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Justification: The Guilt is Gone
Introduction:
John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
3 Things to Remind Yourself When You Feel Guilty: (Romans 3:21-28)
- You Are. (Romans 3:21-23)
- But God is Totally Satisfied by the Cross. (Romans 3:24-26)
Proverbs 17:15 – He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Exodus 23:7 – Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.
Acts 17:30 – The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
- And Justification is a Gift to Be Received By Faith. (Romans 3:27-28)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Our next four messages, including Good Friday, which I just found out is on a Friday,
will be talking about one of the most profound statements Jesus Christ ever made.
And it was on the cross when he cried out, "It is finished."
So we're going to be examining the question, "What is finished?"
Think about finishing things, right?
From a very early age, hopefully we've all been taught the importance of finishing things, right?
Didn't you hear that growing up?
And maybe some of you now parents are saying, "That's your kids."
Hey, finish your supper. Finish your chores, right?
Finish your homework.
And we're taught that there are consequences when we don't finish.
Well, the glorious reality that we're going to be looking at over these next four messages is this.
The Son of God came to this earth to do something, and he finished it.
So the question is, what is finished?
Now let's go to the scene, John 19, verses 28 through 30.
It says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said,"
to fulfill the Scriptures, "I thirst.
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hissy branch
and held it to his mouth when Jesus had received the sour wine.
He said, 'It is finished.'
And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
What was finished?
Well, today we're going to look at one thing of many that was finished.
Today we're going to talk about the work of justification.
Meaning our guilt is gone.
I'd like you to buy your heads with me, please, and I just want to take a moment.
If you would please pray for me to accurately communicate the Word of God as I should.
And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today from His Word.
Alright? Let's pray.
Father in heaven, as we turn to Your Word, it's a thought that makes us tremble to think that right now
we are about to talk about the most important thing anyone will ever hear for their entire lives.
And Father, we recognize that as no overstatement whatsoever.
We can't begin to fathom how important this message is.
This message has just been so distorted and twisted and changed,
and we just want to get back to what Your Word actually says.
See what You said, God, and we want to not align our lives with our concept of You, God,
but we want to align our lives with what You actually said.
So I'm asking, Father, You would open our hearts up this morning
and that You would bring much glory to Yourself through the straightforward understanding of Your Word.
We pray in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said,
"Amen! What is finished, the work of justification, the guilt is gone."
Do I have to sell anybody on guilt?
We've all struggled with guilt, and some of us might be struggling with guilt right now.
What is guilt? Well, guilt is just that bad feeling that we get when what I did was wrong.
There's another word that's often connected to guilt, and it's the word shame.
And shame's a little different.
See, shame is the feeling of guilt that I have when people know what I did wrong.
You know what I mean? Like, you could have a secret sin that nobody knows about,
and you might feel guilt over that, but you don't feel shame because nobody knows.
But if that secret sin gets made known, if people know about it, now all of a sudden,
people must think of me differently. That's what shame is.
How I think people think of me now because of my guilt.
The point is this, my friends, we have both of those before God.
We have guilt. I disobeyed. We have shame. God is surely disappointed in me.
I want you to look at verse 24. We're going to back up here and get to context.
I just want you to look at this first phrase in verse 24.
This is Romans chapter 3, right?
He says, "We are justified by His grace as a gift."
That's what we're talking about today. Justification. What is that?
It's the most important thing you will ever hear.
Justification is God pronouncing a guilty sinner as not only being not guilty,
but being perfectly righteous instead. It's a legal term.
It's the opposite of condemnation.
But listen, it's more than pardoned.
So when you pardon someone, you're just taking away the penalty of what they did.
Penalty for, excuse me, what they did wrong.
Justification is so much more than that.
It's not just canceling the penalty, but actually making righteous.
Think of it this way. In God's justification, it's not just you won't be punished.
God says you can't be punished because there are no grounds whatsoever for punishment anymore.
Do you see the difference?
But even as Christians, we still wrestle with guilt, don't we?
I mean, look, if you've done something wrong to somebody else,
you need to take steps to make that right.
And Pastor Taylor did an amazing job last Wednesday at our latest workshop.
So we're not talking about that today.
But today we're talking about guilt before God.
Am I really forgiven?
Have you ever wrestled with that?
Am I really a child of God?
Or is God disappointed in me?
Well, from God's Word today, I want you to jot some things down.
Here's three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty.
And if you don't feel guilty now, you will.
I mean, like, eventually, I didn't mean like...
In 30 seconds, you're all going to be bowing your heads.
We all struggle with it from time to time, don't we?
Is it just me?
Okay, alright.
Three things.
Look, we're not trying to pile on here, okay?
Here are three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty.
Number one, you are.
Like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I came here to feel good, Pastor Jeff.
Look, listen, it has to start here.
Because if you don't really think that you're guilty before God,
Jesus won't really mean anything to you.
Look at verse 21.
He says, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested
apart from the law."
Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
So up there, the Old Testament law was to teach us that we are sinners.
That was the purpose of the Old Testament law.
It was to teach us that we have broken the law of God.
And even if you just reduce the Old Testament law to the Ten Commandments,
just looking at those shows us adequately that we are really law sinners.
I mean, let me ask you, have you always made the worship of God
and your walk with God the absolute most important thing in your life?
Has it always been number one?
No.
Well, if not, then you've broken the first couple of commandments.
You should only have one God.
You shouldn't have worshiped anything else other than God.
You're guilty.
Have you always honored your parents perfectly?
Like, no, there are times I haven't.
Well, you've broken the fifth commandment,
which says honor your father and mother.
Have you ever hated someone?
According to Jesus, you've broken the sixth commandment,
which says you shouldn't murder because it starts in here.
Have you ever lusted?
Jesus said that's the same thing as committing adultery
and you've broken the seventh commandment.
Have you ever stolen anything?
That's breaking the eighth commandment.
How we doing?
How we doing?
You're like, I'm doing pretty good.
Okay, have you ever told a lie?
You're like, I think maybe I just did.
Well, if you've ever known the truth
and intentionally said something else,
then you've broken the ninth commandment.
Have you ever wanted something that God gave somebody else?
Like, what's the big deal?
I'll tell you the big deal.
That's breaking the tenth commandment.
That's called coveting.
So you see, that's the purpose of the law was to show us,
oh, I'm not a righteous person on my own.
We need to be made right with God,
but the law shows us that we're sinners.
We're sinners.
It can't make us not guilty.
The Old Testament law can't do that.
Look at verse 22.
He goes on.
He says, "The righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe."
Stop there for a second,
because we have to make a key distinction here.
Because if you miss this,
you're going to be really lost here in a second.
He's talking about the righteousness of God.
He says it twice.
That's the theme of this passage.
What is the righteousness of God?
Hang on.
There's a distinction.
In verses 25 and 26,
he talks about God's righteousness.
Listen, God's righteousness is different
than the righteousness of God.
Those are two different things.
And it's going to be crystal clear in the context
so long as you stay tuned in to what God is saying here.
Like, what's the difference?
Here's the difference.
Listen, God's righteousness is the righteousness that God owns.
The righteousness of God is the righteousness God gives
to believers.
So he's saying -
one other run at that one -
God's righteousness is the righteousness that God owns.
That's just another way of saying God's holiness.
God is holy, He's perfect.
That's what God's righteousness is.
But when the Bible talks about here,
the righteousness of God,
it's talking about the righteousness that God gives to believers.
And again, that's going to be very clear in the context.
But I don't want us to get tripped up on the terms.
So, Paul is claiming here that God makes us righteous through faith,
implying that we need to be made righteous,
implying that we're guilty.
You see that?
Look at verse 22, he goes on.
He says, "For there is no distinction,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Look, when we talk about being guilty before God,
he says there's no distinction.
It doesn't matter if you grew up in a Christian home.
Or if you grew up in a home that didn't even have a Bible in it.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter
if you're the most rebellious sinner in the world.
Or if you're just a pretty good person.
He says we all have fallen short of the glory of God.
Like, what glory of God? What is that?
That's God's image.
That's God's intention for man.
We all failed to live up to being the people
that God has created us to be.
We've all fallen short.
Listen, it doesn't matter how short we've fallen.
Because we've all fallen short.
Imagine, we're standing on the shore of New Jersey,
facing the Atlantic Ocean.
And there's me.
And there's my man, Max.
And there's the Steelers quarterback.
Who's the quarterback for the Steelers now?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I pushed a hot button.
Let's just say Ben Rothlessberger.
So let's say we're all standing on the shore of New Jersey.
All right, me, Max, and Ben Rothlessberger.
And we're each given a football.
And we're told that we need to throw that football and hit England.
I can do that. I mean, how far is England?
And I -- everything that I got, I throw it.
And it goes 10 feet into the ocean.
And Max was like, "Pastor Jeff, step aside."
Whoo!
Tight spiral, 100 feet.
Whoo!
Into the ocean.
Ben Rothlessberger steps up.
And he's like, "I'm going to show you I still got it."
And whoo! He throws it 200 feet into the ocean.
Which one of us hit England?
Right?
We all fell short, didn't we?
You're like, "Well, Jeff, you fell way shorter than Ben."
Okay.
But we all fell short. Do you see the point?
It doesn't matter how short you've fallen.
We all fell short of God's glory.
And that's a big deal.
Listen, church, we can't minimize that by saying,
"I'm not really that guilty."
We can't compare to say, "Well, I'm not as guilty as other people."
And we can't trivialize it to say, "Yeah, okay, I'm guilty."
So what?
We need to confess it.
I -- and by that I mean me --
I am guilty of breaking God's law by my disobedience.
So if you're struggling with guilt,
this is just your friendly reminder that you are guilty.
But number two,
but God is totally satisfied by the cross.
You are guilty, but God is totally satisfied by the cross.
Look at verse 24 through the first part of 25.
He says, "Okay, for all of us who fall short of the glory of God,
a lot of us probably have that verse memorized, right?"
But He says, "And are justified by His grace as a gift
through the redemption it is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation
by His blood to be received by faith."
Look, the cross of Jesus Christ is God's means
of making sinners righteous.
Now, there's a word here in these verses we just read.
You need to underline in your Bible right now.
And we're going to have people at the door handing you an Easter devotional
and checking your Bibles to make sure that you underline this.
But it's one of the most beautiful words in the entire Bible.
And it's the word "propitiation."
I think John uses it in 1 John as well.
It's a beautiful word.
Like, well, what is "propitiation"?
Propitiation literally means to placate anger.
I know some theologians try to dance around that.
Like, almost to soften the blow.
But no, that's what it means.
It means God is furious over sin.
Propitiation means He's not angry anymore.
It means that Jesus' death satisfied God.
Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, God saw that.
And He said, "The full penalty has been paid.
My wrath has been fully poured out.
Punishment has been fully doled out."
God says, "I am satisfied."
You know, when we talk about salvation,
sometimes we say, in our evangelism mindset,
we say, "How do we get men to accept God?"
And that's really not the question we need to ask.
The question is, how do we get God to accept men?
Because, listen, God was the one who was offended.
Not me.
God was offended.
So any talk about salvation and being righteous
and any talk of that has to satisfy God.
And you see, that's where every other religion in the world,
besides Christianity as presented in God's Word,
straightforwardly, every other religion teaches
that there are things that we have to do to satisfy God.
There are religious works or some kind of action
that we have to take to make God satisfied.
The Bible says we can't do it.
Nothing we do can satisfy God.
Look at verse 25 again.
It says, "Whom God," talking about Jesus,
"put forward as a propitiation by His blood
to be received by faith."
Look at that.
The Bible says, "God put Jesus forward."
Do you see what's happening here?
We sinned against God.
We deserve God's wrath.
And God took His Son and put Him forward.
That means He demonstrated some things.
He put Jesus on display.
God showed us something on the cross.
What did God show us on the cross?
Well, later in Romans 5, verse 8,
it says that God demonstrated His love on the cross.
So love for sure.
Here, specifically, He's saying that on the cross,
God showed that His Son fully paid the penalty
that the law demanded.
So now, God says, "Because of my Son..."
Look, I'm showing you this.
I'm showing you.
This is what my Son did.
Now, I'm satisfied.
Propitiation.
Propitiation.
This is where theology is important, my friends.
Christian, listen.
I want you to listen real close, Christian.
God is not mad at you.
He's not.
Because of Jesus,
God has no wrath left for you.
And to think that He does
is to minimize what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
But some Christians think that
God poured out His wrath on Jesus.
They believe that.
But they think that God's still mad at them.
Like, God is just like,
"Yeah, I know that you received my Son,
but I'm so upset with you for what you did."
He's not.
That's what that word "propitiation" means.
There's no wrath left
for the one in Christ Jesus.
God is satisfied.
Look at the end of verse 25.
This gets a little technical, so look.
It says,
"This was to show God's righteousness."
Because in His divine forbearance,
He had passed over former sins.
It was to show His righteousness
at the present time,
so that He might be just
and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus.
We define this term in the outset,
but two times here,
He says that the cross
was to show God's righteousness.
Do you know what He's saying?
The cross proved
that God is righteous.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Time out, time out.
Time out.
Hang on.
Why would anyone
accuse God of not being holy?
What do you mean?
What possible grounds would someone have
to point to God and say,
"God, you messed up here.
God, what you did
or what you didn't do here,
that's not holy, God.
That's not righteous."
What grounds would somebody have for that?
Listen very closely,
because this is what Paul's talking about.
We're going to do a little theology here
for a couple of minutes,
and I know what's the point.
You're going to see here in a couple of minutes
that this will change your life
if you really understand this.
So here we go.
What's Paul talking about here?
When he talks about his divine forbearance,
passing over former sins.
What's he mean?
Listen, in the Old Testament times,
which was before the cross, right,
God justified wicked people.
And that is controversial.
You're like, "Why?
Why is it controversial
that God would justify the wicked
in Old Testament times?"
Oh, I'm so glad you asked.
I'll tell you why.
One reason is,
He forbid us to do that.
Look at Proverbs 17-15.
"He who justifies the wicked
and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike in abomination to the Lord."
Do you see that?
Do you know what abomination is?
In my Bible, I put a little exclamation point
in the margin every time I see that word.
That's like something that is so wicked,
it like makes God sick.
God's like, "I hate that."
And here God says,
"I can't stomach when the wicked are justified."
You're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
You're saying that we can't do that,
but you did that, God,
before the cross."
Hmm.
Is that righteous?
Well, actually,
it gets even worse
if we're barking up this tree,
because earlier in your Old Testaments,
God actually said
that He would never justify the wicked.
Exodus 23-7,
it's pretty self-explanatory.
And God says, "I will not
acquit the wicked."
Do you see the problem?
Somebody would say,
God in the Old Testament times did
what He forbid us to do,
what He swore He would never do,
what He would never do.
And we're talking about God being holy,
God being perfect, God so righteous.
How can we say that?
And Paul doesn't -
I love this because
he doesn't shy away from that.
He runs right at it
when he says this was to
show God's righteousness
because -
look at this again -
in His divine forbearance,
He passed over former sins.
Again, it was to show His righteousness.
In other words,
He's saying in the Old Testament times
God tolerated sin.
Like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
How can we say God's righteous?
I mean, in the Old Testament,
there was no perpetuation.
There was no cross of Jesus Christ yet.
So when somebody sinned in the Old Testament,
if God is the holy judge
that you say that He is,
why didn't He immediately just judge sinners?
They didn't have
the blood of Jesus Christ to proclaim.
I mean, you look at the guys in the Old Testament -
Abraham, Moses, David -
I mean, pick one -
all sinners.
And yet, when you read
God's interaction with them,
over and over,
we see God giving them the promise of eternal life.
Was that really a righteous thing to do
for people that couldn't put their faith
in Jesus Christ
since He hadn't come yet?
How could God give them that promise?
Somebody would say,
"Oh, that was the Old Testament sacrifices."
Couldn't do it.
They covered sin,
but they didn't take away sin.
And somebody else might say,
"Well, it was their good works."
It was their good works.
That's how God was able to...
No.
Nowhere does the Bible say
you can earn your salvation.
So what's He saying?
He's saying in verses 25 and 26 here,
"And God's forbearance,"
another word for patience.
He passed over former sins.
And that word "pass over"
doesn't mean forgive.
It literally means He overlooked their sin.
God's patience
caused God to not punish their sin immediately.
This is exactly what Paul was talking about.
Very curious verse in Acts 17, verse 30,
on Mars Hill,
exact same thing he's talking about.
The times of ignorance,
God overlooked.
And now He commands all people
everywhere to repent.
So how was God able to do that?
See, this is what Paul's talking about here.
It was still, even in Old Testament times,
it was still because of Jesus Christ.
You're like, "Well, how can they believe in Jesus
if they don't know about the cross?"
Look, God is outside of time.
And if you study your Bibles like Revelation 13.8,
Jesus Christ was always the Lamb of God.
That wasn't some radical idea
that God dreamed up one day
about 2,000 years ago.
Like, "Oh, I got an idea."
Now, that was always the plan.
So here it is.
Listen close.
Even before the cross happened,
God overlooked sin based on what was already determined
that His Son was going to do.
So what He's saying is this,
the cross of Jesus Christ reaches back
to the Old Testament saints.
They were pronounced righteous
because of what Jesus was going to do,
just as we are pronounced righteous
looking back based on what Jesus did in our past.
And kids that haven't even been born yet
that eventually will receive Jesus Christ,
their sins are already forgiven in Christ.
You're like, "Okay, so what's the point?"
What's the point?
Well, there's two points actually.
Number one, it answers one of the most commonly asked questions
that I get as a pastor.
People ask me all the time,
"How are the people saved in the Old Testament?"
Because if Jesus is the only means of salvation,
and I believe that,
then how were they saved in the Old Testament?
The answer is still Jesus.
Their faith was based on what God was going to do.
That's why God was overlooking their sin, so to speak.
But listen, here's why this theology is so important for you.
What were we talking about today?
Guilt, right?
See, this answers the guilt question.
As a Christian, when I sin,
and I will,
is God mad at me?
No.
Do I have to ask for forgiveness?
Do I have to plead the blood of Jesus over my sin
every time that I sin as a Christian?
The answer is no.
Or how about this one?
What if I sin and then I die?
Can I go to heaven since I sinned
and I didn't ask for forgiveness for that particular sin?
I have known,
pastors, I have known pastors that have taught that,
that you better die on a good day.
Because let's say you're living this perfect walk with Jesus' life.
And let's say you have a blow-up with your wife on the way out the door.
And you sinfully speak to her.
And you get in the car and go to work,
and you die in a car accident, you're going to hell.
Because that sin wasn't confessed and repented of
and covered under the blood of Christ.
I know pastors that teach that.
That is completely wrong.
That's why this theology is so important.
Listen, when Jesus Christ was on the cross,
do you realize all of your sins were yet future?
Do you realize that?
All of your sins were paid for,
even the sins that you haven't committed yet.
So if you are in Christ,
and if you sin and you will,
you don't need to ask for forgiveness.
Because you already have it.
So listen, somebody is going to misconstrue this.
So just grab the shoulder of the person next to you and shake them.
And tell them to pay attention.
Thank you.
Because somebody is going to misconstrue this.
Listen, when you sin, church,
you need to confess your sin.
Then you need to thank God
that He has forgiven you in Jesus Christ.
And you need to turn from your sin.
Because you don't want to do anything in your life
that would dishonor the name of your Lord.
But it's not as if God just keeps forgiving you over and over.
He forgave you once when you received Jesus Christ.
And that lasts for all of eternity.
Do you see the security in that?
So listen, whether it was Moses' sin
or a sin that you are going to commit tomorrow,
all sins have been taken away.
God is satisfied because of the one-time sacrifice of Jesus
that covers all sins of all believers.
There is incredible freedom in that.
Three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty.
Number one, you are.
Number two, but God is totally satisfied by the cross.
Number three, justification is a gift to be received by faith.
Look at verses 27 and 28.
He says, "Then what becomes of our boasting?
It is excluded by what kind of law?
By a law of works? No.
By the law of faith.
For we hold that one is justified by faith
apart from works of the law."
In this passage, faith has come up,
have you been counting?
Six times.
And yes, I'm counting when he used the word "believe"
because that's what he meant.
Verse 22, including the word "believe," he says it twice.
Verse 25, 26, 27, 28.
Faith, faith, faith.
And then he's like, "So what does that do for our boasting?"
Pretty dumb, right?
To have the audacity to think that you have anything
to contribute to your salvation at all?
What could you possibly boast about?
What do your works have to do with the death of Jesus?
You realize when Jesus was on the cross,
when Jesus was actually on the cross,
most of you weren't even born yet.
I was going to say all,
but I don't know how old all y'all are.
So I think it's safe to say when Jesus died,
most of you weren't born yet.
So what did you contribute to that exactly?
See, the cross of Jesus Christ eliminates
even the very possibility of salvation by human works.
Faith. Faith is the only way.
Faith isn't one way to be saved.
It's the only way.
And don't think that faith is some sort of merit.
Like, okay, God did His part in salvation,
and now I'm going to do my part in salvation.
It's not even really like that,
because earlier he was talking about grace in verse 24,
and grace by its very definition is non-contributory.
Do you know what that means?
If you put forth anything to contribute towards it,
it's no longer grace at all.
So what is faith?
I like how one writer put it.
He says faith is simply the eye that sees.
He said faith is simply the mouth
that drinks from the living water.
And he said faith is the hand that receives the gift.
I like that, because by the way, in verse 24,
he calls it a gift.
It is a gift.
Imagine that it's my birthday today.
It's not.
My birthday is September 23rd.
I don't see a lot of you writing that down.
I can wait. September 23rd.
But we're - for today,
we're pretending that it's my birthday.
And imagine this afternoon,
you showed up at my house
and you had a gift for me.
Something you went out and you bought
and you wrapped it,
and you were so excited to give me this gift.
And you come to my house
and you ring the doorbell and I open it up
and you say, "Happy birthday."
There's four ways that I can respond to that.
Right? First way is,
I can slam the door in your face and say,
"I don't want your stupid gifts."
I wouldn't do that.
But that's an option, right?
I mean, I could do that.
Second option is you ring the doorbell,
open it up, "Happy birthday."
And I look at the gift and I say,
"That's awesome. Where's my wallet?"
Like, "How much do I owe you for that?"
Let me see how much cash I have.
I can probably pay you for that right now.
Or can I write you a check?
How would you feel
if I offered to buy the gift that you got me?
Pretty lousy, huh?
That's another option.
Or a third option is you ring the doorbell,
I open it up, "Happy birthday."
And I take the gift and I'm like,
"Wow, you know what?
This looks great."
Thank you. This looks fantastic.
And I set it down by the door.
And then you come to my house.
Six months later, and that gift is still sitting there.
Except now it has an inch of dust on it.
And you would think to yourself,
"You know, Jeff actually seemed excited
when I handed it to him,
but he didn't really receive it, did he?"
He didn't really do anything with it.
He just kind of set it aside.
Or the fourth option,
you ring the doorbell, "Happy birthday."
I got you a gift.
The fourth option is I take the gift
and I say, "Thank you."
Thank you so much for this.
And I receive it, and I use it.
And you realize those are the same four ways
that you can respond to God's gift in Jesus Christ.
You have those same four options.
That God says, "I am satisfied."
I have paid the price of your sin
with the blood of my son.
Here is a gift.
And for some people, they take the first option.
They slam the door and say, "No.
God, I'm not interested in your stupid gift."
Some people take that option.
Some people take option two,
and they think they can buy it.
"Oh God, that's so wonderful what you did for me in Jesus.
Now, let me earn that.
And I'm going to start doing this at the church
and I'm going to work at the soup kitchen
and they think that they have to earn the gift.
And I would suggest to you that God
is probably just as insulted
at that notion as I would be,
or as you would be rather,
if I tried to pay you for the gift that you got me."
It's insulting to try to buy a gift.
The third option,
and I think this is the most taken option in churches, honestly.
That's what most people do with the gift of Jesus Christ.
They're like, "Yeah, that you're sitting here
and worshiping the Word,
and you're just like all into it.
You're like, "Yeah, yeah, I need this.
Yeah, that's fantastic."
And you set them aside.
And you never really receive them.
You just sort of discarded them.
Not flagrant rejection, but,
shall we say, practical rejection.
The option that the Lord wants you to take
is that you receive the gift.
To understand why you need it,
and you thank God that He gave it.
That Jesus bore God's wrath on the cross.
God is satisfied with what Jesus did.
The guilt is gone by the gift of God.
Did you receive that?
So worship team makes their way back up.
I'd just like you to bow your heads.
And I'm sure sitting here today,
there are some Christians that have wrestled with guilt
that have needed to take a fresh look
at what exactly Jesus accomplished on the cross.
He didn't accomplish opportunity
for us to earn favor with God.
Jesus accomplished our salvation in full.
Jesus accomplished the full removal of our guilt and shame
by bearing God's wrath on our behalf.
But there might be somebody here
that's really hearing this for the first time.
Whether it's somebody sitting here,
listening to this podcast,
or watching the stream.
Today's the day that you need to stop setting the gift aside.
And receive what it is that God has for you.
Father in heaven.
Father, this to me is the most mind-blowing concept
in the entirety of your Word.
God, I've never really wrestled with creation
or the trinity or eternity, things like that.
But God, the fact that you can pronounce a sinner righteous
is mind-blowing.
God, we thank you for the work that you accomplished on our behalf
through the death of your Son.
Father, if there's anyone here
who needs to take that step,
who needs to receive Christ,
who needs to make their public profession of faith and baptism
here in a few weeks.
Father, I pray that you would give them the faith
to not put it off,
to not talk themselves out of it,
but to see the value,
the incomparable value of Jesus Christ.
What He's done, and in so doing, Father,
they would run to you.
So just now, Father,
we've heard from you,
and now we're going to express back to you
love and thanksgiving
for what you've done on our behalf.
So Father, might this worship
be a pleasing aroma,
may it be a sweet sound in your ear
as we revel in your love and grace.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 3:21-28
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think many Christians still struggle with guilt and shame?
Explain the term “propitiation” (Rom 3:25). Why is this such an important aspect of the Gospel? What does it mean for a Christian in practical terms?
What does it mean that God “passed over former sins” (Rom 3:25)? How could a Holy God just overlook sin (see also Acts 17:30)?
Breakout
Pray for one another to be salty and bright.