A Gospel Refresh

All right.

Well, it's great to be back in this pulpit.

And I just want to thank you once again for the sabbatical that you so graciously gave Jenny and me and our family.

I come back refreshed and eager to get back into the harness.

And it was a refreshing time.

But come on, you tell me.

Sometimes you just need to be refreshed.

Do I have an amen?

If you're married, sometimes your marriage needs a refresher.

John Tippman, who opened us and is going to close to seeing his wife, Terry.

They're part of a ministry called Family Life.

And they organize conferences called Weekend to Remembers.

And what they're designed to do is bring couples and bring God's word to bear on marriage.

And it's designed to refresh couples in God's good design of marriage.

Sometimes you just need a refresher for your marriage.

Sometimes you need a refresher for your finances.

You turn to God's word and you see what God's word has to say about financial stewardship so that you can be refreshed and walking by God's word.

Jenny and I are refreshing our finances right now.

And this morning, we're going to look to God's word, the first three chapters of the book of Romans, to be refreshed in the gospel.

One of the effects I'm praying for, as we are reminded of the Christian gospel, is that you will walk away this morning, not just refreshed, but rejoicing.

Rejoicing in what God has done through Jesus Christ to rescue you.

And so think of this sermon as a flyover of the first three chapters of Romans.

Of course, I'm not going to get into every detail.

But there's three things I want you to see, three points.

The gospel defined.

And our problem elaborated in we have got a terrible unrighteousness problem.

And then the gospel applied.

And it's there where I'm hoping you're going to be like, what an amazing God we have.

So, let's look at the gospel defined.

It's Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

If you have a pew Bible, it's page 1116, 1116 of your pew Bible.

Well, let's ask this question.

What is this Christian gospel?

I grew up in Connecticut.

I grew up outside of Hartford.

And the immediate neighbors to the south of us were the Freemans.

And the Freemans had moved in from Great Britain.

And it turns out we spoke English.

But they spoke British English.

And the Salvati spoke American English.

And though we used the same English words, there were some very odd, strange moments.

For example, they called a truck a lorry.

And so, for some time, you can imagine.

Are they talking about a woman named Lori who's as big as a truck?

They called the trunk of a car a boot.

And so, Mrs. Freeman would ask her sons, boys, go get the groceries out of the boot.

And I was kind of like, what is she talking about?

They call elevators lifts.

If you're familiar with weightlifting, we're not talking about a clean and jerk lift.

We're talking about something that brings you up into the floors of a multi-story building.

The point is, it's possible to use the same English word, but have two different meanings.

And it creates confusion.

Therefore, in order to unite together as a church, let's look at what Romans 1 has to say about the gospel.

We need to be clear on what the Bible means by the gospel.

It's that not only we can unite as a church around what the Bible means by the gospel, but unite in what God has done through the gospel.

So there are two essential elements of the Christian gospel from Romans 1.

It's historic.

We see that in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle God, set apart for the gospel of God,

which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures,

concerning his son, who is descended from David according to the flesh,

and it was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness,

by his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Just a couple things I want to point out.

That word gospel, when used in antiquity, first century, when Paul was writing,

it was not a religious word.

It just simply meant an announcement of something good and important.

So let's say like the 11th legion of the Roman military,

they had stormed some kind of beach in northern Africa, and they won a victory.

They would send someone to Rome with the good news, the gospel that they won.

And what we see here in Romans 1, 1,

we see set apart for the gospel, the good news of God.

Here's how you need to think about that.

This is God's announcement to humanity of something that he has done in space and time

that is good and important.

The gospel is God's announcement.

It's historic.

It happened in time and space.

And it has to do with verse 3 concerning his son, Jesus Christ.

Whatever this good news is about, whatever happened, is about Jesus.

And in verse 4, we see the actual event.

By his resurrection from the dead.

The good news, the historic good news of the Christian gospel is God's announcement that Jesus Christ's death and resurrection

accomplish something that is absolutely unbelievable.

Actually, it's very believable.

But it is amazing.

Matt Chandler, who wrote the book, The Explicit Gospel, talks about describing the gospel in two ways.

As kind of a close-up, like Christ died for our sins.

Very personal.

It addresses our greatest need now here.

But he also talks about the gospel being spoken of in a panorama.

That this is the good news for all time.

It's a plan for the fullness of time.

Both are true.

This good news, this event that God wants all the world to know,

has everything to do with your greatest needs individually,

and it's got everything to do with the history of mankind.

So the first element is that the gospel is historic.

We're talking about a specific time and place that Jesus Christ died and was raised.

It either happened or it didn't.

Second, the gospel is effectual.

It's powerful.

Look at verses 16 and 17.

Many of you have memorized verse 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

To the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Habakkuk 2.4.

The gospel, this historic event, Christ's death and resurrection, it gets something done.

It's powerful.

Look at verse 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it, the gospel, the death and resurrection,

the gospel, the resurrection of Jesus is the power of God for salvation.

That historic event of Christ's death and resurrection is God's power getting something done.

Our salvation.

Our rescue.

And whatever we needed to be rescued from, it required God's power to rescue us.

We can't rescue ourselves.

We can't save ourselves from this predicament that we're in.

Salvation only comes from something that God has powerfully done.

And God has made that known to us.

Verse 16, it's for everyone who believes.

For the Jew first and also the Greek.

For the Jewish mind, Paul who wrote this was a Jew.

And for the Jewish mind, all of humanity is divided into two camps.

You're a Jew or you're not a Jew.

And what we're hearing here is this gospel announcement that God is making to all of humanity.

He is making to both Jews and non-Jews.

To all who believe.

And did you notice verse 17?

This gospel, it trades in righteousness.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed.

In it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

Righteousness is addressing God's upright moral character and God's upright moral activity.

He is perfect in all that He does.

And this gospel that God announces having to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus is a manifestation of His righteousness.

And that's raising our biggest problem.

Our unrighteousness.

So just let's make sure we're on the same page here.

The Christian gospel, biblically defined, is historic and powerful.

It's God's power to rescue us from our unrighteousness.

If our greatest problem is the unrighteousness of man,

God's solution is the righteousness of God.

Through the gospel.

Okay, we've covered that ground.

Let's move on to our problem elaborated.

In chapter 1, verses 18 through chapter 3, verse 20,

Paul exposes and elaborates on our terrible unrighteousness problem.

He divides all humanity into two types of sinners.

There are the unrighteous hedonists,

and there are the unrighteous moralists.

And in 1, verses 18 through 32,

it's an elaboration on the unrighteous hedonist.

Now, a hedonist is someone who casts off all rules and regulations

in order for him or her to pursue pleasure,

illicit pleasure.

Nothing will stop them from it.

They're like, all of God's good rules,

get out of my way,

I'm going to live,

and I'm going to do and get what I want.

Listen to Romans chapter 118.

I'll read through 20.

Now, these hedonists are most likely Gentiles,

and Gentiles of this day were probably people

who didn't have a Bible in their house.

But what Paul is saying here,

in verses 18 through 20,

is that if you're an unrighteous hedonist

without a Bible in your house,

you are still without excuse

before of the living God.

You are actually under His wrath,

for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Now, you may be saying,

well, that doesn't sound fair.

Well, in verse 20, we are told it is fair.

For His invisible attributes,

namely His eternal power and divine nature,

have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation of the world

and the things that have been made.

So they're without excuse.

They might not have a Bible,

but they have all of creation.

God revealing His power

and bringing this all in from nothing.

And His goodness,

He provides for all people on the earth.

And so what's being said here is

God has sufficiently revealed Himself

to all people on the planet

so that there's no hedonist

who doesn't have a Bible in their house

who can say they're without excuse.

In fact, they're under God's wrath.

They suppress the truth about God and His ways.

Look at verses 21 through 23.

For although they knew God,

they did not honor Him as God

or give thanks to Him,

but they became futile in their thinking.

And their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.

Listen to verse 23.

And exchanged the glory of the immortal God

for images resembling mortal man and birds

and animals and creeping things.

Do you know what is at the heart of hedonism?

Idolatry.

It's an exchange.

It's not just a rejection of God.

It's a swapping out of God.

It's an exchange.

Exchanging the one true glorious God

for created things.

And that's why they are without excuse

under God's wrath.

And then in verses 24 through 32,

we see this repeated phrase,

God gave them up.

You see it in verse 24.

Therefore, God gave them up.

Verse 26.

For this reason, God gave them up.

In verse 28.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,

God gave them up.

Have you ever been wondering

why our culture in America right now

seems to be just spinning downwards?

If you've been around the block,

maybe 20, 30 years,

you're kind of like,

what is going on with our culture?

Romans 1.

Our culture is being handed over by God

to their sinful desires.

It's a judgment.

And we're living in the middle of it.

This giving up language

is a kind of judgment.

That's what's happening in our culture.

In verse 24, we read,

therefore God gave them up

in the lusts of their heart

to impurity,

to the dishonoring of their bodies

among themselves.

Impurity is probably

referenced to some kind of sexual sin.

but this dishonoring of their bodies.

Of having,

giving their bodies the things

that they shouldn't be doing.

It's where we're living right now.

God has designed our bodies

very specifically.

Biblically speaking,

the Bible approaches gender

by defining gender biologically.

Whether you have a Y chromosome or not.

We're living in a culture

in which our culture is adrift.

And instead of having

a biologically informed definition of gender,

we have a psychologically informed

definition of gender.

It's how you feel.

To match your body

to how you feel.

And now we live in a time,

it's unprecedented,

now people

can have surgery

or have some kind of

hormonal treatment

that changes their body

to match their feelings.

Claiming to be wise,

they've become fools.

At the heart of gender dysphoria,

at the heart of transgenderism,

there's an idolatry.

An exchanging of God

for a lie.

That's where we're living.

We're living in Romans 1 again.

In 26 and 27,

for this reason,

God gave them up

to dishonorable passions.

And then he goes into,

for their women

exchanged natural relations

for those that are not

contrary to nature.

And the men likewise

gave up natural relations

with women

and were consumed

with passion.

The natural relations

are simply God's good design

of a man and a woman

in physical union

in the context of marriage.

One chromosomal man,

husband,

married to one chromosomal woman,

wife,

uniting together physically

till death do they part

under God's purview.

And what we see here

is when you exchange God

for a lie,

it's going to show up

in your practice of sexuality

in your culture.

What becomes normal?

Homosexuality

is categorically sinful,

and unrighteous

in God's eyes.

And at the heart of it

is idolatry.

Are we sympathetic

in seeking to care

for our friends and family

who are struggling

with homosexuality

or transgenderism?

Yes, of course.

But at the root of it,

it's idolatry.

There's a man,

his name is Christopher Yon.

He's a brother in Christ

who is entrenched

in the homosexual lifestyle.

God awakened him,

radically transformed him.

Eventually,

he became a professor

down at Moody Bible Institute.

And now he has a ministry

based out of California.

I would encourage you,

if you want to read

some helpful material

on what the Bible

has to say about homosexuality,

read Christopher Yon.

Y-U-A-N.

He has a very helpful perspective.

In fact, he will say,

what a homosexual needs

is not to be made straight.

They need to hear the gospel

to address their heart idolatry.

In verses 28 through 32,

we have the third God gave them up,

and it's to a debased mind.

Do you know what a debased mind is?

Think of it this way.

If someone doesn't know God,

if they have no fear of God

before their eyes,

they are still going to think

and they're going to still

build their life.

But what they will think about

and build their life on

has no God foundation of it.

It's off the foundation.

It's debased.

Do you see?

Proverbs 1-7 says,

the fear of the Lord

is the beginning of knowledge.

Proverbs 9-10 says,

the fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom.

We build our lives

on who God is

and what He says in His Word.

That's knowledge and wisdom.

And if that's not there,

you're building on the sand.

And what we see

in verses 29 through 31

is quite a sin list.

Let me read it.

They were filled with

all manner of unrighteousness.

These hedonists.

Evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy,

murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossip, slanderers,

haters of God,

insolent, haughty, boastful,

inventors of evil,

disobedient to parents,

foolish, faithless,

heartless, ruthless.

Do you see it in you?

Do you see your inner hedonist?

Maybe you're not struggling

with transgenderism.

Have you ever coveted

someone else's body?

Do you gossip?

Do you gossip?

Do you slander?

Boy,

we've got all,

all of us have got

some of this in us.

Be honest with yourself.

As you come to God's word,

be asking the question,

hey,

what's wrong with this guy?

No, no, no.

It starts with you.

It starts with me.

Verse 32,

though they know

God's righteous decree,

these unrighteous hedonists,

they know down deep

God's righteous decree

that those who practice

such things deserve to die.

They not only do them,

but give approval

to those who practice them.

And in our culture right now,

not just approval,

we make laws

saying that it's okay.

Corporate policy

these are the times

we live in.

At the heart of it all

is idolatry.

Exchanging the truth

of God for a lie,

claiming to be wise,

they become fools.

Our culture,

brothers and sisters,

God is handing over.

That's where we find ourselves.

Can I just remind you

of something?

The Apostle Paul wrote Romans

to Rome

in the Roman Empire

in the first century.

You see,

human history

is a history of God

handing over

culture,

individuals,

over and over again

to their sinful desires.

It even goes back

to judges in Israel.

being handed over

to what they want.

It's a kind of a judgment

and it is the story

of human history.

Not just 21st century America.

Humanity.

Unrighteous before God.

Now, if the problem

is the unrighteousness of man,

then the solution

is the righteousness of God.

And you know what this means?

This announcement

of the gospel

God talked about.

We saw in Romans 1.

This gospel

is for the unrighteous hedonist.

Even though they're

without excuse,

even though they're

under God's wrath,

God says,

here's good news

of what I have done

about your unrighteousness.

Now,

you might be thinking like,

you know what, Paul?

You give it to them.

Give it to them, Paul.

Bring it.

Bring down the hammer

on those hedonists.

But Paul doesn't stop

with the unrighteous hedonist.

There's another type

of sinner

starting in chapter 2,

verse 1,

going through chapter 3,

verse 8,

the unrighteous

moralist.

Where the hedonist

rejects God's law,

the moralist

prides himself

or herself

in keeping God's law.

These moralists,

which in chapter 2,

verse 17,

Paul calls them Jews,

Jews,

it's not too difficult

to imagine

present-day Christians

in this same camp.

The problem

of the moralist,

simply put,

is hypocrisy.

The hedonist

swaps out God

for sin, right?

The moralist

is hypocrisy.

Look at chapter 2,

verse 1 through 3.

Therefore,

you have no excuse,

O man,

every one of you

who judges.

Paul is anticipating

the moralist response.

All these hands over,

handing over,

and the moralist

is saying,

yeah,

you give it to him,

you give it to him.

And then Paul says,

whoa on, buddy.

You have no excuse

either,

you moralist.

O man,

every one of you

who judges

for in passing judgment

on another,

you condemn yourself

because you,

the judge,

practice the same,

very,

very same things.

We know that the judgment

of God rightly falls

on those who practice

such things.

Do you suppose,

O man,

you who judge those

who practice such things

and yet do them yourself,

that you will escape

the judgment of God?

Verse 4,

or do you presume

on the riches

of his kindness

and the forbearance

and patience

and not knowing

that the kindness,

God's kindness

is meant to lead you

to repentance?

Verse 5,

but because of your

hard and impenitent heart,

you moralist

are storing up wrath

for yourself

on the day of wrath

when God's righteous judgment

will be revealed.

Apparently,

the gospel

is not just for hedonists,

it's for moralists too.

The reality is

a moralist

will obey

some of God's holy law.

Think of Steve's

Ten Commandments.

God's Ten Commandments

spoken by Steve.

Run me out of here.

A moralist

will obey

some of God's commands

some of the time.

But a moralist

cannot obey

all of God's holy law

all of the time.

That's the reality.

The problem

is the hypocrisy.

It's when a moralist

thinks some is enough

and because some is enough

I can now judge

other people.

That's the problem

that Paul is addressing.

The moralist

who judges

the hedonist

in their self-righteousness,

Paul says,

you are without excuse.

You are storing up

God's wrath.

Verse 5,

the moralist

is in as much danger

as the hedonist

of God's wrath.

Look at verses 17

through 24

in chapter 2.

But if you call yourself

a Jew

and rely on the law

and boast in God

and know His will

and approve what is excellent

because you are instructed

from the law

and if you are sure

that you yourself

are a guide to the blind,

a light to those

who are in darkness,

an instructor of the foolish,

a teacher of children,

having in the law

the embodiment

of knowledge and truth,

you then who teach others,

do you not teach yourself?

While you preach

against stealing,

do you steal?

You say that

one must not

commit adultery.

Do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols,

do you rob temples?

You who boast in the law

dishonor God

by breaking the law

and then he quotes

Isaiah 52.

He says,

as it is written,

the name of God

is blasphemed

among the Gentiles

because of you.

So who's in a worse position?

It seems like the moralist

because the moralist hypocrisy

is causing the hedonist

to say,

eh,

their God is not

such a big deal.

Our hypocrisy

confuses non-Christians.

Do you see

your inner moralist

quick to judge

but slow to see

the log in your own eye?

Maybe you judge

the adulterer

yet you are feeding

your sexual lust.

Maybe you judge

the greedy

and yet you give

only when it's convenient.

Maybe you judge

someone else's harshness

yet hop in the minivan

and yell at your kids.

Do you see

your unrighteousness?

All of us

fall short

of God's glory.

None of us.

None

is righteous.

No,

not one.

One of my favorite

parables of Jesus

is Luke 18,

9-14.

It's the parable

of the Pharisee

and the tax collector.

The parable

of the moralist

and the hedonist.

And Jesus

depicts

both praying to God

and the moralist

is saying,

Oh God Almighty,

thank you

for not making me

a hedonist.

I pray often,

I give much.

And then he turns

to the tax collector

who prays,

have mercy on me,

a sinner.

to which Jesus

says,

who went up

justified

that day?

The hedonist.

Part of the problem

of moralism

is that

it blinds us

to our own

unrighteousness.

Only if we would

humbly take the log

out of our own eye

first

to see our

unrighteousness

problem.

But you know what?

God proclaims

the good news

to you,

moralist.

He's got

God's righteousness

for you.

In chapter 3

verses 9

through 20,

Paul lumps

both the unrighteous

hedonist

and the unrighteous

moralist

together

into the

unrighteous

all of us.

listen to what he says.

This is chapter 3

Isaiah 3:10

verse 10.

None is righteous,

no, not one.

No one understands,

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside.

Together they have

become worthless.

No one does good.

No, not even one.

Verse 18,

there is no fear

of God

before their eyes.

Speaking of both

the hedonist

and the moralist.

There may be

different types

of sinner,

different types

of unrighteousness,

but all are

without excuse.

All are under

God's wrath.

The hedonist

and the moralist

are without excuse.

The hedonist

and the moralist

are under God's wrath.

No one is righteous,

no, not even one.

Which means,

right now,

no one on the planet,

no one in and of themselves

has the power

to excuse themselves

from God's judgment.

No one has the power

to escape God's wrath.

No one can make themselves

righteous in his sight.

Brothers and sisters,

our biggest problem

is an unrighteousness problem.

That is the biggest problem

on the planet.

But in order for

God's gospel of righteousness

to make sense to you,

you must own

your unrighteousness.

Whether it's hedonistic

or moralistic,

or like me,

a combination of the two.

Now let's look at

the gospel applied.

Verses 21,

it goes all the way

through 31,

but I'm going to be focusing

really 21 through 25.

Paul has just spent

a lot of time

elaborating on

human unrighteousness.

And in verse 21

of chapter 3,

he circles back

to the gospel.

Oh, thank God

he circles back

to the gospel.

He circles back

to the historic,

effectual,

gospel.

But now the righteousness

of God has been

manifested.

He's been talking

about the unrighteousness

of man.

And now he says,

but now the righteousness

of God has been manifested

apart from the law.

Although the law

and the prophets

bear witness to it,

the righteousness

of God

through faith

in Jesus Christ

for all who believe,

there is no

distinction.

This is good news,

brothers and sisters.

may your soul

rise to what

you're about to hear.

To the unrighteous,

God declares

the good news

of a righteousness,

not our own,

but his,

that saves.

When an unrighteous

hedonist

or moralist

hears and believes

the good news

of the gospel

that Jesus Christ

died and was raised

from the dead,

when they hear that

and they believe that,

God applies

what Christ

has accomplished

through his life,

death,

and resurrection

to that sinner.

It's their salvation,

it's their rescue,

it's their transformation,

it is glorious.

And it's only

by God's grace,

it's only by his power.

Let me point you

to three specific areas

in which God

demonstrates

his saving power

in this passage.

They show up

as three words.

In verse 23,

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

24,

and are justified

by his grace.

That's a word

you need to pay attention to.

Through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus,

justification,

redemption,

25,

whom God put forward

as a propitiation

by his blood

to be received by faith.

Propitiation.

Now you might be thinking,

what?

Propitiation?

I can't even pronounce that.

Justification?

What?

Redemption?

Huh?

Oh,

brothers and sisters,

don't let

the scrabble words

distract you

from the glory.

Let's take them

one at a time

starting with propitiation.

Propitiation is a word

that is having to do

with the realm

of sacrifice.

Offering animal sacrifice.

In the Old Testament,

animal sacrifices

would be offered

on an altar.

Their blood would be spilt

and the belief was that

that shed blood

would propitiate

God's wrath

temporarily.

Satisfy God's wrath.

And what we're reading here

for all those

under God's wrath

is that

by the blood of Jesus,

God's wrath

is fully satisfied

so that there's

no more wrath.

On Good Friday,

Jesus on the cross

endured God's wrath

and for all

who would believe

all of God's wrath

that you would

ever commit

past,

present,

future,

all of God's wrath

for your unrighteousness

was poured out

on Jesus.

So the moment

you believe,

you are therefore

now,

no condemnation

for those who are

in Christ Jesus.

God's wrath

fully satisfied

both for the hedonist

and the moralist.

Do I have an amen?

That's propitiation.

You can preach

like seven sermons

on that.

Let's move

to the next word.

Redemption.

Redemption.

Redemption is having

to do with the realm

of the slave market.

Redemption was

the act of buying

a slave

at a ransom price.

Jesus is not just

our propitiation,

He's our redemption.

When we believed,

God acted.

He purchased us

out of the slavery

to sin

and has brought us

into slavery

to God.

Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

You know what that means?

Have you ever seen

somebody wearing

property of UW Parkside?

Redemption means

you wear

property of Jesus.

You belong to Him now.

And it shows up

in the way we live

our lives today.

The last word

is the word justification.

It's in verse 24.

Do you remember

how both hedonist

and moralist

were both without excuse

because of their

unrighteousness?

Justification is

the language

of the law court.

To be justified

is to be legally

declared righteous

in God's sight.

It's forensic.

It's legal.

It's a change

of your legal status.

So the moment

you unrighteous

one believed

in the gospel,

cried out to God,

God now declared

you righteous

in His sight.

Not on the basis

of your righteousness

though.

On the basis

of Christ's righteousness.

The righteousness

of God.

Fully imputed

to you

forever.

I'm devoting

next Sunday's sermon

to justification

because it's so important.

You coming back?

I can't wait

to what I'm going to say

because it's like

for me too.

It's all by His grace.

Verse 24,

and are justified

by His grace

as a gift.

You're made righteous

in God's sight.

You who are without excuse

now have an excuse.

Jesus' righteousness.

And therefore,

you're righteous

in His sight.

It's by His grace.

Think of grace

as an acronym.

God's righteousness

at Christ's expense.

By His grace.

It's all good news.

Propitiation,

redemption,

justification.

These are words

that are communicating

gospel truth,

gospel goodness

for those

who've been rescued

by the gospel.

gospel.

And what's amazing

about all of this

is that God

remains just

in His justifying

sinners.

His character

doesn't change.

Is this not the

greatest news

you've heard all day?

It's the greatest news

you're going to hear

all week.

It's the greatest news

you're going to hear

all month,

all summer,

all fall,

all year,

all life.

Does it refresh

your soul?

The gospel defined.

It's historic.

Powerful.

Our problem elaborated.

All unrighteous

hedonists and moralists

are without excuse

under God's wrath.

The gospel applied.

Our God's wrath

propitiated.

We have been

delivered out

of slavery to sin

and we have been

declared righteous

all by the workings

of the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

Christ.

It's all focused

on Him

and what He's

accomplished.

All resulting

from His life,

death,

and resurrection.

That's why

no one can boast.

It's all accomplished

by Jesus.

So if you're not

a Christian in the house,

have you been

convinced that

you are unrighteous?

That you're

without excuse?

That you're under

God's wrath

this morning?

If you've come

to realize that,

what is keeping you

from crying out

to this just

and loving God

who will save you

forever?

If you're a Christian,

oh, I hope

your soul rejoices

that you've been

refreshed by remembering

what God has done

for you through Christ.

it's all true

despite the way

you feel.

Do you know

what I was doing

at 2 a.m.

Thursday morning?

I was walking

around my neighborhood.

Do you know why?

Because I couldn't sleep.

Do you know why I couldn't?

Because I was freaking

out over something.

And as I'm walking

on the back nine

of my block,

God brings to mind

the gospel.

Mike,

I've propitiated

the wrath of God

for you.

I've redeemed you

out of slavery.

I've justified you.

And when that sunk

into my heart,

do you know what I said?

I can sleep now.

And you know what I did?

I went to sleep.

We can rejoice

in this truth

in the ins and outs

of life

because God

has taken care

of our greatest problem

in an amazing fashion.

One last point.

Brother, sister,

are you ashamed

of this gospel?

Are you ashamed?

Are you afraid

to talk about this?

This announcement

of God

to all humanity

is the only hope

for all unrighteous humanity.

It's their only hope.

We cannot be ashamed

because everyone

must hear.

And with that,

I'm going to close you

in 2 Corinthians 5.20

where,

if my memory serves me,

Paul says,

we are ambassadors

of Christ.

God

making his appeal

gospel

through us.

Let me pray for us.

God in heaven,

you are amazing.

And what you have done

for us,

we are so grateful for.

Would you cause

these truths

to soak

into the gray matter

of our brains

so it permeates

our life

with gospel joy?

God,

help us

to live here

for the rest

of today

and this week

until next week.

We trust you.

Thank you,

God,

for this word.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.