Romans #7 - Crazy Grace: Good News for Bad People

[Music] nice [Music] oh howdy okay here's where we're gonna start if you're a bad person raise your hand this is not a self-esteem lecture this is a bible study amen all right and if you didn't raise your hand you're a very bad person there's not good and bad people there's two kinds of people there's bad people and really bad people who think they're good so for those of you who now know how bad you are i have good news for you and that is that god has grace for you he has love for you as forgiveness for you he has jesus for you we're gonna have a lot of fun together at least i will in romans chapter three we're going through this great book of the bible you're enjoying it it's an awesome book of the bible and if you're new find your bible we're in romans chapter 3 and i i'm telling you the first two things that we all need to know is who god is and who god says we are and once we know who god is and once we know who god says we are then we can figure out the rest of life and what to do that's exactly where paul begins in his great letter to the church in rome he tells them who god is and who they are and what he does he says that there are four different ways that humanity has a propensity to view god these are sort of views and ruts and ways that we consider god in ourselves and uh we've looked at those in romans chapter one chapter two in the beginning of chapter three and what's really curious i was thinking about as i was praying this week there was a massive data study that was done here in the united states of america one of the one of the largest data studies on religion faith and spirituality and it was published as actually a very well-known book that was picked up by a lot of media outlets called america's four gods and i'll show it to you in just a minute but it's shocking what they found was oh my gosh in america people tend to have four views of god these are the exact same four views that paul prophesied in romans 1 2 and 3 that we would have the moral of the story is just give social sciences long enough and they'll catch up with the bible they're a few years late but hey at least they caught up so i'll show it to you i put together a little graph uh five percent of americans say that they are atheists so that's a small portion and percentage group those are people who went to a bad church and their parents were legalistic so pray for them they need god all right uh number one the benevolent god this is the view that god is engaged but he's not judgmental he loves you he's relational he's kind he's nice he gives you a hug he's kind of mr rogers but he doesn't really judge anybody and he's not really critical he just sort of takes you as you are and doesn't want to change who you are 24 of americans hold that view and that is what paul called unrighteousness in romans 1 18-32 we looked at sexual sin gender sex identity homosexuality all the things that he talks about in ways that people say well this is just the way i am and god loves me and he doesn't judge me and he's not seeking to change me that's unrighteousness the other view is the distant god god is not engaged or judgmental he's just sort of gone 24 of americans see god erroneously in that way there are three misperceptions and one correct perception of god this is misperception number two meaning god is far away he's not involved and he's not judgmental he's kind of abandoned us we're kind of on our own he's an absentee landlord uh 24 of americans believe that the result is if you think god is gone and he doesn't really judge us or is involved with us then if we're going to bring change into the world we better bring it because god's not going to do it so if god's not going to judge we're going to judge if god's not going to be involved we're going to be involved we looked at critical theory social justice the woke joke folk and all the cause oriented people including all the candidates so that was fun thanks for coming back we had more people but they all left after that sermon number three there is the critical god and this is a god who is not engaged but is judgmental 16 view god this way god is distant he's judging and he tells you all the things you've done wrong but he doesn't get involved to help you he just is sort of like a critic not much of a coach 16 of americans view god that way paul talked about this in romans 12 2 12-29 religious self-righteousness people who are religious and ideological and very devoted and very judgmental but they're non-relational non-sympathetic non-compassionate uninvolved and not generous what paul is doing he is obliterating the three popular misperceptions of god and then he leaves standing the one correct perception of god 31 of americans believe in an authoritative god this is more akin to the god of the bible that god is engaged he's relational he loved you he's involved in your life but he's also judgmental he has strong opinions and he's he's one who sees right and wrong and he calls out that which is acceptable and unacceptable in his side and this is where we find ourselves in gift righteousness today and this is where we find ourselves learning about this god in romans chapter three the moral of the story is your view of god determines how you view yourself and the whole purpose of your life and all of the problems and pains and barrels on the earth and so what we're going to come into today is this understanding we've sort of gotten all the debris off the runway now it's time to get the plane up and where paul is going with this is he's saying that there is a global problem and the global problem is that sin is in everything have you noticed this education corrupted politics corrupted economics corrupted some of us moved many of you are new honestly on my drive in the majority of the license plates that i saw were from california so welcome we're glad to have you but not your politics leave it so when you come okay when you come okay when you come when you come realize just because you move places doesn't mean that there is a place that sin is not infected everything and everyone is infected by sin this global problem is not just a global problem it's also an individual personal problem not only is everything filled with sin and broken by sin we're filled with sin and broken by sin the point is that the problem isn't just out there the problem is in here and the problem is not just that they those people and their systems are all part of the problem we are also part of the problem which means we're not part of the solution well if we have this global problem and we have this personal problem and we're part of the problem we're not part of the solution where does our hope and health and healing come from now we're coming up on somebody said jesus you're not new thanks for coming uh just so you know when i ask a question here there's only two answers if you're new it's either jesus or carne asada because whatever your problems are whatever these are well-discipled people these are these are mature saints whatever your problem is one of those two is probably your solution that's what i'm telling you and if it's not jesus or carne asada you're beyond help there's nothing left for you so as we get into this we're coming up on halloween okay i don't know if we still do this anymore i don't know if any kids are allowed to leave the house but it used to be when we would do halloween people would dress up like superheroes and what we have within us is this deep innate sense that that the problem is global and it's personal and that we're part of the problem not the solution so dc marvel all of the comic-con weirdos all of those folks they're all longing for someone who's human but more than human who comes from another realm and rescues the globe and us individually this is where we get all of our superhero movies this is where we get for example thor silver surfer green lantern and superman there's something in us that says there's a problem and the solution needs to come from another realm and so ultimately paul has established that there is this global problem and i would just tell you every kid who knocks on your door dressed up like a superhero is actually longing for jesus whether they know him or not that's what you tell them here's candy and you need jesus right that ultimately what beats superman is god man and so our hope is that there is someone who comes in and is part of the solution not the problem is not part of the globe but rules over the globe and so he's going to get into a few of my favorite doctrines we're going to get deep into thinking and theology and if you're a nerd this is a great day if you're not a nerd feel free to check the scores but the cardinals aren't until later okay so romans chapter 3 verses 21-22 we talk about something called justification by faith but now the righteousness or rightness or goodness and justice of god has been manifested revealed unveiled apart from the law that that is the scriptures the word of god in the old testament although the law and the prophets the old testament bear witness to it the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ for all who believe how are we going to fix this global problem how are we going to fix this personal problem we're going to fix it through the righteousness of god not our righteousness but his righteousness and righteousness is this language of a performance that either qualifies you or disqualifies you so when you're in school if you get your report card it is your righteousness it tells you whether you've qualified or disqualified to graduate and head to the next grade similarly when you go to apply for a job your resume is your righteousness it's your performance and it tells you whether or not you've qualified or disqualified how many of you are employers and you get resumes from people that shouldn't be applying for the job because they've not qualified you're like i want to be a surgeon what are you good at i play video games in my mom's house we can't let you cut anyone you don't qualify okay that ultimately if you do qualify then you get the job once you get the job if you want to keep the job or you want to be promoted in the job we give you a performance review this is your righteousness this is your performance and it either qualifies or disqualifies you to keep your job or be promoted in your job the question is when we die where do we go and how do we qualify that's the big question of righteousness if god is holy and we are unholy and god is perfect and we are sinful and god is creator and we are created when we die how do we get our righteousness how are we declared qualified to stand before god righteous in his sight that's the big question and there are only ultimately two ways that people answer this question of righteousness one is behave the other is believe the behaved path it can be religious or spiritual in nature be a good person tithe pray to mecca reincarnate pay off your karmic debt uh suffer in purgatory uh be baptized take communion speak in tongues you've got to behave there's a list of things you need to do there is also a secular version vote for the right political candidate back the right cause have the correct hashtag join the right march parade right somehow show that you're behaving the right way we're the good people they're the bad people everyone who tries the behaved path ultimately finds that it's a dead end it's just a dead end and so what what god says earlier in romans 1 2 and then early and 3 is that through behavior no one is saved that we don't have the right resume to stand before god so the only other path is the believe path the belief path is that we are not the ones who behave jesus christ is the one who behaves and we don't behave we believe in the one who behaved these are the only two options really for all of humanity and what he is um saying is that the righteousness is quote of god which it means is this it's not our resume that qualifies us to stand before god if you plan on standing before god and he's like all right why should i let you in if you say here's what i did wrong answer say i'm with jesus yay ding ding ding right answer it's his resume not my resume it's his performance not my performance it's his works not my works it's his behavior and not mine i just believe in him and thankfully i'm with him amen so ultimately it's about jesus and what he says is that this has been manifested the language here in romans is like a sunrise after a long dark night that ultimately as people were on the behaved path do better try harder perform more on the performance treadmill jesus comes the light of the world and all of a sudden we see the greatness and the glory and the grandeur of god you're like there's jesus finally somebody who knows what they're doing finally someone who tells us where we're going finally someone who behaves perfectly so jesus lives the perfect life and his life is ultimately the only one that is lived with perfect behavior no sin whatsoever now on this section the great protestant reformer martin luther he's kind of a hero of mine i'm a bit of a nerd uh he had this change his whole life the book of romans but especially chapter three because he grew up in a religious household and he was on the behave track and he actually went into ministry as a priest took a vow of celibacy and poverty how many of you guys are like i don't want to behave that way so so he's a broke virgin living at the church one two three not it right so and now he's not eating well he's not sleeping well he's confessing his sins day and night he's teaching the bible he's behaving as best as he can and he's literally going mad and he is physically dying okay because he's trying to be perfect and he's not and then he's teaching romans 3 in a seminary you can be a bible teacher you can have a degree in bible and not really understand jesus yes okay the point is this you can't know jesus without the bible but you can know the bible and not know jesus he was one of those guys who knew the bible like a lot of religious people do but he didn't really know jesus and it all changed for him in the book of romans especially romans chapter 3 and he realizes oh i'm not the savior he's the savior i'm not the one who behaves he's the one who behaves i believe in the one who behaved so he then goes forth and says this here therefore is the sermon of sermons he's like this is it and the wisdom of heaven you can just feel the burden lifting off the guy if you live in a relationship of performance what that means is you always need to produce results and at any point you fail then the relationship is over if you've had a parental or a marital relationship like that they are life-taking they are joyless and cheerless because every day is just go to work go to work go to work what if i don't do a good job well then we punish you and or we abandon you and he said here's the wisdom of heaven the burden is lifted and he goes on to say in order that we may believe that our righteousness and salvation and comfort come to us from outside what he says is righteousness is out there comfort is out there holiness is out there and it's gifted to me through jesus christ it's not in here this is where as christians we don't go into ourselves we go out to jesus we go out to jesus it's not like well you need to look within you no no no no that's where you find the problem if you want to find the solution you look out and you look up ultimately to jesus in order that we may believe that though in us dwells not but sin and unrighteousness and folly we are nevertheless acceptable before god righteous holy and wise all of a sudden the sun rises and he's like oh it's jesus everything i'm doing is not going to qualify me to be declared righteous and stand before a holy god jesus took care of everything i need to trust his words on the cross it is finished all the behaving is done and now the believing begins this issue is shorthand called justification by faith by faith and it actually is such a massive conviction that it split christianity into two teams protestant and catholic give you a little bit of church history briefly when we lived out of state my youngest son and i we like to split wood and have huge fires in this old fireplace that was in our home and for the big rounds we would take a mall which is kind of like an axe head without the handle and we would put it in the center boom hit the mall and it would split the round the doctrine of justification literally was the mole that split christianity into catholic and protestant and protestant was a protest against catholicism and they're teaching on many things but in particular the issue of how we're justified declared righteous in the sight of god so how many of you like me you grew up catholic you're a catholic okay you ever wonder why are there these two different teams well this is largely why and i was raised catholic i was born in a catholic hospital i was baptized as a baby or i should say sprinkled as a baby in a catholic church i went to catholic school for three years i officiated mass with the priest as an altar boy so we're catholic with a sighted catholic and catholic for dessert and then and then in college i became a christian and like luther i knew a little bit about the bible but i didn't know jesus and then i realized it's not about my behavior it's about his behavior and me believing in him well then god spoke to me said mary grace she's now my wife preach the bible which i like to do train men which is one of my favorite things in plant churches which i've been in my whole life god spoke to me well now the family is worried right they think i've joined a cult because they're catholic they don't know and the problem with the cult is you never know till the last day you're like i thought i was going to church you know and then they gave me white shoes and kool-aid and then it got weird i don't so what happened is my parents are a little concerned i've joined a cult so they fly in my grandmother from north dakota after my grandfather died she became a nun that's how catholic we were she prayed so much that two churches gave her her own key because she was there all the time so they fly in my matriarch grandma catholic nun she sits me down she's like what happened mark i said well i met jesus she's like oh plea first thing i could do not she says please tell me you're not a lutheran first thing she tells me she hated luther because luther was catholic and then he split the whole thing and she basically told me she's like he's a bad boy if he's in heaven i'm putting him over my knee but now she's with luther they figured it all out she's a protestant today in the sight of jesus it's all better so so my grandma's asking me she's like well what do you want to do i said well god told me to marry grace so i can't be a priest right because they're not allowed to marry they are now according to the pope supposed to do civil unions for men so i mean you want to get into that i don't but it's weird it's different so um we're going to take a collection later and send the pope a copy of the bible because he needs one so so look i just turned 50. i don't care anymore i'm just going to tell you what i think so and we don't put this one on the internet now you know why they'd be like we got so much to add it was only a six minute sermon when we got done with it so so i tell my grandma why i can't be catholic because god told me to be married and god told me to preach the bible she's like oh so my grandma goes and prays all night the rosary largely to mary she comes out in the morning she's like god spoke to me you don't need to be catholic you need to preach the bible and marry grayson do what god said so she was an awesome grandma and a terrible nun that was my grandma so even in my own life this has become a massive personal issue because ultimately for me as a new christian at the age of 19 it was okay is it jesus or jesus plus someone or something else is it jesus plus the church is it jesus plus baptism is it jesus plus the sacraments is it jesus plus confession is it jesus plus purgatory here's what i'll tell you jesus plus anything ruins everything in marriage fidelity plus anything ruins everything okay in marriage it's about being fully devoted in your relationship with jesus it's about being fully devoted you involve anyone or anything else and it undermines the entire relationship it's my grandma she's like well what about what about the church that mediates between you and god i said i got jesus he's the one mediator between man and god his name is christ jesus she's like what about the priest i said i have a great high priest his name is jesus she's like well well well what about confession i said i confess my sins to jesus every time she said well what about what about i said i said i got jesus i'm all good man i got cuts to the front of the line jesus took care of everything i just i got no backup plan i got no plan b i got no hey if jesus doesn't work here's my next option i got no other option i'm trusting in jesus or i'm on fire that's how it's gonna roll and ultimately martin luther said that this is the issue on which the church stands or false he said this is it and just to give you an analogy there is two big theological words i'm a i'm a nerd i wrote a systematic theology i love to study one is called monergism the other is called synergism i'll try to simplify it for you synergism is this concept that you and god work together for your salvation that god does his part you do your part okay synergism is where you and god partner together you work together monarchism is where god saves you he does all the work give you an analogy says in isaiah the question is asked to whom is the arm of the lord been revealed okay so it's like god's arm reached down so i'll give you an analogy when my kids are little we've got five kids three boys two girls um love them with all my heart but when they were little the boys were all suicidal little boys are all suicidal if you don't believe that it's because you've never had a boy and so what would happen was any time we get near a pool the boys would run and jump they don't they don't know how to swim and so they're running haha it was fine when i had one get to two you get to three now you're on zone defense you're like i can't one of you is in trouble you know i got three boys so there was one occasion i'll never forget one of our sons ran just jumped in clothes shoes the whole thing the whole thing okay and he's going under i could have now synergism would have said i reach out my hand i'm like son grab my hand if you do that you're a horrible parent that's what you are you're like i was going to save them but they didn't reach high enough like right you know what i did it wasn't synergism me reaching down them reaching up you know what it was what did i do i reached down and i grabbed them and i pulled them out of the water and you know what they didn't do argue with me about me overriding their free will that's not what they did because more important than your free will is my love for you so you chose death free will i chose no free will all right we both exercised it that's how god saved you how many of you that's your story you're like i was going under and god just grabbed me amen and if you know jesus ultimately that is your story so don't even tell your story like when i found god really was god lost was god lost i was like what the heck i don't know where i am my battery died i can't find my way out good thing tony found me that's not how this works you didn't find god god found you you didn't grab god god grabbed you okay this sets up his doctrine of predestination election we'll get into it later in the book come back bring your friends who want to be offended now what he what he talks about here now is some big words some big terms that are loaded with meaning he's going to give four of them it's going to talk about sin justified redemption and propitiation and some people will say what do we need these big words for god gives names to things that he cares about just like we give names to people we care about when you have a kid what do you give them a name what you're like that's number six you name them because you care about them and they're important to you and they're precious to you there are certain convictions there are certain concepts there are certain doctrines that are precious to god and he names them and he names them because they're important should be precious to us we're going to read of them and then i'll unpack them in succession romans 3 22-26 for there is no distinction we have lots of distinctions are you republican democrat black white young old rich poor american not american god says you know what i see a bunch of sinners a bunch of sinners you know what that means americans need jesus canadians really need jesus it means that republicans need jesus and democrats need jesus and blacks need jesus and whites need jesus and poor need jesus and rich need jesus and rural need jesus and urban need jesus do you see them there's no distinction we have lots of distinctions god says i got a line sinner's savior those that's the two teams and all the people who are on the line of sinner they all need the savior there's no distinction for all have sinned sin and fall short of the glory of god and are justified by his grace as a gift somebody says oh christianity's too easy all you got to do is accept jesus it's actually really hard because you got to be humble you can't stand before god and say look what i did for you you got to stand before god and say look what i did to you and look what you did for me it's not about what we do for god it's about what god does for us that's how we get saved as a gift through the redemption that is in christ jesus whom god put forward as a propitiation will unpack that word it appears four times in the new testament by his blood we'll talk about that to be received by faith this was to show god's righteousness god is right and we need to get right with god because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus first he talks about sin we are sinners by nature and choice paul has established that sin includes our thought word deed motive and action sin is commission where we do something we were not supposed to do an old mission where we do not do something that we were supposed to do and what happens is when he says that people have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god we tend to think in terms of competition not perfection competition meaning we find people that are worse than us and we compare ourselves to them don't we do this this is why every one of us has one friend who's awful their job is to make us look better okay and if some of you are like i don't have a friend like that oh my gosh you're that friend i hate to break it to you that's you and what we tend to do we tend to compete by comparing ourselves well they're worse than me this is why we like to talk trash about other people especially if they're well known it makes us look better by making them look worse god's standard is not one of comparison it's one of perfection jesus says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect so we're not to compare ourselves to others we are to compare ourselves to jesus christ because he alone shows us what a normal human life is supposed to look like he never sinned he was perfect all together in every way how many of you the more you've got to know jesus the more you are aware that you are not like jesus if any of you are reading the bible you're like wow i learned about jesus reminds me myself read it again you missed a few things that are very crucial and what he's saying is that what we all do we fall short okay so i want to give you a simple analogy um god's standard is perfection so for us to get into the kingdom of god heaven think of it like crossing the grand canyon we're in the grand canyon state have you been to the grand canyon it's an incredible hole in the ground i mean it's for a hole it's awesome and so when you're standing on the precipice of the grand canyon imagine somebody said now all you got to do is jump to the other side okay so one guy's like all right right so he's fifty five nine eighteen inch neck hypothetically and he jumps he jumps six inches that's all he's got he's got a two two-inch vertical and he he falls he falls what he falls what short real short next guy stretches you know goes to the gym gets himself ready you know he's listening to the rocky soundtrack like he's all pumped up on steroids drinking red bull and he runs and he jumps six feet and on the way down he's talking try she's like i crushed you i went six feet still fall short right yeah oh yeah that was awesome okay so then the next guy olympic athlete on steroids okay he runs jumps eight feet everybody's like oh my gosh that's a world record for failure okay that's what it is because he's what fallen short that the point is this some of us jump a little farther than others but nobody jumps far enough we've all fallen short we've all fallen short that's the concept of sin compared to perfection okay then he talks about justified so if we've fallen short how could god who is just how could he accept we who are unjust how could he accept us who have fallen short right how does this work and this is the language of justified he says god is just god is the justifier and makes us justified he uses those three terms this is a legal declaration of righteousness before god it comes from the courtroom and what it means is not that we are perfect but that god imputes his righteousness to us it's called imputed righteousness that god imputes the righteousness of jesus christ to us so ultimately it is jesus gives you his righteousness as a gift which means grace received by faith believe not behave this is how the whole thing works and what he's talking about here is something that should give us great love for jesus and that is that you only have two options you work for god or god works for you that's it that's it if you believe it's what you do for god that saves you that's called works if you believe it's what god does for you through jesus that's grace so when we come to god we come empty-handed we don't come here's all the things i have for you and here's all the things i did for you so you know what i got nothing i'll take jesus he does everything for my salvation it's received by grace through faith in jesus christ and when he says that god is the just and the justifier what he means is that god renders the verdict of us being guilty and then he resolves our biggest problem the sin problem i'll give you an analogy but try these are big concepts i want to give you a few little illustrations to hopefully help you understand them there was a case some years ago a judge was presiding over court and there was a couple that was under contract for i think it was a residence that they were renting and they had defaulted on their contract they didn't have the money they fell short of meeting their payment obligations they had sinned and fallen short well in short and this had gone on for some months and then the owner of the property started eviction proceedings and the couple got up and said yeah you're right we have fallen short therefore in light of the law they were guilty and what would the just thing to do be to say you're guilty well we can't pay the money okay but the just thing is the contract says you need to pay the money and if you can't pay the money you can't live there so the judge was just he said guilty and then he went back into his chambers and he got the money out of his personal account the total which they owed he came out he handed it to the owner and said i'm paying their debt in full he was just declared them guilty and the justifier paid their debt do you see that in some regard that's what jesus did for us he's just you're guilty you deserve hell and then he goes to the cross and he pays the price in full so that not only is he just to judge us he is the justifier who saves us this is why we love jesus how many of you are excited if somebody just buys you a burger you're like that's awesome okay and fries you're not my best friend right with a drink i'm getting a tattoo with your name on it that's how much i appreciate this look at what jesus paid for us that's where that old hymn says jesus paid it all that's what it's talking about the third concept that he gives us is redemption and he uses the language of blood and passed over the language of blood and passed over what does that sound like the jewish feast of passover and the way it worked was this that in the old testament book of exodus there was an event called the passover that was a precursor to the redemption and salvation of jesus christ and what happens is there is a counterfeit jesus the pharaoh thinks he's the son of god there's a counterfeit kingdom he rules over the nation of egypt he has counterfeit priests who do counterfeit miracles by counterfeiting demonic spirits the whole of egypt is a counterfeit of the kingdom of god god's people are enslaved in egypt they are oppressed and god comes and he crushes the nation so that he can deliver his people it all culminates with something called the passover the killing of the firstborn the final plague that was given was god said i'm going to bring death to every household with one exception those households who take a lamb without spot or blemish peter uses this language without spot or blemish showing that jesus would come as sinless and perfect and pure this is where john the baptizer looks at jesus says behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world second corinthians 5 70 says behold christ our passover lamb has been slain the whole point of the exodus and the passover was to point to jesus who would be coming later in history all signs in the bible point to the savior his name is jesus and so what it was said was if they confess their sins over the animal as a substitute if that family sacrifices this lamb without spot or blemish and then has this worship event in their home and this witness event on their home then the blood of the lamb will cover them so they would literally paint the doorposts to their home with the blood of the lamb so they were covered by the blood of the lamb so that when the wrath and justice and judgment of god came it literally passed over everyone who had faith in the blood of the lamb if you're jewish and you don't know jesus you miss the whole point of passover his name is jesus and what he's saying here is this is how god saves us and what he did then god delivered his people to worship him until they finally got to go home jesus has crossed satan's sin death hell and the wrath of god he has delivered us we are covered by the blood of the lamb his wrath passes over us because it was passed on to jesus we now worship on our way home called heaven what he's saying is this is how god saves and in the exodus story for those of you who know the story did the people do anything to liberate themselves nothing in the same way we do nothing to liberate or save ourselves god does all the work and by faith we trust in and follow him and then he culminates all of this and one of my favorite doctrines is called propitiation and it's a big word that appears four times in the new testament some translations will call it expiation or sacrifice of atonement this translation that i'm using the english standard version uses the word propitiation and it talks about jesus cross and jesus suffering and dying in our place for our sins and some people ask how could a loving god possibly pour out his wrath well you know what the love of god and the wrath of god they're both poured out on the cross of jesus that's why it says in i think it's first john 4 10 that it is not that we have loved god but that is that god has loved us and he sent his son jesus to be the propitiation for our sins you know that jesus loves you because he propitiated the wrath of god for you because of jesus the wrath of god literally is this is what propitiation mean it's diverted away from you and it's diverted toward jesus what that means is he put you in his place and he put himself in your place and he did that on the cross so i want to talk a little bit about the cross of jesus the old testament hebrew version of the word um propitiation is kapura and the jews would celebrate yom kippur it's called the day of atonement it was their highest holiest day of the year foreshadowing the forthcoming of jesus who would propitiate the sins of the people that he would divert the wrath of god and so i want to spend a little bit of time talking about the cross of jesus the reasons are twofold number one oftentimes when christians talk about the cross of jesus we drive by at 80 miles an hour uh jesus loves you he died on the cross for your sins and he wants to take you to heaven you're like okay we just drove right by it it'd be good to pull the car over and actually investigate this number two some of you have heard me tell this i preached this version of this sermon or this portion of the sermon every year my entire adult life last 25 years on good friday which is the uh the weekend uh before jesus resurrection but here's why i want to share it with you most of you are new you've never heard this um most churches in america are running 25 to 50 last weekend we're 193 percent so we're we're moving it's for sure okay which is great so most of you are new so if you're walking around you're like i don't know anybody here that's how everybody feels welcome we're glad to have you so when it comes to crucifixion the bible gives us few details about crucifixion because the people that originally received the bible they witnessed it once you see it you know you'd never forget it crucifixion was state-sponsored execution it was like public beheadings on the internet by jihadists today it was a way of saying uh don't follow them or you will endure their fate it was to discourage people from following leaders now when it comes to the cross it has become the symbol symbol the icon the emblem of our faith this is why we've got a cross on our building and we've got to cross out front it is believed that with the early church father tertullian that christians adopted the cross as the symbol and sign of our faith we started making the sign of the cross we started wearing the cross we started decorating homes with the cross and for us it reminds us of the propitiation of jesus christ in our place for our sins diverting from us and to him the wrath of god when it comes to this issue of crucifixion it has rightly been called the emblem of suffering and shame says an old hymn furthermore when jesus was a little boy he may have witnessed a mass crucifixion there was a uprising of jewish people against the roman government and there was a massive public crucifixion crucifixion was done openly publicly shamefully they would crucify people most of the time at eye level when a woman was crucified they would turn her around because they didn't want to see her face crucifixion was done in places where people would just come about their normal affairs and suddenly and unexpectedly find someone who was bleeding and weeping and crying and dying imagine that you were going into the grocery store and there's a guy being crucified at the front door and there's his enemies jurying him and there's his family mourning him imagine you go to caroline and right by the splash pad there's a bunch of guys crucified they intentionally put them in the most troubling spots to haunt you and it was a way to control the citizenry furthermore um it was common so in 71 bc the day that spartacus fell in battle they crucified 6 000 soldiers men in a single day along 120 mile stretch of highway imagine after church you go down to yuma or you go up to flag or prescott or up to payson or up to the white mountains and along the shoulder of the road there are six 000 crucified men all painfully slowly publicly dying you never forget if you see it now i believe it was in psalm 22 that it said that jesus would be crucified it it prophesies it what's interesting there that was written a thousand years before jesus christ was born that was 200 years before crucifixion was invented the bible not only predicts the crucifixion of jesus it predicts the invention of crucifixion historians believe that crucifixion was originated with the persians and it started with impaling they would take a long log they would sort of carve the end to a point they would then run it through the midsection of a criminal and then they would drop it in a hole and the criminal would be impaled sometimes for days and left there the romans then perfected it by adding the crossbar adding the crossbar and they were masters in torture and torment and the entire point of crucifixion was to maximize and prolong the suffering and pain it was so horrifying that a word was created to explain the pain of crucifixion the word excruciating literally means from the cross it's it's in a category of its own so a word had to be invented to categorize its impact and it would take upwards of nine days for someone to die the way they would die was by painfully slow death by asphyxiation as they hung on the cross and this was in a climate quite similar to ours imagine just standing outside for nine days now imagine no food no water no medical care no shade now imagine that you've been beaten previously now imagine that you are literally hanging through railroad spikes driven through the most sensitive nerve centers on the human body the hands and the feet and what would happen that criminals would slouch on the cross and the air would exit their lungs and it would fill with carbon monoxide and they would start to pass out it was painfully slow death by asphyxiation so what they would do then they would sort of come back to consciousness and push themselves up on their crucified nail-filled feet to get air in their lungs if they wanted to hasten someone's death they would break their legs so that they couldn't push themselves up to get air in their lungs they they didn't break jesus legs because that was one of the promises and prophecies of the old testament that none of his bones shall be broken but that's why they broke them if they wanted to sort of expedite the death of the person now in the old testament deuteronomy 21 22-23 it says anyone who is sentenced to death and hanged on a tree is cursed by god paul quotes that verse in galatians what it means is the wrath of god was poured out on the son of god okay i want you to look at the cross of jesus and what i don't want you to say is i don't feel like god loves me i want you to see how much god loves you once you see how much he loves you you'll feel his love for you but he was cursed so you could be blessed he died that you could live he took your place so he could put you in his place martin luther called this the great exchange that's exactly what jesus christ did for us on his cross well what about the crucifixion of jesus well the bleeding started the night before the crucifixion when jesus was in such anxiety that he was bl sweating like drops of blood in the garden of gethsemane he was betrayed by a pretend friend named judas iscariot and he was very covert some people are very covert you don't know they're against you until they destroy you judas iscariot showed up with religious and political leaders who had never agreed on anything but they agreed on one thing and that is that jesus needed to die here's what's amazing we're so bad that jesus shows up and we think he's the bad one that's how bad we are the cross of jesus shows not just how good god is it shows how bad we are they beat jesus they flog him the flogging oftentimes killed men it was a cat of nine tails with straps of leather they would have at the end affixed either a metal or a stone ball to tenderize the flesh a hook would dig deeply in and then they would literally rip the flesh off a man's body some historical records outside of the bible say occasionally they would catch a rib and it would literally just come flying off the man's body jesus was then forced to carry his crossbars probably a hundred plus pounds of recycled human tinder timber that had been used by other men and they put it on his baron bloodied beaten back and he's forced to carry it hear me in this through town i've been there in jerusalem within the walls of the ancient city it's called the via del rosa it means way of the cross this is where everyone would shop imagine you're going into the you're in the mall and then all of a sudden you know walking through the mall and then through the food court is some guy who's bleeding and incontinent and his mom is screaming and all the children are running from him jesus was taken through the closed narrow paths that all of the shoppers went imagine that you are you know at a store or a grocery store and you go down an aisle and there's some guy bleeding out carrying a cross being whipped by soldiers and mocked by enemies it was this is horrifying it's barbarous jesus it says though he was young and strong he fell and so the crossbar would have crushed his chest cavity medical doctors who explored this say that this would be the equivalent of a head-on car collision where no airbag deploys and no seat belt is involved and you're thrown headlong into the steering wheel he's not got a chest contusion potentially an aneurysm he's starting to bleed out without medical attention he is going to die he then gets help carrying his cross to the place where he is nailed through the most sensitive nerve centers the hands and the feet a crown of thorns is put on his head to mock him hail hail king of the jews his cross is dropped in a hole his body shakes violently next to him are two men who are being crucified most of the time at the base of their crosses would be feces and blood and urine and sweat and tears and all jesus did from the cross was say things like father forgive them he just loved even though he was hated and then he says my god my god why have you forsaken me and in that moment jesus took your place and the wrath of god was poured out on the son of god so that the grace of god could be poured out on you and you could be made a son of god we love jesus right we love jesus and jesus then says from the cross it is finished so somebody asked what do i need to do well he said it was finished you need to believe not behave it's his works not your works you need to receive his gift and not come to god with your gift see we're saved from god we're saved by god we're saved for god it's all god it's all god now if you're here and you've never received jesus christ as lord and savior you need to know that that gift is available to you he loves you if you reject that there will be nothing but judgment and wrath for you but this is the most important decision you will ever make and it's the most important relationship you will ever have because again as i told you the first two things we need to know is who god is and who we are we're a sinner god's a savior that's what we all need to know okay and so if you're here yeah i want you to meet jesus i want you to give your sin to jesus before jesus takes our best he asks for our worst i hear people all the time say why should i give god my money it's like well what he asked for first is your sin he asks for your worst before he asks for your best and he says that this is the language of paul is by his grace in chapter 3 verse 24. other translations will say that he does this freely which means without merit so here's what happens you look at the cross of jesus and we are so twisted and even modern i love pastors and i love church tonight but i do want to make a correction here the cross of jesus doesn't show how valuable we are it shows how wonderful god is and i i don't listen to christian radio a lot i did yesterday and i regret it but it is a good illustration so i'll use it somebody was singing a song that god you must have died because you can't live without me okay let me just point this out before he made us he's doing fine doing fine since he made us we've been a problem amen okay god's not heaven going i'm lonely i can't live without you he's like i was doing fine i'll help you sometimes it's even told if jesus is willing to die for you that just shows how valuable and precious and amazing you are no it shows how valuable precious and amazing the love and the grace of god is the jesus didn't go to the cross to show you how incredible you are jesus went to the cross because you're not incredible okay we've got to be careful that even when we think of the cross of jesus we're not thinking that somehow it makes us it makes our value really revealed i'll give you a strange example because i'm that kind of guy so a while back my wife grace and i we just had a birthday we went to montana for about a week and we had a great time and prayer and vision and seeking god's will for the next season of our life we're walking along this uh this really long river just covered in river rocks as far as the eye could see and i just reached down and i picked this one up and i put it in my pocket and i took it home it's now my possession it lives in my house if this rock could talk it would be really weird if it said you came all the way to montana for me no not really and you were seeking me on the beach you were just looking for me the whole time to be honest with you no why did you pick me was i the prettiest rock nope you look like all the other dried mud you know well was i was i the one with the most potential no when i was laying there was i laying there better than the other rocks nope i just made you my possession and took you home if you're a christian god just made you his possession and took you home and you can't look at him and say you know as a weird rock wood and i just introduced you to a very weird rock i kind of feel like tom hanks in that movie where he's talking to the volleyball um the point is this that that jesus has made you his possession and he is going to take you to his forever home and what that doesn't show is how incredible you are but how incredible he is see otherwise what happens is we take credit for what jesus does rather than giving god glory for what jesus does and that's going to be his next point he says really there are only two options boasting or worshiping you know what the difference between boasting and worshiping is who you're bragging on worship is where we brag on god boasting is where we brag on us if we contributed if we participated if we did something we could boast oh god chose me because he knew i chose him god chose me because i was choosing him and god chose me because i was seeking him and god was choosing me you know because he knew i had potential god chose me because he couldn't live without me that's boasting on me if it's i don't know why he picked me but it's awesome that's worshipping the goal is not to know the why the goal is to know the who okay he says it this way what then becomes of our boasting romans 3 27-28 it is excluded no boasting no bragging by what kind of law law of works what i did no but by the law of faith what jesus did for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law now here's what he's saying any team that wins all the fans end up talking trash true and if you've been to a sporting event remember when we used to leave the house and go to places with other people just harking back to the old days when we did this i remember one of the first nfl games i went to after the game our team lost the other team won and we're walking out of the stadium and all of the other fans are totally talking trash to us we crushed you we destroyed you we wrecked you it's like we didn't do anything you drink beer and watch people work you did not contribute highly trained athletes were having head-on collisions while you were drinking beer your participation did not affect the outcome or score in any way we did not win okay if you're on team jesus you don't go around talking trash to everyone else but worshiping god and inviting them to do to join team jesus no because you know what jesus defeated satan sin death hell the wrath of god we worship him why don't you join us on team jesus but he's the one who gets the glory he's the one who gets the worship and what he's doing here i love this section in the protestant reformation there was something called the sola sola is the latin phrase for alone and there were some things that they said scripture alone well here he's talked so far just in this section about the law and the prophets not tradition not church authority not the pope says not we have this other book and what everybody tries to do they try to have scripture plus someone or something else the scholar over it or the mormons write their own goofy books or the jehovah's witnesses are like oh god came to pittsburgh and wrote all their books no he didn't god would never do something near steelers fans he would never do that he would never do that he's a good god [Applause] here's my philosophy my political party my ideology my gender orientation no it's scripture alone highest authority the law and the prophets it is grace alone it says by his grace as a gift it's what jesus does not what jesus does and i do it's it's not me it's all him he says it's by faith alone through faith in jesus christ i trust jesus some people trust science some people trust morality some people trust their political party those people are adorable uh some people trust their good works some people trust their karma we trust jesus we only trust jesus we always trust jesus amen amen and he's talking about christ alone and he talks about rej redemption in jesus christ it's just christ that's it that's all we got some person came up to you recently he said i've been coming for a while you always preach the same sermon good then i'm not a heretic i'm always telling you about a person named jesus and then lastly the last solo was to god be the glory and that's the no boasting that god gets all the credit the god is the savior the god is the healer the god is the deliverer and then he closes with this god works in you for you through you if i had to summarize everything paul is saying here and we'll build on in the rest of romans it's this three-fold process romans 3 29-31 is god the god of the jews only no you know what we're always for our team our political party our race our tax bracket our nationality our our gender our life stage our generation there's one god for everybody his name is jesus amen one god for everybody his name is jesus is he not the god of the gentiles also that's the rest of us non-jews yes a of gentiles also since god is one who will justify the circumcised that's the external sign by faith in the uncircumcised through faith do we overthrow the law then by faith does god save us and then we don't live for him and we don't have new lives and nothing changes by no means on the contrary we uphold the law what he's saying is this god works for you at the cross of jesus he propitiates the wrath of god from you at the cross of jesus it is received by faith in and grace from jesus christ god does a work for you at the cross of jesus god does a work in you through the presence the power and the person of the holy spirit this is where the book is driving to chapter eight if you're reading ahead and then god takes out your old heart gives you a new heart takes out the old nature gives you a new nature takes out the old desires gives you a new desire you're not perfect but you're new and then god begins this process bringing you into his eternal perfection and god along the way works through you now you're going to love somebody and god's loving them through you you're going to forgive somebody and that's god's forgiveness flowing through you you're going to impart wisdom to someone or give financial generosity of someone or extend grace to someone and that's all god's works god's work for you in you through you and now it is christ living his life through his people amen that means the christian life is the best life it's the most exciting life it's the most exciting life because it's not a list of things that we have to do so that god will love us it's a list of things that we get to do because god already loves us we're not working for the relationship we're working from the relationship and when someone loves you and you love them you want to become like them that's why we want to become like jesus now let me just land the plane and when i say that it doesn't mean i'm completing my thoughts or we're anywhere near the end it just means that you seem tired and i'm afraid you won't listen okay we hear all these big words and some of you may think okay but what does this matter some of you are very practical it matters greatly let me give you some examples if you think that it is what you do for god in part or in whole it changes how you live and how you die i'll give you a couple of examples um i was in high school did not know jesus went to a large public high school uh went to college became a christian and then i heard that a friend of mine that i went to high school with also became a christian and i didn't know any christians so i come back from break hundreds of miles away and i call up my friend and uh he was a football player he played football his whole life he's a good player i didn't start playing until high school i became quarterback he was my fullback and then on defense he was a inside linebacker and i was a free safety and so we played ball together and he taught me a lot about football because i was new to the game when i met with him he was really excited he was filled with joy and he was talking all about jesus he's like man god forgave my sin and i met jesus and he loves me and i love him and i'm reading the bible it's awesome and he was just filled with new life and as a new christian i was so excited for my friend so then i go back to college for a few months and come back for break and i call my friend and i get together and all of a sudden he started talking about all the things that we need to do for god he's like are you reading the bible i was like yeah i read it every day i love the bible he's like well you have to read the bible it's like no no you get to read the bible he's like no no god will be angry if you don't read the bible no no god loves me that's why i want to read the bible we're doing the same thing for different reasons you're working for god's approval i'm working from god's approval you're working for a relationship i'm working from a relationship it's very different go off to college come back meet him again he's like are you reading your bible yes he's like are you reading the right translation every time there was another thing to do i said well i don't read that translation i read this he's like that's not the right one i was like oh gosh so i did my research and i argued with him i go back to college i come back he's like have you been baptized i was like yes i got baptized bro he's like was it in the name of the father son and holy spirit or in the name of jesus i said it was in the name of the father son holy spirit he's like was it sprinkling or immersion oh gosh oh my gosh now now his list is growing i go off to college i come back i go to his house because he didn't answer us the call and i said uh is he here and his mom said he killed himself he was trying to do everything right and he realized he wasn't perfect so he killed himself my friend killed himself because he couldn't be jesus my friend didn't need to kill himself because jesus already died for him those of you that are works religious performance-based parents you're killing your children okay you're just you're not telling them they need jesus you're telling them they don't need jesus and they just need to be jesus and what happens in that you just keep adding things to the list until you crush them there are some people as well who they think they're going to heaven because of their works and their duty and their performance and what they're doing is they're going to hell they don't think so and they make everyone else's life hell along the way that was the apostle paul he thought he was doing great and he is literally causing hell on earth for others that's what performance works based religion becomes i'm going to hell and i make life hell for you there are other people who get into this works performance behave mindset and they literally work themselves to death for no reason when i was a young pastor many years ago there was a guy who led worship at our small church and then he offered to lead worship in a couple of our home bible studies and then i found he was leading worship worship at a college group and a singles group and a high school group and the dude's singing and playing music all the time and it just seemed weird if i'm honest because it was all the time so i sat down with him i was like dude how come you don't have a job or a girlfriend like it's nice you're freely volunteering to lead worship every minute of every day but why is it he said he said you know when i stand before god i just want to be able to tell him all the things i did for him i said brother you're not leading worship because you're worshiping you not god you're wanting people to see you perform and you want god to see you perform and you're not wanting people to see jesus and his performance i said so i asked him this old evangelistic question i said if you died tonight stood before god and he asked you why should i let you into my heaven what would you tell him he said i would tell him all the things i've done for him no brother it's jesus it's not a bad thing to serve but serving is not god's way of saving okay i met another older saint she was on the performance treadmill of behave and not believe in works and not grace i know that jesus loved her and she loved jesus as she was dying her family called me as a young pastor in my 20s i went and visited her she was in decline in hospice and she was filled with anxiety could not sleep and i looked at her i said why are you so anxious she said i'm going to die and stand before jesus i said i know isn't that awesome she's like i don't know if i'm good enough i looked at her i said you're not she almost killed her i said what jesus is and he's taking care of you you don't need to be scared to stand before jesus jesus already stood up for you she she lacked a peace and an assurance that she she really needed and the last one it gives assurance to people that have no right to have any sense of assurance they're not worried about heaven hell and god and they should be first funeral i did i was in my 20s i had to go buy a suit i didn't have one as a new pastor i show up to this funeral i'm out in the parking lot beforehand and there's a group of guys and i just wander over it's one of those awkward moments and i was like so so how did you know this one so they're like oh we work for him don't say his name i said i'm sorry for your loss they're smoking cigarettes they're like oh actually he was our boss we heard he died we're really glad about that we're just here to make sure he's dead they're like what are you where are you here i was like i'm the pastor welcome you know it's awkward so ah i didn't do that and uh so then i'm co-officiating the funeral with another minister that i don't know so they bring in his dead body open casket put it in front of us there's a minister standing next to me he's tall guy much older wearing a dress and he talks first okay and he says well we know he didn't really have any interest in god and didn't really you know have any time for god but thankfully when he was a baby we baptized him here in the church so we're all glad to know he's in heaven now and mark would like to say words i was like i'll mark and think of is four letter words i can't think of any other words what this dude in the dress just said was you can be a sinner by nature and choice totally depraved under the wrath of god separated from god unrepent dead in your transgressions but if a dude in a dress does this you're fine and jesus isn't in heaven going i wasn't gonna let you in i was gonna send you to hell but you're wet so you won't burn i guess i gotta let you in now it doesn't work like that okay so i'm gonna bring the band up we're gonna sing and have some fun okay here's the big idea our trust is in jesus our hope is in jesus our righteousness is in jesus our heaven is in jesus it's all jesus it's only jesus if you have jesus you have everything if you have jesus you have nothing amen and what he says is don't be boasting be worshipping and so what we're not going to do is sing a song about you okay right we're gonna sing a song about jesus and all he's done for us so let me pray and we will sing father god we come to you now in the strong saving secure name of jesus christ the name that is above every other name and god our whole prayer and goal is not to boast in us but to worship him to brag on him to celebrate him holy spirit if any of us have jesus plus anything please rip that from us so that we can trust in him alone if any of us have not received jesus may this be the day of our salvation where we empty our hands of our performance where we empty our hands of our morality where we empty our hands of our spirituality where we empty our hands of our religion and we have it filled with the grace of god in jesus christ in whose name we pray love you thanks guys you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 7,922

Rating: 4.8778625 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: 0ZOMC2n-Hps

Length: 71min 30sec (4290 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2020