Greetings to all our congregation and internet family in America and abroad especially the excellent Pastors in India and Pakistan! If I were to ask you how do people get ‘saved’ would you know the biblical answer? What about people who lived before the first Advent of Christ; how were they saved? Since it is said that the Jews are God’s chosen people, does this mean that there were no saved Gentiles before the gospel was declared? Well get your bible and grab a serving of your favorite beverage and listen to a message Called: “Responding To The Kindness of God”.
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32:8 – 21 (NASB)
Deu 32:8 “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. Deu 32:9 “For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. Deu 32:10 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. Deu 32:11 “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. Deu 32:12 “The LORD alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him. Deu 32:13 “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And He made him suck honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock, Deu 32:14 Curds of cows, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat– And of the blood of grapes you drank wine. Deu 32:15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked– You are grown fat, thick, and sleek– Then he forsook God who made him, And scorned the Rock of his salvation. Deu 32:16 “They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. Deu 32:17 “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread. Deu 32:18 “You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth. Deu 32:19 “And the LORD saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. Deu 32:20 “Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. Deu 32:21 ‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,
New Testament Scripture Reading: Romans 2:1 – 11 (NASB)
Rom 2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. Rom 2:2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Rom 2:3 And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Rom 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, Rom 2:6 who WILL RENDER TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: Rom 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; Rom 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. Rom 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, Rom 2:10 but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Rom 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
Transforming Power Points:
#1) After Paul has shown us what a culture looks like being under the wrath of God, who by their own choices have ignored the Creator God, and violated their very own consciences, he then goes on to explain to others who may not be ‘that bad’ that if they are able to pass judgment on the others that they should rather pass judgment on themselves in that God is perfectly Holy and just and that they too have broken God’s Law as well and therefore are guilty in His sight of the same state of sin from heaven’s viewpoint. {The pot must not call the kettle black}
#2) Because of the preaching of creation and conscience from the dawn of time, whose message is equal to all men, Jews and Gentiles alike from the beginning of time up until the gospel shall be judged by God and His judgment shall be just.
#3) Although these verses might be mistaken to mean that {prior to the full revelation of the gospel} ‘salvation is by works’ it is obvious based on the entirety of Scripture that salvation is not by works but by grace and by faith.
