3 Circles - The Gospel

The Gospel, the one thing that can save us from ourselves.

No matter the life we may live, their Is always one certain truth.

We will finnd ourselves in sin at some point.

It is unavoidable, no matter how much we may believe that we do not fall trap to sin, we are simply broken.

Try as we may, we fail.

John 3:16–21 KJV 1900

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Here is that miracle I want to talk about today though…

I. God Made a Way Out of Our Brokenness.

Thsir was one truth that came along with our sin.

Our sin not only broke us but it broke the world.

When Adam and Eve sinned the world began to see the consequences of that sin.

One of the first consequences of that sin was found when…

» God promised that a man would “bruise” the enemy’s head (Genesis 3:15).

to quote Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 KJV 1900

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

the truth of this is found in that their would now be a battle between Satan and those who seek to live for Christ.

He will now seek to temp mankind.

As we see what this brokenness has done to the world around us that then poses the question.

What did God need to do about this?

As he saw sin enter his creation God could’ve given up on us.

His creation had failed him by sinning, they had departed his design and began to live a life that was pleasing unto their own fles and not unto Him.

But God thankfully did not give up on us!

he began to determine a path for us to get back to him.

The first institution of this plan was animal sacrifice….

» God sacrificed an animal—shed its blood—to make coverings for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21).

Genesis 3:21 KJV 1900

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

God sacrificed the animal, and made clothes out of it for Adam and Eve.…

» This is the protoevangelium or “first gospel.”

Ths first blood shed had set apart and example of to Adam and Eve.

In order for man to be clothed and be made pure, this animal had to die.

The precedent that this set was that in order for mankind to achieve purity their must be blood shed.

This carried on for the foreseeable future.

Man was broken and this was symbol of that brokenness.

But this first gospel could only go so far.

God found another way, a way that show’s how much he really cared for his creation….

» God loves us and sent His one and only Son to shed His blood and cover sin once and for all (John 3:16, Hebrews 10:10-14).

This was the hope that the world needed.

That a world of sin could find a way to redemption that no longer required a constant blood sacrifice.

The only way to solve this however, was that our God had to gI’ve his son for us.

Now think back, when we sinned, God could have ended it all.

He could have ended us.

But instead, even in our sin, he loved us.

Because he loved us so much he gave us the Gospel, and…

II. The Gospel is Simply: Jesus Died for Our Sins, was Buried and God Raised Him from the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Let’s talk about Jesus’s story for a moment.

Brought to this earth as the messiah through a virgin birth he was all man and God.

He did something none of us have ever been able to do, nor will ever be able to do and that is to live a perfect sinless life on this earth.

In his years of life Jesus was the one human who was never “broken”

Now the truth of the hope he brings us is found in his death just as much as his life.

After living this perfect singles life he was brought to cal Aries cross on charges of blasphemy

Upon being found guilty of the crime he did not commit our Jesus was mocked and abused before he wasled to the cross of Calvary where he was hung and killed

This hope is the one truth that can save us.…

» The gospel saves us from our sins (Romans 1:16).

The gospel is simply our only hope to become whole again.

I will remind us of the thought from last week.

We are a “hum toy dumpty world”

Pour Humpty Dumpty, no matter how hard everyone tried to put him back together they just couldn’t

All the king’s horses and all the kings men tried but they couldn’t

All of us have tried friends.

Day in and day out we have tried to find a way to be whole again.

But we can look day in and day out, it will do us no good until we repent and believe.…

III. We just have to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).

Until we do this we will find ourselves in a constant search.

Trying to find the next best thing or the next best person.

We must make the decisions o repent and believe in him if we are ever going to see our lives be made whole again.

Here is the issue for many of us.

We want to see what Gd can offer us and not what we cab offer him.

As we have witnessed the story of redemption today our failure often comes in that we still see it as that God owes us and not that we have failed him.

As we obviously see here, we have failed him.

So our failure requires repentance.

That word repentance holds more to it that just forgiveness though…

» Repent means to change—to turn from our sins and turn to Jesus.

When we repent we are seeking a new life.

A different life.

We no longer live in the condemnation of our sin.

We now live in the grace of God.

For one who lives in the grace of God, we want to please our God.

Here is the truth, when we sin we go back to our brokenness, we live a life that is unpleases and separates us from god.

You see all of this comes back to us.

What God did for us is set in stone.

He died on the cross so that we could have an opportunity to live.…

» God doesn’t condemn us—we’re already condemned because of Genesis 3.

You seek in our condemnation God doesn’t seek to leave us in this place.

He doesn’t seek to forget us

God’s desire is not that we would perish

2 Peter 3:9 KJV 1900

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God’s desire for you, his desire for I is to see us repent and return to a life lived for him as he intended for our ancestors Adam and Eve…

(Remove this one from slides)

» God wants to save us (John 3:17-21).

and after that….

IV. God helps us recover and pursue His design for our lives.

So let’s reflect a bit to the three weeks here, God designed us all as a human race to have a relationship with him.

He set the garden of Eden with hopes that Adam and Eve would live in his design and he has the same hopes for us today

That we as his people would seek to recover his design for our life which is to live in constant communion with him.

To walk with the father, to talk to the father, to simply live with God The Father.

Think of some of the barriers that may stand in our own way from living that design.

You see when we become saved God removes they barriers from our life….

» He removes the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

Ezekiel 36:26 KJV 1900

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Here we are reminded of the evil of our heart.

The desires that are not of God.

The hatred, the anger, the lusts, the addictions,

Our heart has been made corrupt by the sin of the world.

But the most amazing blessing is that God has promised when we repent and believe in him we can be given a new heart.

We can remember that we do not have the power to clean our heart or give ourself a new one.

only God does that.

Through this clean heart we can have a way back to his design…..

Secondly

» His Spirit indwells and empowers us.

You see when Jesus ascended into heaven he left us with a gift on this earth

Acts 1:8 KJV 1900

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

He left us the power of his Holy Ghost

This gives us hope hat we may do what we once saw as impossible.

His spirit will lead us and guide us and make it possible.…

Third,

» He restores us to the way we were supposed to be—He reconciles us—repairs what was broken (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 1900

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

You see, what God does for us is create in us a new man or woman.

One that is no longer corrupted by their sin and brokenness.

Through this path we can finally achieve God’s Design in our own life.

Then, he leaves us with one faithful truth.

One of the most important things in this world.

You see, we have been made new, in being made new….

» Now we are God’s ambassadors to a broken world

So the choice is yours now.

You most certainly find yourself in one walk of life or the other.

If you find yourself saved today, you say “God’s Design” is where I’m at.

I’ve repented and believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You see, now as God’s ambassador you have to take this truth to the ends of the earth.

I pray today you say “i have been taking this truth” but if you find yourself stagnant, not carrying this hope, come to the foot of the cross today, pray for opportunities to speak this truth.

Pray that God would place people in your life that need to hear this truth.

And pray that he would give you the courage to tell this truth.

But maybe today all of this was new to you.

The concept that you are broken, the truth that you need a savior.

You thought you were doing pretty good only to realize today you were not.

Today is the day of salvation.

Don’t wait another day without repenting and believing in what Christ has done and begin a new life today as you seek to recover God’s Design for you.