But Now First B Jackson 2016-04-17 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- What a wonderful change in my life there has been since Jesus came into my heart I have lied in my soul for which long I had sought since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart floods of joy or my soul like the sea billows since Jesus came into my heart I have ceased from my wandering and going astray since Jesus came into my heart and my sins which were many are all washed away since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll since Jesus came into my heart shall go there to dwell in that city I know since Jesus came into my heart and I'm happy so happy as onward I go since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart since Jesus came into my heart heart Lords of joy or my soul like the sea billows roll. Jesus came into my heart. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. So, we have a few announcements this morning. Mondays, we have Awana's in this room. Y'all know about that. 06:00 starts on Monday nights. Kids matter to God. We pour scripture into their hearts and minds. It's a good fun time for the kiddos. Monday nights are on. Monday nights at First B is 06:00. Also, meal music and a message. Carl's been preaching from Nehemiah. We've got a couple of visitors in town. We may hear from them this week too. Connect hours still going on. It's a good place to get here a little bit early and hang out with people down in the fellowship hall and this is the main one I wanted to make today. So, if you know of a set of parents, it turned out to be mostly kids from about ages 10 or 11, 12, somewhere in there, younger and then, their parents met and last week on Friday night at 05:36 right in there, 05:30 is when it started. We had a whole fellowship hall full. They're probably 100 people, maybe a few more and it's parents and their kids. Then, after we ate pizza together, we kind of split up parents up here, kids downstairs with a few volunteer helpers, actually paid helpers, volunteers that were downstairs playing, having a good time with the kids, and doing some videos down there while we did a video series up here and it was fantastic. So, if you know of somebody who is a parent, we've got this is gonna be going on for the next five weeks, Friday and four more weeks after that. It's fantastic. Really, really good time. So I recommend it, if you would recommend it to folks, then tell them. It's 05:30 to about eight at night. Now, instead of going on and on about announcements, I've got one guy to introduce right now. Rolando, would you come up? And Aaron, I told him he's making fun of me but I I told him he had three minutes. To introduce himself to you. This is Rolando, and I'll just let him introduce instead. Y'all introduce yourselves. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here once again when you go when you with you all. I wanna thank the pastor for giving us three minutes even though it's less than that now. We wanna thank Bud Soros and his wife for helping us to be able to come here and share with you all. Wanna share with you just briefly about some things that God has allowed us to be able to do in Guatemala. Live up in the mountains in Guatemala. In the middle of three different Mayan languages, dialects. They speak, aside from Spanish, So we work there. He has about sixteen years being in the area. But he started when he was 17 years old. He started in the ministry. Don't ask me how old I am now. But our ministry is focused on three areas. Evangelism. Evangelism. Personal one on one evangelism and also through evangelistic crusades. This year, we wanna start doing evangelistic crusades in 10 different villages and areas. Our second focus of ministry is discipleship. We train and equip pastors from all different denominations in the area. We also train believers and leaders from different churches. And this July, we're gonna start a new program for new leaders in Bible studies. And thirdly, we also focus on helping our neighbor. And what I mean by that is we do medical clinics and we just do different things to help help others and construction projects, all different things. And within that, two years ago, we started up a library for children. We started with 13 children. And yesterday, they told us they had 153 children in the morning and afternoon. The kids come to do their homework, they come to read, they come to look stuff up on the internet because they don't have any at home. And Fridays we have an iguanas program, so that's when more children come. That's a big big group of kids that come for that. And then at the end of the program on Fridays, we give them a snack to each child that comes. But the most important thing through that program is to share Christ with each one of those children. So this is our work. And before we leave, because our three minutes is just about over, or it's already over, I'm going to take one more minute. I would like to ask you all to pray for us. We have a new project. We need to buy a new piece of land and build on it. What I'm saying right now is something I don't like to talk about. I wish someone else would do it for me. But we need to raise more or less $80.00. I trust in the Lord. And I trust that you guys would help us to pray that God would raise everything we need. Thank you for being part of missionary efforts and helping others who are doing the same. And thank you for your patience. Yes, Bud Searles, would you? One pastor, three minutes, another pastor. Two hours. Yeah. I I just need y'all to know. I met this young man when he was about 17. We we were doing missions down in Guatemala and almost single handedly folks. This man built a pastor's conference center in Pourla, Guatemala. It is his most incredible thing that you can ever expect or imagine. This man rode a moped four, five hours a day into Guatemala City just to learn more about how to teach the Lord. I mean, this is most incredible young man you will ever want to meet. He touched my heart several years ago and when when he said that then he couldn't get a visa to come into The United States. So, when he told me he could now travel into The United States, it was a wonderful gift and and you guys pray for this man because God is moving mightily through him. He's just an incredible guy. I've one quick story. When when the Pure Law Conference Center was complete, we we were I was invited to be in the first pastor's training conference and so, I went and three years later, Rolando invited me back for the first graduation and the in Guatemala, everything is built on the side of a mountain and and the the building that was the classroom was up on the side of a mountain and down below, you could see there was probably twenty, thirty students graduating and down below, they were unloading the buses. It was such an overwhelming event for those people and they just started flooding in. There was standing room only for people that were just so excited that their pastors, their loved ones were graduating from this conference center. This is a incredible family and just just keep em in your prayer. Thanks, Ray. Thank you. They also have a they also have a 17 old that's here with him, Jacob or Hakob. He's downstairs but if you wanna talk to him afterwards, if you wanna catch him, they'll be available afterwards and I wanna invite up quickly. Steve and Britt. We know these folks. Brittany kinda grew up here and y'all know her, and they are heading to Central Asia. I wanna give Steve a chance to say so. Yeah. We just wanna say, hey. We're back in town for the next week and a half and just hoping to connect with individuals here. We had just started off on the road on support raising for our first term with MAF back in September and guys just provide in some great ways. We're at 81% of our monthly support now and just 19% left to go and and then you all decide to come on board too. So, we're grateful for that. So, so if you wanna meet with us this week, we've got time and we'd love just to sit down with you. So, these folks are new just starting out. First term heading in and we've already said yes as a church but 81% of their monthly budget is what they have raised so far. They've got 19% left. If you individually like, let pray about it. If you'd like to, that's good. This family has twenty two years for him, twelve, over twelve years for her in ministry. So, we've got the new song and ancient boundary post right here and we're trying to keep with both, okay? So, God, would you please bless these as they seek to do your will as we to share your good news with those who do not yet know it and lord for those who do know it and have a little understanding would you allow us with humility the chance to present them with clarity and a good good way of sharing your good gospel. The jungles of Central America, the little villages in the deserts, on top of the hills and in the valleys, and in Central Asia too, Lord. By land or by air. In Jesus' name, would you bless these and multiply anything given to your kingdom's efforts. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You will hear resounding amen from time to time and it is from Rolando. If if pattern holds. Would you stand with us and we're gonna sing? We usually get a chance to shake hands right here. Why don't y'all do that? Just greet one another warmly and we'll bring you back together with a song. How about that? With the with the stand up base. Eternity rolls. He touched me. Oh, he touched me. And, Lord, the joy that floods my soul something happened and now he touched me and made me Amen. Amen. Amen. As the deer panneth for the water. Hymn number five forty eight if you want to catch your harmony part. Great campfire song. As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee you alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee you alone are my strength my shield to you alone may my spirit alone are my hearts desire and I long to worship thee you're my friend and you are my brother even though you are a king I love you more than any other so much more than anything you alone are my strength my shield to you alone may my spirit yield you alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee I want you more than gold or silver only you can satisfy you alone are the real joy giver and the apple of my You alone are my strength, my shield. Do you alone may my spirit you alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna ask the frontline team to come forward. Please. And as I do, would y'all pray with me? Lord God, we've heard from a couple of different sets of missionaries this morning and I just pray that you would bless their efforts, Lord. That you would make clear the path before them. And I mean in the individual encounters that they have. I thank you that you have given them a passion for your good gospel. And I thank you that you've given this church clarity with your mission to those who have yet not known you. So, God, would you take what is given right now? An acknowledgement that we trust you and believe you, An acknowledgement that we know this has come from you. And in our blessing, Lord, we want to bless others. Would you multiply it to do your kingdom's work? Would you advance the gospel through our offerings this morning. In Jesus name, would you take it and do like you did with the loaves and the fish, multiply it to do your kingdom's work. Amen. Amen. What I call a crowdsourced sermon. I ask you all the week before if you would write down the gospel and I ask you to do it in 10 words or less but if you're unable to do it in 10 words or less to do it in one sentence, okay? Give me a shot here of the gospel and a lot of y'all responded. I had like 120 something responses came back between the two Sundays which is great. I'm going to share some of em at random to just get you back in the flow there. At the cross, Jesus reconciled holy God and sinful man and this was the whole scrap sheet of where she had been working through it. Her husband stole one of hers too but anyway, Jesus resurrection reconciles holy God and sinful people who believe. That's good. Amen. Faith in Jesus is enough to be forgiven and transformed. Amen. God's gift of reconciliation offered to humanity. That's the gospel. Not specific but it's the gospel. Individuals can have peace with God through Jesus atoning death. Amen. Jesus perfect life for our imperfect ones. Amen. God's message of love and forgiveness available in Christ alone. I was dead, now alive, lost, but now found. This one got poetic. God's love, his son, for redemption, our gift to heaven. Peace with God on his terms. Acceptance of undeserved blessings and atonement for yesterday, today, and forever like that. When Christ died so that we might live, the only way to become right with God. God's righteous wrath shall be averted pleading Christ's death alone. That's a good one. They all kind of come at it from slightly different angles but it's good, you know? And then the last one, damnable as mankind is. God in Christ provides the opposite. I like that one a lot too. So, those were 10 word sentences, most of em. We have one sentence this Sunday that we're going to study. It happens to be four verses or almost four whole verses. 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25. So, almost five verses. And this is it. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith and I have learned my lesson about using pink. I will not use pink anymore. I know y'all can't see that. I'm sorry. Can we kill these lights here, Renzo? Do know how to do that? Because that might help a little bit or a little bit more than a little bit. Okay. That's helpful. Sorry. That's just the way it is. If we look at that and I I broke it up. Actually, I looked at it in Greek because it was easier. The the English word order was throwing me a little bit. So, I looked it up and I decided to do, hey, grammar nerd, sentence diagramming. This is a mechanical layout of the Greek. I know you can't read it because it's so small up there and because it's in Greek but anyway, the the all of the circles and arrows and all of that sort of stuff brought me through it and I decided there are three sections. This is the first part, second part, and this middle part right here, the blue part, is something that we have covered for the last eight weeks straight. It's a summary of it. It's right there, the Ugar part right there. First, the blue part. We're going to go over that. Get that out of the way. It is a restatement of what we have heard from 01/18 all the way forward to 03/20. It's been the same thing. The pagans stand condemned before God and the Jews, stand condemned before God. All of us have sinned and so this first blue part is a restatement of that. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that's the way we read it in the New American Standard Bible. I want to break it down for you for there is no distinction. There's no difference between anybody. It should lead to greater unity and humility because we're all in the same bucket as Florine says. There is no distinction, no different for all that is everyone, sun qualified, absolutely everyone. Have sinned for all have sinned. It's past tense. The past tense meaning, it's for sure fact in the past whether it's by nature as in original sin or by nurture by choosing it, absolutely, both of those. Have sinned. But that's a past tense statement. The next part with this and between is actually a present parsiplets are falling short. So, we have sinned in the past but we are right now, all of us, without any distinction, falling short. We are falling short of the glory of God. Wow. That's heavy. And that are falling short habitually and continually, all of us and so that should lead to greater humility also, I think but I'm going to be through with the blue part. That's it. Blue part's over. It's a summary and it is about sin. It looms large in everyone's existence and in everyone's life. It is a fact. Sin. One eighteen through three twenty makes that point if you want to look back to that but three twenty one says, but and I love this extra large adversative conjunction and in this case, it actually says, but now, which intensifies, it makes it stronger. The words there are noonie day. Noon is how you say now in Greek but when you say noonie, noonie is even bigger like right now. This is the time. It's a very emphatic statement. Noony day, but now, everything has changed. So, sin looms large but now and he's going to tell us what God's done to deal with it in the next rest of the sentence. So, but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Now, the yellow part. So, we cover the blue part, sin, right? Now, the yellow part. This repeats many elements of the gospel that Paul has already shared. He states the gospel in brief in the very first five, four, five verses. Then, he states it explicitly and I've told you that's the theme of the letter sixteen and seventeen. It's the theme of this whole letter. He shared that. So, here they are. Paul, he's naming himself. A bond servant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set apart for what? The gospel, the good news of God. That which he promised beforehand. Now, we just read, it was witnessed to by the law and the prophets. That which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. According to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our lord and then, his thesis statement for Romans. For I am not ashamed of this gospel. For it it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek because there's no distinction. Are you getting that? For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Same word, made manifest. It is revealed. From faith to faith as it as it is written, the righteous one or the righteous man shall live by faith. So, sin still looms large. In between that statement of the gospel, he's gone into sin for two and a half chapters. So, it's looming over us. It's pervasive. It's sticky. Something that's hard to get away from. You try but he cuts off every way of escape until but now. But now, it's very very strong but now, apart from the law. So, he said, not just for the Jews, he had just mentioned that, you know, everything that the law says, it says it to the ones who are hearing it. So, that's the Jews. He's saying, but apart from the law, forget about the law for a minute. This is for everybody. Is the God of the Jews, not the God of the Gentiles also? He, if he's God, he's God. So, apart from the law, get rid of that in your minds for just a minute. God's righteousness all of a sudden is revealed. And so that's what I do with the slide right there. God, his righteousness. Now, it's revealed. It's up there. And then he backs up little claws off the side says, now, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, everything attest to this, everything points towards this, everything in the law and the prophets does say that God is good. And then he intensifies things by this even right here. In fact, a good translation would be moreover. So, the righteousness of God has been made manifest or has been manifested. Moreover, the righteousness of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. So, if we look at this, he's intensified God's righteousness. You see it up there now? It's glowing yellow. Apart from the law, being witnessed by the prophets, God's righteousness. I mean, even God's righteousness through what? Through faith of Jesus Christ. Now, about 70% of y'all are going have a Bible that says through faith in Jesus Christ. It's perfectly good translation but I want you to consider something this morning. Those of you who've been Christians for a long time, some of your amateur theologians and you have always taken this to mean through my faith that I put into Jesus Christ and that's a fine way to take it. I'm not trying to take it away from you especially since it's followed up by for those who believe but it makes it redundant if you say something absolutely the same thing twice in a row in a sentence. So, I want you to consider this of right there. Instead of in like as in most of your Bibles, consider that this is an of. That is because of this. Those oh oh right there makes this a genitive for those nerds out there who care. It's a genitive construction, genitive case. Usually, it can be either objective or subjective. We have taken it for many many years to be objective like Jesus Christ is the object in which we would put our faith and that's good theology and it's listed that way no doubt in many many places in the Bible. Right here, it says, of instead of in and so, although this is a good translation, I want you to consider this. Through the faith of Jesus Christ. Do you see what that does? So, Jesus rather than being the object of your faith that you put in him, he is the subject and it is Christ's faith. Actually, a good translation also might be through Jesus Christ's faith. That's what genitive is usually possessive. Through Jesus Christ's faith or even faithfulness. The same word means faith and faithfulness. If you think on that one a long time, your head will turn out because what you believe is what you act on. What you have faith in is what you eventually begin to act on and so your faithfulness follows what it is that you have faith in but Jesus Christ faith and his faithfulness never wavered, not ever. He was tempted in all the ways we're tempted but was without sin. So, consider this, through Jesus Christ faithfulness. God's righteousness moreover is known through Jesus Christ faithfulness and little play on words, you're looking through Jesus Christ faithfulness and seeing God's righteousness, okay? Consider that. It's through the faithfulness of Christ because if we got really real with each other, a lot of times we would say, I believe in Jesus but there are days when I believe in him more than I do some days. My faith has rocked from time to time and I don't have the same kind of continual faithfulness. Yeah, I can sing great as thy faithfulness, oh Lord, but you know, prone to wonder, lord, I feel it for myself. If you take this to be a subjective genitive which I do, then, Christ's faithfulness never waivers. It is a steady standard on which you can build and so, I think that that's a good one because especially the other point is covered right here in this next portion for all those who believe. So, he's saying, you put your faith in Christ's faithfulness. Amen. You put the faith that he's given you into his faithfulness. Okay. So, that's the first part. For all those who believe, you see God's righteousness through Jesus faithfulness. So, that's the yellow part. We've already done the yellow part. We've already done the blue part. Now, we get to the part that's really hard to read on the screen. The pink part. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Now, in that little part of the sentence, that secondary part of the sentence there, We have three really churchy words. So, lastly, in this pink part, we have three metaphors for the mechanism of the gospel. Bob Wells would love this. Bob Wells would love it. He loves mechanisms. Three metaphors for the mechanism of the gospel. Being justified, redemption, and propitiation. Those are the three churchy words that we hear and they just sound like, oh yeah, that's holy. But we might not know exactly what they mean or where they are drawn or where they're coming from. So, let's go over those each. Being justified, I mentioned last week because I did make it to this point last week. I just didn't hit it quite as hard. Being justified is a legal metaphor. Wherein a believer in Jesus is put at right relationship with God even though and even against his or her very real guilt. He's already told us for two and a half chapters, everyone of us is guilty. Being justified as saying, the judge, God is the judge, saying, you are right with me. All is right with me. Your guilt is eliminated. You are innocent. Being acquitted by God's decree as the judge. That's being justified. You didn't do anything to justify yourself. He justifies and that grammatical construction again is the divine passive. Meaning that God is the prime mover. He is the actor and you are the one that is acted upon. Do you, are you with me? So, that's being justified. I covered that last week. I underline that last part. It's not by means of any work the defendant has done or will do and the reason for that, I can say very, very assuredly because he follows up being justified with a couple of different modifiers. One of them is freely. It's not by what you've done. It's freely. He's giving it freely because he can. As a gift, some of your translations would say and by his grace, all of em will say and the his there underline because it is intense. It is by God's grace, not by your own grace or your gracious acceptance. No, it is by God's grace that he's extended the offer to you to be justified. Redemption, that's the next of the churchy words and we hear redeem. Actually, when I think of redemption, all I think of coke bottles. When I was little, we used to redeem money. You got money back for a Coke bottle that you turn back in but it it originally comes from either the slave market or prisoners of war in particular or condemned prisoners. So, Paul's metaphor from POWs are slaves wherein a captive or a condemned prisoner or a slave is ransom. That is a price is paid to secure their freedom from captivity, from condemnation, or from slavery. Now, the emphasis in this word is on the freedom part of it. It's the price has to be paid but it's the freedom. If I wanted to buy someone out of slavery from someone else but I put them back into slavery myself, that would not be freedom. That's just a transaction. This the emphasis with this word is to redeem is to set someone free from captivity or condemnation and I found an two sentence two verse little snippet from the Old Testament in Exodus where it's listing all these laws and listing all of the punishments that shall accompany an infraction. This one's about a bull that's gone bad. If however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it pinned up and it kills a man or a woman, that bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. Sounds like a harsh penalty but it is the law. This is this is the law, right? However, if payment is demanded by the people who've lost their loved one, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life. That owner may pay himself out of his debt of death in payment of whatever price is demanded. Okay? So that is the redeem. Redeem is to buy your freedom. That's what it is. And this redemption is listed so cool. This is this redemption which is in Christ Jesus. The redemption which is in Christ Jesus. A lot of those 10 word gospels pointed to in Christ alone and this is the place where that transaction is made in Christ Jesus. There is redemption. He paid the price for our freedom. So, propitiation, next churchy church word. Paul's metaphor from the Old Testament mercy seat. So, inside of the temple, a lot of y'all know inside of the Old Testament temple, There were different places where different people could approach and one time a year, the high priest only could come once a year and enter into the Holy of Holies. They actually tied a rope around his foot so that if he had not cleansed himself and prayed up and eliminated before God all of his sin. Worked before God to purify his heart. If he went in there to the mercy seat to make atonement for everybody else and he died because he was not clean, clean, not pure, then they could drag him out with that rope. Nobody else is going to go in there to get him. The mercy seat was that place where that priest one time a year on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, would go in and he would sprinkle the blood when unblemished one. He'd sprinkle that blood because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. This propitiation, that mercy seat, that's actually literally the name of the mercy seat is propitiation. It is the place where God's wrath is removed. The wrath of God is averted in propitiation. Now, if you look up and you started doing a study on this word, you would find people arguing about it ad infinitum. Some of them saying it is expiation because it's actually removing sin and it's not just removing wrath. Either way, I don't care. I'm not going to arm or arm wrestle you for it. Most translations use propitiation. A few use expiation. It's all about removing the wrath of God because of the sin. And some translations have started to go with mercy seat. They just call it mercy seat because that's what the Old Testament usage is. It's about the removal of wrath and the way that it says, wrath is removed is in his blood, capital H, that's Jesus blood and through faith. So, the mechanism is his blood but our way to access that is through faith. What it is that we believe. So, for all those who believe as a gift by his grace, they are being justified, redeemed, and propitiated. And that's all good. Justification deals with guilt, redemption deals with enslavement, and propitiation deals with wrath. Are you with me? Yes. I know this is churchy church church. Actually, this is going a lot faster than that first service. You must be smarter than me. Plea in abeyance. Have any of y'all ever heard this term? A plea in abeyance. Really? I've heard, I've got one of you. If you have heard of this term before, you're probably either a lawyer. Yes, that is Johnny Cochran. We're stalking talking about somebody being guilty and getting off as innocent. A lawyer or you've gotten a speeding ticket in the state of Utah. A plea in abeyance is an an anomaly in the state. Some other places practice it but they don't call it this but a plea in abeyance. Let's say, you were coming back from spring break, hypothetically and you couldn't wait to get back to Jackson. So, you're coming along pretty quick through Murray County, Utah and as you came back through Murray County, you got pulled over by a policeman and he gave you a ticket for speeding and there is an offer given at a plea in abeyance. When I think of Utah, think of two things. Now, I'll think of three things actually but the two things that I typically think of are Mormons and the Great Salt Lake and I'll try to make a point on both of these but I want you to go through with me right now a plea in abeyance. First of all, if you admit your guilt by entering a plea of guilty or no contest, And well, and you do not technically pay a fine because that would be punishment, and they're saying that this is not punishment. You do pay a one time administrative fee that's associated with your plea in abeyance. Okay? It happens to be exactly the same as the fine for being guilty. And your plea will then be held in abeyance, that is kinda legal limbo for six months or for a year. Now, if during that time, you do not reoffend and you do complete a class and you do pass a test and you pay for both of those. Then, your case will be dismissed. Kind of because there is a record of it as a plea which you plead guilty to. And after two or three years depending on where you are, it could be expunged if you did all the right things that way. I don't want to plead in abeyance. I'm either guilty or innocent, you know? I don't want to put things off. I don't want to try to do better. If you look at Mormon theology, this is a lot like it is. Now, who was the actor? Who was the prime mover in all of that that we talked about justification and all of that that we talked about redemption and all that we talked about in propitiation. It was God. He's the one acting. I have one more point. One last point. Whom God displayed publicly. That word is so cool. Pro A Feta. Is it's an heiress, middle, indicative, third person singular verb and it is talking about God. There's no doubt about it. It says, very explicitly, it's God who does this. Now, that word is from this word, protethemi, a my actually, which means to place before or to set forth but since it is middle, since it is the middle voice, it's God doing that on his own behalf. Does this make sense? He is setting before himself. So, to place before himself and it says that he placed a propitiation before himself. Does that make sense? This is so beautiful if you get it. That God places before himself or set forth for himself set forth to be looked at, exposed to view, to expose to public view, even set before oneself, to propose to oneself to purpose or determine within oneself. Do you get me? So, he has made a way. Now, he's the judge and he can come up with the way. We have sinned that is pervasive and sticky and it's with us and he has made a way. God is completely just and in Jesus, he is shown to be completely merciful. He has satisfied his own wrath by giving Jesus by Jesus in humility dying. He has satisfied the wrath of God and how do you access that for all of those who would believe? It is a completed transaction. When Jesus said, it is finished, he meant it. It is finished. Now, your actions will follow what it is that you believe. If you believe it's all on you as in a plea and abeyance, then, it's all on you and you won't measure up. But if it's all on God and he's done everything possible and all he is asking for you to do is believe him. There's no distinction for any of us. Don't matter what background we're coming from. Don't matter where we're from. If we believe that the Bible is true, this is a very simple matter. There's no distinction among any of us. For all have sinned, past tense, and all are currently falling short of the glory of God both habitually and continually. So, sin is a fact and with the fact of sin comes guilt and enslavement and wrath. That's what comes with it. There are other things but guilt, enslavement, and wrath. So, if Christ has paid the penalty for our guilt and if he has set us free from enslavement and if the wrath of God is no longer sitting upon us, that's a pretty good deal, right? The but now and the but now hinges on this. In time, it hinged on the death of Christ on that cross, resurrection at that time and that's why Paul could say temporarily but now, this is a new frame of things but for each of us individually, the but now is when you believe. When you trust that what God has said, my gift to you by my grace is that you would be justified freely, not because you did something. Just believe me. Peace with God on his terms. He accomplished it and what he asked for us is to believe him. That's what he asked for. I almost feel like getting Rolando a chance to call and do the altar call. No, I'm just kidding. Somebody shakes it off. No. Believe him. Believe him. That's what he calls for. I have one more illustration and then we'll wrap up. It did take twenty minutes longer in the first service but the plea and abeyance in the Utah law there, I mentioned and how it is mostly based on you working and you paying. There's no one propitiating for you. There's no one redeeming you and there is no one saying that you're not guilty. Until you prove yourself. And even then it's still there. There's a ghost of it. And can be brought back up at a further date. God is talking about throwing your sins as far as the East is from the West and remembering them no more. Not charging them to your account at all. He doesn't remember them. That's good. One last point is this. The other thing I think about when I think of Utah is Salt Lake. So, the Great Salt Lake is fed by four rivers and as those rivers go in, the water is fresh and it is clean for the most part and it is good and so when water comes in, it's fine but it sits there and has no outlet and it stagnates and it's kind of desert like and so it evaporates off the water and the filth and the salts and everything else just keep on piling up and it gets to be a place where nothing can live. There's one other great salt lake that we know of that we hear a lot about in the Bible. It's the Dead Sea. It's used an example in the Old Testament. It's been used in myriad of sermons but when something flows into your life but has no way of flowing out, it curdles and nothing can live there and it is really, really, really kind of nasty after a while and it can't support any real life, spiritual life. We're talking about in our case or life. So, I'm going to say just one example. God has given Christ to forgive us of our sin and so if that's something that we've received from him, I have received forgiveness. Paul in another place and a couple other writers say, just in exactly the same way that God has forgiven you of your sins, be forgiving one another. It's one of those reciprocal commands. We should be forgiving one another just as God and Christ has forgiven us. So, if God has given us forgiveness and it flows into this lake and we don't let that flow out and forgive other people in exactly the same way that Christ has forgiven us, then, we become stagnant and we don't support spiritual life. Do you get me? Do you get that? That that's a little bit off of this subject but I know in several examples right now, there are several of us that are holding on to something that we should really let go of and have an outlet for the grace of God. Realizing that we did nothing to deserve his favor and the person who has wronged us has done nothing to deserve our favor. God forgives us anyway. We can forgive them anyway. You have that? Okay. Praise God. I have one more little thing. Camp Bethel, if you have any kids, middle school, or high school kids, talk to Renzi afterwards and he'll tell you more about Camp Bethel because I skipped that announcement. Sorry, Renzi and today is a day that lots of churches across the land are showing unity and solidarity with the International Persecuted Church. And it was interesting this week because we have scheduled. We had had scheduled a lady who was supposed to come up and teach a relationship education class for the whole high school, some middle schoolers, and some some at school too. And she has been she had an offer extended and was planning on coming and speaking like a public school assembly. But because of a very, very vocal minority, I hope of people, her invitation to come and do this relationship education has been rescinded and so we are praying through with her to see whether she will come and and be able to be here but you can expect this week to find that in this community, the church is persecuted. It's not the same way as the way of the world. We want to be winsome kind, good, and not join in the bashing or the ugliness but at the same time, I wanted to mention that to y'all. So, would you stand with me as we stand and I'll pray. We'll wait on the last. Yeah. God, we do want to stand out as light in this community. We do want to stand out as different from the community but we want to do so in a way that draws people to you and does not push people away. We know that her message is a message that is motivated by your word, and that is what people are upset about. But Lord, the data bears it out that you love us and you care for us and you've given us this very clear instruction because you know how detrimental and hurtful and harmful it is when we go against that, your idea for our sexuality. So, God, would you show us as a church the right way individually how we should respond? And, lord, would you allow us to do so in a way that that would generate positive interest in you, that you would draw people through this adversity. We stand with the persecuted church worldwide for those who are under threat of having their heads literally cut off. We stand with Rolando and some of the indigenous religions that would have him stay away with Melissa Landis, who is dealing with the ancestor worship in the Zulu community that she lives in. With all of those in the international church that are under persecution, Lord, we pray for your strength, for your long suffering, for your patience. But we also pray that through this test, through this fire, through this battle, your name would be made great that we could be a part of the vast and unchronicled witness that leads to the advance of your kingdom. It's for your good gospel lord that we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, how about the doxology to end? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Amen. Y'all are dismissed.