Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Many years ago, when we first moved to Fort Worth for seminary, I worked at a marketing company selling dental discount plans.
[00:00:26] That was my job. So I went to school full time in seminary, and I worked at this job part time, and it was quite the experience.
[00:00:33] I was not great at sales, and that's beside the point. But one particular day, I'm at my computer, I'm working, I'm on the phone with the customer, and all of a sudden I get this really deep pain in my eye. And there are certain parts of your body that when they're hurt, it debilitates your entire person.
[00:00:51] So the eye is one of those things. And. And so I began to feel a lot of pain in my eye. And so finished my shift, and by this point, I couldn't see out of it. I mean, I was like, I couldn't open it, and it started to actually hurt the other one as well. And I did the thing that nobody should ever do. I drove. Okay? So I got in the car and I was like, I gotta get home. I gotta drive home. So I start driving home. I'm on i35, just trying to make my way through traffic, can't see, really, and end up not going home. I ended up going to the eye doctor. I walked in, I said, hey, there's an emergency. I cannot open my eyes. And. And so the doctor kind of pried my eyes open, and he said, yeah, you scratched your cornea. It's like, well, I sleep in my contacts all the time. So that's probably the reason behind that. And so he proceeded to get this ointment.
[00:01:35] Don't know what it was, but he got this ointment and he applied it to my eyes. And within, like, 30 seconds, I could open my eyes and I could see clearly. It was the most amazing thing. I was like, oh, my gosh, that is amazing stuff right there.
[00:01:49] And the reason I bring this up to you is because as we've been talking through the Book of Jonah, we've been talking about this idea of revival or awakening.
[00:01:59] You'll notice as you read through the Book of Jonah that there's a word that sticks out, and it's the word arise.
[00:02:05] Jonah's asleep. Arise, Jonah.
[00:02:07] Go to Nineveh and preach repentance.
[00:02:11] Arise, awake from your stupor and call out to the one true God. I mean, all of these various scenarios fall, Jonah, throughout the book. And the word is arise. And as we're thinking about this idea of revival, this has been in my heart for myself, for myself, for my family and for us as a church, that we would experience this thing called revival. Revival is not necessarily a massive movement with a lot of people. Okay. Revival isn't necessarily filled with heightened emotions.
[00:02:44] Okay. It's not to say that that doesn't happen. Revival is, as Tim Keller says, the intensification of the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:53] It's that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes and we'd be able to see God for who he is more fully.
[00:03:00] Like, what might your life look like? What might mine look like if the Holy Spirit actually did that?
[00:03:07] Like, if you and I were actually able to see God and experience God, experience the presence of God more fully than we do now?
[00:03:18] I mean, sometimes. And I had this conversation with a good friend a couple of weeks ago. Like, the idea of talking about revival can almost seem tiring a little bit. It's like, oh, my gosh, more stuff.
[00:03:29] But what if we thought about revival not as more. Not as redoubling our efforts to be better and do more, but what if we thought revival as more and more in the context of rest?
[00:03:39] Like, think about John resting his head against the chest of Jesus. Think about what that might have been like to hear the heartbeat of God.
[00:03:47] What if revival looked like that?
[00:03:50] What if it was such a closeness and an intimacy with the risen Jesus that everything in our life began to change?
[00:03:57] That we desire to obey the word of God not because we believe that if we obey it, God will love us, but because he has loved us. He has sent his son Jesus for us, and out of love for him, we begin to obey.
[00:04:12] So whether we're talking about sleeping Christians like Jonah that need to awake and arise by the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe that's you, maybe it's me.
[00:04:23] Or we're talking about nominal Christians who are only Christian by name, but really don't have a relationship with Jesus, who need to be awakened and saved. Or we're talking about those maybe among us this morning who are irreligious, and I'll define what that means in just a moment. Need to be radically saved. This is what we're talking about with revival, and this is what we're praying for this summer, because it's such a sweet theme through the book of Jonah, the need to awake. And only the Holy Spirit can do that. So here's what I want to do through the text this morning. I want to talk about. And I'm going to kind of set the scene for us again. Ricky, thank you for reading.
[00:05:01] We're going to talk about how one ought to respond to God.
[00:05:06] That's the basic idea. Okay. How should you, this morning, on this day, respond to God? We're gonna see two responses in the text, and then we're gonna see God's response.
[00:05:17] So two different responses, and then God's response. That's gonna be the outline for morning. So if you'll look with me in verse 11.
[00:05:26] Just gonna read verse 11. I'll give us a little bit of context for the scene. We'll set the scene up, and then we'll talk about these two responses.
[00:05:32] So verse 11 says, Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. All right, so let's just answer a few questions for context. First of all, who are they? They said to him, who are they? They are the pagan sailors, irreligious sailors.
[00:05:57] Okay. Some would say if they read this story, maybe at the. Just on the onset, they would say that these men were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
[00:06:07] But as we'll see in a moment, it's quite the opposite.
[00:06:11] It's a very gracious thing of God to put these men in this particular place at this particular time. These were pagan sailors, and they were polytheistic. That's a big fancy word that basically just means that they believed in a host of gods.
[00:06:25] They didn't believe in the one true God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who is sovereign over the tempestuous sea. They believed in a multitude of gods. And so as the sea begins to rage, as Jonah's on the boat, they're on the boat, and the sea begins to rage because God brings a storm upon the sea in pursuit of Jonah and in pursuit of the men, as we'll see in a moment, rather than crying out to the one true God, they begin to cry out to a multitude of gods, who is he? So they, the pagan sailors said to him, that being Jonah, Jonah is a prophet of God. Jonah's name means dove. Okay, so I'm going to ask you this probably every week for those of you who have been here throughout the series. What does the word dove mean in this context?
[00:07:08] Silly and senseless.
[00:07:11] That's what Jonah's name means.
[00:07:13] So Jonah's name means dove, which means silly and senseless. Jonah was a historical figure who really lived at a particular place in a particular time. He was a prophet of God, meaning that he was called by God to speak on behalf of God to his people, and in this particular case, to a people Called the Ninevites.
[00:07:30] God would speak to Jonah. Jonah would speak either a message of repentance or a message of grace to his people. God had seen. I'm sorry, Jonah had seen God do amazing things throughout the duration of his prophetic ministry. And then God comes to him one day and he says, hey, I want you to go preach to this group of people called the Ninevites. Okay? Nineveh is what is today modern day Mosul, Iraq.
[00:07:54] And at the time, it was filled with wicked people. So if you can imagine the most heinous, vile terrorist organization that you can imagine, that comes to mind, that was the Ninevites. And they weren't just that, like, abstract, like, they were that. And Jonah had experienced that. He had experienced oppression at the hand of the Ninevites. And so when God calls him to go and preach to the Ninevites, he's calling him to go and preach to his enemies, those who have oppressed him, those who have persecuted him, those who have harmed him, and the people of God.
[00:08:28] And so Jonah, rather than getting up and going following God in obedience to God, knows, as we'll see later in the book, that God is a gracious God.
[00:08:38] He's compassionate, he's kind, and he loves to save.
[00:08:43] Like, do we know that about the heart of God? I mean, do you believe that as it pertains to your relationship? Like, he loves to save.
[00:08:50] He did not send his son into the world. Jesus says in John 3 to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
[00:08:58] That's wonderful that that's the heart of God. Jonah knew that, and he knew a lot of it up here, but he had not internalized the grace of God for himself.
[00:09:08] And so in rebellion against God, he decides to run the opposite direction.
[00:09:12] Says that he runs to a place called Joppa, which is the opposite direction of Nineveh, and he boards a ship going to another place called Tarshish. We don't know a lot about Tarshish other than it was in the opposite direction.
[00:09:24] Okay? So he's not just fleeing from this call of God, he's fleeing from God himself.
[00:09:29] He gets on this ship aboard all these pagan sailors, polytheistic sailors, and they head off to Tarshish. But God's not done.
[00:09:38] God sends a tempestuous storm upon the sea, and that storm begins to rock the boat. And it's so intense that it actually begins to tear at the boat to the point where these sailors begin to cry out to their gods. But Jonah is asleep on the inside of the boat. And so the captain of the boat comes to Jonah and he says, hey, arise, you sleeper.
[00:10:01] Call out to your God on our behalf.
[00:10:05] And so Jonah, Jonah gets up, and this is where we find ourselves. In verse 11, they say, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?
[00:10:18] For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. And this is what Jonah says. So this is the first response.
[00:10:24] God is pursuing Jonah. He's pursuing these men. And this is how Jonah responds.
[00:10:30] Verse 12.
[00:10:32] He said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea, then the sea will quiet down for you.
[00:10:40] For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.
[00:10:48] This is a wrong response.
[00:10:50] I will readily admit that when I first, like, for a long, long time as I read the book of Jonah, I always kind of thought about this as a pretty humble response. Jonah's like, hey, pick me up and throw me into the sea.
[00:11:03] Because if you throw me into the sea, then God's going to make the sea quiet down for you. And so it's almost like Jonah is sacrificing himself for the good of the men on the boat.
[00:11:13] But through a lot of commentaries and a little bit deeper study, I don't think that that's what's happening here.
[00:11:19] It's not to say that Jonah's not going to come to some form of repentance later, but it is to say there's really no textual evidence that there's any side of repentance, any sign of repentance, or turning to God from Jonah. Now, Jonah didn't know. Spoiler alert. For those of you who don't know how the story of Jonah goes, which is really exciting to me that there are some people here who don't know the story. That's awesome that God's going to provide a really big fish to swallow Jonah in just a moment.
[00:11:48] But Jonah doesn't.
[00:11:53] Jonah doesn't know that that's going to happen yet.
[00:11:56] God hadn't told Jonah that.
[00:12:01] So Jonah says, pick me up and hurl me into the sea. I know that it's because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. So while this might sound humble on the surface, Jonah, I believe, is actually doubling down in his rebellion to God. Jonah would rather die than go to the Ninevites and preach repentance.
[00:12:20] He would rather die than see his hated enemies forgiven.
[00:12:26] Throw me into the sea.
[00:12:28] I'd rather be dead than turn from this.
[00:12:33] This is a consequence. Tim Keller is really helpful in talking about this idea of revival and how we respond to God.
[00:12:42] Keller says that there are basically three responses to God, three possible irreligion, religion and the gospel.
[00:12:52] Only three responses. Irreligion, religion and the Gospel. I think what we see in our prophet and our friend and our brother, two of those.
[00:13:01] He responds irreligiously in the sense of irreligious.
[00:13:07] Irreligion is a response by which a person avoids God altogether.
[00:13:12] They just run away from God. I don't want anything to do with God. I don't want anything to do with repentance, anything to do with faith in Jesus. I'm just going to run altogether.
[00:13:20] So he responds that way.
[00:13:22] Religion is opposite, but just like it in many ways.
[00:13:27] So if religion is avoiding God altogether, a religious response to God is, as Keller says, avoiding God as Savior and Lord by developing a moral righteousness and then presenting it to God in an effort to show that he owes you.
[00:13:44] Does that make sense? So if religion is avoiding God altogether, irreligion, then religion is saying, I've got a righteousness in and of myself. And so I'm going to avoid what the Gospel actually says and what the Gospel actually calls me to because I have something good to offer to God through my good actions, my good works, my good character, et cetera. It's being blinded by our own goodness. And I think friends, many of us, myself included, fall prey to that one a lot more than the first one.
[00:14:17] That many of us live our Christian life as if we're still pretty good people.
[00:14:23] And so we still have quite a bit to offer God.
[00:14:27] Maybe we know that we need grace, we recognize that. But at least we're not as bad as that guy.
[00:14:33] Like, at least we're not as bad as those people in that country over there. At least we're not murdering people.
[00:14:43] This is a religious response and this blinded Jonah.
[00:14:49] Jonah believed in his own goodness.
[00:14:53] And so because Jonah believed in his own goodness, he was unable to see rightly.
[00:14:59] Ninevites don't deserve to be saved. They don't deserve God's grace.
[00:15:04] You know what they've done? You know what they've done to me?
[00:15:08] Jonah was self righteous.
[00:15:12] He had not internalized the grace of God for himself.
[00:15:19] And this kind of living friends, this kind of religious thinking that I can be good enough for God to love and approve me is only going to lead you to one of two places, okay? It's only going to lead you to pride or despair.
[00:15:36] It's either going to lead you to really believe that you're better than everybody. Else, or at least some other people, or it's going to lead you to absolute despair because you can't measure up, and you know it.
[00:15:49] Richard Lovelace Lovelace says Christians who are no longer sure God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously, radically insecure persons.
[00:16:08] Their insecurity shows in pride, a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness, meaning that they're not correctable, and defensive criticism of others.
[00:16:22] This is the fruit of thinking that you're good enough to earn God's approval and love for you.
[00:16:32] So, friends, does this describe you and maybe to bring it home a little bit more, you guys are getting a little bit of, like, inner workings of preparing a sermon as you write it, and you're just like. You just see your own fallenness in a thousand ways.
[00:16:46] How does this describe you?
[00:16:52] How are you responding to God today?
[00:16:56] Are you responding to God through irreligion, just avoiding him altogether? I don't want to think about it. I don't want to hear about it. I mean, obviously you're here, so you kind of want to hear about it.
[00:17:07] Or are you responding in a religious way, working to present a righteousness to God that is of yourself?
[00:17:17] I can try harder. I can do better. I can be better. My stepdad, when I was growing up, was a welder.
[00:17:24] We lived in a small little duplex, and we had a big metal Tyrannosaurus rex in our front yard. And I was super embarrassed by it.
[00:17:32] Like, I never wanted to bring my friends over. I was just like. I was like, do we have to have that T. Rex in the middle of our front yard?
[00:17:39] And.
[00:17:41] But it was pretty awesome that he did it. And sometimes I'd be able to go and kind of see him working in the garage on things. And one day he said, hey, you want to come to work with me? And I was like, yeah, I'd love to come to work with you. So he lets me go to work, and he says, do you want to make something? Do you want to weld something? I was like, yeah, that'd be awesome. And so he gives me this little piece of metal, little circle piece of metal. And I was really into comic books at the time, specifically DC comic books. Terrible movies now. But I was into DC Comics at the time. And. And so I get this little piece of metal, and I just begin to kind of chisel away at the metal. And he's like, no, no, no. And so he comes over and he basically says this. He says, hey, you can't reform Metal apart from fire and heat.
[00:18:20] You can't try by your own brute force to try to change the shape of this thing. You can't do that.
[00:18:26] You need fire.
[00:18:28] And the same is true when it comes to religion.
[00:18:32] If you try to force this going to change. I'm going to redouble my efforts and I'm going to be better and I'm going to be different. I'm going to be all who God wants me to be.
[00:18:42] You'll never change.
[00:18:46] We can't relate to God that way.
[00:18:48] We need fire.
[00:18:52] We need the fire of the gospel.
[00:18:54] We need the fire of the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:56] We can't do it. We're too broken. I am too broken. I cannot do it.
[00:19:03] But Jonah was unable to see this because that's what religion does. That's what self righteousness does. It blinds us to our need.
[00:19:13] So that's the first response.
[00:19:18] Let's look at the second. I'm just going to jump down. I'm kind of going all over my notes here. Okay. Second response is the sailors. Okay, so let's look at verses 14 to 16.
[00:19:28] Verses 14 to 16 says, Therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.
[00:19:44] Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. So I skipped over verse 15, which is God's response.
[00:19:53] But let's look at what these men. Let's just kind of look at their initial reaction to what's going on here in verse 14. They called out, they called out to the Lord. So Jonah is blinded by his own self righteousness.
[00:20:08] He can't see beyond himself.
[00:20:10] And so he's led to a place of both pride and despair. Throw me into the sea, kill me because I'd rather die than repent.
[00:20:18] The sailors, on the other hand, for the first time cry out to the Lord. Now there's a lot of debate over whether or not the sailors actually got saved. Cards on the table. I think they did. Here's why I think they did. Because the whole book of Jonah, God is saving people like crazy. Saving this person, saving that person, saving this. For that's just the heart of who he is.
[00:20:38] I think that's one of the reasons he gave us the book, because his grace is irresistible.
[00:20:44] He sent his own son. Like if he did not spare his own son, the scriptures say, how will he not within him also graciously give us all things like God design. He loves to save.
[00:20:59] And so I believe they get saved. I believe that God in His grace, calls them out of darkness and into the light of his kingdom. And it says that they, for the first time, they call out to the Lord, oh, Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood. For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. Rather than crying out to their gods for rescue, casting lots, working by their own strength to rescue themselves, rowing harder to try to get to dry land, rather than doing all those things, God and his irresistible grace, like heat applied to metal, invades the hearts of these men. And they call out to God, the one true God, for the first time. This is faith.
[00:21:43] Many people say that we're to bring nothing to God. You're to bring nothing to God but yourself. That's like.
[00:21:51] I don't totally agree with that.
[00:21:53] I think what the Bible calls us to bring to God is confession, a broken and contrite heart. That's what you bring to God.
[00:22:01] That's what I'm to bring to God. Not our works, not our own attempts at righteousness, our own goodness.
[00:22:07] Not nothing but confession.
[00:22:12] They cried out to God, O Lord.
[00:22:16] They called the name of the one true God for the first time, Yahweh.
[00:22:22] And they didn't just call out to the name of the Lord, but they recognized his sovereignty.
[00:22:29] O Lord, you've done as it pleased you, the sovereignty of God. I was thinking about this last night in relation to all the stuff going on in the world, like, the sovereignty of God for Christians ought to be like a warm blanket for you.
[00:22:46] Like, not everybody in the room had a great relationship with their dad. I didn't.
[00:22:50] But I remember vivid memories of my grandfather holding me.
[00:22:54] And when my grandfather was holding me, especially when I was a little kid, like, nothing could touch me.
[00:23:02] That's the assurance that Christians have with a sovereign God.
[00:23:07] These sailors recognize that Lord, this is only happening because you've done as it pleased you.
[00:23:16] These events aren't random. They're not just happenstance.
[00:23:20] Every single thing that's happening in the world right now is under the sovereign hand of a good and gracious God. And that that ought to bring great comfort for us.
[00:23:33] He is.
[00:23:35] He is sovereign. So they call out to the Lord, they recognize his sovereignty.
[00:23:41] And then it says, as a result of them calling out to the Lord and what they're about to experience, when God responds that they fear the Lord exceedingly. So their fear shifted from. From being fearful of the elements to being Fearful of the one who is sovereign over the elements.
[00:23:57] The Bible does not tell you and I. It doesn't command you and I to never fear anything. It doesn't say that the Bible talks about and calls Christians to rightly ordered fears.
[00:24:11] Fear isn't something you're going to not do.
[00:24:14] You and I are always going to fear something.
[00:24:16] It's just a matter of what you and I fear and whether or not that's a holy fear or an unholy fear.
[00:24:24] And so as a result of God's grace, it says that they feared the Lord exceedingly. And that fear of the Lord led them to offer sacrifices to the Lord and to make vows. It led to obedience. Because oftentimes in the Bible, the fear of the Lord and obedience to the Lord go hand in hand with one another.
[00:24:40] When I fear the Lord, then I won't fear anything else.
[00:24:47] And so I can walk in obedience to what God has called me to. But what's kind of the catalyst behind all of this? So you have a response from Jonah by which Jonah, being blinded by his own self righteousness, says, throw me overboard. I'd rather die than repent.
[00:25:04] And then the irreligious sailors cry out to God for the first time acknowledge his sovereignty, fear the Lord. All these things, two different responses.
[00:25:11] What's underneath all of that, really, I think is a question of what is the essence of revival. So if we're seeing revival happen in at least one of these groups of people and the pagan sailors, and I would say this is, that'd be my estimation.
[00:25:26] What's the essence of it? The essence of it is verse 15.
[00:25:30] It's God's response.
[00:25:33] Verse 15 says, they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
[00:25:46] This is what God does.
[00:25:48] Jonah serves to both point us back in time and forward from when he actually lived. He serves historical person, but served as an example to point both backward and forward. When Jonah was thrown into the sea, God stilled the storm.
[00:26:10] Jonah serves to point us backward. In this way, Jonah serves as a type of scapegoat, which is something that we see introduced in the book of Leviticus, chapter 16, verses 8 through 10.
[00:26:22] So in the Old Testament sacrificial system, God would have his people take two goats.
[00:26:30] One was to be killed and the blood spilled so that that particular lamb without blemish would be an atoning sacrifice for the people of God so their sins could be forgiven. The other goat was to be sent away, so the sins of the people of God were to be confessed over that goat. And then the goat was to be sent away out into the wilderness, Symbolizing that the people of God had not only had their sins forgiven, but their sins taken away. As far as the east is from the west. So Jonah, when he's thrown into the depths of the sea and the sea ceases to rage, is showing us that he's a type of scapegoat from Leviticus 16. But it's not only that he's not only that. He also points us forward to the better sacrifice, Jesus, the Messiah.
[00:27:17] Mark chapter four says, that day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. And I want you to listen to the parallels here in this text and in the Jonah story.
[00:27:30] Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along. Just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we all drown?
[00:27:49] So Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still.
[00:27:54] Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm.
[00:27:59] He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid?
[00:28:02] Do you still have no faith?
[00:28:04] They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him. Jesus is the God, man. Jesus is the God who is over the storm in the book of Jonah.
[00:28:15] So as Jesus stilled the winds and the waves on the boat in the book of Jonah, so thousands of years later, Jesus stills the winds and the waves on the boat with his disciples. And it leads the disciples to say, who then is this?
[00:28:32] Well, we know that Jesus is the promised Messiah from the old testament, Isaiah 53, 4, 5.
[00:28:41] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
[00:28:45] Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And listen to this. And just let this kind of wash over you. And with his wounds, we are healed.
[00:29:04] You're healed.
[00:29:07] If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're healed. Not because of your righteousness.
[00:29:12] You have none apart from God.
[00:29:15] Not because of your goodness, not because of your moral effort, not because of the family you were born into or the political party that you vote for.
[00:29:27] You're healed. If you're a believer in Jesus, because someone stood in your place.
[00:29:33] Someone lived the life that you could never live, in perfect obedience to the Father.
[00:29:39] Someone lived a life of perfect love that you and I can only aspire toward perfect holiness, perfect righteousness.
[00:29:48] Someone fulfilled the law of God. And it wasn't you, and it wasn't me.
[00:29:52] And that someone went to the cross and was smitten by the Father.
[00:30:00] He became sin, though he knew no sin on the cross.
[00:30:06] And it was because of his death on the cross, resurrection from the grave, that those who trust in him, who receive him, are healed.
[00:30:17] Jesus calms the winds and the waves of God's wrath forever. On behalf of the people of God.
[00:30:23] Jesus alone can calm the winds and the waves of all the turmoil going on in your heart this morning.
[00:30:31] Jesus alone can do this.
[00:30:34] Romans 5:1 says, Therefore, since we have been justified or made right with God by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel.
[00:30:47] Irreligion avoids God.
[00:30:49] Religion avoids God. By trying to be good enough, both ways avoid God. The Gospel says that you and I have strayed all like sheep. We've gone astray.
[00:31:00] But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. Why? So that we might receive adoption as sons. That's the good news.
[00:31:13] And that good news is not to be worked for. That good news is to be received.
[00:31:18] You can only receive it.
[00:31:20] And that's the essence of revival.
[00:31:23] Receiving the gospel again, reminding yourself again that you and I are never going to be good enough in and of ourself. We're never going to be worthy enough.
[00:31:35] We're never going to be lovely enough.
[00:31:39] But despite all of those things, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:31:48] And so we can receive that or we cannot receive it.
[00:31:54] I want to just close by asking you this question again and giving you three options.
[00:32:01] How will you respond to God today?
[00:32:06] How will you respond to God today?
[00:32:12] Will you hear this and respond in an irreligious way?
[00:32:17] I don't care.
[00:32:18] I've heard it before.
[00:32:20] I'm going to continue to go off and do my own thing. The pagan sailors really represent man, where all of us came from. First of all, regardless of when you became a Christian, at some point you and I were like them. And in many ways we still are. John Calvin, old theologian, says that our hearts are like idle factories.
[00:32:39] My grandmother used to work at the candle factory. Do you know what the candle factory was filled with candles all over the place.
[00:32:47] That's like what our hearts are like as it pertains to idols.
[00:32:52] Idols aren't necessarily statues.
[00:32:55] They're not necessarily evil, wicked things. Sometimes idols are good things.
[00:32:59] Good things that have become ultimate things in our life.
[00:33:03] That if that good thing were taken away from me, it wouldn't just make me sad, it would leave me devastated.
[00:33:12] Will we hear what God has done for you in Jesus and respond in an irreligious way, just avoiding God altogether?
[00:33:19] What if it's true? Friends like, would you at least leave today, considering that question?
[00:33:25] What if it's true?
[00:33:29] And then others might feel tempted or swayed or even desiring to respond religiously to avoid God and His grace in the person and work of Jesus.
[00:33:45] By leaving here and thinking, I'm going to settle down with a redoubled effort to be better and try harder, not going to be the person I was yesterday, I'm going to be different today.
[00:33:58] And so you're going to leave and you're going to keep trying to work to earn God's love and acceptance through your own goodness.
[00:34:05] I just want to invite both parties into the third option.
[00:34:11] The third option is gospel.
[00:34:16] What God has done for you through the life, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus. It's the good news of our rescue from peril, that one day Jesus will return and he'll judge the living and the dead and God's wrath will will completely cleanse the world of all evil and unrighteousness once for all.
[00:34:44] And the Gospel says there's good news for you today.
[00:34:49] By turning from your sin and looking upon Jesus and believing upon Jesus, you will be saved from peril.
[00:34:58] The wrath of God will not touch you.
[00:35:01] You'll be adopted into the family of God once for all.
[00:35:04] You'll be forgiven of all of your sins. You'll be cleansed of all unrighteousness. You'll be made a son or a daughter of God. And it's not by anything you do, it's merely by receiving this good news.
[00:35:16] Will you receive that good news?
[00:35:18] Will you confess your need?
[00:35:21] Will you confess that you've been trying to live a life of earning the love and faith? If you're a Christian, that you've been operating in your relationship with God as if you are good enough to earn his love and acceptance? Would you confess that and and turn from it, confessing this reality that you're already loved and you're already accepted in Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to help you believe that, that you and I would live our life as those who were already loved and already accepted completely by Jesus. Like, what might that look like?
[00:35:52] Let's pray for these things. I love you. And then we'll enter into our time of communication. Sam Sa.
