#3 Four Human Responses to God

hello this is Professor Timothy Moore and this is the course Christian spirituality we're on unit three and this is four human responses to God and the gospel there are four ways that we as human beings can respond to to God's existence and the message of the gospel of Christ and our key passage for this unit is Romans 4: 1-5 and it says Abraham was humanly speaking the founder of our Jewish Nation what did he discover about being made right with God if his Good Deeds had made him acceptable to God he would have had something

to boast about but that was not God's way for the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith when people work their wages are not a gift but something they've earned but people are counted as righteous not because of their work but because of their faith in God who forgives Sinners let's pray together father thank you that you're a God who responds to Faith your word says without faith it is impossible to please you but that we must believe that you exist and you reward those who diligently

seek you father I pray that you would help us understand the ways people respond to you and that we would see the work of the holy spirit in people's lives and understand as we seek to minister the ways that you work in the human heart and mind and the way we can understand the people that we are speaking to the people that we're preaching to in congregations those who assemble and how to have conversations with people and discern where they are in terms of faith God give us Grace and Empower Us by the Holy Spirit

to lead people into your presence and to help them understand the accomplishments of Jesus Christ in whose name we pray amen the four responses that human beings can have as it relates to God and the gospel one is um they can be Godless they can put God out of their minds and they can live according to their cravings according to their desires and by forgetting about God they lessen the amount of uh shame and guilt that they experience and um and they just live a life of lust and craving and so the the phrase that

encapsulates or captures this type of response to God is simply I will indulge myself the second way that people can respond to God is uh a self-righteous response where they compare themselves to other people and they actively try to find people who are doing worse than they are and they they put on the unpower 's mask or the referee's mask and they call pen penalties on other people and they do this to make themselves feel better and in some sense obligate God it's it's as if they're saying to God I'm more righteous than this person

over here so you have to accept me the Third Way that people respond to God is simply by by doing so so many things that they consider good that they obligate God they're trying to obligate God based on the good works that they do to have him open the Kingdom of Heaven to them and so it they they think um my righteousness exceeds my unrighteousness and there's some type of scale so if I do more righteous things than unrighteous things then that's going to tip the scale in my favor and God will have to accept

me again they're trying to obligate God by something and the fourth way that people respond to God is entrusting themselves to the God as our text said The God Who forgives Sinners and at this time what I'd like for us to do is listen to my co-pastor here at ctk Hope Church his name is Elijah tatama and Elijah is GNA share a story called the parable of the river and the Suns in this story represent the four ways that we can respond to God and so listen carefully to this story from my co-pastor Elijah tatma

I got a story are you ready for story time I got my sweet little boys in the front row right here hi hi boys you ready for story time with Pastor Elijah yeah okay here we go it's going to be a good one once upon a time there were five sons who lived in a beautiful mountain castle in the Kingdom of their father the firstborn was an obedient son but his four younger brothers were rebellious a river ran through the kingdom that was far more powerful than it looked and the father begged his sons to

stay clear of the bank lest they be swept down stream he told them that the lure of the river and the power of the river was Far stronger than they could imagine what do you think happened you're right they went down to the river of course they were rebellious they were like you touch it I won't touch it you touch it I'm not going to touch it I want I tell you what I'll you hold my hand you hold his hand you hold his hand I'll just put a finger in it just a little finger

in it and sure enough they got swept away all of them whoosh the river takes them and it takes them not just a mile Downstream not just two miles Downstream it takes them out of their country until they get washed up and they're in a complete foreign land somewhere that they don't belong at all and after some time they gathered their courage and they re-entered the waters hoping to walk Upstream but the current was too strong they attempted to walk along the River's Edge but the terrain was was too steep they considered climbing the mountains

but the Peaks were too high plus they didn't know the way back to the kingdom finally they built a fire and they sat down we shouldn't have disobeyed they said we're a long way from home but they determined not to forget their Homeland their Kingdom their father and their older brother in hopes of returning so each day they set up about the task of finding food and building shelter and then each evening they built a fire and told stories about their father and their brother to each other so they wouldn't forget then one night one

brother failed to come to the fire the others found him the next morning in the valley with the foreigners building a mud hut for himself I'm sick of talking about the kingdom and our father and our brother I'm building my own Kingdom right here and his brothers are like bro that's not a kingdom it's a mud hut the walls are literally you have mud all over your hand you're building mud hut no it's my kingdom it makes me happy and I want it plus at least I have control over my kingdom I can make it

exactly how I want it so some days later a second brother fails to appear at the campfire and the next morning his siblings found him on a Hills side staring down at the brother making the Huts how disgusting he tells his brothers as they approached our brothers an utter failure an insult to our family can you imagine a more Despicable deed building a mud hut and forgetting our father and our brother and our whole Kingdom and the youngest brother says what he's doing is wrong but what we did was wrong too we all disobeyed we

touched the river we ignored our father's warnings well we may have made a mistake or two but compared to that SAS in the mud hut we are Saints father will dismiss our sin and punish him bro it's a mud hut bro you're just comparing yourself to him come on let's go back to the fire no no no I'm not going back to the fire I think I'm gonna I'm going to keep a record keep an eye on our brother and write down everything he does wrong and then I'll show this record to the father and

so only two of the brothers returned to the fire leaving one brother building and the other judging then one morning the youngest son awoke to find he was alone he searched for his brother and found him in the river stacking rocks it's no use he said the rock stacking brother explained as he worked father won't come for me I must go to him I offended him I insulted him I failed him there's only one one option I will build a path up the river and walk into our father's presence Rock upon Rock I will stack

until I have enough rocks to travel Upstream to the castle and when he sees how hard I've worked he'll how diligent I've been he'll have no choice but to open the door and let me into his house the last brother didn't really even know what to say to that he returned to sit by the fire alone one morning he heard a familiar voice behind him father sent me to bring you home father sent me to bring you home and he turns and he says it's his oldest brother the firstborn came back for him he knew

it he'd been holding out so he gives him a big hug and he's like yes yes I knew it you're going to take me home yes I'm going to carry you back to the kingdom it's a long ways but I'll take you there you'll get back to the kingdom where's your brothers well uh one of them's build a mud hut the other's watching writing stuff down about him and the others in the uh River stacking rocks so the firstborn sets out to find his siblings he went first to the mud hut in the valley and

was met with hostility go away stranger screams the brother you're not welcome here I've come to take you home you have not you came to take my mud hut that's my Mansion you came from my Mansion bro it's a mud hut it's not a mansion this mud hut is my mansion and it's the finest in all of these lands I build it with my own hands it's mine now go away you can't have my Mansion I refuse to surrender it to you so the firstborn left him and he went to go find the second brother

on the hill who said how good that you are here to behold the sin of our brother are you aware that he turned his back on the castle on our whole kingdom are you aware that he never speaks of home I knew you would come I've kept a whole careful account of his deeds punish him he deserves it deal with the sins of our brother and the firstborn spoke softly we need to deal with your sins first my sins yeah you disobeyed father you put your finger in the river remember well when father sees the

record of his sin that I've kept he will Overlook mine so the firstborn left him to it and he went to go find his other brother knee deep in the river stacking rocks and he says father has sent me to take you home now and the brother didn't even look up I can't talk I must work father knows you've Fallen but he will forgive you he may the brother interrupted struggling to keep his balance against the current while he stacked rocks but I have to get to the castle first I must build a pathway up

the river first I will show him that I'm worthy then I will ask for his Mercy he's already given his Mercy said the older brother I will carry you up the river you'll never be able to build a pathway the river's too long the task is too great for your hands father sent me to carry you home I'm stronger For the First Time The Rock stacking brother looked up how dare you speak with such irreverence my father will not simply forgive I have sinned I've sinned greatly he told us to avoid the river and we

disobeyed I'm a great sinner I need much work the firstborn said it's impossible to do enough Rock stacking to get to the kingdom either you go with me or you don't go at all his brother lowered his head and continued stacking rocks the youngest brother was waiting near the fire when firstborn returned the others didn't come he said no one is choosing to indulge the other to judge and compare and the third to work none of them chose our father so they're going to remain here the eldest brother nodded slowly for now and we will

return to the father asked the younger brother yes will he forgive me and the firstborn looks in his younger brother's eyes and he says would he have sent me me if he didn't all four brothers heard the same invitation right come back to the kingdom but each one had the opport and each one had the opportunity to be carried home but they all responded a little differently right the first three brothers chose to justify themselves while the fourth chose to be justified only by faith and believe that the father would forgive and he went with

his older brother back to the kingdom so spoiler alert uh the father is Our Father God if you haven't put it together yet just making sure right the firstborn is Jesus right and we are we are the brothers we're the Four Brothers now I've believed in Jesus and and he's been running my life for years but I have a tendency and you may have this tendency also I have the tendency even though faith alone justifies me before God I have a tendency to try to justify myself in many different ways I don't make it a

habit of just telling long stories like this I do it because this story is from the first four chapters of the book of Romans and in the first four chapters of the book of Romans it talks about each one of these responses you can find every one of the four brothers responses okay you've heard Elijah's story in the parable of the river this Parable had five Sons the eldest son represents Christ the the next son the son that built the mud hut in the field um represents someone who is indulging themselves and making friends with

the world the second son that stationed himself on the hill above that son is keeping a record of that son's sins and so he is comparing himself and being self-righteous and judgmental and then the third son was stacking rocks to build um a pathway back to the father and the father's Kingdom and this river is Raging and so there's absolutely no way that that's going to work but he still thinks if he works hard enough for long enough it will obligate the father to accept him and then the youngest son encounters the eldest son and

um they go and see all of the brothers and then uh that youngest son is the only one that's looking to the the eldest brother for Rescue and wondering if the father will r really forgive him and then he ends up entrusting himself to the elder brother that represents Christ and and and that elder brother takes him back to the father and to the kingdom and so what I'd like for us to do is look at the the the four responses to God in the Book of Romans there's several chapters passages in the Bible where

um these responses are highlighted in and some of them in the passage all four are there and in the first four chapters of the book of Romans we see the four responses to God and so the first one is I'll indulge myself and make friends with the world uh the word for this in theology is heathenism and uh we see that in Romans chapter 1 21-32 but I want to read just a portion of that passage ver vers 21 says yes they knew God but they wouldn't worship him as God or give him thanks they

began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like and as a result their minds became dark and Confused claiming to be wise instead they became utter fools and instead of worshiping the Glorious ever living God they worshiped Idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles so God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired now it's talking about the people in the Old Testament the things that are recorded of the children of Israel basically in the Old Testament but this is human nature so human nature is

to respond to God in a way that says I'm going to either change God from the perspective given in the Bible and recreate him in my own image or the image of uh things that he created I'm going to worship a bird I'm going to worship some kind of creature I'm going to worship the mountains and nature um and it's really an excuse just to do what is in the human heart the shameful desires that exist in Fallen Human Nature and so this is that first son building the mud hut making his home in the

world making friends with the Savages there in the parable of the river the second way um well let me say this um I actually picked a uh a type of seat that represents the different ways that we respond to God and uh the the seat that I chose for this is the bar store so the bar stool represents uh heathenism or I'll indulge myself and make friends with the world the second way was to uh compare and so keeping a record of other people's wrongs to make yourself look better and in some way obligate God

to um receive you accept you let you into his kingdom and so the word for this is judgmentalism and the key passage in the Book of Romans is Romans 2 1-11 I'm going to read a portion of that as well it says this you may think you can condemn such people but you are just as bad and you have no excuse when you say they are wicked and should be punished you're condemning yourself for you who judge others do these very same things and we know that God in his Justice will punish anyone who does

such things and since you judge others for doing these things why do you think you can avoid God's judgment when you do the same things don't you see how wonderfully kind tolerant and patient God is with you does this mean nothing to you can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sins and so chapter one is about indulging yourself and forgetting God or changing God chapter 2 of The Book of Romans is um referring to those um the Jewish religious leaders especially if you think about the Jewish religious leaders called

the Pharisees and the Sadducees that made up the ruling uh body for the Jewish people and the ruling body Together made up of Pharisees and Sadducees is called the s hedrin and so the Sanhedrin often encountered Jesus they were very judgmental of people who didn't keep their rules and they were known for making rules and they made rules that were nowhere in the Bible and they made applications of things in the Bible that weren't in the Bible and so um they knew the scriptures but instead of just focusing on the scriptures and the applications that

are there they wrote extra biblical Scrolls called the mishna and the tishna and so um and they also wrote something called the talmid the talid was not the Bible it was their commentary on the Bible and then the mishna and tishna were all of these applications they had hundreds and hundreds of applications to all of the rules and they expected everyone to keep their rules in even in a culture that was primarily illiterate uh it kept the people dependent dependent on these judgmental um self-righteous religious leaders and when Jesus spoke about them in Matthew chapter

23 he he spoke to them and he said you are brewed of vipers which means you're a bunch of snakes and he said you go to and fro throughout the Earth Earth to make a conver a convert and when you make that convert you make that person twice the son of hell that you are and so Jesus did not mince words he was very direct to these judgmental these religious leaders who controlled and manipulated people by being very judgmental they thought they were right with God but Romans Chapter 2 is the response of the Apostle

Paul who knew the grace of God in Christ Jesus and he's saying and and you're you're talk we're talking about a man the Apostle Paul who was a leader of the Pharisees and yet he encountered Christ in Acts chapter n and Christ changed his heart and his mind he received the grace of God through faith in Christ and so this is the person who's speaking to those Pharisees to those religious leaders saying you condemn such people but you're just as bad which is what Jesus was teaching in Matthew 23 and also in The Sermon on

the Mount where he said you're condemning people but in your heart you're doing it in your heart you're thinking about murder in your heart you're thinking about lust and Jesus made it a heart matter and not just what you do and so he's saying you condemn people outwardly but in your heart you are guilty of the same things and so this is the response also of the Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 2 so this response is I'll compare myself I'll keep a record of other people's wrongs and somehow that will obligate God to accept me

and so the chair that I've chosen to represent this um response to God is the Judges Bench so they're casting judgment on people and the next response is I'll save myself through good works I'll do enough things that are good and my good work will outweigh my unrighteous thoughts or deeds and God will be obligated to accept me the the passage uh for this it begins in Romans 2:17 and goes uh all the way up to chapter 3: 20 and I'm going to read a portion of that Romans 39-2 which says obviously the law applies

to those to whom it was given for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands the law simply shows us how sinful we are now the law that's being spoken about here is the Mosaic law the law given to God uh given to Moses by God which contains 613 Commandments and so what it's saying here is that law given to Moses with 613 commands from God to human beings

was not given to human beings to save them or or make make them right before God instead it was given to show that all of us are guilty before God because no one can keep all of those commands in essence what happened is Moses took those 63 commands and then he he uh he brought them down under the leadership of God to 10 Commandments in Exodus CH 20 and when we go through those Ten Commandments half of them have to do with loving God half of them have to do with loving people and uh no

one no one's ever been able to keep all the Ten Commandments that are listed in Exodus chapter 20 and so we're incapable of doing that and then and then furthermore in Deuteronomy chapter 6 Moses uh under the leadership of the Holy Spirit takes the 63 to 10 and then in Deuteronomy 6 he takes them to two Commandments just two and those two Commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself and when we apply those Commandments to our lives at any given time none of

us can keep even two Commandments perfectly so the 613 Commandments brought down to 10 brought down to two they do what Romans 3 here in 19 and 20 tell us it shows us that we are guilty before God it shows the entire world that we're guilty before God because we can't even keep two Commandments consistently and it says no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands and so the law law is good the law is perfect the law is from God but the purpose of the law is not

to save us it's to show us that we are guilty before God and so the idea that we can somehow save ourselves by keeping Commandments um biblically does not make sense and experientially it doesn't work out we can't save ourselves we can't rescue ourselves through keeping the righteous requirements of the law it's an impossibility and so the seat that I have chosen to represent this type of response to God is the church pew because people think they can come to church and be righteous uh come to church and give money come to church and teach

Sunday school or be a greeter or any other job in the church and somehow is tipping the scale uh in their favor and they're going to have more good works than unrighteous deeds and it's going to cause God to have to accept them and that's simply not what the Bible teaches um we don't serve God in order to be accepted by God we serve God because he loves us and accepts us we're going to see that and the last way that people respond to God and the fourth response I'll entrust myself to Christ Romans 3:22

through 26 it says we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ and this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are for everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God's glorious standard yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight he did this through Christ Jesus Jus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins for God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin people are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding his blood this sacrifice

shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time God did this to demonstrate his righteousness for he himself is fair and just and he makes Sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus this is an incredible passage of scripture that focuses us on the fact that we are made right by putting our faith entrusting ourselves to Christ and his accomplishments and that's the only way to be

made right with God and it also addresses the question of well how were people saved in the Old Testament how did people get redeemed in the Old Testament times it said there in verse 26 he God was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time and so all of the law of Moses all of the sacrific of the Old Testament and even if we go beyond that all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God made the sacrifice and covered Adam and Eve with the skins of animals

and Genesis 3:15 when God's pronouncing the judgment and he says the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent all of that was done looking forward to picturing what Christ would do in his perfect life his death as the perfect Lamb of God on the cross the shedding of his blood for our forgiveness and in the Old Testament says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for the life of the flesh is in the blood and all of that reference and here it talks about the shedding of blood for our

forgiveness that that blood sacrifice is meant to be gruesome because when we look at the the blood sacrifice we see something that is awful it's grotesque and and what that represents is how awful our sin is before a holy God and then God's son himself shed his blood as the sacrifice for our sins and all of that in the Old Testament pictured Christ and so people were made right with God in the same way that we're made right with God they were in essence looking forward in faith to what God would do in his son

the Lord Jesus Christ and we look back in faith to what he accomplished through his death his burial his resurrection his perfect life they look forward we look back and all of us are rescued and redeemed through entrusting ourselves to Christ having faith in Christ and the seat that I chose is a Biblical seat seat and we're going to see that and that is we are seated with Christ when we entrust ourselves with Christ there is a seat with Christ according to the scriptures um and uh we're going to look at that Ephesians chapter 2

6 and7 it says for he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the Heavenly Realms because we are united with Christ Jesus now this happens spiritually when we put our faith in Christ spiritually we have a position in heaven it is as if we are seated with Christ and someday in a physical glorified body we will be seated with Christ in heaven and here's why in verse 7 it says so God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and

kindness toward us as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus and so our very existence in heaven with God is it's as if we are trophies of the grace of God and what has been accomplished for us through the works of Christ Jesus we are physical reminders of the work of Christ throughout all eternity in heaven that is an incredible concept seated with Christ and so if that's true if all of that is true and that we're made right with God through faith through entrusting ourselves to Jesus then

how does that affect our day-to-day living e Ephesians 28-10 we see an answer to that first it reiterates the fact that we're not saved by our own works we can't keep the law be saved we can't obligate God in any way by the way that we live to let us into his kingdom verse eight says God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for it it is the gift from God is what the scripture says verse n salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so

none of us can boast about it so you see how over and over there's this repetition and this is not Romans this is Ephesians but there's the repetition that we can't earn our Salvation that salvation is not the reward for the good things that we do it is simply the grace of God demonstrated through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf that we can only receive by faith and it is a gift it's an undeserved gift so that no one can boast about it however we're told that we're created for something in verse 10

it says we are God's Masterpiece and he has created us a new in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago so right here in the passage in one of these passages which over and over emphasizes that we cannot be made with right with God by doing good deeds we cannot earn our Salvation it's only through Christ and then God says we're his Masterpiece we're created for Good Deeds we're created for good works so is that a contradiction no not at all all that it is saying is there's

a different motivation the motivation for the good deeds that we do is the understanding of the grace of God and the love of God for us as his children and so when we know that God loves us when we know that God's love caused him to take action and that action required great sacrifice so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have a place in heaven that love the Bible says constrains us it changes us and we love him because he first loved us and love is the greatest trans forming element in the

universe and all of God's creation when you love someone you change if you know that the person you love likes a particular thing or feels love loved when you do a particular action you change your attitude you change your actions in order to demonstrate love for that person even if it requires sacrifice and Jesus is the ultimate example of that he is the full demonstration of the love of God for us love Real Love Takes action it serves its sacrifices Jesus said I have not come to be served but to serve and give my life

a ransom for many the love of God is real ser ering and sacrificial love and when we receive Christ into our lives Romans chapter 8 says the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God AB broaden our hearts and it changes us and our motivation now has changed our motivation is I want to love God my maker my Creator my father my savior I want to love him by doing the good things that he planned for me long ago I want to do these Good Deeds not because it saves me but because it's an expression of

love for God who first loved me so it's human nature even after we have entrusted ourselves to Christ even after we put our full faith in what Christ accomplished for us it's human nature to slip back into the first three things we can slip back into indulging ourselves we can slip back into comparing oursel we can slip back in to thinking we can do good works that obligate God in some way to receive us and that's why in the Bible in First Peter it says we we need to be stirred up by way of reminder

of what God has done for us and that's why it's extremely important to have a devotional life with God where you're encountering the gospel the good news that God by God's grace we are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ you need to encounter the gospel and be reminded of what Christ has done for you and you do that by being in God's word consistently praying and focusing your your mind's attention and your heart's affection on the Lord and then Moment by moment and day by day acknowledging that you're in his presence Proverbs 35

and 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him don't lean on your own understanding he will direct your path Jesus said if you abide in me I abide in you uh you'll know the truth the truth will set you free and so it's the presence of the Lord time in his word with him and prayer acknowledging his presence with you and having the motivation that I want to show uh my love for God by doing the things that he has planned for me to do so I hope you'll do this I hope you will intentionally stay

away from indulging yourself comparing yourself thinking that you can save yourself and always rest in what Christ has accomplished for you entrusting yourself to him living by faith