February 14, 2016

We been talkin about the gospel itself the past few weeks. What is really a series on what's essential in my mind to Christianity, which is a very relevant question because we can spend a lot of time and energy on non-essential sometimes in the Life of George. We can write entire books even encyclopedia says, it seems like almost on non-essential issues and explore lots of interesting areas. But sometimes we spend a lot of energy on non-essentials and I think it's valuable to say let's make sure we have under our belt with great clarity. What is the heart of Christianity? What is essential to Christianity? What is non-negotiable because we are living in a culture that is ever in in an increasing way pressuring us to give up parts of our faith. Can you agree with that? Do you feel like our culture is pushing in on the church and pushing in on Christianity and pushing in on personal belief and religious beliefs and saying you know, what? Why don't you just compromise that why don't you just too, so there's more and more pressure oil pressure switch makes it crucial for us to understand what's essential. What are those things that we cannot ever compromise because there are some things in which we can be flexible on because we want to build bridges in relationships and we don't want to say well if you don't take communion every Sunday, there's something wrong with you, you know, we want to understand the difference between things that we value and we treasure but things that are under go shovel. So what we're talking to in order to understand those things the best way to do it is to hammer down what's non-negotiable. What is essential for several weeks about what is essential we've been talking about the gospel itself won. The gospel is historical. This is an essential reality an essential part of Christianity. We can never depart from the conviction and the proclamation that the gospel. What is based on historical reality? It's in historical event. Jesus Christ came in the flesh talk live. Did Miracles was crucified and resurrected and started the church and priest after that. That's the historical facts the death burial resurrection of Christ. That's a non-negotiable. Paul even says if Christ was not resurrected we of all people are to be pitied and so the reality of the physical true and real death of Christ and the physical true real reality of his resurrection and the preaching of that truth is essential to Christianity into the gospel itself. We teach the good news of the completed work death burial and resurrection of Christ on the cross not moral advice until Christianity isn't just a system or a way to improve your life. It's not just a list of laws or advice or rules to follow to a bay in order to be blessed or somehow get the universe to bless you or God to bless you. It's ultimately a proclamation of Anna storical event. That's crucial to our faith the gospel generates worship. We talked about that. We dwell upon believe place our faith in the goodness of God revealed in the gospel of Christ. And God's goodness outshines are human Idols. This is essential to understand also because our attention and our devotion is on that historical reality God's character demonstrated through the Life of Christ the answer to the question. What is God Almighty like is answered in Christ when Christ came and walked Among Us dwelt Among Us. He said if you seen me you have seen the father and so Christ reveals the goodness of God and it's our dwelling Upon Our placing our faith in the truth that Christ revealed about God that generates worship that draws us forth to be obedient to be disciples to be followers. We follow not out of a sense of all that God is angry and powerful and we better follow or were in trouble or if we do follow them. Adsum house in debordieu us a nose essential rewards instead. We follow out of all out of the sense of God's goodness in his greatness in the wonder. If it was I who he is we talked about this before Romans 2:4 says it is the kindness of God that draws our hearts to repentance for him. And so the gospel rightly understood generates worship and as we fully see the goodness and greatness of God his goodness begins to overpower begins to outshine the Sims and The Temptations & the idols that we want to sometimes put on the Thrones of her heart and that's how we grow and transformation Paul talks about this and Corinthian tell the glory of God revealed to Moses. And now the glory of God is real morphle in Christ and his we look upon that glorious as we see his goodness. We are transformed Paul says in printed and that's how God works in our life the more we open our eyes to the completeness in the fullness of the Gospel the goodness and the amazing nature of God in his life in his character the more we are drawn Wii Marvel, we are gripped by He is going to see his character more than we are the false substitutes in this world the idols that sometimes make their way into our hearts and want to take over the throne when we dwell upon Christ we draw away from them and told him we talked last week about how the gospel is Christ centered. We see that Jesus is the substance of every 4 shadow of God's plan and purpose now, if you're here at the start of the service, we played that audio that we were in last week about Jesus being the true and better Adam who won his temptation in the garden and it was a tougher garden and whose righteousness was imputed see the true and better able whose blood calls out not for us to be condemned but for us to be freed, So that the beauty of that that sort of poem of A Sort that we read last week. We played at the beginning of pointing out. This fact that Jesus is the true and better the trajectory of scripture ends at the cross ends in the person of Christ. He is the Fulfillment of God's plan his heart. So we see this we see the Jesus is the substance of every 4 shadow of God's plan and purpose the true and better Adam Exedra God's heart and mind made flash flash God's will be done until the gospel is Christ centered. And again, that's essential its historical. It calls forth from us a response of worship and adoration and the following God and is centered around Christ himself. Not a system of rules. Not even the book of the Bible itself. The Bible serves the purpose of leading us and pointing us to Christ. Amen. We could study the Bible and not find Christ. And that what he said to the Pharisees you search the scriptures and you don't see me. So it's never an end in itself simply to be people of the book. We are to be people of Christ followers of Christ people who have discovered him and he's great truths about him in the scriptures. They've let us to him they pointed out to him and we falling down on our knees before him and we want to follow him as our Lord and savior. The gospel is christ-centered. I want to continue this morning talking about the gospel and talk about the fact that the gospel is personal. 1st Peter 1:3 says blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in his great Mercy has given us a new in the Living Hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

And my clicker has stopped here. Let's see never go. The gospel is personal. It's both life challenging and life-changing. Now it when Peter talks about us having New Birth realize that new birth is not self-help. We don't both ourselves. We don't make ourselves born again through our own efforts. You can make yourself a Buddhist. You can just decide one day. They start falling Buddhism. You can make yourself into an atheist. You can just Embrace that and go down that path. We don't make ourselves born again. It's the work of God that we accept we place our faith in the Christ in the cross and what God has done and when we believe and we trust it to work that God begins to do in our life is not simply one religion among others that we simply choose. It's so New Birth is not self-help. That's why we talked about. It's news not advise. If it was a vice then we could say well, you know, I look at the advice in the Bible and I pushed up my sleeves and I decided I'm going to be a Christian and I just started doing all those things. And now I'm a Christian to be a Christian means you place your faith in something other than yourself your own efforts. The very opposite of being self-made or self-help is trusting God with your salvation, but we are with all that said it's still the case that you and I are confronted by the gospel message. And this is what I mean by saying the gospel is personal. It's not all and exclusively out. There is some sort of theology that we think about and ponderance. I will I accept that I agree with that the gospel confronts everyone of us every human being personally with its message. Think about the message of the Gospel to understand the gospel to allow it to confront us. We have to understand the size of our debt to a holy God. That's part of the reality of the Gospel that God is Holy and that you and I have lives and hearts that often choose their own path that often thumb their nose at God that often Embrace selfishness that often embraced Lifestyles and living that hurts others. We are marked by sin in the face of a holy God. That's all we have to understand the size of the debt that we had before God's in order to fully understand the gospel itself. There was a teacher. Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones who used to teach a Evangelistic Leanne gospel essence of Pastors in the in the 50s in England and he always used to tell the story. He said look you have to understand the size of the bill that you have in order to understand your response. Is it look if you come to me one day and you said hey, I was at your house the other day and I I paid a bill for you. They said I need to know how big that bill was. I mean did the postman come by and say there's a dollar fifty do on this packaging and I got a dollar fifty out and paid for you and I can sell well thank you very much or to the IRS show up with that thing. I've been avoiding for a decade. And and did you pay a bill who size is so large that the only appropriate response for me is to fall down on my knees and start kissing your feet. I can't believe you paid that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you that that's part of what's necessary for us to understand. The gospel is to understand the size of the debt that has been paid for you. And I that's what I was getting at last week. When I talked about the m i n n I use language that I wouldn't normally used in my sermon Ty I was on for cold medicines in my defense but but the drama of that passage any of my eighth went when Israel comes back in the law is riddle and it's just after their 70 years of Exile was when this passage occurs in the MIAA. They've been in Exile they come back they gather together. Jerusalem is in trouble. They they break out the law and they read it and there's been a famine for the word. It says in that passage so they haven't heard the word red in so long because they been in Exile and when the word is Red from early in the morning until noon, they read through the law and the prophets the people are so overwhelmed and so crushed by the reality of their send they look around and they realized this city is in trouble because of us the nation was lost because of us. Turn red again against God sent profit after Prophet begging us to repentance begging us to turn the right direction. And we murder the prophets. We ran them out of town. We killed if we disobeyed God repeatedly until her own life were ruined until the very nation and culture we lived in was ruined and so the weight of that sin is crushing them. They realize that that they have before God and they're sobbing uncontrollably and someone the leader stand up and say don't weep they do say what in the world. You're what are you talkin about? How can you say to us don't weep The gravity of our sin the dad that we all holy God is overwhelming. It's crushing us. And so as a as the passage says any of my eight they are grieving they are Weeping and they understand in that moment, but that they have to a holy God. We're also confronted with the gospel. We have to understand the fullness of the gospel and not just stop there. Sometimes were tempted just to stop there with the debt and kind of sing about the cross and worship the cross in such a way that we don't talk about more than God paying our debt, but we have to understand the fullness of the Gospel. We also have to understand not just a debt that we owed but you have to understand the magnitude of the provision that God has provided to Jesus not only died one author put it this way the death you should have died. He also live the life you should have lived in this is what you hear me emphasize in preaching lot Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because Jesus not only died the death that you and I Deserve to die just like those folks in the mih were crushed by their by their sin by their grief. They understand the weight of what they've done and their responsibilities and their way down there that death is what they deserved. They understand that and that's the reality for you and I are sins Marcus. Let's just be honest. This room is full of sinners. Right now it's not who we are. It doesn't Mark us if we've given our life to Christ. We've been given this new identity. But the reality is we didn't come to Christ as people who would somehow manage send on our own pretty darn well food somehow fix their own sim problem and then came to Christ and said you're getting a pretty good deal with me instead If we're honest we can start having tests on his right now and I bet it would be you know what I try to manage my own life and guess what happened it became unmanageable. I was weighed down by my own failures. I was waiting down by my own since I came to this point my life when I said I need Jesus. I'm not all of us have them, This Christ is our Lord. We realized that send had this great price and it's a truth was we couldn't pay it. It was crushing us as for the gospel is not only that God paid the price for our sense, but he provided a way for an unrighteous people and Unholy people to be declared righteous. That's why I say we're no longer Sinners. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. His righteousness is imputed to us. It's given to us so that we made holy and we become his people Nehemiah 8 again because I love that passage. Not only do they say to those who are Weeping because of the death of their sin. They say to them. Stop weeping this day is Holy.

I think about that for a moment. That doesn't fit in my mind the normal stereotype. We have of what Holiness should produce in sinners. The way we normally take about Holiness is I would think darn right? You better be weeping. There's a holy God come around the corner. You better be hiding under rocks. You better be shaking with tear you better be so full of fear, but your sobbing uncontrollably and that's what they're doing. That's their understanding we are on holy people in the face of a holy God and then the leaders get up and they say stop weeping today is Holy. And again, that's what you want to say. What what are what what what do you know that? I don't know. What are you talkin about leaders that you can declare this day in which we are crushed by the weight of our sin when we realize how far we are from God in this Hall is how can you call this day? Holy and then when you read the rest of that passage and am I ate and then a 9 you realize their focus turns away from them and toward God and they have a celebration of God. They pray this prayer that recites all of God's faithfulness in the history of Israel. And their point is to say what I said last week the joy of who God is who the holy God is in light of your sin. Meaning. He's a holy God who takes the send himself. He's a holy God who offers Grace and forgiveness the light of the truth that your directory from the Old Testament all the way to the Cross of Christ. The truth that God is providing a way for you and I the reality of that Is our strength that is one of those beautiful passage in scripture because that towel and Unholy people stand in the presence of a holy God through his provision for them. God has provided a way for you and I to be the church to be his people to be a little Christ as the early church was called on Face the Earth to be righteous. To be God's goodness. He has provided the way for you and I Sometimes I think we get kind of unbalanced some believer sometimes Focus only on the debt paid which can lead to a thank you Jesus. I'll take it from here to Spirit almost whenever whenever quite that that brags about the whole thing. But sometimes if we focus purely on the debt that was paid, sometimes we can't we can have this trash anywhere we say I know Jesus died on the cross for me. He paid it all my debts are paid. I've been saved. And now from this point on it's up to me to keep my salvation by behaving properly if you needed any Christians ever think that way about their walk with God and so sometimes if you only focus on the debt that was paid you can slip into this Christianity where you say, thank you for salvation, and I'm going to work really hard from this point on a being a pretty darn good Christian a pretty darn good person. And if you're not careful that could slip you into kind of a legalistic amoralism and isolationist way of approaching the Christian Life. Do you see that? North America doll DC that were some say we're so afraid of compromising that will just circle the wagons and we'll just have nothing to do with you and that's that you hear me preach about it. That's why we won't smoke drink or two or gold girls. Who do we want dance or go to the movie house and we can slip into the sort of isolationist approach and behind that I slice this approach is this fear this anxiety in my opinion about our Salvation itself. I must stay out of the movie house. I must not play the card game. I must live a certain sort of moral life because my very salvation depends on it. Guess what? I just said heresy. I just blurted out heresy that is alive and well in many a heart in the church. Where we walk with God in such a way that we still have this anxiety that our Salvation depends on us that somehow we must live such a moral life that we passed the test everyone else who doesn't live like I do they're going to hell I saw him playing cards. I saw him with long hair. I saw him doing this I saw him doing that too, and I'm not like that. And so that's the person that's a thinner and I'm the person that's not a sitter that somehow keeping this walk myself to see how crazy that is. You see the Christ never modeled that once in his life. You see how dangerous it is to slip into that one-sided where we only celebrate the debt that was paid and we leave it at that and we think well, I got mine. I'm going to keep my nose clean and good luck everybody else. I sure hope you get saved, but I got to stay away from you and the likes of you because I got to keep myself wholly. Is if you could keep yourself, holy. Do you understand the logic of this if you could keep yourself wholly then that would be what is required of you. And God would not have allowed his son to pay the price that he paid. If you and I could keep our self holy than the gospel would be keep yourself. Holy.

But we cannot. We had to be rescued. had to be you understand that don't you? You can't save yourself. How hard you try and some of your a lot better than some of the others? Don't mishear me? There are good people and there are some that are just 10 sweet or there's some of you that have other people in this room that are that are a million miles ahead of you in terms of Sweetness in Christ likeness, right? There's some really good sweet people in this room that love the Lord but scripture says that even our best Deeds are like filthy rags before God's righteousness. There's none not one all have sinned and fallen short of the goodness of God, and so everyone of us. Have to be saved we have to be rescued. We need Christ to redeem us and sometimes we just focus on the debt in such a way that we say. I'll take it from here. The other side of the spectrum some Believers Focus only on the provision fight provided which can lead to a faith only Faith separated from their very lives. Sometimes we could say all this good news sound so good that that's great. I'll just trust God now go about my life and they almost have nothing to do with God other than this moment, you know, once saved always saved sometimes can become I've met people that was saved when I was nine. You know, when I want to say well if you'd quit hitting your spouse there, let's talk about how Jesus might impact your life right now. I got saved a long time ago. I got saved when I was 9 years old and it's just that sometimes we have this life where we say. I got saved in this that and it's completely separate from the restaurant if you ever met the Christian like that, They just say it's almost completely compartmentalize they slip into this look Jesus provided for me, but that's the end of it. It's never going to really make a difference in my life. I'm never going to stop struggling with this. I never going to stop behaving this way. I'm just going to be this person from right now to the grave and then Jesus is going to say why you got that vaccinations when you were nine at camp and so you're good. It's the same sort of deformation of the Gospel itself of Christianity where we slip into that where we accommodate almost completely when is live in that direction. It can lead in accommodating Christian walk that leaves the Christian and those they come in contact with nearly completely unchanged. What language is a little more for me or do you know people who are Christians but the reality is their life's or unchanged?

It hasn't really challenged them to struggle with their sins to go a certain distance. It hasn't changed the way they spend their money. It doesn't change what they watch on TV. It hasn't changed anything about their lives. But sometimes we make that. Mistake, you know, sometimes we go too far and isolating herself in trying to make our own form of righteousness. But sometimes we go to the other ditch away from the gospel itself and say, why does that matter at all, you know face only and I'm not going to worry about any of that and the reality is it requires a balance between both of those to understand the gospel that God not only Paid a Debt for us. We should break our hearts that we have sin but needed to be paid for and the magnitude of it, but he also provided for our righteousness so that we can follow him. He didn't provide for our righteousness and pay our debt so that we could go your own way and do our own thing. He paid our debt and provided for our righteousness so that we could walk in the path. He designed us to walk so that we could more and more know the flourishing that he created us to have so that our marriages could be rich and blessed so that we couldn't have the tendons of money in our hearts and souls the way our culture sometimes Longs for us to have so that we could be free from the love of money so that we can be open-handed and generous that we could overcome some of the sin that are like a boot on our necks that destroy our relationships are career our livelihood that we could walk with him. We can have life that are transformed. Do we have to keep both those together? Sometimes we think well, you know, we'll just change the gospel. Sometimes there's there's conservatives it want to change the gospel and they want to say no. No, this is the gospel, you know, he was all these rules and the gospel is you have to keep all these rules or you're not a good person. That's not the gospel. The gospel is not moral advice. And no human being has the right to change the gospel to create a list of rules that says this what's makes a good Christian this what makes a bad Christian this what makes you acceptable this what makes you an example and I'm going to be the gatekeeper that checks all the rules whether you're doing or not. That's a travesty. That's heresy. That's a changing of the Gospel itself and no human being can do that liberals can make the same mistake. They can say let's just change the gospel. You don't we can't really talk about Sin and and tell people how to live their lives and tell him that they're going to go to hell and in the wrath of God can't we just bury all that and not talk about it now. That's part of the Gospel. We all of us have a debt to God because of our sin. And that's part of the truth and I do somebody a disservice if I don't answer for them and our conversation in a loving relationship speaking the truth in love. If I don't dare to open up that can of worms are saying, you know why you don't do the very things that you want to do. You know why your marriage might suffer or your relationships might suffer because you like me have sinned in your heart. And you have a tendency to go in the opposite direction of what God has designed you to do and that and that send you got a debt to God. You've racked it up just like me this debt to God. We cannot accommodate when you start to accommodate. So when I just don't want to be a bag, I don't want to be heavy-handed. I don't want to talk about seeing nobody likes talk about you're actually being unloving and not helping that person with the fullness of the truth of the Gospel. But we can't make the mistake of going in either direction and rewriting the gospel. We can't do it. Anyway, the gospel can't be changed. Let's watch a simple understand that the gospel is news. Is the proclamation of a historical event is what God did through Christ it's not advise if it's advice that I could just change it but it was just more advice or more system. We can change the advisor change the system in order to accommodate folks with your comment in folks that are overly conservative or folks that are overly liberal. It's the same thing your accommodating your compromising the gospel. The truth is you can't do that anyway, because the gospel is what it is. It's the proclamation of the event in history that God came and provided a way for our Salvation through Jesus Christ. And the reality is all of us have that debt that needed to be paid and Christ offers to pay it and all of us have that provision for righteousness that we need and Christ and Pewds and humans his righteousness to us understand the whole gospel. Our debt paid in a righteous is provided. It's crucial to the life-changing work of God in our lives. I'm about to worship team to come forward and will end on this. We have to understand both those truths for God to get a foothold in our hearts and in our lives if we only think of it as a debt that was paid. But from this point on it's up to us to somehow live a good life on our own strength. Then we really won't understand the magnitude of what God has provided for us. We won't understand it at 11 that our hearts are moved and broken and turn to him and if we only stay well Jesus has provided it and we don't really think seriously about our sin and our need for the provision. Then we'll have it easy believism that doesn't really change our lives or the lives of others around us. The reality is to understand the gospel, and I want to ask you this question. Do you understand the debt that you have to a holy God?

Do you understand that when we see hardship in this world when we see tragedy when we see pain and Brokenness that the reality is. Those are caused by humans. Those are caused by sin and Brokenness and that in our own way. We're all part of that. Sometimes were part of Injustice because of the way we live our lives. Sometimes the things we choose to watch on. Our computers are TV sets and power sex trafficking and slavery all over the world.

Sometimes the way we spend our money and power people to go hungry.

Because we simply only think of ourselves.

Sometimes we hurt our marriage is through selfishness then by related. being selfish in your marriage

If we're really honest, sometimes we hurt our children through selfishness.

And I'm not trying just to throw a wet blanket. I'm just trying to say part of the reason the gospel is good news is because it speaks to the reality of our condition. We don't have to pretend that we're not broken people. We don't have to pretend that we don't have a debt to God we do and he knows it and knows it very well and yet he came to pay that debt for us part of the reason Jesus cried out in the garden. Is there any way is there any way that this cup can pass for me is was that cup contained thus in the darkness the bitterness the evil that we managed to bring in their own hearts and into this world that God has given us and Jesus drink that cup. He took the wrath of God. He paid that price. If you know you have a debt to God and you've not called Upon Jesus to pay it for you. This is the time to do that. To come forward during the song and accept the offer that he wants to pay your debt, but it's more than that. Do you realize that Jesus gives you his righteousness that he imparts to you his standing before God that when you accept his payment for your sent you not only get that you get a provision for your righteousness that it's not a matter of saying well I got saved now it's up to me to live some sort of send this life between now and the grapes and said prices you not only but I paid your price but my righteousness is imparted to you you can stand before God as if you were me and he will look down and say my beloved son or daughter. anybody want to give that is and it's in the freedom of that position no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus that God the Father invites us to reach out like a child and take his hands and learn from him and walk with him and become more and more of who is calling us to be to move away from sin to let that amazing kindness that he's displayed draw our hearts to turn toward him. Do you realize that that you don't just get saved and then try to figure out how to do it on your own when you allow him to pay the price. He also provides your righteousness. So that the very moment your Saviour in right standing before God, it's not one year later when you learn to be a really good Christian to read your Bible everyday and goes to church every time the doors open. It's the moment you trust Christ. Your sins are paid for and his righteousness is important to you. If you've not made that decision during this song make that decision, I'll be in the back. You can come talk with me about joining the church or making that decision or prayer. Did you have the prayer team will be both in the back and the front if you have a pretty come to them for all of us is a chance for us just to worship god with the song we're going to sing to be reminded of the truth of the Gospel the wholeness of the gospel and to let that prick our hearts to let that call forth from us devotion obedience. Following Christ because of his Beauty because of the beauty of the Gospel to be drawn to him. Please stand as we sing.