David Hughes - Juegos del Hambre

How are you, church? Sunday night, good to see you, CBG, glad you're in the house. The first movie is set in the future, an apocalyptic future, there is chaos in the future, and it seems that the entire Earth is no longer possible to inhabit, whether there was a natural disaster or a nuclear holocaust. The only part where you can live is North America, but sadly the United States is no longer there. In its place, there is a dysfunctional nation that has risen, Pan Am, and it is ruled by capitalism, which has become oppressive, and each district must give in two teenagers, a boy and a girl, who are chosen at random, and they are two young adults who are going to fight to the death so that there is a survivor, and this is called the Hunger Games. We just saw our heroine, a strong and young woman named Katniss Everdeen. She volunteers, and she says, why would anyone in the world volunteer to die for another? Because the person chosen for this had been her little sister, and she loved her sister so much that she chooses to take her place, she chooses to die for someone she loves, and of course the Hunger Games, they're good for fiction, but I wonder if in real life someone would love you enough to give their life for yours. The very good news is that the Gospel is exactly that. The essence of the Gospel of your Bible in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ loved you and me so much that he gave his life. The Holy and Single One, as he substituted for us, it's called the Doctrine of Substitution, the Doctrine of Expiation. We're going to go to Romans 5. I know it's cold outside. We're in the 40s. We're Floridians, and we have two sweaters, and we have them both on. So just to warm you up a little bit, you know, call up the neighbor, Romans, chapter 5. Romans, chapter 5. Come on, Sunday Night Romans, shout it out.

Chapter 5. All day long in this service, we're going to have here in Romans 5, and we have a theological doctrinal sermon, and someone says, oh, how boring, theology, doctrine. No, doctrine is not boring. Think with me. What is theology? It's the study of God. Who in the universe? What personality is more intriguing, more engaging, more inspiring, more connecting than our great God, the living God, the God that loves you? It's going to be something great. Romans 5, we're going to read verse by verse, and we've highlighted a few words. We're going to read them in verse 6. Here we go. And it says, in the right time, God's time, sometimes it fascinates me and frustrates me. Can I be that honest? I know God's time is the right time, but it never feels like it's for me. I love God. I want to follow him. But when I pray for him and ask him for something, sometimes I say, God, you're going too fast. For example, if I haven't made a decision for Christ, if I haven't been baptized, I say, I'm not ready. I have questions. Did you give your heart to Jesus? He says, no, but I'm not worthy. Correct.

Yes, but God's time is the right time. Sometimes people are pushing me to respond, but many times, wow. God, when is this going to happen? I've been praying for so long, asking you this, and God feels like you're going too slow. God's time is always the right time. But when we pray for miracles, we did it. If you're praying for a miracle right now in life, we like miracles. If you're praying for them, we love them. All the miracles that happen in a moment. But sometimes God's time is slow. It's a miracle in slow motion. But God's time is always the right time. So it says here, this continues, when we still didn't have power, Jesus Christ died for the unworthy. And that expression that's here in verse seven says, very rarely would anyone die for someone worthy, or for a good person. Someone would possibly die. We've seen stories like someone lays down their life for another and sacrifices, maybe a mother for her son, or a friend for a friend, or the first Captain America who took a grenade. But here it says, one of the great verses in the whole Bible, don't miss it, it says, but God demonstrated his own love. But God demonstrated his own love. Let's stop right there. And you wonder how God feels about you.

Maybe he's upset about the mistakes you've made. Maybe God's not aware that the Bible proclaims that my God loves you. He made you for a purpose, and my God loves you with passion. Maybe you love him, maybe you don't love him. Maybe you don't believe in him, but God believes in you, and he loves you. He loves you. One of the translations says that God demonstrates his great love for us in this. When we were still sinners, when we were still sinners, the Bible says and evaluates our spiritual status as sinners, without offense, but smile at your neighbor and say, oh, I'm sitting next to a sinner. I'm sitting here. I didn't know I was sitting next to a sinner. But the Bible says that when we were still sinners, the last four words, and there's a comma, there's not a final point, but a comma, and it says, God demonstrates his great love for us. When we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Yeah, I applaud that. That's a great affirmation. So the idea is something that theologians call the substitutional expiation doctrine. And this word means that we have a means to relate again to a God who loves us, but someone has to substitute for us. And Jesus did it when we were sinners. And since we were sinners, we were separated from God. But we were separated, but he loves us, and he wants a relationship with us. And why? Great question. So there's two qualities in God that are very clear in the Bible. One is God loves us.

He loves us so much. He's not a hopeless romantic. He's a holy romantic. He's holy. This is a word that we use every day in the church. But when we use all the term, God's holiness, we're going to say the word holy. One, two, three. God's holiness. When we talk about God's holiness, we're going to say the word holy. One, two, three. God's holiness. So what does God's holiness mean? Technically God is unique. How is he unique? He's powerful. He's creative, but he's good. So he's so good, he's completely good. He's holy good. He's perfectly moral good, and he's perfectly objectively good. So he's so perfectly good, he cannot be in a relationship with evil. So there's the paradox. God loves me, but he's holy. And he loves me, but I'm a sinner. And therefore, I cannot have a relationship. I'm separated from God because of my sin. When I say three, theologians shout the word separated. Here in this 1953 model, they shout the word separated. Separated by our sin of a holy God who loves us. And that's the human dilemma.

David, this is a negative verse. Guess what? This is what it says in the whole Bible. So we were sinners, and we fell short, and we were unworthy. In the whole New Testament, it says, it gives us this great idea that we are unworthy of the glory of God. Here's my Bible, and it says, here we have, when I've had a few Bibles, and through the whole Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's this idea that we fall short, and we are not worthy. That we are not worthy of the glory of God. And the first book in the Bible is Genesis. It's not easy. Genesis 1 and 2, when God creates humanity, the universe. And when we get to chapter 3, is when we see the sin. Here's the old story of the snake, the apple. What happens in chapter 3? Abel offers a sacrifice. He sacrifices an animal of his cattle. And that's the first time we see a sacrifice of blood in the Bible. So we go here, and we have Leviticus, and then we have the Yom Kippur, which is the sacrifice of a bull and two goats. And we also have the sacrifice of a lamb. And in the rest of the New Testament, we have the tabernacle, the temple. And when we get to chapter 3, is when we see the sin. hundreds of animal sacrifices that indicated that we were separated from God and that God is holy. So this sacrificial system reaches the middle of the Bible and reaches the New Testament, and Jesus appears. When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, he doesn't say, Hey, look at Jesus, or look at the Messiah, or look at the coming King.

His language is this, look at the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So they call him lamb. He says, a little tender animal, no. A lamb was the material for a sacrifice. So Jesus begins his ministry as the substitute, the one who is going to die. Of course, in all the Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it says that he goes to the cross in the Calvary. And in Acts, what Paul preaches is that Jesus is the one who died because we were separated from God. And Paul's letters, written by all the apostles, describe that he died for us and here, because we were sinners and he died for us. And even in the last book of the Bible, in Revelation chapter 5, is reintroduced, this vision in glory. John sees this vision, the Father God sitting on this huge throne. He holds in his right hand a scroll with seven seals, which signifies the end of human history. The only one person who is qualified, who is worthy to hold this scroll, is Jesus. And when Jesus is introduced, he is presented as the lion of the tribe of Judah that they have conquered. So, Jesus is powerful. He is a lion. He is a dangerous person. He is going to ruin human history. But in the next verse, then John sees a lamb. And the Bible says that in the lamb are the wounds that once caused death. Even in the future, Jesus is still the substitute, the sacrifice, because we were separated from a loving God for our sins. Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, the idea that we were separated from God, that we needed to be in peace with God, is all over the Word of God. And this is the truth of Scripture. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the Proverbs, the Psalms, the Torah, in the writings of John, of Peter, this one in 1 Timothy 1, here it says, look at what it says. Here it says that while Jesus came into the world to save the sinners, of whom I am the worst. What terrible person was that? What did he do wrong? Maybe he was a drug dealer or what?

This is Paul. This is Paul, the great Christian of history. He says that of the Christians, I am the worst. So here is the struggle. A God who loves us, Paul, you, me, that we were sinners. And we go again to Romans 5. What does this God want for us? Here is the verse. It says that we have been justified through faith. And for that we have peace with God, our Lord. What God wants for you is peace. What is that peace? It's trust. He wants you to have the mental peace of knowing that you are accepted, that you are forgiven, that you receive his grace, that you have the trust of knowing that you are his son or his daughter, and you are going to spend eternity with him in heaven. He wants you to walk proudly, proudly, and that you have his peace. And the idea that sin separates us from God, but Jesus paid the price for us to have peace. This idea is in the whole Bible. It's in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. And it's beyond the end of the Bible. If you'll allow me just a moment here, you guys have been a very smart class, but if you'll allow me just a moment to preach a conjecture, to speculate on something. If you'll allow me, I'm going to do it anyway. But here is an idea that has been talked about so much in the Bible, that God loves us, that he wants a relationship with us, but that we are separated from him by our sin, because what God wants for us is peace, a trust that he can accept in heaven.

I have a Bible, so I have a study Bible, and both of my Bibles are study Bibles, and I've enjoyed them much over the years. But in this study Bible, the study Bible is a textual Bible. The Extra Bible, all right? So the final verse in Revelation chapter 22, verse 21, you can see it right here. And you don't see, you know, plenty of additional Bible around here. There are really extra Bibles. Like this is the Bible that is inspired by the Bible. This is just a little help from what the scholars and translators have done. But I really like to read this Extra Bible. Like there's a harmony of the Gospels and how they relate to the different narratives of Matthew, Mark, and John. And here's a table of weights and measures. How long is it going to go? How long is it going to go in there? And here we have a harmony. But if you have a paper Bible that has an Extra Bible, always in the very back of a Bible, we have maps. We have, here and up, I got some maps. I think this, I think the idea that God doesn't have to give us an extra Bible but he gave us a map. I got some maps. I think this, I think the idea

that God loves us so much and he demonstrates great love for us. His daughter is dead. He's not going to be in the world because we were separated. To bring his peace with God. He's alive and he wants to bring his peace. He came down on the map. Like I have one here, is one of the maps of Israel. Can you all see it? I'm going to put it up here for a cool guy. I'm going to show you. But it's a map of Israel in G-Z. And I think here in the geography of Jesus' life, we can see the message of God. Think with me. A question. A simple question. Where was Jesus born? In the town of? Of course, in Bethlehem. He was born in Bethlehem. And we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But he was born in Bethlehem. And in what city did he die? In Jerusalem. Good job. Good job. So, born in Bethlehem.

Died in Jerusalem. Born in Bethlehem. Died in Jerusalem. Born in Bethlehem. I lost my voice. Died in Jerusalem. Born and raised in Bethlehem. One moment. Born in Bethlehem. Died in Jerusalem. Born in Jerusalem. But where did he grow up? In Nazareth. After 82, two to eight years. And all those four years. He grew up with his family in Nazareth. When I say three, say Nazareth. Nazareth. And here's the cool thing. The names in Hebrew, in the Bible, they have a meaning. Jerusalem, this famous city that was sacred to the Jews. Jerusalem comes from the word Shalom. Have you heard the word Shalom before? If you live here, there's a huge Jewish population. The word Shalom means peace. Jerusalem. Peace. Jesus died in the city of Jerusalem. Peace.

He died to bring us peace with God. He didn't grow up in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth. In Nazareth, in the time of Jesus, it was the hood. It was the wrong church. It was a marginalized place. It was a place of poor people, of high crime. And when they told him, for example, Nathanael, he would say, how good can it be to come from there? It's a place with a terrible reputation. But the name Nazareth, the name Nazareth, comes to the first syllable. Nazareth. Nazareth. In your Bible, there's someone named Nazarite Val. Same word. Nazarite Val. Like Samson, who had to stay away from the wine, alcohol, like Samson's Nazarite Vow. Or that you can't touch the dead, or you can't cut your hair. He had a Nazarite Vow. He had to separate himself from the body. Separate yourself from the body. Separate yourself from the alcohol. Separate yourself from your barber, for example. Because the word Nazareth means separation. Jesus grew up in a bad neighborhood called separation. But he died in Jerusalem, in peace.

Because we were separated from God for our sins. We lived in Nazareth. But Jesus came to Jerusalem to bring us peace. The message that the Bible gives us through geography. We had a broken, disastrous life. But in Nazareth, the person who came to die for us in Jerusalem is still on the maps. So it's okay, David, if Jesus is holy and died for me, so if I'm a sinner, God's pure and perfect. So how do I go? So this is an important topic that I'm going to mention briefly. So this is a valid question. And there are a lot of people who say, how did I get to heaven? God says, why should I let you get to heaven? What would you say? Most people would say something like that. Well, I think God should let me go to heaven because I've tried to be good. I'm not perfect, but I'm honest. I don't cheat on my taxes. I don't cheat on my taxes. I'm not unfaithful to my wife. I didn't steal a bank. I think a lot of people who have had a plan to steal a bank can get to heaven. But the idea is that God has a giant game of weights and measures, and that God is saying in the trial something like, you know, compare the good things you've done in your life and hoping that you've been a lot more generous than the bad things you've done. And in general terms, you're good, so take the step here.

Or maybe it's not just your good deeds versus your bad deeds, it's just how you rate yourself with respect to the rest of the people. Probably you're better, more generous than the majority. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's just like some people. 90% of Americans believe in heaven. But if you believe in heaven, you think everybody should be there. You're afraid to say that. You can get hit by a bus after church. I'm sorry, but you're in your funeral, and when you get to heaven, I don't know what heaven is like, but for some it's a beautiful place. You get up there, and you've got your coffee there, and the coffee is perfect there, the good temperature, the correct sweet. And then you tell your neighbor, and the neighbor is there, it's Adolf Hitler. And you say, oh, Charles Manson. And across the street is Bin Laden. And that's not nobody's heaven. They don't go to heaven. These people are sinful. So not everybody goes to heaven. So in that scale, who chooses God? What is the standard? In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, there is the standard. The word of God says, because all, because all, all. This is a fascinating word in original Greek.

And everyone means everyone. Because all of you, your grandma, your best friend, your worst enemy, everyone has sinned. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short, or we are unworthy of the glory of God. Probably there is someone who is more generous than me. I'm not a measurer. I'm perhaps the worst of the worst. And that comparison, because the standard of God is perfection. He is holy. And we are sinners. So that's very extreme. No, that's logical. Let me show you. I love the visual aids. Imagine you get here, you're thirsty. You're thirsty. I'm so thirsty. I can have some water. If we have this here, it's an affordable water. It's one of the purest waters. Okay, are you thirsty? Perfect, I got you. I'll break the seal. I'll give you some water.

But before I give you the glass, I'm going to tell you, I went to the parking lot and I picked this up. I found a little bit of dirt, grass, and some gum wrappers, things like that. So I'm going to put some things in the glass, but it's pure water. Are you thirsty? Here you go. Is anyone going to drink this? It's not pure. It's not clean. It's not healthy. It's contaminated. And it's correct. But if I don't do that, that's ridiculous. But if instead of that, you're thirsty, and I have another glass here, I'm thirsty, I'll open this pure water and pour you a glass of this water. That would be much better I'm going to open it, and I do this. Here you go. Here's your water.

Drink up. Anybody? No! How gross! You spat in my water. Just a little bit. But this is way more pure. This is way better than this. This one is terrible, this one is not so bad, this one only has a little bit of saliva, this one is terrible. And that's what we do with God, we say to Him, God, they are worse than me, they have committed a crime that I have not committed, I am basically pure, but God, God is holy. So if you are thirsty, and you reject this, and you reject this, no, you spit there, but what you want is a water that is not contaminated, that is perfectly pure, that is the only one you would accept, and God does the same. And the only way, the only way in which we are clean is through the sacrifice of the Savior. Our best works were Nazareth, our best works are contaminated by our sin, and they are cut short before the grace of God, and I am contaminated, my only hope is Jesus Christ. But the good news is that everything required for salvation was taken care of at the cross by Jesus Christ. He died, he lived in Nazareth in separation, but he died in Jerusalem to bring us peace with God. And I can give you examples of people who are terrible, and they all find the same way, the same path in Jesus. People make a lot of mistakes, but when Jesus was dying, he did not die alone, he died in the company of two thieves, two career criminals, two of the worst people I've ever called. One of them made fun of him, he was so bitter and so high-bred, he was making fun of an innocent man that he had by his side. But the other thief, after a life full of mistakes and regrets, and dying and dying, and recognizing that he deserved it, he said to him, Jesus, remember me when you are in your kingdom. He expressed faith in the last minute, because the only hope is Jesus. I have not yet stolen the material from another pastor, so that you know, I have never done it, but there is a clip that this pastor, who is Aleister Beck, and he has such a good idea about the thief at the cross, so watch this clip. Think about the thief at the cross. I can't wait to find him and follow one day. I'm going to find him one day and ask him how he did it. How did he do it? Because he was there, and you were cursing the man who had never been in a Bible study, you had never been baptized, you had never been to church, and yet you did it, you did it. How did you do it? How did you do it? That's what the angel must have said to him.

What are you doing here? He said, well, I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? Well, because I don't know. Well, you know, I don't know. Excuse me, let me find my supervisor. So the supervisor comes in and says, I have a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith? And the guy says, I've never heard of that. And let's go to the doctrine in the scriptures. And in frustration he says, why are you here then? And he says, the man who was on the cross in the middle said he could come. Now, that's the only answer. That's the only answer. That's good preaching. So I'm going to be good enough. I'm going to do it really hard. That's not perfection. So this is the only time that all three Arabs didn't hit the center of the bullseye. All three didn't hit the center of the bullseye. But here we have, this one happened far from the bullseye. But sin means to miss the bullseye in a relationship, in an attitude, in anger. All of that is not hitting the bullseye. And a sinner needs a savior. So my only hope is the man who was on the cross in the middle. He grew up in the separation of Nazareth, but he died in Shalom, in Jerusalem, to bring peace. The Gospel of Genesis has the message that Jesus died to heal the separation. He died in Jerusalem, in this city, and it is the center of worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. But if we go to the story of Abraham and Isaac, they lived there, what became Jerusalem, in the middle of the Bible. Here came David, the pastor, and he made this city, the capital city, the one that built the magnificent temple in that city,

and where sacrifices were offered, where the prophets prophesied in this great city. The Assyrian army marched against that city, and the Egyptians, the Babylonians, invaded that city and destroyed it. But 70 years later, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of that city. Esau rebuilt the temple in the city. Years later, the Greeks came and possessed this. This man brought this group of Jewish rebels, the Maccabees, and they liberated the city for a short time. But then the Romans arrived and conquered the city. So it seemed that all hope had been lost in that city. But one day, the King Jesus passed through the doors of that city, and the crowd shouted, Hosanna in that city! And he spoke to the crowds in that city, and he did miracles there, and he cleaned the temple, and he wept for that city, and he shared his final supper there, and he was betrayed in that city, he was condemned in that city, and he was dead, and he carried his cross on the Via Dolorosa in that city, and he went to Mount Calvary, which is outside the walls of that city, and he was hanged between two thieves, and he died on a cross in that city, he was buried in that city, and the disciples were in that city, his followers were in the high place there, but on the third day in that city, a violent earthquake shook the foundations, and a stone was opened, and the King of Kings rose up, and Jerusalem had peace. So there is nothing that you and I can do to complete the work of Jesus Christ in Calvary, except receive the gift of peace. I'll close, once again, Romans 5, verse 1, it says, For this reason we have been justified by faith. Faith is saying yes to what God has done. Faith is something that I have a feeling that prayer workers will come over, for example, all the prayer workers can come over here, I don't know if you're already saved and you want to be baptized, here we have our prayer workers, and you can say, I want peace with God. If you've already been justified by faith, then we have what?

We have peace. We have peace. So I want you to have confidence and know that you're saved. So that you walk every day of your existence in the power and the purpose of God. We have peace, not because of what we've done, but because the man of the cross in the middle says that we're going to heaven. We're going to heaven. Father, it doesn't matter what decisions we've made, but receiving the goodness of God is enough, as a substitute for our sin. Thank you for your sacrifice and your love. And we pray, we pray, as the church says in unity, Amen.