All right.
Well, it's great to be back in this pulpit.
And I just want to thank you once again for the sabbatical that you so graciously gave Jenny and me and our family.
I come back refreshed and eager to get back into the harness.
And it was a refreshing time.
But come on, you tell me.
Sometimes you just need to be refreshed.
Do I have an amen?
If you're married, sometimes your marriage needs a refresher.
John Tippman, who opened us and is going to close to seeing his wife, Terry.
They're part of a ministry called Family Life.
And they organize conferences called Weekend to Remembers.
And what they're designed to do is bring couples and bring God's word to bear on marriage.
And it's designed to refresh couples in God's good design of marriage.
Sometimes you just need a refresher for your marriage.
Sometimes you need a refresher for your finances.
You turn to God's word and you see what God's word has to say about financial stewardship so that you can be refreshed and walking by God's word.
Jenny and I are refreshing our finances right now.
And this morning, we're going to look to God's word, the first three chapters of the book of Romans, to be refreshed in the gospel.
One of the effects I'm praying for, as we are reminded of the Christian gospel, is that you will walk away this morning, not just refreshed, but rejoicing.
Rejoicing in what God has done through Jesus Christ to rescue you.
And so think of this sermon as a flyover of the first three chapters of Romans.
Of course, I'm not going to get into every detail.
But there's three things I want you to see, three points.
The gospel defined.
And our problem elaborated in we have got a terrible unrighteousness problem.
And then the gospel applied.
And it's there where I'm hoping you're going to be like, what an amazing God we have.
So, let's look at the gospel defined.
It's Romans chapter 1.
If you have a pew Bible, it's page 1116, 1116 of your pew Bible.
Well, let's ask this question.
What is this Christian gospel?
I grew up in Connecticut.
I grew up outside of Hartford.
And the immediate neighbors to the south of us were the Freemans.
And the Freemans had moved in from Great Britain.
And it turns out we spoke English.
But they spoke British English.
And the Salvati spoke American English.
And though we used the same English words, there were some very odd, strange moments.
For example, they called a truck a lorry.
And so, for some time, you can imagine.
Are they talking about a woman named Lori who's as big as a truck?
They called the trunk of a car a boot.
And so, Mrs. Freeman would ask her sons, boys, go get the groceries out of the boot.
And I was kind of like, what is she talking about?
They call elevators lifts.
If you're familiar with weightlifting, we're not talking about a clean and jerk lift.
We're talking about something that brings you up into the floors of a multi-story building.
The point is, it's possible to use the same English word, but have two different meanings.
And it creates confusion.
Therefore, in order to unite together as a church, let's look at what Romans 1 has to say about the gospel.
We need to be clear on what the Bible means by the gospel.
It's that not only we can unite as a church around what the Bible means by the gospel, but unite in what God has done through the gospel.
So there are two essential elements of the Christian gospel from Romans 1.
It's historic.
We see that in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle God, set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures,
concerning his son, who is descended from David according to the flesh,
and it was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness,
by his resurrection from the dead.
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Just a couple things I want to point out.
That word gospel, when used in antiquity, first century, when Paul was writing,
it was not a religious word.
It just simply meant an announcement of something good and important.
So let's say like the 11th legion of the Roman military,
they had stormed some kind of beach in northern Africa, and they won a victory.
They would send someone to Rome with the good news, the gospel that they won.
And what we see here in Romans 1, 1,
we see set apart for the gospel, the good news of God.
Here's how you need to think about that.
This is God's announcement to humanity of something that he has done in space and time
that is good and important.
The gospel is God's announcement.
It's historic.
It happened in time and space.
And it has to do with verse 3 concerning his son, Jesus Christ.
Whatever this good news is about, whatever happened, is about Jesus.
And in verse 4, we see the actual event.
By his resurrection from the dead.
The good news, the historic good news of the Christian gospel is God's announcement that Jesus Christ's death and resurrection
accomplish something that is absolutely unbelievable.
Actually, it's very believable.
But it is amazing.
Matt Chandler, who wrote the book, The Explicit Gospel, talks about describing the gospel in two ways.
As kind of a close-up, like Christ died for our sins.
Very personal.
It addresses our greatest need now here.
But he also talks about the gospel being spoken of in a panorama.
That this is the good news for all time.
It's a plan for the fullness of time.
Both are true.
This good news, this event that God wants all the world to know,
has everything to do with your greatest needs individually,
and it's got everything to do with the history of mankind.
So the first element is that the gospel is historic.
We're talking about a specific time and place that Jesus Christ died and was raised.
It either happened or it didn't.
Second, the gospel is effectual.
It's powerful.
Look at verses 16 and 17.
Many of you have memorized verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
To the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
Habakkuk 2.4.
The gospel, this historic event, Christ's death and resurrection, it gets something done.
It's powerful.
Look at verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it, the gospel, the death and resurrection,
the gospel, the resurrection of Jesus is the power of God for salvation.
That historic event of Christ's death and resurrection is God's power getting something done.
Our salvation.
Our rescue.
And whatever we needed to be rescued from, it required God's power to rescue us.
We can't rescue ourselves.
We can't save ourselves from this predicament that we're in.
Salvation only comes from something that God has powerfully done.
And God has made that known to us.
Verse 16, it's for everyone who believes.
For the Jew first and also the Greek.
For the Jewish mind, Paul who wrote this was a Jew.
And for the Jewish mind, all of humanity is divided into two camps.
You're a Jew or you're not a Jew.
And what we're hearing here is this gospel announcement that God is making to all of humanity.
He is making to both Jews and non-Jews.
To all who believe.
And did you notice verse 17?
This gospel, it trades in righteousness.
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed.
In it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
Righteousness is addressing God's upright moral character and God's upright moral activity.
He is perfect in all that He does.
And this gospel that God announces having to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus is a manifestation of His righteousness.
And that's raising our biggest problem.
Our unrighteousness.
So just let's make sure we're on the same page here.
The Christian gospel, biblically defined, is historic and powerful.
It's God's power to rescue us from our unrighteousness.
If our greatest problem is the unrighteousness of man,
God's solution is the righteousness of God.
Through the gospel.
Okay, we've covered that ground.
Let's move on to our problem elaborated.
In chapter 1, verses 18 through chapter 3, verse 20,
Paul exposes and elaborates on our terrible unrighteousness problem.
He divides all humanity into two types of sinners.
There are the unrighteous hedonists,
and there are the unrighteous moralists.
And in 1, verses 18 through 32,
it's an elaboration on the unrighteous hedonist.
Now, a hedonist is someone who casts off all rules and regulations
in order for him or her to pursue pleasure,
illicit pleasure.
Nothing will stop them from it.
They're like, all of God's good rules,
get out of my way,
I'm going to live,
and I'm going to do and get what I want.
Listen to Romans chapter 118.
I'll read through 20.
Now, these hedonists are most likely Gentiles,
and Gentiles of this day were probably people
who didn't have a Bible in their house.
But what Paul is saying here,
in verses 18 through 20,
is that if you're an unrighteous hedonist
without a Bible in your house,
you are still without excuse
before of the living God.
You are actually under His wrath,
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Now, you may be saying,
well, that doesn't sound fair.
Well, in verse 20, we are told it is fair.
For His invisible attributes,
namely His eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived
ever since the creation of the world
and the things that have been made.
So they're without excuse.
They might not have a Bible,
but they have all of creation.
God revealing His power
and bringing this all in from nothing.
And His goodness,
He provides for all people on the earth.
And so what's being said here is
God has sufficiently revealed Himself
to all people on the planet
so that there's no hedonist
who doesn't have a Bible in their house
who can say they're without excuse.
In fact, they're under God's wrath.
They suppress the truth about God and His ways.
Look at verses 21 through 23.
For although they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God
or give thanks to Him,
but they became futile in their thinking.
And their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
Listen to verse 23.
And exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man and birds
and animals and creeping things.
Do you know what is at the heart of hedonism?
Idolatry.
It's an exchange.
It's not just a rejection of God.
It's a swapping out of God.
It's an exchange.
Exchanging the one true glorious God
for created things.
And that's why they are without excuse
under God's wrath.
And then in verses 24 through 32,
we see this repeated phrase,
God gave them up.
You see it in verse 24.
Therefore, God gave them up.
Verse 26.
For this reason, God gave them up.
In verse 28.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up.
Have you ever been wondering
why our culture in America right now
seems to be just spinning downwards?
If you've been around the block,
maybe 20, 30 years,
you're kind of like,
what is going on with our culture?
Romans 1.
Our culture is being handed over by God
to their sinful desires.
It's a judgment.
And we're living in the middle of it.
This giving up language
is a kind of judgment.
That's what's happening in our culture.
In verse 24, we read,
therefore God gave them up
in the lusts of their heart
to impurity,
to the dishonoring of their bodies
among themselves.
Impurity is probably
referenced to some kind of sexual sin.
but this dishonoring of their bodies.
Of having,
giving their bodies the things
that they shouldn't be doing.
It's where we're living right now.
God has designed our bodies
very specifically.
Biblically speaking,
the Bible approaches gender
by defining gender biologically.
Whether you have a Y chromosome or not.
We're living in a culture
in which our culture is adrift.
And instead of having
a biologically informed definition of gender,
we have a psychologically informed
definition of gender.
It's how you feel.
To match your body
to how you feel.
And now we live in a time,
it's unprecedented,
now people
can have surgery
or have some kind of
hormonal treatment
that changes their body
to match their feelings.
Claiming to be wise,
they've become fools.
At the heart of gender dysphoria,
at the heart of transgenderism,
there's an idolatry.
An exchanging of God
for a lie.
That's where we're living.
We're living in Romans 1 again.
In 26 and 27,
for this reason,
God gave them up
to dishonorable passions.
And then he goes into,
for their women
exchanged natural relations
for those that are not
contrary to nature.
And the men likewise
gave up natural relations
with women
and were consumed
with passion.
The natural relations
are simply God's good design
of a man and a woman
in physical union
in the context of marriage.
One chromosomal man,
husband,
married to one chromosomal woman,
wife,
uniting together physically
till death do they part
under God's purview.
And what we see here
is when you exchange God
for a lie,
it's going to show up
in your practice of sexuality
in your culture.
What becomes normal?
Homosexuality
is categorically sinful,
and unrighteous
in God's eyes.
And at the heart of it
is idolatry.
Are we sympathetic
in seeking to care
for our friends and family
who are struggling
with homosexuality
or transgenderism?
Yes, of course.
But at the root of it,
it's idolatry.
There's a man,
his name is Christopher Yon.
He's a brother in Christ
who is entrenched
in the homosexual lifestyle.
God awakened him,
radically transformed him.
Eventually,
he became a professor
down at Moody Bible Institute.
And now he has a ministry
based out of California.
I would encourage you,
if you want to read
some helpful material
on what the Bible
has to say about homosexuality,
read Christopher Yon.
Y-U-A-N.
He has a very helpful perspective.
In fact, he will say,
what a homosexual needs
is not to be made straight.
They need to hear the gospel
to address their heart idolatry.
In verses 28 through 32,
we have the third God gave them up,
and it's to a debased mind.
Do you know what a debased mind is?
Think of it this way.
If someone doesn't know God,
if they have no fear of God
before their eyes,
they are still going to think
and they're going to still
build their life.
But what they will think about
and build their life on
has no God foundation of it.
It's off the foundation.
It's debased.
Do you see?
Proverbs 1-7 says,
the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge.
Proverbs 9-10 says,
the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.
We build our lives
on who God is
and what He says in His Word.
That's knowledge and wisdom.
And if that's not there,
you're building on the sand.
And what we see
in verses 29 through 31
is quite a sin list.
Let me read it.
They were filled with
all manner of unrighteousness.
These hedonists.
Evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossip, slanderers,
haters of God,
insolent, haughty, boastful,
inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents,
foolish, faithless,
heartless, ruthless.
Do you see it in you?
Do you see your inner hedonist?
Maybe you're not struggling
with transgenderism.
Have you ever coveted
someone else's body?
Do you gossip?
Do you slander?
Boy,
we've got all,
all of us have got
some of this in us.
Be honest with yourself.
As you come to God's word,
be asking the question,
hey,
what's wrong with this guy?
No, no, no.
It starts with you.
It starts with me.
Verse 32,
though they know
God's righteous decree,
these unrighteous hedonists,
they know down deep
God's righteous decree
that those who practice
such things deserve to die.
They not only do them,
but give approval
to those who practice them.
And in our culture right now,
not just approval,
we make laws
saying that it's okay.
Corporate policy
these are the times
we live in.
At the heart of it all
is idolatry.
Exchanging the truth
of God for a lie,
claiming to be wise,
they become fools.
Our culture,
brothers and sisters,
God is handing over.
That's where we find ourselves.
Can I just remind you
of something?
The Apostle Paul wrote Romans
to Rome
in the Roman Empire
in the first century.
You see,
human history
is a history of God
handing over
culture,
individuals,
over and over again
to their sinful desires.
It even goes back
to judges in Israel.
being handed over
to what they want.
It's a kind of a judgment
and it is the story
of human history.
Not just 21st century America.
Humanity.
Unrighteous before God.
Now, if the problem
is the unrighteousness of man,
then the solution
is the righteousness of God.
And you know what this means?
This announcement
of the gospel
God talked about.
We saw in Romans 1.
This gospel
is for the unrighteous hedonist.
Even though they're
without excuse,
even though they're
under God's wrath,
God says,
here's good news
of what I have done
about your unrighteousness.
Now,
you might be thinking like,
you know what, Paul?
You give it to them.
Give it to them, Paul.
Bring it.
Bring down the hammer
on those hedonists.
But Paul doesn't stop
with the unrighteous hedonist.
There's another type
of sinner
starting in chapter 2,
verse 1,
going through chapter 3,
verse 8,
the unrighteous
moralist.
Where the hedonist
rejects God's law,
the moralist
prides himself
or herself
in keeping God's law.
These moralists,
which in chapter 2,
verse 17,
Paul calls them Jews,
Jews,
it's not too difficult
to imagine
present-day Christians
in this same camp.
The problem
of the moralist,
simply put,
is hypocrisy.
The hedonist
swaps out God
for sin, right?
The moralist
is hypocrisy.
Look at chapter 2,
verse 1 through 3.
Therefore,
you have no excuse,
O man,
every one of you
who judges.
Paul is anticipating
the moralist response.
All these hands over,
handing over,
and the moralist
is saying,
yeah,
you give it to him,
you give it to him.
And then Paul says,
whoa on, buddy.
You have no excuse
either,
you moralist.
O man,
every one of you
who judges
for in passing judgment
on another,
you condemn yourself
because you,
the judge,
practice the same,
very,
very same things.
We know that the judgment
of God rightly falls
on those who practice
such things.
Do you suppose,
O man,
you who judge those
who practice such things
and yet do them yourself,
that you will escape
the judgment of God?
Verse 4,
or do you presume
on the riches
of his kindness
and the forbearance
and patience
and not knowing
that the kindness,
God's kindness
is meant to lead you
to repentance?
Verse 5,
but because of your
hard and impenitent heart,
you moralist
are storing up wrath
for yourself
on the day of wrath
when God's righteous judgment
will be revealed.
Apparently,
the gospel
is not just for hedonists,
it's for moralists too.
The reality is
a moralist
will obey
some of God's holy law.
Think of Steve's
Ten Commandments.
God's Ten Commandments
spoken by Steve.
Run me out of here.
A moralist
will obey
some of God's commands
some of the time.
But a moralist
cannot obey
all of God's holy law
all of the time.
That's the reality.
The problem
is the hypocrisy.
It's when a moralist
thinks some is enough
and because some is enough
I can now judge
other people.
That's the problem
that Paul is addressing.
The moralist
who judges
the hedonist
in their self-righteousness,
Paul says,
you are without excuse.
You are storing up
God's wrath.
Verse 5,
the moralist
is in as much danger
as the hedonist
of God's wrath.
Look at verses 17
through 24
in chapter 2.
But if you call yourself
a Jew
and rely on the law
and boast in God
and know His will
and approve what is excellent
because you are instructed
from the law
and if you are sure
that you yourself
are a guide to the blind,
a light to those
who are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of children,
having in the law
the embodiment
of knowledge and truth,
you then who teach others,
do you not teach yourself?
While you preach
against stealing,
do you steal?
You say that
one must not
commit adultery.
Do you commit adultery?
You who abhor idols,
do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law
dishonor God
by breaking the law
and then he quotes
Isaiah 52.
He says,
as it is written,
the name of God
is blasphemed
among the Gentiles
because of you.
So who's in a worse position?
It seems like the moralist
because the moralist hypocrisy
is causing the hedonist
to say,
eh,
their God is not
such a big deal.
Our hypocrisy
confuses non-Christians.
Do you see
your inner moralist
quick to judge
but slow to see
the log in your own eye?
Maybe you judge
the adulterer
yet you are feeding
your sexual lust.
Maybe you judge
the greedy
and yet you give
only when it's convenient.
Maybe you judge
someone else's harshness
yet hop in the minivan
and yell at your kids.
Do you see
your unrighteousness?
All of us
fall short
of God's glory.
None of us.
None
is righteous.
No,
not one.
One of my favorite
parables of Jesus
is Luke 18,
9-14.
It's the parable
of the Pharisee
and the tax collector.
The parable
of the moralist
and the hedonist.
And Jesus
depicts
both praying to God
and the moralist
is saying,
Oh God Almighty,
thank you
for not making me
a hedonist.
I pray often,
I give much.
And then he turns
to the tax collector
who prays,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.
to which Jesus
says,
who went up
justified
that day?
The hedonist.
Part of the problem
of moralism
is that
it blinds us
to our own
unrighteousness.
Only if we would
humbly take the log
out of our own eye
first
to see our
unrighteousness
problem.
But you know what?
God proclaims
the good news
to you,
moralist.
He's got
God's righteousness
for you.
In chapter 3
verses 9
through 20,
Paul lumps
both the unrighteous
hedonist
and the unrighteous
moralist
together
into the
unrighteous
all of us.
listen to what he says.
This is chapter 3
verse 10.
None is righteous,
no, not one.
No one understands,
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside.
Together they have
become worthless.
No one does good.
No, not even one.
Verse 18,
there is no fear
of God
before their eyes.
Speaking of both
the hedonist
and the moralist.
There may be
different types
of sinner,
different types
of unrighteousness,
but all are
without excuse.
All are under
God's wrath.
The hedonist
and the moralist
are without excuse.
The hedonist
and the moralist
are under God's wrath.
No one is righteous,
no, not even one.
Which means,
right now,
no one on the planet,
no one in and of themselves
has the power
to excuse themselves
from God's judgment.
No one has the power
to escape God's wrath.
No one can make themselves
righteous in his sight.
Brothers and sisters,
our biggest problem
is an unrighteousness problem.
That is the biggest problem
on the planet.
But in order for
God's gospel of righteousness
to make sense to you,
you must own
your unrighteousness.
Whether it's hedonistic
or moralistic,
or like me,
a combination of the two.
Now let's look at
the gospel applied.
Verses 21,
it goes all the way
through 31,
but I'm going to be focusing
really 21 through 25.
Paul has just spent
a lot of time
elaborating on
human unrighteousness.
And in verse 21
of chapter 3,
he circles back
to the gospel.
Oh, thank God
he circles back
to the gospel.
He circles back
to the historic,
effectual,
gospel.
But now the righteousness
of God has been
manifested.
He's been talking
about the unrighteousness
of man.
And now 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,
the righteousness
of God
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believe,
there is no
distinction.
This is good news,
brothers and sisters.
may your soul
rise to what
you're about to hear.
To the unrighteous,
God declares
the good news
of a righteousness,
not our own,
but his,
that saves.
When an unrighteous
hedonist
or moralist
hears and believes
the good news
of the gospel
that Jesus Christ
died and was raised
from the dead,
when they hear that
and they believe that,
God applies
what Christ
has accomplished
through his life,
death,
and resurrection
to that sinner.
It's their salvation,
it's their rescue,
it's their transformation,
it is glorious.
And it's only
by God's grace,
it's only by his power.
Let me point you
to three specific areas
in which God
demonstrates
his saving power
in this passage.
They show up
as three words.
In verse 23,
for all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God.
24,
and are justified
by his grace.
That's a word
you need to pay attention to.
Through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus,
justification,
redemption,
25,
whom God put forward
as a propitiation
by his blood
to be received by faith.
Propitiation.
Now you might be thinking,
what?
Propitiation?
I can't even pronounce that.
Justification?
What?
Redemption?
Huh?
Oh,
brothers and sisters,
don't let
the scrabble words
distract you
from the glory.
Let's take them
one at a time
starting with propitiation.
Propitiation is a word
that is having to do
with the realm
of sacrifice.
Offering animal sacrifice.
In the Old Testament,
animal sacrifices
would be offered
on an altar.
Their blood would be spilt
and the belief was that
that shed blood
would propitiate
God's wrath
temporarily.
Satisfy God's wrath.
And what we're reading here
for all those
under God's wrath
is that
by the blood of Jesus,
God's wrath
is fully satisfied
so that there's
no more wrath.
On Good Friday,
Jesus on the cross
endured God's wrath
and for all
who would believe
all of God's wrath
that you would
ever commit
past,
present,
future,
all of God's wrath
for your unrighteousness
was poured out
on Jesus.
So the moment
you believe,
you are therefore
now,
no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
God's wrath
fully satisfied
both for the hedonist
and the moralist.
Do I have an amen?
That's propitiation.
You can preach
like seven sermons
on that.
Let's move
to the next word.
Redemption.
Redemption is having
to do with the realm
of the slave market.
Redemption was
the act of buying
a slave
at a ransom price.
Jesus is not just
our propitiation,
He's our redemption.
When we believed,
God acted.
He purchased us
out of the slavery
to sin
and has brought us
into slavery
to God.
Romans chapter 6.
You know what that means?
Have you ever seen
somebody wearing
property of UW Parkside?
Redemption means
you wear
property of Jesus.
You belong to Him now.
And it shows up
in the way we live
our lives today.
The last word
is the word justification.
It's in verse 24.
Do you remember
how both hedonist
and moralist
were both without excuse
because of their
unrighteousness?
Justification is
the language
of the law court.
To be justified
is to be legally
declared righteous
in God's sight.
It's forensic.
It's legal.
It's a change
of your legal status.
So the moment
you unrighteous
one believed
in the gospel,
cried out to God,
God now declared
you righteous
in His sight.
Not on the basis
of your righteousness
though.
On the basis
of Christ's righteousness.
The righteousness
of God.
Fully imputed
to you
forever.
I'm devoting
next Sunday's sermon
to justification
because it's so important.
You coming back?
I can't wait
to what I'm going to say
because it's like
for me too.
It's all by His grace.
Verse 24,
and are justified
by His grace
as a gift.
You're made righteous
in God's sight.
You who are without excuse
now have an excuse.
Jesus' righteousness.
And therefore,
you're righteous
in His sight.
It's by His grace.
Think of grace
as an acronym.
God's righteousness
at Christ's expense.
By His grace.
It's all good news.
Propitiation,
redemption,
justification.
These are words
that are communicating
gospel truth,
gospel goodness
for those
who've been rescued
by the gospel.
gospel.
And what's amazing
about all of this
is that God
remains just
in His justifying
sinners.
His character
doesn't change.
Is this not the
greatest news
you've heard all day?
It's the greatest news
you're going to hear
all week.
It's the greatest news
you're going to hear
all month,
all summer,
all fall,
all year,
all life.
Does it refresh
your soul?
The gospel defined.
It's historic.
Powerful.
Our problem elaborated.
All unrighteous
hedonists and moralists
are without excuse
under God's wrath.
The gospel applied.
Our God's wrath
propitiated.
We have been
delivered out
of slavery to sin
and we have been
declared righteous
all by the workings
of the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Christ.
It's all focused
on Him
and what He's
accomplished.
All resulting
from His life,
death,
and resurrection.
That's why
no one can boast.
It's all accomplished
by Jesus.
So if you're not
a Christian in the house,
have you been
convinced that
you are unrighteous?
That you're
without excuse?
That you're under
God's wrath
this morning?
If you've come
to realize that,
what is keeping you
from crying out
to this just
and loving God
who will save you
forever?
If you're a Christian,
oh, I hope
your soul rejoices
that you've been
refreshed by remembering
what God has done
for you through Christ.
it's all true
despite the way
you feel.
Do you know
what I was doing
at 2 a.m.
Thursday morning?
I was walking
around my neighborhood.
Do you know why?
Because I couldn't sleep.
Do you know why I couldn't?
Because I was freaking
out over something.
And as I'm walking
on the back nine
of my block,
God brings to mind
the gospel.
Mike,
I've propitiated
the wrath of God
for you.
I've redeemed you
out of slavery.
I've justified you.
And when that sunk
into my heart,
do you know what I said?
I can sleep now.
And you know what I did?
I went to sleep.
We can rejoice
in this truth
in the ins and outs
of life
because God
has taken care
of our greatest problem
in an amazing fashion.
One last point.
Brother, sister,
are you ashamed
of this gospel?
Are you ashamed?
Are you afraid
to talk about this?
This announcement
of God
to all humanity
is the only hope
for all unrighteous humanity.
It's their only hope.
We cannot be ashamed
because everyone
must hear.
And with that,
I'm going to close you
in 2 Corinthians 5.20
where,
if my memory serves me,
Paul says,
we are ambassadors
of Christ.
God
making his appeal
gospel
through us.
Let me pray for us.
God in heaven,
you are amazing.
And what you have done
for us,
we are so grateful for.
Would you cause
these truths
to soak
into the gray matter
of our brains
so it permeates
our life
with gospel joy?
God,
help us
to live here
for the rest
of today
and this week
until next week.
We trust you.
Thank you,
God,
for this word.
In your name we pray.
Amen.