Today's scripture reading is from Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through 26. This is the word of God. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Let's address the Lord in prayer. Father, we're so grateful for your word this morning. We know that every word of your scripture is profitable for us, but we come to a passage today that is particularly magisterial, and we just pray that we would not squander our time this morning, but we would get a glimpse of the glory of the cross, that we might tremble at it, that we might wonder and be transformed for the glory of Christ. Amen. Please be seated. Imagine for a moment that you're from a different country. Imagine perhaps you're from a remote corner of the world and you've never heard of Christianity. And you come to visit the United States and you hear about this religion called Christianity and you want to know more about it. So you walk into a Christian bookstore. and look through all the best sellers. Or perhaps you go online and browse websites to try to find out what is Christianity? If you boil it down, what is the most important thing it's about? What is the central message of the Christian faith? I contend that you would be very confused by what you found. You might conclude that Christianity is about living up to your full potential. or being as happy as possible in this life, finding significance and purpose in your life, or it's about being on the right side of cultural and moral issues. You might even conclude, sadly, it's about voting for the right person. What you're not likely to find is a statement like this. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians what Christianity is all about. When you read the letters of Paul, there are 13 of them, including Romans. What you find central is the cross of Christ, the death of Jesus and His resurrection. The gospel, the central message of the Christian faith is about Jesus Christ and what he accomplished in his death on the cross. This is what Paul claims is the most important thing to know about. When you read the letters of the New Testament, the writers are obsessed with the cross. Why is that? Jesus as well did not instruct us to remember his birth as miraculous as that was. He instructed us to remember his death when we meet together with the Lord's Supper. The crucifixion of Christ is the centerpiece of the gospel, the central message of Christianity, but you wouldn't know it today. One Christian leader said this, the gospel has been no more obscured since the Middle Ages as it is today. That's quite an indictment considering they didn't even have their own Bibles in that period. There's confusion about the gospel today, confusion about the central message of Christianity, confusion about the cross and the death of Christ. We come today in our passage in Romans to a passage what the great Leon Morris has called the single greatest paragraph ever written. The Apostle Paul has been driving to this point in the letter. Back in chapter one, he announced his purpose as an apostle to proclaim the gospel of God, this good news about Jesus. He's not ashamed of this gospel because it's God's power to save people from judgment, to save people from going to hell, both Jews and Gentiles. He's gonna describe that saving work in detail in our passage today. But the rest of chapter one, he explained how non-Jews or Gentiles, people without the law, are under God's just wrath and judgment. Then in chapter 2, Paul explained how self-righteous Jews are also under God's wrath and judgment. Then last week, we saw in the beginning of chapter 3, Ted showed us Paul's summary to this point. All have turned aside. All, both Jews and Gentiles, are under the guilt of their sin. No one is righteous, not one. No one even seeks for God on their own. Everyone's accountable to their creator at the judgment. No human being can be right with God based on their own efforts, on their own works, no one. And every mouth is stopped, he said. It's interesting. Imagine you're standing, before God on Judgment Day and you don't have Jesus. Imagine He asks you to give a reason why you should not be condemned, why you should not be sent away from His presence to hell forever. If you would open your mouth to say anything at that moment, you don't understand His holiness. If we understand His utter perfection, His righteous justice, how other He is from us, if we understand that in light of our sin, our mouth is stopped. And the more we know about His holiness and commandments, the more we understand our own sin and the more we realize how bad it is. We ended last week, verse 20, For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." So in a sense, we should feel pretty hopeless at this point in Romans. Because it would seem, no matter who you are, there doesn't appear to be any way we can be counted righteous in God's sight. So the first question is number one in your outline. How can I, a sinner, be right with God? This is the question that the Bible calls justification. This is a legal term, best understood in a courtroom setting. If you think about standing before a judge and he declares you guilty, you're condemned. Okay, condemnation is being declared guilty. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. Justification is to be declared righteous. So the problem of fallen humanity, as we've seen over the last several weeks, is that we're all guilty before God, who is our judge, all of us. So if God is just, a just judge, which he is, then we would expect at the final judgment to be declared guilty because we are guilty. We should expect condemnation. So how is it even possible to be declared righteous? How is it possible to be justified, to be declared right with God? I hope you can see how important that question is because our eternity hangs in the balance. A guilty verdict or condemnation means eternal damnation. This is why the 16th century reformers said that justification is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. Because think about it. A church can be wrong about a lot of stuff it teaches. But if a church is wrong about justification, if a church is teaching the wrong thing about how to be declared righteous before God, then the people listening to that church are going to hell. And it's not even a church at all. And nothing else it's teaching really matters that much, right? If you're wrong about justification, than everything else is just academic. Here's a question from a recent survey on the state of theology in America. Do you agree with this statement? Most people are good by nature. 57% of evangelicals agreed with that statement. That's exactly the opposite of what Paul has been saying for two and a half chapters. Not most, but all people are sinful by nature, naturally guilty before God. Now keep in mind, this was not 57% of the general population who agreed with that, but people who profess to be evangelicals. Anyone who believes that some people are good by nature will never understand the cross of Christ. That's why John MacArthur has said, if I had an hour to share the gospel with someone, I'd spend 55 minutes talking about their sin. Because people don't understand God's holiness, and therefore don't understand the effect of our sin. The crux of the issue in the church today is we've grossly underestimated the holiness of God. Many people in the church today believe God is not that different from us. God's just a really good version of us. And as a result, we grossly underestimate the guilt of our sin. I see this sometimes play out in questions people ask like this, what happens to people who have never heard about Jesus? How can they be guilty? Well, the premise behind that question is that people are in a neutral state before God or even good by default. It's only when they reject Jesus that they become guilty. That's not what the Bible teaches at all. We all stand guilty before God because of our sin, regardless if we ever hear about Jesus. No one is naturally good or even neutral. God. We are by nature sinners under God's wrath. Jesus said in John 3, those who do not believe in the Son are condemned already because God's wrath remains on Him. Rejecting Jesus does not make you guilty before God, it just means God's wrath remains on you. As Paul has made crystal clear, No one seeks God by themselves. All have turned aside. The whole world is accountable. By nature, we've all rejected God's rule in our lives and have disobeyed the law he's written on our hearts and we stand guilty under his wrath. So that's where we are in Romans chapter three. How can I be justified? How can God declare me righteous when in fact I'm not righteous? How can I, a sinner, be right with God? We find the answer starting in verse 21, which begins with what Martin Lloyd-Jones has called the two most beautiful words in the whole Bible, but now, verse 21. But now, let's read together, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it." Stop there. We need righteousness to be justified. We don't have it in ourselves. But now there's another righteousness that's available to us. A righteousness outside of us that can be attributed to us as if it were ours. This righteousness comes directly from God in the person of Jesus Christ. But now we enter a new chapter in salvation history. This righteousness comes apart from the law in the sense that this right standing with God does not come to us through our ability to follow the law. Yet, this righteousness is not outside the scriptures. This is a new chapter in salvation history, but it was always coming. This is not something newly thought of. The law and the prophets bear witness to this. This is the fulfillment of the types and shadows of the Old Testament sacrifices, the fulfillment of the prophets, the law, everything the Old Testament points to. Well, how can I get this righteousness from God? Verse 22. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This external righteousness comes to us from God through faith in Jesus. We'll talk more about faith later, but for now, just note it means trusting in Christ, not yourself. Because by ourselves, we've all fallen short of God's glory. Without exception, each of us has fallen short on the scale of merit worthy of God's presence. We've all been weighed on the scales and found wanting. We could never enter God's presence based on our own efforts. We all fall short. This statement sort of summarizes the first two and a half chapters of the letter. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, there's no distinction, because all have sinned. No one can be justified by his own righteousness, but now we can be justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ if we put our faith in him. So how does that work? I'm not righteous. How can I be declared righteous based on someone else's righteousness? How is that possible? Well, to answer that question is to answer number two in your outline. What was accomplished on the cross? Let's read in verse 24. Justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. These two verses are pregnant with profound meaning and they explain how justification is even possible. They show us how we can be declared righteous when we're not. Three key words here to help us understand. Justification, redemption, and propitiation. If we could have the picture on the screen please, Brian. I found this triangle in a book by Jim Boyce many years ago and I found it to be very helpful for seeing how these concepts fit together to answer this question. Justification, we've already talked about. God declaring us to be righteous. We're justified by His grace as a gift. This is what God does to us. The one performing the action has the arrow coming out from them. God justifies us. He declares us righteous even though we're not. We'll see how that's possible in a minute. The second word is redemption. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. While justification is legal language, like from a courtroom, redemption is merchant language, like from the marketplace. In this case, the slave market. When you redeem a slave, you recover them or purchase them back. On the cross, Christ purchased us out of our slavery to sin. Titus 2. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. He buys us back out of bondage to sin. We now belong to him. We are his possession. He owns us as our master whom we now obey. All the legal requirements the law had against us because of our disobedience, nailed to the cross. Colossians 2, he paid it all. Now, note this, another confusion today. Lots of talk, people love to talk about the love of God, God is loving, God is gracious, and of course, praise the Lord. I mean, of course we wanna talk about those things. But notice something really important here. God's grace and salvation, the grace that matters most, God's grace and salvation does not come to us in some generic way. It's not a free for all, Oprah Winfrey kind of grace that takes many forms and many religions. No, the grace of God for salvation comes specifically and only through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. In other words, only through the cross. Only by faith in this crucified Christ can you benefit from this saving grace. So redemption is what Christ does to us. The last word is propitiation. God put forward Christ as a propitiation by His blood. This is by far the least understood of the three and the least popular. But it's so important for understanding how justification, how forgiveness of sins by God is even possible. Propitiation is absorbing God's wrath and judgment against our sin. Christ propitiates God. That is to say, Christ absorbs God's wrath that was meant for the Christian. So he's our substitute for the penalty that we deserved. How does this substitution work? Paul speaks about this in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He, let's just think through this for a second, He that is God made Him that is Christ to be sin. When God put Christ forward as a propitiation, that's what this means. He was made to be sin. Now it doesn't mean Jesus became a sinner. He knew no sin. He was perfectly righteous. But God looked upon Him in terms of punishment and penalty that sin deserves. That is to say, he was treated and judged on the cross as if he lived my life of sin, as if he committed all my disobedience. Now, consider that the penalty for my sin alone, God's wrath upon my sin alone, is tantamount to eternity in hell. He bore that penalty not just for me, but for everyone who would ever believe. When you consider all the sins just of the believers in this room, not to mention the people of God throughout the world and throughout history, it doesn't take long to tremble at the magnitude of penalty that he bore. All that punishment and wrath on one man, compressed into a finite period of time, In what was likely the three hours of darkness on the cross, there was a transaction that no human being saw. And it is a transaction that is horrifying to consider. Jesus had a glimpse of it beforehand as he trembled in Gethsemane. as he considered the specter of God's wrath, which was the bitter cup he would drink. He sweat drops of blood as he looked ahead to what he would bear. The cup he dreaded wasn't the slashings. It wasn't the crown of thorns. It wasn't even the nails in the hands and feet as horrific as those things were. Many people, let's face it, Many people throughout history have also experienced horrific physical torture and death, maybe even worse things. And some of them faced it with great courage, but the Savior trembled and sweat drops of blood in the garden, not for the physical torture, but for his role in propitiation, absorbing God's wrath upon himself. Let me just pause for a second. If you understand what's happening here, if you understand what the scripture is teaching here, do you see how ridiculous and frankly insulting it is for professing Christians to talk about this idea that there may be other ways to be saved? Only the infinite sacrifice of this absolutely unique God-man could ever be sufficient. What should amaze us is not that there's only one way to God. What should amaze us is that there is a way, because it seems impossible. There's a positive side to this transaction as well. Jesus knew no sin. He had perfect obedience to the law of God. Consider Jesus didn't come down in a spaceship for the weekend and die. He lived a lifetime of obedience to God, a life we couldn't live. That's the righteousness of God that's available to us, so that in him, he says in 2 Corinthians, we might become the righteousness of God. God judged Christ on the cross as if he lived our sinful lives. God judges us as if we lived the perfect, obedient life of Jesus Christ. So because of this great exchange, God justifies us. He can declare us righteous. Notice there's no arrows. There are no arrows pointing away from us. We contribute nothing except the sin for which he died. That's why justification is a gift, and propitiation is how it's even possible. Now, there's another question that you may have never thought about, and that is number three in your outline. If God forgives sin, can he still be just? End of verse 25, this was to show God's righteousness. Okay, Paul says this was to show, this refers to propitiation. The sacrifice of Jesus in our place, taking the punishment, that was to show God's righteousness. Now here, Paul's using, it's one word group, but the word righteousness in the sense of justice is the best way to think about it. God's justice. Why would God need to show his justice? Because, let's continue, in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness or justice at the present time. Consider a human illustration. Imagine there's a mass murderer on trial. Maybe he's even killed some of your family members. And the jury finds him guilty and he's convicted, condemned. But the judge steps in and says, actually, you're forgiven. You can go free. What would you think about that judge? He's not just, right? That's not justice. Paul is saying that propitiation, Jesus taking the punishment for our sins, is not just important for us to be justified. It's also important for God. to maintain that He is just. You see, before the cross, you could say God's credibility as a just God was on the line because He forgave sinners. Years ago, there was a society for the spread of atheism that prepared a tract containing a half a dozen sketches of Old Testament characters which listed out their bad deeds, as it were. Abraham, willing to sacrifice his wife's honor to save his own life, yet he's called the friend of God. What kind of God would have a friend like that? Jacob was a cheat and a liar, yet Yahweh is called the God of Jacob. David was an adulterer and a murderer, yet Scripture calls him the man after God's own heart. What does this say about God? He's not really just. He tolerates sin from His people. He's not holy as He claims to be. Ironically, though the atheists had obviously a different agenda, this hits on a key truth. If God is holy and perfectly just and cannot tolerate sin by His very nature, How can these sinners be in his presence for eternity? God must have compromised his holiness. This is why the cross was necessary for God's justice. The cross shows us he didn't compromise. That's what Paul is saying here. In his divine forbearance or restraint or patience, he passed over former sins. He mercifully held back his judgment and wrath for a season. while his people were running up the credit card debt of sin, as it were. The sacrificial animals were only effective to forgive them because they pointed to Christ. Without the cross, those animal sacrifices could never forgive sins, Hebrews 10. A righteous God cannot pass over these sins forever. That's why propitiation was necessary. It shows that God did in fact punish the sins of Abraham, of Jacob, of David, all the Old Testament saints. Their punishment was meted out on Jesus Christ. Verse 26, it was to show God's righteousness or justice at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is the genius of the cross. He's both just, rightfully punishing sin, and the justifier, forgiving the sinner. In other words, in the cross of Christ, God made it possible to forgive sins and still be just. I'm gonna use an illustration that is somewhat controversial. because I happen to like country music. There's a song written by George Strait that illustrates this misunderstanding that's common about how God forgives sinners. And I'm not trying to pick on George Strait, I'm actually a big fan of his music, but many of you know this song called Love Without End, Amen. And for those who don't know this song, I'll quickly bring you up to speed. In the first verse, he recalls a time when he was a kid and he got in trouble in school. And he came home fully expecting to be punished by his father. But instead his father told him this, and this is the chorus. Let me tell you a secret about a father's love. It's a secret that my daddy said was just between us. Daddies don't just love their children every now and then, it's a love without end, amen. So the secret, is this, because his father loves him so much, he forgives him, no consequences. Okay, beautiful. Great lyrics. Second verse. Now he's an adult, and he has his own son. Okay, and his son is a stubborn boy, just like he was, he says. And when his son gets in trouble, he passes his father's secret onto him, okay? Love, forgiveness, no consequences. The third verse is where things get interesting theologically. One night, I dreamed I died and stood outside those pearly gates. Then suddenly I realized there must be some mistake. If they knew half the things I've done, they'll never let me in. Then somewhere from the other side, I heard these words again. Let me tell you a secret about a father's love. Okay, so he's at heaven's gate. Let's just say he's at the final judgment. To his credit, he understands his faults to some degree. Okay, half of what I've done will disqualify me. The implication though is that he's okay otherwise. But the fundamental assumption is that God's forgiveness is just like ours. He's just a really good version of us. If we love, we can forgive, no consequences. Well, God certainly has way more love than we do, so his forgiveness should flow directly to us because he's so loving, no consequences. I hope you can see the problem here. This God says, sure, you sinned, but my love is so great, I'm willing to let it go. Again, it stems from a lack of understanding of God's holiness. If they knew half the things I've done, they'll never let me in. Well, God knows everything you've done. But even if there was only one thing you'd done, being in God's presence is unthinkable. But the assumption is God loves, God forgives, no consequences, no need to punish sin, No need for propitiation. No need for God to be just. No need for the cross. God is not really holy. Jesus died for nothing. Related to this error is the overriding metaphor, of course, that's flawed. This is maybe more of an American misunderstanding, but this idea that we're all God's children, That's not what the Bible says, is it? No one is naturally born into God's family. We must be adopted through Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1. Or John 1, only to those who have received him, who have believed on his name, to them he gave the right to be called children of God. With apologies to George Strait, I'd like to offer an alternate version of the third verse. One night I dreamed I died and stood outside those pearly gates. By grace alone I'm justified in Christ who took my place. His righteousness in my account is why you'll let me in. Christ my Lord has died for me and paid for all my sin. I'm sorry if I've ruined that song for you, but even country music fans need to understand how the cross of Christ is essential in order for God to forgive sins and still be just. So through the cross, God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So number four, what is this faith I need to be justified? Let's start reading in verse 27. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Paul reemphasizes in what is sort of a summary statement that regardless if you're a Jew or a Gentile, it's all about faith, not about your works. Not about your own efforts of obedience that justify you before God. In the last verse, 31, Paul anticipates an objection some Jews might have. Paul, are you overthrowing the law? I mean, God told us Jews for thousands of years to follow the law. Paul's saying, no, I'm not overthrowing the law. In fact, I'm upholding it. I'm actually taking the law seriously. Because it all pointed to Jesus. And it's always been by faith. As he'll explain in the next chapter, even those who followed the law, like David, understood it was by faith in God's promises, God's mercy, that he could be forgiven. The mercy in the law was in the sacrificial system, which all pointed forward to the cross, which Paul has just explained. So this must be received by faith. Remember the triangle, no arrows pointed away from us. Faith is not a work. And certainly faith isn't the basis of our justification, Christ is. But faith is the instrument by which we receive this gift of righteousness from God. However, we're not justified by profession of faith, but by possession of faith. As James reminds us, anyone can say they have faith, right? Talk is cheap. True faith is a work of God and always results in a changed life. Now the Reformers used a good metaphor, I think, to illustrate this relationship between faith alone and the life of obedience that follows. Lightning and thunder. Lightning strikes alone, but it is always followed by thunder. If thunder does not come, then you can be certain it was not lightning that you saw. It may have looked like lightning, it may have been an amazing display of light, but it wasn't lightning. Similarly, you're justified by faith alone in Christ alone. But if a changed life does not follow, it was not saving faith. Regardless of how convincing or emotional or amazing it might've looked, it was just a profession. Just words. True faith is trust and allegiance. It involves the mind and emotions, but also involves the will. During the late 19th century, there was a French tightrope walker who repeatedly crossed over Niagara Falls on a rope stretched between the two banks of the river. Reportedly, he once singled out a member of the audience and had this dialogue. Sir, do you believe I can walk over this falls on this little rope? Sure, answered the man. I've seen you do it before. And do you believe I could also push this wheelbarrow across? Yes, I do. And do you also believe that I could do it with a man sitting in the wheelbarrow? Yeah, I'm sure you could. Then, kind sir, would you mind assisting me by getting into the wheelbarrow? Not on your life, answered the man. He understood the claim, and even agreed with the claim intellectually. But he did not put his full personal trust in the claim, and who can blame him? The object of his faith was a mere man who can make mistakes. But likewise, we can be aware of these truths of Christ and the cross, and even agree intellectually these things are true and still not have saving faith. The kind of faith Paul is talking about here is nothing less than getting into the wheelbarrow of Jesus. you're all in with Him. All trust, all allegiance. That's why people talk about giving your life to Jesus because that's what you're doing when you put your faith in Him and what He's done. We'll see next week that Paul uses Abraham and David as Old Testament examples who understood they were fully dependent on God, not their own works, and they lived out their faith as a reality. As I close My prayer for you this morning is that you're able to see that forgiveness of sins for God is a real problem. We cannot comprehend His holiness. He's not like us. When we sin against each other, we can overlook an offense and can let it go. Nothing internal to our nature is violated. But when we sin against God, as R.C. Sproul has said, it is cosmic treason. God cannot violate his own nature and not punish sin. He must be just. As one scholar said, he cannot save us by contradicting himself. I've told this story before, but when I was in college, my primary field of study was in mathematics. In my freshman year, my professor was drawing up some famous mathematical discovery from centuries He was done drawing all these formulas and proofs on the board. He stepped back and just looked at it and there was this awkward silence and no one was saying anything. And finally, he said, that's really beautiful. And I could tell he was kind of getting emotional. And I thought, this is ridiculous. I don't belong here. But as the years went on in my studies, I realized an important life lesson. What he drew on the board that day was lost on me because I didn't understand enough to appreciate the problem. Once you personally wrestle with a problem, you're much more impressed with the solution. And that's how it can be for many of us with the cross of Christ. If we don't understand the problem of our sin and what it means against the holy God, we'll never appreciate the cross. Some of you might remember your own math days, perhaps there are problems with no solution. And that's actually the correct answer in those cases, no solution. You can actually prove because of the conditions that exist, there cannot be a solution. When I wrestle with this truth personally of God's perfect holiness, And the problem of my sin, it seems like one of those problems with no solution. But there's a lot more at stake, isn't there? God is holy. Our sin violates His very nature and He cannot contradict Himself. And we're justly bound for eternal punishment. You see, My friends, there's a reason that Lloyd-Jones says the but now in verse 21 of the two most beautiful words in the Bible. There's a reason Leon Morris calls this the greatest single paragraph ever written, because these men understood the problem. Do you feel the weight of this problem? You've sinned against a holy God who by His nature cannot coexist with sin. Your eternity hangs in the balance and there's no solution. It's impossible for you. Do you feel the weight of that? That's why what Jesus screams out in his final breath is so beautiful, because the solution is not only possible, it is finished. There is therefore, now listen, therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Peter tells us the prophets of the Old Testament searched intently to know the manner and circumstances of this plan of salvation. They couldn't wait to see how this would play out. They had types, shadows, mysteries. They would have given anything to have this full revelation. of how God would justify the ungodly. Likewise, Peter says, angels long to look into these things. They can't get enough. Angels can't get enough watching in the theater of God's glory because it's so amazing and so beautiful what God has done for us. Now, angels don't even benefit directly from this. How much more we, the beneficiaries, the justified, how much more should we long to look into these things? This is not academic, my friends. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God for your salvation. Do you know this gospel? Do you marvel at it? Do you study it in his word? Do you live it out in obedience, in fear, with thanksgiving? Do you thank God for it daily? Do you join us for the Lord's Supper every week where we corporately marvel and worship and give the cross of Christ the attention it deserves? The attention Jesus commanded us to give it in the Lord's Supper. If you don't know this gospel, Please don't leave here today standing on your own righteousness before this holy judge. That's insane. It's terrifying. And listen, it's not necessary. Turn from your sin. Put your full personal trust in Jesus Christ. He has finished what was impossible for you. You can be right with God today through the cross of Christ. In the words of Martin Luther, "'Tis Christ our God, who far on high, "'has heard your sad and bitter cry. "'Himself will your salvation be. "'Himself from sin will make you free.'" Amen. Would you please stand as we close? Our Father, we're so grateful for the cross of Christ. May we marvel at it, Father. May we continually thank you for it. May we celebrate with our brothers and sisters at the Lord's Supper in a way that glorifies you. May we never depart from this wonderful hope we have in Him. And for those here this morning or who are listening who don't have that confidence, who don't have that assurance, May they turn from themselves and all they've been thinking about for themselves and their sin, and turn fully to you. May they get into the wheelbarrow of Jesus this morning. May they turn completely their lives over to you, trusting in His work on the cross, trusting it's His righteousness, not theirs, that they might be saved. For eternity, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.