The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E28 -The Gospel

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

Hey, church family. It is time for Devo. If you got your Bibles, First Corinthians chapter 15, and then we're going to go to Romans chapter 3. First of all, I'm wearing an Atlanta Brave shirt. Two things I need to tell you about it. First, I'm praying that baseball season will open and we'll get to watch games and all of that kind of stuff. Secondly, please when you see this A, don't ever confuse it for Alabama. I know this is not Devo, but this is very important. The Alabama logo is like the glorious brave logo, but it has a mullet. So, if you ever see the brave logo with a mullet, think mullet equals Alabama, that will help you not make the mistake for the rest of your life. Okay.

Now, is that stuff important? Sure, but is it most important? No. 1st Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you. unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance.

So the distinguishing between the Braves, Go Braves, and the Alabama mullets, then it's important, but just like there's a bunch of important stuff, there's important stuff in the church, it's important stuff in the government, there's important stuff in our community, there's important stuff in your family. Paul, 15 chapters in to the church in Corinth, says, I want to remind you brothers of the gospel. One of the primary jobs as your pastor is that I would remind you of the gospel. You say, well, how important is this gospel?

It is of first importance. You see, one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a Christian, one of the biggest mistakes a lot of churches make is that they think that the gospel is like it's like the shallow end of the pool it's like the ABCs of Christianity they think the gospel is just like the contract that you sign to get into this Christianity thing and it's not the gospel is the whole pool including the diving board and the deeper you dive the more brilliant and beautiful it is the gospel is not just the ABCs but the A to Z of what it means to not only become a Christian, but be a Christian and live with God forever and ever and ever.

The gospel tells us what justification and sanctification and glorification is. You see, the gospel is not just the starter of the engine, but the gospel is the whole kitten caboodle from bumper to bumper. It is of first and portance. And to move away from the gospel is to move away from the cross of Jesus Christ. and as believers, we are to daily deny ourselves and take up our cross. That means we are to daily say no to me and say yes to Jesus, say yes to the gospel. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. Colan, here is the gospel in its simplest terms that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. You see, just like I talked to you, I think it was Monday, about how important it is to delight in the law of the Lord that the gospel cannot be divorced from the scriptures. That Christ's life, death, and resurrection was in accordance with the scriptures. Now, that's the gospel. We are sinners. Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He died of sinners' death.

He was resurrected on the Bible. the third day. The implications of the gospel is for anybody that believes or trust that when Jesus died on the cross, he accounted for them, then they get credited with the righteousness of Christ. It is of first importance and be reminded of that. You know why you need to be reminded of this? Why do you need to be reminded of stuff? You need to remind your kids of stuff? You think my kids don't know they're supposed to brush your teeth? Why don't have to remind them all the time? You don't think Gretchen knows she's married to awesome? Why did she got, I got a reminder all the time, I'm kidding about that one.

Because we forget. We forget. It's the craziest thing in the world that blood bought saints of Jesus, sinners saved by grace, who have been made into more than conquerors, in a minute we begin to think that our good works contribute to Christ's salvific work on the cross for us. Did you know in every epistle that Paul wrote,

except I think Galatians. I don't think he reminds them in Galatians. Everywhere else, Paul says to churches, to Christians, hey, let's go over the gospel one more time. In Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 10, I think, this is my opinion. Now there's some smart people like Martin Luther and John Calvin that will back me up on here.

But I think this may be the most clear and important paragraph wrath in all of the Bible. And essentially what Paul is doing is reminding the Romans what the gospel is and what the gospel is not. Verse 10, Paul says of Romans chapter 3, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. Our problem is not that we are bad people that need to be better. we are unrighteous people in front of a holy and righteous God. Our problem is that we are dead men and women, and we need life.

And our current condition, by nature and nurture, is that we are unrighteous. Come on, if you're a parent, you know this, you didn't have to teach your kids to sin. By nature and nurture, we are sinners, crooked and depraved at the core of who we are. wretched self-seeking idol-worshipping sinners. He says, none is righteous, no, not one.

No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes. To which when I tell an unbeliever this, oftentimes, or even some believers, they'll go, come on, man, not me, I'm a pretty good guy. The fact that you would say that means there is no fear of God before their eyes. You're good compared to who?

Your college roommate? Or somebody, some awful person you saw in the nightly news? Compare yourself to the perfect spotless lamb of God. and talk to me about how good you are. Listen, man, I ain't good. There's nothing in me good. I mean, by the spirit of God, he allows me to do some good things,

but think about this. Even if we just kind of leave aside the perfect law of God, we can't even keep our own commandments. How many times have you made a promise that you didn't keep to you? I mean, how many times have you promised I'm never going to do that again?

How'd that go? How many times have you looked at your own life after a weekend, and you look back at it and you think, what is wrong with me? I'll tell you what's wrong with you. Same thing is wrong with me. By nature and nurture, we are sinners. This is the diagnosis.

He goes on to say, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable. In other words, God gave us this Bible so that we would know, not where we just stumble,

but we would know where we sin. Do you know how you know, you're speeding because there is a speed limit. The law does not say the law of the highway doesn't say drive safe. What would that mean? Some of you'd go 45 miles an hour in the passing lane while you're putting on makeup. Some of you would go 145 miles an hour while you're looking at your phone. So there is a speed limit so that we know that we break it.

Then he says in verse 20, so important, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. since through the law comes knowledge of sin. For by works of the law, no human being will be declared righteous. And yet, I'm telling you what church people begin to do as they begin to associate works of righteousness with the declaration of their own righteousness.

Of course, I'm a Christian. I go to sunny school, and I go to disciple group, and I sponsor kids, and look at all of these things I do. And because I do these things, I declare myself righteous. and the Bible, see, there's you, and then there's the Bible. And the Bible says, to declare yourself righteous means you're self-righteous. That doesn't mean you're righteous before God.

To declare yourself righteous, to think that your works establish a right relationship with God is to look at Jesus, eyeball to eyeball, on the cross and say, that was not enough. I have to help you out. Now, there are denominations and religions that teach this, Christian denominations and religions,

like what Jesus did on the cross was not enough. So you have to take communion in order to, you do have to enact that good work to be saved. Paul would say, eh. Or you have to do confession to be saved. Paul would say, no works of righteousness will declare you righteous before God. That we are saved by sheer grace.

But, however, this is verse 21. So no work of righteousness will declare you right before God. That word righteousness in Romans means to stand right before God, have a right relationship with you. Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God, not a righteousness of God, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and prophets bear witness to it,

in other words, the law and the prophets are the Old Testament, all of this was pointing to Jesus, that when Moses said, let's celebrate Passover. It wasn't just about the Jewish people being freed from Egypt. It was about a spotless lamb whose blood was going to be shed for God's people. That spotless lamb was Jesus. That Noah and the ark is not a kid's story about a bunch of animals getting on a boat.

It was God's judgment was on a wicked people, but God would provide a vessel of salvation. David and Goliath was not about a little kid overcoming his job, giants. It was about sin, the great oppressor from the evil one, is our enemy, and Jesus, the greater David, steps out onto the cross with a sling, and he forts or kills our great enemy, which is our sin. The law and the prophets, the whole Bible, was pointing to this manifested righteousness. His name is Jesus. Verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

The righteous, a right standing of God. How? Through faith, through belief, through trust, that when Christ died on the cross, it counted for me. For who? Good people, church people? Bible people? For all who would admit it, I'm a sinner, who would believe on Christ died on the cross,

somehow that counted for me. And we confessed Jesus is their Lord. for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift. Justification is a legal term which means to declare not guilty. That for anybody that believes in Jesus, though your rap sheet is long, when the judge of the universe looks at your rap sheet, when they sees that you have put your faith in Jesus, he says you are justified.

It's just as if you had never done these things because, Jesus took full payment and penalty for all of those sins, and he nailed them to the cross when he said it is finished. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. When you redeem something, when you redeem a coupon, this is my favorite illustration for the word redemption, you get a coupon, which somebody gave you as a gift. You know, you open your mailbox, you get a coupon. You take it to the store.

You get whatever the coupon is for, all right? Case of water. Case of toilet paper. Let's get real. today's world. You get the toilet paper, you put it on the thing. They say that'll be $15, however much toilet paper costs. And you go, not for me, I have a coupon.

And they say, would you like to redeem your coupon? Of course I get. You give them the coupon. They give you the toilet paper. It costs you nothing. It costs Charmin full price. God looks at you and he gives you this offer for anyone who would believe, for anyone who would believe,

God would redeem you. You get the free gift of salvation and it cost him the blood of his son, Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies. God is the almighty, perfect, sovereign king of the universe. For him to overlook sin would be outside of his character.

It would make him an unjust judge. And the way we determine a penalty is not just what you do, but who you do it against. If you kill a fly, no problem. You kill an animal, like a pet, bigger problem. You kill a person? Huge problem. You kill the president? It's over, okay? When we sin, we sin against an everlasting God. It requires an everlasting punishment. And yet God sends his son, Jesus Christ, as the propitiation, the payment that satisfies, that God pours all of his wrath upon his very own son. Isaiah says that he was pleased to crush him and that by his stripes we are healed, that he heaped upon Jesus the chastisement of us all. And Jesus drinks the

cup of the wrath of God to the very last drop and slams it down. And then on the cross, he says, it is finished. Which means if Christ's righteousness has been imputed to you, and Jesus is the payment that satisfies, then God can't be dissatisfied in you. Because to be dissatisfied means that you're surprised. You know why you're dissatisfied and your children? Don't ever tell them that, by the way. That's an anti-gospal way to parent.

But the reason that you're dissatisfied with somebody is you're expecting one thing and you got another. You were surprised. You thought it was going to go another way. God never looked at you and expected one thing and got something else. So God is never disappointed in you. Because Jesus is the payment. dissatisfied, so he's never dissatisfied in you.

And that is received, not by works, he'd received by faith, by trust. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. This is how the people in the Old Testament got saved. In his divine mercy, he did not require payment for their sin at that moment.

The way people in the Old Testament got saved is by faith they participated in the sacrificial system knowing that one day the Messiah would come, one day the lamb would come. And so by faith, they put their faith in that lamb. What they knew by faith, we know by name. His name is Jesus. And in God's divine forbearance, in his mercy,

he passed over former sins. This is also true for us. The reason we don't get squished right now and judged right now is by his divine forbearance, by His mercy, God delays the payment. It was to show his righteousness at the present time. Because God is perfect and right, he demands payment. So that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. Because of God's mercy, God delays the payment. Now here's the best part. And because of God's grace, he makes it. the payment. At the cross, God is just and the justifier. He pours out his wrath on sin, and Jesus becomes sin on the cross that we would be made the righteousness of God. 1122, may you be rooted and deeply grounded in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and may we never, ever, ever stray from it.

It is of first importance. Father, we thank you for the cross. Jesus, we thank you. That you were willing to go to the cross on our behalf. That you have demonstrated your love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. God, may we be people that on the authority of your word under the umbrella of the love of the Father,

through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, may we be people that are fluent in the gospel that can apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to every aspect of our life, in our parenting, in our marriages, in our heartbreak, in our disappointment, in our health, in our jobs, and our finances, that every area of our life

would be rooted and centered on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it and it alone is the power of salvation. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.