Community that Honors Christ (Philippians 2:14-18)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Philippians 2:14-18 Community that Honros Christ

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab your Bibles and go to Philippians chapter 2 if you don't have a Bible with you you can grab one of the ones that's in the seat in front of you in the little tray if you don't own a Bible take that one home with you that's our gift to you we want you to own a Bible we are working our way through the book of Philippians and we're going to.

Look at Philippians 2 uh verses 14-8 today we took a few weeks off to uh for uh inst installing Isaac and then walking through Easter and celebrating Easter together but we're back in Philippians now we're going to finish out the book over the next several uh weeks and and a couple months and uh Paul is in prison and he's writing this letter to the Church in Philippi and the Church in Philippi had sent apodus to him because they found out he was in prison.

And while in prison he was responsible for his own needs and so you you were kind of dependent on people to help care for for you um because the Romans weren't going to and so they sent basically a care package to him so that he could survive and so he's writing this letter back in thanks to them to a Church that he helped get started um and you can read about that in the book of Acts and so that's what the where the we are in the letter and he's um going to give some helpful instruction.

Today but he's going to give what I would say is a good command for a great reason and so as we read it I hope that we follow and obey the commands because we ought to but I also hope that we in our time together this morning catch the reasoning that we understand why Paul says what he says not just what he says but why he says it why the command matters so that we might live our lives in line with that why.

If you and I were going to go on a trip together you were driving and we were going to Charleston and I got in your car as we start working our way to get out of the city of Columbia I said ooh hop on 77 it's so much nicer than 26 you might be inclin to say something like well while 77 might be nicer it will not get us to Charleston so unless you want to go to Charlotte or Casey we should not get on and Paul has a reason a destination a direction in mind that sets all of the little choices that are going to get him there.

And so I want us to see his good command but I want us to catch the great destination the great reason for it so let's read this whole passage together and then we'll walk through it slowly uh Philippians 2 starting in verse 14 do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life.

So that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith I am glad and rejoice with you all likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me so the first thing he says is the command do all things without grumbling or disputing immediately we're like wait when can we Grumble and he says do all things without it.

So never don't Grumble is another way to put this now I think that this applies to us individually that it's a blanket command that just says don't don't do it but I also think and we're going to see later as we work through the text that it implies to our life together that it applies to the Church collectively how we interact with one another as a Church but let's take a moment to just consider grumbling and considering it at the individual level there are some things that you will not Grumble about there are some things that you appreciate that are nice that you you enjoy you're not going to Grumble about it you're not going.

To complain if your boss says hey we're cutting out early today go home and take a nap I don't think you Grumble on the way home if you find a $20 bill on the street you don't mutter to yourself about people littering you don't there are certain things that fit inside of our preferences and things that we like and enjoy that we're not prone to Grumble about that things we Grumble about are the things that are outside of our preferences the things that Annoy Us that inconvenience us there are things that we will Grumble about and I I think one of the categories of things that we'll Grumble about is uh the weight of existence.

There are some things that you do that we have to do just to exist and it's possible for us to just be annoyed with them clipping your fingernails and getting a haircut and mowing your grass and doing your dishes these are things that just go along with existing that you might find yourself greatly annoyed by can't believe I have to wash dishes you just ate a meal that was nice we're not thankful for that we're just bothered by why would I be doing this laundry there are some things that you could potentially get in the habit of just groaning about complaining about mumbling to yourself about that just fit into the category of things you.

Do like you have a job and you're annoyed by it I got to get up and get over there oh my goodness when I get there they expect me to do the job when I open my email there better not be any email in there like we're just complaining about things that it takes to exist and to live now you might be going I don't complain about my laundry I complain about everyone else's laundry I don't complain about my dishes it's everyone else's dishes and that's the weight of existence in relationships.

So there's a weight of existence that you have but there's a weight of existing in relationships and you can easily Grumble about the people around you because the people around you can be very annoying you might have some co-workers that you consider very Grumble worthy they're frustrating sometimes you go home and you think they might be doing it on purpose this isn't just the thing they do naturally there this is turned into maliciousness but we Grumble about the things that are going on around us we Grumble about the things we have to do we Grumble.

Because we're inconvenienced in some ways grumbling is the exact opposite of what Paul just said and what Raz just read that we prayed about it says count others as more significant than yourselves one of the reasons that I Grumble is because I'm very significant and the people around me fail to see it I shouldn't have to stay late and clean other people should have to do that I shouldn't have to do these dishes other people should have to do that I shouldn't have like there's this this General sense of oh my goodness.

When I go to work these why am I having to deal with the fact that this person hasn't done what they're supposed to and we grumble but he says don't that's the command do all things without it you shouldn't Grumble at work you shouldn't Grumble at home you shouldn't when you're having to get up and go accomplish a thing mutter to yourself about it I've told my sons before to do something and watch them get up and go I say h no sir you go do the thing and I don't need to hear the muty little noises.

First of all it's not going to make you enjoy the thing that you have to do you have to do it so you might as well do it with a good attitude second of all I'm not going to listen to it and that's what Paul is saying to us H we don't need the muty little noises don't do it my sons were watching a uh a little science program for kids and they were doing tests on how to help you deal with pain um and there were two things they said that can help you.

When you're dealing with pain that'll help you deal with it one of them is smiling so if you're going through pain if you smile it'll help you bear with the pain the other one is cussing they did clarify that it doesn't actually have to be cussing you can just go and that helps as well one of the reasons we Grumble is that it feels good it feels like it's accomplishing something you feel like you're doing something y'all we we Grumble with each other some of your best friends are just the people that you most enjoy grumbling with you know what drives me crazy oh hit me with it tell me about it you want to.

Know what's frustrating oh I'm hot I'm aggravated when can we get together oh I'll clear my schedule because it feels like we're doing something it feels like it accomplishes something but it's not actually helping anything it's souring our souls and it spreads you ever had an enjoyable experience until you had a friend who told you why you shouldn't have enjoyed the things you ever had a movie you really enjoyed and then you talked to someone and they said no here are six things wrong with that movie and you can never enjoy it again grumbling spreads people can talk you into not enjoying a restaurant not enjoy enjoying a place that you would visit it's not.

Good for us so Paul says don't don't Grumble and don't dispute and that one's going to play into more of our life together but it's like a little bit like Paul talking to a toddler um whenever you talk with a toddler you you often start with what and then you answer why 17 times in a row why did we just stop because there's a red light that's that's a what there's a red light that's a thing here red light stop why do you stop at red lights.

Because when I was 15 they made me read a book and it told me to stop at those and if I don't these people have green and they're going to run into me why we got a government um and they set that up that way why probably Commerce and safety like you just you keep doing that and so he said what do all things without grumbling or disputing but now he's going to hit us with why why he's going to hit us with two yse why why here's the.

First why that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world okay so blameless and innocence there is practical you not sin so grumbling and disputing and this being a fostered pattern for us is sinful so that we would not sin then it says then he says children of God that's not dependent that's accomplished by Jesus that's not something that we're practically working out the truth is.

Because of Jesus we're made blameless and innocent Justified before Christ through his work but then we need to live that out we need to practice it but we're children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation his first why is because the whole world grumbles and disputes but you're children of God one of the best ways for you to display that you belong to Jesus is have a good attitude roll with inconvenience be unfl flappable in the face of frustration be the one person on your crew that.

When everything falls apart goes hey we got this all right smile that was your other option you know when you're dealing with pain one was smile and one was shout smile be the people who who can do that now you've been around people who can do that you've worked with people who can do that and it's a joy it's a delight and what he's saying is the Church should do that we should be people who aren't grumbly complainy frustrated people we should be joyfill hope-filled people and this is why I think that it's not just you individually.

But it's us collectively he's writing to this Church and he's saying y'all don't complain and argue about everything put on display shine as lights in the middle of a of a generation that this will be startling to because everybody grumbles and complains and disputes about everything don't that our conversations shouldn't center around complaining we should work out of this that we should not Foster it but we should correct each other I think there's probably been times in your community group when it was a care night and what you effectively did was not repent not grow not correct.

But Grumble just kind of complained about the things in our lives and we actually need to start saying okay hold on a second I understand your boss may be frustrating but what's going on in your heart and how are you acting and how do you handle that and how do you respond to that and how do you shine in the middle of that now if I'm in the middle of grumbling and you go pause let's look at your sin I'm going to be annoyed with you.

But I'm going to be greatly helped by you and the Jesus loving part of me is going to go no that's good thank you and we're going to be able to grow together but he says this you shine as light so I want you to see that by not grumbling you put something on display and then the question becomes what well verse 16 says holding fast to the word of life so when we shine it's not to show off us when your coworker says how you have such a good attitude don't go thanks I'm great glad you noticed I get to hang out with me all the time and I'm awesome that's not the point.

The point is I I'm holding on to something that gives life I'm holding on to something that empowers Joy I'm holding on to something that can't be taken away from me because it's been accomplished by Jesus there's a Word of Life where Jesus Christ came to save Sinners where Jesus Christ came to redeem and to rescue the lost where Jesus Christ came to fulfill righteousness on our behalf that's what we hold on to so what is inconvenience what is difficulty what how would these things even come close to touching us.

If we're holding fast to the Gospel and the life that's found in Jesus the truth is we've been told that we're servants and slaves you can't inconvenience a servant that's what we're here for we're meant to be serving and loving and and caring for those around us as we hold on to the Gospel and what that means as a Church y y'all understand when we all get together there's no possible way that all of us get our preferences there are things here that you do not prefer.

Okay that's how it works there's things here I don't prefer yeah that's fine they're not the main thing we're supposed to not Grumble not dispute not argue and hold fast to the word of life there are things that we should fight over and it's are we holding to this are we clinging to this Gospel are we making much of Jesus are we believing this and then there's a whole lot of stuff that we're just supposed to go not the main thing not the thing we're holding on to not the thing we're fighting.

For doesn't matter my mom grew up in the Church I asked her you ever been a part of a Church while y'all fought over something kind of stupid she said oh yeah there was a big fight over the color of the carpet big was big deal I think she said it was a huge deal now there is a huge deal for the Church and it's that we hold fast to the Word of Life the carpet it's not a huge deal that's the stuff we walk on it doesn't does doesn't matter.

Look up if you don't like the color that's not a big deal we're the Church isn't collectively going around and telling you what color carpet you can have in your house have whatever color you want when we get together we just need something under our feet it's not a big deal if you went to a Church and it was their third called business meeting to talk about the color of the carpet what they have articulated to the world is this matters oh it matters and you're like oh my goodness is that in Deuteronomy like where I need to re reading my Bible I didn't understand carpet was such a big where is this at it's.

Not in there we're holding fast to the word of life that is what matters that we're proclaiming the Gospel that we're declaring that Jesus is King that there's hope in him and him alone that's what matters and all the rest of this stuff you're like I I don't know I'd have painted it a different color okay I like this song rather than that song okay are they making much of Jesus is the theology wrong let's talk about that otherwise let's look like a group of people who.

So love Jesus and so love each other and keep the main thing the main thing y'all uh mil City Church got started in 2013 a hundred years before that First Baptist Church of Casey got started and in 2019 we started talking about what would it look like for m city Church and First Baptist Church at casy to become one Church the question was does that help us hold fast to the Word of Life does that help us proclaim the Gospel and I was.

So humbled and delighted and impressed to see the people who had been in First Baptist Church of Casey for decades lay down so many preferences to see Christ proclaimed I remember Mr Tru at one point said he was a part of a Church he was traveling back and forth between Columbia and somewhere on the coast it was near Charleston and there was a Church that he would be a part of here and a Church that he would be a part of there and he said one time.

When he went back to Charleston he went to that Church on Sunday and he walked up and he said there was chains around the door and there was a padlock on it he said the Church had gotten into arguing about some stuff and couldn't sort it out and they just locked it up and he looked at us and he said there's not nobody's putting a padlock on these doors he said ' this place is going to keep proclaiming the Gospel that's saying hey the main thing is the main thing are we making much of.

Jesus do we believe that he's better than everything else are we calling Our Lives to be in obedience to his glorious goodness and let's we don't have anything to Grumble about we don't have anything to dispute over let's fight for what matters that's the first why he says do all things without grumbling or disputing so that or that you may and he says be blameless and innocent children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation shining as lights holding fast to the word of truth that's the.

First why here's his second why so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain I really love his second reason you would think that if it said so that in the day of Christ the next thing he would say is something about the Philippians Church the Philippian Church he would say something like so that in the day of Christ y'all May something be found to have whatever what he says is.

So that in the day of Christ I won't have wasted my time with y'all I won't have spent this time to to start this Church in Philippians to try to get y'all going and then I leave I get arrested and y'all argue with each other and cease to be a thing I don't want that to happen I I appreciate his honesty I also think his reasoning is really good this is this is where I said he gives a good command with a great reason here's Paul's great reason here's how Paul lives his life Paul does whatever he's doing this day looking towards that day.

If you read Philippians if you went home this afternoon and read through it he's going to do this three four times he's going to say the day of Christ the day of Christ on the day of Christ he's going to hold this up if you read his letters he holds this up all the time he has in view all the time the destination he's not going to let him get on I77 because it doesn't take you to Charleston he's he's got in his mind the day of Christ.

And so he is saying he's not saying the opposite of what he just said which is that Jesus was humble so we ought to be humble and then he's somehow acting like he's going to be really prideful before the Lord on the day of Christ that's not what he's talking about at all he doesn't mean self exalting pride what he's talking about is so that I might Delight in and be proud of you as you have done what we set out to do it's like a dad with children that kind of Pride that's rebounded it's reflected in the Philippians Church doing what the Philippians Church is supposed to do that's what he's talking about.

But he has in his mind that day the day of Christ is when Jesus reclaims his Church and judges the world and that day is coming it's closer today than it was yesterday and Paul Paul lives his life with that in mind and we know that because of what he says next you can see it so clearly he says even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith I am glad and rejoice with you all likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Okay so he's saying even that being poured out as a drink offering is even if my imprisonment ends in death even if what happens to me now is all I do is help show off y'all's Faith because they just sent aphodius to him he says if all I end up doing is y'all put your faith on the offering your sacrificial offering of your faith is mine's just a drink offering that gets poured on top of that that just makes the the flame blaze up.

For a moment and helps highlight your faith and if that's all that happens if I get poured out I will rejoice I will have joy and Delight in the Lord and then he says I want you to as well the day you hear Paul's been beheaded in Rome I want you to call the Church together and I want you to to Praise Jesus that's what he's saying why because Paul lives this day in light of that day and on that day all the inconveniences and sufferings and difficulties that are.

For Christ matter you know we have the saying live this day like it's your last live each day like it's your last if you're not a Christian what that's got to mean is live this day for this day but if you're a Christian what that means is that day is tomorrow wait that day is tomorrow this day is the last this day I get to do stuff for that day I got some neighbors I need to tell about Jesus I got some people I maybe need to repent to or forgive I got some This Day stuff that I've got to do in light of that day most of the things that will happen this day.

That I will not Grumble about will matter 0% on that day I got to eat the last donut nobody asked me to serve them or help them I kept all of my money or spent it on things that I like I watch three episodes of The Office neat I won complain about any of those but they won't matter on that day and if I live this day for this day I don't have anything on that day but the things that I might complain about the things that we might Grumble about a lot of those are glorious inconveniences.

For our Church family for our neighbors for the glory of Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel that matter on that day it flips it 150 of you serve in Kid City it's not really true but it feels like it there's a lot of people that serve in Kid City it actually should be true if you don't serve in Kid City you we got get that number up to 150 kid city where they're about 60 children 50 to 60 children many of whom don't know.

Jesus are around people who do but don't yet believe it's an opportunity in our Church to serve it's also a place where you might be tempted to Grumble my wife she serves in Kid City and she watches babies and she she always tells them the rules when they starts she says all right no fighting no fussing no crying no pooping and being babies they don't follow the rules super well I don't think they fight I think that's just in there just in case you know.

But otherwise they fuss and cry and poop she did a couple weeks ago come home and said the babies followed all the rules but there are things that we might would be oh my goodness I got to do this again oh I've got to I got to face this I got to handle this oh I host my group and then I got to clean up afterwards and I got to deal with all this stuff or there may be someone in your group that the only way they can be around is you got to go pick them up and it's possible.

For you to on the way be like oh here we go got I just don't even know if this is going to be sustainable I don't know if this is going to be able to last there might be some people who they they're struggling with their own thoughts their own emotions and one of the best ways to get out of that is to talk to somebody who can help sort out what's real and what's not real what's true and what's not true and can help point you to.

Jesus but that means you're going to have to have a conversation with a really muddled frustrated sad person and it's going to make you a little more muddled and frustrated and sad and you may not want to answer that phone call you might have someone in your group who says I just need to be around somebody today but this was the day you weren't going to be inconvenienced to never have to leave your couch there are things that you might Grumble about this day oh that are glorious on that day the stuff that I actually want to be like I did a whole bunch of this the stuff that I actually want to have labored.

For there's things I'm going to spend my money on that will rot and waste away and there are things that I'm going to spend my money on and give my money away to that are going to last into eternity and they're going to shine in a glorious light to make much of Jesus on that day and Paul just says don't live this day for this day live this day for that day remember what matters remember what's important Matthew chap 10 Jesus says this he's talking to his disciples about them being received and served and what it looks like to serve and love the Church and he says whoever gives one of these little ones even.

A cup of cold water because he is a disciple truly I say to you he will by no means lose his reward well if a cup of cold water counts and changing diapers counts and cleaning up after your community group counts and answering phone calls late at night counts and serving and loving and laboring for those who don't know Jesus counts and it matters that we do things on this day for that day because Jesus is gloriously good and there is a day.

When we all get to rejoice in the things that we would not otherwise have Earthly rejoiced in Paul says if they do the absolute worst to me and kill me let's Praise Jesus but the only way to do that is to understand how good it is then and to have that in mind all the time if I got in your car to go to Charleston and I said I wanted to get on 77 you would tell me can't do that it's.

So Church family as we in our hearts want to live for this day I want you to get real used to telling yourself I can't do that because that's not where I'm trying to go and as we live together collectively I want us to get real used used to saying hey no we can't do that because that's not where we're trying to go we we want to be ready for that day y'all Paul wanted so many Philippians to be there on that day way more than he was writing the letter to and we want.

So many people in Colombia in casy so many people that go to USC y we want Gamecock fans all over the place in heaven we want people who live in hermo and chapen and Gaston and pan and Hopkins we want them all over the place in heaven we want people at your job and on your street to be able to stand in the glory of Christ and praise His name that he saves Sinners because you did things on this day that mattered.

For that day that's what we want and so as a Church we're not going to Grumble and we're not going to dispute and we're not going to fight about silly things we're going to hold fast to the word of Truth and we're going to tell people that Jesus Jesus is glorious and good and we're going to live this day for that day by his grace and his empowerment through his Spirit let's do that let's pray Lord may we by your spirit keep in mind that one day all the suffering is gone all the sin is gone and you our glorious King rescue your Church and may we keep in mind that on that day there.

Is no repentance there is no more at that point turning and trusting in you that everybody is either forgiven of their sins or trapped in their sins so may we live this day in light of that day and may we tell people about you Lord may we serve and love one another knowing that inconvenience and anything that declares to us that we aren't that important is good as it brings glory to your name may we be repentant over our grumbling repentant over our disputing may we joyously and graciously hold firm to the Gospel.

For ourselves and for each other that we might make much of you in Jesus name amen

Salvation and Works (Philippians 2:12-13)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Philippians 2:12-13 Salvation and Works

Spencer Cary

Transcript

My name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the book of Philippians we're in Chapter 2 and we're the next two verses verses 12 and 13 the text will be on the screen you can also follow along on that blue Bible which is on page 570 if you don't have a blue b if you don't have a Bible at all please take that want you have a Bible that you can read at home uh I told this story years ago.

But we've grown as a Church so many of you have not heard it when I was 10 years old I got my first pair of contacts now at 10 years old you get contacts you don't know what you're doing you trust the optometrist is going to teach you how to wear contacts now I got a pair of focus night and dailies okay this is the brand I've worn pretty much M uh ever since I was 10 years old and those allow you to continuously wear them I mean I they say up to 30 days.

Now optometrists are like please don't do that um that's bad for your eyes but you know at 10 years old I'm like I I can do it and you know some of you who have contacts you wear them and you wake up in the morning and you've slept in them your eyes are like dead they're bloodshot and you're in pain I that's not me I can wear contacts y'all when I was uh young I could wear contacts three months in a row not take them out once which is dangerous you should not do that.

But I did and when you try to pull that off your uh eye it feels like you're pulling off your cornea I mean it is it is brutal but you know just didn't learn out the gate really well some things about wearing contacts and then years later uh you know I was talking to a friend of mine I just said man I just I don't know like for the last few days this contact is just not it's not fitting right and he said.

Well it's possible that you put it in backwards and I said no contacts are reversible he was like they're they're they're not I said no they they are he said they're really not and he went online and he pulled it up and he showed me that cont only fit one way they are not reversible now here's the kicker that was 5 years ago I was 30 years old when I found out that contacts are not reversible Chad Phillips was like hey man you need to understand this.

Finally someone corrected me in this which means that there would be weeks that went by where a contact was in backwards and I just like you know I'm powering through it this is fine I'll be I'll be good and I know what you're thinking how strong is are his eyes I mean just what he's he's got a really good pair of eyes that could take that kind of pain that's what I thought too did not at all think that that was foolish and that someone should have uh corrected me at a young age.

But ideally somebody would have ideally like the the optometrist at 10 years old would have sat down this is probably why you don't give context to 10-year-olds but would have sat down and just said this is how you do it no no no listen this is how you do it or afterwards someone would have corrected me so I didn't go through years of suffering in pain certainly would have made my life better now the passage we are in today helps explain really the relationship the relationship between faith and works and we need to understand this correctly we need to understand how we put on how we apply faith and how we put on how we.

Apply works correctly because if we don't if we hear the the Central Command of this passage today passage today is work out your uh Salvation with fear and trembling if we misunderstand that and we put that on incorrectly it results in pain but if we actually understand how this is supposed to be put on how we're supposed to apply this to our lives if we understand the relationship between faith and works correctly not only do we avoid pain we actually enter into joy and life ultimately is better.

So I'm going to pray and then we're going to walk through this passage together heavenly father I pray that that you might help us see what it means to walk in faith that produces Works may we understand that correctly and may that result ultimately in our joy being found in you in Jesus name amen all right so two verses therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure now in verse 12 that Central Command right there work out your own salvation with fear and trembling is a loaded phrase that's a loaded phrase now some have stripped that from its context and have said aha works you need them to be saved or you need them to continue your salvation it's on us ultimately to get it done but that's taking it out of his context we seek to be a people who understand the Bible in its context that's why we study the Bible verse by verse that we go through different books of the Bible.

So we can understand what's happening here because context matters immensely like if I'm watching the TV in one room and my wife is in another room and I say oh man she is looking good my wife has two choices she can run into the room guns blazing ready to throw down not not physically just just who's looking good or she can come and get the context realize I'm watching the lady Gamecocks play and they are looking good because they're playing great comea Cordes hit a three-pointer last it was fantastic yesterday context matters all right.

Well you study the Scriptures you need to understand the context of what is being said and when you get to the front end of this verse you need to see right at the beginning where it says the word therefore when you see the word therefore and on adage in in Bible hermeneutics which is just a fancy way of saying how we study the Bible is uh when you see a there the word therefore you need to ask the question what is the word.

Therefore there for see in Bible nerd circles we have all types of really fun phrases like that but that that Clues you in to say okay if the word therefore pops up I need to understand what's happening here because typically what is happening is that what's about to be said next is being linked to by the word therefore to things that were said previously and the truth of what was said previously is being pulled into what's about to be said and that's what's happening here.

So when you read therefore you need to back up and see what have we been studying the last few weeks so you go back to a few weeks ago we read in chapter 2: 3 through 4 it said do nothing from selfish and ition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only to his own interest but also the interest of others and we saw this this radical call to humility that counts others interests more important than ourselves we looked at that and how that's supposed to shape us as a people that are outwardly focused looking at the needs of others.

And then we saw last week that that uh display of humility is linked to what Christ did for us which is in verses 5- 11 have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human for form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross this picture of.

Jesus who was eternally God who took on flesh to dwell among us to go to the Cross to die for our sins that unbelievably humbling ACT results in the Redemption of his people that is the work that saves Sinners therefore verse 9 God has highly exalted him and bestowed him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is.

Lord to the glory of God the Father father the humility of Christ to go to the cross for us to save Sinners so that we might confess that Jesus is Lord joyfully on the day of judgment that's the truth that precedes the word therefore so we pull all of that into the word therefore and what follows in verse 12 therefore my beloved as you've always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence so before we get to this big Central Command that anchors this passage he has a little bit of an aside a pause that he's just going to be uh addressing this Philippian Church that he loves.

That he has a good relationship with and he's just encouraging them saying hey you you've been doing this you you you you've obeyed you've been doing this and you need to continue to do this which is what I do with my own children like my own kids the language of our household for our children is we need to listen and obey need you to listen and obey that's what you do with us and if we have a babysitter that comes that they're not familiar with it's watching.

For the first time we say we trust this human being okay you're going to do the same thing in my absence Listen and Obey he's encouraging him this what you've always done and you're going to keep it going now Central Command work out your own salvation with fear and trembling so again so some folks jump into that that statement right there and they bypass the word therefore and they jump into aha we you got to live a good life here that's what this is about it said work out your salvation.

So you got to you got to live a good life which in some people's mind their their idea of how you are saved is some type of balance of a scale where you've got good works over here and bad works over here and you got to limit the bad and you got to do the good and if it balances out somewhere like like this and we get a little more good than bad then you'll be okay and you'll get into heaven and it's like no you've completely missed the point.

First off the good things that that you're doing are not as good as you think they are because if we're honest many of our good things are staying with selfish motives the bad were way under selling we don't understand how much we've sended against a holy and perfect God how much we've rebelled against the God of the universe and what kind of cost is involved in that we've misunderstood this completely and some folks have that mindset of just it's got to be a good person.

So I can get in to heaven or I can or I got to be a good person so that I can I can hold on to my salvation that that's what ultimately is what's going to keep me saved and that is ripping this passage out of its context not only by disregarding the word therefore but by completely disregarding the praise that follows after it work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you it is.

God who works in you God is the one who's at work in us God is the one who Begins the work of Salvation and he's the one that continues the work of redemption in our lives that's how this letter started when we were in Philippians 1:6 a couple of months ago we saw verse 6 it said I am sure of this that he God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ that.

God is the one that begins the good work in us and he continues it and he carries his home all the way to completion Those whom God claims he carries into eternity is the reason why we we believe so wonderfully that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ Alone to the glory of God alone that's why Ephesians 28:9 says for by Grace you've been saved through faith this is not of your own doing it is the gift of.

God not a result of works so that no one may boast Redemption is a gift it is a gift that we could not repay is a gift that he gives to his people it is the not is not a result of works there is no balance here that no it's completely looking at Christ and what he did for us on the cross and in the empty tomb that is our only hope is trusting what Christ has done for us it's understanding that.

Jesus is by his act and his works alone that we are saved so that's true then what does he mean by work it out what does he mean by work out your own salvation with fear and trembling he's talking about obedience he's talking about a worshipful reverent fear of the Lord awe of his power obedience that Jesus begins that good work in us he he gives us the Holy Spirit who seals us Ephesians 1:13 and then he continues that work of this reverent worship and obedience that's what Galatians 2 is capturing in Galatians 2:20 says I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live it's not I who live.

But Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me that the Christian Life is recognizing that Jesus the crucified savior it is him who comes to live inside of us and the life we live in the flesh now is by faith in what Christ has done and his work flowing through us we need to understand that we need to believe that.

Because if we don't we get it completely twisted like I about a few weeks ago I saw the announcement that uh that we're GNA that Columbia is hosting a Premier League soccer match at Williams Bry stadium and uh yeah man you in Liverpool I mean who to th they came to Columbia South Carolina out of all the East Coast they chose one of this city out of just a few and my uh my daughter loves soccer she plays soccer she's getting good at it she really loves it and I thought man it' be really good to take Ellie to this Premier League match I said.

But it's going to be really pricey for got the budget right now and then I like dragged my feet and then all of a sudden the tickets went on sale and they sold 880,000 tickets like that I mean just gone and I was like man but if I was really committed and I said no I'm going to make this happen I will go on the secondary Market I will buy those very expensive tickets that is not in our budget all right I'm GNA do it like.

If this is me dreaming you guys so I'm like all right I'm going to buy the tickets and then we're going to go to the game since I'm dreaming we're going to go and we're going to get we're going to get the concessions y'all because the car family is like we got to eat before we go cuz you a little pricey and then we're we're get in a jersey we're getting two jerseys we're getting a scarf we're going to sit lower deck no nose bleeds.

For us we're doing a big you guys lower deck and I take her to the game and we and we sing Olay oay Olay and we watch some of the best soccer players in the world just absolutely kill it and then I go home and I'm like babe how great was that and she goes yeah Dad aren't you glad that I took you to the game word you no that's that's not how this works at all I took you to the game I'm the one that bought the tickets I'm the one that got the concessions I'm the one that that that got you the scarf from the Jersey child.

If you didn't want to go you were going anyways cuz I paid for that I was breaking through your Will child we were absolutely going to this game I decided it and we are absolutely going the work is on me and the reality is that God the Father bought the tickets God took us to the game God brought you home and our actions sometimes say look who I did I took us to the game God the Father purchased us for the blood of his son.

Jesus God's grace breaks through our hardened Hearts the spirit comes alive at work within us God is the the one who redeems us and our actions sometimes say the opposite because some of y'all when you mess up and you sin you think oh I've done done it now I don't know if God can continue to love me I don't know if he's still gonna I don't know if I don't know if I can still I don't know if I'm still a Christian.

Because I've I've I've messed up too many times and I've done too many things how could how could God possibly not want to abandon me and your actions and your heart posture reveals that you believe it was on you in the first place some of you beat yourself up because you you didn't stick to a Bible reading plan or you don't pray enough you're like I just if I I just I got to read my Bible I got to pray which we absolutely yes and amen.

Because it is good for your soul and you should do that every day but some of you are thinking if I don't do this I'm like I don't know it's just God God's not going to be he won't accept my worship it's not I don't know if I can come to Sundays and I don't know if I and your actions and your heart posture reveals that you believe this is on you some of you maybe have been out the Church for a bit and you're just jumping back in and you're like man I just I don't know like I I'm here with a bunch of Church folk and I just don't know.

If like I I got if I'm Really Gonna if I'm really going to commit to doing this I gotta I gotta I gotta get my life cleaned up I got to straighten some things out because if I get around these these these churchy people like I don't I don't know if I'm going to fit in I don't know if I'm I got to clean my life up before I can come to the Lord some of you might have the posture that is one that is just that that thinks that you're a good person maybe you've got a posture that just says I'm I'm a pretty good person like I I do a lot of good.

Like I'm not maybe you're even comparative a comparative about it you're like I'm a pretty good person I'm not a murderer I'm I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm a thief I'm not sleeping around I'm I'm living a pretty good life like I God should accept me is the posture of your actions there's a lot of different way ways that we by our actions and by our heart posture reveal that we believe that the work of redemption is ultimately on us.

And if that's where we land then where you put your hope in is in your works and not the work of Jesus and if it's if if your hope is in your works then you have no hope if your hope is in your works then the path from your works the path that goes from your works to hell because you can't get to heaven on your own and you have to understand this from this passage so I think some people misinterpret this passage remove it from its context and leave with a bad theological understanding of how we are saved I think there are other Christians that.

Look at this passage and understand it's by grace through faith preach it yes amen I absolutely believe that wholeheartedly and yet will completely ignore the force of this command altogether we'll completely jump past to the greater theological understanding that yes we're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ Alone the glory of God alone like I with that's but then completely ignore that it says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling you know what work means in the Greek work it's production that's what is happening here it is absolutely clear that you are saved by grace.

But this is obedience this is obedience this is Faith producing obedience and we're called to this aggressively that's why Ephesians 28-9 which yes and amen for it's by Grace you've been saved through faith and it's this is not of your own doing it's the gift of God not a result of works that no one may boast did you know that verse 10 exists for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforeand that we should walk in them that yes you're saved by the grace of Christ and his work alone.

And when he redeems you you're saved for good works Spurgeon once said your good works is not for the lord it's not to be saved it's for your neighbor you are saved for good works to walk in them which God has prepared for us this is why Galatians 68 says for the one who SWS to his own flesh Will from The Flesh reap corruption but the one who SWS to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life the work is sowing it is working it is striving Luke 13:24.

Jesus says strive to enter through the narrow door for many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able the Christian Life is one that strives in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the good things that God has set out for us to do it is not a passive life where you just sit back and let go and let God which historically is a problem in the South because there's so many people in the South who had a religious experience at some point who prayed the prayer who walked down the aisle they raised the hand and they have this experience.

And then the rest of their life that there there's they're not walking in faith at all their their life isn't one of repentance their life isn't one of of this fearful trembling all worship before the Lord and doing the good works he's designed for us to do and it completely ignores the work out your own salvation with fear and trembling which means that if you call yourself a Christian and your life is not marked by one of repentance we're all Sinners we're all jacked up.

But if your life isn't marked by repentance and it especially if you have the mindset that just says I mean but God's gracious isn't he he's good all the time and it's just I you know I'm better than I deserve but there's no actual it's just seeing Grace is just this cheap offering cheap Grace that I can just do whatever I want Paul addresses that in Romans 6 he says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that Grace May abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it he's just flabbergast he's like that doesn't compute.

For him he's like do do you realize what your sin cost it cost the blood of God and to think that we can see Graces this cheap offering that we can sin all the more by no means absolutely not and if that's your reality then it's possible you might not not be a Christian in the first place if you call yourself a Christian but you never want to read his word you never want to grow in the discipline of word and prayer and you might be the kind of person that says.

But you know I just don't I don't like reading I'm not a great reader I I honestly guys the majority of the early Church wasn't either you know why because they were illiterate and there are Christians all across the world that cannot read but boy oh boy when someone reads the word of God their ears are ready and that's how they used to learn it they used to listen to the word of God and they'd hide that word in their heart and they'd meditated and they' repeat it over and over again to hide the word of.

God deep in their heart and we have phones where you can download a Bible appp and listen to the word of God on demand 24/7 we are without excuse and if your life is marked by one that does not love to read the word that does not want to grow in prayer that's a problem it doesn't he need the command here to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling if you call yourself a Christian but you've never actually shared the Gospel with an unbeliever you've never actually articulated the Gospel to someone who doesn't know Christ knowing what we know that without Christ is hell you say I'm not I'm not gifted at that.

I'm not either I've stumbled through so many Gospel presentations so many but it's more than just I mean it's it's not sharing the Gospel is not a lifestyle that's salt and light stuff and it's good and makes the Gospel look good but if you don't articulate the word of God if you don't share the message and you haven't shared the Gospel at all and that's a that that's a problem when it comes to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

If you call yourself a Christian but you have no desire to be committed to a local Church I mean I've I mean I've heard the argument for years like I I got Jesus I don't need the Church and it's like I I don't think you've I don't think you know Jesus because if you read his word he loves the Church so deeply yes the Church has got some jacked up people in it like like look in the mirror just I mean we're we're yeah and people have done some terrible things in the Church.

But find me a passage that sees God spitting upon the Church and you you're not g to find it God loves the Church he loves his bride that's why he gave up his blood forth the Church I've heard so many Christians make that argument is you don't understand this and you're not living out what it means to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling if you call yourself a Christian but you cling to your finances and you don't submit them to Christ which I know some people yeah the Church is all up.

For your money it's like I no but Jesus is because it reveals what's happening in our hearts and what we love and what we ultimately worship could go on and on and on with this to reveal what's happening in our hearts is there is there this this fear and trembling consideration of Eternal things which I'm listen I don't I don't this passage is meant to be a comfort it's meant to be a comfort okay it's it's actually not meant to stress you out.

But here's the thing I Chad and I were talking about this I don't think I've ever met someone who's a Christian who at some point wasn't at times considering these Eternal things with fear and trembling just I do I really believe this do I really love God do I am I really am I really living what it means to be a Christian I don't think you should stay there I think you look to and you say wait a second no it yeah we're Sinners and we trust in the work of.

Jesus and he's good but I I don't know I don't know Christians that haven't wrestled with this in a real way that just says do I actually believe this and if you've never actually wrestled with this like do I actually believe this then you might might not be a Christian when you understand this command as a Christian that it's by faith alone that we're saved and there's a call to obedience that flows out of this faith when you understand that you can begin to change you can begin to change from the infection of self-righteousness and and works-based salvation or the infection of cheap Grace that just says I can be be a Christian and not.

Ever do anything good to begin with and if you start to like lean into this passage and really let the truth what's Happening Here impact our hearts you'll start to see healing this is the treatment like if you have pneumonia if you have a case of pneumonia you're going to have fever sepsis chills the works white blood cell count through the roof but if you go in and you get the antibod antibiotic antibiotics I promise I talked to a doctor before I made this illustration you you get the antibiotics you're going to actually get better you're going to have you're going be able to breathe you're going to get your white cell count's going to.

Go down the fever is going to break but you got to get the treatment the treatment is submitting to God in faith and then allowing him to shape our hearts that we walk this out in obedience and if we'll do that here's what you're going to discover if you've done the work of fear and trembling all worship before the Lord faith in him God sham my heart and let me walk in obedience if you've done this then you're going to discover this results in your good and that's how this ends work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure the work of Jesus in you ultimately is for his good pleasure every now and then I try to get my children to do something they don't want to do and it is difficult and this one time I had my son and we had to go up this big big walk big hill big hike we parked and we we got out we're walking listen what I've noticed with kids is is that they'll run around.

For like an hour and if they have a pedometer they've clocked like two miles but the moment you say let's walk in a straight line together up a hill it's like I can't do it they just like it's so hard it's likees you can so I'm encouraged him like come on buddy like we got this we got we got to go we got to walk and I it's like all right you can't you can I just can't the hill I'm like you can buddy I've seen you do it you can you can get up this hill I can't.

So like all right let me put you on my shoulders and I wall my shoulders for a bit and I'll carry him a little further and I'm like buddy you're you a little big now you going have to walk my back ain't that good this come on come on you can do it he's like I can't we see we had to walk across this bridge he's like I can't do it yes you can dude come on come on and then we get to the steps at Colonial Life Arena which is I have to park far away.

Because you heard about a budget earlier like it just I ain't paying for parking our family walks and we're at the steps of Colonial Life Arena we walk up and guess what buddy we're here monster trucks monster jam and he's excited because he's gonna watch Gravedigger wreck some cars and it's like we're here it's good ain't it good yeah he's smiling and I'm smiling because he's smiling and I'm overjoyed and that's our God at work in us that God the father he begins the good work in us and there are times where he's he's encouraging us you you got it just a little further and there are times in life where we are just rock.

Bottom and he puts us on his shoulders and he carries us a little further and then he puts us down and he continues he's like you got it and by the end of it we are finding the joy of Walking with God and what awaits us and our God finds joy when we find joy in him he finds pleasure when we find pleasure in him I mean think about that picture the God of the universe who's just in the heavens when you are doing the good works that he's designed.

For you to do where he's just up there and he's just like that's my boy that's my girl that's who our God is but it cannot be that if you don't submit to him in faith and if you don't seek to live a life that out of Faith seeks obedience ultimately for the good of others that results in our own good but it takes understanding this passage correctly putting it on and walking in faith and obedience as we're called to as Christians let's pray heavenly.

Father I pray that you might help us submit Our Lives to you so that we can be the kind of people that you've called us to be Heavenly Father we need you to do a good work in our hearts we need you to continue to sanctify us to make us like you so that we might be the people that you've called us to be so we might work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is you that works in us we ask this in.

Jesus name amen we're going to take the Lord's supper the band is going to come up and as prepare to take the Lord's Supper some of you need to consider your posture and your heart before the Lord some of you love Christ and you're a follower of Jesus and maybe on one side you're just you're beating yourself up thinking that this is all on you and we come to the table as a reminder that on the night that he was betrayed he took bread he bre broken he said this is my body that was broken.

For you he took the cup of the New Covenant 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 he returns and we need to remember that it's on Christ and what he's done for us so yeah we're Sinners and yeah we don't perfectly obey but that's the point of Christ coming for us and you get to joyfully come to the table and remember that so prepare your hearts to do that there's gluten-free back in that corner over there prepare your hearts.

For worship but there are some of you who have never actually tasted and seen the Lord is good you have not placed your faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross or maybe you had some profession of Faith years ago but the whole life since then has been one of cheap Grace and my hope is that you wouldn't come to the table but you would come to Christ and you would submit your life to him and you'd see that he's beautiful and that he's glorious and that he's good and that he's worth worthy of your life.

Today would be the day that it begins the good work in you and then you would walk with us to see how he continues that good work and that one day you might stand in the presence of God as he's carried you through to completion worshiping him forever consider your hearts and respond.

Sola Fide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Sola Fide

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to the book of Romans. If you have one of these blue Bibles in front of you, it will be on page 547 in the book of Romans. We're here this morning.

You're here. I'm here because at some point we've asked the question that we were supposed to ask. We've all come together asking the same question. Some of you are here this morning. Maybe this is the first time you've begun to ask this question and you've come this morning. And the question is the same question that comes out of the mouth of the rich young ruler when he meets Jesus.

It's the question that the Philippian jailer has after an earthquake where he sees the authority and the power of God and he's talking to Paul. It's the question that everyone asks after Peter's sermon on Pentecost. It's what must I do to be saved? That's the question. You may have worded it different. You may have thought about it differently, but that's the question.

It's what Carl Jung refers to this. He's a Swiss psychologist. He refers to this religious instinct that humans have this desire, this longing, this searching in them to have religious answers. It's the question that all religions are answering. What does God want from me? If there is a God, what does he expect from me?

What am I supposed to do? What must I do to be saved? What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? That's the question. And some of you are saying, I'm not asking that question. This person brought me here.

Well, I will tell you that it is the question you need to have an answer to. That if you actually were able to meet God and ask him one question, you may be curious about things like Bigfoot and UFOs or the next winning lotto Numbers, but this is the question you actually need answered is how can I be saved? Because that one has eternal implications. And I'll tell you that the Bible's answer to that, I'm going to give you a short answer, and then I'm going to give you a longer answer. You thought maybe it would just be a short answer, but I'm a preacher and that will never happen. I'm going to give you a short answer, and then I'll give you a longer answer.

The short answer is that in order to be saved, you need to be able to stand in front of God who is a judge, who weighs the hearts of humans. You need to be able to stand before God and be righteous. As Leviticus says, we have to be holy as he is holy. Or as Deuteronomy says that we need to be blameless before God. Or as David puts it in Psalm 24 where he says that he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Or as Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, that we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.

That's the standard. Now, if you're like me, like if I was going to take a test, if I was going to get my electrical license, and I went in and they said, you know, you got this amount of time and this many questions, there's 50 questions, there's 100 questions. My first question I have for them is, how many do I have to get right? Where's the cutoff? We're talking 50%, 75%. So the question that we should have is how holy, how blameless, how clean are my hands supposed to be?

How pure is my heart? When you say perfect, you meant like C plus range, right? It's like we want to argue that somehow it's graded on a curve. Like, you know, it's like, like it works the way it works when you're running from a bear. If you're ever running from a bear, you actually don't have to be faster than the bear. You just have to be faster than the other people with you.

And that's kind of how we want this to work. It's like the salvation work like that. Like if I can just find people who are worse than me and I'm in the top 50%, is that okay? And when it says blameless, it means blameless. When it says holy, it means holy. When it says perfect, it means perfect.

That's the standard righteous. This is the theological word is that we would need to be justified before God, meaning that when we came in, we would need to have no sins that we have committed and we would need to have practical, positive righteousness, no sins, no negative righteousness. And we would need positive righteousness. I mean, we've actually done good in the world. So never having sinned and done what we were supposed to.

Good luck. Let's pray. That's the question. That's the short answer. But there's a longer answer that's more beautiful and more helpful than good luck.

Let's pray. And it's that question that drove Martin Luther, who we've been studying as we've talked through these five solas of the Reformation, these five theological truths that came out in the Protestant Reformation as the Protestant church broke with the Catholic church that we hold dearly because they come from the scriptures. It's this question that drove Martin Luther to, uh, to the church and ultimately to kind of where we are today. So let's pray. And then we'll, we'll start in now. We ask for your help this morning.

As we study this, we pray that this truth would be visible, tangible, tangible, that we would see it's a beauty and that we would accept it and trust you in Jesus name. Amen. So Martin Luther had this question, how can I be saved? It's why he became a monk. He thought it was the best route to being saved. Uh, we said earlier, lightning struck near him and knocked him over.

He yelled, St. Anne protects me. I'll become a monk. And he did. He becomes a monk and he's trying to be good enough to be saved because what they were telling him is you had to practice penance. You had to practice confession.

He would go into the confessional. He would confess. He'd be on his way out. He'd remember more sins. He would go back. He, he was haunted by the reality of his sin.

And the truth is he wasn't crazy. He actually saw himself pretty clearly that if you could really look into your own heart, you would see depravity. And so he, he was trying to wear out and carry out. How do I get saved? How do I make myself okay? And he was stuck studying the book of Romans and we've shown this passage, but this is where he was.

He was in Romans one and he was reading this over and over again. Romans one verse 17 for in it. That's the gospel. It says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation. So in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith from faith for faith by faith. And he was stuck here. He didn't understand how the righteousness of God was revealed in this way, that God is righteous in this way. And then he began to realize that righteousness of God being revealed is that it's granted to us that his righteousness is given to us. And his understanding of how you became righteous was that you did it. You worked it out.

You repented enough. You did enough good works. And he starts realizing that righteousness is, that it is given from faith, that we receive righteousness from faith and that it's given for faith and that we live by faith. And when he wrapped his head around this, he said, it was like the gates of heaven swung open to him that he was saved, not by his work, but by faith alone. And that's what we're looking at is this idea of sola Fide, which means by faith alone, that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone, that it's God's grace working on our behalf, but that it's faith that is the channel that brings that grace to us.

And so he wrote 97 theses. Addressing this great theological rift between what the Bible says and how we understand the Bible and what the Catholic church was teaching at that time, he wrote 97 theses on how to study the Bible and understand the Bible. He wrote it on grace and faith. And he said, you know, this is, he was dropping a bomb on the Catholic approach to understanding of, of life and sanctification and faith and how we were saved. He was saying, we've answered this question wrong. The question that we're supposed to get right.

We've answered wrong. He wrote 97 theses, which were just his end conclusion points. And he wanted to debate them. He wanted to discuss them. He was ready to show his work. He, he dropped this out to basically say the Catholic church is wrong.

This is how we're saved. And they said, the response was underwhelming. He thought, I've just thrown a hand grenade in here. Everyone's going to care. They didn't really debate a whole lot. He was winning over some people in Wittenberg to this idea that we're saved by faith, by grace alone through faith alone.

And then the cell of indulgences happened. And he threw what he did not think was a hand grenade into a situation that turned into a hand grenade. And he was like, you like those 95 theses? I have 97 other ones I'd like to share with you. Here's what happened with the cell of indulgences. Indulgences is this idea, it's Catholic idea that when you sin, there are consequences.

Consequences we're tracking so far. That's true. There are consequences. And they taught that there were time bound consequences and eternal consequences. Also true. We're on board.

Protestants are still nodding along. Yes, there are eternal consequences of sin. There are time bound consequences. They said that there are time bound consequences that are paid out here on earth. True. We agree with that.

Like if there are just consequences to sin, if you punch someone in the nose, there are consequences, immediate consequences to their face and then follow up consequences. Maybe they punch you back. Maybe they call the police. Maybe the job interview didn't go so well. I don't know. There are consequences.

But they taught that those consequences weren't the natural result of the way God designed the world, but that God would actually keep record of what you have done and dull consequences back out to you to make you pay it back off. And that he would not only do that here, but he would also do it in purgatory. As soon as they make this argument, we back out. God isn't paying you back specifically to make you pay off your debt. It's just the natural way that there are consequences to sin. It's the way God designed the world.

And there is no purgatory where you pay off mid-level sins that didn't send you to hell, but that you have to be there for a certain amount of time. But they taught this. And so they taught that what you could do was an indulgence. You could say a certain number of prayers. You could go on a pilgrimage. You could do good Acts.

And what that would do is put good back into the world. You brought bad into the world. You could put good back into the world. And as you put good back into the world, God would remove some of the consequences he was going to give you either here or in purgatory. They taught you could go on pilgrimages. Then at one point they started saying, well, you could give to like help good causes.

Like there was a hospital. You could help pay for that. And then they were like, well, you know what? We're actually working on a church building. And so in Rouen, France, they have a part of a church building, a cathedral called the butter tower, because during Lent you weren't allowed to eat butter or dairy, but they started letting you pay a little money and they'd give you like a butter ticket. And that's where we, the way we use the word, like I'm going to indulge in some ice cream.

That's where they, that gets tied to that. This indulgence of you paid some money. We're going to build our tower. You can, you can have some butter. Then enter the archbishop of Mainz.

He paid a lot of money to become the archbishop because it was a very powerful position. The church wasn't just the church. It was also in charge of politics. So he paid a lot of money to become the archbishop of Mainz. He was now in a very powerful position, but he wanted to recoup some of his money and Pope Leo the 10th wanted to finish St. Peter's Basilica and make it a lot nicer.

And so they hatched a plan. We're just going to sell indulgences for cash and split the profits. And so they hired a guy named Tetzel to begin to be their indulgence preacher. And he's traveling around Germany preaching and he's preaching. Basically, these are indulgences that if you pay us a certain amount of money, we'll give it to you. And if you keep it, if it's for you, you'll, you won't have to go to purgatory.

And if you pay it on behalf of someone else, we'll let them out of purgatory right now. So they was teaching. Um, and he had, he was like a, he was hawking these things. He was a salesman. He had different phrases he used. He said, if you buy one of these, you're cleaner than when you come out of baptism.

If you buy one of these, you're cleaner than Adam before the fall that the cross on the indulgence has as much power as the cross of Christ. But the one he's most famous for is as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory Springs. And I was like, man, that's catchy. It rhymes, you know, it's true. But I was like, well, you know, it rhymes in English.

He was saying this in German. So was it as catchy? I looked it up and I hadn't been as excited about anything in a while. It's amazing in German. It still rhymes. If you don't speak German, I'm about to crush this.

If you do speak German, I'm sorry if I say something offensive, but this is the phrase in German. So bald, that's geld in cast and clinked. Die still in den Himmel springt. Clinked and springt. I was so pumped when I saw this. I think we should put more T's at the end of words.

So he has this phrase that he's saying, this is how you do. This is what happens if you'll buy one of these. This is how salvation works. And I was so excited about this that we've come up with some of our own. When the money goes in the slot, your sins are forgiven on the spot. The check goes in the wall.

There's no more sin on y'all. Set up recurring gifts online and then your soul will be just fine. You better have a Venmo if you want to sin-mo. So proud of those. Anyway, it would be absolutely crazy if we actually taught that. That if we were like, you know, we need to place our faith in Jesus.

He's the one who redeems us. Or there's a cash option. But that's what they were doing. And so Martin Luther writes 95 theses about this. His 97 weren't a big hit, but he was like, this is ridiculous as well. So he's doing the same thing that he did.

He's not thinking this will blow up. He's just trying to say this is wrong. Some of the arguments he makes are, first of all, he says the Pope is in charge of Pope things, not purgatory. If the Pope tells you that you have to pay some kind of penance, then the Pope can give you an indulgence to not have to pay that penance. He's in charge of the churches doling out and removing of things. He says, but God's in charge of purgatory.

Later he decides there is no purgatory as he continues to read his Bible. But at this point he's not there. So he says, God's in charge of purgatory. He says, the Pope can't get you out of purgatory. Secondly, if the Pope could get you out of purgatory, he should just be doing this because he loves people, not for cash. He should pay out of his own pocket if it costs money.

He should pay his own money to get people out of purgatory if he has that power. He should want to sell St. Peter's Basilica to get people out of purgatory. This is what he writes. This one was not well received by the Pope. This one makes it to him.

He attacked the Pope. He attacked his wallet. And it becomes a big thing. And he was like, you like those 95 theses? I got 97 more on something that I think is way more important. So as soon as he got some, people started hearing him and reading this.

He started pressing this idea of there's salvation by grace through faith. And this is how it comes to us. It blows up over this idea of indulgences, which affects this. But it wasn't his primary argument he was trying to make. He's more famous for the 95, but his 97 matter more because it's a theological argument. So he comes through and he says, this is how it works.

And all we're going to do now is I'm going to show you in the book of Romans where this is. And we're going to walk through that we are saved by faith alone. We are not saved by our works. So in Romans chapter three, turn to chapter three. We're going to pick up in verse nine and we're going to move our way through Romans. I'll show you some passages in Galatians, but we're going to work our way through Romans.

First thing you need to know to understand how salvation works, to answer this question, what must I do to be saved? We're supposed to be righteous. You're supposed to be holy. You're supposed to be blameless. That's the standard perfection. Out the gate, you need to understand something.

You aren't. Romans three, Paul says this. He's talking about the law, meaning the ways that we would behave, that God has told the Old Testament Jewish people, that this is the law on how you would be holy is how you'd be blameless. And he starts talking about them having this. And he's already making the argument that everybody has sinned. But he says, what advantage has the Jew, meaning the people who were given the law, or what is the value of circumcision, meaning this covenant that was made with them?

Sorry. Verse nine. I'm way, I'm up at the top of verse, chapter three. He's making this argument as he goes through. Then he says, what then are Jews any better off?

Verse nine. No, not at all. He's saying that this was given to him and it was a blessing, but it ultimately doesn't make them better off when it comes to salvation. The law does not do this. He says, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. As it is written, 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. You're like, no one does good. Maybe I do. Not even one. What he's saying is that, and this is a quote from the Old Testament, but that the standard of righteousness is not met by anybody. That you're supposed to add high quality good into the world.

You're supposed to have positive righteousness and you're supposed to not sin. And what we have done is we have not done this, not done what we were supposed to. And we have done what we weren't supposed to. We have sinned. That's us. If it's your first time hearing that, I'll let that sink in for a second.

You're a sinner before God. You have lied. You have stolen. You have been covetous. You've messed up relationships. One of the best examples of this is that to show how wicked we are is that most of the time, the worst things we do are the people that we would say we love the most, the people we're closest to, that we consistently harm people that we're around, that you have not, you're not one of the good ones.

So we fall short. This is what he says in verse 22 and 23 later on. He says, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So that none of us make it. Secondly, so we've all sinned. Secondly, we need to understand this is verse 19.

That we are all accountable to God. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. That not only are we in our sin, but we are accountable to God. That he, as God, as creator, as ruler of the world, holds us to account. And we don't have anything. We don't have anything to say.

He says every mouth may be stopped. This is what Job says when he talks about standing before God. He says that who could stand before God? He would accuse you on a thousand fronts and you would have no response for any of them. That if you actually went in front of God, he'd have a thousand things that he could say. You've lusted.

You've lied. You've tried to make yourself seem better than you were. Every time you did something good, every time you did something that would be counted as good, you walked around with pride in your heart, strutting as if you were better than everyone around you. You couldn't even do something good without bringing your sin along. And we would have nothing to say. It'd be like he had it on tape.

He had it on record. He showed it to us. We'd have no argument to make. That's what he says. The law just shuts us up because it holds us accountable and there's nothing we can do about it. The third thing you need to understand is that no amount of work can fix this.

So when we're called to be righteous, there's no amount of penance that you can pay, no amount of debt that you can work off, no amount of goodness that you can add back into the world, no amount of, okay, I've been bad, I've messed up, I've hurt people, but now I'm going to get it together. Now I'm going to do it right. That doesn't work. He says, for by works of the law, this is verse 20, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So if you say, well, what do you want me to do?

Just give me the list and I'll do it. He says, that will never make you justified. You'll never be able to stand before him by works of the law and have done practical righteousness and not sin. No human being. If you happen to be a part of the Illuminati and you're like a lizard person, you might can sneak in, but everybody else, all the human beings, will not be justified in his sight. This is what Galatians 3.10 says, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them. So I want to talk to two people real quick that I think often are trying to rely on works of the law. I want to talk to a good old boy, Southern Christianity. What does God want from me? He wants me to be an upstanding citizen. He wants me to do what's right.

Okay? True, he does want those things for you. That will not save you. Because if you don't uphold every part of the law, you're cursed. There is no, just be in the middle of the pack. Don't make things worse.

And we'll be all right. That's not how it works. It says, all who rely on works of the law. For you to say, well, I'm just going to be good enough. I'm just going to kind of do what I'm supposed to. I'm going to be a part of a church.

I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to pay my taxes and pay my tithe. And that's what you're relying on. This is what you're going to present to him. This is your resume you're building. You are under a curse.

It will not work. And some of you are shooting for middle of the pack. And some of you go, that's ridiculous. Got to be in the top 10%. So let's talk to church ladies.

If we're going to give a hard time to good old boys, let's talk to church ladies. If you think that, no, it's not, it's not just be kind of good. It's be really good. It's get a perfect attendance pin to Sunday school. It's know your Bible backward and forward and be able to quote it at people. It's be disgusted with sinners.

My wife works at a bank and periodically they'd have situations where things were going wrong. And I don't know if y'all know this about people, but they get upset during customer service incidences. And they seem to crank that up if it involves their money. But there was a time she was telling me there was a lady they work with who's hard to work with. And every time something happened, she was super frustrated. And when she was arguing with them, she would cite that she was a Sunday school teacher.

And how dare they? And my wife would be like, what? First of all, this is a bank. We don't care about your Sunday school teaching. Second of all, what the heck even is that? It's like this.

But that idea of I'm one of the good ones. You're cursed. If you're trying to rely on the works of the law. If you have a resume that you're going to present to God, it will not work. It's what Galatians 2, 21 says. He says, I do not nullify the grace of God.

For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. If you could do it on your own. If there was one person. It says, no, not one. But if there was one person who was righteous on their own.

Then all God would have to say is, see? You could do it. But this person, the rest of y'all, if we could do it, if there was a way to attain it from the law, why did Christ come? Why did he die? We don't have an answer for that. Paul says it's for no purpose.

Christ doesn't have to die. He would just have to teach us things. He would just come back in. He would reform it a little bit. He'd tweak it. He'd say, y'all aren't doing this part right.

But if you try really hard, you can. You can. You can. So Jesus comes, verse 21 in Romans. But now, the righteousness of God, that's that word again, has been manifested, means showed up, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

So he says the law and the prophets were pointing us in this direction, but it's not the law that brought God's righteousness to us. It says it's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. That's that word. That's that theological word, that thing that we need to be in front of God, justified.

By his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. All right. That's beautiful. That we're justified. That thing that we need, we're made right before God by his grace as a gift. A gift meaning we didn't do it.

He gives it to us. It's to be received. You look at the bottom. Received by faith. That's what we do. We receive a gift by faith, by trusting Jesus.

He's the one who does redemption and propitiation. Let me tell you what those words mean. Redemption is the idea that he buys us out of slavery. That he pays the price for us. So, to stand before God, you need no sin and positive righteousness. Unfortunately, what you have is sin and no positive righteousness.

Okay? You're in the wrong line with the wrong ticket. At the wrong show. At the wrong time. You got nothing. Jesus has no sin and positive righteousness.

So, Jesus redeems and propitiates. Meaning that he comes in and he swaps places with us. He pays the debt. He says, I'll take your sin. I'll give you my righteousness. It's redemption.

Propitiation. Then he goes to God and he says, I will, here's their sin. I'll pay for it. That's propitiation. That he absorbs the wrath of God on our behalf. If he had sinned, he wouldn't be able to do anything for us.

If he hadn't fulfilled the law on our behalf, he wouldn't be able to do anything for us. He never sinned and he fulfilled the law. We never fulfilled the law, but we have sinned and he swaps places with us. Jesus Christ died for a purpose. And it was to redeem sinners and to propitiate our sin before God. There's this idea of a champion.

I always found it really intriguing. And it's just an interesting thing that would happen in history. When people would go to fight, whole armies would line up. But then at times they would say, rather than us just our army fighting your army, just send forth your champion. Send out the biggest, baddest dude you got. And we'll send out the biggest, baddest dude we have.

And they'll fight on our behalf. This actually happens in the book of 1 Samuel. That's what Goliath was. He was the champion of the Philistines. He comes out and says, I'm going to fight on behalf of us. He actually says, if I win, y'all will serve us.

But if you win, if your champion wins, we'll serve you. The whole nations, the whole armies, everything was hanging in the balance on one-on-one fight. That's what faith in Jesus is. He's not our commander that coaches us up on how to fight well. He's our champion. We stand back.

It's all in his hands. If he wins, we win. If he secures the victory, we have the victory. If he rescues, if he redeems, if he accomplishes it, if he rises, we rise. If he doesn't, we don't. But it's all been pushed onto him.

That we trust Jesus to be the one who accomplishes this. Jesus to be the one who's righteous for us. Jesus to be the one who pays off our sin debt. That it's not, I have to feel bad enough. I have to pay penance to pay off my debt. Or that I have to be good enough.

It's none of that that we trust Jesus. We have faith in Jesus and we are saved by faith. Fifth thing we need to see is that faith is not a work. It's actually the opposite of work. It's anti-work. It's not the one work that we do.

It's the quitting of our work. Effective immediately. Resignation, effective immediately. Here's what he says, verse 27. And I love that he poses this as a question. Then what becomes of our boasting?

Like what the question is, okay, cool. Jesus saves me by grace through faith. It's a gift. What do I get to brag about? What happens with me telling everyone I'm awesome? And he says, it is excluded.

Which means you don't get to. There is no boasting in this system. You aren't awesome. Did you read the first part of my letter? It's excluded. You did not do this.

That's what he's saying. There is no boasting. And this helps us understand that this isn't a work. He says, by what kind of a law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Meaning if you did it, then you can strut. But if you watch David and Goliath go forward. And we were here for 40 days, super scared. Nobody wanted to fight Goliath. And then we're like, here's a child with a rock.

Let's see what he can do. We send him forward. All our hopes in him. We're trusting in this. Because he's the only one brave enough to go do it. He's going to go handle it.

Seems meek. Seems like it's not going to work. But it does. That ultimately he's a beautiful picture of what Jesus is. But we're the ones all scared and sitting back.

And as soon as he killed Goliath, if I jumped in the back and yelled, I'm awesome! Chad Phillips! He'd be like, what is wrong with you? He'd be like, we won. It's like, yeah, but David, what? That's what he's saying.

Like there's no boasting here because we didn't do any work. It's excluded. This is what Calvin says in his institutes. He was a French performer in Geneva. It says, because of the majority of people, because the majority of people, imagine a righteousness of faith mixed with works. Meaning you need both.

You've got to bring your good works to the table. You need to have faith in Jesus. Let us also show the righteousness of faith is so different from that of works that if one is established, the other is overturned. One's excluding the other. You can have one or the other. You can stand before God on your own merit or you can stand before God on Christ's merit.

It's up to you. But you don't get both. You either show up with Christ's record of righteousness, which I would heavily suggest to you, or you show up with your record of righteousness. But you don't get both. That's what he says. What becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by law of faith.

And this is good news. I want to jump to Romans 4, 4. Because I love this passage. Now, to the one who works, he's still carrying this idea out, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. If you work for 40 hours, you went to pick up your paycheck, and as they went to hand it to you, you reach that and they pull back and say, ah, say thank you. Like, fool.

You tell me thank you. You owe me this. That's his point. It's like if it's a wage that you earned, it's your due. We can't hold it back from you. You deserve it.

Then he says this, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. That's us. We don't work. We didn't show up with something to present. And we're ungodly. But Jesus justifies the ungodly.

If you're here and you're going, I'm so messed up. I've got to get back in church. I've got to get it together. I've got to start reading my Bible. I've messed everything up in my life. I've messed up all my relationships.

I've just got to clean this up. I've got to get this straightened out. You won't. But Jesus can. He justifies the ungodly because he's good. That's why it's a gracious gift.

This is beautiful, wonderful news. That faith is counted as righteousness. And faith is us just saying, I trust that Jesus has accomplished this for me. And that makes us genuinely, truly, eternally righteous because we stand in Christ, not ourselves. We're saved by grace alone through faith alone. Now, as we do that, Christians are supposed to work.

We have good works. But good works do not secure salvation for us. They do not earn anything for us. It's just the appropriate response to what Jesus has done for us. That's what Martin Luther, I'm going to end with two quotes from him. He says, God does not need our good works.

They don't present to him. They don't save us. He says, but your neighbor does. And that's God, we're saved by grace through faith for good works that he works in us, that he planned beforehand. We're told that in Ephesians, but they don't redeem us. So that if you look at a Christian, Christians are supposed to have works.

They're supposed to look like believers. John tells us that. James tells us that. Paul tells us that. Christ tells us that. But we look like believers because we are.

We look like Christ because we've been made like Christ through the work of Christ. So you don't bring good works to him for your redemption. You come to Jesus. The only thing that you can bring is your sin that makes your salvation necessary. That's all you have. I need a clean.

I need clean hands and I need a pure heart. But I have dirty hands and a wicked heart. And I get Christ. Christ. So this is what Luther says.

He says, it is God's nature to make something out of nothing. Hence, one who is not yet nothing, out of him God cannot make anything. So if you think you're something, if you have good works that you're going to present to God, you'll stand in that. But God will not make you new. Because you still think you're presenting something to him that has earned you something. He says, therefore, God accepts only the forsaken.

Cures only the sick. Gives sight only to the blind. Restores life only to the dead. Sanctifies only the sinners. Gives wisdom only to the unwise. In short, he has mercy only on those who are wretched.

But he does have mercy on those who are wretched. He does justify the ungodly. And so we get together and we praise his name because he saves us through his goodness and his glory on our behalf. The band's going to come back up. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. If you do not have a good answer to the question of what does God want from me?

Or if you answered the question with he wants me to be good. You are under a curse. You are not righteous. You are accountable to God. And you will pay the due penalty of your sin. And it would be unloving to tell you anything else.

It would be unloving to stand up here and say, you'll be okay. It'll be fine. It will not. If you walk towards Christ with your resume that screams the glory of your own name. You will not be welcomed into heaven. You will not be welcomed into his presence.

You will not be given glory before his face. You will pay the penalty of your sin. But Jesus Christ redeems the ungodly. He justifies us before God. He pays the penalty of our sin. And all you need to do is bring your sin to him and say, this is all the stuff that should disqualify me.

All I can bring to you is all the things that would keep me out. And I can hand him over to Christ and I can let him take him to the cross for me. And when he rises, I can rise with him. Because he gives me his righteousness. And then when you stand before God. And he brings to you a thousand accusations.

You can say they were all paid by Christ. And I am clothed in the righteousness of your son. And we are made righteous in his son. And we are justified by God. And if someone says, well, you're ungodly. It's like, yes and amen.

That's who Jesus justifies. I'm wretched. And so I get a glorious, gracious Savior. And if you've placed your faith in Jesus. And you're somehow trying to smuggle works back in. Because we have little legalist hearts.

That you're somehow falling short. And you haven't done enough. And you aren't good enough. And you're overwhelmed by the weight of your sin. Would you stop and take a deep breath. And praise Jesus for justifying the ungodly.

If you can look at yourself right now and say, I've been following Jesus for so long. And I feel so ungodly. Praise Christ that he justifies the ungodly. That he redeems. That he propitiates. You say, I deserve so much wrath for my wickedness.

He said, yes. And Christ paid it out on the cross. And he disarmed the rulers and the authorities. And we rise with him because he rises. Not because we're good. Not because after he saved us we got together.

And we became good people. But because he redeems. And he makes new. And he gets the glory and the praise forever. If you haven't placed your faith in Jesus. Trust him.

Come to him now and say, I need you to save me. And he will. And if you have placed your faith in Jesus. Let's celebrate that he saves sinners like us. And let's sing praises to his name.

Easter (Matthew 27:55-28:15)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Easter

Chet Philips

Transcript

Apparently, I had it on the whole time I was singing, so if you thought things sounded particularly good today, you're welcome. 1 Corinthians 15, 17 says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Jesus Christ was crucified. He was dead. He was buried. If he stayed that way.

You're dressed up. You look nice. This is a waste of time. I mean, I think you look good. Take your picture. Grab a cupcake on the way out.

But this is a waste of time. This is futile. You are in your sins. That's the primary thing that Jesus came to do is to rescue sinners. To redeem us from our sin. And if he did not rise, he does not redeem.

He does not save. You have no hope. You are in your sin. But if he does rise, then our faith isn't futile. And we are not in our sin. And we have gathered this morning because he does rise.

He did rise. And we have hope. And we have good hope and certain hope. My family are Carolina fans. South Carolina fans. We grew up.

I grew up. We didn't pay any attention to sports whatsoever. We played sports. We did not watch them. We did not talk about them. I knew no one who played.

I knew no scores. I knew nothing. My friends would talk about them at school. I was like, yeah, I don't know anything to what you're talking about. I was playing linebacker in high school. Somebody said something to me about Urlacher.

I responded, who? And that's a mortal sin for a white linebacker. You're supposed to know who Brian Urlacher is. I had to go Google it later. Probably still on dial-up. I had to look it up, try to find out who this person was we were talking about.

But my younger brother, when he was in middle school, he decided that this was a problem for our family. And that we needed to pick a team to pull for. And so he decided that we should pull for the South Carolina Gamecocks. And he brought us all in on it. And he chose in middle school, and he got excited about it. And he had us join him.

And sometimes, when everything's still and quiet, I find myself imagining what it would have been like if he had picked better. I think it was inevitable. My older brother ended up going there. My wife went to USC. We moved here and started the church. So I think at some point it was meant to be for me to be a South Carolina fan.

But South Carolina fans have hope. Because that's all they have. And it's, we say, well, you know, maybe next year. We'll put a whole season. Well, next year. We'll get it together next year.

Based off of absolutely nothing. One of the things South Carolina fans will do is tell you bad players from this year that will be returning next year. This person will be back. We've got 11 seniors coming back. What does that matter? They didn't do anything this year.

Let's go find some new ones. Do you think our coaches are going to get them better in the offseason? Because I've never seen that happen. We'll do it. We'll do for a whole season. We'll do for a game.

You'll hear South Carolina fans say things like, all right. All we got to do is score. Stop them. Score. Stop them. Get the onside kick.

Score. And we're right back in this thing. And they mean down by three or seven or whatever. And there's no reason. Have you been watching the game to assume that we will a score or be stop them. That's not the type of hope that Christians have.

It's not hopeful, wishful, good thoughts about a potential future based off of nothing. Christians have certain hope in finished work accomplished by Christ on our behalf. When we talk about hope, we don't mean I think it will be good later. We mean he has accomplished this. And therefore we have rock solid, unending, unyielding future hope. And that's why we've gathered this morning.

Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 27. We are going to look at the resurrection of Jesus. That the resurrection is real. And because it is real, everything Jesus taught, everything Jesus claimed to be, everything Jesus said he was going to do is vindicated and validated. It has a seal on it of certainty and truth.

So when he says he forgives sins, he means it. When he says that there will be hope in his name and salvation in his name, he means it. When he says he's the son of God and we'll see him in power, he means it. Because it's real. So let's pray and then we'll begin to read this text together.

God, we thank you for the certain hope of the resurrection. We pray that as we read this, you would help it come alive to us. That we might see it. That you might captivate our hearts. And for those in this room who have not placed their faith in you, Lord, we pray that they would leave with a certain hope. And forgiveness of sins.

Future salvation. To reign with you for eternity. In Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 27 verse 55. There were also many women there looking on from a distance.

So they're watching Jesus be crucified. Who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him. I love that it says that the women were there. They stayed. They didn't run off like the men. And that it specifies that when they followed him, they ministered to him.

And that sounds very true. He asked the men, what are they doing? Like, we're ministering with Jesus. We're here to do some stuff. But they didn't help him.

And the women came and they're like, no, we love Jesus. We're going to serve Jesus. They ministered to Jesus. They've been ministering to him. And among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. When it was evening, this is Jesus is dead.

This was Good Friday. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. So Joseph of Arimathea gets the body, cleans Jesus's body. They lay Jesus's dead body in Joseph's tomb. We're told that it's a new tomb because they would have and it's cut in rocks. So they would have gone in these limestone rocks.

They would have cut out tombs and they would have shelves in there and you would bury your whole family potentially in there. Your whole household would be buried in the same tomb. We're told it's a new tomb. There was only one body in there. It was Jesus's. And they rolled a stone and we're told that this is a big stone.

Rolled a stone in front of the hole cut out in the rock. And this stone would have been basically like a millstone. It had been fairly flat, rounded and sat in a little trench and rolled over the hole. And that was to keep grave robbers out. It was to keep animals out. And so they close the tomb.

And they were told that the Marys know where the tomb is. They've seen it. They saw him buried. That's important. The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive. After three days, I will rise.

Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away. And and the last fraud will be worse than the first. Oh, steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last fraud will be worse than the first. So the chief priests go and they say, hey, this guy kept telling people he was going to die and he was going to rise again. So it's possible that his disciples will steal the body and then be like, he rose.

Yeah. And that'll be bad. He's an imposter. And that'll make the last fraud worse than the first. And I want you to know that if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, they're right. He's an imposter and a fraud.

He's not a good man. He's not a good moral teacher. He's an imposter and a fraud because he said that he was the son of God. He said that he could forgive sins. He said that his blood was going to be poured out as a sacrifice in a new covenant to forgive sins for all who would believe in him. And he said he was going to rise from the grave.

So if he doesn't. He's an imposter and a fraud. They're vindicated. The chief priests and the Pharisees are right. They should have killed him if he doesn't rise. And I want you all to know that's the chief point of Christianity.

Christianity, everything hangs on this. Does Jesus rise from the grave or not? Every once in a while I'll be talking to somebody and they'll be like, I don't know if I can be a Christian. I just don't. I just don't know if you can get that many animals on a boat. And it's like, let's not start there.

That's not that's not. The disciples aren't like I need to tell you some good news. The boat was real. It is real. But that's not the point to debate over first.

You've got to understand. You've got to look at. Did Jesus rise from the grave? Because if he did, then he's king and he's God and we obey. Then we look at the rest of it.

Every once in a while people say, I don't know if I can be a Christian. There's just some stuff in there I don't agree with. Right. Of course. Bible says we're sinners. He's God.

He's going to say some stuff we don't like, you guys. I'd be like you assumed a married couple had been married for 50 years and you just thought, well, they must agree on everything. No. They just learned they had some other things more important that helped them overcome their disagreements. I'd be like you growing up in your house and be like, I'm not sure they're really my parents because I don't like some of their rules. Check your birth certificate.

Have they raised you since you were little? Look at some old family photos. I'm pretty sure you're their kid. That's a bad test. God doesn't think like me. I'm not sure he's real.

I don't think that's a good test. The question is that Jesus arrived from the grave and if he did, then he's king. We obey. We submit. We know he loves us. We know he's good.

We know he's for our good. And we're willing to, where we disagree, understand that we're wrong, that he saved sinners and that we obey and follow. This is the question. Is he an imposter? Or did he rise? So it says this.

Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So the stone's been rolled over the hole. They go seal it. We don't know exactly how they did this.

They could have done wax seals that actually had like an insignia in them. There's reports that it was seven wax seals. There's others that say that it was a rope. The scriptures don't tell us. They just tell it's sealed. It was a rope that they put against the wall in some clay.

But they put something on there to show this door has not moved. And they set a guard. Now in my head, and I'm thinking maybe this has to do with like growing up in Sunday school, I always picture two men. That doesn't make any sense. It would have been more than two. It would have been a guard.

They would have set a group there because they were going to have to sleep. They were going to have to watch this for a couple of days. It's probably five to ten. Some sort of a detachment with some kind of leader. They set guards around the tomb. Now this wasn't going to be that difficult of a job.

They're mostly a deterrent. They're here to keep people from stealing the body. Maybe they thought it's possible they'll try to fight us and take it. But that would kind of ruin their plan because they can't steal the body and sneak away and claim he rose if all of us have a big fight out here. But they've got guards.

They've sealed the tomb. They're guarding him. Chapter 28. Now, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day. So the Sabbath was Saturday.

Jesus was crucified on Friday, Sabbath, Saturday, Sunday morning. Toward the dawn of the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Though they know where it is. There's also guards there and it's sealed. It's pretty clear which tomb was Jesus's.

And behold, there was a great earthquake for the for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. I love that. It wasn't just an earthquake. Like, you know how someone tells you, hey, we had an earthquake earlier. And you're like, really? I did feel like maybe I shook earlier.

But you don't really remember it. This was a great one. This is a serious earthquake. And the angel rolls the stone back and sits on it. Which I just appreciate that that was his attitude. Rolls the stone back and it sits on it.

And it says his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. He is bright, dazzling. It's not just like sun brightness. It's like lightning brightness. He was, dare I say, striking. Y'all may not be proud of me.

I'm very proud of me. Verse four. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. Yeah. Seems fair. They're here to be a deterrent to fishermen and tax collectors.

Not angels. He shows up. There's an earthquake, which shook him anyway. And then there's an angel who looks like lightning. He's rolled the tomb back. The thing they were supposed to do is keep that door closed.

Job's already over. Like, oh, oops. He's already done what we were supposed to stop people from doing. And he's just sitting on the stone like what? And it says they trembled and became like dead men. They look like cartoon characters or like Don Knotts in anything you ever played in.

They see this angel. They shake. I like to imagine two of them grabbed each other. And then they just fall out. They're supposed to be tough, strong. And they were.

These were soldiers in the Roman army. But they see this angel. It's over. They just nope out. They fall over. Which is fair.

Because that's not really what they were hired to do. I help manage a firework store twice a year. And on our busiest days, we have security guards. And they're there as a deterrent. Keep kids from pocketing our fireworks. Keep drunk people from fighting in our gravel parking lot.

You know, stuff like that. Help people not smoke inside the building. They're there as a deterrent. But if there's an earthquake and a shining lightning angel rips the front of the store off and steps in, I don't think our security guard is going to be like, now it's my moment. This is what they pay me for. I think he's going to be like, now.

And that's fair. I'm going to do it too. You can have all the fireworks you want. I don't know why you're here. That's what they do. They fall out.

Then it says, the angel, this is verse 5. But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid. Which again, if you meet an angel, that's what you want to hear. You notice he doesn't say it to the guards. It's possible it's because they were unconscious. It's possible because he came specifically to make them be afraid.

He says, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Jesus Christ rose from the grave just like he said he was going to. He keeps his promises. We can hope in the certainty of the resurrection of Christ that he is not dead and buried any longer, that he is alive. And therefore, when he says that he forgives sinners, he does.

Come, see the place where he lay. Tell them, go look. That's why it matters. There's only one body in there. They go in. There's no bodies.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So he says, come, look, he's not here anymore.

Go tell his disciples. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. That is the appropriate response to the risen Christ. Worship.

They come up, they fall down, they grab his feet and they worship. And there's a few things that I think we need to point out here that are helpful. One is, Jesus had feet. Because it was common knowledge to them that ghosts don't. Y'all have seen a picture of Casper. You know it's true.

He's not an apparition. He's not a vision. He is physically, literally there. Also, there is a thing called the swoon theory of the atonement. Or the swoon theory of the crucifixion. That Jesus had his back ripped open by whips.

That he was mocked, spit on, slapped, nailed to a cross. That he was hung on a cross for several hours, stabbed in the side with a spear. And he swooned, which means fainted. And that he didn't actually die. And so they wrapped him up, thought he was dead. They put him in the tomb.

Three days later, he came out because he wasn't dead. There's some problems with that. One is, they did all the things that it takes to kill a person. It's very hard to just pass out from that and not be dead. They also were professional executioners. They knew what they were doing.

They also had people that cared about him, who buried him. Because they were used to having to bury and they knew what a dead person was like. They buried him. But the other thing that I want to point out, if that were true, when they saw him, they would not fall down and worship him. They would have helped him. Even if he could have lasted for three days, wrapped up by himself in the tomb, enough to stay alive, which again, doesn't make any sense.

But if they saw him, he would have looked terrible. They would have run to his aid. But when they see him, he is alive. Gloriously, beautifully, healthy, alive. And they worship him because he has conquered death. And so we worship him.

Verse 10. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. Okay. We had just been told that they went with fear and great joy. Jesus shows up and says, I'm going to take one of those emotions away.

Do not be afraid. He just leaves them with great joy. That's the result of the resurrection that you are given great joy. Some of you are here this morning. And in your approach to God, you're afraid. Maybe you haven't been in church in a while.

Maybe you felt like it's Easter. I need to get back over there. Maybe you had to work yourself up and psych yourself up. Maybe you stood out in the parking lot and chain smoked three cigarettes before you came in here this morning. Just to get the nerve to come in here and gather with the church. And Jesus says, do not be afraid.

He did not come to die, to be brutally murdered so that you could have a half-hearted, shaky salvation. He did not come and die and rise and conquer the grave so that you might approach him fearfully. He takes punishment on your behalf so that you might have great joy. Do not be afraid. It says, while they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this comes to the governor's ears, that would be pilot, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. The guards show back up and say, an angel showed up and Jesus left. And they take counsel not to say, hey guys, maybe we were wrong about Jesus. I wonder if anybody raised their hand at the council and was like, have we thought about just like repenting?

Maybe asking him to forgive us? They just are like, let's get enough money together. Let's come up with this lie. They pay them to go lie and say that his body was stolen. They specifically tell them, look, if the governor finds out, which y'all will be very much in trouble for this, we'll cover for you. Now, that lie doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Because the disciples don't benefit much from pretending that Jesus rose from the grave. He was a fraud. He doesn't actually save from sin. If they went and stole his body and then just pretended he rose from the grave, the only thing they get out of it is persecution. They are beaten, murdered for 30 years. They're chased from place to place, put in prison.

And then after 30 years, it gets worse. They're executed. They're tortured. All of them, not just the disciples, but the people who believe their word. They hold to this story. There's a man named Chuck Colson or Charles Colson who was Nixon's hatchet man.

So President Nixon in the Watergate scandal had a lawyer who they called him the hatchet man. Sounds like a nice guy. If you're not familiar with the Watergate scandal, some of you are very familiar. Some of you lived through that. Some of you don't really. You're like, oh, yeah, no, I kind of remember that.

Some of you are like, what? Just know it's so important that from then on, Americans have stuck gate behind everything that has ever happened. Deflate gate. You can go look it up online. There's a fajita gate. There's a very long list of all the things that we just stuck gate behind because of Watergate.

We're like, oh, it's a scandal. Stick gate next to it. But Chuck Colson gets arrested. He was one of the first ones to be arrested. He becomes a Christian in jail or prison. And he says this.

He says, I know the resurrection is a fact. And Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead. Then they proclaim that truth for 40 years, never once denying it.

Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn't keep alive for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep alive for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. Jesus Christ literally, physically rose from the dead.

And we have a literal, physical, certain, eternal hope because of it. First Corinthians 15, 17 says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Three verses later, he says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Faith isn't futile. You're not in your sins. We have a certain hope.

When I was in high school, I took an AP English class. AP classes, you study, you take a test. If you do well enough on the test, you don't have to. You can place out of college stuff. My high school wasn't excellent, but we did have this class, so I took it. Some places, like 30 of these things.

We had this one. I took it. I test well. I placed out of English in college. Do you know what I didn't do after I took that test? Study English ever again.

Didn't have to study it in college. The work was done. It was accomplished. I was free. Well, until seminary when I had to learn how grammar works. But that's not part of the illustration.

The part of the illustration is that Jesus accomplished this for us. We are free. You are not here to take a test. You are not here to be moral enough. You are not here to be one of the good ones. You are not here to learn from all of us how to behave well.

If you are, you have chosen a bad group of people to hang out with. We want you to join a group so that you can all learn to love Jesus more. Not so that you can be a good morals club. We want you to repent of sin. We want you to obey. But the purpose of this is not let's come together and take the test well enough so that God will love us.

It's let's come together and praise Jesus who has already taken and passed and accomplished everything for us. It is finished. He has risen. We have hope. Now, everybody in here is placing hope in something. You're looking at something and saying, if I can just have you, I'll be okay.

If I can just accomplish this, I'll be okay. If I can just make enough money. If I can just have the right relationship. If my marriage can just be good. If I can just get out of this marriage. I'll be happy.

I'll be free. If I can just have children. Then you have children. You're like, well, if they can just behave. And then you're like, if they can just move out. But we pick something to say, if I can just have this, if this will just work.

We say, if I can just make enough money. And then you find out that people on the internet can just decide to buy certain stocks and mess everything up. If I can just have enough money. If I can just control this right. And then there's a man who's just doing his job. And then he realizes he left his garage door open.

So he takes his cargo ship and does a three point turn. And he gets stuck. And the supply chain for the whole world is messed up. These things are not certain. They are not controllable. You're hoping in something that is.

Look, the truth is, and I hate to break it to some of you. We're all Gamecock fans. In something. We've all picked something that we're just wishfully thinking it'll get better one day. That sometime it's going to finally work. And the reality is, even if we get it, how long does it have to last?

Does it have to stay stable? Can you peak and stop? Or does it have to keep getting better over time? Can you sustain it? Some of you have picked something that's always out in front of you. But the reality is, if you ever get it, you'll realize that now you've got to keep it.

You do. Some of you right now are running from your past decisions. Just waiting for your past mistakes to catch up with you. This is uncertain hope. That is to be accomplished by you and kept by you. So I want us to look.

I want you to think about what is it that you keep placing your hope in. That it will fix you. That it will save you. I want us to look at 1 Peter 1, 3, 4, and 5. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That our hope, if you are in Christ, is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not through your good works. Not through your intelligence. Not through your good behavior in the past or your ability to promise to be better in the future. Not through you.

Praise Jesus not through you. Praise Jesus not through me. It's not even that he gives us a clean slate and says, keep it together. He takes it. And he keeps it. Which is good.

I don't want it back. I can't do it. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Verse 4. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Kept in heaven for you.

Who? You. Who? By God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Now look at that.

What else passes that test? Is your money imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept eternally for you? Is it guarded by God's power? Is it ready to be revealed? Is your health and good looks and muscles, are they imperishable? Undefiled, unfading?

Unfading? Are they kept for you eternally? Are they guarded by God's power? Is your marriage? Your relationships? Your children?

Your good morals? Your ability to not be found out? See a lot of us start off on the I'm going to behave really well. And then that turns into I'm going to hide really well. And I'm going to behave really well in the future. But it's not.

It's not imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. It's not guarded by God's power. If your hope isn't in Christ, may I suggest you get a better hope. If your hope isn't sealed. If your hope isn't certain. If your hope doesn't make you free.

If your hope does not remove fear and leave you with joy. May I suggest you get a better hope. And may I tell you that you can find it in Christ and you can find it in Christ right now. That he can save to the uttermost all those who will call on him for salvation. That we come to him in repentance. Meaning that all you bring is the stuff that makes you insufficient to save yourself.

You come with your sin. That's what qualifies you for salvation is that you need it. And you come and you say, Lord, I can't save myself. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not strong enough.

I can't keep it. I can't maintain it. By the grace of God, save me. And he does. He loves us enough to die for our sins. And he rises so that we might have certain hope.

That we come to him in faith. We trust that he does it. We give him praise and glory. That's why we gather. To worship his name because he's the one who redeems. To praise his name because he's the one who saves.

And if your hope isn't this certain. Might I suggest that you place your faith in Jesus. And you get your fear taken away. You get it replaced with great joy. And you have a certain hope. The band's going to come back up.

And we're going to praise Jesus. And Christians in this room, we're going to get loud. And we're going to celebrate. Because it's not up to us. It's not left on our shoulders. And if you have not placed your faith in Christ, you can.

I know that you're qualified. I know that you're qualified because all you need is sin. All you need is shortcoming. All you need is weakness. That you can come to him right now. And I know that he has qualified us through his finished work on the cross.

So all you have to do is say, please forgive me of my sins. Change me. Help me to follow you. And he will. Don't hesitate. We have this tendency to fight this.

Don't fight this. Lay your fear down. Leave with joy. Be redeemed by Christ. Let's pray.

God, we thank you that we have a certain hope through the resurrection of Christ. That we are guarded by your power, not ours. And Lord, for the person in here who's had these moments right now where the Holy Spirit is pulling on them to believe. Pressing on them and saying, let this go. Turn from this. Trust in me.

Lord, may you break them so that they will not fight you any longer. By your grace will you claim them. May they lay their sin down and ask for salvation to the one who loves and freely gives. Forgiveness without regret. Hope that is certain. May you take fear away and leave in its wake great joy accomplished by the finished work of Christ.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The Word of the Lord

The Word of the Lord

Chet Phillips

Transcript

We're going to talk about why, and we're going to talk about this gospel proclamation. So grab your Bibles, go to Romans chapter 1. We're going to be in three different places in Romans today. We're going to Romans 1, then we'll go to Romans 5, then we'll go to Romans 10, as we talk about why, as we talk about, why would we spend our time, proclaiming the gospel, and seeing people grow up in the gospel, so that they might proclaim the gospel. That's what discipling is, that we would share the gospel, people would become Christians, they would grow to the point, that they could share the gospel, and train others to follow Jesus.

Let's pray, and then we'll begin reading in Romans 1. Father, we thank you, for how good you are, and for this time we get to spend this morning in your word, and we pray that it would be fruitful, and effective, and that your Holy Spirit would move in us, that we might commit to being people, who share the gospel, and that you might center in us, ground in us, why we can do nothing else. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll look in verse 16. This is Paul writing to the church in Rome, and he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is the news of Jesus, the proclamation of the news of Jesus, what he had done on the cross for us, that he paid for our sins.

So he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it, for this message, this news, is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it, in the gospel, in this message, in Jesus' work on our behalf, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now this is kind of his thesis statement as he carries out the rest of this book, but what he's saying is, I'm not ashamed of this news, because it's where we get salvation. It's the power of the gospel, the power of God for salvation, is in this message, that Jesus Christ died for sinners, that he rose again, and that from faith, for faith, we get righteousness, which means, that you don't bring your own righteousness to the table, you get it, by having faith in Jesus, and he gives it to those with faith, so that we have faith, it's from faith, it's for faith, that we trust him, that everybody comes forward as a Christian and says, it's all on you, Jesus, I'm trusting you, I'm not holding anything back, I'm not trusting in myself, I'm trusting you.

By having faith in Jesus, and he gives it to those with faith, so that we have faith, it's from faith, it's for faith, that we trust him, that everybody comes forward as a Christian and says, it's all on you, Jesus, I'm trusting you, I'm not holding anything back, I'm not trusting in myself, I'm trusting you. And so as I read that, and I just spent some time this week thinking about the idea of being ashamed, or being not ashamed, being unashamed, and I know that if you ask me, are you ashamed of the gospel, I would answer, no. And the reason I would answer no,

Is because, I don't think I'm ashamed of the gospel, and secondarily, I know I'm not supposed to be ashamed of the gospel, I want to be like Paul, where he says he's unashamed, and there's this idea throughout the scriptures, that we're to proclaim Jesus, we're to hold him up, we're to be not ashamed of him, and that he won't be ashamed of us, and so I think for most of us as Christians, if you asked, are you ashamed of the gospel, you'd say, no. And if you've been around the church for a while, maybe in your head, you'd start being like, no, it's the power of God, for salvation, like I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Now,

I want to change subject for just a second, to help us picture this idea of shame, I, some of y'all may not follow this section of news, as I have some unfortunate news to share with you, if you haven't been keeping up with it, something terrible happened, on Monday night, my wife and I, were on vacation, we got to go on a free trip, they said, do you want to go, it's free, I said free is my first cousin, we would love to go, but even while we were on vacation, this news reached us, the Clemson Tigers, won the national championship, in college football, now this is terrible news, some of y'all again, don't follow this,

Don't pay attention to this, but you live in Columbia, South Carolina, the home of the Gamecocks, I am a Carolina fan, and as we were going to travel, we went and got on an airplane in Columbia, where there shouldn't be Clemson fans, but they've infected the whole state, and we saw so much orange and purple, two very ugly colors, that they've mixed together for some reason, and these people were very proud, and they're on their way, to the national championship, and I remember thinking, like I was sitting near them, and I remember thinking, like I was glad, I didn't just accidentally, wear some Gamecock stuff, because I don't want to have to talk, to them about it, that's all it was,

It was like I realized, I didn't want to get in a conversation, because the truth is, as a Gamecock fan, those conversations, haven't been going well, for the last five years or so, they're not good conversations, and Carolina's not doing great, and Clemson's got continually better, they looked amazing on Monday night, it hurt my feelings to watch, and here's what happened, like I just realized, and I remember thinking about it later, and I was like, why was that, like what was that feeling, that feeling was shame, I was ashamed to have to talk, like I didn't want them to be like, oh yeah, how was y'all's bowl game, because they knew how our bowl game was,

First of all, we worked really hard, to barely make it to that bowl game, just to have our feelings hurt, and so I got to thinking about it, and the truth is, for a lot of us as Christians, we would say we're unashamed, but at the moment, we come to, maybe I should tell this person, about Jesus, is there something in us, that goes, I don't really want to talk about that, I don't really want to be that guy, I don't really want to be that girl, I don't want to, wouldn't that make things weird, I saw a comedian stand up, he said I'd love for everybody, I hope everybody's having a good night, I hope everybody's comfortable, and since I want everybody to be comfortable,

I'd love to speak with you, tonight about Jesus, everybody busts out laughing, because, they're immediately uncomfortable, like I know, that when I have to tell people, I'm a pastor, I don't even have to say Jesus, I just say ask me what I do, and I'm like here we go, this is going to get weird, you can't tell people you're a pastor, without it getting kind of weird you guys, they're either way too excited, they got a lot of questions, they got a lot of stories, or they're like oh, you can see them thinking, like it's okay, how do I leave, like it, that's just saying pastor, it's not even saying Jesus,

Is there something in us, at that moment, when we're like oh, maybe I should share, maybe I should say something, maybe they need to hear this, it goes oh, but what would that do, would that be weird, and is that in us, shame, for people who would declare, I am unashamed of the gospel, is there something, that we trip over, in our own hearts, when it comes time, to actually tell somebody, about the goodness of the gospel, and we believe it's good, you know who's not ashamed, right now, Clemson fans, and do you know why,

They're not ashamed right now, Clemson is really, really good, and do you know why, we are to be unashamed, of the gospel, because it is really, really good, far better than Clemson, the gospel is good, so grab your Bible, so if you've already, hold them, go to Romans 5, as we talk about why, why would I spend my time, sharing this, why would I go out of my way, why would I jump that hurdle, of hesitation, why would I push past, into the awkwardness, why would I do this, the first answer,

Is that the gospel, is too good, this news, is too good, and so we're going to read this, we're just going to talk about, how good it is for a second, we're going to remind ourselves, how good it is for a second, because for some reason, we get caught up in life, we get to following Jesus, and we forget, how good this is, maybe it's because we've forgotten, how lost we used to be, Romans 5 chapter 6, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died, for the ungodly, now that sounds like, a not very godly thing to do, Jesus,

The son of God, God the son, is coming to rescue, humanity, and who does he rescue, the ungodly, now I don't know, if y'all are familiar, with basic English, but that's the opposite, of godliness, he's godly, who does he rescue, the ungodly, now if you're ungodly, that's really good news, that he comes to rescue you, at your worst, at your ugliest, at your meanest, at your pettiest, at your most despicable, that that is who, Jesus redeems,

That is who Jesus dies for, is the ungodly, let's keep going, because this news, gets better and better, for one will scarcely die, for a righteous person, though perhaps, for a good person, one would dare, even to die, but God shows his love, for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, he shows his love for us, he says, some people would dare die, for a good person, that maybe you would, you would know of a good person, who is worth dying for,

Maybe you know, this happens with like, the secret service, or whatever, they're like, this person's life, is valuable to the country, so I'm willing to die for them, that like, we understand that concept, but he says, who dies for scoundrels, who dies for people, who are basically human garbage, someone who loves them, that's what he says, that Jesus loves the ungodly, that he dies, while we're still sinners, that while we were still weak, that he redeems us, do you know how good, that news is, you see,

We're tempted to believe, that the way that we go to salvation, in Christ, the way that we come to salvation, in Christ, is much like getting a mortgage, like he's going to check, your credit history, and you need to show, some credit worthiness, that you know, he's got the money, he's, I know Jesus saves, I know Jesus saves, he's the one with the money, I realize, I got to go to him, do the interview, fill out the paperwork, I get that, I can't save myself, I don't have the net worth, but he does,

I understand that, and so this is how people, think about it, like yeah, I can go get salvation, from Jesus, but, you know, he's going to check my credit, I got to show credit worthiness, or if I don't have, any credit worthiness, I'm not really going to bring that up, I'm going to bring pay stubs, super good Jesus, like I, don't look at that, look at future me, maybe it's a little bit of both, you also, maybe you kind of think, there's like an interest rate thing, where like, well he was pretty good,

Jesus saved him, but like he didn't have as much to pay back, I was super bad, Jesus saves me, I got a higher interest rate, I got more to do, that's not what it says, he doesn't take people with good credit, he takes people to get that 39% APR, that they don't even tell you about, that's who he gets, he's the buy here, pay here, people like you, you go like he, you don't have to have credit, no credit, no money down, no nothing, you just show up and say, hey, I really don't deserve anything, and he says, this is my team,

Do you know how good that is, because the truth is, even you, who believe you have good credit, have zero before God, that's what Paul spends his time doing, in the first four chapters of this, he says, those people are terrible, they're the worst, they've rebelled against God, that's all Romans 1, they've sinned, they've replaced God with idols, and he gets everybody going, yeah, those people, and then in chapter 2, he goes, so you have no excuse, those who judge, and you're like, why did you, why we were talking about them,

Why did you bring me into this, and he spends the rest of the time, saying that good works, and good morals, aren't going to save you, and then he comes here, and he says, he died for sinners, he died to save the ungodly, and if you know you're a sinner, and you know you're ungodly, that's good news, it's also good news, for all your sinner friends, and your sinner relatives, that he loves us, we're going to put verse 9, and through 11 up here, and we're going to talk through this, so this is, he saves, he dies for the ungodly, he dies to rescue those, who don't deserve it,

Who have no credit history, no future pay stubs, who only bring debt, all I have is debt, I have nothing else, I just bring debt, he pays that off, he dies for us, to redeem us, to buy us back, since therefore, we have now been justified, by his blood, much more shall we be saved, by him from the wrath of God, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his son, first thing I want to show us there, is it says, we have now been justified, by his blood, that if you are in Christ, you are justified,

By his blood, justified is a legal term, which means that if you went to court, you would be declared, not guilty, that if you are in Christ, his blood has covered you, so that you have no record of debt, you have no record of sin, that we think sometimes, when we go to judgment, he is going to pull up, every bad thing we have ever done, not if you are in Christ, we are declared not guilty, more than that, that is all that our legal system, will declare you, is not guilty, God is going to declare us innocent, because we are blameless, and above reproach in Christ, that if you are in Jesus, you are justified,

By his blood, you have been made right, you walk out scot free, in a legal sense, but it says, it didn't stop there, he says that we are saved by him, from the wrath of God, so that we are not just justified, but that we are saved, this idea that we are saved, from the wrath of God, or that Jesus absorbs, the wrath of God, so if you have the word justification, which is a big Bible word, this is the word propitiation, for those of you who care, about those sort of things, I will say it again, and for those of you, don't ignore the next second, propitiation, that he absorbs wrath,

On our behalf, so that it's not just, that we are made holy, before him, it's not just that we are justified, that we get to walk out, in a legal sense, but that actually, he absorbs the wrath, that we deserve, because Romans 1 says, that wrath is coming, towards the ungodly, and then it says, that he saves the ungodly, but then he keeps going, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his son, much more now, that we are reconciled, shall we be saved, by his life, more than that,

We also rejoice in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, we have now received, reconciliation, reconciliation, means that we are, brought back in, we're made right with God, and we are brought to neutral, and he's like, alright, not guilty, but I better not, see you back in here, he's like, alright, not guilty, you wanna go grab a hot dog, like he, he invites us in, he brings us in, we're reconciled, our relationship is good,

I have a three year old son, so I am learning, how to parent, consistently, every day, he is challenging, he's great, but he's also challenging, and I really love, being a daddy, and the opportunities I get, but I, my wife and I are always like, I just, you know, parenting, you don't get to think, you just, you just have to go, and then you get to think, so like I've entered into situations, and I'm like, well I finished the situation, but goodness,

That shouldn't go that way next time, so I'm always like, you know, I go into parenting, and Anna and I, like she coaches me up, we talk about it, or whatever, it doesn't go well, when she tries in the middle of everything, to coach me up, but it goes better, if we get to discuss it later, because as soon as she shows up, he's like, my advocate's here, excuse me, if you'll just speak with my legal counsel, from now on, thank you, so it goes better, when in the situation, I get to handle things, we talk about it later,

But the other day, I was doing stuff with him, and when he's getting more amped up, I get more amped up, and I don't get loud, I've never been a loud person, I don't shout, I just get intense, and so I do this, I say, boy, let me tell you something right now, and I was talking to him, and he was getting louder, so I was being more intense, or whatever, and I came out, and the situation didn't go super well, you know, I parented through it, it's fine, but it wasn't my best work, I came out, and Anna said,

You're talking to him too intensely, like it's too much for a three year old, she said, I honestly think the way you're talking, you might, could make some grown men cry, and I was like, baby, you really think I can make a grown man cry? You know, just the sort of thing to say to me, she felt like I focused on the wrong part, so, but one of the things I've had to learn with him, is that like, it's not just that, like I, kids have parents for a reason, they don't, they don't have good sense, they need adults around them, there's a reason why they're not like, you know, I watched a TV show about iguanas,

And those things like, born and they can run off, and go do their own thing, your child can't, because it needs you there, making decisions for it, for a very long time, but one of the things I've realized, is as I correct him, and as I discipline him, one of the things I've started doing, is I just afterwards, I hug him, I tell him I love him, I get down on my knee, you know, the other day, he had gotten in trouble for something, and he got popped, and I said, you can go play, and he said, wait daddy, you forgot the part where you hug me,

And I was like, yeah, dude, come here, it's a good point, I'm glad you know the system, he wouldn't, I don't think he'd be like, what about the part where I get spanked, he probably wouldn't do that, but the hug, he remembers, and that's what that says, that we're reconciled, that he doesn't just say, okay, I've made some people even with me now, you're not guilty, it says, no, that he brings us in, that he loves us, that you're right with God, that when he thinks of you,

He thinks fondly of you, that he enjoys you, that you're reconciled, that your relationship with him is good, because of Jesus, do you know how good that is, he goes on, this is what we're covering in this section, but he also talks about in Romans 8, that we're adopted, that it's not just our relationships, right, but that he brings us into the family, other places talk about, that he does expiation, which means that he takes everything, that's ever happened to us, everything that would be on our record, he removes it, everything that's ever, all the sin that's been committed against us, all our shame, he cleans us, this news is too good,

For us to have even a twinge of shame, when it comes to telling somebody about it, it's too good, it's too eternally good, and too eternally urgent, it's too soul satisfying, that we would even trip, or have a hint of a, this propels us forward, and here's the thing, it's not just that it's too good, the stakes are too high, because if you don't have Christ, everything we just talked about, is flipped on its head, that when you stand before him, he does have a record of your guilt, you are not justified, you will not be declared not guilty, you will not leave that courtroom, that when you meet him, it will not be a moment of reconciliation, you will not get the hug, you do not get welcomed in,

You are not adopted, that you will stand before your judge, and your maker, on your own account, and it will not go well, and that rightfully, and justly, you will bear the wrath of God, because Jesus did not bear it for you, on the cross, and that is true, infinitely, eternally true, for everyone outside of Christ, now he died for the ungodly, which means that everybody is welcomed in, who will follow him, this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, for us to not spend our time, sharing it, for us to keep this to ourselves, you think about your life with Jesus, if you are in Christ,

And how you handle your life, when you are faced with anxiety, when you are overwhelmed, you see when you are talking to people at work, or you are talking to your neighbors, or you are just enjoying a friendship, with somebody who doesn't know Christ, they are going to talk to you about their life, and life is messy, and life is sinful, and life is hurtful, and life is fearful, and they are going to talk about, their fears for the future, and their fears for their children, and how difficult they are having, time in their marriage, and how anxious they are over money, or over how this job may not work out, or they have got a new boss, and they are not sure, if the new boss likes them, and they are going to talk about, all these things in life,

And the truth is, if you were walking through this, with yourself, or with someone in your community group, what would you be saying, I am dealing with anxiety, I am going to remind myself, that there is a God, who rules over the universe, that he is sovereign, that he tells me, that if I am fearful and anxious, I actually have no ability, to accomplish anything, but that he is good, and I can cast my cares on him, but I am worried about the future, if I really, you want to know, if I really get worried, about the future, you know you can pick up your Bible, and jump to the back end of Revelation, and see how it is going to shake out,

There is a part in there, where it says, everybody who loves Jesus, is gathered around the throne, in a place where there are no tears, and there is no suffering, and there is no night anymore, and there is no pain anymore, and that he welcomes them in, and that we get to spend eternity there, and sometimes, when you are fearful about the future, just go to the back end of Revelation, and say the future is going to be fine, for those who are in Christ, when you are worried about, being able to pay bills, don't you remind yourself, that Jesus looked at some people, and said, consider the ravens, they don't toil, they don't have barns, but they eat every day,

Look at the lilies, they don't sow, they don't spin, but they look better than Solomon ever did, you remind yourself, that you are going to be cared for, that he loves you, when you feel down, and shameful, and dirty, and all the enemy has been doing, is bringing up everything wrong, you've ever done, do you remind yourself, that one day, you'll be clothed in righteousness, that Jesus will stand in your place, that you will be justified, that you're holy, and blameless, and loved, and welcomed, and that he adores you, because he adores Christ,

And that Christ has swapped places with you, and then we have a co-worker, talking to us about their anxiety, and we have the shameful audacity, to say yeah, sounds awful, and to hold our hope, and not share it, when they talk about their fear, for their children, and their fear for their future, and we have the audacity, to say yeah, I deal with that too, but without telling them the cure, that there's a God, who works, and who redeems, who they can know, who loves them, who loves them, and they can know him, and he can work in them, and for them,

Because he's good, and we just say yeah, doctors are scary, this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, for us to not learn how to respond, and for us to not be active in this, turn to Romans 10, we're going to pick up in verse 8, Paul's talking about the gospel, he's referring to some Old Testament passages, and that's why he says, but what does it say, quote in Old Testament passage, the word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, that we proclaim, so he's talking about the gospel there, this word is near you, it's in your mouth, and in your heart,

This gospel, this truth about Jesus, and who he is, he says, because 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, for with the heart one believes, and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses, and is saved, for the scripture says, everyone who believes in him, will not be put to shame, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is the Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved, there is not a person in the history of the world, who has cried out to God, and said,

I need you, I need your help, I can't do this on my own, that was put to shame, that that turned out to be a mistake, there is not a person in the history of the world, that has claimed, Jesus I love you, I need you, I need your help, I know I am a sinner, I know all I bring is debt, but I need you to redeem me, that was not, and will not be saved, by Christ, everyone, so this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, and everyone who believes, will be saved, everyone, think of the worst person you know, that person,

Will be saved, if they believe, and if it's you, if the only person you can think of, that you think is terrible is you, you will be saved, if you trust Jesus, he loves you enough to die for you, while you were a sinner, not waiting for you to clean yourself up, let's keep going, 14, how will they call on him, in whom they have not believed, so he says, all who call on the name of the Lord, will be saved, but he says, how are they going to call on him, if they don't believe in him, because if they don't know what he does, and how good he is, and what he's accomplished, they're not going to,

Nobody's going to call on him, you understand the logic there, and how are they to believe in him, and whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear, without someone preaching, now most of the time, when you think about preaching, you think about what's going on right now, what I'm doing this very moment, this is preaching, I don't know why you laughed, it is, but what he means there, is preaching is a broader term, than just what happens on a Sunday, in a church, church, it means to proclaim the gospel, to tell of the gospel, to tell the good news, of the gospel, and so it also happens at gas stations, and in dorm rooms,

That the gospel can be shared, and proclaimed anywhere, so he says, how will they call on him, if they haven't believed, and how are they going to believe, if they haven't heard, and how are they going to hear, without somebody preaching, and how are they going to preach, unless they are sent, those last two ones, are the ones that we get involved in, we preach, and we send, as Christians, that's what we're supposed to do, that's discipleship, that's teaching them to obey everything, is sending, is that we're proclaiming, we're training somebody up, and we're sending them out, to go proclaim this gospel,

And having them, having people be baptized, in the name of the son, is us proclaiming the gospel, so that we proclaim it, we preach it, we tell people about it, we see people baptized, we train them up, we send them out, this is why we always talk about, multiplying our groups, because we want to multiply our groups, because we want to see more people, in more areas, in more times, during the week, with more room at a table, to see people proclaiming the gospel, we want to see, a group in Irmo, and a group in Gaston, we want to see, this continue to move,

And more people be welcomed in, and more people invited in, because there's more people, in this city proclaiming the gospel, we got, right around 80, members, in our church family, people committed to membership, we've got around 100 adults, in groups, and our goal, our prayer, is that that would be 100 preachers, it'd be 80 preachers, people that are going around, and so unashamed, of this gospel, they're telling people about it, how are they to preach, unless they're sent, as it is written, how beautiful, are the feet,

Of those who preach, the good news, so that's, that's this, this idea, that as you travel, you know, your feet would get, dusty or dirty, or grosser, as you travel, as you go around, but he's saying, it's the opposite, that there's beautiful feet, that those who carry good news, those who bring you good news, have beautiful feet, say that to someone, next time they tell you good news, they tell you good news, and you just say, wow, those are some good looking feet,

But that's what he's saying, that we get to be that, that we get to carry good news, he says, but they have not all obeyed, the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed, what he's heard from us, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ, so some people would say, well not everybody's going to believe, right, but some will, some will believe this news, you did, and how many people, after you believed the gospel, and Jesus began to change you, were like, wait, who?

Nah, do we need to go back, to your high school reunion, I'll go with you, so this person follows Jesus now, look at people's faces, some of you, you were the most unlikely candidate, but people will believe, this news is good, what Jesus does, and who he is, and what he's accomplished for us, there's a couple of things, that I think crop up, as soon as we start talking about, that we would go around, sharing the gospel, first there's this idea, that it would make us weird, I think it's worth being weird for, honestly, if the culture doesn't like, talking about Jesus,

They're confused about who he is, and as soon as they know him, they think it's a good idea, so okay, let's be okay with that one, let's roll past that, that little bit of shame, where it's like, I think people will think, I'm like a Jesus person, and I think that's a good way, to be defined, I think sometimes we go, okay, but I'm too busy, I have to make special time, for this, I'd have to try to figure out, like what, I got to start going to five points, and just yelling at people, you can, probably won't be the most effective, but people do believe that way sometimes,

Most of us, that's not that true though, you have a 40 hour week Job, or you go to school, or you live in a dorm, and you are surrounded by people, who need to know this news, some of you have children, or multiple children, and they don't know the gospel yet, and you ought to be active, in proclaiming the gospel to them, another thing that happens, is people think, well I have to be perfect, if I'm going to start telling people, Jesus, I got to get my act together, well first of all, it's not a bad idea, for you to start repenting of sin, and getting your act together, so I'm not against that idea, but the concept,

Of I have to be perfect, to share the gospel, is not a biblical concept, it's actually nonsense, because if the gospel, is that you're a really, well behaved person, you don't understand the gospel, the gospel is that you're ungodly, and that Jesus saves sinners, so that when I do something, really terrible, I had somebody say, well I can't share the gospel at work, because I get mad and cuss, like bro, the gospel is that Jesus saves sinners, not well behaved, perfect people, there are times that I do things, and people are like, man you do that, aren't you a preacher, I'm like yeah,

Jesus saves sinners, people who act like a complete fool, you saw me at Walmart with my son, yeah, sinners, people who don't do right, that's who he saves, that he works to redeem, those who are broken, so if you say, well if I do this, and it's not good or whatever, then I've messed it up, it's like no you haven't, the gospel is that Jesus is good, not that you are, that he saves people like you, do you know how refreshing, and hopeful that is to people, now continually change, and repent, and ask for forgiveness, certainly, the other thing is,

That we'll think, well I have to know everything, no you don't, I have to know everything, I have to have every answer, what if they ask me this, what if they ask me that, what if I say this, and they're like, alright, I believe in Jesus, tell me about dinosaurs, first of all, dinosaurs is not the route to Jesus, so they won't, that's not how that works, secondly, they may have some questions, and you can say, I don't know, let's talk about it, but you know enough, if you follow Jesus, you know enough,

You know he saved sinners, you know he saved you, we're going to talk more about that next week, specifically how to share, this news is too good, the stakes are too high, everyone who believes, will be saved, not everyone will believe, but some will, the news is too good, the stakes are too high, not everyone, everyone who believes, will be saved, not everyone, will believe, but some will, so I want to ask you this, if you become active, in sharing your faith, this becomes a normal part, of your life, that you're praying,

To the Lord, and saying, give me opportunities, lead me to people, who are receptive, help me to have windows, where I can share, how I would think about anxiety, how I think about the future, how I think about parenting, help me have windows, where I can tell people, how good Jesus is, let me ask you a question, how many times, could you tell people, about Jesus this next year, if you became active in this, if you committed to, this is too good, and I'm going to share it, because that's what we want to do first, we want to commit to why, we want to commit to,

Yes I'm going to do this, I want to have beautiful feet, they ain't so pretty right now, but I want them to be beautiful, by the end of next year, what's that look like, how many people can you share the gospel with, and I'm not saying, it's like a challenge to, to like we all got to pick a number, but what I'm saying is like, if you think about it, and you can share the gospel, with five people this next year, five people that you know, that you care about, that you're around, let me ask you a question, what if one believes, what if their eternity is changed, what if you end up being able, to share the gospel once a month, what if all 100 of our preachers do, and 1200 more people,

Get to hear how good Jesus is, isn't that a good year, isn't that 1200 people, who are blessed, with some really helpful information, sometimes we say, well they know I'm a Christian, so they'll ask, they don't think they need Jesus, because they don't know what he does, they don't know how good he is, Bianca's going to come back up, she's going to play the piano for a minute, we're going to take communion here in a second, but here's, I want us to consider for a second, I want you to sit and think for a second, that if you are a Christian, I want you to ask the Lord, am I ashamed of the gospel, where is that, what's causing that, and I want us to repent, I want us to ask him to help us,

And I want us to grow, to be active, in telling people about him, we're going to talk about how next week, but that we ought to, that why matters, now some of us, it's enough for you to know, that Jesus told us to, you didn't need today, you're like Jesus told me to, I'm going to, and that's a good reason, but it's such good news, and the stakes are too high, for us to not be active in this, so our prayers, we've been kind of setting some, goals for ourselves, and we'll talk about this, at the end of every sermon this year, at the end of every sermon this series, as we've set some goals for ourselves, our prayer,

Is that our church family, our community groups, that each of us would be active, in sharing our faith, because I want to guarantee you something, if you spend the rest of your days, telling people about Jesus, that some will believe, and everyone who believes, will be saved, nobody who calls on the name of the Lord, will be put to shame, it's worth it, that there are going to be days, without end, where we are with the Lord, and that means that everything, in this life is going to pale, in comparison, it's going to fade, except for Christ, who will shine in eternal glory, so I want us to ask, am I ashamed,

And I want us to pray, that we wouldn't be, and I want us to commit, I want you to take the time, to genuinely commit yourself, to the Lord today, and say I'm, no I'm going to, I'm going to share the gospel, I'm going to begin doing this, I'm going to figure out how, so that some, might believe, you don't have to be perfect, you're not going to have to do it excellently, that puts all the weight on you, that's not the gospel, it's Jesus who saves, but I'm going to do this, and we're going to figure out how together, and if you're in this room this morning, and you, have not, called on Jesus,

You've not run to him, with your debt, you still are trying, to get your resume together, your credit history, your pay stubs for a future, whatever you're going to do, that's nonsense, Jesus saves the ungodly, and I would ask you, to run to him, to him who loves, sinners, and redeems them, and welcomes them, and adopts them, justifies them, reconciles them to God, brings them into the family, and glorifies them, and his glory for eternity, all because he's great, and those who run to him, won't be put to shame,

So take a moment to pray, as she plays, she's going to play for a little while, and then when you're ready, we'll take communion, communion is a physical representation, of what Jesus has accomplished, for us on the cross, that he literally died, that he was buried, that he rose again, that his body was broken, his blood was shed, and that we as the church, remind ourselves, how much we need the gospel, and how good it is, so if you are a Christian, we would invite you, to take communion, if you are not a Christian, we would invite you, to trust in Jesus, but if you have not yet done that,

We would not invite you, to take communion, so we're going to pray, she's going to play, and in a moment, when you're ready, we'll take communion, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit, would be active, right now, to lead us, that we might, genuinely commit ourselves, to you, to be, preachers, where we work, and where we live, and where we, play, that we might, share this good news, that we would not,

Keep it to ourselves, in those moments, that you would help us, to be unashamed, and we ask Lord, that some might, hear, believe, and call on you today, in Jesus name,

You're talking to him too intensely, like it's too much for a three year old, she said, I honestly think the way you're talking, you might, could make some grown men cry, and I was like, baby, you really think I can make a grown man cry? You know, just the sort of thing to say to me, she felt like I focused on the wrong part, so, but one of the things I've had to learn with him, is that like, it's not just that, like I, kids have parents for a reason, they don't, they don't have good sense, they need adults around them, there's a reason why they're not like, you know, I watched a TV show about iguanas,

And those things like, born and they can run off, and go do their own thing, your child can't, because it needs you there, making decisions for it, for a very long time, but one of the things I've realized, is as I correct him, and as I discipline him, one of the things I've started doing, is I just afterwards, I hug him, I tell him I love him, I get down on my knee, you know, the other day, he had gotten in trouble for something, and he got popped, and I said, you can go play, and he said, wait daddy, you forgot the part where you hug me,

And I was like, yeah, dude, come here, it's a good point, I'm glad you know the system, he wouldn't, I don't think he'd be like, what about the part where I get spanked, he probably wouldn't do that, but the hug, he remembers, and that's what that says, that we're reconciled, that he doesn't just say, okay, I've made some people even with me now, you're not guilty, it says, no, that he brings us in, that he loves us, that you're right with God, that when he thinks of you,

He thinks fondly of you, that he enjoys you, that you're reconciled, that your relationship with him is good, because of Jesus, do you know how good that is, he goes on, this is what we're covering in this section, but he also talks about in Romans 8, that we're adopted, that it's not just our relationships, right, but that he brings us into the family, other places talk about, that he does expiation, which means that he takes everything, that's ever happened to us, everything that would be on our record, he removes it, everything that's ever, all the sin that's been committed against us, all our shame, he cleans us, this news is too good,

For us to have even a twinge of shame, when it comes to telling somebody about it, it's too good, it's too eternally good, and too eternally urgent, it's too soul satisfying, that we would even trip, or have a hint of a, this propels us forward, and here's the thing, it's not just that it's too good, the stakes are too high, because if you don't have Christ, everything we just talked about, is flipped on its head, that when you stand before him, he does have a record of your guilt, you are not justified, you will not be declared not guilty, you will not leave that courtroom, that when you meet him, it will not be a moment of reconciliation, you will not get the hug, you do not get welcomed in,

You are not adopted, that you will stand before your judge, and your maker, on your own account, and it will not go well, and that rightfully, and justly, you will bear the wrath of God, because Jesus did not bear it for you, on the cross, and that is true, infinitely, eternally true, for everyone outside of Christ, now he died for the ungodly, which means that everybody is welcomed in, who will follow him, this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, for us to not spend our time, sharing it, for us to keep this to ourselves, you think about your life with Jesus, if you are in Christ,

And how you handle your life, when you are faced with anxiety, when you are overwhelmed, you see when you are talking to people at work, or you are talking to your neighbors, or you are just enjoying a friendship, with somebody who doesn't know Christ, they are going to talk to you about their life, and life is messy, and life is sinful, and life is hurtful, and life is fearful, and they are going to talk about, their fears for the future, and their fears for their children, and how difficult they are having, time in their marriage, and how anxious they are over money, or over how this job may not work out, or they have got a new boss, and they are not sure, if the new boss likes them, and they are going to talk about, all these things in life,

And the truth is, if you were walking through this, with yourself, or with someone in your community group, what would you be saying, I am dealing with anxiety, I am going to remind myself, that there is a God, who rules over the universe, that he is sovereign, that he tells me, that if I am fearful and anxious, I actually have no ability, to accomplish anything, but that he is good, and I can cast my cares on him, but I am worried about the future, if I really, you want to know, if I really get worried, about the future, you know you can pick up your Bible, and jump to the back end of Revelation, and see how it is going to shake out,

There is a part in there, where it says, everybody who loves Jesus, is gathered around the throne, in a place where there are no tears, and there is no suffering, and there is no night anymore, and there is no pain anymore, and that he welcomes them in, and that we get to spend eternity there, and sometimes, when you are fearful about the future, just go to the back end of Revelation, and say the future is going to be fine, for those who are in Christ, when you are worried about, being able to pay bills, don't you remind yourself, that Jesus looked at some people, and said, consider the ravens, they don't toil, they don't have barns, but they eat every day,

Look at the lilies, they don't sow, they don't spin, but they look better than Solomon ever did, you remind yourself, that you are going to be cared for, that he loves you, when you feel down, and shameful, and dirty, and all the enemy has been doing, is bringing up everything wrong, you've ever done, do you remind yourself, that one day, you'll be clothed in righteousness, that Jesus will stand in your place, that you will be justified, that you're holy, and blameless, and loved, and welcomed, and that he adores you, because he adores Christ,

And that Christ has swapped places with you, and then we have a co-worker, talking to us about their anxiety, and we have the shameful audacity, to say yeah, sounds awful, and to hold our hope, and not share it, when they talk about their fear, for their children, and their fear for their future, and we have the audacity, to say yeah, I deal with that too, but without telling them the cure, that there's a God, who works, and who redeems, who they can know, who loves them, who loves them, and they can know him, and he can work in them, and for them,

Because he's good, and we just say yeah, doctors are scary, this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, for us to not learn how to respond, and for us to not be active in this, turn to Romans 10, we're going to pick up in verse 8, Paul's talking about the gospel, he's referring to some Old Testament passages, and that's why he says, but what does it say, quote in Old Testament passage, the word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, that we proclaim, so he's talking about the gospel there, this word is near you, it's in your mouth, and in your heart,

This gospel, this truth about Jesus, and who he is, he says, because 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, for with the heart one believes, and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses, and is saved, for the scripture says, everyone who believes in him, will not be put to shame, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is the Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved, there is not a person in the history of the world, who has cried out to God, and said,

I need you, I need your help, I can't do this on my own, that was put to shame, that that turned out to be a mistake, there is not a person in the history of the world, that has claimed, Jesus I love you, I need you, I need your help, I know I am a sinner, I know all I bring is debt, but I need you to redeem me, that was not, and will not be saved, by Christ, everyone, so this news is too good, and the stakes are too high, and everyone who believes, will be saved, everyone, think of the worst person you know, that person,

Will be saved, if they believe, and if it's you, if the only person you can think of, that you think is terrible is you, you will be saved, if you trust Jesus, he loves you enough to die for you, while you were a sinner, not waiting for you to clean yourself up, let's keep going, 14, how will they call on him, in whom they have not believed, so he says, all who call on the name of the Lord, will be saved, but he says, how are they going to call on him, if they don't believe in him, because if they don't know what he does, and how good he is, and what he's accomplished, they're not going to,

Nobody's going to call on him, you understand the logic there, and how are they to believe in him, and whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear, without someone preaching, now most of the time, when you think about preaching, you think about what's going on right now, what I'm doing this very moment, this is preaching, I don't know why you laughed, it is, but what he means there, is preaching is a broader term, than just what happens on a Sunday, in a church, church, it means to proclaim the gospel, to tell of the gospel, to tell the good news, of the gospel, and so it also happens at gas stations, and in dorm rooms,

That the gospel can be shared, and proclaimed anywhere, so he says, how will they call on him, if they haven't believed, and how are they going to believe, if they haven't heard, and how are they going to hear, without somebody preaching, and how are they going to preach, unless they are sent, those last two ones, are the ones that we get involved in, we preach, and we send, as Christians, that's what we're supposed to do, that's discipleship, that's teaching them to obey everything, is sending, is that we're proclaiming, we're training somebody up, and we're sending them out, to go proclaim this gospel,

And having them, having people be baptized, in the name of the son, is us proclaiming the gospel, so that we proclaim it, we preach it, we tell people about it, we see people baptized, we train them up, we send them out, this is why we always talk about, multiplying our groups, because we want to multiply our groups, because we want to see more people, in more areas, in more times, during the week, with more room at a table, to see people proclaiming the gospel, we want to see, a group in Irmo, and a group in Gaston, we want to see, this continue to move,

And more people be welcomed in, and more people invited in, because there's more people, in this city proclaiming the gospel, we got, right around 80, members, in our church family, people committed to membership, we've got around 100 adults, in groups, and our goal, our prayer, is that that would be 100 preachers, it'd be 80 preachers, people that are going around, and so unashamed, of this gospel, they're telling people about it, how are they to preach, unless they're sent, as it is written, how beautiful, are the feet,

Of those who preach, the good news, so that's, that's this, this idea, that as you travel, you know, your feet would get, dusty or dirty, or grosser, as you travel, as you go around, but he's saying, it's the opposite, that there's beautiful feet, that those who carry good news, those who bring you good news, have beautiful feet, say that to someone, next time they tell you good news, they tell you good news, and you just say, wow, those are some good looking feet,

But that's what he's saying, that we get to be that, that we get to carry good news, he says, but they have not all obeyed, the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed, what he's heard from us, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ, so some people would say, well not everybody's going to believe, right, but some will, some will believe this news, you did, and how many people, after you believed the gospel, and Jesus began to change you, were like, wait, who?

Nah, do we need to go back, to your high school reunion, I'll go with you, so this person follows Jesus now, look at people's faces, some of you, you were the most unlikely candidate, but people will believe, this news is good, what Jesus does, and who he is, and what he's accomplished for us, there's a couple of things, that I think crop up, as soon as we start talking about, that we would go around, sharing the gospel, first there's this idea, that it would make us weird, I think it's worth being weird for, honestly, if the culture doesn't like, talking about Jesus,

They're confused about who he is, and as soon as they know him, they think it's a good idea, so okay, let's be okay with that one, let's roll past that, that little bit of shame, where it's like, I think people will think, I'm like a Jesus person, and I think that's a good way, to be defined, I think sometimes we go, okay, but I'm too busy, I have to make special time, for this, I'd have to try to figure out, like what, I got to start going to five points, and just yelling at people, you can, probably won't be the most effective, but people do believe that way sometimes,

Most of us, that's not that true though, you have a 40 hour week Job, or you go to school, or you live in a dorm, and you are surrounded by people, who need to know this news, some of you have children, or multiple children, and they don't know the gospel yet, and you ought to be active, in proclaiming the gospel to them, another thing that happens, is people think, well I have to be perfect, if I'm going to start telling people, Jesus, I got to get my act together, well first of all, it's not a bad idea, for you to start repenting of sin, and getting your act together, so I'm not against that idea, but the concept,

Of I have to be perfect, to share the gospel, is not a biblical concept, it's actually nonsense, because if the gospel, is that you're a really, well behaved person, you don't understand the gospel, the gospel is that you're ungodly, and that Jesus saves sinners, so that when I do something, really terrible, I had somebody say, well I can't share the gospel at work, because I get mad and cuss, like bro, the gospel is that Jesus saves sinners, not well behaved, perfect people, there are times that I do things, and people are like, man you do that, aren't you a preacher, I'm like yeah,

Jesus saves sinners, people who act like a complete fool, you saw me at Walmart with my son, yeah, sinners, people who don't do right, that's who he saves, that he works to redeem, those who are broken, so if you say, well if I do this, and it's not good or whatever, then I've messed it up, it's like no you haven't, the gospel is that Jesus is good, not that you are, that he saves people like you, do you know how refreshing, and hopeful that is to people, now continually change, and repent, and ask for forgiveness, certainly, the other thing is,

That we'll think, well I have to know everything, no you don't, I have to know everything, I have to have every answer, what if they ask me this, what if they ask me that, what if I say this, and they're like, alright, I believe in Jesus, tell me about dinosaurs, first of all, dinosaurs is not the route to Jesus, so they won't, that's not how that works, secondly, they may have some questions, and you can say, I don't know, let's talk about it, but you know enough, if you follow Jesus, you know enough,

You know he saved sinners, you know he saved you, we're going to talk more about that next week, specifically how to share, this news is too good, the stakes are too high, everyone who believes, will be saved, not everyone will believe, but some will, the news is too good, the stakes are too high, not everyone, everyone who believes, will be saved, not everyone, will believe, but some will, so I want to ask you this, if you become active, in sharing your faith, this becomes a normal part, of your life, that you're praying,

To the Lord, and saying, give me opportunities, lead me to people, who are receptive, help me to have windows, where I can share, how I would think about anxiety, how I think about the future, how I think about parenting, help me have windows, where I can tell people, how good Jesus is, let me ask you a question, how many times, could you tell people, about Jesus this next year, if you became active in this, if you committed to, this is too good, and I'm going to share it, because that's what we want to do first, we want to commit to why, we want to commit to,

Yes I'm going to do this, I want to have beautiful feet, they ain't so pretty right now, but I want them to be beautiful, by the end of next year, what's that look like, how many people can you share the gospel with, and I'm not saying, it's like a challenge to, to like we all got to pick a number, but what I'm saying is like, if you think about it, and you can share the gospel, with five people this next year, five people that you know, that you care about, that you're around, let me ask you a question, what if one believes, what if their eternity is changed, what if you end up being able, to share the gospel once a month, what if all 100 of our preachers do, and 1200 more people,

Get to hear how good Jesus is, isn't that a good year, isn't that 1200 people, who are blessed, with some really helpful information, sometimes we say, well they know I'm a Christian, so they'll ask, they don't think they need Jesus, because they don't know what he does, they don't know how good he is, Bianca's going to come back up, she's going to play the piano for a minute, we're going to take communion here in a second, but here's, I want us to consider for a second, I want you to sit and think for a second, that if you are a Christian, I want you to ask the Lord, am I ashamed of the gospel, where is that, what's causing that, and I want us to repent, I want us to ask him to help us,

And I want us to grow, to be active, in telling people about him, we're going to talk about how next week, but that we ought to, that why matters, now some of us, it's enough for you to know, that Jesus told us to, you didn't need today, you're like Jesus told me to, I'm going to, and that's a good reason, but it's such good news, and the stakes are too high, for us to not be active in this, so our prayers, we've been kind of setting some, goals for ourselves, and we'll talk about this, at the end of every sermon this year, at the end of every sermon this series, as we've set some goals for ourselves, our prayer,

Is that our church family, our community groups, that each of us would be active, in sharing our faith, because I want to guarantee you something, if you spend the rest of your days, telling people about Jesus, that some will believe, and everyone who believes, will be saved, nobody who calls on the name of the Lord, will be put to shame, it's worth it, that there are going to be days, without end, where we are with the Lord, and that means that everything, in this life is going to pale, in comparison, it's going to fade, except for Christ, who will shine in eternal glory, so I want us to ask, am I ashamed,

And I want us to pray, that we wouldn't be, and I want us to commit, I want you to take the time, to genuinely commit yourself, to the Lord today, and say I'm, no I'm going to, I'm going to share the gospel, I'm going to begin doing this, I'm going to figure out how, so that some, might believe, you don't have to be perfect, you're not going to have to do it excellently, that puts all the weight on you, that's not the gospel, it's Jesus who saves, but I'm going to do this, and we're going to figure out how together, and if you're in this room this morning, and you, have not, called on Jesus,

You've not run to him, with your debt, you still are trying, to get your resume together, your credit history, your pay stubs for a future, whatever you're going to do, that's nonsense, Jesus saves the ungodly, and I would ask you, to run to him, to him who loves, sinners, and redeems them, and welcomes them, and adopts them, justifies them, reconciles them to God, brings them into the family, and glorifies them, and his glory for eternity, all because he's great, and those who run to him, won't be put to shame,

So take a moment to pray, as she plays, she's going to play for a little while, and then when you're ready, we'll take communion, communion is a physical representation, of what Jesus has accomplished, for us on the cross, that he literally died, that he was buried, that he rose again, that his body was broken, his blood was shed, and that we as the church, remind ourselves, how much we need the gospel, and how good it is, so if you are a Christian, we would invite you, to take communion, if you are not a Christian, we would invite you, to trust in Jesus, but if you have not yet done that,

We would not invite you, to take communion, so we're going to pray, she's going to play, and in a moment, when you're ready, we'll take communion, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit, would be active, right now, to lead us, that we might, genuinely commit ourselves, to you, to be, preachers, where we work, and where we live, and where we, play, that we might, share this good news, that we would not,

Keep it to ourselves, in those moments, that you would help us, to be unashamed, and we ask Lord, that some might, hear, believe, and call on you today, in Jesus name,