The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 7: A Right Standing With God

Episode Date: February 25, 2018

Have you placed your faith in Jesus?

Amen, amen. How are we doing, church? Doing all right? Everybody's looking good. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do, hopefully figure out where we're going to be. Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three for the next hour or so I'm going to unpack where our campus pastors read for us. Also, hopefully you brought your Roman study journal with you. It's important because there's a place to take notes. There's also a couple of key definitions. And then the memory verse for the upcoming weeks. And what do you do with the memory verse? You guys are so good, especially the front row, all right? There will be a test.

Also, not so much here, but when you die. And then also, if you'll get your worship guide, there's some definitions that will go over. And I just, it looks like the font is for the 40 in undercrowd, so good luck with that. So we're in the seventh week over a study in the Book of Romans, and I guess the seventh week in this year of deepening our relationship with Jesus. And so we're taking this deep dive into the Book of Romans. And before I get to these verses, chapter 3 beginning in verse 9 will go to like 26. And I'm going to tell you, you're in trouble. This might be my favorite passage in the Bible.

This, Ephesus 2, Philippians 2, there's a couple. I got like four favorites, but whatever. You know what I'm saying? I read the Bible a lot. But so I'm going to try to get through it on time. But I just want to kind of recap where we are because sometimes you can dive so deep into something that you kind of forget where you are in the deal, okay? And so to recap the last six weeks to catch everybody up, this is kind of how Romans has gone so far.

First week, hi, Rome, I'm Paul. That was week one. Somehow it took me an hour to do that, but that's what it said. And then he said, week two, and I pray for you all the time. And then he said, my hope is that the gospel would transform you and lead you into what he called an obedience of faith. That's chapter 1, verse 5. That the gospel, it's not an obedience for faith. It's not if I obey, then I'm okay with God.

It's because God made me okay with Him through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It changes me to be obedient in response to what God has done for me. And then when you get to chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, it's like if you're writing a paper, you write like a thesis statement. And 1 16 and 17 is the thesis statement for all of the book of Romans. And it says this, for I am not ashamed of the God. for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed.

You might want to underline that little part in your Bible. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. What Paul is going to do in our text in our time together today in three, nine, and following is he's going to explain that part. He's going to explain for in it in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. And so when you get past 1, 16, and 17, you ask the question. So who needs the gospel, Paul? And Paul goes, well, it's funny, you ask.

There's two group of people, okay? There's religious people and non-religious people, good people and bad people. There's just all people need the gospel is basically what he's saying. In chapter 1 verses 18 and following, he says, okay, we'll start with these people need the gospel. those evil pagans, you know who they are, they are those people, and then he lists this whole list of sins. And you remember some of the sins, right? There was sexual immorality, and it was all about they.

They are sexually immoral. And they are idolaters, and they are liars. And they are, my favorite one, is inventors of evil. I still love that one. Paul saw some stuff going on as like, that's so shady, we don't even have a sin word for that. You just made up a new sin, okay? So if that's you, you were like,

Like, that was my college roommate, all right? That's, yeah, he needs Jesus, all right? So, and then he throws in there disobedient to parents. I think he's just making us aware that they are us. So that's chapter 1, 18 to the end. And then you get to chapter two, and remember he shifts gears, and he goes, therefore you are without excuse. So the evil rebellious pagans, they need Jesus.

And the committed, like, religious people, you need Jesus. So that means all people. And he goes through in chapter two and says, your religion does not earn your righteousness, which takes us to last week. He says, okay, Paul, how about Q&A? Fundamental question is this. All right, Paul, are we too far gone? And his answer was, no way.

By no means is the way he would say it. But no way righteousness has been made available even for you to which you would say, okay, Paul, how? How can I be made righteous? And when you hear the word righteous, you just need to think all throughout this letter to Rome, you always just think a right standing before God. Not that everything you do is right. Those are two different things.

So how, Paul, how could I have a right standing before God? Well, funny you ask, chapter 3, verses 9 through 26, answer that question. About this passage, Martin Luther, it's a really big deal. He called this the chief point of the whole Bible. So especially if this is your first time ever here. you came on the best weekend you could ever come, because this is, this is, this is the line in the sixth sense where he says, I see dead people.

And you go, that's what it's all about. Okay, this is that line, except it's more than one line, for the whole Bible. This is it. All right, so we'll pick it up in three nine. What then? Are we Jews any better off? Now, in our context, that would be, are we religious people any better off? Any answers?

No. Not at all. And you say, well, how come? And here's how come, because we all start in the same place. And he's going to tell us where we all start. Whether you grew up really bad or you grew up really good or you grew up being really good at being really bad. That was me. Then we all start at the same place.

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are, here's the phrase, under sin. Under sin. Underline that word. Under sin. This means every single one of us are born under sin. by both nature and nurture that every single one of us I mean when we were you know your babies

those little precious cute little swaddling sinners is what we are all right like the like the seagulls from Nemo man we just grow we're just are born going mine mine mine mine mine that it is all about us and this phrase under sin it's like a title like if you had a spiritual passport you can only be marked as a citizen

under sin or under grace. That is it. And every single one of us are born in the country of sin. We're born in the city, in the nation under the dominion of sin. And when we talk about sin, sin is not just breaking random rules in a book that you don't read that much. What Paul is going to do here is he personifies sin as an enemy, that we are under the power, the dominion of that domain, like slings. Slaves needing freedom, not just guilty people needing forgiveness.

Now, he's not going to say that we're all equal sinners, but we are all sinners equally. Every single one of us, wretched, black-hearted sinners. No matter how good you think you are. In fact, if you think you're really good, your goodness is your sin. Let that explode your brain for a second. And then there's a whole crowd of you, probably the crowd that I would be most likely to hang out with. You don't even have to be convinced. When I go, you're a sinner, you're like, it's worse than you think, Pastor.

All right. So, now, though there are degrees from a horizontal perspective of our sin, all sin leads to death and there are no degrees of death, all right? You're just dead. Whether you've been dead for a minute or dead for a long time, there's just dead. There's not dead or deadest and dead. It's just dead. And the illustration we use, if we all tried to swim to Europe from here,

some of you that don't swim very well wouldn't make it past the breakers, all right? you'd be dead and the breakers. Some of you, freakish athlete kind of people, you would swim. You'd be, I mean, miles and miles and miles and be like, I think he's going to make it. He ain't going to make it. He's going to be dead too. Now, who's more dead? Nobody.

The breaker dead people and the past the horizon swimmer's dead. All the same dead. So that's our sin. Whether it's a wee little bit and you thought it was not much, or you were just, I mean, you know, you're sinning right now. Okay, whoever, whatever it is, that means that we are all under sin. Now, I know there's a segment of our population that goes, well, I'm offended. First of all, there's a lot. I don't have time for this.

All right. How can you call me a sinner? All right, snowflake. It's pretty easy, all right? I call you a sinner first and foremost because the Bible does, all right? Let me just warn you, warn you, be really, really careful of the people that only say things. to flatter you. They're not for you. They want something from you. Usually a vote, but be careful, all right. And I'm not trying to label you. I'm trying to help diagnose you so you understand you need

a cure. That's what this is. And so then Paul goes on. You think, look, man, I'm not mean. I'm just like the mailman. I don't write it. I just deliver it, okay? Listen where he goes. Paul then quotes from the Old Testament. I mean, he quotes, you'll never write all these down, but try. Psalm 14, 1 through 3, 5, 9, 143, 10, 7, Isaiah 59, 7 through 8. Then he jumps back to Psalm 361. To Google it, you can find it. All right. So he says, as it is written, so he's grabbing all these Old Testament verses, he puts them into, and the way it's indented in your Bible means like, this is a song, basically. So this is a song about how evil and corrupt and depraved we are. I think we should sing it here, but I'm trying to win over the worship team.

So here's what he says. None is righteous. Righteous. Righteous means right standing with God. There is no person who in and of themselves has a right standing with God. Think of the best person you can think of, other than me, like your grandma or whatever, all right? Sinner. That's what she is.

Wretched, depraved, crooked, evil, grandma, sinner. Think about that for a minute. All right. Now, that's only apart from Christ. None is righteous. No, not one. This means, we've talked about this before, that everybody rejects God. Some of us reject God in our rebellion. And that's who we typically think of when we think sinner. I do what I want with who I won't, when I want, you know, sex drugs, rock and roll, whatever, okay? But if you don't reject God with your rebellion, then you reject God with your religion. God, I don't need you. I got this. And the Bible says that even our righteous deeds are filthy before the Lord. So every single one of us,

as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. I know your feelings are being hurt. Just hanging here. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongue to deceive. The venom of asps, you really got to enunciate that one, all right? The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth, the fact that our minds go there, see, a bunch of sinners, all right?

And I know some of you're like, I don't understand. God bless you in your ministry. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are really. ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, you look at that and you think, that's pretty rough. Listen, that is you and me.

Now, what we typically do is we compare ourselves to one another. And when we do, if you've got a brain in your skull, then you always win. Because you get to pick your opponent in the comparison game of morality. All right. All I do, college roommate, boom, I am a son. saint and that's what we do so so i'll give it to you as compared to the nightly news yeah man you're doing pretty good as compared to a holy god we got no chance i mean we can run through the ten commandments if you want but for the sake of time let me just go ahead and give you your score

zero it is you can go oh for ten there's only one god you ever treated anything else like it was eternal like your car like your girl like whatever all right um cut out the idols You ever worshipped any, you ever worship creation instead of creator? The third one is don't use the Lord's name in vain. You ever done that? Stump a toe, anything like that. How about this one? The fourth one is, obey the Sabbath, keep it holy.

Who does that? Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, all right? Who else? And we curse Chick-fil-A for their obedience to the word. You're like, sweet, no line. Sabbath. Five, obey your parents, give me a break, okay? This is where we begin to feel righteous right here.

Number six is don't murder. Don't murder. And you're like, ha, ha, ha. I've never killed anyone. And then Jesus jacks it up. Jesus on the sermon on the mount says, you have heard it said, don't murder. I say to you if you've ever hated your brother in your heart. Which means if you've ever been in the fast lane and somebody doesn't know what fast means in front of you.

Okay? When you hit that horn, it goes murder. That's what that means, all right? Straight up. Seven's adultery. I never cheated on my wife. Jesus says if you've ever lusted after a woman, and you guys, just go to the next one, go to the next one.

Don't steal? No, no, no, it's not stealing. It's called sharing, file sharing. No, no, Jesus calls that stealing if you didn't pay for it, all right? Don't lie. Come on, man. I mean, really, right? Your Facebook is a lie.

The whole thing is a lie. That is not your life, all right? It's just true. It's a lie. Or have you clicked on the button that says, I have read and agreed to the terms and conditions. Yeah, sure. Liar, man, liar.

Don't covet. HGTV. Boom, all right. Outdoor network. Whatever it is, whatever your thing is. Okay, anybody do good here? Anybody crushing it? Anybody want to be like, nailed it?

Then we'll talk about pride, the chief of all sin, because you're like one of the rose bowl of it, the granddaddy of them all, all. So we're 0 for 10. That's on God's law. Now, let's just remove, like, the Bible from the whole situation and talk about how sinful we are. we can't even keep our own commandments. Like you got some commandments, don't you? Haven't you look at you in the mirror and said,

thou shalt never again? How'd you do? Huh? How'd you do? Here's what some of you did. I will never text him again. And sure enough, man, Valentine's he like, maybe one more chance. All right? I'm just telling you, you can't even keep your own commandments.

And some of them are funny, and some of them are not funny. You said he wouldn't touch that anymore, drink that anymore, take that anymore, do that, anymore and you feel like you can't. It's almost like, think about this, it's almost like there are parts of our lives that are out of control. It's like there are parts of our lives. Like we don't even want to do that. We know it's not good for us. We know it's not right. We don't even agree with it. And yet we almost feel like there's this other thing, like this dominion, like this power, like this thing in us that drives us to want to do things that we, some, sitting in church, don't

even necessarily want to do. And you go, what is that? Paul go, that's easy. Let me see your spiritual passport. You see, you are under sin. It is a condition. It's a condition that you're just born into. This is what he's saying. Not about activity. The problem is not that you tell lies. The problem? You and I were liars. That the heart of the problem is we got a heart problem. that's what he's saying and he's saying that the impact of sin on our life the legal status of being

under sin it affects our minds our motives our wills our tongues our relationships and primarily our relationship with God those are the seven things that he lists verse 19 so this is we're still like in the diagnosis phase now it gets better it gets better thank goodness

verse 19 now we know that whatever the law says when he says law he's not talking about like the constitution. He's talking about the Bible. Whatever the rules of God, whatever the Old Testament says, 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. So in the Old Testament, God says, be holy because I am holy, which means be set

apart. Be perfect because I'm perfect. To which you go, can you explain what that means God? and part of the reason that God gives us the law, gives us things like the Ten Commandments, is not so that we could fulfill them. The things like the Ten Commandments are the Law of God, it is both a map and a mirror. It is a map to show us what being holy looks like, what being set apart looks like,

what a righteous life looks like. It is a map. But then, more importantly, it is a mirror for us to hold up and go, uh-oh, if that's what it means to be holy and perfect and righteous, and there's some serious problems going on here. This is what Paul is saying in 19. It's like the reason that we, when you get a speeding ticket,

it's because you exceeded the speed limit. The speed limit is there to let us know what is over the law and what is okay with the law. And have you ever noticed your opinion has very little effect on that law? Now, if you pulled out on 95 and it just said, drive safely, some of us would go 100, depending on where he had to go. Some of you cats would go like 35, all right, and always in front of me. But whatever.

And so we have, you know, our nation has decided this is what that means. And so what he's saying here is here, the law is there so that we would be held accountable. Verse 20. This is so important, especially based on the past bunch of weeks. For by works of the law, no human being, you might want to underline that, no human being will be justified in his sight since, through the law comes knowledge of sin. So here's what Paul is saying here. We could never be good enough on our own.

Not nobody. There's not a human being alive. Think of the most holy religious human being that you could ever think of. And Paul is saying that guy, no matter how pure his motive seems, no matter how many good things he or she does to help the poor, no matter what,

that no one could ever be good enough to be justified in God's sight. Now reminder, every single religion outside of the gospel fundamentally teaches that. Here is how you can be reconciled with God based on you being good. When you boil every other religion outside of the gospel, that's what it boils down to. And the uniqueness of the gospel is that Jesus came to make you right with God, not through obedience to rules, But Jesus came to make us right with God via a relationship with him. Fundamentally different.

You see, what the law is, what the Bible is in the Old Testament, what the Ten Commandments are, they're fundamentally like an X-ray. A couple years ago, I don't know, all my days run together now. Reagan Capri broke her elbow. She's at one of those little trampoline, we hate children and try to kill them, concussion cube places. You know what I'm saying, right? And we signed the flyer.

It pretty much says, if you die, who cares? All right, that's what it says. And so we signed that. And then she's bouncing around, and she comes running to me. And she's tough as nails, man. I mean, she is tough, like her mama. And she comes, she's holding her arm, and she's like trying to hold back the tears. And she's like, I heard it pop.

We're like, oh, no. And so, man, long story short, we're at the ER, and they're doing an X-ray. And I've got this X-ray on my desk, and I hate this X-ray. You know what the X-ray is? the x-ray is a picture of a fractured elbow. Now, is the x-ray important? Yeah, because without the x-ray, how do you know that it's actually fractured? You don't know.

You might think, you might have heard something, but this is confirmation that there's a problem. But do you know what the x-ray is powerless to do? Fix the elbow. That's what the law is. That's what the law is. The law is the x-ray on our hearts. Every single time we break the law,

whichever law it is, whether it's don't lie or whatever. It's an x-ray of your heart so that you realize the problem is not that I'm breaking rules. The problem is that in my heart I'm a rebel. That I am rejecting God and say, God, either I got this or I don't need you. That's what he's saying here. Verse 21, but now. Glorious words, man. I've told you before.

I like big butts in the Bible. This is a big one. You should circle it. You should put an underline under it, do whatever you need. because what he has done for all of these verses, it is like, it's bad, it's bad, it's worse, it's worse than you think. It's not just about activity. It is your identity apart from Christ is, uh-oh, you were a traitor and you've committed treason against the most high king. But now, however, the righteousness of God, remember, a right standing with God, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Now, we should, I know that's a weird way to say it, but we should be getting really excited right here. I was talking with a couple of folks on my staff, and I was like, do you realize I get excited about the sermons before I get to preach them? And so sometimes if you're near me in the hallways before I preach, then you might get a little sermon in. Okay, so my staff is not as excited as I am. And I was like, do you know what it says? It says, but now a righteousness of God has been made manifest apart from the Lord. Do you know what that is? And she went, Jesus?

I was like, yeah, I think you do. just said Jesus because it's a church question and no matter what the question is you go I think it's Jesus and you were right this is what it's talking about but if you go back to chapter 1 verse 17 that I told you to underline in 117 when he says for in the gospel in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith and then here he explains it now the righteousness of God a right standing with God has been manifested apart from the law although so Christian don't throw your old testament away it's super important the whole by the whole Bible is about one thing it is about Jesus. He goes, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

In other words, a right standing with God comes apart from being good enough that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. You see, because what we could never do for ourselves, no matter how good you are from this day forward, what do you do about the penalty of past sin? What do you do about the present power of sin in your life? And what do you do about the presence of sin? going forward. Well, Paul says, I've got good news. Because of righteousness, a right standing with God, has been made manifest apart from the law.

And then he says, this is what the whole Bible's been talking about. Like when God first says to Eve, when he's cursing Eve and cursing Adam and cursing the serpent, and he says, I will put enmity between your offspring and the serpent's offspring. And one day, one day, somebody from your line, Eve, will show up on the scene. the enemy will bruise his heel, but this singular Jewish male from your line will crush his head. It's the proto-evangalian.

And then God, before he kicks him out of the guard of Eden to show his justice, he makes a covering to show his love and grace. It's a picture of the gospel. All throughout the whole Old Testament is a pointing to and a pointing to and a pointing to of the gospel. Last week we celebrated the Lord's Supper, and we talked about how it was a celebration. of the Passover meal. The Passover is when God freed his people out of slavery in Egypt because the angel of death came through. And whoever had the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their house,

this angel passed over. And the reason, what Paul is saying is, yeah, the reason God put that in the Bible is so that when Jesus shows up on the scene and John the Baptist says, behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world, then all of the people that grew up reading the Old Testament would be like, oh, you mean like the Passover lamb? He's the Passover lamb.

When you get to Leviticus chapter 16, which I'm sure you read every week just for giggles, all right? Leviticus 16 is about the Day of Atomac. God sets up this sacrificial system where they build a temple and inside the temple is a room and inside the room is a little room called the Holy of Holies that has the presence of God in it. And in that room is this little box called the Ark of the Covenant. And one time of year the high priest would shed the blood of a lamb and cover over the broken law God and it was called the Day of Atonement. Atonement just means payment.

That's all it means. It just means payment. It was the day of payment. And for year after year after year after year, through the shed blood of a lamb, the sin, the confessed sins of the Jewish people would be covered over for one year. And all of that was just to point to one thing. This is what Paul is saying. All of that was pointing to one day Jesus would be the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the whole world. and then God sent prophet after prophet after prophet he sent prophets like Isaiah and and you'll know maybe you'll have heard this verse before Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus shows up

and Isaiah says but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed Isaiah was saying get ready one day God's going to send his son and by by something that happens to him, we will be the beneficiaries. Paul is saying that this righteousness that was made manifest, apart from the law, that the whole Old Testament was talking about it. David in Psalm 22 is going to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then he goes on, this is crazy, he goes on to give a play by play of the crucifixion.

500 years before crucifixion was ever even invented by the Persians as a form of torture and death. 900 years before Jesus quotes Psalm 22 and says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He says things like his hands were pierced for our transgressions. You see, Paul is saying, I'm not sure how you missed it, because the whole thing, all of the law

and all of the prophets were about this righteousness from God that had been manifested apart from the law. And so he keeps going, verse 22. This is a power-packed verse. He says, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction.

See, there's kind of four segments to this sentence here. The righteousness of God. This means the right standing before God. If you've got this thing in you that knows that because of our sin, we have been separated from God, I don't even know, I know that some church words, I don't know that you would use that language, but you know kind of at the soul level there is something. There's some kind of disconnect with me and God. And I, the reason I'm showing up is because I want this thing.

I want to be reconnected. I've heard of this relationship with God. And I know I'm carrying around guilt and shame and unforgiveness and condemnation. And somehow I know he is a holy God and I am not a holy person. And so how do we reconcile these things? How do these two things come together? And he says this, the righteousness of God through faith, in Jesus.

Not faith in me and what I'm doing. But the way you and God get together, the way you and God are made okay, the way you are righteous before God, have a right standing before God, is not through faith in what you can do. The gospel is not. God is good, you're bad,

try harder, see you next week. That's what a bunch of us grew up on around church. That is not the gospel. The way we are connected to an almighty, perfect, holy, just God is through faith in Jesus for all who believe. So if you fall in the all category, I've got good news. Believe in Jesus and you'll be reconciled to God.

And then he says this, for there is no distinction. And that word believe, that word believe is a great word called Pistuo. And again, I think it's unfortunate that we just put believe. It does mean believe, but it means believe in, not believe that. And I know I'm killing this illustration lately, but it just is the best one I can think of is to sto-o-in is like commitment it means all-in not a little bit it's a full surrender again like it's like being on the diving board i know if you're 20 you don't know there used to be things in public pools called diving boards it was unbelievable crazy no helmets or seatbelts or

nothing no waiver i don't understand how we're all here but whatever some of us made it the weak ones died off that's why we're tough and so and remember every kid has this experience way before you're ready, your dad would make you go up there and would be in the deep end and you knew you couldn't swim and he would be like, come on buddy trust me, jump in. Now you could believe that that's your dad.

But that's not faith, that's not trust, that's not this word here, pastua. To pastuo, to believe, to trust is not just acknowledging yep, he helped make me. There he is. I live at his house and sometimes he gives me stuff.

That's not. Everybody with brain would get that. Pestuo is to trust him, even though it doesn't make sense, even though you're filled with fear, even though the people behind you are not very encouraging at all, all right? To Pistuo is to just say, okay, I believe, I trust you. You are who you say you are, and you will keep you promised. That I jump off this thing, you will catch me. And I know some of you have some sicko dads that let you drown and stuff, but your Heavenly Father will never. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ

for all who believe there is no distinction no matter who you are what you've done what your struggles are what your doubts are there is no distinction now verse 23 to the end he's going to give a summary statement of the gospel verse 23 if you grew up Baptist you memorized

this one for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God I love this that phrase there fall short it has two meanings one in Greek it means missed the mark. That's what it means. You've missed the mark of the glory of the perfection of God. It's an archery term. The analogy is, if you were in an archery contest and you had to go three for three to move on to the next round, and you missed the first one, you missed the mark on the first one.

Do you get to move on to the next round? No. But what if you hit bull's eyes a thousand times in row? It doesn't matter, because you missed the mark. The glory of God is perfection. So even if from this day forward, you and I were perfect, we cleaned our act. We cleaned our act. up if that was possible. Then what does it do about the penalty of sin that we've already incurred? The other thing from the Old Testament, it's about the presence of God. That when we try to earn the favor, the glory of God was inside the temple and the glory of God was in the center of the community.

And the whole point of the whole community was about the glory or the presence of God. And when we sin, for all have sin and fallen short of, like the glory of God's over there and I'm over here because my sin separates me from the glory of God. that is our condition. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, verse 24, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That word justified, I think we've already defined it in your notebook. It means this, it's a legal term. It means that you are guilty and the judge declares you innocent.

It's because, amen. It's because of what Christ did from God's personal. perspective, it's justified, never sinned. And you're like, but I've sinned a lot. I know, but because of Christ imputed righteousness, because we get credit for what Christ did for us, then it's just like we never sin. So we are justified by his grace as a gift. This is Paul being redundant. Grace is a gift. It's like he's saying, we are justified as a gift of the gift. How, Paul, through the redemption that is Christ Jesus. Now listen. Anybody use coupons?

You ever use a coupon? If you're a coupon, come on, nobody? Then why they send $10,000 in my mailbox? Okay, somebody's using these things, all right? Do you know every time you've used a coupon, it is a picture of the gospel. It is a picture of redemption. What do you call it when you like trade in a coupon? You redeem it, right?

You redeem this coupon for whatever the coupon's for. And it is a picture of the gospel. You go to your mailbox, you open it up, and you're like, oh, look. Somehow I have been elected to be chosen to get the, free ham at Publix. And then you take your coupon and you get your ham and you stand in line. And then the person, the checkout person is like, that'll be $23.

You're like, maybe for your average pagan, but not me. Put that ham up there, feeling all proud. And then what do you do? You hand them the coupon. They hand you to hand. Boom. Redeemed. It's an exchange.

Now here's the thing. Would you pay for the ham? Nothing. You receive. a free gift at the redemption of the coupon. What did the manufacturer pay? Full price. The pig paid it all, all right? But here's a picture of the gospel.

I'm telling you, some of you're going to be at a grocery store going, oh my gosh, you go get saved at public. So you are, that's great. I can't wait. This is what he's saying. We're justified. We are declared innocent by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ. Jesus, that the free gift is offered to us, but God paid it all through the blood of his son, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Some translations will say expiation. That means to wipe away sin.

Some will call it an atoning sacrifice because Jesus is the sacrifice that paid for our sin. But the word is helsteria. Remember back when I was talking about in the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, there's that box and they'd sprinkle the blood on it. There was a lid on top of the box. It was called the Hillisteria. It was called the propitiation. The covering over of the broken law.

The way we define propitiation here is this. Jesus being the propitiation for our sin means that Jesus is a payment that satisfies. That Jesus fully satisfies the justice and the law and the wrath of God. Now here's why this is important. it's because God is holy and just, and it would be unholy and unjust for him to overlook sin. And so when Jesus goes to the cross and he says, it is finished, he is the payment that fully satisfies the wrath, the judgment, the justice, the holiness of God. Now here's something very, very important for you and I right now. If Jesus is the payment that satisfies and you are in Christ, that means God cannot be.

be dissatisfied in you. Like he's not regretting that he saved you. You may feel that way, but that does not change the character and nature of God. You don't come into this place on a Thursday or Sunday and be like, okay, I love you, Jesus. I want to surrender my life. And he goes, okay, I save you. And then Friday, you screw it up. He's like, never mind, give it back. That is not how it works. Because remember, it's not our good deeds that save us. And if it's not our good deeds that save us, then our bad deeds don't unsave us. You can't lose your salvation. not like your car keys, you understand? I mean, I'm telling you, thank goodness you can't lose your salvation. Her Gretchen's have been gone a long time ago because she just walks into place and it's like,

I'm going to put my keys there and then the rest of our life, we're looking for them. All right? So, that's not how it works. So we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation, a payment that satisfies by his blood to be received by faith. Now, this next little part is so stinking important because I've had people ask, so why did Jesus have to die for us to be saved? These next few lines, now Paul's not going to write it very simply. Remember, he's wicked smart.

But what he is talking about here is the character and nature of God being put on full display at the cross of Jesus Christ. So how could God be totally holy and be loved? How could God be full of truth and grace? How could he be full of judgment and mercy? And this is what describes it and explains it. This was to show God's righteousness. Putting Jesus forward as the penalty and payment for our sin

was to display God's righteousness. In other words, because God is holy, our sin must be paid for. We've talked about this before. If there was a judge in our community that looked at a rapist, that looked at somebody that had killed a child or molested a child, looked at them and said, you know what, don't worry about it. I mean, everybody messes up.

Then every single one of us would say that as an unjust judge, you were unfit for service. Get off the bench. We definitely, we all experienced this when we played the Patriots, right? Remember, we had judges, and they only condemned one side. And we were like, what is, this isn't fair, all right? So God pours his wrath out on his son. This was to show God's righteousness. Because God is holy, sin must be paid for.

Because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. Here's what this means. Because God is merciful, he delayed the payment. So if the wages of sin is death, if every time we sin we earn death, then what are we doing here? Anybody's saying? How come we're not a greasy spot on the seat, right, for the glory of God? Here's why. Because God is righteous, sin must be paid for. Because God is merciful, he delayed the payment. By the way, this is also how the saints of the Old Testament are saved by the blood of Jesus.

You see, every time they participated in the propitiation, then they participated in the sacrificial system, then they were putting their faith in what God would do when the Lamb of God would show up. And when we put our faith in Jesus, we are putting our faith in what God has done, son Jesus Christ. To quote a Shane and Shane song, what they knew by faith, we know by name. And you think, well, how did that happen? Because in his divine foreparents, God passed over former sins. That wasn't just for the saints in the Old Testament. That's also for us too. So because God is holy, sin must be paid for. Because God is merciful, he delayed the payment. And then this is the best part. Verse 26. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the

justifier. And because of his grace, he made the payment. You see, because God is holy, sin must be paid for. Because God is merciful, he delayed the payment. But because God is full of grace, he is the just and the justifier. You see, perfection is required because he's a perfect God, and the perfect sacrifice was made through Jesus Christ. That every time you see, you see, you see, a cross, I want you to see the two unique beams of a cross. Because at the cross, the justice of God was perfectly laid out. You can almost think of that vertical beam, that beam that goes from here to there, that God's justice was poured out, God's wrath was poured out on his son at the cross. And the law of God, the justice of God, was fully satisfied. And yet Jesus's arms

were wide open on that cross. And that horizontal beam represents the perfect love of God that was displayed at the cross. That God demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, the character and nature of God was put on full display for his glory. And because he is love,

we are the beneficiaries of that. for anybody that would say, okay, when that happened, somehow, somehow that counted for me. Why? Because God is righteous sin must be paid for. Because he is merciful, the payment was delayed. And because he is full of grace, he made the payment. This is what he's saying. And he says, it was to show his righteousness at present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith. in Jesus. Faith means I trust that when Jesus died on a cross, somehow that counted for me. And so my question for you is this, have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you put your faith in Jesus? As many of you know, Billy Graham went to be with the Lord this week. And if you don't

know who Billy Graham is, and you may not. He is literally the greatest advantage of the ever in the history of the world. He's 99 years old. He preached live to more people than any other human being ever in the history of the world. And more people met Jesus. More people experienced personally what we're talking about here, justification by faith. More people put their faith in Jesus through the preaching ministry of Billy Graham than any other person in the entire world. Estimates are in the millions of people.

And he lived his whole life for one reason to ask. people that have you put your faith in Jesus? And this week, at 99, he breathed his last here, and then he breathed his next in the glory of God. And about six years ago, I had the opportunity to have dinner with him. Not like one of those dinners. You ever go to a famous people dinner and there's like one famous guy on the stage and there's a hundred people out there and I'm like, this doesn't count. All right, this was like actual dinner. There was a guy in our church, one of the physicians at Mayo and it was one of Dr. Billy Graham's physicians. And the doctor calls me out of nowhere and I answer it and he goes,

hey man, I need you to pray about something. Which usually that's not a good thing when a doctor is like, I need you praying. And be like, hold on. You're not even like my doctor. What am I, what happened to me? All right? And he's like, I need you to pray about something. Billy Graham is going to have dinner at our house on Friday night.

Would you and Gretchen, like, to the tent? And I was like, yes. And he goes, you didn't pray. I'm like, bro, some things you don't pray about. You understand? You just go. And so we're all geeked out about it. I mean, especially in my world, this is like, I mean, this is Billy Graham.

So, man, I, so we're getting ready. We're super nervous. And we pull up to his house. It's just like right down the road here. And it was just, the physician, his wife, they had a kid. Me, my wife, Billy Graham, he had a nurse traveling with him and a travel companion. That's it. We're just at, like, their dinner table.

We got there about 6 o'clock. We stayed until about 9.30. It was unbelievable. So when I walk in there and. And there's Billy Graham, you know? It's like 93 years old, and I walk up to him, and I go, I didn't, you know, what do you say? I don't, how you doing, Dr. Reverend, Pastor Billy Graham? I mean, I don't know what to say.

And he goes, well, I understand you're a pastor. And I was like, I am. And he goes, well, pastor tell me about your church. And I'm like, Gretchen, he called me pastor. You hear that? She's like, he probably don't know your name. Like, shut up. I'm pastor.

He's like, I understand your church is experiencing explosive growth. Tell me about your church. I was like, oh, man, it's going super good. It was right after a baptism service we had. And I was like, in fact, this past Sunday, we baptized like 130 people. And he goes, like this. He was like, I've never heard of such a thing. All right, hold on, man.

Let's talk for a second. In 1975, you preached to 75,000 people in Seoul Korea, and over 10,000 people surrendered to Jesus. That's what happened. I didn't say that out loud, just in my mind. That's what's happening. And yet, he was so humble, man. Honest to goodness, he was so humble. And he was so excited about every single individual person,

even through the Church of 1122 that met Jesus. He would treat every single one of them like it was the coolest thing he'd ever heard of his life. And then we sit down for dinner, okay? And I'm sitting like, like, I'm right here. He's at the head of the table, and I am right here at the armpit or whatever this spot's called, right? And we're just talking, I'm just asking him questions, and, you know, it's kind of awesome.

And then at one point, he looks over at Gretchen, he goes, so I understand you lead worship at the church. And he's like, Gregson, I'm super nervous too. She's like, yes, sir? And he goes, well, could you sing me a song? And she looks at me, and I'm like, woman, you better get up and sing. Billy says sing, you sing, all right? You better, you, you la, la, la, la, la.

Get over there. So she goes over, man, she kneels down next to him. His hearing was not super great at that point. Man, she starts singing. And honestly, man, he just leans in. He closes his eyes and just lifts up his hand like this. And I'm telling you, he's just worshiping. Just sitting at the table.

Six of us or whatever, eight of us. He's just into it. She's kind of looking at me. I'm doing the light. Just keep it going. Come on. You know, the buses are awake. Just keep going, baby.

So when she kind of wraps it up, he opens his eyes. He goes, oh, I believe that's the most beautiful song I've ever heard. Sweet it's, really not incredible? So she sits down and I'm like, Dr. Graham, would you just pray for our ministry? Would you pray for our ministry? He holds my hand, he holds her hand. He never mentions the church. All he prayed for is this.

He says, God, I pray that you would protect this man. May he preach the gospel and love his wife and trust you to build your church. Amen. And then as we were leaving, yeah, amen, that's good advice. Then as we were leaving, I was like, Dr. Graham, I got a question,

if you could preach one more crusade or one more revival, do you know what you'd preach on? He goes, oh, that's easy. I'd preach on Galatian 614. And I just went, mm, yeah, mm, six 14. I don't know what the Glacian 614 was. No idea. I don't know that one.

So he couldn't see too good either, so I got my phone out, and I was like, straight up. He said this, this is Glacian 614, but far be it from me to boast. That's Billy Graham, quoting Paul. If anybody could boast about a righteousness based on how good they've done for God, Billy Graham can boast. And his verse is, But far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

by which the world has been crucified to me and out to the world. Do you know what he knew at a personal level? And you know what he shared at a global level is that. is that my right standing with God is not by anything that I have done but my right standing with God is rooted in one thing what Christ has done for me on the cross one of my favorite quotes

that Billy Graham said is when I get to heaven it will not be because I preach to great crowds I will get to heaven the same way the thief on the cross did by his grace and he spent all of his life all of his life declaring the simple gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus died in our place. So my question for you is this,

that he asked people all over the place all the time. Have you put your faith in Jesus? And so you don't have to be at a Billy Graham crusade to do that. You could do that right here no matter where you are. Have you put your faith in Jesus? And right now could be the time that you, for the very first time, say, okay, I admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. I believe somehow that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me.

And right now, I am ready to confess him as my Lord and commit my life to him. And the Bible says, you do that? And it's not because you do that. It's because what he has done, you will be saved. And so if you would bow your head and close your eyes. And if you would say, that's me right now for the very first time, I am ready to admit that I'm a sinner, I believe that when Christ died on the cross, when he says, it is finished, that counted for me. And I want to confess him as Lord and Savior.

Would you lift your hand high? Would you say, Father, here I am. I surrender my life to the Lordship of Christ. And if that's you with your hand in the air and your heart surrendered to Christ for the first time, would you just pray? Would you just put that in your own words to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord? And Christ was resurrected from the grave. And God is saving you in that moment.

our good and gracious heavenly father Lord we thank you for the life and legacy of a man Billy Graham but God we thank you so much more for the one he heralded for Jesus Christ the author and the perfector of our faith the one that came on a rescue mission just for us

for your glory but to rescue us and so God I thank you that even now there is salvation in this place the God that we anybody that would trust you that we were made right with you, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what you have done on the cross.

And we pray this in the good, strong name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.