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Eugene Prewitt

Balanced Beholding of Christ

Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 11.

Romans chapter 11 we're going to begin reading in verse 22.

The theme of tonight's talk is balanced beholding.

I'm speaking about trying to keep your attention on 2 different things, 2 different ideas and doing it in the right ratio.

If you could imagine for a minute, those of you who drive, What would happen if you gave more attention to your rearview mirror than you did to your looking out your windshield?

But are you better off to give at least some attention to your rearview mirror?

That's a crude illustration of what I'm trying to communicate.

When you're walking on the sidewalk, should you be looking to see what's on the sidewalk so you don't miss something?

But should you also be looking to make sure nothing's hitting you in the head?

Sometimes you have to be watching 2 different things, but what would happen if you gave all your attention to the sidewalk?

Well you'd have bumps and bruises more than the other people in the world.

And if you gave all your attention to what's up here, you'd trip and fall more than other people in the world.

These are both crude illustrations, and it's mainly for your benefit I give them.

For the rest of us, we're going to read Romans 11, verse 22.

It says, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God, On them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness." The first point tonight is that we have 2 aspects of God that need to receive attention in our minds.

We need to think about His goodness and His severity.

There are people whose entire religious tenor of their life is warped because they think only about His mercy and never think about His severity.

Perhaps in the Adventist Church, and I'm guessing, perhaps there are more people whose religious life is warped the other way, by thinking mostly about his severity and not sufficiently about his mercy.

I don't know what the ratio is of how people think about those things, but I know what the verse says, we should think about both of them.

I don't think it's true though that they deserve equal attention.

That they ought to have equal volume of time in my mind.

They both need attention, but they don't need equal attention.

Before I go to prove that to you in the Bible, Let's observe a few more things in the verse.

Who is His goodness directed to in this verse?

And if there's 1 way to think about God's goodness, it's that way.

You should not think about His goodness very generally, but you should think about His goodness very specifically.

I want to think about His goodness toward me, and I want to think about His severity towards those that fall.

If I put those 2 ideas together, there's 1 thing I should not think about me.

I shouldn't think about me as being 1 of those that fall.

Let me say that thought again while I'm trying to communicate.

If you are 1 who's fallen, you want to recognize it.

But I mean that you want to expect that God is going to finish the work He started in you.

You want to cherish the idea that God accounted the cost before he began working in you.

And if he counted the cost before he began, it means he has the resources to finish.

You want to think about His goodness being toward you, and His severity being toward those that fall.

Is there a condition of His goodness remaining toward you In the verse?

And that's going to be the first branch we take off of this verse tonight.

To understand what it means to continue in His goodness.

Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 15.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

That's Jesus speaking, so I would read it like this.

As the Father has loved Jesus, so Jesus has loved me.

And then he says to me, continue ye in my love.

He loves me and I am to continue in his love.

He loves me and I want to keep that in my mind, that he loves me, and to continue keeping in mind that He loves me.

But maybe that's not precisely what it means to continue in His love.

If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

And in verse 10 he explains how to do it.

Now, He shows mercy to me if I continue in His goodness, or in His mercy, or in His love.

And how do I continue in His mercy or His goodness or His love?

What I'm trying to do right now is just make the way of salvation as simple and plain as it can be.

Mercy if you continue doing what he says, and severity if you fall.

But when we talk about doing what he says, these verses don't go directly there, they go through a side step of thinking about his goodness, his mercy, his love, keeping what, doing what he says.

Does it make a difference whether you think about those things and how successful you are in doing what he says?

That had to be an awkward way to ask the question because not enough people answered me.

If we think about God's love and His mercy and His goodness, it's much easier to do what He says.

Said another way, if it's difficult to do what He says, you could fix it.

Suppose you have a problem like this, it's difficult to do what God says.

You think about His goodness, His mercy, His love.

It speaks about people who are a certain someone who is condemning others.

It says, "...or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and law and suffering." If I could stop right there, what do I know about God's goodness and His forbearance and His law and suffering?

I know I shouldn't despise them and you know what else I know from the verse?

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Balanced Beholding of Christ

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