Solving The Problem With No Solution

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There are some problems in life that are humanly impossible to solve.
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They just cannot be solved. One that I found online is the mathematical puzzle called the three cups problem.
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One cup is upside down, the other two cups are right side up. The objective is to turn all cups right side up in no more than six moves.
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And you must turn over exactly two cups at each move. You can try it at home, but it is impossible.
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The five room puzzle, according to math geniuses, is impossible to solve. This one just sounds impossible to solve.
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Mutilated chess board problem. Seven bridges of Konigsberg. Cannot be solved.
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Mathematical problems that they've been working on for a long, long time. And you can go to the domain of physics and the domain of computer science, and there are other problems that just cannot be understood.
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They've even got a millennium prize set up for people that can solve problems that can't be solved.
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The Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000 set up seven problems that cannot be solved, but one has been solved.
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Someone said problems that cannot humanly be solved, that problem would be human stupidity because it knows no bounds.
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That could be true. Yet Proverbs says in the Bible, Who can say
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I have made my heart pure? I am clean from my sin. Who can solve the problem of trying to deal with their own sin and solve it?
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How can someone be right with God? How can a sinner stand before God and be righteous? How can you go to heaven?
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We know we're sinful. God is so holy. How can God accept sinners into his holy heaven?
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I mean, we have a hard enough time trying to explain the Mpemba effect. It's hard for me to pronounce even.
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I can say Quirinius, but I can't say Mpemba. Mpemba, why does warm water freeze faster than cold water?
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We can hardly explain that, let alone how can a righteous God accept unrighteous people? How can
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God be the just and the justifier? Not even
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George Danzig can solve that problem. Remember George Danzig, PhD student, 1933.
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He walked into his statistics class late and he saw two problems on the board. He thought they were the homework.
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And so he did the problems, solved them, handed them in a few days late. But what he didn't know is they were not homework problems.
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They were supposed to be two problems that had no answers. And, of course, we get the movie Good Will Hunting from that.
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Albert Einstein said problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them.
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And if I wanted to expand that a little bit in the spiritual realm, problems cannot be solved with the same mind that created them.
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We need help from the outside. We need help from God to solve the problem. And that's why we celebrate
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Christmas for many other reasons as well. But the solution has been solved by God. The problem of sin has been solved.
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How can man be right with God? Well, it's going to take someone who's fully man and fully
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God. Fully man to be our representative and fully God to be our substitute. We are not doomed forever to push a rock up a hill only to have it roll down every night.
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We are not doomed to, one man said, push water uphill with a rake. God has solved the problem.
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And, by the way, when you go to the Bible, everywhere you look you see that solution. You see the
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Lord Jesus Christ both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. If this is our number one problem, how to be right with God, don't you think we'd find the solution all kinds of places?
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Not just hidden in some vague book of the Bible. Matter of fact, take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 5.
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Before we get into Hebrews this morning, I want you to see that everywhere you go from Genesis to Revelation, you see the
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Messiah found in the Bible because, of course, it's the Son of God. It's God's wonderful Son, my beloved one, as God would call
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Him, the Father would call Him. But also we need this problem solved so everywhere you go you see the solution given.
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And the solution is found in a person. You pick up the Bible and what do you find, in other words?
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You find the redemptive thread of Jesus Christ from Genesis all the way through Revelation.
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Did not Jesus Himself say in John 5 verse 39 that the
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Bible is about Him? Can you imagine anyone talking like that? What's the Bible about?
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Me. You search the Scriptures, Matthew 5, 39, because you think that in them you have eternal life.
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And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me so that you have life.
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Our Lord and Savior Jesus even said that the Bible, and He was talking about the Scriptures there, the Old Testament from Genesis to 2
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Chronicles or in the English Bible from Genesis to Malachi, all speaks about me, the Messiah.
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And, of course, He would deal with the main problem we have and that is sin. And so when you pick up the
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Bible, you should expect to find Jesus in the Bible. You should say to yourself, primarily this is a book about Jesus, not about me.
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Not about other people. I mean, sometimes we read the Bible like it's a character study. Dare to be a
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Daniel. Don't be a Jezebel. Don't be an Abel. Don't be an Ahaz.
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Read Hannah's prayer. That will teach you how to pray. Watch Jacob's struggle and that will talk about your spiritual struggle.
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If you've got a Goliath in your life, then attack that. But we don't really need the
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Bible to do that, do we? We could just look at somebody's life. We could look at Napoleon's life.
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You could read the Book of Mormon and find examples of characters of what to do and what not to do. I could even make it my own study
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Bible. I'm usually on time. I read my Bible regularly. I like to memorize the Bible. I like to study the
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Bible. Be like me. But I can't solve the sin problem and neither could
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Abraham. Neither could David. Neither could Naaman. Everything in the
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Bible points to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the good news. When you read the
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Bible, say to yourself, I should be looking for Jesus because He solves the problem. I shouldn't be trying to get into the minds of some of the people, maybe psychologically.
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What was Mary's grief like when she saw Jesus crucified? How could Peter flip -flop back and forth like some schizophrenic person?
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What was the emotional state of Judas like? Because that drives us inward and that drives us to other people instead of Jesus Himself.
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You pick up the Bible and you think this is all about the Savior and the good news provided for sinners.
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It is not primarily about being good or doing good, although I hope you do good and that you are good in Christ.
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It's about who Jesus is. And probably the biggest mistake when we read the
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Bible is we think this is a handbook for living. We're going to take this book and it's going to help me.
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How do I work on my finances? What about communication with my spouse? How about money and should
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I charge interest? What happens if a person divorces? Can they remarry? Handbook for life?
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I mean, the Pharisees thought of the Bible as that. Who sinned, this man or his parents? How do
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I get through Monday morning? That's not what the Bible is about. The Bible is about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And so please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews. And this book,
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Hebrews, is a sermon and it's about Jesus. As all the Bible is about Jesus, this sermon is especially about Jesus.
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And it's full of good news. If it was about me or my emotional state or you or Judas' or anyone else's, it wouldn't be good news.
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Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's a sermon about the high priest, Jesus.
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Jesus has been called a king. He's been called a prophet. And he's both of those.
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And in this book, he's called a priest. And we know because we've read the end of the book that he's not just the priest that makes intercession.
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He, in fact, is the sacrifice. So this morning in Hebrews 4, verses 1 and 2,
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I have two simple questions I want to ask you on this sermon. Holy day. Do you think this is a holy day?
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Somebody said, yeah. Kid answered, yes. I'm glad. Well, we have 52 holy days in the Christian calendar and this is one of them.
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Correct? Next Sunday is the next holy day. That's our Christian calendar. But we can think about Christmas today.
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By the way, last year I noticed some churches canceled service because it was on...
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Christmas was on Sunday. I say we should have two services on Sunday because it's
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Christmas Eve. Don't you? I'll see you at 530. All right. Two questions.
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Two Christmas questions. And I'll give you the questions ahead of time. What is the good news? And what is the response to the good news?
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Do we have good news? Or is every bit of news bad? And what is the response to that good news?
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Two simple questions. Hebrews 4, verse 1. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands...
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Remember, he's talking about that spiritual rest that we have before God. Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden,
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Jesus said. And I will give you rest. Rest for your souls. Enter that rest. Let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
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Verse 2. The good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
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What is the good news? And what is the response to the good news? Now, here in context, just briefly, and since this is more of a
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Christmas message and not detailed in Hebrews, I will just minimize the details.
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But here's the big picture. Israel wanted to get to the promised land. God promised them, if you believe in me, you'll get into the promised land.
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And yet they didn't believe. The promise of good news was for Israel to enter the promised land temporally and physically, but they didn't believe.
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So now the writer of Hebrews says, it's just like that in the spiritual world with forgiveness. The promise is there for all who would believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ to be forgiven. But you have to believe. That's the idea. Good news came to us just as them.
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What's the good news? Oh, you could go back into chapter 1 if you'd like to hear some good news. Verse 3, after making purification for sins, he sat down.
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Why? Because he's been raised from the dead. And he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. It's good news that Jesus purges our sins.
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It says in verse 9 of chapter 2, you want some more good news? That by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.
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He died for all kinds of people, which people in particular? Verse 10 of chapter 2. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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Israel said no to the temporal promises. They didn't believe. And therefore we have to do the opposite.
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Good news. Now, if I just were to ask you the question, what's the good news in the Bible? If you could go to one spot in the
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Bible that kind of summarized the good news, that God saves sinners, that kind of had like a condensed, kind of almost like a zip drive.
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I don't know why. Is it because WPI people attend? How many people here are from WPI or have graduated from WPI?
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Quite a few. All these kind of Fibonacci sequences and all this stuff, everything just flows through this.
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I mean, I failed engineering classes, so I switched to business. But somehow
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I just want to talk to you about zip drives and such. The place where you see good news probably the most briefly, compactly stated is 1
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Corinthians 15. So why don't we just go there for a second. Hebrews just says good news, and when
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I think of good news, I love to see it expanded here, even though briefly in 1
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Corinthians 15. So just turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Today we're talking about why Jesus came and can the problem of sin be solved?
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The answer is yes. There's good news. What is the good news?
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You've probably memorized these verses, and it says in chapter 15, verse 1, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the good news, the gospel.
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I gospeled or preached to you what you have received and what you stand, and by which you are being saved.
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If you hold fast to the word, I preached to you unless you believed in vain. And now we have the good news.
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For I delivered to you as of first importance. Everything in the Bible is important, but this is the most important thing.
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This is the biggest problem that we have, is to be reconciled to God. So this is the most wonderful, first important type of solution, which
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I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the
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Scriptures. That's the summary of good news from Paul's perspective. Hebrews is the exact same.
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Jesus the Christ, notice what it says, Christ died, that's the Messiah died.
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For anybody that says, you know what, I don't like doctrine, there's all kinds of doctrines here, the Messiah dies.
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I don't want anything supernatural for Christmas. Isn't this supernatural, where Jesus is raised from the dead? Please don't give me
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Jesus as some kind of God. Give me Him only as a moral example, a good teacher. Here He dies for our sins,
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He's a sin bearer. And the Bible talks about that everywhere, in accordance with the
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Scriptures. It's all over the New Testament, of course, but here we're talking about the Old Testament, and He was buried, raised on the third day, in accordance with the
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Scriptures. The Gospel is good news, not what I experienced, not what's happened in my life, but that Jesus, historically, outside of Jerusalem walls, died, was raised from the dead.
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The sinless Jesus, what does the text say, He died for His own sins? No, He died for our sins, because Jesus was sinless.
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And that, as a matter of fact, He was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. God the
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Father raised Him. If Jesus was a sinner, God wouldn't have raised Him, He would have punished Him. But Jesus was sinless, and God confirmed
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His death by having Him raised from the dead. This is the
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Gospel, and it's everywhere you go in the Bible. And it was planned by God in eternity past.
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Listen to what John 10 says, I have authority to lay it down, Jesus is talking about His death, and I have authority to take it up again.
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This commandment I receive from my Father. When did Jesus receive the command from the
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Father to go die for the people of God? The answer was in eternity past.
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In eternity past, planned in eternity, but happened in real time. Now here's what
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I'd like to ask you. How does God forgive a sin? Is it really that big of a problem?
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How do you forgive a sin? Your spouse sins against you, your friend sins against you, and what do you do?
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You just say what? I forgive you. Is that how
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God forgives? He just lets a sin go? With God, there's a difference between us and Him.
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God doesn't say, well, let bygones be bygones. Lloyd -Jones says, God is no indulgent Father who can just say, all right, my child, come back, all is well.
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Unlike creation where God says, let there be light, He does not just say, let people be forgiven. Because God is just,
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He has laws, He has standards, and He's holy. The Bible says, God is so holy that even holy seraphim veil their faces.
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The Bible says, God is so holy that even Abraham said, I'm but dust and ashes. Job said,
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I abhor myself. Isaiah said, woe is me. Daniel said, there's no strength left in me.
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God is so holy, think about a congregation. He hates sin so much, He even punished the sin that was on Jesus by punishing
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Jesus. Arthur Pink said, and it was because the Savior was bearing our sins that the thrice holy
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God would not look at Him, turn His face from Him, forsook Him. The Lord made to meet on Christ the iniquities of us all.
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And our sins being on Him as substitute, the divine wrath against our offenses must be spent upon our sin offering.
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Since the wages of sin is death, someone has to die. The most serious problem we have is not a math problem, it's a sin problem.
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How are we going to extract ourselves from this problem? Now probably every pastor in all the world this week is quoting
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R .C. Sproul, so I'll quote R .C. Sproul. Quote, I'll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness or the lack of it, or the righteousness of another.
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The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God.
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Not for His own well -being, but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn't possibly do for myself.
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But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and righteousness of God.
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The great misconception in our day is this, that God isn't concerned to protect His own integrity. He's kind of a wishy -washy deity who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody.
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No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It costs the sacrifice of His own
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Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising
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Jesus from the dead. You have a problem.
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I have a problem. We're sinful people. We've fallen short of the glory of God. The two greatest commandments, to love
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God and love our neighbor, we've broken. And so we stand before God as sinful people.
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Yet good news is, someone did perfectly obey God. Somebody did perfectly obey his neighbor as himself.
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And he stands as our substitute. He stands as a representative for all those who would, what?
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Believe. And that is the response to the good news. The good news is, you can be forgiven based on the work of another.
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How do you receive that? It's by faith. That's the answer to the second question. Now think about this.
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Did the Pharisees see Jesus do miracles? Turning water into wine?
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Raising dead people? Casting out demons? Multiplying food and fish?
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They didn't see Him walk on water, but if they heard about the disciples seeing Jesus do that, they would know of it.
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Yet it didn't do any good. The death of Christ, He really died on the cross for sinners. He was really raised from the dead.
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But if you don't believe, it doesn't do anything for you. Hebrews 4 .2
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says, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. Hebrews 3 .19,
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they were not able to enter because of unbelief. You have to believe.
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Christmas is not just about Jesus came to earth. He did. But you have to believe that He grew up and died on a cross and was raised from the dead.
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I mean, because without belief, where do you stand? There's two ways to get to heaven. Either perfectly obey the law or trust someone who perfectly obeys the law.
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Two ways to stand before God. By your own doing. And Hebrews 2 .13
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says, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.
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And if I was preaching to myself, I'd say this. Well, Mike, if you're going to get to heaven that way, how are you doing? How is that working out for you?
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Examine my life. The other day I was in an MRI tube. And, you know, you're just kind of in there, shoulders up, and it's making this big clanking sound, click, click, click, click, click, and it's hot.
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And they gave me headphones and they said, well, we have Pandora. You can listen to whatever you'd want. I'm not going to tell you what
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I listen to because you'll think I'm a pagan. Some things you just don't get to know.
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And that thing was examining me. And can you imagine God with, like, X -ray vision and MRI -like vision looking for sin?
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It's everywhere. It's on me. It's in me. I'm sinful because of Adam, because of me. And even if I do something in the law that seems right, how sincere are my motives?
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Is it with a good, you know, attitude toward God? I have to be perfect.
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God is perfect. The standards for heaven is perfect. And how is he going to let someone less than perfect in? Try to keep the law.
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It just doesn't work. I mean, how many O -rings need to be defective before the space shuttle explodes?
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Any lack of unrighteousness is like a space shuttle tile that's gone, and here we have the thrice -holy
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God judging. Thankfully, there's a different way to get to heaven besides doing, and that is looking to the one who did it for us and believing him.
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Turn your Bibles to John 1, please. I think this is such a good gospel, and I'm glad Pastor Steve is going through it.
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It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. The response to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is belief.
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It doesn't matter if you're a male or a female. The response is belief. It doesn't matter if you're old or young, slave or free.
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It's belief, and so we're talking about belief. Not just, well,
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I know about it. Not just, I agree with it, but really trusting. Knowledge, assent, and trust.
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And the gospel of John is about Jesus, but there's the response to Jesus. Not just, well, that was impressive.
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Not that was just, you know, Herod, well, let's get Jesus over here. I think he's going to do some more signs. That'll be interesting.
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Not just, I'm hungry again. Can you make more bread? But believing and trusting in him.
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Good news does no good for you if you don't believe it. John 1, 7.
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Here's what we're going to do. We're going to just kind of survey the response to Jesus' life, death, burial, resurrection, and see that it's always the same thing, to believe.
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It's not a response of get better. It's not a response of do religious things. It's not a response of get baptized.
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It's to trust. That's all. John 1, 7. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
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That's the response, to believe. I know we like to do things, but the response to Jesus is believe.
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John 1, 12. But to all who did receive him, in other words, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
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What if it was to do things? What if it was to earn it? What if it was to climb ladders of sand to the moon?
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But it's not. John 2, 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
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The response to the good news is belief. John 4, 39. Remember Jesus talked to the
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Samaritan woman? Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.
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He told me all that I ever did. And two verses later, John 4, 41.
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What's the response to Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension?
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And many more believed because of his word. Here's the great part about belief.
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You don't have to be smart. You don't have to have a high IQ. You don't have to graduate from WPI. You don't have to be rich.
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All you have to do is say, I have no resources, I agree that I'm a sinner, and I'll trust that this one says, this one that made me and created me, if you look to my son with faith,
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I'll have your sins forgiven, and he'll have paid for them. Anyone can respond to that.
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John 4, 42. They said to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this indeed is the
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Savior of the world. If God can save Samaritans, he can save anyone.
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John 5, 24. What's the response to good news? And I'm driving at each and every one of you must respond with belief.
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I could just go around the room and look at everyone in the eye saying, do you believe? You must believe.
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Christmas means nothing unless you believe. I talked to somebody this week at the gym, and he said, well,
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I know Jesus is the reason for the season. I know Christmas is all about the death of Jesus.
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Not the death of Jesus. I let the weights drop on his neck. When I went over and spotted
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Denzel Washington one time in North Hollywood, I thought, you know what, we'll see if you really believe or not. I'll just let those two wheels on each side just come down to your sternum and see if you can get it off by yourself.
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Evangelism via weight lifting. John 5, 24.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
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He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. So when my workout friend at the gym said, it's about family
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Christmas, it's about giving gifts, it's about times of, you know, let's re -prioritize everything in life and what's really important.
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No. Unless you think what's the most important, I stand before God one day and then comes the judgment.
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But if you trust in him, what's the text say? Right there, he does not come into judgment. How would you like to not be judged by God on judgment day?
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How would you like the judgment to be, I've already judged my son, there'll be no double jeopardy in my kingdom, and there you're free to go and enjoy all the privileges of forgiveness and sonship and adoption.
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John 6, 35. It's the same thing everywhere. All of the Bibles about Jesus and particularly here in John, it's about how he is the
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Messiah and offers forgiveness to all those who would believe. I am the bread of life.
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Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever, what? Takes communion.
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Whoever gets baptized. Whoever memorizes the catechism. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
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Verse 40 of the same chapter. For this is the will of my Father. I wonder what God's will is for my life.
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That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Now, if you're a visitor here, we're glad you're here. And we just teach you the Bible verse by verse through the book of Hebrews.
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But I'm stopping today because I want to make sure everyone who attends our church and all visitors believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I have no other message to give you except God reconciles sinners to himself through Christ Jesus.
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You must believe it. I mean, what people exchange for belief.
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You know what? I'll believe later. You know, my boyfriend first, my girlfriend first, my job first, my money first.
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Can you hear yourself? Jesus comes to rescue us from such sinful thinking.
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I'll wait till I'm older. How can I believe in that Jesus? He's got a lot of people who follow him who are hypocrites.
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John 6, 47. And when Jesus says amen at the front of the sentence, he really means it.
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And when he says it twice, he really, really means it. 6, 47. Amen, amen. I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
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The good news is God saves sinners from the slave pit of sin.
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But you have to believe it. The whole book of John.
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And that by believing you may have life in his name. But of all the verses in the
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Bible that talk about belief, I skipped one in John, and that's in John 3. So let's go back to John 3.
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Because I think it hones in on Christmas Day and the incarnation. John 3, verse 16.
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For years I thought of this verse only as somebody who sat in the end zone who wore a rainbow wig.
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You probably saw that guy. I think he got in a bunch of trouble too. Not just for wearing John 3, 16, but his life didn't match up to his message.
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John 3, 16 says what? It's the most popular verse, maybe the most misunderstood verse, but it's probably the verse of Christmas.
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For God so loved the world. That's amazing to just think about right there.
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He so loved the world that he gave his only son, which started at the incarnation, ended in his death, resurrection.
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He gave his son. God loved people. He loved the world. He gave his son. With what response?
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That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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You ever thought about that? You ever think about that? It's the love of God that motivates. This should forever destroy.
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The only reason God loves me is Jesus died for me. No, God loves me, and therefore the
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Father loves me, the Son loves me, the Spirit loves me, and in love the Son is sent. Have you ever asked yourself this question?
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What if God was only a God of wrath, justice, righteousness, and holiness, and there was no love to temper all these other attributes?
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I know he's simultaneously one. Ever ask what
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Octavius Winslow asked? Had not
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God's love resolved to save man, all his other perfections must have been employed and displayed in destroying him.
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Love sets its heart upon man, yearned to save him, and resolved to embark in the expedience of his salvation by conceiving a plan that harmonized all the other attributes of his nature and engaged in them the divine and wondrous work of redeeming mercy.
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It is not, therefore, without reason and design that we make the love of God the concentric truth from which we start.
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And so on this Christmas Eve day, you should be thinking, it's the love of God. It is the love of God where God loves people freely.
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Verse 16, if you ask me, Mike, what's the reason for the incarnation? What's the reason for the season? It is
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John 3, 16. The rebellious world, God said,
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I love, and those in it I love. I mean, if God loved righteous people,
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I could understand it. It'd be good love. It's still love from the creator to the creature, but God loves rebels and sinners.
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Look at the text again. For this is the way God loved the world. Every time you see those words, for he so loved, well, he not only loved, he so loved, like it magnifies.
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That's not the best way to understand it. Every time, the nine times this type of occurrence happens in the
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New Testament, it's to be translated in this way. Or this is the way. How does
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God love? He loves in this way, by sending his son. This sounds like when
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Abraham had to take his son, his only son, the one you love, to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him.
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For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes, those believing in him, should not perish, but have eternal life.
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And the purpose of the sending of the son is identified and expanded in verse 17.
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For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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There's a sender, the Father, the sendee, Jesus. By the way, we worship a triune
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God, and here's one of the reasons why we believe in the triune God, because if God was just going to send himself, that wouldn't be called sending, that'd be called going.
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But the Father sends the Son. Go to earth, the eternal God of the universe.
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In a baby? That's amazing. He is a baby, not just in a baby. Sin is the problem.
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Sin can only be solved by the deity. And then it says in verse 18, what's the response to the good news?
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What's the response to Christmas? Get your shopping done earlier next year, is that the response?
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Is anybody here not finished shopping yet? Somebody proudly raise their hand.
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I tell you, sin I can empirically prove. He hasn't started yet.
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My mind just said, that's why you're a retired pastor now, but I better not say it. And again, here's the thing.
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If I just look at the passages, it's so easy. And who wouldn't want to take
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God on his offer? I love sinners like you, believe on my Son. But see, sin is so insidious.
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It's so enslaving. It's so quicksand like. It's so full of pitch and tar. It just messes you up.
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And for someone to go, you know what? I'd rather sleep with my girlfriend. I'd rather sleep with my boyfriend.
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I'd rather do this. I'd rather do that. I'd rather have the other. I'll live my own life now. Do you see how crazy that is?
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Do you see how torqued that is? It proves the point that you need to be delivered from your sin.
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I mean, if I were God, I would want people to beg and to grovel.
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And I would demand things. And I would have precepts upon laws, upon other things to get you into heaven.
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You don't dare cross me. And the Bible says it's a joyful message.
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It's good news. No matter what you've done against God, His arms are open to say, Come unto Me. Free grace for sinners.
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Is there any better news? Machen said,
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Have you any good news? I do not need an exhortation, but a gospel. Not directions for my saving myself, but the knowledge of how
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God saves. Your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?
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The law says, Obey. And we know we haven't. And we need a Savior. And Jesus says, Trust in Me.
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I've obeyed. Romans 8, 4, What the law was impossible, and that it was weak through the flesh,
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God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and condemned sin in the flesh through sin, that the righteousness required by the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
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Spirit. I offer you through trusting in Christ, pardon.
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My mind just flashes back to Schindler's List. How many years ago was it? Twenty? It was so unlike that officer, that Nazi German officer, to forgive and to pardon.
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And Schindler's trying to coach him through. And he'd have to look in the mirror just to say, he didn't want to, I pardon you.
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I pardon you. But nobody is trying to coach God because it's part of his nature. Trust in my
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Son, I pardon you. Washed, pardoned. He didn't die for his own sins,
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Jesus did not. He never sinned. But for our sins. You have two options to get to heaven.
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As the Confession says, personal, exact, entire, and perpetual obedience to God's laws.
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Our trust in Jesus, the second Adam, who kept the laws, who died on the cross for sinners, and was raised from the dead.
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Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Do you believe it?
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He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
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Do you believe it? He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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You must believe it. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
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For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Do you believe it?
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So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await
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Him. Do you believe Him? Problems need to be solved.
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But this is the main problem. Martin Lloyd -Jones says, sin is so terrible, so foul, and so vile, that nothing could deal with it but the blood of Christ.
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And that is what happened on the cross. It's not a patching over, a covering over of sin. It's not
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God saying, don't worry, all is well. It's God showing us sin as it is, really bringing it out to the light and then dealing with it.
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It is finished. So when you think of Jesus, I think you should think of good news.
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And then you should do more than think. You should believe. And I encourage you this week to pick up your
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Bible because throughout all the Bible, you will see the story of Jesus, the Redeemer. Lockyer said, in Genesis, He is the seed of the woman.
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In Exodus, He is the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, He is the atoning sacrifice. In Numbers, He is the smitten rock.
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In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet. In Joshua, He is the captain of the Lord's army. In Judges, He is the deliverer.
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In Ruth, He is the heavenly kinsman. In 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and Chronicles, He is the promised
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King. In Job, He is my Redeemer. In Psalms, He is my Savior. In Proverbs, He is my wisdom.
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In Ecclesiastes, He is my goal. In the Prophets, He is the coming Prince of Peace. In the
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Gospels, He is God and Christ come to redeem. In Acts, He is alive in the church. And in the epistles,
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He is Christ at the right hand of God the Father. And in Revelation, He is the mighty.
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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who are under the law.
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Some problems can't be solved humanly. We use that phrase, the
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Gordian Knot. I don't know if you know much about the Gordian Knot problem, or what happened, or the history behind it, this intractable problem, this impossible problem.
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The legend is, the Phygerians were without a king, but at the Oracle of Telmysios, decreed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox cart should become their king.
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A peasant farmer named Gordius drove into town in an ox cart and was immediately declared king. Out of gratitude, his son
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Midas declared the ox cart to the Phygerian god Sabazios, whom the
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Greeks identified with Zeus, and tied it to a post with an intricate knot of cornel bark.
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How do you untangle that? It's a Gordian Knot. And the Gordian Knot of sin can only be untied by the cross of Christ.
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Do you believe it? Let's pray. I thank You, Father, for our time in Your Word today. I thank
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You that You love sinners like us, and that's what we celebrate today. No more sacrifices.
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No more self -denial. We don't please You by any way except trust. We don't have to give up anything for Lent.
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We don't have to deny ourselves any kind of food or anything good that You've created. Everything's for us.
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Trusting in Christ Jesus. Father, I don't know the hearts of anyone here, but there are so many people, there must be those who have not trusted in Your Son.
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And I pray that that would happen. I pray that You would convict them of their sin and then convict them of their need of a
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Savior and then grant them that. To think that You love sinners like us, that is amazing.
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What would be our hope if we had to earn Your love, but You love us anyway. You loved us in eternity past.
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You loved us at the cross. You love us now. We don't have to be good.
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We don't have to hope You forget about our sins. They've been paid for, and we praise You for that. And Father, tonight and tomorrow, as we celebrate
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Your Son's incarnation, may we think of how You love sinners.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're going to sing one final song in response.
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The way we like to work it here at the church is when you hear something from God's Word, you want to respond.
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Revelation demands a response. You see a child born, and you think, wow, that's amazing.
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And you want to respond to that general revelation. And so now we respond to God's specific revelation by singing a song.