Beyond The Basics 5 - The Need For And The Necessity Of The Work Of Christ (part 2)

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Beyond The Basics 5 - The Need For And The Necessity Of The Work Of Christ (part 3)

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Last week we started talking about this we talked about the need for Christ's work that all are guilty every single man woman and child is guilty of Violating the law of God we talked about six sins that you're guilty of we talked about the effects
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We started to talk about the effects of Adam's fall on everyone Doesn't seem quite fair.
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I mentioned last week kind of a trick question. You know I said, what do you think of this statement?
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We believe that Man is responsible for his own sins and not for Adam's transgression.
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There were a lot of puzzled looks people didn't know quite what to think about that, and then I revealed it's actually from the
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Statement of faith or the articles of faith of the Mormon Church we talked about man being a slave to sin
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Unsaved man is a slave to sin you have no an unsaved person can never
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Stop sinning. Why is that? It's your nature and and You're incapable
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Absolutely incapable of stopping sinning because what does the Bible say about faith? It's a faith.
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It's a gift from God. Yes, and without faith it is impossible to please
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God Now what I wanted to do is just start this morning in Ephesians chapter 1 even though.
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That's not in your notes Thinking about it this morning, and you know we often say
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In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins
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We all understand that But I don't think we fully grasp the gravity of it without kind of quickly and I'm going to quickly do this
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Looking at Ephesians chapter 1 What is it that makes Paul say and you were dead in your trespasses and sins?
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Seems like kind of a downer Well Ephesians chapter 1 he opens the first two verses
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I'm not going to read those But then in verse 3 he diverts from where he's going and he says blessed be the father
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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Then he goes on to name what all those blessings are and on and on It's all about God the things that God has done on behalf of believers
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In fact if you look at verses 3 to 14 you will find nothing where it says that man believed or man
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With his island of righteousness claimed Christ led him into his heart or anything like that. It is the sovereign
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God of the universe Who brings man to faith and in fact in verse 11 of chapter 1
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Paul writes this Starting at the end of verse 10 in him also We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will
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And in the context here all things is Salvation Certainly, it works all things according to his will but salvation according to his will
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Then in verse 15 for this reason I too having heard of the faith in the
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Lord Jesus Which exists among you and your love for all the saints do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you
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It just goes on about all these blessings all these good things that come to us as believers as a result of being in Christ of being saved
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Then he talks about and starting in chapter 2 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in that time before you were saved
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This is what you were You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked
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This is your life before Christ And as we said last week
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Starting in verse 3 among them two among the unsaved we too all formerly lived in the less of our flesh
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We did what we wanted Indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature.
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It was our nature that we were children of wrath whose wrath God's wrath even as the rest
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But God being rich in mercy Because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions
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Made us alive together with Christ God made us alive.
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We were spiritually dead Incapable of responding to the gospel God made us alive so now we're down to Rome numeral 4 under be the effects of Adams fall on all on everyone
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Man is unable to understand scripture unsaved man cannot understand scripture
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And if you don't believe that Go to the library pick up a commentary by one of the unsaved folks who write commentaries and See what they have to say.
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It's it's some pretty bizarre things I one of my favorite classes in seminary was
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I took a book on the exegesis of Ephesians and we had to read a couple of introductory papers one excellent commentary the other one
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Not so excellent. In fact, this guy spent pages talking about why Paul didn't write the book of Ephesians And you just go okay, let's look at verse 1
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Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus and there are other places to 3 verse 1 for this reason
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I Paul the prisoner of Christ in years ago. Hmm. You might be really smart in the
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Greek But you know, I can read this and go for this reason. I Paul I Think I understand that it's
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Paul who wrote it but Unable to understand scripture unsaved.
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Let's look at 1st Corinthians 2 14 We wonder sometimes why it is that people can hear the gospel over and over again and not be saved
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How or at least they're not going to be saved why it would be that they would not Lie awake at night and ponder hell and and be concerned and fret and well 1st
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Corinthians 2 14 Who has that Brian? Okay, and a natural man is someone who gets all his foods from Trader Joe's, right?
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What is the natural man? Unbeliever unsaved person looks at the
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Bible and I mean I saw somebody somebody wrote this the other day They said, you know, I'd read the Bible, but I can't make heads or tails out of it
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What do you need to understand the Bible? Do you need special glasses? you know
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Pastor Mike's 17 parts, you know lesson on how to understand the
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Bible. What do you need? I'm sorry the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit unsaved man
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Cannot understand the Bible and if you did, you know again The the number of examples of that are
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Legion. All you have to do is Turn on Christian TV You know read
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Any number of things pick up Christianity today and you'll see that the unsaved man does not understand the
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Word of God In fact, what does 1st Corinthians 118 say about unsaved
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People they hear the gospel and they think it is Foolishness, the Word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
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I mean the problem Typically that we come across is we we talk to people as if somehow they are neutral on the matter
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That they have not yet formed an opinion when you talk to an unbeliever you talk to them as if you know If I could just give you enough information
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If I treated you like a voter and I could give you enough information on this issue, you would come to the right conclusion
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And the problem with that is there's one central piece of information That they don't have and that piece of information really isn't a piece of information.
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It's a person the Holy Spirit They don't have the capacity to understand what's being said to them. It's like if you were to land
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Suddenly in Thailand and people started talking to you. You wouldn't understand what they were saying.
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I Think You never know so that's number four number five man's heart and mind deceive him
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Of course a woman's man Woman's heart deceives her to Jeremiah 17 9
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Who has that memorized? The heart is wicked it is
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Deceitful and desperately wicked and the prophet says who can know it, right? And of course the implication that what kind of question is that who can know it?
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It's a rhetorical question because no one can know it You know somebody if somebody says to me.
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Well, I feel What's what's the correct response to that?
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I feel blank fill in the blank So what is a good response, you know lovingly look at them and go
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So what? The heart is deceitful even as believers.
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We can fool ourselves into thinking that something is good when it's not What a
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Calvin say about the heart He said it's an idol factory Creates idols, you know what
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I Calvin really wasn't I don't think this advanced in his thinking But it is really as if a conveyor belt were just coming by and we were just assembling all the little idols as they go
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By we find things to distract us to worship to take us away from the true worship, but man's heart deceives him
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When someone says, you know, I don't I have a piece I don't have a piece Like to give them a piece of my mind.
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I It you know Mike went through this decision -making thing It doesn't matter what your heart tells you what your feelings are.
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What matters is what does God's Word say? theological challenges to these issues people don't like this idea that Every unsaved person is guilty.
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They don't like the fact that there are no seekers. I mean we have So many churches now that are actively looking for seekers.
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They're seeking seekers They also don't like this idea that man has no capacity on his own to choose
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God It's not a popular thing. And here are some of the issues that are brought up number
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C Subsection 1 the Bible some people will say well the
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Bible stresses receiving Christ and they'll point to John 1 12 Anybody have
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John 1 12 Okay, go ahead
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Charlie a little louder. I think that is very close
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And there'll be a tootsie roll or something for you at the end of class John 1 12 but as many as received him to them.
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He gave the right to become children of God Even to those who believe in his name
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There you go Every single person has to do what receive him?
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Except wait a minute. Is that a command? What does it say?
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But as many as received him description He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name.
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Well, that's interesting It still sounds like you need to receive him. What should we do? My advice is keep reading verse 13 who were born talking about believers being born again born not of blood
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Nor of the will of the flesh Nor of the will of man, but of God So what's he saying?
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He's saying yes, you have to receive him, but it's not a matter of Your will it's not a matter of choice.
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It's a matter of God Nor of the will of flesh nor the will of man, but of God salvation is of the
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Lord Scripture says that over and over and over again Theological challenge number two.
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The Bible says whosoever will Whosoever will believe will believe shall be saved
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Whosoever whosoever whosoever look right there. It says Whosoever will does not appear in the
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Greek. In fact that whole word whosoever Doesn't appear. In fact, let's look at John 3 16
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Does anybody memorize that I won't even ask John 3 16.
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It's it's very interesting For God so loved the world That he gave his only begotten
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Son that whosoever believes in him Now, could
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I just tell you and you can look it up. I'm not afraid of being Contradicted on this one because I have looked it up whosoever believes
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Is one word in the Greek and it is a participle who can tell me what a participle is
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I NG it's an ING word. So if we were looking at it, well, let's let's get a little more technical.
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It is a Verbal noun it describes a in this case a group of people they are believing believing ones believers
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And so if we read it that way For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
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Son That believers in him shall not perish but have eternal life
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What it's doing is it's describing those who believe So the question is no matter how you look at it.
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The ultimate answer is that concept of Choosing is not there.
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It is a description of a class of people who believe God sent his son so that that group of people
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Would be saved any questions on that? Yes, I see that hand
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Well, let's look at the previous verse verse 15 another fine verse Well, let's read 14 as well as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
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Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him or it
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Will in him have eternal life same exact word whoever believes or what is it the authorized version?
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The MacArthur study Bible has a little Roman. I like the laugh has a little
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Footnote there and it says here or believes in him will have eternal life and that's right. It is
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So that believers in him is the concept. It's the same same word.
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Yes An excellent way of saying it
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Well, not so much. Here's the question. Ultimately does faith precede regeneration
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Do you believe and then you are born again? What would be the problem with that man's choice which would make belief itself a work?
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And not the gift of God so that no one should boast as Ephesians 2 would tell us
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There is no description in the Bible where it says an unsaved person apart from God can believe
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Can choose to believe? Oh, and by the way, and I wrote that in there
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There is a word that would be translated whosoever in the Greek there is a word for that But it's not in John 3 16.
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In fact, it's nowhere in the kind of gospel invitation So is it right to get back to the heart of Charlie's question?
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Would it be right to make this an invitation do we preach as if? People should respond
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Yes That's right.
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There is a universal call The gospel is to go out, you know to just people that have a big e elect on their forehead
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It's only people that we like to you know, people that we think might be saved. Is that right? No, we take it everywhere
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Everywhere in the earth we talk to anyone we can anyone who will listen to give a reason for the hope that is within us
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We don't hold it back. We don't just go, you know, I think this guy might be You know seeking the truth.
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So I'm gonna give it to him We proclaim Christ and him crucified and then the
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Holy Spirit as pastor Lewis said Applies that to their hearts. We don't know.
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I mean look if the people who prayed for me had witnessed to me said
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Well, you know, it's one and done for Steve How about you guys? What if somebody had decided that you know,
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I'm going to give Chris the gospel today, and if he doesn't accept today, that's it.
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I don't think his dad would have done that but We patiently Instruct we pray we are long -suffering.
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We take insults. I mean I think of the poor guy who witnessed to me In fact,
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I I think he was pretty much done with me, you know when Because I said I said to him once I said, you know
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Do you still have that Bible study for police officers? And he said yeah, and I said that well, I'd like to come and he said, you know with love in his eye
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He said what's the punchline? so We need to just continually be willing to preach the gospel and we don't know what
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God will do You know, we we see train wrecks like Steve Cooley and we see him get saved but there is no concept of You know a willingness on the part of the person to believe before we don't we don't have to look for anything
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We just proclaim the truth. The Holy Spirit saves people think about this and this is in the notes anywhere. It's absolutely for free
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Paul Saul on the road to Damascus Was he a seeker?
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What's all a seeker? You're shaking your heads no, he was a seeker He was seeking to kill
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Christians he had a strong desire for something to persecute the truth the truth the church and Then Christ looked at him and said oh, that's all he's just a poor misguided thing
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If I could just give him enough evidences if I could just kind of you know
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Water it down a little bit and and make it more palatable if I could just appeal to his reason
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Is that what happened with Saul? Yeah, so it's a little
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Saul. I Mean the picture in Scripture is not of you know, good people
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Waiting to hear good news before they get saved the picture in Scripture is of people who are sorry bad sinful unable to respond to the gospel
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God is the hero of salvation not man who's like waiting for the truth, you know sitting there
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Just waiting for somebody to give me the truth And you know when it does I evaluate it cautiously weigh it out decide what the cost -benefit is and then go for it
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It's not how the Bible describes it Now to Roman numeral three the
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Bible says we must believe is that true? Well, you should say yes, because it's right there on your notes
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Yes, let's look at Galatians 322, I mean there are many passages we could go there, you know, especially in Acts and other places but Galatians 322 who has that?
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Stephen okay
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The promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe there is a necessity of belief
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We have to we have to believe But again, there is no concept in Scripture of being able to believe
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Before you are born again There are several passages we could look at we could even you know, when
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Jesus was talking with Nicodemus He said what you must be
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Born again, he didn't say you must believe in order to be born again.
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He said you must be born again Let's look at first Peter 1 3 and you know,
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I have a special affinity for first Peter and I'm learning to have a special affinity for second Peter But it's just very clear and again, you know when
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I was preaching through first Peter and studying it Over and over again. I said
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I read I believe that Peter was not very innovative first Peter 1 3 he says
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy Has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
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Has caused us Peter Saying listen all believers everywhere.
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Here's what's happened. God has caused us to be born again Nobody chooses to be born again, which leads us right in the next one.
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The Bible says we must choose wait Joshua 24 15, what does that say?
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I'm sorry Choose you I mean, you know This is one of my favorite misapplied verses along with you know, if my people will
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Pray and you know, whatever it is I will heal their land Context context is really so helpful
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But yes, that's right.
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They are in effect. I mean what you are, you know here here It's a good point
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If you're born again, if you're regenerated is the 25 cent word if God has brought you to spiritual life
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Do you then say you know what? I have spiritual life, but I don't believe in Christ Can someone be born again and not choose to believe?
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No, when God takes you from a spiritual death, which is where you were up until that moment and gives you grant you spiritual life
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You don't say you know what? Thank you for spiritual life But I choose not to believe what happens is
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Your eyes are open. You can see scripture. You understand scripture. You understand your plight You understand the dire need you have for salvation and you flee to the cross.
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You don't think I don't really know Let me let me figure this out Joshua 24 verse 15 by the way for those
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Who couldn't hear it? this is If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the
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Lord Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served
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Which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? But as for me in my house, we will serve the
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Lord People point to that and go well look They had to make a choice I'm not arguing against having to make a choice.
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The question is whether you can choose Christ on your own That's always the issue
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The Bible says we must choose. Well, you know again Context were they choosing Christ?
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No, they were choosing between the God of Israel and the pagan gods Joshua wasn't saying of your own free will choose he was saying listen you can serve those other gods if you want, but this is what
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I'm going to do and Again if we were to look at it, we would see that we did not choose
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Christ. He chose us That's evident in his own words It's also evident again in Ephesians chapter 1 that we were chosen before the foundations of the world
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That we were drawn that God caused us to be born again, etc, etc over and over again
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Now here's a phrase Roman numeral five that I just really don't like When I let
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Jesus into my heart when I accepted him into my heart or as Pastor Michael say sometimes when I accepted Jesus into my left ventricle
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You know and then there's always some operating story that follows questions and These are just things that I just I just made up so, you know, maybe you don't like them.
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I don't know But can you as a mere mortal keep Almighty God out of your heart?
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You know, I accepted Jesus into my heart really what was happening before that? You know, you were strongly guarding your heart so that he couldn't get in and the
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God of the universe Just didn't have the capacity to get in there Let's read Acts 16 14 because I think it's a great description of the saving work of God Acts 16 14 who has that?
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Pastor Dave, so she opened her heart.
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Is that what the Bible says? She opened her heart and let Jesus in. Oh Wait, maybe we should read that again the
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Lord opened her heart The sovereign God of the universe the one who spoke in the universe leapt into existence
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Opened her heart. Is that surprising? The God who causes people to be born again opened her heart.
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I mean the it borders on hubris Pride to say
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I let Jesus into my heart. I Almost want to say how nice of you.
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I mean the picture is just is just all wrong There on verse or page 18 is
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Christ persistently trying to get into your heart before you are saved yet is unable to enter without your permission
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See standing at the door of Revelation 3 20 Please let me in.
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No, no, I will not By the way, the reason there are three question marks after Revelation 3 20 is because that's a very bad application it's extremely bad application violently bad application
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C is salvation monergistic or synergistic Monergistic which means
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It is the act of one alone mono Somebody has mono, but that's not the point.
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Is it monergistic one working or is it synergistic two or more working together?
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Is God taking the proverbial 99 steps towards you, but you have to take that one step towards him And if you have to take that one step towards him, how does a dead man do it?
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Are we the gatekeepers of our heart point D down there? Are we the gatekeepers of our heart? Do we decide what comes in and what does not let's read
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Proverbs 21 1 who has that?
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Okay, so the Lord controls the hearts of Kings, but for the rest of us he has no say
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We're in control. What do you think again does our maker have?
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Any say in how we think or what we do? Does the one who formed us from the clay have any control over us?
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What does the Bible say what's that?
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He's the Potter. Where would he find that? You know what I used to sit when when I one of the things
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Was nice about going to Orlando was being able to actually talk to RC Sproul I mean, he's kind of nodded and laughed when
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I you know, my stupidity but You know, I just remember again and again with the kids when
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I first got saved Saying you know what the answer to every question when it comes to salvation is in Romans 9 now, that's a slight exaggeration, but There's a lot of truth in that The reason
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I would say that is because in I've mentioned this before but I want you to just know
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Romans 9 very well Romans 9
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I'm gonna start in verse 15 For he says to Moses. I will have mercy on whom
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I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion Kind of sounds like he's sovereign Verse 16 so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy your best
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Efforts cannot save you it is the mercy of God For the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose
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I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth
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You know, it's like Lewis has a website. He loves that You know one of their little sayings on there is that the only reason for your life may be to serve as a bad example
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And that's kind of what this with this says verse 17 for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose
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I raised you up Pharaoh's life Pharaoh's power
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Was so that God's power could be proclaimed Verse 18
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So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires again.
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It's almost like God is in control Like he can change people's hearts verse 19
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Paul says well gee that doesn't sound fair and he anticipates that question He says you will say to me then you the reader will say to Paul Why does he then still find faults still find faults?
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For who resists his will who resists the will of God and if that's the way it is if God is really sovereign
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Over the hearts of man, then how can he hold anyone responsible? It's a good question verse 20 on the contrary
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Who are you? Oh man who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder
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Why did you make me like this? Will it? Or does not the
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Potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use is
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God Not the Creator the Potter are we not the creation and the clay does he not have a right over us?
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Let's go on to a Roman numeral big Roman numeral number two man's problem Our ultimate problem we described our situation
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Apart from God our inability because of Adam's fall we cannot Respond to the gospel apart from God's enablement apart from his causing us to be born again apart from his
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Indwelling us through the Holy Spirit causing us to be regenerated Roman numeral two man's problem.
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God will assert his holiness. I thought about it later Maybe I should have said his justice because I don't like to confuse holiness as just sinlessness his justice he will impose his wrath and He demands conformity to his holiness
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God is going to when we preach the gospel people. This is what we have to tell them listen God hates sin
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God is going to judge every sin ever created So the problem then
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Man is faced with his sin his guiltiness
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We've gone through Romans 3 23 Every one
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Is guilty of Violating the law of God So he's got that problem.
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You know how can you? How can you pay a debt which you owe to God the justice of God you violated his law you have sinned
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How can you make that right? How could you restore that? How could you on your own?
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stand before God Justified the answer is you can't So secondly, you've got
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God as your enemy Romans 5 10. Let's look at that. God is your enemy.
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I mean if there's anybody you don't want for an enemy, I would say it's the God of the universe the
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Creator Romans 5 10 who has that I mean, there's a
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Thank You Fred. There's there's about four or five sermons here And I'll just wrap it up in 30 seconds
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We were enemies before Christ died for us before that was applied to us.
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We were enemies of God and yet we have been reconciled through the death of Christ and then having been reconciled
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We are saved it's an amazing truth that we were the enemies of God and had no we had no capacity to make ourselves right and Christ did that for us
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We unsaved people still have God as their enemy Unsaved people are still subject to the power of Satan First John 5 19,
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I mean we could go other places for that. We talked about it in Ephesians Chapter 2 Jesus himself talking to the
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Pharisees and their sin. He said what that they were of their father the devil
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First John 5 19 Says we know that we are of God and that the whole world meaning those
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Outside of God lies in the power of the evil one subject to the power of Satan Unsaved people
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Helpless to save themselves Romans 5 6 and I'm gonna read that Eternal spiritual death
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There's a you know a real movement in evangelicalism now to get rid of hell not a very popular place
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Real estate market plunged and the price on hell went way way down Nobody wants it
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Romans 6 23 though says that the wages of sin is Death and it doesn't just mean that you're going to cease to exist
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I mean if that was the case then why would Jesus speak more about hell than he did about heaven? Was Jesus wrong?
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Did he not know what he was talking about? Absolutely not and Man is faced with eternal condemnation and separation.
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Let's look at 2nd Thessalonians 1 9 separation by the way, not meaning
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Separation from God entirely, but we'll talk about that in a second 2nd
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Thessalonians 1 9 who has that seen none these
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Well, let's back up a little bit I'm gonna read back to verse 7 2nd
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Thessalonians 1 starting at verse 7 and to give relief to you who were who are afflicted and to us as well when the
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Lord Jesus Will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire
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Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our
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Lord Jesus these will pay the penalty of Eternal destruction
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Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Now we could argue about exactly what that means.
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I would say that just means the glory of his power means the goodness of God they will be apart from his goodness forever and they will receive
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I mean think about this When time ends so to speak After judgment and there is a
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A determination of who should go to heaven and who should not Does God cease to hate sin at that point?
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No Does he cease to be holy and just and righteous at that point?
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No, so his Wrath his hatred of sin is then poured out on those who have not believed forever and ever
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So that's man's problem apart from Christ God's wrath his righteousness his justice demands that sin be punished
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Roman numeral 3 God's solution I mean the problem is all about us. The solution is all about God the work of Christ What Christ did let's look at 1st
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Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4 and this is a pretty
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Swift summary of the gospel so swift That you really have to basically expand upon it but for I deliver to you as Of first importance what
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I also received that Christ died for our sins According to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures
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What did he do died for our sins that problem that we had that we can never be right on our own
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He died for what
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Christ suffered Did he suffer a lot? We could read
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Isaiah 53. I don't really want to take the time to do that But what do we what are some observations you could make from Isaiah 53?
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suffering servants What does it say? What happens to Jesus in Isaiah 53?
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Okay, so God lays the iniquities of all of us on Jesus. What else? It pleased the father there bruised him no longer recognizable now, what does that tell you about our sin?
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Not about what Jesus suffered, but what does it tell you about our sin? It's violent and repulsive to God think about that.
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He sent his son To earth to do what to suffer horribly why?
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Because that was the price that had to be paid for our sin Our sin is so hateful to God that he visited it all upon his son and he did so in a most
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Horrible way When we read that he was barred more than any other man
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That all of the the penalty that was due us was visited upon him when he
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All the suffering that he went through we understand how holy
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God is how much wrath he has towards sin and When we even see what that how he was separated the son was separated from the father when
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Jesus cries out on the cross My God my God, why have you forsaken me?
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What does that indicate to us? Separation from the father the pain of That moment having gone from a perfect relationship for all eternity where they had this great fellowship perfect harmony forever in that moment
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Spiritual separation when the father turned his face away as it were Should let us know how much
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God hates sin and yet It's one of the things that the church really doesn't like to talk about. I don't mean
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Bethel and Bible Church I mean today's Christian Church doesn't want to talk about sin Doesn't want to talk about the need
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To appease the wrath of God Doesn't want to talk about some of the things that we're gonna talk about Christ suffered a great penalty because a great
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Debt was owed See what price?
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Did Jesus pay to redeem us? Let's look at first Peter. Yes, Dave Yeah, some night we'll have to do a whole thing no, uh -huh
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No, that's a great point, I mean, you know just to kind of put a little more flesh on that, you know in the jail
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We would tend to think that the the really bad people in society are in our jails and prisons and you know to some extent that's right, but you know there there are codes that apply within the jail and Really the lowest of the low.
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I mean you can be a murder That's fine Rapist, that's okay.
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Thief. No problem drug dealer. No problem. There are two things. You can't be in jail besides a cop number one
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You cannot be a snitch That is just you know That there's no hope for you
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Secondly, you cannot be a child molester There is no mercy or compassion for you
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And the picture scripture gives us is not somehow that there are you know
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That we're all a class of criminal that were white collar criminals or that were you know, pretty bad
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But we could be worse and that there are certainly people worse than us We're bad
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Very bad God doesn't look at things and grade on a curve and go
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That's Steve Cooley on a scale of one to a hundred with 100 being the most evil I'd put him at a 65
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So he's savable, but somebody to 95 is not savable. We're all at 100
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We are wicked do we do as bad as everybody else? No, not in our own sight
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But God doesn't look at sin and go that's not such a bad sin. I can live with that one
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It was just a little lie And Sin is sin and God sent his son
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To die for the ungodly and that's all of us. We are the inverse of God Let me just read first Peter 3 18 first Peter 3 18 says
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For Christ also died for sins once for all The just the perfect the righteous the one who never did anything wrong
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For the unjust those who never did anything, right? So that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
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Listen We could not enter into the presence of God Without being covered being wrapped as it were in the robes of Christ's righteousness
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Christ had to die for us to redeem us
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He had to suffer that we might be made Just in the sight of God Declared righteous
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We'll pick it up there next week. Let's pray father.
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We cannot help but again rejoice knowing that There was nothing commendable in us
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That there was nothing that you saw in us that would say That one's worth saving or I really like that one.
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If he didn't have a few rough edges. I'll just smooth them off Lord you looked into our darkened hearts to our dead cold hearts
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Saw nothing good Nevertheless you sent your son Jesus to die on our behalf
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That you might take out our cold dead hearts of stone
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Give us hearts of flesh hearts that beat for you hearts that love you Salvation is all of you and Lord we praise you for that We praise you for the immeasurable suffering of your son that he suffered on our behalf
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Suffering that we fully cannot comprehend. It's impossible for us to get it Nevertheless we rejoice in that or would you just cause us?
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To reflect to think to ponder your goodness your love
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Toward us that you would send your son to save us Those who had no claim on it whatsoever