The World Against Jesus - Luke 23 Vs 1-12

Good to see everyone. Have a blessed day today, praise the Lord. Just a couple of mentions. First, we've got a new Voice magazine in the back. You can find it back there, new edition. Really good read, by the way.

Secondly, this Monday is Veteran Day. So I just want to give a, you know, basically like a shout out to all veterans here. I know we have a few maybe serving here in the church, but I just want to thank you again for your service here.

And then next, we'll go into announcements, leaders, elders, deacons, pastor. Next leadership board meeting is going to be this Thursday. It is at 6 p .m. And then next, we have Missionary of the Month, John and Becky Knox, whom we recently had the pleasure of having us or having them in the church here to tell us about their ministry.

Well, we're continuing to serve them as a church, but we just pray that all of their efforts in biblical worldwide ministries is continued and that it's fruitful. So if you could just kind of pray for those of which were impacted by their ministry and that, you know, they'll give them also themselves to the Lord as well as they serve.

And then lastly, we have the ladies Christmas tree, tea, sorry, not tree. Big difference. Yeah. But ladies, mark your calendars for December 7th, 10 a .m. Other than that, that'll do it for announcements.

So if you'll join me in a word of prayer before we head into sermon and worship. Dear Lord, thank you for this day you've given us today. Thank you for allowing us all to be here to fellowship in your name and to worship you, Lord.

We pray that the words that we're going to hear from Pastor Elgin today are going to be impactful in our lives, and we'll take that to learn more and more about God's character and how we should respond to that Lord in our day-to-day lives.

So we thank you for everything you've done for us, in your name we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

Crown Him and the Glory of Christ

So this morning, our first song is Crown Him with Many Crowns, and I love the way the scriptures use certain words and images to help us in our finite, limited, very flat, uninspired views of how things can be, but God gives us certain pictures, and a crown is one of those pictures of, you see royalty, you see majesty, you see something very, very important, and the second song is All Hail, and it's to greet or to welcome in, and so we're greeting, we're welcoming, we're thanking God for who He is.

And so let's stand together, we're going to sing Crown Him with Many Crowns. Our shooting relief for this morning is Isaiah 53 verses 4 -9, Isaiah 53 verses 4 -9.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we have seen Him stricken, stricken by God and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

While we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the dignity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to a slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearer's silence, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and He will declare His generation. For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of My people He was stricken, and He made His grave for the wicked, but for the rich at His death, because He has done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

May the Lord bless you to hear His word.

There's hundreds of verses that point to Christ coming and I know sometimes we can, not we, but New Testament can be overemphasized at the expense of kind of forgetting what the Old Testament said, the one cannot stand without the other, they are God's word.

So I really appreciate that. Let's stand together. Our next song is As the Deer Panteth. It's a beautiful song of how we can wait on the Lord. Jesus is our living water, and just as the deer pants for water to be nourished and to be fed, we as believers can gain our nourishment and our life through the living sacrifice, the living water, Jesus Christ.

Let it make my spirit desire, and I'm more silver, only you can satisfy my spirit desire. And our last song that maybe some or maybe very few, if any, have heard this, it's entitled Heaven Came Down, and I appreciate Lauren selecting this song.

It was a song we sang in our worship night last week. It's, for me personally, when I was a young child in my mid-teens and learning about the Lord, and that's when I came to know Jesus as my Savior, this is a song that we sang quite a bit, and I remember as a little guy, and there was me and George, two of us, we would just belt this out, and it has a lot of personal meaning to me, and it's a beautiful song about heaven came down and how Jesus came down to be our Savior.

And so, meditate on the words, and if you don't know it, just, I'll lead it along. Forget, wandered in darkness away, Jesus my Savior I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate breath, He met the need of my heart.

Shadows dispelling with joy I am telling, He made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul. When the cross the Savior made me whole, My sins were washed away, And my life was turned to day.

Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul. Turned the spirit with life from above, Into God's family divine. Justified fully through Calvary's love, Oh, what a standing His power. And the transaction so quickly was made,.

When as a sinner I came,. Took of the offer of grace He did proper, He saved me, oh, praise His dear name. Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul. When the Savior made me whole, My sins were washed away,.

And my life was turned to day. Heaven came down, and glory through the passing of time,. Because of that wonderful day,. When at the cross I believed. Riches eternal and blessings sublime,. From His precious hand I receive.

Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul. When the cross the Savior made me whole,. My sins were washed away,. And my life was turned to day. Heaven came down, and glory filled my soul.

Honoring Veterans and Serving the Church

As Dexter did mention, if you have served in the military for our nation, I do want to recognize the men and women who have served in the military. If you would like, could you just stand up so that we can acknowledge you, or raise your hand if you don't want to stand up.

If you've served in the military, yeah. See, I didn't know some of you have served in the military, but any branch, we are grateful for your service. We know that the freedom we've enjoyed did not come for free, and you've risked your lives, you've committed your time, energy, to serve this country, and we're forever grateful for your sacrifice.

So thank you so much. And yes, some of us, we get a day off tomorrow, but it's more than that. It's to recognize and remember the service and sacrifice of the veterans who are with us today. And really, the U .S. military is one of the reasons why the world has been at peace.

In this century, and even in the last one, so we're grateful. Thank you. With that, let us turn to Luke 23, verses 1 through 12. Luke 23, verses 1 through 12. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate, and they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king.

Then Pilate asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? He answered him and said, It is as you say. So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no fault in this man. But they were the more fierce, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the men were Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him.

And he hoped to see some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then Herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate.

That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful to be serving and trusting in a king who died innocently, bearing our sin and suffering the wrath that we deserve, so that we may be declared righteous in him alone.

Thank you that he is risen. Thank you that he reigns from above. Thank you that he prays for us. And we pray that our allegiance this morning and on would be to him who suffered injustice for our sake, so that we may live in him.

The Innocent Christ Before Pilate

We ask that you would bless this morning, that we would all experience your loving presence through your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's a claim that may not surprise us, but the world doesn't really understand, is that Jesus died a sinless man.

It was even fitting, Dave and I had a discussion, someone he knew believed that Jesus sinned. But that is a heresy. That is a false teaching in which if you believe that Jesus sinned, that actually affects your salvation.

And the reason is Jesus died sinless because only the perfect sinless man can bear the sin of the guilty. So many people were crucified under Roman Empire. So many people. Only one person was crucified sinless.

If Jesus had died guilty, there in fact is no hope for us. If he had sinned, he's just like us, and there's no way in which he could have bore our sin and died the death that we deserved. Jesus was not just retrospectively innocent, but declared innocent even before the human court.

The passage unfolds in a way that it's almost like a satire. There's no one who, no authority who believes that Jesus is guilty, yet both Herod and Pilate keep him for some reason. This is a dramatic and drastically unjust.

Keeping an innocent man to suffer is injustice. But the point is that for our sake, for the sin of his people, Jesus suffered. God used even unjust rulers like Pilate and Herod and the religious leaders who were pushing this so that Jesus would suffer for our sin on our behalf.

And here, as I've mentioned, it is not just one person to blame. There are multiple groups coming together who normally would not have been friends. It is in fact the hatred toward Christ that brings the whole world together, whether Gentile or Jewish, polytheist or monotheist, religious or political leaders, they're all brought together and they all come against God and his Messiah.

In one sense, this is Psalm 2 in action. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth and the rulers gather together against the Lord and his anointed. That's Psalm 2. That's how Psalm 2 opens up.

And in fact, on Zion, we do see the wicked rulers from all over the world gathering together against the Lord and his Christ, Messiah. And we live in a time where similar things are happening. We live in a post-Christian world in America and Europe.

There are globalist agenda against Christianity. The United Nations and the WHO, World Health Organization, promote abortion and other means of depopulation, just unjustly, wickedly killing people made in God's image.

Governments all over the world prosecute and persecute Christians for their ministries. Even England is now criminalizing people who pray outside the abortion centers. And that used to be the country in which people like Charles Spurgeon and David Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached the gospel every Sunday.

That's the country in which the Westminster Confession comes from, which is still read by many Presbyterians and Protestants today. And today, even in America, Christianity is opposed. If you want to go far in academia, criticize Scripture.

You'll get your PhD. You'll be published. Just say something was wrong about the Bible, and a publisher will give you all the money you need to publish that book. Do you want to go far in entertainment?

Make fun of Christians. Blaspheme Christ in your movies. Mock Christ in your shows. You want to go far in the music industry? Literally, some are just worshiping Satan during their concert. But minimize Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Make it about yourself. They all come together to oppose Christ. If you want to make it in this world, just oppose Christ and the world will support you. However, if you want to be righteous, if you want to be saved in the world to come, and even now, endure.

Endure the suffering. Endure the mockery. Endure the trials for the name of Christ. Don't give up. Because in the end, this world's leaders will not be the ones judging you. It will be Christ himself judging them.

The main point of today's text is, despite Jesus' innocence, the world collectively has opposed him. Despite Jesus' innocence, the world collectively has opposed him. First, despite Jesus' innocence, the world falsely accused him.

Despite Jesus' innocence, the world falsely accused him. Believing their false view is correct, the Jewish religious leaders lead Jesus to the Roman governor's palace. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate.

Pilate is not a pilot. That's actually his name, Pilate. That's a Latin name. Pilate was the Roman procurator over the region. Procurator is actually a very high political office in which you are appointed by Caesar himself, the emperor.

And he was in charge of the finances and justice. And that will come into play when the Jewish leaders accuse Jesus of what he did wrong, allegedly. The religious leaders and Pilate here work together against Jesus in the first five verses.

One may actually think that it is odd how a pagan governor, remember, Pilate was not a Jew, and Jewish leaders could ever work together. In the first century, Rome started choosing the man for the chief priesthood every year.

And yes, that was not really popular among the Jews. But Rome wanted their man serving at the temple, so that's what they did. Normally, under any other procurator, the man would change. The chief priest would change every year.

Not under Pilate. Pilate, who served actually 10 years, that's a very long time to be the governor of Judea. 10 years, and for 10 years, he had one man, and that was Caiaphas. So Caiaphas, the chief priest, is during this time, had been chosen by Pilate, handpicked for the 10 years.

Needless to say, they had a great relationship despite the religious differences. Now, before Pilate, they lay out three accusations against Jesus. And they begin to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.

Their first accusation against Jesus is that he perverted the nation of Israel. This is deeply ironic because Jesus came from God to restore Israel back to God. It was the opposite of perversion. Yet, these religious leaders accused him of doing the exact opposite.

Perverting, misleading, leading them away from God. In fact, they themselves were the ones putting roadblocks in front of the Israelites by burdening the nation with legalism and traditions of men. Second, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar is not only manipulative, but also blatantly false.

As many of you have been going through this series of Luke for the last couple of years, we know from Luke chapter 20, 22, Jesus actually taught to render to Caesar, give back to Caesar what is Caesar's.

Hey, that denarius, that coin, the silver coin, has Caesar's face and his inscription on it. Just give it back. It's okay to pay taxes to Caesar because in the end, all authority is under God. And of course, that claim was to rile up Pilate to charge Jesus with guilt.

After all, he's a finance minister too. And it would be problematic if there is a popular teacher who's calling his students to stop paying taxes. And at this point, the religious leaders do not care about the fact of the matter.

They just need one of these accusations to stick. They're just throwing mud at the wall and hoping one time it would stick. And that's how desperately they want Jesus to die. And that's how wicked they are.

Third, he himself is Christ, a king. This is the only charge that is actually true. Christ means the Messiah, and in the Old Testament, that means the anointed one, the one whom God has chosen. It has a royal connotation to say the least.

After all, Christ is the Davidic king. He is the king that comes from King David's line. And because Pilate, a Gentile, would not understand this connotation, the religious leaders spell it out for him.

Jesus claimed to be Christ, a king, right? Although true, Jesus was not the king that Rome was trying to squash. Rome was more interested in the revolutionaries who violently opposed the empire. Jesus at no point was a revolutionary.

There are modern theological books that claim like Jesus was a revolutionary. That is not true. Jesus, in fact, in John 6, ran away from the crowd, avoided the crowd after he fed them because they tried to make him the king that they needed to overthrow Rome.

After all, if you can just make bread to feed thousands, what's limiting you from raising up a standing army? And Jesus didn't want any of that. Jesus was not a revolutionary. He was a humble king who entered his city on a donkey.

He came to restore peace for his first coming, not to overthrow Rome. And out of the three accusations, the last one sticks. So Pilate asks, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus replies, it is as you say.

And looking at Jesus who stood before him, Pilate was not threatened one bit. And you would know that Pilate was not threatened because in mockery, later this chapter, he will put up a sign in multiple languages, Jesus, the king of the Jews.

He didn't believe that. He mocked it. Now verse 4, so Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no fault in this man. This is Pilate's declaration of Jesus' innocence. Pilate did not need all day to interrogate this innocent man.

Ironically, a pagan Gentile can discern what is right better than the religious rulers of God's people. It doesn't take him all the hours of the night that the religious leaders took to investigate Christ.

And in their last-ditch effort, they exclaim even more intensely, but they were even more fierce, saying, he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. They are insistent.

They are adamant. They attempt to portray Jesus as a rebel against Rome. He stirs up the people from Galilee, which is the northern region of Israel, and all the way to the south, Jerusalem. Ironically, it will be the religious leaders who will stir up the crowd to exclaim, crucify him, just a couple verses later.

Pilate knows Jesus is innocent. The religious leaders know Jesus is innocent. Yet their desire for wickedness trumps their desire for justice. And for that reason alone, Jesus is not freed despite his innocence.

For us, we do need to remember innocence, what truly innocence is. Innocence does not depend on who has the loudest voice. Mob justice is no justice at all. Innocence does not depend on who has the most influence.

Innocent depends on the truth of the matter according to God's just standard alone. That's what innocence is. And before God, Jesus was innocent. And this passage shows us that Jesus was even innocent before the pagan governor, Pilate.

Jesus was sinless, although he was sent to the cross. Why was this necessary? Why an innocent man die the death that the guilty deserve? This is quite important because there's so much controversy regarding why an innocent man had to die.

And some so-called Christians, the liberal ones, denied this doctrine, one of the most important doctrines in Christianity. The crucial point is Jesus did not die for his sin, but he died for our sin.

Jesus was not crucified because of his guilt, but he suffered for our guilt. That is precisely what Isaiah 53 prophesied. He was wounded for, not his, but our transgressions. Yet, by his stripes, we are healed.

We are restored. Only the perfect sinless man can take the place of the wicked sinful man. This doctrine is called substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary means that Jesus served as a substitute on our behalf.

He died, not for his sin, but for our sin. Atonement means that he was the sacrifice to appease God's wrath. This is crucial because Jesus lived the sinless life that we all failed to live, but died the sinner's death that we all deserved.

On the cross, Jesus suffered the wrath of God, although he earned none of it, so that those who trust in him may be spared from the wrath to come. Only the perfect sinless man can take the place of the wicked guilty man.

He was our substitute to cover for our sin, and we are placed in his righteousness. When God looks at you, he does not look at your past record. He does not look at your current record. He does not even look at your future record.

But in his court judgment, the only record he looks at is Christ's sinless perfect record. And he declares those who believe in Jesus Christ alone righteous. That's the substitutionary atonement. Without that, the gospel has no teeth.

Without that, the gospel is not the good news because then what are you actually saved from? If not, from sin. And how are you saved from if not by the perfect God man taking your place of judgment and him placing you in the place of righteousness?

That's how you're saved. And this was why Luke takes the effort to show that before man, even before pagan man, even before wicked man, Jesus was innocent. Second, the world is united by its enmity toward Christ.

The world is united by its enmity toward Christ. Out of everything that was said during this short trial, one word sticks out. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. Remember, Galilee is the northern region of Israel in which Jesus ministered a couple years before he came down to Jerusalem.

When he hears that, Pilate immediately responds. As soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Remember, this is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, also known as the Passover.

Anyone who's anyone ended up in Jerusalem, right? It's kind of like the Washington... It's the capital, Washington, D .C., for the inauguration day. Anyone who's anyone will be invited there. And so Pilate and Herod both ended up in Jerusalem during this time.

Pilate, being a shrewd politician, decides to share his responsibility with Herod. Pilate declared Jesus innocent, but the Jewish leaders were not satisfied with his ruling, so he decides, let's have another ruler take a look.

Right? Then I can't be held liable. Whether guilty or not, let's share the responsibility. Although Pilate is the governor of Judea, he was massively unpopular with the Jews. Remember in Luke 13, Pilate massacred some Galileans and mingled their blood with the sacrifices.

Right? And they were asking, were they extra evil sinners that they died this way? And Jesus said, no, unless you repent, you also will die. And you also will be condemned. When working for Rome, one thing you did not want was a revolt against the emperor.

Right? An angry summon from Caesar could end Pilate's career. And Pilate knew that he had to be on the Jewish leader's good side. And hence, that's why he kept appointing Caiaphas for 10 years. So, although he knew Jesus was innocent, instead of letting him go, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod.

Maybe Herod will do something about it to satisfy the Jewish leaders. About 10 minutes away from Pilate's residence, they escort Jesus to Herod. Now, when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad for he had desired for a long time to see him because he had heard many things about him and he hoped to see some miracles done by him.

Unlike Pilate, Herod actually had some knowledge, prior knowledge of Jesus. After all, we got to see that Herod wanted to see Jesus and was speculating about who Jesus was ever since chapter 9. And he desired to see Jesus for a long time.

And as Jesus is standing before Herod, he is exceedingly glad. What we need to know is that the desire is not driven by faith, but curiosity. He wants to see what Jesus can do for him. He wants to see the performance, not the person.

What miracles that Jesus will perform for him. Jesus is a spectacle to behold, not the king to bow down to. And verse 9 tells us that Herod questioned for a long time. This is actually in contrast with Pilate's very short interrogation.

Yet this time Jesus opened not his mouth. Presumably, Jesus did not need to justify himself because he was innocent. Pilate already declared Jesus to be innocent. What was the point of answering the same thing twice?

After all, Pilate was actually on the higher, he was higher ranked, right? He was ranked higher than Herod. So if Pilate declared Jesus innocent, then there's really no point of answering Herod. And the church historically has seen this as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53, 7 -8, which Jim read this morning.

Jesus is the innocent sacrificial lamb who opened not his mouth but led to his slaughter. And this is very important, even for us personally. Oftentimes, when we're falsely accused, our goal is to justify ourselves, whether true or false, whether that accusation is right or wrong.

We want to justify ourselves. But true Christians do not have to be bothered by what others think of them because they stand justified by Christ alone. If Jesus declared you righteous because you believe in him, what does it matter what a fallible ignorant person thinks of you?

An infallible ignorant person is just anyone who's alive on earth. Jesus didn't feel the need to justify himself before Herod because there was no point. Jesus knew that God viewed him as innocent, and that's all that mattered.

Now, the Jewish leaders again attempt to intensify the trial before Herod. And the chief priests and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Just as they were involved in Pilate's decision, they are also behind Herod's decision.

These rulers, whether pagan or Jewish, fully Jewish or half Jewish, Herod's half Edomite, it didn't matter. Ethnic differences, religious differences, political differences, they were all smoothed out in their goal to oppose Christ.

Not amused by Jesus' silence, Herod entertains himself by mocking Jesus with his soldiers. Then Herod with his men of war treated him with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate.

They clothed Jesus with a splendid royal robe in mockery of who he claimed to be. The king of the Jews. The word gorgeous here is also used to describe the angelic appearance in Acts 10 because it is so splendidly bright.

The angel who showed up before Cornelius. And also this robe, this word is used to describe the robe that the glorified bride of Christ wears in Revelation 19. This robe on Christ, however, is for ridicule rather than respect.

Ironically, through this mockery, we will be wearing the splendid robe not out of ridicule but of honor. After getting nothing of value out of Christ, Herod just sends Jesus back to Pilate. Strikingly, the two rulers cannot and do not find any fault in Jesus.

Yet neither of them justly lets him go. It's almost like the book The Trial by Kafka. They can't tell him what he's actually guilty of, but he's constantly interrogated. Luke tells us what results from this day of injustice.

That very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other for previously they had been an enmity with each other. This is important. Previous to this interaction, Pilate, he required Herod to hang up shields with Roman inscription on them.

Any sponsors or Caesar's name, they were inscribed on these shields, ceremonial shields. And of course, Herod's family did not take that well. What are you doing trying to design my house? You're not my interior designer.

So they send delegates to Caesar himself, Tiberius. And Tiberius is actually not amused either. After all, he is far away, and he cannot risk a revolt by the Jews who have history of revolting against great empires.

Right? So he actually tells Pilate, do not partake in this unnecessary controversy. Remove the shields immediately. And after that, Pilate and Herod, they didn't get along. Now, Jesus was the perfect opportunity to reconcile, not only the Jewish leaders, but also with Herod.

All Pilate had to do was to pass an unjust ruling to crucify Jesus. That day, Pilate sacrificed Jesus for political expediency. That day, political rivalries and religious differences and ethnic diversity were all ignored by these wicked men to collectively oppose God and His Messiah.

And just as hatred toward Jesus brought the wicked rulers together in the first century, hatred toward Jesus unites the world together now. In the so-called tolerant West, the only thing they are intolerant of is actually Christianity.

Media, academia, and entertainment all mock Christ and accuse Christians of bigotry. When was the last time you saw the prophet, so-called prophet, Muhammad mocked on the TV? You don't even see him portrayed because that would be a big problem.

Why do the liberals stand up for Hamas who would literally kill them if they were to conquer the U .S.? Hamas' view of morality and society directly opposes the liberal view of sexuality and gender. Why are they all together?

The world is not against Hinduism. When was the last time you heard Hinduism mocked? The world's not against atheism. Yet it is extremely popular to oppose Christianity. And in the end, this is because Christianity represents Christ.

The church is the body of Christ. The church, the body of Christ, allows for the presence of Christ on earth. We have the prophetic voice to speak into the corruptible and corrupting world. And just as the world united against Jesus during his earthly ministry, today it unites against his followers.

And we need to remember this when we do suffer for our faithfulness. Our job is not to join the world, but to depend on Jesus, whom the world rejected. Our church that we used to be a part of in Illinois when I was in seminary made a sign.

And it wasn't even one of those offensive signs that some churches do, right? It was actually a Bible verse. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. That's it. James 4 .6 quotes it. It's from Deuteronomy.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. After that, people who passed by started posting one-star reviews on Google saying how hateful this church is just from that one sign from the Bible.

They've never set their foot in that church. They've never gathered. They've never met the pastor. Just from one Bible verse, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. I don't know whether that was they felt convicted by that.

Maybe they themselves know that they are prideful to reject Christ. But that is so prevalent. Our job is not to join the world, but to trust in Jesus whom the world has rejected. So many of so-called Christian leaders want to befriend the world by blunting what the Bible clearly says.

They misrepresent our master and savior, Jesus Christ. They often say, don't mention any sin, only talk about love. Don't preach repentance, just mention grace. Don't preach on God's wrath, just talk about salvation.

The irony is that what the world needs most this morning is pure and honest representation of Jesus Christ from Scripture. And how can you talk about love of God without mentioning our sin that was placed on Christ on the cross?

There's no other example that is greater than an innocent God-man bearing our sin when He didn't commit any and suffering the wrath out of the love for His Father so that He may be glorified and out of the love for His people who would be glorified.

Even the most palpable and glorious example of love in your life done by one of your beloved family members pales in comparison to what Jesus had done on the cross. You cannot talk about God's love without talking about sin that placed Him there.

How can we preach grace without the act of repentance? Repentance is turning away from our sin and toward our gracious Savior. How can we talk about how loving and merciful Jesus is who would receive anyone who comes to Him?

John 6 says, anyone who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. There's no qualification. There's no anyone who comes to me I will in no wise cast out unless it's this sin. It's I will in no wise cast out.

I will in no wise abandon you. Just come to me. But how can you come to Jesus if you can't repent? If you're not taught to repent. If you're not taught to turn around and stop living the way that you're living.

Turn around and humble yourself and go to God because He will forgive you. And how can we talk about salvation without mentioning what we are actually saved from? So many cults and false religions talk about the cross.

Yet, they do not actually focus on what the cross truly accomplished. It's vague. You're saved from Satan's kingdom of darkness and you're put into Jesus' kingdom. Yes, but what are we truly saved from?

What did Jesus truly accomplish when He was on the cross? The very thing that placed us in Satan's kingdom, which is sin. Jesus died for the impending wrath of God for our own personal wickedness. It is our sin that placed Him there.

That's what the hymn says and the hymn's right. If we can't talk about sin, if we can't talk about God's wrath, we have really diluted the gospel. And we need to stand with Christ and what He has accomplished for us, even if the world hates it.

Because in the end, where you stand now will determine where you stand for all eternity. The temporary mockery, suffering, and trials for Christ's sake will be nothing compared to the glory of His righteousness and His power and honor that you will stand before for all eternity.

And this morning, Christians need to wake up and re-evaluate which master we are actually serving. Do we want to join the world and oppose Christ, or do we want to join Christ and be opposed by the world?