Jesus Saves, Part 2.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] All right, go ahead and have a seat. Welcome to Village Church. [0:03] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve, one of the pastors here [0:07] at Village Church, and I am always thankful and grateful [0:09] to see each and every one of you here. [0:12] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Romans, Chapter three. [0:16] We’re going to be in verses 21 to 26 again.

[0:18] But before we get into that, I do want to just by way of announcement, [0:22] let you know that next Sunday morning and the following Sunday morning, [0:26] we’re going to have something here called membership matters. [0:29] Now, this is something that we used to do on Saturdays, but [0:33] it’s a lot easier to do it on Sunday. [0:35] So we said, hey, why not just do it on Sunday?

[0:37] So starting at 10 15, which is right after the first service ends [0:41] on next Sunday morning, we’re going to have membership matters. [0:44] And what this is, is this is a time for you to get to know us [0:49] as a church and in a better way, a little more of an intimate way. [0:53] If you have questions about what we believe, [0:56] why we do things the way that we do things,

[0:59] what is our, you know, just ins and outs of why we have Sunday mornings, [1:03] why we do community groups, what our discipleship groups [1:06] and really everything about the church. [1:08] You can come next Sunday morning and find out more information about that. [1:13] It’s also a requirement that you attend one of these meetings [1:17] for membership here at Village Church.

[1:20] And so if you want to be there and you don’t have to be [1:23] you don’t have to want to be a member to come to that. [1:25] You can just come for information’s sake. [1:27] But if you are going to be there, please do us a favor. [1:31] Go on the website and RSVP for that event. [1:35] It’s going to be from 10 15 till about 11 45

[1:39] next Sunday and the Sunday after that, about three hours total. [1:44] There will be a time of Q&A, and somehow I’m going to be in both places [1:48] at once next Sunday morning, and I’m going to pull that off. [1:51] Now, how I’m going to do that is a mystery, but we’re going to do it. [1:55] And we figured it out. [1:56] We know the solution.

[1:58] So if you want to see how we do it, you got to go to membership matters next Sunday [2:01] because the people up here are going to have no idea how I pulled it off. [2:04] But the people downstairs, you guys are going to be in the know. [2:07] So next Sunday morning and the Sunday after that, we’re going to have membership matters. [2:11] And so please sign up for that. [2:14] Basically, it’s beginning when child care for the second service begins.

[2:20] So it’s going to be during the second service. [2:22] We’ve even set it up so you can go to the first service, then go to membership matters. [2:25] I mean, we’ve thought of everything except bathroom breaks. [2:29] There will be none of those.

[2:32] Romans, Chapter three is where we’re going to be today. [2:35] And this is such a important text that I made the decision to cover it over [2:41] two weeks span, and last week we talked about Jesus. [2:46] And really, without Jesus, there is no Christianity. [2:50] Any form of Christianity that doesn’t have Jesus as God, [2:54] doesn’t have Jesus as its savior, doesn’t have Jesus as the conquering

[2:59] king who saves through his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead [3:03] is not Christianity at all. [3:06] So we focus on two things last week. [3:08] Who is Jesus and why is he righteous? [3:12] And so Jesus and his righteousness were coverages in depth. [3:16] But the big key that you need to understand about Jesus’s righteousness

[3:20] is that Jesus did not need to come to earth to be righteous. [3:26] He already was Jesus in eternity past, [3:30] which when I say things like eternity past, what I mean by that [3:32] is before the world was created, before he made everything that exists, exist [3:37] before there was even time, which God created. [3:42] Jesus was righteous.

[3:45] There has never been a moment in the existence of God, [3:49] which has simply always been where God was not completely perfect, [3:55] where God was not completely holy, where God was not completely righteous. [3:59] So there was absolutely nothing about Jesus coming to earth [4:04] that made him righteous. [4:07] And so what we have to ask after going through next week

[4:10] and just kind of taking a look at all of this righteousness [4:13] and all of what he is and all of who he is for us [4:17] is that why did he come to earth? [4:21] We understand that he came to earth in order to save sinners. [4:24] So one thing that Romans lets us know a lot about it [4:27] is the fact that we are a sinful people who need to be saved.

[4:31] And that’s the story of Christianity thus far in the Book of Romans. [4:35] But in Romans, chapter three, verse twenty one, he takes this drastic turn [4:39] where he leaves us. If he had simply stopped in Romans three twenty, [4:44] we would have been hopeless. [4:46] Romans three twenty telling us that that we cannot work [4:49] our way out of our sinful situation,

[4:52] that no one will be justified by works of the law. [4:55] If he had stopped there, that’s the end of the story. [4:58] We’re completely hopeless. [4:59] We are condemned in our situation. [5:02] But in chapter three, verse twenty one, he begins what for you [5:05] as a follower of Jesus Christ, if you do not have Romans three twenty one

[5:10] through twenty six, there is no discipleship. [5:14] There is no following Jesus. [5:17] Romans three twenty one through twenty six establishes [5:20] why it is that we can trust God, [5:23] why it is that salvation is genuine, [5:27] why it is that redemption is legitimate,

[5:30] why it is that forgiveness is not cheap, [5:33] why it is that forgiveness is more like we said last week [5:36] than God simply pardoning our sins and sweeping them under a rug. [5:40] But God rather deals specifically, [5:43] genuinely and in real time with our sin [5:47] through everything that Jesus did in this text.

[5:51] Paul delves into the infinite wisdom of God [5:56] to show how God righteously deals with sin in such a way [6:01] that he is seen as both exercising justice and. [6:08] Love and righteous grace towards sinners. [6:12] And in this passage, we see how God is not just a God [6:16] who wants to find justice for sin, but he’s also the kind of God

[6:20] who in love desires to redeem people who are not worthy of redemption. [6:27] He does this to show his grace towards sinners and show that he is, [6:31] as Romans three twenty six shows us, both just and the justifier [6:36] of those who have faith in Jesus. [6:40] But when we’re told that our faith must be in Jesus, [6:44] it has to go past the fact that Jesus is righteous.

[6:48] It has to go past the who of salvation, [6:51] and it has to go into the how of salvation. [6:56] And so this week, what I want to do is like last week, [6:58] we focused on the two words, Jesus and righteousness. [7:00] There’s two words that I want to focus in on this week. [7:02] And those two words that are in this text are redemption.

[7:06] And propitiation, that these two terms [7:10] are vital to your faith. [7:13] And Jesus Christ and that these two terms are going to establish. [7:20] For all of us, why it is that God is completely worthy [7:25] of our trust and completely worthy of our faith. [7:30] So let’s take a look in verse 21, let’s read through that again.

[7:33] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, [7:39] although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. [7:42] The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. [7:47] For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [7:52] and are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption [7:56] that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward

[8:00] as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. [8:07] This was to show God’s righteousness, [8:09] because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. [8:13] It was to show his righteousness at the present time [8:16] so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[8:25] Things I want to establish this morning as we get going [8:28] into understanding what redemption and propitiation are is for us [8:31] to understand the how of Jesus coming and showing righteousness [8:35] and why it was necessary. [8:38] I mean, you ever wondered? [8:39] Maybe you haven’t. Maybe you’re not like me.

[8:41] But but why it is that Jesus, if we needed him to die for us, [8:45] if we needed him to rise again for us, why it is that he didn’t just pull [8:49] some Star Trek move and beam himself down fully grown, [8:53] get onto the cross, die for our sin, then raise up three days later [8:57] and then beam himself back up if we needed him to die for us, [9:01] if we needed him to rise for us, then what was the point of everything

[9:04] that happened between his birth and his crucifixion? [9:08] There was a lot of time. [9:10] I mean, Jesus spent more time not dying on the cross [9:13] than he spent dying on the cross. [9:15] But 33 years of life happened that wasn’t on the cross. [9:21] And we tend to be a people, Christians who are marked

[9:24] by a faith in the cross, which we should be. [9:28] We should be marked as people who look at the cross for why our faith [9:32] is what it is. [9:33] But we must also look to the life that Jesus lived [9:38] while he didn’t need to live a life on this earth to be righteous. [9:43] We needed him to live a life on this earth for us to be made righteous.

[9:49] So, number one, an understanding redemption. [9:51] We must see that Jesus is righteous for you. [9:56] You see, we need to be made righteous. [10:00] That’s the greatest need that you will ever have in your life [10:04] is your need to be made righteous. [10:07] But for you to be made righteous,

[10:10] there has to be a penalty paid for your unrighteousness. [10:14] I mean, look at Colossians, chapter three, verse twenty five says, it says, [10:17] For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done. [10:22] And there’s no partiality, which means there’s no way out for anybody. [10:26] This is simply a fact that is true, that when wrong is done.

[10:34] Somebody needs to be paid back for that wrong. [10:36] I mean, when you think about your life, [10:39] we think from very early on, when you would see someone do something [10:44] and it just something in your gut said that is wrong [10:48] and he needs to pay for what he’s done. [10:50] And as you get older, the more innocent the victim of someone’s wrongdoing is,

[10:56] the more you look at it and you say something needs to be done about this. [11:01] Someone needs to pay for that wrongdoing. [11:04] I mean, from like the age of four, if someone punches you, [11:08] what is your gut telling you? [11:10] Bam! Get them back. [11:13] And there’s some moms in here like, no, that it’s not the way.

[11:23] What I want you to understand in all of this is just that that thing [11:29] that’s inside of us that seeks justice for wrong. [11:34] That wants people to pay for their crimes.

[11:39] That is part of the image of God that you bear. [11:45] That when God breathed life into Adam’s nostrils, [11:51] part of that breath of life that went into him [11:53] is this thing that we call the image of God. [11:57] It is what God said is that we will make man and he will be like us. [12:01] He’ll be in our image as the nature of God that still dwells in you

[12:05] and that yearning for justice is good. [12:10] That yearning for justice is about God. [12:13] But here’s the thing that yearning for justice also condemns you.

[12:19] Because you have done wrong.

[12:22] And you’ve done wrong on cosmic levels. [12:27] You’ve done wrong against God himself. [12:31] You have attempted to rob God of his glory.

[12:40] And that is what makes you unrighteous. [12:43] Every sin that you have in your life. [12:46] It’s because of that. [12:49] Every moment of disobedience in your life, no matter how large, no matter [12:52] how small, is you attempting to rob God of his glory. [12:56] And so the one that is offended the most by your sin is God.

[13:00] And God looks to you in Colossians 325 and he says you will be paid back. [13:06] And that’s a terrifying thing. [13:09] But we have to be honest. [13:10] If you do wrong, you deserve to be paid back for that wrong. [13:15] This is the sense of justice that we have inside of all of us in Romans, [13:18] chapter three, verse twenty three.

[13:19] In our text, it makes it abundantly clear who’s done wrong. [13:22] All have done wrong for all have sinned and fallen short of what? [13:27] The glory of God. [13:28] We’ve tried to rob him of his glory. [13:31] We haven’t lived as we were designed to live. [13:34] We haven’t obeyed the mandates that God made for us to obey in our lives.

[13:39] And this is why we’re in trouble.

[13:44] Because let’s be honest, if I do a wrong and I can pay back that wrong, [13:50] then I’m OK. [13:53] I mean, if you take someone’s dish at a party, you think it’s your own [13:56] and you take it home and you’ve got it and you find that’s not mine. [14:00] And so you just clean it up a little bit and you take it back. [14:03] That person is not going to be offended that you are.

[14:05] They now if you take a dish and it wasn’t yours and you keep it [14:07] and you’re like, you know, they’re going to find out as me. [14:09] But I don’t care. I wanted this dish. [14:10] I deserve this dish more than they deserve this dish. [14:12] Well, in that light, they need some payback. [14:15] You owe them a dish.

[14:18] But here’s what I want you to understand about our sin against God. [14:21] It is one thing for me to think if I take something and I can pay it back. [14:25] Well, retribution has been made. [14:27] It’s another thing to rob God of his glory, because guess what? [14:30] We don’t have to give him back glory.

[14:35] In Romans three, verse 20. [14:38] Made it abundantly clear for you and for me. [14:41] God has given us the path of payback and the path of payback is his law. [14:47] And 320 puts it abundantly clear when it says by works of the law, [14:50] no human being will be justified in his sight. [14:53] You have done God wrong on a level that you cannot hope to pay back.

[15:00] Therefore, we are at the mercy of God in this light.

[15:07] But fortunately for us, God not only seeks justice, [15:12] but he also seeks to be loving. [15:15] That’s why when Romans three, 26 says that God desires to be both just [15:20] and the justifier of those who put their faith in Jesus, [15:24] it is no small statement. [15:27] Because when Romans three, 21 says that Jesus is the revelation

[15:32] of the righteousness of God for all who believe, then three, 26 says [15:36] that God wants to be just in the justifier. [15:38] It’s making a statement. [15:40] It’s telling us that we can take a benefit from what happens in verse 21 [15:44] with the righteousness of Jesus. [15:46] But verses 22 through 25 are the bridge.

[15:50] Between 21 and 26, it connects them. [15:54] It informs us of how God does this. [15:57] And the how is vitally important for us to understand [16:01] because the fact that Jesus is righteous doesn’t save us.

[16:10] We can be lost in Jesus, still righteous. [16:12] We can be condemned in Jesus, still righteous. [16:15] The only thing that will save us is if Jesus makes a pathway [16:19] between verses 21 and 26, where his righteousness is actually done for me. [16:27] And to do that, number two, this morning, Jesus moves us [16:33] from God’s wrath to God’s favor.

[16:36] Jesus moves us from God’s wrath to God’s favor. [16:41] It’s where that term propitiation is so vitally important. [16:46] And I want to do three things today to show you how Jesus is our propitiation, [16:51] how he becomes our way from God’s wrath to God’s favor. [16:56] First, I want you to understand that Jesus is your substitute. [17:00] Jesus is your substitute.

[17:03] You cannot hope to pay God back. [17:07] Many of you will, maybe you have or going to [17:11] attempt in your life to do so much good. [17:16] That it erases all of the bad. [17:19] But what this text is telling us is that Christianity and God’s way [17:23] of redemption is not some type of karmic justice

[17:27] in which we do so much good that it overshadows the bad. [17:30] Our bad is at levels that we can’t understand. [17:33] Our bad is to the level of God’s glory. [17:35] And you can’t hope to pay God that back because you don’t have it.

[17:41] So instead, God does something else. [17:45] God comes in the person and work of Jesus Christ to be your substitute. [17:50] I mean, here’s something that blows my mind about the story of Jesus Christ [17:55] from the moment of conception, the moment of birth, [17:58] to the moment that he ascends back up into heaven after his resurrection. [18:02] Jesus lived a completely righteous life.

[18:08] Jesus never once disobeyed the law of God. [18:11] Jesus never once did anything outside of God’s will. [18:16] Jesus was completely obedient from point A to point B of his life [18:21] without ever a moment of disobedience, without ever a moment of wrong motive, [18:26] without ever a moment or even an inkling of sin being in his life whatsoever. [18:31] And the story is clear.

[18:32] Jesus was tempted in every way that we are.

[18:37] I mean, at the baptism of Jesus, [18:39] when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, he’s lifted up out of the water. [18:43] A dove descends upon him. [18:45] And God, the father, actually makes a statement. [18:47] This is my son in whom I am well pleased. [18:49] Let me fill you in.

[18:50] God has never done that about me.

[18:54] When I was born, my parents did not take a journey to a mountaintop. [18:59] And like Simba, they did not raise me up. [19:02] And God looked down and say, that’s what I was going for.

[19:07] Until now hadn’t perfected it. [19:09] Steve, boom, the good one. [19:12] Well pleased. No.

[19:15] My birth was the opposite.

[19:19] So was yours.

[19:23] The thing for us to understand is that Jesus is not unrighteous like we are. [19:28] And that should blow your mind.

[19:33] Jesus is completely righteous. [19:36] He is your substitute. [19:38] Here’s what Hebrews, Chapter two, verse 17 says. [19:40] It says, therefore, he, Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect. [19:48] He had to be like us in every way so that he might become a merciful and faithful high [19:53] priest in the service of God.

[19:55] To do what? [19:56] To make propitiation. [19:58] There’s that word again. [19:59] For the sins of the people. [20:01] The key term in this passage as well as the Romans passage is the term propitiation. [20:08] This term means that Jesus came to make a way for us to be redeemed from sin.

[20:14] And he did this in two ways. [20:16] First, he was our substitute in life. [20:19] Jesus lived a substitutionary life. [20:21] His life was righteous. [20:23] He literally lived the life that was needed in order to have the favor of God. [20:31] Instead of the wrath of God.

[20:33] Jesus lived his life in the reverse order that I need to have mine. [20:40] Jesus lived a life in which he had the favor of God to head towards the wrath of God.

[20:48] The life that I live is a life in which I am born condemned in my sin. [20:52] And I’m in the wrath of God. [20:54] And I need desperately to go towards the favor of God somehow. [20:58] But for me to get to the favor of God, Jesus needed to live in the favor of God for me.

[21:05] Jesus needed to be obedient where I am disobedient. [21:08] Jesus needed to be righteous where I am unrighteous. [21:10] Jesus needed to be perfect where I am imperfect. [21:12] Jesus needed to be righteous in my place. [21:17] And the beautiful thing is that he was. [21:20] It was not as some of you or some people may suppose that Jesus lived this exemplary life.

[21:26] So that I will look to him and I will say, you know what, that’s a pretty good example for me to follow. [21:30] He was a good man. [21:31] It was more than that. [21:34] He was a substitute for something that Romans has already revealed that we are incapable of. [21:41] Living righteously. [21:43] You can’t do it.

[21:45] You know what my life will get me? [21:47] You know what my righteousness will get me? [21:49] My righteousness will get me Romans 6, 23a. [21:52] The very first part. [21:54] Wages of sin. [21:55] Death.

[21:57] That’s all that my life is capable of getting me. [22:01] But Romans chapter 2 verse 8 has already shown me that death is not all that I need to fear. [22:09] There’s something beyond death that I need to fear. [22:11] Romans 2, 8 says, but for those who are self-seeking, that’s me. [22:16] For those who do not obey the truth, that’s me. [22:19] But obey unrighteousness, that’s me.

[22:22] If all three of those things are true about me, what do I get?

[22:27] Wrath and fury.

[22:32] Death is one thing.

[22:37] But then after that death, if I have the wrath and fury of a holy and righteous God, [22:44] if that is what my unrighteousness will earn me, then I have something else to fear altogether. [22:50] Because here’s the key you have to understand about God. [22:53] One way or the other, you will be paid back for your wrong.

[23:03] Either through condemnation of wrath and fury, or through the way that Jesus provides, [23:11] if we will put our faith in what he has done for us.

[23:19] You see, God didn’t just put Jesus forward as a propitiation in his life though.

[23:30] The text tells us in Romans chapter 3, this is Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation [23:36] by his blood. [23:40] You see, Jesus lived a substitutionary life, but that’s not the only thing that I’m going [23:44] to do. [23:44] I’m going to die. [23:47] Jesus also lived a substitutionary, excuse me, died a substitutionary death.

[23:52] See, his death was completely righteous. [23:56] God put him forward by his blood. [23:59] So when Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17 says that he had to become like us in every way, it [24:05] includes the death that I deserve. [24:08] His substitutionary life heads straight into a substitutionary death. [24:15] You see, Jesus’ mission was to become the way that you and I could go from those who

[24:25] are headed straight towards the wrath of God, as Ephesians chapter 2 verse 3 puts it. [24:32] That we’re children of wrath like the rest of mankind. [24:34] But so that we could go from that wrath to be put on a path of God’s favor that Jesus [24:41] was on. [24:43] You see, through his life and his death, Jesus became our propitiation. [24:49] He is the way for us to come to God in favor rather than wrath.

[24:57] Jesus is your propitiation. [25:00] And because of that, you can trust in him.

[25:08] But there’s more than that. [25:11] You see, propitiation is this thing that Jesus is for us that falls under this much larger [25:17] banner of what I need in my life.

[25:21] I need to be redeemed. [25:23] I need redemption. [25:25] Redemption, then, number 3 this morning, means that Jesus pays the penalty for our sins. [25:34] Jesus pays the penalty for our sins. [25:37] You know, to be justified, like we said last week, is to be made righteous. [25:42] And this is God’s intention as he desires through Jesus to show that he is a just God

[25:48] and he is also the God who justifies sinners. [25:52] God is putting the plan of the gospel on display for all of us to see. [25:57] And Paul, in this text, is offering an explanation of how a righteous and holy God cannot only [26:04] allow sinners to exist in this world, but also how he will make those sinners righteous [26:10] in his eyes. [26:12] You see, this right here is why doctrine is so vital in your life.

[26:18] That what you believe about God shows how trustworthy God is. [26:23] Because if Paul, in this explanation, if it falters in any way, then what is at stake [26:29] is the very just and righteous nature of God himself. [26:33] If in any way God allows a sinful person into his presence and calls that person righteous [26:40] in an unjust way, then God is not trustworthy. [26:45] But the key of the gospel is not just God saying, I forgive you, but God also saying,

[26:53] I can be trusted to redeem people from sin in a righteous manner. [26:59] God’s justice is just as important as his love, because his justice goes to the very [27:06] heart as to whether or not his love can be trusted. [27:10] This is why our definition of love must be remade in light of God’s image. [27:17] Love is not just some sentiment from one person to another, whether it’s logical or illogical. [27:24] Love must be in the way that God’s love is, and it must have added in it as undergirding

[27:30] justice.

[27:33] Or else it ultimately will be found to be completely invalid and completely untrustworthy. [27:38] This is why some of our lives are so off track.

[27:46] Because we put our trust in things and in people that we were never meant to put our [27:52] whole trust in. [27:54] I mean, there is no one in your life that is as trustworthy as Jesus. [27:59] There is no one that can rise to the level of trustworthiness that this passage says [28:03] Jesus has. [28:05] It exists on this world.

[28:07] You might say, well, my spouse is completely trustworthy. [28:10] Not as trustworthy as Jesus.

[28:15] Your spouse has sinned. [28:18] When you begin to put your spouse on that level, what you are doing is setting yourself [28:22] up for great disappointment. [28:24] Because your trust in life and in death needs to be in Jesus and in Jesus alone. [28:30] Because only Jesus is that trustworthy. [28:34] Only Jesus, friends, is God.

[28:39] And Paul is showing us that what Jesus reveals to us is that God’s way of justice and love [28:46] has always been exactly the same. [28:51] It has never changed, even for an instant. [28:54] And what he is doing in this section, when he says that God, in his divine forbearance, [28:59] has passed over former sins, he is making a statement about all sins for all time. [29:06] But more than that, he is making a statement about how God has always dealt with sin.

[29:12] What he is saying is that the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament can only find [29:17] meaning in Jesus. [29:20] I mean, let’s be honest. [29:21] Without Jesus, you have to ask, how can a bull or a goat’s death forgive sin? [29:28] What in the world does killing a goat have to do with forgiveness? [29:35] Maybe you haven’t been as critical towards the Bible as I have.

[29:38] But when you are going through the book of Leviticus, without Jesus, all that you have [29:43] is people chopping up animals constantly, sprinkling the blood all over the place, putting [29:49] it over door posts, spreading a little behind your ear. [29:52] At that point, if I am a priest, I am asking for a wipe. [29:55] Putting blood on door posts is one thing, but when I have it behind my ears, we have [29:59] some issues that we have to work through where hygiene is concerned.

[30:03] But they are just tearing animals apart, cooking them over an open fire, offering this sacrifice [30:09] here, a bull has to die there, some doves have to die there, a goat has to die here. [30:13] They are just killing everything. [30:15] As soon as they get done, guess what they have to do? [30:17] Oh, good, Joe down the street, he just sinned again and got unclean. [30:21] Somebody bring in another animal, because we have to start sacrificing over and over

[30:25] and over and over again. [30:28] And it never stopped. [30:31] They had to take an entire tribe of Israel and say that whole tribe has to kill animals [30:37] all the time.

[30:40] It never stopped.

[30:43] And it just tore the life of the animal apart and it was very, very bloody. [30:51] And that was God’s point.

[30:56] See, Romans has already shown us that the whole point of the law was to reveal for us our [31:01] need for a savior. [31:03] The whole point of the law was to reveal to us how ugly and dirty our sin is. [31:08] And God instituted an entire system of sacrifices so that you would see the effect that sin [31:13] is having on you, whether you know it or not. [31:17] So that you would see just how much sin is tearing lives apart.

[31:22] So that you would see how much sin is tearing your life apart. [31:25] So that you would see just how much sin is tearing the lives of those around you apart. [31:30] And that is why as soon as one sacrifice was over, another sacrifice had to begin. [31:35] Because sin never stops its march of devastation through life.

[31:42] It’s tearing you apart. [31:45] It’s tearing everyone in your life apart.

[31:49] God said, this is the only picture that I can paint that shows you just how horrid sin is [31:57] to a just, righteous, and holy God.

[32:02] And so if we had to have sacrifices made like that, they could never stop. [32:08] But what was so special about those animals? [32:11] Nothing. [32:12] There was absolutely nothing special about those animals. [32:14] Look at what Hebrews chapter 9 tells us.

[32:18] Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly. [32:20] It’s speaking of the sacrifice that God makes through Jesus that replaces the sacrifice of the Old Testament. [32:26] And he’s saying, well, Jesus doesn’t have to be sacrificed over and over again like those Old Testament animals did. [32:33] Look at what he says. [32:35] He says he doesn’t have to offer himself repeatedly as the High Priest enters the holy places every year with blood. [32:41] What?

[32:42] Not his own. [32:45] See, every year in the Old Testament, the High Priest would have to go into a place called the Holy of Holies [32:51] where they said the presence of God dwelt. [32:53] And every year he would have to offer the largest sacrifice of the year on what they still call Yom Kippur. [32:59] It was the day of atonement. [33:01] To atone for all of the large sins of Israel for all year.

[33:05] But guess what had to happen 365 days later? [33:08] All those Israelites, they didn’t keep it. [33:11] So there had to be another sacrifice made. [33:14] He says it wasn’t that effective and it had to be done over and over again because you had a High Priest who just walked in. [33:20] And he’s offering a sacrifice of blood that wasn’t even his own. [33:25] It said for then he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

[33:34] But as it is, he, Jesus, has appeared once for all. [33:44] He’s asking me at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

[33:57] You see what you needed and what I need is a sacrifice of a perfect life.

[34:07] Of a spotless life. [34:10] Of a righteous life. [34:12] Of a life of one who actually has authority over the law. [34:19] Of a life of one who’s actually the judge of the law. [34:24] And if he would come down, if he would sacrifice himself, then that would put an end to all of the death. [34:33] To all of the sacrifice.

[34:35] To everything. [34:36] Because it would be a good enough sacrifice for all time. [34:40] And Jesus came and he made that sacrifice. [34:44] The text says once for all.

[34:50] Jesus was the end of all sacrifices because his death was enough. [34:57] He offers eternal justification. [35:01] The sacrifice of the life of Jesus is a once for all sacrifice because he is God.

[35:10] You may say.

[35:15] You don’t know the things I’ve done.

[35:19] You don’t know how large my sins are.

[35:23] Friend, I would tell you.

[35:26] The number one, God does.

[35:30] God knows the things that you’ve done. [35:33] God knows the thoughts that you’ve had. [35:35] God knows the motivations that you have from the person that would say that your life is completely sinful. [35:40] And has no redeeming value. [35:43] God knows what you’ve done to the person who’s so self righteous that you may be lying to yourself right now saying, well, I’m not as bad as everybody else. [35:49] So maybe I don’t need that type of sacrifice.

[35:51] Well, you need that type of sacrifice because of how self righteous you are.

[35:57] God knows.

[35:59] But here’s the key. [36:01] Because of Jesus, we can trust that God is just and that redemption is legitimate. [36:09] His plan adds up. [36:13] God puts to death the Son of God, which number one, it showcases the seriousness of our sin.

[36:22] If you look to what Jesus has done for you and you see a form of cheap grace or a form of cheap forgiveness, you don’t understand the debt that Jesus paid for you. [36:32] And how large the ramifications are for the fact that to redeem me. [36:36] The God of the universe had to come down and lay his life down so that I could be forgiven is that is a debt that can be paid by no one else. [36:47] Therefore, it is the largest debt that has ever existed in this world.

[36:53] Jesus shows just how much is owed to God. [36:57] But the very nature of who he is and the fact that he himself came down. [37:02] He used no one else but personally came and went to the cross for my sin and for your sin.

[37:13] Jesus puts his righteousness up against my unrighteousness and actually showcases.

[37:22] The substitutionary death of the only one who never deserved to die.

[37:32] This is the how of redemption in Jesus. [37:39] See, Jesus takes sin. [37:42] And gives us his righteousness. [37:46] You see, when Jesus took that path.

[37:50] From earning and keeping and never losing the eternal favor of God, the father. [37:57] To on the cross, taking the wrath of God, the father.

[38:04] He took my sin and your sin onto himself in that moment. [38:08] He took the wrath of God onto himself in that moment. [38:12] In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, it says, for our sake.

[38:18] For your sake.

[38:21] For my sake.

[38:24] God, the father, made him, God the son Jesus. [38:30] To be sin.

[38:34] Who knew no sin? [38:36] See, when you read a phrase like that, justice inside of you should kind of come up and say, but that’s not fair. [38:43] That’s not just. [38:45] Jesus had no sin of his own to die for. [38:49] He is the scapegoat for people who deserve the wrath of God. [38:54] And I say, exactly.

[38:57] Jesus walks to the cross as the sacrificial lamb who is without blemish. [39:04] Who is righteous. [39:07] And he willingly, as the one with authority.

[39:13] He says, I will take that condemnation. [39:16] I will take that wrath.

[39:19] I will take the unrighteousness of the people that I created.

[39:26] Onto myself and through that he earns our forgiveness. [39:30] You don’t deserve to be forgiven, friend. [39:31] But Jesus offers it anyway.

[39:36] But he keeps going. [39:38] See, because if all that he had done is die on the cross, if all that he had done is offered me forgiveness, [39:43] then he would have left a vacuum, a hole in my life that was once filled with sin. [39:49] And something has to replace that. [39:53] So if all he had done is wipe the slate clean for me, then guess what? [39:56] Sin would have been close at hand again.

[40:01] And I would have disobeyed again, but Jesus kept going. [40:05] Note the second half of the verse. [40:06] That he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.

[40:20] You see, Jesus not only took my sin off of me.

[40:25] Jesus took his righteousness off of himself and put it on me. [40:32] Every righteous deed that Jesus had ever done, every moment of obedience in this world that Jesus ever had, [40:39] every moment where he brought glory to God the Father, on the cross, he said, it’s as if you did it.

[40:49] You see, that’s why Jesus didn’t just die.

[40:53] Jesus also rose again. [40:57] Because of his righteousness, he could become the substitute. [40:59] But when Jesus rose from the dead, it meant we could have more than forgiveness. [41:04] When Jesus rose from the dead, it meant that we could also not just take part in his substitutionary death, [41:11] but we could take part in his substitutionary life. [41:14] His life and death earned for us a new life because he rose from the dead, defeating sin and its penalty.

[41:24] Here’s the defeat of sin. Defeat of sin is death. [41:27] We’ve already seen that. Defeat of sin is the wrath and fury of God. [41:31] We’ve already seen that. And then defeat of death is eternal wrath for sin. [41:36] And Jesus says, oh, I don’t have to take that because I’m God.

[41:44] So on the cross, he endured all the wrath for all time in those moments. [41:49] And then three days later, he said, by the way, that penalty that sin has given into this world that seems so victorious, [41:56] that sting that death offers you where you fear it, it’s unnecessary.

[42:04] Because God as the author of life also is the God who has power over death. [42:09] I mean, think about the life of Jesus. He got better the whole time he was here. [42:15] I mean, he’s born to a virgin. That’s pretty crazy. [42:19] Every high schooler wishes they could use that as an excuse.

[42:23] Then moving forward, at 12, he’s teaching the scribes. [42:32] Then moving forward, he heals the sick. [42:36] Then moving forward, he sees cripples and he says, get up. You’re healed. [42:41] Then moving forward, he finds blind people and he says, you can see. [42:45] Then moving forward, he finds deaf people and he says, you can hear. [42:48] Then moving forward, he says, oh, you’re dead, Lazarus, get up.

[42:54] So we’re looking at this guy like, man, he has so much power. [42:58] But then he says something that’s even more miraculous that leaves the Pharisees completely dumbfounded. [43:03] And it’s in this moment that they said, we’ve got him because he’s claiming to be God, which he was, by the way, and still is. [43:09] As he looks to a man that he just healed and he said, which is harder to tell that guy to get up or to tell that guy your sins are forgiven?

[43:19] Because in that moment, what often many of us don’t realize is that’s the most miraculous thing that Jesus ever did in this world. [43:25] Because in that moment, God is saying, I have power over sin. [43:28] I have power over death, and it cannot defeat me. [43:32] And then in great climax, three days after he rose from, excuse me, after he died on the cross, Jesus says, you want to see how much authority I have over sin and death? [43:41] They can’t keep me down. [43:43] And he, under his own power, got up from the grave, walked out of that tomb, took a couple of walks with a couple of people, preached a couple of sermons where he rebuked people, offered them forgiveness of sins.

[43:55] And then he flew like Superman up into heaven. [43:57] I mean, that’s the kind of God that I can trust because I can’t do any of the stuff that Jesus can do. [44:06] And so when you say, how can I be forgiven? [44:09] When you say, how can I be given a new life? [44:11] I can only point to one place in the history of the world. [44:15] And friend, there’s only one person who said he could do it and then backed it up with every single thing he did.

[44:23] And that is who Jesus is. [44:25] And when Jesus says through the apostle Paul in Romans chapter three, verse 26, when he says, I not only want to be just, but I also want to be the justifier. [44:35] He can only go to one more place to prove it. [44:39] He says, I want to be the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[44:47] Because friend, Jesus is enough.

[44:55] By rising from the dead, Jesus offers you a brand new life.

[45:05] Friend, you do not have to carry your guilt with the constant worry about how God will pay you back.

[45:22] God has already received the payback. [45:28] He received it from Jesus. [45:31] You see, Romans three, 24 proclaims that God desires to give you his grace as a gift. [45:40] We don’t deserve to be forgiven, but God is so good that he desires to give it. [45:48] He demands, though, that you trust him for it. [45:54] His gift comes through faith.

[45:57] And you can receive it right now. [45:59] You see, Jesus is a God of justice and a God of love.

[46:10] And because of those two things, you can trust that Jesus is your propitiation.

[46:18] You can trust that Jesus offers you the gift of eternal redemption. [46:25] You can trust his work today because he is the way. [46:30] And he is also the how.

[46:35] As the band comes up.

[46:38] I just want to tell all of you.

[46:45] That I know some of you probably.

[46:49] Fear what death will look like. [46:51] Probably all of you. [46:55] But it’s so interesting when you’re a follower of Jesus, because that means that you become a person that puts at your forefront a symbol. [47:04] It’s so strange to this world. [47:06] It’s the symbol of the cross. [47:09] And when we hold up that symbol, when we look to the cross, what we are proclaiming is no small thing.

[47:15] We are proclaiming that we are a people that look at death as not something that’s to be feared anymore.

[47:24] Because what’s on the other side is not wrath and fury for the follower of Jesus.

[47:30] What’s on the other side is a God who says, welcome home.

[47:37] What’s on the other side is a God who says, you’ll be with me for eternity and eternal joy, eternal pleasure.

[47:46] If you’re in here this morning and you fear what your sin will cost you. [47:52] If you’re in here this morning and you fear God because you’re terrified that he’s going to pay you back. [47:57] I just have one thing to say to you.

[48:02] Trust Jesus as your Savior.

[48:08] Have faith in him to heal your fear. [48:12] And live a life marked by trust in the God who saves.

[48:20] If you’re in here and you are a follower of Jesus or maybe you just became a follower of Jesus. [48:26] I want to invite you this morning to one of the six stations around this room. [48:31] One of the unique things about our faith is that we eat the bread which represents the broken body of Jesus. [48:38] We drink the cup which represents the shed blood of Jesus. [48:42] But we don’t do it in mourning or fear.

[48:49] We do it in celebration. Why?

[48:54] Because Jesus conquered death and Jesus saves. [48:59] When you’re ready, come.