We Need a Little Christmas | Week 3 | Bill Bush

Because it just lays out the gospel, and I think some of us are gonna be challenged. Some of you, you've you've you've never really become a Christian. You've never you've never put your faith in Jesus. Some of you are new. You're checking it out. Well, this is the perfect day to be here, to church, because we're gonna explain what does it mean to be a Christian, and why. And we're gonna see it. And we're gonna be in Romans chapter three. We're gonna start in verse 21. We're not we're skipping over verse one through 20, because like I said, the first three chapters was, hey, you need Christmas because we are all on the naughty list. And there is no way off the naughty list. Well, chapter three is basically

since when Paul was writing this and laying it out, it was more like a courtroom case. Well, chapter three one through 20 is basically they're giving the verdict.

And the verdict is we're all guilty. We're all guilty. We're all guilty. Matter of fact, if anything we preach out those first two chapters, especially the week one when I was preaching in chapter one, if you sat there and what you got is like, yeah, Bill. Way to tell all those people the truth.

You missed the whole point. Because the whole point is every one of us is guilty of Romans chapter one. Our list may look different. The reasons we're on the night, but the the core of it is simply this. Every one of us is a sinner. Every one of us has lived as if there's no God. And when we do that, we live like we're God.

So no business pointing fingers at everyone else. We have to embrace that. But today, look at what happens. In verse 21 of chapter three, we change to something else, a different focus. And we're gonna see what does it mean? What is the gospel? What does salvation mean? And the first two words are so powerful of verse 21,

but now. But now. That is awesome. You know, that but in the bible is good. And this is a big one, and we like big butts, and we cannot lie. Because this is why Jesus had to come and die. There you go.

Multi talented. But what what what I learned in seminary at high cost

is that whenever you see in the bible a therefore, you gotta say what's the therefore, therefore? Well, whenever you see a but, you know that it's about to change. It says, hey, because of all this, but there is an answer. But there's something different. But we don't have to stay there. But now, it's a transition.

It's a transition. It says, but now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law. That's all the rules and and and really the the the the the the regulators of of of, hey, you've you're doing all the things God wants you to do,

but there's a way to be made right with God that doesn't mean you can do it right, because we can't do it right enough as we'll see as we go on. As was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.

So that first verse gives us this first point is, how does the gospel work? First of all, the good news of being made right with God is apart from the law. Apart from the law. And you hear the law,

yeah. It it's like, you know, you fought the law and the law won. Well, it will win because the truth is what he's saying is you can't be made right with God by being right, by doing right. And we'll see why in a minute.

And and and and and then it says that Moses already talked about that means this idea of the gospel of Jesus coming to make us right with him. It's what he did, not what we do. That was God's plan all along. It was his design.

It's unearned. It says you can't earn it on your own, and it's unhidden. It's right out there in the open. But why he's saying this is he's writing to this church. He's writing to Christians, and a lot of them are Jews. Most of the church, you know, it start off as Jews, and and and Israel missed this.

They missed it from the Old Testament. God revealed himself, and all through the old there's passage like yours. It's it's about faith. It's about grace all through the Old Testament.

And and yet, they missed it because they got the rules, and they thought, well, now we keep the rules. We're better than everyone else. We have the rules. We're made right. He says, no. That's not the gospel.

If you think being a Christian as you come, yeah, you you believe in Jesus, but that's just the two drink minimum cover charge. The rest of the way is on you. Then you're missing the point. If you're coming here to be a better person so God will love you, you're missing the point.

And and so he's saying it's apart from the law. But then the second thing is the next, '22 through '26, we're gonna take this part apart, is it's available only through Christ.

It's available only through Christ. Now now now this is a tough one because there are so many people out there that is like like and there's people sitting in this room. You people that come to church that's like, yeah, well Jesus works for me, but you know, your way might work for you.

What he's about to say is there's only one way, and these verses are gonna explain why. But there's only one way to be made right with God. And I know that some people go, well isn't that a little bit closed minded of you Christians?

Isn't that a little bit closed minded of us? Like, if he's like, what if there is only one way? Sometimes there's only one way.

I mean, if a fireman finds you in a hallway of a burning building, and he says, stay down low, crawl, crawl down down there, turn right, and then make your first right. There's a window. There's a ladder. It's the only way out. The rest of the buildings, you can't get through. Would you sit there and go, that's

pretty close minded of you. That way works for you. But I think turning left will work for me. And he goes, you know what'll work for you? Is you're gonna fall because the floor is drawn through, and you're gonna fall into a flaming burning, and you'll die there. So if that works for you, go ahead and turn left.

To say there's only one way when there's only one way is the most loving thing you could ever do. There's only one way,

and it's through Christ. Why? How does that work? I'm gonna go through this verse by verse, and there's these statements I wanna they build on each other. I wanna make as we we look through this and teach. So let's start in verse 22. Let's read verse 22,

and I'll give you the first two statements. Verse 22 says, we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

And this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are. So he's like, alright. How is it available through Christ? That first part, placing our faith in Christ, is it's by trusting, not trying. And then the second part of the verse is, and it's for everyone. So it's for everyone.

But how is it? How do you get saved? How do you be made right with God? Is you gotta put your faith in Christ. So it's about trusting. It's about not about trying. And and and so when we trust God, that's different than just trying to prove ourselves.

We need to trust what he did. It's kinda like and here's the mistake we make when it comes to faith, and we start trying to try even though we say it's faith, is we we make the faith about our faith. It's the amount of faith I have.

And then we make it about faith in our faith. We think that what saves us is I have so much faith in my faith. I have to hang on to my faith. I gotta believe the faith. And you know what? I need more faith. And and and somebody's like, but you realize when you're gonna put faith in something, the important thing is the what the faith is in. It's not your faith.

You ever think about that? You come up to some Indiana Jones rickety old bridge, and and and you need to get to the other side. You could walk up with two up attitudes you go Ben that's I'm not sure about that

I don't know I don't know but I got to go I got to check I think it's gonna hold me I think it's gonna hold me I'm gonna put my faith in it

Or you could walk up and say, what do you want? Out of my way, man. That bridge is so strong. That's so awesome. It doesn't matter how you say, what's gonna actually prove right or wrong? That first step.

You could have the most confidence in the world. You step on the bridge and it's not gonna hold. You're just like, woah. You're goofy all the way down to the bottom. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop, as my dad used to say. It doesn't matter about your faith. It's what it's placed in.

Or you could be like, I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But you know what? I'm gonna do it. And you just take that one step. The importance is the what you put the faith in. That's the key. Let explain another way. I think this will make sense about what it means to put faith in Jesus.

My my son, he's on staff here. He's 22 now. But back when he was a teenager, we family went to New York City. And we were had a day planned. We were gonna go see the Empire State Building later in the week, the couple days we were there. But as we walked by, we saw that the line was really short.

And that's not that's rare. Like, if you're walking through Disneyland, of sudden, the one ride you're gonna go to later is hey. The line's short. Change of plans. We're gonna get in that line right now. So we're like, let's go. Well, my my son started getting really nervous. Part of it is because he didn't think he had to think about that for two more days. And as we online, he could tell he's getting bummed, he starts looking over, and he's like, hey.

I wanna take the stairs. I don't wanna take the elevator. And and and the reason is he's had trauma. He's like he doesn't like elevators. Because when he was like three, we were at hotel, and our room was like the elevator opens, our room was right there, right across from the elevator.

And so as I was trying to get the key to work, the elevator door was open. We didn't notice. He stepped back into the elevator. And I'm like, hey, son. Don't and it closed and it left.

I'm like, no. And I'm like, wait. And I'm looking. Go, which way did it go? And my wife was like, I don't know. Did it did the arrow was it pointing up or was it pointing down when it left? Don't know. I'm like, great. Alright. You go down. I'll go up. Took us, like, fifteen minutes to find him,

and he was not in a good mood as he got stuck in this close. So to him, an elevator is not an instrument to get you somewhere with no effort. It's a box of confinement. And so he's had this problem with elevators ever since.

I mean, he'll use them, but he's like, so he could not imagine a crammed elevator going up a 100 and some odd floors. He just could not imagine. Now he's not afraid of heights. He wanted to be at the top. He wanted the beautiful view, but he was freaked out. So he's getting closer. He's

and he was like, I wanna take the stairs. You can't take the stairs, man. They won't let you. You'll never make it. And he's like, I don't we get closer. One of the people, the line guards. I don't know what they do. He's like, hey. Can I take the stairs? And she laughed. No?

And then she looked at him and says, you wouldn't make it anyways. And so he's like so we get closer, and he's like, you can do this, man. You can do this. Just step on the elevator. He's like

we get closer. All of a sudden, we're in line. We all open the elevator opens up. He step everyone crams in. He's the only one staying. I turn on and go, come on, son. You could just at this point, he's like

and he everyone's like, get him in the freaking elevator. Now he's irritating. And and finally, goes, alright. You could he's like, he steps in really fast and the door closes. He was so freaked out. He wouldn't even turn around. So now he's facing everybody. He's like, oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. He was like turning over into like like Bob Wiley, and what about Bob when they were on the bus and everyone would be on one side of the bus, and he's like,

tell me when we're there, tell me when we're there, tell me when we're there, and he had his eyes closed, everyone goes, we'll tell you, just shut up for the love of God, you're scaring the children.

How much faith did he have? Only enough to step on the elevator. That's it.

That's what it means to trust, not try. How we are saved is not by taking the stairs. Contrary to an epic rock song, there is no stairway to heaven. You can't make it. You gotta trust. And that trust means your faith only steps on the elevator, and then the elevator does the rest of the work. Just stay on the elevator.

Problem is many of us say, faith in Jesus? Just trust him? That seems like confining. I'm closed. Yeah. But that's the only way to get to the beautiful view at the top. That's the only way to not stay on this Ground Floor, to stay. You can try to take the stairs, but you'll never make it.

And that goes not just for becoming a Christian. So if you're struggling, it's like you keep thinking, well, I gotta check this out more. Need more faith before I can trust you. He's like, no. You just need one step worth of faith, The faith of a mustard seed. Because it's not what your faith is,

it's what your faith is in that matters. But for those of us that know Jesus, I think that's a continuing theme that should stay through our whole Christian life. At any given moment, God's like, hey, you kinda got off the elevator now. I need you to stick with me.

And you're like, well, I'm waiting till I get more further. No. You're never gonna get enough faith because that's not the point. The point is you only need enough to step onto the elevator. That's it. That's it. And then when you do that, God is faithful. You go up, the door is open, you're in another place,

a better place, a higher place, and that is for everyone. Let's look at verse 23.

Verse 23 says, for everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard. That's a powerful verse right here in the middle. So what it's saying is

our faith, our salvation, our made right with God is available only through Christ by trusting, not trying. It is for everyone, and this saying, because it is necessary. This is why it's only through Jesus. This is why. There's two statements in this one verse. And it's an interesting structure

for for for for kind of a sentence here in the Greek. It's all have sinned, everyone has sinned, and everyone falls short. Sin and fall short. Greek is an interesting language because it is so precise. And it not only has tense like we do, you know, you know, past tense, present. It has mood.

Not sure what that means because Greek for me in college was like math. I figured it out, but I'm not like mood. Does that mean it gets hangry? I don't know. But but what it means is it you can be very much more precise than English. When you see for everyone has sinned and all fall short, it's saying something really powerful when you take it apart from the Greek perspective.

And that is, first of all, the first phrase and the second phrase are in a different tense. The first, for for all have sinned, that's in the past tense, meaning it's a done deal. It's a done deal. The second phrase is what's called the present continual. That means it's ongoing, and it's continued to happen.

And then what's really cool, guys, you can wake up now. It's he uses both of those words in there, sin and fall short. They're both sports terms. Sports. He uses sports analogies. Ain't that cool? Two in one sentence. And and the first one, all have sinned, this past tense, it's a done deal. It's

everyone has done this from all time. It's a term that word sin is an archery term for miss the mark. So it says, it is a done deal that everyone has missed God's bull's eye. You've missed the mark.

Well and then you say, well, if I try really hard, I'll get the mark back. No. Because the second thing is all fall short. That fall short is a racing term. It's a track term that means to fall behind in the race. And that's in the present continual.

So what it's saying is everyone has missed God's standard of perfection. So if you wanna save yourself and be right for God and earn God's love, you have to be perfect. Well, everyone is imperfect,

and everyone continues to fall behind in the race. And it doesn't matter how fast you run, you are just gonna get further behind. You will never catch up. You can't be good enough to earn God's presence because we have all fallen short, and we continue to fall behind. You can run up those stairs as fast as you want,

and you're just gonna have a heart attack and slow down and get wheezy. You're not gonna make it. And somebody say, so so if I believe in Jesus, I can just go do what I want. No. No. No. Paul anticipates that the last verse will will address that of this passage.

So it's basically available to Christ by trusting, trying. It's for everyone, and it's because it's necessary. And this is great. It's verse 24. Let's read verse 24 and look at the next the next one. Verse 24 says this,

yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. So there's this he makes us right freely,

and then he frees us from our penalty. So there's a couple things there. So by trusting not trying for everyone because it's necessary, and the next thing is even though we don't deserve it. Even though we don't deserve it, Christ made us right.

What's interesting is that phrase makes us right is a word in the Greek that we get the English word justify justified. Justification. And and I think of it this way. It's justified never sinned. That's a good way to say it. Because justified means when Jesus died for us, he didn't just say, I forgive you.

A lot of people say, why did Jesus have to die? What is it like? Like, it's not like God says, well, you know what? It's okay. I forgive you. That word justified makes us right is a legal term in the Greek. It it means to pardon. To pardon. And in the legalese,

a pardon, if you are pardoned, it's not just, okay. You did it, but I'm letting you off on a technicality. It's you've been pardoned. It's a sponge from your record. It's as if you never did it in the first place.

So when you've been pardoned, you don't have it's not even supposed to be brought up on it's forgotten about. It's done. You never did it. Even if you did do it, you never did it.

Think about that. When we think of Jesus dying on the cross, he forgives us our sins. How many of us still think we have to justify ourself? How many of us struggle with when we blow it? Jesus died for me, but now I did this knuckleheaded thing again. How many feel shame and a guilt that takes you to shame? What if

you can choose to see yourself the way God sees you? What this verse says is if you trust in Christ, he doesn't see your sin anymore. That's not who you are anymore. He sees you as who he's turning you into. He sees you as fully whole, as fully righteous. We have Christ's righteousness

imputed. Not only are we forgiven, we are given the righteousness of Christ. That's why we're pardoned. So when God looks at us, he sees us as fully righteous. How can that change the way you view knowing Christ? See, I think we subtly say, yeah, I accept you, Jesus. But then we still think that we are responsible,

and we bear this weight. And here's the problem. When you try to be self just, when you feel shame and guilt as a response of sin instead of repentance and running back to God, The problem is you tend to run away from God even more. You tend to hide

because you feel like, well, I'm supposed to be right. That's why do you think when we struggle, we don't come to church?

Why do you think when you struggle, you pull away from your small group in your community? Well, I've been having a lot of problems. I just need to be alone. Why do we do the opposite of what we should do?

Because you feel the guilt, you feel the shame, and you you see yourself the way you see yourself. Well, you think of yourself as I'm the sinner trying to be good. I'm not the righteous one that still has an echo of sin.

Paul talks about that. We'll get to it later on, but Romans seven and eight. When he says, why do I do the things I don't wanna do, and I don't do the things I wanna do? What a wreck in mind. Then in chapter eight, he goes, but it's because of Holy Spirit. Because the grace of God. I realized that when I embrace that and see myself the way God sees me, I can trust the Holy Spirit, and I can live out this life. And instead of running away from God when I blow it, I run right back to him. You know what? Because I don't feel the shame. I don't feel the guilt. I'm not afraid of God. I don't have to treat God like he's someone like us. Like, I keep doing the same thing. And you know that if you keep doing the same thing to the same person, you eventually go, you know what? I better just leave them alone for a while because they're probably mad at me.

And then you don't feel defeated or defensive. See, when you keep doing it, you don't understand that God's already party. He already sees you as holy. He already sees you as righteous. He doesn't see your sin at all. But if I see it,

I don't think that what Paul was saying is who he really is, who we really are when we know Christ is, we're not the sin part. That's the part that's an echo, a shadow that that's going away. When Jesus shows up and resurrected, that stays behind. We are the one that wants to do righteousness. We are the one that wants to do the right thing. We're the ones aligned. And how many of you sit here as a Christian say, you think of yourself as the one that wants to do the wrong thing, but you feel like you gotta force yourself and trust Jesus to do the holy thing. When the part of you that wants to do that, that is who you are.

That's who you are.

But if I don't see it that way, it's always a struggle. And I'll either let the shame make me defeated or the fear of I gotta make myself look good or make sure I'm good, justify myself, that I will get defensive when my sin's called out. Because I can't let that be sin, because that means I'm falling behind.

I think that's why a lot of people reacted when I was in Romans chapter one.

God calls out some sin that our culture says isn't anymore. And there's a lot of people in this church that say, well, that's just mean of God. That can't mean what it means. That's my identity. My sexuality is who I am. And God says, no, it's not. It's not. That's not who you are.

But if I'm gonna be defensive, I can't own because I feel guilt and I feel shame and you're gonna make me feel bad, and you're not gonna see the right answer, you're you're gonna get hardened, and you're gonna fight, and you're gonna back off. And you're gonna run away from God instead of to him.

And my answer to that from Romans one is you gotta you know, I heard some people said, you know, I can't believe Bill said that. And my question is this. I'm not being defensive. Did I say that or did Romans chapter one say that? Why

do you wanna get mad at me? Because if you can make it me, you can still hide from God. Unless you can show me how I mistaught that, you have a problem with the Lord God Almighty who made you, he made sex, he made sexuality, he created the way relations are supposed to work, and he knows what really will fulfill you.

And if you keep hiding from that, you're going to miss what he actually has for you.

I don't know any better way to say it. And if you still disagree, I I don't understand what your definition of love is. Because we would never raise our kids with that mentality, would we? Well, maybe we are starting to do that. I don't know.

Some of the most loving conversation I have with my kids is this is not who you are, and this is not the way to go. And and I and and I love you, but I can't champion you on this path. And somehow that's mean now.

When did love become hate?

And acceptance became whatever you wanna do, we'll just draw a circle around it and call that a bull's eye.

But that's the power of the gospel. If you come to Christ, he doesn't see the sin. If you are afraid to bring the sin, it's because you still are afraid that you gotta climb the stairs. You need to get on the elevator.

You you you need to trust him. That's exactly what it says. And when when Christ said we need to have the faith of a child, I think we misunderstand that.

We think it means act like a child. No. He's not talking about the maturity. He's talking about the faith. Have you ever noticed when kids believe someone, when they trust, when they love, it's like it's genuine. It's all in. And and and I think what he meant is is like, think about this. When you were a kid,

or or maybe when when your own kids,

or maybe you're a husband, and you've done this with your wife because we're stupid, guys. And and and that is your wife, your mom, or you as a parent told your kids stop doing that. You're gonna hurt yourself. And then you wouldn't listen to your wife or your mom, or your kids wouldn't listen to you. And you keep doing it and doing it, and then you hurt yourself.

What's the first thing the kid and usually the husband do? Especially kids. They run right to mom. Totally destroy themselves doing exactly what you kept telling them not to do. And then what do they immediately do? They run right back to you crying.

Why? As adults, we would never do that. As adults, oh, they're pissed. I gotta stay away. Guys, we'll go in the garage. We'll avoid the wife because, like, she was right. I don't want her to know it. You

know, you basically sever half your leg, but you put a band aid on it, and you're like, no. I'm good. That was great. Didn't hurt myself at all. Oh, dear Jesus, take me home now. But kids aren't that way. They run back to mom crying.

Why? Because they know it. They know that mom was showing them the right way. Mom, you know, they we resisted mom. We didn't wanna listen to mom, but I know mom was right, and I know mom loves me. And I am sad, and I'll run to her. How many of us we blow it, and we run away from God?

I think it's because you don't understand. He doesn't see the sin. All he sees is his child, whom he died and already took care of the sin. We already took care of it, but we we we struggle with that. It's even though we don't deserve it. But the second part of that verse was when it says, freed us from the penalty,

that means it's through a person, not a process. I mean, we are redeemed not through some process, but through the person. That word there for redemption, it's that freed us from the penalty, is a word that we get redemption from. And and in the Greek, the word meant the price you paid to free a slave or a hostage.

So it means that we were enslaved to our own sin. We are enslaved. That's why when we fight God and we try to say, well, can't be wrong, God. I want this to be right. That's saying, I want to stay a slave. I wanna stay hostage to this false life.

Yet he paid the price to free us, and that's a very personal mean, someone paid for the freedom of someone else. That's not a process. That's a relationship.

It involves some steps. It involves some stuff. And we have to understand that Jesus saved us through a personal relationship, through redemption. It's about a person, not a process. Here's the problem. The longer you go as a Christian, the longer you're in church, the longer the sermons, the longer the bible say, the longer everything becomes about this process that I have.

We need to have discipline. We need to do certain steps. Like sometimes reading the bible comes a process. Get up, read this, I study this, I do that. And we spend all this time studying the Bible, but we never let it study us. Because we don't think of it as a relationship, we think of it as a textbook.

We don't think of it as the words of one who loves us who we have a relationship with to get to know them better. We look at it to win a fight or to, you know, to to just know more knowledge or to know. And so we stop making it a relationship, and we make it more about a process instead of the relationship with the person.

And the problem is when you make it into a process, you start to doubt the process when you think it's not moving fast enough. Everything about that? When you turn that redemption of Christ into a process rather than a person and a personal relationship with the one who did it,

sometimes you get frustrated with the process. And that process is God says, here's the path I want you to go on. Well, this path doesn't seem pleasant. This path seems too long. This path seems like I'm not getting anywhere. So you know what we wanna do? I'll help it out. I'll find a quicker way.

I don't think I'm the only one that does this, but, you know, back in the day, you used to have to know a map or just know how to get to or someone gave you directions or they'd say, hey, you go down two blocks and you'll see Cletus' dog. You'll turn right, but now our phones will tell us exactly where to go.

Matter of fact, you can plug that into your car and your car speakers will talk to you. And not only do they tell you, they'll say this is the fastest route.

And if traffic is you try to get off, it says still fastest route. It'll tell you this is still the quickest way. Stay on this road. And I don't know about you, but I'd like to not trust maps. I don't believe you.

Because when I'm sitting in traffic and not moving, I would rather take longer to get somewhere but be moving while I'm doing it. Because I'd like I'm getting somewhere slower but it feels a lot quicker. Because I wanna keep moving. Are you the same?

I'm the worst. Going to California, there's always this little stretch when we're coming back. I'm going out there for Thanksgiving. When we come back, there's this little stretch that it always gets bottlenecked.

And you'll see the map. I hate when you're driving, you look at the map and head is like, oh, red line ahead.

And then I go in there, and one time I was like, I'm so sick of sitting in that that I looked on a real map. And there's this little community around where this happens. And I found if I get off here and go here, this road stays the close to the freeway, tracks right there, and I can go up a few miles, like three or four miles. I could turn and I can get back on, and where you get back on is usually where it's cleared up.

So I decided to ignore maps. I get off. And you know what map starts doing? Nagging you.

Return to Root. Return to Root. Can I just tell you something? This is not a married series, but ladies, I'll give you a secret of a man. Don't nag. It doesn't work on men.

Treat them like the person you want them to be, and he'll kill himself being that guy. You treat them like a hero, he'll be a hero or die trying. You know why? He's like, well, they think I'm a hero. Guess I gotta be a hero. If you like, they think I'm a loser. Alright. I'll play the part. So maps

does not play well for a guy. Return to route. Return I'm not returning to the route. Your route is stupid. And when I get off, I started cruising down the street, and I actually made every light. I was looking over. I saw the cars I passed. I could see the freeway. I'm like, ah, suckers.

Suckers. I'm like, and I I get all the way down in no time. I turn left. I'm going. I see. I see the on ramp, and that's where the traffic's all cleared up. I saw the promised land. It was right there. And right as I pulled up, there was one thing between me and the on ramp, train tracks.

And ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. And I I thought I almost heard Maps whisper, I told you so, you loser. Because Maps knew there was a train coming.

It knew that if I went that way, I was gonna be stuck behind a train, and this train was so long that by trying to the caboose went by, the engine was in Washington DC. It was twenty some odd minutes we sat there. I watched every car. I I noticed different trucks with the thing. I watched them go by

ten, fifteen minutes before I got past this train. All because the process seemed too slow. If you turn your redemption into a process instead of a person and a personal relationship with him, you're gonna get frustrated with the path, and you're gonna ignore the word of God.

And he's gonna say, return to the root. Return to the root. Return to the root. It's gonna hurt you. And if you don't know Jesus, this is how it works. Because you're like, well, if God's loving, why did he do this? Why is he? You're challenging the process and the path.

You're not dealing with the person who died for you. That's what's critical when it comes to being a Christian.

And then look at verse 25. This kinda lands this whole little part

when it says, for God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past. He explains that what that redemption price was,

was Jesus came and shed his very blood. He took on humanity. He was God the son who then took on the nature and the body of a man. He didn't just put on a Halloween costume and play man for a few days and then die, and then go home. In heaven, he still has a body. That was a permanent choice.

And he took all the guilt, all the shame, all the things that we try to carry up the stairs on our own, and he goes, I already took them on myself. In other words, this faith, this this this salvation, this redemption that comes

available only through Christ by trusting, not trying. It's for everyone. It's because it's necessary. It's even though we don't deserve it. It's through a person, not a process. This final thing is it is free, but not cheap. It is free to us, but it wasn't cheap.

That word there for sacrifice, sin, is a word that we get atonement from. It means to propitiate or to satisfy.

In Leviticus 16, when they would have the day of atonement every year, that was like looking forward to what Christ would do, they would actually take a couple they'd take a goat and they'd take a lamb. They would sacrifice a lamb, and they would take the blood and go into the Ark of the Covenant, and they pour blood over the top of it in the holy of holies, representing this blood is a covering for us, for the people who have sinned. And then it reminds us of our pardon because of that. The priest would take this goat,

and he would pray, and it symbolically praying all of the sin of the people onto it. Then they release it in the wilderness. It would take off never to be seen again. And you know what that goat was called? The scapegoat. That's where you get the word scapegoat from.

And that was it was a symbolic thing to say that Jesus poured out his blood and died and sacrificed so our sins can be carried away. We were atoned for. And and and that is so much and so when we get grace from God, it's free to us, but it was not cheap.

And that is why we need to stand on the truth of God. That's why when we call out, and that's why you needed chapters one and two. That's why you will never understand the depth of God's love if you don't understand the depth of your own depravity.

If you don't understand the depth of your own sin, it's not to make you feel terrible. It's make you to feel wonderful about how loving God is. And that's why when we try to call something God says wrong is right, to be nice or to be confused,

you are taking what Jesus did. He died for that. Died for it. And you're saying, that's cheap. I'm not even gonna listen to you on that. You died for this, and I'm gonna say it's something good.

That's cheap. You've cheapened his grace. And when you have a cheap grace, your faith, you live a cheap faith because you don't understand the depth of the atonement and the redemption that that propitiate to satisfy you. You know that means? It means God is just. He is holy. He is righteous.

And some of the ways the world wants to point at us and and we wanna lean towards as Christians is we wanna cling to God who is love and is merciful and is grace, which he's all those things too. But he's not those things at the expense of holy, righteous, and just. He can do them all, and the cross is because

he's all of those. If he was just love, mercy, kind, he could say, you know what? Y'all sin, but don't worry about it. I'm not gonna hold it against you. The problem is he lets us break laws against who he is, And what does that do about his holiness? His righteousness. His justice.

First of all, a holy righteous God. He didn't give these rules because he made them up. He is the rules. This is who he is. If you are not holy or righteous, you cannot be in his presence. Do realize you would die? You can't exist in the presence of a holy righteous God if you're not holy and righteous. So

he died so he can be declared holy and righteous. And you need to understand that. So why did he go to the cross? Because there he showed his love, his grace, his mercy. That's the only way that he could satisfy. The satisfaction was to himself so he could stay just.

Because if he didn't judge sin, if he did like where do you say think you get your sense of justice, people? Where do you know if you cut that last twinkie in half for your kids, they're gonna get out of microscopic lens. They're gonna have that electron microscope,

then they're gonna say theirs is two microns longer than mine. Where do you think we get this sense of justice? Because God is just. And and we try to make someone and he is perfectly just. And if he doesn't judge sin, he's not just. Well, the only way he could judge sin and save us is for him to take the penalty himself.

And when you try to say what he says is wrong, I go, this is what got you in the problem in the first place and say it's okay. You have cheapened his grace, and you've cheapened his sacrifice,

and you've got believed him, and you've really done an affront to a holy righteous God who will judge sin with all of the wrath that's within him.

You can't stay there. Especially when all you need to do is step on an elevator.

You need to trust him because it was not cheap for him to give us the freedom, the free gift of what Christmas is all about. Free for us, costly for him. And there's only one way to get it. Let's read 26 to 31 and close this up.

It says in 26, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in his present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness. For he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

He's saying this is why in the past he didn't wipe everybody out because he knew the cross was coming. They looked forward to the cross like we looked back to it.

He says, can we boast then that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No. Because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It's based on faith. So are we

better than anybody else? No. Says, are we made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law? We are. After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Should the Jews who we accept are we have the law, we have this, we're better. Should we be, you know, think we're better than you? No. Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There's only one God and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, here's the last part where he thought ahead. If we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not. You're only Greek that of course not is closer to saying hell no.

That's really what he says. He's like, wait, wait, what? You think like, well, if we get more grace the more we sin. Maybe we should sin more, and it'll make God look more awesome. And he's like, what? My daddy, what the hell is wrong with you people? No. No.

He was in fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. He says, you truly have faith and you understand, you have that redemption, you see yourself the way God sees yourself, you are now free to live from his love, not for it anymore. You're not living for it. You're living from it.

Why would you do that? So what he basically says is there's no excuse in your faith of pride and prejudice.

Pride, I'm better than you, and then I've prejudiced people around you that aren't as good as you. We live in a world now that that's my fear. That's what Israel did when they first you had the law. They missed it. They missed the grace. Well, then the church comes along and all of sudden, oh, we're special. We have Jesus. We have the words of God. We're better than everybody else. And then we get this prejudice view. We have this pride and this presence. So what we like to do is sit in here and talk about how bad everyone is over there. And that's not what our calling is. We're not supposed to do that. We're not better than those people. You're not better than the person that sends more than you.

Does it matter if a drop of poison will kill you whether you take a drop or drink a gallon of it? Oh, I'm better than you. I only took one shot.

But we think we're better. That's that self righteousness. And then you start politicizing your faith, and now we're in Facebook fights till the Jesus comes back.

And you know what we do? Instead of freeing people, because you know what? People aren't our enemy. They're the prisoners of war. We were prisoners of war. Our job is to bring the love of Christ to free people. And instead of pointing people to Jesus, too many of us point people point Jesus at people.

Jesus is your weapon

He says no no pride no prejudice and definitely no presumption presumptions all then if I'm saved no matter what doesn't matter if I live with my girlfriend It doesn't matter if I have this sexuality doesn't matter if I cheat on my taxes It doesn't matter if I'm abusive to my family. It doesn't matter if I lie. It doesn't matter if I cheat. It doesn't matter if I steal.

It doesn't matter if I'm a Seahawks fan. I can do all these horrible things and it doesn't matter.

No. Because you know why? That'd be like it'd be like you're swimming in the ocean and you start drowning. And David Hasselhoff comes running down the beach. You old.

And he jumps in the water carrying that little rubber red thing that has the rope on it, swims out to you. He waits because you're fighting them. Like you don't even want to surrender because that's what a lot of people they teach lifeguards.

You better wait because if they're still in the fighty mood and panicky mood, they will try to drown you too. So you know what they teach them to do? You just back off. Stay away from them till they're about to go under. They lost the fight.

You gotta let them do that. That's gotta be a hard thing. You see this person struggling like, well, I gotta stay back here until you just totally blow it. Then you go under. You start sucking water, and now they grab you. They throw your arm over. You wake up just long enough to realize, okay, I better hold on to this. That's about the only thing you did. You stopped fighting. You get dragged in. They give you know, he's giving you that CPR stuff. You start throwing up water. Then

the second you could talk and get up again, you okay? Yeah. I'm great. You all see what I just did there? Did you see how I had faith in him? You guys don't have faith in him. I have faith. You guys are a bunch of losers. Look at the faith I have. And and you know what? And then go, hey, you'll have fun.

And you jump in the ocean, and swim right back to where you were drowning again. That's what he's saying. That's what you don't do.

You don't get pride in your salvation. You don't start pointing fingers and thinking you're better than everyone else. You don't sit there and say, you're less than me because you don't believe what I believe. You're less than me because you're on the other side of the political aisle. You're less than me. They're people.

And then you definitely don't swim back out. Well, since I know the lifeguards there, I'm gonna go half drown myself over and over and over again. I'm not just gonna presume that. Does that make sense? Just get on the elevator every day Because you've embraced the fact of what Jesus has done for you.

That it's about a person. It's about what he did. It's not about what we do. What we do needs to be response to what he did. And I'm just gonna tell you, there's some passage in scripture that are very scary. Go read Hebrews 10.

They said if you say you wanna believe in Jesus, but you refuse to believe Jesus over and over and over again, Like, you just decide there's a bunch of things that God's word says this is wrong, and you go, I don't care what God's word says.

It implies there's a good chance that you don't really believe in Jesus. In other words, you are not a Christian. You are not on the elevator, And you are not living under this sacrificial redemptive grace. That's why I will do the throat punches. Because you need to ask yourself, do I really believe in Jesus?

And what it comes down to is this final question. I'll close this out here. We'll pray.

But now, have you accepted the gift of salvation? Have you truly accepted what Christmas is all about?

Maybe you've just been fighting and fighting, but you've never really realized that the battles you're in God does call us to battles. What he's saying is, I've already won the war. So you gotta fight, but you're not gonna die.

You gotta fight, and there's gonna be some tough days, but you're not gonna die because the conclusion, it's already been won. It's already been won. Do you fight from that point of view? 08/15/1945

was an interesting day because the Japanese people heard their emperor's voice for the first time ever because they basically worshiped their emperor. So he had never they'd never heard his voice. And he got on the radio to tell him the war's over. We've surrendered.

About a 150 miles away, sitting off of a little island, you know, my dad was sitting there watching the biggest fleet he's ever seen start showing up every day.

And they kept doing these maneuvers where he was a machine gunner in the landing craft, which if you're gonna land, do a beach the number one thing the enemy wants to do is don't let you get ashore. So they will put every gun, every plane, every bomb, everything is focused on blowing those little boats out of the water and not letting you get ashore.

So it's a dangerous, dangerous. He did it at Iwo Jima. He did it at Okinawa. But now he's doing this huge test. They didn't tell him what was going on, but every one of these sailors knew. There's only one place left to go, and that's the Mainland Of Japan.

And the problem is they knew that even in Okinawa, they were just sending in all those young kids in in kamikaze, but they had already pulled back every good pilot they had, every good plane, every ship, every gun, every and they had surrounded this island. They fell back, and they said, you come and get it.

And they even trained their civilians. They give them if you didn't have a pitchfork, they taught you to sharpen a stick. They give you a knife. They said, you were trained. They give them basic training on how to hide, how to act, how to be like, oh, thank you for your hair as the soldiers come by, and then you are to kill one. And your service to your country and your emperors, you will kill an American before they kill you. Just take one out. So they were willing to fight a trade, one to one to one to one. You had millions and millions of civilians.

So we knew if we went ashore, we weren't just fighting what's left of their army. You were gonna fight a bloody bloody mess of a fight to do this. And my dad was in one of those positions in that first wave that he's probably not gonna live.

And he knew it. They projected millions of casualties with it. Because you know why? That operation was divided into two landings. And you have you seen Saving Private Ryan? You know how big d day was? It was the largest attack at any one time in our history of moving of forces onto a beach. Each piece of these two

in this operation was larger than d day. This was gonna be more than twice the size of that. But later on August 15, my dad was sitting on his boat and all of a sudden they turned on the loud speaker and they said, now hear this. Now hear this. But now a word from the captain. But now.

And his words were this, earlier today, Japan surrendered. The fight's over. The war is won. And the next place his boat sailed was in the Tokyo Bay, and he watched the signing of this armistice surrender. He was so thankful. Yeah. He fought battles, but he knew that that one was gonna kill him.

He realized the war was over, and he didn't have to do anything about it. He just got to enjoy the victory. You're in some battles, but you don't have to fight that final battle. You don't have to win this war. It's already won.

My dad said that but now, that captain said, was the greatest but now he ever heard until he read Romans three twenty one. But now Jesus died for you so you can live for and with him. Have you surrendered to that? Do you hear his voice telling you that?

I hope you would. And if you already have, have you really kept living your days the same way? We have to live out the gospel through us every day. Or have you forgotten? Have you got off the elevator and you're climbing the stairs for some reason?

But now. But now let's pray. Close your eyes. And some of you online, some of you sit in this room, you're new. Maybe you've been thinking about this Jesus thing. Maybe you've been in church a long time, but you've just come and you thought church was all about stair climbing, learning to be a better you.

Well, this is your moment. This is a but now moment for you. And if if if you feel that call, you you can hear the voice of the captain of in Christ and the Holy Spirit talking to you. You can have that salvation. You can have Christmas right now. You just need to pray, cry out to God, and you need to confess and profess.

Confess that we have sinned. We've gone our own way. We've missed the mark, we keep coming up short and falling behind in the race. And then turn to Jesus and put your faith in what he did on the cross and in the resurrection. So if that's you, you can pray with me. But just make it your own words between you and God.

Just pray something like this. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for that but now moment where you stepped into this world and you stepped onto that cross and died for me, even though I'm the one that put you there. I'm the one that does my own thing. I'm the one that tried to make it work on my own. I am a sinner.

And I am sorry. But right now, in the best way I know how, because it blows me away, that you would offer this to me. I turn to you. I put my faith in you and you alone. Not a process, not a perfectionism, but a person, you and what you did for me. Thank you for that.

Thank you for opening the doors of the elevator and inviting me on. I'm simply taking the step to say yes. Thank you. Help me to go from here and each and every day learn what it means to live from this love, to live with the gospel, to live it out in my own heart and in my life.

I thank you and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Before we go, if you just prayed with me online here, wherever, would you please go to rockpoint.io?

There's a said yes tab and just fill that out. Say I did this because there's a team of people that wanna pray for you because there's an enemy that wants to attack you and get you confused.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.