Righting the Wrongs

Many of our relationships, if not all of them are tattered and scared by all the times people have hurt us or abused us in some form or fashion. And just like a flag being whipped around in the wind we are supposed to bounce back and be new again. We are full of manipulative relationships where people really just want something from us and if they don’t get it, they get angry with us. But just like that flag there is evidence of the abuse. There are rips and strains and sometimes pieces are missing. These are pieces of our heart.

So what if you could “right the wrongs” that have been done to you. What if you could look at your family, your spouse, or even your neighbor with new eyes. Not worried about what they had done to you, not holding in grudges or animosity toward them. Being secure enough in yourself that forgiveness would come more natural to you. I believe we would live in a different world.

Now think about God for a moment. Think about all the times we have wronged Him. How many times God has shown mercy and pardon in our lives. All the times we put him on the back burner until we need something. Then WE become the manipulators. The only time we talk to Him or fellowship with Him is when we need something and even then we demand it and get angry with Him if we don’t get it.

If we treated each other the way we treat God all of our relationships would be broken. People would see right through us. Is God any less than Man.

This is true because God is a relational God. He is a God of feeling and emotion. He can be sad, and angry. He shows companion and mercy. He forgives and he punishes.

God is a relational God. He has the ability to love the unlovely. He is a God of feeling and emotion. He can be sad, and angry. He shows compassion and mercy. He forgives and He punishes. Any emotion that you have, you have as a reflection of the one that created you.

So how does God do it? Why doesn’t he, in His wrath, just kill us all and be done with it? Why are His mercies new every morning?

It’s not only because God is love, but that love demanded a sacrifice. Someone had to pay for the broken relationship. Recompense had to be made. Restoration could not be attained until the balance of emotion, strife, pain, and separation were settled.

This is something we are unable to do. Every time we try and fix a relationship we just end up breaking it more. Have you ever tried to go to a person and reason out a problem and you end up just making it worse. This is the best we can offer God. We have no solutions for our sin. We have no way to “Right the Wrong” we have done against God. Our relationship with God left in our hands is completely broken. (Pause for dramatic effect)

But I have some good news this morning. There is a word that we find in the Bible that changes everything about our relationship with God. One phrase that can completely restore your relationship with God and “Right all the Wrongs” that He has against you.

The word is an old Anglo-Saxon word that comes from the phrase “God’s Spell.” God has done something that we could never do. He has found a way for sinners to be cleansed, for the unrighteous to become righteous again, and for the broken to be made whole.

It’s Called “the Gospel.” Oh you are not hearing me this morning, It’s Called “The Gospel.”

The definition of the Gospel is simple enough. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ.

The implications of the Gospel are so far reaching that it saves even the most destitute soul and builds a sure foundation on which we stand and can stand for all eternity.

The Gospel cannot be wrapped up in a song or fully expounded on a Sunday morning.

The Gospel has the power to save your souls from hell and allow you to experience heaven on Earth.

The Gospel is the love story of God sending his only Son Jesus to “right every wrong” and pay every penalty of mankind. “For by his stripes we are healed.”

The Gospel is the way, the truth, and the life, by which we are restored to God again. I hear the word gospel today when Jesus is never mentioned. Let’s just be clear: There is no Gospel without Jesus Christ. He is the gospel and the power of it.

This is the good news that we proclaim. The Gospel is the reason for Easter morning. But you can’t have an Easter morning before a Thursday at Noon. When the clouds drew dark and the wrath of God was poured out on His Son and every “Wrong was made Right.”

This is our declaration. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of the entire world. People have left the comforts of home and the security of family to proclaim this good news around the world. People have given their lives so that others may have life through the power of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the reason we build relationships at Allgood Elementary.

The Gospel is the reason why 10 of us are traveling to Mombasa, Kenya in two weeks to go hut to hut telling people of this good news.

The Gospel is the reason we go door to door in our community as IMPACT did yesterday.

The Gospel is the reason we support our friends in Arminia that minister in that part of the world.

It is the good news that Jesus Christ has “Righted the Wrongs” we had against God and has made us righteous in his sight.

Look with me at the words of Paul in as he proclaims the Gospel. and as your turning I want you to think about this truth.

When the Gospel is proclaimed people call on His name.

1 Corinthians 15:1–2 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

1 Cor

I could write a whole sermon out of this one verse: You must receive, stand, hold fast, and preach the gospel.

A. We are called to proclaim the gospel.

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Rom 10:14

B. Through the proclamation of the gospel people are saved.

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Rom

1. One must believe that Jesus is the Lord of Lords.

2. One must believe that Jesus has conquered death by raising from the dead.

2. One must confess

3. One must confess his or her sin and ask for forgiveness.

When the Evidence is Stacked, You must React.

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1. The foundation of Christ

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 ESV

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Cor

2. The foundation is sure ()

Matthew 7:22–27 ESV

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

3. We stand in the midst of evil ()

The Evidence of the Gospel

1. Our hope is not in vain (15:14-17)

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

2. There is no salvation without the resurrection (15:19)

3. Our hope is secure in the Lord (15:20)

II. The Evidence of the Gospel (15:3-4)

A. According to the scriptures of Isaiah written 700 years before the birth of Christ.

1. Christ died for our sins (53:3-6)

Isaiah 53:3–6 ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Is 53:

Isaiah 53:3–6 ESV

2. Christ was buried (53:9)

Isaiah 53:9 ESV

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Is 53

a. Jesus was laid in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea.

3. Christ rose again (53:10-12)

A. Seen of Peter ()

B. Seen of the Twelve ()

C. Seen of 500 brothers at once (15:6)

D. Seen of Paul (15:8-10)

Isaiah 53:10–12 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

1. Born out of due time (15:8)

a) Paul saw the risen Lord ()

b) Paul didn’t walk with Christ during his ministry on Earth

2. The least of the Apostles (15:9)

a) Saul of Tarsus was a killer of Christians

b) Paul was commission by the Lord to go to the Gentiles ()

3. The grace of the Lord (15:10)

a) God’s grace gave him a purpose

b) Paul was faithful to the call ()

When you’re Cleansed by the Gospel, You want Others to be Clean.

1 Corinthians 15:11 ESV

11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

A. The power to be forgiven ()

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

B. The power to forgive

1 John 4:

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 ESV

2. Our foundation is sure.

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

1 Corinthians 15:11 ESV

11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

A. We preached ()

1 John 4:9–11 ESV

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.