Aaron McKee - The Relenting and Unrelenting God - Class 5 - Exhortation - Resolving The Paradox (Psa. 85 & Rom. 10-11)

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1. 0:00

   So we’re waiting for the words of exhortation from Brother Aaron finishing up the the weekend study. His exhort is titled Resolving the Paradox. Well, brothers and sisters, we come to the end of our, of our time together and I have to say on behalf of Rose and I and our two little girls, just what a special weekend this has been for us with a six month old. We don’t get out much.

2. 0:38

   So it’s great to see you all. And a few people have brought up us relocating and I, I, I’d say you’ve almost convinced me.

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   Have you ever wondered what it would have been to have walked with Christ? I’m sure in many ways we have all asked ourselves that question. You know, I personally think to what it would have been to have just heard him to glimpse the intricacies of his mind.

4. 1:27

   So I’m burden myself freely and and know that that he could see me for for who I am the disciple John did walk with him and many years from those days and later life is looking to the world around him that the impact those years had worked with his Lord had worked in the world. He writes his gospel, a testament to the Christ he knew and and as he wrote well in his mind’s eyebrow and sisters. Maybe he thought back to the days of his youth, or he walked with his Lord on the shores of Galilee and he would have heard those ministrations by the sea, the life changing effects it had on all around him.

5. 2:16

   In thinking to his youth, maybe he thought moments where the impossible happened, that the blind seas, the lepers heal, the lame leaves. Maybe he thought to personal things, moments he shared with his Lord, moments of joy, moments of hardship, moments of doubt, Moments he could feel the gaze of Christ piercing his heart, know his struggles and know he was the disciple loved of Christ.

6. 2:43

   But of all the things one could say, of all the places one could start in describing that man of whom all the books in the world, John says, could not contain the things he did, what is the one thing he writes? Bron Sisters, how does he begin? Where does he start? He says in the beginning was the Word. It was made flesh, it dwelt among man, and we have seen his glory as the glory of God, full

7. 3:12

   of grace and truth. This morning, brothers and sisters, we will consider this man John New, a man of grace and truth and justice and mercy and goodness and severity, A man who embodied the glory of God’s character and fullness. We’ll consider what these things meant to Christ, how he lived them, the salvation secured because he lived them.

8. 3:44

   And we will end our thoughts and a vision of hope, confidence, peace and assurance because our God is the relenting and unrelenting God. But but we’ll start our thoughts this morning, but first reflecting what John means when he says a man of grace and truth. And we don’t have to look far to see what he drives out here, Brun sisters. In fact, he’s very direct.

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   You see, he relates this phrase to Moses, doesn’t he? We see this in verse 17. He says to Moses came law to Christ, grace and truth. And on the surface, Brun sisters, that almost reads as a contrast, doesn’t it Contrast as if he’s saying Moses and the law. They had none of these things and suddenly they’ve come in Christ. Contrast where he saying, you know, the law was false in Christ’s truth as reflected this weekend. Bron sisters that can’t be farther from truth. How many in the record of Scripture witnessed these qualities of God?

10. 4:47

    Sure, they might have been hard to see, but how many saw them and said, as David did in second Samuel, made the God of grace and truth be with you or sang of them in the Psalms? You are a God of grace and truth. Are all your ways our mercy and truth? Many in our Bibles perceived these traits in their God.

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    Many hoped in the things considered this weekend. So what John isn’t saying here, brothers and sisters, is the law was absent of these and suddenly they’ve appeared in Christ.

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    He’s saying Christ is the essence of what they only glimpse, the sum of everything discussed this week, and he’s connecting what Moses saw on Sinai to what he’s witnessing in reality. And how many other writers speak the same brothers, sisters, Hebrews reads long ago at times away as God spoke by prophets. But in these last days he gave his Son the air of all things, the radiance of God’s glory.

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    We think to Paul, who said God let light shine from darkness, has shown in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Like John, they’re paralleling the imagery of Sinai.

14. 5:59

    The light Moses saw behind rock he can only glimpse. They see face to face a glory written on stone. They see in the life of Christ. And like Sinai brothers, sisters without glory, it’s revealed not in axe and whirlwind and storms and fire, but character. So will the glory of Christ be revealed in character. The miracle of Christ from the sisters was never in his wonders and acts.

15. 6:32

    How often did He call us to see beyond these things? A wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign. He says it was His ways, his love and compassion to those hurt, his silence in the face of accusers, his care for the lost in searching, his conviction to truth. What showed the power of God more than anything Christ did than his character in the presence of man.

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    Like Moses, brothers and sisters, who drew near to the ways of God, so will we draw near this morning to the ways of Christ and glimpse once more the perfection of God’s character. And we’ll start our thoughts by reflecting what grace and truth meant to Christ. And it’s starting that question. Brun, sisters, I suppose there’s many things that our brains might start thinking of. You know, we might start thinking of his feeding of multitudes where, though exhausted, he cares for them as lost sheep or or in his touching of the leper he he risked defilement or in eating with sinners he he risked social scorn.

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    Maybe we think to his words to Jerusalem how I would have brought you under my wings, or his greetings to Judas and hours of betrayal or or in his dining with Pharisees who who consider themselves as enemies. You might think to accounts like Luke 19 or in calling Zacchaeus the the crowds grumbled because he went to the House of a Sinner or or Luke 7, the crowds grumbled because the unclean woman touched him or the disciples grumbled because he spoke with the Samaritan and all this one sisters. If indeed you think of that

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    would lead us to a very simple, very, very powerful understanding and that’s the and grace that self sacrificed and grace that offers what he knew would be refused and grace that shocked because it was unmerited. Every act of Christ’s compassion.

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    Mirrors what grace means to God. But that’s only half of what John saw and that’s curious. Isn’t everyone’s just because because you know that that’s almost the easy point to make. Many of us associate the ministry of Christ as one dedicated dedicated to grace. Again, we think to the spirit of the dove that descends on him in in his baptism, but he also came in truth. I come to bring the sword.

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    He says in Matthew 10. Truth is central to the things Christ spoke on. You know, think about it for a moment, brother and sisters. Well, let’s turn our thoughts there. We see this perhaps glaringly in the Sermon on the Mount. He opens with these wonderful words of grace, doesn’t he follows in statements of truth.

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    He says, I come to bring the law, but he doesn’t stop at that. Brother and sisters, what does he say? He says you’ve heard it said you will not murder. I say if anybody’s angry, you’ve become liable. The judgement, you’ve heard it said don’t commit adultery. I say if you look, you commit sin. You’ve heard it said love your neighbor. I say love your enemies and pray for those persecuting you. In these words, brung sisters, we are reminded that Christ’s grace never nullified truth far beyond it. He amplifies it, He takes it, and he pushes it towards practice.

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    Excuse me beyond practice towards the intention of our hearts. Come with me to Matthew 12. Let’s look deeper at what truth means to Christ. You see there’s two cases where Christ, he’s challenged on his definitions of truth and and he’s going to respond in the same way. And in this specific case, the Pharisees come to him. They, they see him in the disciples eating in the fields on Sabbath.

23. 10:26

    They, they challenge him for doing so in verse 2. And how does Christ respond? We see him in verse 7. If you had known what this meant, he says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned what Christ has done. Brothers sisters, in quoting Hosea is revealing insight into what truth means to him, what the law always meant to prophets, what it always meant to God, and that’s that it must always be practiced in the fullness of God’s character. You see what Christ is not saying to your brothers, sisters, is is the Sabbath means nothing to me. So do whatever you want with mercy or or you can forget the law because grace is more important. Christ is actually not breaking the law in this moment. Brothers, sisters, what he’s saying is that the Sabbath without mercy is dead, that obedience to God’s Word removed from God’s heart means nothing.

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    We see this in Amos 4. Brun sisters, here in Amos we we get a glimpse of Israel struggling in a very specific issue. Don’t, don’t we? This is an issue of empty truth. What do we see in verse one? God says you’ve neglected acts of justice and grace. You’ve neglected the qualities of my character.

25. 11:43

    And why does he condemn them? We see it in verse 4. Yet you still come to Bethel and Gilgal and transgress. You multiply transgressions you, you bring your sacrifices every morning, three days a week. You offer leavened bread. You give free will offer, and you publish them for so you love to do. I hate them because it’s not in my character. That’s what Christ drives out here, brothers and sisters, Truth not as this hollow observance, but something that works a deeper connection in us.

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    For this reason, brothers and sisters, Christ will say, unless you achieve A righteousness greater than Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven. Their righteousness died at the external, their truth influenced actions died and intentions. For that reason though, though these are the the people who are the pinnacle of those who follow law, Christ says in Matthew 13, You have none, for you tithe and mint and fast. You neglect kindness, mercy, and justice. The weight of the law, he says, the weight of the Lobron sisters, is the weight of God’s character. In that condemnation is the understanding. One could never practice the law, Christ says, unless you did it in mercy, love, and grace.

27. 13:04

    In these condemnations is the understanding that the the truth is never technical correctness or doctrine alone, but through its practice, bringing man’s heart in alignment with God’s character. Scripture is full of people who could keep external truths, full of people who could follow rules and rituals and moral codes and appearances. We see it in the hollow offerings of Cain to the rush sacrifice of Saul to the empty observance of Israel’s priest to the rich young ruler and the elites of Christ, A all external righteous internal tombs, outward truth keepers, inwardly lawless people of external priesthoods, but hearts that walk by Samaritans, giving shallow observance rather than living truths, intent. The Apostle Paul understood this intimately. Brun Sisters, who is Saul of Tarsus? He followed the laws of God to AT but fell far from what truth meant to God.

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    What does he write to the Corinthians? How does he counsel them in these things? He says if you know truth or prophecy, but speak not in love, it’s empty. It’s a clanging gong. It it it’s worthless, you know, You know, sometimes I think we can struggle in that brothers and sisters, as a community, we’re oriented as as very truth oriented people predispose to seek it and all things and don’t get me wrong.

29. 14:47

    But sisters, this is wonderful and pleasing and rare and good in the sight of our God, but not when it leads us down roads. We’re in pursuit of that truth. We neglect the character of love that makes truth come alive. The lesson for us in Christ example is to reflect on how we measure righteousness, to push beyond exterior thinking and external works and understand it means little if I can bring myself to meeting but I’m not working something new in myself. It means little if I enforce truth but in a matter offensive to God that drives people away.

30. 15:26

    The lesson for us is that in our ecclesias policies and practices they should be guided by scriptures heart and not just its letter and how we love one another. How we love our God with all our heart, strength, soul and mind. These are guiding principles and how we exercise truth and these are safeguards against weaponizing rules.

31. 15:59

    But as with grace, there is much we could say of truth. Brunch sisters. We can note that at times Christ rebukes harshly. You know not what spirit you’re of. Peter. Get get behind me Satan. We can reflect that that grace did not stop Christ from saying the hard things. Bron Sisters, sometimes that must be true of us.

32. 16:21

    Truth means speaking what people need not want to hear. We can note that truth means reflecting the faithfulness of God. As as God was unrelenting in his covenants to man, so Christ is unrelenting in integrity to God. Not my will, he says, but yours for this ’cause I was born, he says, to Pilate, to bear witness unto truth, even to my death.

33. 16:49

    So we we must be unrelenting in our faithfulness, brothers and sisters. But as we’ve noted this weekend, these were qualities never in silos. They could never be separated. And the same is true of Christ. Both work together purposely. We see it in the Sermon on the Mount, whereupon opening with those blessings He convicted in truth, We see it in eating with sinners grace He calls them to repent truth. We see it in John 5 healing the man by the pool. He says take up your bed and walk. Grace.

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    He later says go and sin no more truth. We see it in speaking to the Samaritan woman. Grace. He says 1 is not your husband truth. We see it in the rich young ruler says looking to him in love. Grace he says sell all you have truth.

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    Grace was never absent of responsibility in Christ. Brothers and sisters, like his father, he welcomes in grace so he could shape with truth. We could reflect that like his Father, these qualities were relational and there was never a moment when our Lord spoke to an individual and he did not speak to their needs intimately. And at times those needs required something different were for safety or or when justice was at stake. Truth leads.

36. 18:25

    We see it in the whips in the temple. We hear it in in the rebukes to Peter. But even in those moments, brains, sisters, even in his harshest of words, his curse on Jerusalem, his condemnation on Pharisees, well in his curses he wept and in condemnations he said, how I would have cared for you.

37. 18:44

    And nowhere do we see this dynamic better by the sisters than in the words of Mark 3 verse 5 where it says, looking to the Pharisees in anger, He grieved for the hardness of their hearts. Christ’s truth was never absent of grace, Brun sisters. It was always working to restore the individual he spoke to. And perhaps nowhere do we get a a sense of the fullness, just the the depths that these traits possessed Christ as a man than in the record of John 8.

38. 19:23

    In this chapter. We have a number of characters considered this weekend. Brun sisters. A spectrum of characters struggling and perception. In this passage we have we have scribes and Pharisees who lived by truth but neglected grace, who come to him in anger. They seek to use the law of God for the intent of taking his life. In this crowd we have a woman,

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    one whose actions imply she she presumed on the grace of God, but but to whom the truth of God meant little. In the midst of these we have Christ’s Brun sisters. And what does he do if something curious happens to the crowd? They come to him for judgement, to condemn this woman, a moment of justice to to be enforced from the law of God.

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    And how does Christ respond? He draws with his finger. On the stone floors of the temple. Very curious thing, isn’t it, Bron Sisters? Very interesting. John doesn’t know what he’s writing. He simply reflects the action. And I think there’s many things we can say about this account, Bron Sisters. It’s one of the many mysteries of the gospel, what Christ wrote.

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    What I suggest Christ is doing is he’s reflecting on the character of his father. A moment in Exodus where 30 in chapter 31, verse 18, where the finger of God wrote a law on tablets of stone to Moses. And in the essence of how the Spirit of God was delivered to Mambran sisters and how the character of God has revealed itself throughout Scripture and how every moment of God’s justice delivered from the days of creation to the closing words of Scripture.

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    How he’s committed to working with you. An image of how our King will judge in days to come. How does he speak? What does he say? He says in grace, woman, your sins are forgiven and truth go and sin no more. Christ was a man who harmonized the qualities of God. He was a man who who did not dilute justice to be gracious nor suppress grace to be true.

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    He lives both fully. We see it we’re through tears. He gives judgement to Jerusalem like his Father. Mercy is never far from justice. We see it in the gospel he taught us as reading from Isaiah. He says, I bring justice and freedom and liberty to the captive today. This is fulfilled in your sight.

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    And we can note run, sisters, that he characterized his word of gospel truth brought to this world as one that manifests in acts of hope and grace and restoration. We could save in the way he works with people. As in wisdom. He gave grace to the humble, restoring Zacchaeus, building Peter, pardoning this woman in adultery, and his shrewdness confronting the proud and heart and hearts of Pharisees. His grace softened hearts and his truth challenged pride and a life lived this way.

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    Brothers, Sisters. Leads only to one end, and John witnessed it on the cross. Because in one powerful moment, in one singular instance, we have the sum of everything discussed this weekend. It is the clearest expression of the character of God that has ever been revealed to man. It is the physical revelation of what God tried to show Moses in his name thousands of year before.

46. 23:15

    Because as John would have looked, and he sees this man breaking his body for others, an image of God relenting so powerful it made him marvel in a God merciful and gracious, and abounding in love to the thousandth, that that He could give us His Son while we were yet sinners. Well, in his blood, brothers and sisters, is the unrelenting God.

47. 23:38

    Romans 3 verse 25 says that Christ, to whom God put forward as the propitiation by His blood, did so that He might be just. And the justifier of them who have faith in this moment is the ultimate expression of the character of God. It is the resolution to our paradox. Resolve not in compromise, not not in conflict, not in concession, but by harmony in Christ in this moment. Run, sisters, His ultimate act of justice meets His greatest act of love in this moment.

48. 24:17

    Justice opens the door for grace for all who have faith in this moment. Justice allows this thief on the cross to seize grace in his final breaths and partake in its internal inheritance in mercy and truth, reads Proverbs 16.

49. 24:35

    Atonement is provided for iniquity. In those words, brothers and sisters, is the understanding that has underpinned everything this weekend. In those words is the powerful, simple message that God is shouting to us from the pages of Scripture. And that’s simply that both the qualities of the character of God are fully dedicated to our salvation.

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    And because of this, brothers, sisters, above all things, above anything else we take away from this weekend, these are things we hope in. These are qualities where in moments of failure we hope in mercy and truth.

51. 25:19

    These are qualities when when life challenges you with the taunt that are many faced throughout Scripture. Where now is your God, the taunt given Christ? Where is his God? He trusted him. Let let him deliver when hard days come and life breaks you down, brothers and sisters, and you can’t understand how you can possibly stand up and keep walking in the example of Christ. No, brothers and sisters, when that happens and and your only hope is to look to the character of of God, as many faithful before have done.

52. 25:48

    Know that you can look to him in confidence, confidence and unspeakable joy. Confidence because this character is pledged to you, pledge to the fulfillment of his promise and he will never swear from them. And when we come to understand that, brothers, sisters, then then we might start to speak like Paul, who would say, if we are faithless Timothy, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. When we understand that, we, we, we come to think like Micah. Who would hope in hopeless times, Yet he could still write in certainty.

53. 26:26

    You, Lord, will perform truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, because you swore to our fathers from days of old. Brothers and sisters, we look to that day when truth and mercy will be performed in this earth as waters cover the sea. A day Amos saw, when when justice rolls down like waters from the mountain. A day Isaiah writes of when his Lord in mercy established his throne and truth sits upon it, judging, seeking justice and hastening righteousness.

54. 26:58

    A day David sings of in Psalm 89. Justice and judgement or the habitations of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. Let’s end in picture of this king of all the earth, who will sit on the throne of David, who will wipe away all false notions of justice and an empty acts of grace, and reveal the glory of God. As the waters cover the sea and brothers and sisters. John will see him one last time in his life, and he sees him in Revelation 5.

55. 27:50

    I John heard an Angel speak. Who is worthy to open the scroll? Who is worthy to have accomplished the the restoration of all things promised from the beginning? And in response to that question, brothers and sisters, there was silence.

56. 28:11

    For in all the earth, in all the records of this book, and in the ages of history, no one lived the character of God to perfection. No one was worthy. And what does John do? He wept.

57. 28:31

    Then suddenly a voice spoke. John, weep not, for the Lion of Judah has overcome. And, and it says he looks suddenly, you know, you can imagine, his heart begins to pump. He looks up to the one who overcome, the Conqueror of all things. He looks above the Saints, all the faithful. He sees to the top of the throne.

58. 28:52

    He sees the Lion of Judah. And what does he see, brothers and sisters? A lamb with its throat cut, a symbol of justice and mercy. It is the life of his Lord, what he witnessed all those years before, the one who lived unto death, the fullness of God’s character. We close, brothers and sisters, in the words of Psalm 85.

59. 29:20

    Will you draw out your anger forever, Lord? Will you not restore us again? Brunch, sisters. That is the cry of all the faithful who have ever lived to have wrestled and failed in this tension of God’s character all the way from the days of Adam. And this is the moment our Lord answers. Mercy and truth meet together.

60. 29:45

    Righteousness and peace have kissed in the form of my son. Yes, he says, I will deliver what is good. A lion will come to this world, brothers and sisters, to subject all things, but like the whirlwind and the fire, it will be guided by the small voice of God.

61. 30:05

    A lion will roar from Zion in truth to bring a law, to bring structure to a structureless world, so that as a lamb tears will be wiped from the eyes of the suffering, and death and pain and sorrow will be no more. Surely, says the Lord, I come quickly.