Advent: God and Sinners Reconciled

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been doing a series, the, an advent series,
three messages leading up toChristmas.
And what we've been doing iswe've been taking a, um, uh, a
phrase or sentence out of someof the best known Christmas
carols and we've been centeringthe message around that phrase
or that sentence we've alreadydone too.

(00:22):
If you miss them, I urge you topick up the CD in the lobby or
to go online and download andpodcast them.
The first week we did let everyheart prepare him room a from
joy to the world.
And last week we did, um Oh comeall ye faithful.
We talked about how that Jesushad tabernacled among us that

(00:45):
Christ was God in the fleshscene.
And so this week we're going toactually use hark the Herald
angels sing.
And we're going to use asentence out of the very first
stanza, but I think we shouldsing it together.
And this is going to be ugly forme cause I barely pulled myself
together here.
But let's sing it anyway.

(01:05):
Ready?
You know it har a hair Rodanejail saying glory to the newborn
King.
Peace on earth and mercy, my oldGod and sinners wreck guns.
A child stop, okay?

(01:28):
Because that's what we're goingto talk about.
We are going to talk about thiswonderful phrase, God and
sinners reconciled.
And this phrase comes of courseout of the Bible, out of a
Romans chapter five verse 10where the Bible says, while we
were enemies of God, we werereconciled to God through the

(01:51):
death of his son.
And what we want to do isdissect this wonderful verse of
scripture, make sure we reallyunderstand what it's teaching,
and then put it back togetherand talk about, well, what
difference does that make to youand me?
So are you ready?
All right, here we go.
The verse begins while we wereenemies of God, and you might

(02:14):
say, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa,Whoa, Whoa, stop right there.
Whoa.
I'm not an enemy of God.
What?
What do you mean?
While we were enemies to God, Igo to church.
Oh, I say my prayers.
I don't have any hostilefeelings towards God at all.
What do you mean I'm an enemy ofGod?
Well folks, what we mustunderstand is that when the

(02:34):
Bible calls us enemies of God,the Bible is not talking about
our feelings towards God.
The Bible is talking about God'sfeelings towards us.
Psalm seven verse 11 says, Godis a righteous judge and he is
angry with sinners every day.
Psalm five verse four says, youare not a God who takes pleasure

(02:58):
in no evil dwells with you andyou hate all who do iniquity.
What we must realize is thatGod's awesome holiness and his
perfect righteousness forced himbecause we're all sinners to
regard all of us as his enemies,whether we go to church or not,

(03:22):
whether we say our prayers ornot folks, that's the bad news.
But God I love follows the badnews right away with the good
news.
While we were enemies of God, wewere reconciled to him.
The Greek word used here caughtAllosso literally means to

(03:42):
change one thing into acompletely different thing.
But we use this expression, wetalk about changing money when
we go overseas, you know, likefrom dollars in the euros when
we go to Europe.
And, uh, but by the time of thenew Testament, this word had
come to apply only to people.
In other words, we, it meant inthe new Testament times to

(04:06):
change an enemy into a friend,to make peace with an enemy and
therefore to reconcile withanother person.
And folks, this is preciselywhat God offers to do for every
sinner alive he offers to changehis hostility towards us, into

(04:29):
friendship.
He offers to make peace with us.
He offers to change our officialstatus in the heavenly places
from being an enemy of God intobeing something completely
different, namely a friend ofGod.
Folks, this is reconciliationand this is what God offers the

(04:56):
human race.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
Now finally this verse, Romansfive 10 brings us to the
mechanism that permits God, aHoly God, to reconcile with
unholy people like you and me.
Remember what the verse says?
While we were enemies of God, wewere reconciled to him through

(05:21):
here it is the death of his son.
You know, it's interesting whenwe looked through the new
Testament, how many times wefind this phrase through Jesus,
through the blood of Jesus,through the cross of Jesus.
Just let me give you a sampling.

(05:41):
Romans chapter five verse onesays, we have peace with God.
Say it through our Lord JesusChrist.
Colassians one 20 say it throughhim.
That is Jesus.
God was to reconcile all thingsto himself, having made peace.

(06:01):
Say it again through the bloodof his cross.
Colassians one 21 and althoughyou were formerly enemies, God
has now reconciled you through.
That's right.
The death of his Jesus, hishuman body.
Romans six 23 for the wages ofsin is death, but the gift of

(06:24):
God is eternal life throughJesus Christ, our Lord.
And finally, one more our memoryverse that we just went over,
John 14 six Jesus said, I am theway, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the fatherexcept through me.

(06:46):
And we could keep on going.
But I think the point's clearthat everything good that God
offers you in me as sinners,reconciliation, forgiveness of
sin, eternal life.
A guaranteed place in heaven, atransformed earthly life.
All of it is offered to us only.

(07:06):
What?
Through Jesus and his finishedwork on the cross.
Now you say, well, now why isthat long?
I mean, how come we couldn'tcome with some other religion or
how come we couldn't come someother way?
Well, that's a really goodquestion and the answer is this,
because Jesus is death and Jesushas shed blood on the cross, did

(07:29):
something that nothing else inthe universe can do.
And what was that?
Well, it allowed God listencarefully to stay true to his
character as God true to hisholiness, true to his justice,
true to his righteousness, andat the same time, Jesus's death

(07:53):
on the cross allowed God toextend mercy to us as sinners.
This is so important that weunderstand this truth that I
want to take a minute andexplain it and make sure we've
really got it.
Romans three 25 says on thecross, God made Jesus the

(08:13):
propitiation.
You say though that a little,little bit of what?
All right, I'll explain it.
Don't go to man.
The propitiation for our sins.
A propitiation means somethingthat satisfies another person.
A propitiatory sacrifice is asacrifice that satisfies another
person.
And what did the death of Jesuson the cross satisfy?

(08:38):
Well, in the first Jesus, hisdeath satisfied the justice of
God, which demands that a Def bepaid for every sinner.
And as the sinless son of God,Jesus paid this death for you
and me on the cross.
Second of all, Jesus, his bloodsatisfied the holiness of God,

(09:02):
which demands that a bloodsacrifice be made for every
sinner and as the sinless lambof God, Jesus made this
sacrifice for you and me on thecross.
So are you with me so far?
Okay, so watch this because bothGod's holiness and God's justice

(09:25):
were satisfied, werepropitiation, did through what
Jesus did on the cross watch.
Now this enables God to stayHoly.
It enables God to stay just andat the same time to show mercy,
to and to reconcile withsinners.

(09:48):
If you and you understand thatGod didn't have to violate his
justice to show us mercy becausehis justice was satisfied.
God didn't have to violate hisholiness to show us mercy
because his holiness wassatisfied.
Got it.
And you say, well, so anybodycould have died on the cross and
done that, right?
No, no, no.

(10:09):
You missed a very importantword.
My friend, you missed the wordsinless.
Hebrews four 15 says that Jesuswas tempted in every way as we
are yet without sin.
Right?
So another words, Jesus couldpay our penalty for sin because
he didn't have one.
Jesus could shed his blood forour sin because he didn't have

(10:32):
to shed it for his own sin.
No, no.
The only way this works is forthe person that pays for you and
me not to owe that own penaltythemselves.
And that only happens with asinless human being.
And that only happens with theson of God through the Virgin
birth, that he could live asinless life.
Got it.

(10:53):
All right.
Now.
No other religion, no other ism,no other ology, no human work
system anywhere in the worldallows God to achieve this
perfect equilibrium between bothsides of his character, between
his holiness and hisrighteousness and his judgment

(11:15):
on one side and between hismercy and his grace and his
forgiveness on the other side,only only the finished work of
Jesus on the cross allows God toachieve that equilibrium where
he can extend us mercy and hischaracter is God is not

(11:35):
violated.
Everybody there we understandnow the amazing dynamic of the
cross and what Jesus did therefor us do we don't tell me I
work this hard for nothing.
Come on.
Of course we understand.

(11:56):
See God had a conundrum folks.
His conundrum was he loves youand me and he wants to show us
mercy and he wants to show usforgiveness, but God on the
other end is Holy and just andrighteous and just like a human
judge, he can't turn his headthe other way and pretend that
we're not guilty and we didn'tdo what everything we've done.

(12:18):
So how do you solve thatconundrum?
You solve it by satisfying bothparts of God's nature and only
the finished work on the crossof Jesus was able to ever do
that together.
We got it.
Praise the Lord.
Yeah.
All right.
Now that's how salvation works.

(12:40):
But it brings us now to our mostimportant question and you know
what that is.
So are you ready?
All right, here we go.
All of you guys at Loudon andPrince William and Bethesda and
on the internet and here atTyson's on the count of three.
This is your last one beforeChristmas.
You got to make this good.
Here we go.
One, two, three.

(13:01):
Hey, beautiful.
Yeah, you say, all right lawn.
I appreciate that.
That really does help meunderstand the dynamics of my
salvation.
I got that.
But other than that, whatdifference that make to me?
Well let's talk about that.
Brittany and I are riding in thecar the other day and she turned

(13:21):
to me and she said, Hey, she'snot got a question for you.
I'm like, okay, whatever.
Brenda says that to me, I holdmy breath cause I have no idea
what's coming.
And usually it's bad for lawn,but this one wasn't, this one
wasn't, and she said, I got aquestion for you.
And I'm like, okay.
She said, tell me what is themost precious memory that you

(13:42):
have the most special memory youhave of growing up as a child
and celebrating Christmas.
And I said, uh, Brenda, wedidn't celebrate Christmas.
She said, okay, okay.
Then Hanukkah, what's your mostprecious memory of Hanukkah?
And I thought for a minute.
And I said, you know what?

(14:03):
I don't really have, I don'treally have any.
And she's like, are you serious?
And I said, Brenda, you got toremember, sweetheart, I grew up
in a very sad, Oh, it wasn'tlike your home.
We didn't play games.
We didn't laugh.
We didn't make memoriestogether.
My dad was never home.
My dad didn't care about me.

(14:25):
My mom was never home.
She never cared about me.
I didn't have any friends atschool.
The teachers all hated mebecause my behavior was so
atrocious.
I said, do you remember themovie Brenda?
The help where at the very end,Abilene Clark gets down on her
knees.
She's just been fired, this maid.
And she says to the little girl,she says, don't you ever forget

(14:47):
that you are important?
I said, you know, growing up,never once did any human being
ever tell me that Brenda.
I said, I grew up believing Ididn't matter to anybody.
Literally nobody.
And I think some of you guyshere know exactly how I feel,
cause you grew up the same way.

(15:07):
Well let me tell you my friend.
This is not true.
And Jesus proved that this isnot true by what he did on the
cross.
Without a doubt, the cross isone of the cruelest and most
brutal ways to die everinvented.
And what's more, the victim wasbeaten to a pulp before he was

(15:28):
ever put on the cross.
You seen the passion movie.
You know what I'm talking about,right?
And yet in spite of that, lookwhat the Bible says.
I think this is one of the mostamazing verses in the entire
word of God.
I never get over this first.
Isaiah 53 10 it says, yet if,what's the next word?

(15:51):
Say it out loud.
Louder.
It pleased the Lord.
It pleased the Lord.
Not that he was just willing,no, no.
If please the Lord God thefather to crush him.
Jesus, you said lawn.
This makes no sense.
Why in the world would thefather be pleased to shatter

(16:15):
Jesus the way I saw in thatmovie?
Well, the answer friends isbecause God knew that by
shattering his son, it wouldenable him to reconcile you and
me.
It's just that simple friends,this is how much God loves you
in me.
This is how much we matter toGod.

(16:35):
That he was not just willing,but he was anxious.
He was pleased to crush Jesus sothat he could redeem you and me.
You know, I was lying in bedwith my daughter Jill last night
and that's kind of our routine.
I lie behind her.
I prayed with her every night.

(16:56):
I'm not sure whether sheunderstands it all, but I pray
with her anyway.
And um, and then I put my armaround her from behind and she
falls asleep.
That's how she falls asleep waswith my arm around her.
Sometimes I fall asleep too.
But anyway, but she fallsasleep.
And, uh, as I was lying there inbed with her, I was thinking

(17:17):
about, um, Jayden's mom on thevideo that we just saw.
And I was thinking about how shefought for the life of her child
so hard and so desperately.
And, and I was thinking, youknow what, Brendan, I did that
with Jill.
I can remember times falling onmy knees just like Jayden's mom

(17:40):
and just saying, Oh God, pleasespare the life of my little girl
please, Lord.
When there was no hope.
When doctors had even told us,one doctor told me, make your
final arrangements lawn.
I think we've lost her.
And I went home and I fell on myface and I said, Oh God, spare
my daughter please.
And um, so I was lying there inbed with her.

(18:03):
She's almost 23.
Praise the Lord.
And I was thinking, now who inthe world do I love enough that
I would let them, I would letpeople do to Jill what people
did to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who do I love enough that Iwould rejoice in someone doing

(18:25):
to Jill?
What I saw in that movie, thepassion movie they did to Christ
and the answer is nada.
Zero.
Nobody, not you, not my wife,not my other children, not even
me.
Do I love enough that I wouldlet somebody do that to my

(18:49):
daughter?
How many people would you let dothat to one of your children?
How many people you love enough?
You'd let that happen?
I'll bet you the answer is nadaand yet my friends, God loved
you and me enough that he justdidn't let somebody do that to
Jesus.

(19:09):
He planned it that way.
He orchestrated it and he waspleased with it happening.
Folks, this is how much Godloves you in me.
This is how much we matter toGod and folks, listen to me.
If God almighty God or theuniverse feels that we matter
that much, then we matter.

(19:31):
I don't care what anybody elsethinks.
You understand what I'm sayingto you?
We matter.
If God thinks we matter, I don'tcare what anybody else's opinion
is of you or me.
Can you say amen to that?
Amen.
You bet.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
[inaudible]

Speaker 1 (19:50):
and my dear friends, this is what Christmas is all
about.
Not about the trees and the 10thand the lights.
I mean those are all great.
God, I got lights up in myhouse.
I love that.
But this is not what Christmasis about.
Christmas is about letting Godshow you just how much you mean
to him.
Letting God try to convince youthat he loves you with a love

(20:13):
that this universe has neverseen before.
First John four nine by thisGod's love for us was displayed
that he sent his only son intothe world to bring us eternal
life in.
This is love, not that we lovedGod, but that he loved us and

(20:37):
sent his son to be thepropitiation.
You know what that means now,the satisfaction for our sins.
Watch thus because of what Goddid we have come to know and
what's the next word?
Believe the love God has for us.

(21:00):
And if you're here today andyou're a follower of Jesus, this
is my prayer for you thisChristmas season that you will
come to believe the love thatGod has for you.
Not just believe it in yourhead, but that you will come to
believe it in your heart and tosee that it is so real and to
know that it is so true that itwill become the healing force in

(21:23):
your life like it's been in mylife and like God wants it to be
in your life.
When I realized God loved me andI mattered to him, that was the
secret to healing 22 years ofincredible damage and pain in my
life, and God wants that to betrue in your life.

(21:46):
Let me just say, if you're hereand you've never trusted Jesus
as your personal savior, you'venever given your life to him.
We said earlier that the onlyway to get to heaven, the only
way to have eternal life, theonly way to be reconciled with
God, the only way to have oursins forgiven, the only way to
have a transformed earthly lifeby the power of God is through

(22:10):
Jesus Christ and what he did onthe cross.
Nothing else will work folks,cause nothing else allows God to
stay God and be merciful to youas a sinner at the same time.
And so I want to give you achance right here today, if
you've never exchanged all thosedefunct systems, bankrupt

(22:31):
systems that you're trying touse to satisfy God and his
justice and his holiness, I wantto give you a chance to trade
them in for the one thingthat'll work.
And that is the finished work ofJesus on the cross.
So let's bow our heads together.

(22:53):
With our heads bowed and oureyes closed, here's what we're
going to do.
We're just going to pray a shortlittle prayer.
And in that prayer, we're justgoing to tell God that you want
to be reconciled with him andthat you're willing to give up
every other remedy you've everrelied on to get you there and

(23:14):
you're willing to trust thefinished work of Jesus on the
cross plus nothing.
So here we go.
I'll pray out loud.
You pray silently, Lord Jesus, Icome to you today because I want
to be reconciled with you.

(23:36):
I don't want to be your enemyanymore.
I want to be your friend

Speaker 3 (23:44):
and I want you to see me that way.
And so today I renounce everyother remedy that I've ever
trusted to satisfy your justicefor my sin.

(24:12):
And instead, today I exchangeall of that other stuff for the
finished work of Jesus on thecross.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (24:27):
dying in my place, paying for my sins.
So come into my heart today,Lord

Speaker 2 (24:39):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (24:39):
be my Lord and savior.
Reconcile me to yourself.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Let's pray together.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (24:57):
in this is love.
Not that we loved God, but thathe loved dust and sent his son
to be the propitiation, thesacrifice that satisfies for our

(25:19):
sin.
Oh Lord Jesus.
How true that is.
We were not seeking you when youfound us.
I wasn't.
I was.
I headed in my own direction,Lord.
And at age 22 you picked me uphopeless.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (25:49):
messed up

Speaker 2 (25:53):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (25:54):
with no future and you loved me back to health.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your mighty love.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (26:06):
remind us that that's what Christmas is all about.
And Lord, this year, may wecelebrate Christmas by
celebrating your great love forus above everything else.
Not that we loved God and heloved us and sent his son

Speaker 2 (26:32):
[inaudible]

Speaker 3 (26:32):
to be the propitiation for our sins.
That pretty well sums it all up.
Lord, we humble ourselves beforeyou.
We say thank you, Lord, for yourmercy.
In Jesus' name we pray in God'speople.
Said amen.