Which Side of the Cross - Lesson 20
Mike Doyle · Nov 5, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 42
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49266906058

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're starting on 20 today, right? Everybody got a 20? We're still talking about faith. We probably have about 5 lessons left, 5 classes left to finish up this issue on faith. So somebody read Romans 10, 1-9. Probably don't need all of that, but go ahead. Anybody's okay with me? Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they are the seal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this rise.

Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

So in verse 9, is that the gospel? No. What do you think? Is it? Well, think about it. Does it tell us who Jesus Christ is? It does, doesn't it? Does it tell us what he did? Yeah. So, the simple gospel is given there, right? Now this part of the This part of the book of Romans is written to explain why if God did all of these wonderful things to the world as a whole, in particular the Gentiles, then did he go back on his word to the Jews? Did he tell the Jews, never mind, I'm going to go with a new plan? And what 9, 10, and 11 explain is that the Jews have been set aside. because the time of the Gentiles is here, but the issue is the gospel of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he tells them, who's ever reading this, whether Jew or Gentile, that if they would confess, what's confess mean?

Agree. Agree. That what? That Jesus is the Son of God, that you confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So, in essence what it's saying is that he came into this world, he came as a man, he was both man and God, he went to the cross, he died, and he paid the penalty for the sins of the world. That's the simple gospel. And he's telling the Jews, this is how you do it. Right? Now, What would you say, now listen to what I'm going to ask in question two, what is the gospel of the glory of Christ? I'm focusing on the word glory.

The Romans 1 about we know God by His creation? No, no. I think what we're doing is we're trying to investigate and find out why does God do anything that he does for his own glory? So if I say this is the gospel of the glory of Christ, what I'm doing is I'm asking from eternity past, we're looking at God's purpose, which is to glorify himself, right?

Isn't that what he wants to do? He wants to declare his glory. What is His glory, by the way? Let's talk about that. What is God's glory? Some of all His attributes. Some of all His attributes. So let's talk about, you know, oh, three weeks ago we went through some of His attributes. And He has purpose in everything He does is to declare Himself and to declare His attributes to the creation, to His creation.

He does everything to glorify Himself. Now, because we are infected with sin natures and we hear a statement like that, we think, well, God is kind of self-centered, isn't He? Except when you study the glory of God, you begin to realize it's anything but that. It's anything but self. He wants to declare His glory. He wants to declare openly who He is. And then the most amazing thing is he wants to share it. Sharing his glory is a really important thing to him. And all those things redound to the fact that he is to be glorified. I think I got this out of a hungry heart.

If the need of man were the sole measure of God's grace, then man only would be thought of. The work of the Lord Jesus would be simply for man and the power of God expended merely in rescuing man and securing his relief. Man would be the object and end of all and not God. I would say that in most evangelistic environments The need of man is the most important thing that's given. There's no consideration that maybe the object here is for God. Maybe this is something He wants and His need.

This is the glory that excels. It is the divine testimony to one who, the one who is the Lord Jesus, having accomplished redemption, has gone up into the glory of God. He did not take his seat in that glory until every question relating to our souls was fully settled and every foe was silenced. The cross is all about something that has to do with God's glory.

It does afford us salvation, but it's not about us. Do you get that? Most testimonies that are put together for the purpose of evangelization are done for the glory of man, and what God has done for me. And there's very little discussion about, well, where does God benefit here? Who did He really do this for? The automatic mindset is, well, He did it for me. No, He didn't. Not completely. If he did do it for us, it would take it out of the realm of grace and it would focus only on man and not on him.

The light of the gospel displays all that has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus. It takes its rise from the glory of the Father, from the consummation of the Savior's work not from the beginning of His work, but from the climax of it. The light from then sent of the Father into the soul illuminates the Lord Jesus' whole course and comprises His entire work from His first descent from glory to His ascension back to glory. So, when you're looking at Romans 10-19, you have to look at it from the standpoint of God's glory and not mine.

Does that make sense? It's about what He's doing in His purposes. I know that we have this overwhelming sense that that God is the big screwdriver in this guy and his whole job is to fix whatever my problems are. But he had a problem with sin that had to be resolved because of his righteousness and his glory. And he couldn't manifest the glory until he resolved that problem, but he did it in such a way through the Lord Jesus Christ that his glory was magnified and revealed to all of creation. the work of Christ on the cross.

You know, as human beings, we somehow have a tendency to make every situation about me. Don't we? I mean, I may not have anything to do with it, but if the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl, it's somehow about me. You know? Camp Elam gets whatever acreage, but it's somehow about me. That's because you had 40 bucks on you. That's right. Or maybe I didn't. But I somehow associate myself with whatever the issue is, it's about me.

And what God is saying here, look the cross is not about you, it's about me. It's about my glory and who I am and what I've done. And that is a wonderful thing because When He offers it to us, He does it only in grace. And the wonderful thing about grace is that grace is never about me. Never about me. Do you get that? God's grace is not about me. It's about God. And that's what makes it so special. You okay with that? I knew I'd have one. You know, you never hear this. I never hear this. I quit listening to the radio. They're just so legal.

You think about it. Those who preach law rather than grace try to use the law to make it about the person who's keeping the law in order for them to get glory. It's not about me. It's not about my glory. It's about my receiving God's grace, His generosity towards me. That's what it's really about.

And you and I are going to spend all eternity not manifesting my glory, because I'm such a good guy and a swell dancer, It's going to be God's glory manifested through us only. The mindset just blows me away at how much time and effort people spend in Christianity trying to keep up with the rules. I call it the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to be doing this, I ought to be doing that, or I ought not to be doing this, or I ought not to be doing that.

Who's that about? It's about me. It's not about the glory of Christ. I'm to receive. I don't need to demonstrate to God whether I'm faithful or not. He's going to demonstrate to me how faithful He is to me. And that changes the equation. Then I respond.

See? Is that okay? That's like most of the... when you go to the Christian bookstores, we've said, you know, it's all about self-help and fixing up. Or, you know, I think you've said, you know, within two or three pages you can tell if it's focusing on Christ or focusing on me and what I do or the benefits and the glory and all the things that are in me. Yeah, it is.

And 99 and nine-tenths percent are all focused on Only me, or what I can do, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Alright, so let's look at Hebrews 13.20 and 21.

Hebrews 13.20 says, Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus Christ, even Jesus our Lord, What's the next phrase? I quit doing every good thing to do His will, working in that step, which is pleasing in His sight, the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom be the glory forever. Ah, to whom be the glory forever. Now, let's talk for a minute about, he talks here through the blood of the eternal covenant.

What's a covenant? Courtney just closed a covenant. He just closed a covenant. Purchasing that land was a covenant. His group agreed to do this and the federal government agreed to do this and that was a covenant. We call it a deal. I'm going to do this. You're going to do that. We're going to come together and we're going to consummate it and when we consummate it, You know, I'll end up here and you'll end up there. So there's a thing called the Eternal Covenant. Who are the parties in the Eternal Covenant?

Jesus and the Father. Who? Jesus and the Father. The Lord Jesus and the Father. And what's it about? What did they get together and make a deal about? They agreed that if he went to the cross and died, God would raise him from the dead. God would raise him from the dead. What's the deal? The deal is sin. Right? So the two of them get together and they say, look, to resolve this issue of sin, you know, if you'll go to the cross and you will, because, you know, we set the rules and the rules were simple. The soul that sins, it will surely die. We can't have sin in our creation. So we've got to separate from it. So if you'll become a man and die, then I will raise you up again."

Jesus said, okay, deal. Where were you in that deal? We weren't anywhere in it, were we? Yeah, we were. We provided the sin. Oh, that's right. We brought the sin to the table, didn't we? That's what we did. The least we could do. The least we could do, yeah.

You know, the astounding part of that, again, is that's before there was any creation. Isn't that something? And they still went ahead with it. That's the more mind-boggling thing to me, is that before He created any of us or anything, they already made that deal, and that covenant, that Christ was going to be separated from the Father, take all the sin upon Himself, before there was anyone created. And they still went ahead with it. That to me, again, looking at the definition of love, mercy, grace, all those things, that's demonstrated in that eternal covenant.

Because He was an avid So let me ask you this, was part of this covenant that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but be saved, is that part of the covenant? No it's not. No it's not. The covenant is simply if you die for the sins of the world I will raise you up. So he does and God raises him up.

Now where are we? Where are you and I when Christ is raised? At that point, we're nowhere. We're still where we're dead in our sins. Unless they decide to offer salvation to us free. If they decide not to do it, we don't get it. Because there was no deal about us getting salvation.

You see that? He was under no obligation. And the great thing about that is, for you and I to understand that salvation is by grace alone, it means that God was under no obligation to offer salvation to man. He was under none whatsoever. The Father and the Son were under an obligation to each other about the cross to deal with the penalty of sin.

They definitely were. They had an agreement. But we weren't there. We were not part of that agreement. We're certainly the beneficiaries of it. But if they decide, you know, Jesus, now that you're raised, let's blip these doofuses out of existence and we'll start over. Or, this experiment didn't work too well, we'll just quit. You know?

My point is, because God, it's impossible for God to lie. And he can only do things that are in line with his nature. Since he chose us before the beginning of the world to be in Christ, it's as if there are some things he can't do because he can't because it's his nature. So he chose us to be in Christ and be these ones that would someday cruel reign with Christ, that he wouldn't have wiped us out. I mean, because he couldn't because he promised Does that even make sense?

Which came first? The eternal covenant agreement or God creating you in Christ? That's like asking a time question in eternity. One didn't precede the other. I do know that His creating me in Christ before the foundations of eternity was because the covenant was in place.

Because without that, he can't put me in Christ. will to choose. He knows of it and we're put back into Christ and we work in a weird time, sequential time frame. So I mean we are in Christ and we are chosen for it because our history is now Him but the only thing we have the will to do is to choose. So to understand who Christ is and what He did. So I mean Choosing before time, I mean, we still had to make a decision for the selection. Then we go back, we're placed into Christ, we have an eternal time. So it is like... Yeah, how do you explain it? Because we think in time and sequence, and He operates in eternity.

I guess so it doesn't go against his will or his function. He offers it. We have to accept it. So it isn't going against his will to say, OK, these are those. He gives us that opportunity and we make that decision. And then we have eternity and all the things that we have through Christ. So it wasn't he wasn't going. I'm trying to answer your question right the way I think your question. It's a choice. Some want to make that choice, but some don't make that choice. And they are condemned. So it's not going against His will. I was trying to understand what your question was about. Well, yeah, it was just... I've been kind of studying about God's nature. And it was sort of like He will never go against His nature. Well, that's what sin is. To go against God's nature.

No, I think it's cool. I think it's cool to realize that... I read somewhere one time that the intensity with which God will condemn those who are not saved is the same intensity that he applies to those who are saved. Because, here's the thing, we have another one of the mindsets that we have, that we somehow deserve salvation. That I'm not too bad. That I'm not absolutely condemned. And that I'm a good guy.

Not from God's perspective. No way. That none seek after salvation. None seek after God. Not a single one. that all have come short of the glory of God, now you've got a problem. Because what's the standard? The standard now is God's glory. The sum total of God's intrinsic attributes is the standard. And if I don't get to that standard, I'm in trouble.

I'm going to go to hell, or I'll put it this way, stay in hell for all eternity. My buddy Strong used to say, this is the best hell's ever going to be. We don't live on a yellow line. We're either in the hell or in Christ. And so, we think about, oh, you know, God is great on the curve. No, He doesn't. His righteousness, His glory is the standard. Oh, my goodness. That really got way, way above my ability. Yet, because of this environment of grace that we live in, the standard is met by Him, and He puts us in Christ, and from a positional standpoint, we are the standard.

You can't mess it up. No fair going to God and saying, well, I didn't do too good this week. He says, you didn't? You're in my Son. What's the deal here? You have a position. that achieved God's glory. You have it already. Your job is just to believe that you do. But this whole section of this class is now faith. Do you believe that? That's right. Do you believe it? Do you take God at His word? Or do you believe your emotions and your experiences and your environment?

The question is, in Hebrews 13.20, we explain what the covenant is. Now,

4. What's the proof that Jesus' death for the penalty of sins was adequate payment for God's satisfaction? What's the proof? God raised Him. God raised Him up. If Jesus doesn't do His part, guess what? The Father doesn't do His part.

Courtney and his group said, here's what we'll do. And the other side said, okay, if you'll do that, then we'll do this. Well, if his group didn't do their side, they're not going to do their side either. If I take you out to sell you a house and you say, well, I agree to pay 500 bucks for this house. And the seller says, okay, I'll take the 500 and we get to the closing table and you got 450 bucks. Guess what? You don't get the house. You just don't get it. Yeah, but isn't the Holy Spirit in there too? Go ahead, expand on that. Just because God's acceptance of the Son, He sent the Spirit. Yeah.

The Spirit of God, what's the primary job of the Holy Spirit when it comes to the Eternal Covenant? What's His primary job? is to reveal truth to us, isn't it? Isn't that what his job is? That he will take a mind and show it to you. He will show you what the truth is. He will reveal Christ to you, but he will also show you what the objective truth is. Isn't that his job? The secondary job he has is to convict us of sin and restore us to fellowship. But the primary job he has is to show us the truth.

Right? So he shows us this truth for salvation, and like Courtney says, my job is to do what? To believe. So tell me, how does a person believe? What do they do? You know, we've talked about this a lot, but with these two things here, reality and evidence or proof, here comes the Holy Spirit and he brings this to you and me And he says, here it is. Here's the information. Here is the essence of some information. I'm showing it to you. And what am I supposed to do? Believe it? But what is that? What do I actually do? Perfect. That's the right answer.

You rest in it. You rest in it. When the deal closed up, you were now at rest. Transaction had taken place. Deeds were exchanged. I now can rest about it. It's mine. That's what faith really is. It's a trust and rest in what God has said. That's really what it comes down to. Exactly, you had the word I was going to say, it's trust. Trust is the part of you that's making the deal. I mean, for salvation, I am betting, you are betting, or trusting, that what God has told me about His Son and His works, He means it and it's true. I'm not trying hard. I'm just accepting and resting in it. Now, is the work of the Spirit involved in that? I think so.

There's a persuasion that goes on there, but notice when we were looking at Hebrews 11, 1 and 2. Hebrews 11 lays out what the essence of faith is, and then Hebrews 11, 2 says that by it, the elders receive witness. What does that mean? By it, it refers to their faith. They receive witness. What does that mean? It doesn't mean they were confirmed? Yeah, the Holy Spirit confirmed in them that they did not believe in vain. That what they believed was really true. And that's the work of the Spirit. To persuade us that we're not buying or believing something that isn't really true. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't do that all the time, because I think we do. There are people who are under certain isms or doctrines, and they believe all kinds of stuff. You know what the issue is? There's no rest in that deal.

Going back to what the fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's the rest, the peace, all that. the fruit of the Spirit has manifested. He's convinced you, convicted you of the sin or convinced you of the truth. This is a result. I think that's right. Rest, peace, joy, all those things are a result of Him convincing you of these things.

It's really interesting that when God presents a truth to us, vis-a-vis His Word and the Holy Spirit, what He's inviting us to do is just to rest and trust Him. That's my whole job. And I must say that when I talk to people who are not at rest, you know why they're not at rest? Because they don't trust God. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah, I know what you say, but, boy, here comes the butt monkey. God's thinking, but what? But what? How can I make it any clearer to you? Just trust me. And we don't. It's very hard. It's very hard. It's impossible for God to lie.

And every single thing he says in a word that he threat of the truth and he can't lie he said it and so that's the part of the rest in peace is knowing like we do fall short sometimes he's already done that well you know what's interesting about what you're saying is is that we sometimes assume that God is going to do something or has done something or we want him to do something or we told him how to do it. And our faith is resting in the fact that we've come up with a solution and we expect God to perform. That's not faith. I mean, that's not biblical personal faith. It has to be based on what he reveals to us and shows us. And you know what? It doesn't matter how you feel about it. Faith has nothing to do with feelings.

I want to go back to your butt monkey. It always comes back to me. This was 40 years ago or whatever with the old Bill Gothard seminars he used to be in. I remember he suddenly stuck with me. Every time I say it, I think it pokes me. I remember he always said that whenever somebody says, you know, this, this, this, this, this, butt, and then he says, disregard everything before the butt.

Because they don't believe anything before the but. That's right. And I'm trusting him, I'm trusting him but. So just erase everything before that. You're not trusting him. So everything before the but is erased. And that stuck with me. And whenever I say that to somebody, yeah but, it comes back to haunt me.

And that may not be universal, but it applies 99% of the time. If somebody tells you something but, You really can just erase everything before the but. That's really true. That's really true. You said but in your tune. I said but in my response, yeah. Don't listen to me. Alright, going to question five.

Look at Romans 10, 6 through 15, which we've looked at most of that. What three things are discussed here regard salvation? If you start at 6, it says, the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend from heaven, that is, bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. What does it say? the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be put to shame For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich in all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent, as it is written How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.

So are the elements discussed in these verses. There are three elements here that Jesus Christ, the first one is, is that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God and he came into the world. That's the first thing. The second thing is that he came as a man, and he was both man and God, and then he went to the cross and he paid the penalty for our sins. That's the basic information. But then, the discussion is, how do you do this salvation thing? With the heart man believes unto righteousness. So let's talk about that. What's the heart? Courtney says, I don't have one. No, they found one when they operated on it. Yeah, they opened it up and said, oh, this is faulty. We better fix it.

When the Word of God refers to man's heart, what's he talking about? His mind. You think the mind is it? Is it more than the mind? Spirit, too. Spirit, too? Is it your soul? Is it your emotions and your will also? Would you say the heart of man is the very core of who he is?

So salvation, or I would say faith, is a core thing. It's more than just a mental assent. Much more than a mental assent. I can read the gospel, and I can mentally assent that it's right. But I had that problem when those guys were trying to drag me into Christ. I mean, they didn't even have to tell me. I went to Catholic schools for 16 years. I knew who Jesus Christ was. I knew what He did. But they said, yeah, but in your heart you have to believe that He paid for your sins and that He will save you for all eternity. That was the hard part. And it was much more than just, okay, way much more than just, okay, I get it in my mind.

Sometimes we think that the mental aspect is the most important aspect, but it's not necessarily. Personal faith is a rest, but it's the rest of the whole person, his whole being, that his soul, his mind, his emotions, and his will are all at rest about what this is, with the heart, man believes. You okay with that? Is that too complicated? It seems that the Holy Spirit has to make that first. He's involved in helping that to happen.

In our society today, because we're such an information age, we have a real tendency to say, well, I read that and I believe it with my mind, but it's more than that. Am I engaged with my will? Is this really... there's no other course but this one. And of course I'm emotionally invested. Yeah. But the righteousness of faith. Wow. Wow.

But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend. See you wouldn't say that if it's of faith or who will be sinned. So did I explain that with the heart man believes under righteousness? The second part of that is with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Now this gets a little tricky. So if I don't speak it out loud I'm not saved. Hmm? I mean, I've heard plenty of preachers say that. You better go tell somebody or you're not saved. What does he mean by this? Come on. I'm waiting. Is it more like your core beliefs are expressed through your language? That's pretty good. Yeah, it's kind of what you own now. It's kind of who you are. I know this is anecdotal information, but when I got saved on a, I think it was like a Tuesday afternoon downtown, and one of the guys that was with me, I was so excited. I was hugging him on 16th and Glenarm, and he was saying, get away from me.

And I couldn't wait to tell everybody and anybody. A lot of my friends, that was the last time they wanted ever to talk to me. I had to do this in order to cement my salvation. I couldn't help it. You can't help it. You do confess with your mouth. You say the same thing that the Word of God says. And there isn't any compromise anymore. You don't have to say it out loud. It's just who you are now. Okay with that? You buying that? Okay. This translation says that, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Isn't that interesting? Here's the thing.

Why don't we say this? Because of the way God does things in terms of being under grace, and my rest, my personal faith is rest and trust in the things of God, I can't speak anything other than what I know salvation to be. I don't have to go do it in order to, it isn't an obligation on my part to speak it, It's just that now I can't speak anything else because that's what I am. You see that?

I can't express doubt. I'm not sure. No, it's what I am. And I know. I'm persuaded. And there isn't any compromise or anything that's less than. The whole salvation message. I think that's what that is saying. Anybody else want to add? Translation in the interlinear is, and with mouth one confesses to salvation. Okay, that's perfect. What's the word confess me? Say the same thing or agree with.

What am I agreeing with? The things of God. You see that? Now if I'm a guy like John MacArthur and say, Yeah, that's all well and good, but there's something else we have to add here. What's the deal? I don't think he got the full message. So he's added something to it.

I hear these televangelists, or these guys on the radio all the time, when they get to the end of their program, they say, well now, if you're not a believer, if you confess your sins, and ask Jesus to come into your heart, you will be saved. I'm looking at my Bible and I can't find that anywhere. There's no provision for me as a non-believer to confess my sins. I'm to believe and to confess with my mouth.

We'll pick up there next week. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you how gracious you are to us. And the fact that you have personally taken care of every barrier every hurdle, every everything, so that we might become the sons of God. And we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.