The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 7: Gospel Centrality

Episode Date: February 17, 2019

In an ever-changing world we will always preach the unchanging truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Are we good? I'm kind of surprised you came back after last week, but I'm glad you did. If you got your Bible, grab it, we're going to be in Second Timothy as we continue in this Marks of the Faithful series. In our time together, we're in Chapter 4. Second Timothy, chapter 4. We're only going to do four verses, okay? And so we're just going to dive in and pick it up right where we left off last week. You see, again, though, I need you to kind of get a, be able to palm Second Timothy. In fact, later this year, we're going to come back to this verse that's kind of being like

the theme verse for the whole thing, where Paul lays his hands on young Timothy and says, God did not give you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of self-control. We're going to do a three-week series just on that one verse. But so as to not bog us down, I wanted to, like, get an overview of the whole thing so that you can have this understanding of each chapter and how the whole letter from Paul to Timothy goes. And so in chapter one, again, this is review. Paul, he is saying that faith just doesn't happen to you, that fate happens through you, that a real disciple is somebody that's making a disciple.

And in essence, if you're not making disciples, are you really a disciple? And then Paul is discipling young Timothy. God's got a call on his life to pastor this church, the church at Ephesus. Paul's got a whole, I mean, Timothy's got a whole bunch of things working against him. He grows up without a dad, he's raised by his mom and his grandma. He's kind of a weak kid. We know that he's really young. a bunch of things working against him and God, and God through the Apostle Paul, as Paul lays his

hands on him, has this word for him. God has not given you a spirit of fear. So when you hear the whispers of the enemy, then when you hear the whispers of fear, fear is a liar because that is the native tongue of the enemy. But what God has put in you is power, is love, is self-control or self-discipline. And then he says, but listen, Timothy, this just doesn't happen to you. that if you're going to, if you are going to be a pastor of the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brother, you better get to work. You get to work like a soldier. You get to work like an athlete. You get to work like a farmer who God calls you in to partnership with him like a farmer.

You better be planting a seed, but only God can make it grow. I don't care how much you pray for corn. If you don't plant corn, guess what you ain't getting? Corn. You can write that down. Some of you are like, I told you, he was deep, okay? And then he says, but Timothy, you've got this thing working against you, okay? You're young, man.

And so your life is on a path that leads somewhere. So flee youthful passions. Youthful passion just means immature appetites. Because when we're immature, our appetites can be the loudest thing in our life, because all we see is the picture of right now. But maturity means you get your face up out of the picture of the instantaneous appetite, and you look at the path that these decisions put you. you on. And so he says, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, pursue peace. And we know

that to pursue righteousness and peace is the person and work of Jesus Christ. And then we get into last week where he says, now listen, Timothy, while you're on this pursuit of Jesus, while you're on this pathway towards him, you will be swimming upstream. Because we live in a world that is not neutral. There is a current to this world. There is a drift to this world. And this world, since the moment that Adam and Eve reached out for something looking for satisfaction other than God himself, since that moment to this moment, this world has been drifting towards godlessness. But there is an anchor. And the anchor is the Word of God.

In this crazy world that we live in, all scripture is God breathed and useful. profitable, all of it. And so as this world is redefining everything, we're going to stick with the definitions God gave us. Why? Because he is the author of life. He probably knows how to run it best. And it's not just a book about how to live with God forever. It's also a book to tell us how to live for God in this world.

And then he sort of shifts by the time he gets to chapter four. Because, again, chapter three was really about the cultural drift of the world that he lives in. and then you get to chapter 4 verse 1, but I charge you, Pastor Timothy. Now he's going to get inside the walls of the church. And he says, I charge you. This charge is almost like an oath. And then he's going to give this little preamble to what he charges him with. And you can tell the level of the importance of the charge by the preamble that he starts with.

Listen, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. So look here, Pastor Timothy. Don't forget who you work for. Jesus is the senior pastor of the church, not you. See, in fact, you know, my title here at our church is lead pastor. Part of it is I didn't want to be called senior pastor, okay? I don't have any dockers, and I wasn't ready to gain that much weight, and so I just Didn't want to eat dinner at 5 o'clock.

Okay, so there's some things I just didn't want to go with. But honestly, the reason, if you look at the org chart of the Church of 1122, it says senior pastor, Jesus Christ. Because senior pastor and chief shepherd are the same words in Greek. So the senior pastor role at this church, and really every church has already been taken. And so while I'm alive, I'm the lead pastor, and then some other person is going to take over one day, glory to God. Right?

And so he is saying, look, Timothy, this charge that I'm about to give you as the lead pastor of the Church of Ephesus is in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Check this out. Who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom. In other words, Timothy, when you exercise your duties as pastor of the Church of Ephesus, remember what's hanging in the balance. that literally, man, you're not running a Kiwanis club. You're not running the rotary club. And that's fine, man, rotary clubs are awesome. All this things are awesome.

But when you pastor this church, Timothy, eternity is hanging in the balance. Heaven and hell are hanging in the balance. That the eternal trajectory of people's lives are hanging in the balance. And let me tell you, you get this. You understand this. And I know that you understand this because you will send me emails. By the way, thanks for all the emails last week. Those were fun.

They really were so encouraging. I think everybody's like trying to just make sure you outweighed the crazy. Whatever, okay? But I'll get emails from you that's like, Pastor Joby, my one more, my cousin, my aunt, my sister, my one more is coming with me to church next weekend. Make it a good one. Which is Hebrew for don't screw this thing. thing up. Do you know what hangs in the balance? I think that's what you're saying. I think what

you are saying to me is I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is judge over the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. This is really, really, really important. Do you understand this? Which I'm just going to tell you, I do this job that you let me do as if it's the most important thing in the world because I believe that it is. and the what the church does there's a bunch of other things the church does but the thing that it does

is herald the gospel of Jesus Christ there's a lot of people that sing there's a lot of people that help there's a lot of groups you can get into that have nothing to do with anything but what the church does that makes it unique is it and it alone has the life giving life saving

message of Jesus Christ and so you better not just walk into this thing haphazardly as if it don't matter because it matters more than you have a brain to understand how much it matters. I think this is what Paul is saying to Timothy. And so with that kind of preamble, I think he's got his attention. And so here's what he says. Here's what he charges him to. Verse two, preach the word. That's it. Preach the word. Which, by the way, if you were at a church and they're not preaching the word, it is not a church. It's not.

It may used to be a church. It may have church signs. It may have church language. But if you ever find yourself in a place, because I know everybody moves around a lot and all that sort of stuff, all right. And so if you ever find yourself in a place that is, and man, they might sing songs, they might have a parking lot and kids stuff and youth stuff. And you can go to trips and everything. But if you find a place, find yourself in a place. Well, the guy like me or whoever, and they are preaching anything other than the word, get your stuff, get your kids, and don't go back.

Because that's not a church. It's a civic organization that wants to do great humanitarian work, which is fine. We have plenty of those. It's just not a church. He says, preach the word. Why? Why? And listen, I try to do this week after week after week.

Here's why to preach the word. because of what we talked about last week. Because all scripture is God breathe. What scripture? All of it. Like the Old Testament, the New Testament, the parts you don't like, the parts you do like, the memorable verses that your grandma has knit on an Afghan somewhere, the verses that you don't understand how that works in the 21st century anymore.

The whole thing is Theos Nustas. Is God breathe? Man, this is a big deal. We're going to go over this from last week because it matters so much. I can only find a few things in all of the scriptures that are the recipient of the breath of God. That in the beginning, God creates everything. He gathers together the dust of the earth, and there is Adam, or Adam, and he is not yet a living creature. And then God breath of life, the breath of life, the wind of life, the spirit of life.

Those words mean the same thing in Hebrew, into his nostrils. and then he becomes a living creature. And then he is an image-bearer reflection in a relationship with his Heavenly Father. He opens his eyes and he's face-to-face with him. God doesn't breathe into stuff again until the resurrected Jesus finds the disciples because they're afraid hiding in the upper room. And the reason they have legitimate fear, they just killed the leader. And if you follow the leader, what do you think that means?

They're coming for us next. So they're hidden away. And the Bible says that the resurrected Jesus just appears in the room. Do not be afraid. Peace be with you. That's what he says. Why? Because they're freaking out.

And then the Bible says that Jesus breathes on them. Resurrection Jesus. Why? Because it's a new creation that is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that now the ruah, the spirit, literally the Holy Spirit of God, would be breathed into everyone that would put their faith in Jesus that when he died on the cross and resurrected from the grave, it actually happened and it counted for me. This is a new creation.

And the other thing is this book that all scripture, I mean all of it. I'm talking about the parts back here in the Old Testament and you were like, what? Like you read some stuff and you're like, are you? I didn't even know that. It was in the Bible, okay? One of my favorite things, man, when I teach you, young people, the Song of Solomon, and you walk through some of that stuff on love, sex, dating marriage, and you talk about the graphic nature of God and his, as he ordained marriage and

what is supposed to happen there in the marriage bed. I mean, it talks about it. You see people looking at the Bible and they'll be like, like, did I pick up the wrong book? Yeah. Like those words are that this book, Timothy, is you going to preach it. It is living and it is active. It is God-breed.

It is supernatural. It was written over thousands of years by dozens of authors. And yet somehow they all share one story. And the story is about that Jesus Christ came on a rescue mission for you. And so preach the word. Preach the word. And when he says preach the word, essentially he means preach the gospel. And the reason is because the whole thing.

from the very beginning to the very end is about one thing. And honestly, and it ain't about you. Listen, God is for you. It just ain't about you. I hope you know the difference. He's for you, man. He loves you. He died on the cross for you.

Anybody that dies for you is for you. It just ain't all about you. And the central theme of the scriptures from the very beginning to the very end is this. It is about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is telling Timothy, preach the word, preach the gospel. No matter what you do, you stay centered on the gospel. Nothing else. You see, there's some things that the gospel does for us that religion just can't do for us.

Religion tells us what to do, but it cannot give us a desire to do what is good. Religion tells us this is good and this is bad. But only the gospel can change us from the inside out to desire to walk in obedience to honor God. You see, religion is like train tracks. can point you in the right direction, but the gospel is like the engine on the train that has the power to take you where God would call you to go. And I'm telling you, he says preach the word, not human opinion. So the reason that I am an expository preacher, which just means I just go through the Bible, verse by verse by verse, this is what we do. And when I do share my own ideas,

hopefully it's just illustrations that that help you understand what the word means. But my job is just to expose you to the scriptures, but the Holy Spirit is the real preacher and teacher that exposes the scriptures to you. And this is why we just go through them and go through them and go through them. You see, because it is the gospel that has the power to change you from the inside out. It's like this, man, there are two ways to keep a balloon in the air. There are two ways. If you fill a balloon with your own hot air and tie it up,

then you throw it up in the air and it begins to sink down. And then you have to whack it to get it to go back up top, right? So a gospelist church, that's what it's like. Like, if you don't understand the gospel, that will be your experience here at the church. You know, you're doing pretty good on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. It's kind of sinking on down. He'd be like, ooh, I need to go to church. And then you walk in here and then I just slam you.

real quick and knock you about it. Come on, be more generous. A bunch of selfish, liars, you know, and whoa, okay. And then you, this is why you don't like me that much. Whatever. It's not my fault. But eventually, eventually it's exhausting. Or you just pop the balloon. But the way you keep a balloon in the air is you fill it with something that from the inside out causes it to ascend. That is what the gospel does. The gospel is not about trying to make bad people better.

It's about making dead people alive. So, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians about preaching. In fact, I have these verses on a poster right behind these walls so I can read it every single time before I come up here and do this thing. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 he says, and I, when I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the gospel. So he's saying, I'm not that good of a preacher, and I get it, but that's okay. But I'm going to preach the gospel over and over and over.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom. I don't know what you're thinking. That sounds like you, Pastor Jobi. Well, thanks. but in demonstration of the spirit and power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Did you know that when we were preaching through Romans last year, I think there were 1,572

salvations as we were preaching through the book of Romans? Do you know why? Because the power's in the gospel. I preach a sermon on circumcision and people get saved. Explain that. So that's kind of how he starts 1st Corinthians, and then the way he bookings. And then the way he bookends First Corinthians, where he's wrapping it up. And here's how you know that Paul's a good preacher is because he says in First Corinthians

towards like at the end of 14. And he's like, and finally, and then he writes three more chapters. You understand? And so in chapter 15, he says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word. I preach to you unless you believe in vain. for I delivered to you as of first important. So Paul is saying there's a lot of stuff that goes on in church.

And he talks about in 1 Corinthians how to do communion and who should be sleeping with who and who should not be sleeping with each other. And he talks about spiritual gifts and who should speak in tongues and interpretation of tongues. He talks about lawsuits among believers. He talks about all kind of just, I mean, you think our church is jacked up. Read 1 Corinthians. I read some 1st Corinthians.

I'm like, you know what we're doing okay, all right? And yet he says, in light of all of all of. that, okay, all that church stuff, orderly worship, all kind of instruction. What is of first importance is this. It is the gospel. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, some have fallen asleep. So we preach the

the word because it is spirit breathed. We preach the word because the word is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the gospel, what he says in 1st Corinthians 15 is, I remind you of the gospel. In other words, you already know this. Now, a lot of you that grow up in church, here's the problem, is that you think of the gospel is like the ABCs of Christianity. like first grade of Christianity. Like, it's the thing that gets you into heaven, but then after you kind of get the first prayer where you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin,

then you move into like the deeper things. And occasionally I'll get that. I'll get somebody and be like, when are you going to teach on the deeper things? What do you mean? Because I think what you mean is, when are you going to say things that confuse us as if you know something we don't know and we go,

you ever do that you ever be sitting there and listen to a preacher or something talking about stuff and you're like just taking notes what is he saying I have no idea it must be so deep so what Paul would say I think Paul's pretty deep he wrote Romans so what he is saying here is to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ it's to dive deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the gospel of Jesus Christ that to move away from gospel to move away from the cross is to move away from Jesus. And so it's not like the gospel is the diving board into what it means to be a Christian. It means like the gospel is the pool itself and there is this like endless bottom that we dive deeper and deeper and deeper. It's not like the

gospel is just the starting fuel for the engine. It's like it is the gasoline for the whole engine to run. And so he's telling Timothy preach the word, preach the gospel. I put in your notes, I'd love for you to grab them and look at this image, even if you don't take a note, which you should, but even if you don't, I would love for you to take a look at this. We'll put it on the screens. This comes from a book called The Cross-Centered Life. And it's just the idea that as a believer, you see a lot of times, if you see that graphic, that's you, you look great, by the way. So you know this was early in life, because look at you. I mean, you just, you just, you just, were looking. That was years ago for many of us. Looking just great. And then you get to a point

in your life, whether you remember it or not, there's some point in your life where you go from dead to alive. You surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. For some of you, it's kind of more of a gradual process, but eternally speaking, there was a moment where you were dead and now you were alive, okay? I mean, for others, like you remember the moment. Yep, yep, I raised my hand, I prayed to prayer, I walked the aisle, I checked, whatever the thing is. But What really happened is in your heart is that you surrendered it to Jesus. And again, the way a bunch of us grew up was now you leave the gospel in the past and then you just move on to more mature things in your faith. But when we do that, we move further and further away from Jesus.

And then what begins to happen is you get that camp like faith like I had that I had to get saved every summer at youth camp. because we were not equipped to preach the gospel to ourselves over and over and over. It was like Jesus died on the cross for your sin. You believe that. And now what? And the now what for us is you better get to work. And here's the list. I don't know if you picked up on this.

I'm not good at lists. Not at home. And definitely not from the Lord. I'm not. I would try hard. I would try hard for many, many days. There were many words I didn't say for many days. There were movies I didn't watch for many.

There were many things that I just, for a week sometimes, I would be awesome. And around here we call that, that's called beach ball theology. It's like to, being a Christian isn't sin management. And a lot of us thought that if you're a good Christian, you don't drink, cuss, or chew or go with girls who do. Like that's what, that was my list. That was Southern Baptists. And it's like taking that beach ball. with all your power trying to hold it under the water.

But what happens when you do that? You can do it for a while. Honestly, you can. Some of you are stronger than others. Some of you have a really good technique. Sometimes the ocean's calmer than other days. But eventually, what happens is you can't hold it any longer under your own power. And I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but when that beach ball does slip out of your hand,

it never just sort of lightly rises. Does it not? Right? it. I mean, it explodes with a fury in your face. And that's what sin management does every time. And so the gospel is, not that you move away from the cross, but as you dive deeper and deeper into the gospel, two things grow in your life. Your understanding of the holiness, the majesty, the oneness of God Almighty. Your understanding of who he is gets bigger. and bigger and bigger and bigger because he is infinite and you can study him for the rest of your days and experience him for the rest of your days and he doesn't get bigger you just begin to

understand I didn't realize how big he is and simultaneous to that you look at your own life and you're like oh my goodness it's worse than I thought I thought I just had a problem telling lies but the problem is I am a liar I thought my problem was um is that sometimes I can be lazy, but my real problem is that I worship at the idol of me. That the sin in your life gets grosser and grosser and grosser, and you really begin to think, what a wretched man that I am. So what Paul does in Romans chapter 7. And then the only thing, look at the thing here, the only thing that bridges that gap continuously every day in your life

between the holiness of God and the depravity of our own heart is the gospel of Jesus Christ goes bigger and bigger and bigger. Go, hey, wait a minute. You're right. Without Christ, I am a wretch, but who am I that he would take my place? Paul is telling Timothy, you preach that. You preach it over and over and over and over. And so you've got to watch out, in today's times, you've got to watch out for moralistic, therapeutic deism.

this is powerless practicality from the pulpit. This is why if you ever knows, we don't do a lot of, hey, here's four steps for you to be a better you. Here's why, here's why. Because if I gave you the four steps, what most of us would find out after applying the four steps is, well, crap, I'm still a crappy me. Have you ever done that? Listen to the sermons, like, three keys to hope. And then you're like, well, now I'm totally hopeless. I've applied the three keys.

because it's not about try harder. You've got to watch out for, this is another key, you've got to watch out for substituting a result of the gospel for the gospel. The social gospel movement. It happens every few decades or so. Some highly motivated people reading the Bible understand if Jesus is in me, then we should be doing things to love our neighbor as ourselves in the city. And what can happen over time, the danger is, over time, you move away from the gospel,

but you're still making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people, and then before you know it, forget to Jesus, people just need the peanut butter and jelly. And our call as a church is not to just feed people well on their way to hell and feel good about that. And so any result of the gospel, when you begin to put it in first place, Paul says, no, no, no, no, the gospel is of first important. It's not a result of the gospel. Watch out for that. And you have to watch out for what I would call partialism.

That people would be like, no, we teach the Bible all the time. Well, what about this part? Eh, maybe not that part. And we, look, man, preachers do it. but even more so individuals will do it and stand as if God needed an editor for his word and the moment we begin to do this, remember Paul says

all scripture is God breathe especially, listen to this, especially the parts you don't like especially the parts that hurt what kind of God would we serve if everything in his word we were like, yeah, I totally agree with all of this. Who do you think you all? Again, I think I said it last week. It took some of you two tries at the eighth grade and you want to stand in judgment on the word of God.

Come on, give me a break. And so he says, preach the word. Heart, we've gotten through like two sentences. All right, here we go. And he keeps going. He says, be ready in season and out of season. Look at these words. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Be ready in season and out of season. In other words, you dive into the gospel. whether you want to or not, whether you feel like it or not. And he uses some words that aren't nice, man. Reprove means to reprimand. There are going to be times the Word of God looks at your life and goes, no, stop. Do you know why? Because he's a good father and he loves us.

Have you ever met a child that grew up in a home and all they heard was, yes, it's okay. Come on, man. That is not awesome, is it? those people. And the Bible says that it's the good dad that loves his kids that discipline his kids. That's all he's before. Me and my buddy Joy Peel were riding bikes in front of my house and Dylan. We lived on the busy street because they built McDonald's two blocks down from my house and it was the nicest restaurant we had, so every car is going to Mickey D's baby. Me and Joey Peel were out there. It's probably first grade ride. I had an evil-cenevel bike with a banana seat.

Google it, kids, all right? And so he had a huffy tree. He had a huffy little. and we're riding in the street and my mama comes out my whole name Joseph Perry Martin the third you better get out the street just yelling and I'm like why are you yelling at me you don't love me my mama said if I didn't love you I would let you ride in the street and I hear my boy Joey pill so I'm like come on man what you're crying for he goes my mama lets me ride in the street by the way that is Romans one it is it is the grace of God that you would get busted it is the wrath of God that he would turn you over to your own desires. So expect to read the Bible and be like, I don't like that at all.

Of course you don't. Me either. That the Word of God reproofs. It reprimands. It rebukes. This means sharp criticism. Sharp. This means the Word of God will look at you and say, that's not just wrong.

It's gross and dumb. It is critical of us. And then it exhorts. That literally means to spur on. You ever seen a spur? That is not a gentle pet. Come on, horse. It is not.

It means I'm going to make it hurt a little bit here so you get headed in the right direction. You ever seen a cattle prod? I have an uncle that's got cows and sometimes my brother and I would help dehorn them. That's epic. Gave us a cattle prod and we would exhort one another. Whoa, I mean, it would get you. going. That's what the Bible, the Word of God in your life is like a cattle prod. It ain't awesome, man. It's not like, oh, that was so sweet. No. And he says, now listen, but when you do this,

so you're coming with some intensity, reproof, rebuke, exhort. By the way, in Greek, that word reproof has to do with, like, what you're thinking about. That word rebuke has to do with, like, what you're feeling in your heart, and that word exhort has to do with what you're doing with your hands. It's God breathed. He says, you're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to do this with complete patience and teaching. Why? Because you're a pastor. And pastors tend to sheep. And do you realize this? We are all sheep. And do you realize that when the Bible calls you a sheep, it's being completely insulting? Did you know that? Do you know that sheep are the dumbest animal on the planet? One of them. They are. That almost every other animal on the entire planet has a fight or

flight mechanism that the sheep lacks. The sheep has, it's super slow, it's kind of clumsy. It's so dumb, like when the Bible says, in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, he leads me beside the still waters. You know that a sheep is so dumb that he will see white water be attracted to it, stick his head in it, its wool will get so saturated with water that he can't get his head out and he will drown. And God says, That's my people. He leaves me beside, he leaves me

into green pastures because a sheep is one of the few animals that's too dumb to distinguish food that's edible and food that's poisoned. Deer don't do that. You don't find dead deer all over the place. I'm like, well, ain't another poisonous mushroom. No, but sheep will just be like, oh, look, somebody to eat. And God's like,

yeah, that's my church. Okay? Not a compliment. And so so Paul says, hey, before you beat them up, man, just to understand, we're on this path, we're on this journey together of progressive sanctification. And you know how much grace we should show one another as we're discipling one another? About the same amount of grace that God has shown you. You see, some people will say, hey man, I don't need all that theological stuff. I just need practical. There is nothing

more practical than the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's nothing more practical than the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's nothing more practical than the Word of God. That the gospel in your salvation is the most practical thing you'll ever understand because, listen, Jesus came on a rescue mission for you. A.W. Tozer says, the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. And if you ever get this thing in your mind that God is somehow like displeased with you, he's kind of aggravated with you. You know how like you are at your teenagers most of the time? Like he's going to be in love with some future version of you. Once you quit being so aggravated, most of us have this kind of like works-based idea about God. And we know we let him down because we let us down all the time. And so we

think he probably looks at us and he's like, oh, come all. And yet what the gospel teaches us is that this is love. Not that we loved him, but he first loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sin. And we know, because of our study of the book of Romans, that perpetuation means a payment that satisfies. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, if he was the payment that fully satisfied God, this means that God cannot be dissatisfied in you. If you really understood that God delights in you because of the gospel, it would change everything about you. If you really believe he's a good, good father, that's who he is, and you are loved by him, that's who you are. It would, It would change everything.

Insecurity can't live there, and neither can ego. And if our insecurities and ego were held in check with the gospel, we'd have a different church, we'd have a different world, you'd have a different family. Tell me that's not practical. Or the gospel and money. You see, if we understand the gospel, we understand that God is first, that God went first, that God loves first, and that what we do with our money reflects what's important to us and that we bring to him our first and our best because he first loved us. giving us his best in Jesus, it changes everything. Because apart from the gospel, what we do is just like Adam and Eve, we look for satisfaction in the stuff of this world and it just won't

satisfy. And for years, we think everything we have belongs to us. And now we thought that, hey, man, I'll pay for something later because I want it now. And you find out that you're a slave to the lender. And the gospel says that ultimate satisfaction is found in Jesus Christ himself, and that everything exists for His glory, including you, and the gospel changes everything because you realize, who am I, that you would be so generous that you would pour out your life for me. Therefore, as I have been loved by you, then I would love this world with what you have given me. It changes everything. Or if you've got marriage problems, listen, it ain't a communication issue. It's not. It's not a time management issue.

you've got problems in your marriage, if your marriage is not flourishing, it is a gospel issue. This is why Ephesus chapter 5 will say submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And what most of us are trying to do is tell the other person what they need to do so they'll be submittable to. Well, if you would just, uh-oh. But I promise you, if you put Jesus in the middle, if you put the cross in the middle of your marriage and husbands, you begin to love your wife like Christ love the church. It ain't about a communication. Well, she doesn't communicate.

Oh, okay. Well, how did Christ love the church? They hurled insults at him, and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That's different. Wives, you put the gospel in the middle, and you begin to submit to your own husband as unto the Lord. Well, he's not submittable to. That's okay, because you're submitting out of reverence for Jesus. The gospel changes everything.

You got relational issues because you've got bitterness, you got anger, you've got unforgiveness. Dude, that's not a relational family issue. That's a gospel issue. You see, because we begin to understand those who have been forgiven much, forgive much. And you look at your life and be like, uh-oh, if I ain't given it, maybe it's because I ain't got it. But if the grace of Jesus has washed all of my sins clean, then who am I to hold against you? that one sin that you have against me. Don't tell me the gospel is not practical. It's the most practical thing on the planet. We could go on and on and on. You struggle with temptation, so did

Jesus. He was tempted, and every time he was tempted, he preached the gospel by saying, it is written, it is written, it is written. That the enemy shows up against him with the temptation, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of the life. And Jesus, just using the Word of God. Jesus says, it is written, and he declares his identity as the son of God. It is what Jesus' self uses to fend off the enemy in his own temptation, and then he dies on the cross, resurrected on the third day, and he puts sin to death. And the same power that brings Jesus out of the grave lives in every believer, and that is the power over sin and death. The gospel is practical. So this is why Paul will say preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Be ready all the time.

In season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder off into myths. Look, man, the time is here. And honestly, can I just say, thank you. Thank you. This is not you.

This is not the Church of 1122. I mean, you show up and take a beating week after week after a week. And then you just show back up. Bible in hand, smile on face, leaning forward and go, beat me again. I'm happy to. But I hope you understand. It's like a beat down with the gospel, the grace of the scriptures. Listen.

Some people will talk about like conservative Christianity and liberal Christianity. There is no such thing. There is like Bible believing Jesus followers. And then there is this other like man made using some of the same terminology but has rejected the authority of the word of God. That is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus. and when you begin to do that, it's over. It is over. This is both personally and corporately.

You ever sighted in a rifle? I know you have. All right. Well, if you have it, I literally was trying to think of another example, but I can't. So like if you're citing a rifle, you start, I mean, you start super close. You're like 25 yards, 50 yards. You're trying to get on the paper. And so you get on the paper, right?

And then you back it up to maybe 100, and you really dial that thing in at 100 yards. And here's why. Because if you're off it, if you're shooting at like 25, 50 yards, that kind of thing, and you're off like two or three inches, and you're like, that's not that big a deal. It's just two or three inches. And I'm going to try to shoot an elk, and it's, you know, it's huge, all right? The problem is if you're going to shoot an elk, you probably need to be able to shoot like 4, 450 yards.

And what seems like not a big deal at 20, 25 yards, it's just a couple of inches off here. You see, that bullet only goes where it is pointed to go. That's it. And it seems like, hey, not a real big deal here. We're only about two inches off. But when you get down about 450 yards or so, then it might be two or three feet off and you completely miss the target. There is coming a day.

And there is a day where we read through the scriptures and we're like, I don't really like that part. So we'll just leave these two. That word doesn't mean that word. And we're just going to, I don't know what that means. So we're going to skip that part. And the problem is, is it may seem like that's just one little piece, but I'm into most of the rest of it. And what begins to happen is you begin to reject the authority of the Word of God and the trajectory of your life.

Though in just a little while, two or three weeks, it only seems like you're off just by a little bit. And then one day, that path leads to a place and you're like, how in the world did I end up here? Not only individually, but for sure, man. This happens to churches all the time. It happens to entire countries and denominations. In the 1500s, Martin Luther is preaching the gospel all over Germany, and there is revival. Hundreds of thousands of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I'm in Germany last year preaching, and most of the churches have been turned into pubs.

Why? Because they move away from the authority of the Word of God, and they move to a humanistic teaching that was just palatable for the time. Same thing in Wales. In the early 1900s, a guy named Evan Roberts is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just this unschooled, ordinary God, just starts preaching. And hundreds of thousands of people come to Christ.

I mean, it is a countrywide revival. Today, less than 3% of Christians are there. In our country, right now, most mainline denominations in the U.S. have gone through this drifting away from the Word of God. And the crazy thing is, is if you back up 10 or 15 years, you'll hear them say things like, well, if we don't change with the current times, then we're going to die. And what happened is both were true.

They changed and they died. Now, listen, no problem changing the methods. No problem. Paul is saying Timothy, but you never come off of the message. Why? Because the power is in the God. gospel, that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. This is crazy. I can't even believe this is true. This popped up on a news feed, so I looked it up.

The United Church of Canada. I don't know how many Canadians we have here, but welcome. The United Church of Canada has a pastor of a church in Toronto named Greta Vosper, who was an atheist. She's the pastor. She wrote a book. called with or without God, why the way we live is more important than what we believe. So then the denomination was like, hey, wait a minute. As liberal as that denomination is, they're like, but we believe in God. Like, we at least believe in God. And she's like, well, I don't.

So she is an atheist. She removed the Lord's Prayer from church. The good news, there's like 40 crazy people to go there, but whatever. It was 150. It was down the 40. And then the denomination reached a settlement with her, and she's still the pastor of the church. Now, let's just talk about it.

Okay, like, if you worked at Chick-fil-A, and you wrote a book called Eat No Chicken, Chooit Kathy's going to be like, hey, man, we need to talk for a second. Do I understand your book to read that you are against eating chicken? Yes, I am. Then guess what, man? You probably ain't going to work at Chick-fil-A. You understand?

And it's just chicken. It's delicious, anointed from the heaven. chicken, but let's be honest, it's just chicken. And here is a denomination that has decided the word of God is not authoritative, and people can just do whatever they want, and she's still a pastor there. Here's why I tell you all this. Not here. In an ever-changing world, we here at 1122 will always, always, always preach the unchanging truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? We will. and we'll try to do it with much patience for sure. But here's what I refuse to do.

I refuse to one day stand before God and say, look, I know what your word said about, but we skip that part. I know what your word said about whatever, it's politically incorrect or whatever we're not supposed to say, regardless of what laws are passed or whatever. But I refuse to have that conversation with Jesus to say, yeah, but we just skipped over that part.

You know why? because the shepherd loves his sheep and is willing to lay down his life for them. The reason that I preach the Word of God and all of our teaching pastors and student pastors and anybody that opens the Bible in front of 1122ers and says words out loud, the reason that we do this is because we want to love you like Christ has loved us and given us the truth of the Word of God. You see, understanding the gospel, which is the metanarrative of this entire book, or understanding the overall story, it's almost as important as understanding the individual stories in here. You see, the whole point of the scriptures, the whole point is the glory of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's the whole point. In the beginning, God created the heavens and heaven. the earth. Why? Just to demonstrate his glory. And then in order to do that, he creates image bearers, these perfect little mirrors that we're going to reflect his glory. And so he breathes into life, the ruah of life into Adam. And Adam opens his eyes and he's face to face with his creator. And he says, it's not good for man to be alone. And he gives him a partner. And they are co-creators on this planet. And then they sin. And that sin separates them from the almighty God. That thing we were created for. Now there is a chasm between us and it.

But God, in His grace, he says, come here, because they're running and they're hiding. They make fig leaves to cover their sin and shame. It's the very first religion in the world. And God kicks them out of the garden, judges them because he's just. But then he says, but I'm going to make a garment to cover your sin. And for the very first time in human history, blood is shed for the forgiveness and covering of sin. And then Abraham comes, and God. God makes a promise.

And he says, you're going to be the father of many nations. He only has a couple of kids. They turn into a couple of tribes, 12 tribes. Those tribes end up as slaves in Egypt. And what they think is pain is actually God's preparation to create a people. And they cry out to God, and God sends a leader. His name is Moses. And Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, God says, let my people go.

They have a little showdown for ten plagues. And then finally, there's the plague of the firstborn. The angel of death passes over. Egypt and whoever has the blood of a perfect spotless lamb on the doorpost of their house, their firstborn is spared. Pharaoh's had enough. He lets the people go. Moses takes them over across the Red Sea.

Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the law of God. We would know it as the Ten Commandments, but there are actually like 600 and something commandments. And this law of God is both a map and a mirror. The law of God is a map to show us how we ought to rightly live with a holy and righteous God. But then it's also a mirror so that we can look at ourselves and say, oh, Houston, there's a problem. I can't pull this off. So God makes a way that every time there is a sin, that there would be a covering for sin.

He institutes this sacrificial system. It's very, very complicated. There's heifers and grains and oils, but on one day of the year, the day of atonement, you would sacrifice a perfect spotless lamb in the Holy of Holies. You would sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the ark of the covenant over the broken law of God, and it was to represent that our sin was covered by a sacrificial lamb, or at least for the Jewish people for that year. And then kings rose up. A nation was built. Prophets came, and prophets came, and prophets came. And they essentially, they would address

what was going on in that day, in that age, but they also always looked over to horizon to say, there's coming a day, the kingdom is going to come. Isaiah would say that there's going to be a suffering servant that shows up, that ushers the kingdom of heaven here on earth. And he would be smitten. He would be broken. He would be bruised for our sin. Upon him would be the chastisement of us all.

Prophets like Malachi would say the son of righteousness will have healing in his wings. And there will come one before him that will turn the heart. parts of fathers to their sons and sons to their fathers. Then there's one blank page in your Bible, and it's just 400 years of, we're not sure, or nothing. Then this crazy guy shows up on the scene, in the spirit of Elijah. It's like a homeless dude, crazy hair, eating roaches. Now, the Bible will call it locust, but come on, it's the same thing.

And he's screaming at people and baptizing people, and everybody will show up if you just yell at him every week. And so he says these words, he says, behold, the Lamb of God, who comes to take him. away the sin of the entire world. And he's pointing at this ordinary, seemingly ordinary carpenter's son from a place called Nazareth. And the locals would say, can anything good come from Nazareth? Jesus walks into the waters. They have a little argument about who's going baptize who. John baptizes Jesus. The heavens open. God the father says, behold my son in whom mind well pleased the spirit falls on him again john behold the lamb of god who's come to take away the sin of the world jesus goes on to teach about god a hundred and eighty nine times in the gospel he calls him

father not sovereign creator though that's true but he calls him aba father jesus lives a perfect life never sins one time though he's tempted like every single one of us he's tried he's convicted he's beaten, he's crowned with thorns, he's flogged, he's nailed to a cross. He pushes up on his nail pierced feet on that cross and he says, it is finished. And what is finished is what the prophets were talking about. It's what the temple was built for. It's the promise of Abraham. It's what Moses declared in the law. Everything promised in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament and he says, it is finished. But he didn't say I am finished because three days later the stone is rolled away. And Jesus, who would

because dead is now alive again, and he has put death to death, and it's over. And so he appears to, like, 500 people for 40 days all over the place, breathing on them in their face, all that stuff. And then he gathers his disciples together, and right before he ascends to the right hand of God, the Father, he says, hold on, I'm going, but this is going to be better. I'm going to send a helper. It's going to be better. The spirit in you is better than Jesus beside you.

And he says, therefore, all authority in heaven. heaven and earth has been given unto me therefore go go it literally means on the go like wherever you go make disciples of all ethnos of all people groups of all nations wherever you go make disciples teaching them to obey everything that i had commanded you and baptized them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and lo i will be with you always and to the very ends of the earth and then he went to heaven in the church at first they just sort of they didn't go anywhere they just went back to the room and prayed about it for a while. The spirit of God falls on Pentecost. And wherever believers went, the gospel goes, because if the gospel is in you, it will come out of you.

Stephen, the first martyr, is killed in Acts chapter 8, verse 1. And because what the church thinks is persecution, and they are running from Rome and the Pharisees, what they're actually doing is fulfilling the Great Commission and running to the very ends of the earth. Then God says Paul, and everywhere Paul goes, he plants the church, He plants the church, he plants the church, he plants the church. And then one day, one day, just as Jesus headed into heaven, he says, get ready, because I am coming back. In the same way that it left, I'm coming back. And there will be a day that the heavens crack open. Jesus blares that trumpet, and he calls all of us who would believe the gospel of Jesus Christ home to him.

And he doesn't just renew us. He renews everything. And the Word of God says this. And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth. had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their

eye and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away and he who was seated on the throne said behold i am making all things new also he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true and he said to me it is finished i am the alpha the omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty i will give from the spring of the water of life without payment the one who conquers will have this heritage i will be his god and he will be my son. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Preach the Word.

Amen? Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything, and we thank you for the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for the gift of your word. God, not only will we be as pastors and preachers and teachers and disciples group leaders here at this church committed to your word,

even when we don't understand, especially when we don't like what it says about us. But, God, I pray that you would equip us with the Spirit of God to preach the Word to ourselves over and over and over and over. And may it be an anchor to our souls. May the Word of God always do exactly what you have intended it to do in our lives, to draw us closer and closer to you. God, we love you like crazy. Amen.