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This morning we're going to talk about the gospel and some people might wonder Why do we talk about the gospel so much? I reminded of a pastor That I didn't know personally, but I read about that Preach the same sermon Several weeks in a row Same sermon Same words same passage same illustrations the exact same sermon for several weeks in a row Finally some of the elders Got To him got with each other and then came to him and said why Why are you preaching the same sermon week after week? His response he said well When they start applying this sermon, I'll preach another one Now that might sound odd But Martin Luther who's credited with one of the people who started the Reformation Said something very similar he said pass they asked Martin Luther pastor Why is it that week after week after week all you ever preached to us is the gospel? Luther responded by saying well because week after week you forget it Because week after week you walk in here looking like people who don't believe the gospel And until you walk in looking like people who are truly liberated by the truth of the gospel I'm going to continue to preach it to you Now that was Martin Luther talking to his congregation not me talking to you so just in case but Paul said something very similar in his Letter to the Philippians chapter 3 verse 1 he says finally my brothers Rejoice in the Lord To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe For you so even Paul Didn't mind repeating himself Where the gospel was concerned? Wasn't just Paul Peter said concerning this salvation in first Peter 1 verse 10 The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully inquiring What person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories? It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you And the things that have now been announced to you Through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look now if we are prone to forget the gospel and Angels still long to look into the good news. I mean I can only imagine that angels are older and wiser and smarter than us and they still Still long to look at the gospel If all those things are true, it's vital that we preach and teach and apply the gospel So why do we forget the gospel? Well, there's lots of reasons I'm going to mention three the first is that because the religion that we are born with is legalism and That applies whether you're Religious or not Everybody is a born legalist. I Don't know if you've ever watched a bunch of we we had six kids who we had an occasion to do this quite often I don't know if you ever watched a bunch of six seven eight-year-olds on a playground during school recess They want to play a game They spend half the time arguing about the rules Before the game during the game after the game before the game they have to all decide what the rules are and there's an argument about Which way they should go and then during the game who's violating the rules You Shouldn't do that That's not a rule that sort of thing and at the end of the game whoever lost the game said well We would have won except that you guys violated the rules. Of course, they don't say violated they use other words And almost every major religion has rules that you must do in order to be right with God Christianity is the only religion in which God has done something for us so that we can be right with him. I Won't mention all of them, but I'll mention Islam for example has what's called the five pillars These are the foundational practices of Islam First there's the declaration of faith. I won't try to pronounce the words in Arabic The second is prayer The third is charity The fourth is fasting during Ramadan And the last is a pilgrimage to Mecca So, how do you get to heaven this is again from an internet article by an Islamic person Those who refrain from doing evil Keep their duty have faith in God's revelations do good works are truthful penitent heedful in contrite in heart Those who feed the needy and the orphans and those in prison for the sake of God If you do all of that If you do all of that You might go to heaven Because the final decision belongs to Allah So unless you So in this life you cannot know It's not very comforting and it doesn't sound like good news The only way you can know for sure that you'll go to heaven is if you are martyred for the faith in Islam which explains why people are so willing to die Other religions have have rules their own rules and it's I Won't recite all of them But it's not only religions that have rules like this groups do as well Secular people have criteria for what makes a good person Right now in the United States, there's a whole group of people that will Confriend you if you voted for Donald Trump They won't be friends with you anymore if you supported him or support him Which is interesting because more than half of the country who voted voted for him so that Severely limits the amount of friends a person who didn't vote for him can have There's similar things in Canada between liberals and conservatives although not quite as severe I don't think But even groups like the motorcycle group Hell's Angels has very stringent rules that you have to follow Churches can fall into this category church groups Church-based schools Especially can fall into this category coming up with all kinds of rules which have the appearance of righteousness But really result in legalistic thinking or even rebellion When I was campus director at Kent State University, I Had one student who was formerly at Cedarville College and he told me about Some of the rules of the school all of which were with good intention no doubt but He said what the result was is that the students tried to figure out how to get around them One of the rules was you had to go to church on Sunday morning. That's not a bad thing, right? It's not a bad thing But what they did is they sent around a school representative to the dormitories and they Opened everybody's room to check to see if they had gotten up and gone to church Well one particularly inventive Student Knew that this was going to happen. So he would set his alarm before church time And then he would put his sleeping bag and a pillow under his bed and go to sleep under there have the the bed made and the Blanket or duvet or I probably didn't have a duvet Blanket covering up the underneath of the bed and the person who checked looked in saw that the bed was empty closed the door and He could snooze away as long as he wasn't snoring when the guy opened the door. He was going to be okay other students Now this is a Baptist school. So they called him the bedside Baptist other students They would get up in the morning as If they were going to church and they would go to the local restaurant And have breakfast. I don't know they have these in Canada, but in the US there's something called Bob Evans Bob Evans restaurants and they're all over the place. So they were called Bob Evans Baptists But the point was because of the rule I mean these were all church kids Mostly who would probably have gone to church, but once they were told they had to go to church They tried to invent ways not to go to church See adding to the rules Adding rules to the Bible does not make us more righteous. It makes us legalistic Another high school When I was growing up had very strict rules Which gave the appearance of righteousness I Knew a cheerleader from that school and the cheerleaders uniforms, you know Cheerleaders uniforms are usually short like this I've never worn one, but that's what I've seen is they're short like this. Well and At this school the cheerleaders uniforms went down the skirts went down below their knees I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing but this particular cheerleader and her Great 11 year got pregnant anyway The appearance of righteousness does not make somebody righteous adding rules Doesn't cause us to be holy As one pastor said the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary Another reason the gospel that we need to hear the gospel is because of pride We basically think we're good a lot of us One minister puts it this way We think our righteousness tanks are half full or three quarters full And if we need Jesus at all is just to top us off We got most of the way there on our own, but maybe we need Jesus just to get us over the over the finish line Remember a lady approached me after a sermon not here And took issue with something I said She said I am NOT a sinner She thought since she had become a Christian that she had ceased from sinning And if you met her you would not think her prideful, but that statement is the ultimate in pride and when Tracy and I were visiting in Arizona Just a couple of weeks ago. We went to church at a church. That's close to where Sam lives Sam doesn't have a car It's walking distance. So we thought well, we'll go check this church out with him and The pastor preached the sermon that basically he bragged about that. He hadn't touched alcohol or tobacco or any drugs since he'd been saved he hadn't even been tempted to and Essentially told the congregation that they shouldn't sin and they shouldn't but he was giving the idea that you could stop altogether And when somebody he said he made fun of the statement That people say I sin every day which we all do in some form or another but he Said well then why don't you stop the idea was that you could stop sinning altogether in this life There are a lot more reasons to hear the gospel again and again, but one more is that the law cannot save us There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life Has set you free and crossed Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death For what God for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do Let's look back at the passage that we read This is my commandment that you love one another as I've loved you greater Love has no one than this that someone lay down his life For his friends now when Jesus said this it's likely that the disciples didn't understand the fullness of this statement It refers of course to Jesus laying down his life for his friends Now all of us has heard and understand that Jesus is God's son at least I hope we have a Son of God the second person of the Trinity Father son and Holy Spirit. He's the son And according to the first chapter of John's gospel It says that in the beginning was the word and the word is Jesus for God the Son and the word was with God And the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him Was not anything made that was made? The word is the Son of God we know this because later in the same chapter it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us Paul wrote in Colossians 1 he's the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him All things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities All things were created through him and for him in Genesis 1 it says God made So if we put the two together when it says God made God the Son made In verse 16 one of my favorite verses God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day The lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also I'm gonna quote some scientific I'm gonna quote some science. I'm not a scientist. So if you hear things and think well, that's not right I'm just Reporting what I've read from other scientists not other scientists from scientists so According to scientists they estimate that the observable universe Meaning everything that we can see it the stars everything that we can see is 93 billion light years in diameter What does that mean it means to cross this distance you would have to travel over 299 kilometers per second for 93 billion years Again This is according to the latest according to scientists, I'm assuming Astrophysicists, but I don't know Again according to science the universe is about 14 billion years old Now it's above my pay grade to reconcile how a 14 billion year old universe could be 93 billion light years apart or in diameter But let's assume for a second That they're right about the size of the universe, I don't know if they are I'm not a scientist I I don't know Let's assume for a second. They're right Let's assume also that the Bible is right about who made it which I do know That means the person who spoke into existence this 93 billion Lightyear expanse is the one who laid down his life for his friends Just let that wash over you for a second The power the enormity the eternality the infinity The wisdom that it would take to speak into existence that expanse He's the one that became one of us and died on a cursed cross It means that the Son of God who created each star again 93 billion Light years apart all of the stars in between Some of the stars I was Watching this one program about this if you look at them the earth and then here's the Sun and Then another star makes the Sun look like this and another star makes that Sun look like this The size of the universe the size of what God created is so beyond fathoming It means that that Son of God who created each star and according to Isaiah knows them all by name He calls you his friends He says you are my friends if you do what I command you no longer do I call you servants For the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends For all that I've heard from the father. I've made known to you Psalm 25 says the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant Isaiah 41 but you Israel my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham my friend You Whom I took from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corner saying to you you are my servant I have chosen you and not cast you off fear not Prime with you be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous hand You see the God who can speak into existence and 93 billion dollar expanse of stars is The one who says he will help you He's the one who says he will uphold you When God had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin he treated Abraham as a friend Genesis 18 the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham? What I am about to do Now Jesus Calls his disciples Friends not servants friends, although you can serve as a friend Can you fathom this can you understand it I Feel like I should have yelled this but I didn't The one who spoke The universe into existence and everything in it and all the laws that govern it Colossians 1 17 says he's before all things and in him all things hold together meaning that every single millisecond of every single day the universe is held together By the one who gave his life for us As An example of again, this is scientists talking if gravity was a little bit stronger our Galaxy would collapse in on itself If it was a little bit weaker it would fly apart It has to be exactly as strong as it is For our galaxy to function This Is the one God the Son in the flesh Jesus Christ who calls us friends how How do we become friends Verse 16 he tells us You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit That your fruit should abide So that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give it to you he chose the disciples He chose you He chose Abraham when he was a moon worshiper. He chose Moses. He chose David How did he chose us according to Ephesians chapter 1 if he chose us by the counsel of his own will For what purpose According to the passage we read the purpose is to bear fruit you might say well That's just for the disciples, but listen to what Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 5 He says if anyone is in Christ He's a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come all this is from God through Christ who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation What does that mean? That in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us The message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ Was it what is an ambassador ambassador is somebody who leaves their home? Or doesn't live in their home, and they go to a foreign land and they represent their home to those people And that's who we are if we're believers were citizens of heaven that's our home while we're here. We're supposed to represent The God who loves us The God who saved us the God who gave himself for us and we represent him to everybody else Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making its appeal through us We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God when is the last time you implored somebody? to be reconciled to God For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God So briefly how do we respond Well, there's three things here I Pray Jesus says this is also whatever you ask the father in my name. He may give it to you Second is obey you are my friends if you do what I command you now that might sound like legalism But here's the thing Considering all that God has done for you considering all that Jesus has done for you considering who he is What he spoke into existence this 93 billion lightyear expanse And all the smaller things The little thing I'm a birdwatcher and birds amaze me that God has created these things but everything That God has created and he gave his life for you. Why wouldn't you want to obey him? That includes witnessing to others Talking to them about your faith in him telling them about The judgment to come imploring them to be reconciled to Christ And finally love these things I command you so that you will love one another And he's telling us to love the way he loved which is to give ourselves to give our lives for each other Angels long to look into this gospel don't ever grow tired of hearing about it Let's pray father