Biblical Talks with Elder Michael Tolliver Podcast
When the term Reformed theology is used, it often refers to something less historical. Often it refers to a theology that acknowledges the doctrine of predestination and holds to a high view of the Bible as God’s inerrant Word. Sometimes it is also identified with the so-called five points of Calvinism: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. These are all important teachings of the Reformed tradition, but they do not fully encapsulate or describe Reformed theology.
A better starting place is five statements that have been called the five solas of the Reformation. These five solas (sola is the Latin word for “only” or “alone”) are sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), and soli Deo gloria (God’s glory alone). Put together, these solas clearly express the central concerns of the Protestant Reformation, which was about worship and authority within the church as much as it was about individual salvation. The “alone” in each is vital, and they emphasize the sufficiency of God’s Word and the gracious nature of salvation, received by faith alone, in Christ alone. The last of the five solas, soli Deo gloria, is the natural outworking of the first four. It reminds us that Reformed theology understands all of life in terms of the glory of God. To be Reformed in our thinking is to be God-centered. Salvation is from the Lord from beginning to end, and even our existence is a gift from Him.
Biblical Talks with Elder Michael Tolliver Podcast
Sermon of the Week Timothy Keller: We're All Under Sin: Paul's Hard Truth About Human Nature
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Romans 3:9 -20 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Beloved, all of us stand under condemnation. Listen, all of us stand in the need of salvation.
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Welcome to Biblical Talks. Sermon of the Week. In Romans, chapter 3, the writer says there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned their way. All the light has become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one Beloved. People use every part of their bodies to rebel against the word and the will of God. All of us I mean all of us stand under condemnation. All of us are in need of salvation. Let's listen to Tim Kelly as he preached this great sermon which says no one sees God. Here's Tim Kelly.
Speaker 2:Romans, chapter three, verses nine through 20. What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have, together, become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace. They do not know there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 3:The Bible we say every week is not so much a series of little disconnected stories, each with a moral. The Bible is actually a single story about what's wrong with the world and the human race, what God has done to put that right in Jesus Christ and finally how history then, as a result, is going to turn out in the end. And that is the story of the Bible. And what we're looking at in Romans 1, 2, 3, and 4 is Paul's version, st Paul's version, of that entire biblical story which is also called the gospel. And we are coming here in this passage to the very end of his analysis of what's wrong with the human race which, though it's a tiny little word, is fraught with profound meaning. The Bible's answer to the question why what's wrong with the human race is the word sin. And Paul here is giving us a kind of summary statement of the biblical doctrine, you could say, of sin. And when I was a new believer and just trying to work my way around the Bible, I want you to know that this particular passage gave me fits. It was a tough passage for me. It seemed over the top. Some of the statements, you know it bothered me and I wrestled with it. But eventually it revolutionized my way of thinking about life and about myself and about the world, and I'll share a little bit of that, what I learned back then, with you now. But this is perhaps the most radical and the strongest of all the statements that the Bible gives us about what's wrong with the human heart. And we're going to learn three things about sin here the egalitarianism of sin yes, that's what I said the trajectory of sin and finally, the cure for sin. The egalitarianism of sin, the trajectory of sin and the cure for sin.
Speaker 3:Now first and we're going to work pretty much through the passage, in the very beginning, in verses 9 and 10, paul is making a statement. He's making a point that I'm going to call the egalitarianism of sin. He says over and over again there is no one righteous, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks for God. But it's in verse 9, he says the most amazing things. He says Jew and Gentile alike are under sin. Are we any better? Not at all. Now you have to remember Paul's looking back to Romans 1, where he's talking about the pagan Gentiles rolling in the streets sex, drugs and rock and roll. Okay, that's what these long lists of sexual practices and evil, corruption practices of civil and corporate and individual. And then Paul identifies himself as a God-fearing Jew trying to obey the Ten Commandments in chapter 2.
Speaker 3:And he says are we any better than them, not at all. Moral and immoral, religious and secular, he's saying there is no difference. In fact, in the beginning he says a liker under sin. Well, what does that mean? Well, if you want to understand what that means, you can scroll to the bottom of the text, where it says in verse 19, the whole world is held accountable to God, and the word accountable means liable. It's a judicial word, it means liable for punishment. And what he's saying is no matter who you are, no matter what your record, no matter whether you've lived a life of altruism and compassion and service or a life of cruelty and exploitation, we're all alike, we're all condemned, we're all lost, we all deserve to be rejected by God. That's what he's saying. Now, how could that be? And that's actually getting to point two, though.
Speaker 3:Let me remind you of what we even know from last week, if you were here, in looking at Romans 2. Robbing and murdering people, and a moral, religious, upright Pharisee who thinks because of his good deeds and his righteousness, god owes him blessing and people owe him respect. Paul is saying that, as different as those look on the surface, underneath those are both expressions of the same radical self-centeredness, radical self-absorption. That is sin. Now, how that can be, we'll get to in a second, because here's what I want you to see. When Paul says all alike, are they any better than us? Not at all. This is radical egalitarianism.
Speaker 3:I want you to see what the implications are. Let me give you two implications. The first implication is, if you're looking at Christianity and I know some of you are if you're thinking about Christianity from like, well, what is this about? If you're exploring it, if you want to know more about it, almost always you come unconsciously with a preliminary model, already determined in your mind, for how this is going to work. Basically, most people come to Christianity where I'm going to explore this and you start to say okay, somehow there's some things this and that I must do for God, and if I do this and that for God, then God will be obliged to do this and that. For me. That's how spirituality works. If I do this and that for God, god will do this and that. For me. That's how spirituality works. If I do this and that for God, god will do this and that for me. That's the model in your head. You kind of assume it. You think you're exploring, though you already assume that model. What you're actually exploring, you think, is what's the this and the that Most people think?
Speaker 3:Well, spirituality works like this there is some kind of life that is considered a good life and I must adopt it, and there's a kind of life that's a bad life and I must reject it. And then if I adopt a good life and reject and abandon the bad life, then God will do this and that I'm just trying to find out what is a good life? What do I have to stop doing? What do I have to start doing? What will God do? That's what you think of exploring, but I want you to see that the model is wrong, because, hear me, whatever Paul is talking about when he calls people to become Christians and receive salvation, whatever Jesus is calling us to do when he calls us to take salvation, they can't be calling us to simply stop bad living and start good living, because he's saying here that the people who live good are no better than the people who live bad. They're all spiritually lost. Spiritually speaking, they're in the very same place.
Speaker 3:So if you think that what it means to become a Christian is, well, there's certain things I got to stop doing and certain things I got to start doing, then God will bless me. You're wrong. Well, what is it then? I'm just trying to get you to see that because you come in with a grid, because you come in with a grid, it doesn't actually understand or accept this, because there's nobody believes this except Christians. No other worldview, no other religion, no other philosophy says anything like this. The fact is that, whatever it is that Jesus and Paul are calling you to in order to get salvation, it's nothing like anything you can conceive of. You're going to have to listen really carefully because it's not on your mental map. Whatever it is is a category buster. I just want you to recognize that, that it's unique, it's different, it's not what you expect, and you're going to have to listen carefully Because the gospel doesn't really fit in the other human categories.
Speaker 3:So, first of all, please keep in mind that, paul and Jesus, I and me, when I call you to become a Christian, I'm not just saying stop living like this and start living like this. Of course, I want you to change your life. Change life is absolutely important, but it can't be the main thing, it can't be the chief thing, it can't be the central thing. Why? Because people who live good lives and people who live bad lives are all alike, according to God. Now the other implication is let's just say you have embraced Christianity and you say I am a Christian. Well, do you realize the radical nature of this statement? Are we any better? Not at all.
Speaker 3:There was nobody, whoever lived, probably, who was more dedicated and upright and moral and dedicated to his God, his principles, to the Scripture, than Paul. And yet when Paul it's just amazing if you read all the way through Romans Paul goes through that list of sexual practices and various sorts of corruption in chapter 1. And then he gets to chapter 3 and says Am I any better than them? Not at all. For Paul to say I have come to the conclusion through the gospel, that the criminal who is killing people and robbing people and raping people in the street is equal to me, that I am no better than that person. That is unbelievable and I want you to think about this.
Speaker 3:Paul was a Pharisee and as a Pharisee he would have considered Gentiles as spiritual dogs and unclean. And yet here he is now, dedicating his life to living with them, to living with these racially other people. Is it possible, before the gospel came to Paul that he could have looked at heretics and infidels and said we're equal. He could have looked at pagans and he could have looked at libertines and immoral people and said we're equal. Not on your life. But now here's what's going on. A group of people, big swaths of the human race, that he would have looked down on, that he would have scorned that, he would have written off that, he would have shown no love and respect for the gospel. The doctrine of sin has radically rehumanized the human race for Paul. Do you hear me? Radically rehumanized. There's all kinds of people that he would have looked down on, caricatured them, thought who has anything to do with it? And now I'm no better than them. These people are radically rehumanized in their mind.
Speaker 3:Now, do you think this doctrine of total depravity and that's an old theological term for this doctrine the idea that the world is not filled with good people and bad people, but all people are lost, all people need salvation, all people are sinful? Total depravity, the doctrine of total depravity will make you look down on people? Not at all. Look what happened to Paul. If you believe in this doctrine of total depravity and you think it out and you take it to the center of your life. It re-humanizes the human race, all kinds of people that you would never give the time of day to you now love and respect. Why? Because I'm no better. Wherever you are socially, your social location makes you prone to look down your nose at people of certain races, certain classes, certain nationalities, even your vocation does You're an artist?
Speaker 3:Oh, look at the traditional, middle-class bourgeois. You're a traditional middle-class bourgeois. Look at these freaky, stupid artists. You're conservative, you're liberal. You really feel about your politics? Do you really look at the other side and say I'm no better? No, you don't say that. You say we're a lot better. And true. No matter where, any place you are in the world, whatever your racial or your cultural group, your national grouping, you've got a history with another kind of person, another kind of grouping that you have always tended and your social location makes you tend to despise them. But if you believe in the doctrine of sin, you're no better. Do you see the radical egalitarianism of the biblical doctrine of sin?
Speaker 3:Secondly, we also learn here about the trajectory of sin. Now see, we have to now deal with the fact that a lot of people say this is just over the top. I did as a young Christian. I looked at this and I see Paul saying no one seeks for God. Well, it sure seems to me like there's an awful lot of people spiritually searching and seeking to please God. And then it says no one does good. Well, that's wow. Wait a minute, what do you mean? Nobody does good. But if you look more carefully, you will see that what Paul is giving us here is a definition of sin that goes deep, and what he's showing us is that sin is relational before it ever becomes. If it ever becomes a behavioral thing like breaking the law, it's relational before it ever becomes and it doesn't have to become behavioral in breaking the law. Why? Because look at the word turn away All have turned away. And even look at the word seek no one seeks for God. These are directional words and what it's talking about is trajectory. It's talking about direction, your aim.
Speaker 3:Therefore, sin is not so much a matter of whether you're doing bad things or whether you're doing good things. Sin is mainly a matter of what you're doing. You're doing for, and what we're being told is that sin makes you want to get away from God, not go toward him. Get away. Sin makes you want to get out from under his gaze, get out from under his hands, get out from under his control. You want to be your own savior, you want to be your own Lord, you want to keep God at arm's length and you want to stay in control of your own life. That's what sin makes you want to do. And, as we have often said, but we have to say it now again, there's two ways to be your own Savior and Lord. There's two ways to keep God at arm's length. One is to be a law to yourself live any way you want. The other is to be very, very, very good and go to church and obey the Bible and do everything you possibly can and try to live like Jesus so that God has to bless you, so God has to save you, in which case you're trying to get control over God and in that case you are not seeking God, you're seeking things from God.
Speaker 3:See, the text doesn't say no one seeks blessing from God Of course they do. No one seeks answers to prayer from God Of course they do. No one seeks forgiveness from God Of course they do. No one seeks spiritual feelings from God Of course they do. But no, paul's saying no one seeks God.
Speaker 3:And all your so-called serving and all your so-called doing good is really for yourself. It's away from God, it's away from others, it's toward self-centeredness. That's the trajectory. Let me give you an example of how what looks like selflessness and sacrificial love and service is not. Aa can tell you. Listen, people involved in AA know about this sort of thing.
Speaker 3:What I'm about to describe to you happens all the time. I'm going to describe to you a married couple in which one spouse is an alcoholic. By the way, it could be the woman rather than the husband, it could be the, you know, rather than the husband rather than the woman. But I'm just going to make it this way. I'm going to have the husband be the alcoholic, the wife not. And here's how it often works.
Speaker 3:Often, husband's an alcoholic. And so what does the wife have to do? Over the years? She has to bail him out, she has to make excuses for him, she has to clean up his mess, she has to constantly rescue him. And then, of course, she turns to him and says Do you know what I'm doing for you? You see, I'm not leaving you, I'm staying with you. I'm trying to keep this marriage together. I'm trying to keep our family together. I'm trying to keep our family economically afloat no help to you. And I have to do this and I have to do that. And I have to do all these things because look what you're doing to me. I suffer so much for you, I give so much to you, and yet you do this over and, over and over again. So she seems to be the one who's serving. She seems to be the one who's giving of herself right. And yet AA will tell you how often this will happen.
Speaker 3:If the husband gets into rehabilitation and begins to get better, very often the marriage will fall apart. She won't like it. She won't be able to deal with it. Why not? If she really loved him? You want the best for the person that you love. If you love the person, you want best for the person loved him. You want the best for the person that you love. If you love the person, you want best for the person. And the best thing for an addict is to go sober. If she really loves him, she should love to have him sober, but she doesn't. You know why? Here's what usually happens. She needed him to be a mess. She needed him to be a mess so she could rescue him, so she could feel good about herself, so she could feel worthwhile, so she could feel in control, so she could demand things of him and other people, so she could feel very noble about herself. She wasn't seeking him. She wasn't loving him. She was loving herself. She wasn't serving him, she was serving herself. She wasn't seeking him, she was seeking things from him. She was seeking power. She was seeking power, she was seeking control. And underneath all of that selflessness and underneath all of that service, she was serving herself and she was being radically selfish. She was doing all the right things but she was doing it for herself.
Speaker 3:And Paul is saying that is the case with all of us. Actually, nobody, unless the Holy Spirit comes in to change your heart, nobody serves God for God. Nobody's really seeking God. They're seeking things from God. Nobody even serves others, because you always serve people. You always serve God as long as it benefits you, so you can feel good about yourself, so you can make demands, so you can feel noble. No one seeks for God. No one does good. It doesn't mean nobody formally does good things. Of course it is better to give to the poor. Of course it is better to forgive somebody than it is to harm somebody or to spend all the money on yourself. Of course I'm not saying there aren't such things as virtuous deeds, but we're looking at the heart, we're looking at trajectory and I want you to know that when I I'll just finish the little personal story here that early on in my Christian life when I was struggling with Romans 3 and figuring this just seems over the top.
Speaker 3:You know, I feel like I do good. I feel like I sought God before I became a Christian too, and I just thought that Paul was just being over the top. But I remember sometime early in my Christian walk and it would have been in my early 20s I had a very bad patch. Everything was going wrong in my life. I suppose. Looking back on it I suppose, you know, I don't even remember the circumstances For all I know, looking back on it, it might have been pretty weak tea, but at the time it seemed like the end of the world.
Speaker 3:And I was sitting there and I was praying and actually began to say why should I be praying? What am I getting out of this relationship with God? It doesn't answer my prayers. There's all these unjust things happening around me. You know I've worked my fingers to the bone for this man. And what am I getting out of it? And I had a thought. I'll never forget the thought now because I'm a Presbyterian.
Speaker 3:I figure it was a hunch. It's God speaking to me now in my, in my mature theological position. As I think about it, it probably was God speaking to me through a hunch. It was this Now, only now, that everything's going wrong in your life. Now we'll find out whether you got into this faith to get God to serve you or in order to serve God. Now we'll know.
Speaker 3:And I began to realize maybe Paul was right that really every single part of my heart either did bad things and now I was doing good things, I was doing good things for myself. No one seeks for God, no one is righteous, no one is really doing good for goodness sake, or for God's sake, or even for other people's sake, but for your own sake. And that radical self-centeredness is what's making the world a mess. And I came to see that I was running from God even in my good deeds. Do you? I hope you do Now.
Speaker 3:Lastly, how are we going to cure this? I mean, this is a problem. In fact, you know this middle part of the passage. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceits. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. They ruin and misery mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know.
Speaker 3:You know, whenever I look out on a Manhattan crowd. Many of you look quite marvelous, but this is what you look like to God. Night of the living dead. Look at it. It's amazing, spiritually speaking. And this is the case underneath all of our doing good, underneath all the good deeds and working for charity and trying to do the right thing and trying to honor your parents all the good deeds there's anger, there's touchiness, there's turning on people if they harm you. There's a great deal of discouragement on happiness because God's not doing what he ought to be doing. In my life, inside it's all a mess and it's like kind of spiritual leprosy. You may look great on the outside, but inside you're falling apart. It's like spiritual leprosy.
Speaker 3:What will cure us? And Paul here at the end, tells us two things that are the keys to the cure. The first thing is at the very end. Every mouth may be silenced. Now when Paul says that, you must remember that this is the end of his exposition of why we need salvation. And starting in verse 21, we'll get to it next week he begins to open us up to salvation. He says, but now a salvation of righteousness. But he's bringing us to this point and this is his way of saying you'll never be able to receive Christ's salvation unless you shut up spiritually, unless your mouth is silenced.
Speaker 3:Now, what does it mean to be shut up? To shut up spiritually, to have your mouth silenced, means no excuses and no plan B. See, if you say, oh, I know I did wrong, god, but I can do better next time. I know I've done these things wrong, but I can turn it around. I see my motives are bad, but I can change my motives. Shut up, see, as long as you're still saying I know I can are bad, but I can change my motives. Shut up, see, as long as you're still saying I know I can do it, I know I can do it. Paul says you haven't shut up and you're not ready for salvation.
Speaker 3:You can't receive the cure for this sin unless you realize you can't fix yourself. You realize that even trying to fix yourself makes yourself worse, because every effort to somehow put it together and be a better person and really try harder is really just another effort in self-justification, self-salvation, self-sufficiency. You're just making yourself worse. And this condition of spiritually shutting up and just being quiet so you can receive the cure doesn't mean, by the way, beating yourself up oh, I've done so wrong. Shut up. You're still centered on yourself. You've got to get to the end of yourself. See, the only way to begin to get pulled out of the radical self-centeredness of sin is you've got to get to the end of yourself, and that means not just saying, oh I'm so sorry for my sin, I'll try to do better. You've got to not only be sorry for your sin, but even sorry for the reason. You did anything right in your whole life, which means you've got nothing to do but receive. There's nothing you can do now. You've just got to wait and listen.
Speaker 3:John Gerstner puts it like this Because of the gospel, the way to God is wide open. No sin can hold you back, because God has offered justification to the ungodly. Nothing now stands between you and God, but your good works. Now listen carefully. All you need is need. All you need is nothing, but most people don't have it. They've got. Well, look at the good things I've done. Shut up, but look at how bad these are. I can really Shut up. See, what he's saying here is all you need is need. All you need is nothing, but most people don't have it. He's saying the way you open yourself to salvation. In fact, the only way you can receive God's salvation is not just simply to repent of your sins.
Speaker 3:Pharisees repent of their sins. When they do something wrong, they say, oh, I did wrong and now I'm going to do better. They repent of their sins and they're still Pharisees. If you want to become a Christian, you don't just repent of your sins, but you also begin to repent of the reason that you did anything right. And now you're in a position to say I need something completely different than just help to live the right way. So, first of all, shut up Spiritual silence.
Speaker 3:The second thing you need for the cure is the fear of the Lord. Actually, the cure is there. I never realized it until I started studying this passage and getting ready to teach it to you. And look at this their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, poison on their lips, feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery. Why? There is no fear of God before their eyes. Do you see, if they had fear, they wouldn't have all those things.
Speaker 3:The fear of God is the antidote, it's the cure. The fear of God is the opposite. The reason they do all these things is there's no fear. So if you put in the fear, you got the cure. What is that? See, here it is.
Speaker 3:What is the fear of the Lord? All through the Bible, fear of the Lord is a major concept. It sure is. Do you know how often it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom? It says it in Job, it says it in Psalms, it says it in Proverbs. What does that mean? Wisdom means until you fear God, you can't even begin to think straight about reality. Well then, what is this fear of the Lord, if it's so important, if it's the cure for my sin? Well, the trouble is for us to fear the Lord sounds like being scared of the Lord, and it doesn't. You know why? First of all, if you actually start to look at the way the text uses the word fear of the Lord in the Bible, you hear things like this Deuteronomy 10 says what does the Lord, your God, require of you, but to fear the Lord, your God?
Speaker 3:It says what does the Lord, your God, require of you, but to fear the Lord, your God, love him and serve him with all your heart and soul? To fear God is to love him with all your heart and soul. Well then, why do they call it fear? Let me go on further. Psalm 119 says because you fulfill your promise to me, I fear you. What? Because you've been so good to me, I'm filled with fear. And then Psalm 130, verse 4, which is maybe the classic test but because you've forgiven me, therefore I fear you.
Speaker 3:Whatever the fear of the Lord is, it's increased when you see and experience God's salvation, his grace, his goodness, his love. It increases. Well, you say, his goodness, his love. It increases. Well, you say. Why Would he call it fear? It sounds like you should call it joy.
Speaker 3:Why fear? The fear of God is joyful, humbling, awe and wonder before the salvation of God. It's called fear because you know it's not just happiness when you really see the salvation of God and what it is. On the one hand it affirms you to the sky but at the same time it humbles you into the dust. That's why it's called fear. Let's call it the joyful fear, awe and wonder before the greatness of God's salvation. But it turns you out of yourself. It turns you away from the being curved in the self-centeredness, because on the one hand you're too humbled to just be self-centered and you're too affirmed to need to be, and therefore, this joyful fear is the cure, and it happens.
Speaker 3:When you see his salvation, you say, well, what does that mean? You mean, see his salvation. You say, well, what does that mean? You mean, see his salvation. What does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. Just think like this and let's conclude like this Because you don't seek for God, because you don't seek for God, because you don't seek for God, because nobody seeks for God, god's salvation has to be God seeking for us.
Speaker 3:You know there's a lot of religions that say, oh, human beings can seek for God. You know, if you just try hard, you can find him. So God sits there and says here's the rules and here's all the things that you need to do. If you pick them up and you do them, I'm sure you can find me. In other words, in most religions salvation is you finding God. But in the Christian religion, in Christian faith, it's the opposite. Salvation is God seeking and finding you. And if you know what he did to do that, it'll fill you with this joyful, humbling, sin-curing fear. Let me just give you one story to tell you about it.
Speaker 3:God says in the Old Testament he goes to one prophet named Hosea and he says Hosea, you see this woman over here named Gomer, marry her. So Hosea says sure, I'm a prophet, you're God, you spoke to me, I'll marry her. And it's not long after he's married her, he begins to realize that she has wayward feet, that she is not being faithful to him, that she is being sexually unfaithful to him. And as she begins to have children, she realizes they're not his children. In fact, he names one of them, not mine. And finally her unfaithfulness gets worse and worse and worse and eventually she leaves him. She just leaves him and leaves the kids and goes off to one man and goes off to another man and goes off to another man and finally that last man, because in a sense she gets what she deserves because she's so faithless, she's breaking every promise, she's lying, and finally he sells her into slavery.
Speaker 3:And Hosea turns to God and says Remind me why you asked me to marry her. And God basically says so, you will know something about my relationship to you Now. You'll know what it's like for me. Now. You know what it's like to be me. And here's what I want you to do, hosea, he says. I want you to go where she is being bid on and I want you to purchase her freedom and I want you to take her back, and then you'll know what it's like to be me.
Speaker 3:And so there's poor Gomer. From what we can tell, she's being bid on as a slave. She's probably stripped naked because they were so that the buyers could see what they were buying. And she's standing there and suddenly, to her shock, she hears her husband's voice bidding and he purchases her freedom and he walks up to her and instead of berating her, he takes his cloak off and he covers her nakedness and says Now you will come home and be my wife. Well, how moving that is, and it's nothing compared to what God has done for you. You know what God is saying to you through Hosea. Poor Hosea, he had to do it, so I could use this illustration Ruined his whole life. But guess what? Poor Hosea, he had to do it so I could use this illustration Ruined his whole life, but guess what? It was worth it.
Speaker 3:Because what God is trying to say is Hosea. In the end, he's saying to us through the word of God Hosea just had to go next to the next city, but I had to come from heaven to earth to find you. You weren't seeking me, you, you weren't seeking me. And for me to. I had to seek you. I had to find you and I didn't just have to reach, dig down in my pockets to get the money out to purchase your freedom. I had to go to the cross and there I had to suffer and die. I had to pay the penalty for your sins.
Speaker 3:I look at the sin. Somebody's got to pay for it. And I was stripped naked on the cross so that I could clothe you with a robe of righteousness and say you come home with me when you see, not that, oh, we all have the ability if we really try hard enough to go find God. But no, no, no, if you see the salvation of the gospel, is God seeking us, finding us, coming to us at infinite cost to himself. That will fill you with a holy fear, a joyful fear, and you will find that the cure has begun.
Speaker 3:Now let's pray Our Father. We thank you that now, as we take up the bread and the cup and take the Lord's Supper, we're in a position where you can drive even closer into the center of our being the cure for sin. We see that you sought us because we didn't seek you, and you had to do it because if you had sat and waited for us to come find you, we never would have. We thank you, therefore, that it's such a moving story. What you have done for us, but most importantly, is the objective work of Jesus Christ on the cross that opened a way for us. So now the only thing standing between us and you is this belief that we still have control of our lives, that we can earn our salvation. Help us now to set aside our sin, and even set aside our righteousness, and receive your free salvation. Cure our sin, cure our heart.
Speaker 4:Hello, my name is Michelle Tolliver and Biblical Talks book offer for the month of July is Saints, sufferers and Sinners Loving Others as God Loves Us. Helping the Helpers by Michael Emlett. Loving Others as God Loves Us. Helping the Helpers by Michael Emlett. A friend feels rejected. A counselee is angry. A church member's child is ill. You want to help, but where do you begin?
Speaker 4:Author and counselor Michael B Emlett outlines a model of one another ministry based on how God sees and loves his people, primarily as saints, while bringing comfort to the sufferers and faithfully speaking truth to the sinner. Filled with everyday illustrations as well as counseling examples, emlett demonstrates what it looks like to approach fellow believers simultaneously as saints, sufferers and sinners. Emlett unpacks scripture and draws on his many years of counseling experience to help counselors, pastors and friends. Love others wisely and well. This book is scripture saturated. Michael Inlet has given us a treasure in this book. For any amount of donation to Biblical Talks, we will send you the book. Please go to biblicaltalkscom and click the Donate here tab. Thank you for listening to Biblical Talks.
