Perfect Love

[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a Bible term to first John chapter 4, we will be in verses 17 and 18 that Miss Lindsay just read for us.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: As a church,

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we acknowledge, like Lindsey just said, that the Christian life is both sorrow and celebration and what we aspire to do as a church, as we aspire to do both of those things together, to celebrate together and share our sorrows together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, as Lindsey mentioned there, would you please, if lost,

[SPEAKER_00]: is part of your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you come back tonight?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to make space to pray for one another and seek God together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as you have already heard, I just want to add my voice to this to our high school seniors, to our college seniors.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are just so proud of you and have so much hope for your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, young chapter four, verse 17.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so if you are a sophomore at Corm Dayo Academy, you have to take a theology class.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in that theology class, you have an assignment where you have to meet with your pastor, and you have to interview your pastor about your church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have a handful of families at our church that go to Corndale, and so over the years I've done a dozen or so of these interviews, and it's like 20 questions about the church, and so we'll ask, you know, what is your church believe about the Bible?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is our church believe about the Bible?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say something like it's the inspired word of God, and it has the ultimate authority in the life of the believer, who leads the church?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say Jesus, and the rest of us just do our best to not get in the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: What denomination is our church?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say, it's complicated.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not formally part of any nomination.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're a bad statistic in our view of the ordinances and church leadership.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're a bit press-patirian in our Herminitic of Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're reformed in our so-tereology.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be a little charismatic, but we don't know how to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the students, like, can I just write non-denominational?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, like, yeah, that's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the last questions is a question that I just really love.

[SPEAKER_00]: They ask this, what does this church want for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it expect of me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it ask of me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it want for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's lots of great answers.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you could say this church wants you to make disciples or this church wants you to grow in your knowledge of scripture or this church wants you to obey the commands of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I could say that I don't say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I say is this church,

[SPEAKER_00]: wants you to believe with your whole heart that you are loved by God in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like in the deepest part of your soul, would shine the light of the gospel and the love of God for you would be the very center of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not what you have done and you're not what you will do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not your worst moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not your greatest achievement.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a redeemed past.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a bright future.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not who you were and you're not yet who you will be.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are loved by a loving God, father, son, and spirit who planned, purchased, and preserved your salvation, and nothing can separate you from that love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't always say all of that, but I always say something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because here's what I believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that captures a heart at 16,

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it, not I grew up in church and I've heard all the stories, not I'm a Christian but not a serious one, not I believe, but I know I have to do my part or God might change his mind, none of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it's 16, if a sophomore in high school, if the gospel of Jesus becomes the truest thing I believe about myself, then that young woman in that young man will live a consequential Christ exalting life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as many years as God gives them, it will be marked by obedience and disciple-making and a growing knowledge of scripture, not motivated by guilt or fear or obligation, but motivated by confidence and God's love and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if I only one shot, if I have to condense into a few sentences, what does this trick?

[SPEAKER_00]: If it's me and you, and you were to ask me, what does this church want for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say we need more city camp volunteers.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say I want you to believe, friend, I want you to believe with all that you've got that you are loved by God and Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: John, as he writes to his people, he has this kind of burden for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been in this letter since January, and so if you've been here with us since January, you know that he talks a lot more than just that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about right doctrine and the truth and the importance of obedience

[SPEAKER_00]: testing the spirits and not listening to false teaching and loving one another and he does not mince words about false teachers and those who've denied Christ but thread throughout this letter are these moments where it's like he looks his church in the face and he just says to them, you are so loved by God in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, all of the other argument hinges on that truth, all of the obedience and all the right belief and all the love of others, it relies on.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a response to this kind of gospel assurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're in another one of those moments this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you heard it or caught it as Lindsey Red, but he'll say it a lot of different ways than the letter earlier in the letter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you are loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is your advocate.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are loved, God brought you into His family, He's your father.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are loved, Jesus is the perpetuation for your sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's making this case of all like the kaleidoscopic view of the love of God for our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: This morning, He says, at this way, you are loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have no fear of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to give all of our time to that this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will take us a minute to get there, but I'm telling you now, I'm just taking another Sunday, another opportunity Christian, to tell you what most of you have already heard in hopes that it would just sink deeper into your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this is love-perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because as he is, so also are we in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That we may have confidence in the day of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna take a turn, and we need to take this turn.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: When Christ returns, God will set everything right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means He will rid the world of all evil and injustice and idolatry and violence.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that is hidden will be revealed.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that is done in secret will be brought to light.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a day of judgment before a holy God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And many have a hard time with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's slow down and just consider some things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been angry because of pride?

[SPEAKER_00]: I have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been angry because people got credit that I thought I deserve.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was an anger that was connected to my selfishness and self-absorption.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been angry because of guilt?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you feel guilty?

[SPEAKER_00]: And instead of repenting, you get defensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a defensive kind of anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever been angry because of love?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, anger only happened because love happened first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have.

[SPEAKER_00]: My kids were younger, they're playing in the front yard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this truck just comes screaming down the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, speeding on a street where kids ride their bikes and walk their dogs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was so angry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I yelled, God bless you, something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're been angry like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, I'm only angry because I first loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a kind of righteous anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not an anger from pride or from guilt, but it's anger from love.

[SPEAKER_00]: John told us, God is what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And John says, here, there is a judgment day, and those are not incompatible things.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a contradiction in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we have felt anger that is righteous because of love, how much more a holy God whose love is untainted by sin?

[SPEAKER_00]: God has never been angry from pride.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's never been angry from guilt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's never been angry from fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has only and always been angry from love.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could he not be?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could he not be?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever longed for something to be made right like you've just like you know the feeling when the internet company said they won't raise your bill?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you look after a few months, and it's $20 more, $50 more than what they said, and you call, and you call, and you call, and no one answers, and that feeling that you get, this isn't right, this isn't fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody needs to do something about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have that kind of longing, like we get disproportionately angry about those kinds of small things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We have this longing for just, I've seen this call in a few times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, somebody comments on social media about some story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait for the documentary to come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: A team fires the coach.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's turmoil or deceit with like a sports franchise and someone's like, I can't wait for the documentary come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about some sort of presidency or politician and there's signs of scandal or cover up and it's like, oh, I can't wait for the documentary.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait for that journalist to post that article which tells the true story, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the idea is, I can't wait for the truth to come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like when there's no more spin and I can know what's really going on, you know, people in power can hide what's actually happening and so I can't wait to all that gets exposed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God's not like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: God does not rule the cosmos like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven never hides the scandal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing is swept under the rug, no one signs an NDA, no one's paid to keep quiet.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is just.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there is no day coming when we realize all that God tolerated or excused or was complicit in what's coming is a day of exposure and accountability and justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we, if we, as frail, flawed humans, can be angry because of love, if we have longed for justice because of wrong, how much more must that be true of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we need it, we need it to be true of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a Croatian philosopher at theologian, they mirror a slav, vault.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard about him from Keller.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't read those things just on my own.

[SPEAKER_00]: He writes about how the only hope

[SPEAKER_00]: The only hope for an unjust world is the justice of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says it this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge, meaning if we think a God who judges will make the world a worse place, that is an idea only held by people who live in comfortable places.

[SPEAKER_00]: in a scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent, that idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final in the violence that God would not be worthy of our worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: A permissive God, a passive God, turns a blind eye to evil God, would not be worthy of our worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not who our God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our God is a God of holy, righteous love who will not dismiss, excuse, or ignore sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's good news, because it speaks to the character of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's bad news, because that means every human will give an account for the life they've lived in the presence of a loving God whose love requires anger and justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: John calls that moment the day of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Bible describes three kinds of people on that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first two should have no confidence, and the last one can be fearless.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first, the Bible describes as people who trust in their own self judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a haunting verse in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 34, it says this, also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor.

Jeremiah 2:34

[SPEAKER_00]: You did not find them breaking in, yet in spite of all these things you say, I am innocent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shirley, his anger has turned from me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying I have not sinned.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's what God says, or there's what I say, I'm innocent, and then there's what God says.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what's happening with this person is they pass their own judgment on their life, and they just assume that God agrees.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm innocent, what I've done is not a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Surely his anger has turned, and they will on judgment they discovered that they were wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Behold, I'll bring you to judgment for saying I have not sinned.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a dangerous thing to call good what God calls evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a dangerous thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was the first sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the garden, Adam and Eve, look at the fruit.

[SPEAKER_00]: They see it was good for food and pleasing to the eyes and desirable to make one wise.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's too simple to say that they knew good and chose evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: What they actually did was they redefined those categories so that they did evil believing they were doing good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved,

[SPEAKER_00]: It is so important that you know about yourself, that you have intrinsic value and worth because you're a human being.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian are not.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have intrinsic worth and value because you're made in the image of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes in church spaces, we talk about humans as if Genesis 3 is the first chapter of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, Genesis 1 is, they did not, this did not all begin in brokenness, this all began in beauty, this began in goodness, it began in peace, and we have fallen from that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what remains in every one of us is sacred dignity and sacred worth and sacred value because you were created by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are things about you that are just so worthwhile because you've been made in the image of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: My daughter turned eight last Wednesday, we talked about what we loved about her and what I said is she is so creative.

[SPEAKER_00]: I watched her play a game the other day.

[SPEAKER_00]: She had a Squish Melon Axelotl.

[SPEAKER_00]: in the battery to my impact drill because I use it a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she just created this world in her game where Axel Lottles and lithium batteries fall in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she has such, she has such a rich imagination.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's creative and she creates stories and worlds and characters and it's amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her creator made her creative.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your creator made you

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's worth in you because God made you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's something wrong with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what you can't do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't trust in your judgment about what's wrong with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a different side of that, or sometimes we are our own worst critic kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about the other side of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning of change, the beginning of turning to God is not trusting your own judgment about you, but when you feel an experience and know what's wrong with you, you have to call it what God calls it.

[SPEAKER_00]: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every person who will stand on judgment day before Holy God is guilty of sin, and it will not do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will not do on that day to say, well, God calls it sin, but I call it something else, because on that day, what God says is all that matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we want to believe, I don't think anyone would just stand and say, I'm completely innocent.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit more conspicuous than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we want to believe is we want to believe our problems are circumstantial.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we could all say I've been impatient or selfish or prideful or whatever, but what we do believe is we're not

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if there's something wrong, it's only wrong because of the circumstances around me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll give an example of use before in marriage counseling.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's so often happens in marriage counseling is the couple sits down and the questions what's wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the answer is we need to learn how to communicate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need tools to know how to talk to one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's so helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Technique, strategies, tools that can be a common grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not why you're fighting.

[SPEAKER_00]: James says, what causes fights and quarrels among you is it not the passions at war inside of you?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's conflict in your marriage because there's conflict in your soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be God or I want to be served or I want to be recognized or I want you to be someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if all we get is help on how to talk to each other, we will just get better at managing each other's selfishness so your fights may change, but your hearts won't.

[SPEAKER_00]: underneath the circumstance of the marriage conflict, underneath the circumstance of all relational conflict, is the reality of sin in my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we want to believe is, I act the way I act only because of what's happening around me, and we can do that with everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can do that with everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the job was different, if the money was different, if the country was different, if my family was different, if the church was different, if the people were different, then I would be okay, and that is to name it different than God.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an old proverb, preachers used to use to make this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's down in the well comes up in the bucket.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the last time you drew water from a well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it's a recent experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: You drop the bucket down, you pull the back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: What comes up?

[SPEAKER_00]: whatever was down there, whatever was already in the well.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there's dirt in the bucket, there was dirt in the well.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there's fresh water in the bucket, there was fresh water in the well.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bucket did not make it, the bucket revealed it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The marriage, the job, the money, what's coming out of you is revealing what was already inside of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if what's coming out is anger, pride, lust, selfishness, bitterness, envy, gossip, ungodly fear, unrighteous anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's down in the well of your heart is coming up in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You say I'm innocent, surely as anger has turned from me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, I have not sinned.

[SPEAKER_00]: Blame shifting, minimizing, excusing, will not work in the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, people who trust in their own self-judgment will be judged.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a second kind of person, it's people who trust in self-justification.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 7, verse 21, says this.

Matthew 7:21

[SPEAKER_00]: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day,

[SPEAKER_00]: What day?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the same day that John's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some will come and they'll say we prophesy.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we cast out demons, and we did mighty works, and they'll point to their actions, their religious activity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus tells another story in Luke 18, a Pharisee goes to the temple to pray, and you remember what his prayers like?

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I thank you that I'm not like sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: or even this tax collector.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tie and I fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his own version of Lord Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at all that I've done.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Luke 10, Jesus gives a softer warning to his disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: His disciples come back from a few days of ministry and they're super stoked.

[SPEAKER_00]: They said, even the demons submit to us in your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, Lord, we cast out demons in your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember what Jesus says?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not rejoice that the demons submit to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same ministry that you just offered to others, you first needed yourself for a joys in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You did some super cool spiritual things, but that's not your deepest cause of a joysing, because there are others who will do the same things, and I don't know them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have gifts of a spirit, but they're not known by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not celebrate what you did for God, celebrate what God has done for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obedience matters, goodness it matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen that in this book, we'll be back there next week, chapter 5, says keep his commands, they're not a burden.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is not our commandment keeping.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not our religious action.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not our spiritual resume that makes us right with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me say it plainly, on that day,

[SPEAKER_00]: Some will tell God about their church attendance and their generosity and their voting and their volunteering and maybe even their Bible reading and small group leading.

[SPEAKER_00]: We prophesied and cast out demons and did many mighty works in your name and Jesus will say, I never knew you.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, people who trust in their self-justification will be judged.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a pretty non-confrontational person.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the waiter brings out the food, and I ordered sweet potato fries, but the waiter brings out regular fries, carries like, send it back.

[SPEAKER_00]: They messed it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I do?

[SPEAKER_00]: I eat the regular fries.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sending it back.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anything, I'll apologize for not ordering right the first time, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like confrontation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It makes ministry super comfortable for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had a choice this week with this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: and just felt the nudges to lean into the reality of God's judgment, not because I like confrontation, I don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: But because I want you to know how loved you are, Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just don't think we can fully catch that if we don't first see how in trouble we work, and how judgment deserving and grace needy we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: I get nervous sometimes that many of us are just going through the motions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some Sundays or many Sundays we show up and we're bored with what we've already heard because we're hearing again about a Savior we don't think we need.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a day coming and on that day if you trust in your own judgment, if you trust in yourself justification, then you will be judged.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a third person on that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a person who is confident and fearless, and it's the one that John describes here.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world, there is no fear and love, but perfect love cast out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, some will say I am innocent, which means I'm my own judge.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, some will say, I did enough, which means I'm my own savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Christian will say, I have already been judged.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm guilty of sin, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've not done enough good, but my judgment day has already happened in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because on the cross Jesus who could truly say I'm innocent, on the cross Jesus who had only ever done good, he takes on our judgment, he absorbs our punishment, not to justify himself, but to justify sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian, look right at me, your judgment day has already happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no punishment for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your verdict has already been read.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your sentence has already been passed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are forgiven Jesus paid it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the way a J said it last Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been thinking about this all week.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only currency accepted in the economy of God is need.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you bring pockets full of self trust, you'll have nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you bring an account full of self righteousness, you will be empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you bring a bankrupt soul, empty hands, and a needy heart, God will give you in Christ the full, unmarried, unrestrained wealth of His grace and mercy that you cannot earn, cannot repay, and will never lose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, you will say, I have already been judged in my God.

[SPEAKER_00]: My Savior has declared me unpunishable because He loves me unconditionally.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what that's called?

[SPEAKER_00]: Fear-free confidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a sense of love so strong that it has driven fear from your heart?

[SPEAKER_00]: John knows how hard this is for so many to believe he knows that even for the most mature Christian there's still a bit of fear when we think about that day so he has this little line that's just packed with power as he is so also are we in this world you have never been afraid for Jesus ever you probably not thought about that but if you were to ask yourself

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not worried about what the Father will say to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not worried about what will happen to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not nervous that Jesus isn't going to make it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You aren't full of doubt about whether Christ really believes this?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, His record is perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: He defeated death in resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ascended to the right hand of the Father and the reward for His obedience is eternal worship and glory and joy forever and ever and ever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has nothing to fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: as he is, so also are you in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what that means?

[SPEAKER_00]: As he is right now in heaven, so also are we right now on earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have before God the same status as Christ, our standing with God is the same standing that Jesus has with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian the next time you're afraid of judgment,

[SPEAKER_00]: The next time you're nervous about how God sees you, the next time you sin, and you think, well, that was the last drop of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next time you're insecure about what he says about your sin, the next time you wonder if God is punishing you or will punish you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you ask yourself this question?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is Jesus afraid?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is what I'm fearing for me true for him?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the answer is no, and if it's not true for him, as he is so also are you, it's not true for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: because his life has become our life, and his acceptance has become our acceptance, and his righteousness is our righteousness, so that when God looks at us now, he sees Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Church, you are so loved by God in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You do not have to fear judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: God wants to perfect and complete that love in your life by again and again and again directing your eyes and your heart to the gospel of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need your love perfected in our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need your love completed in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christian, would you ask

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever, the climate of your heart is when you think of giving an account to God for your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where the response is fear, would you ask God to replace that fear with a Christ-purchased confidence in the love of God for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jesus, that you have taken our place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, that we, because of your life, death, resurrection, and ascended advocacy on our behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love you and we thank you.

[UNKNOWN]: Amen.