Please now turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4. And this morning we finished the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Romans 4 verses 16 through 25. Let's stand together and hear the word of God. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope and hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Chapter five, verse one, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the very word of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this word this morning to comfort us, to point us to the doctrine of justification, that we would stand righteous, that we would be entirely forgiven in your sight because of the work of Jesus Christ for us on the cross. Father, we pray these words to sink in even more today, that we would respond in joyful praise for this great salvation that you brought to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit, be with us now. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Well, this entire section has spoken of the faith of Abraham. And we are Abraham's children, if we share in this faith, if we have the faith of Abraham in God to keep his promises, then we follow in the footsteps of our father, Abraham. And we'll begin in verse 22, this morning, that it was accounted to him for righteousness, That is, his faith, spoken of in the previous verses, was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. That is, what God is looking at is faith. There's no question that Abraham believed God and followed through on things. There's no question that his faith resulted in works. But they are distinct, but not separate. And when God justifies a person, He does it not on the basis of works. What God cares about beyond anything else is our faith. God is looking to our faith. God wants you to believe in Him. God wants you to believe His promises. That's two different ways to say it. God wants you to believe Him, and God wants you to believe in His promises. God wants you to believe the things He promises to you, and He wants you to believe in Himself. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is in Jesus. And yes, that implies our faith is in what He did for us, as well as the promises of God. So it is, you see, both. Sometimes we say, you've got to believe Jesus, or you've got to believe God. And sometimes we say, you've got to believe in God. Well, either way, it speaks of our faith in God. Abraham believed God, and Abraham believed the promises of God, both. So to believe God, to trust in Him, this is what God wants, more than anything else from us. It's the primary thing. Now, God wants other things, too. But this is first and foremost, God wants our faith. And our faith is accounted to us for righteousness, even as it was for Abraham. Now, this should not be an unusual thing for us, that God should expect us to believe His Word. God should expect us to believe His promises. After all, everybody believes in something. I honestly do not believe in evidentialism as a primary apologetic. Why? Because everybody, when it comes down to it, believes in authority of some sort. Everybody comes back to an authority, whether it be themselves, scientific evidence, the interpretation of scientific evidence based upon some particular worldview. But whatever the case, everybody believes in an ultimate. Everybody believes in themselves or something else. Everybody believes in something or somebody for truth, for blessing, or for salvation, or a hopeful end of some sort. People cannot live without hope. They cannot live without believing and holding on to something. All we're saying is that you ought to believe in God. I press this on people who doubt God. I ask them, do you doubt yourself? Well, they say, no, I have absolute trust in myself. My response to that is I don't trust you. And I don't trust me. Can anybody say amen to that? Well, yeah, thank you. You don't trust me. That's good, I like that. Trust God, amen? Does that make more sense than to trust in yourself? Or to trust in empirical science? Or to trust in your eyes? Or to trust in smart philosophers? I mean the smartest philosophers. Trust in God makes all the sense in the world. And by the way, this is so crucial to our eternal destiny. John 3, verse 17, you trust in Jesus. You believe in Jesus, you have eternal life. You don't believe in Jesus, you're damned forever. You're going to hell forever. You will burn in hell forever. You see how trusting is important, and it's important to everybody. Trusting something is important. But this is the highest of stakes of anything is this challenge that we get from Jesus in John 3 we to believe in Jesus Christ or not. If we do not believe in Jesus Christ, we will be condemned. Okay, so it's important to believe, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the blessing of God forever and ever. Now, do you see how important it is to believe in God, to believe the promise of God, to believe the Savior of God, This is of ultimate importance and significance to every person in this room this morning. Believe in God. Believe in Jesus. Take upon yourself the faith of righteousness or of Abraham, the faith of Abraham, that faith was accounted to him for righteousness. This is real faith. This is true faith. This is Abraham style faith. You say, what kind of faith is it? It was already brought out to us in this passage. He was not weak in faith despite all discouraging evidences, the ratcheting up of impossibilities. Abraham still believed God. He still believed the promises of God. He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief. He was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to pull off. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Well, then verse 23 and 24 applies the same thing for ourself. Here's what the apostle tells us, this wasn't just written for Abraham, this was written for you and me as well. This has an application to every person in the world today. And if we have the faith of Abraham, it will be accounted to us for righteousness as well. That's the message of the apostle Paul in Romans chapter four. Now, there's a slight difference here as to what we believe. You see, Abraham was promised that he would have a seed that would inherit the world. That's what he, but he was promised. Now we, I believe, are to believe that as well, but specifically what's given to us here in these verses, verse 24 and 25, is that we believe that God actually brought forth the seed. You see, for Abraham, God would bring forth the seed. For us, what are we to believe? We're to have the faith of Abraham, but what are we to believe? You see, what's important for us? What is the content of our faith? Well, it's to believe that God actually did it. God pulled it off, God brought forth the seed, and he raised the seed from the dead. So you see, Abraham had to believe the promise, but we must believe that God fulfilled the promise. That's the difference. There was something else also needed to happen before the birth of the seed. and is inheriting the world. It's interesting that this little piece was not brought into the revelation of the promise of God to Abraham somewhat 3,000, 3,800 years ago. And indeed, what we find is that Abraham was given something of a hint of it. How was Abraham given a hint that the seed would have to die? You see, the seed would come, that was the promise, but that he would become the heir of the world. But then it turned out the seed would have to die. Was Abraham aware of this? Was Abraham given this little piece of information? That's important for us to know, of course. But was Abraham up to speed on this element of the promise that not only would Abraham receive a seed that would inherit the world, but this seed would have to die. Well, of course, Abraham believed that God was able to raise his son from the dead on Moriah, so it's evident that God used this image, this experience on Mount Moriah in order for him to understand that this was indeed an aspect of the promise, the promised son that would come through the seed of Isaac. The seed would have to die. The seed would have to die. Referred to this in John 12, 23. You probably remember that. The minute I share that with you, that little factoid about how the seed would come to err the world, but first he would have to die. Jesus said the very same thing in John 12 and verse 23. The hour has come, said Jesus. that the Son of God should be glorified. But then he said this, Most assuredly, I say to you, in other words, he's saying, the hour has come that the seed is going to be the heir of the world, so he will be glorified. It's coming, it's coming, it's coming, but listen to what he says. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain, referring to his own death. So the seed was going to have to die. This is all part of the promise that God would bring to Abraham and of course to us as well. So what is it that we must believe? We must believe in God, God who is all powerful, all good, infinitely capable of fulfilling his promises. We must believe first in God. Remember, we're to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're to believe in God, who is quite competent and certainly trustworthy to bring about his promises, the promise that he brought to Abraham so many years ago. We must believe in God. But we also must believe... Here in verse 24 again, we must believe that God has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now the reason I bring this out is because this is the minimum thing we must believe. You say, I really want to go to glory. I don't want to spend an eternity in hell. I don't want to be under the condemnation, the damnation of God. So what is it that I must do? What must I do to be saved is the cry that the Philippian jailer sent to the apostles. And the apostles replied, you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And this again presents the minimal requirement of what it is. What exactly is it that I must believe? I remember asking myself that question as I was listening to sermons. As at 11 or 12 or 13 years of age, I had something of the fear of God about me, but I really wanted to know what it is. I must be a believer. I must believe. But what is it precisely that I must believe? And here the Bible brings it to us in black and white in simple terms. So it's not a complicated thing. It's just that you must believe that God has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. So that's it. That's what you must believe. Romans 10 in verse nine is also super clear on this. So you might look at that. Again, if your soul is hinging on this point, you should be paying attention. If the eternal destiny of your soul is hinging on a point like this, we're really at the core of the gospel this morning, so pay very much attention to what I'm saying, especially as I read this verse, Romans 10 in verse 9. I put it on the children's notes because I thought it was that important. Romans 10 in verse 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So you wanna be saved? Anybody wanna be saved this morning? Raise your hand. Almost everybody. Okay, that's good. And gradually everybody's hands are going up. Yes, we all wanna be saved. Well, here is a very simple text. You wanna be saved? You must believe and confess in your heart that Jesus is Lord, in your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and you will be saved. So now we must believe these two things. Let's take this apart just for a moment. Let's dissect it for a moment. The first thing we must believe is that there is a person who has been raised from the dead and that is Jesus, our Lord. And here it's, you must confess that Jesus is Lord. So we confess with the mouth that Jesus is Lord. In our passage, it's very interesting, it's almost identical. Here it says we must believe that God the Father raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. So it's this personalization of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's important that we believe that the one who was raised from the dead is not a Lord, not just the Lord, but my Lord, your Lord, our Lord. personalized to you and to me, our Lord, my master. He's the one who is raised from the dead. And then secondly, that God raised this Lord, this King, this mighty Savior from the dead to be the Lord, to be the King on his right hand to rule. Now, this has implications. I want to hit just a couple of these implications, first of which is I think we must be confident in the power of Almighty God doing this and raising His Son from the dead. We must be sure that Jesus overcame the enemy of death by this mighty resurrection force and that the same power, we read this in Ephesians 1, this is a very important implication. Ephesians 1 tells us the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in me and that's in you. And so to be aware of this, to believe it, To know that we are empowered by Almighty God and the power that He used to raise His Son from the dead is in each and every one of us. That's first. We must be confident that Jesus overcame death and we overcome death as well. That's number one. Second implication of this is that if Jesus has overcome death and we overcome death ourselves, then to live is Christ and to die is gain. Or as Paul says in Philippians 1. I am hard pressed between the two. That is whether he should live and continue to minister or to die. He says it's hard for me to make that decision. Not that it's his ultimate decision to do that, but which is it? Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ is far better. That is far better. That is Paul is looking forward to death and his own resurrection. And that's where we are. That's an implication. Given that we believe this, do you believe it? Saints, do you believe it? Are you looking forward to your death with great anticipation that to live as Christ? Yes, to live as good. We appreciate living here with Christ, in Christ. and for Christ, but death is far better, much rather. I'm looking forward to my death. That's an implication of believing this kind of stuff. Do you believe it? Do you believe you'll rise one day from the dead? You're headed there yourself. That's most certainly you will die, but you're also signing up not for your own death, but also for your resurrection. It's always a twofer for the Christian. He doesn't separate out the death from the resurrection It's simply to die, to walk across the river and to be in glory. Death means resurrection for the believer. It's nothing that we consider to be a negative in our minds. We do not consider death, our own death to be a negative because our death implies our own resurrection. So we move ahead with this victorious mindset as 1 Corinthians 15 ends. Listen, the sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the law. So what makes death so much of a sting to us is sin. It's the sin that Jesus, by the way, overcame at the cross. We'll get there in just a moment. But that's the thing that makes death so hard is because of the sin and the guilt and all that's wrapped up in heading towards this horrible, horrible impending judgment that comes upon the wicked, but not so for us. The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." It is this victorious mindset that we are winning. Jesus won and we win. Okay. Thirdly, third implication of believing this. Do we believe this? Are we Christians? is we're not gonna worry about sicking, sickness, the sickness that leads to death. We don't worry about these sorts of things. We don't get all wrapped up in our health issues. Now it's ironic that we live in the nation that is most concerned about sickness and death, more than any other nation in the world today. Americans are the worst in the world for a fixation upon their health. They spend 16.5% of the GDP, the highest in the world by far, on their health. Number two is France at 11.9%, then comes Australia at 9.8%, and Israel at 7.3%, about half of America, and then China is at 5.4%. America is one of the most depressed nations in the world, constantly anxious, worried about sickness, health issues, always coming into the conversation. The world is endlessly talking about health. By the way, this expenditure on health has zero correlation to longevity. Israel's longevity average 83. They only spend 7.3%, half of what we spend on health. Australia is 84 years old on average and the US is at 78. So Americans are afraid to die and that fear and that anxiety, I believe, probably lead to early death. This is probably what's happening. Because of this fixation on health, This rejection of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This refusal to believe in the eternal life that is coming to us post our death and then our resurrection. This, my friends, is an indication of the faithlessness of America. Very shameful. Very shameful. May God bring that faith to God's people such that we look forward to our own death. Not that we commit suicide or anything like that. We've got a job to do. We serve the Master. We just talked about how we are here to serve the Master. But our major concern is not our health, our physical health. No, no. Let's move on to the fourth implication, that is, yes, our Lord, our Master, is very much alive. He is very much over us. He's attendant to us. We are subjected to our Master. We're here to serve the Master. That's why we don't go for an early death. Yes, we may suffer here. That's okay. He is there. He's a companion. We are in the fellowship of His sufferings, in the midst of our sufferings. And so on, we can talk about that. And His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses, in our sufferings. And we witness these wonderful things in our sufferings. But we are subjected to our Lord. When we confess that Jesus is our Lord, which is part of this faith system, it's believing in Jesus. Yes, our Savior, but believing that He is our Lord. We confess Jesus as my Lord. He is my master. It's interesting when I was in, Mexico and down in Brazil, you hear people praying and they're constantly using the word senor in the prayers. Have you ever heard a Mexican pray? Or have you heard a Brazilian pray? You hear them saying senor about every four or five words. You think, why do they keep saying senor all the time? Well, it turns out senor is the Spanish or Portuguese word for Lord. He is our Lord. And to be a Lord, it means that He is our master. We use the word, but let's remember who Jesus is. He is our master. He is over us. And so what is it to confess Jesus as Lord? You say, well, I want to confess that Jesus is my Lord. What is it to confess Jesus as Lord? I'll take you to Acts chapter 9, because this is the first indication of the faith of the Apostle Paul, where he became a Christian. He became a Christian on the road to Damascus. Remember there, he fell down on the ground and he immediately confessed Jesus as his master right there and then. That's the point at which he becomes a Christian. Listen to Acts 9 and verse 6. He, that is Saul or the Apostle Paul, trembling and astonished. There he is on the ground before Jesus. He's trembling and astonished and he says, Lord, what would you have me to do? That's a confession of Jesus as Lord. So you say, what is it to become Christian? It's to fall on your face on the Damascus road, look up to Jesus and say these words, my master, my Lord, what would you have me to do? That's what it is. That's what it is to have Jesus as Lord. So children, it's very simple. It's just saying, Jesus, you're my master. You are my Lord. What will you have me to do today? That's it, that's a confession. Now granted, he'll give you some things and so forth, but it's first, a confession. First and foremost, it's a confession. It's a heart confession, it's a mouth confession of Jesus as our Lord and Master. Okay, let's move on to verse 25. And this is really the core of the message this morning. I'm gonna laser in on this verse as we finish up this chapter. And this is an expression of the core gospel message. And let's read this verse one more time. Verse 25. Let's back up again to verse 24. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Alright, so that's the core gospel message. So I want to park here for the rest of the message. Jesus died and rose again from the dead. But here's the question that I want to answer, and the question is answered in this passage. Jesus was delivered up, but why? Jesus died on the cross, but why? Why was he dead on the cross, and why was he raised from the dead? That's the question for us. Verse 25, this here is the gospel message. Let's address the question, why did Jesus die first? Again, extremely core for the Christian message. And I'm going to pull out as many verses as possible. I put them in your notes this morning, and I'll go over them very, very quickly. I did a word study throughout the entire New Testament to identify all the reasons why Jesus died, and then also all the reasons why Jesus came to earth. So it seems to me this is so core that if we miss the core, the trunk issues in the gospel message, we will be of all men most miserable. It would be a terrible thing to lose a grip on the core gospel message itself. And so there's so much of the core gospel message that I think is missed, actually missed today. So let's take this apart. First of all, he died for our offenses. Haraptoma is the Greek word found in this text. And that word is well translated, offenses. The idea of offenses is breaking the law. When you break the law, you offend somebody. If you were to rob a bank, you will find yourself to be an offender. because you have offended somebody. Now it turns out you offended the law, you offended judges, you offended the legislators, and you offended the people of the United States as well as the people who own the bank, people who deposit their money in the bank. You offended a lot of people. But primarily, you offended God, and you offended the law itself. You broke the law. This is what it is to be an offender. And we, by our deviations from God's laws, have offended God. Now, it's important for us to realize that this is very similar to the idea of anomia, that is sins. Jesus also died on the cross for our sins, so in other words, anomia, and that is the idea of being against or opposed to or a transgressor of the law of God. So either way, we are offenders. We have broken the law of God. And so here's the first point that I do want to drive home again this morning, and that is that there has been attack on the gospel among evangelicals in our day. It's a very, very root and core matter in terms of this attack upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, a well-known PCA pastor was speaking at a university in which he told them, you don't go to hell for homosexuality. He said, you don't go to hell for homosexuality. You go to hell for self-righteousness or for not believing in Jesus. Now, this is an egregious violation of the gospel message itself. It's terrible. Why? Because it's minimizing the definition of sin itself, which is to be autonomous, opposed, anti the laws of God, any kind of expression in which a person exemplifies themselves as opposed to the laws of God. And this is very popular among evangelicals today. It is a minimization of sin. It's a minimization of the awfulness, the egregiousness of sin itself against the Holy God. Very bad. Very bad. It's a reduction of sin to sometimes just one thing. or an ignoring of God's laws, God's judgments, anything that would somehow decrease our sensitivity to the severity of sin is setting aside the gospel message. So again, let's be very careful, brothers and sisters, that when we're at core, which is where we are right now, what is it that Jesus came to do? What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is that Jesus has come to save us from our violations of the laws of God. We are lawbreakers. And then multiple points. Yes, self-righteousness. Yes, pride. Yes, the refusal to believe in the promises of God. But everything else, all of it, it's all just egregious, wicked behavior against a holy God. And none of this should be minimized as it is among so much of the evangelical crowd today. But then secondly, the wording here is very broad, and I want you to follow it for a moment. Jesus died for our offenses. He died for our sins. And the thing I want you to look at here is just the broad scope of the wording that is used throughout the Old New Testament and the Old Testament concerning the salvation that Jesus came to bring us. There is a broad sense in this wording. It's almost universal. Let's just follow it through. Jesus died to take away sin. Romans 11, 27. Hebrews 10, 4. 1 John 3, 5. Jesus died to cleanse us from our sins. Hebrews 9, 14. Jesus died to just put away sin. Hebrews 9, 26. You catch the broad language? I mean, here's some really bad stuff. Jesus came to get rid of all of this bad stuff, like that. That's kind of a broad statement, isn't it? We had all this sinful, yucky stuff all about us and violating the laws of God at every point. Jesus came to get rid of all of it, to throw it away. You see, this very broad language, very important for us to see what Christ has come to do. He died to subdue our iniquities and to cast them into the depths of the sea. That's Micah 7, 19. Jesus died to remit sin by purging it away. Hebrews 9, 22. Jesus died to redeem us from all lawlessness. Titus 2 and verse 14. Again, this is what Jesus is doing on the cross. Important thing for, for this message this morning is you get the big message down. That if somebody asks you, what was it Jesus doing on the cross? You say he was taking away sin. He was cleansing us. He was putting it away, subduing our iniquities, remitting sin, redeeming us from all lawlessness. Now let's go even broader and ask the question, why did Jesus come to this earth? And here's what's neat about this is throughout the gospels, man, He doesn't make any kind of a secret about any of this. He says over and over again, oh, by the way, this is why I came. This is precisely the reason I came. This is my mission. I have come to do this. I have come to do that. And so just to get all of this into your mind at the same time, that's what I want you to do this morning, just to see the scope of it all. God sent his son into the world to save the world, John 3, 17. as it were, the ultimate superman, but not superman, the super God man, the super God man. God sent his son into the world to save the world. So we need this in our vocabulary. You say, well, it's kind of big. It's kind of a huge, amazingly visionary statement about what Jesus came to do. Use it. Amen. Use it. People say, well, why did Jesus come? To save the world. Have a nice day. Doesn't have a nice ring to it. Use it sometime. Somebody say hallelujah. Hallelujah. We need to save it. He came to save the whole world. This is why he came. Jesus said they came that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10, 10, Luke 5, 32, he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 19, 10, he came to seek and to save those who are lost. John 12, 6, he came to open the eyes of the blind and to bring light into the world. And he told Pilate, this is a very remarkable statement, there at his trial, he didn't say much to Pilate. Gospel of John has the main thing, most of it is he was silent the whole time. One time he says, thou sayest it or something like that. But John chapter 18 is really the only lengthy portion of what Jesus had to share with the entire Roman Empire and the world itself. So what was it that, once the world was in front of Jesus, what would he have said? This is what he would say. So that's what makes John 18, 37 very interesting. Listen, he told Pilate this, for this cause I was born. And for this cause, I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who has the truth hears my voice. Jesus came to bring the truth, light to the dark world. In Matthew 20, verse 28, he came to give his life a ransom for many. Verse Timothy 2.6, he gave himself a ransom for all as well. Christ was offered to bear the sins of many, Hebrews 9.28. And Christ is the propitiation from our sins, 1 John 2.2. Let me throw out a couple of others. Jesus came to save us from our sins, Matthew 1.21. Jesus came to save us from ungodliness, Romans 11.26. We are delivered from this present evil world, from the bondage of the devil, and from the power of darkness that once reigned over us, Galatians 1.4, Colossians 1.13, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. Those who are saved receive the love of the truth. Second Thessalonians 2, 10. First Thessalonians 5, 9 and 10, we are saved that we might live through him. We are saved from wrath by the life of Christ, Romans 5, 10. God has saved us not by works but for a holy calling, 2 Timothy 1.9. We are saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3, and we will be saved to the uttermost as we come to him by faith, Hebrews 7.25. So this is why Jesus came, to which we say, wow, thank God, praise God, this is big. Jesus has come to do all of this. Everything the world was crying out for, at least they didn't know they were, but the world was. The world needed to be saved. And so, to that extent, as much as the world needed anything, Jesus has come to save the world. As much as we were crying out for all of these things, Jesus came to save us from all of these things. Nothing narrow or minimal about any of this wording here. The Bible does not narrow the scope of the mission of Jesus's coming to this earth. He died for our sins. He died to obliterate sin, to obliterate it, to crush it, to put the kibosh on it, using the Hebrew word. He died in order that he would redeem us from slavery to the devil and to sin and to the law. Don't forget, we were also slaves to the law as well. Jesus died as a propitiatory sacrifice. And children, do you remember what this means? This means to placate somebody who is not happy with us. It's the plate of cookies that you bring to your neighbor when you accidentally run over their mailbox. You bring a plate of cookies the next day to placate. So, it's the propitiatory sacrifice in order to reconcile us to God. Jesus died to take the curse of sin upon himself, to obliterate the curse of sin that was upon us, It was for all of those reasons why Jesus died. He died on the cross for our offenses, broadly speaking. Now let's answer the last question this morning, and that is, why did Jesus have to be raised from the dead? Now, again, in the broad sense, I have six reasons here, but in the broad sense, in the general sense, God promised that His Son would reign over the whole world. He promised it. So in the general sense, of course, of course it was going to happen. God had promised it, purposed it, it had to happen. Moreover, God loves His Son. He didn't allow His Holy One to see corruption. He doesn't stand there and watch His Son rot in the grave, all right? In the broad sense, God, of course, would do it. But there are six reasons given in Scripture that I want to point out today, including the one here in our Scripture today. The first is obvious. He was going to rule the world. He was gonna inherit the world. And I think I said this last week, dead people don't inherit anything. That is, I could leave part of my inheritance to one of my children, or to my five children, and then one of them pass away, I can't give anything to that person. I've only got four children left, so whatever's left is gonna go to the four living children. That's the way inheritance works. And so this should be obvious, that God can't bequeath a world to a son of his dead. So of course he had to rise from the dead, that had to happen. But here's what shows up in the text. He was raised for our justification. Now, let's take a look at this for a moment. This seems strange to us. Why is it that not only did Jesus have to die on the cross, we say he paid the price, took the curse upon himself, and then if he remained in the grave, we would never be forgiven of our sins, and we would never be justified before God. Why is that? Well, let me throw in Isaiah 53.11. I think Isaiah 53.11 brings something of a clue to this. This is probably the closest text to explaining this mysterious verse. Okay, Isaiah 53.11 says, concerning the suffering servant, that is Jesus, he shall see the labor of his soul, that is God the Father, shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. So evidently what is going on here is that God is a witness to the sacrifice. God witnesses the agony of his son on the cross. God sees the death of his son. God sees the perfect sacrifice, the vicarious sacrifice in our place that Jesus took upon himself on the cross. The father looks upon his son suffering there and dying and he's satisfied. But now you gotta realize, why did Jesus do this? He became a man to represent us, but he's representing a sinful people. He's associating himself with sinners. He's putting the sin of us upon himself, as well as the curse of that sin upon himself. So here, Jesus represents the sinful people. He associates Himself with sinners, brings our sin upon Himself on the cross, and God just cannot receive us, He can't receive His Son in covenant with us as sinners, had there not been a sacrifice. So now the Father looks upon the Son suffering and dying, and He's satisfied. And so he raises him from the dead. And there's a sense in which God the Father is certifying his acceptance of the sacrifice. He looks upon the sacrifice and says, I'm satisfied. Justice is vindicated. Jesus is vindicated. Jesus himself is justified. This wording is used in scripture as well of Jesus himself as one who is justified, that is vindicated, approved, accepted by the father. That's the point. That being the case, now that he's vindicated, we're vindicated. Do you follow the logic on this? I hope that clears up something of the mystery. This is a bit of a mysterious verse. Let's move on. Third reason why Jesus had to be raised from the dead And that is, he was raised to plead the merits of his blood. Now that shows up in a hymn, it doesn't directly show up in the word except in Romans 8.34. So I want you to look at Romans 8.34 just for a moment if you're there, if you have a Bible. But here the accuser of the brethren has come to condemn. The accuser of the brethren is constantly stepping in and saying, not enough works, not enough merit. You haven't merited God's favor yet. or whatever it is, pointing out our own sins, whatever it may be. The cues of the brethren are always there, trying to institute doubt, trying to bring in discouragement, depression, despair amongst the people of God. But now Jesus steps in, he intercedes for us. Look at Romans 8.34, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. That is Christ died, Christ intercedes, Christ is competing, Christ is making the argument, the accuser of the brother on one side. Jesus Christ on the other side. Jesus saying, this is who I died for. This is why I suffered and provided the sacrifice on the cross for this person. The blood of Jesus is begging and pleading and defending us in the court of Almighty God. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died. Furthermore, is also risen who is even at the right hand of God. And he is making intercession for us. He's arguing his case for us. at the courtroom of God there, at the right hand of God. And then number four, the fourth reason why Jesus had to be raised from the dead, we find in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if Jesus was not risen from the dead, we would never rise from the dead ourselves. Paul says here, if Christ is not risen, we are all men most miserable. We might as well eat, drink, and be married, for tomorrow we die, and there's nothing after this. And then number five, if Christ was not risen, we would still be dead in our sins. That's verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 15. If Christ is not risen, it says your faith is futile, you're still in your sins. What that means is there's no spiritual life in us. We are still dead in trespasses, in sins. Now again, I don't know how all this works, but I will tell you that without the resurrection of Jesus, we could have no life. We would still be dead in sin. And then number six as well, no life and no power. We would have no power over our sins if Christ was not risen. And I referred to this earlier from Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter one. Remember Ephesians one where Paul says, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you. Well, if Christ wasn't risen, where's the power? This is effectively what Romans 6, 4 tells us. Therefore, we were buried with Jesus through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So by the resurrection of Jesus, we are empowered to rise up ourselves in the spiritual life that we live to get off of the hospital bed and to begin to walk in newness of life and to begin to walk in the life of love. For the first time, we're not worshiping at the idol of self anymore. We're able to love our wives as Christ loved the church he gave himself before it. We're enabled to love others to the point of sacrifice. We're enabled to forgiveness, as my brother exhorted this morning, to the point of 490 times in all of these offenses. We're still able to forgive because of the newness of life that floods into us and the power of the risen Christ that is operating within us. In Romans 6 tells us we died with Christ, but now we live with him. We rise up and walk in newness of life. So this is the big picture this morning. These verses, verse 24 and 25 present to us the big picture. I want to be sure that the children get this down. Let's get the story straight, children. Jesus came to save the world. If you knew that, that would be enough. And you're part of it, so he came to save you. So if you can remember things like that, that's helpful. Jesus came to save us, and boy, do we need saving. God didn't give up on the world. The world was a mess. Yes, Adam sinned. Satan took over. He's the prince of the darkness of this world. And he continued to rule over so many of the dominions of this world for all those years. But Jesus came to take the world away from Satan and to rule over it himself. But he had to die on the cross first because the world was under the control of sin and Satan. The righteous ruler of the world cannot tolerate a world of wickedness. He's not going to reign over a world of wickedness. He's going to reign over a world of righteousness. So he's got to do something about this world of wickedness. So what does he do? He takes that sin upon himself. We were the sinners. We had to deal with the problem of sin, so he dealt with it himself. and He came to take that sin away, to kill sin, to restore our relationship with God and to forgive us. He came to deal with every part of that sin, the guilt, the power, the contamination of sin, all of it wiped away by the death of Jesus Christ, purged, washed away, cleansed, forgotten and forgiven. All of those words, that's what Jesus came to do. And then He rose from the dead so that He So we all would live happily ever after. Let's just put it that way. He rose from the dead in order that we would live happily ever after. Live, I said, live into eternity to live to eternal life. He rose again from the dead in order that he would enter into his kingdom to be received by his father, to be declared the just, the righteous king of all the world, to be our Lord, to rule the world, to give us life and to enable our own resurrections. Does that put you in a good mood? That's good news. Is that good news? I think I just gave you the good news again, didn't I? Seems to me somebody should say hooray. You know, the British say rah. Did you know that? They go rah. You can say rah or ray, either way. Well, the point, brothers and sisters, is for us to believe this, believe it. Verse 24 again, this righteousness shall be imputed to us That is, we shall be declared righteous in the sight of God as we believe, as we believe this, as we believe this. We believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. The theme of this entire book is the gospel of Jesus Christ, what I have just given you. is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe it. And I keep wondering why the powerless religion that so dominates the American church scene today, why so powerless? This has been, as you know, a bit of my complaint since we started the series of studies. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerhouse. It's a powerful influence in us, it ought to be that. But why the powerlessness that is so all around us? Again, I have tried to grapple with this question for quite some time, and I've only come down to two possibilities that add to the powerlessness of the American religion, and here they are. Number one, there are a lot of people who have never heard this gospel. And number two, they've heard it. but they just don't believe it. I boil it down to that. That's got to be the issue. They haven't even heard the scope of this gospel. They don't understand the full-orbed implications of this gospel, that Jesus Christ came to take away sin, to release us from the devil. Idolatry, anger problems, lying, stealing, coveting other people's stuff, envy, bitter feelings towards others in the family or the church, porn habits, ungodliness, ungratefulness, lack of interest in the worship of God. These are real sins. Jesus came to Get rid of it. Jesus came to overcome it. Jesus came to release us from it. Jesus came to forgive us of it. Jesus came for all of this, the scope of it, the bigness of it, that it would cause our hearts to leap in a sense of, I can hardly believe it, but I'm going to believe it, and this is the biggest thing in the entire universe, and now I believe it, and now I begin to feel the power of it working in myself. Jesus really came to take away sins. He really came to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Hebrews 9, 14. He died to put away sin, to subdue our iniquities, to remit these sins and purge them away. He died to redeem us, to buy us back from the power slavery of lawlessness. Jesus came to save us from these sins. from all this ungodliness to be delivered from this present evil world, from the bondage of the devil, from the power of darkness that once reigned over us. That's the message. Can you get the scope of it this morning? Can you the breadth of it, the width of it, the height of it for a moment? Can you see it, the vision of it? This morning, are you seeing it? Oh, may God help us to see the bigness of this message again, and then to believe it. Let us believe it today. Don't refuse it. Believe it. Believe it. And experience the unbelievable freedom and power and joy and hope and love that flows from all of this. At least this morning, get a taste for the beauty of it, the bigness of the strength of it, the power of it, the freedom of it. Get a taste for freedom and rejoice in it. We are freed from condemnation. We rejoice that we are at peace with God. Romans 5 just snowballs, everything else snowballs in. Romans 5, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations now, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance, and perseverance character, character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And that's next time. But now we domino into all of these blessings that come out of the faith of embracing the full-orb gospel that you heard this morning, the good news of Jesus. Did you get it? You believe it? Amen and amen and amen. Father in heaven, we have yet to fully understand the magnitude of this, the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, the power that raised Jesus from the dead. We don't have a grasp on the magnitude of it, but Father, more of it, more of it to understand it, your minds around it, to believe it, to receive it, and to walk in it today, to walk in it. Father, what a vision. What a great thing you have come to do in your son, Jesus, to save the world, to rid us from all wickedness. Sin, the guilt of it, the power of it, and the condemnation and contamination of it, all of it. Thank you, Father, for this great gospel message. It gets better all the time. Every time we hear it, we get even more excited, more joyful, more believing it. more pressing into the implications of all of this message. As we believe it, Father, if there's any that do not quite believe, almost persuaded perhaps, Father, we pray, we rely entirely on your Holy Spirit now to work in that person. We pray your Spirit to work in that person who does not quite believe or where there's doubt. or where there's, I'm just not sure that God is believable. I'm not sure that I can embrace this promise. Father, please, we pray for faith today, perhaps for the first day in this person's life. Father, bring about the mighty power of the gospel working in those who believe in this building now. We look to you for this blessing, in Jesus' name, amen.