Where Love and Justice Meet

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

My wife sends her love.

She really wants to be here, but you know what?

When those grandkids come calling, everybody gets bumped down the totem pole.

You know, uh when we married, I was up here, and then we had kids, and I kind of moved down and moved down and moved down.

Then the kids got married, and all of a sudden I got bumped all the way up.

And then the grandkids started coming and down and down and down.

So I'm living life on the low end of the totem pole.

She's she's either on grandmama duty or recovering from grandmama duty, it seems.

And you grandmamas know when those grandbabies call.

So our job is just to sugar them up and send them home.

I hate to not be there to enjoy that.

The main focus of my messages these days is under the title Just Jesus.

Just Jesus.

And last week we pondered one of the great sermons, maybe the greatest sermon about Jesus.

The sermon that Peter preached about Jesus on the day of Pentecost.

Today I'd like for us to look at one of the great paragraphs ever written about Jesus, penned by the Apostle Paul.

In the letter he wrote A Church to a Church in Rome.

It reads like this Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 22.

Romans 3:21–22

God has made a way to make people right with him, without the law.

And he has now shown us that way which the law and the prophets told us about.

God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ.

I've entitled this message, Where Love and Justice Meet.

Well, I borrowed that title.

I borrowed it from a beloved hymn that maybe a few of you will recall.

It's called Beneath the Cross of Jesus.

Jesse Harris is going to minister unto us with this hymn.

It's an old hymn, an old hymn.

Pay special note to the final verse, because in that stanza is this sentence, O safe and happy shelter, O refuge, tried and sweet, O tristing place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet.

Tristing is not a word used much these days.

It's an old English word, which means place of encounter.

And so the author of this hymn is inviting us to see the cross as that place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet.

Can God love the sinner, but still punish the sin?

How can the mercy and the justice of God be equally expressed?

Well, the answer is found beneath the cross of Jesus.

Stands across two arms I stretch to say like a wish message to gard away from each other.

So seems my Savior's cross to me to heaven.

It came from my automobile insurance company, my former automobile insurance company.

I didn't drop them.

They dropped me.

Not because I didn't pay my premiums.

I was caught up on time.

Not because I failed to do some paperwork.

Everything had been signed and delivered.

I was dropped for making too many mistakes.

The letter began by politely telling me that my record had been under review.

Mr.

Lacato.

We have secured motor vehicle records which indicate a speed violation by Max Lacato in December and January.

And they nod at fault accident by Dean Lynn Lacato in December.

Additional records indicate additional speed violations by Mr.

Lacato in April and by Mrs.

Lacato in December of the next year.

Now, I'm the first to admit that Dean and I, mainly Dean, get a bit heavy-footed and careless when it comes to driving.

In fact, isn't that the reason that we have automobile insurance?

I mean, aren't the blemishes on my record proof that I am a worthy client?

Wasn't the insurance business created for people like me?

Don't my fender benders and bumps put food on an adjuster's table?

If not for my blunders, what would actuaries actuate?

So my initial thought when receiving this letter and reading the first paragraph was, well, they want to pat me on the back.

They're impressed.

They wish that all of their clients were so needy.

They're writing to congratulate me, maybe give me an award, maybe invite me to come to a seminar, to speak to other drivers on how to drive poorly.

The letter continued, documenting other heretofore undisclosed secrets of our past.

Our records indicate that on November 18, we paid to fix damage to another vehicle when Max Lacato backed into another car in the parking lot.

The twofold appearance of the word another.

Somebody's counting.

Maybe I should have urged them to read First Corinthians 13, 5, which says, Love keeps no record of wrongs.

The letter continued with yet another couplet of another's.

In April, we paid to fix another vehicle.

When Dina Lynn Lakato hit the rear of another car at a stop sign.

She dropped something in the floor.

And when she leaned down to pick it up, her foot slipped off the brake.

And honest mistake.

Could happen to anyone.

I confessed.

I thought about just driving off.

I could have, but I didn't.

I went, I found him.

We exchanged phone numbers.

I don't get credit for confessing.

Has he not read 1 John 1 9?

If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins.

Don't I get some credit for being honest?

Apparently not.

Listen to the conclusion of this letter.

In view of the above information, we are not willing to reinstate your automobile insurance policy.

Hmm.

I groaned too.

The policy will terminate at 12.01 a.m.

Standard Time, January the 4th.

I'm sorry our reply could not have been more favorable.

For your protection, your urge to obtain other insurance to prevent any lapse in coverage.

Does that seem odd to you?

I bought insurance to cover my mistakes.

Then I got dropped for making mistakes.

Did I miss something?

Did I miss a footnote?

Did I miss some fine print in the contract?

Did I miss a paragraph that read, We the aforesaid company, or consider one Max Locato insurable until he shows himself as one who needs insurance?

Upon which time his insurance will cease.

What if you got a letter from the Pearley Gate underwriting division that read, Dear Mrs.

Smith, I'm writing in response to this morning's request for forgiveness.

I'm sorry to inform you that you have reached your quota of sins.

Our records show that since employing our services, you have erred seven times in the area of greed, that your prayer life is substandard when compared to others of like age and circumstance.

Further review reveals that your understanding of doctrine is in the lower twentieth percentile, and that you have excessive tendencies to gossip.

Because of your sins, you are a high-risk candidate for heaven.

You understand that grace has its limits.

Jesus sends his regrets and kindest regards and hopes that you'll find some other form of coverage.

Many fear receiving such a letter.

Many worry that they already have.

I mean, if an insurance company won't cover my honest mistakes, can I really expect God to cover my periods of intentional rebellion and stubbornness?

Well, Paul answers this question in what one commentary written by John Stott calls the most startling statement in Romans.

God makes even evil people right in his sight.

What an incredible claim.

It's one thing to make good people right, to make decent people better, but Paul here is saying God can make evil people right.

The high-risk client, bring them on, heaven says.

Right?

I mean, it has to come from heaven.

In fact, that's a huge point in the passage that we're studying.

Let's look first at the direction of grace.

Prior to this passage in Romans 3 that we're about to study, Paul has dedicated all of chapter 1 and 2 and a chunk of chapter 3 to denouncing the whole idea that we could ever save ourselves.

According to Scripture, our pleas of ignorance are inexcusable.

Our comparisons with others are impermissible.

And then in the early part of Romans chapter 3, Paul points out that our religious merits, our accomplishments, our good deeds, they're unacceptable.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

So the conclusion is unavoidable.

Self-salvation just doesn't work.

But Paul has a big announcement to make, and that is that God has a way.

Again, our text.

God has a way.

And look, to make people right with him, to make people right with him without law or without a law or the law.

And he has now shown us that way, which the law and the prophets told us about.

God makes people right with himself through their faith in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3, 21 and 22.

Where we fail, God excels.

Salvation comes from heaven downward.

It is descended.

It is lowered onto the earth.

It's not earth upward.

It is a gift from God.

A new day from heaven will dawn upon us, was the prophecy in Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Every good action and every perfect gift is where?

From God, comes from God.

So salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, God-originated.

The gift is not from us to God, it is from God to us.

It is not our love for God.

It is God's love for us and sending his son to be the way to take away our sins.

Grace is created by God.

It is God's idea, it is God's best idea, and it is a gift that he gives to people.

On the basis of this point alone, the Christian faith is absolutely unique in comparison to any other world religion or philosophy.

Maybe you're confused trying to uh keep up with all the different religions in the world.

Maybe this would help.

There's really two.

One that says do and one that says done.

One religion, and that is every religion except biblical Christianity, says do, do more, do better, do this, do that, and maybe you will be saved.

Do this and be.

Do this and be.

Do be, do be, do be, do be do.

Maybe you know the song.

Biblical Christianity, on the other hand, points at the cross and says, Done.

It's been done.

It was done by him for us, finished and accomplished by Jesus the Christ.

Every other religion says, Well, let's negotiate with God.

If I attend church enough, if I quit cussing enough, if I go to Mecca enough, if I count my rosary beads enough, will you then save me, bless me, help me, use me, forgive me?

It's a negotiation.

We understand by contrast that pure Christianity promises no whiff of negotiation whatsoever.

With what do we have to negotiate?

Does God really need my attendance?

Does God have to have my tithe to do the work?

Is God really waiting on my wisdom?

Oh, I hope Lakato cracks the code on that doctrine and explains it because I don't.

That doesn't happen.

We have absolutely nothing to offer God.

Those who have walked closely with God really got this point.

And they understood that nothing in our hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

Isaiah described legalism, which is the idea of saving yourself by your own good deeds.

Isaiah said that our righteous acts are like filthy pieces of cloth, referring, forgive me, to menstrual cloth.

Paul equated our religious achievements with that pile of stink you avoid in the cow pasture.

He said, I do count them, but anything we do is puny.

In contrast to what we need and what God offers.

So we can summarize all our attempts at self-salvation with three words.

We have failed.

We have failed.

We fall short.

We have attempted to reach the moon, but we didn't even get off the ground.

We've attempted to swim the Atlantic, but we didn't even get past the reef.

We've attempted to scale Mount Everest, but we can't even get out of base camp, much less ascend the slope.

The quest is just too great.

So we don't need more supplies or equipment or muscle.

What do we need then?

Well, we need a helicopter.

We need something from up there to come down here to lift us up.

Can you hear it hovering?

Paul could.

He said, God has a way to make people right with him.

This is God's goal for you, dear friend.

To make you right with him.

I hope he makes you healthy.

I hope he makes you successful.

I hope he makes you rich.

I hope he makes you popular.

I do not know if he will, but here's what he has guaranteed to do.

He will make you right with him.

He will make it so that when you appear before him now in your prayer and someday on the day of judgment, that he will look at you and say, We're right.

It's right between us.

We have resolved any conflict, any question, any issue, you are right.

Can I ask you, are you right with God?

When we say yes to his grace, he makes us right with him.

Because it comes from him downward.

That's the direction of grace.

Yet, how does God do this?

How does God make evil people right?

Well, have you ever considered the dilemma of grace?

How does God make us right with him?

Well, let's go back to the insurance company.

Let's ask a question.

Was it unjust for them to dismiss me as a client?

What do you think?

No.

I thought it was distasteful, unenjoyable, unkind.

But I can't call it unfair.

Right?

I mean, they did do what they had told me they would do.

So did our Father.

I mean, from the get-go, he's made this clear.

He told Adam, if you ever eat fruit from that tree, you'll die.

You'll die a physical death, and the relationship between us will die a relational death.

No fine print, no hidden agenda, no loophole, no technicality.

God has not played games with us.

He has not played games with us.

He has been fair ever since Eden, the garden, the Garden of Eden, the wages of sin have been death.

And just as reckless driving has its consequences, so does reckless living.

And just as I have no defense before the insurance company, I have no defense before God, my record accuses me, my past convicts me.

Now, suppose the founder and the CEO of the insurance company chose to have mercy upon me?

Suppose he wanted to keep me as a client because I'm so, I don't know, good-looking or something.

Suppose.

What's he going to do?

Well, can't he just close his eyes and pretend?

Right?

Just pretend, kind of gloss it over.

Can he take that list of all my mistakes and find a trash can or even a match and set it on fire?

Can he just pretend?

Can he not take my driving record and tear it up?

Well, that's problematic for a couple of reasons.

First, the integrity of the company would be compromised.

I mean, he'd have to relax the standards of the organization, something that he's not willing to do, really should not do.

The ideals of an organization are to be held up.

They're too valuable to be abandoned.

The company cannot abandon its precepts and maintain integrity.

Also, the mistakes of the driver would be encouraged.

If the insurance company told me, Max, we're not serious about what we expect of you, then I wouldn't be serious about being a good driver, right?

I mean, why drive carefully?

If the president will dismiss my errors, then what's to keep me from driving however I want?

If there's no consequence for my blunders, well then blunder on.

Is that the aim of the president?

Is that the goal of mercy?

Does he want to create a company that has lowered standards and poor, creates poor drivers?

No.

So the president of the company would be faced with a dilemma.

He's sitting behind his desk asking himself this question: How can I be merciful and fair at the same time?

How can I at once offer grace and not endorse mistakes?

Or, to be put in biblical terms.

How can God punish the sin and love the sinner?

Paul made it clear that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness.

So is God going to lower his standards so we can be forgiven?

Is he going to look away and pretend I've never sinned?

Would we want a God who altered the rules and made exceptions?

No.

We want a God who does not change, like the shifting shadows.

We want a God who judges all people the same way.

Besides, to ignore my sin is to endorse my sin.

If sin has no price, then sin on, baby.

If sin brings no pain, then I'm going to do whatever I want.

Is this the aim of God?

To create a culture, to compromise holiness, to enable our evil?

Of course not.

So the question then, the dilemma of grace, how does God punish sin while loving a sinner?

How is his holiness and his affection satisfied at the same time?

How can he be loving and punish the sin?

Is there any way God could honor the integrity of heaven without turning his back on Locato?

Holiness demands that sin be punished.

Mercy compels that a sinner be loved.

So how can God do both?

Well, the answer is in the decision of grace.

The decision of grace.

One more time.

Let's go back to that insurance executive.

Imagine him inviting me into his office and saying these words, Mr.

Lakato, I have found a way to deal with all of your driving mistakes.

I can't overlook them.

To do so would be unjust.

I can't pretend you didn't commit them.

That would be a lie, but here's what I can do.

You know what we have found?

We have found a person who has a spotless record.

A spotless past.

I mean not even a parking ticket.

Not one violation.

And this person has volunteered to trade records with you.

What do you think?

I mean, we can take your name and we'll put it on his record.

And we'll take your record and we'll put it in his file.

You who did wrong will be made right.

He who did right will be made wrong.

And my response will be, you're kidding.

You're kidding.

Who would do this for me?

Who is this person?

To which the president says, Me.

Now, if you're waiting for an insurance executive to say that, don't hold your breath.

He won't.

She can't.

Even if they wanted to, they couldn't.

I mean, who has the perfect record?

But if you are wanting God to say those words, praise to his holy name.

For he has done exactly that.

He has said, Amen.

Praise to his name.

God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself.

Christ had no sin.

But God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become what?

Right with God.

2 Corinthians 5, 19 and 21.

The perfect record of Jesus Christ was given to you.

And the imperfect record of humanity was placed upon Christ.

Jesus was not guilty, but he suffered for those who are guilty to bring you to God.

As a result, God's holiness is honored.

As a result, God's children are forgiven and loved.

And the cross becomes that interesting place, that encounter where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet.

By his perfect life, Jesus fulfilled every demand and command of the law.

By his death, he satisfied the demands of sin.

Please remember, Jesus suffered not like a sinner, but as a sinner.

He became sin for us.

Why else would he cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

While hanging on the cross, Christ endured the punishment that Max deserved.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, can we read this scripture together?

It's in Hebrews 13.

It says this.

Hebrews 10, verse 14, with one sacrifice he made perfect forever.

Hebrews 10:14

Those who are being made holy.

Can we say that together?

Hebrews 10 verse 14, with one sacrifice he made perfect forever.

Hebrews 10:14

Those who are being made holy.

Now I I felt like the Lord gave me this the other day, and I didn't know why.

And it has to do with the driving.

And Pastor Max, if you're watching this, I did not get a ticket.

You'd be very proud of me.

But the other day I had a meeting I had to get to in Prosper.

If you've never been to our Prosper campus, I mean it it feels like it's four hours away.

And I put my GPS on in the morning and I went to get my car.

I needed GPS to go everywhere.

And I was an hour away.

And I got in my car, I had a time I had to be there.

It was an important meeting.

I got in my car.

I started driving down 114 and I hit some traffic.

Shocking that I hit some traffic on 114.

And I got really frustrated because I had a time that I had to be where I needed to go.

And then I looked down at my phone, and I was all of a sudden relieved when I found out that the app that I was using to get to my destination had already accounted for the traffic.

And because it had already accounted for the traffic, the time in which I was going to get to my destination didn't change.

And when I was listening to Pastor Max, his message, I've been someone my whole life who has heard every grace message you can hear, and still, for some reason, it's been so hard for me to accept the fact that my what I've done in my life has been accounted for.

And that it hasn't changed my destination.

And what we're going to do today to respond to this message, I'm going to ask everybody to close your eyes.

We're going to bring the lights down a little bit in here.

And we're going to go back into a song.

And regardless today, if you're dealing with the dilemma, the direction, or the decision of grace, I think our responsibility today is to accept it.

That from the moment you were conceived, every mistake that you would make had already been accounted for, and it hasn't changed your destination.

So here's what I want us to do.

We're going to go into this song.

And the way that we're going to respond today is as this song begins to play, I know that today God is going to be God, but can we accept the fact and believe that he is who he says he is?

And once we get into this song, once you've come to terms, you've you feel like, hey, today I'm going to accept this grace.

I'm going to believe.

I'm going to believe that God is who he says he is, and I am who he says I am.

I just want you to stand.

And once you stand, we're going to begin to worship.

And we're going to end service today thanking the Lord for his grace, but not just thanking him and leaving, but thanking him and receiving it.

So Lord, today as we sing this song, God, I thank you that you've accounted for our sins.

Thank you for dying on the cross for our sins.

Today, even as someone who's so hard on himself that in my humanity, you love me, Lord.

We worship you today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.