Exodus 35-40
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab your Bibles and go to Exodus chapter 35. we are working our way through the book of Exodus we have six chapters left and we are going to go through all of them today so I hope uh we did send you an email to pack your lunch right um now here's what's happening in the book of Exodus we have walked through and we've made it to the place where in Exodus chapters 25 through 31 Moses was on the mountain.
God said you're going to build a tabernacle and here's how you're going to do it and so chapter 25 26 27 28 29 30 and 31 is God explaining to Moses in detail how to build the Tabernacle what they're going to do to accomplish this and then chapters 35 36 37 38 and 39 is them building in detail the Tabernacle so in chapters 25-31 God says this is what I want you to build and in chapters 35-39 they build it and it's this picture of this culmination of God's plan coming together from start to finish in the book of Exodus where ultimately what he's rescued them out of slavery.
For is going to be accomplished and so it's a little bit like if we went and watched a fireworks show they're shooting off fireworks the whole time but then at the end they shoot off about as many as they've already shot off it's all coming together to kind of finish it off that's kind of where we are is that we're in the the crescendo of the book of Exodus and so we're going to take all six of these chapters together so let's pray.
And then we will study through this together this morning as we try to take in the full picture of the book of Exodus God we're thankful for your word we're thankful that we get to gather and study it together we ask Lord that you would help us to sit under the weight of the authority of your word that we would believe you more than we believe culture that we would believe you and trust in you more than we believe and trust in ourselves that.
Lord where we need to repent we would repent where we need to Rejoice we would Rejoice we ask the Lord that your spirit would teach us work through your word this morning and help us to see the glory of Christ reflected in the book of Exodus in Jesus name amen so we're going to be in Exodus chapter 35 and that's why I'd like to begin by reading something from Exodus chapter 25 it'll be on the screen Exodus 25 because this is where.
God on the mountain begins to tell Moses this is what you're going to do this is verses 8 and 9 it says and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the Tabernacle and of all its furniture so you shall make it okay the Tabernacle is a movable tent it's a big tent that they're going to use particularly for worship and it's this place where God is going to dwell in a particular specific way among them he's not entombed in it he's not imprisoned in it.
But he's choosing to place his glory there in a specific particular way to be a blessing and a sign for the people of Israel but the word Tabernacle literally just means Dwelling Place so he says I'm going to show you a pattern that you might make a dwelling place for me that I might dwell among you and that's his plan that he would rescue them out of slavery and not just say okay you're free best of luck but that he rescues them out of slavery and says.
Now I'm going to dwell among you you're going to be my people I'm going to be your God we're going to Delight in one another there's going to be Joy here and so that's that's what he's doing is that he takes them out of slavery that he might dwell among them and so here's what happens in chapters 25-31 God says this is what it's going to look like and then in chapters 35-39 they do it it should be chapter 25 through 31.
God says this is what it's going to look like and then chapters 32 is when they begin to accomplish it but that's not what happens in chapter 32. Moses comes down the mountain the dust isn't even out of the grooves of the stone that all of this is carved in and they have rebelled against God and broken the Covenant they immediately destroyed it I remember when my wife and I had first got married we were renting a house in Clinton South Carolina and the there was a guy who had come over to fix something and he knew the lady we were running from and he had helped fix something he's an older gentleman and he.
While he was there he got to talking to me and he whittled and he handed me a little whittled figure and I cannot remember if it was like a dog or a horse or a boat I don't remember but he handed it to me and I was looking I was like that's neat and he said it's made out of teak wood antique wood is one of the strongest Woods that's why he was talking to me as soon as he said that I just oh strong wood I just kind of did this and I snapped it in half.
And so I just quickly put it back together and I looked at him and he had not noticed and so for about two minutes while I held it like I was still looking at it but I'm really just you know holding it together formulating a plan he told me that Teakwood is very strong it's kind of expensive hard to get hard to carve they make ships out of it like he was going on and on about how great Teakwood was and I was like it's not as strong as you think.
So when he got done I just handed it back to him and said I broke it and he just went hmm I think he said something about it broke along the grain because I tried to explain what you said it was strong I was just but I wasn't trying to put too you know I didn't try to break it and then he just left and we didn't talk anymore after that that's somewhat what chapter 32 feels like is that God has designed this beautiful Covenant he's made this plan he's going to dwell among them and he says this is what it's going to.
Look like and they're like great we broke it that's immediately what they do it falls apart and so we hit this moment in chapters 32 33 34 where we're going what's going to happen and God in his grace and in his goodness Works to redeem and overcome their sin and he renews the Covenant which he does not have to do but he does and we get to see Moses in this intercessory role and so in 35 we pick back up with a renewed Covenant and they're going to build the Tabernacle.
So go to 35. Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them these are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do six days work shall be done but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on it shall be put to death you shall Kindle no fire in all your Dwelling Places on the Sabbath day Okay so Moses about to tell them we're going to build the Tabernacle he's about to give them a whole lot of work to do.
But all the time in the book of Exodus whenever that's happening is that there's this reminder you're not slaves anymore and one of the primary ways that we're going to worship and enjoy the Lord is in rest so we've got a lot of work to do but we're going to work for six days and we're going to rest for one it's actually interesting in the book of Exodus one of the words that's described for their slavery is the same word that's described.
For their worship so that they used to slave and serve and worship Pharaoh and now though slave and serve in Worship the Lord but it's going to look different their their value doesn't come from their labor anymore it comes from him and so this service to Pharaoh becomes service to the Lord but there's always this reminder of a Sabbath so verse 4. Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel this is the thing that the Lord has commanded and that was in 25 through 31.
Take from among you a contribution to the Lord whoever is of A Generous Heart let him bring the Lord's contribution gold and silver and bronze blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twined linen goat's hair and tanned Ram skins and goat skins acacia wood oil for the light spices for the anointing oil and for The Fragrant incense and Onyx stones and stones for setting for the ephid and for the breast piece so everyone whose heart stirs them they're going to take a collection.
For this purpose let every skillful Craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded the Tabernacle its tint and its covering its Hooks and its frames its bars its pillars and its bases the ark with its poles The Mercy Seat and the veil of the screen the table with its poles and all its utensils and the bread of the presence the lamp stand also for the light with its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the lie and the altar of incense with its poles and the anointing oil and The Fragrant incense and the screen.
For the door at the door of the Tabernacle the altar of burnt offering with its grading of bronze its poles and all its utensils the Basin and it stands the hangings of the Court its pillars and its bases and the screen of the Gate of the Court the pegs of the Tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their courts the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy place the holy garments for Heir and the priests and the garments of his sons.
For their service as priests that's why it's multiple chapters because he tells them specifically how to make all of that how they're going to build it what it's going to look like how it's going to be designed how wide how he doesn't just say make a table he says make this table and so that's why it works through slowly to build all of this for the Tabernacle and now they're taking a collection for it verse 20. then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses and they came everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose Spirit moved him and brought the Lord's contribution to be used.
For the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments so they came both men and women all who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and Signet rings and armlets all sorts of gold objects every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord and every one of them who possessed blue or purple or Scarlet yarn Yarns are fine the linen or goat's hair or tanned Ram skins or goat skins brought them everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution and everyone who possessed Acacia would of any use in the work brought in and every skillful woman spun with her.
Hands and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and Scarlet Yarns and fine twine linen all the women whose heart stirred them to use their skill spun the goat's hair and the leaders brought Onyx stones and stones to be set for the aphid and for the breast piece and spices and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for The Fragrant incense all the men and women the people of Israel whose heart moved them to bring anything.
For the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a free will offering to the Lord so they respond and we're told in later in the next few chapters that the everybody who's working on stuff has to come to Moses and say tell them to stop we have enough tell them to stop giving we have enough and it's all those whose heart stirred them whose spirits of them he didn't say we need x amount of pounds per woman and x amount of pounds per man and this much gold per tribe it doesn't do any of that he just says.
If your heart moves you give and they respond in this generous way one of the blessings that our Church has gotten to participate in over the years is at the end of the year we have a give series where we intentionally pick something where we're going to try to bless and be generous and help fund a missionary or give some money to a Church plant or work in some sort of service area in our city and it's just so much joy.
When we all collectively as the spirit moves in our heart stirs give and the times that we get to to acknowledge that we were able to raise more than we needed to accomplish this thing and that's what they're getting to do here where they just respond in joy and delight and generosity to who God is then it's going to talk about bezalel and a holy AB that's the bulk of our reading so if you were thinking we were about to read all the stuff we're not just to help you out a little bit.
But it talks about bezel and holy ABS two of the ones that the Lord specifically sat apart for the work it tells us that they ended up bringing one ton of gold four tons of silver and two and a half tons of bronze so they have plenty and this thing is going to be decked out in Beauty and glory for God's Tabernacle in chapter 36 they make the frame and the tint of the Tabernacle in chapter 37 they make the Ark of the Covenant the table the lamp stand and the altar of incense and one of the things that happens in this is that much of what is built is designed to represent something to.
Display that God's going to dwell among his people that he's going to share meal with them that he's going to eat with them to display that he's their provision to display they have a a lamp a lantern that that won't ever go out and it's to burn continually and it's it's to display that God is their light and their life continually and this is what he does and there's all these pictures that are woven into this in the Tabernacle what's around the ark and the most holy place a lot of it has pictures that are meant to bring to mind the garden.
So there's blossoms there's blooming there's pomegranates there's cherubim and it's meant to be that God's original design in the Garden of Eden was that he would dwell among his people and y'all I just learned this this week the word Eden is just the Hebrew word for Delight or pleasure I didn't know that I thought Eden was a name The Garden of delight that is what he originally placed them in the garden of pleasure that that's God's original intended design was that we would Delight in him that he would Delight with us that there would be pleasantness with him.
And then when they build the Tabernacle that's some of what his image what's pictured here is that he's restoring that but also they're a cherubim there and the cherubim were placed at the Garden to keep them from entering and so there's still this picture of not only is he seeking to restore some of Eden but he's also picturing again that there still is some separation between them and him and that's why there's so much that goes into sacrificial system in the Tabernacle where they have to atone.
For sin to approach God in chapter 38 they make the Altar for the burnt offering the bronze Basin the court that's its hooks pillars bases and hangings but there's this one verse in chapter 38 that I want to draw your attention to because it just gets buried in here it's one verse but I want y'all to see this and I think it's beautiful chapter 38 verse 8 we'll have it on the screen but if you've got your Bible in front of you it's on page 45 of the blue one I don't know what page it's on.
If you brought your own Bible but I'm glad you brought your own Bible chapter 38 verse 8. he made the Basin of bronze and its stand of bronze from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting now you might be inclined to say who because that's the first and only time that they're mentioned this isn't the tent of meeting that's going to be a part of the Tabernacle when it's finished it's the tint of meeting that Moses used to set up outside of the camp where Joshua would stay in it Moses would meet with the.
Lord and that was also the place where people who wanted to seek wisdom from the Lord or from Moses would go and so apparently there were some women who served there that's what ministered means they served and when it came time to build the Tabernacle those women had bronze mirrors which means a solid sheet of polished bronze uses a mirror because they wouldn't have had glass and mirrors the way we have glass and mirrors this is one of the only ways you would have a mirror you could.
Look into some water or you could have some kind of a polished metal and so these ladies had polished bronze mirrors and I love this verse because I think it's such a beautiful picture of when you actually begin to see who the Lord is like they got to minister near the tent of meeting they got this glimpse of the glory of the Lord and he's going to come dwell among them and they turned their bronze mirrors in so that they might make the bronze Basin I think it's intentionally told us here.
So that we might hear the sacrifice that is involved in this I don't think mirrors were easy to come by and what do you use a mirror for looking at yourself and it's just a beautiful picture of when we get a glimpse of him we want more of him and less of us when we get to see what he's like and who he is and and the idea that he would come there they just turn this in there like I don't I don't want to.
Look at myself I don't want this to be about myself I want it to be about him and isn't that a beautiful picture of the Gospel for us that when you're trying to follow Jesus and so much you're thinking here's what I'm good at here's what I'm bad at here's why I'm succeeding here's why I'm failing y'all turn the mirror in quit looking at yourself it's not about you it's about Jesus when we say Jesus is better than everything else it's about what he's done what he's accomplished who he is it's about his glory and not yours.
When we show up in glory to Worship the Lord we will have our eyes transfixed on him there won't be a big line where they say welcome to Heaven here's your mirror now go sing stare at your face and sing about your it's not how it's going to work and I love this picture a sermon I could get amped up but I can't it's just one verse we gotta move on but it's a good verse just remember that we get to turn in our mirrors we get to.
See it set our eyes on him and some of you are spending right now a lot of time in Pride or despair because you're looking in a mirror I just want you to know the Gospel is way better than that chapter 39 they make the Priestly garments and in chapter 39 they repeat this phrase over and over again as the Lord commanded or as the Lord had commanded and it's this picture repeated over and over again that they they did this just the way the.
Lord told them so that phrase as the Lord of commanded is in verse 1 verse 5 verse 7 verse 21 verse 26 verse 29 verse 31 verse 32 verse 42 and verse 43 as the Lord had commanded and there's this beautiful picture of obedience and that they're doing exactly what the Lord called them to do now much of chapters 35 to 39 is repeated almost verbatim from chapters 25. 31. I picked one example we're going to look at the making of the table.
So this is chapter 25 verse 23 you shall make a table of acacia wood two cubits shall be its length a cubit its breath and a cubit and a half its height chapter 37 he also made the table of acacia wood two cubits was its length a cubit its breath and a cubit and a half its height chapter 25 you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it chapter 37 and he overlaid it with pure gold and made a molding of gold around it chapter 25 you shall make a rim around it a hand breath-wide and a molding of gold around the rim chapter 37 and he made a.
Rim around it a hand breath wide and a molding of gold around the rim chapter 25 and you shall make for it four rings of gold and fasten the Rings to the Four Corners at its four legs chapter 37 he cast for four rings of gold and fastened the Rings to the Four Corners at its four legs 25 close to the frames the ring shall lie as holders for the poles to carry the table 37 close to the frame were the Rings he's going a little off script here asshoulders.
For the polls to carry the table it's like when you're cheating off your friend for their homework but you just mess some of them up you make it look like you did it okay chapter 25 you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold and the table shall be carried with these chapter 37 he made the polls of acacia wood to carry the table and for a second you're like oh no and overlaid them with gold it just flips it he builds some suspense this is much of how these chapters read and one of the things that happens.
While you're reading through them at least for me is my mind goes kind of numb and I'm just like okay okay okay yep okay okay hand breath got it polls got it gold and if you've already read through like if you sat down to read through the book of Exodus and you read through chapters 25 through 31 unfortunately you're a little excited that it doesn't immediately go into 35 you're glad they go off the rails and something gets to happen it doesn't immediately go into 35 where it just repeats the same stuff and you're reading it.
Now when you're back in 35 you're going okay okay and there's a little bit of you that's like why didn't they just say they did it the way that he said to do it that's like a sentence and I would have believed him why does it go through the process of repeating all of this what I'm about to offer is some speculation because it doesn't tell us but I have some I've thought about it I have some guesses I'll share with you I think one of the reasons is intentional thoroughness and a desire to show the strict adherence to God's instruction and their obedience beautiful walkthrough of obedience of taking God's word seriously honestly it.
Would be delightful for us if all of us could live our lives with the same amount of rigor and seriousness to the word of God that chapters 35-39 take in the book of Exodus that we knew what he had instructed and we followed it your life would be better if you did that and so there's this display of thoroughness but there's also and and obedience but there's also this display of God working out things according to the purpose of his will that.
God tells Moses on the mountain this is what you're going to do and then it happens and it happens after everything falls apart where God works to redeem and to forgive and to help accomplish what he's set out to accomplish and it's a beautiful picture that When God says this is what I'm going to do he does it and so it's this picture of human obedience and God's will together so I think there's obedience I think there's thoroughness I think there's the Fulfillment of God's will that he accomplishes what he set out.
But I also think there's something that we miss y'all there's delight and excitement in these chapters I don't know when you've had the opportunity to prepare for the arrival of a loved one I don't know if you've ever gotten to prepare a house where you'll move in with a spouse you're not married yet but you're going to be I don't know if you've had the opportunity to to labor away at that I don't know if you've had the opportunity to to prepare a room where a baby's going to dwell I don't know.
If you've ever had the chance all your grandkids are coming home or a friend you haven't seen in a long time is going to come to visit and you have a week to prepare and you're thinking about what you're going to cook you're getting the place ready you're washing the sheets you're getting the room ready you're setting it up you stand in you think okay like I don't know if you've had these opportunities but that's what chapters 35-39 are when we get done building this he's going to dwell here our.
God is going to dwell Among Us the one who rescued us out of Egypt is going to come be here you know there's Delight this these were slaves who slaved away with endless toil and the only thing held out in front of them was death I bet there are days when they still wake up and have to remind themselves oh I'm not a slave anymore I bet some of them are just now getting to where they walk a little taller getting over some of the the beatings that they had taken loosening up a little bit learning how to to be a little Freer.
When they wake up and they labor towards this it's in Delight of the God of the universe who has specifically rescued and chosen them to come dwell among them they're preparing diligently for something wonderful and if you ever talk to a person who took the time to build a table for the house they're going to move into to make a recipe for their grandchildren that are going to come visit to paint a room and prepare it for a baby if you ask them about it I'm willing to bet that they will joyfully go into about as much detail this chapters 35-39.
Well you know what I went and I went and I was looking at two different pieces of wood and I decided to go with Oak now your Pond's good but and I've got laughter I mean they're going to go into it it's just a Sprinkle of cinnamon now don't you don't want to do too much cinnamon but you're going to want to just a pinch like just you know maybe just two fingers if you do too but you got to get it it's like oh yeah I bet it was good that's what's happening here.
Because there's delight and joy and in preparing for the Lord to come this is a refrain it's a crescendo it's all coming together and it's work to prepare so move to the end of chapter 39. verse 42 and 43. according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses so the people of Israel had done all the work and Moses saw all the work and behold they had done it as the Lord commanded so had they done it so Moses blessed them there's a little Echo at the end of creation here where.
God views all that he made and he sees that it's good and then He blesses the man and woman to be fruitful and multiplying to have dominion over the Earth like there's a little a little echo of it now God is able to discern on his own that it's good Moses has to just see that they did what God Said So it's still God's standard it's not Moses standard but he looks and sees it it's all done that it's been done the way.
God told them to do it and He blesses them chapter 40 verse 1. the Lord spoke to Moses saying on the first day of the first month you shall erect the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting so on the first day of the first month you'll erect it and then it goes through you're going to set this up this up this up in this way and it goes through a big list of some of the stuff that we read earlier that they were getting everything together go to.
Verse 33. and he erected the court around the Tabernacle on the altar they've gone through the process of setting the stuff up and um consecrating it for the presence of the Lord so they didn't just throw it up but they went through a process of getting it ready and marking it with oil and doing some sacrifices and he erected the court around the Tabernacle on the Altar and he set up the screen of the Gate of the court so Moses finished the work you read through chapter 25 through 20 through 31.
And then you read through 35 and 39 you'll appreciate how much fun it was for Moses to write this I think when he got to write so Moses finished the work because it was a lot of work then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle y'all that's what we've been working towards that these people who were slaves would have God dwell among them and all the stuff that we've gone through where he's shown signs and wonders where he's rescued them where he brought them out or they wandered and argued and he had to provide.
For them with Manna and he had to work through all of this and when he gives his instructions on how to do this and he gives the Ten Commandments and he sets up a covenant people and they rebelled and he has to work to restore and to renew this Covenant and then they work to build all this it's all so that he might dwell among them that he desires to have his people in his presence in his place where they belong to him and his desire is like a.
Father who's trying to adopt and fill his household the children that he loves and it says the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle we shouldn't move quickly past that we should enjoy and Savor how good that is for the people of Israel that he desired to have them belong to him verse 35 and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle throughout all their Journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from Over the Tabernacle the people of Israel would set out.
But if the cloud was not taken up then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up for the cloud of the Lord was on the Tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their Journeys now if you'll remember the pillar of cloud and fire was leading the people of Israel but at a distance and they had attend a meeting that was set up outside of the camp.
Now the pillar of clown fire dwells on the Tabernacle in the midst of the camp he's surrounded by them and he told Moses if I show up like that I'm going to kill everybody because they're Wicked but Moses intercedes and God gives Grace so that this might happen the way God's designed it to happen but there's this whisper there's a whisper in this text that shows us that it's not done God's full final realized version of what he set out to do is not done I want you to.
See it it let's look back the 34 and 35. then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle picture of God's glory his holiness the Moses Moses to just walk in it's not like God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden there's a separation from God's glory and there's this whisper in the midst of this Crescendo and this delight in this Wonder there's this Whisper of not yet not exactly it's not fixed just yet.
And so Exodus points us to the glory of the Lord but it also in a very specific and real way points us to the glory of Christ that the story of The Exodus is meant for us to see how good our God is and then as it unfolds more to see how good the Lord Christ is because Jesus is the one who redeems us out of slavery to make us his people my wife watches these um murder shows True Crime stuff I have to make sure she's not like taking notes you know like on how to get away with things.
But she she watches these and one of the things that police will often ask people when something really terrible happens and they're doing investigations is they'll say is this the sort of thing that this person would do they'll interview friends and say is this something does this seem like something they do does this seem out of character does it seem in character I read the book of Exodus and then we consider that we were lost that we were rebellious that we were Wicked that we were dead in sin that we were slaves to sin that we desired to go back to our old Masters is is rescuing a people like that overcoming their sin.
When they work to actively break the Covenant so that they might belong to him and he might dwell in their midst is that the sort of thing Our God would do yes it's exactly the sort of thing he'd do when we read the book of Exodus we're meant to be able to see that's exactly the sort of thing he'd do that's exactly the type of God he is that's exactly when you look at the times that they sin and you think he's just going to eradicate them and he doesn't like that verse we read earlier that in his Divine forbearance he overlooked former sins.
So that he might be just and Justified that there's this moments where God carries it forward to pay for it in Christ so that he might be gracious so that he might be loving so that he might redeem a sinful people and Jesus is the one who rescues us out of slavery Jesus is the one who shows Mighty signs and wonders Jesus is the one who is our Passover Lamb whose blood is painted on the door that we might not have judgment fall on us.
Jesus is our bread from Heaven that comes down to to fulfill us and to give us life Jesus is the one who not only teaches us about the law but fulfills the law on our behalf so that the weight of the law does not fall on us but it falls on him and then the righteousness of the law is carried out in him and fulfilled in us because of his work Jesus is the one who in the midst of our Rebellion intercedes.
For us who goes up the mountain and says to God take me instead and who God accepts his sacrifice Jesus is the one who Tabernacles among us as the Incarnation of God in human flesh Jesus is the one who by his sacrifice makes it possible to where the spirit dwells inside of us that God would be surrounded by Wicked people is exactly what he's done when he renews us and restores us and his Spirit dwells in us in a specific and beautiful way just as he was intending to do with the whole nation of Israel he.
Now does inside the hearts of Believers and he does it in the Church to his great glory and credit of the work that Christ has accomplished and Jesus is the one who can enter into the tent where even Moses is cast out because of his Holiness and his righteousness and so as we studied the book of Exodus I hope that you grew in your love for Christ who is a better Moses who leads a people to the promised land fully and forever through his glory not ours in a way that resounds in the praise to our.
God let's pray God we're thankful that you're the type of God who saves rebellious slaves and we're thankful that you're the type of God who overcomes sin so that we might belong to you and we're thankful that you're the type of God who Delights to dwell among your people to get rid of their sin without getting rid of them so that we might have pleasure and Delight with you well we're thankful that you fulfilled the Covenant that you fulfilled the law that your blood covers Us and that ultimately we can trust you to be at work in us and to lead us to the Fulfillment of all things May there be great Glory given to.
Christ amen Matt's going to come back up we're going to take a moment together as a Church to take communion communion is a tangible reminder in Celebration of what Christ has done for us on the cross it's us proclaiming his death until he comes it's us remembering his sacrifice and so that when we take communion what we're acknowledging is that Jesus died for us he literally died to pay for our sins that he's our propitiation that we deserved death and wrath.
But that Jesus paid for and we're celebrating that that covers us and so that when God looks at you he does not see you in his sin but he sees you in Christ and so when we walk in Repentance we're moving ourselves into Delight in the Lord but we're not oscillating out of his salvation and back into it for we are covered by Christ and so you get to take seriously a moment to repent and to confess and then you get to come forward and Delight in and rejoice in that.
Jesus Christ and that our hope is in him if you are not a Christian communion is not for you can trust in Christ you can place your faith in him and he will save you he will not put the shame any who call on him but if you have not blessed your faith in Jesus we would ask for you to refrain from taking communion we have communion set up in the front and in the back and there's gluten-free communion elements at the back as.
Well so take a moment to pray and confess to remember our glorious Lord who redeems Sinners and when you're ready we'll take communion and then we'll sing together.
The Glory of God, Pt. 3 (34:10-35)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning so Fall allergies have hit me in full effect so you're going to hear some earthier tones this morning as we walk through the text today we are in the Book of Exodus chapter 34. verses 10 through 35 is on page 43 in the blue bibles if you want to grab one of those you can follow along the text will also be on the screen the past few weeks we have looked at the glory of God that Moses made this bold request to.
Behold the glory of God Show Me Your Glory and we saw that glory in God's goodness are are the same terms that in asking to see the glory of God his wonderful goodness would be uh displayed and we looked at that as God's uh Fierce love and his Fierce Justice held together to displays the character and the goodness of our God and then last we we looked at that the really the centralized aspect of God's glory some of the most powerful aspects of who he is and his goodness is displayed in his revealed face and that what Moses was asking was actually too wonderful.
For him to behold that as a sinner beholding God in this in his face which would lead to certain death that Sinners cannot gaze upon the glory of God because of our broken sinful natures and our broken sinful bodies and we looked at that bold request with the hope that one day we will behold the face of God that the end of the story for Christians is beholding the face of God in eternity forever and ever amen that we will get to gaze upon the Perfection of beauty and who he is forever and that's where we are going.
But there's also another aspect of God's glory to begin to look at today that as we finish out chapter 34 we're going to look at that what that means for us as Christians as we still get to meditate on the glory of God so let me pray and we'll want to this together heavenly father I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word that with glad and generous Hearts we would receive it that it might shape us to be a people that are.
So in love with you and so in love with your glory that we would seek you and that comes through the initial step of faith that comes through daily enjoying you that comes through repentance that comes through worshiping you like we just got to do and I pray that you'd give us a wonderful vision for them in Jesus name amen all right so Exodus 32-34 we've been in this for a couple of months now and what's happening in these chapters is the people who were had received the Covenant of Moses they'd received the Ten Commandments.
And then they immediately rebel against God they reject him and worship a golden calf instead Moses coming down the mountain sees this and then he goes and he pleads with God do not destroy this people and then and then we get to see in the coming chapters there's this lingering is the Covenant going to be restored is God going to restore his Covenant with his people and then the past couple of weeks we've seen yes this Covenant will be restored and the rest of this chapter in 34 is kind of repeated language bringing up different uh passages that we saw on in Exodus 23 different aspects of this Covenant as it's being renewed.
So a lot about what to walk through is going to sound very familiar you've been walking with us through Exodus so we're going to start off in verse 10 it says and he said behold this is God speaking behold I am making a covenant before all your people I will do Marvels such as have not been created in all the Earth or in any Nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you and I just I.
So appreciate that verse before we walk through some of this repeated aspects of the Covenant being renewed that they rejected God they rejected him for a golden calf and God not only is granting forgiveness and restoration he says I'm going to do Marvels with you such have not been seen which is incredible if you've been with us through Exodus because you've seen God's Marvels poured out on the Egyptians you saw them cross the Red Sea we've seen God provide daily Manna.
For the people these are wonderful Marvels and God's saying I've got more that I want to do with you that I'm gonna do awesome things with you which is an incredible statement if you work for a big giant wonderful company I mean lots of employees a wonderful CEO and all of a sudden you at the break room for lunch and like a like a like a thoughtless child you took your tinfoil burrito and threw it in the microwave hit five minutes.
And then walked away and then came back and the microwaves on fire and the rooms on fire and the whole business Burns to the ground and it's all caught on footage backed up to the cloud and your boss invites you to your house and his house and shows the footage of you thoughtlessly throwing the Brito in hitting and walking away and you're waiting for the pink slip you're waiting like this is it I'm done and he looks at you and he says you messed up.
But I'm still gonna do awesome things with you you're gonna you're gonna stay on board here we're gonna rebuild this thing and I'm gonna do awesome things with you you'd go what I burnt your business to the ground what and now I get to do awesome things with you our God is wonderful y'all this is what he does he works with Sinners who Rebel all the time and he looks at us and he says I'm going to do marvelous things with you it's wonderful.
And then he continues in verse 11. observe what I command you this day behold I will drive out before you the amorites the Canaanites the Hittites the parasites the hivites and the jebusites take care unless you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go lest it become a snare in your midst you shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their ashram for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous.
God lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and when they hoar after their gods and sacrifice their gods and you are invited you eat of his sacrifice and you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters after their gods and make your sons after their gods this is repeated language from Exodus 23. God when we walk through that section we got to see how God has judgment coming to the people of the land the the jebusites the Hittites the Canaanites this people who have committed all types of atrocities and Abominations they've done things like sacrifice their own children to foreign Gods they've done all these things and judgment will.
Fall upon them and he's saying do not make covenants with them lest you fall into the same trap of worshiping therefore in Gods don't in a marriage don't know this judgment will be upon this people don't do it we saw that in Exodus 23 and God is bringing that language back to remind them don't do this lest you chase other gods which by the way just happened and we see this more directly in Exodus verse 17. it says you shall not make.
For yourself any gods of cast metal now some repeat language from the second commandment in Exodus 20 but there's there's a phrase in there that wasn't there before that is very much a reminder of what just happened the word the phrase cast metal that comes right out of Exodus 32 the same language when Aaron is making a cast metal calf of gold and that's kind of thrown in there to help them see don't don't break the second commandment in this way that you just did be like showing up to the new business show up to the new break room and all of a sudden above the microwave is do not microwave burritos in this microwave.
And everyone knows it's you Jason that that notice is for you bro that's a reminder you you worshiped this cast metal object don't worship foreign Gods especially the one which you just did continues this renewing Covenant language in verse 18 you shall keep the Feast of unleavened bread seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the time appointed the month of Eve for in the month of bib you came out of Egypt all that open the womb are mine all your male livestock the firstborn of cow and sheep the firstborn of a donkey shall be Dean with a lamb or.
If you will not redeem it you shall break its neck all the firstborn of you all the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem and None Shall appear before me empty-handed so again this is language we've already seen we've seen it in Exodus 13 when they Institute the Passover and and the Redemption rights for the firstborn it's a reminder that I your God your Redeemer redeemed you out of Egypt by striking down the firstborn of Egypt I redeemed you from slavery and you will.
Remember this through Passover through Redeeming the firstborn over and over again this language being brought back into the Covenant again and it keeps going with language on resting and feasting in verse 21 it says six days you shall work but on the seventh day you shall rest in plowing time and in Harvest you shall rest you shall observe the Feast of Weeks the first fruits of Wheat harvests and the Feast of end gathering at the Year's End three times in the year shall all your mouths appear before the.
Lord God the God of Israel for I will cast out Nations before you and enlarge your borders no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in a year and it's this language if you're going to rest that you were slaves in Egypt you recogn the machine where you work seven days a week and did not rest and I redeemed you and I'm bringing you back into this rhythm of working six days and resting on the seventh it goes back to Creation you're not a slave to a foreign Pharaoh you belong to me and you will rest and you will feast you'll.
Remember we walk through this in Exodus 23 the keeping of the feasts that help the people regularly celebrate that they are the people of God and they get to do that through their whole Feast calendar which if you if this is if you weren't with us for Exodus I'd encourage you to go back and listen to some of these sermons where we walk through these different aspects of the Covenant that's being renewed again in verse 25 it continues you shall not offer The Blood of My Sacrifice with anything leavened or let the sacrifice of the Feast of passive remain until the morning the best of the.
First fruits on your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God you shall not boil a young goat at its mother's milk which we saw this language in Exodus 23 but it's instructions on in this Covenant you're going to keep the sacrifices in the way that I tell you to do and you're not going to mix them in a way with some of the Pagan ways of offering Sacrifice from the Pagan practices like boiling a young goat in its mother's milk you won't do what the people of the land do you are going to do what I am telling you to do as my people separate from the Nations.
So this covenant's being renewed with some summarized language from before and it's getting wrapped up here in verse 27 and the Lord said to Moses write these words for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel he's like write these down bring them back to the people and and he's he's he's summarizing that bringing it to a to a conclusion here you you are my Covenant people I'm still going to walk with you still gonna be with you I will be your.
God you will be my people Moses has to be joyful at this point knowing yes we're back in favor with God and in verse 28 it says so he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights he neither ate bread nor drank water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the Covenant the ten Commandments so he spends the next 40 days and 40 nights with God supernaturally sustains him with complete dependence upon him during this period of time through an absolute fast from both bread and water and he spends this 40 days and 40 nights with.
God ready to bring down the good news of this renewed Covenant to the Israelites and then when he comes down the mountain there's something different about Moses and that is because you cannot experience the power of our God like Moses did and leave unchanged you don't experience the power of God like this and leave unscathed in the best way possible he Journeys down the mountain we pick it back up in 29. when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone.
Because he had been talking with God Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold the skin of his face Shone and they were afraid to come near him but Moses called to them and Aaron all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them so Moses tablets in hand joyfully excited to tell the people you're not going to be abandoned God Is With Us starts coming down the mountain and then all of a sudden the people who are at the base.
See this light in the distance approaching and this isn't like a flashlight in the darkness or something different about this light and and this light has power in it and all of a sudden it's getting closer and it's getting closer and people are starting to to cringe a little bit they're starting to Shield themselves it's too much they're starting to be afraid and then at some point they piece together this is Moses and there's something about him his face is shining.
Now at some point as the people are stirring and Afraid witnessing Moses's face shining at some point someone has to tell them Moses you face is shining like get him a mirror get him a pail of water let them see this but your face is glowing there's uh one Theologian some or one commentator I think nailed it he said Moses glow is actually an Afterglow from being in God's presence this is Afterglow somewhere between Moses's profoundly wonderful experience with God when he asked to.
See his glory somewhere between him God covering him in the cleft of The Rock and passing by and in the next 40 days and 40 nights that he spent with God somewhere in that time Moses is very complexion changes his face begins to Glow with the glory of God there's Afterglow shimmering from his face displaying emanating the glory of God and that is because Moses experienced his glory and his power in a way that no one really has since Adam and Eve and you don't get to experience.
God like that and leave unchanged he has this intense experience and now Moses who's the the mediator he's the one in the middle between the people and God needs an intermediary for himself because the people can't stand in his presence and they're they're scared so he needs something that's going to kind of Shield a little bit this Glory verse 32 afterward all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
And when Moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face so now Moses in order to be with the people and them not be fearful he has to put a veil of his face I mean this is very similar to the Tabernacle and we spent some time looking at the Tabernacle that in the innermost part of the Tabernacle was a place called the holy of holies this room is where God ruled and reigned from and there was a a curtain a veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the Tabernacle and this veil was needed.
Because God and His glory is too wonderful for Sinners to Behold Him so this Veil separates God from the people and in the same way there's an Afterglow of Glory bound up in the face of Moses and there's a veil that is needed so that the people can be in his presence so that Moses can be amongst his people which I just for a moment this isn't the main part part of the story but I just I appreciate if you've been with us long enough in Exodus just Moses as a person to study as a character study with things helpful to do sometimes we want to be like Christ.
Okay doesn't mean that you know you study David so you can slay Giants I'm not arguing for that but I'm saying is that sometimes it's helpful to look at different people in the Scriptures and notice things about them one of the things I love about Moses is that he is Meek he's Meek he is mild and God uses the meek and the mind to do wonderful things the meek shall inherit the earth for a reason so sometimes we just get it twisted we get in our ideas that strength is this idea that is not biblical.
But actually meekness is strength and God uses his meekness to the point now where he has to he's so powerful he has to keep his face bound up again it's not the main point of story but it's worth examining its own so verse 34 it says whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him he would remove the veil until he came out and when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded the people of Israel would.
See the face of Moses that the skin of Moses face was shining and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him and this is the pattern of ministry going forward after Sinai in fact this Mark's really the pivot in in the wilderness narrative where they're leaving Sinai and the ministry is going to be this point for going forward in the wilderness with Moses and his people and Moses is going to regularly enter into the tent of meeting he's going to meet with.
God and that is going to come out and teach them more about his laws where we're going to get the Book of Leviticus and numbers in Deuteronomy he's going to teach them more about who their God is and his face is going to continue to Glow and that's just what is going to continue to do and I just one commentator he talks about Moses and I'll summarize what he said but basically he just said this is really Exodus 32-34 this really does establish Moses as he's the goat the prophets he is the greatest I mean he just he's just amongst all the prophets in the Old Testament he he stands apart I mean even the.
Last few chapters when the people rebel and Moses comes down and he stands between them and God and he pleads with God mediates for the people and then when God says all right you can go to the promised land but I'm not going and he says God I'm going to go where you go I don't want the promised land without your presence God if you're in the wilderness that's where we'll be from that all the way into asking to see the glory of.
God we've got to spend some time looking at that to coming down the mountain and now the rest of his ministry he's going to have this these these intensely wonderful experiences with God where he leaves with some glory on his face just shows who Moses is as a prophet the reason why he was so revered and so rightfully respected for centuries to follow and Judaism I mean that and just what he brings to them which is something that is the foundation.
For their belief it's the law it really does help us see the ministry of Moses going forward how wonderful it is now that's the end of chapter 34. we this this hint of what's what's going forward is that he's going to regularly go into the tentative meeting he's going to meet with God it's going to come out he's going to have glow on his face he's going to teach the people the law now when we try to understand the Old Testament.
Okay when we're studying the Old Testament we're studying these stories one of the difficult parts of interpretation is that I understand these stories isolated by themselves but to actually understand these stories in light of the bigger message of the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation what we're trying to do is understand these stories in Light of Christ and that takes work it takes slowly reading passages like this and trying to understand like What's Happening Here how does this correct to this bigger story of God's Redemption.
And then every now and then we get a wonderful gift from the New Testament because every now and then the New Testament does the work for us and that's what we have for this story right here that second Corinthians 3 is that chapter that helps us look back at this story and understand it in Light of Christ for the rest of our time that's what we're going to be we're going to be in second Corinthians chapter three on your blue in your blue Bibles that's page 561.
If you want to follow along but we're going to the text will be on the screen as well second Corinthians 3 is really interpreting Exodus 32 through 34 in light of the New Covenant of Christ it's looking back at the event that we've been in the last few weeks that really find their ending in the story that we went into today it's understanding that in Light of Christ now let me give you some context for second Corinthians because we're jumping into a book.
Second Corinthians is a defense written by Paul who's an apostle it's a defense of his ministry of the Gospel and his apostleship to the Church at Corinth who at the time was Wayward in sin but also being led astray by people who were coming in and teaching a different message so Paul is having to defend his apostleship and defend the ministry of the Gospel that he established when he planted this Church so but he's going to use Exodus 32-34 to make that bigger Point pick it up in.
Verse 1. are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you which by the way that's rhetorical and I think it's sarcasm he's like do we need a lot of recommendation answers no you verse 2 yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the Living.
God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts so Paul says that I don't need a letter of recommendation to be able to justify the ministry that we established here the letter of recommendation is your changed Hearts it's the Holy Spirit changing your heart and that didn't come through reading the law so he says tablets of stone that's what he's talking about that didn't come through your interactions with the law which we catch a hint of what teaching has been weaving its way into the Corinthian Church it's at the same teaching that's weaved its way into many churches at that time and that was uh Jewish Christians who were upholding the law.
Saying you can have Jesus but you also need to obey the law so we see hints of that teaching that it's weaved its way into here and Paul is establishing no it is the Holy Spirit that changes Hearts verse 4 such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be Ministers of a new covenant not of the letter.
But of the spirit the letter kills but the spirit gives life so he highlights here's the difference between the old Covenant and the New Covenant the old Covenant of the letter it kills it highlights the death that we deserve because we cannot uphold the law because of our sin the letter kills the spirit on the other hand gives life as one commentator puts it he says the spirit alone gives life because only the spirit can change the heart thereby enabling God's people to keep his commands.
So he says the law wasn't what changes your heart it's the spirit of God that changes your heart you know how we know this Exodus 32. the people receive the Ten Commandments and then 10 seconds later say you know what golden calf disregarding the second commandment let's worship this instead if the letter was sufficient at changing the human heart the Old Testament would read radically different because I don't know if you've read the rest of the Old Testament it goes poorly.
For the people over and over and over again it feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion on repeat the letter does not change it only brings death it only highlights the death that we have because we cannot be changed through our good works and Obedience of the law the change that happens that truly matters in the human heart it's by the power of the Holy Spirit he continues now if the ministry of death which I just appreciate it's like we're talking about the law right the law is wonderful and good he's like New Covenant the help the ministry of death carved in letters on Stone came with such Glory that the Israelites could.
Not gaze at Moses face because of its Glory which when we read the Bible we should go wait a second I know that story which was being brought to an end will not the ministry of the spirit have even more Glory for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory I don't want us to miss what he just said there the old Ministry the old Covenant was a Ministry ultimately of death highlighting the condemnation that we deserved.
And if that came with this glorious picture that we just saw of Moses coming down the mountain face glowing if it comes with some Afterglow how much better is the ministry of the New Covenant that we have it's so much better because we have the Holy Spirit verse 10 indeed end this case what once had Glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it four if what was being brought to an end came with Glory much more.
Well what is permanent have Glory so he finishes off this this first part is really interpreting those that story Exodus 30-34 and he says boy oh boy that which came to an end at glory in itself how much more glorious is faith in Christ and the spirit changing our hearts in a way that never ends has so much sweeter that's so much better so he makes a pivot there and interpreting Exodus 32-34 now he's about to apply it to the people.
Verse 12. since we have such a hope we are very bold not like Moses who were put a veil over his face the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds were hardened for this day when they read the old Covenant the same Veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil Lies over their hearts he says those who put their hope and the law those who put their hope and their own good works and their own good behavior through obedience and law he's talking about the Jewish people he says that Veil still.
Covers their hearts they can't see and behold God they don't know him they're looking for life but they're actually only receiving death because obedience to the law doesn't save and it never will and they're missing out on the glory of God there's a wonderful picture we've looked at for weeks now they're missing out on his glory their hearts are hardened their eyes are darkened they cannot see and behold God for who he is the veil Still Remains the only way that Veil is removed.
So that so that you can behold God but trusting and the finished work of Christ it's about trusting that he fulfilled the law on our behalf it's by trusting that he went to the Cross to die for our sins by trusting that he conquered death of the Resurrection it's by putting all of our hope in Christ and not the law because if your hope is in the law and if your hope is in good works the veil remains verse 16.
When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and we're the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom he says that when we turn from our sin and from our hope in the law from our hope and good works and obedience and we turn to Christ the veil is removed and when that happens there is freedom there's wonderful freedom freedom from condemnation to sin freedom from a need to be good to be good to obey the law to do all the right things freedom from this ministry of death and freedom to Christ Freedom 2 beholding.
God Freedom two not having to go back to the old yoke of obeying the law but trusting the finished work of Christ as our holy hope there is freedom that is found in faith in Jesus alone there's freedom to enjoy him and to worship him and to Behold Him with this freedom we get to Behold Him and as we Behold Him we are changed and this is where the argument ends Verse 18 and we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the.
Lord beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit just as beholding God changed Moses it's literally it changed his complexion so beholding our God through faith transforms us and it lifts the veil off the heart so that we can actually Behold Him so that we can experience more of his glory but it's continual it's one degree of Glory to the next one degree of Glory into another degree of Glory which I don't fully I can't fully picture what he's getting up there.
But it sounds incredibly awesome this idea that will conform more to the image of Christ from one degree of Glory to the next last week we sat in this picture of the end state of reality for Christians that's beholding God's face with new eyes and that's it that's where we're going and I want us to miss that that should be so like ingrained in the fabric of our being that we would look at this life and say I don't want what this life has to offer.
Because what what what what awaits me for eternity is is infinitely better but don't miss that that's not the only picture of Glory that we give because there is a regular daily aspect of beholding God from one degree of glory to the next and to the next and to the next and to the next and that's called sanctification that's called becoming more like Christ don't miss that right that we get to behold God regularly in Daily and when we do that it changes us from one degree to the next and to the next into the next some of you all have known Christians who have walked with.
God for decades I mean you've got you've gotten to see someone up close change the spirit work in their heart daily and daily through the decades and it's wonderful when you get to see that and if you have it if you haven't got to see this long-term play out I encourage you to spend some time with some of our older Saints in this Church get to know them in their stories and I'm sure what they're going to tell you is is that yeah they're not perfect at all far from it.
But they are different than what they were 50 years ago are different they were 40 years ago and that was through daily beholding God from one degree to the next to the next to the next in a way that they're not as anxious as they used to be they're not as angry as they used to be that there's this peace there's this love there's this Joy there's this faithfulness there's this gentleness there's this kindness there's this self-control that they've grown into.
Because the fruit of the spirit has been shaped in them because from one degree of glory to the next they have taste it in seeing that the Lord is good and they found their refuge in him and they've seen that he's actually truly better sometimes trying to take in faith just feels like I just don't know what I got you I mean I'm just so broken I'm so messed up I don't know if I'm gonna get this that's a great place to be in.
Because that's the best that's the beginning the Genesis of faith is recognizing that I'm broken and I need Jesus but boy oh boy faith is a lifelong journey from one degree to the next and the invitation is there you want the glory of God do you want the glory of God do you want to behold his face forever one degree at a time to the next and to the next into the next this comes through the things that we talk about all the time and we won't stop talking about them.
Because they're wonderful that comes through beholding God and his word this comes through growing in prayer this comes through repentance this comes through being open and honest at your community groups on care nights this comes through walking in the light with brothers and sisters this comes through uh Faithfully following Jesus every day from one degree of glory to the next so the invitation is there it's waiting for you you want Jesus believe in him you want more of them taste.
See every day and you're going to experience them from one degree of glory to the next into the next to the next and to the next and to the next and boy oh boy we won't even come close to the finished product not a chance but every degree of Glory ends up being better every degree of Glory is the spirit changing us until one day we will actually Behold Him and there will be no degrees left it'll just be Jesus let me pray Heavenly.
Father we pray that you would help us behold you and worship right now and when we leave here we pray that we be a people with veils off for hearts beholding you every day because you are beautiful and you are wonderful and you're better than anything this world has to offer and I pray that you would help us believe that with everything in us we would Bank Our Hope on that reality Jesus name amen band's going to come up so so much of the message sometimes gets mixed up especially in southern Christianity that following.
Jesus is about cleaning your life up and it's about getting your life together getting your stuff together so that you could be back in Church that you can so you can be around the Christians and I just want to say that's Moses y'all if you came looking for Moses and trying to clean your life up that's that's a Ministry of death don't do it some of y'all I just want to extend the invitation of Faith to actually behold God for who he is and that doesn't come through cleaning your life up doesn't come through a bunch of good works that comes through surrendering to our.
God so believe and surrender to him and behold him for who he is and then walk the journey with us as a group of broken Christians that are seeking to grow to be like Jesus one degree at a time.
The Glory of God, Pt. 2 (Exodus 33:18-34:9)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
The Glory of God, Pt. 1 (Exodus 33:18-34:8)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we are in Exodus chapter 33 18 verses 34 through 34 Verse 8. we're going to be in this passage uh for two weeks we're gonna hit it from two different angles I was in it original intent was to make this one sermon and then it was just like nah there's no way too too much so we're gonna look at this from two different angles this morning so you can be on page 42 in the blue Bibles around you uh the text will also be on the screen you can follow along uh with us.
So we uh uh pastors just got back from our pastor's Retreat um so the four Elders four Pastors in our Church plus our pastor and Elder and training Isaac we all went up to Lake Greenwood we do this once a year we get away it's uh we call it 100 Fun 100 work it really shouldn't be called a retreat because I think Retreat implies like getting away to rest um which it is not that but we spent a lot of time praying and debating and it's been formative and how our uh in shaping kind of the future of our Church and it's also a lot of fun we get to hang out together it's the.
One time of year we get to have some fun together one of the ways that we do this is we have a meal competition so we divide up teams every year uh there's this year it was Raz Chet and myself and Isaac and Matt and you have a breakfast and a lunch and a dinner and the goal is to execute the best set of three meals and every year it's come down to basically who takes two of the three uh and you know I'm not here to boast or brag.
But we did win uh and that's two years in a row for me which is nice because I was on a three-year losing streak up until a few years ago but uh we made a lunch where we did basically Cantina 76 style tacos all right so each you know Raz chat myself each took a taco we owned that taco as a part of the lunch so Chet made a delicious fried fish taco that was the best razzmade a carne asada Taco which lost us the round I'm not bitter about it I'm fine we could have had a sweep would have been two years in a row that's fine I made this Nashville hot chicken taco.
And uh and I was you know I brought Chet in because I was like we need to we need to make sure the flavor profile on this Taco is money like we got to make sure I don't want it to just be all overwhelming on the front end and then that's all you can taste I want some heat and some flavor on the front end I want you to bite into it and we were messing with the flavor profile to make sure that happens I want you once you swallow it the aftertaste to just be delightful.
So much so that as you continue to to chew on this you want more of it and I stuck The Landing it was great but that's a little bit of what Moses has been experiencing as he's walked with God from orib from that Horeb up until now that he's gotten to taste the Lord a little bit got it to see who he is experience him from Europe all the way to his uh the the ten plagues and experience in God and we saw last week a little bit that he was there was a temporary tent of meeting where you get to meet with.
God he met with him and he went into the cloud at Mount Sinai there's all these instances where Moses has gotten to experience more and more of God and what we get to today is this bold request from Moses who wants more because as he's experienced Our God he wants more of him and this bold request is what we're going to look at today and not just the request itself but how God responds to this bold request to see the glory of.
God and we're going to get to see how wonderful our God is the richness of his character and His glory and his goodness and what that means for us as Christians looking at this so let me pray and we'll walk through this text together Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news of the Gospel that saves redeems sets us apart to be a people who regularly get to taste and see that you are good you get to see how wonderful you are and the songs that we just sang and the Scriptures that were read.
Now in this text that we get to walk through together Lord may you open our hearts our eyes and our minds to experience you that may respond in faith and in Repentance and in worship and ultimately delighting in you we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so we pick up basically right where Chet left off last week so Chet walk us through uh that after the golden calf incident so after the people reject God for a golden calf instead and the tablets are broken and the Covenant is shattered there's this wondering what's going to happen next and what Chet walked us through last week is.
God saying you can go to the promised land I will make good on this you will get to the promised land I'm just not going to be there so you can have the land of it's flowing with milk and honey but I'm not going to be there and Moses just he just responses oh no where you are is where we're going to be if you're in the wilderness we'll be in the wilderness we're not going to the promised land without you.
God It's a Wonderful response and we pick up right in that same this is the next part of the interaction in verse 18. it says Moses said please show me your Glory please show me your glory now as I said earlier Moses has experience of the presence of God and some of his glory since he was called at Mount Horeb which when you look at the two kind of interactions of Mount Horeb he's fearfully kind of oh oh with God.
Now he's kind of boldly walking it's just a really cool difference in how he's experienced God and he's wanting more of him but it at Mount Horeb as he's walked with them through the plagues as they exit Egypt and the temporary tent of meeting that we saw last week is he's got to experience God over and over and over again as they went as he went into the cloud at Mount Sinai and he got the Ten Commandments even in Exodus 24.
When they when Moses and the elders have a meal at the feet of God and his presence on the mount he's gotten to experience God more and more and more now he just says Show Me Your Glory it's a profound request it's it's a big deal he has not experienced this what he's asking for here he has not experienced yet now we'll get into next week more of what's happening in that request but there's really two ways of reading this request one is that he's asking this as a representative of the people of.
God which he is he's asking this on behalf of Israel as their representative the other aspect that you can look at this is say that this is a personal request from Moses so show me us as a representative of your people Your Glory or God showed me personally Your Glory now theologians and Bible nerds debate back and forth which one it is and I would argue that I think both of them are true there's no way you can hear Moses request disconnected from that he's represented of the people of.
God so what he's saying Show Me Your Glory he's asking for a sign here that there's no right up until this point the Covenant is not good has not been restored okay the people are still in rebellion and God is he's not brought wrath on them fully but he has not restored the Covenant yet and there's a little bit of him asking on behalf of people of God give us a sign Show Me Your Glory are we good God so there's that aspect that that absolutely is a part of this.
But I don't think that's all that there is I think there's another aspect of this that has both a representative of God of the people to God and himself that he's saying God show Me Your Glory because he doesn't say show us your glory Show Me Your Glory that he wants to know more of God personally however that's a big request that's a huge jump from the interactions that he's had with God to show me who you are and your glory that's a big leap one of my favorite shows on YouTube which me presenting that makes it seem like I watch a lot of shows on YouTube one of the only shows I watch on.
YouTube and it happens to also be my favorite is a show called Hot ones all right and this show it's very simple it's a guy interviewing celebrities while they eat hot wings that's it they ten different hot wings and the first Wing is a milder sauce and it gets progressively more intense as it goes along and the Brilliance of it is that celebrities most of the time when they do interviews they're fake they're just not being themselves and I get that.
If you if I had to be interviewed all the time I'd also probably would be fake I think I would be tired I think I would just tell you what you wanted to hear I would probably say all kinds of things so a lot of times you hear these interviews they're just they're acting they're faking their way through it but the Brilliance of this show is that as they're eating these hot wings like their guard is let down their mouth is on fire like they they just start talking freely.
So it's pretty it's a pretty incredible concept but the first Wing is mild towards the end they're scalding all right and the eighth Wing is the same sauce every time it's called the bomb okay now it's technically not the hottest sauce it's not on the Scoville level the hottest sauce of the tin but by testimony of people it is the hottest sauce like every celebrity who eats it there's like this is like eating battery acid it scalds them and if you just want to spend 10 minutes watching compilations of like Shaq and Jennifer Lawrence and all these celebrities just like crying and losing it and melting and falling apart and drinking milk.
Because it's burning their lips and their tongue and their throat and their stomach it's worth it but they don't jump from one to eight y'all that's not how that works they progressively build their way up to it and Moses has had like Wing One Wing let two level experiences with God he's got to experience God and His presence and some pretty profound and amazing ways but what he just asked for was Next Level okay what he just asked for is the bomb level experience with.
God and he doesn't know what he's asking fully otherwise he would have asked it and if we don't have time to get into that this week but if he does experience the glory of God and what he's asking he'll die because he can't see the glory of God as a sinner and live but he's asking for this unbelievably profound experience with God Show Me Your Glory and this is how God responds verse 19 and he said this is the Lord I will make all my goodness pass before you and will Proclaim before you my name the.
Lord now a couple things here he says Show Me Your Glory and then God says I'll make all my goodness pass before you so goodness and Glory are the same here and how God is described by to describe himself that's important because for us glory is a very difficult concept to imagine it just is it's an American it's a western it's just Glory it's just not something we we think through well biblically we have ideas of it they're just not the most biblical ideas uh there's a movie that came out a few months ago called air uh it's a sports movie it's about how Nike landed Michael Jordan and his shoe contract.
So if you like sports movies and you like NBA basketball like I do to ride up your alley so 10 of you will love it all right so in air the whole bit the whole what's about is they're trying to land Michael Jordan Nike can't land Michael Jordan on their own because at that point they're a cute little running shoe company they're not cool at all in fact Adidas was the favorite to land Michael Jordan at the time because Adidas was the shoe at the time.
But they do this is a whole build up like it's a whole storyline of how they actually get to finally had an interview they got to sit down with Michael and they make their pitch the pitch isn't going well they're blowing it Michael Jordan's not interested at all and then in the most Pinnacle moment of movie Matt Damon goes off script who's the main character and he just makes this appeal to Michael Jordan he gets the speech and as the speech is going there's this Montage highlights of all of Michael Jordan's highlights and basketball and the music's building up and he says this to Michael Jordan the shoe is just a shoe until someone steps.
Into it then it has meaning the rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness we need you in those shoes not so that you have meaning in your life so that we have meaning in ours and it's a little ridiculous because we're talking about a shoe and a basketball player let's worship y'all it's like so we we need meeting in our life so that you can be in these shoes now what he's capturing there is Glory okay that's what he's going.
For so we want to we want to we just want to be able to touch your glory Michael and it's showing all of his best moments in basketball as this speech is going on now the reason this speech has ridiculous and over the top as it is the reason it even makes sense is because Michael Jordan is arguably the best basketball player that has ever lived one of the best athletes that's ever lived and I know some of you are big LeBron fans you're like no.
But wait listen I'm not here to argue that I don't like LeBron or Michael Jordan to be honest you can have that debate on your own Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes that has ever lived the only the reason that scene even makes sense is because he scored 30 points a night over his career which is ridiculous in basketball for his career he averaged 30 points a night he won six titles in just heroic fashion okay if Michael Jordan doesn't do that there is no movie.
If he's a bust Matt Damon isn't fawning over him saying I just want to touch your greatness that's not no because of what Michael Jordan did on the court right because he was great on the court that's why that scene makes sense it's not because he's a great person which if you know about Michael Jordan he's a jerk I don't care I don't know Michael Jordan but every person that like he just pieced together all the stories it's not a likable person and maybe I'm a little bitter.
Because not only did he keep the Charlotte Hornets who I grew up brewing for from ever making the finals he ended up buying by he purchased the Charlotte franchise after his career and ran that franchise into the ground so for 30 years Michael Jordan ruined basketball for me but that's not the point the point is is that he was great on the court had nothing to do with him as a person but that's how we understand Glory y'all we understand Glory about the great things that people do it's the great things that you do that make you glorious that's how we understand Glory and certainly.
God is great because of the things that he has done but that is not the only reason he is glorious down to his very essence and his very being God is glorious he's not just glorious because of the things that he's done he is glorious he is the epitome of what glory is and in the English language the best catch-all term that we can have is is all the goodness of God which is wonderful but that doesn't even capture.
Because language can't even capture the glory of God it just can't he says I will make my glory who I am my goodness who I am past Before You O Proclaim my name the Lord which we spent on some time on earlier in Exodus that even his name is wonderful and glorious because of all the character that flows out of his name so God is glorious he says and continues and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show Mercy on whom I will show Mercy.
Verse 20. but he said this is the Lord you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live and the Lord said behold there's a place by me where you shall stand on the Rock and well my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of The Rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back but by face you shall not.
See shut my face shall not be seen which awesome we're not spending any time on that this week that's all next week so there's a lot of questions that come out of that a lot of things you want to talk about that's next week okay so as that chapter 34 verse 1. the Lord said to Moses cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.
Now that that right there is sandwiched between some pretty big verses and passages and you got to skip over that and keep going but that's a big deal what he just said when he said cut for yourself two tablets of stone Moses probably went oh yes the Covenant is going to be restored that's what he just said it's been lingering here are we going to be able to go on the promised land with you are you still going to be our.
God are you still going to be your people and when he says cut for yourself two tablets of stone that I'm gonna write the Ten Commandments on oh yes Hallelujah God is with us he's not going to abandon us this is good news keeps going verse two be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain no one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.
So very similar to what we saw in Exodus 19. this is a holy moment a holy event no one comes to the mountain no animal comes to the mountain nobody continues verse 4 so Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the.
Lord so this is when everything he said about hiding them to cleft The Rock and putting his hand over him all that's happening right here and again it's wonderful and we're gonna spend all our time next week looking at that right there for the rest of our time and God descends by Moses this is what he says and this is where we're going to spend the rest of our time on verse 6. the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord a.
God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who by no means cleareth the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children of the children's children the third and fourth generation and Moses quickly bowed his head toward the Earth and worshiped so God audibly vocally describes himself he says not a prophet speaking on behalf of God God descends in this powerful moment and he describes who he is the.
Lord the Lord his wonderful name Yahweh and that it is further described with this description this is the goodness of God you want the goodness of God summarized this is it I'll make your my glory and my goodness pass before you this is the description right here this is the goodness of God and this is one of the most powerful statements throughout the Old Testament this phrasing that God describes himself with is used over and over and over and over again throughout the rest of the Old Testament numbers 14 Deuteronomy chapter 5 and Deuteronomy chapter 7.
Second Kings 13 second chronicles verse 30 or chapter 30. Nehemiah 9 all over the Psalms Psalm 35 78 86 99 103 106 145 Jeremiah 20 Daniel 9 Joel 2 Jonah 4 it is either quoted or alluded to over and over and over again throughout the rest of the Old Testament so if that is the case and this is a summary description of the goodness of God then we should spend some time looking at how wonderful this description of God is and that's what we want to do we want to.
See that the goodness of God and the glory of God is not just a visual experience that Moses gets to be a part of but it is a description of who he is it is his character and it shows really the wide range of God's goodness and his character and if you were to categorize this in two broad categories one is the love of God the fierce love of God and the second is the justice of God so let's work through this starting with this.
First part of the description which is really the love of God so the first thing he says is that he's merciful and gracious God is merciful and gracious that is literally on display in the fact that he does not bring judgment upon the People by wiping them out when they reject him for a golden calf at the base of the mountain he's merciful he relents he doesn't bring his judgment upon them he's merciful he relents he's gracious maybe he gives favors to people that they don't deserve they don't earn this favor.
But he's merciful and he's gracious one of my favorite parts of the musical Les Mis is the very beginning when the main character Jean Valjean this is set in the French Revolution he gets out of prison when he gets out of prison and that period of the French Revolution he's can't get work starving he's he's a social pariah and he ends up on the doorstep of a bishop in the Catholic Church and the bishop acts like a Christian and he takes him into his house and it gives them a meal it gives him a bed to sleep in he takes care of them in the middle of the night Jean mil Jean grabs a bag.
And grabs as many valuable items in the house as possible loads it up steals his stuff and gets away now he doesn't get very far policeman catches him brings him back to the bishop knowing where these items came from and he says this man says that you gave him these knowing good and well he stole it and the bishop looks at Jean Valjean right for the police officer and this is what he says he says but my friend you left so early surely something slipped your mind and it goes and he grabs two silver candlesticks and he gives them to him he says you forgot I gave these also would you leave the best behind.
But remember this my brother see this some higher plan you must use this precious silver to become an honest man and he gives him the silver he says take this use this change your life and spoiler alert that's the whole rest of the musical it's in living a better life and it's such an overwhelmingly beautiful picture of the grace and the mercy of God that he he stole from him he stole fine objects lots of riches and he says now take this awesome we attempt to steal Glory from.
God all the time all the time as prideful human beings we sin against God all the time endless amounts of sin and rebellion and God and His mercy and Grace says take this also he gives us himself he's unbelievably gracious and merciful in spite of our sin he shows Mercy when we don't deserve it and it gives Grace when we don't deserve it God is unbelievably gracious and merciful and the nice thing he says is he's slow to anger he's slow to anger.
Now it's even slower when you understand this and read this wisely when you understand this theologically okay what happens is that Skeptics what they'll do is they'll say you know the Old Testament your God is just he's like a he's like an angry child like the people do things they sin against him and then he just pours out his wrath immediately and it's like you're not you're not a wise reader of the Scriptures you certainly don't understand this theologically because if you think that.
God is experiencing their rebellion in real time you you have completely misunderstood our God it's hard for us to picture and imagine but God created time so if God created a time and think of the time as this represented by this pen okay God created time he's outside of time okay so he's that means that God existed and Eternity passed Before Time which that breaks our brain and we can't reprimands around that but it's biblically true he existed in eternity past.
Okay is always existed and then he operates within time that he's created so the people of God Rebel here at this moment in time he sees it coming in eternity pass when we Rebel in this part of time God sees it coming way before it happens and God exists in eternity future which again breaks the brain and it presents a lot of other questions that I'm not going to resolve for you but God is slow to anger because he sees a rebellion way before it even happens and he doesn't destroy us.
God is he's so slow to anger y'all he sees it coming and he sees it coming and he's slow and he's patient and he's enduring and he's steadfast he's so slow to anger when I think about this in light of my own self man I just for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God and I'm just like I know it because my children they do think sometimes and I'm like because I'm experiencing in real time and I'm just I'm not slow to anger I'm working on it.
But I'm not slowed anger God is slow to anger he's so unbelievably slow to anger with impatient as we sin and as we mess up and as we rebel against him he's slow to anger he's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness abounding y'all and steadfast love and faithfulness that we do not deserve like we we can't categorize how rich that is we don't have we don't understand that like I play this game with my kids sometimes uh when we when I put them to bed and I say I love you.
So much and they say I love you too and I say well I love you more and I say I love you most and I say well I love you mostest and they're just because I love you times a thousand times infinity my kid watched Toy Story he said enter to infinity and beyond it's like nice move kid and we do this back and forth because I love my kids I have steadfast love and faithless my kid there's only one other person in the world that gets more of my stuff as love and faithfulness and that's my wife.
And then it's my children and then there's a gap that just that that's that's what happens it's just I I have this steadfast love and faithfulness towards my kids and that right there and if your parent you understand this this is even true for friendship there's speaking of steadfast love and friendship all of that pictures is a is a poor picture in comparison to the steadfast love of God you think you love your kids you don't understand the love of God you don't understand how steadfast and is his love and his richness and kindness and his faithfulness towards us he's.
So unbelievably loving towards his people and it continues keeping steadfast love to thousands for giving iniquity and transgression and sin God forgives his people of their sin and their repentance is a forgiving God he gives second and third and fourth chances all the time and y'all we love Second Chance stories we eat that up the plot line for so many movies and books we love the story when somebody gets out of prison and restarts their life we love the woman who declares bankruptcy.
And then restarts a business and then it succeeds we love those stories and that story Thompson Infinity you're getting the picture at this point God gives a second third and fourth chances over and over again he's so forgiving he's so unbelievably forgiving of all of our waywardness and Rebellion how how much of a relief must have been for Aaron when Moses came down the mountain with two fresh tablets man we're in he's not he's still with us he still loves us.
God is unbelievably forgiving now these descriptions he could spend sermons on each one of them they're just wonderful and as an American westerners like that's we like that aspect of the goodness of God preach right tell me more of that the next part we're less comfortable with and many of us If we're honest we wouldn't say this is an aspect of the goodness of God because it goes on to say God says but who will by no means cleared the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the.
Third and fourth generation now that exact phrasing is the same language that we saw in the second commandment when we walked to the second commandment a while back in Exodus same same phrasing that if you if you persist in sin the Obama means clear the guilty and what's being pictured here is generational sin and I'll say what I said then all those months ago still true I think John Piper Nails it when he describes this he describes this right here generational sin as like a disease.
If you're father gets the flu that does not automatically mean that you're going to get the flu it's how that works okay however if you get the flu did your chances of getting the flu because you live in the same house rise yes and so it is a generational sin you grew up in a household where father was abusive and cruel and hurtful maybe even outwardly religious went to Church every Sunday but by no means resembles Christ and he Christian sense and you can grow up in that household.
See cruelty vileness hate does that mean automatically that the moment you turn 18 when you bounce out of the house that you're gonna up and leave the Church and never come back no that's not how that works is it more likely possibly could be and you play this out for any type of sin pattern but if you are rounded enough inherit some of it the mystery of this is hard for us to wrap our minds around but you can pick up this generational sin and that that literally plays its way out and this story.
Because they're going to wander in the wilderness and they're going to settle into the promised land right now as a Church where a bunch of us are going through a reading plan a two-year Bible reading plan and when the Book of Judges which is a pretty painful book to be in because when you're reading the Book of Judges you just see over and over again this playing out they reject God they worship idols instead and they their kids worship idols.
Then their grandkids worship idols and it's just painful and by the way if you want to opt into that reading plan email me come talk to me after this I add you to it you'll be a little bit behind us but you can join with us it's just to help us continually read the Bible together as Church but you see it all over the Book of Judges you see it all over the people of God they they reject God they worship idols and they pass that on down to the Next Generation the Next Generation and we just.
For honest we don't like this how's that good how does that display the goodness of God how how is that I think the reason that we have that heart posture as westerners is because we are largely insulated from absolute Injustice and I'm not saying that Injustice doesn't have in America I'm not making that argument it does but it ain't like it is in the global South main like it is in other parts of the of the world ain't like it is in other parts of History it's just not and the way brothers and sisters in in Nigeria we're brothers and sisters in the Church in Nigeria who in the middle of the night extremists islamist.
Groups come in Murder Men kidnap they're 13 and 14 year old girls do horrible things them and force them into marriage and then forcibly convert them into Islam that ain't happening in America it's just not you think our Nigerian brothers and sisters aren't looking at this passage and saying praise God that he doesn't he by no means clears the guilty they long for the justice of God people experience Injustice long for his Justice to roll down like a raging River they want Justice flow and I think that's a weakness.
For us as westerners a weakness in our assessment of the character of the goodness of God we need both we need both a fierce love of God and as Fierce Justice we need both of us one commentator puts it on this passage he says this makes good sense in light of what would just happen which was then rejecting God for the golden calf and It prepares the way for the renewal renewing of the Covenant furthermore it indicates that Divine love and punishment must be held in balance it is wrong to give priority to one over the other.
So you read that and you are left thinking okay but still like how how can both of those things be held together how can God have this steadfast love and mercy and Grace and all of that while also not clearing the guilty like how do those meld together if you read the Old Testament you're like I don't know how that works I want to have faith and trust to you but how does that work and then you flip and you flip and you flip and you flip.
And then you get to the Gospels and wear that overlaps perfectly and wonderfully is the cross that's where the love and the mercy and the grace and it's Rich forgiveness and his Justice flow together flows of the blood of Christ on the crossed that's it because God steps into the timeline and says I'll be the one that accomplishes what I am about I will be the one that comes and absorbs the Wrath that they deserve for being Rebels against me I will be the one that absorbs their sin on the cross and I will give to them is love forgiveness grace mercy and the righteous of his kindness the cross is where all of this.
Makes sense that's where the balance comes together Colossians 2 13-14 and you who were dead and your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh that's the sinful nature of your flesh God Made Alive together with him Heaven forgiveness all our trespasses that through the cross that's what's offered but it only happens verse 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demand it's legal demand is death for the wages of sin is death Romans 6. by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal to man this he set aside nailing it to the cross that is where Fierce love and the fierce justice of.
God come together beautifully what God is announcing about himself the Lord the Lord who he is is most beautifully displayed at the Cross of Christ and when you realize them pull up a seat at the table taste and see that he is good take refuge in him so we open this website sorry that's our memory verse for the month the more that you experience Christ like Moses he's got a taste of God he's got to experience him and say I want more of Me Show Me Your Glory and we get to.
See the glory of God at the cross and when we pull up a seat at the table to worship Him and behold him we respond like Moses Moses hears this and it says Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth end worshiped and so do wait brothers and sisters the more you experience the Wonder and the glory of Christ the more it should lead to worship you should Show Me Your Glory show me your goodness show me your character experience him in his word and in prayer gotta want a seat at that table I want you I want you.
God you should worship and Delight in who our God is now there's some of you that have never had a seat at that table some of you have never experienced the goodness of our God you've never experienced his Fierce love and his unbelievable Justice and it's offered at the cross through faith you can lay down your life at the cross and say I want you Christ I want to experience your goodness I want you I want everything you have to offer and the moment I pray that you would do just that.
Let me pray Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news of the Gospel we're thankful that thousands of years ago when you declared your character and your goodness that we get that see that so beautifully displayed at the cross God I pray that if there's anyone here that has not tasted and seen that you were good that has not trusted in you as their only hope God I pray that you would absolutely melt their heart right now they would surrender their life to you.
For those of us that love you better struggle with our sin and struggle with understanding your Rich love and your mercy and your forgiveness got to pray that we'd be able to just respond like Moses bowerheads and worship in Jesus name amen Matt's going to come up we're going to take the Lord's Supper if you're a Christian we invite you to come to the table when you are ready Jesus Took on the night that he was betrayed he took bread and broke it he said this is my body that was broken.
For you he says take and eat took the cup of the New Covenant and he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return so as Christians we come to the meal of remembrance remembering what Jesus did at the cross remembering his goodness displayed at the cross so when you've considered your sin when you've considered our need for God come joyfully to the table knowing that our.
God is steadfast in love and rich in Mercy and Grace come and worship and then stand and sing there's gluten-free in that back corner of there if you have a gluten intolerance if you are not a Christian please don't come to this table if you had a Christian come to Christ pray and receive the good news of the Savior who came to rescue you.
Soli Deo Gloria
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
All glorious above, and gratefully see His wonderful love. Our shield and defender, the ancient of days. All will young in splendor and burden with grace. Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
If you will, grab your Bibles and go to Romans chapter 11. That's where we'll start today. I turned 30, and then my body... No, no, not recently. It was years ago. At that point in the past, my body then decided that I was going to lose my voice once a year due to pollen for some reason.
So that's nice. I got that going for me. So I am having a hard time talking today. I don't feel bad, just sound bad. And it's possible that my voice will give out on me, and this will be a shorter sermon. And I know what some of you are thinking.
As you pray and pray for something, and it's just encouraging to see God finally answers prayers. We are... We usually just walk through books of the Bible. That's what we spend most of our time doing on Sundays. We work through books of the Bible together. But we have taken the past several weeks to look at what are called the solas, the five solas, the five solas of the Reformation.
And Reformation. And these are theological distinctives that they were clarified. So we've taken a series to walk through clarified theological distinctives. And I know all of your hearts are a flutter because who doesn't want to spend a lot of time looking at clarified theological distinctives. But that's what we've done.
We've looked at during the Reformation, the entire church in the West was Catholic. And the Catholic church at that point was not teaching sound doctrine, was abusing their power, was mingled not just with church power, but had all this political power. And there were these people that are called the Reformers who started looking at the Scriptures and saying, this doesn't line up. What we're doing, what we're teaching doesn't line up with what the Bible says. And so we spent some time looking at where they clarified. And the reason it's clarified is that these Reformers, when we've talked about them, we've talked about Luther, we've mentioned Calvin.
We've said Zwingli's name. I don't know if we've actually quoted him on anything. But they weren't coming up with new points of doctrine. They were pointing back to the Bible and saying, we've gotten out of line. We're no longer in line with Scripture. And their intent was to reform.
The Catholic church did not want to be reformed. And so they protested and they became the Protestants and they broke from the Catholic church. And I want to read a little bit of John Calvin. This is a letter he wrote in 1538. An Italian cardinal had written a letter to the Swiss city of Geneva where Calvin was helping lead that city. And that city had become a reformed city.
So they were no longer Catholic. They broke up with the Catholic church and they were teaching these reformed ideas. These changes to Catholic doctrine that are coming from the Scriptures. And so he writes and he says, hey, y'all need to come back. And in the response, this is what Calvin says when he writes back to say, here's the primary issue. Here's the problem that we have and what we need to talk about.
He says, your zeal for heavenly life is a zeal which keeps a man entirely devoted to himself. He says, the problem is the stuff that you're excited about, the stuff that you're working towards, the stuff that the Catholic church is telling us to pursue, ultimately keeps humans, keeps myself at the center. That I'm the one who has to earn. I'm the one who has to achieve. I'm the one who is going out and accomplishing salvation. He says, and does not, even by one expression, arouse him to sanctify the name of God.
Sanctify me, glorify, honor, praise, set apart as holy. He said, the problem is that your teaching fails the test. It does not glorify God. It glorifies man. That's a problem. The Scriptures are about a glorious God and how he works to bring about a glorious redemption for an inglorious people.
And if when we look to the Scriptures, what we come up with is here's how we can be awesome. We've read it wrong. He keeps going. He says, you touch upon justification by faith, which is sola fides, what we talked about, that we are justified, made right with God by faith alone. Meaning that you do not accomplish your salvation. You trust Jesus and he accomplishes it.
It's like when a little kid brings you a toy that's broken. They just walk over and hand it to you, hoping for the best. But they have no ability to accomplish it, fixing this. That's what he's saying is that we come to God and all we've got is mess and sin. And we trust Jesus to fix that. So he says, you talk about that idea, and he refers to it as the first and keenest subject of controversy between us.
Wherever the knowledge of it, salvation by faith alone, is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished. He's saying we're either saved by faith and Christ is glorious or saved by our works and we're glorious. He says, that's the problem. So when the guy wrote and said, y'all need to come back, Calvin wrote back, no. That was a paraphrase. I shortened it way down, but that's what he wrote.
He said, you failed the test. So when we talk through the five solas, sola being alone in Latin. So we say sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura, sola Christus, and sola Deo gloria. That's just Latin phrases for an answer of how are we saved, which is we are saved by grace alone, meaning God has accomplished this for us. Through faith alone, we just trust him to do it. We come to him and place our faith in him.
In Christ alone, meaning that it's accomplished by him, not the church, not by us, but it's in Christ. In the scriptures alone or as revealed by the scriptures alone is under the authority of the scriptures alone, meaning there is no church or pope that we have to look to. We look to the scriptures. It is our authority to the glory of God alone. And to the glory of God alone is in some ways the nucleus that all of these spin around. In other ways, it's just the final pinnacle result of all of these.
That if you're saved by God's grace through faith in Christ, it's to his glory, to his credit, not yours. And so that's what we're going to spend our time looking at this morning. So let's pray and then we'll read Romans 11, 36 together to start. God, we ask that you would be glorified. That you would be honored. That you would help us, the power of your spirit, to see and to delight in your glory, how good it is for us.
In Jesus name. Amen. Romans 11, 36. For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
From him. Through him and for him. Why does the world exist? It exists for him. It exists for Christ the King. It exists for God the Father Almighty.
It exists from him and through him. It's held together. It's brought together. Salvation is wrought through him. And it is for him. Ultimately for his glory and his delight and his joy because he is glorious.
And he says to him be glory forever. Now when the Bible talks about glory. It talks about it in two ways. It talks about it as a noun. And it talks about it as a verb. Like the way we use the word dance.
You go to a dance. And you dance at the dance. Or you stand against the wall and make fun of people. Because you like to dance but you don't know how. That's it. It's a dance where you dance.
And that's how glory works. That God is glorious. He has glory. It's in some ways it's the expression of his attributes. That the Bible talks about his glorious power. Or his glorious might.
Or his glorious grace. His glorious mercy. It's the wonderfulness. The shining forth of who he is by his very nature. So here's the thing.
God is glorious whether you like it or not. Ultimately. Soli Deo Gloria is an encouragement. Or a threat. Either to the glory of God alone. Let's join in this.
Or to the glory of God alone. You'll find out. Maybe not that squeaky. But you know. He is glorious. Then it talks about glory as a verb.
That you can glory in something. Or that you can glorify something. So that it'll say. To him be glory forever. Meaning. And it's used there in some ways in both.
That he has glory. But that we also give him glory. Or we glory in him. Meaning to praise. To give him weightiness. To show him honor.
This is where Jesus. When he gives the model prayer. He says. May your name be honored as holy. Three starts. Meaning.
That you be set apart. As holy and pure. May you be glorified. May you be worshipped. May you be honored. So that we give glory to God.
But the Bible also say. That we give glory to our shame. Or that we glorify ourselves. Meaning that we wrongly. Attribute praise and honor to ourselves. Or we attribute praise and honor.
To other things. But God has glory. And he is to be glorified. It's the appropriate response. To who he is. Because it's all about him.
I have a quote from John Piper. Who is not a reformer. He just likes them. But he's a pastor in Minneapolis. For many years. And he says this.
He says that people will periodically ask you questions. Like why is there such a meaningless vastness. Of uninhabited galaxies. And only one tiny dot. To human existence. And they'll use this.
As some kind of a thing against Christians. Like when we talk about God's design of the world. And you know. They'll say oh yeah. Well what's all this other stuff. How is it not just a big random mess.
And he says your answer should be. This universe is not intended. To portray the importance of man. It is intended to give man some inkling of the grandeur of God. And it is an understatement. That it's all about him.
And that he is glorious. And in essence. He is to be glorified. That's the appropriate correct response. If I came to you and said. This cake is so good.
Your response. Is to eat it. That's the correct appropriate response. If I came and said. This perfume is amazing. You smell it.
Because in essence. That's how you respond. God is glorious. And so our correct. Appropriate. Designed response.
Is to glorify him. The beautiful thing about this is. All genuine praise. Is delightful. So that what God has called us into.
He's. More glorious than anything. He's more delightful. More enjoyable. More worthy. To be worshipped.
So when he calls us to worship him. It's him calling us to what is ultimately best for us. And true worship and praise is enjoyable. Every time you've absolutely just. Celebrated something. That you were overcome with joy for.
That's praise and worship. That idea. Is what we're called into eternally. But if we misunderstand. Understand the nature of God's glory. Then we will misunderstand.
The nature of sin. So Romans 1 22. Is this. Says claiming to be wise. They became fools. And exchange the glory of the immortal God.
For images resembling mortal man. And birds and animals. Creeping things. And in this passage. He's talking about unrighteousness. Unholiness.
Sin. And he says after this. That this led them into further sin. But this is in essence. What sin is. For many of us.
We would like to think. Or we have in our head. This kind of framework. God made everything. So he's in charge.
And sin is primarily. Us breaking his rules. And that's part of it. But that's not the only understanding of it. That doesn't boil it down. To its absolute essence.
When you think about it this way. Then the primary problem. With Adam and Eve in the garden. Was that God told them not to. Which is true. He told them not to.
And they should not have eaten. From that tree. But it's just a list of rules. And they could be as arbitrary. As God wants them to be. And our job is just to follow them.
And obey. But. Here's the problem. If you only understand it. You miss. If you misunderstand glory.
What this passage is saying. Is that God. Is glorious. But that sinfully. We. We don't.
Give him glory. We want to. Give glory to other things. So that we pursue money. We pursue fame. We pursue.
Well. This is called idolatry. Glory. This is God speaking to the prophet Jeremiah. He says. Has a nation.
Changed its gods. Even though they are no gods. But my people. Have changed their glory. For that which does not. Profit.
Be appalled. Oh heavens. At this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate. Declares the Lord.
He goes on to say. They have committed two sins. They have swapped me out. He calls himself. A fountain of living waters. And he says.
And they have. Dug out cisterns. For themselves. Broken cisterns. That don't even hold water. He says.
The problem is. They took me. Their God. Which is ultimately. The only place they would get glory. He calls himself.
Their glory. But Tim. Their glory. He is what makes them glorious. He is what brings good. In their lives.
And he says. They swapped me out. For broken things. And that is. Sin. And it is.
In it is very nature. A rejection of who God is. So it would be like. If I came to you and said. Oh man. This cake.
Is so good. And you go. Is it? I said yeah. And you go. Alright.
Let me get in there. Oh yeah. Oh that is good cake. So moist. And then I am staring at you. Like you are a psychopath.
Because you are. And you are like. What? I thought you said. I thought you were going to share. What is this?
I mean. That might be fun to do. At a birthday party. The last birthday party. You ever get invited to. But it is essentially.
The wrong way to respond. To someone telling you. This cake is good. If I said. This perfume is good. And you said.
Let me see. And squirted it into your mouth. And they looked at me. And were like. You liar. It's like.
Well you did it wrong. God is glorious. And therefore. As his created. Creatures. We are designed.
To delight in his glory. By glorifying him. And when we don't. We're sticking our hands in the cake. We have responded. Essentially.
Incorrect. So this. Helps us. To understand. Why sin. Is sin.
Because people will say things like. Well I don't see why God. Would send good people. To hell. I don't. I'm.
You know. I'm pretty good. I'm. I'm not that bad. But what we're doing.
Is we're using our goodness. To glorify ourselves. What we're saying is. I don't know if you know this. Pretty glorious on my own. And it's an utter rejection.
Of the God. Who created the world. You can actually. Use your good behavior. To reject God. It's actually one of the best ways.
To defend yourself from God. That people use. I'm a pretty good person. I don't need Jesus. But that glorifies yourself.
Dishonors him. And misses the point. Isaiah 42.8 says. I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory.
I give to no other. Nor my praise. To carve. Idols. He's holding out to us. What is best.
Namely himself. And to reject it. Is. Sin. But. Salvation by grace.
Alone. Through faith. Alone. In Christ. Alone. Heralds.
The glory of God. Salvation by grace. Alone. Through faith. Alone. In Christ.
Alone. Proclaims. The glory. Of God. So let's walk through that idea for a second.
Romans 3. 27. 28. Paul talking about salvation by faith. Not by works. Not by something you do.
To earn it. To merit it. He says this. Then what becomes of our boasting? Meaning if I don't accomplish this. What do I get to brag about?
We talked about this. We talked about. Sola fide. He says it is excluded. He says okay. I'm not allowed to brag.
But what. What kind of law. What rule. Excludes my boasting. He says. Is the law of works?
No. By the law of faith. For we hold. That one is justified by faith. Apart from works of the law. Paul's making a real simple point.
If you earn your salvation. Even a little bit. Then you can celebrate. You can boast. That's what Calvin was writing to them. Saying if you.
Act like we can earn our salvation. You extinguish the glory of Christ. That it. Somehow enhances man. But reduces Christ.
This is what Calvin writes. In his institutes. Calvin's institutes. Is a really thick. Theological book. It was not thick.
When he first wrote it. He wrote five more editions. When he first wrote it. He wrote it in the middle. Of a bunch of people getting killed. But he was not where they were getting killed.
For these ideas. But he said. He said he felt like. If he did not write. A clear theological manifesto. Of what they were dying for.
Why they had broken from the Catholic Church. He did not know. How he would ever. Be able to. Get away from the charge. Of being a coward.
So Calvin's institutes. Began with a. I'm writing these. Because we're in the middle. Of. Martyrdom.
And somebody needs to clarify. What we're dying. But he says this. When he's talking about this passage. Romans 3. 27 to 28.
He says this. From this. This idea that our boasting is excluded. It follows. That as long as there remains. A drop of righteousness.
In our works. We have some grounds. Of glorifying. Glorying in ourselves. That is why. If faith excludes.
All glorying. The righteousness of faith. Cannot exist at all. With that of words. So. Going from faith.
To the idea. That God gets all the glory. We understand that. If we're saved. Just by his work. He's the one who's on it.
He's the one who's glorified. And if we somehow add into it. We get some glory. But it's. It's excluded. We don't.
It's not how it works. He's the one who rescues. He's the one who's on it. If I was in a burning house. My house caught on fire. And they had to come in and get me.
I'm passed out. And choking on all this stuff. Can't get myself up. They come in to rescue me. And I mean. We got like.
Backdraft situations going on. Just shooting back and forth. There's a gas leak. Explosion. I don't even have gas in my house. But it does it just to be more dramatic.
You know. And so then they like. Take me out into the yard. I'm sputtering. They're going to give me like a. A ten-foil blanket.
And right about that time. People have gathered around. To watch our house burn. Because that's what happens. And they bring me out. And right as they're setting me down.
I'm catching my breath. I go. Yeah. Who's the man? I am. You'd be like.
What? I mean. Like I could high five the fireman. But I can't do like. Strut circle around him. Like I accomplished something.
And that's what. Paul's. Getting at. That idea. That we don't get. Nobody gets to flex.
In front of Jesus. He's the one who's the hero. He's the one who saves. And here's. And I said. Going from faith to glory.
But here's what you need to understand. If it's true. That all glory goes to him. Do you know how good that news is? Let's see if that's true.
And then. Then we'll talk about how good that is. Ephesians 1. 12 through 14 says this. Paul's writing. He says.
So that we who were the first to hope in Christ. Might be. What? To the praise. Of his glory. So they're saved.
They're rescued. But who gets the credit? Christ does. To the praise of his glory. And then in him. You also.
When you heard the word of truth. The gospel of your salvation. And believed in him. Were sealed with the promise. Holy Spirit. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance.
Until we acquire possession of it. What? To the praise. Of his glory. That God is saving us. To the praise of his glory.
In this same passage. He refers to. He says that we're. He lavishes kindness on us. To the praise of his glorious grace. Not to the praise of your glorious work.
Not to the praise of your glory. Your wisdom. Your bible memorization. Your behavior. None of that. It's excluded.
It all goes to him. Philippians 1. 10 and 11. Talks about Christ. Working in us. And it says.
So that we would be pure. And blameless. For the day of Christ. Meaning. We'll stand before him. Pure.
And blameless. Filled with the fruit. Of righteousness. That comes through Jesus Christ. So we'll have accomplished things.
But they'll have come through Jesus Christ. What? To the glory and praise. Of God. That we are saved. To his glory.
And praise. This is wonderful news. Here's why. If we were saved by our glory. To our credit. To our glory.
If we could do it. And get our name on the back of our jersey. You would need to be glorious. If you're saved. By your own glory. You need to be glorious.
That's why this is excellent news. You're not glorious. He is. That's why we gather. And sing his name. That's why we sang a song.
That said. If you could give voices. To everything. Suddenly. You'd just hear Christ. Be magnified.
He's glorious. He's holy. He's set apart. He's good. And this is so. Freeing.
It's freeing. Because we can get salvation. That we can approach him. Glorifying him. In our faith. That our faith.
Brings honor. To Christ. So that you come to him. And you say. I can't redeem myself. I need.
A savior. Here. And that's how it's designed. To work. That's what he's accomplished for us. That he would get the glory.
Not you. That you would come and say. I need. Someone. To redeem me. And rescue me.
And all I have is sin. And all I have is mess this up. And we would celebrate. That he's good. And the reason I said. Working from faith forward.
It gives him glory. But working from glory. It goes back. To just call us into faith. Is that I have to go backwards. So often.
I have to work my way backwards. And go. Hold on a second. The reason he redeemed me. Is so that he. Can be seen.
As glorious. Not because I am. And this helps me so often. When I have these moments. Where I'm very very struck. By the fact.
Of how fallen I am. And how far from glory I am. And I have these moments. Like oh. I messed this up again. Oh.
I failed again. I recently got to go on a trip. Um. It was a long trip. Down to Florida. And we were all excited about it.
Getting to go. And we've been planning. And going with Granddaddy. And all that stuff. Go. And I have a four year old.
And this didn't happen. But this is a sermon illustration. So just listen. I have a four year old. And uh. Every once in a while.
He gets real sad. And his lip will actually poke out. Like the little. Like little pouty lip thing. And uh. My older son had tried that some.
But I could tell he was just. Doing it. Because he had seen like cartoons do it. To like make himself seem more sympathetic. And it absolutely backfired. He was like.
Get that mess out of my house. But his little brother has done it a couple times. When he's been genuinely sad about a thing. That I didn't think he was trying to manipulate me. And his little lip has shot out. And it's like.
I'm not super sensitive. And I'm like. Dude. Oh man. What. Boy buddy.
Let's fix it. But if he came to me looking like that. And just said. Yeah. I'm so. I'm sad.
We're not going to get to go on our trip. Why not? I can't push the tunnels. And I don't know where we're going. And even if you gave me a map. I can't read.
I'd just be like. Buddy. Let's get in the back of the car. At no point. Were you responsible. For getting us there.
Like. Honestly. You need my help. To get in the back of the car. I'm going to strap you in. So you can't escape.
You're actually going to Florida. Whether you want to or not. Take a nap. Eat a snack. Steer out the window. Sing a song.
We're going to get you there. And I have to remind myself. That there are times. Where I come to God. And I basically am saying. I don't know how to push the pedal.
Like that somehow. Factors into the equation. There are times. Where I come to him. And I'm basically saying. God.
I know this is going to blow your mind. But I just found out. I'm not glorious again. And then my response. I can go one of two ways. But my response so often is.
Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm going to make myself glorious again. I'm going to work really hard. You'll see my glory. And you'll be so proud of me.
And in that moment. I am essentially rejecting Christ. Do you see that? There are times when I go. I'm going to just make myself feel bad for a while. Or I'm going to just.
I'm going to dig in. And I'm going to make this better. And I'm going to get better. And I'm not going to mess up again. What I'm saying is. Don't worry.
I'll be glorious again. But that's not the response. The response is to come and say. I just dawned on me. How inglorious I am. Thank you Jesus.
Oh glory and praise to your name. Infinitely. That you redeem a sinner like me. And I don't. My ability to push the pedals. Has nothing to do with this.
My ability to behave. My ability to keep it together. My ability to have enough wisdom. My ability to figure things out. My ability to respond appropriately. My ability to desire what I'm.
Thank you so much. That you save a sinner like me. And so then. In my repentance. Repentance. I give him glory.
We give him glory in our faith. When we come to him. But we give him glory in our repentance. When we come to him and say. I'm so thankful that you're the hero. So yes.
Our faith. Gives him glory. But sometimes. I think you got to work backwards. From glory to faith. And you got to remind yourself.
That the whole point of this. Is that he's glorious. Not you. So that you can stir up again. In your heart. Faith for the one who redeems.
We give him. Glory in our faith. And we give him glory in our repentance. And we get to give him glory in our obedience. I just said. We won't always do that well.
But he saved us to the praise of his glorious grace. If you have a moment. Where you suddenly realize. You need the glorious grace. That's the whole point. Praise it.
But also. We choose to obey. And we give him glory in our obedience. You see. So often what happens.
As we get in our head. There are certain things in the Bible. If you follow Christ enough. If you read your Bible enough. There'll be things in there that you. Don't agree with.
Don't understand. Don't like. There's just will. Because you're a sinner. And God wrote this. If everything in here.
You're like. Yep. Good point. You know. Yep. That's not exactly how I would have said it.
But good. You know. I don't think you're reading your Bible right. There are going to be things where you go. Wait. Why can't I do that?
Why can't I have that? There are going to be times where you're having to go. I know you said. I can't pursue this. But I just don't understand why.
I don't see why I can't. Everybody else gets this. Everybody else has that prayer answered. I don't understand why I can't have this thing. I don't understand why I can't. And what we want to do.
Is short circuit the process into sin. But here's the thing. We get to give God glory. In our obedience. When we're saying. I actually trust that you're better.
I trust that if you don't want me to have this thing. That ultimately you haven't deprived me of anything wonderful. Because you've given me yourself. And you're more wonderful than this thing. We get to trust in his glory. This is what 1 Corinthians 10 31.
He says. Whether you eat or drink. Whatever you do. Do all to the glory of God. That whatever it is. Whatever you're pursuing.
Whatever you're abstaining from. That it's got to be to the glory of God. Because that's what lines us up with the ultimate reality of the world. In Colossians. He says the same thing to people working. He says.
Don't work for your boss. Don't work for your master. Work. Work for God. But you know how freeing some of that is.
Because if you have to work for your boss. If the only reason you're going to do a good job is because your boss is awesome. Six of us will work really hard. The rest of us are like. I'm not doing anything because this idiot gets out of here. But that's not how it works.
You're not doing it because your company is awesome. Your boss is awesome. We get to work because our God is awesome. We get to obey because our God is awesome. Because he's glorious. I get to serve.
And give him glory. This is beautiful. This is when we give away money. The Bible calls us to be generous and give away money. Do you know the only way you can do that is if you actually trust he fulfills his promises. And he's actually paying attention.
And he cares. And he notices. And he's going to provide for you. And there's rewards. All of life is like that. There are times where you're absolutely not participating in something you want to.
You may not even understand why. You might be like. I don't know why I can't live with my boyfriend. I just know the Bible says it's bad. It's bad for me. I don't know.
I just want to. But it's because it shouldn't. And then we choose to obey. What we're saying is I actually think you're more honorable. You're good. You're not buying to me.
Is it the trick? That you're going to lead me towards the light. And that ultimately at the end of all this. Just get you. I've gotten everything. So we get to glorify God in our faith.
We get to glorify God in our repentance. And we get to glorify God in our obedience. Because ultimately obedience is worshipful, glorifying faith. There are times where we obey because we agree. And those are the easier times. It's all the times when we disagree.
That we're saying I actually trust that you're smarter than me. I actually trust that you're more valuable than me. I actually trust that your desires for me are good. And so I'm going to fight my own for this. That's faith. And it glorifies God.
And it's what we ought to do. And it's hard. But he's good. And I don't know if you heard either of those words. But I'm moving on.
The end result of history. This is one of the most beautiful things that you'll see if you look at the scriptures. God repeatedly says I'm not going to share my glory with anybody. And then the ultimate end of history is that he shares his glory with all those who he redeemed. Now, now that he lied, he's talking about it in two different ways. He says I'm not going to share my glory with anybody.
What he means is when he shares his glory with us, it'll be to the praise of his glory. He'll be the one who we sing to, who we enjoy, who we delight. Now, on that day, he says this in Isaiah, he says on that day, I want to share my glory with another. Meaning when we stand in front of him, you don't get to go, I'm here. Because you helped, but I did most of it. That's not how it works.
We're redeemed by his grace as a gift. And he gets all the glory. But then, if you're in Christ, if you've placed your faith in him, what we're told is that he did that to share his glory with us. Romans 8, 17 says this, that we're adopted and we're made children of God. It says, if children, then heirs to get an inheritance, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. We're told that we will be given glorified bodies.
We're told that we will be brought into his glory and to share in his glory for eternity. The next chapter, when he's talking about this, he says, what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory? But if you place your faith in Jesus, you're an object of mercy, meaning you received his mercy and that he prepared us beforehand to delight in and enjoy how glorious he is. Like a dad who takes his mercy and that he is. Like a dad who takes his kid to school, knowing that an hour later he's going to go pick him back up just to sneak him off the day to hang out and have fun.
And what he's sharing with him is himself, but he also knows what a wonderful gift. Because the child wants to spend the day with his dad, delights in his dad, delights to be delighted in by the father. That's what God has done. He is glorious and the kindest, most merciful, wonderful thing he's ever done is sent his son to redeem us out of our inglory to bring us back into his glory so that we might delight in him for all eternity. That's why he's worthy to be praised. Because he rescues sinners to the praise of his glorious grace.
This is what the Westminster Catechism says. It's a Westminster Catechism. This is a Westminster Shorter Catechism. It's a question and answer thing to help you remember some theological points. The question they ask is, what is the chief end of man? Meaning, why do you exist?
Why are we here? This is the answer they give coming out of the scriptures. It says, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's it. That's why we're created. And if you're in Christ, that's your ultimate home.
Enjoying and delighting in God who has pleasures at his right hand forevermore. God is glorious. Whether we like it or not. But. When we see it. We get to delight in it.
And when you see that the whole point that he saved us was so that his name would ring forth with glory. You're free. To say the reason I'm here is because Jesus is good. Not because I'm good. And if you're here this morning. Trying to be good.
That's your aim. I'm going to be well behaved. I'm going to get it together this time. I'm going to make my parents proud. I'm going to make God proud. I'm going to make my wife proud.
I'm going to show my husband that I can do this. If that's why you're here. Oh, I've got better news for you. You are not glorious. But you are never going to be able to be glorious.
You need Jesus who is glorious to make you glorious. As he invites you into his own glory. You need him to redeem you. You need him to get the praise and the honor for your life. Sometimes people say, I don't like the church because everybody there is messed up. Yeah.
Join it. You'll see it's way worse than you thought. That's the whole point. That's why I'm here. Because he saves sinners to the praise of his glory. The band is going to come back up.
And we are going to, through song, praise his glory. That he redeems us. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. Can I tell you something? You do not clean yourself up to do that. He doesn't need you 5% glorious or 10% glorious or 35% glorious.
And then he can work with the rest. Honestly, all that gets in the way because you're confused about how it works. You're walking into his house already telling him that he should give you some honor. And that's not how it works. You walk in and you say, I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And guess what?
He does not put to shame any who call on his name. Place your faith in Jesus. If you're a Christian right now and you've been falling into sin, you've been struggling. You've been seeing how fallen from glory you are. Do not promise yourself that you're going to fix it. Go to Jesus who does.
Praise him for his glory. Can I tell you something? If you're trying to fix your behavior, telling yourself that you're going to muscle it out is actually way less effective than going to Jesus and thanking him for saving a sinner like you. It changes your heart when you see how good and wonderful he is. And it motivates us to obey because he is glorious. He's worth giving our lives for.
The more you try to do it on your own and the more you think you've earned it, the harder it is. Because the further from him you've gotten, the more confused you are about how it works. May we praise his glorious grace who redeems sinners. May we be people with smiles on our face because we're not the ones who achieved this. We are held secure. We don't have to push the pedals.
We don't even buckle ourselves in. He's going to get us to the end. And when we do, it's going to be glorious. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you're so good.
And that your goodness did not just work to cast us out. But your goodness is so good it overcame our wickedness. That your goodness does not just show the dividing lines so that we could be far from you forever. But that you have chosen to pour out mercy and kindness to the praise of your glorious grace. And may we be a people who praise your glory for all eternity. Amen.
And may we be a man Oh my God. Amen.
Righteous Judge
Transcript
G'day guys, my name is Raz, I'm one of the pastors here, and today we're rounding out, we're finishing up our glory series, and today we're going to be taking a look at justice. And in particular, we're going to be talking about Jesus as the mind-blowing judge who's coming back at the end of days, a judgment day, to restore order to everything that's happened ever, which is a pretty big task for one day, but that's what we're doing. We're going to head to Revelation 20, so if you've got a Bible, or grab one of the Bibles in the row there, we're heading to Revelation 20, I think it's like the second last page or something like that. Just turn to the end and then go backwards.
Oh, there you go, it's page 602, that's helpful. 603, I assume, is the last page then. In Revelation 20, this is a picture that the apostle John has seen in a vision, and he's trying to put down in words what God has shown him about the very end of days. And so the language is pretty weird, there's some images that he's never seen before, and he's just kind of, out of a lack of words, just writing things like, it kind of looked like this. And so it's a little hard to understand, but we're going to read from verse 11. So this is Revelation 20, 11 through 15.
It says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. That's Jesus, big white throne. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened.
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he also was thrown into the lake of fire. Imagine this. It's judgment day. All of humanity is there. That is a gigantic crowd.
He calls it a great sea of people. And they're waiting on their turn to come up and be judged. And Jesus is out there with, like, volumes and stacks upon stacks of books that have written in them everything that you have ever done. And you're going to be judged according to that. And then he's going to lean over to the second book and check your name off on the roll call. I imagine this scene, I mean, that's a scary scene to me.
That many books, intimidating. But I kind of, I see things, I imagine things through a more technological, I mean, I grew up with TV. So I just imagine things with a more technological kind of swing to them. So if I was to re, I mean, this isn't good practice necessarily, but if I was to reimagine this scene and explain what was going to happen, I think I would take a different approach than maybe what he was saying. And the same thing would be accomplished. But this is how I picture it.
So imagine, I'm doing my best to try and appeal to an American audience here. Imagine a gigantic college football scene. You don't have to know anything about college football because I don't. But I've seen the stadiums and they're huge. Imagine a huge, huge, huge college football stadium and all of humanity is in it. This is not the Gamecock Stadium.
This is not the Michigan Stadium that's, like, crazy big. This is not the NASCAR stadium that they transformed for one night. This is, like, the biggest stadium that has ever been seen because all of humanity has to fit in that stadium. And it's not okay for just one jumbotron to be in the middle with the four-sided thing. They're, like, scattered around the place. They need to be everywhere because everyone needs to see what's going on.
And one by one, each individual is called up. And on the big screen, everyone can see them walking out into the middle. And then the highlights reel from their life plays. Now, in John's vision, it gets read out of a book. But in my vision, it's not a biblically inspired vision.
But in the way that I think about it, your life plays out on the jumbotron. And everyone gets to see what you did. And it's not a highlights reel, like, check out all of my greatest achievements. This is, like, the lowlights reel. This is the slow-motion impact highlights reel. And I imagine it like when you are watching football and somebody gets, like, crushed.
And they play it, like, in slow motion from seven different angles. It's like, and then they amp up the volume of the pads clashing. So it's like, crack, every single time. And everyone in the crowd is like, ooh. You know when, like, there's the slow-motion replay of the guy's helmet comes off. And everyone's like, ah.
And, like, if you weren't watching, you hear the ah. And you're like, oh, what did I miss? That kind of thing happens over and over again. But as people are watching your life. Because all the little things that you did that you thought nobody knew about, that you thought got swept under the rug, that happened in secret, they're now being played on a jumbotron in front of everybody. They make fun of stealing candy from a baby.
But you remember that time you stole candy from a baby? That's going to play in the jumbotron. And everyone's going to be like, ooh, dude, what did you do that for? Every time you've done simple things, like roll for a stop sign, and then lied about it, that's going to play on the jumbotron. All the times you did something good, but you only did it because you wanted to receive praise. You only did it because you wanted people to know how great you are.
Somehow they're going to display that on a jumbotron, and people are going to see the selfish notion of your heart in that moment. The time when you lost your mind at your spouse for no reason, or lashed out at your kids, or the time in school when you were bullying that kid, all of it plays out on the jumbotron. Gigantic stadium of people watching. Every moment of your life that you're ashamed of gets played on that jumbotron, and the entire crowd is going, ooh, yeah. And at the end of your highlights reel, you ought to be judged for that. But Jesus looks over into his little black book and checks to see if your name's in there.
And if it is, good. And if it's not, then you get judged for it. That's pretty scary, right? You want to know at that point in time that your name is written in Jesus' little black book, right? Because that's like the only pass out of being judged for all the things that play out on that jumbotron. And here's the thing, though.
This is imaginary. This is hypothetical, but not really. Because this is actually going to happen. And here's the thing, though. But there's hope for that in Christians because while we know our highlights reel is not going to be the greatest, no one really wants to watch that happen, no one really wants to see all of those things that they've done play out on the jumbotron, we know as Christians that our name is going to end up in that second book.
And in that second book, that's where we have hope. And now that probably sounds weird for us to have hope in our name being in a book and not being judged by the highlights reel or the lowlights reel of our life. And I think that's because, I mean, it sounds weird for us to want that or to think that's good because we have a a continuously developing cultural understanding of what justice is. What's fair? Everybody on some level wants their way of seeing life means that they want things to come back to being fair. And everybody, well, not everybody, but there's a lot of different opinions on what is fair.
And that's why we lead to different political affiliations that everyone wants to achieve what's fair, but they disagree on what fair is, whether it's free health care or you've got to pay for your health care or it's competition in health care. Everybody wants what's fair, but we disagree on what fair is. And it's because culturally, we don't really understand justice. I don't think. We certainly don't understand God's justice. Or if we do, we have a culturally, we view it through a cultural lens.
So we're going to take a zoomed out look at justice. We're going to look at the way we think about justice. And then we're going to look at the way that God thinks about justice. And I'm going to be answering, I'm going to be asking a ton of questions, most of which, if you're a Christian, you'll probably be asked at some point, especially with culture getting more and more aggressive against Christianity. Everyone has some way that they're going to try and outsmart you or challenge you or challenge God. These questions are going to pop up quite a lot.
And I think when it comes to justice, it's typically going to be, how can a loving God pass judgment? Or some reiteration of that same notion, some reiteration of that same question. If your God is loving and kind and always talks about forgiveness, how can he send people to hell? That's a question that is going to come up repeatedly. And it snowballs. It gets more and more intense.
If your God is loving, why won't he just forgive people? Why can't he just forgive everybody? The whole topic kind of snowballs. And I think rather than answering each individual question like one by one, I think we'd be better served to zoom out, look at justice as the whole, on a whole, and maybe identify that because we misunderstand justice, we don't really understand the questions that we're asking in the first place. And I think it begins with a common misunderstanding. And that's the relationship between justice and revenge.
What is the relationship between justice and revenge? How are they the same? How are they different? I mean, typically we think justice, good, revenge, bad. But somehow we interchange them or we accidentally misidentify them as each other.
Let me ask you this. You're watching a movie, any action movie, any movie where the good guys and the bad guys literally fight. Any movie where that actually happens. What is it that you want at the end of that movie for it to be like, yes, order is restored, justice is accomplished. You're watching Harry Potter, right? You are seven movies deep into Harry Potter.
You're at the very end and they have the big wizard battle. Do you want the good guys to point their wands at Voldemort and abracadabra ropes that come out and bind him up? And he's just bound up. He's stuck there like that. And then they take him to wizard court and they say, guilty, you're a bad person. Go to Azkaban.
And he goes to Azkaban and spends the rest of his life in Azkaban. Is that how you want Harry Potter to end? No. There's no brave people here. You want the good guys to vanquish the bad guys. You want them completely destroyed, no longer in existence.
That's what you want to happen at the end of that movie. Let's be culturally relevant. Independence Day. At the end of Independence Day, do you want the U.S. Air Force to come up with a gigantic net that brings the mothership down and then one by one those aliens get marched off of that ship, taken into a court of law and then there's like a 10 year trial for each individual person because they know our legal system and they appeal everything and then they end up one by one in jail for the rest of their life. No!
You're cheering for a redneck McRedneck-y man to fly that plane into that spaceship and blow every single one of those dudes out of the sky. That's what you want and we cheer for it. That's how Hollywood programs us to want justice in the stories that we see. That's how we're programmed to cheer and that's just kind of how it is in our culture, right? How we want justice to happen is the bad guy gets completely wiped out, destroyed. When I was growing up my dad and I we used to watch a lot of James Bond movies and the game GoldenEye on Nintendo 64 was kind of like the game of the generation.
Programmed to cheer and that's just kind of how it is in our culture, right? How we want justice to happen is the bad guy gets completely wiped out, destroyed. When I was growing up my dad and I we used to watch a lot of James Bond movies and the game GoldenEye on Nintendo 64 was kind of like the game of the generation. GoldenEye is much more famous for the game than it is for the movie
But in the movie really good movie I watched it when I was like 9 or 10 I think that raises some questions about parenting in my house it's a very violent movie but my dad and I we used to bond over these things and so we're watching GoldenEye and at the very end of GoldenEye actually building up to the end there's two guys there's James Bond and there's Alec Trevelyan they are both together they're partners
They're on Team England that's a thing they were the good guys at one point at least in James Bond thanks man Team England they're on the same team together and at some point everybody thinks Alec is dead but actually Alec has rejected Team England and he's now on Team Russia and he comes back in the movie as the bad guy but they were once friends and now he's the enemy and so at the very end of the movie
In the climax of the movie or whatever there's this huge radar dish thing like a gigantic one absolutely crazy big and it's sending signals up to some Russian satellite thing out in the sky and there's a giant dish like this and a big arm that comes out the middle and the thing where all the rays kind of focus on and shoot out into space and that's so big that people can be inside of it there's computers and almost like
A space station looking thing up inside there and so James Bond has to shut the thing down so that Russia stops getting their signals and whatever and the other guy is trying to stop him and they're inside that little capsule thing like 300 feet dropped down to the radar dish and so they're fighting in there they've got their guns out because that's the kind of movie and they're shooting at each other and then of course
They can't use the guns because that's a lame way for someone to die so they hit the guns out of each other's hands and then they're punching each other and James Bond's losing because it's really intense and everybody thinks James is going to die and then he goes down the little hatch and he's down on a ladder and he's got one hand up and his other hand is flailing like this and there's like a 300 foot drop to his dead and the bad guy the bad guy comes down he puts his foot on and he's like and he falls down
And then he drops down and there's one last little platform right? Everything happens on that last little platform and you see James Bond he's in like that fetal position as he fell down there he's down there he's getting crushed and then the bad guy drops down boof on his feet and you're like this is it this is the end one nudge and James Bond is dead but no Hollywood uppercut
Bad guy slow motion off the platform surely gonna die 300 foot to fall to his death and then James Bond boof grabs him by the ankle what's gonna happen? I'm kinda out of breath and you think for a moment is James gonna let this guy live? and the bad guy looks up at him and he goes for England and James goes no for me and then he drops him and in that moment
The bad guy knows he's lost and the camera goes right up in his face he's like and then there's a top down view and then this bottom down view and then it goes to the wide angle view I'm no doctor but in my understanding of human physiology when you fall 300 feet and land on your spine you die not so camera comes right up close to Alec Trevelyan's face he's got a little bit of blood coming out of his nose
It was a big fall a little bit of blood and then his eyes go bing and he's alive and you're like no this happened earlier in the movie it's gonna happen again and then the camera cuts back up James Bond is up on the little platform the thing starts exploding and he jumps off grabs onto the bottom of a helicopter helicopter takes him off to safety and then and then the giant thing in the middle explodes off the arm
That's holding it up and a giant metal needle camera wide angle top down view bottom down view close up on the guy's face skewered through his body into the ground and at that moment nine year old Raz is like yeah high-fiving dad I wish I was at the cinema I wasn't allowed to be in the cinema but I would have been like high-fiving other people because justice had been served the good the guy who's a bad guy because he used to be a good guy but then he became a bad guy is dead
At least that's what we're kind of expected to cheer for right that's justice in movies that's what we want that's what we want to see happen and I think that we so often talk about justice but what we're actually cheering for is revenge because in that moment if James Bond wanted to bring Alec Trevelyan to justice he would have done the Hollywood thing where you can actually hold a person by their ankle and just bring him back up handcuff him take him back to England take him to the MI6 base
And he lives underground for the rest of his life but we cheer for what actually became personal and vengeful he was full of hate and spite for the guy and so he saw revenge so revenge is emotional where justice is is rational revenge is personal where justice is impersonal revenge is about vindictiveness where justice is about vindication revenge
Is about retaliation where justice is about restoring order so could it be possible then that when we challenge God's justice when we have questions about his justice when we say is that really fair what we're actually doing is questioning whether or not he's seeking revenge are your questions really asking is God just vindictive
Is God just retaliating so what then what then even is justice and how do we achieve it even in our world what does justice actually look like for us in normal everyday life let me ask you some hypothetical questions so you can self-diagnose self-realize some of the tension here in your own brain in your own way
Of thinking when is justice served is justice served when the thing that was done is undone is that when justice is served or is it when the thing that was done is paid back to the same degree that it was done in the first place is that when justice is done think about it like this if we're on the
Playground and I poke you in the eye you get to poke me back in the eye that's fair that's justice that's how playground rules work grow up a little bit you lend me your car and I wreck it how is justice served I owe you a car of equal or greater value right you don't
Get to just go wreck my car I don't have a car I borrowed yours but what happens for example if your child is kidnapped how is justice served is justice served when the child is returned it's just undoing the thing
Is justice served when you go kidnap his child that's repaying it one for one should there be some kind of a punishment and if there is a punishment how great a punishment should it be is it jail time
Is it a big fat fine is it death penalty is it public execution of you and all of your acquaintances so that nobody else makes the same mistake if the doctor is negligent and your child dies how is
Justice served in that situation do you get to go kill the doctor's child is that revenge or is that justice do you just get a big fat check from their insurance the
Practice insurance is that how justice is served or should that doctor go to jail I think we all know intuitively that somehow we can't always
Put our finger on it but somehow the punishment has to fit the crime somehow we have to come up with systems to make that happen but somehow
The punishment has to fit the crime and oftentimes the punishment is over and above just undoing what the crime was we don't expect that a car thief will achieve
Justice when they return all of the cars they return all of the cars and then they go to jail there is a punishment over and above undoing the thing that was done I was watching a presentation recently by a guy called
Michael ramsden he's a british apologist basically means he's a dude who goes around to college campuses and conferences and stuff like that gives speeches presentations on they call it a defense of the faith
It's really just a rational explanation of why christians believe what they believe and he's at this conference and they're about to go on a break and he says during this break we're going to
Have a whiteboard out front and we want everyone to come out and write the hardest questions they can possibly come up with so write your really hard questions on the whiteboard during the break and then at some point
During the break come and vote on the question that you think is the hardest question to answer and in the following session we're going to answer the really really hard questions which is brave to volunteer to do a 40 minute speech on
A topic that the audience gets to choose but he does that they go away on the break they come back from the break and there's a tie for first place two questions that have the same number of votes everyone says these are the two
Hardest questions to answer these are the two questions number one this is the first question how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if God has sent people to hell how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if God has sent people to
Hell the second question how do you expect me to be happy in heaven if the man who sexually abused me as a child is in heaven with me don't miss this the first question is saying how can I be happy if God Judges people and sends them to
Hell the second question is saying how can I be happy if God doesn't judge people and send them to hell you see the tension between the two questions one is saying if God upholds justice and punishes
People I cannot be happy and the other is saying if God doesn't uphold justice and punish people I can't be happy the same issue is addressed in both questions but they're pulling in opposite directions on our human
Morality meter in our own sense of justice we kind of we're unhappy with either option we simultaneously want God to punish evil but we also want him to
Be loving and kind and forgiving and give people a chance I have to admit that I feel this tension as well I think our society lives in this tension all of us have some way of
Comprehending it at least in our brain we feel like it's okay for some people to make it and it's not okay for other people to make it and we draw this line it can
Be anywhere and we say these people they're good enough these people they're not and my line could be here and your line could be there and somebody else's line
Could be all the way over there and we say at this point in time people are good enough and at this point in time I'm just uncomfortable with those guys making it into
Heaven and we all draw our own little lines in the sand and we see the world through that lens these people are good enough those so that we make it and anyone worse than
Us is probably not good enough I'm uncomfortable with them being in heaven with me so we have this criteria that makes us that gives us comfort of are the people good enough and we all have our own
Little lines and every time we do that every time we put a line down and say this is the fair spot for it what we're actually doing is saying God your line isn't as good as mine my line is better I'm
Fairer than you are my idea of what's right and wrong is better than your idea of what's right and wrong we should use my line because I'm more fair than you now God has a line as well he doesn't
Use our criteria luckily if he did use our criteria if he used the criteria of who's good enough and who's bad enough then his line is all the way over here there's one dude sitting by himself over there
God's only son Jesus Christ he's good enough everybody else fails the test if God uses our criteria of who's good enough and who's bad enough luckily
He does not use that he has a line but that's not what his line looks like so what does God's line look like how does he decide who makes the cut how does justice work in God's kingdom on who
Makes it and who doesn't I think there's a good chance you've heard this a thousand times but according to the Bible according to Christianity all of humanity stands guilty before God Romans
3 23 Says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 6 23 says the wages of that sin what you earn
By that sin is death all of humanity is guilty the punishment that everyone has earned is death think back to the stadium where each
And every person's low lights reel is played on a jumbotron in front of all of humanity you get to see how evil the inside internal inclination of each person's heart is
Every evil thought every evil desire every lustful glance every flash of anger every ounce of pride every action made out of self ambition
Every cruel intention every under your breath cuss word everything happens on the big screen and each and every time you're sinning against a holy
And pure and righteous God each and every human each and every human is in their core fundamentally internally wicked everyone's the same all of humanity
Stands there right with you and it would be unfair it would be unjust of God who is the holy and perfect judge it
Would be unfair of him to look at that sin to look at that guilt and just say it doesn't matter because that's not
How justice works it would be unfair of him some kind of reparation some kind of payment is absolutely necessary to pay for that guilt to pay
For that punishment that ought to come for your sin if a jury if in our world if a jury comes back and says this man is guilty we have we have decided upon the evidence that this man is guilty and the judge comes back and says yes
I've seen the evidence he's been judged by a panel of his peers this guy's guilty but you know what I'm loving I'm compassionate I'm merciful so I'm just going to let you go please don't kidnap any more
Children or kill them there would be public outcry that is not justice that is not fair that is wrong a reasonable judge cannot just let people off for the things that they're guilty of
So what does God do Romans 5 8 and 9 it says but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore
We have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God so while we were sinners Christ died for us and he paid the penalty for our sin we were
Justified by his blood we're saved by his life we're guilty we deserve punishment he pays the penalty that's how God's mercy and his justice work together for our good at the cross because justice says
You did this now you deserve this that's how justice works we're not always the best at saying what you deserve but we know that if you did this you deserve this mercy says you did this
You deserve this but I'm going to give you this now typically mercy happens at the expense of justice typically if you poke me in the eye and I choose not to poke you back
In the eye I'm extending mercy to you and justice is not served I was ripped off that's how mercy typically works when you extend mercy to someone you do so at the
Expense of justice so does that mean that God gives up justice in order to give mercy in Christianity no he can't he must uphold justice
To be a perfect judge God looks into every single human heart and at the core of it he sees sin he sees us for who we really
Are and he says this is wrong this is not how it was supposed to be this is not how it was designed you
Are guilty you stand guilty before the king and moved out of compassion he does something about it and he does that at the
Cross that's where the penalty for sin is met that at the cross when Jesus dies on behalf of all of sinners he incurs
The wrath that sin deserves so that punishment is made on behalf of sinners but Jesus pays for it so that sinners don't have
To God doesn't exercise mercy at the expense of justice he exercises his mercy through justice at the cross we should hear that God's justice is
Coming and we should hear that he's going to judge the entire world and it should be terrifying because we should know that by
Our sin we stand guilty and deserve death and destruction but here's the game changer this is Romans 10 9 it says if you
Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved
If you put your faith in Jesus you will be rescued from the judgment that you deserve if you put your faith in Jesus
His death on the cross will pay your ransom for you when you put your faith in Jesus your name goes into his little
Black book that he checks off at the end of days to see who's in and who's out when God's justice comes there is
Hope even for the guilty if they have faith in Jesus you might not think about it this way but I think we actually
Want God's version of justice because if we were tried in our justice system where good enough makes it and bad enough doesn't then
You would have to pay the penalty for your own sin you want Jesus as your judge because in his system you don't pay
The price for your own guilt if you put your faith in him you aren't held responsible for your own penalty for the woman
Who's afraid of seeing her abuser in heaven if he's there it's because he put his faith in Jesus and God himself paid the debt
That that man deserved Jesus took the punishment if that man is unrepentant if he refuses to admit his guilt if he refuses to
Say sorry if he refuses to put his faith in Jesus then he will stand on judgment day the highlights real from his life
Will play out for everyone to see and then he will stand condemned and be judged for what he's done and in that moment
Justice will have been served but he pays his own penalty Matt's going to come back up and as we land the plane here I want
You to consider what this means for your life so this isn't just knowledge that you store in your head but this is a
Hope that you get to live the rest of your life by because it means that for Christians justice doesn't have to be served now
Justice doesn't have to be served now you we live in a world where injustice happens the guilty go free the innocent get convicted we
Live in a world where injustice happens but that's okay because as Christians we know ultimate justice comes at the end of days if
You wouldn't call yourself a Christian then my urge to you is to consider this it simply isn't enough to say I lived a
Good life I'm a good person I'm on the right side of the line all have sinned all fall short of the glory of
God and justice must be served and you get to choose do I want that justice to be served on me or am I
Willing to let Jesus take it on my behalf for Christians since we know that ultimate justice will be satisfied in Christ's return that
It's better than any human justice that his line is more fair than any line we could come up with where mercy and justice
Can both happen then we get to live in a system where we're satisfied and we're fulfilled by our faith in Christ a system where all of sin is
Paid for either by Jesus on our behalf or by those who don't call him Lord and justice will be satisfied in that the
Hope for Christians is that when you go out there and you stand before Jesus and your life is played out on a jumbotron it doesn't matter how shameful it is it doesn't matter how bad you were
It doesn't matter that the whole world sees it Jesus is going to look over into his little black book and see your name and you're going to be invited in and
Jesus has paid the penalty for you that's the hope that we have in God's justice system let's pray God we thank you that you sent Jesus to take our punishment
For us we thank you that by him our punishment can be paid and that we can be welcomed in pray that we'll put our faith in you and in your justice and that we can be satisfied that
It will come at the end of days and that we don't need it immediately that we don't need to see justice in this world immediately because you are a right judge you are a holy judge and you will judge
All of humanity equally based off of whether they have faith in Jesus not according to what they've done we praise you and we thank you for that in his name amen
Christ and Resurrection
Transcript
Good morning. We're in the third week of our glory series where we're just taking some time to look at how big and good and holy Jesus is. And today we're going to be talking about the resurrection, that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. And the way the Bible treats this is that it is central. It is the thing that everything else hangs on. It's the truth that makes all the other truths true.
And so as we begin this morning, I kind of want to tell a few stories to kind of help you picture this and how this kind of concept has played out in my life a little bit. I grew up playing football, so I want to start with fifth grade, Chet. It's a Saturday in the fall. And the Colts have made it to the Rotary Bowl. This is a big deal. This is the Super Bowl for fifth graders.
We had played three games that day, and we had made it to the Rotary Bowl. And I was a running back at this point. I would not be for the rest of my career, but I was at this point. And we were down. We're losing the Rotary Bowl. My stomach's running empty on the pancakes my dad had fed me that morning, which was always his go-to.
You're going to have to play football all day. Let's eat pancakes. I have not yet addressed this with him, but I'm not going to do that to my kids. But anyway, we have about three yards to go to score a touchdown, to win the game, and this is it. It's our last chance, last play. I don't know what the time was on the clock, but this was our last.
It was fourth down, so we're going to score here or it's going to be over with. And we ran a wishbone, and I was on this side, and Kyle McClain was right here. I'm 11, he's 10, something like that. And the play is the ball's going to be handed to Kyle. I'm going to lead block, and we've got to get three yards. Ball snapped, good snap, which in Little League, that's a feat in and of itself.
The center handed it to the quarterback. We're already off to a great start. So I take off. He hands the ball to Kyle McClain. We've got to get three yards. Let's fast forward.
Junior year of high school, second round of the playoffs. We had a pretty good team this year. It was the best team we'd had in years at our high school. We were doing pretty well, and we played Carolina Forest, second round of the playoffs. And we were used to really just beating people, and Carolina Forest is beating us. And they were a good team.
They had a tight end on that team. It was a big white boy. He's the reason why I decided, why I went into the next season 20 pounds heavier. Because I tried to tackle him, and it was like tackling a tree. And I was like, I'm going to have more momentum next year. Made that decision after a couple of plays.
It was in the first quarter. I was like, no, I'm gaining weight. This isn't happening anymore. I did that quite successfully for many years. And then I got slower in the momentum thing. It's a math problem.
It starts not working out as well. Anyway, we're down. We had a good offense this year. The defense had fought and fought and fought, and it was 24 to 21, and we had to score. We had one drive. We had about a minute and a half.
And we've got to get down the field. We had not great field position. We're starting on like the 20. And we've got to get all the way down the field, score a touchdown, stay in the playoffs, keep going. So our quarterback, Coco Hillary, drops back and streaming down the sideline is Justin Broadwater.
And this cat was fast. All he did was run fast, catch footballs, score touchdowns, and not talk. That was all he did. Like he did not say a word. Everybody on our team called him mute. Now that may be offensive.
That's just what we called him. He, because he didn't talk. He could. He just chose not to. I hadn't known him since first grade. He did not talk.
And this is what he would do when he would score a touchdown. And he scored a lot of them. He would run into the end zone. I mean, streaming. As soon as he passed the goal line, he'd do like this. He'd turn around.
He'd find the ref, toss him the ball, and walk off the field. Like nothing had happened. Everybody else loses their mind. He was just like, all right, I did. I scored a touchdown. Let me go back over here.
Streaming down the sideline. He's got a cornerback right here on his hip pocket. Coco drops back, throws the ball. I mean, beautiful spiral. Justin's got about a step on this guy. And if he catches it, he's gone.
Quentin Curry's on the other side running down this side. I'm glad Coco threw it to Justin because Quentin Curry could catch the ball in traffic all the time. But as soon as he caught it, he would just fall down. It's like it took all the energy he had to make his hands do what he wanted it to. And his legs just stopped. So he would catch the ball and fall.
So even if he caught it, there's nothing we could do. Justin Broadwater, we got a shot. Ball streaming. I can remember watching it. It's just beautiful. Lights Friday night shining on it.
It's coming down. A few years later, first year of college is our first home game. We're playing Charleston Southern. It is 13 to 14. End of the game. We're driving in.
We've got to get a field goal, which I went to Presbyterian College. We didn't have the best field goal kickers. So really, we needed a touchdown. We needed a touchdown. 13-14. We need a point.
We've got to score a touchdown. We'll win the game. Quarterback drops back. S.J. Worrell is coming across the middle. Matt and I argued about this earlier.
He said it was Chetuan Reeder. I say it was S.J. Worrell. I get to tell the story, so it's S.J. Could have been Chetuan. But anyway, coming across the middle.
Drops back. Throws the ball. Football in the air. S.J. One defender. We've got to shout at this.
It's a good pass, too. It's going to hit him right in the Numbers. Everything in all three of those plays, in those moments, everything in that game hung on that moment. Everything. Win, lose. It's hanging on that moment.
And Paul is going to tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Go ahead and grab your Bibles and go there. Paul is going to tell us 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the gospel, the truth of what Jesus has accomplished in the cross, that everything we hope in and believe in in Jesus hangs on the resurrection. That if Jesus Christ is laid in a tomb and stays there, game over. That's what Paul is going to tell us. So we're going to read a good bit to kind of get to where Paul is making this claim.
So if you're in 1 Corinthians, we're going to spend a good bit of time in 1 Corinthians today. We're actually going to walk all the way to the end of the chapter. It's a long chapter. We are going to jump ahead a little bit. If that stresses you out, I'm apologizing in advance. Take one of these Bibles with you.
It's our gift to you. Read the whole chapter when you get home. I'd love for you to. But today we're going to have to jump a little bit. But we are going to go from the very beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter as we walk through looking at the resurrection and its implications for us as Christians.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading in verse 1. God, I pray that you would help us to see the seriousness of the resurrection and the beauty that's hidden in it. How it is the truth that makes all the other truths true for us. I pray that today would be worshipful and joyous as we see that you conquered the grave. In Jesus' name. Amen.
1 Corinthians 15. 1 Paul's writing to a church in Corinth. He says, Now I would remind you, brothers, which that word is brothers or brothers and sisters. It's how that word works. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So he's saying, I want to remind you of the good news.
That's what gospel means. I want to remind you of the good news, the news I proclaimed to you, and that you believed, and that you focused your life on, and you stand in it. Verse 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter's name before Jesus gave him the name Peter.
Then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. That's a nice way of saying have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. But it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So Paul starts off by saying, I want to remind you of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
The Bible said he was going to do this. Then he rose from the grave. The Bible said he was going to do this. And then he started showing up and talking to people. It wasn't just that his body disappeared and people said, oh, he rose. His body disappeared, and then it walked over and talked to people.
And a bunch of people saw him. Some of those people are dead. Most of them are alive. That's what Paul says. And then he says, pick up in verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
So some people apparently were teaching. People don't come back from the dead. There is no resurrection. He says, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching, this message we're telling you, our preaching is in vain. And your faith is in vain.
What you've believed is a waste of time. 15. We're even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. If it is true that the dead are not raised, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. As Paul says, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave, what you believe is a waste of time. It's futile. You're still in your sins. What he's saying is that our faith, that our sin has been paid for, that we can stand before God and be made okay is based solely on the resurrection. Jesus Christ had to die for us and he had to pay the penalty.
But if he didn't rise, then he was just the guy who died. Everything hangs on the resurrection being true. Otherwise, we're still in our sin. And what we preach is in vain. It's a waste of time and people should feel sorry for us. It's a Saturday.
I'm in fifth grade wearing my green Colts jersey. I believe I was number 28 at the time. And I was in fifth grade, but I look pretty good. I'll just be real with y'all. I'm lead blocking. Kyle McClain's behind me.
They hand the ball to him. I run into the hole. Somebody comes through here, hits Kyle. He's tackled. And as much guilt and shame and pain as a fifth grader can feel, we felt. It descended on us.
We had lost the Rotary Bowl. Game over. Tears cried. Go home. It's my junior. Ball's in the air.
Cornerback reaches up. Reaches in front of Justin Broadwater's face. Flips the ball down. Game over. Go home. 24-21.
Season over. Seniors, you're done. Most of them never played football again. Tears cried. Head to the locker room. Over.
Freshman year of college. First home game. S.J. Warrell's coming across the middle. There's one defender. Ball's in the air.
It's beautiful. He's right here. He touches it. And he gets hit so hard there was a crack that rattled through the stadium. His feet flew up in the air. The ball flew up in the air.
Another defender caught the ball and took it to the house. 21-13. Game over. Go home. And that's Christianity. Without the resurrection.
Game over. Go home. Tears cried. Feel shame. Feel guilt. You're still in your sin.
Game over. Go home. And this is true. Because of what we preach. Because of what the New Testament says. Some of you who maybe would be willing to be like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Hold on a second. Hold on a second. But Jesus, if he didn't rise, we still got all this good stuff. First of all, no. We don't. You say, well, we got, you know, Jesus was a good moral teacher.
No, he wasn't. Because he walked around telling people he was God. And that he was going to die. And that he was going to rise. If he doesn't rise from the grave, he's not a good moral teacher. He's a nut.
Or a charlatan. And then you say, well, we'll never, they added that stuff later. Okay. Do you know the message of the New Testament? The gospel message. The gospels.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The point of them is they're going to tell you that Jesus healed people. They're going to tell you things he taught. But the point is he died and he rose from the grave. And because of that, God's seal is on him. What Jesus said was true.
We should believe in him and sin can be paid for. Do you know what the New Testament letters say? What we believe as Christians? This is the premise of the New Testament letters. You cannot, will not, ever fix yourself. Pay for your sin.
Be good enough. You deserve wrath. You're dead in your trespasses. You deserve for God to destroy you. But Jesus can, does save you.
Pays for your sin, which you could not do. Rises again, conquering sin, death, and hell to give you life. That's why Paul says, if this isn't true, people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how sad this gathering would be if Jesus didn't rise from the grave? Jesus doesn't rise from the grave. Christianity ends.
We're done. If he didn't rise, if you're not a Christian in here, I just want to tell you, this is the thing to investigate. If you're trying to figure out whether you want to believe in Jesus, the resurrection is the thing to investigate. So many people come at Christianity and they're like, I want to know what its stance on this political issue. No. You need to know whether or not Jesus rose from the grave.
If he rose, then talk to him about politics. Because he's alive and he can talk to you. If he didn't rise, have all whatever kind of politics you want. Have whatever kind of moral stances you want. Think of whatever. He didn't rise.
We should be done. If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, get up. Go outside. On the lobby, there's a little coffee thing. It's better now than it used to be. And hit the door.
And don't ever wake up early on a Sunday again. Unless you're going fishing or playing golf or something. Oh, if you have a kid in Kid City, get them first. That's what he says. It's futile. It's a waste.
If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the grave, it's a waste and people should feel sorry for us. Do you know how, just think back to all of our sermons, if you've been here a while. If Jesus didn't rise, do you know what our sermons are? One of our favorite passages is Ephesians chapter 2. And it says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That you were captive to the prince of the power of the air.
That you were following him, a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. And then it says, but God, who's rich in mercy. And then it declares the gospel that we've been made alive with Christ. But there wouldn't be a but God there. It would just be, we would open the Bible and say, all right, everyone. You're dead in your trespasses and sin.
You're a child of wrath. You're a slave to Satan. Potluck next week. Bye. We'd sing songs. One of my favorite Christian songs that we sing, worship songs to sing to my son is nothing but the blood.
Without the resurrection, that song is just nothing. It's the title of it. What can wash away my sin? Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again?
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing.
Nothing. Nothing. What can make me whole again? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can save my soul. Nothing can make me whole. Onward to hell we go. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. That's Christianity without the resurrection It's nothing You can still be Jewish You can still be Buddhist You can still be a Muslim Christianity hinges on this one fact Jesus Christ rose from the grave And if he didn't If he didn't We're done Look at verse
20 But in fact Christ has Been raised from the dead The first fruits Of those who have fallen asleep You see the resurrection of Jesus is not reanimation He did not come back to life To later die He rose It's resurrection That he is forever alive now That's what we believe We believe that Jesus Christ Literally Physically Physically Lived on earth That he was God Who'd become a human And that he literally Physically Died And he was buried
And then he literally Physically Rose from the grave And this is what the gospels Attest to That there's Place after place In Acts And in Matthew And Mark And Luke Where Jesus goes around People recognize him They eat with him They touch him This happens over and over In Luke 24 It happens in John 20 In Matthew 28 People grab his feet And John 24 He shows him his scars And his hands And his side
He eats fish Which I don't know If it was just to prove That he had a body Or if he wanted some fish But he ate fish He sits and eats They said that they Ate with him They talked with him They touched him Jesus Christ Risen from the grave Literally and physically He wasn't just a spirit It wasn't just that they saw a vision It wasn't that he came to him From the afterlife It's that he had life again And then he literally Physically rose Ascended into heaven That's what we believe I want to share
As we get started That that's what we believe That we believe That Jesus Christ Literally physically died And that he literally And physically rose From the grave And most of our time today Will be spent on The results of that What that actually does How that truth Makes everything else true But I just want to help us See something That there are things That we have historically And that historians agree to That help make this Seem more compelling So we have the gospel story That's what we believe That Jesus Christ died
And that he rose from the grave But there are actual Historical things That also help this Seem very plausible And I just want to share Some of those with you Because I think it's It's encouraging And helpful To see some of this Every once in a while There's a theologian His name is Gary Habermas And he One of the ways That he talks about this Is he says that there are Historical Like undeniable Historical facts That everybody agrees to That they have A lot of historical data
That points to this And then they have Christians Non-Christians Atheists Agnostics Historians of every Brand and stripe And color Agree These things happened That you can just look at history And we agree this happens And he lists them out The first one is this Jesus died by crucifixion There was a man named Jesus And we know that he died By crucifixion That's historical People believe that Nobody's really arguing that Two Very soon afterwards
His followers Had real experiences That they thought Were actual appearances Of the risen Christ Of risen Jesus So The reason why It's worded that way Historians will look back They don't agree That Jesus rose from the grave Historians aren't making that claim Because that's a They would say That's a faith claim But they'll point and go Okay The people that followed him Really did believe it That's what historians agree on They don't necessarily believe That he rose But they believe
That the people around him Actually believed it They weren't just making this up They actually believed it Third one is this Their lives The people who saw Had these experiences Were transformed as a result Even to the point Of being willing to die Specifically for their faith In the resurrection message So what we can see Historically Is that there are A group of people Who followed Jesus around We know that Jesus died And then Soon after All the people who Followed him around Started saying
He's alive And there was a large Group of people Who said No he's not Shut up And this small group Of people kept saying Yes he is You shut up It's a historical fact The church grew In the face of persecution All of these disciples Of Jesus Were actually martyred They were killed On a regular basis For proclaiming this I want to read a quote We'll leave that up there I want to read a quote From a guy named Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson Was the first guy To go to jail For the Watergate scandal He was called Nixon's hatchet man I don't know why But he sounds intense He was Nixon's hatchet man If you're not familiar With Watergate It's like Deflategate But not as big a deal Watergate was the Scandal that Nixon had Where they broke in And Into the Watergate hotel And If you've seen the movie Forrest Gump It's featured in there But they break into The Watergate hotel
Forrest Gump Tails on them And They break into The Watergate hotel And they bug it And it's the Democratic National Convention And they were just Trying to listen in And the bigger issue Is that they then Tried to cover it up They tried to hide this lie It's what eventually Led to Nixon's Resignation From the presidency Chuck Colson Was one of the guys In on that And he goes to jail And in the process Of being indicted
And going through court And all that stuff He becomes a Christian Eventually starts A prison ministry Which I think is cool That Jesus worked in that But here's what he says He says I know the resurrection Is a fact And Watergate Proved it to me How? Because twelve men Testified that they Had seen Jesus Raised from the dead Then they proclaimed That truth For forty Years Never once Denying it
Everyone was beaten Tortured Stoned And put in prison They would have not Endured that If it weren't true Watergate Embroiled twelve Of the most powerful Men in the world And they couldn't Keep alive for three weeks You're telling me That the twelve apostles Could keep alive For forty years Absolutely impossible So this was a man Who's caught up In Watergate And he says We couldn't keep it together For three weeks
And we were powerful He says This is a bunch of fishermen He said I believe the resurrection Happened I believe that they Believed it Because every single one Of them faced death For it And never Said anything else And the boldness That comes from that Is that What we find When we read The scriptures Is that we have Eyewitness testimony Telling us That Jesus Christ Rose from the grave
And every single person Who penned it Who wrote that down Who proclaimed it Believed it When Paul says I saw Jesus And he changed my life He believed it When the disciples Said it They believed it The fourth one That this He gives Is that These things Were taught Very early Soon after The crucifixion That's actually First Corinthians Three through seven
What we just read Where it says I delivered to you As of first importance And then he says That Christ died For our sins In accordance with The scriptures That he was buried That he was raised On the third day In accordance with The scriptures All the way through seven Where it says He appeared to James And then to all the apostles That actually When people who Are really smart Study this And study language They say
That's actually a creed Paul's just quoting that And that's one of the Earliest things That Christians Memorized and said To each other Jesus Christ Died for our sins Rose from the grave He appeared to these people So they began Passing that message around And memorizing that Because that's what They believed Very early on Five James Jesus' unbelieving brother Became a Christian Due to his own experience That he thought Was the resurrected Christ
So again Historians aren't going to Agree that it was They're just going to say We know historically That there was a guy Named James Who was Jesus' brother And he came out And said Jesus is God Now if you have siblings You explain to me How hard it would be For you to convince them You were God Six The Christian persecutor Paul Formerly Saul of Tarsus Also became a believer After a similar experience What we're faced with In the scriptures
Is a bunch of eyewitness accounts Saying I believe that Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And then everything In Christianity Hangs on that If he didn't rise We've got nothing But if he did We get everything That's how Christianity works Jesus Christ Rose from the grave Everything That has been Proclaimed in the gospel Is true So we're going to Take a little bit of time As we walk through First Corinthians To see four results
Of the resurrection Four ways That this Four Truths That this makes true That because of the resurrection This is now true And we can Bank on it And we can rest in it And we can hope in it Because it is now true for us Through the gospel Pick back up in verse 20 But in fact Christ has been Raised from the dead The first fruits Of those Who have fallen asleep For as by a man Came death By a man
Has come all Also the resurrection Of the dead For as in Adam All die So also In Christ Shall all Be made alive So what he's saying Is That our first father Adam sinned And death Entered the world So that in Adam Everybody dies Because of Adam We all die But in Christ All are made alive And because Jesus Rose from the grave He forever lives
And is forever able To offer his life To those who would Believe in him This is why Paul In Galatians 2 20 says I've been crucified With Christ It's no longer I who live But Christ Who lives In me And the life I now live In the flesh I live by the faith In the son of God Who loved me And gave himself For me You see Because Jesus Christ
Rose from the grave He's able to give you His life He's able to live In you Because he's not dead He's risen He's alive And so he's able To give you his life And what that means For us as Christians Because we declare Clearly You're not good enough You're not smart enough You're not going to do this You mess this up You're going to fail You are sinful And that would be Really depressing But we follow that up with But Jesus
Accomplished this For you And as you place Your faith in him Will accomplish it In you One of the reasons Our church expects So much Of each other When it comes to repentance When it comes to confession When it comes to living When it comes to generosity Is because we believe That Jesus is at work In you Our goal is not to ask you To accomplish that On your own Our goal Is to ask each other To yield to Jesus As he works
In you And we expect A whole lot Out of Jesus And we believe That he's alive In you Leading you away From sin And towards holiness But the promise Of Jesus being alive Means that you can Actually say no To sin It means that you can Actually go beyond Your own natural ability To love And to serve And to sacrifice Because it's Jesus Animating you It's Jesus
At work in you And we believe That because Jesus Is at work in you He's the one Who carries You to completion That he's going To make you Holy And blameless And above reproach Let's keep reading Pick up in verse 23 Verse 23 But each In his own order Christ The firstfruits Then at his coming Those who belong To Christ Then comes the end When he
That's Jesus Delivers the kingdom To God the Father After destroying Every rule And every authority And power For he must reign Until he puts All his enemies Under his feet The last enemy To be destroyed Is death I've said this before If you can kill death You win That's the last enemy To be destroyed Is that Jesus Destroys death That through the power Of his resurrection He forever reigns
Over death So that death No longer has Any claim Any power Anything But one of the other Truths that becomes True because of the Resurrection Is that justice Will eventually reign That Jesus will Eventually subject All authorities And all powers Under himself And this gives us Great hope And this hope Is grounded In the resurrection This gives us Great hope
As Christians That one day Jesus will judge He will be fair He will hand out Justice I read a quote From a guy Who had seen A lot of pain And death And destruction In Croatia During some of their wars And he said That when people argue That God isn't just He's not He's not going to Punish anyone He's just going to love He said The only people Who make that argument
Are the people Who have never seen Someone ride through A village Murder Rape And burn things down He said Because The only thing That keeps me From having to Pick up the sword Is knowing that Jesus Christ Picks up the sword The only way I'm actually able To forgive And offer grace Is to know that Jesus forgave And offered me grace And he promises
That one day Justice will be served That either He'll pay for it On the cross Or they'll pay For their sin But that justice Will be served Otherwise we get trapped In having to Seek revenge And retribution He says It's actually the justice Of God That gives us freedom And that justice Of God Is hanging on The resurrection I have a Two year old So I've been catching up
On all my Disney movies One of the ones I like Is Robin Hood It's got a fox And he's Robin Hood And John Prince John And this is based Off of historical stuff I don't know how True Robin Hood stuff is I know he wasn't a fox Prince John is a lion But he doesn't have a mane He sucks his thumb And he has to Poke his ears out Because he's wearing His brother's crown He has to like Poke his ears out So the crown Won't fall down
Over his head And he's Committing massive amounts Of injustice He's He's just Ruling with an iron fist And he's ruling poorly And this crown That doesn't quite fit Is a really good picture Of how poorly he rules And then at the end Of the movie King Richard The Lionheart Shows back up And he's a lion With a legit mane And the crown Fits perfectly And there's something About Jesus One day returning
Because he's resurrected One day returning To set up justice That helps us Clearly see How every authority And every government And every system Of power Has a crown That doesn't quite fit And they have to do Everything they can To try to keep it On top of their head And as injustice Is poured out On us on earth We can hold on With hope That one day Justice will roll down From the mountains And that the king
Will again ascend To the throne And he will rule Everything Because his crown Fits perfectly And that's banking On the resurrection That Jesus rose And one day Will return Let's move to Verse 45 We're jumping ahead A little bit Paul begins to talk About how the resurrection Of the dead works I'm sorry Let's move to Verse 42 I said too far He begins to talk About how the resurrection
Of the dead works And how our bodies Are raised And what that looks like And one of the Examples he gives Is that If we took a bunch Of seeds That went to Different plants And made you guess If you didn't know Much about Botany Plant science If that's what Botany means And you had to guess What the seed Would look like After you buried it His point His argument
Is most of the seeds Look the same But once they start Growing They look very different And they do Very different things And he says That's kind of the way Our resurrection Bodies are work That we all look The same right now But eventually We have to be buried We have to be sown That's the word He's going to use That we have to be buried That that seed Has to die In order for the The real thing to come And so I just want to
Explain kind of how He's saying this Because we got to We got to move We're in verse 42 So it is With the resurrection Of the dead What is sown Is perishable So he's talking About our bodies They fade They perish What is raised Is imperishable It is sown In dishonor It's raised in glory It's sown In weakness It's raised in power It's sown A natural body
It's raised A spiritual body If there is A natural body There is also A spiritual body To what Paul says Is that because Of the resurrection Of Jesus Our resurrection Is secured And this Is A beautiful hope That we have In Christ Because he says Our bodies They're going to be Laid down in weakness They're going to be Laid down in dishonor They're going to perish
They're going to give out They're going to fail They're going to fall short That when Jesus Was walking around on earth And he was healing The blind And he was healing The sick And he was He was letting Paralytics walk again He was accomplishing In them Something that was Going to ultimately Make him have to Go to the cross That he was Pre-working Some of the Resurrection Some of the Paying for sin
That he was Eventually going to do On the cross That Jesus Christ Re-gives us a life And that this hope For us Is in the resurrection That all weakness And sickness And disease And fear And depression And mental illness And persistent sin All those things That make it hard To wake up in the morning Or that follow us Around like a cloud For those of you Who struggle with Depression And someone will ask you
How are you doing And you answer Okay I think And the reason is You feel okay But you've learned Not to trust yourself Because you You don't know If you feel okay Because you're actually okay Or because you've just So untethered yourself From everything You just don't care And you just don't love anymore Those of you Who struggle with Mental illness Can't trust your brain Can't trust yourself Can't be alone With yourself
Have to have people That you're ready to call At a moment's notice When things turn Really dark for you For every single person Who you know Or if it's you That sat in a room And didn't want to Have the sunlight come in And didn't want to Talk to a human And wanted to sleep For 12 hours a day 15 hours a day Didn't want to do Any of the things That would lead to joy And health and life The promise of the resurrection Is that what's sown In weakness Will be raised in power
What's perishable And failing Will become imperishable For every single one of us Who've watched A loved one Slowly fade They get smaller Every time we see Their mind Their mind doesn't Quite work Like it used to Maybe they've begun To have erratic emotions Or they're lashing out Or they're saying things That they never would have said Every single one of us That has to watch A loved one Battle And battle And battle
Cancer Just to lose The hope The hope found In the resurrection Is that what's weak Rises in power And what's perishable Rises imperishable And what's sown In dishonor Rises in glory For every single one of us Who've received a phone call And from that moment on Life changed You have your life Pre phone call And you have your life Post phone call The promise for Christians Is that when we gather At a funeral To mourn
A saint Someone who's Placed their faith In Jesus That we gather As a group of people Who are heartbroken And who hurt Because of the loved one We've lost But we don't gather Without hope Because we have a king Who once had a group Of friends Gather around the tomb Heartbroken And hurting And then he came Walking out And the hope for us Because of that risen king Is that we will rise Our resurrection
Is secure And that all fear And guilt And shame And sin That we can't seem To beat That you've fought For your entire life That you've begged God To release you from That you've asked And pleaded And it's come to the point Where you've begun to think This is going to be With me Forever Every single person Who has a sin battle That is good for a little while And then comes Rearing its ugly head
The promise is That you're weak And you're dishonorable And you're perishable But Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And there will one day Be power An imperishable body And glory Because our God Didn't stay dead The resurrection of Jesus Gives us hope In a glorious Future resurrection That we can hold tightly to In the midst of everything We face now Verse 53 For this perishable body Must put on the imperishable And this mortal body Must put on the
On immortality When the perishable Puts on the imperishable And the mortal Puts on immortality Then shall come to pass The saying that is written He's quoting Isaiah Death is swallowed up In victory Oh death Where is your victory Oh death Where is your sting The sting Of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ
All right I want to explain Verse 56 for us quickly The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law So he says The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law Okay so the law Is the right rules That God gives That he speaks Into the world And says this is how You ought to live Once those rules Came in You became
Excessively Sinful I'll give you an example Of this My son Gets spanked On a regular basis At my house Because my house Has rules Don't touch that Put that down No You can't have Four popsicles When he goes to His grandmother's house And I say How did he do She says He was great What she means is I never said no There is no power
Of the law At her house Not at least The way it is At my house The power Of the law The power Of sin Is the law What makes Your sin Evident And present And clear Is the law Is the Your sin Is the law So I look at my son And say Don't do that Suddenly there is A law
That he can now Show Clearly and evidently How sinful he is As he looks at me Judges the distance Between us And decides I can do it About three times Before he gets here That was him At about nine months On an outlet Don't touch that Looked at me But the law Showed his sinfulness So what Paul's saying Is that the power of sin Is in the law That all of the things That God said This is how you ought to live
They just show us How much sin Is at work In us For people who think People aren't that sinful It's because they've never Really tried Try to be really gracious And generous And caring And kind And considerate And loving Try that for a really long time Try to be moral For a long time What you'll get Is guilt and shame Or you'll convince yourself There is no God Because you'll never Live up to that And then he says
The sting of death Is sin Death came into the world Because of sin And it's painful Because of sin Death has a sting to it Because we die In our sin That we stand before God In our sin But he says The sting of death Is sin And the power of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us The victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ If you are in Jesus The law has no claim on you Sin has been paid
And there will be no sting In death Where is your victory? Death Where is your sting? It does not exist For the Christian Because the moment You take your last breath You take your next first one Into eternity When you stand before a king Made holy And blameless And righteous Because Jesus Christ Died for your sin And rose To give you his life And we follow after him He's the firstborn Among the dead And we rise To be resurrected
To glory As all of those Who follow after him As brothers and sisters Made righteous Through Jesus There is no sting In death For a Christian There is no victory Of death Death Will claim us Once And when we go Through death We can look back At it and say Jesus is coming I've read about Your end You see You killed him once And he rose forever
And one day He's calling your number Death And you'll never Claim anyone again Because sin No longer has power Because Jesus Upheld the law For me But if Jesus Didn't rise We've got nothing If Jesus Christ Just died He does not Conquer death He does not Fulfill the law He does not Pay for our sin Death has a sting Sin claims us And the law
Accuses us But we're told That we have one Who stands before The throne of God And who has Disarmed the enemy That sin no longer Has a claim That the law Can no longer Accus us And that when we die We're ushered Into glory Where we're met By a God Who loves us Because he loves us In Jesus Jesus' resurrection life Is alive in you Now Justice will be served
You have the hope Of a future resurrection And victory Is already yours In Christ Those are true If you have placed Your faith In Jesus They're true What do we do With that How does Paul Tell us to respond Matt and Bianca Are going to come up here As we kind of Finish this out This morning Here's what Paul says Is the response For us In Christ Who have
Believed on him For salvation Not just Know that this Happened But actually Believe That he Paid the penalty Of our sin We've trusted in him We've placed our faith In him He says all of this About the resurrection He says all of this About the victory That we have in Christ And then in verse 58 He says Therefore Which just means Because all of this Is true
Therefore my beloved Brothers Be Steadfast Immovable Always Abounding In the work Of the Lord Knowing that In the Lord Your labor Is not In vain Paul's conclusion To this Is don't Go anywhere Don't Go anywhere Be Steadfast Those of you Who are
Tired Those of you Who are Doubting Your hope Is in The resurrection Of Jesus Don't shift To something else Those of you Who have begun To ask the question Am I good enough You've already Moved That was never Your hope To be good enough To be holy enough To be To do enough Your hope Is in
The resurrection Of Jesus Stay There Be steadfast Immovable And then he says Keep working Every bit Of every ounce Of sweat And blood And tears And sacrifice Every penny Spent Because there's A resurrection Because there's A future home Because this life Isn't all we get It's worth it Don't stop
Don't take Your boots Off Don't clock Out Keep working Don't go Anywhere Keep working Let's pray Father I pray That the Reality And the power Of the resurrection Would sink So deeply Into our soul To be the Foundation for Everything for Us And I pray The Lord
That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's
It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's Ill It's It's It's
And going through court And all that stuff He becomes a Christian Eventually starts A prison ministry Which I think is cool That Jesus worked in that But here's what he says He says I know the resurrection Is a fact And Watergate Proved it to me How? Because twelve men Testified that they Had seen Jesus Raised from the dead Then they proclaimed That truth For forty Years Never once Denying it
Everyone was beaten Tortured Stoned And put in prison They would have not Endured that If it weren't true Watergate Embroiled twelve Of the most powerful Men in the world And they couldn't Keep alive for three weeks You're telling me That the twelve apostles Could keep alive For forty years Absolutely impossible So this was a man Who's caught up In Watergate And he says We couldn't keep it together For three weeks
And we were powerful He says This is a bunch of fishermen He said I believe the resurrection Happened I believe that they Believed it Because every single one Of them faced death For it And never Said anything else And the boldness That comes from that Is that What we find When we read The scriptures Is that we have Eyewitness testimony Telling us That Jesus Christ Rose from the grave
And every single person Who penned it Who wrote that down Who proclaimed it Believed it When Paul says I saw Jesus And he changed my life He believed it When the disciples Said it They believed it The fourth one That this He gives Is that These things Were taught Very early Soon after The crucifixion That's actually First Corinthians Three through seven
What we just read Where it says I delivered to you As of first importance And then he says That Christ died For our sins In accordance with The scriptures That he was buried That he was raised On the third day In accordance with The scriptures All the way through seven Where it says He appeared to James And then to all the apostles That actually When people who Are really smart Study this And study language They say
That's actually a creed Paul's just quoting that And that's one of the Earliest things That Christians Memorized and said To each other Jesus Christ Died for our sins Rose from the grave He appeared to these people So they began Passing that message around And memorizing that Because that's what They believed Very early on Five James Jesus' unbelieving brother Became a Christian Due to his own experience That he thought Was the resurrected Christ
So again Historians aren't going to Agree that it was They're just going to say We know historically That there was a guy Named James Who was Jesus' brother And he came out And said Jesus is God Now if you have siblings You explain to me How hard it would be For you to convince them You were God Six The Christian persecutor Paul Formerly Saul of Tarsus Also became a believer After a similar experience What we're faced with In the scriptures
Is a bunch of eyewitness accounts Saying I believe that Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And then everything In Christianity Hangs on that If he didn't rise We've got nothing But if he did We get everything That's how Christianity works Jesus Christ Rose from the grave Everything That has been Proclaimed in the gospel Is true So we're going to Take a little bit of time As we walk through First Corinthians To see four results
Of the resurrection Four ways That this Four Truths That this makes true That because of the resurrection This is now true And we can Bank on it And we can rest in it And we can hope in it Because it is now true for us Through the gospel Pick back up in verse 20 But in fact Christ has been Raised from the dead The first fruits Of those Who have fallen asleep For as by a man Came death By a man
Has come all Also the resurrection Of the dead For as in Adam All die So also In Christ Shall all Be made alive So what he's saying Is That our first father Adam sinned And death Entered the world So that in Adam Everybody dies Because of Adam We all die But in Christ All are made alive And because Jesus Rose from the grave He forever lives
And is forever able To offer his life To those who would Believe in him This is why Paul In Galatians 2 20 says I've been crucified With Christ It's no longer I who live But Christ Who lives In me And the life I now live In the flesh I live by the faith In the son of God Who loved me And gave himself For me You see Because Jesus Christ
Rose from the grave He's able to give you His life He's able to live In you Because he's not dead He's risen He's alive And so he's able To give you his life And what that means For us as Christians Because we declare Clearly You're not good enough You're not smart enough You're not going to do this You mess this up You're going to fail You are sinful And that would be Really depressing But we follow that up with But Jesus
Accomplished this For you And as you place Your faith in him Will accomplish it In you One of the reasons Our church expects So much Of each other When it comes to repentance When it comes to confession When it comes to living When it comes to generosity Is because we believe That Jesus is at work In you Our goal is not to ask you To accomplish that On your own Our goal Is to ask each other To yield to Jesus As he works
In you And we expect A whole lot Out of Jesus And we believe That he's alive In you Leading you away From sin And towards holiness But the promise Of Jesus being alive Means that you can Actually say no To sin It means that you can Actually go beyond Your own natural ability To love And to serve And to sacrifice Because it's Jesus Animating you It's Jesus
At work in you And we believe That because Jesus Is at work in you He's the one Who carries You to completion That he's going To make you Holy And blameless And above reproach Let's keep reading Pick up in verse 23 Verse 23 But each In his own order Christ The firstfruits Then at his coming Those who belong To Christ Then comes the end When he
That's Jesus Delivers the kingdom To God the Father After destroying Every rule And every authority And power For he must reign Until he puts All his enemies Under his feet The last enemy To be destroyed Is death I've said this before If you can kill death You win That's the last enemy To be destroyed Is that Jesus Destroys death That through the power Of his resurrection He forever reigns
Over death So that death No longer has Any claim Any power Anything But one of the other Truths that becomes True because of the Resurrection Is that justice Will eventually reign That Jesus will Eventually subject All authorities And all powers Under himself And this gives us Great hope And this hope Is grounded In the resurrection This gives us Great hope
As Christians That one day Jesus will judge He will be fair He will hand out Justice I read a quote From a guy Who had seen A lot of pain And death And destruction In Croatia During some of their wars And he said That when people argue That God isn't just He's not He's not going to Punish anyone He's just going to love He said The only people Who make that argument
Are the people Who have never seen Someone ride through A village Murder Rape And burn things down He said Because The only thing That keeps me From having to Pick up the sword Is knowing that Jesus Christ Picks up the sword The only way I'm actually able To forgive And offer grace Is to know that Jesus forgave And offered me grace And he promises
That one day Justice will be served That either He'll pay for it On the cross Or they'll pay For their sin But that justice Will be served Otherwise we get trapped In having to Seek revenge And retribution He says It's actually the justice Of God That gives us freedom And that justice Of God Is hanging on The resurrection I have a Two year old So I've been catching up
On all my Disney movies One of the ones I like Is Robin Hood It's got a fox And he's Robin Hood And John Prince John And this is based Off of historical stuff I don't know how True Robin Hood stuff is I know he wasn't a fox Prince John is a lion But he doesn't have a mane He sucks his thumb And he has to Poke his ears out Because he's wearing His brother's crown He has to like Poke his ears out So the crown Won't fall down
Over his head And he's Committing massive amounts Of injustice He's He's just Ruling with an iron fist And he's ruling poorly And this crown That doesn't quite fit Is a really good picture Of how poorly he rules And then at the end Of the movie King Richard The Lionheart Shows back up And he's a lion With a legit mane And the crown Fits perfectly And there's something About Jesus One day returning
Because he's resurrected One day returning To set up justice That helps us Clearly see How every authority And every government And every system Of power Has a crown That doesn't quite fit And they have to do Everything they can To try to keep it On top of their head And as injustice Is poured out On us on earth We can hold on With hope That one day Justice will roll down From the mountains And that the king
Will again ascend To the throne And he will rule Everything Because his crown Fits perfectly And that's banking On the resurrection That Jesus rose And one day Will return Let's move to Verse 45 We're jumping ahead A little bit Paul begins to talk About how the resurrection Of the dead works I'm sorry Let's move to Verse 42 I said too far He begins to talk About how the resurrection
Of the dead works And how our bodies Are raised And what that looks like And one of the Examples he gives Is that If we took a bunch Of seeds That went to Different plants And made you guess If you didn't know Much about Botany Plant science If that's what Botany means And you had to guess What the seed Would look like After you buried it His point His argument
Is most of the seeds Look the same But once they start Growing They look very different And they do Very different things And he says That's kind of the way Our resurrection Bodies are work That we all look The same right now But eventually We have to be buried We have to be sown That's the word He's going to use That we have to be buried That that seed Has to die In order for the The real thing to come And so I just want to
Explain kind of how He's saying this Because we got to We got to move We're in verse 42 So it is With the resurrection Of the dead What is sown Is perishable So he's talking About our bodies They fade They perish What is raised Is imperishable It is sown In dishonor It's raised in glory It's sown In weakness It's raised in power It's sown A natural body
It's raised A spiritual body If there is A natural body There is also A spiritual body To what Paul says Is that because Of the resurrection Of Jesus Our resurrection Is secured And this Is A beautiful hope That we have In Christ Because he says Our bodies They're going to be Laid down in weakness They're going to be Laid down in dishonor They're going to perish
They're going to give out They're going to fail They're going to fall short That when Jesus Was walking around on earth And he was healing The blind And he was healing The sick And he was He was letting Paralytics walk again He was accomplishing In them Something that was Going to ultimately Make him have to Go to the cross That he was Pre-working Some of the Resurrection Some of the Paying for sin
That he was Eventually going to do On the cross That Jesus Christ Re-gives us a life And that this hope For us Is in the resurrection That all weakness And sickness And disease And fear And depression And mental illness And persistent sin All those things That make it hard To wake up in the morning Or that follow us Around like a cloud For those of you Who struggle with Depression And someone will ask you
How are you doing And you answer Okay I think And the reason is You feel okay But you've learned Not to trust yourself Because you You don't know If you feel okay Because you're actually okay Or because you've just So untethered yourself From everything You just don't care And you just don't love anymore Those of you Who struggle with Mental illness Can't trust your brain Can't trust yourself Can't be alone With yourself
Have to have people That you're ready to call At a moment's notice When things turn Really dark for you For every single person Who you know Or if it's you That sat in a room And didn't want to Have the sunlight come in And didn't want to Talk to a human And wanted to sleep For 12 hours a day 15 hours a day Didn't want to do Any of the things That would lead to joy And health and life The promise of the resurrection Is that what's sown In weakness Will be raised in power
What's perishable And failing Will become imperishable For every single one of us Who've watched A loved one Slowly fade They get smaller Every time we see Their mind Their mind doesn't Quite work Like it used to Maybe they've begun To have erratic emotions Or they're lashing out Or they're saying things That they never would have said Every single one of us That has to watch A loved one Battle And battle And battle
Cancer Just to lose The hope The hope found In the resurrection Is that what's weak Rises in power And what's perishable Rises imperishable And what's sown In dishonor Rises in glory For every single one of us Who've received a phone call And from that moment on Life changed You have your life Pre phone call And you have your life Post phone call The promise for Christians Is that when we gather At a funeral To mourn
A saint Someone who's Placed their faith In Jesus That we gather As a group of people Who are heartbroken And who hurt Because of the loved one We've lost But we don't gather Without hope Because we have a king Who once had a group Of friends Gather around the tomb Heartbroken And hurting And then he came Walking out And the hope for us Because of that risen king Is that we will rise Our resurrection
Is secure And that all fear And guilt And shame And sin That we can't seem To beat That you've fought For your entire life That you've begged God To release you from That you've asked And pleaded And it's come to the point Where you've begun to think This is going to be With me Forever Every single person Who has a sin battle That is good for a little while And then comes Rearing its ugly head
The promise is That you're weak And you're dishonorable And you're perishable But Jesus Christ Rose from the grave And there will one day Be power An imperishable body And glory Because our God Didn't stay dead The resurrection of Jesus Gives us hope In a glorious Future resurrection That we can hold tightly to In the midst of everything We face now Verse 53 For this perishable body Must put on the imperishable And this mortal body Must put on the
On immortality When the perishable Puts on the imperishable And the mortal Puts on immortality Then shall come to pass The saying that is written He's quoting Isaiah Death is swallowed up In victory Oh death Where is your victory Oh death Where is your sting The sting Of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ
All right I want to explain Verse 56 for us quickly The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law So he says The sting of death Is sin And the power Of sin Is the law Okay so the law Is the right rules That God gives That he speaks Into the world And says this is how You ought to live Once those rules Came in You became
Excessively Sinful I'll give you an example Of this My son Gets spanked On a regular basis At my house Because my house Has rules Don't touch that Put that down No You can't have Four popsicles When he goes to His grandmother's house And I say How did he do She says He was great What she means is I never said no There is no power
Of the law At her house Not at least The way it is At my house The power Of the law The power Of sin Is the law What makes Your sin Evident And present And clear Is the law Is the Your sin Is the law So I look at my son And say Don't do that Suddenly there is A law
That he can now Show Clearly and evidently How sinful he is As he looks at me Judges the distance Between us And decides I can do it About three times Before he gets here That was him At about nine months On an outlet Don't touch that Looked at me But the law Showed his sinfulness So what Paul's saying Is that the power of sin Is in the law That all of the things That God said This is how you ought to live
They just show us How much sin Is at work In us For people who think People aren't that sinful It's because they've never Really tried Try to be really gracious And generous And caring And kind And considerate And loving Try that for a really long time Try to be moral For a long time What you'll get Is guilt and shame Or you'll convince yourself There is no God Because you'll never Live up to that And then he says
The sting of death Is sin Death came into the world Because of sin And it's painful Because of sin Death has a sting to it Because we die In our sin That we stand before God In our sin But he says The sting of death Is sin And the power of sin Is the law But thanks be to God Who gives us The victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ If you are in Jesus The law has no claim on you Sin has been paid
And there will be no sting In death Where is your victory? Death Where is your sting? It does not exist For the Christian Because the moment You take your last breath You take your next first one Into eternity When you stand before a king Made holy And blameless And righteous Because Jesus Christ Died for your sin And rose To give you his life And we follow after him He's the firstborn Among the dead And we rise To be resurrected
To glory As all of those Who follow after him As brothers and sisters Made righteous Through Jesus There is no sting In death For a Christian There is no victory Of death Death Will claim us Once And when we go Through death We can look back At it and say Jesus is coming I've read about Your end You see You killed him once And he rose forever
And one day He's calling your number Death And you'll never Claim anyone again Because sin No longer has power Because Jesus Upheld the law For me But if Jesus Didn't rise We've got nothing If Jesus Christ Just died He does not Conquer death He does not Fulfill the law He does not Pay for our sin Death has a sting Sin claims us And the law
Accuses us But we're told That we have one Who stands before The throne of God And who has Disarmed the enemy That sin no longer Has a claim That the law Can no longer Accus us And that when we die We're ushered Into glory Where we're met By a God Who loves us Because he loves us In Jesus Jesus' resurrection life Is alive in you Now Justice will be served
You have the hope Of a future resurrection And victory Is already yours In Christ Those are true If you have placed Your faith In Jesus They're true What do we do With that How does Paul Tell us to respond Matt and Bianca Are going to come up here As we kind of Finish this out This morning Here's what Paul says Is the response For us In Christ Who have
Believed on him For salvation Not just Know that this Happened But actually Believe That he Paid the penalty Of our sin We've trusted in him We've placed our faith In him He says all of this About the resurrection He says all of this About the victory That we have in Christ And then in verse 58 He says Therefore Which just means Because all of this Is true
Therefore my beloved Brothers Be Steadfast Immovable Always Abounding In the work Of the Lord Knowing that In the Lord Your labor Is not In vain Paul's conclusion To this Is don't Go anywhere Don't Go anywhere Be Steadfast Those of you Who are
Tired Those of you Who are Doubting Your hope Is in The resurrection Of Jesus Don't shift To something else Those of you Who have begun To ask the question Am I good enough You've already Moved That was never Your hope To be good enough To be holy enough To be To do enough Your hope Is in
The resurrection Of Jesus Stay There Be steadfast Immovable And then he says Keep working Every bit Of every ounce Of sweat And blood And tears And sacrifice Every penny Spent Because there's A resurrection Because there's A future home Because this life Isn't all we get It's worth it Don't stop
Don't take Your boots Off Don't clock Out Keep working Don't go Anywhere Keep working Let's pray Father I pray That the Reality And the power Of the resurrection Would sink So deeply Into our soul To be the Foundation for Everything for Us And I pray The Lord
That through Your spirit Alive in Us That we Would keep Working That we Would be Steadfast Immovable And always Abounding In your work In your name Amen It's It's It's It's It's It's It I'm It's
It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's It's Ill It's It's It's
Atonement
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. This morning we're going to be talking about sin. Happy Father's Day. We are, though.
We're in our second week of our Glory Series, and we're talking about how big and glorious and magnificent and beautiful and holy Jesus is. And last week we specifically spent some time looking at that He is the image of the invisible God, that He's the radiance of God's glory, and that He exists over and above all of creation, from the smallest thing to the greatest thing, and that He is most glorious and most worthy of worship. And today we're going to spend some time talking about the atonement. We're going to spend a little time talking about this concept of atonement whereby God takes sinful humans and develops a system, makes a plan to make them okay with Himself, to bridge the gap between His holiness and our sins.
So in a minute we're going to turn to Leviticus. I want us to start here, though, and we'll have this on the screen. It's Hebrews 1, verse 3, and in a second that's going to get brighter. We're having some issues with the projector today. So it says, He is the radiance of the glory of God.
It's talking about Jesus. That Jesus is the glory of the glory. He's the beauty of God's glory. He's the light and the heat from it. He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. That if we want to know what God is like, we look to Jesus.
And He upholds the universe by the word of His power. So if you only think of Jesus as a Galilean peasant who holds sheep and cries and is just having conversations with the weak and the poor, He does these things. I don't know if He holds sheep. I'm just assuming maybe at some point He did. He does in all the pictures you see in Sunday school. But He does weep.
He does bend to those who are weak and poor and hungry and needy. And He does spend time. But if that's your only picture of Him, your picture of Jesus is underwhelming. It is petite. It's cute compared to the true magnificent Christ that we meet in Scripture who upholds the universe by the word of His power. Now I know that the Bible says that and I understand what the words mean, but I actually have no clue how that works.
But it means that Jesus rules and reigns over everything. And then it says this, After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So what it's saying is that after Jesus Christ died for sin, that's what He did on the cross, that's what people know about Jesus. If you don't know much about Jesus, people will say, well, He died for our sins. People who don't even believe that will say that. What did Jesus do?
He died for our sins. So what we're going to talk about today is what does that mean? That Jesus Christ had to make purification for sin. First, we see from that three words, purification for sins, we see that sin exists and it needs to be cleaned up. It needs to be taken care of and that Jesus does that. That's what atonement is, is that there is sin.
Objectively, it exists. It has marred. It has destroyed. It has sullied. It has dirtied. And Jesus purifies.
So first, very simply, what is sin? In a simple definition, sin is the rejection of God's good reign in the world. It is our action, attitude, and nature that intentionally and unintentionally rebels against God and His moral law in the world. That God is the creator, that He oversees the universe, and that we rebel against His law, His rule, His reign, His system. That we break His laws. Paul says this in Romans.
He says that the Jewish people who were given the law of God will be judged based off of the law they were given. And then he says in the non-Jewish people, that their conscience actually bears witness and that they show through their actions that what the law requires is written on their hearts. That they actually have a conscience imprinted in them. And this is why many of the cultures that have grown up in society, they have very similar systems for what right is and what wrong is. That stealing is wrong. That murder is wrong.
There's this kind of internal policing of... This is why when you do some sort of an action, you feel it. You feel bad. You feel wrong. That's what he's saying, is that those who were given the law will be judged by the law. And those who weren't given the law, the non-Jewish peoples, show that it's written into them.
But it's not just a failure. Sin is not just a failure to live up to God's moral code. It's also primarily, it begins with a failure to relate to God properly, to appreciate who he is, to worship him, to love him, to bend to his reign, to submit to his rule. It's this... Paul says in the beginning of Romans that all of our sins starts with us loving something, worshiping something more than God. That once God leaves his rightful place, as the most...
That's what we spent time talking about last week, that Jesus is the most worthy of our devotion and our love. But once God gets moved and you put something else there, romance, finances, power, prestige, anything you get stuck up there suddenly begins to bend us. We begin to love it too much and it leads us into sin so that at first, sin is not just a breaking of rules, but it's at first worshiping and loving something other than God that leads to us rejecting his rules and running from him. Augustine says that sin is disordered love. Augustine's an African church leader in the early church. He says it's a disordered love that we love something too much.
We love ourselves too much. We love our families too much. We love something other than God. It's moved from its rightful place. And you can see this in simple things. So if you imagine a home where it's Father's Day, so we'll use this for an example.
You imagine a home where there's a father, a mother, some children and there's supposed to be an amount of love that goes towards this. The husband's supposed to love his wife and his children in a way that makes the rest of everything else fall into place. But if he begins to love work more, suddenly his love is greater for his job or greater for his title or if his love is greater for money or even just his own personal satisfaction and rest, suddenly everything gets out of order. And that's the system that we have in the world where we've begun to love things more than God and the whole system has begun to break down.
Paul says in Romans 3, he says, None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.
No one does good, not even one. The biblical stance on sin is that it is bad and you are a sinner. That's where we're starting this morning. I'm going to pray and we're going to jump into in just a second, and we're going to be going to talk about what sin actually does and how it's bad. But before we do that, we have to realize that naturally we don't want to think of ourselves as sinful.
You give yourself the benefit of the doubt. You judge other people by their actions, but you judge yourself by your intentions. It's one of the things like my wife will say, you know, you really hurt my feelings. And my response is, well, I didn't mean to. And I feel like that's a perfectly good response. That was not my intention.
And maybe that's helpful. I wasn't malicious, but I still caused harm. I still broke our relationship down. It's like, well, that wasn't what I was going for. And that's why people, you know, when someone, you tell somebody they did something wrong and they, well, I'm sorry that it offended you. And you immediately want to be like, time out.
That's not an apology. What you just like, like it's really looking at someone and going, well, I'm sorry that you're too sensitive to handle being around me. We don't want to think of ourselves as sinful, but we are. And we need God's help for us to see ourselves as he sees us and for us to see him as we ought. And so let's take just a second and pray for ourselves. Wherever you are, just ask God to help you see that this morning as we look into this.
God, I pray that you would give us a glimpse into our sin, into what it does to us and to others, as you'd help us to see your holiness and that we would leave here today with a true appreciation for what you've accomplished through the cross on our behalf. In Jesus' name, amen. I have three pictures, three reasons, three truths I want to talk about sin to help us see what it does and how the Bible talks about it. One of the ways the Bible talks about sin is that it pollutes or it defiles, that a whole land can be polluted, can be defiled by sin. So first thing is that our sin destroys God's good world.
Before we can get into talking about the system that God has for taking care of sin, we've got to understand a little bit more about sin. So our sin destroys God's good world. I had a friend of mine that was a, she was a student youth group leader and she was a good cook and one of her students is actually here today and I just ran into her and now I'm going to have to really make sure this story is told true and accurately because it's based off of how I remember her telling it to me. But she made brownies for her entire like student group and so she was a good cook. She made brownies. Everybody was just chowing down on these brownies while they were hanging out before they were going to kind of do their study time and then she kind of called everybody up and she starts teaching from the Bible and she says, okay, sin pollutes, it defiles, it creeps in and it works its way into everything and she says, and that's what sin does in us and some of us like to minimize and act like just a little bit of sin is okay and she goes, in order to help us see this, I have a confession.
As I was making those brownies, using my same recipe as normal, I just added one ingredient. I went out of my backyard where my dog lives and I got a small helping sample really, just a little bit of dog poop and I mixed it in with the brownies. Now immediately, they did not take it well. close to anarchy very quickly with people like hyperventilating and very frustrated and some of you are thinking, there's no way that anybody would ever do this. I will tell you that this certain lady has lived a life in such a way that this is plausible and she said, it was just a little bit, it was just a little bit, it was hardly any at all, really, it was just a tiny little bit and people are like, you made us eat poop brownies and she's like, no, they're not poop brownies, they're brownies with a little bit of poop.
It's completely different and so the question, when it comes to sin, when it comes to brownies, the vouchers will ask about brownies, what's the minimum acceptable amount of poop? What's the maximum acceptable amount maybe? What's the range here when it comes to your brownies and poop? And the answer is zero poop. None. None whatsoever.
I don't care if it was really a sprinkle. It's like, why would you add that to brownies? Absolutely not. And this is what God says that sin does, that it immediately defiles, that it works its way into everything because if you told me I have brownies that are 98% brownies and 2% poop, I would say those are poop brownies. Those are not, they are no longer edible. This is not a good brownie batter system recipe.
Throw it away. This is terrible. That's what God says sin does. That it works its way into the world that a little bit of it begins to destroy everything. I have another picture of this. One of our pastors became a pastor.
We ordained him in January of this year. He has a gluten allergy, celiac disease. It's kind of aggressive in the way he has. I know some of y'all have gluten issues. He's got significant gluten issues. And I don't know much about gluten.
I don't know the science behind it. From what I understand, it's the thing that makes all food taste good. And so like when I eat a biscuit, all the biscuits I've eaten over my lifetime are slowly working together to try to kill me. If he eats a biscuit, it goes immediately and tries to kill him. That one biscuit just right then tries to kill him. And so we were eating a meal.
He had some soup. I was there. Our other pastor, Matt Freeman, was there. And Matt Freeman, because no one ever really taught him basic social norms, does what he will do from time to time, which is while you're eating with him, he will just eat some of your food. And so Matt's sitting there talking to Raz. Raz is eating his soup and Matt takes a saltine cracker and just dips it in Raz's soup, scrapes some up, and just starts eating.
And Raz looks appalled as any normal human should. But then over and above was just staring at Matt like, what on earth? And I was like, what? I'm just like, I didn't even pick up on the gluten thing. I was just like, you ate his food, dude, stop. Like, but Raz goes, I can't eat my soup now because you defiled it with gluten.
It was like, it wasn't just breaking social norms. It was attempted murder. And sin does that. It enters in. This is what God tells us about sin and creation. It enters in and it begins to erode.
It begins to corrode. It begins to destroy everything. Let me give you an example. In real life, you'll have someone talking to you and they'll tell you something. They'll tell you a story about their life or something they did or they'll tell you some sort of an event and there's this moment in you where you go, mmm, nah. You just have this, I don't think that's true.
Or someone maybe comes and they start complimenting you and they start saying nice things and there's this moment in your soul where you go, mmm, this is starting to feel a little bit like you're trying to trick me. You have nothing really to base this off of in this conversation other than the fact that you know lies exist. You've been told lies before and you've told lies before. You've been manipulated before and you've manipulated before and so what happens is this relationship is already being torn apart by things that have happened in other situations. It's quite possible that that is the exact truth.
When people tell me things, my natural reaction is, no, okay, probably not. And maybe I'm way too pessimistic. People complain to me that I am. But it's because sin has worked its way into relationships before I even meet somebody. my child has never been abducted. But when we go to a playground, we are less free because other children that we do not know and have no relationship to whatsoever have been.
And that instance that had nothing to do with us where nothing was taken from me has worked its way into my life so that it is now breaking down how life should look for us. that's why we have to take our shoes off when we go to an airport. It's because sin in other areas has begun to work its way in and this is what sin does. You've been manipulated so you treat everyone like they may do that. It begins to work its way into the world. Our sin destroys God's good world. And the issue in the Bible is that how is God going to get rid of sin without getting rid of us?
Because it's in us. For lack of a better example we're all poop brownies. It's infected us and God has to get sin out without destroying us if he's going to keep us. Secondly in our sin we have joined God's enemy. The story of the Bible is that God has an enemy in Satan who is an angelic being who led a rebellion and that in the Garden of Eden he continued that rebellion as he recruited humanity to join his side and to actively reject God's good rule and reign. And when we sin it is not a benign action but it is the willful rebellion of God's creation against him.
And in our sin we have joined the enemy in the same way that someone who grows up in our nation can join ISIS carry out and carry out an attack claim allegiance to ISIS and ISIS will step in and say yes they were on our team. That is us in our sin when we reject God we join the cause of the enemy to sow dissension and pain in the world. And this happens through our selfishness this happens through our racism this happens through our lies that we tell this happens in every way possible that we choose to sin we actively join God's enemy. Thirdly God is eternal in size glory worth and majesty he is eternal in size glory worth and majesty so that read earlier that he rules the world holds it together by his word of his power and that he sat down at the right hand of majesty that God is infinitely glorious and that all of our sin is first and foremost against him.
This is what David says after he commits adultery and murder he begins praying to God by saying I've sinned only against you because that's who our sin is first and foremost against. So we know that our actions carry consequences of greater weight depending on the object that we carry out our actions against. It sounds complicated it's not. If I take a sheet of white paper ball it up and throw it away I should not have done that. I just wasted paper. But if you had just drawn a picture on it or my son had just brought it to me from Kid City with a little picture on it and I'd balled it up in front of him and threw it away that's worse because something went into it.
That's worse because something went into it. If I waited until you got done taking your SAT and then snuck over and grabbed your Scantron and tore that up and threw it away you should choke me you just wasted three hours of a Saturday working your hardest to guess what words meant if I tore up the Mona Lisa and threw it away now it's the object that our sin
Is against that makes the greater weight and so when we look at an eternal and glorious and holy and majestic God and actively sin against him and then say it's not that big a deal what we're really saying is you aren't that big you are not that glorious you are not that beautiful you need to calm down
See one of the major issues we have as humans is that we do not think our sin is that big of a deal and is because we do not think our God is that big of a deal we exist at his will we're here because he allows us to be and the truth is often as humans we dislike that God
Expects anything from us we find God to be an imposition that he would hold us accountable that he would care about our sin that he would eventually judge us seems unfair frustrating and as if he should really just leave us alone there's a quote from Jonathan Edwards who's a pastor in the 1700s in America I'm going to read this it says in this world
God puts forth his authority to command them them being humans the rest of the time he's talking about humanity and to require subjection to him meaning that God says he's in charge and humans should subject themselves to him in his commands he's very positive strictly requiring of them the performance of such and such duties and positively forbidding
Such and such things that are contrary to their duty all he's saying is that God says do this don't do this this is how you ought to relate to me but they have no regard for these commands God continues commanding and they continue rebelling they make nothing of God's authority God threatens but they despise his threatening
They make nothing of dishonoring God they care not how much their behavior is to the dishonor of God he offers them mercy if they will repent and return they despise his mercy as well as his wrath he calls but they refuse thus they are continually plunging themselves deeper and deeper in debt
And at the same time imagine they shall escape the payment of the debt and design entirely to rob God of his due but God has undertaken to right himself he will reckon with them he has undertaken to see that the debts due to him are paid all their sins are written
In his book not one of them is forgotten and everyone must be paid see God is the glorious eternal king and him requiring anything of me is an imposition it's an annoyance it's an annoyance maybe at best and at times it's ludicrous and it seems as if he's out of line so we as humans sin
And make a little of our sin and in so doing trample on the honor of God and make a little of him and act as if he should not care or hold us accountable one of the beautiful things about the state of South Carolina is that we live in an at will state meaning you work at the will of your employer I say this is
Beautiful because my dad runs companies he is an employer and this means this if he has an employee who shows up late talking on his cell phone listening to his headphones doing one in one a year and my dad tries to tell him hey you need to get to work you're late and he looks at my dad and goes
And goes right back to talking on his phone and then when he gets off my dad's like hey you can't show up late you start explaining to him the duties of his job and that person who's a 15 year old boy looks at him and says I don't understand why you're getting all up in my face you need to calm down my dad can look at him and say
There's the door and it brings joy to my soul when it happens and here's why if if a my dad as a boss keeps him there and does not try to corral that does not try to change that he makes the rest of our work environment terrible you ever worked in a place where the boss did not oversee his employees so that anyone
Who showed up late and did whatever they wanted to like who does that it tears everything apart and I would be watching and going who on earth are you to be a 15 year old and talking to someone who's older than you and your boss and of course he started this company he can do whatever he wants to with it but we will stand and look in the face of God and say it's a little bit ridiculous for you to care
About my sin and I think you've stepped out of line and if there is a God this is the type of God I will accept well there is a God and you have to accept the one you got who is glorious and holy and is just and will not let sin be unaccounted for because it destroys his good world
That he created out of his own goodness and his own love and his own joy that he invited us into and we exist at his will the reason you are still inhaling and exhaling oxygen is because he is allowing it C.S. Lewis in his essay God in the dock dock being where a guilty person would stand or the accused would stand
So we might would say God on the witness stand the ancient man approached God or even the gods as the accused person approaches his judge for the modern man the roles are quite reversed he is the judge God is in the dock God is on the witness stand he is quite a kindly judge if God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war poverty
Disease he is ready to listen to it the trial may even end in God's acquittal but the important thing is that man is on that the man is on the bench and God is in the dock that we approach this glorious holy God as if he has some explaining to do he owes us nothing why are you allowed to swat a mosquito
That bites you why am I allowed to rid my backyard of fire ants who destroy my son's ability to play back there freely and how on earth do I think that the God that created me owes me something we have a problem God is just and sin must be punished and God doesn't owe us anything but I have really good news
The Bible also clearly and repeatedly says that God is loving and merciful and faithful and gracious in Exodus chapter 34 God shows up and he begins to declare who he is and what he's like and this is what he says he says the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him
There him as Moses and he proclaimed the name of the Lord the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will
By no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation God says he will by no means clear the guilty let me explain to you something about a good judge a good judge does not let the guilty walk someone in your family had been harmed and you went to trial and the person
Stood up and said yes I'm guilty yes you have proof that I'm guilty but I just want to let you know I'm really sorry and it'll never happen again and the judge went good enough for me said they're sorry if someone stole your car they found it and they said you know what now that you found me with it I'm willing
To return it the judge said sounds good we have a system where it's like no you have to make restitution you stole something but it didn't just it wasn't just the car that went missing it's the action that you took and there has to be restitution a good judge does not let the guilty walk free and God declares himself a good judge God is just
When he defends his good creation against what is polluting and destroying it he is just when he executes vengeance on his sworn enemies and he is just when he defends his holiness and his majesty against those who trample on it with utter contempt for the God that created them but keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression
And sin God doesn't have to do that but he chooses to and he comes go to Leviticus chapter 1 Leviticus is in the law it's going to be on page 40 something 46 47 47 if you have a white bible it's going to be early on if your bible some other brand different Numbers God comes
God comes to Israel and he says I'm going to make a way for this to happen I'm going to make a way for me to forgive sin because when you've sinned you've incurred debt that in God's economy there's actually debt that is incurred through sin he says I'm going to
Make a way for this to be paid for it says the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock if his offering is a burnt offering
From the herd he shall offer a male without blemish a burnt offering was the one that atoned for sin a male without blemish he shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement
For him this means that this animal is going to pay for his sin it's going to make him right with God and if you're unfamiliar with this I hope you have not gotten attached to this animal verse 5 then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent
Of meeting they would take the blood of the animals that they had sacrificed and they would splash it against objects and this was making purification that they would take the life out of another animal and they would use that life to atone for sin and to make purification and this was the sacrificial system that God set up now we don't really have a category for this
But God says you have a debt that has been incurred by your sin and in his justice and his mercy he makes a system where your debt can be paid now we don't understand that someone else could pay the penalty for something you did so that if I commit a crime my wife can't go to jail for me but we do have a system where if I owe a debt anyone can pay it that that makes restitution and God somewhere in the blending of this says that I'm going to
Set up a system because I am merciful he does not have to do this but because I am merciful and good I'm going to set up a system that allows you to pay for your sin to atone for your sin a few observations your sin deserves death the penalty for your sin was death and they had to redo this over and over and over again you'd have to walk out to your herd you'd have to find a male that was without blemish means it was worth something it was good it should keep breeding
It does not deserve to die you would have to then bring it with you walking with what was going to have to pay for your sin you'd bring it to the priest you would lay your hands on its head transferring your sin your action your decision your willful rebellion against God to this animal and then in front of you it would be killed and it would be a bloody mess and they would take some of the blood and they would sprinkle it to purify
For the sin that had caused the stains something had to die for you to go free but this is God in Exodus chapter 34 this is him accomplishing this because this this little phrase in Exodus doesn't make a whole lot of sense forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty so you're saying a whole second iniquity transgression and sin make you guilty
So how does he forgive that and not clear the guilty and this is where he does both he forgives it by giving you a way to not be guilty anymore by allowing you to transfer your guilt to something else allowing you to take your guilt place it on something that's why they would lay their hands on this animal place it on something and have it die for you every year this can be found in Leviticus 16 we're not going to spend any time there this morning but you can read through it
Every year they would have the day of atonement where they would do this for the entire nation they would get two goats they would bring them the high priest would lay his hands on one to lay all the sin of the nation on it and it would die for the sins of the nation and the high priest would lay his hands on another one to lay all the sins of the nation on it and it would be carried off to take the sin away
Because God's wrath had to be paid for and sin had to be taken away and then the high priest with the blood would purify everything in the temple that this was a ritual that they had to do day after day year after year because they kept piling up sin before God and they kept needing their debt to be paid now this is an actual debt I find that that when we're talking with people
About this sometimes they'll say well yeah well why couldn't God just forgive us why couldn't he just wipe it away this is his process that he made for it because let me explain to you if I come to your house this is how sin works with God if I come to your house and I break your television it's more likely that my two year old would do it but if I break your television we have a couple of options now
You can make me buy you a new television that I pay for the decision I made or you can say don't worry about it but if you tell me not to worry about it who's handling the television you are who's incurring the cost you are you're paying for the television you're either going to buy yourself a new one or you're going to pay for it day after day
After day after day of having to talk to the people who live in your house so you're going to buy yourself a new television but you're going to have to incur the cost and what God says is there's an actual debt that has been mounting against us that he's holding back the debt and it continues day after day to rise and to rise and to rise that there's a flood of sin
That we are piling up that he's counting that he's watching and he's either we have to pay for it but ultimately to forgive something someone has to pay for it and what we find in scripture is that God says I'll incur the cost of your debt God looks at us and says you don't have to worry about it
I'm going to pay for it and Jesus Christ comes as the atonement see he gave us this picture of animals having to die for our sin but they had to keep doing it year after year and day after day and every time you sinned you'd have to walk another animal and I would have to be very rich to handle all the sin
That I would have to kill goats for and they continually had to do this but eventually God says I'm going to fix this problem turn to Hebrews chapter 9 the book of Hebrews walks through and clearly connects a lot of the Old Testament to the fulfillment that's found in Christ will be on page 583 starting in verse 11
Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come so this is when he says the high priest he's talking about the person who would have overseen the day of atonement who would have overseen the sacrificial system it says that Jesus steps in as the new high priest the one that's going to make atonement for the people
He appeared as a great high priest as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent this is where the high priest would have gone to make atonement not made with hands that is not of this creation he's talking about his body he says he entered once and for all into the holy places this is the day of atonement this is the picture he's painting
That they would have gone into the holy places and made atonement for the people he's saying this is what Jesus did he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption redemption for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling
Of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God what he's saying is that Jesus Christ was our perfect sacrifice he was the one without blemish
Without sin who willfully chose unlike a goat who has no choice Jesus Christ willfully was led to the slaughter to make atonement for the sins of others therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant meaning there's a new system now between God and humans so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal
Inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant Jesus Christ came humbled himself the creator of the world who holds the world together by the word of his power and who owes us nothing but yet we owe him everything not only our existence but also for our rebellion in that existence he comes to
Swap places with us to walk with us and to as a great high priest pay the penalty for our sin to be both the high priest and the sacrifice so that we may forever be at one with God forever be made right with him and forever have our sin taken away I have a few points of application that I think
Come out of this concept for us to consider this morning as we finish first I want us to see that in this God saves humanity he remains just because sin is dealt with the guilty do not go free either the sacrifice is accepted and your guilt has been taken away because
It was placed on Jesus or we are still in our sin that God remains just and he vindicates the glory of his name in this picture of atonement that we're given in scriptures we learn that we are guilty of sin and unable to make restitution we have a debt that we are unable to pay that every
Human will stand before God with a debt of a life lived in rebellion and be unable to pay secondly we learn that God in his love and mercy and grace through Christ provided an acceptable sacrifice this is why Jesus is called the Lamb of God that God in his mercy provided someone
To pay our debt thirdly you should hate your sin and you should hate the fact that you don't really hate your sin that if we look into this and see the weight of the burden of the guilt that we had before a holy and just God knowing that one day we would have to pay for it
And we should hate all the sin that had to be laid on Christ that he had to die for and we should hate the fact that we so often minimalize and do not hate our sin feel okay with it think God winks at it act as if his holiness does not matter if you have not trusted in Jesus
Christ as your atoning sacrifice you should do so now you should repent of your sin and look only to him as the acceptable satisfactory payment of your debt to God Jesus Christ has been put forward as your way to not
Pay for your sin and what I would encourage you to do is to walk to the cross just as you would have to walk and pick out a goat and walk to the high priest and lay your hands
On it knowing that this animal that is currently breathing and looking at you and has walked with you this whole time because it is a tame animal is about to breathe its last breath because of the actions
That you have taken and the choices you have made and lay your hands on it and know that your guilt has transferred from you to this animal and it will die for you I would encourage you to walk to Christ
And lay your hands on him and transfer your guilt to him and know that he'll breathe his last breath to pay for the guilt that you owe God so that you can be eternally redeemed if you have not placed your faith in
Christ you should do so now because God forgives transgression and iniquity and sin but he will not clear the guilty for those of you who have placed faith in Christ we should rest confident in the eternal redemption provided by
Him questions of have I done enough am I good enough betray the fact that we have begun to believe that somehow the guilt has shifted back to us or somehow believe that we have to atone for our sin something that we were
Never going to be able to do and we should rest fully confident and free in the fact that a death has set you free that you did deserve punishment but in Christ you will not receive it this is why Christians no longer practice
Animal sacrifices we have a sacrifice once for all that has eternally redeemed us the blood of the lamb has been shed we have been purified we will stand before God guiltless because he
Stood before God guilty we should tell everyone about our terrible state before God and the good news of hope offered through Christ if we believe this and see this and know this to be true the most loving thing you can do is for those who feel guilty help them know that there is a
God who pays for guilt and for those who do not feel guilty help them see how guilty they are and then let them know that there is a God who pays their guilt for those of us who stand here or sit here this morning and say we believe this
There is no other loving option for those around us other than to tell everyone we possibly can that there is a debt of sin and a savior that offers redemption lastly for those of us in Christ we should spend the
Rest of our days marveling and rejoicing at the sacrifice of Jesus that God would humble himself to redeem creatures like us that he owed nothing to but that he loved enough to rescue and to make his own to reclaim his willful enemies
Who have actively destroyed his good order and with an utter contempt for his rule he came for the purpose to bleed and to die and to sacrifice himself so that we could have life the band
Is going to come back up and as we begin today to leave here as Christians marveling at the grace of God that we do not have to pay for our sin that we incurred debt that he paid for that we
Can walk with Christ and walk away free and blameless the way we are going to immediately respond as Christians in the room is to take communion where we remember the sacrifice of Christ where we take take the cup
We take the bread and we remember that Jesus Christ was broken and bled for us so that we can go free that we get to walk pick up a goat we get to walk with guilt hanging over us to a high priest
And walk away free that we get to walk to the cross with guilt bearing down on us but because blood is shed and death reigns we get to walk away free but you see Jesus Christ
Is both goats from the day of atonement sin is laid on one and it is killed and sin is laid on one and it carries it away and Jesus Christ died on a cross and rose from the
Grave and we have an eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance and we get to celebrate today as we wonder and marvel at the graciousness of a loving God who would die in our
Place we get to take communion remembering that we owe a debt to God that we could never pay but that Jesus Christ has and if you are not a Christian you should place your faith in Christ you should
Become a Christian and you should go take communion for the first time as a Christian who knows the weight of what you're doing that Jesus has redeemed you from your sin and that you can be forever free let's
Pray God we thank you that you made atonement for us that you purified us that we no longer stand under our guilt because we are in Christ thank you that you figured out a way to rid us of sin
To atone for our guilt without destroying us but that you were willing to be destroyed for us as an eternal sacrifice who reigns supreme seated in the right hand of majesty forever giving your life to those
Who place their faith you thank you in Jesus name amen
Worthy of Worship
Transcript
All right, how are we doing this morning? Cool. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors. We'll be in Matthew chapter 10 to get started this morning. Matthew chapter 10, if your Bible looks like this, it'll be page 476 where we'll start picking up.
We are starting a new series today, and we spent the last six weeks or so talking about the need for, the call for Christians to use their normal everyday lives to see other people come to know Christ. That we would leverage what we have, our time, our energy, our money, our homes to see people come to know Jesus. And so today we're starting a new series. We've just called it Glory. Basically, we're just looking at how big and beautiful and wonderful and glorious Christ is. And in some ways, I feel like it makes sense because we just spent so much time talking about how we should use the normal daily lives that we've been given to see people come to know Jesus.
And now we're just looking at why, why we'd want to do that. And we're just looking at how big he is and massive and how much joy there is to be found in him. And so we're going to do this for four weeks, and then we'll spend the rest of the summer studying through the Psalms and learning how to personally worship God from them. Today, as we get started, we're going to talk about the fact that Jesus is worthy of worship. That Jesus Christ is worthy of worship. The word used for worship in the Old Testament really just means to bow down.
And that's what we're looking at, why you should bow your life down to Jesus. Why you should consider him in all things. You should submit yourself to him. Why you should go to Jesus and allow him to be in charge of you, of your time and your money and your effort and your energy. We're looking at how glorious he is. I've got a definition for the word glorious.
It's striking beauty or splendor that evokes feelings of delighted admiration. It's so beautiful that it makes you feel something. That's what Jesus is. He's so glorious, so good that we should be in awe of him. We should be enraptured by him. He's so beautiful that it does something to us.
You see, Jesus says that he is worthy of worship. And that's what we're looking at in Matthew chapter 10 as we begin our time today. I want us to see this. I want us to kind of take seriously Jesus' words here and think about them for a minute. We're going to pick up in verse 37. Verse 37.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Just look at those words for a second. I want that to stare you in the face. That's why we don't usually put verses up on the screen. We usually just look at them in the Bible.
But I want this to seep in a little bit. Jesus actually said these words. And they're hard to get around. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. So at this time, Jesus had not gone to the cross. He was headed to it. But he's using this as a cross as a Roman instrument of torture. It was a... He said if you're not willing to be executed.
If you're not willing to lay down all your hopes and your dreams. If you're not willing to lay down your plans. If you're not willing to pick up a cross. If you're not willing to bear the burden of nothing goes well for you. And you head into destruction and persecution and death. You don't deserve me.
You're not worthy of me. 39. Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. That's a little cryptic. What he's saying is if you spend your life focusing on your life.
Trying to make it good. Trying to live the good life. If you go out of your way to try to find your life and to find yourself. And to have the good experiences and the joy. He says you lose it. It's a waste.
But if you are willing to give up everything for Jesus. Then you'll actually find it. Then you'll actually get the good life. Okay. Maybe. Maybe you've been around the church long enough.
That it's easy for you to hear that. Maybe you've heard it enough that you're like right. Hmm. Jesus. He says things like that. So I just want to take these sentences.
And we're just going to put them on other people. So that we can think about them a little better. Alright. Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Who's allowed to say that to you? I'll argue your father and mother can't even say that.
Like if your dad came to you and said let me explain something to you. If you love your mom more than me. You do not deserve me. I am the greatest father. Let me just. I need you to tell me right now.
You love me more. Like if I. If my wife started doing that with my son. She's like if you love your dad more than me. Then I don't even need to.
Like you do not deserve me for a mother. I'd have to have a talk with her. Be like this is. This is a bit intense. Plus he's two. Let's tone it down.
Who gets to say that? If you're dating someone. You're in high school. And you say yeah. I gotta go do this with my parents or whatever. I'm going on vacation with my parents.
And they say let me explain something to you. If you love your mother and father more than me. You don't deserve me. Okay. I'm still going on vacation. But we're probably not going to keep dating when I get back.
You gotta tone the crazy down like a hundred notches. Okay. Maybe. Maybe a spouse. Maybe you can have this conversation with a spouse. Maybe by the time you get married.
You're like look. Your parents can't get in the middle of all of our arguments. You've got to at some point. Like leave and cleave. There's some. There's some room for that.
In the Bible. Like at some point your mom can't just be here all the time. Maybe a spouse can say that. Go to the next one. It's if you love. Anyone who loves son or daughter more than me.
Is not worthy of me. Americans. We having a hard time with that. Parents. Have a hard time with that. Son or daughter more than me.
There's a widow. She's got a couple of kids. She starts dating somebody. You're her friend. She sits down with you and says. Yeah.
The other day he. He said if I loved my children more than him. I didn't deserve him. You know what you say. Sounds like a catch. That guy must be so valuable.
Oh my goodness. He must be so radiant and glorious. Do you know what you say. This cat's a psycho. Back up. Get away.
This is crazy. This is headed in the bad place. No one should say that to you. He says if you're not willing to lay down your life. If you're not willing to pick up your cross. If you're not willing to die.
If you're not willing to say no. To all of your hopes and dreams. All of your goals. If you're not willing to pick up. An instrument for execution. And follow me.
You do not deserve me. People come by your house. You got a friend. And they start saying. Yeah. There's this guy.
Carl. And he's a prophet. And he performs miracles. And he says we have to hate our families. And follow him. You're like bro.
That's a cult. This is. No bueno. Get away from Carl. This is not going to work out well for you. You're going to be like locked in a cellar somewhere.
Where Jesus without batting an eye. Without tripping over his words. Without hesitating for a second. Will look you in the face. And say exactly what he just said. If you love your family more than me.
You've missed it. If you're not willing to lay down everything for me. You don't deserve me. If you aren't willing to die. And if you are going to spend your life. Trying to have a good life.
You won't have a life at all. But if you'll get rid of everything. For me. You'll find the good life. Who can sit across the table from you. And say hey.
I'm the good life. And your joy. And your fullness. And your completion. And your happiness. Will only ever be filled.
And found. In me. It's like okay. Check please. Jesus means it. So.
He has to be. A narcissist. He. He. He. Supremely.
Values. Himself. And on. On anybody else. We put this on. We've gotten used to this on Jesus.
But on anybody else. We put this on. It's not a good look. But see. Jesus goes. Beyond this.
And begins to make the claim. That he is. God. God. I'm going to. I'm going to cite a few.
They're not going to be on the screen. In John chapter 5. It says this. This is why the Jews were seeking. All the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath.
Which is one of their regulations. But he was even calling God. His own father. Making himself equal. With God. John chapter 8.
It says. The Jews said to him. He's having this kind of discussion with him. About Abraham. And he. He's.
Talking about Abraham. They said. You're not even 50 years old. And you've seen Abraham. And Jesus says to them. Truly.
Truly. I say to you. Before Abraham was. I am. Now. That may be a little cryptic to us.
It was not to the Jewish people. That were listening to him. He's quoting. God. At the burning bush. That tells Moses.
That he. I am. That I am. He's. I am. Is a.
A reference to. Eternal being. And being God. And so Jesus says. Let me tell you. Before Abraham existed.
I am. And you're like. Well. That's kind of cryptic. Wasn't to them. The next verse says.
So they picked up. Stones. To throw at him. They knew what he had just said. He had just claimed to be God. So they were going to.
Kill him. Because that's blasphemy. And then. In 1033. Of John. It says.
It's not for good work. That we're going to stone you. They were going to try to kill him again. Jesus almost dies a lot. In the book of John. But because you.
Being a man. Make yourself God. The climax. Of the book of John. Is after Jesus dies on the cross. Rises from the grave.
He gets back around Thomas. Who said. Unless I get to see the nails. And the nail scars. Unless I see him with my eyes. Get to touch him.
I'm not going to believe. That he rose from the grave. And Thomas gets to. And then he falls down. And says. My Lord.
And my God. And worships Jesus. Now. If you've been reading the Bible. Up to the point. And John.
You immediately know. Don't do that. You don't worship anybody. But God. Every time in the Old Testament. Someone falls down.
At the feet of an angel. These big. Powerful. Angelic beings. Go. Get up.
Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. You saw. Right.
Like. I did not appreciate that. You are not allowed to worship me. This is a terrible thing. There's one angel. Who thinks that's a good idea.
It did not go well for him. I. You know what Jesus says. Thomas says. You're my Lord. And my God.
And Jesus says. Well done Thomas. You're blessed. And more blessed is everybody. Who's able to say the same thing. Without having to see the scars.
Who's able to have the same faith. In me. As God. So Jesus claims to be God. Throughout his life. He claims that.
Singular allegiance. Is owed him. And he's. Murdered for it. But because we do believe.
He is God. He did not stay dead. He rose from the grave. Proving his claims. And ascended into heaven. So.
Jesus says. I'm God. The God. And the God of the Bible. The God of the Old Testament. Has said the same thing.
Throughout the Old Testament. They would worship. No one but him. That's the first thing he says. When he takes him out of Egypt. He says.
You'll have no gods. Other than me. I'm the only God. In Deuteronomy. Throughout. He just keeps saying.
You're not going to bow down. And worship anything else. You're not going to serve them. I'm the only God. Deuteronomy 6. 13.
It's the Lord your God. You shall fear. And him you shall serve. And by his name you shall swear. Deuteronomy 13. 4.
You shall walk after the Lord your God. And fear him. And keep his commandments. And obey his voice. And you shall serve him. And hold fast to him.
Throughout the Old Testament. The prophets. The Psalms are going to say. Repeatedly. God is the only God. And he is worthy.
Deserving of. Your singular. Allegiance. And worship. That if every breath you have. Is spent in obedience to him.
It's worth it. Jesus shows up. Says I'm the same God. And I deserve the same allegiance. Okay. So this.
This gets. This argument gets thrown at God. It gets thrown at Jesus some. God more. I've got a quote from a. Humanistic and atheistic blog.
That I just thought the guy said it well. I don't know if this guy's famous. Or really smart. I didn't read a whole lot of his other stuff. He just said this well. He says if your God.
Demands. To be worshipped. Your God. Is narcissistic. Meaning he's. He cares only about himself.
He's focused in on himself. Narcissism is a character flaw. Which means. A narcissistic being. Isn't perfect. Ergo.
Oh you know it's good. If they use ergo. Ergo. It's a fancy word for therefore. Or. Or.
So then. Your perfect God. Does not. Exist. If your God. Is in fact.
Perfect. It would have no need. Or desire. For worship. Praise. Or any form of adulation.
Making your piety. Pointless. I think the logic holds. What he says is. If you have a God. That's needy.
If you have a God. That's narcissistic. If you have a God. That comes to you. And says. I need you to sing about me.
I need y'all to get together. Every Sunday. I need you to wake up early. I need you to put on slacks. I need people to practice songs. And I need you to sing.
That I'm pretty. If you have a God. That does that. It's not perfect. It's not complete. It's not whole.
Therefore. Isn't. Worthy. Or. If you have a perfect. Complete.
Whole. Worthy. God. Has no need. For your praise. No need.
For your adoration. Wouldn't ask for it. Wouldn't talk about it. Wouldn't care. Would be fine. Without you.
Either way. Worshiping. Is stupid. I'm taking some liberties there. But I think that's how he's.
He's ending it there. It's pointless. I. I kind of agree. I agree. If I think about the way.
He's thinking about this. I understand what he is saying. And I think he said it well. I think he's missed something. I think he's missed something. That the storyline of the Bible.
Makes clear. I want to kind of break this out. Into four. Basic. Truths. That he's.
That he's missed here. But this is. This is a thing that people say. I remember my. My. Grandmother's a missionary to Nigeria.
I remember being at the beach. One. One year. And my cousin was talking with her. And he was just saying the same thing. He was saying.
What kind of a God. Makes people. And then says. Sing to me. Or I'm going to hurt you. Worship me.
Or it's going to be bad. What kind of God does that? And he was just saying. It seems so small. And it seems so. Petty.
But here's what I think they're missing. One is. We were created by God. That's what the Bible tells us. And that we were designed to worship. You are going to worship.
Something. It's the first kind of thing I think that's missed here. You're going to worship something. You're going to bow down to something. You're going to spend your time. Your energy.
Your money. Your effort on something. Worship for you is not an option. What you worship is. The object of your worship is an option. But whether or not you will have some object to worship.
Is not an option for you. You will have something that you hold as chief and supreme. And most valuable. True worship is joyful. That's the second idea that I think is missed here. True worship is joyful.
It's self-forgetfulness. That when we really, truly sing about something. And truly, truly get engulfed in something. And enraptured in something. And point something else to it. It's joyful.
It gets us outside of ourselves. Thirdly. The best and highest worship. Will be of the best and highest object. Or the greatest worship. Will have the greatest object.
So if I told you that I was going to worship myself. I saw myself as supreme. I'm kind of limited there. I'm trapped. I'm trapped in myself. I can only get so big.
It can only be so great. I kind of have just really imprisoned myself. I could travel the world. My world would never get any bigger. Because I'm supreme. But if you said trees were supreme.
You could go in your backyard. And get more outside of yourself than I can. You could be more free. And more set free. See. The greater the object.
The greater the worship. The greater the joy found. I used to work at Sears. If I told you I was going to devote my life to Sears. You'd be like. Bro.
It's not even that great of a retail store. Like aren't they going out of business? I'd be like. Kinda. But that's why they need me.
But maybe if I said I'm going to devote myself to hard work. The scope is bigger. And then I'm a little more free. I can move around a little more. I have a little. I'm called out of myself a little more.
Maybe if I said I'm going to devote myself to helping others. I'm going to devote myself to family. You see we all pick something. And say this is most worth. Most worth my time and energy and effort. This is where I'll find the most life.
Gain the most joy. Be the biggest version of myself. Fourth point. You become like what you worship. Jesus says that you know. A student's not above his teacher.
You're going to whatever you hold up as supreme. You're going to become more like. So if you worship money. You'll become cold. Calculating. You worship love.
You're going to slowly become more like. You can see this when. Like someone gets super into. Like listening to Dr. Dre. Or Eminem.
Or. Any musician. They get really into skateboarding. Or fidget spinners. Become more like. The Bible says this in Jeremiah.
That they went after worthlessness. And became worthless. So I agree with the point this guy's making. And it's true. Unless. God is actually.
The greatest. Most supreme. Most glorious. Thing. That exists. Being.
That exists. Jesus is a narcissist. Unless. Unless. He is bigger. And more beautiful.
And more glorious. And more holy. And more worthy. Than any other. Thing in existence. That you could devote your time to.
Then. If that's true. If Jesus is supreme. When he tells you. You should love me above everything else. And you should worship me.
With all of your allegiance. And all of your time. And all of your life. Then. He's actually pursuing. Your joy.
And your greatest. Good. But only. If he's bigger. And more beautiful. And more glorious.
Than anything else. So. This is about to feel like a science class. And a poorly done one. Because I'm not great at science. But I want us to see some things.
Because. You only have. Limited options. On what you're going to worship. You got some limited options. You can only go out.
Into. Creation. You can only go out. And find something. That already exists. For you to worship.
Genesis. The first book in the Bible. Begins with. In the beginning. God. And then tells us.
That he created. Everything. So we're just going to take a minute. With the understanding. That God created all of this. And just look at.
The things that exist. We're going to look at. What. What's out there. For you to be. Mesmerized with.
For you to devote yourself to. We're going to do this in two ways. We're going to go small. Then we're going to go big. And then that. Hopefully that'll cover everything in between.
All right. Your body. Is made up of. Cells. One hundred. Trillion of them.
I don't even know. What that number really means. It's just very big. One hundred. Trillion cells. This is a.
This is a cell. It looks like something. From the magic school bus. That's a cell. Inside your cell. I'm going to move this out of the way.
I'm going to back up a little bit. So people can see a little better. Forgive me if I get in your way. I pace. That's a cell. Inside the middle there.
Is a nucleus. There's a bunch of little different parts in there. There's. Inside the nucleus is DNA. DNA. DNA.
Is the best information storage system. That exists. They are currently. Scientists are currently trying to figure out. How to save our own data into DNA. And retrieve it.
Okay. So the new Macs that came out. Like the expensive ones. They have like a terabyte of data. Remember when you had like a floppy disk. And it had like.
A megabyte. Terabytes way bigger. Did that help? Have a terabyte of data. DNA. DNA.
If you could put a drop of pure DNA. On the tip of your finger. It would have 700 terabytes. Of data storage capability. Because there's DNA. In every single one of your microscopic.
Invisible cells. That it holds. Dawkins says. About the equivalent of 8,000 books. But if you could.
So they said. They're trying to figure out. How to use DNA. Because they could save. All the things. We would ever need to save.
In a couple of teaspoons. Tablespoons. Worth of DNA. If we can figure out. How to do it. But.
But that was put inside. That little yellow thing. In the middle there. And then. Inside of there. Inside the cell.
Which you have a hundred trillion of them. That are constantly doing things. They all read. This. There's the entire DNA. For your whole body.
But the cell reads. This tiny little spot. They just go break. This one little part apart. And then that's what tells your cell. To be a liver cell.
Or an eye cell. Or a fingernail. Cell. Just that little bit of DNA. But all the DNA is in there.
And inside of your. Of your cell. There are organelles. Ribosomes. Mitochondria. Storage vacuoles.
Lysosomes. Lystra. Derby. Those last two are just places. Mentioned in the Bible. But the other stuff's in there.
Endoplasmic reticula. And a bunch of other things. That are constantly working. Doing jobs. Making more cells. This is a picture of actual cells.
We can see these with microscopes. They're creating things. All the time. Making more cells. They're made up of smaller things. The little particles inside of them.
Are made up of smaller things. There are. Each one of those. Has to be designed in such a way. As to be the correct thing. The correct lysosome.
Storage vacuole. To make the correct component. That's going to go inside the cell. Inside. The smaller. Things that make those up.
Are made up of. Molecules. That are made up of atoms. Atoms are the things that are on periodic table. On the periodic table of the elements. This is a picture of an atom.
It's been. It's been. Kind of enhanced. Digitally. Trying to make it look 3D. That's the nucleus of an atom.
There are protons and neutrons in there. And then electrons. Swirl around it. And scientists will say. We can't see those. You just kind of have to pretend.
We proved. We humans. Proved. That those existed. In like the end of the 1800s. We actually saw the first one in 1983.
We were able to look at it. They just used math. To figure out that these were real. And when I hear stuff like that. I think. There's a lot about math.
I don't know. Because I'm doing good. To make sure I got the right amount of change back. And they're using it. To figure out things. That we can't see.
Exist. They've now found out. That atoms are made up of. So that. We knew they were made up of. Protons.
Neutrons. Electrons. They can't be directly observed. But we're able to use math. To figure out what they do. They now have come out.
And said. We thought for a long time. That those were the smallest things. There were. So. Each cell.
Has about. You have 100 trillion cells. Each cell. Has about 100 trillion atoms. If you use a calculator. To multiply those Numbers together.
Your calculator. Doesn't even really give you an answer. It gives you a number. And then an E. And then it says plus. And it gives you this other stuff.
And it's like. Dude. I'm not putting all those zeros. You do it. It's an insane amount. So.
Inside those atoms. They now have decided. That they thought. That was the smallest thing. They now decided. No.
They've used more math. And figured out. There are smaller things. Than protons. Neutrons. Electrons.
And they've called these. Quarks. And leptons. And all of those. Are in a category. Called fermions.
And it sounds like. L. Ron Hubbard. Came up with this. Eventually. A logical.
A logical assumption. Is that they're going to figure out. That quarks. Have smaller parts. And maybe they'll call those. Bloggatrons.
Or nuptics. Here's the thing. Your body. Is exceedingly. Complex. It's made up of atoms.
And atoms. Have insane amounts. Of power in them. Energy in them. That we don't fully understand. We were able to figure out.
Early on. That they existed. By using math. And then they figured out. That if you took. Two hydrogen atoms.
This is a picture. Of a hydrogen atom. The internet. Nope. The internet was geeked out. The internet.
The internet was. Was really excited. That we were able to get. A picture of a hydrogen atom. Hydrogen is really small. They worked really hard.
And science. A whole lot. And they came up with that. See that. That's hydrogen. You guys.
Are you just blown away. It's. It's microscopic. We were excited. Because we could see it. Because they used to only figure out.
That it existed by math. But then they figured out. That if they took. Two hydrogen atoms. Smushed them together. They would turn into helium.
But helium. Weighs less. Than those two hydrogen atoms. Combined. So it would be like.
If you and I. If I weighed 100 pounds. You weigh 100 pounds. And we get on a scale. And the scale says. One fifty.
There's fifty pounds. That aren't. Accounted for. What they figured out. Was if they smush. Hydrogen together.
It'll push this other stuff out. And you know what that does. It just blows up. That's it. It creates energy. From smushing together.
Things we can't even see. Does the. The hydrogen bomb. That's just taking atoms. That they mathed. And then.
Coming up with a system. To smush them. And it does that. That. That's two miles wide. You can feel the heat.
Thirty miles away. Okay. Can you go to like. A black one. Just a regular. Let's talk for just a second.
Everything's made up of atoms. And. And what we're told is. That the God of the universe. Designed this. And he made atoms.
That fit together into molecules. That make up like lipids. And proteins. And stuff. And then. Make biscuits.
And taste amazing. Like. It's science. That makes bacon delicious. And I just got myself really hungry. Because if you put bacon on that biscuit.
I haven't even thought about this. Let's get some cheese. All right. You used to. Be a lot smaller than you are. You used to be like this big.
At one point. You were about this big. You ate atoms. Your body broke that stuff down. Stuck it in different places. And then your body.
Made more of your body. Created more cells. Replicated your DNA. Genesis 1. 27. Says that God made man.
In his own image. In the image of God. He created him male and female. Job 10. 11. Says you clothed me with skin.
And flesh. And you knit me together. With bones. And sinews. Psalm 139. 13.
Says you formed. My inward parts. You knitted me together. In my mother's womb. That God. Pieced all of that together.
To the smallest. Thing that we've been able to work. Really hard to find out existed. God made it. Designed it. With a purpose.
Okay. Let's go big for a second. This is the earth. It is a globe. YouTube might tell you that it's not. That's a picture.
It's either a picture of our earth. It is a globe. Or it is a vast conspiracy. That NASA is trying to trick us. By putting this on their website. But that's a picture of the earth.
This is the sun. It's a giant ball of fire. It actually is a bunch of nuclear reactions going on. On the earth. We are currently rotating. 6,000.
No. 100. Sorry. 1,000 miles per hour. We're spinning 1,000 miles per hour right now. Can you feel it?
1,000 Miles per hour. We are then traveling in orbit. 18.5 miles per second. Or 66,600 miles per hour. While spinning. And the reason we're doing that.
Is because the sun is bigger than us. And it tells us to. It's a gravity. It tells mass how to move. And we just. We're slingshotting.
Out around this thing. That's bigger than us. This is a picture of the earth. And the other planets. That's Venus. Mars.
Mercury. Pluto. We're bigger than those. I don't know if Pluto is still a planet. But look.
He's there. Alright. Next one. This is all the planets in our solar system. Uranus. Neptune.
Saturn. Jupiter. They're a lot bigger than us. Earth's down here. He's cute. Alright.
This is if you add in the sun. That's why the sun gets to tell us what to do. It works much like a playground. Okay. This is our galaxy. There it is.
That's the Milky Way. That's a guess. Because we can't get outside of it to see what it looks like. But it probably looks like that. This one shows us where our solar system is. So there's a lot of other solar systems going on.
Do you have the one that shows the other stars in our. Okay. So the sun's over here. That's Sirius. That's Pollux. That's Arcturus.
You can go bigger. And the sun will disappear. Those are in our galaxy. Other suns. Floating out there. Doing their thing.
This is a galaxy that we can see. From our galaxy. It's bigger than ours. Alright. This is one of the coolest stories I found when I was looking into some of this stuff. A guy named Bob Williams.
Did the Hubble Deep Field Experiment in 1990. He was listening to Hootie and the Blowfish at the time. He had some control over where the telescope pointed. He pointed it at a black spot on the sky. It looked like this. He said I want to point the telescope here.
And they were like. That's dumb. We're losing money. Hubble telescope's not been doing great. And you want to point it at nothing. For a hundred hours.
Yes. He just said I want to point it there. I want to just receive light. And we'll see what happens. That's about one thirtieth the size of a full moon. It's the size.
They just picked a spot that was completely black. And said let's point it there. They did it for a hundred hours. And just took in as much light as they could. Took pictures. It took 45 seconds to get in all the light.
And then. This is what came out of it. Once they developed the film. They colored it in a little bit. So they decided.
Oh okay. They thought they might have. About 2 billion. Other galaxies. Until they did that. And then they said.
Oh no. 50 billion. And most recently. They started saying. That there might be about 2 trillion. Other galaxies.
So you remember the big galaxy. And it said. We are here. That was our solar system. We're not even the biggest planet. In our solar system.
We don't even have the biggest sun. In our galaxy. 2 trillion galaxies. Filled with innumerable suns. Innumerable solar systems. Innumerable planets.
Habakkuk 3.6 says. He stood. And measured. The earth. He looked. And shook the nations.
Then the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills sank low. His word. The everlasting ways. Isaiah 40. Verse 12 says.
Who has measured. The waters. In the hollow of his hand. Or marked off the heavens. With a span. Enclosed the dust of the earth.
In a measure. And weighed the mountains. And scales. And hills. In a balance. In Job 38.
God shows up. To talk to Job. He says. Where were you? When I laid the foundation of the earth. Tell me.
If you have understanding. Who determined its measurements. Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it. On what were its bases sunk. Or who laid its cornerstone.
When the morning stars sang together. And all the sons of God shouted for joy. Psalm 147. 4 says. He determines the number of the stars. And he gives to them.
All their names. Anything you're going to devote your life to. Is going to fit somewhere in between. Those two trillion galaxies. And those hundred trillion atoms. In the hundred trillion cells.
Every bit of beauty. Every bit of. Things that are worthy. And valuable. It's going to fit somewhere inside of that. It says that God marked that off.
With the span of his hand. And so here's the question I have. How hateful. Would God be. How wicked. And despicable.
Would he be. To create all of that. And let us piddle around. With things that are so small. In comparison to him. It says he measured out.
The sea in his hands. If he said. Spend your life. Digging to the depths of the ocean. Which we hadn't even gotten to yet. How small is that.
And how. How horrible would it be. For him to not tell us about the hand. That measured it. For him to look at us. And say.
Spend your life. Chasing after love. Or beauty. When all love and beauty. Emits from him. Comes from him.
That is. It was thought up by him. If he said. Spend your life. Chasing after relationships. When the ultimate.
Truest. Most fulfilling. Joy filled. Glorious relationship. We could ever have. Is with him.
You see. He is a complete narcissist. Unless he is the greatest. Then what else. Would you have him point us to. What else would you have this God.
Say. Worship. Adore. Enjoy. Appreciate. You see.
What he does. Is he takes us to things. And he says. Look at the ocean. Look at the stars. Look at the sky.
And enjoy them. And be enraptured by them. And then realize. They point to me. They're just a hint. Of my glory.
And my bigness. And my goodness. And my grace. Spending all of our time. Chasing after reason. Or intelligent.
And never. Getting to enjoy. The depth of the mind. That created it. In the first place. You see.
Then. Colossians. Tells us. In 115. Talking of Jesus. He.
Is the image. Of the invisible God. The firstborn. Of all creations. Colossians 2. 9.
Says. For in him. The whole fullness. Of deity. Dwells. Bodily.
And Hebrews 1. 3. Says this. And this is what was on the. The little bumper videos. We came in.
He. That's Jesus. Is the radiance. Of the glory. Of God. So glory.
Is. Is beauty. That makes you feel something. It's. It's. It's what emanates from God.
And it says that. Radiance. Is the light and heat. That shines off of something. So what.
What Hebrews. The author of Hebrews. Tells us. Is that Jesus. Is the beauty. Of the beauty of God.
He's the radiance. Of the glory. He's the light and heat. That shines off of all of God's. Massive. Infathomable.
Unapproachable. Eternal. Goodness. He's the exact. Imprint. Of his nature.
That's God's nature. Is. Perfectly. Shown to us. In Christ. Who is God.
He upholds the universe. By the word. Of his power. That Jesus Christ. Rules over. All that exists.
And after making. Purifications for sins. That's. The cross. He sat down. At the right hand.
Of the majesty. On high. In Psalm 8. The psalmist says. When I look at your heavens. The work of your fingers.
The moon. And the stars. Which you have set in place. What is man. That you're mindful of him. Or the son of man.
That you care for him. Psalm says. I see all of this. And why do you care about us. We're in a small galaxy. Stuck off to the corner.
In a small solar system. On a small planet. Given a very limited amount of time. In history. And in God's created order. But God loved us enough.
Was mindful of us enough. That he joined us. In humanity. And went to the cross. That he exactly imprinted. His nature on Jesus.
Who became a human. The most baffling event. Most beautiful miracle. In history. Is that God. The eternal holy God.
Became a human. And humbled himself. To die on a cross. To redeem some people. So that.
He could pursue. Their greatest. And highest. Joy. Which is himself. Jesus Christ died.
So that we could have. Him. Because you will not find. A greater. Or higher. Or more worthy.
Or more valuable. Joy. In the world. In creation. In existence. That Jesus Christ.
The God of the universe. Humbled himself. A friend of mine. Got to go to a. Some sort of a tailgate thing. And it was catered by Chick-fil-A.
And he got to eat at this meal. With a bunch of fancy people. He's not fancy. But he got to go. I don't remember. Somebody knows.
Is fancy. And invited him. He said afterwards. Somebody came along. This was an older guy. Came along.
And started cleaning up everything. And throwing everything away. And he looked over. And realized. That the person who was. Picking up his trash.
And throwing it away. Was S. True at Kathy. Which is. The CEO of Chick-fil-A. He said.
He immediately thought. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like. Why would the CEO. Clean up after me. Like.
This isn't okay. I'm just here as a guest. I can't have this guy. Clean up. Like. He was like.
He was. It just felt so bad. It bothered him so much. And. And what we met with. That's the exact imprint.
Of God's nature. The humility. And mercy. And love of God. Is that the God of the universe. Who created all things.
From the most. Minuscule. To the most. Miraculously. Immeasurable. Will become a.
Person. In order to suffer. And die. On a cross. That we could be forgiven. Of sins.
And brought back. Into a relationship. With him. And have. A chance. To pursue.
What will most. Give us joy. And satisfaction. Pastor John Piper. Says this. God's love for us.
Is not mainly. His making. Much of us. But his giving us. The ability. To enjoy.
Making much of him. Forever. God's love for us. Keeps God. At the center. God's love for us.
Exalts his value. And our satisfaction. In it. If God's love. Made us central. And focus on our value.
It would distract us. From what is most. Precious. Namely himself. Love. Labors.
And suffers. To enthrall us. With what is infinitely. And eternally. Satisfying. God.
That God. Went to the cross. So that. He could labor. To enthrall us. With what is most.
Satisfying. Most. Joy-filled. God. And that's why Jesus. With complete certainty.
Honesty. Love. And helpfulness. Can look at us. And say. Whoever loves father or mother.
More than me. Is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son. Or daughter. More than me. Is not worthy of me.
And whoever. Ever does not take his cross. And follow me. Is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life. Will lose it.
Whoever loses his life. For my sake. Will find it. The band's going to come back up. If we love. Anything.
More than Jesus. We're missing out. If our lives are devoted. To anything. More than Christ. We've sold ourselves short.
If you live your entire life. Giving every penny. Every drop of sweat. Every waking moment. To Christ. And his kingdom.
And his glory. It'll all be worth it. Because everything else. Pales in comparison. To his beauty. His magnificence.
His holiness. His worthiness. Band's going to sing. We're going to take communion. Communion is for. Those who have placed their faith in Christ.
So we would ask you. That if you are not. A Christian. Just to remain seated. During this time. Or stand and sing.
With the band as they lead. But for those of us. Who have placed our faith in Christ. I want us to take a minute. To as best we can. Hold in our minds.
What makes. God. So supremely glorious. That he would suffer. And die on a cross. To redeem us.
That he would breathe his last breath. Be wrapped. And shrouded. Laid in a tomb. That he would conquer death. On our behalf.
That when we take communion. We're reminding ourselves. Of the body. And the blood. Of Christ. That was broken.
And that was. Blood that was shed. So that we could have life. So that we could be redeemed. So that we could be forgiven.
That this. Radiant. Glorious God. Would suffer. So that he could.
Enthrall us. With what is most supremely. Joy filled. Life giving. And valuable. Himself.
Let's pray. And then you'll be free. To take communion. And we'll stand and sing. God we thank you for your grace. Your love.
God. I pray Lord. That we would be. Overwhelmed. By how matchless. You are.
That you are. Supremely. Glorious. And worthy. Of all of our devotion. We praise you.
In Jesus name. Amen.