SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you to turn with me to Psalm 103.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading the first 14 verses.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you don't have a Bible with you, there should be a Bible located there in that shelf right in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And you can find the scripture passage on page 502.
SPEAKER_00: And again, encourage you to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: And if you happen to be here and you don't own a copy of the Bible, you don't have one that you can call your own, please at the end of this service, take that Bible home with you.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we have the joy and privilege of being able to give people Bibles, and we'd love for you to have it.
SPEAKER_00: So please do that at the close of the services.
SPEAKER_00: Take it with you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll replace it for next week.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 103, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: He made known his ways to Moses, he acted his acts to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
SPEAKER_00: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
SPEAKER_00: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to all those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: What did you learn in 2013?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna share with you this morning what I learned this past year.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when when I tell you, you're probably going to be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you probably won't believe me.
SPEAKER_00: You'll think that I'm exaggerating or that I couldn't think of another introduction.
SPEAKER_00: And that may be true, but that isn't why I'm sharing this.
SPEAKER_00: What did I learn in 2013?
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what I learned this past year.
SPEAKER_00: I learned the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Did that shock you?
SPEAKER_00: I learned the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I wasn't a Christian before this last year.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be kind of weird since I've been a pastor for 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: So, how can I say that I learned the gospel this last year?
SPEAKER_00: I say that because I think I'm just beginning to experience how the gospel affects the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, there's a difference between what we believe in our heads and how we view our relationship with God in our hearts day by day.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how one author, Jerry Bridges, puts it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Unfortunately, many believers do not live as if justification is a permanent, abiding state.
SPEAKER_00: They have divorced their hope of eternal life in heaven from their relationship with God today.
SPEAKER_00: They think as if they will put on Christ's robes of righteousness at death.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, in this life, they draw their sense of God's acceptance from their most recent performance of Christian duties or their avoidance of certain sins.
SPEAKER_00: Their robe of righteousness for daily living is not that which they have from Christ, but one that they have stitched together by their own performance.
SPEAKER_00: They do not live in the here and now as if they are righteous in the sight of God solely because they have righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've lived with guilt, shame, fear, and isolation because of your temptations in your life or the sins in your past.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you tell yourself that you know that God loves you, but you wonder deep down in your heart, does God really like you?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you feel like if only you tried a little harder and did a little more, you wouldn't feel like such a disappointment with God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you feel like God's a little ticked off at you.
SPEAKER_00: You know God's wrath isn't going to be poured out at you, but you wonder if there is a general divine displeasure about your day-to-day life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you know the right things to say to others to minister to them, but you don't know how to apply it in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you have tried and tried to get it right, but you're getting tired and wonder if anything is ever going to change.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me and you know that what people see on the outside and how they perceive you doesn't match what's going on on the inside of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Can you relate?
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not saying that I didn't understand the gospel and how it applies to my salvation, but what I missed in great measure is how the gospel applies to my life every day.
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that we don't understand our day-to-day acceptance before our Heavenly Father?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that we live like paupers when we have the riches of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that we live like orphans when in fact we are children of the King?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel addresses our sin and guilt.
SPEAKER_00: We know that.
SPEAKER_00: We know that when we've come to Christ, we're forgiven for all of our sins, but it also addresses our pain and our shame.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us who we are left to ourselves, but it also tells us who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel counteracts the lies of the world and the lies of the enemy, and the gospel counteracts the lies that we tell ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the gospel that is the source of our strength and the object of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel tells of God's incomprehensible love for his people and the amazing lengths he went to bring us to himself.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that God is always for us and never against us.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us the amazing riches we have in Christ Jesus and that the best is yet to be.
SPEAKER_00: We need to comprehend the gospel, but we won't comprehend the gospel to the depths that we ought to unless we first understand the dire situation we are left to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Apart from understanding that, the message of grace rings hollow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to paraphrase a couple sentences I heard in a Bible study by an author, Jack Miller, in a Bible study called Sonship, but I want to talk about the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the next four weeks I want to unpack how do we apply the gospel to the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this and alluded to it in times past, how we begin our Christian life understanding that we're saved by grace.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we will stand before God in eternity, saved by grace, but so often in the here and now, we think God's acceptance of us is based on how well we've performed or the Christian duties that we have done today.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the bad news of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Again, taking a phrase, paraphrasing from this Bible study, first of all, you are worse than you think you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first point.
SPEAKER_00: You are worse than you think you are.
SPEAKER_00: If you think you're bad, just keep thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll realize that that's only the tip of the iceberg.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much more beneath the surface that you didn't even realize.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says our problem is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Our problem is sin, and what is sin?
SPEAKER_00: By definition, sin is any violation of God's standards based on his character or his will.
SPEAKER_00: God is the standard by which everything is judged.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible very plainly says this: as it is written, none is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God.
SPEAKER_00: All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.
SPEAKER_00: No one does good, not even one.
SPEAKER_00: Later in that same chapter of Romans 3, it says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: When we think about our own sin, we need to think of it in two categories: sins of commission, things that we do that we shouldn't do, and sins of omission, things we don't do that we ought to do.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible gives both of these categories as sin.
SPEAKER_00: In James chapter 2, verse 10, for instance, it says, For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
SPEAKER_00: That there are things that God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: If we break the law, if we violate the law, if we sin, we're guilty of all.
SPEAKER_00: And later in James he says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: So every time you knew the right choice to make, the right thing to do, and you wavered from it, you equivocated in some way, you caved in and you did less than what you knew you were supposed to do, the Bible says that that is sin.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible also says that God discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and that nothing is hidden from his sight.
SPEAKER_00: God weighs the heart when he evaluates what you do, not just your outward behavior.
SPEAKER_00: And this is critical for us to understand when we're evaluating ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 21, 2 says this every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel chapter 16, verse 7, it says, Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is when Samuel was going to find the king to replace Saul, and he's looking at these sons, and he and he's trying to find the one that looks the most kingly.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what God says to him: don't look at his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord sees not as man sees, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that God's standard is absolute perfection.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, Jesus is talking on the Sermon on the Mount, and he says, Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And if we stop to evaluate our lives, there is nothing that we do, nothing that we have ever done with absolutely pure motives.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe me, just think of one example.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the great commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in Mark chapter 12, it's also in Matthew and Luke.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says this you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds, the second is like this you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when have you loved God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, that there was a moment in your life where everything was singularly focused on God and nothing else.
SPEAKER_00: I would submit to you that not one moment in your life could you look at something and if you really dug down to the root of it, say that you did that with absolutely pure motives.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest with ourselves, we'll realize that we're worse than we even think we are.
SPEAKER_00: That the reality of sin goes to the core of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: In our motives, in our intentions, in our thoughts, there is not one thing that we do that isn't in some way tainted by sin.
SPEAKER_00: Your guilt goes to the core of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Our first father Adam was the legal representative of all mankind save Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was created morally perfect, but when he sinned, we sinned in him.
SPEAKER_00: He represented all of humanity, so in that sense, when he sinned, we sinned, and the guilt of that sin falls upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, we inherit the same sinful nature that he acquired when he sinned.
SPEAKER_00: And further, individually, when we sin, we aggravate our condition.
SPEAKER_00: And this is Paul's entire argument in Romans 5.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us that we are guilty, we are morally depraved, that we are corrupt.
SPEAKER_00: So that even your good deeds, your best deeds, are tainted with sin.
SPEAKER_00: And that there's not one part of you that isn't affected by sin.
SPEAKER_00: One author notes he says, if sin was the color blue, everything in your life would be tinted a shade of blue.
SPEAKER_00: Some might be light blue, some might be sky blue, some might be midnight blue.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the newfangled Crayola colors, so I don't know what they call them now.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably.
SPEAKER_00: But the fact is, everything in your life would be a shade of blue.
SPEAKER_00: There is not anything in your life that isn't affected and influenced and tainted by the reality of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So, in it, therefore, in themselves, good works are never pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: We might say on a horizontal level that that was morally good as opposed to evil, but in relationship to God's evaluation of our good deeds, we all fall short of glorifying and honoring God the way that we should.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why no one could ever earn God's favor or work his way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we tried to do good works, because they're tainted by sin, we're actually compounding the problem.
SPEAKER_00: But unless we clearly understand the bad news, that we're worse than we think we are.
SPEAKER_00: And friend, let me tell you that this reality of indwelling sin didn't end when you came to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there's still a battle that goes on.
SPEAKER_00: And so for you, brother, sister, we still need to recognize that we're worse than we think we are.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the nature of sin in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So, how does the gospel come to play with this?
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to understand the gospel and then show how it begins to apply right here and now today.
SPEAKER_00: In the life of the believer.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, what is the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the gospel is greater than you can even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: As good as you think the gospel is, it is even better news than that.
SPEAKER_00: And it will take uh eternity of standing in awe of God for his goodness and mercy to see the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the gospel begins with the life and death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's the outworking of God's redemptive plan from the first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelation, everything culminating in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul very succinctly in 1 Corinthians says this, 1 Corinthians 15, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the second person of the Trinity who came to this sin-drenched planet, taking upon himself a human nature.
SPEAKER_00: So that Jesus Christ, when we celebrated Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation, the enfleshment of the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: So that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us that Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: More than that, he perfectly fulfilled the law of God in every aspect.
SPEAKER_00: All that Adam failed to do in loving obedience to God, and all that we as his offspring failed to do in loving obedience to the Father, Jesus did perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized, if you remember the story, initially John protested.
SPEAKER_00: John was the one that looked at Jesus and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And he was thinking back to the Old Testament, the perfect, pure sacrifice of that Lamb without spot or blemish.
SPEAKER_00: And he saw Jesus and recognized within him this perfection of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And so he didn't want to baptize Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But if you remember what Jesus responds, he says, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to fulfill all of the requirements of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the gift of salvation that you and I receive by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it's not earned or deserved.
SPEAKER_00: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saves us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one can boast.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to understand an aspect of the gospel and keep it in our minds as we apply it to our lives here and now.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, for our sakes, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is this passage saying?
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul saying here about the sacrifice of Christ on the cross?
SPEAKER_00: What he says is this Jesus was our representative and he died in our place.
SPEAKER_00: He took upon himself the full penalty for all of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: The cup of God's wrath, as it were.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament paints a picture of the wrath of God, the undiluted wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible tells us is that wrath that was meant for us was poured out undiluted onto Christ on the cross on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: So that God's wrath was poured out on him and he absorbed all of the punishment that we deserved.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't save one drop for you or for me.
SPEAKER_00: All of the punishment that we deserve for our sins was poured out on Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a drop left for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: He suffered, he experienced the shame of the cross, and he was separated from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And he did that for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, we've received the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can think about it in these terms.
SPEAKER_00: There's the obedience of Christ, and you can think about it in terms of his active obedience and his passive obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not using those in the way that we often think of them, but let me explain, quoting an author that really puts it into a clear light.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about the obedience of Christ, he says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, these terms refer to the two works of Christ in regards to God's law.
SPEAKER_00: The law contains both precepts and penalties.
SPEAKER_00: The precepts are to be fully obeyed, and the penalties are imposed for the least infraction of the precepts.
SPEAKER_00: As our representative, Jesus not only is obligated to obey the precepts of the law, but to suffer the penalties for our violations of it.
SPEAKER_00: So he actively obeyed the Father's universal moral will, which we call the law of God, and he passively obeyed the Father's specific will for him, namely to suffer the penalty for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul tells us either we are in Adam and we are in our sins, or else we have come to faith in Christ and we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And all who have faith in Christ alone are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who calls us, God is the one who convicts us of our sin by the Holy Spirit through the Word and enables us to believe by opening blind eyes, unstopping clogged ears, illuminating minds tainted by sin, and giving us new life by grace.
SPEAKER_00: We respond to the call of God through faith and repentance, placing our trust in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't anything that we do, we don't bring anything to God in that transaction.
SPEAKER_00: We are like beggars reaching our hand to the gift of a king.
SPEAKER_00: All we can do is receive what has been given to us, what has been done for us.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't because we're better than others, it isn't because we're smarter than others, it isn't because we're more worthy than others, it is by his mercy, it is by his grace that we're saved.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us we're united to Christ by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Both in our legal standing, we're united with Christ as well as in a vital union that we have become a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, we're still far worse than we think we are.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest with ourselves, we realize that we still struggle with sin and temptation on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: We still fall short of honoring God the way that we should.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we deal with our guilt and sin?
SPEAKER_00: How does the gospel address my life here and now?
SPEAKER_00: How does the gospel address your life here and now?
SPEAKER_00: How do we bring the truth of what Christ has done on the cross to bear in our lives right here and right now?
SPEAKER_00: We still feel the stinging weight of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you feel like a failure because you aren't as far along as you think you should be.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we deal with the lingering guilt of ongoing sin in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you a dirty little secret that nobody ever wants to say.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else is struggling as much as you are.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else is wrestling with sin and temptation and the guilt of past sins and the shame of what that bears.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else is in the same place that you are.
SPEAKER_00: And you may think you're alone, but you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are some of the wrong ways we deal with sin?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just going to outline them.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about these, uh both of these different areas more next time and in the weeks ahead.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just talk, what are some of the wrong ways we deal with sin?
SPEAKER_00: And I these are from an author, Steve Brown, in one of his books.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just share them with you.
SPEAKER_00: We try harder.
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with sin?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we we try harder, we we redouble our efforts.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we it wasn't working, but maybe if we just tried harder, maybe now we can do what we couldn't do yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Or we become more religious.
SPEAKER_00: We think more religious activity in and of itself is going to change our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so we we join more Bible studies, we we we go to church more often, we become more religious in our activity and our behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we become more disciplined.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we we look at our struggle with sin and temptation and we say, now, if I were only more disciplined, I wouldn't struggle in these areas.
SPEAKER_00: And so we try to be more disciplined, and we think that that is going to remedy the problems in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Or we exert more willpower.
SPEAKER_00: We think to ourselves, if only I can choose differently, I won't give in today with what I gave in yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us just pretend everything is okay.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us numb the reality of what's going on in the interior of our lives, and we just we pretend that everything is okay.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we put on a mask, maybe we know on the inside it's not, but we don't want to look like that to everyone else, and so we put on a mask and we pretend to everyone else that we're okay, but inside we know we're not.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we lie to ourselves and we really think that everything's okay and we just don't look at our heart, we just don't address issues, we just don't face the reality of ongoing sin in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We just pretend everything is okay.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we ignore the problems and have positive thinking.
SPEAKER_00: As the great senator of Minnesota said, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know who that is.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are going, what?
SPEAKER_00: But maybe we ignore the problems.
SPEAKER_00: We think just more positive thinking.
SPEAKER_00: We we think we can pep talk our way out of how we're feeling and the things we're struggling with.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we just continue focusing on the positive, then our problems will fall by the wayside.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we seek motivational advice combined with all of these other ones.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we turn the Bible into a tool to think that by biblical directives and challenges and resolutions apart from a relationship, just by doing more, memorizing more, challenging ourselves more, having more resolutions, that that is going to change the reality of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: But when we're honest with ourselves, we know that none of these work.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we keep trying.
SPEAKER_00: We keep going back to one or another of these strategies.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the answer?
SPEAKER_00: What's the answer to the problem of sin?
SPEAKER_00: What's the answer to the problem of temptation?
SPEAKER_00: What's the answer to the problem of struggle?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What God requires, Christ provided completely.
SPEAKER_00: Let me share with you a I have a friend of mine that lives out east.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call his name Joe.
SPEAKER_00: That's not his name.
SPEAKER_00: Um this isn't in my notes, and so there's always a danger when something isn't in my notes.
SPEAKER_00: It's a danger when it is in my notes, so it's it can be really bad if it's not in my notes.
SPEAKER_00: I have even thought about this before sharing it.
SPEAKER_00: So, but let me share about Joe.
SPEAKER_00: I have to keep my notes here because that's what I call them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give away his real name.
SPEAKER_00: Lives out east.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Joe grew up in a Christian home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he grew up with believing parents.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up hearing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Um I met Joe when I was in college 20 plus years ago now, uh, for uh up until recent years, hadn't had much uh interaction or contact with him, but I've uh over over the last few years through the internet have re-established a uh a friendship with Joe.
SPEAKER_00: Joe grew up, he grew up in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Um I met him in college.
SPEAKER_00: He's a godly man.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man of prayer, he's a man of the word, he knows the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Um I had an opportunity just to um to really just dialogue with him during uh different different times in college and and since then.
SPEAKER_00: He is a man who knows God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man of faith, he's a man who uh wants to see people come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He shares the gospel, he he preaches the gospel any chance that he can.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've been I've in the last two days I've had a couple conversations with Joe, and it was along these lines.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, Joe struggles, he doesn't know why he struggles, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: And what Joe struggles with is is this Joe struggles with same-sex attractions.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality in Joe's life.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know it, it wasn't a choice when he was 13 years old or 14 years old.
SPEAKER_00: And and somehow sin, remember, we're all sinners, and sin manifests itself in different ways in different people.
SPEAKER_00: Your temptation isn't the temptation of the person next to you, and vice versa.
SPEAKER_00: Sin manifests itself in different ways, and there's a complex matrix if we wanted to try to understand why do we struggle with this and not that.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality of it is, is this is what Joe struggles with.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact of the matter is, is he has prayed and he has asked God to deliver him from it, and God has sought fit not to.
SPEAKER_00: That he is he has prayed about it, he has pleaded with God, he has sought godly counsel, he is a man of the word, a man of prayer, a man of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, these are temptations that he faces to this day.
SPEAKER_00: And he's 45.
SPEAKER_00: And Joe hates himself.
SPEAKER_00: He hates the reality of this in his life, of these unwanted desires and attractions that he never asked for and he fights against, and yet they're there, and God has not taken them away.
SPEAKER_00: And he loathes himself, he despises himself, he looks at himself with disgust and disdain, and he carries this weight about him, and as I'm talking to him, and I hear the pain, and he just says, Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why this?
SPEAKER_00: Why of everything?
SPEAKER_00: How does the gospel address that?
SPEAKER_00: You see, when we tell testimonies, oftentimes we unintentionally give the wrong idea that uh we put testimonies of somebody said, Well, I was an alcoholic and then I came to Christ and I never desired alcohol again.
SPEAKER_00: But most of the people who struggle with alcoholism are tempted, maybe through the rest of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with the guilt and the shame?
SPEAKER_00: Joe's never given in to these desires, these temptations.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, how do we deal with it?
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with the guilt of a woman who 20 years ago had an abortion and now she's come to faith in Christ and she realizes the wrong of what she's done, but the guilt and the shame of that continue to linger on.
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with these things?
SPEAKER_00: How does the gospel apply?
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with the teenager or the young adult who's struggling with internet pornography and can't seem to break free from the vice of it?
SPEAKER_00: What hope does that person have?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what you're struggling with, but let me tell you, I know you're struggling with something, and it may not be what Bob is struggling with, or Joe, or Scott.
SPEAKER_00: Bob's not his name either, fortunately.
SPEAKER_00: I put a couple names down here to pick from.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it may not be one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Or it may be.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the answer?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what I what I told Joe.
SPEAKER_00: God is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: God is not mad at you.
SPEAKER_00: God is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: All of the wrath of God that would be directed towards you was poured out in his son.
SPEAKER_00: There is not one drop of anger or wrath saved for you.
SPEAKER_00: God is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Beyond that, God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: That God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: That God more than just loves you, that God likes you a lot.
SPEAKER_00: That God is delighted with you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows who you are, he knows what's in your life, he knows what you struggle with, he knows what your temptations are, and God has placed his love and affection upon you fully and completely.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I told him you're not a disappointment to God.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: And that you are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That God has forgiven your sins, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: They were paid for by Christ as far as the East is from the West.
SPEAKER_00: So far have they been removed from you.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is in your life, you are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That you are accepted by him, that he calls you his own, he calls you his child, he has brought you into a relationship with him, and he loves you as his own because you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You are his.
SPEAKER_00: God delights in you as he delights in his son.
SPEAKER_00: I told him you never have to run and hide from God or hide your sin or hide your struggles.
SPEAKER_00: Your heavenly Father knows what you're going through, he knows what you struggle with, and he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And that there's no limit to the love of God that he has for his children.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There is an infinite depth to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: No amount of finite sins in the life of the believer can counteract what Christ has done on the cross on behalf of those who are his.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You can't, your sin can never break the bonds of love that your Father has for you.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's no limit to the love God has for his children.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you do, God doesn't, his love doesn't change.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is part of the lie that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: We think that God loves me more on my good days and loves me less on my bad days, but the fact of the matter is, God's love for you is constant, complete, and perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It never changes.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that you do that adds to God's love.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that you don't do or that you sin that diminishes God's love because God's love for you is perfect because it is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That you are fully accepted exactly the way you are.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to fix yourself or make yourself any better.
SPEAKER_00: God's acceptance for you is full and complete.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the problem is that we identify ourselves in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to talk about this.
SPEAKER_00: I'll spend a whole sermon talking about identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, is we identify ourselves wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: We identify ourselves with our sins or our past or our struggles or the labels that other people have given to us or the labels we wear ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: But all of those are a lie because the only thing that matters is what God has said about you.
SPEAKER_00: And God has said, you are his child, he loves you, you are forgiven, you are his.
SPEAKER_00: That is your identity.
SPEAKER_00: Your identity is who you are in Christ, not what you've done, not what you do, not what you struggle with, not what's in your past, not the guilt, not the shame.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what God says about you.
SPEAKER_00: What's the deal with that?
SPEAKER_00: It needs to go to our heads, it needs to go to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We need to start evaluating ourselves based on what God says in His Word about us, not based on what the world says or what Satan says or believing the lies that we tell ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: People think that if you embrace the gospel too much, you won't be motivated to holiness, but the reality of it is it is only through embracing the gospel and God's grace that change is possible.
SPEAKER_00: It's only when you realize that you are still powerless to change your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That none of the strategies that you do or that you've done are going to work.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that you can do is run to Jesus for the grace and the strength that He can give you.
SPEAKER_00: That you realize that you're powerless.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how the gospel applies to your life today.
SPEAKER_00: The dirty little secret is everyone's as messed up as you are.
SPEAKER_00: And that as much as they try, as much as you try, you're never gonna fix it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't.
SPEAKER_00: You're never supposed to.
SPEAKER_00: But you keep trying.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel is the answer.
SPEAKER_00: It's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And has often been said, and I've said it before, we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not just the beginning of the Christian life and the end of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is all of the Christian life, and we need the gospel as much today to inform who we are and what Christ has done as the day we first believed.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father God.
SPEAKER_00: We sit here this morning in our heart of hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we're not where we should be.
SPEAKER_00: We know we're not where we want to be.
SPEAKER_00: We know we're a mess.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with sin.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with temptation.
SPEAKER_00: There is lingering guilt from things in our past and the shame that hangs over our head.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to realize this is false guilt.
SPEAKER_00: If we've come to you in confession and repentance and faith, help us to recognize that this is false shame.
SPEAKER_00: It is not what the world says of us or what we say to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It is what you have said of us and you call us your own.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you don't play favorites.
SPEAKER_00: There are no stepchildren.
SPEAKER_00: That we are all equally loved by you in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may this be the reality in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: May we preach the gospel to ourselves every day.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.