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All right, we are continuing with our series in Colossians.

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I'll turn my microphone on.

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All right.

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And we're confronted in this passage with the image of the cross.

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And I was thinking about this, how certain images and symbols have a way of not only

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being immediately recognizable to us, but many images and symbols have a way of evoking

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a lot of emotion in us.

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Correct?

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So look at this first image I want to show you.

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We see this image.

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Anybody know what this is?

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Yeah, it's Buddha, right?

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It's not like the comical fat Buddha, but it's more the traditional statue of Buddha.

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And when we see this, many of us immediately recognize it for what it is, but there's

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probably not a lot of emotion tied to it, right?

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You might feel some level of pity for people who were deceived by a false religion, but

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that's maybe it.

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Or what about this image when you see this?

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Which one's this one?

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Israel.

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Israel, right?

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Yeah, this is the Star of David, so we see this and we immediately recognize it.

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But again, there's probably not a lot of emotion, except maybe pity.

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Again, for people who were so close to the kingdom and yet still so far away.

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So what about when you see this image?

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Anybody know what this one is?

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Islam, right?

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The crescent moon and the star.

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Now this is where it becomes maybe less recognizable as a symbol, but you definitely get more emotion,

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right?

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Because once you realize that this is the symbol of Islam, you start thinking about

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all of the many heinous acts of violence carried out by radical Islamists all throughout

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our world.

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And so there's a great deal of sorrow connected to this.

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Or how about this one?

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Anybody know what that one is?

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Yeah, so communism, right?

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That's the symbol for communism.

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And this is where we start getting a little tense, right?

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Because you're thinking, in the past it started out kind of easy.

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How far are we taking this?

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Stay tuned, all right?

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So this is a symbol for communism, again, recognizable.

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And this is one that you feel sorrow about when you think about it, because you think

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of the horrors of communism throughout history and what it's done.

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And probably for a lot of us, there's a lot of pity connected to this, because for whatever

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reason the upcoming generations are obsessed with communism and socialism, and they think

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it'd be a great idea, even though history has proven that it is never a good idea, right?

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So there's a lot of emotion that starts to come through with this one.

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Now there are some images that are so heinous that I can't even show them to you.

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And I think you're all probably thinking of the same one.

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We've been going down and down and down and down.

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So what about a swastika?

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Obviously it's not going to be on the screen, okay?

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We don't have a swastika to put on the screen, but do I even need to show that to you?

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You all know what it looks like, right?

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Every single one of us.

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It's ingrained in our memory, and when it comes to the Nazi symbol, we immediately start

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thinking about the horrors of the Holocaust.

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We start thinking about what the Nazi regime did throughout World War II and even beyond.

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And so there's a lot of emotion that is brought forth with that sorrow, pity, anger, frustration.

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It's one of those symbols that is going to evoke emotion in you.

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But what about this one?

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That's the last one I want to show you.

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What about that one?

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Right?

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We all recognize that symbol.

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It's arguably the most horrific and disturbing of all that I have shown you.

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Because we look at the cross today, and it's immediately recognizable to us, but did you

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immediately feel any emotion when you saw it?

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You might have thought of an emotion, but did you feel anything?

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We incorporate the cross into our daily lives.

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It's all over our church buildings.

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We even have it on our jewelry, our necklaces, earrings, things like that.

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And so what we've done with the cross is we've taken away what it originally stood for and

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how people would have originally perceived it.

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It's definitely not harder to look at than some of these other things that we've looked

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at.

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But you have to understand that at the time Paul was writing to the Colossians in the

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first century, they would have had as hard a time looking at a picture of a cross as

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we do looking out of Swastika.

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That's how horrific this image was.

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But yet here in modern Christianity, what have we done?

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We have sanded the wood of the cross.

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We have washed the blood from the cross, and we have cleaned it up so that it's no longer

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this horrific image anymore.

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You see, there was even a push in Paul's day here in the first century, there was a push

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to eliminate the cross from Christian conversation.

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They didn't want to have anything to do with Christian pictures of the cross.

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They didn't want to talk about the cross because it was the worst possible way to die.

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When people saw the cross, they thought of Rome, not Jesus.

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They thought of Rome and their torture devices, and they said, this way to die is reserved

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for the worst of the worst.

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So there were Christians who were saying, hey guys, can we all come to an agreement?

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We all need to stop talking about the cross because no one's going to want to join the

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faith if we keep talking about this horrific way to die.

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What's so sad is we still see a bit of this today.

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There are many preachers in our world today who when they get up on a Sunday morning,

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they just want to tell you about how much God loves you and how they want to tell you

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to just focus on God's love for you, and they'll say, hey, God loves you and he has a wonderful

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plan for your life.

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They get that message every single Sunday.

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Many people want to reduce the faith down to nothing more than just try to do good things

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and try to be a good person.

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Many popular preachers, I promise you, you look them up, most of the popular preachers

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in our world today, they do not even talk about sin in their churches because they say

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sin makes people feel bad and people already feel bad enough so when they come to church,

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we want to make them feel good.

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So we don't talk about sin.

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It seems like the main goal of most popular preaching and most popular churches today

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is to fill their churches with as many people as they possibly can.

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And you can't do that by calling out sin.

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You can't do that by confronting sin, and you can't do that by preaching the cross

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as the only solution to sin.

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And yet we would all do well to remember the wise words of Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones who said,

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we preach not to fill our churches, but to save sinners from hell and the two are not

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the same.

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You can preach to fill your church or you can preach to save sinners from hell, but

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understand this, they are not the same.

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It all hinges upon the centrality of the cross of Christ.

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And so the question I want us to consider together this morning as we look at this passage

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is why is the message of the cross essential to our faith?

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In other words, why can't we be like the people in the first century and just move past the

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cross?

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Why can't we just stop talking about it, showing pictures of it?

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Why can't we stop emphasizing?

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Why is it so essential for our faith?

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I want you to start in verse 19 with me, if you have your Bibles verse 19, for in him

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all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all

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things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross and you who

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once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.

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Now we're going to pause there for a moment because I want you to look at your Bible and

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notice the emphasis on Jesus here.

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It's in him and through him and to him.

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And what is the result?

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The Bible says he is reconciling all things to God.

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Now we read that, but here's what you do.

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Being a stupe reader here, if the Bible is saying that Jesus reconciles all things to

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himself, it's presuming a problem, is it not?

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What is the problem it's presuming?

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That all things need to be reconciled.

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If Jesus is reconciling all things to God, it must mean that all things are separated

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from God or to use the word that Paul uses here, alienated.

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Now it's interesting in Greek that word alienated, it refers to people who have estranged themselves

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from God.

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So why are sinners separated from God?

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It's not something that God did to them and it's not something that they have passively

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endeavored to end up in, it is people who have estranged themselves from God.

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And so Paul is talking about here the problem of sin.

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When Adam and Eve sinned against God and rebelled against him, they invited sin into our world

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and the Bible tells us in Romans 5.12, therefore, justice sin came into the world through one

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man and death through sin.

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And so death spread to all men because all have sinned.

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So here's the problem, sin separates us from God and so since all people sinned, death

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spread to all people and therefore all people now are separated from God.

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And to make matters even worse, the Bible says in Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin

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is death.

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So all of humanity has sinned, the wages of sin is death, and this means that every single

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person, all of humanity stands condemned before a holy God deserving death and damnation for

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our sins against God.

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Does this sound like a popular message church?

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Is this going to pack the pews this one?

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No, probably not, but it's exactly what the Bible says.

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The Bible says you need to understand how bad your situation is so you can appreciate

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how good the good news of Jesus actually is.

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And if you think that's as bad as it gets, it only gets worse from here because here's

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what I've encountered.

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When I tell this to people, and I've had this conversation with so many unbelievers, I can't

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even keep track of them at this point, but I'll tell people, I remember, for instance,

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I was working in Charleston and I was working with this young lady and we were having this

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conversation and she said, well, I believe I'm a good person.

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And she said, I believe that if I just love people, then when I die, God's going to let

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me into heaven.

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And I said, well, God doesn't let good people into heaven.

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And she said, well, what kind of God doesn't let good people into heaven?

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And I said, well, the Bible says no one is good.

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That's why only one good person has ever gone to heaven and that's Jesus Christ.

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But I remember having this conversation and her response to me was, okay, if it's not loving

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people and trying to be nice, then what can I do?

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And see, that was the issue.

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And that's the issue I've encountered with so many people.

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When I tell them you're separated from God, you have sinned against God, and because of

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your sin, you deserve death and damnation, their first knee-jerk reaction is, well,

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just tell me what I need to do then.

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And we start thinking of all the things that we can do to make it better.

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I'll start coming to church.

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I'll start treating people better.

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I'll try to be kinder.

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Hey, will the church take a check?

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Because I'll write a check.

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If that'll get me into heaven, I'll do that.

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I'll do all the things I can to get back in God's good graces.

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And so it's interesting, when you tell people this problem, we recognize that there is a

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debt that needs to be paid, don't we?

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We recognize that there is something that needs to be done, a price that needs to be

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paid.

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And that's actually what this word reconciled communicates here.

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The word reconciled in the Greek, it referred to an exchange.

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So you could exchange hatred for friendship.

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And what happens?

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You'd say the people are reconciled.

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Or you could exchange hostility for peace, and then you have reconciliation.

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But most of the time, it referred to an exchange of payments for goods and services.

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But here's where it gets even worse for us.

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Since we are the ones who have sinned against God, meaning we are the offending party, it

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means that we are entirely dependent upon God to reconcile with us.

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And if God does not reconcile with us, we will remain alienated from God.

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All right, so I want to try to put this in terms you can understand.

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If God doesn't choose to reconcile with us, there's nothing we can do.

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Here's how you understand it.

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Let's say I were to sin against my wife, and I've done something against her, I've sinned

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against her.

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I can go and apologize to her 500 times.

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Men, yes?

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Yeah?

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I can go apologize 500 times.

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I can do all the dishes.

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I can do the laundry.

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It'd be messed up, but I would do it.

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And I would fold the laundry, and that'd be messed up, but I would do it.

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I could take care of the whole Honeydew list.

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I could do everything I could think of to get back in my wife's good graces.

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But listen to me, unless she chooses to forgive me, there's nothing that I can do.

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Right?

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Because she's been offended, the final step of reconciliation lies completely with her.

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And in the same way, church, you need to understand that since God is the one who's been sinned

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against, reconciliation is entirely up to God.

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If he were to choose not to reconcile with anyone, we would all be doomed.

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And so I need you to understand this about salvation.

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God always moves first in salvation.

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It is never us.

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I know there's a lot of popular preaching today that says, hey, you need to get right

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with God.

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You need to make that first step back to God.

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And listen, your heart's in the right place.

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You just got it backwards.

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God is the one who moves first.

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He is the one who initiates reconciliation.

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And if he never did that, nothing we did would ever be enough.

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We move in response to him.

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That's why the Bible says in 1 John 419, we love because he, what?

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First loved us.

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You see, loving God isn't even possible unless God first loves you.

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No matter what it is, we always move in response to God.

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We never go before him.

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And so this is the problem as we have laid it out here.

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We're alienated from God because of our sin.

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We owe a price to God because of our sin.

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And unless God and his mercy decides to pursue reconciliation with us, we are all doomed.

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It's bad, yeah?

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Okay.

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But then how does Jesus take care of this problem for us?

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Well, the Bible says he takes care of the problem of sin and its wages by the blood of his own cross.

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It says that he shed his own blood to pay the price of our sin.

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And this is sometimes referred to as the great exchange church.

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A great exchange happened at the cross where we get to give Jesus our sin and God gives us the righteousness of Christ.

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The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 521,

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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin,

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so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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This is why the cross is necessary, church.

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You see, at the cross, we exchange our sin for Jesus' righteousness.

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At the cross, we exchange our sin for Jesus' righteousness.

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And I truly believe that no person can claim to be a Christian who is not absolutely floored and humbled by the reality of this truth.

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That God would take our sin and in exchange, he would give us the very righteousness of Christ.

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It makes no sense to us, does it?

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I remember the very first time I ever heard this and God opened up my eyes.

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I was at North Greenville and we were going to hear a guy preach.

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I was kind of bribed to go hear the guy preach.

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I was not a Christian at the time, but my buddy who was an outdoor leadership major,

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he said, I'll take you kayaking if you come to listen to this sermon with me.

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I was like, I want to go kayaking, so let's go.

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So that's why I went to hear him preach.

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And I remember listening to him preach and it was the first time in my life where someone was explaining this.

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And I looked to my buddy and I'm like, there's a catch, right?

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He's like, what are you talking about?

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I said, this doesn't make sense.

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He said, what do you mean?

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I said, the preachers up there telling me that I can just give my sin to Jesus

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and God's going to give me Jesus' righteousness even though I'm not a Christian,

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even though I have hated God, even though I have lived a life of disobedience,

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even though I'm now living in ways that are unpleasing to him.

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This preacher is saying, I can just give it to Jesus for free and I get His righteousness for free.

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And my buddy goes, yeah, that's the gospel.

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And I was floored in that moment.

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And I wanted to take God up on that offer before he changed his mind

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because he's getting the short end of that stick.

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Is he not?

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I think one of my favorite parts about this is that the beauty of the great exchange

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is that it puts every person on equal ground

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because it doesn't matter what your background is.

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It doesn't matter what your past is.

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It doesn't matter if you grew up in church.

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It doesn't matter if this is your first time in church.

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The Bible is telling us here that God has initiated reconciliation at the cross of Christ.

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He has moved first by sending His Son to die in our place.

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And He's saying, for any person on earth, rich or poor,

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if you have great education, if you have no education,

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no matter what your background is, He's saying, any person on earth

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who will transfer their sin to Jesus, the Father,

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will transfer Jesus' righteousness to your account.

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And so we're all on equal footing.

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I love the way that Augustine said it.

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He said, there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future.

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So no matter who you are, reconciliation with God,

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it doesn't come by you trying to do something or love people more.

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It comes by Jesus' death on the cross.

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I want you to notice what Paul says next in verse 22.

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He's now reconciled us in His body of flesh by His death

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in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.

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Now he's talking a lot about death here.

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And what you have to understand is, like we said at the beginning,

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dying on the cross was one of the most, if not the most, horrific way to die.

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And some people think it's the most horrific way to die throughout history.

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And yet there were people who were worshiping a crucified Savior.

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So I want to show you this picture.

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00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,200
And you might have difficulty making it out.

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We'll see.

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Oh, we don't have a picture.

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00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:36,000
Okay.

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00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,000
Emily's saying no.

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00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,320
So no picture got added there.

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That's okay.

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00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,600
There's a picture of a piece of graffiti.

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00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,880
It's one of the oldest pieces of graffiti that we have ever found.

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00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,800
And it was found in Rome in about 200 AD.

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And what it depicts is a man on a cross.

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And he's got the body of a man, and he's got the head of a donkey.

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And next to the cross, there's a young man whose arms are raised in worship in front

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of this figure.

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And in Greek, it says, Alexi Menos worships his God.

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This is one of the oldest pieces of graffiti we have ever found.

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00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:23,120
And what it's doing is mocking Christians for worshiping a crucified Savior, even depicting

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00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:25,680
Jesus with the head of a donkey.

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And it's because people at the time believed that it was ridiculous to worship someone.

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They said to Christians, why would you worship this man who died on a cross?

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You see, at the time, they believed that death was the ultimate conqueror and could not be

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defeated.

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And for a time, they were right.

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So you see, when you think about it, the absolute worst thing that sin can do to anyone is what,

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church?

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00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,040
Well, so worst thing sin can do to us.

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Kill us, right?

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00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,360
Death is the ultimate trump card of sin.

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It is sin's final trump card.

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It is the ultimate victory.

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But when Jesus chose to die for us in our place on the cross, he exhausted the punishment

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of sin.

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And he put death in the grave.

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That's why the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, death is swallowed up in victory.

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Oh, death, where is your victory?

351
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,200
Oh, death, where is your sting?

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The sting of death is sin.

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And the power of sin is the law.

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But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

355
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So how has death been swallowed up in victory?

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It's by Jesus dying on the cross.

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Because when Jesus died on the cross, he exhausted everything sin had to throw at humanity.

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He exhausted death itself.

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And when he rose again on that third day, he proved that death had no hold over him.

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He proved that death had no power over him.

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And it was a promise to all who would believe in him that this life is yours in Christ.

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I want you to see here, church, at the cross we see the death of death and the death of

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00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,520
Christ.

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At the cross we see the death of death and the death of Christ.

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00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:31,840
The Bible tells us that ever since mankind's first sin, death has reigned and ruled in

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this world.

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But the Bible also tells us now that Jesus has disarmed the power of sin and death and

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he reigns.

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When Jesus rose from the grave, it was a confirmation that the Father found his sacrifice pleasing.

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It was a confirmation that death had no hold over him and that the power of sin had been

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broken and by his victory, believers are now freed from the fear and the finality of death.

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Believers have no reason to fear death anymore.

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But I think we forget that, don't we?

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It's because death was never supposed to happen in the first place.

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It was not part of God's original design.

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We brought death into this world and so we're still greatly affected by it, but we have

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00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:22,800
to learn, especially as believers, to see death for what it truly is.

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00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,840
I mean children understand this concept better than we do.

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00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:34,160
I remember last year when my Papa Couch died, I was heartbroken at losing my last grandfather

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00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:40,200
and as the man of the house, I had to go and tell my children that Papa Couch had died.

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And so I was preparing myself to do this and I went to my oldest son, Judah and I said,

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00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:50,880
Judah, buddy, I'm sorry, but Papa Couch died last night.

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00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:56,680
The first thing he said to me was, well, that's great.

384
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He was four, okay?

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00:23:57,880 --> 00:23:59,880
He said, well, that's great.

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00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:04,600
And I was like, Judah Chapman, why would you say something so horrible?

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00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:09,120
And he looked at me and he was visibly confused, visibly confused.

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00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:13,640
And he was like, well, he's with Jesus now, right?

389
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:19,080
I said, yes, technically, okay?

390
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:20,840
He is.

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00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,720
And then just in the innocence of a child, he looked at me and said, well, then that's

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00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:25,720
better.

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00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,760
And that's great that he gets to be with Jesus from now on.

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Isn't that amazing that a four-year-old seems to have a better understanding of death than

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00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:40,400
Christians who are 40 years old?

396
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,960
Even as a four-year-old, he understood that for the believer, death is not a punishment.

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And death is certainly not final.

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For those of us who believe death has no power over us anymore, rather than being a punishment

399
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:58,400
for sin and rather than being eternal separation from the loving presence of God, death is

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00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:03,680
just a transition into eternal life now and into the loving presence of God.

401
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:08,800
You see, I need you to understand, church, this is not possible without the cross of

402
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:10,040
Christ.

403
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:15,280
It is His death on the cross that satisfies God's wrath towards our sin, pays the penalty

404
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:20,240
of our sin, reconciles us back to God and makes peace between us and God.

405
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,280
Here's what I need you to understand this morning, church.

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00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:23,600
Listen to me.

407
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,280
Humanity has only two options.

408
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,400
Somebody will pay for your sin.

409
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:39,040
And it'll either be Jesus on the cross or it'll be you on that final day when you stand

410
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:44,640
before the Father and He says, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

411
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,840
I never knew you.

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So it's either going to be Jesus or it's going to be you, which is why you can understand,

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00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,760
for unbelievers, death must be terrifying.

414
00:25:55,760 --> 00:26:01,240
I would not want to be an unbeliever and die because we know that for them it leads to

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00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:06,000
judgment and eternal damnation.

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00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,960
But as a believer, we have no fear of death.

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00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:11,880
I'm probably too comfortable with death.

418
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:16,000
Anna and Jordan both tell me this and make it clear all the time that I am too comfortable

419
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,720
with dying, but it's the reality is I have no fear of death because I know that when

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00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:27,720
I die, the first face I'm going to see is the face of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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And that is sweet to me, is it not?

422
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:35,560
And when I do die and I see His face for the very first time, I am going to know in that

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00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:44,560
instant that I am in for an eternity of peace in His presence.

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00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,240
And this is only because of Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross.

425
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:53,200
There's one final reason before I start crying up here that I wanted to show you this morning,

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00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:57,320
verses 22 to 23, look at what it says.

427
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:03,080
He's now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death in order to present you holy and

428
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,400
blameless and above reproach before Him.

429
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:11,320
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope

430
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:16,080
of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and

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00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,960
of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,520
All right, so I want to do a poll real quick.

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How many of you this morning feel holy, blameless and above reproach?

434
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:29,000
Anybody?

435
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,640
All right, yeah, that's the way it should be.

436
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:38,080
All right, so the Bible says here, Jesus died to present us holy, blameless and above reproach,

437
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,920
and yet all of us are sitting here going, we're not that, okay?

438
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,160
We are anything but that.

439
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,440
Some of you might be thinking, Pastor, I've already sinned since I got to church, so let's

440
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,880
just move on here, okay?

441
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:55,200
And so the question that we have to understand or come to terms with is, if the Bible says

442
00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:01,320
Jesus died to present us this way, clearly God sees us this way, and clearly we're not,

443
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,840
how do we reconcile these two?

444
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:08,600
How do we reconcile between what God calls us and how He sees us with what we actually

445
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:09,600
are?

446
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:13,040
And I was trying to think of a way to explain this to you, and I probably could have thought

447
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,280
of a better way, but here's what I've landed on.

448
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:20,400
Have you ever seen those polarized glasses display in like Bass Pro Shop or something?

449
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:21,720
Anybody know what I'm talking about?

450
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:22,720
You've been there, okay?

451
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:23,720
Yeah?

452
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,360
All right, so you go to this display, and you basically, you see a picture, and without

453
00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,640
the glasses, you can only see so much.

454
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,360
It's a picture, and you kind of make out a couple different things, whatever.

455
00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:37,720
But then you put on the polarized glasses, and as you know, all of a sudden the picture

456
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:39,280
transforms, right?

457
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,000
You can see things that you weren't able to see before.

458
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:49,360
Now, here's what you need to understand, literally nothing about that picture changed at all.

459
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:50,360
You get that, right?

460
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:52,920
Like it's not a magic trick they're doing every day.

461
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,480
Nothing about the picture changed.

462
00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:01,040
You just saw it in a new way because you were using certain lenses.

463
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:08,120
And in the same way, the way that God reconciles calling us holy, blameless, and above approach

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00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:15,040
when we're clearly not that, is because now the Father views us through the lens of the

465
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:16,540
Gospel.

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00:29:16,540 --> 00:29:22,600
And because He views us through the lens of the Gospel, He sees something entirely new.

467
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:30,680
In fact, we see here because of the cross, God now sees sinners as saints.

468
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,200
Are you a sinner?

469
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:33,320
Yes.

470
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,000
Are you a saint?

471
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:36,000
Yes.

472
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:42,040
It feels weird to say, but in the eyes of God, you are a saint, but it's not because of you.

473
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:43,040
It's because of Jesus.

474
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:47,360
And it's because when God's looking at this sinner, He's looking at you through the lens

475
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,320
of the Gospel, and He sees something entirely different.

476
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:57,040
Before the cross, there was nothing to shield us from the eyes of God.

477
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:01,440
There was nothing to hide us from the one who sees all things.

478
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,960
We were laid bare before Him, but because of Jesus and His death on the cross and through

479
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:10,840
faith in Jesus, God now looks at us through the lens of the Gospel.

480
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,160
He no longer sees sinners, He sees saints.

481
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:19,040
If you're a believer here this morning, when God looks at you, He no longer sees your life

482
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:20,200
of sin.

483
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:26,040
Instead, He sees Jesus' life of perfect righteousness.

484
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,640
When God looks at you, He no longer sees faithlessness.

485
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,200
He sees Jesus' perfect faithfulness.

486
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:37,160
When God looks at you, He no longer sees a person deserving death, but He sees Jesus'

487
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,280
death on the cross.

488
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:43,840
One of the best things about being a Christian this morning is that when God looks at you,

489
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:49,640
He no longer sees a no good dirty sinner with a marred past.

490
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,560
He no longer sees an enemy.

491
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,160
He no longer sees someone who's alienated and hostile in mind.

492
00:30:55,160 --> 00:31:03,960
When God looks at you, He sees a son, He sees a daughter, and a joint heir with Christ Jesus.

493
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:09,600
That is who you are in the eyes of God, and that is because of Jesus' sacrifice on the

494
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:10,600
cross.

495
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:14,160
Now let me issue a word of warning here as well.

496
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,840
It's good for you to remember that you're not perfect.

497
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:17,840
We agree?

498
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:18,840
Yeah.

499
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,520
It's good for everybody to know that, remember it.

500
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:26,920
It is good for you to know and understand and remind yourself often that you are just

501
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:31,400
a sinner in desperate need of the mercy and grace of God.

502
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:32,400
Yes?

503
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:33,400
Yes.

504
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,240
But here's the warning.

505
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:42,840
The world, the flesh, and the devil are going to constantly try to remind you of who you

506
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:47,040
were rather than who you are.

507
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:51,320
The world, the flesh, and the devil are going to constantly try to put all those old labels

508
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:56,800
that used to describe you back on you and remind you of them and convince you that that

509
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,040
is still who you are.

510
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,880
That's just that, that ex-con.

511
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:03,640
That's just that adulterer.

512
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,800
That's just that liar, that thief, that manipulator.

513
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,960
That's that no good dirty rotten sinner.

514
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:14,040
And they will try to convince you that that is still who you are.

515
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:18,840
But I want to remind you this morning that the Bible says through faith in Christ, you

516
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:22,600
are an entirely new creation.

517
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:29,060
The Bible says the old is gone, the new has come, and you don't put old labels on new

518
00:32:29,060 --> 00:32:30,360
merchandise.

519
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:31,680
Okay?

520
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:35,880
So it's good for you to remember you're not perfect, but do not let the devil, the world,

521
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:41,720
the flesh put something on you that no longer describes you because you are a child of God

522
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,960
through faith in Christ.

523
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:48,960
I just want to make sure that we are assessing ourselves and our lives with the same lens

524
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:50,680
that God is using for us, okay?

525
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:56,240
Let's just make sure that we're both viewing ourselves through the lens of the Gospel.

526
00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:00,640
More than anything this morning, I just want you to know and realize and never forget how

527
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:05,640
essential the cross of Christ is for everything.

528
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:11,560
It's because of the cross that we have forgiveness and reconciliation and peace and redemption.

529
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,440
It's because of the cross of Christ that sin and death have been defeated and we share

530
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,240
in the victory of Jesus.

531
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:22,840
It's because of the cross that God now sees us through the lens of the Gospel.

532
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:27,040
And so we cannot be like a lot of popular churches and preachers and shy away from the

533
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,480
cross.

534
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,020
We cannot get away from the message of the cross.

535
00:33:31,020 --> 00:33:33,320
We cannot stop preaching the cross.

536
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:39,440
We need to be like Paul where he said, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ

537
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,680
and him crucified.

538
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:42,920
That is our hope.

539
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:44,200
That is our message.

540
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:45,680
That is our all in all.

541
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:46,680
Amen.

542
00:33:46,680 --> 00:34:12,640
Let's pray.