WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.360 Hey, everybody. 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:05.040 Welcome to the third session in your foundations course. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:06.480 My name is Mark Medley. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.720 I'm one of the pastors at Trinity Community Church. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:18.399 And Pastor Kelly is already taking you on a little journey, laying a foundation in the foundations class for who God is and what God thinks about us. 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:26.719 And we're talking today about Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done, and the work on the cross and why that's so important to us. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:35.520 And uh in the last session, we found out that uh that God has reconciled us to himself because of his great love. 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:39.359 He sent his son, and now we're called friends of God. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:44.320 While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us so that we could become friends of God. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:48.240 It's really important that we understand that we're not just friends of God. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.280 We're friends of God because of the work of Jesus. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:55.679 So there's some scriptures here in your book, and you can look at those. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:10.159 I'm going to read through them quickly, and then uh I'm gonna let you read most of that on your own, what's in the book, because I want to go a little bit deeper and talk about what it means, the work of Jesus on the cross, what that means to us. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:23.760 In your book, we see Romans 5, verse 12 says, Therefore, just as one through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all men. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:28.239 And we understand this uh we inherit a sin nature. 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:33.359 Through Adam, everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:43.120 No one is right in themselves before God, and so we can't repay the debt that we owe to God. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:58.239 And then you see in Colossians chapter 2, verse 14, that Jesus, it says, He wiped out the handwriting of the requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he is taking it out of the way, he has nailed it to his cross. 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:13.840 So we see that that God, even though those uh that sin had separated us from him, that God is here, we are here, and there's a there's a separation between us, and the separation is our sin. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:19.039 And this is not the Bible, it is not sin, you understand that, but I'm just using it as an example. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:32.240 Um, but God loves us so much that He took, He sent His Son Jesus to take upon Him the weight and the penalty and the punishment of our sin, so that Jesus took that. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:39.599 He came, He lived a life that I could not live, a life of perfect submission and obedience to God. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:45.360 And then He died the death that I should have died because I was not obedient to God. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:55.599 And through, and then God raised him from the dead, validating his work, and through faith in what he has done, I can be back together with God. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:00.240 The sin had separated me, but now I'm brought back together. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.159 Jesus nailed all of those things. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:14.479 If you can think of it, everything you've ever done, recorded and written on a piece of paper, or reams of paper, maybe everything that you've done that has been a sin against God. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:18.000 But he took that and he nailed it to his cross. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.319 And when Jesus died, those things were destroyed. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:23.759 We're back together with him. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:33.360 So Romans chapter 6, verse 23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:40.479 So uh we can see that this is the this is where we were and where we are. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:45.680 What we were before Jesus, what we are now because of Jesus. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:50.319 John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:53.759 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:00.400 Jesus is the only way to salvation, and Jesus is sufficient for your salvation. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:13.039 It's not Jesus plus something else, plus your Bible reading or your witnessing or your church attendance, all those things we do because we love him because he first loved us. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.520 It's Jesus alone. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:19.759 It's not my works, it's Jesus alone that saves me. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:27.040 And then from that place of love, I am set free and I'm enabled to live a life that's pleasing to him. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:39.439 So I live this life of obedience and getting to know him more, uh, church attendance, prayer, worship, Bible study, all of these things are fruits of this love. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:46.959 It's not I'm trying to do that to put God in my debt, but I'm doing this because he first loved me. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.360 And this is how I get to know him further. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:50.879 It's out of the purest motive. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.319 You see, Christianity has the purest motive. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:05:02.319 We're not trying to do things so we can try to get to God, but we are already with God because of Christ. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:06.639 And because of that, we are um we are doing the things that we do. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.839 We're living upright and obedient lives because of that. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.279 So you can read further about that in your book. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:20.160 Um, also uh you can read where again Colossians chapter one that talks about the fullness of what Jesus has done there. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:26.000 And in John chapter 1, verse 1, in Hebrews 2, 17 and 18. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:36.000 So there's a place there for you to write some script, some notes, and I just want to give you a few of the things that that Jesus has done for us. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.720 I want to kind of scan the scriptures in the short time that we have here, and let's talk about what Jesus has done. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:51.680 So, in the very first thing we can think of, Jesus has done in his work on the cross is that he has God has regenerated us. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.800 Regeneration is a scriptural term. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:06:14.959 Uh, in in Ephesians chapter 2, we see the idea of it, verse 4 and 5, and it says that God being rich in mercy, when we were dead in our sins, has made us alive because of his great love, wherewith he loved us. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:19.279 Even we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:20.639 We were dead in our sins. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:24.240 It's not like we were sick and we needed a little bit of medicine. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.120 We were dead in our sins. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:31.839 And God has raised us with Christ. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:37.120 Jesus died with us, died for us in the sense we died with him. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.600 We were dead, but he raised him. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.959 He raised him from the dead, and he raised us up with him. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:45.360 So this is the idea of regeneration. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.319 It means that we were dead, but now we're alive again. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:07:03.839 In the Old Testament, it's put this way: the promise about the new covenant was that I will take away your heart of stone, and I'll give you a heart of flesh, and I'll put my spirit in you, and I'll cause you to follow after me. 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:15.600 You know, if you have a heart of stone, a heart of stone can't beat, and a heart of stone can't pump blood, a heart of stone can't bring life to anything because it's dead. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.319 A heart of stone can't feel God because it's dead. 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:31.279 But God in his mercy regenerated us so that we're able to live again, to feel him, to be sensitive to him, to have his life. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:36.079 So God generates me, and the scripture says that he gives me a new heart. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:44.560 It says that we have a new nature, that in Christ we're new creations, that we are a new man or woman. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:50.720 We live in a new realm, and we've we're being renewed day by day. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:52.560 This is a life of Jesus. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:54.399 We were dead and now we're alive. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:56.879 And if you've come to Christ, you understand that. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:11.839 You realize how you were before, and that there's something inside of you that's been made alive, alive to God, able to hear him, able to seek for him, able to sense him, able to understand him now. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:18.319 Like we were blind before, but these scales fell off of our eyes, and now we're able to see him. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:20.160 So this matters a lot. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:24.959 This matters a great deal how you see yourself as a believer. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:28.399 We're new creatures. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:36.639 At the very center of his being, he has been created in righteousness and holiness. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:41.120 When he is saying no to evil, he is saying yes to his true self. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:44.559 This is true of us, us as a new creature. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:50.399 So I'm not trapped in my old, helpless, and hopeless way of life. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.080 This is the power of God. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:57.039 No, the Bible says that the gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:02.240 This is the power of God to raise the dead and bring them to life again. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:03.519 That's regeneration. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:04.960 Christ is our life. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.840 Second thing is a word called justification. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:19.120 Justification means Christ is the one who justifies us before the righteous judge of heaven. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:39.440 Okay, if you think of justification, if you're justified in a courtroom, when the when uh the evidence is presented and the jury finds you not guilty, and the gavel comes down and the the judge says, not guilty, you're acquitted of all of your charges. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.039 You did not do it. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:41.840 You're free. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:43.120 There is no punishment. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:44.559 You're free to go and live your life. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:45.279 There's nothing. 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:46.720 Nothing you have to pay for. 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:47.840 You're free. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:50.159 This is what justification is. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.960 But it's not just an earthly judge that is saying this. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:56.159 It is the judge of heaven and earth. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:59.120 It is the judge, righteous judge of all men. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:08.399 God Almighty, because of the work of Jesus, is saying, I am not guilty. 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:12.639 God calls you not guilty. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:18.559 Now, when God calls me not guilty, that's good news, you know, because I have an accuser. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:24.559 The scripture says there's an accuser, uh, the devil, uh, accuses us and lies to us. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.879 I also have another accuser on this side, that's me, my own thoughts about myself. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:32.080 I don't, sometimes I don't think that I'm worthy. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:39.600 So I've got the enemy, the devil, and I've got my own mind, and they're speaking to me about my unworthiness. 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:45.360 And yet the scripture says that I am worthy because I am justified. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:46.960 I am not guilty. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.840 God Almighty calls me not guilty. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.360 This is good news. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.200 This is good news. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:11:04.080 So now a righteousness apart from the law has been made known to you, which the law and the prophets testify. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:09.200 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:16.720 There's no d difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but being justified freely by his grace. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:20.559 This is Romans chapter 3, verse 21 to 23. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:26.720 So God has regenerated us, made us alive from the dead, and he is justified us. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:29.679 So God is our justifier. 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.399 So we're free from the penalty of sin. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:36.720 Shame and abandonment have no grip on us. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:43.120 We can live as loved sons and daughters, beloved ones, as God intended. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:44.320 And we can rest. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:49.200 We can live in rest, knowing that we're right with God. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:50.639 This is good news. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:53.519 We were enemies, now we're friends. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:12:00.639 We were guilty, now we're innocent, we were dead, now we're alive, we were separated, now we're brought near. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:04.799 We were once works driven, but now we're driven by love. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.240 Driven by love. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:08.480 We can rest in God's grace. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:15.919 This is good news because sometimes we can think, I know God loves me, but I'm not sure that he likes me. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:22.159 You know, sometimes we have these ideas, these thoughts, and we have this truncated view of the gospel. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:29.440 And we kind of see it as a door that we just walk through to become a Christian, but it's not the doorway only, it is the entire way. 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:37.679 It's the entire path, it's the entire room, the whole world for us is the gospel, and it's good news for us. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:47.279 The gospel is the power of God over my sin, over my guilt, over my shame. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:52.159 I'm no longer bearing a weight of guilt and shame and not enoughness. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:54.240 That's not me anymore. 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.840 God has justified me in Christ Jesus. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:12:58.960 That's really good news. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:04.559 So the third thing is um Christ gave us his righteousness. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:09.360 There was this exchange that happened in 2 Corinthians 5 21. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:22.799 It says that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that we might be able, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:28.960 So he who knew no sin became sin, so that we who knew no righteousness could become righteous. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:32.799 There are these there's this exchange. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:42.159 His innocence for our guilt, our guilt for his innocence, and he has made us righteous. 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:50.080 Christ is our righteousness, Christ is our life giver, he is our justifier, and he is our righteousness. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:51.360 It's really great. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:55.120 God does not want your goat. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.200 I'll tell you a story. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:02.000 I was in Africa in uh the country of Ghana one time. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.320 I was traveling with my friend Pastor Prince. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:08.720 He was talking about preaching up in the in the uh rural areas in the mountains. 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:19.360 And then, you know, in many of these villages, they still are uh practicing um the uh animism and animal sacrifices. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.320 They appease, they want to appease the spirits. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:26.000 And so this means uh oftentimes this means blood. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.960 This means you actually kill something, you kill a chicken, or you kill a goat. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:42.240 Sometimes it's even they cut themselves and they they bleed themselves on an altar to appease the spirits, so the spirits will leave them alone and not do them harm. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:49.759 So sometimes they're they're offering their goats, and a goat is something really important in Africa. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:53.759 It is something you can get milk from, it's something you can get food from. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.799 It's um it's a it's a real prized possession. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.960 So when you're giving that up, you're giving something really big up. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:12.559 Well, Pastor Prince was in this village and he said, as he was preaching, God has sent his son, the lamb of God, to be slain for your sin. 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:16.799 And he said, God doesn't want your goat. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:21.120 The one true God doesn't want your goat. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.919 He's already provided a lamb. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:34.720 After the preaching session, an old man from the village came up to Pastor Prince and said, You tell me that God doesn't want my goat. 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:42.879 And Pastor Prince said, Yes, God has already provided a lamb as a sacrifice for your sins, Jesus. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.279 And the man said, Why has no one told me this? 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:51.120 Because I've lost a lot of goats. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:55.679 He just made a lot of sacrifice. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:16:12.399 You know, we don't, we don't, I don't think any of us listening here are have uh sacrificed animals for our sins, but we have done things to try to atone for our sins in our own, our own works. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:29.600 We have our own little goats that we give, our own efforts that we give, and we think, oh, I'm right with God, or God is happy with me now because I've done this, or I went to church, or I did something nice instead of something something wrong, you know, or I refused to do something wrong, or I made an extra effort and God is happy with me today. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:32.320 You know, God doesn't want your goat. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:34.879 He's already provided a lamb. 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:43.679 And he is he is the justifier and he's given us his righteousness, and he's taken our sin upon us. 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:47.200 The next important word in scripture is Redeemer. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:48.799 Christ redeemed us. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.759 Christ, when it says Redeemer, the idea is He He bought us back. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:02.159 Scripture is Matthew 20, 28, for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:14.079 So uh a ransom is something that is given when a price is paid to buy a slave back, especially in those days you could be in slavery. 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:19.279 And when you're in slavery, uh there is possibility for someone to buy you out of that. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:22.000 And that's called redeeming a slave. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.960 And the price that is paid is the ransom. 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:27.440 You pay a ransom to redeem. 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:33.519 Christ came to give his life as a ransom for many and for you and for me. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.200 He is the ransom. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:44.240 So redemption is the act of uh that secures your release from your sins, and ransom is the price that is paid. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.359 So the idea is I'm bought with a price. 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:48.720 He bought me. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.000 I'm not my own, I belong to God. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.400 And if I belong to God, Satan has no hold on me. 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:57.519 This is good news. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:03.519 The gospel is the power of God to redeem me from the curse of the law. 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:08.640 Next word we want to talk about is reconciled. 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:14.559 Reconciliation means when we were enemies, we are now made friends. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:18.480 When we were enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:21.440 This is Romans chapter 5, verse 10. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:25.680 He brought an end to the hostility that was between us. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:32.400 A reconciliation has this connotation of we have had a riff. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.359 There's something wrong, there's hostility between us. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.680 We're in enmity with each other. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.359 And reconciliation is when those people come back together. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:44.559 And they're once again in fellowship together. 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:47.759 This is what this is the picture of what Jesus has done. 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:55.519 Romans 5, 1 says that we have been justified through faith and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:58.240 Justification brings peace. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:19.200 As he made us alive in regeneration, as he justified us by declaring us not guilty because of the work of Jesus, as he made an exchange our sin for his righteousness, as he brought us back and he redeemed us, he was reconciling us, he was making us back one again. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:25.039 The power of the gospel is the power of God to bring us back into relationship again. 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.599 Peace with God. 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:30.559 I'm no longer an enemy of God. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:35.039 I'm not only a servant, I'm his friend. 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:41.759 And I can have peace with him and peace with myself and peace with others because of the reconciliation. 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:53.920 So another idea about uh that you need to know that's in the scripture uh concerning the thing that things that Jesus has done for us is uh a fancy word called propitiation. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:58.640 Propitiation means you take away the anger of something. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:05.920 To propitiate means to um to remove the anger, the wrath from something. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:11.359 And you know, there's wrath from God because of our sin, because he's a holy God. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:12.400 It's a holy wrath. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:24.480 It's not an anger that's arbitrary, like maybe we have experienced from people on earth, or maybe even our own fathers, where there's uh you never know how a person is going to be. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:33.359 You never know if he's gonna be happy or sad, and sometimes because of his mood or his hormones or whatever it is, he's like angry at you and he's flying off the handle. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:34.720 He's a man. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.720 This is what men do sometimes. 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:39.039 God's anger is not like that. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:21:02.319 God's anger is a steady, justified wrath against sin because he's a holy God, and sin um sin taints the world, and sin um sin is the thing that separates his creation from him, and he has his anger against sin. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:17.519 In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is just hours away from the cross, and uh just before his crucifixion, he prayed this prayer. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:24.079 My father, if it's possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:35.759 And this idea of a cup, this metaphorical expression, is also in many different uh parts of the Bible. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:49.119 We see it in uh in Psalm 75, we see it in Jeremiah, we see it in the book of Revelation, so the psalmist, the prophets, and then even John on the Isle of Patmos, he's talking about the cup of God in the context of the wrath of God. 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:56.160 He will pour out his cup of wrath upon the wickedness that he sees. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.759 And what Jesus is saying in the garden is. 00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:04.559 When he's saying, Father, can this cup pass from me? 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:21.200 He's saying that because he's getting ready to drink this cup of wrath, the wrath that is upon you and me, the wrath that is upon all people because of the sin that we have. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:40.720 We deserve the wrath of God, but he, as difficult as it was, took that cup and he drank every drop of the wrath of God so that we could be free from it. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:49.440 So the power of the gospel is the power to make me free from God's righteous anger against sin. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:51.920 This is beautiful. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.279 It delivers us from the fear of God's anger. 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:02.880 God is not up there just waiting to bang us when we do something wrong, to hit us with a hammer or something. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:12.000 He takes away the fear of judgment, the fear of punishment, even the fear of death, because Christ has drunk the cup of wrath that should have been ours. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:13.200 Well, that's not all. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.640 There's another word that we see in Scripture. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.680 It's the word adoption, that He has adopted us. 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:30.799 In 1 John 3:1, it says that what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, the children of God, sons and daughters. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:33.119 So we're adopted into this family. 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:43.359 It was God's purpose and God's desire to bring us to Himself through the death of Christ so that we could become sons and daughters. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:51.119 And it even says that God has put his spirit inside of us, the spirit of adoption that cries out, Abba, Father. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:24:00.400 We can not only call God our Savior, our master, our friend, we can call God our Father. 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.480 This was his heart all along. 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:21.279 We don't have to live like orphans anymore, with a with a uh, with trying to hold on to everything ourselves, trying to make our own way, not sure about tomorrow because we have nobody to help us, not sure about our identity because we don't feel loved. 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:26.079 We're not sure or secure in being accepted. 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:30.480 That's all that is uh the mindset of an orphan. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:39.920 But instead, we can live with open arms, coming to our Father, who has open arms, beckoning us to come and have fellowship with him. 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:42.480 And we don't have to feel like an outsider. 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:49.680 We have a close, intimate relationship where he, as a good father does, provides acceptance. 00:24:49.680 --> 00:25:09.359 Ephesians chapter 1, provision, Philippians 4 19, protection, Matthew 10, 29 through 31, encouragement, Psalm 10, 17, comfort, 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4, and discipline. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:12.079 Hebrews 12, 10. 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:17.759 We don't have to feel to feel like an outsider because we're not outsiders. 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:20.240 We have a place at the table. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:26.559 And we don't have to bring anything to the table to have a place at the table. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:28.880 God has given us that through Christ. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:33.839 This is the power of the gospel to become sons and daughters of God. 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:35.440 That's good news. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:41.839 Another word we need to think about is the word called sanctify, the sanctification. 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:46.640 What that means is that we become more and more like Jesus every day. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:54.960 The power of the gospel over sin is the power to help us be changed, to be more like God day by day. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.960 Romans 6.14 says, sin will not have dominion over you. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.559 You're not under the law, but you're under grace. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:05.839 So we were dead to our sin. 00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:10.240 The power of sin has been broken that we don't have to be a slave to it anymore. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:19.759 Romans 6 says that we died with Christ, buried with baptism, buried with him in baptism, so that we could be raised again to newness of life. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:27.440 And now, as sin, as death has no power over Jesus, even so sin has no power over us. 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:31.599 Therefore, do not let sin have power over you. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:35.200 The sin, the power of sin has been broken. 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:43.359 We're delivered not only from the penalty of sin through Jesus, that means our debt has been paid by Christ. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:49.279 We're delivered from the power of sin because we died with him and he raised us up. 00:26:49.279 --> 00:27:00.559 But we're also delivered ultimately from the very presence of sin because he's going to take us into his presence in heaven where there is no sin. 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:04.559 So we don't have to live enslaved by the power of sin. 00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:14.720 By believing the gospel, we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, and the power of that Spirit releases us from the power that sin has held over us. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:17.839 The gospel is the power of God to be changed forever. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:23.839 And one more word I'll just give you, and it's called glorify or glorification. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:26.000 Christ is our glorifier. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:40.880 And that passage in 1 John chapter 3, if you read another verse, it says the next verse, chapter 3, verse 2, it says, Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:44.720 But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:48.000 For we shall see him as he is. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:55.599 Which means the scripture teaches that we will be like him in body. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:11.200 We will receive a new spiritual, immortal, glorified, resurrected body that's no longer in the realm of pain and sorrow and limitations, and we will live forever with him. 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:21.359 The power of God in the gospel is that he can transform us from these bodies to supernatural or eternal bodies. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:30.000 This is just like a small, small sample of the unsearchable riches that we have in Christ. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:37.279 Christ is my high priest and my healer and my provider and my baptiser, baptizer in the Holy Spirit. 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:40.480 He's my resurrection, He's my Sabbath rest. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:41.680 He's my wisdom. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:44.720 All of those things we could continue to talk about. 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:50.720 But I just want you to understand the richness that we have in Jesus Christ. 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:55.279 It's not only that we're going to heaven, that's good enough. 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:59.119 It's not just that we have been forgiven, that's good enough. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:00.559 But it goes deep. 00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:04.160 It goes deep into our lives, into our everyday lives. 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:21.599 This is really important because you can be mature in your in your theoretical understanding of salvation through Christ, but still live a life of fear because you're in because you've attached your security to your works instead of Jesus' work. 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:33.039 You can live your life bound by the approval of others because you don't understand that you've been accepted by God through the gospel. 00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:39.519 You can believe in Jesus and be born again and yet have this fear of what people think about you. 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:43.839 But that can also be released and you can be free from that. 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:51.279 You can live with the fear of being abandoned because we don't understand we're adopted into the family of God and we're sealed by his spirit. 00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:57.680 See, this is what's important, why it's so important to understand the gospel, to understand the fullness of what Jesus has done. 00:29:57.680 --> 00:30:01.119 This is just a little bit of it, but I hope it's been helpful. 00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:04.799 Father, thank you for your grace to us in Jesus Christ. 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:06.160 We have so much. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:09.599 You have given us everything that we need in Christ. 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:11.359 We give you praise for it. 00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:22.640 Teach us, Lord, to walk in these things day by day, more and more, from glory to glory, from faith to faith, from one level to another level of maturity. 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:24.400 Pray for that in Jesus' name. 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:25.200 Amen. 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:26.400 God bless.