. So on the back of this paper, I gave you a free concordance on the internet where you go to that biblestudytools.com and you can click on the words and get the same thing. It's a little handier than looking it up in a book. But the idea is you do need to know which word is being translated in the verse to get it. Now what I've done in these notes is I've colored the word blue that's translated from the word desire in this section. So that's how I'm going to try to help you along as we go. Okay. So like for instance in this one that I chose, which is like the second verse in on the list there, is Matthew 2 18.

A voice was heard in Rama weeping in a great morning, Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. Refused to be comforted. How is that fellow? Well, she desired to be comforted because they were no more. The kids that were killed were no more. So she desired to be comforted. There's like a wooden translation of that word. Then in Matthew 5.42, give to him who asked of you and do not turn away from him who desires to borrow from you, wants to borrow. Now that one's much closer. want and desire close. But like wish has a whole other connotation and it gets strung in there a lot.

But the person who desires to borrow from you don't turn him away. Be a good neighbor. Do unto others as you'd have them do under you. Make sure I keep the slides. Matthew 8, 2, and behold a leper came to him and bowed, down to him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, If you desire, you can make me clean. Different, isn't it? Now, if you already know he's talking to God, he wants to be cured, he's recognizing who can do it, he could even say when you're talking about God with these two things, they could have said, if you're planning, you can make me clean. But in this particular case, remember Jesus is on earth, he hasn't totally exposed himself yet, He's proving himself to be the Messiah.

And the guy comes to him and said, if you desire, you can make me clean. And then in 8.3, Jesus says, and he stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I am desiring, be cleansed. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. So they're using willing there, but you see, if you desire, Lord, you'll make it happen. And he says, I do desire, and he was cured. The next one is Romans 9.22. What if God, although desiring to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience of vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Now this one gets everybody hot about what it means and double predestination and all of that.

But the whole situation is, although desiring to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, what did he do? He endures with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. So it shows another character, a quality of him. And these things, when you try to describe God to a mere human, these are called anthropomorphisms. You're trying to take something that's not human and trying to make us understand him on human terms. But don't turn that thing back on God saying, now that I understand you in a human term, you're in my human box. You desire you have to do this. Or you feel like I do, therefore God feels like I do.

Don't get into that trap. Everybody tracking with that? You can't, just because God is long suffering doesn't mean you're necessarily long suffering, even though you should be. All right? Those are examples of the noun form of that, I mean, sorry, the verb form of that. And now we get into the noun form. And this one, there's the whole definition. It's on your sheet. It's down here, the second section of this front page. And then we have examples of the noun form. And it says in Matthew 6.10, thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, thy desire be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now people talk about, you know, you've got commentaries and books written on the Lord's Prayer about, oh, what is God's will and His permissive will and all these kind of things.

His desire, God's desire, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And this is God Himself telling us how to pray, right? Jesus. In 1 Peter 3 17, for it is better if God should desire so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for what is wrong. If the desire of God desires it, okay, that's what it actually literally reads. If the desire of God desires it so that you suffer for what is doing right rather than doing what is wrong. So not only does God's desire desire it, but you are going to do that and you will suffer for doing right rather than doing wrong. That's not too cheery, but it's, you know, that's what Peter's all about.

So that's that. A couple examples of that. And then in the verb form, plan, now we're moving to the next word. We're moving to the word plan. So that was the desire. Now we're moving to the word where I say you should be translating it plan not wish or desire. Okay. That word is bulimai and that's on the second side of your paper up at the top and all the references are there and the same definition that you see up there on the thing. Then the references that I've pulled out there for the verb form of this is Matthew 1127, all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father.

Nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son plans, wills to reveal to him whom the son plans. That's interesting, isn't it? What has Sean been teaching us as we've been going through the book of John? Christ is continually praying with the father and talking about us, and as we get into the Lord's prayer, he's going to say, those whom I have chosen, those whom I have already put into my system will come to me, those you have given me. And here, he's telling to whom the Son plans to reveal to him, the Father. Marvelous interaction of the Trinity. Remember, Sean camped on it. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and yada, yada, yada.

As you get all that together, this is the Trinitarian love of us and the incredible power of the gospel in that it's all lived out through the spirit, through the Father, through the Son, all working together like that. So I think plan is a much more powerful word than these little wills and wishing words here. Mark 1515, and wishing to satisfy the multitude, and planning to satisfy the multitude, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he delivered them to be crucified.

So Pilate planned. He felt, I got this crowd, it's getting out of hand. My plan will be send this guy over to him. Makes it different, huh? That's why he washed his hands of the deal. James 1.18, in the exercise of his plan, his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be, as it were, the first fruit among his creatures, the exercise of his plan.

I think it makes a lot more sense when you start thinking about this. It's not just his will or his wish. Like he started this whole thing going and then he looks at it and goes, oh, at this time, I'm going to wish that that would happen. I hope they all obey and make it happen. He planned it that way. And if you start plugging these words in where they're used in that way, it makes it crystal clear. Oh, well he planned that. That's exactly how it should go. I think it gives you much greater security and it gives you a real respect. God is God and he's running the show, which I think is a good thing. Always a good thing.

Second Peter 3.9, this one will, for those Arminians out there in the audience, you'll go after me here. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not planning, wishing, for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Now this one, people argue, he doesn't wish for anybody to perish, but all to come to repentance, so how come they all don't get saved? And this is the word for plan, this is bulimai. So he is planning, he is not planning, not planning for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So that verse says everybody ought to be saved, right? Ralph's nodding his head.

You guys know that that's a trap, but who is 2 Peter written to? Believers. Are they suffering persecution? Absolutely. The whole book is Peter writing to people that he knows are saints. He says that right up front in the beginning. That be patient toward you, not planning for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance who are saints.

Not the people that are non-believers. He's speaking to saints. So the audience is in the plan, all right? So that's the danger when you start plucking verses and going there. It's always look at the context. When the cult comes to the door, don't let them versify you. Grab the verse, look at the verses around it, and most of the time you destroy their argument. So it's not planning the all or the believers of 2 Peter. Then we go to the noun form of plan. And this is boule, and there's the definition. It's there on your paper again in every verse that it's used. So this little paper gives you every occurrence in the New Testament of these things in all their different ways.

So now we're looking at the noun form of the thing. And you'll notice that when they use the noun form, it shifts to what I'm proposing much more readily. So in Acts 2.23, this man delivered up by the predetermined plan, that's the word right there, and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. Acts 20.27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole plan of God. OK? That's Paul talking to all of these people at that point. So again, plan, plan. All right. So I could have gone and listed all these verses and bored you for three hours going through every verse.

That's the theology course. Every verse is looked up, yada, yada, yada. We're not going to do that. These are interesting, though. And here's where I think this really This is the one we just talked about, and now we're to the both words in the same verse. There's four occurrences in the New Testament where both words occur. And this is really interesting, I think, because you're gonna see, oh my goodness, they used the wrong word in that part of the thing, and if they would have used the right word in that part of the thing, this thing makes a lot more sense than it does at a different time. So the first occurrence where both words are in there, and notice the color coding, I've done the blue and the red.

The red is plan, the blue is desire. That's the way you kind of have to think of it. The reason I color coded is because I didn't want to put Greek sentences here and have you try to search for the word and all of that. And that's why I've referenced that lexicon thing where you can look it up and do it for yourself. So, and Joseph her husband being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her desired to put her away secretly. So the way I wanted to go is, and Joseph, her husband being a righteous man, and not planning, or not desiring, not desiring to disgrace her, planned to put her away secretly. So he had a desire and he came up with a plan.

They put he wanted to and then he desired. Interesting, huh? I think it's a shuffling of the two together then they shouldn't be shuffled that way. So that's one example. And the next example is Luke 22 42. Now we get to see the son and the father, two parts of the Trinity negotiating with each other, what's their will and what's your plan, right? Okay. So Christ says, father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but thine be done. Now, even if you didn't know anything about this, this whole sermon, you know that Jesus is going to be crucified. And this one gets, you know, ink gets spilled over these verses.

It just goes on and on and on. How can Jesus suffer like this? And how all this kind of stuff? But just look if you just read it the way it should be. Father, if thou art planning, remove this cup from me. Yet not my desire, but yours be done, thine be done. So it's God's plan in Jesus' desire. Jesus still knows this is a rough road he's gonna go, but he knows the plan, this is no secret. He was created from the foundation of the earth. Remember, he's telling them, whoa, don't tell him who I am just yet, as he's working with the disciples. We're still in those stages in John where he's doing all these miracles and some people are getting it and all of this and the disciples come and he says, not yet, don't tell him yet.

And they're going, but, but, but. So we see all that. So I think this one is a really strong one to see that. But they're just putting will in both things. It's not will. One's a plan and one's his desire. Then in Acts 1720, this one's an interesting one because it's more difficult to see the translation. But I think as we look at it, you'll go, oh. So this is, he's talking here in Athens. For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. The Athenians are talking to Paul. We want to know, therefore, what these things mean. And you notice, what in mean? I've gotten blue. So the first thing is we plan to know. They're asking Paul, what are you talking about? We plan to know what you're talking about. And what they're talking about is that to know the desire of these things, That's the literal Greek translation of the little phrase there of what these things mean, the desire of these things, period.

So what these things mean, if these things desire things, the things that Paul is talking about, they have a certain compilation meaning something and they're grouping. And so it's an interesting way for it to say the desire of these things, you know, and obviously it's referring back to the things he said. So in that one, it's we plan to know the desire of those things. Then in the last one, which is Ephesians 1.11, it's also, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will. And it's actually after the plan of his desire. So that one also is just a jammed up, locked up, this is what he planned and he desired it.

And then this one is really loaded because the phrase before that has, having been predestined according to his purpose, which is another simile, but it's a different word to plan. And you'll notice they use council. Council gets translated a lot as one of the things for Boule and Boulemais also. He counseled with him. It was his counsel or whatever. So bottom line is, and what did we do here? About 35 minutes, you saw that when you look at all these verses that if you just translate them plan and desire, I think it clears a lot of the confusion when you read some of these things where it goes on about this guy's will and that guy's will.

Now here's some of the interesting things that happen when you start looking these words up. When it's speaking of men, yes, these men do desire to do something and then they'll do something totally different in the verse showing that they're screwed up, they're sin tainted. When you look at it from God's point of view where God's in these verses, it like solidifies it. It goes, not only does he plan it, but he desired it. And even within the Trinity when you see the same words with Jesus and God, Jesus knew he was going to have to go to the cross, but he's saying, I don't really like this, I don't desire this, but it is in the plan of God, so therefore your will will be done.

Your desire will be done. I know the plan. So I think it's incredible when you really start thinking about this. And what happens is when you read, especially Buzzwell, covenant theologians love talking about the decrees because they get into infant sublapsarianism and this kind of stuff. And what it is, is the order of the decrees of God. Were you first chosen to be saved and then you became saved and you have all these orders of all these decrees and they get into arguments of which order do these decrees go in. If it's in the plan of God, you don't need to worry about which order it's in. If you're in the plan and you have faith, you're in the plan.

You're going to get saved regardless if you get every jot and tittle organized in that thing, in those things. But what it does is cause thinking people to start getting in the thing and start writing books on, oh, this is good, and oh, that must be God's permissive will, and This is God's kind of what he would like to see happen, but it really can happen in all this kind of talk. And it goes on and on, page after page, and you're going, how are you getting into this verse? And when you start then going back to the literal translation in the verse, you go, what are you doing? This is simple. God just says, he planned to do it, and he desired to do it or whatever.

So it's fascinating how a lot of ink gets spilled over things like that. For those of you that went through the theology notes with me over the past, my goodness, seven years previously, you noticed that as we studied some things that everybody thought was going to be confusing, as you looked up each verse, it just started locking down that thing where it was like, duh, okay, that's enough. I don't need 40 verses to prove the same thing. But what happens is people get stuck on one that seems to be a little loosey goosey and they run off with that one and they don't look at the whole counsel of God and look at it together.

So the purpose of this is not to confuse you. It does take a little bit of work, especially if you don't know the Greek and looking at the Greek text and that kind of thing, to understand which words are which. But if you just look at them and you go through this, it's a fascinating study and you start going, oh my goodness. This is a lot more black and white and simple than some of these Bible texts make it. I think some of these verses are written so convoluted that you read them and you go, what are they talking about? And when you plug these words in, it just becomes, boom, these guys plan to do this according to their desire instead of they will to do this, but they were willing to do that and you get confused when you start reading some of it.

So that's the purpose that I wanted to present this. It will cause a lot of hubbub with people that have read certain theology books because they're going to want to tell you, well, this is dismissing the wills of God and it's too simplistic to view God this way. You know what? I think that the plow boy can understand the scriptures. I think that that's the great thing of having the text in front of us. We can search it out. And most of the time, it's a matter of faith. It's really not that confusing. God is who he is, and he wants to be worshiped, and that's pretty much bottom line it. And sinful men make up all kinds of stuff and make it more convoluted, and we need to sometimes be more like the kids and the childlike faith and just see it for what it is instead of trying to become super intellectual or whatever on it.

So that's the basis of what I want to talk about. I think it's an incredible thing that happens, especially when you get into discussions with people because they're going to start to throw things at you. Well, if he wanted everybody to be saved, then he could, so therefore he's not God and that kind of thing. And remember the anthropomorphisms of God, God does not have wings, he's not a chicken like Walter Martin used to say, when he describes himself as a mother hen wants to get her chicks under his wings and those kind of things. Those are pictures, those are examples trying for us to relate to the unrelatable.

God is incomprehensible and yet he directly tells us about himself in certain ways. So if you keep all that stuff in balance, I think it makes you stronger, makes you more forthright, and I think it gives you a better understanding of who God is. So that's what I wanted to bring to you tonight. So let's pray and we can go home.

Father, in a simple study like this, we do see that you are God. We see that you have planned, that you do desire what you desire, you do plan what you plan, and you do make it happen. And we are those created beings that somehow, some incredible way, you have opened our eyes. You have caused us to see these spiritual things. And as we see them, it causes us to be more in awe of you, to fill us, to make you more awful. And in that sense, we wanna worship you. And we know that you are a jealous and all consuming God and that's what you do want is our worship. So help us to understand these things and to worship you more.

And thank you, of course, for the ultimate sacrifice of your son through with which we can pray to you and we can understand these things and we would be lost without it. The power of the gospel, as Jonathan told us this morning. So thank you for all those things and thank you for what you've done for us. Amen.

Last Sunday we entertained a bit of a thought experiment related to the kindness of God. In it, I suggested that if God had granted Paul’s desire to get to Rome when he wanted to that we would not have the book of Romans, and all those thousands of people who have been converted after going down the “Romans Road” in gospel presentations would have had to have heard the gospel by other means. And the millions of believers who have been grown and challenged by Paul’s magnum opus would be deprived of this great book.

Well, we know that God uses a variety of means to effect His purposes, but if we go a step further in our experiment, we may very well attribute much if not all of the Protestant Reformation to the book of Romans, particularly Romans 1:16-17, where we find ourselves this morning. Let me explain.

In the year 1545 Martin Luther wrote an autobiographical introduction to a collection of Latin writings, and in that introduction he writes about what has been come to be known as his “Tower Experience,” his account of which I’ll share with you now.

“Meanwhile in that same year, 1519 (that is, two years after his nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg), I had begun interpreting the Psalms once again. I felt confident that I was now more experienced, since I had dealt in university courses with St. Paul's Letters to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the Letter to the Hebrews. I had conceived a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, but thus far there had Stood in my way, not the cold blood around my heart, but that one word which is in chapter one: "The justice of God is revealed in it." I hated that word, "justice of God," which, by the use and custom of all my teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically as referring to formal or active justice, as they call it, i.e., that justice by which God is just and by which he punishes sinners and the unjust.

“But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn't be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, "Isn't it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?" This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience. I constantly badgered St. Paul about that spot in Romans 1 and anxiously wanted to know what he meant.

“I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: "The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith.'" I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith." All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God."

“I exalted this sweetest word of mine, "the justice of God," with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine's "On the Spirit and the Letter," in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted "the justice of God" in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.”

Martin Luther came to understand what we have come to take for granted: the righteousness of God refers to a righteousness that He gives to people. He also effects our righteousness, giving two edges to the “Righteousness of God” sword. He both declares us righteous and He makes us righteous.

This was earth-shattering and paradigm-altering for Luther, who became a champion of justification by faith alone, a doctrine which, again, we tend to take for granted.

But what does that have to do with this paragraph, in its context?

The very simple point of 1:8-15 is that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome. The believers at Rome were experiencing some pretty specific challenges, all of which could be helped by the gospel. So while it seems that there were several reasons that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome, among them is that he firmly believed that it was precisely what that body of believers needed.

He punctuates that passage with verse 15: “So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”

Then he proceeds with our paragraph today, verses 16-17. Now, while providing the letter’s theme, this paragraph also serves as a transition from the opening greetings to the rest of the letter. But in order to properly understand this paragraph - the very theme of the book of Romans - we must understand that it is subordinate to verse 15. That is, it is technically an explanation as to why Paul would be so eager to preach the gospel at Rome.

So, to understand his explanation, let us break down the paragraph by taking it one clause at a time, examining four declarations by the Apostle Paul.

Let us begin then, with the first declaration in the first half of verse 16.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel....”

Each of these four declarations points back to the one before it, sort of making each one subordinate to the one before. This is evidenced by Paul’s use of the linking words “for” and “as” at the start of the clauses.

Taken as a whole, then, we could actually read the whole thing backwards, starting with where Paul ends, and ending where he starts. It would look something like this:

It is written, “The righteous shall live by faith,” and in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, so the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, so I am not ashamed of the gospel.

And that means that all of it points back to verse 15: “So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (1:15).

Seamlessly then, he goes right into his expression of pride in the gospel. To say, “I am not ashamed” is an understatement; rather than being ashamed, Paul is actually proud of the gospel. He loves the gospel. He believes in its effectiveness, richness, power and practicality. He also believed that gospel principles were precisely what the Roman believers needed in their particular situation.

And in the declarations and chapters that follow the first declaration, Paul is pretty convincing. He seems to want to convince the Roman believers that the gospel was worth knowing, owning and applying.

After his first declaration then, Paul goes on to justify his pride in the gospel.

“for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek....”

Remember that each of these declarations points backward: Paul is “not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes....”

The focal point of this declaration is the phrase “the power of God.” Think about this. God’s acts of power in creation, consuming the saturated sacrifices and rocks at Mount Carmel, and so many other acts do not attain to this title. The “power of God” is the gospel.

And it’s not hard to appreciate this. God saves sinners. He does it all the time, and He always uses the gospel to do so. Without the gospel, there is no salvation. Isn’t that worth thinking about? We have no problem attributing salvation and election to God, but every time He saves someone, it is by means of the gospel. Sometimes they read it, sometimes they hear it, but they must embrace it or they cannot be saved.

And what is the gospel? It is the good news, that is, the testimony of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we must trust in Him and believe in Him and embrace the sacrificial payment for our sins or we cannot come to Christ.

What’s more, the faith that is required to believe this is also a gift from Him! It begins with Him and He receives the glory in the end.

So why would’t Paul be proud of the gospel?! He believed that it is powerful to save souls, to mend relationships and to transform an Empire. It is the only way of salvation, and it is the very power of God. It doesn’t just make salvation possible, it is the actual means that God uses to bring spiritual life.

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith....”

In the gospel God reveals His righteousness. While this would be more than sufficient material for its own study, I will briefly try to help us to better understand what we have taken for granted: in the gospel God imparts His righteousness to us.

And exactly how is it that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel? Well, we mentioned earlier that, as the very saving “power of God,” it is the actual means by which God saves us. In that process, He declares us to be righteous. Coupled with that, He actually makes us righteous.

There is another means by which the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, namely, the demands of His righteousness. We’ve gotten away from this notion because more modern - and accurate - translations render this noun “righteousness” rather than “justice,” so we don’t think about the gospel as bearing testimony to the demands of God’s justice.

But God would not be just if He were to simply ignore our sin and justify us apart from the demands of His justice being met. Stated differently, the gospel is all about the work the Christ has done to make us righteous. He has borne our sin, paid a penalty that we could not pay, taken our sin away and given us His righteousness. The demands of God’s righteousness required the death of His Son, and that is revealed in the gospel.

So to review, the righteousness of God does not simply justify His wrath against sin, but it refers to His making us righteous positionally and actually and all that is embodied in that transaction. And He reveals this righteousness in the gospel.

In the generations leading up to Luther’s study of the Psalms and the writings of Paul, the Church had commonly taught that this word rendered here “righteousness” referred to God’s “distributive justice by which he judges all people fairly and impartially” (Schreiner 63), a notion that Luther attacked after his Tower Experience.

Luther understood exactly what the implications of this teaching meant. He had been taught that this righteousness or justice of God was what justified His judgment of sinners. He was righteous, and any who are sinful cannot stand in his presence. This is absolutely true, but Luther and others had been prevented from seeing in Scripture the freedom, the release from this bondage that is in this text.

He understood that if the righteousness of God only carried bad news for the sinner (i.e., the grounds for our condemnation), then he simply couldn't do enough. Men could not escape his wrath as long as there is present any sin in our lives at all.

Imagine knowing everything you do about the gospel and man’s need for a savior, but take out the part about the imputed righteousness of Christ. How would you live if you believed your salvation depended on your righteousness...even a little bit? You’d probably be really holy...for a while. But as you’d become holier, you’d become more acutely aware of your sinfulness and you’d become even more aware still of the reaming sin in you, and you’d become frustrated...like Martin Luther.

It was this belief that his own righteousness carried weight in the matter of his salvation that drove Luther to the confessional for hours every day. This what brought on his piety, laboring intensely to avail himself of God, denying himself by intense asceticism, sleeping without blankets, in the snow and putting himself through agonizing situations in attempts to live a holy life.

Because what else did he have? If forgiveness of sin came through confession to men and personal holiness and worthiness for heaven were tied to our performance, that is if justification were by faith and by works, then who stands a chance before the “righteousness of God?”

And that “righteousness of God” to which Luther refers is here in Paul’s third declaration. It was not until, as he said, he considered the context of the reference “the righteousness of God” that the light dawned on Him. Let’s look at that together.

“as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

“The righteous” refers to the faithful in Christ, that is, it clearly refers to people. And that is fantastic news for Luther and for us! Paul is saying here that people can be righteous, and they are MADE righteous by God, specifically by the saving power of God in the gospel as He imparts His righteousness to us.

This is huge, because in the phrase that Luther hated (“righteousness [justice] of God”), the righteousness only belonged to God, and it only made the chasm between God and man greater. Then suddenly Luther noted the second half of verse 17 and Paul’s mentioning of “the righteous,” in a context that clearly refers to men. And how does that happen? God gives it to us!

Translators have wrestled with this phrase, rendering it differently from one another. Some say, “The just shall live by faith,” while others say, “The just shall live by faith,” and still others use the term “righteous” in the place of “just.” Well, whether “by faith” refers to how believers are righteous or how they live is up for debate because both are true, and both are defended in this letter. You can wrangle with the translations, and it could very well be that Paul did not intend to exclude one of the meanings; perhaps he meant both, because both are true.

But those various translations don’t make up the earth-shattering, kingdom-upsetting assumption that Paul is making in the last part of verse 17. I believe that what literally turned Luther’s life upside down is that the fact that “the righteous” refers to people, and that informs the first part of the verse. “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” to men through the gospel as He gives that righteousness to them!

Without this phrase, without the context, we would be without hope; we could conclude that, like Luther, the gospel - even the gospel - has nothing but bad news for believers. All we have is the righteousness of God that justifies His wrath on the ungodly. But rather, we are righteous in Him! And this is good news.

It is little wonder why Luther refers to the dawning of this reality on his mind and his heart as being the point of his salvation. When he understood that believers passively receive righteousness from God that is both unearned and unmerited, he was saved. It is only with the reality of the giving of Christ’s righteousness to us that we can be made righteous at all. And in the gospel this happens.

I believe that Paul in Romans 1:16-17 is working from the greater to the lesser. Sure, he is concluding the introductory comments that he began in chapter 1, verse 1, and he makes these lofty declarations about the gospel as he transitions into his indictment of mankind in the rest of chapter 1 through much of chapter 3, and the subsequent glorious meditations on the gospel itself in chapters 4-8.

But in the context, it would sure seem to be an argument from the greater to the lesser. That is to say, if the gospel is the very power of God for a salvation from final judgment, if it is the instrument by which God reveals his righteousness, giving it to men and making them righteous positionally and practically, then doesn’t it go without saying that it should be the answer for petty church problems?

Wouldn’t the Roman believers be able to apply these principles to their lives to lend perspective and to gain a powerful witness at Rome?

And the same is true for us today. We ought to be intentional about rehearsing the gospel regularly, preaching it to ourselves, living it out before our children and one another. Because among other things, it is the very power of God for salvation, and it is the means by which we have the sort of spiritual life that we long to live.

In about AD 49, amid political conflict and probably a measure of disgust, Roman Emperor Claudius banished all Jews from the city of Rome, regardless of whether they were Christians or not (he probably cared little of the difference). But in AD54, Claudius died, and with his death the banishment of the Jews was lifted. That meant that as Jews returned to Rome, they were being reintroduced to the churches. It’s not hard to imagine the tensions this may have caused.

In modern terms, conversations may have centered on who head usher or sound tech might be? Who would teach a Sunday school class, etc. The Jewish Christians had been suddenly removed from Roman church life by the government, then were suddenly thrust back in the middle of it when allowed to return to Rome. So they find themselves asking, “Did we get a new sound board?” “When did the Jones family move to Asia Minor?” “Who put leaven in the communion bread?” And things like that.

This group needed the gospel, plain and simple. And that is what Paul wants to give them.

Many of us are familiar with Romans 1:16-17, which gives us the theme of the book of Romans:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Here God grants us insight into the passion and energy of the Apostle Paul as he considered the gospel of Christ. He felt passionately and affectionately about the gospel and was motivated by its power. We know this passage well, and oftentimes in our reading we rush to this mountain peak, while missing some the very helpful, rich and insightful verses that rest in the shadows, offering a helpful and often-neglected context for the book of Romans.

In verses 8-15 we learn much about Paul’s heart and - if we read carefully and in the context of the rest of the book - we can even learn much about why he penned this letter in the first place.

The point of this passage is simply this:

Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome.

In a book as vast as the Bible, sometimes the point is rather simple, and we can tend to over-think themes amid our sermonizing and musing. But that’s it: Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome. Now there are plenty of nuances to the passage and the context and even points of application for us. Beyond this, it does beg the question, “WHY did Paul want to preach the gospel at Rome?” And I plan to get to that in greater detail next week, but in our study this morning I aim to strengthen the case that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome. So this is the overarching point that will enrich our reading and understanding of this paragraph and the one that follows.

So let’s examine our passage this morning considering four points:

So let’s look together into the heart of the Apostle Paul, looking first at his Gratitude (1:8).

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”

It is common for Paul to include expressions of thanks for his recipients in his letters. He does so in 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and more. But there are a couple of things I would have us notice. First is the prepositional phrase “through Jesus Christ.” This is no throw away phrase, but rather a part of Paul’s ongoing narrative about the intermediary work of Christ. He would have us remember that he doesn’t just offer thanks to the Father, but he does so through Christ. That is, with Christ as the Mediator and the Means by which we dare approach Him. And of course we offer any worship or praise or thanks to the Father the same way.

But of more central significance is the reason for Paul’s gratitude: what Calvin calls the “celebrity” of the Romans’ faith. Their testimony bore evidence of their salvation; this isn’t something that he would say to unbelievers. Their faith was well-known and was discussed throughout the empire, and the work the Spirit was already doing was a significant part of what was drawing Paul to Rome.

When he says “all the world,” Paul is speaking in hyperbole, because we know that he had not even been to Rome, let alone to the whole world to be able to testify firsthand to news of the Roman Christians’ testimony. Furthermore, the gospel had not gone forth to the western Mediterranean region, which is why Paul was so anxious to go there himself.

The point is not the exaggerated language as much as to say that Paul was excited by the testimony of the believers at Rome, and, as we will see, he wanted to be with these believers.

What we do not see here is any evidence that they had been particularly faithful, or that they were very zealous for the Lord or that there was a strong love among them. Contrast this expression of gratitude with Philippians 1:3-8:

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

That’s a pretty resounding vote of spiritual confidence, and a loud expression of excitement about the fruit being borne out among the Philippian Christians.

Similarly, Ephesians 1:15-16 reads,

“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers....”

Paul is excited by the Ephesians’ testimony and the evidence of their faithfulness, namely, their faith in Christ AND their love for all the saints. He makes no such statement with the Romans, which is equally loud, if we are paying attention. The truth, it seems, is that the Roman believers were wrestling though some unique circumstances.

And while it is overreaching to suggest from these verses alone that the Roman believers were immature or unfaithful, the historical context and the rest of the letter do help us to know that this group needed to hear and remember the gospel.

If nothing else, the tone of this paragraph is sincere, so we can trust that he was not just being kind when he expressed his gratitude for their testimony.

“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

This passage is not that hard to understand: Paul really wanted to come to Rome, and he called God as his witness that he wanted to come to Rome. It seems there are a number of reasons why Paul wanted to go to Rome, which come from biblical and extra-biblical context:

And it’s this last principle that really colors and informs our reading particularly of 1:16-17.

So it’s not hard to imagine why Paul wanted to get to Rome, and why he was praying for the believers at Rome. The appeal of a gospel-saturated Christian presence at the heart of the Roman empire was strong for Paul, and he wanted to get there.

Imagine if Washington DC were saturated with gospel-living Christians today. Don’t you imagine that our country would look a bit different?

But for all of this, it’s worth noting that Paul didn’t intend at this point to stay in Rome. We learn in 15:24 and 28 that his ultimate goal was to preach the gospel in Spain, where the gospel had not yet gone forth in power. He wanted to use Rome as an outpost on his way to Spain and to benefit from their spiritual and monetary assistance along his way.

In all this, Paul was acutely aware of his dependence upon God. We are all dependent upon Him, but rarely do we acknowledge that dependence. He knew it to be presumptuous to promise to come when it had been evident before that God’s desires didn’t always align with his. So he says, “I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

So this is his prayer, for God to allow him to go to Rome.

In verses 11-13 he more expressly communicates his Desire.

“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—  that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.”

Now commentators disagree as they try to make sense of Paul’s language here. I would agree that his tone does sound different from when he’s writing to churches like the ones at Corinth or Ephesus or Galatia. He’s bolder, even more personal with them, and he doesn’t sound like that here in Romans.

Some suggest that he’s a bit sheepish because he didn’t personally plant any church at Rome, he didn't feel as though he had the authority to speak boldly to the Romans. He hand’t even been there. Well, out of the gates in 1:5 he invokes apostolic authority, and the list of greetings we already mentioned in chapter sixteen are evidence enough that he knew lots of believers at Rome. So while he hadn’t been there, neither would he exactly call them strangers.

Others suggest that he had probably expressed his personal desire to get there to many of his friends at Rome and guess what? He still hand’t shown up! So, they surmise that Paul’s probably embarrassed by this.

While it’s true that he didn’t know the believers at Rome as well as the Ephesian Christians, for instance, I’m inclined to believe that none of these points actually explains Paul’s tone as much as his effort to not presume upon God. By now, it would seem, Paul knows better than to say, “I’ll be in Rome in a month.” Look back at the qualifiers of verse 10:

“...asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

Does that sound very confident or presumptuous to you? No, that sounds like a man who holds God’s will and his own desire in appropriate tension. So when he continues with similar language in 1:11-13 it comes as little surprise. Paul had wanted to visit them - even desperately, it seems - but had been prevented by God from being able to do so. We don’t have the details of how his efforts were continually thwarted, but we know this:

It is often a grace that God does not grant our desires. And even if it’s not a grace to us, it may be grace to others. For instance, I cannot imagine Scripture (let alone, life) without the book of Romans. But that’s exactly what we’d be left with had God allowed Paul to visit Rome when he wanted to. He’d certainly have no reason to write this letter.

What’s more, when he did finally end up in Rome as a prisoner, he went there at the expense of the Roman government, having appealed to Caesar. And while imprisoned this first time, many believe that he wrote additionally the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon...while as a prisoner. If he had been able to get to Rome when he wanted to, who knows whether we’d have those rich books? Of course there are no “if’s” in the scope of God’s sovereign plan, but that’s partly my point. Paul had his desires, but they came to fruition only to the degree that they aligned with God’s will and decree.

So God did have a plan for Paul to visit Rome. And the means by which it came about enabled him to not only preach the gospel amid Caesar’s household and in Rome itself, but God also made a way, then for countless millions of believers to be saved and encouraged by the content of these precious letters from the first century onward. Think of how many of us were taken down the Romans road when we first heard the gospel. It seems like a pretty good end to an otherwise frustrating story to me. Paul wanted to get to Rome, but God had a bigger plan in view.

But to return to the point of the paragraph, we’ve seen that Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome, feeling compelled, even obligated to do so, as he says in our final point.

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

We’re all familiar with the story of Saul becoming Paul, his calling and conversion from Acts chapter nine. This was not something that he took lightly. His calling was dutiful, but a joy as well. We know that the obedience of faith brought Paul tremendous happiness.

But what I am compelled by is Paul’s eagerness to preach the gospel among believers. We have a tendency to view the gospel as powerful for salvation alone when it is also beneficial for our sanctification. Unbelievers need to hear the gospel, to be sure. It is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, it offers us hope, and it is the powerful instrument by which we are saved.

Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Christians at Rome is plain. Some suggest that verse 15 speaks of Paul’s desire to evangelize the Romans, but the letter is clearly written TO BELIEVERS, as we have already seen.

We can reasonably conclude from verse 15 alone that the preaching of the gospel has benefit for believers and unbelievers alike.

Principles of grace, mercy, redemption, forgiveness, repentance, and so on have application for unbelievers AND believers, for relationship with God and with one another. That is why Paul wanted to preach the gospel at Rome: not because they needed to be converted again, but because they needed to live according to the gospel...just like us.

That’s also why he erupts as he does with the theme of the book of Romans in verses 16-17:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

So let's now call ourselves to worship our help is in the name of the Lord great our scripture reading for this morning is John 17 20 through 26. Oh, please stand. Sorry I'm gonna get that screwed up all day and I even have it in red in my notes. Oh And invite the worship team up very good So the scripture this morning is John 17 20 through 26. I do not ask for these only but also for those who believe in me through their word that they may be one all be one just 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 have sent me the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be as one, even as we are one.

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory, that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know you that you have sent to me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them. Let's pray. Father, as we think about the truths that we just read about, It's mind boggling that you chose us in Ephesians 1 before the foundation of the world, and yet your son before he was crucified prayed for us even today.

We thank you for those promises. Help us to live up to those promises. Help us to be those people. We cannot do it without your spirit and without your son. It is an amazing thing that we are in Christ's family and that as we worship together and be together, we can be your body here on earth. We thank you for your son, and we thank you for what he has done to us, and it's in his name we pray, Jesus Christ, amen. This is the time we set aside for confession of sin.

We know that we are new creatures in Christ, and yet we still revert to ourselves to solve the problem. We don't look to God, we look to our own devices. Continually, we try to hold ourselves up in our own strength, instead of his strength. This is a great sin. It's a bad sin. It's what we all do. We always need to confess that. In the way that we do this sometimes, we have all the biblical words, we have the right things to say, we can make it look like we know what we're doing, But in our heart of hearts, we know we're nothing without what God has done for us. It's really amazingly humbling as you think about this.

And I think it's amazingly humbling for us as we've been together now for 15 months, as each and every Sunday, we take time to set aside to confess our sin. It's an interesting experience for me. I've never been in a church that did this every week. And I think it's a purifying effect too. I think it does convict us. And I think as God peels away the layer of the onion in our lives and allows us to see those things that we didn't see before, it's a glorious thing because what are we doing? We're becoming more like his son. He is conforming us as he promises to be like his son, 1 John 3, 2.

So if you are able, you're invited to kneel and we'll have a quiet time for a little bit to confess our sin and then I will close this in prayer. So if you're able, let's do it. Father, I would like to ask for our congregation those sins of commission and omission to forgive us of those. Help us each and everyone to know the specific ones. Help us to know our failings. Help us to know when we should ask for forgiveness, when we should move in that direction, when we should be the leader for that. Help each one of us be the fathers and the mothers and the friends and the daughters and the sons that we should be as you've designed it in your word and it made clear to us.

And you make it clear in our hearts through your spirit. Help us to respond to that. Help us to be those people, your people. We are your body. The believers on this planet are your representative here on earth. Help us to understand that and live that. Thank you for all these things and thank you of course for your son, amen. Please stand. This is 1 John 1, five through 10. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all our sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Thank God that He is in us and that we aren't liars. By what the Word has said, your sins are forgiven. Our scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 9 through 13, commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer or the disciples' prayer. Matthew 6, verses 9 through 13. Let's read together the Word of God. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Let's pray together. Father and God, we come before you this morning in confidence because of the work of Christ, the one who taught his disciples and us to pray, as we've just read. And what a picture of a sweet and perfect father that you would even be. The object of a prayer such as that, by your son with confidence. It is humbling to consider that you, the supreme sovereign of the universe, listen to us when we pray.

We thank you for hearing us. And we thank you for the work of your son that makes that possible. We do long to see your kingdom come on earth, but please grow that desire in us. It's also exciting to see and to know that you use your people to effect your purposes in the world, to bring them about, and you're using us for your purposes here. Please use the churches of Marysville to bring about the advancement of the gospel and power here in this community. May we grow in our understanding of what you would have for us to do, And then please find us faithful to do your will. Please cause us as Christians to be marked by a happy unity with obvious and even distinct diversity in this process.

We ask that you would cause the husbands of Trinity Evangel Church to love their wives as Christ loved the church with an initiating and a sacrificial love just as you have loved us and may all of the parents cling to the principles of your word as the direction giving guide for how we are to die to self, to discipline our children, or to even enjoy backyard barbecues. May that generate hope and curiosity among our unbelieving friends and neighbors. Creating us all a desire to impact our workplaces and our community by our testimony as we work is unto you.

We thank you today for the wedding of Jesse Martin and Maggie Emirates yesterday, And for those who are there celebrating with them, we ask that you would richly bless their union. May their marriage accurately reflect the relationship between Christ and his church. And for those who are there celebrating with them, who are from our church family, please bring them home safely. James and Shawn this week, the Martins to follow. We rejoice with the high school seniors in our church family who have recently graduated and then pray for diligence for those who have not quite done so yet, but will be doing so in the coming week or two.

and please grant them faithfulness, clear direction for the future, that you may be honored in their happiness and their effectiveness for your namesake. We pray this morning in keeping with First Timothy for all kings and all who are in authority in civic capacities, we recognize their appointment by you ultimately, regardless of their religious devotion. Please grant them wisdom and a knowledge of you that will inform their righteous representation of us all. but then cause us as well to long for the absolute, righteous, political rule of King Jesus that we anticipate at his second coming when he rules with his bride on the earth.

Now be honored among us as we continue to offer to you our praise with the confidence that all of your promises are true. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we pray for the equipping of us to receive these admonitions. Guide my words with your spirit on this subject of fathers.

Help us to be the fathers that we should be. We have you as our father to be that example. And through that example, we can be those people. Help us to recognize that, help us to indwell that, Help us to understand that we are your representative here. As a body, the men, the women, the children, all of us are that reflection. But especially today, help us focus on the fathers. Help us through your spirit, and through your spirit, guide my words, and help the people to hear what they need to hear. We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. The title I chose was, You Fathers are an Image of God.

As a statement, as a fact, you are the image of God in your family. You're the head. God looks down upon you. You are the head of the family. Your wife is your glory. And then through the teamwork of you two, loving each other as you should, your children see this played out. That's a big responsibility. It's an impossible thing for the normal man to do. We can only do it with God's help. So it works. How about that? The verses I chose to start this off this morning are the ones that are up there. Psalm 103, 13 through 14. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. That's amazing. Think about that. He made us from the dust to the ground, and yet he shows compassion to us. He knows those who fear him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. As we do this, we become more like his son. Then the next two verses have to do with how we treat our children. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord, Ephesians 6.4. And fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged, Colossians 3.21. Both these verses speak to the issue of discouragement and anger, not to spoiling, but to discouragement and anger.

It seems our proclivity is to make our children angry and discouraged. Interesting isn't it? It doesn't say don't spoil them, it doesn't say don't do this, don't do that. It says don't bring them to anger or discouragement. Let's remember as we talk about these things that being precedes everything in the Christian life. Being precedes doing. Who you are makes what you do. For a while you can look good, make things happen, but only if you are truly a Christian do you day in and day out handle it that way. We all sin. I'm not asking for perfection here. But remember, unless you are his, you will not behave as his.

The other thing to remember as we look at a list of rules that I'm going to put up here is that everything is under the gospel. And the gospel is free grace given to us by a gracious God. He chose us. He's the one that empowers us. As Sean has taught through John 6 and other places that we'll see as we go along, God is the one working in us. That's an amazing thing to think of, that the creator of the universe individually speaks to us, works to us through his spirit.

God does not demand that you be a gracious father in an ungracious way. Think about that. If you are a father to children, don't be the boss. Be their father in a gracious way, He doesn't just come down and smack us. He is patient, macrophobia, mightily patient with each of us. Over and over we learn the lesson. We ask his forgiveness. We do it again. Then we learn that one. Then we get to the next level. He is constantly patient with us. Let's remember we need to manifest We have that with our own children too. And with our spouses and everybody else we can get along with. There's one thing I want to talk about before we start into this also.

Even if you have had bad fathers or bad examples as parents, the gospel allows you to break that cycle. So just because you've had a bad history doesn't mean you can't break that and see it played out in the proper way today. Today is a new day. Today is a day you can live beyond where you came from through His power. We are new creatures in Christ and God intervenes with us all the time. God deals with the effects of sin. Through His grace gift we are new creatures. So therefore take these admonitions with the right spirit of humbleness through His spirit. God wants you and your family to live to the fullest. Jesus is all in all and you are his body.

And his body was sacrificed for us. We are his offering to the Father. We are the bride made. Remember that? He brings us to the Father. Through the Gospel, we are able to imitate God the Father. We are being made continuously into the image of his son, all of us, as I mentioned before, 1 John 3, 2. All of us are being made into his image. We believe in him.

Note in the first verse of Psalm 103, we are but dust. But God, through his grace, allows great compassion on those who fear him. By us having that great compassion on us, and us recognizing what we come from, is a glorious, you know, it's like wow, how can this be something that everybody can love? Also, as I've said before, note that our children are not to be brought up and make them angry or discouraged. The issue is that is the proclivity that we have. By giving instructions, forcing these things on them, we can anger them or cause them to become discouraged. Obviously, it's not telling us to spoil them or allow them to become lazy.

That isn't the desire. But our usual temptation is to frustrate or discourage. So think about your instruction and the way you model it. Obviously, do as I do, don't do as I say, right? Which makes it really tough on us, doesn't it? As we've worshiped together at TEC over the past 15 months, I have been convicted that we fathers and men of the congregation have not led as much as God has enabled us. As worshipers of Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, we have studied how to have a proper worldview. Remember the diagram that we learned from a while back, with the axle of grace in the center of the wheel, God's graciousness to us, then the spokes as they go out from the axle of grace, being catechesis, our teachings, lifestyle, what we live, liturgy, how we practice it, And the narrative that we have, each one of us has that narrative.

So we all have these spokes, and all of it surrounded by the wheel of the lordship of Christ. That's in everything, in our jobs, in our home, as we sleep, as we wake. Everything is under that. Yesterday, as we had our men to men meeting, or the leaders of the life to life groups, it was fascinating to hear, even before they I knew that I was going to teach on this or anything like that. This was the main subject. As they've come to realize that they led their groups and everything, they see that their example to their group and their example to their own family has been strengthened as we've thought about these things and worshiped God together in the way that we do.

The other thing that I think enforces this is that we worship with our children sitting here right with us. Andy has told a story of how his daughter looked at him the first time we said, let's kneel if you're able, when he was confessing. And she looked over at Andy's wife and said, what's daddy doing, why is he doing that? And all of a sudden she saw all these other people doing that, that's a huge statement of what we're doing. We bow before our God to worship him. That model is thousands of words of demonstration or teaching, and that's a joy to see us model that out. So Jesus has paid it all, and we are his body.

We need Christian fathers to bring nurture and admonition with the joy of the Lord. Everything has to be done with joy. That's everything. You've read the stories of missionaries and people in front of firing squads and all the rest. The issue is the joy of the Lord. Rejoice always. I say rejoice, right? So now comes to a list. 21 different things that you can do as fathers.

I hate this kind of thing because what happens most of the time in our camp is that we create the list, and then we look down We check it off. Okay, I'm doing okay on that one. I'm not doing oh, so okay that way I think these things are good as a standard, but you know what? Live the golden rule and you'll do these things okay Do unto others as you would have them do to you if you just live that with your wife your family your neighbor everybody you come across These things will be acted out But I think it is helpful to pick apart and look at different specifics because we've all failed in them. And remember that. I'm not standing here telling you I'm the perfect guy.

I didn't even get saved until I was 37, so forget that. All right. Number one, love Jesus Christ and worship his Father in the Spirit with your family together on the Lord's Day. the Lord's day, First Samuel 2.30. Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares, I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares, far be it from me for those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. This is the primary reason that you teach those closest you by this action that you are an example to your children as we worship together. You're an example to the community. As we gather here, people drive by. What are those people doing in there? We by our actions are that example. The Westminster Confession, the shorter version, the first point says that chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

just think about that. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Worship is everything. It's the focal point on which we should rest. I think we are just learning this in a much more magnified way than we ever thought before. Some of us, myself included, thought going to church was listening to a sermon and singing a few songs. Singing of the songs was kind of the worship. The rest of it was collecting information about God, believing it, and being joyful about the message. But the whole idea of worship together never even crossed my path until we started doing this. And every week it blows me away again what happens as we practice these things.

It's just an amazing thing. So this being part of this, And every week with your family should be top priority. Okay? That doesn't mean we're going to take attendance, and if you don't show up, we're going to throw you out. All right? But it does mean it should be the main focus of what you do. And God has all kinds of different plans. I mean, we have people that can't come because of their work, and yet God blesses that as those people are faithful. One man in our congregation was selling in a market that was only open on Sunday. Yesterday, the Saturday market opened up to him, and eventually he'll be able to come.

That's incredible how God works that out. So I'm not saying if you don't make it, you're not saved, okay? But look to that as the primary focus. What we do here opens your mind, and God strips away things that you don't see in your private quiet time or other things like that. Number two, love your children by loving their mother, just as simple as that. You are that example to them the way you treat your wife. If the two of you have the right relation, it's amazing how the other things fall into place. Ephesians 5, 25, husband love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Your wife is your glory.

Glory is defined as the manifestation of God's presence. Reading in 1 John 17, Jesus is passing on his glory to us. We pass on in a way to model our wife is our glory as she models correctly. This amazing kind of truth that's just wild as it plays out and feeds back on itself. As that unit becomes more and more worshiping, glorifying to God, the children see that and they just flourish underneath that. They wanna model that and it's a joy to see that. Just as a plug of something Gail and I have chosen to do to live with our daughter and our son-in-law and watch our grandchildren, The idea of leaving and cleaving is absolute a necessity, but the idea of being close to watch the generational blessing that that is.

I think God gave us this particular blessing because we missed it in our early years of our marriage because we were pagans. We get to see it played out as it should be in the lives of our children. I think that's a great blessing for us. And again, for those of you that have had a bad experience, remember, God fixes that. You can look to your heavenly father, even if you had a bad earthly father. Number three, teach your children to love the standard.

Proverbs 23, 26, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. Have them love the standard, not a bunch of rules, not suffocating moralism, but gospel joy. The standard love your neighbor as yourself is the thing we want our kids to play out to. Even the rules of pick up your room, all those things, they are all hinged upon how you're treating your neighbor. In a house, you keep your section clean to respect your neighbor, your little brother that lives in the same room, or whatever it is. All those things play out and are manifestations of how we should act. And as we have seen, as you expect even the littlest ones to do these things, they take great joy in helping out.

They want to be mommy's helper in the kitchen when she's patient enough. As you ladies have gone through loving the little years, I think that book is a glorious example of the gospel, showing how with the front face of the cover with the little kid with the spaghetti all over his face, that's the real world. But loving that little child, loving the spaghetti that God has graciously supplied, that's the gospel. With joy you wipe them off. With joy you show them how to clean up the mess. And in that, it even says you mothers at those points are those children's pastor. And you are. You are God's agent in front of that child at that moment.

We are that message to the world. Help us remember that. Number four, your garden of yes should have a tree of no in it. Genesis 2, 16 and 17. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Before Eve, Adam had a garden of grace with one tree of no. Remember, Adam received this instruction before Eve ever showed up. He had the instruction. He passed that information along. He didn't live up to the information. That's why Adam fell. We're not shifting the blame to Eve.

So the issue is, in your home, everything should be a yes with specific no's. It's not a list of 25,000 rules that the kid, all you're doing is looking for him to stumble in one place and then bang him. The idea is it's grace living. It's out there for everyone. Now, that doesn't mean that you have license to have, you know, sheer rebellion. But the clear rule of don't is there. Then with the grace to operate in the operational area, they can be and recognize who they are. You'll see another verse as we talk about their frame, which we've already had the verse up there. You'll see how that plays out in a little bit with different people.

Remember, though, that most of it is, yes, it's grace living. Not, you must do this. You must do that. You must do that. Grace does have a spine, but grace is also gracious. Our Father who is in heaven is gracious with us. Remember that. This one plays off of that same thing. Give your children the Torah, not the Talmud. This one's fantastic. God, like we've already said, well, let's read Matthew 22, 37 through 40. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This was the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Love your neighbor as yourself. We've already said it, the golden rule. Boil it down, keep it simple. Don't create the Talmud. A commentary on a commentary on a commentary. If you've ever seen the pictures of it, that's what it is. Hebrew Bible in the center, rabbinical comments go all around it, around it, around it, around it, and they just keep layering it out, out and out. Every dictator in the world creates huge amounts of laws. Everybody who wants to lord it over you creates all these rules. And why does he do that? So when he can catch you breaking one of those rules, he can then bring down punishment.

The issue is again teaching them grace, teaching them to love the standard. If they love the standard, you don't need the rule. That's why through his spirit, all we need to do, it's all summed up that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The interesting thing that has been said that if you don't keep the commandment, you'll create 10,000 of them. gk chester didn't said that. So man has this proclivity to make more and more laws. Just look at what we have. I mean, it's crazy. I'm sure here in Marysville, the book is probably much less the US code or the Washington State Code. But why is that? Sinful man thinks that they make another rule, they can do it.

Now, just as a comment, that's one of the reasons we as elders here have tried to keep the trellis limited to what's growing the growing vine. We don't wanna make a bunch of rules. So then we bend this vine over here and we strap it on this one and then we create another trellis and we bend it over there and strap it on that one. We want God to grow us through his spirit. We want everybody to be the maximum that they can be. We build the trellis to support the vine, not to conform the vine. Number six, children need to be converted. Ephesians 2.3, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

Obviously, we want our children to be saved. They can be saved at a very young age, maybe later, maybe some of them will be bullheaded like me and have to wait till 37 like I made that choice. Interesting, isn't it? Did I make that choice? But anyway, they need to be saved. Now, here's the interesting thing that we do with our children, and this is a specific point for you to dwell on and think about. I don't know if my little Susie is saved. She's sinned today. Oh, yeah? What did she do? Well, she took the other kid's toy and we can give it back. And then when I asked what was happening, she lied about it or whatever it was.

Oh really? So Susie sinned today, so you're pretty sure she's not saved. You sin today? If you say no, you're a liar and the truth is not in you. We read that verse before, right? So the issue is shepherd them, bring them along, encourage them in the faith, grow them. You'll see great manifestations of that. Confess to your children when you do wrong to them. The issue is once you get down on your knees and ask forgiveness of your three year old, it will change your life. Because at that point, you're responsible to that little person that God is molding. Be that person to those people.

We tend to sit, especially those of us on the fundamental side as we are. We like our rules, we like all the things, we know what we shouldn't do and what we should do. Remember God's grace with us. Seven, listen to your children, they are people. Proverbs 21, 28, a false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.

Find out what's going on. My personal story is my sister, When she threw the hairbrush in the toilet, told my mom that the dog did it. And I can remember that whole thing. And my parents, my mom, she was a believer. She took it with great humor and worked that thing through where both of us, my sister and myself, because we were fighting, we could laugh at the situation and know that it was wrong to say that the dog did it. I was pushing, she was, you know, and off it went. But the thing is, find out what their story is. Listen to them. They do have a case. Now, this doesn't mean if you've got a little junior Clarence Darrow that can, you know, argue your socks off.

That's not what we're saying. But you do need to listen to what they're saying. They are people. Number eight, food and shelter and clothing over your toys. This is directly at the dads. Your bass boat doesn't trump food and shelter for the family. Okay? The idea is your family is your primary responsibility to care for, to nurture, to grow in the faith. 1 Timothy 5-8, but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Now, I know where we're all going, we all think, oh yeah, I know this guy that did that and I did that.

And man, I bought some golf clubs, so therefore I have deserted Gale or whatever. Keep the teeter totter, you know, keep it going. All right? Think about it. The idea is what is more important? Eternity or that particular thing. It will adjust the way you look at the stuff. Stuff is good. We need to use it without all this modern electronics, without this ability to even broadcast our message to other people, the people in Afghanistan, like Brian Young and Beth. What's there? The Louises couldn't see us. Those things are great. We can use all that. And those are great toys. But remember, it's still in our hearts, and God is the one working on our hearts.

So enough said about that. Number nine, know your children's frame, Psalm 103 13 through 14. As a father shows his compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Don't load it up on him. This week was a very difficult week around our house. It was the graduation week from their school year. They had many assemblies, all kinds of activities, all this kind of thing. As I was studying this this week, it came to me that Calvin needed to do something. I forget when it was. Was it Thursday, or one of those days? And she looked at me and went, remember his frame.

The idea is once they had a frame, The idea is once they haven't had their nap, they've had a full day, they've had this excitement, that excitement, this thing's gone on, they've been so good, they've done this, they got up early, they missed their lunch hour by an hour and then you fed them there and they've missed their nap time and 3.30 in the afternoon is not the time to jump on them because the shirt tail's hanging out. Remember their frame, their ability to process what you're doing. You don't jump on a two year old the same way you jump on a 20 year old or a 12 year old, right? You remember their construction.

If you don't do that, you will pull them apart and cause them to sin even more. And that sin is on you because you've pushed them to the point of breakage. Don't do that. Point number 10. Eat together. This one's kind of simple. By eating together, you guys form a bond. By just having fellowship and a meal, you are interacting with each other. You're being together, whether it's a picnic in the yard, sitting at Sunday dinner, just having lunch, maybe sitting. Calvin and I like to go to the golf course, go to the driving range. We sit on the bench sometimes, and he has a little McDonald's and we eat and we talk about what's going on.

We don't just eat to fuel. We could get there, hit balls, take a bite, hit a bite, take a bite, no. We sit down, we look at the nice grass and think about all the things and talk about the squirrels or whatever. But that fellowship is, you know, part of the action. So think about that in your own family. This was hard for Gail and I as we had our business in our home, we home schooled at the time. We were all together all the time. And actually, in our family, we all grabbed food and retreated into our bedrooms to get away from each other. I don't think that was right. I think we should have had the meal together.

Because then you have it and it's a whole different atmosphere when you're talking about it. It's an atmosphere of fellowship instead of an atmosphere of let's just get it done. So eat together and when you eat, don't just eat to be refueled. Remember what's going on. God is providing what you need. This one is respect. Yeah. Respect your sons and love your daughters. This one comes out of the same thing of the husband and the men. We are to honor men and our elders. We are to love our daughters and our wives. Now, does that mean you don't love your son? No. Does that mean you don't respect your wife or your daughter?

No. But the primary thing to focus on in the two sexes is men need respect, women need love. And the older women is interesting in Titus 2. What are the older women to teach the younger women how to love their husbands? And part of that is how to respect them.

The other part, laying on our fathers, which is who we're beating up today, we need to be respectable. You can demand it, you can get it, but you get it with, okay, I'll do what you say. You don't want that. We want it to freely, graciously be given. And if we act that way, we will get it back. God will see to it.

The next one, tell and listen to stories together. We all have a story. Everybody has a story. Even if you're two years old, you got a story to tell dad when he comes home about what happened today. Did you ride your bike? You didn't fall over. Did you hit the baseball? Did you do whatever? Little girl, I helped mommy bake cookies. I helped clean the bathroom. All of those stories make up what we are. They're people. We relate to them by their stories. We also can relate to them by our story. Where did we come from? We didn't just pop out of an egg like this. Our forefathers came, brought us to a certain place, they moved somewhere, God brought them providentially to here and to there.

What point did the gospel join in your family? Those things are important traditions to carry on and keep your kids knowing. They need to know they're part of that thin scarlet line throughout history. We're in that line. The churches, the believers, the people all throughout the world that God has put into his body, we're all part of that line. We need to see that flow. Those stories are immense and really powerful because as you tell those stories, the child realizes, oh my goodness, they prayed for that and then God did this and that's how it worked out. Those are fascinating. They shouldn't be overlooked and all of us have a story to tell.

The gospel is a narrative. 13, provide your children with a Christian education. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 7. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. This first does not give a delivery platform. All right? This first does not give a delivery platform. Wherever your child is going to get information, you are responsible for that child's Christian education.

You shall talk of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise. all these words I command you today, she'll be on your heart. You are the one responsible. It doesn't give the platform. It gives the responsibility. There are lots of ways to deliver this. Obviously, we think by starting a Christian school and a Christian classical school at that, that that is a good representation of what's going on. These things can be done all kinds of different ways, but you as the father are responsible for your children, children knowing God. The other thing in this particular point, your education of your child to the Christian life should be full of life and laughter, not death.

Not a bunch of rules that the kid hears another rule, oh, I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't do that, I can't do this. Pretty soon, you just keep smushing them down. And what you're doing is killing them. It likens to the verse in Deuteronomy 14.21 that prohibits the Jews to cook a kid in the mother's milk. The mother's milk is a life-giving ingredient. And you don't use a life-giving ingredient to kill the thing that you're trying to cook. You are trying to cook your children in a Christian education. Don't kill them. Show them the graciousness, the full of love, laughter, life. God is giving us abundant life, more abundantly than we can even know.

That happiness spills over and has great joy. And all of that can be done laughing and singing and having a good time. Don't kill them. even in their mathematics tables, instruct them that those things didn't just randomly occur, God designed them into the universe, back to your worldview wheel. Those things were put in there under the lordship of Christ. When you learn that, you learn a different facet of God as you'd even learn your multiplication tables, much less Latin paradigms or any other kind of thing that you have to stuff in your head to learn stuff. So remember that as you do this, that full of life and laughter.

14, give your children quality time and quantity time. Quantity is the thing. Don't buy the lie. Quality can be quantity. Do it around 6, 4, through 7, and it's the same thing. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You should talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. It's continuously. If you're working with your child as an appointment section in your day timer or in your computer calendar, you need to think about that. It's continuously. It's as you go, as you drive, as you take them to the practice, as you have breakfast with them. All those times are opportune times to relate.

treat them as people, find out what's going on with them, hear their narrative, hear their side of it, and bring that Christian focus of that thing to it. Bring God into it all the time. 15, have a home full of scripture, full of joy, and full of music. Ephesians 5, 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Colossians 3 16 let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God music is a joyous thing we should enjoy it we should laugh have a great time tap your foot all kinds of music yes I did say that it's interesting when you think about it we have a triune God that created all the manifestations we see out there.

The 25 billion shades of green, you know, all that kind of stuff. All the little bugs, the little tiny microbes with the spinning thing in the cell that's not even connected that goes 70,000 RPM. All that crazy stuff that he's given us. He's given us music to enjoy. Now not pagan music, you know, that kind of thing. But all types of music can demonstrate and glorify God.

And that includes blues, rock and roll, classical, you name it, okay? It's out there and it should be enjoyed. And the joy of that music makes people happy. They love it, they dance, they sing. That's one of God's greats blessings. Number 16, discipline is a gift, not a grabbing or retaliation. Galatians 6-1, brothers, if anyone is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself lest you two be tempted. You are not qualified to discipline if you are in sin.

If you start off mad, stop. Don't say anything. You're already in sin. You are the one that needs to be disciplined, not your child. It's not retaliation. 18. The pain of discipline should be acute, but not chronic. Hebrews 1211. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Discipline is not punishment. A murderer being put to death for murder, That's punishment. Discipline is not punishment. Discipline is that correction to bring apart the righteous behavior. Pain for a moment, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

19, sorry. The point of discipline is to restore fellowship, not retribution. Restore fellowship, not retribution. Hebrews 12, 11 again, in the last part of the verse. It yields peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. A response of love back to the discipline, the person, well, a response of love back to you after you've disciplined your child, you've balanced it perfectly. After the spanking, they should look to the person doing the spanking to be forgiven by, and that restoration should come. If you discipline and Johnny goes off and he just is mad and he's not going to take it but he'll do it, you have not accomplished the project.

The project is to bring restoration and bring that fellowship back. That's a tough one, and that's a hard habit to break if you've, You know, blown that before, but think about that. Number 20, divided discipline is dangerous. Exodus 2012, honor your father and your mother that in your days may be long in the land and the Lord your God is giving you. Mom didn't want me to get the toy, so I'll wait till dad gets home, I'll ask him. You've all been played this way if your parents or if your children were ever a child, You probably played this. That's a spankable offense. You do not want to divide the parents. The child should see the parents as one unit till they're probably 16, 18 years old.

You are a unit to that child. You and your wife are that inseparable thing. Now, when they get to be 16 to 18, they start thinking, oh, someday I'm gonna be a wife. I'm going to be husband. That's when they recognize they're two different people making this happen. That doesn't take away that they want to be one with them as they carry that on. Number 21, prepare your children for independence. Genesis 2, 24, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. This is a creational good. This is what it's all about. We raise up the next generation. It's a good thing when your son has reached that point where he wants to be a man and go out and conquer the world.

It's a good thing when your daughter wants to be that wife. That's what it's all about, building those people to be the next generation. Last but not least, don't indulge sin when it's little and cute. Be strict when they're little, and then take the rules off as they progress in age. Get them together when they're young and then give them freedom. As they exercise their freedom and do it responsibly, give them another little bit of freedom. Let the leash out a little more, build the fence a little wider, let them go out. Once you have trained up that child as a young person, you can then trust them at 16 or 17 to go wherever.

When we lived in Los Angeles, We let Mo drive 55 miles away from our home through central Los Angeles to go to the valley to be with her friends. And sometimes she wouldn't get back to our house down in the South Bay until two in the morning. But she was faithful to call us. And because we had trained her up, we knew what she was doing and where she was. And as we gave her that freedom, it gave her more responsibility. And she behaved even above and beyond where she should have been because that worked out that way. So think about that as you build your ones. The last thing to remember is that Jesus is our great example.

He is the one doing it. And Jesus is a suffering servant. His hands and feet are pierced, the side was pierced. He still has those wounds. He suffered and died for us. So remember that we need to be long suffering with our children. The last thing, nope, I've got to go one more. Okay, I want to close with this, Matthew 22, 34 through 40. I've already read it. We'll read it one more time. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment or the great commandment in the law?

And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Fathers, your sons and your daughters are your neighbors. They are people too, OK? They are your neighbors. Let's pray. Father, this is a big long list. Help us just to think and act like you would have us act. Sometimes it's good to pick and pick the scab and look at the little tiny detail and try to correct different places where maybe we've gone astray.

It's good to examine with a microscope and a fine tooth comb and all of that. But help us to understand. It's really our hard attitude. It's those of us who know you, living like your son, being those people you would have us be, walking in the spirit, treating each other as we should. Help us to do that. Help us through your spirit to do that. We thank you for all these things and we thank you, of course, most of all, for your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. As we meditate on what we have learned today, Remember who you are in Jesus Christ.

We are able to partake of his body and blood together. And now for the charge or the commissioning, all right, it's allowed here for like about 125 words. But today, I just want to tell you go and do. You people are a very well-educated congregation. Most of you have been in church for a long, long time. You know a lot of stuff. We're having our hearts and our minds adjusted as every week we go through our liturgy and our worship of God, he's changing us. You know how to apply and what to do through God's Spirit. So I charge you, go and do. And I wanna read this as our final thing, 1 John 5, 20 through 21. And we know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

We are able to partake of his body and blood together. And now for the charge or the commissioning, all right, it's allowed here for like about 125 words. But today, I just want to tell you go and do. You people are a very well-educated congregation. Most of you have been in church for a long, long time. You know a lot of stuff. We're having our hearts and our minds adjusted as every week we go through our liturgy and our worship of God, he's changing us. You know how to apply and what to do through God's Spirit. So I charge you, go and do. And I wanna read this as our final thing, 1 John 5, 20 through 21. And we know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus promises soul satisfaction, He offers the bread of life, a forever hunger-filling and thirst-quenching unlike any other. He identifies Himself as the bread of life that comes down from heaven. Men don't need to travel to foreign lands or fight mythical monsters to win this bread. All they need to do is come to Him, believe in Him, and all this eternal life is theirs. And like typical religious empty-hearts, the men in John 6 complain.

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (John 6:41–42, ESV)

This group of Jews are Galilean Jews in Capernaum (see verse 59), many of whom pursued Him from the other side of the Sea. They grumbled, one of my all time favorite Greek words. I even had a form of this word as my first AOL email address. It is from γογγύζω (gogguzo), an onomatopoetic word, that is, a word formed from the sound associated with it (for example, "boom," "pow," "pop"). Gogguzo means "to express oneself in low tones of disapprobation, grumble, murmur" (BDAG), mutter. So “goggugoggu” or "grrrrrr." They grumbled about one particular thing that Jesus said: I have come down from heaven. They thought they knew Him. Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph? In other words, "We know his daddy. He grew up down the street. He can't claim to be from heaven."

So, they would have been fine receiving more miraculous bread from Him as long as it didn't require submission to Him as God. They understood that Jesus was claiming divinity and that offended them. They don't have an identity crisis, they have an identity criticism.

Jesus responds in verses 43-51. There is a topic break between verses 48 and 49, as "eat" and "feed" dominate from verse 49 on. Most paragraph breaks appear after verse 51 with a new round of indignation in verse 52. There is a significant amount to cover so we'll see how far we can get.

Jesus commands them to stop complaining.

Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. (John 6:43, ESV)

Jesus doesn't simply command them to stop grumbling, He says stop grumbling among yourselves. Look again at verse 41, they grumbled "about Him" not to Him. Look at verse 42, we know His not Your mother and father. "How does He now say" not "how do You say." They weren't grumbling to Jesus, they were grumbling about Him.

It's a classic pattern. We love talking about our complaints to people who can't do anything about our complaints except listen.

I think this is a key to why Jesus commands them anyway. He's about ready to say in verse 44 that He knows why they can't understand. They can't comprehend and come without the Father drawing them. Why bother telling them to stop grumbling? If He knew why they couldn't get it, why tell them to stop complaining that they didn't get it? It is an odd imperative.

Perhaps it's because He's graciously and authoritatively directing their focus where it needed to be: on Himself. It's as if He said, "Stop grumbling among yourselves and deal with Me. I just offered eternal life with guaranteed resurrection and you think that you can sort out what's going on by fussing to each other about paternity concerns?" Jesus confronts their intellectual pride, as if they had the ability to figure things out on their own. So Jesus isn't commanding them to calm down, He's calling them to wake up.

Jesus also confronts their self-determining pride.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44, ESV)

Here Jesus shakes out the corners of the explanation of unbelief He began to unfold in verse 37. He uses many of the same ideas: coming to Him, the Father doing something, and He Himself raising them up on the last day.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

All -- the ones given by the Father -- will come. Now, no one -- of anyone -- can come without the Father drawing. Not only does this explain how the given ones come (the Father draws them), it also removes any hope of human discernment or decisiveness or self-determination. The giving and the drawing only make sense if the Father is selecting.

This isn't new. John wrote it already in John 1:12-13.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13, ESV)

Behind the scenes, God moves. This is the sovereign regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we heard about in John 3:8. We are learning more about the Triune plans here as well.

The "coming" to Jesus was a problem. In this seminar by Jesus, coming is the same as believing, is the same as eating and drinking. All of these are ways to describe someone who identifies with Christ for life. Why weren't these Jews coming? They saw His miracles. They heard His teaching. Why didn't they take His offer of eternal life? I mean, it sounds like a good deal? What did they have to lose?

It wasn't lack of evidence; a baker's dozen of baskets of loaves and fishes wouldn't have done it. It wasn't ignorance of the offer; Jesus keeps repeating it. It wasn't obscurity of truth, including (for them) full access to Scripture. These are things that we tend to blame, the resources we gather and work to dispense when someone we love isn't coming to Christ. These Jews could not prove in court that they were missing anything but desire. The reason they didn't take His offer, the reason that they didn't come to Him is that they did not want to.

Believing has more to do with the will than with the mind. Both are broken, but one is upstream. We do not have a data problem first, we have a desire problem first. We are not lacking know-how we are lacking want-to.

How can the will be fixed? If right wanting is needed before right thinking, then trying to change thinking first can't help the wanting. This doesn't mean that thinking and truth are unimportant. But intellectual assent is not believing for life. Gathering truth nuggets isn't the same as eating. How can we get someone to want to eat?

We can't.

This is what the Father does. This is what the Father must do. The Father, through the Spirit, changes desires. That's what Jesus refers to when He said, "The Father who sent me draws him."

The word "draws" (ἑλκύσῃ, helkuse) is defined as "to move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, with the implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of a person is unwilling to do so voluntarily, in either case with implication of exertion on the part of the mover" (BDAG), so "pull" or even "drag."[^1]

"Drag" is a word we associate, especially with people, as doing something against their will. "Drag" is an English word with baggage over the weight limit. We drag someone kicking and screaming. We drag teenagers out of bed who don't want to get up. So how can Jesus say that the Father draws, He actively initiates and pulls toward His Son and yet not say that a bunch of people are in heaven who hate it? Are there are whole group of Christians who "have to be," who follow Christ who don't want to?

No! May it never be! Who are the ones the Father draws? The same ones who come, not the ones who kick. Grace overcomes resistance. Believing is voluntary, active, and free, just as healthy babies breath freely once they are born. No one makes them. The Father takes the blinds off our eyes so that we see Jesus as irresistibly attractive.

Don't miss which comes first: the given come, the drawn come. It does not help to say that a person starts coming and then God gives, or a person starts coming and then God draws (the rest of the way). We could look at any number of other passages but if we want to understand this passage, let's look here first.

Does the Father draw EVERYONE (making coming possible)? Or, does the Father draw SOME, EVERYONE HE GIVES (making coming actual)?

First, the context: Jesus is explaining their unbelieving. In verses 35-40, they saw and didn't believe (verse 36) in contrast to those who see and believe (verse 40). The difference is that they are given (verse 37). In verses 41-48, they grumble rather than come (verse 41) in contrast to those who come. The reason that they come is because they are drawn (verse 44).

Second, the cause: Jesus is explaining their incapability. It would have been easy for Jesus to hear them grumbling about Him and say that they were the missing link. "The Father cannot draw anyone to Me unless they come to Me." That is exactly not His point. The Father is not incapable, the people are incapable. "No one," not a single person is able to take a step. If the drawing just makes coming possible, no one would come. The same cause reversal comes in verse 37. "All who come to Me the Father gives to Me" is not the order.

There are two perspectives, an earthly and a heavenly. From our perspective, men must come, they must believe and we see that happen. From God's perspective, He selects and gives and draws. While there are two perspectives on the same activity, there is only one cause. How does someone get from beholding to believing? Beholding -- GOD WORKS -- then believing.

Third, the covenant: Jesus explains God's plan.

The need for His initiation is something they should have known.

It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. (John 6:45–46, ESV)

Jesus references the Prophets, a plural, and uses one as His example. "And they will all be taught by God" paraphrases Isaiah 54:13. But Isaiah is not the only one to talk about the glorious day. Jeremiah does (31:31-37), Ezekiel does (36:22-38), Joel does (2:28-32).

Why was the New Covenant so significant? Because the Jews could not perform all the law. They couldn't perform all the law because they couldn't change their own hearts. The truth, the knowledge, didn't do it. Seeing God's miraculous deliverances and provisions didn't do it. They needed new hearts if they were going to get it and the New Covenant promise was that God would initiate. God was going to immediately, spiritually give life. God gives enablement. Jesus backs up His statement about the Father drawing by referencing the Father's promise to draw, to change hearts, to "teach."

"Hearing" and "learning" from the Father happens supernaturally even if He utilizes natural means. I say that because some of the people "heard" and "saw" and still weren't coming. God must do invisible things, internal things in the hearts. He must change desires. The Old Testament reveals just that prophetic drawing.

Also, He doesn't do that without reference to Jesus. God teaches through the Word, written and Incarnate. No one can claim that the Father has done such supernatural work who has not come to Jesus. That's why Jesus adds that He has seen the Father. Being spiritual, claiming divine hearing and learning apart from the Son or with no reference to the one "from God" is a false claim.

Near the end of this discussion, Jesus repeats the point of verse 44.

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:63-65, ESV)

Jesus knew "the ones not believing" plural and "the one betraying" singular. Judas is an example: "I know Judas doesn't believe, that's why I told you that God draws everyone" doesn't work.

The word "granted" in verse 65 is a different verb but belongs in the sequence. The Father gives to men the desire to come as He draws men as He gives them to the Son. Those who do not want Christ, who do not come to Christ are lost in the dead desires of their sinful souls.

Much still to say, more to come.

Nevertheless, this is exactly what the unbelieving needed to hear. How? Because it is deadly to depend on our own religious discernment and desires. The Jews were not paying attention to Jesus or the life He offered. They were paying attention to their own categories and their own abilities. They needed to come to Jesus but they couldn't because of their pride. Men depend on their own: discernment, decision, dependence when God must grant them the desire to their delight. Drawing takes the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit according the revelation of the Son giving sight and satisfaction to the believer.

That is why these truths about sovereign, loving grace are so needed. We cannot enjoy life with our pride. We cannot enjoy life with our pessimism. We will not be hungry and thirsty if we depend on ourselves.

No man comes to Christ unless He is drawn changes worship. The Word cuts us up and arranges us as sacrifices:

This is why we pray with hope in God. "Lord, draw them!" This is why we proclaim the gospel with hope in God. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. This is why we persevere with hope in God. "Father, You've drawn me to Your Son, don't let me go!"

[^1]: The Greek word translated "draw" (a form of ἕλκω) in John 6:44 is also used in John 12:32; 18:10; 21:6; 21:11; Acts 16:19; 21:30, and James 2:6. Of the eight passages, only John 6:44 and 12:32 appear to refer to internal drawing rather than externally moving an inanimate object or dragging persons by force.